Chapter 31

Chapter 31
Zane
He stood stiffly behind his brother, who was yelling across the field at the enemy leader. Margo took his hand, and a tendril came out to inject something into his wrist. He jumped before giving her a curious look. She gave him a sad smile.
“Sorry, brother, but I need you to listen to what I say.”
He glared at her. “Don’t do that. Being family means we are a team. We trust each other.”
She shook her head. “Not this time. I can’t risk you getting in our way with Zannie.”
“Don’t say her name,” he growled at her.
She raised her eyebrow at him. “You can’t just call her the Torva Messor. It’s not right. She’s your mate.”
“She won’t be after this.”
Margo’s jaw clenched, but she didn’t respond. Zane didn’t care if she was angry about what he said. It was the right call. Torva Messors couldn’t exist on Earth, and he wasn’t going to hold her there. It would be as futile as trying to hold water in his hands. It wasn’t going to be fair to either of them to try to hold onto something that was doomed to fail before it even started.
“SPREAD OUT!” Merlot shouted, snapping his attention back to the battle.
Margo remained where she was as thick roots sprang out of her body to bury into the ground.
“Please, don’t hurt her,” Zane requested as he took his place behind her.
“Why does it even matter? She’s not your mate, remember?” Margo retorted, earning a furious growl as her skin turned into the satiny plant texture of her shifted form.
As soon as Merlot backed up in front of her, Margo wrapped tendrils around him, connecting them. Jealousy whipped through Zane at their tender moment in the heat of a life-and-death situation raging around them. Zane glanced over his shoulder in time to see one of Margo’s pods shoot up from under Zannie to encase her inside of it. Margo whimpered as her pod started to turn grey. It was almost fully submerged back into the ground when it turned to ash. Zannie started trying to dig herself out of the soil she was buried in.
Another pod came up behind Zannie before swallowing her whole and disappearing back into the ground. A large mound moved under the soil as Margo dragged Zannie away from the enemy's side. Merlot turned around to pick Margo up. Her roots came up, and he quickly backtracked further on the field as Margo continued to bring Zannie to them. Zane kept pace with his brother, not about to let Margo potentially hurt the woman he wanted more than life but wouldn’t allow himself to have. When they were at the very back of the field, with at least a hundred yards between them and the rest of the people, the ground exploded upward, and a disintegrating pod came up.
The pod turned to ash, falling away from Zannie’s body. She gasped for air for a moment before scrambling up. Her long braids, along with her skin, were lighter than they should have been from the ash. Her hazel eyes almost glowed as she eyed them confidently while her bottom lip trembled, belying her fear. His eyes ran down her body, wanting to wrap her up in his arms. He wanted her to wrap her chubby legs around him while he worshiped the rest of her perfect body. Fuck. He shouldn’t have come. How was he going to be strong enough to let her go?
“Zannie, please stand down. Let us help you. I don’t want to fight,” Margo said pleadingly.
Zannie’s gaze was jerked toward Margo as she smiled coldly. She held her hand up, and everyone saw the slight sparks that came from her fingers.
“War equals death, and death is why I was created.”
Zannie took a deep breath before her flesh began to almost melt off her bones, leaving nothing but a living skeleton with pieces of tissue and muscles hanging from said bones. The wind whipped around her, shrouding her in shadows. Zane took a step forward, and a wall of vines came up to prevent him from moving any closer to her. He clawed at it, desperately trying to get to her. Margo positioned herself in front of Merlot, preparing for a fight. Zannie reached over her back to pull her spine off. As she lifted her spine over her head, it hardened into a staff. Margo sighed before taking a couple of steps forward to meet her, almost in the middle between them. Zannie began to walk to the left, forcing Margo to move to the right to keep her in her sight.
Zannie slashed at Margo with the staff, making her hit the ground as her body started to dissolve. Merlot cried out, panicking, as Margo died. Zannie turned her head to look at Merlot as Margo’s body blew away. Zannie took a threatening step toward Merlot and swung the staff at him. Merlot stood defiantly with his eyes narrowed on her. A tree burst out of the ground in front of Merlot, stopping the staff from hitting him. The tree quickly flaked away, leaving a very much alive Margo, brushing the tree bark off of her clothes. Zannie took a step back.
“H-how are you alive? I killed you.”
Margo rolled her shoulders back. “You can’t kill me, Zannie. Please, let’s not fight. This is Zane. He can help you. We all can. We can take you-”
Zannie slashed into her again with the staff. Margo groaned as her body turned to ash again. Merlot let out a shaky breath before holding his hand up.
“Zannie, I don’t want to hurt you…”
She gave a dark chuckle as she raised the staff above her head. “You can’t.”
She swung the staff downward, only to have more vines shoot up from the ground to catch it before it touched Merlot. The vine opened up, allowing Margo to step out. She dusted her clothes off, sighing.
“We can do this for all of eternity, Zannie. I will not allow you to harm my mate,” Margo said.
Suddenly, a flash of pain filled Zane as a link broke. His head snapped around to meet Merlot’s eyes, silently asking if he felt the death, too. A scream echoed around the field as energy surged before zeroing in on one person.
“MARGO! DROP IT!” Zane yelled in panic as the air almost breathed.
Margo let the vine wall in front of him fall, and Zane’s wings immediately came out to throw him forward as fire erupted all around them. His wings wrapped around Zannie, shielding her from the unusually hot fire. She put her hand on his chest as the fire burned whitehot for a few seconds. Zannie stared up at him in shock.
“You saved me.”
Zane’s eyes closed. “Because you belong with me, Zannie. Please stop fighting us.”
She shakily raised her hand to his skin. “You’re not dying,” she whispered.
He turned his head to kiss her hand. “Your power must not affect me.”
“Did you know that before you saved me?”
“No. I didn’t care. I just wanted to protect you,” he told her.
She let herself raise up a little to put the staff under her back. It inched down her back before her body became fuller until she was laying under him in her human form. She touched his face again.
“You really are the good guys,” she whispered as her fingers moved over his lips.
“We try to be.”
“Can I stay with you?” She asked shyly.
Zane shook his head. “Not forever, Zannie. You can only be on Earth for a few days at a time, or you will die. It’s how your species went extinct, staying on Earth for too long.”
Margo touched his shoulder. “We will figure out how to allow you two to be together later. I think our sister needs our support right now.”
Zane looked up at Margo sadly. “I can’t believe our brother is gone.”
Merlot patted his shoulder before walking off toward the group of people huddled together in the middle of the field, with Margo at his side. Zane tucked Zannie’s hair behind her ear.
“We will have time to talk. I promise to explain everything to you, but right now, I need to be with my family.” He took a deep breath. “And I’d like for you to come with me.”
She touched his face again, still amazed that her touch didn’t hurt him. “I’d like that.”