Chapter 102 I do
Chapter 102 I do
/Luca/
Nelson moved closer to me. “Tell me you feel that.”
“I do.”
The creature suddenly lowered itself to the ground, and every warrior around us froze in place.
Then the clouds opened.
A beam of silver light descended into the forest, cutting through the darkness like something tearing the sky open. A figure appeared inside it. A woman.
She landed several feet away without making a single sound, her feet touching the earth like she weighed nothing at all. Long silver hair flowed down her back, and her eyes held the exact same silver color Edlyn’s had turned only moments earlier.
My entire body went rigid.
Nelson stared at her, his voice barely a whisper. “Who is that?”
The woman looked past both of us, straight at Edlyn.
Then she smiled.
“My daughter.”
My heart stopped cold.
Nelson’s face went pale beside me. “No.”
The woman stepped closer, unhurried, like she had all the time in the world now that she’d finally arrived. “I’ve been searching for her for a very long time.”
I moved in front of Edlyn without thinking. “You aren’t taking her anywhere.”
The woman’s eyes moved to me, and something almost like amusement flickered there. “Of course not.”
Her gaze shifted toward Nelson. “She has already chosen you both.”
Nelson’s expression hardened. “Then why are you here?”
“Because you don’t understand what you’ve bonded yourselves to.”
I tightened my fists at my sides. “Then explain it.”
The woman looked past me, at Edlyn. “She isn’t the bridge between your kingdoms.”
I frowned. “Then what is she?”
The woman’s smile turned sad. “She is the beginning of a new age.”
The forest went completely silent. Even the creature lowered its head further, as though bowing to the words themselves.
The woman continued, her voice carrying easily across the clearing. “And if you two truly intend to protect her, you need to understand one thing.”
“What?”
She looked directly at me. “The people attacking your kingdoms aren’t trying to kill Edlyn.”
I felt my stomach tighten into a knot. “Then what do they want?”
“They want her power.”
Nelson stepped forward, his voice rough. “What power?”
The woman looked between the two of us slowly. “The power that can control every supernatural bloodline on this earth.”
Silence.
I looked at Edlyn. Then at Nelson. And suddenly everything clicked into place with a horrible kind of clarity.
The attacks. The missing Northern Pack. The broken vampire barrier. The dragons. Every attempt to keep us separated.
They hadn’t been trying to destroy our kingdoms at all. They had been weakening them, piece by piece. They wanted us divided because united, we were strong. But with Edlyn standing between us, we weren’t simply strong anymore.
We were something else entirely.
A weapon.
Or perhaps something far more dangerous than that.
I looked at the woman. “Who is attacking us?”
Her smile disappeared completely. “The first army has already arrived.”
I frowned. “First?”
She looked toward the horizon, her expression grim. “There are three armies coming.”
My monster growled low. Three?
The woman nodded as though she’d heard him too. “The first wants her power.” She looked toward the forest behind us. “The second wants her blood.” Then her eyes lifted toward the sky. “And the third…”
She paused, and the pause stretched long enough to make my chest ache.
“They want her dead.”
My heart sank straight through the ground.
“Why?”
The woman’s expression turned deadly serious. “Because they know what happens if she completes her awakening.”
I looked down at Edlyn, still unconscious, still so impossibly small in Nelson’s arms given everything we’d just been told. “What happens?”
The woman whispered the answer like it cost her something to say it.
“She becomes stronger than every king, every witch, every dragon, and every god who stands against her.”
My blood ran cold.
Nelson stared down at Edlyn, something fierce settling over his face. “Then we’ll protect her.”
I nodded, meaning it more than I’d meant almost anything. “Together.”
For once, neither of us hesitated over the word.
The woman smiled faintly, something like approval in it. “Good.”
Then she looked back up toward the sky. “Because they’re already here.”
A roar shook the forest.
Another answered it from somewhere beyond the mountains, distant but unmistakable.
Then a third roar came from directly behind us.
I slowly turned.
Three enormous shadows had appeared against the horizon, growing larger by the second.
My monster snarled inside my head. Luca.
“I see them,” I said quietly.
The woman looked at Edlyn one last time, something almost gentle passing over her face.
“Wake her.”
I looked back at her, unable to keep the edge from my voice. “Why?”
“Because when they come for her…”
Her silver eyes hardened into something unbreakable.