I pressed a claw to his throat, and his voice sounded in my head.
“I sent them to attack her, to kill her. Did you know she’s searched for you every year since your mate’s death? Since the bond was broken? She would hunt for you. She would cry. It was pathetic how many times her own parents had to wipe her memories, how many times they cried over their broken-hearted daughter.”
I slammed him against the ground, harder this time.
The voice in my head, my father’s, kept taunting as his eyes glistened with fury. “She was supposed to die. She is an abomination.”
I answered aloud. “You swore to protect her.”
“I dinna know what I was promising. It was wrong, what they did to her, what they did to you. We will not mix with that blood!”
I smirked inwardly and struck his neck with my fangs, drawing his bitter blood and spitting it out to the side.
You were saying?
“What are you?” He pushed at me with all his force.
Wolf. Vampire. Fallen. I felt the loss of my wings so harshly I sucked in a breath. And now? I am King.
I struck again and slid my claws on either side of his head, making it impossible for him to move, then grabbed a piece of marble and shoved it in his heart.
He was not dead.
Not yet.
I fell to my knees and moved to my human form. Tarik tossed me a pair of jeans, and I quickly turned and put them on just in time for someone to run in the room screaming.
“Movement in the forests!”
But it was too late.
“They’re here,” my father said cryptically. “You did this. This is on you.” He still wasn’t moving.
Hooded figures slowly entered the room and walked toward us. Twelve of them, black hair peeking out from under the hoods.
One stepped forward and pulled her hood back before looking to the right and smiling. “Daughter.”
SERENITY
“Danu,” I whispered my mother’s name. She was the one who’d given birth to me, and now I slowly walked to her outstretched arms.
She smiled and opened them wider. “I have waited centuries to finally see you.”
“Why?” I choked back my tears. “Why did you wait?”
Danu looked over my head to Cassius. “I was not allowed to intervene. The Creator made it so, but when you finally found your mate I was released from that promise. It should have been centuries ago. It was, after all, promised to me.”
“You know nae what ye do!” Mason’s father was still bellowing as blood spewed from his throat. “The Watchers will come! They will destroy us! They are awake!”
People grumbled around us.
I tried to hide my smile.
Mason turned to his father. “And the rightful king — the Watchers listen to him.”
“It will nae matter, as long as Bannick lives!”
Danu’s eyes fell to the ground as if she too believed the lie.