Shattered Souls (Guardians of the Maiden Book 3)

Dyna waved goodbye to the Garou Pack as they prepared to depart now that they had the medicine needed. Zev followed them to the woods to give his thanks to the Alpha, and the pretty sister he couldn’t stop staring at. She would have to ask him about her later.

He eventually rejoined all of them by the campfire in the middle of Lucenna’s story about facing off with her father. She described to her how Zev, Rawn, and Cassiel had frightened him so terribly he forgot he was a powerful mage. The firelight glowed against their faces as they laughed. They looked so at peace she wished to simply preserve this moment in a box and carry it with her.

Zev’s grin faded when he noticed her getting teary. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

She laughed and wiped her eyes. “Absolutely nothing. I’m simply happy to be with all of you again. The day I decided to start my journey to Mount Ida, I didn’t know any of this would happen. I never imagined meeting any of you or the things we would go through. Thank you for being with me.”

She met Cassiel’s gaze where he lounged on the grass next to her. He gave her a fond smile that left her a little breathless. She had the sudden urge to kiss him.

He reached across the grass the same time she did and linked hands. The electric current at his touch seeped in her chest, but it built in a rapid spark. A green flash shot out of her fingertips and zapped him, making them flinch apart.

He winced. “Ow. What was that?”

“I-I don’t know. I’m sorry.” She reached for him worriedly, but another current sparked, making him yelp.

Zev poked her arm next and she zapped him, too. Dyna stared down at herself. What was happening? She felt her Essence humming as though it had been charged and little green flashes crackled along her skin.

“Must be the spell,” Lucenna said. “Sometimes remnants can remain after powerful magic is done. It should cease by tomorrow.” She gave them a sly smile. “Until then…”

“No touching,” Zev growled at Cassiel.

The bond thrummed with strong protest from both ends. She had only had him back one day, and now this?

Sighing, Dyna looked up at the clouds overtaking the night sky and let out a long exhale that fogged in the frosty air. “Winter is coming. We need to leave Azure before the first snowfall, and head to the nearest port. It’s not only about reaching Mount Ida within the year anymore. We can’t let Tarn become immortal.”

“Then we must reach the island first,” Rawn said, and they all nodded in agreement.

Lucenna’s smiled turned wicked. “I am looking forward to meeting this Tarn.”

They all looked equally eager for a rematch. Now that Dyna knew about his past, and what she was up against, she felt more prepared to face him again.

“How long until we reach Troll Bridge?” She turned to her mate. He knew the way, and they needed his uncle’s permission to cross it.

“Perhaps not long,” Cassiel said, but there was something disquieting in his silver eyes as they landed on the large alps coated in white caps of snow in the distance. “Before then, to Hermon Ridge first.”

Dyna felt his unease before he swiftly pushed aside the emotion. He was quiet all through dinner, then eventually wandered off on a walk alone.

She waited until everyone was asleep before searching for him. The bond easily led her to a tall rockface where he sat, looking at the mountains. She stood there a moment, admiring him beneath the moonlight as the wind ruffled his inky hair and feathers.

His gaze dropped to hers, and he leaped down. “Dyna.”

She unfolded the blanket she’d been holding. “Sit with me?”

Cassiel understood what she wanted without needing to say it. He took a seat and his silver eyes churned with starlight as she approached him, never looking away. Laying the blanket between his legs and against his chest, she took a seat there, then made sure to cover herself completely with the ends. His arms and wings immediately came around her. His body sagged against her back, and his forehead rested on her covered shoulder. She leaned into him and closed her eyes.

“Thank you,” he murmured, his breath tickling her neck. “I needed this.”

She did too. As if something inside of her didn’t feel right without physically touching him. “I know it isn’t the same…”

“Forgive me. You have been through enough without my selfish need to be near you.” He gently squeezed her. After suffering your absence, I cannot bear to be apart from you in any way. I may kiss you now and damn the consequences.

She felt a little breathless again. “You say that now…But it will pass.”

“Thank the gods for that. But how are you feeling? We haven’t had a moment to talk about what happened…while we were apart.”

She had only told them bits and pieces of her time in Tarn’s camp. Some memories were fuzzy, and she didn’t fully recall all she’d seen during dream walking. But a lot happened while she’d been captive, and some of it weighed heavy on her heart. So she told Cassiel everything from the moment she arrived to the moment Tarn kissed her.

She felt it when he stopped breathing. The bond went silent with his shield falling in place, and she knew he was hiding from her.

He must feel so betrayed.

She blinked back tears. “I’m sorry. Are you angry?”

Cassiel hid most of it, but the emotion was so potent she felt it hovering behind the shield like the heat of a fire. “Not with you. That man will die for taking you from me. Learning how he made you suffer only assures it will be a painful death.”

He meant every word. The quiet wrath in them made her skin prickle with goosebumps…because it reminded her of Tarn. Of his own frightening violence and the claim that everyone was a monster.

Even her.

“I should have let him die,” she whispered. “Why didn’t I let him die?”

“That’s not who you are. There is nothing wrong with that. It simply means you have a better heart than most of us.”

“That’s not true…” She closed her eyes. “You haven’t asked me how I escaped.”

“Do you wish to tell me?”

She had to swallow before she could say it. “The veils…”

Cassiel didn’t reply, but he put it together without her having to speak it aloud. She had already explained how the spells were powered and by who.

“At that moment, I chose myself. But sometimes, I hear the sounds Benton made when he…and Dalton’s face…” Her voice caught as everything she had kept buried about that moment surfaced. “I feel his blood on my hand. I remember the smell. There was so much of it.”

Cassiel tightened his embrace, enveloping her in a protective hold. “You did what needed to be done.”

“I don’t want to be a killer…”

It was so easy to cross the line. But maybe it wasn’t as simple as good and bad, when they lived in a world layered in shades of gray.

“I will be the one who kills for you,” Cassiel said. “I will guard every part of you, Dyna, including your soul.”

“And what of yours?”

“It only lives because you live. When you were taken, I felt as if I was dying. I would have if Lord Norrlen did not convince me you were alive.”

“It hurt,” she said faintly. “The moment the veil was cast, I thought…you were dead. It almost made my heart stop.”

Cassiel’s forehead rested on her shoulder. “This is what it means to be True Bonded. It’s fused our souls to the point we cannot live without each other. I feared it. To be so attached to someone that the loss of you would be the loss of me. You never asked for this. That choice was taken from you, and I will never stop being sorry for it.”

The words were soft, but carried weight. Dyna pulled away to look at him.

His dark lashes lowered, obscuring his eyes. “Things have changed. They are changing. I have little hope that our bond will last…”

She waited, knowing this was what had troubled him.

He looked at her and the dread in them made her alarm climb. “The High King has summoned me to answer for what occurred in the Port of Azure.”

Then her heart truly stopped.

“I broke the Accords…” he said. “I was pardoned once, but I cannot hope for a second. The trial is to be held in Hermon as soon as my father arrives.”

Her hands were shaking. “You will be exiled?”

“I don’t know. There is a high chance that might happen. And if it does…” His wings shuddered.

She looked at the beautiful black feathers, and she wanted to scream. If he was exiled, they would take his wings and with them his divine blood. It meant their bond would be severed.

Permanently.

This was her fault. “No…”

Cassiel reached for her wet cheek, but stopped himself. “I would do it again, lev sheli. I will never regret saving your life, no matter what comes of it. I only cannot stand the thought of losing all memory of you.”

Dyna was hit with a pain so powerful her body spasmed. With every exile, King Yoel used his power of compulsion to make them forget who they were. He would erase her from Cassiel’s mind.

“I barely found you,” she choked on a sob. “Don’t tell me we will lose each other again.”

Her lungs constricted. She couldn’t breathe. Cassiel grabbed the blanket’s ends and pulled her back to him. He squeezed her tight until the wave of panic ebbed.

“Don’t go. We will cross the Bridge without them knowing and leave Urn.” Even as she said it, Dyna knew it was a measly plan.

“I cannot escape my father. The Valkyrie will ensure I return to Hermon Ridge either by choice or by force.”

They looked up at the warrior females circling the sky above them. They remained at a respectful distance, but their alert attention was always on Cassiel.

“But you sacrificed yourself to save your wife. That has to count for something.” Dyna felt a shift in him. A pause in his breath, the stilling of his hands on the small of her waist.

A rough sound rolled in the back of Cassiel’s throat. “Say that again.”

The vibration of his low words felt like the phantom graze of his fingers on her skin. His hands slid up her covered arms to her neck, the heat of his palm leaking through the fabric. The way he looked at her made her pulse speed.

“Your wife,” she breathed.

He leaned in close, his mouth inches from hers. She felt the heat coming off them, and the energy of the bond hovering on her lips. Gods, she may dissolve if she doesn’t kiss him soon.

“Every part of me at this moment is burning, Dynalya,” he said. “So much that it may not be a good thing.”

The fervor vanished with her confusion.

“I have something to show you.” Cassiel shifted back and lifted his hand. For a moment, nothing happened, then a bloom of cerulean flames danced at his fingertips.

She flinched back. “God of Urn. Is that Seraph fire?”

He nodded. “My sword was not the only thing affected that day. They seem to come at random. I cannot control it.”

“How? Why?”

“I don’t know. I suppose my father will. All I know is that untamed Seraph flames are dangerous, and it might be another cause of what keeps us apart. I’m afraid I might hurt you.”

The flames were small but conducted a startling heat against her face. She had seen how powerful Seraph fire was when the Valkyrie had rendered people to instant ash with it.

Cassiel saw her expression and he lowered his hand. “I frightened you—”

“No,” she said firmly. “And I will never be, Cassiel. We will figure this out as we have everything else. At the moment, saving you from exile takes priority.”

He raised his eyebrows and a small smile appeared. “You may not be a noble, but you certainly know how to give a command, princess.”

The title didn’t seem to be hers or if it ever truly would be. Not when what they had now hung so delicately in the balance.

But a question had been in the back of her mind since he first mentioned taking them to Hermon Ridge. How would they present themselves at court? Did she want that?

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” she said.

“Dyna.” He frowned, seeing right through her brittle bravery. “I care not what the Realms say. I am yours, and you are mine.”

To hear that made her want to weep again.

Truth was, she felt unfitting. Cassiel wasn’t a simple high born. He was a prince of a long standing kingdom. They hadn’t had time to talk about their relationship since the willow. They were bonded, but until recently, it had only been in name. What they had now was something new and wonderful and so fragile. They had leaped so many steps ahead, she found herself tripping and didn’t know where she would land. But she couldn’t ignore the glaring truth.

King Yoel could separate them if he so wished.

“Do you truly believe he would take away your memories?” Dyna asked.

Cassiel looked away. “He may have already.”

She listened in quiet shock as he told her about his dream. But none of it sounded right.

“That can’t be,” Dyna stared at him. “You weren’t there. I remember running to the Hyalus ….and it took my hand….” Her eyes widened. “It cast out a blinding light that kept the Shadow at bay. Then…”

Then everything else was fuzzy.

But that was due to hiding in the burrow all night, leaving her delirious and freezing.

“Altering memories is one of the High King’s abilities,” Cassiel said. “My previous memory of that night was completely different. I had flown out into the storm to find my mother, but the cold numbed my wings, and I fell out of the sky. I broke several bones.” His brow creased. “He sent me away to live in Hermon shortly after that.”

All Dyna remembered was her own father saying farewell and walking through the Gates. Perhaps it wasn’t him. Her father might have put a barrier on her. He very well could have used cognitive magic to change what they saw that night, too.

Cassiel sighed. “We won’t know the truth until we can speak with him. If I’m even permitted the chance. I deliberately disobeyed him when I joined you instead of going to Hermon as he ordered. I have traded my feathers and we bonded by accident when I broke the first law in giving you my blood.”

“But no one other than us knows about our bond yet…” Dyna stilled when she remembered something. “Earlier today, the Valkyrie bowed to me.”

He looked shamefaced. “I had to disclose our marriage to have them aid me in your search. Being part of the royal family provides certain protections, but they know nothing of how it came to be.”

Dyna understood why he did it, though a little part of her was bothered. Not by what he had to reveal but that she had no choice in the matter. From being held captive, her magic taken, trapped in her mind, all of it left her feeling so powerless that she needed to have control over her life.

“From now on, everything regarding us will be decided by us,” Cassiel said, sensing her.

“Thank you.” She slumped at the relief it brought her to regain a bit more of what she had lost. But she had so much more to lose. “I think we should keep the bond a secret.”

He stilled. “What?”

Her chest tightened but she continued. “We will say the disaster in the Port of Azure was due to the wanted notices. You were captured by a poacher seeking to earn his fortune, and he discovered what you were.”

Lying wasn’t something she condoned, but she was desperate, and it was the plan that made the most sense to her.

“It will work. Your father will see your innocence, and your sentencing will be reduced. Then when the court has settled in time, we can later disclose it as something that came to be.”

Cassiel didn’t seem convinced. “I’m required to speak the truth before the court.”

“It’s the truth. We’re simply omitting some of it.”

His eyes roved over her face. “Why do you want to do this?”

“It’s my turn to protect you, too.” Dyna clenched her fists and her skin glowed green with her riled magic at the thought of anyone hurting him. “This is my fault, Cassiel. If Tarn hadn’t come after me, he never would have known about you. If I hadn’t gotten hurt, we never would have bonded. If I hadn’t done something thoughtless, you never would have traded yourself. You were dragged into all of this mess because I’m a stupid human.”

Cassiel chuckled. “You are a smart one, too. Occasionally.”

She glowered at him through her misted vision.

“Come on.” He stood. “There is something you need.”

Confused, Dyna got to her feet, and her heart jolted when he slipped off his long jacket. His silver eyes slid to her slyly.

My lovely, sweet Dynalya. He draped the jacket over her shoulders and held her gaze as he fastened each button, making sure she was covered. Whatever are you thinking?

She flushed at his smirk and hooked her arms around his neck. “Only of possibilities.”

Flashing a grin, Cassiel swept her into his arms and they both looked up at the stars. “Don’t let go,” he said in her ear.

They shot into the sky with a flutter of wings. The land quickly fell beneath them as they rose high into the night. She leaned her head on his shoulder, simply enjoying this moment. It was exactly what she needed.

They had been together only a short while, but she couldn’t imagine not having him in her life when he had become an integral part of it. Even if King Yoel erased Cassiel from her mind, her soul and heart would feel his absence so keenly, she would know something was missing.

The tears she had been holding back fell. If the worst comes to pass, please don’t forget about me.

I could never, lev sheli.

Dyna made a promise to herself at that moment that nothing and no one would sever their bond. She would fiercely protect it as Cassiel had protected her because it was theirs. And nothing would take it from them.