CHAPTER ONE

 

Wind whispered through the forest as though there hadn’t been warrior elves atop horrifying bugs trampling through the wolf territory’s underbrush. As though Serafine and her mates hadn’t Changed into wolves and charged away. As though Anise hadn’t climbed aboard her draugr and ridden after them, her alpha dragon mates at her side.

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Sedric had described the scene to me in a hushed, harried whisper as events unfolded and the thunder of their footfalls merged from the forest and into the peaceful clearing around the wolves’ cabin. The thumps of things powerful and heavy driven into the earth, a strange dry rustling, and the deep voice that filled the forest with the unknown churned in the center of my chest.

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The hot pressure of someone staring weighed me down while unseen beings spoke. Someone was watching me. Studying me. Knowing they could do so freely because there was nothing I could do about it.

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The familiar sensation was the same type of pressure before someone tripped me up or shoved me into a wall. The pause as someone took my measure and found me lacking because my disability was a hindrance to them. I couldn’t see the pathway that needed to be swept or the patch on the floor that needed to be scrubbed. My disability was their extra work, even though we were all slaves to Esoti and had no choice over anything in our lives.

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I waited for an annoyed huff or the deprecating chuckle that usually accompanied the pressure, but there was nothing more than the wind winding through the leaves in the wolves’ forest. Perhaps the magical dome Serafine had created was putting everyone out of sorts.

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I couldn’t see it, of course, but she’d described it to me. Transparent gold filled with magical glitter that sparkled in the sunshine. Born from the magic of the ancient grimoire that had been hidden inside her and freed when she’d bonded with her wolf-shifter alphas.

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I didn’t know the color of gold, but I knew how sunshine heated my skin and I thought it may be the same. I didn’t know what glitter was either, but it sounded like the effervescent bubbles I felt when water ran across the rocks in the brook.

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Tension hardened my shoulders when thunder split the air above my head, followed by the crackling of broken ice. Screams pierced my ears, ahead of panicked voices that rose over the cacophony. I ducked, my arms flying over my head as my heart pounded against my ribs. I couldn’t see to run to safety, so I could only make myself as small a target as possible. It was all I could ever do.

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Sedric’s strong fingers dug into my elbow as he hurried me across the grass, the blades swishing across my boots. “Quick. Get inside.”

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“What’s happening?” I asked as he placed my hand on the banister so I could orientate myself. I spun toward him, not taking another step.

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“The dome is cracking,” he said, his voice low. Urgent.

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“What!” How could that be?

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Serafine’s magic was strong. Strong enough to defeat one of The Six. The dome could only break with the magic of another of equal power . . .

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“Go into the kitchen with Cook and the staff. I’m going to round up who I can. When I return, we’ll hide in the basement. If anything happens, that’ll be the safest place for us all.”

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Sedric’s footsteps hurried away. For an old wolf shifter, he still moved quickly, but that was the way of the wolves. Not only was I blind, I was also human. I was nothing like them.

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I gripped the smooth wood and felt my way up. I counted the six steps to the top. Another six would take me to the front door.

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I felt for the door handle and quickly stepped inside. Males called through the woods, and their wolves’ howls followed me into the alphas’ cabin. My hand shook as I trailed my fingers along the plaster, a ball of barbed wire forming in my stomach as I made my way to the kitchen.

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I didn’t have a wolf’s preternatural abilities. Or any of the shifters’ abilities. Nor was I magical. I was merely a slave, purchased by Esoti from my mother when I was a young child, making me the lowest of the low. Barely useful because of my eyes. I may never have seen my mother, but I never heard from her after she abandoned me, either. My life ever since had been the stronghold.

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Truth be told, I didn’t know how I’d survived.

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Serafine had gotten me out of that place after Esoti’s unbelievable death. I could barely get my head around the fact that she had killed Esoti and that she had a piece of the famous, all-powerful grimoire inside her. And then a few weeks later, Anise, the dragon shifters’ mate, arrived in wolf territory with her piece of the grimoire and the news that Drisella was dead.

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Now Haera was here with the panther alphas and elves begging for help. The wolves and dragons had known who she was, and not one of them had been welcoming. And the dome was cracking. I didn’t have to see to understand the tension in the air.

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Haera and the elves brought destruction with them. There were only four beings powerful enough to crack the magic of the grimoire. And one motivated to assert his unending control over panther territory—Titan. He would never let them leave his territory voluntarily. And now he was here. If he got through the dome, he would raze the ground we walked on and leave a wasteland behind. Of that, I had no doubt.

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Barbs gouged my insides as I stepped into the kitchen, my palm settling on the wall nearest the door. The acrid scent of fear seared the back of my throat. Scared, raised voices replaced the kitchen’s usual cheerful clatter and peace. The room was filled with the body heat of too many people, crushing the air from my lungs.

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A rough, warm hand took mine. “Gilda, come with me, girl.”

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I recognized Cook’s rasping voice, normally so confident but now tinged with nerves. Another crack boomed loud enough to shake the foundations beneath my feet. Children whimpered and adults hushed. It was all they could do in the face of the unknown.

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“Get out of the way,” Cook demanded as she pushed our way through the crowd.

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“Why’s she going first? She’s a human,” a young male spat.

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“She’ll slow us all down if we’re forced to wait for her to stumble along,” another unknown voice hissed.

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My skin heated. The word “human” sounded like a curse. And it was. I couldn’t blame any shifter for the sentiment. They were ruled with an iron fist by The Six and treated just as badly by humans. Even as a slave, I was regarded only as one station higher than they.

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Now, though . . .

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I wasn’t sure what Esoti and Drisella’s deaths meant to both shifters and humans. A war had started, and no one was safe.

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“A blind human at that,” someone else muttered.

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I didn’t miss the scoffs or the elbow jabbed in my lower back.

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“Shut up, the lot of you. Gilda is Serafine’s best friend, and Serafine is your alphas’ mate. Show some respect,” Cook growled. She was formidable when she got started.

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I’m lucky she took me under her wing, although I don’t know why. She didn’t need to treat me any different than I had always been treated. I’d never told a soul about the way other humans treated me at Esoti’s stronghold. Not even Serafine. She had enough to contend with. Compared to hers, my life was charmed, but Cook must have seen something in me, and that had earned her my wholehearted gratitude.

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She guided me to a stop and pressed me against the wall. Cooler air slipped over my face, and I realized she’d brought me to the back door. “Stay here, girl. I’ll come and get you and take you to the basement when Sedric comes back.”

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I nodded, though I wasn’t sure she saw the action before I felt her presence move away. There wasn’t much else I could do. I hunkered against the wall as more people filtered into the room. The stink of fear grew more pungent the longer we waited.

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The basement wasn’t under the house. It was an underground bunker, well-hidden in the forest and used for emergencies. I knew of its existence, but not exactly where it was because I’d never been taken there. Even if I had been, I’d never find it again without markers. I hoped it was large enough to keep everyone safe. Well, as safe as we all could be beneath the all-powerful force of one of The Six.

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An indefinite amount of time passed before Sedric’s voice rose above the harried whispers. “I’ve rounded everyone up. Let’s go.”

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I pressed against the wall to wait for Cook to help me, but the swell of bodies was too great. Someone pushed into me. I overbalanced and tripped into the flow of bodies that continued to sweep me along with them.

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 “Cook!” I shouted.

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“Get going.” Rough hands propelled me outside and down the stairs. My feet caught in long, damp grass as I stumbled. Someone brushed past me, and I clutched their shirt so I wouldn’t fall over. The scent of pine filled my lungs as the group swept me into the forest.

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“Waddaya think you’re doing?” The male whose shirt I’d grabbed tore my grip away before shoving me. I tripped backward, bracken scraping my calves as another thunderous crack exploded around us. Echoes rippled across the sky from horizon to horizon.

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“The dome is cracking apart. Change! Run!” a male yelled. The air filled with ozone, and footfalls turned into the click of claws. I reached around me, my hands scraping against branches and twigs, finding empty space.

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“Cook?” I yelled, but the wolves had disappeared into the forest, much quicker on four feet than two.

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My chest squeezed as oxygen was sucked from the air. My hair lifted with an unseen force before a shockwave pounded into me, the vibrations shattering my bones and liquefying my insides. The unknown force lifted me off the ground and threw me backward into the complete silence of a vacuum. Numbing air surrounded me, squeezing, squeezing, squeezing before throwing me free.

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The back of my head slammed into cold, unforgiving ground, and white-hot pain ricocheted through my skull. My chest constricted, my lungs refusing to drag in the oxygen I desperately needed, but there was nothing to breathe. No oxygen. No air. My chest crushed and bones shattered.

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Blood pounded behind my eyes, building an immense pressure inside my skull. I choked, trying to force air into lungs that no longer worked. There was nothing to keep me alive. I couldn’t feel my hands. Nor my legs. Numbness crept through me, bringing with it the certainty that this was my death.

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A startled shout sounded close by. Heavy footfalls pounded louder before someone fell next to me. Something soft and cold sprayed over me as he landed.

“Do not die, female!” a male voice demanded, as though I had a choice.

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I didn’t want to die—deep down past the panic was the sure certainty that I was facing death—but then a tiny flutter rose from a place hidden deep within me. Sparks filled my blood, imbuing my veins with an unknown energy that fizzed through my body. Shadows morphed within the impenetrable darkness of my vision, forming into blurred, meaningless shapes. I didn’t understand what they were. What they meant. They overloaded my brain before they hit a wall of pure shock. And then . . . understanding.

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I.

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Saw?

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My eyes. My eyes! The one sense I’d yearned to have, now stuttering awake.

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Impossible. Yet the blurred shapes continued to sharpen, still blurred, but still there. This wasn’t my imagination. My blind eyes . . . could see on the brink of my body shutting down.

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A wish gifted and paid for with the ultimate price in the same transaction.

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The lights and shadows formed something I had only recognized before through touch. Somehow, some way, meaning formed through my panicked brain.

A . . . face.

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A handsome, masculine face.

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“You must live, dammit!” the male shouted.

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But my chest remained frozen, my heart pumping, furiously trying to fight a losing battle. Tension tore at his face, rendering his handsome features with harsh lines. He forced his hand beneath my head, his touch gone in an instant.

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His silhouette towered over me from one moment to the next, no longer a male but a terrifying creature I had no name for, made from sharp angles and blurred shadows my mind had no meaning to understand. It lifted its enormous head, and a terrible screech tore from its mouth, shattering around me as an empty void swept me away.

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