CHAPTER 13: AWAKENING TERRORS AND CORMAC’S RETURN

IRYN'S POV

Pain bursts behind my eyes and my body seizes, convulsing so hard that my limbs jerk off the ground.

Again I can't breathe and panicking, I scream but no sound comes out.

The only thing I feel and see is fire, flames upon flames surrounding me, and a dark figure with glowing red eyes who is standing at the edge of a blood soaked battlefield.

“Iryn,” he says and for some unknown reasons, I feel like he's threatening me.

How does he know my name?

I can't see his face clearly but just seeing the dead bodies around him makes me take a step back in fear.

“Who are you?” I ask, not even knowing where I got the courage to speak from.

... But anyway, I instantly regret speaking because in response, he walks towards me, dragging a massive blade behind him.

“You already know.”

I don't know what he means by that, but then my chest seizes and I hear his voice push through my head to put in a mind link.

"My name is Cormac, and you are mine."

___

When I finally jolt awake, my entire body is slick with sweat, my lips are cracked, my throat burns and I’m on the cold ground.

... Not in the tea shop and I can't even see Lady Elayne.

I'm alone.

“Elayne?” I croak, struggling to lift my head up from the ground. “Lady Elayne—!”

I cough violently, feeling bile climbing up my throat while my vision swims.

... Goddess; right now the trees are looking blurred together, and the stone bench where I and Elayne sat on is overturned in my eyesight.

... No one is here.

“Elayne!” I rasp again, feeling goosebumps break all over my skin.

Where is she?

She was here; she brought me tea. She said—

She said that it was just tea.

... But why do I feel as if I’ve been to hell and back?

Still on the ground, I hear footsteps pounding through the trees pathway— sounding like it was coming from two pairs of feet which were fast and heavy

“Iryn!” Orien’s voice booms, and then his scent crashes into me... like safety.

Nyall’s right behind him with his own breath sounding ragged as I hear him say.

“Where is she-----? There!”

In just seconds, they're in front me, and Orien drops to his knees, gathering me into his arms.

“Iryn, look at me. Breathe, breathe, you’re safe.”

I clutch at his shirt, not realising when I begin sobbing.

"It wasn’t real… it wasn’t real… right?”

Nyall presses his palm to my forehead and then glances down at the shattered teacup beside me.

“Elayne was here,” I manage to say and Orien stiffens immediately at that.

"What did she do?”

I shake my head, because honestly...

“I don’t know. I— She gave me something and said it was just tea. Then I drank it and… and I saw him.”

Nyall crouches even lower than he had already bent and asks;

“Who?”

I look at both of them, their faces looking all blurred up by my tears, and the name finally falls out from my lips.

“Cormac.”

Orien’s grip on me tightens almost instantly, and Nyall goes very still.

“What did you say?” Orien asked coldly and can only I blink.

“Cormac. He… he was in the dream--- I mean vision. He said I was his and he had this blade and red eyes and... and----- why are you both looking at me like that?”

Nyall lets out a shaky breath and runs his right hand through his hair.

“He’s not supposed to be alive.”

“Who is he?”

Nyall doesn’t answer me immediately and neither does Orien.

He just clenches hards, until finally Nyall says;

“He was exiled years ago for crimes that were so evil they had to be erased permanently from the High Archives. No one says his name anymore.”

'No one says his name anymore', that means that this Cormac was either an Alpha or a Beta.

“Was he an Alpha?”

Hearing my question, Orien’s gaze returns to me. “He was, and also a problem for Alphas then.”

An Alpha being a problem for other Alphas?

How's that possible?

I shake my head, and ask, looking up at Nyall and Orien at the same time.

“But why would I see him? I’ve never met him before.”

Nyall looks down at me, and it's then that I see that his face is pale.

“Because he once tried to take a Royal Omega just like you.”

-----------------

HOURS LATER...

I’m back in the triplets’ quarters, wrapped in a thick robe and sitting between Orien and Nyall on the massive bed.

However everywhere is anything but calm.

... Fenric is still missing; Orien hasn’t stopped pacing back and forth in the room----- though never leaving my left side---- and Nyall keeps tapping his fingers angrily against his thigh.

Outside, the guards have tripled and I can hear the shuffle of boots and pound of paws as guard in human and shifted forms patrol all about every corner.

Now I'm staring into thin air, trying to make sense of anything... and failing.

Suddenly there's a soft knock and Orien immediately stops his pacing to go to the door and then yank it open forcefully to see a Beta guard standing there.

From where I'm sitting, I can smell that his scent is jittery and it makes me wonder what's wrong.

"We have a message,” the Beta reports.

Hearing this, Nyall stands to his feet. “From who?”

The guard swallows, then holds out a scroll which is... bound in black leather and sealed with a very deep red wax, and then he bows and leaves.

Nyall quickly beaks the seal and unrolls the scroll while I and Orien watch, and his eyes narrow almost instantly.

“What does it say?” Orien demands so Nyall reads it aloud in a flat voice.

> “The Omega is mine. I’m coming for what should’ve never been yours.”

– Cormac

There's a long silence from the three of us at this, and then Orien moves quickly, so fast that the cup on the table behind him shatters as it’s knocked over.

Then he slams his hands against the wall, extending his claws out halfway.

“He dares—”

“I’ll kill him,” Nyall growls. “I’ll fucking kill him.”

My Nyall just swore; I've never heard him swear before.

How big was this problem?

I stare at the note, feeling my heart hammer in my chest and watching while Nyall drops the scroll into the fire.

The scroll catches fire instantly, causing its black wax to begin hissing as it melts.

“Cormac thinks that a claim is the same as a mate bond,” Nyall says, while dusting his hands to get rid of the scroll's scent.

“But he’ll learn the hard way.”

Worriedly I look between Nyall and Orien. “Where’s Fenric?”

Neither of them answer me immediately, then after a few seconds, Orien sighs.

"Since he stormed off after I kissed you, he hasn’t answered either of our mind ink.”

I don't like the sound of that; in fact my chest has literally tightened on hearing this.

“I need all three of you,” I croak.

“I can’t do 'THIS' with missing pieces in our bond.”

Nyall moves closer and kneels in front of me, taking my hand in his.

“You won’t have to, we’ll bring him back.”

“And Cormac?”

Orien’s eyes darken Instantly, “He’s already marked himself for death.”