I pull my shirt back on, Falcon still clinging to me.“I promise you, it’s okay. You don’t have to feel guilty.” He promises, finally releasing me, allowing my shirt to fall over my skin. He spins me to face him, capturing my face between his hands so I have nowhere else to look but at him. “I can see how disappointed you are.” I choke out, trying my best to keep my tears from falling. It feels like all I do these days is cry.“Confused? Yes. Disappointed? No. Laney…” He sighs and releases me, pacing away to find the words. Before turning back to face me. “I chose you over my mate.” He admits. My mouth drops open in shock, and I snap it closed to shake my head in confusion. “I’m sorry, what?”“I choose you. Always.” He says, rushing toward me, his hands finding the small of my waist and gripping me tightly.“I think I’m going to need you to explain that a little… or rather… a lot.”He lifts me onto the counter, spreading my legs as he steps closer. “I have so much I need to tell y
I pull out my phone, texting Edgar furiously that we are finally on our way to him. I ask him to send me the coordinates, but I know it’s early and the old man takes pills to help him sleep. He won’t get back to me for a few hours. Until then, we will just have to drive west and hope to find it. Though the packs and covens he warned me about are making me anxious, and I can tell that it’s not going unnoticed by Laney. “Why are we going to the temple already?” She asks, looking around the car. Joffrey turns in his seat to join the conversation. “The temple is the safest place for you.” He says, “It’s your home.”“Ok, but Falcon said I had to regain memories first before going back. I have to know who I am and what I was in order to claim the throne.”Joffrey frowns, but nods. “I’ve made it further in the book and have seen nothing about that, but I guess Falcon could be right.”“What have you learned?” I ask.“The history of the Luna. A few spells to help protect our location.”Rome c
The drive is only a few hours, Joffrey spends the rest of the time in silence as he reads his journal fervently, trying to come up with anything he can to help us get through to the temple. Laney sleeps on my shoulder and Monty continues to scowl over at me from time to time. But screw him. I did Laney a huge favor by not marking her. The guilt she would feel falling for her own mate multiplied by my heartache at losing her would have killed her. How could it not when I can see how much she adores me? I could never put her through that. And no, it has nothing to do with her being in my head and learning the shit I still haven’t told her. Okay, it might be a little bit, but it’s a tiny part of it, not a huge part. I can feel my wolf pacing in my mind, on edge with me and my plans. I have run out of time. There will be no looking through Joffrey’s journal for a spell to save me from the magic that will ruin me and Laney. The only choice I have now is to run as far as I fucking can wit
***Laney POV***“FALCON!” I scream scrambling to follow him out the door as we speed up a hill. Something zaps my hand with I touch the door handle and I gasp. Screaming and thrashing against the door that slams shut before me. “No! Falcon! We have to stop.” Everyone ignores me as Rome barrels further and further from Falcon, my Falcon, who is hurting, who needs me. “Rome! Please!” I beg.My voice cracks and I can see her stiff arms as she tries to ignore my pleas. I throw myself at her, sobbing, flailing my arms against her shoulder as Monty pulls me off. “Why wouldn’t you stop! He needs help! He is one of us, Please Rome. I love him!” My heart shatters as everyone fucking ignores me, and the air in the SUV feels like I’m being suffocated. I clutch my chest as Monty folds me into his arms, holding me, though I’m not sure if it’s to keep me from attacking Rome again or to comfort me. “I’m sorry.” Rome chokes out and I look over to see her sobbing as she tries to drive and wipe at h
A feral angry sound echoes through the hall, coming closer to me. When I look up, I recognize the beast that is Falcon. The blood blade in his mouth as he pants and bleeds, limping closer to me. I watch closely as his crazed eyes, trying to gauge what he plans to do. I have no desire to die, but do I have a right to live? To rule? After everything, I was in the past. Just in the last life I was horrible. I was mean, and vicious, attacking and killing for the thrill it would give me. The things I did were unthinkable, unspeakable scarring the good left in my soul. I deserve to die. But if I die, what does that mean for the people fighting outside? I feel so conflicted about what to do. Are they better without me, or worse? Fuck! I wish I had someone who could tell me what I am supposed to do. If I take the throne and I destroy everything these people have, I could never live with myself.“Fuck!!!” I scream out, sobbing as I force myself to stand on my shaky legs. Falcon freezes before
***Falcon POV***I’m numb as my body heals quicker than Monty can tear me apart. This may be the only time I ever feel happy about my immortality. It means she isn’t dead, at least not yet. I watch as Rome sobs over Laney’s slowing chest, her frail limbs lifeless and immobile. If I had the capacity to cry, I would, but I have nothing left in me. Without her, there is nothing left. How did the magic know I would try to run? It seemed to have sense it before I knew what I would do fully. The moment my hand began to decay at not taking the blood knife, I knew I had to run. I had to give her a chance before I lost all control. An unwanted possession of my body crippling my ability to think for myself and act on the true things I wanted to do. I wanted to leave her side so she could live. I wanted to break my heart so she could see how amazing she would have been. All the terrible shit I had done to her, the terrible shit she had done to others because I had believed a fucking witch who
***Laney POV***I can feel an invasion in my mind, a tapping into my thoughts, my feelings, all pieces of happiness slowly seeping away. Whatever it is slithers through me like a poisonous snake leaving nothing but slimy venom in its wake. This shouldn’t be what dying feels like. I shouldn’t be stuck in my head, feeling all the good in me dying. This leaves me with only one conclusion: I have to fight this invasion. But how?I struggle with the thought of how to fight back. How can I when I have been so cruel, so terrible in so many of my past lives that it’s physically hurting me? Every life my past self took lines up before me. Countless faces of men and women of varying ages. They stare at me in pity and I accept it, shit I need it. There has to be something to help me fight the pull. And this pull is so damn strong. Darkness always seems easiest. It always had. It’s easier to keep your eyes closed when there is nothing to see. Yet the light calls to me too, begging me to cling to
***Falcon POV***“Run” Monty bellows down at me, his face covered in blood as he fights off the vampires comping for the barely alive Laney in my arms. “You need to get her to the center of the throne.” “Why?” Rome snaps out, giving me a suspicious look as I lift Laney into my arms and stand with her.“No!” she seethes, stepping toward me. “Like I am letting you anywhere near her, you fucking traitor,”I step back and take the hate I know I deserve.“Monty can take her,” I offer halfheartedly. Now that I have Laney in my arms again, I never want to let her go. Those all-consuming sparks radiate through my skin where she touches me. She is alive. At least I know she is still magically alive.“Yeah right! He fucking stabbed her too!” Rome hisses.Time is running out as I stumble over a body, hating how much it affects me, knowing it is Joffrey. Sweet and always hungry, Joffrey, who had just found his foothold in the world he had only experienced through a book. If Laney survives this,