Glamoured (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 6)

Darkness took me deep.

So deep that for a fraction of time I believed this was my true end.

Len’s rage surrounded me as I slipped through the cracks of this reality. My last thoughts were of Tabitha and the enigmatic fae prince, the two beings who’d captured and held my heart.

That fatal strike to my chest was nothing compared to the pain of losing them. Nothing.

Just as my final lucidity faded, there was another sharp tug at my center, but this time it wasn’t a blow. It was a halting, as an energy dragged me back and then wrapped around me, as if suspending my body in time. With this power cocoon, some clarity returned, and I grew aware of what was happening outside myself.

Len stopped me from dying.

He’d called his mother.

Tabitha…

No! My Tabitha!

She’d been affected by whatever had happened to me, but at least it appeared they’d halted her from death too. We were not completely out of danger—whatever tried to kill us was still actively tugging away at our life force—but there was a chance to save us.

While there’s life, there’s hope.

My body jolted a moment later when we left the Silver Lands, until we landed in a new place filled with a lot of fae energy. Len raged ahead, keeping us with him, and I could feel Tyrin at his back, rage infusing his energy too.

In my state of stasis, not dead but also not quite alive, I was able to examine the extensive bonds that existed between Len and Tyrin. Not just between them, but also the rest of the silver army. I was filled with a sense of family.

They were fighting for us. For Tabitha and me.

When we tried to enter a huge building, my cage halted briefly, until Len disabled the security. The inside felt open, buzzing with energy, and as a half-dead shifter I wondered how I was feeling so much of Faerie. Some of my memories of Len might have returned, but there was still nothing to indicate I had any fae in my heritage.

When we moved into a cavernous room, I was halted again, but this time it was the gentle sway of Len’s energy slowing us all. We remained stationary here, and I sensed that this was where we’d find out what had happened. We’d find out who I needed to kill for daring to try to destroy my daughter. If we hadn’t been with Len and his mother at the time… it was terrifying to even finish that thought.

“Bring them here.” Len’s voice was a rage of energy, filled with dark malevolence. Crashing sounded around us, and I wondered if he’d upended all the nearby furniture.

A beat later, there was a bang as doors slammed open. “What in all of crystal law is going on here?” an unfamiliar male shouted. “You will be brought before the counc—”

Whatever the male Fae had been about to say was cut off mid-sentence. Len hadn’t moved from my side, but I felt Tyrin’s power near the newcomer, and I had the sense that it had been his hand around a throat that ceased words.

Len finally moved, as did Tabitha and me since we were bound to the prince. “What did you do, Fredrick?” he asked, in a softly menacing voice. “What have you set in motion?”

Fredrick mumbled, words hard with a hand around his throat. “I set into motion exactly what I said I would,” he finally choked out. “The severing of the Great Queen’s power cord. Her line is dead.”

The silence that extended around the massive room was heavy. The Great Queen’s line is dead.

“You had no fucking right,” Len said, still in that same wrathful, scary ass tone. “There was no vote, why would you move forward—” He paused, as if the truth had hit him suddenly. “You felt her. You felt when Samantha broke through the glamour, and you knew there was at least one descendant of the queen alive.”

Wait, what?

Fredrick’s choking increased, and since Len had moved at the same time, he was clearly the one hurting the other fae now. “You failed,” Len snarled. “Samantha and Tabitha live, which means the line can be restored. Which is lucky for you since your current action could damn Faerie and all of us to death.”

“What do you base that statement on?” This was from a different fae, a more feminine tone.

Len took a moment to answer, as if working out the finer details. “I don’t know everything, but when the line was severed, Samantha and Tabitha, my mate and daughter, were both struck down. That could only have happened if they were descendants of the Great Queen. I found them both on Earth, so clearly that was where the queen hid.”

Mate. It was almost worth dying to hear that word from Len. For the first time in my existence, I was ready to claim a true mate. I just had to not die first.

The room erupted in noise at Len’s revelation, a mix of shouts and cries as they tried to discuss everything in one go.

“Focus!” This shout was louder, and it came from Glendriel. “How do we restore their line? How do we save them and Faerie?”

“I have no fucking idea,” Len rumbled. “Is there any alive who knows?”

There was a pause, and that same female who’d asked a question earlier said, “There’s no way unless you venture into the Great Deep and reconnect the queen’s line to the Origin. The original source of Faerie creation.” The room felt hotter, as if she were channeling power too. “Which is why we would never have voted to sever the line. Without a connection to the Origin, all of Faerie might fall.”

Glendriel’s voice was hoarse. “Take him into custody until we decide what to do.”

Fredrick laughed, a stupid bad guy cliche of a laugh. Len, who must have still been holding him captive, released a burst of power that locked the other fae in what felt like magical restraints. “I vote for his death,” he spit out. “As soon as we figure out how to save my family.”

Despite being all but dead, locked in stasis, and surely beyond tears, there was a damp heat on my cheeks. Mate. Family. My bucket of life was overflowing. Ironically, since I’d moved all that much closer to death.

“We need to head down into the Deep,” Tyrin said, the first to answer. “I’m at your side, brother. We should leave immediately.”

Len let out a deep breath. “We don’t have the skills to survive the journey, but there might be some who do. We’re going to need outside help. Godlike powers.”

No need for two guesses of who he was going to ask.

His mom’s energy moved closer. “Do whatever you need to save them,” she said.

Noise picked up in the room again, and I felt Len’s full attention focused on me. The burn of his power infused into my light filled cage as he pressed closer. “Love, I need our pack’s help, and I can’t take you from Faerie, since this is where the stones will be strongest. But know that the glamour is broken, at least for me, and I will never forget you.”

He turned to his mother and murmured something I missed, before coming back to me.

“Keep fighting to stay here,” he commanded. “I will never let death have you. You are mine, Storm. You hear me? Fucking. Mine.”

Gods save me from possessive fae. Or not. Yeah, definitely not.

I’m going nowhere, Winter! I sent that out to him, desperately hoping he would hear.

Just knowing he was going to bring our pack here had a sense of calm and hope infusing me. Of all the truths in the world, there was one I knew for sure: we were stronger together.

All of us in the Shadow Beast’s world.

In his pack.

We’d found each other for a reason, and together we would figure out how to save Tabitha.

This was her chance at a true life and family. I refused to let it be stolen away.

Even if, in the end, it cost me my life.

For my daughter, it was a sacrifice I was willing to make.