<b>Chapter </b><b>122 </b>


    L was first, always sensing my unraveling before I could even scream, Daxon next, his storm grey eyes zing as he stormed to me, yanking a towel around my shaking form like I was something precious he had to protect. Ashrian, silent but deadly<b>, </b>strode forward<b>, </b>his hands cupping my face as if grounding me would stop the storm.


    And Bram… fuck. That massive grizzly of a man knelt beside me like a boulder against the tide and wrapped his arms around my waist from behind. “You don’t have to carry it alone, Elowen,” he rumbled, his voice low against my back. “We’ll bleed with you. Stand with you. Fight with you.”


    “I’m not okay,” I choked. “I’m not okay. I…I need my mom. I need someone to fucking tell me I’m gonna survive this.”


    I stared into the mirror, at the glowing mark of the Earth Goddess above my heart, and copsed to my knees like my bones had just given up.


    I caught a view of the man meat on disy in the mirror just then, and I smiled like <b>a </b>chesire cat. I needed to seal the bond with Bram<b>, </b>and soon. <b>He</b>‘ was eyeing me like a juicy raw steak he wanted to devour<b>, </b>and I fucking loved it.


    And that’s when the world dropped out from under me. ckness. Cold stars. A voice like honey and starlight whispered my name.


    “Elowen.”


    I saw her…Aerya…my mother. Radiant even in the dim glow of a dungeon cell. Her face twisted in sorrow and rage, her fingers clutched <b>at </b>invisible <b>walls</b>.


    “Listen, my daughter,” she begged, and then the Star Goddess rose behind her like a supernova…nithra, cloaked in gxies and


    dreams.


    “You are in danger,” they said in one voice. “Montana. Four days. The hunters areing. They n to strike at the portal. It is a trap.”


    shes hit me like lightning, rows of soldiers with silver tipped weapons<b>, </b>vampire mutations crawling like rabid dogs, a general chewing a cigar while shoutingmands. Blood. Fire. Screams. The portal drenched in crimson.


    “You must not go unguarded. Tell them. Warn them. Build the temples. We will aid you.”


    And then I was falling. I hit the bed with a gasp that tore my throat raw.


    “Elowen!” Daxon’s voice boomed, paned through it.


    “She’s burning up!” Ashrian growled from the door.


    “Get the robe…get the bed ready, fuck, L, she’s seizing!”


    “No,” I rasped. “<b>I </b>saw them. My mother. The Star Goddess. We’re walking into a trap.”


    I cked out again as hands carried me, voices frantically calling my name. But the warning had been delivered. Hell wasing. And I wasn’t gonna let it take <b>us </b>without a fight.


    Bram Thundermaw POV


    10:55 Tue, Oct <b>7 </b>


    :


    A


    6733


    I’ve seen shit most people wouldn’t believe, Combat zones where bullets never stopped, bear shifters gutted mid shift, friends blown apart by magicalndmines… But none of it, none of it,pared to the fucking terror that grabbed me by the throat the moment Elowen dropped like a stone in front of nie.


    One second she was standing at the mirror, radiant and vulnerable, and talking about wanting to eat, drink, dance, and fuck like a normal person for one goddamn night.


    The next, her body locked up like she’d been hit by a lightning bolt. Her eyes rolled white. Magic cracked off her skin like a livewire snapping loose. Her knees buckled, and I was there, catching her before she hit the stone.


    “Elowen!” I roared, hitting the ground hard with her limp body in my arms.


    I could barely breathe. She was glowing, faintly, but wrong. The way her power moved…it wasn’t her doing this. It was someone else. Something else.


    Daxon swore behind me. Ash was across the room in a blur, eyes glowing, scanning for threats. L’s magic red to life, his voice low and panicked in that thick Scottish burr as he chanted a diagnostic spell.


    But none of it mattered. All I could see was her, unmoving. Unresponsive. My heart thundered so loud I thought I might shift right there from the sheer force of it.


    “Rend them,” a deep growl echoed in my


    “Break their bones. Spill their blood.”


    head.


    “Karkon,” I muttered under my breath, my bear’s name like a war drum behind my ribs. “Stay with me.” <fn5d8f> The rightful source is find(?)ovel</fn5d8f>


    “They try to take her again, and I will devour them,” Karkon snarled, pacing like a caged beast inside me. “She is ours. The gods marked her, yes, but so will we.”


    “I know,” I breathed, tightening my arms around her. “I fucking know.”


    I pressed my lips to her temple. Her skin was cold and burning all at once, like she was caught between two worlds.


    “She’s mine, Karkon.” “Ours<b>.</b>” He snarled.


    “I’ll burn the goddamn world to keep her safe. I’ll level kingdoms. I’ll rip through the Aegis line by line, face by face, if they so much as look her direction again.” I spoke in my mind furiously.


    “Swear it.” He retorted.


    “<b>I </b>swear it on blood and bone.”


    Elowen jerked in my arms then…just a twitch, a gasp, like she was surfacing from something deep and ancient. Her lips moved, and the words were shaky, soft.


    “Montana<b>… </b>trap… My mother…<b>” </b>


    L went still. “The portal. They’re going to ambush her at the fae portal…”


    <b>10.33 </b>Tue, Oct <b>/ </b>


    1 stood, lifting her like she weighed nothing, and turned to the others. “She’s seen something. The gods gave her a vision.”


    Ashrian nodded grimly, and Daxon’s hands curled into fists.


    “We prep now,” I said, my voice raw with fury. “We don’t wait for them toe. We meet them in blood and me.”


    Because they didn’t just pick a fight with a goddess.


    They picked a fight with a massive pissed off grizzly bear who has a taste for blood. Bring it on fuckers.


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