“Take his hand, honey.” The Queen’s encouraging tone did nothing to ease his fear. His wolf didn’t seem afraid, as relaxed as he’d been before Riley had displayed the extent of his power.
“I can go alone, but we don’t know the state he’s in, and he might only respond to you.” Riley’s voice, unaffected by his power and the significance of his words, gave him the courage he needed.
Every muscle in him tensed in anticipation of pain as he placed his hand within the flame covering Riley’s. The pain he’d expected didn’t come. In its place, a peace that seemed misplaced amidst the extent of Riley’s power.
A sharp nod from Riley, and the power seemed to engulf his whole body. The sensation of a transformation pricked athis mind, the exquisite energy that is the strength of his wolf drawing past the barrier keeping the animal at bay. But he remained in human form.
He started to question the strange experience of both sides of him occupying the same space in his mind, but gasped instead when a sudden, unseen force pushed him through space. The grip of Riley’s hand tightened as they departed the bedroom’s confines, their destination unknown.
Soon, darkness, thick and menacing, engulfed them, and the pieces of his broken heart thudded in the confines of his chest.
Riley tightened his grip. “Don’t let go.”
The warning in his voice, a voice that seemed to go past his human ears to the wolf under the surface, calmed his heart long enough for Mark to assess the darkness. He’d seen this before. Its familiarity could only have come from the worst night of his life, but the memory seemed suppressed, unwilling to be expressed. The darkness had a personality, a sinister purpose that was as familiar as it was.
Riley’s grip tightened again, and he was flying through the darkness, through the nothingness, his feet no longer on the ground. He lost his capacity for fear as Riley’s power engulfed him.
“Call to him.”
Riley’s instruction seemed misplaced, especially when he tried to open his mouth only to choke on the darkness’s toxic energy.
“In your mind. Call to him.”
He nodded, turning in the direction of Riley’s voice, butunable to see him in the permeating darkness. He remembered Caster’s instructions and reached for the clearest image of him in his mind.
“There!”
Riley’s excited pronouncement had him opening his eyes, expecting to find nothing but darkness. The sliver of light in front of him was a hope he grabbed hold of with everything in him.
Riley’s power pushed them through the darkness toward the small source of light that seemed to grow larger the closer they drifted to it.
“Caster?” Mark found his voice as they approached what seemed to be a doorway. It yielded to them, or rather yielded to Riley’s immense power, granting them access to the light.
They fell in, as if the darkness had spat them out. It took a second to adjust to the light, a dim light that he had trouble focusing on. The room, or space, was small, but it still took a second for Mark to zero in on Caster.
He sat on the floor, his shoulders hunched in defeat, a tiny whisper drowning in the sigh that escaped his lips in a subdued rhythm. He was by his side before he could form any conscious thought. His hands reached for Caster’s, his cool skin shaking him to the core.
“Caster?” No response, the whispered chant leaving his body the only indication he was even here.
He cupped his face, the same cool effect worrying him beyond words, and met eyes that seemed lost in a dream. “Caster, please—”
“Your timing is impeccable.”
Mark gasped at the blend of many voices coming from the darkened corner behind him. He turned too fast, shielding Caster’s body from the new threat with his own, careful to keep his senses trained on Caster’s broken whisper.
“A minute later, and he’d be lost to you for eternity.” The many voices lost their chorus, blending into a deep baritone as the speaker drew away from the darkness to step closer to them.
Mark glanced at Riley, and they nodded at each other, ready to protect Caster from whatever he was. He looked human, but there was no way he was.
“You’re right. I am not human.” He waved a hand at his human male form. “This is an illusion that your world finds less… threatening.”
Riley stepped closer to their new threat, his power filling the space. “You’re a demon.”
Mark’s breath caught. He reached for Caster’s hand, allowing his fear to seep through the connection. Caster’s fingers fluttered, his claws extending to pierce his skin. The pain didn’t register, his wolf’s threatening growl filling the space with its intent to protect the man he loved.
The demon raised his hands in a surrender that Mark didn’t believe for a second. “I am not here to harm you.” He pointed at Caster, who had since stopped his whispered chant and was too quiet for comfort. “He needs you to get him out, now.”
Riley stood his ground. “You move, and I will destroy you.”