Page 56 of Night Fall
“Fagr skjaldmær min, will you let me do this? I can’t without you, not without your permission and your faith in me.”
She gulped and held him tighter. “Promise me you’ll come back.”
“I promise. We have a lifetime to heal and live through together, and I refuse to waste a single moment of it.”
She nodded and they kissed once more. He reached down and took one of her hands in his, and together they opened the door and returned to the rest of the group.
Mya looked at them, saw the empathy in their eyes, and it made her shy. “I’m—”
“Mya and I have discussed it. I am willing to bait the enemy so we can finish this war once and for all, but only if every possible protective measure has been taken.”
Erik’s tone was authoritative, and she straightened as some of her fear melted away.
“I’m sure you all know that I have been kept away from Mya for the last three hundred years. I’m not willing to spend another second without her. This plan must work. I will not move forward if there is even a slight probability of me not returning to her side at the end of this. Does anyone here have any objections to that?” Erik asked, then turned to her and smiled.
Mya nestled into his side, wrapping an arm his waist as she watched her own family and friends smile and shake their heads.
“Then let us end this war once and for all.”
There were several steps to their plan.
The first involved Oaklynn casting her own locator spell on Erik. To do so she needed to share her blood with him, and she shared a drop with everyone else who would be fighting alongside them as a precaution.
Oaklynn had also confirmed Mya’s healing ability extended beyond physical ailments to abilities, spells, and curses that affected her mental or emotional states. Knowing Constance wouldn’t give up the chance to try and take control of a single member of their group, Oaklynn and Astrid created an enhancement with Mya’s blood that would temporarily act as a cure should any of them begin to fall under Constance’s magic. It would only work once, so they had to act with caution. Since Astrid had created threads between them, they would be able to feel the mental slip in one of their comrades and get them to safety before they lost them all together.
Then they ran through different scenarios. Erik estimated that Constance had at least two hundred vampires when he’d last seen her at the cave, so for safety they doubled those numbers. Neither Johanna nor Erik remembered there being any older vampires, meaning they would be newly turned and weak. Daniella would use her ability to boil each vampire’s blood, which, due to their connection to Constance, would at least weaken and distract her while Oaklynn would work to drain Constance’s power and stop her from being able to cast stronger magic.
While it seemed things should go in their favor, Oaklynn warned they needed to keep as much of Constance’s army alive as they could. If they outright killed them, Constance would be able to use their blood for more powerful and dangerous spells.
They each had their roles and weapons, so all that was left was for Oaklynn to cast a spell which would make Erik appear to still be under Constance’s curse. He would then make his way to the old church to be kidnapped and delivered back to their enemy.
Mya hated it all. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t let go of the fear that was eating away at her heart.
Erik placed his hand on her chest, right over the beating organ. “The day they took me away from you, you had a bad feeling. You warned me of it several times and I didn’t listen to you when I should have. If you have that feeling right now, this all ends. I won’t go and we’ll find another way. Do you?”
She took a deep breath, but she already knew the answer. “No, I don’t.”
The corner of his lip tipped up in a half smile. “And you told me Daniella’s spirits tell her things. She hasn’t warned us away from this, correct?”
Mya looked down. “No, she hasn’t.”
He tipped her head back up to meet his eyes. “You are my mate. You are my wife. I am going to build a home with you, in your house or somewhere else if you like, and I am going to fill that delicious cunt of yours with my come so often, that I’ll keep your beautiful belly round with our children, no matter many you want. We’ll have our home, our family, and all of this, all our pain and strife and the chaos we’ve gone through will fade away. This is the last part of that chapter of our lives, fagr skjaldmær min. Trust me.”
Erik cupped her cheek and she leaned into his hand, feeling his warmth. Mya parted her lips on a sigh when he bent down and kissed her, and she kissed him back with every part of her being.
“If you don’t come back to me, I will find you and drag you back from the deepest pits of Tartarus only to kill you again myself.”
He grinned proudly, squeezing her hand. “There’s my queen.” He kissed her once more and squeezed her hand. “It’s time to go.”
TWENTY
Mya hated how seamlessly their plan worked. Constance’s goons had taken Erik not long after he’d been spotted making his way back to the church.
She’d had to watch them kick and punch him, and sit by while they dragged him back to their car and drove away. Mya wanted to go after them, to wage war against them for even daring to lay one finger on him, but Greg had put a hand on her tightly balled fist and reminded her that this would all be over soon. No matter how much it killed her, she had to see this through.
She'd been silent the entire time they’d followed the car, caught between the fear that they would somehow lose him and the rationale that she had to believe in him, that they’d done everything to make sure he’d be safe. Mya, along with her family, Greg’s seconds-in-command, Merida and Dominick, Lily, Oaklynn, Astrid, and the rest of the battle officers watched from the forest as Erik was led down an old mine shaft tunnel.
Then they saw the signal: Erik’s fire flashing brightly outside of the entrance. Mya ran to meet him, and when she laid her eyes on him, she felt as though she could finally breathe again.
