Time stopped.
Serenity looked at the crossbow aimed at her chest. The man holding it had eyes like liquid gold and tattoos that seemed to move in the moonlight.
"Riven Duskbane," she whispered.
The name felt familiar on her tongue, but she couldn't remember why. Kael's wolves surrounded them instantly. Growls filled the air. Claws extended. But the shooter didn't even blink.
"Stand down," Kael ordered his pack. His voice was deadly calm. "This is between him and the girl."
"Smart Alpha," Riven said. His finger hovered over the crossbow trigger.
"Though I expected more of a fight from the famous Kael Thorne."
"I'm curious," Kael answered. "What does the Syndicate pay for Nightborn blood these days?"
The Syndicate. Serenity's heart beat. The organization that hunted magical beings like her. They'd found her already.
"Enough to retire," Riven answered. But something flickered in his golden eyes. Confusion? Pain?
"Then why haven't you fired?" Kael asked.
Good question. The crossbow hadn't moved from Serenity's chest, but Riven's hand was shaking. Just slightly. Like he was fighting himself.
"I..." Riven blinked hard. "There's something wrong. I should have killed her by now."
Serenity felt a strange pull toward him. Like an invisible thread joining them. When she looked at his face, memories tried to rise. A boy with kind eyes. Someone who'd saved her once, long ago.
"You remember me," she said softly.
Riven's crossbow trembled. "No. I don't know you."
"Yes, you do." Serenity took a small step forward. "We were children. You saved me from something terrible."
"Stop talking." Riven's voice cracked. "I have orders."
But his hands were shaking harder now. The crossbow dropped an inch. Kael watched this conversation with calculating eyes.
"Interesting. The Syndicate's top killer can't kill one tiny wolf."
"Shut up," Riven growled.
"Memory magic," Kael continued. "They wiped your mind, didn't they? Made you forget whatever relationship you had to her."
Riven's face went pale. "That's impossible."
"Is it? Look at her again. Really look."
Riven's golden eyes met Serenity's silver ones. The moment their gazes locked, something cracked inside his head. Images flashed behind his eyes. A little girl with silver eyes, crying in a cage. Blood on his hands as he broke the lock. Running through dark woods, her small hand in his. A promise made under starlight: "I'll always protect you."
The crossbow clattered to the ground. "Serenity," Riven whispered. His voice was broken. "What did they do to me?" B
ut before anyone could answer, new voices echoed from the trees. "Target achieved. Move in." Armed figures in black came from the trees.
At least twenty of them, all holding weapons that hummed with supernatural energy. The Syndicate's hunts. At their head walked a woman with golden hair and cold blue eyes. She wore a red cloak lined with silver blades.
"Commander Briar Voss," Kael growled. "Should have known the Syndicate would send their best."
Briar smiled like a shark. "Hello, Kael. Still dying slowly, I see."
"Not for much longer."
"Oh, but you are." Briar's eyes fixed on Serenity. "Because we're taking your cure."
The Syndicate hunters raised their guns. Strange crossbows that glowed with blue light. Whatever they fired wouldn't just hurt—it would drain magical power.
"You want her?" Kael's pack made a circle around Serenity. "Come and take her."
"With pleasure."
Briar raised her hand. Battle started. Kael's wolves attacked with desperate rage. They had nothing left to lose. The Syndicate hunters fired their energy guns, blue bolts sizzling through the air. Serenity found herself pressed between Kael and Riven.
The assassin had picked up his crossbow again, but now he was aiming at the Syndicate troops.
"Why are you helping us?" she yelled over the fighting.
"Because I remember," Riven called back. "Not everything, but enough. They stole my memories of you."
A blue bolt barely missed Serenity's head. Kael grabbed her arm. "This way. Now."
They ran toward the castle gates. Behind them, wolves howled and energy weapons fired. The smell of blood and ozone filled the air. But as they reached the door, more Syndicate hunters appeared. They'd circled the entire castle.
"Trap," Riven panted. "This was all planned."
Briar's voice echoed from the fight. "You can't run forever, Nightborn! We have this place shut tight!"
Kael's gray eyes blazed with fury. "My home. My area. They dare— We need to get inside."
Serenity interrupted. "Can your people hold them off?"
"For a while. But not long." Kael looked at his dying pack. Already, three wolves lay motionless on the ground. "The curse makes us weak."
They fought their way through to the castle doors. Ancient wood reinforced with iron and magic. Kael pressed his hand against a hidden panel. The doors swung open.
"Inside. Both of you." As they crossed the barrier, Serenity felt the castle's power wash over her. Old magic. Protective magic woven into every stone. But underneath it all, she felt something else. Corruption. The same dark force that flowed through Kael's veins. The doors slammed shut behind them.
Outside, the battle continued. "This won't hold them for long," Riven said.
He was checking his weapons with practiced speed.
"Briar has ways of breaking magical barriers."
"Then we don't have much time." Kael turned to Serenity. His dead eyes held a flicker of something that might have been despair. "Three days until the new moon. Three days to finish the blood binding."
"Or what?" Serenity demanded. "Or my pack dies. And then the curse spreads to every magical being in a hundred-mile radius." Kael's voice was hollow. "Including you."
The castle shook as something powerful hit the outer walls. Dust rained from the roof. "They're using siege magic," Riven whispered. "Military grade."
"How long?" Kael asked. "Maybe an hour before they break through." Serenity felt trapped between impossible decisions.
Bond with Kael and risk becoming his slave. Refuse and watch innocent people die from the growing curse. Trust Riven, who'd been sent to kill her but claimed to remember their childhood link.
"There has to be another way," she said.
"There isn't." Kael stepped closer. "The blood binding is the only spell powerful enough to break a curse this strong."
"What exactly does it involve?"
Kael paused. For the first time since she'd met him, he looked uncomfortable.
"Tell her," Riven ordered. "She has a right to know."
"A ritual at the new moon," Kael said finally. "Your blood mixed with mine. Your life force channeled through old magic to cleanse the corruption from my pack."
"And what happens to me?"
Another pause. Longer this time. "You become bound to me. Forever. Your power feeds mine. Your life extends mine." Kael's voice dropped to a whisper. "Until one of us dies."
"You mean until I die," Serenity said quietly.
Kael didn't deny it. The castle shook again. This time, cracks formed in the walls. "Forty minutes," Riven guessed.
Serenity looked around the old hall. Portraits of long-dead Alphas stared down at her. Warriors who'd ruled through strength and fear. She wondered how many had made deals with darkness to get what they wanted.
"There's something else," she said suddenly. "Something you're not telling me."
Kael's jaw clenched. "What do you mean?"
"This curse. It's not chance, is it? Someone created it especially. Someone who knew exactly how to trap you."
Riven's golden eyes sharpened. "She's right. Curses this complicated don't just happen."
"Who did this to you?" Serenity pressed. "And why?"
For a moment, Kael looked like he might actually answer. Pain flickered across his features—the first real feeling she'd seen from him. Then the castle doors burst inward. Commander Briar Voss stepped through the smoking ruins.
Her platinum hair was streaked with blood, but her smile was winning. "Time's up," she stated. "Hand over the Nightborn, or we start killing your precious pack one by one."
But as she spoke, Serenity noticed something that made her blood freeze. Standing behind Briar, wearing the black outfit of a Syndicate hunter, was someone she recognized. Someone who was thought to be dead. Her twin sister, Sable, smiled and raised her weapon.
"Hello, sister," Sable said sweetly. "Miss me?"