Page 70 of Renegade Kingdom
“Alyssa,” he breathed, and there was wonder in his voice. Awe. And something else that made my heart clench.
But we didn’t have time for this. We didn’t have time for the conversation that needed to happen, the acknowledgment ofwhat had just changed between us. The fae hounds were still out there, still circling, still waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
The heat of my summer magic invaded his shackles, breaking the lock and they fell to ground useless. I saw him about to argue, to object, to tell me he wasn’t safe, but I just smiled. Because as much as I could sense that hidden magic inside Damon, I could sense the nightmare too. And it was hiding, deep inside the recesses of Damon’s mind.
I turned away from Damon, keeping his hand firmly clasped in mine, and faced the wall of fog that surrounded us. The trees beyond were invisible, but I could feel them. Could feel the ancient life pulsing through their trunks, the deep roots that spread beneath the forest floor, the canopy that stretched toward a sky I couldn’t see.
And beneath all of that, something else.
The land itself.
It felt different here. Different from the Spring Court, different from anywhere else I’d been in Nymeria. It was like breathing in chemicals that stung the back of your throat and made your eyes water. The same magic I’d felt everywhere in this realm, but concentrated. Intensified. A thousand times more potent than anything I’d experienced before.
This was the heart of Nymeria. The place where the realm’s power was strongest. The place where Nymeria herself had made her home.
I let my magic reach out, wrapping around that concentrated power like fingers curling around a rope. And then I seized it.
It was like being struck by lightning.
Magic flooded into me, so much and so fast that I couldn’t process it. Couldn’t contain it. It burned through my veins like liquid fire, seared across my nerve endings, filled every cell of my body with power that was too vast, too ancient, too wild to be held by mortal flesh.
It felt like dying. It felt like being born. It felt like standing at the edge of the universe and staring into infinity.
And somewhere in the midst of all that blinding, agonizing ecstasy, I felt something calling to me. A thread of magic that stretched deeper into the forest, deeper into the realm, leading toward something I couldn’t see but desperately wanted to follow. The Fifth Court. Nymeria herself. The answers I’d been searching for since this all began.
“Alyssa, don’t.”
Damon’s voice reached me like an echo from deep inside a tunnel. Distant. Muffled. Almost impossible to hear over the roar of magic that filled my mind.
“It’s too much,” he was saying, and I could hear the fear in his voice. The desperate worry. “You can’t... Something about this doesn’t feel right. You’re going somewhere. Come back. Please, come back.”
His hand tightened around mine, and I felt the anchor of his presence. The solid reality of him cutting through the overwhelming tide of power. He was pulling at me, not physically but spiritually, trying to drag me back from whatever precipice I was standing on.
Part of me wanted to resist. Part of me wanted to follow that glittering, painful trail of magic and see where it ended. To find the source of this power and claim it for my own. To become something more than Alyssa, more than human, more than anything this realm had ever seen.
But I couldn’t leave. I hadn’t finished the job I was supposed to do. I couldn’t abandon my mates to the fae hounds and whatever else was hiding in these trees. Couldn’t let my brothers be torn apart while I chased visions of power and glory.
I ripped myself out of the clutches of the magic.
It hurt. Gods, it hurt. Like tearing my own soul in half, like pulling my hand out of a fire after it had already started to burn.The power fought me, clinging to my mind, trying to drag me back under. But I held onto Damon like a lifeline, used him as an anchor, and forced myself back into my own body.
When I could finally see with my own eyes again, I realized I was in Damon’s arms.
He was holding me against his chest, his arms wrapped around me like he was trying to physically prevent me from disappearing. His face was pale, his eyes wide with fear, but there was relief there too. Relief that I was back. That I was myself again.
“There you are,” he whispered, and the tenderness in his voice made something crack open inside my chest.
I reached up and brushed my fingers through his hair. It was soft under my touch, dark as midnight, and I found myself wondering what it would feel like to run my hands through it properly. To take my time. To explore every part of him the way I’d explored the others.
Damon dipped his head, and his lips brushed against mine.
It was barely a kiss. Just a whisper of contact, a promise of things to come. But it sent electricity arcing through my entire body, made my heart stutter and my breath catch and my magic surge in response. His shadowy magic twined with my fire, darkness dancing with my light, and for one perfect moment, everything else fell away.
Then he pulled back, a smirk tugging at the side of his lips.
“Not exactly the right time, is it?”
I laughed, the sound surprising me. “I suppose not.”
