My awakening power shot to the surface as those claws that had been holding me turned into talons. They sank into me so deeply that I screamed in pain.

I barreled through time and space, dipping and swaying, here and there, yet nowhere all at once.

And then I came to a slamming stop. I found myself staring down at a vast unknown world, hovering above it. Then I moved again, careening through the atmosphere as though I was a jet flying high over its surface. My heart pumped painfully as I gazed at the barren valleys, soaring desert mountains, trickling rivers, and dry fields. It was a world awash with colors of beige and grays, bleak and desolate. A new world. A new planet. Not of my universe. Not of the fae universe. But something different. Something undiscovered.

Cities appeared on the horizon. Ancient-looking cities of stone and brick.

Where am I? It was the only thought I had before that light-speed movement yanked on my form again, and I lurched back, going up, up, up. Time and space flew around me, here, there, everywhere at once.

And then I was back in the center of Jakub’s room.

I blinked, then blinked again as a cacophony of screams, roars, and casting magic blazed around me.

There was a war raging in this room. SF members were locked in battle with dozens of Jakub’s men. The clang of metallic weapons hitting spears reached my ears, then came the scent of casting magic and the sight of flaring potent spells. It all waged around me, as though I were in an untouchable void in the middle of it all.

That portal to an unknown universe still lay beneath me, but it wasn’t open as it had been a second prior. However, I felt that it could be, if only the collectives activated their spears again. But amidst the chaos, the collectives were either fighting or dead, and I knew that it was their loss of power that had returned me to earth instead of keeping me on that alien planet.

Crawling on all fours, I moved as far away from the crack in the floor as I could. I tried to stand, to get to my feet, but my mind spun, and my legs felt like jelly. All of my magic was gone. Whatever Jakub had done with the spears and me as the conduit—his key—had drained me.

My heart hammered in my chest as I caught a flash of dark hair to my right and then a face etched with rage came into view. Kaillen!

He battled Jakub one-on-one as both cast spells at one another. Immense power blasted from their hands. The two of them fought so fast that it all became a blur.

Despite my efforts to try to reach my hunter, I was too weak. I remained near the center of the room, still feeling that tug from that other world—to wherever I had been transported to and had gone—but I pulled back from it, keeping my awakening power buried deep in the void inside me as it began to recharge.

But those alien talons continued to search and hunt for me, sneaking through the crack in the floor every now and then, before retreating when the width halted their progress.

Some instinct deep inside me knew that I needed to detach myself completely from that other world. That I had to close whatever portal had been created to it. A glow still lit the floor, the constellations etched into the concrete still bright and shining, but the symbols no longer flared like the sun, and a part of me knew that was because the cataclysmic power from the twelve supernaturals had disappeared.

But we couldn’t leave the portal open. I didn’t know how I knew that, but I was certain terrible things would happen if we didn’t close it. So I summoned everything inside me. I called upon my witch powers, my forbidden magic, my awakening power, and everything from my wolf as I tried to smother that void in the center of the room.

My vision swam dark as I put everything I had into it.

The crack in the floor began to close, little by little, and the universe that had shined back at me slowly faded.

That’s it. More. More. More.

But just as the floor began to seal, something shot out of it. That foreign octopus tendril burst through it, heading right toward me until it speared my chest at light speed.

The power inside me instantly extinguished, and I screamed as something in me shattered. It felt as though my body had cracked in two, as if a giant hammer had been sent from the heavens and smashed down onto me with the power of the gods.

My inner magic cleaved in half. My soul wrenched apart.

“Tala!” a roar came from someone in the room.

My wolf vanished, her single yelp the only sound I heard from her before she was gone, completely obliterated.

And then my awakening and forbidden magic rose up inside me, humming through my belly, the chest and cave they’d been stored in within my body shattering into a million pieces. My otherworldly powers flowed together, combining and writhing until they swallowed me whole.

My eyes flashed open as everything in the world grew still.

Power flowed through my veins like lightning. My heart sang. My mind calmed. And a deep instinct came to me from the beginnings of time. It surged to the surface and wrenched that foreign hold off of me that had still been trying to drag me back into the void.

And then I was free.

Power surged out of me into every single supernatural who was battling my mate and the Supernatural Forces. My awakening magic clamped down onto them, sinking its teeth through their magic, their souls, right through their bones until their forms exploded in a rush of magic and power.

I gasped as the entire room fell silent.

Every SF member stood shaking, all eyes turned on me as disbelief and horror etched into their expressions.

My entire body trembled as I took in the scene around me.

The room was awash with blood and gore. All of the supernaturals that had held the spears were dead, their mangled bodies mutilated and broken.

What have I done? I frantically looked among the dozens of SF members staring at me.

“Kaillen?” But I didn’t see him, didn’t hear him. I searched inside myself for the mate bond, frantically clawing for it, not knowing if he was among the living or the dead.

But I felt nothing. Nothing. Not a whisper or a hint of that delicate thread which had linked me and my mate.

The bond was gone.

And that could only happen if one’s mate was dead.

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Chapter 26

“Tala!” Commander Klebus’s sharp voice called to me as though down a tunnel, yelling and screaming at me to open my eyes. Her demanding yell pulled me back to the surface and I peered upward to see the vampire hovering above me, her cobalt eyes blazing. “Tala, we need to get you out of here and to a healing center.”

I lay limp on the floor, a turquoise glow still illuminating the symbols all around me. The portal. It was still open.

But that didn’t matter. None of that mattered anymore. Kaillen was dead. My mate was gone.

“No, no, no. He can’t be gone. He can’t be dead,” I mumbled.

He’s gone. He’s gone. He’s gone.

“Tala?” another frantic voice called from the edge of the room.

My eyes shot to where the voice had come from—that hauntingly beautiful voice that should not be possible.

Kaillen shoved past the SF members in his way and strode toward me with a look of absolute confusion and devastation covering his face.

My eyes widened, my heart thrumming erratically in my chest.

He’s not dead. He’s still alive.

I shot to my feet, strength flowing through my veins as hope surged within me. I bypassed Commander Klebus’s outstretched hand and ran toward him, my arms automatically opening.