One week later
Fox’s POV
“Fox? What are you doing here?” I heard a voice say behind me.
I spun around and tears collected in my eyes as my gaze landed on my love, “Amaya? You’re awake?”
“What do you mean, love? Of course I’m awake.”
My brow furrowed, “You’ve been in a coma for three weeks.” I looked at her, trying to figure out what’s off with her, “When did you wake up?”
She looked confused, “I haven’t been in a coma. I’ve been right here with you.”
I looked around but didn’t recognize anything around us. Just as I noticed nothing seemed right, everything around us began dissolving including Amaya. Everything faded to black, leaving me in a void. “Amaya!” I spun around, looking for something, anything, “Amaya!”
The strong scent of mint enveloped me as Amaya’s mom came through the black, “What’s wrong with her?”
Ingrid grabbed my hands, “Amaya is trapped between worlds. Joseph nearly killed me, again, and on top of that, Amaya took on too much magic. The heavens almost took her just because I nearly died. It’s never happened before, the goddess dying, because we’re already dead.”
“What can you do? Is she going to be trapped forever?”
Ingrid shook her head, “I’m working with the heavens to get her out of it, but it’s taking more time than we thought.”
“How much longer?”
“I don’t know, but don’t give up on her.”
I shook my head, “I won’t.”
I startled awake and stretched my sore muscles. I grabbed her ice cold hand and kissed it before going downstairs. “Daniel,” I said, “Can I talk to you?”
He nodded before following me out of the room, “What’s up Fox?”
“I was visited by the goddess. She said Amaya is caught between the earth and the heavens from when Ingrid was almost killed by Joseph because the loss of the goddess triggered Amaya’s death, but Ingrid didn’t die so that caused Amaya to be stuck between the worlds.”
“What can be done?”
“She said the heavens are working on it but that it was taking longer than they thought it would.”
“That’s good news. What happens if they can’t free her?”
I shrugged, “I don’t know. Ingrid didn’t go into that.”
He nodded, “We’ll just have to have faith then, and hope the heavens can undo what they’ve done,” I nodded before heading back upstairs.
Amaya’s POV
My voice was hoarse from screaming into the black. The only reason I could think of for me to still be trapped here was they lost, and Joseph was holding me again. Except the only thing I smelled the whole time was Fox’s unique scent of sandalwood and seaspray. I spun around trying to see anything in the black, shivering from the frigidness.
As I fell to my knees, sobbing, a huge form took shape from the black. I looked up as the form huffed before nudging me with its huge head. The dragon that stood before me I had never seen, however I knew who it was immediately. “Dubhlainn,” I breathed out as he placed his gigantic head in my hands.
“My queen. I am so sorry I couldn’t stop him,” I heard a deep voice sound in my head.
A steady stream of tears began to fall again, “He corrupted you. There was nothing you could do.”
“I could’ve stopped him twenty-five years ago. I should’ve stopped him twenty-five years ago, but I-I,” he let out a long sigh, “I wanted it too. I was so powerful and saw Daniel and Ruairi and their calmness and thought that Joseph and I could do it better; show strength through violence. I didn’t know how far he was going to go. I tried to stop him after he killed Anka. I fought so hard against him. Harder than I had since I had first emerged.”
I kissed his forehead gently, “He was too powerful. The magic he stole was too powerful for you to override with your own magic.”
“I’m so sorry.”
I hugged Dubhlainn’s head before pulling back, “You are forgiven, Dubhlainn. Rest now with the goddess.”
I fell to my knees, sobbing, as Dubhlainn faded back into the dark.
Fox’s POV
It had been almost a week since the goddess visited me, and still nothing. I had just gotten out of the shower and was returning to her side when I heard a rustling come from our room. I rushed into the room to discover it was just Josie fussing with her pillows. “When did you get here Jos?”
“About ten minutes ago. Has there been any change?” I shook my head, “It’s been almost a month. How much longer is it going to take?”
“I don’t know. The goddess hasn’t been back and didn’t give me a timeline,” I responded, taking a seat on the bed next to Amaya. “Did Maverick come with you?”
Josie scoffed, “No. Why would he?”
“Because he’s your mate? How long are you going to hold out on him?”
“Maybe I’ll wait a couple of years and deny I have a mate at all,” she responded with a pointed look.
“Right. Not my business,” I looked down at my hands as I rubbed Amaya’s hand, as a wave of sadness washed over me.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that,” I raised an eyebrow at her, “Okay I did, but I didn’t mean it badly.” I kept my eyebrow up, causing her to sigh. “Okay I did, but I didn’t think it would affect you like that. I guess why wouldn’t it though.”
“I lost so much time with her because I refused to accept any of this, and now who knows when I’ll get to speak to her again, or kiss her, or hold her.” I sighed, shifting my gaze back down to Amaya, “If I could do everything over again, I would have asked her out the moment I set eyes on her, like I wanted.”
“You really love her.”
“I do. I have since the moment our hands touched at SEALs training.” I looked back up at Josie, “So how long are you going to hold out in Mav?”
“I don’t know. Until I’m sure I’m ready,” she said with a shrug, “He has been pretty great through all of this. He calls every day he doesn’t visit, which he does as often as he’s able.”
“I know Amaya trusts him, and as you know that’s not something she does easily.”
She nodded, “I know. The idea of being mated though is terrifying.”
“I know that feeling well, but trust me when I say being mated is amazing.”
“So I’ve heard, but what if he attempts to make my decisions for me and tries to force me to quit the team because he wants to start a family?”
“He’ll have to go through you, Amaya, and I would venture to guess the rest of the team and most of the members of the clan to get you to do anything you don’t want to do. It helps that he’s afraid of Amaya,” I said with a chuckle.
She laughed quietly, “True. I guess if I can’t kick his ass to keep him in line, Amaya will be there to kick it for me.” She looked down sadly at Amaya, “Hopefully.”
“She will. She’s going to wake up any day now, I know it.”
We kept chatting quietly until Josie noticed how tired I was and excused herself. I settled in next to Amaya with an arm wrapped around her torso, and quickly fell into a deep sleep.
Author: Kailan Counahan 