Defying the Lycan King

Derek was at her side before she’d finished falling, one arm round her waist, taking her weight.

"Are you hurt?"

"No." She was breathing hard, her hands still glowing faintly, the light draining back down into her fingers. "No, I’m all right. Give me a second."

"You’re grey."

"I’m fine." She let out a deep breath, and something in her chest finally, finally let go. She looked at the scorch mark on the floor and let herself feel it. "It’s over, Derek. That’s it. It’s actually over."

He held her a moment longer, kissing the top of her head. "It is, my love. You did an excellent job."

Derek slowly and carefully lifted Kira off the floor and carried her in a bridal style, despite her protest that she was fine.

They came up out of the throne room and took the main stairs down towards the ballroom, and Kira leaned on him, relaxing her body— the amount of power she had used to destroy Jake had drained her more than she wanted to admit.

"I’m scared for the twins," Derek whispered.

"They are fine," Kira assured him with a smile, rubbing her stomach. "Lux assured me that. She protects them. We need to find Lydia now and make her pay."

They were halfway down a wide passageway when the attack came.

A pack of Umbras burst from a side corridor, eyes glowing red, teeth already bared.

"What the hell?" Derek growled.

"They were supposed to be dead," Kira said in confusion. "The Shadow King is dead!"

Derek put Kira down and shoved her behind him and met them head-on. He put his claws in the first one’s chest before Kira had properly regained her stance.

He fought like something that had been waiting all night for exactly this. He didn’t move more than four feet from her the whole time.

Every one that came round the side found him already there, and he put them down fast and without any particular artistry, and when the last of them dropped he was breathing hard, and there was fresh blood down.

Kira stared blankly at the bodies.

"They shouldn’t be standing." Her voice had gone thin. "I killed him. I burned the tether out of his chest; I felt it go. Every Umbra in this fortress should have dropped where they stood the second he did."

Kira!

Braxton’s voice hit the link so hard she flinched.

Braxton? Are you alright?

Where are you? There was distress behind his voice. Kira, we can’t hold this. They’re coming through the north wall now and there’s no end to them; they’re multiplying. We’ve been at this for an hour and they are not thinning.

I killed him. I killed the Shadow King, it should have—

She paused as the link went quiet. She turned to Derek, and her face had gone completely white.

"Jake isn’t the Shadow King."

Derek’s brows dropped. "What?"

"He wasn’t. He was never." She pressed both hands against her temples.

"Then who? Derek asked, already looking around.

Kira sighed as it all started to click in her head. She had shoved Lydia with a light earlier and she had hit the wall, and suddenly disappeared. It had all been a distraction. The overwhelming Umbras, Jake, Rolf.

Memories started flooding back to her, now making sense.

Lydia on the high throne with her legs crossed, looking down. Lydia giving orders and the Umbras obeying without a second thought. Lydia being the one in communication with Braxton.

Lydia with a finger under her chin, tears welling in her eyes, saying you’re the only one who could help me.

Lydia trying to get into her head, telling her, the Nexus was originally from us. They stole everything from us. Before your kind called us Umbras, we were called the Morathi.

Lydia demanding that the powers be merged. And then, cutting through everything, she heard her mother’s voice from weeks ago in that dining room, and their discussion replayed in her head.

So you must learn. You must understand the full extent of your power, and master it, before you ever face the Shadow King. Him, and his wife.

His wife?

Not everyone knows he has one. But he does. And she is no less dangerous than he is. Perhaps more.

Kira’s legs went out from under her and Derek caught her elbow. "How had I missed all that?"

"Kira."

"She resurrects him." Her voice came out barely above a whisper. "That’s the story. That’s what everyone believes."

"What are you talking about?" Derek asked.

She looked up at Derek. "Lydia."

"Lydia’s the wife."

"No." Kira gripped his arm. "Listen to me. My mother told me that weeks ago, that he had a wife and she was worse than he was. What if that’s the whole trick? What if there’s never been a Shadow King doing any of this?"

Derek went very still.

"She’s been replicating and putting an essence into a body every few decades," Kira said, faster now. "And every single time somebody finally corners the Shadow King and kills him, they walk away thinking it’s finished."

"And she walks away too," Derek said slowly. "Because nobody’s looking at the wife."

"That’s why the Shadow King has been so elusive. That’s why he keeps coming back for the Nexus, generation after generation, and nobody can ever work out how." Kira’s hands were shaking. "The shadow King is not a him. It’s been her the entire time."

Derek’s face had gone hard. "She built a king to hide behind," he said. "And we’ve all been so busy hunting a shadow that not one person has ever thought to stop the woman standing next to it."

"Let’s find Lydia."

***

Lydia moved through the trees with six Umbra warriors around her in a tight ring, two ahead, two flanking, two watching the ground behind.

She was still fully dressed in a red, high collared, queenly dress. Fury burned in her chest.

This isn’t over.

They’d outsmarted her tonight—the Lycans and that wretched Nexus girl. But this was not the end. She would return.

All she needed was another body to wear, another face to hide behind, and she would finish what she had started. The world would still kneel.

Let them all go home and bury their dead and tell their children the Shadow King was finished. Let the story get comfortable.

She would return and she would rule.

A sudden shift in the air made her head snap up. Someone was coming. Multiple someones. She snarled under her breath and picked up speed, forcing the Umbras to match her pace as they crashed deeper into the trees.

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