Page 5 of Fated for Dawn

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that,” I said, wrapping my arms around them in a group hug.

“We never stopped thinking of you.” Ryker’s deep voice was rough with emotion. “Not for a single day.”

Rafe’s hand found mine, his fingers intertwining in a comforting squeeze. “I called upon my brother for help. He confirmed you were being ‘detained’ in the Shadow Realm,” he explained, “but he was forbidden to intervene.”

Forbidden?

“He told usmeasureswere being taken for your return, but he couldn’t elaborate further. We never lost faith,” he continued. “We knew you’d come back to us.”

“Yeah,” Chad confirmed. “Just took a little longer than we expected.”

“But why a year?” I asked, turning to Lucien. “Why would Hecate wait so long to send me back?”

Lucien shook his head. “We don’t know.”

I glanced around at the field. “What happened here? I mean, after Alister and I left?”

“We lost it when you disappeared,” Chad admitted. “It was pretty much mayhem.”

Ryker’s jaw tightened. “My father fled in the chaos.”

Lucien nodded grimly. “The Elders took advantage of the chaos. They escaped—and the rest of us were powerless to stop them.”

“Hecate mentioned magic was unstable. How did that affect you all?” I asked.

Lucien nodded. “Yes. It’s been flickering in and out for the past year. All supernatural beings were affected. The guys—” he nodded to Chad and Ryker “—could barely shift, and when they did, they couldn’t sustain it.”

“But it’s better now. Stronger. Like it used to be.” Rafe’s eyes lingered on me, thoughtful. “I think it stabilized when you came back, Evelyn. When I felt you on this plane again, everything snapped back into place. We got here as fast as we could.”

A heavy weight pressed against my chest. Everything that could go wrong had. “So everyone thinks Alister and I are dead?”

“We informed your friends,” Lucien started, “that you were in the Shadow Realm. And we did inform the Supernatural Law Enforcement Agency of what transpired here.” He waved at the field. “But they were skeptics.”

I nodded, absorbing everything, then swallowed hard, forcing myself to ask the question that had weighed on me since they arrived. “What about Lia? The last I saw her, she was spelled by Morgana. Is she okay?”

The guys exchanged uneasy glances, a silent conversation passing between them. My blood turned cold.

Rafe hesitated, then spoke softly. “Maybe we should talk about this back at the mansion—”

“No,” I interrupted. “Tell me now.”

Rafe sighed, dragging a hand over his face before finally meeting my gaze. “The Elders took her. We’ve been tracking her as much as we can. We believe they are using her as a vessel for the reincarnation of the goddess.”

The words froze me, and disbelief anchored me in place. My friend—my sister in all but blood—was now a vessel for a goddess.

“Eris,” I whispered.

“We were hoping you could confirm otherwise,” Lucien said cautiously. “But yes, based on what we’ve gathered, we concluded it has to be Eris.”

The ground seemed to shift beneath me as I tried to process everything.

Alister—gone.

A year lost.

My guys, who had suffered so much in my absence.

And Lia’s possession—trapped in a fate she would have never chosen.

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