Page 118 of Shaped By Darkness

“No.”

“No? What do you mean, no?”

“I mean, no. You're not trading yourself,” I tell her, and her eyes go wide.

“People will die, Garrett. Theo will die.” She holds my gaze, as if waiting for me to change my mind, but I won’t. I can feel it, the pain of this decision, the ache in my chest that tells me she’s right. But beyond that, there’s something deep down that tells me if Serena were to leave with Draven, we would never see her again.

I wasn’t lying when I told her I can’t live without her.

The sound of trees rustling and heavy footsteps pulls our attention back to Draven, where he stands—no longer just him, Lyle, and Theo in the cage.

Hundredsof chimeras are suddenly here, surrounding the wall, standing and waiting for Draven to give the command.

“He never intended to trade,” Ryker says, startling me. I’d forgotten he was there, but his words make sense. Draven doesn’t strike me as the type to stick to a deal, no matter if he was the one to suggest it or not.

“You see, I made a few adjustments,” he gestures toward Lyle, as if we could miss him. “There will be no more fighting against me, trying to spare people. I already had one failure; I won’t tolerate another.” Draven doesn’t say any names, but it’s clear who he’s talking about. I can’t imagine what it must be like for him, for this to have been all he knew his whole life.

Yet he seems completely unaffected; with his arm still holding Serena, you would never guess he was just insulted.

Something flies through the air. It’s tiny and fast, and I hadn’t noticed it until it’s too close, too busy paying attention to Ryker. Just before it can hit me, Ryker steps in my path, the tiny needle lodging itself deep in his arm, and my eyes go wide as Serena chokes on a scream, her eyes full of fear.

“It won’t hurt me,” Ryker assures her, pulling it from his arm and tossing it aside. “I’m already a monster.”

My mind whirls thinking about that. Ryker is already a chimera, yet somehow he isn’t as wild as the rest of them. Even Lyle lost himself to it, so what makes him different?

Is it because he’s a demigod?

Even more than that, I can’t get over how easily he stepped in to save me. He didn’t even hesitate.

“I’ll be seeing you soon, my shadow princess,” Draven says, and my wyvern all but loses his mind, trying to get free, not liking the way he looked at her or the threat in his words. “Bringher to me, and the heads of her mates.” Draven’s order rings out as if he shouted it through a megaphone before he disappears into thin air, leaving us with an army of chimeras.

“What do I do?” Serena asks, her voice small and lost.

“You fight. We fight.” Ryker steps up beside her without missing a beat, and we both turn our attention to him.

“But these chimeras are people, the same as Lyle. They’re someone’s son or sister, mother, friend, mate.” I hear the panic in her words as she reaches up to press a hand to her mouth and chokes back a sob. “I’ve spent all this time looking for a way to save Lyle, but I’m willing to kill all of these people?”

“You can’t think like that, Serena. If we find a way to save Lyle, we will save anyone else we can as well. But right now, they are monsters, and they will kill anyone who gets in their way of doing what my father ordered them to do.” Serena sucks in a deep breath, and I see the effect of his words as they wash over her.

“Can’t you command them away like you did last time?” I ask, hoping for something better than this.

Ryker looks at me for a moment, seeming almost stunned, before he shakes his head. “Sending away eight almost drained us last time. I can’t imagine we would survive trying to push away hundreds.”

Fighting it is.

This fight is nothing like the last one. This time we fight as if these are people, because they might be again someday.

The idea makes my stomach roll, but I push the guilt away so that I can focus on the task at hand.

Not dying.

The kingdom has seen better days, but for the most part we’ve been able to hold off the chimeras as the citizens moved to take shelter in the innermost circle of the walls at the castle. Thankfully, my parents have precautions in place should there be an attack. It’s something I used to think was silly: who could breach the walls? Who could handle the guards, not to mention me?

Draven clearly had the same thought because he made an army just to answer those questions. His beasts scale the walls with ease or have wings, making the walls little more than an inconvenience.

I don’t want to think about how easily he would have stormed the castle if not for Serena and the guys.

As much as it pains me to admit, even with my wyvern, we would not have been enough.

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