Page 110 of Ransomed to the World
Then her chest tightened when she remembered the danger he put himself in by stepping forward.
As people began to crowd in on them, a quick glance showed the rest of the guys were stationed around the room, waiting for chaos to erupt.
Karl shoved forward with a scowl. “Prove you’re mates.”
A couple of other people nodded, glowering at the both of them.
Without hesitation, Edgar rolled up his sleeve, revealing the tattoo that marked him as her mate. He held his arm out, and she followed suit. The two tattoos were side by side when the branches began to sway together, the roots digging deeper and growing.
People gasped, the room falling silent as they watched.
Edgar looked up and locked eyes with Daxion. “As your heir, I already have council approval. Annora’s mine.”
Annora flashed the unwelcoming crowd a vicious smile. “Now to prove my eligibility, a show of power, so no one can claim deceit.”
Dark matter swirled in the air around her as she unleashed all her anger and pain. Darkness spilled across the floor and up the walls. Candles sputtered and died, the remaining lights dimming, leaving the room swathed in gloom. The pristine walls began to crumble, the flowers wilted, and the glass windows turned to sand and rained down on them.
Her dress floated around her, glittering like diamonds in the murky room. Dark particles sailed on the air like a current, and her hair slowly untangled to drift around her. The weight of the world fell off her shoulders, and she felt like she was finally home.
Screams sounded as the crowd surged away from her, shoving and bumping into each other, trampling more than a who’d fallen. A rare few stood in awe, their hands reaching out as if they could feel the power. She wasn’t surprised to see the captain and Cedwyn among them.
“Those who tried to leave will find themselves stranded in the banished lands.” Edgar’s voice boomed throughout the room, halting the stampede of people as they tried to literally crawl over each other to get away.
Even over the shouts and yells, she heard the snarls and growls of creatures from beyond. Guards drew weapons, uncertain if they should attack her or defend the exits. While everyone was distracted, her guys strode through the crowd without an ounce of fear, taking up a protective circle around her.
Shapes began to form out of the darkness, and more than a dozen reapers stepped into existence in all their finery, scythes in hand, Livia in the lead. She glanced around the room, spotted Annora, and gave her a nod of greeting, then smiled broadly.
“A welcoming committee?” Livia raised a brow at her, standing tall and proud, her scythe gleaming bright with power. “When you said you would get us in front of the council, I had my doubts, but you honored your word.”
At that statement, pandemonium erupted.
Chapter Twenty-nine
“Protect the bridge!” Valen yelled, and the reapers surged forward, standing between her and the rest of the room.
Leaving them at a standoff.
“Daxion!” Livia tipped back her head and yelled, “Come and greet your wife, you cowardly asshole.”
People scrambled toward the edges of the room, leaving a furious Daxion facing off with his bride.
Livia tsked and chided him, “Only you would lack the balls and send a child to kill me instead of doing the job yourself.”
“Why don’t I remedy that right now?” Daxion snarled and flicked his wrist, a spiral of dark smoke bursting into the air, forming a sword nearly as tall as him.
“Stop!” Annora shouted, thrusting out her arm to bring up a wall of darkness between them, bringing them both to a stumbling halt. “You can’t kill the reapers, not if you want to maintain the balance. Without the reapers to retrieve the souls of the dead, dark matter will fill the world.”
More than a few phantoms seemed unfazed by the fact, and Annora wanted to smack them. “Maybe what you fail to understand is that dark matter is poisonous. So while you might have access to more magic, what happens when the rest of the world dies out and all the magic is gone in a decade or so?”
Unease spread throughout the room, the phantoms disturbed at the possibility of living without magic. “Reapers are being targeted first because they’re the first line of defense. The world needs to be put back into balance before it’s too late—a job that phantoms have neglected for over a century.”
“Don’t be foolish.” Daxion’s eyes blazed as he glared at her. “You’re a child who doesn’t understand our way of life. We’ve retreated from the world to preserve it. You have no right to judge what we had to do to survive.”
Though a couple of phantoms nodded with Daxion, the rest of the room remained divided.
“She’s a bridge.” Valen broke the silence, facing off against his brother. “They’re born in great times of strife to right the wrongs of our people. She speaks the truth.”
People were torn between horror that a half-breed like her had been given so much power and awe that a bridge lived among them once again.
