(Nic's POV) 

I quietly eat steamed vegetables as I listen to the facts of Caspian's current state. It would seem he was slipping closer and closer to losing himself entirely. We were no longer qualified for normal foes. Insanity was the common flavor for those wanting to oppose our mission. Gabriel, himself, lacked much sense when it came to the dark arts while I didn't believe him to be mad. 

The past twelve hours for all of us had been hell, once more proving that separating was not an option. While I understood that Fadri was an exception, we were all too experienced to fall for such a flimsy trap. As their story finishes up, I begin to tell the tale of my own from the beginning, starting with Gabriel's plan to use Fadri to trick me and why. 

I keep some details to myself, much as I wanted Gabriel to pay for his treachery, he would do so in the coming days when he helped me with restoring Fergus.

Following behind our lost loved ones, friends and family had been quite surreal as it took everything we had just to survive. The forest had turned on us, throwing everything in its power down our throats with every ounce of intensity as a real adversary. The attacks had been real, the look in their eyes as if it was happening from a living, breathing soul. 

Yet, our attacks would pass through much like the whispy figures before. It was intense in that we were running for our lives behind an army of spirits that we couldn't help. There was little for screaming and death throws but more for vaporizing the called-upon souls and sending them back to where they came from. Or, so we hoped. 

Without a moment's peace, we charged through the night and the next morning as the sky blacked out with suffocating cloud cover. The forest seemed to want to swallow us whole, tossing and turning to cover the light with outstretched black roots. I was grateful we had given Pascal to the elves for there were more times than once where I feared I would not survive this. 

With the bitter cold and the beginning of snowfall, our clothes soaked in the black silt and blood of the root system, we were hard-pressed to regulate our body temperatures enough to keep up with the army. What should have taken hours felt as though it had taken multiple lifetimes. Wave after wave, patience mounting up to terror mixed with valor as we did what we could to protect those called upon to help. 

We had reached the forest edge as night began to settle once more, leading to the house that should not exist, and placed here as if we should find other victors for ours were exhausted. Envari had instructed us that they would hide in the abandoned homes until it was time to act once more. If we did not survive the battle, then they would be there to welcome us to our new home in the afterlife. 

Somehow, this did not offer me the comfort she had hoped for. It almost seemed as if they did not feel we would survive. 

As the forest closed behind us, I led Gabriel up the snowy path with a tremble in my muscles from the cold. My hands were dark, my face feeling on the threat of frostbite, I wondered if perhaps Stefan had found a way to come to greet us but there was no possible way into the city without going through this dark magic invested wood. 

"Are we sure about this?" Gabriel sighs, exhaustion clear in his voice. 

Our tour wasn't supposed to go this way, drained of the majority of our magic, it would seem that at least one part of their plan had been successful. There was hardly anything left of us to fight for the life of the unicorn. Hungry, exhausted, and drenched in the dark essence that threatened to consume us, it was not a wonder that Envari offered me a dead man's comfort. "It's either this or freeze."

"It could be a trap." He frowns. 

At this point, I'd welcome it, for if I stop I might just drop dead. My heart sputters against the dark magic keeping it going. I'd pushed myself beyond my limits, there was little keeping me alive at this point beyond the infection. My visions, plentiful as they might be, made more and more sense with each glimpse. It was me becoming what I had always feared, surrendering to the darkness just as my father had. 

I fold my dark hands under my arms with a shudder as we trudge down the snowy path and past the fallen homes. The snow settles in my hair and I don't have the concern to blow it away. "Four more days," I tell him, taking careful consideration for how my voice sounded. 

He accepts my diversion with a nod. "I'm sorry for what I've done.. for what I've helped them do. I wish I could have known you sooner." Hesitating, he slowed his gait. "I fear that I will betray you."

"You won't." I manage, not willing to stop. "You know that I have no problem killing you if you do."

Gabriel had said nothing in response, a quiet warning that he was not so sure if my disappointment and death would be enough to keep him on our side. I knew this, I had just chosen to ignore it for it was not something that could be helped. 

I blink out of my recant of the evening when I realize that Tonic and Verando are staring at me as if I were some foreign being to them. 

"A spiritual army?" Tonic manages, for it seems Verando was too taken aback to even speak. Too tired to repeat myself, I just nod. They could both do the math, much as Tonic was no longer in my life, he was well versed in how my magic worked. Gabriel and I had tapped out just getting here. 

The plan for tomorrow looked bleak and every day we waited meant more time for Fenrir to get stronger and Fergus to become weaker. I nibble at the steamed vegetables, enjoying the warmth as my hands begin to return to a normal color and the feeling begins to return to my face. 

I wish for the modern comforts of a true shower but I'm well aware that there is probably not one to be had here. 

Tonic fetches me another bucket of purified water and Gabriel seems unimpressed with the option. It didn't bother him to be drenched in dark magic much as it did me and my grimacing husband. When I'd eaten all that I could stand, I yawn as I stretch upwards and test my aching arms. 

The banished son glances towards Verando who glares at him out of his concerned expression. I'm too attentive to not notice the back and forth, they must be worried about me and they have every right to be. But, I was tough and numb. I don't wish to be worried over, I just want to sleep and spend some time with my husband on what might be our last night together.

 How many more last nights would we have?

"Can you help me bathe?" I ask Verando, wanting to be away from Tonic and Gabriel as much as I wanted to be clean. He nods, rising from his seated position. 

"Take the first watch on Gabriel. I'll trade off with you in a few hours." He instructs Tonic who nods, entering the living space to flop down on the couch as Gabriel sits cross-legged before the fire. The simmering smell of burning dark magic made me want to gag as Verando guided me up the stairs from behind. 

We enter the small bedroom and I hesitate as he waits for me to remove my clothes. Feeling particularly vulnerable, I hadn't come down yet from the high of battle and I was uncertain how fit I was for any sort of company. Yet, the thought of being without him for the evening would not do. "Can... I have a moment?" 

I just wanted to make sure that I was still myself. I wanted to confirm I hadn't grown a tail or become maimed. Much as I was enveloped in the spoils of battle in a dark forest, knowing he was about to lay his eyes on me made me fearful for what he might see, physically and mentally.

 "Are you hurt?" He reads my face too well and I shut my eyes for a moment as I compose myself. 

"I'm filthy..." I finally managed. "I know you love me, blood, gore, and all but I can't even stomach myself right now and-" 

He softens his expression, tilting his head to catch my eyes as I search the room for some sort of confidence. 

"You cut down an entire dark wood and you're worried I don't find you attractive?" 

Exhaling roughly, I cross my arms over my chest. It wasn't only that though that was a good deal of it. I needed to prove to myself who I was before I exposed it to him. "I asked nicely." I remind him. 

Brushing his thumb over the smear of debris on my face, he dimples his cheek in amusement as he flashes me my favorite look. "I'll raid Stefan's closet for some clothes for you. You feel as though you're about to freeze. Would that be enough time?"

Nodding, I shoo him out of the room and make my way to the full-length mirror to take in my appearance. Black ink from the waist down, I looked as if I'd stepped out of a bog but what frightened me the most was my lack of 'humanity'. It didn't bother me and that was what I was afraid of him seeing. Seeing this man before me, I'd stepped so far out of my 'princely' appearance and into this rugged, war-torn soldier who I didn't know. 

I wasn't ready for him to see this version of me, for, in truth, I was afraid he might not like it. I was soft, I was his, I was gentle. The 'Good' King. This person staring back at me, the one reflected in my visions, was the opposite of all those things. I had sacrificed Fadri, I was ready to torture Gabriel if it meant finding him, this journey was altering me. 

Peeling off the layers of clothes, I listen intently as I carefully fold them so as not to tempt him to search deeper into their level of soil. Thankfully, my body was clean if not nearly frozen from the layers of clothes covered in the wet ink like black. Warming the bucket and taking it to the washroom, I dip the cloth and the soap and work on my hair for it was my greatest offense. 

The dark black streaks that had streamed down my face prove difficult to remove and as I scrub, staring into my own eyes in the mirror, I fear they might never leave. 

Verando opens the door and I murmur a releasing spell that causes the inky substance to drop off my body much like the hair dye we had used before. I sigh in relief, gripping the counter as I bow my head and try to collect my racing thoughts. Stopping in the doorway, his eyes scan over me, concerned. 

"It doesn't matter how many battles you have fought, each one will take a different toll. It's ok to be upset."

That was the problem. I wasn't upset about the fighting, more so what he would think of me. Never before had I felt more clear on my path and more uncertain of what would be left once it was over. What if I became like Gabriel? Cursed by dark magic? 

I rinse out my hair, grabbing a towel to dry it. "I'm just tired. I don't know how you used to stay up for days at a time, I think when this is over I don't want to lead any more campaigns. I just want to sit at home."

It brings a chuckle from his lips as he resists helping me dry. "While I would love that, you know it's not true."

 I was looking forward to the break from magic, leaving this weak body behind for something stronger and more durable. I wanted to be his equal in all ways, not just at his allowance. Scanning over my bruises, where Caspian had punched me in the back and I'd been kicked and tossed around on the ice by the fake Verando, I was littered with marks and dark patches. 

Not a single blemish escaped his glance. 

Nearing him, I warn him with my eyes before I touch his shirt but it's not him who's on edge, it's me. Unbuttoning the vest, I sip it off his shoulders and remove his shirt to carefully trace the bite mark on his abdomen, inspecting each puncture with a careful pass of my fingers.

 It wouldn't scar thankfully. 

His healing is faster than mine, many of his bruises were lightening already. In silence, I ground myself as I compare us, as I used to do. We were the same, beaten, battered, and broken. Carefully, he reaches to brush the back of his fingers over my cheek once more. "You're safe here. Take a breath. You sound like you're strangling." 

Obediently, I fill my lungs with air, holding it as long as I can manage before slowly letting it out. He sighs with me, attempting to bring down my anxious energy. 

The weight of the situation once more rests on my shoulders and I slip my arms around his waist to press against his bare chest and absorb the warmth. His arms wrap around me, pressing his lips to my damp hair as I listen to his heartbeat once more. 

"Do you think we're going to win?" I finally managed. 

"I don't know." He murmurs, his voice low. "There's not another person on this planet that I'd put my faith in to do this. I'd say we stand a fair chance."

I shut my eyes, listening to the steady beat of his heart and willing my own to follow. "What if I'm not the same? What if I come out of this like Gabriel? My family is so inclined to drift to darkness, I'm-" Clenching my firsts, I hold onto him impossibly tight. "I'm doing things that I would never do. What if you don't want who I am when this is over?"

This time, Verando doesn't laugh. His fingers trailed lightly up and down my back, leaving trails of inferno against my chilled skin. "Nothing you could do would make me want you any less. I'm not putting much stock into what-ifs, you surprise everyone time and time again. Don't sell yourself short, darling. If something goes wrong, we will fix it just as we always do. You're about to become a lycan, remember? That means eternity."

I hadn't thought of that aspect, there was no time limit on fixing whatever was left of me. It settles my nerves, flashing a glimmer of hope. "I might have to do something awful to win this. I have it in my mind what I must do, what it's going to take, but I'm afraid you will never see me the same and I just don't think I could bear that."

Sighing, he lifts me onto his body, carrying me over to set me on the bed and pushing me back against the firm mattress as he places his hands on either side of my torso. Staring down at me with those intense eyes, he leans down to capture my lips with his own and kiss me slowly. 

I reach for him but his hands grasp mine, pinning them over my head in a one-handed hold. 

"Never in my life have I wanted anyone as much as I want you," Verando whispers against my lips, brushing his nose against mine as he kisses my cheek, down my jaw then back to my lips once more. "Never has anyone possessed the hold over me that you do. You might think that you are mine and that is, for the most part, true but the reality is that I am entirely yours. There is not a version of you or a piece of you that I don't desire." 

I bite my lower lip, tilting my head back to expose my neck only to hear his breath catch as he touches the silver chain. "What's this?"

"From the elves." I exhale, thinking back to my story. "It's to keep my mind pure."

Verando passes his tongue over one of the bruises under my jaw and rakes his teeth against the lobe of my ear. "Careful not to touch me with that, don't need any more scars." 

I consider how Tonic explained that the silver would burn them much like it would a werewolf and grip the wrought iron bed rails as he releases my hands to move down my body. 

"What're you thinking about?" I manage, watching the discolored ceiling, struggling to let go when all I could think about was what tomorrow might hold. 

With a chuckle, he hesitates, placing a chaste kiss on my navel. "The sounds you make when I have you at my mercy. I'm in quite a lude place right now darling, what're you thinking about?"

I frown. "That I don't tell you often enough how much I love you. That I might spend my last night with you and I can't even let go enough to enjoy it. That... I'm afraid to die."

Catching him off guard, he slowly settles onto his hip and clears his throat as he considers me. Reaching up, he places his hand on my forehead to check my temperature and pulls his lips into a thin line as I earn his 'Alpha' evaluation. 

"Death is just a stepping stone to something else-"

I shake my head, gripping the iron tighter as if it would hold me to this world. "When I die, I go to purgatory. It's black, it's empty, and I float endlessly all alone. What if that's all there is for me?"

"I'll come to get you." He sounds so sure, I almost laugh yet he's totally serious. "If it happens, when it happens, you wait for me there. I'll come to get you. It might take some time, but it'll be a cold day in whatever hell or heaven I land in to keep me from you." 

As his words settle in, my hands slowly begin to release the bars. I believe him, I truly do. While he might not know how or when I did not doubt in my mind that he would come for me. "Is that what you think about when I catch you lying awake at night? How you're going to keep me safe? Forever?"

Shrugging one shoulder, he settles on his side beside me, accepting his fate of celibacy for the night. "I think about a lot of things. The ones I've killed, the next step forward, the consequences of all these movements coming together in the wrong sequence. But, I do often dream of you, which I much prefer than waking thoughts. But, you could tell me you love me more... perhaps then I would think of you even more often." 

Smirking at my scowl, I pounce on him, pinning him beneath my hands as I straddle his waist. 

"You are such an ass sometimes." Yet he had succeeded in pulling me from the depths once more. He could be calm when I could not, he had done this more than once though not on this scale. "Is this how it felt before you stormed my father's castle? Knowing the world as you knew it could very well end if you failed?"

Considering this for a moment, Verando reaches to brush my bangs out of my face and I thread my fingers with his to kiss his palm. We didn't often talk about that night, not that I complained for I didn't like to think of it either. But it was the closest comparison that I had. 

"No. Life as a slave was not what I would wish on anyone, we were all ready to die if it meant freedom. I had nothing to lose but a life that I didn't want, even though I carried on for my people and eventually for you. This is much different, I have everything to lose this time around. But, I don't intend on losing."

Unhooking his pants, I slide them off and lay on his chest as I pull the heavy down comforter over top of us to trap in the heat his body produces. "I'm sorry I drug you into all of this." I finally mumble, "Coming to the future... binding your life to me. Might have been easier if I had just jumped out that window." 

I'm answered with a low growl in his throat as he flips us, pinning me beneath him as he glares down at me. I grimace at the hard bed on my aching body, we'd been spoiled by the modern comforts. 

"Don't think you won't earn a reprimand if you keep talking like that. If there is one thing you must have learned by now, Nicolas Mercer, is that nobody forces me to do anything. While I might belong to you, I do so by my own free will. Now, do you wish for me to take you or not?"

Knotting my hands in the back of his hair, I nod as I crush my lips to his and gasp as he fills me. Guiding my legs to hook over his hips, I cling to him as he moves against me deliciously slow. Savoring me just as I was him, I refuse to let any space come between us as he groans against my lips. 

"Gods Nic." 

The plea makes me grin as I move to his neck, attacking his sweet spot to make a mark of my own. The dark magic pulsing through me made me bold as I suck the skin at the junction of his jaw, bringing a rolling growl from his throat as his hand grips the wrought iron to support himself. The metal whines under the weight of his crushing grip as I rake my nails down his back and plead to him. 

"Randy." I manage, kissing him once more before tossing my head back at the deliberate roll of his hips. He wasn't playing fair, I wanted it to last yet I was rushing toward my release. 

"I'm not done with you yet." The promise brings a tingle up my spine as he slows the closer I get, forcing me to come down from my high and I know all too well his intentions. 

Grinning against the back of my hand to stifle my descent from madness, "You're a wicked man, Mr.Mercer."

Taking the challenge, I gasped as sinks his teeth into the junction of my throat, a small taste of what was to come when I finally convinced him to turn me. It sent me into overdrive, driving me wild with the possibility. "You're talking way too much for someone who's supposed to be at my mercy." 

"My apologies, Sir." I breathe and shut my eyes as he takes me, using me for my pleasure as much as his own. Knowing this could be my last night with him, knowing that tomorrow could bring victory or failure, I come alive. I'd finally met him on the level of desire he'd been feeling since the moment he got me alone.

 Allowing the boldness to run through me, we laid claim to each other with an intensity that was usually reserved for our most desperate moments and this was no exception. I was not delicate with him and I pleaded for the same for me, shoving him from bed to floor, allowing myself to collide with the wall and cling to him as if he were the only thing holding me to this unholy place. 

I'd lost track of how often I'd told him I loved him to make up for all those times I hadn't said it while I bathed in the praise of a man who truly worshipped me. When I lay there spent, admiring the marks on his chest from my mouth, I grasp his jaw to pull his lips to mine once more. "You are not going to relieve Tonic. You are staying right here. Understand?"

"Of course." He agrees, hiding behind a smirk that suggests he was concerned I'd want him to have me again. "I don't wish to invoke your wrath again."

Resting my cheek on his chest, I'm contented with the appropriate level of concern in his response. "Then I suggest you be here when I wake up in the morning. For once, I want to be selfish."

With a chuckle, he yawns and allows me to settle into the crook of his arm, placing his hand on my side. "Well, with the amount of noise we made, I'm pretty sure no one will be coming anywhere near this bedroom for quite some time. Get some rest, darling. I'll be right here when you wake up."