Page 7 of Magic Undaunted

“That doesn’t change anything,” he had growled, stepping closer, the heat of his anger pushing him forward. “The Council has banished you. They see you as tainted…”

“Tainted?” she had spat, her wings flaring out behind her.

“I didn’t say I agree with them…”

“But you didn’t say you disagreed with them either. None of this is my fault.” Her voice had cracked, just for a moment, and the vulnerability in her eyes had nearly stopped him in his tracks.

Nearly.

His jaw had tightened, his words bitter and unyielding. “Maybe not. But you’re marked by a wolf-shifter, bound to something outside Celestia. You can’t just come back and expect everything to go back to how it was.”

Her fists had clenched at her sides, her expression darkening as she took a step toward him. “Maybe not, but I thought at least I would have your support. You might want to consider that had the High Council known about us, they would have considered me tainted then, as well.”

“That’s different.”

“Bullshit,” she had snarled. “Do you have any idea how much I hate this? How much I hate what was done to me—not just by the wolf-shifter, but now by my own kind? Do you have any idea how hard I fought to reclaim my birthright?”

He had stared at her, his heart pounding, but his anger had been louder than the empathy he tried to summon. “I do, but there is nothing to be done. You are banished and I am bound tostay.” He had swallowed hard, lowering his head unable to meet her eyes.

Her eyes had turned cold then, the pain replaced by something steely and distant. “Nothing? Maybe not by you or the High Council, but I assure you there is still plenty I can do.” she had said, her voice as sharp as a shard of jagged glass. “I may no longer be the perfect fae warrior the Council expects me to be or the Elyria you once thought you could love, but I will make my own way.”

Stryker had flinched at that, his hands balling into fists as his frustration boiled over. “You carry the mark of a wolf-shifter. The Council isn’t wrong to see it as a threat.”

Her laugh had been cold, bitter. “A threat? Is that what I am? A threat to you and your precious Celestia?” She shook her head. “You and the Council have no idea of what I’m capable of, but you’ll learn.”

He had opened his mouth to respond, but the words had died on his tongue. Deep down, he had known she was right. She hadn’t chosen this fate. She hadn’t wanted to be bound to a wolf-shifter. But the truth didn’t matter—not in the Council’s eyes, and he was bound to the Council.

“That may be, but they’ll never allow you to come back,” he had said, his voice quieter, though no less firm.

Elyria’s expression had hardened, and the space between them had felt like a chasm, one he knew they would never cross again.

“I never expected to,” she had said softly, her voice laced with an edge of finality. “I knew the moment they banished me that there was no going back. But you? I thought maybe you would understand. That you would fight for me.”

Her words had hit him like a blow to the chest, but he hadn’t been able to respond. Instead, he had stood there, watching as she took a step away from him, folding her wings tightly againsther back. She looked as if she meant to say something, but then, just like that, she turned and walked away—never once even casting a look over her shoulder.

The memory of it burned in his mind as Stryker stared out at the horizon, the soft glow of Celestia’s twilight mocking him. He had let her go—pushed her away, even. And for what? To preserve his loyalty to the High Council? To cling to the belief that the world was as black and white as they claimed it to be?

He clenched his fists, the anger still simmering just beneath the surface. Oberon’s words from earlier echoed in his mind, cold and cruel.

‘You’re letting your feelings for her cloud your judgment.’

Maybe he was, and maybe he had been for far too long. But he couldn’t ignore what was happening at the borders. The dark magic creeping ever closer, a threat that no one in the Council seemed willing to face. And he couldn’t shake the feeling that Elyria, tainted or not, was somehow tied to it all.

He had been wrong to push her away. He had been wrong to believe that the mark on her made her less than what she had always been—a warrior, a fighter, someone who had never once backed down from a challenge. He should have done something from the beginning; he never should have let her walk away.

But it was too late to take any of it back. Their brief encounter earlier in the day had proved that. She was gone, banished from the realm and from his life. And now, all he had left were the memories—the bitterness of their parting and the lingering ache of what could have been.

Stryker turned away from the window, pacing the length of his quarters. His duty to the Council had always been clear, but now... now, he wasn’t so sure. The cracks were showing and not just in Celestia’s walls, but in his own resolve, as well. The question was, what was he going to do about it?

Chapter

Four

ELYRIA

Elyria, draped in a glamour—a kind of magic that hid her true identity from others—slipped through the grand halls of Celestia, her heart racing as she navigated the familiar corridors. Every step felt both familiar and foreign, a painful reminder of what she had once called home. The shimmering walls, the soft glow of the twilight sky above the crystal domes—everything was the same. But nothing was as it had been before.

The fae that glided past her, laughing, drinking, utterly unaware of the danger lurking beyond their perfect world, never even felt her presence. That was the point of the glamour she wore, masking her true self in the eyes of those who would recognize her instantly, banished as she was.

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