Page 31 of Celestial Alphas

Hispleasebreaks my heart open, tears it to pieces, and even when I don’t know how to ever trust him, I take his hand. “Am I really free?” He nods, tugging me with him to the door. To my surprise, the rangers move out of the way for him, and no one stops us as we get outside and to his car parked up with the key still in the ignition. He opens the passenger door and lets me in before getting in himself. Onyx spins right out of the council main buildings and through Starlight, heading to the outskirts until I can see the academy. It’s strange how it feels like going home now.

Onyx is silent, and I find myself looking at him more than once until we go through the gates of the academy and inside. The sun is bright above the academy, and it’s normal. No one is even looking our way. I don’t know how he did it, but it feels like everything could be back to how it was before the trial, and I might have a chance to go home again. He parks by the front of the steps and leans his head back.

“Thank you. I don’t know how you did it, but thank you.”

“This comes with conditions, Gwen.” He looks at me. I can’t read his expression, and it’s strange. He picks up my hand and pushes up my sleeve. His hand glows bright blue as he drawssomething on my wrist and lets go. A blue glowing rune is left, the same one I had before that connected us. “My father never put the first rune on you. It was mine. I hid my power from him, and he didn’t know. I knew if he was aware of the extent of my powers, he would want more from me, and I was focused on finding you first. It’s not just you that’s good at lying to protect those we care about.” I open my mouth, but he shakes his head. “Tap the rune. Tell me you’re okay as often as you can, because you won’t see me for a while now. Six months, to be exact. It’s part of the deal I made to get you out and give you a life. You won’t be allowed to leave the academy.”

Six months? I shake my head. “I didn’t ask you to do that. Why would you do that?” I reach for him, but he pulls away. “What about Finnegan and what he did?”

“Because you’re mine and you want normality. I’m giving you this.” He nods at the academy. Annie is waiting on the steps, holding Nibbles, who is wiggling like crazy to get to me. I smile as tears fall down my cheeks, and I turn back to Onyx as he continues. “We can’t be together. That was part of the deal, and that is permanent. As for Finnegan, he is an assassin, and my father doesn’t want to lose his talents. He has been excused too, and all evidence of your crimes has vanished. You have other mates, and you can be happy…and you hate me, so this shouldn’t matter, right?”

“Onyx…” I whisper, reaching for him, but he gets out of the car. I watch him walk around the car and open my door, my heart racing. I don’t know everything he has done to get me out, but it changes so much between us that he did. I climb out and walk up to him. “I forgive you since you’re letting me go, and I’m asking you to stay here with me. We can fight your father together and fix it all, but stay. I never hated you. Can’t you see that?”

“I want you to hate me.” He takes my hand. “It makes it so much easier for me to walk away. Please, don’t say anything else, and let me do this for you. You protected your mates for years and sacrificed everything you had. Now it’s my turn to keep you safe and give you a life. Walk up to Annie and train, smile and laugh. Be normal and let the academy teach your Nexus with your other mates, as she doesn’t want to hurt them. You will be everything you’ve ever wanted, Gwen, and our people won’t shout monster, they will shout for you to save them when a war comes. Give yourself a chance to be that.”

Just before he lets go, he slides a note into the palm of my hand, and my Nexus clamps my hand shut around it. I shake with a sob as he gets in the car and drives away. Only when he is gone, really gone, do I open up the note and read the single word. “Diomi.”

Annie rushes to me, wrapping me in a tight hug, and Nibbles attacks my face with kisses until I take her from Annie. “Are you okay?”

“No, yes. No,” I whisper, smiling softly at Nibbles. “Do you have a phone? I need to google something.”

“Sure.” She passes me her phone, using her Face ID to unlock it first. I quickly type the word into google, but nothing comes up. “What are you searching?”

“Diomi. Do you know what it means?”

The wind blows my hair around my shoulders. “Yes, it’s a star constellation that our very best scientists have tracked as a possible area our Nexus came from. It’s a love story. The word is for our brightest stars. They have a connection between two of them that is timeless and looks like a shadow holding them together. One is a heart, and one is a soul, perfectly in sync and inseparable, even when the sky is pulling them apart.”

I feel like collapsing as I spin and look at the walls in the distance and the direction Onyx has gone. He did this all for me,and he lied. He might be gone for now, but he is always my mate, and we are inseparable.

Chapter

Fifteen

HOLLIS

Irun my pen across the dotted line of the consent forms to release Rhodes early, even if he isn’t speaking to me. My shirt is stained with coffee, and I need to get changed now that he is awake. Gwen actually did the impossible. I wanted to kiss her, thank her, fall to my knees and beg her to never, ever look at me like she does, but I couldn’t. People like me don’t get what they want. They don’t fucking deserve it. I hand the clipboard back over the desk. The nurse, a middle-aged woman who is kinder than even my brother, frowns. “You do understand that he’s just woken up from a coma, and leaving is not advised so soon? We should run some tests, have the healers?—”

“I’m sorry, but he wants to leave with or without me signing these forms.” I flash her a smile. “I’m just taking the win that he has woken up at all.”

“Most do not wake up from those attacks. It’s a miracle that needs to be studied.” She puts the clipboard down and comes around the desk. “There’s trauma when Vian magic is taken from the soul. I’m not sure how he woke up, but he needs to be watched just in case he spills back into a coma or there are side effects for his Nexus.” She touches my hand. “Please considerasking him to stay a little longer. You’ve been here every day and every night, watching him at all times and having your girlfriend here when you couldn’t be. I know he is really loved by you, and it’s not fair for him to not take our warnings seriously.”

“I’ll speak to him. Thank you for all your help,” I gently lie. Rhodes wants to find Gwenieve, and nothing is going to stop him from getting to her and being at her side. He has been obsessed with her from the moment he met her, and I think he knew exactly what she was, and didn’t care.

“A word before you get your brother, darling.” Rochelle slides her hand down my arm, flashing a smile at the nurse, who frowns at her before leaving. Rochelle chose to wear a short red dress to a coma ward, and high heels that show off her bare legs. Her long blonde hair is down in perfect curls, and her makeup is expensive. I prefer women who don’t need to wear makeup and pretty clothes to look good. Rochelle looks innocent and sweet, but it’s an act. A fake, awful mask she puts on to hide how she really is on the inside: broken and empty. Nothing. Only it’s not an ask, it’s a demand. I give her a smile, a winning smile that doesn’t quite match my eyes. No smile of mine actually does anymore. I can’t remember the last time I smiled and actually wanted to fucking smile for any reason.

“Fine. I could do with some food first to stomach whatever you want, darling.” My voice rings with sarcasm.

“Sure.” She digs her nails into my arm and holds onto me like a snake biting its prey as I walk out with her. We’re silent on the way down, the kind of uncomfortable silence that makes me want to jump out of the nearest window, but I’ve felt that way around Rochelle since I met her. Rhodes could never understand us, and no one but us does, but sometimes I want to tell him. Recently, I’ve wanted to tell all my brothers what the fuck has been going on, but I can’t deal with how they would look at me if they knew. In the cafeteria, I pick an egg sandwich, seasalt crisps, and a coke drink before I sit down. Rochelle chooses water—who the fuck chooses water when all the better drinks are an option—before coming to sit opposite me. Her leg presses against mine, and my appetite sinks like a stone.

“You need to ask me to marry you in front of a lot of people, in a big public grand display, and make sure she’s watching as well. I’ve heard she is going to get free and go back to the academy.” I could also smile at that. Gwenieve fit in at the academy, and even if she hates me, I’d rather have her where I can see her every day and train her often. I’ll make her strong and powerful so no one thinks twice about fucking with what’s mine. Mine. My Nexus wants to claim her, bury ourselves inside her until there is just us, but we made a choice. We can’t be with her. But marrying this bitch?

That’s a fate worse than death. And too far. Too fucking far. “No. When’s it going to be enough?”

“Never,” she shouts at me. Her shout echoes around the empty place. Anger burns in her pretty face, revealing her true colours, ones she hides particularly well. Gwenieve looks fucking sexy when she is angry, but Rochelle? No. “Did you think this was going to be easy when she turned up and that I’d let you off the hook because you got your mate? I knew you’d find her eventually. It was just a matter of time because she isn’t dead. Mates always find a way to each other, and it’s shitty, but I knew it could happen. Our blood-bound deal doesn’t change. We have our agreement, and it stands. It doesn’t make any difference that she’s here.” She shrugs a shoulder. “Stay away from her. Your Nexus needs to understand what’s at play.”

“He understands that you’ve got us by the balls.” I slam my hand on the table. I fucked up everything. “Look, I know you fucking hate her. I hate her too, and?—”

“Liar,” she purrs. “I know you better than anyone, Hollis. You don’t hate her, and you don’t get a happy ending because my mate is dead, and that is your fault.”

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