I pick one more ring up and look at Alex. He takes his time, softly repeating the main part of the vow before he clears his throat. “I never wanted to swear my life to anyone until I met you, Anastasia Noble. I slowly fell deeply in love with you, with everything that makes you so different from anyone I have met. My brothers fell for you too, and I knew from day one we would be together in this for our lives. This is everything I searched for but didn’t know I was looking for. I vow to be your saviour, your lover and anything you need of me, I will be it for you because I love you.”
“Alex,” I whisper in adoration, tears falling down my cheeks as I slide the ring onto his finger.
Alex picks up the last ring as Mason and Liam hold my hand out. “With this binding, I link our souls and bodies for now until the end of time. I, Anastasia Noble, promise to protect our family with my body, to love with all my heart and to never walk away. This is my promise, but more importantly, this is my vow to you all. I love each of you with all my heart and soul,” I say as Alex slides the ring onto my finger. “No matter what comes next, we will find each other. We will always find each other in every life that follows this.”
“And in this life, we will love you until the end,” Mason promises.
As we undo the bindings before spending the rest of the night together enjoying what it means to be in love...I vow one more thing I never say out loud:
I will fight with everything I have to make sure we get a long life of peace together.
Chapter 21
Anastasia
War and peace always come hand in hand.
The wind moves my hair around my shoulders, while the two plaits at each side from the top of my head all the way around my ears keep my hair from getting into my eyes as I look over the beach in the distance. Thousands of our people stand in lines, their animals ready, weapons in their hands. All of them ready for the battle that is going to hit us so very soon. At the front of the army are my dad and mum, and on either side of them are my men with their familiars so they are easy to see. I should be at their sides, but we all agreed that staying near the back is better for the most part, and I am staying hidden in a gift shop stall where I can see everything, but I can hide just as easily. I’m simply looking for my sister; that is my job today, and I have promised them I won’t go alone to Bethany without calling for them.
I sink my hands into Shadow’s fur, and as the sea in front of us fills with planes and boats heading to us at full speed, I can only think of the first dream I had when I became a familiar.
I stand still, feeling I am frozen in the middle of what I can only describe as a war zone. Familiars are fighting, throwing each other around with waves of different coloured energy, with their animals at their side. I can’t focus on anyone’s face; they are just all blurs of colour and fur. A clear path appears right in front of me, showing me Shadow crouching low, growling loudly enough to make my ears hurt. A version of me is riding his back, almost hidden in his dark fur. My hair is long, flowing behind me in the wind, and I very slowly follow the direction they are looking to see a white wolf the same size as Shadow opposite them. The wolf is crouched low, looking ready to fight as much as Shadow does. Just as I look up to see who’s on the back of the white wolf, the world fades, and the last thing I hear is a heartbreaking, familiar scream.
I shake my head, snapping out of the memory and swearing to myself that scream was just nothing. It can’t be who I thought it was. I watch, frozen to the spot as the planes fly over us and land in the city. The boats, thousands of them, crash land into the beach, and men flood out of them with their animals. The sound of the war cry is horrid, a sound I wish I didn’t hear as thousands of our people crash into the sea to fight the familiars. Coloured energy blasts from the familiars in waves, knocking animals into the air, and people too. Blood drips into the sea, soon turning the blue ocean to red.
I turn back, seeing the city filling with so many people, and most of them are not our people—I can tell from the purple clothes they wear.
The house of Violeta is here. I don’t know how long I just watch, feeling scared more than I can admit at the sight of all the fighting, all the death that follows around us. I see Alex in the distance, fighting effortlessly and shooting anyone in his way. Liam and Mason are on Silver and Hex in the air, both the hawks swooping down and picking up soldiers like toys and throwing them into the ocean.
“There you are,” Aunt Courtney’s voice whispers right behind me. I turn just as she jumps on Shadow’s back, and I push her away onto the floor with more strength than I knew I had. Shadow turns around, growling low at her as she holds a gun right to his head. How did she find us first?
“Don’t!” I scream,
