I kept my energy close at hand, my wolf restless for a change; we knew we were stepping into what would be a fairly epic final battle.

Shadow moved forward first, and it was so empty here compared to my last experience with the grounds around the castle. That day there had been a battle, with Ixana’s soldiers trying to give their leader the time she’d needed to sacrifice my creatures to power her stone and create her own Nexus. Her bullshit need for power was why we were in this position in the first place because—

It hit me then, and I gasped. Shadow was at my side in an instant, his expression fierce as he wrapped his hands around my biceps. “What’s wrong? What do you sense?”

“She’s doing exactly what Ixana was trying to do,” I murmured, finally understanding. Shadow lifted my chin so I had to meet his fire-strewn gaze. “Dannie is creating her own Nexus. One that incorporates the mists of the chasm, along with the previous Nexus, and the power of the fae stone. She wants a Nexus that she will control as the highest power.”

The moment I’d said it out loud, I felt the truth of it deep in my soul. In the place inside of me that had been born of the Nexus too. The swirls in my stomach since we’d stepped onto the land here were not just nerves over this battle… I was feeling Dannie’s power. The Nexus power.

Shadow stared as if hoping to find the lie in my words, but we both knew he wouldn’t.

“There’s no reasoning with her,” he finally bit out, warning me. “If she’s gone this far, then she’s lost to the power of the sunburst stone.”

“The stone was not designed to be contained like this,” Len said from where he stood off to the side of us. “It’s why the loss of it has been a never-ending stressor for my family. The amount of power it is capable of holding makes it a formidable weapon. It was imperative it never fall into the hands that would use it as a weapon instead of a defense.”

Angel crossed her arms, her face drawn. “Dannie’s issue is that she merged it with her own power. Whatever reasoning she possessed was lost the moment she allowed a foreign energy to morph her own. Every being in this world has a counter. It’s a balance and checks game we all have to play, but suddenly, Dannie has no checks.”

“Actually,” Lucien said with a scowl, “she does have one. Us. We’re fairly formidable together and I believe together, we have a shot at ending her reign of terror.”

“Only if the fortress of binding works,” Shadow rumbled. “We have to weaken her first. And then we take our shot.”