Filed To Story: Traded To The Lycan King Novel (Colette & Merikh) by MG Wattsons
“Alpha, my kindness and friendship with you has been real, and at every turn, when I felt something was amiss, I would do my best to leave hints or clues to help you with my abilities.” He says, his face filled with torment and guilt. “I truly believe your kind has been mistreated for too long.”
I clear my throat, looking over at Colette as she meets my eyes. Her emotions flow freely between us, hers melding with mine as we make these decisions together. She can feel the deep-seated trust I have for the fae before me and I, her wariness.
“Are you sure you wish to choose sides?” I ask him and he nods.
“This has gone on too long, and for someone to tamper with my memory, to use me to deliver an assassination attempt…it is time I choose a side as many of my kind have been forced to do.” His demeanor changes, growing more frustrated with the situation the more he talks about what happened to him out loud. As if he is finally acknowledging the breach of his covenant.
Colette lets go of my hand and moves over toward him, her head tilting as she assesses Ezrah before she reaches out and waits for his hand. A curious frown tugs at his face before he looks at me for what to do. I can’t help but chuckle.
“Shake it,” I urge him. “You are committing to fighting with us. Handshakes are binding, like a contract.”
He takes it, standing from his chair and shakes it. Colette smiles a sly smile, then looks at me and back at Ezrah.
“Welcome to the war.” She says.
“Thank you? I guess?” He says back, making Colette shake her head.
A ghastly scream breaks the moment apart as I look out the window as the sun grows lower in the sky. I try to shoot up from my bed, but my legs give out like wet noodles and I tumble to the ground with a grunt.
Two sets of hands lift me, setting me on the side of the bed as I breathe through the pain that feels like a steel sponge dragging through the insides of my veins. Colette’s touch helps to ease it slightly, making it much less jarring, but I look to Ezrah for an explanation of both the sound and the pain.
“What the hell is happening to me?” I ask him.
“A cleansing. One of air and light,” he says, as if that makes total sense and I should follow the explanation.
“Right, care to explain?” Colette asks, her brows tugging together.
elket “My gift is the ability to move at the speed of light. I can bend air and light to my will, in only certain instances. In this case, I forced it through your veins to kill the vampire…genes?… cells? Whatever you wish to call them. In order to save you and your lycan. And the screaming is Lauren.”
I snap my head up, meeting his gaze.
“Lauren is still here?” I ask him, and he nods solemnly.
“She is indeed,” Ezrah says.
“Lauren is only a vampire, her lycan is dead. She is now hiding as the sun slowly creeps into her hiding spot.”
My stomach twists at the thought of her sitting there alone and waiting for her death to creep up on her. Her second death. An overwhelming urge takes over and I lick my lips, afraid to ask Colette for this favor. The one to take me to my ex and sit with her as she dies.
“It’s fine.” Colette whispers, a soft encouraging smile on her face. “If you need the closure-“
I bark out a laugh, realizing she feels my emotions, but she has seriously misinterpreted them.
“It’s not the closure I need, my little luna. I just want to know the bitch is really dead this time. To see her turn to dust and know she can’t come back as some crazy ass unheard of hybrid.”
“Crazy ass unheard of hybrid, huh?” she arches her brow and I smirk.
“She was made. You were born. You are just an unheard of hybrid, no crazy ass about you.” I amend and she smiles, standing.
“Ezrah, could you help me get him outside?” She asks, and he nods, looping my arm over his shoulder as he lifts me and she grabs my waist, helping me walk.
We find everyone standing on the porch looking out at the boulder in the distance, the occasional trickle of smoke and squeal as Lauren’s last day comes to an end.
“This feels wrong,” Melody whispers.
“Lauren killed my father, betrayed our kind, and was sentenced to death. For some reason, she cheated death, and this time…she can not escape it.” I tell her and she frowns, her eyes settling on Lauren before she looks away, wincing.
“Mom, this is different from the torture you experienced.” Colette whispers, moving over and taking her mother’s hand. “Lauren is evil, just as bad as Giselle.”
She nods in understanding.
“Even our plan for Giselle seems less inhumane than this,” she says.
I understand her thought process and her bleeding heart. This is something I have to witness, and it doesn’t make me a bad person. It makes me a damaged one looking for the chance to heal, and this is the final step in that process.
“We have a plan?” Caspian asks.
*Colette*
Silence falls over us as we wait anxiously for Merikh to explain what he means. It is clear as day to me he is still feeling awful, but he puts on a brave face, like always. I watch my mother as she gives him an encouraging nod before he racks his hands through his hair.
“Giselle is a phoenix. As far as we know, the only one of her kind, yet none of us know how to kill a phoenix. Either they aren’t as invincible as we think or they have chosen to keep themselves hidden from her,” he says, clearing his throat.
I have to bite back a smile at how cute he is giving his little speech as if he had rehearsed it all week. But then again, maybe he had. It is not like I have been entirely present when I am with him.
It’s not from lack of love or wanting to be near him, though. The water is exhausting, beautiful, but draining in every way. But by the time I crawl into bed, I am too tired to even want to change into something for bed.
He meets my gaze, dragging me back to the point at hand. Giselle, how to get rid of the roach that seems to never die? But I find it so hard to focus when he is near, and I am energized enough to stay awake.
I don’t want to discuss death and war. I just want to snuggle into his arms and laugh about our past and think about our future.
“Colette?” I hear my name whispered to my right.
“Yes?” I squeak out.
“Are you okay?” My mother asks, her eyes on me and a frown tugging at her lips.
“It’s just been a long day.” I give her a tight-lipped smile, looking around at everyone else. “Sorry, I will focus.”
“This entire time we have sat and assumed that Colette is the only one who can kill Giselle. What if it’s not about killing Giselle, but rather incapacitating her?” Merikh asks.
My dad frowns, his lips pressed tight together as he processes what Merikh is saying. I must admit, the idea of not needing to be the savior of all our species and our allies is appealing. There are many things I wanted in life, goals and aspirations, but being a hero was never one. And still isn’t.
“What do you mean?” Caspian asks after a minute. “If Giselle lives, she will always be a threat. She will always come after Colette, or anyone who she sees as an enemy.”
“I want to collect her ashes and store her in the ocean.” Merikh says.
Everyone blinks like they are in a stupor, trying to wake themselves up. My mom watches us and after a minute, a sharp jab hits my ribcage and I hiss, rubbing my side. She scowls at me, quietly motioning for me to say something as Merikh stands waiting anxiously.
“H-how do we gather her ashes?” I ask him. “She is impervious to heat, so she won’t burn.”
“Phoenix’s are not impervious to heat, they become heat.” Ezrah says, speaking for the first time since Lauren’s death.
The second the words leave his mouth, my eyebrows rise in alarm. Every time I have been around Giselle, the air is hotter than the last. She seems to be in a rush, forcing things to move faster, as if she won’t be around to spur things on. Phoenix’s are known for rising from the ashes. They burn up in a heat so intense even a dragon would cower, and then they are born again.
“You think she will evolve-is that even the right word?” I ask, looking around.
“Phoenix’s seem to get hotter until the heat consumes them. It is their only downfall, at least that I know of, which, admittedly, is limited.” Ezrah says. “Ash form is where they are most vulnerable. Is that correct Caspian?” Merikh asks, looking to my father for verification.
“From what I have been told as well, yes. That is correct.” He responds, standing and pacing the length of the deck in thought. “How do you suppose we get her to go up in flames? It could take years for her to reach that heat on her own.”
“She is close.” I murmur. “Everything around her when her anger rises or her emotions run high gets unbearably hot. She must have been absorbing the dragon’s heat when their emotions make them grow warmer. She can be around the dragons, but with their flaring temper, she has doomed herself.”
Hope is beginning to spring to life in my chest as I bite my lip, gnawing on it as I process all the information and Merikh’s idea. It might actually work, forcing her to end herself so we can make sure she is gone forever.
Zale and Caspian argue quietly to each other in some other language I don’t understand while I stand from my seat and move closer to Merikh. His hand slips into mine, our fingers tangling together.
“I know it seems like a long shot, but if we can’t kill her, the best we can do is make sure she can’t come back again.” He says, looking me in the eye. “What do you think?”