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He crashes to one knee in response as if I had physically pushed him.

“This was your idea,” I snap at him.

Ze’ev roars through the forest. Arwan must have teleported us with his shadows to put distance between us.

That won’t keep him—or Godric—from tracking us down. I know that from personal experience.

“I know,” Arwan says as he curses. He falls against a tree and holds his head in his hands.

I’ve never seen him like this.

“If you bond him, Liliana, it’s going to destroy me.”

“Why?” I demand as I crouch in front of him and rip his hands away.

His bright blue eyes bore into mine. “Because it’ll link me to Ze’ev, too, little queen. It’ll put me inside his chest forever, and I’ll feel everything he feels. Every fucking moment of every day. Every nightmare he has, I’ll be there, enduring it with him.”

“And what’s the big fucking deal with that?” I ask.

Arwan’s eyes darken with an emotion I finally recognize.

Guilt.

“Because I unleashed those nightmares, Liliana. When I first felt you, I tried to open my tower to access what you had put in there. But that let them out. That began a coup on this island I can’t undo, and King Njord decimated Ze’ev’s pack because of it. I watched them all die through their eyes. I put them back, for a while, but it was too late.”

“What are you saying?” I ask on a loose breath.

“The revenants. They’re me.”

I stare at him as the ground trembles.

Ze’ev and Godric are catching up.

Standing, I straighten my spine and curl back my shoulders. “Sometimes we have to face our nightmares,” I tell him.

Arwan stares back at me, then drops his head when Ze’ev and Godric burst through the forest.

The Outcast slams right into him. He’s covered in scratches, likely from branches whipping him as he barreled through the trees.

Ze’ev yanks Arwan up, then slams a fist right into his face. Blood lashes to the ground as the royal’s lip splits, and it’s Godric who catches his next punch.

“No” is all he says, then Ze’ev turns to me as I hold my arms over my chest and tremble.

I don’t want them to fight.

But I can feel his pain even more strongly now.

The rage.

The blame.

His anger is justified, but I can also feel Arwan’s heart.

He never wanted this.

But this pain has been festering for years. Now that I have a timescale, I know that Ze’ev’s pack would have been wiped out over a decade ago, the revenants infiltrating a rival pack and giving them the strength to overcome the others, including packs like Godric’s, and that pain has been building ever since.

This linked all three of them.