The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate-Chapter 123: Not The Kind Of Penetration He Wanted

A book launched off the shelf behind them. Spine-first, like someone had grabbed it and hurled it across the library with intent.

It hit the stone floor fifteen feet away with a crack that echoed.

Gav’s head snapped towards the sound. The shimmer was hovering over the book.

He looked at Serena. She was staring at the shimmer, her body rigid, her hands flat on the table.

Gav: Don’t acknowledge it. I think he wants that.

He pushed the mindlink to her fast and quiet, like sliding a note across the table.

Serena’s eyes flicked to him. Her expression said, very clearly, that is not helpful.

The heat signature appeared next to her, inches away. The air beside her left shoulder warped and compressed, and Gav watched the distortion sharpen into something that was almost a silhouette.

Serena screamed.

Gav lunged across the table, grabbed her arm, and yanked her away from it. He pulled her behind him, putting his body between her and the dissolving shape, which was already thinning into nothing.

Serena’s breathing was ragged. She gripped the back of his shirt, and he could feel her hand shaking through the fabric.

"He hears my mindlinks. And... I think my..." Her voice trailed off.

But Gav understood. He hears her thoughts.

An invisible emperor who could hear her thoughts. And he was getting stronger.

"Right then, main part of the library," Gav said.

Serena didn’t argue.

They left the restricted section, moving to a table near the center of the library, which should have been better.

Gav glanced over his shoulder once. "If he followed us into this well-lit section, I’m going to take it personally."

Serena spread ten books out on the table and sat down.

Gav dropped into the chair across from her. He’d done more speed reading in the past thirty minutes than he’d ever admit to a living soul. If Hale found out, he’d never let him live it down. Hale, who once asked if books had sequels like "like puppet shows."

"It’s not dreamwalking," Serena said, tapping a passage. "That’s what Dex and I do. But I think it’s adjacent."

"Where is Hyran when you need him," Gav muttered, flipping a page.

Serena looked up at that.

"I’m having a difficult time remembering what I’m dreaming." Her brow creased, and she pressed her fingers to her temple like she was trying to physically push through the fog. "But I think Hyran was in my dream. Do you know where he is?"

The color drained from Gav’s face.

"No," he answered. "Something about crown business. But that’s all Tiberon mentioned."

The lie sat in his mouth like ash. He swallowed it and kept reading.

Another minute went by. The lamplight above them flickered.

Then every lamp on the east wall went out at once.

Darkness swallowed half the library.

Gav stared into the black. "Atmospheric. Very dramatic. Ten out of ten."

He reached across the table, grabbing the wrought iron candelabra from the center, shook the candles loose and hefted it like a bat. Not exactly a war weapon, but in a dark library against an invisible guy, he was working with what he had.

"Stay behind me," Gav said.

The heat signature appeared in front of him.

Gav swung.

The candelabra cut through empty air, the momentum nearly spinning him sideways.

"Oh, come on." He steadied himself, rolling his eyes. "That is just unfair."

He adjusted his grip and reset his stance. "Serena. Next time you see him, fabricate around him. On my signal, I’ll—"

He didn’t finish the sentence.

A fire poker from the opposite hearth came off the wall.

Gav didn’t see it happen. One second the poker was mounted on the far fireplace. The next, it was moving through the air at a speed that shouldn’t have been possible for something with no hand behind it, and it drove straight through his abdomen.

The impact punched the air out of his lungs, pain arriving a half-second later.

He looked down. The handle of the fire poker jutted from his stomach, maybe eight inches of wrought iron still visible, the rest of the shaft buried through his body and out his back. His brain offered the very calm, very useless observation that this was not how tonight was supposed to go.

His knees buckled.

Serena didn’t think.

She shoved her gold magic into Gav full force, a blast of power that hit him like a wave of light, and in the same motion, she spun toward the High Orosian King and fabricated an orb around him.

She ran to Gav, dagger already forming in her hand. She looked at her palm, ready to slice it, then froze.

Her palm was already cut, but it looked like it was a few hours old. The sight of it hit her like a wall of cold water, and something lurched in her gut. Déjà vu so strong it made her dizzy.

When did she make that?

"Not to rush you, but I’m currently a kebab," Gav said through gritted teeth. He had both hands wrapped around the poker.

"I’m going to pull this out," he added, "and I need you to not be squeamish about it."

"Pull it."

"Love the enthusiasm," he rasped. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

He wrapped both hands around the handle and pulled it forward, back out through the entry wound. The sound was wet and wrong, and his groan through clenched teeth knocked every other thought out of her head.

She dropped to her knees beside him and squeezed her palm over the wound. Gold blood welled from the cut and dripped onto his stomach, sinking into the torn flesh. The wound sealed, and color flooded back into Gav’s face.

He panted, one hand flat on the stone floor, the other gripping her wrist.

"Is he in that?" He jerked his chin toward the orb she’d fabricated.

"Yes," Serena said.

"Good."

A sound echoed from deep in the library. Like stone grinding against stone. The lamps that were still lit flickered violently, and Serena felt it before she saw it.

The orb shattered.

Gold fragments dissolved into the air like sparks, and the shockwave knocked Serena sideways. She caught herself on the table, gasping.

Gav hauled himself to his feet behind her, one hand pressed to his newly healed stomach, the other grabbing the fire poker off the floor.

Because of course he did. Of course the man who’d just been impaled picked up the weapon that impaled him and got ready to swing again.

"So the magic prison didn’t work. Great. What’s plan B?" he asked.

"I’m working on it."

"Work faster."

"You work faster. You have a fire poker."

"That poker went through me, Serena. It chose a side. I respect it, but I don’t forgive it."

Serena fabricated a sword in her right hand and pushed herself off the table she caught herself on.

She reached for Velkaris’s flame. Then for Flareon’s ice. She didn’t know which one she needed, so she reached for both.

Gav pointed the bloodied poker at the dark end of the library like a man who had run out of dignity and decided to weaponize spite instead.

"Serena? What the hell?"

Dex appeared at the end of the aisle.