Chapter 116

AURORA

My hands tightened on the arms of my chair. The residual magic of the ceremony whispered through my veins, cool as water. It was distracting, and I couldn’t afford to be distracted. “Would you—”

Evelyn shot me a confused glance. “I assume you feel the same… about me.”

“I wouldn’t just let anyone die. Not if there was something I could do about it.” I remembered the moment I’d taken off into the forest to try and find the twins, and I said, “And I don’t think you would, either. If that was true, you wouldn’t have followed me into the woods in high heels the day the twins went missing.”

Evelyn’s mouth twisted as if she found my words both surprising and unpleasant. “I was hormonal that day. Don’t count on it happening again.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t count on anything from anyone,” I retorted. “Which is very much because of you.”

Evelyn rolled her eyes. I was surprised to find Dane looking at me, as well. His face was unreadable. Then, finally, his gaze was fixed on Camila. His voice was tight as he said, “They’re right. They don’t get along. For good reason.”

The reason was him. He had pitted Evelyn and me against each other for so long, whether he meant to or not. Now this? Maybe the moon goddess had a twisted sense of humor.

“I’m sorry,” I said to Camila. “I’m trying to wrap my brain around all this. I knew the ceremonies would show us who the goddess had chosen, but we thought it was just to retrieve a relic we’re looking for. Everything has snowballed into something that feels much larger.”

Camila nodded. “It is much larger. It always has been. But even my communications from the goddess are fuzzy, as if there’s interference. I only know that something bad is coming, and we’re going to need leadership through it. You three are supposed to be those leaders, as are the shield maidens.”

I interlaced my fingers together on the tabletop so I wouldn’t tap them anxiously. “I keep thinking we can stop all this by just… stopping our mission to retrieve the relic.”

“You can’t,” Camila said. “You never could. We’re all pieces on the board being moved by powers beyond us.”

“I’m no one’s game piece,” I said.

At the same time, Dane growled. Apparently, he felt the same.

Camila shrugged. “I don’t know a different way to put it. They’ve been moving us all for a long time.”

“Who is ‘they’?” Dane asked. “The goddess… and who else?”

“Surely you didn’t think the wolf’s moon goddess was the only one out there,” Camila said.

Again, Dane shrugged. “I don’t bother the gods and they don’t bother me.”

“They do now,” Evelyn muttered.

“What’s done is done,” I said, cutting them off before this led to an argument. “We can try to ignore it if we want, but I don’t think that would be wise. Which means the next step is the final one. We have to retrieve the relic. Then, maybe, whatever ‘forces’ have been making a mess of our lives will settle down, and we can return to our own petty wars and inter-pack arguments.”

“You can dream,” Evelyn tossed her hair. “But I doubt it will go that way. Once the powerful start messing with the powerless, they never leave them alone.”

“As if you know anything about being powerless,” I muttered.

Evelyn fixed me with an icy gaze. “You have no idea what I know.”

I frowned, then tore my eyes away from hers. I didn’t know anything about her life except that she was a famous actress and had stolen Dane from me years ago. I had never cared to know more, and I didn’t now. My children were missing. So was Evander. I was bound to the enemy of the man I loved. I was the chosen of the goddess. Some kind of healer, apparently? But that hadn’t brought back my wolf, so who knew if I could truly use the magic, anyway.

“The new moon is two weeks away,” I said. “I’ll see if the journal will reveal anything more when I have time. But for now, I’m only interested in one thing, and that’s finding my children and my cousin, Evander.” I glanced at Camila. “Unless the goddess has told you something about that?”

Camila shook her head. “No. But we can help you search.”

I nodded. “Thank you.”

There was a lot to do. I had to contact my grandmother and tell her that things were moving forward. I wanted to ask Dane how Piper was doing in the infirmary. Had there been any change? Was she still unconscious? I needed to meet with the witches who had drawn protective wards around us for the ceremony and ask them about a location spell… My chest thumped with the familiar, dull ache of missing my children, but I got up anyway. One thing I knew from the life I’d lived: even when you wanted to crumble, you had to go on.

EVELYN

I stood in one of the pack house’s many lounges, looking out at the forest and brooding. Aurora’s life would be in my hands? Ha! She’d ruined mine, just when it was all coming together.

I glanced down at my phone and swiped to the picture of her leaving Holden’s room. She was chosen, and so was he. Not only were they both chosen, they were some kind of king and queen, and I was… what? Her bodyguard?

I gritted my teeth and placed a hand over my belly. My baby kicked. Would the moon goddess really give her “queen” a bodyguard who was her husband’s former mistress? And pregnant? Not to be blasphemous, but the lady of the moon must be losing her mind. Disgusted, I threw my phone over my shoulder onto one of the couches.

Someone grunted. I spun. Dane was there. He’d come up behind me. He had my phone. He was staring at the screen, which I hadn’t bothered to lock. As he looked, rage ignited in his eyes. He held the phone up so I could see the picture of Aurora and Holden and growled, “Explain this.”