Chapter 60 AURORA

The shadows surrounded me, drowning me. They burned away at my skin, at my soul.

I couldn’t see. I couldn’t breathe. The last thing I remembered seeing was Dane’s face, terrified but determined.

And I was cold. So, so cold. Cold to my bones and my heart and the core of my spirit.

I felt the ice spreading through me, turning me brittle and numb. Like trees of lace, the ice spread from the places the shadows touched me, reaching for my chest.

If it touched my heart, I knew it would stop.

Then something whispered through the night, "No, this one must be preserved.

She is the key to the cage. She is the flesh that frees."

As fearful as I was, that voice terrified me more than anything I had ever heard before.

Then something warm touched my chest. Light flashed silver-hot behind my lids, and even though I didn’t move, I felt… lifted. Up, away from the voice.

Out of the terrible place with the voice and the cold to a place of nothing. No fear, but no safety. No discomfort, but no comfort.

For a long time, the nothing stayed.

I had none of it, no movement, or anything.

And then there was something.

I was no longer cold, I was warm. I was in a bed, in a room.

But I still couldn’t wake. I tried reaching my hands in front of me, stumbling around until I found a wall, a door, a hatch. Some way to escape.

There was nothing. The dark went on forever.

This wasn’t the same as the terrifying voice from before. This was softer, warmer, feminine.

Out of instinct, I moved toward it.

“Hello?” I called. “I can’t see you!”

“I am here." No longer in my head, the voice sounded more solid. It came from a place in front of me, not far off.

I stumbled forward. My foot caught. I tripped. Fell. My hands crashed to the ground.

And where they hit, there was light. It ripped out in waves, silver and blue and violet. The darkness was eaten away, and I stood.

I was in a quiet place filled with natural standing stones. Trees were thick all around. Above, the night sky was crusted with stars.

Before me was a woman. She looked young one moment, old the next. Then, she was ageless.

“Who are you?” I asked. “Where am I?”

The woman smiled, and it was kind. “You know me,” she said.

And I did. Of course, I did.

Every wolf knew the moon goddess.

For a moment, the dream… glitched. Terror overwhelmed me, and I saw the clearing for what it was. These weren’t trees. They were the same shadows of black, ropey ooze. This was no woman, but a specter of death.

"Do not be deceived!" someone cried from far, far away.

I opened my mouth to scream…

And then the dream glitched again. Back to the clearing. The fear disappeared. My memories went fuzzy. I’d been afraid, but… that was back below. Where the shadows were.

Not here, with this woman. Who was…

“Moon goddess!” I stumbled forward again, and this time I fell to my knees. The coldness came back, and fear gripped my chest. “Am I dead? My children…!”

She laughed softly and came to stand before me. She bent and took my chin in her hand. Her fingers were so, so cold. “You are walking the borders between, but a mistake was made.” For a moment, her eyes flashed like hard ice. “You must not die, for you belong to me. You always have.”

There was something ominous about her statement. Something that made my stomach churn with unease.

“I need to go back,” I whispered. “My children…”

She nodded. “You will go back. You will translate the book. You will unlock the prison.”

She smiled, and for half a second, her teeth were row after row of fangs.

Fear returned, sharp and hard. I tried to pull away.

“No! I-”

Her thumb passed over my cheek, and I calmed.

How silly, to think I’d seen something evil in this woman.

“You will serve me,” she said. “Just like you were raised to do.”

“Of course, goddess,” I whispered.

She reached down her free hand and placed it over my chest. Tendrils of oil seemed to seep from my chest into her hand. She tucked it behind her back. “There. The mistake is fixed. Always remember…”

Her face flashed into a skull with black flames dancing in its eyes, and her voice turned to the sound of a thousand broken shards of glass screeching against each other.

“…you are mine.”

I woke, screaming. A strong hand grabbed mine. I was pulled against a warm, hard chest, cradled close. He whispered, “Aurora! It’s all right. I’m here.”