Chapter 75 AURORA

“Yes,” I said. “I want to see.”

I couldn’t explain what happened after that—all the sights, sounds, and sensations that went through my mind. It was like feeling the universe expand inside my own head, like being able to touch stars or see each tiny grain of sand on a beach.

I saw Piper and Connall, still cursed in the infirmary. I saw myself stand beside them, touch a hand to their wounds. The scar on my chest glowed, and they opened their eyes.

This is power, the darkness whispered. It will be yours. And when it is…

Another image flashed through my mind—this time of the barred iron door to a cage swinging wide. Inside, there was nothing but darkness.

“You see?”

I whipped around. The clone of myself reappeared. She was still smirking, perfect and poised with her pale hair slicked back in a long waterfall of a ponytail.

“You were molded for this,” she said.

“But what about last time? I thought I’d be chosen then. Instead, it was Evelyn.” I couldn’t keep the sad bitterness from my voice.

My double gave me a wink, then held a closed hand out in front of her, like she wanted to show me something in her palm. “Just remember, when the time comes, that you know who you serve.”

I leaned close. Her fingers opened.

Shadows leaped out, spearing straight for the scar the monster beneath the Reed pack house had left just to the right of my heart.

I woke, clawing at my chest. I pulled my shirt collar down, knowing I’d see the wound dark with corruption, the curse spreading…

But it wasn’t. It was the same as before, a gray circle with faded, branching gray veins around it.

I drew heaving breaths and looked around my office. It had been a dream. Everything from the time I’d seen my double had been a dream. Waking up the first time was only an illusion…

Wasn’t it?

The memories I’d seen were part of me now, still there through that door that had been flung wide.

I cringed away from them. I’d been so much happier believing I was only who I’d been since I married Dane. I thought my identity was simple: I was a victim of abuse, neglected and unloved, and I’d risen above that to become something better.

But in reality, there had been so much more.

I was still exactly who I thought I was…but maybe I’d participated in my own unmaking.

Troubled, I pushed up from my desk and walked to the window. Dawn had passed. The sun shone on the field where Blue Ridge wolves were already out, training—some as humans, some as wolves. The ones strong enough to have a lycan form were the biggest and most terrifying.

Wolves. My wolf.

I hadn’t been able to remember her at all. Now that I did, I couldn’t help but wonder if her death had been a mercy. She’d been so weak.

I closed my eyes at the pain of the thought and turned away. Another part of the dream lingered with me.

The part where I’d seen myself healing Dane’s family. Could it be true?

I had to know. I left my suite of rooms, heading for the infirmary.

I didn’t even realize I’d left the necklace with the pearl pendant—the one that was supposed to be used by the chosen of the goddess—behind.

When I got to the infirmary, only Celia was there. She smiled at me.

At least it was her here, and not one of the wolves who hated me.

She was preparing first aid kits and didn’t say anything to me as I walked over and approached Connall’s bed. I looked down at him, rubbing my fingers nervously against my palms.

“I want to try something,” I whispered to him. “I’m not sure it will work.”

I was so confused by the dream. It told me I was chosen, but it showed me all the darkness of my past. Why?

Could the moon goddess want me to know where I came from so I didn’t repeat my mistakes?

I wanted that to be true, but even as I thought it, other thoughts moved beneath the surface of my conscious mind—thoughts I couldn’t even bring myself to acknowledge.

What if the moon goddess wasn’t the only god-like entity in the universe? And what if the other one wasn’t like her?

What if that was what I was destined to serve?

I gritted my teeth and dismissed the thoughts. I took a shaking breath and held my hand, palm down, over Connall’s body. My hand trembled.

A tiny voice, silvery as a song and soft—nothing like anything I’d experienced in my dreams—seemed to flit through the back of my mind. Don’t, Aurora. You aren’t ready. Wait for me…

But it was so quiet, I wasn’t even sure I’d heard it at all.

So, I took a breath, then pressed my hand onto Connall’s chest, over his wound.

Power raced between us, connecting us. I could feel him, hiding and lost inside his own mind. Terrified.

Then my power reached out and clamped its teeth around his soul.

And it started to consume him.

In the bed, Connall’s body jerked. Dark energy started to flow from the wound on his chest into the scar on mine.

I felt strength.

But Connall opened his eyes and started to scream.

I yanked back, but I couldn’t pull my hand away!