*Lena*
Elaine took a few steps forward, her jaw flexing as she swallowed.
“Lena, you and I need to talk–”
“Obviously!” I nearly shouted, rounding the table.
I passed Alma, who was standing in the doorway to the kitchen with two plates of chocolate cake, looking more annoyed than confused.
Gideon rose to his feet, glancing at Xander before he motioned for Alma to retreat into the kitchen.
Ianthe gave a tight-lipped smile as she sidestepped around and left the room, leaving Elaine and alone.
Except for Xander, of course, who was standing on the other side of the dining room table looking just as shocked as I was.
“Elaine,” I breathed, my initial shock ebbing away into outright confusion. “What happened?”
Elaine sighed deeply, running her fingers along the top of the couch as she walked toward us. I noticed the faded bruising along her jaw, and the scar along the bridge of her nose as she ca into the light of the chandelier above her head.
“I don’t know how to explain what happened to ,” she said, glancing from to Xander.
“You need to try,” Xander said flatly, righting the chair he’d knocked over in his haste to stand up.
I sat in one of the armchairs, keeping my eyes focused on Elaine, unblinking.
“I heard the two of you t Androda,” she said in a whisper, her eyes sparkling with understanding. “I just missed you there. I’d just left–”
“Elaine,” Xander exhaled, tapping his fingers on the dining room table. “What happened? We need to know everything, from the beginning.
“You’re my friend’s twin–”
“I didn’t know about my sister until the war,” she breathed with a pained expression as she sat on the couch, running her hands over her jeans. “I didn’t know. I thought.... It sounds crazy, but I can’t rember a ti I wasn’t in Crimson Creek. I was just here one day, and all of these mories I thought I had... of a family, of parents–” She tapered off, shaking her head.
“I saw Ben the night Xander and I went out into the hills when he wanted to collect a sample of the blood root. I thought... I thought Ben was in danger. He was screaming but not–not for –”
Xander tilted his head to the side, a sudden realization creeping over his face. “Who was he screaming for? I didn’t hear anything–”
“He was screaming for you, Xander. That’s when I knew sothing was wrong. Ben wouldn’t have... he was looking right at , I thought. He was walking toward us. I knew it wasn’t him when I saw his face clearly. It wasn’t him, but it was his voice. That’s when I told you we needed to get out of there.”
“But why did you go back?” I asked, my skin prickling with adrenaline.
Alexis kicked , hard, and I wrapped my arms around my belly as if sheltering her, protecting her from whatever Elaine was about to reveal.
“Because sothing clicked inside my head when I saw Ben, sothing I’d been battling with for a long ti. When I read your palm, Lena... I actually saw sothing. I’d be reading tea leaves and palms because that’s what I rembered being able to do, for whatever reason, even though I had no mories of my ti before Crimson Creek. I was just there. I woke up to Maxwell hovering over one day, saying I’d hit my head. I thought–I thought that was why–”
“Elaine,” Xander said sharply.
Elaine glanced up at him, swallowing hard. “I, uh. When I read your palm, I saw this place... wooded and just beautiful, a dream. I felt this pull toward it, and when I saw Ben in the hills, I felt that pull again. So, I went back out in the hills. I went to the sa place I’d taken Xander and I just.... A woman appeared out of nowhere, begging to co with her, pleading with . She told I needed to co ho.”
A chill ran down the length of my spine as Elaine folded her hands between her thighs, rocking her body back and forth.
“Suddenly I wasn’t in this realm anymore. I was in... you know.”
“Then what happened?”
“The woman and I hid during the night. During the day we traveled far, across the realm, I am sure. We ca to the water, that strange sea and a boat appeared.”
“You went to Androda–”
“Listen,” Elaine said, taking a shallow breath. “I didn’t know about my biological family at all until I reached Androda’s realm. That’s what it is, you know. It’s still there. That’s where I’ve been, all this ti. That’s where I was taken when I was a child.” She rolled up her sleeve, her pale skin glistening in the amber light of the chandelier. She revealed a pale pink mark in the crook of her elbow, sothing that looked like a half moon scar. “I was born with it. It’s a witch’s mark. I am a shifter by blood, but sowhere in my family’s line is a witch who passed her powers down, but not everyone has it. Abigail,” she said, tears in her eyes, “she didn’t have it. No one in my family knew what it was, or what it ant. I was taken from my ho as a child and taken to Winter Forest, through the portal in the temple to the realm of the witches, so that I could live with my own kind.”
“You were raised there–”
“I rember it now,” she said tearfully. “I was sent out, back to this realm, to spy. That was my purpose. I was sent out to guard over you, Lena. I went to Morhan looking for you. But then I was... I still don’t rember how I ended up in Crimson Creek. Those mories are blurry. But Maxwell did sothing to , he did sothing–”
“He took your mories,” Xander interrupted. “Just like Bethany–”
“Yes. He did. And when the witches caught wind of what was happening, they called ho. Lena, when you brought the portal down–”
“I didn’t,” I choked, my throat tightening around a sob. She didn’t know, did she? She didn’t know about Oliver.
“But–”
“How did you get here?” Xander asked, eyeing before looking back at Elaine.
A silent plea rippled through our bond and I understood him completely. Announcing that we knew her mate... it wasn’t for us to say. That was sacred.
“Androda sent through the portal in the temple. She told my work for her was done, and to go ho. But I didn’t know where ho was. So, I ca back here. I got here a few days ago.” She looked ditative for a mont, her eye’s glistening with so recent mory. “I thought I felt the mate bond in her realm. I was sure, even if for a mont.”
“Lena, can you go find Alma?” Xander said abruptly.
Elaine and I looked at him, but he nodded at , his face void of expression. I chewed my lower lip as I rose, giving Elaine a weak smile. She looked sowhat fearful of being left alone with Xander.
“I’ll be back–”
“Lena,” Xander said in a low growl that made the down hair on my arms stand on end. What did he an to do?
I hurried out of the room, walking into the kitchen and closing the door behind . I let out the breath I’d been holding and ca face to face with Alma, Gideon, Ianthe, and Bethany.
“Do any of you have any idea where Oliver might be?” I whispered.
Alma set a dish back in the sink, her face falling at the ntion of his na.
“He ntioned New Dianny; that’s all we know.”
***
*Xander*
Elaine was telling the truth, of that I was sure. But I needed to talk to her alone about what was going to happen next. Elaine was going to co back to Valoria with us. She was going to be there when Adrian and Abigail arrived. Elaine was going to et Oliver, and I wasn’t going to argue about it.
I was done with magic and prophecies. I was done with the gas of the gods. I didn’t care that Elaine’s sole purpose in life had been to spy on and guard Lena. Now, that role was on , as her mate. Elaine’s work was done.
Elaine scurried away and retreated to a bedroom upstairs. Ianthe gave a skeptical side-eyed glance before following her upstairs.
Witches–what was I supposed to do with witches?
Nothing, I decided. This was done. It was over. And in a few months, Lena and I would return to Egoren and close this Chapter behind us, for good. I was going to let the Realm of Light deal with this ss.
Henry arrived for dinner, which ended up being a tense battle of wits because he, Gideon, and I that none of the won had an interest in subjecting themselves to. Gideon had it in mind to ask Henry for Bethany’s hand in marriage soti tonight, and I quickly ushered Lena out of the house, deciding we didn’t need to be present for whatever fight was about to ensue.
Instead, I took her out into the hills.
There was one thing I wanted to do, and that was to see her wolf.
“There’s no reason why you can’t shift while pregnant. You’re perfectly healthy,” I said as we walked hand and hand out of Gideon’s property and into the rolling hills beyond. The moon was high and full, casting a silver beam of light before us.
“I know,” she said lightly, giving a mischievous grin. “I go out on the castle grounds almost every night. I’m trying to keep myself in shape.”
She let go of my hand and walked forward as we walked into a shallow glen. I watched as she began to take off her clothes, slowly, glancing back at as her naked body glimred in the light of the moon. My breath was caught in my throat, my body suddenly aching with desire as she stepped out of the pile of clothes and walked even farther away from .
“Lena, wait–”
I blinked, and Lena was gone, replaced by sothing I’d seen before, but only in books of lore and myth.
A wolf of the purest white stood yards away from . Her eyes were pure silver, glistening like moonstones in the moonlight. Her fur was very long, fluttering in the breeze like strands of silk.
And as she walked into the moonbeam illuminating the clearing, silver and white flowers blood in her wake.
She turned back to look at , and all I could think to do was bow.
I was standing before the Moon Goddess herself, and she was my mate.
I shifted, my obsidian fur such a deep contrast to her own. We ran side by side into the moonlight.
I thought of the prophecy I’d studied as a boy.
“Two lines into one, the builder seeks her throne–”
Was that throne Egoren? Could it even be Egoren?
#
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