“You are so close now.” I don’t know the man’s voice, but it sounds familiar. I open my eyes, and the clouds are not grey—they are pitch black. Darkness drenches the dreamland that I’ve grown to enjoy with my monster, and this feels wrong. My monster is not here; I cannot sense him or smell the midnight air. The air is freezing cold, and it hurts to breathe it in. Someone else has taken over my dreams, and they are not welcome. I have to wake up, but how? Usually I fall backwards, but my monster helps me.
I take a step back, nearly tripping on a dark cloud behind me. My heart is pounding so loud I can hear it in my ears as I see who spoke. Almost. His face is hidden in shadows, and all I can make out is that he is tall and male. His voice drips like honey, hiding a deadly poison in its sweetness. “You will be at my side, my oblivion-touched human, and we will rulethis world. Our world will drown out the gold and leave only darkness.”
Considering I have golden hair and eyes, I think he is marketing himself to the wrong crowd. I can’t move as he keeps walking towards me, the darkness bending to him like it’s alive. I can’t see his face or make out much about him at all. “Who are you and what do you want?”
“Remember oblivion when the time is right, and I will not be far behind.”
I wake up with a start, hands clutching around Tannith’s cold scales, and I try to focus on counting her scales as I calm down. Who was that? The air is cold in my bedroom, and I’m shivering as I tug the blanket tighter around me. I feel so cold, and so does Tannith. I check that she’s even breathing, and I sigh in relief when I find she is. It’s never this cold in the morning in the cabin, but the chill seems to have followed me from that creepy dream.
Why did his voice sound so familiar? Why did he scare me so much? I tuck the blanket around her and make sure she’s warm. I wince when I move down to get under the quilt and warm my nose. The back of my neck hurts, and I rub the skin just underneath my hair on my neck. There’s something there, something warm and strange. I must have scratched myself in my sleep.
Elizabeth walks into the room, smelling like toast and distracting me. “Why is it so cold in here?”
“Not sure.” I shrug and change the subject. “Is there more toast left?” I want to ask if Reed, Orion or Blackfire are in the kitchen, because I need to avoid them like the plague. Or like that kid from the orphanage who was always sick with something horrid like the flu, and being near them meant catching a cold. The heirs are the flu, and I am not being the reason they are fighting.
“Yes…and things are tense. Why do they all look like they fought yesterday? What happened, Mere?” she asks, her hands on her hips.
I gnaw on my bottom lip. “I learnt what Reed does for money. Orion told me, to hurt both Reed and me. Blackfire split them up when they fought.”
Elizabeth nods, and I realize she must have known Reed’s history. Of course she did. I’m the idiot who never listened to anything the packs did or learnt about wolf royalty. “I’ve known Reed since I was a kid, and I never got the impression he wanted to do any of it. You see him as this happy man who smiles at you, but he is not like that back home. He always looked broken, at least until a human appeared and he changed.” She smiles softly at me. “Don’t be too harsh on him for not telling you. I can’t imagine it is easy to explain his past.”
“It’s not just his past, though, is it?” I blow out a breath. “I just wish he had told me. Not Orion.”
Elizabeth goes to say something and her mouth parts. Her eyes roll back seconds before she disappears in gold dust. “Elizabeth!” I bolt from my bed to where she was a second ago, and there is nothing but sparkling dust in the air and piled on the floor. No, she can’t be gone. Wait, she is my selected. I look at the mark on my wrist, relieved to see it is still there and strong. Tannith! I rush back to the bed, pushing the covers down and finding a small pool of gold dust. Tannith’s gone too, but they can’t be dead. I think the goddesses must have taken them because it ends today.
Soft music fills the air, a violin playing invisibly, and my heart ratchets up. I’m not having a good start to the day, and I have a feeling it is not going to get any better. I pull on Orion’s shirt to fall over my pyjamas and tug on my boots before I walk out of the room. I follow the gold dust that dances around my feet, marking a path and leading me straight out through thefront door and into the chilly forest. I feel like I’m in a trance as I walk, soft sunlight dancing across the tops of the trees and onto me. I breathe in the scent of the forest, and I keep walking, something in my gut tugging me forward.
My feet are aching by the time I come to a stop, my eyes focusing once again, and gold dust floats gently in the air. The three goddess statues stand eerily still in the middle of a forest clearing, and they aren’t alone. On their knees, bound in gold rope and gagged with it, are my heirs. I would make a joke about how all men are better when they’re kept silent and gagged, but this doesn’t feel like the time nor place. Blackfire’s mask is still on, Reed and Orion have bruises on their handsome faces, and Orion’s eye is half-closed. They can’t talk to me, they can’t say a word, but the immediate way they all struggle to get out of their bindings tells me enough.
They want to fight forme. Whatever this is, they are trying to fight and protect me again. They have so many times now, and this time, I’m truly alone to face the goddesses of legend. The Maiden goddess stands in the middle, her tiara glowing brightly as water drips off her statue onto the forest floor. The Mother goddess is to the left, her swords glowing green and her armour reflecting the sun. The Crone goddess, my least favourite because she is the goddess of my worst fear, is to the right. Flames dance up her dress, mixing with the veins and heart she holds. It glows red, brightly illuminating everything nearby as the veins actually move around her statue figure. I feel like the Crone goddess got the worst weapon—a literal heart. Mother got cool swords, and Maiden has a wicked tiara. I’d be pissed if I got stuck with a heart.
“Is this another trial? I thought there was just one for each pack, and it is over now.” I keep my voice clear, and I try to hide how scared I am. I cannot survive another sadistic trial where they try to kill me again. I barely survived the last three.
“Welcome, Meredith,” one of their voices all but shouts into my head. The voice feels like fire, and I get the impression it’s the Crone goddess as I wince. “This is the trial for the fourth pack and the most important.”
I raise my eyebrows. “There is no fourth pack. There are only three, like there are only three goddesses.”
Another voice answers me, and it feels like water. The Maiden. “The fourth pack is the largest pack in the world, and they follow the old ways of the god of oblivion. He is excluded from our realm for good reason, but we include his pack nonetheless, in honour of a fallen god.”
Remember oblivion.Oblivion, oblivion…why is that word haunting me?I shake my head, the pain in my temple building as I focus on the goddesses and not the fact that this all can’t be a coincidence.
“I feel your heart racing in fear, but please, we are not going to harm you anymore. You have proven to us that you are strong and you are a survivor worthy of the name. This final trial is one of your soul. Your answer will decide your fate before you return to your world under our watchful eyes.”
My eyes drop to Reed’s, and he is still, sweat pouring down his face. I wish I had a moment to talk to him. I want to throw something at Orion for being a dick. Blackfire… My eyes drift to him and find his intense red eyes locked on me. The big man is struggling to get out of the binds, and I just know he would crawl to me if he could. The man I hated from the second we met is someone I don’t hate anymore. Goddesses, I do not hate him.
“What’s the question?” I ask, pulling my focus from the heirs. I don’t want to know their answer, if I’m being honest. There has to be a reason the heirs are on their knees and bound. They are their winners, their champions, and I don’t understand this.
I almost want to run in the other direction, but not while they’re here and in danger. They fought for my life…I will stayfor theirs. The Mother is last to speak, and her voice cuts deep into my mind, leaving a sharp pain with each word. “A payment must be made for the champions’ lives, or they do not leave this island. They will become the cursed and changed. Every human that has stood here in front of us has made a choice for the three surviving wolves.”
My monster was telling the truth; there were humans in the Folkland. No one knew…or they have been made to forget.
“We brought you all here to this island, where we each lived our long lives, so that you can learn to be an alpha. To be a leader that is going to shape the world, and to make sure you are strong enough to handle the gift we bestow. Every trial we’ve put you through has been for you to learn skills, to bind you as a pack, to grow feelings between each other. Because what is a pack without love? It is destruction and chaos. This is the ultimate test, and we are fair rulers… You have a choice.”
I don’t feel like they are being fair at all. The Crone goddess speaks next. “You can leave here. I will turn your creature back into a human and break the magic marking on your bodies as your reward. You will be safe, hidden away in the fourth pack lands to the far east. You and your friend will live long lives, never worrying about the heirs of the packs or the courts. You will be untouchable until you die of old age and join us in the skies.”
My knees feel weak as she pauses. The Mother fills in the rest of the choice I have. “That is one choice you can make. The second choice is this—you give us three parts of your soul, and we will give you a power. The parts of your soul will be given to these heirs, linking you as a true pack. All four of you will be linked forever, and your lives will change. You will be a champion and immortal alongside them for a thousand or more years. Death will not chase your soul because it will be destroyed. But heed my warning with this choice.” Her voicesoftens. “There will be no rebirth for you, no other life than this, no other body free of scars and pain. There will be no peace in the stars, no family to be reunited with when you die. You will be alone with them, and no one else will be waiting for you except for darkness. You will be fallen and soul-cursed, Meredith Crone.”
My soul?Her words vibrate through my mind, and I fall to my knees in the leaves with a whoosh. “Can I speak to them?”
