I feel nothing about the stupid sun.
It takes me forever to hobble back to the gates that have now been pulled open. The stage is gone; the bodies dumped in a pile to the side. I can’t see Mordecai or Jarek; they’ve taken them away.
It hurts. I just want my alphas. I stand there helplessly, unsure what to do.
“Kaida Keres!”
My name being shouted draws my attention. Bear stands in the middle of the gates, framed by the rising sun. The hero and the leader these people deserve. A force of strength the world will need in these coming days.
He has a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. I remember our conversation back when we first met, about living without bonds. Hope kindles in my chest, an icy ember that gives me one last purpose.
“I had a dream,” he shouts to me, “about a woman with silver hair.”
I close my eyes and press a hand to my heart, bowing slightly. For the first time since he died, the ember of hope unfurls into something raging.
“Keres!” His voice booms out. “Come again. We’ll welcome you home.”
A cheer goes out around me, the streets lined with alphas, omegas, and betas shouting my name. The grass is soft under my boots as I walk towards him. The blood scent has gone. I can smell peaches; they remind me of my mother.
Oh, thank you.I press my lips together and give myself a moment, preparing myself for this last task.
With a roar that turns into a howl, I shift into the form of a wolf. The grey wolf that I was is gone; grief has turned my fur white. I am moon-touched. I sit back on my haunches and sing my pain. All around me, human voices howl with me. Until the sound is like thunder spreading on the wind, a cry of defiance, pain, and joy. A celebration of freedom that crosses this world and into Remmilow.
All my deaths flash through my mind. My task isn’t to live. It’s to die.
“Alpha save you, my sister. May you walk in strength, wisdom, and heart and return to us soon,” Bear shouts formally. “We will wait for you!”
I run at him, moving faster and faster.Until the omegas bless us and we meet again. Please, Alpha, send me away from here.
He lifts his bow and nocks the arrow.
“Goodbye, Kaida Keres.”
The arrow hits, and I go tumbling over and over until I collapse on the blood-soaked streets of the Culling Ground.
I let out a wild howl, filled with an agony that I can’t live with. My song echoes around the city, around the world, and in every person, it reaches into them and tethers their wolf to the moon.
The alpha raises his bow again.
Do it,I silently beg.
“Omega,” he whispers. “Goodbye.”
“The Luna Omega is no more!” It’s an echo from the past, words said thousands of years ago, but I hear them as clear as I did that day.
There’s pain, and then there’s nothing.
Chapter 71
When gods whisper
The All-Seer
One Hundred Years after the events that saved the world.
I lift my chin and glare at the High Alpha, the High Beta, and the High Omega. They are wearing the white robes of their station and are glaring at me with deep suspicion. I’m one more word from losing my cool completely and setting this hall on fire. How can three people be so obstinately stupid?
“What you are asking for is preposterous,” the omega says with an arrogant flounce of her fluffy brown hair.
