Sodie looks away. “I regret not saying something. The look on everyone’s faces. The plan was she was supposed to stay there, and I figured that, once things settled down, she would be declared dead. I would have gone back to join her, but she’s so fucking stubborn. She escaped and returned home.”
“You kept her prisoner in this place you call the Void?” Liam asks, his eyes adopting a silvery shine.
“She wasn’t a prisoner. It’s the home of the surviving white wolves.”
“Wait a minute. Do you mean the in-between?” Darwin interjects.
Both Liam and I swivel in Darwin’s direction.
Bemused, he shrugs his shoulders. “What? I actually know something the two of you don’t?”
“Explain,” I command.
“So, there’s a hypothesis about the extinction of the white wolf species. I remember reading it on some blog. Anyway, the hypothesis is that the white wolves are not quite extinct, and the surviving white wolves escaped to a place called the in-between.”
“The in-between?” Liam asks, frowning.
Darwin nods. “You know, based on the legend.”
I slap my hand over my face, losing my patience.
“Spit it out, Darwin, before I light a fire under your ass,” Liam urges.
Darwin snorts.
I know Liam will make good on his threat. I kind of like that about him.
“Fine. Fine. Keep your pants on.” He runs a hand down his face. “I read on the Internet about a space between the portal of the fae world and the Luna Solar Realm. Some say it’s an empty space where time doesn’t exist, like a loophole of sorts—a space that defies quantum physics. Anyway, I guess the survivors of the white wolf species retreated to this space for sanctuary after the Great War. Apparently, when the white wolf queen fulfills the prophecy, the portal will open. The white wolves will return, and magic will be restored.”
“It’s a myth,” Liam deadpans.
Darwin shrugs. “Every species believes its own story, whether cursed by a witch or a sorcerer or bestowed a second chance by the Sun God or Moon Goddess. They are stories told over and over worldwide.”
Liam turns to Sodie. “You mean to tell me that this place—the in-between or the Void, whatever you call it—really exists?”
Sodie slowly nods. “Don’t act like I’m crazy. We’re literally standing on an island hidden from the world by some kind of ancient magic. The only difference here is that time is consistent with the rest of the world. In the Void, years can pass in a matter of days, or it can loop over and over, stuck in a time warp of sorts. The Void isn’t exactly a vacation either. It can make your worst nightmares come true, or it can let you live a life different from the one you lived before. It’s also a place where souls of the originals go to rest and wait to be reborn. There are infinite possibilities in the Void, infinite planes to visit. Only those bornthere can control the direction that the Void takes them. It’s why she was safe there.”
“You’re saying that the Princess was born in the Void?” Darwin asks.
“No, but my brother and I were. That’s why it had to be one of us to take her. My brother followed her closely when I couldn’t be with her. We planned to take her to the Void when the opportunity presented itself. Just so happened that night when everyone was at the mansion for Luke’s welcome home dinner, and she left without a guard, it was his only chance.”
I narrow my eyes. There’s more to this story. I’ll let him keep his secrets for now, but eventually, I will get it all out of him.
“Why can’t she remember anything?” Liam inquires.
“I don’t know. She should remember. I ask myself the same question. I also don’t know how she ended up near the pier on the other side of the LS.”
“Why did she look different?” I ask. Memories of her long platinum-blonde hair floating in the ocean flash in my mind.
Sodie scoffs. “Powerful magic healers reside within the Void. She was there long enough for them to heal her.”
Chapter 17
It’s Definitely Broken
JESSICA
Present Day
