“Aedan smells something.” Abe watched the two men nod in immediate understanding.
Justice hopped onto Aedan’s back. “Hi Ho Silver, Away!” He clicked his heels playfully into Aedan, chuckling at the snarl that followed. His cousin wasn’t a scary lycan prince to him.
“Baby, I can run alongside you. Especially after all that running you just did.” Derrick listened as Lucie snorted at him with indignance. She nudged at him with her nose, encouraging him to get on already. He sighed but obliged her. He liked being close to her but felt like this was putting a strain on her.
Alright. Let’s see what this is all about. Is the trial simply to find your mate? If so, we seem to almost be done.Lucie jumped ahead, Aedan running at her heels.
He said there was something that only you could do, though.Aedan was trying to think what all of this could mean. Was the point of all this just to give him his mate? He was certain there was more to it than that. If they had guessed right, and he assumed they had since he was smelling the most intoxicating smell in the world, they were about to find out real soon.
Lucie slowed down as they reached a stone entryway. She waited for Aedan so she could follow his lead. After all, it was the scent of his mate they were now following.
Aedan approached cautiously and both men hopped off of the lycans’ backs. There was no more running now. Everyone wanted to be alert for whatever they found.
Aedan’s heart raced as he inhaled the scent, which was much stronger now. Butterflies fluttered in his chest, and the excitement he felt made him lower his guard. All he could think about was finding the source.
He carefully climbed over the rubble and onto a light gray stone platform. Around the platform were stone stands, as if it used to be an arena of some sort. In the middle of the arena was a dark opening that led down into the earth, and it was toward this hole his feet were pulling him.
Lucie stood beside Aedan and looked down the dark, steep stairway, which looked deep. She watched as Aedan plunged into the darkness, and she quickly followed behind him. The instant she did, they heard a loud slam. The entrance above them had closed, leaving just her and Aedan locked in the darkness.
They both stood there for a moment, quietly pondering the situation. It seemed like Abe couldn’t get through either.
Lucie tilted her head to the side as she heard Aedan walking farther downward.
Aedan, wait for me.She understood he was being driven by instinct, but he still needed to be smart about all of this. A barrier had just locked them in and everyone else out. This wasn’t going to be a game of freeze tag where Aedan runs in, taps the girl, and she’s free. But she could see he was agitated and anxious, moving his nose from side to side, trying to figure out which way to go.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, the path widened, and torches with blue flames illuminated a tan stone walkway. The fire burned without heat, casting a cold glow that pulled the shadows longer than they had any right to be. Small brown bricks lined the walls, worn smooth at the edges, the same pattern arching overhead to form a low ceiling that pressed the air close around them. Lucie moved cautiously beside Aedan, her ears swiveling at every small sound, her gaze tracking every flicker of light that might be something more. She was going to have to keep a protective eye on him since he wasn’t thinking rationally right now.Fantastic. Babysitting duty for a lovesick alpha. Just what I signed up for.The pull of his mate was intoxicating, inhibiting his ability to think clearly, and she wasn’t about to let him walk into whatever this was with his head full of bond-fog.
The sound of trickling water made her ears perk up. She peered down the corridor and saw it continued to widen, the brick giving way to rougher stone the deeper they went. It opened into a solid gray chamber, split down the middle by a small stream that flowed through a carved brick channel. Moss clung to the edges in dark patches, softening the hard lines of the masonry. Something sat on the other side of the water, catching the light in a way nothing in this place should. The blue flames flickered over it and revealed a clear crystal taller than eitherof them, with a young woman curled in a ball at its center. She looked frozen, sealed, her hair suspended around her face as though the moment she’d gone under had been trapped along with her.
Aedan lifted his nose toward the crystal and his ears pricked forward. He let out a low sound that wasn’t quite a whine and wasn’t quite a growl, and then he leaped over the stream in one fluid bound. He pawed at the crystal frantically and began to whimper, the noise catching in his throat in a way that made Lucie’s chest ache despite herself. She moved to follow, paws already lifting to jump, when the water surged. The stream shot upward, twisting like something alive, and froze mid-air. An ice wall formed between her and Aedan.
Lucie could see Aedan’s silver wolf charging into the ice barrier but it wouldn’t budge. She noticed a black blob moving toward him. She growled at it as she charged into the barricade. Then all she could hear was the horrifying sounds of her brother fighting some creature she couldn’t see clearly. She could only hear his growls and whimpers. The terrifying roar of the creature echoed through the ice wall, and there was nothing she could do. She frantically clawed at the ice and continued charging into it, but it was unrelenting and unmoving.
“The future prince should be able to manage just fine. And if not, he isn’t worthy of the crown.” A voice whipped through the air.
Lucie watched as a man with fire red hair appeared in front of her. He watched her with a small smile.
“That is his task. Now is the moment for your choice.”
My choice?
“I am Lycaon. And over there, sealed in a crystal tomb, is the lycan princess. But there is just one problem … she is on the verge of losing everything. I put her in the seal to prevent herdeath. You have the ability to save her … and only you.” Lycaon frowned and rubbed the back of his head.
“I’m going to be honest. What I’m about to tell you isn’t something easy. It’s a tough decision that will have devastating ramifications. But to restore balance, it’s the only one that can be made.”
Lucie didn’t like where this was going. It felt like she was about to be given a crushing choice.
“Remember how lycans are one with their wolves? You don’t have an extra voice in your head, another existence inside you. This is true for all lycans of the past, and Aedan. To die in your wolf form is to die in your human form. That is what you see is happening to the girl in the seal.
“I can’t just fix and bring back to life what was taken. But Lucie, you are different. You are a fairy princess and the future queen of the vampires. You have the ability to make an incredible sacrifice for your brother. You can gift his mate, the girl who is sealed … you can give her your lycan existence. This is something only you can do. In order to give her life, you would have to give up that part of yourself.”
But I am my lycan. I don’t understand.
“You’re a fairy princess now. The moment that part of you came into existence, you were given this ability. The wolves will need lycan leaders. The King of the Werewolves has the ability to have lycan offspring, so we just encouraged it. The moment you became the fairy princess, though, you opened up a whole other possibility. The chance for two lycans to unite together.”
The sound of fighting soon quieted behind her. She turned her head to see Aedan pacing by the ice wall, and relief washed through her. She turned and looked back at the deity. So he was telling her she could essentially give a part of herself to this girl, and by doing so, it would give her a chance at life and give Aedana chance to be with his mate. But she would no longer be a lycan. She would no longer be able to shift.
“If you still desire to be a wolf, your father can always grant you a werewolf, as he has done before.”
