He claps his hands, and the room goes black.
CHAPTER 38
Level Seven- The Hard Knock Truth
Rez
Looking at the massive wall before me, it dawns on me how lucky I am to have my family with me. I couldn’t imagine trying to do the Road of Worth without them. This first wall was Moni’s trial by the looks of the two framed scenes covering the forest wall mural playing over and over of her being abandoned. To face that by yourself and not having a backup would be devastating, and depending on your mental state, you might give up.
Who knows how many tests it would have if it were just one person playing. It would probably be enough to have me rocking myself while wearing a self-hugging snuggy in a padded room.
No voice greets me as I walk through, so I’m assuming it’s because Beleth threw me in here, and I’ll just have to figure out how this all works once I catch up with everyone. I mean how far are they? Are they still on this level? Hopefully, it doesn’t throwoff anything in this time-warp matrix thing. The biggest thing I notice is the scorched footprints. They look as if the ground below the feet is dead or all the life has been sucked out of the foliage. Even the areas of gravel and dirt seem to be burned.What caused that, and did it happen recently? Is my family okay?
As I continue following the scorched footprints, I run into Knots’ wall, where he had to choose if his sister was happy about turning him away when he returned to Earth after his memories were gone. I know it was one thing for me to tell him, but he had a choice, and thankfully, he made the right one, given the open door leading to the next wall.
Learning about Chester’s abusive father is an eye-opener that I’m not expecting, but it just makes me appreciate how amazing he’s turned out. And it makes me feel great to know that he has a better family with us.
Zeke’s wall had to be emotional for him since it brought Cain back into his life. My poor vamp baby should have PTSD if he didn’t already, having to revisit that episode where he brought back the Deathweaver, not Cain. But it was Cain that took over. I’ll have to remember to give him extra TLC when I see him.
The blackened footprints continue to JP’s wall, which looks to have had him facing the truth about his feelings about being the heir to Hell. Let’s just say he’s not too happy about it. I don’t know how I missed it, or maybe I just wasn’t intuitive enough to see how he really feels about that title. I feel horrible that I didn't see it or that JP didn’t feel comfortable enough to talk to me about it. I know now at least, but that’s for another time, I guess.
Knox’s wall breaks my heart, watching him kill for the first time during the blood matches, but what he saw in his was his father, the Alpha pushing for it. All these years, he thought he was the ruthless killer. I mean, in a way, I can kinda see wherehis father was coming from…I guess. It’s made Knox stronger and a hardened Alpha in training, but did heneedto be?
At Ryker’s wall, a part of me crumbles at looking at the pain he’s been in all this time. The truth of how deeply he never enjoyed the manwhore ways and being a slave to his lust breaks my heart. And here I thought he was a cocky bastard.I see you now, Ryker.
Levi’s wall, he had to face the real reason he puts on his robot persona and keeps his family away—the boy who’s scared of failure and the rejection of even his family. Tears stream down my cheeks as I walk through the walls and face what my family has gone through without me. They have worked so hard and faced these trials when they thought I was lost to them forever. I can’t imagine what they are going through. They’ve done so much while I was learning more about who I am with a prince that I have no right to know.
The last wall I come to is Lynx’s, where he analyzed me! My words and my actions, seeing if I was telling him the truth about my feelings for him. I never noticed how insecure he is about us. My heart sinks as I realize this is something I should have known and done something about. I can only assume it’s something he might not have felt comfortable enough to bring up to me when I have so many other mates to deal with.Fuck!Sometimes I wish these guys would just come talk to me about shit. I’m not a mind reader.
The scorched footprints are here as well, yet they look fresher as the grass is still wilting around the edges. What in the hell is causing this? As I walk through to the next section and follow the black footprints, I come to see the person standing as the grass beneath his feet is actively dying. His back is ramrod straight, and beads of sweat dot his forehead as he pulls on the cufflinks I made him. Levi.
I feel like I’ve gone through an emotional blender before being poured out and leveled by a Mac truck. What has happened to my sweet Levi that would have the earth dying under his feet?
Glancing around, I see that my family, the ones who have gone through their own personal Hell, are standing in front of another wall. Moni twirls around Chester, and as she spins, she catches sight of me. The way her jaw drops, it’s as if she’s staring at a ghost.
“Rez!?” Moni screams before turning magenta and immediately passing out.
Levi whirls around so fast that he stumbles, and the grass hisses and turns black, but Knots jerks forward and steadies him. Relief shines in his hazel eyes before he smiles tightly and sweeps his hand toward the ground. The grass beneath his feet immediately starts to turn green again, and Knox, Zeke, Lynx, and JP jerk as if they’ve been slapped.Mental note, ask Levi what’s the connection with him and the blackened grass.
“Rezzi!?” Lynx yells and pounces on me, pinning me to the ground. Tears stream down his face and mingle with my own. His lips pepper kisses all over me as I feel a tongue on my arm and hands trying to pick me up while Lynx is wrapped around me.
It’s a free-for-all until I’m upright and I’m in a group hug.
“Hey, hey! You’re gonna have to let me go so I can breathe. Please,” I beg, and finally, I get Lynx and everyone to back up a little bit. After rearranging my clothes so they aren’t twisted, I greet everyone with a smile and ask how everyone is doing. “That’s a stupid question,” I realize with a shake of my head. “I’ve seen the walls and know you’ve been through Hell without me,” I try to joke, but it falls flat.
“Where the hell have you been?” Ryker asks.
“And what the fuck were you thinking pulling that stunt back there?” Lynx yells, throwing his arms up in the air. “I’ve never been this pissed off at you in all my fucking lives, and I’ve had two of them as far as I know.”
“Okay. Okay,” I say, trying to soothe him. “First of all, I’m sorry. I don’t know why, but that was a spur-of-the-moment thing, and it worked in the end, right? So you can’t be that upset. You got here, right?” I give Lynx a timid smile that he doesn’t return. He just gives me a perturbed look, so I turn towards Ryker.
“And to answer your question, I’ve been with Beleth. It’s too long to explain, but the short version is he knew my mother and had something to give me, so he wanted to see me again.” I throw my hand up to stop the question on his lips and continue. “I’ll explain later, I promise, but can we just get out of here, please?”
“Sure,” JP speaks up. “It’s perfect timing since you brought up your mother,” he purrs, moving away from the wall and showingmywall murals.
Of fucking course. My wall shows me as a toddler in the monogrammed blanket being held by two different women. Liliwen and Jillian. Both of them could be my mother. One, I grew up with as my mother for the past twenty-three years, and the other, I’ve only been toldmaybe my mother.
How the fuck am I supposed to choose?
