AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kai didn’t even want to think about what that meant in the grander scheme of things. He leaned his elbows on the table, falling forward to rest his forehead in his palms, groaning.
Rhydian slapped a heavy hand on his back, a roughness that would’ve spawned a brawl between them for fun if Kai had been up to shoving him back. “You’ve both killed the Wilds’s population of bak between you. Is being Goddess-blessed truly a shock?” A rash exaggeration.
“No,” Kai breathed. “It just means there’s a wider target on our backs.”
Rhydian dropped his hand. “From the Imperial Alpha?”
“From anyone.” Kai sat up. “Everyone.”
Do you think things will ever become simple? Where we can just be happy and old and in love,Isla’s voice rang in his head.
Never simple—and now, he’d further delve into the complications.
“Since we’re vetoing our ‘no freaky shit’talk rule that we had,” Kai began, snagging Jonah’s attention. “The ceremonial knife we used to cut our palms for the ritual looks just like the one Isla got from Lukas. From the witch. I never realized it before, but it’s the one I used. The one that’s been used for generations of Alphas and Lunas of Deimos. Across all the packs, maybe, if it’s meant to mimic the one ‘crafted by the goddesses’ for the first alphas.”
A light came to Jonah’s eyes, clearly thriving off all the madness and curiosities. The man loved puzzles and mysteries, always had. “Did Isla feel drawn to it?”
“Not in any unnatural way. Not like the one we have.”
Jonah hummed, his gaze drifting out, up, over the crowd as he thought. “I’ve decoded the book to the extent where I know it’s chronicling Aneurin’s reign, to the point I know there’s more out there talking about the war between the packs during his rule. I’ve mapped those markers to figure out where the tunnels connect to us, but there are three things Ican’tfigure out.” He stuck out a hand, counting off, “Oneis why Isla feels the way she does with the dagger and diadem.
“Tworelates to that because of the woman from the artwork that’s holding what looks like them. Because she’s not the witch who’s been terrorizing you, but somehow, the enchanted necklace she put on Daisy connectedherto Isla that night.”
Kai held in, for now, that Isla told him that woman had been in her nightmare last night.
Jonah continued, “I thought I’d been piecing her together, but at most, I can assume she’s tied to Ares. The wording on the back of the art is directionless—just some poem about wilting flowers, lightning strikes, and stars. There’s not even a proper flow to it. It’s like they pulled fragments of a longer piece and scribbled them there. I can’t even fathom how or why I found it where I did. It’s like someone put it there for me…which brings me to the last thing.”
With the exasperated way he’d said it, Kai almost didn’t want to know. “And what’s that?”
It was Rhydian who threw his arms out like he’d heard this tirade before and presented grandly, “Why?”
Kai looked from one twin to the other, and Jonah nodded to confirm Rhydian was right. “I hate the idea that everything happens for a reason. I fuckinghate it.” Kai knew exactly why, since they all bonded over ghosts. “But all of this coming together can’t be a coincidence. Deimos, Phobos, Ares, Io. Fragments of war. How everything is going to shit now. The patterns are there. And either we’re mortal and just trying to craft something extraordinary from our mundane, short existence, the goddesses are bored and like seeing us play detective, or there’s one last piece out there that we’re missing that winds this all together and makes the picture as clear as it’s meant to be, and thereissomething much bigger that we should be doing.”
One last piece.
The moon, Kai thought, but never got to say.
He wasn’t sure what came first: the pain then the thunder, or the thunder then the pain. Regardless, nearly in time, he felt the reverberating slam of it through his soul, his splitting head only saved by his fingers pressed to his temples.
In one gargantuan wave, the world pushed in. Unrelenting. Brash.Too much. Everyone and everything. The sounds of the crowd, the scents, and the auras.He couldn’t breathe.
Something hit his shoulder—a hand—and it may as well have been a bolt of lightning.
Kai winced as a well of pressure built in him that made him feel like he’d burst. Rhydian recoiled slowly,a grimace on his face though concern shone in his eyes.
“Are you good?” he asked, but his words echoed in Kai’s pounding head.
Darkness began spotting his vision as he tried to focus on him. “I’m fine.”
Kai felt it then, almost saw it, smelled it, and tasted it, that link, that tether, that doorway into his brother’s head.
Rhydian blinked heavily once. Twice. His features twisted as his hand went to his nose…where crimson trickled down onto his upper lip. “What the hell?”
Kai nearly fell out of his chair as he yanked his power back, jumping to his feet in time and putting a healthy distance between them. “I,” he panted. He needed to stay calm. Emotions drovethis.Think of Isla.“I forgot I had to speak to Sol about something.”
“On the Equinox?”Jonah asked, watching him too closely. The doorway in his mind had been eternally shut, but still, Kai felt like he didn’t need it. He could break all the walls down.
“Busy times,” he said, glancing up and away. The clouds swirled, and…were the stars moving?Goddess, his fucking head.“Rhydian, Davina wanted you, and when Isla shows up,” he gritted out. “Tell her I’ll be right back.”
