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She pulled back and laid me against her so she could lift my left hand and quickly slip a moonstone with a golden band on my pinky finger. I watched as the moonstone swiftly began to change colors until it shone an iridescent shade that ignited a wave of chill that rushed down my spine. It was followed with a wave of warmth — and the two temperatures danced back and forth until I not only felt like my normal self, I didn’t have an ounce of fear in me.
“What the…” I whispered and managed to sit up without any assistance. “Wow. What magic juju is in this ring?”
I glanced around to realize the room was practically packed with everyone from the Forbidden Pack, Roberto, Ruby, Malachite, and of course, Queen Elphaba.
“It’s a Fae Soul ring. It's given to every heir before they venture into Faerie,” Ruby announced and looked far too relieved that I was okay. “It should have been given to you during the after party of the runway, but we know how that went down.”
“Which is why I encouraged you to let your mother know of your departure before you went,” Roberto reminded me and gave me a scowling frown.
“It skipped our minds,” I genuinely argued with a sigh. “There was an ambush while we were trying to bring Malika back to Faerie and I got tossed into the portal. Amos went after me, and since then, I felt like utter shit. Then I think I dreamed about the past therapy sessions with the Vile Queen or something. Auraleia was there,” I voiced and looked for the woman in question, who I realized was now Amos as he was sitting up from what I’d assume was Fae version of a massage table.
“Well, that was agonizingly painful,” he huffed and glanced at me. He looked pleased that I was actually okay as he gave me a weak smile. “At least you’re not dying.”
“I was not dying,” I huffed but noticed how Neo and Arthur were still concentrating on the canvases they were drawing on. “Wait. You guys did the memory retrieval?”
“That’s why you woke up screaming,” Dimitris revealed and looked to the two that were clearly adding the final touches to whatever they were drawing. They seemed to be in some sort of trance, which was why even though the connection they had with us was broken, their attention was solely on the large piece before them.
None of us could get a glimpse, but I felt like we’d get the results in a few moments.
“Wait. What do you mean the time changed?” Jayce brought up and we all glanced to Queen Elphaba as a grim expression formed on her face.
“The Coven requested a time change because today is a Full Moon. You know they’re weaker versus us wolf shifters who are at our peak strength. They wished to start an hour earlier.”
“An hour…” I whispered as my eyes grew wide. “Fuck. Don’t tell me we’re going to miss it?”
She tried to hide her own conflict as she stared back at me, but she told us the truth. “Unless you all are planning to leave in five minutes, I don’t think we’ll make it before the execution. The location is also covered with barriers so the only way you can get to the exact location is by foot.”
“We can still shift through,” Saint brought up.
“You can,” Queen Elphaba emphasized.
“Then we’re going,” Malachite surprisingly declared. “Even if all of us can’t go at once, we can bring the evidence.”
“Did you guys confirm who the Vile Queen is?” Roberto asked the lingering question, and we could only turn to Neo and Arthur as they both seemed to blink out of their dazes.
“Shit,” Neo cursed while Arthur looked almost defeated. “Well, looks like we’re fucked.”
“What do you mean?” I dared to ask as I held my breath at their apprehensive expressions.
“Let’s see the results,” Roberto urged.
Neo and Arthur looked over at one another, and with a nod together, they rose up and lifted their canvases. Walking to stand next to each other, they faced our side of the room as they turned the large graphic over to reveal the inevitable.
And my heart sank.
“A…Aurelia?” I whispered as disappointment consumed me. Both of them had drawn a face portrait — half being human, while the other reflected the frightening image of the burned woman who stared back at me with the chainsaw.
There was no way around seeing the ultimate truth in the human side of the paintings.
“How? This…can’t be,” I whispered but was surprised to feel Mother’s hands that gripped my shoulder in support.
“That’s perfect,” she declared and we looked at her with confused looks.
“Perfect?” Milo questioned. “That’s clear proof that Aurelia did it!”
“That’s not my sister,” Amos announced, and we looked at him as he shook his head.
“That’s Aurelia, Amos,” Onyx pressed, but Amos only shook his head harder.
