Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
A riana moved across the compound, her boots crunching on the compacted snow as she muttered under her breath about a certain male wolf who thought he could give her orders. The sky overhead was a dark gray and threatened to open up and drop several inches of snow on them. It didn’t deter her. She clung to the determination that she was going to help Vilkas and find out where the blade that had caused so much damage came from.
“Where are you going?” Colt stormed up next to her, his mood as gray as the clouds above.
“I think you know the answer to that.”
“You were supposed to wait for me before attempting to connect to the curse,” he growled.
While she could appreciate he wanted to protect his pack and cure Vilkas, his alphaness was becoming overbearing. “You were busy, and I am quite capable of handling these things on my own. It was why I was sent here.”
They entered the medical building with a tension between them so tight she expected it to snap at any second. She was only two footsteps in when the dark magic wrapped itself around her, leaving bile in the back of her throat.
I can do this. She took a deep breath and walked into the room, where the soft hum of medical equipment greeted her. Vilkas lay still, his coloring scarcely better than when she’d first seen him. Millie sat by his side, her forehead resting on their clasped hands. Whispers of hope and love drifted through the air.
“Millie,” Ariana’s voice was gentle, not wanting to startle the exhausted shifter. Millie looked up, her eyes heavy with fatigue but gleamed with a flicker of desperate hope.
“Any changes?” Ariana asked as she approached the bed, mentally preparing herself to once again face the unsettling power she had encountered in Vilkas’s wound.
Millie shook her head. “He’s been feverish, tossing a bit, but no real improvement. What… what can you do?”
Ariana offered her a reassuring smile. “I’m here to check on his progress and see if I can understand more about the dark magic affecting him. We’ll figure this out. I promise.” She reached out and laid a hand on Millie’s arm. In a split second, she sent healing energy to the female and was happy to see a bit of color come back into her cheeks.
Ignoring the alpha brooding next to her, she placed her hands above Vilkas’ wound, the faint pulse of magic beat beneath her fingertips. She closed her eyes and reached out with her senses, tapping into the energy within the room. The threads of power were tangled and faint, yet they offered a pathway she hesitated to follow. Taking a deep breath, she plunged into the weave of dark magic.
The nausea hit her again, a familiar yet unwelcome sensation. Ignoring it, she allowed her consciousness to delve further into the wound. The glowing white light persisted, throbbing with a menacing rhythm. She focused, trying to connect with the power within it, hoping to trace it back to its source. Suddenly, she found herself in a dark cavern. Ancient glyphs adorned the walls, shimmering like silver under a ghostly light. In the center stood the blade, suspended within a beam of moonlight that poured through a crack in the cavern’s ceiling. The ancient power crawled across her skin, causing her to shiver. Not even Hades gave off this much power, and he was the most powerful god she knew.
She swallowed bile, and her stomach churned, threatening to expel its contents. Still, she took a step closer.
The blade pulsed with an energy that felt otherworldly. Wisps of black smoke curled and twisted from the blade’s steel edge and shimmered with faint hues of deep violet and midnight blue. As she reached her hand out toward it, the air was so cold it burned her fingers, causing her to pull back. Mesmerized by both its beauty and darkness, she caught a brief glimpse of starlight flickering in the smoke. The power from it vibrated in her chest until her heart beat in rhythm.
Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, causing her to take a step back. It was then she noticed tiny rocks breaking free from the cavern wall and hurling themselves toward the blade, only to be swallowed by the blackness that surrounded it.
She gasped. “Oh, dear gods!” Then, she was suddenly pushed back into the hospital room.
“Ariana?” Colt shouted.
She looked up at him, her body shaking violently.
“Holy shit, your eyes… They’re black.” He reached for a blanket to wrap around her, but she stopped him.
“No. Give me a minute.” She feared if anyone came too close to her, she might pull them into this magical nightmare she was trying to expel from her body.
“Fuck!” He scraped his fingers through his hair. “Should I get Maya?”
She shook her head. “No. I’ll be fine.” If only she could shake free of the cold that seemed to freeze her very bones.
“Fuck this,” he snarled and before she could protest, he wrapped a blanket around her and pulled her into his warm embrace. “You’re freezing.” He rubbed her back, and she sank into his heat.
She inhaled his woodsy scent and tried to ground herself. Minutes ticked by with her melted into him before she could lift her head from his shoulder and look up at him.
“It’s bad,” she whispered.
“I told you this wasn’t a good idea. Are you all right?” The concern etched on his face made her want to curl into him further and never leave.
“I’m better, but we have a problem. This isn’t just any blade. It’s infused with the essence of a dying star.”
His gaze narrowed. “A dying star? What does that even mean?”
“It means,” Ariana said, steadying herself, “it’s an immortal killer.”
The emotions that passed through his blue eyes went from panic to pure alpha determination. “Okay, how the hell do we find it?”
“I need to speak to the king,” she said.
“Aidyn,” Colt murmured, the name almost a growl on his lips. He wasn’t keen on the idea, she could tell. The vampire king wasn’t someone Colt had the best rapport with. “Is that really necessary now?”
“It is,” she countered, the pull of urgency tugging at her. She forced herself to step out of his embrace, missing his warmth, the hardness of his muscles.
“You don’t understand—if the blade is as ancient as I suspect, Aidyn might have knowledge that no one else does. He’s been around for millennia, and he’s bound to have come across something like this, or at the very least, heard of it.”
Colt was silent for a long moment, his lips pressed together into a thin line. “Go,” he finally said, his voice rough but resigned.
She gave him a nod, and without another word, closed her eyes and tapped into the thread of power that linked her to her king—the god who had sent her on this perilous mission. The world around her shimmered, bending like light on water before collapsing inward. In a heartbeat, her feet hit solid ground. She opened her eyes and found herself in a grand, open portico, its marble columns towered around her like silent sentinels. White stone gleamed under the dim light. Its streaked veins of red, orange, and black, a stark contrast. A bronze statue of the phoenix rose majestically in the center, with wings spread wide, and water trickled around its taloned feet, breaking the silence.
This was the home of Aidyn when he was busy being the phoenix god and not the vampire king.
She moved forward, her thoughts fixated on the blade—its edge forged from a dying star, its purpose to kill immortals. Her heart clenched with the weight of the truth she carried. Immortals were dying, and if this weapon was in the wrong hands, their entire world was at risk.
As her gaze swept across the room, she felt his presence before she saw him. Aidyn sat on a throne at the far end, draped in shadows. The faint flicker of fire danced in his eyes. He wore an Egyptian shendyt and a lavish usekh collar crafted from gold and precious gems of orange and red adorned his neck. In the middle was a hematite scarab.
“Ariana, I am surprised to see you. Have you healed the shifter’s pack member?” He rose from his throne and walked to greet her.
“Sire.” She gave a deep curtsey. “I have not been able to fully heal the shifter, but I have learned some information about the blade that has caused his wound.” She straightened and stuck out her arm, offering her wrist. “Take my memories.”
With the swiftness of a vampire who had lived for thousands of years, Aidyn’s fangs extended. He took Ariana’s wrist and bit into her vein. It only took a small sip of her blood for him to connect to her and delve into her mind. A moment later, he sealed her wound and took a step back.
“An immortal killer!” He paced the room, his every step a powerful reminder of what he was. An ancient being who held more power in his pinky than she could even imagine.
“Are you familiar with it?”
He scratched his darkened jaw. “No, and I thought the dagger I created long ago was the only immortal killer. Perhaps Ra would know, but he has gone back to sleep. No one can raise him.” His gaze narrowed. “However, you are welcome to search my ancient library. There are texts in there, not even I have laid eyes on.”
She had seen that library. It was enormous and held an eternity of information. She couldn’t go through it alone. “I need help.”
“I have vampire business to attend to, but I’m sure Hannah would assist. I also grant permission for you to bring two people of your choosing from the pack as well.” He sighed, concern etched on his forehead. “I know I don’t have to tell you how imperative it is to find this blade.”
“I understand, and I will read every book in the library if I have to.”
He gave a nod. “Take care, Ariana. I have every faith in your ability.” Then he faded into the shadows.
She let out a long breath. “I wish I did.”
Ariana rubbed the sting on her wrist where Aidyn had bitten her. The gravity of the situation weighed heavily on her. Immortal killer. The words clanged inside her mind like bells of doom, painting the situation in shades of dire consequences. Ra couldn’t be raised—a dead end that made frustration tighten deep within her. But at least Aidyn’s library offered a potential path forward.
Flashing back from the towering halls of his sanctuary, she landed once again on the snow-dusted grounds of the Moonshadow compound. The cold bit at her cheeks and the freezing wind rushed to greet her almost as swiftly as Colt did.
“Well?” he demanded, his breath coming out in visible puffs in the frosty air. His gaze searched hers for answers that Ariana herself had yet to find.
“Aidyn doesn’t know about the blade,” she said. “But he has a library of ancient texts. Some that even he hasn’t gone through. There might be something there?—”
“Library?” Colt interrupted, pinching the bridge of his nose as if trying to contain a headache born of stress and impatience. “You think some dusty old book will help us find who did this? Ariana, we’re running out of time.” He rolled his fingers into fists. “Not to mention what happened to you when you tried to connect with the magic. What happens if we actually locate this blade? The gods should step up for this one,” he growled.
“You know their rules.”
“Yeah, never interfere.” His wolf shimmered beneath his skin, making his presence hum with energy in the same way the low growl behind his words seemed to vibrate in her bones. But, despite everything, she remained calm.
“It may be our only chance,” she said. “Unless you know someone who’s immortal and can tell us how to neutralize this weapon.” She didn’t mean for the retort to come out as snappish as it had, but Colt’s relentlessness grated against the pressure already building inside her. “This isn’t just any curse or wound, Colt.”
He didn’t like the answer; she could see it in the way his jaw tensed, in the lines he pressed into the snow with his pacing. Protective alpha. He desired a problem that he could solve with strength—or at least one he could hunt down or throttle into submission. But this was darker, more insidious.
“I have permission to bring two of your pack with me,” Ariana continued, softening her tone. “Hannah, who is a good friend and a demigoddess, will help, and between Maya’s magic and wisdom, and Dylan’s medical expertise, we’ll have the best chance at finding a solution.”
Colt stopped abruptly and faced her, his eyes narrowed with uncertainty. “You’re risking a lot on books and old spells.”
“I’m risking it because it’s the best lead we have.” Her voice was firm but calm. “Look, I know you want to act, to be proactive, but rushing in blindly won’t help Vilkas, and it certainly won’t stop whoever is behind this weapon from striking again.”
His mouth twisted, as if searching for another argument, but after a long breath, he relented. “Fine. We’ll do it your way… for now. But I’m coming too. I want to know everything that’s going on.”
She wanted to protest, to tell him that his presence right now was a distraction in more ways than one. But she knew to deny him would only build more tension between them, and that would serve no one.
“Fine. You and Maya then. Dylan will have to stay behind. I’ll be right back.”