Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Aster
I’m awakened by a soft glowing light. At first, I think it’s a vision or a dream, but then I come fully awake and remember–I no longer have the Sight. I feel relief followed by a sense of loss. It’s worth it, though. I’d trade anything to be with Noah.
Beside me, Noah is looking at something on his phone. That’s the source of the light that woke me. The bedroom curtains are still drawn, and there’s a little light slipping in, but not much. It’s probably just after dawn.
“Hey.” I touch his arm gently and wait for him to turn to me before asking. “What are you doing?”
“Did I wake you?”
“It’s okay.” I snuggle closer to him.
He shows me his phone screen. On a black field, there are two glowing green spots signaling where Noah’s trackers are.
I go to ask a question, and Noah puts a finger to my lips. Eyes and ears, he signs, pointing around the room.
I widen my eyes. If I’m understanding correctly, Noah thinks the Blackthroats are surveilling us.
“Really?” I mouth. I remember Sully telling us the guards would keep their distance, but maybe that promise ended at dawn.
He points to one of the green lights on the screen. O he signs. For Oriana.
L, I sign and point to the other green light. He nods.
I sigh, settling closer. This is why he’s awake so early. He’s watching his mother and half-sister, trying to figure out how to free them. The mark on my shoulder throbs, and my heart swells with tenderness for my caring, courageous mate.
The green light that represents Liora is on the move.
“Gardens,” I mouth to him. Looks like she’s up early to do her chores. “I wish we could see her.”
“I have audio.” He switches over to a text file and hands it over to me. “The tracker listens, but it’s one way. I can’t communicate with her, and I need a computer to access my drones, so I can get visuals. But even then, we won’t be able to talk to her.”
“Maybe Brick will loan you one,” I joke. I’m not sure if the stern Alpha is going to help us yet.
I hope so.
I scroll through the file. It’s a long transcript of all the audio the tracker picked up. A lot of it is garbled, but some of it is tagged as either “Liora” or Unidentified Speaker.”
It’s several pages long. I skim the first few paragraphs and get the gist. I use his phone to type,
Liora’s been ordered by the Warden to help prepare the females for purification.
What’s purification? Noah fingerspells purification.
I love that we’re using ASL for covert communication. I can’t wait to learn enough to be fluent.
For now, I use his phone to type the message.
The Warden sends the females to a sacred spring near the Tower to bathe and prepare for the rites. The Seeress usually oversees it.
That’s probably when Oma started drugging the acolytes to make them docile.
A phantom pain shoots through me, faint but pulsing through my limbs. Is it regret? Or a warning?
No, I don’t have premonitions anymore. This is just my psyche reaching for my gift–and finding nothing.
Maybe I do feel regret.
I bite my lip.
The lunar eclipse is in two days,
Noah types.
We’re running out of time.
Plan?
I type.
He shakes his head. He doesn’t have a plan.
Do you think Brick will help us?
I don’t know.
He takes his phone and swipes back to the screen that shows the black map and green glowing lights of the trackers.
I lay my head on his shoulder. I can’t do much to help him, but at least I can give him comfort as we watch over his mother and sister, together.
Breakfast is on another tray, delivered to our room. This time, there are four stone-faced guards posted right outside our door. There’s more outside our window, patrolling the lawn.
Our reprieve is over.
By mid-morning, Noah is pacing. He’s run his fingers through his hair so many times it’s standing up.
If we were at the cabin, I bet he’d be accessing the drones he left hidden in the treetops on Adalwulf land and flying them all over to see if there’s any weakness we can exploit. But he only has his phone.
I’m no help. Instead of visions and headaches, I feel strangely empty. Adrift. It doesn’t help that the room smells like sex and anxiety.
We need to get a message to Liora. But how?
Noah’s head turns to the door a moment before there’s a knock. Madi, he signs to me, and I open it.
The human stands outside the door, with even more guards crowded in the hall behind her.
“Good morning,” she says while signing. Her fingers move elegantly through the air, like she’s casting a spell. “How’d you sleep?”
“Well,” Noah says and signs. My cheeks heat a little, remembering that all the wolves present can smell evidence of my claiming.
But then I straighten. I’m proud to bear Noah’s mark.
“I thought you might need some clothes, Aster.”
I laugh, looking down at Noah’s shirt that I’ve been living in. At least it’s better than the tourist trap sweatshirt we bought on the way to the Berkshires. Even with the tense meeting yesterday, the howling moon on it got some funny looks. “That would be nice.”
“Noah, you come too,” Madi says, and even though she’s human, I catch a whiff of dominant alpha in her orange blossom scent.
With a ridiculous number of guards trailing us, Madi takes us to her rooms and gives us a tour of the house along the way.
We pass a stuffy-smelling room with a large portrait of an unsmiling man who looks like Brick.
“That was Bruce Blackthroat. The former Alpha. Brick’s father.” Madi’s voice softens.
I shudder, recalling some of the visions I’ve had of the man. Like Odin, he was a vicious leader. If he were in charge, I’d definitely be in the dungeon, probably being tortured.
“Let’s find you some clothes,” Madi offers, beckoning me into a large chamber. Noah lingers in the hallway, letting us have some privacy.
She opens the doors to a large walk-in closet and starts handing me clothes–panties with the tags still on, tank tops, leggings, sweaters.
“The first time I came here, I had no clothes, either,” she shares. “I was stranded here during a snowstorm. Trapped with the wolves for Thanksgiving when they didn’t want me here.”
I hold up one of the sweaters against my body. It’s a soft-knit azure with a scoop neck.
“That will look perfect on you.”
“Thank you. It must’ve been hard to get tangled in pack politics as a human.”
“I didn’t know what they were then. I didn’t even know it when I told Brick I quit and stormed out in a blizzard and then found myself surrounded by a pack of snarling wolves.”
My eyes widen.
Madi gives a soft laugh. “We had a lot to work through.” She glances toward the door. “I imagine you two did, too?”
I bow my head. “Yes. The magic of my Sight was predicated on me remaining unmated. A virgin. I…had to choose between Noah and being Seeress.”
Madi tilts her head. “So…you lost your abilities?”
I nod.
Madi pulls me in for a hug. I stumble into her, freezing at first, then letting the human offer her comfort. I’m not used to being shown empathy or compassion, except from Liora. Now this total stranger seems to understand me more than my entire pack.
I change into a pair of leggings and the sweater, and we walk out of the bedroom together.
“I’m grateful you took the chance to warn me,” Madi says. She keeps resting her hand on her belly, and I don’t think she realizes she’s doing it. “You could’ve just sent a message.”
“We couldn’t risk that you wouldn’t believe me,” Noah says. “It was better for us to come in person. Aster and I believe Fate guided us here.” But he sighs, and Madi’s expression softens.
“You’re worried about your mom.”
“And my sister. Will Brick help us?”
“I don’t know. It’s not that he doesn’t want to, it’s just…”
“He’s responsible for the whole pack,” I say to let her off the hook. “He doesn’t want a war. I understand.”
“He’s in meetings now with his inner circle. But we’ll see him for lunch. In the meantime, is there anything I can do?”
Noah and I glance at each other. There’s so much we need help with, I don’t even know what to say.
I need access to a computer, Noah signs. He doesn’t say anything, which means he doesn’t want the guards to overhear.
Madi leads us back into the hall, where the guards trail us to another library-like room. This one has big, beautiful windows overlooking a green lawn.
“This is my favorite reading room,” Madi says. “I use it as an office.” She holds the door for us but stops her guards from entering. “Noah is helping me with a work project,” she says firmly and shuts the door in their faces.
Once the door’s shut, she’s all business. “Here.” She beckons, leading us to a table that holds a desktop. “You can use this.”
Noah sits down and immediately starts typing.
Thank you, I sign to her, and she nods.
“I’ll be in the next room,” she says and signs and leaves to give us privacy. We’re lucky she’s willing to help us. She probably feels like she owes us.
In fifteen minutes, Noah’s activated one of the dormant drones he left hidden in a pine tree near Moon Hollow.
I hover over his shoulder, watching him pilot it.
We’re in luck, Liora is still out in the forest, working in her favorite garden.
The screen shows the footage the drone is recording, Noah can’t get close because there’s a guard standing near her.
Which makes sense–security will be tighter since Noah and I snuck in and were almost caught.
“Can you get a message to her?” I murmur.
He shakes his head. He can’t move the drone any closer. He told me these drones are state of the art, relaying video and audio to us, but they only work one way.
“Wait.” I grab his arm. “Look at the garden.” Liora seems to be tending it, turning the soil as if she’s preparing it for planting, but she’s spelled out a word with sticks and markings in the dirt. The word Purify.
Purify, I spell it out slowly with my clumsy fingers. Of all the messages Liora could send, why would she choose to spell out that word? Is she referring to the purification ritual?