Chapter 11 #2
“Nope.” I stepped back, Julian letting out a low, threatening rumble at the darkness before shutting the door. He spun around and looked at Caedmon.
“What the hell is your father involved in?”
“Too much shit,” Caedmon muttered, eyeing the door. “Let’s be a bit more cautious about which ones we open.”
Good idea.
After two more attempts out of the four nearby doors, I was feeling worried that we weren’t on the right path, that my idea about the pendant was off.
The second door had revealed an empty space, a single lamp hanging and swinging in the center of the room, just enough to make the room feel eerie.
The third had a similar feeling to the sinister room we had originally encountered, causing me to shut the door as quickly as I had opened it.
But the final? The final was a bit more hopeful.
The room was a deep blue, not stone like the others, and there were curtains hanging on all sides over what appeared to be mirrored surfaces.
The lanterns cast glittering beams of what appeared to be moonlight into the room, all of them focused on a pillar in the center…
…that was empty? But as I stepped closer, I realized there was a stone there.
It was a dazzling lavender gemstone, similar to the one in my pendant but so light that it was almost silver in color and nearly transparent, a faint sparkle giving away its presence.
A cool, soothing sensation ran over my skin, and a sense of peace invaded me, luring me forward.
Common sense and experience warned me that it may not necessarily be a good thing.
“This is it,” I called to the others, prompting Caedmon and Dakota, who had followed behind Julian and I, to step inside and spread out through the room.
“I have no idea what’s going to happen once I touch it.
Hopefully I’ll just get some extra magic, but I may need some help if it reacts the same way the Homura stone did. ”
“At least this seems more like your normal power since it’s lykos-related,” Julian expressed with a note of hope. I appreciated his optimism because I knew all of my mates were uncomfortable with the danger that these situations continuously put me in.
“Julian,” Dakota drew out cautiously, “I think we should have Coffin on standby for this. I would love to say that we’ll be able to help, but her magic may push us out again. I have no idea how Ryder broke past it, but we can count on Coffin doing some crazy shit.”
Julian grunted. “The bastard loves that you think that.”
Caedmon smirked, seeming to find it amusing.
“I’m hoping it’ll be easier this time,” I whispered, licking my lips nervously as I approached the stone. Lifting my pendant, I kept my gaze on the gorgeous Fengari Stone…before hanging mine above it.
At first, nothing happened.
So much so that I wondered if we had the wrong stone.
I startled at the sound of a sharp crack, looking up to find jagged veins of ice splintering the mirrors.
My magic left me in a whoosh of defensiveness as my mates rushed to me, crowding me protectively.
The ice continued to spread, deep groans filling the room as it thickened until the walls were completely frozen over, caging us in a glacial prison.
My breathing picked up as I was suddenly jolted forward, my magic trying to hold me in place as the pendant created an electric line of energy between itself and the stone.
I shivered as my breath fogged the room.
My mates were saying something, but I couldn’t hear them over the phantom wind that circled the space, howling against the walls.
I closed my eyes, disoriented by the magic spinning through the room and pouring into me.
It was like being pumped with adrenaline.
It was enhancing my lykos magic, and suddenly I felt almost manic with the intensity of it.
My eyes began to dart around behind my lids, and I trembled, trying to hold still.
I couldn’t afford to shift, not yet. My magic tightened around my mates as they moved closer, and when my eyes snapped open I saw that icy thorns had grown from the walls, all pointing towards us.
Dakota shouted something, fingers of ice freezing the tips of his hair, but I couldn’t hear him, the wind growing more vicious as if trying to block out his words
Then the moon appeared.
I hissed as the ceiling cracked open and a giant, shining silver orb appeared, filling the space with light and highlighting each icy thorn.
I felt hypnotized until Caedmon’s power lashed out, making me look back at him.
His eyes were flashing purple, making me wonder if he was going to shift.
Could Caedmon even do that if he wasn’t being ‘called’ by the moon?
I didn’t think so, but now I was second-guessing myself.
It would be bad if he shifted with all of us so close.
“Caedmon!” I yelled, but my voice was cut off as a bolt of power slammed into me.
I gasped at the purple power coursing through me, icy blue streaks belonging to a part of me I had long forgotten.
It all began to surface though, instinctive magic attached to hidden memories.
My breathing was irregular and I nearly fell to the ground, my body feeling as if it were being pulled in a million different directions by frigid hands.
Visions began to flash by, and this time they weren’t of the past…they were of the present. And an unavoidable future—if it wasn’t stopped. If they weren’t stopped. I could see it in startling and horrifying detail.
I could see the faces of men like Hastain around the world.
Men who traded in flesh, planning to use young women just like me.
They would rip families apart—take mothers from their children, severing familial and mate bonds alike, and take daughters from the protection of their loving communities.
They would celebrate their financial gain while women everywhere became slaves to men willing to buy their mates—willing to force a connection that should have been natural.
A cry of frustration left my throat, so many emotions all swarming me at once.
I was feeling agony and a furious anger, a tremble rocketing through me and causing me to feel like I was going to burst from my very skin.
I couldn’t let this happen. I couldn’t let this potential future solidify into reality.
I would do anything to stop it.
Tears leaked down my face realizing the true size of this problem, and seeing what it could grow into broke me down until I felt raw. Mona was right—this was much larger than Silver Falls University.
I had to open the gate.
I had to let out the true magic, because we would need all the help we could get.
A final shot of magic pulsed through me, and then everything snapped shut at once.
Like Pandora’s box closing, the room went absolutely silent.
I sank to my knees, gasping as I held onto the pendant, feeling a weird sense of determination and anger.
I knew so much and so little. I knew what I needed to do…
but not how. I had no idea where this gate even was.
I could also feel that my magic had once again shifted.
I didn’t know what that meant or how my magic would behave anymore, but I was stronger and it was eager under my skin—almost violently playful, wanting to break out.
There was also an element to it that was familiar, very familiar and far more natural to me than the effects of the other stone had been.
“Keep it together; Effie is right fucking here. You’ll hurt her,” Julian demanded, his voice filled with an alpha command that had Caedmon letting out a feral noise.
I turned to find Caedmon stock still, fighting his shift as Dakota looked around at the icy walls, probably wondering how the hell we were going to get out of here.
“Let’s get out of here,” Dakota bit out, looking at the door through the ice wall. “I don’t know how—”
Suddenly the door on the outside glowed red, and I backed up with the others as the ice melted before the wood frame was kicked in.
Tore and Ryder stood there looking panicked, their eyes locking with mine.
I was so thankful now that they’d decided to stay out there.
Caedmon cursed, relief filling our bond as he slipped from the room, obviously needing space.
I went to follow him, but Julian snagged me around the waist as Tore turned to do the same, looking concerned.
“Give him just a minute. If he needs to shift, I want you away for the actual shift part—he would never forgive himself over the knowledge that he could’ve hurt you,” Julian explained, and I nodded in understanding.
I could hear Dakota explaining to Ryder what happened as I looked back at the Fengari Stone, sitting silently as if it hadn’t just turned this place into a polar vortex.
Or maybe that had been my magic more than the stone.
I really needed to understand my new magic more. Magic that…was from the divine realm. It almost seemed impossible. Then again, so did most of my life lately.
“We need to get the hell out of here. I think there’s a second exit through one of these rooms,” Ryder said. “I’ll ask Caedmon.”
“We can’t risk going out the front—they’re still there,” Tore agreed from a distance. Caedmon was pacing, the ritual succeeding in calming him. I craved to comfort him but gave him the space he seemed to need for the moment.
“There is a secondary exit.” Caedmon snapped his head up. “It’s the way they used to dispose of the bodies. Over here.”
Everyone grabbed their bags, which had been brought inside by the attendants, and I followed them as I mulled over everything that had happened. Ryder paused, letting me catch up to him. “I’m relieved that went better than the other.”
“It did and didn’t,” I murmured. They all stopped, staring at me.
“What do you mean?”
“I…I saw how bad it could become,” I whispered. “We have to open the gate. There’s no way we can handle this on our own.”