38. Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Bellarose
“ I t’s a wild animal, buddy. It needs to be free. Imagine if you couldn’t ever leave the pack house? That would make you very sad, wouldn’t it?” I tried to soothe my inconsolable child.
“Everyone is leaving!”
And that was the root of the problem. As he cried and clutched the hat he hadn’t let go since Cade left, Adam let me know just how deep his hurt ran. But what was I supposed to do? Ask Cade to visit the child of the woman who broke his heart? One that he had no relation to? I would do it. For Adam, I would do anything. I would even ask Violet to do the exchange if he didn’t want to see me, but I needed to give him time before I asked Violet to go see him for me. We didn’t leave things in a good place, and I needed him to see past the hurt, and do what was best for my child.
“Cade didn’t leave you, Monkey. He left me, and I’m so sorry you miss him.” I hugged him, feeling a few stray tears leave my eyes. “Maybe Violet can take you to see him once in a while? He’s going to live close by.” So, I was told. I still had no idea where he’d gone. I avoided anything that had to do with him leaving like the plague.
“Promise?”
“I promise to try. But remember, in a few months, you’re going to be a big brother, and Uncle Cory has little cousins for you to play with, and Aunt Violet and Uncle Chris are also going to have a little cousin for you. You’re going to have so many people to hang out with! How about you take a little nap, and then we’ll go down and sneak the last of the ice cream cake before dinner?” I suggested.
Was I bribing my child? Yes. But I felt fucking guilty that I was the reason for his heartbreak.
I tucked him in and turned off the light, hoping he would nap for a couple of hours, and be in a calmer mood when he woke up. I stepped out of the room, intending to take a long shower and have a good cry, but as I turned from the door, I saw Hugh approaching.
“Luna, can I have a quick word?”
“I’m not a Luna anymore, Hugh.”
“You’re always going to be Luna to me.”
“What’s up?” I asked, not having the energy to argue.
“I have nothing to do. I was wondering if I could head out to Crescent Moon early. I want to see where I could fit in there.”
“That’s fine, Hugh. I appreciate you staying behind to help sort everything.”
“It was the least I could do. I think you got the shit end of the stick. You would have made a good alpha.”
“Thanks. Go rest. It’s a long drive to Arizona.”
“Will do. If you need me to take anything with me, let me know.”
I went into my room and laid down on the bed, brooding. I thought I would have made a decent alpha, too. Hell, all I wanted at the start was to be a decent Luna. Now, my stubbornness and trauma from trying to be something I hadn’t been destined for, robbed me of the only man I ever fell in love with. I pulled my phone from my back pocket and looked for Cade’s number. I wanted to call him so badly. At least hear his voice, even if it was to tell me not to call him again.
I placed a hand on my stomach. I was growing his babies. The type of man Cade was, he would take me as his Luna even if he didn’t love me anymore, because that’s the type of man he was. I put the phone down and sobbed into the pillow. I already went through one loveless mating. I wouldn’t survive another one. I wouldn’t survive Cade’s cold attitude toward me when I’d already had his love once. I stood up instead of calling him. A shower was a good idea after all.
I stood under the shower, hoping the hot water would calm my feelings. I had three pups to take care of now. I was starting therapy when I returned to Crescent Moon, and I hoped one day to be able to move on from all of this. I couldn’t change the past. I could only try to be better in the future. After I got out of the shower, I changed and went to see if Adam had managed to fall asleep. I sighed when I saw he wasn’t in bed. His hat wasn’t there, so he must have gone looking for candy, or Violet.
“Are you trying to steal more candy, my little chocolate thief?” I called down as I headed to the kitchen, but frowned when I didn’t find him there.
I walked to the living room, but he wasn’t there. I ran back up to the alpha floor and over to Violet’s room. It was still empty. I dialed her phone, but it went to voicemail shortly after.
My heart was beating out of my chest, so I ran down one floor and knocked on Hugh’s room, still trying to call my sister.
“Is Adam here?” I asked, pushing past him in my panic to look for my pup.
“No. Is he missing?” Hugh asked.
The open suitcases on his bed told me he was in the middle of packing his things.
“I can’t find him. I left him to nap like forty-five minutes ago.”
“I’ll search the bottom two floors. You take the alpha floor. Maybe he thinks he’s playing hide and seek?”
“Okay.” I nodded, trying to calm my racing heart, but unable to. “Fuck!” I screamed.
“We’ll find him. He can’t have gone far.”
I ran up to the alpha floor and straight into Cade’s old room, hoping like me, Adam found comfort in this room. When I didn’t find him there, I went room to room, calling out his name and hoping to hear his giggles. My phone rang suddenly, and I answered with a half sob.
“What’s wrong?” Violet asked.
“I can’t find Adam. I think he ran away.”
“Have you looked in the kitchen?” she asked.
“Yes, and the living room, Cade’s room, Hugh’s room. He’s not anywhere, Violet.”
“Okay. Don’t panic. He’s a little boy. He can’t have gone far. Where are you right now?”
“Looking room to room on the alpha floor. Hugh’s looking in the bottom two.”
“Okay. We’ll head toward the front door and see if we can smell him around any of the paths and follow his scent.”
“Oh. Good idea. I’ll go to the back door.”
“We’ll find him, Bells.”
I ran downstairs when I didn’t find him on the alpha floor. There were footprints in the slush leading away from the back door, but they weren’t Adam’s. The footprints were too big. Still, instinct told me they shouldn’t be there. Violet was with Chris so these weren’t hers, as there wasn’t a second set of footprints. They looked too small to be Hughs, and the most concerning thing was that they were fresh, and I couldn’t smell who they might belong to.
I shot off a text to Violet as I entered the woods so she knew where I was looking. The tracks were harder to follow here but I didn’t care, because I passed by a tree and caught the scent of Adam lingering on the bark. My knee gave in and I dropped to the ground, when I heard Adam cry out in pain somewhere ahead of me. I scrambled up and ran. Fear gripped me when I saw Cade’s hat lying on the ground. I picked it up as I ran, knowing Adam would never willingly leave it behind.
I made it into a clearing and skidded to a stop, the sight before me both terrifying and infuriating.
“What the hell are you doing with my child, Martha,” I growled.
My ex-mother-in-law was standing on the other end of the clearing. The area was oddly missing snow. Instead, the cold dark ground was covered with strange rocks, in a pattern I could not discern this close to it, except to say it was somewhat circular. Ever so often, the pattern of regular rocks was disrupted with black ones with a carved rune on its surface. I couldn’t recognize what they could be.
“Waiting for you, Rose.”
“Why? I thought you left weeks ago.”
“I was at a hotel nearby, biding my time. I needed you to put your guard down.”
“For what? What the fuck is this, Martha?” I growled, though by this setup, I was guessing she was the blood magic user Uncle Helios warned me about.
Which meant I needed to get Adam away from her and fast. The problem was the ceremonial-looking knife she was holding to my little boy’s throat right now.
“This? Didn’t Brandon tell you anything, silly girl?”
“Brandon never told me shit!”
“I meant before you killed him that night?” Martha hissed and every word died on my lips. She knew. She knew all this time and she didn’t say anything. Against all attempts to stay in the present, my mind went back to that night.
“Brandon! There you are.” I ran into my luna office, wondering why he was in there, but we had bigger things to worry about. “Rogues are attacking! There are so many of them. They breached the eastern borders. Everyone’s looking for you, but you blocked off your mind-link. We need to help our warriors. They’re getting overwhelmed.” I grabbed his arm to drag him with me, but he broke my grip, making me stumble a step as I regained my balance.
“No. We don’t,” Brandon growled.
“What do you mean? We’re getting slaughtered. There’s too many!” How many times did I not suggest we kick up the training in the last year?
“They’re here for you, Bells.” Brandon leaned back against the desk. One leg crossed one over the other as if he was unbothered by what was happening.
“What do you mean? How do you know?”
“Because they told me.” His words were like buckets of ice over me.
“They t—me?” I asked weakly.
Brandon nodded.
“Someone wants you dead. The precious wayward pup.” A shiver of fear ran down my spine at the hateful tone he was using.
“And, you’re letting them?” I wanted to confirm.
Things were never the best between us. I wanted what my parents had. I wanted that type of love, and while I still struggled to understand why I couldn’t have that, I was doing better at adjusting to my life. I no longer cried when he took another to his bed. I didn’t threaten to reject him. I was trying so hard to be the mate he needed, hoping one day we could at least have a mating I could be at peace with.
“Yes.”
“How can you let them kill me? Even if you don’t love me, it would weaken you and your wolf,” I reminded him.
He simply shrugged.
“I’m carrying your pup!” I screamed as tears ran down my face.
All the years. All the insults I took because I wanted to wait to have pups, and he screamed at me that I was a worthless Luna, if I refused to do the one thing I was designed for. Did none of that matter now that he had gotten his wish?
“Too late .” Brandon shrugged again.
“So, you’re just going to let them take your mate?” I asked, a sudden numbness washing over me. I knew now that it would have never been enough for him no matter what I did. He would have found fault with me because he didn’t love me. And, I never would have been happy because I didn’t love him.
“Oh, no. You misunderstand. I’m not handing you over.” His face transformed with the grin that appeared on it. This was probably the happiest I’d ever seen Brandon since the day we left Crescent Moon to come here, and his next words told me why. “I get the honor of killing you.”
Before I could process his cold words, Brandon lunged with a silver knife I didn’t know he was holding aimed at my heart. I barely managed to dodge it, feeling the silver edge cutting my shirt and slicing into my shoulder. The silver burned, but not as much as hearing Coyo howling with heartbreak in the back of my mind, seeing his wolf present in his eyes, and also willing to kill his mate.
We can’t let him win. We have a pup to think about, I reminded her.
Coyo stopped howling and flowed strength into me. I pushed Brandon away, and he stumbled back with some surprise. I used the moment to open the door and run, but I wasn’t fast enough. I was barely able to dodge the knife by diving to the side.
“Get back here, you bitch!” Brandon snarled, swinging the knife in an arc from left to right to slice me.
I backed away just in time, but I wasn’t able to move away much. The office wasn’t that big. I hit the back of the desk painfully, trying to avoid the blade that was inches away from my heart; the only thing stopping it was my hand wrapped around the blade. My lower back spasmed in pain, but I couldn’t give into it. I lost everything, but I need to keep fighting for the life of my unborn pup. It couldn’t end like this. All the sacrifice, the tears, the struggle to be happy. If my pup was the reason for it all, I would still call myself lucky.
Coyo lent me her strength, and I recalled the training Brenda gave me growing up. I brought my knee up, connecting with sensitive flesh. Brandon groaned and released the knife. I grabbed it with my uninjured hand and plunged it into Brandon’s shoulder. He reared back in pain, but I didn’t give him a chance to react. I pulled out the knife and plunged it in again, right in the heart this time. Brandon stopped, crumbling to the ground, finally still.
I slid down to the floor, my good hand covering my mouth as I finally allowed myself to process what just happened. My mate was dead. I was alone, with a pup on the way.
I struggled to stand, the wound on my shoulder trying to mend itself, my back screaming at me in pain. My hand slipped on the hardwood floor covered in blood, making me drop to the floor again with a cry. I crawled toward the body, pulling the blade out of Brandon and plunging it back into his heart.
Once I was sure he was dead, I let the tears fall from my eyes, wetting my shirt as I moved to cradle his face, wondering if there had been any point in our time together, where we could have made this work. Did we ever have a chance?
A sudden sharp pain rippled through my abdomen. Coyo’s howl as I felt liquid soaking my pants was deafening, as was the sob that tore from my throat.
A rogue crashed through the window, and I scrambled up. It took only thirty seconds for me to rip the rogue’s throat out, and then I slid down the wall in a corner of the room, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Luna, we—” One of our warriors burst through the door, and looked at the mess. “We need to get you out of here. If the rogues can kill Alpha Brandon, we need to get you somewhere safe.”
He hurried over the bodies and lifted me to my feet. Another pain in my abdomen made me bend in half and another sob left me. As we left the office, I felt my twin pulling at the mind-link.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Martha,” I told her, coming back to the present.
“Please. There’s no one else it could have been. The rogues were under my orders not to harm him, and he was going to kill you. It’s the only explanation. I always suspected he was a weak idiot.”
“What did I ever do to you?” I asked, wanting an explanation for why this was all happening.
“You’re the firstborn daughter. We needed to get you and Cory separated, and he was the heir, so we had little choice. We settled on you.”
“Why—”
“He needs your blood. The power running through your veins and your bloodline will help strengthen my magic and help him push into this realm.”
“Tezcatlipoca,” I whispered.
Cory and Uncle Helios had been right about everything.
“There you go. Not as stupid as I thought.”
“Then, let Adam go. He’s not Salonen by blood.”
“I’m not hurting the child if you follow my instructions. I’m simply using him to get you away from your sister and her warrior.”
“Then, let him go. You have me,” I prompted.
We’re not giving ourselves up. We’ve got pups to protect, Coyo snarled.
Of course, we’re not. We just need to get Adam away from her so we can destroy her.
“I’m not as stupid as my son. Once I have you, he can go. Until then, I’ll just use him to continue empowering the spells I’ve already cast.” She demonstrated by running the blade along his arm, causing Adam to cry out and blood to bead and stream down his arm and onto the rocks before her.
“STOP!” I screamed. “Don’t you fucking hurt him!”
“Oh, please. It’s just a little blood. Even a child will survive a little bloodletting.”
‘Luna. Prepare to take Adam and run!’ Hugh’s mind-link was short and urgent.
‘Wait—’ I didn’t get a chance to stop him because Hugh’s wolf roared and leapt from the side of the clearing toward Martha.
Martha dropped Adam and chanted something in another language, the blood she had drawn from Adam hissing on the stones and forming into a rune. I watched in horror as she pointed to Hugh’s wolf in mid-air and as if following her pointed finger, his body flew clear from one end of the clearing to the other, bones crunching when he hit a tree that made it look like it broke his body in half. His wolf whimpered as his body dropped at an odd angle at the base of the tree.
Meanwhile, I ran toward Adam, who was trying to scramble toward me, his little hand covering the wound in his arm. I roared and shifted when Martha threw the dagger and it buried into his tiny little back.
I landed on all fours above my child, snarling protectively but unable to check to see if he was alright, because Martha pulled another dagger from somewhere on her back.
“Well, that was unfortunate. I didn’t mind the child and thought I might be able to train him better than I did Brandon after you were gone, but you’re right where I need you to be. Just stay still, and this will all be over soon.”
“Leave her alone!” Hugh coughed from where he was. He had shifted back to his human form. His back was clearly broken, and he was trying to crawl toward us.
“Hmmm. I thought you would have jumped on Alpha Cade’s dick to become a Luna again, but is Hugh’s sudden fierce protectiveness of his Luna a sign that he’s the one getting to fuck you now?” Martha sneered at me, briefly turning her ire on Hugh, and striding toward him.
Gross, Coyo muttered to me while trying to nudge Adam to see if he was conscious. My poor little guy whimpered and touched her snout lovingly. We need him to get out of the circle. Whatever she’s planning, she wants us in here.
Coyo continued to nudge Adam, making him move inch by slow inch toward the edge of the circle while Martha was distracted with Hugh. If I could shift back without her noticing, I could pick him up and run away with him, but shifting wasn’t an option. It was loud.
We couldn’t pick him up with our mouth. The jostling would make him cry out, and she would turn around. I didn’t want to watch as Martha grabbed Hugh by the hair and picked him up with surprising strength, making him cry out as she jostled his broken bones, but I dared not take my eyes off her.
“You were a useless wolf as my son’s beta, and you’re useless now,” she snarled in his face.
“Fuck you,” Hugh hissed, and I saw movement before Martha hissed. Something flew toward the trees, but I couldn’t make out what it was from here.
“Ow, fucker!” she snarled, throwing him against the tree, this time impaling him against a broken branch protruding from the tree.
I only hoped, by the way his body went limp and no more whimpers were coming from him, that his death was instantaneous.
Unfortunately, Adam wasn’t out of the circle yet, and we refused to leave him there. Coyo snarled when Martha’s attention turned back to us. I was a little proud to see the slashes of Hugh’s claws were bleeding profusely under the now torn shirt on her chest. The giant, hideous cabochon she liked to wear was no longer hanging around her neck, and I sincerely hoped the hideous thing was lost in the woods for all eternity. She had once claimed it was an heirloom, but the thing gave me a bad vibe.
“I’ll get use out of his blood when we’re done.” Martha smiled at me, as if I should be proud his blood wouldn’t be allowed to go to waste. “I’ve been running low since I made the furnace take a shit, and the wine cellar explode.
I ground my teeth at the newfound knowledge that she was responsible for everything that went wrong this harvest, but I needed to stall, so, I did the only thing I could think of doing. I shifted back and hoped Martha enjoyed a good villain monologue.
“I don’t understand. Why are you serving Tezcatlipoca? He hates werewolves.”
“He kept me out of the Forsaken Plane.”
“I thought—”
“That it was impossible to leave and stay out of going back? It is, usually, but in trying to find a way out, I stumbled across him and a sect of his followers. I made a deal with Tezcatlipoca. He taught me blood magic to keep Brandon and me hidden from the guardians and the Moon Goddess, and then found a tear he could open big enough so that I could escape with my son. He sent me to Nickolas when I got out, and then Nickolas sent me here to implement his plan.”
“Why here? How did Tezcatlipoca know Brandon would be my mate?” Could all the gods tell? Uncle Helios never mentioned gods having that ability.
“Renly was the alpha furthest away from Crescent Moon who was widowed. I seduced him, and had Brandon named heir.” Martha shrugged.
She stepped into the circle, and I was wracking my brain on what to do when I heard a branch cracking in the forest to the left. Twenty seconds later, another branch cracked to our right.
“Who’s there?” Martha called out while I tried to check on Adam.
I brushed his hair off his face. His little face was full of pain, and he looked pale. The back of his shirt was soaked in blood.
“I’m cold, Mom,” Adam whispered, forcing tears to drop from my face.
“Just hang in there, Monkey. I’ll get you some help. Okay?”
Adam nodded and grabbed my hand. I squeezed it, trying to figure out if I could lift him and run. That blade was in all the way, though, and I couldn’t move him fast without causing him more damage. Adam was only five years old. He could die if I wasn’t careful.
Suddenly, someone threw something from behind me, making Martha and I turn our heads to look for the intruder.
“Get over here!” Martha grabbed me by the hair and tried to drag me, but I kicked my foot out, and she fell to the ground, her back landing on the rocks. I wasn’t fortunate enough to have her spine break, however, so I reared back and tried to punch her. She moved deceptively fast and felt my knuckles crack on the cold ground. Ignoring the pain, I tried to punch her again, but heard her murmuring under her breath, and then I flew back, just out of the circle.
Chris’ wolf, Titan, jumped out of a corner of the woods to charge Martha, figuring the same thing I just did. She was running out of steam or blood. Something. Whatever her power was, it was less than when she flung Hugh away. I scrambled up, prepared to grab Adam and run, but suddenly our assessment was proven wrong because Titan, Adam and I were all flung back a few steps, my little boy crying out in pain as he landed on his back, while I felt my foot snap under me as I landed. I crawled over to Adam, flipping him over to give him some relief.
Martha stood and charged toward Titan, her knife lifted to strike.
“NOOO!” Violet’s screamed from my right, and I suddenly felt the air stop flowing around me.
Martha bounced against an invisible barrier two feet away from Titan.
“What the fuck is this?” Martha snarled, trying to push against it.
“It’s a fucking shield,” Violet snapped.
I looked at my sister, who nodded at my silent question. I was impressed that she could project her shield not only on Chris, but on me at the same time. As far as I remember, she could only ever bring it down on herself.
Martha turned from Chris and stalked over to me, but I smirked when she couldn’t penetrate Violet’s shield. A frustrated scream left her when she tried the same with Violet.
We were at a stand still, until Martha and I both realized at the same time that she had a source of power she could reach. She turned toward Hugh’s impaled body, grabbed a bowl at one end of the circle and started toward it. I glanced at Titan and Violet to see if they had any idea on what to do, only to see them already mind-linking. Violet looked more and more anguished as they appeared to argue. I realized why when Titan stalked toward Martha as she began to bleed Hugh.
I didn’t know what to do, but I was prepared to shift and fight with my broken foot. But, Martha turned and snarled at Titan, lifting his wolf and suspending him in mid-air, when someone very fast slammed her against Hugh’s limp body.
“I knew you’d slip up eventually, and we’d be able to find you,” the woman hissed at Martha. Martha snarled and tried to push back, but Chris shifted and helped keep her in place.
“I thought you were leaving?” he asked the woman, who was dressed in some weird armor and had long brown hair braided down her back.
“I was closing the portal when I sensed her again. She’d been hiding from the guardians for years, and I couldn’t resist coming to find her.”
“What’s going on? Who is she?” I called out, cradling Adam in my arms. He was unconscious, and his heart was beating very slowly. I wasn’t sure if he would make it to the emergency hospital, and the thought was breaking my heart now that the adrenaline was leaving my body.
“This is Vesta. She’s a guardian of the Forsaken Plane,” Violet explained. “She was also Coco.”
“Coco,” I said with some confusion. “You mean your rabbit?”
“Yeah.”
“She’s good, then? We can trust her?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Then, I gotta go. Adam needs a doctor.”
Vesta pulled out some string from her back pocket. It burned Chris when it brushed his hand as she began wrapping it around Martha.
“Sorry. It’s silver. I got her.” She turned her head to look at the body hanging above her and cocked her head, before recognition filled her face. "Hey, I know that guy."
"Hugh?" I asked.
Was he only pretending to be a decent guy this whole time? Had he been working with Brandon?
"I never learned his name. We found him wandering the Forsaken Plane when all the rogues escaped last year. I wiped his memory and sneaked him back into this realm, while we kept the tear open looking for the stragglers. Took us almost six weeks to find them all."
I didn’t know how to answer that so I didn’t. I was just glad one person wasn’t pretending around me.
Chris let go of Martha once he felt she was secured and walked over to where I was trying to stand, my ankle still trying to mend itself. He tried to take Adam from me, but I whimpered and shook my head, unwilling to let him go. If Adam didn’t make it, I wanted to hold him until his last breath. Chris placed a hand on Adam’s chest and closed his eyes. They were full of sadness when he opened them again, confirming my worst fear.
“His heart is barely beating, Bells. He won’t make it the forty minutes to the hospital. I don’t even know that he’d make it to the pack house.”
Violet sobbed next to me as I sank back down to the ground. Chris pulled her to him and hugged her, before they both knelt down next to me.
I felt the tears running down my face as I cleaned the dirt off his handsome little face.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, as I kissed his forehead. “I’m so fucking sorry. I shouldn’t have kept you with me.”
"Bells, this is not your fault,” Violet whispered.
But it was.
If I hadn’t been so selfish in trying to keep him, he could have been happy with someone else who wasn’t living under the same roof as her enemy, without knowing it this whole time.
“I might be able to save him.” Vesta approached, dragging Martha behind her.
“You can?” Hope rose in my chest as I wiped my tears from my chest.
“I have the power to suspend his life until I get him to a healer.”
“You said you had no power here. That’s why you were stuck as a bunny,” Violet stated.
“I don’t. I would have to take him with me to do it,” she explained.
“Take him where?” I asked.
“To the Forsaken Plane.”
My heart sank all the way to the tip of my toes.
“Uncle Helios said there’s no way to leave,” I replied, my voice quivering.
“There isn’t,” Vesta said, compassion all over her face as I realized what she was telling me.
“No. No, you can’t take my child,” I cried, shaking my head. “You can’t take him away from me. He’s all I have,” I pleaded.
“It’s either that or death,” she reminded me.
I sobbed, gripping Adam to me, unable to even give him a proper hug because the hilt of the knife was still in his back.
“The portal is a few hundred feet from here. If you want to save him, we need to go. I’m sorry.”
I sobbed, feeling Cory pulling at the mind-link, but I couldn’t answer. I knew he was feeling my heartbreak, but I had no time to explain. I shut down my side of the bond with him and stood. My foot was still tender, but it wasn’t fully broken anymore. Violet wrapped an arm around me, providing me the support I needed to limp after the woman who would take and save my child.
“Wait.” Chris stopped us, running to the edge of the clearing and picking up Adam’s hat. “He loves this thing.”
We followed Vesta to another smaller clearing in the forest. I could see older, snow-covered formations like the one we were just in. Vesta made some motion with her hand and a different desert-like landscape appeared before us. It went up to about chest high, the jagged edges making it seem as if someone had ripped a piece of a magazine and was showing the area around the front page and the page behind it.
“I was in the middle of closing it when I sensed her. We should hurry.”
“Bu—”
“I promise, I’ll take care of him, Bells. I know how much you love him. I know how pure his soul is. I’ve watched him while he played with me for the last months.”
“I want to go with you. I need to stay with him,” I pleaded.
“I can’t allow that. I know who your family is. I can’t take you away from the fight that’s to come. You’re too important.”
“I don’t care. He’s mine,” I cried, falling to my knees and clutching him to me.
“He will always be yours. I’ll make sure he remembers you. I’ll make sure he knows how much you love him. I promise.”
I looked over at Martha and felt my broken heart filling with rage. I kissed Adam’s forehead. “I love you so much. I know I’ll see you again someday, Monkey. I promise you,” I vowed.
I stood and nodded at Vesta to take him.
“Leave her,” I said, motioning toward Martha, who was bound in silver twine.
“I can’t let her go again. She needs to be punished.” Vesta hesitated.
I called forth the earth around Martha, hardening around her waist and hands.
“She won’t be getting away. I will make her pay for taking away my little boy.”
Vesta nodded and released the rope attached to the twine. She walked over and took Adam from me. Chris placed the hat on top of his stomach so Vesta could take it with them. Violet and Chris held me up when I almost crumbled to the ground as I watched Vesta step into the opening. She made some hand gestures over Adam before placing her hand on his forehead, murmuring something I couldn’t hear.
“It’s done. I’ll find him a healer. I’ll keep him safe, Bells. I promise.”
“I’m going to keep you to that promise,” I told her, my voice breaking along with my heart.
Vesta placed Adam gently on the ground and began doing something to the opening. It took a few minutes, and all I could do was stare at my son by her feet as the opening got smaller and smaller. When it was barely a big enough hole a person could crawl through, I panicked, knowing this was my last chance to be with him, and I tried to pull out of Violet and Chris’ hold.
“Let me go to him! I need to be with him. Violet, please,” I begged her.
“You can’t, Bells. I’m so sorry, but you can’t,” Violet whispered next to me, her voice breaking, holding me against her, as we watched the last sliver of the tear begin to disappear.
“I’ll keep him safe.” I heard Vesta before it closed completely.
I was sobbing in Violet and Chris’ arms when I heard laughter coming from the side.
“You couldn’t keep the first one alive long enough to birth it, and you couldn’t even keep the other alive for more than a year.”
Rage like I’d never felt before filled me, and I pushed away from Violet and Chris.