Chapter Fourteen
Skylar Cathal
“What?” I screamed, slamming my fists onto the counter.
My entire body began shaking, no longer in control, as my animal raged with sorrow inside my wounded heart. I clenched my jaw so tight I swear my teeth cracked as tears streamed down my face. My limbs trembled uncontrollably with anger, regret, and… unbelievable grief.
Julia, my aunt who raised me, who took me in and loved me as her own, was gone.
“Julia was leading a mission to patrol the southern borders of our land,” Shaw said slowly. “It was routine. She knew those routes better than anyone.”
“Except it wasn’t routine,” I snapped. “She’s dead.”
Shaw wisely took a step back, pressing his lips together as he swallowed, flinching at the booming magic laced within my harsh tone.
The tension in the kitchen was so thick you could cut it with a knife. The silence was deafening as my tears freely trickled onto the floor.
“Except,” Neera said as she struggled to hold herself together, “Mother and others in her company were ambushed.”
I lifted my head and gazed at my sweet cousin, knowing this loss hurt her just as much as it did me.
Shaw cleared his throat. “She and the others in her group were killed on sight by hunters accompanying King Taran’s soldiers.”
“Reckless,” I seethed. “Tensions were already rising when I left. How could they—” Grief swallowed my words.
The southern region near Lake Carth was a known point of tension between our territories. It was never routine traveling through that stretch of land. Julia knew this…
“Julia,” I sobbed, resting my head on the kitchen island. “No, no, no.”
Shaw moved to try to comfort me, but I pushed him away.
Turning from the table, I roared again, angrily running my hands through my hair before pounding my fist against the wall.
The wood splintered beneath the force of my wrath.
My breathing became rapid and uneven. Tears stung my eyes as my chest caved and my heart, my gods-damned heart, began breaking.
I glanced around the kitchen with all the cherished memories I held of her flashing inside my mind.
My aunt showered those she loved with delicious meals, sprinkling her kindness and joy into every morsel.
I absently traced my hand over the spoons and pots that looked untouched in the corner, stacked and cleaned but carrying a light layer of dust from the month since Julia’s death.
Why… Why is she gone?
I turned to find Neera, and I could see my loss reflected ten times over in the creased lines and blackened bags under her tear-soaked eyes.
Her head dropped as Shaw moved in behind her, gently cradling her hands as she turned to lean into his chest. Shaw stroked Neera’s hair as her sobs soaked his shirt.
“Neera,” I whispered as her eyes snapped to me. “I’m so sorry.” It was all I could manage to say.
“War with the humans has begun,” Shaw said.
Neera struggled to breathe, let alone articulate a response through her efforts to suppress her sobs.
“When you left, our alpha began gathering our defenses in preparation for an attack.” Shaw paused.
“An attack?” I asked, my eyes widening as I returned to lean over the counter in the center of the kitchen.
“Yes,” Neera sobbed.
“When? How long after I left did—”
“About three weeks after you left, Sky,” Shaw said, his expression grim and cold. “The humans justified their attack, saying it was to protect themselves.”
“Bullshit,” I spat.
Neera managed to calm herself enough to lift her head, granting me the space to round the corner and quickly scoop her into my arms, needing to hold her as much as she needed me.
“How could the humans feel they were in danger? It’s their hunters that are lurking on our lands and stealing shifters for…” My voice trailed off, watching Shaw’s eyes flicker in understanding. “For their experiments.”
“Things here have changed,” Neera said, pulling back to look at me. “We became the threat.”
“What changed?” I asked cautiously.
“Everyone in our pack felt it,” Shaw said. “Two weeks after you left for the trials, there was a change in our power. Our magic evolved.”
“Was it from the alpha?” I questioned, not yet brave enough to ask who the alpha was.
“Yes, well, not just the alpha,” Neera answered, reaching back to grasp Shaw’s hand.
My eyes took note of the casual familiarity laced between their intertwined fingers, and it took all my willpower to keep my mouth shut and just listen.
Neera inhaled deeply, preparing herself. “We all began to shift.”
I raised my brows, glancing at Shaw, who gave me a firm nod to confirm Neera’s account.
“And not just those of age, Sky.”
“What?” I stammered, releasing my cousin, shocked by this news. “Do the elders have an explanation for this?”
“I wish they did,” Neera said. “But for some reason, around two weeks after you left, we felt the call to shift. It was even on the night of a new moon.”
I gasped, my eyes widening as my head began to spin, putting the pieces of all this together.
“Everyone who could sense their animal’s presence was able to shift,” Shaw explained. “The young ones who haven’t sensed their animals yet haven’t shifted, but even some as young as eleven can now change into their animal forms.”
I rolled up the sleeves of my shirt, fidgeting with a strand of my hair as I paced back and forth along the familiar wooden floors of our kitchen. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Shaw glance at my tattoo.
“Did you—” He released Neera and stepped toward me to grasp my left forearm. His fingers traced over the two stars filled in on my skin. “You passed more than just one trial, didn’t you?”
I blinked with a sigh, grateful for Shaw’s clever mind. “Th-the veil,” I stammered. “The trials, they are—”
“When?” Shaw asked. His breathing remained steady, despite his eyes being wild. His mind raced to discover answers.
“I passed the trial of the mind two weeks after I left. The labyrinth was a complete mind-fuck, which I’ll tell you about later…” I paused, remembering Neera mentioning the new moon.
I remembered the faint outline of the new moon overhead when Daxton teleported us from the labyrinth, sensing a renewed wave of power and life rushing through me.
Shaw’s gaze met mine, and I knew he had come to the same conclusion I had.
“The trials are not only linked to the Heart of Valdor, but also the veil and somehow our magic. Our ability to shift,” I said.
“When did you complete the second trial?” Shaw asked.
“Last week.” I tensed. “I killed the serpent king, a basilisk, just over a week ago.”
Neera practically fainted at the news, and Shaw’s gaping mouth was so wide it could catch a school of fish from the river.
“Again,” I said, shifting on my feet. “I’ll give you the details later.”
“This all makes sense,” Shaw said. “Last week, black veins appeared along the cliffs. The roots of the trees began to decay, along with the vegetation and wildlife closest to the Inner Kingdom.”
“The veil is not merely a divide between our worlds. It’s a cage to contain the wilt, possibly crafted with our magic along with the fae’s.” I slowly realized that the Heart of Valdor was locked away not only by the High Fae but somehow by shifters as well.
But why? What connection did our ancestors have to all this?
My mind was racing, searching through my memories for an answer, when suddenly, I recalled Malek, king of the water nymphs, and what he told me after my first trial victory.
We do not freely speak of the time before the wilt, young shifter—not yet, I’m afraid. Perhaps you truly are the one to free us all.
He knew something.
“Passing through the veil was different this time,” I told Shaw and Neera.
“Different how?” Shaw asked, leaning in and eager to hear my response.
“It wasn’t as powerful,” I said. “Fjorda, the captain of the ship I traveled on, came to the same conclusion. He said it was due to the veil weakening.”
“The further you progress in the trials,” Shaw said, putting the pieces of this puzzle together, “the weaker the barrier becomes. The trials and the veil are linked, along with the magic of the shifters.”
“But how? Why?” Neera asked.
I furrowed my brow, waiting a moment before answering. “We won’t know for certain until I pass the final trial and unlock the Heart of Valdor.”
“The final trial…” Neera trailed off. “It’s of the soul, right?”
I nodded.
“Is this why you’re here, Sky?” she asked. Her eyes were wide with worry. “What is it you have to do?”
“I’ve been tasked to retrieve an object.”
“What object?” Shaw’s voice deepened as he looped a protective arm over Neera’s shoulder.
He knew.
Gods above, somehow, Shaw fucking knew.
“Also,” an all-too-familiar voice boomed in behind me.
I spun around to see a petite yet feisty figure filling the doorway with a mesh of auburn hair flowing wildly around her striking azure eyes.
Rhea grinned and flashed me a wink. “Why the fuck do you smell like that?”