Chapter 14 Ashlyn
ASHLYN
Nomad Lands, Canada
Grey’s gone.
I felt it when he left, the finality of the moment. It was too much like my visions. Yet it was starkly different, too.
Nothing is what it seems.
Everything is murky.
And my mind still isn’t clear.
Which is infuriating. I can’t see anything. It’s like I’m lost in an abyss. But something happened in Lunar Sector. Something catastrophic.
I…
All I could see was blood.
And Cael’s head… rolling…
I grab my hair and tug, hating that I don’t know what happened. Whether or not it was stopped. If Grey’s okay…
The moment he shadowed, I felt our tentative link snap.
I’m not sure how it happened, but it’s like we’re no longer mated.
He bit me.
He claimed me.
He bonded me.
So why can’t I feel him anymore?
What’s happening in Lunar Sector?
I pace the room, my heart racing in my chest.
It’s been hours since Grey left. Hours since I said goodbye to him.
“I’ll be right back” were his final words. And that triggered something in me. A vision. But it left before it could properly form, leaving me blinking in confusion.
Something is very wrong. But I can’t identify what I’m feeling or why.
“This is maddening,” I mutter out loud, still pacing. “Utter insanity.” I’ve never been this blind before. Never been this lost or unable to—
A howl pierces the air, the sound of it sending goose bumps scattering up and down my arms.
That’s a sound I know well.
And not just because it’s an Alpha announcing his intent.
It’s a specific sound from my nightmares of the future.
A nightmare… that’s unveiling now.
I shake my head. But I’m not in heat.
In my dreams, I was always in heat.
It was always dark.
And I was always in that lair…
Nothing about this cabin. Nothing about Grey knotting me. Nothing about his bite.
I spin around, my mind racing with confusion, my heart pounding in my chest.
I’m panicking.
I… I know I’m panicking.
I need it to stop, I think, dizzy. I need to breathe!
Oracle, I’ve lost complete control. I just… I just need to…
I close my eyes and force myself to inhale. Focus, Ash, I tell myself. Focus.
There are defensive wards all around this cabin. I felt Grey bolstering them earlier while I was—
My eyes flash open and I look down at my arm. “The rune…” I never finished it. I’ve been too busy worrying about Lunar Sector and Grey to focus on my task.
Foolish, I tell myself, shaking my head.
Then I focus on reigniting the protective mark.
I was so close before, just missed a single dash.
“You can do this,” I whisper. “You have to do this.”
I wanted to learn these runes for a reason. And tonight might very well be that reason.
My finger shakes as I draw the magic across my skin.
“Come on,” I coach myself, pausing to take another deep breath.
Which is when that howl pierces the air, closer now.
Too close.
Why are the wards not firing? I wonder, glancing out the window at the setting sun.
“Don’t,” I chastise myself. “Rune first.”
Inhaling once more, I breathe out through my mouth, and focus.
Dash. Cross. Point. Upward. Circle around. Pause. Another dash. Crisscross. Point. I consider the symbol, aware I’m missing a few details. It’s tedious and the order in which I execute each part of it is important. But I think… Yes!
The rune lights up in gold, sending a rush of sensation over my skin.
Oh, that’s new, I think, shivering a little from the static electricity rolling through me. Why didn’t I feel that when Grey did it?
“Does that mean I did it wrong?” I mutter to myself. “Should I—”
A sharp pang hits my abdomen, causing me to double over on a wheeze of pain.
Ow. Ow. Ow.
What…?
I don’t…
My knees hit the ground, my body starting to convulse as waves of agony sweep over me.
The rune, I think, looking down at my arm. But I can’t seem to move… enough… to… Oracle!
It takes everything in me to try to breathe through the churning in my abdomen.
My estrus, I realize. I’m going into heat…
But this sudden…
I begin to shake.
And suddenly I’m cascaded into darkness, locked in that cavern; the one holding Grey’s sister.
I’ve never known how I recognized her. She looks nothing like her brother with her long dark hair and equally dark eyes. But I know her as I look at her.
And she knows me.
There’s a hint of desperation in her gaze that’s always there, one I’ve never truly considered until now.
Because my visions don’t usually stare back at me.
However, she’s definitely looking at me right now, her expression pleading with me to…
To what? I wonder.
She’s locked in a cage, her mouth bound by a gag.
But her eyes convey meaning. Her eyes see me.
I stare back, taking in the scene all around her.
Her cage is made of glass. She’s naked. Utterly exposed. But that doesn’t seem to be the cause of her current expression.
There’s anger in her dark eyes.
No, not just anger… fury.
This female is raging inside.
There are Alphas all around her, watching her every move. But she ignores them. Ignores the jeers. Ignores the cord attached to her arm…
What? I’ve never seen that before.
It’s not a cord, though.
It’s… it’s like an IV.
And it’s draining her blood into something.
My brow furrows as I watch one of the Alphas—a male that kind of reminds me of Grey—walk up to fill his glass from a spout.
Oh, fates…
They’re draining Grey’s sister.
But why?
I look at her again and she glares back like she’s annoyed.
Are you trying to communicate with me? I wonder, utterly confused by this vision. Because it doesn’t really feel like a vision so much as a real.
I start to shake my head, trying to clear it, but as I do I catch sight of Grey.
Grey.
My lips part. “Grey!”
He’s unconscious by the glass, a bullet hole in his head.
He can’t die.
He’s… he’s immortal.
But… but he looks very dead.
What happened? Has this happened? Will this happen? I don’t…
Nikiski raises her hands, drawing me back to her, and holds up seven fingers before tapping her wrist.
She’s still staring straight at me as her hand turns into an O shape. I frown as she touches her cheek and then her ear.
I don’t understand.
She does it again.
Seven.
Wrist.
O shape from cheek to ear.
Then everything goes dark and I wake up on the floor of the cabin, looking at the ceiling above.
That symbol clearly means something, along with the number seven.
Seven o’clock? I wonder. Seven hours?
And what does the other…?
My stomach churns again, reminding me of my approaching heat just as that howl echoes outside once more.
It’s getting closer.
They are getting closer.
Visions of savage Alphas filter through my thoughts, these fresh images, not ones from my past.
Because my future has been rewritten.
I’m on a new path now.
A worse one.
Because those Alphas are destined to rape me in the same bed I shared with Grey.
I palm my belly, tears prickling my eyes.
His sister was trying to tell me something. Which is impossible. I don’t communicate with victims via visions; I simply see them.
Yet she saw me, I think, considering the vision. Is she a seer, too?
She’s part V-Clan, part Z-Clan Omega.
It’s… it’s very possible.
Which means… which means she can see the future. Or perhaps has another ability tied to fortunetelling.
Wait…
I look down at my rune and see it glowing defensively on my skin. I thought that just meant it was working, that it was glowing to signify that it was on.
But what if it’s more than that.
What if it’s actively protecting me?
I thought dragons might be the source messing with my visions. I never considered that it could be another Z-Clan Omega.
Nikiski.
Has she been feeding me images? I sit up off the ground, ignoring the pang in my stomach. Lunar Sector…
Was it all a lie? Cael’s death? The blood?
I can’t see any of it now.
It’s like the vision never existed.
I look down at the rune again.
And it happened when I wasn’t protected…
“Oracle,” I breathe.
That explains all the fuzziness, the shifting visions, the confusion.
I have no idea what was real and what was implanted.
But I can see the Alphas coming for me now.
Just as I can see Grey on the floor with a bullet wound in his head. He’s even wearing the same sweats he left in.
However, there’s a lot of blood on him. Open wounds. Lashes, I recognize. He’s being tortured.
Now or in the future?
That part I can’t determine.
But he’s alive.
I can feel him now that the rune is in place. I can feel his wards firing, too.
It’s like everything has suddenly become clear again.
If only I could hear him.
Grey! I shout, wishing our connection worked. Grey, if you can hear me, tell me how to find you!
Nothing.
I growl. I am not giving up. There has to be a way…
I push up off the floor, forcing myself to move through the pain and walk over to the windows and doors. I need to do something to protect myself while I puzzle through these pieces.
I have to find Grey.
Help him save Nikiski.
Anything to—
A buzzing sound has me freezing in place.
Then I slowly turn to see Grey’s watch lighting up on the counter.
My lips part. I didn’t even realize he left it there.
The screen goes dark in the next moment, though.
Ashlyn, I hear Grey, his voice in my head the most amazing sound ever to exist.
Grey!
Ashlyn…
I’m here! I tell him.
Watch, he says, making me frown.
What?
But he’s still talking, his words garbled like he’s on a phone with a bad signal.
Don’t, he says.
Don’t what? I ask, confused.
Kodiak…
My heart skips a beat. Kodiak Sector.
Caves, he thinks next. But… watch… stand?
I try to follow what he’s saying, but my mind is already thinking through Kodiak Sector and caves.
Kodiak Sector is a mountainous island.
Is it possible they carved out the insides of a mountain to make a cave? One lit by thousands of candles?
I go grab his watch just as the screen lights up with an incoming call. Cael.
I touch the Pick Up button and his face appears. “Ashlyn,” he says, appearing relieved. “Where the fuck are you?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “Somewhere in Canada, or what used to be Canada?” I shake my head. “But that doesn’t matter. Grey is in trouble. He’s been taken to a cavern… I… I think it might be in Kodiak Sector. I can’t understand him well in my head.”
“Kodiak Sector?” he repeats.
“He was trying to shadow to Lunar Sector because I saw something… only I didn’t actually see it. I think his sister is messing with my head. Which, actually, do you know what this means?” I replicate the motion Nikiski did in my weird vision of her.
Cael frowns. “No, but it looks like sign language.”
“She also kept showing me the number seven and tapping her wrist.”
“She?”
“Nikiski,” I explain. “She’s…” I trail off as a particularly painful spasm rips through my belly. I press my palm to it, trying to quell the ache. Then I bite my lip to keep from moaning out loud.
“Ashlyn?” he asks, sounding concerned.
“Home,” someone else says in the background.
“What?” Cael asks.
“That sign means home,” the deep voice tells him.
I don’t know who it is and I don’t care.
Because that makes sense. “She was trying to tell me they’re in Kodiak Sector,” I manage to force out.
“Are you okay, Ashlyn?” Cael demands.
“I’m fine,” I tell him. “It’s Grey—I saw him…
I see him getting shot. You need to help him, Cael.
They’ve done something to him. I… I don’t know what.
But he was shadowing to Lunar Sector and somehow ended up there.
And his sister… she’s been manipulating my visions.
Though, I don’t think she’s wanted to do it. ”
So it’s not a Sylvia situation, like with Prince Tadhg when he’d basically groomed her to do his bidding.
This felt very forced, like Nikiski’s been fighting whoever has her in custody.
The man with the glass… the one that looked like Grey. “Spruce,” I realize, another piece of the puzzle clicking into place. “Cael, I think Spruce is alive. Grey’s brother. He has Nikiski… and Grey.”
I just don’t understand what the end game is.
I can’t see it.
All I see are those Alphas coming to rip me apart.
“You have to help him, Cael. Promise me you’ll help him.”
He says something in response, but I can’t hear him over the roaring in my ears.
Oh, Fates… The vision has worsened.
I’ve accidentally set off a trigger of some kind. I just don’t understand what or how, only that the outcome is starting to reveal itself in my mind.
And it’s not pleasant.
It’s bloody.
Horrific.
Filled with pain…
I focus on the window… on the night sky… It’s happening.
Tonight is when everything ends.
“Help him, Cael,” I say again. “Save him and Nikiski, and tell him I’ll be waiting.”
I won’t be.
But that’s beside the point.
I need Cael to focus on Grey. To help Grey. Not me.
I end the call and force myself to focus.
I learned those runes for a reason.
This might be my final night of existence, but I am not going down without a fight.
Time to prepare for battle…