Chapter 69 The moon and stars #2
“She’s in the body of the Ravage Wolf and Walker. But we won’t be able to get to Walker or her until we get the Ravage Wolf out.”
Kendric goes still, staring into space. My mind is flipping over.
“How do we get the wolf out?”
He doesn’t answer me; his gaze is distant and distracted. “Oh, that’s diabolical, old lady. I see your plan.”
“What is?” I’m tired and getting grumpy and short. My chest aches where the bonds have been severed, and I don’t understand half of what he’s talking about.
“I know why I’m here,” Kendric whispers. “I understand it.”
“You do?”
He nods and gives me a smile that doesn’t reassure me at all.
“I think we could have been friends if we’d have had a chance,” Kendric murmurs. “I think we could have been good friends.”
He stands up straight and grabs my shoulder, squeezing me hard, forcing me to look at him.
“You need to deal with Walker and the goddess when we lure the wolf out of him. I don’t know how, but only you can do it.”
His expression is so intense, but he smiles, and I can feel how good his soul is, and suddenly, I can see the god in him.
My stomach tenses. “Kendric, I’m not sure what you think we’re doing, but—”
“You have this. I have faith in you. The entire world has faith in you.”
He rushes towards the wolves.
“Alpha!” I protest.
He turns back, fist to his chest, and bows. “The honour truly has been mine.”
I gape at him, words escape me, but just when I think of something, the bonds surge, and I drop to my knees, panting and clutching my chest.
“Cadel! You need to pin him to the ground. I need to speak to him!” Kendric shouts.
The big wolf that is Cadel flicks an ear and glances at him out of the corner of his eye.
“Trust me!” Kendric shouts. “A lady in a dream told me to be here!”
Cadel snorts, making a decision lightning fast. He sits back on his haunches and springs into the air; his fur flies; he twists in mid-air.
I use my sword to get to my feet, staring up at him in awe.
I stay close, watching what they’re doing, my sword at the ready.
He lands hard on the Ravage Wolf, pinning it to the ground.
“Luna!”
The Ravage Wolf doesn’t stop, gnashing its teeth and growling.
“Walker!”
The eyes flicker. I can see Walker fighting for control, but he can’t win, not against them both. Kendric kneels in front of him, putting his throat in a dangerously vulnerable position.
“Push him into me.”
I stand up straight, staring at Kendric. What?
“Give him to me. Then you can just deal with the goddess. Let me fight your monster, Alpha. Let me do this for you.”
The Ravage Wolf snarls. Walker can’t do this, not alone. We can’t beat the trio in the same body. But Kendric will die.
“Shove him out!” I shout, hating that I’m sentencing the alpha to his death. “Walker, you shove that piece of shit out of you, right now!”
The Ravage Wolf jerks and shudders, and then it’s flowing into Kendric. Cadel turns with it, keeping it in view. Snarling. He is terrifying; I love him so much.
The wolf that was in Walker and has now possessed Kendric’s body lunges at me, but I get my sword up. It howls and then lifts a paw. Cadel steps between us, snarling with a mouth full of teeth, chasing the Ravage Wolf, move for move.
The fight gets even more vicious, but I can’t focus on that; I look at Walker. He’s got one grey eye and one brown.
“She’s in there with you?” I murmur to him.
He lets out a sob. It’s a broken sound.
“I don’t want this, Keres. I’m tired,” he whispers, and he sounds terrible, like he’s been screaming for days.
I stare at him, knowing what he’s asking but not wanting to go there.
“Give me mercy.”
I lower the sword. “I can’t do that; we can save you.”
He lunges up, sweeping up a metal pole and swinging it at me. “No, we can’t. You can’t save me. I’m already dead. I was the minute I walked into the citadel to save him. They destroyed me!” he cries and stumbles towards me again.
I recognise him in that movement, in the pain I’ve never seen on his face, the agony that no god ever felt. A memory sliding open, a secret that few gods even know. Not one luna god. Two.
“Brother,” I whisper. “I can save you. The way you saved me when you opened that door. Let me help.”
“Don’t let me live like this, with her inside me. Don’t you make me live without him.”
“But—”
“Don’t you dare!” he roars.
He swings, and I get the sword up in time to deflect the weapon before it crashes into my skull. His eyes are wild; blood pours from his mouth and nose. His skin splits.
I stare at it in horror.
“I saved you, so save me now,” he whispers. “Kaida, please,” he begs. “Kill me. I can’t live like this.”
I let out a low moan and dart in, my sword lifted to slide into him.
“Don’t you dare!” Walker roars, but it’s not him, it’s her.
She takes control of his body, slashing and attacking in a wild frenzy that drives me back mercilessly.
“I’m not dying. I’m going to live!” she snarls.
Arrogance is her downfall, I remember.
“Have you recalled who we are?” I sneer.
She stumbles, and I attack, cutting his arm. It hurts me to do it, and I dance back, uncertain if I can continue.
The Resistance are standing around watching us. A crowd of so many waiting to see which of us will succeed. Will they live or die today? It all comes down to my finding the courage to kill my friend, my brother.
She lashes out, and I go back, around and around. My arm burns, and I look down and realise she’s got me with a fairly deep cut to my arm.
“I’m not going to die. I won’t!”
“I am Kaida Keres. My mother was my hero. She loved me, and she loved Walker. I am the mate of three alphas. I escaped you four times, and I am the Luna Omega, the chosen warrior for this planet.”
Her arm jerks, and I lunge forward, feeling the bonds of all three of my alphas; for one shiny moment, they glow alive in me.
It’s like they are all standing there with their hands on me.
In my mind, I see them all, all the ones who are gone, lined up behind me, and I’m strong, and I’m able to do this evil thing.
“No!” she whispers.
Walker collapses, blood welling from the stab wound. It has pierced his lung. He’s drowning.
She screams, thrashing his head around, jerking. I hate that she’s making him look like this, that she’s there, and I can’t see him.
“Walker,” I say his name.
“Legion?” he begs piteously.
I look quickly at the people gathered around. “Get Legion’s body now.”
They run.
He blinks open a watery grey eye.
“I am sorry for everything,” I whisper, stroking his hair.
“You saved me,” he whispers. “That’s all I ever dreamed.”
I reach out and pull the silver necklace that is his collar from his neck, tossing it away.
“Hold on, they are bringing him. Do you remember when Mum made those apples, and she got so distracted by the conversation we were having that she burnt them and smoked out the house?”
Walker shakes his head. “I can’t remember anything happy.”
My eyes fill with tears.
The Resistance members lower Legion’s body to the ground, but they are too afraid to get close.
Walker rolls onto his stomach and drags himself by one arm to his love. I cover my mouth with my hand as I move with him.
“You’re free now, Walker.”
He smiles, but he’s looking at Legion.
I reach out, and my blood drips down, mixing with his.
A shock wave blasts out from us, and I feel it all change. I feel a tug inside me. It’s beautiful and so powerful. I don’t know what we did, but I don’t look away from him.
I hear cries around me and look around, finding the Resistance pointing up to the sky. I look up, and all I can see are stars and a huge yellow moon.
“Look at it!”
“It’s beautiful.”
“The stars!”
The sounds of people fade away, they don’t matter.
I hold the hand of my brother, numb inside as I watch his life slowly drain away. He coughs and sprays blood into the air.
Walker smiles, but not at the moon or the stars, but at the body of his omega.
“One minute more,” Walker whispers with his last breath. Blood gurgles up, and he goes still. Utterly, eerily still.
I want to stay with him, but I stand up, feeling something happening, something changing. My power washes out of me like a concentrated wave that can’t be stopped or controlled. I groan as it runs through my body, spiraling out and out.
Alphas, omegas, and betas are changing designations, I realise, and the population is evening out.
People with one designation will wake up tomorrow walking in the footsteps of another.
I can sense it as clear as day. The balance is being restored.
I don’t understand it, and I don’t really care. All I know is that it’s over.
It takes forever for the pull to stop, and then I kneel again beside the bodies of my brother and his lover.
I sit with him for several long minutes, then I turn to the Resistance, to Bear, who approaches. His clothes are bloodstained, and he’s sporting a gash down his right cheek, but his eyes are alight with victory.
“Burn the bodies,” I say listlessly.
He looks at me, but there is something infinitely sad written on his face.
“Kaida.”
His voice alarms me. I stand up, staring at him.
“What’s wrong?”
He sighs and looks away.
I follow his gaze and see Kendric lying dead in the middle of the road, but I can’t see Cadel anywhere.
He’s just gone.