Good news for Jake! Do you think they'll find his parents soon? What do you think the coven will want as payment? Go Rachel! She kicked some butt! Do you think we've finally seen the last of Vance?
CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE: Ally~ The longer Kyle stayed around us, he seemed to get both better and worse. His body looked healthier. Color was returning to his skin, his deep dark circles under his eyes were lightening. He seemed a little rested. Not nearly like the skeleton version of himself I had found stumbling outside. But while he appeared healthier that way, his mind… it seemed like it was getting worse. The first night he tried sleeping alone in our guest room, but my mom and I woke up to his cries and now we both camp out in sleeping bags on the floor of my mom’s room, since it was the biggest. It’s been hard trying to gage what to push him on and what to just let be. My mom has been on the ‘let it be’ train. She’s been filling him up with all kinds of meals and desserts. She’s encouraged him to take long baths and set up these amazing spa-level bubble baths for him. Lavender candles, fizzy stuff, bubbles all over. She wants him to relax, but she hasn’t dared ask him any qu
CHAPTER EIGHTY: Jake~ It’s the night. The last day of the semester was today, and rather than partying with the other wolves, I’m sulking. I’m trying to get to bed early. I’m so over today. Waiting. Waiting for news about my parents. Waiting for the pack to decide who would be temporary Alpha. Waiting for my first shift. Waiting for whatever the Goddess has in store. It was driving me crazy. There’s only so much destruction of our gym and surrounding forest I can do before becoming a real nuisance. I close my eyes and am about to give into the dark when I feel it. Panic, fear. It’s not my own. A growl burns in my chest and I stumble out of bed. I know my eyes are swirling. Aamon is trying to push through. Rachel is in trouble. I feel him forcing a shift again and I hold my fists at my temples, trying to hold in screams from the pain. I clutch my chest and my eyes take me somewhere else. I’m outside. No, inside. I’m in a garage. A thin evil-eyed man is coming for me. My hands
CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE: Kyle~ Ally, her mom and I sat around the fireplace, going through everything one last time. It seems that Ally and I experienced our vision or whatever it was the same way. It was like we had been walking through everything together, hand in hand, but hadn’t been able to see each other. After consulting Ally’s grandmother, Ally was able to explain that we experienced something known as a Living Dream. The complicated thing about Living Dreams is while they show you things that relate to you and the questions you have, the timing of everything they show you - it wasn’t clear if you were experiencing the past, the present or, the future. Ally’s grandma couldn’t tell us which one we had experienced, and besides snow on the ground in our first hang out at Marina and Maxine’s family cabin, we had no clues for the time of year. “We do know Maxine looked the exact same. So it had to be either the present, the recent past, or the near future,” Ally decided. “Actual
CHAPTER 82 Rachel~ I woke up excited. I loved travel, everything about it. The anticipation, the planning, the journey. Everything. Meg looked more irritated than ever, but I didn’t mind. My mom would be driving and I would be her ‘co-pilot.’ I was in charge of music and controlling the Maps on my mom’s phone. She gets stressed out dealing with her phone while driving, so I would be the one entering in the address of our rental, and any time we needed gas or a rest stop I would be the one searching for it. I loved that too. We took our showers and my mom just finished packing up the cooler with snacks and drinks when Meg and I walked out of our room with our bags. Ready. We loaded up the car and hit the road. Meg fell back asleep pretty quickly and I let my mind get lost in the scenery passing by. I had the most invigorating dream last night, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I was in the woods again at night, running with a pack of wolves. One, a dark gray one with gold in it
CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE: Evan~ We were on the road to Reno to meet up with Elise and the Marvis Coven. To be ready for any new findings. After a long night of heated discussion, Jake finally put his foot down - literally and figuratively - and demanded that some of us stay behind, but he was going. Nick’s parents stayed behind to care for the pack along with about half our warriors. SInce the attack on Dark Mountains, we needed to be realistic. It was likely they would strike while our guard was down too. I was about to fall asleep to Nick’s muttering as he leafed through yet another book, when Jake insisted on pulling over. “We only have about an hour left, why would we do that? Didn’t we just get gas?” Nick questioned without even looking up. “I just need to. I don’t know,” he said, his eyes glowing. I sat up straighter and that got Nick’s attention enough that he finally glanced up to see what I was seeing. Something about this area was alerting Aamon. “Alright, alright,” my fa
CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR: Ally~ As many questions as we have, at least I feel like we’re getting closer to some answers. While I was wiped out after the Living Dream Kyle and I created, it was time to try again. Hopefully we will see more this time. Ideally, it would connect with everything else and make it make more sense, but it wasn’t an exact science. Living Dreams took people to wherever. They were supposed to be impossible to direct. I sat on my floor pillow again, my mom putting two cups of tea down for Kyle and I. I rolled my neck and looked at him, he nodded. He was still haunted in his eyes, but I think my mom was right, giving him things to focus on had been good. He had been keeping an eye on Rachel’s dreams and asking Olivia about what could possibly be bending her memories. Now we were going to dig around for both of them. We’d take any answers for Kyle, or anything for Rachel. “You ready?” he asked me. “Let’s do this,” I said with resolve. We closed our eyes and
CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE: Rachel~ We got home after our trip to the snow and I sighed contentedly as I flopped back onto my bed. It was so nice to go on a trip, but home is where my bed is. My sister threw her bag on her bed and went back out to the living room, likely to fire up our gaming system. I didn’t even need to get up to know my mom was already unpacking. After a few beats I got up to do the same. While I was putting things back in the bathroom I picked up the bottle of pain medicine I had packed. I hadn’t used any of it on the trip. Oddly, I hadn’t had a single migraine out there. Good news. Maybe that trip really did help me in all kinds of ways. I tossed my clothing in my laundry hamper to be dealt with tomorrow (most likely), and went to put my book on my nightstand. I’d almost finished it but since it was the last book in the series I was slowing down my pace. It has always been hard for me to let go of a world I’ve gotten so attached to. After putting my duffle bag ba
CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX Ally~ “Yeah, I guess I do,” Rachel responded. We waited a moment but she didn’t explain, so I pushed, “Who, Rachel?” She seemed to weigh her options before I reached across to grab her hand again. “It’s me. It’s us,” I said, gesturing between Kyle and I. “You can tell us. I know we kept this secret from you. That I had kept this secret from you. But we love you and want to help.” Rachel nodded and then said, “Sean. He told me he’s a warlock. Like the last day of school before the break. He showed me some of his powers. And then he said- he said that I was his soulmate?” I exhaled and Kyle swore under his breath. “Well, I guess that explains the weird vibes I’d been picking up from him… But I don’t know if I believe all of that…” I said, thinking aloud. “I don’t,” Kyle said defunctly. We looked up at him. “Come on, like you don’t get some undercover Malfoy vibes from him?” he asked me, eyes bulging with meaning. “I mean, yes, there’s something