Chapter 101: Luna Paranoia

ARIEL

~Scritch scritch.~

I scratch my arm, and then my leg.

~Scritch scritch.~

I can’t get to sleep.

My skin feels like it is crawling.

I keep tossing and turning, my mind replaying Fate’s last words.

~Someone close to you.~

Fate mentioned her sister.

~Is she going to hurt Natalia?~

I roll over again and feel something brush against my arm underneath the covers.

I pull them down…and scream.

Hundreds of spiders are crawling over my body.

Not just tiny ones—some are as large as my hand.

I turn my head slightly and see one making its way up my arm toward my shoulder and neck.

Even in the dead of night I can make out its thick, hairy legs and glinting eyes.

I shriek again and jump to my feet, waking Alex with a start.

“What—what is it?” Alex asks as I frantically jump up and down, trying to brush them off.

“Help me, help me!” I scream.

“With what?” he says, clearly confused.

“The spiders! The spiders!” I reply, still dancing up and down.

Alex’s strong arms clamp down on mine, forcing me to be still.

I continue to squirm, feeling thousands of creeping legs upon me.

“Ariel, look at me. Look at me!” Alex calls. He sounds so far away. “There is nothing here! No spiders, nothing but me and you!”

I frantically look at the ground and don’t see any trace of the spiders.

I stare into Alex’s eyes, then collapse into his arms, convulsing and sobbing.

“Shh, shh. It’s all right. I’ve got you. You’re safe,” Alex whispers, stroking my hair. “It was just a bad dream.”

But it wasn’t just a bad dream. It was an omen.

It was a warning from Fate.

Alex guides me back into bed and continues to talk in an effort to calm me down:

“You’re safe. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I promise.”

~I know I’m safe, but are you?~

~I can heal, but can I protect you?~

“I can tell you’re holding back from me. What’s the matter? You can tell me anything,” Alex whispers, planting a soft kiss on my forehead.

I want to tell him everything Fate has said to me. Take my own advice that I gave to Natalia to heart—be honest.

But I can’t.

I feel like if I confide in Alex, Fate will come for him in every way she can.

She’ll say because I warned him, I’m meddling with destiny again.

~If I don’t say the words out loud, they won’t become real.~

I shake my head and put on a brave smile.

“Nothing’s wrong. I’m good. I’m happy,” I reply, giving him a kiss.

Alex seems to buy my excuse and curls an arm around my waist, pulling me into his chest.

I close my eyes and soon fall back into the blissful embrace of sleep, my mate calming my fears of the night.

ALEX

Ariel falls back asleep in my arms, but I can’t drift off.

The way she was acting… I haven’t seen her so traumatized since I first met her, lying in those woods so many moons ago.

Her eyes were wide and bloodshot, her breathing was erratic.

I was afraid that she was going to pass out from sheer shock.

Ariel mumbles and fidgets in her sleep.

So many times she’s accidentally kicked me awake or called out to me, only to turn over and fall back asleep.

But this is different.

It’s as if she’s seen a ghost.

I look down at her, curled up against my bare chest.

She’s radiant, looking as fresh and beautiful as the first buds of spring.

I stroke my fingers through her hair, tracing the growing number of white-blonde curls that have now taken more than half of her locks.

She may look peaceful and in control, but I worry that something is off.

She’s on a mission to save everybody she can.

It’s so different from a few months ago, when she didn’t want to tell anybody about her powers.

She seems to enjoy walking through the crowd and healing people, but now when we’re here, away from the expectant eyes of the world, I can tell she’s not okay.

She might have thought she fooled me by saying “nothing’s wrong,” but I know when she’s worried beneath her facade.

I want to help her, to hold her and to tell her nothing’s wrong, and actually mean it.

If only she would open up to me.

ARIEL

~I can’t shake the feeling that Fate will come after Natalia. I don’t want anything bad to happen to my sister.~

~So I have a plan to even the playing field. Natalia is going to learn to defend herself.~

~Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I don’t want to take any chances.~

“What is this place?” Natalia whispers as I pull her further into the tunnel, leading her to my private sparring room.

“This, little sister, is going to be your new favorite hangout,” I say, jumping into the ring. “Now come on, get in here!”

Natalia looks agape at the room. Her eyes widen when she finds the row of swords and pikes on the far wall.

“Come on slowpoke, get in the ring!” I say, grabbing her arm and pulling her between the ropes.

“But I can’t fight you,” Natalia says.

“You have to learn how to defend yourself!” I say sternly.

“No, I mean I just did my nails,” Natalia says, showing off her shellac finish. “I don’t want to chip them.”

I shake my head. She may not be much of a mouthy bitch anymore, but she’s still the primped and proper type.

~Hopefully Charlie’s mountain-man nature-loving aesthetic rubs off on her.~

“You need to learn how to fight, Natalia!” I say.

“Why? The guards here will protect me,” she says with a smile.

~Because Fate is angry at me and might come after you!~

“And what happens if you are out in the world and Xavier appears?” I say.

“I’ll knock his ass out, like I did the last time,” Natalia smirks, picking up a pair of boxing gloves from the canvas floor.

“But what happens if you don’t have a weapon with you? And when you don’t have the element of surprise? If a similar situation arises, I want to know you can look after yourself.”

I don’t tell her about Fate. That would be too much.

Natalia sighs, relenting to my training regimen. “Fine.”

“Now, today I’m going to teach you a few simple techniques to keep you safe.”

For the next hour I show Natalia a few throws and locks, and, surprisingly, she catches on pretty quick.

“Okay, now to up the ante,” I say. “I’ll come toward you like an attacker. I want you to use the shoulder throw on me.”

“What?!” Natalia says, but she hardly has any time to react as I launch myself at her.

I throw playful punches, which she barely manages to dodge.

I get a little faster and accidentally land one straight on her nose.

Natalia groans and stumbles backward, bouncing off the ropes.

“Oh Goddess, are you okay?” I say, putting my hands to my mouth.

Natalia is a little dazed, but then her eyes narrow.

~Her wolf is coming to the front.~

Natalia snarls and jumps forward.

She throws a wide hook, catching me off guard. I manage to dodge, but the punch still slams me in the shoulder.

I spin away, but Natalia doesn’t let up. She throws two more straight punches at my face—which I block just in time—before launching a kick to my ribs.

I double over and cough, trying to block as Natalia keeps moving forward.

She gives me a final kick, bouncing me into the ropes, before she grabs my sleeve and performs a perfect shoulder throw.

I land hard on the canvas, panting heavily.

“Great,” I cough. “That was great!”

Natalia offers a hand and hoists me back to my feet.

“I think that concludes today’s lesson,” I say.

NATALIA

“Are you okay?” I ask as Ariel and I walk back together through the palace.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?” Ariel says, flashing a smile too wide to be real.

“The bags under your eyes tell me everything I need to know,” I say. “Have you been sleeping well?”

Ariel looks down at her feet.

“I didn’t get much sleep last night. I had…a bad dream, and it totally wrecked me.”

Despite looking as if she is the Goddess reborn, with her white-blonde hair and blazing yellow eyes, I can see that she’s uncertain beneath her outward appearance.

~She’s calm and collected on top, but raging and troubled below the surface.~

“I just need a good night’s rest,” Ariel says.

“I think I might actually have something for you then,” I say brightly.

I fish around in my pocket and pull out a palm-sized mooncatcher Charlie made me.

“I’ve been carrying this around, a way to keep Charlie close when I’m not with him. He said they catch good energy and amplify it. Seems like you need it,” I say.

“A mooncatcher,” Ariel says, inspecting it. “I remember when we used to make these with Mom when we were younger.”

“One of the only times we all stopped warring with each other,” I say with a smile.

~That all seems like a lifetime ago.~

I untie one of my shoelaces and attach it to the mooncatcher, looping it around Ariel’s neck, in a crude approximation of a necklace.

Ariel’s eyes begin to shimmer as tears form at the corners.

“Thank you,” Ariel says quietly, embracing me.

“Okay, okay, stop it,” I say, separating us. “You keep that up and I’ll start crying, and I don’t want my makeup to run.”

Ariel laughs and gives a big sniff, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

“See you tomorrow for ‘class,’” she says before we part ways.

I head back to my room, looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

My mom offered to take Xavi for the night to give me some alone time.

I’m looking forward to a long, hot bath after that workout with Ariel.

As I open the door, I sense something is off.

Before I can even comprehend what’s happening, a pair of strong hands clamp around my shoulders.

I scream—but then the muscle memory Ariel drilled into me earlier kicks in.

~Stamp his foot.~

~Backward headbutt.~

~Uppercut strike.~

~Grab his arm.~

~Throw him to the ground.~

My assailant groans under the barrage of attacks, before raising his hands in defense and defeat as I ready another strike.

“It’s me, It’s me!” Charlie says, laughing. “Mercy!”

“What are you doing here?” I say.

“I see you’ve been training today? I couldn’t find you. I wanted to talk.”

~Oh no. Has someone told him about Xavier?~

“What did you want to talk about?” I say, hoping to disguise the worry in my voice.

“I had an idea of something we could do…~together~.”

Charlie picks himself up, dusts himself off, and gestures to the door.

“I have a surprise and a request. If you would care to join me…”

He holds out his hand.

I think for a moment before placing my hand in his.

Charlie leads me out of the palace, into the twilight.

“Where are we going?” I ask, my excitement rising.

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” he responds slyly.

He continues all the way to the woods before turning round to face me.

“Take your clothes off,” he whispers.

~My clothes?~

~Oh my Goddess! Does he want to…~

“What did you have in mind?” I say.

He leans down toward my face, and my heart feels like it’s about to burst out of my chest.

~Is he going to kiss me?~

~Is this going to be our first kiss?~

But instead he whispers, “I want to see your wolf. I want to see the real you.”