Chapter 65

MISTY

I had to leave the room after Yamika’s bombshell. I still had ~her~ essence inside me! The realization hit like a punch to the gut.

~“How dare she?!”~ Cammy exploded, her voice brimming with fury. ~“Of course I shied away from that alien spark!”~

~“You mean…you knew there were two? That they were different?”~ I asked, still trying to make sense of it all.

~“Maybe…”~ she hedged.

~“Cammy, this isn’t the time for half-truths. Just tell me!”~

~“Okay!”~ Her voice reverberated so loudly in my mind that I winced. ~“The spark I felt when everything broke…it must’ve been Kiralah’s. It felt smooth, natural. I thought it was mine every time it surfaced, but I couldn’t control it. Only you could.”~

~“Go on,”~ I urged.

~“The other one—I buried it deep. When we escaped Axel’s basement, the silver weakened me, and I reached for it instinctively. Even though it terrified me…Axel scared me more.”~

~“Holy shit! That’s why you were jumping from rock to rock like a cat!”~

~“Probably,”~ she admitted, quieter now. ~“But I pushed it away after that. It frightens me—it’s so raw, so…animalistic.”~

~“Animalistic?”~ I shot back, incredulous. ~“Cammy, you are an animal.”~

~“Yes, but this essence…It’s different. Rough. Hard. Cold.”~

~“Why didn’t you tell me? Kiralah’s magic was meant for me, but maybe Yamika’s was a gift for you?”~

~“No,”~ she insisted. ~“It feels wrong.”~

A thought suddenly clicked. ~“Cammy, did you feel the essence flow into Lloyd when I marked him?”~

~“Not really. Magic stays dormant until you use it, and we didn’t tap into it until we reached the palace. By then, it was too late.”~

~“So, Yamika’s essence—it’s dormant?”~

~“Yes,”~ she confirmed. ~“Unless I reach for it.”~

It all made sense now. Kiralah’s magic connected more to the human in me, while Yamika’s…it was tied to the animal, the wild side of us both.

I found myself sitting on the edge of the bed, though I wasn’t even sure how I got there. I dragged my hands over my face, letting out a long, exhausted sigh.

There was too much to process, too much information crashing down on me all at once, and I finally reached my breaking point.

It wasn’t just about Yamika’s essence or Kiralah’s curse. It was the layers upon layers of consequences I was only now beginning to understand. A few points hit me especially hard—ones I couldn’t shake, no matter how much I tried.

Lloyd… He wouldn’t have survived if Kiralah hadn’t cursed him. The very thing that had caused him so much suffering had, in a twisted way, kept him alive—a cruel irony.

And then there was me.

Without their essence, I wasn’t sure I’d even be standing here. I might not have existed at all if Yamika had passed her essence to someone else.

What if Lloyd had been bound to someone other than his mate, just a witch? His curse might never have been lifted.

Our lives, our fates—entangled in ways we couldn’t control or predict. Was this destiny? Or just a series of random, chaotic events we’d somehow survived?

The weight of it all pressed down on me like a suffocating blanket. My chest tightened, and for a moment, I couldn’t breathe. I leaned forward, elbows on my knees, trying to steady myself. How much of our lives had been left to chance? How much had we truly chosen?

Just as I began to regain control of my breath, the door swung open. Chelsea walked in, her presence a jarring reminder that the world outside still spun on, unaware of the storm raging inside me.

The moment I saw her, I couldn’t hold it in any longer, and tears spilled down my face uncontrollably.

Without hesitation, Chelsea pulled me into her arms, her embrace warm and consoling as she stroked my hair gently. “It’s okay,” she whispered, her voice a soothing balm.

As I was catching my breath, Lloyd’s voice came through: ~“I love you, my mate. Don’t cry. It’s killing me that I’m not with you when you need me.”~

His words hit me like a tidal wave, and fresh sobs broke free. I told him I loved him once, but he hadn’t said it back. So, I kept it locked away, thinking I shouldn’t pressure him by repeating it. But now…hearing it, finally, it overwhelmed me.

I cried harder.

“You are a mess, my friend.” Chelsea kissed my forehead. “Tell me everything.”

I blotted my tears using my T-shirt and eventually calmed down. But first, I had to understand why the skeleton had affected her so much. “I’ve never seen you cry.”

Chelsea sighed and let go of me, sliding to the floor, her back against the bed. I followed and grabbed her hand.

“Because I couldn’t stop the overwhelming feeling inside me. I could picture myself sitting there, day after day, and just withering away while my mind went crazy. Imagine contemplating death and having no hope. What went through her mind?”

I nodded and understood where she was coming from.

“Unearthing the skull wasn’t nearly as bad as seeing that skeleton…,” she continued. “It was a perspective I never considered and possibly needed because I have taken things for granted all my life and always believed everything would work out.

“Seeing that threw me for a loop,” she admitted. “I just never knew, or maybe I never confronted such evil. I didn’t think it possible to let someone starve to death with no conscience.”

“I don’t understand. We’ve watched the news, and you know there are evil people out there…”

“True, but I could almost feel the agony in that chamber—the hopelessness,” she countered. “Your turn. Tanner told me about Yamika.”

I recounted everything, but Chelsea was far too perceptive and asked numerous questions. After explaining how I felt, she laughed.

“You think this is funny?” I snapped.

“You, my friend, are having an existential crisis,” she replied with a knowing smirk, her voice light, almost teasing.

“I am ~not~, but you have to consider that neither Lloyd nor I would even be here if it weren’t for Kiralah,” I shot back, my tone hardening as I tried to make her understand.

She sighed, shaking her head gently. “You’re getting tangled in what-ifs. None of this was set in motion by either of you. It all started with an arrogant, horrid king. ~He~ was the one who lit the match, not you. But the fact remains: you ~are~ here. Both of you. Survivors. Mates. That’s something you should focus on—there’s a bright side to this, Misty.”

“Ugh, you don’t get it,” I muttered, exasperated as I turned away, shaking my head.

Her expression softened, but her words were firm. “No, I ~do~ get it. And trust me, it matters. It matters more than you realize. You, Lloyd, and everyone around you—you’ve ushered in a new era for every pack in existence. That’s some destiny, don’t you think?”

I paused, the weight of her words sinking in. “That’s one way of looking at it,” I finally conceded, though now I felt a burden of responsibility. I’d barely been responsible for myself, never mind for so many, and it scared the shit out of me.

“It’s the ~only~ way of looking at it,” she said, flashing a triumphant grin.

A tentative knock at the door, accompanied by Tanner’s scent, had Chelsea scrambling to her feet.

“What do you want, my love?” she asked, opening the door a crack.

“You, of course. Always you. I’m also here for the grimoire, unless Misty would like the honors?” He peered at me over Chelsea’s head.

“Ah, a hidden agenda, is it?” she chuckled, opening the door fully.

“Okay, Luna?” he asked solicitously.

“When you have a friend like Chelsea, you have no choice. She won’t let you wallow in misery,” I grumbled.

Tanner laughed in delight. “My beautiful, perfect mate,” he whispered.

“She has faults, you know…”

“I do not,” Chelsea countered and hugged me tightly. “I love you, my bestie.”

“Okay, enough of that,” I said, grabbing the grimoire. I rifled through it one more time and then had a thought. Grabbing my phone, I took a photo of the curse. I wanted a record. “I’ll take it. Are they still in the boardroom?”

Tanner shook his head. “In the foyer…”

“Why is it so cold all of a sudden?” I asked no one in particular. Grabbing a sweater, I headed down the stairs.

“Looks like a storm’s brewing,” Tanner responded.

~“I bet you it’s Yamika who’s making the temperature drop,”~ Cammy said waspishly.

I glanced out the window, and the sky did look stormy and gray.

Yamika turned toward me the minute I got to the base of the stairs, the green of her eyes so different from Lloyd’s. Her lips curved slightly, as though she was amused as I stepped closer to Lloyd.

Light flickered, and I groaned in annoyance.

~“She looks predatory,”~ Cammy yammered. ~“And I wouldn’t want to meet her in a dark alley…”~

“Ah, the grimoire,” she said, reaching for it.

“Okay?” Lloyd asked.

I nodded quickly but could not tear my gaze away from her. She had a reverent look on her face as she gently paged through the grimoire. “Hmm, I see you wrote in it.”

“You can see that?” I asked, feeling guilty for defiling it.

“I can, but now I can place it in the McBain crypt. It’s a pity I don’t know where she is buried, but at least her grimoire will grace her coffin.” She turned to Lloyd. “I will keep your offer in mind, and who knows what the future will bring?”

She turned back, her eyes meeting mine, and added, “Once magic has lived in a body, it can always be recovered.”

I blinked, uncomprehending, until the words hit home. “Do you mean…?” I whispered, my heart contracting painfully.

Bending forward, she grinned. “You could absorb my essence to make it easier. But yes, magic comes from the elements, and judging by all the annotations in the grimoire, you have been exposed to all of them.”

“And if I don’t want to absorb your spark?”

“Then don’t, but I can’t explain to you how to regain magic, it is intrinsic and natural. You’ll have to figure it out on your own.”

My mind spiraled. I could remember all too clearly how magic thrummed through my body when I called it. It had been so effortless, but I suspected that would no longer be the case.

Lloyd squeezed my arm, but from the frown on his face, I got the feeling he didn’t want me to pursue this. He had hated witches, and maybe if I regained magic, it would cause problems between us.

~“You don’t like the idea?”~ I linked.

~“I’m fine with the idea.”~

~“Then why are you frowning?”~

~“I have a massive headache.”~

I felt the same, a tension headache in the periphery of my vision. Was it because of Yamika?

Yamika stiffened, her eyes growing wide. She sniffed repeatedly and I followed suit, not understanding what she was smelling.

“I said it earlier, you have something to deal with here. Someone that shouldn’t be alive.”

I was about to ask for clarification when it felt like someone gripped my heart and was trying to wring it out. I dropped to my knees and looked up at Lloyd, but his face was twisted in a grimace of pain.

All around me, shifters were dropping to their knees, clutching their hearts.

“What are you doing?” I shouted at Yamika breathlessly.

Wolves writhed in agony around us. The yelps and groans grew louder by the second, and I knew then that every shifter in the palace was affected.

Yamika sniffed—once, twice—and seized my arm. “You have a powerful witch on your hands, and I can’t help you. If you want to live, absorb my spark.”

“Lloyd?” I cried in panic as he dropped to his knees, his face pale and soaked in sweat. His body shook as if his bones were turning to ice beneath his skin. The sight of him like that—strong, indomitable Lloyd—brought a wave of terror crashing down on me.

~“Cammy?~ ~Absorb Yamika’s essence so I can kill that bitch,” ~I commanded without hesitation—trusting someone I had every reason to doubt.

Every instinct screamed that Yamika couldn’t be trusted, that there was more to her than she let on. But trust didn’t matter if we were all dead. This was our only shot—and I had to take it.

~“Okay, but—”~

~“Do it, now!”~

A strange feeling ran through me like a surge of lightning beneath my skin—burning and cold all at once. My breath hitched the moment Cammy obeyed; I felt the shift—like something ancient and volatile had been poured into my blood.

My senses sharpened, my heart slammed against my ribs, and for a moment, I couldn’t tell if it was rage or power that made my hands tremble.

I felt almost…uncontainable, as if my skin might split open from the force building inside me.

And then—I no longer felt like someone was squeezing my heart.

“Help me!” I screamed at Yamika, desperation clawing at my throat.

“I can’t,” she said, voice tight. “A familiar can never harm a witch.”

Everywhere I looked, wolves lay scattered across the floor—whimpering, motionless, their sides barely rising. The air felt too still, too wrong. My people were dying, and I was wasting time.

A cry broke from my chest as I turned and ran for the doors, feet pounding against the stone.

Warm and blinding sunlight spilled through the open archway, but it couldn’t touch the cold terror surging through me. I pushed past fallen bodies, lungs heaving, eyes scanning the open grounds.

I didn’t know who she was or where she was hiding—but I had to find the witch. I had to stop the chant. If I didn’t, they were all as good as dead.

~“Listen~!” Cammy screamed so loudly I flinched, heart thudding, but then I did as she said—we both went still, listening~.~

~“Why does that voice sound familiar?” ~I whispered.

~“It does,” ~Cammy said, shifting,~ “but I can’t place it. But I can smell…pepper steak.” ~

Pepper steak?

Her head snapped toward the forest.~ “I know that smell!” ~she cried and sped toward the trees.