NovelEnglish
Chapter 73 : Winter Forest Will Fall
Maeve
I spent the next two days being moved between Damian’s tent, where I was allowed to eat, and a tree
just above the shoreline, where I was tied up, my hands occasionally bound together above my head if
Damian felt like being extra cruel.
He had continued his ceaseless interrogations, asking over and over if I knew where to find the
moonstone. He seemed less interested in how to use it, however, and was growing more nervous with
each passing hour.
I was beginning to think this wasn’t his plan. That, or he was in way over his head doing someone else’s
bidding.
I just couldn’t bring myself to believe that person was Tasia.
I had spent nearly three days in contemplation, racking my mind for any hints of malicious, secretive
behavior on Tasia’s end during my time in Dianny. Our stay in Dianny had been an incredibly strange,
confusing time, however, and even if she had said something, or done something, that would’ve given
me a clue about her true motives I could have easily missed it.
Troy had said she could move air, I remember that much. Then I
thought about the strange storm that had rocked the Persephone while we traveled through the pass and
wondered briefly if Tasia had been behind it. Wind creates weather, right? Or was it something else?
“I should have listened when you were talking to me about meteorology…” I sighed, thinking of Troy and
wishing I could tuck the loose curl that had been tickling my nose for hours behind my ear. My wrists
ached where they had been restrained, the skin raw and dappled with blisters where the coarse rope met
and rubbed against my skin whenever I moved.
I felt a strange sensation in my belly, however, momentarily distracting me from my precarious situation.
One of the babies was moving, rolling, his feet gliding over my belly button.
“Ooph, that feels weird,” I smiled, then grimaced as the other one, at least I thought it was the other one,
kicked me sharply in the side. “You guys are getting big.”
It was well past dark now, the stars simmering over the calm surf rolling up the beach in the shelter of the
narrow cove. Damian’s empty boat was still rocking in open water roughly a half mile from the shore, its
white body reflecting on the water in the light of the moon.
“I gotta get out of here,” I whispered, wondering if anyone was going to come to release me from my
bondage so I could lay down and go to sleep on one of Damian’s couches like I had the last two nights in
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇta row, never out of the watchful eye of Rex.
T heard a low hum as I continued to watch the water, so low it was nearly inaudible. I tilted my head to
the side, wondering if I had somehow gotten sand in my ear and it was messing with my hearing, but the
hum was getting louder, growing closer.
I saw the skiff as it inched out from behind the rocky bluff sticking out of the water at the edge of the
cove, the nose of the small boat lit by moonlight. I squinted, wondering if what I was seeing was real and
not a figment of my pained and dehydrated imagination.
One of Damian’s warriors was sitting on the beach, his head slumped forward as he slept. He was
supposed to be on guard while the rest of the warriors slept in a second tent nearby. He hadn’t heard the
skiff.
A wave of excitement washed over me as the humming started up again, a handful of darkened figures
coming into view as the moonlight cast shadows over their bodies.
I held my breath as I turned my gaze upon the sleeping warrior, a second skiff appearing in my
peripheral.
They were sneaking into the cove.
I knew without a shadow of a doubt it was the crew of the Persephone.
I could have cried, but instead, I very quietly attempted to stand,
leaning against the tree for support as I shimmied upright.
Suddenly, the first skiff let out a roar as the engine was pushed to its max, the boat flying into the cove in
a boom of noise.
The sleeping warrior woke with a start, crying out.
But it was too late.
The first skiff met the beach and continued up the sand, sliding to a stop and spraying a sheet of sand
over the warrior. The warriors’ tent flashed with light as someone turned on a lantern, shouts of alarm
ringing out from within as everyone woke up and began to file sleepily outside.
Then all hell broke loose.
The beach had erupted into chaos. All around, me people were scrambling out of their clothes and
shifting as the crew of the Persephone stormed the shore. I could hear Damian screaming harsh
commands as he emerged from his tent, his voice lifted in surprise as Keaton jumped out of the skiff, a
long spear in his hand. Myla followed, then Pete, and several other familiar faces began to run toward
Damian’s meager forces, not even bothering to shift.
I fought against the rope binding me to the tree outside of the tent as I watched the fight take place. The
entire crew of the Persephone was on the beach now, outnumbering the seven or
so warriors Damian had at his disposal by at least three people.
Damian hadn’t been expecting this. He had underestimated us.
“Keaton!” I cried over the fray. He turned his head toward me, nodding once before using his spear to
block a wolf from lunging at him, smashing the creature down onto the sand with all of his strength.
But my outburst had drawn the attention of someone else, Damian, who had been standing
dumbfounded as he watched his warriors get completely overrun.
He stalked toward me, pulling a knife from his pocket.
Suddenly, a dark wolf appeared out of nowhere, who I recognized as Myla. She tackled him to the
ground, holding him down by his neck. She looked at me as if asking for permission.
I nodded.
“This isn’t over. You kill me-you think that will solve this, that it will bring peace… I was never the one you
needed to worry about. Everything is already in motion-” Myla bit down, and Damian went quiet. I looked
away.
“No!” Came Opaline’s voice in a shrill wail of utter despair. She was running toward us, frantic, her eyes
wide with disbelief.
“Cut me loose, Myla!” I screamed, seeing the knife Opaline had a death grip on. I wondered why she
hadn’t shifted yet, when everyone else had besides Damian. She looked scared, and distraught, but
most of all, dangerous.
Myla had leaped in front of me, standing between me and Damian’s body. Opaline stopped short of us,
holding the dagger up as though she were going to strike Myla with it, but her hand was trembling.
“Do you realize what you’ve done?” she screamed, her eyes welling with tears. “It’s over now, all of it.
Damian was the only one she would listen to. He was the only one who could reason with her. She’ll do
it, Maeve. She’ll take over the pack lands and leave nothing but destruction in her wake!”
“Tasia? No, she won’t. She can’t. She doesn’t have an army-”
“She doesn’t need one! Don’t you understand? Don’t you see?” Opaline was desperate, her voice
carrying over the sounds of battle behind her on the beach.
Myla let out a low growl in warning as Opaline stepped forward, but she had let her arm fall, her knife at
rest along the side of her thigh. “Tasia is the only one who can defeat your mother. If she makes it to
Lycenna … it will be over, Maeve. Winter Forest will fall. Damian was trying to prevent that from
happening. He wanted the crown, of course. He wanted power. But he knew if he let Tasia wage war
over the moonstones, it would destroy everything, and he would be left with nothing to rule but a land
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmof chaos, a land the Moon Goddess would leave behind.”
“I’ve had enough of this magic!” I hissed, bucking against my restraints.
“You don’t understand what his death has started. I can’t help you. I can’t-I won’t be on the wrong side of
this war.”
“Damian is the one who invaded Valoria. He was the reason,”
“I loved him,” she said softly, her eyes fixed firmly on mine. “He didn’t need to die!”
“He deserved it, Opaline, for the carnage that he caused and wanted to cause in the future. He was
going to kill me and take my children,”
“He would have saved the pack lands from Tasia. Now there’s no one who can stop her.”
“You’re wrong about her. The Daughters of Artemis are a peaceful people”
“Oh, Maeve. There is so much you don’t know.” Opaline swallowed, then looked down at Damian, her
face turning red as anger began to replace her fleeting grief. “I was supposed to be his Luna. I was
supposed to be the one on the throne. I was going to take your mother’s place, you know. Lycaon was
supposed to be the one we worshiped, not the Moon Goddess
and her daughter. It was supposed to be him. He was the rightful heir, not Morrighan.”
“That was thousands of years ago! It’s over!”
“It’s far from over! Once Tasia has the moonstones, she can rule, and she will conquer every corner of
the pack lands. She will kill everyone who worships the Goddess. She will kill everyone in the line of
Morrighan, don’t you see? She killed her own people to do so,”
“What?” I said, the word falling from my tongue in an almost inaudible whisper. Opaline nodded her
head, a wicked, oddly timed smile creeping across her face.
“Like I said, there’s so much you don’t know. So, so much you don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” she said quietly, and then she turned away, walking across the beach
toward the trees.
“Cut me loose!” I screeched, knowing I had to get to Opaline before she escaped.
Myla bit into the rope that held me against the trees, and within a split second, my hands were free, my
arms tingling as the blood began to rush back to the fingertips. “Where’s Troy? Myla!
Where is he?”
Please, I thought desperately, don’t tell me he’s still in the tomb.
It had been three full days.
Visit our social media platform to read fascinating stories every day and connect with the community!
