Chapter 490: Something is Wrong
"Okay, let’s light a fire," Nedra sighed heavily with one last glance back at Seth who was standing nearby, offering her his silent strength. She felt him throughout her whole being. His protective presence was strong and reassuring.
She still couldn’t believe that it was possible—after all of this time, Seth was her mate. The thought made a huge smile bloom on her face. She had a mate. The father of her children. It was like the most wonderful dream she could imagine, and after all this time... after being trapped here with Zagan, it was just so difficult to allow herself to believe it. But it was the most true thing she had ever felt.
The Goddess was certainly mysterious in how she worked things—just as she and Penelope had discussed. It all balanced. Somehow, some way, they might not understand how... but the timing was right.
"Right," Penelope licked her lips and glanced at August. "Ready Luna?"
"Let’s do it," August said. "I am ready to get home. Let’s do this one last thing."
The vampire had stopped beating on the invisible walls of his enclosure. He glared at them with empty black eyes like a predator waiting to be released from his enclosure for the hunt. His jaw unhinged and mouth spread wide with rows and rows of sharp teeth, distorting the regular proportions of his face.
Nedra and Penelope grimaced at the unnatural sight before them. The vampire’s disturbingly contorted facial expression didn’t make it any easier to try finding the supposed ’light’ inside of him that August claimed was there. But she had obviously already focused in on it again, because his current outward appearance didn’t seem to bother her at all. She didn’t even seem to notice it.
The spiral design on August’s arm began to glow a bright gold again as she focused on the Veiled surrounding the caged creature. As with the cage’s structure that they made to trap him, she focused on finding a positive way to frame the task of bringing life to this vampire. It had to be positive in order for it to work. And that small speck of light in his center is what she used as her focus—making that grow, bringing it strength, giving it the vibrancy it needed in order to slowly take over the dense vile matter that surrounded it and threatened to spill out of him.
The life on Nedra’s island that she had manifested for Zagan’s use provided August with the energy she needed within the Veiled to direct it into the creature’s center. And it was working. Once the focal point within him began to grow, the vampire abandoned his desire to scare the fae before him, his eyes instead going wide with the surprise of feeling something happening inside just above his heart. He couldn’t see the Veiled as the three alyko around him could, but he was experiencing the effects of it.
But then something strange happened.
August was looking at the vampire and the Veiled that was rushing into him and then she wasn’t. She was in the council chambers staring at Violet—a strange Violet. A Violet with golden eyes.
"What the..." she breathed, freezing in her work with the Veiled.
Violet was standing there in the center of that black circular floor at the bottom of that dreaded well glaring at her with a hatred so palpable that it felt as if she were about to destroy her and everyone else in the pack. August opened her mouth to address her—to ask her what was wrong. But then just as quickly as the vision came, it was gone.
What had just happened? August’s stomach twisted as a panic began spiraling up into her chest. Why would Violet have gold eyes like her? And why was she in the council chambers? It seemed everyone else in the pack was there with her as well. It was some kind of trial with Violet at its center. One thing was absolutely certain. August was being called to return to her mate and to her pack, and there was no way she was going to deny them.
"I have to... I have to go. Something is wrong," she said, backing away from the vampire before her.
"What?" Nedra exclaimed in surprise.
"August, what do you mean?" Penelope asked.
"The pack needs me. I need to go. Now," she said urgently.
The vampire’s eyes remained wide and strangely light compared to how black they were before. But he was still a vampire. His heart was not beating. There was no life blood flowing through his veins other than that which had belonged to his last meal.
"But... the vampire!" Nedra said, staring dumbfounded at the male who was still caged before them. Was she just going to leave him here? What were the rest of them supposed to do until she returned?
"I don’t know—I don’t know what to say. I just have to go. It was a warning. My pack is in danger," she said, her thoughts tumbling one over the other in an attempt to sort out in her mind what had just happened. But she didn’t know what it was. The only thing she was certain of was that Violet was a threat to her pack at this very moment.
"Will you return?" Penelope asked, looking in shock from Nedra back to August.
"Yes, if you need me to. Yes, of course I will," she said. "How do I get out of here, Nedra?"
Nedra glanced back at Seth. She was too stunned by the sudden change in August to even be able to orient herself properly.
"I will show you," he said, walking forward to guide August toward the portal they all used. "It’s this way."
"Wait," Nedra stopped them. She looked around at the fallen trees and the gaping chasm in the ground. Who knew what condition the rest of the island was in? "Try something first," she said, glancing back up at August. If the alyko Luna were capable of the other things she had done, perhaps she was capable of this, too. "Try making a portal of your own."
