Chapter 497: Sound of Creation
Graeme approached August from behind when he saw the same warm, healing glow begin that she had created when she healed Greta in the dungeon. But Neoma wasn’t sick, she wasn’t poisoned, she wasn’t struggling to get well. She was gone. She had no heartbeat. Her soul had left her body.
"August..." he said in that soft deep voice of his, trying to draw her attention.
He didn’t want to dissuade her from trying to heal Neoma if she truly believed she could do it, but something like that had never been done by her before—or anyone for that matter. What if it ended up harming her? What if it took too much of her own energy and health to try for something that was just not possible?
When August healed Greta, it had taken everything out of her—she had collapsed from exhaustion and needed to spend time recovering in bed afterward. And as tragic as it was, Neoma had sacrificed herself to save August for a reason—she was the Luna of their pack. She was glowing with the Goddess’ own blessing. She was carrying the heir. Any loyal member of their pack would have done it if they had seen that threat from Violet in the Veiled. And there was no way Graeme wanted her putting herself back in harm’s way.
"Moon..." he tried again, reaching into her warm aura with a hand on her elbow.
As soon as his hand touched her, he felt the healing that he had also been the recipient of several times. And then suddenly he was back in that sacred healing spot looking out across the hot spring with the dense mist hanging above the water.
The tree guardian appeared on the bank next to him, the creaking of an old tree trailing her as her lichen dress materialized behind her, woven into the ground. She looked at him knowingly as if she were reading all of the unspoken secrets he kept. But she did not say anything.
"Where is she?" He was filled with the same purity of feeling as always when he was in this space, but he couldn’t understand why August would not also be here with him.
"She is not needed here," the guardian said simply.
"But I am?" His eyebrows shot up in surprise. "This is her space."
"You are her mate."
"I don’t understand. I’m fine," he replied, looking around at the eternal summer day that shone through the trees, scattering sunlight in patches on the bank.
"You must not be if you are here."
He was about to argue when someone called his name.
"Graeme?"
He looked across the spring expecting to see August, but instead Greta was standing there with a look of utter confusion on her face.
"Greta?" Why would she be here?
"What is this place?" She asked, glancing down at her arms and legs to see that she was indeed physically standing here in front of a mysterious hot spring rather than in the council chambers with the rest of the pack.
"You shouldn’t be here," he said, equally confused. Something must be wrong... why would Greta appear here?
"Where are we?" Sam asked, suddenly appearing from out of the woods just as Greta had.
One by one, more pack members began arriving, all of them spreading out along the bank that surrounded the hot spring. Panic wanted to flutter to life in Graeme’s chest with the confusion about what they were all doing here, but it was like this place wouldn’t allow it. The panic was tamped down with the sunlight on his face and the mist that gradually started crawling along the bank and across the mossy ground.
Regardless of the confusion Graeme felt over how it was possible that so many of them could materialize here in his mate’s own healing dimension, there was an overwhelming sense of calm and well-being. All was as it should be. It was as if August were there herself, reassuring them all of that fact.
Graeme recognized every face that appeared from out of the trees. They were his pack members. They were the family that he was called to lead, and now they were all standing in awe wondering how they had come to be in this utopian place.
"I suppose we all need to heal, don’t we?" He sighed to himself, wondering if that was the reason they were all here.
After the pack’s complicated past with his parents’ deaths and the events that had only just unfolded in the chambers, they certainly all needed some form of healing. That was not a surprise. But what did this mean for August? Was she truly capable of healing all of these people at one time... not to mention Neoma? And why was she not here herself?
"Perhaps you are all needed instead to perform a healing," the guardian said, drawing everyone’s attention to her. "Is that possible?"
Petals began swirling up into the air from the ground just as Graeme had witnessed them do before. A few people gasped, and he saw them walk forward—closer to the hot spring where they could look up into the sky that was not obstructed by the tree canopy. They watched as the petals continued floating upward, finally disappearing like small pieces of glitter into the bright sunlight above.
"That must be it," Graeme hummed to himself. He smiled. Had August somehow drawn them all here in order to help her heal Neoma? What was his mate not capable of?
————
Back in the council chambers, the warm glow that surrounded August as she focused on healing Neoma grew in size, spiraling out further in wisps of light to surround each member of the pack. It was expanding, filling the space that once looked like a deep ominous well.
Rather than depleting her energy like it had when she healed Greta, this time the healing seemed to come from an endless reserve with August as a conduit. She wasn’t giving away something of herself; she wasn’t offering herself as a sacrifice. This time, she was drawing that power to heal and restore from something greater—something far beyond herself that was limitless and open to everyone.
Without using her eyes, she felt each member of the pack who was concentrating on what they loved most as she had asked them come together with her and unite in that healing light. They were themselves becoming a part of it. And it was no longer just her doing the healing—it was all of them.
She could sense each individual like a perfect, white form that was made entirely out of energy. And as she held Neoma with Lucas, they all gathered around, adding their own conduits of power to hers. Each of them had this ability—it was not only her. Perhaps she just made them more open to it. Perhaps she was the spark that made it possible, but their power was their own.
August concentrated on the pure love in the mate bond that she could sense radiating from that part of Lucas that sat right above his heart. It was reaching desperately, unfulfilled for the girl in his arms. She raised her hands above the pair, taking that bright star of love and splitting it into two... two twin stars of pure love that were at once separate and entangled.
With the help of all those beautiful, powerful souls of the pack surrounding her, August guided one half of Lucas’ star into Neoma’s body, calling her spirit back to the place where it had inhabited, wishing for it to take this gift of the mate bond and accept it—and give it shape to grow and bloom and flourish.
"Your time is not done yet, dear Zoe. You are still needed here. Come back to us," August whispered, adding her voice to the glow of the air that was now thrumming with something so magical, so palpable that it brought tears to her eyes.
Someone in the pack began singing. She imagined Indigo at the full moon celebration and then again at Samhain—her soulful, rich voice stirring something deep in everyone. It was low at first, but then it gradually began to grow.
August couldn’t make out the words, because they were not words to be understood with the mind. Instead, the lyrics were speaking—they were calling—to the soul. And it was the souls of all those who were gathered that answered. Soon all of their voices were joining in, gathered around the hot spring with Graeme, the bright white forms in August’s mind circling around her and Lucas and Neoma.
August gasped when her own soul recognized the song that was rising in beautiful harmony around them, lifting together into one message carried on many voices. She could feel the sudden deep recognition light within her. This song was the sound of creation.
