Chapter 35

Damien

“Rolf, Clarissa, look for Peter,” I called as I sprinted up the stairs. When I ran into the room, I found Katla, but with her eyes that burned an even brighter blue from crying and tear streaked cheeks, she took my breath away. “I wouldn’t tell her that right now,” Sargon suggested. “No shit,” I told him back.

“Katla, I’m so sorry. I know you’re mad, but I promise I didn’t know until I saw the Night Flame come alive as it touched your skin. Please, believe me. I still don’t understand, but I want us to figure this out together. Ok?”

“The Night Flame?” She asked.

“The purple diamond, it’s special and it can only be controlled by the prophesied princess, the direct descendant of the Moon Goddess herself at the time of Her choosing. I think that might be you, Katla,” I walked across the room, sat on the floor next to her, and held her.

“Damien. Something happened. I can’t find it,” she cried. “That’s why I screamed.”

“Can’t find what, Katla?”

“The purple diamond. The Night Flame. I swear, it was on the chair last night. I took it off when…” she blushed, “but when you mentioned the bracelet and necklace downstairs, I realized I hadn’t seen it since before our shower.”

“Katla, where was it this morning?”

“Still on the chair. I noticed it glittering, but it just looks different here. Then we got a shower and while we were doing that things were brought to the closet. I didn’t look for it after, but the room was clean.”

“Did you check the jewelry box?”

“It was the first place I looked. I think someone took it. But who could have known ?” Then I thought about how Peter was missing and mindlinked Rolf as it dawned on me that Peter’s disappearance wasn’t accidental.

“Peter has the Night Flame. Tell Gamma Lyulf to find him and bring him to me unharmed,” my wolf ordered.

“Are you certain?” he immediately responded.

“Almost certainly. It’s why I said ‘unharmed.’ He needs to explain,” I said back.

“Then what?” Rolf’s wolf asked.

“Pack justive seems best for the crime, but we have to trust human laws to work for humans.”

“Human laws are shit,” he said back. I didn’t disagree, but as part of our arrangement with them, we had to allow human laws to work on human lands.

I turned to Katla and told her that my Gamma was looking for Peter, who I suspected had taken the necklace.

“I don’t understand. Why would he do that?” She asked.

“Purple diamonds are rare, that one even more so. With the right buyer, he would be set for life and then some,” I guessed. “I think the temptation was just too much with it sitting around. I didn’t know that you hadn’t been told about it growing up. I’m sorry, Katla.”

And I truly was sorry. It was so unfair that Katla was learning something that all wolves outside of Iceclaw knew.

“Why do you think I am a prophecied princess?” she questioned. “I’m largely unremarkable except for being Alpha of a strong pack… or would be Alpha. I was average in school at best, and I’m decently strong for a she-wolf but not special.”

“Katla, it’s an ancient prophecy about the origins of wolves. The Moon Goddess herself created the first wolf in her image on a full moon and blessed that wolf with her power through the Moonstone and Night Flame. Our packs were once together,” I told her, “United under the Moonstone and Night Flame.”

“So, we’re cousins?” she smirked.

“I guess, but many, many, many generations ago, at the beginning of time itself. There was a war in the pack, a division between the white coats and greys. Instead of continuing allowing her children to harm one another, the Moon Goddess came back to Earth, and sent the greys South. As the greys looked back at their frozen home, their eyes turned blue to remind them of the place where the tundra meets the sea,” I explained. “She sent the Moonstone and Waxing Cuff South, and the Night Flame and Waning Cuff stayed in the North.” I pointed to her bracelet.

Her mouth fell into a delicate round o as she breathed, “Wow. They always said that was a myth. So our eyes were like fire?”

“Oh no, the Moon Goddess gave us eyes of fire as we looked South after our family to remind us to keep the fire of hope alive at our coming together again. Remember, many myths spring from truth….As a symbol of that divide and union, every hundred years a female descendant of an Alpha marries the Alpha of their twin pack.”

“Ok, but I still don’t understand what that has to do with me,” she looked at me, hungry for more.

“There’s a lot of stuff in the prophecy, and I think you should see it. I won’t do it justice, but for me, it wasn’t confirmed until I saw your wolf.” I could see her wolf awaken at the edges of her eyes at her mention. Katla really didn’t understand how remarkable that was.

“Aurelia?” she asked. “Everyone always made fun of me for looking different.”

“That’s because your father bound their memories when your mother died.”

She looked shocked and hurt, “But how do you… he wouldn’t—“

“Katla, he told me after he told you about our engagement,” her eyes filled with tears again, and I hugged her. I wanted to protect her, but she needed to know.

She swallowed, and I could see her wrestling with the information, likely with Aurelia. “But what does Aurelia have to do with this?” she asked.

“Katla, the prophecied princess is meant to have a golden wolf, the color of the moon, in a sea of dusk and night.”

She gasped, “Where is the prophecy?”

“It’s kept securely in Silverburn, in our library.”

“After we find the Night Flame, can we go there?” she asked. “I have to know.”