Chapter 41

Katla

“Katla,” I turned around, and still there was nothing. A chill crept over my skin, and the familiar sensation of being pulled by a string connected to my chest crept back in.

“Damien, I…” How could I possibly explain this? I started again, “I’m not crazy,” I said. “That’s how you’re going to start this,” Aurelia laughed.

“So, you’re not crazy, but…there’s usually a ‘but’ after that, and then someone doesn’t do a good job of proving they aren’t crazy…” Damien mused.

“No, hear me out. I’m not crazy, but I hear the voice calling to me again. Earlier, when I found this,” I showed him the cuff still on my wrist, “I felt a pull, like a string connected to my heart. Then my name. I feel the pull again, right after I said that we needed a miracle.”

“Katla, I think you need to lean into this feeling,” Damien said. “I think this is part of your destiny, maybe…either that or you’re crazy. I’m here for it either way, though.” He raised an eyebrow.

I didn’t know what to do with that, so I smiled at him. I was falling hard for this man who so perfectly seemed to get me and know what to say and do. I never thought that I would find my fated mate and that it would be like finding the other half of yourself, but here we were, on a murder mystery case still less than 24 hours after meeting. That’s one hell of a first date to tell our pups about.

Katla, look up,” the voice commanded. When I looked up, I saw a ray coming down to the earth from the illuminated sliver of moon and felt like I was meant to go to it. So, I walked forward while Damien watched.

As I stepped into the puddle of moonlight, I felt a warmth surge through my veins, and a power was calling to me. I heard my name more clearly now, “Katla, you must claim your birthright and destiny.” It wasn’t one voice, but generations of voices, those I loved before and those who knew and loved me. “You are not alone.”

“Katla,” Damien breathed, “the moon, the light, you’re radiant…glowing.” He wasn’t forming sentences, and I looked at him to make sure he was ok. He was staring at me, not sure what to make of the scene.

The moon’s energy held me in a hug, and I felt it pooling in my hands, through my fingers and down through my toes. “Katla, you’re glowing,” I heard Damien say, and it shook me back to reality.

“Damien, I don’t know what just happened,” I gasped, “but I felt Her and them. All of them.” Speaking about my family before me. “I’m not alone, and I think I can find the Night Flame. I think they’ll help.”

I didn’t know what made me think that, but as the feeling started to dissipate, I asked, “Goddess, please help.” I felt the warmth creep back into my fingertips and the tug on my heart returned with more force.

“Damien, we’re meant to go that way, back toward where he is, I think,” I said as I turned to the pull.

“Lead the way,” he had far more confidence in this than I did.

We walked and instead of looking, I felt with my heart and hands. I noticed if I went in the direction of the pull, my hands tingled with an energy I couldn’t explain, but when I turned away, the sensation stopped. Damien watched me in silence, and I couldn’t decide if I would rather talk or work in silence as we walked.

We came to the alley where Peter was found and when we walked past the back derelict home, it was if nothing had happened there to raise any amount of suspicion. I wondered what Lyulf had done with Peter and how the scene was cleaned so quickly. I thought about his family, but Aurelia entered my mind and told me to visualize the Night Flame. As I listened, the intensity grew and I saw time in reverse.

I stumbled backwards, and Damien caught me. “Katla, are you ok?”

“Damien, I see him, well, it, in the past. I don’t understand, but the Night Flame was here. Peter brought it down this alley. I think we might be getting close.” As I said that, I lifted my hand to point, and the scene around us transformed.

“Impossible,” Damien gasped as an ethereal image of Peter darted past earlier in the night. His head was down, but he kept looking over his shoulder. He was twitching, and arguing with someone who wasn’t there.

He didn’t see us as he walked past, like we were invisible. The Night Flame was clenched in his hand. When he heard a noise, he stuffed it in his pants pocket.

As he continued to move down the alley, we noticed another human in the shadows. “Katla, how…?” Damien started to ask.

“I literally have no idea,” but I let the power of the moon flow through me as I continued to think of the Night Flame as the events of the earlier evening unfolded around us.