LOGINMENODORA'S POV“The enemy has remembered you." The words remain suspended in the air, hanging by a single thread even after the Keeper stops talking. Nobody seems to remember how to breathe, the air hanging thick refusing to move past our lips."Everyone out. Now!” Cassian breaks the silence his voice cuts through the chamber with enough force to make me move before I have time to think.“Lupa?” Orvax catches my hand. I squeeze his fingers to tell him I'm fine before crouching to Elira's level."Elira?” I call, placing my hand on her shoulder softly. She doesn't answer, eyes still fixed on the broken piece of silver lying on the floor, totally unaffected by everything happening around her.“Elira?" I try again but still no response."Elira, you need to leave it!” The Keeper gently orders. This seems to get through her because she breaks out of her reverie to look at her."But…but it belongs…to my mother…” she says, her voice breaking several times leaving the final words fractured, s
MENODORA'S POV Orvax's voice is low, almost inaudible.“Whatever this means, we can continue this discussion when we get somewhere safe.”"But there's no place safer than here right now.”The Keeper is shaking her head like she's in a trance."The eastern passage has only been breached once…” Cassian says in agreement with the Keeper, jaws clenching so hard, I can hear his teeth grinding together.“That's only that you know of. What if it's been breached more than once?" The Keeper muses.Cassian looks up, eyes narrowing into unsure slits."What do you mean by that?” His voice sounds strained, like he's fighting hard against losing control with reality.“I don't know Cassian. Looking at the nature of this breach, whoever this may be knows how to open the eastern ward…the most intricate ward in this Kingdom. What if they know more about this Kingdom than we think they do?”The Keeper finally turns to look at us, a quiet unspoken focus that drains out all the background noise, leaving
MENODORA’S POVSeveral seconds pass and no one moves or speaks, too stunned into silence by the implications of the Keeper's words. From the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of Elira, her chest barely moving in that up and down motion to show if she is breathing or not. I am hardly breathing myself and I am sure that the rest of us are hardly breathing as well. The only sound that can be heard between us is the distant wail of the warning horns bouncing off the stones of the walls lining the garden.A glint of silver catches the light and the reflection of it feels blinding. Turning to see what it is, I glimpse the sight of the pendant still dangling in the hold of Elira's trembling fingers. My eyes are particularly drawn to the crescent eye…the symbol of the Keepers of Memory, the same symbol we had found on the stone tablet and very same pendant that just might have managed to open the passage that should have been impossible to breach.“Elira,” I barely feel the words form on my
MENODORA'S POVThe chest clicks open and I brace myself for the unexpected, but it never comes…no dramatic explosion, no sudden flash of hot white light…just a quiet click. Inside the chest is a stack of letters, yellowed and dusty from the length of time, beside them is a small pocket sized journal and a piece of dark blue fabric embroidered with silver thread.Elira reaches for the journal with trembling fingers.Flipping open the first page, there is only one sentence.“To future Elira, if you ever find the way back to your destiny…” Elira starts to read aloud. A sharp microscopic hiccup of air escapes her lips, the tiny movement pulls her shoulder tight and her fingers grow tense around the journal. The sight of it feels like a leaden weight settling squarely on my breast bone making each inhale feel like lifting a stone.She turns the page and the handwriting catches my attention. I move closer to trace a finger over it…it is unmistakably feminine and delicate.“Lysandra," the Ke
MENODORA'S POV Somewhere beyond the newly opened doorway, an ancient spirit stirred. Something has been patiently waiting for this day and we are about to find out exactly what it is. It may have been nothing more than ten seconds that we stand there peering cautiously down the doorway, but in the silence and the darkness, it feels like several long minutes. The doorway stands open before us, an open invitation to the darkness that waits on the other side. This is no ordinary darkness…something about it feels ancient, like whatever lies beyond it has been holding its breath for centuries and is now being allowed to take a long needed exhale.With shaky fingers still wrapped around the silver pendant, Elira stares into the darkness.“Are you sure about this Elira?" I ask her softly, stepping in closer when she doesn't answer."Did my mother know about this place?” She is picking her words with great difficulty now, eyes not straying from the doorway for a single second. Like a fear th
MENODORA'S POV Orvax is already sprinting towards the door before the words are out of my lips.“Don't move, just stay here…” I hear him saying but I pay no attention to him, already struggling to get on my feet.“I'm coming with you." “Menodora…" he starts, his hands pausing over the doorknob. “No…don't give me that voice.” I know he only calls me by my name when he considers the situation too serious.“You don't get to tell me to stay behind anymore…not after everything we have been through together.”I see the slight tick in his jaw and the sharp flicker in his eyes. For a moment I think he might consider arguing with me but instead, he lets out a slow puff of air…almost like he is releasing whatever pent up tension he did not realize he had.“The outer wards, someone tried to test them last night and we don't know who did.”I can feel a cold lead weight materialize behind my navel dragging my viscera downwards towards my shoes even as air vanishes from my lungs at the same mome
MENODORA’S POVThe opportunity came faster than I anticipated…On the night that changed everything, the air felt similar to the night that I was born. The tension and uneasy watching, almost like the forest was waiting for something, but at the time, I wasn't sure what it was waiting for.I just f
“She should not exist…” Those are the first words spoken by the midwife on the night Mayari is born.That night, the moon did not shine the way it normally would, instead it bled. Like a crimson stain spreading across the face of the night, it turned the atmosphere into a rust-tinted veil.The moo
MENODORA'S POV“No… that's impossible,” one of the council members says, but right before their very eyes, it is already happening.The first sight that catches my attention is the sight of my fingers, because extending from where my nails should be are now lethal-looking claws, long and sleek.“Be
The Alpha staggers backward, his breath seizing in his throat, only coming out in painful and shallow pants.“The child shall be executed…” he announces for all within and without the birthing den to hear.“No!" The shriek of the child's mother shatters the stillness that follows the Alpha’s announ







