LOGINELIRA'S POV “Let's have a seat first and maybe go through these scrolls,” the Keeper says. "Maybe it could help us make sense of the situation we find ourselves in now.”By the time we return to the seats, the others are already rummaging through the shelves in the alcove. Menodora is standing beside one of the larger shelves listening to Orvax drone on about some historical events recorded in one of the scrolls while Cassian is standing beside the entrance to the alcove, carefully studying the contents of the shelf there.I sheepishly approach Menodora, almost afraid she might scold me again for disappearing and making everyone worried."We thought you were lost,” she whispers instead. “Find anything good?" “I don't know if it qualifies as something good, but I did find something interesting and worth looking into.“What is it?" She asks, one of her brows lifting slightly.I glance around to make sure no one is listening. For some reason, I still can't bring myself to trust them…we
MENODORA'S POV I take one hesitant step towards the footprint but Orvax holds me back.“Don't!" He says, his grip is so tight on my forearm, I can almost feel it bruising. “I'm not going anywhere," I tried to reassure him. He nods, but his fingers tighten even more around my forearm.“I know you think you can protect yourself, but it would put me more at ease if you are always within my line of sight." I almost smile at the protectiveness in his words. “I am wary of everyone here, including the Keeper." His words are hushed, meant for my ears alone.I'm about to whisper back some reassuring words to him when a faint glow in the wall of the hidden passage catches my attention. It's a crescent eye surrounded by three smaller markings. They look familiar but try as hard as I might, I just couldn't remember where I have seen them.I reach my fingers towards it and the symbol reacts to me, glowing ever brighter.“Seems like everything here does react to us doesn't it?" My wolf sneers and
MENODORA’S POV The question escapes my lips quietly. No one answers until Cassian decides to.“It could probably be a part of their plan. They probably wanted you to react or they wanted the ward to react to you.”His words settle heavily between us, thick and immovable like a thick cold fog. “That's not possible, “ Orvax replies, jaws locking into a single minded angle. The muscle in his cheek tick once before settling in rigid defiance. “Are you really sure that it isn't?” Cassian casts a quick glance in the direction of the eastern corridor before looking at Orvax again. “Don't you think anyone smart enough to open the ward would also be smart enough to know what would happen after they did?”Beside Cassian, the vibrant colour is slowly leaching from the Keeper’s skin, leaving behind an ashen grey hue that made her eyes look unnervingly larger than the rest of her face. “Now that I think about it, they may have been trying to test the response the wards would have to her.”“Wh
MENODORA'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 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
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
MENODORA’S POV “What did he mean by the moon makes no mistakes?" My head spins from the pressure of trying to understand what his words mean. "The same moon that rejected me?! The same moon that never once spoke to me in my years of isolation?! Who is she to judge me now?!” Those are the words I w
MENODORA’S POVThe Alpha's gaze lands on me, heavy and piercing right through me like a hot knife piercing through butter.“You…,” his tone holds the same accusation I see in the eyes of everyone around me. "You were found at the scene. Do you care to explain?”"This is nothing but a pure coinciden







