Chapter 219 DANE
“The grove will burn,” he says in a whispered tone. “And with it, the bloodline of Kael.”
The room is quiet. You can hear the drop of a leaf. Callen’s body lays limp, his eyes no longer radiating that faint glow.
It’s as though, for a second, the storm is over, we might be able to catch a breath now.
Then Aurora leans in close and softly says, “Callen, are you alright?”
His lips moved and repeated the words, faint and chilling. “The grove will burn, and with that, the bloodline of Kael.”
The words dribble through the room, settling like claws upon our skin.
Aurora tenses, her hand shaking as she jerks back. I step forward. A natural instinct to place myself between Callen and Aurora pushes me forward.
“Aurora,” I said, my voice low. “Step back.”
She nods, eyes wide but intent.
Lirien appeared out of darkness; heavy and forbidding.
“The prophecy has started,” he says, voice impenetrable. “The Forgotten start their move.”
The pack congregated in the hall, all voices hushed by fear.
Aurora weaves her way among them, words quiet and soothing. Yet, even she cannot disguise the hint of concern that glimmers within her eyes.
I stood by her side, my hand resting on the hilt of my blade. I’ve seen her carry this pack through impossible odds, but something about this feels different.
When the room clears, and the others retreat to prepare, Aurora pulls me aside.
“I need to go to the grove,” she says, her voice steady but laced with urgency.
I frown. “Alone? That’s not happening.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t think it’s a trap, Dane. The pendant, it showed me something. I feel like I’m supposed to go.”
“Then we go together,” I say, and the finality of my tone showed no argument. “If you’re walking into danger, you’re not going alone."
The walk across to the grove is silent but for the crunch of dry leaves beneath our feet. The fog hasn’t reached this far yet, but with every step, the air feels heavy.
Finally reaching the grove, there is an unsettling silence, and the trees shone much more faintly now with their soft, silver glow, like fire that is slowly burning out.
She hesitates, her hand reaching to brush against the pendant at her chest. “Something’s wrong,” she whispers.
I barely have time to open my mouth before Lirien manifests, its form flickering weakly. “The Forgotten are siphoning the grove’s power,” it says, its voice strained.
Aurora steps forward, her hand hovering over the heart of the grove. “Can we stop it?”
Lirien’s gaze shifts to her. “The answer lies within.”
Aurora looks at me, and for a moment, her eyes flash with doubt. “I’ll be okay,” she mutters to herself rather than me.
I barely get to argue before her fingers make contact with the heart. Her body goes rigid. Her eyes glaze over, and I know that once again she has been pulled into another vision.
I hate this part, the waiting. Not knowing what she sees, and not being able to do anything either.
Minutes feel like hours before, finally, her body relaxes. She stumbles back, and I catch her before she falls.
“What did you see?” I ask.
Aurora’s voice is trembling. “Idris… his past. I saw how they were exiled. He begged Kael for mercy, but Kael cursed them instead. They’ve been waiting for this moment ever since.”
“And now?” I press.
She hesitates. “I saw him. He’s doing some sort of ritual to bind the grove’s energy to himself. If he does, we won’t have a chance."
Lirien steps closer, casting an omen in the form of its shadow across the ground above us. “If Idris binds the grove’s power, then he will become invincible. You have to hurry and be quick to stop him.”
I clench my fists and my chest boils with anger. “Then we strike now. Take the fight to them before they finish whatever they’re up to.”
“No,” Lirien says, his voice eager. “The fog strengthens their magic. And fighting them with the fog’s concealing curtain, you will lose.”
“What then are we to do?” I snap.
Lirien’s eyes shone with radiance. “Unsecure the linkage of the grove to them, taking their anchors among the mire, receive them when they become fragile.”
Aurora looks at me, her face heavy with conflict. “If we do this, we may weaken the grove itself.”
I nod. “But if we don’t, they’ll destroy everything.”
Her shoulders slump under the weight of this choice. “Let’s go,” she says finally.
The air is cold and sharp outside of the grove. There is a thickness to the silence now, one broken by the crunch of our footfalls.
That’s when I see it, a marking cut into the earth near the edge of the grove.
“Aurora,” I call, my voice low.
She spins, her eyes following my gaze to the symbol that glows faintly, its lines eerily similar to those Idris had used in her vision.
“It’s the same,” she says barely above a whisper.
I crouch beside it, the air around it humming with power.
“What does it mean?” I ask.
Aurora steps forward. Her pendant emits one glow, a dim point of light. “I don’t know,” she says. “But it feels… wrong.”
The symbol in the middle erupts into brilliance, a fierce light flaring from it. I launch myself to my feet, hauling Aurora back.
The earth under the symbol starts to crack.
“It’s a beacon,” I growl, realisation dawning.
Aurora’s eyes go wide. “They know we’re here.”
The air had turned suffocatingly heavy, each breath dragging tension into my chest. We had to get going now.
We reached the pack house late at night and retired to our rooms, without any conversation, the night felt long… I couldn’t sleep, but when it was close to dawn, I dozed off.
I woke to the sound of distant growls and hurried footsteps outside the pack house.
The fog pressed against the windows, its branches curling unnaturally, flashes of green light flickering within its depths.
I pushed myself out of bed, my heart pounding. Warriors rushed past the hallway, their voices low and frantic. The pack house felt colder, like the fog had seeped into its very walls.
When we stepped into the main hall, we found Trajan standing near the door, his face pale and drawn.
“They’re closing in,” he said, his voice tight with fear.