Chapter 27: Fill In The Gaps

Selene POV

"So you’ve been the one all along?" I asked Nara inside my head, tears already burning at the back of my eyes.

"You were born for something greater, something bigger, Selene. All those things were irrelevant to your mission ... things like finding love and being accepted. You were born to destroy."

I sat with that for a moment, trying to process how any of it was even possible. How did she get invoked into my body? How did I never get a choice in any of this? How could she use me ... my body, my mind ... without my permission? Oh damn.

"I can hear you loud and clear. All your thoughts," she resounded inside my head.

It felt like too much to carry. This was how someone lost their mind. I had to find a way to get that nonsense out of my head. But then a thought hit me ... let’s try something new.

"Can you give me the answers I’m looking for?" I asked Nara.

"I’m older than you think. I know a lot more than your history teacher and all those books combined," she chuckled.

I got up and walked to the library. Thankfully, she didn’t control my movements ... she only spoke inside my head. I didn’t even notice when I had started talking to her freely, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

I found myself wondering why she hadn’t surfaced sooner if she’d been living inside me all this time. She’d been completely silent. She didn’t say that out loud ... it was only a thought ... but she heard it and responded anyway.

"I came out when I saw and felt that the time was right."

I had reached the library by then. I sat down and pulled the first history book I could find off the shelf, armed with questions that had been eating at me for weeks.

"Now you’ll answer them for me," I said to her.

"Firstly ... why did the flu go away after you died, if you weren’t the one who caused it?"

She laughed and laughed inside my head, telling me I wasn’t ready for what this history was going to bring.

"We live in a wicked world, Selene. Your biggest and most trusted friend can become your worst enemy. You’ve been soft and plain all your life, but that’s not how you survive ... especially not in Morvaine. I wish I had known better," she said.

I almost couldn’t believe it. A ghost from centuries past was sitting in my head having regrets, and I was the one stuck receiving every last bit of it.

"I’m ready for anything, Nara. I’ve seen a chunk load of everything since I arrived in Winterwood anyway," I said to her.

"Alright. The real traitors used dark magic to frame me for the killings ... the flu was their weapon, not mine. They arranged it so that when I was killed, it would disappear. That way, my death would look like justice. The traitors have a bloodline, and I know exactly who they are, but I can’t tell you. You have to find them yourself," she said.

"Why did they want you dead? Why you specifically?" I pressed.

I was speaking out loud to myself like a complete madwoman. The room was empty at the time, but if anyone had walked in, I’d have been hauled off to a psychiatric ward without a second thought.

"Because I was their saviour ... the one who was supposed to bring peace and prosperity to Morvaine. That would have destroyed the traitors’ plans entirely, so they had to take me out first."

Nara kept building on every answer she gave me, leaving me with more questions than I’d started with. But I took the opening when I saw it. Maybe she was exactly the missing piece I’d been searching for all along ... the volume two and three of a history book that had never existed anywhere I could find.

"What do you mean by saviour? Peace and prosperity? How were you supposed to bring those things?" I asked.

"The Alpha at the time and I were in love, but no one knew. It was a secret ... he had already been betrothed to another, and we planned to eventually find a way to be together. Then it all fell apart. He failed to save me. Said he couldn’t go against the Morvaine constitution." She paused, then continued. "According to the prophecy, my marriage to the Alpha was supposed to bring peace and prosperity to Morvaine. But they killed me before that could happen, and that flipped everything. Because now I’ll be their worst nightmare ... and you’re going to be my instrument."

I felt like absolute shit.

What had been done to Nara was completely unacceptable ... unjust to its very core. But her method of revenge wasn’t something I could get behind. I let her hear exactly that.

"I’m not doing any of this for you, Nara. You’re gone and you should forgive, let it go. I can’t be your puppet."

"You have no choice, Selene. Your life will keep moving in the direction of your purpose whether you like it or not. You don’t control the tides. I do."

Her voice was quieter this time, but there was something underneath it that chilled me ... a deep, old rage dressed up in calm. If she stayed inside me long enough, I’d start to feel what she felt. I’d start wanting what she wanted. And I couldn’t let that happen. I had my own life. She needed to go.

"Get out, Nara! Get out!" I snapped, my voice rising before I could stop it.

The door opened. Ms. Ashlyn walked in.

She looked better than the last time I’d seen her, thank the goddess ... but she was still moving carefully, favouring her bones, a brace wrapped around her leg.

"Selene, what’s going on?" she asked.

I looked at her and realised the voice in my head had gone quiet. Just like that, I was alone again ... left with reality, and what a shocking one it was.

"It’s nothing, ma’am," I said, probably too quickly.

"I could hear your voice from outside," she said, eyeing me.

"I was reciting something, ma. I wanted to memorise it," I said with a short laugh, casual enough to pass. She seemed to accept it.

"Okay. When you’re done, make sure to stack the books as usual, yeah?"

I nodded. She left the room. I did some reading and some half-hearted paperwork, stacked everything up, and walked out.

This had gotten bigger than me. I knew that now. I had to find a way to get Nara out of my body ... whatever way she’d gotten in, there had to be a way to reverse it.

But the traitors. Who were they? She’d said to go find them myself, hadn’t even given me a direction to start. She wasn’t speaking anymore, but part of me hoped she’d come back just so I could ask her where those missing volumes of the history book were ... the ones she refused to hand to me herself.

She was messing with my peace and my sanity. Fuck.

I shook it off and made my way to the king’s chambers. I had intended to go straight to my room, but something made me stop. I decided to check on him first.

I stepped into his bedroom and found him hunched over a large piece of paper with Kael, both of them absorbed in whatever they were working on.

"Hello, Alpha. Kael," I greeted.

They gave me a cold, distracted reply, like I’d walked in on something I wasn’t supposed to interrupt. I moved further into the room and spotted Tessa standing beside Lucian.

War plans. They were drawing up war plans.

"We attack from the north side of the peak mountains. They won’t be able to hold us there," Lucian was saying to Kael.

Rogue wolves. They were moving on the rogue wolves they’d been talking about.

Kael nodded, already working the strategy into the map.

"Alpha, are you sure this is the right time to strike? They’ll be expecting you," I said.

"And what do you know about strategy, Selene?" Tessa cut in before Lucian could even open his mouth, her tone as sharp and dismissive as ever. "Here in Winterwood, we wipe out our enemies. All of them."

I ignored her and looked at Lucian. "When are you leaving?"

He turned his head and met my eyes. "Tomorrow, early morning. We get this done once and for all."

I stood there and said nothing, but my mind was already running ahead. How was I supposed to tell him there was a bigger picture to all of this? That this war might not end the way he thought ... that it might never end at all? And that the one person who could unravel everything was currently living inside my head?

I couldn’t say any of that. Not yet.

But I made a decision, standing there in that room. Whatever came next, I was going to watch over him. Nara was somewhere inside me, and I didn’t know who her target was ... but the Alpha fit the prophecy too well for me to ignore. I wasn’t going to let her use me to hurt him.

I couldn’t.