Chapter 143 — Aelyra

Chapter 143: Chapter 143 — Aelyra

~ Raven ~

Raven opened her eyes to darkness.

Faint points of light were scattered in every direction, stretching farther than she could see. There was no ground beneath her, no sky overhead, and nothing close enough to touch.

She looked down.

Her feet were hanging over nothing.

"What the hell?"

Raven tried to lower herself, but there was nowhere to stand. She turned, reaching for something to steady herself against, and found only more darkness.

The infirmary.

She had been in the infirmary. Cassian had been holding her hand, and the healer had given her something to make the burning stop. She remembered trying to tell him about the Dreamwalker before the medication pulled her under.

And now she was here.

"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me."

Raven shut her eyes and reached inward.

Her wolf would know what to do. Even when the Dreamwalker had trapped her in that white place, she had managed to find the faint connection beyond the chains.

She searched for it now.

Nothing.

Raven frowned and tried again.

Nothing still.

Before, even when she struggled to reach her wolf, she had always felt something. A faint presence. The chains holding her back. Some sign that her wolf was still there.

Now there was nothing at all.

Her eyes flew open.

"No."

She reached inward again, searching desperately for anything familiar.

But the emptiness remained.

It was as though her wolf had never existed.

Raven pressed a hand against her chest.

Where are you?

There was no answer.

Her breathing quickened.

The Dreamwalker had done this. He had found some new way to keep her from reaching her wolf, and now he was waiting for her to panic.

Well, she was already fucking panicking.

"Come out!"

Her voice carried into the darkness.

Raven turned, searching the distant lights for any sign of movement.

"I know you’re here, you bastard! Just come out and tell me what the fuck you want!"

The last of her words faded away.

No footsteps followed. No familiar laughter. Nothing moved.

Raven swallowed.

"Come on," she whispered. "Please don’t do this again."

Hmmmmmm?

Raven went still.

The sound had come from somewhere beyond the distant lights.

It was followed by a voice so old and strange that Raven couldn’t have guessed whether it belonged to a man or a woman. The single thoughtful sound sent a shudder down her spine.

Something turned toward her.

Raven couldn’t see it. There was no figure approaching through the darkness, no face looking back at her.

But she felt its attention.

It was so vast that her body seemed to shrink beneath it. Every distant light appeared to grow farther away, and Raven found herself struggling to draw a breath.

The presence continued to focus on her.

Her hands began to tremble.

Oh, Goddess.

This wasn’t the Dreamwalker.

Whatever had noticed her was something else entirely.

"Aelyra?"

The voice sounded confused.

Raven stared into the darkness.

Who the hell is Aelyra?

Something moved beyond the nearest lights.

Long, dark tendrils stretched toward her. They curled through the darkness without making a sound, slowly approaching from several directions.

Raven tried to move backward.

Her legs kicked uselessly beneath her.

"Wait. Who are you?"

The tendrils continued approaching.

The presence focused on her more closely.

"No."

The word seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"No, you are not Aelyra."

Raven’s heart pounded.

"Who are you?"

"I—"

Pain struck her before she could answer.

Raven screamed.

It came from somewhere deep inside her, beyond her bones or anything she could reach. She clutched at her chest, but the pain only spread.

"FUCK!"

She looked down.

The tips of her fingers were fading.

Raven stared as the faintness spread past her nails. She tried to close her hands, but she could see the darkness through them.

"No. No, what the fuck—"

Another wave of pain tore through her.

She curled forward, screaming as something inside her seemed to pull apart. There was no wound she could hold closed, no place she could press to make it stop. The pain was everywhere, and it was getting worse.

Raven reached inward for her wolf.

Please!

Nothing.

She tried again, desperate enough to search through the pain for even the smallest trace of her.

Where are you? Please!

Her fingers had almost disappeared.

The fading spread up her arms.

Raven tried to pull herself away from the tendrils, but she couldn’t tell whether she was moving at all. Her body no longer felt entirely hers. It was as though something was taking her apart piece by piece.

And somehow, she knew what would happen if it continued.

She didn’t know how she knew. She had never experienced anything like this.

But she was certain.

There would be nothing left of her.

She wouldn’t wake up in the infirmary with Cassian beside her. There would be no Raven left to wake up.

She was going to die.

"FUCK! FUCK, NO!"

Her screams grew weaker.

Raven stared at what remained of her hands. The darkness was creeping farther up her arms, and every moment brought another burst of unbearable pain.

The pain tore through her chest, and Raven opened her mouth in another scream.

No sound came out.

I’m going to die.

Oh, Goddess. I’m really going to die.

Silver light erupted around her.

Raven was yanked backward so violently that the darkness rushed past her. The tendrils recoiled, twisting away from the sudden brightness.

A shriek tore through the darkness.

"SELENA!"

Raven cried out as the force pulling her finally stopped.

She was still floating, but a vast expanse of silver light now surrounded her. Beyond it, the dark tendrils had drawn back, writhing at its edge.

Raven looked at her hands.

They were whole.

She opened and closed her fingers, staring at them as though they might start disappearing again.

The pain was gone.

She pressed both hands against her chest and dragged in a breath.

Then another.

She was still here.

"SELENA!"

The ancient voice sounded different now. Raven could hear the fury in it, and the sound was unmistakably a woman’s.

A second voice answered from within the silver light. "You do not belong here, sister."

Raven looked around.

She couldn’t see anyone.

"What have you done?" the ancient voice demanded. "You brought another one into existence?"

Raven’s breath caught.

Another what?

"You know I do not possess that power," the second voice answered calmly.

"Do not lie to me!"

"I am not lying."

The tendrils shifted beyond the light.

For a moment, the ancient presence said nothing.

Then its attention returned to Raven.

She flinched so hard that she nearly curled in on herself, but the silver light remained between them. The terrible pressure didn’t return.

"No," the ancient voice murmured.

Raven couldn’t tell whether the woman was speaking to her or to herself.

"If it was not you..."

"Then perhaps Fate has brought another into this world."

The silence that followed was worse than the shouting.

Raven stared into the darkness, waiting for something to move.

The ancient presence growled.

"You think I will allow this?"

The distant lights vanished behind a rising mass of darkness.

"You will not ruin my plans again, Selena!"

The tendrils surged forward.

Raven recoiled.

"No!"

She tried to move away, but the silver light surrounded her on every side. There was nowhere to run.

The memory of her essence nearly being torn apart came rushing back, and terror seized her. She could barely breathe.

The tendrils rushed toward her.

Silver light flared.

Raven squeezed her eyes shut.

Another shriek rang out, followed by a violent rush of air that sent her hair whipping across her face.

When she opened her eyes, the tendrils were breaking apart.

The darkness withdrew beyond the light, gathering around the distant points that had begun to reappear.

"Leave," the second voice said.

The ancient presence shrieked again.

"This is not over!"

Its voice grew fainter as the darkness receded.

"You hear me, Selena? This is not over!"

Then it was gone.

Raven remained where she was, staring into the darkness.

For several moments, she couldn’t bring herself to move.

She looked down at her hands again.

Her fingers were still there.

She rubbed one palm against the other. She could feel her skin, the warmth of her hands and the slight trembling she couldn’t seem to stop.

What the fuck just happened?

"Are you all right?"

Raven jerked her head up.

A woman stood a short distance away.

Raven hadn’t seen her approach.

Silver light surrounded the woman, making it difficult to see her clearly. She appeared to be watching Raven with a gentle expression, but Raven couldn’t tell how old she was.

"Who—"

Raven stopped.

She recognized the woman’s voice. It was the same voice that had answered the ancient presence and driven it away.

Raven glanced past her, searching the darkness.

"Is that thing gone?"

"For now."

For now?

Raven stared at her.

She wanted to ask what the thing had been, why it had called her Aelyra and what it had meant by bringing another one into existence.

But her hands were still shaking.

She couldn’t forget the feeling of herself coming apart.

Raven looked away and tried to reach for her wolf.

Nothing.

Her stomach tightened.

Goddess. What kind of fucking dream is this?

She had endured enough. She had escaped the Dreamwalker, found Cassian and made it to the infirmary. She was supposed to be getting better, not trapped in another impossible place.

Wake up, Raven.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

Come on. Wake up.

"This is not a dream, Raven."

Her eyes flew open.

The woman was still watching her.

Raven stared.

"I didn’t say anything."

"No, you didn’t."

"Then how did you—" She stopped. "Can you read my mind?"

The woman smiled.

A soothing warmth spread through Raven.

It wasn’t like Cassian’s aura or the pull of her wolf, but her trembling gradually subsided, and she could finally breathe properly again.

She looked at the woman, then at the silver light surrounding them.

"Who are you?"

The woman regarded her with a gentle smile.

"I am the being you wolves call the Moon Goddess."