The Luna Trials by Marissa Gilbert Read Online
Chapter 69
It was the first time Savannah had visited the northern castle since the fire, and the sight saddened her to the c0re of her soul. The scent of smoke that was still present hit her nostrils, and when she saw the blackened walls Str!pped of curtains and other decorations, she clenched her fists, trying to control her fury. The royal lycan wished to be freed and bestow her vengeance on the ones responsible for all of this.
Savvy had grown to love this castle and the history it held; she loved noticing little details she had missed previously every time she paid attention to a painting or to a carving. And now most of it was gone, leaving a little empty spot inside of her.
For the first time, she realised that this place was her home now and that her enemięs had entered it and tried to wipe it off the face of the earth, destroying everything and everyone she loved in the process.
Kai’s grip on her hand tightened as he pulled her closer and whispered, “No worries, Sav. It just needs a little revamping. That’s it. This castle has stood through worse times, trust me.”
She rested her head against his chest just for a moment, breathing in his scent to calm down. “! just hate that it happened on our watch. We can’t let them win after everything.”
“We won’t,” he a*s*sured her, lacing his fingers in her hair. “We are the ones already winning.”
He took her into the main hall, and she let out a sigh of relief when she saw all her friends inside. A little part of her was still afraid that all this was a dream. They were discussing their war plans around an interactive table, moving the maps they carefully planned their strategies, and hadn’t even noticed the Northern King and his Queen at first. Until one set of familiar eyes locked with Savvy’s.
“Reid!” She threw herself into the Western Beta’s arms. “I didn’t know you were here!”
A growl emerged behind her, and she instantly knew that it was Kai’s reaction to her hugging another man. She ignored it though. This was something he would have to get used to because Reid wasn’t a threat to him and he was family.
“Im not technically here,” her friend laughed, patting her head as if she was still a child. Reid was like a father figure to her. When her parents d*ied, and Gideon was busy with his Lycan King duties, this man was the one to step in and raise her and Kyle. Unfortunately, during those days, they couldn’t trust too many people and the Beta act as a babysitter as well.
“You are not?” Savannah knitted her brows, puzzled slightly.
“He is not,” Gideon smirked. “Right now, he’s trying to rule the western Kingdom in my stead because l’m dead. So sad-” He grimaced and she chuckled in response to that.
“Poor you,” Savvy rolled her eyes, but it was just a cover-up because her eyes started stinging from the tears forming in them. The memory of losing her sibling was still fresh in her mind and she was so happy that she got to tease him like that again.
“What’s this on your neck?” Gideon grasped her hand and his sister closer to inspect her brand new and shiny North Star mark. It was still gleaming softly when the light grazed over it. “Did you mark my sister?” the Western King growled, nostrils flaring and eyes shining golden for a moment until he suppressed it.
“Yes, I did,” Kai responded calmly and moved Savannah away from her brother, wrapping his hands around her to demonstrate their closeness to everyone. “What did you think I was going to do with my mate?”
“| still can’t believe the Moon Goddess punished her that much!” Gideon grumbled, but no one took it seriously because the next thing he did was place his palms onto their shoulders and whisper with a wicked grin, “Hurt my sister and | will arrange her next marriage in a heartbeat and make sure she gets half of your Kingdom in the process.”
“Gideon,” Riannon reproached her husband as she strolled towards them with a bright smile, ” leave them alone. Look how happy they are!” She then turned all her attention to the beaming couple and her eyes stud*ied their marks as well. “They are very beautiful,” she said honestly. “Just as marks of Divine Wolves should be.”
“Divine Wolves?” Savannah’s eyes grew wide.
“When the gods bless us, they give us a particle of their divine power,” Riannon informed them. “
Any special ability we have afterwards comes from it. This is what being blessed truly means, and the way our marks looks is a sign of how we can recognise other Divine Wolves.”
“How do you know all this?” Kai was impressed by the western Queen’s knowledge. “Was it a vision?”
“When my wolf asks the Moon Goddess a question, sometimes she answers. After I found out that you have been blessed too, this was what we asked. It’s different from my visions, though.
Because they come when they please and don’t depend on my wishes. But the powers develop slowly. The particles of divine power we receive grow or d*ie- It depends on the person who received them and the intention of the god who blessed them. It can go either way.”
“That explains why you and Kai have special marks,” Savannah chimed in. “But why do Gideon and me? We aren’t the blessed wolves, but our marks are the same as yours.”
“That’s because we’re mates, of course,” Ria smiled gently, and her eyes found her husband. “A mating bond is a special connection between two souls. When one of the mates gets hurt, their mate feels it. When one mate feels happy, so does the other one. It works the same. When one of the mates becomes a divine wolf, so does the other.
Mates share everything, including divine blessings, because it’s spiritual and given to a soul, not a body. And a mark is a reflection of that spiritual bond.”
“If l understand it correctly, Gideon sees the future too now?” Kai looked at his old rival, arching his brow curiously.
“Not really,” the Western Lycan King admitted. “
But some things are different for me now.”
“Like what?” The northerner wondered, scratching his beard that needed some trimming desperately, but he chose not to waste his time on that this morning and stole a few extra minutes to spend with his Queen.
“The return from the third form,” Savannah whispered, but in a room full of wolves, everyone heard her. It was so logical. Since she was little, she had the worst control of her third form. Compared to Gideon, her control of the beast was weak. It wasn’t good, it wasn’t bad. It was just how things were. For as long as she could remember, she was trained not to let her beast out because everyone knew that it was possible the Princess wouldn’t be able to get back to her human form. The royal transformation could cost her too much and mostly, it was not worth it, considering she was a good enough fighter in her second form. But just one day ago, she was ready to sacrifice herself for her friends when she shifted into her third form in Bjorn’s castle. Savannah knew there would be no return from that. There wasn’t supposed to be a return from that…
Yet here she was.
Because of him.
She glanced at Kai, and he squeezed her palm.
A simple motion, but with such a deep meaning behind it. He received Fenrir’s blessing, and the same Wolf God made them mates. He connected their souls with the help of the mysterious bead at the best of times, thus, helping Savvy to turn back the moment she saw her mate in the woods. The same thing happened to her brother a few months ago. He stayed in his third form for longer than it was safe during a brutal battle, and they almost lost him that day. However, Riannon found him on the battlefield and as if by some miracle, Gideon came back. They never connected the dots back then, but now it was clear as day. The royal curse was broken by divine wolf mates.
And that meant one thing – they were given an ultimate weapon in the upcoming war.
They wished they could talk about all this more, but unfortunately, they had more pressing matters at hand. The bears would retaliate one way or another. No one had any illusions about resolving this matter peacefully.
Savannah and Kai joined the rest of the team the table and started going through what had been planned so far. A few hours later, all of them were exhausted, but they knew that so much more had to be done still. Somewhere into the eighth hour of their strategizing, the doors burst open and in came Chloe and Claude.
The TV-presenters looked troubled and everyone knew that the news wouldn’t be good.
“You have to see this!” Chloe insisted and passed a tablet into her king’s hands.
Kai gave her a glance that told her he still wasn’t sure whether he forgave them for their latest actions, and the siblings bowed apologetically without saying anything.
However, all that became irrelevant the moment he saw the face of his enemy staring right at him from the screen. It took him a minute to realise that it wasn’t an old video. His eyes went to the bottom of the screen where the date was showcased. This was recorded today.
Bjorn was alive. Which could mean only one thing – he would be back very soon, and all their plans had to be adjusted accordingly.
“What can you say about the recent video of Savannah Stormhold circling on the web,” a
reporter asked him, and Bjorn’s expression darkened.
“Queen Savannah Bjorn,” he corrected the journalist with a frown. “Savannah is my mate and my Queen. She will always stay my mate and my Queen. You should address her according to her status.”
The words made Kai grip the tablet so hard that it cracked under pressure in a few places.
“I have a perfectly good explanation as to why my mate attacked me in the middle of the mating ceremony,” the white bear growled, showing off his teeth, but then he got his emotions under control and continued, “We were so happy and planned to spend our whole life together. It’s a blessing to find a mate, and I am sure everyone understands our euphoria. Just when | left her that morning, she k!ssed me goodbye and said that she couldn’t wait to get my mark on her neck. She couldn’t wait for it to happen, but when I saw her again, she attacked me, and it broke my heart. Savannah stabbed me and ran away, leaving only questions in her wake.
But luckily, a good friend of mine helped me to understand that something was wrong with her.
She wasn’t acting like herself. I was worried sick about my Queen, and of course, I followed her the second I healed. I couldn’t leave the love of my life like that. My sold*iers tried to help her, but she tried to K*ll everyone who approached her. That was the state she was in. When I finally managed to reach her, I understood what was going on and who had done this to her. There was this… creature. There are no other words to describe him. He made her believe in the things that weren’t real. It was the ugliest thing I had ever seen. A mutated wolf with a distorted body and horns covered with ice. I am not sure he was a wolf anymore, but when he shifted, he looked like the deceased Lycan King of the North.”
“So, do you confirm that King Kai Fionnlagh is alive?” the reporter asked emotionlessly, and Chloe clicked her tongue in annoyance. It probably wasn’t the first time she heard it all because she had her hands crossed over her chest and didn’t seem impressed.
“He can’t be alive,” Bjorn said confidently. “We fought, and I personally put a silver spear through his heart. It was recorded back then, so it’s undeniable.”
“But how can you explain what you saw then?” the journalist seemed eager to get to the bottom of things, and everyone in the room tensed, waiting for the reply.
“How else?” Bjorn quirked his silver brow up.
To be raised from the dead, he had to take part in some dark ritual and sell his soul to á demon. Or maybe it’s just a rotting corpse walking after some witch used him for necromancy purposes.
Witchcraft and demons would explain why Savannah was deluded. I am sure that her mind was manipulated while I was gone.”
“Is there a chance that you will ever forgive her?” the woman asked her next question.
“There is nothing to forgive,” Bjorn smiled, and Savvy cringed watching this. “She is my mate. All| need to do is to destroy the spell on her and K*ll the monster who tried to break us apart. Once it’s done, we’ll be together again, and no one will stand between us. This is how the mate bond works.”
After these words, he looked directly into the camera as if he knew whom he was saying all this for.
“Does it mean that you will go to war?” The reporter’s voice trembled for the first time as she realised where all of this was going.
“We are already at war,” Bjorn went back to being reserved. “l am just going to end it this time.”
“Enough!” Gideon took the tablet and smashed it over the nearby wall as Claude let out a little whimper. It was probably his gadget. “This is why you K*ll guys like him when you have a chance. And then CHECK it! And if he is alive, you K*ll him AGAIN!
Kai darted his eyes at the Western King.
Believe it or not, but when a deity tells me to get the
I’ll hell out of somewhere, I listen. Savannah was there, and she was more important than anything. As for Bjorn, I’d gladly K*ll him. AGAIN. And then AGAIN and AGAIN.”
They all got quite in the aftermath of the news.
“Well, we don’t have time to waste,” Riannon tried to organise everyone again. “Our strategies definitely need some tweaking if that bear is alive.”
“I don’t like this,” Lachlan sighed heavily, wrapping his arms tighter around Zara.
“Neither do i,” Kyle agreed. “He is trying to play the public opinion and tries to reduce our troops’ morale in this way. Believe it or not, but some people will start doubting whether they are on the right side. In the meantime, the bears do not have this problem and think they have a hero king.”
“We can do an interview too,” Claude interjected. “When people see King Kai and Princess Savannah together, it will be proof enough.”
“Right” Chloe nodded. “Especially the new shiny marks.”
“No,” Elene’s voice sounded for the first time during the whole day. She was in the room together with all of them the whole time but spoke only now.
“They can explain marks on TV with ease. They would say it’s just make-up.”
“The Princess is right” Evelyn agreed. “
Considering what we have just heard-“
“I can turn things upside down too,” Kyle sneered but the woman ignored him as if he didn’t say anything.
“It’s true, though,” Ash agreed. “We have the footage of everything that happened. We can play it to our advantage.”
“You don’t get it,” Elene insisted, and they all looked at her again. “The North needs a miracle.
They got it in the form of Amarok. They will follow him. They will fight for what is right. We just..
we need to prove to them it’s real.”
“And how would we do that, Elene?” Kai was probably the only one who gazed at his sister with trust in his eyes. “Do you have a plan?”
“I do,” she confirmed with a nod. “But you will have to trust me. And we will have to do this tonight.”