Chapter 437: SKYLARKING

RAINA’S POV

No reply.

Even after I set my phone down on the table and checked my messages time and again, Valen had not responded. How could he expect me not to worry?

There was a gaping hole in my chest, being so far from him. Thinking about him made waves of aching longing spread throughout my body.

“Why can’t we figure out how to power the sword up?” Azara asked in frustration, sitting around the table in the basement, snapping me out of my reverie.

Her hand paused, her fingers crimping the musty pages of the books. She reached for the tray in the center of the table and picked up a slice of Grams’ well-liked batch of red velvet cheesecake brownies to munch on.

“Keep going, I’m sure we’ll find something,” I encouraged her kindly, peering down into my own giant leather-bound black book, right across from her.

After many failed attempts to destroy the medallion with the sword, we gave up. Penn led us out of the afternoon sun, and reverted us to her Wiccan books.

Even with Jason on the grounds working on the cuffs, I didn’t feel okay about leaving the medallion outside the cottage. Although Penn assured me it would be safe in the protective witch’s hearthring. Zuzu was out there guarding it too; yet I still felt uneasy because of how dangerous it was.

“Certain divine weapons require a connecting source,” Penn stated, with a vast book lying open beneath her hands on the table, its pages flipping rapidly. “The sword is outside of its realm, so I’m trying to find a spiritual ground where the barrier between our realm and that one is thin enough. If we find one, the swords might be able to reconnect and power up there.”

Being the busiest, she was at the end of the table, going through multiple records and old scrolls at a time. Thick books of various colors floated around her shoulder in a loose orbit, opening and closing as she used her powers to search them.

Theo lay stretched out on the long couch, the same scroll he'd been reading minutes ago now covered his face. One hand rested on his stomach while the other hung over the edge, sticking into the walkway. I could've sworn I heard a snore.

“Poor puppy is bored.” Azara chuckled. She eyed him for a second and then glanced at me, shaking her head. “Once it’s not sparring or combat or war games…nothing else cuts it.”

“Or if….Azara is naked!” I exclaimed, and we burst out giggling.

“What?” Theo jolted up on the couch, glancing around, frantically confused as the scroll that was on his face floated to the floor. “Naked? Who's naked?”

Penn grinned as we laughed louder.

Theo scowled at us and scratched his head. “Don’t do me like that.”

“He even falls asleep to horror movies. Like who does that?” Azara joked, chuckling at her mate.

Theo flopped back down on the couch and dragged a hand over his face, cursing under his breath about having to read more scrolls.

The three of us giggled in amusement, and then we went back to our relentless search again. Pages rustled nonstop, books thudded shut, echoing through the basement as we dug through them, one after another.

“Can the sword draw power from the moon? Maybe we should try at night,” I suggested, pausing on a page about the moon’s energy and lunar power.

Penn lifted her head, having that far-off look in her eyes. “I doubt that, since it wasn’t crafted by Selene.”

I breathed an exasperated sigh.

Clearly there’s more to this divine sword and devilish medallion.

I couldn't explain it, but a strange pressure had settled over me, as though something was tugging at the edge of my senses.

"Did you feel that?" I asked, shifting my gaze from one to the other.

Penn’s eyes were glued to me. "Feel what?"

Azara’s expression was thoroughly confused. “I don’t feel a thing except exhaustion.”

Suddenly, Theo bolted upright. He angled his head, his senses perking up, and his eyes darted upwards. “People.”

“Guys, the Elders are here in the nude,” Jason mind-linked us as a group. “Come up before I gouge my eyes out.” He grumbled further. “I don’t want to stare at old things I can't repair. And trust me, no gadget I’ve invented can make ‘some things’ younger.”

In minutes, we were out by the hearthring. Zuzu still soared above it, circling to keep a protective watch. “Sphu-haaah!” A flurry of sharp cries escaped her beak. “Shraaaah!”

The twenty-foot-wide area was enclosed by crooked trees, with a giant concrete ring shaped like an eight. Each loop surrounded an eight-foot-wide hexagon with a small circular pedestal at its center. The medallion sat on one, humming and oozing thick, dark mist that couldn't travel more than three inches from it.

“Get away from it!” Penn hissed over the boisterous voices as we hurried over to them.

The bickering Elders stood outside the hearthring, knowing better than to enter a designated magical workspace. This was where Penn, Marlena, and Miriam performed spells that were too powerful, dangerous, or complex to cast in their basement.

Their presence prompted Zuzu to instinctively swoop down closer in small circles above the medallion.

“Do you mind? Keep your noise down. My work takes hard concentration,” Jason complained in annoyance. He was inside the second circle of the hearthring, standing with hands on his waist as he gazed at the prying Elders. Especially since they had disrupted his work, making him pause on the weapons to use against the Worgens.

Our footsteps halted, and the old bunch swung around to face us.

“What is that evil thing?” Elder Jacob snapped, pointing with a chain dangling from his curled finger. His eyes bulged from his sockets, mortified.

“The medallion.” I met his gaze squarely. “Dymian’s medallion,” I answered, peeking at the relic as I walked a few feet closer to the circle. “The same one Valen mentioned at the pack meeting.”

The Elders went silent. Sybil stared at me, seemingly shaken. Victor’s face was drained of all color. Elder Jacob gawked from me to Penn to his comrades, and then his eyes shifted to me, troubled.

“Why would you bring that monstrosity into our pack?” Elder Mitchell asked, jerking his hands up and down.

“What are you keeping it for?” Elder Victor probed with a chastising tone, eyeing me hard.

Valen already explained this to them, but I guess I must go over it again.

“It’s here to be destroyed, not to be a souvenir.” I narrowed my eyes, looking over the lot of them and finally studying Jacob. “But how did you know it was at this particular spot?”

Elder Jacob scoffed, then spoke with pride. “I could feel its vile essence from the ritual temple. The Coyolxāuhqui stone is being affected. The abominable mana from that damn thing is trying to reach the resonance of the sacred stone to corrupt it.”

My stomach dropped. “What?”

“Oh my God, it's becoming stronger,” Penn realized, suddenly troubled as she stared unwaveringly at the medallion. Dark vapor seethed around it, swallowing its glow.

Jacob held up his fist and uncoiled it. The bronze-green patina links of the chain that draped across the back of his hand spilled out of his palm to reveal a bone-white scry swaying at the end. “Do you see how the holy scry is vibrating and chiming? It detects evil interference of the temple.”

“And instead of alerting security, you charged off and came here by yourself?” Theo asked, his eyes angered slits.

“We had to at least see what was going on first,” Sybil defended, just as Elder George limped to one of the trees to lean his back against the trunk.

“The Gamma is not wrong. This is my home,” Marlena appeared behind us, causing us to turn our attention to her. “I am an Elder too, and you did not inform me of your speculations even after reaching my property.”

“Well, you know, we didn’t expect to end up here,” Elder Jacob excused dryly, dropping his hands to his sides. “The medallion is too powerful. Stop skylarking. Destroy it now!”

“You aren’t telling us anything we don’t already know,” Penn grumbled, folding her arms. “And besides, the Council is suspended. You can’t really interfere.”

Jacob glared at her and said forcefully, “I'm here on matters of the temple, not the crown’s affairs. So I can see about this.”

Marlena sighed as she walked past all of us and entered the hearthring. “Only one weapon on this earth is capable of doing that.” My eyes followed her as she halted at the edge of the hexagon. “Raina is the wielder of that sword, and until she can align herself with the sword, there will be a problem getting rid of it.”

“And that, Elders, would be the witch's kind way of telling you to leave and let us do our work,” Jason jibed, picking up a gadget that he slipped onto his wrist and directing it at each of the council members. “But… in my words, get the fuck out before I slice off all your dangling parts. This man needs to work.”

“Fine-fine. Since Alpha Valen knows about this, I’ll be going.” Elder George leaned off the tree, shifted into his gray wolf, and trotted away.

With the Theta as the weapons specialist, they knew the harm his gadgets could do.

Elder Jacob was uneasy. His eyes settled on me with disdain. “I should stay and see to it that you do what you’re supposed to. That medallion can create rifts within the same dimension or realm. The longer it stays here will allow it the chance to create a rift to let in his contractor into our pack. Don’t you get it?”

I glanced at him, puzzled. “How would you know that?”

Theo marched up to him. Jacob's eyes widened when the Gamma grabbed him by the throat.

“Minutes ago, you acted like this was the first time you were seeing the medallion. Speak Elder!” Theo growled intimidatingly.

“I don’t think that’s what you should focus on,” Elder Jacob tried to sound confident, but I detected the nervousness in his tone.

“Think real harder than that.” Theo eyed him threateningly, like a python ready to choke its prey and devour it whole.

“You cannot manhandle an Elder like this,” Jacob retorted, trying to wrestle out of the grip.

“I can if it affects security,” Theo gritted out in conviction. “I also can if a certain Elder is suspected to be a mole. And I certainly can if my Luna orders it.”

While that was going on, my eyes began to prickle as though something was being forced in. I blinked my eyes rapidly, fighting the impulse gripping me.

No matter how I shook my head, Gustav’s face blotted out the current world around me. My vision of the hearthring crumbled into a terrifying flash, and then I saw the three of them. Gustav, Androkles, and Figaro. Oh, hell no. Dymian?

My heart jumped into my chest, and I slammed my hand down on someone’s shoulder, grabbing them as my breath hitched hard in my throat.

\-

\-