CHAPTER 181

CHAPTER 181


Reika's POV

The door to my chambers creaked open. Archer stepped in first, followed by a woman with cold silver eyes, dressed in a white robe with a scarf wrapped around her hair. She had this chilling aura and unnatural energy buzzing around her.

Archer stepped closer to me where I was seated in front of the mirror, still staring at my reflection and still unable to process it even though it had been hours.

He leaned down, his breath warm against my ear as he spoke. “This is the great seer from the ancient mountain Logan told me about. Since you can't leave the palace because we don't know if the Alpha is keeping an eye on you or not, I brought her here to see you instead. I think she might be able to return your appearance.”

Return my appearance?

I wasn't that hopeful about her helping me get my appearance back because I couldn't think of anything that had made me lose it in the first place.

I did not say a word; I just remained focused on the mirror, hoping a miracle would come.

“Seer Aurora… please come forward.” Archer gestured at her.

The seer stepped forward. She removed the scarf wrapped around her head and her red hair fell down… long past her butt. She reached into the animal-skin bag slung across her shoulder and retrieved a small ancient bell.

Her eyes narrowed as she stared at me critically, then the corner of her lips lifted into a taunting smirk… like she knew everything—my past, present, and future—and she was amused by it. She did not say a word. She just moved right in and began chanting while jingling the bell.

The sound of it echoed, not just through the room but through my soul. It felt like it was awakening something inside me from the way goosebumps rose over my skin. Still… I tried to remain calm.

While Archer paced around with his hands on his hips and a grave, exhausted expression etched across his features.

The chants and the jingling of the bell continued for what felt like hours, until… a loud thunder cracked outside, then a very strong unnatural wind rushed in through the window, swirling the curtains wildly as though it was going to pull them off their hinges. It whipped our hair across our faces and even moved our clothes around our bodies.

The ground beneath me shook hard and threw me off the chair I was seated on. I hit the floor sharply with a loud thud. The chants grew louder with an intensity that felt like my ears were going to burst apart.

I slapped my hands over my ears to stop the sound. “Stop…” I cried out as it now felt like needles were being used to puncture my ears repeatedly.

Seer Aurora didn't stop. If anything, she chanted louder.

“Leave her!” she commanded coldly and resumed chanting.

I could tell that was Archer being terrified and probably trying to come to my rescue.

“Stop…. Please,” I cried out, rolling hard on the floor. “My ears are aching…”

She kept chanting… and now, the pain was not only in my ears but in every part of me until my entire body ached.

Then suddenly she stopped and slowly, the pain subsided.

“Reika…” Archer called fearfully. He reached down, helped me stand gently, and then led me towards the bed.

The seer stood in front of me. “Her transformation….” she began, her voice seeming to re-echo, “is caused by her intimacy with the king.”

I stared up at her, lips parted in a mix of shock and disbelief. I couldn't believe that she was truly powerful enough to know about my intimacy with Ileus.

“What do you mean?” I asked, still trying to catch my breath.

“The king's wolf is a powerful one,” she continued. “It knows who you really are. It knows that you were his ex-mate and even though circumstances happened that pulled you two apart, it has never really forgotten who you are. The moment you were intimate with the Alpha, his wolf started fighting your own supernatural powers because it wanted to reveal who you really are to the king. Each time… you two made love, you lost a bit of your powers and now you've completely lost everything.”

My eyes widened in horror and terror, my body trembling with fear at her words. I let out a bitter laugh, then shook my head slowly.

“No.. that is not true,” my cracked voice was barely audible. “That is not true.”

No matter what, I couldn't believe the fact that I had lost my powers, the same powers that had become a part of me, my true identity…

Aurora laughed menacingly. “How dare you doubt my words?” She sounded angry. Then her voice softened. “But you know it… deep down inside you… you know I'm not lying. Tell me… didn't you feel strange the first time you made love to him?”

Yeah, I did. I remembered how it felt like I had lost a part of myself, but I couldn't answer.

She continued. “Didn't you feel weak and tired?”

Of course, I did. By his door yesterday and this morning. Even Archer had noticed.

“Didn't you feel scared and empty?”

Yeah… I felt so scared and so empty.

“You felt everything and each time you lost different abilities. By the time you had sex with him for the seventh time, which was yesterday, you lost everything completely.”

I did not move; I did not say a word.

But inside? I was dead. Completely.

I could feel it all now.

Strange. Weak. Tired. Scared. Empty.

There was a long suffocating pause.

My tears slid down my cheeks without restraint.

Archer stared at me and just tightened his grip around me, but he did not say anything. I guess even he didn't have the right words to console me.

“So what should we do now?” he asked. “Is there anything that can be done… maybe a ritual or something to give her back her appearance and powers?”

Aurora shook her head. “Unfortunately… I have done everything I could earlier. The chants I performed were a ritual, but it did not work obviously, so nothing else can be done.”

A guttural cry slipped past my lips. I used one hand to clutch my aching chest while I pressed the other against my throbbing forehead.

“You will remain like this from now on. I guess it is because you were meant to be a Luna… and not an executioner. If I were you, I would be confessing everything to the Alpha before he finds out. And you know what that means, don't you?”

I gritted my teeth, hating her unsolicited advice and the fact that she seemed to know everything about me.

A queen?

I almost laughed.

Ileus made me this and even though he regretted it, that doesn't change the fact that I became an executioner because of him.

“Get out!” I screamed before I could stop myself, gesturing towards the door.

“Calm down, Reika,” Archer said softly. “I'm sure she doesn't mean to upset you.”

I refused to calm down. “Just get this woman out of my chambers now,” I cried out, because her mere presence was tormenting, a cruel reminder of everything I had lost.

Aurora just stood there, grinning devilishly like she was reveling in the sight of me broken.

“Alright, I will.”

Archer stood and stepped closer to her. “Thank you for coming, Seer. You may leave now.”

“Of course, I will leave. But don't forget… my words remain.”

Carefully, she returned the bell into her bag, wrapped the scarf around her hair and without another word, she stepped out of the room with Archer who needed to escort her safely out of the palace through the secret passageways she had been sneaked in through.