Chapter 141

CLAUDIA.

The growls of the creature fill the forest air, seemingly making the temperature drop. The clouds roll over the moon as though to protect it from the sight. Or as though to hide from the monstrosity that is happening down below.

And if that is indeed the case, I don’t blame her. I don’t blame her at all. I find myself staggering back, almost stumbling on the branches and hedges on the forest floor. A scream is slowly building up in my throat as the Rogue sniffs around, its red eyes sweeping the place as though looking for something. As though it already found something and is now just locating it.

My heart jumps to my throat. I feel more present than ever and that is not a good thing. Not a good thing at all.

“Perfect,” Tristan whispers, almost to himself. “Now, the only thing we need to figure out is to….”

He trails off, suddenly looking around as though he noticed something off.

“Warren,” he says to one of the guards. “Are you sure the perimeter has been surrounded?”

“Yes,” Warren answers. “We have done rounds a couple of times and we didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, Alpha.”

“That is strange,” Tristan mutters. “I can almost swear that something is not right. Can you not feel that? There is a presence here that shouldn’t even exist in the first place. Can you not feel the disturbance?”

The guards look at one another. The Rogue that was once Sahari is now panting, looking around and sniffing the air. Suddenly, it turns to face my general direction.

Then it starts to growl.

“Ah.” Tristan’s eyes narrow as he also faces the direction I am in. “Never mind. It seems that Sahari here has sensed it, after all. Perhaps you guards need a little more juice to function properly. Search that part of the woods.”

The guards’ footsteps suddenly come alive, and they’re getting louder and louder as they all start to crowd around me. But I’m not really here, am I? I know that I’m safe in bed with Achilles and they can’t do anything to harm me.

But why does it seem so real? Why do I feel like if they look right now, they would find me?

I start to run away, and this time I can hear my own footsteps. I can hear my own body pushing through the bushes. It’s as though the past couple of minutes have solidified my body and now my entire physical consciousness is here as well as my mental presence.

And once they find me….

No. No, I shouldn’t think about that, even though they’re all closing in on me, and it’s about time that they—

The rest of my thoughts come to a halt when suddenly, a group of men block my way. I turn around, and there is Tristan, staring at me with wide eyes and an open mouth. I thought he would be happy to be visited by the person he claimed to be his Luna, but the only thing on his face right now is fear.

“How….” he fades off. “How did you get here?”

I open my mouth to answer, but no sound comes out. Instead, I feel an intense tugging sensation at the pit of my gut, pulling so hard that I can’t breathe. I blink, and suddenly I feel myself waking up.

I sit up with a gasp, fully expecting myself to be in the forest where they are but I’m in bed with Achilles, who is bent over me with a red face and a scared expression. His hands are on my shoulders and it looks like he’s been trying desperately to wake me up.

“Claudia,” he breathes out in relief as soon as I open my eyes. He sinks against the bed, his whole body going slack as though he’s been tense for a really long time. “What the hell is happening? I’ve been trying to wake you up for half an hour now.”

“What?” I sputter, my mouth dry. I can’t believe it’s been that long. To me, everything felt like it couldn’t have been longer than fifteen minutes. “I… was dreaming and it was strange. I saw Sahari and Tristan in a mountain clearing, having some sort of initiation ritual. He made her drink something and he turned into what looked like a Rogue.”

Achilles sinks into the mattress, his eyebrows raised in confusion. “What else happened?”

I don’t want to tell him. I don’t want to tell him that they saw me, or that I seemed to have traveled there in my sleep. I’m scared of the fact that it was a physical manifestation. I was actually going through the hedges and running for my life. And in that dream, I got cornered.

I want to hide it from him because of the fact that it might feel more real if I say it out loud, but in the end I just take a deep breath and tell him everything. Every detail. All down to the last moment when they saw me and I woke up, safely in this room.

I watch as worry steals over his features. It feels like I’m watching him age in real time and I don’t like that at all. I find myself looking away every now and then just to avoid seeing him in so much distress.

“I’m so sorry.” I swallow hard, putting a tentative hand on his thigh. “I didn’t mean to do it. Any of it. I don’t know how I ended up there like that, like it was all real. Now I don’t know what’s real.”

“It’s not your fault,” he whispers, kissing me softly and holding me against him. “What’s real is you and me right here, in our home with our son. We are both safe. You are safe with me. I am with you. Everyone here is with you. That’s what’s real, not Tristan and not that forest.”

I nod. I know that he’s right and I have nothing to worry about. But the mystery of it all bothers me.

“I think we need to know everything as fast as we can,” I say. “He seems to have a big plan ready, and I’m afraid of how much things are going to escalate if we don’t move now.”

“You’re right.” He nods. “And we need to know what happened to you too. We need to know what that new ability is.”

A new ability. I admit I never thought about it this way before. I thought it was just another mystery, another tragedy that I have to deal with now. But Achilles is right. Maybe I can use this to spy on them and know their moves, although they would surely be more careful now. But I would be careful too. I should know how to control this.

It’s already bright outside, so Achilles and I get ready to go out and put some work into our own side of the mission. We hold hands as we go down the stairs, and the staff are all bowing and greeting us. It feels nice to have them around. It grounds me to reality even more, especially after seeing Maia and hugging her as a greeting.

“Shall we go to Aristea and tell her what happened?” I ask as we step out of earshot of our staff.

Achilles nods. “She did help you navigate getting into Larkin’s mind. She knows a lot of things. I think she will be able to—”

“Alpha Achilles. Luna Claudia.”

We both turn at the sound of the voice. It’s Carlos, and he’s rushing into the palace with muddy boots and a raincoat. He’s sweating, and he also seems nervous.

“What’s going on?” I ask, ignoring the Luna comment and thinking I should save it for some other time. “Are you alright?”

Carlos nods as an answer, looking at both of us. “We have some… refugees. But they’re not just refugees.”

“Who are they?” Achilles asks.

“It’s a woman named Ruth with a man named Henry. And they’re with the old woman who tried to hurt Claudia before. The one they called Nana.”