Chapter 22 A Grandmother's Legacy
Elana held the necklace in her palm. She held it up. The pearlescent gem, a rough, unpolished stone. It was dark, a swirling mix of deep moss green and slat gray, looking less like a jewel and more like a piece of the mountain itself.
“This,” Elana announced, “is an Earthstone.”
“The last person to wear this was my grandmother,” Elana said, looking down at Leela. “She was the last Terra-conduit this family produced. She wore this during the Great War, not just to hide her power, but to keep it from tearing her apart before she learned to master it.”
She stepped closer to Leela.
“It is a shield, Leela. It is not a shackle. But it is heavy.”
Leela looked at the dark stone. It looked ancient. It looked like it held a hundred years of secrets.
“Will it hurt?” Leela asked, her voice trembling slightly.
“No,” Elana promised. “But it will feel…quiet. You’ve gotten used to hearing the hum of the earth, even if you didn’t realize it. This will mute that song.”
She walked behind Leela.
“Lift your hair.”
Leela reached up and swept her ponytail aside, exposing the nape of her neck.
Elana placed the cold iron against Leela’s skin.
“For your safety,” Elana whispered. “And for ours.”
Click.
The clasp snapped shut.
The effect was instantaneous.
For the last two days, Leela had felt a buzzing energy just beneath her skin–a constant connection to the wood on the floor, the flowers on the porch, the trees outside. It was a static charge that made her feel alive.
The moment the Earthstone touched her collarbone, the static vanished.
It was like someone had pulled the plug on a loud stereo. The world went still. The buzzing stopped. The frantic energy that had shattered lightbulbs and grown vines settled into deep, dormant slumber.
Leela gasped, her hand flying to the stone. It felt incredibly heavy, like she was wearing a lead weight, but it also felt…grouding.
She didn’t feel like she was going to explode anymore. She felt solid. She felt scared. She had never been without some part of the hum her whole life.
“How does it feel?” Finnegan asked, stepping forward to catch her elbow as she swayed slightly.
Leela blinked, adjusting to the sudden silence in her head. She touched the rough surface of the gemstone.
“Quiet.” she whispered. “It feels really quiet.”
Elana stepped back, inspecting her grandmother's necklace on the girl who would be her son’s mate. She nodded, satisfied.
“The beacon is out,” Elana announced to the room. “Her signature is dark. We are clear.”
Shoulders slumped with relief across the room. The tension broke.
“However,” Damon added, his voice booming. “We stay vigilant. We double the border patrols for the next forty-eight hours, just in case anyone caught a whiff of the first flare. Dismissed.”
As the Pack began to file out, talking low voices. Finnegan looked at Leela. He reached out and touched the iron chain around her neck.
“It looks good on you,” he said softly. “Like armor.”
“It feels like armor,” Leela agreed. She looked up at Elena. “Thank you for trusting me with this.”
Elana smiled, a rare, soft expression.
“You’re family, Leela. We protect our own.”
Elana looked at both of them. “Now for the next part. There is only one place in the territory that can mask her signature so she can learn to control it.” Her tone was serious
She paced, her boots clicking softly on the stone floor. She looked at the Earth Stone resting against Leela’s skin, then up at her son.
“The necklace is a stopgap, Finnegan. It buys us time, but it's no cure. She can’t wear it forever. She needs to learn to throttle the power herself.”’
“So, how do we train her if she can’t take it off?” Finnegan asked. “In the basement?”
“No,” Elana shook her head. “It’s too dangerous. If she slips here, she starts the sensors again.” She looked at them both. “As I said before there is only one place in our territory dense enough to mask her signature while she learns to use it.”
She paused, locking eyes with Finnegan.
“You take her to the Grove in the morning.”
Finnegan stiffened. His hand instinctively tightened on Leela’s waist.
“The Grove?” he repeated, his voice rising in alarm. “Mom, that’s Old Pack land. The ambient energy there is ancient. It’s heavy. It’s volatile.”
He looked at Leela, worry etching deep lines into his forehead.
“She’s just waking up to this power. If we take her into a place like that…won’t that break her? It could overload her system.”
“It won’t break her,” Elaana corrected firmly. “It will temper her.”
She approached, placing a hand on Finnegan’s shoulder.
“The Grove is the only place where the earth magic is strong enough to hide her. The trees there are old enough to absorb what she throws off, it will be intense, yes. But that is why you are going.”
Elana looked from her son to the girl standing beside him.
“She needs to learn control through meditation. She needs to find the center of her storm and stay there.”
Elana squeezed Finnegan’s shoulder.
“Ground your mate, son. You are the only one who can. You are her anchor. When the magic tries to pull her away, you pull her back.”
Damon spoke up from the fireplace, his arms crossed.
“And she needs to do it fast,” the Alpha added. “Because the full moon is coming. She needs to learn control before she learns to shift.”
Leela touched the cold stone at her throat. “Why?”
“Because,” Elana said, her eyes grave. “A wolf acts on instinct. If your wolf wakes up and decides to panic, and you don;t know how to lock down that earth magic .you won’t just turn into a wolf. You’ll turn this entire mountain into a lightning rod for magical energy. You have to be the master of the power before you let the beast out.”
She nodded to the door.
"Get some rest. Tomorrow, you too are going deep into the blackwood forest.