Chapter 255

“Well if you kill me, and decide to bring me back that means that you’re picking a Soulless, not an Innocent, and then you still get to choose what Innocent you bring back,” Nonno said but he wasn’t thinking of something I hadn’t ran by Jason and Mother. I shook my head from side to side slowly, “If I choose to bring back a Soulless Nonno, I can’t choose what Innocent will return.” He nodded slowly, his eyes blank… standing Nonno walked over to me, a sad smile on his face, “Grazie pe dirmi topolino,” he whispered kissing my cheek, holding my face, his hands shook, “I had many years – many many years with – with my Clara,” his voice shaky, “she wouldn’t want us to be in danger, so – so I believe you shouldn’t bring her back, it is the wrong – wrong” he stopped shaking, eyes leaking, sadness, love and emptiness rolling down his cheek, “thing to – to do.” I gave him one nodded but pulled away from Gabriel to embrace this man who welcomed me unlike any of Gabriel’s family, and I felt like I had let him down, when he seemed to give up so much, “I’m so sorry Nonno,” I whispered my heart heavy, Nonno wasn’t squeezing me too hard but I felt like I was being squeezed on the inside. Over his shoulder my gaze met with Jack, he shook his head at me, I can’t ask you to bring back someone when we would be unleashing danger – asking you to bring my mate back… he shook his head again, and tears fell down my face, we would be no different from the Elders, so I’m okay with you not bringing McKenna back. My heart broke even more, I patted Nonno’s back – I had seen Ava do this and it helped Remy. I thought that when they told me this, the exact same answer I was going to give regardless, that I would feel lighter, feel as though I weren’t letting them down, because they saw it my way, agreed with my decision. I was wrong. This felt worse. “My Clara was a good woman,” Nonno whispered, his voice not telling me, just sounding so lost, I wondered how long he would last without her? A month? Two? What about Jack? After everything Mother and Jason told me, when we found those violins and released the power, I needed to have at least ten other people with me to absorb the power from them. Could they be one of the ten? Would their wolves be stable enough to count on them not betraying me? I did well with pain, physical, mental even the emotional kind but what happened next brought me to my knees, “Ahhhhhh,” I roared, throwing my head back as my body seemed to convulse against my will. Worse than when I was shot, my hands immediately went to cradle my head, bowing forward so much than on my knees, my forehead was touching the kitchen floor. “Clara!” Nonno said somewhere – shouting – hands were on me, “McKenna?” I heard Jack say, more than one set of hands were on me, I closed my eyes titling my head to the side, my jaw locking open but no sound was coming from my lips. As sudden as the pain came, it left. Panting I was on all fours in human form, my head hanging, as Gabriel panicked around me, “Chelsea! Sweetheart?” “Topolino?” Nonno’s voice concerned and shocked but I didn’t know why, all I was trying to do right then, right now, was catch my breath, when I finally sat on the backs of my legs, upright, I saw something I wasn’t expecting. A confused and frightened McKenna, and a concerned Nona, “Oh no…” I jumped to my feet my heart beating frantically, my head whipping from side to side, closing my eyes I thought of where I wanted to be and when I opened them, I was back in the white room. Dad and Mother sat there smirking at me, “Oh god!! What did I do? I didn’t mean to bring them back! Oh god!” I said in a panic my mind going in circles. “Relax my child,” Mother said, “You did not bring them back, I sent them back,” my shoulders hunched but my body was still partially rigid, fists clenched at my side. “What!?” I said lifting a brow at them, hoping I didn’t just suffer because – “this – this was a test?” I spat incredulously, at the two of them, I hated these mind games. Through clenched teeth I asked, “So you lied, there is no such thing as balance between who I choose to bring back?” my blood was boiling. “Respect Luna, this was a test for you to have the ability to bring them back, knowing that you would not abuse such a gift. Sabastian and Jack were given their mates back because of their loyalty, to you – to goodness.” Gabriel and Nonno were killers… again I’m not sure we had the same views. I interrupted when I thought of who was in the room, “What about Katie?” I hadn’t seen her. Mother gave me a half smile, “Young Katie isn’t interested in being brought back to your world…” “As I was saying, Clara and McKenna were returned because you all made the right decisions here; you have shown that you are accountable and dependable. You must see Luna, we gave the Elders too much, not checking on their hidden traits, now you cannot fault us for being cautious this time around… sending back individuals Luna is not the natural way, so I do not do it often, the consequences of this decision will not be the same for me as it is for you,” Mother said never once raising her voice at me, just answering in her sweet voice. It was logical, I didn’t like it, but I took a breath… closing my eyes, counting in my head, when I felt less anger, I reopened them but found myself alone. Sighing I concentrated on going back, and found Gabriel in a chair, bent over his hands in his hair pulling at it. Nonno was holding onto Clara, just holding her face and looking into her eyes Jack and McKenna were no where to be found. The second Gabriel knew that I was back, he swept me up, wrapping his arms around me, his face against my neck, “I hate when you do that!” he mumbled in the most petulant sounding voice I’ve ever heard from him. Nonno approached Gabriel and I, not caring that I was still being held by Gabriel, his eyes tired, but not lifeless, “thank you,” he stressed so much that I didn’t know how to respond except nodding woodenly, then blinking a few times I got my senses back, “it wasn’t me…. It was actually you… thinking about the greater good and all that,” I said offhandedly but in truth, none of it made sense. After saying goodnight, Gabriel and I left to our room, exhausted, my mind was overloaded… crawling into bed, I waited for Gabriel to settle in, before cuddling as close as possible to him, my leg over his, one hand on his stomach, my head on his chest, his heartbeat lulling me to sleep.