CHAPTER 160

CHAPTER 160
The Garden That Shouldn’t Be

Joel's boots barely touched the ground as he tore through the trees at the rear of the cabin. The wind wailed in his face, and tree branches ripped at his shoulders, but he did not slow his pace. The butler's words echoed in his mind. a garden that hadn't existed previously. And Emerald, alone.

The trees grew stranger as he went on. They bent in unnatural poses, their trunks twisting toward some unrecognizable center he could not make out yet. Leaves gleamed from frost without heat, and the air thinned so each breath seemed to be tugging on fabric through his lungs.

Then he saw it.

The garden

It yawned open as a gash in the woods. A perfect circle of wild flowers of a deep crimson color swelled softly in the blackness. No snow touched their petals. No birds sang their morning melodies. In the center of it lay a stone cracked open by ages of time. Two names were inscribed upon its face. LENA. and beneath them, EMERALD.

Joel's breath hitched

She stood before it unmoving. Her hair blew in the breeze that did not ruffle the trees. The hand hovered above the stone. The other grasped something at her side. tightly, shivering.

He attempted a step forward. and stood firm. Something blocked his path. The very air glittered. He stood static. Muscles would not budge.

"Emerald he shouted"

She didn't blink.

Joel snarled and pushed a step closer. The resistance grew harder. as if wading through icy hard earth. He involuntarily extended his claws, his instincts struggling against unseen reach.

A deer passed alongside him.

Backward

Its legs moved in a way they shouldn't be moving, like time itself twisting. Joel watched as it faded from sight into the dark woods. All of this wasn't natural.

He advanced another step. The spell flickered slightly.

"Emerald," he whispered now more softly. "Look at me."

Finally, she turned.

Her eyes glittered not with light, but with comprehension. Something passed through her. Something old.

"Joel," she whispered quietly, "they left it for me."

He forced his way through the resistance a second time and broke through toward the edge of the garden. The moment his boot touched earth, a jet of heat flashed through his leg, burning and blinding him. He staggered and cursed but did not fall.

Emerald looked down at the stone.

"She stood here and I heard her."

“Lena?” Joel said

Slowly Emerald nodded. "She called me by my name."

He moved in closer. "What did she say?"

"She said." Emerald's voice broke. "She said the Blood Rite's not something you do but something you become."

He gazed at her impassively.

He stood and turned toward the stone.

The inscribed names softly glowed.

They'll be after me," Emerald whispered softly. "Because I'm not like she is. but because I may awaken what she sought to destroy."

Joel's eyes contracted. "You're not her"

"No," she agreed. "But this room remembers her and remembers what she feared."

She knelt and extended a hand toward a red flower. Joel stepped forward on automatic impulse. but did not intervene.

She pulled off a single petal.

Pressed it against the darkness of the sky.

And whispered, "What would you have me be?"

The flower petal vaporized into smoke between her fingers.

They heard a noise behind them.

Joel whirled, his claws

They did not discover anything there.

A lingering echo. laughs softly and sorrowfully.

Emerald stood on her feet. Shaking, she stood.

"We must take it away from here," she said. "This has no place here in the forest. It's old."

Joel did not quarrel. Not yet.

He stood and attempted to take her away. but she stood in his way.

"You didn't come back because you were missing me," she whispered slowly.

Joel's expression did not change. "No"

You came back because you think I will be differently changed.

He didn't answer.

She glanced away from him. "You're right."

They crossed the garden boundary as well, and the air snapped shut behind them. Joel sensed the release at once. The moment they crossed the line of knotted trees behind them, he glanced back.

The garden was gone.

The forest lay quiet. No blossoming of the red flowers. No stone inscriptions. No warmth beneath the earth.

He glanced at Emerald. "Do you still keep it on you?"

Nodded she

"Keep it," he instructed. "We might be needing this."

They returned to the cabin in silence. The butler was at the door, white-faced and wide-eyed with terror, but Joel brushed him aside without speaking. At the cabin, Joel lit a candle and examined the windows.

Emerald perched on the bed's edge, her own hand wrapped around her wrist as if seared onto her skin.

He turned away from the window and stood in front of her. "They used the garden as a lure. Some sort of mechanism. they wanted you to glance."

They didn't appeal to me," she panted. "I already had started out."

Joel's jaw set hard. "Then they've begun

Her eyes rested upon him upwardly, haunted.

He walked across the room, dropped onto a knee, and finally posed the question he'd been dreading.

"Why do you keep it from me?"

Her response came in a whisper.

The reality

The candle briefly flickered.

Then, however

And then it burnt out.

The flame vanished as if it were being swallowed. No boom. No outstretched hand. Just darkness.

Emerald and Joel stood in oppressive silence, the acrid smell of burnt wax hanging like a ghost. The silence stretched on so long that even the weathered wooden cabin seemed to become quiet, holding breath.
Joel got up first, stretching like a drawn blade. He crossed the room, ignited a second candle with a crack of his claw, and watched the wick twist to life. His jaw ground. He caught Emerald's eyes.

What also happened in the garden?

She did not look away. "I've seen her again."

Lena

Emerald nodded. "But differently from the last time. This time she wasn't trying a warning. She seemed scared. As if something loomed behind her."

Joel's eyebrows dropped. "Behind her?"

Once more, she was chained. Not to stone. To atmosphere, like the earth itself having claimed her. Emerald gritted her teeth and swallowed hard. And the darkness which strode. it wasn't human. It wasn't wolf. It wasn't even alive.

Silence by Joel mounted to tension and then suspicion.

I did not make the call," Emerald said. "I swear to you."

He examined her. "Did it make contact?"

No.

Did it speak?

She hesitated. And then, "One word. Rebirth."

The eyes of Joel darkened. He walked away from his fellow travelers.

"She's finally talking now," he muttered under his breath. "Why you and not me?"

"I don't know," she whispered softly.

He came to a stop. "I think so."

Emerald came inching up as if weighed down by a ton. "Do you think I wanted it?"

I suspect you're changing," Joel said softly menacingly. "I suspect if you don't start telling me the absolute truth about everything, I'll be forced to find another means."

Her shoulders squared themselves. "What will you do, Alpha? Incarcerate me? Burn down the garden? Smash every mirror in this wretched building?"

Silence by Joel did it all

The door slowly and quietly opened. The butler walked in, his face serious. "Alpha, a bird has arrived carrying a mark from the Eastern packs."

Joel's teeth snapped firmly shut. "Now"

"Yes, sir." The butler brought a black feathered arrow adorned in the scarlet ribbon.

He accepted it. He furrowed his brow as he unwound the binding and looked at the narrow parchment beneath.

He took a slow breath. "They've discovered another sigil. Imprinted on a rogue wolf's skin."

Her skin crawled. "What did it reveal?"

He didn't glance at her as he recited from the book. "When the mirror breaks, the vessel is chosen."

He wadded the parchment in his fist.

Emerald involuntarily moved away. "You're blaming it on me."

Joel didn’t answer.

The butler stood uncertainly. "Do I call the guards, Alpha?"

Nodding, Joel replied, "Double the perimeter. Ward the house. Get the old wards from the vault. The ones Lena buried."

The butler paused and answered, "Sir. they've not been touched in years."

"Dig quickly," Joel snapped curtly. "We've got no time."

The gentleman bowed and left.

Emerald wrapped her arms around herself and stared at the half-burned candle. "So it's true. She's failed."

He looked up "What?"

She tried to seal it away. Whatever exactly the Blood Rite is. She tied herself to it so it would not be disturbed. I think her death broke the final seal.

"Now it's looking for someone else on which to base itself," Joel answered icily. "You."

Emerald looked at him, pain dancing at the corners of her eyes. "Do you see her when you look at me?"

"No," Joel answered firmly, his tone low. "I see what can destroy her legacy."

Outside, the wind wailed loudly. Away from the cabin, a wolf howled. a sorrowful cry which did not stop the way it should have. It broke off at the end, like a scream.

Joel moved toward the door. "I must speak to the Northern Alpha. We will not engage in this war without knowing the facts."

Emerald sat down once more, exhausted. "What if it's not war, Joel? What if it's prophecy?"

He hesitated at the door threshold.

I do not believe in prophecy, he claimed.

"PROPHECY has faith in you."

He glanced back once. "Do not depart from the cabin once more."

"I did not depart," she whispered quietly. "The forest found me."

Joel disappeared through the door.

Emerald was alone again.

She crossed over to the mirror on the mantlepiece. It had stood ajar a few hours previously. It now displayed delicate cracks on the silver surface as on pale skin's veins. Her face looked back at her. but shook as a flicking candle flame would.

"You're not hers," Emerald said to the glass.

The mirror's mouth did however open.

Not yet, it sighed.

Emerald stood back, her breath caught in her throat.

The candle on the side of the mirror flickered briefly. and exploded in a small plume of smoke.

Emerald stumbled and grasped for something. anything to steady herself.

Her hand lay over the glass shard beneath her pillow. Her hand closed around it. For good measure and in case.