Chapter 198: Grace
I stared at Arlo, my heart pounding. He had said it so casually… So sure of his answer. And the picture… I stared at the picture, urging it to be different. Begging for it to be something else, anything else. But even when I blinked, it was still the same. It was the Moon Goddess just as we had seen her in a patch of wildflowers, the woods behind her glowing with what looked like moonlight, looking much different than we had seen it today, but yet, still very much the same. I would recognize it anywhere.
“Why the hell would the God of Death being hunting us?” Rhys demanded as I jumped off the desk to look at the picture even closer.
“That’s him, isn’t it?” I asked quietly, pointing to a shadowy figure that seemed to be hiding in the trees, watching her.
Arlo nodded solemnly after glancing where I was pointing.
“The Moon Goddess and the God of Death used to be friends... Maybe more, it depends what mythology you look at. But at the very least, they were written in many texts as good friends. The Moon Goddess felt it was necessary to have a good relationship with the God who would eventually claim her creatures. But around 200 years or so ago, the God of Death stopped appearing in texts with her. Before people perhaps worshipped the two of them together, but my assumption is they stopped. The God of Death has shadow creatures. From what it sounds like, that’s what you ran into. The meadow in the picture was the neutral area between her land and his, they were neighbors, but based on what you mentioned, it seems he is targeting her for some reason.”
I frowned. Okay, sure, that made some sense... But it left more questions than answers. Were we facing a war on two different fronts? Gods and Lycans? Or were they working together? But that wouldn’t make sense since we were both made by the Moon Goddess... Unless...
“He’s pining us against each other, so we wipe each other out...” I whispered my thoughts out loud.
“That’s my thoughts...” Arlo agreed.
“But why? What the hell happened that he would have to do that?” Rhys questioned angrily. “Why bring her creations into it?”
“Because he’s trying to make his more powerful...” Sawyer answered slowly, and everyone turned to look at him. “He is who the vampire's worship... And from what we’ve heard... They are now a part of the project... He’s trying to make his people stronger...”
I felt sick. The Moon Goddess had warned me... Us. That something was coming. Was this what she was talking about? Was this the danger we didn’t know was coming? Or were we really fighting two different wars on two different fronts?
“Is there anything else we should know?” Rhys asked, his voice tight, but in control.
“I don’t know where exactly Grace fits in here... Why they want her so bad... But I’ll keep digging.”
“Oh that part is easy,” Maizie spoke up, her eyes dark with emotion. “The God of Death has been biding his time... The Lycans were already corrupt... Giving the God of Death the perfect opportunity to strike. Grace is clearly favored by the Moon Goddess... She was sent to Earth to save her people... She’s important to the cause and the Moon Goddess. Going after her is kind of a no-brainer.”
“But I’m nothing special,” I protested.
Maizie rolled her eyes before looking directly into mine, “Grace, you have more abilities than anyone I know. Even for a Lycan of Alpha blood. I’m sure that the Moon Goddess created you on purpose, and my assumption is that it’s to save us all.”
“No pressure.” I muttered under my breath. There was no way she was right though. I wasn’t in the Moon Goddess’s favor. I had never even prayed to her. I probably cursed her more than I had ever said anything good in her name. There was no way that she’d choose me as her special mission to save my people. I wasn’t even a true Alpha. I was a bastard child. No. She couldn’t be right.
Rhys ran his hand over his face tiredly. “So, we aren’t just fighting corrupt Lycans, but we’re pawns to a God war?” He asked.
“It would appear so,” Arlo answered with a nod.
We spent the next two hours going over all the things that Arlo knew about the Gods and the Land of the Gods. We grabbed a new giant whiteboard and began to map out all the different relationships that were known between them. Who might help. Who would side with the God of Death. And who we should go to first for help. And how we were going to get Leon and Caleb out of their hands as quickly as we could.
My mind was all but spinning by the time we decided to call it a night. This was exhausting.
“Maizie, Michael, Grace, stay for a moment.” Rhys said as everyone started to disperse for the night. Everyone was feeling the exhaustion, but we had decided that it was probably safe to sleep. No one thought that the Moon Goddess would try to pull us into her realm again, at least not again so soon. But some of our research was going to go toward how to escape the realm if we ever got trapped there again.
“Are we in trouble?” Michael asked hesitantly when it was just us in the room.
“No, not at all.” Rhys answered. “Give me two minutes, I just have to grab something.”
Both Maizie and Michael looked to me, but I just shrugged. I knew as much as they did, which was nothing. I closed my eyes and leaned back against the desk. I honestly think it was holding me up I was so tired. No one really said anything, so I knew we were all in the same boat.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, I just wanted to give these to you before you guys went to bed.”
I opened my eyes to see him holding three new phones in his hand as he began to pass them out.
“Is this for real?” Maizie asked in awe, flipping it around in her hands.
“Yes. I already had them put in some important numbers, mine, each of yours, Leon’s, Heather’s, Sawyer’s. These are yours though. I know you guys can’t mindlink, so I needed to make sure you guys had a way to contact each other, especially in an emergency.”
“Thank you!” Maizie cried out, throwing her arms around Rhys.
“You’re welcome,” Rhys chuckled, patting her back awkwardly.
Both Michael and Maizie took off with their new phones, and Rhys stepped in front of me, his eyes scanning over me.
“Thank you,” I told him earnestly. “I’ll have to learn how to use this.”
“I’m sure it will take no time at all.” He responded, his voice husky.
I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his lips gently. We were both too tired for much more, but somehow it was enough. Somehow with him, everything was.