Chapter 217: Together
Nina
When Enzo disappeared with Selena, I felt my heart begin to shatter into a million pieces. For the second time in the past few weeks, I had lost him again and now I wasn’t sure if I could ever get him back. Selena’s claws had sunk deep into his mind, and it seemed that her spell had taken a strong enough hold on him that even looking at me and seeing my pain didn’t cause him to recognize me in the slightest.
Lori and Jessica held me tightly as I sobbed on the forest floor. I could hear Matt shouting, but I couldn’t make out what he said over my sobs; but he sounded just as angry as I felt, and when I cracked my eyes open, I could see that tears were streaked down Lori and Jessica’s faces as well.
“Don’t worry,” Jessica said, sliding her hands under my back and helping me to sit up. “We’ll find him. I promise.
I shook my head as I sat up and pulled my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around my legs in an upright fetal position. “It’s too late,” I said, my chest heaving with silent sobs as tears continued to stream down my dirt- caked face. “I can’t open a portal. And Selena’s magic is too powerful… I won’t stand a chance against her.”
Lori frowned. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, another familiar voice called to me from behind her, causing all of us to jerk our heads up.
“You’re giving up already?” Luke said. He was standing at the edge of the clearing. His hands were balled up into tight fists at his sides, and as he stormed closer to me, I could see that his face was red and he was shaking slightly with what looked like anger. You can’t just give up like that.” I stared up at him with an open mouth, still clutching my knees to my chest.” What the hell am I supposed to do, Luke?” I responded. “He’s gone. Selena took him. And she’ll just kill me anyway if I try to take him back again.”
Luke silently stared at me for several long, palpable moments. The air between the five of us was so thick it could be cut with a knife, and I felt as though my lungs couldn’t even take in any oxygen from the weight of it all.
“I can open a portal for you,” Luke said finally, his face softening and his hands uncurling. “I can get you there before it’s too late. You still have time.”
I stood then, shaking my head vigorously. “Your disguise,” I said, gesturing to him. If he opened a portal, it would ruin his disguise, and I knew how important it was to him to feel human again. I never wanted to take that away from him.Luke rolled his eyes. “How many times
do I have to tell you?” he said. “This is more important. You’re more important. I knew that there was something special about you from the moment I met you. You’re not just an ordinary human, and you’re not even just an ordinary werewolf. You’re the missing daughter of the Alpha King; the daughter that the Crescents were supposed to kill twenty years ago.”
“What does my lineage have to do with anything?” I asked.
“You’ve seen Selena’s power,” Luke replied, sounding almost annoyed at my incompetence. “You have the same powers. You’re possibly even stronger. I didn’t want to tell you this until I was absolutely certain, but that witch who helped me… She told me about a prophecy. “The missing sister will save
the kingdom and unite the races together.’ Humans, werewolves, undead… All of us. If you give up now, the Crescents will have their way.”
My eyes widened. “What are you talking about?” I asked. “If my fate was to stop the Crescents, why didn’t they kill me when they had the chance twenty years ago?”
Luke was silent for a moment. My friends shifted uncomfortably on their feet, staring at the two of us as tensions rose. Everything felt like it was moving too slowly and too quickly at the same time; with every moment wasted, Enzo was being taken further and further away from me.
“They couldn’t do it,” Luke finally said. His voice was low and quiet. “They tried, but they couldn’t. All along, I thought it was because they took pity- on you, but it was something else. It was as if something was protecting you.”
I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to ask how Luke or that witch even knew any of this for sure, but I knew that Luke had never been wrong about these things before… And if he was right this time, then I needed to trust him. I needed to not only save Enzo, but I supposedly needed to save the kingdom. And I knew that the only way to do that was to stop Selena, because I had a sickening feeling in my stomach. that she had the Alpha King – our father in her grasp as well.
“Okay.” My voice was barely above a whisper, but it still shook with fear. ” I’ll go.”
Suddenly, I felt a hand grip my wrist tightly. I looked up from the ground to see that Jessica was holding me, her eyes burning with fervor. She was about to tell me that she didn’t want me to go I was sure of it. I opened my mouth to tell her that I needed to go and that she had to let me, but she spoke first.
“You can’t go alone,” she said, taking me by surprise. “I’m coming with you.”
I was taken aback. As long as I had known Jessica, I had never really seen her as the type to put herself in dangerous situations. But then, I thought back to the clumsy girl who nearly tumbled down a mountain just a few months earlier over a photograph during a camping trip that I suddenly dragged her along on with no explanation, in the middle of nowhere, and she went without a second thought.
I thought about how she always held my hand tightly, her nails digging into my palm, whenever we went through the haunted house at the Halloween fair every year; she hated going but she went anyway because she knew that it made me happy to go. I thought about how she stood up to Selena over spilled coffee on a new dress.
And I remembered that Jessica was a lot stronger than I had always thought; she wasn’t just my blonde friend who went to parties and wore pink. She was brilliant and brave, and she had always been by my side.
I looked over at Lori next, who stared at me with the same passion in her eyes. I knew that she would come, too. Lori had always been there for me; she always listened calmly when I needed someone to talk to, and she was always the calm voice of reason, but she never hesitated to stand up for her friends when she needed to. Sometimes she was crazy, and sometimes she said things that hurt people’s feelings, but that was because she never withheld the truth.
Then, I looked over at Matt. He was standing behind the two of them, his eyes fixed unwaveringly on me. I hadn’t known him for long, but already he had become a rock in our group. When I had met him, he had been an airheaded frat boy who only ever cracked jokes, but he had turned into a brave and strong leader. When we needed him the most, he took charge.
Finally, I looked back at Luke. All I could do was nod, and a smile spread across Luke’s face. With all of my friends by my side, I knew that Selena wouldn’t stand a chance against us. She may have been cunning and powerful, but she didn’t have what we had. She didn’t have anyone’s love.
