*Maddy*
Isaac’s uncle Ben walks a wide circle around the table in the library, its surface covered in old, dusty books. I roll my lower lip between my teeth as I glance from Ben to my mate, who is just as engrossed with the book in his hands as the one Ben is currently nose deep inside.
I don’t see Ben very often. He’s Isla’s younger brother, and his mate, Emery, is the Alpha of a pack called Obsidian Temple. Their pack territory borders the ancient territory of Moorn, and together, they border the mountains and magical veil that separate us from Eastonia.
It’s only fitting that he’s here now, helping us scour every book and tome in the library to try to find a solution to an incredible impossible problem.
“I have no idea what I’m even looking for, Isaac,” Ben sighs, shutting the book in his hands and setting it down on the ever growing pile.
“There has to be something. Anything…” Isaac runs his hands over his face and blinks into the midday sunlight streaming through the windows.
I sigh heavily and lean my head back against the armrest on the couch I’ve been lounging on all morning, wondering if I should call for lunch yet, but both men are totally enraptured by their journey through every slice of pack history and ancient lore they can get their hands on.
It’s been five days since Cassian went through that painting. Five excruciatingly long days.
“Did you try to… go through it? After the fact?” Ben asks again, for what feels like the hundredth time since Isaac showed him Ella’s studio and filled him in on the situation three days ago. Ben had been the first person Isaac called. He didn’t even tell his parents, not yet. Isla will be here soon. I’m not sure if she’s left Maatua yet, but boats are a lot faster these days than they were when she was younger. At least, that’s what she tells me.
Telling her in person about what happened felt better than trying to explain all of this over the phone.
“Obviously, I was not able to go through.” Isaac hisses through gritted teeth again as he shuts his book and rests his face in his hands.
“All we’ve got to go off are myths,” Ben says as he sits down on a stool at the far end of the table, crossing his legs in a very casual demeanor that makes him look twenty years younger than he is. Ben went to Wellington University around the time Isaac was born and graduated shortly thereafter. He married his mate and went to live in Obsidian Temple and worked as consultant for Maddox for twenty years before retiring when Isaac took the throne. He was still young then, though. He’s not even forty now. Isla has a lot of brothers, and he is the youngest.
Ben loves history, and knows more about our kind than anyone we know.
But even his passion has its limits.
“I honestly don’t believe any of it,” he says with a wave of his hand.
I frown at him from my perch on the couch. “What do you mean? Your sister can shoot light from her fingertips, and your brother-in-law carried around a magic diamond for weeks. Didn’t Isla once bring you back from the dead with her tears?”
“I don’t believe,” he sighs, giving me a patronizing look, “that the people of Eastonia are endlessly powerful and totally confined, like you’ve been made to believe.”
Isaac rests his chin on his fists and arches a brow at his uncle. “Go on.”
Ben taps his fingertips on the table, his eyes resting on the ceiling for a moment. “I have no real evidence to go by, of course. Everything from that time–during the Great War–is a legend. A story–stories–told by campfires and passed down through endless generations. It’s like a great game of Telephone.”
“Telephone?” I chuckle. “What’s that?”
Twenty minutes later, I know what the game Telephone is, but we’re no closer to finding a way to get Cassian and Hannah back.
“Do you not believe that the Goddess cursed Eastonia and walled them off from what she deemed as her sacred territory, then?” Isaac asks, sipping from the coffee that had been recently delivered by a maid.
“If we hadn’t gone to war this past summer and seen those… things, those warriors of mist, no, I wouldn’t have believed it. I don’t think this veil you speak of was dropped to keep whatever lurks on the other side of those mountains out of Crescent Falls, however. I think it was meant to keep something else locked inside.”
“Well, that’s ominous,” I remark, twisting my hair around my fingers. “What could it possibly be?”
“Something awful,” Isaac suggests, leaning back in his chair with renewed energy. “Something more powerful than the Goddess.”
“Something she wanted to get rid of,” Ben agrees. “Something she deemed unworthy.”
“But…” I trail off, sitting up a little to peer at them over the edge of the couch. “But aren’t we similar to the people of Eastonia? We’re all wolves, aren’t we?”
Ben taps his finger on one of the books. “This text mentions a variety of shifters and some beings with no shifting abilities whatsoever. Witches, but not like Isla. Isla’s powers came from the falls.”
“And my powers came from the Diamond,” Isaac says to himself. “But Ella… she was different.”
Was. She was different.
Isaac tends to talk about her in past tense if he brings her up, which is rarely, if ever. Even Cassian is mentioned in past tense, like Isaac doesn’t expect to see him ever again.
“The only thing I could find that mentioned anything remotely close to the powers you know about had to do with an ancient race of people that weren’t shifters whatsoever, and even then, they weren’t given a name. Wielding shields of fiery magic… creating portals…” Ben crosses his arms over his chest. “Isn’t being a wolf enough?”
Isaac gives him a look and rolls his eyes to me. “We’re going to be here for a while. You should go rest, if you want.”
“I’ve been resting here for hours,” I say with a smile, which seems to soften his expression a touch. “I’m fine, really.”
“I hate that I haven’t been able to help with this matter.”
“You have been somewhat helpful,” Isaac replies dryly. “In terms of convincing me this is fruitless, at least.”
Isaac wants to try to go through the painting upstairs. I know he has tried, actually, but for whatever reason, he’s unable to step through it. His power rebounds, keeping him firmly planted in place.
We told Ben all of this, of course. He continues to ask, as if the story might change.
“What if it has to do with the mate bond?” Ben suggests.
“Like, you can only cross the veil if your mate is on the other side?” I sit up a little straighter. Finally, something that makes sense.
“Yes, exactly. Cassian’s mate is over there, is she not? He had something to guide him through, to pull him through the veil. The mate bond is the greatest magic of all.” He shrugs, his eyes drifting to Isaac’s face. “It would explain why, despite using your powers, you were unable to pass through Ella’s painting. Your mate is here.”
“Or, her painting led him nowhere, and he’s stuck somewhere in between.”
“Then what do we do?” I cut in. Both men look at me, their faces drawn with stress and fatigue.
“There’s nothing to do,” Ben admits.
“Then Cassian is just… gone?” I ask, looking from Ben to Isaac. “We’re not going after him?”
“Maddy, we can’t,” Isaac says, and his voice is strained. “Not unless we know for sure how this works.”
“The only person who would know if he’s already on the other side of the veil–”
“Then we go to the falls on Maatua,” I argue, my voice pitching. “We heard her, Isaac. We heard Ella–”
“I’m not sure what we heard, Maddy.”
Ben looks between us, his brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
Isaac sighs and then explains what happened when we went to the falls. Ben listens intently but says nothing, his eyes locked on his nephew.
“I don’t know what to say,” Ben admits. “Did you tell your parents?”
“No,” Isaac says sharply.
“Why the hell not?” Ben snaps, his normally even temper slipping with each word. “Your mother–”
“I’m not dragging them into this–”
“They’re already in it, Isaac. All of us are. This is our family.”
“And it will remain a family matter, which is why–” Isaac stands, his eyes lined with dark circles, “which is why I will not be seeking a new Beta anytime soon. I need your help with that.”
I wrap my arms around the swell of my belly as I glance from man to man.
“What are you going to do?” Ben sighs, rubbing his eyes.
“I’ll say he’s been sent on a visit for the crown to the outlying territories, and the kingdoms that border us. Celestoria, Andrellia, so on and so forth.”
“You can only keep up that charade for so long.”
“I know.” Isaac growls, losing his patience. I hate seeing him like this. “It’s all we can do right now. The birth of the twins will overshadow any speculation and rumors about my Beta in the meantime.”
I find it momentarily hard to swallow. “Isaac?”
A warrior enters the library without knocking first, and all three of us turn to him. He’s pale, his eyes shadowed as he walks deeper into the room. “Alpha King,” he says quickly, bowing. “Luna–”
“What’s the meaning of this? You’re interrupting a meeting.” Isaac turns to the warrior, his eyes full of anger.
“You have a phone call.”
Isaac tilts his head, and I feel the air shift around us, full of electric energy. “Take a message,” he replies, practically growling the words.
“It’s your mother, Your Highness.”
Based on the look on his face, I can tell it’s an emergency. Isaac knows as well, I realize, because he hurries out of the library at a great rate of speed.
Ben helps me off the couch, and we race after him, but I’ve slowed down significantly in the last few days. I clutch my stomach as I steady myself on the wall in the hallway, huffing out a breath. “Ben…”
“Let me help you,” he says, wrapping an arm around my waist and guiding me down the hallway. We turn into Isaac’s office. The phone is pressed to his ear, but he lowers it to his desk and puts it on speaker.
“I had to call the castle when you didn’t answer,” Isla pants, her voice lifted in something I can only describe as shock. “Isaac–”
“Is it Dad? Did something happen on his way to KiloKilo for that fucking conference? I told him–”
“Your father is fine,” she breathes, but her voice trembles like she’s choking back a sob. “How quickly can you get here?”
“What?” Isaac says.
“You and Maddy need to come to Maatua right this instant. As quickly as you can. Please, Isaac.”
“What is wrong?” he presses, his voice edging on desperation.
“I–” Isla tapers off, and she lets out a strangled cry. “You have to come, Isaac. Please. It’s an emergency.”