Caoimhe POV:
My body sunk deeper into the black abyss as the claws of those who have long since been forgotten clawed at my arms and legs and tugged attempting to drag me into the underworld with them, their grip was as cold as ice as their void existence passed through me as they craved life. All they had known since the beginning of time was the empty depths of the afterlife where nothing awaited for them, they were damned souls who were cursed to suffer for eternity, this was their prison and I had somehow found myself within it.
I slowly shifted my head and glanced down at the suffered souls from under me and glanced into their hollow eyes, they had been void of light for so long they no longer remembered who they once had been or why they were sent to rot in this unmentionable place. A shiver travelled up my spine as their bony fingers pressed against my delicate olive skin, the longer I was exposed to them the more vulnerable I became. Time seemed to trickle by slowly as everything moved in slow motion and yet I couldn't seem to form coherent thoughts within my mind. I held out my hand and touched the face of one of the damned causing the soul to look at me for a moment as her once featureless face seemed to ignite from under my touch, there was a dim light within her that was suddenly calling out to me now as her once hollow eyes looked up at.
She was a creature from a long and forgotten race, a species who had resided within this land long before the werewolves took it over, they had been gifted with an immortal life by the goddess Amara and yet the werewolves took advantage of that gift by breeding with the creatures, it was how they acquired their expanded lifespan. The young woman's appearance seemed to soften as a faint glow surrounded her body causing those from around her to shift away as the light bothered them.
Some souls deserve to see the light, I thought to myself.
My body slowly floated downwards and shifted until I was now floating before the illuminated soul with my feet dangling from under me as my body was weightless within this place. The souls of the damned surrounded us in a tight circle as their numbers were unlimited, they clung to each other like cancer, cancer that was striving to thrive off anything that it could land on, they were all tainted with souls as black as coal, there was no saving them as there was nothing left to save. I grimaced at the lifeless clump of souls as their lifeless eyes seemed to shift from body to body as if they were one shared existence, the dead air from around us grew cold as I knew I had lingered in this place for a moment too long.
A sigh escaped my lips as I closed my eyes as something within me was begging to be released.
Come find me, I called out as I reached my hand into the chest of the woman as her once formless body took shape from before me.
I shoved my palm forward and through her chest causing the soul to scream aloud from pain as everything she had once known came crashing back on her, she didn’t belong in a cold and ominous place such as this especially since her soul had remained untainted for so long. I propelled her body forward as she was consumed by an irrevocably blinding light; she would never again see the pits of hell as I had just sent her to the one place where she truly belonged.
Mara, I thought as my gaze remained on the spot where she had vanished from.
Darkness soon took over once again as the damned souls from around me began to shift as their forms steadily grew closer, I wouldn’t be able to escape their grasps this time as I had just used up a good portion of my energy sending the innocent soul away.
He will come, I thought to myself as my claimed wolf's mark on my neck began to burn.
He’s here, the thought passed through me just as a blinding light appeared from above me.
The form of a massive blue and black wolf emerged from the other side. He appeared weightless as blue flames arose from his massive paws; he took a step forwards revealing his blackened snout as he bore his canines at the pale shifting forms from around me. A snarl erupted from the bowls of his chest as saliva poured from his sharpened canines and dripped down into the bleak nothingness, he was an unparalleled creature who had only been bested once before in his lifetime, a magnificent beast soughed after and hunted down until his fresh blood coated the ground where my body now rested while the presence of my mate retreated to an unknown force that was steadily approaching him and his small pack.
I have been waiting for you my entire life; the words of the beast spoke within my mind as if we were soul bound.
Conri, I replied with a hinted smile as I reached out for the wolf who now stood before me.
I raked my fingers through the beast's delicate onyx fur and revelled in the warmth that radiated from his thick coat, he was incredibly strong with his muscles flexing from under my palm as I stroked his fur from his head down to the centre of his back. There had been a lime, long age, in a forgotten past when my soul had cried out for this man begging for him to save me from the depths of the black sea, a place that had been both my home and my prison since I was thrown into it as a newborn infant. He was the first incarnation that was meant to be my soul mate, he was a scarred creature with a once unfinished destiny that had been cut short by the very man who had given me life, a man who had been this wolfs grandfather.
The missing half of Odin’s soul, I thought to myself just as I lifted my leg up and over the beasts back as he lowered his body weight to allow me to climb on.
Mate, Conri’s wolf said approvingly as he nodded to himself the moment I was safely secured on his back.
The beast sprung forward and towards the blinding light just as the dead souls converged on us, I glanced down with Conri’s soft fur brushing against my cheek as I watched the dead as they struggled to climb over each other to reach us just as we disappeared into the light. It was a place where their dead souls yearned to go and yet they were all there for a reason, not even death can save a corrupt soul.