by Sara Fields
I thought that he might be immortal. I’d never had the balls to ask.
“Have the gods given you a sign?” I replied anxiously.
“They’ve screamed for action every single day since you left the city gates in pursuit of your fated mate. Now that you’ve returned without her, I know that it’s time,” he whispered.
“The Second Great War,” I said softly.
“Yes. Many will suffer but a great deal more will live on without ever knowing the cruelty of the Cult,” he sneered.
“So be it. Tell me what you need me to do,” I declared.
The Ghost turned to me, the corners of his gaze lifting up in an expectant smile. His eyes sparkled with challenge and excitement.
“The plan has been put into motion several weeks ago when the gods first started whispering in my ear. I’ve reached out to the tribes of the wilds, to the cities at the edges of the world and our forces are beginning to gather. All I have to do is call for them, but that’s not the most important cog that I will put into motion. I have gathered much intel on the Cult, but I remain blind in a great many ways. I aim to change that,” he answered. He whistled twice in quick succession and the front door to my home opened.
A small woman walked inside. Her hair was so light blonde that it almost bordered on white. She was petite and I instinctually recognized that she was an omega. I could also identify the fact that she was an unclaimed one. She lifted her pretty blue eyes and walked over to the Ghost’s side, holding my gaze with the distinctive defiance that only omegas were capable of.
“This is Ariana. She’s going to infiltrate the Cult’s ranks and help destroy them from within. You see, much of the backbone of the Cult’s power relies on the sale of omegas to powerful alphas throughout the world. You and I both know the omegas they take are forced into pair bonds against their will,” he explained.
“I don’t understand what this has to do with Luna,” I interrupted.
“Your mate has a daughter, doesn’t she, Sage Vikar?” he questioned.
“She does,” I answered carefully.
“Tell me her name,” he responded.
“Esme,” I replied swiftly.
He sighed.
“That’s what I was afraid of. The Cult has big plans for the sale of a young omega that goes by that name. She has yet to come of age, but the Cult has already begun to spread rumors of the beautiful omega daughter that was born from the mating of a king and his omega. Thranar was known for his prowess in battle and they’ve allowed the knowledge of his death to fester. It would bring whoever bought her great prestige to lay claim to her womb so that they may breed strong and powerful warrior children of their own. Kings from far and wide are already beginning to bid on her though she is years away from sale. As such, she has been hidden somewhere in Ravenrath that aims to keep her safely in their clutches until it is time for the official auction to be held.”
I gritted my teeth.
“Their evil knows no bounds,” I snarled, having extreme difficulty containing my anger.
“We’re going to rescue Luna and stop them in their tracks. Ariana is going to help us do it,” the Ghost answered.
“Why her?” I asked.
“Ariana is a special omega,” he began.
I peered back at the tiny blonde ball of fire.
“Who are you exactly, Ariana?” I asked.
“I’m the Ghost’s daughter,” she answered.
For a long moment, I stopped and stared at her in silence.
“Are you ready to go to war, Ariana?” I asked her carefully.
Her eyes flashed.
“I am,” she answered. I met her eyes with mine and nodded once.
“Good. Because we’re going to tear them apart.”
Chapter Nine
Luna
The days passed by painfully slowly. The bond made my body ache with misery, the separation between Vikar and me weighing heavier on me the longer we were apart. He felt so far away, and I hoped that he would come for me soon. Every second that I was kept from him felt like a gradual journey to the brink of death.
I didn’t know how long I would be able to bear it.
The endless seconds ticked by. My tongue grew as dry as cotton and my lips cracked painfully. I thought I would likely die of thirst deep underground in this dank cell. Maybe my father had forgotten me. Maybe he wanted to send an even deeper message and had left me to die. I became so desperate for water that I began to lift my face toward the ceiling with an open mouth in hopes of catching the tiny droplets of water that had been dripping onto my forehead all along.
It wasn’t enough. I needed more.
Soon, I couldn’t feel anything at all. My body went numb, so deprived of food and water that it was beginning to shut down. I slept in those metal cuffs time and time again. It became too much effort to stand and eventually my legs stopped working entirely. Instead, I slumped forward and hung by my wrists.
If I ever made it out of here, I knew I’d carry the bruises for some time. For now, the metal hadn’t sliced through my skin yet, but I knew that it wouldn’t take much longer.
My father didn’t come back.
No one else did either.
I hated them all.
For what felt like forever, I slept. Eventually, the mad ravings of the man trapped in here became a part of my dreams no matter if my eyes were shut or not.
Reality no longer made any sense and I didn’t try to make it.
Just when I thought that I might be on the brink of death, the sound of a drumbeat rang out all around me. My world was obliterated in darkness and when a moment of brief clarity came over me, I recognized that my eyelids weren’t even open to see what was happening. With an inordinate amount of effort, I dragged them open and cried out softly as the dryness in my eyes caused a painful tingling sensation to probe deep into my skull. I tried blinking several times to moisten them and although they still ached, it seemed to help some. I had trouble focusing on her for several moments and the delayed realization that it wasn’t a drumbeat that I had heard washed over me. There was a woman standing in front of me. It was just her footsteps that I’d heard pounding against the stone. I furrowed my brow in confusion, trying to make sense of the sudden apparition before me. Was she a ghost? Was I already dead?
“Oh, Luna,” the voice whispered in horror. “I’ve never seen you this bad.”
It was definitely female. A finger pressed beneath my chin and I cried out, the sound more like a croak than anything else. I was so dehydrated that just her touch felt like sandpaper against my skin.
A glass rim was pressed to my lips, forcing me to lift my head even further. Cold liquid sloshed against my tongue and I instinctively began to drink. I gulped down one mouthful after the next until the cup was pulled away from me. I whimpered in desperation, wanting to finish every last drop.
“Slowly, Luna. If you drink that quickly, you might get sick,” she said firmly.
I licked my cracked lips and tried to calm myself, slowly realizing that the water had granted me a short respite from the constant pain, and I was grateful for it.
She’d brought a lantern with her. The fire flicked inside the glass, casting shadows on dark hole I was kept prisoner inside. I noticed a metal bowl in her hands, and she lifted it so that I could see it.
“I’ve brought you something to eat,” she said softly.
Maybe she was an angel, and this was all just a hallucination. Maybe none of this was real and she was just a figment of my imagination. Perhaps I was already dead.
I’d forgotten my hunger, but when the sound of the spoon scraped against the edge of the bowl, it returned with a furious intensity that felt like it was going to tear me in two. I cried out and doubled over, suffering noisily until the pain finally receded. I tried to lift myself back up, but I was too weak, and my kind visitor used her own strength to lift me back up onto my feet. I struggled to stand, and she finally wound an arm around my waist, helping me to kee
p myself balanced and upright. I softly murmured my thanks and she hushed me.
She fed me the first spoonful of broth and I moaned. I was sure that it was the blandest soup ever to grace a bowl, but at that moment, it was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted. I ate every last drop from that bowl, the warm liquid taking the edge off the mind-bending hunger that continued to rip at my insides.
For several minutes, I enjoyed the rare feeling of satiety before I gained a stronger footing and the woman was finally able to step away. She let me drink the rest of the glass of water shortly thereafter and in the soft light of the lantern, I finally got a good look at her.
Her dark hazel eyes looked at me with a certain sadness. Her face was smudged with dirt and her red hair was tied up tight in a braid and tucked beneath the wrap around her head. Strands of auburn hair framed her face, having escaped the confines of her braid long ago.
I recognized her.
Her name was Dyna.
A long time ago, I would have called her my friend, but I doubted that she remembered me. We’d grown up together, cloistered away from the masses. She’d been assigned as my maidservant but when I’d been given to Thranar, he’d demanded that she serve in the kitchens instead. I hadn’t been allowed to see her after that.
She reached for me, cupping her hand beneath my chin. She stood much taller than me and I had to lift my head up to meet her eyes. Her eyes were glassy, and she shook her head.
“It is such a shame to see you treated like this simply because you had the misfortune of being born an omega,” she whispered. Dyna wasn’t an omega like me. She was a beta, which meant she would never fall victim to the mating urges that held my kind captive to the alphas that claimed us. The Cult didn’t care for beta women. They weren’t as profitable as an omega was.
She used her fingers to turn my head, tracing the tips across the mark on my shoulder and she drew in a breath. “Thranar would have never claimed you like this,” she breathed nervously.
“He didn’t,” I answered, my voice cracking from misuse.
“Where is your alpha? Is he here?” she asked, her voice dropping with concern.
“I don’t know. He’s so far, it hurts to breathe,” I answered.
Her lips pursed in a tight circle and I thought I saw a flash of anger cross her face, but she hid it quickly and efficiently enough that I knew it was a practiced one.
“Is he a member of the Cult, Luna?” she asked. Her question was dangerous, and the deranged mutterings of my cell mate paused. The silence was ominous. I wondered if he was listening too.
“No,” I answered.
Her eyes flicked to mine. Her upper lip curled at the same time that her chest rose and fell with barely restrained emotion.
“Dyna?” I asked.
“You remember my name?” she asked.
“I would never forget you. I always considered you a friend, Dyna,” I answered, leaning against the cold stone at my back.
She looked back at me as if she didn’t believe me.
“Do you remember that day we were learning to swim in the river? How the betas all ganged up on me because I was smaller than all of them?” I asked her softly, feeling more like myself since I’d been able to eat and drink something for the first time in days.
“I remember,” she whispered.
“When Breena used the rest of the group to hide me and force me under the water, you were the only one that went against her. You pushed her away from me and stood up for me. After that day, no one ever teased me like that again,” I continued.
“Breena got what she deserved,” Dyna smiled.
“I’ve never forgotten you, Dyna. I was the one who asked that you be my maidservant. It was the one thing I was allowed growing up. I wanted to make sure you were taken care of because you had taken care of me,” I answered.
“But they told me you were unhappy with me. They told me that you wanted nothing to do with me,” she said, her shoulder shaking slightly with emotion.
“Those were the words of the Cult. Not mine. Thranar forbid me from keeping you as my servant once I was given to him. He wanted to make sure that I didn’t have anyone other than him. He didn’t give me a choice. I’m sorry,” I replied.
“And now look at what’s become of you,” she whispered, her voice shaking with emotion. “On your deathbed because another alpha had the audacity to claim you as his without permission from the Cult.”
She stared at me for a long moment and I watched the indecision play across her features.
“Your alpha, the one who claimed you, does he care for you? Will he protect you from them?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Tell me his name,” she guided gently.
“His name is Vikar and he’s nothing like Thranar,” I growled.
The madman stopped talking. I’d grown so used to the constant sound of his voice that the silence was so ominously overwhelming, and I turned my head, trying to see him in the darkness. I could see the outline of his form in the corner of the room rise and I blinked several times before the full shape of a man began to move toward me.
“Did you say Vikar?” he asked. His voice was suddenly far more stable than before. There wasn’t an ounce of delirium in his tone and as he moved closer, I could see his face. His beard was unkempt and disastrously unruly, but it was his eyes that captured my attention. They were a very light blue that almost bordered on silver. They reminded me of someone else. They reminded me of Vikar’s.
“Who are you?” I murmured.
“My name is Ivar. Vikar is my brother,” he replied gruffly. The clarity in his eyes was unnerving. I had written him off as a crazy inmate that had been down here in the darkness so long that he’d lost his mind. It was more than terrifying to come to the conclusion that it might have all just been an overly elaborate performance.
“Vikar is my alpha,” I replied, waiting for him to continue.
“So, you’re familiar with the Brotherhood I take it?” he pressed boldly.
“I am,” I replied, narrowing my eyes in his direction suspiciously. Could he be telling the truth or was this all a ruse to trick me into revealing what I knew to my father’s people?
Dyna cleared her throat.
“Ivar,” she said softly, her voice full of warning. I turned my gaze toward her, trying to discern if she knew him too.
“Dyna, you know what we have to do. The Ghost would expect us to return her to my brother, especially if he has been allowed to claim her as his,” Ivar continued, looking at Dyna with a sense of expectation that revealed that they both knew each other quite well.
“Wait,” I whispered. “Are you both members of the Brotherhood?”
Dyna’s eyes flicked to mine, her lips a tense line of anxiety. She didn’t answer, but she didn’t have to because her knowing gaze said it all.
“What branch of the Brotherhood does Vikar lead, Ivar?” she asked carefully.
I didn’t say anything at all because I wanted to know if he recognized the alpha that had claimed me as his, the one that I missed so much that it hurt my soul.
“Vikar is the Sage of Oslin. I served him for a long time until I was captured by the Cult. They never suspected my identity however because no one trusts the ravings of a madman,” he smirked. He moved even closer and I began to study the resemblance between the two men even more closely. His cheekbones were just as strong as my alpha’s. The ridge along his brother’s nose was identical and the way he lifted an eyebrow to wait for Dyna to answer was just the same as Vikar’s. I thought he appeared younger, but it was difficult to tell in the light of the dim lantern.
Dyna swallowed heavily.
“If she stays here, they will kill her,” she murmured quietly.
“I know. The Cult has no use for a bonded omega. To them, she is worthless, but to us and Vikar, she is everything,” he replied. His assessment of the Cult sounded cold, but I knew he was right. My father wouldn’t be able to sell me. A claimed om
ega was useless to the Cult and once my father found out what he wanted to know, I would be as good as dead. As far as I knew, he’d already decided to leave me here to die.
“We need to get her out of here,” Ivar pressed.
“They’ve taken my daughter. We can’t leave without her,” I sobbed.
Ivar said nothing. In silence, he reached up and gripped the chains that held me captive. He ran his fingers along the metal loops and finally cleared his throat.
“We will find her. Right now, though, we need to return you to your alpha. Then we will put every single resource that the Brotherhood has to offer into finding and rescuing your daughter,” he answered. “I promise you that.”
I stared at him for a long while.
“How long have you been here?” I asked.
“Two months,” he replied.
“Why are you here? What did you do to anger the Cult?” I continued, unable to quell my curiosity.
“I was placed here by the Ghost. He told me that the gods foretold the capture of a special omega, one that was destined to be the beginning of the end of the evil that has tarnished this world for centuries. The fates brought me here for you, Luna. The Ghost gave me a directive. I was directed to steal something at the right time in front of the right people. As punishment for my crimes, I was sentenced to years of imprisonment, but I’ve learned the layout down here since then, and have been looking for that fated omega ever since. The Cult never bound me as they did you because they underestimated me as a lunatic. When I saw them come with you, I wasn’t sure you were the one I was looking for until now. The moment you said my brother’s name, I knew,” he replied. “Now, all three of us are going to escape the clutches of the Cult. Together, as an alpha, a beta, and an omega.”
