21. Diana

Diana

T he black willows swayed all around me, the soft rustling of the dark leaves, the long tendrils reaching for me, tugging me further and further into their midst.

I lifted a hand and ran it down the length of one of the slender branches. “Am I really here?”

There was no answer from the trees, not that I expected one.

I slowly put my hand to my chest, remembering the shard.

The decision to take it in, the sharp pain that had exploded in my chest.

The sandstorm I’d stopped and then…here. Nothing between the haboob and this place that I could not possibly be in unless I was dead.

Was I dead? Too many questions, and no one to help me answer them.

I pressed my fingers to where the shard had pierced me. Only now I felt it in all my bones, as if it had spread out.

I am a part of you now, my power is yours. The earth will bend to your will, Diana.

I shuddered as the voice of the shard seemed to come from the trees around me. “You…you are a piece of the Veil connected to the earth?”

We are.

“Am I dying?”

Yes.

I went to my knees there in the grove of willows, where we wept for our dead. A construct of my mind, perhaps, but it was a place of grieving, and I let the tears fall.

Here, where there was no one to see my fear and trepidation, I cried for all that could have been, and all that would never be. For never being able to say goodbye to those I loved, to never see Raven again…

“How…long?” I whispered the question, not really sure I would even get an answer.

“That depends, daughter.”

I shot to my feet at the sound of his voice, flinging myself in his direction and letting him catch me before I even fully saw him. “Father.”

Lycan’s arms were strong and firm around me, holding me up as if I were a child again. For long minutes he held me, then finally he spoke again.

“Diana, let me see you.”

He held me out at an arm’s length and peered into my eyes. “Yes, I see the difference now. The power within you is more than you have ever known. More than that of a vampire’s speed and strength. More than the grit and fire of a werewolf.” He smiled. “Walk with me.”

He tucked my hand into the crook of his arm and drew me away from the black willows, past the graves of those we’d lost. And then, in a blink, we were in a different part of the territories.

A beach I saw in my nightmares. The beach where Edmund had tried to drown me. In the distance I could see the castle where I’d been born, half-vampire, half-human.

“Why did you bring me here?”

“This is your past, Diana. And it plays a role in all this, just as your present as the Werewolf Queen plays a role.”

“And my future?”

He stared out at the waves as they crashed across the rocks. “The shard is your future.”

We stood there, and I almost didn’t want to ask him the question, because I felt like it would shorten my time with him. Time that I wouldn’t give up for anything.

I turned him to face me. “Do you understand what is happening, Lycan? Do you know what we must do? Are there others who carry pieces of the Veil too, is it that simple?”

He slowly shook his head. “I think that you must speak to the shard, it is…living…sentient, even if it does not exist the way we would understand something to exist.”

I tightened my hold on him. “You will stay with me?” I didn’t care if I sounded like a child afraid of the dark. I wanted my father at my side for as long as I could have him.

His smile was gentle as he patted one of my cheeks. “Yes, I will stay with you.”

Once more, I let him lead the way, and we were walking across the rocks. I glanced to the beach where I’d nearly died.

A figure stood on the beach, a little boy with dark hair. He looked over his shoulder at me.

“Who is that?”

“You don’t know?”

I stared. The boy was too far away to make out anything but his dark hair and diminutive frame. He was young. Skinny, the way so many little boys were.

“No.”

“That is your mate, Diana. He loved you from the moment he saw you. He fought for you then, knowing he’d die if he were caught.”

My heart lurched. Raven had told me that a boy had been killed, a boy that had saved me from Edmund, but it had cost him his life.

“Why show me this?”

“I am not. This is…this is the shard showing you things it believes you need to see.”

I didn’t understand how seeing a future that could never be, was of any help. Maybe if I was going to die, at least I would know the identity of my true mate?

And then what of Raven? Pain roared through my chest as if I’d been pierced by the shard a second time. Once I was gone, he would move on; I knew he would. He was not a man who would live a life without the comfort of a woman, no matter how many pretty words he gave me. But then the idea of him with another was…gut wrenching.

But that was a wolf for you, once they decided they loved someone, that was it.

My feet stilled, as if I’d been frozen to the spot.

Loved. Is that what this was? Did I love him?

No, that…that couldn’t be. Could it?

“Diana?”

“I’m coming,” I whispered, and did all I could to push Raven from my mind.

Lycan took a step, and I moved with him, blinking as the world shifted around us again.

We were no longer in the Alpha Territories.

Huge standing stones rose around us in the dark of a black night, with nothing to light our way except the distant flickers of stars.

“Stonehenge,” I whispered. Even to those of us in the Alpha Territories, ones who’d never stepped out of our realm, we knew of this place. Of the innate power within it. No one had understood the role it played though, that it literally kept the Veil between the human realms and us intact.

Lycan gave me a gentle push, toward the center of the structures.

I took a step, then another and another as the stones around me began to shift and move. The missing stones of the circle reappeared, until the broken structure was once more fully intact.

And I stood in the middle of it. Slowly turning, I faced the entrance to the holy ground. There were no footsteps, and yet I felt a presence drawing near.

The energy was strong, warm, and it drew me toward it. I took one step, and the ground softened, pulling me to my knees.

A glowing light spun slowly into existence, a deep green threaded with gold and copper. It flickered and held steady at my eye level.

You came.

“I…did. Are you the shard?”

As best I can show myself to you, yes. You are the shard now. We are the shard.

This was my chance to ask the questions, to get the knowledge we needed to stop Lilis.

“Can we save the world, all the realms?”

Possibly. There is much that stands between us and victory over the goddess. Death. Life. Joy. Pain.

“Can you tell me how to stop her? If I live, I will face it all to save those I love.”

Warmth flooded from the floating orb, gathering around me like a massive warm blanket.

I knew I chose wisely. I waited a long time for you to arrive, Diana of three worlds. Human. Vampire. Wolf.

My heart was beating faster, the longer we spoke. I clutched my arms around my middle. “Please, tell me.”

You already know. You must find the other pieces of me. They went to those I chose to help protect the realms from Lilis.

“Like Sienna.”

Yes, like the one who holds the first piece of me. You carry the second.

I swallowed hard. “And if I were to say there were three pieces, is that all?”

More than three.

“Four pieces?”

A pause, the gold within the orb flashed and I could tell—I don’t know how, but I knew—that the shard was considering the question deeply.

More than four.

I swallowed hard and took a leap as my mind told me that I already knew the number. “Less than six?”

Once more the orb flashed and danced. Again, I felt the understanding in me. The orb that embodied the spirit of the shard could not give me a straight answer.

Less than six.

Five. There were five shards all together. So we had three more keys to find. Girls that had all been at the same point as Sienna? All there at Stonehenge?

And were the others where they were originally placed, or had there been other situations like Opal and Jade, where the shard had to move in order to survive?

“You’re killing me, aren’t you?” The question popped out of me before I could catch it.

That’s not my intention. I am trying to bond with you.

Not really an answer, but it wasn’t malicious. I sighed, my chin dropping to my chest. “And will you find another to take you if I cannot bear it?”

There is no other who can carry me, I am too strong. You are the one, Diana. I contained myself all these years to protect Jade. You must find a way to live. You must connect with me and find a way to wield my power, or all the realms will fall.

“No pressure at all,” I whispered. “Maybe you could tell me where to start?”

How could I save myself when I wasn’t even conscious?

The orb spun and the colors began to fade. No, not fade. They were shooting toward me one at a time, sinking into my skin. Again, I felt the strength of the shard. The biggest piece, this was the biggest piece of the Veil. I knew it as surely as I knew myself. And that was why it struggled so much, why Opal had died. Too much power hummed through it, I could sense it, even now, threatening to overtake me completely. There was no way for me to wield something like this…no way anyone could…

Slowly the interior of Stonehenge went dark.

Lycan stepped into the doorway. “Did you gain the answers you need?”

“Not all. I don’t…I am not ready to die yet, father. Even if it means being with you, it’s not my time. I have too much left undone. But if I don’t find a way to connect with the shard…”

He gave a low hum under his breath. “Walk with me, Diana. Perhaps we will find the answer together.”

I stepped and reached to take his hand, only he wasn’t there. I tumbled forward, over the edge of a cliff. Screaming, I clawed at the rocky edges and managed to stop my free fall. “Father!”

“Diana!” he called from far away, somewhere below me. I tried to twist and see but the distance to the bottom was hidden beneath a layer of fog that I couldn’t see through.

Clutching the rocks, I began to pull myself up, fighting to get to the top. But every time I reached up, I lost ground.

Slid further down.

A new voice spoke softly. “There will be a choice to come, Diana. That is the answer to all your questions. A choice only you can make.”

I stared up into Nefir’s face, his blond hair swept up into a strange beehive hairdo that did not suit him. “What are you doing here?”

“I was sent to tell you that a choice must be made.” He shrugged. “That’s all I know.”

I blinked and he was gone. What kind of non-answer was that?

But I couldn’t worry about it now as I clung to that rock face, my father calling below, his voice frantic.

“Hold on!”

I sobbed into my upper arm. “Father!”

“Diana!” Raven bellowed my name, and it cut through the panic and fear.

I gasped. “Raven! I’m here. Down the cliff.”

“Diana! I need you to reach for me. Come on, Frostbite, reach for me!”

If I let go of the cliff, I’d fall. I didn’t know if I could die here, I didn’t know where here was, and I wasn’t willing to risk the world because this might be a dream.

Every muscle protesting, I tried once more to climb to the top. But the rocks just kept sliding away, shoving me right back to the place I’d started. Sobbing in frustration, I leaned my head against the cliff face. “Raven, please…I can’t…I’m afraid….”

“Frostbite, I need you to trust me. I need you to…take that leap. I’ll catch you, I promise.”

Tears streaked my cheeks, my back muscles were starting to spasm, and I knew I didn’t have long before the choice would be taken from me. I would fall, because I couldn’t move.

But to leap for the top, when I couldn’t even see him? It was insanity.

“Raven…” Did I trust him enough to reach blindly, to push once more for the top and leap for a hand that I couldn’t see?

In all our time together, he’d not lied to me. He’d not failed me no matter the task that had been laid at our feet. A burning certainty rolled through me. I could trust him, of all the people in my life, Raven was the one I could trust above all.

“Ok, I’m going to jump. And you’d better fucking catch me!” I scrambled hard for the top, clawing and fighting for purchase, even as I felt myself begin to slide. I dug in with my toes and pushed off, leaping for the top of the cliff, both hands outstretched. Letting go completely.

For a moment, I thought…I thought I was going to fall.

I screamed his name, one last desperate plea. “Raven!”

Unseen hands wrapped around my wrists and yanked me up and away from danger. Away from Lycan.

My eyes flew open, and I sat up, gasping. Blankets pooled around my waist, the bed sunk under me in a familiar way, the smell of my Keep wrapping around me in a flash. Was this real or just another dream?

It wasn’t until I heard Kevin’s low whine, felt the moisture of his nose as he nuzzled my face that I knew the truth. I was home. And I was alive.

For now.

Shaking, sweat still coursing down the sides of my face and neck, I turned to see a physician staring at me open mouthed. “Your Highness!”

“Where is everyone?”

He shook his head. “You cannot go to them, you have been unconscious for days, my queen…”

I stood and pointed at him. “Tell me now. Where is Raven?”

He dipped his head toward me. “He is with all the others.”

“I know you’re stalling.” I grabbed a pair of pants from the closet and began to yank them on. “What’s going on?”

“They are down at the shoreline, my queen.”

That didn’t seem so bad, only my gut told me he wouldn’t be holding out if it was a joyful occasion. “Spit it out.”

“I cannot…I promised I wouldn’t and that vampire…he…I won’t cross him.”

Fucking Raven.

My lips quirked. “Fine. I can look out the window myself.”

I should have been weak, should have been exhausted from being out cold for days and yet I felt like I’d had a shot of energy, as if I were ready to take on the world.

I flung the window open and stared at the shoreline. Saw my people, saw a contingent of the vampire army, my brother Dominic at its head, Raven beside him.

And in our harbor, in the skies above the water…

I could barely take it in. The king of the demons, and his entire army were here, and I doubted it was for a political visit. If there was any question that Malach was being controlled by Lilis, his bellow erased them.

“You will give me your queen, or I will destroy you all!”