25. Remy

Chapter twenty-five

Remy

Remy took a deep breath and then sat on the floor with her legs crossed. This was going to be a long story, and at this point, she felt it necessary to tell everyone in the room.

"The Dark Dimension is definitely in our kingdom. Having seen the black streaks of the dimension swimming in my brother’s eyes, and the fact that he even caught it inside of his chosen mate’s eyes, makes it clear that it has taken hold of some people in the kingdom. I don’t know how it picks who to take over; I just know that, once it does, it will make you lose control of yourself. In all my life, I know Kodi would never try to harm us. We are his family, and he always puts us above everyone else, but he tried to attack us multiple times now with the black that’s inside of his eyes, which is how the effect of the dark dimension starts before it completely takes over. My friend Kaida had multiple mates, but at first, she was only connected to one of them. Like Kodi, one of her mates had the dark dimension inside them. I can send her a letter asking how they overcame the dark dimensions. Until then, we will have to keep Kodi from getting angry. That seems to be the trigger."

Tala stepped over to Remy and put a hand on her shoulder. "Do you mean that we can lose Kodi to this dimension?"

"I’m not quite sure. No one on the island died while dealing with the Dark Dimension. I just know that it made people lose control of themselves when they were angry. There were many fights on the island, and several things, buildings included, were destroyed. I don’t know what would have happened if it wasn’t for Kaida and her magic. From what I could see, there most likely would have been a lot of blood and death."

"You mentioned that Morgana was a White witch. Does that have anything to do with why the dark dimension was able to take hold of her?" Kodi asked in a soft voice.

Remy shrugged. " Like I said, I don’t know. I am pretty sure every species was affected at one point or another, but it was mostly the Dragons on the island."

Kodi growled. "I don’t understand, then. She was a good person. If she was a White witch, she was a good person, even with her magic. How can something so dark take control of her?"

Lykos raised his hand. "I think what Remy is trying to say is that it does not matter what kind of person you are. This dimension can take hold of all people, anyone and everyone, and it all seems to be for a certain reason, though that reason is unknown. You said Kaida was taken before all of her mates were bonded?"

Remy nodded. "She was only mated to Beckett then."

"Could it be something along those lines? Someone who is not mated?" Lykos asked.

"I could ask Kaida, but unfortunately, I know nothing on my own. I haven’t heard from her since she became the Queen of the Dragons."

Kodi narrowed his eyes at her. "You are friends with the Dragon Queen?"

Remy rolled her eyes, "Why is everyone stuck on that? I am friends with someone of every species! The benefit of being on that island is that you can rub elbows with all kinds of people. I don’t care if they are different from me. I am friends with whoever treats me with respect. Those girls can wipe the floor with anyone I know and would put their lives on the line for me if the situation deemed necessary! So shut the fuck up about that small fact. We have bigger problems than that right now."

Tala laughed and squeezed Remy’s shoulder, "I am with Remy. Things are too up in the air right now with our kingdom to be worried about something so trivial. Remy, what else can we expect?"

Remy leaned her head back and groaned, "I have no damn clue. I wish I knew. This is getting to be so ridiculous. I have too much shit happening right now with myself!"

"Yeah, being mated to one person and rejected by another," Lykos said under his breath.

Remy growled. "Dad!"

"You were rejected by someone again?" Kodi asked with a hint of a growl in his voice.

She glared at him. "It was Myles who rejected me. Couldn’t handle the fact he would have to share."

Tala gasped. "What do you mean to share? What the hell happened on this trip of yours? You two go away for a little while, and you come home with the child I presumed was dead, tell me there is a Dark Dimension infecting people of our kingdom, and now that Remy has multiple mates?!"

Remy smiled at her mother, "Welcome to our world, Mom. It was just as ridiculous to us as it sounds."

Remy and Lykos launched into a play-by-play of their trip. Tala and Kodi listened intently and didn’t make a sound or try to ask questions. Remy felt her bond with Chase come alive, almost like he was near again. She wanted to leave the room to find him but didn’t want to bring any attention to it. Lykos did most of the talking, and Remy filled in the gaps when he left something out or if the situation happened to her. Kodi and Tala snarled when she got to the part about Myles and then Levi. It was difficult for her to get through the discussion between all the growls and muttering from her father about wanting to go back and kill Levi with his bare hands.

When they were done filling them in, Tala had to sit on the floor, too. Remy wasn’t sure what Tala was thinking, but Kodi was pacing in his cell. Remy started to clean underneath her nails as she waited for someone to say something about the information they were given. It was a lot, and Remy knew they would need to sort through their thoughts, but she was also growing bored. The bond between her and Chase was warm, making Remy want to figure out if he was on their property, so she could get her fix, or if she would need to travel to his territory. Then, her mother cleared her throat.

"First off, hearing of the dragons needing multiple mates was one thing. Your friend was a special breed, so she needed more mates than usual. Fine. I can understand that. But now I am wondering why you are having multiples."

Remy opened her mouth to say something, but her mother cut her off.

"I’m just saying. I know you are special as a Meta. The last one of your kind died out a couple of decades ago, but I don’t remember hearing about her having multiple mates, so I don’t know why you would. Second, do you mean to tell me Levi was the mate who took you away from us? That bastard was part of this, and none of us knew until now? How can that be?"

"Maybe I am more special than her." Tala looked at Remy. Remy laughed and continued. "The only thing I can think of with Levi is that he had a witch on his side."

Kodi growled. "It wasn’t Morgana."

Remy growled back, knowing Kodi would take it as a challenge, but she wanted his attention. He looked at her with fire in his eyes, but Remy didn’t budge. She kept her eyes on his, issuing a bit of a dominance battle, hoping hers would win out the mini battle and his Lycan recognized she was superior. The more Lycans that out-dominate Kodi right now, the better. That meant more people could keep his Lycan in check, and he wouldn’t be as much of a threat to the pack.

"None of us said it was Morgana, you twit. Not every time we bring up a witch will it be about yours. Knock your shit off and pay attention to what is happening here. If Levi managed to get a witch on his payroll, we would be a bigger problem than we can account for. It’s not like I can call up my witch friend and have an entire coven here to help protect us in the pack."

Kodi dropped his eyes first and growled at his admission of being less dominant than her. Through the pack bonds, she could feel the anger inside him was building, so she needed to change things up.

"None of us are saying that it was her. We are saying there are more witches inside this kingdom than we were led to believe. Somehow, they were able to come into our kingdom without us knowing. That’s a scary thought, and we need to protect ourselves. A Lycan may not be able to win that kind of a fight," Remy told him.

"Do you really think there are more witches inside the Kingdom than Morgana?" Tala asked Remy.

"I do, and I think it would be easy to imagine multiple witches being able to waltz through the forests and trees and into our territory undetected. That would explain how Levi had a Witch in his back pocket and Morgana getting into the kingdom in the first place. Each kingdom has its barriers to keep other species out. Somehow, one got in, and I’m sure they are why the dark dimension was opened here. However, magic is a fickle thing; if you know how to use it, someone well-versed enough could knock down a barrier. Then we have the one that Kodi was mated to as well. Two witches inside of this kingdom when there are normally none? That seems more than enough reason to believe that a coven, somehow, snuck in. They would have a manager who can manipulate the barriers to get inside. I’m wondering if a coven is working with one or two of the other packs, and that is how they got in. It would also explain Levi having a witch that could curse me and forget who he was."

Tala and Lykos nodded.

"So now, instead of just worrying about the packs that are falling back into the Old Ways, we need to worry about a coven hiding out inside the kingdom. Wonderful. As if we didn’t already have more than enough on our plates to handle right now," Lykos said sarcastically.

Kodi still paced inside his cell, " It would make some sense since Morgana has an altar ready to go. I remember her saying you needed to find the place to place an altar. Something about places of power so they could bring more power into their spells. I know she did not practice dark magic, but her healing spells and everything else she did were quite powerful. More than I would expect from a white witch who is normally less powerful than she was."

Remy thought about that. The altar was easy to find, considering she could feel the power and smell all the ingredients Morgana used for her spells. The witch never used any kind of magic inside the house, so Remy could not detect that a witch had lived among the pack. Even a White witch would leave traces of magic behind if she used spells inside the house. If she needed a place of power to increase her power, her spells were cast where the altar was built because something significant happened there and amplified the spells’ abilities.

"Do you know how she was able to build that altar? If she said she was looking for a place of power to build it, why was it that area she chose to build the altar?"

Kodi shook his head. " She never told me why it had to be that spot. It had already been built before I got involved. Maybe it was where a major battle happened because even death could power spells without them being dark magic spells."

Lykos looked at Kodi, "How do you know about this?"

"Morgana would answer any question I had. It was her way of building trust. She explained how her spells worked and how to increase their power without crossing the line into dark magic."

"Looks like that worked."

Lykos’s comment made Kodi throw himself against the cell and swiped out with his hands to grab hold of him. Lykos stepped back, so his attempt failed, but Remy was on her feet anyway. Kodi’s eyes were swimming with black, and his breathing was labored. She could smell his anger rolling off him in waves, and his power filled the room. Remy noticed that his swell of power was also trying to pull on the pack bonds to bring more into it. Without Kodi being an Alpha of the pack, he wouldn’t be able to pull on the pack entirely—those who felt the call to borrow power decided to give it to him freely. The pack bonds tightened up, and Remy felt the rest of the pack cut Kodi off, making his power stagnant in the air, and it wasn’t enough to make any of them in the room obey what he wanted.

"DO NOT SPEAK OF HER LIKE SHE MANIPULATED ME!" Kodi snarled, spit spewing from his mouth as he enunciated the words.

Lykos pulled on his own power, and the pack responded immediately. Remy did not fight it and allowed her father to borrow hers to make Kodi submit. Without the backing of his pack, which had not been added into the pack bonds yet to give Kodi time to heal and then be returned as the Alpha, Kodi dropped to his knees. She could see him fighting the urge to bare his neck to his father, so Remy pushed more power into her father so his Lycan would settle down.

"Enough!" Lykos boomed. "You will understand that we are unhappy that you chose to bond yourself to the witch! That is not our way, and you should have waited for your fated mate."

Remy growled and put herself between her father and Kodi, putting her back to Kodi, which wasn’t the best idea, but she would not tolerate that nonsense of the Old Ways from her father.

"Kodi is allowed to choose whoever HE wants to be his mate. That species shit has no place inside of this pack. We are supposed to be better than others to drown out those old laws. If you keep them inside this pack, I will leave with Kodi, and we will build up that pack instead! The Dark Dimension is fucking winning over our kingdom because of shit like this. ENOUGH ALREADY!"

Lykos’s nose flared at her, but Remy stood her ground. She also tried to keep her attention on Kodi behind her, but she needed to do this. If this were a trigger for Kodi, they would need to tread lightly. But she meant what she said. This pack did not have room for this kind of bigotry. After a few heartbeats, Lykos let his power decimate and then relaxed his posture. Remy took that as a win and turned toward Kodi.

"And you. Stop thinking every Witch comment we make is about Morgana. It isn’t. If there is a witch problem in our kingdom, we must deal with it. It’s one thing to have a coven of witches in this kingdom looking for work. It’s another to have them here causing problems for our kingdom."

Kodi kept his head bowed but nodded. Remy was pleased with herself and sighed now that that issue was over.

"What can we do about this coven that must be here? I know that so many of the packs are reverting to the Old Ways, so we can’t reach out to them like we normally would. Is there another way we can go about this so we can find this coven and put an end to this madness?"

Tala looked at her. "I’m not even sure what packs would be open to speaking with us and which ones wouldn’t. I know you made two alliances while away, but that isn’t enough. There are at least thirty packs inside the kingdom. Some are smaller than the majority, but we are only aligned with three of them right now."

Remy groaned. "That’s not good. That is not going to be enough at this point. We need to have every able and willing pack looking for either the rift that is allowing the dark dimension to spill inside of our kingdom, or we need people looking for the coven that caused it to exist in our kingdom in the first place. We will deal with more bloodshed than necessary if we do not find at least one or the other."

Kodi moved to the back of the cell and kept his knees to his chest to rest his head. Remy watched him to see what he planned on doing next. With him being the wild card, she didn’t want to take her eyes off him as he was the person who would have asked these things. He brought rogues to him and made a pack with those who tended to be nomads and traveled through the kingdom. If anyone knew about the possibility of where to look, it would be him.

"Kodi, have any of the rogues mentioned seeing the rift or maybe bumped into witches during their travels to your part of the kingdom?"

He shook his head but kept it bowed. "I never heard them speak of such things. Sometimes, they spoke more about what was happening to Morgana because she was the Luna of the pack. She had a way with people, and they would open up to her without much prompting. If anyone would have known, it would have been her."

"And we can’t ask her because she is dead. Great." Kodi growled, but Remy ignored it and said, “We need to send letters to the rest of the packs and ask them. That is at least a place to start."

Lykos nodded, "I have all the addresses in my office. I can get to work on that."

"I will send a letter to Kaida, asking her for advice on how to beat this. Maybe she can even fly here once we find this rift and close the damn thing. Who knows, maybe she is already working with Adrien for a potion people can drink, and it will expel the dimension out of whoever it controls."

Lykos patted her shoulder. "I wouldn’t hold your breath, sweetheart. But I will shower, get some food, and start on those letters."

Lykos walked up the stairs and out of sight. Tala walked over, hugged Remy, told her she was glad to see her home again, and started to follow her mate. When Tala’s footsteps were in the middle of the stairway, Remy heard her stop.

"And don’t think you are off the hook from telling me more details about this Chase and Myles, or even about things with Levi. I want to know everything, and you will spill the beans. I will even make brownies to persuade you if I have to."

Remy groaned but knew she was beat regarding the brownies. "Fine! You better make the damn brownies then because I do not want to talk about this, and I will only do it for the brownies."

Tala continued up the stairs. Remy was alone with Kodi who was still in the back of the cell, not moving or looking up at her.

"We will figure this out, bro. I know whatever I did at least got you to where you can think for yourself. I will find a way to make it so it is entirely out of you."

Kodi didn’t look up, "I’ll believe that when I see it. I have been dealing with this for months. It wasn’t until you pointed it out to be something more than me mourning my mate to know it was something more dire. If there is no cure, I will have someone end my life so I don’t put this pack in any more danger."

Remy was taken aback by his bluntness. She knew he was struggling, but not like this.

I need to find a cure. Now.