Chapter Thirty-Nine

"Why hasn't Ayden shifted back?" Sasha asked as she looked between Baer and me. Baer had shifted back just before she had touched the door and she had looked at me, expecting the same.

"Morus cursed him," Aurora answered before I could explain it myself.

Sasha's eyes narrowed as she patted my head. "There it is. That son of a- I can't break it. It's set too deep."

"There's only going to be one way to end the spell, Sasha," Baer said. "And it starts with going through that door."

I stood at Sasha's side as she swung open the door where Morus had disappeared. He hadn't gone far into the castle. I could still feel traces of his magic, even now.

He was cocky. It was obvious in the way he had disappeared. It wasn't that he was running from us. We had just irritated him and his plans.

I looked to Sasha, the touch of her hand in my fur grounded me and my wolf, as if the dark magic that Morus had cursed us with, was at ease to her command. Just as she had controlled Morus's own magic that was thrown at her.

She still had slightly darkened veins from the magic inside her. A magic that would now always be a part of her. Then again, according to what Morus had said as he filled her with the dark magic, it had always been there. A shadow of the power she had now.

She could control it, however. Unlike the thousands of witches in the past who have fallen into darkness. More than one of my ancestors who wields its darkness, but they didn't control the magic. The magic controlled them.

Even Alkmene, who, though she still held her loyalty for her family, was ultimately under the thumb of the darkness inside her. I wondered what would happen to those witches if we managed to destroy the creator of the magic that fueled their life span.

‘Don't worry about that,'a voice rang in my head. I jerked from side to side. I had never heard that voice before, and yet it was familiar to me. ‘You must work as a pack to fight him. Shadows hide from the light, but even the moon's glow can disperse them. Use your bloodlines together and end the darkness once and for all.'

"Ayden?" Sasha whispered; her hand paused on my head. "Are you alright?"

I gave a nod to her but focused on the voice in my head. ‘How? His curse cut me off from my magic. I can't reach into my bloodline.'

‘His curse has already pulled back thanks to your mate, but your bloodline is not only witches. Your father's magic is not restrained by the curse. It is a part of your wolf and uncaged. Use all of your bloodlines. Moon, Sun, Earth, and the very shadows from which he hides.'

I could feel the presence in my mind pull back. My gaze moved to Sasha and the others.

‘Moon, Sun, Earth, and Shadows,'I repeated to myself as I looked at each of them in turn.

Sasha looked at me and tilted her head, the corridor coming to an end as we reached another single door.

‘I know how to end this once and for all,'I sent to her through the bond. ‘Tell the others to follow my lead.'

She paused only a moment before she nodded and turned to Aurora and Baer.

"Ayden has a plan. Follow his lead. I can feel Morus just beyond this door."

"Right," Baer nodded as his clawed hands glowed with his magic. "We got this."

Sasha opened the door and let me take the lead this time. I reached for my magic like the voice had said to and found it within my grasp. The tingles of power caressed me in greeting, happy to be freed of the spell that Morus had cast over me.

On the other side of the door was a grassy courtyard with a waist high hedge maze at the center. I could see Morus at the center of the maze, his back to us as he stared at a statue of a goddess.

"Well, I will give you this," he said without looking back. "You are a persistent bunch. I think I'll have Minerva be sure the next batch of you hybrids aren't so self-assured. Maybe we will take them as babies and raise them ourselves instead of within their packs and covens like you four were. Clearly, it would have been more in our favor."

I growled at the mere idea of him kidnapping infants. His disregard for our lives is clear. We weren't living beings to him. We were merely tools to whatever end he had in mind.

"I think the next marked one will be raised completely separate from the others," he continued. "Raise her to be the bride that Sasha was meant to be. It had crossed my mind to have Minerva take you the moment you were born, Sasha Darling, but I felt that you'd thrive better amongst your peers." He finally looked back at us all, his gaze barely glancing over at the rest of us as he pierced my mate with his shadowy eyes. "A moment of weakness and a mistake I will never make again."

I growled, then noticed Aurora and Baer circling around the maze as Morus focused on Sasha. He barely noticed them move. Didn't seem to care much at all, as if he didn't find us worth his time at all.

‘Use that to your advantage, Ayden,'the voice returned. ‘He doesn't realize how special the four of you are. He only sees the value in your mate. She is the key to distracting him.'

I looked at Sasha as she stared back at Morus with venom in her eyes.

‘Keep his attention, Sasha,'I sent to her, assured that our link was guarded from Morus's notice. ‘Tell the others to watch for my signal. Then, we each call on the element of magic that calls to us the most.'

She darted her eyes to me for only a moment before she sent her message of confirmation through the link. I watched as she stepped forward towards the maze entrance, taking Morus's full attention once again.

"You really think you can handle another me? You really believe that you could have raised me differently than my parents?" She laughed. "My parents couldn't control me, and I loved them with all my heart. I have a mind of my own. I always have. You wouldn't have fared any better with your twisted mind control than you did today."

Morus laughed in response, his dark magic twisting up his body from the ground as he prepared for Sasha's attack. "I think you underestimate me, Darling. I'm not one of those little hybrid boys you're so used to. I am a god. And you are a mortal gifted with god given gifts, but no true power to back them up."

I looked over to see Aurora directly behind Morus now. Baer stood to her right, directly to the left of Morus, as he continued to mock Sasha in front of him. I took my own position to Morus's right and dug my claws into the dirt to feel the connection to the magic there.

A pull from the sky drew my gaze up, the moon shining directly down on the courtyard above us with the distant rays of an early dawn approaching.

‘Shadows still hide from the glow of the moon's light,'the voice repeated in my mind.

I nodded then, understanding exactly what it was that I had to do. I looked around at the other three, all waiting for my signal, each with a determined look in their eyes.

I let out a deep howl as my body syphoned its power directly from the moon's light. With a sharp bark, I sent a perfect sphere of that light directly at Morus.

The others sent their own magic at the same moment, four perfect spheres for the four elements of magic aimed directly for Morus. Sun light from Aurora, green light of pure life force from Baer, and the darkest of shadows from Sasha.

Morus's eyes widened as he tried to throw up his shadow shield, but our powers blew through his defenses. Each orb hit their mark, and sparks of colors shot out from his body.

We all stood in place as we watched with shock and awe as Morus's body twisted and screamed in pain. The light of the moon and sun ate away at his shadows as the pure earthly life force seemed to syphon his very life essence from him. Sasha's shadows consumed him while his own shadows merged with hers and consumed him from within.

The look of shock on his face was the last thing we saw of him. His body was gone with a wisp of smoke as each of our powers dispersed. None of us made a sound as we stared, not until my body suddenly jerked and contorted.

The shift back to my human form wasn't as painful as the forced shift into the wolf had been. I groaned only when my bones snapped back into place, my mind still fuzzy from the threat of turning feral.

Sasha and the others ran to my side, her arms wrapping around me as she let out a sob of relief.

"Thank the gods! I wasn't sure that killing him would work!" She cried out.

"Well, it's a good thing it did," I laughed, wincing at yet another pop of a joint returning to its place. "I don't think either of us would have enjoyed giving me a flea bath. Ow!"

Sasha punched me in my shoulder, an amused smile curving her lips.

We had all let our guards down. Relieved at the thought that the battle was over. We vanquished the darkness, and we were all still here to tell the tale.

Until the scent of dark magic choked our lungs.

"You!" Minerva snarled as she stepped out of the doorway. "How dare you! Do you have any idea what you have done! Centuries of planning! Millenia of searching and dedicating my life to bring him back to his rightful place! And you four destroyed it all! He was the god of gods! The creator of the most powerful magic! You will pay!"

She rose her hand with a large orb of magic in her palm, her eyes set on Sasha as she let out a scream of anger with the magic.

I grabbed my mate and threw her behind my back, ready to take the hit and give the others time to fight back. But a large body leaped in front of us all and the orb of magic collided into his chest.

"Baer!" Aurora screamed, falling to her knees at his side as he fell to the ground.

I stared at my friend in horror. My rage turned to the witch who caused this. Ready to rip her throat out for what she had done.

Instead, I found her crumbling to the ground. Flecks of her face had turned to ash. Each piece fell and drifted in a wind that had not been here before. Her eyes turned into pure darkness, and the light inside them faded as more and more of her body transformed into gray ash carried by the wind, until nothing remained of the witch. Not even the gown she wore.

"Minerva?" another voice gasped as the vampire stepped out into the garden and watched the last of his mate drift away in the wind. "No, why?"

I braced myself for an attack. I was sure that her mate would feel that we were the cause of her demise and exact his revenge. Instead, he fell to his knees and stared up at the sky.

"Why did you do it, Minerva? You swore to me. You promised you would never sacrifice us for him." He whispered, a tear running down his cheek.

"Baer!" Aurora screamed again. I pulled my eyes away from the vampire, certain that he was no threat, and dropped to my knees beside Sasha and she tried to pull Aurora from Baer's still body.

"No! No! He's not! He's not gone. He wouldn't leave me! No! Baer! Come back!" She cried as her fists hit his chest.

Sasha tried again to pull her back, whispering to her words of comfort that did very little to comfort the grieving woman.

I turned to look at Baer's face, the color of skin already paling and turning cold. I shook my head in my own denial, hoping and praying that he would just open his eyes. That he would crack a smile and tell us all he couldn't believe we all fell for his trick.

But he didn't. His face remained still, his eyes closed and skin cold to the touch. My friend was gone.

Silent tears fell from my eyes, my hand gently tracing circles on Sasha's back as she hugged Aurora to her chest. Our celebration of victory had come to a tragic end. The joy of the quest's end now gone.

"Calm yourselves," an unfamiliar voice whispered. I looked up as I recognized the voice from before. My eyes widened as I looked up at a familiar face of a woman I had not ever met myself.

"Alkmene!" I gasped as the dark witch approached us with two others at her side.

"You all did well," she said cheerfully. "And all good deeds should come with an equal reward. Wouldn't you agree sisters?"

The other two smiled and nodded their heads. "Of course, Sister," the fiery-haired witch to her right said. "After all, we do owe them a great deal."

The third of the sisters stepped forward and kneeled beside Baer, her soft brown waves drifting over her shoulder as she reached a pale hand towards him.

A green glow washed over his body as we all watched on with equal amounts of awe and confusion. Baer's chest began to rise and fall, the color of his face returning to a glow of life as his eyes finally drifted open, and he stared up at the sky.

"What happened?" he asked, his voice hoarse.

Aurora collapsed over his chest and cried tears of joy as she pressed her lips to his over and over. I pulled Sasha into my own arms and smiled at the show of affection from the mate pair as the three dark witches watched on with smiles.

I looked back at Alkmene as her skin glowed like the light of the moon. She smiled at me and raised her hand. With a flick of her wrist, a portal appeared and a familiar bird swooped through and landed on my shoulder.

"Sheka?" I gasped as my father's bird began to peck at my check affectionately.

"He's been looking for you ever since you left. Smart bird. He knew exactly where to wait for you," Alkmene said with a smile. "You all no longer belong in this realm. It is time for you to return home."

I looked over at the vampire as he remained where he had fallen.

"What about him?" I asked.

The three sisters looked over at him, their gazes softened. "He will stay here. There isn't anything left for him. He will be better off forgotten."

We all nodded as we moved towards the portal. Aurora and Baer couldn't keep their hands to themselves as they disappeared first through the portal. Sasha paused and looked at the three dark witches.

"You are the first three?" She asked, though her eyes said she knew the answer.

The fiery-haired sister stepped forward and brushed Sasha's hair behind her ears. "We may be the first, but you four are our legacies. Never forget that."

I watched as she pressed a kiss to Sasha's forehead before stepping back with her sisters.

I stepped forward then and took Sasha's hand in mine and nodded to Alkmene. Sheka leaped over to my mate's shoulder and nuzzled her face as she laughed before stepping into the portal. I went to follow them, then paused one last time.

"Why did he want her?" I asked.

Alkmene hummed as she looked between her sisters. "How can you rule the world if the one person who can control the same power as you isn't at your side?"

It was a simple answer. Too simple, but I decided to accept it as it was. After all, he wasn't coming back.

I walked through the portal then and I didn't look back at the Realm of the Forgotten, because there was nothing left for me there.

Sasha greeted me with a kiss and laced her fingers with mine as I stepped into our world and I let out a sigh of contentment.

There was nothing but the future ahead of us now. Nothing but light and joy and the relief of knowing future generations were now safe.