“I don’t think you understand,” I sobbed and screamed, the words hardly making sense. “I have to get back to Kaden. He’s dying. Why did you take me and not him?” I turned to the woman in the front, the one in the black robes and crown who had spoken to me back in the clearing. “Why?”
The woman dipped her head, her crown glittering on her brow. “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing we can do for him now."
The confirmation that he was dead hit me like a dagger to the heart. I couldn’t breathe around it for a few seconds, the pain was so sharp. No, no, no. I refused to believe he was gone.
“It was more important than anything else that we got you out of there, Ayla," the woman in the crown said. "The Sun Witches wanted you, and we couldn’t let them have you."
When she met my eyes, I knew that this woman had made many hard decisions in her life. She was used to cutting her losses, even when they hurt. I wanted to turn away from that. I didn’t want to look at her. I wanted Kaden.
“We’ve been looking for you for a long time," she continued. "When you tapped into your power fully for the first time back in that clearing, we finally got a clear read on your location. We could feel it from here.”
“You’re Moon Witches,” I said, flatly. Of course now was when I’d find them, when I’d lost the most important thing to me, when I didn’t care at all about breaking the mate bond anymore, because what was the point? Fate was cruel. So very, very cruel.
"Yes. I am Celeste, the high priestess of the Moon Witches.”
I didn't give a shit who she was at that moment. I was just…numb. Tears slid down my cheeks, a relentless stream, but there was nothing I could do to stop them. “Why would you take me?” I asked. “Kaden is more of a Moon Witch than I am. Why not save him?"
She lifted a hand and sent the other witches away. They faded away, leaving just the two of us in the sand on this strange beach. "Once you're calm, I promise to answer all your questions."
Calm? Fuck calm. I shook my head, wanting to scream again. Everything was happening too fast, and I couldn’t breathe. Grief over Kaden’s death was still roaring through me, sharp enough to be a wound, but one that I couldn’t locate the source of. It hurt all over. Guilt wormed its way into my heart too over the way I’d just left Kaden’s body there. It hadn’t been my choice, but I couldn’t help but feel it. And what about everyone else back at the cabin? My brother, Mira, everyone that had just allied themselves with the Ophiuchus and Cancer packs, all left for dead. Who knew what would happen to them now?
“I need to go back,” I said, but it came out as more of a whimper. “Take me back and let me fight."
"I cannot," Celeste said.
I launched myself at her, suddenly furious at this woman for taking me away from my mate and my people. She raised a hand and an invisible barrier of moonlight stopped me, knocking me back onto the sand.
"Come with me and we'll talk," she said, extending her hand.
I snarled up at her, ready to shift into my wolf form to take her down. "I don't want to talk. I need to return to my mate and my pack. Take me back. Now."
Her voice softened as she looked down at me with far too much kindness. "Ayla, I can help you save them. I might even be able to help you save him."
Save him. Her words finally got through to me and I slumped down in the sand, losing all my fight in an instant. "How?"
"Come with me and I'll show you everything." She gave me a sad smile, and then turned away and walked along the beach toward a house in the distance. All the lights in it were on, as if inviting me inside.
The thought entered my mind to run, but I quickly tossed it aside. I didn’t even know where I was. What if I was on another continent entirely? I had no idea where to go, or what to do next.
I wrapped my arms around my knees and sobbed into them. I’d never felt so alone in my entire life as I did in that moment. Not when I’d been the outcast in the Cancer pack, or when I'd become packless, or when I’d first been taken by the Ophiuchus pack. Not even when I’d been trapped in Jordan’s cell with no way of escape. Now, with my mate dead, my friends fighting for their lives and possibly dead themselves, and me stuck who-knew-where, I was completely, utterly alone.
As if in accordance with my thoughts, fat raindrops began pattering down onto the beach. Each one that hit me stung, chilling me to the bone. I glared up at the moon, wondering why Selene hated me so much. Was my pain not enough that she had to send rain too?