“My coffee!” I groan as the room fizzles. My father picks up his already-made mug to sip it, but I reach out, plucking it from him. I laugh at his outraged face before being sucked into the moon goddess realm, along with my mother.
I am still laughing as I materialize in the fountain’s room. Mom moves around the vast room, moving behind her huge gold desk to the bookshelf at the back.
“Grimoires?” she asks.
“You saw?” I ask her.
“I saw what you needed, and I saw something else, and for once, I hope what I see is true,” she says, scanning the shelves. “Dagger is in the top drawer,” she says, pulling books down. “None of these are it,” she murmurs as I retrieve the dagger.
“Can I take them? They might come in handy for whatever Marabella has me doing,” I tell her, and she places a stack on the desk. I look at the leather-bound covers and shake my head. “Don’t suppose you have a bag?” I tell her, looking at the stack before I groan, dreading having to cart them around. “Ah, I also need some shovels,” I add.
“And a picnic,” she laughs. I have never seen my mother look so excited about something, and I know she won’t tell me, so I don’t bother asking. She always keeps her visions close to her, only letting slip what she can, not wanting to alter the future.
“You aren’t going to tell me anything, are you?” She smiles brightly.
“Nope, this is one future I would never tamper with, not even slightly.”
“Why?” I ask, still a little annoyed about our argument the other day.
Her smile falters. “Eziah?”
“I know, you can’t meddle, but…” I shake the thought away, knowing it is no use, and I don’t want to argue with her right now. “Tell me why you are excited, then?” I ask her.
“I have many skeletons, son, but one has haunted me the most.”
“And that excites you?” She shakes her head, moving toward the fountains and I follow her.
She gazes into one; it is the same wolf I have seen many times before. Always floating aimlessly. Mom and I have tried to put him in the fountain of life multiple times, but he has always eluded us. We have wanted to set him free for so long, yet he refuses, like he is waiting for something.
“Because he has a chance to go home,” she whispers, touching his dark little blob. A tear slips down her cheek. “You’re going home; I promise. No matter the cost, I owe you this much,” she whispers to him.
She gazes at him a bit longer and I know Mom loves all her Lycan blobs. Sometimes she seems almost crazy with how she speaks to them as if they are her children.
“Right, shovels, picnic, dagger, and books,” she counts on her fingers before disappearing, and I groan.
“Clothes, get me clothes!” I call after her, hoping she hears me, or I am going in my boxer shorts. I shake my head, hoping she doesn’t take too long.
I stare at the wolf in the fountain, floating in the abyss of mist, flickering and moving in its shadows. My brows pinch, trying to remember who mom said it belonged to or if she ever told me.
Shaking my head, I go to the other fountain and wave my hand through the strange murky mist, clearing it away to see mom rushing about in the other realm. My father asks her why she needs a shovel before asking if she is trying to bury my body.
I shake my head but am relieved when she sends my father up to my room to retrieve some clothes for me. Turning from that fountain, I move toward the fountain of bonds. Mom always keeps me away from this one, so while she is distracted, I move to take a glimpse.
Moving the mist again, I spot Marabella’s, Jonah’s bond has fully merged with her and Kyan’s, and I am glad I am right in the feeling I picked up earlier when I spoke to her. However, her aura is no longer pitch black. It has lightened as Jonah’s bond bleeds into both Kyan and hers.
“Jonah marked Kyan?” I gasp, shocked. Neither of them are gay or bisexual. I shake my head but am happy to see a change in their auras. I scan for mine, moving the auras just as mom appears, her hand catching my wrist as it wades through the mist.
“Eziah?” she says, dropping a bag at my feet, the shovels hitting the marble floors with a clang.
“Please, I just want to see,” I tell her, and she looks at the fountain.
“It could alter her future,” she whispers.
“It can’t get much worse than it already is because right now, my mate has no future, not one worth living!” I snap at her. Mom purses her lips, looking down at the fountain. “Please mom!” Mom bites her lip, staring at the fountain before looking at me.
“You would risk losing her?” she tells me.
“I wouldn’t be losing her. I’d be setting her free. The things I hear!” Malachi growls angrily. The noise emanates from me and echoes off the walls. “It’s so dark. She doesn’t like the dark,” I tell my mother.
Mom nods, her eyes softening, and she smiles sadly. She washes her hand through the mist. My bright gold aura floats in the fog, and for the first time, I see hers attached to mine, only it is blood red.
“Why is she red?” I ask her.
“It’s why I didn’t want to tamper with her fate, why I have kept her from you. Your mate is fragile,” my mother says.
I stare at her, confused. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. It’s just a feeling I get when I see her bond with yours. I don’t know what it means, but the colors usually mean something. And I have never seen an aura quite like hers,” she tells me. Mom washes her hands through the bonds, and Mom is right. There are no bonds the color of my mates.