44

G E O R G I E

✿

The doorbell rang like birds chirping as I walked into the store and the door slammed shut behind me. The thick smoke from a hookah hung heavy in the air, blurring my dim vision. Since the thick, violet velvet curtains on the shop window shielded the red light from the lanterns in the alley, the small candles distributed were solely responsible for the sparse light in the shop.

"Hello? Is anyone there?' I called out, following the flames of the candles that routed a path between the dusty Persian rugs that hung around the room, leaving one disoriented as to where one was going. "Malvera?"

I struggled not to get past any of the hanging, moldy carpets and blinked away the smoke as I passed a shelf containing the most curious things. I leaned forward to get a better look at the contents of the string of mason jars. Dark earth, lavender, jewelry, a dead frog, chirping crickets, snake skin, squirming sticky worms. I shuddered and involuntarily grimaced. What the hell did she need all that for?

Out of nowhere, something jumped at my feet.

"Ah!" Screaming, he backed away from the black shadow and bumped into a carpeted wall. Dust swirled through the air and I coughed.

The black shadow made off with a meow.

Heaven! I let out a sigh of relief while everything inside me was still tense. Maybe coming here was the wrong decision after all. I should rather go again.

"Come closer, child."

I looked up and saw the faint glimmer of light between two curtains through which the black cat was pushing. I followed her, then slowly pushed aside the heavy velvets.

"Georgina, Gamma Soldier of the Semerian Kingdom, what drives you to seek Malvera's services?" the gold charms knitted on top jingled as she revealed and arranged the taro cards in front of her. "Do you want to sit down, or rather put down roots in the ground?"

I quickly sat down on the orange upholstered stool, but kept my hands to myself rather than put them on the round table in front of me. "Excuse me. Very pleased, I'm - "

“Georgina – or Georgie, as everyone here calls you, I know, child. So tell me why you're here.” Her head was still down, her attention on the cards as she stroked the black cat that had jumped onto her lap.

I looked at the taro cards and the large ball that was placed on the table. It was difficult for me to tear my eyes from her and focus on Malvera. “I'm not very good at healing wounds, and I was wondering if I might have other… talents? Also…” Suddenly I wasn't so sure I was allowed to say Beau's secret out loud. He had revealed it with confidence, a deep wound that wounded his pride and shamed the dominant strong wolf. I didn't want anyone other than me to know about it, didn't want to divulge anything they had told me. Possessiveness built up in me, but I gritted my teeth and fought down the feeling.

Beau was close to death if I didn't do something about it he would be gone. Tortured to hurt those he loved most. I couldn't let that happen.

I crossed my hands over the round table. “There's a curse on my mate and I want to break it. It has hung over his family for several generations, affecting the firstborn males, dooming them to turn into rogues.”

Only now did she turn her big, green eyes on me and let go of her cards. “Curses my child, are complicated. You could do him more harm than good if you try to break him."

Fear was on my neck, but I ignored it. "I have to do it, I have no other choice."

Malvera nodded. "Well. I'll see what the sphere has in store for you.” The cat hissed and climbed onto her shoulder as the fortune teller placed her hands over the crystal sphere and began to murmur softly. The sphere came to life. It looked like purple smoke was moving behind the glass wall, getting stronger and faster.

"Oh that's not good. Not good at all,” Malvera murmured as her hands wandered over the sphere.

My stomach knotted. "What's not good?"

She narrowed her eyes tighter, moved her hands. “I - I .... see so much darkness in you. Evil Creatures! You must conquer them! Oh great Ozuro ... subdue them! Absolutely!"

"What creatures?" I leaned across the table, my heart pounding excitedly in my chest and threatening to leap out. "What do you see, tell me!"

Malvera's eyes moved nervously behind her closed songs. "They - they will eat you up, consume you like a piece of meat if you don't defeat them!" The rugs swayed and the candle flames flickered wildly as a strong wind swept through the room. "So bleak... Such a bleak future!"

I held on to the table, digging my nails into the green tablecloth while my hair was blown out of my face. "How come?"

"Give me your hands!" Malvera commanded loudly, holding out a hand.

I automatically grabbed the table and backed away. "First tell me what you see."

"Give them to me! The bullet demands it!” she yelled against the gale.

If my wolf were here, she would bare her teeth and growl, but she wasn't there and my thoughts were with only one human. For Beau.

Malvera didn't hesitate when I offered her my hands, but grabbed them and pressed them to the ball. The glass glowed, burning hot like the crystal Isaac had given me. But before I knew what was happening to me, I was swept away, far from space and time, into another sphere.

One moment I was still on the stool, the other I felt the cold, rough lava floor beneath me.

My heart skipped a beat as I realized where I had landed. No! No no no!

G E O R G I E

✿

I jumped up and threw myself against the cell bars. My palms burned on the silver as I shook them vigorously. "Let me out! I want out!” This place haunted me in all my nightmares, embodied my entire childhood. Nothing but gloom and pain. I was freaking out in panic. "I WANT TO GET OUT!"

The corridor was lit by torchlight. I heard footsteps, then I saw them. They were warriors from hell. Her tall figure was draped in dark robes, and her white, glowing eyes stared at me out of their pale, bony, and noseless faces.

My breathing was rapid, my pulse racing as I jerked my hands off the bars and backed away. Sweat ran down my back. "Malvera, what have you done?" I shouted, my harsh voice echoing in the empty, endless cells. But Malvera wasn't here and I was all alone with these beasts.

The musty smell filled my nostrils, the chill of the stone floor crawled up my limbs. I knew all these impressions too well. I felt the mate band, about to scream for Beau when I saw him. For man whom the warriors of hell dragged behind them in shackles of silver.

"Beau?" I whispered, my heart freezing with horror.

They stopped in front of my cell, slammed him onto his knees. His head hung limp, eyes on the ground as shadows surrounded and crouched over him. It was as if they were drawn to him, woven into a dark, dense fog over him, murmuring things I didn't hear.

I growled, baring my teeth, which couldn't come out into fangs no matter how hard I tried. "Hey, away from him!"

The shadows turned their gazes to me.

Georgieeeeeee.

What are you doing here, werewolf?

Yes, why are you here? Tell us, tell us!

I flinched even more when I heard the cynical voices. I knew who they belonged to. They pounded my head and I felt the pressure, felt them trying to push me. They were the same shadows as under the mirror in the catacombs. The same voices begging me to set her free.

The dark, shadowy shadows flitted around the room and suddenly they were everywhere.

"Disappears! I don't want you here!"

What you want is unimportant!

Georgieeee, let's go!

Leave and freeeei, we want to get out!

Blood was pounding in my ears and my hands were shaking. I pressed myself against the rock face, about to panic again. "GO AWAY!"

They laughed, laughed at me.

Georgie was afraid of us!

She's foo scared!

Show us your fear, your suffering, little Georgie!

I raised my hands, focused on the light. I'd managed to defeat her once before, I had to succeed a second time. I focused on the light, the heat that had passed through me.

Then one of the warriors unsheathed a sword and held it over Beau's head.

i saw red Everything in me screamed at me to save him. Not a moment later I crashed into the door, only a few meters away from him. I didn't care about the shadows that roamed the room, laughing at me and throwing mean things at me.

"Leave him alone! Don't touch him!” I shook the bars harder than ever. I didn't care about the pain, my burned skin, the glowing silver rod. I just wanted to see him.

What would you do for your beloved mate, Georgie?

"Everything!" In horror I saw the Hell Warrior brandish his sword. "NO!" I stuck my hand through the bars. "BEAU!"

He looked up. A look of dull, hopeless, green eyes. A look that bored deep into me and destroyed me, tearing everything apart inside me.

Then the sword swooped down. Blood spurted out, hit me in the face. His head rolled across the flagstones.

No.

I had to scream, so loud I couldn't hear the shadows' derisive laughter. I felt my strength leaving me. How the terrible pain and loneliness engulfed me. But much more I felt the bond that broke and with it everything in me collapsed.

My knees slammed into the rough ground as I sobbed, wrapping my arms around myself and trying desperately to hold myself together, but the pain was too great. I screamed so loud I felt like my vocal cords would rupture. “NOOOOO!”

Then the scene changed and I found myself in a small room with sharp-bladed tools and pliers-tips lining the walls. They were torture tools.

A crimson cloak came into view, trailing across the stone floor. I slowly lifted my eyes, which were blurred with tears, and looked into the face that visited my darkest nightmares.

Hades.

I cried out in choking, kicked my feet on the floor and hastily pushed myself back against the wall. I put my hands in front of me protectively. "Do not touch me! Leave me alone!"

Laughter. Laughter was everywhere.

Schwaaach Georgieeee.

You're scaredssssst.

HA-HA-HA!

Hades drew closer as the edge of my vision went black. Something buried deep within me vehemently refused. Everything in me closed up, didn't want to look, didn't want to remember.

"No!" I couldn't breathe, couldn't see. Briefly I felt the familiar shattering agony of being skinned. And then it was all over.

I opened my eyes and looked straight into Malvera's green eyes, which were watching me with interest.

I ripped my hands off the sphere and clutched it to my chest. "What happened?" Sheer fear pulsed through my body and I felt the wet tears on my cheeks.

The cat on her shoulder jumped back into its usual place on her lap and made itself comfortable. “That was a simulation of your greatest fear, child. You haven't actually been to the Underworld, the sphere just showed you what you fear most."

I couldn't find words, couldn't speak, telling myself over and over that it was all just a dream. Nothing was real. "Beau's alive?" I croaked, and at the same moment I felt the strongly throbbing bond within me. I pressed my hands to my chest as if that would protect the ribbon. He was alive. Unhurt.

I almost cried with relief. My inner hands lightly brushed the ribbon and I imagined blowing him a mental kiss. Beau.

Malvera brought me back to reality. "Yes, your mate is up."

"So it was all just in my head?" It had felt so real. I still felt the loneliness. I could also remember the excruciating pain that gripped me at the end, like all my bones had been shattered.

Malvera nodded again, eyes gleaming wide awake as she continued to study me. "Exactly."

That was just a simulation. A game. A fantasy. Like a dream. I took a deep breath. "And what did it get me?" I didn't think this sounded promising. I had thought she would just ask the sphere and give me the answers. Nobody said anything about being held in your own fears.

In a flash, Malvera grabbed my hand.

“Hey!” I was about to pull her back—I never wanted to touch that ball again—when she was already slicing my palm open with her sharp nails.

She caught the drop of blood on my skin and then licked her finger. Her eyes sparkled. "I knew it! You, my child, have black blood in your veins."

My eyebrows drew together. "Blackblood?"

Her tongue licked her violet painted lips. “Yes, dark blood running through your veins. As in all creatures of the underworld.”

That couldn't be true. "I'm supposed to have the same blood as Hades?"

she snorted. "No of course not. Hades is a god, as is Luna and Gaia. Blackbloods, Fiends, Demons; these are all other beings. Do you think Hades was the only one who lived in the Underworld?” Malvera clicked his tongue in disapproval. "Echinda is from there, as are a whole host of other creatures."

My stomach knotted. "And I'm one of them?"

"I was just saying that some of your blood is of dark origin, not that you are from there or that you are a demon."

"It's the same," I replied, clutching my pants while feeling sick and sick.

"No. Your parents were normal Semeerian werewolves. The black blood got into your veins differently. I'll show you.” She cupped her hands over the sphere and I slide the chair back across the carpet as she reached out for mine.

"Stop that right now!" Pin pricks crept up my spine as the purple smoke swirled in the glass ball.

"I'm just going to show you a memory." Malvera withdrew her hands as an image formed in the sphere. "You right there."

The sphere showed the underground passages lit by the torches on the stone wall. A man in a crimson seal, with five warriors of hell at his back, strode down the winding corridors.

I had to force myself to sit on the ottoman and not immediately jump up and run out of the shop.

Hades pushed open a door and entered a room. The hood didn't hide his blond, stringy hair this time, nor his thin, sunken face. He approached a manger in which lay a small bundle. it was a baby

"Give me the syringe," Hades demanded, grasping the injection, which held a black liquid. Roughly he pulled down the white linen sheet the baby was wrapped in and applied the syringe to the child's pale skin, causing the baby to struggle and squeal like a spit.

When he was done, Hades angrily tossed the syringe away, then snapped, Get that kid out of my sight. In three days I want to see how it has changed.”

One of his hell warriors took the crying child in his arms and carried him out of the room to the cells. The mother was already stretching out her arms to the child. I gasped. Mom.

"Give her to me!" As soon as the child was in her arms, she hugged him and kissed his cheeks. 'Now you're safe again, darling. No one will ever hurt you again."

Tears burned my eyes. So much love in her words. So much suppressed pain.

"Get out!" ordered the man who was also in the cell and who, as soon as the hell warrior had disappeared, turned to the woman and hugged her and the baby protectively. Dad.

Then the memory fizzled out.

My heart ached and everything inside me burned with the sadness that threatened to engulf me. "It can't possibly be true," I countered, knowing it was exactly that. The truth. And I wanted to put my hands on the sphere and tell it to show me more of my parents. Oh moon goddess, I missed her so much.

"Youare the one who can open the gate," said Malvera. "And could bring us all to our downfall."

I blinked away wet tears. "What's with the gate?"

Malvera snapped his fingers and muttered something under his breath, causing the orb to glow. It showed a mirror like the one I had seen in the catacombs. It was more like a frozen round lake with black shapes lurking beneath its surface.

“This gate opens a way into the underworld. At the moment it is locked and none of the black blood can get to us. But should that door ever be opened, holy Ozuro help us, the world would become one battlefield."

A dark foreboding crept over me. "Hades wants to free all the Shadowen, doesn't he?"

Malvera snapped his fingers again and the bullet went out. “I don't know who exactly wants to open the gate. And I don't know what he intends to do with it either. But what I do know is that you can open it."

Madness. "How come? Why me? Because I have the blood of these creatures in me?”

Malvera sighed and turned to the taro cards on the table. "I wish I could reveal more, but the session is over."

"Wait, what? I didn't find anything useful at all! What does that have to do with my powers? What does all this have to do with the curse?' I exclaimed, stunned to see the knowledge in Malvera's eyes. She was hiding something from me.

But she only replied: "The ball gives what it has to give and no more."

I gritted my teeth. "Is that supposed to be a joke? You don't tell me everything!"

'You wanted a session. She was.' she said, her attention still on the stupid cards in front of her. She wouldn't change her mind.

I grumbled and cursed, then reached into my pockets and placed a piece of gold on the table for her. That should be more than enough.

It wasn't until I was about to get up that she lifted her head. 'Oh no, my child. You won't go."

I paused and narrowed my eyes. "I thought we were done here?"

Carelessly she wiped the taro cards over the edge and leaned over the table. Her long green earrings jiggled as she stared at me and her eyes darkened until she was staring at me out of black eyes. "I'm sorry, kid, but you have too much potential for me to let you live." Long fangs, the likes of which I hadn't even seen on Beau, shot out of her mouth, tearing open her upper lip. Blood red veins bulged from under her eyes and she looked at me with madness in her eyes. "I feel compelled to kill you."