The Alpha King's Wrath

36 Smoke and Memories

"What note?" Selena asks, confusion etching her features.

"The note you left for me at the heart of the lake..." I trail off, seeing nothing but confusion from both of them.

"You didn't leave it." The realization shakes me, causing my heart to race.

"Jess, I haven't been able to reach you since you got to the palace," she says, letting the gravity of her words sink in. Selena and Luca exchange worried glances before she steps closer.

"If not you then who?" I whisper as a sense of dread washes over me.

"Shhh," Selena coos, locking her blue eyes on mine. She brushes her fingertips across my temples and memories begin to flash before my eyes.

My life at the palace plays out like a movie, fast forwarding and jumping over different parts going slowly over others like my encounter with the witch. She slows my exchange with Ryker at the barbeque too, watching with a sense of grief.

"What is it?" I ask, picking up on her sorrow as she watches him.

"This doesn't make sense," she mumbles, as she frowns.

Next she jumps to the time Derek was guiding me through meditation on the roof. Ember stirs, paying extra attention as the missing part plays out in front of us.

After Mira healed me, all I could remember was starting the meditation routine with Derek then waking up with a blistering headache and bloody nose.

Now I watch, seeing my perspective as the outside world melts away and energy signatures take its place, everyone with their own hue. I see myself sift through the layers, dealing with the familiar blue white brightness of the Guardians before peeling away layer after layer as I reach for the darkness.

My stomach drops as I catch movement in the blackness. A shadow that swallows the light moves against the black, hiding just out of sight.

"Didn't see that coming..." the shadowy figure with silvery eyes confesses in a voice that sends shivers down my spine.

Selena replays the events over and over again, eyes glued to me. "What is it?" she asks, freezing the moment in place right between when he spoke to me and before the blinding white light.

"I-I don't know..." I trail off, taking a tentative step forward. The shadowy figure is intimidating from a distance, up close he's downright terrifying.

His features remain steeped in shadows but he's tall, easily as tall as Chris but nowhere near as powerfully built as him. Judging by the stoop in his shoulders, he's old with a willowy build and yet he screams danger. The cold emptiness of his amber flaked, silver eyes is bone chilling and the energy rolling off of him is nothing but hate, anger and malice.

Ember growls from within, her fur on end clearly equally uneasy.

"Who is he?" I whisper, reaching out before recoiling from his toxic aura.

"Who is who?" Luca asks, circling around and following my steps. His keen gold eyes scan but focus on nothing, like he sees right through the shadow.

"Jess, there's no one there," Selena adds, watching me closely. "Or... maybe it's more accurate to say, we can't see anyone... But there's a blindspot."

Luca stops beside me, following my gaze before slowly reaching out where I recoiled from. As if in slow motion, my heart beat hammers the closer he gets to touching the shadowman.

"Don't!" I shout, stopping him mere inches from touching the sinister figure. My heart stops as I swear the shadowman's silver gaze flickers from looking ahead to locked on me beside him.