Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“Yeahhhh... That’s pretty hard to defend.” I looked down. “I should just throw away my phone, shouldn’t I?”
“I’m surprised you haven’t already.”
Laughing, I came over and joined them on the carpet. Nyx had a mass of toys that he was passing to the baby who was touching them, turning them to pure solid gold, and then giggling herself over on her side—thrilled by her new trick.
“I still can’t believe thousands of forest wolves are going to be able to do this soon,” Nyx whispered, gazing at Hope like the marvel she was. “Our world is going to change, Daze. Not that psycho’s apocalyptic fever dream of a change, but still, nothing is going to be the same.”
“All the forest clans of the world are about to become incredibly wealthy for one,” I muttered. “And water wolves are going to go from laughed at to feared. Who is going to mess with a person who can drain all the water out of your body with one touch?”
He hummed, brows crumpling.
“What?” I asked. “What is it?”
“I... I just don’t understand these powers,” he burst out. “Our elemental powers the way they are now bring us into harmony with nature. They help us in our purpose of protecting it from the mundanes determined to destroy it. Just like the fae believe their purpose is to stop us from disrupting the balance of the world.
“But the powers we’re about to inherit, they’ve got nothing to do with protecting nature. These are the kinds of powers an elemental wolf would want”—he met my eyes—“if they were going to war.”
“What are you saying, Nyx?”
He tossed his head, his eyes hooded beneath his bandana. “I’ve been thinking about your vision, Daciana, and about your theory of a demigod being behind all of this. Trying to orchestrate a world war that’ll leave every other species decimated, and finally free them from Olympia. If the Olympian gods are sending their people prophecies and giving them powers to take over the world, don’t you think there’s a chance ours is too?”
My eyes widened, jaw hanging. “You mean Luame blessed the wolves with these powers not to start a war, but because war is inevitable, and if we don’t change... we’ll lose.”
“Yes,” he rasped. “I think something’s coming, Daze. Something bad. Something big. Right now there’s a very uneasy balance between all the dominions. The mundanes are ignorant. The demigods are trapped. The fae ignore us all. And the werewolves and vampires fight, but never so badly or too much it could set off a war that neither of our sides want.
“It’s a steady kind of peace, but it’s not stable, and it’s not what the Olympian gods want.”
“They want to return to Mount Olympus,” I confessed. “They want to be the unquestioned rulers of the universe again.”
“And where does that leave a minor wolf goddess named Luame?”
“Luame’s trying to protect the survival of the werewolf race,” I whispered, feeling the truth of that in my bones. “From threats within and outside of our community. She knows we won’t last the way we are now, but just because she gifts our children with a bunch of amazing powers, doesn’t mean the dumbass adults in the situation will do the right thing with them.
“A vision of the Golden Age of Wolves was shared with the wrong prophets and clairvoyants, and now everything is happening too early,” I rushed as it all fell together in place. “Because of course a bunch of infants aren’t going to war with anyone. This isn’t supposed to happen now, but the shadow brought forward his plans early—so early Luame was forced to warn me—because exactly what I said. A bunch of infants can’t fight anybody.
“Now is the time to steal their powers and destroy us from within because in twenty years’ time...” I stroked Hope’s soft cheek. “We’ll be unstoppable.”
Nyx nodded hard, agreeing with everything I said. “What is it the mundanes say? ‘I was silent when they came for the others, so when they came for me, there was no one left.’”
“Cygnus and the alpha council would’ve been rulers of the world for all of two seconds. Right after that, the shadow would’ve ripped their overpowered souls out of their chests, and then given them to the ones he truly serves. And the price would’ve been manipulating that power-obsessed lunatic into wiping out his own people.”
“The wolves wipe out the vampires and the fae, and then we destroy ourselves,” Nyx said. “A frighteningly good plan.”
“A plan that’s still in play because we haven’t found the shadow yet,” I cried. “I don’t know about this, Nyx. Maybe Hope would be safer in Incepe Din. Maybe she’d be safer in Paris!”
“No, love.” He laced his fingers through mine. “The safest place for our girl is home with us—her family.”