Mango’s fingers hovered over the scattered moonstones.
Her elbows rested on the cluttered table though there was no purpose in what she did anymore.
She had been sitting there for hours, trying to reassemble the fragments of the broken moonstone. Small, jagged shards no bigger than her nail lay in a disjointed pattern like an unfinished puzzle.
She sighed, nudging a piece with her fingertip...another futile attempt to fit together what had been shattered beyond repair.
"Kieran’s obsession", she thought bitterly. "His desperation." She knew it was pointless. The stones would never align again.
She sighed and wiped her brow, frowning as her fingertips came away slightly smeared with silver dust from the shards.
They both knew it wouldn’t work.But she humoured him, if only to keep his restless energy at bay.
Even lies deserved good costumes.
She reached for another fragment...when it hit her.
Soft at first. Like the faint thrum of a distant drum, somewhere in the back of her mind.
Then louder. Sharper.
It was buzzing. Like thousands of tiny wings fluttering right behind her eyes.
Mango’s head jerked up.
She stood up abruptly, the chair screeching against the floor. Her breath hitched as the air around her shifted... became dense and charged.
"At this time of the day? This must be serious..." she whispered.
She moved quickly. She knew that presence. That call.
She crossed the room, shutting the windows one by one, drawing the heavy curtains tight. Next she bolted the door behind her, checked twice. Then with a trembling hand, she reached out before her and wiped her palm across the air like it was misted glass.
A ripple tore through the space.
Then the portal opened.The room chilled instantly.
"You have been idle."
The voices came layered, overlapping like a chorus of whispers and snarls, all speaking in unison.
Mango’s throat tightened. "I have done as instructed."
"Have you?" The accusation came back hard. Solid. "We gave you an ultimatum!"
A cold sweat prickled at the back of Mango’s neck. Her fingers twitched... and the moonstone fragment she had been holding slipped from her grasp.
It hit the floor with a sharp clink, rolling to a stop at her feet.
"What was that?" The voices sharpened, predatory.
Mango swallowed. "Nothing. A trinket."
The voices growled in overlapping echoes. "What have you done since our last meeting? Sat with shards and dust like a child? Whispered old hymns to stones that are no longer listening?Were you sent to sing lullabies to that overgrown mutt ...babysit an Alpha who brought his own misfortunes??!!"
The rest of the moonstone fragments on the table trembled.
Then, one by one, they fell from the table. Each piece. As though pushed by an unseen hand.
Clink...clink...clink...They shattered further.
Then the voices deepened.
"You played too long at being harmless. While our time dwindled.We gave you the ultimatum. You made no move whatsoever.And now..." A low, discordant hum vibrated through the portal. The figure leaned closer, their hooded face still obscured, but the weight of their gaze was unbearable. "Autumn... is dying."
Mango’s heart dropped.
Her knees nearly buckled. "What...? No. That’s not...How...???"
"She is under spiritual siege. Her children tremble on the edge of dissolution...and if she is lost...all is lost."
Mango’s lips parted. She could not speak.
The silence behind the portal turned colder. Even the flames in her chamber’s hearth dimmed, choking on the air.
"You were our last gambit, Mango. You were spared when your coven burned. We gave you power. Shelter. A path."
The voices hissed now, venomously soft. "Repay it with your blood. Find her.Or you will never be able to pay your debt with what little remains of your life."
And without another breath...The portal snapped shut...like the mouth of a cave closing over a treasured secret.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Mango stared at the empty air, her chest heaving.
The silence returned.She blinked once.Then twice.
And moved.Without pause.
She swept the remnants of the moonstone into a pouch with one hand and flung open the bottom drawer of her armoire with the other. Her fingers reached into the hidden seam at the back, pulling out a folded jet black cloak.
It shimmered faintly with protective runes that was invisible to any other eyes, except for herself.
She threw it over her shoulders, her fingers tightening the clasp at her throat. The hood went up next, veiling her in shadow.
Still breathing hard, she turned back to the table and drew out a needle.
It was a delicate thing, thin as a hair, glinting with silver.
She did not hesitate.
She pricked the pad of her index finger.
A single bead of blood welled up.But instead of dripping, it stretched...as thin as spider silk, unspooling from her skin like a living thread. It hovered in the air, quivering, as if pulled by an invisible current.
Mango watched it, her expression grim.
It crawled forward on its own.
As if it knew where to go.
Mango whispered something beneath her breath. The line of blood pulsed, then darted forward faster, trailing across the stone floor like a red silk string, winding out of her chamber like a tether.
She stepped after it, her long black cloak brushing the ground.
"Hold on, little moons." Mango murmured. "I won’t let them take you,Autumn."
The blood thread shimmered faintly as it slithered along, dipping through the cracks in the pack house’s architecture. Past archways. Beneath doors. As if through the cracks of destiny itself.
Afraid too...But ready.
Because what was to come... was already here... and she had already taken the final step... the last resort... There was no going back...
She had hoped for a better end... but life never gives what we desire...
As she followed the blood thread she slowly realised where she was being led. "Impossible!!!"