Chapter 93: Faces, Places

ALEX

I know my mate can protect herself, but Goddess knows what kind of dark magic lies deep inside this cave. We need to get as far away from here as possible.

Ariel is in danger.

But with every corner I turn, I become less and less confident that I’ll be able to find her—or that either of us will ever be able to find our way out of here.

Ariel’s screaming has subsided, and now I can only hear the sound of my own pounding heart.

Somehow her silence disturbs me even more than her scream.

If she can scream, she can breathe. And if Ariel can breathe, she can fight.

~Keep fighting, Ariel.~

~Please.~

As I run through the narrow, twisting corridors, I can’t stop my mind from spinning.

I can’t believe that I’m in the Goddess Fate’s web. And that she lives inside such a dark and dingy lair.

~Couldn’t she have fated herself a better place to live?~

I’m ripped from my thoughts when I round a corner and spot the silhouette of a woman blocking my path.

“Ariel,” I call out. “Ari—”

But when the woman turns around, my voice catches in my throat.

It’s not Ariel, but…

“Olivia?” My voice cracks as her name escapes my lips.

~It’s official.~

~The darkness of the cave must be driving me insane.~

My destined mate is standing in front of me, in perfect detail.

But this can’t be her.

~Right?~

Olivia is dead. And ghosts aren’t real. Or at least that’s what I thought.

~So what the fuck is going on?~

I haven’t laid eyes on my destined mate since the day she took her last breath in my arms.

Seeing her again now instantly brings back all of those heavy, horrible memories.

And also the good ones—before she got sick, when we were blissfully in love.

She walks closer to me, her face coming clearer into view, practically illuminated from within.

~It’s her.~

~Every inch of her.~

~Every detail.~

She gets even closer and opens her mouth.

She’s saying something.

She’s saying my name.

“Alex. There you are. I’ve been looking for you.”

“Olivia,” I muster.

~Why am I speaking to her?~

~She’s not real.~

~I’m going crazy.~

Still, my wolf can’t help but howl with joy at the sight of her.

“I can’t stay here,” I say to her as she continues to get closer. “I need to find Ariel.”

At the sound of Ariel’s name, Olivia’s face contorts into pure, unadulterated anger.

“You would choose her over me?”

“Olivia—it’s not—you’re dead. I was committed to you for life. But Fate had other plans.”

“You said I would live on in your heart. But you’ve let my memory die too.”

“I haven’t,” I said. “You’re always with me.”

I see a glistening silver tear fall from her eye onto her cheek.

I hate seeing Olivia this upset.

But then I have to remind myself…this isn’t Olivia, at all.

“You betrayed me,” she growls.

“Olivia,” I say gently, “do you remember what you told me on the day you died?”

She says nothing, just wipes away another tear.

It’s so painful to relive her last words to me…but I do.

“As I held you in my arms, you told me to find another mate. You didn’t want me to spend the rest of my life alone, pining over you. You wanted me to move on. The ~real~ you did.”

I swallow hard.

“And now,” I continue, “Ariel is in danger. I can’t lose her too. I need to find her.”

With that, I find the strength to pick up my feet.

I close my eyes and run headfirst toward Olivia’s form.

As I collide with her, her body disappears, erupting into a fine, cold mist.

It was an apparition.

I’ve never seen anything like it.

Fate must have created it to stop me in my tracks.

That is some sick form of torture.

~Fuck you, Fate.~

I’m not going to let her take my mate from me. Not again.

I keep running deeper and deeper into the cave.

And then I hear a voice in the distance.

~Ariel’s.~

I’m sure of it.

But she’s not alone. She’s talking to someone. A man.

~Who?~

I run toward the sound, faster now.

I keep going. Her voice is getting louder.

But then the next thing I know, I’ve lost my footing.

I manage to catch myself with my hands, my palms scraping against the rocky ground.

I look back and see that my left ankle is wound tight with spider webs.

~Shit.~

~It’s happening again.~

The webs start to pull my body backward, away from Ariel’s voice. I try to dig my fingers into the gravel and pull myself up, but it’s too late.

I’m trapped in the webs’ firm snare.

ARIEL

I stare at Xavier, not daring to move any closer, my eyes locked with his.

I can still just barely make his form out in the cracks of light illuminating the cave.

One thing is for certain. He’s wearing his signature shit-eating grin.

“This is all your fault,” I shout at him.

“What is?”

“Everything! The plane crash! The fact that I’m trapped in this goddess-forsaken cave!”

“And how exactly do you think I pulled something like that off?”

“First you conspired with the Hunters. Now you’re conspiring with Fate. Why won’t you just leave me alone?”

“HAH!” he lets out a loud laugh that echoes up and down the passageway.

“Ariel. I can’t leave you alone,” he says. “We are meant to accomplish great things together. Fate will guarantee it.”

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I will never be yours, Xavier.”

“You should feel honored by the efforts I’ve made to make you mine,” he shouts. “What does he offer you that I can’t?”

“Something that I’m not sure you’re even capable of,” I tell him. “Love.”

I reach for my moonstone dagger again—the same weapon that helped me defeat Xavier the last time we dueled.

I charge toward him and plunge the blade into his torso…

But—

As soon as the dagger makes contact with his form…it doesn’t. He disappears completely into thin air.

A chill washes over me.

I circle around myself, looking for him. But he’s gone.

~What the fuck?!~

~Did my own insanity conjure that image of Xavier?~

~Or was that Fate’s doing?~

~What kind of twisted game is this?~

The Moon Goddess gifted me with the power to heal.

But Fate is doing the opposite.

She’s trying to break me down.

~Why?~

The all-consuming fear in my body is quickly morphing into unadulterated anger.

I need to find Alex and get the hell out of here.

I keep running along the small passageway until suddenly it opens up into a large, cavernous space.

It’s pitch black in here—no cracks of light seep in from the outside.

Instead, it is lit only by the luminous eyes of countless small spiders covering every inch of the walls.

In the middle of the damp, dark space, dangling in a cocoon of spiderwebs, is my mate.

“Alex!” I cry out.

But he can’t scream back.

His mouth is covered over by webs.

His hands are pinned to either side of his body.

He is completely trapped.

I run toward him, but then suddenly another figure drops down into the middle of the room, descending slowly from a single, silvery thread.

It’s an enormous spider, at least twice my size, with eight jet-black limbs and eight dark, glossy eyes.

When the spider makes contact with the ground, its face suddenly shifts into the likeness of a woman.

I take a step back in shock when I see her.

She’s haunting, but entirely beautiful, with angular features and gaunt cheekbones.

Like the Moon Goddess, she has long hair. But instead of Selene’s signature silver, this woman’s hair is the color of tar.

~Fate.~

I had no idea that she takes the shape of a spider.

It all makes sense now.

“Finally,” she says, the word flowing from her thin, red lips. “I’m delighted to meet you face-to-face.”

“Let him down,” I command, pointing at Alex.

“Please, let us speak for just a moment first,” she says. “I know that you are always communicating with my sister Selene. Now it is my turn.”

Her voice drips with hatred when she says the Moon Goddess’s name.

“Just tell me what you want, then,” I say. “What was so important that you needed to crash our plane and kill our pilot?”

Fate clicks her tongue and shakes her head. “It’s a pity about poor Dusty, isn’t it?” she says. “But sometimes my grand plans have unfortunate collateral damage.”

“And what exactly is your ‘grand plan’?” I spit back.

She smiles, and I see white fangs protrude from behind her bright red lips.

“I need to set right what has gone terribly wrong,” she says. “The werewolves have been praising my sister for far too long.”

And for a brief moment—so brief that again I almost believe I’m imagining it—her face shifts into Xavier’s likeness.

Then it’s gone.

“Stop doing that,” I say, feeling disturbed to my very core. “Please, I don’t want to look at his face.”

“You must succumb to what I intended for you,” she says. “You must seek out your destined mate and be with him, or else find your destiny altered…and not for the better.”