Tip the Scales

RORY

I’m not sure how long I spend, arms wrapped around myself, terrified for my baby before I hear a familiar voice. Time is hard to track in the spirit realm. “Hello, Aurora.”

Achlys appears, looking as sad as ever. Her black hair and dress sway in a breeze that I can’t feel, grief wrapped around her like a cloak. Her sadness frightens me—what if it isn’t for me?

“Achlys! Wait, don’t send me back yet. My baby—I mean, do you know I’m pregnant? Is my baby okay?” I’m babbling, I sound ridiculous, but I can’t stop the words spilling out of me.

It’s all I can do not to grab her, to drop to my knees in front of her, to beg for the answer I need her to give. I feel so helpless, knowing I may already have ended my baby’s life.

Achlys smiles her delicate smile. “Yes, I know of your child. And they will be fine, just fine. Though you won’t want to make a habit of this.”

A laugh bursts out of me, half-relief, half-irritation. “It’s not like I do it on purpose. Not that I don’t like seeing you, but I don’t like dying. Everett really doesn’t like it.”

“I imagine not.” Achlys’s face turns serious again. “Aurora, before I send you back, there is something you must know.”

“What is it?” I’m still giddy with the news that the baby is all right. It’s hard to care about anything else, hard not to just burst with gratitude. My baby isn’t dead. I’m not a failure.

“You have clashed with Nemesis again and again, neither of you besting the other. But this time is different.” Achlys's words have the ring of truth, the weight of prophecy.

Her pronouncement sobers me. My baby might be fine right now, but that won’t last, not if I can’t defeat Nemesis. I want whatever help I can get. I want to obliterate her. I’ve never hated like this.

I clench my fists. I may not be a wolf, but I feel like one now, full of a fierce need to protect what’s mine. “Tell me this is the last time. Tell me I’m getting rid of her. That this time, I can kill her.”

Achlys dips her head in confirmation. “This is the final battle. At the end, one of you will prevail once and for all.”

Achlys holds her hands out, palms up. She lowers the left one. “If you win, you will be free of her shadow, she and her minion will be banished from your plane forever. You will be safe.”

She raises her left hand and lowers the right, face unspeakably sad. “But it might go the other way. Should she succeed today…”

I can fill in the blanks. I can do it too well, the visions Nemesis showed me still vivid in my mind. “If she does, she’ll kill us all. Me and everyone I know. She’ll take over my baby’s body!”

I see something new in Achlys’s face: fear. “Yes. The world will be remade to suit her dark desires. Wolves will be eradicated and society will be twisted to serve her.”

“I won’t let that happen. I will stop her.” I turn to the door, bracing myself for the return journey. “I’m ready. Send me back.”

Before I can go through, I hear a voice. It’s barely a breath, but it sounds like a child, a desperately sad child. A familiar voice. “Wait, wait for me.”

“Hang on,” I ask, holding up a hand to Achlys. She stops. I turn around to see the mists swirling, coalescing until a figure is able to step out of them.

It’s the spirit who visited me at the old pack house. Here in the spirit realm, I can see them so much more clearly. She’s a little girl, no older than five, watching me solemnly with large brown eyes.

She’s wearing a blue jean dress over a soft pink turtleneck and black tights. Her pocket has an anchor embroidered on it, and her shoes are Velcro with princesses. She never got to learn to tie them.

Her hair is brown, pulled up into two little pigtails and tied off with pink plastic hair bobbles. I wonder if her mother put them in. Will I do my own baby’s hair that way, one day?

My heart seizes. She’s adorable. She shouldn’t be here. Coming from the mists, she’s not just a spirit. She’s someone who died. I choke on a flood of tears, kneeling down to look her in the eye.

“Hey there, sweetie. Who are you?” I manage to keep the tears from falling, keep my voice soft and kind. I want to scoop her up and hold her, but I don’t. I don’t want to scare her.

She ducks her head, twisting one of her feet on the ground nervously. “Nadia. I’m from the Pale Moon pack. I visited you.” She peeks up at me, to see my reaction.

I smile at her, and it seems to make her feel better. The nervous fidgeting stops now that she’s sure she isn’t in trouble. “I remember. How did you get here, Nadia?”

Nadia clasps her hands in front of her, swaying a little, she just can’t stay still. “I got sick, really sick. I was scared all the time, and cold. My mommy and daddy and alpha were all worried.”

The same condition the children in the orphanage have. It is affecting other packs. And it is deadly. I remember Professor Xander’s joke about coffee, and my stomach turns.

“No one knew what was wrong. Mommy read to me and gave me echinacea, and daddy held my hand while I got shots. They tried a lot of things, but nothing made me better.” Nadia closes her eyes, shivering.

My heart breaks. I can see it so clearly, her parents fussing over her, watching their little girl slip away and not being able to do anything about it. How many families have been hurt this way?

How many more will suffer the same if I can’t stop Nemesis? Her cruelty truly knows no bounds. She won’t spare anyone. I won’t let it happen. I won’t let any more families know this pain.

“I’m so sorry that happened to you, Nadia. That must have been very scary.” I hold my arms open, and she just stares at me for a moment, but then she rushes to me and lets me envelop her in a hug.

Nothing feels quite real in the spirit realm, and this is no exception, but I squeeze her as tight as I can anyway, hoping that she’ll feel it through the haze. She presses her face into my shoulder.

She speaks quietly, but I can hear her just fine. “It was scary. I didn’t know what was happening then, but now I do. Nemesis ate up all my energy, and I died.”

My shoulder grows damp, and Nadia shakes like a leaf in my arms. That’s the only way I know she’s crying, she keeps the sounds inside, and somehow that’s worse than if she wailed.

I hold her until she starts to squirm and only let her go reluctantly. I know it didn’t really help anything practically, but I feel a bit better, and Nadia looks a little less tired too.

I hate to ruin the mood, but I do have one more question I need Nadia to answer. “Why did you say ‘it won’t be enough’? What were you trying to tell me?”

“Oh, yeah! It’s really important.” Nadia takes both of my hands, looking seriously into my face. “As long as she’s got souls, you won’t be able to beat her. You need to free us all.”

I nod, squeezing her hands to show I understand. “I will. I promise. I know just what to do.” With what I found in the book, I should be able to capture all of the pieces of her soul.

Nadia scampers over to stand by Achlys. I’d almost forgotten she was here. The goddess takes her hand, Nadia’s small fingers wrapped around two of hers. My chest hurts looking at them.

Nadia smiles at me, revealing two missing teeth. “Will you tell my mommy and daddy that I love them a lot? And they don’t need to worry about me anymore, because Achlys is taking care of me.”

That threatens to make me cry again. But I stay strong. I don’t want to upset Nadia. “I’ll find them and tell them. What are their names?”

Nadia looks at me in confusion. “Mommy and daddy.”

Of course, she doesn’t know their first names. She’s too young. Grief and anger mingle and swirl inside of me. How else can I ask the question? Maybe the pack name is enough?

Achlys comes to my rescue and answers for her. “Liam and Mira Sutherland.”

I don’t know how she knows that, but I’m grateful anyway. “Got it. I promise I’ll tell them, Nadia.” It won’t be a fun conversation, but if I can bring them any peace, I have to try.

Achlys puts her hand on Nadia’s head, sorrow in every line of her body. “Time to go now, Nadia. You’ve given your message.”

Nadia pouts, but lets Achlys nudge her toward the mists. She turns back to me and waves. “Thank you, Rory. You can beat her. I know it.”

I wave back as she walks into the mists, disappearing into the mass. I keep waving long after I can’t see her anymore, my throat closed with pain.

I close my eyes and take deep breaths until they stop coming out shaky. I need to get it together. There’s no room for mistakes this time.

Nadia, my pack, Mia and Freya, Everett and our baby, they’re all counting on me. The pressure of it is almost overwhelming, but it’s not breaking me down.

Instead it feels like I’m being forged, hardened, like coal becoming a diamond. My resolve is firm. Nemesis won’t be able to break me. I’ll fight her to my last breath.

But if I’m going to win, I need to make a plan. Nemesis is poised on the verge of her return. She’s got an army of possessed rogues. Things look bleak, but there is a chance.

When I get back, I need to escape, to get to Everett. I need to tell him what I found in the book. If we can get Professor Xander’s necklace, the Eye of Nemesis, we can win.

The necklace is enchanted and can be used to capture souls. If we can gather up everyone who’s been possessed I can use it to pull Nemesis’s soul shards out of their bodies.

She’ll be trapped and no one’s life will be at risk, no poison and no high stakes healing. No one innocent has to die. But we have to find it before she and Professor Xander complete their ritual.

It isn’t much of a plan, but it’s all I’ve got. I’ll just have to trust the rest to fate, that the gods and goddesses will bring me what I need. They help those who help themselves, after all.

“Any last messages?” I ask Achlys, steeling myself for my return. I don’t know how much time has passed. I need to be ready to run as soon as I’m back in my body.

Achlys’s face is pinched with worry. “You must hurry, Aurora. Nemesis is gathering those she’s possessed to her, they will reach your home soon. Once they arrive, she can resurrect herself.”

Not good news. They’re already on pack land? It’s not much time. But her summoning the rogues she’s taken is also our only chance. We need them nearby to capture the soul shards.

It’s now or never. Everything is in place. Achlys is right. It’s time. I look at her, so like Nemesis, yet so completely different. “I’m ready now.”

She smiles her sad, mysterious smile. “Good luck, Aurora.” With a powerful shove, so much stronger than she looks, Achlys pushes me through the door of life and darkness claims me.

~I’m coming, everyone,~ I think as my mind shuts down, preparing me for my return. I just hope I’m not too late.