F I F T Y - F I V E

NOVA

The first thing I heard was nails scrapping again the earth, the smell of moldy dampness and ash permeated the air, slowly awakening my exhausted consciousness.

My entire body jolted in utter agony as my brain finally woke up long enough to process where I was and what was happening.

I must have been passed out a while ago because I don't know how far or long we've travelled to get here.

It must have been a while considering that the creature was about six feet deep into his digging, the only thing visible from his entire decayed corpse being his large wolf head.

Whatever it was digging for, whatever it wanted to find, must have been really important if it diverted its course to bring me here.

My bleary eyes blinked rapidly, adjusting to the complete darkness surrounding me before taking in my surroundings.

I was in a room, that much was clear from the items occupying it, but farther than that I knew little else.

I released a breath, lying back on the soggy floor and looked towards the ceiling.

Only to be met with a sight that had me inhaling a sharp breath.

Above me, the night sky was illuminated by brilliant hues of pink, purples, and turquoise, the lights almost resembling the Northern Lights... Except for the fact that the lights were in the shape of a dome.

I inhaled sharply at the realization...

The Equinox...

I was near the Equinox, the border that trapped the Fae and all their lands in on themselves.

Why would the creature drag me here out of all places?

According to all the journal I picked up from the library, and the lectures the Professors taught in class, the area surrounding the Equinox was uninhabitable due to the distinct power influxes that radiated from it throughout the day.

Because the Fae were the only ones capable of wielding old, pure magik; the magik that the Fae Royals relinquish to the Equinox in order to keep it whole, the radiation would be harmful to any other supernatural being or faction that tried to inhabit the land.

Which lead me to believe one thing: I was going to die.

It was just a matter of what was going to kill me first, the Fae magik or the creature in front of me.

I sat up gently, willing the nausea that arose away and wincing as the wounds on my leg and in my shoulder throbbed, the warmth of blood pooling underneath me soaking through my jeans.

The creatures head snapped towards me at the sounds of the creaking floorboards, a growl rising from low in his throat.

I froze as we just stared at each other for a few minutes, his icy eyes sweeping across my face almost knowingly.

This look, the one he was currently giving me, was so different from the one I've seen him wearing while he was chasing me and the others. And while there was still a deep seated savagery in their depths, it was shrouded by an air of intelligence that I didn't suspect a monster of its caliber was capable of possessing.

Without taking its eyes off of me, the creature unhinged his jaw and haunched low.

My heart stuttered to a stop as my eyes immediately shut closed.

This was it...this was finally how I was going to die.

When nothing happened after a few moments, and I didn't feel the sharp sting of fangs piercing through my skin, I opened my eyes and immediately tensed.

The creature was sitting a few feet away, its hulking frame completely stock still as it loomed over me with a metal tin hanging from its mouth.

As soon as it realized that it had my attention, the creature unhinged his jaw and dropped the tin.

Rattling sounded as the tin landed in between us, the creature letting out a small growl as he looked from me to the tin and then back again.

With trembling hands I reached for the tin and opened it, keeping an eye on the Creature as I did so.

The contents inside made my heart drop and as gently as I could, I dusted off a few specks of dirt and dust from a familiar looking picture.

A picture that I've look at probably a million times over the last two days.

And while the man holding the ultrasound with a proud smile was nothing new, the woman standing next to him wearing a similar beaming smile definitely was.

My breath caught...

I...she...we looked just alike...

My Mother...My real mother...

My breath caught as I gazed down at her for the first time, my eyes tracing over every inch of her tiny frame.

She was small, way smaller than either mine or Wolfe's tall statues, with long hair that was so dark that it looked like it had blue mixed into it, the color of a raven feather.

And although our heights were different, our features were so similar that we even had light freckles dusting across our noses in the exact same place.

The only other thing different about us were our eyes...

And while she did have blue eyes, hers more of a cerulean blue, ours weren't the same.

I inherited Wolfe Lupine's glacial eyes.

I flipped over the picture and traced the words written on the back.

Wolfe, Noëlani, and little Nova <3

My parents.

These were my parents...my birth parents...both of them together in this picture.

The creature growled once more and I lifted my eyes from the photos to look at him.

He inclined his head, motioning for me to keep going.

I shuffled to the next photo, this one of the my mother sketching a familiar scene on a window in the Lupine Mansion, her grinning face smeared with different colors of paint as she posed for the photo.

The next photo had sorrow slithering it's way up my chest, tightening its fist around my heart as I continued to gaze down at the photo.

My eyes slid from the Wolf in the photo to the Creature.

Because, besides from the obvious deformities of the Creature in front of me, I couldn't deny that the fact that the Wolf from the photo was the creature sitting in front of me.

And when I turned the photo over to confirm my suspicions, a heart breaking sob left my lips before I could stop it.

Wolfe showing off in Wolf form ;)