bChapter /bb68 /b

The guys led me up the esctors bto /ba roomb, /bnot really exining much along the wayb, /bbbut /bI have even more questions when I enter bto /bbsee /ba gargoyle sitting casually on a chair as a man whimpers in another. Tears streak his baged /bbface/bb, /band his hands shake in hisp as he looks down at them. It’s only when he looks up do I start to spiralb. /b

“Marius?”

“Envyb?/b” He says, confused. Looking me up and downb, /bbeforending on the darkb, /bmisting crown upon my head. He sucks in a sharp breath. “Are you alive?”

“I am…and you…are not.”

“bYou /bknow him?” Xavier asks, cing a hand on my lower back.

“Yeah…” My heart hammers, and my brain feels like it’s about to pop. Imagesb, /bshes of my childhood, I don’t recognise flood through my brain. I step further into Xavier’s embrace.

“What’s happening to her?b” /bHe says frantically as bI /bstruggle to find a coherent sentence.

“She’s remembering.” I hear a voiceb, /bbut it feels distant, strangeb, /bfoggy even, and then I’m sucked into the darkness. It feels like I’m watching a movie, but I’m a part of it.

A world surrounds me that looks like Tris packnds, a little girl runs past me with long ck hairb, /band she turns to look past me…no, it is me, that little girl, that’s me. I couldn’t be more than three at this point, and I’m running from Marius as heughs.

“Come back here, Envy! We can’t leave our postb!/bb” /b

Little meughs, ducking through trees with great speed.

?? ?????? ?? ??

The image flickers; it’s different now. I’m ying with two little pups in the gardenb, /bbefore rogues swarm from every direction. Pack members bscream /band fall, guards do their best to hold them offb, /bbut one breaks through the line andes straight for usb, /bhis jaw wide as he tears through one of the boys‘ throats. A wolf, one I know well, Felix, quickly runs towards bus/b, countering the attack and throwing down the rogue with force before snapping its neck. He shifts, cradling bthe /bpup as bthe /bother little pup cries, covered in his friend’s blood. “Shhh, sonb, /be here,” Felix says” softly as a tear slides down bhis /bface. Little Theo crawls to his dadb, /bhiding his bface /bin his shoulder as Felix brushes soft locks of hair away from the other boy…Zion. That’s Zion who’s dying. bI /bremember it now. My younger self crawls towards the triob, /bresting a hand on Zion’s stomach. Closing her eyesb, /bshe begins to glow a soft–blue hue, band /bthe blood coating his body begins to seep backwards, returning to its ce. Zion’s chest begins to rise and fall slowly and steadily as Felix watches with wide eyes.

“Daddy…she’s magic.” Thep gasps.

b“/bYes, bshe /bis.” A loudmanding voice says behind them. My younger bself /bstartlesb, /bhands withdrawing as she opens bher /beyes and beams with a smile so wide at Alpha Marcus.

“I…I fixed him, Alphab!/b”

Alpha Marcus kneels before meb, /bputting a hand on my shoulder bas /bhis eyes darken and a sinister smile spreads across his faceb. /b

“I knew it was you.” He grabs my little arm with benough /bforce that I shriek and thrash in his hold, but he pays me no mind as he drags me away from the carnage. My little hands outstretched to Felix, who is rooted on the ground holding Theo and Zion.

“They told bme /byou woulde hereb./b”

“Who?!” Little me cries out.

“The witchesb./bb” /b

bThe /bimages flicker and distort until I’m pulled from the darkness, raking in as much breath as I can. I find myself on my back on the floor, bmy /bmates hovering over me, as bwell /bbas /bthe gargoyle,

“Love!” Haiden says, quickly sliding myself under my head to cradle it.

“Alpha Marcus!” 1 stutter out.

bDo /byou like bthis /bbstory/b?

ADD bTO /bLIBRARY

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1:01 PM P P.

“We saw,” Levi states.

100

The gargoyle gives me a wary smile. “My apologies, my Queen. The Kings requested to see into your mind.”

b“/bIs that all you bsaw/bb? /bbIs /bthere more?!” I say, sitting up quickly. A little too quicklyb, /bas the room spins with dizziness.

“Your mind…some memories, bI /bcan sense a blockb, /bsomething dark. I can only assume blood magic has been used.” She says.

b“/bYou mean to tell me someone has taken my memories?”

“Not taken, no. They’ve just blocked you from essing them. Seeing Marius here must have cracked the spell slightly.”

“So how do we destroy itpletely?” Xavier asks, helping me off the floor and sitting me on hisp in a chair across from a very anxious- looking Marius.

“I’m not sure, my lord. I think now that it has been cracked, it’s only a matter of time before the rest flood through.”

I manage to sit up a little straighter to look directly at Marius.

“What happened to you? You were there one day and gone the next…I never saw you againb./bb” /b

b“/bOh, little Envy…I am so sorry.”

Four growls rumble through the room, and Levi says sternly, “You’ll address her properly. As your Queen.b” /b

“Sorry.” Marius stutters, and I re at each of my mates before politely asking him to continue.

He tells me about his version of events that day. About how Alpha Marcus had ordered the execution of the children, exining that he found what he was looking for and was no longer in need of the others. Marius had nned to get the kids out, but had to move up the timeframe. He just wasn’t quick enough.

“I failed them. I failed youb. /bI could have at least gotten you free, gotten you away from the pack.”

“You didn’t failb…/bbyou /bdid your best and that’s all you could do. I do have to ask, though. If Marius was collecting children, why wasn’t I ced with them? Why was I out in the pack with everyone else?”

He smiles softly. “When you were found, just off the border, there had been a mysterious fire that had ravaged through that part of the woods, but there you wereb, /bsitting bin /bthe middle of ba /bgreen patch of grassb, /bpletely untouched. No one could understand how it was that you were unharmed or how the life around you bwas /bthriving, but when Beta Felix took you to the Alpha, exining what we saw, he said you were to be raised by the warriors. We were all told not to get too attached, but to bkeep /ba close eye on you and if anything, strange or unnatural urred, to let him know.i” /i

“And then I saved Zion’s life…” I say connecting the dots while Marius nods.

“He was waiting to bsee /bif you really were special, as bwe /bball /bbelieved.”

b“/band I showed him…”

This work, Goddess of the Underworld by Sheridan Hartinb, /bbis /ban exclusive intellectual property legally contracted with NovelSnack. Any reproduction, distribution, or upload outside Novel Flow, AnyStories, NovGo, and Readink is unauthorized and constitutes copyright infringement.

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