"Holy shit." Her dolled up lips lose their innocence, curses thrown towards the still lampshade until her chest heaves for a wandering breath. "What the fuck." Each word mimics the time, slow, drawn out, dragging out of her throat in perpetual shock at the situation. "And why are you, of all people, still able to move?"

Cocking a grin I tilt my head, grabbing onto her with charmed eyes glinting and persuasive lips in their daring curve. "Because I'm Arehli?"

A joking smile crosses her lips if only for a moment, weight falling on one leg as her hip juts out, nimble fingers crossing each other as she thinks. "Please don't use that as an excuse from now on."

The stunt loosens her up, attention no longer glued to the lamp but glancing from it, to me, to her own two hands stretched in front of her. The confusion is clearly read in the way she holds herself, once more lost in thought as if I had never followed her into this damned room. Would I have frozen too if I wasn't with her?

My fingers curl up, eyes wandering to them as a distraction to break our silence. Each finger presses to my palm and back, ring finger scratching against dried blood on its way back down. One, two, three four. One, two, three, four. The mind numbing pattern continues, its hypnotic sound giving the both of us a break as I begin to count aloud, Mikayla soon taking notice.

Has Jules frozen? Ezra? Liam? I count faster, reopening a wound as each finger flys across my palm and back, foot tapping to the speed of my heart against the quickly wearing wood. Kaiien? Are they like this forever? Have their hearts frozen? Their blood? With each new question I begin to lose focus, skipping two, tapping my pinky twice or throwing in my thumb. With squinted eyes I continue, body leant over the limb until a hand stretches over it, the tan contrasting with my paling skin beneath it. Pretty soon her skin will be like mine...


She points to the window with her free hand, eyes wide and hand over my mouth. A small growl is enough for her to stop touching me, instead pointing once more to the figure roaming around the courtyard, cloak sweeping up the loose snow around him as his figure conceals itself in its smoke. It draws closer to the window, the head of curls beside me falling to the floor and peeking occasionally.

Though I know who it is I let her see it as a threat, his willowy shadow enough to give him away for me. Upon seeing me still sitting on the small bed, head rested against its light cedar posts, the fear drains from her eyes, color lighting once her initial threat is over.

Kai eventually makes his way to the window, the frost covering most of his face though his initial features can still be made out. Even through the fogging his eyes are visible, ice on ice though their warmth seemingly melts the frost within the room. He glances around him, bringing up his arms in question of what lies around him. A knock hits the glass as he beckons around him once more, lips pulling into a pout until the reflection of my eyes catches in his, body freezing, part of the crowd once more as a figure passes by in the distance.

In seconds I'm out the door of the building, a stunned Kai following foot as his cloak catches the wind, snow flying as I slip against the thin layer of ice forming over the soft packed snow. It falls on my hair, sticking to my skin and lashes as it weighs them down, blinding me for mere moments, long enough for the figure to slip by me.

Neck snapping, I fight the blinding white of the falling snow, blood steadily streaming into my mouth from biting my lip against the pain of the cold. Ice still accumulates on my back and hair, hand shielding my eyes as I run in every direction, a hand sweeping across my shoulder before a cloak replaces it.

He points downward at something being buried in the mess, a sweep of his cloak enough to excavate the hidden clues beneath.

Paw prints.

They lead into the woods, but are lost under the shelter of the trees.

Another hand folds over my shoulder, the sounds of life beginning to replay as a man is slammed to the ice, a woman cheers, a child coughs, each noise beautiful in its own, a refresher from the deathly silence that took over us moments ago, a silence strong enough to drive one to madness.

"Liam."

Kaiien is gone just the two of us left near the opening of the darkening trees, whatever was inside them now ten times as menacing. A chill follows my blood, riding the length of my body until the fear it releases takes up every part of my being, Liam seemingly taking notice and drawing me away the slightest.

His eyes darken, eyes glancing to his right before he leans in, hand slyly slipping under my cloak and between my clothes, the heat pulsing through me from just one touch. "Moon, it's been too long for you...you're body is going to try to reject a mate if you wait any longer." As he speaks his hands find their way to the curve of my back, pulling me closer into his body, tempting what little restraint I've held to get me through the last couple of days without him.

He speaks as if I haven't been constantly thinking of him and not knowing why. As if I'm just okay. Okay with my world falling around me in every way it can. As if the jealousy of him being around anyone but me hasn't been a gut wrenching distraction, as if I don't think of the first night with him, of how much better I felt than this shit I feel now.

"I-I." My words are strangled, just breathes of air hitting his ears as his hands travel further down my body, hands slipping deeper beneath my close, hands pushing me away from the crowd.

"I-mhm." The heat inside my cloak is suffocating, whimpers clawing out of my throat as I touch him, nails dragging against his skin as he pushes himself closer to me, hands getting closer and closer to my skin, hands pushing me further and further until I can no longer see the crowd, just him inside the mouth of the woods. Just him as he lays me against a spot of dry moss underneath the shade of the trees. Just him as my cloak comes off and i'm enclosed in the dark.



***



"Moon? Moon wake up." Liam's arm pokes at mine, his blood fresh on my lips as I speak his name in response, metal clashing with the taste of his name, the sweetness ruined by salt.

"Are you okay?"

Ignoring the question he sits me up and out of the moss, brushing off my bare and scratched back before tossing me my scattered clothing. "Uh..." Blood rushes to his head as he attempts to hide it, hand brushing the back of his neck as he nods. "Yeah...do you remember anything?"

Something tells me these scratches aren't from spare branches. "No. Was everything okay?"

"Perfect!" He rushes, pulling me farther from the brush. His embarrassment soon subsides, hand falling against my tapping knee before rubbing circles into the bone, eyes never once meeting mine. "I was worried about you...how you would act."

Face to the sky I try to ignore his words, to focus on the sparse sunlight reaching through the clustered leaves, the snow thick at the tops and filtering what light can come in. Through a small crack the cloudless sky shines through, sun blinding from the peephole and casting down a small circle of light onto the two of us. The concern in his voice is slightly worrying, his attachment blossoming so quickly...

"Moon, we need to do this again soon."

"I kind of have a lot on my mind right now."

"Moon." Something changes in him, his earlier pleas hardening into more of a threatening warning, eyes darkening ahead of me as he leans in, hands square on my thighs and kisses the side of my cheek, an indescribable pain left behind as he draws back ever so slightly.

"I'm going to look for Ezra." I say, voice void of any emotion, fingers groping at his kiss as I get up to leave, his eyes never leaving my spine.

Sector G is surprisingly empty, the inhabitants all in the courtyard cheering on whatever creature is being slaughtered in the rings. Kicking a piece of rubble aside I find my bed and Ezra's, his single strip of ribbon coiled into a tight ringlet against his pillow, the bright colored cloth violently standing out in the black and grey atmosphere. Peering around the corner yields no result in the man, the rubble pile, blood still dripping down it, empty except for a rat or two, their snickering still audible as they scatter and hide in various corners of the room.

As the rats clear out a new sound files in, the sharp voice of a girl against the deeper tone of an all too familiar baritone. They come from the makeshift infirmary, my hands helping to guide myself down the slick staircase and closer to the voices. The air smells of wet dogs, hand dragging against something slimy for a good ten feet as I continue down the winding staircase and into the basement of the Sector. The further down you go the more the air smells like chemicals, the scent burning the back of your throat as it assaults your eyes with its overpowering stench. I can't believe I never noticed how bad it smelled before.

Pausing at the second to last step I listen in on them, Ezra letting out a laugh as he seems to knock into something, arms hitting the table as the clash of bottles goes mad. "Be careful! If any of these break we might as well have been gassed."

"Why can't I get it right?!" The voice strikes me. Mikayla?

"Just try harder, keep it contained in this- hello Moon." He hasn't even turned around, a light chill going up the sides of my arms as the hair stands on end, his face finally turning towards me with a welcoming smile. "I figured that was you."

"What are you...?"

"I'm learning to control whatever this is." She smiles, gesturing towards both her hands. "How do you make it look so easy?" Her hands fall to her sides, a book sliding from her lap as she mumbles to herself. "Now I see why you're always studying."

Guilt stabs at my chest, her eyes never meeting mine though she continues to address me, blush rising steadily up her neck one failed attempt after another, embarrassment swirled along her high cheekbones and arched along the curve of her ears. "Just try again." I push, syrup dripping in each word as I fold my arms across my tightening chest, ribs constricting my lungs until I'm lightheaded.

A small ball of light flows from the palms of her hands, the golden sphere casting a fuzzy shadow across the dark room, illuminating our faces as she looks up from her hands, Ezra smiling back at her though she looks to me for reassurance. Looking away she gets the hint, the light dulling slightly and another jab of guilt piercing through me.

"That was really good, Mikayla." His voice is distant, eyes on my looming figure cast to the side. He props his elbows over the medical table, hand folded over hers as he once again reassures her, telling her she'll be able to control it soon.

We're once again in the dark, dust floating in the small streams of light coming from the floor above. The room has fallen into silence, a ball of light occasionally rising from her cupped hands, encouragement coming from Ezra here and there. It seems an eternity but ten minutes later she's up and leaving, dragging her hands across the damp wall and leading herself back into the light of the upper levels.

Any awkwardness has left the room with her, the stuffiness of the basement filled with new air as I take her place. Absentmindedly, I make another ball and cast it overhead of us, the tiny orb, no bigger than a ping pong ball, lights the entire room and then some as a slight smirk creeps along the edges of his lips. "I saw you leave with Liam."

Eyebrow raised I lean back into the unsteady chair, one hand on the table for balance as the other lays flat across my tag. "Yeah," A sheepish grin fights it way onto my lips, the room ten degrees warmer as my face lights up in embarrassment. "he just wanted to talk."

"Is that what it's called nowadays?" With a chuckle he rises up from his seat, pulling my chair back down before curling a piece of hair back behind my ear and taking his seat at the edge of the table.

As his laughter dies down we're left in a peaceful silence, quiet enough to let me think, to fear and stress over anything and everything. "So what happens now?"

"Well," His breaths are long, drenched in worry though he refuses to let it be known. "We have Arehli, we have the Crossblood, now we just need to stop the rest of this Hell." With a bitter laugh he leans into his seat, ankle crossed over his knee before leaning into it, propping his elbows against the gleaming medical table.

"I haven't stopped thinking about what Faramund said."

"Good."

"But I haven't come up with anything new..."

He raises at the moment bells chime from the upper levels over the camp, brows furrowing as he looks to the ceiling of the basement, one brow cocked as his attention turns to me. "Sleep on it." With that he's disappearing up the steps, head tilted towards the ceiling the entire way, bells continuing to chime a piercing melody, resembling screams more than any note on a scale.

Following suit I make my way to the upper levels, hand folding into Ezra's as he drags me into the crowd gathering, their puzzled expressions matching our own as I'm wrapped tightly in a cloak, body trembling from the cold though I hold out for the sake of curiosity.

It staggers on its hind legs, a roaring growl silencing the crowd, a part of me wishing to flee the scene as I view the beast on the platform, the ear shattering bell still chiming as it calls out its cry, echoing the bear's message. "Bring me the Crossblood and bring me the lion."

The crowd is frantic, fear forcing them to act out his pleas, there's enough of a commotion that no one notices us sneaking out the back, swirls of black and white concealing us as Ezra drags me along to the edge of the forest, cheeks heating up at the thought of Liam though my pulled hood conceals my face.

"Ezra." At the sound of my voice he stops, brushing back my hair before pulling the cloak tighter around me, ignoring the fear in my eyes for just a moment as he continues on, my legs trembling the farther we distance ourselves from the crowd.

"It's alright."

He's throwing me into the brush and thicket, pulling away at my cloak and hiding it under his own as he packs the leaves tighter around me, fear deep set in his eyes, fingers shaking as he ignores the scratches of the thorns against his palms only packing it in tighter as he repeatedly glances over his shoulder. Soon I can no longer see him, just the blackness of the leaves and a bit of green as the sun flickers through my small breathing hole. It's suffocating, but it's safe.

Man after man passes my small pile, each one striking fear through my heart as I hold my breath, scared that the smallest movement will let them know I'm here.

Hours seem to pass by, the men trickling down until only one or two come by every half hour, their faces annoyed as they search through every branch and cave in hopes of finding me. In the distance a growl is heard, the noise sparking something dormant deep inside me to ignite, a growl rising from my own throat as the sound nears. The small bit of light is extinguished as my vision blacks out, only the sound of our rivaling growls audible, everything else silenced and pushed aside.

It nears my hideout, blood boiling until its seemingly in front of me, head pounding until something grabs at me and I grab back into the blinding abyss, the growls die down, my vision returns, and my cover is blown. The shifter used to out me has been shot and thrown away, its body kicked out of the way as spotted blood bleeds into the earth, the stench of it enough to have me doubled over though the men restraining my arms instantly pull me straight again.

We don't go back to the camp, instead making a turn and heading deeper into the woods the way we must have came in, a light path of worn dirt and trampled grass leading the way as I'm thrown into what seems to be a carriage in the middle of the woods. Snow sprinkles on the top of the red and purple carriage, trees acting as an umbrella as it stops the flood from crushing the entire parade. Men swarm the cart, a beast entering the luxury cart and sliding in beside me.

Stroking the padded velvet seats I ignore his presence until his claws dig under my chin, pulling my face to look at him. "I look forward to working with you, Moon."

I don't have the strength to physically fight him, words absent from my dried mouth as I lean my head against the curtain covered windows, the dark red interior of the carriage seeming to block out any light that could possible reach it. We ride smoothly for a while, silence sticking to the velvety seats and satin sides until he once more speaks up, every word a deep growl.

"I hope that as General you'll be able to lead the shifters to victory over the Crossblood." I don't respond, his rough paw crossing the small barrier between us and landing on my thigh, suffocating smoke filling the interior before the massive paw shifts into a human hand, the man smiling up at me with dark eyes and a sinister grin. "You're special, Moon...or do you prefer Arehli?"

He leans back with a laugh, legs crossed as he stares through my soul, the dread of the remainder of the ride weighing down on me as I slink away from the man across from me, his eyes never leaving my side.