Chapter 5: The Luna Who Wasn't Dead

Jasmina and Theo are now in the rotten smelling tunnel.

Theo's torch threw shadows on the walls. Jasmina followed him, stumbling every few steps. The silver cuffs on her wrists burned straight through to bone. He'd tried to pick the locks but couldn't manage it.

The baby hadn't moved in over an hour.

"We're close," Theo said. "Another ten minutes and we'll be…"

Then a growling sound cut him off. As they looked closer, they saw yellow eyes in the edges. Dozens of them, surrounding them from all sides.

Theo drew his knife and yelled... "Run!"

A gray wolf the size of a horse slammed into him before he could finish. He went down hard, his head cracking against the tunnel wall. The torch fell and rolled away.

And on the other hand, another wolf’s claws caught Jasmina's shoulder and threw her sideways. She landed on her bad arm and screamed. The fall made aaathe silver cuffs dug deeper.

"Stop." A voice commanded and all the wolves froze.

A woman walked into the torchlight. Scars covered half her face, with grey streaked through her hair. She wore old leather armor with claw marks gouged into the chest plate.

"Leave them," she said. And immediately the wolves backed away.

Theo pushed himself up, blood pouring from his forehead. "Who the hell…"

"Lyanna Herstrong." The woman looked at Jasmina. "I was happy about you giving me a grandchild, till I heard the bad new about you no longer being a Luna and you killing your mate."

Jasmina stared in huge shock after seeing the woman clearly, and her name also confirmed all her growing doubts. "You.. are… dead."

"Clearly not." Lyanna crouched beside her. "You're Jasmina Lesvendstrong. Accused of murdering my son."

"I didn't…."

"I know. Arlene killed him." Lyanna stood and walked to where Theo was still trying to stand. "How's your head?"

"Split open. All thanks to….."

"You'll live." She turned back to Jasmina. "We've been tracking Arlene for three years. We have lost her trail twice, but we finally figured out where she was hiding."

"The packhouse," Theo muttered. "She wasn't hiding at all."

"Best place to hide is in plain sight." Lyanna pulled something from her belt. A portrait, but the edges were burned. She held it toward the light.

The woman in the painting looked exactly like Arlene. Same face, and same eyes. But the clothes were looking so ancient and formal. At the bottom, someone had written a name in careful script:

Morgana Blackthorne, 1611.

"That's not possible," Jasmina said. "Arlene's twenty-four. That painting is…."

"Hundreds of years ago." Lyanna tucked it away. "Morgana Blackthorne was the Witch Queen's daughter. Everyone assumed she died during the purge with her mother. But she didn't."

Theo wiped blood from his eyes. "She changed her name."

"She changed everything. Name, scent, history… like every single thing. She used magic to make herself look different." Lyanna started pacing. "She was eight when her mother died. She spent the next sixteen years planning revenge."

"Revenge for what?" Jasmina asked.

"Her mother tried to overthrow the werewolf packs. She took control using blood magic and old spells. The packs united and killed her." Lyanna stopped pacing. "Arlene wants to finish what her mother started. But she's smarter. She's not starting a war. She's opening the Lycan Vault."

"To control the packs," Theo said.

"To eradicate them." Lyanna's voice went flat. "That vault doesn't just control bloodlines. It destroys them. One command and every wolf with Lycan King blood dies. That's seventy percent of all werewolves."

Jasmina couldn't breathe. "She's going to kill everyone."

"Everyone who matters. Then she rebuilds with witches in charge." Lyanna looked at her. "And she needs your baby to do it."

"Theo told me that already."

"There's more." Lyanna crouched again, her eyes level with Jasmina's. "Damoew isn't dead."

"Theo also told me that.” Jasmina said but Lyanna continued anyway.

"Well he’s in stasis. It’s a death spell, or let me say like dead, smells dead, but he's alive." Lyanna stood up again. "The spell lasts fourteen days. After that, it either breaks on its own or becomes permanent, depending on what the caster wants."

"What if I die to stop all of…"

"Arlene becomes Luna permanently, because the spell will lock and Damoew stays trapped forever." Lyanna cuts her off, then pulled out a knife from her boot. "But that's not the worst part. There's a parasitic spell on him. It's draining your baby's life to keep him in stasis."

Jasmina's hand went to her stomach. The baby still wasn't moving.

"Was that why my baby stopped moving? Does it mean she hasn’t transfer the baby to her womb? How long do I have?" she asked all at ones.

"Calm down… Take a deep breath.” Jasmina took a deep breath as Lyanna stroke down her hair then continued talking.

“Yes, that was the reason your baby stopped moving, the baby is already too weak. And I don’t think she has done the pregnancy transfer yet.” Lyanna helped Theo up. “ I think you have two days left, or maybe less." Lyanna tested the edge of her knife with her thumb. "After that, your baby dies and Damoew wakes up, and she will be caring the heir which is your child. And Damoew won't be himself. He'll be Arlene's puppet. Completely under her control."

"Can we break the spell?"

"Yes. But we need his body, a witch who knows death magic, and something to sacrifice." Lyanna turn. "I can get you into the tomb where they're keeping him. I can fake your death so Arlene will focus on finding other means to break the fault. But you need to decide right now if you trust me."

Theo finally regained a little strength, he was leaning against the wall where Lyanna helped him stay. "You disappeared twenty years ago. Let your son think you were dead. Why should we believe anything you say?"

"Because I didn't disappear. The elders exiled me." Lyanna's voice turned bitter. "Someone put a compulsion spell on Damoew when he was twelve. I tried to break it. Hardy Armstrong and Jetstar Clonstrong said I was teaching him dark magic. They gave me a choice: leave and stay quiet, or face execution."

"So you ran," Jasmina said.

"I survived." Lyanna sheathed her knife. "And I've been hunting the witch who cursed my son ever since. It took me fifteen years to figure out it was Arlene. By then, she'd already wormed her way into the pack."

"The compulsion spell," Theo said slowly. "How long has she been controlling him?"

"Since he was nineteen. She reinforced her mother's old magic, made it stronger." Lyanna looked at Jasmina. "Everything he's done for the past six years? That wasn't him. That was Arlene pulling strings."

Jasmina thought about Damoew's face on the coronation platform. The coldness in his eyes when he ordered their baby killed. The way he'd looked at her like she was nothing.

"I want to save him," she said quietly.

"Then take my hand."

Jasmina looked at the scarred woman standing over her. Damoew's mother, supposedly dead for two decades. Leading a pack of rogues in the tunnels beneath the packhouse.

She took Lyanna's hand. Lyanna pulled her up. The silver cuffs burned but Jasmina gritted her teeth and stayed standing.

"First thing," Lyanna said. "We steal Damoew's body from the tomb. Second, we find a witch. Third, we break the spell before your baby dies." She looked between them. "And fourth, we make Arlene pay for every life she's destroyed."

"How?" Theo asked.

Lyanna smiled. "We let her open the vault. Then we collapse it on her head.”