Chapter 169

Hannah

Sebastian was quick to pull himself off me. I rolled off the bed and grabbed my nightgown off the ground, throwing it over my head and covering my body. Sebastian grabbed his pants and put them on just as quickly. The screaming in Wren’s room continued and my heart raced against my chest rapidly.

I ran from the room with Sebastian trailing closely behind me. Raya and Arnold were also coming out of their room, but they didn’t look as frightened. They glanced at me with worried frowns.

“It’s another vision,” Raya explained. “It happens when she falls asleep…”

This was a normal thing that happened? I knew she had nightmares or visions, but I never imagined she would be screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night. I heard the crying of a baby a couple of doors down.

“I’ll go get AJ,” Arnold said, strolling toward his son’s room.

Sebastian had already opened the door to Wren’s room and made his way to her. I followed him. Wrenley’s entire body was shivering violently, almost to the point where it looked like a seizer. She continued screaming and I saw tears running down her face. Beads of sweat collected on her forehead and dripped down her narrow features.

Liam was curled up on his cot looking terrified, covering his ears.

“Wrenley?” I said, touching her face. I wanted to wake her up and tell her that it was going to be okay.

“It’s not safe to wake someone during a vision,” Sebastian said, motioning for me to back off her. He couldn’t be serious. Our daughter was freaking out and he just wanted to sit back and watch it happen? “I’ve learned it growing up with witches,” Sebastian added.

That made sense: his mother had a witchy bloodline, and his sister was half-witch as well.

“So, we just wait for her vision to be over?” I asked without taking my eyes off Wren.

“It’s the best thing for her,” Sebastian answered. “It shouldn’t take much longer.”

We waited a few more moments as Wren tossed and turned; more tears sprang from her eyes and her body continued to shake. Just when I thought I couldn’t handle much more of it, she opened her eyes and gasped. She shot up in bed and looked around her dimly lit room wildly. She fixated her eyes on me and it seemed her entire body relaxed.

I wrapped my arms around her, holding her close to me.

“It’s okay,” I breathed to her. “You’re safe.”

“What did you see?” Sebastian asked, eyeing her carefully.

I shot him an annoyed look; this was hardly the time to harass our daughter and ask her what her vision was about. She needed to calm down first and know that she was safe. She was quiet for a moment as she processed what she had just seen.

“I saw this woman,” Wren breathed. “She was being stabbed in the heart with this weird-looking sword. She didn’t die though; I thought she was going to. But she didn’t. The sword seemed to give her something, like power or something. Then she looked at me…”

“She looked at you?” Sebastian asked. “She could see you?”

Wren thought about it for a moment before nodding.

“She could see me,” she confirmed. “She looked right at me and said ‘we’ve already won.’”

“What did this woman look like?” I found myself asking; I was afraid I already knew the answer.

Wrenley glanced up at me and narrowed her eyes.

“Like you, mommy.”

My heart sunk into my stomach; that woman she saw, was my mother. I wasn’t sure what to say in response, so I said nothing. Could her vision have been real? Was my mother stabbed in the heart? What was the weird sword that stabbed her?”

“Did you see who it was that stabbed her?” Sebastian asked.

Her face grew pale as she got lost in her thoughts. She nodded and stared down at her fingers, tugging at them nervously.

“It was the same guy as it always is. He’s tall and has a dark aura. He frightens me…”

“Xander,” Sebastian said under his breath.

“Was this the past or the future?” I asked the question that everyone was wondering.

“The past,” said Liam from his cot. He was still curled up, but he was no longer holding onto his ears. He stared down at his feet and shuffled nervously. There was something weighing on his mind.

“Liam?” I asked cautiously, narrowing my eyes at him. “What exactly do you know?”

“I saw it happen,” he said, meeting my eyes.

“I saw Uncle Liam there too, mommy,” Wren said. “He was frozen, and he had tears in his eyes.”

My heart broke for my brother; he watched as Xander stabbed our mother in the heart. I could only imagine how that must have made him feel. He had already lost her once; I knew he didn’t want to lose her again.

“It was the moonstone that Sebastian stole back. He stabbed her in the heart with the scepter and gave her all this weird power. He told her it was temporary and once he gets what he wants, she will get what she wants.”

“What exactly does mom want?” I asked, feeling my heart grow unsteady in my chest.

“Freedom,” Liam said sadly. “He promised that she can have a new life amongst the living.”

“How is that possible?” I asked, looking around at everyone in the room. “Her body is long decomposed. She doesn’t have a body to return to.”

“Maybe he wasn’t planning on giving her body back to her,” Sebastian said, saying what everyone was thinking. “Maybe he was going to give her a new body.”

“He said the Bluemoon will be the day that everyone will get what they want,” Liam continued. “I’m not sure what that meant.”

“Jack, or uhm, Xander, mentioned that the moonstone doesn’t hold its powers anymore. He’s drained most of the powers and is holding it for safekeeping,” Sebastian pointed out. “It sounds like he stored it inside of your mother. He still has the power of the moonstone.”

“But he doesn’t have your wolf anymore,” I added. “So, he can’t open the portal.”

“No, he doesn’t, which is why he’s using vessels, because he can’t come here himself. With the power of the moonstone and the Bluemoon combined, he can become these vessels. Right now, the vessels are like robots, but during the Bluemoon, he might be powerful enough to conquer these bodies and become them.”

“So, Jack wouldn’t just be a vessel and do as Xander asks. He will actually be Xander,” I breathed. “So, what would happen to the actual Jack and anyone else that Xander conquers?” I asked.

We all fell silent as we processed all that has been said and while we pondered that question. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer, but I had a feeling I already did know.

“You don’t think…” Raya breathed, staring worriedly between everybody. “You don’t think that once he conquers the bodies, their souls will be trapped in the underworld… do you?”

I hated to admit it, but that was exactly what I was thinking.