Chapter 180

Hannah

“What’s the rush? It’s not even midnight yet. The fun hasn’t even started,” Jack said, keeping his eyes locked on Sebastian. He was taunting us because he thinks he won. Meanwhile, Amy kept her eyes locked on me.

“I’m afraid we can’t stay,” Sebastian said, keeping his tone even and unbothered. “But thank you for the invitation. It was a lovely ball.”

Sebastian started to turn away, but Jack spoke again, causing him to pause.

“I don’t particularly like when my guests wander around the palace without my permission.”

“My apologies,” Sebastian said, turning slightly to look at him. “I wanted to see if my belongings are here. We don’t have much considering we haven’t been on this land in 5 years.”

Jack assesses his face like he was trying to figure out if he was telling the truth or not.

“Your belongings are in storage. I can send you the address for it later,” Jack offered.

“That would be great, thank you,” Sebastian said in return.

Amy stepped forward and toward me; I knew Jack was a vessel, but I couldn’t tell if Amy was too. She was always only after the crown and now she was finally getting what she wanted, or at least she thinks she is. She also had no idea that Jack/Xander was only using her. If she wasn’t a vessel, she was going to get hurt. She gave me the usual plastered smile she’s given me so many times in the past.

“It’s wonderful to see you again, Hannah,” she said, trying to remain kind and unbothered. “We’ll have to grab lunch at some point to catch up. You’ve been gone for so long.”

“That would be wonderful,” I told her. “We really do have to go, though,” I said, staring between the two.

“Right, because of your daughter?” Amy asked, watching my every facial movement.

“Yes, exactly. We promised we wouldn’t be late tonight.”

“Then, we won’t keep you,” Jack said with a plastered grin.

We turned away after our final goodbyes and we scurried out of the palace. My heart was racing so quickly that I thought it was going to jump out of my chest.

“How did it go?” Arnold asked as we entered his waiting car.

“We got the emblem,” Sebastian said with a grin as he pulled the red crescent moon out of his pocket.

It was glowing faintly in his hands and the beauty of it took my breath away. I vaguely remember Magnolia wearing this as a necklace and it never glowed like that before. I reached my hand out to touch the smooth corners of the emblem and it started glowing a little more. I could feel the heat that was radiating off the emblem. It was powerful. It belonged to the moonstone. We needed to get it back right away.

“So, what’s the plan now? We have an hour before midnight. Are you going to open the portal once we get back?” Arnold asked as he started driving away from the palace.

I stared over at Sebastian, waiting for him to answer. I was unsure of the exact plan too, but I knew we needed to stop Xander before midnight. At midnight Xander was going to take full control of all the vessels. We had to stop him before it was too late.

“We’ll open the portal and return to the underworld,” Sebastian said, glancing at me. “We don’t know what time or day it’ll be when we return there. So, we need to be prepared for anything.”

I nodded in agreement.

We entered the crescent moon pack; per usual, everybody was hidden inside their homes. Nobody dared to walk the streets after curfew. As we entered the house, Raya was the first to greet us. She ran to me and gave me a hug.

“I’m so glad you made it out alive,” she breathed. “What happened? Did you get the emblem?”

Sebastian pulled the emblem out of his pocket and revealed it to them. They all gasped in amazement. Wrenley was curled up on the couch with Liam. They were both watching a program on the TV; something that wasn’t the news for once. It looked like a cartoon; I was relieved she was doing something that little girls were supposed to do.

“Has she had any more visions?” I asked, looking over at Raya.

She shook her head with a faint smile.

“Meditation seems to help. Whenever she starts to get lost in her mind, she will close her eyes and focus on her breathing,” Raya answered.

That made me so happy to hear.

Nancy approached sheepishly; her eyes were wide, and I could see the questions and concerns lingering behind them.

“Nancy…” I breathed to her as the thought of Dr. Davis roamed through my mind.

“Did you happen to see my husband?” She asked; I knew she was worried about the answer.

I nodded my eyes once and it seemed as if she stopped breathing.

“It’s not good, Nancy…” I told her honestly; I wasn’t going to lie to her. She needed to know everything that was going on. “He’s been tortured. They are locking him and dozens of others in the dungeon, letting them fight for their lives. I couldn’t get him out…”

“You couldn’t, or you wouldn’t?” Nancy shot back to me.

I knew she was going to be upset; specifically, at me for not getting him out of there.

“You must understand that if I were to try to leave with him, it would jeopardize everything we aimed for tonight. It would put us all in danger.”

“I understand just perfectly,” Nancy growled. “My husband’s life means little to you. You never cared about him; you only ever cared about yourself. Now he’s going to die in the palace dungeon because you were worried about your little plan being foiled.”

“That’s not fair, Nancy. We are doing this to save everybody. If we pull this off, everything will go back to normal, and you will have him back.”

“And if it fails and he dies anyway? Then I’m alone,” she said; tears welled up in her eyes as she said that last part.

“You are not alone,” I told her, lowering my tone. “Not anymore. You’ve already proved you’re on our side. You have us as friends now. We must stick together if we want this to work. I need you to trust me.”

“When I have my husband back, then I’ll trust you,” she said, turning away from me.

“He wanted me to tell you that he loves you and that he’s sorry he couldn’t be here for you,” I said before she had a chance of walking away.

She froze and I heard a sob escaping her lips. I knew this was hard for her; I was ready to make things right. I looked over at Sebastian who had a determined look on his face. He had already gone to grab the moonstone scepter from our room. Wrenley jumped off the couch and made her way over to us.

“Are we going?” She asked, staring between the two of us.

Sebastian nodded.

“Yes,” he answered, giving me a reassuring smile.

We all walked outside; I took a hold of Wren’s hand as we followed the group. Sebastian placed the emblem on the scepter, making a full moon out of both pieces of the emblem. Once attached the entire scepter started to glow.

He handed the scepter to me because it was my wolf that could open our side of the portal without the darkness being released.

I took in a steady breath and channeled my love for my friends and family; I also channeled my love for the kingdom. I felt Nora’s strength and powers rising through me and she was released from my body; her aura shining through and rising high above our heads. The scepters glow was strong. Rays of light beamed from the scepter.

“Wait!” I heard Nancy running toward us.

I frowned and looked over at her, the lights of the scepter were already starting to blind me, so her view was distorted.

“Nancy, stand back!” I warned. “I can’t prevent it from opening now!”

The wind whirled around me, and I could feel the heat of the underworld burning not my flesh.

“If you turn back time and go back to 5 years ago; be kind to me and I’ll eventually be kind to you in return. I don’t want to lose my new friendships.”

I smiled at her, though I could hardly see her.

“Will do,” I assured her.

Sebastian, Wren, and I huddled together tightly as the others ran out of view.

Wren buried her face into my chest as she sobbed, fearing what was coming. The heat was becoming too unbearable.

Soon, I heard an explosion and the ground shaking violently under us. Then, everything went black.