Chapter 187

Hannah

“Are you sure?” I asked Wren, raising my brows.

“Yes, mommy,” she answered. “I saw it in a vision. This is the time stone.” She seemed excited to have found it; it caused me to smile broadly at her.

“Nice job, Wren,” I said to her.

Sebastian was quick to rush to her.

“I’ll hold onto it,” Sebastian said, taking the stone. “I’m not sure how dangerous it is to touch.”

“Then, you should be careful too,” I said to him. I went across the vault and grabbed a cloth off one of the tables. I brought it to him and gave him a smug look. “Wrap it up and store it somewhere safe.”

He smiled in return as he wrapped the stone in the cloth and shoved it inside his coat pocket. Just as we were leaving the study, the door swung open, and more guards piled in. My heart nearly stopped in my chest at the sight of them all. They were surrounding us.

Thankfully, I had a solid team of fighters. I grabbed Wrenley and held her close for protection while Sebastian, Caroline, and Scott fought off the guards.

They moved quickly and efficiently. I shielded Wren’s face from the scenery in front of us, while I watched everything go down. Caroline was moving so quickly I could hardly see her. She was everywhere and she fought like a real warrior queen. She certainly trained a lot while living in the underworld for the last 7 or so years. Scott was also moving quickly, but he wasn’t as elegant as Caroline. He managed to fight off most of the guards without drawing his new weapon. Which was good because I didn’t want to kill those who could be under mind control of Xander.

If they really were brainwashed, it wasn’t their fault they were fighting us.

Sebastian fought in his wolf form, ripping through their clothing with his canines and tossing their bodies across the room. I could see the fury in his wolf’s scarlet eyes as he worked to defend Wren and me.

Caroline eventually stopped fighting and she stood in the center as the fighting continued around her. I stared at her, confused as to why she had stopped. She closed her eyes and took in a steady breath. It was then that I realized her necklace was glowing. She reached her hand up to her necklace and I saw a smile playing on her lips.

She glanced over at me; well, actually, she wasn’t looking at me at all. She was looking at Wren. It was at that moment that I realized Wren was no longer shielding her eyes in my chest. She was looking directly at Caroline with her hand stretched out toward her. I noticed that her fingertips were glowing. She was doing something on behalf of the moon goddess.

She was recharging Caroline’s necklace.

But for what reason?

Caroline broke her eye contact from Wren’s and turned to face the rest. She reached her arms out like she was getting ready to hug someone and I saw her own hands were glowing. I watched her in amazement as she ran toward each guard, touching them in the neck and watching as their eyes nearly bugged out of their heads and they paused their movements.

It was like a small electric shock had coursed through them and paralyzed their bodies. For all I knew, that’s exactly what was happening. As she made her rounds across the circle of guards, each one gasped as if they were coming up for air and then they fell to the ground.

Scott and Sebastian stopped fighting as well and watched what she was doing. One by one, each guard fell to the ground. Once Caroline was done, she rushed back to me. She seemed tired and breathless.

“That takes a lot of energy,” she explained. I saw that her necklace was dimming; it needed to be charged again.

“What was that?” I asked in amazement.

She turned to the guards who were all staring at their hands in shock. Then their eyes scanned the study until they found us. My entire body tensed; I was expecting the fighting to continue. I was expecting them to attack us. But I wasn’t expecting one of them to start crying. I looked up at Sebastian and he looked just as confused as I did.

“What the hell happened to us?!” One of the guards asked; his voice was trembling. “What have we done?!”

“Welcome back,” Caroline said with a faint smile.

“How did this happen?” Another guard asked as he stumbled backward. He looked like he was about to pass out. “Where’s my family?”

“Xander had you brainwashed for a long time,” Caroline answered. “I’m afraid he’s had a lot of control over you for many years. He’s had control over all of us…”

“No…” another guard breathed, shaking his head in denial. “That can’t be… I was JUST with my wife a few days ago. She just had a baby…”

“That was when you were on the werewolf land. We are in the underworld, and we have been for years. I’m sorry; I’m not sure where your wife and child are. But the one person who does and the one person who did this, is walking around the palace with more power than we know. We are going to need your help to put an end to his rein…” Caroline said to them, trying to calm them.

“They’re awake?” I whispered in awe. “You woke them?”

“She has the tendency to do that,” Scott said from beside me. “She woke me a long time ago. That’s a necklace from her grandmother who happened to be a witch, it gives Caroline witch-like abilities. But it’s limited.”

“Xander had taken it a long time ago when he figured out the powers it held. But when I got it back, I didn’t think I could get it to work again. It was like a dead battery,” Caroline finished explaining. She glanced at Wren with a smile. “Until now.”

Wren returned her smile. Wrenley used her gifts from the moon goddess to recharge Caroline’s necklace. How did she even know how to do that? I wondered if the moon goddess has been coming to her and showing her different ways to do things.

“We’ll do anything,” a guard said, still looking at his hands. “Anything to put an end to this shit and get back to my family.”

We had guards on our side now; this was perfect. I wondered how many more guards she would be able to wake. Soon, we will have an entire army of Xander’s men. Together, we made out way out of the office and down the hall until we reached the grand stairs.

At this moment, we were going to be exposed. I wasn’t afraid though; we had strong fighters on our side. The guards were the first to charge downstairs with their weapons drawn. I could hear the fear of those that occupied the lobby; they were running to safety, unsure of what was going on. I felt the strong power pulling me toward the ballroom. A faint purple glow illuminated the ballroom doors; it was from the ritual. It was happening now.

The rest of us ran behind the guards as they angrily charged toward the ballroom. They pushed the doors open and we piled inside.

The entire ballroom was glowing a purple shade and everyone at the ball was staring at the center of the room in awe. Like moths to a light. Everybody was mesmerized by what they were seeing. In the center of the ballroom was a large purple fire that rose toward the ceiling.

Dictating the fire was the one and only Xander.