Chapter 98

Ava

I hurriedly pushed through the heavy double doors of the clinic, my boots clicking rapidly against the pristine white tile floors as I hurried down the dimly lit hallway toward the research wing. A sense of urgency propelled me forward, my heart hammering against my ribs.

Just minutes ago, I had received a single text message from Chris: “Come to the clinic immediately. Found fungus. Hurry.”

I had dropped what I was doing and made a beeline for the clinic immediately without so much as responding to his text.

As I rounded the corner, I caught sight of Chris and Leonard hunched over one of the long stainless steel lab tables, their expressions grim. A thin, wiry older man in a white lab coat and large round glasses hovered beside them, peering intently into the eyepiece of a bulky microscope on the table.

“What the hell is going on?” I demanded without preamble, striding up to the trio. “I got your message, but it didn’t explain—”

“Ava.” Chris straightened, his worried eyes finding mine with an inscrutable look. His broad shoulders were taut with tension beneath the snug fabric of his henley shirt. “Thank the Goddess you’re here.”

Before I could ask any more questions, he gestured sharply toward the microscope setup. “Take a look at this and tell me what you see.”

Frowning, I brushed past him to lean over the table, my hand coming to rest on the cold metal surface as I tilted my head and peered through the eyepiece. At first, I saw nothing but a tangle of twisted dark fibers magnified to an immense degree.

But then, as I fine-tuned the focus, I gasped out loud. The mass was an unmistakable, hideously familiar form—a dense, spongy clump of fungus, oozing that familiar black goo that had been known to eat human men alive.

“Oh, Goddess…” I breathed, recoiling from the microscope in horror as I clamped my trembling fingers over my mouth. “That’s the same fungus from the warehouse, isn’t it? The blight?”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Leonard give a grim nod of confirmation. Just seeing that made me sick, and without hesitating, I rushed over to the sink and began scrubbing my hands furiously with soap and scalding hot water even though I hadn’t touched anything.

Chris exhaled a harsh breath through his nostrils. When I turned, he was bracing his hands on the edge of the lab table, his knuckles turning bright white.

“Where did you find this?” I barked.

“We were out searching the territory for any sign of Olivia or her trail,” Chris gritted out, his jaw tensing. “I found that... abomination growing in the underbrush near one of the back roads. Just a small patch of it, but…”

He didn’t need to finish the thought. We all knew what it meant. And so soon, too, after Olivia had stolen the moonstone.

Goddess, I wanted to throttle her right now. How could she be so stupid?

“This is just the beginning, isn’t it?” I pressed a hand to my forehead, fighting back a wave of nausea. Images of Degas’s dire warnings flashed through my mind—diseased crops, poisoned soil and water, our entire pack withering from the inside out. Children choking on spores, men and women being sucked into the earth.

All because of the loss of a sacred relic that was now in Chris’s sister’s vile clutches. And for what? Jealousy? Because she didn’t get to be Luna of Moonstone?

“Now, now,” the scientist cut in briskly, although his eyes betrayed his own worry behind the lenses of his glasses. “Let’s not jump to conclusions just yet. An isolated patch of fungus does not mean that the apocalypse is on our doorstep.”

My mouth worked uselessly as I shot Chris and Leonard an apprehensive glance. The scientist cleared his throat and raised his hands in a placating gesture.

“My team is already coordinating with the botany department to quarantine that area and begin treatment with distillations of purified moongrass. We should be able to contain and eradicate the growth rather swiftly, before it has a chance to spread.”

I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding. The scientist was right—we had learned much from the last blight outbreak. We had learned that the right combination of moongrass juice and other herbal remedies was shown to mitigate the spread of the black fungus.

But when I glanced over at Chris, I knew that he was thinking the same thing that I was.

He knew, just as I did, that this was likely only the beginning. One isolated patch today, but how rapidly would it spread tomorrow? Or the next day after that?

Without the sacred moonstone to placate the Goddess, her displeasure at its theft would only continue to escalate until her wrath consumed us entirely.

No amount of moongrass juice could stop it if the Moon Goddess wanted to punish us.

…

The following morning, despite the botanists and researchers working tirelessly through the night, reports began to trickle in of other small patches of the noxious black fungus appearing in various sporadic areas across Moonstone territory.

Each resident was told to send in reports of any strange plant life in the area, and so of course, news began to travel. Surely we would get some false alarms, of course, but we figures it would be better safe than sorry.

Word swiftly reached the Elders, of course, who called an emergency council meeting just after dawn. Chris and I found ourselves striding through the large wooden doors of the meeting hall at the exact same time, exchanging a wary glance without uttering a single word between us.

The heavy oak doors groaned open, and we were immediately met with the stern, drawn faces of all five Elders. They were standing around the meeting table, speaking in hushed voices, but went utterly silent when we entered.

My pulse was practically pounding in my throat as I moved to take a seat beside Chris. Already I could sense the worry and the anger radiating off of the Elders—even Degas, despite usually being the most calm of the Elders, was gripping the head of his cane with white knuckles.

“The seeds have been planted,” Degas said without preamble, his deep-set eyes boring into Chris beneath his bushy eyebrows. “We cannot, in good conscience, delay any further while our lands slip into decay.”

The other Elders murmured their solemn agreement as Chris’s jaw tightened imperceptibly. I tensed, bracing myself for what I knew was about to come.

“It is past time for you to provide us your list of prospective bachelorettes from our neighboring packs,” Elise interjected. “We must begin the process of solidifying new alliances and bloodlines while we still have the chance.”

“For the good of Moonstone,” Degas added, shooting me that all-too-knowing glance again.

I felt my blood run cold as I looked first at Degas, then over at Chris. Chris’s mouth was set in a rigid line, his shoulders tense. The room was utterly silent as he considered the Elders’ words.

But before speaking, he looked over at me—almost expectantly, a silent question behind his eyes. I felt my heart sink, but still I nodded, almost imperceptibly. No matter how much it hurt, I knew that right now, with word of the blight spreading and Olivia no closer to being found, pissing off the Elders wasn’t a smart move.

And Chris was no idiot. He knew, just as well as I did, how important it was to keep the Elders on our side.

He stared at me for a moment longer, a look of rage flickering through his green eyes before he seemed to quell it. Setting his jaw even harder, he returned his gaze to the Elders.

“Very well.”