Chapter 120: Dark Dreams

Ravyn POV

Dark.

The chamber was full of shadow, illuminated only by a crackling fire that had no heat. An illusion. The leaping unearthly flames highlighted the cracks and the decay in what might once have been an elegant and stately room. 

Ravyn could see little beyond the darkness, and her vision swam. It was a dream, astral travel through the dream, so the scene didn't feel quite real. However, she smelled a strong scent of spice. A surprisingly pleasant aroma. Much like a pretty flower that trapped unsuspecting insects.

"Hello? Dark Goddess?"

The voice in the darkness sounded amused. "It took you long enough."

"I didn't know we were expected," muttered Garnet.

The laughter made the very air ripple. "And you call yourself a powerful Luna, you naive child."

"Not that naive," Jude shot back. "Show yourself. Aren't you tired of hiding behind darkness?"

Laughing, the goddess replied, "Patience. I must set the stage …"

A thousand candles appeared on the floor and on tables that grew out of the walls, casting their light over the room below. The walls looked even more decayed, in an elegant, artful way, with a strange beauty. Fungus covered them, and minute dust particles streamed from the fungus. The fireplace changed, becoming a gaping doorway full of supernatural bluish light. Ravyn felt impressed, in a way. The Dark Goddess didn't bother to dazzle them with luxurious surroundings and parlor tricks.

In the center of the room, the Dark Goddess, with dark wolf ears, stood in shadow with her back to them. Clad in an elegant gray long gown with her tail poking out of a cut hole in the skirt, she rotated inch by inch, revealing her face slowly. Dusky and dark-eyed and wearing a golden tiara, she stood before them with an eerie grin. 

"Welcome to the Celestial Plane," she said in a silky voice.

Ravyn scoffed. "This can't possibly be it. It's more like a twisted version of the Celestial Plane. An upside-down version."

The Dark Goddess stroked her black silky ears. "Very good. I'd offer you refreshments, but we all know you wouldn't last that long." 

Cyran stepped forward, gliding across the sticky floor. "You said 'it took you long enough.' Long enough for what? For us to walk willingly into your flytrap?"

"Oh, dear Cyran ... don't be ignorant."

"Oh, dear Dark Goddess ... don't be patronizing," Cyran shot back. "You didn't expect us here, and you know it. You're just posturing."

"YOU might have made it here if you hadn't defied me."

Cyran laughed derisively. "No thanks. I've been here. I've been in this den of misery, in spirit, if not in fact. I don't plan on staying. I intend to leave. But not before you agree to leave our world alone--because you will NEVER beat the Moon Goddess."

The Dark Goddess laughed. "Is that all? You fools!"

Talon glared at her. "Humans and shifters are talking for the first time in history. Really talking."

Kelara gripped his hand, patting her belly. "A part-human, part-mage, part-Lycan baby will be born in two months. Descended from the love of a shifter and a human centuries ago, even after you tried to meddle in the Sinsworth family tree. But you see, nature is cleverer than you. It finds a way. You can't stop it. You can't stop that life force. And you will NEVER rule the world my children grow up in."

Smugly, the Dark Goddess pointed to the lurid blue light behind her. 

The Dark Goddess laughed. "Is that all? You fools!"

Talon glared at her. "Humans and shifters are talking for the first time in history. Really talking."

Kelara gripped his hand, patting her belly. "A part-human, part-mage, part-Lycan baby will be born in two months. Descended from the love of a shifter and a human centuries ago, even after you tried to meddle in the Sinsworth family tree. But you see, nature is cleverer than you. It finds a way. You can't stop it. You can't stop that life force. And you will NEVER rule the world my children grow up in."

Smugly, the Dark Goddess pointed to the lurid blue light behind her. 

Ravyn squinted … and gasped in horror. 

The faces of dozens of shifters and humans, all twisted in agony and hatred and darkness, appeared in the blue light. A nightmarish vision of the shifters who bullied Talon, Kelara, and William.

The Dark Goddess smiled cruelly. "I'm winning. THIS is what the world's future looks like. Shifters hating humans, as they should." She sneered at Kelara. "Your mate's mongrel boy and that abomination in your belly will both be sacrificed at the hands of the shifters I control. At best, they'll be given a merciful death and eaten. At worst, they'll be tortured while you watch until they die a horrible death."

Talon's muscles rippled in the nightmare realm. "Don't you dare threaten them!"

Ravyn steeled herself against the venom and cruelty. The Dark Goddess painted a bleak future just to scare them–much like she designed this room to lower their spirits. "Don't take the bait. She doesn't have that power. If she did, she'd have done it already."

"Oh, I won't have to do anything," the goddess said with glee. "It's all thanks to you, dear Ravyn."

Jude stalked towards her. "Don't you even look in her direction."

"YOU should have left her alone and married a boring shifter woman." The Dark Goddess held up a candle and crushed out the flame between two fingers. "This is what will happen to your pack, all because you had to take a fated mate and listen to my sister."

Could it be true?

No. No. The Dark Goddess lied. Ravyn no longer feared anything when it came to Jude. She could never regret becoming his Luna. "You're lying."

"My pack will endure because we're strong," Jude said, his head up, proud and every inch a warrior. "And it's you who will be burned up."

Kelara conjured a blast of wind that snuffed out every candle flame.

"Your reign of terror is at an end," Hades shouted. "If you want to hurt my family, you'll have to go through me first."

In an act of fury and boldness that showed the spirit of the wolf and left everyone else speechless, Hades launched himself at the Dark Goddess.

"This is a battle to the death."