295
Matt
As soon as things settled down for the night, I got dressed to leave and headed into the kitchen. I managed half of a sandwich before my communication watch went off, telling me that I had to get going. I ate the rest and headed out, hoping that Tony wouldn't wake up. I softened my footsteps and rolled my shoulder, trying to get a kink out as I left as quietly as possible. I waited a moment, listening for anyone inside before I headed out. I slipped into the elevator and out to the garage quickly. The cool night air enveloped me quickly, and I shivered.
Once I was inside, I pulled out the next dosage before I felt the temperature in the car drop.
"Stop."
I frowned at the voice and looked at the woman sitting beside me. The strange spirit with too much to say was back.
"What do you want now?" I hissed at her, my voice low and tense.
"Throw the vial out the window," she hissed back, her eyes glowing in the darkness.
I scoffed and uncorked it, downing it in one go before dropping it back into the little pouch dear Dad had given me. She flushed, narrowing her eyes.
"You're going to be defiant until the end, aren't you?" She asked. "You won't be satisfied until you're dead, just like your mother."
I met her gaze, searching for some sense of who she was and what she wanted.
"The last time someone told me to do something without explaining why, I ended up buying an eighteen-year-old girl from auction and abusing her, unwittingly and not." I narrowed my eyes. "Given my guilt about that, I'm making better decisions. Who are you anyway?"
"You don't even recognize me? Your Goddess?"
I cocked an eyebrow at her and cranked the car up.
"You sound just as arrogant as Oren."
"Lucy is your mate, and if you keep going the way you're going, you're going to do more than lose her."
I laughed. "She's not my mate. She's not even Tony's mate, so what's your agenda, lady? Who are you?"
"I told you—"
"The Moon Goddess cares so much about me that I'm literally dying from being a werewolf?" I rolled my eyes. "I might not have a full understanding of supernatural history, but I'm not dumb."
She growled again. "Do as I bid, Matt. It's not for you to know. You are meant to support Tony, your elder brother. And—"
"Do so," I said, pulling out of the garage. "I do it every day."
"Convincing him—"
"I didn't convince him to leave Blue Moon. That was Oren and the rest of the pack. When they trampled all over everything we'd done for them over the years, did you expect us to stay there?"
"You're a werewolf, Matt," she hissed. "You need to be with your pack, and the longer that you're away from your pack, away from your alpha, the worse it will get. The angrier I will be, the more vicious Oren will be."
I pulled to a stop at the exit of the garage and smiled.
"Tony could take him."
"That's beside the point—"
"So I'm not wrong."
She hissed. "The problem is that it is not time for Oren to step down. Your actions are ruining every plan in place, and I—"
"Any plan that requires us to sleep with an eighteen-year-old girl, not even think it strange that we would be attracted to a practical child, and barely care about what our treatment has done to her mentally isn't one either of us would really want to be a part of."
She said nothing, and then her smile turned cold. "You can say that all you want, Matt. She could even say it, but it would be a lie, and you know it."
"What—"
"You enjoyed it." My gut lurched. I could taste her skin and hear her soft moans. I could see her eyes, the fear in them, the hazy detachment as if she wasn't there at all. "You were hungry for her. You mean to say that's all gone?"
I gripped the steering wheel and tried to think back. I had been… hungry for her. I'd wanted her in a way I hadn't wanted anyone before.
But why?
How?
And where had it all gone now? I didn't feel that desire for her now.
I felt her hand on mine, cold and barely there. I turned, and my heart jumped into my throat. Her face had changed. Lucy was there in her place, her curls had grown out down her shoulders. She was wearing the pin we'd bought her in her hair.
"Matt—"
"Stop it," I growled. She went still. "I may never forgive myself for what I've done."
Child soldier or not, it didn't matter. I knew better. All the distance from Blue Moon, from the position of alpha, from the weight of it all had lifted so much from me.
"You're sick," I said. "Whoever the hell you really are, and if you really are the Moon Goddess, I'd rather die than be a werewolf for a moment more."
Her fury stared out at me from within Lucy's face.
"If you keep on this path, you'll leave me no choice. Choose wisely."
She disappeared in a rush of cool air. The car warmed again, and I breathed out. The brief spike of pain was a lot less now. I drove on, following the directions to the Black Moon Academy.
When I entered, the chill was swept away. I took a deep breath and sent a message to my dad. My lips twitched at how easy it was for me to think of him as my father now, despite all the years between us.
What can you tell me about the Moon Goddess?
I walked up to the counter to register.
"If you could place your hand there?" The attendant nodded at a stone tablet.
I put my hand there. It flashed, and she smiled.
"Matthew Mountainheart—or do you prefer Ashgrave?"
I smiled. The question gave me a warm, fluttery feeling in my stomach.
"Either is fine."
"Great!" She handed me a stack of textbooks and gestured down the hallway. "Room 405. Best of luck in your training."
I was finally here. I was going to the Black Moon Academy to register for basic magic classes under the name Matthew Mountainheart.
As I walked, I couldn't help but wonder if I was somehow related to Dr. Mountainheart. Was he a cousin? An uncle or something? It was kind of rare in the supernatural world to actually share a last name like that. Werewolves might pick and choose their last names at will, but witches were different.
As I entered the classroom, I felt a wave of nerves wash over me. I scanned the room, searching for a familiar face. I was feeling hopeful that I would be completely unknown until my eyes landed on Peter, and he stared back at me, seemingly equally surprised.
He was grayer than the last time I had seen him. What did that even mean? Was he dying?
I slipped into a seat toward the back, hoping that things wouldn't be weird. Before I knew it, the professor, a tall man with a beard and a scar running through his eye, walked in.
"Welcome to the first day of your crash course on how not to get murdered by whatever magic or curse you have." He looked across the room. "Poor sods. Let's get started. I'm not going to hold your hand. There's no homework, no tests. I'll be up here lecturing. You can listen or not, but I have a feeling that most of you aren't going to survive another week, let alone until the Festival if you aren't listening."
He turned back, and as much as I felt like I should be offended, I didn't feel offended at all.
I was almost relieved by how straightforward he was. As the professor began the lecture, I took a deep breath. Most of the concepts were completely foreign to me, but I took notes anyway, hoping there'd be some sort of answer in one of my textbooks.
"Curses and certain types of magical talents consume the magic in your body. Thus, you either end up dead or you eat better food. In certain communities, that's pretty hard, but in Black Moon, we have programs for that…." He paused and looked over at Peter. "I suppose I should thank you for that." He went on as Peter laughed. "The cost of living can be a bitch if you're not using your magical potential fully, so I'd suggest after you take this class, get yourself tested, get your ass trained, and stop living in squalor."
My lips twitched as he went on. I thought of Arwen and bit my lip, wondering when I'd see her again.
Then, I realized I didn't have her phone number.
Damn it.
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