The Renaissance: Book 4 of The Bloodmoon Wars (A Paranormal Shifter Series Prequel to Luna Rising)

by Sara Snow

  "Come on . . .” I reached out and tried to grab hold of her aura. I was repelled, thrown back, but I held on once more. "Let me in!"

  Her aura, orange like the sunset, began to shake violently. If I pushed too hard, I'd do more harm to her than good, so I released her. I looked around me, at the endless white space crawling with auras.

  My eyes opened, and I shook my head at Grayson.

  "You did your best, Faelen. Thank you for trying." He turned away, and even Connor watched him in surprise. He was uncomfortably calm, like the stillness before a storm.

  He crossed the room and leaned forward, placing his hands flat against his desk. His shoulders shook, and as I stood up, his Luna burst through the door.

  "Don't!" Clarice yelled at him, and when he turned around, I could see that Grayson's face was contorted, trapped between shifting into his wolf and his human form.

  Dominance poured from him, and Connor hung his head, whimpering. Clarice winced and I stepped back, the weight on my shoulders pushing me to the ground.

  “You’ve seen what Elinor’s capable of." Luna Clarice cast her eyes downward, her voice straining, trying to reach her husband. "Levi's made a huge mistake—one he's going to pay for. Trust your daughter's strength. She got it from you."

  The heaviness in the room subsided. “Forgive me,” Grayson growled.

  Jackson peeped out from behind his mother's skirt, and all the anger left Grayson's face. The boy looked scared, white-knuckling his mother's skirt.

  "Come here," Grayson said, calling him forward. Jackson rushed to his father, who scooped the boy into his arms and ruffled his curly hair. “Why are you up so late?”

  “I couldn’t sleep.” Jackson rubbed at his eyes that were a little swollen with sleep. “Is Elinor in trouble, Papa?”

  Grayson looked at Clarice, Connor, and then me. He placed the boy back on the ground and got down on one knee before him. "I won't lie to you. Your sister is in a little bit of trouble. But she'll be okay."

  Jackson’s eyes welled up with tears. “How do you know, Papa? You have to help her.”

  Grayson looked away, swallowing hard, and Clarice covered her mouth to silence her sob. They were parents in pain, scared of the unknown for their firstborn and only daughter.

  It would be scary to know your child was in danger and not be able to do anything about it. Watching them try to hold it together for the child they still had there was enough to make me question the wisdom of having my own family one day. I wasn’t sure I could survive something like this.

  "I wish I could, son." Grayson held the boy's shoulders. "But do you remember how your sister protected the pack the night we were attacked?"

  Jackson nodded and smiled with pride. “She was awesome!” His tiny smile flattened. “And a little bit scary.”

  “She was,” Grayson chuckled. “And that’s how I know she’ll be okay. Your sister is a warrior. She always has been. She won’t go down without a fight.”

  “So she doesn’t need your help anymore?”

  I saw a flash of pain in Grayson’s eyes before he looked up at his Luna.

  She gave him a small smile, a look of encouragement in her gaze.

  A father letting go of his daughter, his firstborn at that, wasn't easy. But Grayson seemed to realize it was time.

  "No, Jackson. She doesn't need me anymore, and that's okay."

  Elinor

  Without warning, Skye started screaming, and the Guard allowed her to fall to the ground. Levi appeared as confused as the rest of us as Skye held her head and rocked, as tears rolled down her cheeks.

  "What are you doing to her?" I twisted my arms, and Tien’s staff tightened around me. “Stop it!”

  Skye’s anguished cries finally ceased. She was still holding her head as if it might explode and pressing her cheek to the ground.

  “Someone must have tried to mind-link with her," Levi answered calmly. “The barrier around this place prevents that. Anyone inside it can’t be contacted by anyone on the outside. My guess is your father now knows what I’m up to and is trying to reach you. Let’s just say I departed the Council with a bang.” He was so damn smug about being a murdering piece of scum. “It’s either that or . . . I don’t know, maybe her brain is rotting.”

  When he turned to face me, it was clear he had dismissed her and no longer cared what was happening.

  I wondered how he contacted Tien when he needed her. Did he come here each time he wanted something from her?

  How did he pass through the forest with the Leviathans?

  But now wasn't the time for those questions.

  Especially when he pulled a dagger from his sleeve, then waved it back and forth, admiring its sharp blade.

  I tried to move, but Tien’s staff tightened even more. "You don't have to do this, Levi," I said.

  "Oh, but I do," he answered, continuing to admire the blade he held. "For years, I've been waiting on this day. Why would I stop now?"

  "If you die, Levi, your bloodline will end with you," Tien said from behind me. “Is that what you want?”

  He pointed the knife at her. "I won't die, not for a long time. But why wouldn't you be happy about that? You'd be freed from your years of slavery."

  “I was never a slave until I met you,” she spat.

  “There is a first time for everything, Tien. I think that's a human phrase, but it fits." He reached out and placed the blade of the knife against my cheek. I didn't blink or make a sound as the razor-sharp edge sliced my skin, drawing blood.

  Levi sank the knife deeper and deeper, ignoring Will's curses to leave me alone, and watched me closely for a reaction. When he got none, he pulled the knife away.

  Across the room, Will yanked at his chains. He vanished from where he had been kneeling on the ground and reappeared behind his guard. He then kicked the side of the guard’s left knee, causing him to lose balance.

  Will took the chance and barreled into him, knocking him to the ground, but he still couldn't break the chains. His skin had turned gray with black lines pulsating beneath the skin as he hissed at Levi, but the moment he moved to attack, another guard slammed him to the ground.

  “Look at him,” Levi whispered to me as the guard pinned Will to the ground, pressing his giant foot onto Will’s face to hold him there. “That’s what you fell in love with—a monstrosity. Did you think I wouldn’t find out that a werewolf was consorting with a vampire?”

  “Because loving who I choose is worse than murdering people? You’re sick.”

  “Those Enchanteds played a part in making history.” He ran a finger across my cheek that had already started to heal before grabbing my face. The pads of his fingers dug into my skin, forcing me to turn my head and look at Will. “All you’ve done is allowed a dead thing to bed you.”

  The Guard pulled on Will's arm, and I screamed when he broke Will’s arm at the shoulder, then his elbow and wrist.

  Stop it!

  I held the words in, masking my pain with anger as my eyes turned to white. I glared at Levi, wishing I could watch him suffer the way he was making Will suffer.

  He smiled excitedly, however, and his grip on my face tightened.

  “There it is, Elinor. Raw power that’ll soon be mine.”

  I had no more words to waste on him. I couldn’t speak as my divinity roared to life, blurring my vision for a second. I wouldn’t attempt to reason with Levi, not anymore. I had promised Faelen I'd stop him from hurting anyone else, and while it was too late to save those last few Enchanteds, this was where it would end.

  “If I could’ve taken the power of the Nephilim Sisters, I would have, and then none of this would’ve been necessary. But they get their divinity from a different God rather than the werewolf Goddess." He looked behind me. I assumed he was looking at each sister as his eyes moved from left to right and then back. "I would have consumed you all a long time ago. Such power is wasted trapped within this place. I'd free you of the burden."

  Levi obviously
cared for nothing but power. It was clear his only desire in life was to grow stronger, even if it was at the expense of someone else. Greed like his poisoned everyone and everything around him.

  "You're a monster," I growled.

  He leaned forward, his breath fanning my face. “I know,” he said as he slit my throat.

  Elinor

  My throat roared with pain, but I couldn't move to touch it with my hands trapped. Still, I couldn’t believe it, and my hand pushed against Tien’s staff, desperate to discover if Levi had truly slit my throat, even though the burning pain spreading up and down my neck should have confirmed it.

  For a second, time seemed to stop as everyone froze except for Levi.

  His eyes were traveling down my body, following the path of the warm liquid flowing down my neck. Then, all at once, chaos erupted.

  Skye’s blue swords appeared in her hands as Darian attacked his guard. Will was up as well, but with his hands still bound and a broken arm, there wasn't much he could do. Ariel and Angelisa acted as well, but before they could get to me, Tien stopped them.

  “Please, don’t make me do this!” Tien begged them, but I could not move to see them behind me.

  My eyes were focused on only one thing—Levi and the way his tongue darted out to coat his lips with saliva. I could hear Will's and Darian's shouts, and my eyes closed as Skye howled in pain and one of her swords clattered to the ground.

  “They can fight all they want—" His chilly hand caressed my cheek, and my eyes opened. “But I can’t be stopped.”

  He opened his mouth, and I looked down to see white smoke floating from my throat. I started gagging, choking on my own blood, and my eyes rolled back as the smoke slipped between Levi’s lips. His body jolted and his black eyes turned white.

  The noise around me faded the more blood I lost and the more of my divinity that Levi took. Tien’s staff around me felt like it was crushing my bones, and I couldn't hold back the tears anymore.

  I couldn't cry audibly. All I could do was stand there and choke.

  Tien’s staff was unbreakable. And I knew now, as I grew weaker, that I had no chance of saving myself. My clothes were soaked with my own blood, and the only thing holding my body up was the staff. I could feel myself losing consciousness.

  When I opened my eyes again, I was in a garden with flowers dying all around me, their color and life being sucked away. Above me, the beautiful sky turned black as thunder rumbled and the bright moon turned scarlet.

  I felt a presence behind me, and when I turned around, the Goddess was standing there, her hands fisted. She was taller than the last time I had seen her, taller than the sisters, and she looked every bit the Goddess that she was.

  It was terrifying to feel the rage and power pouring off her.

  The large hood of her white cloak was pulled over her face, but her body was exposed. Her skin, as dark as the sky above and littered with stars, lit up as lightning bolts flashed across her left leg and right arm.

  She was pissed.

  “Goddess?”

  She didn't answer, but her chest rose and fell as she took a deep breath and released it. I touched my throat and ran my hand down my chest, feeling my blood flowing down my body like a river. My hand came away coated in the crimson liquid, but I didn’t feel any pain anymore. It didn’t feel like I was dying, but I knew I must be.

  “I can’t die like this. This can’t be the end.”

  “Never have I seen a child of mine be so cruel to his own,” the Goddess said, her voice echoing around me. “How was he corrupted so?”

  That wasn't something I could answer. I neither knew nor cared why Levi was the way he was. All I knew was that if Levi became king of the werewolves, more people would suffer.

  "He must be stopped," she said. I jumped as a clap of thunder exploded above us, and her body lit up.

  “The Sisters have trained you well, Elinor. You've grown stronger, but you won’t be able to break Tien’s staff. It was a gift from her father and an object made in the God Realm.” She exhaled heavily through her nostrils, and the wind around us picked up, blowing my hair wildly. "And because Tien is tied to Levi, her power will stop you from eliminating him. But I can.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She reached out with both hands and grabbed my head. I closed my eyes as I felt myself being thrown backward in my mind.

  “I’ll be as quick as I can to avoid permanent damage,” I heard the Goddess say in the darkness within my mind.

  When I opened my eyes, I was back in the room with Levi and the others, but I was no longer in control of my body. It was as if I was a bystander inside myself, watching as something else, someone else, took charge.

  This wasn't like when I'd lost control of my power in the past. No. This time, I wasn't alone.

  My throat started to heal, and Levi's brows furrowed. My mouth opened, and my divinity escaped through my lips and eyes instead. Levi looked worried. He was getting too much power too fast. His hand gripped his throat, and soon his expression turned to one of panic.

  “Stop her!” he yelled, and Tien’s staff tightened, wrapping around me like a snake. Then, all of a sudden, it released me, sliding down my body to clatter on the ground like an iron shield. “Stop her, Tien . . .” Small cracks appeared on Levi’s skin. “Do as I say!”

  Tien wrapped her arms around me, and I shifted to the side and elbowed her in the gut. She was thrown across the room, but I kept my eyes on Levi.

  His white eyes were bulging with surprise, and he backed away as I stepped forward, his body still absorbing my power.

  “That’s not Elinor,” I heard Angelisa whisper, and Levi grew paler than he already was.

  "I'm disappointed in you, Levi," I said, but it wasn't my voice. It was the Goddess’s. The Elite Guards froze, and I smiled when I heard the sound of their hearts pounding. "You're no child of mine."

  "Goddess," Levi pleaded, and a crack appeared on his left cheek. Divinity began to escape through it. He held his chest, fisting his shirt. “Goddess . . . p-please.”

  “You killed seven of my chosen ones. Seven of them!”

  The Goddess reached out and grabbed him by the throat. I suddenly realized my body was growing hot. The Goddess wasn't just lending me her power—she had taken control of my body entirely. And I started to worry. I'd heard too many stories of vessels burning up when used to house a God or Goddess's spirit.

  “Goddess!” I yelled within myself, but she didn't answer.

  Levi fell to one knee, and as she leaned over him, I noticed that a strand of my black hair had turned white. “You want divinity, don’t you? So take it.”

  She forced him onto his other knee, one hand still on his throat while the other held his mouth open. He aged, his skin thinning and wrinkling. He was getting older by the second with the Goddess’s power escaping through the cracks on his body.

  “G-Goddess—” His plea fell on deaf ears as she bent him backward and his back broke. “Elinor! Please!”

  I pulled him up off the ground—or rather, the Goddess did. “Elinor can’t help you. You’re coming with me.”

  She released him, and his frail body fell to the ground. The room was silent except for the painful sound of his final death throes.

  Then the Goddess turned to the Guards. "You all followed him, knowing that he was committing a crime against his own. You'll be punished along with him and every other werewolf who took part." She snapped her fingers and they fell to the ground, their hearts no longer beating.

  Finally, she turned around to face the sisters, but as she opened her mouth to speak, she—I— coughed up blood. “Heal the girl for another day before letting her go. Tien, you will not be punished. Your fathers are proud of you all."

  I felt the moment the Goddess left my body. I tipped on my toes, gasping as she vanished, and my eyes rolled back as darkness consumed me.

  Faelen

  I didn't open my eyes immediately after the vision ended. Instead,
I remained where I was, unmoving, trying to process everything I had seen.

  Only a select few knew of the Nephilim Sisters, but I never would have guessed that Levi was bound to one of them. But not anymore. Though my vision had been brief, I had seen enough.

  The Goddess had taken control of Elinor’s body and used it to kill Levi and, no doubt, the rest of the Council. I understood now why I couldn’t mind-link with them when I tried. The spell cloaking the sister’s location made mind-linking impossible, but it hadn’t stopped me from receiving a vision of what had occurred in that room.

  That vermin Levi had gotten what was coming to him, and I smiled, a feeling of reverence coming over me at having witnessed the Goddess’s greatness.

  Levi’s punishment was well-deserved.

  I recalled the agony of his slow death. I opened my eyes and stared up at the wooden ceiling above, sending a prayer of thanks to the Goddess.

  I was sharing a room with two other women from the pack. In the morning, I would inform Grayson that Elinor was safe and Levi and the threat he posed to us all was handled. Of course, Elinor wasn't completely okay. Housing the Goddess's spirit no doubt had taken a toll on her. But even then, she had lasted longer than many possessed by a God.

  She had looked so different from the way she’d been when we had parted ways. The vision had been short, but I had seen enough to know that Elinor’s hair was longer, and her body lean and more muscular.

  “Faelen?”

  “Yes, Laila?”

  Though she was still young, Laila was a gifted Enchanted acolyte, already adept at communicating telepathically over long distances. She was my eyes and ears when I was away. Based on what I’d seen from her so far, I expected her to rise quickly in our ranks. “The entire Council is dead,” she answered, her voice echoing in my mind.

  I turned on my side toward the open window and stared up at the half-moon hanging high in the sky. "I’m not surprised. The Goddess wasted no time delivering justice to those whose lives were lost in their greedy pursuit of power."