THE AWAKENING

Chapter-36-

Iona’s old bones creaked and rattled beneath her thin skin and she wished she could still transform. She missed the feel of the ground beneath her paws, the feel of arterial blood gushing into her mouth as she took down prey.

Ah, those were the days.

Now she was stuck in this old woman’s decaying body, her mind still as sharp as ever, but her ability to do anything more than shuffle and limp was lessening by the hour.

She’d known the minute she saw Cassandra, she’d be The One. Relief and sadness followed the knowledge but when one has lived as long as she, the relief was a bit more pronounced than the sadness.

And now the time was here; albeit a bit more quickly than she’d anticipated. Thankfully, she’d already paid her homage to the Mother Goddess for all the years she’d given her and she was ready to pass the torch.

Cassandra was dying.

She pushed aside the wall of men standing helplessly around Cassandra’s inert body, shocking everyone with her sudden appearance. “Seer!” Tieran exclaimed. “Serra—“

“Has poisoned Cassandra with wolfsbane,” she cut in irritably. “Yes, yes, go make yourself useful and get me my bag as well as a sharp knife.”

“A knife?” Tieran repeated but Iona’s no-nonsense stare quelled his questions and he left quickly.

To Jandin, she said, “You must keep Tieran from this room. I must be allowed to complete the ritual in order to save her life. Do you hear me?”

Jandin nodded fearfully. No one would gainsay the Seer. “Yes. Can you save her?”

“Seeing as the fate of the world rests on her survival, I damn well better try,” Iona said, surprising Jandin when she cackled a short laugh before shooing him from the room.

To Cassandra, she said, “You didn’t ask for any of this but you’ve handled yourself well. I know you will shoulder this next responsibility with as much grace as you’ve shown thus far.”

From a pocket in her long skirt, she withdrew a tiny vial with a milky substance.

“A gift from the Mother Goddess,” she murmured as she poured a drop into Cassandra’s slack mouth, then another, and another, until the vial was nearly empty.

Iona put her weathered hands on Cassandra’s stomach, felt the frantic beats beneath her palms and whispered a secret song that soothed distressed infants.

“You must calm yourself if you are to live,” she said to the babies. The squirming subsided and she smiled. “Strong little Alphas,” she murmured, sighing when she realized she would never know them. “You will do your kind proud and bring the clans together. You must end the fighting. And you will. But first, you must live.”

She checked the babies’ position and frowned. Breech. Cassandra’s eyes opened slowly as the magic of the Mother Goddess counteracted the poison but a different threat loomed. Iona looked into Cassandra’s blearily focused eyes and instructed her firmly, “Your babies will die if you do not transform right now. You must birth them out of your human form. Can you do this?”

Cassandra’s eyes were glazed with pain but she managed a short nod. She struggled to her feet, clutching her stomach as waves of pain racked her body. “I can’t,” she gasped. “H-hurts too much… can’t focus.”

“You will or they will die,” Iona said simply.

Cassandra cried out and focused hard, her scream cut short as her body ripped apart and knitted back together beneath her skin, transforming her into the white wolf of legend.

The beast whined and collapsed to the floor and Iona quickly followed. “Now push them out, Cassandra. Let your body do what nature intended.”

It took several minutes but Cassandra managed to birth two slippery bundles.

Immediately, Cassandra began cleaning the babies who had come out as actual pups.

Within seconds, Cassandra changed again and the babies shimmered and changed into infants. Iona marveled at the olde worlde magick that wove itself around the babies, tying them to their mother.

Iona could see the magick as it pulsed like a living thing, a God vine to the eternal and immortal. The Mother Goddess granted Iona one last vision as she saw the twins, hand in hand, the male and female, tied to each other in strength and weakness, bringing the clans together after centuries of bloodshed.

She smiled, knowing her time was drawing near. She retrieved the vial from her pocket again and gave each baby one drop, finishing the vial.

“What is that?” Cassandra asked, her voice weak. “What are you doing?”

“They are the Mother Goddess’ children as much as they are yours. They would need their ethereal mother’s milk to thrive, just like you and I.”

“What?”

Iona coughed, feeling her lungs start to labor for breath. “Listen child, my time is short,” she said, ignoring Cassandra’s confusion. “It is time to pass on. You are the clan’s next Seer. You will take my

place when I die. At the moment of my death, I will pass my knowledge to you as it has been done since the beginning. And when your time comes, you will do the same but your life will be long, my child. Fear not that your end will come quickly. You must guide the twins to their destiny and unite the clans.”

“How is this happening? I am the Seer now?”

Iona heard the panic in Cassandra’s voice and chuckled. “We share a similar lineage. It was always in your blood. Why do you think you have visions?”

Cassandra’s stare went to the babies as they made soft baby noises together and Iona barked a short laugh. “Yes, mystical babies aside, you hold the magick inside you. The babies simply amplified what you already possessed.”

“How? My mother was from Clan Janus and you’re from Clan Barrachius,” she said, struggling to get her bearings even though she remained weak.

“At one time, we were all one clan. The Prophecy is bringing us all together again. All female Seers can transform; however, Seers in themselves are rare, which is why it was generally believed that females don’t change.”

At that Iona chuckled, finding humor in the misconception. Oh, what good times she’d had with none the wiser.

Her heart gave a warning stutter and she knew the time for words and storytelling was finished.

Iona scooped the babies up and held them for a long moment, gazing at the children she would never know on this plane.

Then, she cocked her head as the sound of footsteps alerted them to the men returning.

She handed the babies to Cassandra, knuckled Cassandra’s cheek with one gnarled hand, and then blissfully sank into her own destiny knowing she’d played her part and it was time to move on.