Chapter 377

Jackson and Rafe stand up straight, their Alpha hearing picking up Daphne’s sobbing shouts before I do. But the moment I hear her I go very still, my eyes going wide as they snap for the door. Rafe’s already moving towards it, yanking it open just as Daphne reaches it, stumbling into the room with one hand raised, Mittens clutched to her chest with the other.

“Daphne!” Rafe gasps, staring at her, shocked. Jackson and I are already moving too, and somehow I get to her first, gasping in fear, reaching for her bleeding cheek.

“Daphne, what happened?” I whisper, wrapping one arm around Daphne’s waist and pulling her against me as Jacks moves to look up and down the hall, already growling protectively, and looking out for whatever threat was chasing here. “Rafe, get the first-aid kit –“

“Where’s Jesse?” Rafe growls. And I gasp, realizing his point - that something must truly be wrong – because Jesse would never, ever leave her like this – would never let her go running through the halls unless –

“She – she took him –“ Daphne gasps out as Jackson steps back into the room and slams the door shut. Daphne’s head spins to look at us all at once. I loosen my arms and she takes a step back, her whole body trembling as she cries. “The girl – the darkness – she took him –“

“Took Jesse?” I whisper, horrified and confused.

“Where?” Rafe snarls.

But Daphne just frantically shakes her head, clutching Mittens with both hands now. “I don’t know! She appeared out of nowhere in all this shadow and smoke and then she kept saying ‘mine!’ and then she took him – and then they disappeared – and –“

Daphne’s words fail her and she just stands, staring between us all, trembling.

Jackson and Rafe burst into action as I again step forward and wrap my friend in my arms, cradling her against me, doing everything I can to assure her that it’s okay – that everything’s all right – even though it absolutely, definitively is not.

Jacks strides across the room for the first-aid kit as Rafe turns on his heel and moves for his dresser, where the cell phone he used all week to keep tabs on me is still sitting. Instantly he makes the hall to our parents, explaining everything he can in as few words as he can.

That Jesse was taken – we don’t know by whom – we don’t know where –

Then his eyes go wide and he locks them with mine as Jackson comes close, reaching for Daphne with some gauze in his hand, wanting to clean the three long cuts across her cheek.

“What do you mean?” Rafe says, low and slow. “That Jesse was taken…too?”

My breath stops in my chest as I stare at my brother and watch horror sweep through his expression, watch his fingers sink deep in his hair as he listens to whatever our father is saying.

“Juniper,” he whispers.

Jackson’s hand falls and the three of us freeze, staring over at Rafe at the mention of my sister’s name.

“Juniper…is also gone? Vanished?”

My stomach goes cold as I stare at my brother, who stares back at me, as one question echoes between us.

What the fuck is happening to our family?

Things move incredibly fast after that, so much so that I can barely keep my head. Jackson and Rafe demonstrate their coolness in a time of extreme confusion and panic much more than Daphne and I. Even Ben responds with cool action when we tell him and he joins us in the room.

Jackson keeps me close to his side the entire time, a hand on me at least at every turn as we get my father’s order to come to the camp as planned, to bring Daphne. And while I would usually find it annoying to have someone shepherding me along like that, I’m so incredibly grateful that Jacks is constantly there, tensed and ready, his eyes wary. Because I keep getting worried that I, too, am going to be snatched out of thin air like both Jesse and Juniper did –

On the same day –

The same day that Atalaxia is moving against us with extreme force –

But why?

Even as the helicopter lifts off and moves through the air, and Daphne sniffs next to me with Mittens clutched in her arms, and Rafe and Ben talk quietly on the other side, and Jackson sits stoic with his hand on my knee…

I just can’t figure it out.

Jesse, I get – I understand why Atalaxia would take one of our magical warriors on the day of battle.

But…Junie!? Why the hell would the enemy want her!?

Was it even Atalaxia? Do they have that kind of power, to just come into our world and…snatch us up? And if it wasn’t Atalaxian forces that took her, was it, instead, the God of Darkness who said her name so many weeks ago, like a purr and a promise and a prayer?

But if Darkness wanted June…why the hell did he take Jesse too!?

I groan, dipping my head into my hands, unable to figure it out. Jackson’s hand tightens on my leg and I do my best to send him my gratitude, but my whole soul is agony and worry.

Two more.

Two more. I – I can’t lose two more people I love – not like this – not so close on the tail of Tony and Luca –

Not like this, but also not at all.

I grit my teeth and endure, hoping endlessly that my parents have answers when we get to the camp.

Unfortunately, when the helicopter lands just outside of the command tent and we all climb out, it’s immediately clear that we still don’t have any answers.

“Babies,” my mom gasps, flying out of the tent the moment we set our feet on the ground and dashing for us. She grabs me first to her, sobbing into my hair with relief and fear, and I hold her only for a moment before she moves for Rafe. And then it’s a mess of sad greetings as the five of us are ushered into the tent.

Poor Daphne is at the center of it all, with dad and Roger immediately converging on her, demanding details. She sputters them out with Mittens clutched tight in her arms, trying to help, but insisting that it was so dark and so strange and so fast that she doesn’t know – she just doesn’t know –

Even as I try to keep my focus on Daphne, I do a double-take, my mouth falling open at an argument that’s occurring in the corner because…

“Oh, holy shit,” Jackson whispers, wrapping an arm around me and pulling me close to his chest as we both stare, slack-jawed, at the Goddess’s translucent form in the corner of the tent, arguing vehemently with her daughter.

“Well, if you would let me go,” the Goddess says, a bit between her teeth, glaring at Cora. “I could go check on some things and see whether or not I can get more information!”

“No way,” Cora growls, leaning forward, glaring hard at her mom. “We never, ever ask you for anything – you aren’t going anywhere until you tell me where my son and my niece are –“

“I already told you that he is somewhere in the Land of Darkness and she is in the Underworld –Juniper’s voyage I understand, but Jesse’s -“

“Land of Darkness?” I hear myself ask, stepping forward. The tent goes quieter as I cross to Cora’s side, staring up at the Goddess. “With like – with the three moons?”

“Hello, little daughter,” the Goddess says, her voice soft even if her face is drawn. She tilts her head and looks at me sadly. “I see that you have accessed your Dark gift, then, if you know of the moons.”

I nod eagerly. “I – I went there! I – I think I can go again! I can go now!”

I shut my eyes, wondering if I can just do it at will – I mean, if that’s where Jesse and Juniper are then –

But Jackson, growling, grabs my arm and snaps me back to the moment. I look up to see him slowly shaking his head no, forbidding it.

“Your mate is right to caution you,” the Goddess says with a sigh. “It’s his land, Ariel – with his minions. Even if you can travel back and forth, there’s nothing to say he hasn’t set a trap for you there.”

“What did she say?” mom demands, skittering to my side. Cora quickly translates as Daphne moves to stand next to me, her eyes wide and fascinated as she stares at the Goddess.

“You…you can see her?” I whisper, looking Daphne up and down.

Daphne turns to me for a split second, blinking. “You can’t?”