Page 121 of Forgotten Fate

“I think we should bury him here. We can always come back later and then bring him home.”

When he’s nothing but bones, I thought, and my chest tightened. But even then, Balor still deserved a proper Rimorian burial. Would my father even allow it?

I sighed heavily. “You’re right. At least we know he’ll be safe here. Unbothered.”

Elias dipped his head.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

The lycan’s eyes narrowed. “For?”

“I know it’s not just the physical pain you can feel. I know you’redrowning in my sorrows too. I wish I could hold it in so you don’t have to suffer through it with me.”

Another tear fell down my cheek and Elias brushed it away with his thumb. “I will endure anything and everything if it means I get to have you as a mate. You will never have to endure anything alone again.”

I gave a weak smile which was soon met with Elias’s lips. I melted into them, wanting nothing more than for him to take away all the pain. All the heartache. And I knew he would if he could.

When we pulled away, Elias left to start digging the temporary grave, leaving me to roam my thoughts in silence. I sat there for a moment, trying to take everything in. I focused on single memories of my mother – ones that used to come to me in a haze. Now they were more vivid, with no missing pieces.

Every interaction with her where she used a spell, where I used my powers, or where we talked about anything immortal-related was completely hidden from me until yesterday. I felt as if I was learning who she was all over again. Who I was. And it felt both exhausting and devastating.

Of course I understood why she did it – why she decided to wipe my memory and bind my powers. But it still felt like a betrayal. A piece of me was missing for over a decade because she hid it from me. I had always felt it in my soul and yet could never make sense of it. I couldn’t help but resent that.

“People can’t know what you’re capable of, my darling Aurelia. They will want to use you for your powers. Use you as a weapon.” She told this to me often. I was not allowed to use my powers outside of castle grounds.

The day that I did, I was found. And my mother was killed.

I choked back a breath. I still didn’t know who took her life, but now I was starting to realize it definitely had something to do withme.

“Aura,” Elias’s voice broke through my thoughts. He peered his head around the entrance of the hut. “Are you alright?”

I swallowed. “I’m okay,” I lied. And he knew it.

“I’m just about done. Come out and join me.”

I exited the small hut and followed Elias to the gravesite. “How are you almost done? It’s only been a few minutes.”

The corners of his mouth drew upwards. “It helps when you have claws.”

Then right before my eyes, the handsome man before me began shifting. The transformation looked painful – the way his bones and limbs contorted into an entirely new shape. But it was over in seconds. Then the huge wolf trotted over to the large hole in the ground and continued digging.

It was still hard to believe that the wolf I had been seeing in my dreams was real. Not only real, but he was my mate. If someone were to tell me months ago that this would happen, I would have laughed in their face.

But now, it made so much sense. The wolf chased me through the forest in an attempt to devour me, just as Elias was sent to kill me. But then, at the last second, the beast hesitated. And what I thought was a human stopping the wolf from ending me turned out to be Elias stopping himself. What a cruel joke from the gods, to give me such a subtle hint of my fate.

I watched in awe and admiration as Elias pawed at the earth, creating a hole big enough for a body in such a short time. When he was done, he shifted back, his claws replaced with fingers that were now caked with mud and dirt.

He went and carried Balor out of one of the broken buildings. Elias had wrapped him up in an old sheet which was now stained red with my uncle’s blood. But I was grateful that I didn’t have to look at hiswounds again. Or his eyes that were now permanently closed.

Elias lowered Balor into the grave, and I said a few short words, promising my uncle’s spirit that we would be back for him one day so he could be buried where he belonged. And with that, we left Zolmara.

It took way less time to get through the wards on the way out. The spells from the witches pushed us away from Zolmara more quickly, like they were happy to see us go. I wondered how easy it would be to get back in now that I had my powers back.

Or did I? As we walked through the Forest of Torment, I tried to use my powers to slice through thick foliage – tried to ignite my hands in energy flames like I had just done the day before. But I couldn’t conjure my magic again.

I remembered the waterfall, and how a flame sparked deep beneath the water. At the time, I thought it was the gods, but I was beginning to realize that my powers had surfaced then, if only for a brief moment. It shouldn’t have been possible with my mother binding my powers. But maybe my love for Elias was stronger than the power of her spell. Or maybe the gods had intervened after all. It seemed I would never truly know.

“Your body is readjusting to the magic,” Elias told me after I continued to try, and fail, to reconjure my powers. “Give it time.”