Page 48 of Forgotten Arcane (Broken Ashes #6)

Neith

“I think we should put the dead in the tunnels and seal off this entrance,” Van suggests.

Wolves can’t put themselves back together, so it’s a good plan, and one that doesn’t present any unnecessary risk, and we don’t have to dig. I hate digging graves. My arms ache for days after.

Griff nods in agreement, “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. Plus, there are so many offshoots of that main tunnel. If we didn’t have Neith, we would have never found the lost pack members.”

Asher shakes his head, “Especially not since the dirt and the dampness messes with our noses under there. So if we had used them, we would have most likely ended up heading in the wrong direction.”

“If any of the teenage pups decide to go down into the tunnels on a dare, they could die down there before anyone finds them,” Rana adds with a concerned frown.

With the plan agreed, we all work together gathering the dead wolves that were loyal to Derek, and throwing them down the entrance to the caves. Once we’re done, everyone looks at Ransom, just assuming that he’s going to be the one to close the caves, and he smiles.

“My magic is getting a little tired,” Ransom says. He looks at Griff, “This one is for you.”

I have absolutely no idea what Griff is going to do, but I am very intrigued.

Griff grins, “It’s been a while since I’ve moved rock, but it shouldn’t take me too long.”

“Move rock?” Amari asks.

“Yeah, I’m a gargoyle, and it’s one of my gifts,” he explains.

“So fucking cool,” I mutter, earning a smile from him.

Logan grins, “I’ve never seen a gargoyle in action before, this is exciting. Dare’s going to be pissed that he’s missed it.”

“Alright, can everyone take a step back, please? Like I’ve said, I haven’t done this for a while, and I don’t want to accidentally get one of you, or open up a new hole instead of closing this one, and have everyone fall into it,” he tells us.

All of us take several steps back, not needing to be told twice. I have absolutely no desire to be trapped underground.

Griff shifts so that he’s in his gargoyle form, and I grin. I love it when these guys show their supernatural sides.

We all stand there staring at him, which I have to admit is most likely not the most helpful thing to do. I’m sure it makes him more nervous, but I’m not really willing to not watch him, because I am extremely curious to see how he’s going to do it.

I don’t know enough about gargoyles to know what the norm is.

I know what they look like and their basic skill set, but that’s pretty much it.

I do know that they are guardians, like they were always portrayed as in human literature.

They’re protectors, and although some of them protect buildings and take on the traditional roles of becoming stone while they do it, and working in shifts so they aren’t frozen as stone for years, it tends to be people that they protect.

It really doesn’t surprise me that Griff chose to become a SID agent, even if he did have a little push from Evander. The protection gene in them is so strong that it’s really a perfect job for a gargoyle.

They’re really strict with tradition though, and it’s only recently that they have started to move away from their clans, and do jobs like becoming a SID agent. I can imagine that it caused quite a stir when Griff announced that being an agent is what he had chosen to do.

He did say that we could go and visit his family at some point though, so his family must be one of the more relaxed clans.

“How are you going to close the hole?” Rana asks curiously, and Griff glances back at her with a smile.

“I’m going to get the loose rocks nearby and get them to fill in the hole, and then I’ll ask the earth to cover it so that it can’t be seen,” Griff explains.

I’m glad that Rana asked the question, because I had no idea how he was planning to do it either.

Glancing at her, I smile. It would seem that being in contact with her wolf again has really made a difference. Her behavior is such a contrast to what it was a short time ago, and I’m so pleased that she isn’t beyond help.

I’m going to make sure that this whole pack has access to some really good therapists. They are all going to need them.

Rana especially.

I’m also going to make sure that she has my number, so if she ever needs to talk about anything, she can get hold of me.

Of course, I’m talking like we’re going to be leaving here, but River is the alpha of this pack now, and he can’t just leave them.

That’s not how packs work. That’s an issue that we’re going to have to deal with and try to figure out how we’re going to make everything else work with this new development.

Are we going to have to move here? I’m tearing down the pack house if we do have to move here. What about SID? The rest of us will be able to still work for SID, but River won’t be able to, and he loves his job, and I don’t think I would like to go on jobs without him.

It would be weird, and I would miss him far too much.

My frown deepens. Maybe I can ask Sully and see if he knows a way out of being an alpha? I mean, the obvious person to ask would be Ahren, but I don’t know what the consequences of that would be, so it would just be safer if the first person I ask were Sully.

Hopefully, he knows something that can help.

For everyone involved, not just River. These wolves deserve an alpha who genuinely cares about them and who wants to be their alpha. Not one who always wants to be elsewhere.

Don’t get me wrong, River would of course do a really good job, but his heart wouldn’t be in it, and with this kind of thing, your heart needs to be committed to the pack so you can give it your absolute best, and truly succeed.

We’ll figure it out. I know we will.

There's a loud rumbling sound that brings me out of my troubled thoughts, and my eyes widen as the ground beneath our feet begins to tremble.

“Is this normal?” I ask.

Coen shakes his head, “It’s never happened before, but I haven’t been around, so I don’t know if it’s normal for him now.” He looks at Evander, “Is this normal?”

Van shakes his head, “Nope.”

All talk stops as the trembling increases, and we all have to focus on not falling over.

I widen my stance.

It would not be good if we fell over and then a hole opened up in the floor and we couldn’t get out of the way quickly enough.

As soon as I’m kind of stable, my gaze moves to Griff. He’s so focused on closing the tunnels that I don’t think that he is even aware of the fact that the ground is shaking.

“No fucking way,” Reed mutters in absolute shock.

“Is he moving the whole damn cliff?” Logan asks incredulously.

Coen shakes his head, “No, he can’t be.”

River’s eyebrows are on his forehead as he says, “The amount of power that would take is absolutely insane.”

The rumbling intensifies, and we all watch in stupefied awe as the whole cliff face in front of us moves again.

He is, he’s moving the whole damn cliff.

I know that’s not what he intended to do. He only wanted to get any nearby rocks and fill in the hole, and I wonder if he’s doing it intentionally, or if his magic is behaving by itself.

I want to move closer to him, so I can see his expression and see if he’s okay, but I know the second that I move, I’m going to faceplant. So I reluctantly stay where I am.

Griff

I have no idea how I’m doing this.

I didn’t know I was capable of it, and I have never known another gargoyle to be able to move rocks as big as I’m currently moving.

The most shocking thing about this to me is that instinctively, I know that I could move something even bigger.

My magic has wrapped around the whole thing and is slowly shifting it closer to the hole.

It’s slow going, which I’m grateful for actually, because if it suddenly moved and covered the hole, I wouldn’t have had time to move backward, and I most likely would have smacked myself in the face with it.

That would have been embarrassing.

As it moves gradually, the floor beneath my feet rumbling, it occurs to me that this has nothing to do with the Choosing.

It’s not the new magic that was gifted to us, because the new magic that we have all been gifted is supposed to be death magic.

This has absolutely nothing to do with death.

Not really by any stretch of imagination.

I have never been able to do this before though. Not that I have tried, but I have moved rocks before, and I would have known if I could have moved more than what I was moving, just like I know now that I could move something bigger.

I suppose that Ed could have gotten it wrong, and the others were all given death magic, and my magic was just enhanced, like he said could happen?

But if that’s not the case, then why is my magic so much stronger than it was?

My mind drifts to Neith, as it usually does, but this time I wonder if maybe she has something to do with the change in my magic. All of our magic has been playing up recently, even before the Choosing, and it all started around the time that Neith came into our lives.

Before that actually for me. When she was just a faceless human in a Bobby’s uniform in a vision.

She heard me, and she shouldn’t have been able to. No one ever has before, and I have desperately tried to warn people about things that are happening.

I need to talk to my family. But I have no idea how that’s going to be possible, there’s so much going on at the moment.

Not to mention that we need to deal with the whole River being the Alpha of this pack, and the fact that the Blue Fucker is the one who tried to orchestrate the death of us, and the capture of Neith. Which means he absolutely saw her on the Choosing, and it is going to be a big problem.

With all of that going on, going to see my family can wait.

I can’t believe that I have the ability to think like this while moving a massive cliff. I really shouldn’t be able to. All of my focus should be on what my magic is doing, and it’s not.

If I’m being honest, the sheer scope of what my magic seems to be able to do right now is intimidating, and the fact that I don’t know why, well, that’s even less reassuring.

My magic surges, as it pulls it slightly quicker.

I frown. We really don’t need another complication right now.

It’s not something that I need to be worrying about right at this second, if it turns out to be an issue, then we’ll deal with it just like we deal with everything.

For now, I need to focus on what I’m doing. I wonder if my magic can check around this massive hunk of rock? I don’t want to close this access to the tunnels, only to open another one, or just a great big fucking hole. That would sort of defeat the objective.

Neith

I nch by inch, the cliffside moves closer and closer, as it gradually covers up the entrance that leads to the tunnels beneath.

Finally, the ground stops rumbling, and we all just silently stare at Griff as he turns around.

He rubs a hand on the back of his neck, “So apparently I can move giant ass rocks now.”

“Dude!” River exclaims, bouncing on his toes. “That was so fucking awesome.”

Griff chuckles, “Thanks, man. So, I’ve checked on the perimeter of it, and no more openings have appeared, or any other access to the caves and tunnel systems below. It’s completely sealed off.”

“Wow,” Asher says. “That was crazy impressive.”

“Thanks, man,” Griff says.

Rana smirks, “Well, that’s certainly going to be interesting to explain to everyone.”

Amari grins, “The pups are going to love the story. Although I doubt that many of them will want to come back out here to check it out. Not for a very long time.”

“No. I think it’s unlikely that anyone will want to come back here,” Doc agrees. “I know some really good therapists, who I’ll get to come out here. I think it’s really important that this is dealt with properly, and not just brushed under the proverbial rug.”

“I know I definitely need therapy, and lots of it,” Rana says as she pulls a face and adds, “yikes.”

I burst out laughing. She’s definitely similar to me in the way that she deals with trauma.

“The kids will need help to deal with it all as well,” Reed says.

“Not only have they experienced some horrific things, but they will have also heard some pretty horrendous things as well, and they understand more than anyone thinks that they do. It can affect their development if it’s not dealt with now. ”

“Yeah, I think that’s a really good idea for everyone involved,” Asher agrees.

Logan looks at River, “Alpha, we should probably head back. We need to organize the wolves. Rana needs to burn Derek to a crisp, and we need to sort out some accommodation for you all.”

River

I did the right thing.

I know that I did the right thing by killing Derek, but I really don’t want to be the alpha of this pack.

Hell, I don’t want to be the alpha of any pack.

It’s not that I don’t want the responsibility, or that I think I wouldn’t be good at it.

Apparently, it comes quite naturally to me.

Despite all of that, it doesn’t feel right.

It doesn’t feel like it’s something that I’m supposed to be doing.

There’s also the selfish part of me. I don’t want to lose Neith and the guys, and I would, because our lives would become so separate. They would work for SID, and I would be here. Even if they lived here with me, it would be complicated.

There are pack dynamics that would get messed with, especially with so many strong supernaturals in one place.

That would cause problems, big ones.

Packs run on hierarchies, and having the guys and Neith living here would put a massive strain on that because they’re higher up the hierarchy than any of the wolves, but they wouldn’t be taking on those roles within the pack. It would make things strained, to say the least.

Despair fills me.

I really don’t fucking want this.

The guys are all looking at me, they know what a big deal this alpha thing is, and how I feel about it, and Neith is watching me closely like she really would stay here with me if that’s what I had to do.

As I open my mouth to reply to Logan and accept my fate as alpha of this pack, my magic stirs, and a lightning bolt of intuition hits me.

I smile, I can’t help it.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Asher asks.

“This is supposed to be your pack, isn’t it?” I ask.

His eyes widen in shock, “How? I mean, my parents were the Alpha and Luna Regia before Derek took over. I’m fairly certain that he killed them.

It’s the only way that he became alpha. Our bloodline is so strong though, that he couldn’t have me anywhere else in the pack but as beta, and he couldn’t get rid of me without raising suspicions.

Even though it was obvious to everyone that he killed them both because otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to overtake me as alpha. ”