Page 69 of Shifted Fate (Broken Luna #1)

I closed the door and turned back to my mom. She was leaning against the door frame with a look on her face that I couldn’t read. We went back to the bathroom, and she leaned in. “How am I supposed to stay here for four years and deal with that man after finding everything out?”

“I don’t know. But at least you have a good reason to be mad. You can hold this against him for a while.”

She nodded and then shut the water off. “I have to go downstairs and clean up.”

I grabbed her arm. “That can wait until tomorrow. Today has been a very long day.” I looked out the window, and the sun was starting to come up.

“A very long day.” She nodded, and I noticed the bags under her eyes.

“Let's catch some sleep on my brand new bed, and we can try to figure everything out later today.” We crawled into the new bed, and I am thankful it was delivered and we made it up with fresh sheets last night before the whole pizza fiasco.

Within minutes, we were both out cold.

I was running through a forest I didn’t recognize. The trees were dark and stunning. A slightly familiar feeling fell over me as I ran around these giant trees. The trees were bigger than any I have seen before.

I searched for something, someone that could tell me where I was, but my feet were getting sucked into the damp mud.

“Where the fuck am I?”

“You know where you are, silly girl.” I turned and faced my dad’s grandmother.

“Grandma?”

“Yes pup.” She wrapped her arm around my middle and together we stepped over the soggy ground. Every step brought us deeper into the dark forest.

“Why are we in a forest?”

“This isn’t just any forest…this is the place where my family is from. The birth of our line is here, and there is something you need to see, I think.”

“Why?”

“It will help you understand where your power came from, and why the Goddess of wolves would work with our power.” She pulled me deeper. The trees hung with vines, and the sweltering heat had sweat dripping down my back. “Come. See the birth of our line.”

We walked for a few minutes and I heard a scream. One of anguish and desolation.

“No. Bring him back.” The woman’s words were filled with sobs. “Bring him back.”

“What is going on?” I whispered to my grandmother.

“It is not for us to interfere, just witness.” She pulled me faster, and then we were running over the slippery ground. I stumbled over a root and landed on my hands and knees. My grandmother knelt next to me. “Watch.”

A young man was covered in bites, wolf bites from the looks of it, and the woman with flaming red hair bowed over his still body.

The blood was dark and slow, giving the scene a deep sadness.

“Bring him back.” She called out and once again, there was no answer.

“I have worshipped you for my entire life.” Her voice was filled with pain.

“When the others turned from you, I stayed faithful.” She pushed her hands into the blood on the ground.

She painted his blood on her face, down her arms. “I call on you, the Three Faced Goddess, save my son. I call on you the old Gods to save my line. We have been faithful, we have been dutiful, we have been strong in the face of the new Gods.” She raised her hands in defiance. “Mother, save my son.”

The wind whipped around her and the moon fell on to the circle. The rocks that surrounded this place were staggered like steps. I turned to my grandmother with my mouth open and she put her finger to her lips.

“Maiden, I call on you to save my son. He is still so young, barely even old enough to be called a man.” Her voice grew louder.

She painted his skin with runes that I had seen in my book.

“Mother, I call on you to save my son. He has been dutiful in his worship of you, and will carry on our line.” She painted his lips with his own blood and a wolf crept in from the sides.

“Crone, I call on you to save my son. He will ensure our line worships you for centuries to come.” The woman, with tears coming down her face, called up to the moon.

“Three Faced Goddess, save my son.” The wind whipped, and she continued to bellow out.

She raised her arms, and we watched as her son’s blood dripped down her arms. “Three Faced Goddess, please save my son. Maiden, I call on thee. Mother, I call on thee. Crone, I call on thee.” The lightning struck.

And two women stepped out of the darkness.

One with a face that shifted from young, motherly, and an old crone, and another followed by wolves.

“How dare you come here with your demon spawn? Look at what they did to my son. Just look at him.” The woman stood over her son and screamed at the Goddess followed by wolves.

The Three Faced Goddess moved to the woman and held open her arms. The woman dove into them and started to sob.

“Please save him, Mother. I have dedicated my life to you and I have never asked you for a boon. This is my ask. Save him. Please.” She pulled back and looked at the Goddess, but her face was grim.

“I’m sorry, my daughter, I cannot.” The Three Faced Goddess held the woman in her arms as she broke. Her legs failed her, and she crumpled down to her knees.

“I will do anything, give anything, just save my son.” She wailed as the Goddess held her.

The Goddess with the wolves moved closer to the young man, boy really, and she crouched over him. The wolves all moved closer and closer until they, too, were crouched over the boy.

“Get away from him. Look at what your children did. Though we have never worshipped you, I didn’t shun you either. I gave you rites on your day.” The woman cried into the dress of her Goddess. “Why did they have to take him? He was a good boy. He never hunted you or yours.”

The second Goddess looked up and the light of the moon caught her face and I gasped as I knew this Goddess. “I know, and they are sorry. Their Alpha was hunted, and they wrongly assumed it was your son. They have come to apologize.” The woman cried harder.

She turned to her Goddess, and the shifting face of the Three Faced Goddess was hard to stare at.

Whenever I thought I could see her features clearly, they shifted.

“Please mother. I will give you my life if you would just save him. He is still breathing. I wouldn’t ask you to break the laws of nature, but he still breathes.

” She begged on her knees. “I will give you anything. My life, would you take my life as payment? I have followed and loved you all my life and it would be an easy decision if you would just save my son.” The woman begged on her knees, blood still smeared over her face, but her Goddess never faltered.

“I cannot. It is not in my power to bring him from the veil of death.”

“No.” She wailed.

“But it is within mine.” The second Goddess offered.

“What?” The woman froze at her goddess’s feet. She turned to face the second Goddess. “Moon Goddess, the mother of wolves and death, do not promise what cannot be done.” She crumpled on to the ground.

“What would you be willing to give for me to save your son?” The Goddess looked over at the woman as she crouched over the boy. “Would you give up your life to me to save your boy?”

The woman shuffled on her knees towards the Goddess. “Yes. I would give you anything. Please, just save him if you can.”

“Would you give up his life?”

The woman froze. Her face dropped. “Stop playing with my emotions. The point is to save his life.”

The Goddess smiled. “Yes, I can save his life by giving him a new life. Would you still love him if he was different? Changed?”

“Would he still be my son?”

“Yes.”

“Then I would love him even if he was changed. He would still be my boy.”

“Even if he worshipped me instead of your Goddess?”

“Yes.” She turned back to the Three Faced Goddess. “I would never turn my back on you, but he is my boy.”

“I understand.” The Goddess whispered in understanding.

“Then so be it.” The Goddess raised her hands and the boy’s body rippled.

“Come forth.” The Goddess called and the boy’s body split.

I recognized the shift before it finished.

Where once the boy laid, a new giant wolf stood.

With black fur and red eyes. The wolf panted and sat, his eyes cutting over the clearing and landing on his mother. He plodded over to the shivering woman.

She stared up at him and slowly raised her hands. “My boy.” She traced her hands through his fur and when he allowed it, she dove for him and wrapped her arms around him.

The Three Faced Goddess watched and smiled.

“Thank you, sister, for giving her what I couldn’t.

” The Moon Goddess nodded and walked off leaving the other Goddess crouched over the two.

“I could not save him, but I will give you a boon.” She placed her hand on the woman’s head.

“From earth to hearth, the power will flow. Down through the lines, the seed will grow. A gift from a Goddess, a power to bless. The ones from your line, with power to shine. Through fate, you create stitches, your line of the first witches. As we will it, so mote it be.”

To be Continued…