A Gift from the Goddess

Chapter 158

Book Two – Ch.# 49

“Clarissa!” I screamed, pushing past Zac to run inside.

He was still too confused to move, struggling to understand the situation. Only,

I did know the situation. I knew that something had to be so very wrong.

“Clarissa!” I yelled again, scanning through the rooms.

And, finally, her voice called back.

“Rae!” she cried.

The kitchen.

I bolted to her location and found Clarissa on the ground, shaking as she stared up at a man holding a knife.

…A man I knew as Noah Kennedy.

“Who is that!” she screamed. “How did he get in here? H-he shouldn’t be here. He could have killed me!”

Noah simply appeared stunned by the whole situation and slowly looked down at the

knife in his hand. A kitchen knife that he was using to cut an apple.

“This is wrong,” she whispered to herself.” No one is ever at Zac’s house. How is there someone here? It’s supposed to be completely private.”

“Woah, calm down,” I said. “Nothing is going on. You’re fine. This is Noah.”

The way she had moved around in Zac’s house, it really was as if she were walking into her own home. I suppose it would give her a fright to suddenly see someone after six prior lifetimes of the same empty house.

“Who?” she asked, still confused. “Who the hell is Noah?”

“Uhm…,” I started. “Well… he’s the younger brother of Miles Kennedy….”

“The smuggler? Why the hell is the dead smuggler’s brother here? You’ve never even mentioned he had a brother.”

“I don’t know? I didn’t know where else to

put him after I didn’t kill him. Thought he’d be safer here at Zac’s house rather than somewhere my father would find him.”

And she immediately looked at me as if I had two heads, her eyes wide in confusion.

“…What the hell is up with you?” she whispered. “This timeline… it’s all wrong.

“Um… hi,” Noah then said next to us, quietly watching all of this unfold. “How’s it going?”

It was enough to break the intense staring contest Clarissa and I were currently having. Though, she still refused to acknowledge him.

“I’m going to my room,” she finally said after another few moments passed, and slowly picked herself back up. “I-I need to rest.”

I didn’t try to stop her and she rejected my attempt of trying to help her up. Clearly, she needed some time to figure out what was going on, and even I felt too exhausted to deal with this right now.

‹*“ — You don’t have to do this… You don’t need to be Raven. “*”

Kieran’s words. The voice in my head that had stopped me on multiple occasions. Like a buzzing in my brain that had been incessant, stilling my hand from killing both

Noah and Daniel, the Ashwood Beta heir.

It had been his influence that had changed me from who I was before. A change that I’d thought was for the better.

…So just what had I done in my past timelines?

Maybe something had happened in the last one that even Clarissa didn’t know about.

How else could things have diverged so much?

“Raven, right?” said Noah, his tone awkward. “Nice to finally meet you without the… you know… the whole trying to kill me thing.”

I sighed.

“A pleasure,” I said dryly.

Thankfully, Zac found his way into the kitchen at that moment. Though, I knew he would be wanting answers.

“What the hell is going on? For real?” he asked. “Where’d that girl go? Is she okay?”

“She’s fine… everything is fine,” I said, unsure if I were trying to reassure him or myself. “But….”

And as I looked around his fancy house, I did wonder something. Particularly, something to do with Clarissa.

“Hey… how many rooms does this place have anyway?” I asked.

“Well, there’s-.”

However, his voice was then cut off by the frustrated scream of Clarissa down the hall.

“My room!” she whined in the distance.

It seemed as though Noah had moved into what normally would be her bedroom. An assumption that was then confirmed by the sound of what must have been Noah’s possessions being thrown outside.

“What are you doing here? Really?” Zac then asked, a seriousness to him despite the absurdity of Clarissa in the background.

I quickly bit my tongue, hesitating. How did I begin to explain? From werewolves to wars, to Gods and abilities. It was a lot to casually explain to someone in one sitting. Hell, even I barely understood.

“Just… we’re in a bit of trouble and need to hide out for a bit. Not even my father can know I’m here, okay?”

“I… I don’t know… this has already gone pretty far,” he said, uncertainty thick in his tone. “First Noah… now this?”

I could influence him, sway his mind to convince him that we could stay. It had worked once before to make him ease off with his questioning. Only… only it somehow felt wrong to do that.

“Zac… I…,” I started. “Look-.”

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His phone then rang, cutting me off. But it was his expression that I was most worried about as I watched it then pale, his eyes deliberately shifting back up to meet mine.

…There was only one person it could be.

The person who had been paying well enough for Zac to afford a house like this.

“Zac… no… please, don’t…,” I begged.

And he slowly picked up the phone, holding it to his ear.

“…Mr Reid,” he answered.

My heart sank.

“Did you need some cleaning done? -At City West hotel? And what time would this be?”

But then it happened. A moment right towards the end where Zac paused and frowned at me, almost as if debating one last time if he should do it. Come clean and remove the risk of being caught in a lie.

“Zac….”

And his eyes closed.

“Nothing… sorry, sir. I’ll be there tonight.”

He hung up the phone and a wave of relief instantly washed through me, knowing it was one less thing I’d need to worry about.

“You’re going to be the death of me, Rae,” he sighed. “Literally.”

Well, I wasn’t sure if Clarissa could confirm that, but I at least hoped it wasn’t true. However, for now at least, I could rest.

I was safe.

Zac’s house was pretty large and nicely isolated from the main part of the city. I hadn’t been expecting that, but it turned out to be pretty beneficial for us.

The upstairs consisted of three bedrooms, the downstairs a study and living space… though, most interestingly, Zac told me about a secret dungeon area at the very bottom. A space where he apparently kept the majority of his cleaning supplies and… anything else he didn’t want people to find.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know the exact details of that one.

Clarissa, without asking, had forced Noah to move into the study downstairs. He seemed a little annoyed until he looked over at me, probably remembering the night I had found him. After all, as Clarissa had said, he wasn’t even supposed to be here.

Things around here were… certainly going to be interesting.

“I need you to send a letter,” Clarissa said, seating herself down on the couch next to

She had a pen and paper in hand.

It was the first time I’d seen her so lively in two days. Before now, I had briefly been dropping food off for her but she’d been bedridden for the most part as she recovered.

“To who?” I asked.

“To your cousin,” she answered. “The Alpha of the Hidden Moon pack. They swore to cut ties with the Silver Mist after the war but that was under the assumption you and your mother had perished in the fighting. Even if you didn’t grow up in the Hidden Moon as she did, this loyalty should naturally extend to you, her daughter.”

Right… my mother. Myra had told me she was born to the Hidden Moon pack. Though,

I wasn’t aware of any cousins.

Yet it still didn’t sit quite right with me. Almost as if believing I had more blood relatives seemed a little too good to be true. I didn’t really want to get my hopes up after what happened with Myra. Not after….

I swallowed back the memory of her dying.

“…Cousin?” I managed to ask, pushing past

“Alpha Jax Sullivan,” she said. “He’s about ten years older than you and, like those in the Silver Mist, he was raised with the true knowledge of werewolf origins, Selene, and our abilities. Their alliance to our pack was once thicker than even blood.”

“And I’m supposed to write him a letter?” I asked. “He probably doesn’t even know who I am, let alone will believe me. I can’t exactly verify my identity.”

“But you can,” she said, taking my hand. ” You’re the spitting image of your great- great grandmother, Iris, with the golden eyes of a Knight. You can’t fake that.”

“Clarissa….”

I was getting tired of being described this way. As if it bestowed some greater responsibility to live up to.

“Hey… only you can do this. No, you have done this. Multiple times. We need their support if we’re to commence preparations. An army behind us is crucial.”

Right… for the war that she mentioned. It sounded like some big battle full of casualties. The kind of thing that ruined our lives to begin with. Just thinking about it left me feeling a little uncomfortable.

Because even if Clarissa knew we would be victorious… was this really the right way? ”

“I need you to trust me,” she then said, churning the confliction inside me further. We’re racing against the clock to stop Allison, but there’s no way in hell we can just waltz into Ashwood as we are currently. We’re not strong enough to take them all on alone. But with the Hidden Moon behind us? In all their power and wealth? Well… we become unstoppable.”

I could believe that. Yet, that wasn’t the issue making me hesitate.

“…Write the letter, Rheyna,” she said, holding out the pen. “Become who you are meant to be and let me help you. Stop hiding from your past and embrace it. Do this and I know we won’t fail this time.”

Slowly, I took the pen from her hand, but I could only stare at it tentatively.

“You are Rheyna Knight, the infamous devil Saintess,” Clarissa said. “Blessed with a title that honours both your life struggles and your true heritage. A symbol for the Hidden

Moon to rally behind, one that reminds them of their alliance.”

And I knew what she was referring to. The only name that encapsulated my entire life, my pain, my fight. A name that had haunted me, yet protected me. A way for me to always push aside the wrongdoings I had done, to blame it on that side of me.

And it was a name that had once belonged to Iris Sullivan. A symbol that, to the Hidden Moon pack, was one of allegiance, of hope, of change. A promise now of the tide in war finally changing, and one that foretold the return of our old ways. The ways of the Silver Mist Council.

I knew Clarissa was right.

…Only I could do this.

And so I sighed, closing my eyes in acceptance.

I guess there really was no running away from it now. No way to truly change. This was who I was always meant to be, who I am now meant to become.

It was the last thought I had before I took the paper from her, beginning to write…

“Keep it short and go easy on the specifics,” Clarissa said. “Should the letter get intercepted, we don’t want to leak any details that might screw us later.”

“Got it…,” I mumbled.

But it ended up being briefer than even she probably expected. Just a short note that was sweet and to the point.

…And one that was signed under a name I knew they would recognise…

‘Rheyna Knight….’

‘…- The Raven.’