The Moon Goddess' Chosen

478 Taking Indirect Action

Honour sat in the Royal family’s suite, watching the screens that had been set up and occasionally taking a look at what was below them. Occasionally, she would see one of the contestants in the forest when they weren’t shielded by the great canopies.

‘Looks like whispering to her through the wind worked,’ the girl thought to herself. The goddess could not help mortals directly which meant they had to find a way to work around it.

At first, Honour thought this rule was stupid, but then, another message from Celeste sent through the wind explained everything. ‘Just imagine the gods could directly interfere with mortals. Mortals would ask the gods for everything and lose the ability to evolve and survive.

And from another perspective, the gods would be able to kill any mortal if they’d done something that angered them. Trust me, the gods can be petty.

Yes, the gods have done that before using their powers of calamity but it was never directly. And sometimes the mortals were able to survive these calamities.

Limiting the interaction between the gods and mortals allows them to grow and live. Even knowing that the gods probably don’t exist drives humans to become more and more innovative.’

The message in the wind had drilled this into her mind quite literally…

But it had also given her the clues she needed to finally help her friends. Honour didn’t have to just sit back and watch. She could still help her friends and oppose the Rogue King all at once...

Even before the start of the Royal Games, she’d started working on helping her friends… setting her own pieces into motion.

.....

.........….

The Night Before…

Honour walked silently through the near-empty halls of the infirmary and soon made it to the emergency room she’d been looking for. The girl pushed it open without knocking and silently closed it behind her.

“You know there are cameras that can see you come in,” a male voice suddenly filled the silent atmosphere of the white room.

“Yeah, I know,” she sighed, turning to the royal laying in the bed. A frown formed on her face, “You look pale. Are you okay?” The prince remained quiet as she walked up to him. The machines that monitored his condition looked fine. His heartbeat and blood pressure were alright but her eyes didn’t lie.

Earlier, he looked like he was getting better, but now he seemed to be getting worse.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Drake responded.

Honour wasn’t paying any attention to his words. She placed the back of her hand on his forehead.

“You’re heating up. Tell me what you feel,” she asked him.

“I feel cold… and my mind’s a little fuzzy,” he told her which didn’t help much.

“Drake… give me your memories.”

Drake’s eyes suddenly widened… ‘What?’ But this wasn’t a request.

Honour put a hand behind his back and helped him rise, placing her forehead against his with her eyes closed. Drake lingered for a moment, ‘She’s so close. Has she always had such flawless skin?’ he wondered before closing his eyes, ‘How is she so calm about this?’

Her mind soon invaded his in search of something. The prince guided his mate through his memories to the moment when he had to face off against the rogues that had attacked him during the Trials.

The girl watched them expressionlessly until a moment when she asked him to pause the rushing images. It was when one of the wolves had bitten him. Drake hadn’t taken the bite into consideration, but Honour seemed fixated on this peculiar incident.

“What is it?”

“Something’s wrong with the wolf with the red eyes,” she said before vanishing from his mind.

When the prince’s eyes opened, Honour was staring directly into his blue orbs, “Hey there,” the prince casually greeted. Honour blushed red.

‘You notice this now?’ the prince mentally screamed.

The goddess gently laid him back on the bed, still flustered, “I-I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

“Not at all,” Drake replied, “Do you have an idea of what’s going on?”

“Yeah, I think I know what’s happening. It feels really far-fetched but not impossible. And if it is the truth, then we are in a lot of trouble,” the girl mentioned before carefully folding back the prince’s sheets so his upper body was exposed.

Honour looked about the room in search of something. In one of the kidney trays laying on a table, she found a pair of scissors and started snipping Drake’s shirt at the left shoulder.

“I see we are undressing me now!”

“Yes, dear. You’re my little experiment. I won’t let you die on me,” the girl replied, hiding her discomfort.

“You could cut my trouser too. I felt an itch earlier today. I think I was stung by a scorpion earlier. Just to be sure.”

“You’re a jerk, Drake Sirius.”

Drake laughed. Her first attempt to play along had taken him by surprise which made victory this much sweeter.

His laughter died down, however, Honour started cutting through one of the numerous bandages that wrapped his shoulder and torso. An intense wave of pain went through the prince’s body when the cold steel of the scissors touched his skin, “What are you doing?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“Oh no…” Honour gasped. The first cut through the bandages at his shoulder had revealed a spiderweb of black veins beneath the skin. Honour noticed how it hurt the prince when she touched it, so she chose to cut a different part of the bandages instead.

“What have you found, nurse?”

“Try doctor… and there is something on your shoulder. I think it’s where you were bitten. Let me just…” the girl paused as she focused on cutting the fabric covering his chest, “…get rid of the bandages.”

The prince stayed still until she was done. When the bandage left his skin at the shoulder, another intense pain shot through his body. This time, it was clearly coming from his shoulder. The pain was so intense that hot tears pricked his sight.

“It’s just like I feared,” Honour panicked, “Hang in there, Drake.”

The goddess placed her hand over the black bite mark. An acrid stench was already coming off the bite mark and a black liquid was escaping the blackened flesh beneath the teeth marks. After a few seconds, an ethereal blue light began to shine under Honour’s hands.

The warm light flowed over the wound and traced the black veins. When everything was mapped, an intense glow filled the room forcing Honour to close her eyes from the sheer intensity of the bright blue light.

When the light had completely vanished, Drake’s skin was left good as new. Her healing ability hadn’t even left a scar behind. It was as though the wound had never existed. The black liquid that had stained the bandage had changed to red, purified of whatever toxin turned it into the bizarre black goop.

“What was that?” Drake asked.

“It was a bite… that was meant to turn you into one of the Rogue King’s henchmen. I can only assume your body fought it so well because you’re a royal. Royals can’t enslave fellow royals,” the girl explained.

“But I haven’t come close to the Rogue king. I know he regained the power to turn more humans into werewolves, but he’s locked up at the Origin, isn’t he?” Drake asked.

“Yes, he is. But from your memories, he must have figured something out. I don’t like the look of this,” Honour replied.

Drake sat up from the hospital bed and started taking out the needles that had been maintaining him, “What are you doing?”

“I’m all better, thanks to you. I can’t sit by knowing what’s happening and do nothing. I won’t… It’s too much to bear,” the prince clenched his fists in frustration. Knowing his family was in danger and not knowing how to help them was starting to take its toll on the kind man.

“You don’t have to… We can do something,” Honour replied. This stopped the prince in his tracks and got his full attention.

“I’m listening…”

.........

Looking back on it now, Honour wondered whether she’d done the right thing to send him out like that. She was the reason Drake had left early that morning on a mission he couldn’t speak of. Their lips were sealed indefinitely but that wouldn’t stop them from helping out.

Just then, a tingling sensation went down her spine and her hairs stood on ends, suddenly on high alert. In the safety of the Sirius Royal Suite, there wasn’t much that could attack them. In fact, her senses were picking up on something that wasn’t going to happen in the suite.

The girl stood up and turned to leave without saying a word. That’s when Madeline’s voice filled the silence of the living room, “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to walk around. My legs are feeling a little stiff,” she lied.

“Oh okay… come back quickly or you’ll miss Lina’s turn,” Madeline cooed.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, Mady,” Honour replied before making her way for the door. There was something important she had to check on. The feeling in her gut only got worse when she stepped out of the Royal Suite.

Something was wrong…