The Moon Goddess' Chosen

487 Bliss, Love and Pain

If someone else had given this answer, the girls would have been left with doubts but this was Honour, the next moon goddess. If it didn’t turn out to be true, there was even the seed of suspicion that she could create the bond all on her own…

But none of them mentioned this little suspicion. It bordered quite close to treachery in this context.

“Fine… My turn!” Bree squealed, “Have you kissed him yet?”

“Kissed who?” a female voice interrupted the girl’s gossip session, sending chills down the girls’ spines.

They all turned to see Lina standing at the door with a suspicious look on her face, “Did you guys totally forget to include me in this gossip? Not fair… I want to hear everything.”

Honour turned a deep shade of red. Not only had she gained a bigger audience but Lina was a part of it as well.

“How did it go with Jack?” Honour asked.

“Oh, it was fine. I’ll look into it later though,” Lina shrugged.

“What did he say?” Honour asked.

.....

“Something about putting an end to the games. I told Micah everything. He’s going to deal with it,” Lina summarized, “Stop stalling, Honour.”

“Oh! Fine…” the goddess caught the princess up on what had so far happened and even gave a detailed explanation of why she was certain Drake was her mate. The attraction was mutual.

‘…he also seemed capable of accessing my Divine Energy and using it for himself. And I can heal him, which isn’t the same with everyone else…’ she wanted to add but she knew these parts of her thoughts wouldn’t leave her vocal cords.

“Okay then… I’ll take the fourth question then,” Lina giggled, settling in the semicircle surrounding her best friend.

“Okay then… To answer Bree’s question. No, I haven’t kissed him… yet!” why did this confession taste bitter on her tongue… and even worse, why were her cheeks burning?

Honour covered her face, wishing she could vanish somewhere isolated. Had she seriously never thought of it this way?

“Why is that?” Crysta wondered.

“Is that perhaps, your question?” Honour’s eyes gleamed with a hint of mischief.

“Yes, that’s my question,” she didn’t bat an eye.

‘Tough cookie…’ the goddess mentally cried.

“I don’t know. I’ve never thought of it. I guess I was too wrapped in feeling safe about him to actually push the relationship that far,” Honour covered her face as she said this. This was true as well, considering everything she heard in the wind and how Drake was almost always there to hold her.

Her words held the truth… but not the whole truth and she felt bad about twisting it in order to answer her friend’s question but there was simply no other way.

Regardless, Drake was her safe haven.

“I see! Lina… Your turn.”

“Mine’s simple. Does he know?” Lina asked… not finishing the whole sentence as it was obvious.

“Yeah, he knows,” Honour replied calmly.

It was clear that the girls wanted to know more about Honour and the princess’s brother, but fortunately, they didn’t pressure her for any more information.

After their question limit was hit, they decided against putting more pressure on her as she couldn’t turn any more colours than beet red.

They told Lina about Madeline’s encounter with Kyle and how all of this had started. When they tried to coax Madeline to seek out their mates again, however, Lina stopped them, a memory of the past sparking in her mind.

A memory of a time it seemed Madeline had accidentally activated her powers, only to recoil in pain back in the Golden Moon pack two years ago.

Lina didn’t know whether she’d seen anything and Madeline never spoke of the incident ever again. Lina’s fears had encompassed her curiosity for the first time ever…

Even now that they thought of manifesting the Seeker’s powers, she found herself afraid of hearing the answer the girl would give her.

“So, do you think he’s the one?” Lina suddenly asked the Seeker.

The princess tried placing Kyle’s character but couldn’t seem to get a read on him. Cole seemed comfortable around him… comfortable enough to allow him to compete alongside him in the Royal Games.

He’d disrespected Crysta without even realising it and apologized promptly, sounding sincere all through. It was almost like he said everything on his mind without a care for the consequences.

Compared to the person she knew from Katie’s past, he seemed completely different. He was… an anomaly she couldn’t place. Admittedly, this was Lina being optimistic. She couldn’t dismiss the fact that Kyle had indeed once been a spy out to bring down her sister.

“I can’t tell, Lina. I can tell he doesn’t mean me harm. But I also can’t tell what he’s thinking,” Madeline’s eyes stared off into the distance as she relived the short moments that she’d been in Kyle’s presence.

“Well, it’s no use overthinking it now,” Honour tried to steer them away from the topic.

“Oh! Honour, what do you think of him?” Lina turned to the young goddess.

Honour narrowed her eyes at her best friend, “You know what I mean, Honour. You wouldn’t have left Bree all to him if you hadn’t noticed something… would you?” Lina added.

‘What use was being friends with a moon goddess if you couldn’t get some celestial insight, right?’

“No, he didn’t mean her any harm. But that’s all I could tell,” Honour replied briefly, returning her attention to her book. Lina sighed… ‘That can’t be all she can tell me!’ but she didn’t press her for any more information.

The girls shifted their attention to different random topics. They had one day of rest which they planned to utilise. They played a few board games, ordered food and played a few silly games before they ran out of energy.

At the end of it all, Honour was the one left awake. The girls had fallen asleep in the sofas, not having the strength to retreat to their rooms. Despite being the weakest out of them, Honour had failed to sleep.

She stood up and walked to her room to take a shower. The goddess closed her eyes once the water was flowing through her hair, calming her nerves… and shivering body. A stream of silent tears streamed down her porcelain face, her divine shackles loosening in her solitude.

Tapping into her connection with the prince, she watched his progress through his eyes. The prince was in his wolf form, following a few life gestures through a thick forest, careful to keep his distance but tracking them down nonetheless. Everything was going well on his end, as expected, “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine, I guess. I’m not sure how well this will work but I’m hoping it does for our own sakes,” the prince sighed.

“Yeah, same here…” Honour responded.

After a short pause, his voice came through, “Are you okay?”

“How am I supposed to answer that?” Honour’s voice nearly broke. The prince’s mind invaded hers even more… like a warm blanket of love and care.

Without asking, he gently sifted through the goddess’s most recent memories. The memories Honour was clinging too tightly in this moment of weakness.

Blissful laughter and giggles coming from the group of friends she’d grown fond of filled Drake’s mind along with a feeling of impending gloom. “Many years ago, as a child, I was not capable of making friends. I was a weakling.

You know what our society is like. The kids show off their power and cling to those that are strong.

As someone weak, I was easily shunned.

For some reason, that didn’t bother me. I had hobbies to keep me occupied. My mother’s flower shop was more than enough to take my time.

But that was all before I met Lina Sirius. A girl who valued a different kind of strength. She was so lost back then… Unaware of how powerful she truly was and also being eaten up by the darkness of being rejected by her friends.

We became fast friends… I’d never thought that one friend would bring me many more.”

The memories of the fun she was having with this group of girls rippled through the goddess’s mind, sending waves of grief as well as unimaginable bliss, love and pain through her body.

“The more fun we have, the more I’m reminded of the limited number of days I have here.”

“Isn’t that the point though? To have as much fun as you can… before you can’t,” Drake tried.

“Yeah… but the more fun I have, the more painful it will be when I have to leave,” Honour’s voice now came as a whisper that the prince had to pay attention to.

“Then you have all the fun you can. The one thing you can’t change is leaving this plane… but you can spend as much time as you possibly can with your friends. So have the time of your life… so you can leave with no regrets,” Drake consoled.

Honour paused for a moment, relishing in her mate’s presence. She got the feeling if she wished, she could just appear where he was with a bit of divine energy.

…as long as it didn’t interfere with the lives of mortals…

But she held out on doing something that drastic.

“What about you? Shouldn’t you have been spending more time with your family?” Honour asked.

“You have me there,” the prince sighed, “Perhaps I was trying to get them to notice something by acting out. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Maybe you were thinking the same thing I was…”

“Not good at following my own advice,” Drake chuckled when he noticed his own behaviour to be similar to Honour’s… even though his own was to a much greater degree of childishness.

“Yeah. Maybe after you’re done with your mission, you could spend more time with them,” Honour sighed.

“I’m looking forward to it…” Drake replied, “You should get some rest.”

Honour chuckled humourlessly, “That’s one of the things I’m most afraid of.”

“Hey, you’re not going anywhere yet. Besides, you need your rest if you’re to have a blast tomorrow. You have the day to yourselves, don’t you?” Drake pointed out.

“Yeah, we do…” after a short pause, “Good night, Drake.”

“Good night, my lady,” Drake replied with a tad bit more lovingness than the girl was used to getting.

The goddess finished her shower and exited the bathroom only to get surprised by a staggering Lina. The princess was leaning against the door, rubbing her eyes and yawning in exhaustion.

She looked ten times more exhausted than Honour thought she was. “Are you okay, Lina?”

“Yeah… Just a little bit… tired,” the princess said in between yawns before making her way to the bed.

Honour rushed to her before she could fall and helped her get into the bed, “What made you this tired?”

“Hmm, something about exhaustion hitting me much later than it’s actually supposed to… I don’t… know,” Lina was out like a light.

‘Just how exhausted was she? Was this supposed to be the kind of backlash she gets from using her insane powers? But then again, Lina had used her powers a long while ago. ‘Much later than it’s supposed to…’

If this was her backlash from finishing the Trials, this was more than much later than it should have been.

.....

Honour’s thoughts were stopped when Lina reached for her.

“No, Lina. Only Mady keeps moving about like…” resisting was futile.

With a mortal present, the goddess’s powers were reduced to nothing and before she knew it, Lina was holding onto her like a little kid.

“…like she’s looking for a teddy bear.” Honour uselessly finished her statement, imprisoned in her best friend’s clutches.

Lina mumbled, “Hmm, no… not a teddy. I’m holding… h-holding the moon. So pretty and relaxing.”

The princess yawned before her movements came to a stop and her breath slowed down to that of a mammal in deep sleep.

‘Holding the moon, huh…’ Honour regarded the princess, marvelling once more at her resemblance to the Lost Luna...

‘Good night, Lina.’

To the moon, ‘Good night, Katie.’

..............

Surprisingly, that night, Honour slept without any dreams.