Yes, tomorrow will be the beginning or the end.When we rose the next morning, I contacted my Council. They were playing it cool, and there were no new developments."Any messages from Monica," I asked Alexis."None." Alexis looked calm and serene while Ran and I were nervous wrecks. "I've tried to locate Athena, but there has been no answer.""Why?" I asked. "You don't think you and Ran might have accidentally…""No," Alexis said. "She hasn't met her final death. Besides, she wouldn't come to me masquerading as a Rector. She despises them, probably even more since being imprisoned. I want to locate her body so that I can free her.""I don't know if I can handle Athena and Epic Cu all at once," I said."You're not still afraid of her, are you, my love? Athena fully approves of you.""She approves of my power," I said. "It's funny how she knew even before I did that there was something more to me…"No one had heard from Athena since her one hundred-year exile to some tomb. I wo

This room put the banquet room at the Spanish Council to shame. It was three times as big and decorated in gold and red. It was nearly as ornate as the inside of the Vatican, and dark paintings hung on the walls over even darker sculptures.On several paintings I saw Wraiths similar to those I had seen on the dark path leading to the Mother's hut, but a massive mural teeming with devil dogs, dark smoky spirits, Centaurs, horned figures, and more Wraiths chilled me to the bone.Alexis examined the mural. "It is the dark path…"I focused on the image of a terrified woman, her mouth a gaping maw as she silently screamed. An uprooted stalagmite tree had snatched her from the path, and something slimy gnawed on her foot."This is what you saw?" Ran asked while staring in horror at the mural."Yes," I said, shivering. Alexis rubbed my arms. "Follow me."He led us down an immense corridor decorated with murals, statues of winged demons, and a ceiling that depicted a beautiful represen

I smelled Alexis and Ran, but so had Paul. He was already heading toward them. When we finally met up, I dropped Paul's clothes on the ground before him. He changed quickly back to a man while I stared up at the castle where more Neratomay than ever attempted to enter Epic Cu."Once we're inside we cannot flash ourselves out," I said.Paul narrowed his eyes. "You'll be trapped inside?"Alexis frowned, but Ran and I nodded.Paul slipped his shirt over his head and peered at the castle. "We can blow this bitch up.""Blowing up Neratomay won't kill us," Alexis said. "Not unless our heads are severed or our hearts pierced.""Why does this castle remind me of Hogwarts?" Paul asked.I smiled. "That's what I thought!""How do we enter?" Paul asked. "That entrance is a hopeless bottleneck." "You could enter through the front door once we're inside," Alexis said, pointing at the opening four stories up. "That's how we exited."Paul licked his lips. "I can make that jump.""Not as a

I stared at the center of the pentagram where so much power was streaming through to seek out vessels, as if that power was a thinking, conniving being. It infused its targets with power so they could fight for it. And Alexis thought that my son should face that? My little boy?"Alexis, he's just a baby!""He is a demon!" he said sternly. "He only pretends to be a baby because that's what you need, Kim. You have to know that it has been many years since our son was a baby."The way King talked to the Wolf Council, the way he seemed to understood so much and so easily, the way he commanded attention whenever he spoke. I didn't want my child to fight this battle, but Alexis and King both knew this was what King was meant to do.Alexis released me and turned toward the pentagram. He raised his hand and began pulling power from the portal in the center, pulling so much that he glowed with the unnatural light that the energy emanated.Paul squinted and stepped in front of me, preventin

The Neratomay flashed themselves away once they were outside of Epic Cut. The Supernaturals carried away their dead and injured, and what was left inside of Epic Cu was blood, gore, and ash. Paul left with his pack, and Ran, King, Alexis, and I flashed back to our villa where King fell in an exhausted asleep.Alexis and I watched him with pride. "It could have gone so much different," I whispered."No." Alexis continued to gaze at King's small sleeping form. "Not if we understand King's true potential—this is the way it was meant to be."It was time discover the fallout so we turned on the radio and television. Many countries were in a state of emergency based on what had happened over the last several hours. News outlets and radio stations made announcements that people should stay indoors because there were reports of wild, strange beast attacks. Videos of humans turning into Vampires and using impossible speed to attack the beasts clogged the Internet. Supposed experts in the s