ASENA When the human race became extinct – leaving less of their species than there were shifters – the high councils on each continent came together to decide what we could still save and what we couldn’t. There weren’t enough shifters realm-wide to keep up productivity and maintain most industries. So, things like flying contraptions became antiques. Mobile phone companies shut down in the east whereas they adopted and adapted the technology in the west. Things like movies and television shows stopped producing. Yet you could still buy TVs and movies that were hundreds of years old and were redistributed through the internet they maintained. While one continent’s fashion reverted backward the other kept their textile industries going and progressing to invent items like Lamia’s suit. The west rebuilt cities, the east let them crumble long ago, going back to more basic ways of life yet still maintaining a grip on modern sciences. There had not been a war for the realm for a thousan

HUNJI 3 MONTHS AGO “This is one creepy forest,” Gregorio gives a low whistle as we enter the forest of Morngord that surrounds the Kingdom of Riocht, and he peers out the front windshield. his heavy accent making him sound almost comical. “I don’t think Morgan would be comfortable here, it feels like it's haunted.” “They say it is. There have been many battles here throughout the centuries, many lives lost.” I scowl thinking if the ghosts of Morngord would disturb Morgan. “Exactly, she feels those echoes. It might disturb her too much.” He states. I have come to understand just how much Gregorio loves Morgan during our ride to Riocht. He talks about her like she is his own daughter, telling me all the things she would get into trouble for when she was younger and how just as defiant, she was then, as she is now. Gregorio was a patient man, I found out. Which was how he became Morgan’s head guard when she was transferred and locked away in a room in the Megaron. We conversed very

MORGAN Sometime in the middle of the day, I woke up with a throbbing head. I lifted my hand to feel where the thudding pain was coming from, feeling a good-sized knot on the back of my head. Man, whatever they hit me with did a real number. My next thought went to my brother, and I began panicking. I didn’t know what the outcome of the fight was. Was Finn, okay? What about Ria and Xander? I remember seeing, hearing, and feeling the explosions as well as hearing several screams. I was alone in the room and climbed out of bed to go look for someone. I wasn’t even sure where I was but had deduced that I was in some sort of infirmary. I couldn’t have been that injured because I was still in the same clothes. I open the door to find a hallway that ran left and right. Instincts had me turning right and I swiftly began to move down the long corridor. “Morgan!” I turned on my heel quickly at the sound of my brother’s voice. “Finn!” I yelled, the very sight of him alleviating my panic. And

FINNEGAN ARTOS Walking through the infirmary doors, the smell of disinfectant, medicines, and sickness assault my beast’s senses. I shake my head in an attempt to block the insulting and saturating scents. The only reason I stayed here overnight was to be with my sister, Morgan. I had only just gotten her back. Being reunited with her - the last time I had seen her was almost three years ago. The last time I was in Andora with our sick twisted father. I found Xander’s room and gently knocked on the door. I could smell that Ria was already in there. She had been by her mate’s side for the past week. That’s how long it had been since the attack, and we were no closer to finding the culprits than we were that night. Mathias was being a little bitch. He still didn’t trust me. Not that I can really blame him. I did poison his mate with silver dust, hold a knife to her throat and grope her in front of him. Not my finest moment. “Come in” I hear the soft sound of Ria’s voice. A human tu

MORGAN 2 WEEKS LATER “Are you ready?” I ask my brother. Finn nods his head, a look of apprehension. I squeeze his hand offering comfort and subtly conveying to him there was nothing to fear. This was the first time he would be witnessing me call our mother forth, the first time he will have seen her in years. For me, it was normal. I had been calling our mother forth for years. If not for my own reasons, then because our father, Orion demanded speaking to her. Whenever Orion came back to Andora, it’s what he always asked of me. Sometimes he would talk to my mother for hours, sometimes it was only for a few minutes. But the conversation was always the same: Orion crying and saying how sorry he was. A tear slipped down my cheek as I recalled the night he killed her, and all the conversations over all the years I had been privy to witness. I calmed my inner emotions, steadied my breathing, and spoke the words out loud “As it shall be from the heavens, let it be from the depths. From