Chris

I brush the hair back from Jess' tense forehead, seeing her brows still knit in pain and knowing there's nothing I can do about it. What's worse is that all I want to do is hold her but I know, in my worked up state, I'm part of the problem.

"Sleep well baby," I whisper, brushing my lips tenderly across her temple. Doc gives me a reassuring smile as I stand and reluctantly walk out of my room, leaving him with her.

"I'll link you the moment anything changes," Jude assures me from the hallway. He was waiting against the wall for me to finish up and slips in our room as I head out of the Royal wing.

'It's for the best,' Cyrus assures me. 'With her safe, we can put our attention elsewhere.'

He's right. Figuring out what the hell happened is priority number one.

As I make my way to Aiden's office, everyone practically jumps out of my way, giving me a wide berth. Arguments echo down the hall, not stopping when I enter. Ryker and Derek are going at it, with Barron, Aiden, and Garrick trying to quell the situation.

"What the fuck happened?!" I snap, not in the mood for more Guardian versus palace guard bullshit.

"An assassination attempt, I'm afraid," Aiden replies, his aged features creased with concern.

"By who?! We haven't even done anything yet to piss people off," I grow, pinning the man in place with a glare.

"Unfortunately rogues don't care who you are, they just want chaos-"

"Bullshit!" Derek roars, cutting Aiden off. "Even rogues know Jess as the Rogue Luna, why the fuck would they attack her and not the others?"

"Are you sure?" I ask Aiden.

Derek's right, this doesn't make any sense.

"Come on brother! You're not seriously buying this shit are you?!" Derek scoffs, throwing his hands up in disbelief. The darkening in his eyes warns just how worked up he's getting.

Clearly there's more to this.

"I don't know what to believe, all I know is I just came from taking care of MY MATE, who is sedated because of how bad of a migraine she has! And finding her barely coherent surrounded by dead bodies isn't acceptable," I snap, glaring at everyone in the room.

No one dares speak as Cyrus claws for control. None of this makes sense and how quickly they blame rogues instead of digging to the bottom of things pisses both of us off.

"Don't tell me what you think, tell me what you know for certain," I grit out, trying to reel my temper in.

"Two men and a woman, presumably rogues, infiltrated the town, killing a squad of four palace guards who discovered them. The bodies were hidden in a rush and found by a resident, who sounded the alarm," Ryker reports, unable to leave out the rogue suspicion.

"And?" I prompt, ticking my jaw.

"And that's all we know so far," Ryker shrugs. "The Guardians dispatched them before they could be questioned and you saw the rest."

Derek growls at Ryker's dig but let's it slide. 'Except that's not what happened,' he links me directly. 'Jess dropped them before Dex and Mack got there, so we need to talk with her when she wakes up. Something doesn't add up.'

'Agreed, but Doc warned me that she'll be out the rest of the day,' I caution.

"We have our entire force sweeping the town to flush out any other possible infiltrators and the guards within the palace have been doubled," Aiden assures me. "We also have our best trackers out scouting where they came from to see if they were working alone or not."

"And the Guardians?" I question turning my attention to Garrick.

"Are already at their camp, searching it now," he replies with a smug grin. "Dex took off with Shoen and Quinn as soon as you arrived on the scene. Mack is still working the scene, she says something is off with them, particularly the woman, and gave me this to look into."

He holds out a smooth obsidian stone with strange markings on it. The object is about the size of an egg but otherwise unremarkable. "The young keeper is eager to get into it, she has some theories but is currently digging up archives. I'm supposed to bring it to her in an hour."

"I can take it for you," I suggest, holding out my hand. "Focus your energy on what is really going on."

"Very well," Garrick nods, passing the stone over. "If you'll excuse me, I'd like to see what Dex has found."

"Go, keep me in the loop," I mumble looking at the stone. Other than slightly warm from being held, it looks like a completely nondescript piece of black rock with faint carvings in it, so I stuff it in my pocket.

"We will continue to dig also," Aiden adds. "Go be with Jess, I'll be sure to link you with the slightest development."

"Go eat something and cool off brother," Derek adds, knowing that I need to calm down before I can be around her. "I need to grab a bite myself."

Derek leads the way to the dining commons, grabbing two plates and leads us over to where Mira and Chloe are already seated. Both women look distracted and have guilt written across their faces.

"Stop blaming yourselves," I sigh, taking a seat.

"I should have known better," Chloe starts, her brown eyes locked on mine. "Before we even made it to the first store, she was rubbing her head, I knew she had a headache... and those... women!"

"Jess always hides the best she can. She's suffered through them since long before I met her, nothing you could have said or done would have changed anything," I mumble with a frown.

Unfortunately Jess has always had migraines. We had hoped that with her bond with Ember repaired they would stop, and for a while it seemed to help, but not any longer. Even meditation with Derek is no longer a safe option after the last time when she saw the shadow.

"She'll be okay, just needs to rest," I say.

'Where are you?' The Keeper links.

'Dining commons, are you free? I can be there in less than five minutes,' I offer.

'I'm closer, stay put, you're gonna want to see this!' Marjorie links.

"Sounds like the Keeper already found something," I say, feeling a sliver of hope. A moment later she rushes into the room, black robes swishing and brown shoulder length hair swishing wildly as cobwebs stream behind her.

"Where is it?!" She asks, pushing our plates out of the way and dropping two giant leather bound black books in their place.

I pull out and place the stone on the table, drawing curious eyes, but Mira jumps backwards out of her seat and drags Chloe with her. She locks her blue-green eyes on the polished obsidian lump, shoves Chloe behind her, and backs up further.

"Get away from it!" She hisses. "Where did you even get that?! And why the fuck are you carrying it around in your pocket!"

My eyes are glued to the furious shewolf, whose gaze is still locked on the stone.

"You know what it is?" I ask, a sense of dread growing in me at her reaction. The woman looks like she's having a standoff with a deadly cobra and waiting for it to strike.

"It's a dark talisman... Why do you have it!" she snaps once more.

"Mack found it on a woman-"

"What woman?! Where is she?" Mira yells, her eyes blue fire as her skin colour drains.

"Mira you're starting to freak me out, what's going on?" Chloe whispers, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"Irons, you need to chain her!" Mira starts, urgent desperation lacing every word.

"Mira calm down. She's dead, no irons needed," I say, throwing up my hands.

"No, she's not!" Mira growls, looking around before staring at the black lump once more.

"What are you talking about, I saw the body myself! Her throat was slit and spine severed, she's-"

"You're not listening to me!" She cuts in, her voice choking with fear.

"The talisman is the witch," Marjorie offers, sliding a book over to me with various stones like the one in front of me. "As long as the stone is intact, the witch can't be killed."

"Fucking break it!" Derek orders, reaching for the stone.

"NO!" Marjorie and Mira yell in unison, freezing everyone in place.

"You only get one chance," Mira whispers, never moving her gaze from the stone.

"They are enchanted and hexed," Marjorie explains. "Mira has more than enough firepower to get the job done, but the enchantments need to be lifted first."

"Well, how the fuck do we do that?" Derek huffs, eyes trained on the lump in front of us like it's a bomb ready to go off.

"Easiest way is to trigger it," Marjorie says, scanning her text. "Oh, this will do!" She grabs the dagger from Derek's waist, cuts her palm, and reaches her fist above the stone.

"No, don't!" Mira yells, eyes wide and full of terror.

Time slows down as she's too late and the Keeper drips her blood over the stone. As the first crimson drop hits the pitch black stone, it hisses and the carvings glow red. We barely have an instant to get out of the way as the stone starts to rumble. Panicked screams ring out as people rush for the exits, leaving the five of us ringing the table.

With a high pitched shriek, the stone breaks in half, spilling out black tar that multiplies and covers the table. We're frozen in place, watching as a human-like figure begins to rise from the tar. First a head and shoulders appear, then a black clawed hand grips the table as it hoists itself out of the tar pit on the table.

Icy blue eyes peer out of the black abyss of its face as it scans around, fully formed as a tar-covered naked woman. Her eyes land on Marjorie, who feebly points the blade at it before scanning us and finally landing on Mira.

"Now would be a great time, Firefly!" Derek shouts at Mira, snapping her out of her stupor.

The very air shimmers around Mira as blue flames race out and around the table, ringing the tar pool and woman. She lets out an inhuman, shrill scream and lashes out, only to be thrown back by blue flames. The tone sends cold shivers up my spine, knowing this is well out of my abilities.

"Kill it already!" Derek snaps.

"I'm trying!" Mira hisses, her voice strains as she focuses all of her attention on the entity in front of her. "She's trying to break my ward and escape!"

"Don't let her!" I order, not wanting that thing loose in the palace, or anywhere for that matter.

"Not helping, big boy," she snarls.

Cyrus huffs at her nickname but lets it slide, not wanting to distract her at this moment.

"It's you," the woman rasps in a blood curdling tone, her eyes locked on Mira. "Your line was supposed to have ended, abomination!" The woman's form begins to degrade, looking less like a beautiful young female and more gaunt and grotesque as the flesh begins to sag off of her bones.

"I hear that a lot," Mira grits out, flexing her fingers. More blue flames rise up, enclosing the thing in a dome before the table beneath her bursts into flames. Her ear piercing screams make me cover my ears but my eyes stay glued as the dome begins to collapse on her. Like all the air getting sucked out of the room, the blue flames condense in on themselves, sealing the woman, tar, and stone into a clear, ice-blue gem.

"Mira!" Chloe shouts, catching her as she sags to the floor spent.

"You, sit!" Derek growls at Marjorie, before checking on Mira.

"Is that it?" I ask, looking at the gem. "Is it over?"

Nervous murmurs sound around us as people who were trapped around the edge of the room exchange worried looks, holding each other close. I don't miss the way they look at Mira and the fear in their eyes.

'They think she did this,' Cyrus warns.

'Dumb fucks! Clearly she stopped it!' I snap back in frustration. How they're scared of and blaming her is clear as day on every one of their faces.

"No," Mira pants out, then shifts her eyes up to me. "If anything... this is just the tip of the iceberg..."