Chasing His Betrayed Luna by KiKi Jones

80. Underground

AURELIA

| lied to Raiden and | wasn't sorry.

| couldn't bring myself to be sorry even though my heart ached to be with my son or at least see Katie for the

first tin days. | felt sorry for my kids but my legs didn't stop moving towards the splace Larisa clawed at

my already fragile life. The splace Jess had her last breath.

"Are you sure about this?" Even Inara asked me.

My wolf knew | was determined to check every corner of the forest. I've to find Larisa and skin her alive, bit by

fucking bit before anyone else finds her.

"I've no doubts. Killing that bitch is important and | can't put anyone else at risk." | responded the second |

arrived in the vicinity. | could feel the strange energy | felt that day radiating, however, | couldn't see the source.

| added, giving the control of my senses to my wolf, "I trust you to helpfind her."

"I'll help but | don't think we'll find her here. | can't sense her." Inara explained, sniffing the air through my

nostrils. "You're right about the strange energy though. It's still here but weaker than it was three nights ago."

Despite my wolf's words, | hoped that Larisa would still be around. Goddess, how | would make that bitch suffer

before kicking her into the furnace of hell. That would be my way of protecting everyone I've ever loved from

her.

If Jess was gone because of her, she shouldn't remain alive.

It wasn't fair-

I quickly caught myself before tears rolled down my cheeks. I've to be focused if | wish to resolve the mystery of

Larisa's hideout.

Clearing my thoughts, | looked around the forest and said to my wolf, "If it's weaker, we should be able to

penetrate, right?"

"Absolutely." Inara chimed confidently.

"What do | do first? Guidethrough the process." | practically pleaded with my wolf.

Inara replied, "It's simple. I'll release our accumulated spiritual energy and you will let it out. Since Larisa

mentioned that she learned and practiced dark magic, our energy would bounce off her darkness and that'd lead

us to the source.”

My wolf tried to be as clear as possible and | trusted her to guideas she released our aura. My eyelids

fluttered before closing and my mind opened, energy tingling at the tip of my fingers.

"Open your eyes," Inara instructed, surprisingly calm while | struggled with containing and getting used to the

energy crackling like wild current within my veins.

Regardless, | opened my eyes and realized that | was seeing the world differently. This new view was similar to

the sharpness | usually experience whenever | shift into my wolf form and look around through Inara's eyes.

| could see the smallest ants on the floor, hear sounds that | didn't sense before now, and perceive thousands of

scents from the forest.

"Don't get carried away by other details. Concentrate, Relia. This won't last long." Inara cautioned me, making it

known that we'd burn out soon. "Find the dark energy."

A huge part offelt the need to ask Inara how | was supposed to do that but | simply inhaled deeply, tasting

the different scents on my tongue and listening for any weird sound. If | couldn't see, | might as well use my

other senses just like | did the last t| was here.

| was close to giving up and doubting that my unsharpened abilities would helpfind whatever it was | was

supposed to be looking for but all of a sudden, among the thousands of sounds in the forest, | found one that

shouldn't be there.

"Did you hear those..." | breathed to my wolf.

Inara didn't disappointwhen she replied, "Heartbeats." She added, "And what's that smell? It's coming from

the earth... down below, Relia but also straight ahead."

| gasped, "Underground."

"With an entrance on the surface." Inara completed and my legs grew a mind of their own as they began to

move forward, carryingtowards nothing until | cin contact with something, an invisible surface. In fact, |

collided with it, head-first. "Ouch." | wince, rubbing my forehead but | forgot about the pain when | felt a force

pushingbackward... away from the invisible structure.

Inara shouted, her words ringing in my head, "That's it! It's her lair!"

"But | still can't see it," | complained, pushing against what | assumed was the dark force Inara mentioned

earlier.

Inara was quiet for about two minutes before she instructed, sounding breathless. "Find an entrance. You will see

as soon as you gain access to the structure. Just go around and find an entrance-"

Her voice broke and | immediately felt fatigue kicking against my determination. | didn't have to be told. It was

clear that | didn't have ton my side.

Without wasting another second, |

began to move around the repelling

force, tracing it with my fingers. It took a few seconds forto find a loose part and | assumed it was the

entrance. | pushed against it but while my fingers went through, my lower body cin contact with a hard

surface that wouldn't budge.

"It's a w-window." Inara stuttered. "J-jump, Relia."

Quickly, I lunge upward, blindly jumping through the space my fingers found. Instinctively, my eyes closed and

didn't open until | crashed against another hard surface. "It really was a window." | breathed as my eyes took

I found

state of the unfamiliar roothe

myself in.

From within the structure, I could see the forest through the window and | also realized that if | had taken three

more steps, I'd have found the entrance but those thoughts flew through the window the second I inhaled deeply

and got a whiff of

Kyle's scent in the room.

My heart fell to the depth of my stomach as | traced my son's scent to a small, flat bed. | saw a bowl of rotting

meal by the side and blood-stained napkins. Knowing that was Kyle's blood broke me, tears rolled down my

cheeks and | clutched my chest. "It's indeed her lair but she isn't here." Inara chimed.

| was about to tell her there was no one there when | heard a barely audible grunt of pain.

My eyes widened, "Underground. The heartbeats."

"The entrance is right behind you," Inara announced, sniffing the air.

I swirled around and | cface to face with a corridor. Who on earth would believe that this was here? |

questioned myself as | walked down the corridor and soon, | found a stairway that leddownward and towards

the weak heartbeats. | noticed the temperature changed faster than the metallic cells built into the walls.

The stench invading my nostrils was choking but it didn't stopfrom hearing the weak whisper that had me

gasping and leftwondering. "Aurelia... Is t-that really you?"

That didn't sound like Larisa... so who could that be?