*A/N: This takes place before Ravyn's and Jude's audience with Ylavi and the explosion.*
Dane POV
Bewildering images.
The crystal skull showed him pictures at a furious rate, challenging his brain's ability to keep up. Ancient wisdom. Two powers, a dark moon and a glowing golden moon, existing together, almost fused and overlapping. Two smiling faces, a light and a dark one. Then, a light and a dark wolf, side by side.
He detailed exactly what he was seeing to everyone.
"The Dark Goddess and the Moon Goddess," Garnet breathed. "We saw them in action together, clashing, during the battle between Cyran and Hades three years ago."
"Both eternally locked in combat," Dane replied, grimacing as the heat from the crystal skull threatened to sear his hands. Three years ago, when he first met Lilia in this very shop, he would never have imagined working with a crystal skull to take down the Dark Goddess.
New images arrived, again faster than his mind could process, but his wolf seemed to follow along better.
The world in flames. The dark wolf standing on a tor, overlooking the scorched earth of Lugdunum, and the ruined shifter lands. A moon dripping blood, decorating the devastation. The dark wolf laughing. That sound hurt Dane's ears, his head, and his heart. The Dark Goddess had triumphed.
"This can't be," he moaned. "The Dark Goddess cannot win."
Then, another vision. The world at peace. The gleaming wolf with fur like moonlight standing on the same tor, gazing benevolently at the kingdom of Lugdunum, and at her children in the shifter lands. In this future scenario, the Moon Goddess was victorious.
"This is a better future," he announced. "But which one is true?"
"That depends on us," Daxius declared. "Maybe on what we do in the Ember Faerie Court. Even though it seems like an unlikely place--"
"Which makes it the perfect one," Tulaska declared, smoothing her white hair.
"She's got something there," Patch said. "The pack lands would be too obvious, and the Dark Goddess has already tried to meddle there multiple times, anyway. It's far more damaging to drag us into an outside conflict, but here we are. We're going in knowing the stakes. And by the bye, our new kin Lord and Lady Blackthorn have sent an urgent message to the King and Queen of Lugdunum, warning them about what's going down."
"Risky," Jiro said. "Highly risky."
"Well, you started it. You and your intrigues at the human royal court," Kyon teased.
Jiro shrugged. It was true. "On the other hand, it would be good to have human backup. Otho and Giselberthe will keep our secret, and maybe, just maybe, the faeries won't speak of it either."
"Did the orcs blab about our adventures in Nauru?" Anneliese asked rhetorically.
Dirge had his own perspective. "If the Dark Goddess has taken over a faerie kingdom, that's a danger to the entire magical world. It'll leak out. We won't be able to keep it quiet for long. It might spill over into the human kingdom."
Dane felt a chill.
"Is this what these visions foretell?" His voice faltered.
He needed Lilia, d*mn it.
Suddenly, he felt her hand on his shoulder, and he whirled around, stunned. "Lilia ..."
Daxius had a knowing smile. "That's my daughter. Never one to sit back and let others risk their lives, no matter what the rulebook says about the duty of a Luna."
Dane hissed, "You're pregnant."
"I was pregnant before when we fought Hades and the Dark Goddess," Lilia answered.
Kyon crossed his arms, and Dane could see the weight on his mammoth shoulders. "Evenhide needs a leader--"
"I left the head of the council in charge along with Cousin Reinard," Lilia stated. "And Ransome and Titania volunteered to step up--they're family."
Azandra flashed her teeth in a wry smile. "Leave it to my mother."
Dane scowled, smelling the sharp pepper of his mate Lilia's determination. "I suppose it would be pointless to send you back."
"Your spellcasting still gets a little messy when you're snarly, my love," Lilia replied.
With a glower at the other mages present, Dane said, "I'm not the only one with magic."
Garnet lifted her hands. "This has always been Lilia's fight, Dane. This is her mother and stepfather. The Dark Goddess targeted their family long ago. She's given in to the duty of a Luna to stay home. But if we do not succeed, the shifter lands won't be safe."
The vision of the burning pack lands with the blood dripping from above refused to leave Dane's imagination. "Blast it all and by Fenrir's teeth," he growled. "But do not get killed, Lilia. And ifI tell you to retreat to protect our child ..."
Lilia threw her arms around him and hugged him hard, fusing her body with his, or so it felt. His hands tangled in her hair, and he allowed himself one moment of solace and peace.
But they had no time to lose.
* * * * *
Lilia POV
Dane surrendering was a beautiful and rare thing. It spoke volumes about how far they'd come together from their early days when he lay healing in this very apartment and attempted to persuade her to return to the pack lands with him as his mate.
Daxius and Marieke observed the embrace with smiles. "I doubted you could keep her away," Daxius gloated.
"Alright, no one likes a smug father-in-law," Dane groused.
Marieke's eyes twinkled. "Best get used to it, Dane. He can be insufferable."
"I am not! You try my patience, woman."
Everyone burst out laughing at Daxius' gripe. Privately, Lilia suspected that her father's goal was to lighten the somber mood all along so that their spirits wouldn't be heavy. The odds felt daunting enough without a sense of hope.
"So, does old Skull-Face have any more nuggets of doom for us?" Dirge asked.
Spunky Thessi elbowed him. "Be respectful."
"I am! But it could show us something a little more encouraging," Dirge protested.
"It is," Dane said, as the realization struck him. "It's showing us that all is not lost. The 'nuggets of doom,' as you put it, are part of one possible future. And ... in the second one, I saw all the shifters united, along with other beings."
Lilia's eyes widened. "I had the same impression through the bond."
With quiet satisfaction, Tulaska reached out and helped Dane wrap the skull in the special cloth. "Daxius, will you mind terribly if we borrow this?"
Daxius raised a hand. "On one condition. Marieke and I are coming with you."
"It's family," Marieke added. "We've already arranged to close the shop." She waved a sign that said, "Closed For Business Trip."
The warmth in that room made Lilia's baby move with a vengeance, taking her breath away. Moon Goddess, even her child understood the extraordinary journey they were about to undertake. Surrounded by family and friends, Lilia felt ready to face whatever awaited them in Queen Ylavi's domain.
When she let loose with a howl, even the humans and witches let loose with a rousing chorus of lupine battle cries.
The time had come to fight for their future and their world, and rescue her mother and Jude into the bargain.