Chapter 44: Chapter 44

Zaira's POV

" Seei nion fonesa! Greetings!"

"Ares!", Reah threw herself on the heavily built man and hugged him tightly. "I'm so happy to see you!"

Ares smiled down at Reah and hugged her back. "Me too little one."

As they parted from the embrace, Ares gazed at me and Aramis. My legs still felt like mush from the portal journey, but I did my best to hold myself up while admiring the palace's enchanting entrance, or so I assumed it was the entrance.

We were all in a large hall, the white marble floor of which felt cold under my bare feet but presented itself magnificently in the room. The golden walls were intricately decorated and shimmered in the sunlight streaming in from the window-like, pompous front doors. Although I knew of the legends that said the Palace of the Gods floated on clouds, I had never really imagined it. Only now, when I recognized the white, plush-like clouds through the large windows of the front doors, did I really realize what a miracle I was in.

Oh holy moon goddess, we were indeed in the palace of the gods!

Ashamed of my attire, which consisted of a short skirt and leather top and was now riddled with holes from running through the Gis jungle days earlier, I straightened it with flushed cheeks, hoping they would hide more of my skin .

"And what are you doing here?" Ares' question immediately grabbed my attention.

"I don't think it's any of your business." Arami's expression was ice cold and emotionless. I shifted nervously from one foot to the other. I hadn't known that the two didn't get along well.

Oh dear, that could be something!

"Oh yeah, and who do you think you are, boy?"

It was quiet for a long time, neither of them said a word, nor did their blank expressions move. I wrung my hands uncomfortably and was on the point of opening my mouth to put things right when the corners of Arami's mouth twitched. Ares then laughed and raised his arms.

"About damn time you showed up too, boy!" With a big grin, he stepped forward and wrapped Aramis in a tight bear hug. He patted his back several times. "Damn missed you."

"Was busy."

They broke the hug and Aramis came back to me.

"I see that," Ares said, raising an eyebrow suggestively.

"She's mine," Aramis announced, wrapping his arm possessively around my waist, the threatening undertone in his voice unmistakable. My wolf purred.

Reah cleared his throat. "They are mates."

Ares looked surprised, then eyed me.

"I'm Zaira," I interjected, after all I had a name too. "Nice to meet you." Then I reached out to offer it to him, but he didn't take it.

"Oh, I almost forgot those annoying earthling phrases." I quickly pulled my hand away as if I had burned myself. Ares spread his arms and welcomed me.

My heart fluttered at the warm gesture and I let myself be wrapped in this bear's lulling embrace.

"You know why we're here, don't you?" Aramis asked once I was by his side again.

Ares nodded. "Yes, the best thing would be for us to discuss all the precautions."

"Then Zaira and I will go straight to the goddesses and try our best," Reah said, brushing her dreadlocks away from her dark-skinned face that resembled the finest chocolate. My heart was beating uneasily at the thought that now the time had come. I couldn't fail.

"Healing?" Ares asked the group.

"I'll explain everything to you. Let's go." Aramis said impatiently and seemed as if he didn't want to waste any time unnecessarily. "Oh yes and Reah, first visit Illyria before you go to 5, she will know exactly where Gaia and Luna are staying and lead you there."

Reah nodded. "Understood."

Then Aramis handed me his backpack, which I knew had all the omorphies, and then gently stroked my cheek. "We'll see each other again soon, Vinea. "

Then he turned and disappeared up the stairs with Ares. Still watching after him, Reah pulled me out of the entrance hall by the hand. "We have to go to the fourth floor, come on."

"Why do you know this place so well?" I ran my hand along the golden banister of the spiral staircase as we climbed the steps. It seemed like they never ended.

"I used to come here all the time as a kid, Aramis and Serdas would take us," she reminisced, a smile adorning her beautiful, feminine face. "We always tried to come up with new ideas to annoy Ares."

I laughed. "It must have been a good time." And suddenly I realized how old Reah must be if she and Aramis had played together as children.

"That's it." Her smile faded and her eyes went dull, but then she shook her head as if to shake off all negative feelings and smiled that now all too familiar Reah smile. "This way."

We had reached the fourth floor.

Finally!

I was already afraid that the stairs would never stop, but we were now faced with an even prettier spatial structure than the entrance hall. Once again I marveled at the beauty of this building art and turned around on my own axis.

There was no roof, so you could see the bright blue, bright sky directly and a fine breeze blew through my hair. In blissful peace I closed my eyes and stretched my face towards the incoming rays of the sun.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" an unfamiliar voice asked me. As soon as I opened my eyes, I widened them in astonishment. In front of me stood a small, curvaceous young woman whose face was framed by dark red hair that her in light waves reached to the waist. But it wasn't her beautiful hair that fascinated me, or her sweet freckles, no, it was her big white wings.

"I'm Illyria." However, her voice wasn't soft and delicate as I would have thought. No, it was dynamic and full of life, that's the only way I could describe it.

"I'm-" but I didn't get a word out.

"Zaira I know. Reah, nice to see you again.", she beamed all over her face and her teeth were so white that I feared that they started to glow. "What are you doing here?"

"We want to heal the goddesses...or at least try to," I said, muttering the last part to myself.

"What?" she was hopping up and down, her wings flapping. "How exciting! How come I didn't know that? Oh man, I have to-"

"Illyria!" Reah admonished sternly.

"Oh 'sorry, ran away with me again," she mumbled, giving us an apologetic look, but not embarrassed. She must be used to it.

I had to suppress a laugh, I became more and more sympathetic to this Illyria with every second. There was something cute about her, even if she seemed a bit jittery.

"Still the same, what I love about you so much." Reah said with a smirk, adjusting her previous words. "So you're going to take us to Gaia and Luna?"

"Of course, follow me." With that, she rose off the ground and levitated above the marble floor as beautifully as only angels could. Reah and I followed her, and took the spiral staircase again - to my misfortune. I had found out that I hated stairs, especially when they didn't seem to end.

"Is there any other way to change floors than the stairs?" I asked, trying to be indifferent. Reah's laugh, however, showed me that she had seen through me.

Mist.

"Well, there are the portals you could use, but be careful, it takes a lot of practice to be able to travel through a portal on your own. If you try too quickly, it can go wrong and you could be spat out anywhere."

I swallowed at Reah's warning. So climb the stairs.

"You have to know," Illyria chimed in as she continued to fly up the stairs. "The Palace of the Gods is not actually made up of floors, we call them that to give us all a better orientation, but the 'floors'" , she gestured two quotation marks in the air. “are nothing more than spaces in different space-time relationships. We walk as from one sphere into another."

I frowned and my voice took on a slightly shrill tone. "But if we are in a different time relationship...?"

Reah winked at me in amusement. "Don't worry, as long as we stick to Earth time, nothing can go wrong."

I nodded unconvinced while my head was pounding. The thought of Aramis being in a different space-time relationship made my wolf's fur ruffle in the opposite direction. I didn't like the whole thing at all.

Why hadn't Aramis warned me?

"Here we are, fifth floor my dears." Illyria led us through the once again sunlit room, past the large fountain and turned left into a hallway. "To Luna and Gaia, please."

I felt a crackling, highly charged energy envelop me and the corridor turned almost imperceptibly. "What was that? Did the ground just move?"

“Yes, the corridor adds to your desired destination. So you can't get lost, you just have to say where to go. Isn't that wonderful?" Illyria sounded excited, as if experiencing it for the first time.

"Sure," I said, not lying, I actually found it amazing.

When we arrived at a plain white wooden door, Illyria motioned for us to stop. Then she held out her fisted hands toward the door and spoke in a deep voice in a language I didn't know. It sounded like the same language that Honaw and Arya spoke, as well as Aramis and Ares. And I assumed Reah could do it too.

"Why are her hands glowing so much?" I whispered to Reah.

"She keeps crystals in them," she whispered back.

Illyria's fists began to glow and her words grew louder and louder, reminding me of Aramis standing there with his eyes closed and saying words to himself to open the portal.

Did Illyria now do the same, did she open a portal?

My suspicion was confirmed the moment a golden, glowing portal appeared in front of us again and literally drew me towards it. The inner peace that spread in me during the last portal journey was there again this time and I openly welcomed it, my nervous pulse should finally calm down.

Was I nervous about the portal or what was to come afterward? I did not know it.

"Now," Illyria pointed out, eyelids still closed, and I stepped through the portal hand in hand with Reah, trusting that she knew how to use a portal. The golden swirl of warm love enveloped us and we disappeared in a whirlpool far from any sense of space-time.

I landed on the ground while Reah stood gracefully on both feet and Illyria... Well, Illyria was floating off the ground. I quickly got up. I'd be standing the next time I travel to the portal, I vowed to myself, smoothing my clothes.

"They look like they're just in a deep, harmless sleep and will wake up anytime." Illyria breathed, and for the first time she wasn't awake and energetic, but sad.

"What did Serdas do?" Reah whispered, covering her mouth indignantly. I put my hand on her shoulder.

"I will do everything in my power to undo whatever Serdas did."

Reah turned to me, her eyes glistening with tears. "I believe in you honey, you'll make it."

"Of course she will!" Illyria was completely back in her element.

They both looked at me, and there was so much trust and impertinence on their faces that I almost cried myself, but I held them back and straightened up. Strengthened with the faith of Aramis, Reah, and Illyria, I was ready.

Aramis POV

My quick footsteps were the only sound in the narrow hallway as I followed the intoxicating fresh scent impregnated with my mate.

"To Zaria.", I called for the hallway and he turned around surrendered. Shortly before I arrived at Gaia's and Luna's room, Reah ran towards me. Dark circles appeared under her eyes. "Reah."

She looked up. "Oh Aramis." She smiled at me. "Zaira just fell asleep."

"You should go to bed and rest too." Something stirred inside me. It could perhaps be described as worry.

"On my way." She was about to walk again when I stopped her and gently grabbed her arm. I had seen the shadow in her dark eyes.

"How do you deal with that?"

Reah shrugged his shoulders in an effortless indifference. "It's been a long time, Aramis."

Still, such a loss you felt for all eternity, that was clear to me the moment Zaira came into my life. "Tell me the truth, sis."

Maybe using that pet name was mean, knowing she'd give in under it, but my wolf didn't care.

"It's just..." her voice cracked and her lips trembled. "It all reminds me so much of him, everything."

Her voice cracked with pain and I couldn't stand to see her like that anymore. I spread my arms. "Come here."

Her eyes widened and she hesitated for a moment, she was so amazed at the sight. I hadn't tolerated being touched in a long time.

But then she threw herself into my arms and I hugged her lightly. Reah, who is otherwise determined, determined and strong, cried.

"I miss him so much Aramis," she sobbed. "Why did he have to die?"

Anger pooled in my chest, but I stifled the rising growl, turning my anger into revenge. Wolves might want to take down their prey in one fell swoop, but we were also masters of the hunt. We could be on the lookout, stalking slowly and then, when the time was right, striking at the right moment. "We will avenge him, I promise you, sis." Serdas would die. My wolf bared his teeth in anticipation.

"Oh yes we will." Reah exclaimed between her clenched teeth and vigorously wiped away the rest of the tears. Then she broke the hug. "Thanks, that felt really good."

"Tell me if it's bothering you too much okay? We can talk about it." I said, making it clear that she saw how serious I was about this. This time I would be there for her if she needed me.

She nodded, then managed a shaky smile. "Good night Aramis." Then she disappeared and I opened the portal and stepped into the room.

Heavily decorated carpets adorned the room, as did lush curtains. The two large four-poster beds were also decorated with gold, in which the two goddesses lay calmly and peacefully - in any case, it looked as if they were in a harmless sleep. My gaze didn't stop at my mother, however, but wandered to the delicate, beautiful creature at the end of the bed. My heart stopped beating and a torrent of emotions washed over me at the sight of her.

My. My mate, my companion.

I gasped and lightly stroked her silver hair, which slipped through my fingers like silk. She mumbled something under her breath and leaned into my hand with a sigh as she slept on. My wolf clawed at my inner walls, frantically calling for his mate. It took me a century of practice to hold him back again, retract my claws, and control myself enough to gently pick her up and carry her to my room without pouncing on her.

Zaira instinctively snuggled up to me and purred. I gritted my teeth and put her under the covers when I noticed how pale her face was. My wolf paced restlessly. Healing, or rather trying to activate her powers, must have taken more of her energy than I thought. I had asked Illyria to bring Zaira some food to the room while she was trying to cast her powers with Reah as she refused to leave the room for even a second to have dinner in the kitchen. But I should have broken off the meeting with Ares and carried Zaira into the kitchen myself so I could see that she was eating.

For a brief moment I considered removing her clothes and putting one of my shirts on her so she wouldn't have to sleep in the dirty clothes, but decided against it. Although we were mates, Zaira's trust had been betrayed so many times that I feared she would take such an act badly as well. Never again should anyone make decisions for her and act for her.

I took off my own clothes and then slid under the covers on my right side next to her, Zaira would never lie defenseless next to the door. I then wrapped my arm around her waist and held her against me, her back against my bare chest. Man and wolf were equally content and reassured to finally have her in their arms... where she belonged. All the hours I was apart from her had been pure hell, I wanted to touch her, smell her and make sure she was okay. I closed my eyes and buried my nose in her hair, inhaling her scent deeply and my wolf gradually calmed down.