Fangs and Thrones

Chapter 23

Lyra sighed heavily as she leaned against the steps of the pagoda, she seemed to find herself out here more often than usual. Between being surrounded by nature and the wind blowing through the trees, it reminded her of some places in the Netherworld. Even a place or two in Tir Na nog.

Rai walked up to her, smiling when she looked at him. "Sorry to intrude, another meeting with the Guardian council?" He had been watching for a moment and had seen strange markings across her face again, this time black colored.

"No. I actually had a meeting with the Children of Death, we normally don't meet up unless it's something serious." And this time was exhausting.

"I'm assuming that it was though?"

Lyra nodded. "Seems that a lot of other immortals are having some strange things happening as well. Actually, even the human children are noticing it as well. A few mentioned that a lot of souls have seemed to have just...disappeared. Souls don't do that. Every soul can be tracked through the species archives."

"Not the missing ones though." Rai sighed, moving to sit next to her. "Why do I have a feeling that this might be connected to those wolven creatures that we encountered, or your dark witch?"

"I've been thinking about that, there's too many freaky things happening for it all to be coincidences. I asked around and as it turns out, we aren't the only ones who've come across them. Only here though, just on this continent, nowhere else." 

"Are the missing souls just from my country as well?"

"I didn't even think to ask that, I will when we meet again. The elder children have suggested that we have regular meetings in order to try and piece together what's going on and try and find a solution."

Rai scoffed, making Lyra glance at him curiously. "I just find it weird how a bunch of different people with the ability to reap souls treat you better than your own kind."

Snorting she had also noticed the irony of that. "In their defense, the Guardian council is only half of me, the death half was just happy to see that I'm still going strong...well sort of, one of the elders of that group wasn't too thrilled to hear that a building took me out not too long ago."

Rai sighed when he remembered Katsu coming and telling him that. "By the way, Katsu is still trying to figure out what happened that night. Do you plan on telling him anytime soon?"

"...I don't know. People really don't do well when I tell them the whole story."

"He can keep a secret."

"I'm sure he can. It's just..."

"You're worried how he'll look at you." Rai put together.

She nodded. "Everyone who has ever found out about me has looked at me differently, even my own pack does. They had a hard time finding out about the Child of Death thing and then learning about me being a hybrid?"

"Didn't go over well, did it?"

"Not at first. Larrow was the only one that was unbothered, not much gets to him. Jackal's head was hurting from all the information. Isadora couldn't look me in the eyes for a few days, she treaded on glass around me until she started asking me questions. And Kore..."

"He struggled the hardest?"

Lyra smiled and rubbed her hands. "They didn't find out the best way, I wanted to break it to them gently, but the Fates had other plans. Kore didn't take it well, granted we both learned something new a few nights later and it rattled all of us even more. Our bond was already fragile, me wanting to distance myself all the time wasn't helping, but I was actually starting to enjoy being around them. One deep secret threatened our whole future together."