Shards of Sanity (Book 6, Forgotten Series)

Chapter Eight

I watched the tail lights of the SUV as it drove down the lane way, taking the outsiders back to where they came from. It was tradition to bury vessels on Altia's sacred ground but Michael had been correct. Their little vessel was not ours, she had been theirs, and it was up to them to deal with her shell as they wished. They grieved for her, I did not understand it but it was simply how I was. I wasn't built like them, I was built for something different entirely.

There would be no mates or children for me. I was married to Altia and the moon. I was incapable of forming a bond, a specific way of keeping me focused on my duties as Head Priestess. I had questioned the way I had been made for many years. I was not normal, not in how I was built. I had been destined for my position since my conception, a genetic mutation Mene had created that could withstand the pressure placed upon my body. I know with my inability to make a bond or feel attraction to others I would have been labelled as asexual by the mundanes but that label did not encompass who I was.

I was a Head Priestess.

I was made to never have a mate look at me, to wipe away my tears, to hold me close. I would have no children that would tug on my hands with their own or give me sticky kisses to my cheeks. I had wondered and questioned and cursed how I had been built and created for a long time. However, watching Micheal Davis bond to Lilith, watching that burden be shoved onto his shoulders, watching the two Alphas nearly stagger to the vehicle with the little vessel in their arms as they cried for her. I was thankful I would never experience that.

There would be no broken hearts, no grief, no inability to choose. I was thankful that I would never experience the raw grief that had washed over them all, never be burdened with another that I did not know or understand. I would stand as I was, forever more, and never have to worry about anything but my territory and those it held. It was something relieving for me, to realize that how I was made wasn't a curse but rather a gift.

I tilted my head before I slowly looked up at the moon. There was no warmth to her, she was all sharp and cold edges. I could feel her anger like a palpable beat against my skin. She had taken all of them. All of the vessels had been taken and I did not know the purpose but she was still so angry. I closed my eyes and inhaled slowly, letting the scent of rain, wet earth, and the night fill my lungs, saturate them heavily.

I would need to ask her.

There was a tinge of fear to the thought. She was so angry and I had been at the end of her anger last time. It was not something I wished to repeat but I knew I needed to. I had questions that only she could answer. Never in our written history had she taken all the moonborns we had. One or two but never three, never three. Isla and the others were prepping the two other shells for burial but I had a job I needed to do. It was up to me to unravel the mystery of what Mene had planned for our species.

I knew the one blessing, she had granted me the knowledge of that. Lilith was given a new bond and Adam would never have one again. I do not know if she chosen Micheal for the purpose or if he had merely been the closest male in the proximity that could withstand the forced bond. I grasped my robe and lifted it slightly, moving towards the temple that held my personal altar.

The earth and grass clung to my feet slightly but I ignored it. I felt heavy with unease as I wondered just how the goddess would receive me. I did not want that heavy and angry dominance shoving down on me but I knew there would be questions in the morning that I would be unable to answer without her guidance. She had a plan for us as a species and it was my duty to learn just what that was.

The moon's gaze seemed to shove down on my shoulders the closer I drew to my temple and I gave a shaky inhale. I closed my eyes briefly as I took the path I had taken a thousand times before. Our goddess might have been upset, might have been angry, but it was my duty to be the link between this world and the next. It was my sacred duty to learn of what our goddess had done for us, what she expected of us. There was no reason to fear, I was doing as I was born to do and it was not yet my time.