Chapter 330: Omens Written And Drawn

Eldric stood in the corner of his home, waiting patiently to see if Orion would come knocking again.

Thankfully, for the past three days, that hadn’t happened.

He had to avoid Orion at all costs, which was why he was hiding under the cover of what the real Eldric would have done when his mate went into the heart of Nirvana.

Eldric realized he had made a mistake, though. He should have opposed letting Ronan and the others go into the heart of Nirvana. The beast that lay there was brutal, and there was a reason it had been placed there.

It had been sealed. Nirvana was the one place where it could be weakened. He could only imagine what would happen if Ronan and the others ran into the beast, but what was he to do?

Tell Orion?

The moment he even mentioned it to him, Orion would get suspicious, and the day he told them who he really was, he would be gone.

He had a task here. And if he moved farther than the shrine, then he would also cease to exist.

Actually, he hadn’t even thought he would get the chance to come here and help at all. He didn’t think it would happen, but Sophia had been the reason it did, and Eldric’s body had been a good vessel.

It was easy to get used to. And the real Eldric wasn’t someone who easily related with people, so it worked to his advantage. He could do things without people hounding him.

But that would only work if he could avoid Orion.

Orion himself was sensitive. He could detect lies. If Eldric gave a roundabout answer, he could bypass him for a moment, but then Orion would get suspicious and demand a direct answer.

Instead of risking that situation, it was better to avoid him entirely.

Another person he had to avoid was the real Eldric’s husband, but thankfully, he wasn’t around.

Eldric had to admit that the real Eldric and his husband were very handsy with each other. And by handsy, he meant they were always looking for an opportunity to have sex. Since he was using Eldric’s body, he had to play the role convincingly.

Eldric moved quietly to the table where various papers were scattered. They were filled with writing in symbols—a mysterious language people had no idea existed. A language that only one person, apart from him, could currently interpret.

The house itself was filled with papers and writings. Some were scattered carelessly, others pinned to walls, and some came with drawings of a beast that was half man, bearing the features of something far more monstrous.

But while some drawings lay abandoned on the floor, others were treated with care.

Those were of a woman.

One who didn’t exist—but once ruled over her people.

One whom Orion had seen twice now.

Maybe if Orion were in the same house with Eldric, he would have demanded to know how Eldric knew the woman and why he treated her drawings with such reverence.

But he wasn’t.

Eldric picked up one of the drawings and pressed it to his forehead.

"I’m not going to fail you," he whispered. "I’ll do my best. I’ll make sure she knows her destiny lies in these lands."

The words were spoken reverently, like a vow rather than a promise.

He placed the drawing down carefully and picked up a quill.

His hands began to shake immediately.

He knew then that he only had a limited amount of time left to stay within the pack—and in Nirvana as a whole.

He wrote frantically, the lines turning into symbols as his hand moved.

The beasts in Nirvana were multiplying. Sightings of the Trihydra and Skylur in places they were not meant to be meant the land itself was reacting to her presence.

But she was unaware.

The only way to resolve this was through the altar.

Through the shrine.

He stopped abruptly, eyes widening in shock as he gazed at what he had written—or rather, what he had drawn.

At some point, he had stopped writing altogether.

He hadn’t thought. He had simply let his hands move.

Before him was a drawing of the pack itself, engulfed in flames. Houses destroyed. Chaos everywhere. And at the center stood a woman—

No.

He shook his head.

This was exactly what he was trying to avoid.

He grabbed another sheet of paper and drew again, trying to change what he had seen. But his hands shook violently, protesting. He threw that paper away and picked up another.

The outcome was the same.

He drew on six more sheets, and by the sixth one, it was already evening outside.

Every single one ended the same way.

"Why?" he cried out. "Why? There has to be a way to change this. Why won’t it change? Why does it always end the same way?"

There was no reply.

Only his hands shaking violently.

Unable to withstand it any longer, he lifted them and wrote over the last drawing, symbols forming beneath the quill—symbols identical to those carved into the shrine.

He couldn’t stop until he finished.

And when he was done, he stared at the words he had written.

The answer lies in the shrine.

Eldric released a tired sigh.

His hands shook again, but this time not with the urge to draw or write—only as a reminder that his time was running out.

He looked back at the drawing.

No matter how much he tried, it always ended the same way.

A woman stood in the Nightshade pack compound, tears streaming down her face as she tried—and failed—to save her mate.

Another woman stood over her, smiling, as the houses of the Nightshade pack burned.

The woman crying was one he knew very well.

The reason he was here.

It was Sophia.

And the person she held in her arms was Orion.

The woman standing over her, he didn’t know—but the three-headed snake and the beast with the upper body of a man standing beside her were all too familiar.

He came to one conclusion.

Sophia had to go to the shrine.

And he would do whatever was within his power to ensure that she did.

Because the shrine would help her.