Greymoor Academy: I Accidentally Bonded With Four Lycan Royals! novel Chapter 199

Chapter 199: 199. An Impossible Solution I

Maisie

"The gifts each beast the goddess created were not spells or magic. They were simply what their nature demanded.

Beasts of air were born with wings because the sky was their domain. Beasts of the sea possessed gills and sturdy skin because anything else would’ve been ineffective against the sea’s waves. Beasts of earth were granted claws, lengthened canines, and the ability to shift forms because survival in the wilds required them.

They were tools for survival.

But walking between worlds was not one of them. Legends say the first gatekeeper was not molded and shaped by the goddess like the rest of her children. They say the first gatekeeper was the goddess’s own bloodline.

A small god in his own right.

Upon discovering what terrible power she had passed down onto her child, it is said the goddess made it so that the cost would be just as dire to ensure he never used or abused it.

She bound the gift so tightly that only one keeper could exist in each generation. And she made the cost of opening a gate so devastating that no one in their right mind would ever dare to pay it.

To tear open a rift required the keeper’s own life force, their very essence, and even then, it was never enough to keep the gate open for long enough for even a single soul to pass through.

It didn’t matter how many lives were sacrifices on the goddess’s altar. Twenty. Fifty. A hundred. The results remained the same.

But over the years as they sought remedies to exit their dying world, they found ways to work around this.

Smaller tests were carried out with littler gates. And it soon became clear that there was only one way out.

A binding of life forces.

Interlocking souls into one, so that when the time came to bear the cost, the death of the keeper could be prevented, and the other souls entwined with the keeper’s could instead bear the cost.

And so, the Convergence bond was created—"

"Maisie!"

My head snapped up. The noise of the cafeteria came rushing back all at once.

I blinked hard, trying to clear the dark spots swimming at the edges of my vision. Regina, Jenny and Juliette were both staring at me with matching expressions of worry.

"You look like you haven’t slept in days," Regina said.

Juliette nodded, her voice soft. "You have eye bags the size of buckets."

I forced a tired smile and looked back down at my notes, even though the words were starting to blur together.

It was true.

Ever since we visited the Ridge, sleep had become something I dreaded. It was like I had become haunted.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw death. I woke up drenched in sweat, heart racing, stomach twisting until I had to run to the bathroom to throw up.

Some days I passed out from sheer exhaustion in the middle of class, only to jerk awake from a day dream as terrifying as the nightmares to find Mrs. Belarus hovering over me, asking if I needed to see the school counselor.

Cole laughed at that. Ryder gave me a hard smile—Kisten and Bastian had been noticeably missing from school since our visit.

I’d said no to Mrs. Belarus, of course. But she’d still told my mates.

And the icing on the cake was waking up at the edge of the estate two nights ago with no memory of how I got there. No shoes. Just Jericho’s shirt twisted around my body and dirt caked between my toes.

My mates had found me like that.

"I’m sorry," I sobbed as Soren scooped me up into his arms. "I don’t... I don’t remember. I can’t—" hiccup "can’t—don’t know what to do—"

Soren’s hand brushed up and down my back as he carried me inside like I might break if he moved too fast.

I remembered the way his hands shook when he turned on the shower. The way he washed the dirt from my skin with careful, quiet strokes, like he was afraid I’d disappear if he looked away.

I remembered waking up a couple of hours later to a doctor I didn’t recognize with a kind smile, checking my vitals.

I’d looked over her shoulder and found the pensive mood my mates were in. They looked terrified, like the doctor had confirmed my mind was indeed, broken. And I made it a point at that moment to keep my breakdowns and meltdowns to myself if I could help it.

She had taken blood samples, asked questions, and before she left, she’d quietly suggested I speak to someone. My mates. And if I couldn’t do that, a therapist would suffice. Just in case.

I knew what they all thought.

That I was unraveling.

And maybe they were right to worry. I couldn’t even blame them for it. Every time I tried to explain what was really happening, I ended up sounding frantic and scattered, like I was losing my grip on reality.

And how could I expect them to believe me when even I sometimes wondered if I was going insane?

It was weighing on them as well. I knew that.

Quinlan and Jericho took turns staying up at night, pretending they weren’t watching me sleep, like they were scared I might disappear again. I no longer slept in my bedroom alone, or went anywhere without one of them within close proximity of me.

In fact, they were three tables over, because I had opted to sit through lunch with my friends instead, and I could feel their gazes digging into my spine.

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