The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 549

Avery’s POV

“Bjorn!” I lunged for the glass, snatching it out of Melissa’s hands. “Bjorn, it’s me, I’m here—”

But the ink was already swirling back over his face, swallowing the green grass and the blue sky and my son’s wide eyes, and then it went dark once more.

“He’s gone,” Melissa said softly from her chair.

I sank back against the small table, my heart pounding so hard it almost hurt. “He saw me. Melissa, he looked right at me. He said my name.”

“I know. I saw.”

“How?” I set the glass aside and dragged a hand down my face. “How is that possible?”

Melissa didn’t look nearly as shocked as I felt. “I always thought there was something a little different about that boy,” she said. “When you two lived in Evergreen, I swore he would look at people sometimes like he was seeing straight through them. Like he knew things he had no business knowing. I figured he was just sharp for his age, but now… I think he’s got a sensitivity to him. Some people are born that way, more open to things the rest of us are deaf to. And he shifted years before he should have. That kind of thing doesn’t happen for no reason.”

I thought about all the times Bjorn had surprised me. Shifting too soon. Knowing things he shouldn’t have, like sensing that Gideon was his father before it was confirmed. Being more mature beyond his years, despite me trying my best to savor his childhood for as long as possible.

“So he can sense me,” I said, picking up the glass again and turning it over in my hands. “Is that what you think happened?”

“Maybe your familial bond was able to reach him through the glass.”

I perked up a little. “Then maybe he’ll be able to find me that way,” I said. “If we could contact him again, long enough to let him follow the bond, then maybe he can help us find a way out of here.” I held the glass out to her. “Can you do it again?”

Melissa’s expression sobered. “I think we should be careful. That glass belongs to the witch. If we go poking at it too much, she might feel it too. She could put a stop to it before we have a chance to communicate. We should at least wait until she’s not right next to him before we try again.”

She was right, as much as I hated to admit it. The last thing we needed right now was for the witch to figure out that we were actively trying to escape and put an end to it, once and for all.

Still, if Bjorn could feel where I was, then maybe we could use him to get help. I wasn’t about to let my ten-year-old get anywhere near this place, of course. But maybe he could get help. If he knew where the witch’s hut was currently located, then he could send Gideon. Perhaps it was possible to get in from the outside, even if we couldn’t get out.

But then another problem surfaced.

“Do you think Gideon has any idea?” I asked. My chest constricted as I thought back on that image of the two of them together. I’d hoped that he would be able to tell the difference right away. The witch had stolen my appearance, but not all of me. There were some differences in mannerisms. Enough for someone like Gideon, who knew me like the back of his hand, to notice.

And yet…

The garden was just as strange as I remembered from the day Melissa first brought me here, when I couldn’t name half of what was growing in it. Now I made myself slow down and really look, row by row, brushing the dew off of the leaves and crushing them between my fingers to inhale their myriad of scents.

I stil’ didn’t recognize many of the plants, but there were some I identified. They were rare, many of them known to be extinct, or at least, that wa swhat I thought.

There was one plant that piqued my interest: a silvery creeper hugging the ground in one corner that I was almost sure was something I’d read about before. Hunters and trackers used to burn it to draw out a creature’s scent for miles.

A few rows over from that one was a flowering plant with waxy petals and a bitter green smell that I recognized immediately. It was once used in truth serums, in the days when packs settled disputes by making the accused drink the serums before interrogations.

It was also supposed to be extinct, purposefully destroyed by the pack Alphas in order to abolish its use, as many believed it was inhumane. I’d never seen it in person before, just illustrations in books. But it was growing here in abundance.

As I stood there, looking at the two plants, an idea started to come to mind. It was still rough around the edges, and it might not work, but right now, I couldn’t think of anything else.

I grabbed everything I thought I might need, yanking leaves and stems and whole roots out of the witch’s beds, filling the front of my ruined dress until nothing else fit. Then, I turned, hurrying inside, shoving everything off the table with one swipe of my arm, and dumped everything onto the surface.

Melissa’s eyes shot open, but I just rolled up my sleeves and began pulling bowls and glasses and tools off of shelves.

I had work to do.