The Luna Trials by Marissa Gilbert novel Chapter 73

Chapter 73 Blessed

Kai watched as Joran, on the opposite side of the vast clearing, smirked at him and returned to Bjorn’s side, placing his hand on his

shoulder and saying something that only made the bear more confident, judging by the looks of it.

“Well, we are utterly f*cked now,” Lachlan said to his King, using the mindlink between the two of them and Aspen. They couldn’t

risk demoralising their warriors right before the fight by discussing openly how their chances of winning just dropped significantly.

“Just more bear meat,” Aspen snarled. He was the one ready to charge at any moment and avenge his human legs. The Gamma felt

like he had nothing to lose, but everything to gain by killing as many enemies as he could.

“Just a few chosen ones,” Kai reminded them calmly, even though inside he was worried. “They are bigger and stronger, butthey are still mortal. Besides, there is a reason why gods don’t bless everyone all the time. Maybe they aren’t as strong as Riannon and I because they all shared one blessing.”

“Yeah,” Lachlan did not sound confident, “maybe-”

Kai closed his eyes and connected to all of his people at once, knowing that this was the moment they needed to hear from him. He hated giving speeches, and by no means was he good at it, but when duty called, he rose to the occasion once again.

“Remember who we are,” he said, skipping a fancy beginning. It looked like the bears were ready to attack, and he had mere seconds. “We are the true Northerners! We defend our home, our way of life! We shared the North with them; they had their land, they

had their ruler, but they were greedy and wanted more. They want what we have, and they want us gone! Like it or not, if we lose today,

the Northern and the Western Lycan Kingdoms, the way we know them, will be gone forever. The continent as we know it will be gone

forever! Everything will change, and not for the better. But we have friends, and we have allies. We have eliminated the traitors, and now

our lines only have people who will defend your back. We are fighting for what is right and just! Those bears and foxes will go home

tonight, and their lands will finally be enough for them because there will be just a few of them left – If any survive at all… We did not

start this, but we will finish the war today, whatever it takes us! Even if it takes all of us!”

First, silence greeted him, then a howl of approval emerged somewhere in the lines of wolves. And then another, followed by more

and more until all of the Northern lycans howled as one in a battle cry that let their enemies know they’d rather die than give up.

As soon as they were done, more howls erupted from afar, and Kai snapped his head to see more wolves approaching from the

Western Mountains. They were fast and ready to clash with the bears, but they stopped as the pitch-black Royal Lycan stepped forward.

Gideon roared, and his army joined him to let everyone know that the Western Kingdom warriors were here to support the North and

defend their own borders. This would be the first time in many years that the West and the North would fight back to back.

The bears roared in response, foxes snarling at their sides. However, soon the cats arrived and took the stage. Things of beauty,

there were so many kinds of them. Lions, pumas, leopards, lynxes, in all shades of furs. All graceful and deadly. And all were ready to tear

their adversaries to pieces. No one dared to underestimate them because their battle skills were legendary.

Bjorn was watching his enemies gather and wondering where Savannah had gone, secretly hoping she was far away, where she

would be safe and sound until he came for her when everything was done.

He hated Kai with a passion. Hated him so much that he couldn’t wait to send his men to fight him and to see him and all the other

lycans dead. Even if he’d lose some of his bears and allies, it would be worth it. Kai always had it easy. He always had everything Bjorn

longed for. His parents never questioned him, never stabbed him in the eye, never separated him from his sibling. He did not have to earn.

bits of approval from his own people, and everything always came easy to the golden boy. While Bjorn had to work hard simply to

survive. Everything was denied to him. His birthright, the respect he deserved, and even his mates. Contemplating about his mates, the White Bear King decided that Ingrida made a choice of her own accord while Savannah was deceived from the very beginning and stolen from him. This was something he was going to fix today.

Usually, this was the moment where the final negotiations between the kings could take place, but this time there was nothing to -negotiate about. They all knew why they were there, and they all chose to stay and fight to the death.

A sneer spread over Bjorn’s face. Finally, the fates favoured him. Joran did something he had tried to get for the past few years and blessed his army. The wolves had no chance now.

Kai knew what that ugly smirk meant Bjorn felt superior to him now, and he wanted to wipe that grin off entirely. The Lycan King shifted into his woll form first and grew out his spikes purely as a demonstration of his might. Amarok’s eyes glowed blue, and the second

his large paw hit the ground, the withered grass under it covered with frost. Like an unrolling carpet, it spread quickly through the field

towards the bears and the foxes with unimaginable speed until it reached the front lines of the enemies, and large icy spikes started emerging from the ground like a deadly trap. Some managed to dodge them, but many didn’t, giving Kai his first kills.

Bjorn, still in his human form, roared loudly, “Forward!”

And a horde of enhanced shifters charged the lycan’s way.

Gideon’s people wanted to join the fight too, but he motioned for them to stay in place. It wasn’t the time yet.

Kai snarled so loudly that the earth under their feet shook, the sound echoing through the woods and the mountains surrounding

them. It seemed like something changed in the world when the sound died down because one could tell that it did not disappear,

Instead, it became something else. A snow mist appeared out of nowhere, chaotic and merciless, surrounding the bears before they

managed to reach their opponents, It blinded and startled them, making them stop in their tracks to regroup. The unusual, unnatural

hare was biting at them, suffocating their senses.

“Now!” Amarok commanded his army with a loud growl which each of his men understood at once.

“Now!” Gideon ordered and shifted straight into his Royal Lycan form. He wasn’t going to risk it – there was no denying that this was what was required of him today.

Both forces lashed out into the cloud of the snow storm that was holding the white bears, foxes and traitor wolves captive. The enemy could hear them approaching, but the snow made it almost impossible to see anything. So, when Amarok reached them first, they could barely defend themselves from his icy claws and sharp canines. Kai was destroying them one by one, methodically working through their formation to make way for his lycans. However, this distracted him from keeping up the mist that he summoned. The power was still new to him, and he found it hard to control everything at once. Nevertheless, the desired effect was already.

achieved.

The armies clashed. Teeth, claws, cuts, bites, whimpers, roars and snarls mixed all at once. Warm blood was spraying the frosty ground, and lifeless bodies were falling left and right.

The bears were strong, too strong for them to be underestimated by anyone now, and Kai had to admit that without Fenrir’s blessing, he would have found it much harder to defeat them. He was throwing himself into their clusters, breaking them up to help his men, but often sadly watched his people die before he was able to reach them. The lycans were strong, but it was something else to be

blessed by a deity. The blessing made the white bears bigger and tougher, the foxes faster and with deadlier canines than usual, the

traitorous wolves probably got the least of this power, but even they seemed stronger than they should have been.

From the corner of his eye, Kai noticed Gideon in his Royal Lycan form, crushing whoever was in his way. The divine power was flowing through him. As Amarok, Kai could feel it and hoped that the North Star mark on his mate’s neck would give her the same

strength.

He crushed skull after skull, broke neck after neck, tore limbs and ripped pieces of flesh out, acting on his feral instincts. Still, it was far from enough, and he saw lycan after lycan falling before his eyes while there was nothing he could do to help them.

Savannah was watching the battle from above, hoping that they had made the right call about the Luna Squad. Every fighter was important now and if she was wrong, she’d fail everyone on her first day as the Northern Lycan Queen.

It was hard to see what was going on below in what looked like a snowstorm, but she could hear the howls and the roars of the

bloody fight. She could imagine what her mate had to face.

“He will be fine,” Elene placed her hand on her sister-in-law’s shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. “If anything, he is the last one I am worried about. Amarok can take care of himself.”

Savvy tried to smile, but the lips just did not want to curl today, so she gave up on that. Snarls from deep underground reached her ears, and this was when a cruel sneer painted itself over her face. She wasn’t wrong after all, and she wasn’t wasting resources at the most

ritial moment. She was saving them all.

One of the perks of having her photographic memory was that she never forgot anything. So when her husband and brother were building a strategy for today, it was she who remembered the catacombs of the Lost City which Bjorn’s people loved to use so much. They sealed everything that was connected to the city, but she saw the map once and knew that there were other ancient underground tunnels leading elsewhere. For example, the ones where she was standing now. In the olden days, this tunnel helped people to escape from the city walls to the mountains and the Forbidden Forest ise the capital was under attack.

The tunnel connected the Forest and the mountains above the battlefield, and Savvy realised that Bjorn wouldn’t pass an opportunity for a sneaky attack. It turned out, she wasn’t wrong about this.

They were standing right next to the exits of the mountain tunnel. It would be easy to descend on the battleground below from here