Under the Blood Moon by Jenny Garcia (latest books to read TXT) 📖

It surface is as soft as a river beat stone. I move my hand down the side of the rock and I feel groves in the rock. It seems to be that there are carvings in the sides of the rock. I move around the rock to see of the carvings are consistent around it and they are. “What are the groves in the rock Travis?” I smell his sweet cologne and realize that he is kneeling next to me. “These are the markings of every King or Queen that has been awakened here. Soon your mark will be here.” I wish that I could actually see the stone. I want to see what the markings look like. “Can you see them yet Niki?” I let out a disappointed sigh “No, I can only feel them” He takes my hand and says “Soon Niki you will be able to see them. You have to be fully awakened before you can see through darkness.” We both stand and he leads me out of the pitch black trees and into the bright forest. My eyes sting for a moment as I try to adjust to the sun’s rays. Travis stops dead in his tracks and yanks on my arm “Travis!” His face has totally changed. He is no longer the lover Travis that I have come to love. His eyes are black and anger covers every inch of his face. “Travis what is wrong?” He gives he a glare “Shh!” Fear has taken me over and I freeze. There is something on this island and Travis knows it’s here. I should have listened to him. Now I have put us both in danger. He pulls me behind his back and starts to take slow steps back towards the pitch black area of trees. Once we enter the darkness he stops moving and everything is silent. I feels like hours have gone by and nothing has happened. No breeze, no birds singing, there is no noise other then the lake crawling up the sand and then pulling its self back in. Then a CRACK rings out and breaks the gentle silence. Travis crouches to the ground and pulls me down with him. He looks around and starts to move away from me and back into the light. “Khan!” he yells out. “Khan I know you’re here! Show yourself!” there is still no response. Khan is here? He is already trying to kill me. I have another week until my birthday and I doubt that we can hind from him that long. The silence is broken “Travis.” A gentle man’s voice responds that almost seems reassuring. Travis gasps “Oh my god! Dad!”

 

 

Chapter 4

 

How did you get here? How did you know we were here?” Travis’s father is here? I thought that he was working or something? What is going on? “Son there is not much time for me to tell you what is going on. If you mother knows that I am here she will alert Khan. You need to protect the young Queen. She is the most important thing right now.” I stand up in the darkness and step into the light. Both Travis and his father whip their heads towards me. I look at Travis and ask “Travis what is going on?” Travis’s father bows to me and says “I’m sorry your excellence I did not know you were here.” I walk to him and touch his shoulder “You don’t have to bow I am not Queen yet.” He lets out a small chuckle and rises. “What is going on? I need to know.” He puts his hand on my shoulder and says “I am a part of the Royal Council. My title is secret. I run information between the Royals. Before Denise and Travis came here I was given a message by Queen Renee. She informed me of what was going to happen and what I needed to do.

 

I took Denise out on what I told her was a hunt. I knew that if I told her I had a message she would want to know what it was. Renee informed me of Denise’s plan and that she needed to be stopped.” He takes his hand off and looks to his son. “Travis there is Imperial Scouts coming to watch your every move, for some reason King Khan has doesn’t fully trust you mother. They are going to take the information they collect back to Khan and if he they see anything that even remotely shows that your aware of his plan he will come earlier than planned. If you can catch the scouts and prevent them from getting back to Khan it will delay his coming early.” Travis nods his head and accepts his new task. I can’t help but feel like I have changed Travis life forever and now he can possibly die trying to protect me. This world is so strange to me.

 

I look and Travis’s father and say “For argument sake, what happens after I awaken?” He runs his hand through his hair, just as Travis does, and says “When you are awakened then you will be Queen. Since you will be more powerful than Khan you will rule over the race. Khan is not going to let that happen so he will challenge you for the thrown. If you win, and you become Queen, our morphing will no longer will be determined by the full moon. We will once again have control over ourselves and the race will again become peaceful.” My head is starting to spin, all this information is too much for me right now, but I have to know more. I want to know everything I can before I awaken.

 

“Why didn’t Renee rule when she was Queen? Why did she let Khan take over? What do you mean I need to challenge him?” Travis father raises his arm and motions to the direction of the shore and we all begin to walk towards it. He responds, “Renee is the most powerful Queen we had ever had, but Khan was more powerful than she. So therefore he was granted control. Renee has control of choosing the Mystics for the Royal Court but Khan has the last word on everything else that has to do with our Realm. He has a lust for power and it has taken over him and with the death of his only child he has gone mad. As you know when a male has total control over our race, all werewolves become unstable. Their anger is hard to control and they can only morph when the full moon is out. That is when the danger of being discovered is at its highest. That’s why the only stories of werewolves are horror stories. Whole villages and towns were being destroyed because the wolf could not control their morphing or what they did after they changed. We need to have a strong Queen to over throw Khan and bring peace to us all. When you challenge Khan you both will be put to a test that will prove who is more worthy to rule.” This is all so confusing to me. It’s hard to believe that in 500 years of Renee being Queen there was never one woman that could do this. Why am I so important? I really don’t understand.

 

I look to Travis’ father “What is your name so I don’t have to refer to you as Travis’s dad?” He chuckles and says “My name is Charles.” The forest is quiet as we crunch dry leaves under our feet walking to the shore. There is a silence that seems to last forever. I don’t know how to react to all of this. Should I be excited that I finally know that I mean something to someone, or should I continue to hold my pain and resentment for being lied to for so many years? I decide to ask the question that has been burning in my brain. “Ok Charles, I really don’t understand why I am the one that has to do all this. There was not one person in 500 years that could have over thrown Khan? After all this, what happens to Travis since we are bonded?” Travis grabs my arm and we stop walking. Charles looks back at us and his face turns ghost white. He takes a few strong steps and he is face to face with Travis. “Travis why didn’t you tell me that you bonded with the future Queen. Don’t you think that would be something that I need to know?” Travis drops his head “Dad I didn’t expect this to happen and I had no idea what happened to you after we left Oregon, how could I have told you anything?” He raises his head back to Charles “But it did, and I love her. I am going to do everything I can to protect her.” Charles looks at me and gives me half a smile. He puts his hand on Travis’s shoulder “Son, I don’t think you understand what is going to happen now.” Travis looks back at Charles and seems to be very confused. “I don’t understand, what do you mean?”

 

We have finally reached the shore and we sit on the ground behind the tree line so Denise doesn’t see Charles. He begins to try and explain “Travis, since you are bonded to her, you have to be King. Before, all Niki had to do was over-throw Khan. The challenge would be between Niki and Khan only which would result in the overthrowing of Khan or the death Niki and the rest of the human race. But now you have to kill Khan to take his thrown next to Niki.” Hearing this stops my heart and I scream out “Wait WHAT! I can die if I lose?!” Charles takes my hand and says “Niki you won’t have to do it anymore. Travis has to now. If he wants to be with you then he has to be King and to be King he has to kill Khan. It’s the only way, I’m sorry.” I am so confused now. “I don’t get it. What is the difference between overthrowing and killing Khan I thought it was the same thing.” I can tell that Charles is becoming nervous. He told us that he couldn’t stay long but now he is sitting on the island with us trying to explain every detail.

“Niki with you challenging Khan, it’s a test of strength, wisdom and leadership. Whoever loses must be placed in exile. The reason I said that you would die is because Khan would kill you instead of sending you to exile. He does not take kindly to being challenged. It has happened before and he never sent the challenger to Exile. He killed him right after the match. He has lost his mind and all rational thinking has gone out the window.” My palms begin to sweat and my heart rate starts to race. I don’t want Travis risking his life for me. I don’t want him to die. He has not been a werewolf that long, how can he be strong enough to beat Khan? My stomach begins to