What felt like a long, busy day to her six-year-old self had actually been weeks for her mother and father. Weeks when they knew she was safely in the hands of first the goddess and then a small surviving group of ancient Chanku elders who taught Lily the history of their kind—but much too long for parents worried about their child.
That had certainly been a wild summer. Nick Barden, one of the younger members of the pack, had managed to out the Chanku to the world at large when he got caught shifting in front of cameras at a gathering in Washington DC, a forest fire burned her mom and dad’s house to the ground while the entire pack huddled here in the caverns for safety, and Adam’s mate, Liana, had given birth to tiny Phoenix Olivia while the fire raged overhead.
The pack had merely grown stronger, more united than ever after all that happened. But now, the attacks on young women threatened all they held dear. Threatened their peaceful relationship with the human population. Threatened everything.
Lily had sensed Eve for most of the afternoon, and the goddess filled her thoughts as she traced her fingers over the ancient marks carved in stone. She remembered when she’d looked at them the very first time and realized they weren’t just pretty pictures—they were words she understood.
What everyone had thought of as artful carvings, six-year-old Lily had been able to read. And what she read were directions to enter the astral. The markings hadn’t been left by Native Americans as the grown-ups had believed, but by some of the earliest Chanku.
Had they known what was to come? Was Eve expecting her now? Placing her hands on the palm prints she’d once had to stretch to reach, Lily pictured the goddess. She’d thought of her as Sparkly Eve when she was little, but over the years, as Lily grew up and their friendship grew stronger, she’d become just Eve.
Friend, confidant, sister of her heart.
The stone shimmered as Lily held her hands against the prints and visualized Eve’s perfect where and when. A patch of brilliant light poured through the portal, growing broader and brighter, filling the dark cavern with a shimmering glow. Without any hesitation, Lily stepped from the cavern in northern Montana through what had been solid stone and into the perfect dimension that contained Eve’s world on the astral plane.
There was no sense of the portal or the caverns behind her. Lily gazed in all directions, surrounded by Eve’s world. She’d always wondered if her blood pressure really dropped, if her heart rate slowed when she was here, though today, for some reason, there was an edge to the usual sense of peace she felt.
A mist hovered just ahead, a small cloud glimmering with its own inner light, filled with tiny sparkles that seemed to dance like dust motes in sunlight. Misgivings slipped away as Lily held out her arms. “Eve! It’s been too long. I’ve missed you.”
Forming fully from mist and sparkles to corporeal woman, the goddess shook her head slowly and sighed. Instead of the brilliant smile Lily expected from her friend, Eve hung her head.
Lily’s arms fell to her side. “Eve? Is something wrong?”
“Oh, Lily. Yes. I fear something is terribly wrong.” Then the goddess stepped close and enveloped Lily in a warm and very human hug.
Lily smoothed the soft white robe around her ankles as she and Eve sat together in the bright glow of what passed for day on the astral. They’d gone for a soothing dip in the magical waters of the pond that had fascinated Lily as a child.
It had bubbles. Lots of sparkly bubbles, and when they’d climbed out of the water, she’d wrapped herself in the soft robe Eve had conjured out of the air.
The grass might be a little too green, the trees much too perfectly formed, and the sky a robin’s egg blue that existed only in fairy tales—or here in what was truly Eve’s very own here and now—but it was familiar and comforting to Lily.
Most of the time.
Not so much right now. Eve, always so calm, was obviously anxious. All was not right in what should be paradise. Lily took Eve’s hand and felt the tension in her slim fingers. “Eve? Enough small talk. Tell me what’s wrong.”
Instead of answering, Eve stretched out her hand and pulled a glass of sparkling white wine out of thin air. She handed the chilled goblet to Lily and then grabbed one