#Chapter 147: Through the Veil
Nina
With one last, deep breath, I stepped through the portal with Edward. For a fleeting moment, I felt as though my body was weightless, almost as thought I didn’t even exist. I didn’t know where my flesh ended and the vacuum around me began, I felt like everything and nothing at the same time. Then, it was over in a flash.
We came out on the other side of the portal, and everything was quiet. As I looked around, felt a wave of confusion wash over me; the forest around me was exactly the same as before, but almost like a mirror image. Lisa, Ronan, and the dean were gone. It was only me and Edward.
“Strange, isn’t it?” Edward asked with a chuckle, breaking my train of thought and snapping me back to this strange new reality. “Exactly the same, but entirely different all at once. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”
“Just take me wherever you were planning on taking me,” 1 growled. 1 wrenched my hand free from Edward’s and curled my hands up into fists at my sides as I stared ahead solemnly. If 1 was going to die today, I just wanted to get it over with.
“So be it,” Edward replied. “Follow me.”
We walked through the woods in silence for a little while. It really was strange, walking in a place that I knew well, but at the same time, didn’t know at all. Either way, I kept my head down and followed Edward. There was nothing else to do at this point. If this would save my friends and my campus, then I would let whatever was about to happen… happen. Finally, after a while of walking, we came out to a road. On that road sat a black car. I felt the knot in my stomach grow larger, but as Edward walked up to it and opened the back door, I swallowed my fear and climbed inside. He shut the door behind me.
“Finally,” a female voice said. I looked over to see what looked like a young woman with her face hidden by a black veil. She was sitting still in the seat next to me with her legs crossed and her hands folded in her lap. “You’ve been quite the little troublemaker.”
“Who are you?” I asked shakily, just wanting to cut straight to the chase. The girl chuckled. “You’ll find out soon enough,” she said. The car began to drive.
“Are you going to kill me?” Now, instead of a chuckle, the girl threw her head back and laughed. It was eerie hearing her laugh without being able to see her face. “Not necessarily,” she said. “I haven’t quite decided yet. But for now, I’m going to take you somewhere very special…”
She reached out, and before I could flinch away, she placed her index finger right in the middle of my forehead “Sleep.”
I woke up some time later, although how long I was asleep for was a mystery to me. It felt as though I blinked for just a few moments after the veiled girl touched my forehead, but at the same time, my body felt as though it had been days.
I groaned and sat up, looking around the dark room I was in. It smelled like wood and pine trees, and thankfully, I was free to move around. I turned my head to see a window to my left that led out to the forest around me, and suddenly, I realized that I was in some sort of small, one-room cabin. There was a little wood stove and a table with a single chair beneath the window, and a bookshelf on the far wall. For all intents and purposes, it was
surprisingly cozy, and it made me wonder if I’d fallen asleep in one of the cabins outside the campus and simply dreamed up all of the atrocities that happened.
Quietly and warily, I stood and walked over to the door. I listened for a moment, waiting to hear if anyone was there, but I heard nothing-sol opened it and stepped out. I wasn’t at the cabins outside the campus; I was alone. There was nothing nearby aside from a small pond and dark pine trees. The sky was dark, like a rainstorm at dusk, but there was no rain or wind. It was entirely still and quiet. Was I dreaming?Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I spun around, holding my fists up, then stumbled backwards as I saw the veiled girl standing there.
“Like it?” she said, gesturing around. ” 1 tried to make it cozy enough for you. Something familiar.”
“W-Why?” I asked. The girl shrugged, then walked over to a stump with an ax sticking out of it. I expected her to grab the ax and attack me with it, but she only ran her finger absentmindedly along the handle.
“I don’t want you to be completely miserable,” she said thoughtfully. ” Only out of the way.”
I frowned. “Out of the way of what?”
“Of my mate, of course,” she said.
“You mean…”
“Bingo!” the girl said, spinning on her heel to face me, although her face was still hidden by the veil. “You are as smart as they say.” She paused then, and folded her arms across her chest as she walked up to me. “I’m going to marry Enzo,” she murmured. “I know you’re only going to get in the way, so I decided to take matters into my own hands, sister.”
Suddenly, my eyes widened. “Sister?” I asked. Just then, the girl raised her hand and slowly lifted the veil. I felt my heart drop and my head begin to reel as she slowly exposed her face. Her chin, her lips, her nose, her eyes… They were all mine. She looked exactly like me. “No,” I stammered, taking a few steps back.” I don’t have a sister. This can’t be real.”
“Oh, but you do,” she said, following me. “No one ever told you? Well, I suppose they thought it was for the best but I knew about you all along. My twin sister, separated at birth. Ripped from her crib by Crescent assassins. I always thought you were dead… 1 would’ve preferred it that way, honestly. But then, to find out that you were in fact alive, and were trying to steal my fated mate away… I couldn’t have that.”
At the girl’s words, everything began to make sense…. The strange photograph, the way that I was just dropped on my mother’s doorstep.
“So that’s what all of this was about?” I asked. “Taking over an entire school because you’re worried that someone else might steal your mate? And why work with the Crescents if you plan on marrying a Fullmoon Alpha?”
“Let me be clear,” the girl replied, frowning. “I had nothing to do with that attack. You can blame the Crescents for that. I only wanted you brought to me, and it turns out that there are a few Crescents who were willing to get the job done for the right amount of money. When I heard that the Crescent Leader was planning an attack to take over the Fullmoons, 1 knew it would be the perfect time to do it. Amidst all of the chaos, no one would think that your disappearance was anything but an accident.”
I scoffed, folding my own arms across my chest now. “So,” I said, feeling incredulous at the situation, “now that you’ve got me, what do you plan on doing with me?”
The girl shrugged. “I don’t plan on doing much. You’ll discover soon enough that you can’t leave here; I’ve made sure of that. You’ll live here comfortably, but you’ll be alone until the day you die.”
“Why not just kill me, then?”
Now, the girl grinned. “Because that would be too merciful.
