-Oliver-

I had never felt anything like this... I was barely aware of what I was doing or saying. I had no idea how I did even half of the things I had done... My feet felt heavy and breathing was hard, but it was the sensation of something crawling inside me that made me feel horrible. And hearing his voice whispering inside me... The King...

Someone was leading me somewhere, and it took me a while to understand it was Jaden. He had a tight hold of my arm, and when I peered up at him, I saw worry in his eyes.

"Where are we going?" I mumbled.

"You need to rest," he said shortly, looking over his shoulder.

"Why? They need me," I said, trying to stop him, but he kept pulling me gently.

"The battle is over now. The others can handle it from here – you need to rest," he said sternly.

"Oh? It's over?"

Jaden stopped and turned to look at me, the worry in his eyes grew stronger. "Are you all right? You're pale and sweaty!"

"Honestly? I don't know... I feel really weird... Like something is crawling inside me," I breathed out. "I... What did I do?"

"A lot," he said and continued leading me through the mass of people. "Natalie is coming to check up on you as soon as she can."

"Is everyone all right?" I asked. "Did... I saw your father..."

"Do you not remember?" he asked in shock. "Everyone's fine. I think... I heard Anthony had ordered his people to possess us, not kill us, so I'm hoping no one died... And the Howl really worked. I mean..." he trailed off, looking almost scared. "I can heal, Oliver. I have an actual old world ability..."

To me, it looked like he could use some rest as well. "Everything got so weird so fast... I mean... a few weeks ago I was just minding my own business..." I mumbled.

"And now you have a god in you," he sighed. "I think we're officially past too much, don't you think?"

I started laughing. I laughed so hard I couldn't even stay up on my feet, so Jaden had to hold me up. There was nothing funny about the situation we were in, but I just couldn't stop laughing.

"Can I just sleep for a week?" I asked once I recovered from the laughing fit.

"Sure – you deserve it," he said.

Only a few moments later I realized we were heading to his house. When I asked him about why we were there, he just said that I needed a safe, quiet place to rest. As soon as we got in, I realized that I was freezing cold, and hungry.

Cedric appeared into the house when Jaden was leading me upstairs, nearly scaring the shit out of me when he just popped right next to me.

'I'm sorry – didn't mean to scare you...'

"It's fine – I'm a bit jumpy right now..." I told him.

'How are you feeling?' the guardian asked.

"Tired," I breathed out.

'And the Echo? Is it... under control?'

"I honestly have no idea," I told him. "The voice is gone now, though..."

"Did you really hear him? Hades?" Jaden asked and his worry was back.

"Yeah... He was talking to me, telling me what to do," I said.

'Gaea could've given us anything, but she chose to give his Echo...' Cedric sighed. 'I've been out of the loop for a while, but even I know meddling with him is highly dangerous. I don't think that has changed.'

"Is he really that bad?" Jaden asked.

'Hades? Technically no, but the thing he carries in him is,' Cedric explained. 'He's the first soul who got infected by the shadows.'

"Can we please not have this conversation now?" I begged. "I can't deal with any new information right now."

'Of course – you should rest now. I'll go see if there's something I can help with.' Cedric said.

"Or you could stay with us and make sure Oliver is safe," Jaden said.

'I can do that too,' Cedric nodded. 'It's just...'

"What?" I asked, and it was now me who was worried.

'I'm worried about Jack – I think I should return to him. He's too weak to survive on his own.'

"What do you mean?" I frowned, and he quickly filled me in on what had happened after Jaden and I disappeared. "Oh yeah – you go to him," I nodded as soon as he was done talking. "Keep him alive."

'Thank you,' he said and vanished.

A short moment later, I was lying in Jaden's bed, covered with thick blankets. Jaden himself was getting me something to eat, but I was so tired I was sure I'd fall asleep before he could return to me. I nearly did, but when he opened the door, holding a few slices of bread in his hands, I snapped awake. He made sure I ate everything before he let me go to sleep. The last thing I remembered was watching him lay down next to me.

But I didn't get to sleep for long. I was woken up when someone touched me with a cold hand.

"Oh – I didn't mean to wake you up," Natalie spoke with an apologetic smile on her face.

"Your hands are cold," I groaned, pulling the covers over my head.

"I'm sorry," Natalie chuckled. "I just wanted to make sure you're all right."

"I'm fine..." I mumbled, closing my eyes again. "I just need to sleep..."

"Of course," she whispered. "I'll go talk to my husband – we'll have to figure out what to do about that Echo. I can't believe you have it... It's the real thing..."

"Yes, yes, marvelous, isn't it," I muttered. "Can I just please get some sleep now?"

"Sure," she said, and I could feel her hand on my shoulder for a moment before she backed away.

"I'll watch over him," Jaden said.

"Thank you," Natalie muttered. "I'll come back once I find my husband."

"Sure."

"Bye!" I croaked when I heard her walking to the door.

"Goodnight, sweetie," she replied before stepping out of the room.

Jaden lay back down next to me and took his sweet time to find a comfortable position for himself. Once he stopped moving, I snuggled closer to him, resting my head on his shoulder, ready to finally fall asleep.

It didn't last long, of course...

"Jaden!"

I wanted to start crying when I heard Arch barging in somewhere below us.

"You stay here," Jaden muttered, sounding just as annoyed as I felt before he left the room in a hurry. "You woke up Oliver!"

"Jack is gone – we can't find him!"

I turned on my back and looked at the door, feeling Arch's fear and worry in my soul. "Cedric?" I spoke out loud, and the guardian appeared right next to the bed. "Jack's gone?"

'We can't find him,' he said with an anxious voice. 'Aurora swore she saw him chasing Thorn, but after that... I just don't believe her. Jack isn't strong enough to do such a thing!'

"Can we do something about it?" I asked, pushing my extremely exhausted body off the bed.

'I wasn't long enough with him to have a link... I don't know what to do...!'

"Maybe... Maybe I can find him?" I spoke timidly. "I mean... I know how to turn to a spirit now..."

'I really hate the idea of you using that thing,' Cedric said.

"But it might be our only option," I hurried to say. "He might be in danger, Cedric!"

'But...'

"You can't see what I can see. Arch is connected to him, and I can see that bond now," I hurried to tell him and got out of the bed. "We need to find him! He might be kidnapped!"

'We thought exactly the same about you and Jaden when you disappeared,' Cedric told me.

"I hardly doubt Selene has pulled Jack into the spirit realm," I said sternly. "His entire pack is here! If they saw him helping us..."

I couldn't even finish that sentence.

'Okay, okay, but we need to tell the others.'

"There's no time," I said as I hurried out of the room. "Arch!"

I ran down the stairs and found the extremely anxious Arch in the entrance hall with Jaden.

"Go back to bed," Jaden said harshly, and tried to push me back up, but I refused to move an inch. "You need to rest!"

I ignored him completely. "I can find Jack," I told Arch. His eyes shot wide open and he stepped right in front of me.

"You can?" he asked.

"Yes – I can follow your link to him, and–"

"Oliver! You're too weak! How are you going to find him anyway? Let Natalie deal with it," Jaden begged, but I shook my head.

"Do you even know where she is?" I asked, and when he didn't reply to me, I turned my attention to Arch. "We can't waste a second."

And before anyone could even think about stopping me, I turned into a spirit. I wasn't sure how I did that – I just knew how to do it, like I knew how to breathe.

"Stop using that ability!" Jaden almost yelled at my face. "It's dangerous – even Gaea said so!"

'I have to find Jack,' I told him quietly, feeling a bit taken aback.

"No! You turn back to human right now!" Jaden said, and I realized he really was angry with me.

'No,' I whispered. 'I need to do this.'

"It's a curse, Oliver!" Jaden tried one more time, but I was already looking for the link Natalie mentioned. That was another thing I didn't know how exactly I did it, but suddenly I could see the web that linked everything to everything. The bond leading to Jack was easy to spot. Arch had possibly hundreds and hundreds of golden-white connections with the world, so thin they were barely visible, but one of them was dark, twisting like it was in pain.

'I have to find him,' I told Jaden, who glared at me in frustrated anger.

With Cedrick by my side, I left the house, flying straight through the door. I tried to ignore the pain Jaden had caused me with his words and focused on the thin connection. I knew very well how dangerous it was to use the Echo of Hades, but after everything Jack had gone through, and after the risks so many of us had taken to keep him safe, I couldn't just sit back and wait. Jaden was just worried, yes, but he didn't have to yell at me...

I was too worried to even be amazed by the fact that I was flying. How many times had I wished that I had a cool ability that would take me away from my miserable life? Now I had a cool ability but the life I had before Jaden stepped into the picture hadn't been so bad after all. At least I didn't have an uncle who tried to kill me and everyone I loved back then.

'Are you sure we're going in the right direction?' Cedric asked when we flew past the Forest of the Dead.

'Yes – this is the right way,' I said reassuringly without actually speaking.

'This is so odd...' he muttered.

'I know, right...'

We had to travel quite far before I finally saw any kind of proof that we were actually following someone. I spotted pawprints on the snow, and I was relieved to see that there were no other footprints. I pointed at them, and Cedric nodded.

'He's alone,' he muttered. 'But he might be possessed.'

'That's what I thought,' I sighed. 'But I can deal with that.'

'Yeah – you turned Henry to dust without a blink of an eye...'

'I did?" I frowned. 'My memories are a bit blurry...'

'That's not a good thing,' Cedric said, but I suddenly saw a glimpse of a gray tail vanishing behind a tree.

'There he is!'

Only a moment later, we spotted a thin, light-gray wolf running in the snow. It was definitely Jack. His spirits were stronger than before but in horrible, horrible shape. Thankfully, no one was possessing him, but both his spirits were swarmed with shadowy maggots. I nearly gagged when I got closer and saw how bad the infestation was.

'Jack!' I shouted at him, making him lose his balance. The wolf nearly tripped over when he tried to see who was calling him.

I landed a few feet away from him and quickly turned back to human.

"Jack – where are you going?" I asked, but he growled at me.

'Stay the fuck away from me!'

"I'm not going to hurt you – I know you were possessed," I said as calmly as possible. "I know you didn't want any of it to happen."

'Stay. The fuck. Away from me!'

"Jack...?" I murmured his name, not understanding why he was so mad. "Are you all right?"

He didn't reply to me. Instead, he seemed like he was about to make a run for it, but I blocked his way.

'Leave me alone!'

"Why are you running away? You should stay with us. We know you are innocent," I spoke.

'None of your business!' he shouted.

"Jack – please. You need a safe place to recover. I can see your spirits and they're slowly falling apart," I said, watching as the maggots slowly gnawed on his souls. "You're still infested."

'I don't care!'

"You should," I replied. "You're going to die if you won't let us help you." This time, he didn't reply to me. He was looking for a way around me, so I took a careful step closer. "Arch is worried about you."

That piqued his interest, but it didn't take away his hostility. I hesitated for a moment before taking another, careful step closer to him.

"You should stay with us. We can get rid of the infestation, and you can talk with Arch and see how things go."

He suddenly turned back to human as well. He looked mad as hell as he stomped through the snow to push me hard. For a second, I thought he was going to hit me.

"Don't you fucking dare use that trick on me! I don't want to have anything to do with that bastard!"

I gave him a sad smile. He was lying, of course. I could feel his spirits crying in pain just by the thought of his mate, and his voice had cracked when he said the word, bastard.

I knew there was nothing I could say to make him change his mind at that time. I took advantage of his closeness and placed my hand on his chest, focusing on the maggots. One quick flash cleared out most of them, but not all. He took a few, hasty steps back and glared at me like I had hurt him. I kind of did hurt him – the blast caused his weakened spirits to crumble even more, but now there was more room to heal.

"I want to help you," I told him quietly. "I can't do that if you run away."

"Why?" he asked, still scowling at me.

"You saved my life," I said softly. "I remember it now. When Henry tried to get Jaden's Echo from me, I heard your voice. Henry was about to kill me in his anger, but you begged him to stop. I heard you."

He shook his head and looked away, but I could tell his anger was fading. "Just leave me alone..." he muttered with a much weaker voice.

"You know I won't," I replied.

"Don't make me go back," he said. "Don't force me to be near him."

"I won't, I promise," I hurried to say. "But I don't want you to leave either, so..."

He looked like he didn't know if he could trust me, and I couldn't blame him. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to push him, not now that he seemed to be opening up just a little bit.

"They're not..." he muttered, looking timid all of a sudden. "The Blue Moons... They're not mad at me...?"

"No – we all know you are innocent. Rayleigh knows you're innocent," I told him. "You are welcomed to stay in his territory."

He nodded slowly, and his whole posture was slowly starting to relax. "I don't... I don't have anywhere to go..." he murmured.

"Then you should stay here," I said with a smile, but he shook his head and took a few steps away again – it was clear I chose the wrong words. "Jack, please, we can figure this out!"

"There's nothing to figure out!" he growled, and I held back a sigh. "I'm better off dead anyway!"

"You're not," I said calmly. "You still have a whole life ahead of you."

"What life?! I have no pack, I have no home, and my mate doesn't even recognize me as a wolf...!" he snapped his mouth shut, glaring at me. "Fuck off. Leave me alone."

Something clicked at that moment. "Jaden healed you," I muttered when I realized it.

"What?!"

"Jaden has the Howl of Life – he can heal allies with his howl," I explained. "That's why you're up and running."

"So what?" he spat at me.

"You're an ally of the Blue Moon, and Blue Moon takes care of their allies" I shrugged. "Thought I should mention that."

"I don't care," he said.

All right, another tactic then. "Arch is worried about you."

"I already told you to not use that trick on me!"

"It's not a trick. It's true. Did you know that he's gay?"

"You're lying," He hissed at me.

"I'm not. And I think the reason why he didn't accept you is Henry," I said.

"I could feel the bond between us long before I even knew Henry existed," he spoke angrily. "He didn't accept the bond back then, so he won't accept the bond now."

"He thought you hated him," I kept trying. "They were all shocked when they found out about it. They all thought that you hated him bad enough to want to kill him!"

I may have exaggerated a bit, but I was getting desperate.

"...what?"

I nearly fainted with relief when his attitude changed into a more curious one. "Arch thought you hated his guts – maybe that made him think that you weren't a suitable mate?"

He stared at me for a moment, but then his whole posture dropped. "Doesn't matter... He isn't going to accept me anyway."

"You don't know that," I said carefully. "Now you have a chance to talk to him and see how things go. He knows that you consider him as your mate, and I know he would love to talk to you about it."

"I can't do that..." he muttered. "I just... I can't right now."

"Well, maybe later?" I asked, taking a slow step closer to him. "If you stay around and take some time for yourself and let things calm down... I mean... There's no harm in talking, right? I know Arch – he's the sweetest. I don't know if he will accept you, but I do know that if you talk to him, he isn't going to stomp on your heart. It could make you feel better."

This time he took a long moment to think about my words. He turned to look towards the town like he really was considering going back. Then, he let out a deep sigh and turned to look at me again.

"I'll stay around, but I can't talk to him. Not yet... I... I need some time..." he muttered.

"That's all I want," I smiled. "I can help you find some shelter, and–"

"No – I'll be fine," he interrupted me. "I'll figure something..."

"Okay," I nodded. I hated the thought of him alone in this weather, but I really couldn't afford to push my luck. "I'll drop by to see how you're doing. I also need to keep that infestation under control."

"You don't have to do that," he muttered.

"I want to. It's the least I can do after you've risked your life for us," I told him. "You've saved my ass enough times already, it's time I return the favor."

"Whatever," he breathed out, but to me, it sounded more like a thank you.

"Take care of yourself," I said quietly. "I'll be watching you."

"Just leave me alone already," he muttered.

"And I know how to find you, so you better keep your promise," I said sternly.

"Fine,