A Gift from the Goddess

Chapter 69

Chapter Sixty–Nine 

‘Reach for it... 

‘Stretch... 

I dug deep within myself, searching where I had felt that familiar energy first stem from. Before it used to always feel like it was just out of arm‘s length, as if only the tip of my fingernail could graze it, but now it felt as though I needed several more appendages just to get anywhere near it. 

But it was there. I had to believe that it hadn‘t just been my imagination. 

Stretch just a little further...‘ 

But then I exhaled quickly in release, panting from the strain it had caused to my body. 

I‘d been sitting on my bed practising ever since arriving back at my guest lodgings. However, since starting over an hour ago, there had been little to show in progress. 

I knew there had to be a trick to this, some sort of internal cue to summon it. Elder Luke had mentioned that this energy was something that could be trained but I was now trying to accomplish it with a severe handicap. So naturally, a part of me was kicking myself for not learning this prior to the collar. 

I threw myself backwards on the bed, laying down in defeat. This was becoming infuriating, not to mention exhausting. How was I meant to practice something if I couldn‘t even begin to grasp it? This 

stupid energy that was a byproduct of my curse. 

Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried again once more, digging as deep as physically possible. 

Grab it already. It‘s there. It‘s literally right there.’ 

Just grab it! 

... And then I felt it. 

My eyes immediately flew open as I felt the energy weakly pulse inside me. 

Just a dim flickering. Not much, but just enough to know it was there. 

‘HOLD IT. 

| gritted my teeth, fighting against all the different forces working against me... the collar, my now weaker body, the pure effort required to just utilise the energy itself... but it wasn‘t enough. 

| exhaled once more in release, heaving at the air around me. 

It was gone. Gone just as quickly as it had shown itself. 

But I couldn‘t discredit the noticeable differences and how they were definitely better when compared to my past experiences. There was no dizziness... no nosebleeds… no nausea. Not yet at least. It was mostly just aching and exhaustion from the attempts. 

What had been the trigger? My frustration? ...Emotion? I supposed that made sense. All the times it had come to me in the past were under circumstances of higher emotional investment. But would knowing that actually make it any easier? 

For now, I just needed to repeat this over and over again until I trained my body to grasp it on will, each time trying to hold it for a few seconds longer. 

And so, even though I knew how much it was probably going to hurt, I smiled at the excruciatingly slow grind ahead of me. 

How naive of me to think that at one point i‘d thoughi squats were bad 

“What the hell happened to you?” Aletic asked the next morning, eyeing off my appearance 

1 yawned but managed to bow my head in greeting per protocol 

“Good morning,” I said sleepily. “I didn‘t get much rest. Sorry for all of the fuss.” 

“I thought you were dead,” he said with all seriousness 

I‘d ended up staying up all night practising, pushing myself to my limit, before finally passing out sometime in the early morning My exhaustion had been so bad though that an attendant had to enter my guest lodgings with a master key after I‘d failed to answer the door. Apparently. Alenc had nearly smashed it down from knocking and had thought something had happened to me 

In actuality, I was just dead to the world sleeping. 

“I‘m sorry,” I repeated, though this time trying to make it sound more genuine. 

He sighed but his shoulders didn‘t relax. “It‘s fine. Grab your stuff and let‘s get going.” 

I wondered whether this had scared him off from ever bringing me with him again but I went back inside t o pack without questioning it. Truthfully, I wasn‘t even sure if I ever wanted to go to another meeting like this again but knew it was best not to push my luck whilst he was like this. I could tell that what I‘d done had really struck a nerve with him. 

morning but my sleepless night

so, without much energy left to resist, I eventually drifted off to sleep in the car.

voice called out to me.

to move, my

up,” it repeated. “We‘re

to see Aleric in

he said, unbuckling his seatbelt and getting out.

siemmed from weighing up whether it would be

had a plethora of questions that I didn‘t care to answer. Instead, I followed silently behind Aleric all the way until we made it to the main floor,

I went back in

my room, eyeing the door off sceptically. I

then came up behind me and placed a hand

promise I‘ll talk to Tytus first thing in the morning. Hopefully, he won‘t care whether you remain in

Chapter Sixty Nine 

probably wasn‘t making the situation any better given the circumstances of

no importance. And yet they held more weight over me than I‘d ever dare to admit aloud. Why was it that this place continued to drain me more than anything else these days? Ironically, it felt as though the quarters were living

not her and

open then and took a second to take it all in. The overly

pushed it as far back

literal authority of a goddamn Goddess, then there was no way I

get stronger. And it

Hopefully, within all of that, I could also prevent an apocalypse in the process. It was just baby steps. Should be easy

dismissing him. “I‘ll be okay

should insist on staying or not, but he finally nodded, accepting my

“Have a good rest and I‘ll

and I‘ll start thinking you have

smiled. “Unfortunately, just one very

This trip had been a nice reminder of what it felt like to speak freely again. Though not entirely free.

not going

and threw my bag down by the door, walking towards my

she*, my past self, had been right about, it was that getting involved with someone romantically had ended up being a mistake. I‘d been broken already once and had stupidly dragged myself back into

you,” I whispered to the mirror on the wall, my eyes narrowing. “I‘m telling you that you were right. At

reply and only silence greeted me. It was nice not having her fogging up my head anymore but I wasn‘t under any false pretence. Even though my make–up covered up the worst of m

time to train. No good wasting time with my looming

to speak to Aleric soon about possibly resuming my physical training, even though I was fully aware that I would still remain weak no matter how much I

Chapter Sixty Nine 

harder of the two. The one that drained

inside me for longer periods of time. And whilst it may have only been a few seconds,

sometime after dark. I‘d had two nights of minimal sleep and my body

any strength

my front door clicking open, a creak groaning out

to check the time via the clock on

after two o‘clock in the morning. Why would anyone be here this

robe over my nightgown. If this was an attendant then

I called out.

Silence. 

“...Aleric...?” 

the sound of someone‘s footsteps greeted me.

was bad. This was really

listen to the darkness around m e. But I knew the unfortunate reality was that they would be able to see me easily with their better

were my

Hide? Nope, they probably could see me right now anyway. Order them to stand down? No, that option

then. I had to scream. If Aleric was in his room, he would be able to hear me

quickly inhaled as much as I could within

“ALE–.” 

hand suddenly came from out of the darkness and clamped my mouth quickly shut, a wall of muscle encircling around my body. He‘d appeared from thin air;

fighting against him, but I knew it was pointless. By even werewolf standards, this guy was built impossibly large. Maybe

the hell was

mouth from making any further attempts to call for help. There was nothing I could do, nowhere I could move, and so he was able to

Chapter Sixty–Nine 

shoulder without any issue whatsoever.

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