We're All Stories In The End by Megan Rees (book club reads txt) 📕

“Cobra, kill her.” Alpha hissed.

Finally realising the situation, Luna fumbled around for her dagger, but couldn’t find it. Panic overwhelmed her and replaced the ice preventing her body from moving. I must have left it in my cabin!

Cobra flung himself at her, but a rock whacked him in the eye, throwing him off target and into a thorn bush. Luna blinked in amazement and gazed up in direction of the rock, where she saw Ash crouched up in a tree. He possessed the ability to reverse gravity on certain objects, so only he could have thrown the rock at the vicious Demon.

I guess it won’t matter if I use my own powers now. The Demons already know I’m here.

Holding her hands up above her head, Luna created a small ball of fire, which made some of the Demons flinch away at it’s brightness. Alpha and a few others continued to stand their ground, much to Luna’s annoyance.

The flames suddenly frazzled out and Luna felt a sharp stinging pain in her left hand, which made her cry out in pain. She clutched her hand, which had a wound in the palm and leaking black blood rather than red. Black was usually a sign of poison.

She had completely forgotten that Cobra was behind her.

A three-headed snake with a lion’s body and a fox’s tail growled something at Alpha, which he responded with a nod. “Finish her, Venom.”

Luna would have moved, but the poison was numbing her entire body and she couldn’t feel anything. Her vision was starting to blur up a little too and she couldn’t think straight.

Venom picked her up in his paw and tossed her through the air, a sick smile playing on his lips. Luna tried to scream, but it came out as a weak little squeak which hurt her throat. A sickening crunch of bones followed that as she hit a tree and fell to the ground. Everything hurt now, especially her leg, which she guessed she had broken.

A blood-curdling cry broke loose and suddenly, Purebloods poured in swords and torches, aiming them at the foul beasts. Luna guessed they had seen Venom throw her against the tree and believe that he had killed her. Closing her blue eyes gently, she tried her best to curl up into a protective ball in case someone or something came looking for her.

After a short while, she suddenly felt a cold hand on her cheek, forcing her to open her eyes. Though her vision still blurred, she could just make out Ash crouching next to her. There was blood running down the left side of his face, which made her wince uncomfortably.

“We’ll have to get you back to the cabins,” Ash murmurs, an odd gentleness in his voice. “I’ll grab Rune to have a look at your hand and see if she can remove the poison. Otherwise we’ll have to see if a doctor can help you.”

Luna tried to nod in agreement, but a stinging sensation hit her neck and she winced in pain. Ash let out a deep sigh, moving his hand away from her and cupping his mouth using both hands. “Rune! Atlas! Get over here!”

Two blurry figures rushed over, a few wounds here and there. One of them, who she could just make out as Rune, started yelling at Ash. Luna didn’t hear the entire conversation, but Rune clearly sounded furious.

The last thing Luna saw before letting the poison engulf her was Rune holding her hand, muttering to herself.

“State your names.”

“I’m Atlas Ravener. Rosco’s son.”

“I said your names, stupid. Can’t you understand Plain English?”

“I’m an interpreter, so I get lost in different languages from time to time.”

“Don’t give me that idiotic sarcastic tone, Ravener. Tell me the names of your company.”

“Well, there’s my little foster sister Rune Braveheart. Then you’ve got Ashley-“

“Ash. Not Ashley. Just Ash.”

“Whatever. That’s Ash Chase, as you know. And she is Luna Wilde, who is critically wounded. A Demon got her and Rune was able to heal the wound, but the poison is still in her system and we need to get it out before it becomes too strong. This stuff will kill her if we don’t find help quickly. ”

Luna could hear several voices in the background. She could make out that Atlas and Ash were speaking to a Pureblood man, but why was there a guard?

Most confusingly of all: how did she end up at Nighthollow despite being unconscious?

She then begun to feel two strong arms supporting her small body, which clearly meant she was carried away from the battle. The person was carrying her smelt of blood, sweat and pine, much like the cabin smell.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to carry her, Ash?” Atlas asked. “You were injured too – I am unharmed.”

“I’m the strongest out of us,” Ash insisted. “Besides, you’d probably drop her. She’s virtually on the brink of death here. Death is probably hanging around here, waiting to take her away.”

Luna wanted her eyes to open to assure her friends that she was okay, but she still felt numb with exhaustion and didn’t have the strength to do so. She felt like she was just a spirit trapped inside a lifeless body, trying desperately to break free. But the chains of poison were holding her back from freedom and slowly eating away her life.

Finally calculating the situation, the teenager realised how much was at stake. I don’t want to die. Please, I just want to live!

Summing up whatever strength remained, Luna pressed her head against Ash’s chest, listening to his steady heartbeat and allowing it to calm her. Ash didn’t make a sound, which gave Luna the impression he hadn’t noticed.

She heard a squeaky door open and was gently placed down on a soft mattress.  They’ve brought me to the infirmary.

“Rune, see if you can find that so-called cure for Demon poison. It’s that purple liquid in the tall glass in the cupboard,” Atlas ordered his foster sister. “We’ll test it and see if it works.”

“She’s a human being, not a guinea pig,” Ash snapped furiously. “Give her something that is actually proven to work!”

“Nothing is proven to have fully cured Demon poison. One of the scientists developed a serum which supposedly cures poisoning, but it has never been tested. If it doesn’t work, then we’ll use one of the weaker ones to remove some of the poison from her system. We’ll just have to wait for a miracle if that happens.” Atlas sighed softly.

“I found it!” Rune called after a short while. “Should I put it into a glass?”

“Yes.” her brother replied simply.

Luna listened as Rune poured the liquid into a glass before rushing back over, nudging her friend’s shoulder. “Sit her up so can I give it to her.”

Atlas and Ash both moved her into a sitting position, her back and head against the wall. Whoever moved her head accidentally hit it against the wall, which made Luna shudder. Rune pressed the glass to Luna’s mouth, tilting it so the liquid would enter.

An odd sensation went through Luna after Rune removed the glass from her lips. She felt as if a block of ice had been thrown down her throat, slowly melting and entering her blood stream. She started to feel slightly stronger as she began to regain her strength, but then it all vanished and she felt much weaker.

“Come on, fight this,” Ash murmured. “I know you can do it, Luna.”

It took Luna a few quiet minutes to regain her strength fully, enough for her to open her eyes and blink at her anxious friends. “Hi,” she squeaked in a weak voice. “Did I miss much?”

“Welcome back to reality, Luna.” Rune teased, helping her friend up before embracing her tightly.

“Don’t do that again, please,” Atlas sighed, wiping beads of sweat from his forehead. “You didn’t half give us a fright!”

Luna grinned cheekily. “Perhaps I’ve learnt to look and listen next time.”

As she pulled away from Rune, Ash slapped her back rather hard, making Luna yelp out in pain and stumble away from him. “What the heck was that for? Can’t you slap people nicely like everyone else rather than beating them up?”

“That,” Ash remarked, grinning. “was for scaring me out of my skin.”

“Thanks a lot.” Luna replied sarcastically.

Her friend looked as pale as a ghost as he ran his hands through his hair, which she had never seen before. He was pale skinned, but never deathly pale. “I thought you were going to die.”

“Nah, I was going to creep you out first, then wake up and be like ‘what’s your problem? I was sleeping till you shoved a load of random liquid down my throat’. That kinda thing.” Luna teased, amusement dancing in her blue eyes.

“Your sarcasm isn’t as good as mine.”

“Yeah, but you’ve perfected the art of it your entire life. I only use it when required.”

“Leave it all to me, Miss Wilde. You’ll ruin it, otherwise.”

Atlas coughed loudly for attention. “I hate to interrupt your flirting, but we’re still in the middle of a battle. That guard we confronted earlier must have been there because of Demons. They could have broken in.”

“Flirting?” Ash scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Not funny, Atlas.”

“Come on!” Rune groaned, opening the door to let everyone out.

As they stepped outside, a scream came from a nearby cabin, making Luna shudder. What on earth happened?

A young woman ran out of the tiny cabin, her face a mask of horror. Luna recognised her as Carla Braveheart – Rune’s biological mother who refused to care for her after discovering she was a pacifist.

“What’s wrong, Carla?” a woman called.

“The Phoenix’s Treasure has been stolen!”

Silence followed her words.

Everyone was stunned into complete and utter silence.

Luna stared at the bewildered crowd in dismay, feeling terrible. I brought this upon Nighthollow. Thanks to me, we’ve just lost the most valuable items the Purebloods possess.

Atlas shot her a sympathetic look, shaking his head as almost if he could read her mind.

A deafening uproar shattered the silence, blaming and shaming each other. Tears pricked in Luna’s eyes at the sight of what she had caused by her foolish mistake. Ash noticed this and gently propelled her away from the angry crowd, his hand firmly gripping her shoulder as he led her towards her cabin.

“Thanks.” Luna sniffed, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt.

“I