As I ran wildly into the night, my sight blinded by the hot tears in my eyes, I thought of all the different things that could have gone wrong.

We just had a party. I thought.

What the fuck happened??

Try as I can, I couldn't think of what went wrong.

All my brain could think of was Damon laying down, in the pool of his blood, lifeless.

My body shivered. I wasn't cold. I wasn't hot. It was like my blood froze.

"Moon Goddess!!" I was yelling at the top of my lungs before I even got to the mountain.

"Moon Goddess!!" My voice shook terribly.

I got to the mountain. Everywhere was so quiet I could hear the sound of my heartbeat. It was like everything and everyone had chosen to forsake me tonight. Tonight of all the nights.

"GODDESS!" My scream pierced into the night as my broken body frame fell helplessly to the ground.

Damon, please!

Moon goddess, please!

"Lily" the not-too-familiar voice floats through the eerily night, slicing through the silence and bouncing on the mountains and trees.

"Moon goddess…" I was on my feet in a flash "Moon goddess Damon died. The only man that I have been mated to died. The only man I was made to love…"

My voice broke as my feet gave way under me, and I fell to the ground like an empty sack.

There was radio silence.

It felt like she was waiting for me to try and process everything that's just happened in the past hour.

My heart was too heavy so I just cried and cried.

"Tell me what happened" she finally said

"I…we… there was a party…" I sniffed, I was incoherent and my voice broke badly. "We were fine right…right before the party. I don't know what happened, goddess" Tears were beginning to well up in my eyes.

I paused to breathe

"I don't know if it's the drinks," I continued. My brain had to remember at which point during the party everything went south for Damon, for the both of us "or the foods. Jasmine gave us food. Alicia brought the drinks for everyone on our table. I don't know, goddess. But you do" my voice sounded lost and hopeful all at once.

The breeze ruffled the leaves on the trees around and they made noise in protest.

"Are you here to know what happened, Lily?" She asked after a short silence that seemed like it lasted forever.

"Not exactly. I just want Damon back." Nothing else mattered to me. "He can't just die. Moon goddess, we were fine … I …I promise you were were" It felt like my heart was being opened and dragged. I clenched my teeth and placed a palm on my chest as if to stop it from falling out.

"Lily" she called again. Calm but firm.

"Yes … yes… moon …goddess" my heart breaking at every word I said and reflecting in my voice.

"I am sorry about your loss" she simply said.

It felt like they opened a gate of pain in me. Realization hit me so hard that I stumbled like I was walking on a rocky road.

Loss???

"He can't die!" my voice was laced with desperation.

Silence.

"He can't die! He can't die!" I have lost count of how many times I have said this.

Silence.

More silence.

"Moon goddess please help me" I went to my knees, my two palms clasped together, and I begged.

"What do you want me to do?" She asked softly. Even in the moonlight night, I could tell she was peering down closely at me.

No one had ever seen the moon goddess since I was a child and I wondered what she looked like. If she had anyone she loved, if they died leaving her what she would do?

"What do you want me to do, Lily?" She repeated.

"I want him back." I blurted like I had been waiting for this for the past few hours.

"You want him back" her voice sounding slightly stiff.

"Yes, moon goddess!" I nodded my head vigorously in affirmation.

The forest in which the MOUNTAIN OF REVELATIONS is situated becomes chillily cold and quiet.

My heart raced harder at what might become the outcome

"You know…" she began, her voice ending my train of thought "It's possible"

I swallowed a big lump in my throat out of relief as another bigger lump got stuck there and as much as I swallowed, refused to digest out of trepidation of what condition came after it.

"Wanting Damon back is possible" she reaffirmed her statement. The tiniest glimmer of hope flickered in my eyes.

"Ever heard the rule of life?" She asked, her tone intense

"No" I was shaking my head and willing my heart not to beat so fast inside my chest.

"For a life to be created, another life needs to be the ladder for it to climb and spring forth" She paused

"If you had come to ask how and why your mate died, that would have been easier, but you want him alive right?"

"More than anything in the world, moon goddess" I answered

"If he has to wake up, someone would have to take his place…you can just check how he died and go give him a befitting rest…"

"No!" My voice pierced the still night, interrupting her. "No, moon goddess, no please." I winced at the thought of doing life without Damon ``I know who killed him and why he died and what next, moon goddess?" I am starting to cry now. "Do I want to know what happened or if it's natural or not? Yes, but that doesn't solve anything, moon goddess. What happens next??" I blinked back tears that had been threatening to fall but it was useless because they stung my eyes and ran down my cheeks.

"The sacrifice Lily is a lot" she stated

I was past reasoning as I began shaking my head in protest

"Are you ready to give your life?" She cuts in. Her voice slices through the thoughts in my head. "Are you ready to die for your mate?"

I sat heavily on my feet on the floor, my mind blank. A sense of foreboding hung in the air.

"Lily…"

That was Ana, my inner wolf. I was so hurt that I had pushed her to the deepest part of my brain and shut it down.

"Lily… are you thinking about it?" She sounded scared

I was quiet, deep in thought trying to weigh my options.

So Damon lives and I die? How do I then live together with him? How do we fulfill all our fantasies of fated mates and bear little ones?

Everything doesn't just make sense. Nothing made sense.

"Lily…" she stood up, walking quietly and calculated to the front of my head. "You can't Lily, we can't risk that. I do not want to die, please…" she sniffed

"It's Damon; Lily…"I began

"I do know that, but what good does it do? You sacrifice your life for him and he lives but you die. What does it do for you… for us? We still won't get to be with him."

"At least; he gets to be alive. He'd mourn me and even decide not to be mated to anyone else" I had always wanted to be Damon's first and last. We talked about this and agreed and I hoped even in death he holds this too.

"Really??…" Ana scoffed. Her voice in a drawl "he'd mourn you but I don't see how that is possible. He will be fated to another mate, Lily. We can't do this…"

"Course we can."

"Moon goddess, I am ready" My shoulders hung on my body frame helplessly as I stood

There was a minute of silence like I was being made to reevaluate my choice.

"You are ready for what, Lily?"

"To give my life for Damon's."

Love is sacrificial. I have always known that and I was ready to lead by example.

"Damon will do the same for me" I reassured myself.

"He won't," Ana chipped in.

"To the back of my head now!" I snapped at her as she settled at the back of it.

"Alright, come forward…"

A door appeared before me. The entrance was foggy; it was impossible to see through it.

"Go right in, child. Welcome home."

"Can I change my mind, moon goddess?" I wondered.

"Do you want to?"

My body shook so badly, I could hardly walk. Last time it was out of pain, now it was something different. I was scared as I walked through the door in front of me.