My Lycan Mate of Suicide Forest

"But you've hardly even told me anything!" Zoe began whining promptly proceeded by a protruding bottom lip. It was such an unusual thing to witness—the clinical scientist and the emotionally immature teenager sharing one body.

"I told you how I overpowered Marius," August pointed out. "What do you make of what I saw around Graeme and how I was able to use it? Do you suppose it was because he is my mate?"

Perhaps if Zoe was allowed to discuss her theories about this, it would give her more of a sense of satisfaction about their conversation and make her more willing to reciprocate based on this information alone.

One corner of Zoe's mouth tipped up thoughtfully as she scanned the contents of her knowledge. "The thing that interests me the most about the alyko is how their abilities seem to reach beyond three dimensional space. I have always had a theory about how the proteins involved in their genetic transcription fold differently in the fourth dimension…"

"Whaaa… what does it mean—to reach beyond three dimensional space?" August's eyebrows pinched together.

"Well there are the three dimensions of space—height, width, and depth—that everyone knows. But it is clear that there are more. I mean, you walked through a door, which is inconceivable in the way we understand space right now," she chuckled.

Her voice began speeding up enthusiastically, like a motor that had been wound and was now happily thrumming along: "Without going into all of the Einstein space-time continuum stuff and how something like gravity, for instance, doesn't fit into the standard model of physics, let's just say there are gaps in our understanding of space and everything with in it—how it all fits together cohesively—and our ability to fit everything together is limited," she explained.

It sounded like this may go on for some time, and August leaned back, creating a pillow with her hands against the floor.

"But when we theorize something like 10 or more dimensions—one superstring theory has 27 dimensions—then piecing everything together into a cohesive whole becomes more possible. It's just something we are limited in currently by the instruments we have to measure it, by our own senses, and so on. But alyko are like this brilliant key to understanding a little bit more of it," Zoe turned back to focus on August, her eyes gleaming.

"So, for instance, when we take something like M-theory, which elegantly brings together every superstring theory that has been posited, it vastly expands not only how many more dimensions there are than what we can physically be aware of, but how many universes are possible with different ways of shaping hyperspace and different laws of nature. There are literally 10 to the 500th power number of universes that would be possible in M theory."

August's eyes widened as she listened. Most of this sounded like gibberish, but 10 to the 500th power number of universes?! What?

"And many believe there would be portals that exist within our universe in which we could access other universes. Where in the universe would these portals exist, you might ask?" Zoe chuckled to herself, as if she had told a hilarious joke.

"Out there maybe," she looked past August with a distance in her eyes, "or perhaps within our own minds, as some have posited. You know there have been fascinating experiences with things as simple as meditation, ritual, certain hallucinogenic substances, all of which arguably include the mind as a portal? But I think," Zoe turned in her cell, no longer lying on her side but on her stomach with her chin tilted so that she could continue peering through the little space at the bottom of the door.

"I think," she repeated, her voice somehow shifting to accommodate the peaks of awe, curiosity, and desire all at once, "you are a portal, August. Or you are able to pass through one."

The hairs rose all over August's body at this—the words that were spoken, the way Zoe said them, the look in her eyes as she did… as if she were a hungry predator getting the first glimpse at its prey. And, like prey, August froze in reaction to it.

Once she was able to shake off that instinctual reaction to the girl's creepy demeanor, the talk of portals made her instantly think of the tree guardian… of that place that Sage apparently 'opened' for her as another fae.

"I have made you realize something. What is it?" Zoe asked, eager eyes still trained on August.

"I uh…" she scrambled for something else. She wasn't offering Zoe knowledge of that place. There was no way. It wasn't that she feared it would do harm, but it felt like a violation to expose it to this kind of analysis. "I disappeared under a tree once. Not long after I got here. I went under this tree… I was alone and sort of following a feeling while I was able to see different things, you know, with my eyes, and I ended up under this ancient tree. There was a growl somewhere above me like I was being pursued by something. I was scared, and I moved further into this dark cave under the tree. And then suddenly I was back at the treehouse. At the base of Graeme's tree."

Zoe was silent as she gazed at August with wide, unblinking eyes.

"I still don't know what happened to this day. I didn't see anything. I didn't feel anything. It was just like I skipped from one location to another," August shrugged. "Like a dream."

"Fascinating," Zoe said softly and shifted to lay back on her side, staring into the air above her.

August's eyes darted around. Did Zoe suspect there was more? How much was she going to have to reveal to her? This conversation didn't feel right. It made her uneasy.

"Do you think it's a portal like that? Like what you were talking about?" August asked, licking her lips in reaction to the nerves that had started dancing around in her stomach.

"I don't know. It certainly sounds like a portal of some kind, doesn't it?" Zoe said in a strange sultry way.

Again, it was as if the tone of Zoe's voice alone indicated that she was aware there was more August was not saying, causing the girl to draw conclusions left unspoken. And August had no idea what those conclusions might be. But Zoe's thoughts were taking her somewhere, because she was no longer focusing on the alyko sitting next to her cell.

*****

We didn't reach our goal of averaging 100 power stones a day yet (we haven't hit it once, but I know we can!), so sadly there won't be a 4 chapter mass release this weekend, but fear not! I am doubling the mass release to 8 chapters next month once we are able to hit 100 votes a day for a week!

Thank you so much all of you for reading, voting, and supporting in your own way. I truly appreciate you! <3