My body goes ridged as I sit up straighter than I ever have, placing my hands over my ears to better hear Octavius' mind link.

But I can hardly hear my own thoughts over the sound of my joyously beating heart and the single thought that repeats in a chant:

He's alive. He's alive. He's alive.

"Octavius, where are you?" I mind link rapidly, standing to my feet. Adrenaline is coursing through my body and I am alert and sound, ears perked and senses heightened. He's alive. He's alive.

I begin to pivot in place, scanning the immediately surrounding area for any sign of life.

"I don't know. It's dark and I can feel walls around me. I don't know where I am. I don't know where I am."

The hope in my heart begins to fade slightly, panic beginning to replace the heated power in me.

But the fear can't overpower the fact that he isn't gone. There's still hope left. For our ever after.

"It's okay, stay calm. Tell me everything you can sense around you."

"It's damp, the walls around me feel mossy and moist, almost like the inside of swamp. It smells of mold."

Mold? Swamp? Moss?

This is a forest of ice and frost, I have never ever even come across a piece of dry bark, especially this time of year.

"Octavius, are you positive?" I mind link back. My mind is racing with so many different worst-case scenarios. That's he's stuck in a ditch and bumped his head, causing him to hallucinate. That's he's trapped under an avalanche of snow and ice. That I'm just imagining his voice in my mind.

I lift my nose in the air to sniff around for a hint of my favorite scent, his aroma of cinnamon and ash, but there is nothing, the snow in the air far too thick to carry a recognizable scent.

He hasn't responded yet so I take the time to move around me, balancing on logs when possible as to not leave my own footprints. If I find a set of Octavius' I do not want to mix them up with mine, that would waste far too much time. It's as if hope has made my IQ rise a thousand points, and I am suddenly a wildlife explorer, an expert in the leaves and trees that surround me at every angle. This feeling of wisdom is so unbelievably comforting, as if one correct move or hunch could lead me right to him.

I am a luna, and my childish pouting and tantrums and mental breakdowns are only harming those around me. I had to be strong for Octavius and I broke yet again. But the love I have for him, the ability to hear his voice, that song-like tone flooded me in energy and I am a charged bolt of lightening, capable of anything and everything.

I decide to mind-link Klaude, so that he doesn't worry too much.

"Klaude, he mind-linked. He is lost somewhere in the forest but I'll find him. We're all going to be okay."

"Thank the goddess." He replies almost instantly, and I can picture him sitting nervously on the edge of our living room couch, Xander perched on his knee, bouncing lazily.

"Don't send troops out just yet, I don't want to be distracted while I'm looking for him." I order gently, and he affirms, wishing me luck.

"Octavius, are you still okay?" I link a second time to him.

"Yeah, I'm...Alessandra I have no idea what happened to me I'm-"

"Shut up. You can apologize to me later but right now I need to find you."

"I love you."

"I love you more."

I hop onto another log, wobbling slightly as I struggle to hold my balance. The biting wind is staring to get to me, particularly my bare fingers, which are turning red in the white frost.

At least the pain can keep me sane. I think to myself.

For the first time, I see the woods in all its clarity. The intricacy of the bark, the tiny saplings of evergreens poking up from their pine cone seeds, readying themselves to sprout into enormous and omnipresent groves. The charged silence of nature is surrounding me like a bubble, echoing every small and minute sound back to me like an audible mirror: the crunch of new snow under my boots, the small whistle of my breath as I exhale a steam like stream of air.

But I long to hear the sound of his voice. To see the intricacy of his body, his face. To see my Octavius in front of me. To recognize him.

It occurs to me that the last time I saw his face was when it was unrecognizable, snapped and transformed into that of a beast. His mind had escaped from his skull and taken hostage of his beautiful eyes, turning them from the sea to a fire, as red as the blood flowing through my iced veins. But that's not Octavius, my gentle giant, my broken hero, my-

"STOP!"

I screech to a stop, whirling around in place to find the source of the dreamy voice. Octavius?

"Octavius!" I shout, my voice cracking slightly as my teeth begin to chatter gently.

"Down here, but do not come any closer!" His voice is echoed but muffled, and I look down at my feet and gasp.

Underneath me, partially covered in snow, is what appears to be some kind of trap, one end of a frayed rope from a snare leading down into a deep deep pit. The kind an old hunter would use to catch rabid bears or panthers.

I kneel down carefully, reaching my hand forward to brush the snow away so I can see more clearly into the pit.

And there he is, scratches of caked blood running down his cheeks, his arms, his neck, his chest. He's completely naked but all I can focus on is the mud and melted snow and blood blood blood caked all over his body. He looks like a mangled Tarzan.

"Hi." I whisper dumbly. Great job, Alessandra. You finally find the love of your life in a ditch, covered in wounds, and that's your opening. What a wise owl you are.

"Hi." He says with an exhale, relief flooding his war-torn face. He smiles, his teeth as white as the snow next to me and I can't help but smile back. That smile belongs to my love, my heart. We're going to be okay.

"I would ask you how you got down there but I think that's better for another time." I call down and he chuckles dryly.

"Might be."

"Okay, grab my hand." I say, extending my pink and numb fingers out to him. He looks at them, then back at my face, with a doubtful expression.

"What?" I ask.

"Alessandra, I am more than twice your height and weigh much much more than you. If you tried to drag me out of this pit I would end up either dislocating your shoulder clean off or accidentally pulling you down here with me and then we'd really be screwed."

"Right, well, I don't really have a better idea, do you?"

He sighs, pacing back and forth a little limply in the pit.

"Use my coat." I say suddenly, an idea popping into my head.

"Huh?"

I strip from my coat, the tough material rough against my hands.

"I'll steady myself up here with a rock and I'll use my jacket as a type of rope."

"Seriously?" He asks.

"Octavius, I swear to god do not question me right now." I snap, and I settle my feet behind a rock.

Please goddess let this work please.

"Ready?" I ask, and I hear his confirmation from the pit.

"1...2...3!"