Chapter 484: Episode 482: You can only do this once.

Deep in the Beastworld, far away from the noisy human city, a very sudden and urgent message was sent out.

Drax, the young Dragon King of the East, had used his highest, most top-priority alert. It was a special call that meant drop whatever you are doing and come right now. He didn’t tell anyone what the emergency was. He only told them where to go.

He didn’t call them to the giant Obsidian Palace. Instead, he called them to the old Iron-Wood Manor. It was the cozy, familiar house hidden deep in the giant forest where they had all grown up together before the world turned upside down.

One by one, the children arrived.

The heavy front doors of the manor swung open, letting in a blast of wind. Axel walked inside. He had left the frozen North so fast that thick, white snow was still resting on his broad shoulders and sitting in his hair. He looked worried, his sharp wolf eyes scanning the room for danger.

Just a few minutes later, the back doors opened. Tanith stepped into the warm house. She had left the dangerous Swamps the exact second she got her older brother’s message. She wore her dark green Queen’s dress, looking very serious and very tired.

In the center of the big, old living room stood Drax. His hands were folded tightly behind his back. Right next to him stood Onyx, the strong wolf brother, acting as his guard.

Then, the room got very loud.

Iris walked in from the back hallway. She looked completely exhausted. She was carrying the tiny, quiet newborn baby girl carefully in one arm. With her other hand, she was tightly holding onto little Fedor so the young fox wouldn’t run away. Right by her feet, Tyara the tiger cub was crawling around, playfully biting at Iris’s shoes.

Finally, the front doors opened one last time. It smelled like fresh, salty ocean water. Nimue walked in, smiling softly, and running right in front of them was little Zale. The young merman boy was dripping wet, leaving a tiny puddle of water on the wooden floor as he ran to hug Iris’s legs.

All nine of them were there.

They gathered around the big, unlit fireplace in the old living room. They looked around at each other, completely surprised. It had been months since they were all in the same room together.

"Drax," Axel said, brushing the melting snow off his heavy coat. "Why did you call us all here? Did something bad happen? Are we under attack?" 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Tanith crossed her arms over her chest, her green snake eyes locking onto Drax. "I left a very important meeting with the swamp elders for this. This better be a real emergency, Drax."

Drax just looked at his brothers and sisters, his dark green eyes shining with a secret, overwhelming emotion that none of them could understand.

"Nobody is attacking us," Drax said quietly. His voice was shaking just a tiny bit. "Just wait. We need to be together right now. All of us."

The children stood in the living room, completely confused, waiting for something big to happen.

Back in the loud, bright human city on Earth, the cold wind kept blowing across the tall highway bridge.

Roxy stood completely frozen. Her small fists had stopped hitting Zarek’s chest. Her red, puffy eyes were locked onto Kaelen.

There is a way to communicate with them.

The words echoed in her mind over and over again. At first, she thought she was hearing things. She thought her broken brain was just playing another cruel trick on her.

"What?" Roxy whispered, her voice barely making a sound.

Kaelen took another step closer to her. He didn’t look away from her face. He wanted her to know he wasn’t lying.

"There is a device," Kaelen explained softly, speaking very clearly so she could understand every word. "When we left our world, we brought one of the tablets gifted by the gods. It is sitting back at the penthouse right now. It is a way to call them. To see them."

Roxy’s breath caught in her throat. Her heart started to beat so fast it felt like a tiny bird trapped in a cage. She stepped away from Zarek’s chest, her legs trembling so hard she could barely stand.

She looked at Kaelen, and then she looked at Torian, Syris, Caspian, and Ren. They all looked down at the ground. They all knew about it.

The sadness in Roxy’s chest suddenly flared into a spark of total confusion and anger.

"You had a way to call my babies this whole time?" Roxy cried out. Her voice cracked. "Why didn’t you tell me?! Why did you hide it from me while I was crying every single day?!"

Kaelen closed his eyes for a second. This was the hard part. This was the ugly truth they had been so terrified to share.

"Because the gods commanded us to hide it," Kaelen admitted, his voice full of shame.

Roxy stared at him, her mouth falling open. "The gods?"

"Yes," Syris spoke up this time, stepping forward to stand next to Kaelen. The Swamp King looked incredibly sad. "When we made the deal to cross over to this world, the gods gave us a strict rule. They said that if you were ever going to survive here, you had to completely let go of the past. They wanted you to heal. They wanted you to move on. They told us to hide the machine so you would eventually forget the Beastworld ever existed."

Zarek reached out and gently touched Roxy’s shoulder. "We thought they were right," the Dragon King whispered. "We thought that if you saw the children, it would only make you miss them more. We thought seeing them would break your heart, so we kept the secret to keep you safe."

Roxy looked at the six men. They really thought they were helping her. The gods up in the sky actually thought a mother could just easily forget the children she gave birth to.

"Forget them?" Roxy asked, her voice breaking into a loud sob. "How could I ever forget them? They are my babies!"

"We know that now," Torian said, wiping his wet face. The giant tiger stepped closer to her. "We watched you try to jump off this bridge tonight. We realized the gods were totally wrong. A mother’s soul is forever tied to her children. You could never forget them. And trying to make you forget is what was actually killing you."

The truth finally settled into Roxy’s mind.

They weren’t trapped in total silence. There was a way. She could see them. She could hear their voices.

Suddenly, the massive, crushing weight that had been sitting on her chest for months completely cracked open. It felt like a giant dam breaking inside her heart.

Roxy burst into messy, heavy tears. But these were not tears of pain or anger. They were tears of pure, overwhelming relief. She let out a loud gasp, crying so hard her shoulders shook.

She didn’t push Kaelen away this time. She ran the two steps forward and grabbed the front of Kaelen’s shirt with both of her hands. She held onto him like he was a lifeline.

"Take me home!" Roxy begged, crying into his shirt. "Please! Take me home right now! I need to see them! I need to tell them I love them! Please, Kaelen, take me right now!"

"We will," Kaelen promised, wrapping his strong arms around her to hold her up. "We are going right now."

The men moved fast. They didn’t wait for the fancy black cars to come pick them up. They hurried off the bridge, keeping Roxy safely in the middle of their group. They walked quickly through the city streets, their hearts racing with a mix of fear and hope.

The walk felt like it took a million years, but they finally reached the giant glass building. They hurried into the private elevator. The ride up to the top floor was completely silent. Roxy just stood there, holding Torian’s hand, bouncing on her heels. She couldn’t wait. Her babies were waiting.

The elevator doors opened. They walked down the quiet hallway toward the big double doors of the penthouse.

Kaelen pushed the doors open. The warm, beautiful living room was just like she had left it.

Roxy let go of Torian’s hand. She took a big, excited step inside, ready to ask where the machine was hidden. She was ready to finally see her family.

But before she could take a second step into the room, a massive shadow moved into her path.

Zarek stepped right in front of her, completely blocking her way.

Roxy stopped. She looked up at the Dragon King. His golden eyes were not happy. They were very dark, very serious, and filled with a heavy, crushing sadness. He looked like a man who was about to deliver terrible news.

"Zarek?" Roxy asked, her smile slowly fading away. "What is it?"

Zarek looked down at her. He took a deep breath, and his broad chest rose and fell heavily.

He looked right into her eyes, making sure she understood the terrible weight of what they were about to do.

"But you have to know the condition before we turn it on," Zarek whispered.

"You can only do this once."