Chapter 11: The Shrine

Zander got lost in the depth of Angela's eyes; his heart betrayed his feelings and his belly danced to the tune of the butterflies swirling in its depths, composing a symphony that invited his being to the pull of Angela's magnetism. He moved of his own volition as though by magic going towards Angela but before he could go further, the magic of the moment was broken by a little boy that came running towards them. On his hands, he held a brown parchment that he put in Zander's hands and left as hurriedly as he had appeared.

Zander tried to stop him but he did not look back rather he kept running towards a woman who was covered from head to toe in black. When he reached her, the woman took the boy's arm and disappeared in a cloud of violet fumes.

“What did he give you?”

Zander was brought back to the present by Angela's question. He untied the string that tied the parchment and spread it using both his hand. On it was the

Bennett Coven seal and beneath the seal was an insignia that was unfamiliar to him.

He looked at Angela, then back at the parchment and started reading aloud.

Tonight by the river, you s. all bring the princess. You will have all the answers you have been looking for.

He crumpled the parchment and was about to throw it on the ground when Angela asked him to hand it over to her. He hesitated but when she insisted he begrudgingly gave it to her.

"I have seen this thing somewhere, what is it?" she asked pointing to the insignia that was beneath the Bennett seal.

Since she found herself in this kingdom, weird things kept happening around her. She had a curious mind and loved to explore but the happenings around her had kept her confused and she was not sure if she was still alive asleep and dreaming or living in an alternate reality. The stories her grandmother Alice used to tell her as bedtime stories had come alive for her. She found it hard to believe that she already had a pet. Mizpah did not look like any normal creature that one usually found in books but rather he looked like a huge mythical creature that belonged in the same class as a unicorn.

Werewolves and vampires were a myth but here people spoke about them as if they were a reality. Her grandmother would have had answers to her questions but she was no longer with her.

She looked at Zander, “will you take me with you?”

“No, I do not know the person that sent this message and I am not willing to risk your life to know," he told her.

"You do not have to go if you are afraid, I can find my way towards the river if you point out the way,” she said looking at him with those blue eyes of hers that took all the resistance from him.

He wanted to say no to her but something in him made it impossible to say deny her what she wanted. He made a feeble attempt to dissuade her from going but in no time, he learned that she was as stubborn as she was beautiful.

“Kharisi ...” he called her name but she put her hand up to stop him from saying what he was just about to say.

"My name is Angela, for the umpteenth time I will tell you that I am not aware of this Kharisi person you people are referring to and I am not a royal princess, She continued to address him in a tone that only belonged to royals. Zander smiled when he thought of how much regal she was acting at that moment even without trying. He wanted to point that fact out to her but decided not to poke the hornet's nest.

"I may not know you very well, I only met you recently, but I know what I see even if you don't," he told her.

“And what is it that you see sir if you may?” she asked sarcasm thick in her voice.

"My apologies my lady, please forgive me if I spoke freely out of turn," he apologized.

His behavior infuriated her, she needed someone she could trust if she wanted to escape from this place. He also seemed like he could provide answers to the questions that kept popping up and maybe he could help her with information about her grandmother. He also made her feel things considered indecent and in many ways, he made her feel secure.

There were moments when she would be fantasizing about his mouth on hers and the intensity of feelings that the fantasies brought was enough to make her feel a need down in her core that made her wet.

At such moments, he would seem to sniff the air and move away from her very fast. He would make sounds like a growl but she was not sure they came from him. When he spoke, his voice would be so thick that it would cause tingles all over her body but he always made efforts to avoid her after such incidents.

"It is okay, just because you are lucky to live in a palace does not mean the rest of us who work hard to put a meal on the table are stupid."

“Again, my apologies. I did not mean to upset you and if I did please accept my apologies.” His sincerity was written all over his face that it made Angela feel guilty for speaking harshly to him.

“My lady,” he called.

“Yes, what is it?” Angela asked.

“What happened when you left with Mizpah?” Zander asked Angela who had no idea what had transpired. Something had called her from the darkness and in a flash, she had seen the same woman from her previous dream but she did not speak to her. She was wearing the same gown as the last time she saw her but this time her hair was not in a braid but was held up in a coiffure. The woman was holding out her hands to Angela but the moment happened so fast she could not remember how she left. She had woken up on the back of Mizpah surrounded by a thick bluish white mist. It disappeared so fast that she thought she had imagined it.

"I do not know, I found myself awake on his back with you nowhere in sight," she answered him not wanting to tell him about the woman. In her heart, she felt as if she ought to protect her, so that nobody could know about this. Greta had seemed to know who the woman was and until she spoke to her about it, she decided to keep the dreams she had of her private.

“Can you tell me where you were at that moment?”

“Yes, it was by some huge boulders that had weird markings."

Zander turned to Angela so fast that she thought his neck would break in the process. “What do you mean to say? Are you sure of where you were?” he ked his eyes wide with fear.

“Yes, there were seven boulders and at the center there was a table with a lot of artifacts and a carved statue of a woman at the right side corner of the huge table," she

explained.

“That was the moon goddess shrine and nobody has ever been to that place and left alive," he told her. “Only one person has ever been to that place and come out alive and she has been dead for over a thousand years," he was pacing back and forth, as he told her about the queen of Grundolf who had ruled a thousand years ago and was believed that one day she would come back. Zander looked at Angela; she did not look like the earless queen who would come back one day and bring balance to the world neither was she fierce as legend depicted the queen of Grundolf.

“You people are full of tales, I went there and look at me; not even a scratch. Stop feeding yourself lies and your life will be easier,” she told Zander and patted Mizpah on the head to start moving. The beast looked at Zander as if it had the comprehension of a human. Without saying a word, Zander nodded understanding what it was trying to communicate with him. He followed behind, walking gingerly, even though his wound had healed it still fel' nsitive.

Angela looked behind her to see him walking slowly; she patted Mizpah on the head again to stop him. When Zander came alongside of them, Mizpah went down on his knees to allow Zander to climb on his back.

When he sat behind Angela, her heart skipped a beat and the butterflies in her belly fluttered. A thin sweat trickled on her back; all of a sudden, she was feeling hot and flustered. She started fidgeting, moving from one side to the other but the heat she felt only increased its intensity.

Her body felt hot, it wanted something, but she did not know what that thing was.

After some moments of moving from this position to the other Zander did something that made her arch her back trying to get more of what he had to offer.

"Relax," he whispered into her ear.

The arm he had used to encircle her tightened pulling her back to his chest. It felt so good to be held in his arms that she closed her eyes for a moment to revel in the feeling but the moment ended too soon, when Zander spoke to her.

“We are here,” he said.

Her eyes shot wide open, how could she be so shameless? Angela looked around and saw that they were at the palace entrance, Mizpah was kneeling to allow them to climb from his back, and she had been too engrossed in the feelings that Zander aroused that she had not realized when they arrived. At the entrance stood Natalia and three other girls she did not recognize, an elderly man with red eyes and another pale man that stood stiffly waiting for them to dismount from Mizpah's back.

Her cheeks turned red in an instant, she was sure everybody had witnessed her wanton behavior with Zander.

Zander got down from Mizpah then turned and held out his hand to Angela. She took it gingerly and instead of gracefully landing on her feet, she landed in Zander's chest. He held on to her, their eyes met and they got lost in each other's stare until someone behind Zander cleared his chest.

Angela extricated herself from Zander so fast and before she could run into the palace, the pale man stopped her.

“My name is Damon and I have a message for you from my master," he said as he extended his hand in greetings while holding a tray that held a black envelope and a single red rose.

"Who is your master?” she asked.

“Chadron is my master!”