Death cult
Elara
“The magic is then… how would I call it?” he asked himself. “Molded into shape, fit into the mechanisms of the car. Mostly it’s being manufactured by alchemists at the moment. Alchemists and dwarfs come together to make these wonderful creations. There are different models of different years. I’ve heard that’s how it works too on your planet—in your world, I mean.”
He frowned. “Thinking about the paradox is just causing my brain to hurt,” he said in a way that made me laugh.
“It causes my brain to hurt too, but I don’t really want to lean into it. I think if I do, I could literally fracture my mind.” My eyes were wide for emphasis.
“Noted,” he said, clicking his tongue. “I used to think you humans were savages,” he said. “I used to think you were decades behind us—maybe even centuries—and somehow I still think you are. But I don’t know. I hear you talk and I think you can be reasoned with. I don’t know why we haven’t reached out to our counterparts,” he said. “But it seems a little underhanded, don’t you think?”
He turned slightly as he drove through a dirt road in the forest behind the Alpha’s residence.
“Honestly, I don’t know. I think getting anything good to come out of this—good and bad—I don’t think human beings are that plain and simple to be taken so seriously. I think everything is nuanced and layered. I don’t think anybody’s perfect—I mean, the same way you’re not perfect.”
He smiled. “No one is. But if we go into labeling something, then maybe we can be perfect. What do you believe in?”
I looked down toward my fingers. “Nothing,” I said.
“I have no family, I have no love, I have no hope. I believe the universe failed me a long time ago, and if the universe was truly the supreme being, then I don’t believe in it. I believe that life is shitty and it sucks—at least mine has been nothing short of shitty and sucking since day one. And I believe that, by and large, humans as an extension of the universe suck as well. Maybe I think sometimes that we’re all just pathetic beings trying to find our place in the world, or at least to some extent ensuring that we don’t get eaten by a bigger and more powerful bad guy.”
He chuckled. “True,” he said. “I don’t know what you’ve learned from the old man, but the same thing applies here,” he said. “We’re not perfect. We have squabbles, we hate, we love, we live, we die—maybe just give or take several hundred years. I was surprised when I heard your human lifespan is very short. So your life ends, literally?”
I felt his eyes on me—wild and fascinated. “Your life ends in how many years? Seventy? Eighty?”
I shrugged. “If you’re good, I guess you could span for one century or maybe a century and one year at best.”
I smiled genuinely, seeing how ridiculous it was. “But you know, for a group of people who don’t live that long, let’s say we’re pretty destructive—yeah, if you put us in the right place, that is.”
He shook his head. “I know. I think you are. But so are we. The reason why we don’t act upon that destruction is because we’re not the only ones—we’re not the only intelligent beings. If we tried to take over everything, the alchemists wouldn’t stand for it. The witches and the wizards would find a way around it. Essentially, we’re not living just for ourselves. The world isn’t for us alone, so we can’t treat it like it is. Do you know what I mean?”
Oh, I knew what he meant all right. The drive lasted about half an hour until we finally reached Logan’s house—and then, back to the present.
Alejandra, as her name was—sexy, beautiful—was the same redhead I met in the library. She hadn’t introduced herself to me. Rude, I thought.
I found her in the library of the house when I went downstairs after my short tour of duty. She looked up, raised her eyebrows, and then patted the chair beside her.
“Come, sit,” she said.
“Oh no,” I said, crossing my arms. “Just because I’m in your house doesn’t mean that every moment of every day is going to be a lesson, is it?”
She smiled slyly. “You’re living with a teacher. Of course every moment of every day is going to be a lesson. And I found the perfect mind to mold. Now come.”
She patted the chair again. “If you do not move, I shall come and bring you here myself.”
I swallowed loudly and went anyway.
“My brother is currently away on official pack duty. He’s a warrior, and you will not be the one he trains. I will. I, alongside Captain Stone, will be awarded the duty of training you. It’ll be interesting,” she said. “There will be blood, sweat, and tears.”
The way she spoke was so timeless and old. Then again, maybe that was normal, given that she grew up alongside an ancient werewolf.
“But I think you’ll do fine. But it all starts with molding your mind, I think. Now, this world is hard,” she said. “Not so long ago, we were still doing battles for every small thing.”
“Were you?” I asked, interrupting her.
“Yes,” she said with the patience of an old teacher. “We battled for land, we battled for women, we battled for the grace of the Alpha, we battled for the chance to be recognized as more important than others—for everything you can imagine. One person gets angry today and he publicly announces that he will duel another simply because he exists. ‘Oh, I don’t like your face,’” she said, mimicking the tone.
“And I’m going to battle you. Eventually, previous Alphas had to regulate what could be a battle and what could not be the reason for one. So it’s literally a bloody world we live in. I hear in some packs you can still duel another for whatever right you think you have.”
She stared at me. “It’s not just because you want to protect yourself—it’s also because you want to be taken seriously. Because at any moment, if Selena—whatever the fuck her name is, Luna—decides that she wants to battle you for the right to become Killian’s mate, she will. And it will be regulated, ending only in your death.”
For me, her words flew over my head. In fact, they didn’t make any sense—it didn’t register at all. But she looked at me again, a little longer, and then a little longer—and then bam, it hit me.
“What?!” I exclaimed, standing to my feet. “She’s going to kill me in a battle to the death—for what?”
Alejandra was blank-faced. “It’s within her right to ask for one,” she said. “If she can prove that it’s too much emotional damage to be a mate alongside you to the Alpha, then she can ask for a battle. And she can kill you—and it would be legal. That, I think, is something she wants to leverage. If you forfeit from the battle—well, I’ve never heard of anyone forfeiting before.”
She smiled. “Us werewolves are so temperamental and possessive—they’ve never actually said no. Who knows? Maybe you’ll change the playbook of things. But yes, if she asks you for a battle and you foolishly say yes, you will die. It’s a given.”