Chapter 210 My Kind Is Trapped

Chapter 210 My Kind Is Trapped
Audra's eyes filled with tears, and she pressed her hands against her mouth like she was trying to hold back a sob. For a long moment, she just sat there, staring at me with this look of complete devastation.

"Maybe there was something wrong with the powder," she whispered, her voice breaking. "I mean, that was just a nightmare, right? It's not real. Nightmares come from our fears."

I could see her trying to convince herself, desperately grasping for any explanation that would make this easier to swallow. The pain in her eyes made my chest ache.

"You're right," I said, even though every instinct told me not to give her false hope. "I'm sure that's exactly what it is."

I hated lying to her, but watching her fall apart wasn't something I could handle right now. Sometimes people need to process devastating news in their own time.

Audra took a shaky breath and stood up from her chair. "I should get back to school."

Her movements were unsteady, like she was fighting to keep herself together. I could tell the truth was eating at her, no matter how much she tried to rationalize it away.

"Audra—"

"I really need to go," she said quickly, not meeting my eyes.

The guilt hit me like a punch to the gut. Here I was, the messenger delivering news that could destroy her relationship with her sister. It felt wrong that she had to learn about her fate from me.

I watched her gather her things, her hands trembling slightly as she picked up her purse. She was trying so hard to hold it together, but I could see the cracks forming.

"Take care of yourself," I called after her as she headed for the exit.

She gave me a weak smile that didn't reach her eyes and pushed through the door.

I had to follow her just to make sure she didn’t trip and hurt herself. That’s when I saw Lucas watching her get into the car in tears. He looked over at me and placed his hands on his waist, maybe guessing that I told her something that had upset her.

I let out a long sigh and walked back into the cafe.

The inside of Heartfelt Café had mostly returned to normal. People were still talking about the earthquake in hushed tones, but the immediate panic had faded. I found myself looking toward the window where that older woman had been sitting earlier.

She was still there, staring out at the street with this distant expression. Something about her comment during the earthquake had stuck with me.

"Never knew earthquakes brought rain," I said, approaching her table.

She turned to look at me, her blue eyes surprisingly sharp. "They don't."

I waited for her to elaborate, but she just kept studying my face like she was trying to figure something out.

"But that wasn't the usual kind of earthquake we feel," she continued, a small smile playing at her lips. "That was a sign of them coming."

"Who's coming?" I asked, sliding into the chair across from her.

Her smile widened. "These natural disasters! You know, they were quite the problem when the Great War was happening."

I glanced around the café. There were only a few other customers scattered throughout, most of them still absorbed in their own conversations about the earthquake. Nobody was paying attention to us.

"The Great War," I repeated.

"They call it a war between werewolves and some creatures now. What they don't teach our children is that the war was between werewolves and weredragons. It was a sad time in history when two powerful creatures started fighting, and one of them was banished to the other side where they can't come back because they're afraid to lose again."

The way she was recalling everything was making me wonder if she knew something others didn’t.

"The weredragons were killing our innocent kind," I recalled what I have been told by the brothers and the teachers. She looked my way, and in those brief moments of her just staring at me, I felt judged.

"Honey! Why would they enter the weredragon territory in the first place where they knew the old dragon was resting?” She scoffed, shaking her head at me and not believing the history. She seemed like a werewolf, but her side wasn’t very obvious.

"My husband was in that war," she then explained. "My husband died in that war, but he didn't die at the hands of dragon people. He died after he refused to fight anymore. Then one day, he just disappeared, and I was told that the weredragons had killed him."

"I'm sorry," I said quietly.

She wiped at her eyes. "It all started when Lord Blackwood and Lady Lydia claimed that a dragon had attacked and killed their loyal servant, the servant who witnessed a series of killings by the weredragons."

"The loyal servant? What happened there?" I asked.

"They used to have a loyal servant. I don’t know what he was doing in the mountains of the Vortex, but he died there, and after his death, Lord Blackwood made a claim that it was the old dragon who killed him."

"Why would a dragon be in the western mountains?" I asked, not remembering if anybody had told me where exactly the weredragons lived or where exactly our home was.

"Honey! The weredragons had asked for the vortex because that’s where they used to get their powers from when they turned old. The very first weredragon was born in the vortex, so they wanted to spend their last days there. After a certain age, they would transition into their full dragon form and would never be able to transition back into their human form. They would only sleep near the volcano and call it home.” She let out a sigh when talking about the weredragons.

"Do other people live in the west?"

"The midwest! But it's basically called a forbidden zone now. No one goes there because the weredragons live there, hiding behind a magic wall."

Goosebumps rose on my arms. The way she described it made it sound both mysterious and terrifying.

"You're on the weredragon’s side?" I asked.

"That's because I think the war started with a lie. The servant died, and suddenly war broke out. No one asked why he was in the mountains, or how his body looked like it had been placed there."

Her assumptions made me gulp and watch her with my widening eyes.

"Who was this loyal servant?" I asked, since whatever happened to him resulted in the outrage of the werewolves against the weredragons.

I’m not sure what it was, but something was starting to make no sense.

She leaned forward, her voice dropping to almost a whisper. "Rafael Solis!"