Chapter 23 Stolen

Greta held her body as she slept on, the glow kept radiating throughout her body until it enclosed her completely. Greta had to let go of her hands, she stepped back and continued to watch from a distance.

"Do you think they've already met? I worry that she may fail the first dreamscape test," Greta whispered, unshed tears hanging on the edge of her eyelids. "If there is one thing I've learned about this girl, whether she is our long lost Kharisi or some imposter, she is as stubborn as a mule," Zander tried to assure Greta. "if she is anything like her mother, then 1 completely agree with you. It is not her I'm worried about, I'm worried about the phantoms, " she said laughing with tears in her eyes. It was apparent she was just trying to comfort herself regardless of whether Angela was stubborn or not, Greta still considered her a child.

"Why don't you go and rest, I will take care of her. You have been with her since she fell asleep, go," Zander wanted Greta to go and rest but Greta would hear none of it. She wanted to there when her girt woke, she wanted to be the one that welcomed her back and placated her in case of any problems from the dreamscape. She held on as a way of atoning for her sins of not being there for her dear child Celestine this past seventeen years. Even through the girl livedin a different dimension, Greta had stopped caring for her as if she was her own.

After a comfortable silence between them Greta broke the silence by asking an uncomfortable question.

“What do you think of the upcoming Challenge , would it wiser to ask her to stop down or allow her to fight? You know the implications of both scenarios, what do we do? “but Greta was worried as any other would be, of a child preparing to go to battle.

As a top warrior and Angela's friend, Zander did not make any comment. He found Greta's worries too stifling and he could not help but feel trapped. He had come in from his run in the forest, to apologize for his stupidity but when he arrived, Greta had been calling her name repeatedly, causing him to abandon his apology and move towards where she slept to check if she was in any danger. After some thrashing and mumblings, she calmed down and started to breath more heavily and the glow over her body subsided slowly until it disappeared.

"She is in the clear, she made it," Greta declared to no one.

Zander smiled, this girl was so mercurial, sometimes she was high, and then all of a sudden she would be so low that no one wanted to be near her. He stole a glance at her; she looked so innocent and vulnerable. Greta was hanging around her as a mother chicken would when trying to shield their chicks from outside threats. He was about to turn and leave when she opened her eyes and looked straight at him.

"Is this going to be a habit," she asked making Zander feel irritated.

She was trying to goad him but Zander knew by now not to be baited, instead he smiled and reiterated with his own comeback.

He had teamed the hard way that to win with Angela, one had to be like her. She was very good at acting rough around the edges but when she was mimicked her: she immediately changed and behaved decent. As they were bantering back and forth, she started sniffing around. Zander could not understand her, she did not have her wolf, yet so what was she doing sniffing around. Greta seemed to understand, she smiled wanting to include Zander in her smile but he ignored her completely.

Angela had dropped a bomb on them, "Someone is trying to use dark magic to bring her back- it was either they had new information or they were getting desperate of waiting. Casper would not hesitate to kill Celestine if it is meant he could get what he wanted. He ran out of the room and went all the way to the eastern part of the palace-where Celestine’s body was. Spying from his hideout, he counted fifteen shadow warriors, twenty guards, and ten Vampires. Casper was truly getting desperate if this whole battalion was meant for Celestine. He could be seen for Celestine‘s chambers, where he was making some incantations. Her body jerked and then rested again, all this while, pain was etched on her face. Zander could not watch, even zane agreed that they could not watch their sister suffer.

The stubborn girl was insisting that she needed to follow him but he know very well that, with her fiery temper and sharp tongue, they would most likely end up dead. He also had a sense of urgency in him; he had promised her that he would always keep her safe.

He had the advantage of surprise even though he was not attacking; he wanted to disrupt the ritual happening in the chambers. If he could sneak to their North, he would have the element of surprise and he would manage to disperse them. They could not go near Celestine without magical shields; they remembered the last time they had dared to wake her. It had taken most of them, men more than a week to heat. Her magic had been erratic and when they tried to bring her back before she was ready, she unleashed hailstorms and brimstone that tasted for two days. Zander observed for some time and when he was sure of his move, he went directly to where Casper was. He started conjuring whitish ghouls which exploded the moment they came in sight with anyone. The first explosion went simultaneously with the second one and it was enough to shake the dead alive. Those that saw the ghouls ran indoors and refused to come out.

Everything was working according to plan and now it was a matter of seconds before he unleashed another one near the emperor. The ghouls looked so real that they fooled even the emperor who taught it was all Celestine’s doing.

He gathered his men and asks them to retreat.

Zander waited until they all left and sneaked into Celestine’s chamber. She looked okay but frail, he picked her hands and they were cold and wrinkled. He could not help but shed a tear over the condition, which Celestine was. He picked her up and walked with her out of the door. She was so tight that he could run with her in his arms and not break a sweat. He did not head towards Angela's chambers nor did he plan on going with Celestine's body anywhere near the palace. Instead, he walked towards a path leading to the forest and was swallowed by the darkness.

He had just stolen Celestine's body!