Fifty Nine

Fifty Nine

Haylee's POV

We all load in for the drive to where Master Elias's body was found, which somehow seems longer than an hour from Dr. Sarah's office. Aiden continues to stare at me with concern, and I can feel through our bond that he recognizes my distress, but I need to see this on my own. I have to know just how powerful Xavier really is.

“You don’t need to this.” Aiden says, for the third time, as we pull onto the access road to the woods. “The scene has already been processed by the authorities. We can get their report."

“I have to see it,” I tell them, firmly. “If Master Elias was killed defending me, because he knew the truth of what Xavier did, then I owe it to him to speak.

The place is cordoned off for crime scene, but Aiden is an Alpha so we can enter. The local sheriff, a no-nonsense old character named Thompson, guides us to the location where the body was found.

“Found him right here,” says Sheriff Thompson, pointing at a depression under the forest floor near an ancient oak tree.
“Dead nigh three years, like the coroner told us. Animals had gotten to him pretty good, but the bones were mostly intact.”
I look at the place and try to imagine Master Elias's last moments. Did he want to be killed by Xavier? Did he try to run?

"The note," Aiden prompts. "Can we see it?"

Sheriff Thompson pulls an evidence bag from his breast pocket and pulls out a small piece of yellowing paper with Xavier pack seal in red wax pressed into it. Unfortunately, this may be it.” Strange is the Best Thing You've Never Seen crazed elephant in musth. As if whoever killed him wanted to leave a calling card.”

"May I?" I ask, reaching for the bag.

The sheriff hesitates but hands it out. Beneath the wax seal, through the plastic, I can see faded writing. The words are in Latin, but I know enough to understand what he is generally saying.

“Silentium aeternum,” I read out loud. "Eternal silence."

“A threat,” Aiden says darkly. "Xavier was ensuring Master Elias would keep what he saw at your application quiet."

“But what for? And to keep the body hidden for three years? Why not get rid of it altogether?" I wonder aloud.

“Maybe, because he's a little too smug,” answers a fresh voice behind us.

We look up to see Dr Sarah stride over, a leather satchel in her hand, her face grim. “I apologize for following you, but I believed you might need this.” She holds up the satchel. notes from Master Elias' own studies/notes. I've discovered them in his former workshop.”

"You had his workshop?" Aiden asks.

After he went missing, I inherited it. I’ve had it as storage, but I was after today’s conversation, just searching through it more thoroughly.” Dr. Sarah flips open the satchel and yanks out various notebooks that are scribbled to the margins in cramped handwriting. “What I discovered … it’s disgusting.”
She hands me the first notebook, and I open it to the page that is marked with a ribbon. The record is barely two weeks before Master Elias went missing ourselves.

“‘Patient H still exhibits magical influence,’” I read aloud. "By Fates, the binding depicted by X was more elaborate than we thought. 'He not only vinculated her life force to his, he seems to have indexed her futureborns as well... "

My blood runs cold. “He was looking into what Xavier did to me.”

“Keep reading,” Dr. Sarah says.

" 'I have tried to persuade X to undo the ritual but he has turned very hostile and threatened me. He says the binding was required, to save H's life, but the magical signatures indicate otherwise. This was not healing magic -this was attainment magic. "

"Possession magic?" Aiden's voice is deceptively low.

Dr. Sarah nods gravely. It is ancient and it is forbidden. Possession Magic Rather than forcibly welding two magical sigils indiscriminately, possession magic enables an individual to steal another person’s will and emotions over time.”

The realization was like a punch in the gut. Which is why I could never really love him. That’s why I always had a sense of something missing in my life, something silly like that.”

“I think the ritual served to make you more and more dependent on him, and it also to destroy the rest of your ability to pursue any genuine relationships with anyone else,” Dr. Sarah explains. "You would have turned into nothing, no more than one of Xavier's monkeys.

I turn to the next one I’ve marked, my hands shaking. "There's more. "I found proof that X has secretly communicated with members of the Shadow Faction for twelve years. It seems that prophecy concerning H's kids is what's motivating him. He thinks, if he can only control H through the possession ritual, he can acquire the prophesied power for his own. "

“The Shadow Faction,” Aiden says again. “We’ve heard all the rumors about them for years, but nobody ever can prove that they exist.”

“They’re out there,” Dr. Sarah says, grimly. Master Elias was following them. Look at this.”

She passes me another notebook, this one full of what appear to be surveillance notes and sketched maps. The pages describe where to meet, the identities of members and something that causes my heart to stop; detailed plans to abduct both of my children.

“They’ve wanted Kael and Lior for years,” I whisper. “Xavier was making deals with these guys to steal my children before they were even born, bro.”

“There’s a letter,” Dr. Sarah says, pulling a sealed envelope from the bottom of the satchel. “Master Elias wrote it right before he vanished. I think … I think he knew Xavier was going to kill him.”

My hands shaking, I pull the letter out and open it. Master Elias has written in a shaking hand, as though he had been in a hurry or were frightened.

"'If you are reading this, then Xavier Carters must have been successful in silencing me,'" I said. “But death will not prevent the truth from being known. Haylee Wolf and her children are in grave danger.” The ritual from five years ago was only the first step of Xavier's plans.' "

I stop, take a breath and continue. “The Shadow Faction has offered Xavier power beyond belief in return for the children of prophecy. It was his plan that led her to be exiled from her original pack, and his plan that emotionally messed her up so that she would be at her weakest, and he preformed the possession ritual on her that made sure she was unconscious and unable to do anything but accept his presence.' "

“Keep moving,” I hear Aiden say through clenched teeth.

But Xavier slipped up in one very important aspect of his calculation. The ceremony he enacted was meant to work one soul at a time, but Haylee was carrying twins. “And the magic divided between the two children so his bond with one wasn’t fully formed and he couldn’t effect in him. "

My breath catches. "Kael. There’s no mesmerization with Kael and Xavier double trouble because dual the possession magic was cast on the twins.”

That’s why Kael has always rebelled against the power of Xavier, Aiden realizes. "And that’s why Lior has always looked a bit more.. . pliable.

The letter continues: "I have concealed the evidence of Xavier's crimes in three places, and have left a map as to their location. But if anything happens to me, this is the information that needs to get to the right people. The Shadow Faction can't be allowed to get what they want, and Haylee needs to be released from the possession magic before it completely takes over what's left of her. "

Dr. Sarah takes the hand-drawn map from the envelope and there are three locations with X's printed on them. "Master Elias was thorough. He ensured that there would be evidence if Xavier attempted to cover his tracks.”

We have to get that evidence,” I say, jumping to my feet. "All of it. We can take him to the Pack Council if we have sufficient evidence against Xavier and of his use of dark magic."

“It’s not going to be easy,” Aiden cautions. "These are situated in three regions. It might take days to collect everything, and we'd need to be careful not to alert Xavier to what we accomplished.

“We’ll start then,” I say firmly. “Every day that goes by I have to endure the magic of Xavier working on me, every day my children risk their lives.”

Dr. Sarah folds the map and passes it to me. "I'll help however I can. Master Elias was like a second father to me - I never turn back now, not while he lies dead."

“I will,” I whisper to the empty forest. "I promise I'll stop him."

The ride back to Aiden's pack home is quiet as both of us process what we have heard. The depth of Xavier’s deceit is breathtaking — he’s been plotting it for a decade, positioning events and people as if they were pieces on a chessboard.

The first place on Master Elias's map is only twenty miles from here," Aiden interrupts the silence. “Maybe we’ll look at it tonight.”

"What if it's a trap?" I ask. “So what if Xavier knows where Master Elias hides things?”

“Then we’ll cross that bridge when we need to,” Aiden says tersely. “But we can’t allow fear to prevent us from finding the truth.”

I nod and the True Bond that we share pulses strongly with mutual resolve. Whatever we uncover at those hiding places, whatever proof Master Elias held on to, it's our best hope of stopping Xavier before he can bring his plans for my children to fruition.

“There’s something else,” Dr. Sarah pipes up from the backseat. “There’s something I didn’t want to say in the back, but I have to tell you.”

"What is it?" I ask, turning to face her.

"The Mental in which Xavier put you under- it's programmed to build up, especially with emotional upheaval-or physical closeness to the caster. She looks at me with a worried expression in her eyes. “Spending time around Xavier, that could probably speed the process up a little bit. If you plan to face him, or return to his pack for a reason…”

“I could vanish entirely,” I conclude, realization dawning on me.

"Yes. The magic thrives on closeness, physical and emotional. “The more time you spend around him, the more he starts to sort of enchant you.

Aiden’s grip on the steering wheel tightens. "Then we ensure that doesn't go on. We collect the evidence, show him to the police, and then keep Haylee away from him as long as it takes to get this straightened out.

“I’m not so sure about that,” I say softly. "Xavier is not just about to allow us to bury him. When he figures out we know..."

“And we’ll be prepared for him,” Aiden replies with fierce protectiveness. “Whatever he does, we’ll face it together.”

In the connection we share, I can feel his conviction, how absolutely sure he is, how devoted he is to the safety of our family. And even with everything we’ve heard today, with the depth of Xavier’s betrayal, with the level of threat we are under, I feel a spark of real hope.

Xavier might have tampered with my past and taken five years I’ll never be able to replace, but he’s made one grave error.
He didn't think I would return to Aiden. And he never counted on the strength of a True Bond that’s been formed through unfeigned love and solidified in common struggle.

When we arrive at Aiden’s house, I see Kael and Lior playing out front on the yard with Marcus watching them. My children — my beautiful, innocent children, who have been singled out since before they were even born.

“We’re going to stop this,” I say, but that’s not to Aiden, not to Dr. Sarah, maybe to myself. “We’re going to put a stop to Xavier and the Shadow Faction from harming our family, no matter what it takes, no matter how extreme.

“Yes,” Aiden says, ledning my hand as we start back to the house. "We are.”