91

91
ELLA
I was back at the waterfall, which filled me with nostalgia. I hadn’t given it much thought prior to this procedure happening, but having to force this memory to resurface and relive the experience put a lot of things into perspective.
I was miles away from the place I called home, desperately trying to cut ties with everything that made it the place I had known my entire life.
I was tempted to open my eyes and ask Claire if the procedure was going to take some of my memory away, but I decided against it.
She hadn’t mentioned anything of the sort, and it was easier to focus on the fact that I would no longer be tied to the Blackthorn twins.
“You’re there now. Take deep breaths and try to maintain the connection,” I heard Claire’s voice reverberate through the woods.
It sounded like she was far off, but at the same time, I could hear her in my head. I did as she said, exhaling a couple of times before focusing my gaze on the waterfall in front of me.
The sound of water cascading from the top of the mountain to the bottom always had a calming effect on me, and I let the feeling wash over me. My mind started to wander to the times when Lyla and I would come here to train, when suddenly, a sharp pain coursed through my body and everything went pitch black.
When I regained consciousness, I expected to be back in the warehouse and was eager to ask Claire what had happened, but something seemed different. I was still in the woods.
The only difference was, I wasn’t alone this time. I tried to look around, but I seemed unable to move my eyes from side to side and could only stare at the trees in front of me.
I tried to make sense of the experience. When I first rehashed the memory, I was transported here and could feel everything like I was here in person.
Now, it felt like I was stuck in someone’s head, and my autonomy had been reduced to that of an observer. I stifled a gasp as the realization hit me—the only way I could feel like this was because I was actually in someone’s mind.
My thoughts shifted to the conversation I had with Kade, and I hoped that I was wrong—for my sake and for the good of the Sevill pack. The last thing I wanted was to be in his mind and have him come all the way here to cause trouble.
But a few seconds later, I realized I was terribly wrong. Not only had I stumbled into someone else’s mind, I was in unwanted territory. I had somehow gotten into Lucian’s head, and I didn’t know how to get out.
“You need to stay calm,” Claire’s voice cut through my thoughts as I tried to find a way out of this dilemma. “Your heart’s racing fast and your blood pressure is starting to increase. This might trigger averse effects, and that’s the last thing we want.”
I wanted to tell her that I was looking for a way out of here, because that was the only thing that would calm me, but I was too scared to do anything that would alert Lucian.
If I had known the procedure would trigger this ability, I probably would’ve never embarked on it—but that also meant I would have been yoked to the twins forever.
It was a classic tale of being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. But in spite of everything, I knew I had to find a way out.
She was right—being tense wouldn’t solve anything, and if my reaction to this change would affect what was happening to my body, I had to pick my poison quickly.
“That’s better,” I heard her say as I willed myself to stay calm. I focused on learning about the surroundings and slowly picked up on the conversation that was happening around me.
Lucian was in the woods with some other members of the pack. As they spoke, I could pick out their voices and decipher that they were part of the patrol team.
Someone mentioned something about Langdon, and I decided to pay more attention to what was being discussed.
I could probably use this scenario to my advantage—and even if I couldn’t, I had no other choice but to listen attentively.
“We still haven’t found any clues for Langdon’s murder,” one of the other guys said, and Lucian mumbled something indecipherable.
“It’s so strange that after all this time, we barely know who the culprit is or what their motive was. I wish we could find out more information, but so far, the cops have nothing tangible to offer,” another said, and Lucian turned in his direction.
“There’s only one way to find out what the motive behind his death was, but it’s not going to be pretty,” he said, and the others mumbled in agreement.
“We can keep patrolling all night, but I doubt we’ll find any tracks leading anywhere. It’s also fascinating that we haven’t found any lone wolves or hunters who’ve broken the rules on our patrols. Seems like everyone’s still trying to recover from the shock of the incident,” another voice added.
This time, I recognized who was speaking.
He was one of the alphas from a pack close by, and I had caught a glance of him at the tournament. Recalling the tournament reminded me of how spineless they all were when Lucian nullified my win and reduced it to mere beginner’s luck.
But I maintained my cool—this was not the time to cry over spilt milk. I didn’t know how long this would take, but what I did know was that I had to stay as calm as possible until it was over. I listened as they talked about the case and the possibility of school reopening.
I was shocked at how eager they seemed to return to life as it used to be, but what was even more surprising was that none of them had mentioned anything about Kade’s involvement.
They planned to get more information from the cops as they made one final round patrolling the woods, and finally decided they would find a way to get into the evidence room to see if they could uncover more information.
But none of them mentioned that Kade had sent people to Langdon’s place that night. Neither did they know about the knives that were found or anything remotely connecting him to the case.
This revelation was telling about the relationship between Lucian and his brother, because if he knew what was going on, his first move would have been to ask Kade for details rather than planning to illegitimately uncover information from the police.
Perhaps the brothers weren’t as close-knit as I thought they were. For some reason, that didn’t come as a shocker to me.
Everyone might think they were peas in a pod, but I had been around them both as a pair and individually to know there were little cracks in their relationship—and it turns out I was right.
For the first time since I realized I was in Lucian’s mind, I was eager to see how things would play out.