Chapter 130

Chapter 130

Diana's POV

We were coming everywhere, searching simply for Ashley and the rest of my children. I was still holding the little thought, the hope that she was gone willfully and not forced anywhere by anyone, and also that she hadn't betrayed us. But soon I got a message from her, carried by the wind, and projected right to where I was by some kind of magic spell. I knew that it was from her because it had her magical signature on it, and I frowned. Now that she was finally communicating with me, one way or another, what did this mean?

I listened as I tried to open it up. It made a popping sound, and then I saw writing scripting on the air that was fading away as quickly as it was being written. That was the disadvantage of such magical messages—it couldn't stay for long. But I read it as it came, and I couldn't help but have a bad feeling about the words that I got from her. It was just as I expected: she hadn't betrayed us, not at all, and this was not easy, but however, this wasn't a situation she could control either. From what I got from her, she was captured by the prisoner himself.

I wasn't sure how credible the story was, but while considering that it was Ashley, I knew that I could believe her. I didn't know how it happened, but I would sure love to meet her and ask her personally to her face how she had been careless enough to let that happen. She didn't give me the details here, but I knew that I would probably get it, but only if I made quite certain that I finally got her back.

I didn't feel so bad anymore now that I had ruled out the possibility of her actually turning against us. She just wasn't powerful enough to be defending my children, and already I was making up my mind that never again, never at all would I let her have my children to herself to protect them. She couldn't be trusted with them any longer. And it pained me because she was literally the person I trusted the most in my entire life. But obviously, I couldn't let her continue like this, because of where it was going to lead and because she simply wasn't capable any longer of taking care of them.

Well, first of all, I needed to get them back, I thought to myself. Somebody told me that it was a mistake that she had made, and at the end of everything, I needed to simply ensure that she survived long enough for me to question her about it. Although I was feeling very nervous inside, I made a point of relaxing my mind and deploying my armies as quickly as possible to search everywhere at all.

My children were in danger, and the elders also supported the idea of sending the armies throughout to find the children for me because they knew that they could play a climactic role in this entire war. In the end of everything, the children could be the reason why one party won and another party lost.

It took hours, but to me, it felt like forever. I paced up and down, wanting to see them back with my children and even deciding that I needed to go all by myself to look for them. I did go with them, however. I did my best to find them on my own path, searching with a couple of elders and werewolves with me also.

But it was pretty much impossible for me to figure out what to do right now. Somehow all my sessions didn't amount to anything at all, up until the point when somebody suddenly came towards me shouting. Our armies were marching out for nothing, and all we were doing instead of fighting a battle was to look carefully for a couple of missing people when there were a thousand other better things we should be doing with our time.

I was very irritated now when I saw that the person who was shouting was Ahwen herself, one of the people I trusted most. I couldn't help but be a little apprehensive, and I made up my mind to give her the benefit of the doubt. "What is it?" I asked her. I simply wanted to know what on earth was making her act like this.

She waved at me quickly, excitement in her eyes that I couldn't place a finger on, but I decided that it was probably not a bad idea for me to go over to see what this was about. When I got there, my eyes widened as I saw the situation in front of me, and I couldn't help but feel very shocked but also very relieved all at the same time.

My children, three of them, were playing in the sand in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I could hardly believe my eyes. How could they be here with nobody at all, neither an enemy nor a friend? It didn't make any sense at all, but there it was right before me. The incredulity, the unbelievability of the happening made me unable to really make up my mind how it had come about, but honestly, I finally decided that it didn't matter as long as they were fine.

Maybe Ashley managed to recover them, I thought, feeling a little worried for her. Why wasn't she anywhere in sight? I heard a couple of sounds in the distance too, and I looked at my army, wondering if it could be Ashley fighting against someone. I wouldn't be surprised if I found out that Ashley was actually trying to sacrifice her life for the sake of the children and was fighting right now desperately in order to make them escape with their lives.

"Let's move on," I said, and so we started going over to give her help. But all of a sudden, I could hear other sounds coming from the distance, and looking at the werewolves on my side, I knew that they could also hear it. The witches, however, didn't seem to be aware of what was going on, and it was understandable since they weren't known to have superhuman hearing in the first place.

I didn't know who to relate to about it, so I decided to handle it myself. However, what was on the other side was not one person—it was many people, and from the sounds of their marching, it was almost like we were about to face another enemy, another army to come up against us. Malachi's army. Malachi himself. I felt a chill, a dread at the thought of it. We weren't ready; we had barely gone through the first training session of our new battle technique.

But I decided that it was best for me to take the battle to them, and if Ashley was there, then we shouldn't retreat. We should do our best to help her, and so we continued. Sure enough, soon I could see someone right in the middle of nowhere—Ashley, looking tattered and worn out but also looking incredibly determined. She looked like a warrior in her own right, a strong lady that had overcome all odds to still be alive up to this point.

There was an entire army, surely enough, behind her, and she was running for her dear life, obviously knowing her chances against them. "Get her to join us," I commanded a couple of soldiers, and they moved quickly in response to my orders. I found my heart beating in trepidation at the thought of meeting her, but now that I thought about the other consequences and when I thought about the situation that we were presented with, I couldn't help but feel very light-headed. I wasn't ready for a war, not now, but we didn't seem to have a choice.

I told everyone that they should get ready. The various werewolf clans and witch covens started making themselves more available for the battle and preparing themselves for the wars. I didn't really have the chance or the time to give them a battle speech, but somebody told me that they didn't need one. They had been preparing for this for a very long time now, pretty much their entire lives, and as a result, I could be certain that they were not going to be waiting for me to tell them about how they should fight. They already knew what to do, and they already knew enough to give their all in order to succeed and bring victory for us.

It took a couple of minutes before I saw Ashley again. She was bound by ropes, but they didn't seem to be restraining her very much. Whoever bound her was very ignorant, I decided, as I met with her. She bowed deeply and humbly, speaking, "I have betrayed you," she said. I could hardly believe what she was talking about. She looked very disappointed in herself as she continued, "I let them take the children, took my part to trust him, and let myself be deceived, and I jeopardized all of our lives as a result. I'm willing to accept any punishment you want to give me."

It was only now that I understood what she was driving at. Indeed, the best attitude to put, considering that she had actually done everything that she accused herself of. She was pleading guilty to those crimes, but I actually had no intention whatsoever of punishing her right from the beginning.

"Rise," I spoke, wondering why my tone was one of a queen instead of a friend. Could we become friends like it had been before once again? Could everything be put behind us? Could I forgive? Well, I wasn't sure, but I was going to take the first step now. I was going to take the last step and see where it led from there.

"Wear your battle armor, we have a war to fight," I said. She looked surprised, and I smiled, winking at her. I walked up to her and held her tight to me, just a gesture to convey all my intentions. "You let me down," I whispered. "But I'm not that angry. I've gotten my children back after all, so no harm's done. Although the mistake was very significant, it's over now. You're forgiven, but you have to make it up. That's the point. Into the sword now—let's go and fight."