Chapter 19

The afternoon sun shone brightly into Ophelia's room, the curtains drawn. Her eyelids fluttered open and she blinked, once, then twice, wincing when the light from the sun briefly burned her eyes. With a hand hovering over her eyes, she opened them, allowing blurry her gaze to focus first before lowering her hand.

Sighing, she looked around. She was in her room, the familiar ambiance giving her a sense of safety. How had she gotten here? She remembered sneaking out of the castle with Kane, then rescuing Tata, taking her to the palace and then Fiona… Emmett…

Gasping, Ophelia jerked upright. Her memory came flooding back to her, with a rude awakening like a slap to the face. Kane. Dalia had captured him. Oh, God. She whimpered, throwing back the covers and letting her legs to the floor. She had to get to him, she had to do something before her father did something she was certain she would spend the rest of her days regretting and despising him for.

“If you’re searching for Kane,” a tired voice said from a corner. “He’s a bit shaken up but he’s fine.”

Ophelia turned her head to see Tata sitting by the window, her gaze on her. While Ophelia was glad that her grandmother was fine and hearty, she could not help the feeling of disappointment that went through her. She loved Tata but it was Kane she longed to see.

“Where is he?” Ophelia asked.

“I should not be telling you this, per your father’s wishes but he’s in the dungeons,” Tata answered. “Where he will be until Leonard decides what to do with him.”

Her father was brutal when it came to protecting his people. He’d even been willing to sacrifice Tata on the chance that she had not been willing to move to the palace for protection. If her father had not announced his plans with Kane, it did not mean he did not already know what to do with him.

“I want to see him,” Ophelia said.

“And I won’t stop you. I’ll never stand in the way of love, dear child, even if it is doomed.” Tata said and Ophelia held her grimace. Coming from a seer, it was not encouraging. “I just want to talk to you about some things.”

Even though she would rather go in search of Kane, she nodded. “Alright, let’s talk.”

Tata stared at her for a moment before nodding as well. “Do you remember what knocked you out?”

Inhaling, Ophelia tried to remember the few moments before she’d become unconscious. Viktor had wanted to kill Fiona in revenge for killing Emmett but she had stopped him. After which she’d seen Emmett laying lifeless on the ground and had felt a grief the kind 0f which she’d never felt before. She’d been overcome with an overwhelming emotion that had caused her body to tingle and the next few seconds had been followed by a magical surge of energy that had burst out from within her and radiated light.

She recalled being so tired she could barely keep her eyes open. At that moment, it had not occurred to her that anything out of the ordinary was happening. Now, however, she wondered how it could be that she possessed magic. Her mother had discovered her magic at fifteen. Even Tata’s magic only took fourteen years to reveal itself. She was almost twenty, and had even given up hope of having magic.

“I have magic?” she asked her grandmother, her voice a mixture of astonishment and excitement.

Tata nodded. “And it’s even more wondrous than your mother’s, dear child.”

“How do you mean?”

Tata smiled. “I always knew you had it in you, even when no one did. I always felt it,” she said. “Your mother had amazing powers but she could never have taken out an entire street the way you did. The castle walls shook so terribly I feared it would actually fall. There’s power inside you, Ophelia, and not just magic. You have the power to change the world with just your heart. It’s what makes you special.”

Tata’s words filled her ears. Ophelia remembered what Kane had told her about their leader’s prophesy regarding a chosen one in the Blue Hound kingdom. He’d obviously thought it was Tata if they had tried to burn down her cottage with her inside.

But if what Tata said was true, did it mean it was her? That she, Ophelia, was the chosen one?

No, she thought, it was impossible. What did ‘chosen one’ even mean? Was she supposed to save the world or something, especially when she couldn’t save her best friend? It was incorrigible.

“The only thing I want right now, Tata, is to protect Kane,” she said earnestly. “I don’t care about my powers if it’s useless in my quest for his freedom.”

“Then use it,” Tata said, shrugging one shoulder with great effort. “If you really love him, use your powers for him.”

Something else was eating at her mind. “What did you mean the other day when you said my mate was a bad man?”

Her grandmother blinked, her face so blank that Ophelia almost thought she had imagined it. then recognition dawned and Tata smacked her lips. “Oh, that,” she murmured. “I don’t know much about your mate, my dear child, but I do know that sometimes events do not happen as they appear in my vision. I might have been wrong about him, or not. Either way, time will tell.”

Ophelia understood what Tata meant by that. If it came down to the wolves against the hunters and there was every possibility of that happening, would Kane fight alongside her or with his hunter family? Ophelia wanted to believe the former but striking out the latter was a dangerous game.

True enough; only time would tell.

****

Getting into the dungeons had been a piece of cake. Almost too easy. The guards had cleared her path upon confirming her identity and Ophelia had thought it odd as she could have sworn her father would have instructed them to keep her away.

Either way, she did not have the time to dwell on that. Entering the small square stone wall lit by two torches hung on the walls, Ophelia saw Kane folded into a ball by the corner of the wall. His shirt had been torn off and laid on the ground next to him. Ophelia smelt the blood before she saw it. Edging closer to him, suppressing the cry she knew was coming, she reached out a hand to him. “Kane,” she whispered.

When his body jerked against her touch in fright, she whimpered. “What did they do to you?” She felt a tear run down her face.

Kane met her eyes, his face battered and his body bruised. Her sobs increased in a soft cry. “I’m so sorry.”

She fell to the ground beside him, grabbing a fairly bruised cheek in her hand, careful to avoid the gentle swell of a bruise on his other cheek. Kane had the nerve to smirk at her, and with great effort too because she noticed the subtle wince he gave. “I’m okay, baby. You’re here now. I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not,” she cried. “Who did this to you? Was it Viktor? I swear—”

“Just hold me,” he cut her off, resting his head on her chest. Swallowing the threat that had been about to come out of her mouth, Ophelia held Kane to her chest, feeling the rhythm of his heartbeat pressed against her lower stomach slow into a beat with hers. She wondered what he was thinking about. Did he wonder if her father would kill him? Ophelia hoped not. Whatever her father was planning, she would fight it to her last breath. Kane meant more to her than anything she’d ever come across in her entire life. He made her feel loved, even without touching her, and it was love at its deepest.

As the quiet drew around them, they shared a quiet confidence. With the knowledge that their frequencies operated at a level only they understood.