Chapter 48
Malia POV
Silence was as heavy as the heat that was falling on our shoulders. He was walking a few meters forward, and all I was looking at was his broad back glistening under the sparkling sweat layer that covered him, sticking to him. I was panting from my lack of cardio strength, that was robbed from me from being unable to train, but also from the desperate need I had to touch him, to lay in the higher grass and just, fucc this tension out.
‘Someone’s going wild here. Slow down there.’ Shila’s voice rang into my ears, playful.
I grunted, wiping another tide of sweat that was running off my forehead. That talk with Ades had my mind more confused than ever. Problems were buried so deep that even for his wolf, they were hard to understand truly, and his misleading behavior had roots that even Samael might not be aware of how deep they were going.
“Stop, or you’re going to dig holes through me, at that point.”
“A little more oxygen to your brain wouldn’t hurt though.” I mumbled under my breath, tying my hair back up in a ponytail as it kept sliding down, sticking annoyingly to my neck.
“I don’t like your attitude, woman.”
“Fair enough, I don’t like you.”
In a blink, he was just an inch away from my nose. I shivered at the proximity, trembled under the caress of his breath. My knees weakened at the sight of the devilish grin growing on the tight line of his lips, unveiling the perfect white pearls, teeth my body craved to feel sunken in our mark.
No. Another bore his mark, I was not about to be the second, nor the first of two. I wished so bad to remove myself from the equation.
“Looks like your own body disagrees…”
Staring straight into his eyes, I shrugged, not playing the game of high frustration he wanted me to play.
“Call it the doom of the fated bond. Nothing else.”
Passing by him, I walked toward a large tree, that was offering a resting root, and a somewhat refreshing shade.
“We need to get going.” He said, not moving his feet from where he stopped in front of me.
“Heat wave is killing me. And you, though I wouldn’t care. We need to rest.”
“We need to move.”
“Why? What is the rush? You already know about the prophecy, it’s not like it will change with us moving faster! I still don’t know why we need to go there! What do we have to look for?”
The sigh he let out was as annoying as worrisome. I frowned, standing up, and started pacing under the tree, wrecking my brain under the sudden urge to know. The sigh he let out was not one of exasperation, not completely.
“You are hiding something from me. Something you didn’t let Ades tell Shila yesterday. That’s why you took over out of the blue and hurried us to start the journey right away. What could he have told us that was more surprising than a prophecy about the Moon Goddess heiress, and some keys to unlock the vessel or something, war, Elders annihilating species, what else is there?”
“First, magic.”
Ok. I could take the blow. The idea of a world I couldn’t even imagine was slowly sinking in since Shila talked with Ades, that it wasn’t that much of a shock. Not more than learning I was some kind of key to unlock some vessel somewhere. But yet, I wasn’t ready to ask questions about the magic. Maybe I wouldn’t even be having answers anyway. I’d rather wait.
“Second, the vessel.”
Oh, intriguing. I stopped in my tracks and the curiosity I initially felt vanished once my eyes linked with his. They were genuinely filled with… pity?
“What? Who’s the vessel, Samael?” I whispered, my heart dropping to my feet, my brain ceasing any action.
“Sarabella.”
Immobile. The word floated for a second before vanishing into the air, without a trace as if it had never left the sealed lips of Samael that was staring at me, clearly waiting for a reaction, an outburst. But I couldn’t.
“How? Why?” was all I was able to mutter, before slouching back on the root I used as a seat. With the seconds of silence he left me, I came to a realisation. Eyebrows knitted as tight as a winter scarf, I raised my head to face him again.
“How do you know that?”
“I have my sources.”
“Oh please, you can’t just throw that at me. You are talking about my sister, my TWIN sister. Tell me everything you know.”
The more I spoke, the lower my voice, turning into a breathy threat as I grew close to him, stopping just under his nose.
He shrugged, sighing again. This time it was all exasperation. Which infuriated me.
“Elder Kodard got her a few days before her Claiming, not long after you followed me.” He stopped, scratching his nape, flexing his perfect plumped pecks, his biceps close to exploding from the pressure. “She was taken when she felt your link close. She… You know how she is supposed to have no wolf? Well, she almost, if you can say it that way, shifted, but without shifting.”
“You sound mad, you know that? If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought you were. But I can believe you. So she was shifting, but not into a wolf? In what then? And how do you know all that with such details?”
“You really think I was going into an elder’s quarter without infos and without having someone in? You are naive, little woman.”
I waved my hand at his face, dismissing his comments, calling him back to the matter. Sarabella.
“She was morphing. Kinda. She grew stronger, with her canines, and claws.”
“Yeah, she always had the perks of the werewolf, that’s not new.”
The shock on his face almost made me laugh. But I didn’t.
“Did she always glow when she would use these perks?”
“Glow? She’s not some candle light or light bulb. No, she did not.”
“So, that’s new huh… Could be since…”
“The ceremony. She absorbed a huge amount of moonlight that night, without budging.” I recalled, as a long shiver came running down my spine.
“That could be the source of it, yes, but something must have triggered it.”
“Me closing the link on her?”
“Yes, but something had to trigger the ‘magical’ aspect of it.”
“Like an Albino she-wolf?”
“Did you say an Albino?”
“Oh weren’t you Mister-knows-it-all, just a few seconds ago? Am I telling you something new?”
He growled, and I turned my back on him going back to sit under the shades. I needed a cold shower. And quick.
“Where were you between my shift and Bella’s turn?”
“I, huh, had to leave... I gave instructions to my guy and I left. He stayed until Sarabella’s turn. But he never mentioned any Albino.”
“She was a tiny little girl. Barely able to stand. She was reeking of wolfsbane. She was still able to shift though, in that cream and tiny little wolf. She was so scared… After her shift, they caged her with my sister. And despite her having a fated mate, they stated she would be a wolf to claim.”
“Oh, it was never mentioned she was an Albino… It must have been an old trick from the elders.” I could hear his teeth grinding against each other. His jaws were clenched so hard they seemed about to break. “If she really is who I think she is, your sister needs to see her, but we can’t have them both trapped at Kodard’s place. Or we’re all doomed.”