Chapter 48

After I healed Marcus, we searched the area for our son, but we couldn't find him or Malcolm — who Nightshade said was the one who was with our son. I was already in a state of panic because we just realized that we might never find our son as the three rogues that we just fought are all dead now. Or so I thought, because as we were about to throw Nightshade's body into the water, we saw that she was still breathing, albeit barely. Her whole body was drenched in her own blood.

"I have to heal her. She's our only source of information," I told Marcus and tended to the female Blackhole member. "Tie her, Marcus! Once she regains her strength, she'll fight back so we have to restrain her."

Marcus looked like he didn't like the idea of me healing Nightshade back to health, but he also knew that we really had no other choice. She was the only one we could ask for our son's location. So I did heal her, despite the risk.

It took her almost an hour before her wounds closed up and she regained her consciousness. When she saw my face, she instinctively tried to attack me but Marcus was already holding her down. He slammed her face to the rocky ground. "Tell us where exactly our son is or I'll decapitate you."

But Nightshade just laughed at Marcus' warning. It was clear that she wasn't going to help us, so I took over the interrogation from Marcus. I cast a spell on both my hands, and then touched Nightshade's bare skin with it. She cried in agony as her skin got burned. "Now, are you still not going to tell us where our son is?" I asked angrily. "Or do you want me to dismember your limbs until you bleed out again?"

"Just kill me!" she yelled in pain, but it was my time to laugh right back at her.

"Sorry, but no. I'm not going to kill you. I'll torture you and inflict you pain and then I'll heal you again. It will become a cycle and I could do it all day, Nightshade. Unless you tell me where my son is."

"Alright! Alright! Your son's at a cabin here in the mountains with Malcolm! You better hurry up though, because once Malcolm realizes what happened to us, he'll either kill your precious son or sell him to the black market!"

"Where is this cabin?"

"You know that place. It's the one where you stayed when you were here five years ago!"

Marcus and I looked at each other, surprised. "How did you know about that?"

"Yul told us about your excursion here five years ago."

"Milena, we have to get going," said Marcus to me. He knocked out Nightshade by hitting her on her nape before tying her up in a tree using lots of ropes we found inside the stone house, and then we went to the said cabin as fast as we could.

But when we arrived there we saw a lot of people outside the cabin, and there was a body covered by a blanket on the ground while several men were standing next to it, talking to each other.

They saw us coming and I recognized one of them. It was Alpha Daniel of the Royal Moon pack, the pack that lived here at the mountains where Dex and Dionne belong. "Marcus! We were waiting for you! Get inside the cabin! Your son..."

Upon hearing that, Marcus and I dashed towards the cabin’s door, and the first thing that we saw once we got inside was Dionne and Dex crying, sitting on the floor. Dionne had my son in her arms, and my little boy didn't look well. "Zenith! What happened to him?" I cried as I sat beside Dionne and examined Zenith. "Dionne, why is he not waking up?" I asked tensely because my son looked sick. "What on earth happened here?"

It was Dex who answered my question. "That rogue boss called Malcolm tried to kill him," he said and I saw that he was crying too. "Zenith’s very smart for his age, Milena. He tried to escape but he got caught and Malcolm hit him and tried to kill him. We got here just in time to save Zenith and Alpha Daniel managed to kill Malcolm, but we noticed that Zenith already has difficulty breathing. He's too weak and Malcolm said before he died that Zenith is about to die from inhaling too much gas. I guess they used some poisonous gas on him?"

Rage filled my body instantly upon hearing Dex's story. "It was Nightshade's sleeping gas. Zenith's body is still frail to handle it. But I can cure him!"

But Marcus suddenly held me by the arm, which surprised me. "Milena, wait."

"Wait what? Our son is about to die, Marcus! I have to heal him!"

"You already used your healing powers too much, Milena!" Marcus insisted. "We should take Zenith to the hospital! You're risking your life again!"

"I don't care!" I shouted, and everyone was taken aback at how loud my voice was. "This is my son we're talking about, Marcus! Our son! Just let me do my job!"

But I almost choked on my own saliva when I saw Marcus' face right now. He was full of tears too, but was seriously looking at me. "Lady Xinxia told me about a witch's ability to heal, and she said it can kill you if you use it too much. We can take our son to the hospital."

"Marcus, there's no hospital near here," Dionne added, and that was the only time that I realized that she was Zenith's biological mother. "Our pack's healers already did their best, but they all said that it's already too late—"

"NO!" I shouted, and then took Zenith from her. "It's not too late yet. I can still heal him."

"Can you really do it?" said Dionne hopefully.

I nodded, and Marcus got scared. I was too, because I knew he was right. This might actually kill me. But I had to heal my son. "Everyone, please leave the room," I just said as I kissed my son's forehead. He looked so peaceful as he slept, his breathing so shallow that I was already panicking that I might not be able to heal him back in time.

"I'm not going to leave you," said Marcus, who stayed by my side as the others got out of the cabin to give us enough space. "Please remember that I love you, Milena." He whispered that in my ear, and then kissed me before I put Zenith on the floor and started casting the long spell to heal him. The whole process became hazy and blurry to me. I could feel my energy leaving my body as warmth transferred from me to my son's body. I was just hoping against hope that I would succeed because I didn't know if I could still even live in this world without my son in it.

When I completed the spell, I felt so lightweight for some reason. I was floating. Pain and fatigue disappeared from me as if I didn't have a body anymore. There was bright light everywhere when I opened my eyes, and then a woman approached me and took my hand as a welcome greeting.

"Welcome to our world, Milena," said Lilith with a bright smile.