JaceDAYS BEFOREThe bed creaked in protest as I reached for the leather-bound journal which had turned into a close companion for the last couple of weeks. Forbidden knowledge had been inked into every page with intentionality I could only thank the author for. I opened to the page I had dog-eared for days, sinking into the information there. Initially, I had been a little skeptical about some of the things written in the book, because the amount of detail which had gone into it seemed too good to be true. So to test its authenticity, I had sent Lucas to a location that up until that time, had been nothing but a myth to me: the Old Woods of Quietus.The forest was said to have once been a lush expanse of land with a beautiful population of wildlife until it was tainted by a terrible action committed within it close to a hundred years ago. A woman of high status, or maybe a princess, had been on her way back home from a neighbouring territory and has to take a path through the fores
Ashley Hours later, Zane finally came to in the quiet of the night. I was by his side in a chair, traversing a light sleep, and I felt his hand tap my face blindly. I had to send the other healers home so that they could rest, but Alicia remained, although she had also taken one of the empty rooms of the centre so she could get some rest.I caught Zane's hand, bringing it down and moving closer to him. “I'm here, Zane.”His hand tightened over mine, and he sighed in relief. “Good. You're safe.” He relaxed on the bed once again. “You're safe.”“Yes I am. What happened to you?” I started asking. “Where did you go?” I didn't plan on asking so many questions but my mouth worked faster than my mouth. He blinked twice before giving me a response. There was still a trace of confusion in his expression. “I don't even know where we went. It all just felt…wrong.”“What do you mean?”“The prophecy. It was written somewhere deep in the woods northwest from here, close to the Hidden Mountains. T
Ashley If not for the hunger pangs that nearly caused me to fall to the knees right in the middle of the villa, I wouldn't have found myself in bed in the middle of the afternoon with a bowl of warm chicken soup. If I fell unconscious when Zane returned, it wasn't going to help me learn what happened and where he went with Zanzi. I wanted my eyes to be wide open when he got back so that I could ask all of my questions with a clear mind.A knock came on the door and I went to answer it. “Give me a moment.”. I slipped into more modest pants and closed my robe fully before opening the door.Clara's face was tight with an emotion I couldn't place, but it didn't seem to spell anything good. “Ashley,” she simply said, reaching past the door and grabbing my hand to pull me along with her, “there's no time, come and see.”“What's going on?” I asked, making sure to shut the door as we left. The urgency in her voice was enough to make my heart sink even further in my chest.“Zane and Zanzi ar
Zane Our journey took us deep into uncharted territory, part dirt roads seldom used and forgotten human villages lost to time and wars. With every kilometre added to the distance between our carriage and the territory, the more unease I started to feel.I pulled at the collar of my shirt, swallowing to distract myself from the feeling of something crawling underneath my skin. “How much longer?” I asked, hating the bitter tast on my tongue. I didn't want to go anywhere with her, but I needed to see what she was going on about for myself. Hopefully it wasn't a trap.“We'll be there soon. Once you see it, you'll understand,” Zanzi said mysteriously before returning her gaze to the window of the carriage. She was seated across from me, but I still felt suffocated in her presence. I simply wanted to be rid ofnher so that I didn't have to keep pretending to be amicable. Hate was to strong a word to describe hiwnI felt, but I knew that whatever had been in my heart for her years ago had tur
Zane 2 Hours EarlierI touched Ashley's forehead gently as she slept, brushing away the locks that sat there, content against her pure, milky skin. She hadn't been sleeping well since the incident with those sick children, and often stayed up at night, reading up on all she could about Lycan history just to find out what could have caused the outbreak. For her, merely finding the cure to the disease wasn't enough, she had to know its origins.For that, my admiration for her grew even more. If only it didn't take so much from her. I wanted to lay back down by her side, so that I could see the moment she opened her eyes to the new day. I enjoyed doing it. A look of wonder always sat in her eyes when she awoke. No matter how difficult the day before had been, she always looked forward to a new day. Optimistic. Maybe I was drawn to it because for years, I had woken up thinking each new day could have been my last. But she had changed that. Changed everything.It was because of what sh
Ashley It was getting harder and harder to successfully fall asleep in those times. I would put my head against a pillow and force my eyes shut, but sleep wouldn't come to take me away and relieve me of the weight of reality. The times it finally spared me, though, were often too short and passed by like a mere blink of an eye. The next morning, silence was my alarm. The air was too thick, and the sky, still too dark for morning. The chickens were crowing, and birds had started to sing, but something felt crooked about it all. I touched the bed, hoping that my hand would meet the warm flesh of my mate, but I found nothing but flat sheets of cotton. They still held some essence of his warmth, but of course that was not what I desired. This installed a deeper sense of awareness into me, and I sat up, listening and looking for any sign of him. From the bathroom, I heard nothing. I got up to check, and my conclusion remained unchanged.I was alone.I could tell that he hadn't been gon