chapter twenty four

Akira had made herself comfortable in the library.

It was not like she could do anything else except read.

The door swung open, startling her, she tried to hide knocking a couple of books over ik the process.

“No need to fret Akira, it's just me.” Orion said as he shut the door quietly behind him.

“How long am I going to be locked up here?” She asked as she dusted her body, “it's been days now and I barely know what time it is.”

“It's enough to tell that you've been here for days and I would gladly fill you up on the rest later, but I do have news for you”

“Well what is it?” She asked, burying her head back into the books in her hands.

“You're right about Mirabel,she is what you say she is, a strigoi.”

Akira was unmoved and unimpressed, “well if that's what you call news….”

“That's not all, if you will just let me finish.” he interrupted.

“How did you find out?”

“How I did doesn't really matter, let's just say that you were right and we need to do something quickly.”

“Well we can't do anything, especially since Kai is so into the mother of his unborn child.”

“I think I know why Kai is so lost nowadays.” Orion said as she placed the cake on the floor.

“Cake? Really? What's that got to do with anything?” She asked.

“Well everyone who has gone crazy the last few weeks has had at least a bite of Mirabel's crazy cakes.”

Akira's eyes lit up with excitement, finally they were getting close to the solution to their problems, “and Rune became her little bitch right after that dinner.”

“Kai was much more strong headed than Rune so she had to try a couple more times…”

“That explains the unusual preference for cakes at every meal…” Akira said thoughtfully.

“Exactly,” Orion said, “at first it was enough to get him to listen to her every suggestion but now he's addicted and obsessed with her.”

Akira paced round the library, “I think there's something we can get from one of these books.”

“There has to be something In these cakes and Finding out what it is would provide the solution.”

“Well then,” Orion said, grabbing three books at once from the shelf, “we had better get started, we do not have a lot of time and i doubt that kai has time too.”

……………………..

Kai munched on the cake before him hungrily, he stopped when he realised that the cakes had stopped coming in.

“I need more!” He yelled, banging the table with his fists, scattering cake crumbs all over the air.

“Relax,my love.” Mirabel said, strolling into the room empty handed.

“Where's the cake? There should be more by now.”

Mirabel knew what she was after and went into character almost immediately with her face distorting into a frown, “I am sorry but I can't make more.” She answered.

“Why?”

“Well, there's certain people who aren't too happy about my cakes and I can't do anything till we get rid of them.”

Kai banged the table again with a force so hard that it shook the chandelier “Tell me who they are!”

“I would rather not say anything as this will destroy your relationship.”

“Tell me now.”

“Since you asked nicely, it's Orion, he's been the one hindering me from making more of those nice cakes that you really love. And if you want more of my cakes, then you have to get rid of Orion.”

………………..

“Well what's in it?”

“Well it's obviously a cake, and we know nothing about it, all we know so far is that everyone who has had a bite of this cake is now Mirabel's puppet.” Orion explained.

“Well why?”

Akira paced round the library, the stacked books on the floor did not give her much room but she managed to get around.

“Have we considered the slim chance that they might like her cooking?” He asked.

“Really?” Akira scoffed, “like her cooking? If rather eat raw pork And be addicted than have a taste of her horrible cooking.”

“Well it has to be something?” Orion shrugged his shoulders, “And we need to figure this out quickly, Mirabel is not wasting time at all.”

Akira picked up the cake, her hands trembling, she knew she had to do something or risk losing Kai.

That was her drive.

Staring at the chocolate glazed slice of cake was not helping matters at all and as time went by she grew antsy.

With a frustrated help she threw the cake to the wall, splattering it everywhere.

“Akira….” Orion rushed to her, “just take deep breaths.”

She broke down in his arms sobbing, “all is lost isn't it.”

As such as she would deny, she knew that she had found a home here, there was nothing out there for her in the normal world.

The feeling of hopelessness overshadowed her as she wept on her knees, “maybe I should just give up.”

“Not just yet Akira, why don't you look at this.”

Akira looked up, her eyes red and swollen from crying and constantly rubbing her eyes, “what's that?” She asked as she examined the petal clenched tightly between Orion’s thumb and index fingers.

“This was in the slice of cake.” He answered.

Hope flared up inside her again, she prayed silently, to whatever god that was listening that this wouldn't lead to a dead end.

She wiped her face and looked closely at the petal.

“No way!” She gasped.

“You recognize it?”

“I– I think so, but there is no way that it could be…” she said, her voice trailing off as searched for a book on the shelf.

“That's the literature section”

“My Point exactly, that flower looks a lot like something I've seen in here”

She pulled out a book from the shelf “Aha!”,and handed it over to Orion.

He looked up from the book, “shakespeare? What does that have to do with any of this?”

“Just open it to the part where the fairies pluck the flowers for the love spell.” She said as she went towards the botany section of the library.”

“This flower petal looks exactly the same as the one with the one we found in the cake.”

“Exactly, that the love–in–idleness flower…”

“But what is it doing in a cake?”

“The nectar… it was used by Oberon to cause that messy love story” Akira said as she flipped through the pages of the botany book.

“Pardon me, but I remember vividly well that the nectar had to be applied on the eyes of the victim and whoever he sees first,he falls in love?”

“Well she must have engineered this spell differently, whatever she must have done compels the victims to be obsessed and loyal to her.”

“Unlike the story, she must have figured it's impossible to get a wolf with a mate to love her.” Orion chipped In as he flipped through the book in his own hand.

Akira looked up from the book in her hand to Orion whose attention was fixated on the book he held.

For once, something made sense.