Chapter EighteenSalvator
Chapter Eighteen
Salvator
Dirty deeds tended to be done in the dark of night, when eyes couldn’t see the face of evil. I stopped for a moment, my ears twitching as I listening for anyone following me. My wolf delighted to finally be in control, our four-legged form stronger and faster to make my way through this forest.
All I could hear was my rapid heartbeat, the overwhelming scent of night flowers surrounding me. Jethro, Paulo, and Tarrack were safe and currently plotting the demise of whoever was spellbinding wolves, backdoors already created in our mainframe by fake users created by Tarrack when the system was first formed. That mainframe was his playing ground and I doubted anyone would be able to track his movements in there.
A vague memory had returned to me of visiting this place in the rainforest, the floral scent associated with the wolf who blew up my house. I hadn’t remembered it until Luna removed the spell from me, so I wanted to know why I had been sent here and my memories removed.
All I had to guide me were vague memories and the position of the moon in the sky. A shiver ran down my spine, and I slowed my pace, sniffing the trees to search for a trap. The faint trace of magic coated the trees and foliage as if this place had a protection spell that had fused into every element of the landscape.
“Most protection spells repel those who mean harm,” Luna’s voice said in my head.
She currently lay on a bed in a safehouse in a meditative state, connected to me by our bond, and viewing my mission through my senses.
“It could be created to repel wolves ,” I replied.
“Then it’s a really bad spell since you’re standing there in your wolf form,” Luna said, her voice sounding exasperated.
My lips pulled back in a slow grin, imagining the look on her face. I’d fucking missed those expressions when she tried to reprimand me.
I padded forward slowly, scanning from left to right to allow Luna to see everything. There were places in the world that were haunted by the souls of the dead who had refused to move on. Their energy had soaked into the fabric of the place, leaving a taint that was felt through the echo of time. Something bad had happened here, an atrocity that had left an imprint to warn those who dared to set foot on this land.
“Something happened here ,” I said, having a full body shake to try and rid myself of the sensation.
“Put your paw on the ground and clench it a few times and then sniff that area,” Luna instructed.
I did as she asked, sticking my nose in the disturbed earth, feeling the sensation of death wash over me.
“There’s a burial ground near to where you’re standing,” Luna said. “Sacred ground.”
There was a reason authorities were terrified to dig up old burial grounds. Powerful incantations protected them for all time, sanctifying the bodies of their dead and ensuring they were left undisturbed for the rest of time. Archaeologists had unwittingly activated curses that had been cast to repel those who sought to steal from the dead.
I followed my instinct, allowing it to guide me. Decomposition took place over a period of time, but the fats from the body broke down and infused into the land and the plant life around it. Trees showed which era a death had occurred in the rings that denoted their long life.
A clearing had been created, a circle that represented eternity and everlasting life of the soul. I felt what was there, but there were markings on the trees that stood vigil over the site, a message for those who happened upon this place.
I stepped forward, but a voice shouted in my head, “Stop!”
I froze, my foot still off the ground, every muscle tense from the tone in Luna’s voice.
“Can you show me any of the symbols on the trees?” she asked, and I changed direction to visit the tree closest to me, bringing a tree into my line of vision. Then, I carefully manoeuvred my way through the thick forest undergrowth to the next tree, until I had completed a route around the circumference.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Luna’s sigh echoed inside my head. “I thought it was a protection spell to deter humans from disturbing the resting place of the dead, but those symbols do not represent the elements or any other magical property. They are names.” She stopped for several moments. “The names of the priestesses who served in the temple with me.”
Nausea burned a trail up the back of my throat because Luna had wanted to come here with me tonight, only I insisted this was a journey I needed to make alone as a form of penance. Why had I been here?
“I can feel your emotions, Salvator. None of us can help who has manipulated and controlled us over the years. We all stood there while he sacrificed the innocent because it was our role.”
“I need to know why I remember this place.”
The silence in my head stretched so long I thought she hadn’t heard me or was ignoring me.
“Take some of the earth from the circle and rub it in your hands,” Luna said. “Then place that on your third eye chakra to allow you to see the past and your connection to this place. I’ll say the incantation to activate your suppressed memories. I should be there with you.”
I knew exactly the expression she would be wearing right now, the way her nose would wrinkle in annoyance.
“We both know that I needed to come here by myself. I vowed to protect the wolves in my organisation, and I was nothing more than a puppet being manipulated by someone else.”
That realisation sat heavily on my soul and burned with righteous indignation. Someone would pay the ultimate price with their life for their betrayal.
I knelt down and dug into the ground, lifting a handful of the earth and rubbing it slowly between my hands, Luna’s soft voice echoing in my mind as she worked her magic. The earth felt warm against my forehead, the scent making my nose twitch.
Images flashed through my mind, too fast at first to interpret them, but whatever Luna was doing made them slow down into real time. My legs buckled, and I fell to my knees, my eyes wide open even though I was no longer in the present.
Balor stood in the middle of the clearing, dressed in his full ceremonial outfit, the moonlight shining directly above him. A girl was on her knees on the forest floor in front of him, her skin pale, and her eyes wide with fear. She begged in a low voice, her hands bound together in front of her stomach, her body rocking back and forth.
More memories unlocked in my head, and I witnessed her being brought in by one of my wolves, her relief at seeing someone she recognised behind me, but when I turned there was no one there. Someone was missing from my memories, a face they didn’t want me to see, a person who was hidden among my people. Then my memories flashed to an ancient temple in the mountains, and Balor stepping out from behind his priests.
I wanted to argue that these memories belonged to someone else, that I would never have handed an innocent woman over to this monster. But, these were my memories, and that woman had suffered my inability to fight against the magic that bound me.
She died here, sacrificed under the light of the full moon as he stole her soul and buried her body beside her sisters, who he had claimed over the years. He would have done the same to Luna, and I would have been powerless to stop him.
I vomited into the undergrowth until there was nothing left in my stomach, the realisation that we had never escaped him leaving a gaping hole in my soul. All these years, and we had remained nothing more than dogs for him to command.
“Salvator.”
I ignored the voice calling me, stuck in my own version of Purgatory, the memories from the past tormenting me.
“Salvator.”
The face of another girl swam through my mind, the memory hitting me like a physical blow. Then another until I was drowning in memories that my mind had suppressed, my shortcomings lain bare before me.
My fingers dug into the ground, my body heaving as I struggled against my wolf and his transformation. Rage pulsed through me in debilitating waves, as I processed what had happened in the past, and how I had been controlled.
I wanted to eradicate magic from this world, destroy everything it stood for, and prevent anyone casting a spell to control another soul ever again. Hatred burned so hot that it consumed me, eating away at my soul and leaving a numbness behind it.
Something touched my face, breaking through the pain and torment that held me captive. I blinked, trying to focus on what was happening to me since I was supposed to be here alone.
“Come back to me, Salvator. Don’t walk away from me again.” That voice reached inside me and gripped my heart. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts, to save myself from drowning under all the emotions bombarding me.
My head jolted to the side, my cheek stinging. My hand still hovered in front of me, ready to strike me again. I stared at it, my brow creasing in confusion.
“Enough!” Luna almost shouted in my head. “We cannot undo the past. None of us can change what has passed, but we can move forward and seek retribution for those who cannot seek it for themselves.”
Balor didn’t know I had escaped his leash, the same with the others we had released. To free the rest of my pack, I needed to return to our main base. Dire wolves were still under the control of Balor, and I wouldn’t rest until every single one of them was freed.
I pushed myself to my feet, walking into the centre of the clearing, knowing the last person who had stood here was Balor as he murdered an innocent priestess to steal her powers.
“I give you my oath,” I said, turning to look at each symbol in turn. “I will find the man who took your lives and punish him. He will not take the lives of any more priestesses or steal the souls of anyone else.”
I used my claw to cut through my skin, my blood dripping into the ground to destroy the carefully created energetic alignment of this place. Wolves were not allowed to enter the sacred spaces the priests used. I didn’t know why, but I understood enough to know that my blood should never have found its way into this place.
“Salvator?” Luna’s voice sounded uncertain, and I felt her worry as if it was my own.
“I’m fine.” It was the greatest lie in the history of the world. We said it to make those around us worry less or mask the turmoil inside us. “I’m coming home.”
Those who sought to manipulate and control us would expect us to lash out. What none of them would expect would be for us to free all our brothers from their servitude and use an ancient brand of magic that many believed had been lost.
My grandfather had taught it to me in the woods close to our village when I was little. He took me every full moon to show me the gifts of our people. I had promised to keep his secret, and one day pass it on to my children. The dire wolves were different to other lycans, and I was about to show Balor and the traitors he had hiding among my pack why we were so deadly.