Chapter 9
Lyall
As we flew around the eighteenth forest of Willow Grove in search of the location from the vision, I couldn’t help but smile at my total absence of true frustration.
I wasn’t exactly known for being particularly patient.
But hunting for it alongside my woman made it fun.
I really wanted to help her. Whatever it took, I would see to it that Eleni successfully completed her mission.
It saddened me that it potentially wouldn’t help free my brother from his own curse, but I refused to lose all hope on that front.
It was pathetic how much I wanted to please my mate.
However, how could I not bask in her genuine gratitude and appreciation for my assistance?
It had become quite an addiction. The shamefully needy part of me still couldn’t reconcile the fact that Eleni truly wanted me.
In fact, her affection was already so strong that the mate bond formed between us.
It wasn’t the complete one that would bestow upon her a series of phenomenal physiological and magical benefits, but it allowed me to ignore the Covenant.
Gods, Ancients, and demigods like me couldn’t grant the full extent of our help or assistance to mortals unless we shared specific bonds with them.
And even then, blood ties had certain restrictions.
The only person we were fully allowed to protect was our mate.
If that meant killing a mortal or changing the path of Fate, so be it.
On the other hand, without that bond, should things ahead suddenly get dicey, I wouldn’t have been able to intervene beyond certain limits before the Covenant struck me with such debilitating pain that whatever destiny awaited my mate would have come to pass.
I stole a glance at my woman, once more annoyed by my Gharlakan form’s absence of eyes. I wanted to revel in her beauty, which I couldn’t do with the monochromatic image of my environment created by my echolocation. Still, I silently thanked the Weaver for sending me to her.
Eleni was perfect in every way. Nothing about me distressed or grossed her out—not even when I ate the demons’ hearts.
I couldn’t wait for this mission to be over so that we could spend a little bit of stress-free bonding time.
I wanted her as madly in love with me as I was irrevocably falling in love with her.
Too bad she couldn’t read my deepest personality through blood like I was able to do with her.
Maybe it’s in fact a good thing...
I snorted in self-derision. Maybe it was indeed a good thing that, even with the extended life span I would give her once we fully bonded, Eleni would never get to fully know me. I even disturbed myself at times.
That said, as much as I enjoyed my time by her side, I was starting to grow concerned about our inability to find the right location.
We were only two days away from the new moon now, and still nothing.
We left the current forest and headed for the next closest swampy area.
It was a twenty-minute flight during which my woman’s own worry became steadily more obvious in both her facial expression and body language.
And then, there it was.
The victorious roar that shot out of my throat startled Eleni. She cast a confused look my way only to see me dive towards the location.
“Nine Hells!” Eleni exclaimed when she finally realized the reason for my reaction. She directed her Galadia to follow me and landed by my side a few moments later while I shifted back into my human form.
“We found it! I can’t believe we fucking found it!” she exclaimed while hopping off her mount.
“I knew we would,” I said smugly. “But I wouldn’t have minded us finding it sooner.”
She chuckled as she circled around the small clearing surrounded by thick bushes and trees on three sides, and a swamp on the remaining one. That amusement quickly faded, and an air of unease settled on her face as she took in our environment.
“What is it?” I asked with a sliver of concern.
She raised her index finger to indicate for me to wait a second before casting a spell. My eyes widened when a hidden portal pentagram appeared woven directly in the ground.
“No,” Eleni whispered with a horrified expression.
She stumbled back out of the circle, her face going pale as if a terrifying beast had suddenly lunged at her from the shadows.
“What’s wrong?” I demanded, invoking my lightning powers, ready to blast any threat or mystify anyone foolish enough to endanger my mate.
“I know this place,” she whispered, still visibly rattled.
“You know this place?” I repeated, confused. “How?”
“This cannot be a coincidence,” Eleni whispered to herself while looking around us as if in search of something or someone.
“You’re not making sense,” I said, starting to feel irritated. “What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry,” she said in an apologetic tone while shaking her head as if snapping out of the shock whatever was happening had given her. “I’ll tell you everything, but not here. Later.”
“Should we leave then?” I asked, hating to be left in the dark.
My mate forcefully shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I was just reeling from shock.” She then pointed at the pentagram. “This pentagram works only one way. It is merely an exit waypoint. Unfortunately, it cannot tell us from whence the people who appear here came.”
“Could you set up detection runes to do that?”
“Good Gods, no! They would more than likely feel our magic,” Eleni exclaimed.
She waved her hand while casting another reveal incantation. When nothing happened, she looked utterly baffled.
“This is the place! They should be here!” she whispered again to herself.
“What’s missing?” surprised by the patience I was displaying.
“There were outgoing portals,” she said absentmindedly while examining the ground and our surroundings. “This place was a travel hub for the Cult.”
“Which cult?”
“Let’s go home. I’ll explain everything then,” she said before marching towards Pasha.
Despite my burning curiosity and impatience, I complied.
The fact that she called my place home undoubtedly played a part in further pacifying me.
As soon as we landed, Morrech proceeded to serve our meal on the terrace.
I almost felt guilty as we took our place at the table.
The poor male was going out of his way to prepare fancy dishes to impress Eleni.
Sadly, most of the time, we would start eating and then get frisky, forgetting about food to indulge in something far different.
“All cooked food today?” Eleni asked teasingly when she failed to spot the usual plate of raw meat Morrech often included in the menu.
I chuckled. “While I do like certain meats raw, unless it is a fresh kill or something still alive, then there is no benefit to me. So for everything else, I prefer to eat it cooked with nice spices.”
“I’m sure Morrech would have gladly hunted something for you, or you could have caught something along the way,” she countered with a mischievous glimmer in her eyes.
“We could have, but I would rather truly share my meal with you.”
“You don’t mind?” Eleni asked with genuine curiosity.
I shook my head with a smile. “Not at all. I actually prefer the taste of cooked dishes. And as I am sure you have noticed, Morrech is a very talented chef.”
“Morrech seems talented at pretty much everything!” she replied with sincere admiration.
“He is,” I conceded with a hint of pride. “But see that you don’t grow too fond of him. I would hate to have to eat him out of jealousy.”
She burst out laughing while shaking her head at me.
“Leave the poor male alone!”
“Fine, fine,” I retorted with fake reluctance before sobering. “So what happened in the swamp?”
I hated the troubled expression that flitted over her face. The fact that she didn’t answer right away but took a few bites first made me realize that she had likely experienced something truly serious or traumatic in connection with that location.
“I was born in a cult called the Harbingers of Aeshua,” Eleni said at last, a haunted look flashing through her beautiful green eyes.
“They believed that mortals could ascend to immortality and maybe even divinity through sacrifice. My mother—or at least so she claimed to be—was the cult’s Oracle, which essentially doubled as its leader. ”
“I do not believe I’ve ever heard of that cult,” I said with a frown. “But I had indeed seen some troubling images from your youth.”
She shuddered, a mix of anger, helplessness, and horror flashing in quick succession over her features.
“Then you may have seen that everyone in there was hungry for power, especially her. Although I cannot prove it, I was conceived during a ritual impregnation almost like what we were witnessing with Elliot and Sienna in the crematorium. The difference was that Mother fucked demons and powerful mages.”
I nodded slowly, remembering scenes where a woman was being defiled in every possible way by a series of demons. They were on top of an altar surrounded by cultists who were chanting.
“She would hold those sex marathons for the five or six fertile days of her cycle,” Eleni continued with a grim expression.
“Why multiple marathons?” I asked with genuine curiosity.
“The ritual sought to combine as many powerful seeds as possible,” my mate explained. “If it succeeded the baby would be born with phenomenal magic.”
“It would appear that they succeeded,” I said, waving at her. “From the moment we met, I realized that your abilities by far exceeded those of your peers. It surprised me all the more that you didn’t pursue all the rituals and other tricks arcanists use to enhance their powers.”
Eleni gave me a stiff nod. “You could say that. As I was more powerful than most, I got to live. But all the weaker babies were sacrificed.”