Chapter 31
Chapter
Thirty-One
“That was mesmerizing to watch,” I said.
“You’re still not detecting any dark magic, right?” Torin’s voice sounded steady.
I shook my head, picked up the page, and flipped it over. I immediately recognized the curvy lines of the country's borders.
“After all of this, I get a map?” I muttered.
But the map had a black dot close to the Atlantic Ocean. I groaned. My head was going to explode.
“Well, at least whatever it is we need to find, it’s on the east coast of the US,” I said.
“Maybe it’s the athame’s location,” Torin said, and his breath tickled my neck. “But what did the pentagram and the symbols mean, then?”
He grasped my hand that held the page. His hard chest pressed against my back, and I was ready to melt against him.
I only sighed and straightened up my posture.
“The symbols and the pentagram are the same ones from my dream realm. The five elements that made up life, minus the spirit element, which is missing. The question is whether the athame is engraved with the pentagram for some reason, or is the athame used to engrave the pentagram onto the objects to give them power…”
After lifting my free hand, I grasped the page on the other side, shaking off Torin’s grip. He released me, but a low rumbling came from his throat.
“I’m guessing the dot is pointing at New York,” I said. “No, wait…the location is more south.”
Torin’s body adjusted behind me, and he brought out his phone before me.
He pulled up a digital map of the US with markings of the cities and major highways.
I darted my gaze between Torin’s phone and the map in my hand.
I zoomed out the area around the major cities with my free hand, trying to match the dot to a city.
“Salem,” I said. “Where the witch trials were. It has a history of witchcraft. It has to be Salem.”
A long moment of silence followed.
I twisted my body to watch Torin carefully. Wouldn’t he question why I was involved with witch stuff? I certainly wanted to know. Why did I feel like he knew something but held it away from me?
“The dark witch wanted the athame. She wants the ritual knife, and she made it sound like it belonged to her or her family,” I said.
I stared at Torin’s face for the slightest twitch of a muscle. He kept his eyes on the maps, face stoic. He wore his cold facade after he’d cried and embraced me only a moment ago without holding back.
“So do you think we’ll find the athame in Salem?” I asked.
Torin frowned. At least he showed some emotion, but I couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or disappointed. Why was he not talking?
“Salem is a small city, but since we don’t know where to look for the knife, it’ll be hard to find it. The dot on the map was not useful to pinpoint a location in a city. We’ll figure it out when we get there,” I rambled while Torin’s frown deepened.
“The map may be showing the location of the enchanted item, not the athame. Or maybe both. Regardless, what if we find some powerful weapon in Salem?” he finally asked.
“That’s the point, Torin. We better find that weapon before the dark witch does.”
Torin let out a heavy sigh. He sat on the edge of the bed and held his head with both hands.
“I can’t keep you safe, Anna,” he whispered, more to himself, but I heard him.
“Cordelia will follow us for sure. When we fought her in your dream realm, the witch seemed to let us win and retreated. It was suspicious. But now it makes more sense. She probably wants us to figure out the location of her athame or the weapon, and she’ll steal them from us. ”
I swung my legs over the bed and straightened up my back, even though every muscle protested. Cordelia had left me hurting, and I didn’t want to face her again, but the urge to find answers pushed through.
“I know whatever we find in Salem is meant for me. I need to find out why I was born a human, why I’m surrounded by witch stuff, and why the dark witch showed up in my dream realm.”
Torin made a “hmmm” noise in his throat and slowly released a deep breath. “I hoped you’d come with me to Salem,” I said.
His gaze finally met mine. A storm of emotions and thoughts passed over his handsome face.
I was sure he was thinking about the King’s request to bring his daughter unharmed back to the kingdom.
But whatever conflicting thoughts he had, his decision to help me won over.
His amber eyes brightened, and the corners of his lips lifted slightly.
“I hate watching you be unhappy,” he said.
“Does it mean we’re going?”
He nodded and gave me a smile that wavered.
I was so close to discovering something important about my identity that I felt it with my soul.
I headed to my walk-in closet to change out of my PJs. Torin followed me but stood at the entrance.
“We need a plan,” I said. “We have a bigger problem than the dark witch. Now Dad’s wrath feels scarier than the witch’s.”
Torin scoffed.
Today was the deadline for bringing me back home unharmed. I wouldn’t be returning, and I was injured. As I slipped off my shirt and shorts, I examined the bruises on my body and swallowed hard. My shoulder looked purple.
I wasn’t ready to meet Dad in this condition.
The helplessness I felt minutes before I fainted, with Cordelia holding my life in her hands, was one of the worst feelings I’d felt in my life. I realized that Dad’s training wasn’t enough to go against the dark witch.
“Your father called,” Torin said from behind the wall while I pulled on my jeans.
My body froze. I almost forgot about our encounter with the vampire General on the way to the kingdom.
But there was no going back anymore. There was nowhere and nothing to go back to.
I was fully immersed in the supernatural world now, having chosen to go to Torin’s pack territory to retrieve my book. I had a witch, vampires, and hunters coming after me.
“Anna?”
I cleared my voice and resumed dressing.
“What will we tell Dad?” I paused. “Obviously we can’t tell him the truth, or we’ll both be taken by force to the kingdom, and you’ll probably end up in the dungeon.”
“I can’t lie to the King,” Torin said, his strangled voice coming from the other side of the closet. “I owe him my life.”
I took a sharp breath. But why did I feel that Torin had lied to me? Was I not worth the truth?
“Then I’ll call Dad.”
As soon as I thought about Dad and the kingdom, my mind finally cleared and focused.
“Torin, what happened to Hayden? He was with you in my dream realm.” My voice came out shakier than I intended.
“He’s here,” Torin said, and the stomping of his feet echoed from the other side of the wall.
I let my head fall back and stared at the ceiling.
Stay strong. I wished for a calligraphy pen to draw the words on the skin of my wrist.
I returned to Torin’s bedroom and picked up the map. After folding it, I slid the piece of paper into my jeans pocket.
A loud knock made me jolt. I strolled to the apartment’s front door to find Torin opening it. Alexander entered, panic in his eyes.
“Breanna,” he said with a genuine smile. “I’m glad to see you awake and well.”
I nodded and held my breath, uneasiness forming in my gut. Did Dad send people to Torin’s pack, having learned about the latest attacks? What was the emergency? But a glance at Torin’s face told me otherwise. His intense eyes held a hint of irritation, and his jaw clenched.
Alexander cleared his throat and drew my attention.
“The pest intruded on our territory and demanded to see the princess,” Torin’s Beta rushed out.
Torin groaned. “Where is he?”
My slow mind finally caught up. Pest?
“Hayden? Are you talking about him?” I asked. “Where is he?”
“Downstairs—” Alexander said but stopped talking as my bodyguard squeezed his large body between the Beta and the door.
Hayden’s intense gaze landed on me, and a slow smile stretched across his face. “I had to make sure you were okay, sweetheart.”
Alexander grimaced at Hayden’s pet name for me.
Torin growled his unwelcome, but at least he didn’t attack my bodyguard or shift into his vampire. He planted his feet wide as if he fought with himself not to tear Hayden into pieces.
“I’m okay, Hayden,” I said but didn’t approach. “Thank you for saving me.”
The air filled with so much tension and awkward silence that I suffocated in it. Hayden wouldn’t leave without talking to me, and I couldn’t let him go to the King without a plan.
“I’ll meet you in the boardroom, Hayden. Beta Alexander will show you the way,” I said.
Hayden knew where the room was, but I needed a moment with Torin. Once they left the apartment, I faced the Alpha.
“It’s important you don’t hurt Hayden.” I raised my hands to stop him from talking.
“I’m not defending him. I’m trying to ensure you don’t get in trouble, Torin.
You know that the werewolves who don’t like you are waiting for any opportunity to kick you out of your Alpha position or to harm you. Please don’t give them a chance.”
I didn’t want Torin to defend himself from the werewolves who hated him for being part vampire.
They would provoke him and challenge him in the kingdom to get him to shift into his vampire.
So far, there hadn’t even been one incident when Torin’s vampire showed up while he was in the kingdom. He was always in control.
But not anymore—since he chose to be closer to me. I was his trigger.
“I can handle it,” he said, brushing my cheek.
My face heated, and I leaned into his touch. How was I going to turn off my need for Torin’s touch?
I straightened and disconnected from him.
“Let’s go,” I said as I turned around. “We’ll need to tell Hayden about our plan.”
When I walked into the boardroom, I sat at a random seat at the table. Hayden stood near the window, and Torin stood behind my chair.
“Alpha Torin, step away from my mate,” my bodyguard said, and I shivered.
Hayden’s usual outgoing demeanor was gone, and his voice was as equally threatening as Torin’s. Hayden was going head-on against Torin now.