Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
ASHER
A s we enter through the castle’s back entrance, I take Isla up a private set of stairs that leads to a different section of the castle. Fewer of the staff frequent this area and I’d rather they not see us in our wet clothes, coming to their own conclusions about what we were up to.
I steal a glance at Isla. Her eyes, wide with wonder, dart around, absorbing every detail of her unfamiliar surroundings, almost as if none of this is real for her yet. I shouldn’t be surprised, given this version of my mate has never been in this section of our home, but a part of me hoped that once we came back here, more memories would begin to appear to her.
“You can use these stairs anytime you’d like,” I tell her, placing my palm on her lower back as we exit the dark hallway. “You’ll encounter fewer people this way if you’d like to remain unseen.”
When Isla looks up at me, her gaze is full of excitement and curiosity. “Are there secret doors in this place? Hidden hallways or rooms?”
I chuckle because those were always her favorite part and I’m surprised she hasn’t found the one in her room, even if by accident. “Yes, I’ll show you one right now, actually. In your own room.”
She claps her hands excitedly, then tugs animatedly at my arm. “Where? I looked everywhere in there.”
My smirk only grows. “Right this way, Princess.”
Her eyes roll at my use of the title, and she groans. “I don’t feel like a princess.”
I wrap an arm around her, pulling her close for a brief moment, reveling in the warmth of her body that reminds me of a love I thought I’d lost for good. “You never did before, either, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Wait.” She freezes in the middle of the hallway, coming to a complete stop just before we get to her room. “If we’re both from here and I’m a princess and you’re a king, are we…?”
Her hands cover her stomach and she looks like she’s going to be sick, but I quickly ease her worries. “We’re not related, Isla. Your father was a king in his past life. Since he didn’t have any heirs before his death, the crown went to the next wolf blessed by the gods. Still, your family retains its royal bloodlines.”
“So, your gods choose who the ruler is? The people have no say?” She doesn’t seem very impressed with that information.
“Yes and no,” I tell her as we keep walking. “Once before, a king was overthrown and the one who took his place was a vile creation, causing so much mayhem, our entire country went to war. Yet he had the support of more than half our people.”
“The Great War that separated the islands?” she asks, opening her door. “Cain mentioned that to me before.”
So much for hoping that was just something she remembered.
“That’s right,” I tell her, stepping inside her bedroom. “When the lands were separated, new rulers were chosen, none of them blessed by the gods. It wasn’t until the next wave of leaders was born that the gods resumed their selection process. It was up to us to listen. There are books in the royal library I can show you if you want to learn more before going to Lunara Academy.”
She nods, peering intently around her room. “Yeah, that would be good. Now what about this secret passage?”
Taking my time, because I’m enjoying her eagerness, I walk to the left side of her room and start at the corner, placing my hand over the wall, gently gliding it over the surface as I move. “Hm, it’s been so long. I’m not sure I actually remember.”
She smacks my shoulder playfully and practically growls. “Don’t play with me.”
Gods, I haven’t had this much fun in centuries. For so long, I’ve been nothing more or less than the stoic king, doing his best for his people. Doing anything that didn’t further my kingdom was never on the agenda.
Having Isla here makes me feel like I’m twenty again, carefree and in love. I shouldn’t open myself up like this—it’s a risk that could ruin me—but even if she still chooses to leave, I might as well die. I won’t survive losing her a second time, so there’s no point in holding back any longer .
“You were lying, weren’t you?” She huffs, standing by closely as I make my way down the wall, lightly touching the surface with my fingertips.
“It’s here somewhere,” I muse, knowing that as soon as I get past the closet door, I’ll find what I’m looking for.
Placed between the closet and bathroom is a small, hidden door, not even two feet wide, that leads to a set of stairs that will eventually end at an exit to the backside of the castle, but they also go to every floor within the castle, ending on the basement level that hasn’t been used in eons.
Her foot begins to tap incessantly, so I decide to put her out of her misery. I grab the thick, white moulding, circling the carving for the hidden switch before pressing the disguised button. A quiet click sounds and the small section of the wall pops free.
“Holy shit,” Isla mutters, trying to move around me. “Where does this lead?”
I grin and look right into her bright stare. “To my room.”
“Oh.” She casts her eyes away.
“I’m kidding, Isla.” I tap her chin, lifting until she looks at me again. “I mean, you could get there from here, but I’d have to let you in. The only places you can enter without needing doors to be unlocked are the exits for each floor and the basement. Though I don’t recommend using this as your means of travel through the castle unless there’s an emergency. It’s too easy to get lost and trapped in the walls.”
She shudders and peeks around me. “It’s dark down there and basements freak me out. Secret doors aren’t as exciting as the movies make them seem. ”
“I think you may be right.” I tell her and then with regret, I know I need to leave. “I need to have a meeting with my father about Elodee. Oh, and if you have coordinates for her we will use those.”
Her brow raises. “Coordinates? Like an address?” She shakes her head and grins as she walks toward the small desk across the room. “Everything here seems so normal until it doesn’t.”
“I hope that’s not a bad thing,” I say as she starts to write down what I assume is the information we need.
“Just different.” Isla hands me the folded paper and shock exchanges between us when our fingers touch, something she doesn’t seem to notice as I do. “This is where she lives. Remember she won’t go easily and she’s probably freaked out that she hasn’t heard from me. You can’t hold it against her if she fights back.”
“She’s going to be okay, I promise.” I glance back toward the door, knowing I need to go even though I don’t want to. “I don’t know how long I’ll be, but you can use the phone beside your table to order lunch in and I can take you out for dinner later if you’d like.
She bites the inside of her cheek and seems nervous about something. I want to press, but we’ve made more progress today than I expected. I don’t want to push my luck.
“If you’d rather stay in, that’s okay too,” I add before reaching to lightly wrap my hand around her neck, closing the space between us to kiss the top of her head. The sweet, vanilla scent of my mate nearly doesn’t allow for me to let go, but I force myself to step back.
Her cheeks are flushed and her eyes closed as I head toward the door. She may not say anything with words, but her physical reactions are more than enough for me, for now.
After this morning, I at least feel more confident about having a chance to get my mate back. Now, I just need to get her friend here and hope she doesn’t think we’re all insane.
As I exit Isla’s room, I glance down the hallway and remember Grayson. There’s something equally important that I need to do before I meet with my father.
Using the mental connection I have with all my pack members, I call only to him. “I’d like to meet with you about something urgent. Can you be in my office in ten minutes?”
His reply is immediate. “See you there, Son.”
Going to Grayson’s door, I knock before cracking it open so that he doesn’t have to get up. “Mind if I come in?”
He coughs and laughs at once. “Do you really need to ask as the king?”
No, I don’t, but I always will unless my people give me a reason not to.
I step inside, finding him as frail as he was yesterday. Despite the dose of blood I gave him last night, he shows little improvement. Damn it. I hope I’m not too late. Isla will never forgive me if I fail him.
Without asking his opinion, I go to the bathroom and grab another cup. This time when I extend my claws and cut my wrist, I go deeper, allowing the blood to surge into the glass.
Grayson attempts to sit up, his voice raspy with concern. “What are you doing? That’s too much. ”
My head shakes. “Seeing you now, I’m not even sure if it’s enough, but you’re going to drink every drop I give you until we find out. Isla no longer needs to choose between leaving or saving you. I can’t watch you suffer any longer.”
He reaches for the cup, his hands trembling. I support him, carefully bringing the drink to his lips. He gulps eagerly, but I moderate his intake to prevent him from choking. “Easy, Grayson. There’s no rush.”
He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, his voice breaking. “I almost lost my chance, Asher. I almost gave up and my Flo… She’ll never get to see her girls again. They’ll never truly know their mother.”
The man I’ve always looked up to begins to sob and I’m unsure what to do, especially when he’s making no sense.
“What do you mean by ‘they’?” It’s been nearly three hundred years since I’ve heard anyone speak of Isla’s sister, Estee. She was the first wolf to abandon her pack, but I never blamed her. Losing Isla was hard on all of us, but most of all me and Estee.
Grayson sits up more on his own and grabs the cup from me, taking another drink before answering. “I know it may seem crazy, which is why I hadn’t said anything yet. First, I wanted to speak with Isla more when she returned because she said something to me last night, but I don’t think Estee chose to leave us.”
My chest tightens at this revelation. Have I failed my mate in more ways than one? I did my best to take care of her family after her disappearance, but Estee leaving ruined any progress I’d made with them. If she’d been forced out and I did nothing to protect her…I’ll never forgive myself.
Not as her king or her family.
“What did Isla say?” I ask finally, sitting up straighter on the bed before refilling his cup.
Just like when I told him that his daughter had returned, his eyes grow bright, a mixture of hope and nostalgia flickering across his face “She mentioned Elodee, her friend from Earth, calling her a ‘soul sister.’ It struck a chord, Asher. It’s more than just a feeling.”
It’s not possible. They couldn’t have both been reborn to Earth without any of us knowing. Right?
The implications hang heavily between us. “You think Elodee might be Estee.” Saying the words out loud sends a shiver through me. “Gods. After all this time.” I run a hand through my dark hair. “I was just going to talk to my father about bringing Elodee here so that Isla might feel more comfortable. Assuming she was human, I was hoping an exception could be made, but if you’re right…”
“We need to go find her,” he pleads, the color already returning to his cheeks as he finishes the cup of my blood.
I clasp his shoulder and nod confidently. “We will, but we need to handle this carefully. Just as Isla doesn’t remember her past life, I don’t assume Elodee will, either. She’s going to wonder why her friend has been missing and not trust us.”
“We’ll bring Isla with us,” he suggests, and while I don’t want to force my mate to stay anymore, I don’t know that’s a good idea. She’s only just had her first glimpse of a memory. What if going back to Earth, even for a short period of time, ruins that? Worse, what if we’re wrong about Elodee ?
I don’t want to hurt Isla and, selfishly, I don’t want to set back any progress we made today.
“This isn’t my favorite choice, but what if we just take Elodee, unconsciously, and have her wake up in Isla’s room? Once she reappears in our world, we’ll know right away if she’s Estee, then we can explain what we’ve confirmed to Isla and let her handle the rest,” I suggest because it seems like the best way to avoid the most drama. Magic may not work on Earth, but not everything we use is made from our unique energy. Our sleeping potions would be enough to knock out a human.
Grayson seems to seriously consider this idea but doesn’t readily agree. “What does your father know already?”
“Not enough,” I admit. “Come with me. I’m meeting him now.”
I give Grayson a third cup of my blood as he nods and carefully gets out of bed. He’s still much too thin, but his body doesn’t tremble like before. He holds up the glass. “I may need a few more of these before we leave Polaris.”
“You can have as many as you need.”
We move swiftly through the castle and I’m impressed with how quickly his strength is coming back, considering he looked worse off when I entered his room. Still, I appreciate his urgency because if he’s right…
Someone murdered my family.
I don’t know how or why, but if both Blackwood sisters had the same fate, what else could it have been?
Even thinking that, I still don’t know how it could be possible, but I’m certainly going to find out and when I find the person who took my mate from me… They will be begging for a fiery afterlife by the time I’ve finished punishing them.
My father is already waiting for me, speaking with Malimorte outside my office when we arrive. I barely nod at them as I shove my door open.
With every passing second, knowing that there’s a possibility someone purposely stole the lives of these women, my ire becomes more tangible. I can feel the blood rushing to my face and the tensing of my shoulders increasing tenfold. I don’t know how I’m supposed to suppress this rage when I want to rip the heads off anyone who could be responsible for this.
“Asher, what’s wrong?” my father asks, but I don’t answer him first.
“Malimorte!” My voice booms louder than I intend, and he enters behind Grayson, closing the door.
“Yes, Your Majesty?” His eyes meet mine, unafraid of the wrath I’m barely containing.
Good, that should hopefully mean he has nothing to be guilty about.
“I need you to stay here and take notes about everything we speak of on paper, then give them to me,” I tell him. I might be furious, but I’ve been doing this job long enough to know that no matter what’s decided in this room right now, we could miss something important with emotions so high.
I’ll want to review everything more than once until we know the truth.
Mali comes around to my desk, grabbing what he needs to take notes, then stands at the back of the room before I address my father .
“Grayson believes that Isla’s friend from Earth is actually Estee,” I state clearly.
My father’s jaw tightens and his eyes narrow, glancing between the two of us. “Why would he think that?”
Good, he’s as angry as I am.
Grayson answers first. “Isla considers this woman she calls Elodee her family, more especially her soul sister . On top of that, I’ve never understood why Estee would have left us with only a note. It never made sense, but then Flo gave up her life to the grief and I realized that we all needed to process in our own ways, and nothing had to make sense. Except the moment Isla mentioned Elodee, my same suspicions came back, stronger than ever.”
Dad nods and drums his fingers over the arms of the chair beneath him. “Well, that’s not something we can ignore, can we?” He looks at me. “I assume you already have a plan?”
“I do,” I say gruffly, but Grayson cuts me off first.
“I’d like to be the one to go get her,” he says. “I’ll follow your every order, but I’d like to be part of the retrieval.”
He’s now finished his third cup of blood and his voice is strong. I’m not sure he’s up for the task, but I can’t deny a father the opportunity to reclaim his daughter. Not when he’s the one who pieced everything together.
With Noen and Declan still off island handling trade deals, it’s easy to make my decision since the only other men I trust with my own life are in this room.
“You and Mali will go today,” I say. “Find Elodee, give her a sleeping dose, and bring her right back here. No stops anywhere else, no speaking to anyone. Your strength will be dulled on Earth and we can’t take any risks. ”
Especially with Grayson. I really shouldn’t let him go, but I don’t change my mind.
He slides his cup across my desk. “Then I better get stronger. I’ll take another dose.”
Cutting open the faint pink line again, I extend my claw and hold my wrist over the glass before looking up at my advisor. “Is this going to be a problem for you, Malimorte?”
My father holds a hand up. “Wait a minute. You honestly think it’s a good idea to send a man who was recently close to his deathbed and your assistant, who, from my knowledge, has never seen combat, to retrieve a human whom you think might be one of our princesses?”
Without blinking, I simply say, “Yes.”
“Have you lost your mind, Son?” he asks incredulously. “At least let me go as well.”
“Absolutely not. Your departure would draw attention, especially without Mom,” I tell him. “Mali and Grayson can easily slip out without anyone questioning what they’re doing. I refuse to let the person who might have done this learn that we’re onto them.”
He raises a brow and tilts his head to the side. “You haven’t even said what it is you think someone has done. Only that you think this girl might be Isobella’s sister.”
“Isla,” I correct with a growl. “And like you said before, reincarnation hasn’t ever just ‘gone wrong.’ If we find Estee, I firmly believe that someone must have killed them, stolen their lives, and found a way to make sure they didn’t return. Whoever that was, I will figure it out and they will pay with blood. Until then, this information stays within the walls of this office.”
I asked to meet with my father because I wanted his advice about bringing a human here, but that’s likely not the case any longer. If he doesn’t agree with my choices, then that’s on him. This is happening and I don’t care how long it takes, Isla will remember what happened to her and then I will get my vengeance.
Even if I have to start a war to do so.