Intrigued…
“It’s Ashley, Your Highness,” he stammered. “She’s… she’s been found outside the mansion. She’s unconscious, and there are… strange markings on her body.”
My blood ran cold. “Where is she now?” I asked, my voice hard as steel.
“We’ve brought her to the infirmary,” he replied quickly. “The healers are attending to her, but they’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Without another word, I pushed past the guard, my heart pounding in my chest as I made my way to the infirmary. The corridors seemed to stretch on endlessly, each step echoing loudly in the silence. My mind raced with possibilities, each one darker than the last.
When I finally reached the infirmary, the scent of antiseptics and herbs filled the air. Ashley lay on a bed, her skin pale, her breathing shallow. The strange markings the guard had mentioned were visible on her arms and neck-dark, twisted symbols that seemed to pulse with a faint, malevolent energy. The sight of them made my wolf stir uneasily within me, a low growl rumbling in my chest.
“What happened to her?” I demanded, my voice low as I addressed the nearest healer.
The healer, an older woman with sharp eyes and steady hands, shook her head, clearly troubled. “We don’t know, Your Highness. These markings… they’re not natural. It’s as if they’ve been burned into her skin, but with what, we cannot say.”
I took a step closer to Ashley, my gaze narrowing as I studied the symbols. There was something familiar about them, something that tugged at the edges of my memory, but I couldn’t quite place it.
“We need to find out who did this,” I said quietly, more to myself than to anyone else. “And why.”
“Your Highness,” the healer said softly, “whatever this is, it’s dark magic. The kind that hasn’t been seen in centuries.”
The words hit me like a blow. Dark magic. The very thing we had worked so hard to eradicate from our lands, the kind of power that could corrupt even the strongest of wills. If this was true, then we were facing a threat far greater than anything we had anticipated.
As I stood there, watching the faint rise and fall of Ashley’s chest, I knew that this was only the beginning. The shadows were closing in, and the game had just taken a deadly turn.
I needed answers, and I needed them fast. But first, I had to decide who I could trust in a world where betrayal seemed to be lurking behind every corner, and where even those closest to me could be hiding secrets that could bring everything crashing down.
With a final glance at Ashley, I turned and left the infirmary, my mind set on what needed to be done. The night was far from over, and I had much to do before the first light of dawn.
As soon as I made my way from the infirmary, the first place I went to- or should I say, the only place that came to mind-was Simon’s room. I walked in without knocking on the door, and the first thing I did was turn on the lights. This made him stir in his sleep and mumble angrily, ready to descend on whoever had dared to interrupt him.
“Just calm yourself down, tiger, it’s me,” I said as I walked closer to his bed.
“Lucas?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“What the… Listen, man, you have two seconds to explain what you’re doing here and why you decided to enter my room unannounced and interrupt my sleep.”
“Well, I wouldn’t be here if you were not asleep right now. After all, I could have just mind-linked with you.”
“Lucas! This is literally like 2 or 3 a. m. right now, and the last time I checked, normal wolves would definitely be asleep and not waiting for their twin to mind-link with them for any random thing.”
“Sure, but this is something that I need to share with you right now.”
“Couldn’t it have waited till daybreak?”
“Absolutely not! It’s better I say it now in the heat of the moment.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s Ashley!”
“Who? Didn’t we talk about her before going to bed? Why are we still over this again?”
“That’s not it this time. The thing is, she was found outside the mansion, and apparently, they found her unconscious.”
“What? How is that possible? Did she leave or something?”
“That’s something I am not sure about, but they found her with strange markings on her body. She is currently in the infirmary, and the healer mentioned that black magic had been done on her.”
“What? Black magic?! This is serious,” he yelled, jumping out of bed, every bit of sleep now gone from his eyes. “So you’re telling me that no one knows how she managed to get herself out of the mansion without being seen, and they end up finding her outside with markings on her body?!”
“Honestly, I am just as surprised and worried as you are! You and I both know just how much we have struggled to get black magic out of this Kingdom, and now this? We are currently under attack, and it’s pretty glaring at this point.”
“What do you suggest we do about Ashley now?”
“I don’t know. Honestly, I won’t lie to you, I am very confused about the whole thing. Right now, things have been quite suspicious about her, so it really doesn’t help that this somehow managed to happen to her.”
“I honestly feel she is working for one of our enemies, because how else do you explain everything going on with her?”
“Come on, Simon. You seem to forget that this woman in question is our mate. If not for any other reason but the bond that we share as mates, I believe she cannot possibly betray her loyalty to us.” He scoffed, turning his back to me as he faced the opposite direction.
“You seriously think that this mating bond is enough to keep someone from doing anything? You better rethink that, my brother. Things have been going on lately, mysterious things that we cannot explain ourselves, so it would be very unwise for us to leave any room for doubt about anybody, no matter what our relationship is with them. I can’t believe this is even coming from me to you. Come on, you are the more logical one; why are you letting emotions get to you?”
“Of course, I am not. The last thing I would ever want to do is let myself be guided by emotions. I am just trying to properly evaluate the situation without harming others.”
“We do not need to consider anybody’s feelings when it comes to this. This is a matter of the crown and the overall safety of the people. Right now, it is pretty obvious that the kingdom is under serious threat from places and people we do not even know of yet. Until we can identify the people involved in all these things, everyone is a suspect, including everyone living in this mansion.” I sighed heavily as his words sank deep into my mind.
“Well, I guess you’re right. I just thought to come let you know about what happened since it happens to be very serious. Once it’s daybreak, we’ll look into it.”
“Alright then, now get out of my room and don’t interrupt me again, or else I will cut off your balls,” he said, burying himself back under the sheets. I shook my head at him, fighting the urge to kick him in the shins.
“Whatever, have a good night, or is it even good morning at this point?” I said, making my way out of the room. The night seemed terribly long, and I just couldn’t wait to have it done and over with. But what was I even running towards? Was it the undone paperwork I had to go through and sign, or the numerous cases that kept coming daily about the insecurity in the land? Now we had the case with Ashley, which happens to be a major issue at this point, and all these and more were the respective issues that had to be dealt with once it was daybreak.
I got into my room and breathed out a deep sigh, tired. I hadn’t gotten any sleep all night, and this was definitely going to wear on me if I continued. Although it wasn’t easy, I still managed to get myself to fall asleep after much tossing and turning in bed. Even though I wasn’t able to get the minimum amount of hours needed for proper and good quality sleep, I still got myself up and ready for the day at exactly 6:00 a. m.
The first place I went to right after getting ready was obviously the infirmary to check on Ashley and everyone else with her. The place still had the strong scent of antiseptics and herbs, which I was obviously never going to get used to, but it was still manageable for the meantime.
“Good morning, Your Highness,” the healer greeted the moment she saw me, and I acknowledged her greeting with a slight nod.
“Is she okay now?” I asked, going straight to the point of my reason for being there.
“Actually, she is very fine, and there’s absolutely nothing to be worried about.”
“Oh really? And the marks on her body?”
“Yes, that’s right. I wanted to share something with you which I find very intriguing.”
“Alright?”
“So I noticed that she somehow managed to make the markings on her body disappear.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The thing is, yesterday when she was brought in to be examined and taken care of, we noticed the numerous markings on her body. But all of a sudden, we noticed that everything was gone. I can’t tell when or how it happened, but Your Highness, I’m really worried about what is going on at this point. We will really need to look into this as soon as possible.”
“Of course, that is a must. We will look into everything going on. Even I need answers to these mysteries,” I said, looking around the place one more time.
“Is she awake right now?”
“Yes, Your Highness. She regained consciousness about two hours ago and has since then refused to close her eyes again.”
“Oh, I see. Let’s go in then.”
.