“The witch is Leonarya then.” Derek finally broke the silence in the passageway, feeling his heart constrict at the mention of the name which seemed to have been a source of constant terror in his life since he had met his little witch, Emma.
It had started that fateful day they had gone into the forest with Maya to find the springs, only to lose sight of Maya and fall into the hands of a phantom. That had been the beginning of the train of misfortune. But of course he couldn’t attach this to Emma. she was his mate, and he had already done enough harm to her.
“Since the poison was done by a powerful witch, does it mean that it cannot be undone, or can another witch destroy the potency of the poison?” Anthony asked, seeing that Derek was still battling with emotions, especially anger, to talk.
“Perhaps. But the other witch should have an idea of what the poison is. I don’t think any witch will have that…except…” Agrip cocked his head to one side, letting his statement hang in the air.
“Except what…?” Anthony queried, getting Derek’s attention, whose face managed to pivot toward Agrip, his face filled with anticipation and hope.
“Except the witch comes from her family. Her family has the royal blood. I am sure that one of them may know something about the poison. It is possible.” Agrip mentioned, thinning his eyebrows. “But last i heard, the surviving elder in the family is the queen herself, the mother of Leonarya. Leonarya’s sister is dead.”
“Let’s go over and meet them then. What is the hold up?” Derek asked, starting to shift on his feet, his eyes resting on Agrip’s black ones. Impatience beginning to sing its tune over his features. With his hands resting in the front confines of his denim noises, he looked like an uptight boss that was about to lose an important contract over the clumsiness of a secretary.
“Derek…” Agrip started with a sigh, obviously tired and needing rest. He was just coming back from a long travel after all, and needed all the rest he could get.
Considering what he had encountered during the mission, he needed to be in bed right at this moment, overturning and overturning thoughts on his head on how he could stop the impending doom of his pack, but Peter’s health had changed his plans.
He needed Peter alive too. But he couldn’t barge into the witches territory just like that. He had forgotten the special path. They needed another witch to lead them in. but who?
“Don’t tell me that what I had just said is a bad idea, Agrip. Because at this moment, I don’t care about some superficial territory rules. My father is dying for godsake! We have to do something!” Derek shouted, sinking his fingers in the fine corners between his eyes, feeling a slight headache coming. But that was the least of his problems.
He needed to find a way to get into the witches territory, believing that the issue had been the ‘but’ that Agrip had been about to say, the ‘but’ he had no plan of agreeing to. He would break any community rules just to save his father.
He would have loved to ask his mother, but she was grief stricken to be of help. He had never seen her this way, his strong and passionate mother, now looking like a weakling. He wouldn’t trouble her the more. He thought, remembering that her two witch friends whom had been of help to her when he and Emma had gone missing, were also missing. The search party his mother had sent out to look for them had come back empty.
So, which other witch would lead them to the queen? His mind rested on Esther. She was a witch too. But what if she was truly working with Leonarya? Then, that meant that she would sell their plans to the evil witch too. He couldn’t risk that.
“Derek, calm down.” he heard Anthony say gently and sighed, roughing his hair by running his fingers wildly on it. He felt like a bomb had set off on his head and then everything else was in jumbles.
“Why should I be calm, Anthony. Nothing seems to be working.” He replied, scratching a numb spot at the base of his neck, feeling tears gather in his eyes. He knew he shouldn’t let them fall, but he also knew that he wouldn’t be able to hold them back for long.
“Emma and Prescott know about Queen Zipfarah. You seem to have forgotten that.” Anthony gently stated, smiling shortly when Derek raised up his head which had been bent for quite some time, and stared blankly at him, a stir of hopeful emotions swirling softly in his blue eyes.
“We have to speak to her then. I will apologize for my mistakes too.” Derek pointed out, standing straight and nodding his head intermittently, aware that curiosity was fanning the entirety of Agrip who was still reclining on the wall staring at him and Anthony.
“Let’s go then.” He said to Anthony who nodded, even though the latter thought the latest action a bit bad. Emma would think they were trying to use and discard her again. She would think that the only reason Derek had come to apologize was because his father’s situation demanded her help.
But he kept his thoughts to himself, knowing that voicing them out would only serve to dampen Derek’s mood the more and spell a greater risk to Peter’s health.
Inhaling deeply, he turned aside to Agrip who was staring after Derek who was already taking long strides down the passageway, and walked up to him.
“We have to be going. C’mon hold on to my arm. We have a lot to talk about.” he cited out, a bit surprised when Agrip conceded, placing his arm on his, without a fuss at all. He must really be surprised then. Anthony thought, walking down the same path Derek had just did.