Dezrael opened her eyes and looked at the flickering light of the candle in front of her, smiling triumphantly. She was beautiful, like you would expect a movie star to be. She had long blue-black hair that came down to her mid-back with full lips and soft green eyes. In a way, she reminded you of a gypsy, with her olive skin and exotic cheek bones.
She had finally found him; he was in Seward, Alaska, of all places. She sighed audibly. She would have to move, again. The half-breed Seiomaor was no longer a boy and the time was right. She wondered what he might look like and if he resembled his half-breed mother, Karani.
She closed her eyes briefly and thanked her ancestral spirits for taking Karani’s spirit, hopefully to Muspelheim. She also sent up a quick prayer to her mother, asking for guidance in what she had to do next.
Before today she’d been unable to find Kiran Sinclair, due to the cloaking spell Karani had placed around him from the moment of his birth. Dezrael had grown up with the stories of the half witch that had chosen her wolf half over her witch half.
Karani had never belonged to the coven as her father lost the protection of having a coven when he married a wolf, although he remained close friends with members from the coven and he had raised Karani in the ways of witchcraft.
Dezrael was the same age as Kiran Sinclair and had recently taken over the search for him from her mother, Merrian. Their ancestral roots lay in Scandinavia and Dezrael herself had been born in Sweden and raised from birth to hate the Sinclair name.
Her mother had passed on suddenly; practicing magic, especially dark magic, had a price you had to pay. She had used the same blood infused locator spell her mother had used to find Karani. She got up from the table and closed her mother’s Grimoire. She looked around the little cottage that had been her home for the past year and started closing all the books scattered on the table.
She blew out the candle and looked out at the moon through the window. Before the end of the week she would be in Seward. She hated the cold but nothing would stop her from getting to Kiran Sinclair.
Her mother’s untimely death had been brought upon by the death of Karani; that was the price she had paid. She had used a locator spell for Karani and had infused her own blood on the paper to break through Karani’s own spell as eleven other coven members chanted with her.
She had watched Karani through the eyes of birds and she had enchanted the already murderous Ramos McGuire with pure evil and she had watched as he ripped Karani’s throat out.
Her mother had been a much stronger witch than she was; they had stopped practicing real Seidr around two hundred years ago, instead they adopted other types of witchcraft and made it their own, using the gods and goddesses from their ancestral lines to curse and bewitch.
Dezrael opened her laptop and clicked on the link for accommodation in Seward. She found a place quickly on Lowell Point and filled out the online form. She made the payment and booked a flight to Anchorage.
Dezrael smiled as Sean walked into the kitchen and looked at his chocolate brown hair, tousled from sleep. “Hi.” Sean’s voice had a timbre to it that always melted her heart just a little bit. She stood up and kissed him and held onto him for longer than normal.
“How did you sleep?” He looked down at her and she ran her hands up his back.
“Slept like the dead. Did you find him?” Sean had backed out of her hold and was busy making coffee for himself, not looking at her either.
“Yes, he’s in Alaska.” Dezrael walked back to the table where she had been sitting earlier and looked back at him. He was five foot nine, not overly muscular and he was her husband. He didn’t actively practice the art of witchcraft, but he could if he wanted to, he too was born with Seidr blood in his veins.
“I hate this,” he said and she nodded.
“Me too, but you know how this works…” she replied and pulled the empty box closer to her.
Sean leaned against the counter and sipped his coffee as she started packing her books into a box. Sean was a good man, he was good to her. He worked as a paramedic at the fire station in Michigan where they lived and he would patiently wait for her to do what needed to be done and come back home.
Thirty minutes later Sean kissed her goodbye and left for work. She continued gathering her things as if her plan to leave was nothing more than a few hours out of their lives. She knew better though, she’d be gone for three weeks at best.
Two hours later her clothes and herbs were packed. She sighed again as she realized that Sean would have to ship the boxes to her. Her mother’s favourite Grimoire was in her overnight bag. She never went anywhere without it.
At the airport she put her phone on silent after she had inserted the new SIM card into her new phone. This would be her Alaska phone. She stood in line at the boarding gate and got her seat on the plane. She closed her eyes as she waited for the plane to take off and take her to this next part that would be her life in Seward.
Nineteen hours later she stepped out into the cold weather of Anchorage. She rented a car and drove to Seward. She put the heater on maximum and wondered how she would survive this cold. She did an incantation in her head and instantly felt warmer. The GPS took her to a seafront cabin and she parked in front of the small office.
“Hi, I booked a cabin,” she said to the woman working in the vegetable garden. She smiled at the woman who was completely gray and her face showed kindness.“Oh, hello dear, what’s your name?” The old woman looked like a grandmother with her garden gloves on her hands and her hair trimmed short. She had wrinkles but Dezrael could see that she had been pretty in her younger days.“Dezrael Danielsson,” she answered and looked towards the beach. The view was breathtakingly beautiful and for a moment she forgot the cold as she got lost in the thundering waves that broke onto the beach.“What a beautiful name! You can call me Addie. Let’s go get you settled in. Where are you from, dear?” Dezrael liked this older woman and hoped that she could be a source of information for her.“I’m from Sweden, on a retreat as I write my thesis. I’m studying Environmental Psychology.” Dezrael lied easily and she could see that the woman was confused.“What’s that, dear?” Addie asked her.“It’s the study o
Malachi hugged Adara tightly and kissed the top of her head as they stood in the airport in Anchorage. She was crying and she hadn’t really stopped since Kiran had left. She was withdrawn, depressed and moody, everything he felt as well.Malachi put his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye. “You’re not being punished. I just need you to be safe. With everything going on, I can’t keep an eye on the pack and keep you safe at home.”“I know, I just wish I knew what I did wrong,” Adara said to him.“You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s hard to explain, but one thing I do know for sure is that he’ll come back,” he replied gently.There was an announcement that the boarding gate would open in five minutes and Malachi looked at his watch.“You have to go and before you know it, you’ll be coming back with Kiran standing right here waiting for you.”Adara hugged him once more and then walked away. The smile faded from his lips as he walked back to his car. He drove back to Seward in
That evening James welcomed all the men from their pack and they went to the dining room. Shoran had bought snacks and drinks and had carefully arranged them on the table. She excused herself and went upstairs. This was a men’s only meeting.“Where’s Kiran?” Carl asked James as they stood around the table pouring drinks. Normally it would be Kiran that received them at the house when Malachi was unavailable.“And why isn’t Garrick here?” Carl asked before James could answer his first question.“I think we should rather wait for Malachi. Garrick couldn’t get away from the hospital,” James said as Carl frowned at him. Twenty minutes later Malachi walked into the dining room and looked apologetically at everyone.“I apologize for my tardiness, I was with Robert Jones. Please take a seat, this is an informal meeting but a serious one,” Malachi said as he sat down at the head of the table. The chair across from him at the other end remained empty and he looked at it.“Welcome and thank you
Adara had reluctantly flown back to Ireland, her soul numb. Kiran hadn’t even bothered to say goodbye to her, that hurt more than she could’ve imagined it would. She had cried so much that she didn’t think she had any tears left. Rejection was something she was used to, though it hurt so much more coming from him.His note had just said ‘I’m sorry.’ Sorry for what? Sorry for leaving or sorry for pushing her away? She wasn’t sure which one was worse but his absence just made everything hurt all the more. It even hurt more than the years of abuse she had endured.Adara looked at the screensaver on her phone. It was a picture of Kiran. She had taken it while he was laughing at something silly James had said at the time. He wasn’t looking directly at her and she remembered that day well.Now it seemed that everything had changed. He had just left, he had yelled at her, told her not to touch him. She could barely remember a time when she hadn’t loved him. The screen darkened and she put th
Adara excused herself to go upstairs even though it was only six pm. She was exhausted. She checked her phone and saw that all her messages to Kiran still showed unread. She sighed and turned on her side. She felt so alone that she cried herself to sleep.Adara finally phoned Malachi after she’d been in Ireland for a week. The phone kept ringing and then went to voicemail. She ended the call without leaving a message. She was about to walk out of the room when her phone rang. “Hello Malachi.”“Adara, I do apologize. I was on another call,” Malachi said to her.“Have you heard from Kiran?” she asked him and he was quiet for a bit.“Nothing yet. He isn’t answering your calls either?”“No. I haven’t heard anything from him in seven days!” Adara replied. She was beginning to worry.“He’ll call. I’m sure of it.” Malachi tried to ease her anxiety. “He used his credit card in Canada six days ago.”“Why would he go to Canada? What about his GPS?” Adara asked him.“It just shows him crossing t
I slowed the Jeep as I drove up to the Alcan Port of Entry which was the border post between Alaska and Canada. I had driven through Anchorage, past Palmer and Glennallen and onto Tok. I was dead tired, but I had to keep going. Once in Canada I would breathe more easily, at least that’s what I told myself.I waited to go through the border for about two hours and I finally passed through without any problems. I drove further on until I saw the sign for Burwash Landing. I had phoned earlier and made a reservation for myself. I’d been driving for close to fourteen hours and I needed to sleep.As I crossed the Canadian Border I stopped to disconnect my GPS and bought new clothes, shoes and toiletries. I would look odd dressed in my suit especially with the blood stained cuffs from when I had inserted my hands in Karani’s rib cage earlier.I had to focus as the road blurred in front of me and I turned the volume on the radio up. Metallica’s Low Man was playing and once again the music spo
“My water just broke,” Karani said and Malachi sat upright instantly. “I’ve already called Stephanie, they’re on their way.”“Where’s your bag?” Malachi asked her and saw it on the chair next to the door. He grabbed her bag as she insisted on walking down the stairs and to the car herself.“I can still walk you know,” she said to Malachi irritably as she stopped and her hand gripped the edge of the couch as a contraction went through her. Malachi got her into the car and they arrived at the hospital at the same time as Garrick and Stephanie.Stephanie started yelling at the staff working the night shift at the hospital as they got Karani on a gurney and pushed her through to an examination room. Malachi followed closely behind as Stephanie put gloves on and she started examining Karani.“We’re going to have to do a c-section Karani,” Stephanie said to her and she nodded at the nurses as they got ready to move her again, “Malachi you’ll have to wait outside.”“There’s no chance that I’
That afternoon I checked out of the cabin and drove the Jeep until I found a spot alongside the highway where I could park. I hoped that it would go unnoticed since this area wasn’t so populous. I waited until nightfall and left my clothes in the boot.I hid the key and then changed into my wolf. I started running and crossed the icy river and shook the water from my fur. I alternated between trotting and walking for about eight miles and it took me two hours over the rough terrain.The mountain loomed in front of me but I kept going. The gravity was getting stronger. I could feel it moving through the air. Montgomery had described Wolf Peak as a place of ancestral powers where the more powerful wolves had all gone to either die or heal spiritually.You’ll know that you’ve reached Wolf Peak, when the Northern Lights dance around you and your spirit fills with the power and magic of the experience. I looked around me in wonder and amazement as it seemed that I was part of the lights an