ARIA'S POV:"What do you mean by Malcolm is alive?" Anthony asked still holding into me as we were on the floor."I met him." I replied cooking at his face through tear filled eyes. "In Zilam." I said. "He is in Zilam.""Malcolm is alive?" He couldn't believe his ears. "But all the history books say otherwise.""He lives there... In Zilam." I said to Anthony. "He's keeping a low profile and no one knows that he lives there.""No one?" He asked. "Wait. You told no one when you met him?""I couldn't..." I said looking away from his face, the tears running down my cheeks all over again. " I first, needed to get answers from him before I would then let my uncle in on it." I said sniffing Anthony didn't understand what I was saying at all. The look on his face said it all."I don't understand you Aria." He sad. "Let's get up from the floor, sit down and discuss this." He said trying to pull me up from the floor."No." I whispered. "You don't understand. You have to listen to me... Please.
ANTHONY'S POV: When she had fallen asleep in my arms, I didn't know. She just lay limp in my arms. I couldn't believe that she was going through a lot of things all by herself. And this hurt me more than anything else had. Pulling her face up from my chest, she had a look of tiredness and suffering on it. And these things were the last things I had wanted to see written on her face. I wanted her to be happy. I wanted to make her happy and safe. Just the thought of her being hurt, brought a sharp jab to my heart. She was cursed. After the war. None of that were mentioned in the archives. My grandfather never mentioned anything like that neither did my father. Was there more to the war that was still hidden? And how was Darcy able to conceive and Aria unable to do so? Questions just kept flooding my mind. Nothing, making sense as it was supposed to. She stirred in her sleep. I failed and was unable to keep my promise concerning the poison and it's purging but as for this curse
ARIA'S POV:"It's a dead end." I said to Anthony as he took a hold of me. "That's it for me." I said to him. "All is just repeating itself as it did during the course of the poisoning.""No Aria." He responded. "There are still other healers out there that we can reach out to." He tried to assure me. "I will make sure that they come see you before making any conclusions." He said taking me to sit on the bench in the garden."And what if the answers still remain the same?" I asked him. My voice filled with hopelessness."We will find a way to lift it." Was his response. "I will." He said."I need to return to my room."I said rising from the seat."Leet me escort you." Anthony said joining me on my feet still holding my hand.I slowly pulled my hands from his. "That rest you spoke about," I spoke not looking at him."I really need it now." I said heading for my room, walking away from Anthony and Elijah. Behind me, I could hear Anthony giving orders to Elijah telling home to search farth
ARIA'S POV:With every sight of the letter I took from the floor, my breathing grew stronger.In the background, I could hear Claire's faded voice calling out to me, but I was just too engrossed in my thoughts. With the little level of consciousness I had, I saw Claire move out of my room with urgency and speed.Coming down from my bed, I moved to the letter as cautiously as I could. What could the letter contain? Was it just a letter, or was it more? Poisonous pen ink fumes? Poisonous paper? Dane was capable of these things even worse.Picking up the letter, I held it at arm's length, opening it. After some screening, I realised that it was just a letter. That was fear number one, down.If it wasn't poisonous ink fumes or poisonous paper, then why was he writing to me? And why now? What was his motive?Bringing the paper close to me, I read with care. "My lovely Aria, it's Dane Seymour. Ring a bell?"How would it not?"I'll have to give good kudos to your knight in shining armor; ho
ARIA'S POVWe took off by five a.m. so as to get to the moon goddess's temple."Do we have all that we need?" Anthony asked Elijah."Water, food—that's pretty much all that's there." Elijah said.The strange mage just sat in the back of the carriage, sitting like she was hearing and seeing things. Claire gave me a flask with chamomile tea for the ride."Thank you." I said to her. She gave me her usual smile. This was a few minutes to five a.m.."We need to head out." The mage said: "The earlier, the better.""We will be leaving now." Anthony said to Elijah, and Elijah nodded."Let me help you." Anthony said as I tried to climb the carriage."I'm fine." I said to him, rejecting his help. "I can get on on my own." I knew what I was doing was hurting him, but this had to be done for the greater good. At least, that was what I thought.We climbed into the carriage, and off we went to the temple of the moon goddess."You didn't tell us your name " Anthony said to the mage."How important i
DARCY'S POV:I squeezed my eyes shut, my body rocking with the force of Malcolm's thrusts. I did my best to dissociate from the situation, reminding myself that this was all for the greater good."You feel so fucking amazing right now," he groaned, grabbing my hips and hitting me hard. "Don't leave a mark," I said, turning my head to look at him. He had his head thrown back, exposing his throat. If I had a dagger, I would have slit his throat right now. But I didn't. So I turned back and buried my face in the pillow, waiting for this to be over. Once he was done, I pushed him off me and pulled my clothes back on."Not so fast," he said, grabbing my arm. "Let go of me!" I yelled, struggling with Malcolm. I had to get back to Nightfang in time before Logan would notice that I was gone. I didn't want to think of what could possibly happen if Logan found out that I was missing. He would search the entire vicinity, looking for me. Then what excuse would I have to justify the fact that
MALCOLM'S POV:"Shit!" I had been lying on the glass shards for over twenty minutes, trying to stand up on my feet. A big shard was stuck in my side, which made it even more painful to rise. Mustering all I had, I gave myself a push, only for my hand to meet another shard of glass piercing through my palm."Shit! That little thing." She had done this to me, and then she fled.I looked at the wound, and with all these I had, I pulled out the large shard of glass from my side. It took courage and composure for me to not scream. The shard was out, so all I had to do was get up.After a few trials and errors, I got up from the midst of the shards and limped towards the bed.Heal! I was looking at the injury I had sustained, expecting it to heal like the others, but it just gaped at me, bleeding.I rose from the bed and walked to the room's drawer. I began searching and looking for anything that I could place on the injury to at least stop the bleeding. Eventually, I could grab a white tow
Pathway to TruthARIA'S POV:All the stress for nothing! As Anthony and I rode back to the packing house, I stared into space. The mage had stayed back at the temple, where she belonged, while the three of us, including the carriage rider, headed back for the pack house.Anthony said nothing on our way to the pack house, which I was grateful for. Because the last thing I wanted to hear right now, was anybody's voice.The moon goddess placed a curse on Nightfang. For what reason? She didn't say. There was a condition to the curse. What condition? She still didn't say. How then would she want me to find out the condition of the curse or why she even placed the curse? I was starting to feel that not only was I cursed to be infertile, but I was also cursed to have a sad and miserable life. If not, I wouldn't have to suffer the way I was.I reached out to take the bottle of water and was offered it by Anthony. "Thank you."He nodded. He was such an amazing person, I was just not worthy of