Chapter 98

Chapter 98: Chapter 98

Chapter 98

Leo sent the message, but here’s my question: how did he know I’d know it was him?

The message, as glaring as it was to me that it came from Leo, I was pretty certain it wasn’t the same for Clawface, or else he wouldn’t have brought it to me. I imagined he’d be on his way to Kai right now to report the matter.

Anyway, as I sat on the open balcony, the air fanning my skin quite aggressively, with many strands of my hair fighting for their lives, I took the parchment in my grip and read the words again.

How did Leo do it? How did he smuggle a letter through Kai’s post office to me?

That was an insane move, if I was to have an opinion on the matter.

And the last of the message read: Find the vine from which the wax is made, and you’ll find your solution.

A frown settled on my forehead. Despite my trepidation, I resorted to listening to his order and proceeded.

Going back to the object in my hand, I took a piece of the wax. A nodule of it on my palm, I pressed my fingers against it and then utilised my powers.

With my eyes shut, I used the Aetherblood Resonance to locate the vines. My body projected as though my soul had migrated from the flesh, and I swayed through the air towards where the exact vine was.

The coarse texture in the wax belonged to this exact vine.

My eyes snapped open, and I rose to my feet, bending the air to my will. Ingrained in me was a momentary hesitation. I looked through the windowsill towards the door.

Outside was Clawface, wondering what I was up to. As silent as he was, my powers allowed me to feel him. He yearned to know my worry, but how could I tell him something like this?

Perhaps indeed I was a hypocrite who would handcuff Kai for making his decisions, but when the time came for me, I didn’t want to believe something bad about it.

Placing my awareness at a standoff, I set my feet at the edge. Embracing the air and allowing the flow to hit my face, I dropped. Gravity changed course, hurling me down, but then my lenses grew a shade of emerald green, and my hand pushed against the resistance, exerting a force of wind that helped me settle inches from the earth.

My feet hovered just above impact before I waved my hand in the opposite direction of my movement, allowing myself to float towards the forest behind the palace.

Next, the intentionality of my power sharpened my vision. In response, the forest brightened. The leaves glowed and the fruits glistened like filament bulbs. The tall trees acted like streetlights, illuminating the pathway as the earth itself glowed with a radiant yellow light.

It felt as euphoric as the spirit realm, channelling through the One Tree.

I arrived at the centre of the forest where the vine was located. While my body was physically within the woods, smaller and limited in what I could see or perceive, the power surging through my veins allowed for a broader view. I was more of a spectator than a simple observer.

Towards the south, the air shifted, and I spun around in a fragment of a second. My hand stretched out, and I froze that side of the forest. Time took a pause there.

Caught in the freeze was a man in a hood. His face was shadowed, his head tilted towards the earth in a suggestion that he was hiding his identity. I floated towards his direction, finally letting my feet touch the earth before I blew the rest of the air in my control towards him.

His cape billowed behind him, branches hurling into the distance behind him like a smaller version of a whirlwind had just occurred. The cape swayed out of place, exposing his face.

My first sight of him was his bald head, followed by the striking mark across his cheek. It dragged to the bridge of his nose.

He carried the gaze of a man who’d seen many wars and fought many battles.

"Who are you?" My voice was much colder and authoritative, the essence of all Aetherblood still flowing through me.

"Leo Steele of the House of Steele sent me," the man reported.

He unzipped the rest of the hood, letting it fall upon the grass as he ventured closer. Every movement of his was one I paid intricate attention to.

"I hadn’t come here for you. I don’t know you. I’m here for Leo. Where’s he hiding?"

"Hiding?" The man snorted, amused by what I hadn’t come to comprehend.

"Is something funny, Man in Hood?" I snapped as I raised my left hand.

"You’re the Mage Wolf who became the Luna of SilverFang. The Omega who had appeared weak and feeble, yet became the mother of the strongest withholding Pack in werewolf history. Leo indeed underestimated you." The man flipped out a dagger from the side pocket of his jeans, the metal scraping past the sheath.

"But trust me, I won’t be gentle with you." He finished.

I scoffed. I saw where Leo’s confidence came from.

Not only had he planned to kill me and I had used his own plans against him by merely being smarter than him, but he had written me a letter and sent an assassin to kill me.

The letter was a mixture of threat and plea. At least, that’s how I saw it. A threat where he’d ruin the House of Michaelson. If he couldn’t get to Kai or me as the moment limited him, he’d hurt people who hadn’t done him wrong. And a plea, where he’d called for me to come to the vine for a discussion.

While he believed the threat was why I’d come here, for me it was more to destroy him right here and now. Finally, it was time to direct all my anger and rage towards someone I once cherished who no longer deserved any kindness.

"You will die here, Mister. So at least tell me your name so I may bury you deep within the land," I muttered, and the man raised a brow.

"Ser Cavriel," he growled. "Fuck you..."

He sped towards me out of the blue.

The shadows carried his frame, migrating him from the distance to my front as though he had portaled himself. His speed was immaculate and flawless, his movement keen towards its end goal: to kill me.

But as he lurched for my throat, his claw inches away, I whirled a tentacle around his wrist, locking him in place. The vines grew sinisterly under my command, the entire forest mine to bend.

The earth split open, sinking the man in until his lower half was swallowed, and then I solidified the land, shifting it from mere sand to the weight of rock.

Having held him down, more vines pinned his arms, completely taming the monster who was growling before me.

"Is this all you can do?" I mocked as I stepped closer.

For the first time that night, I saw fear in the man’s eyes, the perfect catalyst for my next intention. A finger placed on his forehead, I muttered a spell,

"Yield your memory unto mine."

As weird as it sounded, I had been lucky. Just like Leo, he had also underestimated me. Though he was smart, he thought I didn’t see through the darkness of the night. As an Omega, I wasn’t supposed to. But he’d forgotten I wasn’t an ordinary Omega.

His memory became an open book for me to read through, and I found Leo’s hiding place. A cabin on the outskirts of the town before the House of Michaelson.

I could get there right now and end this at once.

The man’s mind was strong and withholding, causing a strain within me as I tried to read more. To know more about Leo’s weakness, but he wouldn’t give way.

"Don’t let me push further. You’ll die..."

Beads of sweat strolled down my forehead as I forced more of my way in. The man began to writhe in pain. His human side and wolf side felt the agony through an outward shriek of screams and roars.

Blood began to flow through the openings of his body. His ears, his nose, his lips, and his eyes.

But he wouldn’t stop resisting, and then I stopped.

I paused, taking careless steps back until my back hit an obstacle. I gasped as I watched the result of Ser Cavriel. His life force had been drained, and he’d completely gone back to his human form. His wolf placed the rest of its energy into ensuring the poor man remained alive. He was healing, but it was excruciatingly slow.

"I... I’m sorry," I mustered under my breath. "I didn’t know how... I didn’t think I’d..."

I turned to run away, to forget chasing after Leo or even becoming a murderer that night, and then the man’s phone rang in his pocket. My skin froze while my mind raced.

My heart thumped like a hammer piercing a nail into a wall, and I swallowed a large lump before mustering the courage to pick up the call.

The voice that spoke was unmistakably Leo’s.

"I told him you’d overpower him, but he can be overly self confident at times." He sounded defeated and certain that it wasn’t Ser Cavriel who had picked up.

"Don’t you ever contact me again nor threaten people of the House of Michaelson, or I’ll find you, and I’ll kill you."

"Then I believe you know the way to the cabin. Come. I must converse with you."

My harsh breathing was the only sound that followed.

"My door is open. Don’t stay long. The mosquitoes here are on some barbaric blood sucking shit."

I heard a chuckle from Leo before he hung up the call. Seriously? He was inviting me.

I stood in such a position that my face to the left looked towards the House of Michaelson and to the right looked deep into the woods. I could either end the long standing war between Leo and me tonight, or postpone it until later.

What choice did I choose?