His Little Ember • BOOK III

Chapter XV

“Well….dang.” I looked at the sight before us.

“I know...” Mallory said, shaking her head.

We all looked at the destruction that lay among us. The causes of what happened when the Southern Pack refused our help; well, more so, when their Alpha did not accept the Valley’s help. We had given Alpha Dyna another chance to figure his life out after we got Isla back but what I didn’t know, and soon found out when Isla contacted her brother, was that they captured him again once he tried to attack their pack. 

Isla walked among the shattered stones, picking up pieces of paper. “So, basically after the Dark War, he did absolutely nothing to get his pack in order again?” She sighed.

“Holy-- look….” Dion pointed over the hill and the view wanted to make me throw up. There were many bones; fallen werewolves, some adults, some who seemed like children. I looked at Mallory and she had hid Alaric’s face in her shoulder, her hand over her mouth. 

The two Alphas’ bodies were trembling. Anger? Fear? Both? I felt the same way. “He’s staying locked up in that cage till all of eternity.” Isla whispered, looking at the ground. 

West turned back towards the castle. “We’re finding that stupid map and then leaving.” Quickly, he wrapped his arm around her waist, kissing her forehead and whispered something in her ear that seemed to make her calm down a little.

I glanced back at the horrendous scene. A situation where two packs that had always been fighting with each other. When one finally shows mercy and the other is too prideful to accept, it leads to a travesty. The vampires and werewolves had always been hostile for centuries. Hopefully both sides would be willing to bow down for each other and not end up like this. 

Silence descended upon our group as we dug through the remains of the walls, looking at any remnants of scattered dining tablecloths or things that could be hidden underneath. The only part left of the building was the huge hallway that led to the Alpha’s office, however, it looked extremely creepy considering one side was cut in half and the other end was leading into utter darkness. 

Isla sighed, “Alright, West, Ariella, Kain and I will go into the office while Dion and Mallory will stay outside.”

“What?! Why do you get to do the fun stuff!” Mal exclaimed.

She cast her a glare, making the Delta immediately shut up. “Firstly, it’s getting dark out, so it’s better to have you keeping watch out with Dion. Secondly, you should think about your kid. At least you have him right with you.” 

The Goddess sighed. “I know you miss them. I will let you talk to them if you want to, I just think they will miss you more...in case anything happens. However, I will do this.” She put her hand on her Alpha’s cheek, closing her eyes, and a soft white glow came from her palm and surrounded the four of us that were going in, making me feel cool inside. “Extra protection, however it will only do so much if there is any dark magic left in there.” She whispered.

A shudder rose through me and I looked into the never-ending darkness that we were about to go into. Great. Clutching the strap of my bag of arrows tighter to me, we slowly walked in. 

The obsidian-colored cobblestone lined what was left of the castle. Kain lit a torch as we began to go deeper and deeper away from the natural light. Suddenly, Isla stopped at two wooden doors and struggled to pull them open. Once she did, they soon collapsed off their hinges making her yelp in surprise. 

This was his office and it was all intact, most likely protected from magic as seen that none of the windows were even cracked one bit. There was a black sofa and a fireplace. Looking around, my eye caught a piano and bingo, a bookcase near the wall. 

“West, check to see if he has any protection spell over this shelf first. I don’t want my fingers cut off and see if there is any cloaking spell as well.” Isla asked.

I looked at her then at the bookcase. “You think he would do that?”

“After the war and everything? Oh heck yeah.” 

Her mate started to do his work on it and I hoped that we would find something, otherwise where else could we turn to? 

He then smiled and said, “We don’t even have to search ourselves. Despite it being years ago, Dyna had a map right in front of us.” W pulled out a red book with a crumpled up parchment paper. The paper had a bunch of intricate symbols that seemed to be in a different language on the top. On the bottom it had the image of the valley, the mountains and an ‘X' sign.

He put it out on the floor and started to translate the key, pouring multiple bottles on it. West then halted while he looked down. Uh oh. Something wasn’t right. 

“What’s wrong?” 

“Apparently Dyna really did work with some people rather than just by himself. The thing is, the map seems to be following some place else opposite of where Kain and Fay are leading us to.” We turned to look at them raising our eyebrows and they raised their hands up in defense.

“Hey, as soon as we entered this Blood Rose’s Pack territory, then our own destination was completely thrown off the charts. Don’t blame us!” Fay exclaimed, flying and settling down on my shoulder.

“Let’s go.”