Willow

Chapter 23: The Hunt (Part 2)

Micah encircled his arms around me and held me to him. We remained like that until we regained our breath and we both remembered we were supposed to be hunting.

"So what do you say to a joint alias?" he asked, shaking the snow from his hair. Mine was flowing down my back in wet tendrils that looked scarily close to those of Medusa. 

"Now? In the middle of the game?" 

"Yeah, why not. We are mates," he smirked boyishly, "well that's what the hickeys on your neck say."

I groaned and rubbed my neck as I felt the tender spots. Werewolves healed fast but if our mates leave a mark it stays a while. The bite that would brand us for life was different and permanent but things like love-bites healed at a human pace. Similarly if your mate was abusive, Selene ensured that it would show.

"I hate you, fine." I conceded, "what do we have to do? The aura led me hear so I'm assuming it's either under water or behind the very frozen waterfall."

Micah shrugged, but decided to go back to the soul realm while I stayed guard. 

"It's resonating from the waterfall," he said when he returned, "I don't know how or why but that's where it's coming from."

Suddenly something that the Princes talked about came to mind, "The passages! Micah, Prince Leonardo said that they used to play in passages that lead through the territory."

"That could be it. I'll scout the top border of the waterfall and you take below."

And so we both shifted and I let Violet take control. She carefully bounded around the frozen and still moving water, burying her nose to catch a scent. If it was a tunnel the scent we were looking for would be of musty air and earth. So far all we were catching was wet snow. 

An exited yip sounded from above and Violet immediately bounded to her mate. Raagen was digging into the snow, his tail wagging in the air. We sniffed and realized that he'd caught the scent we were looking for. But it also smelt different. It was a foreign scent. We immediately didn't trust it. 

Violet joined Raagen and started to dig us well but she was more cautious that the overexcited male wolf next to her. After what felt like a good half an hour of digging through snow, our paws hit a metal surface with a loud clang. Violet whined as the sound irritated our ears but buried her nose against it anyway. The scent was wafting from whatever was beneath this and we definitely couldn't fit through in this form. She yipped something I didn't understand towards Raagen and relented control to me. I quickly headed behind a tree and shifted pulling on my clothes again. I seriously wouldn't have bothered if it weren't for the the fact that my mate was in viewing distance and me naked would definitely cause problems. 

Micah had already yanked open the metal door when I returned and was quizzically looking down.

"I can't see anything, even through Raagen's eyes." he stated, clearly displeased.

"Do you smell it?"

"The other scent? Yeah. What is it?"

"I don't know," I answered kneeling next to the hole, "I've never smelt it before and I don't think it belongs here."

"Do we jump?" he asked inching forward.

"See you soon, darling." I stated as I jumped in, a panicked and annoyed growl following me as I fell.

This is what Alice must've felt like, I thought as I fell. Relatively speaking I would've been falling past about four floors of a building by now. My senses warned me that ground was approaching and I positioned myself for the impact. As soon as the floor touched my feet, I crouched and rolled, the momentum propelling me forward. 

As I stood up I heard a thud behind me and turned to find Micah rolling towards me. With a startled squeak I jumped out of the way and ended up laughing at myself. 

Micah stood and glared at me, "You're crazy!" He declared before coming and pulling me to a hug, "I'm going to get grey hairs before I turn forty if this continues!"

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, still laughing, my voice muffled against his chest.

He finally let me go and the two of us took in our surroundings. It was some sort of cave and by the look of it we were behind the waterfall. Sun rays were barely filtering through the thickly frozen water, illuminating the space around us. The cave walls consisted of dark black stone and glittered with the water dripping off it. A few unsteady icicles had formed here and there and I advised Micah to stray away from them. Besides where we fell from there was only one other opening and we both came to an unconscious decision to explore it. This time Micah insisted on going ahead of me. It was much darker in the tunnel and we had to step cautiously, using the walls to guide us. Everything was so slippery and the two of us stumbled and landed on our asses more than once. 

All of a sudden Micah stopped and I barely avoided from crashing into him.

"Willow..." he said in a daze, "Willow, you- I- you have to see this."

I peeked from around him and my breath caught at what I saw.

There were thousands of them. No millions and billions. Tiny bio-luminescent worms bathed the cave in blue light and it was so utterly breathtaking. Then I saw the center. 

"Micah- that's a- it's a-" I couldn't even say it.

"It's a fae." he whispered and the two of us moved towards the rock table. On it was a cage the size of a water bottle and trapped in it was a small fluttering creature.

I lowered myself so I was in eye-level with it and that's when it's beauty struck me. It appeared to be male and had snow white hair pulled back in a low pony tail, revealing big icy blue eyes. Its skin was almost white and glowed with a light of its own. It wore a tattered piece of cloth around its thin frame and I suddenly felt an overwhelming sadness. Its blue eyes gazed into my amethyst orbs and I felt as if it was gazing at Violet as well. 

"Well are you just gonna stare at me all day?"