"Do you think we did the right thing?" Rob voice flooded from behind me.
We were walking down a dark tunnel with me leading the way and him loitering in the back. Our footsteps echoed through the bare walls, creating an eerie feeling. The only source of light we had was the one coming from the flashlights in our hands.
"Don't be a baby." I mocked him, but we both knew I didn't really mean it. He now had someone else he needed to think of. "Sorry. I'm sure Zara won't hold it against you that we left without telling her. If she does, you can blame it all on me."
"I'm not worried about Zara," Rob scoffed.
For a second his answer confused me as I couldn't understand why he wouldn't be worried about her. Then I remembered just who Zara was. Even us witches knew that werewolf mates shared a mind connection that was similar to the werewolf's mind-link. It allowed them to communicate through their thoughts no matter the distance between them.
"I'm talking about Mom. She'll be worried when she learns we're missing."
I came to an abrupt stop and spun around to face him. I couldn't believe that while Rob was living in a castle crawling with werewolves, it was his mother's anger he was worried about.
"Don't worry." I rolled my eyes. "I'm sure we'll be back before she even notices we're gone. Besides, Vivian caught me sneaking off, so I had no choice but to tell her where we'd be going."
We were deep underneath the werewolf castle in a labyrinth of underground tunnels. The moment Rob had revealed their existence to me, I forgot about everything else. There was no way I would miss an opportunity for an adventure like this.
The tunnels were much narrower than I expected, just wide enough for a single person. Luckily, at least the ceiling was high enough, so neither of us had to crouch while walking. Despite the darkness, I didn't miss the spider webs that covered the corners and the ceiling of every inch of the tunnels.
From Zara, we had learned that they had been built by the daughter of one of the previous Alpha Kings. As story had it, her mate had been a lower-ranked werewolf, which is why her family opposed to their relationship. The tunnels then became the only way for the daughter to sneak off to meet her mate.
What Zara couldn't tell us, however, was where exactly the tunnels ended. Which is why the two of us were now down here, searching for an exit.
Blinking a couple of times to come back to the present, I turned around and began walking forward.
"Viv told me you refuse to talk about it, but I still have to try," Rob said after a moment of silence. "Where were you these past five years?"
"I wish I could, Rob. I really do." A lump formed in my throat as I thought back to how they must have felt not knowing if I was even alive. "But I can't tell you."
"You didn't even come to Dad's funeral."
I dug my toes into the tips of my shoes and came to an abrupt stop. In the next second I whirled around and shone my flashlight into his face. "Do you really think I don't wish things could have been different? I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to either of my parents... I know the way I left wasn't fair to any of you. But I couldn't, Rob. I just couldn't."
A treacherous tear escaped from the corner of my eye, and I harshly wiped it off into my sleeve. Without another glance at him, I turned back around and moved onward. The last thing I needed right now was to slip through the portal into the memories of my past.
"I'm sorry," Rob mumbled after a few silent steps.
He had no idea how much I sometimes wished to unburden myself onto another living creature. To be able to share what really happened. Someday... Maybe someday I'd be able to talk about it.
Absolute silence surrounded us as we continued to walk for another ten minutes. At first, I kept telling myself it was just my mind playing ticks with me. The farther we went though, the stronger my gut feeling pushed against my stomach. Until I finally couldn't deny the hunch anymore.
We were lost.
When Rob had first mentioned the tunnels to me, I expected a single tunnel leading out of the castle. What actually awaited us down here, however, was a labyrinth of tunnels and crossings.
Not even half a minute later, I gave up. I stopped and leaned against the nearest wall, ignoring the thin spider webs that entangled into my hair and clothes. I was too tired to continue. "This was a stupid idea."
"It was your idea." Rob stopped a step behind me while avoiding touching any of the spider webs.
I shone my flashlight at him and expected to find him even more uneasy than I felt. He had, after all, a mate to think of. Instead he wore a blank expression that could almost be described as bored.
"Aren't you worried that we might be stuck down here for days?" I ran my free hand up and down the other arm, trying to create some friction. Now that we had stopped the coldness of our surrounding was starting to bite into my skin.
"No, I'm sure Zara will find us sooner or later."
At the mention of his mate a light bulb ignited inside my head. Of course. Zara was a werewolf, which made it possible for her to locate us using our scents. And it was even more likely that Rob had already mind-linked her for help.
However, minutes ticked by and nothing happened. No one came hurrying down the tunnel to save us. And the longer we stood there, the fiercer the bites of the cold grew. Despite wearing a long-sleeved shirt, it was still made out of a thin material that did nothing to keep me warm.
My patience snapped and I decided to do this another way. But first I needed to distract Rob. "How do you think your girlfriend will be able to find us down here?"
"I...hmm..." Instant realization flickered in his eyes. He couldn't possibly explain his statement; not without exposing the supernatural world.
To make things even more uncomfortable, I kept both my flashlight and my eyes focused straight on him. As expected, it didn't take him long to move a few steps farther down the tunnel.
"Why don't we give the search another shot?" He kept his back to me.
Without complaining, I disentangled myself from the spider webs and followed his lead. I made sure he was facing away from me when I took in a deep breath. Then I allowed the always shimmering magic to break through the surface of the barrier that the masking potion created.
I almost laughed at how easy it was. No matter how much time passed, summoning magic still felt like coming home after a long trip. Because my affinity was air magic, there was only one way I could think of doing this.
With Rob still walking in front of me, I extended my hand and allowed my magic to form into a swirl of air. A strong burst of wind shot from my palm and caused Rob to stumble as it clashed against his back.
"What the—" He barely stopped himself from tumbling down to the ground.
While he struggled to regain his balance, I felt the burst of air travel forward. It spread among the various tunnels until it reached a hole it could escape through.
This could only mean one thing. An exit.
"What was that?" Rob spun around.
"What was what?"
"The push. Did you just push me?"
"I didn't push you. All I saw was you stumbling." I felt bad for lying to him, but there was no other way out of this. "Come on." I pushed past him and began walking into the direction I felt the air flee.
"I'm telling you..." He continued while following me.
In less than five minutes we reached a metallic ladder, which ended with a latch on the ceiling. Because I was the first one to reach it, I lifted my foot onto the first step. However, Rob pushed me away before I could do anything else.
"A guy should do this," he murmured while already hallway up the ladder.
I rolled my eyes at his behavior and continued to observe him as he reached the latch. He grabbed onto the circular handle. No matter how hard he pushed, however, the metal refused to budge.
Just as before I extended my right hand and the moment he tried to lift the latch again, I sent another swirl of air at him. This time the latch flew open with a loud bang, sending a fresh gush of air pushing down into the tunnel.
"We're free." Rob began climbing up the rest of the ladder.
While he was busy doing that, I grabbed the necklace with the half-a-pinkie sized flask and popped it open. Without wasting a second I poured the four drops down my throat.
"Come on." Rob's voice came from the top.
I allowed the now empty flask to sink back down to the other necklaces while I climbed up the ladder. Rob offered me his hand when I was high enough and with his help I finally reached the surface.
"How did you know where to find the exit?"
"Lucky guess." I shrugged while observing our surroundings.
I shouldn't have been too surprised to discover that we had found ourselves in the middle of a forest. And without a single interesting thing surrounding us. Nothing but boring trees.
"Let's go back to the castle. I'm sure dinner will start soon," Rob said.
Wordlessly I followed his lead, hoping he knew where he was taking us.
While walking, I let my fingers graze the now empty flask, reminding myself that I would need to refill it later. The moment I had used the wind spell, the masking potion had stopped working. It was one of the drawbacks of the said potion. It meant I could never use magic in the presence of werewolves as they would instantly see through my lie.
Less than ten minutes later, we arrived in the castle dining room, both of us more than just starving.
"You two are in sooo much trouble," Vivian sang the words the moment we entered.
The only other person inside the room was Judy who jumped to her feet and marched over to us. She positioned herself in between the two of us and pinned us to our spots with her narrowed eyes. "Of all the stupid things to do."
Just like that, we were back to being ten and twelve, being scolded for our little trip to the beach. Or any of the other times the two of us got into trouble.
"What were you thinking? Going into the underground tunnels on your own? You could have got lost or hurt. And now Zara, along with Hanim and some others, are searching the tunnels for the two of you. You two need to inform someone that they can stop the search."
I blinked at the mention of Theo searching for us. Zara I could understand, but not Theo. He didn't have a single reason why he would want to find us.
Because Rob shared a mate connection with Zara, I left the task of informing the werewolves of our return to him. This meant I was left to deal with an angry Judy.
"We're sorry." I tried to sound as apologetic and humble as possible. "We didn't mean to worry anyone or to cause any kind of trouble. We just wanted to see where the tunnels lead to."
"You could have at least told me where you were going." Some of Judy's anger had already settled. "Instead, we were all sitting here, wondering where the two of you were. And I'm not sure anyone is really allowed into these tunnels. Hanim was furious when Vivian told him where the two of you had gone off to. You both need to apologize to him."
"We will," Rob said. "We're sorry, Mom."
Finally, we were allowed to sit down. The moment my butt reached the soft cushion, however, the door flew wide open. Theo appeared in the doorway with his legs planted wide apart. His normally straight shirt was crumbled and the sleeves were rolled up to his elbow. Even his collar was softly open, showing the meeting point of both his clavicles.
"We—" Rob jumped back to his feet.
Theo's eyes though, glided right past him and settled on me. Even from the distance I could see a flash of silver in his otherwise dark eyes.
Then I caught Zara stopping a step behind him. A deep crease was resting in between her eyebrows as she watched Rob stutter and make his way closer to Theo.
"It's all my fault, I—"
Without another thought I jumped off my chair and rushed over to Rob. I stopped right beside him and clasped my hand over his mouth. "Don't listen to him. It was all my idea." Better he blamed me than Rob.
Theo wordlessly walked over to us where he continued to tower over the two of us. He looked like he was about to grab a fistful of our shirts and lift us off the ground with our feet dangling a few inches off the floor.
"Don't you ever again do something so reckless and stupid." His voice was ice-cold, but it wasn't the ear-piercing shouting I expected. "Or I'll make sure you're never able to leave the castle again."
I blinked, trying to comprehend if this was really it. Somehow I expected more of an angry snarl and a booming voice from him.
He lifted his hand and looked like he was about to grasp my shoulder before he suddenly pulled away. He stared at his own hand as if it would have been the end of the world had his royal skin made contact with mine. Then without another word he clasped his hand into a tight fist and stormed out of the room.
Zara stepped out of his way just in the nick of time before he would send her sprawling to the ground. I expected her to be as angry as Theo was. Instead, she wore a different kind of expression. Her wider than normal eyes kept flickering between me and the hallway, where Theo had disappeared of to. And to make me feel even more uneasy, a slow smile settled across her lips.
A secret smile that was screaming she knew something I didn't.
***
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