"My name is Agatha. I am a Wiccan."
Nobody says a word at first. Stunned into silence at the disclosure.
You feel Jimin's calming, yet protective hand come around your waist, pulling you close to his side as if he wants to shield you from harm this way. You look around, finding everyone in the group exchanging nervous glances before they all turn to Jackson. Everyone, including you, seems to be giving him a curious look, wondering what the Hunter may be secretly sharing with this Wiccan. Meanwhile, Jackson merely raises his brows when he finally notices the attention, and realises quickly that everyone has questions for him.
Only that nobody knows where to start.
"Well, I guess there really was no need for us to hustle," he says, wincing slightly when he feels the suspicious look coming from Jimin. No doubt asking him silently to explain just what the Wiccan had meant with what she said earlier.
"You've kept them together just like what I had asked of you."
But as the echo of her words come into your head, you could already understand just exactly what she was talking about even before Jackson begins to speak.
"This is the Wiccan that I told you guys about," Jackson says to both you and Jimin, knowing that if there is anyone within the group that would need further explanation, then it would be the two of you. "Just like what I had told you, I stumbled upon a family of Wiccans while I was trying to track down ______'s location, and Agatha here agreed to help me." He turns to Agatha with an unreadable look on his face when he adds, "Of course, not without a few terms and conditions for me to follow."
"Such as?" Jimin questions him, sounding stern even without any indictment lacing his tone of voice. The fact that Jackson stiffens under his glare is another matter.
"Taking you with me is the first term she asked of me, and for making sure that ______ and I will come with you. I wasn't lying when I told you about all the promises she made in exchange for your escape. I just didn't tell you that I had to make sure to keep the two of you together at all times since I had no idea what she was planning to do," Jackson explains while forcing himself to stay calm. Right then, his eyes fall on the mating mark glowing on your shoulder, and an understanding look appears on his face. "Though now I finally understand the reason why."
Jimin visibly relaxes beside you, possibly knowing that Jackson has never harboured any ill will despite keeping a secret from everyone. Though your Vampire mate still seems to be wary of the Wiccan's presence as he turns his attention to her.
"The message you gave to Jackson which he told me about—the one that you said was from Lord Laila. Was it true?"
Agatha calmly nods, showing her respect to Jimin by keeping her head low. It becomes a sign that she knows just who Jimin truly is and something which leads Junhoe to slowly stand his guard down. "It is true. As I had told the Hunter."
"What is it? What did our Lord say?" Junhoe speaks, curiosity lacing his voice when he comes to Jimin's side.
"I'm afraid that it is not for me to say," is all that Agatha says, while the Vampires exchange more curious glances to each other.
"What does that suppose to mean?" Jimin asks again, growing more impatient by the minute.
"I was not the one who had been sent the message to," Agatha begins to speak, only to have Junhoe cutting her off.
"But you said—"
He speaks no further as the Wiccan raises her hand, stopping him with an answer, "But I do have the messenger. Which is the reason why you must come with me." She has her eyes on Jimin, pointing him out as she says this. She looks around at the group, smiling patiently at everyone who is present before regarding Jimin once again. "And I invite your entourage to join you as well. My warm home would serve you well as a place to rest for the night."
Jimin clenches his jaw. He glances at you quickly to question your decision only to find you shaking your head slightly, not knowing what to say. Both of you turn to Jackson for a change, for he is the only one here that may know just what to do. "Can we trust her?"
Jackson shrugs. "She did show me how to find you," he says. "And let's not forget that we've come a long way that it would be a shame to just change our minds about meeting her. Especially when she is already here."
A collective sound of deep sighs and groans is heard for a moment and you catch the Wiccan stifling a smile just as the Hunter states the obvious. "With all due respect, I suppose I am obliged to let you know that I have no secrets lying in wait. You can trust me," she says, looking straight at you while holding her gaze down in submission, once again showing her knowledge of your true identity.
You feel your wolf bristling inside your head before she pushes through the barrier, allowing herself to take over your body so she could speak up. "I don't trust witches," she says to the Wiccan in your voice.
"Oh, believe me, I know," the witch, or—if she really was telling the truth about who she is—the Wiccan says. "Werewolves had claimed to hate Witches, especially the ones from the Old Covens, because they think that we have no morals and we are lacking all the family values that wolves strongly hold onto. But the Wiccans are different. We are a part of the White Witches, while at the same time, we are also not. We have no business with the Witches and Warlocks that tend to act superior against all Supernatural beings, and we have no interest in ever joining them in playing around with all their magic and curses—" she explains this with much disdain that you are beginning to question if she and the other Wiccans which she belongs to may have some strife with those who are with white magic, or perhaps with other white covens. You wouldn't even be surprised if they do, knowing that the people of magic have always loved to meddle with things that aren't exactly their business. The Wiccan continues to speak just as you keep wondering about this, calmly convincing you and the rest of the group to follow her.
"If you would kindly come with me to our coven, perhaps you will be able to learn that we are much—different, compared to the people of the other covens that you may have encountered with in the past."
You feel your wolf pushing against your conscience once more, and you let her take over your body so she could speak to this Wiccan on your behalf. "We'll see about that, witch."
The Wiccan raises her eyebrows, looking amused as she responds with her own remarks, "Oh, indeed you will see, wolf."
Your wolf scoffs inside your head, yet her voice sounds calm when she speaks out loud for the last time before she finally retreats. "Now that is the first time I have a witch not regard me as a dog. That's a good change, I'll give you that. Since I know that your kind has always despised us almost the same way we've grown accustomed in loathing the likes of you. But that doesn't mean I will trust you so easily. Not until you can prove to me otherwise."
"It would be foolish of me to be disrespectful to a powerful Alpha female," the Wiccan—Agatha—says, bowing respectively your way, and you can feel your wolf straightening herself all so smugly inside your head. "I would rather make sure to keep my neck from being snapped apart before having a chance to show you what I need you to see. And even if you make no move to hurt me once I've failed to show you that I am trustworthy or whenever I fail to show you my respect, I am positively sure that your mate would."
Jimin smirks as the Wiccan regards him. "I positively would do just that indeed."
By the time Agatha had finished talking, it is clear that everyone is starting to trust the Wiccan a bit more. But after everything that you and the others have gone through, everyone is still treading things carefully as they try to make out the situation, all keeping their questions to themselves while looking back and forth between you and Jimin as if both of you would be the ones who have the answers.
"Why did you decide to leave your home to come to us out here?" Jimin finally asks her, only after he remembers how private Wiccans normally would. Those who are familiar to her kind would know that they always prefer to stay away in hiding, only interfering with the world outside of their covens when their help is truly needed.
As they are rarely trained to fight in battles, most of their expertise are used in keeping the peace, in healing, or in solving a plight or disorderly that may pose a threat in disturbing peace within the realm.
Agatha gives your mate a smile as she once again answers him so willingly with a stern calmness. "One of my expertise that I have been trained myself with is clairvoyance. Ever since you have left the Cursed Forest, I have been watching your steps, following every single move you have made. And I have seen all the turmoils that you have met along the way."
This fact raises many brows, yet only Jimin's voice that breaks the silence as he questions her, "And you didn't think to help?"
Agatha's lips spread to a smile. You can faintly hear the chuckle that she is trying to suppress before she covers it with her calm voice. "My direct interference on your trials would only get in the way of Fate's doing," she simply says, though without any further explanation. Once again leaving her words hanging in the air for everyone else to decipher. Only that there is no need for anyone to say it out loud as you reach up, touching the fresh mating mark marring your skin.
"You needed to make sure that we bonded. For the mating to happen," your deduction comes so easily when you finally understand her purpose. "You knew about us before we found each other."
Agatha nods. "I saw it in my vision. Two powerful entities would meet and bond, and their joining would be consequential for the future that is to come," she says, before explaining further, "The difficulties that you were forced to face after your meeting had been parts of your pathway to certify your bonding. If there had been other hands to interfere with it, then the bond would have never formed."
"And yet you're here to meet us before we finally arrive at your place." It is one of the things that you have been wondering about while you were listening to her speak. She had held herself back from getting involved in your trouble, and yet, just as you are merely another step closer to her home, she had finally chosen to come to fetch you herself. Why? "Is it because the mating has happened?"
"Precisely," Agatha says while her lips spread into a smile. The kind of smile that is wide with secrets and darkness and something cold. "Fate has taken its course, and while it means that my interference will no longer come in the way of your destiny, it is time for me to take action to make sure that nothing else will stand in your way of finishing your calling."
"What do you mean?" Jimin questions her, and she begins to talk about the battles that you had to go through to finally arrive at this place.
"The threats and dangers you have come across are still following you. Your pursuers—" she says, nodding at you and Jimin, before turning to Jackson. "And yours."
"The Hunters," Jackson mutters low, yet doesn't seem surprised by the news.
You already know that he has been tracking the Hunters that had ambushed you before, harming Jimin in the process, while making sure that none of you would leave any trail behind for them to follow, yet you had been expecting to hear from them anytime soon. It is the fact that you still have more wolves on pursuit to follow your tracks even after you had defeated the team of pursuers you encountered before that shakes you up. But most surprisingly, is that Jimin also has his own pursuers following him when he is out here, trying to figure out how to defeat them after he had lost a huge part of his family who was supposed to be by his side.
The question is—how are they tracking you down?
Where are they now?
Why haven't you seen them? Could it be that they have been lurking, watching, waiting for the right moment to reveal themselves?
As you feel Jimin's shoulders straightening and Junhoe suddenly turns to scan your surroundings, you find that you are not the only one wondering about the same thing.
"Are you meaning to say that you're here to protect us?" Jackson asks her, already placing his hand on his gun as if the battle is already nearby. Meanwhile, Agatha is still standing there on her spot looking peaceful and calm, even after dropping all the bomb.
"I am here to make sure that you are able to reach my home without any other trouble getting in the way," she answers him. "And to show you the best way to do it. The pathway that you have chosen has always been the best route, the safest way you could choose from to reach our coven, but since there had been villagers making their way to us in the past season, it would make it easy for your pursuers to track you down and find out just where you are heading. There is another way that only the people from our coven has the knowledge of. A secret passage way. Safer, shorter, and I am here to lead you through it to make sure that you are to arrive at the coven safe and sound, and much faster. You have gotten through so much already, and you need to save up your energy for the future battles that are way more important compared to these trifling hindrance."
In a way, she is completely right. The battles that you had gotten into had drained most of your energy, as you had been forced to use your powers only shortly after they had been unrestrained from the curse. Looking around you, as the look of distrust in everyone's eyes slowly fade into determination, you see them slowly admitting the truth in the Wiccan's words. It is obvious that Agatha had caught on to the change in their manners, as she gives another broad smile.
"Come with me. The coven will serve as the best shelter and hiding place for now. Everyone there has also been anxiously waiting for the two of you." Agatha keeps a positive tone in her voice as she says this. Then she turns to Jimin, showing a secret in her smile when she adds, "She has also been expecting you there."
"She?" Jimin looks flabbergasted and more confused than ever, yet the Wiccan offers no explanation as she already turns around, ready to lead the way even before the whole group openly agrees to follow.
Behind her, Jimin exchanges a quick questioning glance at Junhoe, who seems just as lost as he is as they both try to figure out what the Wiccan may have been trying to say. As the three of you look at each other behind the Wiccan's back, you silently share the same question running in your heads as they do.
Who is this 'she'?
Is it the 'Lord Laila' that Jimin had been talking about?
But nobody has the answer. Nobody else but the Wiccan who is already pacing slowly towards the line of trees nearby, as if she already knows that everyone will follow without her looking back over her shoulder to see it. Leaving everyone to finally make a move, following the Wiccan's path with both you and Jimin leading the way.
The Wiccan seems to glide over the earth with the way she walks.
She keeps the same stern calmness in her pace as she walks steadily on the uneven ground. Not even a stumble stops her even as she steps on gravels and stones, no sign of her wavering as she continues walking ahead of the others through the overgrown grass and, sometimes, thick branches curtaining the way from the surrounding trees.
You have been following her close behind until you fall a step behind from Jimin, letting him walk ahead with Junhoe as they converse telepathically about what they are about to discover, knowing that whatever information the Wiccan is keeping may have anything to do with his upcoming war. You choose to let them have that moment, while you match your footsteps with your old friend who has been walking without a word—though you soon realise that he had barely spoken even when the Wiccan had first arrived to meet the group earlier—while keeping a deep frown on his face.
"You have been silent," you whisper to him softly as you walk alongside him.
Taehyung keeps his attentive gaze on the Wiccan as he trudges ahead, keeping his voice low when he answers. "While everyone else are capable of gaining answers directly through speaking with her, I chose to observe. That is what I do best."
You raise a brow. "And what have your keen observation found for us?"
He takes one last careful glance at the Wiccan before he answers you. "I saw her mark, right on her right wrist," he says, turning to you when he continues to explain with a low voice. "It was the Peacekeepers' mark. You must have heard of them."
You nod your head, glad to have him pointing it out as you remember seeing that mark when she was talking earlier. "I most certainly have," you tell him as you recall a few occasions in the past where you have seen them through your journeys. "I had once thought they were nothing but a myth when my father first talked about them, until I met a few of them on one of my trips."
Taehyung chuckles softly, though the sound appears more bitter than what he had intended. "Trust me. They are just as real as most of us."
You bite your lips as you look ahead, watching her back as she seems oblivious to the conversations flowing behind her back. Though after knowing what she is completely capable of, you are beginning to wonder if she is feigning ignorance while pretending to have no knowledge of what the people are talking about.
Yet you still keep your voice down to a whisper when you ask Taehyung, "So what do you think? Can we trust her?"
Taehyung's frown deepens for a fraction of a second. "I don't know. My pack have worked together with the Peacekeepers before and nothing bad had ever happened. But the only one I have come to know from the community had only been the Mage that leads them, Mage Cian. He has been helping my pack for many years, though he hasn't been around for the past few," he says as he matches your footsteps. "His goddaughter is the mate of our Beta, and she is the only one who still keeps in contact with him while she carries on to take his role as the pack's consul in his absence."
Your eyes have been on the Wiccan the entire time as you are listening to Taehyung speak, so you can see it right as it happens. The way her shoulders stiffen briefly, her back straightening as if she is stricken right the moment Taehyung mentions about Mage Cian, and then again when he talks about the Beta's mate. The slightest of movements may have slipped other people's eyes, but it never escaped yours. It further confirms your suspicion of her listening in to your conversation even from the fair distance—and with two Vampires walking between you—while raising more questions, wondering if she is somehow connected directly to any of your packs.
A tingle appears at the back of your head. It rises like a hum before it gets stronger, and you ease down the barrier, knowing that it is Jimin using his powers to get inside your head so he could speak to you.
'Are you done talking with your partner?'
You hear his chuckle echoing inside your head. 'Yes,' he says. 'Our little chat has been quite—illuminating.'
His playful tone brings a smile to your face, yet you stifle it the best you could. 'Care to share?'
His soft hum is what you hear first before his answer comes. 'Perhaps. But the Wiccan has been listening in to our conversation.'
You flatten your lips, hating not knowing just how she is making it possible to listen to two sets of conversation at the same time. And why she is doing it when she had convinced everyone to trust her. 'And ours,' you reveal to him, and you can feel his discomfort coming out in waves.
'Who is this female that she was talking about?' you ask again, deciding to change the topic while bringing it to the point that you can have some answers.
'I wish I know. I have a few suspicions but I don't want to have hopes.'
You say nothing after hearing this, feeling his discomfort blending in with a hint of his sadness, longing, and while Jimin had explained to you just who Lord Laila had meant to him, you cannot deny that there is a hint of jealousy burning inside your chest.
'You are scared.'
You exhale a deep sigh. 'I have reasons to be.'
Even if you can only see Jimin's back as you continue walking a few steps behind, you can still sense his smile when he sends his thoughts again. 'No, you don't. There is never a thing to worry about. You are my mate.'
'And you are mine,' you respond to him rather quickly, not being able to stop yourself. Not even able to hold back the growl that comes with it. 'As long as whoever it is we're seeing wouldn't be in our way.'
This time, the Wiccan no longer hides the fact that she has been listening to your conversations. Not even when you are conversing with Jimin through your minds. With a smug smile, the Wiccan shows you her ability as she looks over her shoulder, sending a smile your way. Her voice comes as an echo inside your head—and definitely inside Jimin's head too because his whole body grows stiff when you hear her voice in your head, saying—
'Don't you worry, you'll find out about her soon. And I can assure you that this meeting will serve no threat to your bond, whatsoever.'
While you feel an odd sense of relief after hearing her words, you also feel a slight dread, something that you are sharing with Jimin. You know this because you can feel it, the waves of his discomfort that he has been emitting rising into rage. And it is also clear that he is not enjoying the fact that the Wiccan is capable of mimicking his ability to send thoughts and words into another person's head. When he speaks out his protest, it is not through the telepathic way he has been conversing with you and Junhoe, but openly speaking out loud for everyone to hear as he snarls,
"Get out of our heads."
✣✣✣
The forest keeps growing thicker, the ground keeps ascending, and the Wiccan continues to pace steadily through her secret path.
She had warned about the possibilities of having your pursuers tracking you down—not just yours, but also those who had been following Jimin's tracks and the Hunters that may want to avenge their defeat against Jackson—and everyone has been on high alert ever since as the entire group follow closely behind the Wiccan in the final journey of reaching her home. But the measured silence has grown even thicker in the group as the journey continues, leaving only the steady sound of footsteps against gravels, wet grass, and soil to fill in the space around you.
You take a quick look over your shoulder when you notice that the young Hunter had gone silent during the journey even while the other has been conversing with one another on the earlier part of the trip. Jackson is walking at a slow pace while staying close on your tail as he guards your backs, all while scouting your surroundings with his keen eyes. The Wiccan had convinced him to leave his motorcycle behind at one point of the trip, hidden between the hedges and giant trees and buried under thick branches—added with her shielding spell to veil it from plain sight—to make it easier for him and everyone else to move stealthily through this journey. He had only agreed to leave his vehicle behind after the Wiccan had promised to send one of her disciples to retrieve it in the morning, and only after she had casted the shielding spell on it.
Now, as you are pacing up on the ascending hill, it is becoming clear that everyone has grown more intense. Most obviously Jackson. Agatha had halted in her tracks right before the group began going up the hill, reminding him on how some Hunters had once reached the other pathway heading to her home before. And while this secret pathway is still hidden from plain sight, there was an abandoned safe house not too far away, one which may have slipped Jackson's knowledge, and there is a part of the path at the front which will come across the main pathway, where her disciples had once seen them lurking around.
"The same group of Hunters you had encountered appeared there last summer, and two summers before then. Their intentions were never clear, but whatever it was that had attracted them then had made it obvious that it is possible that they know about our hiding place, though they have never managed to actually find their way to us. Make sure to move carefully. You never know if they are already there right now, waiting for you, since we all know they have been tracking you down after your last combat."
You take a good look at your surroundings just as the group almost reaches the spot where Agatha had pointed as the crossing path. The forest around you is dark, even with the moonlight shining brightly through the night. Thick trees and crooked branches veil the crack openings that may give away whatever is lurking from deep within the woods. Your eyes can see well through the darkness and there is no doubt that Jimin does even better, the ability that perhaps Jackson may not be able to compare.
But being the only person among the group who had lived and breathed under the Hunters' rules, Jackson is the only one who truly understands well about how they work, how they make their moves. No doubt giving him the advantage of catching any suspicious movements happening around him much better than you ever could. So you choose to put your trust in his ability to keep you and the rest of the group safe by letting him take a moment to inspect the surrounding area before the group can continue further by moving ahead with the Wiccan.
"See anything?" you question him after he is done scouting the area around you.
"No, but I won't be too lenient with them after that last fight we had. They would retreat to recover from the blow we gave them, but there is no way they are stopping. Not when they already found out whose side I am in."
"I don't smell anything," you murmur softly as you look around, suppressing the guilt that you suddenly feel now knowing that Jackson's disloyalty has been revealed. Mostly because you know that you were also the one who had been responsible for allowing Jackson to turn his back on his own people after he first met you. You let Jackson returns to his post at the back as the group continues to move again and hesitantly turn to Jimin. "How about you? Do you find anything?"
Your mate shakes his head, before confirming what you already know. "Nothing suspicious yet. Most of the heartbeats I am sensing are coming from the animals hiding in the forest."
You nod your head, before Jackson slowly speaks from the back, though he still keeps his eyes on the dense trees around him. "Young Hunters, the new generation that was formed from teenagers and young adults with the same age as Lucas was, have managed to find a way to hide their scents and had trained themselves to control their breathing whenever they are tracking down their targets, which also allows them to control and to slow down their heartbeats. I know every single one of their training and everything they are capable of, so I might be able to see and sense it when they come for us. Any wrong move, no matter how small, will easily give away their presence and what they are up to."
"Don't worry," the Wiccan finally speaks again as she stops on her tracks, then turns around just as all eyes turn to look at her, meeting her glowing silver eyes. "Even if they are out there waiting for the perfect moment to strike at us, we do have the ability to hide ourselves. You can still see them from here, but their eyes would not be able to see us walking through these trees."
"How?" one of the males in the group questions her, though everyone is equally curious to know just what else can she offer to provide safety other than accommodating an escape passage to keep everyone safe.
Agatha's eyes seem to glow even brighter as she smiles. Then she raises her hand to form a certain symbol in the space in front of her as she chants a spell.
"Obscura."
The air crackles with invisible energy, then the air hums as a layer of soft, white light appear from her fingers. The light spreads around you, growing wider, bigger, before it forms itself into a dome around the whole group. There, the white light settles, appearing in the space around you before it slowly fades into nothing, though you can still feel its presence from the chilling air and the humming silence that is now cloaking you. As everyone exchanges glances around you with wonder, you are quick to understand just what she had done.
You have long heard about how those who had been gifted with white magic are able to develop different abilities and various expertises with their magic. But what you have mostly heard from them were stories of those who have the powers to create a veil of illusions, cloaking the truth with whatever image they bring forth from their memory or imagination, deceiving enemies to only see what they want them to see. It is an ability which allows them to escape danger. Another one of their traits that many wolves—especially the ones from your pack—despise the most. Even you have had the urges to frown at the thought of these powerful witches choosing to run rather than fight when you had first heard of them. You were raised in a pack of warriors, after all. While there had been a lot of uneventful occurrences which happened in the past where you would have to choose between fighting or pulling back in defeat, retreating from a battle had never been your first choice.
This time, however, instead of grimacing at the thought of it—as you think of the Witches, or Wiccans, and their ability to veil themselves from danger and their choices of fleeing—a pleasing smirk comes onto your face before you even realise it happening as you watch Agatha calmly chant her final spell to lock the veil in place, making sure that it will stick as the group carries on with the journey. Because right then, as you watch her public display of her magic, you begin to see something from her that she has been trying to conceal by playing it off as a regular Peacekeeper.
She may have called herself as a Peacekeeper Wiccan—which may be her current choice of occupancy—but the various abilities that she had acquired are telling you that she is something else. Something more. And the knowledge of it makes you feel a little more grateful than you are aggravated by it, knowing that you have gotten yourself quite the powerful, and a very worthy, ally on your side.
Yet your new fondness at the Wiccan still cannot stop your wolf from sneering at her, forever the sceptic one between the two of you, as she pushes forward and speaks through you once again on your behalf, "You know, you could have used this spell when we first began to walk, couldn't you?"
It seems that Agatha recognises your wolf's presence despite her using your voice to speak, because the Wiccan only responds with a smirk. "Not exactly. The spell has its limits. And to move this large group together under the cloak would drain my energy. The same energy that would be needed for me to walk up this hill," she simply says. "I may be a person that had been born with magic, but on other accounts, I am a mere mortal with no powers similar to those that Vampires and Werewolves have to allow myself to travel far, and I have certainly never trained my muscles to have the same strength as Hunters to travel far on foot without taking some needed rest."
"Can you teleport too?" Junhoe asks her, always the curious one of the entire group.
To answer him, Agatha only shakes her head slowly. "Most of the members of our coven can absolutely do it. But not me. I got too lazy to learn that ability. And it would have been useless for me to acquire anyway since I don't travel around a lot," she nonchalantly says as she turns away and begins to continue the walk ahead of the group.
'I'm beginning to like her already,' you hear your wolf says to you, and you find yourself agreeing with her as you walk slowly to match your mate's pace and follow close behind the Wiccan. You must admit that she has only been showing more and more reasons for you to not only trust her, but to admire her merit and personality which she keeps showing you through this meeting. While most of the sorcerers and witches that you have met in the past have been full of pride and dishonesty, Agatha simply shows herself as the way she is, without hiding any of her flaws while she keeps making light of it.
But the admiration is cut short when she suddenly looks over her shoulder, giving you a knowing smile when she meets your eyes—the same smile she gave when she infiltrated your mind and Jimin's earlier. Before you could even call her out on it, however, the Wiccan chooses to acknowledge Jackson instead, then speaks in a normal yet smug way any obnoxious witches do when she taunts him,
"Keep looking out, Hunter. I will keep us all safe, but better keep your steps light and those muscles and brawls ready. Just in case any danger prevails, since I'm not the fighter in this group tonight."
'Once a witch, always a damn witch.'
Agatha gives you a quick glance as your wolf murmurs those words in your head, giving you a wink before she looks away once again.
The journey only ends right before you reach the top of the mountain, where the Wiccan takes you past the borderline of trees and into a clearing. The clearing spreads wide, the ground is flat with a rocky plane stretched out from one edge towards the other. But aside from the rocks, the overgrown grass, and the thick white fog that fills the space before you, there is nothing there.
"And here we are," Agatha says as she stops right over the few hedges lining around the clearing, the invisible cloak that has been enveloping you throughout the last part of the trip instantly shatters into nothing as she snaps her fingers together, and everyone stands around her to look at the surrounding area with an equally astonished look on their faces.
"There is nothing here," Junhoe mutters softly, stating the obvious with a curious tone in his voice as he looks around.
Instead of answering him, Agatha simply gives him a smile. "Oh, but there is. The only thing you need to do is open your eyes, free your mind, and break through the spell," she says, before lifting both of her arms, stretching them out towards the empty space before her and making a dramatic move as is she is opening an invisible curtain while she cast out a spell—
"Aperio."
Once again, the air crackles with another invisible energy. The same kind that you felt when she created the invisible shield earlier. And then the breeze around you picks up, while the thick white fog splits apart, fading and clearing before revealing the building that has been veiled underneath.
"My Goddess—" Taehyung gasps from beside you, completely in awe at what he is seeing.
And he is not the only one.
Everyone watches with equally wide eyes as a massive-sized mansion emerges from beneath the fog. It is not as massive as a castle or the pack house that you have back home, but it is enough to house a couple of families of Wiccans and to shelter a few guests when in need—something that you know these Wiccans would require to have as healers who also provide shelter to those who needs them.
What you saw as a plane of solid rock was the base of the mansion. The building itself rises up three to four stories high, with solid stone walls standing all the way up until it is met with a beautiful high-pitched tiled roof at the top. On its sides, you see floor-to-ceiling windows and there are massive wooden doors welcoming you at the front. Ivy tendrils grow along the concrete pillars and along the side of the stone walls, covering the structures with their dark grey leaves while the stems spread over the flat lanes like delicate fingers.
Torches light up the entryway, before the gravel pathway leading to it emerges from the shadows, showing you the evenly trimmed hedges along its sides with more torches lighting up the way.
"Impressive," Jimin muses softly, just in awe as the others for the Wiccan's trick. The simple exclamation is already more than enough to express what everyone shares as they all watch her beautiful home continue to emerge through her magic.
Agatha bows to your mate, apparently pleased at the approval given by the Lord of the Vampires. "To have received such a compliment is a blessing, yet this is only one simple trick that is necessary to be done in order to protect our home from any form of threat."
Jimin nods. He completely understands what she is trying to say. Years of living with humans and communities of magic had allowed him to learn about all kinds of threats that may come their way and all the possible ways they could do to protect themselves. "Regardless, it is still remarkable. And it's really not often that I get to see such a powerful spell with my very own two eyes," Jimin tells her, and you can swear that you can see Agatha getting a bit flustered for the praises he keeps throwing at her.
Then he suddenly turns serious. His gaze grows hard just as Jimin remembers all the things that the Wiccan had said to convince him—and everyone else—to join her. "Now, are you going to invite us all in? Perhaps let us meet with whoever it is that you had mentioned before, who you told me had been expecting me here?"
"Well, actually—"
Agatha's words are quickly cut off just as the massive door at the front opens. Yellow lights from within the mansion glow brightly, completely opposite to your dark surrounding. Both the sound from the door opening and the bright lights summon everyone's attention that all heads turn to see who it is.
Right at the doorway, you see a young girl, human, possibly in her early twenties. Her skin is just as pale as Jimin's, but still human, and her golden hair glows under the lights coming from inside the house. She looks curious and wary as she looks around, until her eyes fall on Jimin and instantly grow wide. Surprise, happiness, and relief all mix into one and together they colour her face when she sees him. Meanwhile, you feel your mate gasping from beside you, before he calls out to her—
"Celeste?"
The girl's smile grows wider and tears fill her eyes almost instantly at the sound of his voice. But what surprises you next is what she says right before she runs into his arms—
"Papa!"