“What is wrong with you all!?” Cole yelled with his hands gripping his hair. We all turned to him and stared. No one said a word as he muttered under his breath about misfits and doing as they please. His eyes were dull, almost lifeless and his skin was sickly pale. Whatever he was sick with seemed to be draining him.
“What’s wrong with ye’?” Rí asked what we were all thinking.
“You look like shit,” Ziel piped in as he lit a new smoke.
He ignored them and asked me, “Did you find anything in the Dead Village?” He rubbed his eye and scratched at his stomach before wincing.
“Nothing.” I answered quietly as I watched him.
Something was seriously wrong with him. Something off. My stomach churned. “What’s wrong—”
“Are you really that naive? Of course you found nothing. Access your magic first!” He threw his hands in the air, disgruntled and irritated as if we were naughty children.
He spun on his heel, heading towards the hidden door the Councilmen had left from.
“Acceptance is key Dark Witch,” he snapped as the door slammed shut behind him.
Acceptance. There it was again.Accept fucking what!?
“What crawled up his prude ass?” Ziel rasped.
I rolled my eyes and left the room feeling confused; why was I concerned that Cole was sick?
Twenty-Three
‘Push and Pull-Trudo Et Trabo’
Amaya
Bri had in fact found Rí and informed him I’d been ‘taken’ by the Council. He had apparently flown over here in such a rage, a few of the Lights Cities buildings had caught fire in his rage.
Ziel had been delivering another present, this one containing a foot, and had sensed me here. I didn’t know how I felt about that honestly.
I was feeling a lot of things, things I had never felt before. I was confused by my worry of Cole. His tired eyes and sickly pallor were concerning. He hadn’t even been as stiff and snippy as usual. Something was really wrong with him, and I was going to find out what.
And Ziel, Death’s Warrior, well he was an enigma. He acted like I irritated him, barely spoke to me and yet he was there, showing up when I really didn’t expect him. He had only mentioned us being ‘Mates’ in passing and yet we hadn’t actually discussed it.
Then what happened if we did actually Mate? Was I supposed to be Mated to two men? Were we all supposed to live happily ever after together in the same house, the same bed.
Annoyingly, the thought of them both in my bed with me had my core heating, and embarrassingly, I knew Rí could smell it. The bright flare of his eyes and the way his tongue peaked out as if to taste the scent was a big enough sign.
Brushing away those very interesting thoughts, I thought of my boys. How many days had it been now? I hated myself for every second they were without me. I hated the thought of Lyal anywhere near them. My stomach churned.
So much unanswered, so much to figure out. My head was so noisy, so loud.
We walked in silence to the castle. Ziel’s smoke blew out and blended in with the fog that gathered on the Mountain. Everyone seemed oddly subdued, lost in their own minds.
We entered the castle and the words ‘To Keep Under Silence’ greeted us as normal. The question was, what secrets? I had so much to learn, so much to understand. I kept telling myself I was going to find out what I needed to know, but other than more questions about my mother, the confusing things I felt towards Ziel andCole and the unknown ‘acceptance’, I hadn’t found out anything. I was still very much in the dark.
I created a list in my head, getting more annoyed with each one I added.
1: Why had I been placed with Lyal?
2: Why couldn’t I simply access my magic?
3: Why had the Council taken leadership?
4: Why did my magic bring me to Wisteria after being in the human realm?
