Chapter 124
As Micah ordered, Alan stayed behind to take care of the palace and the royal council, while Dax followed his king and queen to the Red River pack three days later.
It took two days to reach that pack from the capital city, and Alpha Samuel was waiting for them at the borders for their carriage just like the last time to greet Micah and the rest.
However, there was no rogue attack this time and once they received them, Micah immediately called for an audience from Mirella, the witch.
“Alpha Samuel, summon the witch immediately,” Micah said, following the alpha into the strategy room of this Red River pack.
“On it, My King!” The alpha bowed to the king as he opened the door for his king and queen so that they could enter the strategy room.
“Little one, do you want to rest some more?” Micah asked Abby once they were settled at the table, to wait for the witch. They were on the road for two days straight, but Abby insisted that she would also sit through this meeting.
Even though Abby felt a little lethargic from all the journey, she still stood by her word from earlier. “We can rest once we learn the new leads.”
Abby knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep even if she wanted with the thoughts of what Mirella might have found about Calpin’s whereabouts plaguing her mind. So wasn’t it better to just wait a little more?
Micah, obviously, knew what was running through her little mind, so he didn’t try to persuade her again, but he called Alyssa over. “Go to the kitchen and instruct them to prepare a few light dishes.”Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org
“Yes, My King!” Alyssa immediately left to get the work done so that she could go and check what else Abby might need in the guest bedroom the king and queen would stay in while they were here.
It didn't take long for Alpha Samuel and Mirella to arrive, but Abby didn’t expect she was in for a shock.
“Long live, the King and the Queen!” The witch bowed to them solemnly once she stepped into the room along with the alpha. When she stood back up, Abby couldn’t help but feel there was something off with the way Mirella looked at her.
It was only for a brief second, but Abby felt the witch definitely seemed a bit different today.
Micah too noticed it, but asked for the witch and Alpha Samuel to sit down with them first. “Your missive about information on Calpin, what exactly are your leads?”
“Word reached our ears that black magic appeared in a pack nearby,” Mirella started, but from her tone, both Micah and Abby could tell it wasn’t a case of ordinary black magic.
So Abby asked the obvious. “What sets it apart from the other such incidents?”
“There were two peculiar things about this,” Mirella started. “One is the place where it occurred and the other is the strangeness of its effect.”
“Elaborate!” Micah ordered, while Abby felt an increasingly bad feeling about this.
“It is like this, someone, a warrior in particular, died a few days ago in this certain pack,” the witch explained to them slowly. “The cause of the death was quite strange. His skin, every single inch of it, charred until he looked darker than the sky on a new moon’s night, but there was no poison detected in his system.”
At the visual that came to her mind, Abby gasped audibly because she didn’t want what she was thinking to be the actual reason for this death, however, she couldn’t be more right.
“The healers from several neighbouring packs checked on the body and declared he died of excessive internal heat.” Mirella looked at Abby again and nodded at her, as if seconding her unspoken conclusion.
“He was burned from within?” Micah asked, but Mirella’s answer shocked him as well.
“Yes, but without fire. Not a single trace of flame, and he died right in front of the pack house, in broad daylight, his skin darkening in less than half an hour.”
“How is it possible?” Abby asked, not because she couldn't tell but because her mind couldn’t comprehend the idea at all.
There was no fire, but his skin charred until it looked like black coal? Just what kind of absurdity was this?
“In what pack did it occur?” Micah was more concerned about this answer, and he again saw Mirella looking at Abby with this odd look in her eyes, and when the queen looked back at her, the witch finally opened her mouth.
“The Silver Moon Pack!”
“What?!!” Abby couldn’t believe her ears, but she finally understood why the witch kept giving her those weird eyes since she came earlier.
“Yes, your old pack, that’s where it happened, and people are terrified out of their minds now.”
Of course, they would be terrified. After all, they had never encountered such powerful dark magic before.
No wonder, Mirella connected those dots back to Calpin, because she knew how that bastard tried to burn both Micah and Abby from within as well.
This was going to be such a huge mess!
“We are going to your old pack!” Micah suddenly said, leaving Abby even more flabbergasted, but she didn’t voice out her opinion on this, knowing the severity of the situation. “Early tomorrow morning. Pack your stuff, Mirella.”
Just like that, everything was all set for them to go to the Silver Moon pack, and Abby didn’t know how she walked to the guest bedroom arranged for them, because Micah had to discuss a few other things with Alpha Samuel and Mirella and also about their journey.
Later that night, when the king finally returned to their room, he could tell the girl in his arms was restless for some reason, but it wasn’t that obvious. However, when he asked, Abby only told him she was tired.
She didn’t tell him the fact that she didn’t want to go back to her old pack. She had too many bad memories in that place, going back would only bring them all back. But she couldn’t say anything about it to him, now of all times.