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But my selfless mate would not listen. And I was in no state to challenge her. I directed her to head northeast before blacking out completely.

I awoke to find myself lying in a bed in an unfamiliar room. When I looked around, I saw Aura, sitting in a chair next to the bed, her gaze fixed on me.

Gods…we were alive. Somehow, someway, she fucking saved us. Savedme.

“Aura…” I whispered, but her expression remained hard and focused.

“You lied to me.” The disappointment mixed with desperation thatlaced her voice could have shattered me into a million pieces. I had completely failed her. And yet here I was, still alive because of her.

I tried to sit up, but only made it halfway, propping myself up on my elbows. The poison was still very much in my system. I looked at her, too many emotions to decipher taking over her features.

“Please. Let me explain.”

She straightened her posture – my beautiful, tenacious princess. “Then explain,” she demanded.

So I did. I explained. I explainedeverything.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Aura

Ilistened intently to Elias’s story from start to finish without any interruption. By the time he was done, I felt like I had more questions than answers.

“Aura…please say something,” he begged.

I looked over at him, only just realizing I had been staring off in the distance as thoughts swirled through my head in utter chaos.

“So Trybe is a witch?” It was the first question, of many, that came to mind. And it wasn’t what either of us were expecting me to say.

Elias’s brow rose as he straightened himself. “Yes.”

“And she’s…also hundreds of years old?”

“Yes.”

“She put the magic into the stone that frozeVolund and the Sprathians?”

“Something like that.”

“What else can witches do?” I wasn’t sure why I was asking so many questions unrelated to Elias. Maybe I wanted to avoid the harder questions altogether.

“Witches are powerful immortals. They can create spells for nearly anything. They usually need natural elements for such spells – plants, earth, water. Trybe used the elemental properties of the stone to cast a spell into it. Since she did it alone, it could only work once, and for a short time.”

“What do you mean, did it alone?”

“The more powerful the spell, the more witches it requires. Some witches are more powerful than others. But sometimes it could take a whole coven of witches to complete an inordinately powerful spell. Witches have their limits, just as lycans do.”

“Lycans and witches…” I continued. “What other magical creatures are out there? Unicorns? Dragons?”

Elias chuckled, but I didn’t find any humor in it. Magic wasreal. It was difficult to wrap my head around. I probably still wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen Elias get stabbed then the wound heal right before my eyes.

I hated myself for making fun of Rose every time she mentioned magic or witches. Did she know something I didn’t this whole time? What else could there possibly be out there?

“No, unicorns and dragons don’t exist. At least, not in this time,” Elias answered. “There are three immortal creatures – witches, lycans, and mythics.”

“Mythics,” I repeated, the name sparking some sort of familiarity hidden in that locked part of my mind I couldn’t get to.

“Energy manipulators,” he continued. “They are extremely powerful. But they are all dead.”