Page 11 of Reclaiming His Lost Mate (Secret Legacy #3)
Finally, I stood before a tall six-story building in Matsuna, my final destination. At another time, I might have praised the structure, marveling at the intelligence and effort it took to construct it so ingeniously into the cliff. But now, the building felt lifeless and empty.
“No,” I muttered past painful cracked lips when I reached the entrance door, or what used to be one, to see twigs as thick as my wrists and thorns that threatened to cause severe damage sticking through them, roping the entrance gates from top to floor, daring me to come closer.
“Not after all this time spent on the road to find nothing!” I yelled, tears welling in my eyes as shaky, dry hands came up to pull at my hair.
“You didn’t find nothing,” someone spoke, and my head whirled around so fast at the sound of the voice that I was sure to have snapped some neck muscles.
Warm amber eyes stared at me intently, but it wasn’t the kind that made you feel inferior or worried about whether the other thought evil for you.
It just felt like she was trying to peel back the layers surrounding my being with her eyes, so there was no familiar feeling of foreboding in my gut.
The woman looked at least five years older than me, full of life and energy, and the afternoon sun shone on her skin, giving her a golden angel-like glow.
She was a sight to behold, and with thick dark curls bound into an attractive pile on the top of her head, she matched Sireen’s description.
I fully turned. “Lyvia?” I asked, the hope unmasked in my voice, hinting at a bit of a plea for her to say yes. Hope budded in my chest for the first time since I began this journey well over a month ago, and I shifted on my feet, jittering.
“She is me,” she replied with a single nod and a smile, and a half-gasp, half-laugh fell from my lips, a breath that I’d been holding expelling from my lungs in relief.
“I didn’t think I would find you,” I said, offering the only explanation I could think of. Excitement and nervousness slammed me at once, and I itched to immediately tell her why I was here. “I came from afar,” I added when she watched me with a discerning look and ghost smile on her lips.
“I know you did, and anyone with a pure heart who seeks me always finds me,” she said.
Even if I didn’t know what it meant, I nodded.
“Do you want to come inside and cool down? Get away from the sun? And you can have some food and water,” she offered with her questions, and my stomach chose this moment to flare to life, rumbling with need.
Still, I shook my head once. I couldn’t nurture an appetite when, at this time, the fated pull was carrying out its mission the most, dragging across my skin like baked gravel, maybe sensing what I was about to do.
Or maybe it was my heart that craved the tenderness and affection Alexis showered on me that night, but I shook it off.
“It’s important,” I said, pleading with my eyes, and the witch considered me for a moment before she spoke.
“What’s your name, love?”
“Selina.”
She nodded, her smile widening. “How can I help you, Selina?”
I took a deep breath, not knowing where to begin or how to.
“Igaluk’s fated mate to me did not accept our bond,” I said, sticking with the simplest explanation, and I was not surprised to see Lyvia’s expression unchanging.
She probably dealt with stories like this regularly.
I went on either way, focusing on why I was here.
“And it’s killing me to see him with another woman.
My sister, actually,” I said, and the regular pang returned to my chest with force, causing me to break eye contact and stare up at the sun to push back the tears.
It took a second, but when my head dropped back to Lyvia, her eyes had softened around the edges, compassion playing on her face.
“What is the name of your mate?” She inquired, and I winced internally that she called him that. Alexis wasn’t my mate. Not anymore. He belonged to Marissa now, and they were to get married in less than a month.
Maybe this was the only way she knew how to sympathize with me.
“Alexis.” Not waiting for her to ask another question, I went on. “I heard that you can help me, so please, I need you to rid me of this pain. I can’t live like this. I’ll pay in any way you want,” I said through my tight throat, clutching the bag that contained all my possessions.
Lyvia shook her head, and it was more of a pitiful offering than anything else now. I hated it, but I had to deal.
“I want to help you, Selina,” she began, her voice low and steady, amber eyes trained on me.
“But the ritual involves a lot of risks that I cannot advise a woman in your position to take,” she finished, the same amber eyes slowly dropping to my stomach, lingering, before slowly coming back to my face. Lyvia fell quiet.
I took a step back, blinking twice.
“W-why-what do you mean?”
“Severing the fated bond can harm an infant, and you have Alexis’s own inside you, love. Only five weeks old and the most delicate in my experience,” she said solemnly, and a weak yet horrified gasp stumbled past my lips.
No way!
“No. I’m not pregnant,” I denied, feeling my world tilt on its axis to the point where my eyes rolled in their sockets, and I staggered on my feet.
Lyvia shot her arm out to catch me before I collided with the hard surface, and the contact of her hand on my shoulder immediately sent a rush of zen through me, although not enough to stop my head from ringing with the information I had just learned.
“Yes, love, you are.”
I shook my head, my eyes burning with a thousand emotions, none staying long enough for me to place a finger on them.
That could explain why I’d been unable to keep my meager meals down long enough to digest them and why my head pounded every morning.
I really wanted to believe it was due to stress, but Alexis and I were intimate.
Multiple times.
“So all my time was really wasted,” I lamented, still not believing that my life had truly taken a one-eighty-degree turn within the two minutes I’d spoken to Lyvia.
“It doesn’t have to be,” Lyvia said, compassion filling her eyes. “I live a few buildings over, and you can camp with me until you decide on what you want to do.”
My eyes slowly found hers, and I found a fragment of solace. How was it possible to be this kind to a stranger?
“What’s in it for you?” I asked, unconvinced, and the witch, Lyvia, smiled, an unreadable glint flashing in her eyes as her soothing voice flowed.
“There doesn’t have to be a thing to gain before I can help you. You’ve been through something traumatic, as I or any of my loved ones can undergo at any time. So, if I’m in the position to make your day a little more bearable, Selina, I will,” Lyvia finished. “So, what do you say?”