Page 36 of The Silent Mountain (Under the Werewolf Crown #2)

thirty-six

The End of a Battle

*ALANA*

M y first instinct is to shift back to my human form and check on Elio, but we are still surrounded by our attackers, and it’s just me now who is able to fight. That’s when I feel a sudden warmth gripping my heart, as if something is chasing the cold away.

It’s the mate bond! It has to be Favian! Goddess, he found me!

I don’t contemplate my options any longer, deciding I will put faith in him to make it in time, and shift back to my human form. Instantly, I attend to Elio, trying to feel for his pulse. Ros was right, it’s barely there. There are some nasty wounds on his upper body and face. While the crowd starts closing in on us again, I can feel the warmth coming closer, soon accompanied by the swishing sound of wings. For a moment, I raise my eyes to the night sky, right in time to see the golden dragon breaking through the darkness, proud and strong like in the legends surrounding him. There is just one golden dragon shifter, and it’s always the king or his heir, the one who was blessed by Aengus. Behind him, there are more and more dragons following him.

“Finally,” I breathe, resting my forehead against Elio’s while I press my hand onto the injury on his stomach. “Your brother is coming, Elio. Hang in there, little brother.”

I feel myself being transported back in time to when I lost my best friend, Ita. We fought a similarly grim battle, and she took a fatal blow to save us all. I was kneeling next to her, like I am kneeling next to Elio now, and trying to stop her injury from bleeding.

But I couldn’t save her.

“Elio, don’t die on me!” I beg. “You are the dragon prince, remember? The dragon clan’s hope, and Favian’s hope too. What’s he going to do without you? He is completely lost without you.” I am not sure if he can hear me, but I keep talking to him, hoping he will. “You saved your kind once, you are strong! This is nothing. It’s nothing.” I pause, feeling tears burning in my eyes. “It’s nothing, right?”

The heat of flames surrounds me, reeking of burning flesh. Favian clearly came prepared! Fuck this cult! I hope they finally burn it to the ground.

The golden dragon lands, shifting to Favian’s human body. “Alana!” he yells, running towards me. “I felt you getting hurt!”

“I am fine,” I exclaim. “Elio is much worse.”

Favian drops to the ground next to me. Having him so close all of a sudden instantly fills me with relief. All this time, I only clung to the hope of seeing him again. That’s what helped me push forward.

“By Aengus,” Favian curses, putting one of his hands on Elio’s forehead and the other on the wound on his stomach.

“Is he… will he…” I can’t bring myself to ask my question.

“He is hanging in there,” Favian says. “He is still breathing. I won’t let him die.” He looks at me, his eyes widening when he takes in my condition. “Alana, you are severely hurt! I am so sorry, this is all my fault. I should have protected you and Elio better.”

I heave a laugh, well aware of how hysteric I sound. “I am so glad you came. You found me.” I feel so tired all of a sudden, as a wave of exhaustion hits me.

“The cultists are retreating!” one of the warriors calls out.

“Don’t let them escape,” Favian yells. “I want you to find and kill every single one of them!”

“The curse, or rather the black spell,” I inform them. “Its origin is in the building there, down in the basement. There is a hall with a fountain and a bowl of blood. That’s where the spell starts. We need to put a stop to it.”

“Your Highness,” Erin’s voice reaches my ears as I feel myself drifting off more and more. “Allow me to attend to your brother and the queen. I won’t let any harm come to them. I know what I am doing. You need to go with Cassie to break the curse.”

“Cassie?” Favian asks. “Wouldn’t that be a task for you?”

“No, my powers are more of a defensive nature, but Cassie’s witch coven handled curses and dark spells. She knows a lot, she just lacks confidence. I can’t break the curse. She can.”

*FAVIAN*

I try not to think of the state my brother and Alana are in. We barely made it in time. Elio’s life is hanging on by a single thread, it seems, while Alana is in a terrible state. She has scratches and injuries all over her body, and her arm is damaged. What happened down there to the two people I love the most?

Theodor joins us, his eyes cloud with worry, when he sees Elio. He instantly takes over attending to his injuries, giving me the chance to check on Alana. “My love, your arm, let me look at it,” I say softly. “It needs to be treated.”

Alana has clutched it to her chest, but now let’s go. My lips part in shock when I see the state her arm is in; her hand has been severed. Erin and I exchange a gaze, but don’t say anything. I gently take her arm. “Erin will treat it. We’ll make sure that the injury heals properly.”

“It was that… or the curse killing me,” she mutters.

“You cut it off yourself!?” Erin exclaims.

Alana parts her lips to say something, but no sound leaves them. She just nods. “It’s ugly, isn’t it?” she whispers tiredly. “I am ugly now, aren’t I?”

“You have nerves of steel!” Theodor proclaims.

“You are not ugly!” I say with emphasis. “Nothing could ever make you ugly!” I hope that she can feel my sincerity through our bond, because I doubt words will truly reach her right now. I can’t believe she did what she did.

We were so close to the curse that it was spreading within minutes. The prophylaxis didn’t help anymore, I can hear Ros’ voice in my mind. We couldn’t let it take us away from you and the clan.

With Ros’s explanation, I put two and two together. What an incredibly tough decision to make! To imagine I could have truly lost her today. “What you did was unbelievably brave! I am not sure if I could have done it,” I say quietly.

“Me neither,” Theodor blurts out.

Thank you for not leaving me, Alana, I link her. Thank you for fighting to stay with me and the clan. Nothing could ever make you ugly in my eyes. You are the most stunning and brave person to me.

She doesn’t say anything, but I can feel her nerves calming down.

“She is completely exhausted,” Erin says. “Your Highness, I have it covered here.”

“Theodor, stay with them,” I command, before standing up, reaching out for Favia. She doesn’t disappoint me, and instantly appears. Leave it to me, she says. I will make sure our bond to Elio remains strong and that he gets strength through it.

My worry for Alana and Elio distracted me from my anger, but now I feel my wrath returning in full force. I will kill every one of these cultists for harming my family! “I have a spell to destroy and an island to burn down!”

Most of my warriors have by now seized the building, with some of them guarding the island itself. I seek out Stefan and Cassie. “Follow me,” I say.

“Did…did Alana truly cut off her hand so that the curse wouldn’t spread?” Cassie whispers her question.

“Yes,” I say.

“You have to be joking! That woman has nerves of steel,” Stefan states, impressed.

“And Elio?” Cassie asks.

I cast a glance back at my brother, seeing how Theodor is attending to him. My heart breaks at the sight. I should be there now, but Alana is right, if we don’t stop the curse, then we won’t be safe, ever. “I am clinging to the hope that he will be alright.”

“Erin is good,” Cassie tells me. “I think Barbara would have died much sooner if it weren’t for her. And she made that potion for everyone so quickly.”

“What do you want us to do now?” Stefan asks while I lead them into the building. True to Alana’s promise, my warriors have found a staircase that leads further down into a whole underground area.

“We are going to stop the spell,” I say.

My warriors have dealt with the cultists by now. If there isn’t an escape route somewhere, I doubt anyone got away. “They suddenly stopped fighting,” one of my warriors tells me.

“Just like that,” another agrees. “As if their fighting spirit suddenly left them.”

“How does that make sense?” Stefan mutters. “When we came here, they mindlessly attacked us without any care in the world, without any thought of self-protection. As if they were cursed…“ he trails off at his own words. “Maybe they were?”

“That’s a possibility,” I say. “Maybe whoever they followed did something to them. We won’t know, though, unless we hear from Elio and Alana what they saw here.”

“Maybe their leader is dead too?” Cassie asks hopefully.

“We didn’t find anyone who remotely looks like he could pull this off,” the warrior admits.

“I thought so,” I state. “I am sure they had a backup plan, just not for the whole cult.” I turn to Cassie. “Come, let’s check the origin of the dark spell.”

The path leads us to a gigantic hall with high walls and statues made of stone. It looks like a ceremony hall. Feathers are sprinkled around. They are black and look like they were dipped in blood. There in the middle is a fountain, holding a bowl. When we get closer, I notice that the liquid in it is red, seeping into the water. It turns black the moment it meets the water, and then disappears. “Is this blood?” Stefan asks.

“I think so,” Cassie says, scooting closer with interest. “And now?” She turns and looks at us.

Stefan and I stay quiet, none of us sure how to tell her that we can’t do anything. She catches on fast.

“Wait, I am supposed to do it?” she exclaims.

“We can’t,” I say.

“But Favia-“

“Favia’s main focus is to find the person behind all of this and to make sure that Elio doesn’t die,” I explain.

“I can’t do it,” Cassie whispers. “I can’t!”

“Cassie,” I say seriously. “You single-handedly restored my clan’s, and my, faith in witches. You are a clan member now, one of us. A couple of months ago, this would have been unthinkable. You can do anything!”

“I did that?” she gapes. “I, alone? But Erin-“

“We only invited Erin because you were here,” I say. “We were able to trust her because you took the first steps with us.”

“All that’s stopping you is your own confidence,” Stefan adds.

“You too?” Cassie gapes again. “You think I am part of your clan, too?”

“Our clan,” Stefan emphasizes. “Who knows, maybe a handsome dragon mate will be waiting for you once you are an adult.”

“A dragon mate?” At that, Cassie’s face flushes. Somehow, it seems Stefan’s words gave her the last push, however. “I can do anything,” she exclaims.

Before I can so much as blink, she has already grabbed the bowl with both of her hands. A shiver goes through her body before she convulses, grimacing in pain. She keeps mumbling something, but I can’t make out what it is. Pausing, she stares at the bowl, before she frowns. “I can do it,” she mutters. “I am one of them. I have a home.”

When I took Cassie into the clan, I was barely able to interact with her, hating the fact that she was a witch. I didn’t care about her background, nor felt for her in any way, but seeing how she clings to the hope of having found a home stings my chest. She is so young, and her witch coven kicked her out because they deemed her useless.

“You are not useless, Cassie,” I say quietly. “We need you.”

“You are a clan member with all the rights the shifters have,” Stefan says. “Erin told me she thinks you have great potential.”

Cassie glances at us for a moment, a smile curling her lips. “I am one of you,” she says. “You are my home.” She grips the bowl tighter, her stance becoming more confident. I can make out her words clearer now, though I don’t know what they mean. Stefan reaches out for me and pulls me back, right at the moment when a warm light engulfs Cassie, getting more intense the more often she repeats her spell. The water in the fountain and stream gurgles, with bubbles appearing on the surface before black dust starts to rise from it. The dust accumulates and, for a moment, it seems like the world stops moving. No wind, no breeze, nothing can be felt or heard, then like a flash, the dust disappears into Cassie. She screams in pain, the sound of her despair piercing my heart, yet she keeps her hands firmly on the bowl. The light around her flickers as the dust leaves her body again and is swallowed by her light.

Cassie pants. “I did it,” she mutters. “I did it.” She tosses the bowl aside as her strength leaves her. Stefan catches her before she can drop onto the ground. The air around us suddenly smells fresher and less moldy, and the atmosphere is lighter.

When I look around, eyeing the bodies of the cultists that were killed, I can see that their facial expressions turn back to what I assume they formerly were, not the emotionless masks that they recently wore. I wonder if all of them truly followed their leader of their own will. They all carry the same tattoos, though, indicating their unity.

“Her hair,” Stefan mutters, pulling my attention back to him. I step closer, noting how Cassie’s wild, brown locks have strands of gray in them.

“She must have used a lot of her strength,” I say quietly. “Let’s take her outside, and make sure to get away from here. I want Elio, Alana, and her safely back with the clan.”

Once outside again, I instantly notice that the dark clouds have disappeared, so have the black birds, instead, there are white seagulls fluttering above us. “Is it truly gone?” Stefan asks.

“I can’t feel its presence anymore,” I say, relief filling me. “Cassie did it! She stopped the curse.”

My relief is short-lived though. “Your Highness!” Theodor yells. “Come fast. Elio, he’s stopped breathing.”