Chapter 1
The air was calm, the night serene as the moon watched over them. As it gradually sunk in the west, the sun rose just as lazily from the east.
For Kalen, it felt like forever. He’d been keeping guard all night. He hadn’t gotten a proper night’s rest in days, but the anxiety wouldn’t let him. He’d always been confident before, but he was afraid this time. He couldn’t afford to be unconscious only to have his loved one taken away.
“Kalen, nothing will happen to them,” Ammara had tried assuring him.
“I lost Nina when we were asleep,” he’d said, “and Dahlia was next to go in thin air within the few moments she was born. You can’t blame me for being paranoid.”
“You need sleep.”
“I need to keep watch.”
A father’s love knew no bounds.
Kevin was only half-asleep, but still very much awake to Dahlia’s noises and movements. Being conscious of surroundings during sleep was something every combating shifter came to learn over the years. Nina wouldn’t let go of her. Dahlia was placed snuggly between the two of them, held and covered from all sides.
Ammara had made sure everyone slept soundly, regardless of anything that kept them awake. The past few days hadn’t been easy on anyone. She’d casted a spell over the area that brought everyone under a peaceful slumber. Everyone except Kaia. She still had questions to ask her.
She stepped into where Kaia was held while still nighttime.
“She’s resisting.” Cora sighed. Kaia sat there, face in a frown, adamant.
“The cleansing didn’t happen?” Ammara was genuinely surprised.
“Her barriers are too strong,” Adelaide said. “There is a lot she’s hiding. She’s probably lied to us about a lot.”
Ammara wondered how powerful a witch had to be to deflect strong rituals like that, especially when it involved intrusion like that of a cleansing. She turned to the young witch who was asleep.
“You’re telling me,” she started softly, “that you couldn’t manage the ritual while she was asleep?”
“Erm…yes,” Adelaide admitted somewhat embarrassed. “Again, she has extremely strong barriers. Most likely an external influence?”
“External influences can’t work on her in here,” she reminded, “This is her own doing.”
“We did what we could, Ammara.” Willow sighed. “We’ll have to head back by tomorrow night. Our communities need us. Heads shouldn’t be away for this long. My second in command has been trying to contact me this whole time.”
“Understandable.” Ammara sighed. “Let’s take care of this girl’s reinforcements before you guys head back.”
“We’ll be here for the battle,” Cora reassured. “It’s the least we can do.”
“You did a lot.” Ammara smiled at them. “You should go get some rest.”
The witches nodded and left the room. Ammara turned to the young witch and contemplated her options. She could secure the room and head to bed, or wait for her to wake up. She’d be too tired after the latter. She knew how important it was to rest even for her. So she decided to force Kalen to bed with her.
Daylight came and Kaia was awake. Ammara was already before her with breakfast. Kaia was unbound, so she accepted the offer and ate up. She’d been thinking it through all night and figured that these were good people acting the way they did out of defense. She couldn’t blame them for being defensive and paranoid. She still couldn’t decide if she should keep lying or tell Ammara the truth. For once, she wasn’t sure of what to do. She wanted to wait for Ivanna.
“Would you want some more?” Ammara asked her. Kaia shook her head.
This lady was way too nice, and it irked Kaia a bit but it reminded her of better times that didn’t exist anymore. She didn’t want to let Ammara affect her, but couldn’t help it. She was really gentle and kind. It wasn’t as if Kaia hadn’t been captured before. She’d seen brutality in the witches, and Ammara was as kind as those witches were cruel.
“I just want to know what the purpose was behind taking away Nina’s child,” she said pleadingly, “What do you want from us? Do you want to take Nina away?”
Kaia processed everything about Ammara. Words, body language, state of appearance. They were in no less trouble than her own community was. They had their own problems before Kaia came along. She knew what she had to do.
“We want her support,” she admitted. “Also, a lot of what I told you before were lies.”
“Then what’s the truth?”
“My name’s Viria Schovsky, an adopted child. Nina knows my sister, Ivanna Schovsky.”
“Does she?” Ammara was surprised. “The name Viria sounds very familiar.”
“I was a feral child before the Schovskys adopted me at ten years old. They let me choose my name after the First Witch, Viria Moteny.”
“So, you’re from one of her communities?” Ammara exclaimed and Viria nodded. “I thought you were a rogue!”
“Well, we’re after rogues assisting a syndicate,” Viria explained as she leaned back in her chair and crossed a knee over the other, posture squared. The sudden change in her demeanor unsettled Ammara and her hands poised in defense beside her. Viria smirked.
“Don’t be alarmed,” she said, “I won’t harm you as long as you won’t harm me. This isn’t the first time I’ve been held captive.”
Ammara couldn’t imagine what Viria must’ve gone through at the mere age of sixteen to make her this way. But now that Viria’s defenses were down, Ammara could see a dangerous glint of something. Not power necessarily, but of intelligence. Viria wasn’t the strongest witch out there, but Ammara could tell she didn’t need to be. Her wit peeking through her eyes and voice was enough to still her and choose her words carefully.
“If you’re from Nina’s community, then you must know Morrigan,” Ammara stated.
“Ah, yeah, she’s dead.”
“What?”
“She was executed by the Elders a few months ago. I’m sure Nina was the one to strip off her powers and titles. Lucille Cleawer, Queen of the ghouls, was also caught in the mess. They let her live, though,” Viria ended distastefully.
“I wasn’t aware,” Ammara admitted. “I did know Morrigan had a few…inconsistencies and it needed time to be confronted by the rest of the Council.”
“You would’ve saved us a lot of trouble if done earlier,” Viria grumbled. “She was pure evil. Ivanna became her next in line after Nina made a run for it. We’re undoing the damage now that she’s gone.”
Ammara felt Viria was being condescending of her daughter for running, but said nothing. “I see, but what does this have to do with Nina’s child.”
Viria shifted to get comfortable. “Well, Morrigan was very influential. Everyone recognizes Nina since she was brought into the Inner Circle. Ivanna and I have only worked within the High Council and never got the chance to breach further. That would come with risks. Nina, though, could get us past to initiate negotiations and undo most of the dangerous affiliations and projects. She’s trapped our community within debts and we have greater problems to face. We thought asking for her support as ransom would work since she wouldn’t want to come back to our community after how she was treated there.”
“What are you talking about?” Ammara’s voice fell.
“I take it you’re not very aware of half the troubles going on in our realm,” Viria said with a skeptical cock of her head. “Have the Elders told you nothing?”
“We hadn’t the time…”
“The Morbus,” Viria said. “I know there are people in the Council who have dealt with them. They think they’ve gotten rid of the problem but the Morbus haven’t left.”
Ammara sighed and got up, “We’ll need to have a meeting with the rest. I can’t make sense of anything.”
“That can’t happen,” Viria said. “My squadron is almost here and armed to attack. You’re going to have to let me out if you don’t want trouble.”
Ammara wasn’t sure if she could trust Viria yet. She didn’t want her to escape. She didn’t want to be fooled and have Nina and Dahlia possibly harmed. She’d been very foolish and lenient. Not anymore.
“I won’t let you off until I meet Ivanna.”
“My witches will be past you and have me out before that can happen.”
“We’ll hold them off,” Ammara said confidently as she walked out and closed the door behind her. Only, she knew it would be a difficult task. They all could hardly hold down Viria. How will they deal with 6 other witches probably just like her?
The men had gathered at the border of the Faerie territory, waiting for the squadron to show up. The women had taken to guard from within the territory while keeping an eye on the children and Viria. Her interrogation wasn’t yet over.
“How do you know about the Morbus,” Diana demanded. She was particularly affected by it all.
“They’d been targeting some of our younger witches and wizards,” Viria explained calmly. “Some have gone rogue and joined their forces.”
Nina scoffed. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Yes, cowardly runaways just like you.” Viria rolled her eyes. “We get it, you were the sensible one.”
“Excuse me?” Nina snapped.
“For your information, Nina Raven, Ivanna Schovsky and I have been working behind Morrigan’s back this whole time to undo her damage. You got scared and ran away. Just like the others gone rouge. So don’t you dare peg the community. Stop being dense and acknowledge the real problem here.”
“So now I’m to blame? And how do you know Ivanna?” she cried out. Viria rolled her eyes.
“I never said such a thing. Please shut up while I deal with more important matters.”
Ammara sighed. “Nina, please. She could be useful.”
“I don’t trust her,” Nina scowled.
Viria turned to the wolf shifter, blatantly ignoring the Caillagh witch. “Diana, I need to ask you what you know about the Morbus.”
“I can’t, unless I know your side of your findings,” Diana said carefully. Viria nodded.
“They have a base two days away from my community,” she explained. “They’re after packs’ cubs to grow, train, and breed. Also, they’re merging their DNA with human to create controllable, unshifting Chimeras. It’s a money making business of the underground. They plan to sell them to the government to use in their military.”
They all looked appalled.
“I’m trying to find their main base where the heads of the organizations are,” she explained. “There are people within the Inner Circle who have knowledge. There was a man called Asther who had ganged up with Morbus long before they started their chimera operations, sending the Morbus after packs’ cubs after he worked to have them tear each other apart. I’m sure you all faced a lot, and I assure you all those incidents are connected. None were isolated and I need your help in identifying connections.”
“Good God,” Diana breathed as she rubbed her temples, “this is huge. This is too much.”
Viria’s eyes shifted to Cassie. “Everything is connected, and I’m sure you’ve been involved, too. You’re an Omega, and I don’t mean to trigger you ,but your previous pack was involved with deals with the Morbus and Asther because your kind is avid breeders. We had a dirty war with them three months ago and were compelled to annihilate them completely after finding about their associations. We secured the innocent in one of Viria’s conquered territories abandoned a while ago.”
Ammara looked pale and shaken. She didn’t think Asther’s malice could go as far to put their realms in so much danger. So much as to involve the humans.
“Did Morrigan know about this?” Nina demanded, and Viria shook her head.
“Morrigan was caught up in her own agendas. She would’ve been overthrown, despite her success. If it weren’t for all of us, her and Asther would probably be at each other’s throats by now, and our kind would have gone extinct in the few years to come, replaced by enslaved chimeras.”
“What’s your role in all of this?” Nina asked, a lot calmer this time.
“Well, Ivanna and I are working on undoing damages and debts caused by Morrigan in the witches’ communities before we face the bigger picture involving Morbus. We can’t do shit with our own problems interfering.”
“And you need my help?”
“We just need your influence to get Ivanna in the Inner Circle. She needs to build her connections and influence to get our people to listen and work with her. Following that, we create treaties and unite the communities together. Those three witched, Adelaide, Cora, and Willow, are each part of the High Council in other communities. They’ll recognize Ivanna and tell you we can be trusted.”
The three witches had been silent until, but Cora finally pitched in, “We know of Ivanna. She’s doing a lot for her community and we were aware she had a sister by the name of Viria. Had we known before then, we would’ve clarified it all for you sooner.”
“You know her?” Ammara asked the three, and they nodded.
“She can be trusted,” Adelaide said. “She wouldn’t know about the Inner Circle without Ivanna, at least.”
Nina shifted uncomfortably. “So, we release her?”
“The High Council from her community is coming to attack,” Willow reminded them. “It would be best if she was allowed to go to the front and clear all misunderstandings.”
“They’d arrived about ten minutes ago, though,” Cassie said. “They’re still fighting each other.”
Nina’s face hardened. “Send her in, then.”