Three Weeks Later
I was sitting by the stream Artemis and I had discovered a few weeks ago, lazily making ripples and waves in the shallow water.
Once a day, we would come out here to train together. After everything that happened at the cave, King Ruben decided it was best we kept up on our skills.
I sighed, thinking back on the memory.
Anton had been hurt pretty badly; the wounds in his back and leg were deep and took longer to heal than expected.
King Ruben assumed it was because the Fate Spinner may have had some sort of poison coating it's body, which hindered his accelerated healing process.
Needless to say, he wasn't very happy being stuck at the safehouse all the time. Once he was finally able to walk on his own again, he packed his stuff up and began staying in the cave for days at a time.
King Ruben had taken Valen and Von to make sure the Fate Spinner was gone for good, which it was, before setting up camp. Now, the cave resembled a military base.
There were tables with maps everywhere, cots, secret files, and much, much more. I wasn't keen on the idea, and hadn't been back there since the attack.
Most days, I spent my time training with Artemis, helping Aislinn out with her daily duties, or spending personal time with Valen.
Things had been surprisingly tame.
To be honest, it made me a little uncomfortable and restless.
Today was a little different, however, because King Ruben had finally been able to round up all the warriors that had been posted as security the night of the ball. He, Anton, and the princes were questioning them in the cave now.
I huffed in annoyance and laid back in the grass, removing my hand from the water.
I had begged Valen to let me be apart of the interrogation, but he and everyone else had held firm that I shouldn't be there.
I have no idea what their motives were, but I knew I couldn't disobey. The sun was beginning to set over the horizon and they still weren't back yet.
I heard a twig snap behind me so I flipped over and rose from the ground, scanning the trees for any signs of a threat.
I lowered my posture into a defensive stance, ready to attack my intruder, when Anton stepped out into the light with his hands raised.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him as I put my hands on my hips.
Ever since the incident with the Fate Spinner, Anton had barely spoken to me.
I guess you could say it was a step up from the outright aggression he had shown before, but it was a little awkward when you could tell someone was avoiding you at all costs.
He cleared his throat and looked down.
"I came to get you, they've finished the questioning."
"Did they find out anything useful?"
He shook his head and frowned.
"Nobody that was on duty that night confessed to letting them in. All of them maintained that they were at their assigned posts at the scheduled times."
"That just doesn't make any sense. How could that be true and not a single one of them saw anything suspicious?"
He shrugged.
"King Ruben gave them all truth serum. There's no way they could be lying to us."
"Well, what about Barron?"
"What about him?" Anton cocked his eyebrow and finally looked at me.
"Well, his story from the night of the cave was pretty suspicious. Has anyone questioned him?"
Barron had been taken into King Ruben's study immediately after everyone returned. You could hear the yelling from two doors over.
Barron had claimed that he was more than prepared to stay awake for his three hour watch, but as he sipped his water and watched the fire, a heavy feeling came over him.
After that, all he remembers is blackness until he woke up. King Ruben wasn't having it, even after the kid cried and wet himself.
He was demoted a couple of ranks and has been on grunt duty in the cave ever since.
"Barron was with his family dancing and enjoying the party, just like all of the other guests."
I sighed and rubbed my temples.
It just didn't make sense. There was no possible way the Moonlight pack had just waltzed onto our land. Anton cleared his throat once more.
"King Ruben has requested that we go back to the castle ruins. You know, to have a look around. See if we can find anything."
"Who's we?"
"You and I," he said while gesturing between us. I snorted.
"Okay, good one." Anton glowered at me and his eyes flashed.
"I'm serious. He's sending us because they have a few more things to wrap up at the cave. Once they're done, they will be joining us. He believes that if it was one of the warriors, the questioning would have put some heat on them and made them worried. He assumes they'd go back to the scene of the crime to make sure they covered all of their tracks."
I thought about it for a moment. It really wasn't such a bad plan. If anything, he was probably right. I just didn't want to go with Anton, but I sighed in defeat.
"Fine, when do we leave?" He cracked a small grin.
"Whenever you're ready."
***
Anthon and I travelled by wolf to get back to the castle. With just the two of us, it didn't take long to get there.
Once we arrived, I had to bite back my tears as memories flooded my brain from that night.
Aunt Maddie's body was somewhere in the wreckage, and I was hoping I wouldn't come across it.
We shifted back into our human skins and dressed in the light clothing we had packed with us before walking around the perimeter of the castle.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary yet; the grass had grown long from the weeks of being abandoned and small weeds were beginning to peek their heads out of the cracks in the stones.
It didn't look like any one had been here for some time.
"Let's get closer to the rubble, maybe there will be something there," Anton suggested.
I just followed him. It was depressing to see the once magnificent structure laying at my feet in ruins.
I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat and tried to let go of the feeling that my home was gone. I hadn't been here long, but I really had grown attached to the place.
We began to work our way through wreckage- turning over boulders, shoving stone slabs out of the way, and lifting wooden support beams.
So far, there was nothing that seemed out of place. I rubbed my hands on my pants and crossed my arms.
I scanned my surroundings, before finally dropping my gaze and seeing something shine in between the cracks of a pile of rubble. It was probably nothing, but I figured it'd be best to check it out just in case.
"Anton!" I called over to him.
"What's up?" he asked as he jogged over to me. I pointed in the direction I had seen the reflection.
"There's something under there, help me get this stuff out of the way."
He looked at me skeptically for a moment, but nodded his head. We leaned down and cleared away the small stuff first, before we both placed our arms around one large slab of stone.
Odd, I thought.
This stone didn't have a fine layer of dust and ash like all the others. It was clean.
We heaved it over and I leaned down, my fingers grasping at the shiny thing just out my reach. I grunted and moved myself closer, trying not to dislodge anything and cause the rubble to come tumbling down around me.
Finally, my fingers connected with it. It felt smooth, sharp, and cold to the touch. I grasped it and heaved myself up.
In my hand, was a large silver dagger with ornate designs carved into the blade.
The swirling art ran all the way up to the tip and back down, where it curled into a pair of menacing wolf's eyes. I shuddered as I looked into them.
I carefully grabbed the blade with my glove covered hand and turned to look at the handle. It was made of dark and bronze colored metal that weaved together down it's entire length.
I held it out to Anton, but he was staring down at the ground where I had found it again. I looked down and realized there was something else there.
"Here," I said while carefully handing him the dagger.
I leaned down and retrieved a small envelope that had been hidden underneath the weapon.
When I came back up, Anton was examining the dagger carefully. I chose not to interrupt him, and instead pulled back the seal.
Inside was a simple note. I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand.
"What is it?" Anton asked as he took it from my shaking hands.
He snarled as he read the message, and I saw his eyes flash from brown to silver. He dropped the paper and I glanced at the envelope that was still in my hand.
I turned it over and shook it, revealing my mother's ring.
I looked between the ring and the note in confusion, reading the words over and over again.
This isn't over yet. We're coming for you.
Author's Note:
Bum bum! I told you it wouldn't be too crazy of a time jump. Just needed to get back to the original mystery. Anyway! What do you think of Anton's attitude toward Indigo now? Do you think it will change? What about the note? Who do you think wrote it, and how did they get Indigo's ring?
Please comment and vote to let me know what you think!
Xoxo,
CrimsynIris