Chapter sixty four

“She has not showed up since yesterday, could it be that she succeeded?” Kaiden said as he paced around in the cave.

“But I thought you said he wouldn’t give in, that he is stubborn?” Mary asked.

“That’s what I thought too but if she didn’t show up throughout yesterday till now, doesn’t it mean that she succeeded?” He asked and sighed soon after, “so I am going to be under his shadow once more, huh, life is really unfair.”

“I don’t like this, we have been hiding in this cave for days, we are cut off from the outside world. I suggest that it is time we leave this place and see what is happening,” Melissa suggested.

“Where would you go? Need I remind you that I am no longer the demon king so I can’t live in the palace anymore and certainly not when my brother now rules the palace.”

“We mustn’t live in the palace, we can always get a cottage or…”

“Or we can go to the human realm,” Mary suggested with a smile, “I always love to be there,” she chuckled and tucked a tendril of her blue hair behind her ear, “it’s beautiful.”

“Will you shut up?” Merinda said with a roll of her eyes. “The human realm is like the outskirt of ours, if we are there, how can we know what is happening here?”

“Oh, I didn’t think it through,” Mary whispered.

“Of course you didn’t,” Merinda chided her.

Kaiden sighed and went to sit on the wooden bed, “we only have here for now, if we go out there, we would be in the open and I don’t need to remind you that we must hide from Edward, it’s a must.”

“Well, I don’t have time for hiding,” a voice said and they turned to see her standing by the entrance. Her hood was covering her face as always but they couldn’t help but notice that her lips and chin were paler than they used to be and also, she had added a new piece to her style. There was a black shawl wrapped around her neck and since they knew better, they could easily guess that she was hiding something and the question was what? “If you want to hide then maybe I made a mistake coming here and should better turn around now and leave.”

“No, wait,” Kaiden said and stood up, “we have been waiting for you.”

The woman ignored him and even though she wanted to hide it, it was clear that she was limping. Kaiden frowned and watched her as she came over and sat on the bed. “Are you hurt?” he asked.

The woman sighed, “the king has fallen into a slumber. If you ever want to reclaim your glory, now is the right time to strike,” she said, ignoring his question.

Kaiden’s frown deepened, “in slumber? He looked pretty healthy the last time I saw him and he commands the eternal fire, obviously the fire would protect him.”

“If you think you know better, why don’t you go see for yourself?” she asked, irritated.

“I’m sorry,” Kaiden apologized immediately. “But, if it is as you said then neither you nor I can ever step into his palace. If he is hurt that he is unconscious, the eternal fire would raise a shield as a defense mechanism to keep him from coming to any harm until he awakens. So, as much as it would have seemed like a good plan, it is a bad plan none the less.”

“I know that no one can step into his palace and I know that his fire shield is up but what I am saying is that now is the time to get your revenge on him. With him in slumber, he is as good as dead and that means you can finally do with his mate as you wish and you can give me the heart of that boy. His mere existence is the…” she paused and sighed, “I must have his heart, either I have his heart or I have the throne, one must happen. However, it is clear that I can never have the throne so I will go for his heart which is easier now. The last time the king was in slumber, he slept for eight hundred years. Now I don’t know how long he will sleep but I know that we have days in our hand to accomplish this. So the question is, are you in or out?”

“Of course I am in, I will do whatever it takes to bring Edward to his knees. I don’t care if he kills me whenever he wakes up but I know his mate and son would long be dead. However, how are we to do it? As the king, the loyalty of the demons lie with him and should she go to them for help, they would give their lives to protect them. So, what can we do? How can we win them and the demons?”

The woman’s pale lips smiled, “it’s time to summon the rogues and the infected. You still have that power over them and as far as I am concerned, the princess won’t try healing them all because I know that the pure blood witch might have told her what danger it would entail should she try.”

“Wait, heal all of them? Has she healed anyone?” he frowned.

“Aye. She had healed two people from her pack and I think she healed one in Black Wind pack, I don’t know for sure but I know she had left her pack with the future alpha of that pack yesterday. I have been so preoccupied with the king yesterday to fully pay attention.”

Kaiden nodded. “If I do this, will you still do what you promise?”

“You don’t have a throne to offer so why should I fulfil my end part of the deal when you didn’t fulfill yours?”

“I will get you his son’s heart, you have my word.”

The woman smiled then, “do that and I will fulfill my part and make you the Dark king of the land and you would be so powerful that you would be on par in strength with the demon king so that when he wakes, the ground would collapse when you are on the battlefield.”

Kaiden smiled, “then let’s get the party started.”

***

“Your elbow has still not healed. I tried to bring Catherine along to check up on you but she looked so sick this morning that I even felt bad for her,” Scarlet sighed as she placed a plate of food in front of Aliyah. “She looked so pale and I think she was even limping even though she tried to hide it.”

Aliyah frowned, “limping?”

“Yes. To be honest, I don’t think I have ever seen Catherine sick since she was mated into our pack thirty years ago. Everyone had taken pity on her when her mate died just three years after he brought her home and the fact that she didn’t conceive before then made it the worse. I mean, assuming she had a child, it would have been easier to endure but then she seemed to have done pretty well on her own.”

“You know I have always wondered about her. The history is that a wolf never mates in another pack. It’s not unheard of but it is very rare and Catherine is the only one that was mated into our pack in history if I should say. What pack is she from, I don’t think I have ever seen someone visit her. Or have you before I was born?” Aliyah turned to her.

Scarlet frowned, “now that you mention it, nope, I have not. And I don’t know her pack of origin either. All I know is that when your grandfather was still alive and the alpha of the pack, one of the elders had gone missing and so a search party was arranged. It consists of your grandfather, your father and Beta Aton and then Mike, Catherine’s mate. On finding the elder, they have seen her lying by the lake, she was wounded and covered in blood and Mike had immediately declared her his mate when his eyes landed on her and so they brought her home. She has been living with us ever since then and when she disclosed her gift in healing wolves, your grandfather was so happy that she was in our pack.”

Aliyah nodded, “it’s strange sometimes how she is always on her own and only shows up when she is needed.”

“Tell me about it.” Scarlet sighed, “but in all, I am glad she chose to stay with us, her healing ability has been very helpful, trust me.”

Aliyah didn’t say anything as she took a chicken wing from the plate and started munching on it. She thought about Catherine and the way the woman was the first to know about Edward’s mark on her and rather than run and report her, she concealed it for her. She knows that she had always been grateful to her for that but now, she was having a mixed feeling about it. However, the woman has never done anything out of the ordinary so she would cut her some slack. She exhaled and glanced at the palace, the fire was still as it was since yesterday and within a second, she noticed her worry deviating as she found herself praying once again for her mate to wake up.