Chapter 3

Saphira walked horribly towards a house. There was a deep frown on her face, and she looked beyond mad as she walked. She pushed open the front door of the house to find Maximus and Darius Talking. They both stopped talking immediately, and the door flew open. “Where is he?” Saphira said in a deadly voice that made the both of them shiver a bit. They looked towards a direction at the same time, and Saphira followed their gazes before walking out of the living room angrily. “She scares me most times,” the werewolf said, and Darius scoffed. “Only most times?! She scares me all the time”. They looked towards the direction Saphira had gone and then at themselves.

Ash stood facing the window of the room, and he could hear the door burst open. He turned to look at who he was, and he saw Saphira walk into the room till she was a few feet away from him. “What did you do!?” She asked in a slightly raised voice as if she was trying hard to hold back her anger, but it wasn't working.

“I wasn't involved” Ash replied, but she didn't look convinced one bit. She scoffed and ran her hand through her fiery red hair.

“Do you expect me to f*cking believe that! If not you, then who!”. Ash sighed, “It wasn't me, I have the same question too”.

“You are the only person who I can think of right now who would excuse what she did and still try to help her. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who thinks this way! Everyone else thinks so, too!”

Ash couldn't take it anymore. “it wasn't me!” he yelled out in anger. He was beyond shocked when he heard the news about Hazel's escape. He had thought about helping her escape, but in the end, he couldn't bring himself to do such a thing after all she had caused. Too many innocent people have died because of her. He still remembered the gory scene of petrified people at Snowspell village. “I thought about it but… I couldn't do it”

Saphira started to pace around. She was trying to wrap her head around everything that was happening. “If you didn't do it then, could it have been Jared?” she stopped pacing and turned fully to look at Ash. “he wasn't the one” Ash declared. “How are you so sure? After you, I would have thought of Gia, but she was captured too, that leaves the only possible person who would want to help her, Jared”. “There is no way Jared could have gotten into the dungeons of the Palace. He is a shapeshifter. To get into the Palace alone would pose the biggest problem for him. Your sister made sure the spells cast around the dungeon were super strong and almost impenetrable till now…”

“Then who! Who could have done a thing like this? Do the dark witches have a new leader who is stronger than Hazel? How could we have missed something like that.” The more she thought about it, the more complicated it became.

“Maybe it's best if we returned to the Palace,” Ash suggested.

“Are you crazy!” Darius' voice came from the entrance of the room, Maximus behind him. “What do you think will happen if you go back there? Do you think they will welcome you with open arms after what happened? You are the number suspect right now. If you were the king, I would have ordered your arrest already”

“I agree with him on this” Saphira chimed in. It wasn't the best of ideas to return to Palace in such situations. “I think we should deal with this on our own,” She added.

Ash out a deep breath. Just what was his sister planning? He had tried to find her using his powers, but it was to no avail. It was like she disappeared into thin air, but they all knew it was just a little bit of peace before the main trouble would arrive. He just wanted things to go back to normal. He was tired of revenge and all of that. He wanted to forget the past and move on, but maybe peace wasn't meant for him.

“I still think Jared is involved” Saphira stood on her words. “I hate that damn shapeshifter,” Darius muttered.

“How are we going to find her?” Maximus asked...

“Let's start with Jared, so my doubts can be cleared, but I have this tugging feeling that we may find more with him”.... Saphira suggested. She knew it. She just knew it…

"Okay, let's start with that. how do we find him? I'm sure he is far gone by now since Liam would have sent people to find him. "

"Leave that to me. I will locate him in no time. but first, I need to speak with Diana. maybe she can tell me what exactly is going on. " Saphira knew her sister and how she was. She might not tell her a thing, but they had similar behaviour. but it was better to try at this point.

Ash nodded, and Darius sighed. "I can't believe we are back to this. I thought everything was finally back to normal. I guess we aren't destined to find peace after all. " His words made Max smile. "People like us can only hope for it and not have it."

Saphira stared at her friend, Ash. he didn't look too good, and she was worried about him. For the past months, anytime she had tried to bring up Hazel, he brushed it off or changed the topic, but she knew he was beating himself up about it.

"Let's go, Ash. you need to accompany me somewhere."

Darius opened his mouth to talk, but she quickly interjected him. "You both can't tag along. instead, try to find out more about what is going on in town. maybe you can hear some useful information there. "

After that, she walked out of the room, and Ash followed after her. "I wonder where they are going...

"Where are we going to?" Ash asked when they came out of the house, but Saphira ignored his question. "Give me your hand," She instructed and reluctantly gave her his hand. She closed her hand and whispered a spell and a small wind formed around both of them.

when she opened her eyes again, they were no longer near the house but in a new place. "Do you remember this place?" Saphira turned to look at Ash, and the look on his face said it all. he had turned pale. "Why did you bring me back here?"

she took him back to the place where he had almost lost his sister for good because dark magic almost took over her. the place where she almost killed Liam's mate.

"I need you to remember, you have to stop her by all means Ash. whatever happened here wasn't your fault. She made that decision herself. the only way you can help her now is by stopping her. Don't hesitate 'cause I won't, " Saphira said in a cold tone. She didn't want to be this harsh to him, but she needed him to get his head straight.

he looked up at the woman who was always with him, at all his bad times, and nodded...