Chapter Seventeen

Iwatched as Sasha disappeared into the trees. It was hard not to run after her, but I held myself back, despite my wolf's demanding objections.

Aurora and Baer had reappeared just as Sasha had rushed off. The look on Aurora's face told me that she had seen her cousin's rapid departure and knew it was because of me. I watched as she turned to tell her mate something before dashing back into the trees in search of Sasha.

Baer watched as his mate disappeared into the forest before turning to me. His eyes narrowed at me. I became rigid at his expression and turned to leave the camp. I wanted to gather my own thoughts alone.

Apparently, Baer had other plans for me. I could hear his quick steps coming from behind me before his strides matched mine at my side.

"What did you say to Sasha?" He asked, not dancing around the subject. I always liked that about him. He never played with words, always straight to the point. Well, as much as any seer could be, that is.

"You wouldn't understand," I said with a shake of my head.

I had been the only one who had noticed her blackened veins. Aurora had been distraught at her cousin's near-death experience, and Baer was too busy comforting his mate. Neither of them would understand my words to her. Neither of them would see any reason for what I had said to her.

"Either you tell me in your own words, or I'll hear Sasha's version from Rory. The choice is yours, Ayden."

I growled, but didn't argue anymore. He was right. Aurora had gone after Sasha, and I had no doubts that Sasha would tell her cousin what I had said to her. Why wouldn't she?

"Does this have something to do with the dark magic she used the other night?" Baer suddenly asked. My eyes widened as I looked back at him.

"You saw?"

Baer nodded. "I saw her veins before she came to. Rory did as well. Then we saw them turn back to normal as she woke up. It was like a miracle."

"Or an omen," I muttered.

Baer balled up his fist and punched my arm lightly, though the expression on his face was stern.

"No," he said. "It wasn't an omen. It was just a miracle. Something we should all be thankful for."

I sighed; it was as good a time as any to tell him what I had said to Sasha. What had gotten her so upset and running off into the trees away from camp?

"You were there the day she had that vision and spoke the prophecy that she and I would be enemies. The general consensus was that I was the evil one they needed to get rid of. But what if the prophecy is all based on the point of view of the receiver and not the listeners?"

Baer frowned. "What are you saying?"

With a deep breath, I told him. "What if Sasha was the one the prophecy was warning us all about this whole time? What if she's the one we are going to have to face off with. The darkness that you all are rushing after. But because it was being said through her, her view was that I was the enemy to her."

Baer chuckled and shook his head. "No, that's not how visions and prophecies work. There is no point of view but it begins with the person to whom they shared their knowledge with. Besides, it's also rare for a seer to have one vision only, much less for their first to come four years after their powers awakening."

It was my turn to frown now. My gaze moved from the path ahead of us to Baer. "Well now what are you saying?"

Baer smirked and gave a shrug. "I'm just saying, if you recall, Sasha couldn't even use tarot cards to predict the weather. They phased her out of the seer classes less than six months after her thirteenth birthday. There was no potential there."

My brows knitted as I listened to him, noting how he seemed to just dance around, no longer straightforward and to the point. This had something to do with a vision of his own.

"Are you saying that her vision wasn't a real vision?" I asked.

Again, Baer shrugged. "All I'm saying is that if Sasha had been a seer all along, the school did a great disservice to her education. Given that she has two uncles who were both well-known seers of great power, I doubt that the school would have overlooked such talents in their own flesh and blood."

I stopped walking. Baer took another step before he stopped and turned to look at me.

"Are you saying that she faked the prophecy?"

Baer laughed. "When have you ever known Sasha to be able to act that well? She's the worst liar in the world. Awful tales, zero poker face."

I stared at him as he laughed. It was as clear a message as I was going to get. I could see the strain in his face as he fought to tell me this much. The Fates were keeping him on a small leash with such an important fact.

The prophecy was only real in the fact that Sasha had received it. But she did not receive it from The Fates.

I felt the weight of that revelation settle on my chest. The hurt I saw in her eyes was coming back to haunt me.

It wasn't just hurt. It was a complete betrayal on my part.

She had put so much trust in me. She'd overcome her own beliefs that I was the evil she faced. She had shown me her vulnerability, and I had attacked her further.

"Fuck," I growled, as my wolf growled with me.

‘I told you to leave her alone,' he snarled angrily. ‘I could feel her pain. Your words cut her deeper than you even know.'

I turned back to the way we had come. Baer called out for me, his strides catching up with me just as they had before.

This time, he walked silently beside me. My thoughts started to race over everything I had said to Sasha before and the new knowledge that Baer managed to share with me.

I thought about the voice she said she had heard weeks ago. I wondered if she was still hearing that same voice. Most of all, I began to wonder just what that voice could actually be.

"How many creatures do you know that can slip into the mind of someone?" I asked out loud, asking Baer and my wolf at the same time.

Baer frowned at the question. "I've read that some vampires can do that."

‘Only ancients,'my wolf corrected.

"Ancient vampires, yes," I nodded to both of them. "I've heard that some ancient vampires had risen from their sleep around the time the dark witches reappeared."

Baer nodded again. "Yeah, my parents dealt with one before I was born. It was about a mission to revisit a time when vampires were in control and ruled over shifters."

I nodded again. "There had been another time up in Alaska when we were kids. There was a ancient vampire that had tormented my aunt's pack before Sasha's grandfather went up there to help them. Somehow he seemed to know it would be there."

Baer nodded as well. "The Rigel and Crete's found a book that had names and last known locations for a lot of the ancients. We found it when we found Rory's dad's other research he had on the darkness. I think they only spent a few more years checking out the locations for ancients. They only stopped when it became clear that there were no answers as to why they were waking."

I gave a snort. "Well, I'm sure my family would have loved to have known that much from the Rigel-Crete family." I shook my head. "Maybe we could have helped one another out more before we got to this point."

Baer smiled and bobbed his head from side to side. "Things have a way of working out in the exact way they were intended to. The ‘what ifs' and ‘should haves' serve little to no benefit to the here and now. All that matters, is that we are working together now." He pointed towards the opposite end of the camp as we reached my tent. "And it would be even better if you could patch things up with Sasha right now. Then maybe we can sit and share a little more information that could help us figure out what the darkness is."

I followed his gaze to the trees where Sasha and Rory had disappeared into. I could still smell her from the spot where we had talked. Where I had broken her heart. Where she had turned and ran from me.

"I'll let Rory know you're on your way," Baer said. "She will give you space, even if she would prefer to beat you within an inch of your life."

He chuckled as he said those last words, his eyes glazing over.

"Wait," I blurted.

Baer gave me a strange look and tilted his head to the side.

"What's going to stop her from shutting me out?" I continued. "I can't face her right now. Not after the way she looked at me before running away. There's no way that she'll listen to me right now anyway."

"Why not try?" Baer asked. "In my experience with Rory."

"But Sasha isn't Rory," I cut him off. "Rory is forgiving. She's sweet and levelheaded. Sasha is the complete opposite. Sasha won't forgive me so easily. Not when the hurt is so fresh."

Baer chuckled humorlessly. "I never realized how well you've gotten to know her in this short time we've come to this realm."

I shook my head. "This is what I've known from long before that."

Baer smirked then and patted my back hard. "I always knew you had a soft spot for her back then. I wasn't even surprised when you two turned out to be mates. It just made sense."

I rolled my eyes and shrugged his arm off my shoulder.

Across the camp, the girls reappeared.

Aurora gave me another glare as Sasha pretended that I didn't even exist at all. I watched her make her way to her tent without so much as a glance in my direction. She disappeared inside and that is where she stayed. She didn't even come out for dinner as the rest of us sat and ate in awkward silence.

Aurora continued to give me haughty looks, her glares shifting every so often to her mate, as he must have been telling her to calm down through their link. When they went to bed, I could see her smacking his hands away as she hissed something to me.

"Don't be like that," the large alpha king groaned to the sky before following her into the tent.

I found myself alone. The fire was dying out slowly as I stared into the glowing embers of the log.

‘When will we talk to mate?'my wolf asked, breaking the silence that had settled over the camp.

I looked over at her tent again and let out a sigh. ‘Give her a few days to cool off. If we try to apologize too soon, it will only have the opposite effect on her.'

He let out a gruff breath in my head, but didn't disagree with me. ‘Never make her mad at us like this again,' he growled.

I chuckled and stood up from my seat. I kicked dirt over the embers to smother them the rest of the way out.

‘No promises,'I said to him. ‘I don't know a man alive who doesn't make his mate angry more times than he can count. Just look at how Dad ends up in trouble with Mom at least once a month if not more.'

The thought made both of us chuckle, but it also brought a slight ache in my heart as I imagined my family.

‘They will be proud of you when this is all over,'my wolf said. ‘Even more so when you bring home your mate as well as Uncle Atlas's magic.'

I smiled and nodded. ‘Thanks. But let's just get Atlas's magic back first and worry about the introduction of a mate later.'

If at all.