45

"You're on your way back?" Vila asked me. It was always wonderful to look at her. Forever young, always innocent in white, with small transparent wings. Her eyes flashed like thunder with every word that left her lips.

Half fairy, half witch, she was more powerful than I, and yet she had withdrawn. In the end it hit us all the same. Losing a soul mate is something that changes us.

"They are," I replied, even though she already knew. She nodded in satisfaction at my answer.

"How is he?" she asked me cautiously, as she always did whenever we met for the past hundred years.

"He's fine, Vila". Saying your name was always a high risk, especially when a lycan did it. I could feel her pain as well as that of her soul mate and she with her abilities felt it immediately when her name was spoken.

"He still thinks about me from time to time?" she asked cautiously.

"Every day, I would say," I said bluntly. It was what I did at least, how could it be different with Callum's Smith.

"Give him my regards," she said, a little embarrassed. It was the first time she had asked me to do this in a hundred years.

"Why are you asking me to do this now?"

"The outcome is uncertain, Caspian." Vila looked at me with her sky blue eyes. She was more than nine hundred years old and yet seemed younger than me.

In complete contrast to her soul mate, who was consumed by grief on the outside.

"I'll help you not to make the same mistake I made. I've always told you that, Caspian," she assured me.

"They are riddles, Vila," I reply, as always to such statements.

"Only real decisions have a lasting impact on our lives, Caspian." All my abilities didn't work on her, no matter how hard I tried, she always said what she wanted and not what she knew.

"You could direct them!" I replied. She could, if she revealed just a little more than this shady information.

"For a while, but Luna sees more alternatives in the future than I do, or she just lets me see what she allows." Vila was one of the few oracles among witches and half-fairies.

She saw things with her heart, a fae trait that hadn't stopped her from manipulating her own destiny until Luna put her in her place. She never said exactly what happened, nor did Smith, but they've avoided each other ever since.

That was long before I was born, as was when she left her circle. I didn't know why she came here, today it seemed a lucky coincidence, but the way she guided my destiny made me doubt it.

"You said you had to protect these two packs at all costs. I don't see the success in that, though."

"Well, the war you hastened will protect them. I'm not saying you conjured it up, that was your brother. That was always him and in all the alternatives I've seen there was no escape. "

Vila gave me a cube I had never seen before. It was pitch black, smooth on every side, and didn't look like it contained anything.

"What is that?"

"A secret," she giggled.

"I had plenty of that," I said gruffly. "What am I supposed to do with that?"

"Save it until the time is right!" Vila looked at me dreamily, but I wasn't in the mood for romance. Anyway, I didn't know why she was still holding on to love after hundreds of years.

Luna had betrayed her a long time ago and just as long ago she had forgiven her.

"The traps at the borders—" I came back to the essentials. It was what moved me and she nodded in agreement.

"I told you. I created them for you to protect your kingdom. You asked me to. There are only these two packs to protect," she interrupted.

"That was never very meaningful," I muttered. "How far are you?" If it protected Tara, I was fine with whatever she planned.

"They've all been laid long ago. There's just something missing," she answered happily.

Putting yourself in the hands of witches was never a good idea. I had no experience with fairies, they were so rare. I didn't know any and she was both.

"What happens next?" I asked impatiently.

"I'm an oracle, not a psychic," she replied, laughing. I still don't understand the term oracle. Half-silver prophecies and answers I could give myself.

"You asked me to protect your kingdom from your brother. I can only show you the way. Whether you take it is up to you. The future is tied to these two packs," she repeatedly lectured me.

"You said that three years ago. There will be war, you didn't say anything about that," I interjected.

"Well, I didn't know if you would start it," she replied cheekily, her little wings beginning to glow. Was she enjoying her superiority?

I tried to pull myself together. I needed the help of witches and couldn't give my opinion to a single one and she was more than that.

"What about old Alpha Alaister?" I asked casually.

"Smith is taking care of him. Everything will fall into place, Caspian, as long as you do the right things. Everything is going perfectly so far." I didn't feel perfect at all.

"Perfect? ​​It's far from perfect," I snorted.

"You're insecure because you still have a choice," she replied elatedly, as if it were a game. She hovered a little off the ground and spread her hands with her wings.

"What kind of choice is this? You prophesied that I would have to give up everything to protect what I love," I called after her as she walked further and further into the sky. She came back to me immediately and rested her head on one shoulder.

"Well, your choice wasn't what I meant, Caspian. Choosing Elisane and leaving your kingdom to minions..." She shook her white hair, which moved just millimeters around her head. She looked like the moon goddess herself. Her white hair lay like a halo around her. I don't think Luna approves of that."

"Don't bug me, Vila!" I snapped at her. I hated the ambiguous ramblings of oracles. "My kingdom is all I know and care about. Are you telling me that she's punishing me for choosing Elisane?"

"It's your job to find out. Call it a job," she grinned at me.

"Should I have protected Elisane? Was that my fault?" I finally needed answers, not a what-if conversation.

"No, your step is leading you in the right direction," she answered honestly for the first time.

"Vila!" I admonished her anyway.

"I asked you to protect your kingdom, there are many strings attached." I hated those meaningless sentences and yet she kept doing it.

"You asked me to give up my love," I mused to myself and Vila nodded.

"I did," she reminded, and Vila shook her head. Only now did I realize what she really meant. I had only ever seen one thing three years ago, my kingdom. Making Elisane my queen accomplished my mission.

"You meant my Erasthai from the start," I state, defeated. Except that I had only recently met her. It was barely half a year ago and our plan had been going on for much longer.

"The traps are all set, no one who poses a threat will be able to overcome them. I just have to activate them." Vila picked up one of the irons and whispered something to her. As she dropped them, I saw them circling around me. Before I could grab her, she mumbled something and she stayed still again, falling to the ground.

"They look for their own goal that I give them. The poison they are soaked in kills every wolf, I will only gut Cyril, Callum and you. That is your responsibility!" Well, a wolf had survived, but I didn't want to discuss that with her. This was about Tara, about her love and about my love.

I was nobody if I took away love from her after I'd experienced it myself.

"What do you decide? You still have a choice. Take the safe path or choose hope." Vila looked at me invitingly.

"Do I have a choice? Tell me honestly, did you have it when you gave up on Smith?" Vila stiffened, her every move freezing. Her beautiful wings seemed to freeze to ice. That was answer enough.

"Grayson's mark doesn't bind Tara to anything. If she dies, you die. It always will be. The ring found its queen and you gave it to her. You can still take it from her, though." Vila searched my eyes for an answer, but I already had it.

I looked at one half of the ring that had chained Tara's life and mine together. She will have a beautiful life and I will make it possible for her. She will be happy away from all the ugly things that surround me.

"Activate the traps as soon as they all arrive. Make sure nobody else gets into their territory unnoticed!" I ordered her.

"You surprise me," she smiled, but I didn't feel like laughing.

"Just do it," I snorted. "Protect Tara!"

"Sure," she replied, singing a few words I couldn't understand. For a few seconds, the traps glowed with the same light as their wings. They rose and then dug into the ground.

"We'll meet again, Caspian," Vila smiled at me after her chant.

"I don't think so," I answered harshly. Tara is safe, others are not. Now I had to deal with all the poor souls who didn't follow my brother Caspian. Why would I come back here to see her happy hurting myself?

"I'm not a clairvoyant, but I know for sure that we'll meet again," smiled Vila and disappeared into the thicket of trees.