Chapter 85

Erin’s POV

I can’t remember the last time Theo was in our realm. He’s spent so much time in the Moonshadow realm that he created. I should have known the moment I felt that strange sensation upon entering my home that something was wrong.

Theo had come through his portal and was sitting on my bed.

He looked at me with such fury that it brought a chill to my spine.

I didn’t like it when Theo was mad; whenever he was mad, bad things happened.

I deliberately went against his wishes and because of that, there was going to be hell to pay.

Henry stayed by my side though; he had a hold on my hand, and I knew he wasn’t planning on letting me go, despite the wrath of Theo.

Theo was quiet for a long moment like Henry, and I stared at him from the doorway. He kept his eyes locked on mine; they were dark and deadly.

I wondered what he was thinking at that moment.

I wondered if I even wanted to know.

Even Emily was growing nervous about Theo’s presence. I watched in my mind’s eye as she lowered her head, bowing into submissiveness.

He had that effect on my wolf; he terrified her when he wanted to, which terrified me.

I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat; unsure if I should say something first, or if he was planning on saying anything at all.

“Theo…” Henry said, breaking the silence. “What honor do we have for this visit?”

Without taking his eyes off me, Theo spoke in a low and threatening tone.

“You did something incredibly stupid,” he said in a sneer. “You not only put yourself at risk but the risk of the entire organization. Do you have any idea the damage you could have done?”

“I can explain…” I said, trying to keep my own tone low and unafraid. But I knew some fear was leaking through my words. “I was tired of sitting around and doing nothing…”

“You could have been killed,” he hissed. “You could have gotten everybody around you killed. And then what would have happened?”

“I wasn’t trying to put anyone else in danger…”

“Have you learned nothing from your careless mistakes in the past?” He hissed. “You got others killed because you weren’t more careful. Are you really going to let history repeat itself?”

His words were like a knife being plunged into my gut. The pain was far worse than the pain I felt from the silver dagger.

“I thought you would be smarter than this, Erin. I’m incredibly disappointed,” he muttered.

Disappointed.

That was a new one for Theo.

I expected him to yell and punch things, but he genuinely looked disappointed.

“I’m sorry…” was all I managed to say.

“With all due respect, Theo. If Erin hadn’t gone rogue and done what she did, we wouldn’t have figured out that Bane is still under the influence of the Slayers. Gavin thought he was able to reverse his mind back and break the connection between Bane and the Slayers, but he didn’t. They were playing us, and we know that for sure now.”

Theo finally pulled his eyes away from me and looked at Henry.

“You are right. That’s why I’m not yelling,” he said in a calm tone. “But what she did was incredibly ignorant, and I won’t tolerate this kind of behavior from my members.”

“I understand,” I said, lowering my gaze to the ground.

“But with that being said, Henry is right. If you hadn’t done this, we wouldn’t have known that the Slayers are still pulling their strings. They are much stronger than they were before. I hope now that you saw that for yourself, you’ll act with more consideration next time.”

“I will,” I assured him. “I’m not sure what I would have done if Gavin wasn’t there.”

I felt Henry tense from beside me; I knew the mention of Gavin bothered him. I could see it on his face when he saw Gavin and me together in the forest. He was in pain watching us converse and I knew he wanted to leave so I draped my arm through his and allowed him to guide me out of the forest and away from Gavin.

It was the least I could do considering the fact that I was basically playing with Henry’s feelings. I knew how Henry felt about me and it wasn’t fair that I couldn’t reciprocate the same feelings.

But he was still my friend and I wanted him to know that I care for him deeply.

“That just shows we need something much bigger to defeat them this time around. I was doing a little digging and I discovered their hideout is in a different realm like ours. I’m assuming whoever created it is their leader. They are clearly more powerful than the last leader and we need to be ready for anything.”

“How are we going to find and defeat them if they aren’t in our realm?” I asked, staring between Henry and Theo.

“If the realm is anything like ours, then there’s a tool to access it. We need to find the tool. Whomever the leader is, they have eyes everywhere. It’s to be assumed that most of the Slayers are walking these grounds and causing mayhem, including their vessels. I was thinking Gavin is strong enough that he might be able to see through the other side using his abilities. He might be able to find the members with the tools to access their realm.”

“What?” Henry and I gasped at the same time.

“You want to use Gavin in all of this? He would end up finding out that I am a part of the organization.”

“It might be our only hope. But I don’t want to rush into things and blindly tell him everything. We need to find out if we can truly trust him,” Theo said.

“How do we suppose we do that?” Henry asked, looking at me and then back at Theo.

“I’ll leave that for you two to decide,” Theo answered.

With all this talk about the organization and the slayers, something else popped into my head that I hadn’t even considered yet.

I let out a gasp as the memory surfaced in my mind.

“If Bane is still under the control of the Slayers, that means Susanna probably is too,” I said as I peered over at Henry with large and worried eyes. “Which means Gavin was right. She’s still a danger… he needs to be warned.”

…

Susanna’s POV

Susanna sat in her small jail cell, counting the tiles for the hundredth time.

It wasn’t fair that she was there.

She knows she was under the influence of the Slayers, but she doesn’t feel like they are still in her mind. Since Gavin brought her mind back, she’s been more aware of everything and understood her behavior was wrong.

She was feeling like herself again; whoever that might be.

Susanna sat on the cot in the corner of the room; she had already begged and pleaded to be released but the guards were not budging.

They were on the orders of Gavin who paid them more money than she could count to keep her locked away.

As much as she knew she couldn’t blame him for being careful, there was a part of her that still blamed Erin for that misfortune.

That part of her was burning under a fire her heart was setting.

“Susanna…” she heard a woman whisper through her mind.

Susanna tensed; it was that voice.

It had returned to her.

But how? And why?

“You have disappointed me, Susanna. You allowed yourself to be captured. You have failed the mission we have given you…”

Susanna remained quiet; unsure of what to say in return. Her body trembled in fear. That voice was never going to go away.

She was trapped.

She buried her head in her lap and allowed some tears to escape her eyes; there was no escaping the awful fate that had been set upon her.

“But there is still a chance for you to redeem yourself.”

Susanna lifted her gaze, staring at nothing in particular.

“What do I need to do?” She asked the voice in return.

“You can’t do anything while you are locked in a cage like an animal,” the voice said in disgust. “So, the first thing we are going to do is break you out of here.”