It said that the silence is an answer. I got my answer.
"Mother is waiting for us inside."
Dakho guides us inside the coven house once again. We are welcomed by the spacious room and Mrs. Kan who is sitting at the table as the other day. As we go in further I notice new piles of opened books around the carpet and handwritten pages attached to a board near the window.
I let my eyes wonder and I realise they are spells. I recall knowing some of them. The witches had written down any spell they could find related to the word invenio. They are all finding spells, from the easiest ones to difficult rituals I have never heard before.
"Mother."
Mrs. Kan lets out a frustrated noise and she closes shut the book she was going through with a loud bang. She turns around and stands up abruptly letting her high ponytail to dingle from one of her shoulder to the other.
She tugs down her pencil skirt and straighten her spine walking towards us. I have never met someone who radiates superiority as much as her. She holds her chin up looking straight at Zagan who, in exchange, gives her a bored expression. After all, yesterday he has thrown her over the wall.
He turns around and walks to the sofa throwing himself on it as if he owned the place. Mrs. Kan stops stunned in her tracks at Zagan's behaviour while he smirks proudly he got the reaction he wanted from her and he pats the place next to him mockingly for her to sit down.
I hear a small snort from my right and Dakho tries to restrain a smile from appearing by nibbling his lower lip. I can tell that's one of the few times his mother receives this kind of behaviour and he seems to enjoy her reactions even more than Zagan.
The woman moves around sitting down opposite him, her gaze returning stern and cold.
"The werewolves asked for our help a couple months ago and-"
"Good morning." Zagan flesh her a smile. He wants to drive her insane, I'm sure of it but Mrs. Kan doesn't look like she'll buy his games this time.
"We decided to help them-"
"It's impolite to not greet a person, isn't it?"
"Good morning." Mrs. Kan exhale. "Now, can I go on?" She asks.
Zagan nods his head with his teeth on full display.
"At first I thought we'll find the girl in no time, but we were wrong." Her tone changes when she spoke the last words. "We tried everything, from the simple finding spells to rituals." Her gaze now on the stacks of books on the table. "We couldn't find her."
Dakho moves in front of me and gesture me to follow him and sit down.
Usually the spells are very accurate and there are just a few situations when they won't work. An inexperienced witch can fail in doing a spell correctly and this can be an exception, but I doubt she hadn't checked it herself. They tried for months to find her. The powers of royals and the council combined couldn't fulfil the request. She said they even performed rituals and from what I seen on the board, they weren't usual ones.
"She probably died." Zagan says.
"That's what we first through as well when we realised the spells weren't working." Dakho says. "So we had to be sure, we made the Mortal Incantation."
"She is alive." Mrs Kan sighs. If the Mortal Incantation couldn't find her, she is definitely alive. But then...
"She might be protected by magic." I say furrowing my brows. That's the only explanation.
"That's exactly what we think." Mrs Kan says. "But a simple protection spell can't be this strong." They have two royals and a complete council. She is right, that's not a simple protection spell.
"We think she is protected by more than one witch." Dakho continues.
"Even so, you're one of the most powerful witch and you have a full council, your magic should have broken the protection spell." Zagan says shifting his position.
Mrs. Kan stare is blank, but her eyes look gloomy. They hold sadness in them, and it's so clear that's it scares me.
"There's more to it." If the situation concerns her as much as I think, we have a real problem.
"Yes." She pauses. "We got to the conclusion that it's a whole coven that's protecting her." Zagan clicks his tongue.
"Contact the covens."
"Do you think I haven't already?" Mrs. Kan snorts. "You're here because they don't have her."
"What are you trying to say?" Zagan asks confused. "That, there is another coven?"
It's not possible.
My eyes widen and my heart climbs up to the back of my troth. There's not any other coven. But the look in her eyes says something I didn't want to believe is was true. It can't be.
"Yes." Zagan's body goes stiff. A wave of coldness rushes through my veins all the way to my toes. The temperature in the room decreases rapidly and I see Mrs. Kan exhale a small, misty cloud. The minuscule droplets of water dance around for some milliseconds and vanish afterwards.
"She is doing it." Mrs. Kan says staring back at me. Zagan's hands grip my shoulders and turn me in his direction. His head duck down at my level and his eyes search mine while he scouts closer to my body holding me.
"Love, stop it." A misty cloud appears in front of me and I watch it as is disappear. My brain is failing to adjust to the situation I was forced into. My mouth goes dry and it burns when I open it to talk.
"It can't be-" my voice break and I feel my body start shaking as it tries to fight against the temperature.
"I got you." He whispers caressing my cheek with his thumb. "Stop it."
-
"How are you feeling?" Dakho asks while he sits next to me.
"I don't know."
"Your magic," he pauses "it's just the ritual." I sigh nodding my head.
The road it's unusually quiet for this part of the day. All the noise is coming from the crows that are gathering into groups above us flying in circles making themselves noticed by their powerful voices. There are no people around. It might be because of the dark grey clouds covering the sky or the ridiculously strong wind that's swinging the trees from left to right continuously. Maybe they are hiding inside to protect themselves from the chaos that is about to break out.
There are all the signs that foretell a storm.
"What is going to happen if it's true?" The wind passes by us messing up my hair and I close my eyes trying to prevent dust particles getting stuck in them.
"I don't know." He speaks after a long pause. "I don't think anyone has the answer for that."
I hug my knees settling my chin on them. I somehow despise that girl and I haven't even met her.
A werewolf.
Our enemy.
Namjoon's soulmate.
"Let's go." Zagan closes the door shut behind him and walks ahead passing by us. I don't move and Dakho stays still looking at him. The car flash open and he looks our way.
"Move!" He spats and Dakho stands up and starts strolling down the path. Sighing I follow him and when we reach the car Zagan is already in the passager seat.
"Where we're going?" Dakho asks as he starts the engine and takes off.
"Werewolves's."
"Why?" Mrs. Kan is sending us off even though she asked us to be here. It is because of what happened inside, because of my magic?
"We have work to do." He answers bluntly and his tone is the signal for me to stop. He is not in the mood to talk. What the woman said had the same effect on both of us. The only difference is that I lost my self control and he didn't.
-
By the time I dragged my body out of the car Zagan was already entering the front door. Whatever Mrs. Kan discussed with him after they sent me out to get some air was highly protected information.
The car turns around and slowly takes off. I gesture Dakho to stop.
"You're not staying?" I ask confused getting at his window.
"He told me not to." He point at the house referring to Zagan. I don't remember Zagan speaking in the car at all. I must have been really out of it. "Anyway I don't think they can handle another witch in their territory." He chuckles at the end. "I'll see you later." He says and takes off without letting me respond.
Zagan was waiting for me in the hallway leaning his body on the wall. After I close the door he walks away without a word. I wonder when is he going to bother himself to explain me why are we back here.
I follow his every turn through the hallways passing by door after door. At the end of the hallway, he takes another turn, opens a door and walks in letting it open for me. Darkness and a heavy smell is coating the interior. The curtains are removed by Zagan and I squish my eyes painfully at the sudden enlighten room. Small particles are flying around the area occupied by massive dark maroon shelves with books. They made the room a library and by the thick layer of dust, they don't use it very often.
It somehow doesn't surprise me.
He opens the window letting fresh air come in. There are a couple hundred of books stacked on the shelves, all old and dark due to the dust. My disgust takes over my features when I spot some of them in a horrific state without even having a cover.
"We have to check them." Zagan speaks and I turn my head at him surprised. By the way the books look, more than half of them are old enough to be written in forgotten languages so in order to read them we have to decipher them first.
"It'll take months." I state taking the sight in.
"We have until the ritual." He removes a grey cloth revealing a table and some chairs.
"That's in three days." More particle of dust are thrown in the air dancing around.
"We better start." He walks to the first shelf and picks out books gathering them in his arms.
"Stop." I walk up to him. He can't just keep everything to himself. "Tell me what's going on." I cross my hands over my chest as he pretends to not see or hear me and carries on reading the titles engraved on the covers, gathering them further.
After I wait a couple minutes, he starts whistling not even throwing a glance my way. That's when I snap.
"Zagan!" He moves to the table and place the books down dusting off his shirt.
"No one knows what's going on." He says calmly while he divides the books in different groups. "You were there, you heard what she said."
"What she said is pure madness." The possibility of being another coven somewhere out there is almost none.
"It is," he sighs "but that's why we are here." I wonder what Kai thinks about Mrs. Kan's suspicions. He obviously knew the situation before he sent us here. But if he knew and he still allowed me to come with Zagan while a suspicion about another coven being out there is present it just doesn't make sense. He must have a strong reason for it.
"We're the only witches entering their house in decades." Zagan drags out a chair and seat down on it. "The others checked everything in the coven's house."
"And we have to search in here." I state and Zagan nod lightly. "What exactly are we looking for?"
"Here is the whole history of the werewolves." The history of the entire specie in one dusty room, that's something. "We are looking for anything about soulmates and any similar situations when the soulmate is found after the coming of age."
"Even if we start right away, it's impossible to check them all in three days."
"There are specific drawings on the books for different subjects." He motion to the books on the table. As I watch them I notice all the books having a moon and a star engraved in the centre of the cover.
"I was expecting a heart." I confess staring at the drawing.
"They percept love differently from us. For us is a feeling and for them it's the meaning for their lives." He says and I feel my heart churn at his words. For some reason the story Dakho told us comes in my mind and I feel it bothering me more than it should.
"There are more books in Namjoon's office." After his name left Zagan's lips my brain awoken up. All I was feeling earlier slipped away as his image popped up my head. "Go get them." He passes by me and my eyes grew wider.
"Hold up a second, why me?" I stand beside him in the next moment watching his every move closely.
"Because I said so."
"How do you even know that there are book, huh?"
"I'm not stupid unlike you." He says rolling his eyes as he watched my eyebrows knit together. "We were both in his office this morning." In that moment my brain starts functioning again and it bring back the image of the self with books from his office.
I open my mouth to mumble something to change his mind and make him go there instead of me, but the door opens and he push me towards it. I puff and huff as I forcefully walk out of the room. I have to try talk with him again but before I attempt to turn around the door shouts close behind me.