WITCHES OF WOLF CREEK: TRUTH

Chapter 16: Levenach

I can’t remember when our last coven was. If I remember correctly, it’s been over three years. It was on the occasion of my appointment as Amnistral of North Carolina. I remember that date and what it means to me.

The respect shown to me since I was elected to this office reminds me of the time when I dared not hope for such a fate. A time when Neeve was part of my life. I had no ambition at that time, I only cared about the days I spent with the one I thought was the woman of my life. It was before that night. That famous night. And here I am now trying to save her life knowing that every word spoken during this coven will be decisive for her future. Not just for Neeve, Elinor and Sixine, for that matter. But for that of sorcerers. I feel it in the depths of my guts, every morning since that day when Neeve called about the attack on her life. I’m pretty sure who’s behind it all. But how to prove it...

"My daughter isn’t one of those who doesn’t tell her parents if she has to be away for more than a few days!" bellowed Paul Shadwe, Sixine’s father.

The concern he felt could be guessed from his drawn features. His wife, Lydia, looks like she hasn’t slept in ages.

"Elinor wouldn’t have left without telling us, either," asserts Luthor Mona, Elinor’s father.

The latter stands, straight, at my side, to assert his status as chief of sorcerers with our fellow men. I guess he realizes that it will not be easy for him to establish his position in this coven gathered in a hurry. It would have been easier to impose his views if he had condescended to bring us together more often. But for a few years now, Luthor Mona hasn’t been so involved in the North Carolina sorcerer community. This has begun to earn him the distrust of some of our people and to believe the look of Paul Shadwe, it is easy to guess that the damage is already done.

"I’m not saying that Neeve would have warned us," says Josephine Foris, "but that the three disappear at the same time, that’s not a coincidence."

"You were the last to see her, Levenach, what did she tell you?" asks Lord Raven, brother of Paul Shadwe, uncle of Sixine and head of the Virginia coven. "Were they vampires? Or wolves?"

My eyes turn to him. Of course, I’ve already thought about what I might confess during this coven, but I’m not ready to put the girls’ lives in danger by confiding too many details to my people.

"They were sorcerers," I say bluntly.

"Sorcerers?!"

Dismay runs through the assembly. I scrutinize the attitude of my fellow men with attention.

"How do you know?" asks Derreck Foris, whose long red hair is reminiscent of his daughter’s.

His wife, Josephine, a brunette with short hair and icy green eyes, stands up.

"If a sorcerer is behind this treachery, old traditions will have to resurface among us. I will not let such an act go unpunished!"

Neeve’s mother is a woman with a strong temperament, who very rarely leaves her house lost in the middle of the woods. She’s considered a healer in the community. Healer of heart and mind. She’s a person many people visit to confide their problems to. But endanger her daughter, and this woman turns into a lioness that no one would want to have on their back.

"I don’t know what you mean by old traditions, Josephine, but what I’ve seen seems to indicate that this is an isolated group of sorcerers."

"Why bother with our daughters, then?"

"It looks like they witnessed a crime."

"A crime?!"

I pause before the surprise of the members of the coven.

"I traced what your daughters did the day before they disappeared. They went to the police to make a statement. A woman threw herself from a window on the corner of Willsborough Walking Street at Wolf Creek. The body landed right in front of them.

"What is the connection between this suicide and their disappearance?"

"I dug into the question by investigating the victim," I continued, "and she’s a witch. She’s one of your distant cousins, Mr Shadwe. Fausta Summers, did you know her?"

"Indeed," replies Paul Shadwe, bewildered. "I learned of her death, but I didn’t know that Sixine had witnessed it!"

"She won’t have had time to talk to you about it, I suppose. It’s for this reason that I asked Mona to bring the coven together. I think Sixine, Elinor and Neeve weren’t abducted, but in hiding."

"I’ve tried all the locating spells, it doesn’t work," Neeve’s father announces.

"Not many things can block location spells," Luthor Mona comments.

It couldn’t be more true, but my spirit of deduction suddenly allows me to succeed where these grieving families have failed.

The coven ends two hours later. Nothing is finally decided. Everyone is counting on me to find the girls and the culprits of their assaults. That they entrust me with this role suits me. I’ve been waiting for the meeting to end since Mona said the words, "Not many things can block locator spells." At that moment, I understood where they are. If my guess is correct, they had a genius idea! I have already cast many spells to locate them, but none have worked. The solution which has just appeared to me, simple and luminous, although dangerous, then seems to me the most probable.

I put on a high-necked coat because the night is cool in the woods. Then I invoke magic and my astral projection vanishes in a blast. In front of Bretton pack’s cave, I can’t detect any wards. I know then that I can hide as I please in the sanctuary of the wolves. I start pacing the halls, invoking a spell that allows me to trace magic. A magic that I have known for many, many years. Neeve’s magic. The spell I cast creates a dark nebula, a phenomenon only I can see. Neeve’s trace is still recent. Invisible to the eyes of the inhabitants of this place, I sneak through a maze of corridors to a half-open door. I push it lightly so that I can slip inside the room. I wedge myself into a corner, with my back to Neeve who is standing in the middle of the room, and facing two tall men very close to her. Too close to her. One bares its fangs, as if to bite it. I don’t have time to figure out what’s going on when those canines retract and the man places a kiss in the crook of her neck. His tongue travels her skin to the ear. I hear a sigh from Neeve as the other grabs her lips and kisses her. My breathing is faster. My eyes narrow. I watch the door through which I entered and am about to turn back when Cooper Bretton, the Alpha of the pack, whom I know because of my function of Amnistral, suddenly enters. I take a step back and slip behind the door.

"I came to update you on your friends," he said, obviously looking at Neeve.

He doesn’t seem to mind the intimate moment he’s just interrupted. Wolves and their lack of modesty…

"How are they?"

"Elinor appears to be recovering, but still needs plenty of rest. And Sixine will remain in her cell."

"But why?!" wonders Neeve, scared.

"I have no reason to welcome her into the pack. She stood up to me defending my brother and didn’t attempt to fit in. I’ll have a bed set up for her and she’ll have comfortable clothes. But there’s no question that she leaves!"

"You can’t leave her locked up like that," defends Neeve, still surprised by this news. "She did nothing wrong!"

"My decision is made, and you better comply if you don’t want to join her."

Then he slams the door, leaving Neeve planted in the middle of the vast room occupied by two large beds.

"He’s not going to free her, is he?"

"She allowed him to ease Jaxson’s sentence without being considered weak," says one of the two men, "so he will soon set her free, I’m almost certain."

After these words, the man’s arms curl around Neeve’s body. She lets him do it, and I watch it with disgust. One wolf… two wolves, even…

"Could you intervene on her behalf?" Neeve asks.

"We will."

"Now, I mean."

"It will be fine for her, I told you. Don’t worry, he won’t keep her locked up for long."

"The sooner she’s free, the better. Please. I’ll wait for you in the pool."

Neeve’s plea is met with smiles. The two wolves eat out of her hand. Understanding that irritates me, I suppress a sigh.

They exit a minute later, leaving Neeve alone. Her eyes look up in the direction of an adjacent room. She approaches it and enters it. I move and pass the doorway she has just crossed. Fog blurs my vision.

"You filthy voyeur!"

I jump when I hear Neeve’s voice behind my ear. I turn around and face her. I materialize my projection and find it very close to me, so I take a step back.

"What are you doing here, Levenach?"

"I came to see how the three of you were doing. The coven has met over your disappearance."

"Are our parents okay?"

"Yes, but they are worried."

"Anyone knows who wants to kill us?"

I shake my head in denial. She is disappointed.

"In three weeks, we’ll be exposed again," she told me.

I guess what spell they invoked to join the pack. Its effect will disappear after the next full moon.

"Coming here was a brilliant idea," I say. "This will give the coven time to conduct an investigation. Besides, it has already started."

"How so?"

"The woman who killed herself in front of you was a witch. She was from the Shadwe branch. We assume that it isn’t a suicide and rather a murder. Therefore, you are in danger. We need to understand who this woman was to find out more."

"Are you in charge?" Neeve asks.

"Among others."

"Thank you," she whispers, her voice softer.

Her gaze drops to the ground. She wears a white nightgown. Her red hair cascades over her shoulders. She’s beautiful. I have always found her beautiful. As if reading my thoughts, her eyes lift and lock on mine. The silence drags on. Then she walks around me and plunges her feet into the pool. Her clothing sticks to her skin when she immerses her upper body. I force myself to bring my gaze back to her face.

"Go away, Lenny."

"Neeve..."

"Come back when you have something new. Not before."

"Neeve…they’re wolves. Our laws are..."

"Good evening, Levenach," she says without taking her eyes off me.

I clench my jaw and fists. When I disappear, the two men are about to join her. A lump forms in my throat and I’m happy to run away from this place.