Chapter 61: ⁶¹: Mother Elena

Phone calls were out of the question. I couldn’t use one now, but I still had to communicate with Mother Elena as soon as possible.

I got up from my bed, already knowing what I needed to do.

I walked straight to my dressing table and opened the lowest drawer. Hidden beneath a few of my things was the book Mother Elena had given me, the one created from her illusion magic.

I carefully pulled it out. Placing it onto the dressing table, I dragged the nearby chair closer and sat down.

"Please let there be something good I can learn about this dark magic," I whispered, taking a deep breath.

I opened the book directly to the hundredth page, the page I knew wasn’t normal.

"Mother Elena, I need you." The moment I spoke, the words written across the pages began to fade.

The ink seemed to dissolve before my eyes until there was nothing left but blank pages. Then the pages themselves began to ripple. They turned liquid.

A smile spread across my face. It was working. The illusion was connecting me to Mother Elena’s side.

"Mother Elena, are you there?" I asked, anticipation already creeping into my voice.

"Yes, my daughter!" Her sweet, familiar voice came through the liquid pages. My smile widened instantly. "How are you? Is everything all right?"

"I’m fine," I replied, my voice quieter than before. Hearing her voice made something ache inside my chest. I was starting to miss her. Right now, there was nothing I wanted more than to hug her.

Even though I had spent only a few months in their pack, those months had been enough for it to start feeling like home. Mother Elena had treated me with so much warmth and affection that, for the first time in years, I had almost felt as though I had gotten my mother back.

And now, simply hearing her voice made me crave that warmth all over again.

"It’s good that you’re fine," she said with a soft chuckle.

Then her tone changed. "Otherwise, the moment you used my illusion to communicate, someone beside me became so restless that he might have sprinted straight back to your place."

I couldn’t help but smile. Of course. Damian.

"But, Athena!" Mother Elena continued sternly. "I told you this illusion can only be used once a month. You didn’t use it just because you missed us, did you?"

I could hear Damian complaining somewhere beside her.

"No, Mother Elena," I quickly assured her. "I want to talk to you about my wounds. Something strange happened today."

I took a deep breath bracing myself for the reaction. "I got a little injured today..."

"What?" Damian’s voice immediately cut through the conversation. "You got injured? Where? How? Do you need me to come there?"

I blinked. His worried voice was so immediate that I could almost picture him already preparing to leave.

"Damian!" Mother Elena scolded him from somewhere beside the illusion. "Let her finish speaking!"

"But she said she got injured!"

I know what she said!"

I couldn’t help but smile at their exchange. Even from this far away, they somehow managed to make me feel like I was sitting right there with them.

I held my head and sighed, even though it felt nice when someone worried about me it also made feel guilty when that worry turned overboard.

I knew Damian would get overly worried. That was exactly why I had decided to leave Maria’s part out of the story. If I told him what had really happened, I knew he would do something stupid again.

But apparently, even this watered-down version was enough to make him panic.

"I’m fine, Damian!" I said sternly. "It was just a minor injury. Now let me talk to Mother Elena, and you listen without interrupting me so you can also know everything that happened, okay?"

"Okay. Why are you getting mad at me?" he complained instantly. "You didn’t even talk nicely to me when I told you I was going back. At least show me some respect now."

My eyes widened. I knew exactly what he was doing. He was deliberately acting like this in front of Mother Elena, knowing she would inevitably scold me for arguing with him.

"What?" I asked, utterly baffled. "No, Mother Elena! He’s just being dramatic. Don’t listen to him!"

I clenched my fists in annoyance when I heard Damian laughing from the other side. I so badly wanted to punch him in the nose right now and then laugh back at him.

"Okay, okay..." Mother Elena interrupted, sounding amused. "You two, don’t get started again. Let’s get back to the topic."

"Okay, Mother Elena." I replied. The lightheartedness I had felt only moments ago disappeared as soon as I remembered why I had contacted her in the first place.

"So, before, whenever I got injured, I simply couldn’t use my werewolf abilities to heal my wounds," I began carefully. "But something strange happened today."

I took a deep breath.

"The moment I started bleeding, I felt like the dark magic inside my wounds began feeding on it. It was as if my blood had become some kind of sustenance for the curse. It felt like the dark magic suddenly became more active, almost as though it was accelerating its spread through my body."

"What?" Mother Elena’s stunned voice came through the liquid pages.

Her tone immediately made my stomach tighten.

"Do you mean your blood intensified the dark magic?"

"Yes." My voice became filled with worry when I heard the panic in hers. "The pain was so intense that, for a moment, I thought I couldn’t bear it anymore."

I swallowed. "But then..." I hesitated. "Then I felt Anna." The memory alone made my heart ache. "She took control of my body for a while."

There was silence on the other side.

"Mother Elena, you don’t know..." My voice quivered as I continued. "I was so happy. For a moment, I almost felt like I had my wolf back."

My eyes stung. "But the next moment, I lost her again. I could no longer feel her anymore."

I looked down at the liquid pages, trying to make sense of something that made no sense at all.

"It all seems contradictory. If the dark magic was becoming stronger, then how could Anna break through it? And if Anna had somehow broken through the curse, then why did I lose contact with her again?"

My voice became more desperate. "I can’t understand any of it!"

"Calm down, Athena." Mother Elena’s voice was soft, but there was a seriousness beneath it that immediately caught my attention. "I think I know what it might be."

My heart skipped. "What is it?" I leaned closer to the book, desperation filling my voice. "Is it something dangerous for Anna?"

Mother Elena sighed. "It is either that your blood is one of the answers to defeating the dark magic, or that it is the very reason the dark magic has become inseparable from you."

I felt as though my heart had lodged itself in my throat.

"It could be that your blood weakened the curse and caused the dark magic to react so desperately that Anna had to step in to protect you," Mother Elena continued. "Or it could be exactly what you felt, that the dark magic was feeding on your blood and growing stronger."

I swallowed hard.

"If the former is true, then there is still some hope for you. But if the latter is true..." Her voice became heavier. "Then it could be extremely detrimental to your wolf. If something like this happens again, there is a possibility that even if you manage to save yourself, Anna may not be saved."

My fingers tightened around the book. Anna. The thought of losing her made my chest ache.

....

I carefully closed the book and placed it back inside the drawer. Even after the illusion had faded, I could still hear the blood rushing through my veins.

Of the two possibilities, which one was true?

I desperately hoped it was the first. I wanted to believe that my blood was somehow weakening the dark magic rather than strengthening it.

I couldn’t bear the thought of the other possibility. Anna was already so weak.

If the curse became stronger because of my blood, she would have to fight even harder to protect me.

And if she became any weaker... I could lose her. No. I couldn’t let that happen.

I had to figure this out quickly. I had less than six months left before the curse consumed me completely, and there was another problem waiting for me as well.

The third part of our Academy syllabus... The Run.

If that day came and someone discovered that I didn’t have my wolf, what would I do?

How would I survive? How would I explain why my wolf hadn’t appeared? Too many questions were piling up in my head, and I didn’t have answers to any of them.

I glanced at the clock. It was already past two in the afternoon.I had no appetite for lunch anymore.

I grabbed a change of clothes and headed straight for the bathroom. Right now, all I wanted was a long, hot bath to wash away the blood, exhaustion, and tension clinging to me.

I hadn’t shown my back wound to Rose earlier. There was still dried blood covering my skin, and I needed to clean it properly.

....

After taking a long shower, I stepped out and carefully dried myself.

I applied the ointment to my wounds, making sure to be gentle around the stitches, and left them uncovered for a while so the medicine could settle.

Then I slipped into a comfortable T-shirt and pulled on a pair of soft, loose pants.

I was about to start drying my hair when—

Thud!

A loud sound came from my room. I froze.

My hand stopped halfway to my hair.

For a while, I stood there, listening.

Then I felt a presence. Someone was in my room. Someone had sneaked inside.

My heart began pounding as I slowly turned toward the bathroom door. Who the hell had entered my room?