Page 37 of Laverna

Romulus growled low and deep in his chest, making her turn her attention back to the wolves. Romulus was near a sink that looked clean, but he was leaning down with his head in it.

"What is it?" Laverna asked.

Romulus said, "Sidonius. He was here. I can smell his blood in the drain."

Lucius took one of the large jars from the shelves and opened it. Laverna couldn't see what was floating inside of all the red, but he quickly screwed the lid back on it. His hands were shaking when he put the jar down.

"I'll fucking kill them all," he snarled, his teeth lengthening.

"It doesn't mean he is dead," Romulus said, and his alpha power rolled out of him.

Lucius's teeth shrank back to normal, but he still looked ready to tear the place apart.

"They harvested him. If he has survived through it, he's going to be fucking insane," Claudius said, his face pale.

Laverna interrupted them. "We need to keep searching and find him. If he is mad, we will bring him back to himself and take revenge on the witches."

She didn't wait for any kind of agreement from them. There were a lot of jars, and Sid wasn't the only person who had been kidnapped. Laverna hurried back into the house. The kitchen was empty, but the fridge was full. The witches were using the house as a base, but they weren't home. They would have attacked them by now.

Laverna pushed open the French glass doors that led out into the gardens. A sob of horror clawed its way up her throat. Five children were buried up to their necks in soil.

"Rom!" she shouted before she ran across the grass to them. She fell to her knees in front of the first child and started clawing at the dirt.

"L-Lady of the underground, I knew you would come," the boy whispered. His lips were cracked, and his face was burned and peeling from being exposed to the sun. "Prayed...prayed."

"It's okay. You're going to be okay," Laverna replied as she dug frantically, trying to get him out.

Romulus and the other wolves appeared and started digging too.

"Claudius, call the Carabinieri and the paramedics. Get them here as fast as you can. Eolus, go and get some water. Tell the men to hold the perimeter," Romulus said.

Laverna was barely aware that Eolus was giving the boy water as she dug and dug. By the time she got him free, Lucius was there with a blanket to wrap around his emaciated body.

"Why would they do this?" one of Romulus's men asked, his arms full of more blankets.

"The torture makes the ingredients stronger for their potions," Laverna replied, keeping her voice low so the children didn't hear. She gave the boy she had freed some more water, but most of it dribbled down his lips.

"T-Told them you would come," he whispered.

Laverna hugged him gently. Romulus looked across the garden. He was cradling two of the children. Eolus had two more.

"Of course, I came. You are going to be okay now. You're all going to be okay. I'll kill them for this, I promise," she said, unable to stop the tears streaking down her face.

22

Laverna didn't get up until the paramedics arrived to take care of the children. She was shell-shocked. She was full of fury and hatred, and it had nowhere to go. She didn't want to know what else they had found in the house. Romulus was busy talking to one of the police, his hand still holding the small girl's. She refused to let him go, so he went with her to the ambulance at the front of the house. Her heart hurt just looking at the tender way he talked to the girl. Her head hurt from the magic and the horror.

Laverna slipped past them all and out into the street. It had been partially blocked off, with police directing traffic. She moved past them, unseen, and sat down on the footpath between two parked cars.

With shaking hands, she pulled out her phone and dialed a number by heart. She breathed out shakily when Bellona answered.

"Laverna? What's wrong?" she asked in her brisk tone.

Laverna burst into tears again. "I just raided Canidia's base, and it was awful, and I think I'm in love with Romulus, and I don't know what to do about any of it."

There was a long silence before Bellona finally said, "Maybe start from the beginning, mia amica."

Laverna sat in the gutter and poured her brokenness out onto her best friend, whom she had hurt and who still loved her enough to take her call in the middle of the night.

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