Page 130 of The Alpha's Cursed Queen

The streaks of darkness start aiming for us, and I know that when they reach us, they will have the same impact on us as they did on the flora. I’m about to jump out of the way when a woman emerges from the trees, her hand held out in front of her.

The dark streaks come to a halt. And then, they’re pushed back.

The woman is wearing a dark hood that conceals her face, and she keeps walking toward the white witches, who begin to panic. I can see them straining themselves, but to no avail. Whoever this woman is, she’s more than capable of pushing back their magic. And as the streaks of darkness retreat toward the white witches, they do the opposite of their original intended effect.

Two of the witches lift their hands off the ground and hurry away, but the others are too late. By the time they have the sense of mind to remove their hands from the ground, the dark streaks have wrapped themselves around their wrists and are moving upward, shriveling the witches’ bodies. Their screams are horrific as they collapse, writhing in the dirt.

I watch them die in excruciating pain, one of my hands over Mira’s eyes and the other covering the ear that isn’t pressed against me. She doesn’t protest, hiding her face in my chest.

“Who are you?” one of the remaining witches shrieks at the mysterious woman.

Thomas doesn’t stick around to find out, shifting his form and running into the woods. The Black Arrows start to give chase, but I stop them. I am more concerned about this person who managed to stop the white witches’ attack.

The cloaked figure simply raises her hands and begins to chant. As she does, slashes appear on the robes of the white witches, and they scream when their flesh suffers the same fate. She keeps at it till their bodies are battered and they, too, fall to the ground, dead.

The Black Arrows come to stand in front of me protectively. The woman is between us and the witches, her back to us. She removes the hood of her cloak now, her voice soft. “You have nothing to fear from me, King of the Wolves.”

She turns around to face me. She has silver hair and purple eyes, and her features are youthful and exquisite.

I go still. “You’re a dark witch.”

Part of me had already figured it out when I saw her slashing at the white witches with her magic, but seeing her features confirms it. A majority of the dark witches had silver hair and purple eyes. At least, that is what was written in the texts I read as a child.

“My name is Nara.” The woman gives me a faint smile. “I believe you called for me.”

“The archive keeper,” I breathe.

Chapter 26

Darian

“I didn’t expect the archive keeper to be so young,” I say.

“It is my curse and my people’s gift to fulfill the prophecy,” Nara responds quietly. “I am thankful that my time is to come to an end before long. The next archive keeper will soon take my place.”

“Prophecy?” I clutch Mira warily. “What do you mean?”

“You don’t sound all that surprised,” Nara murmurs. “Perhaps you have already heard of it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She studies me for a long minute and then states, “You will get your answers, my king, but not right now. It would be best if we leave this place. The spell I cast thirty years ago has been broken. We don’t have much time before the others arrive.”

“What spell? What others?”

But she’s already walking away. I have no choice but to follow her. First, I look at the Black Arrows. “Clean this place up. Leave no trace.”

“We cannot leave you alone with her,” one of them says gravely, but I shake my head.

“There’s nothing you can do to her. If she’s as old as I think she is, nobody would stand a chance.”

Jimmy lifts a hand. “I’ll go with him. It’ll be okay.”

I cast him a half-worried, half-amused look. “You’re clearly in top fighting shape.”

He gives me a weak grin. “They ambushed me. The fuckers.”

I growl at him. “Watch your language.”

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