Page 34 of The Soulless Witch

“He was just curious. He wasn’t going to bite.”

I snorted, making a note to stay in the middle of the path, where I would be able to see any other attacks coming before it was too late. “Let’s get this over with. What did you want to show me?”

“This way,” Malakai said, motioning for me to follow.

We continued down the path for a few minutes, then he veered away from it, through a field of flowers that seemed to part as we passed.

Out of all the members of the Council, Malakai was the only one I didn’t…hate. He was an airhead, and he liked to come drunk to half of the meetings, but he was always cheerful and tried to keep the peace, even when the others ignored him. Out of anyone I knew outside of my race, I wouldn’t have picked him as the sneaky type, let alone the killing type. But looks could be deceiving. The worst devils usually wore the most beautiful faces.

“Are you coming?”

I gritted my teeth, following him through the tall grass and wildflowers while hoping that, for once, I wasn’t wrong. He had said it was related to my pack and possibly the disappearances, so I had no choice but to go with him. Still, why would he bring me into Fae territory, and so far off their settlements and paths? Something wasn’t right.

Malakai raised his hand, and I spotted a slight movement between the trees, but it was gone too fast for me to track it.

“Sentries reported that he barged into our lands out of nowhere and refused to identify himself or state his purpose.” He urged me to follow again. “He looked disoriented and unresponsive. They subdued him using non-lethal force after he attacked them, but he went feral and strangled himself before they could release him.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“Him.” Malakai stopped, nodding at something at his feet.

I finally caught up, baffled that he could walk so fast with that lean build of his. I followed his gaze to a body lying on its back in the grass, one leg dipped in a small stream running nearby. There were vines wrapped around the man’s torso and legs, but the ones that had been around his neck were gone, leaving behind only bruised skin.

The dead man looked to be in his thirties, but considering he was a werewolf, that meant he was probably about my age or possibly older. There were numerous old scars all over his face, neck, and chest, the rest of him concealed by the vines.

“He isn’t one of mine.” I frowned, racking my brain for a name to put to that face. The smell was unfamiliar too—definitely a werewolf, but there was something off about him. I had made it a point to remember every single face in my pack, even if it was now numbering almost three hundred people, but this person was definitely not one of them.

“Look closer.” Malakai motioned with his fingers, and the vines slid off the body. The magical forest grew quiet, and the ground settled as if the whole place had stopped to watch us.

I crouched next to the dead man, grabbing him under the armpits and hauling him out of the stream. Malakai stepped aside, keeping the suit he was wearing—which now had turned into shimmering robes in white and green—out of the water’s way.

The tatters of the dead man’s clothes flapped open, revealing a chest marred with even more scars, both old and new. There were even fingers missing from one of his hands.

“What in the world…?” I muttered, circling the body for a better view. Malakai frowned, his face full of pity. “Have you seen anything like this?”

“No.” The Fae prince shook his head, crouching where he stood. “But some of it was done by magic.” A low growl rose in my throat before I could stop it. “Not witch magic,” he added, as if understanding what the sound meant. I looked back at him with narrowed eyes and he smiled. “Not Fae magic either.”

“Then what other kind is there?” I snapped, feeling the urge to shake him up, so he stopped being so tight-lipped. The Fae usually gave short, ambiguous answers since they couldn’t lie and they rarely offered any free information, so the only reason I didn’t do that was because Malakai invited me of his own volition.

“The human kind,” Malakai said so quietly, that even I had a hard time hearing him. A cold breeze passed through the trees, blowing their leaves in a beautiful song. “Weapons did this,” he continued, tracing a scar on the dead man’s chest with the tip of his finger. “Coated with magic and potions. He suffered greatly.”

I looked back at the dead man, trying to remember if I ever saw him before. There was something in the lines of his face that tickled my memory, but no matter how hard I tried, I came up with nothing.

“This is horrible, but how can you be sure this man has something to do with my pack?” I asked, looking away from the dead werewolf, since it only reminded me that I had an even bigger mess to deal with. “Daniel’s pack is closer to your land. You could have—”

“Look at his wrist.” Malakai nodded toward the hand resting on the man’s stomach. I gritted my teeth, turning his arm to expose the pale skin. My breath caught as I twisted my own hand, staring at the matching marks on both of our wrists. “I’ve noticed your mark during our Council meetings. It’s your old pack’s markings, is it not? The one that was destroyed?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat that was making it hard to breathe. This wasn’t possible. Every person in my pack was dead. When I woke up after that night, they were all slaughtered—most of the bodies were too burned or dismembered to recognize, but I had walked house to house in search of survivors and found none. Weeks in the woods had confirmed there was nothing to be found—they were all gone.

“This one is at least a hundred years old,” Malakai said, studying me thoughtfully. “Maybe he got away?” I shook my head. “Has anyone left the pack before the attack?” I shook my head again. “Well, then—”

“Wait!” I licked my lips. “Nobody left our pack, but there were a few disappearances. Children, mostly.” I looked up to find Malakai’s eyes hardening, like a crystal sharp enough to draw blood. “A hundred years…that would put him in his teenage years when the attack happened. The disappearances started a few months before the attack.”

Malakai hemmed thoughtfully, running a hand through his unbound hair.

“And you are absolutely sure nobody survived?” he asked. “Maybe Celeste let some of them go and you never knew, since they hid away.”

“She killed everyone,” I snarled, getting to my feet. “Even the children!”

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