Anastasia jerked her head towards her. "What is it, Paige?" she asked.
Kaizan, who was till now sitting on the bar stool and leaning his back to the counter, shot upright. He stared at his sister intently with full attention. She was so disheveled. There was mud all over her clothes.
"I need your help!" Paige said, her eyes darting between Kaizan and Anastasia.
Anastasia removed the blanket and without asking what kind of help she needed, she started walking towards the door. Ileus jumped from the divan and was by her side. He glanced at Kaizan before crossing the room, mouthing what happened. Kaizan shrugged.
Paige led them all the way outside the mansion. She went into the alley on the back. A wolf was lying there in a pool of blood. The snow around it was crimson. "Gods!" Kaizan rasped and ran to the wolf.
"Who is it?" asked Anastasia as she neared the wolf. The guards around them spread out.
"I— I just met her a few days back in the market," she replied, her lips quivering. "We kind of— we kind of hit it."
They reached near the she-wolf. There was a deep gash on her belly near the ribs. It was so deep that her bones were showing. "Oh my god!"
Paige was trembling by now. "P— please save her," she sputtered.
Ileus knelt in front of the wolf. "Who did this?" He was sitting right across in Kaizan's home when this must have happened. A shudder passed through his body.
"I don't know. She was— we were—" Tears started dropping on her cheeks. "We were kissing when something from the sky shot towards us. It was like someone had shot a spear in the air. Lea saw it coming and, on an impulse, she pushed me aside and took the impact."
"Spear?" Ileus said as surprise flickered through him. He flung his hands up and five tiny orbs of lights floated in the air which spread bright light over the wound. He examined it, but it didn't look like a spear wound.
"I don't know," Paige lamented. "The spear—it vanished! And the next moment I saw Lea in a pool of blood, falling to the ground."
"And why the hell were you in the back side of the mansion?" Kaizan grumbled at his sister.
Paige didn't know what to say. She was sobbing. "Can you please save her?" she asked Anastasia. "You are a deity…"
Anastasia gasped hearing Paige's words. "I don't— I mean I can't bring the dead back."
Paige's eyes widened. "Is she dead?" She stared at Lea through her tears.
Ileus placed his hand on the wolf's neck. "No, there is a faint thrum of her artery." He was finding it extremely weird that there was no sign of the assailants.
"Magic can heal only as much, Paige," said Anastasia. "We still have to take her to the healers."
"Please save her…" Paige said again. The girl was either feeling guilty or she was in love with Lea.
"I will try to heal her as much as possible," she said and brought her hands over the wolf.
Ileus stopped her. "No! That kind of magic is going to take all your energy. You are pregnant. I will not allow it."
"But Ileus—" Anastasia countered.
"You will not jeopardize my child's life, Anastasia," Ileus sneered, baring his fangs.
And for the first time Anastasia realized how feral and how dangerously protective her husband was about their child.
"I will do it," he added.
Anastasia didn't want to argue with him. So, in a soft voice she said, "I will only add to what you are doing Aly. Perhaps, together we can save her enough to send her to the healers."
When she smiled at him, Ileus stared into her sapphire eyes with his golden ones and melted… only a little. He gave a single nod, his shoulders drawing straight. "Go very slow, okay."
"I will," Anastasia replied.
He turned his attention to Kaizan and said, "While we do this, go and look around the entire alley. Who could have sent that spear? From what Paige is telling, it was definitely magic and that too a lethal one. Check it thoroughly. Take some guards with you."
Kaizan nodded. He sprang up and was gone in a few seconds.
Ileus drew his hands over the she wolf. He closed his eyes and summoned his magic. He remembered everything positive around him and filled his chest with that energy. When he opened his eyes, they were a fiery orange. Orange and yellow lights emanated from his hands and settled over the gray fur of the wolf. Anastasia joined him a few seconds later, the white beams of her magic mingling with his. Sparks flew and as they touched the skin of the wolf, her skin healed a little. The blood stopped flowing out, yet it wasn't enough.
"Leave," Ileus said to Anastasia, not as a request. It came out as an order. And Anastasia withdrew her magic. Ileus withdrew his magic soon after. He checked the wolf's neck and found that her artery was pulsing stronger than before. "We have to take her to the healer," he said. He got up and picked up the she-wolf in his arms, and walked all the way up to the healer's place. The wolf was so weak that it couldn't shift and so the healer had to attend to her in her wolf form. She was weak but she opened her eyes to look at the person who had saved her timely and blinked her eyes once as if to thank him. The healer had rushed to get the healing potions that he applied all over her injuries.
"This is not a normal injury," said the healer. "She has been hit by magic, and that too dark magic."
Kaizan had come to the healer's hut by then. From his expressions it was clear that he hadn't found anything. When he heard that it was dark magic, he stiffened. He exchanged a worrying glance with Ileus.
The healer pointed at the she-wolf's belly. "See the edges of her skin." The skin was darker over there as if it had been cauterized. "When the skin will heal, it will bear that mark. When she shifts to her human form, the mark would remain."
"I see," said Ileus. "Please take care of her and don't let her leave until she is healed."
The healer bowed. "Yes, m'lord."
Paige stayed with Lea while all others came out of the hut.
Ileus held Anastasia's hand and squeezed it. "You are fine, baby?" There were four guards behind them.
"Hmm." She rested her head on his arm as they walked ahead. Ileus had this urge to scoop her in his arms and carry her back, but he refrained.
"There was no one in the alley, Ileus," Kaizan breathed. "I checked everywhere including the fields after that, but there was no sign of any perpetrator. "I think this attack was to warn us about something."
"That is what worries me too."
"But yes, I caught a faint coppery smell of magic in the fields. I traced the smell as far as I could, but it just faded with smell of heavy snow."
Ileus' shoulders tensed.. "I will ask Haldir to investigate it further.
