(VAL POV):
We entered the compound of the witches with our weapons drawn. Strange diagrams were etched into the stained glass windows. Along with figures I could only describe as demons. I strode down the hall, tense. All of us were- this place was foul and corrupted with something. Our eyes checked every shadow multiple times and no set of shoulders sat untensed.
As we stepped past the main hallway and into a second chamber the smell of fresh blood became putrid in the air. I pushed the wooden doors open with seven men at my back, two of which were already transformed into their wolf forms.
When the doors opened I let out a disoriented gasp at the sight in front of me. The bodies of six women dotted the stone floors, blades dripping in their own blood as though all of them had taken their own lives at the same time. The silence of my men confirmed our mutual sense of dread as we flooded into the room and examined the scene.
"Val."
Liam gestured to the oldest looking woman. She had been the only one whose knife had become lodged into the center of her throat rather than in a slit across it. I eyed her face and met my brother's questioning stare with an uneasy one on my own.
"She looks scared."
My brows were drawn as I tried to make sense of it. The scene appeared as though the women had taken their lives but not of their own volition. I ordered my men to be careful as we pushed down a dark stairway behind the scene in the room.
The air had become damp and moldy the more we descended. Liam was moving with determination and precision. I moved with an uncanny feeling rising in my chest. I didn't know if I was imagining it but the deeper we went the more heavy the presence of something was becoming.
When we reached the bottom the room opened up into a dome. Some of my men had managed to light torches and wandered forward into the strange room, lighting the way as we all slowly started to soak in what we were witnessing. The center had a large and overwhelming amount of chains. Too many. As thought the witches were containing something here that they were afraid of.
I eyed the chains with weary eyes, ordering my men not to touch them. Iron.
My eyes found Liam's in the dim basement and I couldn't comprehend the sight. A sick feeling in my chest was telling me that she had been here. That she had been here for a long time and yet I couldn't understand the fifty iron chains jumbled in a mess.
Rosaura had been frail. She was some small thing born without even a hint of being a werewolf at all. She never spoke to her wolf, never had one that anyone knew of. What had provoked the witches to collect this much iron- this many chains?
Something instinctual ached in my bones and I started to mutter.
"Liana-"
Liam met my scared gaze with uncertainty.
"We left Liana, we have to go back to her right now."
Liam opened his mouth to protest but did so gently.
"I think Rosaura was here, Val."
I nodded, the ache in my bones provoking me to start heading for the exit as my wolf had started to instruct me that our mate was in danger. I asked him how he knew and he answered that Everest was shouting for us- that our mate was in danger right now.
"We can come back after I promise but something is happening to Liana."
I broke into a sprint and allowed Rashir, my wolf, to transform. He carried us faster than our human form could have and we made the top of the wicked staircase in only a moment.
'She isn't answering anymore,' Rashir informed me.
I raced out into the hollow and headed for our camp. When the tent entered our vision I transformed back, bursting inside in my human form not to frighten her. When my eyes turned up no sight of Liana a horrifying feeling flooded my stomach.
I wandered outside, stumbling and confused. I found the scent of coconut in the air and focused all of my energy on it. I started to follow it towards the woods with terror. Why had she come out here? Why would she leave the tent?
A thousand horrible possibilities swam into my mind as I pushed forwards.
When a field came into view her scent became more potent. My body was moving with determination and every bone was telling me she was nearby. As I stepped into the field the sound of twigs snapping stopped me and my eyes shot up.
I saw her before I knew what I was really seeing and she peered back at me eerily in the dead of night. Her same foggy eyes and mop of frosty white hair wisped in the wind.
"Vallory?"
I stepped closer to her and noticed my mate asleep on the ground at her feet. Rosaura's bone thin wrists and pale ankles were striking in the dark of the night. I knew it was her but my mind had trouble trusting the image. I had unreasonable fear that if I tried to touch her- touch either of them- that neither would exist anymore.
"Rosaura."
She smiled. She lowered herself into the grass slowly above my mate and her pale fingers touched Liana's hair. For a strange moment I had a feeling that she wasn't really Rosaura at all. I moved closer to them, eyes refusing to leave my sister as I approached.
"Are you okay? What happened?"
Rosaura tilted her head, letting Liana's hair slip free.
"They feed on fear,"
She paused, mouth edging on the ghost of a smile and continuing.
"She had so much of it. I helped her to sleep."
There was something motherly about her hovering above Liana, but lacking the required warmth. I stepped over my mate with a need to separate them. I touched Rosaura's shoulder and she took my hand between hers, seemingly sensing my discomfort.
"What do you mean, when you say you helped her?"
Rosaura felt the way from my hand to my face the way she used to. I didn't flinch from her touch despite the coldness of her fingers. Even being unable to fully recognise her I knew she would never harm me.
"Youre so much older now. So much sadder. You missed me."
"We both did."
My heart acknowledged that we had finally found her and I tucked her into my arms in a hug. Every inch of her skin was freezing. I held her close and breathed out, making my mind accept it. A small voice in my head overcame my happiness at finding her and I asked again.
"Rosaura, how did you help Liana sleep?"
She was smiling but there was a madness to it as I pulled back and scanned her features. Her pale eyelashes fluttered as she whispered dreamily.
"Liana- I helped her to sleep. She needed to sleep."
I was uneasy. The sound of footsteps behind me interrupted my interrogation. Liam rushed past me and crushed Rosaura in a huge disbelieving hug. His laughter filled the air and my heart felt peace. I knew that it was the end of our search and we could go home and no more blood needed to be shed for her sake.
I remembered the witches and frowned. It occurred to me how strange it was that despite all of those chains and her weak body she had managed to get out of them. When I noticed the ugly purple bruises all the way up her ankles and at her neck my breath choked. It occurred to me suddenly that they might have had her chained in that basement for her entire time missing.
My cheeks were wet and I met Liam's excited and joyous face with my teary one. He wrapped his arms around me next and hugged me tightly. I knew from the way he paused with his face in my hair that he sensed something different about her too. We both let go and Liam took Rosaura's hand gingerly, like he was scared to let her go for even a second.
"Come on sis, let's get you the fuck out of Sleeping Hollow."
I dropped down to Liana and scooped her into my arms. She was completely limp but her chest was rising and falling normally. I touched her head and scanned her for any sign of harm. My eyes dropped to the state of her hands and my blade and a sickening feeling rotted in my gut. There was an oily dark substance all over the knife, her hands, and the front of her pajamas.
I picked her up and carried her quickly away from the woods. I promised myself that I would never allow her to come somewhere so awful as this again. I followed the ghostly sway and joyful stride of my brother and sister with my mate tucked safely in my arms where she belonged.
The weight on my chest had diminished and my cheeks dried. I didn't understand what Rosaura meant and I didn't understand the sight of the Morgana witches- but everything was the way it should be.