The Love of a Lycan

The castle wasn't as close as it seemed before. It actually took four hours to travel from where they were, back to the castle on foot.

"What about the citizens?" Lilac asked after she drank some water to ease her thirst, and moisten her dry throat. "I saw there were some people still left in the city center."

"The king ordered some measures, and plans for this. He made it perfectly clear to us that once we found out there was something wrong, all the guards must be ready for evacuation. Maybe what you saw earlier was them in the middle of evacuating the citizens."

Lilac contemplated, and thinking. It made perfect sense. So that was why there were no people inside the castle when Lilac came in with Eaton. People were gone due to evacuation. "So, where are the citizens now?" Lilac was sure that those lycans, and the werewolves who followed behind them were the guards, some of them were the king's knights, and warriors.

"The citizens are being moved to the Southern Region with some other groups of guard. Now, we are here to observe the situation, and to make sure that no one is left behind." Tordoff explained it to her.

"But the door…" Lilac frowned. "I'm sure that Jedrek, and I came out from a door, but then it just disappeared right before my eyes!" said the guardian angel, showing her deep confusion towards the recent peculiarity that she experienced just a moment ago.

"Yeah, that must be one of the doors inside the secret chamber." Tordoff immediately guessed what kind of door that Lilac was talking about. "I might have never been there myself, because that place is strictly forbidden to anyone, but, I heard that there are seven doors which can lead you to different places."

"Hmm," Lilac hummed as she contemplated, deep in her thought.

Above them, the sun began to fall, hiding behind the horizon. The sky turned into a beautiful golden color, and people started to light their torches to illuminate the roads they were walking on.

"So why Jedrek would lie and fake your death?" Lilac asked him again, while glancing at the horde of lycans and the beasts behind him. Theo was there too, following behind them. But he wasn't close enough to be able to hear their conversation, or perhaps he didn't need to be close in order to hear Lilac, and Tordoff all along?

"I don't know," Tordoff shook his head. It was not an experience that he could easily forget. He couldn't help himself but to recall back to the time when it was all happening. The king and he were inside the dungeon that time, when he thought that the king was absolutely about to tear him apart. 

"His Majesty the Alpha king ordered me to go to a different realm. I was sent to cross to the realm where humans live. And there, I was instructed to follow a man named Killian. I think he didn't belong to that realm, and was from our realm too."

"What are you doing by following him? And then, why are you even here now!?"

Tordoff glanced at Lilac, unsure whether he had to tell her further, or not. "Killian was hurt, injured badly. So, I brought him back here." said Tordoff, finally making up his mind to tell the guardian angel just the half of the truth. For he was in doubt if Lilac was allowed to know, about what was the order that Jedrek gave to Killian in the first place.

"And, who is this Killian anyway!?" Lilac asked, still curious about all the blank spaces to all this big piece of a problem. Too many things that she missed, or to be exact, she wasn't aware of. She had the urge to find out about it all, in order to see the big picture. And only then, she could finally help solve these problems that had been neglected in a way by the lycan king.

Their journey back to the castle was taking longer, and further in distance than they expected. The lycans didn't want to shift, and got to the castle first to check on Jedrek. They were scared of their king, and valued their precious life too much. Disobeying a direct order from their king, was definitely not the way they choose to die from.

"Lilac, you asked too many questions."Tordoff chuckled. "I just came with Killian when this happened."

Lilac stared at Tordoff observingly. And despite the smile on his lips, she knew better that she wouldn't get any further information from him. She realized that he had decided to shut his mouth. It was not his fault to be fair. He couldn't help it, when it was clear to see that his loyalty still laid in his king. And only to him. She couldn't beat that.

Meanwhile, it took another thirty minutes more from then, to reach the city center. And the moment when the city came into view, they were greeted with an awful sight of a destroyed castle. The used-to-be kingdom, now in ruins.

Lilac's heart grew cold the moment she saw the heart-shattering view in front of her eyes. She could only hope that there were no casualties, fallen victims to the unwanted tragedy.

She walked faster, almost running to be exact. Then, something squealed above her head. She stopped on her feet, and watched towards the sky. There she saw, a creature that resembled a dragon flew above her head. But, the only thing that made it look as frightening as ever, was that there was no scaly skin, nor flesh. Only skeleton.

"What is that thing?" Lilac whispered in horror, she was above frightened at that point now.

"I don't know," said Tordoff truthfully. He exchanged a glance with Theo. Their calm expression started to fade away, as they began to worry about their king. It was Lilac who broke the silent, and started to run towards the castle. She was followed by Tordoff behind her, along with the rest of the horde.

Her heart was beating wildly inside her chest, pumping adrenaline all over her system inside her body. It successfully made her legs try to keep her speed up, faster than before. She tried to run even faster than Theo who was easily outrun. Only Tordoff left behind her. He stayed to keep her accompanied.

When the castle came into sight, Lilac could hear Tordoff sighed in relief. "Don't worry, the king is fine."

"What!? How do you know that!?" Lilac kept on running, and didn't stop. And when she was getting closer, there she could see the sight of Jedrek. He was circled by his people. Standing next to the king, was Eaton, and also Airin. Both were looking exhausted, and still alive.

Only then, she stopped. She was breathing heavily when she watched how they were fine after all. She was relieved by the sight of them.

"Why do you stop here!? Don't you want to see him?" said Tordoff teasingly to her. How could he not? A moment ago, Lilac was so eager to find Jedrek, but now the girl looked like she was about to run away.

Lilac scowled, rolling her eyes. "I am fine here."

"I'm glad that the king is fine." Tordoff said. He didn't join Theo to greet Jedrek, and instead, he stayed with Lilac.

"Well, I'm glad too. Now he finally realized that he couldn't avoid a war with the devils." said Lilac.

And from behind the castle, there were another two other skeleton-looking creatures. They were indeed looking like dragons in shape, but all in skeleton. The two monstrous creatures were flying high in the night sky. It turned out that Jedrek didn't succeed in his quest at all to close the Tartarus' gates. But, he managed to come out alive, along with Eaton, and Airin. That was what mattered now to her.

Finally, after exchanging a few words with Theo, Jedrek walked towards Lilac, and Tordoff.

"Your Majesty," Tordoff said, while slightly bending his body down, greeting his king.

Jedrek looked exhausted, but it didn't cease the dominant aura around him. And then, he said in his voice that was as calm as ever, "We head south."

Lilac was about to walk at the end of this horde, trying to get as far away as she could from Jedrek. But, her attempt failed, when the lycan king grabbed her hand, and he entwined their fingers together instead the moment when he walked.

==============

It had been a week since what happened to Aeon. Raine could still feel sorrowful about that. Torak knew, but he just didn't want to talk about it, since Raine would always avoid the topic.

"We are going to meet Jedrek. But first, I need you to find Kace," said Serefina when they were having breakfast inside the house of the pack.