"A civil war inside your Kingdom sounds like great news." Ava tightened the belt of her robe around her body. "But it looks like you already knew that." At first, she was disappointed that Matthew didn’t tell her anything.
Maybe she had expected too much from him.
But then she realized that the Lycan’s affairs didn’t really concern her. And she was keeping her own secrets too. She couldn’t really blame him if he wouldn’t trust her with that kind of information... yet.
"I was hoping it would happen."
"You were hoping?" She turned towards him, her eyebrows lifted with questions and confusion.
"We need it to happen. Keeps the Lycans busy."
"A King who hates his people." Ava sang.
"I am no King. And they are not my people."
Ava shrugged in response. Then she turned her attention toward the bright moon that illuminated the forest behind the mansion.
"They want to take advantage of it. They want to take Lycans."
"For experiments?"
"Yes."
Matthew lifted his head up from his tablet.
"They want to take advantage of the fact that the Lycans are going to be busy. A few missing ones will just be assumed casualties. It was Amore’s idea."
"Why would she do that?"
Ava pursed her lips. "She’s looking for a dream walker."
Matthew’s expression changed. Until now, Ava hadn’t told him about being a dream walker.
"I have never heard of a dream walker... "
"She assumed Lycans would know the location of a dream walker. I mean... don’t you have one who has a strong precognition gift? Maybe she thought you have a— "
"If Lycans did have one, they would do everything to protect that witch."
"Is that so?"
"Of course. Dreamwalkers haven’t existed for centuries. It’s either, they don’t exist anymore or they are just good at hiding themselves."
"Why do you think a dream walker is special?" Ava walked towards the bookshelves inside Matthew’s office. She pretended to scan the array of books in front of her.
"They can walk into planes and... realms."
"Even the realm of death?"
"Even the realm of death."
"How did you know that?"
"I’ve read some books... In fact... I believe I have one book that talks about dream walkers inside this office." Matthew got up and immediately got the book that Ava saw the first time she went inside Matthew’s office. The one that smelled like magick.
"Isn’t this..."
"My grandmother couldn’t even read it. But she bought it."
"This looked valuable." Now that Ava held the book, it actually felt like the cover was made of... animal skin.
"It’s an imitation. When my grandmother got it, it no longer had a cover so she asked someone to create an imitation of an animal skin cover. Aesthetics."
"If she didn’t read them then why collect them?"
Matthew shrugged in response. "I believe she did it to make my grandfather spend his money."
"We are talking about..."
"My maternal grandfather."
"Another Lycan?"
Matthew nodded. However, instead of giving her more information, he went back to his table and started reading the files on his tablet.
Seeing this, Ava knew pursed her lips. She knew that Matthew didn’t want to talk about his maternal family. But she didn’t know it also included his grandparents.
Thinking back, Matthew hadn’t really told her anything else about his maternal family. All she knew was that his mother was killed by a witch.
Then... what about his grandparents?
Any uncles? Cousins?
After a few seconds, her gaze landed on the book. Then she smiled. Once Matthew was ready, Ava was confident that he was going to tell her about it.
She couldn’t wait.
Instead of overthinking things, Ava decided to focus on the book instead.
She touched it, her fingers tracing the animal skin.
It honestly looked... and even felt like real animal skin.
Sitting down, Ava laid the book on the coffee table and opened it.
Almost immediately, a blinding light made her eyes snap shut. A soft breeze whistled around her. Yet the air that accompanied it was... hot. It felt like she was on the top of boiling water!
She gasped and let go of the sheets.
Her heart drummed against her chest, and sweat trickled down her back.
Then the heat vanished.
Ava opened her eyes. She immediately looked at Matthew. However, the latter was still calmly reading on his tablet. It didn’t look like Matthew heard her.
Her eyes landed on the book. By now, the book was already closed. It lay on top of the table calmly. It still looked antique. The edge of its pages still looked yellowish, ancient.
"Hey... did you open this book before?"
"Yeah," Matthew said. He lifted an eyebrow and then put his tablet down. Then he got up and walked towards her. "It’s... Latin. It was a poem, something about dream walkers walking through planes. No pertinent information though." He sat next to her and calmly opened the book.
This time, Ava didn’t feel the breeze.
"What’s wrong?"
Ava shook her head.
"Nothing."
An illusion.
And the illusion was triggered when she opened the book.
The book must have been enchanted by another witch!
"Here... here it is..." Matthew said.
Ava looked at the texts and just as Matthew said, it was just a poem about the ability to walk inside a dream. There was nothing important about it. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
"Alright. Thanks..."
Matthew smiled. Then he leaned back and started tracing circles on her back with his forefinger.
"How is Jude?"
"Jude?" Ava looked at him. "He is fine. So far so good."
"If you need me to deal with him..."
Almost immediately, Ava shook her head. She could definitely see the fire burning in Matthew’s eyes. Was he... jealous?
Ava smiled.
Lycans were possessive creatures. It would be weird if Matthew didn’t feel anything. In fact, it was already an achievement that he even allowed her to work with Jude.
And for that, Ava was grateful.
She met his silver-gray eyes and immediately noticed the golden streaks in his irises. His eyes looked beautiful up close. Especially under the warm lighting in his office.
"Jude is taking good care of me. Don’t worry," Ava said to ease his worries. But almost immediately, she regretted saying those words.
"I see..." Matthew responded, the deadly glint in his eyes was suddenly especially noticeable. "I... see."
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