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I waited what seemed like a really long time—long enough for the sun to sink below the horizon and the chill night to draw around me like a shroud. The stars came out, and a sliver of yellow, crescent-shaped moon hung overhead like a tiny crack in a ceiling, exposing a little of the light coming from some spooky, celestial attic. I could barely see my hand in front of my face. I heard slight noises around me, including some that seemed to be coming steadily toward me from farther down the trail. Barbarosa? I certainly hoped so and not some other, even wilder denizen of the swamp.
I noticed the faint smell of her again, just before the witch stepped out of the fog and onto the path in front of me. I wondered if the smell was from her sorcery. She was even more hunched over than she’d been the last time I saw her a few months earlier. Her patchy white hair stood up in a wild halo around her face.
“You again,” she grumbled as she came up beside me. “Why do you come to see me and pay for my services when you don’t follow my advice?”
“I did try, Barbarosa.” She shot me an evil sneer at the familiarity of the address, so I flinched and quickly amended it with a little bow. “I-I’m sorry—I meant to say, Madam Lagoon. Please forgive me for my rudeness.”
“Humph,” she grunted, only slightly mollified. “What do you want now, boy?”
“I need your help again and I have the coins to pay for it. You see, I met an Alpha, and he-he did something to me, so that whenever he was around, I started going into heat, despite the potion you gave me before. I took it like you said, but when he kissed me… Well, it just got worse and worse, and now the potion’s not working at all.”
“I did warn you about the noble warrior. Magic can’t create true love, nor can it prevent or destroy it. He must be your true love, which means he has immense power over you. The good news is that if you’re his, then you have the same power over him—unless you want me to try and take it all away…”
“No. No, I don’t want that.”
She gave me a long, considering look before she shrugged. “Ah well…it probably wouldn’t have worked anyway. If this Alpha is your mate—then there’s nothing I can do,” she said, wagging her bony finger in my face. ‘I told you to be careful or he would bring about your fate.”
“M-my fate? What does that even mean?”
“Your destiny, boy. The way things were meant to be. You’ve been cheating it up to now. Trying to hide your true nature instead of accepting and embracing it. Don’t you know the story of the three Fates?”
“The three what? No, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She muttered something under her breath about ignorant people with no proper education, and then her eyes rolled back in her head and her voice became eerie and otherworldly, like it had the last time I came to see her. I jumped to my feet to take a quick step back, but at the same time, I was fascinated by her. I couldn’t have moved far away from her if I’d tried.
“The Fates,” she said in her odd, creaky voice, “…are the ones who preside over the birth and death of all humans.” She held up her crooked, old hands and moved them through the air to illustrate. “They spin,” she said, moving her hands in circles around each other in the air. “They measure,” she said, pulling her hands wide. “They cut,” she said, with a slashing motion, “…all the threads of your life. They’ve already sewn this fabric of yours, so your destiny is already made. This warrior is your destiny, and you are his. No amount of sorcery can ever change that.” She peered into my face in the uncertain light. “It seems to me that you already know that.”
“I know I love him. That much is true. I can’t help it, but I think he doesn’t love me, or at least not yet. And now I’m afraid he’s disappeared before he’ll ever get the chance. Can you tell me where he is? I need to find him. I have a terrible feeling he’s in trouble.”
“Heisin danger. But that way lies the beast. I warned you about him too, and I told you what he’d do if he could.”
“I remember. You said he’d kill me if he could.”
“Yessss…” she said, making a hissing sound as she raised her rheumy eyes to me. “I have no potions or elixirs that can remedy that. Besides, you have the means inside you already.”
“What?” I asked, confused at her words, but she only shrugged.
I took out my own small bag of coins and held it up for her to see. “I brought this for you. I can pay my way, but you have to give me a potion.Please.”
“Potions won’t work against your Alpha. And as for the beast, I told you…all that you need is there inside you.” She patted my chest with her twisted old hand. “In here, boy. This is what will make you attractive to him, so he’ll allow you to come near him.”
“Attractive to him? What do you mean? Are you saying he likes other men?”
She gave a cryptic shrug. “Such things don’t matter to him. He likes obedience. He likes those who follow orders. You’ve lost some of that ability since I saw you last, but you still have the same…essence…he’ll appreciate it and want it for himself. It comes from your true nature as an omega. You must turn what you think of as your weakness into your greatest strength. Let him see that you’re an omega. Only then can you save your Alpha. Only by going into the den of the beast—into his castle and into his service—only then will you learn his secrets. If you want to know who the beast truly is and what he’s done with your noble warrior…if you want to find your mate, then go there. Use your true self to get inside his lair. He is about to give the girl a test to see if she has what he wants. When she fails it, she’ll join the others, and that will pave the way for you to be his next victim. However, there’s still a chance to save yourself and perhaps the others too. If you wish to be in time to do that, then you must keep your wits about you—no matter what happens. No matter what you see.”
“That sounds ominous. What am I going to see? Can’t you be a little less vague? And what girl are you talking about? What do you mean by a test? Is this girl the viscountess that Asher and Brandon went to find? Is that where Wyatt is? Please explain what you mean, because I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Seek both high and low, and you’ll find all that you need.” She thrust out her hand and snatched the bag of coins from my hand. “Now go.”
“Wait a minute…I still don’t understand. Is there really no potion? You’re saying I need to go to the baron’s castle like Wyatt and the others did, right? Is this Baron Dargan the beast you told me about?”
Instead of answering, she turned to leave, blending into the dark night so quickly and so seamlessly that I never even saw her walk back down the path. One second, she was there and the next, she had melted into the darkness. My audience was apparently over.
I turned and made my slower, more halting way back to the carriage, afraid that if I went any faster, I’d stray from the narrow trail. I climbed in the carriage after waking the sleeping coachman, who had locked himself inside, and we got on our way back to my aunt and uncle’s home.
I left a couple of days later, heading toward the Crillian border.
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