Chapter 227: Secondary Rescue
Nina
“We can’t stay here,” Enzo said, his arm still firmly wrapped around me as he addressed the rest of the group. “It’s too dangerous.”
Enzo was right. If Selena and the witch were still looking for him, it was dangerous to be out here in the dark. Maybe it would be best to get home first and regroup before we came back on another mission to save Richard and the Alpha King.
“I can open portals now,” I said, stepping back from Enzo a bit to look at him. “I can get us out of here. And Luke learned a hex to put on Selena that will temporarily stop her from opening one, so it’ll give us a head start if she tries to follow us.”
Enzo’s eyes widened momentarily as I told him that I could open portals, but at the same time, he shook his head. “I can’t just leave my dad here,” he said. ” Now that I can remember everything, I remember that he didn’t look so good when I was staying in the mansion with Selena. I think she might be putting spells on him or even poisoning him.”
“Won’t she just put another spell on you again if she finds you, though?” Matt asked. “Don’t you… I don’t know… Need to prepare so she can’t manipulate you again?”
Once again, Enzo shook his head. “No. I think that her spell this time was so strong because it was her last ditch effort to control me. Now that I have you guys and was able to break through a spell that strong, I think I have too much mental fortitude now for her to succeed.”
I couldn’t help but smile a bit at Enzo’s words. To hear that he was free now from Selena’s manipulation made me
happy. At the same time, however, there was always a possibility that she would try another dirty trick. Maybe she would even try to kill one of us. If she really was practicing black magic along with her werewolf abilities, then that probably meant that nothing would stop her from getting what she wanted.
“Alright,” I finally said, looking around at the group. “We’ll go on a secondary mission to save Enzo’s father. Is everyone okay with this?”
Lori and Jessica seemed hesitant at first. Luke said nothing, but he didn’t seem against the idea. And Matt stepped forward, slapping Enzo heartily on the shoulder.
“As your Beta, I’ll gladly accompany you,” he said. “We’ve already come this far.”
A grin slowly spread across Enzo’s face.
Even in the darkness, illuminated only by the flickering fire, he looked more handsome than ever. He clapped Matt back on the shoulder and nodded silently, then looked over at the rest of the group and silently urged them to join us.
Finally, Lori and Jessica agreed to join us as well. “We did say we were a pack, after all,” Jessica said with a hesitant smile. I walked over to my two friends and hugged them tightly.
“It’ll be okay,” I replied. “Selena doesn’t stand a chance against us if we all stick together. She doesn’t have what we have.”
Suddenly, Luke spoke up. “If we’re going to try to infiltrate the Alpha King’s mansion, we’ll need a plan,” Luke said in a somber tone of voice.” The security there is tight enough when things are normal. With Selena and apparently her witch friend roaming around, it’ll be even more
dangerous. Not to mention the fact that I think they put a spell on these woods to cast out the light. They want us to get lost, and I think they know that we’re here.”
Luke was right. We had come here so hastily that none of us made a real plan, and not a single one of us ever expected Enzo to suddenly appear right in front of us. Part of me still didn’t even think that any of this was real, and that it was a dream or one of Selena’s tricks instead.
“The guards switch out every few hours,” Enzo said. “During that time, there is a slight gap where we can get in. There’s a side door through the servant’s quarters that’s rarely guarded, and all of the servants will be asleep. If we’re fast, we can get in through there.”
“What if Selena finds us first?” Jessica chimed in, her voice shaking slightly with worry. Lori put her arm around her comfortingly, but I could tell that Lori was scared, too.
“Honestly, I’m not sure.” Enzo’s voice sounded solemn. “She and that witch are both really powerful. I don’t even think I really outran them earlier; I think they intentionally let me go thinking that I would just get lost in the
darkness. And whatever that ritual was It made them even more powerful.”
A silence fell over the group when Enzo finished talking. I felt a lump rise in my throat as I pictured how powerful Selena could be by now. As her twin, I knew that I shared some of the same powers, but she was too smart to put a curse on me and make my wolf go dormant. But maybe, if I could open a portal on my own, I could manage some other things, too.
“If Selena finds us, I’ll handle her,” I said, swallowing my fear. The rest of the group stared at me in shock. “Nina, what are you talking about?” Enzo asked, his eyes wide. “She’s too powerful. You can’t take her on your own.”
I shook my head and stared at the forest floor for a few moments. The fire crackled behind us, its flames getting lower and lower and casting our surroundings with even more darkness. If it wasn’t for the little bit of light that was beginning to bleed through the trees, it would be pitch black by now.
“She’s my twin,” I said. “In a weird way, I feel like I know her. Like I’ve always known her. And I think I can. stand a chance against her, or at least hold her off while the rest of you escape.”
“Nina!” Jessica shouted, stamping her foot angrily on the ground. “You’re not seriously trying to tell us that you plan on sacrificing yourself?”
I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t tell them about the premonition I had in the portal. If I told them, then it would only incite panic. But I knew, at the same time, that there was a good chance that the only way to stop Selena was to fight her, and she wouldn’t stop until she was dead. We would have to fight to the death, but both of us would die anyway. But if it meant saving the world… I would do it.
I looked up at Enzo then. His eyes were wide and full of recognition. Somehow, he knew what I was planning. I knew that he was furious with me, but at the same time, he seemed to understand the consequences of letting Selena gain power. I didn’t want to leave him, and he didn’t want to leave me, but we both knew what Selena could be capable of if she wasn’t stopped.
“If you die, I’ll die with you, Nina Harper,” his voice echoed in my mind. All I could do was stare back at him. I wouldn’t let him do that. Hopefully, no one would die tonight.
