Chapter 121

Chapter 121 Possibilities

CAS SANDRA

I’d never been down to the palace dungeon before, and as we descended the staircase, a putrid odor reached my nose and I shivered from the cold. Back when my father had been imprisoned in this very same dungeon, I hadn’t even had an opportunity to visit because he’d made me swear not to. My father had encouraged me to stay away, thinking I might be incriminated if I went to visit him.

At the time, it seemed like sound logic, but it was one of my biggest regrets. I hadn’t gotten to say goodbye or tell him I loved him, and now… it was too late.

My heart pounded against my chest as we walked through the corridors, and when we arrived at the cells and I saw the man behind the iron bars, my temples pulsed. It would be a lite to say I wasn’t afraid. Facing the man who had nearly taken my life was both intimidating and frightening, and part of me wanted to turn around and run away. But I managed to stay calm.

“Well, who do we have here?” the imposter remarked as his eyes trailed over me. “I’m surprised to see that I have visitors.”

“This isn’t a social visit, Spi ke” Asher growled. “We’re here to talk about something important.”

“Then, by all means, go ahead,” the imposter replied with a raised eyebrow.

forced back a gulp and then stepped forward and approached the cell. I har ed the imposter the papers through the bars, and he accepted them with a confused look.

“I need you to read these,” I said cautiously. “And then tell us if you think this person died from poison.”

Spi ke stared at me for a moment and then nodded.

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His dark eyebrows creased together as he read the report, and the entire room grew deadly silent. He took his time examining the papers, and once he reached the third page, his l*ps parted in surprise. He raised his head up and looked at me.

“Where did you find the b*dy?” he asked.

“You don’t need to know,” Asher retorted sternly.

Sp ik e sighed. His expression was incredibly serious.

“I’m good at poison and sorcery, but I’m not excellent,” he admitted. “In this report, I can see that something found in the corpse of the deceased shares the same elements with the poisons created by the Ewonmiams, but there are subtle differences. I can’t figure it out with absolute certainty just by reading the report. I

need to know more.”

His tone told me he was indicating something.

“Do you mean that this person died from a poison just like Udosyn?” I asked him directly.

Spi k e shrugged.

“It’s possible,” he said. “Though I’m not sure. If you want me to determine it for sure, I need something more.”

“What else do you need to know?” I asked calmly.

Sp ik e’s eyes scanned the report.

“This seems to be a chronic sort of poison,” he mused. “Which is much more. difficult to recreate than Udosyn. If I’m correct, the one who created this poison wouldn’t have just used it on one wolf. He would have to test it out on different werewolves in order to be certain of its efficacy. There must be others who have. the same symptoms.”

His sharp eyes shot over to us, and I felt a chill run down my spine.

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Spi k e was onto something, I just knew it.

The disease and the poison were related.

“If I’m on the right track, I would need more devices to carry out a test,” he continued. “And I would need blood samples from those who had the same symptoms as the deceased. I would need samples daily to be able to track their changes.”

I quickly thought of the possibility of bringing a patient from Wild Crawler to Anemond for this, but I didn’t know if it could possibly be done. I would have to

discuss the idea with Asher later.

For now, I had another question for Spi ke.

“Did anything like this ever happen in Dark Abyss?” I wondered, and when Sp ik e and Asher stared at me in confusion, I continued. “I’m only curious because if this poison was subtle and difficult to create, it must have been crafted by an excellent sorcerer. But ever since the war with Yurene, Dark Abyss has been in the shadows. I guess I’m just wondering the timeline of all of this.”

Really, I wanted to know if there was a chance that Kaleb’s father had gotten the disease during the war with Dark Abyss. Had this illness stemmed from their war and then spread down to Wegalla?

Spi ke considered the idea for a moment.

“Dark Abyss had quite a few talented sorcerors before the war,” he said. “Some of them not only recreated the spellwork of the Ewonmiams but also made their ow creations. I heard that they were powerful and horrible, but ultimately, their sc cery had led to the war. Yurene wanted their power for themselves, obviously think it’s possible that this poison was created long ago to combat them, but it’s ju a hunch. I can’t be certain.”

I considered what Kaleb had told me and a*sumed that given this new information, this was why his father had gotten the disease.

The only thing I didn’t understand was why it had appeared in Wild Crawler

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after all of these years.

After we finished our conversation with Spi ke, Asher and I returned to his

study.

“If Spi ke needs to do the test, we need to bring a patient from Wild Crawler to

Anemond,” I announced the moment the door was closed. “We can use their blood

for our research and hopefully figure out the correlation between the poison and the

disease.”

Asher considered the idea for a moment and then shook his head. “That wou

cause too much attention. I let Alpha Gareth keep the disease that prevailed in Wil Cralwer a secret. I can’t let anyone in Anemond know about it, or else we could

cause ma*s hysteria.”

“I suppose that’s fair,” I murmured.

“Do you believe Spi ke?” Asher wondered.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Bu I don’t want to lose the chance to find out the truth. Spi ke might help us find the answers we need.”

The Alpha King nodded, and after a moment of silence, he cleared his throat.

“If we need a patient, he can take my blood,” he declared.

My eyes widened. “Asher, that would be way too dangerous-”

“I know it is,” he cut me off. “But it’s the best way for us to keep a low pr Giving Sp i ke the necessary devices and allowing him to carry out a test is ri enough. We don’t need to draw extra attention to it all. If Spi ke uses my blooL could stay between us.”

Though I understood his logic, I wasn’t a fan of this plan. This was too risky. I was about to open my mouth to protest, but Asher stopped me. He took my hand and pulled it to his chest.

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“I just want to get this resolved quickly,” he said gently. “So that we could move on to the next thing. What’s going on between us.”

When he smiled at me, I could feel my cheeks begin to flush. A sigh rose up from my chest.

“Okay,” I decided. “But we have to take extra care to make sure S pike doesn’t try anything dangerous. We won’t tell him it’s your blood, but we need to be careful anyway. He might be cooperating with us now, but he’s still a criminal.”

“Of course,” Asher said.. “We’ll take every precaution, Cas sandra.”

“Thank you,” I said quietly, and I smiled at him.

“He leaned forward and k*ssed my forehead gently. “Let’s solve this together so that we can move on. All I want is for you to be by my side. I don’t care about

anything else.”

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