THEN I SAW HIS FACE (and I'm a believer)

26 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, WARLOCK TIME

"My wolves and I took a lot of trouble to come return your stupid stone to you. If you do not give us a reasonable explanation, you can kiss your stone goodbye forever." Boo was smiling ear to ear at that proposition.

"Ah, Sam..." River sighed, "You sure like to cause trouble."

I don't need to hear that coming from you!

"Foolish pup." Fount smirked and tossed his long raven fringe. River should keep his fringe long like that. It was pretty cool, "This is between my formling and I, what say do you have in who the stone would go to?"

Tsk, did the old Warlock think I would make an empty threat?

"Do you still want to kill me?" I gave Fount my most innocent puppy dog eyes.

"In a heart beat." Fount said.

River tightened his fist around the stone, I think River himself noticed the subconscious action, but it was not lost on Fount, "That's mine! Return my heart to me!"

"Did no one ever teach you to say please when you're asking for a favor?" Boo asked sweetly.

Wow, River was right. I was quite enjoying myself right now. Who knew?

Fount was so enraged, he actually began shining in his bubble, "Impudent! I AM THE GREAT WARLOCK FOUNT. In this continent, there is none whose magic surpasses me! Words like please and thank you are meaningless to me."

Which completely made no sense to me. Weren't please than thank you the ultimate magic words?

{Mate! ~❤️ }

If I was in my wolf form, my tail would have wagged and completely disgraced me.

But it was at this moment when Bell crashed through the broken window.

Once upon a time, or at least it felt like a long time ago, I had imagined my mate to charge through a window to my rescue, but my imagination was very lacking because I didn't imagine that it would happen in the Warlock's Tower.

Or that the roof was completely blown off and the walls were mostly rubble, or half the floor had fallen into the floor below. But even so, Bell had to crash through whatever glass was left of the single window that was still standing.

And Bell was fuming a black smog, like a constant darkness trailing him. His clothes were ripped and dirty, and his cursed arm was black like onyx. On his back he had a body bag that smelled suspiciously like something died in there and was never taken out.

In contrast, Ki came through the broken wall next to the window, gently glowing and smiling, "Luna is here."

"What? More wolves?" Fount turned to regard Bell for a moment, and then he smirked, "Don't tell me you're here to return the stone too?"

"Not really." Bell shrugged, completely uninterested. He let drop the body bag onto the floor by his feet and took the few steps towards the large black furnace. The front gate of the furnace was large enough for a full grown man to walk through.

"What...what do you think you are you doing?" The warlock looked alarmed now.

"I'm taking your fire." Bell answered nochalently.

"No!" Fount pressed himself on his bubble, "Wait! I'll give you something better."

Bell's footsteps paused, "Oh?"

"Yes." Fount fumbled with the inside pockets of his jacket, "See, I have a brand new fire, born only a little more than a decade ago."

Fount produced a silver colored lighter. He flipped it open to show Bell, and a small pale blue flame appeared.

"I can give this to you. But you must help me too." Fount smiled cunningly.

"Do you want your stone back?" Bell shrugged, "I cannot take it for you. It has to be given."

So Bell knew about warlock hearts and stuff? Well, he certainly looked confident about facing Fount.

"Of course I know that!" Fount spat out, "What do you take me for?"

"An old idiot." Ben whispered to me. Hahaha.

"Then what do you want?" Bell completely ignored us.

"I want you to kill those wolves." Fount said, "and that human bodyguard too, while you're at it. It shouldn't be hard for you, and I will give you this priceless treasure for it."

"Hn." Bell didn't look impress. He didn't look terribly put off by the idea of killing the rest of us either, "That sounds too troublesome."

Bell reached out his blackened hand and grasped the furnace door.

"No! Wait!" Fount shouted.

But Bell had pulled open the door and exposed the huge blue bonfire and it's raging heat.

It suddenly felt like we were in an oven.

"What's that?" River asked.

"My fire." Bell said.

"My fire!" Fount shouted.

And Bell reached out his cursed and stuck it into the furnace.

"Nooo!!!!" Fount and I shouted at the same time, banging helplessly from inside our bubble.

"Why should I trouble myself, if there's a more powerful fire here for my taking?" Bell smirked.

Because it didn't belong to you.

And then the fire leaped out of the furnace and completely wrapped around Bell.

Bell's first reaction was to laugh, but it quickly gave way to an anguished growl and then broke into a hoarse cry.

Noooo!!! I opened my mouth but nothing came out. I felt my knees buckle and I dropped to the bottom of my floating bubble.

Rebel, you dumbbell! It was one thing to crash in here without a care for me, your own soulmate. But why couldn't you at least care more for your own life?

I watched behind a veil of tears as the fired twisted and licked hungrily around my soul mate. It was over. It was over. Everything was over for me.

For a full minute, nobody moved. We just watched the large blue flame engulf my mate and devour him. And then there was silence and the fire became a wisp and re-entered the furnace.

The metal gate to the furnace shut with a resounding clang.

I felt a lump rise up in my throat, and then the tears start to fall. Why? What was happening? Why? My incoherent thoughts punctuated the silent tears. Wth. Wth! WTH!!!

And then Fount laughed, an ugly twisted laugh, "Serves you right! Do you think an ancient flame like mine can be so easily wrestled from me?"

He was still laughing when he suddenly started to disintegrate.

"What? No! Impossible!" Fount's bubble glowed to heal him. He kept disintegrating into ash and then regenerating.

"Ahhhh!!!!" Fount screamed.

"What?" River looked panicked, "What's happening? What do I do?"

"You probably should take that Total Recovery Spell off him, Prince." Ben advised in his usual monotone.

"Ah! Oh!" River realised it then and cancelled his spell. We all fell unceremoniously down.

"No...." Fount croaked and then he was no more. On the ground was a pile of black ashes.

Meanwhile, I was falling... When River cancelled his spell, he cancelled all of it. And I happened to not have any ground below my bubble to land on.

"Sam!" Ben shouted.

My hair flared, but the next moment I saw Ki right in front of me, "I got her!"

Ben pulled Wilhelm who pulled Ki who pulled me back out on whatever floor was still available.

"He's not dead." I realised the moment my feet was on the ground.

"What?" Ben asked.

"He's not dead!" I ran towards the furnace.

"Sam, wait!" Someone shouted. Maybe it was Ben... or River, or both.

"Goddess!" This should be Ki, but I wasn't really paying attention to the voices or persons around me. HE WAS ALIVE!

And just as I approached it, the heavy black metal gate flung open, the heat behind it spewing out like a dragon's breath.

"Oh f***." This was Ben for sure. I didn't hear Ki, but I felt his healing magic. I lifted my hands too look, my skin was red - as if sunburned. Oh... my steps stopped. The heat was burning me.

Mate stepped out of the furnace, smoldering hot. I reached out my hand for him, but it hurt.

"**** ***** ******. What use are you guys if you can't even keep my princess safe?" Were Bell's first words.

I had never thought I'd be so happy to hear ancient lycan.

I felt tears like big fat drops rolling off my cheeks and then evaporating into vapor on the hot stones. I barely feel the pain any longer, just the numbing speed of healing regenerating the burns, "I thought you died."

"Maybe once or twice." Mate smirked, completely unrepentant, "You didn't have to worry. It would take a lot more than this to get rid of me."

And then he walked over to the pile of ashes that used to be Fount. I wanted to follow, to run to Bell and grab him so he could never leave me again, but I also suddenly felt a cool breeze and realized I needed a respite from the rapid healing. Ki was glowing behind me.

Ben handed me a half bottle of water from his back pocket, "Drink."

I took a big gulp while never looking away from Bell. I'd be the first to admit, I was half afraid he would suddenly evaporate into thin air. He was my mate, I was sure of it, but there was also something strange about him, something unreal and unnatural about him.

Bell had bent down to prod Fount's ashes for a moment before he found what he was looking for. He straightened with two items. He held it up to River, "Choose one."

We all looked to Bell who lifted his left hand to show a matching blue stone to the one in River's hands. It only took me a second to recognize it - Fount's earring.

"Full control over the power of your stone," Bell said by introduction to the earring, and then he lifted up his right hand to produce the same lighter, "Or a fire to create your own stone."

And then Bell smiled like the devil and waited for River's decision.

"Don't take the fire!" I immediately warned River, "It would consume your humanity, and cut off your mating bond with Savy!"

River looked bewildered for a moment, and I worried he was going to mess this up.

And then River said, "I cannot live without Savy. She's my soul mate."

Well, at least he got the basics right.

Bell tossed him the earring, which River despite his usual clumsiness, actually caught with both hands before yelling and throwing it on the ground, "HOT! Eh... hot, hot, hot."

And then he bent down and picked it up again, "You're really just giving this to me?"

Bell smiled wider. If the devil ever smiled like this at you, you know you just said something stupid.

"Weren't these both your birthright to begin with?" Bell smirked, "But since you've made your choice, this is now mine, BROTHER."

And then Bell flipped open the lighter and poured the flame into his mouth. He grinned triumphant and then suddenly coughed out blood. WTH. My mate really should stop playing with fire. Like literally.

So far everything he did with the blue flame looked like it hurt a great deal.

Eventually, two dark red stones came out with the blood, both gleaming and imbued with an aura of magic. Bell picked them up looking pleased, "Ki, did you bring what I told you to?"

"Yes, Luna." Ki answered, producing a slim number-lock case from his jacket.

Bell handed the stones to him, "Set them for me."

"Understood, Luna." Ki nodded demurely.

Wait, what? What did Ki understand? What was going on here?

I glared at my Mate, "What's that?"

"My heart stone." Bell answered with a placid smile, "And the stone to control it."

He had cooled down by now. I could tell because the air around him had stopped shimmering like a mirage.

"You...you are a warlock?" I gasped.

"Wrong, princess." Mate smirked and shook his head, "I am a Tyger."

Which was the same thing, right? Potaeto potahto. They are all mythical magic beings that I had only seen within the pages of Lycan legends... Until today.

But Bell sounded way to pleased to tell me I was wrong. So annoying! Naturally, I had to get back at him.

Did you ever hear the saying, "Those who live by magic, die by magic"?

So I cast the one spell I knew, "Tell me the story of the difference between Warlocks and Tygers."

"Can you even put it like that?" Ben muttered from behind me, "You're not even technically asking for a story."

Hahaha. Who knew? It's not like they taught magic in school. Until very recently, I didn't even think magic was real.