The Beast And The Blessed

Sixty-Four: Joselin

Joselin's P.O.V.

A tired and grumpy Tobias greeted me the next morning. It was wise for everyone to stay out of his way, which meant they also stayed out of mine. It was amazing.

It helped that everyone was scared of him too. Cyrus practically shook like a leaf when Tobias lunged at him for bumping into me. Still, I had a feeling the shaking was more due to Cyrus's exhaustion and excessive caffeine intake over the past two days than anything else.

My mate was being even more protective today, and I was ready for this to be over so I could face the next challenge... the possibility of a baby. The more time that passed, the more I opened up to the idea, but I couldn't focus on it until Cora was dealt with.

Natalie insisted that we all leave the conference room after an early morning and head to the dining hall for breakfast, insisting that it would be good for our people if we would all show our faces. They needed to see that Cyrus was okay and that we weren't worried...even though we were.

Aisha and Margot stayed behind with Blanche to keep working. Since they usually ate in the private dining hall anyway, it wouldn't seem odd to the pack that they weren't with us. Once we returned, they would turn in and get some sleep while we took over.

As Cyrus entered the room, the volume dropped drastically. Everyone seemed to want to get a look at him. He forced on a smile and walked with his head held high. Still, the black circles under his eyes and his slow movements gave him away. He was weak, tired, and traumatized.

The room had been cleaned and was back to its former glory after the attack, with no trace of his blood anywhere, whereas it had been absolutely everywhere before. After what Cora did with it, I was sure he wasn't happy that someone had to clean up his blood or could have it again.

I had given him an enchanted necklace, similar to the one Natalie and Killian wore, but it was to prevent someone from controlling him. He hadn't been controlled when she tried to take his powers. She was playing with dark magic and was trying to steal his abilities, not control them. I had little faith that it would do anything for this situation, but he looked relieved to have it.

The pack was no stranger to talking about others, but they at least had enough decency to do it through the pack link and not to the person's face.

Yet as we waited for our plates to be served, the room's tension was almost palpable. Everyone was waiting for a repeat of the other night or a breakdown from the spell caster swaying with exhaustion in his chair.

My stomach had tossed and turned since I had woken up, and my mouth watered with the need for me to empty the already hollow organ. But I had held it down.

and steady would win the race. Any faster, and I would lose my breakfast in front of

was. But after watching him for a moment, I realized that he wasn't eating at all, just

that she would help Cyrus come back

face him head-on, she would be in for one hell of a battle. But she had potentially grown more

that, but I didn't piece it together until now. I thought it was what she got from each place,

as I bent forward and shoved a few bites of food into my

swallowed quickly before rushing out of the room. Tobias was hot on my heels, and I

opened the conference room doors before me, and I ran through them. Aisha,

us head-on. She used the witch in the mountains with one of Cyrus's things because she didn't know who he was yet. When that failed, and I brought him here for protection, she figured out who he was but knew she couldn't get him out of there unnoticed. She went to Rona to use her as a conduit because she had more power, but Rona wasn't strong enough." I flung my hand toward the map, pausing briefly when I saw Tobias standing with my mostly full breakfast

silently telling me he wanted

anything from these locations, and she isn't setting traps. The one thing these places have in common is a significant event that could be used as a power source. Cora is looking at places of power for a new source to channel Cyrus through.

been there before?" Natalie asked, but both Killian and

the location of it. The council was never with my father when he attended meetings nearby, and no one beyond guards came with us when you shifted." Killian told her, and I nodded. "When my father found out about it, he forbade anyone from going

to pawn me off, saying she was too busy for me and that I needed to learn as much as possible. She would send me with the guards and the previous king on his travels, even when she didn't join us. He would feed

and I would then run off and play. He hated those meetings as much

both be there and run away from it at the same time. Yet, it never deterred us. We would run inside and play for hours until it was discovered that we had snuck away and

on Earth. The descendants of the Goddess hadn't even been able to leave it for long stretches. It fed their magic and

first of her bloodline to live fully outside the Sanctum and not

to recharge frequently, and it sounded so tedious.

Killian asked, his

enough to say one hundred. I could be wrong, and whatever we planned, we needed to be prepared for the possibility of

Killian held out the chair for Natalie before taking his

an eye when I continued to pick at my food over the next half an hour as we