Drowning with Fire #3 ✔

Chapter 29 - Theo

Killian didn't take well to being captive. Which was to be expected considering he was a dark spirit who'd roamed wherever he'd wished for around a century.

He was placid all through the afternoon and the night after we captured him – so much so that I let Halia stay in the cave with him. Since her reconciliatory moment with Kaden, Halia had begun to heal. Her scales had stopped flaking off, she grew stronger, and she actually had an appetite for the first time in months.

It seemed cruel to deny her staying close to the boy who gave her hope, even if in his current state he preferred cold-blooded murder over peace talks.

Naturally, there was always at least one other pack member on guard.

Killian attempted to make his first escape on the morning after we caught and trapped him. Halia was with him, and Thea was exhausted from watching him for half the night – so she left early to switch over with Abi, who was next on the rota which we'd devised.

From what we could figure, Killian had entered Halia's dreams during the night – very Dracula-esque – and tempted her to help free him. During the guard changeover, Halia had, in a dreamlike state, dismantled the bone circle entrapping Killian.

Halia admitted to me later on that Killian had kissed her cheek and thanked her before he ran out of the cavern. Or, tried to run out of the cavern, at least.

Wednesday's spells prevented him from achieving daylight. Instead, he'd been greeted with scorching pain – plus Thea and Abi who'd quickly driven him back into the cave and reconstructed the bone circle.

Even though I hadn't witnessed the almost escape, I'd gathered a pretty clear visual of it thanks to Thea and Abi's explanations. I didn't even have to use any Alpha insight skills; I had complete trust in my pack.

"My spells should be gradually weakening him too," Wednesday added in as we gathered around the kitchen in what would become our new base, and possibly even our new home as a pack.

Ember and Abi were watching Killian at that moment, though we didn't have long until Ryder and I would take over from them. But I needed to get the whole story and set things straight with Halia, who was standing with her face blank as a stone and her arms wrapped tightly around her body.

"I'm sorry, Halia, but I can't let you stay in the cave anymore," I explained to her, biting my lip. "It's not that I don't trust you–"

"You should not trust me." The naiad shook her head sadly. "I am a liability and vulnerable to the wishes of my lover – even if he is not spiritually my lover... Set me to other tasks, Theo – anything but guarding him."

I swallowed; I hadn't expected her to agree so quickly. Though I guess we all knew that if Killian were to have gotten free, it was unlikely that we would've been able to capture him again.

"Halia, Zack, can you both go and find Al?" I suggested. "She should be with the pixies in the woods on the moor. And yes, Zack, you can bring Abi with you once she's done on the shift..."

"Speaking of shifts," Ryder spoke up, "You and I should get going, Theo."

I glanced at the clock on the wall – it was fast approaching lunchtime.

"You think we should take him food, don't you?" Wednesday frowned at me, directly reading my thoughts.

"Well... Kaden's still in there, and while Killian may not need nourishment to function, we don't want Kaden to be starving," I mused aloud. "I mean, who even knows last time he ate?"

"It is a good idea, Theo." Halia squeezed my arm and then she and Zack walked out – off towards the moorland.

I turned to the shelves where Zack had dumped all the tinned food I asked him to bring from Wednesday's back in Lake Oldoy. I grabbed a tin of soup and a tin of dried fruit.