The Secrets of the Panther

Chapter 116

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I stir, but my eyes fly open.

I look around, feeling something lying next to me.

I glance to the side and spot black hair floating over the sleeping beauty by my side. I move and place a kiss on top of her head.

I sigh.

I stare up at the ceiling, not caring where my mind went. But I knew where it was going, going straight to Izzy.

Axel moves in my head and comes closer, his eyes full of emotion as he stares back at me. We both stare back at each other in silence, feeling the pain of the unknown.

"Do you think she's alive?" I ask him.

Axel looks at me before he speaks. "I don't know," he says, "I can't feel Puna." I kept staring at the ceiling, knowing I would wake Allie up; I wanted to run and find Izzy if I moved.

I could hear movement coming from outside the door, but I still looked at the ceiling.

I hear the door open slightly and someone walking into the room.

I know who it is.

"Why are you here?" I ask in a whisper.

The chair from the side of me moves, and he sits down. I close my eyes but turn my head, opening my eyes to look straight at Drake.

Drake stares back, but he holds a lot of emotion in his eyes. We stare at each other, but he leans back in the chair. "I wanted to see if you were awake," he says quietly.

"I am, as you can see," I say, sounding rather sarcastically.

Drake stares at me but looks towards the sleeping angel in my arms. "She looks so much like Izzy," he says. "It's uncanny."

"You came in here to look at Allie," I say as I gaze at his face.

The scar that ran down his face was deep, making him look older. His stumble was overgrown. "No, I came to talk to you," he says suddenly, pulling me from my thoughts.

I say nothing to him but stare at him.

"I know my involvement in this whole thing, and I know I can't take back everything I have done, but I wasn't myself," he says. "I thought Anya was dead. I thought I had lost her. I felt my heart break into a million pieces. I never felt whole, and I never met another woman. I was hellbent on helping Elder Johnson because he pushed his beliefs onto me." He stares at me momentarily, but I still say nothing to him.

"I believed nothing he told me; all I wanted was to kill people as I felt lost and alone," he says, sitting up straighter in the chair. "Elder Johnson twisted everything; he made everything sound real, but looking back on it all, I know it was a lie and unrealistic as it could get."

"How did you know, Izzy?" I ask him. I have wanted to know about this since Izzy talked to him.

Drake looked at me for a moment but sighed. "I met Izzy one night in a forest; she killed some hunters," he says. "She didn't trust me, but I didn't figure out she was a panther until Elder Johnson had someone follow me. He made a story up. She killed someone he cared about and needed to be killed for her actions."

I could hear Axel growl in my head, but I needed to know everything.

"I pretended to be her friend. I led her to be caged with some rebels who didn't believe in the cause, or they were just captured because Nell wanted them for information," he says. He stops and stares at me.