1. A Secret of Snow and Ruin

Chapter II

Alistair Wardwell

When I reached the city full of roaming villagers and outside shops I only had one person on my mind. After the confusing feelings I might have felt from last night the only lips calling my name belonged to a faerie named Blythe Lunnir. As I reached her small home in the main point of Roguerock, I perched myself off my horse; Abel. I chained and used my sigil to keep him put on these bustling roads in hopes no beggars would take him from me again. You'd be surprised how desperate people could be.

Roguerock was simply a city that never slept or shied away from harm or good. Even through the thickest of winters and coldest of summers. It was a beautiful but hungry place that Blythe had to get away from. Something about that small city was harmful and I couldn't quite place my finger on it.

Once I finally walked to her doorstep, I had knocked on her door a few times or so until she had finally opened it. Blythe opened the door and she looked stunning. She wore a long green gown and wore her red hair in a half down style that was the latest trends these days. When she saw me she ushered for me to enter but through her welcome, I saw how her cheeks flushed in my sight and how shy she had become. We had begun courting last moon and I had planned for many more because I had respected her wish to wait. 

"How are you Healer Lunnir?" I asked her.

"Oh, no need to be so formal. Here, come in the kitchen. I have prepared some soup for you. You must be freezing, so let's get this off" She said, helping me take off my thick cloak of bear fur. During the winters months, the colds in the Reach brought sickness and frightening chills to anyone who wasn't Lycan.

As my coat was taken off my lean body, I felt the warmth of the fire from her fireplace that instantly made me feel at home. As I walked into the small kitchen, I was met with the delight smell of her cooking. Why get caught up thinking of Lycan women when I had a faerie to make me meals and heal my heart? Faerie's and witches were allie's and our relationship together ran deep and mutual. Blythe has always been my best friend, my most trusted confidant ever since I left home all those years ago. Being with her was easy. Our relationship was special; it was still special. As I thought this through, it felt like I was reminding myself what I was meant to do or meant to act.

Blythe and I's courtship was an arrangement we had both conjured up to appease our needs and wants. Once we wed, it would be a win for the both of us.

Blythe agreed to marry me to get her pretentious family off her back about not being married. She was 26...far too old to be single, especially from the family she came from. For me...I was doing this because I wanted normalcy. I wanted no part of what my people were apart of and that would only end once I marry into Blythes well respected family. Ever since Isla has come back, I've been killing people left and right. The names on my list multiplied and the guilt and shame only doubled.

Funny how when I actually want to kill my target, I end up going off task.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I noticed a bowl sitting in front of me. "This looks delicious, thank you" I said before eating my first scorching sip. She sat with me at her table and began sipping a tea. "What's on your mind?"

"Well where were you last night? I was worried sick" Blythe expresses with true worry on her cherubic face. Her kaleidoscopic eyes urged me to say something and so I did.

"My sister, she needed some help is all." I lied. Blythe knowing about my past or how crazy my family is, was none of her concern. Nor, would it be her worries because the company they kept was always corrupted. Blythe didn't need that and with how she was raised, I was sure she couldn't handle it.