Beyond The Shadows (Shadows Saga bk3) ON HOLD

Chapter 7- Two Days

When Mara woke in the morning, Marx was already gone. She frowned at the empty space beside her for a moment before getting up and getting dressed. She assumed he would be down in the kitchen, probably with the others. She could feel him through the bond, and she could tell he was slightly agitated.

We really need to figure out how to control this thing, Mara thought as she made her way downstairs in search of everyone.

Her assumptions had been right and she found Trixle and Emmett sitting closely next to each other with Marx across from them. They had clearly been arguing about something, but they stopped as soon as she walked in on them.

“What’s going on?” She asked as she took the seat next to Marx.

“The Council wants you to start going to the villages. They think that we can start moving people in,” Trixle said.

“Which is completely absurd. We haven’t made any advancements on the assassination, we can’t just subject those people to a place that’s potentially unsafe,” Marx cut in.

“Your father was the first to suggest it Marx. I’m not completely happy with the idea either, but all the kingdoms have decided to lend some security personnel until a program is set up for the witches’ own security. They’ll wait until enough have been trained and are on duty before they pull them back, so you’ll have the security to keep the castle as well as the perimeter safe.” Trixle laid out all the security details, which had been Marx’s main point.

Mara could feel his agitation rising with each word Trixle spoke. She wasn’t entirely sure what had him so on edge. Marx had recovered well from the shot, her blood had definitely done the trick and he’d pulled through in close to werewolf speed. So if it wasn’t the wound and toxin that had put him so on edge, what could it be?

She reached her hand over to his, resting on his bouncing knee. She gave a gentle squeeze and felt the bouncing slow down before stopping completely.

“Why wasn’t I at this meeting?”

“It wasn’t exactly a meeting,” Trixle said. “Basically, Makortax and Lillian decided on it and told the rest of us. I told her I would talk to you about it because you were still asleep.”

“Well when do they want me to start?”

“In two days.”

Mara just nodded. She couldn’t believe that they wanted her to start so early. Marx was right, we had said that we would handle figuring out who had attacked the dinner, but we hadn’t even had a chance to get anywhere before they were already breaking us up in different directions. She would have to keep tabs with them over the phone and who knows how well that would go. To say that she was hesitant about the situation would be an understatement. However this did mean that people would get to move into their homes, the process of unifying the witches would begin and that’s what Mara’s wanted for the longest time.

The tour through the villages would last at least a week, probably two, however she decided to travel on her own powers instead of by road and train. She wasn’t about to subject a bunch of innocent people to the threats that followed her, Zander had his men attack the train she had been on last time, and now someone else was after them, or her. She wasn’t about to put more people in danger, even the thought of going to those villages made her nervous. Whoever this was hadn’t been afraid to attack in a ballroom full of people and there was nothing to make her believe they would hesitate in a village full of families.

But they hadn’t been after you directly. They were after the people close to you, the small voice in her head reminds her.

“I’ll go with you,” Marx said.