lock your heart

Chapter five

It said that the silence is an answer. I got my answer.

"Mother is waiting for us inside."

Dakho guides us inside the coven house once again. We are welcomed by the spacious room and Mrs. Kan who is sitting at the table as the other day. As we go in further I notice new piles of opened books around the carpet and handwritten pages attached to a board near the window.

I let my eyes wonder and I realise they are spells. I recall knowing some of them. The witches had written down any spell they could find related to the word invenio. They are all finding spells, from the easiest ones to difficult rituals I have never heard before.

"Mother."

Mrs. Kan lets out a frustrated noise and she closes shut the book she was going through with a loud bang. She turns around and stands up abruptly letting her high ponytail to dingle from one of her shoulder to the other.

She tugs down her pencil skirt and straighten her spine walking towards us. I have never met someone who radiates superiority as much as her. She holds her chin up looking straight at Zagan who, in exchange, gives her a bored expression. After all, yesterday he has thrown her over the wall.

He turns around and walks to the sofa throwing himself on it as if he owned the place. Mrs. Kan stops stunned in her tracks at Zagan's behaviour while he smirks proudly he got the reaction he wanted from her and he pats the place next to him mockingly for her to sit down.

I hear a small snort from my right and Dakho tries to restrain a smile from appearing by nibbling his lower lip. I can tell that's one of the few times his mother receives this kind of behaviour and he seems to enjoy her reactions even more than Zagan.

The woman moves around sitting down opposite him, her gaze returning stern and cold.

"The werewolves asked for our help a couple months ago and-"

"Good morning."  Zagan flesh her a smile. He wants to drive her insane, I'm sure of it but Mrs. Kan doesn't look like she'll buy his games this time.

"We decided to help them-"

"It's impolite to not greet a person, isn't it?"

"Good morning." Mrs. Kan exhale. "Now, can I go on?" She asks.

Zagan nods his head with his teeth on full display.

"At first I thought we'll find the girl in no time, but we were wrong." Her tone changes when she spoke the last words. "We tried everything, from the simple finding spells to rituals." Her gaze now on the stacks of books on the table. "We couldn't find her."

Dakho moves in front of me and gesture me to follow him and sit down.

Usually the spells are very accurate and there are just a few situations when they won't work. An inexperienced witch can fail in doing a spell correctly and this can be an exception, but I doubt she hadn't checked it herself. They tried for months to find her. The powers of royals and the council combined couldn't fulfil the request. She said they even performed rituals and from what I seen on the board, they weren't usual ones.

"She probably died." Zagan says.

"That's what we first through as well when we realised the spells weren't working." Dakho says. "So we had to be sure, we made the Mortal Incantation."

"She is alive." Mrs Kan sighs. If the Mortal Incantation couldn't find her, she is definitely alive. But then...

"She might be protected by magic." I say furrowing my brows. That's the only explanation.