CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

**GABRIEL**
I swear loudly and jump out of the sofa I had been sleeping on when I open my eyes to see Shanice calmly standing over me, watching me as I slept. She had her hands intertwined in front of her, and her face held a small smile.
Since the disappearance of Oliver, I have avoided sleeping in the bed we shared. His scent, heavy in the room and the sheets, reminded me that my lover wasn’t here. That he was somewhere unknown, mysterious. That he was somewhere unsafe. That he was probably being harmed while I slept in the bed we shared peacefully. And so, I had made the sofa in my office into my bed, deliberately falling asleep there once I was done with work (looking for a castle in the mountains).
“Good morning,” she greeted cheerfully while maintaining her stillness. “How did you sleep?”
I rub furiously at my eyes and look up at her. “You don’t think it’s creepy standing over people and watching them like that, Shanice?” I asked. “What happened to just waking me up?”
Shanice shrugged and her smile widened. “Oh, you were sleeping peacefully. You don’t get a lot of those these days…so I decided I would let you be, and just wait for you to wake up.”
I stifled a yawn and leaned back on the sofa. “Besides, who let you in?”
Shanice cocked her head to the side, and roles her eyes. “And since when did I need your permission to enter this house?”
Gabriel chuckled. “Fair point.”
Since she had moved into the pack, even before he had met Oliver, Shanice had had free reign. She came and went as she pleased. She was no stranger there, so much so that her feet knew the way around a house that her eyes had never seen.
“I know you didn’t come over here just to watch me sleep, Shanice. You want something?”
Shanice nodded. “About that insignia,” she started “I did some research on my own.”
My ears perked up and I sat up straighter on the sofa. All vestiges of sleep and tiredness immediately left my system. “Research?” I asked. “From where? Did you find anything?”
Shanice groaned and waved me off. “One at a time. My goodness…”
“Sorry,” I muttered and kept mute, not wanting to irritate her any further.
“I asked my mother about it. She was alive during the time that battle was fought,” she said. “In fact, she was one of those who fought against that evil being which was why I went to her to ask how to defeat this ancient yet new threat.”
My brows furrowed in confusion, and I wondered if the incident had left her with some trauma to the head.
“What do you mean ‘your mother’? Your mother is dead. How did you speak to her?”
Shanice chucked, her dead eyes twinkling in amusement. “The line between the living and the dead is very thin, Gabriel,” she said. “I spoke to my mother. I conjured up her spirit.”
I was taken aback by the piece of information. I had heard in passing about this method of speaking to the dead, but I had never seen it happen in reality. Somehow, I was still skeptical. It sounded too far-fetched to be believed.
Shanice went silent, a faraway look on her face. She rarely spoke of her family, and I had never asked. I wondered if this new line of communication she had opened had affected her in any way. I waited for her to speak, growing increasingly impatient with her silence and clicking fingers.
“Okay…and what did your mother say?” I asked slowly, my voice reflecting the doubt and impatience my heart felt. “If you don’t want to continue, that’s okay. I understand this may be hard for you.”
Shanice chuckled, her smile causing the lines on her face to stretch. “No. I just wanted to be sure that you were listening.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, Shanice. I’m listening. Please, continue.”
“My mother said you’ll be needing a talisman and a vial of very potent potion.”
My brows furrowed in confusion. “What for?”
“You’ll be needing it to be able to enter the castle in the mountains.”
I sighed. “Shanice, there isn’t any castle in the mountains. My scouts didn’t see anything.”
“Of course, they wouldn’t,” she replied. “The place is fortified with very strong black magic. Only visible to trained eye…or someone with magic just as strong.”
Now more than ever, I was even more confused. “So, you’re saying that there’s a whole castle there, but we can’t see it?”
Shanice nodded. “You sound like you don’t believe.”
I scoffed and shrugged. “It’s a little far-fetched.”
Shanice scoffed. “Your mate was fighting for autonomy of his own body with a river goddess, you watched a man disappear into thin air with three other people. I strongly believe that we’ve gone past what can or can’t be considered far-fetched.”
I nodded. “Fair enough,” I said. “You’ve been standing, Shanice. Please, take a seat.”
Shanice lowered herself on the sofa next to me and leaned back, sighing as she rested against the backrest.
“So…what did your mother say?”
“You’ll need a talisman and a very potent potion. The ingredients are quite easy to get, so that won’t be difficult.”
“Who would be making the talisman and potion?”
“Me,” she answered simply.
I nodded in understanding. “What is the talisman for?”
“You need it to be able to see the castle, and to be able to seamlessly move past its magical defenses.”
“And the potion?” I urged.
“Oliver would have to drink it.”
My brows furrowed in confusion, and I stared at her in skepticism. “Drink it? What for? What’s going to be in the vial?”
Shanice sighed heavily, as though growing tired of my incessant questioning. “The first thing they must have done to him would be to make the goddess dormant in him so she wouldn’t be able to help him. You have a better chance of defeating that man with her on your side than going in alone,” she said. “The potion would wake her up.”
“What do I need?” I asked, grabbing the pen and paper and sitting idly on the center table.
I listened attentively and jotted down the things I would need to get for Shanice to begin working with. As my fingers worked, gratitude and hope filled my heart. I was one step closer to finding Oliver. I was one step closer to making that bastard pay for the pain he had caused. I was one step closer to having my mate back. As my fingers worked, I thought of all the fun things I and Oliver would do once he returned, and optimism filled my soul even more.
“And lastly…lover’s blood.”
The pen stopped midway and I turned to face Shanice. “Lover’s blood?”
She nodded and yawned loudly. “Yes. That would be your blood.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but words failed me but then shrugged it off. It was for Oliver. I would bleed myself dry if that was what it would take to finally bring him home…where he belonged.
I sighed in relief when the list finally came to an end, and in that moment, I realized that as she had called out the things to procure my heart had hung in my throat in anticipation of the next item. I stared at the list in wonder and shook my head.
“How long would it take you to complete making the…talisman and vial?”
“If you get them together, j can have it done and ready before tomorrow morning.”
And so a few hours later, I scavenged the forest for hours gathering the requested ingredients, and by the time I had delivered them to Shanice at the shrine, the moon was high up in the sky.
I stood outside my room, the same one I shared with Oliver, and took deep breaths as I mentally prepared myself to go in, to breathe in the scent of my lover.
“Here goes nothing,” I muttered under my breath and opened the door, immediately getting blasted with his scent.
I had closed up all windows to preserve his scent. I closed the door behind me, and lay on his side of the bed, tears rolling down my cheeks as I remembered all the memories created there, all the wonderful times that we had shared without being aware that we were creating memories.
My hands balled into fists, and as I stared up at the ceiling, I swore to myself that I would kill that man, even if it was the last thing I did.