Chapter 118

Claudia’s POV
It turns out, Danny’s hunch was right. Sariah was called back from visiting her coven to deal with dark magic around both the castle territory and the Sapphire Moon territory. It was very sporadic; only affecting a handful of people in each of the areas. According to Sariah; it was placed around the territories the day after she left.
**“Goddess thinks they were hoping to close down all communications in both territories”** Amanda tells me. **“I’m just glad Sariah could fix what damage was done”** I respond back.
“I can’t believe they thought they were able to cut communications, in this day and age with the instant messaging of mobile phones and emails” Belinda states as I sit next to her in the dining hall with my lunch.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of stopping all communication. Not being able to mind link can be detrimental; especially when we need it to fight or communicate without others knowing what is going on” Phyllis replies and I nod, showing I agree with her statement.
“What I don’t get; why have it affecting only a few people? Why not make it so no-one could do it?” Denise asks, taking a bite of her cheeseburger.
“I think that is what we are all trying to figure out” I tell the three ladies, placing a few fries in my mouth. “It’s only speculation at this point. From what Riah was saying; it may have been a trial to see if the spell worked.”
“How would they know?” Belinda asks, taking a gulp of the soda she had in front of her.
“Your guess is as good as mine” I reply, placing another fry in my mouth as Danny and Rick come over to the table with their food. “I don’t want to think it’s true, but we may have a mole in our midst.”
“Oliver, Matt and I can’t find one; if we do” Danny states, giving me a peck on the cheek and sitting down next to me. “All the witches and warlocks in the area have been thoroughly interviewed with the help of Riah and they are all clean.”
“Then it is someone outside the territory?” Belinda questions, finishing off her burger.
“Looks that way” Rick injects, taking a bite of his own burger. “It makes sense, why no-one saw Dorothy, Josiah or Penelope leave. If they have a witch or warlock helping them; they would be able to leave undetected and trying to find them would be just as difficult, knowing what covens do to stop unwanted guests going into their territories.”
There has been a lot of talk about how the three of them escaped. Yes, the note Campbell showed us explained about the secret passageway to the Silver Pride territory; which in deed had been cleared to unseal it. We are beginning to think this was a ruse or they were using it to see if Campbell was helping us. Either way; Oliver had the tunnel resealed and Campbell refuses to leave the castle grounds.
“When are you men, leaving to go to the Cedar River territories?” I ask, changing the subject as I finish my plate of food.
“Tomorrow. Dad is bouncing around like a kid in a candy store” Danny replies, picking up his burger and looking towards the doorway as Mum and Dad come into the dining hall.
“Todd’s even worse. He can’t wait to get back there” Rick includes, rolling his eyes. “We are going to be teleported instead of driving. Sariah insists sending Leon with us; in case spells have been put around the territories too. Leon can counteract them.”
“I’m happy you are being teleported down there and back. If you need to get back in a hurry; you can” I inject, looking over at Denise. I can see, she too is happy about this new development. Her Chelsea, Joanna and Mum are all relieved about it. After the attempts of kidnapping and Michael almost running Joanna and I off the road before the big fight; we didn’t want Penelope, Josiah or Dorothy thinking they could do the same thing to them.
“We are staying down there for a few days and we know, Grandma Nelly’s place is our safehouse. You can quit worrying about us” Rick chimes in, looking over at Denise.
“We will be getting Leon to place a few spells of his own on Grandma’s house to ensure it will be a safehouse” Danny includes, giving me a smile. Dad, Simon and him, spoke with Leon about it; **“On our request”** Amanda giggles.
“Is Oliver going with you?” Phyllis asks, while Joslyn comes over to clear our plates.
“Yes” Danny and Rick both say together. “So is Jeffrey, Matthew and Dave” Danny adds with a half-hearted smile. If it were up to him, he would prefer to go down by himself with Jason, Rick and Tim but everyone else volunteered to go with them.
“The ladies don’t get to have any fun” Belinda mocks with an overexaggerated pout as we all laugh.
“If dad gets trapped in another net. I want you to send me the photo straight away” I giggle as I can see him scowling at Danny from the table next us, which sends us all into more fits of laughter.
“I didn’t show her” Danny yells over to him; putting his hands up, trying to defend himself from Dad’s narrowing eyes as I lose my composure with more laughter. “She found the photos” he adds to his defence.
**“Honey Cakes…” “What the fuck?”** I jump as Jesse announces himself in my mind. **“Sorry, I should have had Amanda warn you, I was coming over”** he chuckles as I see Danny jump too with Amanda talking to him.
**“What is it?”** I ask him, wondering why he was with me. **“Not sure. Mandy wanted to talk to Danny. I guess preparing for what could happen with going down to the Cedar River territories”** he responds, rubbing his fur against me in my mind.
**“What do you mean, preparing for what could happen?”** I question him, looking over to Danny with a worried look on my face. Danny lifts my hand and gives it a kiss to tell me it is nothing to worry about.
**“All Mandy said, she needs to make sure Danny knows, if something happens; I was to get her in an instant. Nothing we haven’t done before with Todd being stabbed and me going to you when Michael had Crystal kidnap you. If anything happens here, while we are away; I am to come back to you. No questions asked”** he explains as I nod my head and he struts to the back of my mind.
**“A bit of warning would have been nice”** I spit at Amanda as she comes back to the forefront of my mind.
**“Danny said the same thing”** she snickers at me. **“We wanted to remind you, if anything happened, we can move from one sanctuary to the other. It’s a gift, we didn’t use often enough previously. If we had, we would have been able to get out of some of the situations we were in.”**
**“I agree”** I tell her, thinking of the times we should have used it in our previous lives. **“We didn’t really know we could do it, until Marcus. When Patrick and Jesse were caught in the snow storm; we never did tell anyone, that is how he got back. When Jesse was feeling weak, you took over and he came back to me until he was strong enough to continue.”**
**“He is still a baby; when it comes to snow”** she says, rolling her eyes at me. **“Don’t we know it”** I agree with a smile as Danny and I get up from the table.
“Spending one last night with our Luna?” Rick says, giving Danny an exaggerated wink as I narrow my eyes at him.
“And many more to come” I huff, walking out of the dining hall. I knew he was joking, but I don’t want to think of it being one last night. **“It won’t be. We know what we can do”** Amanda says, giving me a nudge.
**“Yes, we do”** I tell her as I head up to our room, thinking about how we can go too. ‘I might have to get some reinforcements’ I say to myself walking in through the doorway with a huge grin on my face, sitting down on the sofa. ‘Joanna, Cyndy and Mum should be the start and we will go from there.’