And Then There Were Four

Chapter 157

Chapter 157: Anna

Cassie.

When Silas told me he knew of a place for us to go, I was expecting something fancy or perhaps something that was more… elegant, marble, and who knows what else. What I wasn’t expecting though was for him to take us to an old brick building with broken windows that looked wildly out of place to be within Asgard.

Pollux, Trixie, and Sansa decided to stay behind and snoop around the school to see if they could find anything that might be useful. With them looking around, no one would suspect them for doing anything, me, however, they would.

Yet, even though they were busy looking for information, I wished they were here with me. I wanted Pollux to see this building, to see how beautiful and strange the land around it was. One thing about my brother that no one knew but me was his love for history–a love for the past because the past makes us stronger.

The building reminded me of old ruins of castles in a way with its intricate archways and carved designs within the stone. I couldn’t help myself when I passed them to reach out and let my fingers brush against the ancient markings. My mind wandered to who these people must have been because it was far older than anything here now.

“Where are we?” I asked softly, my eyes turning to Silas, who smiled down at me with amusement. As if he knew a mil-lion secrets and wanted to tell me but didn’t know how.

“This is a structure from another realm, one that we no longer speak of because of the battle that commenced there thousands of years ago,” he replied as he gazed up at the structure running his own

hands against the broken rock. “During the battle, they sought to escape and when the portal was opened, it moved the earth they stood on and anything else around.”

“Who is they?” I asked curiously, trying to understand how anyone could be so powerful that they could move all this earth and even structures.

Silas chuckled though as he glanced back at me. “You don’t know any of the stories, do you?”

I wasn’t sure why he was amused by me not knowing the stories of this place, and shaking my head, he pushed open the large wooden and brass door before us. The creek of the wood echoed against the silent air around Silas and me. I found myself stepping into a hall of darkness filled with cob- bled steps and cobwebs.

Silas moved forward down the cobbled steps further into the darkness, and I hesitated for a moment, I took a deep breath and forced myself forward. One thing people didn’t know about me was the internal fear I had of darkness. Not that anyone would suspect it–I hid my fears very well.

“Silas.” I called out into the darkness having lost him in my delay as I reached the bottom step. My eyes strained to see through the black void that filled my vision in front of me. “Silas?”

“Over here!” The dim lighting of a torch coming into view as he came around a corner, and once again I was able to see his smiling face. “Come on, what are you doing?”

What am I doing? Jesus, like I meant to get lost.

“Nothing, right behind you,” I replied, pushing a smile onto my face as I watched him turn, my steps right behind his. There was no way I was going to allow myself to get lost in this place again.

After a few minutes of walking, we came to another arch- way that opened up into more darkness. Silas stopped in his tracks and turned to the right, letting the lit flame of the torch to touch something on the

wall, and as it did a wind blew through the room lighting every torch in sight.

A gasp left my breath as I took in the sight before me. Bookcases reached high into the ceiling, multiple levels of books as far as the eye could see. Never in my life had I seen something so beautiful, and I felt the soft gentle brush of Silas‘ hand.

“Do you like it?” he asked, causing me to turn to him in awe.

“Like it? Silas, I love it,” I said, my voice echoing, “how is this kept like it is? I’m surprised people don’t come here every day.”

Shrugging his shoulders, he looked around as if contem- plating what I had said. “It’s been forgotten, honestly. Not to mention the school explained to the gods it wasn’t a safe place for students to be. So it went vacant for a thousand years.”

Taking one step after the other, I wandered around the

room, admiring everything there was to admire. From hand- carved tables with toppled chairs, tons of books that littered the floor, as well dust that laid blanketed upon every surface in the area.

Never had I seen something so old and beautiful at the same time. I let my fingers brush over some of the multicol- ored spines as my feet crunched upon scattered papers, I was curious as to what had happened here to leave it in such chaos.

“So within all of this, you think we will find what I need to figure everything out?”

My words bounced off the walls, and as I turned to look at Silas from over my shoulder, he stood watching me. “In a way, I suppose.”

“In a way?” I repeated, furrowing my brow, “what do you mean?”

Stepping forward, his arms falling at his sides he stared at me, and the intensity of that stare made my breath catch in my throat. I didn’t understand what it was about him that made my heart flutter like it did, but twhen he stepped inches in front of me, a wave of nervousness washed over me I hadn‘ t expected.

“In order for you to find out about current things… I think it’s best for you to learn about the past. About the gods, and more importantly about who you are, Cassie. Odin and the others have been hiding the truth, but it’s wrong.”

His words confused me, and the sincerity in his eyes let me know he was telling the truth. Yet, knowing Odin- my grandfather–and the others were hiding things from me didn‘t sit well in my stomach. “Why are they hiding things from me?”

He brushed his hand down my shoulder gently before moving a strand of hair from my face. “Because they don’t think you’re ready to know. I was ordered never to tell you, but I can’t keep things from you… not with…”

On a heavy exhale, he didn’t finish his sentence, but with the way he was looking at me, I could almost tell what he was going to say. He was going to tell me how he cared about me, but I didn’t need him to tell me for me to know. I should have been disgusted with him advancing on me because I was sup- posed to be with Lucas but I wasn’t.

Part of me wanted him to kiss me… part of me wanted him to take me and make me his.

“Tell me who Anna is, Silas,” I whispered, clearing my throat and trying to divert the sexual tension currently flow- ing between us. He let a small smirk cross his lips as he stepped back, and picked up a chair setting it up right then gesturing for me to take a seat.

“If you want to know, I will tell you,” he replied as I took a seat in the offered chair, watching him move about the room to a bookcase as if he had been here so many times before.

“You know this place well?”

Chuckling sounded from within the bookshelves as he popped his head back out and looked at me. “You can say that.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, opening my mouth only for him to quickly come striding toward me with a brown book covered in emerald stones.

“I can explain everything in time… for now, first things first -Anna.”

He took a seat next to me and flipped the book open to a drawing of a woman with reddish brown hair and blue eyes. She was strikingly beautiful, but what stayed with me the most is how much she looked just like me—or well, a mixture of my mother and me.

“This is Anna?” I asked, tearing my gaze from the book only to see him staring intently at the woman as if seeing her face brought back memories he hadn’t seen in forever. “You knew her, didn’t you?”

Blinking quickly, he averted his gaze from the woman and frowned. “Something like that. Anyways… I guess it’s best to start from the beginning.”

I didn’t bother to say anything, and as I watched him flip. the pages, I settled in for whatever story he had to tell me. If it would help me get closer to figuring out what was wrong with Lucas, then so be it.

“So a thousand years ago, there were two people who ruled your kind in a way the world had never seen. The Alpha’s name was Bjorn, and his Luna was the lovely Anna. She never wanted to be his, and her union to him was actually formed in a blood promise her mother had made before she was born in return for Bjorn saving her life. He was a man many feared, but over time, Anna grew to love him and she was the only one who could control Bjorn when he lost his mind.”

Drawing after drawing Silas showed me the images of Bjorn and many other people explaining how the twos‘ life

played out. How they bared many children, but in the great war, something happened that changed Anna’s life forever.

“Anna loved Bjorn, but when their eldest daughter died, Bjorn lost himself. His daughter was everything to him but his best friend killed her. A man he trusted, and Anna would have died too had Bjorn not got there in time to save her.”

The look he gave when he said Anna would have died was heartbreaking, and I realized he definitely knew her on a more personal level. However, if that was the case, then that meant he was far older than I expected.

“Silas, you knew her personally, didn’t you?”

Lifting his gaze to me, he opened his mouth, “I did.”

“That would make you over a thousand years old!” I gasped trying to wrap my mind around how old he really was. However, laughter left him as he shook his head no.

“I’m definitely not that damn old, but I am a few hundred years old.”

“That doesn’t make sense, Silas. She lived here a thousand years ago,” I replied, trying to understand what he was saying. The math didn’t add up, and as much as I wanted to know about her, I had to understand the truth behind him.

“Look… why don’t you let me finish what I’m telling you first before you assume things,” he suggested causing me to nod, deciding not to continue asking him any more questions.

“Good, as I was saying… Bjorn lost his mind, and when he did, Anna fled with the rest of her children, hiding them around the world out of fear that they may be hurt in his rage.

Now, Bjorn didn’t take kindly to what Anna did… he saw her as a traitor, and wanted back what was rightfully his. So he sought to battle with her to find them, and then forced her into submission.”

Thinking back, I remembered Priscilla, a woman I saw as a grandmother, telling me similar stories about two people named Bjorn and Anna. “They were the reincarnated version of Geri and Freki?”

Silas’s eyes widened at my words as a smile spread across his face. “Yes… so you do know them?”

“No,” I laughed, shaking my head. “I just remembered a story my grandmother had told me a long time ago. About the wolves of Odin…”

Opening his mouth, he didn’t speak and simply scoffed with a smile. “Yeah… Odin.”

I was curious why he remarked the way he did but chose to stay silent hoping that when he was ready, he would tell me what it was he was hiding.

“Look, it’s been a long day, and there is so much about that battle you should learn. Why don’t you take this book. with you, Cassie. Read what you can about Anna, and then I can fill in the rest where you have questions.”

“Silas, what’s wrong?” Confusion washed over me, won- dering why he was suddenly acting the way he was. He had been so eager to tell me the stories before and now he simply wanted to end the conversation.

“Nothing, Cassie… I just remembered I forgot to take care of something.”

Silas looked at me for a long moment as he stood to his feet and handed over the book to which I took and placed it into the black leather satchel at my side. There wasn’t a point in carrying on the

conversation if he didn’t want to have it, and so when he turned to make his way for the exit, I stayed quiet.

Silas was more mysterious than I could have ever imag- ined, and every part of me wanted to know the secrets he was hiding.

After all, why was it so important I learned about Anna?Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.