"Buy time," Caleb instructed Daryn. His body was burning with those runes. "I don't know what is happening to me and I need to control it!"

On his cue, Daryn looked at Canton and said, "You will never be able to succeed in your plans!" He let out a light resembling a whip from his hand and slashed it across the ground. The grass burned in its path. The whip lashed towards the priest and struck him across his legs.

​​

Canton's reverie broke as he shrieked in pain. "I will kill you!" He cried as his legs bore the brunt. He came down until his feet touched the ground. He gained control on his temper and growled at Daryn, "My plans are already succeeding. We have sent people after Dawn in Bainsburgh. If they are unable to take her down, I will kill you here. I've heard that if a mate dies, the other one follows." He chuckled out of his pain. "As for Caleb, his mate is being poisoned as we talk. Once I kill him, I will announce that the chiefs got the better of him. After all they are pure sorcerers and have much more powerful magic than yours. Elize will die and they will announce the same for her too." He grinned. "Both the brothers are going to die with their mates." He limped a step forward. "And guess what? Ixoviyans are going to believe me! Tsk, tsk. Now what do you think of my plan, Daryn?" He started to walk with a limp towards them, his black cloak flipping in air behind him.

Caleb couldn't breath. It was as if someone was choking him. His heart raced and all he wanted was to race back to Elize. He stifled a choked cry as bile rose in his throat, and he felt a drop stream down his cheek. He looked at Daryn whose face was ashen. Was this the end of the road for them?

The high priest stopped and clapped on his thigh as he broke into a cackle. "It's wonderful to see you brothers in this state."

Anger rose in Daryn's chest and a rumble formed. "If we will die, then we are going to take you down with us!" he growled. "There is no place of betrayers in our life!" Such deceit. The priest had spoken blatant lies to trap them outside Ixoviya using his guile only so that he could murder them without any hindrance. He had plotted for so long and so patiently. For whom? For Mozrath or for Sedora? If Sedora were there, Daryn would have wrung her neck.

He realized that the whole ploy was to kill Dawn, to kill his babies. He threw his head up and howled like a werewolf.

And if that were the case, he would make sure that the bastard in front of him died as well. At least Ixoviya would be free of one more traitor.

While he was still thinking that, he saw that Caleb's feet were not touching the ground. He had thrown his head back. Runes appeared on his body as if being carved slowly by fire. They glowed and a dull red and orange.

Daryn couldn't understand what was happening to him, but he stayed away not knowing his powers might explode any moment.

The priest watched Caleb intensely. "This can't be!" he murmured. "This is not possible!" He threw loads of magical spells at him but not one of them touched him and they all fell around him like drop water on the ground.

Daryn snarled seeing the priest's reaction. His claws sharpened and all he wanted to do was slice his throat.

"Those are ancient runes!" said Canton. "How does he know them?" He stopped walking as his mind froze. "No, no, no, no! This can't be! He cannot be the new ruler of Ixoviya! Only the ruler has the powers to summon those runes!" He jaw slackened. "Sedora is the queen of Ixoviya! I will kill you Caleb!" He thrust his hands to send more spells at him but this time Daryn slashed another whip at the spells, which also burnt his hand. The priest winced in pain. He glared at Daryn.

Daryn knew what he was trying to do. "You forget Canton! You can't extract my nightmares because I am one of you!" he shut his mental shields after forcing him out immediately.

All of a sudden Caleb's body stiffened and he bellowed looking towards the sky. His neck muscles corded and every vein in his body throbbed. His eyes glowed a blood red like flames of freshly ignited inglenook. He looked down at the priest and said in a voice, which looked like it belonged to many. "You dared to kill us! You dared to kill the bloodline of Ixoviya. You will be punished."

"His body summoned the souls of all the previous rulers of Ixoviya!" Canton said in a breathy voice. He started walking backwards.

Daryn was amazed. Caleb was now a man with unimaginable magic. All the souls that had entered his body were manifesting in the form of ancient symbols. He didn't want to even think the kind of pain Caleb must be going through. It was inhumanly impossible to absorb that kind of magic.

Now he understood what those whispers were all about. The bodies of previous rulers were somewhere buried in the castle. Their corporeal body died, but the souls and their magic stayed on for eternity.

Daryn shuddered from the inside. Caleb was beyond him at the moment.

"We are going to punish you," Caleb's voice echoed across the knoll and beyond. He started walking, not floating towards the high priest. "You have been disloyal, committed treason and you will have to face our wrath."

"No!" Canton ran away from him as fast as possible. He couldn't raise himself from the ground. Tendrils of magic that rose from his body traveled to Caleb who seemed to absorb them. "Don't take my magic," Canton shrieked with excruciating pain in his voice. "It hurts!"

Suddenly every rune in his body glowed and all at once bright orange beams of light exploded from his body. They converged over the priest and engulfed him. High-pitched shrieks filled the air.

Daryn covered his face with his forearms.

The shrieks stopped and he opened his face to see that the night was quiet again. There was no Canton. His ashes were sprinkled on the ground and Caleb watched them with hatred, the runes on his body still glowing. Everything got over.

Daryn's breath hitched. Goose bumps lined his skin. The priest who had plotted so heavily was no more. His brother reduced the powerful man to ashes. It was amazing and awe-inspiring.

His brother was the real king of Ixoviya. Only he had the natural ability of holding so much magic in him.

He had to get his brother back. "Caleb," he called him gently. "It is over."

Caleb didn't notice him.

"Brother…" Daryn called him again. He knew that at the moment Caleb wasn't with him. His body was a channel of the souls and he had to let them go or they had to leave him. "Caleb, listen to me. Elize is waiting for you."

Sweat trickled down Daryn's spine when Caleb didn't hear him. He had to rush to Dawn and Elize to save them. "Please leave him…" he pleaded with the souls. Time was running short.

Caleb turned his head towards him with a frown. The runes in his body dulled and as soon as they disappeared, Caleb collapsed.

---

It was middle of the night when Dawn woke up to ominous presence in the Silver Mansion.