Page 61 of His Arranged Plus-Size Mate

She shook her head. “No, I feel something, Asher. I know that I’m still learning, but I feel a pull. I can’t go back.”

“Says the one who was just trying to run away a few moments ago. Which, trust me, we will be discussing.”

Pain flickered across her face for a moment, and I almost regretted the words. But it was the truth. If she was trying to leave, why stop? Why backpedal if you didn’t care? Because she did care.

“I’m trying to protect you,” she whispered. “From me.”

“I don’t need protecting. And certainly not from you.”

She frowned. “I don’t want to be the reason you lose everything you hold dear, Asher. I can’t. I won’t be that person.”

There was a snap to the left of us, and I pressed us flush against the tree. Her breath tickled against my neck as I held my breath. There were footsteps, and I couldn’t make out a figure, but I could hear they were heavy. There was more than one, a handful of them.

They spoke in a low tone. “Has anyone seen him? He should be back by now.”

I looked down at Hazel. I expected her to be afraid and to look pale, as I had seen her before. But she wasn’t. Her eyes were hard, and her lips were in a straight line, like she was ready to face whatever came at us.

She gave me a smirk, and I realized the one she had killed must be who they were talking about.

This woman said she didn’t want me to lose everything, but she had no idea she was my everything. Over the space of these few months, she had become my world, and the thought of losing her made me sick.

“We need to go,” I whispered.

She shook her head, refusing to budge. “No, we need to keep going forward. I feel it. There is something up there. You guys haven’t gotten this far before. We can’t waste this chance.”

I frowned at her. “What exactly are you trying to prove here? If we go into their base, Hazel. We will not come out.”

“Trust me.” Her fingers wrapped around mine. Her face softened. “Please? I know that we can do this.”

I wanted to say no because her idea was insane. We couldn’t go into their space without backup. But she didn’t seem like she was going to go back unless we did.

I held her hand, forcing her to look at me. “Fine. But if I feel it’s going south. We are leaving. You understand? Do not fight me on this. I am not going to let you get yourself killed because of some pull. I don’t care how important you feel it is. You are more important than anything we find.”

She nodded in agreement.

We followed the footsteps until we arrived at the open space. You could feel the shift in the air, and you knew that this was their primary location. The space smelled of dark magic, and the air felt dense. What scared me was how close it was to our town.

Hazel pointed toward a rocky area where even I could feel a pull. “I feel it over there.” We moved quietly together, watching every step that we made. We walked low, trying to stay hidden as we moved. We stayed along the tree line, not going into the open space. Once in the rocky area, a sparkling gem sat half-buried in the ground.

“What the hell is that?”

Chapter 22 - Hazel

I stared at the gem. It was a deep red with a layer of black underneath it. You could see swirling in it, and my heart beat faster as I stared at it. I could feel the pull. A part of me wanted to protect it.

“Hazel, what the hell is that?”

“I’ve heard about these. Chelsey said there is a way for a witch to put a spell, magic, or a barrier into an object. I’ve never seen someone use a gem, though.” I’d read how some witches did this to protect their homes. Others put magic on jewelry to protect family members. It was an easy spell, but I could feel that this gem wasn’t a simple one. No, this had to be something more powerful.

“Hazel, we need to leave now.” His fingers tightened on my hand, tugging at it. But I couldn’t just leave this here. It could be the answer to everything. I reached for the gem.

“What are you doing?”

When an object was destroyed, it lost its powers. It was the main reason our mother didn’t do this. She had thought about us wearing lockets to lock our powers away, but she knew they could be removed.

They put this gem underneath all of these rocks to protect it. All we needed to do was destroy it, and I’m sure whatever hold it has around this land, whatever powers it was giving the hybrids would end.

I could hear footsteps coming back, and we didn’t have long before we would be found. My heart was racing as I reached down, my fingers wrapping around the gem. I could feel it pulse, like it was a beating heart.