178: DARK MAGIC

DARK MAGIC

"There is a shard of magic stone there." Iris lowered her eyes, she stared at the exact spot she could feel the shard was at. She couldn't determine from what element the magic stone was. All she could sense was how ominous the feeling it gave off was.

"A shard of magic stone? Are you sure?" Will asked, but then he tapped on Iris' shoulder because she was focusing on Cane's shoulder. He repeated his question when he got her attention.

"Yes, I am sure. There is a shard of magic stone there, here." Iris pointed at the spot, exactly how she pinpointed the location of the magic stones when she was in the mines.

Will and Ethan had witnessed her strange, but useful ability. They didn't doubt her, but how could a shard of magic stone be found there?

"How can a shard of magic stone be there?" Ethan frowned. "Is that harmful?" Aside from mining the stones and knowing those precious gems could be used by healers and magic users, they literally didn't know anything about them.

As shifters, such information was of no use for them. 

It was Will who took the initiative to go and call Grace over, because he thought this was something that was related to Cane's sudden sickness. "I will go and get Grace." He rushed out of the room immediately and returned with the healer less than half an hour later.

Grace looked pale, as she asked Iris anxiously. "Are you sure it is a shard of magic stone?" Her eyes widened in fear.

"Yes," Iris replied, nodding her head to emphasize her answer.

Meanwhile, Grace immediately took a seat on the edge of the bed on Cane's left side and looked at him more carefully now, but she couldn't sense what Iris felt. She neither had Iris' ability, nor was she a magic user.

"Can you point it out for me?" Grace asked again, her face was full of concentration. She didn't doubt Iris when she said she sensed a magic stone, because she had heard how she found forty five magic stones in less than an hour and also the water magic stone that saved Ania's life during their journey back to the Howling Wolf pack.

"Here." Iris showed her the same spot that she had shown Ethan.

Grace checked the spot with so much concentration before she finally felt it. It took her more than ten minutes to feel the strange power there. Without Iris pointing it out for her, she would never be able to find it at all.

"This is not good," she said in a trembling voice, which alerted Will and Ethan.

"Why? What happened?"

"How can a shard of magic stone be buried in his flesh?"

Both of them asked simultaneously, but Iris paid close attention to Cane's complexion. She still heard the howling of the beast and this left her restless. The mate bond between them had started to grow, thus she could feel his pain through the bond.

"Having a shard of magic stone inside one's body is not a good sign," Grace said, her expression was beyond pale. "The magic stones can be used as media for dark magic."

"Dark magic is banned in this continent," Ethan interrupted.

"Banning something didn't mean it would completely disappear from a continent," Will said, which made sense.

"What now?" Ethan's eyes turned sharp. A myriad of thoughts flashed in his mind as to try and pinpoint who could be the person that had inflicted Cane with dark magic. It must be someone close to him. Based on Grace's explanation, this kind of magic needed a direct contact. Not many people had direct contact with Cane.

"We need to find the sorcerer or get a magic user strong enough to get rid of the dark magic."

"I will tell Jace about it." Ethan immediately rushed out of the room, but when he saw a guard outside, he gave him an order. "Call Aria, I want to see her in the Alpha's room now."

"But, the mistress went out of the pack," the young guard replied.

"Where did she go in the middle of the night?" Ethan didn't like the possibility.

========================== 

"There is no magic user in this part of the kingdom, as far as I know," Jace said after he sent people to find out the nearby magic users secretly and even sent a letter with the fastest hawk to their men in the Diandem Wolf pack, which was the southernmost pack. However, even if their men really could find a magic user there, it would take days for them to reach here.

The sun finally rose at the equator and the fire in the brazier and the fireplace had been put off, but there was no significant change in Cane. He was still unconscious while the howling that Iris heard only became more and more unbearably painful.

"Why don't we just take it out?" Iris suggested, she wanted the beast to stop being in pain. The mate bond that they shared made it hard for her to endure it, because she was in pain as well.

"What do you mean by taking it out? This is dark magic that we are talking about, you can't just touch it. People fear the black magic for a reason," Redmond chided Iris lightly at her suggestion.

He heard about what happened and came here because Iris was here.0

Yet, Iris actually pretended she didn't read what he said. "We can make an incision on his shoulder and I think I can take it out."

"Barehanded?" Redmond chimed in again. He could care less about Cane's condition, but as someone that had pledged his loyalty to Iris, he couldn't let her be reckless and put herself in danger. "Didn't you hear what I said?"

"You know, she can't," Will said in a matter of fact tone and shrugged his shoulders when Redmond glared at him. "If you don't like to be here, you can go, you know."

Redmond huffed. He didn't like to be here, but Iris was here and just now she suggested a ridiculous idea, thus how he could go?

"We can do that, right?" Iris looked at Grace.

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