Chapter 157
Chapter 157: Anna
Cassie.
When Ss told me he knew of a ce 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
ce 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 thend 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 Ss, 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.
Ss chuckled though as he nced 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 ce, and shaking my head,
he pushed open therge wooden and brass door before us. The creek of the wood echoed against the
silent air around Ss and me. I found myself stepping into a hall of darkness filled with cob- bled steps
and cobwebs.
Ss 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.
“Ss.” I called out into the darkness having lost him in my dy as I reached the bottom step. My eyes
strained to see through the ck void that filled my vision in front of me. “Ss?”
“Over here!” The dim lighting of a torching 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 ce again.
After a few minutes of walking, we came to another arch- way that opened up into more darkness. Ss
stopped in his tracks and turned to the right, letting the lit me 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 Ss‘ hand.
“Do you like it?” he asked, causing me to turn to him in awe.
“Like it? Ss, 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- ting what I had said. “It’s been forgotten,
honestly. Not to mention the school exined to the gods it wasn’t a safe ce 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 thatid nketed 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 Ss 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, Ss,” 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 ce well?”
Chuckling sounded from within the bookshelves as he popped his head back out and looked at me.
“You can say that.”
Content property of N?velDra/ma.Org.
“What do you mean?” I asked, opening my mouth only for him to quicklye striding toward me with
a brown book covered in emerald stones.
“I can exin 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 Ss showed me the images of Bjorn and many other people exining how the
twos‘ life
yed 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.
“Ss, 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,ughter 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, Ss. 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 Prisci, a woman I saw as a grandmother, telling me simr stories
about two people named Bjorn and Anna. “They were the reincarnated version of Geri and Freki?”
Ss’s eyes widened at my words as a smile spread across his face. “Yes… so you do know them?”
“No,” Iughed, 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.”
“Ss, 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.”
Ss looked at me for a long moment as he stood to his feet and handed over the book to which I took
and ced it into the ck 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.
Ss 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?