Page 79 of Werewolves and Witches AU

Someone calls my name.

“Master Milo Tobitt…” Sarah curtsies low and holds her skirt out wide. “You made it back.”

28

Chasing Geese

Milo

My smile is wide—the spell worked!

“It’s so good to see you again,” I tell her, and it’s the truth. “But I don’t know how long I have, and this time, it’s me who needs your help.”

The township is quiet, but still Sarah looks around before linking her arm through the crook of my elbow. In a low voice, she says, “This way, then.”

We walk the now familiar pathway through the long sedges and grasses toward the lake.

“I’ve found some people who are willing to help us,” I confirm. “Werewolves, actually.”

“Shhh,” she whispers, finger pressed against her lips. “The two-form are feared here. The stories of their savagery are told by firelight to scare men from entering the woods at night.”

“Oh.” I suck my bottom lip against my teeth. “Not these ones, though. They’re… my friends.”

Sarah tilts her head, her eyes widening as she adopts a quizzical expression. “Friends with the two-form? What a unique warlock you are, Milo.”

A smile takes over my face. Yes, I am. “They helped me identify who did this to you all.”

“Who?” Her whispered demand is hard.

“Janus. He’s a… god, I guess? Well, he isn’t in the timeline I come from—not anymore. But he was.”

“Janus?” She rolls the name around her mouth as if testing it out. “Yes, I know of a Janus.”

Her expression darkens, and she resumes our walk by tugging me along at a quicker pace. “The Elect hate him—refuse to use his name in connection to the First Month—and are rebelling against all that he symbolises.”

I nod as she talks. “Janus himself told me that he was betrayed by General Romulus, and that when he lost that support, others also turned against him.”

“General Romulus? As in the leader of your two-form friends?”

“Mhm, that’s part of the reason I came back, Sarah. Janus also folded his brother, Remus, away in time—like he’s done with you. There’s an enchantment that was made by an ancient witch to guard against Janus’s magic. It’s called the Luna del Lupo, have you heard of it?”

She hums while we walk, thinking, and after a long time she exhales. “I can’t say that I have. No. Sorry, Milo.”

My face falls. “I was hoping to use it to help you—to help them.” I chew the inside of my cheek to help bite back my disappointment. This was my last hope.

I gesture to our environment with a wave of my hand. “Janus wants to fold away the entire Romulan Bloodline.”

Willing the tears that burn to fade, I keep my eyes on the body of water ahead, but peripherally I detect how she steals glances at me as we near.

“I see.”

“What do you see?” I snipe, then wince. That was uncalled for. “Sorry.”

“You’re a smart and powerful practitioner, Milo, I’ve learned that about you. And if anyone can find this ancient enchantment, and extend it to protect an entire Bloodline, then it’s you.”

But I’ve looked everywhere and asked everyone. No one knows anything about it. Suddenly, I no longer feel quite so unique nor proud as I did just a minute ago.

Sarah squeezes my arm as we reach the lake. “But you should know that it’s likely, if this enchantment still exists and you use it to protect the two-form, that your very gallant and admirable wish for our township might not come to fruition.”