Chapter 503 - DEAD SOULS

"Fireflies…?" Ethan said it in confusion as he bit a straw from his juice.

The four of them, once again, end up in the canteen when lunch break and were sitting on their usual seat.

While beside Ethan, Ian yawned widely and rested his head on the table, using his arms as a pillow with his eyes slightly closed.

Hope felt a little bit guilty because of the commotion that she had caused this early morning. That stupid nightmare had woken up the whole house and made Sterling became a full version of overprotective the head of family.

Sterling actually turned into his beast and scoured the area near the house, despite Hope had told him it was only a bad dream, the terrible one.

"There is this ancient story," Ethan continued to speak when Rossie comeback with a tray full of her lunch. "This telling about fireflies."

"Were you reading a weird book again?" Rossie sat down next to Ethan and nudged Ian head so he could wake up and ate his lunch.

��This is knowledge about our kind, you should read it sometime," Ethan retorted. "What do you mean weird book." He knocked his sister head lightly and this reminded Hope of Kace, the way he always joked around with her and treated her the way Hope had never been treated before.

The feeling that Hope would only get from him.

"So, what this about with the fireflies." Hope just told the sibling about the detail of her nightmare while Sterling and Sophia only knew that she had a very bad dream.

It was awkward to tell them that she was dreaming about Kace, for some reason, Hope felt embarrassed. She felt like a love- sick girl, who couldn't bear to part with her boyfriend.

"Firefly is a symbol of spirit." Ethan told them, trying to remember an ancient story that he had read before.

"What do you mean with spirit? There are a lot of thing about spirit." Ian chimed in as he gobbled up his lunch sleepily and Rossie could only furrow her eyebrow in disagreement.

���Firefly is a symbol of the soul of the dead," Ethan explained. "In some folklore they believed if someone dies their souls will turn into fireflies."

"Then…" Ian drawled. "What do you mean with your theory? Do you want to say Hope was in cemetery when she was dreaming about Kace?"

Ethan frowned. "No, that is not what I meant. The main focus here is the fact Kace's beast turned into fireflies and faded away."

"What? Do you want to say that Kace's spirit is dead?" Ian's jaw dropped as he stared at his twins with wide eyes.

Sometime Hope forgot if they were twins as they had very different personalities.

However, there was another important matter which caught Hope's attention. Maybe Ian just mentioned it casually, but what if it was true?

Hope remembered what Lana had told her, she said Kace's spirit was wounded too. Did that mean Kace was…

She shook her head, didn't want to think something bad about him. She was afraid it would jinx him and Lana.

Kace would come back, that was what he had promised her and Lana was with him. Both of them would be fine.

After all, it was just a dream. A dream, which felt almost very real.

Yet, Hope couldn't concentrate with the rest of their conversation as her mind lingered around her terrible nightmare last night

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Some malnourished kids run around dusty street and disappear into a hut. Beneath, it was a massive sea of rocks and gravel instead of smooth ground. This place was almost like a dessert.

"Are you sure this is the entrance?" Kace furrowed his eyebrows when he saw high wall overgrown with tall grass near the horizon, it meant, whatever place that they were heading now was still so faraway than Kace expected.

"Yes," Lana nodded curtly, her eyes didn't wander around to see the poor environment surrounded her while Kace couldn't help, but grimace every time there was a kid, who stared at him with their pleading gaze as if they needed his help.

"These kids…" Kace stole another glance at the kids, who was standing not too far from him.

"Don't look at them and more importantly, don't talk to them." Lana warned Kace again. Her expression was devoid from any emotions.

The further they walked, the more people they met.

Kace and Lana passed a circle of people smoking something out of a pipe, their eyes gazed to nothingness, as though if there was mayhem right before their eyes, they would only resume what they were doing right now, without even care to give their surrounding a glance.

"What is this place?" Kace couldn't help his curiosity as he narrowed his eyes at the people there.

Despite the fact that they went to this realm through a pines forest, the world behind those green habitation was this almost dying place.

"The border between two worlds," Lana answered Kace curiosity.

This was the first time for this lycan to cross the border and everything here was something that he had never seen or expected.

"It is common here to leave those people starved like that?" Kace had seen the aftermath of war and this kind of sight wasn't something that he missed to see in his entire eternity ever again.

"The witches and vampires here don't think them as people," Lana glanced briefly at Kace before they continued to walk toward the high wall. "These people here are their guinea pig."

Kace whipped his head toward Lana. He didn't say anything, but his eyes conveyed his disgust to the idea.

Well, he wouldn't feel this way centuries ago, the days before they were cursed or the war with the devils.

However, their casual discussion didn't last for long time when a man stood tall a few meter away from Lana and Kace, yet all of sudden he hunched over on all fours.