"Are we ready to go now?" Kace tossed the wrapper of the sandwich to the dustbin and stood up.
At this time, Lana had finished her own sandwich and was drinking a glass of water unhurriedly, she peeked at Kace and took a big gulp.
"Yeah," she said, putting down the glass and grabbed her backpack.
Both of them went to the reception desk for returning the key, along the way there, many people, which Kace knew as witches and vampires, turned their head and let out a mall grunt through their sharp teeth whenever Kace ran into them.
They knew what Kace and Lana were, and though Lana's scent slightly different from any other werewolf, but the fact she wasn't from this realm couldn't be hid.
Mostly Kace would ignore them or return their glare if he started to feel uncomfortably from the intensity.
When they reached the reception desk, Lana gave the key room to the young man from last night as she smiled a little.
"You shouldn't be here," the young man said as he retrieved the key from Lana. "Both of you shouldn't be here when the festival happens."
"Thanks for your advice," Lana mumbled as she walked away from the reception desk toward the entrance of the inn.
Thought the inn was quite lively in the morning, but the street was still gloomy even when the ray of the sun illuminated every dark corner of this town.
The feeling of dampness hung in the air as they walked along the nearly empty street. Maybe the day was too early for people to go out.
But, this street didn't give any comfort for both of them to walk around recklessly, somehow, either Kace or Lana, both of them felt as if there was someone else who kept their eyes on them.
Though when they turned around and couldn't find anything at all.
It took them another four hour before they reached to different parts of this mysterious northern coven realm.
This realm was not like other dimension that Kace been before, thought there was some part where Kace found it was quite normal, but the rest of it was akin to a ghost town with barely people that they could see.
"Where are we heading?" Kace glanced at his surroundings, this place was quite creepy as Lana led them to the narrow alley where there was less people there.
"The house of the candlemaiden," Lana answered.
They were walking under the shadow of the building flanked them from both side.
"She has a house in this town?" Kace asked incredulously and Lana threw him a questioning look. "No, I thought this candlemaiden person would live in forest or mountain since she sounds like a holly person."
Kace's lack of imagination made Lana rolled her eyes as she thought this lycan was being ridiculous.
"Of course she has a house, she is a resident of this town." Lana then stopped in front of a shop with the sign next to its door. It read:
Christal.
Candlemaiden.
Kace raised his brows upon reading the sign. "That's it?" he would have never thought that the house of the candlemaiden would be so blunt like this.
This person called candlemaiden was living in a shop and put their name on the sign, as if announced what they were.
This kind of place reminded Kace of the place of the fortune teller. Was the candlemaiden also same like a fortune teller too?
Kace was not sure with the answer neither he wanted to know.
Lana walked closer to the shop's terrace with Kace followed behind her, she looked through the windows. It didn't seem like anyone was in.
No lights were on inside. Lana then tried the handle, but the door wouldn't move.
"Do you want to barge into this shop?" Kace asked her, thinking this girl was being ridiculous to actually expect the door wouldn't be locked.
"Do you have any idea?" Lana crossed her arms in front of her chest, trying to look calm with her heart beating so fast. She just became awkward around him.
Sometime, when you felt very nervous, you would end up do something out of ordinary and dump, just like what Lana did just now.
"Why not use a more polite way?" Kace stood in front of the door and rapped his knuckles against it sharply.
There were a few sounds of movement before the door opened. "Who's there?" a voice, as sweet as nectar sounded from inside.
After that, a beautiful young girl with black hair opened the door, she was almost as young as Hope with the same figure like his little mate.
"Who are… you?" she didn't open the door widely for Kace and Lana to go through, but just enough for the two to see her figure behind slightly opened door.
Lana stepped forward and stood in front of Kace, so she could face the young girl in front of her. "We are looking for the candlemaiden," she said firmly.
The girl didn't move a little bit, but her slightly frown expression told them that she didn't like their visit.
"The candlemaiden will not see people from outside of our community,��� she said in low and soft voice, but Kace could feel there was hesitation in the way she talked. "Please leave."
And everything happened way too fast; the girl was about to close the door, Lana realized what she was going to do and held the door with her bare hand, trying to stop the girl from shutting the door right before their face.
"No, stop! Argh!" Lana let out a grunt when her hand was being squeezed against the door and its frame.
Kace didn't have time to think about what he was doing when he pushed the door opened, it flew from its hinges and made the young girl flung a few meter away, her body skidded on the floor.
The commotion was very loud and this attracted another person inside this shop attention.