Adrianna calmed down her temper. She turned her back to him and walked to the garden outside. "What's the news?" she asked while walking.

"First you tell me what is the state of affairs?" countered Rhys. "I hope you don't backtrack," he said with sarcasm.

​​

Adrianna stopped and gazed at him furiously. "It depends whether you are able to survive or not."

"I have come to ask for an asylum in your kingdom," stated Rhys.

"What?" Adrianna was bereft.

"Yes, I need refuge. You heard that correctly."

Shocked at the gut-less serpent in front of her, she couldn't think for a while. This shape shifter was seeking asylum without even fighting his battle. He wanted her to fight his battle and then make him wear the crown.

"Your demand is ridiculous," she said, narrowing her eyes.

"Why?" he asked with a frown. "I will give you all the information about our army. I don't want to return back to them unless this mess is sorted."

This man added to Adrianna's mounting frustrations. She stared at him blankly for a few seconds and then said very quietly, "Fight for the crown you are so desperately seeking. It is not a candy that I will give you. Show me that you deserve it."

"This is a breach of the agreement between us," he said in a loud voice.

"No, it isn't! The agreement was to put you on the throne and not to give you refuge in my kingdom," she pointed a finger at him. "So you better fight for it."

"This is not acceptable. You are going back on your words," grumbled Rhys. He didn't want to be a part of a battle that was useless.

"You must go and fight along with your people to show them that you are the king they should root for," she tried to explain to him.

But Rhys was blind in the power he was about to achieve. "No!" he shouted back at her. "You are obligated to give me that throne. After all it is your kingdom that is under threat from ours."

Adrianna clenched her jaw in anger. "Enough!" she shouted. "I respect those who fight for themselves and not use deceitful ways to go to the top." She snapped her fingers without waiting for his answer and Rhys was back in the cave he was found by Haldir.

"But what about the information he was supposed to give?" asked Haldir with astonishment.

"I had visited his cell while talking to him," she said coldly.

---

When Ziu had come out of the lake that afternoon, it was very silent, in fact too silent. If there were spies, how come he couldn't detect them ever? So this time when he went to the Human Realm, he asked his father to conduct a thorough search in the forest—comb it in order to find any spy. Since they were on the last stages just before the war, he didn't want any spy to report back to the enemy about him. What actually surprised him that all the while he was traversing, no one reported any activity even once.

His father complied with his orders and sent five serpents to scan the periphery of the lake. He ordered them to kill anyone they met. The serpents slithered out and shape shifted into humans. They split into five different directions and entered the forest. The darkness was drawing closer and they had to find the spies.

It was more than an hour but none of them spotted any activity. This was actually not a good sign. Four of the serpents decided to return back to the waters, while the fifth planned on staying and cruising through the forest more. As he stepped deeper inside, the darkness increased. The trees were so densely packed that even though it was dusk, the thick maze of the woodland pressed him. His skin craved for water. He decided to return to the lake when in the distance he heard a soft growl. Werewolves! He knew they were the spies.

He squinted to see the path in front of him. He advanced further inside. The growl came again as if to warn him not to get any closer. He cleared the branches that fell in front of him and trudged further towards the source of the sound. Soon, he was standing in front of huge animals that walked out of the darkness in front of him.

Immediately he started shape shifting. But the wolves were quicker and they pounced on him. They were four in number. Two of them buried their fangs into his neck, which arrested his motion.

"Who are you?" he asked, trying to swat them off with his tail.

"I am Alex," replied the largest wolf amongst them and then he pounced on his target.

"I will kill you all," hissed the serpent lashing its tongue out.

Alex clawed him on the belly creating deep gashes. The serpent made a shrill sound.

"How many of you are there in the lake?" asked Alex.

"Only me," came the reply and a sickening hiss.

Soon the serpent was shredded into pieces.

Alex was the same wolf in whose cave small Adrianna was found when Kayla abandoned her and was rescued by Pierre.

It was Alex's pack that was spying. They hadn't been able to track anyone all the days that they had scrounged the forest near the lake. This was the first time. He looked at his pack's werewolves and said, "You all go and inform Dmitri about the serpents in the lake. Meanwhile I will go and alert our pack."

The three wolves growled in agreement and turned to leave. The darkness had grown further. Alex ran as fast as he could to alert his pack. They were the ones in the deep forest and he regretted that.

The three wolves hadn't gone even a mile when four serpents attacked them. The attack was so lethal that all three of them died within ten minutes. The serpents slithered back to the lake quietly.

The night had fallen and the moon was shining in full over the lake. It was time. Ziu's father gave orders to his army, "Attack!"

The first attack was to take place on the werewolves.