By Chance

“ok so, what now?” I asked as we had successfully made our way out of the troll city, not entirely. just far enough where we wouldn’t be noticed.

“let’s see what the map has got us,” Magnus said signaling Hunter to take out the map and look through it

“right” he exclaimed and put his heavy bag on the ground and pulled the container which held the map, as he looked at it, Hunter’s expression changed.

“what is it?” Magnus asked standing beside Hunter, all of us just looked at one another in confusion.

“guys... I think we have a problem” he said scared and confused

“what is it now?” Hayden asked in a bored tone, getting nudged by his twin later

“the map” he sighed “it’s empty”

all of us stood there stupefied “stop joking around Hunter” Britney glared at him irritated

“I’m serious guys, the rest of the map just vanished. just a bunch of Latin words” he groaned tiredly, Magnus’s head snapped towards Hunter, Hunter gave him a scared look “what?”

“what do the words say? can you read it?” he asked his faced looked like he had a crazy idea

“I can’t read Latin” he gave Magnus a duh look

we just stood there trying to make sense out of it

suddenly Hunter’s face glowed, it was a sign that he was having some crazy ideas, I narrowed my eyes at him “what ?”

he swallowed and glanced at all of us “I have an idea, but it’s a crazy one” he said Logan looked him and snorted

“you already tried tracing it on a paper, it didn’t work remember ?” he mocked Hunter but he shut up, with one look from Magnus

“what do you have in mind?” Magnus asked looking intrigued

“ok, I’m able to read the map because I’m the only one who can see it, correct?” he asked

“unfortunately ” Hayden mumbled again and his twin gave him a shut-the-hell-up look

ignoring him “how about I explain the words and someone among us translate it,” he said, Magnus, Hayden, Kayden, and Christian thought over it

“I know a lot of languages, it might work,” Kayden said and Magnus nodded getting along with the idea

Hunter inhaled deeply, looking at the map carefully, he scrunched his face in concentration “σώσει τους αθώους και να σκοτώσει το θηρίο”

all the boys who claimed to know the meaning of the words were struggling to come up with an answer to the words Hunter just explained

“Save the innocent, Kill the beast”

all of our attention snapped to Britney, what?

“what?, I took Latin as an external subject” she said shrugging, all of us let out a laugh

“so, now we know the meaning of the words from the map, but what does it exactly mean?” Christian asked confused

Magnus sighed “the Queen was a tricky person ” he sat on a fallen log “I knew it wouldn’t be that easy to get to Prince Nicolas, there had to be some tricks” he frowned looking at the hard ground

“but the question here is, who is it that needs saving? and who needs to be killed?“Logan asked as we all sat on different logs

Magnus shrugged and sighed defeated

I suddenly had a thought, we were not using the third key. I took out the compass from my pocket and for the first time the needle did not point at Christian, it was pointing north, which was straight in front of us

“I think I may have an idea” I concluded making them shift their attention towards the compass that was in my hand

“finally a good way to put yourself to a better use” Hayden said earning a warning growl from Christian, he mocked surrender “ok, lover boy I won’t make fun of your boyfriend ” he said suggestively making my face heat up in embarrassment

“he is not my boyfriend ” I whispered, but unfortunately I was surrounded by supernatural beings. which meant they heard

“I’m not?” Christian asked almost looking hurt, I swallowed the lump in my throat and avoided eye contact

“you never asked ” I said slowly making him frown and then chuckle

“ok, stop both of you” Hunter said annoyed “we have someone to save and someone to kill, so keep the bedroom conversation in the bedroom”

Hayden whined childishly who seemed to be enjoying our bickering

“he is right, let’s focus why we are here first” Magnus convinced and all of us nodded affirmative

two hours later we found ourselves in some kind of abundant place, there were trolls who looked a lot like guards

all of us hid behind the bushes, trying to make the least possible sound “so, what now? we can’t just go barging in there without any knowledge about what’s inside ” Hunter said panicked, his eyes the movements of the huge trolls, he could not conceal the fear on his face.

“don’t you have any friends in the troll city? that might get us some Intel about this place?“I asked watching the compass which was flickering

“I know someone, but she is a little crazy” Magnus murmured under his breath

“any kind of help will do, Magnus,” I said giving him a pleading look, he sighed rolling his eyes

“fine let’s find Penelope ”

“you fucking little shit” thud. there was the sound of something breaking “how dare of you to show me your face again” thud. another thing is broken

“this has been happening for a while now” Hayden complained leaning on the wall of a hut, where Magnus said we could find the person he knew. and by the sound of it, she is not a fan.

“let’s just sit down and talk about it ok,” Magnus said in a trying to calm her down “no, no put that knife down”

sighing all of us went inside the hut at once, the woman who was throwing the things at Magnus was a nice looking lady, nothing about her screamed troll. she is an Afro-American woman, curly hair, dark eyes, snaring face

“who are these people?” she asked pointing the knife at Magnus

he sighed in defeat “they are my students ”

“well take them and get the hell out of my house” she yelled throwing the knife in our direction. Kayden held the knife in his hand and gave her a poker face

“we just need your help, then all of us will be out of your hair,” I said, my voice seemed to snap her out because next moment she eyes widened and she paled

“what are you doing now Magnus? bringing the cursed into my house, what were you thinking?” she scolded pulling her hair in frustration “do you even realize what you have done? if others found out about the keys are in your possession they will kill you along with the keys.” she kept pacing in her living room

“I know, but I need to get to him before someone else does” Magnus explained, she just kept shaking her head

“if you have everything, why are you still here?” she asked finally calming down a bit

“well, there are loopholes,” Magnus said sitting down on a chair

she snorted “of course there are, your ancestors are cleaver ”

“so would you help us?” I asked politely

she sighed “if you promise to get out of my hair after that”

“deal” I smiled a full blown smile

for the first time she smiled “let’s get to work then”