Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Bri

The cold water bit at my flushed skin and the motion of the soap bar gliding over my flesh was robotic as I steeled myself for another day, another game to play with the North American Witches at my court. The first days of my rule had been ruled as a tyrant, in my grief I lost the image of my father’s dream. After a week we had located Beckham’s sister and I walked into that room with a flame of rage.

When I saw her, the prone figure was seemingly lifeless on the bed. Machines and talismans and etchings of magic surrounded her thin form. She was young, like me her light brown skin suggested she wasn’t Beckham’s full-blooded sister. Her caretaker a Creole witch, had taken good care of her. Her hair was braided carefully and laid attentively over her shoulder. Studying the inscriptions on the floor I gingerly approached her and it was then my rage shifted down to a simmering boil. The heart monitor blipped in steady time until my foot hit the sigil. It spiked suddenly and eyes fluttered open. I raised my hands as her throat constricted around the tube which I assumed granted her air, fear, and confusion at the disorientation of being forced into the world of the living filled her weak gaze.

“Easy there,” I said, glancing back to Zoey and Andrew at the threshold who surveyed the scene in the small Creole cottage as if it were something out of this world. “My name is Brianna Le Blanc, I have come to talk with you,” the girl's eyes widened in surprise. “I see you cannot speak but my gift will allow us to speak within your mind, I will not enter your space under false pretense, however. Your brother has committed multiple acts against me, crimes the council would have chosen to punish him by death for. However, I took matters into my own hands and became his judge and executioner. His soul now exists in a place worse than hell. His only regret was not being able to use me to save you. I am here to judge you and to decide if I can if you are worthy of being saved.” I laid it all out on the table.

“Do I have your permission to converse with you in your mind space, I promise to tell you exactly what Beckham did and what I endured as he stood silent ready to serve my oppressors to save you,” she was still a moment before she nodded.

Where my mind was now wild swamps and dilapidated buildings hers was a well-manicured garden with a plantation estate, she appeared to me in a simple yellow dress that was dated. She stood her coiled hair free and natural as it rested on her shoulders.

“What did my brother do?” she demanded before glancing me over, obviously sensing my power and stepping back. “He signed a contract to steal away my life, my soul, and my body on this plane, he murdered my familiar, and he witnessed the cruelty I was subjected to and remained silent. He handed Draven the cane he used to destroy my back. All to save you. He brought dark magic to my family's territory and hired an Ougan who defiled the dead to build his golems to use against me.”

“My brother was a fool,” she said, shaking her head. “When I got sick and our mother died he took me in. I was 12. He didn’t have the best upbringing, his father stole him away when he was 2, Beck didn’t talk much about it but I suppose it twisted him into the man you knew, the man I knew doted on me and when I got sicker he told me I was the only light in his world and he would find a way to save me. He told me once about you, that you would be the key to saving me when you were at your full strength. I believed him, I thought you knew, I thought you chose to save me. I begged him often to let me die, let me be free of my misery but he promised me you would be my savior. I didn’t realize how morphed he had become in his venture to fix me. I suppose it’s unfortunate then, he could have been a good man. He let his brokenness fester and latch onto me. I see it for what it is now. He was sick himself, saving me gave him a morbid sense of purpose, and he went too far.”

“I’m no healer …” my voice trailed off realizing I didn’t know her name trying to tell her I may not be able to be her savior.

“Annette,” she answered simply. “I am sorry for the torment you endured from my brother, may I be placed with him?”

“You are innocent, you don’t belong where I sent him and I have no intention of going there for a long time if ever,” I found myself saying, somewhere between the door and her mind I had found the warmth in my heart again, it was but an ember but the cold rage yielded. 

“I don’t care High Priestess, he's the only one who ever cared besides my mother, Gods rest her soul.”

“You do not wish to return to her?”

“No,” she has generations to keep her company.

“I cannot promise when you will go there only one person can take you there and I don’t plan to see him for some time.”

“You act as though it will never happen. Are you too much a coward to grant my last wish,” I was a coward.

“Time doesn't matter anymore for me Brianna Le Blanc,” 

“So you don’t wish to live, once you go there, you will never return to this plane.”

“No, living within this body is like purgatory itself. I will never be as I once was, as twisted as my brother may be, I love him, his love however deranged was true, I won’t leave him alone.” I nodded to her. I didn’t know the depths of their twisted story but I agreed, deciding hopefully one day I could go home. 

“Until I can ferry you to the clutches of The Beast who can place you with him I will carry you with me. You will not be alone either. I promised her. 

“Thank you,” she said, bowing her head.

The soul of that girl now rested in the crystal on the bracelet of my right hand. Tears had fallen that day pulling innocence from this world had changed me. The weight of the bracelet was a reminder I needed to be more mindful of my judgments, his reasons did not excuse Beckham’s actions but had he asked me one person to another I would have aided him. That was the leader I wanted to be. One who birthed light into this world, not the darkness consuming me in grief. The balancing act would prove taxing in the coming months.