I sat down on the bed and collected my thoughts. Was this really my new home? Leaf had said that I was free to leave if I wanted to. Maybe I should just go back home? I had been crazy to follow a dream, however I could not shake Leaf’s words that echoed in my head. ‘The fates led you here for a reason.’ Maybe I should stick around and find out what that reason was.
I got up from the bed and walked out of the room to search for Leaf. I found her stirring the pot in the kitchen. When she saw me, she put down the wooden spoon and turned around to face me with a smile on her face.
“Let me show you the rest of the house.”
I followed her as she walked to the other side of the kitchen and opened a door leading to another room. When we entered the room, two girls looked up and gave us a smile, before going back to the books in front of them. There were several tables and chairs placed around the room.
“This is our dining room, but we also use it as a study in between the meals.”
I followed her out of the room and back into the hallway. We walked up the staircase.
“This is the library,” she said as she gestured towards a room on the left.
“I have tried to collect as many books as possible and written down as many parts of the spell as people can remember. The people that are in there at the moment are working on figuring out how to reverse the spell that took their magic.”
I peeked through the open door, I wanted to go inside the library and take a closer look, but Leaf had already moved on.
“This is my bedroom. If you ever need anything, please don’t hesitate to come and find me,” she said as she pointed to a closed door opposite to the library.
We walked back to the lower floor and continued out the front door.
When I looked around, I realised that there were people out here too. How had I not noticed them before?
Leaf walked towards the stable and I followed her questionably. Surely we weren’t going to walk into the stable?
“It’s sturdier than it looks,” she told me, before walking inside.
When we got inside, I was speechless. There was a long corridor branching off to several rooms. It looked clean and fresh, with no signed of the decay that was seen on the outside. As we walked down the corridor, I stopped and peeked inside a room where the door was left ajar. A guy in his late twenties was lying on a bed, he had several fluids attached to him. He didn’t look well. Leaf must have realised that I had stopped as she walked back up to me.
“Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do to help him,” she said, her voice defeated. “Without magic flowing around in the body, it slowly shuts down. Over the years, I have tried several things. I even attempted to infuse some of my own magic into them, but their body seemed to reject it. The only way I know how to stop the bodies from deteriorating is to somehow reverse the spell that Hecate did to take the magic away from you in the first place. So far I haven’t had any luck.”
It was heartbreaking hearing her talk about it. It almost sounded like she blamed herself. I looked up at her and she seemed lost in thoughts for a moment before she took a big breath. “I believe dinner should be ready. Let’s go back into the house and I’ll answer any questions you may have.”
I followed her back into the house, my head full of questions. After she had sorted us both out with a bowl of stew, she sat down at a table and gestured for me to still down too. Some other people joined us at the table. But they remained quiet, eating their food.
“How come you have magic when everyone else here doesn’t?” The words left my mouth before I knew what was happening and I placed my hand over my mouth, embarrassed with my lack of restraint. I held my breath, worried I had offended Leaf, but she just laughed at my reaction.
“No need to feel embarrassed. It’s a fair question to ask. It’s hard to explain, but I ended up here by accident. Hecate and the High priestess at the time, placed me in a ceremony, much like the one you went though, only I was much younger. It scared me, and I somehow transported myself here.”
She took a deep breath before she continued. “A lovely old man took me in and looked after me. I was lucky. The old man took great care of me and showed me how to survive. He wasn’t afraid of my powers and used to tell me stories about his friend Jax, who used to live here with him. I thought about going back to my parents, but every time I did, something inside me knew that if I went back, they would only try to take my magic again.”
Leaf’s laugh and honest answer made me feel safe asking more questions. “So how did you end up looking after everyone here?”
“After the old man passed away I was lost, but the goddess in my dreams told me to stay and not long after, others joined me here, however they had not been as lucky as me, and their magic had been taken from them.”
It was a lot to take in, I continued to eat my stew, while I thought over what Leaf had said.
“Why me?”
“I believe you know that better than me,” Leaf said thoughtfully. “I don’t know why people turn up here, I just know that it is my responsibility to look after the ones that do.”
We continued eating our food in silence. When we finished, Leaf excused herself.
“It is time for me to retire to my room, Astrid and Eva will look over you and answer any questions you may have about this place. For now, make yourself at home and I will see you in the morning.”
She got up from the table and left us alone.
“Did you have a dream too?,” Astrid asked excitingly.
“I think all of us did,” Eva replied calmly. “Common lets get you settled in. Did you bring anything with you?”
The question caught me off guard. I hadn’t brought anything with me, because I didn’t know I would need to. I hadn’t thought things through.
Eva must have realised. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you sorted.”
After a few days, I had settled into their routine. I sat with Leaf and listened to the stories of her life. It was crazy to think about everything she had to go through just because she was different. The stories that we had all heard about growing up were about her parents, and the demon was her father. The goddess in her dreams had told her that her father was still alive and hinted that he never would have abandoned her, had he known she existed. Which begged the question, why did he abandon her?One morning, while I was up at the library, Leaf stopped by. We talked about the lack of magic and what it had been doing to everyone here. She told me to follow her, and she led me into a small room at the end of the library. There was a chair and a desk in one corner, but what shocked me more was the wall to the side of the desk. It was covered with research about spells.
One day some strangers walked into our house and Leaf made us all disappear like she did every time someone stumbles upon us. Maybe it was some new recruits? I when back to the book I was reading. A moment later Leaf called me.“Sky, come over here dear. This is my father and daughter.”I was in shock as I continued walking towards them. Her father was the demon everyone at the village feared, the one that Hecate was supposed to keep us safe from. She had obviously failed.After hearing Leaf’s stories, I did not fear this demon as it was clear to me that he wasn’t out to kill us all. He would have already done so if he wanted to, especially because he was already here. He looked really young, so it was hard to picture him as Leaf’s father. She looked to be in her fifties, wh
To my gratification, they decided we were going to walk over there instead of teleporting.We walked through a forest. It took us at least 10 minutes before I could see something that could be a cabin. As we got closer, there were several wolves and humans around, though I was pretty sure that they were wolves too.A guy that had a sturdy build and ginger hair walked up to Jax.“I heard everything Abigail said to you. I may not like you, but you have my alliance and the pack. We need to come up with a plan to get Leah and Seth out of the house. Abigail is watching them like hawks now. Leah’s in no state of doing anything, so I couldn’t get her out and Seth didn’t want to leave her alone in the house, considering everything.”At first I
Jax shouted from downstairs, his voice laced with panic. Cassie answered back, but Jax must have not heard, as the panic in his voice became more evident with every shout. We quickly made our way downstairs. The moment Jax laid his eyes on Cassie, his body relaxed. He walked over to us and gave Cassie a hug.“Leah’s missing. I need to talk to Freya. I’ll get you to Mark and the wolves. He can fill you in on what’s happened.”I followed Cassie’s lead and took Jax’s hand. Preparing myself for the weird sensation that accompanied the teleportation. The thought of seeing Mark again got me excited, even though the circumstances could have been better.When we arrived in the woods outside the cabin, I walked inside, leaving Cassie alone with Jax to say goodbye. I felt silly for no
Voices woke me up from my sleep. It took me a while to realise that it was Jax’s voice.“Freya said to follow our hearts and use our connection to Leah,”“That doesn’t really make sense”. I could hear the confusion in Cassie’s voice, I didn’t completely understand it..Before I even registered what I was doing, I spoke up. “But you’re related.” I quickly put my hand over my mouth. Jax and Cassie looked over at me and it felt like I had joined a private conversation.Jax’s eyes met mine, “Does that make a difference?”His answer surprised me. He was supposed to be this really old demon, but most of the time he acted like he was the same age as
When we got outside, I hooked my arm in Mark’s as he led me in the opposite direction of Jax’s house. The Sun was high in the sky, and even though it was most definitely autumn here, it was a nice sunny day. I looked around the landscape. The trees looked slightly bare as they had started to lose all their leaves. The leaves laid scattered on the ground, creating a carpet of yellow, red and brown colours.Mark halted. There was a fork in the path we had been walking. He looked between the two paths, a smile tugging at his lips.“Come on, I want to show you something,” he said as he led me down one of the paths. We continued walking in silence for a while. My mind preoccupied with the beauty of the forest and what Mark was planning on showing me.“What’s your world like? Do you hav
We walked through the forest in an awkward silence. There were so many things to consider and digest. I knew I wanted to be with Mark, but after what he just told me, I didn’t know if it was possible. How could I commit to the mate bond, knowing that I have less than ten years to live if I didn’t get my magic back? I could not do that to Mark, I couldn’t bind myself to Mark until I had figured out how to get my magic back. Who knows what Abigail was capable of, especially as she worked under Hecate. I knew I was ready to die fighting for my magic, but I wasn’t willing to risk Mark’s life.After a while, small wooden houses appeared between the trees. I stopped and looked around. The houses blended in perfectly with the trees and it was hard to see them. Mark stopped and turned back towards me.“This is where the wolves
I woke up slightly when I heard the door open, my senses on high alert even though I knew nothing could get through my protective spells without my knowledge. The bed dipped down, and I got a whiff of Cassie’s shampoo. I lifted my arm up and waited for her to cuddle up against me.It felt like our relationship finally started to go the right way. Cassie has joined me in bed on several occasions and even though I didn’t want to rush her, I loved having her next to me in bed. For the most part it helped me sleep knowing that she was safe, right next to me.The early morning woke me up and slowly made my way out of the bed, careful not to wake Cassie up. I needed to clear my head and think about the next step to take. I opened the window and transformed into a bird.I flew over the forest, enjoying the fres