4

MATICE

I hated Cassandra. I hated how she hung all over Oliver. I hated how everyone looked at her like she was perfect because she was the last of her kind. I hated how nasty she was to the younger girls. Why did she have to make them feel so low? She was the lowest of low. It was totally worth being dropped into the pit for two days. Watching her run from the dining room covered in ketchup. I had to let VIctoria know I had her back. I had always kept my distance. I didn't want Lucian to punish her for my bad behaviour. They like to break us that way. Hurt the ones he cared about. That is why I only got close to Oliver and Anton. They could handle their own. Victoria was sweet. Oliver told me how her Grandfather Thadeus abused her. He founded the school and dropped her here as soon as her guardian would let him. The oracle for this continent had a special connection to her. That was not often oracled bonded to wolves or witches for that matter, and Victoria was both. She didn't know this, yet she was too young emotionally and mentally to know her true potential. Part of me thinks that is why Cassandra picks on her. She knows she is more powerful than her, but she hasn't unlocked her true power yet.

I will have my first solo assignment today. It was more a test than anything. They made it clear if my target didn't end up dead or I didn't return. They would kill Oliver. I knew they wouldn't. They needed him. He was by far the smartest. They were already getting him to make chemical bombs and supernatural poisons. He was ever the dutiful soldier. He had no family. The academy had killed his whole family. This is all he'd ever known. I styled my hair in loose curls and put on some overall shorts. I had to play the innocent little girl routine for my target not to suspect anything. He was a high-ranking city official. His wife would take the b**e, taking me in a lost little girl who didn't remember her family. They had given me a doll to take with me. It felt so foreign-looking at this doll. I had never had a doll or a toy. They taught us how to throw blades, not braid hair. I needed to get in place the poison Oliver had made in his brandy and then shimmered away when no one was looking. The poison would look like a heart attack. It was simple but more of a test than a real assignment. To see if I could kill an innocent man.

Made a wonderful and sweet woman a widow. A woman nice enough to take in a sweet lost child. I reported to my task supervisor Valen, he was a decent enough guy. He didn't try and touch us like some of the other supervisors—sick twisted men. I had willingly let some of them have me to protect some of the younger girls. I had a switch I could flip my emotions on and off. Feel nothing, nothing could break me anymore. They had done that when they killed my sister. My sweet, obedient sister. She wasn't as strong as I was. They didn't realize killing my twin would transfer her power to me.

*FLASHBACK*

I held my sister Melody tightly as the footsteps stopped in front of our room door. I knew they were coming to punish me for using magic again. The door opened slowly, and it took a minute for Thadeus and Lucian to come in. Lucian had a cruel smile on his face, and Thadeus just kept his hands in his pockets.

"Who used the magic?" I gulped. If I admitted it, they would hurt Melody, but if I lied, what would they do?

"It was me," Melody said without hesitation. Thadeus looked shocked.

"Really, girl? Not Matice? I thought you were the good sister?"

"I am sorry I won't do it again. I will take my punishment." I don't know if the shock or the fear on my face gave us away, but Thadeus grabbed Melody by the hair and yanked her away from me.

"Please, no, it was me, it was me. Hurt me, punish me. Please don't hurt my sister!" I cried.

"Well, I have to punish both of you. One for lying, the other for magic." Lucian grabbed me, and Thadeus pulled Melody along by her hair. They put us in a stainless steel room. They used this room for sterilization and torture. We weren't of age yet to remove our sex organs, so torture it was. I prayed to whatever being there was to save us from whatever was about to happen. We were six years old. The only Martel twins ever born. It was unheard of that vampires and witches would reproduce. Usually, the baby dies. In this case, we were both left alive. Soon to be the Coven Co-Leaders. Our joint power was great than even the white witch. We didn't lose stamina the way witches do. We draw on the magic of our vampire genes. The one spell I knew I could use would be our only chance. I had to do it now and quickly. I whispered the words I had memorized from the spellbook in the library. The lights shattered. I told Melody to run. She was the good one. She needed to escape this place and run the coven. So many witches needed her kind, loving guidance. She shoved me out the door, her hands glowing, and it locked the three of them inside. I screamed for her trying to use all the magic I knew how to handle. I put my hands on the door, feeling their heat. I knew I could syphon the magic from the binding spells on the building. It would give away that I was a syphon, but I needed to save my sister who knows what they would do to her. I opened the door. Thadeus had her by the neck. Lucian was unconscious, and blood was gushing from his eye socket. His eye is gone.

"You think you can kill me? Do you think you are strong enough? You don't know who you mess with, girl!" He spat girl with so much hatred I did the only thing I could think of—the merging spell. I started chanting the spell that I was born to use when we became coven leaders. I knew it would weaken me, but I had to do it, give Melody a fighting chance to get away. Before I could finish, I watched him rip her heart from her chest. Her body goes limp, and a surge of power lept from my body, knocking Thadeus back. I ran to my sister, holding her dead body, crying, rocking her back and forth.

"Go into peace, Go into love, find our mother and live a torture-free life. I am so sorry I couldn't save you." I set her body on fire in that room so they could not use her for experiments. I stood over a shaking Thadeus.

"I may be just a girl, but you are the devil himself, and the devil never wins." I raised my arm to snap his neck, but I felt a needle prick my arm. Darkness... Utter darkness.

I was pulled from the memory when the door opened and Marcus with his chocolate-coloured chair and honey-coloured eyes walked in. He was handsome in a natural kind of way and not as terrible as the rest of the guards.

"You ready?"

"I was born ready."

"Remember don't let your emotions get the best of you. It's a job, when it's done you will have past your final test for solo assignments." I just nodded and followed him out, shutting off the last of my humanity if I ever had any.