The Aftermath

Flashback 

Dew's POV 

“Oh dear goddess,” I groaned, my heart pounding against my chest threatening to break my rib cage. I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen as the grief tore me up from inside. I'd already lost Becca and now her daughter? No. I couldn't let this happen. I had done the spell exactly the way it was supposed to be done. Exactly how my brother had taught me. What did I do wrong?

My eyes strayed to the orb that lay on the floor right in the middle of the circle. Slowly, I fell on my knees, my body shuddering. 

I picked up the broken pieces that had been the orb. The crack sound that had pierced through the room as the blinding light went off was the breaking sound of the crystal ball. This rare crystal ball that I had so painstakingly preserved for this moment. 

Kneeling down there in the midst of all the debris in the middle of a white circle, I looked like a young, dejected, heartbroken, young female whose wolf had failed to emerge on a full moon night. 

My heart sank as the pieces grazed the palms of my hands. I clenched my fists tightly around the shattered glass, forcing the sharp edges into my bare palms. I watched as the blood dripped down the sides of my folded palms hoping that this physical pain would take away the internal one I was feeling.

“Fuck!” my voice echoed in the basement as I yelled, mad at myself for not being careful enough but more mad at the Goddess for letting such a thing happen. 

I didn't care if anyone heard me now. 

Jenine was too trusting and naive and no doubt would look an easy prey to rogue wolves. 

A jolt of terror hit me as I realized that I had put Jenine in danger through a careless mistake on my own part. 

Adrenaline kicked in making me scramble to my feet hurriedly, my shoes scattering the pieces of glasses that had been the orb. 

My eyes stung as I grabbed my bag swirling round the room and making for the exit. My feet thudded the boards as I ran up the wooden stairs, the urgency pushing my body forward. 

At this point I didn't care about being discreet anymore. I couldn't give a flying fuck what happened now! The only thing that mattered right now was making sure Jenine was safe. Either I crossed over to Lupestone this night or I brought her back here.

The moon still beamed down as I hurried out of the house making my way back through the same path I had led Jenine through. My wolf purred restlessly as the light from the moon rested on my body. Poor Jade. It's been months since I let her out. The last time I had let her out, a wolf sighting had been reported the next day on the news causing a not-so-little disturbance in the local area.

The sweat trickled down my forehead and into my eyes as I bolted down the streets and into my apartment. Goddess knows I didn't care if I woke the neighbors. Even as I raced down the alley, my heart pounded hard inside my chest. A faint flutter of what could have been behind my not crossing the portal snuck its way into my mind.

“Can it be…” I muttered breathlessly. My trembling fingers struggled to insert the key into the keyhole. 

No it couldn't be. I've had a very long night and it was definitely messing with my head. I hissed as the key failed to find the keyhole. I grunted as my wolf jacked the doorknob off the door impatiently. I pushed the thought of having to bring someone to fix it the next day out of my mind. It wouldn't be necessary I hoped. 

The lid of the locker creaked as I pushed it open—the locker where I had hidden the crystal ball. The same locker where I had kept all the items I had gotten from the sorcery academy and the ones my brother deemed necessary that I took with me. 

“Splendid,” I muttered as I dug out the old worn out spell book. Thinking back now, I couldn't seem to remember any good reason for not taking it with me earlier. 

The sweat beads hung onto my brows threatening to douse the pages of the book as I flipped through it looking for the one thing that mattered.

“I did the spell exactly how it's meant to be done,” my lips quivered as I mumbled. My fingers traced the words on the page. My entire body trembled as I breathed out heavily. I had to try again.

The cool night air brushed against my face sending spasms of shivers down my spine as I moved towards the old house again, slithering through the shrubbery. The moon peeped out from behind the clouds, its dim rays sneaking through the curtain of weightless mass. 

Sprinting through the open field towards the old house as fast as my legs could carry me, I knew I looked so daring and out of place—a solo lady racing in the middle of the night towards a house that screamed “Haunted Halloween.” Who would have thought?

I barged into the house through the door with such force that the door really did fall off its hinges now. Guess that hurricane came sooner than expected. 

The moon hidden behind the clouds now did nothing to light my path as she had done earlier tonight. I scented my way down the stairs into the basement trusting my instincts. 

Discretion was the last thing on my mind. The little of it that I had had disappeared with Jenine.

I panted my way down the stairs into the basement. 

“Cast a reassembling spell to fix the orb, open the portal and get to Jenine,” I muttered breathlessly to calm myself as I stepped through the door.

“Cast a reassembling spell, open the portal and…” the words stuck in my throat. 

I pinched myself as I looked over the room. 

The room had been cleared clean! The big table was gone. The papers that had flown in the wind when the portal appeared were gone. The circle I had drawn with the white chalk was gone and worst of all, the broken pieces of the crystal ball were gone!

My hands groped for the walls to steady myself as my knees wobbled under me. 

Someone definitely did this. Someone who didn't want me in Lupestone. Someone who wanted Jenine alone in Lupestone. Someone who had the power to travel between realms; who was willing to do whatever it took—to come here to the human world to ruin my chances—to make sure I never came to Lupestone. A sorcerer. Or sorceress? 

My heart skipped as the word “sorceress” filtered into my mind. If who I had in mind was behind this—responsible for taking Jenine away from me; responsible for blocking me from crossing over to Lupestone—Jenine was definitely in trouble. Big trouble.

My mouth felt dry when I tried to swallow as my fears were confirmed. 

I saw it right there hanging on the wall facing me disguised in a picture frame. It had been there the whole time even when Jenine and I walked in the first time, its eyes mocking me. 

And I hadn't seen it.

“Goddess keep you safe, Jenine,” I whispered, not knowing what else to do as I stared at the sigil on the wall. 

“Well played,” I spat out, “well played.” 

My feet shuffled as I walked towards the wall, the sigil staring at me—and I could swear I saw it blink. 

With wide, triumphant eyes. 

The white, blue-eyed serpent that was the emblem of only one person that ever lived, the most sinister and shrewd of all that ever practiced sorcery, whose beauty concealed the evil that hid beneath the shadow of her very existence—the witch Orchid.