Chapter 2: Gianna

After another two hours of listening to Keres talk about himself and how great his plans are, the meeting was finally over. Everyone knew to remain seated until Keres had left. Once he was gone, everyone relaxed a little and they slowly began to rise and make their way out of the conference room. 

Gianna quickly got up with the others and offered a polite smile and nod as a form of goodby at the three advisors that glanced her way. She no longer tried to speak to anyone in the room once Keres was gone. The others had made it very obvious that none of them could or would talk to her. 

She had made that mistake just once a few weeks ago. Gianna had tried to carefully speak to a few advisors, council members, and generals that had once been very close to her parents. She had wanted to see why they were suddenly supporting all of the crazy proposals that Keres was issuing. The nice ones were the ones that blatantly told Gianna that they would not talk to her or completely avoided her attempts at conversation and quickly hurried away. 

Gianna could remember how confused and hurt she was by their behavior, but that was nothing compared to the one or ones that were willing to betray her. Gianna did not know who, but at least one of the three that had been willing to speak to her a little had told Keres what she had asked. 

It had been a nasty scene when Gianna had returned to hers and her sister’s rooms to find Keres sitting on the sofa with Sophia in his lap. As soon as she saw Keres holding her baby sister Gianna’s heart had stopped. Gianna remembered the following conversation vividly. 

“Wh-what are you doing in our rooms,” Gianna had asked nervously from the doorway. She already had an idea. Gianna did not believe in coincidences. She had not taken more than a step into the room when she had seen Keres, so the door to the corridor was wide open behind her. 

“Now, why shouldn’t I come and visit my two favorite cousins,” Keres had replied in a patronizing manner while he stroked Sophia’s hair. “Come in, come in. Don’t just stand in the doorway.”

Gianna had taken a deep breath and stepped further into the room, closing the door behind her. “I’m sorry,” Gianna had replied while racking her brain trying to think of a way to get her sister away from their cousin. “I wasn’t expecting you. I-I didn’t know that you were coming by. If I had known I would have made sure to clean up a bit and make sure that we were both presentable for such an honorable visit,” she had began rambling. 

“Cut the crap,” Keres had snarled, causing Sophia’s eyes to widen. The realization that they were in danger was starting to show on her young face and she began to push against the arms that were holding her. 

“I know what you did after the meeting today,” Keres had said through clenched teeth. As he stood he had quickly dropped the struggling Sophia on the sofa before she could bite him.

Then Keres had marched over to Gianna and lowered his head so that when he whispered in her ear, she was the only one that could hear him.

“It would be a shame if I hear something like that again. Accidents can happen so easily you know,” he had said, cutting his eyes back toward a glaring Sophia. 

Before Gianna had been able to think of a reply, Keres had straightened and walked out of the door that Gianna had just pulled closed. 

Gianna shook her head to try to forget that evening. She quickly made her way through the castle to hers and Sophia’s rooms. Gianna had Sophia moved to her rooms right after their parent’s deaths. She knew that her uncle would probably want to stay in the royal suite with his son, and she had wanted her baby sister near. Gianna had become like a second mother to Sophia. Since she was sixteen when their parents died, Gianna had taken over most of the care for her sister. After their death, she had been the one that got up with Sophia when she would cry for their mom. She would rock her back to sleep and sing her songs that their mother used to sing. Sophia knows that Gianna is her sister, but every now and then she will slip up and call her mom. Gianna did her best to show Sophia pictures of their parents and tell her as many stories as she could remember about them. She knew that her sister would probably never have many true memories of them, but she still wanted her to know them and how much they loved her. 

Another reason that Gianna had wanted Sophia to stay with her was the fact that there was a high chance that Sophia would inherit their mother’s gift. Gianna needed to be able to watch who was around Sophia. Gianna herself was proud that she had taken after her biological father. Not only did she inherit her dark blonde hair and brown eyes from her father, but she had also inherited something else. Her biological father had been a wolf shifter. Gianna’s mother did not tell her until right before her sixteenth birthday about her father’s ability. That was when she also and that there was a possibility that she could be a shifter too. The day before her sixteenth birthday, under the guise of a mother/daughter trip for her birthday, Gianna’s mom had taken her to a cabin in the woods in case she was a shifter. The next night, Gianna had experienced her first shift with the help of her mother. That was also the night that she learned that her mother was a witch. 

As far as they know, Gianna did not inherit any of her mother’s abilities, but after her sister was born, they knew that there was a strong chance that Sophia had inherited their mother’s abilities since she favored their mother so much. While Gianna was tall with long dark blonde hair, brown eyes, and could tan really well, her sister was petite for her age, had short curly dark hair, large green eyes, and porcelain skin. Most people would never guess that they are related by appearance. When Sophia was almost three years old she began to show that she had indeed inherited their mother’s ability. 

Once Gianna realized that Sophia had inherited their mother’s abilities she began to bring her into the woods with her when she would sneak out to shift and run for a while. At first Gianna was reading books and learning as much as she could, but after a few months it seemed that Sophia just kind of naturally knew how to do things. About once a week they would sneak out at night so that Sophia could practice her magic and that Gianna could shift, run, and train. In

her wolf form, Gianna could quickly carry Sophia several miles from the castle so they did not have to worry about anyone seeing them. At four years old Sophia was very advanced academically. She was able to read and comprehend the vast majority of the books that Gianna was able to find for her. 

Picking up her pace, Gianna was almost jogging back to their rooms at this point. What if Keres went into their rooms this time and found Sophia reading one of the books Gianna had found for her? Why did she say anything today in the meeting? Please no, she prayed as she picked up her pace.