I felt nauseous. I felt like puking. Even though the journey to the pack had barely lasted one minute, I felt like disgorging the contents of my stomach from my mouth. My throat was scratchy too. First time perks I thought, from teleporting.One second I was holding hands with Diana on one side, and Laura on the other side, connected to the hands of the other party troopers—we were all holding our hands together like a cult would—while the queen stood in the center of the circle and chanted things that I had known nothing about; and the next minute we were here. The queen; she had been looking ethereal in her white gown which had gone past her ankles, and even shoes. She had worn a white mask too; a white mask that had enhanced the mystery that shrouded her. She hadn’t looked human; she had looked like an angel. I had seen her sons too, and her daughter. Handsome fellows if I would admit, but I looked nothing as I felt; just blank. I guessed they felt the same as our eyes had co
The party hall was a magnificent spectacle of opulence and artistry. As I entered with Diana, my senses were overwhelmed by the sheer beauty and grandeur that greeted me. It was way different, and much more beautiful than the decorations that had been put in play for my sendforth then. This screamed of a royalty ball.The walls were draped in luxurious fabrics in deep, rich hues of crimson and gold, reminiscent of a royal palace. Crystal chandeliers adorned the ceiling, casting a soft, warm glow that bathed the room in a gentle, ethereal light.From beside me, I heard Diana gasp. Quite understandable. This was a beauty to behold. I was very sure that the king had put so much effort in this to play a show off to the magic Queen.Every corner of the hall was meticulously decorated with attention to detail. Elaborate floral arrangements graced every table, featuring an assortment of roses, lilies, and orchids. Their fragrance wafted through the air, creating a sweet and intoxicating at
“Do you know them?” Diana asked, her hand still clasped to mine. As Laura had kept repeating whilst we walked to the hall the first time, Diana was sticking to me like glue. I held her hand tighter, for assurance. When we had gotten to the hall, I had seen that the people we had come with had all dispersed to mingle; and watching the flurry of movements now, I could see that some of the witches and wizards already had friends here. I was surprised to see the queen’s daughter even talking to Cass. Remember her? She had been one of my bullies; daughter to the pack doctor. They laughed over something and held hands like best friends would. Then, there was the son, the girl’s twin, with Naomi’s brother, Timothy. But I hadn’t seen the lycan boys yet. Were they waiting for a special entrance service? I wouldn’t put it past them. Hooligans. There was no sign of Claire too, not that I cared. The bitch had played a part in what I was facing. Who says she hasn’t been in on the big pla
“Who are they? They look alike.” Diana asked, a note of enthrallment in her voice.But why wouldn’t she be enthralled? The boys still looked as hot as ever! The difference was that I felt no crush for them, just a hatred as deep as the ocean. “Maya, aren’t you going to say something?” Diana asked, and I soughed. The girl was really determined to know them. “I know you know who they are. Can't you tell me?” I stretched my hand toward her, aware of the furrow in her eyes, but knowing that she understood what I wanted. Hesitantly, as if not sure, she dipped her hand into her bag, and brought out the bottle of pills. “Is it that bad? The news about them… is it that bad?” She asked, as she handed the bottle of pills over to me. I nodded, before opening the bottle, and taking out one pill. On a second thought, I took out another. Just before Diana could say a word, seeing my actions but taking a second too late to react, I threw the pills into my mouth. “What are you doing?” She shou
I’m hurting his feelings? Like seriously, the idiot had the audacity to complain that I was hurting his feelings? I didn’t blame him though. He didn’t know who I was. He thought that I was his newest conquest, the new girl that would grace his bed. The bastard! Without much ado, I flinged his arm away, my face scowling, unable to help the expression this time around. Quickly, I retrieved a handkerchief from my bag and cleaned my hand, the exact spot where he had touched. As I cleaned, I cussed, aware that tears were beginning to brim in my eyes. Another side effect of the drugs? I didn’t know. But I kept on cleaning my hand, becoming unaware of my surroundings, until Diana laid a hand on my busy hand, halting my frantic motions, driving me back to consciousness. There was explicit worry in her eyes that broke my heart. I think it was at this moment that she began to see why I had needed the extra dose of the pills. I would have been a freaking ball of mess by now if not for the
Noah straightened-he had bowed a bit when he had wanted to speak with Diana about his dissatisfaction with her. An indescribable emotion fleeted past his eyes. He looked at me, this time more deeply as if accessing me, as if wondering if he had crossed paths with me in the past. The idiot didn’t recognize my voice. That’s interesting. I thought, finding it comical. They really hadn’t cared about me, they had really toyed with my feelings. They would pay though. The three of them. They would pay. “Do you know me? Have we crossed paths before?” He asked finally after beats had passed, folding his arms across his chest, peering down at me. I scoffed in derision, and turned away from him, with Diana, not bothered at all to give him a reply. He didn’t deserve one. I was just about to leave the hall for some air, when the lycan king began to speak. I paused in my movements, needing to hear what he wanted to say, curious as to what nonsense he was about to spurt out in the name of pea
Diana palmed her face first with her free hand. She wasn’t entirely pleased with being the center of attention this way. I felt bad, biting my lips. What the hell was wrong with me? Why was I laughing? What was funny? Okay. Seeing Claire faint was really funny. But my laughter had gone over the board.Laura seemed to think so. The expression in her eyes told me that, and also told me that she knew that I had lied to her. She now knew I had my memories back, or at least some. If not, why would I be laughing?Queen Aliana was still smiling, her hands tucked in her white clothed thighs. And this time around, my mind latched onto that action. Why was she laughing? Was I looking hilarious? Was I looking like a clown? Did I just give her comic relief, or was it something deeper than comics?However, in all, I could see that my laughs had gone overboard, and might draft in consequences that I couldn’t imagine. My heart began to race then, within my chest, pounding like a relentless drum,
As the weight of my words settled on my conscience, I couldn't help but feel the pang of guilt and remorse that gnawed at me. I couldn’t believe that I had just referred to Noah as shit. Now, not because he wasn’t that-Oh, heck he was a bunch of shit and worse.It was just that I knew that she liked the idiot, and referring to him like that was like insulting her, like emphasizing that she was dating a shit, that she was a shit for trying to date or catch the attention of a shit.Noami’s reaction of a jaw slackening and a teeth grinding to my announcement about dating Noah had been clear; I had hurt her deeply. I shouldn’t have said that. I gulped in nothing, my eyes stretching to Diana who was now beside her mother, her eyes blinking rapidly at me. Why? I was not sure. I had no time to deliberate on that either.My thoughts were consumed by the way I had wounded Noami with my insensitivity. It was a moment of reckoning, a stark reminder of the power our words held to cause pain.He
Expectation?I didn’t really have one for her, only that she stays true to herself and to me, just as Naomi had done.At least I had a new friend. Hopefully it will be enough to convince Laura to sleep tonight without scolding me. I was sure that the news of today had reached her ears. Peter’s too. “Thanks so much, Levina. You are a lifesaver.” I finally responded, piquing my eyebrows when she chuckled at my statement, when she loosened my hands from her waist, and turned aside to look at me. “I think there is a misplacement of some sorts. You are the lifesaver, Dora. It is because of you that I will be able to have a better school and social life; my life actually as a whole. I should be the one showing the appreciation.” She said with a beautiful laugh, her eyes sparkling under the board of moonlight, a sharp contrast to the first time I had actually noticed her. In the cafeteria, her eyes had been empty, totally void of feelings. She had been totally lost. I felt happy again th
It took me three hours to finish detention. Three hours of trying to fight my worst fears. Three hours spent cursing professor Bulock. How could such a cruel thing be used as detention? How could such a cruel method be utilized? I remembered his last words to me in class this morning, his last words that had sent a chill down my back. ‘No way for her to learn about our ways, for her to learn about respect and discipline in class if not through that.’ ‘That’ meaning detention. It would explain the reason why I had been the only one in detention. No one wanted their worst fears thrown at them. No wonder the sheer decorum in school.The bullying had only continued because of who the bully was. But I was sure that Rachel would repent if she was subjected to her fears. Three hours of living with them, and I knew that I wouldn’t disrespect Professor Bulock in his class again, so far as he let me be too. You are still giving conditions? My mind taunted me and I shrugged my shoulders.
I should be in the classroom reserved for detention but I was back at the bleak place again. That place thrummed with filth and despair, just like before.I sighed when a woman's despairing cry echoed in my soul, tearing at me, reprimanding me, drawing me back from the edge of a great precipice. Had I fallen asleep during detention?It was just as before.Every cell in my body craved food and something else, something I could lay my finger on, mostly because I had rehearsed the dream by now. Blood.The hunger raked at me with merciless claws until a red haze covered my sight and my pulse hammered with the need for immediate sustenance. Desperate, I scanned the area above my resting place for the presence of enemies and, finding none, burst through the rich layers of soil, into the air, my heart thundering in my ears, my mind screaming. I landed in a crouch in the midst of dense shrubbery and thick vegetation, and took a slow, careful look around me, not in the least concerned abo
It was the last class of the day, and I was counting down the minutes to the clinging of the dismissal bell. Five minutes to go. I thought giddily, throwing a glance at my watch. I was deathly hungry. After I had left the principal’s office, there had been no time to get to the cafeteria. I had returned to class hungry. It became crazier whenever I remembered the detention—a delay to having Laura’s food. “Well, it seems someone is in a hurry to go somewhere.” I withheld a visible flinch, somehow knowing that the lady lecturing us on magic and music was talking about me. I expected a frown on her face, but I saw a smile on her lips rather; a soft smile, as if I reminded her of someone interesting, someone that she cared about. I forced a smile on my lips too, and hers widened. She shook her head, and gathered her supplies on the table. “I will see you all on Thursday. Make sure to get your assignment ready by then. No excuses.” Assignment? She had given an assignment? I felt m
When we got to the principal’s office, he was in a meeting with someone, and so we had to wait by the door till he was done. We waited for about fifteen minutes before the door opened and Prof. Bulock stepped out of the office. When he saw I and Levina, a still milk-soaked Levina, he piqued his eyebrows, keeping his steely gaze on me. “What did you do to sweet Levina? What did you do this time around?” I snorted. “Does it look like I did anything to her? If your mind was free from prejudice as it should be, you would have noticed that. You would have noticed too, that I was her ally and not a foe. So much for the magic you claim to have for observation. Now, if you will excuse us, Prof Bulock, we have to see Mr Lethon.”Professor Bulock was standing right at the entrance, and his hand clutched the knob tight. Still, he was lucky I had held back from putting the emphasis on the right syllable in his name that would highlight a castrated cow. I wondered what he would do if I ever
“How long has this been happening?” I asked Sinclair immediately we left the cafeteria, enroute to the principal’s office. Levina has refused to say a word since we left, but that was okay. People reacted to situations differently. If I would take a bet, she was contemplating her father’s reaction when he finally heard the news. There was a minute silence, during which I inhaled the strength to shout at him if he chose not to talk about this troubling matter. But then, he started speaking. “For a while now. It’s not regular, but it happens occasionally, sometimes in the cafeteria, sometimes in the training field. Actually since her father had been elected the school’s principal.” I sharply turned to look at him. “And how many years is that?” “Five years.” My tongue tasted something bitter and bland. She has been bullied for five years? How had the father stayed unaware all this time? How had no one thought to slither the piece of information to Mr Lethon? Did they hate him an
There was laughter everywhere in the cafeteria. The matrons serving the food said and did nothing. Sinclair sighed in exasperation. I wasn’t sure of Raul’s reaction to his sister’s bullying. I didn’t look. No. I was already transported in time to the cafeteria back at the pack.I was transported to the past, to the particular time when Noah had poured milk on me; to the time when Daniel had joined them; to the time when the entire student populace, or most, had joined them in throwing food at me; to the time when the matrons had done nothing to help me; until Noami had run and called the principal. My fists clenched, while watching the girl sniff. She was about to cry.I didn’t know when I moved, didn’t care to know how I had gotten in front of Rachel in less than two seconds.I grabbed her by the neck and pulled her out of the chair. “Don’t dare use your magic on me, or you are gone, Rachel.” I said when I saw her hand twitching. It was a gamble. A very risky one, knowing th
At Sinclair’s question, I furrowed my eyebrows, wondering about the edge in his voice, an edge that was barely there.I didn’t think he was even aware of it. We had both agreed that personal questions were off the bet. That had been the reason I hadn’t asked him about the thriving issue between him and Raul. Yet, here he was talking about me and Raul like we had something going, like he was curious about knowing what exactly we had going on. I ignored him. “I want to go to college when I’m done here, or rather I want to use it as an avenue for exploring the world, before taking up my responsibility. But my parents want me to take up my responsibility after school.” I stopped my movement then and looked at Sinclair in shock. He had answered my question, the first I had asked him earlier, after my registration at the principal’s office. I had asked him what his plans were after school, and he had told me that he didn’t owe me an answer.My ignorance of his questions must have no
‘That I care about you.’ These words kept ringing in my head, but I knew it was because of the emotions that Raul had worn in his eyes when he spoke them. I didn’t think I would forget them any time soon. It was foremost, the emotion of sheer attachment, which kept bringing back those words. And it was not like I was remotely interested in Raul. No. He was handsome and all that, but he seemed to have caught Diana’s fancy. A few years would determine if it was a childhood crush, or something else. Somehow, a feeling or gut—call it whatever—chose the latter.I sighed at that. This development wasn't good. When had he developed the feelings? Was it when I had rejected Adam publicly in the eatery? Worse, after my conversation with Raul, Rachel hadn’t stopped staring at me. Sometimes she was glaring, some other times she was just staring at me, in amazement or surprise. But those few times I caught her looking at me in that manner, as if I was holding gold, she righted her face b