When I stepped into the room reserved for Laura’s medical practice, the first thing I noticed was the mild tension that assailed the room. Laura wasn’t comfortable with the boys-at least it was obvious to me-she was only here because she loved her job. When I came in, however, they all turned to look at me, including Adam who was lying with his back on the same bed I had spent months in. “Dora, you are back?” I nodded to Laura’s question, gesturing with my head at Daniel who wasn’t sporting his usual smirk, not until I indicated his involvement with my walk home. “I came with him. He told me about the matter. Are you okay?” Laura nodded, understanding what I was talking about. She will be fine with treating the boys who had made me this way. To think that we had talked and laughed about this, during the night that the Queen had paid me a visit, the night I had told my family everything, and it was happening now. What a coincidence. “How much longer till you are done?” I asked,
I inhaled deeply, then exhaled. I repeated it for the second time. I repeated for the third and the fourth time. Yet, I couldn’t concentrate. My mind was in chaos. My mind was here and there, on my family, on the Lycan boys who had taken residence in the Queen’s palace for the weekend, on the woman in front of me, on the Queen who hadn’t said a word to me since I came, only that I took a breath. I’ve been taking breaths, trying to center myself but to no avail. My mind just refused to cooperate with my commands. My significant other was also absent. We had been talking freely, on our way to the Queen’s place this morning for the training—or was it punishment?—and then suddenly she had stopped speaking as I stepped into the compound. All efforts to invite her out were to no avail. I knew, however, that she was there, on the surface. I could feel her waiting to strike if the Queen made any wrong move. If I would take the guess now, I would say that my significant other wasn’t on goo
The surprise on the Queen's face, however, didn't last two seconds. As quickly as she had seemed fazed by the fact that I could add and subtract flames without needing to make a gesture with my hand, as quickly as the surprise had left. The only indication that she had been shaken had been the slight shaking of her hand as she returned the cup to the table, a shaking that led the cup to spill some of its content. Its content was a blood red liquid. Wine then. I thought, taking my eyes off the cup to her face when she stood up from her seat, dusted her hands on each other, and started walking toward me. "So, it seems that you can control the fire with your mind, at such a young age. That's huge potential, I will have to admit. Let's see how far you can go…" She said, staring at me, from my hair which was tied to a ponytail, to my tennis shoes. My significant other recoiled further into my mind, as if the gaze was scorching her. What exactly was with the both of them? I wondered,
This time around, the shock on the Queen’s face lasted for more than two seconds. It lasted until she croaked out a sound of amazement from her lips, which was similar to one in my head, which was similar to the ones I heard from our watchers, which had increased by the minute. “You…” She stuttered, unbelief in her eyes. She was still holding the offending hair, an offending hair that I vowed to cut when I got home. As I was still cussing the offending hair, the Queen pulled another one, and this time around, it was a little lower than a chunk. What the hell!Without much ado, I pushed her away from myself, held my hair by myself, and swerved to one of the windows of the castle—the windows could do the job of a mirror. My mouth dropped open in shock when I noticed that almost one quarter of my hair was white hair-not together-some were scattered, mixed with my black long hair. It looked like a trend, like a swag, only that it was not. I wanted it gone. It had appeared first when I
Three seconds into my kiss with Raul, I forgot that I was supposed to disengage from the kiss when the boys went through the bend and came to hallway we were in, I forgot that they were coming, I forgot that I had made a plan like that, I forgot that this was a kiss meant to deliver a piece of information, not for pleasure. When Raul grabbed my ass however, and squeezed, when I moaned into the kiss biting his lips, enjoying the moan that escaped from his, there was an intentional cough that brought reality into my vision again, that brought my attention to the burning mark on my neck. Oh my god. This was good. I concluded, when I remembered myself. Raul was a good kisser. Despite knowing that there were more than three people watching us, I was adept enough to still play the game. I smiled at a Raul who was shocked by my gutsy kiss and smile, but who remembered quickly how to smile flirty. Satisfied with our interaction, I disengaged from the hug. Slowly. With infinite flourish, I
"So where did I stop with my story?" I asked, ignoring the subtle tap on my elbow—Raul was handing me a lame warning, to stop with it. That would be expected, considering the hatred I was seeing in Duke's face now. I had taken a huge guess when I had mentioned the fact about the throne—it had come up when he had spoken of me after the throne-as if Raul had the potential of being the next one on the throne, even though there was no strand of white hair on his head. It told me that either the Queen had so much faith in her second son, or she had placed the faith on the bethrothed. That brought my attention to Diana, and her former classes with the Queen. Could Diana be the bethrothed one? If she was, then I hoped that Raul had really denounced it. I couldn’t bare the thought of Diana being plunged into this mess of a family. As much she was strong willed, she would be broken. I loved my sister too much for that. I would have taken this incident as a pointer to start speaking to her,
I would have said no to Raul's request if we were alone in the hallway, considering the topic I had just bashed Duke for, considering the fact he had been aware of the matter, but for the Lycan boys. Rachel had no place in my thoughts. If I were to deny Raul his request, then the purpose of kissing him in the first place would be defeated. I couldn’t allow that. Not that I regretted the kiss though. "Yeah, sure. I would love that." I managed to say without gritting my teeth, even going ahead to clasp his hand in my mine, when what I wanted exactly, was to slap him for endorsing his family's misconduct. He must have known my thoughts on him, because he instantly made an apology with his eyes. I diverted my gaze, I wasn't going to forgive him that easily, not even with those cute eyes of his. I made no comment as I and Raul walked past Rachel and Adam, not until Daniel called me, right after I walked past him and Noah. "You must think me a joke, if you believed I was going to let y
At my question, I noticed first that the boys became confused. They were still sporting looks that claimed that I was lying, that I was wasting time, but at the same time, I could see the doubt of their own selves, of their own story accounts, like they weren't sure of their earlier stance. I saw it in Adam's jerk, and his subtle staggering back, as if I had dealt him a blow. I saw it in Noah’s lip biting intermittent motions. I saw it in Daniel’s subtle shifting of feet, and twitching hands. Then, I saw Adam dart a glance at his brother, Noah, then at himself—an inward look into his mind—as if trying to recall something that seemed out of his grasp. His brothers were in the same turmoil, and if I wasn't hearing their heart rate, if I wasn't as confused as they are, I might have called them liars. But my ears were attuned to their heart rate, my eyes were attuned to the several emotions that ran through their face in split seconds. The triplets were confused.They were confused abo
ADAMAs I walked behind my brothers and friends into our territory, my mind was miles away. I couldn’t stop thinking about Dora. The memory of her cheeks flushed from our last meeting was vivid in my mind. I remembered how I had wanted to kiss her lips, not just her cheeks. The thought made me ache with longing. I missed her so much. I couldn’t believe how quickly she had come to mean so much to me.I was so lost in my thoughts that I barely noticed Claire’s voice cutting through my reverie. “Adam,” she said, sounding curious and a little annoyed. “When did you and Dora get so close? She’s tickling your fancy too…?”I tried to ignore her, hoping she would just go away. I wasn’t in the mood for this conversation. But Claire wasn’t one to let things go easily. She reached out and grabbed my arm, her grip firm.I turned to glare at her, irritation burning in my eyes. “Don’t touch me,” I said sharply. “Just don’t.”Claire’s eyes widened in surprise, and she quickly let go of my arm. I
Walking home with my family, I could hardly focus on anything other than the memory of Adam’s kiss on my cheek. It was such a strange, surreal moment. It had happened right in front of his family, my family, and even though it was chaste at best, the whole world had seemed to stop for a second. The way he leaned in, the warmth of his lips—everything had felt so intense. I couldn’t believe it actually happened. I still couldn't believe his audacity.I sighed now as I remembered the looks that had overtaken the faces of the people around. Adam’s brothers had looked aghast. Daniel had been boiling with anger, for one. The same was Claire’s situation. But that had been expected. Only Naomi had seemed pleased, if the tiny smile on her lips had been any indication. I wondered now though, if she ever thought of Maya, if she ever thought that she was betraying Maya, by supporting the motion of Adam and I dating.The other person who had seemed pleased was Levina. But that was quite expecte
I looked at my family. I looked at the Lycan triplets, whose faces were also ridden with surprise—they hadn’t seen this part of the congratulatory visit coming. I looked at Naomi and the rest; they were all ridden with surprise, and their faces were all ridden with the same question—why was the king inviting me to a party, attended only by werewolves? What was the business of the witches with the moon goddess? Witches didn’t understand the moon goddess, since they had theirs to celebrate, so why invite one? And wouldn’t that invitation trigger the ‘anger of the moon goddess’, as the pack would always love to put it? Was that notion being broken because of me? Wow, I never thought I would see the day where a protocol as huge as that would be broken because of me. My gaze reverted to the king again. He had a tentative smile on his lips, like he was half expecting me to reject the next words that would come out of his mouth. “Part of your reward includes traveling to places you wish
“Why aren’t you all dead?” I asked Diana and Levina, as we walked behind the adults, toward my tent, after professor Zokel was done listing off my rewards, including those I hadn’t been aware of, those that hadn’t been included in the bulletin that had been distributed in the school, in the days leading to the contest. “Dead? What are you talking about?” Levina asked, looking between Diana and me. Diana shrugged her shoulders. “We told her that anyone that saw the beast was liable to die.” Levina chuckled. “I think I told her the same. But seeing as we are all living and breathing, I guess that our parents had distributed unnecessary rumors to us.” We shared a laugh after that, a laugh which caused the adults in front to turn and look at us. Satisfied that we were not up to any mischief, they returned to their discussion, a discussion that I was privy to; they were talking about the beast bowing to me. Mr. Lethon believed it was because of the royal blood in me. Peter believed th
Because the beast’s voice could be heard by all in the field, and maybe even outside of the field, I used magic to amplify my voice, so that everyone could hear me speak too. So, when the crowd erupted in mild shouts and mutterings at the previous words of the Queen, they echoed affirmations after mine; affirmations mixed with amusement at the nonchalancy in my voice and then anger at the Queen for breaking the laws that had been in place for many years. The beast obeyed. He turned his mighty head and stared at the Queen, whose hands were shaking. Out of nerves or shock or anger, I wasn’t sure. But her cool composure was gone. “Well, to be fair to the Queen, she didn’t call you out…” The beast grunted, in confusion I was sure, if the thinning of his eyes were anything to go by. “Who called me then? Only she has the power to call us out…” “Well…” I smirked, and pointed at a Rachel who was shaking with fear beside her mother. Oh well, she was scared of what she had conjured? Inte
Rachel stood still even when the crowd was shouting ‘Fight!’ ‘Fight!’ like a mantra. I knew she wanted me to attack first. “I’ve been watching you fight, and you have never attacked first, well apart from your last match….” She started, placing her hands on her waist.“Well, that’s a stupid deduction to make. I’ve only fought two contestants. Didn’t your mother teach you that, when she taught you how to fight with the subtle magic, when she taught you how to cheat in the competition?” I shot back, a smirk appearing on my lips.Her eyes widened, and her composure disintegrated by a meaningful portion, as she looked around her, to check if the others were hearing. “Tsk, your family is terribly disgusting. You want me to attack you? Then you will have it. Don’t regret it though. There’s a reason I don’t attack first. I thought my last battle would have explained that, but it seems you are slow…” I said, right before I advanced toward her. She jerked back, as I approached, causing me t
Laura’s infamous meat sauce would have been enough reason to win this last battle, even if the Queen’s rewards hadn't been attached to it. Thinking of it now as I sauntered into the battlefield brought out the hunger pangs that had managed to stay hidden for a while, under the layer of fruits and water. I was hungry. “Wait, until I am done with this.” I muttered to myself, flexing my hands. Laura should have better prepared my favorite meal to celebrate my win, because I wouldn’t settle for less. Not when my mind was already clouded with meat sauce. Rachel was already waiting for me in the field, her arms folded across her chest, disdain notable in her eyes. I didn’t bother mirroring the same, I just wanted to be done with this, so that I could go home and eat. ‘That’s a good attitude, keep it up.’ El spoke then, causing me to pout. ‘Is that sarcasm?’ She chuckled. ‘Not at all. It’s good that you’re not nervous, considering the principal’s insight, considering that it lowers you
Rachel won her own fight. But it had been by a sharp luck; the senior had been varsed in combat, very varsed, despite her not so big stature. Probably why the organizers had linked her to Rachel; they had thought it would be an easy defeat. After her match, the Queen had called for a little recess, so that the final contestants could have some rest before the last phase of the competition. It was why I was reclining on the chair in my tent, drinking an energy mix that Laura had given me. “I’m sure that the Queen is giving Rachel some tools on how to fight you, some tricks. You have to be careful out there, Dora…” Diana spoke, with a disgusted expression on her face. “That woman can be so sneaky.” She added, placing her arm around my shoulder. “If you win Rachel, I will give you my meat sauce for a week.” I laughed then, unable to hold it this time around. Diana was a darling. “Deal!” I shouted, jamming fists with her, whilst her parents and Levina watched on with wide smiles on th
My second opponent was the senior that had tried to bully me in the hallway a few days ago; that had tried to instigate me to fight her so that I would be disqualified from the competition. She was prancing around the field like an overzealous proud horse, getting cheers from the crowd. I thought she looked hilarious. I was going to win her. That was a given; not because I was proud, but because I had no choice. I had no choice than to make her eat her words, than to make her regret troubling me that fateful day. My quiet demeanor was mirrored by Rachel and her family. At intervals, I looked at the people in the crowd, at the Queen, at her. It was as if they knew that the senior was making noise. A noise that was uncalled for. Rachel, especially, had a bored look on her face. She knew I would win, never mind that it wouldn’t be pleasing to her. When I had won Courtney, I had seen the dread that had flirted past her face, right before she conditioned her countenance to stoicness. Sh