ELIANA. My phone buzzed in my pocket. It took me a while to reach for it but when I did, my eyes fell to my Dad's name across the screen. I lifted my gaze to Elijah, knowing I could either leave or choose to stay with him.The past few minutes with him, even if it was just spent with the both of us laughing and screaming until it hurt had reminded me so much of how I enjoyed the simpler times. It reminded me of Tuscany, well, besides the nightmares but the other things were just easier then.For starters, Elijah and I often spent the whole day together. That was one of the many things that had changed. At that moment, I chose to turn off my phone, ignoring my Dad. I chose to spend today with my son instead, away from the Pack's responsibilities and the burdening reality of the decision I had yet to make. I chose to stay here. "Are you leaving?" Elijah murmured, seeing the phone in my hands but I slipped it into my pocket, drawing him closer to me. "No, I'm not" I whispered. I watche
ELIANA.It was the first time I had seen my son so sad."But besides that, I really do like it here. I meant it when I said that" Elijah said.I reached for his hand and squeezed it gently. "Maybe we should visit?" I didn't even know when I blurted that out. Something about hearing him talk about Chester reminded me a lot about Alicia. I missed her sometimes so the thought of maybe visiting was just something that struck me and it struck so intensely that the words just escaped my lips.Bold of me to be making plans when my future itself was uncertain, I thought. "Oh my God, we could! And Daddy will come with us, we'll take Sarah too and it would be like a big family trip!" He squealed excitedly and my eyes shimmered at the vivid thought of that. "That would be good, wouldn't it?" I whispered and there was a crack in my voice.Every glimpse I got of the future, of my family—it was good. And it was the reason I was going to do everything I could even if it was for the tiniest shot at
ELIANA."Do you have any idea what you're about to do?" My Nana's voice deepened once she closed the door and I sauntered into her room. A sigh escaped from my lips as I ran my hands through my hair."Just please, ma. I really need to do this" I replied. She lifted an uncertain gaze back up at me. Even though she already knew my mind was already made up, it didn't stop her from trying to get through."Eliana," Her voice broke."It's dark magic, the Witches are warned to stay away from it for a reason—" "But it's my only option. It's the only way I get to save my family and save myself. You, of all people I expect to understand that." I interrupted and a hard lump slipped down her throat."It's dangerous" Her eyes grew wet and I rolled mine to the back of my head. "I have no other choice, Nana and I know you would do the same if you could. Being a Hybrid, it's taken from me more than it's given.""I want it to be all over, I want my children to grow and live happy lives without always
ELIANA. I’m going to do it.My Mother wrote in her journal the day before.‘I’m going to do the Spell and I’m going to try to save the both of us'Reading through the lines almost felt like I could even hear her. Like I could feel all those emotions that she felt, that led her to make the decision that she did. Heaven knows that was exactly what I was feeling.The past few days, I had spent studying through the spell and also my mother’s journal. In the little time she had, she had documented a bit of her process before she did it too. It was like a way into her mind, and my Nana was around for the most part.That moment, she was sitting right opposite me on the table when I lifted my gaze and our eyes met.“Seen anything?” She asked. I shook my head with a sigh of relief escaping my lips. The plan was to find a reason why the spell didn’t work for my Mother. Perhaps, it was something she’d missed out or hadn’t done so we would avoid a fate like hers.I wasn’t just doing this to save
ELIANA."What are you doing here?" Nathaniel croaked. The winds blew right through my hair as I crept closer to him. He didn't even have to turn around to know that it was me. I had met him hunting, a hobby I figured he'd picked up from all those years in the forest.Met, that was a choice of words. Because in reality, I had done a locator spell that was able to pinpoint exactly where he was.I didn't have a lot of options. It was either that or asking Ivan, the latter which wasn't even close to possible. And I had to see Nathaniel, after speaking to our Grandmother, I realized I had to talk to him too.Finally, he turned around and his eyes were grim and locked into mine. He placed down his bow and arrow, a resenting sigh fleeing from his lips.“I wanted to talk to you, Nathaniel” I stepped forward. “What more is there to talk about after the last time?” He replied flatly. “I’m pretty much the enemy to all of you now when all I did was all I had to to be able to protect myself” He a
DENVER.I walked up to the door.For a moment, I stood still, looking at the ring in my hand and a sigh escaped my lips. My hands rested on the handle before I pushed it open. Immediately, Eliana turned her eyes to me, taking them off from whatever she was doing but it wasn’t up to a second, she looked back.My hand slipped into my pocket as I darted my eyes around the chamber. It was all a mess, like she was ransacking looking for something. “Found it!” I was right because she chanted not so much later. Eliana turned to me and in her hands was a silver dagger. “Oh my God” I couldn’t help but explain as she tossed it gently upon the table. She let out a slight chuckle. “What do you even need that for?” I questioned.“For the spell obviously” She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s a long process and you have to come with a few things, the silver dagger there is also a relic of an ancestral artifact that belonged to my Grandma” Eliana explained, rubbing her eyes as she heaved a deep breath
DENVER. I stood still right in front of my Pack, heavy with disbelief as my eyes trailed the orange-red skies, painted by the cracking flames that had engulfed my home. "Oh my God" A soft gasp escaped from Eliana's lips. My heart pounded in my chest as the heat intensified, matching the anguish that gripped me. The air was thick with acrid smoke, stinging my eyes and burning my lungs. With each step I took forward, the more panic that set in as I caught a glimpse of my people scrambling out for their own safety. Some of them untouched, but the most of them, wounded.Screams of terror echoed through the atmosphere and their faces were contorted with fear. They rushed out from the inferno as the fire spread with great magnitude through the barns, and the cottages. Through the livestock. The windows had shattered and half the building had collapsed.In the midst of the chaos, my eyes sought desperately for the faces I knew. That was before I saw Thelma. And she scurried towards me, her
BLAKE.The room had turned pitch black. The door was nowhere in sight, I had been trapped by walls and ceilings that had fallen all around me. There was no way to make it past the debris—it looked like the end. Perhaps, it was the end.I lifted my gaze to the flames which licked the walls hungrily. One second, I was sitting behind the desk, doing as my brother told me and watching his Pack until he returned and the next, there were just thus inescapable flames that had risen out of nowhere.Of course it happened today. Of course, this had something to do with my bad luck. I thought I could do one thing, I thought I could do this but everywhere I went, the misfortune just seemed to follow.I watched the whole Packhouse crumble to the ground through my hazy eyes. What would I tell Denver—this wasn't my home, this was his home. These were his people, this was his chambers, his bed, his walls.Everything he'd built since our parents died, everything was no more.I just sat there, at the