Fin

Chapter 24: All or Nothing

"Laura what did you see?" I asked clearly concerned.

She set a mug of coffee down in front of me as she said the most terrifying thing I have ever heard. "Layla did have a vision and not a pleasant one either. The Tonrar were attacking us again but we were holding our own. We had gained the upper hand and continued to destroy them. But then that horrible excuse for a King came up behind me and stabbed me in the back. He whispered something in my ear before he pulled the knife out and walked over towards Layla. He was just about to pick her up when she woke up. I will not let that monster get his hands on our daughter!" She whisper yelled trying not to wake the kids up.

I just sat there horrified. I didn't know what to say or what to think. He was after our daughter. There is no way in hell he is getting anywhere near her or Laura. I stood up and walked over to Laura who was now sobbing silently looking out the kitchen window. I turned her around and pulled her into me. "I will not let that happen. He will not harm either of you and I have an idea."

She pulled away and looked at me with so many questions running through her head. "What is your idea?"

"Well your not going to like it but I want to use Layla and you as bait." She just started at me shocked and confused. "Alright I know this sounds crazy but what if we got Juliana to create two illusions that looked like you and Layla. And we could place them on the beach when he attacks to distract him while we wait nearby to capture him and kill him."

She didn't say anything at first and opened and closed her mouth a few times. Finally she figured out what she was going to say, "Juliana can do that? And there is no way Layla will be anywhere near harms way?"

A smile spread across my face as I spoke. "Yes Layla will be safe far away in one of the safe houses and yes she can. I read about that spell when we were researching the Tonrar and the black witch. There is two things I should mention though. One, it is black magic and she may not want to do it and two, I did find out that the Tonrar don't always look as repulsive as they did. They only look that way under a full moon for some reason and that is when their powers are the strongest."

"What?! Why am I just hearing about this? How do we know that they haven't already been here and infiltrated our community?" She shouted clearly pissed off.

"They haven't because they also have a certain smell that we would all notice. Since they aren't exactly like us they have a unique smell that would give them away. We already knew this from the first time we fought them but we didn't want to worry you all about it so we only told the new warriors." I said waiting for the backlash.

"Fin Joseph Tanner! I am the fucking Queen I should be informed of this kind of information!" She shouted which caused Jaeger to wake up. "Damnit! This is all your fault! I swear Fin if I didn't love you and our children so much I'd strangle you." She huffed as she went up stairs to put Jaeger back down.

Once he was back down she met me in the bedroom as we finished our conversation. "I'm sorry Laura it must've just slipped my mind since we couldn't tell you with the issues with your pregnancy and we didn't want you to worry anymore than you already were. I didn't mean to keep this from you and I'm sorry." I said as I snuggled up to her placing kisses on her cheek, neck and collarbone.

She hummed before she answered, "Fine I understand why you did it. And you are forgiven as long as you don't stop what you are doing."

I smirked as she pulled me closer and crashed her lips into mine. I made quick work of our clothes before satisfying her and then myself. Huffing and out of breath she snuggled into my chest and we fell back asleep for a few hours.

Later that day we found Juliana and went over our plan with her.

"No! No way am I going to preform black magic, I can't bring myself to do that again." Juliana argued

"Please Juliana you are our only hope. If not I could lose both Laura and our daughter and I won't allow that to happen." I pleaded

"Do you have any idea what you are asking of me? Not only does black magic age us rapidly but if we aren't careful it can take us down the rabbit hole and we may not be able to come back from it. I managed to do it once only when I saw the devastation it had cause you and the loss of my son. I-I don't know if I can come back from it again." She sighed clearly battling with herself.

"Please we need you and frankly we wouldn't be in this position if you hadn't opened up the cove in the first place." Laura said trying not to sound to harsh.

She shook her head. "You are right about half of it. It is my fault but not in the way you think. I was the one that created them with the help of two other witches. I made Damien but I didn't think he would take it this far. He was made only to kill your father Fin which he did but shortly after he became power hungry. He kept killing everyone that went into the cove and soon began destroying everything and anything he could get his hands on. I tried to reason with him but it was no use he was too far gone."

"What?! You were the black witch that created those.. those monsters! Why haven't you destroyed them yet then? Surely you can do that since you created them." I hissed as I grit my teeth trying to control my anger.

"I-I'm so sorry Fin. I never meant for all this to happen and trust me if I could take it back I would. I can't destroy them because I need the two other witches and sadly one of the two was murdered shortly after we created them. Without her we cannot destroy them. That's the downfall to black magic it is unpredictable and once a spell is cast everything that follows is out of our control. But I will try to find a way to help you without using black magic if I can. If it comes down to it I will use the black magic since this was all a result of my actions."

"Thank you Juliana and we will help you however we can." Laura said placing my hand on her shoulder.

She looked up as a sad smile spread across her face. "You have to promise me one thing though. If I have to use black magic and I fall into the rabbit hole I need you to kill me Fin. I do not wish to harm anyone as I have you ever again so please do me this one favor."

I stared stunned between her and Laura as she just stood there shocked as well. It took me a few seconds to regain my thoughts before I spoke. "Yes I will do that for you. Only if necessary and we will try and bring you back before I make the decision to take your life. We may have had a bad past but you have become a very good friend to Laura and a great help in all of our troubles."

"Thank you Fin I will try not to let you down. I am going to need Laura's help with something though."

"What do you need me to do?" Laura asked before I could say anything.

"I need your help finding Celeste." She stated

"Who's Celeste?" Laura questioned

"She's the white witch and you are the only one who can find her."