Blood and Magic

Chapter 10 - Let's Just Pretend This Is Normal (Peyton)

Carry You - Ruelle 

Have you ever dunked your head under ice cold water? And the longer your under the less you can feel, and the voice outside is like really far away echos. So you're just in the soundless, numb place. That's how I felt, I could hear talking - probably more like yelling- but it was far away. My whole life I thought very little of my birth parents, they didn't come up a lot. Sometimes when I couldn't sleep I would think about them, if they were alive or dead. Or when someone asked about my necklace. The only time we acknowledged it as a family was when we had to fill out family health forms at the hospital, which most of the time we left blank. I never worried about it too much since I had a family that wanted and loved me. I never once thought I might have siblings, I always that I was a fluke to my birth parents.

"Calm down, please. Breathe," Mayline instructed using her hands to demonstrate breathing in slower, I did as she said and it helped a bit.

The room went dead quiet and we all were looking at Jack and Mayline to keep going, at this point, it would take something huge to really rattle me. I mean it's not every day you learn that your a witch and your birth dad is some crazy high priest that killed a bunch of people and wants to drain the magic out of you.

"When your father first started his plan he knew that he would have to have a lot of power, he wanted each power from every element of magic. He learned that you can share magic with those who shared your blood, so he fathered a child from every element. Like I said we didn't realize it till it was too late. When the high priestess went onto labor and gave birth to a little girl at one-twenty- five in the morning the first house started to burn. Our ancestors were punishing us for breaking witch law," Mayline went on to explain.

"They punished you for what Edward did?" Ryker asked confused.

Jack shook his head.

"No, we were punished for the mistakes your mother's made. You see when witches bind themselves together it lasts forever," Jack answered.

"What do you mean by bind together?" I asked.

"It's the witch equivalent to marriage. Your father was bound to the high priestess yet he went and fathered other children with other women. It upset the ancestors."

"Who are these Ancestors you keep talking about? " Jade asked, I was glad to see her face was no longer red from crying, but her eyes were still a little puffy.

"Our ancestors are the first of our coven, they watch us from the other side or spirit realm. Only certain witches can actually speak to them," Jack went on.

"Your father's punishment was that he couldn't take your magic. When Peyton was born at one-twenty- five, your father was waiting but he couldn't take it. He thought he had to wait until you were all born. He tried again at one-thirty-seven when Jade was born, then again at two-ten with Hale. He was getting frustrated when Ryker was finally born at two fifty-eight. His next theory was because you hadn't awakened your magic yet. He was going to take you away and hide you, raise you to be his magic batteries. We took you away before he could. a few years ago we got in touch with a very powerful witch who could talk to the ancestors. Edward can't use your magic unless you allow him," Mayline made clear.

"So why doesn't he just start over with new kids?" Jade pondered aloud.

"The priestess took care of that when he found out he had been unfaithful," Mayline answered vaguely. We understood what she meant though.

"So if you had us then how did we get separated?" I asked my voice a bit gruff from not speaking in a while.

Mayline took a second to look down like she felt guilty for something.