Luminary {Book 2 ✔️}

Chapter 19

Again it seemed that I needed answers. But at least this time, I knew where to go.

I visited Tilly's house that Sunday before I would go to the warehouse to meet Tucker. The house felt alive again as I walked through the garden to the front door. The life and vibrant smells surrounding their home made my shoulders relax slightly. I was still on edge, curious about the knowledge that Sophia Angelos could give me, but the smell of maple syrup did much to calm my nerves.

Before I was able to even knock on the door, it swung open. The strange, unseeing eyes of Tilly's Yia-Yia greeted me. She was partially blind, yet every time I looked at her I had the feeling that more of me was visible to her than anyone else.

"Ílios, come in child, tea is on the kettle. I take it Bay Laurel is the right tea for you, sacred to the sun god, of course," her voice rattled on as she ushered me inside the small cottage. Her words came at me quickly, and I blinked in surprise to have been greeted in such a way.

"You were expecting me?" I asked, confused. The old woman shrugged and led me to the kitchen.

"My skills in clairvoyance are not as powerful as yours, to be sure. But, I had an inkling."

I sat down at the counter and watched as she poured hot liquid from a steaming kettle into a porcelain teacup full of tea leaves. She handed me the cup, and I was grateful for something to do with my hands as she watched me. I was nervous under her gaze, slightly distracted on why I wanted to visit in the first place. I wished Tilly would pop up but I knew she and Harry had gone out together. I was alone with Sophia.

I cleared my throat. "I came to speak with you about a few things, actually."

She hummed, nodding her head. It seemed that she already knew that. I watched as she sat herself down across from me on a little stool, her gray hair wispy and flying into her eyes. I struggled with how to begin.

"What made you hate werewolves?" I blurted out.

Nice, I thought to myself, way to be tactful. Sophia seemed amused as if she could hear my inner monologue. Or perhaps, she guessed at it.

She settled back comfortably into her stool and watched as I brought the teacup to my lips.

"I was young, like you, but maybe a bit older when I first met the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Roman. He was a witch, like me, but much more powerful. He was convinced that we could change the world," she smiled at the memory of this man, "most young people are before they realize that the world is unbendable. But he wanted to try anyway."

"How?"

"There is a peace now between the different creatures that did not exist back then. Wolves and witches killed each other. Vampires and Faeries hunted and tormented humans. Roman wanted to change it all. He thought that wolves and witches needed to work together to protect humans. It was that idea that killed him."

Sophia stopped for a moment, and I blinked a little, so engrossed in her story that I forgot where I was. Nobody had ever told me about this history before. I couldn't imagine the dangerous world that she was describing.

"One of the alphas in West Acres, before Delia Joy and before Owein Heigl, fought against Roman and his ideas. But, Roman never stopped. He reached out to other packs and other witches in order to bring them together. This alpha, Orion, ripped him limb from limb in the woods one day, leaving him for the other animals and monsters of the forest. Roman and his ideas of peace between all creatures died with him."

I swallowed thickly at Sophia's tone of voice. It was growing harder and harder for her to continue telling the story, I could tell. She looked up at me with her unseeing eyes and I could see clear evidence of her pain. I could see her as a young woman, beautiful and in love, learning about the death of the person she thought she'd spent the rest of her life with. Only to have him torn from her by the one creature she hated.