Athea led us to a room that was on the same floor as my parents'. It was very large, and consisted with beds for each individual witch. There was an empty shelf, waiting to be filled. We sat at a circular table. Athea and I sat together on the table while the others were on the opposite side of us.
"Now, Raven, we don't know much of what happened to you while you were with Julian. What we do know is that he's your mate, your father already explained that to us," I slightly frowned. That was personal. Why would my father tell them that?
"We know you were kept for three years also, and of course that you're the Ayrle Phoenix." One of the twins added.
"That's all true," I replied.
"Alright. But we need to know about the specifics. What really went on when you were with him," Linda spoke. I sighed and rubbed my knuckles. Here we go, I thought. Time to reveal everything.
My sight caught on Emily, the little girl. I didn't want her to know. She was just a child, it would scar her for life. I didn't need to ruin her innocence.
"What I'm about to say isn't really suitable for children," I gestured at Emily, who had her eyebrow raised in question. "I think it would be best if Athea took her outside while we talked," I said carefully, trying not to hurt the little girls feelings. I noticed that I failed at it, since her bottom lip trembled a bit.
"Of course, it's fine," Linda agreed. Athea got up the same time as Emily. Athea held her hand and started to walk to the entrance of the room. "I'm just going to stay outside with her. You can tell me the story later right?"
I bit my lip. "Sure,"
I turned back to the four witches. Linda, the twins, and the girl with blue highlights, whom I still didn't know the names of. I guess I'd ask later.
And so I started from the beginning.
"My mate kidnapped me, it's as straight up as that," I whispered, feeling my voice raise with every word. Feelings of rage and anger were coursing through me. "He wasn't gentle, nor was he kind. His words were rude and his grip was bruising,"
A flutter of gasps sounded around me. I smirked down at the table. They couldn't believe my mate would do that to me.
"I don't understand- Isn't he your mate?" The girl with streaked hair asked, her green eyes clouded with confusion.
"Yes, he is,"
"Then why the hell would he do that?" One of the twins fumed. Her eyebrows were scrunched up together and plain rage was written on her face.
"I'm getting to it," I replied, calmly. She nodded.
All four of them were confused, and I could see why. A werewolf couldn't hurt his mate, it just wasn't possible. Their wolf wouldn't let them. Werewolves loved their mate, too bad mine didn't, and that puzzled them all.
"He injected a drug in me-"
"You have to be kidding me!" Both the twins said in unison.
"I'm completely serious," I said, meeting there eyes.
I noticed Linda staring at the table, with a blank face. I could see her thinking hard about what I've said so far. It didn't make any sense to her, and she was trying to decipher it all. I could practically see the gears moving in her head. But I wasn't sure that she would figure out my mate's body was possessed.
"He took me to his pack house, where he lived. I was kept in the basement and rarely brought upstairs. He- I-" And this was where my voice started to crack with pain. The girl with blue streaks squeezed my hand, and I ripped it away from her, as if I got shocked by electricity.
"I- I'm sorry!"
"It's fine," She gave a small smile, but underneath it I could tell she was surprised by my actions.
"Julian - my mate - tortured me everyday," I sighed. There, I let out. It was no longer my little secret.
To proof it, not that I necessarily had to, I bunched up my shirt and showed them the scars on my back. My werewolf genes healed my body of any scars and burns, but the ones on my back were too much to heal. They went incredibly deep. One day I had made him furious that he took his belt out of his pants and whipped it on my back repeatedly.
A tear slid down my cheek. I hastily rubbed it away.
Suddenly a cold finger touched my back, and I did every thing in my power to not cringe away. The finger slid down the biggest indented scar I had. It ran from the middle of my back to the small of my back. I turned my head around and looked at who did it.
It was one of the twins. "Sorry... It's just- It's just so deep and long. I can't believe this happened to you. I- I wish I couldv'e done something about it."
"It's alright. At least it's over," I said, slightly smiling. It was over. And if the fates were on my side, I woudn't be seeing that bastard again.
I sat down, comfortable on the chair. I waited for there questions.
"He did this for three years? Every single day?" Linda spoke, for the first time.
"Yes. Well, he did have pack meetings and what not, those days he couldn't do it. So mostly every day," I responded.
She nodded, her wise eyes focused on the table again as she thought over my words.
"He didn't want you,"
A bolt of pain went through my chest. It wasn't that he didn't want me... It was that he didn't have the chance to because of the god awful possession. Whenever I thought about it, it would leave me in tears and an even heavier heart.
"I don't understand... why didn't he just kill her?" One of the twins whispered to the other.
The blue streaked girl heard. "Don't say that. It's rude Devlin,"
"Sorry," She apologized, a faint red blush seeping over her skin.
"It's alright," I was used to people speaking about me as if I wasn't there, and I was also used to people being rude about me and to me, specifically Julian.
"But you're right. I don't know why he didn't kill me. I was obviously a menace to him, and getting rid of me would be a great thing for him. Or maybe he had a thrill of making me suffer, making me want to wish I was dead, but not giving me the wish like I expected him too,"
"Sadistic," Devlin muttered under her breath.
"Yes, sadistic," I added.
Linda looked up. "You're wrong, halfway,"
"What do you mean?" I stared into the old woman's eyes. What was I so wrong about?
"You're the Ayrle Phoenix Raven, there's no way he could kill you. The only way you could die is if another Ayrle Phoenix killed you, and there can only be one in a lifetime. You're strong Raven, you're pure. The blood of a Phoenix runs through you. He just couldn't kill you," Linda explained, with pride in her voice. Pride for me.
I didn't know what to say. I sat there, baffled, and staring at my hands while thousands of thoughts ran through my head.
"There's one more thing," Linda stated. I looked up at her soft brown eyes.
"He did torture you because he liked it. But that's not it, there's something else. Julian knew you were the Ayrle Phoenix. He knew what you could do, which is overthrow Celia. He knew you had powers, he knew they would be coming in, and to make the process and transformation slow down, he resorted to torturing you,"
I perked up in my seat. "Do you mean... the reason he tortured me is because he needed to delay the transformation into becoming an Ayrle Phoenix? Because he didn't want my powers to come in?"
"I am saying exactly that," She said. "When you're in stress, when you're body is being tortured everyday, when you constantly cry and feel like ending your life, the transformation won't work. The same applies to a werewolf shifting. They won't be able to do it for the first time if they're in that type of turmoil and trouble,"
Suddenly things clicked into place. Julian - the possessed one - had me kidnapped so I wouldn't transform into an Ayrle Phoenix and get my powers because he needed Celia to keep the throne. He couldn't let me, the Ayrle Phoenix, kill her.
If I wasn't an Ayrle Phoenix, my mate wouldn't be possessed by an entity, I could've known the real him. I could've grown old with him. I could've lived a happy life. I could've had beautiful healthy children with him. He could've became the Alpha of this pack. We would've loved each other. He would've held me in his arms and whispered sweet things in my ear.
I would never be scared of him.
Everything happened because I was an Ayrle Phoenix. A storm started in me, mixed with hatred and fury. Instantly, I hated what I was. Being an Ayrle Phoenix was a curse to me, it was no where near being a good thing.
Sobs racked through me violently. My face was buried in my hands. Convulsions of pain hit my body and I brought my knees up and rocked back and forth on the seat.
I don't want to an Ayrle Phoenix. I don't want to be an Ayrle Phoenix. I don't. I don't!
A chair screeched towards mine and I slowly looked up. The girl with blue streaks was there, a tender look on her face.
"Raven," She whispered. I looked away.
"Listen to me," I didn't turn my head.
"I know you feel like shit right now - I actually do too. But you need to look at the bright side of things. Focus on the good,"
I stood up and whipped my head to hers. "There is no bright side!" I screamed in her face. She got up and took a step back. "There is no good!" I yelled. My hands clenched into balls and I got the sudden urge to punch her in the face for saying those atrocious words.
"Raven!" One of the twins called. I ignored her.
"Raven, look at where you are!" The blue streaked girl spoke, catching my attention. I didn't know what the hell she was talking about.
"You're in our parents' pack house. You're safe. Despite all the horrible things that happened to you, you came back home to your parents. You got away from the torture, you defeated Julian in a way by escaping his holds! You made it back, Raven,"
"That's a good thing," She whispered.
I felt myself calming down as I thought over her words. She was right, it was a good thing. Coming back to my parents was the best thing that happened to me in my whole entire life.
But being an Ayrle Phoenix still made me lose my mate.
"You're right," I sighed. "I'm sorry for-"
"It's okay. I don't blame you," She grinned at me.
I sat back down. Liquid black eyeliner was smeared down my face because of my tears. I rubbed my face profusely, getting rid of the pigment.
"There's one more thing," Linda said.
"What?"
"We all understand that he tortured you to stop you from getting the powers to overthrow Celia. But why? Why would your own mate want to stop you from being a full Ayrle Phoenix. That doesn't make sense," She said, rubbing a finger over her temple.
"I know why," I told her.
"Why?" Devlin's twin said.
"My mate is not actually my mate. My mate was possessed, and that's why he was able to hurt me, because it wasn't actually him," I explained.
"You shoud've mentioned that before," Linda said softly.
"I know, I just didn't know how to. Anyways,"
"A week or so before I escaped, Julian was acting really weird. His eyes would become light grey and suddenly he would start apologizing. At first I found it so confusing. But I caught on that when his eyes turned light grey, it was like he was turning into a different person. Maybe the real Julian learned to take control of his body, but for a short time. Once, he actually held me. By then I felt convinced that Julian was possessed.
"I had a dream too. My parents told me it was an Ayrle Phoenix dream. When I fell asleep, it was like I was an astral projection. My body suddenly went somewhere, to Celia's realm, and I saw Julian and her talking about me. At first, I thought it was just a crazy dream. But then the next day I actuallysaw Celiawith Julian at the pack house that I was kept in.
"I think- I think she was there because Julian told her that he was having some trouble with the possession. Celia's a witch, and I think she put a possession spell on Julian. I think she was there to strengthen the spell so the real Julian could never take control again,"
"Wow- wow. That's... a lot to take in," Devlin mumbled. "It must be so hard on you," I nodded, in fear that if I spoke I would burst into tears. The thought of having a mate was coming back to me.
"Celia must've found out about the next Ayrle Phoenix, she knew you would kill her. She had your mate possessed, ordered him to kidnap and torture you, all to make sure you don't get your powers and you don't kill her," Linda relayed.
"Yes," I murmured.
"Why did she have to have your mate torture you? Why not have one of her followers do it?" Devlin's twin asked.
"Celia's sadistic, Lara. Remember all those awful things she's done..." Devlin answered.
"That and the fact that having her mate torture her would bring more emotional abuse. Abuse would make her transformation delay, right? No one wants their mate to hurt them," The blue streaked girl told Devlin.
"You're right..."
"Anaphine," She smiled.
"Anaphine," I said. "I like that name,"
"Thank you," She smiled.
A silence settled over us. This was the perfect time to ask what the first step would be to defeating Celia. I asked Linda.
"That depends. When was the last time you shifted into your wolf?" She inquired.
My face blanked and my blood rushed.
"Last time was three y-years," I stuttered.
"That's going to be a problem right?" Anaphine asked.
"Yes," Linda replied. She turned to me and spoke. "Your werewolf genes are almost gone. If they leave, you wont be able to get your powers, which leads to not defeating Celia. You see, Ayrle Phoenix genes mix with werewolf genes. If there are no werewolf genes, there's no mixing and you won't get your powers at all. If you shift now, your werewolf genes will come back and become more prominent. They will form again, allowing the two sets of genes to mix. Your powers will arrive and your senses will be more heightened then a regular werewolf,"
"That... sounds great. I want to get my powers to defeat Celia. So the first step is shifting?" I asked.
Linda nodded.
"When?"
"Today,"
"What!" Is she serious?
"It may be too late tomorrow, child. We need to do this fast. Your werewolf genes are in danger,"
"I understand. But I know it will hurt as hell..." I pondered. Your bones realign themselves, which is not pleasant. You grow a tail, ears, a muzzle, and so much more. It's like lava is being poured inside your body and you can't do anything to stop it. I know it'll be even worse for me since I haven't done it in a long time.
"It's the price that you have to pay to become an Ayrle Phoenix," Lara spoke.
"I've already paid to much prices," I snapped at her.
"Sorry I-"
"It's okay,"
"I know a werewolf in the pack that helps young kids shift for the first time. He can help you with it. I think he'll be good for you," Lara explained.
"Who is he?" Anaphine asked.
"His name's Griffin," Lara responded.
I felt my face turn pale. Please don't let him be the Griffin I know, I thought. It probably was, seeing there's not a lot of people who have the name Griffin.
"Does he ah... have green eyes, a muscular build and dark hair," I hesitantly asked.
"Yes! How do you know him?" Lara rejoiced.
"He helped me escape... he helped a lot with just... everything," I answered. Oh, and he also made me feel insignificant and not worth it, I recalled.
"Then that settles it. We'll have your parents locate him and ask to help you shift," She said, getting up. The others got up too, and then I did.
They walked to the door with me following behind, reluctant to find Griffin and shift, because of the pain that would come along with it. Even though I wasn't with Julian, I would still be feeling an immense amount of pain.
Physical and emotional.
If you liked this chapter make sure to vote and comment! I know a bunch of stuff was pushed onto you in this chapter. If you have any questions leave them in the comments. I'll either address you personally or address the question in the upcoming chapter.
Oh, and about cast lists. Personally, I HATE cast lists. I feel like you should imagine the characters the way you want, and how they are described in the book. Someone shouldn't tell you how the characters are supposed to look like. There've been thousands of times when an author came up with the cast list and totally ruined the story and made me not want to read it. I wanted to keep my own image of the character while I read the book, but the picture of the actor the author had chosen kept coming in. And let me tell you, it was damn annoying. So that is why I while never be having a cast list in any of my stories. :)
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