Ashla - Leila's POV:
Eight, fourteen, twenty-two. The words echo around inside my head manically along with Luna's howling as she tries to find comfort with Storm who looks equally afraid of whatever those numbers equate to. Something that I can tell when I let my eyes meet Ash's he has no more of an idea about either. No one in the room seems to know on a conscious level but every stare I meet seems to beam back that same soul-deep trepidation I can feel slowly stealing like a weakness through my veins. Like silver poisoning and making rational thought almost impossible given how I can feel myself shaking where even Ash's gentle touch does little to alleviate my fear.
What's wrong? That's what I keep trying to ask with my eyes since I'm afraid to speak aloud and break whatever spell of silence that had spread across the room. Trapping us all inside it. I'm afraid to break in in case that serves to be the tipping point off of this absurd knife-point we all seem to be dancing on without knowing it. What's wrong? I risk asking Ash through our shared connection but he just frowns down at me, not losing that panicked look that has me shivering beyond what I can control until I feel the room start to mirror me. Showing that whatever little power was left inside me was close to being tripped.
Suddenly anxious I try to push it down but I can't do it on my own since the shivers keep progressing from hideable ones to full-on tremors that shake my small frame from head to toe. Ash notices that and holds me closer until some of the shivering dials down and I see the others in the room let out low sighs of relief. But that feeling's short-lived since we still have no idea what the numbers mean that still bounce around in my head like a disturbed hornet's nest. Eight, fourteen, twenty-two. What did those numbers mean and what did they lead to? Were they some sort of code? If so, what for? Was it a warning from the other side of this toxic, twisted game we were still playing? If so, from who and why?
Are you ok Lei? Hearing Ash's voice in my head grounds me more but can't stop the tremors that had started up again and kept shooting through me like stars and leaving me dizzy. It'll be ok, we'll figure this out and it'll be fine.
For how long? I ask, hearing the way my voice shakes. But it's not just from fear now. No, suddenly as if by magic, I'm freezing and unable to control myself. And not in a good way since I can feel my claws coming in and out of my skin along with a high ringing sound in my ears that seems to make me even dizzier the longer it lasts. What....what's wrong with me? I ask through chattering teeth since speaking aloud would have been out of the question. Ash looks confused but a new and unfamiliar tone of fear enters his voice and his eyes the longer the strange feelings rip through us both. Worse for him since he can feel what's happening to me but has no idea what it means. A-Ash? I try again but I can tell he has no idea what's wrong with me when he just holds me closer. But that's a bad idea since my skin's now so cold that his feels like an open flame. Something that has me mewling in pain slightly until he seems to register what it means and attempts to let go of me. But I just hold on and weather the pain since it makes me feel slightly more grounded to know he's close. Not that it does much for the-
Suddenly nauseous I lean enough out of his arms that he's still holding me but I won't do something stupid when thick, acidic-like bile rises in my throat and I twist away towards a bowl that Rosa's holding under my head where she's raced across the room with a fearful expression in her eyes. Barely able to thank her I feel the burning substance rise and throw it up silent, feeling how it scalds my throat as I do so. But the magic doesn't stop and I can feel Luna is pacing in a circle in my head since she's not forcing the shift and I didn't choose for it to happen. So why me?
What's happening to me, Ash? My mental tone is slightly stronger and I can tell he's looking for an answer to the witches around the room and Rosa especially since she's Bound into this quartet the way I was. Almost as if that's the trigger her eyes widen and the same feelings I can still tell I'm experiencing seem to show in her eyes as she staggers back towards Hunter who catches her halfway before she throws up as I did - both the brothers looking between me and Rosa with confused expressions? What's wrong with me and Rosa Ash? I try again but know that whatever he says won't have the magic.......shit.
Moaning once the pain spikes up and I feel black spots chase each other in circles around my eyes until I'm forced to close them. Only then the blessed reprieve of darkness does little to comfort me since it's tinged with bursts of light that look like stars exploding in a supernova. On and on the pain spirals around until I feel like passing out. Something that although the pain would allow it, something stops me. Almost as if someone's controlling a spell to pull out as much torture from me as possible. Something that I hope isn't true since I'm not strong enough to do it and live even with Ash's steady support by my side.
Breathing shallowly the room spins around and around, a sound not helped when I hear Rosa's soft breath before she faints, the thud of her body hitting the floor jarring me deep in my bones where I can still feel something dark and malicious roaming around. Not too dissimilar to when....
And that's when I blackout.
Ashla-Ash's POV:
Seeing Leila's eyes roll back shocks me enough that I slacken my grip around her slightly so that her body slips from my arms and hits the floor, her limbs splayed like the broken ones of a doll that's been contorted and then discarded when it no longer snaps back to its original shape. Just like Rosa had done when Hunter's reaction to her collapsing had been a little too late. Wasting no time I pick Leila up gently and rest her where her head can lean on my shoulder and my arms go around her more securely. Though that hurts since her skin now feels so cold it's as if I'm trying to hold onto a piece of ice rather than a human being. Her eyes keep moving and I can hear both her and Rosa moaning where Hunter's looking at me with a similar expression of confusion. What had just happened to the two of them? And why so fast?
"Eri?" I look to mine and Hunter's mutual friend to see her and Mara looking at each other with horrified expressions that have a sour feeling curdling inside me. "Eri? Mar? What happened?" I look between the two of them but neither seems willing to say anything until Mara speaks up from her spot near Eris's shoulder where she'd moved over to her coven leader. The two converse for a few seconds before Mara faces me. "Mar? Do you know what happened?" I ask as I hold Leila tighter the longer she twitches, until she vomits again, blood joining the purplish-brown and moonstone blue liquid already in the bowl I was now holding after Rosa fell ill with the same affliction as Leila was still suffering from and she passed it to me. "Mar?"
"We have a working theory, but that's all it is," She adds when she sees both mine and Hunter's expressions. Turning to my brother she looks him in the eyes before at Rosa whose supernatural traits seem to be flashing in and out of view. Same as Leila since I can see her claws and fangs coming in and out of view as well as feeling the sensation of her wings showing and retracting. "I hate to dig this up again but do you remember what happened to Rosa just before when your mother found her out the first time?"
Mara gestures to the moaning and shaking Rosa and I see a degree of pain flash in my brother's eyes that I don't think I'll ever see disappear fully thanks to my - sorry our - mother's paranoid craziness that resulted in damnatio memoriae. "Yea, I remember you said Rose was in trouble and when we got there," He looks to Eris and I see a degree of understanding pass into his eyes when he realises something. "It's the same, isn't it? The twos' reactions? The way it's...." He doesn't finish but that's because Mara's nodding and so is Eris, though both look confused. Frowning at him I know he feels the direction of my gaze since he looks over at me and drops whatever mental barrier he'd had up to keep me out, showing me what happened to Rosa before our mother found her proceeding damnatio memoriae. The same attack sequence playing in our heads with shocking clarity had me feeling sick.
"It's the same." I hear the resignation in my tone but know that there's not a lot I can do since I can't see from his memories what happened to stop whatever magical affliction had been targeting the girls for the past however long. "Eri? Do you know what happened to stop the attack?" Once again I'm looking to mine and Hunter's mutual friend in the hopes that she'd have an answer but she just bites her lip slightly and sighs. "Nothing?"
"Nothing I could do," Her eyes flash to Hunter who seems to remember something else before she speaks. "I just left her with Hunter and reminded him that if it's a magical affliction whoever cast it would have to run out of power. That and the sharing of strength that the two could do helped as well."
"So that's it!" My tone is irate but I know she can read the fear underneath. "That's all we just....just wait?!"
Eris sighs, "Ash I know you don't want to hear this but yea. That's all we can do since she doesn't have magic to combat the attack and Rosa's is too low still from having to heal from the Shadows before. Neither can fight it off so the best we can do is leave them with the two of you and hope it sorts itself out with time." I remain locked in a staring contest with her and she sighs, leaning into Phoenix with raised hands. "If it's a magical affliction it doesn't matter who cast it they'll tire eventually."
"Even Kali?" I shoot the question at her, seeing how she flinches from my anger. Though it's misdirected since it's not her I'm mad at. Sensing my anger she offers me a careful look and I sigh, trying to let go of some of my fear and anger that I'm wrongly directing at her. "Even Kali, Eris?"
"Even Kali," She replies before lapsing into silence and leaving us to wait. Wait and hope for the best.
Hours Later
Hours pass and neither girl moves but slowly the moans lessen and I can feel that the longer we'd been there Leila's shaking had stopped ever so slowly, her skin tone evening out to a more normal temperature since as a wolf she ran a slightly hotter than a normal human being. But she still didn't wake up. Not before Rosa at least, the older girl looks around until she sees Leila hasn't moved and she sighs. "Still no change Ash?"
"None," I reply, hearing the laconic tone come back into my voice as my control shakes at its foundations the longer Leila doesn't move. Tears come then, the ones I couldn't shed before and I know Rosa sees it when she sips off Hunter's lap and moves across the room towards me. "Help her, please. I can't sit here and do nothing. It's killing me, Rose."
She seems to see this and sighs, taking my hands from where my arms were still around the almost comatose girl on my lap and putting them against hers. Sparks shoot up my arms but I don't let go, knowing that whatever Rosa was doing was to help Leila. She then puts her hands over mine and I feel the sting of magic seconds later, though not moving since I know she's not the one orchestrating the spell.
A few more minutes of that pass before Leila inhales once with a sharp gasp and sits up, her panicked eyes finding mine and showing me the fear in them. Dropping my hands Rosa shakes as she moves over to Hunter who takes her back almost eagerly. Leila's arms go around my neck and I hold her closer, not willing to let her go as she cries softly into my shoulder. Anger rises inside me and I feel my hatred for Amber and the others deepen until my previous feelings of hatred towards her are just a single drop in the now churning, roiling ocean inside me.
Holding her gently I can see Hunter doing the same with Rosa who's shaking but for a different reason than before. And I can tell why since if we're supposed to defeat the other side of this game before our children are forced to be involved how are we supposed to do that - completely and without compromise - when we don't even know what they're capable of? When we don't know how far they're willing to take it so they can win?
Four Years Later
Huntalia - Rosalia's POV:
Ever since the show of power not long after the kids had been born Amber and the others had once again gone into hiding where they'd left us alone. At first, we'd been afraid. Not sure what she was trying to do. Or if that was just like when they'd gone into hiding for a few months before the kids were born only to try and magically kill both me and Leila no long after Dana and Kalli were born. But slowly we had to let go of that crippling paranoia. As the months turned into weeks. Then weeks into years. And before long four years had passed with little or no interaction between us and the other side of the board since they'd been silent.
In that time Mara had also found her partner for life - as had Chalice her Soulbound other half - but neither had kids. Yet. Whether or not they would have them later I can't say but we'd been so focused on what we needed to do to survive that we'd all but lost sight of having any more kids - besides the ones we already had. Not that the others minded since we'd tried to avoid bringing any other kids into the game we were still stuck playing since it just meant that they'd have to figure out how to take up the roles we'd all filled for so long. Roles that no kid, no matter their age or power should ever have to fill.
Besides me, Hunter, Ash and Leila the others we'd been sheltering had all gone back to their respective realms and homes since the war we'd been trying to stall for years seemed closer and closer to the surface. Something that if we were to avoid we'd have to be careful since we're walking blurred lines. Lines I'm afraid to cross but don't know how to avoid.
"Momma?" Kalli's voice in the doorway snaps my head out of the paper I'd been looking at in Hunter's office since he'd gone out with Ash to do something I never asked about, leaving me in charge with Sel and Leila. Seeing her standing in the doorway I can see that her sea-green - the green in them is the same emerald as Hunter's - and silver eyes flash with an emotion I can't read, the gold flecks she shares with me and Hunter shining like stars. "Momma, what are you doing?"
"Nothing baby girl come here," I responded, dropping the papers I'd been holding and seeing her streak towards me as a dark blur since she'd been moving so fast. Hurtling into my arms she almost would have knocked me over if not for the chair I'd been sitting on. "What's wrong sweetie, you seem upset," My natural maternal instinct rises when I see her troubled eyes, but what she says is not what I expect.
"You seem, sad momma," She says, "You and daddy both do," Her eyes swirl, the emerald green and dark blue of her eyes rippling to create a darker version of the sea-green eyes I'd originally seen her having all those years ago. Add to that the gold flecks she inherited from both me and Hunter I can also detect small amounts of amber, brown and violet swirling in her eyes behind the two dominant colours. But I hate that she can see how tense Hunter and I both are even after four years of relative peace. "What's making you sad mommy?"
"Nothing baby girl," I reply, hating lying to her on principle but in practice I know it's a necessary evil since if she knew what was bothering us it would shatter her four-year-old outlook on life. Something we swore as parents we wouldn't do since we wanted her to have a better life - meaning that Hunter and I had decided that we wouldn't tell her what happened -what she had to do - until she was older. When we couldn't protect her any longer and she would be dragged into it no matter what we wanted for her. Beyond that of a normal childhood since we'd both been deprived of that for different reasons. "Nothing, you need to worry your pretty little head over until you're much older and we can tell you how to take over and do what your father and I do."
Kalli shrugs but then rolls her eyes - looking a lot like either me or Ash when she did so - "But mommy that's so boring!" She sighs theatrically and I have to resist the urge to roll mine back. "Do I have to do it? Can't I do what Edana will do and be an advisor? Like swap roles with her" She mimes the action and I feel the love inside me grow. "Please,"
I kiss her head then and she squirms a little with four-year-old nerves before something must have registered with her since she stopped wiggling as much and just frowned at me as if trying to do what Hunter does every time I withhold something from him. A trick she probably picked up from her father. "No, it doesn't work like that baby unless you want Uncle Ash and Aunt Leila as your parents instead of -"
"NO!" Kalli's playful shout makes the lights flicker for a second before she collapses into peals of giggles that still make me smile when I hear Hunter's return, seconds before he comes into the doorway, his face set into a frown. "Hey, stop it," Kalli mumbles where I'd been tickling her until she saw Hunter upside down where she'd almost fallen off my lap. "Tell her to stop!" Kalli's giggles mean she can't even finish her sentence before she's slid off my lap and ran over to Hunter who hadn't been fast enough to move away from her so had to catch her. "Hi daddy, I missed you today. Mommy's being boring and thinking about jewels and numbers."
Kalli's words struck a chord with me since I hadn't been aware I'd thought about that today. I hadn't thought about it in years since whoever had manipulated our side of the board not long after Kalli and Dana had been born and tried to kill both me and Leila. Or at least wound us enough that we'd concede. All because we'd been fixating on three numbers that, like it or not, had been in the back of my mind ever since someone had mentioned it the first time I'd played a round of this game. But how had she known about the numbers I'd been thinking over?
How did she know Hunt? I think to him, seeing how his eyes find mine and he notices what I had. How had Kalli known what I was thinking about unless she'd been inside my head? But I knew her so I could usually tell when she was in there since I know both her and Hunter's presences like the back of my hand. How would she know something about the numbers we're still trying to decode? I - I never told her. Did.....did you?
I hate thinking that he may perceive that as me doubting him but I have to ask it to see if he was the one who had told her. He frowns but I can tell he didn't even before he confirms it. No, I never told her and I was careful to keep that thought away from where she could access it. Or at least where I thought she could. Maybe her telepathic reach is further than we thought? Hunter sounds remotely philosophical but I know it's to hide the fear underneath the calm he was using to try and make her feel better. But that doesn't work given Kalli's expression when she sees how the two of us had been silently conferring over her head.
"Stop doing that," She mumbles, sounding way older than her four years. I frown and see Hunter reflect the expression before he sits with her on his knees. "Stop shutting me out, I can help you. I - I know what the numbers mean." She fixes me with otherworldly bright eyes and frowns, trying to draw the truth out of me the way Hunter does. Yet another trick she probably learned from him. "I know what they mean and who said them. Both times."
"What numbers honey?" I ask her, seeing how Hunter chooses to remain silent. "Kalli, hon, what numbers?" Silently I hope she's not meaning the three that's looping inside my head - for the last almost I don't even know how long - but that illusion is shattered when she speaks again in her adorable four-year-old lisp.
"It was the numbers eight, fourteen, twenty-two." Kalli's easy recollection of the words makes my blood run cold and I see the mirror fear in Hunter's eyes when they meet mine across the room. "In your memories momma. I found them there. You both have them but you don't know why do you? Or who said them?" Her eyes seem to swirl and I see a shimmer of moonstone blue in the back of them that makes me shiver once before it disappears remarkably quickly.
"Do you know?" Hunter asks when I remain silent, Kalli's eyes now fixed on him rather than me so I can see the colours swirl around where she does the same with him as she did with me before. "Kalli, do you know what they mean love?"
"Yea, and who said them." She replies, her smile stretching ear to ear though it drops when she looks over at me again and clocks my sad expression. "It was first said by the girl with the dark hair. The one you don't like," Thinking she means either Laurel or Morgan she nods to my thoughts and I frown. And the second time? I wonder and she sighs, rolling her eyes in typical fashion. "The second time it was from someone you know. Like a sister or something?" She shrugs but it's enough to show me that it's Amber who told us the second time. Amber, Kali and the others.
"What does it mean hon?" I ask, hoping she won't say something I know would trip the balance inside me even now. "Kalli, honey, what is it?"
She frowns at me as if to say but you already know, don't you? And I frown. "It's for the weapon. Eight jewels - four court ones in the Faerie realm and four others, seven necklaces, seven keys - making fourteen jewellery items and 21 keys - some realm keys, some nature, some Faerie and some other ones. All scattered across the realms and needed to for one thing. To make the weapon that could destroy us all."