In the cold winds waving around the fortress walls, the smell of charcoal and fire could be smelt from the braziers as they alight while night falls among them, the hunters patrolling the walls tightly with surprising numbers. Each one tipped with a bow and sword, the men knew how to fight, they were smart and could completely outnumber a single person.
At least those were the thoughts of a prowling Shaun, who had stolen the bow from Mags for his rescue mission, knowing after everything that happened they were all surely alive and hopefully, unharmed. Though he recognised this as wishful thinking, he still had hope in his gut, with a stone cold expression under the hooded shroud he also took on the way out, blending in with the branches he perched on just outside the fortress walls.
After scouting for a few moments he takes count of the braziers on the walls, knowing it was their only source of light at night, taking them out would be strategic but reckless, he also wouldn't be able to see either.
Then after climbing higher unnoticed he slips quick glances lower to see the courtyard with all the slaves at work, and the cages set up along the wall at the far end, with his family locked inside, the only person missing was Kyle.
"No..." Shaun whispers to himself, not in distain, but in a flat tone as if willing it not the be the case they executed his brother on the whim that he was a witch.
Seeing enough, he slips off the highest branch and into the fortress itself, arming himself with the knife he had sliced the hunter who tried to kill him with, and crouched low so nobody could see his smaller figure. Weaving in and out of shadows that only he could fit into, he was still angry at the hunters for trying to kill him; for almost succeeding.
He brandishes the knife in his hand as a stray hunter wanders slowly away from his post, hearing a commotion happening in the courtyard. Taking his only opportunity, he rushes silently and slashes at the hunters ankles and curving his hand around to clasp his mouth shut as he muffled in cries of pain. Flipping the knife in his fingers and bringing it back up, shoving the knife quickly into the hunters exposed jugular, killing him rather quickly.
Moving on from the body, peeking over the half wall into the courtyard to see a small and young boy being cornered by three hunters after he tried freeing Zayne, his foot looked broken from trying to slip from his cuffs, and watching the display angered Shaun beyond the point of stealth, even if he was outnumbered, he couldn't stand by and watch the boy die.
Nocking a blue arrow into the bow, the moment it touched the string it began to hum with power in Shaun's hands, the string slowly turning the same colour as the arrow from the middle to the very ends of it, swirling the colour through the ancient bows carvings.
Shaun felt amazing when he nocked it, he almost didnt want to let go, but alas, the arrow flies fast and cuts through the air as it hits the hunter in the middle of the trio, the back of the head erupts in a raging bomb of electricity, spreading to the hunters who each wore chainmail and the other hunters around them in a chain of at least six. After the shot hit, all hunters eyes were on Shaun, advancing in a dangerous wave.
Aiming another arrow he didnt have time to check, instantly releasing it in a green arc, colliding with a hunter at the front of the group which explodes in a massive puff of green smoke. As it consumes the hunters, they choke and vomits the stairway to Shaun was blocked by a mass of dead hunters.
Seeing more hunters coming his way along the wall, he looks to the boy he saved, staring at the show with an awestruck expression. Shaun throws the knife silently to him as it lands neatly by his feet. As the boy takes the knife he rushes to the wolves locked away and begins to pry at the lock with it, leaving just enough time to nock an arrow and shoot the yellow arc into the sword of a charging hunter.
The blast was a bright light that blinded everyone on the battlefield, including Shaun. He rubs his eyes to regain his vision but he's grappled from behind, thrashing and digging his teeth into the fingers, a growl escaping Shaun's teeth as the fingers chomp off and allow Shaun to escape, stumbling to the stone floor in a grasp for the knife he dropped.
But the hunter grasps forward and turns Shaun onto his back with a thud, aiming his sword directly at his heart and pulling back to plunge.
"NO!" He yells in protest before a massive pair of jaws enclose over his head with a large chomp, watching as the hunters body is thrashed away, it was one of his family, and by the looks of the black fur, it was Zayne who saved him.
"Zayne...where is my brother?" he asked, looking past him to see everyone else was now free except for Cara. Who still remained in her cage curled up in a ball.
He growls angrily and looks to the building, Shaun realised they were keeping him inside and nods to Zayne who races ahead with Shaun, fighting off anyone else that stood in their way, and killing them justly.
After what felt like forever searching rooms and hallways, they found a dungeon style staircase leading down into a chamber with a faint red glow at the bottom. Without much hesitation, Shaun leads down with Zayne just behind him, the sound of fighting outside with the freed slaves and Alyssa was slowly fading away. And the only thing that could be heard was Shaun's footsteps and Zaynes claws clacking against the stone steps. Shaun knew Zayne couldn't speak in his current form, but he could tell by the eyes that bore into the back of his head that he noticed the change...the weapon.
As the two reach the very bottom step they got a shock when they stare into the gaping chamber, the red glow the two saw at the top of the stair case was emanating from the torches, which oddly looked to be shimmering with runic symbols floating around the flames.
Shaun had no time to stop so he continued, looking on into the far back of the chamber to see a large double door, shackled shut and a few doors to the side of it, one to the left and one to the right.
"I cant waste these arrows...and the torches...they cant be a coincidence"
Zayne growls as he begins shifting back to his human form, making sure to keep his front facing away from Shaun. He stood looking at the entrance they came from, while Shaun gazed at the shackled door with gaining curiosity.
"How...how are you alive?" Zaynes voice spoke out to Shaun, it was crackly and hoarse.
"I got very lucky...Mags came back..."
"Mags?!"
"I know...I thought after what we did she left us for good, but she clearly has a soft spot for me and Kyle"
Zayne ponders for a few minutes before sighing with relief.
"Kyle's gonna be thrilled you're alive..."
"That's if he's alive..."
The hair on the back of Zaynes neck stand up in anger at his remarks, Kyle couldn't be dead, he would've felt something by now, a sign or a feeling...anything.
"No...No you're wrong...he's alive" I say in a dark tone, leaving Shaun in a tense silence.
"We'll see...as far as I'm concerned...these hunters are my main priority-"
"Over your own Brother?!" Zayne had snapped, rushing in a swivel and grasping Shaun around his forearm, spinning him around to face him.
Shaun was taken aback but rips his arm away from Zaynes grip and scowls at him.
"You think that Kyle didnt bring this on himself?! his stupid plan with the oil...how he antagonised the hunters...how he continued to dig into magic even though it made a massive target on all of our backs!?"
"He protected us!" Zayne protested, but it wasn't enough.
"HE LED THEM STRAIGHT TO US!!"
The silence was deafening, Shaun did care about his brothers safety, and he didnt know why he burst out in anger at Zayne when the real reason behind his rescue was his family, not killing the hunters. Zayne was also taken aback by his persistence to anger.
"I-"
"We should split up...you can get whatever you came here for...Ill look for Kyle" Zayne cuts him short and growls again once his wolf form makes a reappearance. opening the door and walking through with his tail swishing rather sassily into the dark corridor while Shaun takes the other door to the right, splitting away from each other and onto their own paths.
Meanwhile outside, after being freed, Alyssa fends off the remainder of the hunters with the help of the slaves who stayed behind for their revenge, Milo, the young boy who freed them tried to convince Cara that she should be fighting...but nothing seemed to faze her.
"ArGGHH!!" She cried when the hunter she was pursuing in her half-human form, elongated and razor sharp claws still attempting to swipe as he pressed the flat side of his silver blade against her skin, boiling it under its glint.
Though they managed to hold off as many as they could, the more they killed, the more hunters would pop up from the fortress, armed and already aiming, soon enough the courtyard was full to the brim with subdued slaves while Alyssa remained on the walls, slicing throats and throwing men 30 feet to their deaths over the high walls. As they begin to get surrounded, Nobody noticed the moon coming out from behind the clouds shrouding it, the moonlight catching Alyssa's eye just in time.
She makes an inaudible gasp, realising it was a full moon.
She takes count of how much she had eaten in the coming days up to this moment and feels as if she was in control, but after the hunters had circled them with spears and swords at the ready. But the only person who noticed Cara in her cage was Mio, watching in fear as she grows past the rags she was wearing, the deep maroon fur of her wolf starts to pop on her skin at rapid rates. The growling was so loud and deep that everybody soon gave in and finally looked.
"Everyone..." Alyssa speaks low and calmly, keeping her arms wrapped around a small clump of people behind her, protecting them from the coming slaughter as Cara only continues to grow larger, standing upon her hind legs, her wolf form was now a bulking mass of muscle and red, panting heavily while the moonlight shone onto her blood red eyes "Back away from the cage..."
But the hunters refused to listen, advancing on the small clump of slaves being surrounded, choosing to ignore the caged Alpha. Alyssa was so sure of what was going to happen, she immediately rushes the hunters to their surprise, managing to disarm one and grasp his spear delicately in her hands.
"RUN!" She yells to the slaves as they spilt in multiple directions in escape, fending off the incoming attacks while Milo stares at Cara in a mixture of awe and fear. The strength that Cara possessed was like nothing he had ever seen, witnessing her grasp the bars of the cage and bending them as if they were nothing but air in her path.
Stepping out of her cage with a guttural growl that shook the dirt her paws collided with.
And like lightning she strikes, sending multiple enemies and friends in her way soaring, Alyssa had no idea what to do as she watches her mother lacerate bodies with ease and feasting upon the kills like a wild animal. The full moon had taken full control and had trapped Cara in its serenading light.
In her murderous rampage, she took little notice of who she sunk her teeth into, so long as it bled, she attacked it.
Alyssa was throws far when Cara charges the group of hunters she had been tussling with, rolling in the snowy dirt as Milo quickly runs to her aid.
"We should run" he pleads, gripping her arm in great fear of Cara.
"Yeah I got that part..."
Alyssa stands wearily with his help and ushers him to a door leading inside to the fortress, the deeper the two went they could still hear the roars and screams from outside. Her side burned from where the silver had burnt he flesh, making her slower than before and having to lean on the young boy for support.
In the depths of the fortress elsewhere, Shaun hadn't found anything but strange rooms leading nowhere but to dead ends and corners. The place was like a labyrinth and each turn Shaun took was a step in the wrong direction. Zayne was also in the stages of getting lost, after trying to find his way back after colliding with his own dead end, he turns around to discover the door he had entered was now gone, leading deeper and deeper into the maze they had all found themselves trapped in.
Alyssa and the boy were somewhere on the second floor, whereas Zayne and Shaun were located on the ground floor.
But high up on the very spire of the fortress was where they were all intending to go, where the Lord of the Reign awaits them, with Kyle in hand.
During Zaynes sprinting through the corridors fitted with blood red carpets stretching from end to end, torches and paintings hung where he ran, and the faster he got, the more flames of the torches would get brighter and bolder, threatening to engulf Zayne in its deadly trap. Where as Shaun had finally encountered his first trap, blocking his path was a platoon of heavily armoured hunters, holding what looked like a pentagram symbol on a gold medallion hanging daintily from one of their hands, a platinum chain, swinging it back and forth.
With each swing it would shimmer with a wet shine, the medallion made an ear splitting noise that only Shaun was able to hear, sending him to the floor holding his ears in frustration and the ringing made him dizzy and his vision was slowly getting hazier.
Without thinking, he tried to shoot an arrow, landing it in the ceiling just above the advancing platoon. The explosion created a geyser of rushing water, it wasn't stopping as it washed away the hunters with the force of the strongest typhoon, the corridor was filling rapidly with water and with limited options, he rushes into the nearest door, barging it from the other side to stop the rushing water from entering.
Alyssa and the boy were the only ones who hadn't run into anything while they were inside the fortress, but they had only more to worry about as the sounds of howling came rushing down the cobbled halls, the seemed to be an incline and the two were heading further down in silence. The boy clung to her as if she was his sister, she clung to him imagining Zayne as a younger pup, that he was safe and hadn't rushed head first into danger.
"Where are we going?..." Milo asked her.
"Anywhere away from my mum...she'll kill anything she sees while the moon shines full"
Milo didnt know what to say. He never imagined he'd be free of his shackles, the silver preventing him from healing, his previous broken foot was now more of a sprained ankle to him.
"What's your name?" she asked him as she hobbles with him in her left arm.
"Milo..."
"Alyssa..."
"What if-" he goes to ask but she hold her hand up.
"Hush...hear that?"
Alyssa keeps him quiet as she perks her ears trying to catch the source of the noise she heard, then as she gets closer to some barred cells in the deepest part of the fortress, she hears familiar growls of anger and pain, her eyes widening.
"Daddy?!"
She rushes out of Milos grip and turns the corner to find her worst fears had come true, her father Adrian was chained up against the wall with silver chains, and was thrashing wildly as his full moon phase had appeared, the grey fur was frayed and burnt around where his silver shackles laid. It was hard to watch for Alyssa, he was in so much pain, but if she released him it could spell disaster for her and Milo.
"Is that...your dad?"
"Yes..." Tears had formed in her eyes and rolled past her cheeks in a hot tempered expression of rage. The howls from the corridor grew closer and Milo looked on into the dark abyss, hearing the thudding footsteps of the incoming werewolf own the cold and rotting steps to the dungeons they were in.
He tugs on her arm but she doesn't move or respond. All she could do was stare at Adrian with the haunting expression, they didnt feed him, and tortured him with silver.
"They'll all pay for what they've done..."
"Alyssa we need to leave"
"What?" She says finally acknowledging Milo in her trance. Before she noticed he wasn't looking her, but the open door way that stood a now blood drenched Cara in all her glory, Her claws were dripping with copious red and her snout bared her teeth in an insidious glare at the two standing in front of the cell. Her eyes were still red with fury, and her jaw leaking with a gloopy mixture of saliva and gore.
Even as the standoff lasts forever she takes only a step before Adrian's snarling catches her attention, then as the two lock eyes, they stop thrashing, and growling and baring their teeth. A disturbing silence filling the room, then without warning, she rips the bars of the cell away and walks to Adrian's hanging form on the wall, sniffing at the silver cuffs around his wrists and his ankles.
Take the best action she could think of, Alyssa edges along the wall away from her parents while they were distracted, Clinging to Milo and pushing hi up the stairs first and following right behind him, thankfully sneaking past the two before any real damage was done.
"Why did she not notice us?" Milo asked under his breath.
"Even when the moon takes control, nothing in the world could make you forget your soulmate"
And with that, the two edge closer into the darkness above the stairs while Cara gets to work on freeing her mate, her world.
*
While all the chaos folds outside, Kyle was still trapped in his dream world, unable to find a way out of his fathers tight grasp on him. In the spire where his body lay suspended in air with his father knelt just below him, a pulsing yellow aura surrounded him and Kyle in a dome like structure, completely entranced and unaware to his surroundings.
The family looking for the two were still occupied by their own traps, Alex had clearly planned for this to happen. But as his face drips with sweat its clear he cant hold Kyle any longer as the pulsing yellow aura around them flickers and fades. With a swift gasp his eyes open and he loses his control over Kyle, sending him sprawling against the floor with a sudden burst of orange.
Kyle however stayed suspended in mid-air, unfazed and still in a trance like sleep. Alex looks up and his scorch marks looked sore and agitated.
"That boy keeps overwhelming me...how is he so powerful?!"
"Patience..."
The voice echoed from the darkness, an unseen figure in the upper reaches of the ceiling, masked in darkness.
"But we're short on time, do you hear the chaos outside?! this is your doing!"
The voice did not speak, instead Alex slowly rose from the red marble as if he was being pulled, kneeling hard onto the floor with his head pointed firmly to the ground. Shaking under the extreme pressure he was fighting.
"Continue...I will ensure he does not wake"
Even though he wanted to fight back the knowing force, he relents and returns back to his position and projecting himself back into the mindscape Kyle was trapped in. He manifests a body and steps into the room with the bed and snowy window, the outside dark and the torchlight illuminating the room, but Kyle was nowhere to be seen.
"Where are you boy? you cant keep kicking me out...I'll always come back"
"Then that'll be your mistake"
From behind him Kyle bursts from the corner he hid in, shrouded by a veil of invisibility, a complicated spell he needed time to manifest. Going for the best weak spot he could grab.
His eye socket, clinging inside and gouging the eye with all his might, jamming his thumb to the very back of the sockets walls. Alex erupts in a cry, trying to thrash him off his back, slamming him into the wall behind him, the blood drips onto the floor with gushing intensity, rushing forward and seizing Kyles neck with his bear-like grip, Alex was twice the size of him and his fingers were rough from the age old fighting he had endured.
"You may be my son...but I wont accept your insolence any longer!"
"Ill never be your son...I'D RATHER DIE!"
Kyle's finger tips glowed with a pulsing purple beat, jamming the fingers straight into his fathers temple.
"Menhns Imperium!" He yells through his tight throat, the string of his voice hoarse and strained
The jolt of magic surges through Alex's head like swarming flies, sticking to his braincells and willing them to his bidding. As the spell works its magic, Kyles vision slowly goes blind with a flashing white light, Alex's body disappearing, and new eyes opening.
Kyle looked through the open eyes and looked down at Alex's body, his hands large and his right eyes was bleeding profusely, looking up at his own suspended body in mid-air.
"Why did you stop old man?"
Kyle's attention immediately shifts to the ceiling, seeing the hooded figure in the darkness, the rage inside him driving him to scowl.
"Oh...its you...well I must admit I hadn't expected you to use such...controversial magic" The voice was female, and dark. Like she had experienced a lot of pain and suffering.
"I do what I must to survive..."
Kyle noticed the yellow aura in her hands, similar to the one around his body.
"And it seems you're in my way..." Kyles voice wasn't his own, but the venom that spat from it was all him. The woman seemed to chuckle to herself, leaning against a pillar atop her nest.
"That's exactly what mother said when the old man got in her way...are you going to do the same to me little brother?" Kyle was frozen, the anger that had once fuelled him was slowly dissipating and his body was falling to the ground on her command.
"Melia?!"
The woman hops down from the beam she stood, landing elegantly just away from him. Then without warning Kyles consciousness was thrown from the puppet and back into his own body which laid upon the floor.
Shooting up, Kyle places his hands on the cold marble floor and stands up to his feet, looking at the masked woman waiting for her to confirm what he was afraid of.
"In the flesh~"
Kyle didnt know how to react, angry his sister would believe the word of their father or sad that this is the first time they've met face to face. She reaches up to take off her mask as Alex comes back to his senses, scrabbling about in his body, looking incredulously at Kyle.
"You...you used-"
"Yes...and I'm not afraid of other spells either..." Kyle replies to him, looking back at his father with a glare that cut him in half.
"How is that you can know spells that aren't in her book?" Melia asked above Kyle's threats, he face now shining in the light, her platinum blond hair was shaved on one side and her eyes were a beautiful violet now.
Kyle didnt have an answer for this, clearly Melia didnt know as much a she let on, but persisted in her questioning.
"How could you...you knew how much she sacrificed for us and you still chose his side?" Kyle points at her accusingly.
"Lets not act as if we're really family Kyle...do you even know what you are...what we both are?"
The amount of questions barrelling through his mind was so immense he had to clutch his head from the sheer headache of it all.
"You see, witch birth isn't like normal birth Kyle...its twisted to its own rules and the sooner you realise that, the better"
"What are you talking about?!"
"Twins, that's the factor mother forgot about, when a witch is pregnant, all births are twins and when witches started to die out, their offspring became less of an extension of genes, but an exact replica...dont you see, You think your connection to her was because she was your mother...You think I chose fathers side because im Daddy's little girl" Her sentence ends in laughter, Alex had already backed away to safety in the corner of the spires walls.
Kyle could feel tears rolling down his face, unable to comprehend what she was telling him, the anger rising again, flickering of embers could be heard in his ears.
"You aren't her son Kyle...you ARE her"
"Stop it, you're wrong!...where is my brother!?..."
Melia takes a step back and her face crumples in genuine sadness, looking up at Kyle with eyes he knew held an answer he couldn't bear to hear, feeling the shakiness in his hands tremble with fear.
"He's dead Kyle..."
Kyles eyes widen and at once, as if a pin dropped, Kyles face contorts in anger and grief.
"NOOO!"
Kyles voice quakes the ground around him, the sparks and flickers of embers that had swarmed around his hairline had now grown to an immeasurable size, the very strands of hair alighting like magma and folding into a gorgeous flame, spreading around his body while the fire burst from his eyes like flames in a furnace.
Without any hesitation he starts to send a torrent of fire balls and whips in her direction, hitting nothing as she deflects it all with a simple wave.
"There you are~" she says with a smirk, the laugh lines on her face deeply creased like the other wrinkles on her face, she was visibly older and her experience with magic showed.
She starts attacking with her own spells, but nothing could make its way through Kyles blazing flame. His entire body glowed like a sun, the room only grew hotter and hotter as the twins fought like animals with each passing spell gracing the walls with rumbles and scorch marks. down below, the fortress shook with each spell that was fired, causing Shaun to trip while running through the hallways in an attempt to make it to the top of the tower.
Zayne hadn't received better treatment, after taking a break to lick his wounds the building shook, and all sense of Kyle had come back to him, his scent was readily available and he could finally feel him again. Sprinting at the closest opportunity in the direction the scent was leading him, coming in contact with a stair case just in the middle of a long stretched hallway.
The sound of footsteps could be heard from his left, seeing Alyssa and a boy running around the corner in a hurry, the siblings see each other and Alyssa smiles, but only for a fraction of a second before Both Cara and Adrian in their full moon forms come sprinting after them. Zayne curses in his mind and waits for Alyssa and the boy to catch up before he lets them go up the staircase first, leaving himself with the other two raging werewolves that were his parents.
"Dont stop running, ill keep them distracted" Zayne commands them as their parents edge closer and closer.
"What about Kyle and Shaun?!" Alyssa asks as she takes a small glance back at her brother.
"Whatever happens I'll see you later, just GO!"
Zayne takes off in the other direction, his parents sprinting after him murderous intent, their elongated claws scraping and ripping the carpet as they ran on all fours. Alyssa and Milo rush up the stairs, she didnt stop for a second and pushed Milo up in a fervent manner, with each step he climbed, she was right behind him, hopping two steps at a time. After what felt like forever the two reach the door to the spire, Alyssa goes to open it but Milo dives for her hand and holds it close to his chest.
"Dont go in there!"
"Why not? my family could be in here...and him"
"Exactly! we need to leave! he knows magic!"
Alyssa stares at Milo with an earnest gaze, she felt for him and his fear, saddened at the thought of what Kyles father would've done to make him so terrified of him. But despite the feeling in her stomach telling her to listen, she gently tugs her hand back and opens the door, unprepared to witness what she did.
The second it opened, a raging ball of fire strikes the wall just next to it, causing the two to jump in their skin hearing shouting from the crack in the door.
"HOW DARE YOU!"
"LISTEN-"
Another torrent of rainbow coloured spell light sprays on the cobbled spire walls as Alyssa holds Milo back so she could get a better look inside. Just peering, she could see Kyle and a strange woman locked in a vicious battle , as Alex remained stuck to the wall, afraid to move for fear he would get hit by any stray spells. Alyssa had never seen Kyle like he was in those fleeting seconds, the hair was no longer a ginger red, and was now a towering flame that sprouted from his skull like a blowtorch, his eyes were no longer green and the raging fire inside him escaped through his eyes sockets, his mouth erupted in smoke with every word he spoke.
"KYLE STOP ATTACKIN-"
"BURN!"
Melia tries to calm him down but the rage inside was burning at a fever high, nothing could get through to him, but the more the two fought, the more the fire from Kyle's body began to catch on fabric flags with the Reign symbol plastered under the flames. Faster and faster like it had a mind of its own, shooting around the walls and ceiling.
Alyssa knew if she took Milo into the spire, it would surely result in people getting hurt. choosing to enter and shutting the door behind her.
"Alyssa!-"
The door made a large thumping sound, alerting the two witches to her presence, seeing Alyssa seemed to make Kyle pause, remembering about his family instead of his mother, which sparked his anger in the first place.
"Ahh, so your dogs have escaped?" Melia says looking back at her, an interested glare in her eyes as the cutting voice of Kyle calls over her, his flames fading but still prominent.
"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!"
"Kyle what the hell is going on..." Alyssa says, hearing Milo banging on the other side of the door crying her name.
The amount of voices in the spire was making Kyles skin crawl, he didnt know what happened in those fast few moments of fury, like he had blacked out completely.
"I-"
"You're being irrational Kyle, I never wanted to harm you or our little brother..."
Kyles flames hissed above him as he floats mid-air, Alyssa was terrified of what she was seeing, but she knew Kyle was in there. She was shocked to find that the woman was in fact his long lost twin sister, all grown up.
"You dont get to say his name!" He presses on.
"Kyle listen to me, the only thing we wanted was your blood, we had the idea to kidnap Shaun and lure you here...we would've let you go..." Melia tried to explain why they've been looking for him.
"LIAR!"
Alyssa chases ahead to stop him from roasting Melia to bits, but the older sister uses magic of her own to keep Alyssa at bay, keeping her locked away behind an invisible wall.
"When I found out that you were in Twilight I thought it was too good to be true, we had no idea when she travelled to...and when I saw you with our grandparents...I knew you had suffered for a long time...dont you see? I never blamed you for leaving me, I blame her!"
"She had no choice, you saw that vision, she tried to go back for you" Kyle speaks, the flames dying down further, but still on the defensive.
"That's what you saw...but she chose you over me...she left me to die in that fire so that you could live, her heir..."
"She loved us"
"She loved you! and now that you can unleash your power there is a possibility you too...can open a time portal back..."
"What?! why the hell would you want to go back?" After what seemed like an eternity of silence Alyssa breaks it.
"Kyle dont listen to her, she hung dad in a cage by silver!"
"You did what?!" Kyle shouts across to her, the flames fanning up once more. Melia looks at Alyssa with a murderous intent.
"You just had to open your mouth didnt you" she snarls at her, the purple in her eyes menacingly at her as she raises her fit to attack her, but the moment she did, an arrow pierced her hand, the moment it impacted it explodes in a ball of flame she couldn't control. Her screams pierced the chamber as everyone looks to where the arrow came from, spotting Shaun holding Alex who was quaking with fear, the hulking hunter from before was now a quivering old man under the mercy of Shaun's arrow, held temptingly at his throat.
"Shaun!" Kyle says, the relief in his body was swelling as the flames had completely dissipated, there was a howl that sounded from outside the door Alyssa had entered from. Kyle goes to step towards Shaun but halts when he sees the damage done to his body, most of his face and skin were badly burnt, but he seemed to be taking the pain too well, as if he didnt feel a single ounce of it.
"Shaun I-"
"Shut up"
Kyle was shocked to hear such a deadly tone in his little brothers voice even Melia was shocked to see him alive and breathing. But Shaun had looked away from Kyle and glares at Melia who holds her hand tightly and reciting a healing spell.
"And here I thought this idiot was the brains of the Reign..."
Kyle noticed the shift in his personality, he was so cold, and Shaun could always be an ass but this time it was different, its like there was no light in his eyes, no happiness.
"But its you..." he says, the arrow pushing against his fathers skin and drawling a single trickle of blood.
"Shaun...I knew you were alive" Kyle says with a smile on his face, but it wasn't returned.
"No thanks to you Kyle...if it wasn't for your plan I might've lost nothing..."
Kyle didnt know what to say, Alyssa was watching from the far end of the room as a large thud comes from the door, the wood splintering slightly.
"W-what?"
"All you do is burn Kyle...you burn everything you touch..." Shaun replies nastily, Alex gulps and tried to move away but Shaun's grip on his grey hair was tight.
"Please...stop..."
"Move away from our father Shaun...he was never important to any of this...he's a pawn" Melia pleads with Shaun to let her father go but Kyle knew by the look in his eyes, the murderous rage inside him was so familiar to Kyle, like when he blacked out.
"This. is. justice" he says, not an ounce of hesitation in his voice.
And with a slick movement, he thrashes the arrow across the mans neck, blood spurting from the wound as the green arrow creates an infected looking wound, bubbling with poison as he flops to the floor, his eyes moving around rapidly for help but nobody could do anything but watch in shock and awe.
Kyle knew in that moment that his brother was different, changed. Melia had witnessed her only family in the world die...the blood still soaking the marble floor.
"What have you done?!" She screams with fresh tears in her eyes.
"What I came here for..."
The door from before finally bursts open, a black wolf flying through the door at quick speeds, rolling along the floor with whines and cries, Kyle rushes to his need almost immediately, rushing a hand over his blood soaked fur.
"ZAYNE! OH MY GODS ZAYNE NO!"
Kyle could feel his tears pouring faster down his cheeks than before, seeing his mate on the floor, unconscious and cut up from the multitude of bite marks and claw slashes on his back. Kyle closes his eyes and focused on healing Zayne, but out of nowhere a spell knocks him away from his body, seeing Melia with her right hand extended out.
"You dont get that privilege!"
The wall holding back Alyssa was shattered as she rushes over to Zaynes body, while Kyle and Shaun attempt to take Melia on.
"Kyle! He's bleeding too much!" She cried, looking on at the doorway to see that Milo was nowhere to be seen. And their parents hulking their way through the tiny doorway.
But he couldn't hear her over the roaring flame that had erupted from his head again, Shaun's arrows soared through the air with precision, aiming for between her eyes. Each attack thrown at her wasn't enough after losing her father, her magical power became enhanced. Kyle didnt realise it before, but she was only using a fraction of it against him. The battle was intense, the two wolves at the back were rushing into the fray, Melia had a full grasp of all the chaos around her, harnessing it and pushing outwards in a ring of knockback. Everyone but Zayne and Alyssa was thrown back from her magic, hitting the walls around them and sinking to the floor.
There wasn't much Alyssa could do to keep her brother from bleeding out, but the two Alpha wolves were persistent and strong, she could take one of them on easily but two was a challenge. They were overwhelming her despite her skilful attempts to get away. Getting slashed along her right arm, the left still healing from her spell from before.
Shaun had fired a few arrows around the two to distract them away from Melia, firing a blue arrow just above them and dousing them in rain and rushing water.
"SHAUN NO!" Kyle shouts from the other side of the chamber.
Just like before, when he had used a similar arrow, the room began to fill up with water, with the size of the chamber being larger than the hallway, it was only ankle height for now.
Kyle takes the golden opportunity and rushes to Zaynes side, the healing yellow aura around his fingers seeps into Zaynes wounds like a knife, Kyle feeling the broken skin and muscle around his fingers clenching and sucking the blood back inside him. there was a breakout sound from the fighting that diverted Kyles attention, looking over to see that Melia had gone on the offensive with his foster parents, now sporting a giant looking blade made of light in her hands.
Kyles eyes widen and the screams couldn't have left his mouth sooner, watching as she drove the sword straight into Cara's stomach, the wound cutting deep all the way through to the other side. And just like that, Cara's wolf suddenly begins to revert back to its mind space, the fur and fangs and claws all shrinking to normal human proportions, her dead body lay lifeless on the floor, her wound was blacked around its edges like scorch marks. Melia pulls the sword from her body as it glistened with her red blood still dripping from the blade.
"MUM!" Alyssa screams at the top of her lungs, Adrian off to the side after Melia had pushed him away.
"No..." Kyle whispers to himself, he couldn't believe everything that had happened.
"No this cant be...not again...NOT AGAIN!"
Kyle had no choice, in order to save what remained of his family from his twin sister, he has to unleash it all. No small feat to a witch, he read about it in the book his mother wrote him, the book that started everything.
"Enough, this ends now!" He yells, drawing her attention and stopping her from lifting her sword and striking down Adrian.
"This is nowhere near over...I tried to reason with you and give you something worth fighting for...but you both threw it in my face" she says, the depraved look in her eyes shone that she was losing all notion of sanity in her voice.
"We never wanted it" Shaun replies for him.
"Then just like mother...you'll die like fools"
Kyles rage was simpering to be released but he just had to hold it in for a few more seconds, if he released it now, he could destroy everyone. She goes to throw the first spell at the two brothers, but Kyle pushes Shaun to the side and takes the full force of the spell, whipping across his body with a sharp cut.
The moment the whip strikes him, it wraps around his arms, she begins smiling with victory. Shaun hitting his head off a sharp corner of the wall and falling unconscious to the floor.
"You should've took my offer!"
"And you should've stayed in the past!" Kyles voice became slightly deeper and ethereal as if a million voices were speaking at once, the whips beginning the blaze alight within his fingers and loosening under his grip. After this they shirk back to Melia and begin to wrap around her with an anaconda like grip.
"What?!"
"Alyssa...get Shaun and Zayne out of here...I'll handle my sister"
Knowing she cant possibly endure more loss, she nods sullenly through her tears, Kyle's hand extends and creates a swirling portal to the outside world, giving Alyssa just enough time to grab her brother and Shaun, hauling the two unconscious bodies through along with herself. Adrian who had finally come to, had noticed his mate was now lying dead on the floor, soft whines escaping his mouth as he cradles her in his arms.
A tear in his grey eyes, tilting his hand backwards and releasing a curdling grief-filled howl, one that could be heard for miles and miles. And with that he picks her up and leaves the door they both came though.
Leaving just the two twins, who funnily enough look nothing alike anymore. Melia breaks free of the spell holding her, looking into Kyles blazing eyes which were glowing bright green, in contrast to her purple ones.
"I never wanted this to happen..." Kyle speaks as himself, no other voices or powers holding him in power.
"But it did...and here we are..." she says, a sour tone on her tongue as she spoke.
"Here we are..." he repeats, firing up a spell in his left hand while she fires one up in her right, th two twin sprint at each other with all their might, the closer they got, the larger the spells became. Kyle was putting all his power into the flames in his hand, feeling as the heat begins to burn himself. In the final moments, they close the gap and head in for the punch, both spells colliding at full force. There wasn't anything but bright lights, Kyle couldn't see or hear anything. A blanket of white shrouding his vison. Its like he was floating in his own mind.
"Am I dead?" He calls out, hearing nothing but the patter of light footsteps.
"Not quite...but you've got a long way to go..."
Kyle recognised the voice, but nothing could come to him in that moment.
"It'll be interesting to see how you fare here...Son of Magrielyn"
***
(Woooo 7246 words, epilogue coming soon thank you for reading don't forget to comment and vote to let me know if I did good)