Before you begin reading I just want to let you know that I love you, like a lot, and thanks for being interested in my story and I hope you like it.
Question Of The Chapter: If you could be any supernatural creature what would you be and why?
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"TAKE A SHOT BITCHES!"
Shot glasses filled with freshly poured liquor raised to the ceiling of the nightclub as I shouted the words from the table I was standing on. The flashing lights of the place make the many faces in front of me following suit look like nothing more than a sea of colorful blur. I tossed the clear liquid down my throat, my tastebuds numb to the rubbing alcohol taste it leaves. A feeling of warmth throughout my insides followed behind it. The music blasting from the DJ's speakers makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise and my skin tingles against my bones. Endless drinks, drugs, and whatever else someone handed to me and it feels like I'm on cloud nine right now.
I let the alcohol fueling my veins take over and step off the table and into the arms of my friend Zaria, her dark pupil dilated so much it made her blue eyes pop even more. Her arms found their way around me and mine around her slim waist and we swayed to the beat blasting around us. I could see our other friend Benji over at the bar with his lips on some girl's neck and when he spots me I send him a toothy grin and thumbs up. He gleefully mirrors.
The wheels that had been spinning around in my brain all night slowed, stopped, broke into pieces, and floated up into my amoebic grasp. It was like a clock had suddenly run down like the past and future gently folding themselves into wings as the present stretched itself over my body. My hips moved with my heartbeat, pulling a steady, satisfying rhythm from someplace deep inside my blood and bones. I was riding my skin like a passenger on a rollercoaster.
So I shut up and enjoyed the ride.
After what felt like hours on the dance floor, I finally broke away from my friend and headed over to the bar for another round of drinks. I swayed and motioned through the dazed crowd of dancing bodies as best as I could until I reached a clear spot at the bar beside Benji. His neck was covered in red lipstick and God knows what else but from the smug look on his face I doubt he even cared.
"Having fun?" He shouts over the loud, pulsing music, nudging me on the shoulder.
"Obviously," I respond rolling my eyes playfully, before turning my attention to the bartender behind the bar and holding up two fingers for two tequila shots (I've been here many times, she knows my usual) and she nods. "I see you've been having fun as well," I reach a finger up and press it against his neck stained with kisses, the red lipstick smudging along his neckline. "cheap." I tease.
"That's how I like 'em." Benji winked at me and I rolled my eyes opening my mouth to let out another snarky remark about Benji's taste in partners but then my phone vibrates in my pockets and stops me before I can even utter the words.
I pull out my phone and see a text message with my older sister's name and her familiar eye roll emoji attached to it.
Call me NOW!
What could she possibly want at this time of night? It's nearly 2 am over there, shouldn't she be sleeping somewhere with a spell book in her hands or something? What the bell does she want to talk to me for? If it's that important she can just text me whatever the hell it is and I'll respond in the morning. I can see Benji eyeing me, brows raising a bit. "Your family?" he says and I make a face at him. "How'd you know?" I asked him.
"You always make that same sour face whenever your family hits you up."
I chewed on the inside of my cheek feeling a little bit embarrassed that it was easy to read my facial expressions that someone who's heavy drugs right now could easily tell. "Would you like to talk? You look pretty down." He replied in a shout and I barely heard him and sighed when I finally did.
My family is quite literally the last thing I want to think about right now. It's not like I hate them or anything it's just witches suck. This isn't me being bitter or anything it's just simply a fact. If you were to ask any witch you know I bet they'd tell you the same thing. In my case, I know quite a handful who without a doubt have some type of issues with their family by the time they're twelve. If they say they don't they are lying or maybe they're just part of a very small minority — however much smaller one could get in an already marginalized group of people with magical abilities.
I'm just speaking from personal experience. Being the son of Erik Amaranthus — sovereign of the Amaranthus coven, one of the few original houses of witchcraft left in the world went without saying that I had a lot on my shoulders from the time I was born. Witchcraft ran in my family's blood like ice water. Cold and strong and straight to the bone. My father led his coven with a powerful fist. He's a leader, tactical, smart, and powerful in every way that makes a witch a sovereign. He's also extremely annoying, judgmental, and condescending but the coven doesn't get to see that part of him though.
Being one of his five children was more like a curse than a blessing. Every day since I was a child I felt like I was in a competition than more so a family. My older sister Rina has always been the most talented when it comes to magic, her powers being compared to our father's during his prime. The second oldest, Ejay inherited our father's brains and can whip up enchantments with a snap of a finger — literally. My younger brother Zhyi is a master at illusion magic and he's only fifteen and my baby sister Issa is only thirteen and I'm pretty sure her abilities have already surpassed mine.
Growing up every day felt like a race I just couldn't win.
My father had no problem setting us up against one another to challenge each other and see how far we could go with our abilities. I was always in last place. I'm not strong like Rina or smart like Ejay, and I'm not able to master a certain class of magic like Zhyi and Issa. I'm just Ymir. The middle child who's magic surely doesn't live up to the hype of the last name.
I don't care though. Becoming a powerful witch or a sovereign of a high-ranking coven was never really my thing. I left that to my control freak of an older sister. What I truly ever wanted was freedom. To be able to do my own thing without anyone telling me what to do or how to do it. That is why I'm so glad I left that coven shit behind years ago. Who the hell wants to live in a house with twenty—something people talking about ancient customs and magic all day? Booooring! I left the Amaranthus coven at fourteen. My father never believed me even though I told him I was going to leave all the time.
"And go where my love?" he'd always say in that English accent I'm still jealous I didn't inherit.
I didn't have a clue then and I didn't have a clue when I packed my things to get the hell out of there, but the most surprising part was that my father didn't even try to stop me. He was quite calm about it actually, everyone was except Rina and Issa. Rina had her nose titled in the air with that stuck-up look on her face that I'm sure is frozen on there, and Issa just cried because that's what she does. My father let me go on my own, though on my own to him just meant shipping me off to different boarding schools across the country until I was of an age when he felt I was able to take care of myself completely which I didn't mind for the most part. As long as I wasn't a part of that damn coven I didn't care where I ended up.
I don't know why I'm thinking about any of this. It's been years and I've moved on with my life. I'm in a completely different city living a completely different lifestyle with completely different people. The last thing I need to be focusing on is the past, it's called the past for a reason.
The bartender finally came with my two shots and placed them down in front of me. The perfect distraction. I toss the two burning shots of tequila down my throat so quickly that the burning sensation and fingernail polish smell that usually comes along with these drinks is nonexistent at this point. Benji eyes grow wide at me before softening into a light chuckle.
"You good?"
I wipe the residue from my mouth. "Never better," I tell him before grabbing both his hands and dragging him back to the dance floor to find Zaria who's probably so out of her mind right I'd be surprised if she's still standing.
However, when we do find our friend on the dance floor she's surrounded by a group of guys, and from the furrowed brow look on her face she wasn't enjoying the attention.
"Don't be like that, baby," I hear one of the men say as he slid his hand onto her jeans rubbing up them slightly. The man's eyes are too trained on Zaria to notice the grimace on my face or the swift motion of my hand knocking his hand off her thigh. I shoved him away from her causing him to stumble backward a bit but he caught himself just in time. "Hey," I called getting their attention. "keep your hands to yourself."
I begin to wonder just how much energy it would take for me to use a little illusion magic and make these losers think they're frogs for a few hours, but when I see his friends behind him getting closer to Zaria I turn my attention to them instead. The panic on her face is a dead giveaway of how uncomfortable the men were making her. The one in front turns around to look at his friends who are too busy with their eyes on Zaria to notice.
One tries to reach out but she quickly pushes him causing the man to bump into his other friends, the three of them stumbling all over each other, clearly too intoxicated to function properly. "A little too much to drink, yeah?" I ask them teasingly, a low growl escaping one of the men's lips as he finds his balance. He starts to march towards me but the one in front of holds out his hand and stops him from coming any closer. It's not like he would've gotten far anyway.
The one in front leaned forward closer to me and I fought down my gag reflex as his vodka-coated breath fanned over my face. "Not enough actually," he said, raising a hand with a glass and twirling it around with the ice inside. I grinned to myself at the opportunity the movement presented.
"Really . . . " I play it cool watching him as he lifts the glass to his lips. He smiles eagerly, eyes so concentrated and locked on me that he doesn't notice the chilling sensation emitting from the drink in his hands. I concentrate on it precisely, channeling the destruction magic onto the glass freezing it to his lips. I look at the glass to see his skin frozen around the rim and he finally follows my gaze and notices. His screams are muffled behind the glass as he starts to shake it around furiously and I held in my laughter at the scene.
In one quick exhale, I decided to take advantage of him and his friends in their distracted state and brought my knee up into the man's groin, causing him to double over in pain. I slammed the frozen glass into his face. The clashing sounded off throughout the club catching the attention of people nearby.
"Oh shit," Benji curses behind me, an odd place smiled on his face as he watches.
I took a few steps away to give myself some distance and prepare for the next move, but he recovered faster than I thought he would. Within a few seconds, his friends were on me, wrapping me in a bear hug from behind. I quickly dropped my center of gravity and rolled forward, flipping one of the men over my shoulder and he clashed with a nearby table. I scrambled to my feet as the other one of the guys came forward throwing a heavy punch.
I went into self-defense mode, sidestepping his every move. I don't know if I'm just too quick or these guys are just incredibly drunk and slow, but the guy didn't land a single punch on me before it was my turn to ball my fist. With the practice from all the drills and training my father put me through growing up, I'm more than confident I can take these three guys without any magic —at least enough to shake some decency into their heads.
Growing up my father knew my magic wasn't the strongest and so while my siblings spent the majority of the day in classrooms with enchanted books, candles, and potions I was out in the backyard learning how to throw a punch. Witches don't make great parents but if Erik Amaranthus is one thing he's a smart man who knew me learning how to defend myself would be a more useful skill than trying to train my practically nonexistent magic.
I aim directly for the guy's chest landing the punch that makes his face scrunch up instantly, lips pursing and eyes bulging out of the socket. He fell onto his back with a thud and I smiled at the pained look on his flushed face. My smile fades when there's a sharp pain in my calf that nearly brings me to my knees. I glanced down and the deep red on my pant leg. The fucker with the glass shatters in his hair had a knife and sliced at me. These are my favorite pair of jeans too, that bitch.
Before I could even comprehend what happened I let my anger and adrenaline consume me. I grabbed ahold of his arm with the knife tucking it under my own and tossing him to the ground in one swift motion. I'm tempted to beat the man within an inch of his life. He lets out a squeal when my shoe pressed none-too-gently onto his wrist. I could feel the bone under his skin about to snap and I was tempted, very tempted, but before I could make the final blow I felt Benji grab me off the guy and drag me towards the exit of the club with Zaria leading the way. I look behind us and see the men getting up from their beaten state, lips and faces bloody and bruised as they begin to follow us out of the club.
Pushing the door open, we breathed in the crisp fall air as I stepped outside, thankful for the easy breeze that cooled my skin and settled my mind. I was already wound up from the day I just had and this wasn't how I wanted to finish out my night. "Ymir, that was insane!" Zaria says loudly as we make our way towards Benji's rustic convertible with the top down parked outside.
"I don't think it's over yet Z," Benji said as he got settled in. I jumped in the back looking behind as the men got in a car of their own.
"I did not know you could fight like that. Did you see the look on their faces? That shit was crazy!" Benji is so filled with adrenaline that he misses the ignition of the car with the keys a few times before getting it in and starting it up, but when he finally gets it in the third try we take off with the men following behind us through the streets of the city.
"I don't think it's over yet," I tell them, nodding back to the men in the black car behind us. Benji looks in the rearview window and curses under his breath. "Shit shit shit."
Sitting in the back of the convertible I leaned against the door frame, eyes trained on the men following behind us. I wish their windows weren't tinted so dark so I could see their faces, see how badly they were beaten, and how mad they were. Benji makes a sharp left, Zaria and I following with the motion of the vehicle from our seats. I see their car come around the corner a short second later. They started to speed up on us and that's when I looked in the front to see my friends up front with their eyes trained on the road trying to find a way to throw the men off our trail.
I know how.
I lean on the back of the leather seats, my eyes concentrating on the vehicle behind us catching up. I can feel the blood rushing to my ears, the pounding in my head, the racing in my chest. I raised a hand lowly, moving it in a swiping motion as if I was swatting at the damn car. One moment the road is there, wide open and safe, the next there are loud noises, acrid smells, and pain. The car behind us went off the trail and into a nearby building with a loud crash.
"What the fuck!" Benji yelled, lips opened wide into a grin as he looked at the scene from the rearview mirror.
"That's why they drunk ass get!" Zaria joins, a fist rising in the air.
I let the two relish in the excitement as I sat in the backseat exhaling a low breath towards the starless sky of the city, my head was pounding and it felt like my brain was about to burst out of my skull and I barely even used any magic — or at least it didn't feel like it did but I'm surely paying the price now.
"Ymir, did you see that shit! They just fucking-" Zaria turned back to me but her words are cut short suddenly. She blinks at me. "Ymir, your nose." It wasn't until she pointed it out that I started to feel the blood trickling down my nose. I quickly wiped it away with the back of my hand. "Oh shit, too much molly," I told her with a laugh and a slight shrug of my shoulders.
My phone suddenly begins to ring in my back pocket and Zaria turns back around. I struggled to scavenge for it but when I finally grabbed it and saw my older sister's name on the front of my phone again I wanted to toss it out of the car but I refrained and answered after letting it ring for a while. "Long time no speak sis," I answer the phone.
"Are you drunk?" Was her first choice of words. Rina Amaranthus wasn't one for small talk. She's quick and to the point like our father. A trait of hers that I still haven't gotten used to even after nineteen years of living.
I rolled my eyes. "Damn, no hey? How have you been?" I folded my arms across my chest as I rested an arm out of the car. "And no, I'm not drunk."
"Good," Rina breathed, the line settling in silence for a quick moment before she opened her mouth again. "Father wanted to know if you could come down here next weekend. It's the 800th anniversary of the coven and he wants you to be there."
I scoffed into the line. "I'm not a part of the coven remember? I left that shit alone a long time ago."
"Because father asked for you to."
"I'm not coming. I haven't been to the last five why do you want me to come to this one?"
I could practically feel Rina roll her eyes over the phone. I could picture her now. A hand on her hip and thick brows furrowed in disappointment. "You're still an Amaranthus, and the least you can do is come home for a few days to celebrate something you know is very important to Father. You may have left the coven Ymir, but you will always be an Amaranthus no matter how many cities you jump to." I hate it when she talks like this. All authoritative like she's my mom when she's not. She's just the oldest child of a sovereign, nothing special.
"If I say I'll come can we end this conversation?"
"Yes."
"Fine. I'll be there. Have my room ready for me since you want me to be there so bad." I don't even give her a chance to respond and hang up the phone on her.
I truly don't know a more annoying family than mine.
••••
EXCUSE ANY MISTAKE OR ERRORS
Well that's Ymir lol
Him after leaving the coven five years ago: