to ray_seen whose comments made my day ♡
And I don't know why but with you I'd dance / In a storm in my best dress, fearless
"Yes, you got it right. So why don't you tell us what the dream was really about? Was it something that had already happened?" asked Ryker. It was odd seeing him like this because I knew from the way he looked at Adelina that he truly believed that she was lying.
Adeline kept her mouth shut. All she had on her face was that annoying smile.
"This is a waste of time." I raced to Adelina, my right hand was surged with power, ready to compel her into telling us what really happened, but she suddenly turned to face me and stopped me by putting her hand up but I could see from the movement of her lips, I knew she was doing some kind of incantation. Swiftly, I flicked my hand to take the apple from her desk and put it in her mouth to silence her.
Ryker moved fast as he could and restrained both of Adelina's hands. "We can do this the hard way or the easy way. Your pick, Adelina."
The sorceress ignored him. Her eyes were solely locked on me. With caution, I took the apple out of her mouth to allow her to speak. Since Ryker's hold on both of her wrists alone would not be sufficient to prevent Adelina from casting a spell, I used my power to make her palms curl into a fist and stay that way so she wouldn't be able to move her hands or fingers.
Her first sentence was, "You're Gaia."
"I'm not," I replied right away. "Gaia Ashcroft was my mother, or at least that was what you said last time I was here."
"But I can sense her magic within you." She struggled to free her hand.
"It's fine, Ryker."
He narrowed his eyes at Adelina. "You try anything, you touch her and hurt her, I'm gonna rip your heart out," he said that sentence casually but I could feel the threat in his sentence.
One last time, Ryker looked at me before releasing his grip and Adeline lifted her hand. She touched the ball of red smoke again and gasped. "I can sense Laurel's, Ygor's, Troy's, Mirna's, Bonnie's, and there are many others." Her eyes moved to me. She looked both surprised and scared. "You killed them," she said, her fear pouring out with every word.
"I didn't." My tone grew defensive. "I don't even know half of those people."
"Then your mother must have done it. We all have a suspicion. We all suspect that she might be a sorceress despite her denying it, given her family's history of witchcraft. She practiced her magic in secret, didn't she?"
"I wouldn't know. My mum died when I was eight years old." I swallowed a lump in my throat. This was difficult to talk about my mother, it always had. "Who are those people?"
"Her relatives," answered Adelina. Her voice showed no compassion or any emotion at all, almost like Dmitry's, except that there was an eerie ring to it. "The Delvaux of Southern Europe. Your family is quite famous and for one reason. They sucked other witches dry and absorbed their powers. That way they will gain longer years to live and more powers. Any witches would do, but blood relatives are even better. That's how your mother did it. She killed her relatives and took their power. But now all of that power is in you. So what does that tell you, hmm?" Adelina's eyes regarded me in a new light, there was both awe and trepidation when she finally asked one question that I'd feared she'd ask, "Did you kill your own mother, Xyrra Ashcroft?"
"I—" I stopped because I didn't know what to say. I'd always listed pros and contras on this and most of the time, I'd convinced myself that the contrast outweighed the pros — that I couldn't possibly kill my mother, that I hadn't killed my mother. The more I learned about the power and its potential, the more frightened I became. It swayed my conviction. I had to take into account the possibility that I might have caused my mother's death. No matter how hard that was.
Before I could defend myself again, Ryker said, "If she said she didn't do it, it means she didn't do it. Stop messing around." In his voice and by the look on his face, I could tell that he truly believed that. I wished I had the same level of belief as him.
"Oh, for bloody hell." Adelina laughed, shaking her head maniacally. She looked positively mentally disturbed, acting like this, almost like those crazy, psychopath villains in every movie. At last, she toned herself down. "She has you wrapped around her little fingers huh, Alpha Ryker? The same way her mother has Beta Ashcroft and Alpha Sinclair wrapped in hers."
"That's not true. Ryker has all the freedom and he can leave anytime he wants." I told her the truth, although judging by the way Ryker's silver eyes widened a little, I began to doubt it. "We are here because of the dream. He had that dream after we came here. You either tell us what that dream was all about of your own free will." I summoned the ball of red smoke in my hand again, "or I will make you spit out the truth."
Her lips turned into a grim line. Anxiously, she looked at the ball of red smoke, and maybe she saw something in there that I didn't. Whatever it was, Adelina finally confessed. "Alright. I only showed you what Alana did to your brother, the deceased Alpha Cromwell, but I purposely twisted it to scare you. That bitch bailed on me. We had a deal, and she screwed up. She didn't keep her end of the bargain."
Ryker's jaw tightened, his palm curled into a fist and all I wanted was to hold his hand through this hard time. It must have been surprising to hear me talking about the dream I'd had, but it was on another level to have Adelina actually confirm that Alana had killed Walker.
'Focus, Xyrra, focus. You can console him later,' my subconscious decided to be a wise cheerleader now. I refrained from rolling my eyes.
"What deal?" I carried on with the information gathering. Someone had to.
Adelina drew a deep breath. "I got rid of," she cleared her throat and threw an anxious look at Ryker before continuing, "her 'problem' and in return, she would lend my coven the protection from the Ethereal."
Ryker growled in anger. "My pack will never deal with the witches. And Alana has no right to enter that kind of deal. She has no authority to make the call."
"Oh, she will be able to make that call once you crowned her Luna." Adelina smiled. Her smile was cunning and merciless. "But because of you," she turned to me, hatred was apparent in the look she was giving me, "he canceled their marriage and I didn't get what I wanted. All we could tell others was nothing but a bluff."
Everything started to make sense now, but I wasn't about to stop until everything came to light. No stone would be left unturned. "Is that why you lied to Ryker? Is that why you told him that his mate had died?"
"I didn't lie." Adelina spat those words. She actually seemed offended. "That vision I had was before Alana found out that Alpha Walker Cromwell was her mate. I truly saw your life up until you were eight and then everything was black, indicating that you died. Perhaps you were supposed to die then, but some event must have occurred that changed your destiny." She shrugged one shoulder. "That's the only logical explanation for why you're still alive."
"But my mother died."
"Yes, but what I saw was undeniably you." She preceded to inform me of what my real identity was. "Xyrra Lancaster, born as Fleur Ashcroft. Father is a werewolf, Beta of the Erebus pack, Thanos Ashcroft. Mother is from a family of witches who claimed to never practice magic, Gaia Delvaux." That ghastly smile returned to her face. "Your father is a rogue, kicked out of his pack after he murdered his innocent, fragile human wife. But you know what I think?" Her eyes lowered. They sparkled as she feasted her eyes on the red smoke in my palm. Then she looked up to meet my eyes one more time. "I think you killed your mother, sucked her dry, then put the blame on your father."
"She didn't do it!" Ryker growled. From my peripheral view, I could see claws coming out of his fingers. Khrysaor was not happy with all of Adelina's accusations against me.
Seeing that she was more useful alive, I was concerned he might snap and kill her, so I touched Ryker's shoulder. "Look at me." He still had his murdering eyes on Adelina and I reiterated one more time, "Look at me, Khrysaor." His nose flinched and his head turned to me. Those pitch-black eyes, as black as the night sky, stared back at me. "Don't kill her. We need her. Alive."
His jaw tightened, and furs appeared on his arms. Just when I thought I hadn't succeeded in persuading him, his eyes turned silver and his arms shifted to his skin form. He flicked his eyes back to Adelina. "What was it? What was Alana's problem that you helped her with? I want to know what caused her to betray her pack and kill our Alpha."
I noticed how he'd said 'our alpha' instead of 'my brother', but chose not to say anything. "Either you tell him or I'll make you." I moved my hand closer to her temple.
She backed away until her shoulders hit the cabin wall behind her. "No need to exert your power, Missy. I will tell you all you need to know." Her lips trembled a little. "I'm smart enough to know when it's a lost cause to withhold information."
The sorceress probably mistook me and thought that I knew what my power could do, which was why she was scared. I wasn't about to tell her that I only discovered this a week ago.
Adelina inhaled, then exhaled. "I helped her with the abortions."
"Abortion?" Ryker's jaw hung open. "Was she pregnant with my brother's kid?"
"Abortions, Alpha Ryker, it's plural," corrected Adelina as if it made it any better. "Yes, one of them was your brother's, but most were men she had sex with. She wasn't really the most careful person when it came to birth control."
"Why did she do it? Walker's kid." Ryker shook his head and then closed his eyes. I caught a flicker of pain in those silver eyes for a split moment.
Even though I could guess the reason why Alana had done it, I let Adelina be the one to say it out loud.
"She couldn't possibly be pregnant while she was busy seducing you, could she?" said Adelina incredulously, shaking her head. "I could make the kid go away with a special potion. She does not need to go to a doctor and go through all the pain. She will be weak for a few days, unable to shift into her wolf form, but then she will be good as new. I am that good." She smiled proudly, and it made me sick.
I didn't see it coming when Ryker's hands suddenly grabbed Adelina's shoulders. His nails were digging into her skin and I didn't need to check to know that his eyes were probably black. I knew that Khrysaor loved Walker and his wolf, perhaps as much as Ryker did. "You're talking about killing an innocent baby, pure innocent babies. You're not supposed to be proud of your ability. You should be ashamed of yourself!"
"You asked, and I told you what you wanted to know, Alpha Ryker. The truth," said Adelina. She put on a brave face, but I could detect a slight tremble in her voice.
Ryker extracted his arms and moved away towards the door. "We're done here!"
"I've one last thing to ask." I inched my way towards Adelina, my gaze holding hers, and I could feel my power surging through my veins. It wanted her. It wanted to consume her. I fought against it and refused to succumb. "What did you do to Eros Adler?"
Adelina's lips stretched into one of her awfully creepy smiles.
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Dear Readers, can you tell what Adelina actually did to poor Eros? Moreover, were you surprised about what she just revealed here? About Walker's child?