After traveling for what felt like days, we arrived at a mountain. Gaia pointed out the huge cave that was embedded in the mountain. We all decided that it would be best for us to make camp here since it is pretty spacious enough for the four of us.
My mother jumps down from my back and inspects the cave before signaling us the okay. Gaia goes in second to place Olivia on to the ground. Once Olivia is on the ground the two of us shift back to our normal forms. Gaia wraps her arms around herself while shivering,
"It's freezing in here."
"I can start a fire for some warmth."
"Drax and I don't have any clothes." My mother nods and removes her cloak and makes a makeshift cover/ dress for Gaia. She gives me the hood to wear as shorts of some kind. Once we are in our makeshift clothes, my mother leaves to gather firewood. I roam around the cave looking for rocks,
"How long do you think we will be here?" Gaia questions as she scoops up two medium sized rocks. I shrug my shoulders,
"I don't know, I guess when Olivia wakes up," I answer. This has never happened before except when I shifted to get Olivia away from Adam. I stayed in my cursed much longer than I thought I could. My mother returns with her arms full of wood. Gaia and I help her set it down along with the rocks. Once we made the fire pit, my mother got down to start the fire manually.
"Mom," I call out and she looks up. I said a simple ember spell and the fire started.
"Oh, well I suppose we could do that." All three of us gathered around the pit to get some sort of warmth.
"Do you think Olivia will even wake up? It's been hours since she was attacked."
"I don't want to think about that." My mother answers
"Ok, well can we talk about the obvious. We are miles away from dad and we should at least let him know where we are."
"Absolutely not."
"He could be worried about you guys and I have put my parents through enough by disappearing. I agree with Drax,"
"Gaia, in case you both forgot we almost attacked them for coming too close to Olivia. I don't want to hurt any of them and I'm sure the two of you don't want to either." We both knew she was right. I almost ripped my dad to shreds even though I know he wouldn't hurt either of us in any way. I don't know why my cursed reacted that way and I still don't know. Mom is right our best bet is to just stay away from them for now until this protection thing wears off.
"Why don't we get some dinner?"
"Dinner?"
"I say we get some fish." My mother suggests with a smile. She gets to her feet while Gaia and I follow behind. A little bit away from the mountain was a stream. We all managed to find a pointy enough stick and headed to the edge of the stream to fish. I threw my stick at a fat fish but I missed.
"What do you think they did to her?" Gaia asks
"Beat her," I answer as I throw my stick a little too hard and it collides with a rock. I groan in frustration and toss my now bent stick aside.
"Drax," Gaia starts
"If I had remembered sooner enough, we could have stopped this. Olivia was all alone while those two sick fucks tortured her." I growl. The thought doesn't skip my mind at all. What if we arrived a few seconds earlier, a few minutes before they hurt her. She would've been safe. My mother comes by my side,
"Your memory was wiped and that was not your fault. Lady Regina and Lord Peter did their deed and paid for it. Olivia is strong, she will wake up. We just have to look at the positives."
"What positives aunty Addeline? I know you're trying to keep our spirits up but Olivia hasn't moved an inch not even to breathe. How do we know this isn't a protection thing but more of a mourning thing?" My mom and I both growled in response to that. Gaia narrowed her eyes,
"I'm just saying what we're all thinking," she grumbles before walking down the stream. A small piece of me knew that Gaia was right. But a large part of me refused to believe that my sister is dead. I just felt in my gut that she isn't.
"Why don't we just finish with dinner." My mother suggests while picking her stick back up. I rest my head in my lap, not really in the mood for fish.
The next morning, Olivia shocked us all when we heard the sound of her breathing. She was breathing which meant she was still alive in there. My mother was elated that Olivia is moving even if it is just to breathe. We all waited for her to stir or something since she was breathing again. But unfortunately, her body remained in the plank position. She wasn't going to move anytime soon. Gaia's ears perked up and she turned to look at the exit. I ignored her weirdness and waited with mom for anything to happen.
"We have a problem," Gaia replies while standing to her feet.
"What?"
"Hunters, a few miles from here."
"Both of you take care of it. We cannot let anyone get too close to this cave. We all know what may happen then." Gaia and I nod before zipping out the cave towards the sound of traveling hunters. Gaia was right about them being nearby since we didn't have to go that far. It was a small group about seven or eight of them max. All of them had weapons behind their backs and rode on horses. The biggest one, I'm assuming is the leader, hops off his horse when he spots Gaia.
"Hey there." he smiles as he approaches Gaia.
"I can't let you pass. Your welcome to go along the stream but going forward is not an option." The leader looked confused at her statement as he analyzed her face.
"You look familiar. Just like that royal child that's missing." He replies with his hand to his chin. Dad told them we were missing?
"She looks like that brown haired royal. What's her name?"
"Antoinette I think."
"Its Alina." Gaia answers
"There it is. I knew it had an A in it. You must be Gaia, her only daughter." One of the travelers comment from his horse.
"Royal huh? What would you be doing all the way out here?" The leader smiles as if he has just found a rare buck.
"I can't tell you that."
"Well, then you can at least let our horses through." The leader replies as he climbs up top his horse.
"I can't do that either," Gaia answers as the men inch forward. My curse got antsy at their movements and I knew I would shift soon. I noticed Gaia's eyes darken,
"Just let us through darling, we won't tell ya mama where you been." One of them chuckles.
"I said no," Gaia growls while looking up at them. Her red eyes glared them down and a few of them stopped chuckling.
"She must be just like the royal children." One of them whispers. The leader looked intrigued as he climbed down once again.
"How interesting. I thought there were only two." He remarks as he steps towards Gaia.
"You best let us through, we're not afraid of no cursed," Gaia smirked at his reply
"You oughta be." The men instantly pulled their arrows out and I shifted. I stood protectively behind Gaia and snarled at them.
"Now boys!" Arrows went flying in the air as I launched on the leader and chomped on his arm. He screamed in pain as I watched Gaia stay semi shift and attack another of the hunters. A part of me was screaming how unright this was and how we were both killing innocent men. My cursed ignored me and continued to slaughter the hunters until they were nothing but a bloody puddle. Gaia and I stopped and exchanged looks,
"Yeah, this may be a problem." I heard my mother say from behind us.
I paced around my office. I have been unable to sleep all night. Who could even think of sleep when their wife and kids are missing? My door opened and my brother and Alina both came in,
"Oh thank god, now we can go back out and look for them," I call out in relief.
"Actually I think that's the worst thing we could do."
"What? My wife and kids are who knows where and we should just what? Sit here and do nothing?"
"Well, of course, we aren't going to do anything. We should both figure out what's going on first. You saw how they reacted when you tried to get near them."
"It could just be a misunderstanding."
"No, they made it pretty clear that they wanted no one near her but the three of them. The more we know the easier it will be to get to them." Alina adds. I hated not knowing where my family is but perhaps they had a point. I should figure out why they reacted this way and see if there is something I can do to bypass it.
"So what do we first?"
"Well, I got the medic who examined Lord Peters and Lady Regina's bodies. We both should go talk to him." Jace suggest
"I'm going to look into that symbol that was burned into..." Alina trails off while looking me over. She could say it. The symbol that those sons of bitches burned into my teenage daughters head. She could say it. Jace walks over and grabs my arm,
"Come on brother. Let's go see the medic."
"How can you both be so calm?" I ask. It makes no sense that they aren't freaking out with me. Why am I the only one unstable?
"Gaia is with Addeline. I know Addy won't let anything happen to her." Alina comments as she sits on the loveseats by my fireplace. Sure her daughter would be protected but what if Addeline uses her life to protect them all. I can't handle life without her. I gave her a nod as Jace and I leave out the room. We walked down the hall towards the medical chambers. When we arrived, the medic was standing over his desk with mountain heaps of papers. He looked just as confused and lost as I was. Jace cleared his throat,
"Doctor," The thin and frazzled man looked up at us. His spectacles dangled on the bridge of his nose. He hastily pushed them up,
"Your Highnesses," he spoke
"Tell us what you found regarding Lady Regina and Lord Peter's bodies?"
"Well, their brain had been completely liquified and their eyes were rolled to the back of their head. I have never seen a case like this since the killing of the witches."
"What do you mean?" I question fearing the worst. Could he mean that this means Olivia is dead?
"The first time I saw something like this was after the killing of a young witch babe. The mother let out a powerful cry so powerful that the ground shook, the weather changed drastically and the hunter was found with his eyes shoved in the back of his head. His brain was a complete puddle. It was worse death I had ever seen."
"My guess is that whoever did this let out a burst of power through crying or screaming. Witches only let out this much intense power if they are in great sorrow, pain, or death. That's all I know." Oh god. Olivia could have been in an incredible amount of sadness or pain. Or she's...I wish I had gotten a better look at her before they took her away.
"Thank you, Doctor," Jace answers as we walk out the chambers.
"Did you get a good look at Olivia before they took her away?"
"Not really, I could the faint smell of blood but that could just be from Lady Regina and Lord Peters. What are you thinking?"
"I..." I did not want to admit that I'm picturing my sweet little girl dead.
"I'm thinking that I'm glad those two are dead because if I had gotten my hands on them," I answer as the anger inside of my raise.
"Why would they do something like this? My daughter never hurt them in any way."
"I know." I am so tired of people looking at her like a monster when they do things like this! Kidnapping and torturing a teenager. A fucking teenager who is doing her best to save her own people! Alina came rushing out of the office,
"Hey! I got something." Alina huffed out.
"What is it?"
"Well, I had been thinking about the symbol every since we left. I know I had seen it before but for the life of me, I couldn't remember where. So I dug through Theodore's study but I got nothing. So I dug through the dark magic books and found it!"
Alina held up the book and sure enough, the symbol that was forged into the iron and burned into my daughter's forehead was right in front of us. But I couldn't read the language that was underneath explaining it all.
"Do you speak the language that it's written in?" I question.
"Uh...no actually."
"Well, then why are you saying this like its good news. We still got nothing."
"We do have the information we got from the doctor and-"
"He didn't have anything solid." I cut off.
"If you had let me finished, I would have told you that I know someone who does," Alina replies giving us both the eye.
Later on that day, we all piled into a carriage and headed for this person that Alina knew. We didn't really ask her questions about who this person may be but I didn't care.
It could be an old hag all I cared as long as they told me what I needed to know about my daughter. We went through the woods in silence and before we knew it we were here. Alina opened the door and stepped out. She held her hands up and sighed in content,
"Is that my dear Alina?" An older woman calls out with her door wide open. She had super white eyes and it made me wonder if she was a witch or just blind. But it wouldn't make sense to bring a book to a blind woman for obvious reasons.
"Gloriana!" Alina squealed as she rushes over and hugs the woman. The woman pulls away and blinks at her for a moment,
"Oh dear, what happened?"
"May we come in Ma'am?" Jace asks and the elder woman looks over at him and then me. She steps to the side and lets all three of us in. I look around and notice another woman in the cottage. She looked frail in her dress. We were brought to what I assume is the sitting room. After everyone was situated,
"What troubles you my darling? I can feel your uncertainty the moment you hugged me." Gloriana asks Alina.
"Well, my niece has been taken by her mother, brother, and my daughter. You remember Addeline right?" Why would this woman know my wife?
"Yes, I remember her. Your niece was the cursed one right?"
"Yes, two people had taken her and tortured her in the woods. She was unconscious when we found her and the two people were dead."
"How did they die?"
"Their eyes were rolled to the back of their head and-"
"Brains were liquefied?"
"How did you know that?" I cut in. This woman knew a lot for just a simple friend.
"Did Olivia have a symbol burned into her head?"
"Yes, and I can't understand the language it's in-"
"You don't need too. Give me the book." Who is this woman? Am I the only skeptical? How does she know so much about the situation? About my daughter and wife? Alina reached over and handed her the book. The woman ran her fingers over the symbol and gasped before shoving the book on the table.
"Gloriana?"
"Alina is your daughter a cursed?"
"Uh yes,"
"Did all of them shift and stand protectively over Olivia?"
"Does this mean something?" I question nervously. The woman turned to look at me for a moment. Her white eyes bored into my soul before she stood up and walked out the sitting room.
We all exchanged looks but she returned with a tea kettle and some cups. She placed them down on her small table. I watched her slowly pour some tea into her own cup and then place it down. She took a deep breath before looking up at us once again,
"That symbol...was something I haven't heard about in a long time. Were these two people witches themselves?"
"No, they were regular townspeople." Jace answers.
"That symbol is very bad. It was used on witches during the witch hunt. It strips them of their magic." They were trying to take away my daughters magic? It makes no sense why they would try and do that.
"Does that mean my daughter doesn't have magic?"
"No. Your daughter's gifts were embedded in her since birth. That type of magic cannot just be taken. However, your daughter is filled with magic. Aside from her witch abilities, a cursed itself is a representation of magic."
"I'm not understanding."
"A spell like that cannot take away her magic, it' just not possible. It did, however, spark a big burst of it which why the two culprits brain was liquified. But I wonder... You said that all three of them shifted to go find Olivia right?"
"Right."
"Cursed gather together only in times of crisis or...in times of death. How did they seem when they did all reach her?"
"Well, my son wouldn't let me anywhere near her. He was snarling and almost attacked me. Along with my niece. My wife was just holding her and calling her name." Gloriana nods her head as she sips her tea. For a moment, I could see the brief appearance of pity.
"The spell they used may not have taken her magic away but it could have stowed her cursed away or worse taken it away. That would explain why they were all huddled over her. They probably could not find her cursed."
"Wait what do you mean to take it away? That's not possible." I cry out. I felt the room closing in on me. Who on earth could have given those two a dark magic spell? Could my daughter live without a cursed? Is it even possible to live without one? Could Addeline live without her's? Could this be a good thing or a bad thing?
"I thought a cursed couldn't be removed?" Jace questions
"A cursed can be removed but it will kill the host." I stood up as my palms started sweating. My daughter is either dead or horribly injured. My wife and son have no idea and will be completely alone when or if they find out. My mind instantly flashed millions of memories of my bubbly blonde little angel.
"Look, daddy! I made this for you." I took the small painting from her chubby little hands and smiled proudly. She had painted me and her mother with crowns on our heads and smiles on her faces.
"This is the most beautiful gift I have ever gotten." I gush as I scoop her up in my arms. She giggles and places her little hands on my chest.
"I know just the place." I walk over to my fireplace and place the painting right next to the wooden sculpture I made for her mother. I turned to look at her bright green doe eyes that she had gotten from her mother.
"What do you think?" I question
"Perfect!" she squealed with both her hands up and a smile. I raise my hand up and tickle her as she burst into a field of giggles.
"I love you sunshine."
"I love you too daddy."
"I uh...I need some air." The witch grabbed my hand and closed her eyes for a moment before opening them,
"You're in for a battle...I just hope you're ready for your part in it." I stared at her before taking my hand out of hers and rushing out the door.