"I knew you'd be involved somehow," Jasmine spat, "You can't trust a Fae."
"Do you really hate us?" Tia asked with wide eyes.
"Of course, she's involved."
"Betraying your own kind."
"That's disgusting. How could you?"
"Cure? Cure for what?" The questions and accusations flew from around the room. I couldn't keep track of who said what; the words overlapped, and voices blurred together. Jasmine threw daggers with her eyes, and I knew without doubt that I'd be dead already if it weren't for the fact she was chained to a wall.
I didn't have it in me to fight back. Not when I knew I had caused this one way or another. Even the thought of what their kind had done to mine didn't help to rekindle the fire. How could it when I didn't even know if any of them had been there? They might not have done anything at all.
But I knew for a fact what I had done. And there was no hiding from it. No escaping it. We were living it.
I dropped my head into my shackled hands and let the words wash over me. The twist in my stomach returned but there was nothing left to choke back up.
I'd hated what I was for so long, but as I sat there in that cell, chained to a wall, surrounded by Mythics that seemed to hated me even more than I hated them I was no longer sure of anything. I hated being a Mythic, but for the first time since I'd woken up a wolf five years earlier, I wasn't sure I wanted to be human either.
I prayed the cure would work because I couldn't take anymore blood on my hands. Guilt hovered over me with ever watchful eyes, pouncing with a new wave of horror ever chance it got. My mind was trapped between the hatred I had clung to for so long and the all to vivid reality of the of that hatred in action.
Day after day, year after year I had wished for this. Hoped that they all died. Got what they deserved. And now I was responsible for it. Forced to sit in this cell and bear witness to the slaughter I'd called into action.
"Please work. Please work." The rumble of overlapping voices faded to background noise as I focused everything I had on those two words falling from my lips on repeat.
"Praying your cure works are you." Jasmine spat with venom, "Hoping more Mythics die? You Fae scum."
"I didn't know she was doing this." Her accusation burned another hole through my already shredded skin. She chuckled at my words.
"You just admitted you asked her to find you a cure. How did you think they would do it?"
"Not like this. They were supposed to test it on me. I swear I never wanted to hurt anyone."
"That's not what I've heard." The siren's lilting voice accused from the opposite wall, "Everyone knows you hate Mythics. You don't even let us near that human pub of yours."
"That's not.." I don't know how to explain it. Surely they understood why I've wanted to avoid Mythics since that day..
"Don't try to deny it, you kicked me out once. Quite violently too, I might add." She cut me off before I could even begin to think of what to say to. I searched the room desperate for anyone that might give me a chance to explain. To defend myself. My eyes finally landed on Jasper. A silent void by my side. His eyes watched me with interest though he remained uninvolved in any of the arguments that were occurring around us.
His amber eyes search mine for what felt like an eternity as the endless tirade wore on. He cleared his throat. The chatter hesitated for the briefest moment before it charged on once more.
"That's enough," his voice cut through theirs with ease. Silence fell over the cell, leaving behind a ringing in my ears as they struggled to adjust to the sudden change in volume. All eyes turned to the haggard vampire, some with anger and annoyance some with curiosity. "Let's give her the chance to explain herself before we throw around anymore accusations. There's two sides to every story and we haven't heard Delilah's side as yet."
The Siren opened her mouth, I assumed to argue with him but Jasper held up a hand and silenced her.
"You'll have your turn, Lauren." He admonished, before turning his gaze to each of the other Mythics in the room one by one. And one by one they nodded and turned hostile gazes back to me. He turned to Jasmine last, their eyes locked and the stare off lasted minutes until she finally shifted her earthy brown eyes to mine.
"Um..." I cleared my throat unsure where to start now that all eyes were on me.
"Why don't we start with why you want a cure?" Jasper asked, voice soft and neutral.
"It's not that simple," I murmured, fidgeting with my chains, unable to meet the multitude of accusing stares aimed at me. Jasper shuffled beside me and released an audible sigh.
"You're going to have to try if you want us to believe you aren't responsible for this." And despite the lack of accusation in his eyes, I realised he might not be the neutral party I thought he was.
"In some ways I am responsible though," Tia gasped, Jasmine scoffed, and Lauren once again opened her mouth to speak but Jasper's eyes silenced them all with one brief glance.
"I did ask her to help me find a cure. But I didn't mean like this. I may not like other Mythics and for good reason but I would never wish this on any of you. I don't even know you." I kept my eyes directed at the manacles around my wrists, tracing the swirl of my fingers as they fidgeted with the attached chain.
"I met Kat a few years ago, not long after the..." Mythics wiped out my kind is what I'd been going to say, but it seemed inappropriate for the current audience, "After I was bitten and turned into a Wolf.
"She was kind and offered to give me a place to stay. Eventually, she became my best friend. Only friend really since I was cut off from Mythics and I didn't quite fit in with other humans. She was a microbiologist and eventually I told her what I was. I told her what had happened and how I wanted to be human. She suggested that we could use her lab to try and find a cure that would remove the Mythic side of me and leave me human.
"I agreed. It was all I wanted from the day I was bitten. My family was gone. My friends were gone. Everyone I knew and loved was dead. I would have given anything to be human. So, Kat started taking my blood and doing some research. It's been years and she was getting nowhere. I was actually starting to think it would never happen. And then she told me that she had brought in one of her old Professors, that she hadn't told him about the Mythic part but he had given her some ideas on how to progress the cure.
"Obviously, she lied about not telling him. And I guess his idea was to start experimenting on other Mythics. So, it is my fault that we're all here. And it is my fault that Mythics have died. But I had no intention of this happening, no any idea that it was happening until they abducted me as well."
"I told you she was responsible. How did listening to that help anything? She just confirmed what we already knew." Jasmine rolled her eyes.
"What happened to your friends and family?" Tia asked her hazel eyes unblinking as she stared at me in horror. I drew in a sharp breath, glancing around the room unsure how to answer the innocent question. When my eyes finally landed on Jasper, he raised an eyebrow in question and gave me a nod of encouragement.
"Um...well I think everyone else already knows this, but five years ago my people, the Fae were attacked. It was the middle of the night and we were all asleep in our beds when people from all the other Mythic races attacked us," There were sharp breaths from around the room, wide confused eyes and I wasn't sure whether to continue or not.
"I don't know why they attacked us, or what they wanted, other than to wipe us out. They killed everyone I loved. I still don't know why I survived. A werewolf bit me and it should have killed me but it didn't. Instead, I became a Wolf as well as a Fae. And now I am the last and first of my kind." My thoughts drifted back to that night as I spoke, my mouth went dry and my vision blurred.