Chapter 4 #2
I do. I tell them everything I remember, everything I know is true and what was taken.
I explain the story of the last three years, the bits and memories that I have.
Parts of the years that we spent together, how we always bonded in the forest. Sometimes it was accidental; sometimes it was not.
How we always got close…too close. How they ripped us apart every time with those tarot cards from the goddess and took our memories to reset the year.
When I’m done, they all stare at me in absolute silence.
I clear my throat. “I know it’s a lot to believe, but they changed things this year.
They’re desperate now, and I don’t know why…
I just don’t like it. They do not know that I remember.
If they find out, they’re just going to wipe my memories again and make sure it sticks.
I have to stop them before they use the tarot cards and fuck with our minds.
I don’t know what saved my memories this time, but we can’t risk it.
Maybe they’ve used it too many times on me.
Maybe there’s something that I’m missing.
I don’t know what it is, but I don’t foresee this year ending well for any of us if we don’t work together.
I’ve got a plan.” An insane plan that likely won’t work.
“A plan that will get every shifter out of the forest, and Bloodstone Academy will fall. There won’t be another year because there’ll be nothing left here for them to repeat. ”
“And how exactly do you plan on doing that?” Kane finally speaks. “I remember you.”
“You do?” I lean closer. Please say one of them remembers me. Please. I hate that they are looking at me like I’m a stranger.
“Not from these years that you talk about, but from when we were children. I know you cannot be trusted.” My heart sinks. Of course that’s what he meant.
“I don’t remember our childhood, not really.
I think they must have messed with my mind so much that my old memories are broken, but I know that we grew up together.
I remember bits of it, just not what happened at the end, how I ended up with Melody and not with my first foster parents, who died.
I know they died, but not how. It’s weird to call them that because I’ve always seen them as my parents, and now I know that they aren’t really.
” I pause. Should I tell them my father was a dragon and I’m a half-shifter?
I want to tell them, but it doesn’t seem like the right moment. “It’s all so complicated.”
“Indeed, it seems like it,” Kane agrees, something flashing in his eyes. Will he tell me the truth? I doubt it when he doesn’t remember last year. Or the years before.
Vale doesn’t say a word, but he is practically shaking with anger, and I know he wants to refuse anything I’ve said and attempt to kill me.
Maz comes over to me. He runs his fingers across my cheek, leaving a wave of heat where he touched. “I remembered something in my dreams last night. We were sitting on the balcony edge overlooking the forest, talking about my past, and I wanted to kiss you so badly. I didn’t know you were real.”
“Yes, that was real,” I whisper, my eyes filling with unshed tears.
“Did I kiss you?” he breathes out, coming closer, like he is thinking about kissing me right now in front of them all.
My cheeks brighten. “No, Maz. Kane interrupted and reminded us it is forbidden.”
Maz laughs, his eyes fixed on me. “Since when did any of us follow the rules? You’re a walking rule breaker, Juniper Daygan.” He winks.
I laugh, but I don’t get to reply before Vale grabs me, pushing me against the wall by my throat, his impressive body crowding mine. “I don’t believe her words just because she tells an unbelievable story and charms Maz. Anyone can do that second one.”
“Hey!” Maz protests, but no one comes forward to defend him. Vale smells just like fire and brimstone as he presses harder into me. I don’t lower my gaze, and I don’t back down.
“We don’t have a lot of time.” Kane pulls him off me and shoves him away. Maz comes to my side, offering me his hand, and I take it as I suck in a deep breath.
“He’s right. I need to get out to the forest to bond with you, and I’m not exactly sure I’m going to get past all the guards without them seeing that I’m here,” I mutter, staring at the door. “I’m out of magic right now, thanks to the spell.”
“We never agreed to bond with you. I don’t like being leashed like a pet,” Kane snarls at me. “We are not yours.”
We are not yours. Those words slam into my chest and vibrate cracks throughout it.
“The bond is not a leash.” My words come out weak, because is it?
I don’t know anything real about the bonding other than I never felt more right than when I was bonded to them.
“You are already bonded to my soul and have been for three years! There might not be a visible mark because of the tarot cards’ magic, but nothing can erase the bond we have.
I have risked my life for each of you, over and over.
You have done the same for me. I’m never going to force you to do anything, and I never have.
There’s going to be no war to fight in, at least not the one they’re training us and preparing us for.
” They are silent, contemplating my statement.
I look up at Maz. “I know you. I know that your granny is what you care about. That you want her and the kids she adopts safe. You want the whole village safe, right? In some of the years, you took me to the village. I’ve met her, and she is amazing.
” I pause. “I want them safe too. The shifters are my people—”
“No, you are a witch,” Vale snaps, and I’m tempted to tell him I’m not all witch at all.
I swallow the reply I want to scream at him, but I carry on like he didn’t speak.
“The shifters are slaves, and the fact that the witches withhold food unless you work hard during these trials is barbaric. I hate that you can only eat when you’re here, while you know they’re starving back home.
Trust me, I know it all, and we have to stop this.
They can’t be allowed to do this to us one more time, so I am proposing three very complicated spells.
It’s going to take me some time to figure them out, but there are three things that need to happen. ”
I steel my shoulders as I tell them my quite insane plan that could go wrong.
“The magic of this island is powerful beyond measure, and witches can’t portal in here.
The island can’t be accessed unless whoever is in control wants it to be, and I bet it’s easy enough to control with some powerful and new spells.
I want to lock down Bloodstone Academy and the forests, kill anyone who still fights for the Umbral Authority, and make this island ours.
Once the island is under our control, I want to find my mother with a spell and call her here.
I have to believe she is fighting the Umbral Authority for more than just power and chaos.
I was taken from her, they said that. Maybe she is just a revengeful mother looking for her child. ”
“And what’s the third part of your plan then, darling?” Maz rubs his face, his nickname so familiar it’s almost like he can remember everything between us from years ago. He used to call me darling in the first year we met.
“Convince the world that the Umbral Authority is lying and hunt the Umbral Authority down, hopefully with my mother’s help.
Convince her to get rid of the Mindless and stop the war.
I want to kill the Umbral Authority for all that they have done to me and so many others.
” I lift my chin. “I need your help to do this. Our magic combined is powerful enough to make the spell, and I need assistance translating the ancient spells done to the academy wards so I know exactly how to word the spell and mix the ingredients.”
“I’m in.” Maz squeezes my hand. “You have no idea how much I’ve wanted to save my people and bring down the witches. Fuck them. I’ll be your bonded.”
“The fuck is wrong with you? No, we won’t.” Vale turns away from me, and after everything, it hurts. I knew he wouldn’t be easy to convince, but his outright rejection is bitter tasting.
Kane stares at the wall for a long time before he turns back.
“Your apparent foster parents were rebels, and they didn’t want this world to be like this.
I know they weren’t your real parents…but they would have asked me to listen to you.
I loved them and they were good people.” My heart breaks at the sorrow in his voice.
“We will talk as a group for their sake. Goddess rest their souls.”
“I’ll just go and stand over here where I can probably still hear you,” I mutter, letting go of Maz’s hand and walking to the other side of the dungeon.
Vale mutters a silencing spell, and I hold back a smile that he chose that spell.
Silence enwraps the group, and Vale flashes me a nasty grin before turning his back on me.
I glare at his back as they talk to each other. And once again, it’s them against me.
Sometimes, in all the years we shared, it almost felt like we were a team, like they had my back when no one ever had before.
I hate having to ask for their help right now, but this is bigger than me.
I’m not sure I can do this without the boost of their power and their help with the magic.
If they remembered, they would help me without question.
Now, I’m a stranger asking for the impossible.
Eventually, they turn back to me. I can’t read the answer on their faces until Vale punches the wall and mutters a line of curses. “Fine.”
Black nods. “I am yours from now until death sweeps us away.”
A blush climbs up my neck to my cheeks. Kane sighs. “We were once one clan, and you are all that is left of the clan. I will help you…for them.” Not for me. He is making that clear as day.