Chapter 22 #2
Lyra’s voice cracks. She looks at me with devastation in her eyes.
“They’re not killing Mindless, Juniper. The Umbral Authority makes all witches who finish Bloodstone take vows.
When you finish Bloodstone Academy, that vow is mixed with blood, and you become part of their army.
Not Mindless…but controlled. The same for the shifter who’s bonded to them.
You see what they want you to see. They send the strong witches they make at that academy into this world to slaughter witches who are left here.
They want only controlled witches in the pocket realm.
Anyone else is a threat, and they made sure all threats were taken care of.
The witches are mind-controlled into seeing only Mindless when they find witches here.
They slaughter them without knowing they are killing their family, their own kind.
They don’t even see this world for what it is.
They think it’s still their world. They don’t know any different.
And once they’re done—” She pauses. “Once they’re done, they’re killed if there is even a hint of truth in their minds.
The ones they like, their memories are wiped, and they’re thrown back into their clan to make children.
Whatever the Umbral Authority decides is their fate. ”
I shake my head. “It’s madness. They killed all the witches here?”
“All of them, except one who is too strong and old for them. Of course, they look for me too, but we are good at hiding.” Lyra takes Zephyros’s hand.
“Why didn’t you come back for me?” Emotion leaks into my voice. “What happened when I was a baby? The blood creature at the bottom of the academy, it told me that my father died, and that was an attempt to protect me.”
“Blood creature? You mean the Vex?” Lyra questions, her face paling when I nod. “That creature is not to be trusted.”
“I got that impression when it tried to kill me,” I mutter.
“When I found out I was pregnant with you, I was so scared. The world was a mess, the Umbral Authority was mad, and I was trying to stop them. I knew you would be used as a weapon to control me, and I would not have it. I was trying to take you to another world. To our home. Here, with your father, and the Vex taught me spells to make it happen. Vex promised it would help me, but it lied.” She blows out a breath.
“A half-dragon, half-witch child. A powerful child. I could feel your power even when you were in my stomach, and I wanted you safe no matter what. I planned to stay at Bloodstone Academy and fight in secret while you lived here in peace. When you were born, I hid you for a while, and when it was time, I took you to Vex and began the spell. I wasn’t alone; I had the Daygan clan with me and many shifters.
I was sending an army to protect you with your father.
” Her voice shakes, and Zephyros touches her shoulder.
She loved me enough to give me up, and her bonded too. Her clan, her family too.
“That night…it went wrong. Vex did not want you to leave, and it made sure you couldn’t.
It took your father’s life, drained him in front of me, and then the fight that followed killed all the shifters and most of the Daygan clan.
I used the blood to open a portal. I went to take you through when I was blasted with magic.
Vex had told the Umbral Authority, and they took you from me.
You were just a few months old, and they ripped you from my arms, throwing me and my bonded through the portal. ” She sobs and my heart breaks for her.
“In a breath, they had you. Vex said a prophecy as the portal closed and made sure I heard it. It used to be a small creature, kind, but now it’s not.
It wants to be fed, and the Umbral Authority does what it wants.
I never figured out what transforms people into Mindless until I saw my bonded change into one when he died.
They locked me out of their dimension with Vex’s power.
With that thing at Bloodstone Academy, I can’t go back.
I have tried. All I can do is sometimes send visions through to you.
I don’t know if you ever get them, but I try.
It takes every bit of power I have just to send through a second of a vision, but it’s still blocking me out of that world. If I had any of my heirlooms—”
“Heirlooms?” I cut her off. I had one vision just before they wiped my memory.
“I am one of the descendants from the goddess. The heirlooms were in my family for years, and I stored them at Bloodstone Academy for safety. Of course, when I was kicked out of that world, I didn’t have them with me, so I don’t have them anymore.
The watch would be the best thing. The tarot cards have power, and the last one…
it’s a small creature that hides in the academy,” she admits.
For a moment, I think of the strange, small creature that is in my pocket.
Minnie…she can’t be? Right? “With them, I might be able to bridge a gap back to that world.”
“I need to get back. Could you help me get back?” I ask. “I have four bonded dragons there. They are my mates too… They are in trouble.”
“There is nothing we wouldn’t do for you, Juniper.
You’re family, and so are your mates,” Lyra vows, and I believe her.
It all makes sense now, why the forests around the town I grew up with were filled with Mindless, but they never touched me or children.
All children end up back at the wall and injured.
Yet, anyone else who went into them ended up dead because the Mindless were guards to our prison.
To everyone’s prison in the Bloodstone world.
“We have to stop them.” I pull out the tarot card box and show them to her. I have to trust her. I don’t have a choice.
Her eyes widen, and a brilliant smile crosses her face as she looks up at her bonded.
“Go and find our other bonded and tell him everything. It is finally time, and we will need him to help our daughter.” Our daughter.
She turns to me. There is hope in her eyes that wasn’t there before.
“Juniper, this will help us get back and destroy the world. If we get everyone out and destroy it, the Umbral Authority will be over. We can destroy the world from right under their noses, and all their Mindless will go with it.” A good plan, and one I’m on board with.
“And there’s one witch left in this world who’s perhaps even more powerful than I am, and she’s trapped by an old hex.
We will go to her when you’re well enough to travel, and then we will free our people.
Tell me everything you can, Juniper. Tell me what happened to our people over time. ”
As I tell her everything, I rub my chest and think only of my bonded. Please don’t let them die, goddess.