Leonarya felt her knees slacken at Kyran’s words. Her mother was here? Was the woman that foolish? She even forgot, or rather didn’t deem it necessary at the moment to slap Kyran for using the Queen title on her mother. She had told him more than once not to do so. But she relegated the disobedience to shock. She was shocked too. “Where is she?” Leonarya asked, wondering that perhaps the gods were in her favor this time around. “She is in the outer court.” Leonarya nodded, and then waved him out of her presence. Kyran took a bow and hurried, wise in knowing the unstable state of Leonarya. Leonarya, whose mind had started down the memory lane again. But Leonarya shook herself out of it the next second, shook herself up, and walked out of the room. This was the wrong time to walk down the memory lane. This was no time at all. Yet, she couldn’t stop the torrent of memories that assailed her mind as she traveled the corridors to go and meet her mother. She couldn’t even help the r
A sheen of tears fuzzed up Zipfarah’s eyes as she stared at her daughter sporting a winning smirk on her lips. Did she have to do this? Zipfarah thought, wondering how they had come to this point-where she would kill her successor. “I didn’t lie, Leonarya. You are my successor. You are the oldest.” Leonarya shook her head with a sad laugh. “If Tempest was still alive, would I have being your successor, mother?” Zipfarah didn’t bother answering, didn’t bother lying. Tempest would have been the successor, and they both knew it. Zipfarah wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Yes, she was still angry that Leonarya had killed Tempest, but she had never thought it worth her own head. How could she lose two of her daughters over a human male? She didn’t understand the complications of their relationship but her daughter, Leonarya, wasn’t one to deal well with rejection. Yet, Zipfarah found it stupid that all this feud had been because of the man. She had thought that she had taught them
Tempest watched with wide eyes as Kyran-she still remembered the child who had a weird crush on her when he was but a child- escorted her mother into the dungeons. She quickly intensified the cloak she had put on around her and Ketura. They had come here to rescue Margo, but it turned out that they had been divinely led here, for this moment. If they had come a minute later or before, they wouldn’t have known that the Queen was in captivity. But how? How had her mother become present here? What about the community? What about her children? Tempest felt her heart rate spike, a deadly action in the midst of witches and wizards. “Tempest, be calm. You will give us away at this rate. At this rate, we might not be able to rescue Margo or your mother. We won’t be able to find out either what is going on back at the community, what is going on with your children. At this rate, Leonarya would find out that you are still alive. At this rate, our efforts all these months will be in vain.”
Ketura let out a sigh of relief at a mission accomplished when she and Tempest, who was still in her copied state, dropped Margo and Zipfarah on the longest couch in their sitting room. “I will be heading back to the containing room. Or rather to my place in the other side of the forest. You can come over to communicate with me whatever information you have. I still don’t think it’s a right idea that any of them know of me yet.” Ketura nodded, understanding what Tempest was talking about. They couldn’t afford a hole in their plans now, holes they couldn’t predict how it would come about, and so they would altogether eliminate anything that might look like something to trigger a hole. “We can leave them here. I’ve already activated the safeguards. We can talk in the adjourning room. I think that they would be out for more than an hour.” Tempest gave a slight nod, and headed to the particular room in question. “So, we have achieved the first phase of the plan. What do we do next?
Emma Makonel. Why not Emma Drackson? When was the name changed? Or was it her real name? Emma cocked her head to the side, unconsciously ruminating on this matter and the other details of the dream. However this one stood out. A change in her name. “Emma, what are you thinking about?” The question drew Emma out of her thoughts into the present, into the real world where she was having dinner with her family. She noticed the three were looking at her with a querying look, and shrugged her shoulders, indicating nothing. She wondered what her family would do if they found out what she had seen this last month in the place where they had sent her to school, and bit back a chuckle, imagining her father’s incredulous face. Emma Makonel. She would use the google after dinner, after the family meeting that her father had claimed they had to have after this dinner. Her mother looked like she wanted to inquire more, but then stopped short as if held back by an invisible force, and retur
It took about ten minutes for Emma’s father to gather his thoughts and speak again. Emma couldn’t help the feeling that whatever he said would change her life forever, would shake her orbit more than her orbit already has. She kept her resolve to stay and listen as steel, no matter how hard whatever her father had to say would hit her.“The woman’s name is Tempest. She had been an ex-girlfriend. My first love actually.” The fact that her father could speak of another woman so lovingly in front of his wife was quite disturbing, but seeing the resigned look on her mother’s face, Emma knew that the latter had accepted her place in the man’s life. Tempest. The woman who still had the larger portion of her father’s heart. Tempest. The name sounded familiar for some reason. Where had she heard it from? Emma tried to remember, but nothing was coming up, or rather her mind chose not to stress itself. It was rather full, and then concentrated on whatever her father was saying. “She di
“Was I the only child of my mother?” Emma asked, letting her hands slip into the crack between her thighs, her heart thumping more than usual. She found it surprising that she so wanted Freya to be her sister. Her twin.“Tempest didn’t say. But if I should take a guess, I would say no. The nurse we had hired to take care of her, mentioned that she must have given birth to more than one child at that time.”Emma sighed in relief.Hearing her mother’s answer solidified the already staying motion that Freya was her twin. But she had left her sister back at the pack. Emma scratched her hands, a bit unnerved and frustrated, balancing when she remembered that Freya wasn’t alone. No, her sister was with the species that was stronger than the werewolves. Emma paused here, coming to a startling realization. If Freya was her sister, and Sheila was her mother, then it would mean that she was part of the pack, that she could be a werewolf. Had that been the reason why Tempest had instructed
Emma looked at her watch for the second time since they started the journey to the area where Jason had made sure that her mother had been taken care of. They have been enroute for more than twenty minutes now. She let out a soft sigh and relaxed deeply in the car seat. Her parents were both occupying the front seats. She thought of Amelia then. When they had stood up from the conversation all done and dusted, she hadn’t felt the presence of her sister anymore. She hadn’t known when she had lost the touch, the contact, but all of a sudden, she hadn’t felt the presence. Emma had thought to check in on Amelia in the latter’s room, but had then thought better of it. it was best to leave without informing the latter. If not, the latter would want the whole story, and if she got it, would want to follow to the ends of the earth. Emma sighed again. At least she had one faithful person in her life. She picked up the phone, and looked. There was no reply from Annabel yet. Immediately she