“Nathan Makonel, you haven’t said anything since this meeting started. But we would like to hear your input now, brother. Are you that torn with happiness?” Kane questioned the tall, finely sculpted man sitting right across him, on the long rectangular oakwood table, whose head was bowed low as if in deep thought.Nathan didn’t answer. Not yet.Kane looked at the other ancients gathered around the table and sighed. They would have to wait till Nathan was ready to talk. His friend has always been like that. Not easily moved or pressured. Hard as rock. Just like a first born prince was. Kane wondered now if he would take up the position seeing that the reason why the latter had dropped it was because of the darkness that had begun to invade his senses. Nathan hadn’t wanted to be a tool to prey on his people. And so he had handed the position to his younger brother who had found his lifemate, and had gone into hiding. It had taken them the whole of five hours to find him, despite the po
11:30pmEmma sighed, watching the grandfather’s clock in the cabin’s sitting room. It was just thirty minutes to go. She looked around the room, inhaling the smell of the antiseptic she had used to clean the house, to wash every corner of the house, to get rid of the smell of despair, and medicines and coma. She sunk deeper into the sofa and flexed her hands. She didn’t know why she had cleaned it. In hope of her mother returning? Emma wasn’t sure. She looked at her hands, and flexed her fingers again. She, who had never cleaned. She chuckled dryly at herself. Where had she even gotten the initiative or the burst of strength to even clean the house after those mighty tears she had unleashed for more than thirty minutes? She shook her head, jerking up on the sofa, when her sensitive ears picked up sounds from outside the cabin. Someone was trying to get inside here! Emma’s eyes widened at the realization and she jumped to her feet. There was an onset of panic where she had wished
11:40Emma stood frozen, her mind a chaotic whirlpool of emotions as the jaguar slinked further into the sitting room. Her heart pounded against her ribcage, each beat reverberating in her ears like a drum. She had always known there was something different about her sister. But this? This was beyond comprehension. She didn’t see this coming. If she thought that Amelia was hiding something, it was maybe her practice center, her diary, her fetishes or something else. Something human. But not this. The sleek, powerful form of the jaguar, with its piercing, familiar eyes, filled her with a mixture of awe and terror. Those eyes—so unmistakably Amelia's—sent a cold shiver down her spine. Were their parents aware of this? Was Amelia adopted? Or did something happen to the real Amelia back in college, and this was an imposter? No, if this was an imposter, she would have noticed. This was Amelia, in the flesh and blood.Emma cocked her head to the side, still unable to come to terms of wh
There was a minute of silence after Emma’s question, during which Amelia tightened her hold on the blanket that was around her body, and then took a seat on the sofa. She had been standing all this while. Emma thought of giving her a trouser and sweater and socks from her collection since they were mostly the same size, but she didn’t follow through with the thoughts. Her sister was a jaguar, which means that the latter could regulate her body temperature. She only needs clothes to cover her nakedness. The blanket was doing justice to that. “You aren’t going to answer the question?” Emma poses, tired of her sister’s silence. “That's because I think you already know the answer to that, Emma. If you already have dug into the powers that have been stored in you before your eighteen birthday, then it means that something had triggered it, before its time. It means that you had probably fought against something. Something must have tried to hurt you, and so it jumped out.”Emma said no
“Emma, please. Don’t make this harder than it already is. You know that your life is in danger. Come with me to my master, he will protect us.” Emma shook her head. “If he cared, there wouldn’t be coercion.” “It’s because he cares, that there is coercion. You are stubborn; everyone knows that. But this isn’t a time for your stubbornness or for your relentless ego. The balance of the world is at stake, and will completely crumble if you are in the wrong hands. We can’t take chances. And that’s why coercion is an option-should in case you are not aware of the fate in your hands, we will force you to see it. Come, my master will train you on how to access and use all your powers.” Emma furrowed her eyebrows, watching her sister rant like some religious fanatic with that desperation in the latter’s eyes. “Do you know my other sister? How would you know that I am the one that is the prophecy?” There was silence. A pregnant one which told Emma that Amelia hadn’t been aware of that eq
“Torturing a woman is for the greater good? Amelia, are you being serious? Who are you exactly?” Emma questioned, folding her arms across her chest, whilst contemplating on the truth that might or might not be in the news that Amelia’s master had shared to the latter. Amelia sighed. “I am still me, Emma. I am still working to protect you. Stop fussing like you always do. This is not the time for that. And I doubt that the master would kill the matron. He just needs information.” “And what if the matron is strong enough to resist the torture, what if she holds back on speaking? Will he let her go?” There was a tense silence. Amelia said nothing. Emma knew that the matron would be killed. It shook her heart, the fact that people might die to keep her secret. But wasn’t the matron a human? Why not just give the man the information he wanted? Why fight for what isn’t entirely related to her? Emma wished the matron would speak. “Well, that’s by the way. You can keep hanging onto you
11:55 pmEmma pranced with Amelia around the sitting room, none wanting really to hurt the other. Emma found it funny. “Are we going to fight, or are we going to keep dancing around the room? Didn’t your master give you a deadline?” She asked, coming to a halt, the luminous flame in her head extinguishing without a smoke out. She looked right at the clock as she spoke, and then stayed to feel her body. There were no changes. Well, at least Amelia had mentioned that it could happen anytime within the next day. Emma sighed. She really didn’t think that she would be celebrating her birthday this way, in enmity with her sister, in enmity with the world at large. “You know I lied about what I said earlier…” Amelia said, dropping her hands too. “Well, you have got to be specific. You have been lying since we met each other, and you might have been lying since you came here, you and your master.” Amelia sighed at Emma’s words. But that was to be expected. She had kept acting like a ravi
00:00“Honestly, there are times I don’t trust him, but I do what I have to do because it’s my duty to him. This would be the first time I am disobeying him, disregarding his request. Probably because he was vague on why he wanted you before your shift, and why he didn’t want you to meet your mother.” “So, if he had explained down to the tiniest detail, you would have captured me for him?” Emma asked, teasing her sister who shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know, Emma. All I know is that you mean a lot to me, more than the master. I don’t know what that speaks of my personality as a servant.” Emma laughed, happiness shining in her eyes, as she scooted closer to Amelia, making sure to keep the energy in her running around and brimming at the surface should her sister change her mind, and attack her. If there was anything that she had learnt in the past month, or rather few days, it was the people were very fickle, whether they were just humans or supernaturals. And right now, her si