EVELYN
"Imagine my surprise when I found out that an artifact that can actually lock a witch's magical power exists."
A voice filled with actual surprise brought me back to reality as I saw myself in a parlor designed with skulls that belonged to different supernatural species. Mind trying to recollect forgotten details, only to realize that I fainted.
"It makes me wonder, why not destroy an artifact that actually works against you witches?"
"The witches' problem doesn't concern you."
My mind still in a haze, I could faintly hear two people discussing, one being unfamiliar, but the other voice was something I could recognize even with my brain being literally rebooted.
Stephanie!!.
Her voice was as cold as polar ice as she communicated with the unknown voice.
"One of my artificers told me that the artifact actually works once… But Guinevere also told me your coven has actually kept the recipe on how to recreate the artifact for years. How impressive."
"Whatever she told you was false. A perfect misinformation. The recipe for recreating it has long been lost to time itself"
Following the conversation, as my mind gradually recollects its shambles pieces, I finally found out who sold us out. Guinevere!
That fool abandoned our family for some brawny beast who was definitely using her for his selfish motives. Still in shock at her betrayal, I opened my eyes slowly once again, trying to see who was conversing with my mother.
Eyes as red as blood, dressed in suits that matched his eye color, presence subdued but still retaining that advent superiority. Without even knowing how he looked, I could tell who he was, Kayden Rothschild.
All of a sudden, I could feel countless gazes locked at me as I finally realized that there were other people in the parlor besides my mom and Kayden. Five men who undoubtedly looked like human bodybuilders stood in different positions in the room. One of them looked a bit familiar, and I remembered seeing him stand beside Kayden during our catastrophic escape. I guess he must be his Beta.
"Evelyn Nikolai, it's an utmost pleasure to meet you,"
with his eyes literally assessing me, my breath hitched, heart beating at asphalt speed, his presence weighing on me with heavy tons of pressure. I could feel beads of sweat rolling off my face; I had never felt so much blood lust directed at me all my life. How many people has this man killed?
"It's me you have to deal with. Leave her out of this."
With my mind threatening to break under his inhumane presence, my mother's voice took his attention as he focused on her, which helped me catch my breath as I was once again inches from fainting again.
"What's there to talk about? The deal is you swear allegiance to me and help me create this witch-dampening artifact, and I let your daughter and your fellow witches live. Easy and Convenient".
His sinister voice rang out, sending shivers down my spine, as I could tell that things were going to get more worse from here. And my mom's words actualized my fear.
"There is no world where I swear allegiance to an inhumane beast like you. How will I feel serving a man who has slaughtered thousands of my kind in his stupid quest for entertainment?. Never!! It will never happen!"
With autumn finality, my mother looked at the devil's incarnate in the eyes with defiance and resolve not to bow to him even at the cost of her life.
"I am feeling generous today, so I will let this insult slide…"
The room temperature dipped as his presence once again roared, causing unbearable pressure on everybody in the room. Regaining his bearing, his face lit with a devilish smirk, one that spoke of deep malice and cruelty. He walked to his man-made throne, designed with fine emerald with gigantic skulls attached at specific positions, sat on it with his legs crossed as I felt like he was about to pass his judgment upon us.
"You see."
Gaining the attention of everyone in the room, he continued;
" I have a dream. A dream any powerful being in our world has.
A dream that consists of conquering and ruling the entire world. In my quest to achieve this great ambition of mine, I am ready to fight the wolves, the bloodsuckers, and any other race that plans to stand in my way. But…"
His eyes boring into me as he paused his sentence, probably enjoying seeing me squirm at his gaze.
"You witches are an enigma that might thwart this little ambition of mine. You see, we wolves are all about strength and the vampires with speed. We mainly rely on whatever our bloodline provides to us.But the anomaly is the witches with magic. I still can't fathom how you people perform or cast spells, create dangerous artifacts, or even alternate living beings into their superior form. And I hate things I don't understand, so like every brawn or brute, as you may refer to us, I decided to eliminate the problem. Wipe out or enslave every witch in existence. Once again, simple and efficient"
Kayden spoke with utmost seriousness that even the dumbest person alive could feel his determination to eliminate witches for good. This man has lost a lot of screws on his brain because only a psychopath plans on literally killing hundreds of thousands of people and still calls it 'simple and efficient'.
"So all because you can't understand our existence, you decided to eliminate our race? I never expected the great Blood Wolf to be a scaredy-cat"
Stephanie retorted, and once again the room temperature dipped, the wolves in the room growling as they were ready to tear apart my mother for her insults towards their alpha. Kayden's face losing his sinister smile as his eyes bored onto my mother with overwhelming force.
"My patience is running thin, you flimsy witch. You now have two options: swear allegiance to me and you and your witches will live; I will even forget that you have constantly been trying to defy me. Two, give me the recipe for crafting the witch dampener, and I might let you live with a few additional witches. Decide now or die this moment.
His voice was stern as a judge passing his final judgment; without thinking, I knew my mother was going to decline his offer. Either way, we were literally handing over a recipe for an instrument that will result in witch genocide. Despite how tough the situation was, with lives actually on the line, she was always going to look at the bigger picture. And the bigger picture was us taking the secret to our grave…
"To hell with..."
"I know how to create the magic dampener." Interrupting my mother, I stood on my wobbly feet as I made a decision that I knew would come to haunt me in the future.