And There Were Wolves

forty seven | I'd dance in a storm in my best dress, fearless

to ray_seen whose comments made my day ♡ 

And I don't know why but with you I'd dance / In a storm in my best dress, fearless

"Yes, you got it right. So why don't you tell us what the dream was really about? Was it something that had already happened?" asked Ryker. It was odd seeing him like this because I knew from the way he looked at Adelina that he truly believed that she was lying.

Adeline kept her mouth shut. All she had on her face was that annoying smile.

"This is a waste of time." I raced to Adelina, my right hand was surged with power, ready to compel her into telling us what really happened, but she suddenly turned to face me and stopped me by putting her hand up but I could see from the movement of her lips, I knew she was doing some kind of incantation. Swiftly, I flicked my hand to take the apple from her desk and put it in her mouth to silence her.

Ryker moved fast as he could and restrained both of Adelina's hands. "We can do this the hard way or the easy way. Your pick, Adelina."

The sorceress ignored him. Her eyes were solely locked on me. With caution, I took the apple out of her mouth to allow her to speak. Since Ryker's hold on both of her wrists alone would not be sufficient to prevent Adelina from casting a spell, I used my power to make her palms curl into a fist and stay that way so she wouldn't be able to move her hands or fingers.

Her first sentence was, "You're Gaia."

"I'm not," I replied right away. "Gaia Ashcroft was my mother, or at least that was what you said last time I was here."

"But I can sense her magic within you." She struggled to free her hand.

"It's fine, Ryker."

He narrowed his eyes at Adelina. "You try anything, you touch her and hurt her, I'm gonna rip your heart out," he said that sentence casually but I could feel the threat in his sentence.

One last time, Ryker looked at me before releasing his grip and Adeline lifted her hand. She touched the ball of red smoke again and gasped. "I can sense Laurel's, Ygor's, Troy's, Mirna's, Bonnie's, and there are many others." Her eyes moved to me. She looked both surprised and scared. "You killed them," she said, her fear pouring out with every word.

"I didn't." My tone grew defensive. "I don't even know half of those people."

"Then your mother must have done it. We all have a suspicion. We all suspect that she might be a sorceress despite her denying it, given her family's history of witchcraft. She practiced her magic in secret, didn't she?"

"I wouldn't know. My mum died when I was eight years old." I swallowed a lump in my throat. This was difficult to talk about my mother, it always had. "Who are those people?"

"Her relatives," answered Adelina. Her voice showed no compassion or any emotion at all, almost like Dmitry's, except that there was an eerie ring to it. "The Delvaux of Southern Europe. Your family is quite famous and for one reason. They sucked other witches dry and absorbed their powers. That way they will gain longer years to live and more powers. Any witches would do, but blood relatives are even better. That's how your mother did it. She killed her relatives and took their power. But now all of that power is in you. So what does that tell you, hmm?" Adelina's eyes regarded me in a new light, there was both awe and trepidation when she finally asked one question that I'd feared she'd ask, "Did you kill your own mother, Xyrra Ashcroft?"