Just Us || Isaac Lahey x Reader

Chapter 25

The magic around Derek's neck left at his words as I took a step back. I stared at the werewolf, willing his words to be lies.

"You're lying," I said.

Derek shook his head, as if I was a toddler unable to understand something. "Think about it, Y/n. Kate took you in because you were a witch. She raised you to be a soldier, loyal to Kate, and only her. Why else do you think she kept you from the rest of her family? Because she wanted you to be her soldier. Her witch. She somehow found out you were a witch and slaughtered your parents, taking you for herself so she could raise you to be her weapon. She never cared about you or your parents. She's the reason you don't have a mother, not me."

I felt like I was going to vomit. I could see how it would have worked, see the dots connecting, but I couldn't believe it. The woman who raised me was the reason I was an orphan. Kate, murdering my parents?

"Do you know for sure?" I asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Derek looked at me with something like pity in his eyes. "I know Kate, and this is absolutely something she would do."

It was, wasn't it? Kate was always ambitious. She always found a way to get what she wanted, even if that way wasn't moral. If she'd found out a baby was a witch, what would stop her from murdering the parents and taking the child for herself? Imagine it, Kate in charge of a witch, Kate using her to eradicate werewolves for good, seen as a savior in her family.

I could see her doing it, yet I didn't want to believe it. Kate had raised me. She had been the person I looked up to for so many years, the person I used to see as a parental figure, however ill-conceived that notion had been.

She had been the reason I had no family. She had killed them as if they were nothing, ripping my family away from me. I would never have a mother or father because of her. She was the reason I was an orphan. The reason I couldn't trust people. The reason I was the way I was. I looked back through my memories, to the stories she used to tell me before bed, of the witch who followed the hunters to victory.

She'd been brainwashing me before I could speak, planning everything in my life so meticulously so I'd have blind faith towards her, and only her. I was reminded of the night Gerard visited, his curious gaze and Kate's evasive answers. The words he'd spoken to her before he left. I'll keep your secret.

Gerard had known. Whether he was referring to me being a witch or Kate's murder of my parents, he knew. He'd known all this time and had manipulated me time and time again. My eyes flashed as I wondered if Victoria had even written that letter, or if it was just another one of Gerards tactics to make me into his weapon.

I stepped back, stumbling a bit. I needed to get out of here. I couldn't think with Derek's icy gaze, especially because he was right. Kate had murdered my parents. It was all so obvious now, and I hated that he had been the one to tell me.

Derek grabbed my wrist as I tried to leave, starting to say something, but my eyes flashed and I threw him across the hall with my magic, the invisible shield gone.

"Don't ever touch me again," I spat at him, before turning around and calmly walking away, trying to act as though I was unaffected by his words.

As soon as I turned the corner I fled.

. . .

I was pacing my room, trying to quiet the noise in my head. Memories flashed across my mind, like a slideshow of my childhood, except each image was contaminated as I found new meanings for every single thing Kate had ever done. I scrutinised her, questioning her motives and doubting things I once believed to be true.