I turn to look at the lady beside me and recognize her instantly.
It’s her. I don’t know how, but I can clearly see her face. She was in the library with me. Apart of me wants to celebrate the fact that I’m not crazy.
The childish smile creeping onto her face tells me that she knows that I remember her. She looks pleased, and something about that makes me happy.
“I believe Allyn already told you what Paradise is and why everyone wants it.”
I nod, and he continues.
“Did she explain the historical event of the ritual? That it began one thousand years ago in an attempt to open the gate?”
“Yeah,”
“Generation after generation, the researchers finally found the proper way to conduct a ritual that could successfully open the gate. It’s technically a theory though, as the ritual is still incomplete, thus proving nothing just yet.” Allyn purses her lips and sighs. I can tell she’s irritated, but her irritation started years ago.
“The ritual requires a circle that consists of eight individuals,” She continues.
“A circle?” This seems to be a reoccurring symbolic reference with this group. First the circle at the ball then the circles in my dreams… what do they all mean?“Circle refers to the group of individuals who conduct the rituals. In this case, the circle consisted of seven different beings, each representing a different race and one Catalyst Witch, to make the whole thing work. She is the key to the ritual. The ritual has two parts. And believe it or not, the first part of the ritual was done by you.”
I didn’t realize how deeply involved I was in this whole ordeal.
“But it also includes us. Dain and I were a part of the seven.”
“There’s a catch, though, in being part of the circle. We might be considered very special by the world because of how we can become the gate pass to Paradise, but there’s a downside to it.” Dain has finally found his voice through his face remains grim.
“We can’t die.”
We can’t die.
His words echo in my mind. Ah. I guess now I can stop thinking I’m crazy because that is enough to explain everything.
“You might think,” the vampire disturbs my trail of thoughts as he speaks again, “that this is a gift, but it isn’t. It’s a curse. The circle is cursed to live life for hundreds of years. You’re unaware of it because they kept replacing your memories with fresh ones, but to us who have no choice but to witness the passage of time, it’s been nothing but sheer torture.”
I can see the sadness in his gold eyes. What did they go through that made them believe that what they have… what we have is a curse?
“You can’t die because the second part has to be done one thousand years after the first one,” Allyn has quietly taken over the conversation as Bran and Dain seem to simultaneously drift off into a daze.
“If the coven needs me to do my part again, why did they have to manipulate me for all those years? If they think we’re the key, why did they have to do this to me?”
And why did they leave the others as they are?
“You found out something you weren’t supposed to.”
I could feel the anchor chained around my mind hit the basement of my heart.
“What was it? What did I find out??”
“The whole truth.” Bran’s voice is as chilly as his gentle touch against my arm.
The whole truth?
“I thought this was the whole truth.” I whisper, trying to find something in the eyes staring back at me… a glimmer of hope that tells me that despite the trend of this entire evening, this wholeness missing from the truth won’t be horrendous.
“This is where the Undoing Ritual comes in,” Allyn finally says.
“The Undoing Ritual allows you to touch the deepest part of your mind to unleash the imprisoned memories there. With this, you’ll be able to regain your memories and remember what the whole truth is.”
So, does this mean they don’t know what it is or they’re just sparing me from the biggest spoiler of my life?
“To be fair, this is your plan, Liliwen. You were the one who thought all of this,” she looks at me straight in the eye, pausing, as if she’s silently hoping I’ll catch on, but my brain isn’t following anything happening inside this room. She sighs in disappointment when she realizes it, “But I guess you still can’t remember that, right? It’s still incomplete after all.”
To be honest, I still can’t recall much aside from the vivid dreams I started having ever since the grand ball... wait.
“The ritual... this Undoing Ritual you’re talking about… how does it go?”
Allyn looks at the two again as if she’s looking for confirmation if she can say anything about it. The duo looks at each other briefly before giving a nod to her.
“It began the momment you entered Penrhyn Mansion for the grand ball. Bran and Adara set up the diagram in the whole mansion so that it would trigger the ritual the moment you stepped into the entrance hall. The spell Adara did was to weaken the barrier in your mind.”
Those things, I can remember.
“To complete that, someone has to recite the trigger words to you.”
“Be free.”
Before my mind wanders to the mystery of the masked man, Allyn takes my attention as she continues, “It was also meant to stop whatever magic the Guardian Witch is using on you to tamper with your memories. When that took effect, it was easy to perform the next part of it. Which is why I am here.”
“And why are you here exactly?”
“You were brought here so that I can start the next part of the ritual,” her eyes shift, and I can tell that whatever she’s about to say isn’t something she’s thrilled about. “Now that we’ve set the premise, it’s time for me to perform the continuance of the ritual.”
“I’m sorry, Lili,” Bran leans over and kisses my head, “But this is the where you have to be asleep.
WITCH’S CHECKMATE
WITCH’S CURSED CIRCLE SERIES – BOOK 4
EVELYN COOPER
Chapter 1
The Black Queen
“Checkmate,” the woman in a black lacy dress declares in triumph.
This was her fifth win in the five games they’ve played.
The blonde man sitting across from her shrugs away yet another defeat.
“You’re no good at this, are you?” she smirks and cocks an eyebrow his way.
“No, love. I’m good in the game of pacts, deals and soul gambling, but not in the game of chess.”
“What a shame,” she gathers all the pieces and turns the board upside down. One by one, she places the pieces inside the upturned board.
“That’s why I leave all the planning to you. You know the rules of this game,” he says as he leans back in his seat and crosses his legs. His shoulders relax as his eyes gaze at the woman in front of him.
The moonlight shining through the curved window highlighted her long lashes, her blue eyes, and her raven hair.
The lady stops what she’s doing to look at him.
“It’s the King who determines the victory of the game,” she picks up the King piece and stares at it in deep thought.
“But the Queen is the most powerful, right?” The man takes the Queen piece and held it out to her.
Her slender fingers rest on his large hand, covering the Queen.
“You’re right. But the Queen doesn’t win on her own. Without the King, she’s nothing.”
The ocean in her eyes looks up at the sky in his. Both pairs bore the same colour but with different depths.
They held each other’s gazes until the man smiles and asks in a husky voice, “When did you become nothing without me?”
“Always, my King. Always.”
***
“Always”
Her last words echo through the emptiness of my consciousness.
Those eyes… I’ve seen them somewhere.
Perhaps at the back of my mind, in the memories slum
bering deep within me.
When did I last see them?
“Farewell, my love. Farewell.”
Repressed memories are starting to force the door that has kept them in the basement. I can feel myself walking down to the basement with nothing but the burning desire to set them free finally and the hope that I can find the truth hidden within them.
I reach for the knob and hold it tight with the determination to face whatever lies behind this door.
It’s time to open it.
It’s time for these memories to come alive and claim the space long occupied by the feigning citizens in my mind, the ones imported by the witch that disguised herself as a loved one and placed her own seat close to my heart.
I need to be set free.
Free of her grip.
Free of the abuse.
Free of the lies.
I finally twist the knob, pull the door wide open.
The memories pour out of the door and soar high to the sky that reaches my thoughts. As they pass through, they sprinkle me with warmth and the feeling of relief.
When they’re all finally out, I stare to the darkened room to see what was left.
I can make out the shape of another door.
I take steps towards it and reach for the knob. The coldness of the metal spread to my arm and hand, making me drawback in an instant.
This door is resistant to my touch and doesn’t want me to open it.
It’s unlike the previous one I just opened.
There’s something about this door that convinces me it hasn’t been created by the same person who made the one in the entrance of the room.
Whoever carved this one, doesn’t want it to be opened.
Something tells me ……I didn’t put it there, so I’m going to rip it down.
Maybe not now, but someday.
With some force, it opens, and as soon I step through it, a light covers me until I’m blinded, taking my consciousness and bringing it somewhere else.
***
Once I opened my eyes, a familiar glint of the chandelier greets me.
“It’s done,” a female voice speaks on my right.
My eyes wander around the room as I lie motionless.
I can see the closet and vanity mirror on my left just below the window where I’ve observed the view outside the mansion.
Everything is where I left them on the night I went to dinner with the duo.
I propped myself to raise my body from the velvet mattress.
There are four other people in my room.
“You’re awake,” Bran said with genuine shock in his voice and traces of concern on his face.
“How long was I out?”
Dain raised a brow, “Out as in unconscious, or out as in...?”
His voice trails off and for some reason, I know that he’s still unsure about what’s going on.
“Unconscious. How long have I been unconscious?”
“Five days,” the woman, the only person on my right, answers.
“Anything on Ryia’s end?”
Bran shrugs, “The usual. They’re looking for you.”
“You’ve borrowed me for a long time, of course, she’s going to be anxious.”
“I won’t be surprised if she comes knocking on our door again to burn the whole mansion again,” Bran looks out the window, visibly agitated.
It has been a while since I’ve heard his voice.
“They better not cause trouble while I’m here or I’ll explode their guts as that mangy Arcane wench did to the two of you,” I can see how affected she was by their deaths.
“Don’t explode anyone tonight, Allyn,” I smile at her, and everyone turns towards me, frozen with mixed emotions on their faces.
“You…you know my name, my lady?” the excitement in her brown eyes is as evident as they always were. True to the persona of the young lady I found in the old chest of my memories, she always wore her heart on her sleeve.
“Of course, I do. You greeted me in the library, didn’t you?” She was the one who enlightened me as I asked about the history shown by the smoke.
“Wait… Lili. Are you back?” The ever impatient Dain stepped forward to demand an answer.
“What do you mean back? Have I not been with you guys since the beginning?”
Bran chuckles and nods with an unmistakable look of relief on his face. “My girl is back!”
“Wait. For real?” my werewolf still couldn’t believe it.
Even I still can’t come to terms with the reality that is slowly sinking in just now.
What the coven has been doing to me were cruelty and torture, and there will be blood and retribution for it.
In order to set my plan in motion, I let them gain access to my head as they had wanted. I knew they were going to erase my memories, but I never thought they’d give Ryia the freedom to do whatever she wanted with it.
She tore down my whole being and moulded a different person in my body. She had the bloody audacity to tear down my dignity, strip me of my confidence and replaced them with unprecedented insecurities with the envy to feed her own ego.
I am going to end her.
“You should take a rest. The ritual just ended,” the blonde man advised just before he went outside of the room.
An expectant silence fills the room. Three pairs of eyes were suddenly fixated on me.
“What?” I blinked in curiosity.
“Did you really regain all your memories?” Allyn gave me a worried look.
“No, I didn’t. Some of them are still locked away, I’m afraid. Even with the Undoing Ritual you performed, I still couldn’t access the deeper parts.”
The Undoing Ritual.
Just as Ryia infiltrated the planes of my mind, she replaced the barrier with her own. She made sure no one else could bring me back.
Pity, she has no idea that even in my ignorance, I’ve been many steps ahead of her.
The grand ball was the catalyst for everything.
Bran and Adara set up the diagram around the whole building so that it would trigger me that moment I stepped inside the mansion. The spell my Fae friend did was to weaken the barrier in my mind.
The dance sequence did the trick of ripping down the outer barriers completely before he whispered the words I needed to hear in his language… in our language, to complete the ritual.
“Be free.”
The spell may have placed barriers around my mind, but neither Ryia nor the wretched coven could place barriers around my heart.
The ritual countered the memory-erasing ritual Ryia was about to perform on my birthday. It made sense that they chose to stage the ball the night before my birthday.
There were things that happened that night that were not a part of the original plan.
I turned to the vampire.
“Thank you, Bran, for the crown and the unexpected title at the ball,” I remember the genuine happiness in his face when he placed the crown on my head.
“Well, I had to come up with an excuse to cover up what happened so that you wouldn’t panic.”
“But I did panic Bran,” I chuckle
He raises an eyebrow at me, “You did?”
“I did!” I exclaim “Adara was mumbling her incantation while everyone else kept staring at me through their creepy masks. Just thinking about it now still sends shivers down my spine.”
“Oh.”
“I told you. You overdid it,” Dain creases his forehead, ‘I told you so’ written all over his face.
“Oh, yeah?” Bran was looking at me again with a cunning grin as he asked, “Did you also remember how you were chased in the woods that led you to the cliff?”
Dain froze, rooted to the floor and his jaws were suddenly tensed.
“I thought you’re a goner for good. If you only saw how awfully dislocated your limbs were, you wouldn’t think you’d live another day,” the indirect attack drained the colour in Dain’s face. He gulped as he realised what he had done.
I tried my best to stop the giggle climbing to my chest at the familiarity of the duo’s banter. They might come from rival races, but they’ve been close friends for as far as my genuine memories go. They’ve both sacrificed themselves for the other countless times.
I stare at my hands.
The fake Liliwen wouldn’t know what these hands have done in order to achieve what we have now.
She won’t have the heart for it if she finds out.
The Liliwen that owned this body for several years was made to be a fragile unrecognisable creature that looks nothing like me.
Too sensitive.
Too insecure.
Too ignorant.
Too envious of something unworthy of jealousy.
She was made so fragile that she’d shatter even with the softest touch.
I was reduced to nothing but a talentless witch and was given the title of the black sheep of a fictional family. I was made to put Ryia up on a pedestal as I beat myself up for not having her abilities.
I am going to enjoy ripping away at her, piece by piece when the time comes to take back what’s mine. I will teach her a lesson.
Everything else seems to be in place. Everything seems to be going according to plan. And once all of this is over, the coven and Ryia will understand what they have silently known, but been too terrified to accept.
The Queen cannot and will not be used as a Pawn.
Chapter 2
The Black King
His long and slender finger hovers over the White Queen.
He picks it up and moves it to B6 to knock down the Black Knight and proudly declares his “Checkmate.”
I sigh to myself in disappointment. I have lost five games in a row.
“You’re no good at this, are you?” a teasing grin forms on his handsome face.
“You were before.”
My eyes reached for the heavens. I can see how his memory is still perfect seeing how he could easily cite a line I’ve used against him one thousand years ago.
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