“See what they know. The girls could not have gotten far” The past Cyrus ordered.
The Sorcerer pulled out his dagger and walked up to Bryce first.
“Where?” The Sorcerer asked Bryce.
Bryce spat in his face and remained silent. He had a smirk on his face because no matter what Cyrus or the Sorcerer did Bryce would not speak. The Sorcerer knew this as well, and he swiftly struck Bryce in the face with his knee. CRACK! His knee hit his face so hard it almost echoed through the night. Bryce laid on the ground bloody, groaning, and hurling insults. The Sorcerer lifted his arm and Bryce levitated off the ground. The Sorcerer plunged his dagger into his heart. Bryce fell limp and the Sorcerer released his grasp. Danni screamed and tears began to stream down her face. Cyrus felt her heart break and mourned for her brother in law.
“Do you see what you did?” Cyrus asked Danni and Michael. “If you would have helped me find your daughters this man would still be alive. Yet he is dead and without his dignity.” Cyrus swiftly kicked the lifeless body of Bryce out of frustration. Thud. Thud. Thud.
“Speak!” Cyrus yelled. The Sorcerer was eyeing his blade in his hands and looking at the couple. They were both silent, only the sound of the crackling fire was heard. They had reached an impasse. If Bryce would not speak what chance did Cyrus have of the girl’s parents speaking. She had already cast the spell of protection and the girls were already getting away.
“Round up a party and spread out. Try and find the girls they could not have gotten far.” Cyrus ordered.
“But what of these two?” One of the men asked.
Danni watched as Cyrus pondered what to do with them and she was filled with terror as she realized he figured out their punishment. Cyrus felt intense dread because he remembered what he ordered next. The sound of a frenzied heartbeat pounded, and Cyrus was unsure if it was his or Danni’s fear that he was feeling.
“It’s time for a bit of a history lesson.” Cyrus spoke with an almost gleeful tone. “Back in the olden days, when the realms actually cared about purity witches and hybrids were dealt with using a cleansing flame. I think it’s time to bring back some old values to these current times.”
Cyrus looked at the Sorcerer and asked, “Would you honor me with a reenactment of those times?”
“With pleasure.” The Sorcerer replied.
The Sorcerer lifted his arms and the couple rose off the ground. He looked at the flames and the fire grew 4 times its height and turned white hot. He moved his arms and the couple moved into the flames. Slowly. The heat grew intense. Hotter and hotter as they neared their destination. Cyrus felt Danni’s skin progress from hot to blistering. She and Michael cried out in pain as they began to catch on fire. Both screamed and struggled for breath as the flame choked out any oxygen. The pain was excruciating, and it only got worse from there. Cyrus felt as if his own soul was on fire, and he screamed too.
He screamed and he screamed until he woke up thrashing in his own bed. All the covers and pillows were kicked onto the floor. His clothing was ripped and torn from his frenzied night terror. Cyrus started to hyperventilate as he collapsed onto the floor.
Chapter Thirty-One: Zara
Zara successfully assembled everyone in the Lunar Coven, Xander, Sophia, and the other top three in the Midwest pack in the Elemental Realm to discuss her devious plan. Atara and Tobias were shaking their heads at her and chuckling quietly as the devilish grin was plastered across her face as everyone gathered in Tobias’s conference room. The motif of the castle was nature within the room.
There were statues devoted to the elements in each corn of their room. Each element was to its appropriate corner. Air was East, Fire was South, Water was West, and Earth was North. Each statue were four pillars arranged in a square and then curved like a vine until it convened into a point. The pillars were about an inch thick. Air’s pillars looked as though they were clouds, fire’s pillars were flames, water’s pillars were rain droplets and the point was a cloud, and earth’s pillars were vines.
Zara had noticed that there were two others within the room. She had asked Tobias before the meeting to give her the history behind his people and the two other elements: Shadow and Light. Tobias had said that the Elementals came to be after the Soul Mate pairing of a Witch and Fae. The Fae had been known to have the power to wield magic like what the Elementals now. The pairing had given birth to six enormously powerful children who each wielded a single Element and one that wielded them all. Those children created the birth line of the Elementals. After one hundred years, there were enough children within the line to classify them as their own species. At the time that this was announced, the seven Elemental Originals created the Elemental Realm. The Elemental who controlled all six was named King by his people and it was to be an Elemental who controlled most of the elements to continue the Royal line. Zara had asked what had happened for the Shadow and Light elements to not be present in the Elemental Realm and his family only controlling four of them. Tobias had told her that the Shadow and Light magic had left the realm, but he has been hearing whispers of them re-entering the realm. It was at that time that everyone had arrived.
Zara had continued to examine the other two statues. The Shadow’s statue was made of obsidian colored marble and its pillars had appeared to move. The pillars itself were still cylindrical but flared the way her and Atara’s magical aura did when their magic was in use. The Light’s statue was similar in color to her own magic within the marble and it gave off light. Zara was beginning to wonder if there was something more to this or she was overthinking. Instead of letting her mind go down a rabbit hole, she walked over to the table that was in the middle of the room and stood next to her mate.
Zara and Tobias stood at the head of the table. Atara was to Zara’s right with Raven. Xander and Sofia were to her left. The rest of the Lunar Coven was on the side where Raven had stood. Lucus and Sam stood right next to Sophia. Sam had grown over the last couple of weeks and she wondered if he was going to be taller than Xander. He had already grown to be just under Xander’s pecks. His wolf was accepting his new lifestyle and Xander had told Zara that Sam was receiving an A in every subject. Once the full moon had passed and Sam went through another shift, they would begin training him. Deckard could not attend this meeting due to having to check in with another neighboring pack because a wolf was murdered. It was speculated that Cyrus had murdered him for objecting to fight in an upcoming war alongside him. Weston had joined this meeting and brought along Spencer and Remy. These two Zara had not managed to become too familiar due to always training. She had seen them at pack meetings, but nothing more. Spencer was an inch taller than Xander, had flaming red hair and muddled green eyes. He had a round face and his hair was past his chin. Zara had always thought that his hair should be shorter to make his face more appealing. Remy was a few inches shorter than Zara, he had brown hair and honey brown eyes. He had a diamond shaped face and people have described his facial features as “forgettable.”
“Zara, are you going to finally explain your devilish grin?” Atara asked.
That caused her to break out in a full grin. She knew her “devil” grin made Atara’s mind go wild with thoughts even when they were kids. Atara knew Zara was a mastermind when she wanted to be and sometimes, she said that grin “scared her.” Meaning she was not actually scared but scared of what Zara was going to come up with for them to do and possibly get into trouble. It did not matter they were always on the run with their parents. When they made camp, Zara would manage to find something for them to get into. There was a time that she had found a small lake with a rope that was tied onto a branch. Their parents had told them to not use the rope because they did not know if it would hold a werewolf. Zara felt like that was a challenge instead of an order. Even when she was young, her wolf did not like listening to anyone. When their parents went out hunting for dinner, Zara had that smile across her face. Atara had told her that she was on her own, but she managed to convince her
sister to come along with her. The rope held their weight fine. Their parents only worried due to a werewolf weighing more than usual because of their muscle weight, even in children. They played on the rope and in the lake until their parents returned. Their father was angry, but said he should have known better than to tell Zara no.
“I have a plan to storm the castle. We are going to convince Cyrus that he should have never crossed our family.”
“Oh Goddess. This should be good.” Atara stated. It caused everyone to smile.
“I am going to use a lot of our specialties to show what we are capable of before the fight even starts. I want his blood pressure to go through the roof with fear before we take one step on the battlefield.”
“What exactly do you have in mind?” Xander had asked her.
“First, I want it to appear that only me and Atara are walking toward him. I know the spell of invisibility and it had only increased when I fully bonded to Tobias and Air had powered it further. However, I do not think I could cover the entire coven, pack, and some of Tobias’s soldiers. So, I would like to have a few of the Coven to just help me with that part.”
“That sounds easy compared to what I had thought you would plan.” Raven told her.
“I am not finished.” Zara smiled again.
“Of course, it’s not. I should have known it would not have been that easy.”
“Bex?” He looked at her in response to his name. “I need your reality manipulation. I want you to make it look like our magical aura is across the ground.”
“I can do that.”
“Enya?” She looked at Zara. “I need you to send a massive lightning bolt to encase me and Atara.”
“What? You want me to electrocute you two?” Her tone displayed concern.
“No. I want you to encase us in it. Like you are putting us in a box with a surge of lightning around us. Are you able to control it that way?”
“I never have tried.”
“Then we will do a dry run before we do this.”
“Why am I encasing you in lightning?”
“We are going to shift while we are within the lightning. Also, I am going to call lightning myself, so it looks like I did it.”
“Badass!” She exclaimed.
“Asher? Are you able to conjure swords in all of our hands?”
“Yes.”
“Good. You will be our armory. I know he won’t send everyone in wolf form.”
“How do you know that?” Weston asked.
“Our wolves can do damage, but we cannot fight more than one person at a time easily in a battle.”
“Fair enough”
“Nix, I need you to be all over the battle. Use your teleportation any chance you get. It will be like fighting with more than they will ever expect if you do that.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I do not want casualties. Those wolves do not deserve to die just because they are under a monster’s reign. We all know a wolf must listen to the hierarchy. Not to mention, we know that Cyrus will kill them if they say a word against him. So, when the time comes…disarm only. Knock them out. Do your best to not kill them.” They all nodded in agreement but did not say a word.
She felt like she was already in the role of the Queen. It felt nice, but strange. She was still taking steps toward the role. This was a big step. Planning a battle strategy. Everyone discussed who would charge in first, how to effectively use the magic, specialties, and wolves. It took hours to formulate every detail, but overall, they had a plan. As everyone was leaving, they all told her how they felt about her flaunt of power idea. Just about everyone loved the idea. Xander, Sophia and Raven were afraid of what that would cause during the fight. That would use their magic to a large level and then they had to fight the strongest wolves in the realm. After a few minutes, Raven conceded. “Fine, I will make an energy potion that will boost everyone’s magical energy to help with this.” With that, she teleported Xander and Sophia home. Atara and Tobias were left.
“Do you think we will win?” Atara asked.
“We have to. The fate of our realm depends on it.”
Chapter Thirty-Two: Atara
Atara was airborne and landed on her ass for the twentieth time in the last few hours while training with Zara and Tobias. They were wearing matching Elemental Warrior wear. Zara wore the black pants, but the top was a sports bra instead of the normal tank top with thick straps. Of course, her knives were strapped to her legs. She also wore a fabric belt of the four elemental colors that her and Tobias wielded. Tobias had just the pants on as well with the belt and had his bow staff on the belt. They looked lethal and in Zara’s words ‘badass.” Especially with their matching mate marks on their left arms and chest. Tobias’s even ran up his neck, which apparently showed that he was the King and had immense power. Zara had told her after she trained with Tobias herself that it was extremely difficult to beat Tobias in a fight due to his control over the elements. She was not wrong.
Her body was sore. Tobias had used his elemental magic skillfully and Atara had not managed to get remotely close to him since the training started. Atara was to use any means necessary to disarm Tobias. She has yet to win at this exercise. And here I thought I was trained by the best our world has to offer. Cyrus is in for a rude awakening battling against Tobias and Zara alone! She had thought to herself as she rose to her feet. Tobias had used roots and trees to keep her in place or thrown across the field. He had used air to camouflage himself, send gusts of winds to knock her down, and even created a cyclone around her or by her to fight off before she could reach him. Atara was amazed when bursts of water erupted out of the ground as well.
Zara was facing off with Atara as well and threw every spell and magic manipulation she could possibly think of as well. Since she was officially mated to Tobias and abducted, her magic was beyond any level of power their world could have dreamt up. Raven had done readings and within a few seconds she let go of Zara’s hands like she was electrocuted. It was a good thing that Zara had full control of her magic, otherwise the world would be in grave danger. Atara was doing well against Zara with her own magic after a lot of coaching and her using techniques that Raven had shown her. However, until Atara mastered her magic as well, she would not be a match against Zara, let alone both her and Tobias.
Atara had also noticed that her wolf was growing restless. She would feel the need to shift and her wolf would take her to where she was attacked. Her wolf would smell around the perimeter in search of something, but her wolf would not tell her what she was looking for.
“Zara, did your wolf ever get restless and take you somewhere just to try to find something?”
Zara looked at her puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“Since those Hunters attacked me, my wolf gets so restless that I have to shift and let her go to where it happened. She sniffs all around the area, but she will not tell me why she is doing this. Did this happen after your abduction?”
Zara looked at her mate and then looked back to her sister. “No, my wolf never did that. Do you think she is trying to use your magic to track the rest of them down? I am sure there are more Hunters out there that we do not know of.”
“Maybe.”
Atara was concerned about her wolf but had to push her worry aside. They had much bigger storms ahead to face. Cyrus and his legions threatened to tear every realm apart; that threat took precedence over her anxieties. Atara went back into training mode, just like she did thousands of times back in Cyrus’s compound. If she could train harder and become a better fighter, she stood a better chance of stopping him. They began their exercises again. Tobias casted elemental magic and Zara casted her spells. She dodged more and more of them, while still being continuously knocked on her ass. This was as much their target practice as it was her dodging practice.
“Come on, sis! You are better than this!”
“Normally, yes. But since you crossed over into a new level of badassery, I have no clue how t
o match you two!”
Zara chuckled. She began to form that devilish grin. “DO NOT YOU DARE! I am in no mood to deal with your dark side.”
Zara raised her hands in the air as she laughed maniacally. Black flames coursed over her fingers like waves lapping up on a beach. Atara was unsure of this spell, how to block it, or counter it. The black flames darkened from a smokey ash color to absolute black. The flames looked like the absence of space. It was in that moment that a portal formed, and Raven stepped out of it. She looked distraught, which was unusual for her normally calm demeanor. Her royal blue full body romper had tears and it looked as though she was bleeding. Zara and Atara growled protectively as they both noticed that their aunt had been attacked.
“I need to get you three to the pack.”
“What happened to you?”
“I have a message for you all and I rather tell it once. It is going to use an immense amount of magic.”
Raven flicked her wrist; her navy-blue magic billowed out of her hand and created the portal. All four of them hurried through and Zara immediately started looking over their aunt and sniffing her to get the scent of her attackers. Xander and Sophia burst through the doorway as they felt everyone enter the home. Xander took one look at Raven and growled the same way the girls did.
“Zara, enough. Xander, do not start.” Zara growled at Raven. “I am a big girl, Zara. Trust me. I left the ones who did this worse off than this.”
“Are you going to tell me who did this to you so I can rip their throat out?”
“No. I’m sure the pups will never cross a High Priestess again after what I had done to them. Now, let me do what I came here to do.”
Raven called onto her magic and Atara was able to understand why her aunt was High Priestess. Like Zara and Tobias, her power was immense. Her magic flooded through the room and Atara noticed that everyone had a strained look on their face as Raven’s full power was on display. Her navy-blue aura pulsed as she recited an incantation. At first her arms were out on either side of her body, but she gently pulled them in. As she did, it felt like the air was being sucked out of the room. Then, she threw her arms outward and her magic burst.
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