Amore Mclary
Amore massaged her aching head. The coven’s business had been giving her a headache lately. On top of that, her son Romeo, had been acting weird.
"Still not sleeping?" Amore asked when her assistant Verge walked inside her office.
"No Priestess," Verge lowered her head, her long black hair veiled most of her face. "I failed."
A loud sigh escaped Amore’s lips. Her son had stopped sleeping for two days in a row now. And a human being who lacked sleep and rest could be very dangerous— especially someone who knows alchemy.
She eyed the huge piles of paper in front of her.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t leave the coven and visit Barbados to attend to her son.
The experiments were currently in a very critical stage.
She couldn’t leave now.
"Not even the sleeping pills— "
"He refused to take them."
Amore sighed. She knew he would refuse to take any pills. Her son had been born stubborn.
"Then put them in his food."
"I already did. But— "
"But what?" Amore lifted her gaze away from the paperwork. "Did something happened?"
"He woke up just after an hour of sleeping. He was screaming..."
"Impossible. How could he have woken up after taking those pills?" She had used those pills in the past to put her son to sleep just after his wife had died. At that time too, Romeo had refused to sleep and just kept on staring at the video of his wedding which played in his room on loop.
She had used the same method to make him sleep.
And she had used it ever since.
"He was screaming his wife’s name."
Amore’s face darkened when she heard Verge’s words.
"Was it a curse?" she asked.
"No. The young master wasn’t hexed or cursed by anyone. The maids said he started screaming four days ago. Since then, he has been having nightmares even when he’s awake."
"Huh?"
"Well... there were instances that he was working and his eyes were open but he was crying and screaming. The servants had to wake him up."
Amore pursed her lips in response. Her son had offended a lot of people lately. She had been worried because of that Lycan. However, Amore already did everything she could to supress the witch that the Lycan was working with.
Ava Woods wasn’t someone important. She’s not influential. She’s all but a small witch who wasn’t able to receive any professional training in the past because of Amore’s schemes.
It’s not like the woman could touch her coven.
What worried Amore was actually that Lycan Prince.
Lycans hated witches.
No. They abhorred witches and just treat them as slaves.
And even Trillium couldn’t do anything about this.
Because of this, Lycans had grown arrogant and more ruthless against witches. They chose stronger witches and enslaved them, then they used those witches to intimidate the smaller covens.
This was the reason why most priestesses and Shamans hated the Lycans.
Obviously, this made Amore think that Matthew would do something to her son.
She immediately sent Romeo away because of this.
But Matthew was a Prince.
Surely, the man had a large influence around the globe.
"What about... the Lycan?" she finally asked.
"We found some traces of his people in barbados but I don’t think they did something to the Young Master. The Lycans were pretty low key. They didn’t want to attract any type of attention to themselves. I believe, they only went there because they wanted to know if the Young Master was indeed in Barbados."
"So, no movement?"
"None."
Amore clenched her jaw. If that’s the case then... what was happening to her son? Was this just because he missed his wife?
The crease in between Amore’s eyebrows deepened.
The last time Romeo did something like this, Amore had to dig up that woman’s corpse and cast some magick that would stop her body from returning to earth.
That woman had been in that mansion’s secret room.
Since then, Romeo had been acting good.
Well, except for trying to find the perfect body for his wives soul, Romeo had been staying at home talking to that corpse.
She got up and put on her long coat. However, before she could reach the door, her phone rung.
It was someone from the lab.
She let out another sigh.
"Just— Just use a spell. Do everything to make him sleep. I need to take this call. I can’t leave the Coven now."
She opened her phone and immediately answered the call.
Right. She needed to concentrate on the experiments. The witches needed to find a way to become stronger.
The current abilities of the witches was declining. Their magick had become unstable.
And to make sure that witches survived for another generation, Amore and other witches had been doing some experiments that other people would deem... illegal.
These experiments were vital to the survival of the witches!
.....
Ava
"So, you finally agreed to have Baba teach me?" Ava had been ecstatic when Matthew informed her just today that Baba would be teaching her how to control her magick.
It would be the first time that someone would actually teach her control!
Matthew hugged her from behind. He kissed her nape and said, "I don’t want your magick to harm you."
"It won’t."
"I know. Just some precaution."
Ava beamed. Right. Precaution.
That’s why, Matthew had strict rules.
First, Baba could only teach her magick when he is around.
Second, they need to do it inside the property. Apparently, there is a training ground near his garrage. It was an open space which is connected to nature and had a wonderful view of a lake from afar.
Third, Baba would only teach her control and magick. No history. No talking about prophecies and other unrelated stuff.
"I think you are acting like a lunatic." Ava blurted. "What’s wrong with talking about history? I am a witch. I need to know the mistakes that witches did in the past so I could avoid it in the future."
"I believe it is best that you study history separately. Right now, our concern is your control."
"Right." Actually, Baba told Ava about being corrupted by magick.
This wasn’t really normal. According to Baba, it only happened once.
In the past, there was a witch who loved a knight.
They were married and had a baby.
However, the baby died a week after it was born. A day later, the witch received the news that her husband died in the war. So, the witch lost her child and her husband almost at the same time.
Obviously, it devastated her.
She stayed on their graves, crying. Then she started cursing at the heavens.
Why would the heavens punish her when all she grew up doing were good things?
She cursed the goddess and the nature.
It didn’t take long for the witch... to succumb to her grief.
She let her magick corrupt her heart, making her into what they now called a Blood Witch.
Blood Witches were cursed by nature. They couldn’t stay outside and would burn under the sun. Their skins were wrinkled, their nails and hair would fall off leaving them bald.
The books described them as monsters.
Just like their name suggest, Blood witches needed blood to do magick. Sadly, these could immediately affect the sanity of the witch.
They would end up insane and the only way to save them is the end their life.
Not much was known about blood witches after that story.
There were some rumors about it in Trillium.
Some said, blood witches still exists up to this day.
However, they have become good at hiding.
"And if you need to know about witches, you can visit my library. I believe we have a few books about your kind in there."
Ava rolled her eyes.
"Right."
She recalled the book that was laced with magick and thought about reading it.
"How about ancient texts?" she asked.
"Ancient texts?"
"Yes."
"What about them?"
"I— " Ava saw Romeo dreaming about them. She didn’t know what kind of ancient text it was but something is telling her it had something to do with death and reincarnation. Something about that parchment of paper felt very... very weird.
"I dreamed about them."
"Hm?"
"I saw symbols... and parchments. But I couldn’t really understand them."
"We do have ancient texts..."
"But?"
"They are in the palace."
Ava flinched. She thought of all the rude Lycans that she had met until now. Matthew’s friend and brother and that weird talkative woman. All of them looked down on her.
Even the man that she fought and most people in that room only looked at her with disgust.
"Hey... I have a question." Ava asked.
"Why do the Lycans hate witches so much?" Aside from the fact that witches cursed them, was there any other reason for this hatred?
"Hmmmm let’s see...." Matthew stopped hugging her from behind. He stood next to her and watched the snow from the terrace of Ava’s room. "It started a long time ago. It was because... a witch fell in love with a Lycan Prince...."
"Oh?"
"Unlike the story... the Lycan Prince had another mate and he was supposed to become the Lycan King."
Matthew continued. "To cut it short, the witch did something and the Lycan Prince asked her to stay away. The witch made an oath not to harm the Prince’s mate again and as punishment, she and all of the witches after her would become the Prince’s slave."
"Oh.... " Ava nodded. "Another stupid witch, huh." For some reason, she didn’t believe that bullshit story.
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