“No”, my voice comes out hoarse.
“No!” I repeat, putting a little more resolve in my word.
“What are you trying to say?” I push away from Jason, and I’m trembling as I stand to my feet.
“I can’t use magic”, I laugh like this whole thing is a joke.
I wait for the others to laugh along with me and to tell me that this was all some stupid prank, but they don’t.
They all stare at me pitifully.
“I can’t use magic”, I say this like I’m trying to convince myself, though I feel the truth gnawing at me and sinking into my flesh.
“You can”, Anna says softly, her eyes sad as she looks at me.
“No,no,no,” I shake my head repeatedly, tears now rising to cloud my vision.
“No, vampires can’t use magic”.
And yet I did.
I remember the rush of power through me and the way my skin heated up.
I remember the fear and terror I felt as I started to produce flames that nearly killed my friends.
It was terrifying in ways I can’t explain.
I felt my sanity ripping apart.
And I felt the heat…
it was so hot, but it didn’t come with the pain I had learned to associate with it.
I’ve never been so afraid of fire.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that supernatural beings exist, and I happen to be one of them.
It still seems surreal to me, and a part of me still hasn’t completely accepted all this.
I’m a monster.
I’m a freaking monster.
A freak of nature.
“But witches can”, Anna tells me.
She throws a glance at her brother, who nods before she walks over to me carefully.
“We need to tell you something”.
Jason looks just as confused as I do as he stares at the siblings with raised brows.
“We need to tell you both something”, Drake amends as he motions to a couch at the other end of the room that had miraculously survived the fire.
Jason and I take a seat and look up at the siblings expectantly.
Drake takes a deep breath before starting, “We had always suspected something was different about you, Cass”, he began cautiously.
“When the vampire in our territory first found you”, Drake doesn’t say his brother’s name, and I wonder why.
“He said that you were something other than human. Your human genes had overpowered the other, and he didn’t realize until you had turned”.
Duke had told me that despite humans being the weakest of beings, their energy was the strongest and thus was strong enough to block out what I truly was.
“He turned your human side to a vampire, but the other part of you continued to exist, and we tried to figure out what it was”.
Anna takes up the story from here: “It wasn’t until the day you lost your temper and a vampire flew across the room that we started to suspect.”
“It was witch magic, which was why some servants must have thought I was responsible, but Drake and-” she paused as if wanting me to fill in the blank on Duke’s name.
“Knew I wasn’t, so we continued to monitor you and we concluded, though we weren’t certain”.
“But now we are”, Drake says.
“You used magic from the spell book made specifically for witches of flame.
A witch cannot use an element that does not belong to them, which means-”
“You’re saying I’m a witch of flame?” I question incredulously.
“That makes no sense, and you know it!”
“Then explain the fire”, Drake counters, throwing up his hands impatiently at the wreckage the flames had caused.
“It could have been anything!” My words are desperate.
“M-maybe you’re wrong and I don’t have to be a witch to read from a spell book. This is stupid! I didn’t do this”, my voice cracks.
“I couldn’t have”.
I bury my head in my hands as tears once again begin to fall from my eyes.
Jason runs a soothing hand down my back.
“You’re sure of what you’re saying?”
“Positive”, Anna replies, and I shake my head before looking up at her and her brother.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I question, my voice dry and raw with emotion.
“Why didn’t you?”
“We were only trying to keep you safe”, Drake looks at me guiltily.
“Safe from what?” Jason asks, and Drake opens his mouth to reply.
I cut him off, “Are you hiding anything else?” I ask, and the siblings look at each other before turning back to me, eyes wide in panic.
“You’ve got to be kidding me”, I bite out, and I rise to my feet.
I feel a rush of rage and power, and I feel my palms heat.
“Cassandra”, Anna says carefully, like I’m a wild animal she’s attempting to tame.
“Calm down”.
“Calm down?” I laugh, but it’s hoarse.
“Calm down?!” This time, I scream in rage, and the room suddenly feels hotter.
“Cassandra”, I feel Jason’s hand on my shoulders, and I attempt to shrug him off, but he doesn’t budge.
“Get your hands off me, Jason,” I hiss.
“I will once you calm down”, he tells me.
“You have fire in your hands. You would burn down this place if you don’t calm down”.
His words are stern but not harsh.
I scream and jump back, my arms flailing.
“Make it stop!” I hear the terror in my own voice.
“Oh god, please make it stop!”
Jason is standing in front of me now, and he holds my face with both his hands and makes me look up at him.
“Breathe”, he whispers, and I try to do as he says.
“I’m scared”, I whisper, and he nods.
“I know starlight, but I need you to breathe, okay?”
I nod and take in huge gulps of air.
The room suddenly feels less suffocating, and my palms don’t feel as warm.
“That’s right”, Jason coaxes as he leads me back to the couch to take a seat.
“Go on”, Jason gestures at Drake, who clears his throat.
“Um… well, we found out something else that concerns both of you”.
“Both of us?” Jason echoes and looks at me before turning back to Drake.
“Yes,” he answers.
“Have you ever heard of the Prophecy of the Gifted?”
I raise a brow, “The prophecy about a group of gifted supernaturals that were supposed to bring peace back to our world and are led by a boy who is a werewolf, vampire, and witch?”
I remember finding out about the prophecy in the Codex of the Black Tongues.
At the time, I wondered why it had shown me the prophecy and why it thought I had anything to do with it.
“How does that have to do with us?” I ask, and before either of them can reply, Jason speaks up.
“A werewolf, a vampire… and a witch”, he says in realization as he looks at me.
It takes a while before I understand what he’s trying to say, and when I do-
“Ew!” I exclaim as I move to the other end of the couch, far away from Jason, who only raises a brow in amusement.
“I’m not having a baby with you!” I shriek.
“Can’t say I want that either”, his shrug is nonchalant, but his gaze is anything but.
He looks panicked, and I’m sure that I look like I may be sick.
“This is absurd!” I argue.
“This could be about anyone else. It could be about some other vampire and werewolf mates. One of them could have a witch gene. It could be about anyone other than us!”
The more I say it, the more absurd it sounds, and the more I’m sure that there are no other people in this world who would be in the same position as Jason and me.
“Cass”, Drake says with so much sympathy in his voice, I almost break down crying again.
“You and Jason are the only werewolf and vampire mates in history, and you’re the only vampire-witch in history”.
I shake my head in denial.
“This can’t be happening. It can’t be!”
Anna kneels in front of me, taking her hand in mine.
“You have to accept this. Living in denial might kill you”.
“Kill me?” I echo.
“You can’t reject what you are”, she tells me, and I gulp.
I close my eyes, and my head is swirling.
I’ve only been a vampire for a few months, and the thought of me being a witch as well is enough to have me disoriented.
It makes no sense to me because I’m sure that both my parents were human, or at least I think so, so where did the witch gene come from?
The locket I always wear falls off my neck and onto the floor with a thud and opens effortlessly.
I’m confused because 1) I wear it all the time and it’s never done that before, and 2) it has never opened since the day my father gifted it to me on my tenth birthday.
“That’s weird,” I mumble and reach down to pick it up.
The moment my fingers make contact with the piece of jewelry, my head spins.
***
“My lady!” A lady with brown hair and eyes cries while holding on to the hands of a frail woman who lies in bed with a child in her arms.
Beside her was a familiar man.
“Dad?” I stare in shock at a younger version of my dead father staring at the frail woman in bed.
He doesn’t hear me, none of them do.
“You know I can’t live without you, Cassidy”, my father cries.
I’ve never seen him cry before.
“You can’t leave me, please”.
“I don’t have much of a choice”, Cassidy- as my father had called her- lifts her hands to wipe away my father’s tears.
It looks oddly affectionate in a way I’ve never seen my father be with my mother.
“I enchanted my necklace”, Cassidy says as she takes it off.
“I’ve used the spell with Zeluna before”, she nods her head at the lady beside her, who still had tears in her eyes.
“The magic would let Cassandra see what happens here when she is ready”, Cassidy says as she pulls the baby closer to her.
My heart stutters.
This is insane.
That child can’t be me…
can it?
Cassidy puts the locket around the baby’s neck.
“I love you so much, darling. Mama loves you so much”, her voice is soft but frail, and it’s as though she is whispering in my own ears.
The baby makes inaudible noises as she traces her tiny hands down Cassidy’s face.
“I’m going to kill Lauren for doing this to you, ” Dad mutters with rage, and I raise a brow.
Lauren is my mother.
“You would do no such thing”, Cassidy scolds, face frowning with the little strength her facial muscles have left.
“Cassandra needs a mother, and your wife could be the right fit for the job”.
Dad looks at her like she’s lost her mind.
“She would kill her, just like she tried with you”, he warns.
Cassidy shakes her head, “She wouldn’t hurt Cassandra as long as you tell her not to. Lauren would bend to your every will, Jared, and you know it”. This story is hosted at novelping.com.
“You want me to force my wife to raise a child that isn’t hers?” Jared asks, though not accusingly, and Cassidy nods.
“I know it sounds terrible, and it is actually, but I don’t want Cassandra to grow up without the love of a mother. Lauren just so happens to be an amazing actress”.
Dad sighs, “Alright, love. As you wish”.
I stand there trying to wrap my head around their conversation.
It felt weird hearing them talk about me, unnerving, but I was more surprised by the news that my dad had forced my mom- I mean, Lauren- to raise me.
I know their marriage was an arranged one, but it never occurred to me that my father had been in love with someone else the whole time.
And even more shocking was the fact that Lauren had been the cause of my real mother’s death.
Cassidy coughs with so much force that her whole body shakes and her face grows impossibly paler.
“Someone get a doctor!” Zeluna calls out in fear as she holds onto Cassidy’s hand tighter.
“Deep breaths, my lady. You’ll be okay”.
The fear in her voice said quite the opposite.
Cassidy shakes her head weakly as she whispers, “Thank you for being by my side, Zeluna”.
This only makes the lady cry harder.
She presses her chapped lips on baby me’s forehead.
“Grow up strong, Cassandra, and remember I love you always”.
For some reason, a tear runs down my cheeks.
Lastly, she turns to my father, whose eyes are flooded with fear, love, and tears as he looks down at her.
“I love you so much, Jared”.
“I love you so much, Cassidy”.
She brings him down to her for one last kiss, and I watch with tear-filled eyes as her hand drops from his face and her eyes go blank.
A gut-wrenching scream tears from my father’s throat, Zeluna weeps, and as though younger me could sense the sorrow as well, she begins to cry.
My dad picks me up and hugs me tight to his chest.
“I love you, Cassie. Your mom loved you; please don’t forget that”.
The locket glows.
***
My head begins to spin again, and when I open my eyes, I’m back to the present.
I’m still reaching out to get the locket that had fallen to the floor, and Anna is still looking up at me expectantly.
I grab the locket and put it back around my neck.
I subconsciously squeeze it closer to my chest.
It was the closest thing I had to Cassidy- my mother.
“Who’s Cassidy?” I ask even though I know the answer.
She is my mother, but something tells me it’s more than that.
Everyone in the room seems taken aback by my question.
“How do you-?” Anna begins, and I cut her off.
“Tell me”.
She gives me an incredulous look before saying, “She’s the late Princess of the witches, but how does that have to do with anything?”
My hands go to my mouth from the shock I feel.
“What the heck?
But that means-”
“Means what?
I’m so lost right now”, Drake raises a brow at me.
“Cassidy is my mom”.
They’re mouths hang comically open as they stare at me.
“How?!” They all ask simultaneously.
I take a deep breath before explaining everything that I have seen.
They all look at me, open-mouthed and full of astonishment.
“Holy shit! Cassie, you’re a princess!” Drake is the first to speak.
I laugh, albeit nervously, “yeah, I know”.
Jason blinks in astonishment, “Whoa”.
Annalise nods thoughtfully, “It makes sense now why you were able to control the temperature of your flames. Only royal witches of flame can handle that”.
“I did that?” I question, and Anna nods.
I blink in confusion.
Annalise shakes her head in disbelief, “I can’t believe it.
Princess Cassidy was a legend!
She was the princess of flames.”
“She’s dead”, I say flatly, and Anna tenses abruptly, and the room goes grim.
I run a hand down my face in exhaustion, “she’s dead, and this whole time I believed that her murderer was my mother”.
“Where’s Lauren now?” Anna asks me, and I shrug as I say once more, “dead. Her and my father are dead”.
“I’m sorry”, Anna whispers, and I shake my head before leaning back.
“Don’t… apologize”, my voice comes out strangled, and tears flood my vision for what feels like the hundredth time today.
I feel Jason move closer to me.
He hesitates, but then reaches out to me and pulls me into his chest.
Normally, I would have struggled to be free from his grip, but I needed the comfort the embrace provided.
I cried because that was all I could do.
If only tears could raise the dead the way the rain raises the trees.
If only tears could wash away sorrow the way the waves wash away the sand on the shore