Healed by the Alpha (Hunted Book Two)

Chapter Eighty One

Whitt

My eyebrows were almost touching with the pressure of concentration I had to put into channeling through the witches. My hair was slick with sweat and my body was trembling. "You're almost there!" Yarah encouraged me, grasping my hand tighter.

The witches had formed a circle around me, I was at the centre with Yarah. I didn't think it was possible, but she looked even worse than I did. I couldn't see through the bright shimmering light in front of me, it was almost transparent, but the iridescent glow made it hard to see anything on the other side. My hands gripped harder and I pushed through the mental block in my head that told me I didn't have any more magic, I would do this. I could do this.

All too quickly, Yarah let go of my hand and that sent the portal in front of me snapping back and knocking me off my feet. I rolled over and leaned myself up on my hands, "what the hell was that for!" I was about to scream at her. I paused when I noticed that she hadn't taken any notice of me whatsoever, instead she was looking off into the distance with a lost look in her eyes. I started to doubt myself, I thought it was Yarah's fault but I'd been struggling with this so much...

My words stopped short in my mind as a green eyed beauty stepped around the witches, looking into the middle of the circle. There were tears in her eyes, trembling on the edge of falling. "And here I thought I'd never meet the adult you..." There was no mistaking who she was, I was the spitting image of my mother. "You're... you're here?" I stuttered, not quite believing what my eyes were seeing. Her smile was as beautiful as I had imagined, her cheeks as full with colour and her hair as shiny and soft.

I didn't consider my actions, I raced forward and went to grab my mother, I had never even had the chance to hug her...

Except, when I flung my arms around to grab her, they faded straight through her body and I ended up tripping over my feet and falling on the opposite side of her. I caught myself, holding my hands out before my face could collide with the stone floor. Of course I couldn't hug her, I thought stupidly. She was a spirit. She looked down at her body and over to Yarah, "I'm not fully formed?" Yarah's lips created a thin line, "she hasn't been transitioning into her power like we thought she would.

So what she was saying was that I had the ability to be able to hold my mother, I was just too weak for it.

"No matter," my mother uttered, her ghostly figure wading over to me. "We don't have time for all of that anyway..." All of that? My heart gripped like a vice, giving your only daughter a hug was just classed under 'all of that'? She floated until her figure was standing beside me, "we need to go through everything you know so far and everything you need to know." She looked back towards Yarah, "I'm guessing that's why you got my daughter to call me here?" Yarah's head dipped solemnly. As if it wasn't obvious enough...

I felt like a disappointment. I could feel the tears on the cusp of falling from my eyes. She must be so disappointed in me, I clearly wasn't the daughter she had expected to find. "I'm sorry." My voice cracked as I looked down at my hands, the power in them depleted completely. My mother's head twisted to me, "pardon?" I looked into her eyes and saw my own staring back, "I said I'm sorry. I'm not the daughter you expected to find..."

Her features changed completely when I spoke. It looked as if she was about to fall down beside me and embrace me, clearly she couldn't, and she thought better of it before she did. But it was there. "Darling, how can you say such things?" She whispered at me, "you are blood of mine and you could never disappoint me. Yes, you do have a little bit of learning left... but you are so close to reaching your full potential." My eyes closed and I shook my head, tears dripping from my eyes. " I can't even aim properly! How you're all expecting me to be some kind of channel for magic is ridiculous. I almost killed Yarah a minute ago!"

I was panicking, but I couldn't stop and it wouldn't slow down. I felt sick and I felt confused. My mother knelt beside me, her hair floating in a phantom wind that I couldn't feel. "Hush now sweetheart, you are so much braver than you think you are. You hold far more power than you are running on. You just need to see yourself in the way that I do..." Yarah stepped forwards, "and the way that I see you..."

That was a surprise, I thought the witch was genuinely trying to kill me and exhaust me. Suddenly, all of the witches around me started to bow their heads, kneeling on the ground around me. My mother looked around the faces, smiling fondly, before her eyes settled back on me. "We're here for you Jessie. They are your family and sisters always stick together." She shook her head, a sad smile on her lips, "I wish I could touch you, to comfort you my little one. I wish I could've had all of those fantastic years with you that I had imagined when I first held you in my arms."

My eyes teared up again, "I wish I could've known you." Her emerald eyes never left mine, "you have always known me." Her hand hovered over my chest, "you are all of the best parts of me sweetheart, and I know your father would be just as proud."