Sacrifice for a Wish

Chapter 1

I rolled over in bed. I sought the warmth from the space next to me. The heat coming from it felt amazing and I snuggled a little bit closer. My feet, numb with cold, crept closer and closer toward the heat until finally they were pressed into it. I heard a sharp hiss of breath, but I snuggled into the warmth, my eyes closed and drifted back into sleep, happy.

BANG, BANG, BANG. The house shook with the concussive sound. I was warm and sleepy and happy where I was. I felt more than heard the chuckle that came from the chest below my cheek.

"Little Bird, did you sneak out of your nest again?" I had no idea whose voice it was since my brain was still fogged over with sleep.

Someone stood above me and attempted to pull my blanket from my body, but I had subconsciously planned for this. My tactic was simple and had been carried out before, I anchored the blanket underneath my body and held on tightly. It was not going anywhere unless I wanted it too.

Above me a throat was cleared. It wasn't a good sound. It was the kind of noises, you got in the principal's office when you asked a question in class that was deemed inappropriate like when Miss. Miller was going to have her baby. I had asked how a woman could have a baby without a husband. To be fair, it was second grade, and I didn't know it was an inappropriate question. How was I supposed to know she wasn't pregnant? She had looked pregnant.

It was no use. I pulled the covers down and looked around the room. A room that was not my room. "This isn't my room."

My father, Coach Brigand stood at the foot of the bed next to my adopted mother, Anne. Phoenix and Stone were trying to hide their smiles but failing miserably. The twins who lay on either side of me, didn't even try to hide their smiles or their laughter.

"No, it is not your room. Your room is down the street." Coach Brigand said sternly.

"Drake, maybe we should discuss this privately," my mom said. She put her hand on Coach's arm and looked up to him sweetly. She was 6 inches shorter than he was, but he never used his height to bully her the way her ex-husband Gerald had.

Coach looked at my mom and his face softened. "Anne she's only 17. It's not seemly for a girl her age to be sleeping with a young man, let alone multiple young men."

"Yes, I understand that. But Wren is a bit different." mom was using her sweet, calm voice. It worked well with Gerald but only when he was already in a good moon. With Coach, it worked more than most. When my mom used her sweet voice, Coach was putty in her hands. I saw how close they had gotten in the last year since we had moved to Weverland. I know they thought I didn't notice, that I couldn't see the sweet looks and touches they gave each other. I was autistic, not blind.

Saint walked in, he was clad in pajama bottoms, and a white tee-shirt. "I heard Wren come in, so I thought you guys would be over for breakfast. Why don't we all move down to the dining room and we can discuss this."

Coach started to open his mouth, but my mom pulled him back out into the hallway. She spoke softly to him as they walked down to the dining room.

"Wren, you need to get up and get dressed. There's still some clothes in your room." Phoenix ordered and I jumped up to do as he said when I saw the sheer white night gown that Mika had made for me before she left to visit New York. There were grass stains on the bottom, and it was still slightly damp from my moon lit stroll. The fabric clung to my body and I folded my arms in front of my chest and hurried out of the room.

"You two, need to call Coach if you find her here." Phoenix, lectured. He glared at the twins who each gave Phoenix a sheepish look.

"We were half asleep when she slipped in. She was completely asleep. We aren't going to send her home. Have you seen the bags under her eyes? She's not sleeping." I heard one of the twins through the open door. I stopped to listen to more of the conversation.

"I get that, but we need to make sure Coach and Anne knows where she is. He could keep her from us, that wouldn't be good for any of us, especially for her." Phoenix lectured Luck and Legend.

I walked over to my room at the boys' house. It had been mine for over a year, since before I found out Coach was my father, that I was a witch, and my biological mother was crazy. It felt like it had been years and years since I came to Weverland Boarding School and met Phoenix, Stone, Saint, and the twins Luck and Legend, before I learned that curses, magic, and mermaids existed.

Phoenix was right, I wasn't sleeping well. I wanted to sleep; I was constantly exhausted. I'd lay down at night in my bed at Coach's house. My room right next to my mom's. I would read a book, drink a cup of warm milk, practice the mediation that Zuur and Fala and I worked on during my training, but nothing worked. I just couldn't fall asleep.

It would go like this for a few days, until finally I'd pass out. Then as soon as I was asleep, I'd get up and walk over to the Lost Boys' house and climb into bed with one of them. I'd tried putting a chair in front of the door, I'd even tried tying my wrist to the door frame. It didn't matter, when I woke up, I was in one of the boys' beds.

I closed the door to my room, and took out a change of clothes; bra, panties, and a pale blue sun dress mom had bought for me. A pair of white strappy sandals finished the ensemble. It was summer break, the summer before my senior year. I didn't know what would happen next year, with school. Technically I'd graduate this year but because of the curse, and how time was frozen in Weverland I would still be the same age. Just like all the other people in Weverland who had been stuck in the curse my biological mother, Rose had cast to hurt the man she thought she had loved.

I tried not to think about Rose often. She was far from Weverland where she couldn't hurt me again, but she snuck into my thoughts constantly. Did she love me, even if only a little bit? I knew she came from witches, which is how I got my power, but did she have a family that loved her? She was now in a hospital that dealt with mental health issues. Rose had paid a high cost for the curse she had cast; her powers would never work again. It seemed like a steep cost just for revenge.

The people of Weverland had been stuck here for years, the outside world changing but they had been frozen in time. Some of the town's citizens had decided to leave after the curse was lifted, but most stayed. Their friends and family members outside of Weverland had long since died.

One friend I had made when I first got here, Mika, Fala's younger sister wanted to see the world and travel so with the blessing of the Chief, her father, and the protection of Hawk and Talon, she had gone to see the world. She called, sent emails, and kept in touch but I still missed my friend.

I jumped into the shower and rinsed the grass from my feet. Once I was clean, I dried off and put a band aide on a small cut on my foot. I didn't remember getting a cut there so it must have happened during my nighttime walk. I threw my night gown into the hamper and went to the white cheval mirror to check my dress and hair. I pulled my hair back into a braid that hung loosely down my back. I kneeled and then strapped on my sandal.

Out of the corner of my eye, a creamy envelope on the floor under the mirror.

Picking it up carefully, I rubbed the paper between my fingers. It was thicker than envelopes we got our bills in and the texture of it was slightly rough. On the envelope flap there was a seal made with purple wax, embossed in the seal was a small bird. I flipped it over and saw writing on the front of the envelope, Wren Opal Morgana. The writing was done in a beautiful calligraphy.

The part that stuck out was although it was my first name, but I didn't have a middle name and that certainly wasn't my last name. I had been snuck out of Weverland as a baby on a delivery truck. When the driver had found me, he had left me in front of a firehouse. CPA had named me Wren Jewell because of the small bird on the blanket I had been wrapped in, and the vibrant green color of my eyes.

I turned the envelope over and ran my finger under the seal to open the letter, it was in my room, and it did have my first name on it. There were no other Wrens in Weverland.

I heard Stone call me from the bottom of the stairs, "C'mon Little Bird, time for breakfast. Fala is here!" I set the envelope down on the dresser carefully. I could read it later. I checked my appearance one more time in the mirror and headed downstairs to eat breakfast with my family.