Long Lost Queen

Chapter 18

   Kat sat down her pen, and looked at the paper in front of her. It was letter, to her family back at the institute. She folded it up and placed it in the palm of her hand, filling it with flames. The fire message would arrive in the institutes' fireplace.
   She stood up from where she sat on her bed, and made her way through the halls down towards the main room. As she trudged down the steps, she noticed something immediately different. Her portrait was gone. She stepped towards the fireplace, staring at the blank spot where her picture used to be.
    "Wes thinks that it doesn't fit you anymore." She turned to see Enzo watching her. "He plans to have your new, uh, features, painted on to it."
   Kat rolled her eyes at him. "Sorry my scales bother you so," she snapped.
   Enzo shuffled his feet and walked closer to her. "You know your appearance could never bother me."
    She raised her hand and flicked her fingers, igniting the fireplace. She didn't respond.
   "Kat you know I have feelings for you." Enzo walked around to the front of her. "Why do you have to act like you don't feel anything in return?"
   "Enzo don't ever try to assume what I feel." Her tone was full of warning, the fire reflecting in her lavender eyes.
    She turned to walk away from him and stopped when the mansion doors began to swing open. Her dragons, startled by the sound, flew from their perch on the stair railing onto Kat's shoulders.
   Through the doors walked a 15 year old boy, with blonde floppy hair. He was tall, and she could immediately tell he was a black swan. He flipped his hair away from his eyes, revealed bright blue irises. He had a decently handsome face, his jaw defined. He stood in the door way, looking up towards the ceiling and stairs. 
    Wes popped out from the door to the labs, and greeted the boy. He led him down to the basement, introducing himself along the way. When the door shut behind them, Kat whirled around towards Enzo.
   "Who the hell is that?," she asked, her voice inclining with worry.
   "That would be Ian. Wes' newest victim," Enzo replied with an exasperated sigh.
    "I thought he wasn't planning to start his new experiments until another week from now." Kat moved towards the fire and set her dragons down, who curled up together immediately.
    "Yeah, well, Wes is never known for his patience. He found Ian a few days and somehow convinced him to come. Probably gave him some bullshit story about how awesome it is here." 
    "What is he planning to do to Ian exactly?"
   "Not sure. Probably do some of the same things he did to you. He'll start by being nice, then soon enough start with the 'strength experiments', better known as the brazen bull and iron maiden." Enzo's voice was full of annoyance.
   "Enzo if you hate him so much, why haven't you and Christine run off years ago? He can't watch you every minute, I'm sure there's been plenty of chances to leave." Kat never understood why the two of them just stayed here.
    Enzo shook his head and laughed sadly. 
   "Kat those wards outside this mansion aren't just to keep you inside." Christine had walked into the main room. "I never put up those wards. Wes forced me to say that I did, so you would dislike me. He never wanted us to become friends. He hired some other witch to put them up. They are designed to keep you and the two of us in."
   "Then how could I get out the first time?" Kat was confused, and she sat down on the couch. She ran her fingers through her hair, which was laying loose around her shoulders.
   "Because Wes wanted you to. If he wants you to leave, he pays the witch to take down the wards for as long as it takes, then she puts them back up. I don't know how to disable them. It's an ancient spell my coven never bothered to learn, and by now all the grimoires containing it have either been destroyed or are in that witches possession," Christine explained.
   "Do you know who the witch is?," Kat asked. Christine shook her head, looking up towards the blank space where Kat's portrait used to hang.
    Kat stood from the couch and whistled to her dragons. They growled in annoyance, and flew into her arms.
   "I'm sorry, I never knew that you two were trapped just as much as I." Leaving her words in the air, Kat began to walk towards the basement door. 
                *******************
    Alec walked towards the fireplace, his steps shaky. No one had lit the fire today, and yet it was full of flames. It wasn't until he was directly in front of it, did he notice the paper inside it. He grabbed the extinguisher and put out the flames, then pulled the letter from the ashes. He shook it off and recognized Kat's flowy handwriting.
    He didn't dare to read it, but just folded it up and placed it in his pocket, walking towards the kitchens.
     "There was a fire message from Kat," he spoke when he entered the kitchen. Clary and Jace were baking cookies, Magnus and Izzy pouring over grimoires on the table. Simon sat on a kitchen stool, a glass of bloodwine in hand.
   "What?" Isabelle looked at him, surprised. Jace and Clary paused their frantic rolling to look at him.
   Alec pulled the letter from his pocket, and grabbed a stool. He sat down on it and began to read.
Dear institute squad,
I am so sorry about how all of this has turned out. I wish I could take all the pain I have caused you away, but I can't.
As you know, I'm at Wes' mansion. Christine sent you that photo. Wes discovered the way to complete what he's been obsessed with for a long time. He's wanted to restore my family to how they were centuries ago. The Targaryens used to be dragons, almost literally. We could shift into them, manipulate fire etc. Wes has been obsessed with recreating that ever since he learned of it.
I'm not the only supernatural he's ever tortured. There's been many others, his failures he calls them, who have been deformed and destroyed by his experiments.
He brought me back here so he could test his theory of how to make me an original Targaryen. It worked, but I won't go into details in writing.
Now, he plans to hunt down any supernaturals with even the smallest amount of Targaryen ancestry, and try the same experiments and theory on them. And I refuse to let that happen.
I don't want you all to come for me because I have to stop him. He wants to use me as his example and assistant now. I have to stay and play the part. When the time is right, I will get my revenge on him. I have a plan.
Soon enough, Wes is going to begin to bring poor supernaturals he tricked into thinking his mansion is a haven here, and experiment on them. When he does, Enzo, Christine and I will work together to trick him into going into a room with me while they get the supernaturals out. I'm sure you can figure out what's going to happen in that room. Wes is extremely intelligent, but he will not be expecting this betrayal.
As you know, there are wards around the mansion supposed to keep us in. Wes hired a witch to put them up and only she can take them down. Christine is on her trail, and will somehow convince her to remove them.
If our plan is a success, I will see you soon. If not, I love you with all my heart, and I promise to come haunt you until the end of eternity. ;)
Much love, Katerina
   When Alec finished reading, the kitchen was silent. None of them knew quite how to react. No one wanted to break the silence.
Alec stood from his stool and placed the letter on the table. Magnus reached out and grabbed it, scanning its contents.
"Well," he said in his usually manner, "she was quite cryptic." He paced towards the other side of the table. Isabelle reached to grab her parabatai's letter, staring at the handwriting.
"I wonder what she meant by his theory and it working," Clary thought aloud, jumping up to sit on the counter. Jace placed the cookies in the oven awkwardly, then joined her.
"What were the original Targaryens like?," Simon asked.
"They were extremely powerful; it was no question they would be Erilea's rulers," Magnus began. "They were almost quite literally dragons. They had large dragon wings, even longer fangs and claws, often times dragon-like eyes, and sometimes their skin was even decorated with scales. They had the ability to manipulate fire, which no other supernatural has, as well as shifting into a dragon form."
"So if his theory worked, then Kat is like that now?," Jace spoke from the counter.
"I would assume so yes," Magnus replied.
Alec stared at her letter in his sister's hands. He walked over to her and pulled her close.
"She'll come home little sister," he told her, and she smiled sadly at him.
"I guess that burst of power you felt must have been her going back to an original Targaryen." Clary hopped off the counter, and sat on a stool.
For the next few minutes, they all say in silence, lost in their thoughts, until the smell of burning cookies filled the kitchen.