Secrets of Legends - Book 2 Daughter of a Monster Series

Chapter 25- Mountain

It's been a few days since the drugs wore off Cole and he hasn't gone pink eyed since the time on the cliff. But he has slowly been remembering more things. I also promised him that today we would take the Imorphia bracelets off him.

He rushes into my room, ecstatic energy pouring off him like a tidal wave. "Get these damn things off me!" he exclaims and he thrusts his arms forward, wrists up for me. I laugh under my breath and I grab my sword off the wall, sliding the blade under the metal.

"Be free, Cole!" I pull up, the blade snapping the metal off. He rubs at his wrist, red marking where the bracelet had been sitting. He holds his other hand out and I snap the ring off that one too. His magic charges forward, feeling much stronger than it was before.

"Thanks. That's such a big relief."

"No problem." He sighs and sits down on my bed, guilt overcoming him. "What is it? What are you blaming yourself for?"

"I remember things Jade. Things I'm not sure I want to remember."

I sit beside him, worriedly looking over him as the weight of the world seems to be on his shoulders. "Like what, Cole? What do you remember?"

"I hurt her, Jade," he whispers, on the verge of tears.

"Who?"

"My little sister! They-they sent me in and I tortured her. I tortured my little sister, Jade! I'm meant to protect her but I'm the one that hurt her! I did such awful things to her! She was screaming at me to stop, begging me to stop, but I didn't. I just kept hitting her and cutting her and burning her and I didn't care! I threw her against walls, Jade!"

"Hey, calm down, it wasn't you doing those things."

"Really? If it wasn't me then I wouldn't remember doing it. Remember the sheer terror on her face, her tears, her blood. I slammed her head into a chair to knock her out so that I could carry her back to her cell! I just threw her on the ground! Liam was so scared when he saw me, he was so scared of me and for Bree. And Notch, he was just mounted on a wall like a damned animal, but I saw the look in his eyes. The fear, the sadness. The disappointment. I saw it, Jade. I saw him trying to use his magic and heal Bree, but he couldn't. You know why?" He pauses slightly, but before I can say anything he answers for me. "Because I put him in there!"

"You didn't do anything, Cole. Those drugs, they fucked with your brain."

"But it was still me." He tugs at his hair and torment radiates off him. My magic reaches out to his but his just turns away in shame as well. They both feel guilty.

I pull him into a hug, calming him slightly. "He wasn't disappointed in you."

"W-what?"

"Notch. He wasn't disappointed in you, I know that for a fact. Actually, knowing Notch, he was probably disappointed in himself for letting you get hurt like that, in allowing you to be used like that."

"But it wasn't his fault," Cole mumbles.

"Just like how this isn't your fault. You can't let yourself succumb to that pit of guilt because it'll eat you up and spit you out. You were a pawn used in ways no one should be, you cannot blame yourself for that."

"You sound just like Karn."

"Well, maybe I was taught the same lesson by that enderman, but now I'm passing it on to you. Stop letting it chew on you. Come on, let's go get a coffee."

"I need to see Bree first. Please, Jade, I need to see her."

"Okay. Let's go now, then." He hugs me close to him and teleports us away. We land outside Gaby's door. Cole quickly knocks on it and she yells 'come in' from inside. Cole shakily opens the door and steps in to see Liam and Gaby sitting on the bed together. Cole rushes towards his sister, sweeping her off the bed in a hug. Her eyes widen in confusion as she hugs her brother back.