1. A Secret of Snow and Ruin

Chapter IV

Isla Wardwell

For the first ten years of my life I had everything I wanted. I had the jewels, engagement offers, and the promise of being named heir. I had it all. Until Alistair was born of course. My brother looked nothing like a by the book Wardwell. We had the most striking eyes, straight dark hair, and the most translucent pale skin. But when my father brought him home, my ten year old self was stunted. The baby was as brown as leaves, had dark green eyes, and hair curlier than I had ever seen.

Alistair was half Ialatic and was a muddled born. His mother was a human who could coincidentally cast a few encantations. He was a bastard my father had claimed after he learned from The Fates that Alistair would be gifted with the strongest psychic ability one could have. It infuriated me that I was now tossed aside. My sister Orla, loved Alistair dearly and I envied that too. I hated that the responsibility to be potentially heir fell on me and created this competition with my brother. I wanted to love him and once upon a time I did, but I got tired of being nice.

I made sure Alistair knew what I was meant to inherit when we were young.

But after Alistair's betrayal I could not help but feel threatened that he'd somehow unsurp my right as High Priestess and take the throne for himself. I always had him in line for as long as I could remember and yet this one mistake he made, grinded my gears in a way I couldn't fathom.

Stop fucking thinking about that Isla. Snap out of it. This heart from Ninomae will be your calling. You'll finally be more powerful than your brother, so stop dwelling in the past. I keep repeating.

I sigh and wait for my blessings to guide me. After I had killed Jasmeen her body was readily prepared for my sacrifice. A knock on my door tore me from my reverie and there stood Killian with a smile on his face. He held the heart in a case and gave it to me with a ironic gentleness.

Her heart now lay in my hand and it was still slightly bloody as I could see. A purple and magenta infused aura floated through the heart. It was Jasmeen's magic sense. Even though she was a psychic her ability to read prophecies was cosmic and foretold through the stars. Cosmic Magic had a purple hue, meanwhile every Psychic witch like myself has blue magic. But I wasn't quite sure about this magenta streak intermingled in her heart.

"Thank you Killian" I say. I close the door and I sit in the darkness of my room, feeling excitement. As High Preistess I had to be the most powerful. Usually we shared power amongst the coven but this heart was an offer that was too powerful to resist. I took her heart out of the case and centered it in the small circle I had conjured from chalk.

I lit the candles surrounding the seance and began my chant, "tuam virtutem altae prophetiae super me" As I repeat the chant, I see my blue magic power through the seance. A bright magenta light from Jasmeen's heart begins to rise and I continue. But as the light moves closer and closer to me, I begin to see flashes of blood, death, and rampage. "tuam virtutem altae prophetiae super me" Through the carnage I yell through the images. But as everything progresses, I see an image of feral wolves tearing through Lycans like snacks. I indulge in the images and as the light reaches my chest, I fully embrace it.

The power was heavy but also left me feeling tingles throughout my body. I look and see indigo flashes of light intermingle through my veins. It was my power mixed with Jasmeen's. I smile at the sight, because I like this new power and because I was once step closer to being Queen.

But I also think to myself about what I had just seen from this seance. Lycans being killed by Lycans—feral Lycans. I smile and a new plan begins to emerge.

I run to grab my spell book and look for any encantations that can suffice my new plan. As I scroll through pages, I finally see something that peaks my interest. The spell is called, Curet Amino which translates to feral mind. It provides getting an animal and simply poisoning it with an insatiable and non stop hunger that can't be overrided unless the magic user themself is dead or from a stone called the Opal of Moonlight. Endless possibilities fill my mind. With Lycans killing each other, my hands could be clean and I could watch with content as mutts show what they truly are.

After my seance, I called a meeting. I had gathered my most trusted members of the coven. Sitting to my left was Killian and to my right was Vanessa. Everybody else were my assailants who'd kill on my command. 

"I can't kill Lady Elysia Wolfe of The Voriea Clan" I say at the table. Everyone does a double take as they know how much trouble I have threw to finally see that girl die.

Killian however, looks to me with confusion which soon turns to rage, "But what of Lord Alistair and his betrayal!" He yells out. Killian stands and I could tell from his thoughts that he was furious. I raise a hand and a indigo light emits. With my telekinesis I force him to sit down myself. Just using this new power felt richer and more efficient.

"You don't stand before your High Preistess" I command. Killian nods his head and I can tell from his mind that he deeply regrets his emotional outburst. "Alistair is still going to pay for what he did. For now however, I want the bounty on Elysia to be overrided. I have a plan to make the Lycans blindsided through all this. The spell is called Curet Amino" With a snap from my fingers I conjured my spell book and open it reveal the spell. I let my covenant take turns reading the spell. A look of interest washes over them and I smirk in delight, "...It takes just one Lycan to curse to hurt them all. A bite from a Lycan is powerful but one from under this spell could turn other Lycans feral in hours. With their defenses down, we could reak hell on them without them even knowing"

Everyone thinks to themselves and eventually all seem to agree with me. "Now...which one of you is going to bring me a Lycan, alive?"

After sharing my plans I was perched on my reading chair, reading up on mastering spells.

But I couldn't quite concentrate as I kept fidgeting. Waiting for the news of my experiment being captured was a daunting challenge. But through my impatience and anxiety, I suddenly felt slightly light headed. I stumbled into my lady chamber and sat on my stool for a minute. My mind grew thick with a magenta haze washing over me. "Sit deam in, sit deam in, sit deam in" I kept hearing. In Old-Speak it translates to "Let the Goddess In"

As the voices repeated I felt a hot flash take over me. I yelled out and reached for my looking glass, to see what was wrong. My body was on fire and I felt out of control.

As I picked up my mirror, staring back at me was a woman. It was me but I was smiling and laughing. In reality I was breaking out in a hot sweat with an exhausted glare on my face. "What the fuck?" I ask myself. The woman laughs harder and harder and I feel myself grow uneasy. "What is this?"

"It's you" She said. "It's you once you, sit deam in"

"Let who in?" I whisper.

"Sit deam in!" She exclaimed with wilted brows and a crazed look in her or my green eyes. I flinched at the sight and dropped the looking glass on the floor. It shattered to pieces and I instantly regretted it. The looking glass belonged to my mother who had passed when I was a child. That looking glass was one of the few things I had left of her.

I go to pick up the glass and cut myself in the process. I flinch but an urgent knock guides my judgement elsewhere. A cut like that would heal okay.

I pushed threw the pain and ignore whatever the hell just happened. Stay focused Isla, I tell myself.

I opened my huge chamber doors to see Killian. "Follow me my mistress. Your experiment is waiting for you"

I smile in delight and wipe away the strand of sweat that was gliding down my forehead. I follow Killian down to the dungeon levels and I'm hit with the excruciating smells from our prisoners.

"Our experiment is somewhere special" Killian quipped. He lead me to the side of the dungeon I had never seen. There were cobwebs in each corner and spiders, mouse and other creatures crawling about. On the floor I could see silver chains and shackles as if it were a holding cell for a feral animal.

Killian brought me to another door opposite the holding chains. When Killian brought me to my experiment he was lying on the table, kicking and screaming. The silver encased on his arms suppressed his greedy glowing gold eyes from attacking me on the spot. The man had locs and deep brown skin. His face had skin tags on either side of his face and I knew exactly who he had been.

I smirk at Killian, "You cheeky little bastard" I shake my head in wonder. "How'd you catch him?"

"He's a drunk—I caught him uptown; staggering and vomiting. I got him out of there quick" Killian admitted.

"He's perfect" I say.  "Thank you"