1. A Secret of Snow and Ruin

Chapter X

Isla Wardwell

"Xavier!" I yell as I carry Geni in my arms. As I run through the halls chaos insures as beasts rip through those who try to fight back. Some of the Lycans are in human form and carry weapons laced with witch hazel that strongly takes over my senses. I'm simply powerless as I can't fight back.

Nobody can fight back.

During the midst of the fight I begin to regret what I did to my sister just days before when I uncovered what she did. I begin to fear for my child, I begin to fear that I'll lose everything. Geni cries in my arms and yells out for Xavier as well. As we run, I fear that one of the dead will resemble him. My heart slowly breaks from the realization and I desperately want to just die as well if he's gone. But with Geni by my side, I pressure myself to push through and never stop.

"Isla!" I hear. I turn around to see him standing there, and smiling at me. As I run to him an explosion rocks the manor and brings me to my feet. Geni falls from my arms and screams out in pain. I yell as I try and reach for her hand. But luckily I grabbed her on time and try and get her other hand but as I look down I notice that she's flailing from under the crack of the floor and below her is the bottom of the manor where dead bodies circle and hundreds of Lycans patrol in their human forms.

Geni looks up at me with a frozen glare in her innocent eyes. "Geni take your mothers hand!" Xavier says. Xavier lays on the other side of the crack. As I reach out to Geni, I notice that both me and Xavier's shared weight on the ground might send our daughter plummeting.

"Xavier if I grab her...we might put to much weight on this side of the floor and fall." I say.

Xavier looks at me and says, "Either way...we might die."

He was right. He was always right. I cry and continue to hold Geni's sweaty hand in mine with vise grip. She was so strong. Geni cries out and begs for one of us to just pull her up. "Geni. I need you to give me your other hand!"

She gives it to me and I pull her up yet every motion between us both leaves the floor cracking from under me. When I pull Geni up I place her behind me to ensure that our shared weight won't make us fall. I sigh as I realize that we are fine. But if me or Xavier move, we might be screwd. I'd take that over my daughter taking the fall.

"Geni I need you to run and not look back" I say.

Geni stands there shaky with cries. I urge her further but the more I try to get her to run, the more I want to break down and cry and just hold her.

"I love you Geni" I say.

"I love you Geni. Now run and don't look back" Xavier tells her.

My strong girl nods her head and wipes away her tears like they didn't bother her. She runs off and I breakdown at the realization that I might've just ruined my family forever. "I'm sorry" I say looking at Xavier through my tears.

"I'm—-" Before he could finish his words a dagger pierced his shoulder.

"Xavier!" I yell. I lay there frozen in shock as Xavier is stabbed. The one who held the mighty dagger was a girl.

She was just a mere girl.

But this girl was also a Lycan. A filthy one that exurted no magical presence. The girl looks up to me with a deadly and blank expression on her face. She looked ghastly, ghostly, and simply not there. "You killed my mother. Because of you I've lost everything." She says.