Once upon a Midnight | BOOK I

Twenty-nine

My grandmother had the four of us under some kind of magickal effect that kept us from moving. She walked out of the pool and stepped barefoot on the ground. "My daughter," she said as she moved to Auntie Hilda. Auntie Hilda still laid on the floor covered in blood. She tried to cast a spell but only managed to cough up more blood.

"I think I might've hurt her pretty bad," Asmodeus said, a thoughtful look on his face.

Loretta smiled and turned to him. "My son." As she said those words, Asmodeus changed form, earning widened eyes from Auntie Hilda. His black hair was now blonde, his brown eyes became green and his body added a gram or two.

"Mother," he said. He saw the look on my face and flashed me a set of white teeth. "Oh, how I've longed to return to my true form and meet my dear niece. It's me. Uncle Cain. I'm sure Cathryn has mentioned me. You might remember me from when I saved you from the blackwater yesterday."

I couldn't say a word in return. I could only stare at my supposed uncle qnd grandmother. "Oh..." Loretta mused. "Where are my manners?" She snapped her fingers and suddenly I could speak. "Don't even think of casting spells, children."

"We are not your children," Ayesha said.

"But, yes. You're my black-eyed children. Let me tell you all a story." Loretta walked back to the water. "You see, seventeen years ago, I found a way to merge sorcerers with shadows. But the only type of sorcerers that could undergo this marvellous transformation were those born with the black virus, like the lot of you, and every other black-eyed children I sired. I am the reason you all have magick. You're all my children."

"Except me," I muttered. "Is that why the sorcery council wanted us dead? Because they're black-eyed children and I'm the blood of darkness?"

Loretta turned to me with a smile. "My dear, you always were smart. I didn't just make them black-eyed children. Within each of them is a part of me. As long as one of them is alive..."

"...you'll never die," Mikoto finished. "That explains your youthfulness."

"So, they were planning to keep just five of us alive?" Nicolas said.

Uncle Cain stepped forward. "Well, no. Those council officials I killed were supposed to kill you as soon as you finished sealing our mother. Tis a good thing I hijacked the spell. I wouldn't want any harm to befall my beautiful niece," he said.

I couldn't believe Auntie Hilda would agree to such plan. There was also no way Nicolas' father was oblivious to the plan. The entire trial was them killing two birds with one stone. Get rid of the black-eyed children without arousing suspicions and seal the shadow queen. Irfan Yusuf was right. The sorcery council and the world sorcery leaders were evil. Did Mum know about this too?

"So, you can't kill us even if you want to. You'll only be making yourself vulnerable," Mikoto pointed out, a small smile spreading on her face.

"Your memories have been messed with, children, and it seems the shadows in you have been made docile," Loretta said. "I can help with that."

"One question," I said. "What are the shadows?"

Loretta walked on the water towards me. She waved her hands up and I was raised out of the water. A knife appeared in her hand and my eyes widened. "Anabeth. My daughter, your mother, is a very smart and powerful sorceress. The seal she placed on you is unlike anything I've ever seen. Even I can't break the seal." She was now standing in my front. "Never fear, I will break that seal. But you must first die to understand all that's being kept from you." Her eyes were filled with sorrow. I tried to move, I screamed for my body  to move, but I couldn't. Loretta plunged the knife into my heart.