Children of the Goddesses (completed)

Leap of Faith

Laila’s POV

            “What do you mean that the sun is also a source of magic?” I put on my best bewildered and eager to learn face as Sir Mystery explained to me his theory of how the sun was a source of magic just the moon. 

            After our secret escape under the stars a few nights ago, Sir Mystery’s demeanor had completely changed. He would smile more often and for the first two days after our outdoor trip, my senses were enhanced again and I could smell a genuine joy in him every time he was around. It was strange but I decided to use it to my advantage, using his cheerful mood to get as much out of him as I could. I knew that male vampires tended to look down on female vampires as weaklings and my childish request to have chocolate while lying under the night sky must have convinced him that I was just another naive and brainless female vampire. After all, he had agreed to leave me outside for a short while on my own, giving me the opportunity to tank up on the energy that I knew the sun was giving to me. In the past few days, he was also none the wiser when I would intentionally skirt around his questions on what I knew about myself. 

            “I know it sounds crazy, Lailynn, but think about this. If the sun isn’t a source of magic in the same way that the moon is, how could daywalkers have been created? The sun stone was used to harvest the magic from the sun, and that is exactly the problem. No one really completely understood the full power of the sun stone. Over the centuries, the sun stone has only been documented to be a kind of magic detector, showing its owner the source of the magic she was seeking. No one knew that it could also harvest and store magic from the sun until Lady Lae discovered it about two decades ago in an ancient scroll left behind by the First Witch, her grandmother.” 

            Sir Mystery’s explanation made sense but it puzzled me that witches were only drawing magic from the moon, if indeed the sun was also a source of magic. Besides, if witches were not able to tap into a source of magic, then how was I somehow consuming the magic from the sun? 

            “Earth to Lailynn,” Sir Mystery said in a sing-song voice as he waved his hand in front of me, snapping me out of my thoughts. 

            “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I was just thinking about how that would work. I mean if Lady Lae already knew that the sun contains magic that could be harvested, then why didn’t she just draw from the sun? I mean like the way they would draw magic from the moon? Surely, it wouldn’t have to be done with the sun stone, right? Wasn’t the sun stone like the moon stone, and it was just a kind of magic reservoir for whatever magic was harvested?” 

“I’m not 100% sure but I don’t think that witches are able to access the power of the sun, if not, Lady Lae would have done it two decades ago instead of spending so much time searching for the sun stone.” Sir Mystery’s explanation turned my anxiety up a notch as my throat ran dry. If what he said was true, that could only mean that I and probably all vampires with a weird Sun chromosome could somehow draw magic from the sun. Given how rare this was, it could only mean one thing, if I didn’t learn quickly how to use my newfound ability and defend myself, I would be turned into a weapon by someone else. 

            “What about the daywalkers?” I asked cautiously as my fingers dug into my palms in an attempt to distract myself from how nervous I was. 

            “Hey, it’s alright, you don’t have to be afraid,” Sir Mystery said gently as he reached out and took my hands in his. “I know exactly what time you came back after we were outside, and you don’t have a sun ring, which is a magically enhanced ring that allows vampires to walk under the sun unharmed. Yet, you came back unscathed and I noticed on the next day how you were using your injured hand. I knew there and then that your fingers have healed, and even the swelling on the side of your head has completely gone down.”

            My heart leapt to my throat and I felt like a fool, for thinking that I had managed to get the upper hand of our deal and I had been able to outsmart this male vampire. All this time, he knew and he was simply observing me, putting on my little show while the entire time, I was just running around in circles in the palm of his hands. My blood turned cold as I thought of what he would do with everything that he had learned about me, and help was still so far away. I hadn’t even heard back from Ethan since that one time when we had spoken. 

            “Hey, hey, it’s alright,” he reassured me with so much gentleness in his voice, that I was tempted to let down my guard. “Laila, look at me.” 

Lem’s POV

            The smell of fear filled the room as Laila’s cold clammy hands trembled in my palms. It wasn’t my intention to freak her out, but after putting two and two together in the past few days, I realized just how much danger she was really in. I needed to get her out of here as soon as possible and the only way to do so successfully was to have her onboard with my plan. It was a risky plan and it would require some treachery that I wasn’t too sure Laila would feel comfortable with, which was why I had decided to reveal my identity to her. 

            If I had a choice, I would never tell her who I was. I wanted her memory of me to stay in the past, where my heart was still pure and I hadn’t done anything that she wouldn’t agree with. I wanted to remain the timid little boy who was her most loyal follower, living under her protection and love, but what I wanted was nothing in comparison to keeping her safe. I needed to give her a reason to trust me, and this was the best that I could come up with. 

            “It’s me, Laila,” I said softly as I caressed her tear stained face. Her glistening eyes searched my face carefully, like she was trying to piece together a puzzle. “I’m Lem, Laila.” 

            Her sparkling blue eyes widened in shock as a gasp escaped her quivering lips, before tears streamed down her face like a tap turned on full. “How?” She choked as her fingers traced the scar on my left eyebrow. 

            “I survived the m******e because I wasn’t sent to fight at the base camp,” I explained, omitting all details of my betrayal of my own unit and Lady Lae. 

            Her eyes wandered to the hem of my shirt and I knew that she needed more evidence to believe my words. After all, we hadn’t seen each other since we were twelve. I lifted my shirt without hesitation, exposing an ugly zig zag scar on the right side of my lower back. Both scars were the result of the biggest fight we had gotten ourselves into after Dad’s death on a combat mission. The children of a few Royals had taunted me in school and when things got physical, Laila had stepped up to protect me, but we were no match against four vampires. In a bid to protect Laila, I had covered her body with mine as the other children threw kicks and punches at us. In the end, if Lovis and his friends hadn’t shown up in time to pick us up after school, I might not have been so lucky to escape unharmed except for these two scars. 

            “Lem,” she whispered in disbelief as her fingers traced the scar on my lower back, sending a warm fuzzy feeling straight to my heart. “I can’t believe this,” she mumbled. “How? And why the King? You could have been free.”

            Her rambling ignited the biggest fear in my heart, fear of her judgement and fear that she would despise me, if she learned about everything that I had done. As I racked my mind to come up with a halfway decent answer, her face lit up with a smile before she held my hands tightly and made a declaration that put all my worries at ease. 

            “It doesn’t matter, Lem. I was being silly, none of it matters. Thank you, for being alive. That is all that matters to me.” 

            That was all it took for my flip flopping stomach to settle down as a distant but familiar feeling of being important to someone blossomed like flowers in the spring in my heart. My gamble had paid off and now I had only one thing left to do. I had to get her out of here.