Fate Chose Them All

Chapter 5 - Everett

I carefully watch my Beloved as she stares back at me, without fear, without recognition. My heart falters for a moment. She doesn't seem to sense our connection yet. It pains me to know that. I knew it was a possibility, but I wish we could side-step all the extras that it takes for a witch to sense their Twin Flame. I never put much thought into how hard it must have been for my great-grandfather to wait for my great-grandmother. I wish now, more than ever, I had pressed on the subject more. Perhaps our school library can shed some light on the matter. If I was simply courting a student, I would be in major trouble. This was anything but simple though. I know in the deepest parts of my soul Cassandra Ivy and I belong together, bound to one another. I just wish she knew it right away too.

"What about me?" She asks in that sweet, innocent, alluring tone of hers. It takes all of my resolve to break eye contact so that I can focus on the conversation we need to have. Luckily, we don't have to get into everything all at once. I will be seeing her privately for two days a week for at least the next two months. My heart aches, knowing that isn't enough time. I need so much more time with her.

Clearing my throat, I pull my hands away from hers. "I am the professor you were coming to meet. Professor Everett Damascus," I hold out my hand to shake hers in my introduction. With a shy smile, she takes mine as well. "But, when we meet privately, you may just call me Everett." I return her smile, wishing she could be so informal with me more often than that, but that would be improper.

"Cassandra Ivy, but you can just call me Cass," she puts no stipulations on when I can address her so informally. She told me her name was Cass before she passed out, so maybe that's what she allows everyone to call her. I want a name I can call her all on my own. I'm sure, with time, I'll think of something.

"Well, Cass," her name is as sweet as honey on my tongue, and I know I'd enjoy moaning it as much as I enjoy simply saying it. "Welcome to Silverleaf University. Ms. Revisham's note already granted me a small amount of information about this meeting and our future private sessions. To be more aptly prepared, pull books and any other educational tools I might need, I will require a tad more than what that note said." I pause, waiting to see where she'll begin. Wondering how much of herself she is willing to share with me as a professor. Wondering when she might begin to see me as more. Wondering if I should just bite the bullet and tell her myself now.

"I, well, I don't actually know what she wrote in her note," Cass admits to me, seemingly embarrassed as she fiddles with her sleeve. Ah, that freshmen guidance counselor, always so quick to business.

"Not to worry. She mentioned that you are a witch, you only had your first show of power today, and that you don't know your family history. She did mention possible telekinesis," I tap my chin, wondering if that is accurate, and if it is, if she will develop other gifts. I pause again, waiting to see how Cass will expand on any of that information.

"Well, yeah, that pretty much covers it," she shrugs casually, but I can tell the casualty is a farce from how she bites her lip.

"Are you afraid of something, Cass? Other than the shadows, I mean," I stumble over my own question, wanting to smack myself in the face. Of course, the shadows are something she should fear. No witch or warlock has ever wielded them. I'll have to research what supernatural creature would be able to. Then, I might have a better idea of the mystery villain laying claim to my Beloved.

Cass blushes as she answers timidly, "Well, so far, everyone here has been kind enough about my powers being so late to manifest. I didn't grow-up in such an understanding place. So, I fear the shame that follows the admission, the guilt of being a burden and the possibility of never being able to fully access them. I mean, today's incident was an accident, and for all I know, it could have been a one time fluke." Her words start off slow, then she speaks the rest so quickly, I don't believe she took a breath. My heart aches for her as she explains the burdens she's had to carry.

"Were you raised in a coven?" A coven is the only place I could imagine where they should have been able to help her better, or at least make her feel safe and nurtured despite her powers being locked down. So, it seems unlikely...

"Yes." That one word feels like a sucker punch to all that I know about covens. My family would never have been so cruel to someone who clearly had power but couldn't access it. I'm sure of it. "They taught me how to make potions, hoping that my powers would eventually come in, thinking that might help unlock them. We tried meditation, gardening, communing with the spirits, communing with the elements, forcing battle magic at me, forced telepathy, and even dream walking. Nothing awoke, although I could always feel my magic simmering behind some locked door deep within me. At some point, the exercises became less and less." I watch as she clasps her hands tightly in her lap, clearly holding more back. My own teeth are grinding so hard, I'm afraid I may turn them to bone dust.

"They forced battle magic at you?" I grit my teeth as I force the question out. "And what do you mean 'forced telepathy' and dream walking? If you don't have magical gifts, you shouldn't be able to dream walk?" I can feel the anger surging inside me, my blood boiling at whatever sham of a coven this was.

"Well, they thought if I was in danger, my fight or flight instincts might eventually open my body up to the magic inside me. Then I could fight or flee with whatever my gifts." Cass keeps her eyes cast away from me, staring off across the room, although I don't think she's really seeing anything but her past.

I grip my knees to keep myself quiet and still, wanting to hear the rest of what this coven did. I also never want to hear any of it. I just want to hold my Beloved, whisper that she'll never have to go through such torture again. I need to understand though. If I am to help her unlock her magic, I need to know what's already been tested. No matter how inhumane.

She takes a deep, shuddering breath before continuing, "The forced telepathy was meant to act similarly to the battle magic. I had to sit locked to a chair during the first year of sessions while the few telepaths in the coven spoke harshly into my mind. Screaming, cursing, laughing, all while the room around me was silent. Well, except for my pleas for them to stop. I hated those sessions more than the battle magic." I notice Cass trembling, and I reach out for her clasped hands. Her gaze sweeps to my hand on hers, then looks up at me. Her eyes are filled with unshed tears, and I can feel my soul crack with the pain she must have been silently carrying for years. "The dream walking was the worst though," she whispers in a hoarse voice. I can tell she is trying desperately to keep her tears at bay. I'm enraged, not wanting to hear more of the torture she's suffered, but needing to all the same. The way she is telling me everything so hesitantly, makes me wonder if she's ever told anyone. If she's ever had anyone to tell. "There were four with the gift to dream walk in my coven. When they were given the okay to begin testing me that way, they almost never stopped." A single tear slips down her cheek, and I hold back from brushing it away. I'm scared to do anything that will stop her from telling me everything. "I never knew which nights one of them would come. It was more nights than not. And they took whatever peaceful slumber I had fallen into and warped it into nightmares that I couldn't wake up from. They held me captive in my own mind. I never felt rested when I woke up. I never felt safe when I would go to sleep."

Fury burns in the deepest parts of me. The only thing stronger is the need to make sure Cass never feels such fear ever again. I finally allow myself to brush her tears away with my thumbs, holding her angelic face in my hands. I vow for her, in my heart, I will destroy that coven. I will research every supernatural law book, find out every crime they've committed against my Cassandra and whatever other poor souls, and I will make sure those who are responsible for the coven and all her pain are sent to the deepest pits of hell.

In the meantime, I will take this girl, who has been shamed and abused, and provide her with patience, understanding, and a home. I won't tell her of our bond yet. I want her to know trust and unwavering loyalty. I want to give her everything she's been denied, and everything she didn't know she could desire. I have found my Beloved, and I vow to make sure she knows every sense of the word from now until the ends of time.