THE UNFATED

CHAPTER 15:ANCIENT ROOTS

Mira took her time before starting her tale. She waited patiently until they all came close, even Casten managed to pry himself away from a still unconscious Raphael and scooched closer to Thalia.

"I was one of the few witches with the gift to wield ancient magic without being controlled by the mother," she started. Her voice was hollow and distant as if telling events from another life where she still mattered.

"That is a curse," Cassandra interrupted her in a trembling voice but she paid her no heed.The accusation was as old as time.

"I kept it hidden for a very long time until one day my need for nothing daughter poisoned herself with nightshade," she continued with dead eyes and everyone's gaze unconsciously shifted to Cassandra who was nervously fidgeting with her fingers and avoiding to meet their gaze.

"So I used ancient magic to save her and the moment her flimsy legs gained strength, she ran straight to the superior witch, "Mira almost spat the words in Cassandra's face.

Everyone stared at Cassandra accusingly, but she held her ground. Staring defiantly at Mira, she shouted angrily.

"Ancient magic is a curse and I did not want you to stain me too with it."

"But she is your mother and she saved your life," Bianca who had been listening quietly intervened.

"She is not my mother, she stained me with the mark of ancient magic and now it is on Raphael too," Cassandra shrieked. She pulled the sleeve of her dress to reveal black patches scattered across her collar bone.

Cornelius stared at Cassandra's collar bones and wondered why he had never noticed the black patches. They were of different sizes, some pea sized while others were almost the size of grapes.

He inwardly smiled, coming to Mira was proving more useful than he had expected and he was getting closer to confirming his guess.

"And what exactly does the mark do," he asked casually, hiding the excitement and anticipation he felt at the thoughts in his mind.

Hearing his question, Mira turned her dead gaze to him sharply and replied in a warning tone.

"Wielding ancient magic is dangerous, especially to the wielder."

She continued staring at Cornelius and they both stubbornly maintained eye contact until an uncertain Casten diffused the tension.

"This mark, will it harm Raphael."

"For everyone, it works differently but he will live," Mira stated calmly and added without taking her eyes off Cornelius.

"None of you is here because of luck, the path was already laid out before you," "You just have to follow it."

Thalia stared at Mira, confusion written all over her face. The witch had promised answers but she was just making them have more questions.

"You mean we have no choice," she asked skeptically.

"You have a choice and that is the problem, wrong choices will be made," Mira replied. Her voice seemed to be warning all of them.

"Stop playing around with your words, just tell us what you saw," Cassandra shouted. She seemed to be on edge and was not willing to give Mira the satisfaction of her attention as the rest were doing.

"You will reach the Barrens but beyond that I see nothing," she confessed and fixed her gaze on Kyle.

"First blood, what did you see," she asked him again as her bony hands finally started fiddling with the dusty book cover.

Thalia unconsciously turned to Kyle. She was very curious about him too but reminded herself to be careful, the curiosity was starting to combine with something she could not quite explain. She had shocked herself too at how she easily fell apart in his arms but had blamed it on all the days of chaos and exhaustion. She also wondered what was happening to her, without even realising it, she found herself thinking about Kyle more often than she would like.

Like currently, she found herself unconsciously glancing at him instead of solely focusing on Mira and when Cassandra accused him, she barely stopped herself from jumping to his defense.

"He is also part of the ancient magic," Casandra insisted. "I can tell, my mark reacts to him."

"Yes, he is part of the ancient magic," Mira stated calmly and Thalia almost stopped breathing.

"That's not possible," Kyle stated for the first time, his voice was not flat; He sounded skeptic and his fingers were twitching too. He unconsciously glanced at Thalia and felt his heartache.

How could he be part of something that had robbed her of everything that she cared about, that she had cried in his arms yet he was responsible for her pain.

"Witch, you better stop playing around," Thalia said angrily, her voice trembled and she held onto Casten for support. She hoped Mira had an explanation for them because she did not want to think of Kyle as the person who had stolen her happiness from her. It hurt more than she had expected.

"Do not defend him, I should have killed him a long time back," Cornelius shouted at Thalia. He walked towards her and pulled her away from Casten.

"Why are you crying for that freak," he asked through heavy breaths, still holding Thalia tightly by the shoulder.

Something he could not dare admit even to himself bothered him about this whole situation. Thalia always acted stubborn and snarky around him, even at their mating ceremony she had not cried and now she was crying because Kyle was part of ancient magic. He was totally willing to kill Kyle on the spot. He would love to see the look on Thalia's face when he destroys her small hopes, if she wanted to belong to anyone, it was supposed to be him.

"You are hurting her," Kyle stated calmly. His whole body was tense and his gaze was steadily trained on a fuming Cornelius.

"Am hurting her, huh?" Cornelius said angrily. Holding Thalia even tighter, he said to Kyle. "This is my mate and I am free to do with her whatever I want."

Hearing this, Thalia turned her tear stained face to Cornelius and said in a trembling voice,

"I have no mate."

Tears continued flowing from her eyes and she weakly slid onto the floor. She really hated the mate bond, the more they stayed close, the more the she felt herself being drawn to him. Only strong will and the constant reminders of his cruelty prevented her from giving in.

Cornelius froze, stunned by the rejection more than he could let on. Kyle flinched but didn’t dare step forward, he didn’t trust himself not to touch her and he was not sure she wanted that at the moment.

"This is not the time to fight among yourselves," Mira said in an ominous voice. She turned over the book and made it face them.

"Can you read this?" she asked no one in particular. Finally getting everyone's attention, they all gathered around the book.

"These are not words," Casten stated with a frown. To him, the book combined a series of gibberish lines and dots drawn by a child. Some lines were half drawn, others broken and each line was surrounded by dots of different shade and size.

"Solem ey Valerius visited Klaus Umbra to discuss the ban on ancient magic," Kyle said softly with his hand carefully feeling the texture of the book.

Everyone stared at him surprised but their surprise was mirrored back in his eyes. All the symbols kept on rearranging themselves in his mind, every symbol he touched shine brightly in his mind and formed a word, along with them came faces, blurry flashes of golden hair and dimly lit rooms, two men holding hands but one of them materialises a dagger in the other hand and fatally stabs the other in the heart.

"How are you doing that," Thalia asked unsurely. Her voice was still trembling but she tried to hide it. She had already shown too much weakness for a single day.

"I do not know, I really don't," he said desperately and passed his hand through his hair frustratedly.

"Your kind is believed to be long dead," Mira said softly and suppressed a wrecking cough.

"This language is only known to the first and second generation wolves and cannot be taught," she explained and stretched a hand to Kyle's golden locks.

"You are the only one who can stop the faceless mother,"

"The faceless mother?" Briana blurted out the words in askance.

"She is the source of ancient magic and controls whoever wields it, you should not let anything fool you into thinking you can tame her," she cautioned them and then added.

"The secret to stopping her is hidden in the Barrens," she said and closed the book.

"What should we look for in the Barrens," Thalia asked as Mira struggled to put the book back in its long lived home.

"I do not know anything else, child."

"When the faceless appears on all fours, the moon will bleed and only the unfated shall remain to reclaim the wild." "When first blood walks the ancient land, the unfated will light the flame and the nameless will arise."

Kyle recited Cassandra's prophecy and Mira turned to him sharply.

"Where did you hear that?"

"Cassandra," he replied easily.

"You are connected to ancient magic because you are from first blood and the mother knows you can stop her," Mira explained and abruptly closed her eyes. When she opened them, she added more roughly.

"The mother is not yet awake but the ancient magic is soaking the lands again and that is why she was able to manipulate your whole pack and the rouges."

"So she killed them all because she wanted to kill Kyle," Thalia asked and flinched when it came out sharper than intended.

Everyone stared at Kyle accusingly but Mira clarified.

"Yes, but Kyle is your only chance of stopping her before she eradicates all werewolves like how she did all those years back before being put to sleep."

"But how am I supposed to do it?" Kyle asked in a confused tone.

"You will not do it alone, they will all play their roles," "Some good and others bad," she added gravely.

"What do you mean--" Cassandra started but Mira interrupted her abruptly.

"Leave now, healing Raphael used up a lot of my power and as long as I'm in this form, she can use me too."

No one moved, they were all too confused and had very many questions to just leave but Mira was not planning to ask them nicely. With just one flick of her fingers, Thalia felt a strong hand grabbing her from behind. On opening her eyes again, they were standing in the woods again with Raphael lying on the ground.

"Child, I know you can guide and protect them," a soft voice whispered and that was the last they heard of Mira.