DARKEST ( Supernatural Beginnings Series) Book Three

Wolf Council Part Six

“Why would the Academy send her to a place like that? She is just a child. Trish and Max were right in warning us about this. If those people come to our world, there is no telling what disaster it will bring to the kingdom.”

“Indeed, it's time to let Wolfram in on what we’ve discovered. Little Vernie’s allergic reaction to whatever they feed her undoubtedly saved her life just now. We should let her rest and then head back soon. This will put a stop to our agent duties for the time being as we will need to take precautions here just as the Fiery’s suggested.”

“Yes, my queen, you should rest awhile. I will keep a look out here until Vernie is well enough for us to leave.”

“Good, I’ll just stay with….”

A mysterious cloaked figure suddenly appeared before them. A fierce and chaotic battle soon rages between the three figures. The cloaked figure was deeply hidden beneath a dark black cloak that seemed to shimmer with enchanting magic. Her identity is completely concealed from our sight.

“Damn, they are covered too well,” Tamzin said as we continued watching the battle glued to the scene happening through the window.

Their tall frame and an eerie sense of power to be discerned. They moved with a sinister agility, their every movement calculated and precise. My father moved by instinct. It was his duty to protect the Queen. He moves with otherworldly grace, his muscles rippling beneath his taut skin as he clashes with the unknown cloaked party.

Queen Calista did not stand idly by, complementing my Dad’s ferocity with an ethereal grace. Her almond-shaped eyes, the color of a moonlit forest, are filled with determination as she joins the fight, her auburn hair trailing like flames behind her. She wields magic as effortlessly as her blade, her movements fluid and mesmerizing.

The battle unfolds with a dance of spells and steel. Beta Mason lunges forward, his claws extended like deadly talons, clashing with the cloaked figure's dark magic. Calista weaves through the melee, her wings of iridescent gossamer momentarily unfurled, deflecting blasts of energy.

“Oh wow Grandpa is half fairy blood, you totally held out to me Grandpa,” Mariana whispered as she feigned disdain in her eyes at Wolfram but then returned her gaze, back to the window. Everyone finally witnessed what happened the night of their deaths.

“Yes, your grandmother was the best Queen I know, she wasn’t just for show honey, she, in fact, was badass,” Tamzin responded instead of Wolfram. Calista and my mom bonded like sisters. I knew this scene pained her because we all knew the ending result. Yet they had yet to see the cause of it.

“Calista, take Vernie and run! I can handle this guy!”

“No way Mason! He’s wearing a witch’s cloak. You need me here, let’s defeat him together!” Calista yelled.

As the fight rages on, the cabin's interior transforms into a battleground of swirling elemental forces. Furniture splinters and windows shatter as the combatants struggle for supremacy. It's a brutal and mesmerizing spectacle, each movement a testament to their supernatural prowess.

Just as it seems, Mason and Calista are about to win against the cloaked figure, the younger me appears. Tears that I had been holding back for some time now began to flow down my cheeks as I watched on.

“Oh, Vernie!” Connie exclaims in sadness as they watch my nightmare play on. In the midst of the chaos, my innocent cries pierce the air, momentarily distracting Calista and my dad.

“Vernie!” they both yelled. Calista moved quickly to cover me. While Dad moves to shield us both. It is a fatal distraction. In that fleeting moment, the cloaked figure seizes the opportunity and delivers a deadly blow, ending both Calista and Mason’s resistance.

“No! Daddy! Aunt Cali!” my childlike screams rang out through the forest. As if I was reliving it myself, I stood there watching in a trance. The cloaked figure quickly disappeared, leaving the younger me alive and intact, but I was far from sane as I watched my dad and my aunt die before my eyes. Calista had held me in her arms to protect me and now she lay, she lay in my arms with her last whips of breath. Then something that I hadn’t noticed before happened before our eyes. With her last ounce of strength, Calista managed to slip something into a coffee mug that had fallen to the floor beside her. I was unable to see this as I was too focused on her dying.

The mug bears a cafe logo, a mundane detail in this mystical setting. She muttered an incantation, the words inaudible to my child-like ears, but as I noticed, Connie and Alexis both responded to it, recognizing what she had done, but I had yet to figure it out. I continued to cry because they had sacrificed their lives for me.

“Don’t…cry… Vernie. This isn’t your fault, never…blame yourself. It is my duty as Queen……to protect you. You and Harry are our future….always remember that.” her final words to me were filled with sorrow and reassurance, promising understanding in the future.

As her words hang in the air, a billowing smoke envelops the cabin. The truth behind the fire was bright and clear, obscuring the scene from view. The image disappears, leaving behind a haunting sense of tragedy and mystery, with the forest outside the window bearing witness to the ethereal battle and its heartbreaking conclusion. We all stood there in silence, our thoughts filled with what we witnessed.

“I think we should head back now.” my mother said right before she hugged me, with tears in her eyes.

“Mom?” I asked in question.

“This was the source of your nightmares this whole time if you had told me sooner……to know you bore this all alone for so long. I feel like I failed you as your mother.”

“No. you didn’t. It was me that chose to keep things from you until now. Alexis was right, I should have faced this long ago., but we still didn’t get a clue, though I feel less burdened now.”

“Who says we didn’t get a clue?” Harold said in question.

“It’s the coffee mug, Auntie,” Mariana said.

“Calista definitely slipped something into it, the only problem is finding out where she sent it,” said Wolfram as we ordered our steps to head back up to the vacation memory house.

“Oh, that's easy, old man. The location she sent it was here now in the Shalay Cafe,” said Alexis, who headed back to the living room once we cleared the basement.

“I never heard of that cafe here, are you sure?” I asked, looking at Alexis as she looked pretty confident in her answer.

“Did anyone notice the logo on the coffee mug? That mug wasn’t meant to be there at that time, which means….”

“Grandma knew she would die that day,” Mariana said in shock.

“So, she sent the mug to the place the enemy wouldn’t think to look for it in,” Wolfram said, smiling,

“And that was the future, as she told me, it is right now,” I said, finally understanding something.

“But where is the cafe?’ Tamzin asked.

“Leave that part to me guys. On the other hand, now that we know where we’re headed, let’s push for the council to make a decision soon,” said Alexis.

“Now, that I can help with,” I said. Soon we put our heads together, making a plan. The Fangs wouldn’t be too happy, but who cares? It was their own decisions that led them to this outcome. Still, we would have to prepare for the fallout, knowing the head judge of the Silver Fangs would have to choose between losing resources or their kingdom. The Wolf laws were created for a reason and no one, not even royalty, was exempt from them.

When I stopped to think of things after we all agreed on the plan, my thoughts kept running back to the cloaked figure that my dad and Calista had fought with. Calista had said it was a witch’s cloak that the figure was wearing. Wearing will gain a certain strength and power from the fabric. Somehow, Calista was able to fend off this opponent. But she still passed away in the end. Did she know the witch behind the cloaks?

I had a feeling it was related to the mythical Red Claw family curse that had been floating around for years, but no matter what, my instincts screamed that the curse wasn’t real and someone was fueling the fire for their own benefit. Ingrim would be the first person I suspected and right behind him would be Roman Fang. If the curse wasn’t real, then what had Wolfram's father experienced back then? Was that the reason they chose him to be king instead of Ingrim?

The reality of my thoughts being true exploded in a cloud of conspiracy. If Ingrim had been involved, Enid wouldn’t have been too far behind. She had eyes on Wolfram for years regardless of being married to his brother. Her scent always made me feel uncomfortable to be around her. Something was off but I never looked deeper to find out what. Tomorrow I will be headed to the council to help speed up the investigation. We chose to exclude the clue we had found for now.

All eyes would be on us after this, so we had to be stealthy in our movements heading inside Crescent City if things went well in our favor. Everyone else went about to tuck in for the night, but I liked to watch the moon at night because it comforted me and my wolf. Was this the destiny Calista meant with her last words to me? Would Harry and I really bring forth the future? Had she envisioned it? What had she seen in her last moments of death?