CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

Talia tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Yet she found it difficult to do so. She could not get over Denys. Why was he so attuned to her mind? Her heart pounded loudly as she walked up to the shifter's arena. From afar, She could hear their grunts and tension.  Eventually, she made it to the door. Her eyes darted to the center of the ring where two men brutally threw punches at one another. In that frozen second, between standoff, Solomon's eyes flicked from his opponent to Talia.

"Seems like your girlfriend is here to watch me beat you." Solomon's opponent said with an inviting smirk.

"She is not my girlfriend." Solomon sharply retorted to the boy, implying that he was still mad at her before running up to Talia.

"What do you want?" He demanded.

"Can we talk?" Talia pleaded.

"I am in the middle of training. Can we do this later?"

"Wait, "Talia's hands reached out to his. "I wanted to apologize for yesterday."

Solomon sucked in a great deal of air, reluctantly stopping. "It's fine. I understand you were having a rough night."

"No. It was not okay." Talia roared back, causing the shifters to turn in her direction but she did not stop out of embarrassment. " I was selfish. You are the best thing that happened to me on my first day at the academy. I am not even sure why I got someone like you but you did not deserve to be lashed out like that when all you did was was show concern for me and the truth is the only reason I pushed you away that night was that I was afraid. I was afraid that I was going to be another burden to someone I love and I just could not live with that." Her meltdown gathered wagging tongues but the air changed when Solomon took three steps forward and hugged Talia.

"I am also sorry. I should not have let Roman talk to you that way."

"Your wolf?" Talia muttered in a little voice. She barely knew how to respond. A shifter telling an outsider his residing beast's name was a very big deal. It meant complete trust. So she had read in the books. If Solomon was trusting her with such power, that meant they were more than friends. They were family.

"You trust me with that?"

"Of course. Now you should go back to class before anyone notices you wandering around." He said, finally breaking our embrace and returning to his spar. Her presence still greatly affected fellow pack members and Talia could already hear a hushed conversation about what Solomon had done. In the reverberating silence, Talia walked backed to the alchemist room with a brighter look. Sybil was back. She sat in her usual place and had the composure of a dove. It looked almost like nothing had been up with her a few minutes ago. Slowly, Talia hoisted herself to Sybil's table knowing full well she would regret it. When Sybil noticed Talia walking up to her, She put her speaker volumes at ear-piercing levels just to avoid another of Talia's conversation. 'Even the dead have dreams ' pumped through Talia's delicate eardrums as her body absorbed and repelled the beat. With a flick of her finger, the screeching speaker went mute.

"Sybil," Talia began, "Can we talk?"

She looked at Talia menacingly and spat back. "Just because you somehow got access to memories does not mean you know me, Do not mistake me as weak demigod!" When her threat settled, Sybil returned to mixing the concoctions in front of her.

Talia made it her life mission not to succumb to the wiles of the witch. Now that she finally knew what almighty Simon did and how bad it affected her, Talia felt she had a good chance to drop the one-sided bad blood brewing between them.

"I am not mistaking you as weak Sybil. It takes a lot to have been through what you've been through and-" The words suddenly left Talia's lip when she felt something scratch on her thigh. She glanced down and green slits smiled back at her. Its body was so dark that even if sunlight peeked in, it would still look like a black cut out. Talia could easily tell it was not a random cat that just found its way there. Especially when it attacked without provocation.

"Tell your familiar off." Talia sighed.

A smile played up at the corner of Sybil's lips. It frightened Talia a bit. That she would admit.

"I can't. Familiars only come to a witch's aid when she is in potential danger and what do you know, You happen to be around."

Again, Talia sighed, becoming exhausted from Sybil's game. However, whether the witch liked it or not, the demigod was determined to get her point driven home.

"Maybe that's because you have conditioned your mind to see me as such. Sybil, I am not a threat. Neither am I a monster. One bad experience should not make you take every half God you meet as psychopaths with murderous tendencies."

"One bad experience, I lost my brother in that 'bad experience'. If you had a heart or even just sensibility, You would know when to keep your damn mouth shut."

"Sybil, as sad as it is. Simon killed your brother accidentally. They were lovers, weren't they?"

Sybil scoffed. "You call murder an accident. Lest I remind you, Simon did not stop there. You know why because it was his nature. His father, Ares knew that. That was why he created a hidden realm for himself. A place where he knew his very existence would not threaten the lives of innocent people. Try to hide it as much as you can Talia, But even you have a nature, and don't get me started on how vile yours must be."

Talia had a sudden shift of mood. Sybil was judgemental and plain repulsive. It took every fiber of Talia to keep her Fae tongue at bay. That ratchet beauty within her had tons to clap back at the hag. But it was not a competition. Talia actually wanted to help Sybil.  While she was in her head, She had witnessed all the emotions Sybil had felt. Talia did not share a personal relationship with her brother but it was Sybil's brother. It hit differently. So she gave it her best to try.

"What must I do to prove I don't have any bad bone for anyone?" Talia finally asked. She was hot expecting a reply but Sybil, That girl would not just leave the question to go stale in the air.

"Oh, there is." Sybil retorted her familiar purring in response. Almost as it had on what it's master had in mind.  Sybil pushed a small bottle: the potion she had been working on in Talia's direction. As the bottle sailed to her, Talia wondered if she would trust Sybil enough to drink it.

"What's that?" Talia demanded, popping it open and taking a sniff. It smelt horrible. Like dog piss and dung.

"Zondeken," Sybil replied. "It taps into the subconscious and brings up its drinker's darkest desires."

"And you just had this lying around?"

"If you had been around, You would know this was what we were tasked to whip up in the first place. I just happen to need a test monkey."

Talia took one last look at the contents in the bottle. She wasn't sure she wanted to follow through with it. What if she spilled that she had it for Prince Denys. Not that it was a secret she was willing to guard with her very life.

"You are hesitant." Sybil chipped in, crossing her arms as she enjoyed Talia's crisis. "Do you have something to hide?"

Fuck it! Talia threw it all out of the window and gulped the foul liquid down. A Fae's resilience was unmatched but their pride was their greatest flaw. Talia regretted what she had done in the spur of the moment but it was too late. One thing she did notice was she did not feel any different. No weird feeling or hallucinations. She felt fine. Talia could not help but roll her eyes at Sybil's embarrassing failure. There was indeed always a first.

"I do not think it worked."

"Let's see. Shall we?"

With a thrilling observation, Sybil threw in her first question. Her only question really and it was about to change what Talia thought she knew about herself.

"Talia Trueborn, What is your deepest darkest desire?"


Talia felt in control. No strange sensation or the rushing of water flowed through her as she made an attempt to speak. Her opinion still stood. The potion was a fluke. It did not work.

"As a child, I was always curious." Talia began, pondering where her loose tongue was leading her to." Most of my playmates had this strong figure that flew them above the village, told them stories of the crazy adventures they had been through. To cut the story short, They had fathers. The older I got, the more I questioned my mother about him. She always said he was a great god who lacked the time but the pain in her eyes was always there. I knew she was lying to me. So I stopped asking. I never asked her again because I feared it would upset her more. But that did not kill the questions that burned inside me."

"What questions?" Sybil probed.

"Why had he never come? Did he regret being my father or did he just not care if I existed? I just... wanted to... know."