Chapter 101:

Pythia POV:

As everyone arrived I quickly hid away all the stuff that everyone had gathered for Angie and Brent, "We will set the table up, why don't you go and get them?" Beth asked. "Tye, come with me please." I said extending my hand out for him to take, he looked at me a little confused and I just shook my head and pulled him behind me. I walked into our room and went straight to the closet pulling out a comfortable dress I used to wear when I was pregnant with Apollo. I then went to Tyes side and grabbed some pants and a basic shirt before I came back out of the closet. When he saw what I was holding in my head he smiled softly. "You are always thinking of others." Tye said, kissing my forehead. "And to think I would have never really thought to do stuff like this before." I replied with a smile. We walked out of the door and down to the room where our new guests were staying, I knocked on the door and opened it slightly to see Angie and Brent getting ready. "Dinner is ready, but I brought these for you guys." I said walking forward handing Brent the outfit I had grabbed for him, I turned and looked at Angie with a smile. 

I could tell she was fighting the urge to look down, "I wore this dress often when I was pregnant with Apollo, the fabric was so comfortable and it was much better than wearing actual pants. I figured you would like to wear it so that you could be comfortable." I said holding out the blue and green dress that I was once so fond of. "I- Um. Thank you so much" Angie said with tears in her eyes. "I'll go through my stuff and find the other dresses, you can have them I don't mind." I replied by handing the dress to her. "Get changed and meet us downstairs please." I added as I turned around, grabbed Tye by the hand and walked back out of the door. "That is really nice of you to do. We could always take them shopping." Tye said. "I plan on letting them go shopping, we will have a house set up fully furnished of course. When Julie clears them we can find work for them. Angie not until after birth though." I replied. "I can find Brent something to do but we need to heal them before anything." Tye said. "We are still working on that. The sooner the better." I replied.

When we got downstairs everyone was standing around the kitchen and it did my heart good to see everyone here with us so we could have our last dinner before the craziest week started. "Where are the others?" Ambrosia asked. "They are getting changed, they should be down soon. What else needs to be done?" I asked. "Nothing, let's all sit down and wait for the other two." Jasper replied. We all started to move when I heard footsteps on the stairs and we all stopped and looked, Angie and Brent stopped at the bottom and looked around. "Hey guys! Come sit, I'm sure you two are hungry." Alley said warmly. They offered small smiles and walked with us all to the table where we all took our seats. Angie and Brent sat between Alley and I, they kept their hands in their laps and their heads were tilted down. "We don't do anything formal here, just grab what you want before the twins do. They are like bottomless pits." I laughed, making them both smile and look at the twins who were giving me mean faces. "We are growing boys." Jasper muttered. "No need to pick on us." Jenson added. 

"It's not picking on you two if it is true and let's face it, if we don't eat first we never will." Ambrosia laughed as everyone started grabbing the food that was made. We all made small talk while everyone ate and for once I was glad no one was barging in through the front door telling us that something bad was happening. "How are the two of you adjusting?" Alex asked in an attempt to get them to talk a little bit more. "You all have been so nice to us, it's a really big change but a good one." Brent replied. "Have you been doing what Lillith said to do?" I asked. "Yes, we fell asleep earlier not long after we used some, I felt more energized when I woke up though so I cleaned a little." Angie replied. I nodded my head, "Have you two thought about what you guys wanted to do? Like work or maybe college?" Ambrosia asked. "Well truthfully we don't have much of an education at all. We weren't allowed to do that back home but we use to sneak some books and taught each other how to read and write and the basics of things." Brent replied. 

I couldn't imagine a world like that, to be refused education simply because they are considered lower than the others. "We can get you both tutors if you'd like. You both will be resting for a while so if that is what you want we can help with that." Tye offered. I knew early on that they didn't know how to accept help or even know what to do when help was offered to them. I am hoping that one day they will be able to know the difference. "That would mean a lot to us, thank you." Angie said with a smile. "No need to thank us, it is what we do for those we care for but, the two of you will have to decide if you both want this to be your forever home or if you want to look at other packs that surround us." Tye said gently. "Or, you could both go off the grid and live freely." I added it quickly. I didn't want them to feel like they had to choose to stay in a pack if they really didn't want to. "We would like to stay here, we like it and everyone has been so nice. Once we get better we want to work and help however we can." Brent replied. A smile came across my face. They felt safe enough with us to trust that we would keep them safe here with us and I did not mind at all. 

I was starting to really like that people could depend on us,  "Then after all of this is done and we figure out a way to fix you  both, we will welcome you here traditionally." I replied. We all finished eating and I started to help the others to clean up, "Angie, Brent please go take a seat in the living room, we all need to talk to you about something." I said over my shoulder. I didn't feel any nerves or uneasy emotions coming from them which made me smile internally because they were starting to really trust us. When we were finished with the kitchen I nodded at Beth to get the cake ready to be brought out. When they were sitting on the couch we all stood in the front, "So, I told you both earlier that I knew what the two of you were having and I told you that I was going to make this a special occasion because you both deserved that. So we did something for you." I said waving my hand up to reveal all the things we had gotten for them, it took them a minute to fully realize what we had done for them and in an instant Angie burst out in tears. Brent looked up at us visibly shocked. "You- you all got this for? For us? For the baby?" Brent stuttered out. 

I smiled softly, "Yes, this is what you guys will need but that isn't all. Beth!" I called out. We all turned to see that Beth was smiling from ear to ear as she walked slowly with a two layered cake, half was pink and the other half was blue and it was beautifully decorated. She set it on the table in front of them with a cake knife and a couple small plates. "This is your gender reveal cake." Beth said happily before she stood back up and backed up to Jasper who in turn wrapped his arms around her belly. We waited patiently for Angie to calm herself enough to focus on the cake itself. I pulled my phone out and took some pictures, I knew they would want to keep these. I started a video when Brent picked up the knife. "Are you ready?" Brent asked Angie, she nodded her head and together they carefully cut in to the cake. My smile started to get wider because in seconds they would know what they were having. When they pulled the slice out it revealed a blue piece of cake and both of them snapped their heads up to me. "A boy? A boy!" Brent said excitedly, making Angie laugh. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" Brent said, running over grabbing me up in a hug. 

"You are most welcome. Now go upstairs, or better yet go for a walk. Get some fresh air and enjoy this moment." I said taking a step back. "We will take all this stuff upstairs for you." Beth said with a smile. I watched as Angie jumped off the couch and they walked out of the front door. "That was really nice of you." Ambrosia said. "I know, now I need to talk to the rest of you and this news is one you will need to sit down for." I said in a long breath. "Is everything alright?" Alley asked. "Yes, of course but while I was resting, well sleeping, Lucinda pulled me into her realm and we had a long discussion." I replied. "How is Lucinda? Last we saw she was not in good shape." Jasper said. "She is much better, but she told me of a new plan and some additional information." I replied. "Alright we are all ears, what is it?" Jenson asked. "So, Delilah and I will be separated, as in her and I will take on Bartholomew ourselves." I started out, I knew this was going to be a lot of information for them to take in at once. "So you will have to rely on the elements you can use." Alley stated.    

I nodded my head, "Yes, about that.. in the book it called me the blessed one because I could bend the elements right? Well as it turns out, none of those consequences apply to me because I have Lucindas blood in my veins. It was how I was able to manipulate the fire with that beast." I said. "Wait, so what we read in the book was a lie?" Stephen asked. "No, it wasn't a lie, for those who become mixed that are not of Lucindas bloodline." I replied. "Okay, so you are royal then yes? That's how I can make sense of this." Alley said. "Yes, that is correct. Lucinda and Athea are both royalty." I replied. "What did you mean you and Delilah will be separated?" Jasper asked. "Exactly what I said, just like Danny and Ember. Lucinda assured me it would not be painful or anything." I replied. "What about dad? If you two separate then that'll leave you more at risk." Jenson said. "Lucinda couldn't really tell me but in her own secret way she assured me that we will all be fine." I replied with a soft smile. 

Relief washed over their faces as my words sank in, "What did you mean by you can bend the elements?" Alley asked. "Well just like you can channel all the elements, so can I just differently. So say I really wanted to spread fire to that couch you all are sitting on but I didn't want the fire to touch you. I could do that. I just need to figure out how to unlock that within myself." I replied. "Just like you did when you and  Tye were fighting that beast, the fire never once touched Rex." Stephen said as everything started clicking for him. "Yes, exactly. I don't know how I channeled it though other than Delilah yelling at me in my head, but I won't have her in my head like I am used to so I have to figure out in a very short amount of time how to be able to do this." I replied. "Well, we all know that you can figure it out. We will help in anyway that we possibly can." Jasper said. "The other thing is no one outside of this house can know. I was told that I will have to hide Delilah to give Bartholomew the impression that we are still one with each other." I said. 

They all nodded their heads but I could tell that they were just as curious as I was. "So the next few days we find a secret location and we start figuring out what triggers it without Delilah having to yell at you. Maybe you have a sensitive spot or something." Jenson said. "Yeah, we can do that. Kind of like how I use the elements, I just picture something in my head and keep it there and it fuels them." Alley said, scrunching her face together. I thought about it for a brief moment, that could actually work. Now that I am thinking about it, Tye and Rex were in danger and fear shot through me along with other emotions. I felt rage more than anything but I can't rely on just that. Jenson is right, I need to find other triggers to figure it all out. "So we have so much more work to do before next week is up." Ambrosia said, clasping her hands together.

I took a deep breath, "When Bartholomew is here I don't want any of you to aid no matter how hard it is to fight. You don't understand how massive and dangerous he is. Lucinda showed me his human and wolf form and it is scary." I said looking around the room. I knew they wouldn't like hearing that but they needed to understand. "Pythia.. If you or Delilah get hurt we are going to help." Alley said. "No. We all respected your wishes to take Bosch on alone. I would like that same respect to be shown to me please. This is nothing against any of you but none of you can match him power for power." I replied gently. The last thing I wanted to do was offend someone unintentionally however, it was the truth and I would not have any of them put their life on the line like that for me. "You are right, but please know that we would step in should you call on us." Alley replied with a small smile. "I know, I am forever grateful for it. I just need you all to stick to the plan and keep everything else away when it does happen." I replied. "Well you know I will." Ambrosia said with a wink.

Everyone looked between us, "There is something more to that. What is it?" Stephen asked. "Well, we figured out that the vampires were created to be guards for the dark witches. Kind of how Jack and Sammie are for the two of you, only the strongest warrior of the vampires guarded the queen." I replied. "When the dark witches no longer needed vampires we broke off into our own." Ambrosia added. "So I am assuming  your line was the strongest?" Jasper asked. "That is and I am proud of that. It is why Pythia and I are naturally drawn to each other." Ambrosia replied. "Well, this has been a lot of information and a lot we need to think over. I think we all need to try to think of ways to help Pythia unlock this within herself so that we can help get her ready for this fight." Alley said, standing up. "Let's all get some rest and regroup tomorrow." Tye said standing at his feet. As we said our goodbyes and we got ready for bed I tried to mentally prepare myself for the next few days. I had no idea what they were going to figure up but I had every intention of exhausting every possible lead with this.