Dark Magic

Lady Asma POV

I was elated to see Jasmine saved! I sensed the powerful spells and the Shadow which my father used to bind her, but neither Ivan nor myself were strong enough to break it. We came close once, but his power was just too much. I was shocked, but not surprised Dragana managed to break his enchantment. After all, she was a Tribrid, and we always knew that she would be even more powerful than Dzana. Father knew that too. It is likely why he wanted her, because I was still trying to piece together as to what his plan was for her. Jasmine and Beta Artemis had left for Ramil Palace to train Dragana. Nobody asked if she would be back, and perhaps that was for the best now.



I did not feel it was safe here for her or any of us, quite frankly. Something was happening, the trees were speaking to me of the darkness moving across the land. I felt it in the rivers, in the soil too. I could not shake the sense and foreboding of something terrible happening, even after Jasmine woke. Initially, my senses were clouded by fear for her life. Now that she was OK, the senses were still telling me of an imminent danger. What bothered me the most was the feeling of the dark magic within the pack. Initially, both Ivan and I presumed it was tied to Jasmine’s and Beta’s injuries. However, even after the enchantments on them broke, the darkness was still there. I needed to find its source.



Sitting in the Alpha King’s office, I awaited Alice, the future Luna Queen. Things Alpha King shared with me, and his father did not sit with me well at all, and I was highly suspicious of the whole situation. I also needed to understand why Dzana spellbound Roman, and furthermore, try to understand how the prophecy could be wrong? Spieta's line was to be bound to our blood through Dragana, or so we thought. The Elf Oracle spoke of this hundreds of years ago, in fact. She was sleeping in the mountains and only woke every 100 years. Her time to wake was not now, so we could not ask her. Could she have been wrong??? For a strange reason, I was anxious about the future Luna Queen. I had no reason to doubt Alice. She acted as a future mother of this pack, already starting with some small duties, being friendly, demure, and working hard every day. From what I understood from Roman, she felt the bond and was ever so forgiving, loving, and happy to accept him, even the fact that he did not feel the bond. She was willing to chance everything to be with him. Perhaps her bond was real after all, perhaps she loved him???? I know I would have done anything for my mate and he for me. Who am I to judge her, I thought to myself?



Still, Harrah, my wolf, was not having any of it. “There is no incomplete mate bond!!! Either there is a bond or there is not! This is highly suspicious, Asma, I do not like this at all!!!!”“We could not feel Samuel, do you remember that?? We were in a similar situation. Of all people, we are in no position to judge anybody! Plus, I want to help Roman. He is Angela’s son after all and if there is the slightest chance that he will be happy after all this time, I owe her memory and our friendship at least that much”, I said.

“You cannot compare our situation to this. You know why Father spelled us!!!” Sadly, I only knew too well. Somehow, losing his family, his father and mother, and his siblings damaged my father irreparably. He was never the same, his thirst for power, cruelty and revenge growing leaps and bounds with every passing year, his soul darkening and breaking in the process. He was not this monster when we were born, I thought. I knew that the murder of my mother was the final straw that pushed him over the edge. He closed himself off with her corpse for 2 weeks in their bedroom. I know he tried to summon everything, even the darkest magic, to bring her back. He briefly succeeded, but whatever he brought back, was no longer my mother. It was a creature possessed, a creature so ferocious and blood thirsty, it tried to kill me and Dzana.



I remember that day as if it were yesterday. One sunny morning, Dzana and I were playing by the river. We were very young. I was 5 and Dzana was 7. We were feeding the little fish in the river, squealing excitedly every time they came up for food. Mother emerged from the bedroom after two weeks and found us that fateful morning. Engrossed in our little game, we did not notice her until it was too late. She came from behind us and pushed me into the river, holding my head under the water with tremendous force, while trying to do the same to Dzana. I was drowning, my little body about to give out.



This was the day Dzana’s magic appeared for the first time too. Trying to defend me, she unleashed her power and injured the creature that possessed my mother, but just enough for her to briefly release me, Dzana ran toward me to save me, only to be caught by Mother who started to attack her. Her blood-curling screams brought our father to the shore. In an instant, he realized what he had done. And in that second, he stabbed the creature with an Al Kadar dagger directly through the heart. We survived, but father was never the same. He spiraled into complete oblivion and darkness, more obsessed with forbidden spells. Any love that he ever had for Dzana or me, died that day on the shores of that river.



I insisted on meeting Alice under the pretense of helping with the wedding. As Roman’s mother was not alive and I was the closest family friend and elder female, she had no choice but to agree finally. Sitting there in the office, I was having some coffee, waiting for her, when the strange sensation started creeping over me, ice-cold tingles going down my spine shaking me to my core. It felt as if my father was on the other side of the door, yet I could not smell him, or sense him. When the door opened, a beautiful image of Alice, dressed in a simple, yet elegant purple dress appeared. Around her, the unmistakable aura of my father’s darkest magic was clear as day.