Chapter 26 - The price of magic.

LENA WAS WOKEN by the door being unlocked and a bright and smiling Rebecca walked in with a tray. Behind her was a girl Lena had noticed before while Lena was still Rebecca’s omega. The girl was very shy and hadn’t said a single word as she moved about the room. Lena’s room had a bathroom and she was allowed to use the toilet, and she’d only taken one bath. Her eyes kept darting to the bathroom as the young omega moved in and out of her room.

“She’s getting a bath ready for you.” Rebecca smiled and Lena frowned.

“Why? I can do it myself.” The witch world was completely different to this one! They didn’t have people getting stuff ready for them! Even the leaders of the coven did their own dirty work.

“It’s her job.” Rebecca shrugged and Lena wanted to know more, but she didn’t want to offend anyone. If they had people working for them like slaves … Lena took a deep breath and reminded herself where she was. She was also on her own. There would be nobody coming to save her. If she fought for the young girl’s rights, she would definitely lose. No, she had to be more careful this time around. She knew running wasn’t going to work, at least not right away. No, Lena had a lot of healing to do first and perhaps then she might be able to run.

“What was with your magic last night?” Rebecca frowned and Lena sighed.

“If too much magical energy builds up inside of you it finds ways to get out.” She didn’t even think about it that much while she was locked in that damn cage. “Imagine you are filling a bottle with water, but you keep it tightly sealed. At some point it’s going to overflow and pop out somewhere. Either the bottle will burst or it will push out the excess through the same place it’s been pouring in.” Lena frowned. She wasn’t entirely sure if she was explaining it right, but Rebecca was nodding.

“How do you release some of that tension?” It seemed as though Rebecca was asking more for herself really than wanting to know how to help Lena. Lena studied the little girl for a moment.

“Have you been having problems with your magic sweetheart?” She shouldn’t have. She wasn’t even close to being old enough to receive her powers. Lena breathed a sigh of relief when Rebecca shook her head.

“No,” Rebecca sighed. “I was just wondering if that was the reason why Alaric got so grumpy sometimes.” As soon as the little girl giggled, Lena rolled her eyes. Yes, Alaric was part witch. Lena asked Rebecca if she had ever seen her brother do anything out of the ordinary and Rebecca shook her head. “Nope, neither of us received our gifts or the blood of our family.” Rebecca shrugged and the realization hit Lena. That was why their parents were both killed, wasn’t it? Their mother’s coven couldn’t allow the magic to leave and, since she stayed with the wolf … Lena shook her head.

It was truly barbaric! Why would they deny these people their birth right?! Lena had heard of this kind of thing happening before, but only once and she remembered how incredibly angry her mother was about it. It was something her parents didn’t agree about. Her father believed that if you didn’t stay with your coven, you shouldn’t be allowed to have your magic. Her mother believed that everyone had the right to their magic, no matter where they stayed. It was the only thing Lena ever remembered them fighting about.

As a matter of fact … That was what they were fighting about a couple of weeks before the wolves came! She could still remember stuffing her pillow over her head to drown out their fighting. Her parents loved each other so much that Lena couldn’t stand it when they fought. She just wanted them all to be happy and she didn’t want her father to leave like the other males did. It made her realize that her father actually had double standards when it came to men and women, didn’t he?! Unless …

No, the thought was just too much to bear. Her father couldn’t possibly have killed that many people. He was kind. The omega appeared and told Lena that her bath was ready and Rebecca and the omega helped her to walk there, get undressed and climb in. At first, the water really burned like hell fire! When Lena asked why, the omega promptly informed her that the doctor had given them some medicine to add to her bathwater. Lena would never admit it, but she was surprised.

She never imagined that wolves would actually use that kind of thing to heal, since they mostly self -healed. While Lena soaked for a while, Rebecca sat on the toilet reading from one of the diaries when Lena frowned.

“How much do you know about my people and the war?” She wasn’t sure if Alaric would approve of this conversation, but Lena had nobody else to talk to. Rebecca shrugged and said that she knew a lot more than what Alaric realized, which made them both giggle. “Can you tell me what you know?” Lena didn’t want to pry if it was too much of a touchy subject for Rebecca, but she really had nobody else to ask.

“Well,” Rebecca sighed, clenching the diary to her chest. “I heard Alaric say that your father was an assassin for the blood witches. That he went after people who broke their promise and left the coven.” Rebecca looked ahead as if looking into the distance and remembering the conversation. “He was talking to one of the council members that day and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but everyone was talking about it. Even if Alaric locked me in my room, I would probably have heard someone mentioning something.” Lena sat in the water carefully listening as Rebecca told her about the night the council came to the pack house and decided to declare war.

Alaric thought she was asleep, but she snuck into the back of the room and hid behind a couch. They discussed what Lena’s people were doing, and lastly, Alaric was voted as the one to lead the fight because they had proof that Lena’s father killed their parents. Rebecca told Lena that the men from the coven didn’t go out to work. They left the coven because the rules for male witches were so strict. After they leave, Lena’s father would find them and kill them.

They also did spells for people from all over the world, but somehow the payment always seemed to be more than what they asked. Lena sighed. She hated that people never thought of the consequences of what they were asking.

“Magic always has a price, Rebecca.” She felt a little agitated. “And I’m not talking about the price that a witch charges for doing the magic. There is no such thing as easy magic or plain white magic where everything always works out in everyone’s favour.” This made Rebecca frown and she told Lena that, according to the council, no blood witch ever warned their victims of what would happen.

Lena couldn’t believe this. It was not what she was taught! In school it was constantly drilled into them that people should know the price of magic could be high depending on the spell. Lena remembered a woman coming to the village to ask that her husband be resurrected. She still remembered the high priestess warning the woman that a life required a life and she should think about it more, but the woman insisted. The high priestess did the resurrection spell and the woman’s husband woke up, and a day later, their son died in a horrific accident.

All magic had a price. Even the little bit of magic that Lena did while she was back home. She told Rebecca that the price for doing magic was the loss of energy and power. She explained that there always had to be a balance or the magic would make sure that things were balanced out. This made Rebecca frown.

“That was NOT what Alaric said.” She looked really agitated as the two sat in silence with their own thoughts. How many lies had been told to get the war going? How many people died at the hands of Lena’s father? The water was getting cold and the mood between them had become awfully sombre. Lena called the omega to help her out of the bath and Lena was dressed just in time before the doctor came to check on her wounds. She wouldn’t be able to do magic for a while, which had Rebecca worried.

“But what if you burst like a bottle!” Rebecca exclaimed, and Lena had to smile.

“If Alaric allows me to go outside, I can release some of the magic back onto the earth. Maybe near where your parents are buried. I would like to pay my respects, if it is okay.” There were ways to do it without using her hands, but it was going to be painful. Doing it in a special place like a graveyard would ease some of that pain, but she wasn’t entirely ready to tell that to anyone. She trusted Rebecca and the doctor, but she was not ready to share all of her secrets just yet.