62: Born out of the consequence of forbidden love

“The body you are in…” Sebastian began, “it once belonged to Athena and Denzell’s child. Their *real* child.”
My face fell immediately when he said this. “You can’t really mean that…”
“Unfortunately,” this came from Xavier, “it’s true.”
I lifted my hands and stared at them in horror. “You mean I took the life of a poor innocent child! How could you let me do such an awful, disgusting thing!”
“It’s not like that, Phoenix,” Demetri reassured gently. But I wasn’t so convinced, and so I asked, rather viciously, “Then what is it like?”
“Just listen!” Sebastian chided. “Now let’s begin from the very beginning so you understand who Athena was, and how important you became to her.”
I huffed but retreated further into my seat and stayed silent.
“She was just a little girl when her mother died. She and her brother were the only children running around in the palace and, as their mother’s advisor, I decided to take them under my wing. I taught them everything, including the truth about our history. The two became so inspired by our story that when Athena grew to become the Queen, she and her brother would discuss reuniting the two sides for hours, much against my advice. In fact, little Athena went so far as to organise secret meetings behind my back, with the werewolf leaders who she believed could help her unite the two sides. Luckily, most of them thought the whole thing was either a joke, or a trap and so no one showed, except, of course Denzell. By then Demetri had sent word of the invitations which was where I came to learn of Athena’s dangerous correspondence with Denzell. I forbade them to see each other thereafter. But of course, she continued. The both of them were wrapped up in their ideas of a world of peace, and eventually, I couldn’t find it in my heart to stop the two from seeing each other. Because deep down, they made me believe too. However, soon Sanguis began to grow suspicious of Athena. To make matters worse, Athena and Denzell began to fall in love, leading the mighty Alpha-to-be, to rejecting his mate. And that’s where everything went downhill. His mate told Sanguis about both him and Athena. By then Athena had been pregnant for months already, with everyone believing the baby had been Liam’s. But once Sanguis learned the truth about the baby, they began to take matters into their own hands…”
Suddenly, Sebastian fell silent, and I could see tears brimming his eyes. The very sight had me almost unable to breathe and so I reached out for his hand and rubbed at his knuckles reassuringly. It seemed that the sparks between our skin was enough to get him talking again.
“I should have listened to her. I should have gotten her sooner… maybe then she would not have had any choice but to run off with Denzell. But she did. She left in the dead of night, very pregnant and not in any condition to be running away from Sanguis who had already counted on her running away. They left her practically bleeding out in front of Denzell, whom they let live as their own twisted form of punishment.
Immediately he came to me for help. But by then Athena had began to enter into labour… and I knew then that only one of the two would survive. Either Athena, or her child. But Athena knew something I didn’t… she knew neither would survive. And so, she made both me and Denzell promise that should her baby perish, she wanted you to have her baby’s body. She wanted you to have a new life, a life her child would have led. And so, I agreed, believing that either one would make it through alive. But for that I needed help. I called Demetri, Xavier and Liam, knowing that soul magic was extremely dangerous and powerful. I needed them to be there, should anything happen to Demetri and I. I thought the both of us would be your anchors, and if we failed, Xavier and Liam, who had ties to your original life. With Malcom tying Xavier to you, and Lila, Liam’s werewolf love and your mother’s relative, tying him to you. When she had finally given birth, we were all mortified to find that the baby had died, and Athena’s life was slowly fading as well. With her dying breath, she made the five of us promise not to tell you anything about your past. She wanted you to live a life free of the awful things that had happened to you. And we couldn’t break our promise… we couldn’t. We began the process of entering the soul into the dead child, but it took a lot more power than we anticipated. Your soul was so strong and so ancient that you needed four anchors. And along with your anchors, special bonds began to form, with Demetri, Liam and Xavier receiving their mate marks. I already had mine, and so I didn’t need another. Your bond and mine was already eternally sealed. Now after you were reborn into Athena’s child’s body, it became clear that you would not be able to stay in the palace. And so, Denzell agreed to take you in and raise you as his own. I’d never see such kindness before… except maybe from Demetri. Although you were not Denzell and Athena’s child, he raised you as such. He even named you Phoenix, the brilliant little bird who was reborn from the ashes. And while Denzell raised you, the four of us decided to remove any trace of what we’d done from ourselves. Lucretia provided us with a way to conceal our marks at will. And so, we did. We intended to keep all of this a secret from you, as Athena had asked. But things are easier said than done, and no one was prepared for you to look…”
“…exactly the same as I did all those years ago?”
“Yes. That was why I was so cold towards you in the beginning. I thought that if I kept myself as cold as time had made me, I could keep you away from the truth. But you were so…”
“…myself?”
“Exactly. Although you were shy and quiet, as you had been taught to be, you still burned with Diana written all over you. You were still you, and I could see it shining through. We all could. And the fact that we all carried a strong bond with you certainly didn’t help at all.” Sebastian then looked down and whispered, “I’m sorry to have failed you, Athena.”
I could hear the hurt in his voice, and again, it broke my heart. And so I squeezed his hand tighter and flashed him a smile. “Hey, you kept your promise well. All of you did. I was destined to learn the truth of myself, and none of you could have prevented me from learning the truth… not even Athena. Her intentions were good and pure, but I’m afraid that I could never have even dreamed of surviving if I kept on living in ignorance. Besides, my body was so out of sync with my soul that I would have died in the Game of Successio. But now that I have my memories back, my body has become my own again. It remembers just how powerful it should be.”
“I suppose you are right, Dia- I mean, Phoenix. But we still need to keep your true identity a secret. If Meera discovers the truth… she will kill you.”
“I don’t doubt that. I can’t promise I’ll play nice though.” I said, crossing a leg over.
---
As promised, a double update! Hope you all enjoyed the updates. Everything is finally falling into place!
Stay safe! Stay healthy! Sending my love!
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