Chapter 28

Sidheart.




I panicked, trying to scream, but no sound came out of my mouth. It was like he muted me, made me immobile, not receptive to any energy that flew around me. Jasper must have used a spell to disable me and the power that I had. He gave me a huge smile, lifted me up and threw me over his shoulder. He glanced around to make sure no one was watching us and continued carrying me over to the other side of the road.
This was so obvious, and I couldn't understand how I didn't see the trap. Jasper must have known about Nathaniel, about my arrest. I wished I’d killed him back in North Wales. I fought with the spell, trying to bring up my magic, like in the boardroom, but nothing happened. My body was numb, and he was humming under his breath, like this was the best day of his life.
My heart pounded loudly in my chest when he reached a black Mercedes and shoved me in the back seat. I couldn't read anything from his expression. As always Jasper was focused on the task at hand. The car reeked of dark magic, energy that spread dread and fear. I hoped that Dad could feel my distress. Maybe he knew what was going on. I had no idea what Jasper was planning. He was kidnapping me, but for what? I couldn't give him love, now that I was so broken. I wouldn’t even if I wasn’t.
"I had high hopes for us, Julia. I thought we would finally be happy together," he said, shaking his head. "Seven years is a long time. I really did love you back then, but now I have to go against everything I always believed in."
Jasper had lost the plot; dark magic had clouded his mind. He was going to drag me down below, when I was so close to finding my grandmother’s murderer. I tried to move, to scream, do anything, but Jasper was controlling me, deep inside my mind.
I couldn't respond to him, and after he got everything off his chest, he went quiet. The drive was long, and I was lying down, so I couldn't see where he was taking me. Two hours in, my head started hurting. As the minutes passed by, the pain was getting worse, and soon my skull felt like someone was cracking it from the inside out. I moaned, but I was still muted, trying to figure out what was going on. When the car finally stopped, the pain eased off.
He opened the door and pulled me out. I didn't recognise the space around me. All I could see was pitch-black darkness and the shadowy rustle of trees. I figured out that we were in the forest, because all I could hear were birds and the leaves from the wind. The air was fresher and earthy. My head exploded in overpowering pain when he finally put me down. Part of me registered him moving around me, the other was trying to deal with the unbearable pain in my head.
I didn't know how much time had passed, but it felt like hours. I breathed in, lying on the ground. I felt and smelled grass, trying to move my limbs. Jasper must have eased off the magic. He stood a few meters away from me, holding something in his hand. I noticed a circle around me. It was made of salt or some kind of white powder. When my head didn't feel like it was just about to split in two, I looked around, trying to see where I was. My eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I noticed water a few meters away, a body of water. Fear crept down to my toes. I couldn't use my magic at all. My energy seemed empty, ceased, like someone had drained me of it.
"Stay where you are. If you try to get out of the circle, you will get a very uncomfortable headache," Jasper said, He waved his magic wand and the circle lit up with flames. I wasn't obedient and maybe I liked torturing myself, so I took a step forward to test him. The unbearable pain shut down my mind, like an arrow piercing me.
"Told ya." Jasper smirked.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked, surprised that my voice was back. "You can't force me to be with you. No one can."
Jasper laughed loudly, marched to the car and opened the boot. I could see him, because his wand was burning with bright yellow light.
"Silly Julia, this isn't about you and me anymore. I thought that we could have straightened things out, but I’ve moved on, darling," he said and then dragged something or someone out of the car. I heard moans, like someone was trying to scream, but couldn't.
"It's a surprise," he said and then pulled the cover off the person’s head and pointed the light at her. For a split second I thought I was hallucinating. My best friend, Ella. He had her in there all this time, possibly for hours while we were driving.
"Ella!" I shouted. Luckily, she was alive, disoriented and most likely charmed, but alive. She must have noticed me in the circle.
"Julia? Oh, my God…what’s going on? Why are we here?" she asked, panic in her voice. Jasper must have hit her or used a spell, because she suddenly dropped to the ground.
"She was supposed to be quiet. You told me that you took care of everything," a voice said from behind me. I turned abruptly, seeing Tron walking towards me from the other side of the field. He looked different. His hair was white, and his powers felt much more defined, overpowered with darkness.
"Tron, I'm so glad you’re here," I said. He must have followed Jasper from the station.
He didn't even look at me but walked right past. The circle was lighting the space. I stood there wondering what was going on. He approached Ella, grabbed her elbow and spun her around. Taking something out of his pocket, he brought Ella closer to him and then slashed her throat with a small shiny knife.
I was lost in my own terrifying scream, when I realised what he had done. I ran towards him, grief searing through me. I didn't get anywhere, as the pain blinded me for a good few seconds. I must have fallen on the grass, screaming and holding my head. I wanted it to stop. I couldn't breathe. It felt like someone had opened my head and was pouring red-hot lava inside. This lasted no more than a few seconds. When it finally stopped I was crawling on the grass, repeating to myself that Ella was still alive, that she wasn't dead.
"She isn't needed anymore. Now let's begin."
Cold sweat dripped down my back as I tried to gather my bearings. Tron didn't just murder my best friend. He was always on my side. He was my mentor, the elf who I looked up to.
The pain was gone as fast as it appeared. I lifted myself off the ground, hissing for breath.
"Why…why did you kill her? She was no one, just a human girl."
Tron looked at me then, brushing the excess blood from the knife over his coat. His eyes shined in the flames, and they weren’t blue anymore, but dark brown.
"I had so much respect for your grandmother. She tried so hard to keep me away from you, hid the truth from me for years. Tonight, this whole thing will finally end."
I didn't understand what he was saying. Ella was just lying there, gasping for breath as the blood was pouring away. Within minutes she stopped moving. Her eyes were open. They’d let her bleed to death. I couldn't take this, couldn't understand why he needed to do something so terrible.
"We need to begin. There isn't much time," Jasper reminded him.
"Are you capable of putting your emotions aside and performing the ceremony?" Tron asked him.
My ex smiled and winked at me. "Of course, I don't know, but there was something about her, and for some reason I wanted her to love me. I get it now—the power—that’s what it was."
"Ready for what? Tron what’s he talking about?" I asked in desperation, wondering what sick thing they were planning. "Why am I here?"
"Your great-great-grandmother signed a contract with my great-great-uncle. Your family didn't honour it. I’ve waited long enough to be recognised as the true patriarch. Today you’re going to marry me, so what’s yours will be mine, and what’s mine will be yours."
"Tron, this doesn’t make any sense. The contract is about blood. Why would you even care about it?" I asked, calling for my magic that was still deep inside me. I had enough strength to fight with their power.
"Because I have been searching for ways to stay in this world forever, my dear Julia. In your family there had never been any boys, your father being the exception, and when you were born, no one paid attention to a half-breed like you. No one cared that you were marked at birth. Your grandmother’s efforts were very impressive. In the end she failed, and she had to die. And I had to kill Alex. He showed up begging me to help him to find his daughter. He blinded me for a moment, but everything is going to be fine now.”
I couldn't move, my heart jackhammered in my chest.
None of this made sense. Sid had sent her the warning; he was the one who murdered her in cold blood.
"No, the royal fairy—he killed her. I have a proof."
"I'm sorry, Julia, this probably hasn't been easy. She was a remarkable woman."
"But why? Why did you show up two years ago claiming that you wanted to help me?"
"She was protecting you. She wanted to take her secret to the grave. Besides, you weren’t very careful. People started talking about you, about your disruptive power. When I found out you were Barbra’s granddaughter, I knew that I needed to get closer. The silly lessons were just excuses to find out more…”
Tron started telling me that I was supposed to be the child from the prophecy, but rather than a boy they got me and that my grandmother had known about this since my birth. I didn't want to listen. He was crazy. My abilities were disruptive and useless. He believed Nathaniel was interfering with my power, that he limited me in some way. He mentioned Craig, Kelsie’s ex, who’d attacked me in my parents’ home.
"He overheard me talking about you during one rainy evening. When he vanished I didn't care, until years later, when he nearly killed you in the fire. He obeyed me and didn't tell Barbra about our special meetings, and I was pleased by that. You see, Julia, I told her to stop lying, to let the family know who you really were. Instead she defied me, tried to stop me. She went to the king, and then things got complicated. I needed to disappear, wait for another moment."
My jaw was hanging open. I didn't want to believe in all this. Tron wasn't the person who I’d been looking for all this time. How could I have been so stupid to believe him, to let him into my life?
"The king… but I don't understand. Sid, the royal fairy, sent the letter to Grandma. The king’s nephew. You’re lying," I shouted. Jasper smirked and shook his head. I didn't understand why he was here. This had nothing to do with him.
"I never liked that name Sidheart. It was a shame the king didn't see my potential and didn't care for my ideas. I was bored standing on the side, being just "royal." When I rebelled against the rules that were set, our king didn't like it. Fairies were talking, but no one had the guts to do what I did."
"What? You’re Sid… the fairy from the letter?"
He bowed to me then and smiled.
“That's me.”
"But you’re Ella’s father. You just killed your own daughter!" I shouted, shaking my head. He was tricking me, trying to hide the real truth. He must have found out about Karina.
Tron laughed and stepped over the circle. I had to stay where I was; otherwise the pain would come back. The energy around it was charmed with lethal magic.
"Ella?" Tron asked and then looked over to the side where my best friend was lying dead. "I'm not her father. Alex snuck into your world after me and seduced her mother. He then came to me, asking for help, thinking I had no idea. He wanted it all to go away, to cover it up. It's was such a shame that I had to kill her, the same way I killed her useless father a few months ago."
"Why? What did she ever do to you?"
"She knew more than she was supposed to. I couldn't let her family find her and reconnect. This wasn't part of the plan."
The man in standing before me was delusional. Ella was innocent ; she didn't need to die.
"I don't have any special powers, Tron or Sid… whatever your name is, you’re wrong about me."
I wished that I had all these powers he was talking about, because then I could have killed him, torn him apart for everything he had done to me and the people who I cared about.
“Barbra's spells started getting weaker two years ago, when your abilities were evolving, and you started blacking out. I knew that I had to find the right moment to step in. And you were so willing, so desperate to stop hurting others. I watched you for months, watched how that vampire blocked your real potential. You see, when you mix lust with magic, your mind becomes unfocused and you stop developing as a paranormal. I told you to stay away from him, but you didn't listen. He limited you and your magic. Your grandmother knew you were the child from the prophecy. She used her talent to cover your abilities, to mask it with clumsiness and the inability to perform basic spells. Why? Because no one would pay attention to someone like you, the half-breed who couldn't perform basics spells," he said, sounding so happy and excited. "Today we will become husband and wife. I will get what belongs to me and then I'll claim the crown."
"Don't forget about me, old man. None of this would work if it weren’t for me," Jasper said, winking at me.
"Oh yes, I recruited your past lover because of his knowledge of dark magic. He was supposed to bring you to me a couple of weeks ago, when you went up north, but he failed miserably. That was straight after you found poor Dolores. I wished she didn't have to die. I was convinced that she had some sort of influence over you because of Barbra. Shame, a real shame," Tron muttered, sounding unhappy. Of course, now everything was clear. Tron had murdered her, too, because she failed to help him.
"Seven years, Jasper. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?" I asked my ex, in an attempt to stall him, playing on his feelings for me.
"Of course, darling. In the beginning I loved you, truly, but I never knew you were so valuable. A couple of months ago, Sid gave me a new opportunity. I was down, and you failed to deliver on your promise. For some reason I still believed you would come around."
"Your grandmother wanted to kill me," Tron said. "She thought the king would protect her, and when he didn't she went to that potion maker, the wizard. She was complicating everything and had to die. She must have seen it coming." Tron proudly looked back at me. "Don't be sad, Julia. You’ll be a queen soon, filled with power and luxury. Your life will change dramatically."
I threw up my hands, concentrating on my power. It was inside me; I knew I could defend myself. I just had to bring it back. I gritted my teeth, sweating, as I began to unravel the power that shaped the ground. There was a way for me to connect with nature; I had read about this kind of magic before.
"Don't make this difficult for yourself, Julia. We got rid of the vampire, so we could control you better."
My thoughts rushed to Nathaniel. The change, the sudden hatred, all that he’d done to me in the past few days.
"What do you mean, you got rid of him?"
"He was a problem, so I dealt with him, injected him with a potion of possessiveness, jealousy and vengeance. Without him, your power is clean, and I can finally get what I have been waiting for—for over thirty years."