Rayan POV
Two days later,
“Shh, Shh,” I hugged Ryden close, he wouldn’t stop crying, and he was once again hungry.
“You have to be quiet,” I whisper to him, trying to muffle the noises he made by tucking him closer to my chest.
“Does that thing ever shut up,” the woman with evil eyes snaps, glaring over at us?
“Shut it up,” she says, pointing a long narrow finger at me. Josie glances at us nervously before rummaging through the bags she brought from some small convenience store. We had run out of formula already. I push my thumb in his mouth, and he makes hungry sucking noises gnawing on it with his gums.
I missed home; I have been trying to mindlink mum and dad but can’t reach them. I tried Lucy and my uncle’s but nothing. I had no idea where we were as I looked around the dark wine cellar.
“I need to go get more formula,” Josie says, and I go to get up and follow her. I liked our chances better with her than I did this crazy witch. I watched her skin some poor creature last night as she made something in her cauldron. She didn’t even kill it first; its tortured cries will forever haunt me, and I am glad Ryden is too young to remember this.
“No, you wait here,” Beryl snaps. Her wild eyes pin me where I stood, clutching Ryden in my arms; I shield him away from her glaring eyes when her nasty eyes go to him, squirming in my arms. He was heavy, and I had been holding him for two days, too scared to place him down in case that witch did something to him.
Josie looks over at me and smiles sadly, and nods for me to sit. A bit late to feel bad now; she did this. I begged her to let us go. I tried to convince her to let us leave him near the forest edge. Knowing my dad and mum would have heard his cries or sensed him, but she refused to leave him.
Josie leaves but hesitates at the stairs leading outside, looking over at the woman.
“Go, and hurry back. Alpha Jamie will be here soon; if it annoys me too much. I will get rid of it for us,” I stiffen, and Josie stops.
“He is baby; babies cry,” Josie tells her just as horrified.
“I will take him with me,”
“Fine, but the boy stays; I will need him in a minute,” Beryl snaps at her, and Josie rushes over to the makeshift bed I made out of cardboard and hessian bags.
“Let me take him,” she whispers, glancing over her shoulder at Beryl.
I hesitated, looking down at my brother, who suddenly cries out, and the woman screams in frustration before throwing a jar at us. Josie moves quickly, taking the impact, and her back arches as she snatches him from my arms. She makes a pained hiss before tucking him close to her chest inside her jacket.
“I’ll be back. Just do as she says,” Josie whispers. And I look at my baby brother.
“He’s safe,” she says, darting out of the cellar and up the stairs.
Beryl mutters under her breath about whining babies, mixing her cauldron that stunk like cat shit.
Her hair was wild and grey, her evil eyes gleaming as she stared into the cauldron contents. One eye black as coal, the other a whitish-grey, she almost looked blind in that eye because it had no color. She was skin and bone and looked like she was knocking on death’s door, her hair falling out in patches leaving bald spots.
She was everything I had ever pictured a wicked witch to be, and she was wicked and crazy.
“Oi, you boy, get here,” she says, not even glancing behind her as she calls me over.
My stomach growls hungrily. I hadn’t eaten in two days, and the motion of standing after spending so much time sitting made me dizzy. She grabs my arm with calloused fingers, her nails stabbing into my skin, leaving little half-moons imprinted in my skin.
She hauls me toward the cauldron, and I resist when she slaps me; my ears ring, my cheek burning, and I growl at her.
“Am I tempting your beast Boy, never mind, you will meet him really soon,” she snarls, her teeth black and green in places, the stench made me want to gag.
“Give me your wrist,” she says, holding out her hand.
“I won’t ask again,” she snaps, her grey white-eye shaking in her head before it settles on me. She grips my wrist and yanks me to the cauldron, my other hand gripping the side, and I hiss as it burns me. The boiling bubble inside was black line tar and stunk of death.
The cauldron burns through my shirt and burns into my stomach as I clutch it to stop it from falling in. My hand blistering under the heat as I clutch the side.
Beryl grabs a knife and slices from the inside of my elbow to my wrist, and I try to tank my arm away as my blood spills out as she holds it above the cauldron. My vision flickers and blurs, and I feel faint and queasy as the room tilts around me.
“Jamie wants to hurry up; I need my mutation here,” she rambles.
“Spose Josie will do it if need be,” she says thoughtfully before letting me go, and I fall backward on the cold, hard floor. My blood spilled onto the floor as she wandered off to the wall covered in jars, she grabbed a few off the shelf, but I could feel my life essence spilling out of me.
“Not long now, boy and all will be right in the world, Avery will be dead, your family dead, and Jamie thinks he will be the next hybrid king, fool. No one can take that title, but for now, he lives, and you shall play the part and be his daughter’s mate. I shall be the next high priestess. Avalon City will be mine, but first, I need to take care of that bitch Avery and get my power back, and you will help me.”
She says more, but the blood loss sends me spiraling into the darkness as it swallows my sight.