***
“Come with me, child.” The white-haired man repeated. “They will kill you if you remain here. They don’t appreciate the gift that you have.” Then he’d turned to her angry and confused-looking father. “What you should have done was nurture her gift, help her channel it well. She doesn’t even know what she has. You fools don’t even know what she can do for you. And yet instead of finding out and helping her, you’re willing to take her life. Come, Mary.”
“No…” Her mother had screamed. “Leave my daughter for me.”
“And are you sure you can protect her?” The man had asked. “Those men were ready to burn her alive at your husband’s command. Think you can stop all these people?”
Mary’s mother had looked around with tears streaming down her cheeks and shaken her head sadly.
“Your daughter will be better off with me. At least you can be assured that she will be alive. And I’m going to help her develop the beautiful gift she has…which is going to start right now.” The man had pulled Mary to his side and turned her to face his father who was still talking silently. “Stretch forth your hand, child.” The man murmured. Mary had done as instructed. “This man who calls himself your father is a very bad man. He just tried to kill you. And all because you stopped that naughty boy from harming your brother. What an injustice. You can’t trust him not to harm your mother and siblings, Mary. I’ll be taking you away but who knows what he will do to them when he gets angry. Channel all the anger and betrayal I know you’re feeling right now and allow it to explode on this man, by wishing him exactly what he wished for you.”
“No…” Mary’s mother screamed but Mary heard it from afar.
“Close your eyes and concentrate.” The man had whispered into Mary’s ear. She did as instructed. “Feel the heat and push it out towards this wicked soul who calls himself your father.”
Mary could still hear her mother’s screams and plea but strangely, it seemed to be coming from a very far place. In her mind’s eye, she saw a ball of fire and pushed it towards her father as the man had instructed. When she felt the heat in the palm of her extended hand, she opened her eyes and saw fire gushing out of her hand onto her father. She saw his silent screams and felt his pain. And it felt good.
“Your daughter has done you a great favour here, woman.” The man smiled at the crying mother. “Take good care of your children.”
With a sad look at her wailing mother and cowering siblings, Mary disappeared into thin air with Reynard Wyatt.
The day Mary Hart married the Jackal had been one of the happiest for her. She couldn’t wait to start her own family. She wanted a large one like what she’d been part of as a child. But as fate would have it, Mary never had any children of her own. She’d tried all the spells she could but all to no avail. She had been devastated. When she was informed that she was to care for a little wolf boy who had been kidnapped from the Stanwood Pack, Mary had resisted because she didn’t think she could care for a kid after all those years.
But after a lot of encouragement from her husband, she had agreed…reluctantly, to care for the boy. All it took was one look at the five-year-old for Mary to love the boy. She’d given him the name, Troy…after the brother she loved. She’d gotten so attached to the boy that she’d once killed a warlock who she’d seen hitting the boy. Of course, she’d pointed fingers at one of the other notorious warlocks and struck him dead before he could defend himself. That was the extent to which Mary loved Troy.
She’d however had to be careful how she treated Troy in the presence of the other warlocks, especially, The Lord Command, Reynard Wyatt. If they had noticed how attached she’d gotten to the boy, there would have been consequences. But that hadn’t stopped her from loving the boy. As far as she was concerned, Troy was hers. And as the senior-most warlock amongst the five of the remaining warlock, Mary didn’t care that the others knew how she really felt about Troy.
Like all the high-level warlocks, Mary had known about the plans the Lord Command had for Troy. The boy would have been sacrificed at some point. Mary wasn’t about to wait for that to happen though. She had made plans. Airtight plans that even her husband hadn’t known about. As a high-level warlock, Mary did not only wield a lot of power, she also had her ways. All was set to get Troy out of that fortress immediately Reynard felt it was time to sacrifice her boy. And to enable the boy survive in the outside world, she had made sure she had given him the best homeschooling. Being clever had been a plus for Troy. He’d aced every performance test she’d administered to him. Mary had never been prouder of an individual.
*
“You need to wake up and smell the coffee, Mary.” The second male warlock who had been with Mary on the mission to extract information from Blaze finally spoke up. “If that boy has finally embraced his wolf, he just might tear out your throat the next time he lays eyes on you. Those animals have terrible tempers. And I can bet my last cent his people have told him exactly what the clan did to him and his father. He may not be the sweet Troy that you know.”
“Then he’ll die with his pack.” Mary gave a humourless laugh. “He has a choice. Either he chooses to be with me, his mother, or die with those animals.” She mumbled, staring into space and completely missing the weird looks that the other four warlocks gave each other. With a sigh, Mary dropped her gaze and looked from one warlock to the other. Then she said in an eerie voice;
“Now, let’s plan.”