ESTELLA’S POV
Thirty years ago
“You know what this means, I trust?” The old woman asked for the second time that night, looking at me with her bulging eyes.
“Yes I do.” I answered, trying my very best not to sound irritated.
She nodded and walked into the cave, I followed slowly behind her.
We stopped before a big rock, it was glowing green. The only light in there beside the fire from my torch.
“If you do this, there will be no going back, this spell is powerful and cannot be reversed. There will be consequences. Do you understand, girl?”
“I understand.”
She looked up and her pupils disappeared, she screamed incantations loudly and the rock began to glow brighter and brighter, she continued louder and the cave shook at the power of her voice.
Then she stopped suddenly and looked at me with her eyes still in that manner. A cold ran through my spine but I kept my footing. I wanted this and would not back out now.
“Give me your hand.”
Her voice was very different now, it was high pitched and it reverberated.
I stretched forth my hand to her and she took it. Her palm was literally like that of a skeleton and her nails were like claws. It was very cold and the longer she had my hands, the colder it became.
She kept on chanting in the same way and I began to get dizzy.
She stopped immediately and looked in my direction again.
“Hold my hand, do not let go, and whatever you do, do not close your eyes.”
I nodded. I held her firmly, lightheaded as ever.
She walked closer to the glowing stone.
“Once we are done, you will no longer be a wolf but your magic will be fivefold stronger. It is time to purge you and your nature. This will hurt very much but remember my instructions.” She blinked at me with her all white eyes.
Without any warning, she placed her second palm on the stone.
An uncontrollable pain like no other shot through my entire being like I had been set ablaze. I roared louder than I thought was ever possible. My heart was on fire, my wolf was being purged with flame.
“If you let go now, you will transform into your wolf and never turn back!” The hag screamed amidst the roses.
My wolf fought with every fiber of its being. My claws instinctively extended into her palms, piercing her to let me go, but she was made of bones.
She continued with her incantations and the pain seemed to multiply. My eyes burned, the torch I had fell to the ground and went off. I threw my head back screaming with my fangs out. My eyes were glowing in the darkness, I was so close to transforming and ending all of this pain but I held tightly. I screamed and thrashed around the cage for her to let me go but I was glued. I glued myself to her disgustingly bony arm.
It was an excruciating pain like no other and seemed to last for an eternity. Some stalactites were beginning to break off because of the powerful echoes. I kept my eyes open, not even blinking once. They were still on fire like the rest of my body.
Her incantations continued louder and louder and soon the colour of the stone began to dim. It started to change to blue. The burning sensation in my chest also began to dim. My wolf was dying. I could feel it.
I roared one last time and the stone totally turned blue. Then it was over, no burning, no pain. I felt strange. Stronger but strange.
The hag turned back and her pupils were back to normal. She handed me a mirror.
I stared into it and gasped at what I saw. The colour difference in my eyes was showing in the mirror, the distinction shone brightly in the darkness.
“Why did they change back?”
I felt a surge of anger at this because of how I had risked my life to change them from their freak nature.
“The spell brought back the true nature of your eyes but you have the power to change them back.”
I closed my eyes and breathed. When I looked again, two blue eyes stared at me. I smiled.
“You have five times your magical power now, at the cost of your wolf nature. You will not be hurt by silver or wolfsbane. Your strength, speed, hearing and other wolf abilities are forever gone and you will never be affected by the moon.”
Present day
The sun was rising and rays of light snuck into the large dark room. I preferred the darkness, it was calm and devoid of all the noise that came with brightness and light. There was a comfort that came with the dark that I had always relished in my early days.
Today, on the other hand, was different. The morning rays of sunlight were welcoming. I could feel every single droplet of light as it touched my skin, like a smooth graze. It didn’t feel as horrible as before.
I walked to the window and pulled a chair. One look at the panes and the heavy dark curtains parted to allow the sun bathe me. It was warm.
I was not a stranger to power, I had always had it right from my childhood. Stronger than everyone else, smarter than everyone else. It scared people. That was not a surprise, weaklings were terrified whenever they witnessed greatness. They were all crushed, to say the least.
I picked up the glass ball laying on the bedside table. It was cracked in the middle, the cracks were not random, it was shaped like a thunderbolt.
It wasn’t very easy to conjure up natural disasters like an earthquake and make it look real. It required energy and lots of it. The power stone had a lot of power and I had drawn from it to cause the earlier earthquake that happened some months ago. The stone’s power was however finite and was worthless by the time I was done with it. The thunderbolt crack formed when the power was exhausted. I crumpled it in my palms and it turned to dust.
I walked to the sea of portraits on the wall. They all had one thing in common; pictures of the two princes. From the left side down till the last were pictures of them from their youth till they were crowned heirs of Southern Paw.
I grazed my fingers on their faces, identical in every sense. I had watched them grow up, every single achievement and failure, every fuck, every crush. I saw them all. Biding my time l, waiting till I regained my full power. And now that time has come. Time for revenge.
So far there had been zero worries whatsoever. Everything was happening just as planned and even the surprises turned out in favour of my goal. The girl found her way to the palace with a little help just like I planned.
She was brought here later, harnessed her power, and learned to control it. She got stronger for me.
I gave her a chance to do the right thing but she chose to defy me. She chose to stay in the palace with all that power even after knowing the things she knew now. All for the love of her precious princes that didn’t have much longer to live. But it didn’t matter now, I was always one step ahead. She didn’t possibly think I’d let her stay with all that power did she?
I put something in her to siphon some of her power to become stronger. It was a gamble but the connection struck and it worked. She was a naive girl, choosing love over power. Foolish!
There was a soft knock on the door and River walked in.
“My queen.” He bowed.
“Speak.” I nodded.
“I took Rosalind’s brother from the infirmary for leverage. He’s in the guest room at the tower.” He said, calmly.
I sat back in the armchair, calculating how useful of an asset Bastien would be to us.
The boy was still asleep when I went to see him in the tower. I touched his cheek, it was warm. He was sleeping peacefully.
“What do I need to do now?” River asked, to confirm I wasn’t upset with his actions.
I smiled, “This makes things even more fun. They will be forced to come here because of Bastien.”
I ran my hands through the child’s hand, it was skinny like he wasn’t coming from a palace. He had very clean fingernails. It was important to be clean. I felt his hands, they were slim but his palms were very soft.
“Let us make this even more fun, shall we? If there isn’t a response from them by noon, send them one of his limbs for motivation.”