Ten years later…
“I’m sorry, mummy.”
Edith gazed at Julie’s emerald-green bead, which implied regret. The little girl uttered every word from her mouth with all her might as she lay weakly on the bed. Seeing her like that made Edith both sad and worried. Because she attacked Liam exactly like in the incident nine years ago.
“I don’t know why I suddenly wanted to attack him. It was as if a voice whispered to me to kill him. I tried to fight back, but my vision went dark, and I didn’t feel anything anymore.”
“What did it say?”
“Kill Vincentius!”
“Male or female voice?”
“Female, hoarse, like choking. Mummy, is dad going to ground me?”
“Calm down; I’ll talk to your dad. From now on, you must always tell me how you feel before it’s too late. Do you understand?”
“Yes, mummy, I understand.”
Edith kissed Julie’s forehead. She saw a teardrop fall from the corner of her eye. Edith felt that there was something wrong and that she had been missed by her and Seth for the past ten years.
Edith thought hard about the voice that Julie said. It was telling her to kill someone named Vincentius, who she didn’t even know who he was. She thought about the possibility that Julie was possessed by an evil, vengeful being.
The more she thought about it, the more her head throbbed. Her ten-year-old daughter had to go through something like this. Edith saw with her own eyes that she strangled Liam until the werewolf’s body was limp and motionless. If she had arrived late, Liam might have died of suffocation.
Edith couldn’t tell Seth about this incident. Her husband was meeting Christian in France to discuss a troubling group of rogues in some areas of the German forest. Jadden was representing Seth to arrange all the pack’s needs while he was travelling. Even she could not tell this to Jadden, at least not about the mysterious voice.
“Is Jules awake, mum?” asked Julian when they passed each other in the corridor.
“Already. Be with your sister. She’s very upset because she has no one to share her grievances with.”
Julian stepped into his sister’s room. He found her standing in the mirror, looking as upset as their mum had said. His steps stopped right behind Julie, and Julian knitted his eyebrows together. He looked closely at his sister, who was looking back at him through the mirror. His hand touched Julie’s shoulder for a few seconds and then pulled it back.
“How does it feel to choke a wolf without touching it?” Julian grinned slightly as he folded his arms across his chest.
“Not funny, Julian,” Julie sighed, slightly annoyed by her brother’s words.
“I’ll change the question. Does Mum know that you strangled Liam on purpose?”
“Mind your own business! I didn’t do it on purpose; that woman told me to.”
“I’m curious about that witch. Her abilities must be so powerful that even when she’s dead, she can still control you. The only one you can’t lie to is me, Jules,” Julian said confidently with a glint in his eye.
“Hhh, if only I knew who she was. I’m afraid that I would have killed Liam in the end.”
“That wouldn’t have happened if you could have been stronger than she was. My little sister has the blood of three monsters in her; how can you be this weak?”
Julian provoked Julie. He didn’t have to ask around about what really happened. He knew it when he touched Julie’s shoulder earlier. It was very clear how the chronology of events worked from his own sister’s point of view.
Julie became agitated. She knew her brother’s ability to know every detail of the incident by touching it. She confirmed what her brother said, but was afraid of getting caught and being accused of deliberate assault.
“Instead of you nagging me all the time, should you tell me how I can become stronger like you said earlier?”
“What do I get in return?”
“I can get the monkhood from our father’s vault. I know you’ll need it to take down that brat, Richie.”
“Interesting. Meet me in my room after ten in the evening,” Julian said as he walked away.
Julie remembered vividly how she was walking leisurely at the edge of the garden in front of the pack house. She even felt a fallen leaf on her head and picked it up from there. She unintentionally looked at Liam, who was standing in front of the tree with his back to her.
Suddenly, anger overcame her. Accompanied by alertness and overwhelming emotions. Julie heard a voice whispering in her mind. It was telling her to attack Liam. At first, she tried to fight the voice, but when she saw her hands begin to spit out long golden threads, she was no longer able to control her body.
All the movements of her limbs were totally controlled by the voice. She realised when she did it, and it made her feel guilty. After the thread tied Liam’s body until his wolf form rolled to the ground, Julie didn’t feel anything anymore.
“Who is that witch?”
Julie sighed for the umpteenth time. She ruffled her own hair in frustration with the situation. She decided to stop thinking about it. Finally, she sat herself back down on the bed and took some lemon balm from her drawer.
She waved her hand in front of the leaf and made it levitate with a levitation spell. She created a flame after making it levitate, and she extinguished the flame by blowing on it. The burning smoke of lemon balm could be used by her to calm her tense nerves.
Fortunately, Julie had always paid attention to the potion master teacher at her school, so she could concoct some simple potions to make things easier.
After inhaling the scent of lemon balm, Julie relaxed a little. Maybe reading could distract her from the whole incident. She waved her hand at the empty air in front of her and cast a summoning spell to retrieve a book from inside her bag, which was draped on the bench opposite her bed.
“Why didn’t I think of that? I can look up that witch in the books in the school library. She could be a legendary witch,” said Julie to herself.
She did catch a glimpse of the female witch before she fainted. The witch was in her early forties with wavy red hair. The look in her eyes was so intense as she commanded her, so intimidating that Julie was afraid of her.
“That witch looks like she’s from the Middle Ages. Forty is definitely not the real age, just like Aunt Eva. Besides, whatever Julian has planned for tonight, he’s not going to prank me, right?”