Magical (Mystical Series Book 3)

by Michael Weekly

  “Join us for a special dinner! With your queen.”

  Shaking my shoulder, I try to move his arm away, but my Father tightens his grip. Mermaid guards and elves arrive by my side gripping my arm, their rough skin bruising me. I’m then forced into the mansion as the mystics cheer my name in the background. They seem ecstatic when really I’m scared to death to even be here.

  My father smiles to his followers.

  He prompts his guards to close the fancy door as he turns around.

  Giving me the most devious, and nefarious look.

  Many corrupt mystics are in the mansion this time. The ones outside are, I guess, low class. These mystics don’t have hungry eyes or scarred markings, yet they were well dressed except for the faeries and elves who wore skin tight clothing; the females had leaves covering their busts and private parts. One thing that stands out from everything is the purple glaze in their eyes, like Marcus’.

  Crossing her smooth legs, an elf watches me being pushed into my seat.

  “My patience is running thin with you, Eliza,” my father says.

  Footsteps enter my ears from my surroundings. Christian sits next to me and kisses my cheek.

  “Don’t be so harsh to my wife,” Christian says. “She doesn’t know any better. It’s the moronic witch inside.”

  I don’t give anyone eye contact as Christian rubs my thigh under the table. I hold back my anger and breathe through my nose. In front of me was a bowl without any utensils present.

  “Soon you’ll see that you can’t run away from what you were born into.”

  I remember reading the grimoire in my room mom gave to me to study, and being pulled into a vision of some sort. When Alec Verel was fighting Grace, he said my mother was talking to a corrupt elf. Could this mystic be the man standing in front of me now?

  “Shall we eat?” He claps his hands.

  The high ranked mystics roar in favor of their leader’s demand. Christian places his arm around my shoulder. I look at him in disgust.

  “Do not touch me,” I lower my voice, not looking at him.

  “Behave. We wouldn’t want to upset the guests now, would we?” He grips my thigh once more as I jump from the pain. I yelp as everyone turns to look at me. I move the short hairs from my eyes and part my lips.

  The elves and faeries look down at me as they turn back around. The mermen take their seats at the long vertical dinner table. Marcus nods his head at the guards, prompting their leave.

  “Tonight we feast on something special,” He flicks his fingers as the large curtains in the room spread open allowing the mystics outside to watch in on the dinner.

  The lights dim into a deep brown and at the last minute, Jared enters the room with a smug expression on his face. He sits next to a fairy as she traces his jawline with the tip of her fingers and then glances at me. She licks his cheek as her hair moves by itself, and the wings on her back flutter softly.

  “So glad you could make it, Jared,” she says.

  “It’s special Eliza because, you see, tonight is the night you become corrupt and no longer a myth,” Marcus says.

  Could this really be true?

  My father was planning to turn me corrupt completely. Was this the cause of my mother’s corruptness? The guards briefly return with humans in their grip. They toss them against the wall as they shake nervously.

  These humans are odd. They are dressed in black leather clothing and two are in green outfits. A fairy twirls her fingers in the air, turning them around to look at me.

  Luvie, Charlotte, Bianca, Jeremy, and Audrey.

  My heart is racing in confusion to why they were in Ravamere. Their mouths were covered in ropes. Audrey is wearing her green jeweled necklace.

  “Finally,” someone hisses in the background.

  His eyes are stuck on me the entire time; he senses my fear. It was for his own enjoyment. His psychotic mind tricks to pull me into his devious plan. The game he’s been strategizing for years, and for this specific night only. Testing my limits, he wants to push my insanity even further. It’s all out of love in Father’s game. No wonder Mom kept him hidden from me and lied about his death, because the monster she feared the most was real. She tried to push back her memory and keep me safe from him, but he ended up finding his lost daughter anyway only to punish her life.

  It all makes sense now, Mom.

  A fairy flies over to Luvie and slaps her face to the side causing her neck to bare. It seems my friends are drugged because they aren’t fighting back.

  Alice is the most drugged in the group as her eyes are rolled back completely. Their markings are dim and not glowing as they would.

  The fairy places her lips on Luvie’s neck as her veins become outlined. The fairy is sucking on her skin and her wings flutter angrily against the stiff air in the room.

  She is ravenous to receive purity from the witch in front of her. Luvie is twitching as her eyes become a cold white. An elf flicks out the tips of his fingers toward Charlotte. Weeds slither out from the carpet wrapping her up.

  He then glides over to kiss her lips.

  Green light fills the room as he releases his hold on the girl’s bottom lip. A merman is next and his victim is Audrey. He places his fingers into her strands as they slowly frost. He kisses her and it is as though the room becomes winter. I notice the venomous hickies on Luvie’s neck, a tear slides down my cheek. Biting on my lip to keep my composure, I glance away from the soul sucking mystics.

  My myth wants to come out, but I resist her from doing so because I know I will not be able to control her anger. Christian turns my chin to him, his eyes burning into mine.

  “This is what really happens when we feed. It keeps us alive—and, well, the people we feed on…” He points to my friends. “…They eventually die off from a weak soul we’ve caused.”

  Jeremy is the last to have his soul sucked out. He is shivering and his eyes are completely white. He looks anorexic and drained out. Marcus circles his fingers around his silhouette.

  Vines wrap up around his neck, and they carry Jeremy to the porch outside where the other mystics are waiting. He looks down at them as they scratch the dirt beneath their rough feet. Flicking his hand the vines drop him down into the pile of mystics as they cover his body.

  Marcus walks back inside the room and closes the curtains.

  “Don’t cry.” Christian wipes my tears. “This is what you have to live with, being part corrupt,” he whispers into my ear.

  I’m mentally dying with my friends. every part of me is weak. My bones are crackling inside, my heart slowly pacing, and my muscles tense and in pain. I didn’t care about my life at this moment. I push back my emotions and clear my throat. The mystics fed on their prey, I finally give Marcus eye contact. His stare was on me this whole time and he smirks at my reaction.

  “Can I have a word, Father?”

  He nods, leaving the room shortly.

  We are outside of his dining room, his hands tucked in the slacks he wears. I wasn’t going to get my way being angry and out of control here. It didn’t work last time and I don’t think it will ever work in Ravamere. These mystics are corrupt—that’s the lowest amount of evil you can become. My only bet was to fake it until creating a decent plan to execute.

  My amount of faith in Jared is thin because he was stuck here the whole time. He always said he was my lifesaver, so where was he this time? He was in there sitting and nonchalant about the whole feast session on my friends.

  “You think I don’t know where you ran off to? You really think staying in Vaelle could save you from me?” He pauses, fixing his suit. “I know where you are at all times, Eliza.”

  “If that is true then why didn’t you take me from Mom before all of this?”

  He purses his lips thinking of a reply.

  “Your mother caused herself to go crazy. She was not listening to me and her myth became out of control.”

  “She wanted to die because of you. You drove her insane.
”

  “This may be true because she didn’t want to take the Ravamere throne.”

  “And neither do I.”

  “You have no other choice!” he shouts from above me as it echoes in the mansion’s halls. “You will risk the lives of your friends?” He slowly lifts his eyes.

  So this was his plan—to use my friends against my own decisions. It was clever and evil. Something I should have been aware of from the start. “At any given moment my hand might flick, and your Dawn will fall into my mystical desire,” he chuckles, “so—you decide.” He walks back into the room and shuts the door.

  Donovan’s in the shadows. I stand still against the wall as he approaches me slowly.

  “So is this what you want? You’d rather have me become Ravamere’s Queen?” I say, looking around the mansion. “If so I’d rather have you kill me, Donovan. Don’t make me go through this.”

  “That wasn’t my intention. I found out I was betrothed to you, Rose. If my family found out that little fact, they would do everything and anything to kill you and me.”

  “I thought the same thing too.” I place my palm on his cheek; it sizzles against my skin. “Last year Bianca told me the feeling we felt was possible because we were corrupt.” I look down to his neck. “But that’s not the feeling I feel for you right now. I should be angry at you and seeking revenge—I’m not.”

  He holds my wrist and removes my touch, his eyes glaring at me.

  “Stop falling for me; it’s only going to put you in more danger. Why aren’t you listening to me?” he says.

  “Because I like you, Donovan.”

  “We’re betrothed, it will never happen. The question is who betrothed us?”

  “I know my father betrothed Christian and I. Bianca also said that if I’m betrothed with a corrupt mystic that makes me completely corrupt either way.”

  “Do you see how you’re talking right now? You’re my Rose right now and you are far from corrupt.” He hugs me and kisses my forehead. I look up to him as we share this peaceful moment in such a stiff environment. “It isn’t hard for me to say that I fell in love with saving such a complete idiotic rookie.” His chest lifts my cheek as he sighs.

  “I think I have a plan,” he says quietly.

  “I’m open to any ideas,” I say as we lock eye contact.

  Chapter 21

  I listen to the excitement and laughter from the corrupt mystics in the room in front of me. Donovan is aware of my discomfort. He steps in front of me to cover my ears. He says, “Don’t worry, you’re with me right now. Remember, I’m the one who saved you countless times. I’m not going to let your friends die in there.”

  I look up at him to say, “Please don’t.” I see a pair of bare feet in the shadows behind Donovan. Red markings glow at the tip of my nose.

  A caramel skinned and slender body is walking up to us. She is dressed in a scratched up shirt and black crop top. She parts her lips showing her sharp fangs. Her eyes are hazel and her tongue slithers out to taste the air.

  Donovan turns around as she disappears back into the shadows.

  “The mystics here creep me out. It feels like I need to vanquish them all.”

  “It’s the witch in you, but you can’t try and assassinate them. You’ll get ambushed.”

  I lower my gaze, looking back in the direction of the mystic once more.

  “The venom in their blood will not kill them off. There’re certain stages they have to go through.”

  The syringe Mom used to cure Dawn’s poisoning was the same thing I think Donovan is planning to use. He clicks on his broomstick to show me the syringe, and the only question that stays in my head is—how exactly was this plan going to work?

  “You need to fake being corrupt, earn your father’s trust and his minions.”

  “That isn’t too hard I guess.”

  “You’re going to need to corrupt a soul for this to work,” he says quietly.

  What does he mean by that?

  “Wait—” My fingers fly up into my messy strands of hair. I inhale deeply. “Did you say corrupt?”

  Walking out of the dinner room, a white cat strides over toward Donovan and me. He slips between our legs and transforms into Jared right in the middle of us. He separates our bodies and glares at Donovan.

  “You do know having her corrupt a soul will cause her to become corrupt?”

  I glance at Donovan while my brother’s back is facing me.

  “Eliza, did you not read your grimoire? Do not trust a Verel.”

  “How did you—”

  “I’m the one who wrote the note, and maybe you should follow it.”

  “If you were her brother, you would be trying to help me get her out of this situation. Not try and pit her against me. Has Ravamere turned you already?”

  Jared stares completely through Donovan. The tips of his white hair move softly, and his ear twitches. Looking to his side, he says to me, “Why did you come back? I got you out the first time not to return.”

  “It’s complic—”

  “I brought her back,” Donovan says.

  Immediately Jared reaches for his neck and pushes him against the wall. Crumbles from the ceiling fall to the ground as Donovan laughs at him. I reach to help Donovan, but Jared tells me to stay back. I bite my lip hoping no one will come out of the dinner room.

  Of course Donovan has done some real shady things to me—I forgive but don’t forget. I know for sure he isn’t out to hurt me. My brother, however, doesn’t trust Verels, and neither should I. It’s stupid of me, falling for one when my grandparents warned me not to.

  “Eliza, the Verel brotherhood use female witches to have their children and then eventually kill off the mothers and daughters. Do you really think this traitor likes you? What do you think happened to Mellissa when she fought against Alec?”

  He waits for me to reply, and without any patience left he answers with, “He used her and then killed her as soon as he found out she was a myth.”

  “Jared that isn’t true. She killed Alec.”

  “How would you know?”

  “I remember my trance I experienced in the grimoire. Mellissa was going to kill Alec—she stood above him holding her dagger. I came to the conclusion that the vision must have flipped with him killing her. Alec Verel is Donovan’s father and I think Donovan would know more about the event than my vision.”

  “Is this true, Donovan?”

  “Why would it matter? What does it have to do with me? I told you I have nothing to do with that side of me anymore. I was forced back by Alec to discuss my situation with you and why I ran from the brotherhood.”

  So it is true. Alec killed Mellissa that day in the forest…which means he is still alive.

  Jared tightens his grip on him and Donovan begins to choke.

  “Jared, you’re going to kill him!” I push him aside. “Stop it!”

  Jared breathes roughly and his eyes turn silver as his hair flutters around.

  “Are you okay?” I look at him.

  “He was there when they turned me into a cat.”

  “I don’t remember anything about that,” Donovan says.

  “I’m sure you do remember because you held me in place as they chanted,” Jared hisses.

  “I guess our lives are both a mystery, Donovan,” I say while Jared tugs on my arm and his eyes turn back to their normal color.

  “Follow me, I’ll show you to your new room,” he says.

  I take one last look at Donovan, he seems to have dozed off trying to remember the event. The only question is why did the Verel turn my brother into an animal?

  We walk into the shadows of the mansion, approaching bumping music outside the walls. The low-class mystics must be celebrating my return. It’s strange because they all wanted me dead before when Jared was set to rescue me.

  Now he’s leading me to a room instead of the portal. His grip around my wrist is tight and stings a bit. The door knobs are golden with a purple crust outlin
e, the same markings on my skin swiveled up on the door. I step in front of the door, it beams to my touch. I look at Jared with his same smug face on.

  Could he already be corrupt?

  He opens the door and walks in., The same girl with the red markings follows us. She plays with her fangs with the tip of her fingers. She blows me a kiss, and Jared pulls me in my room.

  It was a larger space than before with three large windows.

  Great, I have a view of the mystics who adore me.

  The night grows darker. I forgot there isn’t any sunlight here in Ravamere.

  Oh, how I miss the sun.

  We move toward my walk-in closet. Jared turns on the light and picks out a few pieces of clothing. They were very fashionable. I take the black maxi skirt with a split in it, and a purple top. He holds up jewelry, waiting for me to nod yes or no. I raise my mood ring, and say, “I think I’m good.”

  “Why do you have that here?”

  “It’s going to keep me from growing corrupt.”

  “Listen to me. Half of what that freak said is true. You’re going to need to fit in.”

  “You want me to stay here?” I say.

  “Sometimes you need to add insult to injury.”

  I walk over to my queen-sized bed to place the clothing on the surface.

  “Meaning?”

  “You’ll need to infiltrate this place, cause havoc yourself. Screw it up, destroy its peace. Ruin what’s already been ruined.”

  “What peace?” I say.

  Jared walks to the door, locking it, and turns to me.

  “Do you see what’s going on right now? The celebration of their ‘Queen’s’ return? This is their happiness, killing innocents. They’re controlled right now. What do you think will help when that control is lost? It’s something I’ve tried to figure out, but you came back and now I have to start all over.”

  He walks over to my bed. I sit right next to him. I can’t believe my brother isn’t a cat right now. He’s human and in person right next to me—all we have is each other. I frown. It’s upsetting that I’m meeting him as a guy in his late twenties in a place of evil and corruption. I’ve known him as Jared, the cat, all my life. It’s not weird or an awkward situation. It’s real and shocking. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over him not having fur. I want him to know that I’m here for him. Anything he goes through, I’ll go through it too.