by Fawn Atondo
She unfolded the paper slowly, not knowing what it held. When she saw it was a letter from Alex she let out a gasp. She looked up to ask Daniel how he got it, but he had already gone.
Falyn was not sure she wanted to know what Alex had to say. Would it matter if he had done this out of worry for her? She thought of tossing it, but she had to know what it said, so she sat down and read.
Falyn,
I can’t say how much I wanted to tell you goodbye but the Court would not allow me to see you and have also banned me from going near you. I would be dead if not for Lark. Yet that’s another story and maybe you already know it. But I wanted you to know I only meant to protect you, to keep you safe, and the Lycan Court is the safest place I could think of. However, no matter how right I think my actions were, I do wish I could have told you my plan. Please try and see things my way.
Always, Alex
Falyn closed her eyes trying to block the tears from spilling out. Alex had wanted to say goodbye – it made her anger lessen a little. Yet he still did not understand her fate was her own: not his, not the Court’s, not her father’s! She was chosen to unite the Lycan. She was chosen to change the Immortal Code because fate had picked her.
How dare any of them think they had the right to choose for her! Alex should have known better. He had taken it upon himself once before to take her choice away, and that hadn’t worked out well. Didn’t he know her well enough by now to realize she would not like having her mind made up for her?
More angry tears ran down her face. How would she get out of this place? She could not walk out the door and Alex could not come here – not unless the Court brought him. Did he think Daniel would risk it all and sneak her out? Sure, he’d given her the note, but that was hardly testing his loyalty to the Court.
Falyn cried till she had no more tears and then she pushed aside her pain and her anger and started to sort through her thoughts.
If Daniel could get a note to Alex saying she wanted to leave, would he get her out? And once she was out, what would stop anyone else from locking her up? What she needed was access to the Druid magic, and if it took training then she would need to find a teacher. The Lycan offered a Mystic to aid her, and while they had no plans of letting her take over for them, they did need her magic just as much as everyone else. Maybe the key to unlocking her magic was here? She should try to find out before planning to escape.
She would write Alex a note, but it would not be asking for help. It would tell him she would stay here at Court while she worked on her power. If he learned anything, he should tell her. And this is all it would say! She would not give him anything more. She would not ease his mind about his betrayal.
Falyn had thought Alex might be the one for her, but your soul mate did not betray you at every chance just because things got hard. They did not think only of themselves. Maybe Alex was not her mate and she would have to face her fate utterly alone. But she would do it, with or without him.
Chapter Twenty-four: Shadow
Falyn leaned against the marble pillar, her heart thumping wildly. The voices that carried to her from the other side of her hiding place in the archives were those of the Court leaders. For the last few weeks she had spent her time between sparring with Daniel and looking over scrolls and books in the Lycan Court’s library. She was somehow able to sweet talk her baby sitter into giving her the key to this place and letting her roam it at her leisure.
“Can’t we just kill her and take the gift?” one of the Elders asked.
“You want to commit murder!”
“We will not kill her, Harold. The gift has to be given willingly. Killing her will end any chance of us getting the power,” the female Court leader, Simone, told them.
“How precisely do you plan to get the gift from her willingly?” came the first voice again. “She doesn’t trust us as it is. Do you really think she will hand it over, just like that!”
“No… but there are ways of getting her to co-operate,” Simone told them.
Falyn pictured her smiling as she said this.
“So, what magic will put Falyn under our control?” Harold asked Simone.
“I can think of only one form that will keep her loyal to the Court and won’t fade, like most magic does”.
“The Dark Sickness, is this what you’re hinting at?” another voice, unknown to Falyn, asked.
“That is madness! Do you know what would happen if that sickness spread through the Court?!” Harold cried, his voice shaking.
“We are only selectively giving it to Falyn, not the whole Court, Harold. One dose. The chances of anyone else catching it are miniscule. But it will mean Falyn’s reasoning will be left impressionable and we will convince her the Court is better at controlling the gift then she is,” Simone announced.
“The only ones who have this kind of magic are the Dark Druids. Do you really think they are going to hand it over to you when we all know they want Falyn for themselves?” Harold demanded.
“I have some of the virus. I got a sample from a vampire years ago when the Dark sickness first started to work its way through the Immortal clans in this world. He was selling a vial of it to whoever was willing to pay his price. We don’t need to seek aid from the Druids,” Simone assured Harold.
“You’re only now sharing this with the rest of us, Simone?” Harold asked accusingly.
“Let’s not lose focus on the issue at hand. If we want to keep Falyn at our Court and possess the power of the Light Druids, then we do what we must.” Simone defended her actions.
“Then we are in agreement?” asked an Elder.
“Aye!” came echoing back to Falyn.
The choice had been made: the Court was going to give her the Dark Sickness and take her power! Falyn clutched the key to the archive room to her chest, her mind rolling in turmoil over what she must do next. Daniel had proved to be a useful ally. He’d gotten this key for her and helped her find more information on the Druids of Light.
Now, though, time had run out. If she wanted to make it out of this place with her mind still her own, she had to do it soon. Very soon.
Falyn waited for the Lycan Court leaders to leave before she moved. Once she was sure she was alone, she hurried across toward the large bookshelves. There was a book about the rituals of the Light Druids and how their powers worked. She had all but glanced through it last time, worried at being found out, and had kept her reading periods short. Now, though, she planned to take the book back to her room with her.
The other book she’d found and now needed to ‘borrow’ was on the history of vampires and werewolves. What she’d read in the first few pages was enough to prove the two races were linked by the same bloodline. The Moon Goddess herself had a hand in making both races.
Yet these recordings were more than a history lesson. The accounts were written by the Lycan Royals, and, down through their reigns to what was now the Lycan Court, it was an exposé of one dirty deed after another. The werewolves might be split but the full-blooded ones had come together and stood as one to keep the power in their own bloodline.
For many centuries the two races had been at peace, ruling over what was now Europe together, and yes, they even mixed their bloodlines. It was not till one union led to bloodshed – the murder of a Lycan girl on her wedding night by a vampire – that all hell broke loose among the two races and the Great War started.
The night of the wedding between two of the more important families of the two races had been a merry event. The Lycan king, however, had had a different agenda for the marriage so he’d ordered a member of his guard to kill the bride, making it look like the vampire groom had done it. He wanted a war because it would stop the vampires from mixing their bloodlines with his ever again. He wanted only the pure blooded wolves to have a claim in the House of the Lycan. Basically a Hitler of the Immortal world, Falyn thought.
The Great War raged on for nearly a hundred years before the Immo
rtal Guard stepped in at the request of the Lycan ruler, and the law forbidding vampire couplings with werewolves had been put in place. From then on, any vampire stupid enough to fall for a Lycan would meet with death at the Court’s hands.
Seemed fate was right: Falyn needed to take over rule of the Lycan Court because it was not as noble as it would like others to think, and it was not even infected with the Dark Sickness. It was a collection of power-hungry dictators.
Falyn made her way to the door, unlocked it and slipped out into the hall with both her books. Daniel was waiting for her. He frowned in disapproval when he saw the two huge volumes in her arms.
“Are you going to stand there glaring or help me?” Falyn snapped.
“You seriously think you can sneak off with two of the archive’s books and get away with it?” Daniel asked.
“Yes! No! Listen, getting a hold of these is the only reason I’ve stuck around here… I need them, and I’m not putting them back!” Falyn told him, sticking her chin up and daring him to argue with her.
“Fine, but you shouldn’t waste time standing here in the open with them.” Daniel took one of the books from her leading her back to the room.
“Anything else before I leave you to… read?” Daniel asked.
“Oh, nothing at the moment, thanks, but please don’t bring me anything to eat or drink unless it was meant for you. I overheard the Elders planning to poison me with the Dark Sickness. And… I need a way out,” she told him.
“I will find you someone else’s dinner easily enough… but escaping from here is going to prove a lot harder to accomplish,” Daniel said before leaving.
Once Daniel had gone, Falyn settled down to read the massive book on werewolves and vampires. After describing the end of the Great War, vampires weren’t mentioned again. The book focused more on the Lycan Court and their packs. Those bitten by a pure Lycan where offered positions in the Lycan army. However, those turned by a Bitten werewolf were left to fend for themselves. They could make a pack for themselves, join another Bitten Alpha’s pack or stay as a lone wolf. Ranks in a pack all came down to how little or how much pure werewolf blood a member had. Top was a pure blood, and then came the half breeds, and after that were the Bitten wolves. If someone was turned by a pure blood then they were more important than if a mere Bitten wolf had turned them.
The Shadow Lycan, also known as the Cursed, were Lycan pure bloods or half breeds who had disobeyed the Court or broken some law, and their punishment was to become a Shadow wolf. They would no longer be able to change at will during the daylight hours only at night, and the peak of their strength was during the full moon. Unlike the Bitten, the Shadow wolves were not allowed to form a pack of their own. Instead they were forced to walk the earth alone.
While the pure blooded, half breeds and the Bitten were held under the rule of the Lycan Court, the Shadow wolves were not tied and therefore not subject to the same laws as the other packs. The Court always took the Alpha power away from these cursed ones and none were able to make a pack without it.
Falyn closed her eyes, trying to picture the faces of the Shadow wolves that had attacked Flint’s pack, but all she could recall were glowing eyes in the dark shadows. She shivered; those Shadow wolves had come as a pack, not as single creatures. Clearly this was not normal, and surely not even possible, but she had seen it with her own eyes. How did the Court miss it?
Reading the rest of the chapter showed why. The Lycan Court stayed within its realm; only members of its army moved beyond it. Yet even they only went when there was trouble, detected by the Court’s Mystics, for them to deal with. A Lycan was out of reach of the Mystic’s senses the moment it became a Shadow wolf.
Falyn paused right there, a light bulb going off in her head as she thought about the curse of the Shadow wolf. So, they were no longer able to change at will in the day, only at night. The Shadow wolves she had seen had indeed been like shadows with only their eyes standing out. Yet the perks of being one seemed worth the curse since they were out of reach of the Lycan Court and off the Mystics’ grid.
Yet, was the price really worth it? To become a Shadow wolf she would have to forsake the Lycan Court for Darkness. You didn’t become a Shadow wolf by being a nice person: most of the examples given in the book were of those who’d killed or forsaken their bloodlines. Did the curse carry more weight than the book revealed? Falyn had no way of knowing for sure, but she had the distinct feeling if she did forsake her bloodline, she would be able to walk right out of the Court. Of course, that meant she would be damning herself in a way, no longer being able to turn during the day, and Lord only knew what she would face as a cursed Shadow wolf!
The Druids of Light’s collection of spells and rituals lay next to her. Again, she’d only dipped into this book up to now, not really studying it. If she did curse herself and become a Shadow wolf, would she be giving up all the power from her other bloodline?
Falyn opened to the first very old and faded recording by the Druids of Light. It was a blessing and it was written in Celtic. As she looked at the unrecognizable words, something magical happened – they started to fade into something she could read. She read the blessing out loud, and as she read she felt her skin prickle as the magic held within ran over her body.
The blessing was meant to open the mind of the one who held the power of the Druids of Light – to unlock the secrets which ran through their blood, passed from one to another. Turning the page, Falyn continued to read, and as the words showed themselves to her, she finally understood how to release the Druids’ magic within herself. The basic rule being you had to be open to the ways of the Druids’ of Light, and appreciate the power used to motivate it.
Falyn read for hours, hardly making a dent in the huge book. She lightly folded the page on its corner and shut the tome. Now she had the key to unlocking her power. Yet to learn how to wield it properly, she would have to study and read the whole book, and that was going to take time. She would have to process each lesson and practice what it taught. From the little she had just read, Falyn already knew the power of the Druids of Light was not something given lightly, and nor was it easy to use. Clearly those seeking the power had no idea how much effort they would need to put in before they could even begin to work the magic.
Falyn had no plans of letting this power fall into the hands of the Lycan Court! The Elders were not noble enough to have such power. Getting up, she walked to the balcony, looking out at a dark landscape lit with a full moon. It was always dark in this realm, a full moon always shining down.
Daniel should be returning soon with something for her to eat, but whether she would actually risk it now was another matter. It was too dangerous.
Falyn had risked a lot over the last year after learning of the bloodline running through her veins. Whether her father had a hand in placing the responsibility on her, or just played a minor role, it was clear this was her fate. The Immortal clans were at a crossroads: if they kept going down this path, sooner or later another war would break out and it could easily spill over to the Mortals.
“This food was meant for one of the Lycan Elders so it should be safe to eat.” Daniel’s words brought her out of her thoughts.
“Thank you. But I’ve decided I won’t need it,” Falyn told him, closing the balcony doors. “I do have one question for you, though.”
“Ask away,” Daniel said.
“What do I need to do to become a Shadow wolf?”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed, and the macules under his dark skin flexed.
“That is a dangerous question!” he said sternly.
“Just answer it, please.” Crossing her arms over her chest.
“There are many ways, none of them pleasant. You can murder a fellow Lycan or betray the Court, or denounce the bloodline, if pure-blooded. However, since you’re only half Lycan, the only action that would turn you into a Shadow wolf would be murder.”
His words ran over her l
ike ice.
“Murder,” Falyn whispered, not wanting to accept it was the only possibility.
“That’s right: murder. You would have to kill one of your own.” Daniel’s voice was hard.
Falyn was not willing to murder on a whim, but she did know a few members of the Lycan Court who were worth killing.
“If that is what needs be done… bring me a dagger,” Falyn ordered.
“I won’t help you murder anyone. However, you’re free to seek a weapon on your own. I won’t… I won’t stop you,” Daniel told her quietly.
Falyn nodded and Daniel stepped to the side, allowing her to exit the room. Which she did, before doubts could change her mind.
She followed the long hallway down to the training room. Opening the door, a few Lycan who were training turned to look at her as she made her way to the weapons room in the back. She picked the first dagger she came across sliding it into the waistband of her jeans. Word spread quickly around the Court, moments later two of the Elders hurried into the training room. One of them was the very Lycan she sought – the one who had thought up the idea of giving her the Dark Sickness: Simone.
“Falyn, I don’t recall this being one of your training days,” Simone said, coming forward.
“Does it matter what day I train?”
“It doesn’t, but I see you’re alone. Where is Daniel?” Harold asked.
“I’m not sure where he is. I came in search of you,” Falyn told them.
“Did you need something? Why don’t you join us? We were about to dine.” Simone had a slightly menacing smile on her lips.
Falyn felt her anger grow and fought to keep it hidden. It would do her no good to give them a reason to be suspicious now.
Following the two Elders down more long twisted hallways, she came to the Elders’ dining hall. There was black marble with gold edging throughout the room. The table also made of marble, but a soft grey. The silver crockery caught the light from the chandeliers above.
