"What do we do, your highness? I will only take orders from you," She urged me.
She must have sealed the door with some spell, causing a sudden rampage on the other side of the door. They seemed to be using all their might to try to get through the doors, my heart pounding with every attempt to push through.
"Let's go, now," I trusted her, blindly at that.
Before I could blink, the swarm of angry-looking wolves had burst through the door, just in time for me to be released from the bondage and carried away by this witch and carried right through the window. I felt like I was going to fall so many times as we climbed and raced through the highest of buildings on the pack grounds.
She was nerve-wreckingly fast but never let go of me for a second. The wolves looked faster but couldn't even get to our tail as we managed to get to the forest, finally on actual grounds instead of surfing on rooftops. When she jumped, wolves crashed into trees and buildings behind her, something supernatural she was surely, one who had gathered levels of strength that no witch I had ever seen before possessed.
I kept my eyes closed, clinging on to her for dear life till we came to a halt at last, my heart racing like an overused machine as I released her and fell right to the dusty floors, coughing whilst trying to still my breathing.
"That must have been quite the ride, your highness. My apologies. Any slower and they would have definitely caught up to us, and only the gods know what would have happened at such an unfortunate event."
"It's fine," I assured her as I dusted myself off and got an actual glimpse of where we were. A grandly decorated mansion that seemed to be abandoned, "Where is this place? Why is it so beautiful yet so unkempt?"
She smiled, "Follow me, I need to show you something."
Confused, but without hesitation, I followed her through the mansion, keeping in mind that we might need to flee at any time now because we were definitely still on the chase. We stopped in one of the beautifully decorated rooms, which had white roses that glittered, scattered and hung all over the cold room.
"Your mother's favourite flowers were white roses. Those were the first flowers she received from your father as well, such a lovely story indeed on how they met. One day, I will tell you that, but first, I need to show you this."
I looked around the room, following the path to where two transparent coffins lay, side by side but joined together by their hands, which was the only thing I could see through the fog inside the coffins.
"Is this a graveyard? Who are those? How beautiful it must be to be buried holding hands with your partner, don't you think?" Tears suddenly brimmed in my eyelids, unknown to me.
"It was their last wish," She smiled before pulling a lever that took out the fog effortlessly to reveal almost an older mirror of me, surprisingly still well preserved, but definitely more gorgeous with an extremely handsome man beside her, "Gina and Zhir told me to put them to rest this way when it would eventually happen. Although they were
immortal, they had a lot of enemies, which you inherited the moment you turned 21."
My knees failed me, dropping to the floor with tears pouring down my face. I had not even remembered what they looked like, but suddenly, all the memories of my last moments with them from when I was just a baby came flooding back.
Her tender touch, his deep laughter once I made my first giggle, it all came back as I touched their glorious coffins, "They were taken from me by their enemies whilst their enemies stay alive and healthy," Olandria muttered behind me, "I could not avenge my very good friend because I have unfortunately been mated to the Beta of the pack. I didn't have any reason to break the bond. I had nowhere else to go, no purpose, no will to live since she died so many
years ago."
"Who killed them?" I muttered, anger coursing through my veins like I had ever felt before.
"I am yet to find that out, your highness. They were left at the gorge around Mount Veritas, one far, far away from here. Your aunt took you and left, leaving them in the gorge once they died, but luckily, I got there on time once I felt it. She was my best friend, I felt it when she died, and it was the most gruesome feeling I had ever experienced to date."
"What was my aunt doing there and why didn't she try to help them?" I frowned.
She sighed, "I wish I had the answers to your questions, Your highness, but unfortunately, I myself have too many questions from that unfortunate day. Your mother only permitted me to know so much and tell you this much."
"You say you were her best friend, but can't even pinpoint who might have killed them after twenty-one years?" I asked harshly.
"These were ominously powerful people who took relics that your mother had, scattered them all over the land, including her spell books, copies of them. I only started training properly to the point of obtaining this rank level with hopes of working beside you one day to avenge your parents. If it was something that was so easy or I could do it myself, trust, I would have long done it and we might not have even been here," she explained.
"So what do we do now?" I wiped off my tears, placing a kiss on both their coffins before finally getting off the floor,
"Because if you could discard this mission, I definitely can not. They were amazing people, never have I heard that they acquired enemies from what they did to anyone. It was either jealousy, greed, or some other foolish agenda."
"They were much too powerful for their own good, that was the main problem. They have never left my mind and I have never forsaken their deaths. Just like you said, they were the most peaceful and nurturing, but you are simply not ready for that yet," she shook her head, "You have no training whatsoever now, Ahvi. You can barely handle the lowest rank without collapsing because of your power-hungry aunt. We have a lot of work to do before taking this on headfirst. "
I felt defeat cover me like a cloud, every inch of me blaming my aunt for where I am now, and I knew for a fact she had something to do with their deaths one way or another. The stories, her behaviour, her treatment, why she made sure I wasn't trained according to my purpose; it all made me trust what this stranger told me even more.
"When can we start?" I muttered.
"This is a guarded mansion I had built about a year before they died, when they started having serious issues with some other coven, the details aren't necessarily important right now. This is where you were conceived and born as well, there is a room upstairs where they stayed and one that was decorated for you as well," she explained.
"And no one knows about this place or can get through the spell barricade?" I furrowed my brows.
"None that I know of at least," she said disappointingly, "You should get some rest. This is quite a journey we made and you must be tired from all the drama of the past few days."
"Yeah, I actually am," I sighed, "See you tomorrow, Olandria. Thank you."
I gave her a soft hug before she led me upstairs then handed me a vacuum and some appliances to clean a bit with, "I had reserved what I could in your parents room as well. None have been touched because they were protected with spells. I believe you should be able to unlock easily. Feel free to go through it all; we might be able to get some information from it all."
"I thank you for preserving these moments for me," Tears brimmed once again, "This really means a lot to me."
"It's your right, it was my duty, no need to thank me," she smiled but I could see her tears threatening to fall as well, ever since we stepped foot into this house. "Clean up a bit and get some rest. Fresh sheets and everything you may need are in the closets. Your presence was planned and expected, Princess."
The room wasn't in that much of a bad shape as I thought, just needed a bit of cobwebbing and vacuuming, but after all of that, starting obviously from my parents' room, as I had planned to sleep there as well. My heart ached, not just from the amount of dust that entered my lungs, but from the pictures I kept stumbling across as I cleaned the dust off of them.
A whole photo album dedicated to me as a baby, frames of both of them in the most grand attire I have ever laid my eyes on and in the most normal captured when they were casually playing with me in a bountiful garden.
"No matter what, I am going to avenge both of you, and that is a promise," I muttered, sniffling as I cleaned the tears from my face. Unbearable pain I knew was going to turn to anger soon enough lingered through me as I layed the bed, but in between the sheets, a few envelopes fell out.
Confused and curious, I picked them up to drop them on the dresser, laying the bed with anxiety in my heart before finally settling down to read them all.
It wasn't at all the best idea.
As Olandria said, they knew I was going to come here one day or another. It was as if they could see into the future, leaving encouraging and loving words in all forms in each letter, either from my father or my mother.
I held them far from my face so my tears wouldn't spill on the most precious treasure I have found in all my years, but then, I got to one letter that was quite hard to open the seal.
It was heavy, heavier than what normal paper should be and had a pendant-shaped seal on it, but it was a recognisable pendant.
My chest began to glow to my complete amusement, so did the seal on the letter, showing me where I had seen this shape of seal before. Curiously, I placed the pendant on the seal, and it vanished, turning the envelope into normal paper now but leaving the pendant a bright lilac colour instead of its original green.
"What in the witchery?" I muttered to myself, my heart dropped from the first few words.
'My dearest Ahvi, you are the only one allowed to see this letter as you might have figured from the seal. We were killed, no matter what my devil of a sister might have told you; we were killed cooperatively by a very powerful group of hybrids that were born for the sole purpose of killing us. As you may know, you are to be the next regent, and the most powerful one yet because you came from the two of us, but do not ever think it is going to be easy, as you might have had a glimpse of for you to be there now with Olandria.'
My reading was interrupted by a soft knock on the door followed by the sound of it opening. "I am glad you were able to find the letter and break the seal. I was, however, ordered to destroy it after you are done."
I nodded in understanding, eyes and nose running. She smiled pitifully and left the room.
'Vengeance is a normal feeling, and I am not one to tell you whether to embrace it or not. I trust my heart is in you and you will follow it accordingly. Trust only very few people around you; these people know what you are capable of far more than you do. Do not go into any fights without proper training, which I know you don't have. Beware of the Yular Vampires of Slovenia, Xera coven of Slovenia, and especially the Ragmire wolves of Italy with all that is you. We love you, Mom and Dad.'
I curled in a ball, my head in shambles of confusion.
Alpha Arthur was of the Ragmire wolves. How he was linked to my parents death was something I couldn't wait to find out, so I would have an excuse to finally kill that bastard.