Chapter 7

"Fairy tales are real, at least the ones with werewolves, witches and the bloody vampires. We have existed since before Christ, the world has always been full of magical creatures."

"Where did you get these things from?" I asked staring at Alice as if she were an alien, or had gone crazy at once.

"You want to know the truth, don’t you? So listen to the end without interruption."

I just nodded in agreement, if she wanted silence to make up some fantasy story, I’d give it to her.

"You descend from a line of powerful witches, just as I come from a long line of werewolves." Flora entered the conversation, leaving me even more shocked. How far would they take the fantasy story?

"Your name is Bridget Bishop in honor of your great-great-grandmother, the first witch to be tried and convicted in the attack on the witches of Salem." Agnes took the lead, filling her chest and speaking with pride. "She became famous and with her leftover ashes, we were able to channel even more power into our clan."

"I the what?"

"Your mother was also a witch, but she never told you anything, she didn’t think it was fair to throw ideas at a child’s head like her mother did before, so she preferred to wait until you turned eighteen to tell you the story of our people."

"The problem is she never made it to your fifteen."

"Quanah Parker, or just Parker as you once knew, is the Alpha of our pack." My confused face must have turned me in, because Flora started explaining. "He’s also a werewolf and you two broke the curse together!"

I laughed, I couldn’t control it and my laugh exploded. There was no way anyone could invent something more fanciful than that! I had already understood that I was not dreaming, so there was only one explanation for that senseless conversation, they were all crazy or I was the one who had gone crazy.

"Show her! Show her your power!" Flora growled at my disbelief.

All three of them stare at me

"Fairy tales are real, at least the ones with werewolves, witches and the bloody vampires. We have existed since before Christ, the world has always been full of magical creatures."

"Where did you get these things from?" I asked staring at Alice as if she were an alien, or had gone crazy at once.

"You want to know the truth, don’t you? So listen to the end without interruption."

I just nodded in agreement, if she wanted silence to make up some fantasy story, I’d give it to her.

"You descend from a line of powerful witches, just as I come from a long line of werewolves." Flora entered the conversation, leaving me even more shocked. How far would they take the fantasy story?

"Your name is Bridget Bishop in honor of your great-great-grandmother, the first witch to be tried and convicted in the attack on the witches of Salem." Agnes took the lead, filling her chest and speaking with pride. "She became famous and with her leftover ashes, we were able to channel even more power into our clan."

"I the what?"

"Your mother was also a witch, but she never told you anything, she didn’t think it was fair to throw ideas at a child’s head like her mother did before, so she preferred to wait until you turned eighteen to tell you the story of our people."

"The problem is she never made it to your fifteen."

"Quanah Parker, or just Parker as you once knew, is the Alpha of our pack." My confused face must have turned me in, because Flora started explaining. "He’s also a werewolf and you two broke the curse together!"

I laughed, I couldn’t control it and my laugh exploded. There was no way anyone could invent something more fanciful than that! I had already understood that I was not dreaming, so there was only one explanation for that senseless conversation, they were all crazy or I was the one who had gone crazy.

"Show her! Show her your power!" Flora growled at my disbelief.

All three of them stared at me and I stopped laughing, hoping for the invention of the time. So Alice started speaking in Latin, I knew that was the language because I had heard my mother singing in Latin before.

She raised her hands with her palms to the sky and the trees outside began to shake, the impetuous wind entered the house, opening the doors and windows, tearing down vases and making the old wood creak.

I turned to her frightened with that, it was not just a coincidence of the forecast, or a mere trick, the whole house was being ravaged by a gale.

Alice’s eyes were completely white, but he was not a dead, pale white, he gleamed and his light spread around the contour of his eyes, overflowing with that white light, like a fog around his gaze.

"Alice!" I shouted for her and with a few more words she made all the wind disappear. "What... What are you?"

Her eyes returned to the natural brown tone at once and she smiled at me, proud of her power. I would be, too, if I wasn’t terrified of finding out.

"I dominate the air, just as Grandma Blanca has dominion over the earth and you over the fire."

I swallowed hard and fell sitting on the chair. It was not possible for me to master an element, let alone fire, I had never been good at anything with fire. How could I master this element?

"I know what you must be thinking, dear. You don’t dominate it yet, but you will, because you have the power to control the fire within you. But like everything in life this needs practice."

"Did my mother also control the fire?"

"No, some of us are born without the power of the elements, but we learn to conjure forces with time."

I was confused, I didn’t know what to think of all that. Witch? I a witch? I couldn’t believe that was possible.

 "But there are more..."

"Enough Alice, we already told her too much!" Agnes protested and maybe she wanted to protect me, but I needed to know the whole truth. It was time to end all secrets.

"I want to know! I want to know everything!"

"She’s right Agnes." Blanca said making all the others shut up. " It’s time for Bridget to know her role."

"Many years ago a witch fell in love with a Lycan, our people were always enemies, until these two met and without knowing the origin of each other they fell in love. When they decided to marry the parents and all the people were against, they tried to make the couple see reason, but as they continued to love each other, the elders made a decision."

"They sent Sannah the wolf on a mission across the Atlantic and told Mary that he had died." Alice continued the story of where Flora left off. "She in her rage and in despair cursed both sides of the story, werewolves and witches. All the witches of Salem could not practice magic, while the punishment of the Lycan was to live apart, the pack could not unite and no new Alpha would take over."

"Mary gave all her power in life so that the curse would endure forever." Flora spoke and even her sweet voice, was not able to prevent an icy chill from rising up my spine. "That’s when something dark came to Earth, influenced by all the love that turned to hatred."

"Unknowingly Mary had given up not only her life, but the life of the child she was carrying. Then in her last breath of life, before she was taken by that hideous creature, she uttered that the curse could be broken, when the descendant of the first Wolf would unite and have a child with a descendant of her, and Bridget was of her lineage, but none of the unions that have come over the years have been able to put an end to it."

I couldn’t even blink, I felt like I could miss something from that story if I made any movement.

How could anyone have loved so much? And what did the hatred between wolves and witches cause so many people? I was wondering when something crossed my mind.

"Me and Parker are these descendants that she spoke of the curse?" my hands flew to my belly. "And this baby is the baby that would end it all?"

My breath shot and I kept staring at my belly, there was nothing there, it was still flat, no sign of a baby. But still I felt the need to touch and protect him at that moment.

"The moment this child was conceived the whole curse is over! That’s why I can finally practice magic!" Alice said excited with a wide smile on her lips.

"Many of us have spent generations unable to practice, they were born and died without knowing what it feels like to have control of their own power."

"And the wolves? Are they finally united again?"

Silence is present, if a needle fell on the floor we could hear,

It took Flora a long time to finally give me an answer.

"It’s a bit more complicated, we can get together and finally be like a pack. But it is something new, totally different from what we were used to, let’s say we are in the process of adaptation."

I felt she had more to say, but who I was to force her to open up, I did not understand her customs, did not even understand those of my people.

"Do you understand why it is now essential that we take you to Quanah? You need protection."

Agnes snorted and slammed her hands off the table scaring me.

"Enough, Alice! Stop talking, you want to scare the girl?"

I just ignored her, I had understood that Agnes preferred to keep me in the dark, full of medicines to keep me sleeping.

"Why do I need protection?" Alice looked indecisively at her mother and finally at Grandma, no one said anything, they all kept staring at me. "Can anyone tell me why I need protection?"

"Because we don’t know what can happen if you... lose the baby." Flora was the only brave one to talk. "William has tried to kill you, we can’t take chances."

"But we can use magic for that, we don’t need it!"

"It’s more complicated than you think..."

"You can please stop treating me like I’m a child! Speak at once!"

"The night the curse was broken a creature came to earth. We believe it was the same creature that came for Mary."

"We believe? Who believes and why no one has seen it yet"

If it wasn’t bad enough everything I was told, all the things I needed to assimilate now, learn to use my powers and now take care of a dark creature that’s here behind me and my baby?

"We all feel the presence, it’s like he’s a force upon any of us."

"Staying here is waiting for death, we may not know what he wants with you, but we are sure that good thing is not."

Blanca stood up from her chair and stared at me with the scariest eyes I’ve ever seen.

"The first time he came here moved by Mary’s hatred, so we know what moves him! Do you want to stay and risk your life and that of your son? The choice is yours."

I swallowed hard wanting to go back to sleep, back to a week when I was out in that bed, or rather, back to four weeks ago when I met Quanah Parker.

It was obvious that I only had one option, I had no other choice, I needed to face Parker, tell him about the baby and have his protection.

"Well, I guess we’d better pack, let’s talk to Parker!"