Bound Book 2

Chapter 37 - History

Skylar

"Firstly, I just want to say, I'm really sorry about your parents. When that accident happened I was a little younger than you. I can't imagine what that must have been like," Mira says to me with what appears to be genuine empathy and sympathy.

Usually, I wasn't so skeptical of people's true feelings but with Mira having been part of the hunter's network, I was weary of her involvement. Luckily for her, I wasn't one of those people who assumed the sins of the father were automatically the sins of the family. I would try to give her the benefit of the doubt. Surely if she accepts Andrea, the person who killed her own father, then she can't entirely have agreed with the hunter's code, morals, and activities.

After arriving back at the mansion in Maine last night, I showered and crawled into bed, exhaustion overtaking me. The tiredness had not dissipated by morning, which was unusual as I always felt refreshed when sleeping next to Dmitri, who cuddled me all night long. Perhaps I was just stressed out.

After dressing and packing our bags this morning, we made our way to Andreas' villa, the very one I was currently in, sitting at a large table outside by a massive pool. The villa and its exquisite gardens loomed majestically around us, spanning at least two properties. A picture of someone sweating their ass off while pushing a lawnmower across the vast expanse of lawn had me pitying the imaginary poor soul. Though more than likely it was probably one of those fancy ones you sat on.

My attention is brought back to the table as a server comes to clear my plate. My appetite this morning had been raging after not eating much last night and vomiting the contents of my stomach up at the celebration. Thankfully, the nausea was easier to control today and if I shut out the smell of the meat floating around me I was okay. I briefly look over at Ally, Raina sitting to her right, wishing there had been a minute for me to chat with her about this. She would surely have some medicine that could help me.

"So what exactly do you know about Sky's parents and the accident?" Dmitri pipes up from beside me, asking the question I have not yet vocalized.

"Are you sure you want to know?" Andrea asks, concern on his face as he looks between myself and Dmitri. "I don't want you resenting Mira for something she says that you don't like. Or that hurts you. She is no longer part of that world."

"I'm not a kid Andrea. I'm not going to hold anything her father has done against her," I laugh, easing the tension in the air.

Mira smiles and then takes a deep breath before talking.

"Okay, so most of what I was told was years after the accident you and your parents were in. My father made sure I was kept in the dark about exactly what The Guardians were doing until I was much older. Until I became a hunter. When he still had delusions that I would replace him once the time came for him to retire," Mira says, the disgust evident in her softly spoken words at the end.

"What very few know is that my father was next in line to take over as head of The Guardians. He was being groomed for the role but it hinged on one condition. He was to find and kill the person the Legend referred to."

"Now in order to understand this, we need to go back a bit. The Legend sits at the center of everything. It actually indirectly spurred on the creation of The Guardians no less. All those centuries ago, when Elsabeth was still alive," Mira says, pointedly staring at Raina as she says this, "she had a vision. In this vision, the Legend was born. She wrote it down in a book. The book I know you currently have in your possession and are busy translating." Raina nods in agreement as Mira continues.

"Elsabeth at that time was involved with a werewolf named Valentin. They were in love. Scandalous of course as it was not common in those days for supernaturals to fall in love with someone outside of their own groups. While Elsabeth was well known throughout the supernatural world, Valentin was a lower-level ranking wolf, with no Alpha blood to speak of. His only claim to fame at the time being this rumored relationship with her. While this didn't matter to Elsabeth, it mattered to Valentin. He became jealous and resentful of her. Of her power and fame in the supernatural world. One day he came across this vision, the Legend, that Elsabeth had jotted down. While I'm not entirely sure what the Legend says as it has been watered down and altered in its retelling over the centuries, we do know it spoke of a chosen one. The one marked by the goddess Renenutet... often depicted as a serpent."

Mira pauses as what she says sinks in. All eyes are on me as I look down at my wrists. The black snakes almost seeming alive as my wrists rest on my lap.

Dmitri clears his throat as he eyes Mira, prompting her to continue.

"Valentin wanted this power for himself. To stand outside of Elsabeths shadow, as he saw it. But he couldn't do it alone. Betraying Elsabeth, he convinced his Alpha that the witches were looking to take this power for themselves and that they must find the chosen one before the witches do. Spurred on by the promise of power and by the already existing division between the different supernatural groups, the Alpha rallied a large group of werewolves. They went on a rampage, destroying many cities and towns looking for the prophesied chosen one. It was so bad that the humans retaliated in the formation of The Guardians."

"I remember that. It wasn't just the human population that suffered many losses. All wolves were thought to be allied with Valentin, whether they were or not, and were killed regardless. We were on the brink of extinction. Those were dark times," Dmitri says, his tone filled not with anger but rather sorrow. I knew he was old, but the way he spoke made me think he was there when it happened. I realize I still don't know how old he is.

"When the dust settled, the Legend was written off as the ramblings of a witch. The pursuit of it had led to so much destruction, it was best swept under the carpet. And that's where it remained for many centuries. That was until twenty years ago when Elsabeths book was pulled from the archives by Salinah," Mira says, the name jolting a memory from before the accident.

"I know the name. She was a friend of my mother and grandmother. I saw her often at our house when I was younger," I say, remembering the elderly woman with the streaked grey and brown hair. She always smelt like patchouli.

"Yes, she was a powerful witch. She was part of a mixed coven that was taken down by hunters shortly after your parent's accident," Ally says, sadness on her face as she remembers.

"It played a big role in setting the foundation for the checks we currently have when we move in next to neighboring towns. The hunters infiltrated an entire town nearby, wiping out that coven and pack with such efficiency it set a precedent as being the worst incident to happen to the supernaturals bar the one that incited the formation of The Guardians." Dmitri's words now have me understanding his obsession with guarding the pack borders and all the surveillance he has everywhere. Necessity and a bit of paranoia born from history.

"It was at that point that the Legend resurfaced. My father was tasked with finding the chosen one and killing them. They couldn't risk the power sitting with a group that wasn't human. He had hunters follow Selinah, leading them to your house. Your parents got wind that they were being watched and fled. Hunters put a tracking device on your parent's vehicle, following them to a location on a deserted road in Maine but by the time they got there, the vehicle your parents were in was already overturned. Your parents were dead. No one knows what happened but the skid marks suggest they swerved off the road, almost as if to avoid something in their path."

There is a long silence as we all digest what Mira has just told us. Hunters, while still involved in my parent's accident indirectly, were not the cause of their accident.

"I know, it's not much comfort Sky. Obviously, if hunters didn't force your parents into fleeing they wouldn't have been on that road and wouldn't have had an accident. But they were not directly to blame. We may never know what happened that day. But what I do know is that when the hunters found you, you did not have the mark of Renenutet. You also seemed disorientated, not knowing what happened or where you were. That saved you. My father, while a beast most of the time, couldn't order the death of a child who didn't appear to be who he was looking for. Perhaps the only good thing he has done in his life. More than he has ever done for me," Mira says bitterly, looking away as her voice breaks at the end.

She reeked of a stolen childhood and I felt sorry for her. Growing up in that environment can have been easy. It's like growing up in a cult. Andrea pulls her to him as tears slip from her eyes, this trip down memory lane hard not just me. 

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