Psychic

XXII

Victoria shrugged, feigning concern, "It's not that hard to understand. I need you to give me your power."

"What – How?"

"Psychics are a rare breed of magical creature. There is only one of us born every quarter year, and to a random family each time. Do you know why that is? Do you know why there are so little of us? Let me give you a little history lesson.

"Back before recorded history, magical creatures and humans lived in harmony. The ruling race was the Psychicae. They were, as you could tell by the name, the very first psychics. But then some of the people – the ordinary humans got suspicious of their power. They tracked down and killed every last Psychicae, except for four. These humans enlisted the help of the warlocks to do something heinous.

"Magical Law states that no one group of creature could be totally eliminated, because the balance of the universe depended on all of these creatures. So, as a compromise, a group of the most magical warlocks cast a spell, and set in stone that no more than four of us can exist at a time. And every quarter century a new psychic would be born, so that the race didn't totally die out. Their birth family was random, a precaution set by the Warlocks, who feared the humans' ever-growing ignorance. If no one knew who the next psychic would be, then no one could control them.

"So, henceforth, we were an endangered race, doomed to be such for eternity. After this the humans got wary of every creature not human. In the very start of recorded history, humans feared creatures of fables, except back then they knew we existed. Since then, humans slowly forgot the stories of their ancestors. Magical creatures kept out of the limelight, and humanity simply forgot that they were even real in the first place.

"But the Psychicae did have one secret that the humans and warlocks alike never stole. Our book of prophecy and the knowledge it held. Psychics are able to lend other psychics their power, something meant to be used in dire situations, a defense mechanism if you will. We cannot use our powers against each other, but we can give them to each other if we needed to.

"And now I need you to give me yours."

"Why?" I asked, bewildered by the gleam in her eye.

She chuckled, something deep and threatening. "I might not have killed the royal family, but that doesn't mean I was a sweetheart. If thirteen years of captivity taught me anything, it's that the warlocks are not meant to rule. When humanity left us, the warlocks took charge as the second most powerful race. They were also the closest to humanity, besides ourselves. But the only problem was, they weren't the ones who should've been ruling, we were.

"They fear our power, like they should. They fear it like everyone in the world should. In fact, the whole world should know of us again. They should know and fear us as more than a fairy tale to tell their children. And I was meant to be that ruler. I was meant to rule the magical creatures back to how we were before humanity got ignorant and dumb. I am the one meant to bring us back to that age, but I'm not nearly powerful enough to do it.

"You've just proven that you can beat magic which I cannot. And, if we're being honest, I know how to properly use this power you hold. I've lived with it longer than you have, and I'm more trained. You are just a child, you cannot control this power you have. If you give it to me, I will use it right, and the world will finally give us the recognition we deserve."

I didn't look over at Magnus to see his expression. I knew what he was thinking. I expected the 'I told you so' to be given in his judgmental eyes.

Victoria was actually the evil mastermind everyone thought she was. Great. Leave it to me to befriend my worst enemy.

I thought Victoria would be like she was in Hawthorne's memories, nice and understanding. But something changed in her after all those years of capture; after Hawthorne's obvious betrayal to her trust and love. She was changed from that innocent girl.