The Witch's Curse (Book One)

Chapter Three:

  

That night the visitations came back for the first time since my "father's" death. They always took place on the same abandoned beach, a beach I had never stepped one foot on in my twenty-one years of life. The moon was the only thing lighting the path for the beautiful angelic woman to guide herself by. Her long white satin dress flowed around her as she walked towards me just like the previous seven times. Even though I didn't know her past my dreams, something about her pure essence made me feel completely and utterly safe, but my amulet had other opinions about her. Her cold icy blue eyes examined me, trying to look into my soul, but she didn't seem able to penetrate my defenses.

"You've held your guard, Melody. I wasn't able to meet you for a while." she whispered to me. Her voice was just as sweet, but something about it dug into my stomach like a knife, twisting itself into the most painful place possible.

I turned to look at her face to face. "What do you want?" I glowered. Even with the angelic figure she tried to portray, I could still see the demon lurking inside of her.

"You're full of so much power. Way more than I had and yet you want to waste all of it. I set up your life so you could have everything you wanted, but you still yearn for more." she sighed. I knew what she thought of me, a selfish coward. If it were her, she would have found a way to make the Council of Magic move up her coronation, and she would not have allowed five strangers into the palace.

"You gave me nothing. You left me in a world of lies to fend for myself. To protect myself. To discover what really happens in the realms by myself. You left me a destroyed realm. I had to grow up without a mother because of you, and now you won't even tell me the truth. All you do is suppress secrets from me and invite yourself into my conscious. I am done with this! I have better things to do than meet with you" I hissed.

With that, she stood over me with as much intimidation as she could manage. "You will not speak to me in that tone. I am your mother, and you will treat me with the utmost respect."

"You are far from being my mother. You aren't dead, and we all know that. You're hiding like the coward you have always been. What happened? You couldn't be with my real father so you took the only choice you had and ran away to find him like a selfish whore. It is a good thing thirteen realms getting destroyed gave you an opportunity to leave, or you would have been stuck here, raising your three daughters."

"You have no idea what you are talking about. Melody, you have no idea what happened that night, and you have no place to talk to your queen like this." she countered. Her eyes held the terror everyone in the kingdom feared, but to this day, it still did not take a toll on me. My mother's powers were not physical like the majority of mine are. She possessed the affinity of mind manipulation, and both of us knew why everyone believed she was a great ruler. Mass manipulation was difficult but not impossible.

"You are not a queen. Once I find you, we will all destroy you and those demons you've been hiding out with." I tried. The truth was I had no clue if they were working with her, but her shocked expression told me I hit a homerun. I knew my mother was not a warlock. Becoming one would force her to give up the powers given to her by the Council of Magic and accept demonic powers. There was no guarantee what kind of powers they would give a former queen.

She just smirked. "You cannot defeat us. My powers with theirs are too powerful."

"I have reinforcements." I cautioned.

She let out a cackle that fit the perfect terms of a human's nightmare. "Those wannabes can't even defend themselves. I'll take out that blonde you are so fond of out with one strike."

"You will not touch him!" I yelled. "These are innocent people. Where is your sense of decency? You know these people did not ask for this life. You will not maim them just because they happen to be associated with me."