Blue Moon

C H A P T E R 18

BETRAYALS

ARRAH

Another vision but a different experience.

Mayari stared back at me through the water's reflection. I was one with her–as if I was seeing these events on my own. I didn't know how but it's as if I was experiencing everything she went through. Reliving her past.

She told me her story through her own eyes.

Years ago, my ex-husband's eyes were murderous when I meekly sat on the ground chained by my captor. He was angry because he knew what I am capable of and saw the havoc I could raise. He knew I could break my chains and kill the enemies as easily as breathing. I have killed before. At his bidding, I've destroyed his foes as we entered a village. No one was quick to react and their protectors fell dead by my hands. A conquest I made sure was a success.

'Your people will pay for this!'

He growled at me in warning before his men fell back and retreated. He knew my weakness. My old village was his only hold on me.

I've stood back and watched for far too long as he razed village after village. Until then, I bid my time, as I made sure that he trusted me enough to call his men off our land. When the last of his beasts stepped out of my village, I cloaked our lands to hide them away. No man tainted by the blood of these beasts shall ever walk in my people's midst. My tribe shall never have to live in fear.

I visited my sister in a dream to inform her of what I was about to do. It took a lot from me to cast that spell so far from home. A lot. I locked my people away to keep them safe. Ironically, the tide has changed. I, who once was hidden away, isolated them.

But they could always leave the protective cloak. My spell was to keep the enemies and any belligerents away and not to keep them locked away forever.

I gave them the choice I was deprived of.

However, when I shut them in, I was shut out of my homeland. The only way I could return was if someone sought me out and invited me back in. I could not risk it though my sister offered to find me and take me back with her. I declined and just told her to warn our people about giving outsiders access to the village lest they invite the wrong ones in. The price I had to pay was that I could never return. Theirs was to live in fear and distrust.

They will know how lonely it was.

There was no time to spare. It was only a matter of time before my husband found out about what I did. I had to act fast and free myself now that nothing was holding me back. The raid to the village of his strongest rival was the only opening I saw.

I only sought to be free and live the remaining years of my life unchained. I never hoped for more.

Until...

Until I was holding something very precious in my heart. Equally or more precious than the love I have found in a half-man half-beast. The one who wanted to kill me the night my husband, the one I was trapped into marrying, attacked them. He looked at me gratefully, happy as he held our daughter in his arms.

It's the happiest I've ever been that it scared me.

I only wanted to live a simple life - to love and be loved for the rest of my days. Alas, it was not meant to be. The same greed and thirst for supremacy and longevity that plagued their kind have killed that dream. My beloved's people re-ignited the war. Our daughter was but less than a year old.