Appleberry(Completed)

Ch. 27: All Hollow's Eve

Phoenix had sent a car to pick us all up. When it arrived, Phoenix stepped out in his Dorian Gray costume he looked so darkly handsome. He stood there with a white rose.
"Hello handsome." He beamed.
He handed me a white rose. "Speak for yourself. You look absolutely stunning."
"Sloane, we need to talk before the party." I heard dad coming down the front steps.
I turned to look at him. "Dad, can this wait. Please? I have to take care of stuff tonight."
"What's wrong? What is your dad wanting to talk about?" Phoenix whispered behind me.
I turned around pushing him into the car. "Let's just go."
We waited for everyone to get into the car. All I could do is stare at dad. Was he crazy? Marriage? I was only eighteen. I hadn't even gone to college. This isn't the 1820s. It was 2018.
"Um, babe, why are you giving your father the death stare?" Phoenix leaned over and whispered in my ear.
I glanced over at him. I looked at those beautiful green eyes. "He wants to plan us getting married."
Phoenix's eyes got big. "Excuse me?"
He wasn't expecting me to tell him that. "What? Would you not want to? I mean it is our fate."
"We haven't even graduated yet. We haven't even gone to college. Who knows how long we will be together. We just got together." He swallowed hard.
I let go of his hand. "That's exactly what I said."
"We are still young. They need to give us time." Phoenix held my hand.
I turned to glare at my dad again. Between what was going on with Bowie and Gwendolyn and now this. What else could happen?
We had pull up to Phoenix's mansion. It was all decked out with lights and décor for Halloween. It was beautifully Gothically haunting. 
Phoenix helped me out. "What do you think?"
I was in awe. "It is incredible."
Phoenix grinned. "So, are we okay?"
I glared at him. "Yes. It's my dad who I'm upset with a little."
Everyone was headed into the mansion when Phoenix took my arm to hold me back. I turned to look at him. "What?"
"Don't be mad at your dad. He is just thinking of long term. The curse didn't say we had to get married." Phoenix chuckled.
I took his hand leaning into him. "So, would you want to marry me?"
"I would want to marry you. But we need to make sure things are all figured out and settled before anything else." Phoenix kissed my hand.
When he done that, every worry went away. Phoenix settled the flames in me. All my senses from being a wolf and all the magic from being a witch; when it felt like it would be out of control. With Phoenix, it was all content.
"Come love birds. You want to see what's going on, you can't do it standing from there." Zig came back outside to get us.
I rolled my eyes putting my forehead against Phoenix's chest. "We are coming."
I took Phoenix's hand and went inside. Once we entered the mansion, the foyer was beautiful and huge. It had Halloween décor and lights. It was just straight up wicked.
"There you two are. Aren't we supposed to get Bowie and Gwendolyn together or in separate corners to interrogate. Or whatever." Ziv was standing next to Zig.
"We need to get them in separate rooms. Phoenix and the twins will go with me to find Gwendolyn. Ozzi, Jett, and Bodhi go find Bowie." I grabbed the twins from the food and let Phoenix lead the way.
Zig and Ziv were behind us messing around while Phoenix led us to Gwendolyn's room. "You really should keep a leash on your betas."
I laughed. "There is no way I can keep those two from being wild. They just love their freedom and live it well."
I looked behind me and the twins settled down. As soon as I looked forward I could hear them at it again. I shook my head. I loved my fleet.
"So, which wing is Gwendolyn's room on?" I walked beside Phoenix.
Phoenix chuckled. "Actually, it is on the west wing. Up in the attic."
"Why the attic?" I don't know why I asked. It was probably where she kept severed heads and her dark magic. I never once trusted her since coming to Appleberry.
Phoenix shrugged. "She loves being up in the attic. It is through a door to her own little world."
"She is a royal brat, isn't she?" I nudged his side.
"Honestly, yes. I can't stand her most of the time." We now stood in front of the door leading up to Gwendolyn's bedroom.
Phoenix looked to me then to the twins. "Everyone ready?"
We all shook our heads. He went to open the door. But it wouldn't budge. He tried again. Still nothing.
"What the hell? She never locks the door." Phoenix face turned into confusion.
"Let me try something." I scooted him over.
I put my hand towards the lock. I focused, I could feel it was locked by magic. Not by the lock. She was hiding something.
"Can you open it?" The twins said in unison.
"Just give me a second." I put my back towards the door knob.
Every spell in magic was like a code. It was like there are certain codes for certain spells. But with another spell, you can decode it and switch it around. Then bam, the spell was reversed. I could feel it. It was running through every vein in my body.
Then the door slowly creaked open. "Woah."
The twins high fived each other. Phoenix squeezed my other hand. "Great job babe."
"Thanks. Now, let's go see what's up there." Phoenix went first with me in the middle and the twins behind us.
When we were up in her room, it was nothing we expected. Instead of bubbly innocent Gwendolyn style. It was dark, black, gloom, and not the Gwendolyn we see every day.
"Did you know her room was like this?" I looked over at Phoenix.
Zig and Ziv went around and started looking through everything. "No, I mean I knew she wanted bad blood to stay in the family and she was a brat and sometimes vengeful. But this, no."
Gwendolyn had skulls everywhere, snakes, rats, and black magic spell books. Amongst other things. "What in the world is she up to?"
"I have no clue, but I really don't want to find out." Ziv said picking up a skull.
Zig made a face. "Dude, put that down. You have no idea how she got that."
I looked at them. "You really think she'd kill someone to get a skull."
Phoenix laughed. "I'm not sure. But that is our great great grandmother's skull. So, do be careful with it."
Ziv threw it to Zig who threw it back to Ziv. I got in between them and caught it. "Guys, have some respect. Go and make sure Gwendolyn isn't coming up to her fortress of darkness."
They laughed and ran down the attic stairs. "Phoenix, do you think she'd actually harm or kill anyone?"
Phoenix held a rat in his hand, petting it. "I have no clue. She is vengeful, and she used to hurt our animals when we were younger."
"That makes her sound psychotic." I put down their great great grandmother's skull.
"I think she may be or just evil. Who would hurt a poor innocent animal? My sister apparently." Phoenix took my hand and led me back down the stairs out of Gwendolyn's room.
The twins were standing there passing back and forth a flask. "Really you two? You are supposed to keep a watch out. Not drank."
"Sorry, Gwendolyn is down at the party. Jett texted us." Zig took another drank out of the flask.
"Come on you two. We need to go down to the party." I grabbed Phoenix's hand.
When we got down to the party, everyone was dancing. Not your upbeat in the club dancing. It was slow dancing. Everyone was doing it. All unison. It was beautiful until I saw that the only two that weren't dancing were Gwendolyn and Bowie.
I went to step into the room when Phoenix stopped me. "No, don't."
"What?" I looked to him.
"It's a spell. They don't know they are in it." Phoenix stood there glaring at his sister.
"What's the matter brother?" Gwendolyn had a dark smile on her face.
Phoenix's hands went into fist. "Why are you doing this?"
As the crowd parted, Gwendolyn made her way through the crowd with Bowie right behind her. "They are just dancing."
"Yeah, but you are doing it. Stop. Now." Phoenix raised his voice.
"They will stop dancing when I say. I can make them dance until their feet bleed." She gave a vile laugh.
She stopped right in front of us. Bowie standing behind her. "Bowie, can we talk."
Gwendolyn's head snapped to me. "No. You have no right to him the day you broke his heart."
"I have no right to him. He isn't some play thing Gwendolyn. He is a person. He was a part of my fleet." I was trying hard not to cry.
Gwendolyn smiled. "Alright, Bowie what do you want to do?"
Bowie looked at me not saying anything. "Bowie, please."
He just stared at me. "You broke my heart. Even though I'm no play thing, at least Gwendolyn gets me, and she chose me."
"Chose you? She picked you because you're vulnerable. Not because she wants you." Tears pricked my eyes.
"Wrong, she picked me because she saw something in me. You, you only cared about this stupid curse. Why couldn't you just be with me?" Bowie screamed.
"You know why. You were hot and cold. Plus, it didn't feel right. We wouldn't have worked." I swallowed back the tears.
Bowie's head hung. "You didn't even try."
"I didn't have to try to know that it wouldn't work." I tried to step towards him.
He stepped back. Gwendolyn stepped in between us. "He is mine now. He cut off the tattoo, he doesn't want to be in the fleet or around you."
"What he does is on him. But he has freewill to do what he wants and who he is around or with." I greeted through my teeth.
That pissed Gwendolyn off. When she screamed, it was like a shrill. Needles piercing our ears. We all covered our ears. When she stopped, she took a deep breath.
"Saint Sloane. All high and mighty. You really think you are going to win." Gwendolyn was face to face with me.
"There is no win or lose. I just wanted to know why you picked out Bowie when you could have had anyone else. You could have just left him alone when he was broken. He is still broken." There was no way I was going to flinch under Gwendolyn's glare.
She chuckled low in her throat. "Oh, silly naïve Sloane. Do you think this curse is the only thing you will have to overcome? You are a witch and part wolf. There is more out there."
I stepped back. "What do you mean? More than the curse, what are you talking about?"
I looked to the twins to Phoenix. "What does she mean?"
Zig put his hands out not to startle me. "Maybe we should talk about this later."
"Talk about what?" I could feel everything in my body boiling.
"There are other things that could come after us. Covens who don't want us together. Fleets that don't want us together. Elders who think it's unethical. They may stop at nothing to keep us apart." Phoenix ran a hand through his amazing hair.
"So, we have to stand up against some covens. What's the big deal?" I threw my hands in the air.
Gwendolyn threw her head back and laughed. "You really are naïve. They are going to try and kill you. Or Phoenix. They'll kill whoever stands in their way. That's why I'm not on anyone's side except my own."
"Why didn't anyone tell me this? That, that is what would happen if we got together." I was yelling.
"We couldn't tell you anything but the curse, Sloane. We all decided to just tell you about the curse and your birth right and let you do as you please. "Ziv explained.
Zig spoke too. "Yeah, freewill. We had to give you that."
My mind was racing. Of course, there was more to the story. "Dad should have just kept us in the city."
I turned around and started walking out the door. "Sloane, where are you going?"
"I don't know. I've just got to get out of here." I walked down the steps throwing my hands up to close the doors behind me.
I sealed the house, so no one could get out until I was gone. I got in a car and took off. I knew I had to go to the house to get clothes. But from there, I had no clue where I would go. Did I want to go back to the city? Did I want to go to some other state and run through their woods as a wolf for months? I had no clue. For now, I would just drive. Thinking of how everyone lied. They lied to me about all of it. At least they didn't tell me all the truth. I get the whole freewill thing, but they could have told me everything and then let me figure it out. I could have taken it.
The phone rang. I looked over at the seat it was in. It was Phoenix. Then dad and Bodhi. I didn't want to talk to any of them. Except one. Frankie.