It's dark!

Or am I blind?

Is it my imagination or a dream? Or is the wind really singing?

Where am I?

A loud bang is heard, making me startle and focus around me. I try hard to locate something, anything but end up seeing only darkness.

Around me the wind swings, flinging my dress and swirling over my feet, trying to play with my hair and slip past my fingers. Looking down at my fingers, I finally breathe a sigh of relief when I am able to see my hand.

Slowly I look at myself and relief starts coursing through my veins when I realize that I am not blind. I can see my body, my dress and then my body that is visible even when I am wearing a dress.

My thighs are visible and my arms are visible but when I focus on my torso, I realize that this part of my body is hidden from view, it's covered modestly by the dress. Swirling to the left, I observe the dress swishing too and that's when I realize that my feet are bleeding.

My feet are bleeding!

Choking on my own breath, I open my eyes; now able to see around clearly. And I still find my feet bleeding. But what shocks me more is the fact that I am not at Fenris's home. No, I am not sleeping in my bed.

I am right in front of the wall. The wall of Legacy. And it's on display.

But why?

And how did I reach this place? I do not remember walking all the way to this place. And who unlocked the Legacy wall?

"Welcome, my child!"

The voice!

Turning towards the sound, I breathe loudly when I see a person standing in front of me.

A person or an angel?

Silvery bright hair flows down her shoulders while mercurial eyes watch me with so many emotions flowing through them.

She's... she's... "Mama!"

I cry out as my hands automatically flail, trying to touch her, to feel her presence, hoping that it will soothe my pain. Unfortunately, she doesn't let me touch her. My hands pass through her translucent figure and only then do I realize that it is in my mind where she is present, and not physically.

"My daughter!" whispers mama while lifting her hand in the air. She walks a bit closer and then touches my cheek. A tear slips from her eye, and I hurry to catch it in my palm. When the tear lands on my palm, it turns into a pearl.

A very beautiful pearl.

Another tear falls on my palm and meets the same fate as the earlier tear.

Now twin pearls bounce on my palm, making me look at mama who's smiling down at me.

My confusion must be very much apparent because mama nods at me and then softly closes my palm with the twin pearls trapped inside my palm.

She smiles at me serenely and I feel my own eyes well up at the feel of her palm against my cheek. How I had yearned for her touch when I was being tortured.

The memories wash over me and a whine slips through my throat, making her whine too. She waves a hand in the air and soon, the wind around us makes me feel cold.

She waves a hand over my hand, and her warmth seeps into my skin. I gasp as tears escape from my eyes when I feel her hand over my head, leaving a cocoon of warmth around me.

It's a gift.

"You are the gift, my love."

With those words, she vanishes into the mist around us, leaving me alone with the wall where my name shines proudly.

Looking around and finding myself alone breaks the dam and I let loose all those tears that have been trapped in my heart for years.

Sobbing was never my thing but tonight when I stand in front of the wall that's beating with the help of my mother's blood and magic, I finally allow myself to crumble. Only this wall will be my witness and the world will forever see me as the aloof witch princess.

"That's not true," whispers someone as soon as those thoughts strike my mind.

Jerking up from my seat, I turn around, now standing on alert as the hair on my arms stands up in alarm.

Someone's here!

And the wall is still on display!

Shit!

That must be the first time I have cursed.

Cursing again at the stupid thought, I jerk once again when I catch a movement in the dark corner of the cavern. It's like a tail is shaking. But who's tail?

"Relax, Zvezda. I mean no harm. Neither to you nor to the wall of your family," a gravelly voice speaks and slowly the owner of the voice makes his appearance. And what I see, shocks me.

I have never seen this man before. But his aura seems to be very familiar.

His eyes look older than the wind around this place. Almost as ancient as the wall standing behind me. His straight posture shows his agility and the warrior in him. His skin is dark, and his hair is black but his eyes; his eyes are aqua-green, almost translucent.

"You are a pure soul," he whispers while raising a hand from under his cloak. "May I?" he asks but I am not sure why is he asking permission and what for.

"I need to see the wall closely," he whispers, answering my unasked question and I gasp, trying to gauge if he's in my mind.

As if knowing what I am thinking now, he shakes his head. "I am not in your head. Your eyes are asking those questions. I am just reading your eyes."

"How do you do that?" I ask, unable to keep quiet. This man is making me curious. He seems to be full of secrets.

As soon as I speak my question out loud, he closes his eyes and bends his head. "Your mother's voice. You have it. Do you know that you can heal a wound if you sing for the injured?" he asks and my eyes widen at his statement.

"No, is... it's true?" I stammer and walk a bit closer to him, his words ring true in my head.

He looks down at me and smiles, however, his smile seems to be strained as if he doesn't know how to smile. His gaze then shifts to my fist, inside which my mother's tears lie.

"Those are the pearls of light! Keep these with you always and light will shine upon you and your family!"

"Who... who are you?" I stammer while staring into his shimmering eyes. Eyes that speak far too much than his face. He is old, older than my father, perhaps older than my mom. Wait, my mom was older?

"Yes, she was. Your mother was a witch. Do you know how old your father was?"

"No," I shake my head to justify my confusion.

"Adrian was 99 years old when your father was born. And your father was 30 years old werewolf when he met your mother. She was not his age. Neither was she younger. She was a lost soul who survived only because she was waiting for your father to be strong enough for her. She had a vision about her unique mating and the war that would erupt out of it."

I try hard to digest this news. Supposedly mamma was older than dad? And how long can a werewolf live? But mom and dad both looked very young when they held me in their hands.

"Yes, they were young. A werewolf doesn't start ageing until he turns 50 years old. Your mother was a witch. They stop turning old at the age of 19. That's the beauty of being supernatural. You maintain your agility and strength for a long time."

"Oh."

"Your grandfather was my best friend," says the man startling me. If he was my grandpa's friend then it means that at this moment this man in front of me is more than 150 years old. This man is ancient!

"Haha!" laughs the man, startling me as well as him. He laughs as if he doesn't know how to and surprisingly I find it quite amusing.

"Amused at my expense are we, my dear?" he chuckles and it makes me smile at him.

"You are an exact replica of your mother. She was a great daughter to us. To all of us who never had the privilege to father a daughter."

"All of who?"

"To Adrian, Horace, and me. Evanora's biological father died when he was very young so she didn't really know what a father was. That way she also loved to treat us three as her father figures. Her one smile used to turn our grey lives brighter. Her first pregnancy almost gave us a heart attack and that's why she kept her second pregnancy a secret from all of us. Her mate, blind that he was in her love, agreed to her naive request. The couple forgot that they had 3 Kings supporting them. Had they given you and your sister in our safekeeping, all of this would have been avoided."

A whimper leaves my throat as I choke on my own tears. This man in front of me is my grandfather's age. If they were so powerful why and how did Xavier overpower them?

"Well, every dog has his day?" answers the man in front of me with a careless shrug and I chuckle through my tears.

"That's not really true," I shrug my shoulder, wondering that I am such a person who will never know how to live happily.

"Why is that? Aren't you happy now? You have finally avenged yourself. Finally, you have found a mate, a brother, a sister and almost half a dozen cousins if we count their mates as well."

His statement now makes me laugh and it causes him to smile wider than before.

"That's my girl. You are light. Your time to shine has come."

"Thank you but..."

"No buts. Just accept it and move ahead in life. I know you cannot forget anything but you are now strong enough to choose. Choose wisely and recall only the happy moments of your life."

His aqua eyes shine brightly as they look at me with deep longing. I nod at him, accepting his advice.

"The Queen of Wolves gave you the same advice, didn't she?" he asks, making me frown. How does he know that?

"I know her. She knows me. But the King doesn't know me. The right time to meet the present Kings is yet to come," he whispers, confusing me.

Kings?

Before I could ask him anything, dust flies around us and I am forced to close my eyes.

"Someone is coming. I must leave," whispers the mysterious man in front of me and I force myself to open my eyes, using some of my magic to clear the dust around us.

"No, wait."

But before I complete my statement, he is out of my sight while the Legacy wall still stands proud behind me.

"NIKITA!"

I gasp in shock, jerking around to look around myself. Trying to search for the person who called my name or should I say roared my name, I am surprised to see Fenris standing right in front of my bed.

Bed!

I am in bed and I am sweating while Fenris stares at me with wild black eyes. His panic is so evident that I don't even need my magic to feel his emotions.

The moment I am coherent enough to take in my environment, I realize that it was a dream. Or perhaps, I sleepwalked.

I am not so sure. It felt so real.

"Nikita! What's happening to you?" Fenris's question shocks me as he walks around the bed and sits beside me, pulling me into a tight embrace.

I sit limply in my brother's arms, still trying to relate the incidents that I experienced before I woke up in my bed.

"There was someone," I whisper but I don't know how to complete the statement. It just feels so weird.

"You weren't dreaming. You were almost dead. You weren't breathing. What the hell was happening to you?"

Fenris's words through me off-guard. I wasn't breathing? How is that possible?

What's happening to me?

While questions run through my mind, I am still numb from the dream or sleepwalk that I had.

"Open your fists. Your hands are numb," Fenris whispers after pulling away and immediately I recall mumma's tears.

With a bated breath, I open my fists, but focusing on the left one, not really sure if whatever I experienced is true or just a dream.

"Those are diamonds," whispers Fenris while I am gawking at the tear-drop diamonds that bounce in my palm. They are my mother's light. 

~~~

Thank you for reading!

Hoping to upload the next chapter soon. 

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