Tears slid down my face as my face was discussing what was happening with Troy and Maria. Hermes was holding me from behind as we leaned against the wall, away from the others but it was hard to find comfort. I had killed someone. I thought I could do it, after all what Carmina has done but when I saw her burning alive—I just wanted to save her.

“Can you all stop it?” Hermes said coldly. He rubbed my arms, “It’s been one crazy night, but we should all sleep on it.”

My mom got up and walked over to me, “He’s right, Jaycee. You look exhausted. Everyone, we’ll talk tomorrow. Right now, I just want all of this settle in. We’ll talk about it tomorrow, alright?”

“Everything not going to be same now.” Troy said. I turned my head and looked at him. “Our people will learned of your family abilities. Everything going to change.”

“We don’t know what that means for now.” Maria said. “It could be a good or bad thing.”

I looked up at Hermes and leaned my head against his chest, sighing heavily. He rubbed my arms, pulling me close towards him.

My mom sighed heavily, “Change is always good.”

“Abigail, not all of us going to like this.” Troy said. “Our people—it’s like politics. They’re figure out something to—“

“I don’t care about that right now.” I said, speaking finally. “One night—I just want one night where everything is at peace. No one is a witch, warlock, or a wolf. I don’t care about it right now. Right now, I just wanna go lay down. What is the problem is now finished and I’m no way ready to start another one on the same night.”

Grandpa stood up, sighing heavily, “She’s right. We should all just be thankful everyone is okay. Tomorrow we’ll all meet up at my house and we’ll discuss stuff but right now we should rest. My children and grandchild did allot of stuff tonight than what they ever did before. We should all go.”

Hermes followed me towards the staircase and I knew his parents were watching us, but he didn’t leave my side. When I got up to my room, I never been so happy to be here. I sat on my bed, staring at my floor. Hermes sat next to me, silent as I way. I reached my hand out and took his hand in mine. He was as scared as I was.

The others had found us covering our eyes and scared.

“Do you think we could ever un-see what we did?” I asked him.

“Of course it’s possible.” he said. “Magic is the last thing I want to do right now though.”

I nodded, “Same here.” In the corner of my eyes I saw him turn his head to look at me so I turned my head to look at him, “I would do it over it again though. I really thought something might have happened to you and—“

He shook his head, “I don’t wanna talk about tonight.”

“Don’t leave me.” I said. “I don’t wanna be alone."

“I wasn’t planning on it.” he said. He reached up and brushed my hair out of my face, “You’re so much braver than I thought you were.”

We got under the blankets and I rested my head on his chest. It was quiet the whole time, neither of talking but I found myself okay with that. As long as he was here, I didn’t care that both of didn’t say a single word the rest of the night. I tried not to think of Carmina and how the guilt spread threw me like wild fire. I don’t know what happened to her after I had covered my eyes and I don’t think I want to know. I just know she’s dead and it’s because of me.

Was there really no other choice?

*

I gasped as I woke up, waking Hermes up. I sat up, running my hands threw my hair and sighing heavily. I was dreaming of what happened but Hermes hadn’t covered my eyes. I had been watching as she burned alive and it was horrible.

Hermes sat up and put his arm around me. He brought me close to his chest, kissing the top of my head, “Were you dreaming about it to?”

I nodded, “Why do I feel so guilty?”

“Because it’s a normal thing to feel this way.” he said. “I would worry if you hadn’t felt bad because than that mean you capable of killing with no remorse.” he said, trying to lighten the mood.

“I had burned her alive, Hermes. I wonder if Juan every felt this way when he watched as he burned those people back in the day.” I said. He brought his other arm up around me, “She was still a person, even if she was nuts.”

“She wouldn’t have left you alone though. She was trying to kill you to start with, Jaycee. She wouldn’t feel guilty right now like you do.” he said and I knew what he said was true, but it still hadn’t made the guilt go away. He pulled us back down on the bed and kissed my forehead, rubbing my arm, “You’re a good person, Jaycee.”

*

“We don’t particularly have a leader.” Troy said, rubbing his right temple. “We have rules, but there’s no leader. We listen to the higher witches and warlocks, but they’re way more experienced and they’re know how to keep the balance of peace. Carmina was one of them.”

“She wasn’t particularly a good one though.” my dad said. “Why would they care so much? Isn’t she some kind of betrayal to your people for using black magic?”

“They’re not going to take your kind side no matter what she has done, I feel.” he said, sighing. “They’ll only become afraid of your kind now that we all know you all can do magic as well. They’ll think you’ll start some kind of war.”

“War?” my grandpa asked coldly. “We’re wolves, but we’re also people. We have families ourselves like you all do. We’re not wild animals like you all think we are.”

“We know that, but they won’t.” Maria said. “We just have to talk to the higher witches and warlocks to get them to understand that. It won’t be easy, but we’ll try.”

“I don’t want Witches and Warlocks coming after my family.” Uncle Skyler said and everyone nodding. “We didn’t do anything but save our own kind and one of yours. That bitch was a lunatic and I won’t have my children and wife in danger because of her.”

“Hardly any of can even do magic like Jaycee.” Aunt Lena said. “Our cousins can do allot of things, but us? We’re hardly experienced.”

“We’re not even using magic.” Uncle Jamie said. “We understand the risk of it and we choose being wolves more than magic.”

My mom cleared her throat, “What are they going to do once they learn about Hermes and Jaycee relationship?”

“We’re hoping that’s what makes the peace treaty.” Troy said. “Make them see we can all come together and build a new trust together. We all have to learn not look at each as if we’re the enemy anymore though.”

“Past is the past and it should stay there.” Hermes said.

Grandpa sighed heavily, “This curse is over three hundred years old and it started from one man’s mistakes.  We learned from it and there’s a bunch of us now.”

“It’s wild to meet someone who is a far distant relative.” Uncle Shay said. “I met a man name Ben Russo who was a wolf but we couldn’t go back so far to figure out which relative we share but we share the same blood.”

“Imagine in a hundred years.” Hermes said, making my eyebrows furrowed together. “There will be a bunch more of your kind. There should become a peace treaty anyways, the time should be now before it’s too late.”

Troy sighed heavily, “This isn’t going to be easy. It’s not just gonna happen overnight. It could take months before they agree. They’ll want to meet you all. That means you’re whole family has to know and I mean all of them.”

“We don’t know where every last wolf there is. We don’t know how many of us there really are.” my dad said.

“Then we should start spreading the world.” Uncle Tristan said.

“That isn’t going to be easy for our side either.” Grandpa said. “You know our kind don’t like the witches and warlock just as much as they don’t like us.”

“It’s crazy how things are changing.” my dad said as he looked around at all of us. “A few weeks ago, we were just wolves.

“We still are.” I said, finally speaking up. I looked at my whole my family, “I had to realize that. I was actually starting to love being a witch more than a wolf. I was losing myself and I realized how wrong I was. I was a wolf before magic and that’ll never change who I am. It won’t change us, we’re all still wolves and it’s the number one thing we’ll always be. Nothing should change about us.”

“A little change is always good though.” My grandpa said, nodding at us. “Hermes is right—another hundred years and the world will be different. For all we know, the human world could learn about us. We’re changing, but for the better. Not the worse.”

“We’re all still family no matter what.” Aunt Lena said, smiling. “We’ve all been through hard times and we always pull fourth.”

“As cheesy as it sounds, we all got each other’s backs.” Uncle Jamie said.   

“We’re Russo’s.” grandpa said. “Family first, wolf second.”