Red

I felt my raw skin against my fingertips, blood rushed back into my pale, dead body. At first, a numbness passed through me, letting me feel nothing but as minutes passed by, I gained control of my limbs. My senses returned, different scents from the beaches nearby caught at my nose and I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with life after being dead and trapped in my own wolf.

Wolf.

My eyes dashed across but my wolf was nowhere to be found. Was she killed?

"Hello, sister." Annabeth said, standing over my coffin, her hands collected over her stomach as she looked down at me. "Alive much?"

"I can't believe it." I blinked and pinched myself—I had too, it didn't seem real at all but when the pinch on my arm ached, I understood it was real. "This..." I breathed and got up from the ground. "...it feels so unreal, Anna!" I hugged my sister tight before she returned to her resistant, cold self.

She gave me a light pat over my back before pulling away. "Welcome back, I told you I would get you out of your wolf."

I took her both hands and traced my thumb over her palms before meeting back with her gaze. A wide smile overtook my features and I sucked in a sharp air. "And I can't thank you enough. I didn't really think it would work but it did. So, thank you for saving me, or bringing me back from the dead—whatever—but I owe you a lot for this." While speaking, I couldn't uphold the lines as there was an ache at the back of my throat. My voice was croaky, dried and my mouth parched, in desire of water or anything liquidly.

"It's not me who you should thank." Anna turned me around to the woman who had still been standing at the edge of my coffin.

Cordelia inspected both of us, her lips lined together and she said, "So, you two are twins?"

"Non-identical!" Anna exclaimed.

"Doesn't seem like—"

I walked by her side and interrupted her. "We are. And, I'm more than grateful for bringing me back. Whatever you need, I'll do. You gave me life, Cordelia."

She chuckled, evilly. "Just remember, I can always reverse the spell if needed so don't try to fool me." Her hand raised out at me and my smile disappeared. I swallowed the bile at the back of my throat and shook my hands with her.

"I won't."

I didn't need another Gretel in my life, and the agreement we made was for only till we learned the secrets of the Alpha Dillion, once the task was completed, Cordelia promised to set us free and we did believe in her. I had no plans of backstabbing or running away on my own. A little time out of the States, away from my family, away from Luciano was going to hurt but I was willingly to take a chance.

"Good." Her cold hands tightened cruelly around mine. "Your wolf won't unleash itself for a while, so, you can't shift. And, it will also take a while before your body can manage to practice witchcraft it, give yourself a break till then." Cordelia explained to me.

I nodded. "Thank you and I will."

Her eyes narrowed and she grasped my hand harder when I tried to pull away. Fear crawled up at my heart and I gasped out of uncertainty. Was there something else she wanted?

"I need some of your beauty. Annabeth had given me hers, it's time to take from you." Cordelia said before grabbing my other hand and holding both of them tight. Her lids fell over her eyes and she did something that pinched the bottom of my heart.

It was a few seconds later she released my hand. The deep wrinkles and lines over her face slightly faded, her lips turned into a dark shade of red and her under eyes brightened.

Annabeth moved hastily behind me before taking my hand while the strange women adjusted herself. "It's fine, she takes beauty of young girls to make herself seem younger. Nothing will happen to you." She whispered in my ears.

I pulled myself away and spun around, my gaze fell upon the coffin and I found my crown lying still in there. The sand brushed against my bare knees as I kneeled and picked it up. The diamonds on the Queen's crown shone so bright under the sunlight that I felt as if it was going to blind me. It was intense—I desired for the crown for months but didn't get it up until I died.

Luciano crowned me as the Queen, as his Queen.

A laugh broke out of me but it was replaced with a hundred of tears, streaming down my cheeks as I sobbed into my elbow just by remembering the last day of being alive. All I felt was bliss when I killed Gretel, but when she attacked me back and took away my life, my whole world crashed.

"Aah, come on, it's going to be fine. Be happy that you're alive." Annabeth plopped beside me and wrapped her very, unsecure arms around me. "Look at me, I had no family, and just by meeting you, I felt as if I got everything."

I sniffed and held back anymore tears. "I know. It helps a lot that you're still around here even if we are trapped. I've you by my side and that matters to me as well."

"Good. Wipe those tears, we are going to have fun regardless of what Cordelia wants us to do!" She gave me an inappropriate wink before slamming the coffin shut. "I'll have someone keep this protected while we are here." She gave the coffin a small tap before walking away from it.

I stood off the stand, the crown still around my hands. It was mine. I had to keep it with myself until this all was over. Couldn't let anyone take it away from me.

We left the local beach after everything was sorted. Cordelia had been waiting for us to stop crying and whining about things and instead worry about the work she was going to give us. It was a short ride across the town before we reached a small apartment in a broken building.

"Tell me again why we are here?" Anna asked, cocking her head out of the window and gagging at the sight of trash outside the building. She was the one driving and wherever Cordelia wanted us to go, we had too, as per our agreement.

"I know someone here." Cordelia jumped out of the car, stronger and wilder than usual—most probably after sucking the beauty out of me.

I touched my face out of fear. Did she leave anything?

"Step in!" She held the disturbingly nasty elevator for us and we stepped inside while holding our breath tight.

The elevator stopped at the third floor and Cordelia stormed out before entering an open apartment where the smell of smoke and filth was strong. Annabeth and I stopped at the doorway and released our noses to get comfortable with the scent. Our gazes stopped at the women sitting inside the apartment, her legs were dangling from the couch and she had a cigar pressed between her lips.

"Cordelia!" She shouted upon seeing her. "What are you doing here and why do you look so young today?" The smoke circled in the air as she hugged her.

"I bring two young witches, Jayla." Cordelia replied, motioning at us. "To work at Dillion's mansion. I know he has been looking for witches to keep himself protected from me."

The woman named Jayla came over to us. "These are way too young—" She assumed it from a single glance at both of us.

"—young but strong. I know this one, I taught her magic and this is one is her sister. They both have been really popular in the States." Cordelia explained, touching Annabeth's shoulder at first and then mine. "Just what Dillion is looking for."

Jayla folded her hand over her chest. "Mhm. These two can work out but I'll have to take them to Dillion myself or he'll believe you sent them. But, I'm not quite sure whether or not he'll be willingly to let them stay at the mansion. Your plan cannot work from the outside, right?"

Cordelia groaned and grumbled. "Of course not! I need you to take them and force Dillion to keep them. He'll be a little hesitant but he does need protection from me after all!"

We didn't even dare stepping inside the house as it was that crappy. The tiles underneath us were creaking, the furniture was half-broken and the amount of smoke inside the apartment was suffocating us from the outside.

Jayla burned her cigar. "All right, all right, I'll take them to Dillion tonight. Have you told them what needs to be done?" she asked.

From what I had learned, the woman wanted secrets and whoever the man named Dillion was, was trying to stay away from Cordelia at all costs. Perhaps, some old romantic history.

After all, werewolves and witches were never a match.

And after one ruined relationship, we witches were known to ruin the werewolf that had brought tears to our eyes.

"I've told them everything." Cordelia whipped around and gave us both a smile. We returned it. "Just work around, learn everything you can, find secrets, visit the forbidden rooms in the mansion and once everything is done, return to me and I'll set you both free." She repeated everything, making it clearer than it was already. 

Let's hope she isn't getting trapped again. 

What do you think? 

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