Chapter 71: Troubled Waters

It has been a few months since the slaughter. The three remaining children have yet to be claimed. Once they have been here for six months, they will join the pack.

I have been really struggling with what happened that night. I could have spared the Frost Moon children, but I didn’t. We did find out that the children were being sold to people who couldn’t have children. Black Market adoptions basically. This was concerning because several packs had reported that not all of their missing children had been found. If we don’t find them, then when they come of age, the supernatural world will be exposed.

I asked Samiya to use a locator spell. For that we had to wait until the parents of the missing children arrived. She would need their blood to track their children.

Once the parents had arrived, Samiya started the spells. We had seven children to track. For each location Samiya gave us, I sent a group of guardians to steal back the children. As for the human children who were still missing, we couldn’t do anything but leave it to the human authorities.

Just as Samiya was finishing up, an eighth family arrived. She performed the spell for them and as luck would have it, their son was already here. Little Jonah’s family found him. His parents were so grateful to us for finding their boy and keeping him safe.

Finding lost children is easier than finding the parents of a rescued child. But I asked Samiya to give it a try. Maybe we could at least find some relatives of Christopher and Sara. When trying to locate someone, witches generally need a blood sample from two relatives. So when they are looking for the parents of a child, it is almost impossible, unless they have a second blood sample. In our case we did not have a second sample for either of them. But I asked her to try anyway.

We set the other families up in the packhouse while they waited for the guardians to return with their children. Some of them could be here for a week. The good news was that all of the kids were still in the United States.

For Jonah’s family, they didn’t have to wait. We packed up the things we had bought the boy and made them some food for the road. We said our goodbyes and waved as they drove off.

By the end of the week all the families had been reunited with their children. But we had no luck with Sara and Christopher. Maybe they were orphans.

I came into some new powers on my trip, creation and destruction. I thought I had them under control, but I was wrong. My emotions were all over the place. With my powers tied to my emotions, I was having a hard time. Taylor and my mom tried to help me. They had me practicing my control everyday, but we were not having much luck. They called Phoenix to see if he could help like he did with Taylor. It looked like it was working for a while, but then I started having flashbacks to that night. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the dead children of Frost Moon. My guilt was eating me alive.

Not knowing what else to do, my mother called Nathan Morgan. He had helped her through some hard times. She hoped he could help me.

When Nathan arrived, we started having therapy sessions after school everyday. Things were starting to get back to normal.

I got to know the new guys better and even though they were seniors, we got along great. They weren’t as nerdy as my two best friends but they did like playing Magic the Gathering with us during lunch. Ethan and Lucas were not getting bullied any more but my emotions sometimes caused unintended side effects for the jocks. I was angry with them for the torture they put my friends through and every thought had something happening to them.

One day I was glaring at them and a lightning storm appeared above them. I had to calm myself quickly before Jimmy, Noah, and Sean ended up crispy. Another time, the tree they were standing under wrapped its branches around them and held them hostage for about five minutes before I could calm myself enough to let them go.

I was also having nightmares. I would wake up in a panic and find myself levitating off my bed. I had to get these under control. Especially the creation and destruction powers. I kept creating little creatures, I didn’t even know what to call them. I also kept destroying things I didn’t mean to destroy.

Nathan worked with me everyday after school. He was patient and supportive. I was not so patient. I just wanted to be normal again. Why did I have to eat that stupid heart? I don’t want to be a god. I was born to be a king and I was fine with that. I knew nothing about being a god.

Nathan said I was having a hard time because the events of that night were traumatic for me. He said I was still just a kid and shouldn’t have had to make those kinds of calls. But I was the king. It was my responsibility. The burden must always lie with me. It was my plan, my decision. No one forced me, I did it because I felt I had to, but did I really. I could have imprisoned them all, like I did with Pale Moon and Dark Moon. Of course they put up a fight and a little more than half of them died. I guess the real problem is that I didn’t give Frost Moon a fighting chance. With the exception of their leadership, I had them killed while they slept. Did that make me evil? Would I be just as bad as Khenzu?

I was having a panic attack. Nathan came over and tried to get me to take deep breaths. I couldn’t do it. My heart felt like it might explode. The darkness overtook me.