419- The Fall of the Elders
POV Viktor Averwyn:
“We have to do this together. I’ll focus on weakening the magic, and you use the fear pheromone on them. They’ll be forced to answer and grow weaker and weaker. It might work.”
I didn’t wait for her to continue.
I placed Seraphine behind me and concentrated, joining my hatred to my determination. My brothers did the same while Elowen extended both hands.
Groans came from the old men as they writhed on the bed, trying to shield themselves. The earless one pleaded hoarsely:
“Stop!”
“Answer everything!” I snarled.
The mouthless one collapsed onto the bed, curling up and whining. The other two trembled violently. The blind one finally whispered as if in pain:
“Yes…”
“Tell us who you are, why you killed our parents, why you kept us alive,” I demanded. “Why you tried to kill Elowen and Seraphine. What the prophecy really says. Now, damn it!”
“Ah!” The earless one collapsed too, shaking violently.
“Easy… please…” the blind one begged.
My fury was so intense I was seconds away from killing them. Seraphine wrapped her arms around me from behind and whispered softly:
“You need to control yourself, or they’ll die before answering, Viktor.”
“All of you.”
My brothers and I restrained ourselves slightly, and the old men stopped thrashing, breathing heavily with exhaustion. Elowen stayed focused on the energy, keeping it weak enough for our pheromones to reach them.
“We managed to reduce the wars and unify the clans.” The blind one breathed slowly, his weak voice echoing toward us. He sounded like he was in pain, panting harder and harder. “We survived because we are hybrids of humans, wolves, witches, vampires, and many other organisms. All those… mixed cells… created what we are. Mages. Strong in mind. Weak in body. And for wolves… that is no advantage. We would never become kings of any species that formed us.”
He fell silent, exhausted, his head drooping to one side.
“Continue!” Edric’s voice came out sharp and commanding, and the earless one dragged himself upright and continued:
“There was only one way for us to become immortal and rule everything… if the prophecy came true only in part.”
He paused. The mouthless one remained curled up but seemed attentive, the three communicating as they always had. Their minds united as one.
“The true prophecy says that…” the deaf one continued, “if the three Supreme and pure Alphas are born, and then die naturally without finding their soulmates together and without leaving descendants, we would ascend.”
“But they could not be murdered. They had to reach five hundred years and perish naturally. All their power would pass to us. Finally we would stop dying and become more than alphas. Everyone would submit to our power, our magic, and our laws. Even humans. The world… would belong to us.”
“Motherfuckers…” I snarled. “You couldn’t kill us. That’s why you removed our parents and erased our memories, separating each of us. You never raised or protected us. You were waiting for us to rot in our graves.”
“They used magic to bind us to them,” Aldren growled furiously.
“The goal was to stop us from finding our destined mates. That’s why they’re weak now. Because we’re with them.”
“They never tried anything against Lunara because we mated the first time we met. If she died, I would die too.” Edric clenched his fists. “Manipulative bastards!”
“You tried to kill Elowen!” Aldren roared. “Tell us everything! Were you behind the poisoning? The spell on Orion? The witches?”
The mouthless one stared fixedly at the deaf one, who sighed as though he had heard him.
“Yes. Samsara, the witch who fell in love and attacked your village, belonged to us. She did excellent work making you suspicious of any destined mate. She was the only witch we ever used. Hybrid witches were dangerous. They could expose us. That’s why we created laws against them and hunted them.”
I looked at my brother. He had gone pale. Elowen trembled beside him. I knew about the nameless witch, the one who had almost destroyed him. Rage consumed me as more questions formed in my mind.
In a weak, hoarse voice, the old man continued:
“Korlina remained alive because she was already ancient and close to death. We knew her power was weak. I don’t know how she found enough strength to enchant the necklace that brought Elowen here. Kehin was always our informant in Valmorin. During Samsara’s attack, he knew the exact time and place to save you, so you would feel indebted to him.”
“Shit!” Aldren’s fury pheromones intensified and the old men whimpered. He had to struggle to lower it again. “Now I understand why that bastard betrayed me so many times!”
“Exterminating hybrid witches was our goal the entire time. They began appearing as territories expanded and attended the lust festivals. They could connect with the castle’s magic and discover things they shouldn’t.” The old man nearly collapsed, groaning in pain from the fury surrounding him.
“They enchanted Felibér and Orion to poison me,” Elowen murmured.
“Orion provided the herbs?” Aldren ground out through clenched teeth.
“Yes.” The eyeless one recovered slightly. “Both of them had Konrad’s help. He was in your house that day. They were supposed to make sure she died. But they failed. When she was imprisoned here, we still couldn’t do it. The guards were easy to manipulate, but the ancestresses were too powerful and protected her with magic. We couldn’t break through. Elowen also refused to eat or take the medicine we sent, claiming it was anticio.”
“You planned everything! And that traitor Konrad was involved!”
Aldren glared at me, breathing heavily.
“If you hadn’t ripped his head off, I would have!”
“They killed Korlina in a hurry… so she wouldn’t speak too much to me, afraid she would tell me something,” Elowen said tiredly. “Once we had mated, they couldn’t kill me anymore.”
At last, the loose ends of the recent past started making sense.
But I still wanted answers.
“Now I understand why you did everything possible to kill Seraphine.”
I focused my pheromones on the blind one, who seemed slightly stronger.
“How did you know it was her?” I demanded. “Why did Konrad surround her a year earlier and not kill her then?”
I pulled her tightly against me, realizing how close she had come to death, my heart hammering against my ribs.
He inhaled sharply, his head resting against the backboard, trembling faintly.
“You drew us to the gypsy village when you started visiting constantly. Your mother… Lioara… back when we lived in Astraluna, told everyone she knew your destined mate would be human and descend from an ancient people connected to the supernatural. It could only be a gypsy. We… waited and watched. When you took your first woman, we thought it was her.”