Chapter 80

Chapter 80
Rayan POV


Two days later.



"Shh… shh…" I hugged Ryden close; he wouldn't stop crying, and he was once again hungry.


"You have to be quiet," I whispered to him, trying to muffle the noises he made by tucking him closer to my chest.


"Does that thing ever shut up?" the woman with evil eyes snapped, glaring over at us.


"Shut it up," she said, pointing a long narrow finger at me. Josie glanced at us nervously before rummaging through the bags she’d brought from some small convenience store. We had run out of formula already. I pushed my thumb in his mouth, and he made hungry sucking noises gnawing on it with his gums.


I missed home. I had been trying to mindlink mom and dad but couldn't reach them. I tried Lucy and my uncle's but nothing. I had no idea where we were as I looked around the dark wine cellar.


"I need to go get more formula," Josie said, and I went to get up and follow her. I liked our chances better with her than I did this crazy witch. Last night, I watched her skin some poor creature as she made something in her cauldron. She didn't even kill it first; its tortured cries would forever haunt me, and I was glad Ryden was too young to remember this.


"No, you wait here," Beryl snapped. Her wild eyes pinned me where I stood, clutching Ryden in my arms. I shielded him away from her glaring eyes when her nasty eyes went to him, squirming in my arms. He was heavy, and I had been holding him for two days, too scared to place him down in case that witch did something to him.


Josie looked over at me and smiled sadly, and nodded for me to sit. A bit late to feel bad now; she did this. I begged her to let us go. I tried to convince her to let us leave him near the forest edge, knowing my dad and mom would have heard his cries or sensed him, but she refused to leave him.


Josie left but hesitated at the stairs leading outside, looking over at the woman.


"Go, and hurry back. Alpha Jamie will be here soon. if it annoys me too much, I will get rid of it for us." I stiffened, and Josie stopped.


"He is a baby. Babies cry," Josie told her, just as horrified.


"I will take him with me."


"Fine, but the boy stays. I will need him in a minute," Beryl snapped at her, and Josie rushed over to the makeshift bed I’d made out of cardboard and hessian bags.


"Let me take him," she whispered, glancing over her shoulder at Beryl.


I hesitated, looking down at my brother, who suddenly cried out, and the woman screamed in frustration before throwing a jar at us. Josie moved quickly, taking the impact, and her back arched as she snatched him from my arms. She made a pained hiss before tucking him close to her chest inside her jacket.


"I'll be back. Just do as she says," Josie whispered, and I looked at my baby brother.


"He's safe," she said, darting out of the cellar and up the stairs.


Beryl muttered under her breath about whining babies, mixing her cauldron that stank like cat shit.


Her hair was wild and gray, her evil eyes gleaming as she stared into the cauldron’s contents. One eye was black as coal, the other a whitish-gray; she almost looked blind in that eye because it had no color. She was skin and bone and looked like she was knocking on death's door, her hair falling out in patches leaving bald spots.


She was everything I had ever pictured a wicked witch to be, and she was wicked and crazy.


"Oi, you boy, get here," she said, not even glancing behind her as she called me over.


My stomach growled hungrily. I hadn't eaten in two days, and the motion of standing after spending so much time sitting made me dizzy. She grabbed my arm with calloused fingers, her nails stabbing into my skin, leaving little half-moons imprinted in my skin.


She hauled me toward the cauldron, and I resisted when she slapped me. My ears rang, my cheek burning, and I growled at her.


"Am I tempting your beast, boy? Never mind, you will meet him really soon," she snarled, her teeth black and green in places. The stench made me want to gag.


"Give me your wrist," she said, holding out her hand. "I won't ask again," she snapped, her gray-white eye shaking in her head before it settled on me. She gripped my wrist and yanked me to the cauldron, my other hand gripping the side, and I hissed as it burned me. The boiling bubble inside was black like tar and stank of death.


The cauldron burned through my shirt and burned into my stomach as I clutched it to stop it from falling in. My hand was blistering under the heat as I clutched the side.


Beryl grabbed a knife and sliced it from the inside of my elbow to my wrist. I tried to tank my arm away as my blood spilled out as she held it above the cauldron. My vision flickered and blurred, and I felt faint and queasy as the room tilted around me.


"Jamie wants to hurry up. I need my mutation here," she rambled.


"Suppose Josie will do it if need be," she said thoughtfully before letting me go, and I fell backward on the cold, hard floor. My blood spilled onto the floor as she wandered off to the wall covered in jars. She grabbed a few off the shelf, but I could feel my life essence spilling out of me.


"Not long now, boy, and all will be right in the world. Avery will be dead, your family dead, and Jamie thinks he will be the next Hybrid King. Fool. No one can take that title, but for now, he lives, and you shall play the part and be his daughter's mate. I shall be the next high priestess. Avalon City will be mine, but first, I need to take care of that bitch Avery and get my power back, and you will help me."


She said more, but the blood loss sent me spiraling into the darkness as it swallowed my sight.