A year later, after slowly adjusting to this new normal, Fenris and I wed. It was a small festivity with our two-year-old toddlers running around the entire place. Rem had to be in her dad's arms most of the time, refusing to leave to the point that she would start crying if she wasn't with him.
Those little heterochromia eyes would shine brightly every time she pouted when Amelia came for her. She even held his leg, refusing to go, remaining there while we took our vows—not that we minded sharing the spotlight with Rem.
We had a small gathering for our wedding in the Silver Fang Manor as only our truest friends were there. Melody and Liam had already married each other before we got the chance. Ben had traveled with Tania but returned for the moment Fenris and I would be bound for life.
Sadly, the vampire beauty was always more concerned with her job than the relationship with the older brother, but that wasn't something Ben minded. This wolf's loyalties rested with his family, too.
It was probably why their relationship worked the way it did. Though I could tell he wished she would come to him to settle down at times, he knew traveling was what she loved. Her career was first, which wouldn't change.
So, he would join her whenever he wasn't busy with his brother. After all, Fenris didn't need him as frequently, and neither did I. Something I didn't quite agree with as he was the sole reason I was still alive.
He was also the only father figure I knew. For the wedding, Amelia insisted on me wearing a beautiful white dress. I wasn't comfortable about it, but I relented when she didn't back down. However, Fenris seemed incredible in his white tux. Yet the moment he set eyes on me, the words flew out of his mouth.
"Gods, you're beautiful, Lily. I don't think I can be crazier about my wife." He purred, trailing his eyes down my figure.
Not once did this wolf ever say I lacked something to please him. Vera, who was more attached to me, stayed nearby with Amelia, staring at me with those beautiful purple eyes, which glossed every time I went too far from her.
She was the shyest of the rowdy bunch, while Caden and Aiden were more interested in the surrounding people. However, Aiden wanted to be with little Sophie more than anyone else, even though she had just started to walk.
After the wedding, I developed my magic even more, creating a new type of magic. I hoped to stop Alijah whenever he returned to this world with it as Fenris struggled to shut it down.
However, I was still far from mastering it, and it was something only my offspring and I could possess. Back then, when I sent Owen to his death, I thought I had used necromancy, but Aria told me it was something else entirely.
Necromancy was more about bringing the dead back to life, soulless, rather than dealing with life itself. Since what I did had no name, I called it Spirit Magic, which involved people's spirits or souls, alive or dead.
This magic was why I could travel into the soul cairn and call on them to aid me, earning me the title of summoner. However, that was something I tried to limit. Witches and warlocks always could deal with souls, but it was more for the dead than anything else.
While I studied this new magic, I found myself lost in its capacity to expand into something else. By the time little Vera was ten, she appeared to have inherited that trait from me. Rem also appeared to be sensitive to this magic, although it was too unstable for her to use, thanks to her closer connection to the blood moon.
At the same time, I discovered that souls comprise many components. This happened when I tried to find a way to save Alijah from himself by attempting to separate the part of me who he loved from me.
However, it was missing, leaving only behind fragments of where it used to be. Souls were made from the memories that they experienced while alive, yet they persisted into the next life. So, I hoped to create his Lilith by extracting the memories from my past life and implanting them into a doll.
The entire thing was far-reaching, as it would have involved creating a new body for her memories to live in.
A homunculus…
I didn't know how that would've ended, but it didn't matter since there was no way to recover those memories. That was when I realized what Edna planned to control Alijah with. It wasn't the new variant of wolfsbane, iris, but the prospect of seeing the one he loved again.
Edna had already outplayed me in this sense, leaving me with breadcrumbs that lead nowhere. This witch knew how to hide. After all, she had hidden for thousands of years before this. She had even survived a purge of her kind.
In the end, there was nothing I could do to stop Alijah from wanting to destroy everything once he returned.
My only choice is to end you. I'm sorry, it seems my wish won't come true.
This witch won at every turn, and I saw no other way but to kill the mad wolf. It was almost as if she could see into the future—a trait that eternal witches didn't have. By the time Vera awakened to her powers, I had trained her in everything I had learned.
Her magic was more stable than mine, meaning she would have to be the one who subdued Alijah, and unlike every other witch, she possessed no grimoire. At the age of ten, she got the familiar hound, who was cockier than Shade.
He popped out one day out of the blue and was like he had always been there. Perhaps something about us linked us to the beasts within the Soul Cairn. Shade's and Ruzgard's personalities usually lead to banter between them.
It was hard to concentrate to get Vera focused on her studies because of it. Fenris took the helm in preparing the boys and Rem for anything in their path. Although this little luma was unstable in every sense of the word, she was far stronger than an average human, which meant her dad had to teach her how to control that strength.
They had many outings to different places while I stayed behind, waiting for them to come home. Sadly, I couldn't help but worry each time they left. I always voiced my concerns to Fenris, but he promised to keep them safe.
Even so, I constantly nagged him to be careful with Rem, who was too stubborn for her good.
"Daughter like mother." My wolf chuckled as I huffed back at him.
The little luma didn't want to stay behind in everything she did, even when told to stop. Usually, she tried to follow her robust brothers and was completely unaware of her limitations. She was the only one who couldn't shift, leaving her senses dulled.
This made her a runt, which was rare among lumas, especially when they came from purebred Lycans. Yet, in Fenris's eyes, his little girl was perfect, and he was always careful with her.
But... when fate dictates something, it usually happens without anyone to stop it.
One day, when we were out fulfilling our duties at Cerberus, an accident happened when the kids were twelve. A maid was supposed to watch over the kids for the day, but she had left them alone for two minutes to answer the phone.
When she returned, she only saw Vera reading one of her books in the living room. The other three were gone, which wasn't unusual. The trio loved to cause trouble no matter who was around.
However, tragedy struck when they found Caden, Aiden, and Rem. Our little girl, who never accepted her limitations, followed her brothers to the roof. With one misstep, she fell from the manor's roof onto the ground below, creating a catastrophic event.
Fenris was already there when I arrived, holding Rem, who had gone berserk. The boys were terrified inside, barely consolable, while their father struggled to keep her down. Darkness radiated from her tiny body as if she appeared to be a shadow beast herself in her wolf form.
Like Melody had been years ago, the beast within her was out of control. Even though she showed no signs of shifting before the moment her life was in danger, it all changed. I had never seen such a rabid wolf who appeared possessed while she snapped at anyone who came near her.
Even though Fenris was using his power to try and quell her, he struggled. She didn't recognize him or me, and those heterochromia eyes shimmered with pure hostility throughout the event,
Sadly, before we got there, she slaughtered five people who had come to her aid. Witnesses said she was lying on the floor in a pool of blood before she attacked. According to those who survived, she was unconscious with labor breathing before she suddenly went rabid.
After struggling under Fenris for a few more minutes, she automatically shifted back into her humanoid form out cold. Fenris grabbed her in his arms protectively while searching for any injuries in her body.
I ran to them while everything appeared to slow down when I saw her lifeless in his embrace as the dark aura slowly dissipated from her, leaving behind the color she once had. The entire event was written off as an accident, but Rem wasn't the same after that day.
The following day, we searched her for any traces of a curse. Much to our horror, we located one, but it wasn't like any I had ever seen. The little Luma radiated with the energy found inside the soul cairn, leading us to believe an artifact had been used.
However, what killed me the most was that I couldn't help her like I had with Melody. This curse was something she would have to learn to live with. Luckily, it wasn't the end for her. All I had to do was kill the witch who cast it.
You who dare call yourself a friend or foe are nothing more than a monster. I'll hunt you down and kill you even if it's the last thing I do!
Usually, curses lasted if the witch lived, so if Edna died, it would free my baby girl. Sadly, the years rolled by, and once again, all I had to show was empty words as Edna continued to elude me.
Sadly, this turn of events meant Rem was stuck indoors for the years to come. We feared anything would happen to her, preventing us from sending her to the freedoms our other children had. It was unfair how she was the only one to suffer this fate, which made me want to keep them all together by the same rules.
Yet this was something our baby girl refused to have her siblings share.
"If it's my fate to be like this, then so be it, but don't let me limit Vera, Caiden, and Aiden. I don't want that to ever be the case." Rem sighed, biting her lip.
"If that is what you wish, my love." I cupped her cheek as her beautiful eyes watched me carefully before shaking her head.
She was only thirteen, yet she deserved everything that Edna robbed. I swore to protect her from the world, but was utterly useless. I thought I would never come to hate anyone, but Edna filled my heart with what she did with Rem, and I wasn't the only one. Fenris was also helpless in helping his little girl.
After that event, he could not take her on any more trips. This led us to promise to protect her at all costs, even though it partly cost her happiness and freedom. Part of me wondered if we were being too overprotective, but the thought of losing her to the unknown drowned everything else.
Sadly, it took another seven years before anything else happened, but that story wasn't mine to tell.
No, that belongs to someone I cherish more than life itself. The next part of this tale is told through their eyes, and what a story it is. Who would've thought they would try to save the person I thought was beyond rescuing?
Even though I wished for it so long ago, I had given up hope for you. Twenty years ago, to be precise, I hoped you'd find your light.
The book closed as the tale of the witch who lost it all, only to gain more than she could ever wish for, ended while a new one began.