Violet's POV
My mom is giving me weird looks right now. It's almost as if she's seen a ghost.
"I should have expected it" I hear my mum say.
"Expected what?" I asked. I'm sure this is related to Kendrick and the witches.
My mum looked me up and down as she checked for something on my body.
"Thank God they didn't hurt you" Now I'm sure this is related to the witches. She sure has a lot of explanations to render to me cause this is all too baffling, and in one night at that.
"Let's go in and talk mum". By now my mum had regained her normal poise and it seemed like the reaction from her earlier was all fake. But I know it wasn't fake. This is as real as it gets.
"They've really found me" my mum said as she stared at my body. I followed her line of sight and I saw the black blood that stained my clothes.
"Who are this "they" mum?"
"You don't need to know"
"Mum!"
I couldn't help the scream that came out when my mum tried to brush this off as nothing.
"I already know mum, and I suggest you trust me and tell me what this is all about, My life is in danger here as well."
"Go freshen up first, when you are done we'll talk. In the mean time I'll try to clear my head."
I did as mum said, I guess she needed time to take in all that has happened as well. I quickly showered, put on my pajamas, and headed to my mum's room.
"If they come to you again, you have to dismiss them." Those were the words my mum uttered when I had sat on her bed. She was sitting in front of her vanity, her back facing me.
"But why?" I asked. Are they not your people?, From what I heard you are their princess.
"Their princess?" My mum turned to look at me with blood shot eyes.
"Where were they when I was suffering? When I was kept in the dungeon for years? When my precious son was taken away forcefully from me, when I was tortured, when I was starved. Where were they?" My mum said painfully, the last part almost silent.
This is deeper than I thought, what happened in the past?
I stood up to pour my mum a glass of water. She needed to calm down for this conversation to proceed.
"Mum...what happened?" I asked after my mum had calm down.
I sat on the floor next to her chair and held her hand while looking into her eyes. I could see it without her telling me, The pain, the suffering. What the hell did they do to my mum.
"Do you want to open my old wounds, Violet? I honestly want to forget all that has happened. If they're suffering, just know they brought it upon themselves."
"Which son were you talking about mum?" I asked only to receive a downcast reaction from her. I don't know what wounds she was talking about, and I definitely do not want to open them, but this... this is all too confusing.
"You really want to know huh?"my mum let out a sad chuckle before a silence of what to seemed to be more than a few minutes settled.
"I was just a teenager" she started.
"I was meant to be enjoying life like most of my peers, but I was up in my room, with my mistress, learning etiquettes required for a woman that is meant to wed soon. I was only 14. As clouded as my life was, there was just one ray of light that kept me going, Richard. He was a hybrid of a werewolf and a witch. He was my everything. My mum neglected me, my father was just a puppet. You see in the witch clan, women rule. It is the only clan where women had more power than men" my mum turned to look at me before she continued.
"Richard was my all. I would usually sneak out of my room through the window to see him in the forest. He would tell me how things were outside the walls of the castle, how his day went, what has been going on in our clan, he would keep me informed. My mum found out about me and him and she banished him from the kingdom and hurried up with my marriage plans. I was depressed until the night of my wedding, when Richard came. You wouldn't imagine the joy I felt. I begged him to get me out of here, to take me to where he was staying. I didn't mind how poor we have to live, I just didn't want to be here. I suggested that we eloped. But that was just the start of our misfortune. If I hadn't made that suggestion, Richard would have been alive by now."
My mum explained all this in silent sobs. I was starting to get a glimpse of what happened. I squeezed her hand to reassure her.
"It was not like we had no place to go to, Richard was also a part of the werewolf clan. We looked for a pack and settled there. We stayed there for two years and by then I got pregnant for Richard. It was a normal thing back in the days to marry early, and also give birth early. We were so overjoyed. Richard went to the forest to hunt for some animal so we could celebrate the birth of our baby boy. One night, two nights, Richard was no where to be seen. It was on the third night that I recieved a knock on the door. My mum, the queen of the Divine coven, was at my door, and in her hands were Richard's head. She didn't even give me time to understand what was happening before she ordered her men to drag me and my child back to the castle. That was when I was separated from my son, and till this day I have not laid eyes on him, I don't even know if he's alive or dead. I was kept in the dungeon, tortured, starved, raped regularly by the guards who kept watch. I was treated worse than a slave. I spent ten whole years of my live living like that Violet, ten whole years."
Every single word that came out of my mum's mouth pierced by heart immensely, I never knew my mother had a past like this. I thought that was all but...
"Then one night, I overheard the guards talking. The reason why I was treated like that, why my mum never seemed to love me, was all because of a stupid prophecy."