When her father brought home a little redhaired girl and introduced her as Isla's little sister, Isla had had mixed feelings. Nothing was said about Nyla's biological mom.
Meekly, Isla's mother had welcomed the child. Malia Stark didn't have much of a choice to be frank. She feared her husband who was the right-hand man of the strongest alpha back then. She cared for the child like her own in the presence of her husband but treated her with scorn when Mr. Stark was away.
Isla was drawn to Nyla. Being an only child hadn't been fun even with a plethora of servants around so it was easy for her to accept Nyla. It fulfilled her dream of having a sibling. Regardless of her mother's warnings, Isla insisted on taking Nyla places or having Nyla share her toys.
Malia's hatred for the redhaired child wasn't without merit. One thing was obvious; her husband had a type. In over twenty years, he had never broken that streak.
"Don't get too fond of her, Isla." Malia constantly warned. "She's a half witch, just like you. You know how much your daddy likes female witches, right? Focus and master your powers so daddy will like you more than Nyla."
Isla was also a werewolf-witch hybrid courtesy of her parents but her abilities with respect to each part was midlevel at best. No matter how hard she practiced, she wasn't an exceptional wolf or witch. When she learnt that Nyla's mother had to be a witch given her father's obsession with dating witches, and that Nyla was just like her, Isla didn't think much of it. At least her father would have another daughter to yell at during training.
Then one day she was trying to do a blocking magic. She stood in the middle of her father's compound, surrounded by the wind and whistling trees. Her father, as usual, stood ahead of her.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Ready!" Isla responded before firming her stance with her hands positioned like a kung fu master ready for hand-to-hand combat. A bread knife came flying towards her. Swiftly, Isla's eyes changed to a deep blue. Hair fluttering like a cape, she twisted her hands, controlling the wind like a ball. When the knife came for her throat, she deflected it with a gust of wind or at least she thought she did. She felt the serrated edge nick her throat and yelped in pain. It was silver-rimmed.
"FOCUS ISLA!" Her father thundered with a deep frown. On his cue, Isla's witchcraft instructor sent another knife her way. Isla didn't have time to wipe her tears as her throat stung. Her mother watched from her bedroom balcony upstairs, almost chewing her fingers nervously.
"Ah" Isla screamed as the next knife slashed her arm. She was only eight years old. Her father was beyond disappointed. Witches of Isla's age were able to perform more than the parlor trick of dodging knives. He realized his child was either coddled or slow. His eyes found Malia's on the balcony. Malia was a powerful witch. How did they manage to birth such a weak child?
He turned back to Isla who struggled not to fall down and cry over the burning sensation on her arm and neck.
"You better concentrate and deflect it or you'll have to deal with intense pain tonight. Send all the knives!" Mr. Stark barked at the instructor whose eyes dilated in shock. "DO IT, KARYN!"
Isla begged her father as the remaining four knives rose to the air, their serrated edges glinting in the sun.
"BLOCK IT OR FEEL THE PAIN!" was her father's only response.
Her mother prepared to help her daughter but Mr. Stark shot her a warning look till she tucked her hands behind her back and wept for her poor child.
Isla screamed when the knives speared forward towards her. Her arms went over her head to block them as she anticipated the pain. It never came. When she peeked frightfully, the four knives were just at her eye level, suspended in the air. Everyone was shocked when six years old Nyla stepped out from the house and came to stand by her sister.
The young child didn't even lift a finger. It was all her red eyes. Red not blue. It took years of practice to attain a red eye. Fear crawled up Karyn's spine when the knives flipped in her direction and zipped through the air towards her. She managed to block three but the last one buried itself firmly in her heart.
Malia rushed to the scene and grabbed Isla away from Nyla. Mr. Stark had a hard time picking his jaw off the ground as he stared at Karyn's dead body lying close to his feet. When he finally did, he rushed forward and picked up his youngest daughter. Isla watched as he spun Nyla in the air.
"YES! YES! The prophecy is true. Oh, my sweet girl. You will bring your father great honor which no alpha can ever comprehend. You will put our family on the moon goddess' radar. You're the promised savior of our kind."
Isla cried on her mother's lap that night. From that day, her father doted on Nyla. He only showed up to Nyla's training. He took Nyla everywhere and showed her off to his friends. Isla, his former favorite, became invisible. When her mother died, Isla hoped to bond with Nyla.
For a while, they were close friends but Nyla had become haughty and bitchy. Hanging around her only served to deflate Isla's self-worth and ego. Isla's resentment grew with every passing day that Nyla's fame spread across the werewolf community. She lost all her friends to Nyla and watched them worship the ground the latter walked on.
Even the guys who wanted to date Isla only did so to be able to meet Nyla. Finally, the hatred crystalized when Nyla fell in love and agreed to be the chosen mate of the one guy Isla loved; Zain Priestley.
Isla kept pretending to like Nyla to avoid their father's wrath. Then when their father passed on, she kept up the pretense to avoid Nyla's wrath because of how powerful she had grown.
Now, as Isla stared at the Nyla in front of her at the college bathroom, she realized it was the first time her heart didn't skip in fear at the sight of her powerful sister. Nyla's eyes didn't ooze any iota of fear. Was it only because she had lost her memories? No. There had to be more.
Cautiously, she walked up to Nyla and tried to touch her hair but her hand got slapped away. Some things never change after all.
"Look lady, I don't know who you think you are or what you think you know but you're wrong. I DON'T HAVE A SISTER." Irina clarified, sticking her fingers in Isla's face. "I don't have a sister." She reiterated a little weakly as she followed Isla's cue to the mirror. Irina could see some striking resemblance between them. They could definitely play sisters convincingly any day. Was this really true, she wondered?
Her human family always struck her as weird. She knew they adopted her or something. Was this lady really Nyla's werewolf sister?
"You see it, don't you? We are more alike than you could ever be with those humans pretending to like you. They don't even know who you really are. Nyla, if they come to know what you are…" Isla trailed off for dramatic effect.
"How did I end up with them?"
"There was an incident. We were having a grand ball back in our community. Your chosen mate broke your heart when he chose his fated mate over you. He rejected you. You felt deeply hurt and took off in the night. We searched for you, afraid you had encountered some rogue wolves. We even came as far as this city. We scoured it and neighboring cities but there was no word about you. After searching for three years, our community elders ruled that you be considered dead till proven otherwise."
Isla grabbed her sister's hands. "I never gave up hope and neither did Zain."
"Zain?"
"He used to be the love of your life and is currently the alpha of our pack."
Fuck. Another love interest? Irina struggled not to roll her eyes.
"So, he's the one who broke Ny…I mean MY heart."
"It's a long, complicated story there. He didn't really have a choice. We'll circle back to that but right now, we have to talk about you. I can't believe I've found you." A brief hug follows which Irina doesn't find comfortable. "You have to return home with me. It's not safe for you to live with humans. You've seen how dangerous this city is."
Irina took a step back. Did this bitch just expect her to believe everything she just heard hook, line and sinker? Did she expect her to just up and leave because she'd found a fellow werewolf?
"I don't even know your name, missy."
Isla tried not to feel slighted. She was doing this for her alpha.
"It's Isla. Isla Stark."
"Isla, right. Thanks for bringing me up to speed. I need some time to think this through. This city might be dangerous but I think it'll be even more dangerous for me to believe everything I hear without verifying facts simply because I have temporarily lost my memories. If you're telling the truth, I'd come to know eventually. For now, I've got somewhere to be."
Isla had already worked up a fine head of steam. There was definitely something off about Nyla that a mere memory loss couldn't have caused. The taste in fashion was terrible. The choice of language was slightly crass for Nyla who always carried herself regally. Except she was totally mistaken, she felt like Nyla was a completely different person.
A risky thought crept into her head, one where her life might be in danger if she was wrong. She had to find out the truth. She couldn't go back to alpha Zain empty-handed.
"Nyla, wait."
Hesitantly, Nyla paused by the door and whirled to face her. "What?"
Isla wrung her hands. "You want your memories back, don't you? How else would you verify my words and come home with me? What if I told you I could help jog your memories?"
"Werewolves can do that?"
Nyla's innocent and clueless face baffled Isla. Did she just lose her personal memories or did she completely forget her identity as a werewolf? Now, Isla was even more intrigued and desperate to find out. This should be interesting, she thought. Even the goddess was clearly on her side to have taken Nyla's memory of being poisoned and betrayed by her own sister. If this was really true, then Nyla currently posed no threat to her and she still had a chance to fix her mistake.
"Well, it's a really tricky exercise that mostly alphas and experienced werewolves can perform. I happen to be adept in it." Slowly, she moved closer to her anxious looking sister. "It might hurt a little but it'll be brief. I just have to insert my claws at the base of your skull to jog your memories."
It was a lie. She only meant to go through Nyla's head to see what memories she could find. She wanted to know just how much Nyla recalled from her past, especially that night. Also, she wanted to try to wipe off any memory that could potentially expose her guilt in Nyla's tragedy that fateful night.
"Your claws?" Irina repeated warily.
Isla showed her hands and watched Nyla gasp when claws grew out of her fingers.
"Shit. That must hurt."
"No, it actually doesn't." Isla smiled. Nyla did forget EVERYTHING! "Are you ready? It'll only be a few seconds."
Irina weighed her options. The library was a bust today. It will take a while to get good werewolf research done but with a wolf buddy, things might be a bit expedient. Irina didn't see a reason not to try. Plus, if Isla tried anything funny, Irina could count on her ability to instill fear.
She squared her shoulders and gave Isla a burning look that was reminiscent of Nyla. Isla actually felt a chill.
"You have ten seconds. You try anything funny; I'll have the entire school dash in here to catch another werewolf. Unlike you, I've got friends here that will vouch for me so you better not test me."
Isla shook off the chill as Nyla waited for her. Slowly, she placed her fingers behind Nyla's neck, took in a sharp breath and dug in. It happened fast, perhaps too fast. A collage of images, lives and dreams whirled past her vision like a speeding train. Isla was dumbfounded. There was so much pain, grisly flashes of death, brief and tough lives lived but nothing about Nyla except an abrupt mention of the name during research.
There was no personal memory of Nyla. She tried to zero in on the specifics of the memories in her sister's head. Ursula Grimes. Janine Stenberg. Rue Gillies. Why did Nyla have the memories of human females buried in her head? Why did she have more than one? Why six?
Irina gritted her teeth as blood seeped down her neck. "That's enough." She croaked with her eyes closed.
Isla dug deeper till she could actually see the rebirth station crammed with souls.
"Name." The gatekeeper asked.
"N-Nyla S-Stark." Came the response.
"Stop!" Irina cried when Isla won't let go.
"WRAITH!" Isla saw the gatekeeper shriek in fear. Just then, a heavy force slammed her against the wall. She landed on her knees and writhed in pain. When she looked up, Nyla's eyes were blood red.
"I said enough!"
Isla buckled, fear shimmering in her eyes. The memories might not have been her sister's but this witch in front of her definitely was.
"I'm sorry. I got carried away."
Irina blinked her eyes back into focus and was visibly shocked to find Isla on the floor. She touched her neck and came away with bloody hands. While Isla watched, she rinsed it off and glared at her.
"Stay the fuck away from me!" She chimed before running away. Isla remained on the floor, her heart pounding violently in her chest. She wasn't mistaken now. That was her sister's body but the soul was clearly not Nyla's. She stared back at the door.
Who the hell was in Nyla's body?