The thunder clapped heavily outside, the fire crackling from the heart. Since the nightmares had become less frequent each day, she found it easier to sleep, but she slept much more easily. Sipping the last of her chamomile and mint tea, Raven cuddled up in her bed. The TV was on in the background; her eyes read over the spell, trying to figure out what could have been on the small piece that was ripped out of the paper. Her eyelids became heavier by the second. Before she was pulled under into the peace-filled darkness.
'Raven'
'Raven,' her eyes snapped open as her name was softly whispered, confused at the trees. Raven snapped her eyes shut, calming herself. Peeking through one eye at her surroundings. Trees circled her, the sky dark with the stars blinking back at her. Opening her other eye, Raven stood up from her sitting position, the leaves under her feet crackling as she slowly began walking through the woods. No sign of Genevieve anywhere. Walking for twenty minutes only to feel like she had been walking in circles.
With a sigh, Raven scanned her surroundings, her eyes landing on a rose bush in the middle of nowhere.
Stepping closer to the roses,
Reaching out to the black roses
"You have finally come, Raven," a woman's voice came from behind her, causing her to halt her advance toward the roses. Turning around, there were only trees.
"I am right here," the voice said from beside her. Raven slowly turned in the spot just for her face to line up with the woman's. Genevieve looked to have been through hell, her face sunken in, her eyes black, her skin pale greyish. But she could see the resemblance between them. "You have been busy," she said, circling her, her hand trailing along her shoulder, stopping at the necklace around her neck. Holding the pendant in her hand. "Dorian Greycrest, there are traces of him all over you," she said, dropping the pendant.
"You are here for a reason?" she asked rhetorically. "You are looking for the missing piece of the spell."
"I will show you where it is," Genvive told her, "but I need you to do something for me."
"What do you want?" she asked.
"You have to break the connection between us and Dorian."
"You are cautious; you need to be raven," stopping in front of her, "but not from us. We have spent the past hundred years in regret for doing that to him, and now we want to right a wrong and rest in peace."
'We? Who are we?' she questioned, confused. Genevieve looked behind her. She turned to look behind her and saw many other women. Her ancestors.
"You have seen the pain we caused?" Genevive questioned her as she circled the roses.
"Yes"
"Aren't you scared?" she asked. "No," Raven told her honestly. "Why?" Genevie stopped in her tracks; her gaze shot up to Raven's. "My mother is a part of you; there has to be something good in you somewhere."
"We weren't always like this. He wasn't the only one cursed, Raven. Our coven had done terrible things to become like this, to have this power," Genevieve said with a distasteful look.
"We were healers, witches; we have always been able to heal those who were at the brink of death, carrying their pain for them. Their wounds had given us the capability to carry a lot like you have once said: always the helpers but never the help. We lived in Greycrest for many generations until a boy was born, a gifted boy presenting remarkable gifts but coming from a greedy pack. As he grew up, we were mistreated by those thinking they could control us, so we created a spell to make ourselves use the pain we had taken from others as power, and we had healed so many. Using a drop of our blood to start the spell, and like that, our magic had grown stronger, and we had begun to be darker, using darker magic. The more we filled with that type of magic, the colder and more distant we became, not thinking much of it, but like I said, we had to pay to create something new and powerful. Until the time of Dorian, grew up in an abusive household but kept up to his name until one night when he got bitten by a vampire; he was not supposed to have survived the transformation since he had the wolf gene. But amid the vampire venom, it had triggered his werewolf side, and as the stories had told, his friend, you can say brother, was attacked as well. At the brink of death, he sought out one of us Graverose witches to heal his brother, but we refused to be involved with the werewolf business. Somehow, Dorian had saved him, but no one knew how he could have saved him, but he did. Once the news got out, the pack shunned them and looked down upon them. He had sought out revenge, wiping out villages and his pack. Word spread of the hybrids, and fear quickly spread; we heard about the rampage they had gone on, so Maura's coven came to us asking us to help for protection, but we refused. But they had warned us that Dorian would be coming for us; since we did not help him, we did not know the extent of his power, but we found out, so we wrote out the curse. Use that chain around your neck to cast the spell. We cursed him and weakened him, but that did not seem to help. At the end of the day, we were the ones to have drawn the short stick; he had tracked us down, and my sister was killed by him. He wanted her to remove the curse placed on him, but she had denied it, so he killed her. We had lost, and we went into hiding. We have done terrible things, but we had paid for it, and he had been searching until now, as you know."
"What did you have to give up to become more powerful?" Raven asked hastily.
"At first, we did not know that it would be it. We did not completely know what type of dark magic we had created. The man you love will have to die for the dark magic to become more apparent," Genevieve explained to her.
"But I already have dark magic in me, and I have not been in love," she rushed out. Genevieve stared at her knowingly.
"That is not all. Something else was changed, which would be carried on to the next generations. Our coven's magic was only spread through the women and not the men."
"Genevieve, time is running out," one of her ancestors told Genevieve.
"No, I have more questions," Raven cried out. "We need to buy more time."
"It does not work like that," Genevieve told her.
Realization hit her. "Wait, if all the graverose witches are here, my mother must be here?" she questioned, turning around to face the other woman.
"Raven," her mother's voice reached her.
Raven squeezed her eyes shut as arms circled her; the familiar scent of her mother filled her senses.
"Mom," Raven choked out, her arms circling her mother. "You're here."
"I have never left you," her mother whispered in her ear.
"I can't stay long, okay? I have to go; your father is waiting for me. I wanted to make sure that you could see me one last time like you used to." Her mother told her. "I don't want this darkness," she told her mom. "You won't have to worry about it. Every inch of you is so pure; you have such a beautiful heart, and I know how much you care for others, but you should know it doesn't make you weak to have a heart that cares too much. It makes you stronger."
"I love you," Raven cried out.
"You need to let it go."
"I can't forget it."
"It haunts you, I know, but you have to open your eyes," her mother whispered to her. Shaking her head, she said, "No."
"Come on, little Raven, open your eyes for me," her mother repeated the same words she had used on the pier before she was killed.
Raven slowly blinked open her eyes; she stared at her mother in front of her; she looked like herself, not like the version of her etched in her mind. "The nightmares had almost gone away, but they still haunt you. I am okay; I am going to be with the love of my life, but I will always be with you," her mother whispered, hugging her tightly until she felt her mother's presence disappear. Raven blinked open her eyes; her arms fell to her sides. "Raven," Genevieve called to her, motioning with her arms to the roses.
"Come on, it's time." She plucked each black-and-white colored rose from the rose bush until her hands were full. Raven turned to face Genevieve; all her ancestors were no longer there, only the two of them left.
Raven held the bouquet of roses in her hands, staring up at Genevieve, who stood with a small smile in front of her. "What about the spell?" she questioned. Genevieve gently placed her hands on either side of her face, cupping her cheeks. Leaning forward, she placed a kiss on her forehead. "You will remember soon, Dahlia," she said, looking straight into her eyes. Genevieve stepped backward, motioning with her hands to the roses. "Continue, and Raven, please tell Dorian and Michael we are sorry for not helping them that night when they needed our help," Genevieve said.
Raven stared down at the roses; smoke erupted as the flowers caught fire from the spell she whispered. Holding it out, she dropped it, only the ashes hitting the ground. Genevieve was gone, and the scenery disappeared, turning into darkness.
"The roses are beautiful," Raven gasped; a giggle escaped her lips as she smelled the roses.
"They are," her grandma smiled down at her.
CROAK
"Look, Grandma, it's that bird again," a younger version of Raven called out, pointing her little finger at the bird watching her. A hand grabbed hers, pulling her backward into her arms.
CROAK
CROAK
"Come on, little Raven, let's head back inside," her grandma said, taking her small hand in hers before pulling her back toward the house.
Sweat covered her body as she sat up in bed, a figure looming outside. Throwing the covers off, Raven quietly opened the balcony door to see him.
"Is it gone?"
The mark is no longer there.
"What happened"
"I had a dream about my ancestors."
"I broke the link," she told him. "It felt so real," he said, nodding his head and placing the coat around her shoulders. "You should go inside; it's too cold out here."
***
Dorian stepped into the house, a strange feeling in his chest. Ripping his shirt from his body, Dorian stared down at where the witch mark marred his skin, only to watch as it slowly began to disappear.
'What the,' Dorian thought. But a sharp pain spread through his mind, and he no longer felt Raven's energy.
"What is going on?" Michael questioned, staring at Dorian, confused.
"She removed the link between us."
"How?"
"I do not know," Dorian expressed. Stepping out of the house, his phone rang. The house came into view, light coming from her room; Dorian jumped, landing on the balcony. He was instantly met with Raven bursting through the doors; the rain had stopped, and only lightning was left.
"Did it work?" she questioned him, grabbing his shirt and moving it out of the way. Her eyes landed on the mark that was beginning to fade.
"It worked," she smiled. "You should take it easy; I don't know what effects you will have afterward, so maybe take it easy for tonight." Giving her a nod, he turned around.
"Oh, and Dorian," she called out to him, stopping him in his tracks.
Looking at the raven-haired beauty in front of him.
"Genevieve said to tell you that she is sorry for not helping you the night you asked her for help," Raven told him, not waiting for him to respond; she turned back into the room, locking the door behind her.