Maia thought death was the end, until the alluring Nix brothers summon her back to life. Now, she must embrace her newfound existence as she is thrust into a dark prophecy that could unravel their cursed fate.
With each step, Maia is inexplicably dr...
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"I am not going to leave."
Kore looked at the others who were preparing to leave for the Highland Academy, his brown eyes lingering on his friends, who pulled on each other's tails in a pranking manner, giggling with excitement.
"I can't leave her behind," he added, looking at his trembling hands, "I am all that mother has now."
The youngster thought of the Harpie he had dreamed of embarking on in all the past years, but couldn't due to the curse, and dug his fangs into his lower lip, trying to muffle the cries he felt bubbling up in his throat.
Then he thought of the long-haired pest, his pack's leader allowed to remain in the Nest after murdering more than a quarter of his fellow lykans, including his father. He saw it all. His father's heart being ripped away from his lifeless body, the unsightly woman's eyes, fixed upon him.
"Besides," he said, turning around to face Annia, and Crassus who stood behind him, "You know I am the one that has to take over, now that Pa is gone. My wee mother is too unstable, and we are far too poor to be able to pay the much-needed expenses for the required years in the Academy."
Crassus placed an arm over Kore's slender shoulders, and it pained to see his kin in the state that they were in. The famine had especially impacted the younger ones. Many died. And those who did make out alive until the cruse was broken, had already been scarred for life.
"I don't want you to worry about the expenses, I will make sure to aid you in any way I can," he added, giving the much younger fellow a comforting squeeze.
The eldest Nix brother knew how his decision appeared to the rest.
How could he allow such a person as Maia to remain in the Nest after all that had happened?
She served her purpose. And she would soon perish for good. It was a miracle she didn't sooner. An empty shell couldn't be sustained in the land of the living.
Besides, she seemed to be a ticking bomb.
And yet, he couldn't bring himself to send her away. She reminded him to much of the mother he had lost in much a similar manner. Perhaps, her uncalculated act, which put her own life in danger, was just the thing that had brought to surface those memories he tried to keep hidden for so long.
Maia reminded him of the one thing that made him and his younger brother so very different.
Crassus' mother was a weak lykan. The White Death, however, the one who birthed his brother, the woman responsible for the demise of many in their family, was the nightmare Crassus thought he buried years ago.
For most of his life, the eldest felt that nightmare which killed his mother stared back at him whenever he looked at his younger brother. His uncanny hair, white as snow. The lines that formed on his face whenever he smiled. Even the manner in which Rex carried himself, it was the spitting image of that woman.
