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Acacia/Ciarán - Age 18

Though my existence might not be my choice...there's one last thing I can do with my life.

I'm going to find out exactly who and what I am...

...even if it means losing my life in the process.

After all...

...I'm already dead.

You can't break what's already broken...

...you can't hurt a girl that's already dead inside.

It's been months, well into summer that everyone has been out hunting for those who destroyed me, who made me into something I hardly even recognize any longer. There was no reason or call for celebration of my birthday, because they are all just thankful and happy for my very existence.

All of them have changed.

Regret is a very powerful emotion to read on someone's face, even when they're desperately trying to hide it like their very life depends on it.

My perception is better than ever, not engaging and merely living on the sidelines as I watch those around me living their lives. The only slight happiness I felt, even if it was for a flicker of an instance...is Marcus being protected.

They acted as parents for one moment and one decision...

...they gave Marcus to Grandpa Keir.

It's not safe for him and, at least they had the balls enough to admit their horrible attempt at ever being able to parent any of us. I'll give them that for honestly, but I'll never forgive them for everything that happened...

Perhaps when those who are most malevolent are finally detained and dealt with, then perhaps this world might have a fighting chance.

I saw the vampires and hybrids that so easily align with Mercury.

I know what could possibly be brewing...what's to come that is...

...perhaps I might be ready, should I understand what my purpose is meant for or I'll die figuring it out.

There's a lot going on with many questions from the council, my 'parents' once again...MIA, but it's to my advantage this time.

I release a sigh as I turn away from the sunlight warming my features from the window. It's for a fraction of a second do I see...

...the hue of the room shifts to purple, the spider webs creeping from the furthest corners. A shimmering light etches into the marble floor, my brows raising as all I can think to myself is...

...this is new.

It hardly fazes me though, it's become so normal through my life that I hold no fear. Like the shattering of a mirror, Nimue is standing before me, her features quite distraught. She stares at me, wondering if she's really seeing me.

When she does understand that this is all real, she tells me, "Lars altered the strands of fate, just before you were born, shifting bonds within bloodline ties."

"Does it even matter anymore? Really? Apparently...I was supposed to die before I was born, or I wouldn't have had to give up my wolf...know anything about that also?" I ask her, hardly caring to hear anymore about the way my life has led to moments out of horror stories.

Nimue's features soften as she tells me, "Acacia...I don't know why you were almost killed before your birth, but I know the beloved you have is truly not yours. Lars wanted a surefire way to break you without even having to influence...he tampered with fate. Rian is Mercury's cousin and nephew, due to Rochelle being his half sister and Taft's daughter. They share the same bloodline and a mate bond is easily switched with the right conditions," she pauses a moment as she winces, holding her stomach in pain before she continues, "Ciarán and you share the same bloodline through the Valentine line..."

"Nimue, I don't-"

"Rian was supposed to be your true beloved, just as Mercury was supposed to be Ciarán's true beloved," she cuts me off, trying to hold herself together as I see her muscles tensing. She groans slightly as her features shift again, "If you can get an alpha...preferably your mate...to destroy the claim Mercury has on you...the magic will be lifted and the ties woven back together properly on both parts."

A small giggle leaves my lips, partially due to the very small lifeline of sanity I have as I tell her, "I'm a sloppy left over that's broken beyond repair...I'd never want that for Rian or Taron. Even if he wanted me, his wolf doesn't. Even if Rian wanted me, his life would be in danger from Mercury so once again...it's better off that I'm no longer part of this game."

Nimue shakes her head and pleads, "Please! Acacia, listen-"

"Why bother telling me this...now?" I arch a brow at her while sighing, "Why ruin your brother's game when you're so very close to checkmate?"

She's breathing unevenly as she whispers out, "Aeon," before the mirror that shattered to bring us onto the same plane of existence corrects itself and it's like Nimue has been sucked away in a vacuum.

There's no one I can trust...

...but the demon I made a deal with.

I'm going to fulfill my end of the bargain.

I'm going to break into Elysium to free Vexy.

Briefly scanning over the spot Nimue had stood moments before, I release a small sigh after zipping up my thin black hoodie, I head toward my bedroom door. Perhaps this time I won't come back, maybe I'll get lucky that way.

Though the security is high around Castle Valentine, it doesn't stop me from walking down the marble staircase and to the main entryway. I'm halted once by one of my dad's coven members, but I stare through him as he says I can't leave. When he says this, I arch a brow, asking him, "You're going to hurt me to stop me? I'm sure my dad will be very pleased with your actions."

Unfortunately, he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't, so he doesn't fight me when I reach for the door and embark out into the sunlight. Walking is going to be awhile, but I really don't have another option...so I set out toward the edge of the road and allow myself to not question direction.

It's almost a pulling, tugging feeling on my mind when I begin to doubt the direction I'm taking. Instead of fighting it, I fall into the subconscious part of me that shutdown when Dante took me to and from Elysium. Though I wasn't aware mentally, physically...my body recalls the navigation he took.

It takes me much longer than it did him, but after traveling for a long time, I finally see parts of the land I recognize. The huge fortress that stands as Elysium is just as I remembered it. It's shadow is harsh from the sun behind the mountain it's etched into.

Approaching the front doors, I stand before it...though I allow my eyelids to flicker shut when two forces crash through my soul. One tugs me toward the fortress...yet the other I listen to as I no longer have fear...the fears that bound me as a child and what I have become into growing up.

The fears are gone...

...because I'm not scared of the outcome.

I'm not scared to die.

The coldness interweaves down my arms, feeling the wisps of spiderwebs tracing around my fingers. When I open my eyelids, bringing my hands into view, I'm no longer frightened by what I see...

I set the palms of my hands against the doors, feeling something drawing between the components as they slowly begin to morph the concept of reality. A desire and drive for me to be within these walls is what allows me to alter time. It spindles carefully as the runes that are etched around the entryway flicker for a brief moment and in the next...

...I find myself standing inside Elysium.

My arms slowly fall to my sides, my gaze glancing around at the walls around me. It's kept in the center of my mind, the way the coldness weaves through every fiber of my being. Purplish flecks and wisps not only encircle my hands, but they spiral up around my arms and I quickly turn in the direction I feel the pull and draw toward. My footfalls echo off the stone, moving through corridors as if the map of Elysium is drawn out in my mind and I'm on auto pilot. It's not long before I turn down the corridor with the "T" intersection at the very end, my eyes glimpse the cell I was once restrained within for 'lying'.

When I come to a halt, I turn toward the darkened cell, the shadows moving in and out of focus before I finally hear her voice slip with fluidity, "A discarded and broken queen," she pauses a moment, her features coming into the light as she giggles, "you didn't fancy being a pawn, now did you?"

I turn completely facing Vexy, watching the way her fox ears turn outward and then forward as she tilts her head to the side, regarding me as I do her. When I reply back with, "It was not my choice to be named heir..." I merely shrug my shoulders and state, "...you were right, the moment I no longer became a pawn, my life was over."

"Yet here you stand," she arches a brow.

"I couldn't even kill myself properly," I take a step toward her and I see the way her eyes widen for a mere split second, reading the fear she does have even if it was for a moment...I see it. When I'm a few feet from her cell, I tell her, "So now...I find myself with one of two options. I can either live behind the walls of Castle Valentine as a broken 'queen', decaying away inside while no one sees it from the surface," Vexy slips her fingers over the bars as we stare hard at one another and I state, "or, I can set you free and either live or die with the consequences that brings but either way, I find out who I am before I die."

Vexy grasps the bars harder and I see the way her features contort with mischief, the way she swings back slightly on the bars and giggles, "You really are broken, now aren't you? You're far from ever becoming what you are even if you know what you are."

"A deal is a deal," I reach up, watching the way her features shift ever so slightly again when my fingers wrap around the bars. The wisps entwine down from my arms, darkish blotches course through the purple as it cuts through its living essence. Vexy's fingers allow the bars to slip out of her grip as she takes one staggered step back, looking me over as I feel that energy pulsating to life within my chest.

What I desire?

I want her free...

There it is again, feeling the very shift in time and space as the fabrication the bars represent merely...fade away.

I feel something burning though, briefly like white hot fire on my elbows, forking and expanding out while I exhale sharply.

There's nothing between us now and I see the look on Vexy's features shift once more. There's a darkness in her eyes as they become larger, the way a fire burns bright brims outward with energy. I can feel that same energy as the power radiates from her body...what I once believed was her hair that came so far down her back...

...it is indeed her tails I'd read about.

Vexy stretches her neck from side to side as her lips pull into an evil grin while she says, "A deal is a deal," she pauses a moment as she takes a few steps toward me and my heart suddenly skips a beat as I retract a few steps away from her. There's something so very powerful that rolls off her and as her fox ears begin to move from outward to facing forward, I see her tails also moving out around her.

Nine.

She's strong...stronger than I imagined and it eats at my soul as I falter my gaze from hers. Vexy takes one more step toward me as she smirks before sighing, "You'll never attain your true glory with that seal about you..." she points with a long nail at the spindling wisps around my hands, "...though you're stronger than that, it's seeping through," she pauses once more to giggle and tell me, "Acacia Arin, you're truly not who you are, slipping further and further into the darkness and becoming nothing but the true shell, a husk if you would...a vessel for your spirit."

I breathe in deeply before finally going at her, "Tell me, who am I?"

"You're a goddess my dear, Ekáti, the goddess of crossroads, entrance-ways, light, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, ghosts, and sorcery," she arches a brow while taking another quick step toward me while giggling, "what makes you so fascinating, is the triple aspect you are," when she pauses, I can feel that presence moving closer, causing Vexy to side glance away from me for a moment before bringing her gaze back.

I'm truly a goddess?

Then why do I feel lower than a human?

"I've been locked away for so long..." Vexy's grin widens as she nears me again and I feel myself halting in my tracks when my back is met with the opposite wall. She stares into my eyes before I see hers shift again, a tarnished blue aura visible around her before I suddenly feel completely weak. My breathing is uneven when I try to part my lips and speak, finding nothing able to come out as I glimpse the wisps of purplish black slip away from me...in fact, a cloud like energy lifts from me as she closes her eyes and tilts her head back. She relishes in the way it absorbs into her body, watching as I see her features becoming more prominent...

...though her ears suddenly move from facing forward, to reversing and laying flat out against her head.

"Vexialarie!" His voice ricochets off the walls, though when I glance to the "T" intersection, it's the largest white wolf I've ever seen that stares at the two of us. His lips are pulled into a snarl and Vexy shifts slightly to the side, taking one step back as it appears...

...she might be powerful, but not in comparison to the hybrid wolf that is threatening her.

Vexy turns back to me with one last smirk and giggles, "Time to go."

A second later, I feel a rush of air, gasping as I find myself on the ground. I look around, seeing myself on the very outskirts of the border to Elysium. Vexy is nowhere to be seen, though I hear her voice off distantly saying, "You saved me...now I've saved you and my debt is repaid."

No...

...it's not.

Vexy took my energy, but I don't linger on that thought when I suddenly see everything about Elysium on high alert. It takes me only a few seconds to finally stagger to my feet, glancing at the bordering forest before I start to move into it. True enough, if I'm caught by one of the hybrids, my life is surely over for releasing Vexy or worse...I'll spend the rest of my life in one of those cells.

I can hear a loud howl, followed by subsequent ones...

...when I glance over my shoulder, it's the hybrid wolf that's bounding faster than I've ever seen one move across the grass and to the forest...hunting me.

I'm through the tree trunks, weaving my way through as I try and find somewhere I can hide. I don't even know if hiding at this point will help...

"STOP!" His voice commands me and I feel like I know it...

That tone is that of an alpha and I feel my muscles slightly betraying me, but I don't allow myself to listen. Instead, I run harder through the tree trunks, weaving through them once more until I'm coming out into a grove clearing. My breathing is uneven as I glance around and try to figure out where I'm going to go next...

"Ekáti, stop!" His voice surrounds my mind once again, but I shake my head and turn to my right, moving quickly through the grove only...

...I fell like I'm hit by a train, crying out as I skid across the grass. My shoulder erupts with pain as my eyelids flutter shut, the way my body cries for the pain raking through it, I give into it.

I don't know how long my eyelids are closed for, but when I blink them open slowly, I see my cheek is lying against the grass, seeing someone walking toward me. My vision is still slightly hazy as I make out the entire form of a man in dark cargo shorts, his intense eyes staring down at me as he mumbles, "Shit..."

He's a true born hybrid...

...just like Ciarán.

I feel a hand on my arm and the air is knocked from my lungs once again, feeling a scathing heat rush through my body and push away the darkness and cold. My heart skips a beat before beating fast, watching him slightly as his features shift at my reaction. His voice is softer when he murmurs, "I see you for what you are...I'm sorry, I didn't know your form is...mortal."

What?

I exhale sharply when I finally regain all of my senses, feeling the pain in my shoulder as I try to move away from his touch. He furrows his brows with concern and asks, "Are you okay?"

"No," my response is even as I finally move away from his touch completely, pushing myself up and onto my knees. He follows my movements, his eyes tracing over me while I warily get to my feet. He mimics my actions, my eyes watching him with uncertainty and caution. My voice finally comes out and it's harsh when I state, "I know your voice."

His stance alters slightly when he narrows his own on mine, a look of hurt crossing his features when he states, "I saved your soul once before..." his voice turns more harsh when he accuses, "...and your soul rejected mine," anger and confusion come through, "how could you? You don't even know me."

"I don't," I reply with certainty and take a step to the side, though he follows my actions.

A deep growl comes from the back of his throat and when his hand reaches out and grasps my upper arm, I can't believe the way I melt into his touch. It's like butter next to fire and I can't stop myself from reacting the way I do, breathing out sharply as I see the way his own touch softens, the way his muscles are no longer tense from holding me. It reminds me so much of Taron and Rian...but I can't do this...

When I pull away from his touch, his eyes widen and he claims, "Ekáti, you are my mate," the way his eyes trace over me, makes me want to desperately believe this warmth is true, but I can't and I hide it away.

"My name is Acacia," my voice is even when I tell him, "I'm not your mate."

"You are! I, Lailoken Mercer, Alpha of the Vindicator Wardens Pack, stake my claim on you as my mate," He growls back at the way I shut him out, feeling myself moving back into my barrier.

Lailoken?

I thought the Alpha of the Vindicator Wardens Pack...I thought his name was Loki?

When I say nothing in return, staring at him with the same intensity he lashes out with so much hurt when he asks, "How are you so cold-hearted that our touch doesn't evoke a single emotion from you?!"

Although his question nearly shatters my heart to pieces, my voice is even, "I learned how to stop crying. I learned how to hide inside of myself. I learned how to be somebody else, somebody that I'm not. Most importantly...I learned how to be cold and numb..."

He remains quiet, his lips pulling into a tight line as he clenches his jaw. The deep concern with multiple questions linger in his fiery reddish orange eyes pierce through my cobalt ones easily, almost as if he's staring straight into my soul. Briefly, a golden glimmer reflects across the surface of those unmistakable true born hybrid eyes...

...and here I thought my brother was one of the only one born. Clearly, there is much in this world that was kept a secret and remained hidden for the lives that would have been at risk if the original council knew of their existence.

What I really want to say to him?

Just because the scars have healed, doesn't mean the pain has...

...and I just met him, yet I feel foolish for the way his touch affects me after everything I've been through.

Can I allow a stranger so easily into my life?

After all, I've only ever shown to be human...

...how can a hybrid stake a claim that I am his mate...let alone a true born hybrid?

💫--To Be