Kara stared at the orb in awe, the core Aria had handed to her on the night they had first met.
Mountains of Books sat around in her room, each telling stories of the rich history of demons.
None of the books or fairytales in the world could compare to her favorite. One that had been forgotten over time, a story lost in time—The Demon Of The Bluemoon.
She recalled how her mother would tell her the same bedtime story everytime before she closed her eyes. No matter how many times she had heard it, it excited her everytime.
The Demon Of The Bluemoon was a creature far more superior than witches, ghouls and werewolves. But it was not the status that made Kara admire the being, it was their power to see people's true nature.
Their ability to look past the cover and deep into their soul.
Raphael knocked on her already opened door. "Why do you keep on staring at that thing?" He asked intruding on her peaceful day.
Kara tore her gaze from the pulsing core to her lousy roommate. She shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. I'm thinking of taking it to the witches."
Raphael's brows furrowed at her words. "Those people are not to be trusted, especially since the whole haunted house incident."
Kara's gaze sharpened. "I already told you, those people's magic is way too weak to create something like that."
She rose, slipped the glowing orb into her purse, and strode toward him.
"You don't know that," Raphael said, blocking her path with an outstretched arm. "And if their magic's as weak as you claim, they probably don't know a thing about this."
She ducked beneath his arm without slowing. "Someone might."
Raphael grabbed her hand, her face grimaced at the action. She spun around, painting a confused look on her face.
"I'm coming with you" Raphael sighed, shoving his other hand in his pocket.
"They're my family they're not going to hurt me."
"I still don't trust them."
'Why is he acting so heroic when I was the one that saved him from them?' She wondered, scanning him from head to toe and nodded her head reluctantly.
Birds chirped excitedly, as Raphael and Kara wandered into the woods. The sun was bright and Raphael could hear the calm river flowing not far from where he was.
"Have you talked to Blue?" Raphael probed, avoiding a branch that almost slapped him across his face.
Kara remained silent for a while and then replied,"no. I heard what happened at the party."
Raphael skipped over a puddle and stretched our his hand for Kara to grab but she circled around it and started walking ahead of him. "Why don't you like her?"
Kara dismissed his question and stopped infront of two large oak trees with a symbol of her coven carved onto it.
She grabbed Raphael's hand, and pulled out a jar of candy from her purse. She poured two in his palm and put back the jar.
"Chew one" she ordered, they each ate the piece of candy and a light beam flashed before their eyes and they shut their eyes.
"Kara!" A voice rang out through the silence causing their eyes to snap open. Before them stood an old lady with long messy red head and green eyes, she was like a future version of Kara.
The scenery had changed, around them was some comfy furnished cottage decorated with lively colors. It was small but it felt like home.
"I told you to never come back here" The woman yelled, tears bubbling at the corner of her eyes. "If the High Priest finds you here, heck if anyone knows you're here right now they'll kill you."
Kara ignored her mother's words and fished out the orb from her purse, she forced the orb onto her hand.
"I'm sorry that my presence here upsets you" Kara spoke as though she was some abandoned child. "But I need you to tell me everything you can about this."
Her mom—Jessica eyes moved between the boy and her daughter and down to the orb in her hand. She could sense the urgency in her eyes.
She nodded her head. "But you need to go now before they know you're back especially with him by your side."
She knew that. She had broken yet another rule of her coven's.
"You're not even going to offer us a cup of tea?" Raphael asked voice dripping with sarcasm as he strode into what he assumed was a kitchen.
Jessica followed after him. Raphael rummaged through the cupboard and Jessica ran around frantically trying to get him to stop.
"Geez what the hell do you people eat?" He groaned tossing out a few plates, Jessica caught a few but some crashed onto the wooden floor.
"Stop going through my cupboards, you damn mutt" Jessica hissed throwing a plate directly at his face. He easily dodged it.
"Call me a mutt again and those will be the last words that come out of your mouth" he growled, claws extending out of his fingers.
"You damn werewolves are so boorish! You have the manners of caveman!"
"Don't talk about my peo-"
"What are you gonna do about it?" Jessica dared jabbing her finger on his chest.
A voice cut through the tension.
"Can you two stop behaving like children?" Kara glared at both of them, she marched toward them and grabbed Raphael's hand.
"Let's go back, it's clear we're not welcome here" Kara said giving him the the same candy as before and one for herself.
Jessica's expression faltered for a moment at her daughter's words but remained to stay strong.
"We'll be back here next week, same time and I expect results."
****
The trees raced past Blue as she darted through the woods in search of a phantom. Her eyes landed on a gloomy sad one in female clothing, it had the upper body of mantis and the lower body of a scorpion.
It was taller and bigger than her but she knew she could handle it, even with the wound.
She fazed out of sight and swung her blade at the phantom's head but it spun around in time and caught the steel between its arms.
'Is it me or was that way too slow?' She wondered.
She tried to pull it back out but it was stuck. She let go of the sword and leaped into the air, she landed her foot on it's face and it's tail swatted her way but she twisted her body midair before it could touch her.
Her movements were slow and floppy, moves only a rookie could perform but she had trained for three months so an injury was not going to be her excuse for losing.
She pounced back on the ground and performed a double back-flip. The bandages on her wound loosened staining her lavender tshirt. "I'm starting to think I should give up on the whole sword look" she laughed, dodging the tail once more.
She rolled on the ground, her fingers sprawled out on the soil and lunged forward when she saw it's weak spot, she curled her fist into ball but the creature took one calculated step back and she landed face-first into dirt.
She had put a lot of strength into her fist and lost balance. A mistake an inexperienced person would make.
Aria appeared behind the phantom and seized its tail. It froze, turning to meet her scarlet eyes. One glance was enough—it knew she was powerful. Trembling, it stayed still, ugly tears welling in its beady eyes.
"Don't cry. I'm not going to hurt you," she said gently, patting its head. The creature nudged its triangular head into her palm, tail swaying in slow, cautious arcs.
'How is she doing that?'Blue wondered, eyes fixed on Aria and the now-docile phantom. It was tame. Completely calm.
"I think we should start with the basics—and by that, I mean basic academic material," Aria said, grabbing Blue's arm and pulling her to her feet.
"That honestly sounds great," Blue replied, rubbing the back of her neck with a sheepish smile.
The two made their way back to the mansion, the phantom following closely behind like a loyal pet. When they arrived, they were met by a handful of maids tending to the garden, watering the flowers as sunlight filtered through the trees.
Sebastian waited at the entrance, hands crossed over his chest. "That didn't work out and don't mind that guy" Aria jerked her thumb at the phantom sniffing flowers in the background. "He's pretty chill."
He nodded his head. "April" he called out a maids name and she was immediately by his side. "Take Blue to the guest room on the far end of east wing and prep her some new clothes."
"Huh? Why?" Blue asked.
"In case you haven't noticed, your wound is leaking and you skink" Aria answered. "After you're done showering and taking care of that, April will direct you back to me, now run along."
Blue reluctantly left with April.
"Is he awake?"
"Nope, not yet."
Aria nodded her head. "I'll go check up on him."