CURSE OF THE ENCHANTED STONE

PROLOGUE

Her senses were getting dull as the sounds of footsteps, men, and women, smiling, drinking, and celebrating over her. Her eyes were growing dark and her body limp as she looked around the room that was slowly turning blurring and small around her.

“Was this death?” Her thoughts questioned. To be sure that the question was for her, she had lifted her hand from where it laid on her chest and stared at it. Red liquid coated it and dripped down her arm. She could smell the metallic stench of blood as well as she could taste it.

“So this was death.” She smiled, yet something dark and agonising gripped her heart. The sudden realisation that it was over before it ever began.

“Why now?” She whispered, unable to hold the tears that came running down the corner of her eyes. The pain in her heart rose and grew, spreading its wings far and wide till it completely engulfed her. Tears freely and wholly fell down her cheeks as life slipped out of her. Not just for the unexpected end of her life but for the mate that had died right before her, and for the love she had for the man who held the other end of the sword that was about to take her life.

“No…” she shook her head, refusing to believe that he was dead. A human he was and his innocence was like the morning star, bright and alluring. He had not been tainted with the blood lust that consumed her, nor had the eternal struggle of the plague that she was, taint him. He had been the purest thing she had ever seen in all her years of living. With teary eyes, she pushed herself towards him and closed her hand around him. Pain beyond this world engulfed her, pushing her to her own death way faster than the poison that was killing her.

“You must be ashamed of yourself right now, aren't you?” The voice of the devil himself dripped with malice as he came closer to her. She spat on his face.

“I curse you….” She pushed out within her sobs, expressing the bitterness of her heart.

“You are not a witch, Lenora…such things do not exist…” he mocked and squatted right beside her. Amusement and something dancing in his eyes. Ignoring the pool of blood that had been created by her human mate and her blood mixed together.

“Oh, I’m no witch,” she smiled.

“But life isn’t ending just like this,” she turned her body from the dead mate and turned to her brother. The tears in her eyes had dried off and the pain that engulfed her had grown numb within seconds. Something else replaced what she felt, hate, anger, revenge and a burning need to be back. And the numbness of death.

“Oh! Don’t be delusional,” he smiled, revealing an evil glint behind his eyes. He knew her well enough to know what she was thinking. But a sly and wicked smile tucked the corners of her lips and her dark eyes reflected his own.

“Oh, you will see.” She hinted. He frowned, staring at her with something else shining in his eyes. He leaned down, his garment stained with her blood. 

“Go now, sister…” something lingered in his eyes. Then his claws elongated and he plunged his claws into her chest, seizing her heart in his grip. She winced, the pain sending tremors down her spine. The fill of his grip on her life was more prominent but she would never give him the satisfaction of seeing her pain ever again. Her lips curved into a deadly smile, masking her fear, masking her pain, masking her hurt. He held her heart, feeling the small life left in her body. Her eyes shone with power, boldness, the making of a queen to never bow before any man.

She stared straight into his eyes. Something passed through those familiar eyes. Time stopped for a moment and hesitation settled in, but that smile still remained on her lips even as he seized the life she had. Her gaze swept cold down his spine. Her eyes were like that of a ghost, ready, willing, able to haunt him till the end of his life.

“Was he really doing this?” Pain gripped his heart like it was his heart that was about to be pulled out of his chest. But almost immediately, the answer came. He tightened his grip on her heart as it pounded against his hand steadily. However, before he could pull it out, she slashed her claws through his chest, surprising him and hurting him at once. He groaned when her cut tore through his clothes. Her cut left a nasty cut, his blood spilled on her body and a bit of it on the ground where the pull of her blood and that of her mate was already gathered. He glared at the woman and with his other hand, he clawed her face and pulled out her heart from her chest. She fell back into a cold abyss with her dead lover and slipped into darkness. But a smile remained on her lips, for his blood, the blood of her lover and hers were mixed into one. They would meet again. surely.

Silence

Silence

Silence

So deafening, she feared to breathe. But was she even breathing? Was her heart beating? She wondered as she floated through the unknown space. It was neither dark or white, it was neither cold or hot, it was neither hell or heaven, nor was it life or death. It was somewhat in-between, pulling at her, pushing her to take a side, to go to the place far beyond but her fate had already been sealed. And with it came a new destiny, a new role, fate intertwined with others. To either destroy or create. To cause doom or bliss. But more than that, she had touched the lives that were not hers to touch and set them all on a different path. Where does this path lead to?

A scary thought.

Light

Light

Bright light. 

A beeping sound that kept on the same rhythm and timing and the strange and unfamiliar air filled with the smell of antiseptic that irritated her sensitive nose. 

For the first time though, her eyes slowly opened, leaving behind the darkness that she was used to, to reveal a bright eye blinding light, that had her shutting her eyes once more with a groan.

“Hey…” a voice called out to her softly, pushing at her unconsciousness and the urge to keep her eyes closed. The first voice she had heard in forever. She tensed, opening her eyes and jerking up with much more force than anticipated. A wave of dizziness followed as her numb bones protested against her.

“Easy there, easy, I won’t bite.” A hand gently rested on her shoulders pushing her back to lay on the bed. But she sharply slapped it away, her eyes sharp, yet dull with all her senses coming alive all at once.

“Why is she so hostile?” Another voice came to her ea