Page 6 of Roaring Flames

I shake my head vigorously in an attempt to clear my thoughts. A futile attempt, but an attempt all the same.

“Do you know how shifters came to be?” I ask, though the question is more rhetorical than literal. I know her answer will be no.

Even still, Izzy shakes her head, her lips firming.

I begin to tap my fingers against the table.

Every young wolf knows the history of how our kind came to be. It’s common knowledge.

Facts.

Facts, I can deal with. It’s when emotions become involved that things get messy.

So I pretend I’m in one of the few classrooms at Council headquarters, discussing the origin of our species with the younger generation. It’s what I used to do when I was still in high school.

Before I discovered I didn’t have a pack.

Before I became a lone wolf.

Before I moved away from everyone I loved and found a home for myself deep within the forest, far away from civilization.

Closing my eyes helps. I don’t have to see Izzy’s frowning face and puckered brow then.

Even as I think that, I snap my eyes open and home in on her. I can’t look away, despite how badly I want to.

Fuck.

I take a deep breath, open my mouth, and tell the truth about our kind to quite possibly the only human who’s aware of us.

Here we go…

“Legend has it that, thousands of years ago, a powerful witch lost her Blood Companion,” I begin, tapping my foot to a rhythm only I can hear.

“Blood Companion?” Izzy interrupts, obviously having picked up on the importance of those two words.

“A Blood Companion to a witch is what a Heart is to a shifter.” I hesitate briefly, tapping my fingers on my desk. “Humans would probably refer to them both as a person’s soulmate.”

Her breath hitches, and I wonder if she’s remembering my words from before. When I used the word “mate.” When I claimed she belonged to the wolves.

Fuck, how could I have been so dumb?

I hurry to speak before she can put the pieces together. I’m terrified of the final image they’ll create.

“The soulmate principle stems from the belief that every person is defective until they find their other half. That their souls aren’t complete until then. Based on that, witches and warlocks believe that their Blood Companion holds the other half of a person’s magic. Once they form the bond, they’ll become immensely powerful.”

Her brows dip low. She opens her mouth, and I just know she’s going to ask about Hearts and mates and shifters. I fucking know it.

So I take the coward’s way out and continue speaking before she can.

“Thousands of years ago, a powerful witch named Letty found her Blood Companion—a warlock named Juan. Now, let me preface this by saying that witches and warlocks are different from humans. We all are, but them…more so.” I lean forward and rest my arms on the desk, holding Izzy’s stare. “The magic users receive prestige and privilege by being the most powerful. It doesn’t matter if you're rich or poor, young or old, pretty or ugly. If you have power running through your veins, you’re at the top of the food chain.

“It’s why some witches and warlocks will spend their entire life searching for their Blood Companion. Not because they believe in true love or any of that crap—but because they want to be whole again. They want theirmagicto be whole again.”

Now, this… This is the part I don’t want to tell Izzy. This is her first look into the paranormal world, and I hate that it’s so bleak and despairing. Yet, she needs to know the truth.

The sooner she learns about the monsters that lurk in the shadows, the quicker she can figure out how to fight them and survive.

“As I said before, power trumps everything for magic users. A lot of times, the witch or warlock will kill their Blood Companion to claim the magic for themselves.”

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