Page 68 of Her Destined Alpha
“What of it?”
“Wouldn’t she be shamed?”
“Not by all, and-”
“Bingo.” She shook her head. “So possibly half those who praise Chris would insult a female version of him. I hate how men get away with shit.”
“So basically, this isn’t about Chris, this is jealousy that he’s getting to do things that perhaps you want to do?” I raised an eyebrow. I knew Mom and Dad were quite protective of her, and sadly, even I knew that there had been different rules for her and me. If she wanted to date, no one would have stopped her. Yes, Dad always told her to focus on her studies first, then boys, whilst I was never asked or told to do anything of the sort. It was unfair, and I wasn’t blind to it.
“No, I’m just angry that if it was me or any other girl, we would get shit for it, and he doesn’t,” she said, glaring at me.
“But aren’t you doing exactly that? Giving him shit?” I reached over, gently caressing her head. “Hana… Chris isn’t the one who put those rules in place. If we want to see a change in the world, it’s got to start with us.”
“But he is sexist. He looks down on women,” she clipped in. I sat back on the balls of my feet as I looked at the symbols on the ground.
“He acts like it, but he does it for a reaction. Most of the time, it’s to piss the girls off. He knows Lola will give him shit for it, and he somehow enjoys that. You might think he’s terrible, but unlike me, he’s never told the girl to leave after he’s done… he lets them stay until the morning, something I’ve never really done. I’m not saying he is right, nor am I saying he’s perfect. He can be an idiot, but he changed a lot after his parents died. He had to look after both his siblings. His brother is really high maintenance, and Chris has to deal with him too. He is probably going through a lot... and he likes to play it off. I’m not saying he isn’t a pig at times, but look beyond that,” I said quietly, knowing Chris was far out, so he couldn’t hear, but I still didn’t want him to.
“And you’re telling me, why?” Raihana asked moodily, but I could see she was thinking over what I’d said.
“We can’t judge a person over just a few comments. We also can’t expect the world to change if we ourselves don’t make a change. Give him a chance. Get to know him, Raihana. He isn’t so bad.”
“Why should I get to know him?” she muttered. I didn’t say anything more, hoping she understood.
I looked up at the sky, thinking wherever Delsanra was... I hoped she was okay, that she was holding her own. It had been almost twenty hours since she was taken.
I’m coming, Kitten.
Their Advice
Delsanra
How do you speak the truth when everyone has already made up their mind that you are in the wrong?
There is no way, because even if I screamed from the bottom of my lungs, my truth would fall upon deaf ears.Just like now…As I was dragged before the Elders, no one wanted to listen to a ‘what if I was innocent’. Everyone here detested me…
I was still wearing the remnants of the dress that Rayhan had bought for me, although the entire back was torn. My feet and legs were bare, and I was shivering from the cold as I knelt on the floor before them. My hands were tied behind me tightly, using normal shackles. The square I was kneeling on was like an ice prison, a form of punishment that refused to let me move from its perimeter. Despite how broken I was, I kept my head high,I will not bow down to anyone.
There were six of them seated before me around the stone table: High Witch Magdalene, High Witch Eldridge, High Witch Zelda, Elder Samson, and Elder Edward. Lastly was High Elder Reginald, whom I recognised from his robes. The husband of Eldridge. No wonder she was speaking as an equal to Magdalene the previous night… her husband was the head of England’s Coven.
“It’s been a long time,” Reginald said coldly as he rose from his seat. “High Witch Zelda, without wasting more time, let’s start by stating the evil doings of the accused.” Evil doings?Well… I guess I have done evil…
“Delsanra Diana Silver, the cursed daughter of darkness, has a high list of crimes, if I must say so. Let us start from the top,” Zelda said, casting me a scornful look. “At the age of thirteen, she stole a vast amount of money from her father and ran away from home, knowing full well how dangerous her powers were, yet she didn’t care about the dangers in this and still ran away. At the age of fourteen, she fell into practising forbidden magic in the forms of necromancy and black magic, spells taken from the Book of Darkness. She then went on to assist Endora, an evil witch who always defied the laws of magic and the Coven. Working alongside her as an all-”
“That’s not true!” I cried out.
“Silence!” Reginald thundered, and I felt the temperature of the prison around me drop. So, that was the plan? Every time I spoke, they’d make it colder? Was I really the evil one there? Didn’t the accused even have a chance to speak?
“As I was saying… working alongside Endora as an ally. Thanks to you, the werewolves’ hatred towards the witches has only grown,” Zelda continued. “You helped Endora attain access to some of the worst forms of magic, even contacting dark witches of the past. The blood of many innocent lives is on your hands.”
“Now that we have heard the accusations, High Witch Magdalene, probe her mind, and let’s see the truth,” Reginald ordered, not even looking at me.
I looked at each one of them. Would they extract only what they wanted or actually see the truth? I didn’t resist as Magdalene stood up and chanted the spell. She was the strongest of the three high witches and probably the one who hated me the least, from what I could tell. I just hoped she was fair.
A searing pain lashed through me, and I was once again reliving the night that I was sold, but unlike the memory that had been pushed to the farthest depths of my mind. The one that had been planted was at the forefront, and it played in the room as if I was living the memory. It went on to me practising necromancy, me killing the warden, me resurrecting that thing that was meant to be his wife…
Endora… giving her the means to strengthen the wendigos and manananggals. Me contacting the witches of the past, the dark magic that I helped Endora attain… but to my relief, they could also see the conditions I lived in, the way Endora pushed me to my limits. The way I had been abused. The painful memories flashed before my eyes.
Please realise I didn’t want to do it…
