“Hmm…looks like you’re my cousin too.” Kyle said as he sat down beside Maria and pulled Tess to his other side. Maria, with an impish laugh, sat as well and pulled Michael down with her. Alex sat beside Tess and pulled Isabel down with him. Trent and Ryan followed suit and pulled Jessie and Leigha down between them. “Yes Kyle,” Amy said with a solemn face. “You are more than Maria’s brother, her half-brother, you are her cousin. Your mother, Ursula Deluca, later Ursula Valenti, was my older sister, and less than a week before she ran away and met your father, she slept with my fiancée Brian Felini and Kyle, you were the product of that union. Maria, you were the product of mine and Brian’s. I never saw my sister after she ran away. All I ever heard from her was that she met and married one James Valenti two months after running away. I read of her death in a newspaper twelve years ago. And before either of you ask, after learning what happened between Ursula and Brian, I never saw your father again either.” “My dad doesn’t know does he?” Kyle asked seriously, his smile gone now. “All this time he was thinking that some big bad witches killed my mother, but that couldn’t be right. My mom was a witch, and so was my father evidently. So who or what killed my mother?” “Don’t concern yourself with your mother’s death Kyle,” Amy said coldly. “It is in the past and it is better if it stays that way. Just know that neither witch nor hunter did it. If it had been so, the Willow Witches would have destroyed whoever dared to touch one of their own. The force behind your mother’s demise has long since been dealt with and it is something that neither you nor your father, nor any of you,” she added looking at all of the newer generation Willow Witches one by one. “There are other things that you need to concern yourselves with. The first being that your father Maria and Kyle was far from being a witch. Oh he wasn’t human,” she added when all of them looked at her in shock. “Brian was a shifter…the head of the Shifters to be exact. Both of you are half shifter, half witch, a powerful combination that many in our world fear.” “But mom I’ve never shifted before, ever.” Maria looked at her mother horrified. The last thing she’d ever wanted to learn in her life was that she might not be able to control her own shape. “Halflings are different Maria,” Amy said with a tiny smile for her daughter. Maria hated to be out of control and she would see shapeshifting as being something way out of control. “With Shapeshifters, the shifting power changes with the amount of shifter in your blood and the power within the blood you have. Werewolves are the most common of shifters, you all know that, even you Kyle having grown up with Hunters.” She actually laughed at Kyle’s look of astonishment. “You are my nephew Kyle and my daughter, my life’s, soultwin, there is nothing about your life that I haven’t known or witnessed. I know all about your father’s place with the Hunters and his obsession with them. But that is neither here nor there. You and Maria are important right now, all of you are.” “Now as I was saying…” she took a breath before continuing. “Werewolves are the lowest of the shifters, they are of diluted blood, not really shifters but a mixture between shifter and human that formed over thousands of years. They are the only shifters that cannot control their shifting ability.” “The true shifters, like your father,” she said to Maria and Kyle pointedly, “have absolute control over when they change, unless they are out of touch with their emotions. And because you of are diluted blood, you are different. Within Maria the witch is the more dominant, the shifter side of her blood will only show itself when the time and situation calls for it. With Kyle it is the opposite…the shifter resides dominantly within his soul.” “So that’s why he didn’t seem like a witch to us,” Isabel looked relieved at the information. Kyle looked at her in confusion. “We all felt as if you belonged with us,” she explained to him. “But you didn’t feel like a witch…you didn’t give off those vibes.” “And he won’t,” Amy said with an amused smile, “just as Maria will never give off shifter vibes. Even when they both awaken the dormant side of their personalities, the dominant will always be the same. Kyle, dominantly is a shifter and Maria a witch…though both possess the powers, or the abilities of both beings.” “But I’ve never shifted either Ms. Deluca,” Kyle said in confusion for the first time since the awakening. “Kyle,” Amy said with a smile, “you’re my nephew and my daughter’s brother, call me Amy at least, or Aunt Amy if you’d like.” Kyle smiled at her, relieved. He’d felt at ease in her presence, and since he’d woken up he felt as if he was connected to her…distantly, but still connected. It had felt awkward calling her Ms. Deluca. “Ok, I’ll call you Aunt Amy when we’re all alone, but I’ll call you Amy in front of my Dad,” Kyle said with a grin. “That will lesson the confusion.” “That would be fine Kyle,” Amy said with another amused smile. “And the reason that you haven’t shifted is because you aren’t supposed to yet…or you weren’t supposed to. I think you’d find that now if you felt the urge to stretch your skin so to speak, you’d be able to shift easily enough.” “Why wasn’t he supposed to shift yet?” Michael asked, saying something for the first time in what to Maria seemed like ages. There was something about this story, this situation, that bothered Michael…something that was causing the little hairs on the back of his neck stand in attention. “Because he is the last of the true Royals,” Amy said reverently. “The last of your circle.” “Huh?” Alex asked in confusion. “Come on Aunt Amy,” he said with a laugh, “the outsiders just call us that as a joke. What are you talking about.” “Something that is far from being a joke Alexander,” Amy said seriously. “You all are the Royals, a group of witches in which the fate of all of us, outsider and other combined, rest. You are the Guardians, and until you are at full power, you must be protected at all cost.” “Cool,” Jessie said softly to Leigha, but the quieter girl shook her head and gazed out into nothing. “She’s not talking about us,” Leigha said softly, but her Aunt heard her. “No Leigha,” Amy said with a sigh, “I am not talking about you four. You, Jessica, Trenton and Ryan are not part of the Royals, that fate resides with the others alone. You four are the latest in a long line of the most distinguished and powerful of the witches, all the witches. Willow Witches have been and always will be the most revered, sought after, and feared of our kind. You four, after you ‘Elders’ as you call them, are the most powerful of the Willow Witches ever to be born. Our lines past, present and future depends upon you four alone because truthfully, Alex, Isabel, Tess, Kyle, and Michael and Maria are now beyond the simple call of the Willow Circle. They are more, and now you,” she looked at the four youngest of the Willow Witches, “are what they would have been. And the rest of what I have to say is not for your ears.” Trenton opened his mouth to argue against it, but Michael shut him up. “You are wrong Amy,” he said coldly. “They are as much a part of this as we are. So whatever you have to tell us you will tell them as well.” Trent’s mouth closed and reopened in shock. He hadn’t expected that. “Whatever force it is that is building against knows not which of the Willow coven to come after, and I think the Juniors will be better able to survive to be the leaders you think they are if they know exactly what we know.” “Very well Michael,” Amy said with a sigh. “But,” she turned to look at the four Junior members closely. “There are certain things the others will be involved in that you can not have any part in is that understood?” The younger children nodded and Amy turned to continue her explanations to the group at large. “It has long been prophesized in our lore, in our history, that the Royals would rise. Witches that are more than they seem and more powerful than could ever be imagined. A group of six bound together throughout eternity, with more connections to each other than could ever be counted. They would develop early and would grow together as a unit that would be called upon to Guard our very existence. It was written in books as old as our Council itself that… ‘Six from the eldest and greatest From the mystic and wise Six from the woodlands that cry.’ It wasn’t that hard to figure out that they would be Willow Witches who would give rise to the Royals. And when other things began to happen when my generation was your age, well…it became blatantly obvious.” “What other things Aunt Amy,” Tess asked with a small voice. “Is there more to the prophecy?” “Yes Tess,” Amy said solemnly. “There is much more to the prophecy… ‘Two from the Fire that burns the Hearth, Two from Water…split apart. One from Mother who cried no tears, One from the Sister who ran in fear. Four forged in love, pure and sweet, Two in betrayal where hatred runs deep. Six together, a circle within, By the Royals decree, the time is at end.’ “Harpers are the witches of the hearth,” Isabel said softly. “And Guerin’s are master of fire…so the first line, that me and Michael isn’t it. Mom always says that dad is her fire in the hearth…her home and life.” “Yes Isabel,” Amy said with a sad sigh…she had always envied Georgia Harper-Guerin her life with Gabriel Guerin. Theirs had always been a simple path in that respect. “That is you and Michael.” “Alex is water…like dad,” Jessie said quietly from where she sat beside Trent, her hand firmly interlace with his. “But who’s the other, how are they split apart?” “My mom,” Tess said quietly. “She died giving birth to me, she was a Whitman before she married dad.” “That’s right Tess. Your mother was Alex’s father’s first cousin, Miranda Whitman. A water witch just like Charles. She gave birth to you merely two weeks after Alex’s birth, though the two of you would have been born the same day, but Alex was two weeks early. And your grandfathers,” she said both Tess and Alex, “were identical twins…both equal in their powers and stations within the Council itself…they shared the title of Water Witch. Water…split in two.” “Mother,” Maria said softly, “that’s you mom. The Council Mother…leader, healer, and most revered of all witches. So I come from you, that line in the prophecy is me.” Amy smiled ruefully at her daughter and nodded. “My mom was the sister,” Kyle said softly, “who ran in fear. Fear of what Aunt Amy?” “Fear of me,” Amy said with fire flashing in her eyes. “After all, she had just slept with my future husband. It wasn’t something that I was too happy with at the time. I told her to leave Willow Oaks before I lost my temper and showed her the darker side of the Maiden, as I was then. She heeded my advice. I never saw her again. I only received two letters from her before her death. One telling me that she had met an Outsider and was marrying him and was pregnant and the other informing me that she had given birth to a son.” “When did you know that the prophecy was coming true?” Michael asked in the same serious tone as before. “How did you know that it was us?” “The Lords Michael,” Amy said darkly. “They came to us right after my sister left and informed us, all of us, that our children were the prophecy. You see all of us were pregnant then, all due within days, if not weeks, of each other…Georgia, Eleanor, Ursula, and myself. “The four Lords of the Council came and told us that you would become the Royals, and that we must keep you safe and oblivious to your destiny until you awakened. When my sister died, we decided that it was best for Kyle’s safety if he remained with the man he thought of as his biological father, in a world that knew nothing of what he was truly.” “You father to this day does not know that he was married to a witch…he merely thinks that his wife, Ursula Bennett, was a normal everyday human housewife.” Amy looked at Kyle with a great sadness in her eyes, “But believe me when I say that it was only under the direct order of the Lords themselves that kept me from going for you when I learned of my sister’s death. It was decided that you would be called when the time was right, that you would join the others, your kindred, when you all awakened. And you have.” “Awakened to what?” Maria asked in confusion. “The only thing that I’ve awakened to is that Kyle is my brother among many other things. How is that our great awakening?” “The greatest power that you all possess is each other…your bonds together are what make you so strong. And you are all beginning to awaken to that knowledge. Do you think that we haven’t noticed the pairings around town lately? Michael you and my daughter are attached at the hip if nothing else,” Amy said through slightly narrowed eyes…knowing that her daughter and the boy in question were attached through a lot more incriminating ways that one. Michael paled and Maria turned her head into his shoulder to stifle a giggle at his discomfort. “Tess, it is obvious that you and Kyle are soulmates, just as it is with Alex and Isabel. But then you have the bonds of the soultwin to go along with it…Alex and Tess, who if they haven’t awakened to it yet, will soon begin to, Michael and Isabel, twins of the blood as well as soul, and then Maria and Kyle, a connection we all witnessed tonight. And finally you have the bonds to each other through your twins and mates as well…Isabel to Maria and Tess through Alex and Michael and so on with all of you…all connected in so intricate a way that nothing could ever tear you all apart…truly all are one. So…” “If one perishes we all perish,” Alex said softly. “That why if one of us got sick when we were little we’d all get sick. I always thought that it was because we spent so much time together. Kyle,” he turned to the bigger boy quickly. “When did you get the chicken pox?” “The summer I was seven,” Kyle said with a laugh. “It drove Dad bonkers because we were camping out in the woods of Colorado and there hadn’t been any other kids around for miles for two weeks before I got sick.” “You have Tess to thank for that one,” Amy said with a laugh, her first of the night. “She contracted it from the babysitter’s kids that summer when her father was away and gave it to everyone else…you got it through the bond.” “You know sweetie,” Kyle said as he looked down at Tess in mock-consternation. “We don’t really have to share everything.” The others laughed and nodded. “What do they guard?” Ryan spoke up. Efficiently breaking the cheerful mode. “You called them guardians a couple of times Aunt Amy…what are they supposed to guard?” “That is something that I am not allowed to tell you or them,” Amy said sadly. “Just know that it is something that we have been waiting eons for, and you will know the need to protect it once it is found.” “Alright,” Kyle said in a deadly tone. “Can you tell us how Daddy-dear fits into all this…” “Brian?” Amy asked in a soft voice, a far-off look in her eye. “Brian is a very smart shifter…the son of the head of them to be exact. And shifters and witches have never gotten along, something that we were trying to change…that we thought we could change with a union between the two. But Brian wasn’t as keen on the idea as once thought. He just wanted a chance to shape the Royals himself…he figured out long before anyone else that you would be born from all of us, and he acted accordingly. He means you know harm,” she told them seriously, “but he does mean to have a say in what you do and who you are. Which is why Maria has never seen so much as a picture of him and why you have remained a secret. You are not meant to be shaped by anyone’s will except your own, a lesson Brian took a while to learn. Do not concern yourself with him, you will meet, but not for awhile and not until you are ready…all of you.” Amy stood and took a step away from them all. “Trent, Ryan, Jessie and Leigha,” she said to the others, “I think it’s time you four headed back with me. They need time on their own, without any of us around.” The four Junior members looked at each other and nodded, as a unit they moved to follow their Aunt Amy back up the path to their homes. TBC

Part 23