Chapter 14

Michael found his way to Nich's eatery. He dashed in and searched for Elsa. He saw her busy with a customer, so he decided to wait till she was done with what she was doing.

Elsa, on the other hand, spotted Michael. He looked worried and tired, she quickly took the orders of the customers and hurried to him.

"Michael, what are you doing here?" Elsa asked, holding Michael's arm.

"Ow," Michael flinched, and Elsa drew her hand back quickly. "I had a fight with Chris." Michael said.

"Where's he?" Elsa asked.

"I don't know." Michael breathed, "Can you think of any spell that could bring back his good side?" He asked, watching Elsa's expression.

"I'll have to get back to you on that. I'm still getting the hang of the psychic thing. " Elsa said, hurrying away to get the customers what they asked for.

When Michael got home, he sat on the floor on the front porch. He stared blankly at his front. His face was void of emotions. He had to talk to someone about what he saw in that vision to ease the pain and guilt he was feeling.

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When Jacob left, Emily got bored. She wanted to leave there, but she didn't want to go back home. She needed a good distraction, so she decided to visit Michael to get answers for Jacob. 

She got off her seat and paid for the drink before taking a cab to Michael's house. 

When she got there, she found Michael sitting on the front porch, his back leaning against the pillar. She walked up to him with slow, steady steps. "Michael," she called, advancing towards him and he sluggishly looked at her, she ran to him as she noticed his sad and troubled expression.

"What is it, Mike?" Emily asked, her eyes darting to his.

He'd wanted someone to talk to, but now that he had one, he couldn't put the words together.

"I met a woman today," he began after a while. "She's clairvoyant... She showed me a vision of myself. " He came to a halt and bit his lip. 

"What did you see?" Emily inquired, rather impatiently.

"I went wild and fought Chris, killing anyone who tried to intervene and... I killed Chris." He looked up at her with those teary eyes. "Do you think it might happen? Will I become a monster? " He sobbed.

"It's going to be fine." Emily pulled him into her arms.

"No! How is it okay that I turned dark, Em, that I became a monster, that I killed everyone I cared about? " He gazed at her, his eyes expressing deep melancholy.

"Everyone has a dark side, but trust me, it's controllable." Emily's gaze riveted his. He fell into her arms and sobbed.

Emily stroked his back gently. She fixed her gaze on his dark gray hair, which was curled above his neck. It glistened from the sunlight flashes. Emily wanted to bury her hands in it. She desired the silkiness and warmth. She was suddenly tempted to inhale the scent of his hair, and she succumbed. 

She lowered her face, her nose almost touching his hair, and closed her eyes as she inhaled deeply. He smelled like flowers after a drizzle, with a hint of strawberry. 

She tried to open her eyes after a while, but her eyelids felt heavy, so she closed them slowly.

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It was already evening when Jacob returned home. He went into the living room and found his mother; she wore a green long sleeved gown, her legs were crossed, and she held a magazine in her left hand and a glass of red wine in her right. 

For a few moments, Jacob locked his gaze on her. He was stumped as to how to begin the conversation. 

He approached her, "Hey mom, Is there anything about our family that you know? Perhaps something genetic that I should be aware of? " He inquired, but his mother's gaze remained fixed on the magazine. She simply shook her head and set the glass of red wine down on the glass table to flip a page.

Jacob was perplexed as he ascended to his room. When he asked his mother about it, he expected her to be surprised, but she was far from that. She seemed at ease.

A light wind blew in through the window as he opened the door to his room, causing the curtains to sway in the breeze. His spine tingled. He walked over to the window and spread the curtains to let in the fresh air. He closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh scent of the breeze.

"Jacob?" Giselle called, almost with a scream, interrupting his alone time with the cool breeze.

Jacob hurriedly turned around and noticed Giselle's petrified expression.

He advanced towards her, but she took some steps backward. It was like the more he walked further towards her, the further she moved away from him. "What is it, Gee?" He yelled in frustration.

"Are you a demon?" Giselle asked. She was trembling, terrified by Jacob. His wings had popped out, unknowing to him.

Jacob's head turned to look behind him, and he was more terrified of himself. His knees became weak and couldn't hold him any longer, so he crashed them to the ground and buried his face in his hands. He tried to push back the tears. He couldn't stand the thought of his family being terrified by him, seeing him as a demon or a monster.

A hand on his shoulder made him look up. His eyes adapted to a light red color from the suppressed tears. "It's okay, we'll figure it out together." Giselle told Jacob as she knelt at his level.

Her face, now expressing sadness and sympathy.

Jacob told Giselle everything he knew, including the first time his wings appeared and the conversation he had with Emily.

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Elsa sat on her bed, glancing through the big spell book she found in the attic when her dad opened the door, startling her. She hurriedly tried to hide the book behind her, but he was quick to notice it.

"Where did you get that?" Her father asked, grabbing the book. He pulled it out and glanced at it before he looked at Elsa. "What do you even think this is?" He asked.

"I don't know." Elsa looked away.

Philip (Elsa's dad) sat down on the bed next to Elsa and said, "Since when did you find out that you're a witch?" He asked.

Elsa, who was looking away from her dad, turned immediately, to look at him and said, "I'm not a witch." She placed the tips of her fingers on her chest, batting her lashes and shaking her head slightly and quickly.

Philip smiled a bit. He had wanted to laugh, but he was being serious, so he tried to suppress it.

"Then what do you think you are?"

"I don't know, maybe a psychic." She responded quickly.

"We're witches... And all your lives, I've been trying to keep you away from magic. I thought it would keep you safe, but somehow, you die by not knowing how to use and control your powers to the fullest. " Elsa frowned at her father's words.

"Dad, are you saying I have lived and died before?" Elsa asked, staring incessantly at her father as she waited for his reply.

"No, not at all." Philip smiled at Elsa, shaking his head slightly. "So... What are you looking for?" He asked, pointing to the book. "I can help you with it." He drew the book closer and started flipping the pages.

"A spell to bring back the good side of a friend. A werewolf. " Elsa sighed. Philip paused as he heard Elsa's words.

"Elsa, you can't do that! You can't just switch a werewolf from his dark side to his good side; you'd be damaging the mind and that's dark magic. "

"What's wrong with me doing dark magic?" Elsa inquired.

"We come from a coven where anyone who practices dark magic will be hunted and killed." Philip stated, his gaze fixed on Elsa's.

"Why?!?" She yelled.

"Dark magic is very powerful and destructive. Only royalties can use it. Anyone else will be killed. " Philip answered.

"That's not fair!" Elsa scoffed.

"Believe me, it's fair enough." Philip said. He stood up from her bed and walked out.

*

Emily opened her eyes and gazed at the ceiling. For a moment, she didn't realize where she was until she heard a voice.

"How was your beauty sleep?" Michael asked. 

Startled, Emily sprawled her limbs into the air as she struggled to sit up.

When she finally sat up, her eyes darted to Michael. He was seated opposite her. His elbow was pressed against the couch's hand, and his other hand was relaxed on his thighs. 

He stared intently at her. His gloomy expression was gone, and he now wore a bright one.

It didn't take long before it dawned on her that she had fallen asleep with Michael in her arms.

She darted her eyes shamefully away from Michael's. She couldn't believe it. She was supposed to at least make him feel relieved, but instead, she fell asleep with Michael in her arms! 

He should have fallen asleep in her arms, rather the other way round.

Emily stood up precipitously, "I'm leaving." She spoke without looking Michael's way and confusedly walked to the door.

"I'll drive you home." Michael quickly grabbed his keys, got up and followed Emily out of the mansion.

It was already dark outside; it was around 8:24pm in the night. They both settled into the car and put their seatbelts on before Michael started the car and drove out of the yard.

"Thanks for today." Michael shattered the long quietness.

Though he meant what he said, Emily believed he was just poking fun at her. She was thankful that he wasn't looking at her because her cheeks were starting to turn rosy. 

She brought out her phone and found several missed calls and text messages from her mom. Staring at it for a moment, she tucked the phone back into her pocket.

Suddenly, she remembered why she came to see Michael. But she waited till her rosy cheeks subsided before she inquired about it.

"Mike," Emily called.

"Hmm?" Michael looked at her for a few seconds before diverting his gaze back to the road.

"Do you think the bite might turn Jacob into something other than a werewolf?"

"No, Jacob isn't human in the first place; he is a raven." Michael stated

"How did you know about that?" Emily raised an eyebrow at Michael.

"The werewolf healer told me, and werewolf bites are toxic to avians, which means if Jacob is truly a raven, he'll die by the next full moon." Michael said, his eyes not leaving the road.

"What?!?" Emily screamed, "When is the next full moon?"

"Tomorrow." Michael breathed.

Emily felt like the world was suddenly spinning before her eyes. "That close? There should be a cure. "

"There's no cure; an avian can't be turned by a werewolf bite." Michael sighed.

"We can't let him die!" 

"I don't think there's anything we can do." Michael breathed.

Emily was baffled. She didn't know how to tell Jacob that he was going to die. She didn't want him to die. How would his family take the news? She looked through the car window and saw that they were already approaching her house.

She showed Michael where she lived, and he pulled over at the front of her house.

She came down and bade him farewell. She immediately turned and strode to her doorpost.

When she got in, she found her parents in the dining room eating dinner. She had wanted to just keep up with the angry-bird stuff and walk straight to her room, but her stomach growled. She ignored it and kept walking when her mother noticed and called her.

She walked up to the dining table and greeted them. "Have some sandwiches; you're lucky it hasn't gotten cold." Rebecca smiled, sliding the plate of sandwiches and the glass of orange juice across the table and motioning for her to sit.

She was thankful that her mother was not pissed about her not returning any of her calls or replying to any of her messages.

"I'm not hungry." Emily kept a straight face, but her stomach betrayed her with a loud rumbling. Traitor! She clenched her jaw.

"Your stomach says otherwise." Richard, who had just been staring at her, said, with a smile.

She looked at her parents for a few seconds and stared at the plate of food before she hesitantly walked to the kitchen and washed her hands. Soon, she returned and ate her food.

After she had taken care of the dishes, she went to her room and decided to take a quick shower. When she came out, she was perplexed as she saw Michael standing at her window, his elbow relaxing on it and his eyes fixed on the outside.

"Michael?" She called with a lowered tone.

He turned around and gave her an amorous look. The towel she was wearing stopped mid-thigh; her body was glistening; and water dripped from her body and wet hair onto the tiled floor.