“Thanks Gram.” Being with Gram made me forget about everything that troubled me.
We were hiking and it was nice until Gram teleported us to the wrong trail. “We’re going to have to
figure another way down. I don’t have enough energy to teleport again.” We started walking down a
trail, but it was a dead end. We were at a cliff with no other way to go. “Any ideas?”
I nodded. “One… sometimes you have to just go for it.”
She scrunched her eyebrows. “Wait what are you-“
I jumped mid-sentence, so I didn’t hear the rest of what she said. I tried shifting into my dragon form as
hard I could. I was falling possibly to my death, but I kept trying. I thought of My Dad and my Mom. I
thought of when my Dad and brothers would shift. I tried to picture myself shifting then I thought of
Arma, Stewart and even Sadia. These were the people I care about from the hidden world. Lastly I
thought of Lexus and my love for him even though he broke my heart.
I opened my eyes, and I was flying, I wasn’t in my dragon form, but I was halfway. I understood what
Lexus meant about it being uncomfortable. It felt incomplete. Flying wasn’t the right word to use I was
frantically flapping my wings and moving kind of uncontrollably. I flew the best I could back up to Gram
and picked her up. I moved her onto the right trail and landed next her. I shifted the rest of the way to
my human form. “I can’t believe I just did that. I think I can shift all the way if I just tr-“ I froze when I
sensed Lexus’ scent. “Gram Lexus is here but I don’t want to see him, I don’t know what I would say or
do. What if he tries to take me back to the castle? I’m not ready to leave yet.” Gran held onto my
shoulders and chanted. I didn’t know what I’d do if he found me, a part of me wanted him to.
She stopped when I said he was gone. “The spell made it so he couldn’t hear, smell, sense, or see
you.” She started walking. “No one will be able to find you Aqua. There’s a protection spell on my
house, no spell will be able to track you and I’ll do whatever else I need to for you to be safe.”
Another week passed. The holder nightmares had stopped. “You can use your abilities now but don’t
overdo it. Let’s see if you have any side effects this time.”
I closed my eyes and looked around the forest. There was no blood or pain. “There’s guards from the
castle here Gram. Fuck my father and brother are with them. They’re coming this way.” I freaked out.
Gram walked to her chest where she keeps her most valuable enchanted items. She put a necklace
around my neck. “Stay put.” She walked to the door when there was a knock and answered it.
My father was at the door by himself. “Hello, miss, I sense a strong magical aura coming from your
home.”
Gram frowned. “I’d hope so or I wouldn’t be a very good witch. Why are you calling me miss it should
be obvious to you who I am.”
Dad chuckled nervously. “It is but I thought who I was wouldn’t be obvious to you.”
Gram shrugged. “I keep up with politics from the hidden world, you’re a political figure as an adviser.
Mae didn’t have to say much for me to be able to know who you are.”
“She spoke fondly of you too but the reason why I’m here is my daughter is missing. I know this is a
long shot, but have you seen her?”
Gram shook her head. “No but what do you mean missing? Was she taken by someone?”
“No, she ran away.”
Gram laughed. “She’s an adult Konn, if she chooses to leave then you let her.”
“I don’t expect you to understand. I’m worried about her, if you end up knowing anything about her
whereabouts please let me know.”
“I might.” Gram said before closing the door.
I waited until they were gone to take off the necklace. “Do you think he was really worried about me or
that he was just looking for me because of an order like the first time?”
“The first time he knew where you were, he kept tags on you and checked up on you. Now he has no
idea where you are. I think he is worried.” She shook her head when I tried to give her the necklace. “I
enchanted it for you. When I have to chant a spell to keep you hidden from Lexus I enchanted that for
you the next day. You can keep it; I got the necklace from my mother, but I have tons of things of hers.”
I smiled. “I don’t know if I can hide forever.”
“Hide for as long as you need to for comfort.” She went into her room.
I got up and went into the room I was staying in. It used to be my mothers and before that it used to be
Grams’s other daughter’s room. I was the fourth girl to stay in this room. It was comforting. I fell asleep
quickly that night.
“Aqua I see you’re doing better.” A woman said, she was beautiful.
“Uh yeah…” I looked around and there was nothing but light. It felt like a holder dream, but I wasn’t
watching the future or the past. I was me and everything was clear. “My Great Gram has been helping
me.”
The woman smiled. “That’s good to here. When are you returning to the hidden world? I didn’t like to
think of myself as impatient, but I want to know if I need to try something new. You’ve been the greatest
chance I’ve had in centuries.”
“Chance for what?” Then I realized who she was. “You’re the moon goddess?”
She chuckled. “You can call me Diana child. Now I’m routing for you and Lexus but don’t be afraid of
hurting my feelings by rejecting him.”
“Why are we the first mates in centuries?”
Diana shook her head. “You’re not. You’re like the fourth or fifth. Mates where a great thing especially in
the beginning but then the rate of rejection was so high. No one wanted to be with their other half, so I
started sending souls off whole, unlinked and they them choose their mates themselves. Almost every
century I choose two souls and link them to be two halves of a whole soul. I do it to see if I should bring
them back or not. They’re asked for all the time but people just like the idea of them.”
“Why me now? Is it because I’m the holder?”
“I made you the holder. I had the ability to choose whether the abilities were inherited by you or your
brothers. I chose you because Konn had already made the decision that if Mae give him the choice to
choose where you ended up that it would be in the human world. Even if he didn’t send you to the
human world you wouldn’t have been raised in the castle. It wasn’t likely at all.” She started to explain.
She paused then continued, “I wanted the next holder to not be tethered to the royal family. I can’t
explain everything to you now. I chose you to have a mate as a reward to your family for all they’ve
done for my species. Even though they’ve been tethered to the royal family they’ve still made me
proud. Plus, it would make sure that you would at some point return to the magical world. True mates
are destined to meet one way or another. My mistake was not checking who your other half would end
up being. I choose my most passionate available soul, but he ended up being the prince which usually
complicates things. This is all I can explain for now.”
“What do I do now? What do you want me to do now? Go back?”
“I want to know if you will go back. Not to the castle but to the hidden world to live your own life as a
holder. The answer is up to you. If you go back you should recover the stones, they’ll help you reach
your true potential as a holder. If you have them the king and queen also won’t have the power to force
you to do anything you don’t want. I wanted the kind of holder I originally planned for and you can be
the rest is up to you.”
When I woke up I knew what I had to do. I had to go back.
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