Smoke and Mirrors
Chapter Twenty-Three: Flawed Judgement

Selene

I could not help but sigh as I watched the scene unfold before. How did a love so pure change so much and become so hateful? It seemed as though I wasted my breath and power trying to get Sapphire and Damien to see reason, small ripples formed in the water as Sapphire banged her fist against the glass, an equally loud bang startled me causing me to run my hand through the water, disrupting the horrible image in front of me. I caught sight of the figure storming in and sighed, here we go again.

“The amount of power I wasted trying to get these two the perfect life, every time I meticulously created the perfect scenario for them to fall in love, they butchered it!”

I shut my eyes and took a deep breath as my sister paced up and down pulling at her hair, it seemed as though the Goddess of Love was not much of a happy camper today, I wonder why.

“Everything had been planned out for centuries, the day they each would be born, where they would be born even to the smallest detail of what time they were born. Everything we did and planned was supposed to ensure that they would replace each other and fall in love like they did centuries ago! This whole werewolf thing was just supposed to be an added bonus! What could have possibly gone wrong!”

She went around kicking furniture and having her little temper tantrum, while I took a deep breath, take care of your younger sister mother said, she will help you in the future mother said, now look where we are, my children are in pain and are going to most probably kill each other.

“We even made sure that the closest descendants of Rose and Xander either got bitten by Lycans or even married Lycans, for goodness sake! Maybe something went wrong but it is nothing a little persuasion from love won’t fix…”

“Enough, Cytherea! We have done enough. We planned this wrongly, we forced them together and now Sapphire is suffering, we took everything away from her and gave nothing back.”

Cytherea at least had the decency to look ashamed. I gestured for her to come to my side to look at the images being shown in the water now, Sapphire was on top of Damien slashing at him with her claws, she looked at that moment more wolf than human. This is what we have made her become, we drove her to this.

“Rose was never like this…”

“We cannot expect them to be the same people they were in the past. Rose suffered tremendously during the last moments of her life, I don’t think you want Sapphire to remember that.”

I knew from the moment she came into this world she would be different, her birth brought joy as well as sorrow, I watched as she discovered her Lycan abilities and how her pack experimented on her to replicate her abilities for their other warriors, it pained me but I could not interfere. However, no matter how much Sapphire denies it, there is still a part of Rose inside her, Rose had always cared for her people more than she cared for herself and so did Sapphire. I watched as she put herself in the frontline of battle when she could have stayed safely in the back, she chose to put herself in danger if it meant that the members who were pregnant or had young children did not need to fight.

I turned to my side to only realise that Cytherea was gone, I let out another sigh before walking to the library to see her pouring over records and genealogies, the various books floated around her head as she impatiently waved her hand causing them to flip through various pages before giving them a small nudge to send them back to their shelves.

Our library consisted of the records of every single one of my children, from the first Lycan to the baby just born, every single thing that happened in their lives were recorded here. Cytherea was calling book after book and sending them back after a few minutes of pouring over them.

“Maybe we should check Rose’s and Xander’s records as well as Damien’s and Sapphire’s?”

Granted, Rose and Xander might not have been my children but Cytherea made records for them after they caught her interest.

“Please not those horrid things.”

I shrugged before waving my hand causing the books to come down from their shelves. Rose’s and Xander’s records were bound by a glowing golden thread, they floated down together peacefully and gracefully before landing on the table in front of Cytherea. We braced ourselves as I waved my hand again, Sapphire’s and Damien’s records shot off the shelves, clashing against each other as they tried to break free of their red glowing binds before Cytherea took Damien’s while I took Sapphire’s. Normally, the records of mates would replace each other on the shelves and sit comfortably next to each other as we bound them while Sapphire’s and Damien’s, the moment they realised they were mates, flew to the opposite corners of the library and struggled and thrashed as we tried to bind them.

Cytherea and I wrenched open their books with much difficulty before going down their respective genealogies and records. Sapphire’s book was thick with details due to her very ‘eventful’ life:

Name: Sapphire Nicola Nightshade

Age: 23

Race: Lycan legacy

Gender: Female

Status: Alive

Father: Xavier Nightshade +

Mother: Natalia Raya +

Siblings: Antonio Volarus Nightshade (Brother) +, Cordelia Lyra Nightshade (Sister)

As I continued to go through Sapphire’s records, something felt wrong almost as if something did not add up but I shrugged it off as I continued to pour through her records till I found the detail I was looking for.

Ancestor: Jessamine Elken

That was Rose’s sister so that meant that Sapphire was born from the correct line as we could not use Rose’s descendants as she and Xander both passed so the descendants of their direct siblings were the next best thing to ensure almost perfect results. I took Damien’s book out of Cytherea’s hand before going through his records next but I could not help but recoil as I took it. The records of all my children changed in colour to match who they are on the inside, Damien’s record always troubled me as from the moment of his birth his book was pitch black.

Name: Damien Roland Black

Age: 25

Race: Werewolf

Gender: Male

Status: Fading

Great, Sapphire was killing him.

Mother: Valentina Clearwater +

Father: Roland Black +

Siblings: Chloe Alexis Black (Sister)

I skimmed through the rest of the details before landing on the most important one.

Ancestor: Stephen Blackwood

That did not seem right, the last name was wrong. I hauled the book to Cytherea who was pouring through Xander’s records. His book like Sapphire’s was thick due to the numerous wars and battles he had participated in, we looked through his various information.

Name: Xander Lykos

Age: 28

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Status: Deceased

Mother: Samira Anglos +

Father: Darius Lykos +

Siblings: Orion Lykos (Brother) +, Stephen Blackwood (Half-Brother) +…

The list went on and on due to his father’s numerous mistresses before one of his sibling’s name caused my blood to turn cold, Cytherea looked at me with the same expression of horror on her face as we looked down at the name: Stephen Blackwood (Half-Brother). Of all the mistakes we could make, this was the worst.

Stephen Blackwood had been the one to destroy Rose, he had been the one to set Hermosa on fire, he had been the one to kill Xander and now we had carelessly, channelled that monster’s spirit into his descendant.

I ripped the book out of Cytherea’s grasp before pushing her against the wall.

“What have you done!”

Her mistake led to the destruction of not just Sapphire’s life but Damien’s as well, Stephen’s spirit was what caused Damien to act out and become what he is today, all the visions that I showed the both of them about Rose’s and Xander’s past only woke Stephen’s spirit faster, I was the catalyst for this chaos. Cytherea was gasping for breath before I let her go as a horrible revelation came to mind.

Sapphire’s family need not have died. I watched my children die for no reason, I murdered them.

I let out a scream and fell to my knees, tears streamed down my face and fell to the floor, the shelves started to shake as books fell off fluttering aimlessly in the air and some even started to smoke.

“Selene, enough!”

I quickly composed myself as the shaking stopped and the books returned to their shelves.

“Selene I know there is nothing we can do about the channelling but we can still replace Orion’s descendant and fix everything.”

I could not help but laugh.

“Fix everything? Can we bring Sapphire’s family back from the dead? Can we take away the nightmares that Sapphire will have for the rest of her life? Can we give Damien back the childhood we stole from him?”

Cytherea hung her head, tears welling in her eyes as well.

“That’s right, we cannot fix what we have done, we cannot save Damien but we can at least try our best to change the events happening now and save Sapphire.”

Cytherea’s eyes widened as they stared at me.

“You said to never ever bring this out again, you restricted its use for millennia.”

I sighed as I nodded my head, desperate times did call for desperate measures.

“What choice do we have?”