The Blood Moon Twins
Chapter 12

CAULDER

\tl startled awake to the sound of the door creaking open. Remy and Harper had both passed out on either side of me. I wiped a little drool off my cheek, grateful the other two weren't awake to see it. The TV was buzzing at a low level with some random show I didn't recognize. Remy must have switched to regular TV after the second movie had ended. I wasn't really sure at what point I had fallen asleep, since I hadn't been paying much attention to the screen anyway.

\tl looked over at the door and saw my mother poke her head through the opening. She motioned for me to come over to her, but I was stuck under sleeping bodies. It took me a moment to untangle myself from Remy and Harper. I walked over to the door, trying my best to stifle a yawn. I followed my mother out of Remy's bedroom and tried to rub the sleep out of my eyes. I wasn't sure what time it was, but it felt late.

\t"Hey, sorry if I woke you up," my mother said. Her face was pulled tight, and her worry lines were exaggerated by the bags growing under her eyes.

\tl shook my head. "It's fine. I should probably get back to my own bed anyway."

\t"I came to check on Remy. She was pretty upset with me earlier." She massaged her temples and squeezed her eyes shut. "I wish she could just understand that when I tell her to do something, it's for her safety."

\t"Why do you treat her like a child?" I asked. I had always followed my mother's wishes when it came to Remy, and I had never questioned her motives before. After my conversation with Remy, I realized I needed to be on her side more.

\t"I don't treat her like a child. I'm just trying to protect her." My mother's voice was strained and tired. I was sure she was exhausted from the day, and I couldn't blame her. I was often tired when I helped my father out with alpha duties, and I didn't take on nearly as much responsibility as my parents did.

\t"She's stronger than you give her credit for," I said. I had seen Remy stay late in her training sessions and stay up cramming all night for a test. She was the hardest worker I knew, probably even more than me, and I knew she didn't get the credit she deserved. It was like our parents still saw her as a little girl, and it wasn't fair.

\t"I know she's strong, but I can't afford to let her get hurt. If that thing had gotten out of control tonight, we could have lost Remy or worse." My mother looked straight into my eyes, and I knew she knew more than I did about what happened.

\t"What was that thing?" I needed answers. Whatever happened tonight had to do with Remy, but that's all I knew.

\tMy mother went quiet at my question. She blinked a few times as if realizing she had said too much. "It's been dealt with. You don't have to worry about it. I shouldn't have bothered you tonight. I'm sorry your father and I weren't around for the rest of your birthday. I promise I'll make it up to you."

\t"Don't change the subject. I know that wasn't just an earthquake tonight. Whatever it was was magical, and it was here for Remy, wasn't it?"

\tMy mother froze, her eyes going wide. "How do you know that?"

\tl shook my head. "You should give me more credit. I could feel that dark magic pouring from that creature, and Remy said she could feel it calling out to her."

\t"It called out to her?" My mother's voice fell into a panicked whisper. "This is worse than I thought."

\t"Mom, tell me what's going on?" There was a sinking feeling in my chest, and my mother's reaction only confirmed what I feared. Remy was being directly targeted by whatever this thing was.

\t"It's something your father and I are handling. It's not your responsibility." Her breath was shallow, and I could tell she was worried, but I wasn't going to leave this conversation like this.

\t"You have been asking me to protect Remy for as long as I can remember, and now when she is being threatened, you are keeping secrets from me? You're being a hypocrite, Mom. If there is a threat to our pack, I deserve to know. If there's a threat to Remy, she and I deserve to know." My voice started to rise as frustration took over. I was expected to protect my sister, and I was supposed to take over the wolfpack one day, but now, when there was something serious looming over our heads, I was being kept in the dark. \tMy mother grabbed my arm, and I felt a calming presence wash over me. "You're right. You deserve to know the truth, but this isn't something we can discuss here, and this isn't something your sister can know."

\tMy chest tightened. "Remy deserves to know, too." Remy was right. She had been continuously overlooked, and as the future leader of this pack and her brother, it was my responsibility to make sure she was seen the way she deserved to be. \tMy mother pinched the bridge of her nose and took a sharp inhale. She clearly wasn't prepared for this conversation tonight.

\t"Please, Caulder. You'll understand why I can't tell her once you know the truth."

\tl looked at her closely. I didn't like this, but I didn't think I had much of a choice. I needed to replace out what was going on no matter what, and if it meant keeping a secret to keep Remy safe, I would agree to it for now. \t"Fine."

\tShe let out a breath she had been holding in. "Let's go to my office. There will be more privacy there." She turned on her heels and started walking towards her office.

\tl followed her closely, and all of the sleep in my eyes was gone now. I looked at my phone to check the time as we made our way through the pack house. It was after midnight, which meant it was no longer our birthday.

\tWe made it to my mother's office, and she shut the door behind us. I sat in the chair across from her desk, which made me feel like I was in trouble. It felt strange being in her office. It was rare for her to have us sit down and join her like this, since she usually only did her luna business here.

\tShe sat in her chair and shifted a few times before she began talking. "When I was a little older than you, I learned that there was this prophecy about the Daughter of Moon and Magic that would lead to great destruction. I thought it was about me when I learned I was half sorcerer and half werewolf, and there were others who thought the same thing. There was a man who tried to use me to get the power he always wanted. With your father's help, we destroyed the man and broke the prophecy-or so we thought. \t"Shortly after you and Remy were born, the Council of Magic approached me. They told me there was a great disturbance in dark magic. There was this creature that had been locked in a magical prison for centuries, and it was dormant for a long time. But when you and Remy were born, the council could feel the creature trying to break free. That's when they realized the prophecy was never about me."

\tOur mother spoke of the Council of Magic on occasion. They were the organization that all sorcerers were supposed to follow and report to. They were in charge of keeping peace in the sorcerer world, and their word was the law among sorcerers. That wasn't a world we were part of, though. We had never seen the territory the sorcerers dwelled on. Werewolves, sorcerers, and vampires agreed to keep to their separate territories long ago and follow their own rulers that were in charge of keeping our identities secret from humans.

\tSince my mother, Remy, and I were of a mixed nature, my mother had made a deal with the Council of Magic to let us live our lives in the werewolf world unbothered. She never kept the sorcerer world a secret from us, but she made it clear the Council of Magic was not to be trusted under any circumstances, and it was not a place she wanted us to go. She never fully explained why, but I trusted her, so I didn't question it.

\t"The prophecy is about Remy," I said as I processed this information. "She is a daughter of moon-werewolves-and magic-sorcerers."

\tMy mother nodded slowly. "Yes, and with how this great entity reacted when she came into the world, it's a pretty sure thing."

\t"Wait, so what is this prophecy exactly? And what does it want with Remy?" I understood that Remy was this Daughter of Moon and Magic, but I didn't understand how she could bring out the destruction of the world. Remy was too good-natured. She would never hurt anyone intentionally.

\tMy mother closed her eyes, and her words came out in a soft whisper. "In the darkest hours of the darkest days, the Daughter of Moon and Magic and the Son of Blood and Magic would be fated together, creating the most powerful being in existence. It was a bond no one could break and one that would end up breaking the world. Destruction would rain when the two became one, and the world as we know would be lost."

\tl repeated the words in my head, but I couldn't make sense of them. They were too vague.

\t"Who's this Son of Blood and Magic? How would the two of them create this powerful being that would create destruction on the world? And why won't you tell Remy any of this? Doesn't she deserve to know? And the prophecy talks about creating a powerful being, but you're saying there is already a dark creature going after Remy. That doesn't line up at all." I didn't breathe as I spouted one question after another.

\tMy mother held up her hand. "I know this is a lot. It still feels like a lot to me, and honestly, after eighteen years, I still don't have the answers that I want. The Council of Magic thinks the Son of Blood and Magic is a boy who is half-vampire, half-sorcerer, but they don't know who he is. They have searched, but they haven't been able to replace him. As long as we keep Remy away from him, we should be able to stop this prophecy from coming true. At least that's what we thought."

\t"But that thing attacked us tonight. None of this makes sense." My head was starting to hurt from trying to figure out this prophecy, and I wasn't sure if I fully believed in it. We lived in a world with choices and passion. Just because someone predicted something centuries ago, I didn't want to fear it. We had more information at the tips of our fingers than they ever had when someone came up with this crazy prophecy.

\tBut Remy was targeted by this dark force. That meant something, and it was real and right in front of us. Whether I believed in this prophecy or not didn't change the fact that Remy was in real danger.

\t"A member of the Council of Magic reached out to me earlier today. He told me there is a group of vampires that worship this thing, and they are trying to break it free. What happened today was just a small amount of power that this thing holds. We think the Son of Blood and Magic might be involved in this, which makes it much more dangerous. They could force the prophecy to come true."

\tMy mouth was dry. This was not what I was expecting in the slightest, and it was a lot to process. "So why won't you tell Remy any of this? If she knew the truth, I'm sure she would help stop it. She would avoid this Son of Blood and whatever."

\tMy mother didn't respond right away. "Because I made a deal with the Council of Magic years ago. They agreed to protect Remy and our family from this prophecy, but the only thing they asked in return was for us to never tell Remy who she truly was." \t"You agreed to that? That's not right. You can't keep Remy in the dark like this forever. You have said many times not to trust the Council of Magic, and you said you're more powerful than them, too, so why do we need their protection?" All of this felt unfair to Remy. She deserved to know the truth, especially if it meant she was in danger.

\t"I don't think I have ever been more powerful than the council," she admitted. "I only held that immense power when I was pregnant with the two of you."

\t"What do you mean?"

\tShe sat up straight and looked me in the eyes. "I'm positive you and Remy hold the true power when it comes to magic, not me."

\t"But Remy can barely use magic." My mother looked off to the side, and I knew there was more she wasn't saying.

\t"There's something about your guys' magic that neither of you know."