Part 20.

When Kyle had awoken from his dreamless sleep, he found he was in a bedchamber, the walls looked old and withered, and there was a window with no glass, speckles of snow floating in with the night still shading the sky. He felt the wound he expected to be at the back of his head, but felt nothing but hair and skin. He also felt invigorated, like he'd eaten an entire full course meal and slept everything off, leaning up from the bed and getting out, his gaze was concerned and his mind was focused on his brother.

The last he saw of him was inside the house just before it exploded, rushing to the door at the end of this room, but it was locked But a simple lock wasn't going to stop him.

"Ictu Fax!"

Suddenly, a small white flame spurts from his fingers in a jet of searing fire, holding it to the ock melting it away as if it was butter and kicking the door down.

"Shaun?!"

He looks around and finds he had walked into the exact same room, a bed in the same place, the window the same and as the door closed behind him, the lock reappears and, quite shockingly to Kyle, begins to grow attachments, a few key holes and steel bars began rapidly locking him in with only one thing to do, lay in bed...and wait.

But Kyle had already been through enough tonight to even think of giving up right now, he rushes to the window, preparing to turn himself into a raven to fit through but as he thought it, bars shackle him from the outside like a prison, the night sky didnt even seem real up close, it looked like a projection.

"What the HELL is this?!"

There wasn't any other escape, the only chance he had would be to try the door again, or make his own door.

The memories of his book, which he read countless times over the last month, now on his second re-read, remembered what it said about teleportation being a finnicky magic and that the slightest bit of it going wrong, could end in a terrible mess he cant fix afterwards. Kyle thought in his head whether it was worth the risk, if he died, he cant save his brother if he was in danger...but a depressing tinge of sadness washes over Kyle like a tsunami.

What if he had no brother anymore, what if the very small crumb of family he has was dead...and he never got to find out why...he never got to say sorry for blaming him about the book and the visions. All he could think about was the petrified look on his brother's face as he berated him, and for what?

Kyle slumped down onto the bed and mulled everything in his head with an obsessiveness only he could grasp, the need to know his mother really had become such a need to him, he forgot about everything else, apart from Zayne...which made the guilt even worse. There was a slight edge to the breeze drooling from the window, getting colder and colder until the room was slowly sprouting flakes of frost, they peel and fall back in place like jigsaw puzzles, flitting around the entire room, encircling him.

Kyle recognised this, immediately standing on the bed and avoiding them, refusing to let a single one touch him.

"Shit!"

"Very good..."

A voice sounded from the corners of the room as if there was speakers attached to them, it was the same voice he heard during his short moments of consciousness, There was a familiarity there, he'd heard it before that, when he witnessed the vision from the black book.

The voice of his father.

Kyle was speechless, he had no idea if this was a sick nightmare or he had been kidnapped and imprisoned by the father he believed to be dead, along with his mother.

"Now...lets see how you adapt"

The snowflakes and frost had begun to wobble and grow in size around on the floor, the only safe space was the bed and there wasn't anywhere else to go, and in a quick flash they rose like throwing stars, spinning viciously and in the direction of Kyle. On instinct he manages to hit the first two away with small bursts of flames, but the third and fourth hit his shoulder and cheek...slashing his skin and drawing blood.

"You're lucky...any regular witch would be dead by now...you show promise"

Kyle hearing this felt a surge of fire he had no idea he carried, the feeling of the icy pain on his face began to warm, soon his temper was a searing flame, allowing himself to be engulfed by it.

"YOU'RE SICK! YOU BETRAY MY MOTHER AND THEN YOU DO THIS?!"

"Now now...lets not get too riled up...I need you focused"

"SHOVE YOUR FOCUS UP YOUR ASS!"

In a flash, Kyle continues to fend off the deadly frost, which flew at him at dangerous speeds, no matter how many spells or incantations he chucked back, one or two of them slip past his attacks, cutting him lightly so the wounds weren't deep but each hit was like frost bite eating away at the place it struck.

After awhile Kyle begins to get tired, his spells slowly beginning to lose their effectiveness. The moment he lost his ability to do magic, the deadly assault seized in mid air, inches away from his face.

"You're strong...but your magic is quite...volatile isn't it? remind you of anybody?" His father was unseen but Kyle could tell he was grinning behind the voice, the way he speaks down to him was familiar also, the only time he felt like this was when Grandpa had finished with him and Grandma approached, a sinful glee in her face as she'd tease his pain, his torment.

Kyle was exhausted, he felt as the very energy he felt earlier on had left him completely, and that it wouldn't come back to him any time soon, collapsing to his knees as the assault paused and retreated, the spell at work flying out of the window as the room returns to it's regular temperature

"I would try to get some rest...I'll be back~"

The slight ringing sound in his ears disappeared the moment his father did, letting go of the breath he had no idea he was holding, though the room was back to normal, Kyle found his breath was still visible in the air in front of him, shivering like mad.

And with each fleeting breath, his eyes close, the cold taking him into a forced and twisted sleep, one that could've lasted for hours.

*

In the depths of the real fortress the family was held in, Zayne and his pack were confined in small alcoves along the black walls, there was Reign hunters teasing them from beyond the bars, Cara's arm had healed, but couldn't grow back leaving her in a depressive state hunched against the wall with her back to the bars, Alyssa was so traumatised by the nights events she hadn't spoken a word, Zayne was unsure whether she was silently seething or crying.

Adrian on the other hand was nowhere to be seen, and the loss of her mate had hit Cara deeply, not knowing if he was alive somewhere else or if they had already disposed of him.

"Hey dog! Want a chew toy to keep you busy?" The hunter couple at the bars were laughing cruelly to them, shaking measly chicken bones near their cage, Zayne however had had enough, their finger just grazing the inside of the prison, allowing Zayne to lung forward from where he was sitting. When he reached the bars he grabbed the hunters hand, not only breaking it, but taking a large bite out of his hand and taking a few fingers with him.

He cried out in pain as the other quickly rushes to help him, his boot kicking into Zayne's face who was being pulled out of the bars by his victim, letting go with a sickening crunch.

"ARRRRGGGGGHHH MY FUCKING FINGERS!!"

The second his friend noticed how the bite was pulsing already, he pulled out his crossbow, his friend on the ground looks at him fearfully, shaking from the badly bleeding wound.

"NO! PLEASE I WONT TURN I WONT I-"

He was cut off by the bolt piercing in-between his eyes, killing him almost instantly.

There was a silence between the Reign ranks as this occurred, they were all staring at the cages and the dead boy on the ground, the end of the bolt sticking out between his dead blue eyes. Zayne cut through the silence with laughter, so much laughter the eyes of everyone had averted to him as he wipes his eyes from tears.

The hunter who had just killed his friend approached the bars, but stayed just far enough not to be grabbed, his face contorted in rage and disgust.

"I'll gut you for that you fucking mutt!"

"Good...the more of you hunter scum I bite...the more of your numbers become mine!" Zayne said defiantly, His face in a satisfied grin as the blood from the dead body began seeping into the mud around the friend's ankles. Happy he got to kill at least one more of them before they decide to kill them all.

They were being fed scraps but the only one who wasn't eating was Cara, she still hadn't moved, even in the commotion with Zayne happening right in front of her. In fact, Zayne had realised he hadn't seen her eat for awhile, unsure with the full moon of the month approaching soon, Zayne hadn't thought that it could've been purposefully but then again, her worry of this exact situation could've made her plan this. An Alpha as committed as her wouldn't allow her pack to die on her watch.

When everyone had gone back to their duties, Zayne notices a small child round the corner of the cages, his eyes were a bright blue and by his scent, Zayne could tell he was a wolf. He just stared at them sadly while his dirty rags rubbed up against the cold corner, his fingers clutched against the wall achingly.

Zayne didnt want him to be seen, if he was they would surely punish him for stepping away from the slave work the hunters were making the previous owners of the fortress carry out, signalling him to keep quiet by raising his index finger to his lips, the boy looks around hastily as he repeats the gesture to him, running away and going back to whatever it was he was doing before.

"The boy...did you see him?"

Zayne had asked telepathically but he received no answer from anybody, the entire pack had given up, Kyle didnt speak, Cara, Alyssa and Adrian were deathly silent and he was fairly sure Shaun was already dead.

"Please...dont let me do this alone..."

But alas, they still remained quiet, leaving Zayne to figure out a way of his escaping his prison and freeing everyone on his own, which he wasn't used to ever since he had met Kyle, his nightmares of never finding the one person to share eternity with had cleared and that pain he felt was such a long time ago. He barely recognised himself back then, an now stuck in this cage with his down-trodden family, he didn't recognise them either.

This anger he felt was similar to betrayal, he knew his family would never purposefully betray him but the feeling resided in his stomach anyway, A pulse of regret for not listening to his mother about leaving, maybe then nothing this severe would've happened to them. However, there was a duality to this feeling, he also felt a coldness towards his mother for not saying anything to ease her children, she just sat there like a statue, refusing to even process what had happened.

It was unlike any cold he had felt in his entire life, it wasn't the typical snide thoughts and insults about their inadequacy, it was like it was an easier option than accepting the truth, which Zayne had no intentions of seeing.

Being angry at your mother is a guilty sort of pleasure, it can feel relieving in the moment but then you look into her eyes and see every ounce of her guilt and sadness, Zayne often forgot how much she had to sacrifice for him and Alyssa, but taking risks like she did tonight was something she wouldn't have done in the past. With her home, her Husband, her Daughter and her Son all on the line she still chose to trust Kyle and follow his lead, despite it not working out in the end.

"Mum...if you have any ounce of strength left...USE IT NOW!....If not as our mother than do it as our Alpha...PLEASE!" Zayne pleaded with her, her eyes perking at the voice in her head. She seemed to stem herself and collapse after hunching over for so long, hugging her knees close to her chest and leaning her head against the wall.

"I'm sorry Zayne...I failed you and Alyssa...you're right..." Zayne could hear his mother after not hearing her voice for hours on end, even the rise of it pulled Alyssa from her daze and all focus was on their mother "But if we wish to survive...we must be patient...even in our darkest hours..."

Going back to her wallowing, her children watch her fall back into her crumpled form with a tired and beaten expression. Though Zayne heard her, he saw nothing that could help them escape. The panic that after nearly 20 years he could lose the one thing he's wanted his entire life was eating away at his insides like parasites, draining him of all energy and strength, right as the boy came back to check on him...but he didnt care.

Following suit like his mother and sister, crawling down into a submissive form and blocking out the awful world around him, trying to push away from the thoughts of his love being tortured and hurt but the feeling was difficult to suppress, leading him to stifle tears that ran softly down his face.

But just across the way the boy from before takes off, running among the other ragged slaves in the courtyards, slipping unnoticed by everyone including the Reign officers keeping watch on them. Slipping inside a little cubby and into a secret hiding place that nobody knew about but him.

The boy was very young, able bodied but skinny enough to fit, he was probably no more than eight or nine years old. He appears to have made this his home and he sat down looking at a photograph on the wall, it was of him, a woman and a man, all looking happy in a small park that looked like it could be in Fordwich. The sun was shining that day, all of them wearing summer clothes, so picturesque and happy, the smiles seem to make him even sadder than he was before.

After staring longingly at the picture he wipes his eyes as searches in the piles of hidden items, coming across what looked to be bobby pin, probably acquired from his late mother. He was conflicted, if he disobeyed the Reign like his parents, he'll be killed without question or regret that he was a child.

"What do I do....I'm scared..." He says quietly to the picture, imagining his mothers words in his ear.

He remembered the way she looked on that day with her flowing blond hair, her smile was the brightest

"What if I fail..."

The voice was sombre, and an edge of melancholy to her inspiring, melodic voice speaking in his mind.

"Oh Milo...you are stronger than you realise...don't let people underestimate you for that...never let them..."

And just like that the voice of his mother so plainly in his ear had left him as quick as it came, the surge of new found courage had drove Milo to devise a plan, to help the wolves of the fortress reclaim it and drive the invaders back. But he couldn't do it on his own.

Getting help wouldn't be the easiest plan, most of the slaves had lost their determination to survive with all of them being restricted from turning to their wolf forms and most of them were mothers and children, most of the male wolves resided outside the walls with their heads stuck on wooden pikes, a few scrawny runts helping with the workload they we're all forced to do.

After he had readied himself, Milo leaves his hiding place, setting out to do the unthinkable.

*

After multiple hours of sleeping, Kyle had awoken in the room again, but this time it had changed itself. There was a gaping hole in the corner of it this time like a glitch had set over it, shrubbery and green plants layer the walls edge leading into a vast looking forest, Kyle felt fully rejuvenated again and he tried casting a spell, but it felt way too over powered, trying the Lucerna spell as a towering flame cascades onto the roof of the room, shocking him and flapping it away with concern and anger glazing his eyes.

"Why are you doing this?! haven't you done enough?!"

There was no reply, but the whispers and faint noises coming from the forest intrigued Kyle, slowly wandering from the bed and into the completely different environment, the further he walked, the room behind him became more of a distant memory. The foliage was so dense he could barely see further than two meters ahead of him, glazing the tall and large palm leaves out of his way, pushing and trudging the best he could but eventually, he snaps.

"FRAGOR!"

A shockingly large beam of red gushing flames burst from his fingertips, tearing through everything with ease and carving a path for him to walk down. His face red and pulsing like his hand, his hair sparking up like a lighter but refusing to light, dying down as he takes deep breaths.

"Calm down Kyle...you need to find Shaun" He thought to himself, trudging along the path he made for himself, oddly enough the surroundings he burned a path into wasn't black from scorch marks, they were chopped despite Kyle's raging fire spell. He had a vague idea about the magic surrounding him and was convinced it wasn't an ordinary illusion spell, there was something more to it, the way his magic cuts instead of burning everything was a sign this was more likely a memory.

Continuing on, Kyle got a sudden urge in his stomach to get out of sight, diving to the under brush near two trees nearby and hearing heavy footsteps coming from his left, and another who was much lighter treading behind them. Kyle could only just see the figures rushing just in front of him through the speckled leaves covering his hiding spot.

"Why are we stopping?!"

"Where can we go?! They wont stop hunting us and we cant give away the Sanctuary!"

He noticed the pair to be his parents, they looked rough and was sporting many bruises and cuts, a baby in his mothers arms and a baby in his fathers. They were dressed oddly like they lived in an entirely different time period and his mother was looking around warily, they had clearly been on the run for quite some time, the new-born's he was so used to seeing were now bigger but were probably no older than 4 months old. His father was the worst of the two, with his eye bleeding and his teeth missing in the front of his mouth, and the two were looking at each other in a combination of fear and regret.

"I know of a place...somewhere we can survive safely away from all this...together..." his mother said in an attempt to calm him, but it was no use.

"You are mad! how can we do this together when im the one that lost everything for you, my parents, my friends, my FAMILY...Its not fair"

"Life isn't fair Alex! you think you could love me with no consequences?! You've been raised to kill my kind...to kill our children..."

"Mash...please hear me out...if we turn ourselves in they'll imprison us...my father-"

"Your father is an evil disgusting man and I want him nowhere near my children!" she screeched at the top of her voice, going visibly red in the face with anger.

Alex was took aback by what she said, physically taking a step back as if she had punched him in the face.

""My" children? What happened to our children?"

"Oh get off it Alex, Im so sick of you justifying their actions! They murdered my ancestors, my father and his father before his...So no...turning ourselves in isn't an option...so if you're that desperate to run away then fine....but dont you dare use my babies as an excuse to be a coward"

She storms away from him, knowing he wont leave her, but the words had already been said and done. Alex was silently seething behind her as Kyle slowly follows them from afar, listening to their deafening silence with great intrigue. Until they finally come across a deteriorated tower that spun high into the air, teetering on its spindly base.

"Here"

Kyle's mother passes him to his father as she makes a few odd shapes with her fingers, blowing the door away like it was nothing, then immediately she snatches Kyle away from him, Melia was crying loudly now, and she looked worse for health than last time Kyle had seen her in his visions. There was an odd humming in the air like static. As they race in the tower Kyle goes to step from his hiding place, but the sounds of a crowd yelling and ranting aloud from behind him with an ominous orange glow peering from the bushes beyond. Deciding against leaving his parents he rushes into the tower to see if they we're well protected, it seemed like they took shelter in a clock tower and without much notice of Kyle, the two tended to the babies.

"How did we get into this mess" His mother said coldly, looking affronted to the idea of being alone with him.

"You know exactly how...we weren't careful enough and now all of us must suffer for it"

"Dont put all this on me...if you didnt tell him about the twins we could've left earlier...started a better life than this one"

Soon enough the orange glow of the forest begins to shine into the glaring window of the clock tower. And the shouting and ranting got louder and louder as my father races to the window, not saying a word in his shock. There was a mass gathering of growing people dressed in red and black, their robes looked older and more dated than the ones Kyle knew and immediately scowled down at the angry mob of hunters. There was definitely a few odd villagers joining in with the hunters, their pitchforks and torches causing the nasty orange glare as they argue amongst each other on what to do to the witch and her spawn.

"BURN HER!"

"DROWN THE BITCH"

"KILL HER! KILL HER! KILL HER!"

Kyle's mother was heartbroken, she knew that there was no way out this time as they surrounded the already run down clock tower, jeering their insults. Time was running out by the second and there was barely enough time to collect themselves before they started to burn the base of the clock tower, the flames were slow and there was nothing to stop them from coming inside, but that was suicide with the raging witch inside.

She started by securing the room with a barrier spell and using a harmless sleep spell to send Baby Kyle and Melia asleep.

"What do we do?" Father asked her.

"There is no "we" Alex...there is nothing you can do for this family now"

She turns away to walk from him but he clasps his hand around her wrist, pulling her to him with a nasty look on his face.

"NO" he says, his lips curling into a sneer.

"Alex let me go-"

"No, I've sacrificed so much...so MUCH! for you...for your children"

"A-Alex!-"

"No amount of hunters, not even my parents could've kept me from you...one mistake and now I'm your villain...I took you in...I LOVED YOU!"

The crackling whenever Kyle got really angry had popped up again, except that it wasn't Kyle this time. But his mother, Her hair from the previous vision was so sleek and smooth and it ran like thin strands of molten lava...but this time it was just pure flame, her hair was gone and the anger she felt pounced out like a predator, piercing Alex and even Kyle.

"I Loved you too...but now...you're in my way!" Her voice was still cold but her eyes were bright red with smoke and little bursts of flames sprouted from her eye sockets.

Without a second thought she raises her other hand and striking flames sprout from her hand in a brandishing scorn. His face and the clothes surrounding his chest burn away, leaving a ghastly red mark from his cheek down to his right hip. The blast was concussion, sending him from the window at top speed, the glass shattering as he fell to the soggy earth below where the hunters gathered round him.

"She threw the traitor out!"

"Is the exiled dead?"

"Look at his face...by the gods"

As they continued to poke and prod at the unconscious Alex, Kyle's mother rushes to the wall as the flames began to burn from the decayed cobble of the clock tower. She raced to perform any magic that could get her and her children away from here, away from the hunters, away from Alex. In the midst of her thoughts and incantation, a portal like hole slowly forms in the wall she faced.

Kyle was confused, the spell was like nothing he had ever seen before, and the book back home never mentioned anything about the swirling rainbow colours that thrashed around the edge of the portal like it was the ocean waves, bashing their shoulders against a cliffs edge and running back down into its depths. It was so beautiful.

She goes to grab Melia after grabbing me, but a brick flies through the open window, hitting a support beam that was already on fire, crumbling like it was nothing and plummeting into the floor in-front of the screaming baby. Creating a gaping hole between mother and babe.

"MELIA!"

She instantly places Kyle through the portal, and as I did, everything around him flashes a bright light, he couldn't see anything anymore, but the desperate screams of his mother trying to save his sister...but it fades away, leaving nothing but Kyle and his baby self alone in a void of white.

"Interesting how things can change isn't it son? it has been far too long since I saw you that day..."

"This...this doesn't make sense..." Kyle blurts out.

"Oh...but actually it does, when your mother decided to open that portal, her fear for you and your sister drove her to send you forward in time...instead of a safer place, her magic robbed you from me and she had no choice but to leave your sister behind...in the past"

"My mother travelled through...time?..."

"Indeed, the first and only witch who was capable of it...until...You"

Kyle finally begins to recede from the illusion his father was projecting from the safety of the prison he had locked him in, with Kyle returning to the very room he had been in the entire time.

"I...magic cant send you through time...the book...it would've-"

"The book your mother wrote? the book that she intended only for you...while her other child had been left behind"

"Where is she?"

The was a slight moment of pause before he finally speaks again.

"Exactly where she belongs"

***