The wooden stake came to hit her in speed, and though Julie had raised her hand, she felt no change in her body, there was no burst of energy that came from her to stop the wooden stake from attacking her. Not knowing what else to do, she swatted the wood with her hand, which in turn nipped and grazed her palm.

  "Ugh," Julie winced in pain, gritting her teeth.

  "You need to focus on it, Julianne," advised her grandfather, who had taken himself to move towards one of the trees and leaned his back against it. "Anyone can tell that your mind is all over the place. Focus just on the wood and try to channel your soul energy."

  "I would have done it if I knew how to do it," Julie muttered under her breath.

  "Again!" ordered her grandfather, and upon the older witch's words, Cillian picked up three wooden stakes in his hand.

  Julie brought her palm in front of her face, noticing the scratches on it.

  "The best way to learn is to push the person to a corner. This is nothing personal," stated Cillian, which Julie was already aware of. "Ready."

  Fifteen more minutes passed, and Julie's palm had spots of blood, and the skin had turned red because of the constant course friction that took place because of her attempt to dodge the wooden stakes. When she was asked to take a five minutes break, she heard Cillian asking her grandfather,

  "Are you sure she is a witch and not someone who is claiming to be the one?"

  "Have I ever mistaken a witch until now?"

  "She has no skill. Opaline used to have better skills than her when she was of this girl's age," remarked Cillian, and Julie turned her head to the other side. "I never took you to take in unworthy ones. I can tell where Opaline and Ottis picked it from."

  Magnus La Fay turned to look at Julie, whose breath was laboured as she was out of breath. Though she had magic, she had barely used it and right now, they were doing a crash course for her to finish learning as quickly as she could.

  The older man's eyes below his thick eyebrows watched her carefully. If it wasn't for her magic that reacted to him, that held the same frequency and properties, and he would have assumed her to be a spy.

  "She needs to learn it as quickly as possible. Which is why I asked for your help, Cillian," stated Magnus.

  Cillian watched Julie before his eyes shifted to look at the old man, and he asked, "Did something happen?"

  "Hm?"

  "You seem quieter than usual," replied Cillian.

  "I was thinking about our future, about how things would turn out to be," murmured Magnus before he waved his hand. He said to Julie, "It is time to take your position, Julianne. We have to work on many more things, and this is just the basics."

  Even after another hour of practice, Julie continued to stand at the same spot, and she could swear that in the next few minutes, her palm was going to have a hole in it. Another wooden stake was thrown at her, and she felt her hand tingle. And though the stake didn't stop from hitting her hand, she felt it to be less impactful.

  Instead of looking at her hand, Julie looked for the stake and picked it up. A wide smile appeared on her lips.

  "I did it," Julie showed the wood to her grandfather.

  "It's not like you turned the wooden stake to half its size," came the party pooper's voice, and Julie turned to look at Cillian with a small grimace. It seemed like he was related to Mr. Borrell, thought Julie in her mind.

  But Cillian was surprised when Magnus walked towards Julie and patted her back, "That is very good. I am proud of you, as expected of—of you."

  Julie smiled at her grandfather's attempt to call her his granddaughter. And at that thought, the smile on her lips widened like a hundred watts bulb on her face.

  "Where is Opaline? Is she not coming to help today?" questioned Cillian, and at the mention of her mother, Julie turned to look at the man, who looked in the direction from where they had come. She wondered if Cillian was perhaps one of her mother's possible lovers or admirers.

  "There they are," said Magnus, jerking his head to look ahead of them.

  Opaline walked along with Melanie with a bow and arrows behind Melanie's back.

  "I had to put the little one's to their afternoon naps so that they don't get into any mischief," said Opaline with a smile on her face. "How has the practice been going?"

  "It has been good. I was able to make the tip of the stake disappear a few minutes ago," came Julie's excited voice, waiting for her mother to praise her.

  "That isn't bad for a first day. I was able to get only half of it disappeared on my first try," said her mother and Cillian nodded his head.

  "Indeed. It is because you come from the strong bloodline of the La Fay's," came Cillian's words.

  Melanie came to stand next to Julie, and she whispered, "You have hurt your hand!"

  "I was trying to dodge the wood away," replied Julie, before she added, "But I am good."

  "Melanie here told me that she has never drawn an arrow on a bow before. So I decided to show her how it is done," said Opaline, and Magnus nodded his head.

  "Remember," came the old man's gruff voice to Melanie, who straightened her back in attention, "Do not shoot arrows at people who are good. Be it vampires or witches or humans. We La Fay's don't believe in hurting people just because a group of them are bad. Fight for good, and kill only the evil."

  Kill, thought Melanie in her mind. The word heavily weighed on her shoulders, and she wondered how many people's death was written in her hand.

  "Yes," Melanie quickly nodded her head. "I will remember that, Mr. La Fay."

  As hours continued to pass with their practice, Julie didn't know what time it was, but the sky had started to darken, and so did the forest, which started to leave shadows on the ground and things around it.

  "Come have supper with us tonight, Cillian. We should celebrate with our new guests," invited Magnus, and Cillian looked slightly annoyed.

  "My sister must be waiting for me. I should get home soon, and not impose," said Cillian, but Magnus waved his hand.

  "Invite her to the La Fay's house. Let her bring her husband and the children along with her," said Magnus, taking no for an answer.

  In the night, everyone finished their supper, and Cillian's family left the house. Julie had finished dressing the palm of her hand for the night, and she sat in front of the fireplace on the floor of the living room.

  She heard her grandfather let a tired sigh escape from his lips. He spoke in a soft voice, "It feels like the clock is ticking too fast. I have been trying to figure out how to find the exact day of when it's going to happen, but it turned out to be hard to figure out. It would be nice if after a year, we could have you here with us at least for a year."

  Julie smiled at her grandfather's words, which had a hint of sadness in it, "I wish I could be of some help."

  Magus shook his head, "Don't be. You are still learning and you have had no proper guidance, except for that dumb Corvin, who taught you nothing. Do you know who it is?"

  The smile on Julie's face turned awkward. To think her grandfather was calling himself to be the dumb Corvin, she didn't know what to say, "I don't know. The Corvin told me it doesn't know its name."

  "Rubbish!" her grandfather huffed, "The Corvin is lying through its beak. Most of the Corvin's know their names. Most, and it is very rare a Corvin doesn't know itself. Maybe for a raven it would be hard, because it's like a baby chick, but once a raven grows into a Corvin, they usually get back most of their memories from their past life. That's what happened to your father," his voice lowered so that the other people in the house didn't hear him. He then asked her, "Will you be losing a whole year, if you spend it here?"

  "I don't know, we never experienced something like this before, more like it never happened before," replied Julie, and her grandfather nodded his head.

  "I guess it is just me being selfish, of wanting to have you around so that I could spend some more time to learn about you," said the man and Julie felt warmth spread across her chest.

  "I can tell you about myself," said Julie, and Magnus, who was staring at the fireplace, his eyes shifted to look at Julie, who looked back at him. "My friends are Melanie and Conner. I have a boyfriend, who is a vampire—"

  "Hm?" her grandfather raised his eyebrow at her.

  "He is an Elder vampire's son. His name is Roman or Rome," explained Julie, and Magnus noticed the way his granddaughter's eyes lit up by just speaking about the person's name.

  "When are both of you getting married?" Magnus questioned her, and Julie laughed. She tried to not laugh when she noticed the serious look on the old man's face.

  "We are still studying and we have a lot of things to do. Maybe after that," said Julie.

  "Only if it was possible for me to attend it. It's saddening to not be there, because I cannot see the other grandchildren of mine, but at least I got to meet you, which should be good enough," remarked Magnus before he fell into deep thought. He said, "I have always stood for the good, I wonder if that is what is causing our death in the near future—"

  "What are you both talking about in such a hushed voice?" came Opaline's voice, who had entered the living room with a glass of milk for Julie.

  "Julie was speaking about her people from her home," replied Magnus, and he then looked at Julie, "You should go and get some rest. We have a lot more than today to do."

  Julie nodded her head, getting up from the spot where she had been sitting, she took the glass that Opaline offered.

  "Goodnight," Julie offered him a slight bow and then she followed Opaline.

  "Melanie is sleeping with my little sisters. You wouldn't mind sleeping in my room, would you? You aren't a guest anymore and it would be rude to have you sleep in the shed," said Opaline.

  While passing the little girl's room, Julie saw Melanie, who had her hand around one of the girl's. It seemed like her friend was fond of children. When they entered Opaline's room, Julie looked around where a lantern burned brightly at the stand, lighting up the entire room.

  Opaline walked towards the bed and sat at the edge of the bed. She then said, "Sit down here, Julie," she looked at the floor.

  Julie was a little confused, but she made her way to sit down between her mother's legs with her back facing her mother. She continued to hold the warm glass of milk in her hand.

  "I remembered something that you said this morning, and with your hand hurt and your hair unruly, let me help you with it tonight," said her mother, picking up the comb from the bedside.

  "Um, that's alright. I will get it done myself," Julie softly protested against being hushed by her mother.

  "Just sit tight and let me comb your hair. You didn't mention having a sister, so you must have not been able to experience this," said her mother, and Julie felt her hair being let down before the comb came to weave through her hair. "I believe you should experience a lot of things in life, especially the little ones like this and it would be a shame to have not known how it feels."

  Julie barely moved, frozen in the place where she sat. She couldn't believe her mother was combing her hair, and she felt goosebumps form on her arms.

  Her mother's hand with the comb was gentle on her hair, and Julie couldn't help but let her head lean back. Her eyes unconsciously closed, and she enjoyed the moment, which felt precious.

  "Lady Opaline, may I ask you something?" asked Julie.

  "Go ahead."

  "Do you know a person named Knox?"

  "I think I have come across a person with that name in another town, why do you ask?" asked her mother.

  "I was trying to find the person to ask him a few questions. But it isn't that important," replied Julie before she asked, "Is there a person named Azazel Donovan?"

  Julie felt her mother's hand pause a little as if her heart hitched, and two seconds passed before her mother asked, "Yes. How do you know about him?"

  "I just happened to hear about him… Do you like him?" inquired Julie. This meant her mother had already come in contact with the Elder vampire and was possibly spending some time with him.

  "You seem to know quite a lot of things. Are you someone with the ability of visions?" her mother didn't seem offended by her eager questions, but there was a hum in her voice.

  "I have seen visions at times, but they were mostly from the past," came Julie's response to her mother's questions. "Do you have it too?"

  "Surprisingly, I do. There aren't many witches whom I have come across, who can look into the past or future. Though if given an option, I would have liked to take a look in the future," Opaline moved the comb from the crown of Julie's head to the tips of her hair. "I am guessing you haven't been able to open that ability completely too?"

  "Yes," replied Julie. "I didn't know how to do it right, and also, time has been an obstacle."

  "That will always be something that holds us back, but we all have to make time for what we want, right?" asked her mother, and Julie nodded her head. Her mother braided her hair and brushed the ends of it again. "There you go, your hair is all neat."

  Julie placed the empty glass to the side, where she had finished drinking the milk during their conversation. Placing her hand on the back of her head, she touched the braid before turning around to look at her mother. She decided not to thank her because this was her mother and not a stranger.

  "Come sit with me, Julianne," Opaline patted the surface of the bed which was next to her.

  Julie stood up and sat next to her mother. She saw her mother bring her right hand forward, showing the palm where white filaments of line appeared.

  "What is that?" asked Julie, fascinated by the sight that was in front of her.

  "This is our soul energy. I know my father and Cillian can be harsh when it comes to training, but I have some tricks that might help you," smiled Opaline, and Julie's eyes went back to look at the filaments that moved like a grass that was blown with the gentle breeze. "The question is how to bring it. We witches, we might appear to be like humans, but we still fall under the dark side. And it is something that we cannot change. We rely on dark properties like pain, revenge, anger…… It is necessary that you learn to balance your energy so that you don't topple to a deeper hole of darkness, like the vampires. Know when to grasp the light when the darkness touches you. But I can tell that you have already passed through that stage. Try it."

  When Julie brought her hand forward, her mother placed her hand on it.

  "Use the one that is injured," guided her mother, "Pull out the bandage. If your soul energy is strong, it can heal your wounds."

  Julie unwinded the bandage from her hand and looked at the little cuts she had received today.

  "Now try to channel the darker thoughts before replacing them with the good ones," said her mother, and Julie wasn't sure what it meant, but she tried. She closed her eyes, trying to remember the darkest memory until now.

  Her thoughts moved to the time when she had seen her surrogate mother's body in front of her, letting the coldness sink into her body, but when she opened her eyes, there was nothing on her palm.

  "Let us try again," said Opaline without giving up, and Julie nodded her head. "Try for another memory."

  "Okay," whispered Julie, and Opaline stood up, going near the door and closed it.

  Julie tried to remember the next darkest memory of her emotions, but there was nothing that she could grasp on it. After a couple of minutes, she opened her eyes and saw nothing, and Opaline placed her hand on Julie's shoulder.

  "I guess it is going to need more concentration," said Julie, and Opaline agreed.

  "Yes, you are probably tired today, and we should try it for tomorrow. We have a lot of days to work on it," encouraged her mother. "Come let us rest for the night."

  While Julie lay on the bed next to her mother, she couldn't help but go through what her mother told her a few minutes ago.

  "Can I ask you something?" asked Julie, staring into the dark ceiling. "If witches' abilities came from dark thoughts, does it mean that the darkest witches have a higher power, and evil would prevail?"

  "Too much evil is a curse for any witch, there is always a balance," responded her mother. "We witches… most of us are good and there are only a few who turn to worse. We witches often seek for peace."

  "I know that…" whispered Julie, remembering how her mother had in the future sacrificed herself.