I feel something nudge me and I groan as I slowly open my eyes,” What ?” I rasp.

" What’d you dream about princess, something exciting ?” Evan asked.

" I can’t really remember.” I say as I rub my eyes. I never really remembered any of my dreams, it was nothing new.

" We’re here.” Varian says as he turns to face me,” You sweat a lot when you sleep.” He says with a scrunched up nose.

" Crap.” I hiss as I sit up in my seat and reach to my seat belt to unbuckle myself.

" Sleeping beauty’s finally up and moving.” Evan remarks.

" What did I say about that happy disposition of yours ?” I turn to see him leaning towards me, and I throw my hand forward to slap him,” And stop comparing me to princesses, it makes me uncomfortable.”

" Fine, I’ll stop.” He says with a smirk.” But you owe me.”

" No I don’t.” I growl.

" Come on, you don’t even know what I was gonna ask you for.” Evan whined.

" You were going to ask me to make you brownies or something else sweet.”

" Oh come on, you used to love baking.” Even continued to whine. 

" I don’t wanna bake anything for you.” I hiss.

I still haven’t forgiven you for snitching on me.

" Oh, and you’d rather waste your time doing what? Sulking around in your room?” He asks,” Come on out of the car.” He grabs my arms and begins to drag me out of the passenger’s seat.

" I don’t wanna - oof!” I yell as my body slips out of the car.

" Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Evan says.

I rub my butt and look at Evan,” No, no, it’s fitting that this is how my time back here starts.”

" Ollie . . . ”

I glance to the left of Evan to see Mia. Not only Mia, but Corine, Finn, and Benjamin as well. All of my siblings were bearing witness to me landing on my ass upon arrival.

" I see some things never change.”

I turn around to see Celia.

" Celia.” I said her name with a clenched jaw.

I narrowed my eyes to scrutinize her. The damned woman was still as perfect as the last time I remembered seeing her. Not a curled red hair out of place. She also stood at least two inches taller than me, and had the audacity to only wear heels which added at least another two inches to her imposing frame. Her long red hair was curled and styled so that it was draped off of her left shoulder, and it glistened under the dull lights in the drive way.

Although she still looked like a runway model, her blue eyes now looked much more tired and dull. There were many adjectives - and profanities - that I’ve used to describe this woman during my youth, but tired was never one of them. It almost made me sad when I looked into her eyes to see almost nothing but pure exhaustion. I wondered for a brief moment how many things Varian hadn’t yet explained to me about the past couple of years.

I offered a bitter smile,” The past few years must have been pretty stressful for you, looking at those deep crows feet you’ve developed.”

Celia narrowed her beautiful blue eyes, a flash of anger overtook the tiredness,” I suppose it is getting harder to hide the effects of stress from my position, I’m sure I’d look a few decades younger if I simply ran away from my responsibilities.” She gave me a pointed glare,” But not all of us have that luxury.”

I feel someone’s hand grip over my mouth, cutting me off.

" I’m sure she’d be just overjoyed to talk to you some more, but right now she has to go inside to do. . . . other things.” Varian says.

" I’m sure.” Celia offered me a disinterested glance as she turned her nose up,” I’d love to have a chat with you, so feel free to come talk to me when you’ve finally gotten settled back in. I’m sure we have a lot of catching up to do, Olivier.”

My chest rumbles as a growl bubbles in it and lick his hand to force him to release me as he practically dragged me inside the castle, and away from Celia’s imposing presence.

" We don’t need this right now. Things are bad as they are.” He hissed into my ear.

" Olivier!” Varian tries to push me to walk forward faster, but I stop and turn around to see Mia running after us.

" Hey Mia, how have you been ?” I ask.

She jumps onto me,” You -!” we both fall to the ground, with her on top of me. She pushes off the ground to hover above me in a plank position,” I thought you were dead.” I saw tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

" Calm down, I’m perfectly fine.” I say as I wrap my hands around her head and bring her down to hug me.

" But no one knew that while you were gone.” She says,” Remember what you told us that day you left ? Well you were right, it’s been -”

Varian lifts her off of me, interrupting her,” Let’s not get into any details just yet. She just got back, let her adjust.”

I stand up and look between both of them with confusion written across my face.

" Ahem, uh . . . ” Varian motions for me to follow him,” Anyway, your room has been prepared, I’ll take you to it.”

I look skeptically between the both of them before shrugging and following Varian.

He dropped me off and closed the door behind himself. I don’t know whether that was to give me privacy or lock me in, but I am too tired to want to think about it.

My room was exactly the way it was on the day that I ran away. Save the messy bed sheets and clothes all over the floor, that is.

I notice luggage by the dresser and groan.

This is really happening, this is real. I despaired.

I walk over to the luggage and place one of the bags on the floor as I begin to look for pajamas. I pull out a gray pair of sweat pants and a tee-shirt that has my universities logo on it, and I begin to undress to put them on. I take my shirt off and reach for the tee-shirt when I hear the door creak. Immediately I turn around to face away from the door way,” Who’s there?!” I hiss.

Oh yeah, they’ll definitely answer to that. Try adding a please to that. A sarcastic voice pipes up in my head.

I growl as I pull the tee-shirt over my head and stomp over to the door to swing it open to see . . . no one. I peak my head into the hallway and it is empty. I groan as I slam the door shut,” Damn old castle, scaring me half to death.” I kick the wall before taking my jeans off and grabbing my sweat pants to change into them.

I flop onto my bed and left the right corner of my shirt up to reveal a tattoo that’s been there ever since I could remember.

The tattoo on my stomach is an intricate circular design, and it isn’t actually a tattoo, it’s more of a . . . how to put it ? Binding spell. I only found that out after doing countless hours of research on it - which I remember being a major pain in the ass. But through the research I found out that it can nullify magic, meaning that if placed on a person, it could prevent them from shifting.

I can’t remember what witch put it on me, or what I did to get it, but I do know that if my father ever found out about it, I would be under permanent house arrest for the rest of my life. I would never leave my room again.

I’ve tried removing it. Three times. They tried using a laser to take it off, but that didn’t work, so they then tried taking that portion of skin off to replace it with a graft, but none of it worked because the next day it would still be there. For the past couple of years, I’ve settled with covering it up with concealer or other sorts of body paints when necessary.

I glance at my luggage, hoping that Varian had been kind enough to pack my makeup bag that contained my water proof concealer.

I then continue to look around the rest of the room nostalgically until my eyes land on a portrait of my mother. Suddenly my mood was dampened even more.

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