Page 34 of Her Destined Alpha (Alpha #3)
Delsanra
H ow do you speak the truth when everyone has already made up their mind that you are in the wrong?
There is no way, because even if I screamed from the bottom of my lungs, my truth would fall upon deaf ears. Just like now… As I was dragged before the Elders, no one wanted to listen to a ‘what if I was innocent’. Everyone here detested me…
I was still wearing the remnants of the dress that Rayhan had bought for me, although the entire back was torn.
My feet and legs were bare, and I was shivering from the cold as I knelt on the floor before them.
My hands were tied behind me tightly, using normal shackles.
The square I was kneeling on was like an ice prison, a form of punishment that refused to let me move from its perimeter.
Despite how broken I was, I kept my head high, I will not bow down to anyone.
There were six of them seated before me around the stone table: High Witch Magdalene, High Witch Eldridge, High Witch Zelda, Elder Samson, and Elder Edward.
Lastly was High Elder Reginald, whom I recognised from his robes.
The husband of Eldridge. No wonder she was speaking as an equal to Magdalene the previous night…
her husband was the head of England’s Coven.
“It’s been a long time,” Reginald said coldly as he rose from his seat. “High Witch Zelda, without wasting more time, let’s start by stating the evil doings of the accused.” Evil doings? Well… I guess I have done evil…
“Delsanra Diana Silver, the cursed daughter of darkness, has a high list of crimes, if I must say so. Let us start from the top,” Zelda said, casting me a scornful look.
“At the age of thirteen, she stole a vast amount of money from her father and ran away from home, knowing full well how dangerous her powers were, yet she didn’t care about the dangers in this and still ran away.
At the age of fourteen, she fell into practising forbidden magic in the forms of necromancy and black magic, spells taken from the Book of Darkness.
She then went on to assist Endora, an evil witch who always defied the laws of magic and the Coven. Working alongside her as an all-”
“That’s not true!” I cried out.
“Silence!” Reginald thundered, and I felt the temperature of the prison around me drop. So, that was the plan? Every time I spoke, they’d make it colder? Was I really the evil one there? Didn’t the accused even have a chance to speak?
“As I was saying… working alongside Endora as an ally. Thanks to you, the werewolves’ hatred towards the witches has only grown,” Zelda continued.
“You helped Endora attain access to some of the worst forms of magic, even contacting dark witches of the past. The blood of many innocent lives is on your hands.”
“Now that we have heard the accusations, High Witch Magdalene, probe her mind, and let’s see the truth,” Reginald ordered, not even looking at me.
I looked at each one of them. Would they extract only what they wanted or actually see the truth?
I didn’t resist as Magdalene stood up and chanted the spell.
She was the strongest of the three high witches and probably the one who hated me the least, from what I could tell. I just hoped she was fair.
A searing pain lashed through me, and I was once again reliving the night that I was sold, but unlike the memory that had been pushed to the farthest depths of my mind.
The one that had been planted was at the forefront, and it played in the room as if I was living the memory.
It went on to me practising necromancy, me killing the warden, me resurrecting that thing that was meant to be his wife…
Endora… giving her the means to strengthen the wendigos and manananggals.
Me contacting the witches of the past, the dark magic that I helped Endora attain…
but to my relief, they could also see the conditions I lived in, the way Endora pushed me to my limits.
The way I had been abused. The painful memories flashed before my eyes.
Please realise I didn’t want to do it…
I didn’t realise I had started crying; the pain of those memories as she pushed me to the brink of death to achieve the answers she wanted…
I watched as I refused to answer her, only for her to torture me with a beating.
The werewolves who were told to whip me, beating me relentlessly or the spells she used to punish me.
My screams were shrill in the quiet room, the blood-curdling anguish in my cries that no one heard or cared for…
The memories became too much, and my chest tightened painfully. Her verbal and physical abuse was screaming in my head.
My escape… me telling Rayhan the time of her attack, me jumping to my death... waking up, the werewolf attack, being taken prisoner again. My heart was thumping, Stop, please stop! I didn’t realise I was screaming out loud.
“Enough!”
Everything was suddenly gone, and all I could hear was my heart pounding in my ears, my sobs choking in my throat. I looked up through my tears to see who had spoken. Elder Edward was standing there, his face pale, his lips pressed together.
“What is it?” Eldridge asked.
“She has suffered, it is a crime to make her relive that too,” he said curtly, and for the first time since I had entered this room, I saw a ray of hope.
“Elder Edward, you are siding with this thing?” Zelda asked.
“I am not siding with anyone, but let’s look at the bigger picture.
What made her run away? We all know what we need…
but we must also remember that she was not taught how to control her abilities.
If we had given her the correct training from the start, perhaps she would never have resorted to this,” he stated.
The temperature was dropping in my small square, and I was beginning to shiver from the cold. My breath came out frosty. Who was controlling it? I looked at the three women, but all six were talking amongst themselves, and I could no longer hear them. One of them must have cast a spell…
I simply laid there thinking they had only seen parts of my life, If after this they still think I didn’t deserve any compassion, then they truly were all monsters…
I looked at Edward. He was an older man in his sixties.
I hadn’t really seen him much back in Salem, only in passing once or twice, but he was said to be very wise.
It seemed he was my only hope. Magdalene seemed to be wavering…
Samson looked pale; was he worried they’d probe into the truth of how he and his family treated me?
The cold was biting into me, and it was hurting my head. Just as I was about to blackout from the biting cold, it was suddenly gone, and I gasped for air.
“The decision has been made,” Reginald said, his face emotionless.
He approached me and I flinched, but to my surprise, he simply patted my head.
“You have committed crimes, and you will answer for them. Yet we cannot overlook the fact that you have suffered more so. We have decided that you have, in a way, paid for the crimes you participated in. It is time to have a fresh start here with us, Delsanra Silver, time to show us that you are more than darkness. Prove to us that you are one of us and not what you were born to be.”
I couldn’t comprehend it, his words, his statement... was it true? After all these years of living in fear, were they truly going to allow me to live my life? It didn’t feel possible… how…
No, there was more to it. Perhaps I was too suspicious, but I learned early in life that everyone had their own hidden intentions.
“Of course, we cannot unseal all of your powers as of yet, until you have proven yourself. Endora has used a powerful spell, one that we will need to figure out how to lift,” Magdalene said quietly, “but you will learn to control your powers. I myself will help you. This is your chance to show us that you are more than what you have become.”
I lowered my head in a small nod before looking at my father. He was emotionless, but I didn’t miss the fire of hatred within his eyes that he masked quickly.
“Yes, High Witch Magdalene,” I replied quietly.
So, this is it? My new life? Would they really honour their words? Was that what I wanted? Wasn’t it my dream to just be treated as an equal?
Yes, once upon a time I would have jumped with happiness... but now, there was another life that I wanted… with someone else…
One I don’t think I’d ever be able to have.