Rhys

"Alpha, Something isn't right" Matt said "We passed that tree 6 times"

He pointed to a gnarled stumpy tree

"You're right " I looked at the sleeping Witch in my Uncle's arms.

He raised an eyebrow

"She feed us the wrong information" I stated

"No I didn't" She whispered "The other witches are just cloaking the location"

"Well uncloak it" I said angrily

"I can't"

"And why the Hell not?" the Twins exclaimed

"Because they're siphoning her powers out of her" My Uncle explained "She barely had enough to fight off the necromancers. Whatever she had left is now gone"

"How do you know that?" the girl whispered

"I've been a Vampire a very long time now" he said "After a while, you start to develop new...traits"

"But why are they siphoning your powers?" I asked "And I thought a Witch couldn't steal another witch's powers?"

"It's not stealing if you gave it to them voluntarily" she whispered

"And why would you do that?" Mia asked this time

"For the Wolf Moon Ceremony" Kaden's voice sounded throughout the woods.

I then turned toward where Kaden's voice was coming from and watched as he emerged from the trees with some of my Pack Warriors behind him.

"You finally found out some information about the Wolf Moon Ceremony?" I asked in surprise

"My Son found it actually" he said "After Kassi went missing, Sky decided to find out of there were any clues related to this Wolf Moon in some of the other books. When she was flipping through some pages, my son pointed out that the Moon Goddess looked a lot like Kassi"

"And that helps us how...?" I said

"Sky and your friend Shawn started digging more and found this historical website dedicated to these ancient ceremonies, one of them being the Lunae Lupus"

"Wolf Moon" I whispered

"What does it consist of?" Taylor asked

"Well, from what we understand" Kaden said "It's basically a ceremony that calls upon the Moon Goddess"

"But what does Kassi have to do with it? And the siphoning of a Witch's powers?"

"The best way to make contact with a God or Goddess is to either offer up a sacrifice of what the God loves most or to possess a personal item of a God that they can't live without"

My mind was reeling from the new information but something stuck out to me the most

"The Dimitriou line is descended from the favorite daughter of the Moon Goddess right?" I asked, waiting for confirmation

The others nodded

"And what better sacrifice would it be to offer a Goddess a descendent of her favorite daughter"

"But why Siphon the Witch's powers?" Ethan asked

"Good question" I said turning towards the Witch "Why exactly are they sucking your powers from you?"

She looked down

My Uncle set her down under a tree

I kneeled and lifted her chin so that we were eye to eye

"You said it yourself" I said gently "The Princess is a good person. She doesn't deserve to die like this. She can't die, not when I just found her"

"How long have you been waiting for her?" she asked quietly

"Four excruciating long and lonely years" I answered just as quietly

A ache started in my chest at the thought of those lonely years.

Watching as every single one of my friends fell in love.

Watching as that love grew and formed into something so beautiful that I couldn't even be in the same room with them without my jealousy flaring up every time I looked at them together.

For a long time, I was angry at both the Moon Goddess and myself. I was blaming her for my loneliness and myself for not being adequate enough for a Mate.

"When a Witch is about to die, her Coven siphons her powers away from her in order to retain the power of Thirteen for as long as they can until they find a new witch to fill in the gap. While this practice isn't forbidden, it is very uncommon nowadays because of lifespan of a Witch. We live a bit longer than humans and by the time we grow old, the new generation has already taken our places in the Coven. The only time we siphon a Witch's powers is when she is gravely injured or is she is about to participate in a Sacrifice"

Mia and Taylor gasped

"Why are they sacrificing you?" I asked "You're not the descendant of a Goddess"

"No," she said "But the Ceremony doesn't just call for the blood of a Dimitriou"

She stared past us, looking at something deep into the forest

"The Ceremony consists of the Sacrifice of a Wolf, a Hunter, a Vampire, and A Witch" she said "All the parties involved in Original Story"

"I get the Wolf" Ethan said "But I don't get what a Vampire, a Hunter, and a Witch have to do with it?"

"The lesser God that killed Endymion was the father of Vampires" My Uncle said, rubbing his neck like he was uncomfortable.

"Than that means Endymion himself was the Hunter" Taylor concluded

"Then what's the Witch for?"

The girl's shoulders slumped

"They're channeling you" My Uncle exclaimed after a moment "They're using you as a vessel for the magical power collected from all the Supernatural sacrifices"

"They're siphoning just enough power from you so that you'll be able to contribute to the ceremony but not enough to become overwhelmed with power"

"Why are doing this?" Matt asked "You're so young. Couldn't someone else in your Coven take your place?"

"I'm a Gemini" she said

My Uncle looked surprised

"Cool" Ethan said "I'm a Scorpio"

"She doesn't mean the sign nitwit" Taylor barked "She means she's a twin"

"And what does being a Twin mean?" I asked my Uncle "And why do you look so shocked?"

"Unlike with Wolves, Twins are very uncommon for Witches" he explained "Because a single Witch fetus consumes half of the mother's magical powers in the womb while forming their own powers, it would be impossible for a mother to bear more than one child at a time without dying"

"My sister's very ill" the young witch said suddenly "When we were in the womb, I guess my body took most of our mother's powers, killing her and leaving my sister magically deficient"

"You think it's your fault" Kaden's face hardened "That's why you're doing this. That's why you're freely giving your life away"

"Isn't it?" she screamed at him "If it wasn't for me, our mother would still be alive and my sister would have been born normal. She would have been accepted in our society instead of shunned. She would have been healthy and thriving"

"Do you really think you dying would change the opinion of your Coven?" I asked solemnly "Because from where I'm standing, an outsider looking in, your powers are the only thing keeping her alive"

"My powers are killing her" she muttered "It's the Curse of a Gemini. So long as two twins live, the magical power between them is unequally distributed. Because of this, our life spans are cut short and our power supply is limited. The only way to get rid of the Gemini Curse is to kill one of us"

"And after you're gone, do you really think your Coven is just going to accept her that easily?"

"They have to" she said "They don't really have a choice on the matter"

"And why is that?"

"Because once a Gemini twin dies the surviving twin becomes ten times more powerful than they were before" she leaned her head back against tree stump "It would be stupid of them if they didn't"

I sighed and stood

"It's obvious that whatever we say isn't going to change your mind" I said before looking at everyone "So, is there anything else I should know about the Wolf Moon Ceremony?"

I was about to speak when the Witch spoke up

"They aren't going to sacrifice the Princess" the Witch said "Not yet at least"

"What?!" Everyone exclaimed, looking at her in disbelief

She ignored them, instead choosing to keep her eyes on me "I mean, how could you sacrifice the Moon Goddess herself?"