(Alnilam)

The magic stored in the diary takes my mind back to my first memories. Born with tiny wings. Silver and violet. Amidst my tiny cries, the command was given.

Snipping of the scissors.

My horrible cries.

The intense pain.

And then just silence.

Who does that to a child?

They took away my wings. Framed and kept them like a souvenir in this wretched room.

Now, I understand the exceptional magic I possess.

Why I connected with Amaia differently.

The way I was able to command her magic to reveal itself to me.

Why her wings glue themselves to my back.

The scars and random pain in my shoulder blades.

My ever-soured mood.

The way I don’t want to smile.

Why only my blood matches hers.

I didn’t mean to cry and yet I couldn’t hold myself back when I held my severed wings in my hand.

How they would have grown if they weren’t taken from me.

My identity, a very significant part of me, was stolen.

It hurts so deep like sharpened shards of glass being pierced into my heart.

Amaia’s wings cling to me, trying to bring me relief.

And Amaia. She hurls herself forward and tightly embraces me.

"I am so sorry, Alnilam. You don’t deserve this."

Placing my chin on the top of her head, I let myself be lost in her warmth and scent. Trying to calm this tempest brewing inside my heart.

My magic is restless, my whole being is trying to fall apart like a sand castle being smashed by violent waves.

She holds me, her wings hold me.

"You are a Fae, they can’t take that away from you. The Fae blood runs strong in your veins." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"I am not leaving them here. Not for another second. I don’t care anymore," I firmly tell her. She takes a step back and nods at me with determination.

"We won’t."

Tightly, I hold the frame in my hand as if afraid to lose it again.

I know Amaia must have a million questions running through her brain, but she doesn’t overwhelm me with them. She gives me space and steps back.

"I am going to take a sweep of this place and see if we can find any clues."

She turns and begins to inspect the shelves with bottles. I snatch my gaze away from the frame and stare at the globe.

What purpose does it serve?

Dragging myself forward, for I have no strength left, I place my hand on the glass surface. It remains clear. Nothing happens.

Disappointed, I turn towards the bookshelf, holding ancient tomes with leather bindings.

One by one I take them out and inspect them, hoping to find any clue regarding Rigel and his curse and how to break it.

The scent of the withered, foxing pages hit me but I relentlessly continue.

Book after book.

Amaia joins me. "I didn’t find anything, only weird ingredients and concoctions."

She begins to snatch the books from the shelves and inspect them—hoping for any clue.

Grabbing a heavy and thick tome with black leather binding, she opens it. The book is heavy so I help her. The cover features the Constellation of Orion.

Saiph and Rigel are marked red.

Alnilam, Alnitak and Mintaka are marked blue.

While Betelgeuse, Bellatrix and Meossa are marked golden and are the brightest. There are no captions or titles on the book cover.

Together we carry it to the marble table and place it there. Hurriedly, she opens it.

To our surprise and horror, instead of pages we find the inside hollow but not empty.

It’s filled with voodoo dolls, each marked and named.

The one with black hair and red eyes is named Rigel with black crosses all over its woollen body and needles pierced into it.

There is another with black hair and blue eyes named Saiph. Similar to Rigel, its body is covered in needles and curse marks.

Amaia draws in a horrified breath. My blood boils in my veins.

There are other dolls too which represent Amaia, me and the twins. Not only that, there are some others too without names.

"So that’s how all of us are being controlled and cursed," Amaia rages, grabbing the one named Rigel. She begins to prick out the needles embedded in him.

I stare at the one named Amaia, with golden hair, a faded cross on the thigh but there are no needles. At least she is not cursed anymore.

And then I observe the three dolls named Alnilam, Alnitak and Mintaka. They all have one cross each on their foreheads.

So we are cursed too without even knowing it?

Why are our curse marks not visible?

What kind of curse do we carry?

There are still so many questions.

"I am going to try to remove these curses using my powers. They contain darkness, maybe my light can take it away, since these are the source of the curse."

I let out a deep sigh and wait with a heaviness crushing my heart.

Amaia’s hands hover over these dolls without touching them. Her face contorts, brows stitch together, jaw tightens.

She focuses all her magic and energy into her hands and lets a bright golden light flow out.

Like a wave of pureness and mist, it descends on the dolls, slowly absorbing into their cotton-filled bodies.

Mesmerised, I watch as my mate removes those black crosses from the bodies as if they had never existed before. The gold washes over the darkness and I sense a dread lift from me.

The heaviness that always occupied my heart, the gloom I had always thought was part of me.

Everything slowly disperses like smoke in the air.

And then comes the repressed memories, carrying the abuse...so much abuse, the one we are meant to forget.

Not only confined to it, but it extends to my brothers.

The kind of life we have led...everything flashes in front of my eyes like a dam breaking loose and bringing forth this surge of water, drowning me.

So many haunting memories.

The one with Mintaka...

Another memory resurfaces. The mocking voice of our mother. "You people won’t even remember but Saiph is your brother. The real heir to the throne. I have reduced him to nothing but a servant for you people. Ah, the irony."

It leaves me reeling, wondering how a mother can be this cruel.

Is she even our real mother?