Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Adalyn's Point Of View

When we arrived at the home of Elizabeth Cault I couldn't believe that someone so young could be the mother of someone that was over 377 years old. It didn't seem possible until I remembered that she was a vampire so of course she wouldn't look her age. She invited us into her home and we followed her down a long hallway into a living room. She told us to sit down and we did. I sat next to Dakota and held his hand while she began speaking.

"I will be teaching you not only ancient magic but how to defeat my son. Esmyth has always been interested in Dark Magic and I won't deny that he does not merely need to be defeated. My son needs to be killed. After what he has done to people he needs to have his life taken from him. I will be the first one to tell you that I do love my son but I also hate what he has become. And I know that he won't change now. He does not love me anymore, he loves his power and therefore I cannot protect him. When the time comes, you must kill him. It is the only way to save our world and that is more important than his life. I will give you the tools needed to do this but it will be up to you to use them." she said, speaking in a calm voice.

"Okay." Alex said.

"We will begin lessons tomorrow. Tonight I will give you time to settle in and get acquainted with your surroundings. Come, I will show you your rooms."
"Yes ma'am."
"Please call me Beth."
"Okay."

We followed her up a spiral staircase and into another long hallway. She didn't speak until we reached three rooms. Then she smiled at us and pointed each pair to a separate room. I smiled a little and pulled Dakota into our room. He flipped on the light and closed the door behind us. When we were inside we sat down on the bed next to each other. I looked around at the room. It was a big room with French doors that opened up onto a balcony that faced the ocean. The walls were painted a soft pink color and the curtains were a darker pink material. The bed we were sitting on was a huge four poster one with dark pink curtains around it. The dressers were made of smooth wood that had been painted black. On the wall there was a painting that had been titled "Romeo and Juliet's First Kiss."

"What are you thinking about love?" Dakota asked, pulling me closer.

"Nothing really just the room."
"It's very...pink isn't it?"

"Yeah but I think that it's beautiful. We have the same kind of balcony that we had in my room in the country."
"You're going to enjoy that."
"Definately."
"Are you excited about having your sisters back?"
"Yes. I'm also glad that they remembered me so quickly. Mom didn't need to put the Forget Me Spell on me because I was hidden so well that no one would find me. She had to do it to my sisters because they had to believe that there were only two of them."
"Alex is quite the character."
"She's what they call the dominant twin. Everyone notices her before they take notice of the rest of us."
"Not me. I notice you first."
"But we all look the same."
"So? You're my soulmate and therefore I would recognize you before anyone else."
"Of course."
"I love you Adalyn."
"I love you too Dakota."
"Do you want to do a Necessities Spell on us so that we can go to bed?"
"We were just sleeping."
"I know, but I want to hold you. I have no patience to have you sitting so far away from my arms."
I laughed. "You need to learn patience."
"No thanks, I would rather be impatient."
"I suppose I could do a Necessities Spell on us."
"Then do it."

"I call upon the Great Goddess Helena. Give us what our hearts desire, what our body longs for, and what is needed by all. In the name of the Great Goddess Helena we thank you."

As soon as I said the words our day clothes were replaced by night clothes. I wore a long red nightgown with rubies sewn into the fabric. Dakota wore simply a pair of pajama pants. As he always did, he looked like a God in human form. It had always seemed to me that Dakota was too beautiful for a girl like me to have. But he was the holder of my soul and therefore made for me. I had always believed that the Gods had blessed me when they chose him to be my soulmate.

"Will you hurry up and get in bed love?" Dakota demanded, already in bed.

I laughed. "I'm coming."

"Thank you."
When I was laying in bed with Dakota's arms around me there was a small tap on the door. I knew before I even heard the voice that it was my sisters. Dakota called for them to come in and they walked in accompanied by their soulmates. We sat up in bed and stared at each other for a few moments before speaking. As always, Alex was the first one to speak.

"What do you guys think of Elizabeth?" she asked.

"She seems nice enough." Alexa answered.

"Yes I know that. But what kind of ancient magic do you think she'll be teaching us?"
"Well, that could be nearly anything. But if I had to say exactly what I would probably guess that she will teach us the ancient war magic." I said.

"War magic?" Tristan asked, cocking one eyebrow.

"Yeah. The ancients had almost a dozen different types of magic. One of their many types was called War Magic. War Magic was used against enemies. The spells were used to protect their own people and to destroy their enemies."

"Wow. How do you know all that?"
"Dakota loves the ancient history of our people. He has about a million different books on various ancient topics. He's taught me a lot about the ancient people."

"Wow."

"What was she talking about when she said that she's going to teach us how to defeat her son?"

"I dunno. Maybe she was only saying that she's going to give us information about him. There might be stuff about him that would be helpful to know."

"Maybe. How horrible would it be to have your son become one of the most evil Kings in over a millenia?" Alexa whispered, staring into space.

"That would be horrible. I don't think I could deal with that."
"Yeah me either."
"We should get to sleep you guys. We might have to walke up early in the morning." Alex said, rising from her seat.

"Yeah you're probably right."

"Good night guys." I called as they walked out of the room.

"Good night sis." my sisters called back, pausing at the doorway.

As they left the room they turned off the light and closed the door. Dakota lay down and pulled me down beside him. Laying my head against his chest I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. His arms tightened around me as he fell into a quick and easy sleep. But sleep didn't come quickly to me. I lay awake, thinking about how quickly everything had happened. It barely even seemed like it was my birthday, let alone my sacred birthday. Today was supposed to be the day when my sisters and I would be given our Witch Names but now that we were going to save the World of Magic I supposed that our Witch Names would have to come later. That was fine with me because saving our world was way more important than Witch Names. If the World of Witchcraft didn't exist, there would be no need for Witch Names.

I turned my thoughts to my sisters. We had been reunited today but there hadn't been time for a proper celebration. That wasn't a big deal though, because as long as we were together we'd be all right. I was once again astounded by how much we looked alike. I hadn't been told that we were identical triplets so seeing my sisters again after all the time apart was kind of like looking into a mirror. We all had the same straight, long blood-red hair. And our eyes were the same sky blue color. In fact, the only difference between us was probably in our smiles. Alexandria's smile was more confident than Alexa's and mine. Alexa's smile was sort of dreamy. When you looked at her you could tell that she was the dreamer of the bunch. And my smile was proud. When you looked at me you saw a girl that took pride in herself and in the people she loved. But, despite our differences, we were very much alike. We had our differences, but we were also triplets and therefore alike.

I'm not exactly sure when my thoughts turned into dreams but I soon found myself being kissed awake by Dakota. When I opened my eyes I saw him sitting above me, his lips just inches away from my own. Smiling at him, I claimed his lips again and sat up. He grinned at me as I got out of bed and yawned.

"Babe, you need to do another Necessity Spell on us before we go downstairs." Dakota reminded me with a smile.

"Yeah I suppose I should do that."

"Thanks."

"I call upon the Great Goddess Helena. Give us what our hearts desire, what our body longs for, and what is needed by all. In the name of the Great Goddess Helena we thank you."

As soon as the spell was said our night clothes were replaced with day clothes. I found myself wearing a pair of tight jeans and a pink shirt. My hair was up in a ponytail and I was wearing a pair of black tennis shoes. Dakota was wearing a pair of knee length jean shorts and a black T-shirt. His shoes were black and his short blonde hair was styled in perfect spikes like it always was. He grabbed his baseball cap from the nightstand and put it on before grabbing my hand.

When we reached the hallway we found the others already there. Smiling at each other, we linked hands with our soulmates and walked downstairs. Elizabeth was waiting for us in the living room. This time she wore a floor length pink dress and a pair of stiletto heels. Her long brown hair fell in gentle waves to the middle of her back and her crimson eyes were bright. When she saw us she gave us a smile and beckoned for us to join her. We walked into the living room and sat down on the soft red couches.

"Good morning." she said.

"Good morning." we chorused.

"I thought about what I should teach you first and I decided that I should tell you the most basic spell of all the ancient War Magic. That spell is the Shield Spell as we would call it. In the ancient language it is the Shild Antema. Shild means Shield and Antema means Spell."
"Cool."
"Even though it is the most basic of all the ancient War Magic Spells it is still difficult to perform. It does take practice but I think you guys will get it pretty quickly."
"More than likely we will. We're pretty good at magic already."

"So, we'll begin by saying the incantation. The ancients didn't use the kind of spells that we use now. They used only one word for a spell. The incantation for the Shild Antema is Delliana."

"Delliana. I've heard that before. One of the ancient kings created it." Dakota commented.

"Yes it was King Emerald III."

"Yeah."
"So what I want you guys to do now is to say the incantation to yourselves a few times to get used to saying it."

We all said the spell to ourselves for a few minutes before we all got used to saying it. I thought that using one word spells was easier than our sentence length spells because you didn't have to waste time on needless words. Of course, people in our day would have argued with me, but to each their own I guess.

"Now we need to get the hand motion down before we can attempt the spell."

"Okay."
"In order to be able to perform the spell properly you need to clench your hands into fists and pull them towards your body. In the same second that you say the incantation throw your arms out in front of you and unclench your fists."

"That's pretty easy." I said.

"Yes but the final part isn't easy. It is part of performing all ancient spells. The final part of performing any ancient spell is to keep your mind completely blank. Don't allow any thoughts to enter your mind as you say the spell. It's not easy to do, but it is possible. So what I would like you to do now is to practice the spell all together for a while."
"Okay."

For a while we practiced the spell on our own. It took all but one of us three tries to get it right. Dakota got it on his first try and was told to walk around and help the rest of us.I got it on my third try and joined Dakota in helping the others. The rest of them got it right on their fifth try. Elizabeth was surprised at how quickly we had gotten it down.

"You got that faster than I did when I first started learning the ancient magic." she said with a proud smile.

"Magic has always come easy to us." Alex explained.

"I can tell. Well, I suppose I could teach you the second spell."
"Sweet."

"The second spell is called Drugard Illenata Antema. It is the Fire Shooter Spell. Using this spell you will be able to shoot fire at your enemies. This spell requires two hand movements and the required blank mind."
"Sweet."

"We'll go outside to practice this one though because I don't want my house to be burned down."
"Okay."

We followed her out into the back yard. We all stood in a circle with her in the center an waited for her to give us more instructions. After a moment of silence she gave us our instructions.

"The hand movements for this spell are a little more complicated than the last. Keep your right hand close to your chest and twirl it in a slow circle. Hold your left hand palm-out in front of you. After ten seconds throw your right hand forward palm-out. The fire will shoot out of both hands."
"Okay."
I practiced the move several times before I got it right. When I finally got it right I found that flames shot out from both palms. It didn't hurt like I thought it would. Actually it just made my palms tingle a bit. The flames hit a tree which Elizabeth quickly doused with an ancient water spell. It took everyone a few tries to get it but soon everyone had it right. We looked up to see Elizabeth smiling at us again.

"Very good." she said.

"Thanks."
"We can go back inside now. The last thing I'm going to tell you is my son's story. Knowing the story of Esmyth's life will help you to destroy him."

"Okay."
We walked back into the living room and sat down again. This time I lay on the floor with my head in Dakota's lap. The others also lay on the floor together and Elizabeth sat in a high-backed plush chair near the doorway. She stared off into space for a moment as though she was trying to decide where to begin. Finally, she looked down at us and began her story.

"Esmyth was born on October 31, 1633. Everyone told me that he would grow up to become something very evil because of the day of his birth but I chose not to believe them. And for a while I thought I was correct. He was good as a little boy. There wasn't anything he wouldn't do when it came to helping someone." she smiled at a memory and began once more. "When he was seventeen, though, he started to change. That's when I gave birth to my youngest boy. I had already become a vampire, but the Gods chose to bless me with another child. Esmyth resented his brother Michael for being born. I guess he thought that I wouldn't love him anymore after Michael was born, but whatever his reason he wasn't going to allow his little brother to live. When I gave birth to Michael Esmyth acted happy at first. He was the perfect older brother to him. By the time Michael turned two years old, I was convinced that Esmyth wasn't going to hurt him. But I was wrong. A little while after Michael's third birthday I was called to my mother's house on business so I left Michael and Esmyth with their father. When I came home the following week, Jacob was dead and Esmyth was gone. He didn't kill Michael. Michael was a good actor and he pretended to be dead. I was able to save him but there was nothing to be done for my soulmate. The following year, Esmyth had claimed the throne of the Dark King Jaxon Blackwood. He has held that throne for too long now. Too many people have been killed because of him."

"Wow." I said.

"What happened to your youngest son?" Dakota asked softly.

"He lives with me. He will be teaching you how to fight with Dark Wand Magic. Esmyth was always good at Dark Wand Magic and it will be useful to know how to do it also."

"Cool."

"He's coming home tonight and he'll start teaching you tomorrow afternoon."
"Okay."
"You guys are free until Midnight tonight."
"What are we doing at midnight?" Alexa asked.

"I'm going to teach you some more ancient spells."
"Okay."
Dakota stood up and pulled me to my feet. Around us, the others were standing as well. We smiled at Elizabeth one more time before walking out of the room. As we walked out onto the beach we all did another Necessity Spell on each other, changing into cooler clothes. I found myself wearing a bikini top and a pair of short jean shorts. I was wearing a pair of pink flip flops that matched my bikini top. Dakota was simply wearing a pair of khaki shorts and sandals. I smiled at him, finding him even more breathtakingly beautiful than before. He smiled back at me, wrapping an arm around my waist.

Alexa was wearing a short sleeved shirt and a pair of regular shorts. Her hair was half up and she wore a pair of green flip-flops on her feet. She had never been the type to run around in short shorts and a bikini top like I was. Alexa had always been the modest one out of all three of us. Beside her, Zach was wearing a pair of jeans. He was carrying his shoes in one hand and had his other arm wrapped around Alexa's waist. She was looking up at him, laughing at something he had said and they looked like the cutest couple anyone has ever seen.

Alex was wearing a black bikini with a red silk wrap around her waist. Her long hair hung loose around her, framing her face perfectly. Standing with his arm wrapped around her shoulders Tristan was wearing a pair of shorts and a white muscle shirt. He wore a white baseball cap over his short brown hair. His arm was wrapped around Alex's shoulder and he was staring down at her like she was the most beautiful thing in the world. He told Alexa and Zach that they were the disgusting couple but in reality Tristan and Alex were the disgusting couple. They were kissing at the moment and looking at them would give even the most hard-hearted person butterflies in his stomach.

Dakota looked down at me, a smile lighting up his exquisite features. We stopped right near the ocean and he pulled me into his arms. Even though it was pretty hot outside, I was still perfectly cool in his arms. The moment his lips touched mine, a wave of fire ran through me. He shivered as the same fire ran through him, pulling me closer to him. As I always did when he kissed me, I lost track of everything in the world but him. We could've stayed like this for an eternity if it hadn't been for the others groaning behind us.

"Come on Lynnie get a room!" Alex moaned, hiding her face in Tristan's chest.

"Why? He's a good kisser."
"Oh GROSS!" Alexa moaned, rolling her eyes.

"You guys kiss in front of us, why can't we kiss in front of you?" Dakota asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because it's acceptable for us."
"And it isn't for us?"

"Well...no." Tristan said.
"It's acceptable to kiss your soulmate no matter who happens to be around."

"Not when you are surrounded by family it's not."
"Shut up Tristan." Zach said.

"Nope."

"You guys are-"

Alex's words were cut off by the sight of a dragon flying towards us. At first, I couldn't make out who was riding the dragon. When it got closer I realized that it was Raven Nightingale. The look on her face was one of terror and as soon as I saw it a wave of ice ran down my spine. Something had happened and whatever it was it wasn't good. She climbed off of her dragon and ran towards us, terror filling her eyes. When she got close enough to hear us Alex spoke in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

"Raven? Raven what's wrong?"

"Esmyth is sending people after you. They'll be here soon. He wants a battle between you and his most powerful Witches. If you don't win the battle, he's going to have his men kill you! I've got to get back to the castle so that your mother doesn't have a heart attack waiting for news from you."

"Th-thank you Raven." Alex whispered as Raven climbed back onto her dragon.

Before we could even speak to one another dragons began descending from every direction around us. Six Witches climbed off of the first dragons and stood in front of us. Dakota grabbed my hand and squeezed it tightly, his eyes dark with worry. I looked at my sisters to see that they were both preparing for the duel with the other Witches. Taking a deep breath, Alex stepped forward and spoke to the leader of the other Witches.

"Let's do this. I don't have time to waste on idiots."