Chapter 20

        Now, believe me. I didn't want to rush into things head first, fists blazing with fire, but I couldn't help it. She was actually taking his side. The no good traitor! Of course, I tried to tell her that, but did she believe me? Nope! Well, maybe I could've been a little calmer with the situation at hand, but I wasn't.

What made me so mad was that she wanted me to still be in that horrible nightmare sleep and unaware of my surroundings. Riley tried to tell me that it was all part of the plan that she and Terrell had thought of and that I woke up a day too early.

Bummer for them because I was awake, alive, and getting the heck out of that place with Riley whether she wanted to go or not. From the look that must've been on my face,I could see that she knew that she couldn't say anything to change my mind. Still, she tried.

"Crystal, be reasonable. You need to calm down."

"Me?!" I yelled. "I'm the one who needs to calm down?! Well, yeah maybe, but it is you that has lost her flipping mind! How can you trust this warlock? I trusted him, and look where that got me: the sleeping beauty syndrome and waking up to the most awful Prince Werewolf Charming in history. We need to leave now." I grabbed Riley's hand and pulled her to the open door of the library. Before we could step outside, Terrell swooped in front of us and blocked our path.

"You aren't going anywhere," he said.

"Yes, we are. Now, move."

He, being the butthead that he is, planted his feet firmly on the ground and took a defensive position. I released Riley's hand and raised both arms at Terrell.

"Move," I said again.

"No," he looked me straight in the eye and didn't turn away. There was no way that I was going to submit to him. I raised my hands into the air and felt the earth move with my command. The ground beneath Terrell shook and before he could strike, the floor erupted beneath him and he flew into the shelf of books on the right side of me. Now, on any other day, I would've let him be, but this wasn't no ordinary day. I looked around and saw a large flower pot with still moist soil. I raised both hands toward the soil and let the water move with my command. As I lifted my hands, so did the water from the pot in a steady stream. Once all the water had been drained from the dirt, I turned my gaze back toward Terrell. He sat in a heap on the ground, with Riley sitting next to him. They both looked up at me with wonder and concern. I could feel the water swirl around me, waiting for my command and before I could fire, Riley stood up and came to a stop directly between Terrell and me.

"No more, Crystal."

I looked at her with shock. "Why are you defending him? Has placed a spell on you or brainwashed you?"

She shook her head. "No, Crystal. Your mind is clouded. Something's off about you. Before now, you haven't been able to access those sides of your powers because of your werewolf half."

I didn't remember ever telling her about that. "How did you know-"

"It doesn't matter how I know," she replied. "All that matters is that before, you weren't able to control those elements, and now you can. You were just about to send a lethal blow onto Terrell. What has happened?"

I met her eyes and knew that there was no way that I was going to get out of the situation. I was going to have to tell her whether I wanted to or not. I looked over her shoulder at Terrell, who was brushing himself off. I glared at him before looking back at Riley.

I crossed my arms. "I won't say a word until he leaves."

Riley looked back at Terrell and motioned for him to leave. He let out an exasperated sigh and went to the library's doors. Before he left, however, he turned back around and said, "Now if you so much as harm a single hair on Riley's head, I swear Crystal-"

I growled and took a step toward him, my hand raising to shoot a fireball at his head. Riley blocked me from taking another step and yelled, "Enough! Terrell, leave."

With the look Riley gave him, Terrell was shutting the door behind him and most likely running for the hills. I giggled a little at his worried expression before Riley whirled on me with her glare.

"Now talk." She leaned against the door, clearly stating that if I wanted to leave, I was going to have to get through her first.

I tried to avoid the subject with a pathetic excuse. "Well, if you insist. How dare he say that I'd hurt you! I wouldn't harm my best friend, no matter how wicked I appear to be!"

"Crystal, talk. Now," she said.

With a heavy sigh, I told her everything that had happened during my sleep and even the part about me fully committing to my witch side.

Riley was a little more than shocked you could say. "You what?! Crystal! How could you?"

"What do you mean how could you?" I repeated. "I made my choice so that way I could defeat the Alphas on my own and so we could escape this messed up world. I just wanted everything to go back to the way it was!"

Riley pushed herself up from off the door. "Well, Crystal, no matter what you say or do, nothing, and I mean nothing, will ever make this go away. You have a freaking mate, Crystal! Have you already forgotten him? Have you truly forgotten Percy?"

I cringed at the mention of Percy's name. When I heard it, all of the memories I had so desperately tried to hide in the back of my mind came rushing back. The sheer weight of it all made my feet falter and I had to sit down on the sofa in front of the grand fireplace.

Riley looked away from me and toward the cold and burned out fireplace. "How could you be so selfish?" she whispered.

Something inside of me snapped. How dare she call me selfish! Everything that I had done was all out of thinking about others, about getting Riley to saftey, and leaving Percy to find a new mate. Nothing I had done was in my own personal gain.

"Me?! Selfish?!" I yelled at her. I stood up from the sofa and she looked up at me with a surprised expression. "How on Earth could I be selfish? I traded my wolf side for my witch powers! These powers can get the both of us to safety. I couldn't have taken down the Alphas with only my claws and jaws from my wolf. Which, by the way, I had no way of phasing into! At least I was able to control some of my power which made it easier for the transition to all of the elements. I gave up the only chance I had at living in Percy's world, so that I could save you and return you to your home, our home in California. Face it Riley, we don't belong here. You're human and I'm a freak in an already messed up world. At least now we can go home where everything will make sense."

I was trying to catch my breath after everything that I had said, but when I met Riley's eyes, I saw that she was full of rage. She was going to tell me everything on her mind and I was going to listen.

"Everything you have just said is why you're selfish! You want to go home. You want to leave everything and everyone behind and never look back. You want to leave Percy behind so he can live forever without his mate. Just because your connection to him is broken, doesn't mean that his to you isn't. He can't be with anyone else, and he won't. He freaking loves you! I've seen him and he is miserable. He looks like he hasn't slept in weeks and he pretty much hasn't since you left. If you leave, you'll break his heart even more than you already have and I don't think he'll ever be able to recover. Heck, even function at all. You want to leave him behind so that you can live the life that you want. You should face that you'll never be the same girl you used to be. You just won't. You have magical powers, Crystal! No human has that, and I should know. If you leave, you'll ruin your life and his."

I hated it but I knew she was right. I felt like punching a wall or shooting flames at something. "Well, what am I supposed to do?! He'll have to find someone else because I can't be the mate he wants. I'm not a werewolf anymore!" I had to bite my tongue and latch a hold on my powers so that I wouldn't explode and destroy everything. I couldn't bare the thought of Percy being with another, but I knew that he had to move on.

Riley was just about to say something when the entire room shook. Terrell was inside and casting a protection spell in an instant.

Once the shaking stopped, I yelled, "What the heck was that?!"

"The fight has begun," Terrell mumbled. Riley looked worried.

"What fight?" I asked. When the ground shook again and a wolf howled in victory, I knew.

"Crystal, don't!" Riley yelled, but I was already out the door. My legs carried me toward the sounds of yelling and fighting. I must've ran through a dozen halls and down a hundred staircases before I finally found the door that led to the outside. I threw it open and stepped out onto the large grass field that was surrounded by large pine trees and the mansion. What I saw I will never forget.

There in the middle of the field was a large gathering of the packs. The North Dakota and Wisconsin pack were on one side of the field while the Romanian pack was on the other. I could see Fane and Jacque turn their shocked expressions in my direction from the corner of my eye but I couldn't look at them. All I could see was the dead body of Blondie in his wolf form on the ground next to a poised and ready Edmund who was ready to attack the black wolf across from him. The black wolf had the same dark green eyes that I had seen when I had first met him. Percy.

It was my Percy fighting against Edmund. When Percy's head whipped around to meet my eyes, Edmund pounced and the fight began.