Royal Academy: Hellfire's Fury

Chapter 3

Annalise's POV

Stefan's arm tightened around me as everyone gathered in the main room with our mysterious guest sitting in the front. Eliza and Alexis took the twins upstairs while Luca and Killian stayed with Stefan and I to find out more about the claims of this Dimitri Silver.

"I know it may be very suspicious for me to just show up on your doorstep like this. But believe me when I say that I have only your best interests at heart. Cora was like a sister to me. We grew up together." Dimitri says while his eyes gazed at our group, looking at him speculatively.

"Neither my mother nor my father, after her death, mentioned you. You have to understand that my family and I cannot trust you blindly," I say as the warmth from Stefan, sitting close beside me, keeps my internal fiery compass calm.

"You look just like her. My Cora. She was always a firm yet cautious one. She looked out for the younger ones at the orphanage. Everyone adored her." Dimitri says as he reaches into his jacket, causing Killian, Stefan and Luca to shift in their seats warily.

Removing his hand from his jacket, Dimitri slowly produces a small gold and black notebook. He motions for me to take it and I glance at Stefan who stands and walks over himself. Bringing back the notebook to me, Stefan repositions himself by my side as I cautiously opened the notebook. The pages are filled with daily logs about things that happened at the orphanage and there were mentions of Dimitri and two others, Kara and Mondel. Flipping through the pages, I came upon a small, binded heap of pictures. Scanning them, they contain images of children gathered in front of an old Victorian-styled house, smiles plastered on all their faces.

" If I may?" Dimitri slowly motions with his hand and I shift in my seat to hand him the pictures. A smile pulls across his face as he turns over a picture to face us in his hand.

"This was taken about a year after Cora and I entered the orphanage. See these two next to us here," Dimitri pointed to a young boy and girl standing next to what appeared to be a young version of my mother. "That's Kara and Mondel. They were twins who were dropped off and immediately latched themselves onto Cora like a lifeline. Kara and Mondel never knew about family and friendship because they were shifted among families all their lives. Cora was like the sister they never had. Until...." Dimitri pauses, a pained expression morphing his features.

"Until what?" Killian asks, breaking the errie silence in the room.

"An incident occurred while everyone was at the lake for a picnic. The nurses who were in charge of looking after us outside, turned their backs to lay out a blanket for the younger children. Nobody saw Kara and Mondel playing so close to the water. One minute they were laughing and tugging a kite string, the next, Kara screamed and Mondel was in the water. Your mother, she tried desperately to help him, but...."

" My mother was always afraid of pools and the beach when I was younger. My dad told me it was because she couldn't swim. She was always extra careful with me." I said softly as I felt Stefan's warm palm rubbing circles on my back.

"Your mother swam like a fish when I saw her that day. She dove into that lake and kept going deeper and deeper to search for Mondel. But the headmaster was called, and he pulled her out. They called divers and rescue teams but Mondel was never found. And poor Kara. They say twins suffer immensely when they lose each other. Kara was never the same. She kept to herself. Spoke to no one. And she suddenly became vicious towards Cora. She somehow blamed her for her losing her twin brother."

"My mother tried to help him, and she blamed her?" I asked, as Dimitri shook his head slowly.

"Kara broke mentally. The headmaster had to keep her secluded in a different wing of the orphanage. We could hear her screams echoing through the halls. It terrified the younger ones, but Cora was determined to help Kara. She kept asking the nurses to let her see her. She wanted to do something, anything. But they refused. And then one day, something happened that changed everything that we knew about ourselves and that orphanage."

Dimitri suddenly stood, walking over to hand me the picture. As he placed the picture in my hand, I couldn't help the chill that ran down my spine or the burning need in the pit of my stomach to get him out of the house.

Taking the picture from him, I quickly closed the notebook and watched as he made his way back to the chair he was sitting on.

"A fire broke out in the wing that Kara was being kept in. The entire section of the house was engulfed and the only person near that area that night was Cora, covered in soot and ash and both her hands scorched and bleeding."

"Are you trying to say that my mother caused the fire?" I asked Dimitri as I felt the burning pit inside me flare up some more.

"When the headmaster and the nurses asked her what happened, she said she only felt the need to see Kara and suddenly there were flames everywhere. Kara, however, who was miraculously unharmed, claimed that Cora set the fire intentionally. That the fire came from her hands, literally."

I felt my body tense as Dimitri's gaze landed on mine and held it. His eyes quickly flickered to my hands on my lap briefly before meeting my eyes again.

" What exactly are you insinuating here, Mr Silver? Because quite frankly, you show up on our doorstep, claiming to be a friend of my wife's mother, and now you sound like you're accusing her of attempted murder?" Stefan says, his tone menacingly close to a deep growl.

"I am not insinuating anything. I am telling you that Cora was suspected of being gifted. And when the headmaster figured something was going on, he called in a specialist to test his theory. Cora was taken into the medical wing and various tests were run to figure out the source. But every time she came back to her room, she kept saying that she needed to leave. That we weren't safe."

"They were hurting her?" I asked, my pulse now thrumming like a drum at my temples.

"She said they knew she was gifted, and they wanted to use her blood to do things. It went on for days, weeks, until one day, she was gone. Nobody knew how she got out or where she went. And then, after years and years of wondering where she had disappeared, I found out about the fire at your home. And that you and your father survived. And I knew that if I found that out, it wouldn't be long before they did."

"Who?" I asked, the thrumming in my head now feeling like jackhammers behind my eyes. I wiped my palms against the fabric of my jeans and waited. "Who was looking for her?"

"They call themselves The Circle. A group of gifted beings who hunt the rarest of all supernaturals and use them to experiment and breed their own pets to use as they please. And they figured out from the orphanage's records that your mother had the genetic markings of a rare female hellhound. The last of its kind. And now, they'll come after her line. They'll be coming after you, and if I'm correct, they'll come for your children as well."