The Dark Witch & Luna Queen

Ezmeralda POV: I walked outside of my house, onto the porch and took a deep breath. There is nothing like the wonderful smell of the woods in the mornings, even if I have noticed a shift in the air lately. I leaned against the railing and looked over my shoulder to see my best friend sitting on the new dark brown swing I had installed just days ago. I know something is coming, deep down I can feel it, but I just can’t figure out what it is. As I stood there I began to reminisce… If someone would have told me, as a child, that leading a coven with thousands of witches would carry this much stress, I might have thought twice about ruling after my mother stepped down. I don’t know how she handled everything so effortlessly, ruling and taking care of my sister and I, and all the while seeming so well put together. My sister, Dahlia, never had much interest in becoming Queen. Not that she wouldn't have made a great Queen, but she wasn't born with the power I was. Instead, she desired to lead the covens out East and leave the ruling to me. So when Dahlia came of age, we had a beautiful ceremony for her and she was named the leader of the Eastern Covens. She has been gone over a year now and I miss her terribly; but, she is incredibly happy and settling out East is exactly what she needed. I need to remind myself to take a weekend to go out and visit with her and see all the new changes that she has made. Goddess knows, given the bank account statements, she has been making a lot of changes. “You look so deep in thought over there.” Mariah said, closing her book, pulling me from my thoughts. I took in her features as the morning sun rested on her dark brown hair. Mariah has the most amazing almond-shaped blue eyes, long eyelashes, a little button nose, and nice plump lips. She is a little taller than me at 5’11, and has a strong body build. She takes pride in working out because she has always wanted to be able to rely on her strength in case she can’t get a spell out fast enough. All-in-all she is very beautiful, but I might be biased as her best friend. “You know me a little too well at times.” I joked. She has been my best friend since we were small children, so she is practically my sister too. Mariah has been there for me through thick and thin, no matter what has happened and it only made sense to honor her loyalty by making her my right hand woman so to speak. Not only have I made her my right hand, but I also made her one of the head elders of our covens. She may be young but she is incredibly smart, always reading a book to learn new things about our ways. She also has the ability to solve any issue or problem in front of her because she is able to see all the possible different outcomes, plan for each one, and make the decision that makes the most sense. She is also incredibly witty. A 'take no crap' type of person, which is one of the reasons we get along so well. We are never ones to hold back our thoughts and feelings with the other, no matter what. “I’ve had years of experience knowing when something is bothering you, so tell me what is on your mind.” she explained, quarking her eyebrow at me. I turned around resting my elbows on the railing. “Have you noticed anything different lately? This past week I have felt this knot in the pit of my stomach." I wish I could say that the feeling was one that wasn't anything to worry about but this feeling is one out of fear, like a gut wrenching feeling you get right before something tragic happens. Mariahs’ bright blue eyes stood out gently on her pale skin as she looked back at me. “Actually I have." She said surprising me. "It’s like bad juju or something. Is that why we are going to see your mom today?” “Yes. I'm hoping that maybe she can help us figure out what is going on. I also texted Dahlia to let her know I would be calling her tonight. I want to see if everything is alright out east. If everything is fine then maybe she senses something is wrong too.” “You don’t think it’s the wolves or vampires do you?” Mariah suddenly asked, surprising me. It isn’t common for us to have a scuffle with either of them since the majority of the time they stay on their own lands. “I don’t think so, at least it doesn't feel like it. Even if it was, I would just tell the alpha king, or the vampire queen. It would be up to them to handle it if it is their people… at first.” I shrugged. I’ve only met with them a couple times since we each took over, though we did all spend time together as children. The alpha king is pretty level headed, for the most part, but the vampire queen, her reputation precedes her, she is as ruthless as they come. Or maybe she has just set up her reputation so that no one tries anything against her, either way we all decided it was best to let each race handle their own. That is unless something major has happened. We stay out of their business and they stay out of ours. “I’ve been hearing that the rogues are starting to get out of control. Maybe that is what we are feeling. They could be the ones causing an imbalance in nature.” Mariah said. “What have you heard?” I turned my head slightly to look at her, giving her my full attention. This is the first time I am hearing they are causing problems. “Some scouts that came back home after exploring the lands west of ours, said they had seen a large amount of rogues scouting around the borders.” “Not close to our borders though, right?” “Correct. Just around the royal lands.” “I’ll send word to the alpha king but that is not our problem.” Sometimes I miss the days where we all helped each other but it seems like when we became adults we drifted with no intentions of fixing anything between our races. “Let’s just see what your mom thinks, sometimes you have a tendency to overthink when you are stressed out.” Mariah added, knocking on the door. “Ah, my beauties come in!” My mother practically sang, swinging the door open. As I walked into her house she immediately engulfed me in a hug.