"B-but how?" Kora stutters.
"Oh, this? It's quite simple really," Salem begins to explain, "you see, I'm a witch..."
"No shit Sherlock," Lucas interjects while rolling his eyes.
Salem clears his throat, "anyways, technically, I've been here this entire time."
"So you're a peeping-tom," Lucas says smugly.
"Absolutely not," Salem defends.
"That doesn't answer my question on how you're able to communicate with us through my spell," Kora says with a bit more confidence this time.
"Look, they call me a hermit for a reason," Salem starts, "I just so happen to enjoy using my powers to know what people are saying about me. Call it a little cheat code, if you will."
"Explain," Roddrick growls.
"Hostile much," Salem says with both his hands up in surrender, "anyways, since I'm considered one of the most powerful witches of this century, I thought it would be best for me to go into hiding considering the turn the world took after the 'incident'."
The incident he's referring to is the press conference the president had that exposed all of the supernatural world. I'd never forget that day. It's the day the world changed for the worst. And now we're fighting what may be considered a losing battle.
He continues by saying that he created a spell that would allow him to teleport to anyone who says his name. He'd appear in the room, undetected and invisible. That way, everyone is none the wiser and he gets the information he needs. And since in this mirage, he was summoned, he appeared and noticed us. He didn't make himself known until now because he wanted to know if he could trust us or not. But when he noticed Kora, he knew he could.
"So you know why we looked for you?" Nate asked.
"Actually, no. I know why The Truth are trying to look for me, but I'm still not sure why you're trying to find me."
We all turn to look at Kora for the answer since she'd the one that sent us on this wild goose-chase.
Kora looks at all of us sheepishly, "actually, I thought that since they're looking for you, we might as well look for you. And if we found you first, you could help us instead of them."
"Soooo... you had no plan once we found him?" I asked dumbfounded.
"Pretty much," Kora looks down at the floor, embarrassed.
"You mean, if you found me," Salem interjects, "because there's no way anyone would be able to find me. I'm too well hidden."
"Actually, I'm pretty sure my mother could find you."146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwnrHInweMj
Salem laughs, "oh, sweet girl. Madalyn knows exactly where I am. She just won't admit to it."
"And why wouldn't she admit it?" Kora asks defensively.
"Because, and she's going to hate me even more for telling you this but, I'm your father."
"Absolutely not," Kora says, "there's no way you're my father. I don't even look like you."
"That may be true, but the reality is that we have tried to keep your existence hidden for a very long time. As much as I would have loved to be there for you, it was and still is impossible."
"I don't get any of this? Why wouldn't my mother tell me this?" Kora asks in distress.
"Because she knew you'd come looking for me. Not that it matters anymore. Looks like The Fates have taken your fate into their own hands - there's nothing we can do about it now."
"So what I'm hearing is that your efforts to stay away from me has been for nothing!" Kora yells.
"Not nothing. It's definitely shaped you to be who you're destined to be."
"Oh, great. So you're telling me that this was a whole character building exercise?!" Kora yells. She's starting to become unhinged. We need to calm her down so that we can find out more information about Salem and how there's a damn vampire on The Truth's side of this war.
"Uhm, sorry to interrupt, but we've got bigger problems to deal with," Lucas says as he points towards a very angry Dante looking directly at us.
"Impossible," Salem mutters before he vanishes.
"I thought you said that we're as good as ghosts, Kora," Roddrick grunts as he attempts to hide her from Dante's view but it's too late. Dante had seen our-Kora and is now holding past-Kora by the throat.
"I - I don't know what's happening," Kora says before we teleport back into Nate's office.
"What the hell was that?" Roddrick mutters.
But we're met with silence. I look around the room and there's no sign of Kora anywhere. I start to panic.
"Where is she?" I ask in desperation.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfsn8LfY1kF
I run out of the room to go find her but I'm stopped by Madalyn who looks at me with worry in her eyes, "what happened in there?"
"A lot," is all I can say. But before I could go find Kora, Madalyn grabs my wrist.
"What. Happened. In. There?" she punctuates every word.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH8m3SaLPh2
I sigh before I say, "Look, Madalyn. You're like a mother to me and have treated me as your own. But right now, some serious shit is happening and I don't know what to do."
"Explain."
"Kora didn't come back with us. I don't know where she is - none of us do. She became so unstable that Dante saw us. Not only us, but Salem as well. None of us are safe. So if I were you, I'd pack a bag."
"Salem was there," Madalyn whispers as she let's go of my wrist.
Before I could say anything else, the guys come running out of the office.
"We've got a fucking problem," Nate says in his Alpha voice.
"Oh, no," Madalyn whispers.
"What?" I breath out. This isn't good.
"When Dante saw us in that mirage, our present changed."
"What do you mean?" I stress as I bunch my hands into fits.
"Salem just called me, we need to make sure Kora is okay."
"Oh no," Madalyn says as she begins to quietly cry.
"We didn't save her, did we?" I say looking down, defeated.
"No," Roddrick whispers what I feared the most.
"We need to go back there. Find out what happened. Rescue her," I say in desperation.
"We can't," Nate says, "I'm sorry, Ri. But there's nothing we can do about it."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NOTHING WE CAN DO?!" I start to lose it.
"In our timeline it's been a week since the incident," Lucas explains slowly.
"It's been a week," I echo back as I fall to the ground.
"We need to get out of here, Kora," Nate says, "Salem looked into what has changed since the mirage short circuiting, and it's not good. The Truth now know who we are."
"Wait," I say as I stand up from where I kneel on the floor, "but if Kora didn't make it out, then I should technically be back in that cell? In the mirage, I was still there with her. It was before she saved me. So shouldn't I be affected by this as well."
"Not exactly," a voice says from behind us. It's Salem.
"What are you doing here," Madalyn says as she runs towards him, "it's not safe for you to be here."
"I know, my love," he says as he embraces her, "but this is our daughter. I've watched from the sidelines for long enough. It's time for me to join this battle and end it, once and for all."
Salem looks at me before he continues, "based on the timeline, Dante saw us after Kora had saved you. So your timeline hasn't changed, except for the fact that Kora isn't here with us."
"Nate says that you saw into our present," I say weakly, "how bad is it?"
"Let's just say that it's salvageable."
"And Kora?" I ask, hoping for some good news.
"That, I don't know," he sighs, "let's just hope she's smart enough to stay alive until we can find her."
"What I don't understand is," Roddrick says, "what happened to all those people that Riley saw in the basement of the asylum?"
We all turn to look at him as he continues to explain, "well, we haven't gotten the answer to what exactly happened in there when we found Kora. Do you think their fate has also been rewritten?"
"I don't have much time to explain, but if Kora is still alive, then their fate has definitely not been rewritten and they're all dead by now."
I narrow my eyes at his vague explanation, but for now I'll accept it.
"We don't have much time," Salem rushes, "since Dante found out who you all are, he's been on the hunt for you. He knows about the pack and the vampires working together. He knows everything."
"But how?" Nate asks.
"My guess is that he has a witch on his side. Which poses a threat to us because this witch is countering everything I've done to prevent them from finding you in the first place."
"I thought that you were a powerful witch?" Roddrick questions.
"I am, but when it comes to countering spells, there's a witch stronger than me."
"You don't mean," Madalyn trails off.
"I'm sure of it," Salem says with conviction.
"So she's back after all," Madalyn mutters to herself.
"I don't think she's ever left, love."
"Who exactly are you talking about?" Nate asks in confusion.
"She's a witch that makes up the trinity in the witch world," Salem explains, "myself, Madalyn, and Jesa."
"Jesa," Roddrick breaths out.
"Yes, Jesa Claymore," Madalyn confirms.
"That's impossible," Roddrick says.
I look at Madalyn before I carefully ask, "Just how old are you, exactly?"
"We're a good couple hundred years old," Madalyn responds sheepishly, "Jesa used to be our best friend and made up the trinity with us. Until she fell in love with a werewolf. That's when all hell broke loose in the witch community."
"No matter how many times we tried to convince her to forget about him," Salem interjects, "she'd never listened to us."
"But she's dead," Roddrick says in disbelief.
"And that's what we all thought for the longest time," Salem says, "her death is why there's a commonality in hatred between witches and werewolves."
"If she's dead then how is she back," Roddrick says as he stresses the word we all heard not even five minutes ago.
"That, we don't know," Salem says.
"She's the reason my family has this godforsaken curse," Roddrick yells.
"Ah, the Ashwood curse," Salem says with familiarity.
"There could be a way around it," Madalyn says more to Salem than to Roddrick.
"Maybe," Salem responds, "I'll look into it."
We're all left to our individual thoughts for a few moments before I see Nate's eyes gloss over, indicating that he's busy mind-linking someone in his pack.
"We've got to move NOW," he shouts, "we're being attacked."
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