Crown of Blood

The Supernatural Realm - 2 a.m., Sunday. Graveheart Manor, Witch Haven Province

“Where the Hell is it?!”

Maria de Mendoza angrily sifted through her - probably - two thousandth potion book and still could not find the correct formula. The thirty-foot ceiling home library was usually filled to the brim with magic books of all shapes, sizes, and languages. Nowadays, the shelves were empty and books of old littered the floor, save for the few hidden on the top shelves. The witch had to make a precarious path around the many book towers and scrolls strewn about carelessly just to escape her candlelit desk. So far, her search for the correct potion book had been fruitless, and her treks for new stacks of information useless.

She looked young - about 25 years old - though she had lived 600 years so far and wouldn’t physically age. Her dark brown hair still shined in the light, her tan skin glowed, and her midnight eyes had not lost much of their intensity. Her heart and soul, however, were weary and torn at the edges.

Most witches and wizards in Witch Haven disliked Maria because she often worked for shady people. Yet, they never stopped to ask why she did what she did, and much less about how her dealings made her feel: terrible.

Her father’s gambling problem had gotten her family in heavy debt with criminal organizations across the Supernatural World. She was the last of her family because of the stupidity of one man, and her skill as a Dark Witch was the only thing keeping her alive. Unfortunately for her, no matter how hard she tried to pay off that debt, the criminals kept moving the goal post and always asked for more.

She shivered. A few days ago, once again, trouble showed up at her door.

11 p.m. Trouble wore a long velvet cape, leather boots, expensive jewellery, and a bejeweled, magic-laced dagger at his hip. A handful of black-cloaked guards flanked him, and they had destroyed her front door when she had not at once opened it.

“How is my favourite witch doing?”

Maria gritted her teeth.

Alpha King Stephan Drake - King of the Second Werewolf Throne - smirked at her evilly. The ethereal beauty of all supernaturals did little to hide their inhuman and animalistic side. His neatly styled caramel hair, his tall and muscled body, and the plethora of tattoos decorating it, were a pretty cover to an ugly book. On top of that, in the low light of her parlor, his gold eyes glowed warningly, and his sharp canines glinted maliciously.

She tried to stand her ground, but knowing his history, she could not help but take a few steps back. He continued to advance - quickly and suddenly moving - and picked her up by the collar of her peasant’s dress with his left hand, plastering her to the wall behind her. His right hand had that magic dagger pressed to her lower abdomen in no time, digging it lightly into the bodice of her dress.

The magic dagger had been handed down to members of the Drake family line for thousands of years. The aura of magic surrounding it neutralized a witch’s or wizard’s powers, thus making them practically human.

Maria whimpered when Alpha King Stephan brought his evil lips to her ear. Her heartbeat skyrocketed and her hands began to sweat, though she tried her best to gain some control over herself.

“I require your services... will you help me?” He asked, his grin widening. “It is quite important. You see, I am looking for someone - a woman - and she needs some... convincing.”

Oh, fuck. No, no, no, NO!

“The Royal Court is putting pressure on me, and I need a pretty fool to give me an heir. We both know that no supernatural woman can so easily fall under a spell... let alone accept when fake sparks fly.”

“But-but-but, such a potion can kill her if it goes wrong! Whoever she is, she does not deserve this.”

He chuckled, pressing the tip of the dagger harder into her abdomen, creating a small tear in the bodice of her dress. “Refusing me means you die, and I find someone with less expertise to make the potion. Would you rather make the potion and both you and the woman I need live another day, or would you rather roll around in your grave thinking you could have complied and saved this pretty fool’s life in the process?”

The dagger ripped the bodice and broke the skin of Maria’s abdomen, staining the front of her dress red. She whimpered quietly, but King Stephan heard it well and chuckled.

“Good! Now that we understand each other, you have the week to make me the potion. Today is Monday night, so you have until Sunday at 11 p.m.”

And here she was, searching her library frantically on an early Sunday morning. More than half of her library shelves were empty, her eyes were rimmed with red from sleeplessness, her face drained of colour, her head hurt nastily, and her entire body groaned with various aches and pains. But she was in a race against time, and she could not afford to lose.

With every second that ticked by, the back of her mind and deep down in her heart, a terrible storm brewed. In fact, the flare had been angrily gripping her heart and soul for centuries. Beneath her skin, the white-hot electricity crawled up her shoulder and slid down her arms, crackling and licking flames of fire around her bones. The path of electricity ended in her palms, as the energy gathered and scrunched up into balls of stinging light.

In her brain, she had half a mind to scream - beg herself not to lose control like she does whenever her anger gets the best of her, but her magic rarely listened to her while her emotions acted haywire. The electricity that bunched up in both palms burst forward in blinding beams of power, sending Maria flying backwards into a nearby couch.

The beam in her left palm obliterated the wall that stood way across the library, burning down part of library roof in the process and shattering the floor-to-ceiling windows. The beam that appeared from her right palm hit the tall bookcases with such force that they knocked each other down like dominoes. The last bookcase, heavy with knowledge, as it were, destroyed a separation wall and cracked the marble floor under it. The resounding crack shook the large crystal chandelier, and, disconnecting from the ceiling, landed with sharp thud that made a massive crater in the center of the room. The crystals all shattered, leaving behind metallic dust.

The final nail in the coffin, or so she thought, was the echo that made furniture groan and shake. A wooden chest of drawers teetered until it fell forward. The chest hit a rough edge of a barely standing bookcase, causing a singular book to fall open onto the floor.

Frozen in her spot, jaw gaped and panic swirling in her eyes, she watched in horror as some of furniture spontaneously burst into flames that spread quickly and soon engulfed her entire library.

The earthquake-like effects of her heightened emotions, plus the random flames, had finished off what the beams of electricity had failed to destroy.

Among the hellish fires, gaping craters, and thick black smoke, Maria, shaking from fear, cautiously crawled to the book...

And she discovered that it had fallen open at exactly the correct page.

Fable Bond Potion

*Caution: May cause comas, severe nausea and vomiting, bloody urine or stool, diarrhea, extreme pelvic pain, internal bleeding, failure of the heart, lungs, kidneys, and liver, severe brain damage, cancer (particularly leukemia), hallucinations, blood clots, severe migraines, frequent grand mal seizures, and/or death. Do not use if pregnant or lactating. Can worsen underlying medical conditions and does not react well with drugs and alcohol.

This potion is only intended for adults 18+. Do not consume more than 2 tablespoons. Consuming more than 2 tablespoons will result in instant death. Potion effects are known to last as little as two years and as long as a lifetime.

As a precaution, it is recommended that he/she who consumes this potion be kept under close medical supervision for at least a year after taking it.

Necessary Ingredients:

- Essence of Nightshade (magical variation), made into a paste - 6 mg

- Carrageenan (thickening agent and stabilizer) - 0.5% of potion mass

- Casper’s Widow plant (magical, for easy body absorption), made into a paste - 10 mg

- Flora’s Woe plant (magical, for controlling thoughts), made into a paste - 2 mg *Avoid skin contact outside potion - will cause severe burns and scarring

- Demon’s Howler spell (for suppression of other mate bonds)

- Amelia’s Lace spell (for docility)

Additional Notes:

Please consult the next page for associated details.

In the backdrop of the burning, chaotic library, Maria stared at the book in horror.

It did not take her long to realize why she had stored it away, somewhere on the uppermost shelf to be forgotten forever and ever.

Oh, fuck.

***

You know that meme of the dog drinking a coffee in a burning house and he says, “This is fine”?

Maria didn’t have any coffee left... nor fire extinguishers or smoke alarms. She ran around the burning library like a headless chicken for a good two minutes before she found the spell that would fix everything: in an instant, the fire disappeared and so did the debris, as if her tornado of blazing emotions hadn’t destroyed the place.

However, just because the mess was gone didn’t mean that the fires weren’t still there. The invisible flames had been licking at skin for so long that only dust remained of the Dark Witch called Maria. She wore clothes, talked, used her powers, and took care of her daily needs, but nothing remained of her soul and very little of her heart.

A few teardrops dared leak down her youthful face, marring her features and dripping to the now-fixed cold marble floor. A sobbing mess, she searched another hour for the phone book, which she eventually spotted sitting on a random chair in a random corner.

It wasn’t like she could go “eeny, meeny, miney, moe” I choose THAT chick over there... could she?

No.

She sniffled pathetically, guiltily, reluctantly, as she sifted through the aged pages before stopping at THE name she needed.

A powerful oracle.

Carmen Perez.

Sniffle.

With a sharp intake of breath, she picked up the receiver from the wall phone and punched in the woman’s number.

One ring.

Two rings.

Three rings.

Four rings.

“What the fuck are YOU calling for?” The woman answered gruffly, her voice both sleepy and pissed. “Not only is it five in the morning, but after what your family has done to mine with your borrowing, and never paying us ba-”

“Please! PLEASE! I’m begging you! I-I wouldn’t be calling if it weren’t important, so please hear me out!”

Carmen groaned loudly over the phone, and it sounded like she was rolling her eyes, though Maria couldn’t see it. She reluctantly agreed after a moment of silence filled only with Maria’s sniffles, but pretty much felt like banging her head against the wall listening to Maria talk.

She had a field day hearing what Maria had to say and even had the nerve to laugh a couple of times, but it always appeared from her throat all choked up and breathy.

Maria shook with sobs and was practically drowning in her own tears while listening to Carmen gasp for air after every laughing fit.

It took the oracle a while to calm herself, but when she finally gathered her bearings, she said: “And you’re calling ME to tell YOU which chick to pick for your farce? HA! If you think I’ll take part in your bullshit, Maria, you’ve got another thing coming for ya! Have a nice night and never call me ag-”

“NO! Wait! Wait! I-I can pay you for it and won’t mention your name to anyone; I promise, on my mother’s grave! I have some money-”

“You’re gonna pay me with dirty money?”

Sniffle.

“Maybe! But-but it’s only because I have no choice!”

Carmen scoffed. “There’s always a choice. There’s one called ‘standing your ground’ and another called ‘using your powers to kill him.’ Have you ever thought of that?”

“What?! I can’t just kill someone, much less a king; that’s regicide and it’s punishable by death if the murderer doesn’t take his place on the throne. I’m not insane enough to try!”

Carmen sighed irritably for the umpteenth time. “Yeah, but you’re insane enough to agree to drug some poor girl like an asshole at a nightclub. You’ll reap what you sow, Maria, and some day, your actions will come back to bite this girl too. Are you ready for that eventuality?”

Maria bit her lip nervously. “I don’t know. That day isn’t today, and it won’t be tomorrow, either. I really need this, Carmen. I’ll accept the consequences if it means I live, and this girl does too.”

It took Carmen some more time to think about her next answer. She knew she would regret it, but the more she thought about Maria’s situation and the complete innocent whose life hung in the balance, the more the headstrong part of her began to crack. Without giving herself another second longer to change her mind, Carmen said: “Fine... BUT the fee for my services is 5K in GOLD - no silver, especially not for the shit I’m about to do for you.”

Maria almost wailed with joy through her tears.

“Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I-I need the reading right now! The men are coming later tonight, so I’ll likely also need to have my pick ready.”

A longer sigh. “Oh, of course you need the answer now,” Carmen said sarcastically. “I’ll be over in 5 minutes. Have the money ready, or I’ll charge you double for wasting my time.”