Song: villain playlist by Bell

"How are you feeling?"

"If I had more than two middle fingers, I'd let you know exactly how I feel," Hemlock replied. His lilting voice danced in cheery octaves. It reminded me of Gamma Fray whenever she muttered spells underneath her breath. The fair man raised his head, straining against the iron collar keeping him chained to the wall. "You look awfully familiar. Tell me, have I tortured you before?"

"No." Ignoring the silver bars keeping us separated, I stepped inside his cell and stood before him. The iron chains kept his wrists pinned to the walls and his ankles were fastened to the dirty ground. My nose crinkled at the foul smell of waste and blood lingering in the air. It was old and stale, but my sensitive nose picked it up nonetheless. It was unsettling paired with Hemlock's scent of decaying herbs. "No, I'm afraid that honor went to your adoptive mother."

"Went," Hemlock repeated. His swampy green eyes flickered to and fro. They were cold and calculating. Just like Gamma Fray's were when she was riddling out a puzzle. "Past tense. She's dead?"

"She is."

"Who killed her?"

His naturally light voice felt off putting for such a heavy topic. I felt a lump grow in my throat as his squinting eyes drilled through me. I wasn't guilty that Flora and I killed Rowena. The bitch had it coming after all the injustice she'd enacted against my people.

But it was Hemlock, seeing the love he held for her, that made me pause in responding. Whether I liked it or not, Rowena was a mother to this man. She was the one that raised him from infancy, not Gamma Fray. For a little over two decades she was his mother and they shared a bond.

The bond between mother and child, Rowena and Hemlock, couldn't be ignored no matter how much I wanted to erase it.

"Say it." Hemlock's heavy taunt goaded me into admission with more than just his words. It was his eyes. Somehow, he knew it was me. "Go ahead. Say it aloud."

"Me," I mumbled. Leaving Flora out of it completely, I took the whole blame. Just in case we couldn't help him and he ever managed to get out of these chains, at least he'd only come after me for revenge. "I killed Rowena."

"How?"

"I stabbed her when she was sleeping. After she drank the tea for her insomnia," I said.

"Coward." Hemlock laughed airily, crinkling the light spray of freckles covering his small nose. It was jarring how much he looked like Gamma Fray but talked like Rowena. "Not that I'm surprised. Mutts always take the easy way out of things."

I didn't react to his insults. Before, I'd have clawed anyone's face off that dared assign a derogatory term such as mutt to me. But now, I blinked the low dig away like it meant nothing at all. Rowena called me a mutt so many times when she whipped me that the poisonous word sounded like any other word now.

Normal.

Hemlock leaned against the concrete wall, stretching out as best as he could. His toned muscles rippled, drawing my attention to the long scar covering his stomach. It was lightning shaped and faded around the edges. I shook my head to clear my head of the tall man's physique and mannerisms.

He looked like Gamma Fray, talked like Rowena, and sounded like Pride.

Hemlock was quickly becoming quite the conundrum.

"You asked to see me," I continued. "Why?"

"To figure out what happened to my mom. Now that I know you can go." Hemlock waved his hand at me, effectively shooing me out of his cell. "Bye."

"No. I have things I want to talk about," I said firmly.

The Dark Warlock raised his eyebrows, highlighting the darkness surrounding his judgmental eyes. "Do I get to come out of these chains if I act like I care about what you wanna talk about?"

"No."

"Then I don't care to hear what you have to say." Surrendering to his chains, Hemlock fell on his backside, fully leaning into the cell wall. His loose brown shorts bunched around his waist and his thunder scar became distorted by the way he sat.

"I think you do," I replied. Taking a deep breath, I squared my shoulders and walked closer and squatted lower until I was at his level. His primal green eyes flashed with glee and he shuffled as close as the chains allowed him to. At least five feet separated our faces and he seemed to be enjoying that.

"I hope it's enlightening," his lilting voice teased. "I'd hate for you to waste your pretty breath just for it to all go to waste. Keep in mind, I don't speak stupid. At least try to hold my attention well."

A jab at my intelligence?

Ok, now he was getting under my skin.

Nonetheless, I kept my composure and laid it all out in the open. I didn't have time to sugarcoat anything.

"I want to know what you know about the Two Lovers," I said. "I want you to help us complete the prophecy and end the war. There's been enough bloodshed on both sides. The last thing any of us needs right now are more casualties."

"Mhm, and I'm supposed to tell you who they are because...?"

"Because your real mother is fighting for the Werewolves. I'd like for you to meet her, maybe even your brother, when this whole mess is over," I replied.

Tilting his face to the side, the older man watched me with laughing eyes. A cool smirk lined his plump mouth. I hated, absolutely hated, the way his wide pink lips twisted the same way Pride's did when he was acting cocky.

Drawing similarities between the two brothers wasn't doing me any good in terms of keeping a clear head.

"Were you dropped on your head as a baby?" Hemlock watched me through hooded eyes, silently jeering at my "stupidity." "Because that's some serious delusion coming from your mutt mouth right now."

"It's true."

"Uh huh." He regarded me with a blank stare, finding more entertainment in picking at his blunt nails. "Go ahead and talk my ear off about your tall tales. I can guarantee I'll listen but odds are I won't pay any attention."

"Rowena may have raised you but she's not the one that gave birth to you." Irritation flickered within me when I caught sight of him playing with the ends of his messy red hair. He shook his head side to side, jostling the red waves in a stupid dance. He stayed true to his words. He promised to lend me his ear, but he followed through by not giving me his full attention. "Your real mother is Gamma Fray Nightwind of the Moon Warriors Pack. Before she joined us she went by Fraylynn Pridesong. When Rowena delivered her first child, you, she was led to believe that you died in childbirth. Rowena stole you like she stole all those other pups!"

Hemlock froze in his mindless playing. Narrowing his green eyes, the Dark Warlock's glare made me take a step back as they suddenly brightened. He looked too much like Rowena in this moment. It was like I was back in that cell with her whipping my back raw with the way he stared me down.

"I've had enough of your asinine twittering's," his dark voice whispered. "Wanna know where the Two Lovers are? Go to the Cursed Pack. There's nothing you can do until Samhain anyway and that's not until the last day of October. Know what that means? More waiting, more death, and more bloodshed."

The Cursed Pack...

Sky's Pack.

My jaw dropped as I recalled the old story. I knew who the Two Lovers were. Only then did I realize that waiting game or not, we were screwed. There was no way the Luna would agree to be reunited with her Alpha after what happened.

There was no way...

"Why did you tell me so easily?" I asked. "What's the catch?"

"What's the catch?" Hemlock's voice rose a few octaves, imitating my voice in an insulting manner. "Your stench is overwhelming and your wild fantasies are unbearable. I'm telling you so you'll leave sooner."

"Rowena would be disappointed," I snapped. "To have her son break so easily."

I couldn't help myself from holding back a few snide remarks anymore. Just because I sympathized with his situation didn't mean I was gonna let all of his low blows slide right on by. He was starting to get on my nerves. I had the strong urge to put him in his place while trying to prove just how unaffected I was by his taunts.

"On the contrary." Hemlock's lips curved into a broad smile, splitting his Pride-like face in half. "Mom would be proud I told you. She always did love a good game. You think uniting them is going to be the difficult part but it won't be. What you'll have to lose to do so will be a chef's kiss. She'll enjoy the show just like the rest of us. Dead or alive, she's got everything rigged to her design. If it's happening now, then that means she allowed it to, Venus Brightdoom."

Hemlock lurched forward with sparks of blue lining his bare chest. He strained against the iron chains with all he had. I gasped when I saw them lift a little from the bolted wall. I heard a clap of thunder in the distance. Bouts of unleashed lightning twirled over his heaving chest.

Alpha Draco's warning shout went unheard. Placing all of my power within my right hook, I slammed my clenched fist into his maniacal face. Hemlock jerked backwards from the weight of my blow and crashed into the wall. A sick thud echoed throughout the cell as he fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. His breathing was shallow and he had some blood pouring down the side of his face, but he was still alive.

Alpha Draco and I watched as the sparks of blue died from his chest, and outside, the rain finally started to fall.

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QOTD: What are your thoughts about Hemlock? Did you notice what comment triggered Hemlock to lash out a little and reveal the Two Lovers? Why do you think Venus is so worried about uniting them now that she's realized who they are? If iron is supposed to contain Witches and Warlocks, why do you think Hemlock was able to use some magick?