𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟓

"𝘚𝘰... 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩? "

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╰┈˚ · ° .  IT WAS ALREADY MID AFTERNOON WHEN I WOKE UP, I had spent the entire night reading through the pages of the Grimoire. It was so full of knowledge that it seemed to never end. There were lots and lots of spells and rituals explained step by step. Herbs, flowers and crystals with their associated meaning and how to use them. A section dedicated to each of the elements, even the aether, called the spirit element sometimes. A lot of information about the shapeshifters, the bond that the witches and shapeshifters shared between each other. The workings of a pack, shifter anatomy, tricks on how to help them. There were a lot of interesting things.

I took the time to shower and get into some clean clothes and then, after a quick snack, I was outside already walking into the forest behind my house with a precise intention.

I had memorized what was considered a ritual, one of the firsts always performed. It would join the witch and the shifter on a mental level. I had perfectly memorized each step, but doing it, on the other hand, was not as easy as it was learning it to memory from paper.

I shook my hands in front of me to expel the agitation. "I can do it." I whispered out loud to myself trying to give myself as much encouragement as I could.

I decided to sit down, the grass humid from the morning dew. Recalling the ritual, I started the first step by relaxing my mind and taking breaths to calm my mind down, almost like meditation. When I felt it was the right moment, I passed to the second step: calling forward my element.

What happened was not the result that I had wanted. I felt the now familiar feeling on my hand, the tingling sensation in my fingers that preceded the burst of sparks to be followed by a flame.

I closed my hands into fists, suppressing the magic there before returning to the state of meditation once again.

It took a bit more than I would have liked, but then I finally felt it, the spark igniting in my chest. The core of my magic. And so, I finally divided into my mind traveling into my subconscious.

I imagined myself in a black room, black walls, flooring and ceiling. Darkness surrounded me only to be lit by fire surrounding me. It was then that I recalled the dream, the same one that I'd have for as long as I could remember.

From what the grimoire said, it was now that I was entering a completely different state of mind, and was now completely into a trance-like-state. I don't know how much time passed when I finally felt it. Like a tug coming from my chest. I focused on my brother, his face and body, his personality. Every physical detail that I could remember. Then I thought of memories, the one that I held closer to the heart, till I arrived back at night that was almost two weeks ago now. When he had first shifted into his wolf and I unlocked my element.

"Sam." I said in my mind. My voice echoing in the dark room only lighten by the fire "Sam"

I continued to call him, remembering his wolf form and will it to appear.

I felt him, in a way that was a completely new experience, like a rope latched to both of us tugging to each other.

"Sam"

And then, from between the flames, I saw a huge wolf. Black as ebony, bigger than a horse. It was him. My brother. Even if shifted, his eyes remained the same.

"Tris?" His voice echoed in the room loud and panicked.

"It's okay Sammy, everything's going to be alright." He was frightened, his whines reaching my ears. He eyed the flames carefully, as if at any moment they would reach for him and burn him. "They won't hurt you, I swear."

"What is happening?"

I had never heard my brother being so frightened before. He always had been the strong one, the one who would take care of me, telling me stories when I would wake up from a nightmare. My heart hurt in my chest because of that. I never wanted to see him like this ever again.

"The legends, the stories told us since we were little, do you remember them?" I asked while taking slow steps forward trying to reach him.

"They are true, aren't they?" He knew they were. Hell, he was a huge wolf, of course they had to be true.

"When the first wolf shifts, the first witch unlocks her element." I said motioning around at the bright fire "We were the first one."

"The Cullens... they-"

"The shifter genes got triggered by their arrival, yes." I was only a couple of steps away from him when he finally saw what I was doing.

"No!" His panicked voice ringed loudly above the sound of the blazing flames "I don't want to hurt you." He was pleading me with his eyes, fear clear in his voice

"You won't." I said "Not here and not outside in the real world. But staying like this, in your wolf form, away from everyone... That is hurting our mother, Leah, me... I need you to come back, Sammy." Now tears started to pool in my eyes at the thought of never seeing my brother ever again.

"I-I can't."

"Please, I need my big brother. I can't do it without you. Don't leave me too." A panined whine rumbled from his chest. "Try to think of your human form. Your body, the arms and legs, the color of your hair. Think about your life, of the people that are waiting for you. Think about your memories, to your dreams and hopes. Anchor yourself to your human part." I said hoping with everything in myself that I would be able to hug my brother before night would fall. "I know you can do it, and when you return back into your body, I'll be waiting for you at the forest line behind our house." That was the last thing that I said before I brought myself out of the trance induced state and into the real world.

I waited and waited and waited even more. I sat on the soft grass playing with the fire in my hand. Training every moment that I could, not only was for safety reasons, but it helped me clear my mind. And I loved it. Fire always had a pull on me, but what I felt as I stared at the flame dancing around my hands was nothing I ever felt before. Not even with the flames of my Zippo that I have to still take back from when they had confiscated it.

The sun was slowly starting to go down when the crunches of leaves snapped me out of the bubble I had let myself fall in. I extinguished the fire with a wave of my hand and I quickly rose to my feet.

"Sam?" I asked hoping with all myself that it was him.

"Tris?" His voice came out rougher than usual, after all, he had not used it for almost two entire weeks.

A wide smile bloomed on my lips at the sound nonetheless. I had the spare clothes that I took from his room in my hand knowing that during the shift, any type of clothes that he was wearing were now no more. I threw them somewhere in front of me before I turned around, almost shaking with happiness. I heard the ruffling of clothes being pulled on before Sam was speaking again.

"You can turn now." He said gruffly, attempting to chuckle but it came out dry. A grimace crossed his features.

I didn't waste another second to throw myself into his arms, squeezing him as tightly as I could to me almost as if he would disappear again. I took his face in my hands and let out a mix between a sob and a laugh.

"Damn, you stink brother."

"Yeah well, try to spend I don't know how much time as a wolf in a forest, then we will talk." He said while rolling his eyes but a smile was quickly forming on his face.

"Almost two weeks." I told him

His eyes widened comically "Two weeks? What the hell did you even tell everyone?"

"Oh you will love this. " I said sarcastically with a dramatic sigh of sadness "You apparently have mono, and me, being the sweet sister that I am, I'm taking care of my very sick brother."

He looked at me seriously before he started to laugh "Jesus only you could come up with such a shitty excuse. Do you know that mono is actually transmissible with the exchange of salivas, right? And that I have a girlfriend that I kiss and have-"

I slapped a hand on his mouth before he could say anything more. "Stop right there. I don't need, not want to hear what you were about to say." I shrugged "And I panicked. I had to say something to your girlfriend after you did not answer her for three days and I would not let her inside." I rolled my eyes in fake annoyance.

His features once again contorted in a grimace "If she didn't hate me before with my mood swings she definitely will hate me now."

"She loves you Sammy. She was just worried. And the mood swings were because you were about to shift."

The loud rumbling of his stomach interrupted the silence that had created

"Damn I guess you are hungry" I commented

He smirked slyly, his eyes twinkling with mischief "Like a wolf"

"Oh you did not just say that." I groaned. I facepalmed myself while starting to walk back to our house "C'mon I will cook while you shower. You smell so bad that you are making my eyes water."

His arm sneaked around my shoulder. He was even more buff and tall then the last time I saw him. During the couple of weeks before his shift I had noticed the difference but now it was abysmal. Well, apparently now mono gets you all toned up.

"Nah that is just because you missed me" He joked

"Yeah, yeah." I said, waving a nonchalant hand while opening the front door. Not even daring to say otherwise. He was right, I had missed him. "Now please for my health. Go and shower. I'm pretty sure I took fleas from just hugging you."

His smile glistened from the light of the moon before he hugged me. I thought of hugging him back but then he took my head in a headlock and started to ruffle my hair.

"Stop it you asshole before I actually burn you alive." I shouted, swinging my hand and legs trying to get away from him and maybe, if I was fortunate, some hit would land.

When I had finally escaped him, a glare burning with anger, while I tried to conceal how happy I was that he was back to annoy me, he took off, running for his room with a laugh that echoed after him.

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╰┈˚ · ° .  "So... you are a witch?" Sam asked between bites of food. I had prepared what was probably one of the biggest meals in my life and that the kitchen had ever seen. He was already at his third plate of pasta, another one filled with meatballs was on his left as he made back and forth between the two. Adding to everything an entire loaf of crusty white bread, he finally seemed to start getting full.

"Yes, I guess. Witches, elemental women... These are the two names that the legends call us." I shrugged my shoulders as I finished my portion of meatballs "But I won't be at my full power until the other three can unlock their elements."

"It's like the legends say, right? Each one of you has the gift of one of the four elements?"

"Yeah, mine is fire" I answered with a look towards the scented candle lit between us.

Sam snickered "Of course it is"

"It's not like you shifters" I rolled my eyes. I raised my hand, snapping my fingers together making sparks appear. "We have a pull towards our element even before we unlock them." in the palm of my hand, a flame appeared. Even if small, it never failed to astonish me, and apparently, even Sam seemed to be impressed.

With wide eyes Sam looked at the flame "Wow, that is..."

Closing my hand, the flame extinguished itself "I know." I winked at him.

"I will contact the elder council tomorrow. They will explain everything to you." At his clenched jaw and sad eyes I spoke again "They will help you, Sam, just like they with me. I know that we may have different views on what happened to us but it's necessary."

He scoffed at my words, his shoulders starting to tremble "Necessary? This probably ruined all my life, Tris!"

"Calm down, don't lose your temper." I said with the most calm tone that I could master "You think this had been easy for me? I didn't just just spend the last two weeks searching for you, you know. Every time I touched something it would burst into flames. I couldn't get angry or sad or even happy because heightened emotions, whatever they are, are just going to trigger my powers. I had to fucking sleep on the floor because I once woke up with my bed on fire!" I slammed my hand on the kitchen table, flames bursting from my hands. Fortunately, it was a metal table. I saw Sam flinching backwards. I didn't know if it was for the display of power or for the yelling. When I focused on reigning back the fire only the handprint of my hand surrounded by black patches had remained. I closed my eyes with a groan and slumbered back into my chair, mumbling curses under my breath.

"Sorry" Sam said quietly "I didn't mean to- I didn't know."

"It's okay." I gave him a weak smile, I could feel how tired I was, deep into my bones. "I'm getting better at controlling it now."

"What was that thing before? When we talked in that room full of fire." He asked after a couple minutes trying to change the topic.

"A mind link." I said "The room was one that I had dreamed of since I was a child. Do you remember when I told you about it?" He nodded his head "When the elders came here they gave a grimoire. It's like a book for spells and shits, full of things that helped the previous witches. It's really useful. There are written things that actually helped me with control."

"So you were talking into my mind?"

"Kind of. For what I know from the grimoire, wolves between the same pack when shifted can talk through their minds. Witches have a bond with the pack, so when someone is their wolf form and has an established link, they can communicate with the mind link too."

Sam nodded his head and continued to eat the rest of his food as he tried to assimilate everything that I had told him.

"You know a lot of things already."

"I'm sure that I don't even know a quarter of what there is to know. But there is time. We can learn." His eyes were barely staying open anymore "Go to sleep, Sam. I can clean up here. And maybe, try to call Leah. She was very worried about you. And pass by mom's room, please." I added the last part in more of a whisper, that still, I'm sure that with his heightened hearing now, he had heard it loud and clear.

"Thank you" He said, giving me a kiss on the forehead "About everything. I love you, little sister, and I'm so proud of you."

We didn't usually say that. We used to, when we were little. Every night, Sam would've tucked me in my bed, telling me a story before leaving a kiss to my forehead and whispering those three words. But somehow, we stopped doing it when the teenage years began. The both of us usually just showed that we cared about each other, only on rare occasions we had said those words, so I knew that it was important for him to say them now, just like it was for me.

"I love you too, big brother and I'm proud of you too."

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!

Sam is back to his human form!! In this chapter you have read one of the differences that I added to the plot. The mind link between witches and shifters.

In the next chapter I'll guarantee you that thre will be a little bit of Paul

Anyways, thank you for reading this chapter, I'll see you on Thursday!

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾