Aliya's Shoes-Chapter 569: ... and so is my wife!

The words were not said twice! Suzie stepped up, picked up the remaining pitcher of juice, and handed it to Murray as if this had been practised to perfection. Like usual, she wondered when it was compromised. Nothing ever made sense in the estate, it would seem. No words were exchanged, and no hesitation, yet each of them knew exactly what needed to be done.

In about five long strides, Murray closed the gap with the heap by the wall. The intruder barely had time to recoil from Samantha’s kick and the luresong before Murray’s hand clamped her jaw open. The liquid poured down her throat in one merciless motion.

Her eyes went wide. She thrashed, choking, but the trap had already sprung. Her own poison turned against her, searing through her veins. Dark lines spread under her skin, pulsing like fire racing through cracked stone. The stench of iron and something burnt filled the room, making even the scared Gabriel scrunch up his nose in disgust.

A guttural cry escaped the woman’s lips before twisting into a rasp, and still the family remained silent, watching and waiting.

Finally, the intruder slumped, her strength bled dry. With a grim smile, she rasped her final words, venom clinging to every syllable:

"They will come for you..."

"Whoever they are will soon join you wherever you’re headed in the afterlife!" Shely countered quietly as the woman’s body sagged, lifeless, collapsing under the weight of her own malice.

The shock of it all took some time to be processed. Though they had confidence that the protection in the castle was excellent, it seemed like, because of Aliya, there were loopholes that they might have overlooked! This made all of them appreciate the children and especially, the unborn one. It was now certain that no sneak attack could get to Shelby while she was carrying.

It looked a while after this before anyone said a word... and these were the words or confirmation they were all itching to know:

"You can hear their thoughts now?" Ian asked, eyes searching hers.

Shelby smiled faintly, then glanced at Samantha, who was watching her with a face both curious and expectant.

’How had this happened and what is she?’ Shelby thought.

For a heartbeat, she hesitated, unsure how to explain what had just awakened inside her, for she didn’t know its limitations or capabilities yet. Still, she knew who it was related to, and her eyes couldn’t help but linger on Samantha. Words felt too clumsy, too small to explain.

So instead, she let the silence linger... and answered in the only way that felt right.

’Yes.’

The word didn’t pass her lips; it bloomed inside their minds, a whisper without sound, warm and unmistakable.

The children froze.

’Mama?’ Gabriel’s thought tumbled out in a high-pitched squeak of surprise, followed by a shy giggle he didn’t even know escaped.

’I can hear mummy in my head!’ Ingrid’s normal childish voice wavered in disbelief. One could say that Ingrid only became a child in her mother’s presence. Gone was the daring girl who had hurled an attack at the intruder, and in her place was just a little girl. She pushed up her glasses and smiled.

’It’s all thanks to Samantha!’

Samantha stiffened, then slowly broke into the brightest grin, her mind blazing with a single triumphant thought: I knew it, Mum was the best, but conveniently disregarding the part that was related to her. She didn’t know what she had done, but if her mere existence could help her mother, then that was for the best!

Shelby gasped softly; their minds were open to her. Their little voices, unguarded, unhidden, shimmering with pure truth. It was just like she shared with Ian, but this was a lot more... and Shelby loved it! Ian started at her admiringly. Only one person was unsure of her mental state.

Shelby turned to Suzie, and the girl blushed. She closed her eyes tightly, ’I need to control my thoughts ... I need to control my thoughts....’

Shelby chuckled as Ian drew her attention back to him.

"How do you mean?" Ian asked while pulling Shelby to sit down gently. The intruder was long forgotten as if it were an everyday incident, but the two guards who had come in set to work on her, clearing what remained of the body so fast that it was like it never happened.

Shelby went ahead to explain. Her lips parted, then closed again. For a moment, she simply pressed her hand against her belly, as though drawing strength from the pulse within. When she spoke, her voice carried a strange resonance, as if it belonged partly to her and partly to something older, more profound.

"I started to feel... different when Samantha is near," she murmured, her gaze falling on her. "It is not just a simple instinct. She stirs something in me. I’m not sure when it started, but it was full-blown today and just now. I – th- think she is a catalyst or perhaps the very key I did not know I carried."

The room stilled, all around captivated.

"That is why I told her to leave earlier," she admitted, her eyes glistening as if caught between fear and wonder. "I needed to know if it was her presence.... Especially when I started hearing those voices. I had a hunch that it was her and not the others. And I was right. Because of her, I heard what should have been impossible to hear.

That woman’s thoughts and whole being were sealed by a spell, cloaked so tightly that no sound, no ’thought’s, should have slipped through. Don’t ask how... I just know. That’s also why you didn’t pick up on those random thoughts from her. Yet..." She let her gaze sweep over her eldest daughter again, voice trembling now, "... with Samantha beside me, a veil seemed to be torn .... as easily as if it had never been there at all."

Ian frowned in thought, eyes lingering on Samantha, but Shelby only smiled faintly through the lingering weight of revelation. "I don’t understand it fully," she whispered, "but I feel it in my bones .... she is more than she seems. And through her, so am I."

"What is she?" Murray whispered the words that were on everyone’s mind, but Currey was unsure of what she was. They were not entirely worried about that breach because Murray was already working on setting up a better shield based on what he had been able to obtain from the intruder’s mind before she had perished.

"I don’t know, brother. I’ll dig to find what I can, but though Aliya was vile, she sure had an eye for picking them out!"

"I still think my children are the best!" Shelby opened her arms and beckoned to them.

"Thank you for taking care of yourselves and saving us...."

With no hesitation, they crowded around her, wary of her bulging stomach,

"Me too?"

"Of course, that includes you, my little angel!" Shelby dropped a kiss for each of the beaming kids, with Gabriel’s the brightest, just as Ian added, ".... And so is my wife!"

***

In the woods and at the Timeless Witch’s cottage, she sat in her usual cozy rocking chair. She usually had nothing much to do while away, except when she had a deal to complete. In her current situation, as an ancient being in a child’s body, she just existed. The witch had lived for so long that she had stopped counting. However, in her long time of existing and making deals, only one thing stood out.

She sighed and went back to sipping her tea, but something she had not experienced in a long while flashed.

The witch, trapped in the small, frail body of a child, shut her eyes tight against the sudden wave of dizziness. When she opened them again, her heart stilled. Physical discomfort was not something she should be experiencing, no matter the body she was in. She had made deals at different ages and experienced all the growth cycles, but never with any repercussions, till that one time in the past!

She frowned.

’This should have been long over.... So why now?’

Frustration was never something in her dictionary, but for a few days prior, it’s been almost a part of her. She set her delicate cup down, as if she were playing house. Then she closed her eyes to welcome the impending change.

Gone was her warm, cluttered hut with its bundles of herbs and creaking rafters when she re-opened her eyes. Instead, she sat amidst towering trees, their twisted trunks and skeletal branches rising like dark sentinels around her.

The air was thick with mist, heavy with damp earth and the faint hiss of unseen whispers. Lanterns flickered at her feet, their glow catching on the talismans and trinkets that now weighed against her chest. The forests always had their way of communicating, and she did not like what she was sensing there.

She knew this place. Oh, she knew it too well. A realm she had walked long before she chose her hut, her herbs, her solitude ... ancient power coiled here, subtle and suffocating, but never too much for her, till this day.

Something was wrong.

She could feel it in the marrow of her bones, the way the silence seemed to thrum, the way the shadows bent toward her like obedient hounds. It was familiar, yes, but at the same time, it was changed in a twisted way that felt wrong! The forest should not have pulled her there like that, not like this.

And that truth.... that ancient, dreadful truth, made her frown, lips tightening as a child’s face struggled to hold an immortal’s disdain.

"I did not ask for this," she murmured, her voice thin but steady, though the roots curled tighter at the sound, as if disagreeing.

She understood too well. She just did not like it.

’Must I really do this?’

*********

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