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Dear Amelia,

It took me a while to decide what details to spare you. But knowing that the one personality trait you got from me was your stubbornness, I knew you’d ask for them all. If you had it your way, you’d have me just show you my memories. So I’ll compromise. I’ll give you seventy five percent. That’s more than enough.

Jumping between countries takes a toll, but I had to do it. The first enemy I came across was a giant gray and white wolf. He was massive, and I’ll never forget how he towered over me. I attacked him first. That’s one thing your grandma, and Jordan taught me. Always attack first. And never doubt yourself.

Fighting, after jumping that far, drained me. And I needed blood. Sometime during the fight, I shifted back, I couldn’t feed in my wolf form. I created a dagger from the roots in the ground, and I sunk it into the wolf. It paralyzed him enough for me to sink my fangs into him and drain him of his blood.

My dad saw this, and of course he was mad. I wasn’t supposed to be there, I was supposed to be taking out Darius and Markus. But they were out numbered.

Enemies were pouring out of the palace, so I created a staff from roots and opened the ground, making all of them fall into the depths of the earth, and then closed it, trapping them in it. If you’re wondering how I did that, remember that thanks to Gaia, I was able to control all the elements. And it took a lot of energy to do so.

I killed a few more wolves and then used the water from the fountain to heal our warriors. Obviously, I couldn’t stay and fight to the end, I still needed to kill Darius and Markus. So, after evening the battlefield, getting another healthy fill of blood, and ordering your dad not to die, I went back to my post.

As you might guess, Grandpa was vexed. Irate even. And rightfully so. But I wasn’t going to apologize for it. I wanted as many of us to come home as possible, and I wasn’t going to leave them knowing they were outnumbered. I didn’t care that James and Jordan were livid. I was too. I was enraged about being betrayed. Yet I knew that there was nothing we could do about it it at that time.

When I got back, Darius has still not arrived. I used that time to check in with my mom. She was keeping an eye on Markus and his palace. She told me who the six generals were that Markus took with him, and that he was also traveling with about three dozen warriors. He took far fewer men than Darius. Either he had confidence in his men’s power, or he didn’t expect Darius would try to kill him. Either way, I was happy he didn’t bring as many men as Darius did.

Still, their combined soldiers outnumbered us. Grandpa was still confident though. And I trusted him. As long as we took them out one at a time, we would still win.

Darius arrived first, as expected. I used persuasion and enchantment on his guards. We didn’t attack right away, we waited. And I know you’re wondering why. The answer is simple, we had a plan, and we were sticking to it.

James was hiding out in Darius’s room, and when he informed me that he made it, we began. The plan was to kill Darius before anyone knew I was there. I know, you’re wondering about the prophecy, at the time, I wanted to be the one to kill him, but I could only bring him close to death. Let’s say, my plan was a little different from the one I told everyone else. I’m sure Jordan knew that, but he didn’t say anything.

Grandpa was in charge of taking care of the four guards outside the underground palace. The hybrids that I brought with me, would take out the rest of the guards that lined the halls. I was supposed to deal with Darius, but that was before I found out he had a daughter. His daughter was information our informants left out.

I’m going to stop here, Amelia. Because I need to choose my words wisely.

~Mom

MJ. B