Chapter 229: Chapter 229
[DEVON’s Point of View]
“Devon! 1What did you do?!”
“What? What happened?”
Diana approached me with panic as she ran inside the room—blood drained from her face, and fears flashed in her eyes while she clutched her little wolf doll against her chest.
“What happened?” I asked again, now feeling alarmed at that fear in her eyes. “Did something happen to Dad and Mom? Where is Purple?”
“No! But they are fighting!” she almost cried as she grabbed my hand, wanting to drag me outside the room, but I refused because she wasn’t supposed to go to Mom and Dad’s room at this kind of hour. “Devon! You have to go with me!”
“Why? You know we are supposed to be preparing for bed now, Diana. What if Mom sees us still up at this kind of hour? We promised her no more silly adventures after what happened in the attic, right? We can’t keep Mom worrying for us!”
To my surprise, that panic and fear in Diana’s face turned into a resting expression that suddenly turned annoying for me. She only did that when she thought I was playing dumb or something, and I was sure I didn’t do anything for her to give me that kind of reaction.
My eyebrows rose.
Well...perhaps I did, but yeah. I couldn’t tell her what it was.
“I know you did something, Devon. And you are not telling me. Tell me what it is!” Diana demanded an answer, which made me so nervous that bullets of sweat started to form on my forehead. Diana always told me before that I wasn’t a good liar. And as her twin, it was difficult not to tell her the truth because she always knew when I was lying to her or to anyone.
“I have no idea what you are talking about, Diana.” I averted my eyes from her and kicked an invisible object on the floor just to avoid her eyes gazing into mine.
“Devon! I know you put your things inside Dad’s bag! You are planning to sneak outside the pack house to follow him, right?! Tell me I am right!” Diana curled her hands into fists and then rested them on her hips with her brows angled as she glared at me. “This is not good, Devon! Lying is not good!”
My shoulders drooped, and I fought hard not to roll my eyes at her out of frustration. “I just want to help Dad, you know? I saw him packing his things, so I thought to put some of my things in his bag and follow him in the forest to know where he’s going. I don’t think he’s going with Mom, and I don’t like Dad to go to that dangerous place alone!”
“That’s the problem! It’s the reason why Mom and Dad are fighting right now!”
I was shocked at what I heard and then froze at what Diana said. I was confused for seconds before I replied to her. “What do you mean they are fighting?”
“Mom and Dad! They are fighting,” Diana repeated, almost on the verge of tears as her lips quivered. “I just heard that Dad’s going to Black Forest alone and won’t let Mom go with him, that’s why Mom is so upset and doesn’t want Dad to go alone there because it’s too dangerous! And then Mom saw your things, and she thought Dad would bring us with him to sacrifice to someone or something, and that’s scary because I think Dad could never do that.”
“Sacrifice us?” I frowned. “For what exactly?”
“I am not sure... that’s why I want you to go with me and stop Mom and Dad from fighting.” Diana’s tears started to fall down her face, and that’s when I decided that we indeed needed to go to Mom and Dad because I didn’t think this would end well between them.
I knew Mom so well. If she thought Dad was going to sacrifice us, she would fight him to the death if she had to.
Alarmed by the situation and the misunderstanding about the things I placed in my dad’s bag, Diana and I immediately ran to their room, hoping to resolve the confusion I had caused. Still, Mom and Dad were in the middle of a heated argument, so Diana and I hesitated. We were too scared to knock on the door. We had never heard or seen Mom and Dad fight like that, and hearing them yelling at each other was heartbreaking.
“You never cared about me before! Why would I make you decide for the future of the twins? I can’t believe after everything that happened, you are still just thinking about yourself, Dominic!”
“Mom! Dad! Stop!”
Diana stopped Mom from blurting more hurtful words to Dad, and then she rushed into the room, crying hard as she went straight toward him. I never expected she would do that, though. And that left me and Mom frozen for seconds until Mom turned towards me with a surprised look on her face.
“Devon, Diana! What are you two doing here?” Dad frowned but carried Diana in his arms. There was this grim look on his face that made me stand up with my back straight.
“We’re here to explain,” I said, almost choking from the fear and nervousness I felt because I had never seen Mom and Dad fight like that ever. “I-I put those things in Dad’s bag, Mom. He doesn’t have a plan to bring me or Diana somewhere. I-I thought Dad would need help knowing he would go alone in the Black Forest.”
“How did you know I was going to the Black Forest? Have you been spying on me, Devon?”
"No! I mean... All I want to do is help. I want to help, Dad!" I replied with a desperate tone in my voice. Diana was so upset and confused that she couldn’t say anything. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she embraced Dad, her arms around his neck.
“No, you can’t.” Dad snarled as he glared at Mom. “No one is going to the Black Forest with me. You will all stay here where it is safe, you understand? I will go and face this alone. I will figure something out.”
“But you might die.”
Diana’s words brought all of us into silence as she kept on sobbing, and Dad embraced her tightly as he closed his eyes. All the tension on his shoulder finally relaxed just the same as Mom. All I saw was worry and love in their eyes that I couldn’t explain.
“I will never let that happen, sweetheart. Dad will come back to all of you no matter what.” Dad whispered to Diana, and for a flash of a moment, I thought I felt that pain in Dad’s chest.
“Mom,” I didn’t know, but it was too overwhelming to see all this hatred between Mom and Dad. “Please, stop. This is my fault. Dad’s not going to sacrifice any of us. I put my things in his bag because I wanted to follow him to the forest to help him with whatever he was going to do. I want to help too.”
Mom’s face was already red from crying. She knelt in front of me and then ruffled my already unruly dark hair. “You are a brave boy, Devon. But this is between me and your father, and you and Diana shouldn’t be here. Can we discuss this only with your dad and me? Will that be alright with you? I need both of you to know that everything happening now is for you and for your sister’s sake.”
“We don’t want you fighting,” Diana answered instead as she peeked from between Dad’s neck and shoulder. “Devon and I don’t want you screaming at each other, please?”
Dad and Mom dropped their stares at the floor as if ashamed of what they did, and then they both sighed deeply as the emotions weighed on their chests.
To our surprise, the door suddenly opened and Purple went running inside as she wagged her tail with full of excitement and energy. She went straight to me, ready for belly rubs, but I wasn’t in the mood, so I ignored her, despite her little demands to get our attention.
“Devon, look at Purple!”
Diana pointed at our little pet, and that’s when I noticed that our little wolf pup’s eyes were less purple than they had been the previous night. That’s when I knelt to rub Purple’s furry neck and observed it well. Diana was right. Something changed to Purple. My eyes widened as I saw that her tail turned bright silver as well and wasn’t purple-tinted anymore.
“I think Purple is getting better, Dad!” Diana’s high-pitched voice was full of wonder and happiness as she realized her baby pet was finally recovering from the curse that had been making it sick for weeks.
“What happened to her? How did she get rid of the curse?” Mom asked with desperate curiosity as she approached me and Purple. She lifted Purple with both hands and then stared at the baby wolf’s eyes.
“I think that’s when she tried to get rid of the black smoke in the attic, Mom. She used the baby tooth that Grandma Lena took from us. She knows that it can get rid of the curse!” Diana answered with a huge smile on her face. “Maybe we can do something to get rid of Dad’s curse, too!”
“No!” Dad’s eyes turned grim once again as he disagreed with that idea. “I told you, you all are not coming with me.”
“But it’s up to us, Dad! We want to help!” I didn’t care if Dad would get upset at me because I was angry too! “I don’t like that you are deciding this for yourself! Mom, Diana, and I want to help! You don’t have to face this alone! Diana and I are already old enough to face all of this danger. We were with you when we went to the ancient library! We were with you when we went to the Wolf Tomb! We are the key! You need us, no matter how many times you say you’ll figure this out on your own!”
Mom and Dad were stunned at the things I said, and even I couldn’t believe the words that blurted out of my mouth. Diana, on the other hand, clapped her hands and smiled widely, looking so proud of me while I breathed hard from the adrenaline and the courage I didn’t know I had.
Our parents looked at each other, still staggered from my little speech. The anger in their eyes was replaced with softness as Dad looked at me with pride in his smile.
“You will be an amazing pack leader one day, son,” he said with a slight nod, and my heart just filled with happiness and pride I had never felt before.