Chapter 2
Location: Hogwarts : Harry Potter
Harry couldn’t help but pace back and forth within their rooms, his eyes occasionally moving to look at the small toddler sleeping peacefully on their couch. A small toddler that was apparently his and Harlow’s younger sister. The waves of emotions that that brought Harry was enough to stagger him. Enough to want him to shut down completely but he couldn’t. Not when Harlow had apparently gone feral and was missing. Not when she had completely shut her side of their circle bonds, and their twin bond as well, the moment she had disappeared. And no amount of prodding at the closed door that he could typically feel his older twin's feelings allowed him in.
Vesper and Severus had gone out immediately to look around the Hogarth Sanctuary Grounds, despite Harry telling them it was useless since Harlow was no longer there, but because his Dru Submissive sister’s Nameless talent of being able to cloak her magic, their Beta and Mage were hoping he was wrong.
They hadn’t left without waking up Percy though, who stood looking as helpless as Harry felt off to the side. His Percy didn’t know what to do. He was still dealing with the side effects of being spelled to sleep after going feral, and without Harlow here to give him the fight he needed, Harry knew his Gheyic Pareya’s instincts were still toeing the line of going back to feral. And this was not what Percy needed at all. Especially since Harry knew just what kind of state Harlow would be in whenever she managed to get back to their sanctuary.
Harry sighed heavily as he stopped pacing. Once again his eyes looked over at the little blue girl. The little blue toddler with Siri’s curly hair and high cheekbones. The little blue toddler with the wild hair that both Harlow and he had and knobby knees from their father, James. The little blue toddler with an up-turned nose that was all their mother’s, Lily. Harry’s heart felt like it fell in his chest. It was so painful knowing that the parents he thought were dead were actually alive, living in Nevarah probably completely happy while he and Harlow were on Earth suffering. It was soul-crushing, however, knowing that Sirius was still alive. Their godfather, turned Third, was alive. Harry and Harlow had spent so many years crying over his death. They hated themselves for being the reason why Sirius had died. After all, it was them who had believed the vision that Puppet Voldemort had given them about torturing Sirius in the Department of Mysteries. It had been them who had led all of their friends- but apparently not friends- to the Department of Mysteries to rescue him. It had been them who were stupid and had to have the Order of the Phoenix save them which was why Sirius had ended up there in the first place and why he had fallen into the Veil of Death after Bellatrix hit him with a pretty nasty stunner.
Harry had loved Sirius. Although he was childish, and definitely not father material to Harlow and him, he still loved Sirius like a father. Sirius had been the first adult to actually care about Harlow and his well being. Sure, he had still been a puppet to Dumbledore because he hadn’t known the monster that Dumbledore really was, and because of that he refused to take the twins out of the Dursley Household, but he did care about them. At least… Harry had thought he cared about them. But now, knowing that he was alive. Knowing that he had found their parents and instead of trying to get them back to Earth, he stayed where they were and had a child to replace Harry and Harlow… Harry wasn’t sure what the correct emotional response was but he didn’t think it was to feel numb. So soul-achingly numb as he stared at his younger sibling he didn’t even know existed until today.
“Harry?” Percy spoke up, a series of clicks and quiet growls leaving the Gheyic Pareya who was still fighting an edge feralness.
Harry let out another sigh as he turned to face Percy, watching as his Pareya's eyes flickered between him and the sleeping toddler, not knowing what to do. "What's up, love?" Harry asked, trying to keep his voice level and not let his emotions completely take over him like Harlow had. It wouldn't do anyone good if the second pillar of the wards around the Hogarth Sanctuary went feral.
"Why do you think she's here? How did she even get here?" Percy asked, his eyes never leaving the little girl.
"I'm not sure," He admitted, wondering about that himself. From everything that Harry had ever been told about his parents, they were good people. They loved Harlow and him. Had even given up their lives for them. But obviously everyone was wrong. The living proof of that was sleeping right in front of him. Harry didn’t know which option was worse to believe: that his parents weren’t the heroes that everyone built them up to be in his and Harlow’s eyes, that they were terrible parents who couldn’t give a damn about their own kids, or that Kai had gotten caught up in something she shouldn’t have as a toddler and ended up in this hellscape by accident. Part of him was really hoping it was an accident. That his parents at the very least cared about his younger sibling. He hoped that she hadn’t had the life that he and Harlow had. One where they thought no one but each other loved them. One of abuse, pain, and sorrow.
“I should go let her know.” Harry spoke up, his nose scrunching up at the thought of talking to her as he turned back to his Gheyic Pareya. “Do you mind watching over Kai?”
“No… It will help settle my instincts.” Percy said after several minutes thinking about it. Harry smiled, walking over to pull Percy into a hug before kissing him hard using his Empathy to soothe out the harsh jagged emotions that his soulbonded was feeling to settle him as much as he could without fighting Percy himself. And Harry absolutely hated fighting himself, regardless of how necessary it had become in the world they lived in. He would never keep his from fighting where needed, so long as it was away from him.
“I’ll try to get back soon. Just pull on my bond if you need me or she wakes up.” Harry told him with the utmost seriousness. Percy would always come first before informing his aunt of all people that her sister was alive. Percy gave a shaking nod at the quiet order from his submissive letting Harry slip out of his arms and out of the Founder’s Tower. Yet another sigh left Harry as he thought of what Petunia’s reaction would be. He had a feeling it wouldn’t exactly be a happy one. And regardless about the complicated emotions that Harry had regarding Petunia, he didn’t exactly want to cause her pain.
It had been the first year of the war against Muggles that Harlow had felt a ping of magic near their old house, the dreaded Number Four Privet Drive. Honestly, neither of them had wanted anything to do with it but they had a sense of duty to protect all magicals and so they had gone. It was a complete and utter shock to find Petunia and Dudley in the midst of a dragel inheritance with the bastard Vernon hovering over them with a knife ready to kill them. Harlow had struck quickly, ripping the bastard’s throat out within a millisecond while Harry had been forced to try and stabilize the two, and keep Dudley’s wife and child calm in the midst of everything.
It was honestly a shock to the two of them, once Harlow came back to a more sane state of mind, that the two of them were dragels and inheriting so late. At least at the time it had. The secrets that had been uncovered, like Petunia actually being a part of their family circle, and therefore a mother to the twins, and the amount of spells, seals and compulsions she had been under to allow the abuse to happen to them, had been painful enough to learn. Dudley had similar spells, seals, and compulsions. All of them had Dumbledore’s magical signature on them so they knew that he had been the one to interfere with their family circle for whatever devious reason he had, but neither twin could understand why the magic had suddenly snapped allowing them to inherit their true forms so late after the man’s death.
At least, not until Severus pointed out the obvious when he did his checks on them. That being that Dumbledore wasn’t actually dead, he had simply removed his magic from the Dursley’s which had caused them to shatter. It certainly made a lot more sense why they had been attacked not long after they had arrived at that house. An elaborate set up. Still knowing everything they knew now, Harry and Harlow still had a strained relationship with Petunia, and even Dudley, who’s wife was apparently a selkie and he had no idea.
“Dera!”
Harry’s head snapped up and a smile instantly formed on his face as he turned just in time to catch the seven year old Teddy who’s hair immediately lit up bright blue. “Hey, Teddy, aren’t you supposed to be with the others?” Harry questioned, raising an eyebrow at him. Despite only being seven, Teddy was in school like all the other children his age. They didn’t learn how to cast magic since it was still too dangerous for their magical cores, but they learned the theory and play-casted magic with fake wands, and learned other magics that weren’t so damaging, like potions.
“I am, but I heard a rumor that Mera came back with a blue child! Is she like me?” Teddy questioned, his skin turning just as blue as his hair. Harry couldn’t help but laugh as he set the boy back on his feet, ruffling his hair.
“Your mera did come back with a blue child but yes, and no love, she's like you but not like you. She’s a water dragel.” He explained, laughing quietly when Teddy’s green and gold Pareya scales shifted onto his skin as it turned back to his normal pale color. It still pained Harry to see the scales, and especially the wings when the boy begged them to go flying. Teddy shouldn’t have inherited as a dragel so soon but before Harlow and he had started the Hogarth Sanctuary, they hadn’t been safe. The British Army had found their house, the Evanson Manor, that they had been using as a sanctuary, and had blasted it with bombs. Teddy had thankfully been with Severus and Percy in the forest but all three of them had been hit with debris which had caused their boy to inherit. And that in itself had been a shock since they didn’t know that Tonks had been a dragel. And Andromeda hadn’t said a single thing about it before she left Teddy with them and disappeared without a word. Still, they had been injured, and everyone else in the sanctuary had died. It had been the major factor in Harlow going off the deep end and taking back Hogwarts from the Ministry and their Black Bird menaces. Teddy's early inheritance wasn't the only thing that had happened to their sweet boy. He had a lot of scars from his injuries, most notably the long jagged one that ran down the right side of his face and down to his hip. No matter how much healing and scar paste that Severus had tried, the damage was permanent but Teddy didn't seem to mind it at all. Said it made him look like his dad, Remus.
“So like Mera and Dera?” Teddy questioned, his head tilting to the side.
“Yes, she is like us.” Harry answered with a pained smile, trying his best not to think about how much like them Kai was. “You know, Papa Percy is currently watching over her while she sleeps. Why don’t you go help him protect her?” He asked, looking back the way he came. Teddy’s Pareya instincts could use someone to dote on that wasn’t other magical children who didn’t understand his instincts. He knew that it had been causing problems with the others whenever Teddy would try to make their plates for them at meal times or otherwise try and coddle them. It wasn’t his fault. There weren’t many dragels or like-minded creatures with their type of instincts for him to bother. Teddy nodded rapidly before running off. The giant smile on his face helped soothe the emotional storm running through Harry. A happy Teddy made for a happy Harry, and Harlow if she was here. Trilling quietly, Harry continued on to where he felt Petunia and Dudley working out in one of the Green Houses.
It was only after Harry and Harlow had gotten control of the Hogwarts wards that they had begun to really understand them. Sure, they had learned about wards in the time between the Ministry’s war against magical creatures and dark magic and the war between the magical and muggle worlds, but they had never really had any experience with them. Especially not wards as ancient as the ones around Hogwarts. It was strange just how pitiful yet powerful the wards of Hogwarts had been when Harry and Harlow took control. They had learned how to read what had happened to the wards in their time and it wasn’t a pretty story from the moment Dumbledore had gotten control of the wards. It was how they had learned that everything that had happened to them within the walls of Hogwarts would never have happened if it wasn’t for Dumbledore. They truly had been just as much as a puppet to the monster who portrayed a kind, benevolent grandfather as Voldemort had been.
Harry abruptly shook his head, forcing those thoughts about how naive they had been as children away. At least one of the twins had to keep their head, and since Harlow was off doing Immortals only know what, Harry was left to pick up the slack.
He gently knocked on the door to the Green House before he entered. Petunia was talking with a class of First Years with Dudley helping as her teacher aid. It was after all the spells and compulsions and seals had been properly taken off Petunia that all of them had learned that she had gone to Hogwarts with the rest of them. Apparently, Dumbledore had used her as the catalyst to block everyone’s true memories of Petunia, seeing how she was the twin sister of their mum Lily. Severus had cried out in pain when the cleansing was finished and suddenly remembered that he had been best friends with the Evans twins, and Petunia wasn’t the bully he had remembered her to be. And how she was indeed in the same circle as her twin and James, and several others that Severus couldn’t quite remember. Their faces were blurred in his memories.
Knowing what he knew now, Harry couldn’t help but wonder if Lily and James remembered that Petunia was their submissive. And even more than that, he wondered why they hadn’t come back to Earth to retrieve her if they did remember.
“Harry, how can I help you?” Petunia asked, her voice soft as she looked at her circle’s son.
“We need to talk about something Lows and I discovered.” Harry answered, keeping his voice as neutral as he could.
Petunia frowned but nodded, looking over at her son. “Keep them on task, please.” She told him. Despite it being Harry and Harlow who were always the ones who did the gardening in their childhood, Dudley surprisingly had a green thumb. He had picked up herbology as quickly as Neville did, or perhaps even quicker seeing how Dudley only had a couple years of magical knowledge under his belt. Though Dudley’s Earth Element was mainly focused on plant life, Harry was sure that was how he was so good.
Harry and Petunia didn’t go too far from the Green House, just a couple steps away to make sure no one overheard their conversation. But to be certain of that, Harry put a small ward around them to make sure no one could. And then, for several minutes he stared at Petunia, not knowing how exactly to tell her. He knew it would hurt her, and despite everything that had been done to him and Harlow over the years as children, Harry really didn’t want to hurt her. He couldn’t even fathom how he would feel if one of his bonded had been proclaimed dead only to find out many years later that they were alive and having children like he never existed. Just the thought of that ever happening hurt him.
“Harry, is everything okay? Did something happen to Harlow?” Petunia asked, her voice filled with concern and borderline panic as her eyes flickered back up to the castle. Harry placed his hand on her shoulder before she could go running off to the Healer’s Hall.
“It’s not about Harlow, though she is currently MIA due to what we found out.” Harry told her, frowning as he once again prodded none to gently against his twin bond and submissive bond to his twin and still got nothing back. His own scales came out, silver-peach in color with hints of green and blues, thinking about what Harlow always did whenever she went completely feral and just how crushed she would be when she woke up covered in the blood of muggles, further staining her own skin and scales. “You might want to sit down.” He suggested with a hum. With a wave of his hand, a nice chair with padding was covered behind Petunia for her to sit in.
“Harry, please don’t keep me in suspense.” Petunia begged as she sat down knowing with the twins their suggestions weren’t really suggestions and he wouldn’t tell her anything until she did what he wanted.
“When we went out to find who had used magic, we found three children. One was a Merrow child who had been tortured by muggles.” Harry started with a frown. “Around the ages of three to four. Harlow brought her here immediately to be looked at by Sev while I helped the other two children fill out paperwork and when Sev did his medical check up he found something that is going to be hard for you to process.”
“I honestly can’t think of something that would make Harlow leave without telling anyone else, or at the very least taking you with her.” Petunia’s frown deepened. The fact that Harry was the one telling her that Harlow was missing and what had caused it meant that her circle’s daughter had fallen deep into her feral instincts quickly. Too quickly for her to even think about grabbing her brother for back up.
“The child, a girl named Kai, is the daughter of Lily, James, and Sirius.” Harry said, no longer wanting to beat around the bush about it. Petunia gasped, her hand immediately moving to cover her heart as tears began to stream down her face. Pain, grief, and sorrow was all Harry could feel or see within her eyes. And it hurt. Clashing with his own emotional storm that was just barely being kept at bay with the knowledge that he didn’t know where his Dru Submissive was.
“Th-That’s not possible. That can’t be possible!” Petunia cried, clutching the cloth of her shirt right above her heart. She was shaking something terrible and all Harry could do was stare at her as she begged him to tell her he was lying. But he wasn’t lying. Regardless of how impossible it sounded, Harry believed and trusted Severus more than most. If the snarky Professor said that Kai was the child of his parents, he knew he wasn’t lying. Maybe in the past when they hated each other due to Dumbledore’s manipulations, Harry wouldn’t have believed a single word Severus said but this was Sev. His soul-bonded Mage who he knew loved him with all his heart. Sev wouldn’t have told Harlow or him that Kai was their sister if it wasn’t true. It wasn’t like he was the Weasley twins who might have played a prank like that thinking it was funny, at least when they still lived in this Realm.
“Severus is the one who did the check himself, Petunia. You know he wouldn’t lie about that.”
“But… But… If they are alive… Why didn’t they come back for you and Harlow? Even if they didn’t know anything about me, surely they still remembered their own children? Even I was fighting the spells and compulsions placed on me by Dumbledore the entire time you two lived in the house. If they are alive in a different Realm, there is no way Dumbledore would have been able to reach them. They had to know.” She sobbed, mournful chirrups leaving her lips as she stared at Harry. Petunia couldn’t understand. She didn’t think she wanted to understand the implications of her twin sister, their Pareya, and ACE being alive on another Realm, and just leaving their circle children on Earth. No dragel with their instincts and inheritance intact would ever let such a thing happen. Was her sister and their bonded really different from everything she remembered? Surely, her sister wasn’t that cruel. Lily and James and Sirius had loved Dudley, Harlow, and Harry with their entire being. So had their other bonded, even if Petunia just like Severus couldn’t remember them properly.
Another mournful cry left the older Submissive dragel before Harry moved to hug her, gently cooing in hopes to bring Petunia some amount of comfort as the world she knew crashed around her just like it had for him and Harlow. There was nothing that he could say or do that could ever make what was going on better, so instead, he just hugged her knowing that was all he could do.
Location: Appalachian Sanctuary : Harlow
Harlow didn’t know how she had gotten here but as she stared at the remains that scattered across the ground and the blood that drenched the ground that once made up the Appalachian Sanctuary she could only feel numb. A long row of bodies laid on the right side of the pathway she was on. These bodies were clean of all blood with white sheets laying over them. Each of them had a single gunshot wound right to the temple. Harlow knew from the lack of carnage and how nicely they were wrapped up that those were the bodies of the magicals who lived in this fallen sanctuary. Even completely feral, she had pulled them out of the massacre of body parts and carefully cleaned and prepared them for burial.
Any living muggle or Torvak soul that had plagued the fallen sanctuary, scourging for anything they could use, were not as lucky. Blood, body parts, and various mangled organs covered practically everything else. Nothing was left untouched. Certainly not her as she was drenched head to toe with various liquids Harlow was desperately trying not to think about.
Shadows danced around Harlow’s feet, and breathing in she could just barely smell the scent of a storm of her own creation churning nearby just waiting for her to snap again. From the smell of electricity burns and the lightning patterns that struck the ground and several trees around her, Harlow knew that her storm had already waged war with her in her feral state. Harlow slowly blinked as she stared at all the carnage that had been left in her wake, still feeling blissfully numb at the many lives she had taken. It was easy to justify murdering the Muggles and Torvaks. They didn’t care about the magical lives they had taken so why should Harlow care about them?
Harlow breathed out sharply, digging her talons into the palms of her scaled hands wincing slightly at the small sting of pain. She could remember a time when killing someone would have stopped her dead in her tracks. Just barely, but she could remember it. The change had happened after Quirrellmort had tried to kill her and her brother in the chamber hidden in the third floor corridor. Seeing her brother being choked by that monster, hearing his screams as the protection on them burned him. Something broke inside Harlow all those years ago as she launched herself at Quirrellmort pressing her hands into the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher until his entire body burned into nothing while Harry watched on in horror. Still… At least back then Harlow felt guilt for killing her Professor. She knew if anything like that had happened again, she would without a doubt kill to protect her twin again, but Harlow still felt guilty. Guilty and ashamed of thinking such things.
Now… Harlow felt nothing as she stared at the damage she had caused. At the soul orbs that screamed in pain and agony as the Sweet Mother, Lady Death, walked out of the woods with a delightful smile on her cloaked face. The only ones Harlow felt any sympathy for were the soul orbs that hung over the dead bodies of magicals. They hadn’t deserve to die but as both sides of Death had told Harlow many times over, everything dies in the end. “You never disappoint, dear child of mine. I knew it was best to wait for you to arrive before collecting the souls owed to me.” Lady Death smiled as she walked ever so gracefully through the massacre until she stood before Harlow gently running black fingernails against her face. Harlow instinctively leaned into Lady Death’s caress, her eyes fluttering close. “What pains you, dear child?”
“You didn’t tell me the truth.” Harlow uttered, unable to keep the truth from leaving her lips as her eyes slowly fluttered back open, focusing on the bone-white skin of Lady Death and the long curly void black hair. Lady Death hummed, beckoning Harlow to continue. “All those years ago when I tried to go to your Realm and you came and told me it was not my time. You lied to me, Sweet Mother. You lied to me as I cried and begged and pleaded for answers on why my parents had to die.”
“I did not lie to you, dear child. I told you that your parents came into my embrace, and that was the truth.” She stated, her smile falling off her face as Harlow’s pain echoed in her own eyes. “Besides your dear Sirius who is fully mine, the other two were blessed by my siblings, and I could do nothing when they asked for what was theirs back. Chaos and Harmony, so strange for two people blessed by those to end up being soulbonded, but I suppose they are two sides of the same coin.”
Harlow growled quietly, her eyes narrowing at Lady Death. “You didn’t think to tell me that all of them were alive? That they were living peacefully together in a different Realm with seemingly no care for any of the people they just left on Earth? No care for Hars and I?” Harlow questioned, her voice seething in anger and heartbreak. The wind around them swirled and a strike of lightning struck another tree nearby as the thunder boomed overhead.
“Why would I when I knew how pained you would be by that knowledge, dear child?” Lady Death questioned as if it was that simple.
And perhaps, Harlow thought, for Lady Death it was just that simple. But to Harlow, it wasn’t. It felt like a betrayal. Not a betrayal as bad as what her parents had done but a betrayal nonetheless, and Kai wasn’t sure how she was supposed to deal with that. So instead, she thrusted the pain, the sorrow, the anger, the hatred, the grief of what could have been, the loneliness, everything she was feeling, everything her dear twin was feeling directly at Lady Death. Projecting it all so that Lady Death and her counterpart could understand because as Immortals, they couldn’t begin to understand the emotions of lowly mortals.
Harlow’s entire body shook at the weight of her and her twin's emotions, because even as she closed off the end of the bonds between her and her circle, she could still feel everything they were feeling. Tears slowly streamed down her face, carving canyons out of her blood soaked face. For several moments, Harlow kept this up staring Lady Death directly in her eyes without a single ounce of fear before her empathy snapped back, the emotions shooting back to her like jagged pieces of glass, further injuring her broken psyche. “Do you understand now?” She asked, her voice barely audible over the rain that had begun to pour down the moment her tears began to fall.
Lady Death said nothing. Instead, she pulled Harlow into her arms and let her completely fall apart. And Harlow did as the Sweet Mother held her. Screaming. Crying. Bellowing out her pain in the death-soaked ruined sanctuary. Struggling in her grasp, kicking, hitting, scratching, and biting any place she could reach knowing that her Sweet Mother wouldn’t care since Harlow couldn’t hurt her in the slightest until finally, blissfully, Harlow fell asleep in Death’s arms.
Quiet humming with someone running their bony fingers through her hair was what eventually woke Harlow up. Harlow breathed in deeply as she cuddled farther into the lap of Lord Death, knowing it was him because of the male humming voice. Harlow would never say it out loud but of the two Death’s, Lord Death was her favorite. She may call Lady Death, Sweet Mother, but Lord Death was certainly the sweeter of the two. He was kind, opposed to Lady Death’s cruel harshness. He didn’t force submission upon those who were his like she did. “Welcome back to the world of the living, dearling.” Lord Death spoke calmly, a bit of sadness in his voice. Harlow whined in the back of her throat breathing in the warm smell of apple cinnamon, burning fire, and the almost hidden sulfur smell that always followed Lord Death, once again another difference as Lady Death’s scent was harsh, froze cold scent of frozen berries, nightshade and a sharper sulfur scent. “Come now, dearling, your circle must be worrying greatly about you.”
“They are…” Harlow sighed, slowly turning her head to look up at Lord Death with one eye open. Lord Death, like Lady Death, was just as bone pale but where she had inky void black hair, Lord Death’s hair was pure white, and while her eyes were equally as dark as her hair, his were a cool unbelievable color of light blue. “But how do I face them after everything I have done?” She questioned pulling the Invisibility Cloak closer around her body. It was chilly in the Appalachian Mountain Range.
“You know as well as I do, dearling, your circle would never hate you no matter what you do. They are yours just as much as you are theirs, and they know what you are like. You harmed no innocent souls, and this Dead World is better off without them.” Lord Death stated, gently patting Harlow’s head until she finally sighed and sat up stretching out her aching bones and muscles. “I have a present for you.”
Harlow’s head turned on a swivel to look at him with curious, cautious eyes. She was less cautious that it was Lord Death offering her a gift than Lady Death but Harlow knew that with either Death Immortal, regardless of how different the two sides of the singular Death Immortal that had split in half, there was a catch. “What are you wanting in return for this gift?” She asked, her eyes falling on the book held within Lord Death’s bony hands.
A smirk formed on his face. “I want you to accept a hellhound in your circle, and a Reaper as well, even if they aren’t your soul bonded. We can’t have what is ours go unprotected in the Death Courts, and you will soon find your way to the Death Courts, dearling.”
“That sounds like a threat.” Harlow sighed looking at the book wondering if promising that of all things was worth it. The book was rather small. Maybe only six inches in length and four in width, and thin as well. Obviously there wasn’t much in it but whatever was written in it was something that the two Death’s thought Harlow needed. It was dark green with silver stripes dragon scaled bound and if Harlow knew her dragons as well as she thought she did, from spending so much time with Charlie over the summers, it had come from the Striped Australian Taipan Dragon known for being the mother of the Inland Taipan Snake, the most venomous snake in the world. At least it was. Harlow didn’t know how Australia had fared in the two wars so for all she knew both the snake and the dragon were extinct.
“It’s not a threat. It is a promise. You will end up in the Death Courts at some point in your life, Harlow. And we want you protected. Unfortunately the Immortals that control soul bonds and soul magic refuse to tell either of us if you and your twin are soul bonded to anyone in the Death Courts so we want to make sure that when you get to Nevarah, you seek out a hellhound and a Reaper, or at the very least two members of the Death Courts. Hellhound, Reaper, Daemon, Banshee, we don’t care so long as they are strong enough to protect you.” Lord Death stated holding out the book farther away from him until it was just inches from her hand. “This will give you information to get there.”
“And what makes you think that Harry and I want to go to Nevarah, especially now?” Harlow couldn’t help but ask with a snarl in her voice.
He smiled at her, a wide amused smile as his blue eyes light up. “Because you want answers. Because your little sister needs to be in Merrow Waters for her own health and safety. Because you two need to build up a circle to help you, at the very least, with that nasty feral habit of yours. And besides, Nevarah is a Sanctuary Realm, think of how many magicals you could save if you knew how to get them all safely off this Realm? And besides, that book will lead you to more answers than the questions you have even asked in that wonderful brain of yours, dearling.”
“This feels like a trap.” She frowned but took the book anyways feeling a swirl of Death Magic move from Lord Death onto hers. The strangely white silver magic, once again different from his counterpart of Lady Death, twisted up the spine of the book until it curled around her wrist marking her promise to him. She would be forced to accept two members of the Death Court into her and Harry’s circle now, regardless of whether Harry would be okay with that. With a single nod to Lord Death, Harlow turned on her heel and apparated to the safety of the cave before beginning the long journey to the Hogarth Sanctuary the book Death had given her held tightly in her hand.