White Rose - Gao Yang (best fiction novels to read .txt) 📗

a dagger from his pocket.

 

She looked at the dagger and immediately recognized it. She remembered exactly when she last saw it; it was from the night when she was trapped in the alley with the two drunk men. "It was you." She said quietly and Nate heard her.

 

He held the dagger closer to her throat, touching the bare of her skin. "You remember now? Well, it's a little too late, princess." He looked around the woods and shouted out to the woods. "Percy! I know you're there!" Then he saw Percy's shadow coming out. He also sensed another's presence. "You too, Charles!" Charles also came out in the open, standing face to face with Nate and Isabella. "What's the deal here, huh?"

 

They looked at each other and then out of the shadows from the trees, Stephen and Sebastian were walking towards them. "First things first, you're not going anywhere with Isabella." Nate scoffed. He lowered head and sniffed Isabella's hair, taking in her scent. Percy and Charles watched as her shoulders lifted. They both knew she didn't like what Nate was doing to her.

 

"Okay, to start off, she's not going anywhere. She's staying with us." Stephen said as he forcibly grabbed her wrist. "You know she could make a very good meal anytime we want her to." As much as she wanted to pull her hand away, she didn't want to die in their hands but Nate had his dagger around her already.

 

"Hey, can we stop stalling here? I'd really hate to keep our lovely guest waiting . . ." Sebastian said evilly as he stroked his finger on Isabella's soft, rosy cheeks. Percy and Charles looked at each other and had to come up with something. "And please don't bother coming up with something . . . Even if you set up a trap, we'd find out in a split second."

 

But little did they know, Jack was behind them with Bryce. Jack had a spear that he made while he was in the woods that night. He carved the metal of the spear himself with silver, dipped in wolfsbane juice; he made the wood out of mountain ash.

 

"I think that's where you are wrong." Charles said as he looked over their shoulders to see Jack standing with the spear by his side. Stephen, Sebastian and Nate turned their heads around behind them and see Jack with a spear. They only chuckled.

 

"You think your human friend can save your asses with his little spear? You've got to be kidding me!" Sebastian said as he was knocked over by Bryce. Stephen and Nate gasped and backed up. Nate didn't realize it but he was on the ground and Isabella was gone. "What? You haven't had enough yet?" He said as he was still on the ground.

 

"Believe me, I've had enough." Bryce growled as Sebastian got up on his feet.

 

Jack quietly sneaked up on Stephen and slashed his back with the tip of the spear. Stephen dropped to his knees as he screamed in pain because he thought he felt something was burning his back. He looked at Jack as Jack circled him.

 

"I won't kill you but the cut on your back will kill you in a matter of hours."

 

"What have you done to me?" Nate, who was still on the ground on his back, watched as Jack circled them both. Sebastian, however had company with Bryce.

 

"Haven't you heard of the legend folklore about a young maiden killing a werewolf with a spear made of silver?" Stephen looked at him and looked away.

 

"Tell him, Jack. They need to know before anything else happens." Isabella said as she walked up next to Percy and Charles. Nate, Sebastian and Stephen turned their heads, as clueless as they were.

 

"Long ago back in the late 1700's, there was a beast used to roam the lands of France. In history, we would know it as The Beast of Gévaudan." Their expressions changed as they looked as they've heard the name before. "You heard of the beast before? People have made theories that the beast was just a myth but the evidence to prove it were as strong as stone. The beast was no myth or folk-story animal; it was a real life werewolf, just like you." Sebastian looked at Nate and Stephen and they continued to listen. "For three years, many French citizens have tried to hunt down the beast, but no one was able to catch it."

 

"We know the story." They looked at him and thought how stupid he was for telling them the story that they already know. "Blah, blah, blah. We know the goddamn story!" Nate said as he sat up.

 

"Well, I'm sorry. I'm gonna tell you anyway because this story has to deal with our family." Sebastian looked at him, shocked. "It's true that no one knew who really did kill the Beast, but we can tell you who killed the Beast." Stephen still couldn't get up on his feet cause of the scratch on his back. Everyone else was still standing or sitting around in the area. "She was a huntress, one of our family members in the Valet family. In history, she is famously known as the Maid of Gévaudan."

 

"My goodness, just tell us who it is already!" Sebastian complained.

 

Jack looked at him with disgust and continued. "Her name was Maire Jeanne Valet. She was young and fragile but she was strong and powerful because she was highly-skilled at archery." Nate, Sebastian and Stephen, their expressions came shocked as they found out who it was.

 

"So, Maire Jeanne was your ancestor?" Jack and Isabella looked at each other and nodded. "What does that have to do with us?"

 

"For three years, she hunted down the beast and eventually she finally cornered him in this very forest. And remember about the spear I was talking about earlier? Well, she didn't made the spear alone; she had the help from a distant friend, Henri Argent." Isabella walked up to her brother. "Like I said, she cornered him and used the spear, made with wolfsbane and mountain ash, forged with her blood on the light of a full moon." He pulled the spear he had and examined it. "Eventually, she killed him and left him to die but rumor says that he didn't actually die." Jack chuckled. "Funny thing is that she decided to marry Henri soon after."

 

"Bryce, you've seen her before. That framed picture in our living room, above the fireplace? That's Maire Jeanne in the photo." Bryce's expression went from understanding to shocked and looked at Isabella and noticed how similar they both looked.

 

"But Isabella, she--she looks exactly like--Maire Jeanne." Bryce pointed out their similar features. "They both look very similar, especially their eyes and their smiles. How is that--"

 

Isabella stepped in and explained more. "Possible? I've been told all my life that I've always looked like Maire Jeanne Valet-Argent. Whether, I was five years old, ten years, or even fifteen years of age; I've always had her similar looks and features." She said calmly. "My parents even trained me in archery and apparently I was a natural at it as well."

 

"Did they even think that you may be Maire Jeanne in your past life?" She looked at Charles and Jack nodded. "Isabella, do you think you might've been Maire Jeanne in your past life?"

 

"I--I don't know, to be honest."

 

"I can help you with that." Someone else's voice came from the forest. "Isabella Maire Valet, youngest child in the Valet family, doppleganger of the imfamous Maire Jeanne Valet-Argent. You have been chosen to save this world." As confused as Isabella was, she regconized the voice. It was she knew, someone in her family. Then a shadow came out from behind the trees, the person was in a black cloak with a hood on.

 

"Who are you?" Percy said as he was going to draw his sword on the stranger.

 

The stranger then put down their hood, Jack and Isabella were both shock as they saw who the stranger was.

Chapter 17

 

"Alison. It's you?" Jack said as everyone stared at Alison. She nodded. "But how? And why?"

 

"I knew our sister looked like someone and she was going to find out sooner or later. But I didn't want to tell anyone because of the consequences and sacrifices that have to be done." Isabella walked up to her sister and asked what happened.

 

"What? What are you scare about?" Alison looked at her beloved sister and smiled as a tear fell from corner of her eye.

 

"Because you look exactly like an ancestor of ours, Maire Jeanne, many of our family members believe that you are the one who can save the world." Isabella looked at Alison in disbelief.

 

"What is this?" She backed up from everyone else. "What do you mean I'm chosen to save the world?"

 

"But that's not what I'm scared of, I'm scared of losing you as my sister." She looked at her and furrowed her eyebrows. "Because when you're done with saving the world, you'd have to be sacrificed to the Gods."

 

Isabella shook her head. "No . . . No . . ." She turned around and needed to think about this for a minute.

 

"There was one thing many people didn't know about the legend because evidence of this incident were erased, no one knew about the sacrifice of Maire Jeanne. About seventeen years after she married Henri, she was kidnapped and was sacrificed to the Gods after killing the Beast." Isabella turned around and looked at Alison. "Which is why I'm scared for you."

 

"Why me?" She asked Alison and she walked up to her.

 

"I don't know, but I think the people who chose you have a very good reason to do so." Isabella immediately freaked out.

 

"I don't know anything! I'm barely educated. I can't even make a perfect target; have I practiced? Well, not lately but what gives? I don't know anything and how am I supposed to save the world when I'm just me?!" Alison looked at her helpless and confused sister and couldn't but feel pity for her.

 

Bryce looked at her and walked up to her. "But it's not going to stop me from killing the three men who all attempted to hurt Isabella." He snatched the spear from Jack and pointed it on Stephen, Nate and Sebastian.

 

Isabella quickly rushes up and rises the spear up in the air and stops Bryce. "Bryce!" He looked at her and looked at everyone else who were watching him. "Give me the spear." His eyes looked back at hers and she slowly and gently slipped his hands off of the spear. He released the spear. She turned to everyone else in the circle.

 

"Do you know what you're going to do when the time comes?" Percy asked Isabella as she gripped onto the spear tightly. She looked down at the ground and exhaled sharply.

 

She shook her head and looked up at everyone. "But I'll be ready when the time comes." She switched the spear to her other hand and walked away. She headed back to the village. She had questions and she needed answers.

 

She walked all the way back to her home. She wanted to ask her parents: was she really set to save the world? She knocked on the door and waited for the door to open.