Raven Saga 01 - Raven

seen him since. Some people say he still lives in the forest, some people say he is dead and haunts the forest. Whatever happened, he disappeared within that forest, Lilly, which is one of the reasons Gabriel doesn't want you to ever go in there.”
    “But what happened to his foster parents? Didn't they want to find him?” I asked.
    “They couldn't accept what had happened and so they left Powell River a few weeks later.”
    I found it hard to believe that his foster parents would just up and leave like that, unless they thought he was guilty too.
    It was so much to take in that my head began pounding harder and harder and the sound of blood pulsing through my veins became louder and louder until I could barely hear myself think. I felt hot and uncomfortable and I just needed a moment to myself. I excused myself for a couple of minutes and went and splashed my face with cold water in the bathroom.
    As I stood there, I looked at myself in the mirror, but I couldn't see myself. All I could see were the morphing faces of Neleh and my mother.
    Again, I recalled the dream I'd had in the forest. The woman that had tried to speak to me in my dream had been Serena. Had my mother been trying to tell me something? I suddenly remembered Gabriel's words to Meredith that morning: 'I guess I have no choice now but to tell her the truth. I had hoped the dreams wouldn't have started until she was at least eighteen. I understand now that it is a sign. She must be told'.
    Were my dreams real signs? I thought of Oliver and the feral cats and a cold shiver ran down my spine.
    As I returned to my family, they were whispering among themselves. They quietened down as I approached them and sat down.
    “I know there is more... so please go on,” I said bravely, although I didn't feel so brave.
    This time, Meredith spoke. “Lilly, what we are going to tell you now might sound fantastical and surreal but we need you to keep an open mind, okay?”
    I nodded.
    “When your father left us and took you away to live in England, we believe that he did so against his own will. We believe that a witch cast a spell on him,” she said nervously.
    It was like an epiphany to me and it was then that I knew they were talking about Vivian.
    “Vivian was a witch. Yes, it makes sense to me now,” I whispered.
    I could feel a weight being lifted not only from my shoulders, but from those around me too. I could hear sighs of relief. I thought once again to that strange black room and Gabriel's words: black was a magical colour.
    “Lilly... why does this make sense to you? Did she ever do anything to you? Did she ever hurt you?” asked Gabriel.
    “She never laid a finger on me but she did hurt me in other ways. She stopped my father from spending any time with me. She tried to stop him from loving me. Although he withdrew from me, he would never have stopped loving me, would he?” I said. A few more tears fell down my cheeks as I began to see Vivian in a totally new light. The truth hurt.
    “Of course not, Lilly. You mean the world to him. I'm sure of that,” said Meredith.
    “How did you know that Vivian is a witch? What did she do?” I asked, wondering how it had all begun.
    Between them, they explained how my father had met Vivian at the hospital when I was born and that she had not left his side after my mother had died. My father, apparently, had changed instantly and it wasn't the kind of change that happens after the death of a loved one. It was an inexplicable change. A change that could have only occurred through some kind of skulduggery. In this case they believed that skulduggery to be witchcraft. And the person responsible was, undoubtedly, Vivian.
    “She somehow stopped us from seeing you, and Jack,” said Wyatt. “We did everything we could to see you both but there was some kind of physical force preventing us from doing so.”
    “We spent a lot of time at Serena's graveside, hoping that we would see him there but he never appeared. Not once. That wasn't the Jack we knew. And before we knew it, we found out that Vivian was taking you both to England. When we confronted her, she became so angry, she threatened us. She said if we ever tried to come after her, she would... she would hurt you,” said Meredith.
    “That's why we've never been able to see you or why we never tried to call you, sweetie. God knows we wanted to. We desperately wanted to but we couldn't risk it. We couldn't risk losing you for good. We managed to track