Chapter 1

A Constant Dream

Once Upon a Time there was a group of Casters who lived a secret life in the American South. However, not even they knew the real truth about themselves….until now.

Lena tossed and turned in her bed, shaking violently in her sleep from the recurring nightmare that she had been having. Night after night, it had been the same thing, her nails clawing at the sheets as if they were claws. A caster book of her family's history had been laying out on the bed beside her, most of the pages torn out and glued back together as if in a mad frenzy. She could not stop thinking about what her mother would have looked like if she was alive. Her parents' names had been blocked out. In fact, this entire book seemed like an illusion at times. Underneath each name was another name that seemed to be crossed out, faded, or rubbed right out of the book. Lena felt like those names, uncertain, unknown, and rubbed out of life. Every single night, she hoped that her mad dreams would be giving a clue, but they proved no more than just that…madness.

The angry sounding, snickering lions gathered around the stone cradle in the middle of the cavern. Here lay the downfall of Simba, the murder of Scar. Ironically, not one of them mourned over their leader, but groaned in inconvenience. Even the lioness who had lay with Scar herself had not shed a tear, but instead silently fumed and brewed with glorious purpose. The new leader of this dark pride found herself a widow just days before she gave birth to a female cub. She showed no emotion, no fear…just a little proud smirk on her face.

Now she lay the cub down in the stone cradle, regarding her like a ticket to the throne…the real throne. Her intense eyes focused on hers, green just like her father's. Finally…they had a born leader in which they could trust and rely. What of Scar's other daughter, Vitani? Well..she was just not worthy, for there was something about Kova that surpassed Vitani. And as the lioness looked down at Kova with her cold, calculating, far from motherly eyes, there was ambition within them.

Kova, who was just a few months old, looked up at her mother nervously. From the minute that she was born, there was something about her mother that she didn't trust, and something within her cringed when she heard her voice…for there was no love in that voice as cold as steel.

"Hush my little Kova…and dive into your dreams…someday when you're big and strong….YOU WILL BE A QUEEN!"

"Goodnight, my little princess…tomorrow your training intensifies…." Zira started prowling around the enclosure madly, like she had always done with every passing moment, especially when she became too enraged. Claw marks from her rage…and strange burn marks covered the cavern's walls. "I've been hunted, persecuted…left alone with no defense…and what I think of what that brute did, I get a little tense…" she growled as her claws began to show.

Lately, the thought of revenge was the only thing that soothed the lioness for what she had gone through, including being sent to live in this hell hole. "But I dream a dream so pretty, and I don't get so depressed…because It soothes my inner kitty…and it helps me get some rest…" The lioness' eyes glowed with a ferocious rage and a snarl graced her pretty lips. "The sound of Simba's dying grasp…his son squealing in my grasp…his lioness' mournful cry….THAT'S MY LULLABY!"

The words rang in her ears as Lena awoke with a start as she lay in her uncle's mansion. She had been having too many of those lately. The writing on her hand wasn't fading itself. The date was growing closer. She sighed as she rubbed her head, staring up at the writing on the ceiling that she had done herself. Her breathing slowly calmed down as the blurred image of her uncle appeared in the door, the madman that he was. Macon was really the only one who understood her, and he had always seemed more like a father to her than an uncle. The man had raised her when the rest of her family would have thrown her ass out on the curb.

"Lena? Another nightmare…" he sighed and approached her. Lena never really could figure it out, but at times she could have sworn that his eyes were green instead of gold. After all, he didn't behave like a dark caster…but someone who was in between. She may have sassed him many times, but she really did love the old man. Perhaps theirs was a relationship of banter, an ongoing conversation of jabs and jigs followed by a fond smirk and a smile after. One thing that they shared was a strong bond, for they were outcasts in a sea of misunderstanding. The man let her lay in his lap now and then and pet her hair when she cried. He had taught her to foster her magic and now he was teaching her to control it. Of course he was an odd one; even some casters were more extroverted than he was. Then there was that huge scar crossing his eye, one that she could see in her own face sometimes…or at least an imagined outline of one.

"Are you sure you want to go to school? I really don't think that you should right now….the time is drawing near."

The concerned old incubus sat down on her bed, looking right into her eyes. "I promised your parents that I would protect you."

"I know uncle, but do you have to be such a snob?" she asked with a little smirk, earning a chuckle from that and smirking back. "Come darling, you'll be late. "

Macon leaned forward now and then and touched Lena's cheek, and Lena nuzzled his hand. No one in Gaitlin ever cared to think he had a heart, or a family, but he did…he had Lena. He care for her more than anything in this world. In fact, she was the only purpose that he had left. Sometimes, he cursed the day that he became immortal.

Lena felt the same way. She had wondered all of her life why she couldn't ever be normal. She just wished she could get rid of these powers, and get herself away from the moon. Just watching the time grow near made her want to be normal and go to a normal school. However, she knew that wherever she would go, she would always be an outcast. She guessed that it was the way of the world for people who were…different.

Lena threw on an sweater and her charm necklace. It was a strange thing about this necklace, for there was one charm on it that she could not explain. She could not even remember where she had gotten it from, or if someone had given it to her. Every time she touched it, though, she felt like a piece of her soul was in it. She did not know if it was the caster moon or not, but there was something about her memory that had been fuzzy lately. Perhaps she had been so odd that every memory seemed to have a piece missing from it. It was as if several past lives had been conjured up at once, all thrown together in a beautiful tragedy that her parents had named Lena. She had even wondered at times if Macon was telling the truth. She did not even know the truth about this mansion, or whether or not it was safe. Lately, nothing had been.

There was nothing more to think about as she wrapped her fingers around the fang that was the charm of the necklace. Her uncle had once told her that it had belonged to her father, but who could tell myth from fact any longer? There was one fact, though. This school was going to be a disaster, and so was she. She shook her head to drown out the words that kept ringing in her ears, and they literally did sound in her head whenever she saw the countdown change on the tattoo on her hand.

"Someday when you're big and strong…

You will be a queen."