Chapter 6 Chapter 6

When we had retrieved the hefty book, we headed back to Max's little house on the edge of Naples.

The book was incredibly thick and the pages as thin as Max's chance of success in life. The writing was minuscule making it hard to read the thousands of tiny names and dates of birth on each page. The first 500 hundred pages were hardly legible, although someone had carefully gone over the ink so that it hadn't faded. Hecate Chiaramonti was on the first page, her birth date 1076 BC. That's 3096 years ago making it by far the oldest book in existence.

For the first few hours of looking for the Megestanis family's names, Max sat beside me, kind of helping. He then went to make dinner while I continued to search and then after five more hours tried to persuade me to carry on in the morning. I was more determined than that though, I'd go all night if I had too.

It was 3 am and Max was passed out on the sofa. Still no sign of a single Megestanis, but I had found Postestas Loren's mate. Her name was written as Donatia Chiaramonti Loren and unlike every other name, it was in red ink. Her birth date, April 16th 44 AD, was also in red.

"Max , wake up," I said. "Bloody hell, Max! I said wake up!" I repeated after he didn't reply.

"Did you find her name?" He groaned still half asleep.

"No, but come and look at this," I said and I heard him slowly stand and slump over to the table I was sat at.

"Donatia Chiaramonti, mated name Loren, is written in red. That's Postestas Loren's mate, the one with the powers. Hecate is also in red and so is this boy from 345 BC called Mirus Marcellaro. He died in 359 BC when he would have been 14, which makes me think he had the powers too and something obviously happened to him when he started to get out of control. In those days people used to name their offspring with meaning too. Donatia could come from the Latin for gifted, Donatus, and Mirus could come from the Latin of extraordinary," I explained.

"So if your theory is correct, Milly's name will be somewhere in this book in red?' Max asked his voice still a little croaky from sleep.

"Yep, so now it should be easily distinguishable," I said flicking through pages looking for a sign of red.

It wasn't until another hour later that I spotted the next red name. A girl named Elizabeth from the 1700s. I put my slight disappointment that it wasn't Milly aside and continued to search for another thirty minutes.

"Max..." I said to my eldest cousin who had sloped back to the sofa. "I think I found her. Her full name is Millia right?"

He nodded as he leant over my shoulder and looking to where I was pointing.

"Millia Benedetta?" Max said reading the words on the page. "Her birthday, April 17th, 2007 AD, is right but why Benedetta and where is the rest of us?"

"That's not your Dad," I said pointing to the name that according to the book was Milly's father, Roberto Benedetta.  "When did Milo Megastanis die Max?..." I said after a moment of silence.

"February 1st, 2007," Max replied.

"Two and a half months before Milly was born..." I said slowly under my breath.

"Fucking hell," Max said. "Milo isn't her Dad..."

"Roberto Benedetta is," I finished.

"You aren't in this book because you aren't a descendant of Hecate, but Milly...your half-sister is because she has a different Dad who also is," I said.

"Well, that would be why my Mom ran away then. She had an affair with some random guy only a few weeks after her mate died, ended up pregnant and it was too painful to stay and bring up a child that doesn't belong to Milo," Max concluded.

"But we still don't know why she has powers..." Max said. "She's a descendant of Hecate but so are hundreds and thousands others. So why do her and Postestas' mate and that Mirus boy and the girl from 1700s all have powers and the rest don't?"

"Wait...I think I've spotted something," I said flicking through the pages. "Milly's birthday is April 17th, Donatia's was April 16th, Mirus's was April 18th, Elizabeth's is April 14th. There's a connection. There has to be."

"All three of those are in the Aries constellation," Max said. "Does that mean anything to you?"

"Aries...aries...aries," I said trying to remember what I had read about that constellation.

"What did you say about the new moon in the Aries constellation? The one where they make a sacrifice for Hecate?" Max asked.

"Every year at the turn of the new moon during the Aries constellation, ancient God worshippers would perform a sacrifice to Hecate, because it was believed to be the only time in a year when Hecate can harness and release power directly to and from humans," I recited.

"So say, one of her descendants was born on a new moon would she be able to give them her power?" Max said.

"If it was at the exact turn of the moon..." I said.

"There's a page in the Hecate book, I saw it yesterday, it marks every night of sacrifice to Hecate and it's exact date and time. If this theory is correct Donatia, Mirus, Elizabeth and Milly should all have their birthday's on that page," Max said opening the thick old book that was previously at the end of the table.

A few minutes later he had found the page and was now scanning through for the correct years.

"April 16th 44 AD at 12:09. Donatia," He said before pausing again. "April 18th 345 AD at 21:51. Mirus. April 17th 1733 at 9:17. Elizabeth," he added. "And April 17th 2007 at 11:36. Milly."

"And you know that Milly was born around that eleven thirty?" I asked and Max nodded.

"Then it's true. A descendant of Hecate born on the exact minute of the new moon during the Aries constellation has the powers of the Goddess of Witchcraft," I said.

"The timings are so specific that even with the bloodline multiplying out over hundreds of generations it hasn't happened in 300 years. Not since that girl in 1733," Max said. "So if the Alpha is a decedent of Hecate too, which he is, you might want to consider trying to avoid having a baby in April. You know just to be on the safe side."

"I'll keep it in mind," I said closing my eyes feeling a rush of self-satisfaction. We had solved the puzzle. Now, all we have to do is figure out what to do about it.

Quite a wordy, information-filled chapter and I do hope I didn't bore you, although it was very necessary for your comprehension of the story. Thanks for reading!