chalice and drinks the blood within it. He then eats a handful of the mixture in the bowl as he turns to face the blackened Bloodstone.
As he says his dark prayer to the Dark Realm he just sent my daughter to, the star of blood starts to glow.
And I feel myself flood with magic unlike anything I have ever felt before. A Dark Magic. A twisted and contorted power but fuck… it’s so intense. So unyielding. It’s a high like no other. My Sensativa senses power. It can take it and harness it. I am part of this spell. I am part of that darkness.
And I am going to tear these fuckers to pieces.
I lift my head and heal the gaping wound on my neck. I burn the ropes around my wrist. I turn the binding spell to ash. It’s nothing compared to this.
I stand and face Ash and watch as my hair turns black.
‘Behind you!’ Clara yells to Ash.
She reaches out her hand, daring to use her magic against me. I flex my fingers and twitch them. That’s all. Just a twitch.
Her body bends and twists and snaps and breaks. Every bone. Over and over and over. Her eyeballs pop. Blood gushes from her ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. Her skin turns purple as blood erupts from her organs.
And I drop her to the floor without a care.
Ash looks at his crumpled-up mother and lets out a pained whine.
‘Oh, look. I killed another one of your mummies. Whoops.’
I sweep my hand through the air and my fire springs to life at the feet of every one of his Coven members.
As they scream and try to escape the flames, Ash turns to face me. As he does, his eyes go black. His hair too, polluted by the unnatural magic. Fire erupts on his trembling fists. Lightning shoots from his body. The ground shakes and rocks lift from the floor.
He releases a warrior’s cry and reaches out his hand, ready to try and tear me apart.
I hold him off easily as I tap into this darkness.
Ava screams as she charges toward me with a knife in her hand.
Before she can get close, she’s sent flying through the air by a wall of fire.
Not my fire, though.
The black and white flames return to their creator, leaving her to stagger clumsily to her feet.
‘T-Toby?’ Ava stutters.
I turn to the cavern entrance and see all my people standing there.
Dad, Amara, Collins and Bias. Along with at least ten members of the Council.
Bias blinks at Ava. A look of disgust on every inch of his face.
‘My Toby…’ she whines, stumbling towards him. ‘My beloved.’
Toby sends out another wave, sending her crashing hard into the rocks and leaving her to fall on the floor unconscious.
They all look at me, covered in copious amounts of blood. Tears silently streaming down my face and my eyes and hair as black as night.
‘Where’s Callie?’ Dad demands. He sees those on the floor, bleeding and dying. He sees Gabriel. ‘My god…’
Ash diverts his attack to them, sending vicious flames at them all.
Bias leaps in front and fends off his attack as Collins rushes to the aid of those still bleeding on the ground. To the youngest boy, who lies beside his grandmother’s pale corpse.
She’s gone, but the boy still blinks.
Ash attacks with his Telekinesis, trying to send them all back through the air.
Amara leaps in, making Ash slide back in the dirt a little.
I look at Gabriel on the floor, still bleeding.
Still alive!
I land on my knees at his side and rest my hand on his throat, sealing the wound shut and letting him breathe again. He gasps and groans as I help him to sit.
‘Callie…’ he manages to speak before trying to get to his feet and head to the Bloodstone. ‘Callie!’
He’s too weak to fight. Too weak to even stand.
I kiss him on the lips.
‘Destroy this Coven,’ I tell him. ‘Don’t let them leave here alive.’
I take a breath and summon my magic, sending myself to Ash’s back and wrapping my arms around his waist.
I will not leave my daughter alone. Never. Wherever she is and whatever she is facing, I will be by her side protecting her.
And I will not leave this man here to destroy everything I sacrificed so much for.
So, I send us both to the Bloodstone. We touch its surface, and just as it did with Callie, it claims us too.
We turn to smoke and fade away.
Far. Far. Away.
