I walk hand in hand with Callie and Gabriel as we pass through the village. The witches all stop and smile warmly at their new Arcane. Callie blushes as they show her nothing but kindness and respect, bowing their heads at us both as we make our way towards the Council meeting.
Callie sits to the side, too busy with Finley and their toys to listen to us all talking.
I’m never letting her out of my sight again, that’s for damned sure.
‘The two remaining Bloodstones have been destroyed. I made sure of it,’ I tell them all as they sit around the large, round table with me. ‘They were utterly obliterated from the face of the earth. I don’t see how Ash could leave that realm and return to ours.’
Gabriel takes my hand and addresses the council himself.
‘My brothers and I…’ Gabriel gestures to Bias and Collins. ‘We discovered the location of the Dark Coven from one of the prisoners. We cleansed it.’
Killed them. Every single one.
‘There are whispers of a few who escaped us,’ he continues. ‘But we will continue to look for any sign of Dark Magic and deal with it swiftly.’
‘Speaking of the prisoners?’ asks a council member, his eyes flicking between Bias and me. ‘What of the girl?’
‘Ava Sinclair succumbed to her injuries late last night,’ I reply, feeling everyone in the room tense at the mention of her name. ‘She was injured in the fight at the Bloodstone and refused healing. Her fate was her own, but she had proved useful before she left and provided us all the details we needed in order to find the Dark Coven.’
‘That weasel was always quick to snap when put under pressure,’ Gabriel mutters, still refusing to say her name.
‘We need to be diligent, ladies and gents,’ I declare, getting to my feet. They all follow suit. ‘We know of two other realms besides ours that pose a considerable threat if they ever manage to seep into our home. The Human Realm and the Dark Realm. We must be on constant guard. Which reminds me, I visited The Stolen yesterday. They have taken up the offer of their own island. I will oversee their transportation myself. Many of them, however, did choose to join us. And their children have made a move to our village also.’
I feel Gabriel’s eyes on me. I know he’s watching me and biting his tongue.
What I am saying isn’t a total lie.
They are relocating to an island. Just not by choice.
And we do have their children.
But again, it was hardly their decision.
I stepped into their camp and saw nothing had changed. They were all starving and dying in squalor. Two children were on death’s doorstep before I healed them. And their porn-addicted leader tried, and spectacularly failed, to stab me.
I did not fail in breaking both his arms.
I warned them. Many times, I warned them.
No child will die through the stupidity, cruelness, or hatred of another for as long as I breathe.
I turn to Callie and hold out my hand. She scoops up her toys and runs to me, taking my hand in hers.
It’s still scarred, but it causes her no pain.
None of our scars do.
And she recalls nothing. As far as she is aware, she woke up in bed with her magic. And she was thrilled, playing with her gifts and smashing way too many pots and plates in the process.
‘Our village is growing. I would like you to send a team to another settlement fifteen miles east and start making plans for habitation. Clean, running water. Farms. Sanitation and comfort are key. They will need a council too. One to work with us as a team.’ I pick Callie up in my arms.
They all bow as we turn and leave.
Me, Callie, Gabriel, Bias, Connor, Mama and Papa Quinn, Amara, Collins, Finley and Dad. We all leave together.
Back in the village, Callie runs ahead with Finley to play and chat with some more children up ahead.
To my left, Connor grins at the tiny dragon whose head is poking out from his jacket pocket, yipping with joy at him as he tickles his snout.
I think back to what he said to me at his camp that night when I asked why the baby dragon was alone in the rocks, left to die.
‘I guess his mum abandoned or tossed him from the nest. Animals do that sometimes when a child isn’t exactly how they want them to be. They leave them behind to die and move on to their next attempt at furthering their bloodline.’
That’s precisely what happened to Ash. Born so innocent and then abandoned because he was not what she wanted. Locked up and left to die after knowing nothing but violence, torment and hatred at the hands of our mother.
Never again…
I take Gabriel’s hand and stop.
‘I have an errand to run,’ I tell him, throwing my arms around his neck and standing on my tiptoes to kiss him. ‘You good with Callie for a bit?’
‘Stupid question,’ he grins. ‘Of course. But what errand?’
‘Nothing major. No need to worry. I’ll be home before you know it.’
He leans in and we share a kiss. One that gets interrupted by a happy squeal. We turn to see Callie jumping up and down as a tiny fire puppy stumbles around her feet.
‘She’s getting good and fast,’ Gabriel admires a little nervously. ‘I think we’re going to have our hands full.’
‘No,’ I smile back. ‘We’re going to be absofuckinglutely perfect.’
I stand at the very top of the old shaft covered by an iron grate and smile before summoning my magic and sending myself below. I land with grace in the darkness and with a swish of my hand, I send my fire above, illuminating the small hidden place.
This cell, deep underground with no natural light and only the slightest fresh air from the hole hundreds of meters above.
There’s a high-pitched scream and a rattle of chains. I laugh as Ava hurtles herself towards me and roll my eyes when the chain around her neck tugs her back and tosses her to the floor.
‘Good afternoon, Ava Sinclair. And how are you feeling?’ I ask, unwilling to even attempt to hide my smirk.
Her skin is bruised and grey. She’s in a cream dress which is covered in filth and grime. And I can’t tell if it’s terror or rage that has her eyes so wide.
‘Let me out of here, you fucking bitch!’ she screeches, tugging at the chain frantically.
‘You’re not having fun?’ I ask, pouting out my lower lip before chuckling. ‘You sure had fun when I was chained up. How’s that collar treating you?’ I trail my finger across my own throat. ‘You feel the binding spell I added to it for you? Nice, huh?’
‘You can’t keep me down here!’ She looks around her in panic. ‘There’s no light. No fresh air. It’s choking me. And the rats…’ She looks in the corner where a few rat remains lie rotting.
‘Got hungry, did we?’ I jeer.
She coughs and shuffles from foot to foot.
‘That tickle in your throat?’ I gesture to my own. ‘I used to get that a lot too. That’s the mould and the damp. It will only get worse, I’m afraid.’
‘If you want to kill me, just kill me.’ She sniffles and snorts on her own sobs. ‘Does Toby know I’m down here like this?’
‘Toby is dead, Ava. He’s long dead and he’s never coming back.’
‘I could bring him back,’ she spits, suddenly finding some fire in her belly. ‘One night with me and-’
‘He didn’t give a flying fuck about you then and he sure as shit wouldn’t now, even if he did return. Which he won’t. Bias is with someone else now. And he has his family and friends around him. He has us. And he is not into psychopathic whores who enjoy watching someone beat unborn children to death!’
Saying those words fills me with hate, and I twitch my fingers before I can stop myself. Her leg snaps, and Ava goes down in an agonised cry of pain, her leg sticking out at an unnatural angle.
‘You are responsible for a lot of my misery and suffering, Ava Sinclair.’
‘And you stole the only man I ever loved!’ she wails in response. ‘The way he looked at you… he should have looked at me like that!’
‘And that justifies all you have done? A man, incapable of love, was obsessed with my magic. That’s all. He tore me to pieces again and again. Manipulated and abused me. Beat me. Stood by as I was raped for years. Watched me cry myself to sleep because I was so hungry and scared. He scarred my body for pleasure.’ I step closer, hot with hatred. ‘He killed my unborn child, Ava. And you helped him do all those things. Your actions didn’t make him love you. It just suited him. Amused him. But Toby Smith? He’s dead. I killed him. Tobias killed him. He is never coming back.’ My mouth twitches in a smirk. ‘And neither are you. I am leaving here now,’ I tell her. ‘I’m returning home, where my husband sits with my daughter at a large table in my kitchen, smiling and laughing, surrounded by the rest of my family. By my Dad. The Quinns. Tobias. Collins and Amara. Lilah and Finley-’
She starts to laugh. Her twisted, criminally insane kinda laugh.
‘You never asked me,’ she says, drool spilling from her lips as she struggles to deal with the pain of her mangled leg. ‘What my realm of power is.’
‘Whatever it is, it’s nothing compared to any one of mine.’
‘It’s Sight,’ she spits. ‘Oh and Lilly… the things I have seen. Do you want to know what I have seen? Do you want to know because if you kill me, you will never-’
My fingers twitch again and she wails as her jaw dislocates, leaving her mouth trapped open. Her wide eyes look at me in pure horror and pain as she wails.
‘You know what I want more than anything? I want you to suffer, Ava Sinclair,’ I tell her. ‘I want you to be in so much pain, so afraid, so lost, and so desperate that you beg for the end. That you pray for it. I want your heart to break again and again until nothing of it is left. I want you to feel so doomed and trapped that the hopelessness will crush you from the inside out. I want you to suffer such grief that you can’t breathe. That you won’t want to.’ I crouch before her as she continues to cry and drool. ‘I can think of no hell worse than the life I have lived. So my punishment is exactly that. For you to live my life. To live through my memories. Every single one of them, over and over. And you will know true hell by the end.’ I reach out and rest the tips of my fingers at her temple. My eyes blacken. ‘You will be thrilled to know that my strength and stamina got quite the boost after I tapped into Ash and his Dark Magic. So this won’t even give me a headache.’
She shakes her head, pleading with me to stop.
‘You will live it all. Every second of my life. And you will feel it all. Every single bit. My Uncle’s torture. Ryan’s abuse. Toby’s sadistic love. The Miller’s Barn. Those years I spent in that cellar. Everything that happened at The Orchard. Everything that came after. Every single moment… I give to you.’
Her eyes roll back in her head as I send her all my worst memories. They fill up her head and swallow her whole. And whilst I am there, I take from her the visions she has seen.
A vision of Callie being stabbed by a man with lightning on his hands.
A vision of her falling to the floor and taking her last breath.
And a vision of darkness spreading throughout the village.
But also another vision. One that makes me smile. Because there is hope for us all. Ava just showed me what needs to happen for Callie to not only survive, but thrive, and become the most powerful, just, and beloved Arcane witch of all time.
I let Ava go and stand. Her eyes remain rolled back. Her jaw agape and her leg broken.
She whines and whimpers as she not just sees it all, but lives it as I did, feels it as I did.
I am content with the ending of this chapter in my life.
Ava Sinclair will be dead in a matter of days.
There is no food here. No water.
She will die suffering.
And that brings me peace.
‘Goodbye, Ava Sinclair. You wanted my life so much… have it. Enjoy.’
With a whirl of wind, I fade from that dank hole, and return home.
Home…
