Laughter. That’s what I hear. Men. Laughing.
As I dream, it’s Collins who laughs as he watches his son giggle for the very first time. It’s Gabriel, watching with joy as Callie takes her first steps. It’s my dad, cheering as he watches the kids catch their first fish after several mornings of teaching them how to throw a line. It’s Connor, hunched over in hysteria as he listens to Callie try to say “Clock”, but failing stupendously.
I linger in the background, watching the dream as a ghost, hiding in the shadows. So close, but not there. Not really.
‘Liiilllllly,’ a voice sings as if from far away. ‘Come on now. Wakey wakey.’
More laughter.
‘Open those pretty eyes for us. What do you say, hmm?’
I feel several short and hard taps on my cheek, jarring me from this blissful dream. The more I’m struck, the more they laugh.
I realise that it’s not joy or amusement or even pride in these laughs.
It’s malice. It’s cruelty.
It’s victory.
‘Wake up, Miss Hooper.’
Those words are followed by a bucket of freezing cold water thrown over my face, and I’m hurled back to reality.
Coughing and spluttering, I open my eyes and shake clear the water. Blinking, I realise quickly… I’m in serious trouble. And as far from that dream as humanly possible.
My arms are up above my head, my wrists tied together by thick rope, stringing me up to the ceiling. The room shifts in and out of focus. But it’s certainly not a room belonging to the cottage. As my head rolls heavily on my shoulders, I see I’m in an enormous lounge with high beamed ceilings and gold-framed paintings lining the walls. A fire roars in an oversized marble fireplace, and several statues of armour and taxidermied animal heads decorate this painfully old fashioned and opulent room.
My arms are in agony, holding my weight as I try to get my footing. But my toes barely touch the heavily varnished wooden floor. As I gain more control over my body, my eyes settle on four figures that stand in the room with me.
Goddamn horsemen of my own apocalypse.
By the fireplace, Tobias hugs his middle, looking from me to the floor. The floor to the wall. The wall to his feet.
Straight ahead, Theodore Kendryk has his hands in his pockets, the collar of his black coat is turned up and a smug grin dominates his face. He follows the length of rope up from my wrists and chuckles.
By his side, heartbreakingly, Gabriel. He looks into nothing, his eyes make no contact with any person in this room whatsoever. He’s empty, under Theo’s command once more and with another metal mask – or Grip – back in place. Fresh blood stains the front of his shirt and each blink he manages is slow. He can barely stand. His face is a mess of bruising and by the way he’s holding himself, I’m pretty damn sure he’s got several broken ribs.
‘Well, hello, Miss Hooper.’ Grayson steps in front of me, his head tilted to the side as he lets out a long sigh through his smiling lips. His hair has been cut short once more. He looks just as he did back at the Orchard, wearing his usual dark suit and perfectly crisp white shirt. Except for his sharpened teeth, that is. And his missing eye. ‘It sure is good to see you again.’
I can’t help the involuntary whimper I produce. When I try to move, the shift of weight on my wrists sends a new jolt of agony through my body.
‘Hmmm,’ he moans. ‘I do enjoy seeing you in pain. Add in that fear glinting in your eyes and call me smitten.’
‘Gabriel. Gabriel, help me.’ I look past Grayson to him. ‘Gabriel, please!’
His left eye twitches, but that’s it.
I turn instead to Tobias.
‘Tobias. Tobias do something-’
‘He’s the reason you’re here in the first place, darling.’ Grayson grips my chin, his hands covered in thick leather gloves, and pulls my attention away from the treacherous shit who refuses to even look at me. ‘There is no one here to help you, my dear, sweet Miss Hooper. There is no one here-’ He steps closer. ‘But-’ His arm snakes around my waist and he presses me close. ‘Us. Do you remember that day in the library, the first day you spent at my home when I leaned in to kiss you?’
‘I try not to,’ I manage, despite the tremor in my voice.
‘You really should have just gone with it. Think of all the misery you could have avoided if you had.’
‘And miss out on watching Gabriel cut your balls off and squash them underfoot?’ I scoff. ‘Nah. Keep your kiss.’
He bares his teeth and lunges.
‘Don’t touch her!’ Theo warns as he swipes his hand and uses his magic to send Grayson away from me. Grayson skids across the room, but effortlessly gets back to his feet and turns his anger instead to Theo. But Theo simply points a finger at him in warning. ‘Don’t be fooled. She may be our prisoner, but she’s more powerful than all of us. If she gets an opportunity to syphon your magic, or whatever counts as your magic these days,’ he adds with a sneer. ‘She’ll tear us all apart.’
It’s only now I notice that both Theo and Grayson are wearing thick leather gloves and except for their heads, no skin is on show. If I can touch the skin, I can’t get magic. They know that and they’re not risking it.
Theo turns to me and rolls his shoulders.
‘You’ll get your time with her, Grayson. After I get mine. When I’ve got what I want, I’ll make her be whatever the hell you want her to be. Until that time, you do as I tell you and stay back.’ Theo’s mouth curls up further as he narrows his soulless eyes on me. ‘You and I have some unfinished business, Lilly.’
I try to pull on the rope around my wrist, but all I manage to do is make the joints in my shoulders grind and threaten to pop out of place. The pain alone is torture, never mind being surrounded by these men. These… monsters.
‘Now. Lilly. I’m going to-’
‘How could you do what you did to him?’ I look at Gabriel. So empty. So hollow. So utterly broken. ‘You raised him as your own. He called you Dad, and you tortured him and you raped him! You took his free will. How could you do that-’
‘Easily. I needed him obedient and Gabriel, much like you, has never been one for falling in line when it goes against his “conscience”.’ He says the word as if it tastes vile just to speak it. ‘And I also needed to know that the spell I stole from Tobias actually worked. He was a twisted thing and a filthy liar growing up. Who knows if what he claimed to achieve all those years ago would in fact work. Turns out,’ he looks over his shoulder and laughs. ‘It really does. Gabriel, break one of your fingers.’
Without a second of hesitation, Gabriel takes hold of his middle finger on his left hand and yanks. The snap of his bone echoes in my ears.
‘STOP IT!’
‘What else shall I do?’ he asks. ‘Shall I get him to break his arm? His leg?’ Theo steps closer, but not close enough. ‘Peel off his face?’
‘Gouge out his eye and castrate him?’ Grayson adds, pulling a knife from his pocket and twirling it between his fingers.
Both men laugh, sharing their sadistic sense of humour.
‘What do you want?’ I spit. ‘Just tell me-’
‘You know what I want, Lilly,’ Theo replies simply, shrugging his shoulders at the obviousness of his answer. ‘Gabriel. Break another finger.’
‘WAIT!’
But he obeys. Swiftly and without hesitation.
Snap.
‘And another.’
Snap!
‘The s-spell, right? That’s what you want?’ I manage.
‘Yep.’
‘Let us go and I’ll give it to you,’ I offer, trying to hide my desperation. ‘Let us all leave and… and…’ I look around and hate myself for not noticing earlier. ‘Wait. Where’s Connor?’
That fucking smirk grows.
‘Where’s Connor?’ I look all around but can’t see him. ‘If you’ve hurt him, if you hurt Gabriel again I swear I’ll take your spell to the fucking grave and you right along with-’
He sends out a shot of his lightning. It smothers my body and snakes over my limbs, tearing my muscles and making me spasm. Spots blur my vision as he relinquishes his assault. Tobias has started to shake and has covered his eyes.
‘You see, Lilly. I do want the spell. But that’s not what this is about right now. Because yes, I could agree to let you leave in exchange for the spell. Or I could keep you here and torture you, torture them, until you tell me what I want to know.’
‘If you hurt them I’ll never tell you anything. Not a single word. Look into my eyes and know that.’ And I mean every word.
‘Oh. I know, sweetheart.’ He nods slowly in agreement. ‘I’ve tortured you before. I know that you won’t give up what I need, no matter how much I hurt you. And perhaps, even those around you. But that’s not what this evening is about. BRING HIM IN!’
Evening? I look out of the window and see darkness. It was two in the morning! How can it be evening?
As they all stand around, waiting for whoever is about to be “brought in”, I spot the clock on the fireplace mantel. It’s nine-thirty PM.
Oh shit.
The Bloodstone. The comet. The final spell!
It’s in less than two hours!
The door opens and in hurtles the limp and bloody body of a man. He’s thrown with such force he skids across the densely polished floor.
‘Good to see ya again, Little witch.’
Hendrix strides in. The lower part of his mouth is drenched in blood. It drips from his clothes and his hands. He bares his silver teeth at me before stomping towards the man on the floor and lifting him one-handed by the back of his neck.
‘Connor…’ I whisper, looking at what remains of my sweet friend. ‘Oh my god… Connor…’
One of his eyes has been carved out. There’s just a bleeding, gaping hole in its place. His right hand is missing every single finger and his left arm is so badly broken, bones are jutting out in too many places to count. The front of his shirt has been sliced open and burns and cuts scar his flesh. As he dangles there in Hendrix’s grip, limp and lifeless, his blood drips onto the floor like the sound of rain on a tin roof.
‘You killed him…’
‘Nah. Fairy ain’t dead yet,’ Hendrix replies. He gives Connor a rough shake, causing him to cough up blood and wince. But his remaining eye stays closed. ‘Despite how much he begged me to end his suffering.’
Again, they laugh as he drops Connor to the floor. He twitches and his eye flickers open. He finds me through his fluttering lashes.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. I wasn’t supposed to let this happen! Never have I felt so cold. Never has my insides felt so frozen.
‘So, Lilly,’ Theo says. ‘I need two things. I need to find the remaining Descendants so I can kill as many as possible, thereby increasing my magic so I can perform a spell that requires an untold amount of power.’ Theo folds his arms across his chest and faces me. ‘And I need you to tell me the spell which will bring back the woman I love from the dead so we can finish what we started five hundred years ago.’
‘I-I… I…’ My inability to form a simple fucking sentence is infuriating. All I can see is Connor and his torment as my mouth opens and closes like a bloody fish.
‘Gabriel. Finger.’
Snap!
‘Theo, stop-’
‘Okay. No more for him. Gabriel, cut off Connor’s face.’
Gabriel turns and heads towards Connor.
‘Gabriel, stop! Fucking stop!’
My pleas go ignored and as he stops by his friend’s head, Hendrix places a knife in his hand and chuckles to himself before stepping back, ensuring I have a clear view.
Slowly, Gabriel kneels beside Connor, facing me and holding the blade in his uneasy hand. I see him shaking. I see his hesitation as he tries to fight the order.
‘Don’t,’ I plead. ‘Don’t. You’re stronger than he is, Gabriel. Absofuckinglutely stronger! Get up.’
He just sits there, looking at me.
‘GET UP! GET UP, GABRIEL!’ I pull and I yank at my restraints. ‘GET AWAY FROM HIM! FIGHT THEO!’ I scream and I thrash as Connor sluggishly blinks up at Gabriel, gurgling on the accumulated blood at the back of his throat.
‘Now, Gabriel,’ Theo sighs tiredly, glancing at his fingernails. ‘Get on with it.’
I don’t even know what I’m screaming as I watch Gabriel lean over Connor. But soon, my yelling is drowned out by Connor’s as the cutting begins. Connor’s legs kick out and his body convulses and shakes as Gabriel slowly draws the knife along his skin. But Conner’s already so broken he can’t even try to fend him off. Beneath the metal grip covering Gabriel’s mouth, I hear him yelling and howling at the horror he’s inflicting. Tears stream down his face as he calls out.
‘GODDAMMIT, TOBIAS!’ I scream. ‘FUCKING STOP THIS!’
With a swift click of Theo’s fingers, Hendrix storms up behind me and slams his grubby hand over my mouth, stealing my cries. Tobias sinks further towards the wall as Theo saunters slowly up to me, not even flinching at what’s happening behind him.
‘I said that I wanted two things.’
I start nodding, desperately signalling I’m willing to talk. I need to stop what’s happening to Connor. Fuck, his screams are… they’re…
In the corner of the room, a white-haired woman flickers into sight, like a hologrammatic mirage. A demon, clawing out from hell. I blink, and she’s gone.
Theo steps closer. Inches from my face, but with Hendrix holding me, there’s no chance of getting to him and stealing his magic.
‘I wanted to know where the Descendants are hiding.’
‘I’ll find them,’ I mumble through Hendrix’s palm. I won’t, but if that promise stops this then-
‘I already found them, Lilly,’ he says with glee.
‘Anyone for some television?’ Grayson asks, pointing a remote control at the large flatscreen TV mounted on the wall beside Tobias.
The television springs to life. The news is on and is showing a forest on fire. The blaze is immense, destroying and raging with ferocity.
The headlines running along the screen, tell the world the witch camps have been located and are being destroyed. The image changes to burning houses, cabins, camps in the wilderness.
‘Six camps in England,’ Theo boasts. ‘One in Ireland. Three in France. Two in Spain. America dealt with theirs months ago,’ he dismisses. ‘And a few travelling caravans of Nomads, destined for Dover.’
Theo turns to face me. With a few words, he disappears from where he stands and appears by the door, then back to me. His green lightning flickers over his hands and arms, crackling and bright.
‘Materialisation. It’s fun. I see why you enjoy it so much.’ He smirks. ‘Thanks to Hendrix’s joy and skill when it comes to inflicting pain, Connor’s shared the locations of the survivors. The death toll so far? Much higher than I expected, to be honest. What was it, son?’
‘Sixty-three thousand,’ Grayson replies matter of factly, flicking through the channels and showing devastation after devastation. ‘I was a good Coven leader. I wanted to build numbers. I’d built a damn good Coven.’ Grayson looks over at me. ‘Bit of a waste really. And it could all have been avoided, you know. If you hadn’t taken away my magic and my people’s trust, I would have been able to save them. We would have.’
‘That’s true,’ Theo agrees, sharing a nod with Grayson. ‘He only joined me because his vampire freaks aren’t connected to the Arcane Realm after they’re turned. He can have his band of monsters to lord over. As many as he wants. What the hell do I care? He’s pledged his allegiance to me. I get what I want, and he gets what he wants. Power…’
‘And you, Miss Hooper,’ Grayson adds. ‘I get my vampire coven to rule and I get you all to myself. After Theo gets what he needs from you first, that is.’
My heartbeat has reached my throat, which has started to constrict.
Again, she flickers into sight. Closer this time. Right in the middle of the room, just standing there, watching those around us with curiosity. Before her lilac eyes land on me, she flickers from sight.
‘So. I have the first thing I wanted. The majority of the Descendants are dead and I’m as powerful as I’m going to be.’ Theo steps a little closer. ‘For now,’ he adds. ‘Powerful enough to do what I need to do at any rate. So. To my second requirement.’ His face goes stonelike. No amusement lingers on his features. His patience has long run out. And he’s not leaving until he gets what he wants.
Connor has fallen silent. He no longer thrashes, but the squelching of Gabriel’s butchery churns my stomach.
‘I want my fucking spell, Lilly.’
Theo gestures to Hendrix, who removes his hand from my mouth.
I lick my lips, desperate to get some moisture into them so I can speak. My hair sticks to the sweat pouring down my face and tears drip from my chin. As I try to speak, to get my short and shallow breaths under control, the sound of Gabriel’s knife clattering to the floor makes me jump. He gets to his feet and just stands there, looking at me. His bloodshot eyes are puffy and absolutely filled with devastation.
By his feet, Connor no longer takes in his raspy breaths. His chest no longer rises or falls.
The harrowed misery in Gabriel’s eyes at the knowledge that he has just killed a most beloved friend, fills my heart with lead and my insides with darkness.
Tobias slides his back down the wall and sits, staring at Connor on the floor with a slack expression before clamping his hands over his mouth to catch the sobs he can’t help but make.
How dare he. This is all because of him!
Theo snaps his fingers in front of my face, drawing my focus slowly back to him.
‘As I was saying. I want-’
‘Do what the fuck you want to me. You have taken everything from everyone. Torture me. Cut me up and-’
‘Gabriel. Pick up the knife-’
‘AND SLIT YOUR FUCKING THROAT!’ I scream, sending spit flying. ‘Let him carve himself up. Let him break his own bones. Let him! Because there is no way in heaven or hell that he will want to live another fucking day knowing he has done what he has done because I know that I wouldn’t!’ I gasp and wheeze as I struggle to catch my breath. I’m beginning to hyperventilate. I half expect to see Hendrix’s hands around my throat it’s that tight. And it grows tighter when my Broken-self flitters into view just behind Theo. She looks me dead in the eye, a promise of wickedness and bloodlust glinting at me.
I’m fucking tempted.
Theo takes in a long and deep breath, his head drooping forwards as he lets it out. Silence fills the room as he just stands there.
Then he lifts his head. His eyes glinting with excitement.
‘Alright then. Grayson. You’re up.’
Theo never looks away from me. His stare is intense and profound as behind him, Grayson drops the television remote and makes his way towards Gabriel.
Without even stopping, he just starts attacking.
Punch after punch after punch, and not once does Gabriel even try to defend himself. The fifth punch sends him to his knees. Grayson wraps his fingers in his brother’s hair and forces him to look up at him. He pants heavily as he towers over Gabriel, laughing hatefully before pulling something out from his coat pocket and showing it to me.
‘What’s the old saying, Miss Hooper?’ he asks, showing me the large Chubb key he holds. The same key I used on him. ‘An eye for an eye?’
‘No. No wait. WAIT!’
Grayson plunges the key into Gabriel’s eye, just as I did to him all those months ago.
I scream. Gabriel screams. I thrash and pull as Gabriel just takes it all. His body fails to act, but the cries of pain as Grayson gouges and digs the implement in his eye couldn’t be more filled with horror and anguish.
‘STOP! PLEASE!’ I beg, kicking out my legs. My throat is raw from my efforts. My sobs burn in my chest. And when Grayson tosses the key at my feet, with whatever counts as Gabriel’s eye skewered to it, I feel the splinters in my soul, already so fragile, begin to weaken further.
There she is, lingering beside Theo, her eyes examining his face intensely. Almost as intensely as he watches me.
Gabriel slumps to the floor as Grayson stands over him, sweating and bloody, laughing like an insane psychopath.
‘What’s next. Ah yes.’ He goes to the fireplace and pulls out a fire poker which was resting in the flames. ‘We don’t want him branded. His power is beneficial, after all.’ Grayson spits on the glowing metal, making it sizzle and hiss before returning to Gabriel. And then, he presses it into his arm. His neck. His face. Anything he can get to as Gabriel rolls around in agony at his feet.
‘Bias…’ I sob, barely able to speak. ‘Bias please… please help him! Help him!’ My head hangs in despair at my utter uselessness. I just hang here as Grayson starts beating him with the molten rod.
Moments pass. It feels like an eternity until Grayson stops. I can’t even bear to lift my head. I dread what I may see.
‘And now, the moment I’ve been waiting for. Gabriel. Take off your trousers.’
Grayson’s sick and twisted pleasure in his deeds crushes my soul.
What remains of it.
He taunts Gabriel. Laughing as he kicks and beats him. I still can’t look. I just… I can’t.
Lilly. Lilly look at me.
My Broken-self whispers in my ear so close and so real I feel her breath on my sin.
‘No,’ I weep, shaking my head. ‘N-no. I w-won’t let you.’
Lilly, look at Theo. Look at him. LOOK!
When she yells, my head flies up all on its own. Like she’s grabbed my chin and forced my obedience.
But Theo isn’t in front of me any more.
The mirror, she whispers. Look in the mirror.
I turn to the mirror hanging on the wall and see Theo standing behind me, watching me intently.
He’s not asking you anything. Why isn’t he asking you about the spell?
I lower my head again, hiding my face in the mess of my sweat-soaked hair as I scream, hoping perhaps, to drown out what’s happening to Gabriel a few meters away.
But that’s not what Theo wants. Hendrix grabs me from behind and takes hold of my chin, forcing me to watch.
‘What’s the matter, Little witch?’ Hendrix snarls in my ear. ‘Don’t wanna watch lover boy get what’s comin to him? You’re not the squeamish sort, are ya? You enjoyed watching Grayson be castrated. You enjoyed gouging out his eye. Hell, you sure enjoyed watching me rip out my damn teeth. You don’t wanna watch your beloved Gabriel suffer the same? Well. Perhaps I can keep you occupied in the meantime.’
With a violent yank, he pulls off my trousers, along with my knickers. He tosses them towards Tobias, who is curled up with his knees to his chest and his hands over his ears, rocking back and forth.
‘HELP US!’ I scream at him as Hendrix buries his mouth in my neck and runs his tongue along my skin. ‘Bias. PLEASE!’
‘You know what Theo wants to do when he brings back his lover?’ Hendrix drawls in my ear. ‘You wanna know why he’s so desperate to drag her back from the pits of hell she’s in?’ He leans in closer. ‘She’s got a way to make him an Arcane. Can you imagine what he’ll do with all that power? All seven realms of magic? Hmmmm. I can’t wait to see him tear this world up. Oh the plans he has. The world he envisions.’
Grayson stands over Gabriel, knife in hand.
Hendrix gets closer.
LOOK! LOOK AT THEO!
My Broken-self points angrily at the mirror, annoyed at my lack of focus on her as I sink deeper and deeper into hell.
Theo is unbuckling his belt, a knife rested between his teeth and the sleeve of his shirt rolled up.
He’s trying to Break you. He wants to do to us what he’s done to Gabriel.
She looks at the men surrounding us and nods in certainty.
You break. He fucks us, pours his blood into our mouth, says his incantation and then we belong to him. He’ll simply ask us for the spell. We’ll give it to him.
She lowers her head, deep in thought.
We’ll give him anything. Everything. We’ll be his puppet. Forever and ever. Glued to his will.
She looks at Grayson who now sits on Gabriel’s knees, snarling insults and threats.
We hear him. His plans. He’s telling Gabriel, taunting him that when I’m Broken and under Theo’s control, I will be Grayson’s gift. Once Theo has taken what he wants from me, that is. I will be his to have in any way he wants, on the condition that Theo can use my magic whenever he wishes.
A sweet deal, Grayson tells Gabriel, before going into sordid details about what he plans to do to me and my body.
She looks at me. Her lilac eyes are boring into mine.
You can’t let them take us. You can’t Break. She points to Theo behind me. I will not be his puppet. She points to Grayson. And I will not be his sex slave.
Gabriel’s cries become desperate. His pain is just… it’s too much.
It’s too much.
This is all too much.
I mean… what the hell am I even fighting for now?
The Descendants are gone.
The Bloodstone spell is simply a pipedream.
Everyone I love is dead or dying a few feet away.
My body goes limp. I go numb. Inside and out.
I feel the cracks in my soul. The deep scars from all the damage inflicted. Of the cruelty. The evil. The loss. The fear. The suffering. The grief.
The light at the end of the tunnel, it’s not hope. It’s hellfire.
And it’s coming for me.
The splinters widen. The darkness buried deep inside spills through, no longer held back by that one perfect memory I clung so desperately to.
There is no perfect memory.
None for me. None that I deserve.
This is what I deserve.
‘Help me,’ I whisper to her.
I flex my fingers. She looks into my eyes.
‘Help me. Take my hand. Become one with me.’
Don’t you dare give in. Don’t you dare Break now.
I look to Tobias who peeks up at me through the gaps in his fingers.
‘It has to happen. It has to happen,’ he mutters, rocking back and forth.
Gabriel screams out.
‘It has to happen!’ Tobias repeats louder, desperate not to hear his brothers cries. ‘It has to happen. It has to happen!’
I look at her once more. My Broken-self.
I blink my final tear clear and take a breath.
‘It has to happen,’ I tell her. ‘My greatest enemy. You will help me now. Help me! Help me end this.’
Again, I flex my fingers and watch her. She stands straighter, reading my thoughts and my plans. Her eyes narrow and then widen as she sees my thinking.
That won’t work, she breathes, seeing my intentions. It’s impossible. What you plan is simply impossible.
‘Not for us. Trust me. Take my hand.’
If I take your hand, I’ll be in control. You will Break and Theo will rape us and claim us. Claim me.
‘I said help me. Don’t take over,’ I tell her. ‘Join me. Alone, we’re weak. Together… we’re-’
She steps closer, reaches out, and entwines her fingers around mine.
We’re the fucking Arcane. Fine. What the hell other choice have I got. She looks back at Grayson. I would rather die than belong to him.
‘Same.’
It was fun. She shrugs with a playful smile. Wasn’t it?
‘No. It wasn’t,’ I whisper. ‘But it will be.’
As she starts to fade from sight, she grins wickedly.
You got this, Red. We got this. Until the next time you Break, huh?
She winks at me.
‘Till next time…’
The cracks inside begin to fill. Her tattered soul, held together by all the worst moments of my life, of every degradation, act of violence, shame, guilt, pain, suffering, it all patches in the gaps.
Making me… what? Whole?
No.
Broken?
Not quite.
Something… else.
In the mirror, the white tips of my hair start to spread.
Ahead, Gabriel no longer moves. His blood spills from the giant gash Grayson has carved into his throat.
And behind me, Theo has sent Hendrix away with a twitch of his hand. He slices a cut into his wrist and waits.
My left eye joins my right, turning lilac. White claims my hair from the tips to the roots and I roar out a furious, vengeful scream that promises retribution and pain to all who just heard it.
But my scream doesn’t just belong to me. It belongs to us both. For the first time ever, my Broken-side and Unbroken-side are as one.
And we will not let them defeat us.
‘Never!’
‘Never!’
Theo slams his open wrist over my mouth, cutting our declaration short. He starts to speak. The incantation which will take my will for his own. As he tries to get himself in position, as he tries to rape me, I know. I’ve already fucking won.
Because I don’t need an incantation.
I don’t need words. Spells. Blood or rape.
All I need is a connection to the Arcane realm, which he has just given me.
My hair may be white. My eyes may be lilac.
But we are not Broken.
We are one.
We are the Arcane Witch.
We are Lilly fucking Kendryk.
We are “Red”.
And we are not done yet.
The Arcane Realm hears my heart and sees my soul. And it wants to fulfil their desires.
Fix this!
Save us!
Make this right!
This is what my heart desires. This is what my soul demands.
The Arcane Realm hears. And it obeys.
At that moment, all across the world, every remaining Descendant, everyone with a connection to the Arcane Realm, known or unknown, falls down dead.
Grayson. Theo. Tobias.
Slumped. Glassy eyed and stone-cold gone.
The survivors of the Hunter’s attack.
Gone.
All across the world, men, women and children fall. Their connection to the world of magic severed and redirected instead to me.
Us.
Above, high in the sky, a shooting star called Flos Dirigentes, soars overhead. We feel it’s power. We take it for my own and you better believe I use it.
Humans claim that God works in mysterious ways.
I say the Arcane Realm taught God everything she knows.
And now, she’s going to save the fucking world.
Because I am telling her to.
So back we go.
To darkened doorways. To muffled cries in the middle of the night. To locked doors and quick tempers. To young hearts and wicked intentions.
To the last time this star passed over the final Bloodstone.
To a second chance.
This had to happen, right, Tobias? This is what you saw? This was the only way and I know, sweet man, I know that playing your part tore you to pieces. But this all had to happen. I had to get the edge of everything. All had to die to give me power untold.
My greatest enemies have become my greatest allies.
The man who Broke me, and my Broken-self.
We can fix this.
Because I am magic. I am the Arcane Realm.
I am God.
And the world of magic will obey.
Fix. This.
∞∞∞
In the Arcane Realm, Rebecca Hooper and Amara Jayne stand by the final Bloodstone at Land’s End.
Two babies sleep soundly, wrapped in blankets, safe and sound in a bassinet.
And all of them are waiting.
Waiting for the Descendants to appear. For their family and friends to join them in their magical Eden. Amara can’t wait for Collins to hold his son. For Lilly to kiss her daughter again. And for all those who have spent their whole lives hiding in the shadows, fearing capture and death, to know peace finally.
Suddenly, Rebecca lets loose a blood curdling scream. She clutches her heart and falls to the floor, gasping and dizzy.
‘What’s the matter?’ Amara asks, rushing to her side.
‘Something is wrong,’ Rebecca tells her, panting and shaking all over. ‘My goodness. What… what has-’ She screams again, pinching the bridge of her nose and doubling over as her mind is bombarded with a most vivid and horrifying vision.
Amara clasps her close, hoping to ease her friend’s agony but also desperate to know what it is she has seen.
After a moment, Rebecca can lift her head. She looks upwards to the star shooting overhead. It’s stuck there. No longer moving. No longer circling the planet.
‘What’s happened?’ Amara asks in a panic. ‘What did you see? Why aren’t they here?’
‘Lilly…’ Rebecca gasps, clutching her chest as the ripple of Lilly’s spell continues to hurtle through her mind. ‘Oh Lilly Hooper. What have you done?’
‘Lilly? What’s happened to Lilly? Is she okay?’
‘I don’t think she is, my dear. Come.’
Rebecca materialises herself, the children and Amara to the two other stones, one after the other. To the one on Dartmoor and then to the one in the castle ruins at the valley. Both are still clear, telling her that the connections Lilly has already created remain intact. The corridors are still in place.
‘A mercy,’ Rebecca whispers, caressing the clear stone before her.
‘Rebecca, what’s going on?’
‘Lilly. S-she has sent her consciousness back.’
‘Back?’ Amara asks. ‘What the hell does that mean?’
‘It means she failed. She was unable to get to the third stone in time. So somehow, she’s gone back to try again. And I have no idea how she’s bent the Arcane Realm to her will in such an extreme way, but she has.’ Rebecca looks upwards to the hovering star. Amara follows her gaze. ‘Somehow, she has cast a spell to go back to the last time the star passed over the Bloodstone.’
‘Won’t she need to re-do all the stones?’ Amara frets. ‘Re-do the first two spells?’
But Rebecca shakes her head. ‘No. These stones remain clear, so the ones in the human world will be too. Once completed, the power in the Bloodstones cannot be undone. It is only the third and final spell Lilly must complete. This… this is bad. This is terribly bad.’
‘Bad? If she’s got a second chance to fix whatever went wrong-’
‘Do you not recall where Lilly Hooper was when the star last passed over this stone? Do you not know the hell she was living? This isn’t her popping back and sneaking to the Bloodstone unseen, avoiding herself who will be living in the Hooper’s house. This is her, forcing her consciousness into her mind, into her body, five years past. She is a teenager, trapped in a house with her abusers, half-starved with access to a fraction of her powers. Lilly Hooper is seventeen again, back at her uncle’s home and I can not guarantee she will recall anything that has happened since she left that place. She may not remember us nor the spell.’
‘Shit… she might not remember that she sent herself back?’
‘If she isn’t strong enough, if her past self fails to find the strength to want to fight, to help her fight, her mind will not accept her at all and she will forget.’
‘And what will that mean?’ Amara dares to ask. ‘Lilly was so lost five years ago. She was ready to kill herself, what if she can’t find the strength she needs to remember?’
Rebecca looks down at Callie Kendryk, sleeping soundly in her bassinet. ‘It means that Lilly and the Descendants will be doomed.’
