by Emma Dean
That circle crackled around them in the marble, made with a power that no normal witch possessed, power that a god had given. It felt like chewing on foil and the static snapped and sizzled.
Despite the sheer immensity of that power Corbin tried to cross into the circle and was blasted backward. Ethan and Malachi seethed on the edges as they pulled Corbin to his feet. Audrey knelt down, inspecting the circle itself, no doubt wondering if there was a way to break it. Lucien and Dagon prowled around, trying to find any way in, any weak spot they might be able to use brute force to pry it open.
All of this she catalogued, including the position of the twelve witches that were maneuvering to surround her, take her down, arrest her, and no doubt try to strip her power or at least dampen it.
But no one could take her power, no one other than the void and Mika snarled as she stood, throwing out a hand to deflect the spells Cassandra’s lackeys threw at her. She redirected them instead of shielded and pulled Excalibur from the marble at the same time.
Each spell that came at her, each more vicious than the last, she deflected or dodged or used Excalibur to block. Instinct finally kicking in after so many nights training.
There was a breath – a moment before the next barrage of spells, and Mika took it.
She reached out with one hand, Excalibur across her body to shield, and concentrated on those lackeys—all twelve of them.
Each had their own sets of skills, specialties, and dreams. Every single one of them were different from each other – no blood relations to use to make things easier. So, Mika doubled down and focused.
Her hand shook as they stumbled in their movements. Sweat beaded down her brow as she forced her fist to close, locking in on those twelve different blood signatures.
Every single one of the witches stalking toward her froze then.
Mika opened her eyes, breathing hard, and glared at Cassandra. “If blood magic isn’t a specialty, then how can I keep them from arresting me with nothing more than the blood in their body? You, Cassandra, you hunted us just so you could be the most powerful witch. So there would be no witch queen to challenge you.”
So much rage, so much fury as she remembered everything that was taken from Elizabeth, everything that Eleanor had sacrificed, all that Morgana had lost. That rage rose up and something inside her uncurled, unleashed.
It purred inside her veins, rubbing up against her like an old pet. It felt ancient and endless – as endless as the Morrigan’s eyes.
Her hand steadied and Mika ignored the horror and terror she could feel from the Council members outside the circle, she ignored their confusion at what she was revealing, their shock and numbness was shoved back, and Mika bared her teeth at Cassandra.
A twist of her hand and all twelve of Cassandra’s lackeys were forced to turn on the Head Witch, their hands rising. Mika could force them all to blast their own power at Cassandra. Nothing elegant or dexterous, but raw power. To do more, to make them arrest Cassandra would take more skill and practice than Mika currently had.
“I should have slaughtered every last one of you, even the babies,” Cassandra spat, glaring at the witches that had enough willpower left to beg her for help, to plead with the Head Witch to free them from this madness—this chaos.
“Forcing young witches into marriage guaranteed less of you,” Cassandra told her, raising her own hand. “And still you crawl out of the cracks like roaches.”
All it took was a wave of Cassandra’s hand.
Those twelve witches screamed as the circle attacked them—roasted them alive, forced crackling power down their throats.
Whatever power Cassandra had given that circle, whatever she poured into it now – it electrocuted those witches, boiling the blood in their veins. Mika hissed and released them, feeling that same alien power crackle through her own veins thanks to the tether between them.
Her hands burned and she nearly dropped Excalibur.
Then all twelve witches crumbled to the floor.
Dead.
“It will be easy enough to replace them,” Cassandra said with a shrug, planting her hands on her hips as if this was just a minor inconvenience and not a massacre. “I couldn’t very well have you using them against me.”
No one spoke. No one moved.
The entire chamber stared at the pile of dead witches and even the assassins recoiled.
Those could easily have been Audrey and Ethan, Malachi, Corbin and Lucien. Mika saw Claire’s face in that pile, Ryan’s, and Ashley’s. She saw Morgana’s and Eleanor’s.
Never. Mika would never let it be her own. She had the power at her disposal. She had the tools. All she had to do was embrace what she was – the darkness and chaos and blood.
Mika looked from the pile of bodies and pointed Excalibur at Cassandra. “I challenge you, Cassandra Jadis, to a duel. The Council cannot interfere.”
Those bloody lips widened. “I accept.”
They both ignored the shouts and protests and calls of warning from the others in the Council chambers, from those Mika had sworn to protect. This wasn’t about the Council anymore, or the world beyond.
This was about fixing what had broken.
“If I win, the blood debt is paid,” Mika told her. “If I lose, the blood debt is forgiven and forgotten.”
“I am hundreds of years old, girl. What makes you think you can beat me?” Cassandra asked, summoning pure power in one hand like it took no effort at all.
That ball of energy in Cassandra’s hand, it was exactly like the one Mika had summoned during her dodgeball tryouts. It was exactly like the one she and Audrey had used to win a game – a total knockout.
Only this one had enough raw power to level a city and leave nothing but smoldering ash.
Mika looked up at the goddess in the rafters and then at the family surrounding her.
Cassandra might have more power than her, but she’d learned in her challenge with Claire it wasn’t just about raw power. It was about so much more than that.
Mika had power, she had blood magic, but she’d also been trained by warriors, by assassins. She’d been trained until her sweat became blood and the taste of it on her tongue had become familiar and welcome.
She’d nearly been broken during her last challenge. She’d nearly shattered and broken into deadly shards that would have only shredded what was left of her to pieces. But she’d come out of that with knowledge that it wasn’t about the raw power or the strength of it.
It was what she was willing to do with what she had.
Mika studied the growing ball of pure power, now strong enough to wipe out two cities if not three. She considered the difference between that bright white light and the bloodred of her own magic.
A dark witch.
Chaos was what lived inside her and it was who she was whether she liked it or not. Mika lived in the darkness, in the blood, in the shadows…
She smiled at the Head Witch. “I’ll let you go first.”
The gasps from the stupid, cowardly Council members were satisfying. No one in the room was unaware of the power Cassandra held, what it could do.
With a screech of rage that power blasted toward her and Mika let it wash over her, gripping the rubies at her neck as it licked every inch of her body. She could feel the hell-forged iron heat, glowing as the power tried to burn her to ash.
It was contained by the circle, created a maelstrom of power that whipped around them, constantly trying to get at Mika, melt her bones and blood until she was nothing more than a puddle.
Finally, it stopped and that iron on her body glowed, cooling slowly.
Mika whispered a single command and three blood beasts appeared in front of her.
“How?” Cassandra snarled, panting for breath.
Mika flung out a hand and Cassandra slammed to her knees. Stalking forward the blood beasts grew, ugly and monstrous with their slick bloody skin. They stayed in their terrifying forms as they circled Cassandra.
Th
e Head Witch tried to summon more power, flinging it at Mika.
It was nothing more than a few sparks that were easily batted away.
Crouching in front of the old witch, Mika smiled at her – that circle starting to recede thanks to the drain on Cassandra’s power. The Head Witch had used every bit of strength in that one move to wipe Mika off the face of the earth.
And had grossly miscalculated the situation.
“Did no one teach you to make sure you know your enemy before you strike?” Mika asked, tilting her head slightly. She leaned forward then and whispered, “I wield Excalibur. Nothing can touch me. Not even stolen power from a god.”
Cassandra tried to lunge forward, but the blood beasts snarled and snapped at her and she shrank back in true fear – terror flickering in her eyes for the first time as the situation fully sank in.
“Tell me who gave you your gifts,” Mika ordered loud and clear. “And I’ll make it quick.”
Silence so thick it was almost a living breathing thing.
The Head Witch glowered up at Mika. No doubt it didn’t take her god-given power long to replenish, but Mika knew how exhausting a blast of pure power like that was.
Until that power returned, Mika was the one in control. And they both knew it.
“I’ve been Death’s lover for two centuries,” Cassandra hissed, eyes full of fury and hate as she gave in while those blood beasts circled closer and closer. “It was he who gave me these gifts. Azrael locked away the Morrigan and slaughtered her daughters – the blood witches. When he found out some still lived, he recruited me and together we hunted you down. Some were enslaved and some were put to death. After the spell…I helped him by controlling the Council and smoothing over any issues with the Hellfire Society.”
Mika held her ground, but inside her mind was spinning. “That’s why his crest was so familiar,” she murmured. “The lute.”
The lute that was on the coin the Hellfire Society put on Morgana’s grave. The lute that was on every pin every member wore.
“A symbol of death,” Lucifer snapped, breaking that painful silence. He looked up at the Morrigan then and gave her a nod. “It looks like I have business to attend to.” He offered his hand to Jess and the two of them disappeared.
The raven screamed and launched into the air, shifting into the goddess’s human form as she landed, Eisheth appearing beside her.
The goddess looked…
Heartbroken.
“We have always squabbled over the dominion of the dead, those of us who are death, who rule death, who reap death, who celebrate death. But this?” The Morrigan ran her fingers over the spine of one of Mika’s blood beasts. “It is a sad thing to be betrayed by one’s own family.”
Claire’s face flashed before Mika’s eyes and she felt the same pain the Morrigan did – the absolute soul-wrenching understanding that they’d never truly been family, they’d never loved her as much as she’d loved them.
The tears she could taste in the back of her throat only fueled the fire raging inside of her. Mika felt that rage begging to be unleashed – wiping out the ugly in the world in one fell swoop.
The goddess caressed Mika’s cheek with a look of understanding. “Deliver justice for your sisters. I will find you on the bridge.” Then she kissed Mika’s forehead and disappeared with Eisheth.
Mika’s rage focused on Cassandra, honed in like an arrow with unnerving accuracy.
There was no yield or die this time.
The blood that was owed was too much, the blood Cassandra was still planning to spill a risk.
Mika stepped back from the Head Witch, releasing her hold on her blood and bones.
The blood beasts circled, nipping to keep her in place while everyone in the Council looked on.
“Cassandra Jadis, I call in the blood debt owed to my sisters, to my kind, to those of us called the morrigan.” Mika declared, her words echoing off the chamber walls. “Blood will be paid in blood.”
Without a word she sent the thought to her beasts and they pounced—ripping and tearing and pulling Cassandra apart. The slick, wet, rasping, chewing sounds amid cracks of bone and pleading screams made her sick to her stomach and more than a few people vomited or looked away.
But Mika made herself watch, made herself witness what she’d sentenced Cassandra to.
Blood for blood.
When it was done, when there was nothing but a pile of rags and what looked like skin and hair…
Blood covered the marble, ran in rivers and streams as it spread ever outward – the droplets sprayed across the walls and people almost like it had been done in celebration.
Mika turned to the rest of the room, dismissing what remained of the former Head Witch.
They stared at her – too many emotions to catalog but the most overwhelming…
Horror and disgust.
“I am the last morrigan and the blood debt is paid.”
No one seemed to know what to say or do.
So, Mika sheathed Excalibur. “I challenged the Head Witch and won. As such I’ll take her place. If someone would like to challenge me for the position…feel free.”
No one dared.
Mika gave them all a feral grin to remind them the playing field had changed. They were no longer safe and coddled and living in a pretend world where witches were neutral, flighty creatures who only cared about pretty clothes.
“Thank you for your time and attention,” Mika drawled, eyeing the droplets of blood on her hands. She made her face nothing but a calm mask, breathing to keep from vomiting everywhere. “I look forward to working with you all in the near future.”
She held out her hand and somehow, they all knew. Dagon appeared at her side in his human form and took her waiting hand.
The ravens dispersed, disappearing into shadow like phantoms. Khalida teleported to her court and they all placed a hand on her. A barked order and the blood beasts prowled toward Mika, snapping at Council members’ feet playfully, huffing amused laughs as they squeaked in fear before leaping toward Mika and disappearing into her blood stones.
Dagon pulled her into that dark nothingness once more and the last thing she saw was blood and chaos.
Mika stood at the lip of the bridge that jutted out over the ocean and stared at the horizon as the sun started to peek over the ocean.
It painted the sky in red, reminding her of the way Cassandra’s blood had sprayed from her throat, her arms and legs…Mika shuddered.
It would be a long time before she stopped having nightmares about that.
Ethan wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tight. “You are the most gorgeous creature I’ve ever set eyes on,” he whispered in her ear.
“And terrifying.” Mika had finally embraced what she was, and it still felt…dark.
But that’s what she was, a dark witch—blood witch.
Morrigan.
“Mhm,” Ethan agreed. “I think that’s what makes you so beautiful.”
“Even for an assassin, that was hard to watch,” Corbin admitted, keeping a healthy distance from the edge of the bridge, feet firmly planted on the temple floor – the statue of the Morrigan at his back.
“She deserved it,” Malachi stated, cool as a cucumber as he watched the sun start to rise. “One less enemy on the playing field.”
“Yeah, and Death is out there,” Lucien sniped. “No big deal, right?”
“Lucifer will take care of it, won’t he?” Audrey asked from behind them.
Pop.
Mika turned and saw Dagon, glaring and clearly unhappy.
“Well?”
“Azrael is gone,” Dagon told her. “Lucifer has the reapers and hellhounds scouring his realm, but he’s nowhere to be found. The Morrigan is searching for him as well, but he is Death. He is one of the oldest creatures to exist. The eldest brother of all other death gods.”
No one knew how to take that.
What did Azrael want? What was he planning?
With nothing
more than a whisper, the Morrigan appeared, staring at the rising sun like it might hold the answers to why her brother would betray her. “Azrael has gone to ground,” she said, not bothering to look at any of them. “He slaughtered my daughters.” Her voice caught on the words and the goddess had to take a breath to regain her composure.
“He hunted down my witch daughters just to get back at me,” the Morrigan managed, turning to Mika with diamond tears in her endless black eyes. “For the power I gave them that he felt encroached on his territory.”
“I’m sorry,” Mika murmured, brushing her hand against the Morrigan’s. “I understand…what it feels like to be betrayed by family.” Her own brother and father had done something similar.
“He’s going to want revenge for Cassandra,” the Morrigan warned, turning back to the rising sun. “He’s going to want to find every last child I have, and I can’t do this alone. I can’t keep you all safe. I have power, but it is not what it used to be, it is not enough to rival Death. He is the eldest, and every single living creature knows Death, is familiar with it, believes in it—him.”
Mika knew then, what the goddess was saying. “War.”
“Call in Aine, and find who you can,” the Morrigan warned. “I will do the same while I search for him, while Lucifer and I try to contact the other death gods…” the goddess trailed off. “He will bring whatever army he’s built over the centuries to this plane. Be on your toes, daughter. I’ll find you when I know more.”
The goddess kissed her forehead and then disappeared.
Mika sighed and looked past her court, her forest, and toward the gothic structure of the university.
Sanctuary.
But not for her, not right now.
Mika was under no illusion that she would be welcomed back after everything that had happened. That the dangers now in the world didn’t even allow her the chance to be expelled. She would need to regroup, figure out the next step, how to deal with the Council and the re-emergence of dark witches—dark things.
Her time at the university was over for now. Hopefully, one day, she’d get to come back.
This island wasn’t just hers; it was her home. It was the one place she truly felt she belonged.