Across the country, witches fell to their knees, the ground under them shaking, and their screams echoed in my head, wiping out every sound other than their cries.
One by one, I stole from them so they would never be able to hurt anyone again.
On the floor in front of me, my father gasped and turned, starting to drag himself away. When I glanced down at him, I felt it at my back, the wave of power, a tsunami of magic crashing toward us. My wolves felt it too, and they howled, throwing their heads up, the command in their cry freezing my father where he was.
The power twisted and turned in the air, arcing over my head, and hit him, all at once. The explosion blew out from under him, buffeting me with a wind that nearly knocked me down. It felt like it would never end, light, sound, air. It scraped at my skin, and I ducked my head, grabbing onto Eli’s shoulder to stay upright. Then his fur ripped out of my hands, and I gasped as the wolves were pulled away from me. Their howls of rage died in the wind. The building all around us started moaning, and the ground trembled.
And then…
It was over.
The heartstone dropped to the floor, glowing faintly, the sound dying around us.
A soft noise, the scrape of skin over marble. I glanced up. He was drained dry; I could feel it in my bones. Powerless and dying, truly this time, my father was still trying to get away.
I took one step forward, then another, the shaky, weak feeling clinging to me.
“You can keep running, but this will never be over,” I breathed heavily, standing over him. My father opened his mouth, croaking out a wheeze that was trying to be words. He lifted his hands toward me, fingers clenching, their blackened tips crumbling as he did so. His eyes were so dark. He wasn’t even a human anymore, not a witch, not anything. The anger and rage had consumed him from the inside out.
Doing this would be a blessing. Reaching down, I grabbed it, the heartstone.
Then, stone clenched in my grimy hand, I pressed it flat against his chest. He gasped, eyes widening, and I felt the pulse of his powers drain into the heartstone. His chest rose once and then fell. And then…
The world around me went silent, the two of us alone, together. I wanted to say I was sorry for not being a better daughter. For not somehow shepherding him away from this evil that had taken him, but I had come to realize that he had always been twisted. He had been broken before I was born, and there was no coming back from that.
Some people cannot be redeemed.
My father was one of them.
As I pulled the stone away, the sound of something like a sigh rushed by my ears, and his chest collapsed in, his skin cracking. He was turning to dust right in front of me, his features blurring and then fading into nothing.
It was almost not even a shock. I stood up. How long had his body been powered onward by pure evil and undead magic? It had been crumbling before I ever took what was left of him and sucked it into the heartstone.
Speaking of which, I pulled it in toward my chest, closing my eyes. Was there any corruption inside of it? Waiting for me to find it one day, a dark crack of magic seeping through its crystal matrixes and slowly turning it into the same evil that had polluted my father’s mind and body?
No. Not even a hint. Pure rose-white light filled me from just cradling it against my chest, ever comforting. I let out a long, slow breath. This was it. The last of everything. I stood up and glanced around. The Hailward home’s walls were cracked, on the edge of being ruins, and I knew if I listened hard enough, I would hear the house dying around me. I swallowed. There was still power here. When he’d said not here, my father had meant physically, here. The heartstone hadn’t drained the house and only had drained him because I’d aimed it directly at him.
God. Did I have to do this? I could feel the weak power signatures of witches in the house, around the house. I needed to bind them before they came to get us. There was enough death in my life to last me for the rest of my life. I couldn’t. I needed to just walk away. I needed to find the guys, but the link through our bond, faint and ever-present through the heartstone, told me they were fine. Alive, bruised, and half a mile away, but okay. How far had the wind from that blow-out thrown them? How had I stayed upright?
A soft noise behind me made me jerk, followed by the sound of vines growing through the dust.
Shit.
Twenty-Seven
Sometimes the greatest enemies we face are not the ones we expect.
And so she stood there, mere feet from me. I didn’t want to do this. Not with her. But maybe, at least, I could get some answers. Closure.
“Why did you try to save me,” I asked, my whole body aching from the fight. My sister lifted her head slowly to face me, a sneer curling her lip.
“Why?” She asked.
“Why what?” I shook my head. My powers were near empty. I felt wrung out, like an old sponge, but I wasn’t going to die here, not like this.
My family was almost all gone, and I was ready to bury them.
“I’m not asking you,” she spat. “I want to know why I shouldn’t have saved you when the answer is obvious to anyone with a brain.”
She lifted her hand in front of her, and my breath caught in my throat. I took a step back as her finger-tips turned green and glowing, the gift of life pulsing inside of them.
“Why would I deny myself the chance to kill you myself?” She asked, her chin tilted, the madness in her eyes rolling off of her and toward me.
She clenched her hand, and the ground exploded around me. Dust spattered me, rocks hitting my skin, and I ducked, shielding my face with my arms. The roar of growing things, sprouting faster than was natural, echoed all around me, deafening me. Vines shot toward me, twining up my legs.
Just like our mother.
Except now I was ready. I opened my mouth, the fizzle of lightning rolling off my tongue, and the heavens above opened up. I didn’t even have to call it. The power was waiting for this moment, aching to be unleashed. It filled me from above, the spires of electrify running along my spine and stretching out into my limbs.
“You think you can threaten me?” She demanded, and I laughed, the sound of it deep and booming, so much so that it shocked me. I didn’t bring the storms. I was lightning. Her eyes flashed in defiance as I stepped toward her, the first spike hitting the ground and flaring dirt and light at both of us in a warning.
She cried out, and when my vision cleared, she was running toward me blindly, bamboo shoots erupting from the ground in a straight line behind her and in front of her as she bolted. The ground under my feet shuddered, and I flew backward in the next second, flying through the air. A thick vine caught me, wrapping around my waist and quickly tightening. I fought it, scratching and clawing at its green skin. She shrieked and reached me, grabbing my hair, pulling me down as the vine unfurled and let me tumble to her feet. Her fist connected with my temple so hard I saw sparks, and I shook my head, rolling to the side to get myself space. I staggered to my feet, and she smirked, standing there.
“Ready for more?” She taunted.
“That love tap?” I spat the taste of copper in my mouth. My tongue ached. I must’ve bitten it when I fell or when she punched me.
“That’s just me warming up,” she purred, and flowers blossomed at my feet. I glanced down.
“Petals?” I asked, not able to keep the sneer out of my voice. “What are you going to do, pretty me to death?”
I shifted my weight, and a perfumey cloud of scent erupted upward toward me. The first inhale made my lungs feel like tiny sparks of ice had lit up inside of them. The second had my knees buckling. I fell right into the middle of them and got another chest-full of toxins, coughing hard.
Each racking explosion of coughs from my chest just had me inhaling deeper, and it was in my mind. Sparks ran across my vision, and behind it, there she stood, arms crossed, looking so pleased with herself.
“First you fall, and then you die,” she said. I lifted my hand, fingers trem
bling, and she laughed. “Oh, don’t even try; that’s pathetic.” A vine hit my wrist, and I fell to my side. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t-
There was a green tinge to her face as she reached me, her fingers tainted, and dark green lines running up her arms, like her very blood, had changed colour from dark blue to-
She grabbed me by the face, and I cried out as she lifted me up, hauling me out of that death bed of flowers.
“It’s coming for you, Darcy,” she crooned, “can’t you feel it? Death marches toward you.” I coughed in her face, one last, weak attempt at controlling the situation, my spit landing on her upper lip.
She shrieked and dropped me. I would’ve hit the earth with a hard thud, but it rose to cradle me, matching my speed as it settled me down. I rolled over and closed my eyes. Just a little wind, a small breeze-
It answered my call, and I felt it on my cheeks, cool and soothing. It pulled the noxious fumes from the flowers away, whipping through my hair.
My lungs cleared, the blood returning to my cheeks, and I put my hands on the ground to steady myself. A strong breeze pushed me back up to my feet, my head rushing as I was suddenly upright. She glared at me from five feet away, chewing on her lower lip like she couldn’t believe I was alive.
“If I have to chose between you and me, it’s going to be my guys every time,” I said, power crackling in my throat. It rolled along my fingers, and I flicked my wrist, just flicked it toward her, and the lightning arced through the air.
She moved her arm, vines and flowers growing to follow her movement, but she was too slow.
It hit her right in the shoulder with a large flash and boom. For one moment, she was lit from within, and I could see it, the vines inside of her, filling her body, lines of her magic all over. It was eating her alive, using her to grow. She crumpled.
I stood there, shaking, not sure if I had anything left in me if she got back to her feet. Silence fell over us like a fog, and I tried not to hunch my shoulders.
Was she dead?
No. Her fingers twitched, and more vines emerged from under her, wrapping around her arms, pulling her up to sit, and then to stand.
I wasn’t the only one with powers that were determined to keep me alive. But then it made sense. Our magic only existed within us. Once we were dead, it was gone. Magic had a survival instinct as well, that was just as or possibly stronger than our own.
“You’re vile,” she hissed, staggering to her feet. “You’re vile, and we were all happier when you were gone.”
“Well, maybe not sending love notes in the form of murderous assassins would have kept me away. Y’know, you didn’t need to call or write, you just needed to stop trying to murder me and your-”
“Your filthy wolves. Isn’t that funny,” she lifted her chin as she spoke. “You ran away from being Creston’s little slut just to become theirs.”
I rolled my eyes and ran my fingers along my palm before spreading my fingers wide.
“I’m so far past even being insulted by anything you can say to me,” I replied. “You have one chance. Stand down, and I’ll let you go.”
She laughed, holding onto her stomach as if it hurt.
“YOu’ll let me go,” she taunted. “You. You think you’re in control, Darcy? Look around you?”
I didn’t need to look. We’d destroyed what was left of the Hailward mansion. It was in rubble, just like our own ancestral home.
“I think that you’re alone, and I’m not afraid of you anymore,” I said evenly. “Walk away. Please.” She still had a daughter somewhere, but I don’t think she had even spared a single thought for her child from the madness in her eyes. A small part of me recognized with horror that it would have been very easy, and even likely, that the baby was in the rubble somewhere, dead, or injured. That thought filled me with shivers.
I opened my mouth to say as much to her, but instead, she cut me off.
“You spent so long being angry that you weren’t treated fairly because you were born a girl, Darcy,” my sister said, her steps toward me making the earth shudder and twist with growing things. I could feel them, waiting to eat me, like hungry beasts. The plants were ready to tear me apart. “You never stopped to think. It was actually me that you should be worried about. It makes me laugh; honestly, you were such a bratty little feminist, and you overlooked the one woman in your world who had the balls to take you down.”
She laughed, mouth opening far too wide, as leaves blossomed from her skin, vines twisting out from under her hair. She was becoming it, her power-consuming her from within. I knew it without even having to ask. It was eating her as I’d thought. It was going to kill her.
“Don’t!” I cried out, trying to lift myself up off the ground with my soul magic, to put some distance between us. The spark of lighting inside me glowed the earthen taste that lay heavy on the back of my tongue, humming in response. My twin magics, opposite forces that cancelled each other out, were waiting to strike.
The only thing holding them back was me.
Even now, facing her down, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t hurt my sister. She was my sister. The only family I had left. Tears squeezed from the corners of my eyes. But Willa had been right. In life, there were bitches and broads. Broads always had your back.
Bitches, like my sister, wanted to stab you in the back.
She took another step toward me and reached, her whole body glowing sickly green. When she opened her mouth, flowers erupted from her throat, and I had to turn away.
“I’m sorry,” the words were barely whispered from my mouth when the earth shoved up, this time, my magic taking over control. She glanced to the sky, her eyes fractured into a million pieces by forget-me-nots blooming in her irises. She screamed, the sound enraged, as the wave of dirt curled over her, swirling around her, from the feet up. It was swallowing her, encasing her limbs in solid, heavy earth. She fought, scratching and clawing at it, but she wasn’t strong enough.
Nobody was ever strong enough, I realized. I was the only one who was able to make the final call and end it. She’d spent so long talking to me that she hadn’t thought I could do it.
But I could. I was stronger than she gave me credit for.
And now she was going to die for that last, final mistake.
She met my gaze, her mouth twisting into a broken, flower-filled smile. I glanced away as the storms came, lightning raining down on us from above. It hit the ground all around me, blinding me and all I knew was heat and the scent of ozone. My vision whited out, and I curled up as the earth surrounded me, covering me over and protecting me from my own powers.
All I could hear was the scream of fury from the skies above, and somehow, through it, the thready broken sound of her final cry.
Twenty-Eight
When the dust settled, the choking miasma of dying vegetation fading with the breeze, I was able to open my eyes and see again.
Each step felt like I was walking on hot coals. She was limp, her eyes unfocused, her lip trembling when I got close enough to see. My knees gave out, and I was on the ground beside her. She was all over flowers, dead and dying, her skin a patchwork of them, her hair fully vines. When she died, she’d return to the earth quickly, like it was meant to be. It didn’t make it hurt any less, though.
Why I wanted to ask her. Why did you do this? Why did you make me hurt you? Drops of water bloomed on her skin as I cried over her silently. Her fingers twitched.
“Dar…” Her voice was a ragged whisper, and she blinked, eyes trying to refocus. Her hand twitched again, lifting off the ground. With a gasp, green light shot out of the end of her index finger, and a lacy, thin vine erupted along the ground. My head jerked up as I tracked its path. It raced off into the shadows, past shattered mounds of brick and stone, and dusted plaster. “Go,” she rasped. The word made my muscles explode with action, and I surged forward, away from her, following the glowing vine as it grew, spreading ahead. I burst out of the edge of the house, the walls crumbled a
nd burnt, just as the vine buried itself at the foot of a thick bush, it’s green leaves tightly curled against the heat of our fight. It was like a giant cabbage if cabbages were made of frothy, curled fern fronds.
I shoved my fingers between the leaves. Tiny thorns dug into my skin, and I cried out, ripping at each leaf. I knew what was inside. Pain lanced my fingers as I pulled the plant to piece, dragging the fronds back, revealing it’s precious treasure. I sat there, staring in shock at what waited for me.
The baby, sleeping, oblivious to the death-fight that had occurred around her, lay cocooned in blankets. In her last act, my sister had protected her child from the fight. My fingers trembled.
It was my niece. And how she had survived, I could only think that my sister had been weak enough for me to defeat her because she’d sent her magic to protect her daughter. I reached down for her and pulled her into my chest, close to shelter her in my arms.
Everyone in her family was dead, except me. She was all alone if not for me. And I was alone too. What was left of the Llewellyn line ended with us.
“I’m sorry,” I said to her, even though she was too little and too asleep to know what I was saying. The ache spread inside me, unending and bottomless. I shuddered and cradled her.
“Darcy, Darcy!” Charlie’s winded voice carried to me, and I stood, cradling the baby against myself. I turned, and he saw me, his eyes going wide. “Is that- shhhhiiiiiit.” His mouth snapped shut. I shook my head, trying to get rid of the immense load of feelings warring inside my heart, and started walking toward him.
He took a long look at her when I reached him, his gaze shifting to my face.
“I’m taking her with us,” I said stubbornly, and his expression softened. Of course, he wouldn’t fight me, but for a second, I was scared that my family's blood price had to pay for restitution, for retribution for all the wolf lives slaughtered, would also call for my little niece’s life too.
“We wouldn’t have it any other way, not for a second,” he promised in an instant. Relief filled me from the ground up. The universe needed to be satisfied with the blood I had spilled. Her life would never be sacrificed to make amends. I swallowed, throat tight and painful. I wasn’t expecting him to say that, but I don’t know why I didn’t have faith in him or the rest of the guys. Of course, they’d help. They’d never leave a defenceless, helpless baby on her own. Never.
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