“I don’t see why you have to be so difficult, and here I am trying to be nice.” He rubs his chest and coughs to gain back his normal breathing.
“There’s more where that came from, asshole.”
He shakes his head, chuckling.
“I’m bringing you back to Ravamere. Aren’t you worried about Dawn?”
I lower my gaze to the ground as I remember Dawn trapped in Ravamere. I know my father won’t kill her, but I’m afraid she may have been turned since that place is filled with corruption.
“Or your witch friend? Seems to me you’re hurting all of your friends by not accepting the fact that you’re pure evil like the rest of us.”
I glare up at him trying to release myself from the roots and branches.
“Did you forget the Verel brotherhood works with Ravamere?” he says. “Your boyfriend knew the entire time that I was affiliated with Ravamere. Tell me, how is he doing?”
I stare darts up at him as I release the myth within.
Chapter 19
Christian stands still, walking side to side and kicking the grass with his polished pointy black shoes. If only he was really a gentleman, yet he’s the creep I trusted. I’m the stupid one to fall for it. My gaze falls to the ground. “Either you kill me or I kill you. Make a decision.”
He stops walking around to look at me. His demeanor is mysterious and filled with determination. I can sense that I was piercing through his soul, or it was marinating within him. The branches binding me pull me back against their tree’s bark. I chuckle to myself shaking my head, biting my lip as I tried fighting back.
“I do not want to kill you. You’re my queen.” He walks up to me and traces his fingers on my jawline. I glare up at him without a single blink. “I know she’s inside, why don’t you let her come out so we can have a little chat?”
His deep green eyes and markings glow in front of me. His teeth were sharp and he seems more corrupt than ever. The rose scent he wears travels into my nostrils, just as a fairy’s would. His middle finger rubs the skin of my throat and he exhales in relief. He senses my heart beating as his eyebrows rise slowly. Weeds from the ground slither up the bark and around my ankles, they coil around my wrists.
“You’re afraid of me. This is new,” he says. “I thought witches were supposed to kill my kind. Isn’t this what you keep saying? Yet you can’t even do it without falling into your own deadly weakness.”
The weeds slither in between my thighs and constrict, they make their way up into my hair. I know if I let my myth out she will fall into his manipulation. I close my eyes as Christian’s deep chuckles enter my ears.
“Some things you can’t ignore.”
At this point, I was for sure about to lose control and allow her to come out. My ears twitch from a sound in the distance of a twig’s crack on the ground. I open my eyes—the guy I loathe the most, his scruff was out of control and not maintained. His face has more scars than I imagined, the silver witch markings seer on his skin. I don’t think Christian notices a witch behind him; he is too busy undressing me in his mind.
Donovan approaches behind him with his whip ready to coil around his neck. He makes the move, slashing the whip in the air for the elf in front of me. Christian turns around, immediately grabbing the whip’s metal.
It burns his hand, sizzles against his skin. He lets go of the whip, knowing he can’t touch it. Donovan’s eyes narrow and the scar on his lip trembles in anger. Clicking his broomstick, turning the whip into a silver sword, he sprints in the direction of Christian. The mystic seems focused and flicks his fingers, allowing a large root to smash in front of them both. Donovan jumps over the root and tumbles down, slicing for Christian’s legs. The elf leaps away as Donovan gets up to kick his side.
Christian falls to the ground and then looks up at Donovan dragging his sword on the ground toward him. Vines, roots, and weeds spring up from the earth and cling to the witch. He cuts the weeds off his arms as quickly as possible. Christian’s faster; he glides backward into the forest with one last glance at me. He vanishes into the darkness.
I’m still not in relief to find him now gone. I focus on the person in front of me.
Swallowing is hard, the air is thick and my skin bruised from the branches still holding onto me. I know Christian isn’t gone for good; he’s in the woods stalking the scene once more. It’s impossible to kill an elf in its little leafy kingdom. His evil chuckles are muffled in the leaves behind me. Donovan makes his way over, he doesn’t give me any contact. He cuts the branches with his dagger as I fall to the ground. Clicking his broomstick off, he places it into his pocket and walks off.
I’m angry to even see him or be saved by the jerk. My eyebrows furrow as I sprint toward him, he turns around to block my punch. He doesn’t want to fight back, he only blocks and dodges my blows. Turning on my broomstick, it knows that I would like a sword to fight him as it forms into one. Donovan holds out his broomstick, blocking my blows. Our swords clang against one another as one strand of sweat travels down my cheek.
“So this is how you want to handle the truth?” he says, walking backward and avoiding my attacks. Forming my broomstick into a whip, I slash the air, aiming for him. The whip wraps around his sword, pulling me in closer. He removes my grip on my broom and stares deeply at me. He drops his broomstick on the ground and pushes me away.
“I don’t want to fight you.”
“You already started the fight by kissing another girl.” I manage to get a punch through to his face from the many blocks he’s done. “A girl that I killed and just happened to be alive again.”
He stumbles back in shock and cracking his jaw back into place.
“That’s all I needed,” I say, walking over to get my broomstick. I place my mask back over my face so I can go and find Luvie.
From behind me, Donovan mutters, “It’s like that? I did that to protect you from what’s to come. You think I wanted to kiss her? You’re a reckless witch, and anything you don’t like angers you and motivates you. See what you’ve become? You’re stronger now because of what happened. Dammit, Rose, you didn’t even kill her right; you used a bar and not your broomstick.”
I stop walking, looking at the forest in front of me. I sense Donovan and his footsteps from behind. I’m still thinking about what happened. I remember piercing her with the bar. Maybe he’s right, and maybe I needed to use my broomstick. I shake my head. Whatever. Should I care if he kissed her purposefully for me? Should I care to think about him and her at all? He doesn’t understand that what he did hurt me, so he must face this witch’s wrath. His time will come when I kill him myself. I roll my eyes and sigh.
“You hate Emily when she’s the one helping us both. Yes, she’s liked me ever since we landed in Ellevil,” he butts in. I hate it when guys do that.
I turn to my side. “Time is wasting when I can be gathering answers.”
He turns me around completely to face him and I hold back everything inside of me to punch his face again. “I told you in that cave—I have to kill you. I’m part of the Verel. Brothers who are truly against any interaction with myths.”
“So you would really kill me, Donovan? Or would you kill someone I love?” I glare at him.
He takes off my mask. “I want to see your face. You’ve changed so much in a year.” I look away, holding back my tears. “Of course, I wouldn’t kill you,” he breathes, his scruffy chin so close to me.
“Can you look at me for a moment? I haven’t seen you in so long,” he says, holding onto my chin and brushing my hair from my face. I slowly turn back around to look at him.
“What made you decide to go for the posh look?” He holds back his laugh.
“You wouldn’t kill me, but you’d kill my brother,” I say, staring up at him. Donovan steps back.
“So that’s what this is all about, huh?” He narrows his eyes. “You think I killed your brother.”
“I’m not thinking, I know you killed him,” I hiss. “Y
ou’re mind fucking me, and I don’t appreciate it. I really hate it, you know that? One second you like me and then the next you want to go and kiss a girl and say you are destined to kill me. Like, what is this?” I wave my hands in his face. “What are we? I need the truth…did you or did you not kill my brother?” I wish so much that what I saw wasn’t true, I want it to be one of Christian’s illusions, please. I’m begging.
“My dad wants me to kill you, and he’s picked me to do it. Eric knows that I’ve been seeing you, so I’ve been getting beatings and forced to fight corrupt mystics in Ravamere because of it.” His deep raspy voice calms me down. “You tell me, what are we?” He doesn’t look away. “Everything we went through, and you’re questioning me about the death of your brother? Just because of my last name? I can’t even remember straight, just like Jared.”
“I don’t know.” I breathe, and finally look away.
“Everything I say to you is being traced. They know I’m here with you right now.”
The streets, the cars, the trees and everything else becomes quiet. The night grows thicker and the blood inside my skin boils. I sense a presence from the shadows. Behind Donovan, I see a building not too far from us, and to my side, there’s another building with its door open. Behind me was the forest Christian fled into.
Guys like gangsters walk out of the shadows, several more walk out of the two buildings. Eric’s standing in front of the mob smirking. The guys turn on their broomsticks as their markings glimmer across my face. I slowly look at Donovan, his finger in front of his mouth, warning me to stay quiet. “You liar!” I scream out. “You’re dead to me!”
These were the brothers of Verel, Don’s infamous brotherhood, who use female witches and pure mystics for their own desire, and to aid Ravamere with new corruption.
But I wasn’t going to let that happen.
Chapter 20
“You betrayed me like your father did to my grandmother. I guess it runs in the family,” I spit, glaring at him. “Oh, talk about reenacting history.”
“It’s not like that,” he whispers.
I’m not going to stand here and be murdered by a gang of witches…and who led them here? No one other than Donovan himself. This is too much for me right now, my only choice is to let my myth out. I close my eyes and allow all the emotions to flow out of me, the anger I feel toward Donovan, the sadness from the scene he caused in Vaelle, all exit slowly. My hair freezes into its regular blonde elf color, and my eyes tingle as I fade away into my mind, now allowing my myth to control my actions.
***
“If Rose didn’t like you so much, I would kill you myself,” I say, glancing to my sides and behind Donovan. The Verel approach us faster than ever, shouting and whipping their broomsticks in the air.
The first thing that comes to mind is to get to the forest. My green markings light up the darkness around me. I sprint toward branches as darts stab into the tree trunks in front of me. I duck from the attacks and bite my bottom lip softly. I climb up a tree and disappear into the leaves.
I see Eric running into the forest. From above, my eye narrows down at him, and with one arm I land on a thick branch to swing to the next tree. I land on a branch silently and calmly.
Taking out the dagger from my back pocket, I place the tip between my eyes as I breathe against its metal slowly. I am in complete focus and I know I can stab the back of his neck without trying.
Other Verel members run around the forest, and as soon as I throw my dagger, a voice distracts me.
“She’s up there! Eric, watch out!”
Eric moves as my dagger stabs into a tree, missing him by an inch. Damn it, I missed. I turn on my broomstick and fling my whip toward the dagger, allowing it to wrap around the handle.
I flick it back toward me, grabbing it in mid-air. A whip wraps around my branch as it snaps in half, but I leap away on another in time.
An arrow stabs a guy in the back as he falls to the ground. I feel him here with me. I know he’s in the trees. Christian knew this was going to happen. I look up to him, he smirks in his tree.
“Nice shot.” I watch him carefully.
I don’t give him a chance to reply, as I run across the trees and flip to each one in my line of sight. I remember when Rose trained with her elf friend Charlotte, she conjured a grass-made snake.
It was too easy to do that now she’s allowing me to take over. I flick my finger toward the ground. Leaves from the trees fall and the wind picks up as dust creates a little tornado, forming the snake. Leaping off the tree, I land gracefully on the ground in the middle of the witches. They’re waiting for me to attack. I cross my hands behind my back as my snake slithers around me. They soon back up slowly, shocked by the creature I conjured.
“Cool trick,” Eric says.
“Thanks.” I shoot him a glare.
“We’re not allowed to kill you yet, we need to take you back to Rav,” he spits.
“Throwing darts isn’t a friendly gesture.” I pet my snake.
“They’re stunning darts,” one witch coughs. I immediately look at him.
“And you think I’m going to go so easily?” I smile.
Donovan steps out from the crowd. As he walks up to me, my snake slaps its tail in front of him. The witches huddle up, ready to attack at any second. Christian is in the trees watching. He’s entertained.
“I was hoping you wouldn’t fight against it, and come quietly with us,” his voice is low.
“Okay. I’m all yours.”
Their faces were all stunned as if it’s easy catching a myth like me. Little do they know, I wasn’t planning on leaving with them. My snake gets the message as it slithers forward with increasing speed and bites a witch’s hand.
I turn around to flee from the scene, but I sense whips flying in my direction toward my back. I’m too slow to dodge the first whip as it stings on my skin. Mystics weren’t allowed to touch whips and it feels worse when I’m in this form.
My fingers claw on the whip, but another constricts around my neck, shocking me. Soon several more wrap around me. My body is pulsing from the vibrations and electric feeling.
“Do you really think we haven’t encountered myths before?” one witch says from the crowd.
My snake withers back into tiny leaves as I take one last look at Donovan.
“Don’t worry, your dad is excited to see you again,” Eric says.
***
I know for sure allowing my myth out in Ravamere will turn her back into a ferocious elf, thirsty for blood. I have control over her, and I’m not going to lose her there.
Donovan walks by my side, I can’t believe he planned all of this. Was he forced to do this because of his brotherhood?
We’re in front of the building they came out of when Donovan and I met up. Eric kicks the door open as many of his brothers around him chuckle and cuss about things I don’t care about. Inside I see a mystic tied up and teary eyed. The wings on her back indicate that she’s a fairy.
There’s a puddle of dust below her knees and her hair was glowing different colors in the darkness. A bat flies down and lands in front of her. It’s Luvie’s bat. I search for her, my eyes landing on a figure in a corner. The mermaid must’ve evaporated her into this building because she’s still shivering from the cold.
Her dreads are in front of her face as she hums a sad melody. I want to scream so she knows that I’m here. My mouth is tied up with whips. The witches drop me on the ground as they poke in the air. A portal ripples from its invisibility surrounding the room in a purple glow.
“Hello, boys.” Christian walks in from behind nonchalantly.
Donovan glances at him and then ignores his presence as Eric walks over to hand him an object. I couldn’t really pick out what the object was from the darkness, all I see are markings.
Christian walks into the portal first, chewing on a leaf stem. The gangsters pick up Luvie and the fairy and enter the portal, followed by Eric. Donovan lifts me up and I sta
re at him angrily, he looks at me with sadness.
“I’m sorry. It was either this or trying to kill you.”
I turn my head to look in a different direction, hearing him say, “Don’t lose control.”
We burn through the portal, landing on the dead grass, the smell still reeks of death. I know that there isn’t much of a chance for me escaping because there’re guards by the entrance. I glance up. Dawn’s still floating in the air.
Thank god.
I stand still as I think of a plan. I see Marcus standing with his devious pointy ears and goatee waiting for me. Beside him was my brother Jared, his white hair messed up on the top of his head.
They both were in suits patiently waiting for my arrival. Jared doesn’t seem too excited about me being here, but my Father grins at me, clapping his hands together.
Corrupt mystics all surround me, chanting and screaming, throwing dead objects on the ground as I walk up to my family. Faeries throw dead flowers on the ground and mermaids were grinding on one another. They’re all happy knowing I’m here with them. I glance to my side, Donovan has his hands in his pockets. He nods at me and rolls his eyes.
I feel like I’m going to have a heart attack; my pressure is rising and it’s hard to breathe. Could I be losing control of my myth? She pounds against my heart.
I swallow the pain and walk up to Marcus.
I’m sure he knows I want to turn around and kill the mystics that get in my way, but that would be utterly idiotic of me. I lower my gaze. My plan was to fit in the best I could around this many corrupt mystics. Marcus pulls me in by a force, clasping his fingers shut as I appear at his side.
“My brothers and sisters! Your queen has returned!” he shouts.
“Queen Eliza!” the mystics cheer roughly. “Queen Eliza!”
Marcus places his arm around my shoulder. Jared doesn’t give me any eye contact. I try to not look innocent and awkward. It was kind of hard not to be. I was delivered by the guy I loved and among the many mystics I can picture him specifically.
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