My father and Christian stand a few feet back from the dancing mystics. The lights are on in the castle, some mystics are on the rooftop sitting and watching in the shadows. Marcus notices me from the sidelines, he walks so swiftly that he appears in front of me in a blink of an eye. His eyes wander around my figure.
“Your friend Dawn escaped Ravamere. We’re holding a corrupt ritual preparing the mystics here to leave.”
My lips, part I glare at the pit and back at Marcus. “What do you mean?”
“No one ever leaves Ravamere under my control, and expects to have a free life.” He shakes his head and wipes his tongue across his sharp teeth. He raises his hand and snaps his fingers. The mystics stop their dancing and hiss and snarl at their leader, crouching to the ground, weaving their bodies along with the waves of fire.
“Wait, what are you doing?” I step forward slowly.
Marcus ignores my question and says, “Go.” The mystics screech and laugh, cutting swiftly through the grass, the fairies shoot through the air, and the elves are only a speckle of green light as they run through the tall grass. I scream, running after the mystics, now that I know Marcus’s plan for Dawn.
“No!” My voice is hoarse, a vine slaps across my stomach, pulling me back. My blonde hair fades into sight, and my eyes and markings both freeze and burn. “No!” My voice becomes deeper and darker.
My hair lifts up into the stiff air. My right eye burns along with my witch markings, and my left eye freezes along with my elf markings. I flick my hands in the air, burning off the vines.
The mystics jump through the raging Ravamere portal, disappearing one by one with Dawn on their minds. They all vanish from the corrupt world; I dart through the field. It’s the fastest I’ve ever run before in my life.
A purple strike of lightning shoots through the dark clouds, lighting the area. I crash into a purple force field that crackles through the air, creating a bubble around the field.
I turn around, witnessing my father’s eyes beaming his purple color. The ground moves, roots spring up and he raises his chin, his deep laugh mocking my eyes.
“You’re not going anywhere, Eliza.” His voice echoes toward me down the field. Christian steps forward, fixing his hair and dragging something along with him that’s on the ground. I feel pain and sadness scratching at my soul. Christian’s green eyes are on me and they anger me even more. I don’t know what’s going on with my body, I feel like I’m combined with my myth and we are one. I’m filled with rage and power. We both smile, but I hold back, and press my lips together tightly, narrowing my eyes at the two elves in front of me.
Marcus pulls out my rose, and Christian places his rose across his lips.
“It’s time you take your rightful place as Ravamere’s Queen, Eliza.” There’s a force that pulls me toward my father. We’re now standing in a circle of dirt. There’s a black dart of light right in the center. I allow my gaze to trace where it’s coming from and it’s the tip of the castle aligning against the dirt and between my father and Christian. I now know what Christian drags along with him across the field. It is Jared, my brother. Beaten up and breathing slowly, his silver markings are beaming lightly.
The Verel brotherhood all stand across the edges of the purple bubble we’re inside of. Donovan steps in between Eric and a gray-haired man with a trimmed beard, holding a sword in his right hand. Donovan’s jaws clench tightly as he stares right back at me.
How could he have betrayed me after everything we’ve been through?
He knows I’m hurting right now; I’m dying inside and he knows he’s the cause of it all. “A pure heart is the hardest kind of purity ever to possess. Through all of the magical creatures and myths, including your mother I’ve used and, well, corrupted.” Marcus circles around me, twisting the rose in his hand. “I could never solve the puzzle, the final ingredient of becoming immortal.” His gaze slides over to me. “It was so complicated, an intelligent and powerful elf like herself couldn’t solve it.”
He glanced over at the purple flames slithering through the field and trapping the four of us in a cage of fire. “There’s one thing that old elf saw in her visions, though. A baby boy, pure and protected from ever becoming corrupt. A baby boy who was bred by your mother and the man she loved.” A slight smirk appeared across his mouth.
“Of course, I needed control. I wanted to be more powerful than any mystic who lived in this world.” He stopped walking and stood still in place. His fashioned trimmed beard is shaved up nicely, and the jewelry around his fingers and the suit he wears makes him come off as calm and elegant as ever. A shock of lightning shoots across the fields, lighting the faces of the shadows who stared back at me.
Thunder clapped through the air, and Jared rolled over on the ground. “I sought after the woman and manipulated her emotions into loving me. She left the man, I ended up killing him off in the forest outside of Vaelle.” He dropped the rose onto the ground. “Then you were born. I figured you were the baby I needed to kill in order to become what I wanted to be. Terese saw otherwise and it was your brother, Jared.”
I remember projecting back with Jared’s necklace and seeing the Verel and Donovan circling around Jared in the hidden room. Donovan walked up and then I was pulled out…the rest was a mystery. “Jared’s memories are held from him because a part of him, his soul, still lives. Being in Ravamere causes him to be weak as well, look at how pale and useless he is.”
Christian watches the scene calm and bored, kicking Jared over lightly.
“The Verel knew about Jared and what needed to be done. I ran away with your pregnant mother into the city while she raised you.” Marcus turned around and glared at me. “As soon as the Verel killed your brother in Vaelle, a curse reacted, causing me to be trapped here in this world, and instead of Jared’s pure soul latching onto me, it latched onto a stray cat.”
My heart dropped immediately from what the Verel did to my brother and how they kidnapped an innocent, pure child only to kill him. They murdered Jared to help an evil mystic. No wonder my grimoire speaks badly of them.
The Verel belong in Ravamere, a mystical hell. My stare shoots over to Donovan, he knew about all of this. My eyes grow warm, I tried to control my breathing, but the smoke around me isn’t helping. Donovan…how could he not tell me this? There was a reason why Jared couldn’t remember most things. His soul wasn’t meant to be living; he isn’t supposed to be alive. The insides of my palms are in pain from my nails digging ever so deeply.
“What makes you think killing him here will help you fulfill what you desire?” I croak.
Marcus clicked his tongue. “The roses Terese gave to you and Christian are both powerful. They hold the same kind of magic that caused the curse between your brother and I. The only way to reverse it is for the betrothal to be finished.”
Christian walks slowly toward Marcus.
This was the moment Christian waited for; he knew what he needed to do. I failed to get Jared out in enough time to save his life. My heart races nervously. My legs grow weak and my markings numb my skin. Jared grows paler by each second and he struggles to breathe. I kept strong in front of Marcus and Christian and the Verel brotherhood. If everything was true, I needed to stop this betrothal from happening.
My mother and grandparents came back to warn me about this.
“I’m not going to allow you to get what you want,” I breathe, giving him a fearless stare.
“Dawn should be dead by now, and Jared will soon be gone too.” He placed his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “You have no one but Christian. I knew you’d never accept who you are.” As soon as Marcus turned around, he released a loud grunt and raised his hand on top of Christian’s shoulder.
The elf glowers down at the green blood on his wrist as a disgusted Christian twists the dagger deeper, piercing Marcus’ heart. The knife punctured out from his back, releasing a pulse of magic through the stormy air. He clears his throat, the bubble around the castle and the
field soon fade away.
“How—could…what are you doing?” Marcus struggles to breathe.
“The only powerful mystic that’s going to be alive is me,” Christian says. Green mist starts to rise from Marcus’s wound. The Verel react swiftly. The plan must’ve been killing Jared and not Marcus. They all charge, closing in on the four of us in the circle. Four white wolves burst out from the castle’s doors. They dart down the path toward us, eyeing us with their red glares and corrupt growls.
I noticed the red swirly markings around the paws of one wolf. Rissa.
She races down with her group. The wolves reach Jared, grab the ends of his clothes and leap into the air, vanishing in white mist. Rissa keeps back and lowers her snout, raising her stare at Christian; he was still focused on vanishing Marcus. His dagger drops to the ground with a loud blast of purple magic. The magic ripples across the fields of Ravamere and up into the sky.
Christian’s markings turned purple and so did his eyes. He cracked his neck, but Rissa didn’t wait for anything else to happen. She leaped into the air and bit his neck, crashing him down to the ground. She bounced off his body, grabbed my rose from the ground and raced toward the portal.
The Verel members shot out several darts. I splay my fingers, blocking the tiny weapons with a green wall of magic. I glance down at my palms and wave my fingers at the fire trapping Rissa and I. The circle of fire splits apart and creates a path for us to run through.
She swiftly sprints toward the portal, dodging and slipping through the many Verels that try and stop her. I turn, Marcus’s dust pauses in the air, the clouds are darker than before and several bolts of lightning cut through the many clouds.
Christian stands up, pressing the palm of his hand against his neck where Rissa bit him; he’s weakened and unable to chase. Waving out my hands, the earth comes alive and roots hold the Verel members in place. I run along the side of Rissa in her wolf form, she leaps into the portal.
“Rose!” Donovan screams out my name, he’s being crushed by a root. I exhale, turning back around muting his screams from my ears. The rush of flames scratch my skin, and the voices of taunted innocent people and mystics whisper to me.
I’m pulled through the portal, land on the wet grass and feel the droplets of rain clean my body. I cough, realizing what has happened. It was all so fast, I don’t know what to think.
Rissa is in her human form, she kneels down to me with a sincere look on her face.
“Hurry, Aeron, we need to seal the portal before they come through. You fix this one. Jax, you head to Witcher’s Place and seal the entrance there.” She talks to the people around her. “I remember her, it’s nice to know she’s all right now,” one of the deeper voices says.
“Yeah, she was zoned out in Faevil when I saw her. Let’s hope we can save whatever is about to happen.”
I hear the rustle of leaves being stepped on soon fade back to the soothing mist of a drizzle in the forest.
“Kassidy and Brix, head to Eliza’s house and seal that portal, meet back in the Shade.” The wolves growl and then race off on the foliage in the forest. “Hey. Stay with me Eliza, okay?” She moves my wet strands away from my face. “We’ve got you out, we’ve got you now,” Rissa hums against the rain.
I look up at a fairy floating in the air and circling his hands at a purple and maroon portal. His hair is changing colors slowly, and he glances at me with a smirk. It’s the fairy I remember meeting back in Faevil. “I thought you became corrupt with the rest of the fairies there?”
“Nah, I left as soon as Alice and the rest of the Shade members came for me.”
“That’s where we’re meeting Alice and the rest of your friends. Let’s go before the mystics released from Ravamere catch on to your scent.” Rissa says, helping me up.
I can still feel my skin freezing and burning, I can’t help but tear up with everything. “Jared, where’s my brother?” I look around in the forest. “Where’s my brother? Your wolves took him!”
“Jared’s all right, he’s in Serevil.”
“I’m guessing the land of shifters?”
Rissa nods. Outside of Ravamere her hair isn’t a blood red anymore. It’s white and her eyes are hazel. She still has her fangs that hover over her bottom lip. She got through the portal so she was able to leave even if she was already corrupt and trapped there.
“You jumped through? You killed an innocent…”
“I take it you haven’t killed anything yourself, so don’t judge my past.” She looks over at Aeron, fixing up the portal. It’s completely fading away.
“Catch you back at base.” Aeron nods and she helps me through the forest.
“How exactly did you know everything was about to go down?” I ask as we walk through the woods.
“You had your plan and I had mine. I got a bite on Christian, that’s all I wanted. I sensed something bad as soon as Christian found Jared and, well…” she pauses, and I got the message. “After what happened, I knew it was all in the plan to lure you out.” She stopped and looked at me and says, “You shouldn’t have followed that Verel.”
“I make my own decisions and I have my own reasons.”
“I sure hope you do. Christian took advantage of Marcus being weak. He won’t be able to leave Ravamere now since he killed Marcus. The curse leeched onto him instead.” She rubs my arm. “You don’t need to fear him anymore. He’s not coming out anytime soon.”
I wanted to believe everything Rissa said. Christian not leaving and coming for me after everything that happened. It’s impossible to think of such things, knowing what Christian’s capable of. I watch as Rissa walks through the forest, but I know he’s planning to get what he lost.
He’s coming for me no matter how strong my defenses are.
Chapter 27
The room is quiet and still, with everyone staring at me. All eyes on Eliza Rose, the freak in the Shade. The one who’s marked up and half witch and half of what everyone here is trained to kill. A monster, a freak, a mystical disaster waiting to unleash at them all. The witches and mystics hold onto their weapons. They have every right not to trust a monster like me in the same room with them. The Shade members wear black, hidden in the shadows of their hideout. A hospital for curing corruption, the door in the room opens to Luvie and Alice walking in.
“None of the Rav mystics were out in the Mystique club.” Luvie held out her hand for her bat to land on. She eyed me, as Charlotte and Audrey stood near the glass wall that stretched across the room.
“How do we know if the trace is off her?” I turned at one of the members who asked this.
“Yeah, are we for sure all of the portals are sealed?” Aeron’s wings settled on his back and his dust flicked up around him. Alice nods at Aeron.
Rissa crossed her arms. “So what now?”
I turned around, glancing out the building we were in and past the clear wall in front of me. Mystics walked around with their clipboards, entering many rooms to check on the weak. Humans were brought in, stitched up in blue and purple wounds. Witches were among the hallways as well, aiding innocents.
“This is all my fault,” I breathe against the glass and narrow my eyes at a little girl marked up in glitter, her mouth gaped and her eyes rolled back; she was carried into a room as the elf closed the door.
“Eliza, this isn’t your fault,” Charlotte’s soft voice sounds.
“I left this place in hopes of stopping whatever happened in Ravamere. Alice told me not to leave.” I turn around to the members. Alice removed the mask from around her mouth and stepped to the side. “She told me we were in this together. I know being sorry isn’t enough to cover anything that has happened out here in the real world. Ravamere mystics have been sent to find Dawn, my best friend.” I rub my temples. “Someone who I promised to protect. Now I don’t know where she is.”
“Why did you leave?” Alice asks. Her tone isn’t sincere and I didn’t expect anything else.
“I’m a myth, possi
bly the only one living. I thought I had—”
“—Enough power to stop your father in a corrupt world? You barely can control your own self. When will you ever stop doing what you want to do?” Alice’s voice picked up around the group; everyone’s gaze lowered. “When I first met you in that club, you were with Christian there. When you arrived in Vaelle, you don’t think I knew about Donovan visiting? He’s a Verel.” She turns to look at her members. “Every witch, every one of us knows not to trust that brotherhood. Charlotte and Audrey are guilty too for letting him in our lands.”
“Alice,” Charlotte manages to speak out, but Alice kept with what she had to say.
“I understand you thought you could save everyone. I understand you needed answers for closure or whatever you needed, but you risked putting people and your friends in danger from going into that world. Not once, but entering twice. You risked all of our lives.” She shook her head. “Selfish.”
“I know what I did was wrong, but I’m going to stand with my reasons. I may not be the most favorite witch here, I’ve caused people to get hurt, and some were killed from my actions.” I feel my pocket for my broomstick. I bring it out and glance down at the weapon. “Marcus is dead.” I lift my gaze at Aeron, Jax, and the rest of the witches here.
“What do you mean he’s dead?”
“Christian killed him. He was already dying off. Marcus couldn’t fight back even if he wanted to,” I say. “Before Christian stabbed him, he said that the only way to reverse the curse from trapping him in that world is to kill someone who has a rare, pure heart.”
“No one in this world has that kind of heart.” Alice stepped back, parting her lips.
“I’m the last witch you all want to see right now, trust me I understand that. I’ve caused an insane amount of trouble for the Shade and its members.” I glower up at the witches. I clear my throat and say, “I think Christian is going to kill someone I know.”
Magical (Mystical Series Book 3) Page 17