by Alicia Rades
What the hell is he up to?
Rogers didn’t slow until he reached the arena at the top of the hill. When I finally caught up to him, he was standing at the edge of the cliff, dangling the dagger over the water.
Dread slammed into my gut so hard that the air whooshed out of my lungs. I stopped in my tracks. It felt like I’d been punched in the stomach by Thor’s hammer.
“Don’t!” I cried, holding my hands out in front of me, as if I could reason with him.
But there was no reasoning with the Soulless. He’d already made his decision.
Rogers opened his fingers, and the dagger dropped out of sight. All of my hope fell with it, crashing into the waves below.
Instinctively, I shifted and flapped my wings, as if I might be able to catch it before it hit the water. But my wings failed to lift me into the air. I’d almost forgotten Valkas had ripped out my flight feathers. I shifted back to human form, feeling completely hopeless.
Maybe if I had a spell to stop it, or something to drag it up from the deep lake bed below… But I didn’t have any of that. All I had was tonight, and my final chance had vanished in the blink of an eye.
Before I could really process what had just happened, Rogers’s features started changing. His head ballooned as his body grew hundreds of pounds heavier. His skin transformed into a dark gray color, and it looked dry and rough. His nose elongated into a long, sharp horn.
A rhino! He was a freaking rhino shifter.
I quickly glanced around for a weapon and spotted a sharp rock at my feet. I knelt down and curled my fingers around the cool stone. My mind raced with possible solutions. A sharp rock against a rhino didn’t give me the best odds. I needed magic.
Ronark’s words instantly came back to me. Every witch has something worth fighting for. Just make sure your reason is stronger than his.
Rogers scuffed his foot in the dirt and lowered his head, aiming his horn at me. But for whatever reason, it didn’t ignite a sense of fear within me like it should’ve. I remained calm.
As Rogers stood there threatening me, I turned my focus inward. I felt for the magic I knew was there, but instead of digging deep into my own magic, I searched for the barrier Rogers had placed over the island. My magic slammed against an imaginary brick wall. I pictured my magic spreading out across it, looking for weaknesses in the spell.
“Want to know the difference between you and me?” I asked boldly.
Rogers tilted his head to the side, like I’d piqued his curiosity.
“I have a family worth fighting for,” I said.
This one’s for you guys.
Rogers huffed and took aim, sprinting for me like he was going to impale me through the heart. But I raised my hand in defense.
Suddenly, my magic tore through the wall like a stick of dynamite blasting through brick. All at once, the power inside of me that had been held back erupted out of my palms. Air blasted backward with the power of a hurricane, leaving me safely in the eye of the storm. The bleachers crumbled, and trees bowed over as Rogers’s body flew backwards at the force of my magic. He tumbled through the sky over and over, letting out a terrified whine. Then he was gone, thrust over the side of a cliff toward the rocks below.
In the blink of an eye, the storm was over. Trees righted themselves, and silence settled over the arena. It was almost like it hadn’t happened at all. I stood there for a moment, dumbstruck. All that power… and I hadn’t even muttered an incantation?
The sound of distant screams reached my ears, bringing me back to attention. I looked out over the trees toward the chateau, and my hand shot over my mouth. From this vantage point, I could see into the tall, wide windows that lined the ballroom. All throughout the room, blood slaves had shifted and vampires were going wild. The entirety of the island had turned on the Soulless. The sound of shattering glass was barely audible in the distance as two shifters threw a vampire through a window and glass rained down around him.
This isn’t over yet, I realized. My family needed me.
I started toward the trail, knowing that I had to get down there and help them. But just as I reached the trees, a tall, dark figure stepped out of the shadows, blocking my path. My heart leapt my chest.
“Well, well, well,” a voice came from out of the darkness. “You really should’ve stayed in your cell, darling.”
My blood ran cold as the figure stepped out of the trees and into the moonlight.
Valkas had come for me. Judging by the evil sneer on his face, he was finally done playing games.
22
“How does it feel?” Valkas mocked, taking another step into the arena. “Knowing this is finally the end? Without that dagger, you’ll never kill me, not unless you dive into the lake to retrieve it. The rocks at the bottom will kill you first.” He smirked in satisfaction.
“There are other ways to stop you,” I said confidently.
“How’s that?” He feigned interest. “Trapping me on this island again? Darling, you don’t have the manpower. Besides, look at how well that worked out last time.” He gestured to himself, like he was living proof that my magic was weak.
The honest truth was that I didn’t know how to stop him. I didn’t even know how to slow him down.
Valkas took another step toward me and reached out to brush my hair over my shoulder, exposing my neck.
I slapped his hand away. In my other hand, my grip tightened on the rock I’d been holding. “Don’t touch me.”
“Darling,” he snarled, leaning in close. His breath brushed across my face, sending shivers through my cheek. “I own you.”
The next moment passed in the blink of an eye, but I saw it as if it were in slow motion. Valkas’s hands shot out to wrap around me as his fangs elongated and headed toward my neck. He threw my body backward like we were a couple dancing on the clifftop and he was dipping me romantically. But there was nothing romantic about the moment.
As I felt the ground swoop out from under me, I shoved my rock upward—straight into his ribs. It was a last resort, one that I thought might slow him down… but it didn’t.
Valkas’s teeth sank into my neck, sending a needle-sharp pain across my skin. A split second later, that peaceful euphoria set in. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew this was not something to enjoy. This was a sign of the end.
I stared up at the night sky as strong emotions welled to the surface, overpowering that feeling Valkas’s bite gave me. For so many years, anger and frustration were all I knew. But this was different. It was heavier. The weight pulling on my chest was full of regret and sorrow. Somewhere along the way, everything had fallen to pieces, and it pained me to the very core to know that I wouldn’t get a chance to make things right again.
I thought of Venn, withering away to nothing in that cell. I thought of Sondra, how she’d been beaten to unconsciousness because of me. Jenna, how she’d been kidnapped and kept prisoner here all these years. Fiona, Teagan, Ryland, Ronark, Andi… all the other blood slaves on this island.
I’d come here to save them. And I didn’t.
As I thought of them, one thought broke through all the others.
At least they knew I loved them.
The weight in my chest eased at the thought, and a sense of peace washed over me. It wasn’t from Valkas’s bite, either. This peace came from inside of me.
At least if nothing else came of this, my family knew I loved them. Maybe I wouldn’t kill Valkas, and maybe the vampires would live on. They could take this world from us, destroy everything we held dear and rule as they had planned. But they would never take the moments. They would never take the feelings. They would never take us.
It was in that moment that I realized with unwavering certainty that Jenna was right. The Soulless couldn’t break me unless I let them.
At the thought, a power rose within me, a strong tingling of magic I’d never felt before. It was unlike the fire or the lightning I’d conjured in the past. This magic was hundreds of times
stronger, like a nuclear bomb about to go off inside my body.
Love, I realized. This was what it was like to love someone with so much passion that you thought your heart might explode.
You should know that there’s always more than one way off an island. That’s what Genevieve had said. I didn’t know why those words came back to me in that moment, but I knew it meant something. Only… what?
Was she talking about the island in a literal sense, or was it a metaphor? And if it was a metaphor, then what did it mean?
A red-hot, searing pain entered my veins as Valkas released his venom. It felt as if someone had placed burning hot coals on my neck, turning my blood to flames. My body went completely rigid, and I longed to scream, but the cry of agony caught in my throat, unable to escape.
And that was when Genevieve’s meaning hit me.
Even when strong bridges crumble, there’s always another path to take.
She meant it as a mental island, the feeling of being stuck, alone, and hopeless. The feeling of no escape.
She was trying to tell me that magic had loopholes, that even though I’d lost the dagger, there were other ways to break the vampire curse. That had to be it.
I struggled through the pain clouding my thoughts, trying to think of what I knew about magic. A curse like this could only be broken by the witch who cast it through an object used in the original spell.
The dagger wasn’t the only thing there when the spell was cast, I suddenly realized. I recalled the vision I’d had of Valkas, how I’d sliced his hand open with the dagger and watched his blood stream into a bowl.
It took everything I had to force words out between clenched teeth. “Quod. Dico. Facies.”
At my command, Valkas went rigid. I could barely sense it over the searing venom pulsing through my body, but I saw his muscles stiffen as I spoke the incantation for the puppeteer spell I’d seen Rogers use.
Drop me, I commanded in my mind.
Suddenly, my body fell from his grasp, and I landed hard in the dirt at his feet. Valkas stood above me with wide eyes filled with fright. He otherwise looked like a statue.
I pointed my hand at him and forced him to stand straight up. Blood dripped out of his open mouth. I could see in his eyes he was struggling to close his lips, but he couldn’t.
I got to my feet. I pressed one hand against the wound on my neck and kept the other pointed at him. Rage burned behind his motionless eyes. I quickly whispered the incantation for healing, then wiped the blood from my neck.
“I remember slitting your palm,” I said. “The dagger was the obvious option, but it never was the only one, was it?”
Valkas’s eyes grew wider the more I talked.
“All I need to break this spell is something used when the spell was created. The dagger isn't the only weapon that can kill you. You, Valkas, were there,” I stated as it became clear to me what I needed to do. “Which means you're a weapon against yourself."
I forced him to pull the sharp rock from his side, then let him take control of his mouth again. His scream echoed over the cliffside like a creature howling at the moon. He brought the rock to his chest under my command. Images of all the terrible things I’d seen the Soulless do flashed through my mind, but I settled on just one…
The day I came here, when Valkas had ripped that man’s heart from his chest. After all the horrible things he’d done, Valkas deserved to know what it felt like to be one of his own victims.
“Stop it, Rachel!” he shouted. “You don’t underst—GAHHH!”
I made him press the rock into his skin. It tore through his flesh and scraped along the bone like a blade cutting through ice. It carved out a deep, long wound surrounded by raw skin running from his collarbone all the way down to his sternum. Nausea hit me at the sight of it, but I forced the bile down my throat to concentrate.
Valkas screamed like I’d never heard anyone scream before. The sound of his voice carried over the empty water like a banshee in the night.
Drop the rock, I commanded in my mind.
He did, still screaming like he couldn’t bear the pain any longer.
By the simple twitch of my finger, Valkas shoved his hand into his open chest cavity. He removed it a moment later and held up a dry, black heart.
His features contorted in a mix between disgust, fury, and terror. “You evil bit—”
The vengeance I felt toward Valkas melted away. This wasn’t about revenge anymore. This was about saving the people I loved.
I curled my hand into a tight fist, forcing him to do the same. Valkas squeezed as hard as he possibly could.
It was ironic. The same hand that gave blood to create him would be the same to destroy him.
“Biiiiitch!” he roared.
The heart turned to ash in his hand.
I released my hold on him as the ashes drifted away in the wind. Valkas gasped and took a step toward me, but his legs began to crumble beneath him. He fell to the ground, and I watched in peaceful satisfaction as the spell broke before my very eyes. Valkas reached a hand out toward me, but his fingers washed away in the wind like sand upon a beach.
He shot me one last pleading look, as if begging me to reverse the spell, to keep him alive. But I could see it in his eyes—he already knew it was over.
“How does it feel?” I asked calmly, throwing his words back at him. “Knowing this is finally the end?”
He gaped at me as his body crumbled away. It took his arms and legs first, then his body, before finally wiping away the wide-eyed expression on his face. And then he was just… gone.
Valkas’s clothes remained in a pile at my feet.
The pain of the venom rushing through my veins eased as the vampire curse broke. Relief so strong washed through me like a tidal wave hitting shore. Tears sprang to my eyes before I even knew they were coming and streamed down my face. My whole body shivered, and I dropped to my hands and knees, curling up into a ball with my forehead pressed to the grass. Deep breaths passed in and out of my lungs as I tried to regain my physical strength and process what had just happened. I couldn’t believe it.
Never again would I give up, no matter how bad the situation. Tonight proved to me that anything was possible.
Against all odds, I had finally beat Valkas.
23
“Rachel!” The sound of Jenna’s voice carried through the trees and over the cliff.
I didn't know how long I'd been kneeling there, staring down at Valkas's empty shirt, unable to believe he was truly gone. Eight years ago, he’d escaped from this island and the whole world changed. Now things could go back to normal.
I didn't even know what that looked like anymore. It felt like magic had been part of the world my whole life.
Magic. We still had magic. Of course things wouldn't go back to the way they were. Witches and shifters were still out in the open. But maybe now that the vampire curse was broken, magic wouldn't be so feared. We could embrace it, give it a different face than the horror vampires had put to it. We could use it for good.
“Rachel!” Jenna's voice came again, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“Rae!” Fiona's voice quickly followed.
“Up here!” I called.
“Rachel, oh my God.” Jenna rushed out of the trees and fell to her knees beside me. She lightly reached out to touch the tender bruises on my face, but she pulled away at the last second. “What happened?”
“I… I killed him,” I said, glancing between Fiona and Jenna. They were banged up and bruised themselves, but I didn’t notice any major injuries. “I killed Valkas.” I wasn't sure I truly believed it until I said the words out loud. “What about you? Did Ronark and Andi make it?”
Jenna dropped her gaze. “We fought off the vampires in the hall, but when we tried following you, we lost you in the chateau. We thought Rogers had led you to the ballroom. Only… when we got there, you weren't there.”
“A fight broke out,” Fiona said. “Before we knew it, all the
blood slaves had joined us—shifters, human, all of them.”
“Are Ronark and Andi okay?” I repeated.
Jenna took a long breath. “Andi didn't make it. A vampire got ahold of her—”
“I don't want to know how it happened,” I interrupted.
Jenna nodded in understanding. “Ronark is fine. He's leading everyone in rounding up the Soulless.”
I instantly became more alert. I lifted my gaze and looked down the hill toward the chateau. Windows were smashed, and bodies were strewn here and there. From what I could see through the windows, people walked slowly. Everything seemed so quiet and somber compared to when I'd seen the place in an uproar earlier.
“You mean, the vampires aren't dead?” I asked. When I killed Valkas, all the vampires should've died with him. The magic keeping them alive should’ve disappeared. “I thought I broke the vampire curse.”
Fiona shot a glance at Jenna, like she didn't know how to tell me what came next. She placed a gentle hand on my shoulder and said, “You did. They just didn't die.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, bewildered. “What happened?”
“It happened all of a sudden,” Jenna explained. “We were losing people left and right, then suddenly… we just weren't. It was like the vampires lost their strength. We started winning, and they began surrendering.”
“We all kind of realized what was happening at the same time,” Fiona said. “The silver faded from their eyes, and…”
“You mean they're human again?” It didn't seem possible.
Jenna nodded. “Yes. It doesn't excuse their crimes, but—”
Before Jenna could finish, a shot of adrenaline jolted through my chest. I sprang to my feet so fast I nearly lost my balance. I clutched on to Jenna’s and Fiona's shoulders to steady myself. “Oh my God! Do you know what this means?” I didn't wait for their response before answering my own question. “Venn!”
I sprinted down the trail and back toward the chateau. Fiona and Jenna were close at my heels. Inside, we navigated through an endless labyrinth of hallways until we found the door leading to the dungeons. I ran down them so fast that I almost lost my footing and slid all the way down. I caught myself on the railing and didn’t stop running until we reached the cells.