by Melody Raven
Sam reached the front door to the dark building and pulled. Surprisingly, it was unlocked. Once she was in, she was filled with a sense of unease. Not just because she knew the building was overrun with evil. Because there was no one here. The lights were off. Reception was empty. No security guard. No receptionist. None of the sentries who were normally posted at the front to protect Claudia.
She thought back to the building that Heather had taken over. It had been rotted out with decay because of the darkness that had been eating it from the inside out. Sam didn’t see any of those symptoms here. Was it just too soon? Or had the darkness moved on?
She had a feeling she wasn’t going to get that lucky.
She walked to the elevators and hoped that the electricity was actually on. To her surprise, the little button lit up but then shut off just as quickly as the doors to the elevator that was already lobby level opened.
Sam stepped inside as she had so many times before and hit the button for the top level. The elevator raced up at the speed normal in such large skyscrapers. She knew that the building was occupied by a lot more people than just Claudia. How had Abigail gotten rid of all of them? Maybe a gentle suggestion? Or something more sinister?
She shifted her weight and kept her hands at her side and ready. When the doors opened, she was completely prepared for any confrontation, but there was no one there. Just more emptiness.
Maybe the darkness had gone running. Now that Claire was still alive and Derek was back, did Abigail know that her days were numbered?
As she went farther into the building, she ignited the flames around her hands. It wasn’t hard. Almost second nature. The days of barely being able to control herself seemed so far away. But she was supposed to have more than this. Right now, she had Claudia’s magic swirling within her. Shouldn’t she feel different? Shouldn’t she feel dangerous and ready to face any threat?
Maybe she had to actually feel threatened to call it forth. Hopefully her fire would do for now.
Sam reached Claudia’s office and the breeze hit her immediately. She shouldn’t be surprised to see the broken window. She’d been there when Claudia and Bastian had jumped out of the skyscraper. The first time she’d seen Claudia run from anything. Papers were scattered all over the floor, and Sam didn’t want to think how many valuable documents had already been sucked out by the intense winds this high in the sky. But she didn’t have time to clean up and cherish Claudia’s office like she should. She was here on a mission.
She had to pull back her flame to pull the lever to open the secret room and then used her fire to light the way as she went downstairs to the vault of magical items. Thankfully it hadn’t been raided by the darkness. Maybe the magical items didn’t work the same way for a different type of magic? Or the darkness didn’t know about the existence of the hidden room.
Either way, she had a few minutes to look through the shelves until she found the jar of sand. It was the only sand in the room, so that would have to be the sand from all corners of the earth that Madame Storm had mentioned. The knife was harder. Cursed blades were kind of a thing in the magical world, and Claudia had no less than ten. Sam took out the little drawing Madame Storm had made, showing the pattern that was supposedly on the hilt: a cross made out of rubies.
After looking through a few boxes, there it was. She pulled it out of the sheath just enough to verify that the blade was still intact and then tucked it in her back waistband, hiding it under her shirt. There was no good place to hide the jar of dirt, so she tucked it under her arm. Every time she had to use her hands, the fire would go out and darkness would surround her once more.
Once she had everything she wanted, she didn’t start the flames again. She knew the way out, and the light would alert someone she was here.
She went up the steep stairs and poked her head out but didn’t see or hear anyone waiting to ambush her.
In fact, she was just congratulating herself on how easy the whole ordeal had been when she stepped back into Claudia’s breezy office and saw the outline of Abigail standing behind the desk. Sam came to a stop and held the jar tightly to her breast.
“Hello, Samantha,” said Abigail. It was only then that Sam realized Abigail wasn’t facing her. She was looking out over the city.
“I don’t want to start any trouble.” Sam inched toward the door.
Abigail turned, and at the same time, the doors to the hallway and the secret room slammed shut. Sam took a breath and tried to hold back her fear, but that didn’t stop her heart from beating out a frantic rhythm in her chest.
“A little late for that, don’t you think?”
Yep. It really was. Sam held the dirt in front of her and gently bent down to set the jar on the ground.
Abigail considered it. “All continents are in there. Trying to ground something?”
“You have no idea.” Sam stepped away from the jar, trying to draw Abigail’s attention to her and not to the items she was stealing. “I was expecting this place to be a lot busier.”
Abigail looked around her. “This was Claudia’s territory. It’s mine now. I feel a suitable revenge is to take what’s hers and let it rot into the ground.” Abigail met Sam’s gaze. Even though Sam couldn’t see the eyes, she could feel the power of the darkness’s attention. “Do you ever think about revenge?”
She wanted to lie, but that would be foolish. “Don’t we all?”
“I think about revenge. I think about it a lot. When you’ve been locked up as much as I have, you have lots of time to think, and I thought about revenge. Revenge on those who’ve wronged me. Revenge on those who’ve locked me up. You and I aren’t all that different.”
“We might have to agree to disagree.”
“So many people have wronged you.”
“I’m looking at one of the main culprits right now.”
Abigail tsked and tilted her head. “I didn’t kill your sister. I didn’t kill your boyfriend. And I didn’t kill your best friend.”
“Says the demonic being in my mother right now.”
“Your mother asked for this. She wanted my help for when her family failed her. She wanted revenge. You should understand that. Remember, I’m the one who warned you. I told you that Claudia would destroy you, and I was right.”
“Well, Claudia isn’t going to be a problem anymore. You got what you wanted.”
The corner of her mouth lifted. “Yes. I heard about that. I’d offer my condolences, but….”
“Please don’t.”
“We don’t have to be enemies.”
Sam leaned back against the desk and looked out at the city, honestly curious about what Abigail was going to say. “I think the peace ship has sailed. Actually, it didn’t sail. It has sunk into the deepest part of the ocean.”
“Don’t mock my offer,” warned the darkness. “I’m giving you an opportunity few get.”
“You’re giving me an opportunity because you’re afraid. You know that before she died, Claudia brought Derek back and he’s the key to killing you.”
“Is that what you want? For Derek to embrace the darkness in his heart and become fully entrenched in me? Because there will be no coming back for him. And the leader of the magical world cannot be involved with an abomination like that.”
“The best part about being the leader of the magical world is that no one gets to tell me who I can and cannot be with.”
“If Claudia couldn’t be with her Bastian, what makes you think you’ll be any different?”
“Pure determination and smartassery.”
“Bastian was her one true love. When he died, she moved heaven and earth to bring him back. The human who bewitched the witch. But the link that formed between them was what held them together and drove them apart. From that moment, he belonged to her, body and soul, cursed to follow her every command. There is no love that can last that. No mutual respect when one person is a slave.”
“Derek isn’t my slave.”
“Derek i
s your enemy too. He’s fueled by the very dark magic that you’ve sworn to destroy. The darkness that you blame for taking everything from you.”
Sam shook her head. “You think you’re so smart and that you’re always right, but you have no idea what’s coming.”
“Care to enlighten me?”
Sam took a breath and pushed away from the desk to face the darkness. “You think you’re always right, but you have no idea what’s truly going on. So let me inform you, for once, of something I know and you don’t. One, Claire is alive. She was never really dead. Two, Derek is more than ready to kick your ass. Derek and I are going to kill you and then we’re going to tear through each and every one of the families until there is no one left who is stupid enough to stand in our way.”
Abigail approached Sam until she was just an inch away. “That’s some big talk for a witch who can barely control a little bit of fire.”
“And, oh yeah, one more thing. Claudia might be dead, but it wasn’t your zombie army that did it. It was me.” Sam slammed her palm into Abigail’s chest and put the full force of her magic behind the blow, sending the darkness shooting outside the window and down onto the city street.
Then she slammed her hand onto the glass. Heat flowed through her arm and fingertips until the glass began to glow bright red and creaked and moaned as it seemed to pulsate and grow until the hole was closed and the window was intact again.
Then Sam pushed away and picked up her jar of dirt. She might’ve lost her element of surprise, but damn it, throwing her mother out the window had been worth it.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21