The Witch’s Destiny

by Emma Glass

  The Witch’s Destiny

  A Witch Between Worlds, Book X

  Emma Glass

  Contents

  Part I

  1. Elliot

  2. Clara

  3. Nikki

  4. Elliott

  5. Clara

  6. Elliott

  7. Clara

  8. A Boy

  9. Nikki

  10. Elliott

  Part II

  11. Nikki

  12. Elliott

  13. Clara

  14. Elliott

  15. Nikki

  16. Clara

  17. Elliott

  18. Clara

  19. Elliott

  20. Nikki

  Part III

  21. Elliott

  22. Kinsey

  23. Nikki

  24. Elliott

  25. Nikki

  26. Clara

  27. Kinsey

  28. Elliott

  29. Nikki

  30. Clara

  31. Nikki

  Part IV

  32. Elliott

  33. Kinsey

  34. Clara

  35. Kinsey

  36. Elliott

  37. Clara

  38. Elliott

  39. Clara

  40. Elliott

  41. Somewhere…

  Appendix

  Holds

  Vampire Lords

  Part I

  The Final Night

  Chapter 1

  Elliot

  This was not a funeral fit for a vampire lord.

  There was no great crowd to behold his vast accomplishments, and no celebration of his long and illustrious life. We did not gather under a beautifully sunny sky. We stood together in a concealed garden, far away from the rest of Stonehold Castle. Over our heads, the skies burned a dark, smoky scarlet—giving the distinct impression that honouring this loss was a forbidden act. The ornate coffin before us lay empty. The most dignified among us instead lay slain in the former council chambers, a place now abandoned in the chaos of war.

  A place we had barely escaped from with our own fragile lives. Sabine de LaVierre had seen to that.

  At the funeral of my beloved mother, hundreds of our kind came from all across the hold. For her equal in power and charisma, Lord Mattias Blackburn? There were seven.

  The cruel and conniving Lord of The Wastes was now our senior in both reign and age. It was her place to lead the funeral rites of our fallen ally. Standing behind the symbolic stone coffin, she glared down at it with a solemn, tempered anger.

  “Lord Blackburn and I rarely agreed on even the most trivial of matters,” the bitter old vampire muttered. “In my eyes, he was a pompous man. Heavy-handed, impartial to a fault, and dangerous. For all his dedication to our taboos, Lord Blackburn had a certain disregard for them when it was most convenient…”

  Her eye drifted to me, but I ignored her.

  “But he was wiser than some of us. He understood the need for diplomacy. He grasped how this world worked. If it were not for Lord Blackburn, I daresay that our fragile alliances would have crumbled apart centuries ago.”

  Lord Svetlana Lovrić folded her arms despondently.

  She, in particular, had taken this hard. It was no secret that Mattias, Svetlana, and my mother before me were all friends—even if their policies and philosophies clashed at times. Svetlana and I worked together on several projects, as I’m sure she did with the other lords, but the powerful friendship she enjoyed with the other two was the thing of legends. As allies, they’d changed this world for the better. Even if, so often the case, only two of the three agreed.

  Svetlana was alone now. Her friends were dead.

  “Without Mattias Blackburn, let no one contest that this world is altogether a darker place. He was not our leader, nor would he have ever been…”

  I nearly growled. Leave it to you to throw in one last barb.

  “…But he was the closest we have ever come to having one. Even I can admit that. Today, we have suffered a great and terrible loss, and we are all the worse for it. That’s all I have to say.”

  Valentine bowed her head and placed her hand against the empty coffin. The callous lord whispered words meant only for him for a moment; it was actually touching to see the lord of The Wastes pay tribute to her self-professed foe. That’s something you just never learned, Lord Akachi… to show respect and kindness, even to those you oppose.

  “Who wishes to speak?” She demanded dryly.

  Lord Eyes-Like-Fire spoke up. “I do.”

  “Granted,” Valentine acknowledged before taking her place among us. She adopted a brooding stance.

  The tribal lord was rarely dressed in more than the furs and bones of her kills. Eyes-Like-Fire was the latest from a long line of distinguished hunters. As I understood it, each new vampire lord of the Timberlands Plains across the sea gave away the trophies of their predecessor to their closest advisors and allies as a token of great respect. The fledgling vampire lord would set to work, filling their private chambers with new trophies harvested from the greatest predators this world had to offer.

  On this solemn day, she had chosen to wear layered black furs from a wendigo of her northern woods. In life, it had been a flesh-eating bestial nightmare that towered over vampires. In death, the pelt served as a beautiful sign of utmost solidarity. Predatory wendigoes wander across borders at their whim—chasing the fattest, slowest prey to be found. This creature was a common threat between the Timberland Plains and Bleakwood, Lord Blackburn’s hold to the North. And the lord of the Timberland Plains wore furs only from the creatures they slew themselves, often with their bare hands. Killing one of these foul monsters demonstrated unquestionable respect for her ally.

  There was no denying the indisputable. The lord of the Timberland Plains was the most fearsome creature of her entire hold. Were it not for the hungry beasts in the jungles of Selvara Karn, I’d have said she was the most fearsome creature on this entire world… from ocean to ocean, and castle to castle.

  When Eyes-Like-Fire walked up to the coffin, we all listened in silence. Even bitter old Valentine gave her full attention. The tribal lord placed her palm against the coffin. For the first few minutes, she didn’t say a word.

  “Lord Blackburn. Mattias…” she finally said, breaking the silence. “You were more than my ally. You were my friend. You helped me more than I could say. Never once did you think lowly of me for being a young lord. If I asked for advice, you gave it, willingly. You…”

  Her voice cracked. She turned partly, steeling herself.

  “Your heartbeat was that of a true, noble warrior. Even in death, you have much to teach me. Tonight, even as I cannot see our night sky, I will make offerings to the stars and the moon for you. I will spill blood in your honour…”

  She flung off her prized wendigo fur over the coffin. In the murmur of a spell and the flick of her fingers, the black layers burst into flames over the stone symbol of the lord’s passing. Hushed whispers lifted among us. I stayed silent.

  “I send to you this enduring symbol of our friendship. Mattias, lord of Bleakwood, may your black forever burn.”

  She descended from behind the coffin, taking her place at my side. All eyes were on her as she watched the flames send an offering to the sky above. When none of the others said anything, I whispered in her bone-pierced ear.

  “That was beautiful.”

  She hinted a smile. “Thank you, Elliott.”

  None of us wished to impose upon her tribute. As we remaining vampire lords stood together, united in grief, a crisp chill filled the air. The sensation wasn’t simply due to the endless winter falling across my lands, not this time.

  We all chose to give this moment to Matt
ias Blackburn. But the burning skies above—a bitter, defiant reminder to us that Mattias died for a reason—refused to be ignored or disrespected.

  For just a moment, we shivered under the burning sky.

  Chapter 2

  Clara

  For as far back as I could remember, I loved the sky of this world. The atmosphere had this beauty to it that just didn’t exist on my own version of Earth.

  Day or night, the stars shone magnificently. The further up that you looked, the darker and more incredible the sky grew, until it was a cosmos of swirling colours and bright lights, beaming down its love from the universe.

  I had never feared that welcoming sky until now.

  Though Nikki Craven and I left Australia near sunrise, the time difference meant the chrysm network teleported us literally halfway across the world in the blink of an eye. We arrived back in Stonehold in time for dusk. The weight of a long, miserable night hung over us—and neither she nor I had slept for countless hours before. I, for one, needed rest after everything we’d been through.

  It was supposed to be a triumphant homecoming.

  Instead, we came back to a terror played out across the sky itself. Far away and over the mainland, I knew that a vicious storm of light beat down on our old academy—Seven Portals.

  And we weren’t alone to witness it.

  The vampire lords had come to the castle. Each of their holds was bathed in the scorching red light from the sky, like a terrible omen from the heavens themselves… but nowhere on this world did the sky burn as hellishly bright as it did above Stonehold Castle.

  There was only one explanation.

  The Calamity was here.

  * * *

  Elliott instructed me to wait in the throne room. He returned with the vampire lords an hour later; each of them competed in their misery and despair. I clutched to a very special rucksack as I watched them approach.

  My beloved glanced around. “Where is my sister?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “I was surprised that she didn’t come to the funeral. I might have thought she wouldn’t miss it.”

  “Elliott…” I glanced over his shoulder. The others were talking among themselves, scattered throughout the hall. “I don’t know what—she wouldn’t talk to me—but I think something traumatic happened to her.”

  “She grew close to Mattias,” he sighed. “His death—“

  “No. That was just the final nail in the coffin.”

  He paused, looking me in the eyes. “What?”

  “On my world, there were these… soldiers. They came for us in the middle of the night. They were different than anything I’ve ever seen before.”

  “I’m sure they had quite the fight on their hands.”

  “That’s just it. They… well, they hurt her.”

  That sunk through. “Nikki? But that’s… it can’t…”

  I tried to quickly recount the bare minimum of events, fighting back tears. It wasn’t an easy tale to tell, given that I wasn’t around for most of it. The story was hers to speak. “Something happened to her, Elliot. She won’t speak to me about it. I’ve never seen her so… broken.”

  Elliott swallowed. “I had no idea. It was that bad?”

  “Worse. Do you remember traveling between worlds?”

  “I’ll never forget it,” he smiled sadly.

  “Do you remember how it feels when we’re standing together? Holding each other? Shielded from the wind?”

  “Of course.”

  “She… tried to step into the wind.”

  The light in his eyes started to fade. “You’re kidding.”

  “My love, she nearly got lost out there. I don’t know what happens if you leave the safety of the spell, but it can’t be good. She could have been…”

  “Lord Craven?”

  Elliott turned before I could finish. Lord Vasiliev stood nearby, her elderly arms folded tight. “We are waiting.”

  “Yes,” he answered distantly. “I’m sorry, I just…”

  He glanced at me again. Now he looked broken.

  “Is it fine with the council if Clara Blackwell joins us?”

  Lord Ooktuk Krum, the shaman lord over this world’s Amazon Rainforest, nodded kindly. “In fact, we insist that she does.”

  “Good,” Elliott sighed. “Let us not delay, then.”

  My heart broke to look at him. He looked exhausted.

  As he led the rest of us out of the throne hall, he slid an arm around my shoulder. I didn’t question the affection—even if it came brazenly in the face of the other lords. Still, I couldn’t help a quick glance behind.

  None of them bothered to acknowledge me. They had much more important things to brood over. I’ve never seen these formidable creatures so completely undone.

  I guess we really are facing the end of days…

  Elliott led us all to the war chamber of his castle. I’d never seen this room—I was supposed to, once upon a time. Right after I had returned to this world, I was meant to be put on trial for the vampire lords. Naively, I had let my differences with Elliott Craven get in the way—and they’d nearly cost us both everything.

  I was younger then… and far more foolish.

  The chamber stood dominated by a large round table. As we entered, Elliott froze. It didn’t take long to see why.

  “You’re here,” he murmured.

  “I am.” Nikki’s boots were kicked up on the table.

  He didn’t say anything immediately. Whether it was her blatant disrespect for this room or her absence from the funeral, I felt him bubbling angrily beneath the surface.

  “Hey.” I nudged him lightly. “We’ve got company.”

  He took a quick, deep breath, in then out. Composing himself, he glanced around the vampire lords and waved them to the table. We took our seats; I sat on Elliott’s other side, briefly noticing a small, bitter smile on her face.

  What happened to you, Nikki?

  “How should we proceed?” Elliott asked our guests.

  The vampire lords shared a long, disenchanted look. It was bright as day to me that the fight had been ripped out of them. Even the cruel, combative Lord Vasiliev seemed a lot more tired than I’d ever seen her.

  Lord Lovrić sighed, rubbing her forehead. “I suggest we hear what the two of you have been up to…” Her eyes drifted from Nikki to me. “Tell us. Where did you both go? What did you see?”

  I was beyond tired. It looked like we all were… but we were in for a long night still. My grip tightened on my rucksack as I straightened up on my seat among them.

  Because I didn’t come back to this world empty-handed.

  Chapter 3

  Nikki

  I should have felt untouchable.

  The past century seemed like one long exercise in survival and endurance training. But all of that hard work had paid off. I’d been put to the ultimate test, and I’d survived. Through the pain and strife, I learned so many new things about myself—what I was truly capable of.

  Despite it all, I grew stronger. I persevered.

  But I felt so very… little.

  I lived, while everything near and dear to me perished in my place—or became lost to me, never again to be seen. I had lost so very much in such a short period of time.

  My sister’s blood on my hands still haunted me.

  Brother Fost was certainly dead by now.

  Mattias Blackburn? Buried him myself.

  And then, finally, there was…

  I shuddered, trying to hold back tears. Every time that I closed my eyes, the human’s handsome smile filled my mind. I cherished his warmth and his generosity… and his sacrifice. That warm smile playing out in my mind forced me to re-live the final few seconds of our time together. The agonizing pain consumed my mind.

  Running for my life as a swarm of warriors rushed forwards. The dust of countless rooftops against my bare feet. The tender words you left me. My lips, still warm from the taste of yours. Your blood, that deliciou
s gift, coursing through my veins…

  He sent me on without him. Staying there would have been the death of both of us. But what was the cost? Was my salvation paid for in his spilled blood?

  I knew I would never see him again. I could never return to his world without scorching my skin beneath the waking sun. Even if I forced Clara to send me back, would I even know where to begin to search? I had seen that city—Sydney—with my own two eyes, and how many people lived in that one place alone. In a world with billions of humans… how do you find the one you’ve lost?

  Then I returned here. Greeted with another corpse.

  A sister. An elder mage. A vampire lord. And a human…

  All, my saviours, one way or another. All, I had failed. I didn’t know if I could ever forgive myself. For a century I fought monsters and claimed to protect the ones dearest to my heart—but what use was my power if it was a lie?

  What if I couldn’t truly save anyone?

  What if this is my curse?

  The very concept was enough to strike fear into a heart that had, once upon a time, laughed at that very sentiment. But I was not the same Nikki Craven I was mere years ago.

  In all the things I had accomplished, I grew stronger.