The Witch’s Destiny

by Emma Glass

  “Svetlana and I, sadly, were never more than cordial… I suspected she was jealous. Their friendship extended far back to their time as young princesses, you must realize. Even I did not understand this at first. But Svetlana Lovrić forever had Lorelei’s best interests at heart; after my love revealed to her she was pregnant with child, who else was our greatest ally than the lord beneath the seas? Svetlana helped maintain the illusion and diverted suspicions away from me as the father. She was… indispensable. And from that moment on, Svetlana and I held a fragile truce.

  “Had the others suspected Fiona was my daughter, the resulting civil war could have torn the world apart. I had to betray ever semblance of impartiality that I ever held… but it was worth it, to see that beautiful little girl. Even if I knew I could never truly know her, not without destroying all we had spent our lives trying to build…”

  I listened to him, hating every last word he dared utter. Whatever kind of trick this is, I see right through it.

  “Afterwards, there was Elliott. And then the fates were kinder to me still—I was gifted with you. Oh, my ferocious daughter. I could not bring myself to endanger you. But in another life, you would have been Nicole Blackburn. It is a great regret of mine that the only time I ever spent in your company was our failed mission together. But I finally got to know my single surviving daughter… and what a fierce warrior you have grown to be. How proud I am of you.”

  I didn’t scabbard my blades. “You expect me to believe that you are my father? And that Lord Lovrić knew, all this time? Oh, I will have such joy in cutting you down…”

  The vision of Mattias looked indistinguishable from the real deal—and that made me hate it even more. Each little detail was right, from the refined timber of his voice to the effortless regality of his vampiric garb. Even the polish on his boot buckles was as it should be. The more I noticed all these insignificant traits line up with reality, the more that I began to question my hesitance…

  No! I snarled inwardly. Stay on your guard, Nikki!

  “Nicole,” he held out a hand. “Please, don’t—“

  “It’s Nikki,” I spat through gritted teeth.

  “Ah. Of course. Nikki. I… suppose I slip up sometimes. Your mother even warned me of that, the last time we saw one another, before she…”

  His eyes started to water. He turned away.

  But a part of me started to question.

  The night that she died… Lorelei was asleep in Mattias’ lap. I thought nothing of it at the time—she was increasingly erratic and delusional—but what if that was really a sign all along?

  What if Lorelei Craven died in her lover’s arms…?

  If what he was saying was true… it redefined my life.

  It can’t be true. This has to be the bloody witch’s doing!

  “You are a lie,” I told him. “Plucked from my memories and fed to me like the real thing. You are a clever trick, but a trick nevertheless—and these falsehoods you spin for me are little more than another layer to the deception.”

  Mattias chuckled, wiping at his eyes.

  “You’ve spent a lot of time around your brother. I think you are even beginning to sound like him, sometimes…”

  I smirked. “I will take that as a compliment.”

  “It was meant to be one. Elliott Craven has grown from the caustic, methodical lord he might have once been… to a worthy successor of the council. If there would be any of you to unite the world, it would be him. It is in his blood. The culmination of two powerful bloodlines—Blackburn and Craven—are intertwined in Elliott’s beating heart. Just as they are within your own, my beautiful daughter…”

  “To unite the world?” I snarled. “What do you mean?”

  “The Council of the Eight Holds now lies in ruin. There is no foreseeable way for them to rebuild appropriately—and I think, perhaps, their time has drawn to an end. No, I believe a new era must start now. No more squabbling for petty power grabs. No more infighting on the world stage. No… there must be unification. A single ruler above all…”

  “And you think that will be Elliott?”

  “The blood is strong within him.”

  “What about me?” I smirked. “Why can’t I do it?”

  “My hold lies without a proper vampire lord—with a single, unfit relative waiting for news of my demise. Now, it is too late for the council to intervene in destroying your brother or you… and the throne awaits.”

  I relaxed my blades. “You want me to rule Bleakwood?”

  “You are my direct descendant. We traveled together. It was partly my intention to see how fit a lord you could be; I have seen you be clever, tenacious, and above all, deeply self-sacrificing. Broken as you may be, Nikki… you are the ruler that my people need. You will perform admirably. In time, perhaps better than I ever did…”

  A smirk lifted on my lips. “The real Mattias Blackburn would have never left the safety of his people to me. I am far too dangerous to be left in charge of them. He would be sacrificing his subjects to chaos and sadism…”

  “Perhaps before,” he agreed. “It would have come with a fearful optimism for the future. But the darkness leaves your heart. Nikki Craven, my darling daughter... no longer are you the blood-soaked psychopath you once were.”

  “I…”

  I heard the twin daggers clatter against the stone before I even realized I had dropped them. Whether or not you are real, you still see right through me…

  “If you do not believe me on anything I have told you, there is a simple solution to propose. An objective one.”

  I froze, staring at him fearfully. “What, then?”

  Mattias smiled warmly. “…Ask Svetlana.”

  * * *

  I sank against a stone buttress atop Blackburn Manor, sliding down to my rump on the floor. Everything spun.

  “Nikki?” He was on a knee before me in an instant.

  I pushed Mattias away, clutching my head. All that time we spent together. The camaraderie we shared. Even our talents, so uniquely similar and fine-tuned. Hell, part of me even already considered you the father I never had…

  I looked up at him in shock. It’s true. It’s all true.

  “You are my father.” The words came as a whisper.

  Mattias Blackburn nodded once. “I am.”

  “And Fiona…”

  “Also my daughter,” he agreed, his eyes wet with tears. “A daughter I was doomed to never know like I knew you. Another fierce fighter.”

  “Runs in the family,” I snorted through my own tears.

  Mattias chuckled sadly. “I hear she was incredible.”

  “Did you never meet her?”

  “She attended some meetings as Lorelei trained her to be the Craven heir. But we were only together when Fiona was a child. I held her a few times. It is always an occasion for celebration when a vampire lord gives birth. It was under the guise of the traditional gift-givings. I held her in my own two arms as the rest of the council watched. But it was never enough… and I… I just… I never got to…”

  He turned, blinking away tears.

  Quietly, I watched him weep. I felt nothing but remorse for the proud warrior lord—the source, I realized, of all the fight we had in my generation of Cravens. Reaching out a hand, I let it brush his cheek; he took it, holding it to his face as he tried to not cry, though he failed.

  Mattias sighed. “You must think me weak.”

  “No,” I shook my head tenderly. “We cannot always be strong, even the fiercest warriors among us. Times come, I have learned, when we must embrace our weakness. Grow stronger from it. We allow ourselves to break, so that we may rise up tougher than ever before. The matters of the heart are no different.”

  My father snorted—but not unkindly. “I hear it in your voice, Nikki. You speak from experience.”

  I nodded, turning away to stare through the buttresses at the frozen lake. He held my hand still; the other laid out against the cold, miserable stone. My one leg sprawl
ed out in front beneath him, whereas the other boot was planted against the ground, arching my knee. It took me so long to realize my positioning because I felt nothing—not the cold against my skin, the low stone wall against the back of my skull, or the tension in my sharp, upward knee.

  “There was a boy,” I told him.

  Mattias nearly smiled through his tears. “A boy? Never would I have guessed it. I thought you impervious to such things, Nikki. Fearless. Wild and free. Untamable.”

  “I was in a vulnerable position. And he… helped me.”

  “How so?” He tilted his head, lowering my wrist.

  “I was on another world. Lost to my single ally. Unable to save myself. Hours away from burning alive… and then there was a human. He went out of his way to… rescue me. I could feel his thoughts through drinking his blood… and he… why, father? Why would he love me so strongly and so quickly? He had never even met me. He didn’t know me. But I read his feelings, and I knew then, of all the creatures in all the worlds… his heart beat just to save mine.”

  The pain threatened to eclipse me. Even I started to feel the tears sting along my eyes.

  “He sounds special,” Mattias calmly noted.

  “I was supposed to bring him back with me. He could have been so much more. You say the fates are kind, father. But you are mistaken…” I turned my head, glaring into his eyes with every drop of fury I could muster. “The fates are cruel. They fed me somebody who loved me, somebody I could grow to love in return, and stole him away from me.”

  Mattias watched me quietly. “I can see it in your eyes.”

  “See what?”

  “You mourn for a love that never was… but could have been. The loss has fractured you. Your eyes betray the pain of heartbreak and sorrow. I know this pain all too well; it is a pain I would wish upon none other, Nikki—not even my greatest enemies. It is a harrowing thing to experience.”

  “What about Lord Akachi?” I frowned tearfully.

  “Fine,” he sighed. “Besides Lord Akachi.”

  We shared a hearty laugh then, wiping at our eyes.

  The fires of tragedy raged within my chest. I tasted the pain in the salt of my tears, and the acid of my lungs. Each breath stung with like loss; each tear tasted like a breakage from somewhere deep inside me.

  “I feel… weak,” I whispered painfully.

  “I know,” he nodded gravely. “I am here for you.”

  “Father, could you…?”

  “Could I what, Nikki?”

  “Could you please, just this once… hold me?”

  Mattias’ eyes widened in surprise. But he nodded. “If it is what you wish. You grew up without me. I could never dream of ever…”

  “Please. I… I can’t do this anymore,” I swallowed.

  I hesitantly rose from the buttress, and my father flung his powerful arms around me. Relaxing into the warmth of his strong embrace, I nestled my chin against his shoulder and finally let my tears flow.

  Never before in my entire life had I needed something so badly that I had never realized. The warmth of the man who was my father—a man I had already grown to respect with every fiber of my being—was everything to me.

  We cried together. It was cathartic. It was beautiful.

  And it was ended by my blade.

  I felt his body shudder as my dagger sank deep into his abdomen. For good measure, I twisted it hard, feeling his chest heave with the pain. His weight rested on my shoulder; he gasped in stupefied pain and surprise.

  “I love you, Father. But you are not Mattias Blackburn.”

  With a sharp yank, I tore it free and took a step back.

  His wide eyes stared into mine, horrified and stunned. Mattias slowly lowered his gaze to the oozing blood from his stomach wound, clutching at his reddening, wet attire. Groaning my name, the vampire lord sank to his knees in a slump; he slid backwards, resting on a stone buttress still warm from my back.

  “Why have you…? What did I…?”

  I took a knee before him, sliding my blade back into its scabbard. I snatched up the other dagger as well—the one I hadn’t swiped up when I rose for his warm hug. Blinking away very real tears, I caressed his cheek with my hand, memorizing how his skin felt. I knew it, down in my heart: I would think back to this moment for the rest of my life.

  He swallowed, staring in shock. “…Nikki?”

  “I want to thank you,” I whispered. “Without you, it is possible I might have never come to learn my true lineage. You were meant to weaken me—to guide me into despair. But I am the proud daughter of one of the noblest warriors to ever walk this world, born from the unlikely love of two formidable vampire lords. From here on, I uphold both the legacies of Lorelei Craven and Mattias Blackburn…”

  Wiping matted hair from his face, I stared lovingly into his pained gaze. He could barely speak. “My daughter…”

  I gave him a heartbroken kiss on the forehead.

  “I am not your child,” I told him. “Nor am I a prisoner of this place I have been taken to. You are a figment pulled from my heart, meant to make me docile. But your foolish master should have honestly known…”

  I lowered my face to stare him in the eyes.

  “…You were right before. I will never be tamed.”

  * * *

  My eyes suddenly flew open.

  Purple light filled my vision, surrounding me strangely like underwater light. Fighting a protesting body, I pushed forwards, shoving one limb before the other until—

  Flipping onto my back, I looked up at my prison. There it was—a small, private swirling vortex of purplish light. Clara would love it. I wonder what sort of Malediction magic it takes to make that…

  Blinking away my thoughts, I focused on the dream within a dream. It felt real. It might have even been real, to some extent. Taking stock of my surroundings, I climbed back to my boots and cricked my neck.

  “I hope I made you proud… Father.”

  But there were more pressing concerns ahead.

  The sands were gone—I stood in a terrifying blackness. The only distinctions to mark the floor were the concentric rings from before, each shimmering and coated in runes as they rotated slowly and oppositional within one another. I noticed that the three major circles left a large, untouched floor between them—occasional bursts of geometric lines connected them in a flash of magic, only to retreat away.

  I turned to face the abyss—because, as I suspected, my vortex was not the only one. The vampire lords were each trapped in their own prisons, meant to distract and placate them all. I searched for the one holding Elliott, and—

  He burst free, dropping to the ground in a gasp.

  I rushed over to his side. “Brother!”

  He spun wildly at me with a fist, only to calm down as he realized who I was. “What was that about?” I smirked.

  “I have heard that word… so much… the last few…”

  Holding him steady, I let him calm down. Elliott began to study the environment with a keen eye—what little of it there was, at least. He laid against my lap, chest beating.

  “Let me guess, then…” I finally asked. “Fiona?”

  “And Lorelei,” he nodded gravely. “You?”

  “Spent some quality time with Dad. Killed him.”

  Elliott stared into my eyes. “They… told me.”

  “Who would have believed it? Mattias Blackburn…”

  “It… makes sense,” he admitted. “Though, I doubt that I would have ever guessed it, though. Probably would’ve gone my entire life without knowing. My gods.”

  I laughed outright. “Elliott, did you perhaps forget the part where I spent a year alone with the man? I lugged his body across the Killing Peaks! And even I had no idea.”

  He lifted his head, clearing it at the same time. “I wish I would have known. I still have to ask Svetlana about it…”

  “Good luck,” I glanced over to her vortex. “By the way. What was seeing Fiona again like? Does she... hate m
e?”

  “She wasn’t real,” he noted dryly.

  “I know that. But… did she at least mention me?”

  “Eventually. Didn’t seem to hold a grudge.”

  “Oh. Good. I was worried she… might have.”

  “Well, if she does… you and I have something else in common,” he confided darkly, his eyes distant. “It took a while to figure it out. But I had to reject her—permanently. So I guess we’ve both killed our older sister now…”

  “You killed Fiona>” I laughed at the delicious insanity of it all, well aware of my falling teardrops.

  “What? So did you!” Elliott protested.

  “Yeah, but I was out of my damn mind when I did it.”

  We stared each other in the eyes, united in pain.

  “I guess the family that slays together—“

  “Nikki, don’t you dare—“

  “Stays together.”

  He stared at me angrily. “Too soon. Way too soon.”

  “We just had to kill convincing doubles of our family to escape an ethereal prison that can read memories we don’t even have,” I pointed out. “Forgive me, brother dearest, for wanting to see a little humour in the tragedy.”

  With a sigh, Elliott nodded. “Fine. Let’s find Clara.”

  “What about the others?” I glanced at their vortexes.

  “The prisons are special. We probably can’t interfere… I think the only reason we could break out was because our blood is stronger—unless any of them have double lineage as well…” He shook his head. “I am going to save the love of my life. They can figure themselves out and catch up.”

  I fell into step beside him, walking into the wide rings.

  My brother noticed as I eyed him quietly. “What?”

  “You know,” I leaned in, “if we ever did meet our older sister again—our real sister this time, not an after-image—Fiona’s probably going to be bloody furious…”

  “Nikki?” He looked at me funny.