The Witch’s Destiny

by Emma Glass

  The rings of power that marked our arena burst into a grand light as the world trembled all around us. Before we could react, the sands, the stairs, the purple cosmos above, everything disintegrated into nothingness. It all happened so quickly—there wasn’t any time to panic, or to question, or to try and find another solution out of this. We were left with only the realization that the world around us steadily broke apart, vanishing into the darkness…

  I wordlessly joined Elliott, defensively standing before Clara Blackwell. Though I knew what this might do, it felt better than awaiting our destruction so passively.

  Well. At least we robbed her of her victory…

  But we were left unfazed—as was our enemy.

  As the battlefield finally relaxed, the three of us stared at our surroundings. It was all too familiar—a black abyss, distinguished only by the concentric, rotating rings, along with the vortexes imprisoning the vampire lords.

  The only change was the large column of purple light that poured down from above now, coming to a tight focused point in the center of the circles. The stark contrast of light and darkness was strangely beautiful. After all the chaos of the last few fights, this was all somewhat relaxing. It made a magnificent and peaceful sight—even if we were now all in greater danger than ever before.

  “Where… are we?” Clara asked curiously.

  Oh right, I sighed. You never saw this layer…

  Elliott glared around suspiciously. “The vampire lords are imprisoned here. Tzavos mentioned she needed seven. I can only guess that means us. And, right now, the witch only has five…”

  I growled. “Wonder who she needs to fill the gaps…”

  Sabine floated above, the wings of her master holding her aloft, even as they slowly disintegrated back into dust. Her head tilted as she watched us with the same fiercely burning eyes we had seen on Clara’s face. A look of dark, sadistic vengeance was written across her face.

  “You are correct. Seven are necessary.”

  “Why? What is so important about that number?”

  “Have you not yet figured it out? For all the trouble that the Craven coven has given me, I wonder how much is merely luck.”

  “Enlighten us, then,” Elliott crossed his arms.

  “Why? You have made your intentions clear. Your penchant for self-survival overrides the goodness in your heart. I no longer see any reason to try and sway your better judgement further. You would all let the worlds burn rather than save them… you are too far gone to see the folly of your actions.”

  “I’ve seen it, Tzavos,” Clara retorted fiercely. “And I’ve seen everything burn. It was you. You did it.”

  “Perhaps you saw one potential future,” Tzavos glowered through Sabine’s face. “I have seen another. I have watched the fabric of reality catch fire until not even ash was left. I have watched every single life fall, extinguished in the darkness. This vision provoked me into thousands of years of action—action for which I have been punished, again and again. I turn on you all now not out of hatred or malice… but merely to save you from yourselves. You are weak. I must be strong.”

  I had heard just about enough of this. “Were you strong when you made me kill my own sister? Is that your idea of strength, Tzavos? Corrupting my life to end another?”

  “…No wonder,” she halted. “I thought I recognized you.”

  “You seriously didn’t remember me? After all of this?”

  “Forgive me, my child… my Nikki Craven.”

  “Oh good. I meet the one enemy who can get the name right, and it’s you. Fantastic. If I had to pick just the one…”

  “There comes no day I enjoy the passing of Fiona Craven.”

  I grit my teeth, unwilling to hear more of her lies.

  “The seven,” Elliott repeated. “What does it mean?”

  Tzavos, possessing Sabine, flapped her wings furiously. Her chin lifted as she stared down on us in clear contempt. “The answer has been before you all along, written across your history. There is not one realm in the divided world, nor two. Between the true world and the pretender realms, my children, there are seven. If my sacrifice is unwilling, and the connection is severed, I must utilize the entirety of the broken rift under my castle to overcome her. Each fractured piece requiring one of my children, fractures tied to the broken layers of the world…”

  “Seven realms, seven progeny… and seven portals.”

  I shivered. “Are you telling me that your castle…”

  “Is a seven-piece lock. And you are the keys. If the sacrifice is unwilling to accept destiny and rebuild reality before it burns, the lock must then be forced open. A world, broken into seven. A portal, shattered into seven. An inheritor, divided into seven…”

  Clara and I stared into each others’ eyes in total fear.

  Chapter 30

  Clara

  Seven Portals. My home for the past few years, where I’ve been desperately trying to study my strange magic…

  Learning how to fight the Calamity…

  The diabolical hybrid of Sabine and Tzavos lowered to the ground before us, black dust trailing up off her wings. It was obvious that she struggled to maintain her form; if it were not for using Sabine as a willing host, she might have dissolved back into that sinister dust already.

  “Tzavos Tzovac,” I growled. “You’ve betrayed me. You lied to me. For years, you twisted my dreams…”

  The last of her fell apart, leaving only the wings; purple veins pulsated across Sabine as her face darkened and her robes grew tattered. While it wasn’t what Tzavos had tried to do to me, it kept her pinned into the dream. Even if only as a parasite, leeching off the form of another. Barely held together by her servant’s flesh, the elder witch stood in her tattered cloak—bat wings, I knew now, wrapped around herself to hide the true form. She was the most monstrous kind of vampire from all our earliest folklore; just as much a walking cadaver as a bat. Especially now. But her magic dwarfed any I had seen before.

  And we are on her turf.

  “What you perceive as evil, I see as necessary…” Contorted beyond belief, Sabine was barely recognizable anymore. It was Tzavos who spoke through her, even as purple magic pulsated through her servant’s veins. “It would have spared me a lifetime of pain and suffering to let what I have seen come to pass! Those who fell to mark my path could have lived—their days unscathed—until the end came! And yet I cannot shake the visions I have endured. I fight them. Just as you, my children, so foolishly fight me…”

  Tzavos twitched; she looked to be in pain.

  “Of course we fight you,” Nikki snarled.

  “You would fight against your own safety? Undo your own salvation? Your motives are tainted with… suicide.”

  Elliott cricked his neck; his cloak twirled as he squared his shoulders. “You ask us to lay down our lives.”

  “I offered you positions of power in the coming world! What purpose would this serve, my misguided children, if I meant to consume your lives instead? I wanted the new world built on as little spilt blood and broken bone as is possible! Your acceptance meant peace. It is your defiance, however, that leads me to begin considering measures of a more desperate nature…” She shook Sabine’s head in disappointment, obviously aware of their hideous, altered form. “You must realize. I cannot allow you to usher in what I have seen. So long as there is breath in my lungs, I will fight to prevent it. And, considering that I have the curse of immortality on my side…”

  “You’re kidding,” Nikki glowered. “Seriously?”

  “Vampires live eternal. Humans expire early. And Dhampir, the uneven combination of the two… what a human is to you, is what you are to me. Naive. Limited. Young.”

  “Dhampir?” I asked curiously.

  “It seems ‘vampire’ is a shorthand term for the truth,” Elliott snarled. “The Sanguine Ones, on the other hand…”

  I turned to her, thinking quickly. So that could be why the old folklore doesn’t work on them. Wonder if
it works on her…

  “You were my mentor,” I snarled. “You taught me.”

  “I did. I taught you to be who you needed to be.”

  “A puppet?” I growled. “A mere vessel for you?”

  “A sacrifice. Meant to save the world.”

  Something in her words clicked. I realized, to an extent, that she was right—that she had always been right. I felt all the tension fade from my body as a strange sense of clarity slid across my mind. But it had nothing to do with her; the increasing serenity I felt came with acceptance, maybe—or an awareness of the right path ahead.

  “I understand now,” I replied.

  The vampire narrowed Sabine’s eyes. “No, you do not.”

  “No, Tzavos. I think I’m ready now.”

  “Wait… Clara?” Elliott asked. “What are you…?”

  I felt a crushing way in my heart to betray him like this. But I realized now what I had to do—what I should have done before it ever reached this point. You’re right, Tzavos. For the good of the worlds, I must be a sacrifice…

  Nikki glared. “Clara, now’s not the time to be stupid.”

  “Come here, my child,” Tzavos motioned to me.

  I turned to the Craven siblings, eyes welling with tears. “I know what I have to do. I have to go away now. I want you both to know…”

  “Darling, don’t you dare—“

  “That I love you. And I do this for you.”

  I leaned up on my toes and kissed his lips. That crackle of energy I loved so much flickered between us—and I let myself pull away, holding back my crushing pain.

  “Please, Clara,” he whispered. “Don’t leave me.”

  I smiled sadly. “Take care of each other. Please.”

  When I turned back, Tzavos Tzovac stood in Sabine’s disfigured body across the lightly glowing circles of magic, the arena for our final showdown. Feeling pangs of regret in my heart, I began to walk over to her. I felt the magic of the rings crackle beneath me…

  And I finally faced my destiny.

  * * *

  They stood solemnly. Tzavos even looked repentant.

  After I crossed the distance, I stood before the witch. I took a deep breath; I wanted so badly to turn back for one last longing look at Elliott. But I knew what would happen if I did—I would lose sight of what was right. I would lose the strength to do this now—to do this the right way.

  And so I didn’t. I merely looked up at Tzavos Tzovac. “I will submit to this, but I want my friends to remain safe. All of them. Promise me, Tzavos, that you will not harm a single one of them. Or else you try the hard way again.”

  The witch nodded. “It is done. They are safe.”

  “Free the vampire lords, then.”

  “The vampire lords?” Tzavos chuckled, clearly amused. “Is that what my progeny take to calling themselves? And here I was, thinking that ‘Sanguine Ones’ was bad enough…”

  “Hey. Free them,” I demanded. “Free them now.”

  “I cannot do that. Not until you have submitted.”

  “But you just told me—“

  “They are very safe where they are. In fact, they are happy, all locked away in their own perfect realities. I wonder what they are learning about themselves…” Tzavos gestured over to the vortexes surrounding the rings of power beneath us. “I am not hurting them—and I cannot risk releasing them too early. No, my child… that, I am afraid I will not do.”

  As her gaze focused on me, I saw she wouldn’t budge. This was the best I could get out of her—and I knew better than to try and force anything else at this critical moment.

  I asked quietly: “What do I have to do?”

  The formidable witch lifted a hand, settling it onto my shoulders. “Know that if you do this, Clara Blackwell, you will die… But your sacrifice today will unbind the pretender realms from their inevitable destruction—sparing your home-world its equal, impending annihilation. You, my child, will have restored the natural order… and saved countless lives…”

  “I am already convinced,” I sighed. “Guide me.”

  Nodding, Tzavos smiled warmly. With my acceptance, the dreaded magician looked just as kind and matronly as she had ever been before in my dreams. At least, she might have, had she not currently been a mockery of nature that pulsed with whitened eyes and horrific, purple veins over someone else’s body… “I will attune you to the amulet again. As the power ascends around you, my child, you must break it.”

  “Okay,” I agreed bleakly. “Do it.”

  Tzavos Tzovac lowered her hand. “Thank you… Clara.”

  “I said do it. Don’t make me change my mind.”

  “Even as you lay down your life to save the world, you are just as willful as ever…” She smiled, conjuring her rod back into place beneath Sabine’s hands. The tattered bat wings flapped open, revealing that the sorceress’s beautiful robes had fallen into the same state of disrepair—and that those purple veins covered her entire body now. “Why, you were always such a spirited girl, Clara Blackwell. When the worlds are once again reunited, I will have them sing of your sacrifice. The skies will blaze with those beautiful colours you enjoy so much—and all the peoples will hear tales of your selflessness and legendary valour…”

  Nodding sadly, I briefly gave in. I turned my head.

  And I saw Elliott and Nikki watching in despair.

  * * *

  In a smooth and sudden motion, Tzavos’s hands flared out over my shoulders as if casting a spell. Her rod floated in the air between us. It began to glow with ancient magic as she warned me: “Plant your feet, Clara.”

  I did as she suggested, centering my gravity in a slight crouch. Just as I got comfortable, I felt the amulet roar back to life against my sternum—and it started fluttering under the weight of its own immense power. My darling amulet boasted a bright, purple glow as its magical strength came back to fruition, eager for release…

  “Your friends are coming over, Clara,” Tzavos observed. “If you would like, they can stand by your side as you do this. I will not fault you if you wish for their company. This choice is yours—and yours alone.”

  I heard Elliott shout: “You don’t have to do this!”

  “No!” I called out to them. “Stay back!”

  “We’re not going to leave you,” Nikki insisted darkly. “Not like this. We are all in this together.”

  “You have to!” I shouted at them.

  “Clara,” Elliott again, “Wait. Please! Please don’t—“

  Magic flooded my veins, overpowering me. I planted my feet harder against the ground, fighting the pressure of the amulet; the familiar column of white magic burst into the air around me again, just as it had before I came to.

  The column widened. Now, even if I reached my hands out, my fingertips couldn’t touch the outer layer. All that I saw was brightly illuminated.

  And, once more, I felt powerful.

  “Clara!” Elliott screamed, diving towards me. I turned to face him now, watching how he barely made it into the beam; I silently stood still, a remorseful expression painted across my face as he struggled to break into the column. “I can’t let you do this! Even if you weren’t about to doom all the worlds… I need you! I can’t do this without you!”

  His fingertips couldn’t reach me.

  Had I reached up a hand, I might have been capable of touching him. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

  “You are the love of my life,” I told him over the surge. “What I do now, Elliott Craven, I do for you. You are going to need your sister more than ever now. Just… know that I love you, my darling, with all of my heart. Always will.”

  “Clara!” He screamed, eyes weeping. “Stop this!”

  I shook my head, wishing that I could.

  Another wave of magic burst into the column of light; it caused my knees to tremble. I struggled to keep my head up against the pressure. It felt as if it came from nowhere and everywhere, all at once—inside my body and outside, fr
om over my head and from down beneath my feet. Clara, this is it. The moment you were born for. Time to save the world.

  The elder witch watched me with her whitened retinas. “Break the amulet,” Tzavos nodded gravely. “Save them all.”

  I looked down, watching the amulet at my chest flutter like a caged bird beneath its own strength. It burned so hot and so bright. All of this magic surrounding me came from this beautiful black amulet, inset with its ruby jewel—to the untrained eye, the source of all my power.

  “We’ve been through some adventures, haven’t we?”

  The amulet bounced madly against my sternum. Had I not been cloaked in a beam of magic, it might have begun cracking my ribs. I clasped it in my hands, feeling it throb with power, and I thought back to all the magic that I had sealed into this marvelous weapon over the years.

  The weapon meant to help me face the Calamity. Revealed to be instrumental in calling it down, instead. The prison of my old mentor, the true creature from beyond the end of the worlds—an ancient witch determined, instead, to save them… why, my old friend, are you bathed in so many contradictions today?

  I thought back over all these things as they all watched. Tzavos was hesitantly appeased; Nikki, I could see, looked cautious and fearful. But the only face that mattered to me was that of my darling Elliott. One look at the tears that streamed down his face now told me all that I needed to know about his feelings on what I meant to do.

  My lips lowered to the amulet. I kissed it. And, with a specific thought in my head, I gave it my final command.

  “That last spell you consumed? Release it.”

  * * *

  Everyone was thrown away from me as I summoned out a very particular magic from within my amulet—one that had haunted me for years, dwelling deep within my mind. The magical column shattered as a great, malevolent storm blew to life all around me…

  “Hello, old friend,” I remarked bitterly. “You win.”

  The swirling wind descended in a feral roar of power. I stood my ground; it hungrily swirled around me, eager to see me destroyed… and I held out my arms. Just this once, I was ready to be slain. You’ve been here since the start, ready to rip me apart in my dreams. It’s all you ever wanted. Funny, I guess, that this was always the answer.