by Logan Jacobs
“Not yet,” I whispered. “What I need you to do is take all the shadows, both bonded and single, to rid the skies, halls, and grounds of any elders you can find. Now, go! Hurry!”
My towering red brother bowed slowly before he briefly turned to look at the others, and Luna and Crimson quickly gathered the women who were masters at the skill of ancient shadow bonding. Before they all departed, they uttered the ancient incantation to bind themselves to their black shadows and fly off into the sky, with my red silhouette leading the way.
“Excellent,” I breathed before I turned to the dragons. “Now, let’s climb on.”
“I’ll lead,” Evanora instructed as we ran to climb on top of the beasts.
“Err, Cole!” Circe called out as she sprinted toward me. “I’m still not familiar with dragon riding… perhaps I could join you?”
“Of course,” I said before I narrowed my eyes at her.
Motus.
The serpentine witch gasped as her body ascended into the sky, and I willed her to sit on my dragon.
“Let’s fucking do this!” she cried out, and her eyes were filled with exhilaration as she stared down at me with an eager smile.
Before I hooked my feet into the scales of my dragon, I glanced upon his great emerald magnificence and his glowing, serpentine eyes. As I clambered on top of the beast, I could feel a resonating growl deep within his chest, but it was not a menacing sound. In fact, it felt as if he were welcoming me onto his back because he was eager to tear through the sky. I could feel his heart beating and thriving for blood and flesh, and as soon as I was on his back, I turned to look at my coven, the other women, and Evanora and Olivia. Then we all silently nodded at each other before we all leaned forward on our dragons.
“Fly!” I commanded, and my stomach lunged upward and then violently dropped as my loyal beast flew into the sky and soared toward the castle.
“Woohoooooo!” Circe cried out in elation as we swept through the crimson clouds, and I could feel everyone’s lust for elder blood as we drew closer toward the serpens and their masters. Then our dragons let out a thunderous chorus of roars as we neared the white soaring beasts, and suddenly, the elders who were riding their serpens turned sharply to gawk at us, right before we began to tear them into bloody ribbons.
“Look out!” an elder soldier cried out right before Faye swooped down and used her dragon’s claws to knock him right off his serpen’s back.
“Too fucking late!” the redhead shouted as she flew upward and began to rip soldiers from their beasts and tear into the necks of the white serpens.
I watched with immense pride as my dragon snatched a white serpen by its long neck and chomped down on its scaled flesh. As the two animals danced a bloody waltz through the heavens, the elder with deep brown hair riding the ivory creature stared at me with wide, furious eyes, and the corners of his lips twitched down into a deep, trembling frown.
“You!” he snarled with pure contempt. “It’s you!”
“That’s right, fucker,” I growled just before I pulled out my wand and aimed it right in between his eyes. “Dissulto!”
Bright crimson light hit the elder right in his forehead, and a scream left his lips as he tumbled downward and impaled himself on a giant pike on top of a lower tower.
I stared down at the elder’s lifeless body, and I had to steady myself on my dragon as he tore red and white chunks out from the neck of the wriggling serpen. Circe tightened her grasp around my waist as I held onto my dragon’s hide, and the blonde Wicca cried out in glee as my beast sunk his teeth right into the gorge of the ivory creature, and then, with one quick tear, finally ripped its whole throat out and tossed it aside. The serpen couldn’t even cry out in pain as its massive body descended toward the ground while thick blood rained through the sky, and he crashed to his death.
“Well done, master!” Morgana cried out, and when I turned around, I saw the bookworm hovering above me, and her dragon had chunks of white meat in its jaws while a thick trail of blood seeped out from the corners of its giant mouth.
“You, too!” I laughed with pride. “Keep going! Let’s bring hell down upon these fuckers!”
Morgana firmly nodded in my direction before she guided her dragon higher into the sky and swarmed toward another elder, and then her beast tore straight through the serpen’s chest. I watched with morbid fascination as the wingless elder tumbled from the back of his creature, and he screamed in terror as he descended out of sight.
As I flew through the blood-hued sky, I realized the other women were just as skilled when it came to murdering elders and their serpens, but as with war, luck wasn’t totally on everyone’s side. Before I could even cry out to warn a risen Wicca in front of me, an elder shot an arrow in her direction, and it plunged right through her left eye. I winced as she looked at me with pure shock, right before the spark of life completely drained from her other eye, and she fell from her dragon.
“Oh, no,” Circe whispered behind me, but then I felt her hand rise as she aimed her wand at the arrow shooting elder. “Impes!”
A neon yellow light spurted past my face and hit the elder right in his chest, and I watched with fascination as his entire body convulsed, and his veins glowed bright red before he tumbled from his serpen and fell through the scarlet clouds.
“Well done!” I commended. “Where have you been hiding that spell, Circe?”
“I have no idea!” she giggled with glee. “I suppose it was embedded deep within my memories!”
As I glanced all around me, I could see elders and serpens being ripped into shreds, but my heart fell when I saw a few dragons flying without Wiccas on their backs.
“Stay alert,” I cried out as screams echoed through the clouds, “and burn them all! Command your beasts to spew fire and light up the entire fucking sky with flames! Let’s bring hell down upon these fucking holy worshippers!”
As soon as the command left my lips, all the dragons began to stream rivers of fire out from their snouts, and elder screams filled the air as their charred and blackened bodies tumbled down to the ground. I could feel my own dragon’s body sweltering with heat as I pressed my hands against his scaled covered neck, and a low growl resonated inside his chest. Then he spouted out a cloud of blistering flames in the direction of another elder with wheat-blond hair and wide silver eyes.
The elder desperately tried to swerve his beast out of the way, but he was too fucking slow. A broad, bloodthirsty smile broke across my face as his pain-filled screams filled the air, and both he and his serpen turned into plummeting charcoal corpses.
“I think we’ve killed them all!” Circe cried out, and when I studied the sky, I realized she was right.
There were no more serpens or elders in sight.
“Hell, yeah!” I called back before I glanced around to summon my coven and Beatrix. “Morgana, Faye, Vesta, Nyx, Akira, Beatrix, follow me!”
No matter how far away they were, my coven was able to hear my command, and within seconds, they all soared in our direction and hovered nearby on their dragons to await my next order. Beatrix happened to be nearby, too, and when they were all listening, I took a deep breath and focused on each one of them.
“We need to get inside the castle,” I explained. “We have to help Theodora and the other women take out any soldiers remaining inside.”
“How do you want to slip inside, master?” Morgana asked.
“We can break one of the windows using motus,” Penelope suggested with wide eyes.
“Good idea,” I answered.
“And while you do that, we’ll stay outside and ensure no more soldiers or beasts invade the skies,” a familiar voice said from behind me.
When I swerved my head around, I saw Evanora and Olivia hovering on their dragons with determined eyes and clenched jaws.
“Alright,” I agreed. “We never know if the elders will be sending more reinforcements, so be on the lookout… and be careful!”
“You, too,” Oli
via responded as she firmly nodded in our direction.
As they took off, I glanced down at the burning castle and found a window high up off the ground but just below us. I could hear screaming echoing from inside, and I knew we had to act quickly to save as many Vipera women as possible.
I swiftly narrowed my eyes at the tall, stained glass window and cleared my mind before I imagined the entire thing shattering into a thousand colorful shards of glass.
Motus.
In the next moment, the entire window exploded into pieces, and the smell of burned flesh quickly intensified as wisps of dark smoke seeped out from the opening.
“Fly down to that window,” I whispered to my dragon.
The beast growled before he carefully floated down toward the opening, and when I was close enough to slip inside, I peered in through the broken window.
Inside, absolute chaos was brewing. Witches and soldiers were frantically running in every direction, and blasts of color erupted anarchically throughout the hallways. Screams and voices echoed above the madness, and the crackling of fire intensified with each passing second.
“I’ll go first,” I instructed as I stared at the other witches. “There’s fire and utter madness within, but not enough to deter us from going inside and fighting.”
As I began to slip inside the crumbling Vipera Academy, I might have spoken too soon because in the next moment, out of nowhere, I felt someone grab onto my arm and yank me forward. He was incredibly strong, and his tug sent me tumbling to the ground and crashing against a stone wall. My head hit the wall with so much force my vision instantly blurred, and I could feel warm blood soaking the back of my head.
“Master!” I heard my coven scream.
When my vision cleared, I saw a towering man with pale, porcelain skin and shoulder-length blond hair approaching me. He wore a golden-breastplate and knee-high brown boots, and there was a satisfied smirk playing on his lips as he took giant steps toward me.
“The king will be pleased when I tell him I have crushed your skull with my boot,” his deep voice growled.
Without waiting another second, I pulled out my wand and aimed it right between his glowing green eyes.
“Tardesco!” I screamed.
A blast of light hit the giant elder, and he stumbled back as the other women began spilling into the sweltering corridor. The elder’s eyes narrowed in confusion as his movements grew slower, and then, as he stumbled closer to the open window, the women quickly moved out of the way.
But whoever this man was, his body must have been more resistant to the ancient spell because I could see his fingers twitching as he fought against the paralyzing incantation.
“Hey, asshole!” Nyx shouted before she stepped in front of him. “Have a nice trip.”
Before the giant elder could react, the blue-skinned witch blew a cloud of green smoke into his face, and in seconds, his expression went completely slack-jawed. Then he stopped moving entirely, and Nyx used all her force to shove him out the window.
The bastard couldn’t even cry out in shock as he fell to his death, and the women all regarded the blue-skinned witch with proud smiles and bright eyes as she dusted off her hands.
“Nice one, horns.” Akira grinned.
“Thanks,” Nyx snickered. “I decided after the last attack to always carry a little bit of this numbing powder with me.”
“Excellent thinking,” I groaned as I stood up and rubbed at the back of my throbbing head.
Before anyone could respond, I sensed something coming our way, and when I turned to the left, a cluster of soldiers were heading in our direction, and one of them had already notched an arrow. I aimed my wand at them, but before I could utter a word, the arrow shot through the air. The projectile whipped past me and toward Circe, but Faye shoved the blonde serpentine witch out of the way, and the weapon pierced the redhead right in her chest.
“Faye!” I shouted as she screamed out in pain, and the others huddled around her.
Boiling blood coursed through my veins, and without wasting another moment, I turned to face the group of men who dared to attack my women. The ground trembled as my rage grew, and the elders’ faces all fell as a cold chill swept over them. I pictured ripping their elder hearts from their shielded chests, and with all my willpower and strength, I summoned the darkness to come to my aid and kill these motherfuckers.
Modus antiquorum.
All the soldiers stopped moving, and their faces turned pale as they clutched onto their chests with twitching mouths and tear-filled eyes. They screamed out as their armor violently trembled, and then, all at once, giant gold-hued hearts spewed out from their chests and splattered onto the floor. Deep red blood covered their deviant-looking hearts, and to my surprise, they still pumped, even outside of their elder bodies.
As I neared the elders who were all buckled over and whimpering in agony, I slowly bent down to pick up one of the hearts, and the man who had shot the arrow looked at me with pleading, glassy eyes as I held onto his beating heart.
“Your king decided to fuck with the wrong Wiccas,” I growled just before I crushed the entire organ in the palm of my hand, and hot blood trickled down my wrist as the arrow wielding elder burst into blue flames.
“Conflo!” Circe’s voice echoed from behind me, and all the hearts exploded into ashes.
Then all the elders cried out one last time before they combusted into a blue inferno.
“Fuck,” Akira breathed as we stared at the remaining azure embers. “How…?”
“They can live for a while after their golden hearts are separated from their bodies,” Morgana explained, “but not for long.”
“Fucking roaches,” Akira grunted as her black eyes shone with roused hatred. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Well, either way,” I growled. “That was a hell of a lot more satisfying.”
Cole! the woman’s voice from my dreams rebounded inside my mind. You must find the banquet hall at once! Theodora is in danger… the king has found her!
“Fuck,” I breathed in sheer panic before I turned to the others. “Listen, we need to go! We have to help Theodora. I think the king has her.”
“Then let’s go!” Morgana urged with wide blue eyes.
“Faye,” I said as I stared at the bleeding redhead. “Will you be able to run?”
“Yes, master,” she responded with a weak smile before she ripped the still protruding arrow out of her chest. “You should know by now I’m much stronger than I look.”
“I know the way!” Nyx offered as she looked at each of us. “Come on!”
The others nodded before we sprinted down the hall with our wands extended in front of us. Shadows, students, and soldiers were running in every direction as we headed for the Vipera banquet hall, and as we fled to help our headmistress, we made sure to take out as many elders and mortal men as possible along the way.
“How close are we, Nyx?” I asked as Morgana used the ancient spell of dissulto to knock out an elder who sharply turned the corner and tried to surprise us.
“Not far!” the blue-skinned witch panted. “We’re almost there!”
Then we turned a corner, and just a few feet in front of us was a large mahogany door with gold embellishments carved along the sides. I didn’t need Nyx to tell me these were the doors leading to the banquet hall because not only could I sense a great danger lurking from within, but there were two elders standing watch at each side of the grand entranceway.
As soon as they saw us, they narrowed their bright eyes in our direction and curled up their lips in disgust. One of them had bright red hair and shimmering amber-toned eyes, while the other was a tad bit shorter with close-cropped brown hair and silver-blue eyes.
“It’s him.” The tall elder with the crimson hair scowled. “Let’s kill the male witch.”
“The king will certainly be pleased if we do,” the other cackled. “Let’s make it slow.”
“Or not,” I growled before we all aimed our w
ands at the duo. “It’s all of us against you two, morons.”
No one needed instruction before we all blasted different incantations in the elders’ direction. Each of us emitted a different spell simultaneously, and both men hit the wall with a thunderous thump as their bodies convulsed, spasmed, and twitched like spiders were crawling through their veins.
When they went entirely limp, Akira stood by my side and then whispered into my ear.
“May I cut their throats with my bonded blade, master?” she begged. “I’d love to watch the life drain out from their holy bodies.”
“You may.” I nodded.
Arousal and satisfaction coursed through my entire body as the black-haired beauty lowered herself to the fallen elders’ level, and without hesitation, she pulled out her dagger and slashed deeply across their throats one by one.
“What a neat and steady hand you have, Akira,” Vesta purred. “I do believe you are getting quite talented when it comes to throat-slitting.”
“Thank you, Vesta.” The black-eyed witch grinned before she tucked her blade back into her waistband.
“Alright,” I said as I studied the door. “There’s no need to use the periculum incantation to sense what’s behind these doors. We all know who’s waiting for me, so I need you to stay close and alert. We have no idea just how powerful Donovan truly is.”
“Yes, master,” my coven answered in unison while Circe and Beatrix nodded in agreement.
“We can do this,” Beatrix added with a small smile. “Can’t we?”
“That’s fucking right,” I said before I pushed back my shoulders, took a deep breath, and then opened the door.
The first thing I noticed was that the Vipera banquet hall was quite expansive and remarkably similar to the one in Scholomance. Long, white candles hovered in the air while patterned, bloody rugs swept across the black marble floors.
“So, you’ve decided to make your grand entrance,” a familiar voice echoed, and my entire body instantly flooded with searing rage. “I was wondering when you’d finally show up.”