Origin: an Adult Paranormal Witch Romance: Othala Witch Collection (Sector 1)

by Rebecca Hamilton

  When the crowd settled again, the officiate continued. “If any of you has reasons why these two should not be married,” he said, “speak now or forever hold your peace.”

  Alec scoffed bitterly to himself. As if anyone would dare object.

  “Then it is with great honor—”

  “I object.”

  Alec’s heart sputtered in his chest. That sounded like… He shook his head. She wouldn’t.

  “Excuse me?” the officiate said.

  Adira straightened her posture. “I said, I object.”

  The crowd erupted into a storm of whispers.

  “Silence!” the regent bellowed. Following the immediate obedience to his command, he continued in a quieter voice. “It is the lady’s choice, of course. Should she not want to wed,” he said through his teeth. “Unfortunately, the law dictates she would then be exiled.”

  Normally, the crowd cheered to witness a banishment, but this time, they remained awkwardly silent. This was new. Wedding days were the purest days of hope for these people, and this was being taken from them. As angry as they surely were with Adira, some parts of them were just not prepared to see a savage murder at this time.

  Dvorak leaned closer to Adira, his mouth by her ear, but Alec couldn’t hear what was said. Then the regent, the officiate, and the guards stepped out from the circle, leaving Adira standing alone on the large, glowing runestone.

  Every muscle in Alec’s body urged him to run out there, but he’d promised not to stop her.

  And deep down, he trusted her. Even with her own life. As terrified as being out of control made him feel, some core part of his being knew she really was strong enough for this.

  Whatever this was.

  The regent broke the nearest runestone and changed the boundary lines, putting Adira on the outside.

  But the ravagers weren’t going after her. It was as though they couldn’t smell her, couldn’t sense her. They just wandered around, not noticing as she sidestepped out of their way.

  Dvorak yelled something Alec couldn’t make out, and rays of light shot upward on the edges of the embedded circular runestone Adira stood on, knocking her to her knees and trapping her inside with several of the grotesque beasts.

  But as he did so, one of the other boundary stones broke.

  An uncontrollable, uneasy energy wavered through Alec’s body—not a magical energy, though. A nervous one. The need to move. To do something.

  As he stepped out of the abandoned home into the alley, he was nearly knocked back inside by some of the retreating crowd. Alec pushed his way through, coming to the opening and staring at where Adira was imprisoned.

  His mind took a moment to process what he was looking at, and his heart soon crashed to his stomach as realization set in.

  Another one of the boundary stones had failed, and Dvorak’s attempts to reseal the boundary were failing.

  Ravagers were infiltrating Sector One.

  Chapter 33

  Adira closed her eyes and took a deep breath, pushing down all her panic, all her fear, all her doubt. This moment had always been inevitable. But at least she’d taken into her control when it would happen.

  A ravager’s breath crawled down her neck. She clenched her teeth. They couldn’t sense her. They couldn’t sense her because they tracked life. They hunted and obliterated life.

  But Adira wasn’t alive.

  The Origin spell had worked, which meant she had only minutes left to do what needed to be done. After that, her death would be permanent. It would not just be a death of her essence, but of her spirit.

  Her eyes flashed open, and she spun in a slow circle, assessing the situation. The boundaries had come down, which hadn’t been part of the plan. Her goal had been to kill the ravagers without magic, the whole sector in attendance to see.

  Even the witch hunters used magic borrowed from the regent to kill those beasts. No one had ever killed a ravager without magic before. And technically, she wouldn’t be either. But the sector would think she had, and that would have been enough to overthrow the regent.

  But this… She shook her head. This would be a massacre. There was no way she could kill so many of them by herself, not even with the ravagers unable to detect her. And with the potion shutting down all the systems in her body, she didn’t have much time.

  Before she could do anything, she needed to repair the border runestone. But the question was—could she? She’d repaired a runestone at Miss Balek’s before…but that was just an object-powering rune. Even the regent couldn’t repair the border stones. In fact, the last known witch to repair a border runestone had been one of the original sixteen. A true Othala witch.

  Adira’s wobbled as pain shot through her stomach. She didn’t have time doubt herself. She needed to take action. Which meant it was time to get the regent’s metal cuff off her wrist so that she could use magic.

  She reached up to her neck to feel for the sundial charm. It wasn’t there. Her hands started to feel around her neck, patting down her body, her breath freezing in her lungs. It. Wasn’t. There.

  Her eyes went wide as she scanned the ground. Had she dropped it? She dropped down to her hands and knees, her heart hammering in her chest. Her vision blurred, doubled. Tears prickled her eyes. She didn’t have time for this.

  The regent’s shoes stepped into her vision. “Looking for this?”

  Her eyes tracked up to his hand. She couldn’t make out what he was holding, but she didn’t have to. She knew.

  He’d taken her sundial.

  Without it, she wouldn’t be able to repair the stone. She wouldn’t be able to reverse the effects of the potion. She was going to die.

  The screams of the sector beyond the regent suddenly seemed louder. More ravagers were crossing the border. Meanwhile, the ones surrounding her lay in heaps. The regent had used the magic of the dispensary’s large ground runestone to kill them. Now it was just Dvorak and herself trapped inside the dome of glowing light.

  She’d rather have the ravagers.

  Adira tried to climb to her feet to face him, but stumbled forward, her cheek crashing against the stone beneath her. She rolled over onto her back so she could look up at him.

  “Don’t do this, Dvorak,” she said. “People are dying.”

  He circled her, tilting his head. “People need to die, Adira. They need to be reminded why I do the things I do.”

  “To what end?” Pain radiated through her, and she curled up tightly. Her vision darkened. “If you let this happen—” The sharp sensation in her stomach was unbearable. “There won’t be—a sector left—for you to…protect.”

  “And whose fault is that, Adira?” He crouched down beside her and lifted her chin. “You did this.”

  She pulled away, her head dropping to the side. Beyond the glowing wall of the runestone she laid on, Alec and several men from the Guard fought against the ravagers. But if the border didn’t seal soon, they would be outnumbered, and no amount of the regent’s borrowed magic would help them.

  “Ah, yes,” Dvorak said from behind her. “Alec Kladivo. Back from the dead, fighting the good fight.” The regent’s chilling laughter broke through the battle cries. “Well, he might have retrieved that sword, but it won’t do him any good. He’s as good as dead. Just…like…you.”

  Adira ground her teeth together and rolled onto her stomach. She pulled herself across the ground toward the broken runestone, but Dvorak grabbed her by the ankle.

  “I haven’t decided what to do with you yet,” he said. “Do I let you die? I have a dungeon full of other eligible witches, after all. Still, you’re stronger. Well, not right now, thanks to your little suicide mission. But we could fix that. One way or another, I could get you to procreate with me.”

  Sick. Asshole.

  Adira kicked, trying to get Dvorak off her so she could close the distance between herself and runestone, but with the Origin spell’s potion killing her, she didn’t have the energy to shake him. There was nothing s
he could do without magic anyway. She needed that sundial.

  The glowing dome around the dispensary’s runestone flickered. Dvorak couldn’t keep it up much longer.

  “You’re gonna get yourself killed,” Adira said through her teeth. “Just give me…the sundial. I can fix…this.”

  Dvorak pushed his foot down on her spine, holding her to the ground. “Now you’re worried about me?” he asked. “Don’t fret, my love. I’ll be fine.”

  With a deep breath, Adira rolled hard toward Dvorak, and he lost his footing and stumbled forward, tripping over her body. The dome flickered again as he lost his balance near the edge, and a ravager swiped at his back.

  Grimacing, Dvorak’s hands curled into tight fists as he stalked back toward Adira and grabbed her by her hair, lifting her from the ground. “You know what? You’re too stupid to bear my children. Your friends will have to do.”

  As he went to throw her, Adira grabbed his wrist, holding on with what little strength she had left. He toppled down with her, her back thudding against the ground and the weight of his body crushing into her stomach. The wind rushed from her. As she gasped in another breath, her lungs seized.

  Dvorak attempted to pull free, but Adira’s grip was like stone around his wrist. Her muscles, even her fingers, were stiffening. Every movement ached, but she managed to yank him back to her.

  As the breath slowly collected back into her lungs, she hissed in his ear. “I will not let these people die.” Her fingers crawled toward his hand that held the sundial.

  The fall had taken him off guard; the dome was down. Ravagers roamed into their circle now. The light flickered a few times, searing and killing two of the ravagers, but it was too late. Three ravagers had already made it inside, and if Dvorak lit up the rest of the stone, it would kill everyone on it—including them.

  “Looks like you’re done,” Adira muttered.

  As one of the ravagers came down on top of Dvorak, she snatched the sundial away and squirmed out from under Dvorak’s body. The ravagers still couldn’t see her, but that was about the only thing working in her favor.

  She sat up, the world around her spinning and dimming, and slashed the sundial against the metal cuff on her wrist. The metal fell off, revealing a row of deep holes encircled with swollen, red skin around her wrist where Dvorak’s magical poison had entered her system.

  A glance toward the sector revealed the ravagers had outnumbered the Guard. She needed to reseal the border before any more got inside.

  Dvorak’s ability to protect the border without repairing runes was unique to him. Adira didn’t know how he did it. But that was what the Origin spell was for. She didn’t need to know how Dvorak’s magic worked. She knew how the magic of the original sixteen worked, and she was going to use it…if the poison didn’t kill her first.

  After stumbling to the broken rune, she lined up the markings. She needed to be close to death for this to work, and she’d accomplished that. Now she needed to invite a new life source to take over.

  Closing her eyes, Adira recalled the rest of the Origin spell.

  “Přijímám dar Othala čarodějnice,” she said. I accept the gift of the Othala witch. “Přijímám dar Othala čarodějnice.”

  Her chants continued while she grimaced in effort to block out the screams and commotion of the sector. If the gods, or whoever was in charge of honoring this magic, granted her this gift, she would restore the Othala bloodline to its original potency.

  Starting with her.

  “Opravit!” she commanded forcefully to the stone. A sliver of the crack repaired, but it wasn’t enough.

  She couldn’t sit up any longer. The pain, the darkness, the spinning. It was all too much. She curled up against the pain, the runestone still in her hands.

  “Opravit!” she said again. Repair. Another small piece mended.

  “Op-Opra—!” Her lips weren’t working. Her vision had blurred so much she couldn’t make out the symbol on the stone anymore. “Opravit,” she finally managed. More of a whisper this time. “Opravit…”

  The stone was mending. She could feel it. But she needed to stay alive long enough for it to complete. Then she could use her magic to reverse the effects of the potion.

  Tears stung her eyes as she mumbled more fervently, Opravit, opravit, opravit.”

  Even if this worked, too many ravagers had made it inside. The only way Alec would be able to defeat that many of them would be if he used the sundial charm she’d given him.

  “Alec!” she called out blindly, hoping her voice had enough strength to carry over the battle cries. “Alec! You need—”

  You need to use the sundial.

  The thought finished in her mind instead of through her lips as she fell into a motionless state, somewhere between life and death.

  Chapter 34

  Adira.

  Alec’s head whipped around, his panicked gaze searching for her. She’d called for him. She needed him.

  Another ravager lunged for him, but he swept his sword through the air, decapitating it as he stormed toward where he’d just heard Adira’s voice.

  The warm splatter of ravager blood across his face didn’t slow him. His rage burned hotter than the beasts’ blood ever could. But that did not stop the ravagers. They swiped at him as he wove through the battlefield, scraping fresh wounds into his back and arms.

  Two stepped into his path. Again, he sought to dodge around them, keenly focused on getting to Adira and dealing with them later. This time, there was no escape. One bit into his shoulder, the other pulled at his arm.

  There was a time this would be an impossible situation. A death sentence. But he would not die while Adira needed him. He ducked low and charged to the side, the ravager rolling over his back and knocking the other down with it. Alec pivoted, sweeping his sword to come down on the fanged beasts.

  He was closer now, but Adira’s cries had stopped. He hurried his step, but as the outskirts came into view, his step faltered. Just before the line of trees that surrounded the city, the border had mended. Most of the beasts nearby had already made it inside of the sector, leaving the outskirts practically bare, but that wouldn’t last. More would come.

  Nowhere was safe anymore.

  Stepping over the body of another dead ravager, he was nearly knocked over by a woman running past him. Her shrieks shattered through his core, stopping him in his tracks. He didn’t want to look. So much so that his body resisted as his gaze crawled over to where the woman had run.

  The pain of her cries—he knew them. He knew that pain for it had haunted him all of his life. He swallowed, steeling himself against what he saw next. The woman, in her torn skin and bloodied clothes, stumbled toward a single, child-sized shoe. Her body collapsed, and her shrieks turned to wailing that reverberated through his chest.

  Alec bit his lip, looking back to the border. It was restored. Which meant hope was restored. But hope couldn’t erase what was happening around him. He needed Adira, and she needed him.

  He stormed toward the circular runestone that had once been the market’s dispensary. That was where he’d seen her last. The ground there was glowing, though that glow faded the farther into the sector it led.

  Dead ravager bodies lay in piles on the shimmering ground. Whatever magic had soaked into the earth there had killed them, taking out at least half of the ravagers that had infiltrated their borders.

  He followed the magic to its source.

  It was the movement of her hair he saw first. The tendrils of brown curling and twisting in the wind, reflecting hues of gold in the rays of the dying sunlight. The way her hair moved when they trained together, the way her hair moved in the throes of passion.

  But that was the only thing about her that moved.

  As his mind filtered in her lifeless body, her curled fingers, and her still hands, his pace throttled to a run. Reaching her, he dropped to his knees and pulled her body up into his lap, shaking her. “Adira!”

  Her body di
dn’t fight his touch. Didn’t stiffen or react.

  “Adira!”

  His throat closed in. His mind tried to block out the truth. Block out what he had known before he’d even reached her.

  This couldn’t be happening. They couldn’t have gone through all this for her to die.

  He shook her again. His shaking hands searched for a pulse. His ear rested against her chest, straining to hear a heartbeat over the battle cries. Wishing so hard to feel her chest rise with a breath that he would have given anything to even imagine it.

  But the truth burned in his eyes, and a darkness swirled inside of him. First in his gut, but then upward, outward. An explosion of anger that sparked inside his veins and blackened his mind until nothing existed but the desire to kill.

  As his gaze lifted from the lifeless body of the only woman he had ever loved, it came to rest on the regent, who was under fierce attack of a ravager.

  Not just any ravager. The ravager. Something about its mannerisms were too familiar. The way it held the regent’s body. He’d seen those exact movements before. His nightmare had replayed it in his sleep every night since he was a child.

  Alec charged the ravager, leaving the safety of the shimmering earth that had killed the others. Blinded by rage, he sliced his sword through the air, aiming for the sickly gray skin of the ravager’s neck.

  But the beast ducked.

  Alec swung again, with far less finesse. This time, the ravager twisted, pulling the regent into the path of Alec’s attack.

  Alec stumbled back. The ravager was using the regent as a shield. His heart stuttered. That didn’t make sense. That required something more than mindless blood lust. The ravager’s actions were calculated. Planned.

  Lungs squeezing out painful breaths, Alec ground his teeth together and lunged again. He dove into the ground, rolling and coming up behind the ravager, ready to slice into beast.

  The ravager’s body contorted, hissing as it snapped its fangs at Alec. The movements were slowing, though. The regent must have been doing something. Using the last of his magic.