by Laken Cane
The enormous silver moon hung fat and low behind her, and for miles in the distance, skinny, crooked tree limbs extended toward her in silent adulation.
Silver and white streaks of lightning rushed across her body, her face, her hair. She personified the word demon.
Eli was suddenly at Abby’s shoulder. “Are you all right?” he asked her, as though she’d been the one chucked against a tree trunk.
She nodded, not taking her stare from Acadia. “She’s waiting for Jewel,” she murmured, suddenly sad beyond measure. A child shouldn’t have to fight her mother. She shouldn’t have to fear her mother.
“Leave her alone, Acadia,” she shouted, suddenly, as though it might help.
Acadia floated in the air, her hair streaming out behind her like black ribbons. “She’s mine, Abigail. I will never let her go. Especially not now that she’s come into her power.” She grinned, and it was Jewel’s grin.
“Jewel is my sister,” Abby said, her teeth clenched in an effort to keep them from clattering together. “I will never give her to you.”
“I don’t need you to give me anything, you pathetic little worm. Jewel is my child, and I have come to take back what is mine. It’s laughable that you think you can stop me.”
“I stopped your friends,” Abby said, calmly. “I will stop you.”
Sorceresssss…
“All right,” Acadia called, from her lofty position. “Let’s see what you’ve got, little girl.”
Eli took her arm. “Abby…”
“I have to fight her, Alpha. She is my enemy, and if I don’t kill her, she will kill me.” She glanced down at her hounds, who watched her with fierce stares. They were eager for battle. For blood. Most of all, they were hungry for magic. “She will kill all of us. And then she’ll go after my mother.”
He closed his eyes for one long second, then leaned forward and kissed her lips. “End her, Witch. No one is stronger than you.”
She had to say it. She might not get another chance, and she wasn’t about to waste that one. “I love you, Eli.”
She stared into his eyes for a heartbeat. She loved him. Her alpha.
Then she threw her staff into the air, and with a running jump, she leapt onto it. She felt it attach immediately, and she torpedoed toward the demon witch as Eli watched from below.
She would fight Acadia, and she would kill her.
She had no room for doubts.
Without hesitation, she sent a wave of power so harsh and strong it nearly knocked her unconscious as it ripped its way out of her.
But when dealing with the demon witch, the power had to be big.
Big, and bad.
No matter how much it hurt her.
Acadia’s eyes widened the second before the force of Abby’s hatred and fear smashed into her.
It hit her in the chest and ate its vicious way through her flesh and bone even as she fought, even as she flew backward, hard, fast, and uncontrollably.
And for a moment, Abby thought it was really going to be that easy.
But Acadia began to fight. She spun in a whirlwind of black smoke and red blood, her voice loud and cold and full of fury as she fought Abby’s mass of power.
The demon witch held up her arms and her whirling body slowed, then froze into a motionless, hard shell. Her smile was a rictus of evil and delight. “Now see what I can do, little girl.”
Her eyes held admiration. Her heart held death.
She shattered Abby’s frozen power into shards of icy glass, then sent them exploding through the air.
Straight at Abby.
Acadia flew with the power shards, her hands raised. She carried no wand. She didn’t need one.
“I’ve come for Jewel,” she said. “And I will have her.”
“Then take me, Mother,” Jewel screamed. “If you can.”
Abby ducked and swirled, avoiding the deadly power shards—her staff was not going to let them touch her.
Acadia lost interest in Abby the second Jewel arrived. She turned toward her daughter, and the two demons faced each other for the first time since Jewel had been a tiny wild thing, tormented and caged.
Jewel hung in the air, staring at her mother, her own wings unfurling and waving in the night sky like black ship sails, and once again, her skin held the red of a thousand rubies. Her black hair blended with her wings, and her eyes were large, green glass edged with shining silver.
She was magnificent.
Abby put a hand to her mouth, frozen in wonder and disbelief. She realized immediately that Jewel’s eyes held power. Her eyes were weapons. Magic swirled inside them, fighting for release.
“Sister,” Abby whispered, and the demon witch put her attention back on Abby.
“No,” Jewel commanded. “Look at me, Acadia.”
But Abby wasn’t going to let Jewel stand against the demon witch alone. She flew to the girl so fast that the wind snatched her breath away. “Look at us,” she said, and she didn’t have to say another word for Jewel to understand that it was time to attack. To fight. No more words.
She had a second to see Jewel shoot an almost imperceptible beam of light from her remarkable, breathtaking eyes, and then Abby turned to blast out her own power—it exploded from her like pent-up rage, and she shoved it down the demon witch’s throat with glee and rage and not even a hint of fear.
Acadia screamed in surprise, but she steadied herself and began to fight back. If she managed to gather their power and shoot it back at them, they were doomed.
Neither of them eased up. They joined hands and shoved harder. Connected, strong, united.
Deadly.
Abby felt something growing inside her, and though her first instinct was to struggle, she relaxed and let it come. She let it overwhelm her.
For it was the power of a sorceress, and if she fought it, tried to control it, or feared it, it would blow her to bits.
So she let it build, let it grow, until she was no longer a breathing woman with a heartbeat. She was the power.
It wasn’t just her—it was her connection with Jewel, her demon sister. Their power flowed through their clasped hands, changing something in each of them, growing into something more, something, perhaps, not even Acadia had seen.
They kept shoving power, power that grew, and grew, and grew, into Acadia Desrochers.
And Acadia kept repelling it.
It wasn’t that they underestimated the demon witch. They knew her power was strong. But maybe they’d overestimated themselves.
They were so much younger than Acadia.
The moment doubt began to creep in, Abby lost ground.
Acadia shoved herself closer to them, her face a grimace of determination, her stare not on Jewel, but Abby.
No wonder Henry had been so fascinated with Acadia. And no wonder he was so afraid of her.
And Acadia crept closer.
Without warning, the demon witch uncoiled a fiery whip and no matter that Abby was almost a power beyond compare in the woods, no matter that she was the sorceress, no matter that she rode a staff of mystery and magic, Acadia was stronger.
She just was.
Jewel howled as Abby’s hand was forced from hers, and without looking away from Abby, Acadia held up her free hand and sent Jewel reeling head over heels into the sky.
And Abby was hers.
She cracked the whip of fire and it snapped against Abby’s neck, curling it around her flesh like a burning snake.
Stay strong.
Stay strong!
But her power wavered, flickered, dimmed.
Abby tried to force her fingers under the whip, because it was cutting into her throat, and it would slice her head off, she knew it would. She felt the flesh parting, bleeding, burning…
And that was the difference between Abby the Witch and Acadia the Demon Witch. Acadia had age and experience and Abby didn’t.
Abby let her hands drop to her sides as she hung in the noose of fire, as the world darkened around he
r. She heard only the blood roaring through her ears, and the crackle of fire, and once, she thought she heard her alpha’s voice.
If Sadie and Elmer hadn’t been below, soaking up the power, she’d have died there with the demon witch’s whip around her neck.
Acadia flung her arm back and jerked Abby to her, but she did not loosen the ring of fire around Abby’s neck. “See what I can do?” she whispered. “You have to grow up before you can defeat me, little witch.”
She sounded almost as though she cared.
Then Jewel returned.
“I’m full grown, Mother,” Jewel murmured, and she shot icy power at the whip. It froze immediately, but Abby had no strength to shatter it.
Jewel did, however, and she didn’t hesitate.
She broke the frozen whip, then immediately hit Abby with a blast of power that sent her flying back to the earth.
But Abby was attached to her staff, to Camilla, and they would not let her plummet to the ground to smash upon the rocks.
After the initial explosive shove, the staff gained control, and lowered Abby, slumped, powerless, and barely conscious, to the ground. To her alpha.
And when he caught her, the staff released her to him.
“Abby,” he roared. “Abby!”
Something was terribly wrong inside her. Something was broken.
“I failed,” she mumbled. “I failed.”
“Look, sweetheart,” he told her. “Look.”
So finally, her hands to her raw, burnt throat, she lifted her head from Eli’s chest to stare at the scene playing out above her.
Jewel and her mother fought and it was like a vicious thunderstorm in the sky. But the fight…it wasn’t a fight. It was a slaughter.
Because Henry Cameron had joined the battle, and as broken as he was, he was powerful. And he was finally ready to face the demon witch. To kill her.
“Henry,” Acadia screamed, and there was something vulnerable and hurt in her voice. There was also the realization that it would end there that night. One of them would die.
They were more vicious than any wolf as they fought each other. And it was a slaughter in the sky.
But more than that…
Jewel.
Jewel beat the demon witch with so much power that Abby could taste it. It filled her mouth and her throat and her mind, and forced out the brokenness caused by Acadia’s power.
Acadia began to shriek suddenly, but the sound gave Abby no satisfaction. It drilled through her brain and finally, she put her hands over her ears, hoping to muffle it. The wrenching, sad, black sound of something so ancient finally finding its end.
It was the sound of an ancient power being driven into purgatory. And she would never, ever come back from that. Because that was where she belonged. And really, wasn’t that death?
Abby had known that Jewel would be the one to send her mother to her death.
She’d known.
It wasn’t her place to defeat the demon witch. That was Jewel’s kill.
The demon would end the demon.
But Abby had been tormented by that demon witch, and she would be part of her death. She had to be. Just as Acadia had been part of her life.
She was beside her father and Jewel almost before she’d realized she’d moved. And she hadn’t gotten there by riding her staff. She’d flown there. All on her own.
But she wasn’t amazed at her accomplishment. It just was, and she accepted it. The woods had given it to her, and she was certain they’d take it back when she deserted them.
Henry threw her a proud smile, once, but his eyes were so full of torment that Abby couldn’t look at him for more than a second. He accepted responsibility for what he’d caused, and even when all the ones he’d hurt forgave him, she wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to forgive himself.
His exile in Waifwater Woods hadn’t just been out of fear of the spell Acadia had put inside Jewel. His exile had been his penance. His hair shirt. He’d wanted to atone for his mistakes by eking out a terrible existence in Waifwater woods.
“She’s immortal,” Henry said, his voice strong. “Take my hands, my daughters. Join with my power. Together, we will send her to a place from which she will never return.”
They did as he directed, and Abby could feel his power coursing through her. It found hers, twisted around it, and then Jewel’s crashed in, harsh and almost painful.
So much power.
So much darkness.
Could they defeat an unbelievably strong, immortal demon witch with that power?
Yes.
They could have killed the world.
Together, they shot the blend of magic and heart into the enemy and despite her strength and rage, she could not stand against them all.
And finally, the force of their power threw them back to the ground, and from there they watched the enemy’s defeat.
At last.
The horror that was Acadia Desrochers began to blacken, burn, and turn to ash. Her screams weakened, then fell away. The cinders floated through the air like gray, red, and black snow, and as Abby watched, her father caught some of them in his palm and stared down at them, expressionless.
Then, he lifted his hands, threw back his head, and roared. His voice held something there was no name for, and it held…release.
Jewel and Abby scrambled away from him and fell to the ground, then wrapped their arms around each other and stared up at their father, partly awed, partly terrified.
Eli knelt to put his arms around them both, his face pale. “What is that?” he asked.
Abby shook her head. “I…I don’t know.”
“It’s our father clawing his way out of hell,” Jewel said, calmly. “Perhaps he will make it.”
“We’ll help him,” Abby said. “Our mother will help him.”
Jewel nodded.
Eli glanced down at Abby, and he looked unconvinced. “He is mad.”
“A little,” Abby agreed. “But he’ll be okay. He just needs time.”
“As do we all,” the alpha murmured.
He was absolutely right.
The elder Cameron finally closed his mouth and fell to the ground, but not easily. He hit with a thump that made Abby cringe, and she worried for a moment that he’d broken something in his frail old body.
But he stood before they could reach him, then straightened his spine and watched them come. “It’s over,” he said, when they stood before him. “It’s finally over. Because of you, my daughters.”
“Because of us,” Abby said. “All of us. Neither Jewel nor I could have finished her on our own.”
She saw a spark appear in his eyes, a spark that hadn’t been there earlier. “Us,” he said. Then he eyed Eli. “And who does this young man belong to?”
“Me,” Abby said, taking Eli’s arm. “He’s mine.”
Eli laughed. “She’s absolutely right.” Then he sobered and gave Abby a long, lingering look. “I’m hers.”
Jewel turned and walked away without a word to any of them.
“Jewel,” Abby called. “Where are you going?”
“Home,” she said.
With a last quick look around, Abby, Eli, and Henry hurried after the little demon.
There was a better world waiting outside the terrible woods of Waifwater.
Chapter Twenty
It was a bedraggled and battered bunch that stepped through the doorway into the pocket, but as battered as their bodies were, their spirits couldn’t have been higher.
They’d made it. They’d escaped not only Waifwater Woods, but Acadia the demon witch. And that wasn’t something Abby had really believed possible. In the deep dark of her soul, she hadn’t really believed it.
“I don’t want to reunite with her just yet,” Henry said. “Not looking like I must surely look.” He rubbed a hand over his bearded, dirty face. “She shouldn’t see me this way.”
“Father,” Abby said, gently. “No more waiting. It’s time.”
She und
erstood that he was afraid. He was terrified. But it was time.
He knew that.
Still, before they’d made it halfway to Basilia’s cottage and the woman came rushing to meet them, Henry ducked away and posted himself behind a tree to watch.
“Oh, my children,” Basilia yelled, her hand to her chest as she ran. “You’re home. You’re home.”
She dragged her girls to her, kissing first one, then the other, then starting all over again. Her face was wet with tears of joy, and she squeezed them so tightly Abby was almost afraid she’d hurt herself.
“You made it out,” Basilia cried, then burst into sobs. “You made it home.”
“Jewel led us to the door,” Abby said, smiling at her mother’s emotional display. “We’re home, Mama.”
“I told you I would,” Jewel said. She kissed Basilia’s cheek, patted Abby’s hand, then pulled away from both of them. She turned and began to walk away, humming quietly.
She was as battered as the rest of them. Cuts, burns, and gaping wounds decorated her face and body.
But she was cheerful.
“Where are you going?” Abby asked her.
Jewel paused to look back over her shoulder. “To my room. There are two dolls I have not yet welcomed into the pocket.” She grinned.
Abby shook her head. Could the little demon really go back to life as though the woods had never happened?
Basilia held out a hand to Eli and he took it gently in his, smiling. “Hello, Mother,” he said.
“I hope you’re worthy of my daughter,” she said, severely, but she couldn’t keep her own smile off her face.
“I am not,” he told her, “but I will aspire to be.” He winked at her, causing her to giggle.
Abby lifted an eyebrow. “Mama,” she said, finally, casting a glance toward the tree behind which her father waited. At least, she hoped he was still there. “There is so much to tell you.”
“The demon witch is gone,” Basilia said, crisply.
Abby gaped at her. “How did you know?”
“I’m not sure,” Basilia said, frowning. “But I had a feeling.” She rubbed her arms, looking uneasily around the area. “I feel something else, too, but I’m not sure what it is.”