by Eve Newton
“All right. Into the circle, ladies,” Draven says, stepping in himself. He settles himself into a sitting position and crosses his legs.
“Seriously?” Ember grumbles. “We have to sit on the floor?” She pulls at her black boot cut pants. “Do you have any idea how expensive these are?”
“Yes, seeing as though I bought them,” Draven responds.
“I said I would reimburse you,” she snaps, clearly irritated. “They don’t do well with dust and whatever the hell else is all over this floor.”
“You want me to conjure you a cushion, or something?”
“Don’t patronize me,” she huffs, stepping into the circle. She mutters to herself the whole time as she settles herself beside Draven on his left side. He just rolls his eyes.
“Roll your eyes at me again and I will rip them out with the heel of my boot,” she says to him sweetly.
It’s all I can do to hold back a laugh at the banter between them and Draven’s shocked look. “I’d pay attention to that if I were you,” I say, with a smile.
Cahl lets go of my hand and gives me a slight push. “Good luck, princess.”
I hesitate and he leans in and kisses my hair chastely, whispering, “It will be fine. Over before you know it.”
“Right. Yeah.”
I step into the circle and sit down on Draven’s other side.
“See? Aria didn’t complain,” Draven tells Ember with a slight smirk.
Ember looks me over, turning her nose up at my outfit. Jeans, a low-cut white tank top that really makes my boobs pop, and a black well-worn leather jacket.
“She is not in the same predicament as me.”
“You mean my clothes are shit to you.”
“Actually—” she says, giving me a patronizing smile.
“Save it,” I tell her, rolling my eyes. “It doesn’t bother me.”
“Really?” she drawls, heavy on the sarcasm.
I shrug. “We all know you’re a snob. It’s just par for the course. Whatever. We all have our issues, right?”
I see her about to bite back at my ‘snob’ comment, but Draven quickly grabs her wrist. Her gaze snaps to his as he tells her, “It’s unimportant, my sweet vampire. I love that you care so much about your appearance.”
“Just like you,” she says with a sweet smile that makes me want to hurl.
He smiles and kisses her hand, before letting it go. He shifts his weight and holds out his hands—one to me and one to Ember.
As we both take one of his hands, he tells us, “You do not need to take part in the incantation. All you do need to do is accept the energy that you will feel at the climax of the spell. That is us joining. Your instinctual reaction will be to resist it. Do not. You must relax and allow it. That is your part. Simple, right? Oh, and no talking. No distractions. I need full concentration. Any questions?”
“How long will it take?” I ask.
“I’m estimating ten minutes.”
“Okay. Cool.”
“Ember?” he asks.
Her eyes narrow as she snaps at him, “Will you die before you finish the spell, or is that reserved for after, like some sort of side effect? And also, when the hell were you planning on telling me? When I’m talking to your ghost in the dungeon of your fucking mansion?”
Oh fuck.
Draven looks absolutely shocked by her sudden and unexpected outburst. “How do you know?”
“I see things, remember?”
“Your visions don’t always come to pass exactly as you see them.”
“Will this?” she challenges.
“I don’t know, Ember. That’s the God’s honest truth.”
“I can’t lose you, Draven,” she whispers.
“We must perform the spell. If we do not, we won’t be able to defeat the Jurisdiction. All supernatural hybrids like us—vampires, witches, warlocks, wolves—will be overrun by them. We’re facing extinction here. My life to prevent that is a small price to pay.”
“Not to me.”
He blows out a breath. “It’s a long shot that it’ll come to my death, Ember. With all major spells, it’s a possibility. That’s the gamble of wielding great power. Just follow the instructions I gave you both, don’t interrupt me and everything should be fine.”
She leans in and whispers something in his ear. A bittersweet smile plays on his face. She kisses him and then pulls back.
“Okay. Let’s do this.”
“Thank you,” he tells her.
She nods.
Wow. Okay. I guess that argument’s over then. Ember may be concerned about Draven, but she knows how important it is that we do this spell. She’s able to rise above her personal feelings to see it through. After all, she was the one who basically united the three of us. She sought me out and then we sought out Draven. It’s been her life’s mission to do this. And now, here we finally are, just seconds away from doing what we were born to do.
I’m eager to get this done, too. I need the power it’ll give me, so I can save the wolves being held captive by the Jurisdiction in the Realm and I need to save Cahl. I haven’t told Ember or Draven of my plans to claim the throne in the Realm. Now isn’t the time. Everyone is so tense right now. Throwing that into the mix will just exacerbate all that. Also, I’m not sure they’ll be on board with it. Our destiny is to destroy the Jurisdiction, not to take control of the Realm. I know they’ll want to destroy it, along with the enemy. But I can’t let that happen. Cahl will remain mortal if his world is destroyed and I’m not letting him go. Ever.
“Aria!” Draven snaps at me.
I blink out of my thoughts. Oops, I guess I was spacing out there. “Yeah?”
“Concentrate. And close your eyes. I’m starting the ritual now.”
“Right. Sorry,” I say, squaring my shoulders and drawing in a deep, calming breath. Magic makes me nervous. I close my eyes.
The second I do, I hear Draven murmuring the incantation in a foreign language that I don’t understand. Maybe Latin? Who knows?
Moments pass where it’s just him murmuring.
And then a sudden spark hits me, like a static shock. It has me grimacing and I hear Ember grunt.
It disappears, only to be replaced by an onslaught of them all of a sudden. My entire body feels like it’s on fire. Just when I think it can’t get any worse, it does. The pain is excruciating and I grit my teeth against it and fight to keep myself from reacting on instinct to break the circle and stop it.
“Fuck,” Ember mutters, squeezing my hand tightly.
I’m squeezing too and so is Draven.
“Seconded,” I choke out.
A sudden thud from the cathedral entrance startles my eyes open. Blue magic is swirling around our circle and a bright, golden light is threaded through our joined hands.
Heavy, rushed footsteps have me jerking my head in the direction of the entrance.
Holy shit.
There are half a dozen Ambassador soldiers storming in.
“Stay back!” Cahl commands, stepping into their path, between them and us.
All six of them brandish their swords.
Cahl doesn’t have his. He can’t wield it anymore, since he defected from the Jurisdiction.
Oh my God!
“Commander, you will suffer for your betrayal,” one of the soldiers threatens.
Cahl raises his palms and black fire sparks to life on them. “Take another step and you will know what true suffering is.”
The soldiers chance a step closer.
As they do, a thunderous crash rips through the cathedral and shrouded figures come barreling in through the stained glass windows. At least twenty of them. I catch sight of their contorted features. Vampires.
One of them spins to face our circle. He pulls back his hood.
Edric.
Ember’s father.
She senses him instantly, her eyes snapping open. She turns her head, towards him.
“Father,” she gasps.
; He turns away from her as the Ambassador soldiers advance on Cahl. He bellows at his men, “Do not let them interrupt the ritual!”
His vampire army hurriedly forms a wall. They all raise their hands and fire. A shimmering white wall forms between them, Cahl and the Ambassadors. They must be Edric’s mages.
What the hell? They’re helping Cahl and the three of us?
The Ambassadors fire their own black magic at the wall, trying to break through the barrier. Judging by the way that each one of the mages takes a step back, it won’t take long. Shit.
Edric walks over to our circle.
He’s stopped a few feet out by Cahl stepping into his path, his magic at the ready, protecting us.
“As soon as the ritual is complete, Ember will come with me. She will be our strongest resource.”
“That is not her destiny,” Cahl tells him.
“She is my daughter. Her destiny is what I deem it to be, Ambassador scum.”
“To you, she is nothing but a weapon to wield.”
Edric smirks. “Indeed.”
“I’ll kill you,” Ember seethes.
She screams a moment later and so do I as the magic coursing through us flares up, causing an unbearable level of painful intensity.
Fucking hell!
“Stop them!” an Ambassador bellows.
The wall the mages had been holding the Ambassadors at bay with disintegrates. The Ambassadors rush the mages, cutting many of them down with their swords in the process. They begin firing their magic wildly. A bolt of magic strikes the ground just a few inches from where we’re sitting. Cahl fires bolt after bolt, trying to drive them back. But there are too many of them.
Draven finally opens his eyes. I guess he was unable to block out all the chaos around him any longer.
“Need…to…speed this up.”
“What?” Ember cries. “No, Draven! It’ll take even more power.”
“No…choice.”
The unbearable pain intensifies even further then. I stop fighting it, remembering that Draven instructed us to accept it. It’s a huge challenge, given how agonizing it is.
I feel Draven’s grip loosen considerably.
Ember must too, because she looks over at him as I do.
He looks incredibly pale. His eyes are glazed over and unfocused. But, worst of all, blood is trickling from his nose.
“Draven! Draven, slow the spell! Stop, Draven!” Ember screams.
But he doesn’t.
A sudden wave of blue fire erupts between us, shooting several feet high. It swirls around all three of us. Over and over again.
It splits into three paths, becoming magical arrows. Each one points at our hearts.
Draven grunts and grits his teeth.
And then the arrows fire into our hearts.
I gasp as I feel a huge surge of incredible power. It completely wipes out the pain. All I feel now is strength. Incredible strength.
“You did it!” Ember cries. “The ritual’s complete. I can feel it.”
“Holy hell. Me too,” I say.
Draven doesn’t say a word though.
I watch in horror as he chokes, blood spurting from his mouth. Ember screams as he collapses onto his back, letting go of our hands and breaking the circle. She scrambles over to him and frantically reaches for him. “Draven. Draven, can you hear me? Wake up. Please. Wake up.”
“Cahl!” I bellow through the chaos of the battle raging all around us.
He’s beside me a second later. He searches my face. “Are you all right?”
“It’s not me. It’s Draven,” I say, pointing to him lying sprawled out unconscious on the ground.
He rushes over to him, ignoring Ember’s frantic pleas for Draven to wake up.
I see Cahl press his hand to his forehead and flinch. Oh no. That’s not good at all. He turns to me, shaking his head.
Oh my God.
“We need to leave,” he tells Ember. “Now,” he says, pointing to the hellish battle waging between Edric’s men and the Ambassadors.
“No! Do something. Please. Do something. Help him. You can heal him, like you said you could with Aria.”
“I cannot.”
“You can, you must,” she pleads with him.
“Do you not feel it?”
“Cahl!” she demands.
“You are vampire. You must be able to hear that his heart is no longer beating.”
Oh, fucking hell.
“No,” she says, shaking her head vehemently and pulling Draven’s limp body against her and holding him close. She rips open her wrist with her fangs and is about to place it to his mouth when bolts of black magic rain down around us suddenly. I cry out as I’m hit in the chest. The power behind it knocks me back and I struggle to maintain my footing. And then another hits me. And another. But I don’t go down, not like I have done in the past when I’ve been assaulted by Ambassador magic. It barely even hurts me either. It’s more of an annoyance than anything else.
That annoyance escalates unbelievably quickly. Before I know it, rage is burning through my veins and calling to the wolf within. Unleash. Unleash.
I can’t stop it.
I roar at them all, the furor of it reverberating through the entire cathedral.
I’m vaguely aware of Cahl approaching me and warning me to calm down.
But it’s too late. With this new intense power I feel coursing through me from the completion of the ritual, the wolf is more powerful than it’s ever been. I have no hope of controlling it right now.
The wolf wants to rip our enemies apart.
Kill. Kill. Kill.
I leap through the air, shifting in mid-flight within seconds. I land, as wolf, between the two warring armies. They all take a fearful step back. The wolf loves that. It wants more. More fear. More damage and destruction. And, above all, bloodshed.
All they are to the wolf are targets that need to be destroyed. Ripped apart.
Everything becomes a blur. The screams of the Ambassador soldiers and Edric’s warriors all meld into one as I tear into their flesh with my claws, my teeth.
“Take that beast down!” Edric bellows.
Like hell!
Before I can make a move, someone steps into my path, blocking my way to them.
The wolf stills as it looks upon Cahl standing there, eyeing me warily with his magic at the ready.
“Calm,” he commands, his voice soothing and almost hypnotic.
The wolf growls its protest.
Cahl doesn’t back down.
He actually comes closer. Lowering his hands, he says, “I love you, Aria. Trust in me, princess.”
His heartfelt words cut through the rage fueling the wolf.
It slumps to the ground at his feet. He crouches down and strokes its fur gently. “You are beautiful as wolf and as human.”
The wolf likes that and licks his arm. He smiles with amusement as its tongue drenches the sleeve of his jacket in its saliva.
I feel the wolf slipping away.
The world comes rushing back to the surface in a blur.
I look down and find myself back in human form. Naked. Great.
Cahl hurriedly shakes off his jacket and wraps it around me. He zips it up. “Thanks,” I say, moving to step back. As I do, a sudden weakness takes me over and my legs buckle. Cahl sweeps me up in his arms before I hit the ground.
“It was far too soon after a spell so huge for you to shift. You need time to acclimatize to your newfound greater power,” he tells me.
I can’t even answer him. I can barely keep my eyes open as he carries me back to Ember.
She’s absolutely distraught, still by Draven’s side. His mouth is covered in her blood. She obviously tried to turn him, but judging by the look on her face, she knows it’s not gonna happen.
“We must go immediately,” Cahl says, gesturing behind him to Edric and his remaining mages who have their evil glares fixed on us.
Edric takes a step forward and his men
follow his lead.
They know this is their opportunity. I’m severely weakened. Ember is in an emotional state. Cahl is concerned with taking care of me. And Draven…Draven is gone.
“You are coming with me,” Edric announces to Ember. “There is no warlock to protect you now.”
Cahl shifts my weight in his arms, freeing a single hand. He’s about to call his magic to him.
A sudden flash of bright blue light explodes around us.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” a voice booms, coming from inside the explosion of magic.
It dissipates and Jacob emerges, his palms raised, his magic live and wild.
Edric scoffs. “You are not your brother, child. You aren’t strong—”
Jacob snaps his fingers and Edric is silenced, he and his remaining mages frozen.
He mutters something under his breath and that blue fire appears on his palms again. He takes aim at Edric.
“No! Stop, Jacob!” Ember screams.
He pauses and turns his head towards her, a questioning expression on his face.
“I’m gonna kill him for you, right here and now. For all of us.”
She shakes her head, her teary eyes pleading with him. “Please. He’s mine to kill.”
Jacob hesitates and I see him trying desperately to avoid looking at Draven in Ember’s arms. But then his gaze dips and he ends up looking right at him. The pain there all over his face is hard to even witness.
He lowers his palms and stalks towards them.
“Is Aria okay?” he asks Cahl as he passes us by.
“She just needs to rest.”
Jacob nods.
He reaches Ember and Draven.
Wrapping his arms around Ember, he gently pulls her off his brother. As he kneels down and examines Draven, Ember is there again, leaning over Jacob and clutching at his shirt. “I tried to save him, I tried. He wouldn’t do anything.” She fires her wrathful gaze at Cahl and then back to Jacob.
Jacob scrubs his hand over his face and then draws in a breath, before looking over his shoulder at her. “He’s gone, Ember. I’m sorry,” he croaks out, barely able to get the words out at all.