EleanorAfter hissing out those words, an altar of earth suddenly sprouts from the ground just by the dark pool in front of her. The surface rises up smooth and flat. She moves, placing both babies gently on the altar's surface. They're so small, so innocent, completely unaware of the horror around them.Then she turns back to face me, however, she makes sure to keep one hand on one of the babies.I stare at her, feeling centuries of disappointment and betrayal well up in my chest.Her face twists into something ugly and hateful. "How dare you look at me like that!" she snarls, her voice cracking with rage. "Who the hell do you think you are to judge me?"As I look at this woman before me, memories flood through my mind like a bitter tide. Rowena. The current Dark Witch Matriarch. But before all this madness, before she chose this path of destruction, Rowena used to be something else entirely—the Matriarch of the Light Witches. My confidante. My friend.When Caedrim disappeared for th
DianaI clench my jaw and turn to fix my gaze on the witch. I continue trying to move closer, but the invisible weight pressing down on me grows heavier with each attempt. It feels like the very air has turned solid around me, like I'm trying to move through liquid concrete. My muscles strain and burn with the effort, but I manage only inches at a time.Then my knees start to buckle.The oppressive force increases dramatically, as though my struggles have triggered some kind of punishment. I fight against it with everything I have, but it's useless. The weight forces me down to one knee on the hard ground, and I'm left desperately watching as the witch moves with unhurried precision through the first outer ring of corpses.She steps carefully between the bodies of the murdered dark witches. She completely ignores the chaos of battle around her as she moves to the second ring of sacrificed humans and werewolves with the same casual indifference. She moves through that circle and then s
DianaThe curse races toward Dom's exposed back, and for a heart-stopping moment, I think it's going to connect.Then a burst of pure, brilliant light shoots from the side and neutralizes the dark magic completely. The two forces collide in midair and annihilate each other in a flash of white radiance.My eyes dart to the source of the light and find Emerald standing at the edge of the battlefield, her hands wreathed in golden energy. Her face is set in an expression of fierce determination as she counters Caedrim's magical assault.Caedrim's head snaps toward her, his eyes blazing with fury. "Presumptuous!" he roars, his voice carrying enough force to shake the remaining stones.My heart sinks with fear and I start to dash towards her. Caedrim gears up to attack her with a spell that makes the air itself recoil, but Dom doesn't give him the chance. With a snarl of his own, Dom slams into the Dark Mage, forcing him back into their deadly dance.This time, they move even faster. So fas
DianaSlowly, deliberately, the man's head comes up.A shiver runs down my spine, and every instinct I possess screams.This is a very, very dangerous man.The Dark Mage has risen.As one, the witches speak, voices filled with a reverence I've never heard from any of them before. "Lord Caedrim," they calls out.The name hits me, sinking my heart even lower. Its obvious who he is ofcourse, but hearing his name spoken out loud makes this terrible situation even more real.There is a complete transformation in the witches' demeanor. Gone is the conceit and arrogance they've shown us throughout this entire ordeal. In its place is absolute subservience.Caedrim's dark eyes sweep over the assembled witches, and impossibly, they bow even lower. One of them dares to speak again, "Welcome back, my lord."Then those terrible eyes turn toward us, and I feel my blood turn to ice in my veins.When his eyes meet mine, I take an involuntary step backward. Those dark eyes are ancient and gloomy, fill
EleanorIt's the Seventh Solstice!My eyes dart frantically to the clock on the wall opposite my bed, and when I see the date displayed there, all the color drains from my face.Today. It's happening today."How could it be today?" I breathe, my voice breaking on the last word. My hands shake as I press them against my mouth.This can't be right. It isn't supposed to be today. It's supposed to be tomorrow. Tomorrow night.But the evidence is right there in front of me, bathing my room in its unholy light. The Seventh Solstice is happening now.My mind races back to the information I had gathered, the intelligence I had spent decades collecting. I had captured a dark witch—one of their inner circle—and extracted every detail about their plans. T, I couldn’t trust what she would say so I directly searched her memories, and they had been clear, unambiguous. The seer of the dark witches had divined that the Seventh Solstice would occur tomorrow night.Had she lied to me? But no, that's im
DianaDom’s jaw clenches as he takes a step forward. He tries to go through the barrier himself, but his body just slams against the wall of dark energy. Unfortunately, he's unable to go through.He growls furiously and starts to smash against the barrier with his fists, and it shakes under the force of his blows but holds firm.The witches completely ignore him. In fact, since we arrived, they haven't even acknowledged our presence. It's like we don't exist to them, like nothing in the world matters except whatever they're trying to accomplish. Suddenly, they start chanting.Their voices are low at first. The words seem to twist and writhe in the air, each syllable wrong in a way that makes my ears hurt. There's something fundamentally disturbing about the sound.Then chanting takes on an extremely strange tune, sharp and high voices that seem to cut through the air like blades. Gradually, these individual voices condense into one unified sound that rises and falls in hypnotic patter