Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
I did that now—let my fury unfurl in a slamming wave of death and pain and blood.
Twelve fucking years. They’d taken twelve years from me. They’d remade the world I’d fought to make safe, remade it into something completely unrecognizable. These bitches had forced the children I loved to run, to fight, to grow up far too soon.
So I cut them down. Every time they sent pain my way, Gladys and I gave it back to them threefold.
They took my life so I fucking took theirs.
Invincible. That was how I felt in that moment. I didn’t need to be anything but vengeance. There was no softness in the magic that Gladys sent through me. There was rage and power and the absolute certainty that we would never be violated again. We would not be used. We would not be tricked.
I slaughtered them as they would have surely slaughtered me. I moved through, Gladys guiding my hand. When they tried to sneak back through the paintings, I sliced through anything that was left hanging out and reveled in the gasps of horror I could hear from the other side.
My gift to the witches—half-alive, soon-dead parts of their sisters. It was like prophecy. The witches at the Coven House would know this is what would happen to them eventually. They could run, but I would find them. I would stay in my cold fortress of rage until I’d killed them all.
I ran through them until only one remained.
Olivia.
She stood among the bodies, hands at her sides and eyes bled to black as we faced each other.
I could feel a fierce smile cross my face. “Hey, friend. You thinking of running?”
Liv’s shoulders were back, her body tense, and I could have sworn she was afraid of me.
I liked it.
“I don’t know. You thinking of following me? You considering going to the Coven House and starting this war now?” Liv asked. “How long will that power of yours last? As far as I know, the sword can’t keep this up forever. I take it my master bled on her during his experiments. It’s the only thing that makes sense. You don’t have a lick of magic in you but here you are whispering Latin words you couldn’t pronounce before.”
“I think she’ll last long enough.” I really wanted this fight. Of all the people who’d disappointed us, Liv was the worst. She knew how to twist our love, how to use it against us. “Just long enough to burn the Coven House to the ground with all of you in it. You want to see Hell so bad, Liv, I’ll send you there and I’ll send Myrddin with you. You can worship him all you like down there and then I’ll lock the door so you can’t ever get out.”
“You would do the same thing Myrddin wants to do?” Liv asked, tension ratcheting up as she obviously built up power. She was stalling, but I was confident. “You would close off Hell from the Earth plane? It’s okay if you do it, right?”
“I think I’ll follow Gladys’s lead on this one,” I vowed.
“You can’t win, Kelsey,” Liv said with a shaky laugh. “If you do what the sword tells you to, you lose yourself. Just like I did. We destroy each other, and while you might stay standing, you won’t ever forgive yourself. You’re caught in her web, but when you come down and realize what you’ve done, you’ll be broken. And that’s the best I could hope for now.”
Her hands came up, and she unleashed pain on me. Everything she had, and I waved it away. I could feel the power in her onslaught, and I simply brushed past her.
Poor Olivia. She’d given up her soul for that power and I was going to kill her like she was a bug I was stepping on. She was as insignificant as her sisters. Only Myrddin mattered, and she was a stone I would step on to get to him.
“Mom! Mom, please!”
I saw the fear hit Liv’s eyes as she tried one last time, sending out weak sparks. She hit her knees, skin pale and hands shaking, and her defeat was…nothing because she wasn’t the one I truly wanted to kill. I wanted Myrddin’s throat in my hands, squeezing the life out of him.
One more kill and then I would go through one of the portals and I would slaughter everyone in that Coven House. Myrddin would be the last. I would make him suffer before I sent him to Hell.
I drew Gladys back as Liv looked up at me, resignation in her eyes.
“I always knew you would be the reason I died,” she said with a snarl.
The impulse to shove Gladys through her chest had my hand raised before I could breathe.
“Mom! I don’t know what to do. Please help me.” Fen’s tortured voice clawed through the comfortable fog of arrogance and rage I found myself cloaked in. I’d drawn it around me because it felt so much fucking better than horror and guilt and fear. “Please.”