Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Farah’s hand tightened in mine, mine in hers, as well as my other in Serena’s, and Serena returned my grip as Melisse droned on.
“Cast them down!” she exclaimed. “Offer the blessing! Provide the gift! Give them power!”
The wind was fierce now, and the sea violent.
I could feel it against my skin, hear it in my ears.
And I could sense it, as if I could see the wind blowing, the sea rising up to crash against rock.
No, it wasn’t seeing.
It was as if I was a part of it.
It was a part of me blowing.
It was a part of me rising against the shore.
I felt something touch me at my hip, another at my ankle, and I held the hands in mine even tighter as more crawled over my lower half, and I turned my eyes to Serena.
“Yes! For justice! For freedom! For victory! For safety! For peace in all Triton! Cast it down!” Melisse exclaimed and then she commanded, “Draw it down, my sisters!”
Even seated, I was finding it hard to keep my place. The wind had become a gale, I was wet through, finding it difficult to hold Serena’s eyes through the smoky fog that had enveloped us, to hold the hands in mine as they grew slippery with wet.
I heard a shout I thought was Cassius and Melisse shrieked, “Stay back!”
“Patience, strength, sister,” Serena encouraged, holding my hand fast.
“Draw it down! Draw it down!” Melisse yelled.
Whatever was slithering over me was snaking up my chest, my back.
And I was one with it.
And the sky beyond the smoke was night, the heat at our legs burning.
And I was one with that too.
I whipped my head around to Farah and then jumped in fear when I heard the terrible roar.
“We must abort!” I heard Jorie boom.
“Stay back!” Melisse screamed, and then to us urgently, “Draw it down! Draw it down, my sisters! Draw it down and take it in you!”
I lifted my hands and tensed my arms, and as I did, I slid across the stone and pulled my sisters closer. The others did the same, and we were all now sitting atop what felt like burning coals, but ones that did not scorch flesh.
Our circle growing tighter, we were almost in each other’s laps.
Another roar, followed by a third and what sounded like the snapping together of gigantic jaws coming from the direction of the sea.
“We are the Sisters of the Beast!” Elena suddenly cried.
And I felt it like I had not before.
I was born thus.
I was born of them.
I was born of Ophelia and Jasmine and Rosehana and all the others.
And they were born of me.
I felt the mother of the Nadirii rise in me.
I felt her mother draw up in me.
I felt the mother of all mothers deep within me.
And I knew the others did too when Silence, Farah and I repeated, “We are the Sisters of the Beast!”
“I serve my sisters!” Serena yelled.
“We draw down the power of mighty witches!” Elena shouted.
“We draw down the power of mighty witches!” the rest of us exclaimed.
“We hold sacred the strength of women!” Elena yelled.
“We hold sacred the strength of women!” we shouted.
More roars, right on top of each other, so close, too close, almost upon us coming from the sea…one, two, three, four.
“Cease this at once!” Mars bellowed.
“Do not disturb the spell!” Melisse shrieked.
The things crawling on me made it to my neck, slinking around, the tentacles gliding up into my hair.
And they were of me.
I welcomed them.
“We are Sisters of the Beast!” Elena screamed.
“We are Sisters of the Beast!” the lot of us cried. “We are Sisters of the Beast! We are Sisters of the Beast!”
I felt a gust of heated breath above my head and then I heard my husband roar, “Ha-Lah!”
“WE ARE SISTERS OF THE BEAST!”
And with the might of the magic that descended, I was forced back, painfully hitting stone, my hands still clasped on each side, holding fast.
Holding strong.
Then, of a sudden, the warmth of sun shone down on me.
I blinked into the blue sky above me before I saw a leaf idly blow in the breeze at the corner of my eye.
Such was my surprise, I shifted my gaze to it and saw a vine of ivy retreating as I felt those that bound my body doing the same.
Serena gave my hand a tug and I sat up, pulling Farah up on my other side.
“You can look around now,” Serena shared.
I turned my gaze to my lap, and I was correct.
Vast tangles of ivy vines were receding to the stone.
And the bowl in the middle of us was no longer billowing smoke. Instead, the embers of a dying fire were quickly disappearing.
I turned my head to the sea and gasped.
For I saw the colossally-long, scaly, eel-like forms of two double-headed angmostros slithering out to sea.