The screechers force me back. They slam into me in a never-ending tidal wave. It doesn’t matter how many I kill with my hands—dozens more simply take their place.
And the perpetual screeching continues to pound into me, splintering my head, splintering my mind, until I see double and start to lose all sense of up and down, left and right.
“Enough!” the woman’s voice rings through the air. It cuts through the shrieks like an ivory blade, and when it’s done there’s only silence.
I stagger back against the old woman’s prison, my head ringing, my magic gone, unable to make sense of things.
“Take a few moments,” the woman says softly. “The effects are not permanent.”
Then she whispers something in a forgotten tongue, and a moment later all the anguish disappears.
I look around the room in a dumb daze. There must be at least two hundred dead screechers littered around me. But that doesn’t even make a dent in their numbers outside.
Frantically, I reach out to find Riyu’s presence.
It’s gone.
Something inside breaks. “NO!” I scream. “No! No, no, no, no!”
I huddle back, feeling the utter shame of my failure, the absolute despair of having let him down.
Suddenly, I am the lost seventeen-year-old girl again, having no idea where I am or what to do, having absolutely no confidence to get out of this alive.
“There, there,” she says, coming toward me, picking her way delicately over the bodies. The rest of her screechers stay outside. “No need to look so glum. My cousin must have picked you for a reason to inherit the crown.”
She grabs my chin and forces me to look at her.
“I know you could rip my heart out right now,” she says. “But if I die, you die. My lovelies will devour you in mere moments. And when you die, what will happen to all the spectacular defenses you’ve built up for your coven’s vampires? Poof!” She looks up into the air. “They will disappear, just like that, and then we will truly have a feast for the ages.”
She lets me go and turns away, not the least bit concerned about showing her back.
Of course, her words had the intended effect. I am paralyzed, trapped, stuck, unable to do anything and incapable of thinking straight.
“You’re Rebecca,” I manage to say.
She laughs a glorious laugh and does a spin, red skirt flaring.
“Child, what gave that away?” she asks.
My eyes dart to Riyu’s lifeless body, then I look away.
She notices and clicks her tongue. “Now, that’s not very pleasant, is it?” She snaps her fingers, and two screechers run in to drag the corpse away.
“Afraid there’s not much we can do about the blood, though,” she tells me with a vile smirk.
“You’re just like Morgan,” I hiss.
Her attention snaps to me. “No,” she whispers, in a dangerous voice. “I am not just like Morgan. I never was. I never wanted to be. She forced me into this!”
The anger, the passion, behind her words strike fear into my heart.
“You know, I asked my children to bring me your head?” she says. “Well, now that I have you, I think we can do one better. You are linked to The Haven, after all. You might be more use to me alive, pathetic and declawed as you now are.”
My hands clutch at the fallen rock behind me. Desperately, I seek a way out. No magic to use, the vampire gifts all rendered ineffective—what hope do I have?
“Look,” I say. “I know what Morgan did to you. I know it was wrong. But I am Queen now, and whatever she’s done can be undone, I swear it!”
Rebecca scoffs. “Child, look at me,” she says. “Does it look like I’m lacking in anything?”
“She severed your soul,” I say. “She—”
“Did she, really?” Rebecca asks. “Or was I simply her first failed experiment? She was always so sure of herself, and that confidence proved to be her Achille’s heel.”
She gives me a once-over. “Don’t try to bargain with me, girl. It won’t do you any good. It’s clear who holds the cards. And if I have learned anything in my long years of exile, it’s never to take a chance unless the odds are stacked in your favor. Here, now? The odds are completely on my side.”
She stops at the doorway. “I must leave you for a little while. Don’t do anything stupid. My lovelies—” her hand reaches out and she strokes the nearest screecher’s head, “—have explicit orders to destroy you if you try to escape. With the Currents still barred from you, I would not recommend testing that order. But, of course, you may do as you wish. Remember that my first instinct was to have you beheaded.”
She smiles, turns, and walks out the doorway and out of sight.
Chapter Sixteen
Phillip
Near The Haven.
Raul steers the plane down, and we land.
My mind is racing, my body almost trembling from excitement. When I show Eleira what I have brought her, all past sins will surely be forgiven.
After all, what can compare to bringing in three such powerful witches, who are sworn to The Haven, simply by virtue of being my fledglings?
The plane engines turn off, and Raul emerges from the cockpit. There is a marked change that I can see in him. Something about the way he moves speaks of a dangerous grace. His eyes seem almost shadowed now, and that makes him very intimidating.
If he had been like this back in the caves, I would have thought twice about fighting him.
He opens the door and lowers the stairs. I motion at the witches to follow him out.
They stand together as one, motion perfectly synchronized. Whereas, at first, I thought it was all coordinated, now I am starting to think it is their natural state of being. I do not know how they set up all those spells in the ceremonial chamber, I don’t know the extent or flavor of them—but I do know they allowed the witches to exist cocooned outside of time. There must have been something about that magic that created this bond in them that gives them the synchronized movements. It’s uncanny, but also somehow… pacifying.
Maybe it’s just me.
I’m the last to exit the plane and step out into the night. I’m glad we don’t have to face the sun again—even with the Forsaken Sisters’ ability to cast that dark ray through the rays, making it as if they had never been there in the first place.
I don’t readily admit it, but something about that spell troubles me. It wasn’t particularly strong, not from a third party’s perspective. But to undo something that’s already been done—to remove the rays so entirely, for them to leave no residue…
It seems almost like unraveling reality.
I shudder. Even in my state of mind I know that is a very dangerous proposition. How can one rule the world if no world exists to be ruled?
“You’re lagging, brother,” comes Raul’s curt call.
I give a start and realize he and the witches are a dozen yards ahead. I grunt, then hasten my steps to catch up.
The three witches had decided to go absolutely quiet midway through the flight, and none of my attempts to draw them into conversation had been fruitful.
It is a huge impediment, because I want to understand exactly what sort of bond they have created between me and my brother.
They slow down as I reach them, each giving me the same inscrutable look.
The same look—almost. Allura’s eyes, for a flicker of a moment, seem to have a little bit more to them. A sort of… sparkle, maybe a bit of curiosity.
Then it strikes me how long it’s been since any of them have had a man, and I cannot help the devilish grin that forms on my lips.
Very reminiscent of James, I think slyly.
She gives no outward response.
Raul leads the way back through the woods. We are taking a different path to The Haven than the one we took to exit. All the better in my estimation. That way led to Raul getting the better of me, and I refuse to let it happen again.
We keep walking, until suddenly, Lorne’s arm juts out.
“Wait!” she gasps.
We all freeze.
She looks at the other two witches and does some sort of eye code. Immediately, they fan out and take up posts equidistant apart in front of us.
“What are you doing?” I hiss.
Allura shoots me a nasty look. “Don’t interfere where you’re not wanted, vampire,” she scowls.