10. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Tia took a step back, she thought she was ready for whatever was to come. Seeing the witch step out of thin air in front of her rattled her.

“Is she one of yours?” she asked Tieran, feeling more discombobulated as she realized that she was still thinking of them and us meaning us the humans and them monsters. How could she protect them all when she still saw them as two separate species, two different people?

“She’s a witch like you, witchling.”

Well, wasn’t that a kick in the gut because whenever Tieran called her a witchling, she understood now that he wasn’t referring to humans or monsters, but he was referring to both.

As she stood there looking at the red-eyed witch, Tia understood why there was a prophecy and why it all came down to her. Without her, the humans and Tieran’s people would never survive. It wouldn’t matter if this plane was destroyed and the other one continued to thrive because they would kill each other.

They needed the glue named Tia to bring them together. No, she wasn’t delusional or thinking that things were going to be perfect, and harmony was going to reign. She did know that with her influence, things were going to change. She’d work on it until they did.

“It’s a kick in the pants to realize that the whole world depends on you whether they realize it or not,” Tieran said.

Tia turned to look at her mate and she realized that he’d been living with that responsibility for way too many years, and now she was going to take his hand and together they were going to hold each other up.

“Witchling,” the female hissed, standing in front of the vault. “I’m ready for you.”

“Hold your horses, bitch,” Tia said. “Can’t you see I’m having an existential crisis over here?” She heard Tieran’s and Bryce’s low but deep chuckles, and it made her feel better. She could do this.

She looked down at the ground again to realize the witch, whoever she was, hadn’t stepped over the line and that’s when she knew that she couldn’t step over the line. She was waiting for Tia to make the first move. “You can’t step over the line,” Tia said. “What happens if I simply wait you out?”

“This world explodes, and I’m vindicated either way.”

“When this world explodes, so will the other one,” Tia said, giving her a history lesson like she was talking to a young student.

“Hogwash, that woman knew nothing.” The Witch shook her head mumbling to herself. Her necrotech sisters had taken care of that crone and her prophecy.

Tia gave her a slow smile, wondering if it looked as evil as it felt to her. The woman in front of the vault flinched, so Tia thought she may have hit the mark. She brought up her hand and sent fire at the other woman.

It bounced off an invisible shield. On-the-job training indeed, she thought. The woman lifted her hand and sent what looked like a bolt of dark lightning at Tia, but it also bounced off the shield.

“If you want me or the curse, you have to be willing to step over the line,” the woman taunted.

Tia ran her hand through her , thinking fast. If she couldn’t send fire through the shield and the woman couldn’t send whatever it was back at her, then why should they worry because wouldn’t the curse simply destroy the area that it was contained in?

“It doesn’t work like that, witchling,” the woman said, disgust in her voice. “When this curse activates, it will take everyone. It will destroy everyone on this plane. The only question is will I kill you before the curse has a chance to kill us all?”

Tia nodded. That had answered her question. There was no choice but to confront the witch.

“This is my fight.” Tia said softly, standing tall. As much as she would like her mate and Bryce to be there with her, having to worry about the witch hurting them would distract her. She needed them to stay safely behind the shield. She turned to her mate. “Wait for me, please.”

She wanted to kiss him one last time, but it would just be a distraction. She turned back to face the witch. “What’s your name?”

“You can call me Esmer.”

Tia knew when the witch said her name was Esmer that it was short for Esmeralda. She would grant the witch her dying request.

“Esmer, how many years have you been here guarding this vault while your sisters have been living their lives?” The witch projected anger and disdain for all she had been through.

“That many.” Tia stepped over the line. She acknowledged there wasn’t enough time. Maybe there’d never be enough time to get through all the anger and pain that Esmer felt at being left behind.

The witch didn’t wait. She was mumbling words and conjuring up some kind of spell to hit Tia. All Tia had in her arsenal was a shield and fire, and she doubted that it would be enough.

She threw up a shield to protect herself from whatever Esmer was throwing at her. The darkness hit the shield, making it wobble before it threw her backwards. She ended up on the ground. The shield still covered her, but it had grown weaker.

Tia pushed herself up. She could hear her mate hissing and saw him pacing. Tia shook her head no; she wasn’t going to worry about him if he crossed the line or watch him die while she tried to kill the witch.

Her head was pounding as she tried to strengthen the shield. The witch continued to bombard it, hitting it with the darkness that seemed to come from her very soul.

The shield took one last hit before it collapsed around her feet. This was it; whatever Esmer was sending at her was going to destroy Tia. Out of the corner of one eye, Tia caught an apparition that materialized to stand beside her.

Tia’s mouth hung open because beyond reason she knew the woman who was standing beside her was Tieran’s mother. The woman smiled at her and started moving her hands. Tia copied every move, meeting Esmer’s darkness with gold-fire.

Her gold-fire canceled Esmer’s darkness out. Tia could hear in her mind a soft voice whisper, “This fight won’t be won with magic. Witchling, both worlds must be represented.” That was the moment Tia realized that she would love Tieran’s mother and wished that she was still alive so they could get to know each other.

Continuing to copy the hand movements of the apparition, Tia manifested a whip of flame. It cut through the darkness that Esmer sent at her. The whip reached out to grab Esmer’s wrist. Tia used the whip to pull Esmer off balance, but that didn’t stop the darkness that had already been sent from singeing Tia’s and searing her skin.

Tia felt like she’d been in a desert for days with no water and no protection against the sun. She used that whip as an anchor to drag Esmer closer to her. She whispered thank you to Tieran’s mother. Then Esmer was close enough for Tia to let go of the whip and jump on top of her.

She was acting like it was a good old-fashioned bar fight, but only one of them was going to leave the bar alive. Tia cocked her arm back and punched Esmer in the face, watching as her jaw swelled. Esmer bucked, tossing Tia to the side.

Esmer got up, kicking and screaming at Tia. She threw blow after blow, landing punches to Tia’s stomach as she got off the floor. Tia responded by doing the same. Esmer threw herself at Tia, taking them back to the floor. They rolled over and over throwing punches.

Tia’s hair was yanked back with brutal force, pain shooting down her scalp. She twisted, retaliating with clawed fingers, raking them across Esmer’s face. A sharp scream cut through the chaos, but she didn’t stop. Insults flew, vicious and biting words that would make her mother’s face burn red.

Tia fought harder, teeth clenched, adrenaline surging. Every punch, every scratch fueled by raw survival. But then her breath caught. In a blur, Esmer’s hand moved. And from thin air, a gleaming knife materialized.

Tia’s heart skipped.

Everything around her slowed as her eyes locked onto the blade.

“Seriously,” Tia said, anger poured into every word. “Did you bring a knife to a witch fight?” Tia looked at Tieran’s mother, who was standing to the side, watching her like she was giving the benediction on the fight of the century. Her mouth tilted in a half smile as if to say she could do it. Now it was up to Tia.

“You know what they say?” Tia said before rolling away before Esmer could shove that knife deep into her heart. When she moved her hands this time, it was without the help of her mother-in-law. She pulled a sword out of thin air. Beautiful. It pulsed with a red, gold, and white light.

“The world you’re in is dead,” Esmer snarled, running at Tia.

Tia hefted the sword, her hands tightening around the hilt as the weight of it settled. With a fierce swing, she aimed. Esmer lunged at the same moment, the knife flashing as it drove into Tia’s side. Pain exploded, but Tia didn’t hesitate. Gritting her teeth, she brought the blade down in a single, powerful arc. The steel sliced clean through, and Esmer’s head toppled to the ground, the witch’s body crumpling in its wake.

Tia staggered back, the sword still gripped tight, blood soaking her side as Esmer’s lifeless form hit the dirt.

Ding dong the witch is dead, but it didn’t feel like a victory to her. She had done the right thing, but it made her a killer all the same. The apparition became solid, walking over to Tia as she dropped the sword. She glanced over at her mate, realizing that he and Bryce weren’t moving.

“I stopped time. As the power within you matures, you will do this, too. I wanted to spend a minute or two with you before I had to leave.” She reached out and touched Tia’s side, stopping the flow of blood and encouraging the muscle and tissue to heal.

“Thank you,” Tia gave a sigh of relief. Her mother-in-law looked at her with love-filled eyes and nodded.

“There are certain things you won’t find in history books. The humans thought that if they could erase the fact that they and the Vargari spent time together they could paint us as monsters from their dreams, and that gave them a right to take our world.”

“The veil has always been one that has thickened and thinned and there have always been humans and Vargari’s that could go back and forth. There were mixed children living in both worlds until the necrotechs decided that the world they couldn’t see was greener than their world, and they were right. They raped this world, leaving nothing but large monuments to their cleverness that were slowly choking them to death.”

“Love my son, and give him all of my love,” Tieran’s mother said, giving Tia a fierce hug full of love. “I have a wayward husband to track down and you, your mate, and the wolf have a curse to break.” Tia’s mother-in-law disappeared and time was restored. Tieran was at her side before she realized he had moved.

“Where’s my mother?” Tieran asked.

“She’s gone,” Tia told him. “Your mom told me to give you all the love that she has.” Tia reached up and hugged her mate, kissing him on his cheeks and his forehead and even his eyes like his mother would have done when he was a little boy.

“That sounds like something my mother would say.” He looked at his watch. “We don’t have much time left.” He brought his wrist up for Tia to see the watch.

It was two-forty-five in this world. They had fifteen minutes and counting. Tia stepped over Esmer’s body and moved to the vault doors. How were they going to get in? She tugged on the door.

Nothing happened. There was a wheel on the door. She turned it and heard it click.

Then she pulled. The door opened. Surprised, she looked at Tieran.

“Why wouldn’t they lock the door?" Tia asked.

"They’d never believed that you could get past the witch on the floor.” Tia’s eyes went to Esmer and then traveled to her head, sitting a couple of feet from her body. Her mate was right.

The necrotechs never thought that she’d get past Esmer and the blinding anger she carried at being left alone all these years to defend the curse when her sisters in crime were living their lives. Tieran caught the door and moved it until it was flush against the wall. They stood outside the smaller room looking for another line or trap of magic.

Tieran and Bryce scented the air while she looked around for a trap that would spring if they stepped into the chamber. Seeing nothing, Bryce stepped through first. Tia followed him, and Tieran was right behind her.

In the middle of the room, there was a single sheet of paper floating in the air being held up with a force field. When she got closer, she realized it was a spell.

The room was dirty and dusty. Tia bent and ran her hands through the dirt until she picked up a handful of it and then she threw it at the paper in the air. When it touched the spell that was surrounding it, sparks flew.

“One of us has to break this curse and we don’t know which one," Tia said.

“My queen,” Bryce said. “You have done what no other could do. It must be you.”

Tieran placed his hand on his mate’s neck, making her want to snuggle into his body. “I agree with Bryce. What you have accomplished tonight has been amazing,” her mate said. “Break the curse and set us free.”

Tia extended her hand, then stopped. Something about what she saw when she tossed the dirt onto the spell protecting the paper was tingling in the back of her mind.

She bent down and this time she found little wood pieces, and she threw them at the spell holding the paper in the air and the sparks were brighter and she knew.

“There are three of us because it’ll take three of us to break this curse. It takes me as the witchling, half human, half Vargari. Tieran, it takes you because you’re the high king of your people. And Bryce, it takes you because you represent the people, the ordinary Vargari. Did you see when I threw the wood at the spell that it flared blue? When’s the last time you saw blue?”

“Your mother’s door,” Tieran said.

“Yes,” Tia replied. “And mine because blue says safety. but for us to be safe, it’ll take all three of us. I need each one of you to put a hand on my shoulder and then put your hand on the back of each of mine.” When they were organized and their free hands were on top of Tia’s hands, they pushed her forward until her hands were pressed against the spell that was protecting the paper.

The ground beneath them trembled violently, forcing Tieran and Bryce to widen their stance, gripping Tia firmly as the earth shook. Sparks erupted from the swirling spell, lighting the air with blinding intensity. The rumbling deepened, rolling like a wave beneath their feet. Then—BOOM. The spell detonated with a deafening roar, blowing itself apart and leaving only a single, fluttering piece of paper.

Tia reached out, snatching the paper mid-air. Her chest heaved as she tore it apart, piece by piece. As the fragments fell, the edges sizzled, turning black and burning away faster with every rip. At the last second, Tia released the paper, watching it disintegrate into ash, vanishing into the air.

“Let’s go,” Tieran said, picking up Tia and throwing her over his shoulder.

They still had to get through the distortion field if they wanted to live.