Chapter 28

The Necromancer

Iblink the living world back into focus, feeling the damage of Cole's brutality still marring my body. My fingers are still broken. My flesh is cut, bruised and burnt. And the pain between my legs is indescribable.

I smell my blood coating my skin and wince against the cracked ribs and the missing teeth at the back of my mouth.

I blink everything into focus and see I'm looking up at the sky. The air bites as the wind blows across my face.

Then I hear it. The noise of the many monsters surrounding me. Of chittering. Of roars. Of slithering. Of laughter.

There are hundreds of unseelie around me. Maybe more.

I'm on my back, looking up at the thick grey clouds blocking the sun. My breath fogs in the cold air as I let out panicked breath after panicked breath. I try to move, but I can't. My arms are above me, tied up with thick ropes. I've been dressed in a long red silk gown and decorated with a necklace of finger bones. The dampener still sits on my wrist, sealing away my magic.

I'm cast in shadow as Cole stands over me.

He smiles, but his cheek is a bloody and gaping wound from where I bit him, making him look deranged.

‘Awake at last, my love. Good. I was so worried I went too hard on you.'

‘I'm not your love. I'm your doom.'

He kneels beside me, sweeping my hair from my face as I try with all I have not to scream or show him my fear. I refuse to even flinch. He looks outwards in the direction of the noise of the horde. I know there must be hundreds, if not thousands, of unseelie surrounding us. He tilts his head, looking down at me once more.

‘It's a shame things worked out this way, my love. I think you and I would have done wonderful things together. If only you weren't a blood whore and such a disobedient bitch.'

‘Being a blood whore is the greatest thing that could ever have happened to me,' I snarl back. ‘It got me the hell away from you.' I lift my head and sneer my next words. ‘And it took me straight to them. Right into their beds and their hearts. And when they learn what you did, you will beg them for mercy they will never show.'

He scoffs, his smug grin turning into a hateful sneer.

‘Your monstrous men are long gone, beloved. They ran and never looked back. They have abandoned you. To us.' He takes my chin in his grip and holds it painfully tight. ‘To me.'

‘They would never abandon me. They will come.'

‘They will not.'

I look him dead in the eye. ‘They will come.'

I spit in his face and laugh. But his hand wraps around my throat, and he squeezes hard. Images of the rope around my throat attack me. Of swinging as Archie laughs. He lets me go with a shove.

‘I hear you have flashbacks of how Neve and her sisters died.' He tightens his grip again. ‘What's it like to be hung over and over?' He lets me go and pulls out a dagger. ‘What's it like to be cut again and again?'

He drags the blade along my cheek, slicing my flesh and making me scream. He stands and puts his boot on my chest. ‘How about being crushed to death?' He stands on me, laughing like a madman as he does.

Each assault does precisely what he wants. It brings back those images. Those endless days of pain I endured.

‘Why are you doing this!' I scream beneath his weight. ‘She has decimated our coven. Your family and friends. She will break this world apart.'

He looks down at me with an icy hatred.

‘You killed my family,' he says. ‘You took my friends. My coven. My magic.'

‘All you had to do was let me go. You would be with Thalia, married and ruling the coven.' He steps off me, placing a foot on either side of me as he leans down at me.

‘But I loved you. I chose you. We were to have children.'

‘I would rather this fate.'

‘And I would rather everyone and everything burn than see you happy.'

The sole of his boot slams down, and my nose breaks, exploding blood over my face and into my mouth. The world spins, and bright spots blur my vision.

‘Stop playing with her,' Neve sighs, stopping at my feet. He stands at her side, looking down at me, bloody and broken on the ground. ‘I need her alive, Cole. And conscious. LIFT HER!'

The ropes around my wrist begin to lift me from the ground.

The unseelie pull, stretching me out, separating my arms and legs. Pulling against my bonds does nothing. I scream. My gods, do I fucking scream! I yank, and I shout, but I'm held fast, lifted higher and higher. When I finally stop, I'm on the edge of a cliff overlooking a valley filled with unseelie. They all cheer and roar, raising their weapons high in celebration as I'm lifted before them.

My breath is thick in the icy air as I look ahead at the twisted structure built before me.

A great arch of bones.

So many bones stripped of their flesh as they were either left to rot or eaten by insects and birds as they decorated the archways of the human towns.

All gathered here to create one enormous arch of death.

The bones of every blood witch. Of my mother's coven.

They fit together perfectly, creating an arch the size of none I could have ever imagined. It's built at the edge of the cliff. Skulls are wedged between femurs, and finger bones lock with spines.

Below, I hear screams. Looking down, I watch humans being dragged towards the bone arch.

They sob and plead as they're dragged by the dark monsters. Many of the unseelie scuttle up the frame with their prisoners tossed over their shoulders, or they drag them up by their ankles.

Then…

They take one of the many spikes they have in a quiver tossed over their shoulder and spear them to the structure.

Dozens upon dozens. They all scream in pain, looking at the enormous spikes impaling them to the bones.

Their blood seeps into the arch, pulled from their bodies by the thirsty bones. The cracks fill red, and the humans grow pale with every passing second.

They pull up more. Men. Women.

Children.

‘STOP!' I scream, pulling against my ropes. All I do is anger my broken body, and I cry out in both pain and despair, watching this nightmare unfold before me.

Soon, the bones are barely visible for the bodies and their blood.

Below me, facing the structure, Neve stands in a great black dress. Her hair flows down her back, and her crown of bones rests atop her head.

‘I will not resurrect them!' I call down. ‘I will not!'

She doesn't pay attention but raises her hand to the structure and begins to read. Her blood grimoire rests in her other hand, and as she reads, I feel the darkness of the magic.

Over a hundred humans writhe and wail, looking at their deathly wounds as they plead for mercy.

I cry, watching so many suffer.

Children. There are children!

‘I will not resurrect them,' I whisper, telling myself. Promising myself. ‘I will not resurrect the blood coven.'

A snowflake drifts down and lands on the tip of my nose. I watch it settle, unmelting even as it meets my flesh.

The snow finally falls. The first sign of winter. Our last.

My last.

When this day came, I was supposed to be sent to marry Shaw. It was a day I once feared but then came to want. Now… this.

I'm here alone. Surrounded by the enemy. Strung up by my sadistic ex and my evil mother.

Why are they not here? When will they come?

They will come, I tell myself. They always have. Even when I ran. Even when I shunned them. When I told them that I hated them. They still came for me.

The smell of all that blood makes me hungry. And I hate that it does. I loathe the darkness that stirs inside of me.

The blood that weaves between the bones begins to spill into the centre of the structure. Impossible. It should drip downwards to the floor. Not spread outwards.

Soon, the empty space is covered in rippling red.

Neve's chanting gets louder. The bodies of the sacrifices disintegrate and turn to ash, falling like the snow and landing on the ground.

The blood melds together.

And I see…

‘Not possible…' I breathe, unable to look away.

It shimmers and moves, reflecting the light.

As soon as all the empty space in the arch is filled, a power grips my heart, making it hard to breathe.

Still unable to look away, I see a dark shadow move.

It's a black mirror. A gateway to the spirit world.

One of blood and bones.

It vibrates as Neve completes her words. Then, she turns to face me. A victorious and dark smile stretches across my mother's lips.

I seal my eyes shut, detaching myself from its power.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Neve speaks the words. She invokes my trigger, claiming my will for her own.

‘Open your eyes and look at the shadows in the mirror, Ashe Nectan!' she orders. ‘Do not look away. Do not blink!'

My eyes open, pulled by her words.

I stare. The shadow beyond knows I'm looking. They feel me and are pulled to me. Just as Neve was when she lurked in the beyond. When she peered back at me through the glass. Until the day I looked too long and she broke through into this world. Then, she haunted me as a full spirit and possessed me when I was at my weakest.

The blood ripples as the shadow beyond reaches out, brushing their fingers against its surface. It doesn't part. Not like liquid blood should.

‘Neve…' I try. ‘Please stop! Bringing back the blood witches will only cause war.'

‘I like war. I love death. Death and blood are power, daughter.' She smiles darkly, the corner of her lip curled up in sadistic joy.

I continue staring at the blood, compelled to watch it.

‘You will look,' she says. ‘You will be seen. My goddess may be free. But she has no form to allow her to return to this realm. If only there were a powerful necromancer with the blood of a god who could survive her possession.' She giggles. ‘Oh wait. That's what I made you for.' She throws back her head and screams. ‘Renatus. Hel… be reborn!'

That symbol glows on the shimmering surface of the blood. And when my arm starts to burn, I see that same mark appear on my flesh.

Blood pools in my eyes as the power inside me reacts to the mirror. It oozes from me, seeking out a connection.

Bloody tears leak down my cheeks. The agony of not being able to blink adds to the rest of my suffering.

I scream as the shadow pushes hard against the mirror. It feels like they are pushing against me! Against my very soul!

And then, a little red fire pixie flies right up to my face and hovers there. Its little wings beat furiously, and it watches me with an odd curiosity.

Below, there's a flurry of shouting and movement. Then I hear the most wonderful sound.

A roar.

A wolf.

My wolf.

Archie slams into the unseelie. I can't look, but I can hear.

Hear the tearing of flesh. The disembowelling of bellies. The breaking of bones.

In the corner of my eye, I watch Neve look towards the chaos.

‘Impossible,' she hisses. ‘That's impossible!'

I smile. I knew they would come. A glorious sight. A wonderful one.

Of humans. Of witches. Of creatures banished to the lost and forgotten realms of this land. Of the creatures that aligned with Shaw and the others. They sweep through the unseelie like a wave of death, bringing down the monsters one after the other.

Once again, they stand side by side against the blood queen.

A fierce wind slams into Neve, tossing her backwards with an angry yell as she tries in vain to stay on her feet.

An arrow pierces the rope on my right wrist and snaps it. I fall, but not far. I'm still attached by both my feet and my left hand. The sudden drop dislocates my shoulder, and I cry out in pain.

More blood drips from my eyes as the power surges. As whatever lies beyond the blood mirror slams against it from the other side. As it becomes a gateway.

I still can't look away. My trigger holds fast.

Shaw starts hacking at the rope around my ankle.

‘You came,' I cry.

‘I told you I would.' He starts cutting. ‘I'm getting you out of here.'

‘Where's Dorian?' I ask. I see Archie. But there's no hint of any shadows. ‘Shaw, please?'

‘I'm sorry,' he says.

My leg is freed, and he gets to work on my second one.

Sorry? What does he mean by sorry?

My other leg is freed, and I hang from my dislocated arm and swing, still unable to look away from the gate. My necromancer magic pulls me towards it like a thread from my chest, luring me closer.

‘CUT ME DOWN!' I scream.

Shaw pulls back his sword, ready to fly.

But gets body-slammed by Sathick.

I have to break free!

My chest is pulled to the blood as the shadow pushes against it. My blood magic… it's being drained. I feel it leaving me, channelling its strength into whatever lies beyond.

Archie roars again. Such a bloodthirsty and lethal roar.

I get closer to the gate.

‘Oh fuck…' I breathe.

Because it's not the blood witches beyond it.

‘Hel…'

She smiles before slamming her fist through the blood, breaking through it like it's glass.

‘HELP!' I scream, desperately trying to get free. I'd cut my hand off if I had a blade.

Blood-soaked fingers stretch out for me. Her fingers, just as they did on the beach.

I still can't look away, held fast by my trigger.

Leo continues to attack Neve, pushing her away with the violent air magic he commands.

‘Destroy the arch!' I tell him as more blood vessels in my eyes pop.

Hel's fingers reach for me.

Our army is hacking their way through the unseelie, working together to conquer our common enemy.

I can't look away, and every second I look on is more strength she gains.

An arrow hits the rope, and it snaps, dropping me to the floor.

Arms clamp around me and hold me firm.

‘My love. Where do you think you are going?' Cole says in my ear. ‘Your goddess is so desperate to meet you.' He twists my arm, jarring my already dislocated shoulder. ‘They will die slowly, you know. They will die screaming and cursing you for your weakness. You led them here. All these little witches and these sad, pathetic humans.' He laughs as his fingers knot in my hair. ‘You think you achieved something special. That you're special. But the only special thing about you is your desperate need to have something I believe a female has no right having.'

‘An orgasm?' I sneer.

‘Freedom.'

He shoves me towards her.

‘TAKE HER!' he yells at the gate. ‘Take her, great goddess!'

Hel's hand wraps around my body, and I'm lifted from the ground. I scream. I thrash.

But I'm no match for the goddess of blood magic.

I'm taken through the gate.

Into her realm.