Chapter 18

The Necromancer

‘He's returned!' Bensen exclaims joyfully. ‘All will be well! Cole! Cole has come back to us!'

But he watches in horror as Cole does nothing to help his people. He looks on and recognises the blood queen at his side. And he shudders as they both look straight at me.

I'm all they see. All they want.

‘They are here for you,' Bensen realises, looking at me with a twisted sense of justice.

I shouldn't be surprised when he goes to grab me.

Coward.

My snake lunges and bites his hand.

He goes down, writhing and foaming at the mouth, never to get up again.

The fire witches resume their attacks, sending us all flying backwards. Heat and flames soar over me. Its intensity makes my eyes water.

Through the flames, I see Neve. She's watching as her unseelie gathers the dead and the dying and places them in specific places around the coven's sacred fire.

Each witch is carved with a mark on their forehead.

That mark.

Dripping red and oozing a dark promise.

The mark from my dream.

From Hel's manacles.

An unseelie wraps his hands around my neck, but my familiar is quick again and with a single bite to his hand, he goes down juddering, blood and foam seeping from every orifice.

‘You're my guardian angel, Poppy.'

She wraps around my wrist as I stand, and we come face to face with Cole.

He sees Poppy and knows getting too close will end his life.

Instead, he slams my father's old cane on the ground and starts to speak my trigger.

I slam my hands on the ground. And I scream as I send sharpened roots into both my ears. Blood spills down my neck, and a high-pitched ringing is all I can hear.

Gone are the screams. The swords. The violent yells of the battle.

Just the excruciating pain and unbearable "eeeeeeeeeee" remain.

Use the trigger on me now, arsehole!

I lift my hand, and the deep red roots withdraw from me and entangle around him instead, thickening and twisting around his legs so hard his face contorts and his mouth opens in an endless scream. One I can't hear but wish I could. He's hurling words at me with such violence spit flies from his mouth.

That red mist gathers between us, and the blood queen stands before me in the blink of an eye. She smiles before tendrils of her dark magic seep out from her as blood, thick and strong, and they twist and wrap themselves around me and Poppy.

Her magic cuts off my connection to the vines entrapping Cole, and he breaks free. He wants to cause me as much pain as he possibly can.

Take her! She orders him, gesturing to the treeline. I can't hear her, but I see the words form on her lips. Get her beyond the circle quickly!

Cole reaches out for me.

But he glances to the right and yells in fear.

Just as Archie, in his great wolf form, slams into both Cole and Neve.

I gasp, released from her grip, and stagger backwards.

Archie stops before me and lowers his head.

Get on me, Pix! Now!

I climb atop him, and we face Neve and Cole.

They are both back on their feet and facing us. Archie's body vibrates as he growls.

Neve looks up at the sky and then at us. Behind her, the fire burns hotter, just as it did on our Blood Rite night, signalling a peak in the power.

The stars above us are aligned, and the festival of Athir has begun.

She looks at Archie and speaks. Her lips move fast, and I have no idea what she is saying. Her brows rise as she finishes, and the unseelie gather behind her, forming a solid army of demented monsters.

Then she says one word.

Run.

That word I make out.

She stretches out her hands, palms up, and her eyes go black as dark magic swirls around her.

On her palms… those same markings.

She speaks to Archie again.

Save her, Wolf. Run.

The coven is scattered or slaughtered. So many bodies. So much death.

A blast of fire slams into the dirt by Archie's feet, pushing him back.

Neve's face contorts as she screams.

RUN!

Her magic ripples out in a violent wave.

Archie runs with all his strength and speed to escape it.

Peering back, I see the fleeing earth witches whose tear-steaked faces cry out in fear. When the wave hits them, they scream and explode into fine red mist.

Dead.

That same marking appeared on their forehead just before they fell.

‘We can't just leave them!'

If it touches you, it will kill you!

‘The coven!'

It's too late. They're done for.

‘Shaw! Dorian!'

They're not an earth witch. It won't kill them. But it will kill you, so hold the fuck on to me!

He doesn't stop. His great paws hammer into the earth, and we move so fast that the trees are blurry.

My fingers knot in Archie's fur as I cling on for dear life. That wave is catching up.

Everyone it touches, it kills. But when it passes through a fire witch, she is fine. The unseelie are fine.

It's only the earth coven that turns to mist.

Shit!

I look up and see a swarm of monsters ahead.

Unseelie.

Wings and talons. Horns and teeth.

Cole emerges from the ground before them with a victorious smirk.

A trap. She sent us straight into a trap!

The wave is on our heels.

Our capture is dead ahead.

Daughter…

The whisper comes from the earth grimoire tucked inside my cloak. I rest my hands on it.

Oh, gods…

Magic explodes from me, throwing me upright as my head goes back and my arms stretch out. The ground shakes, and the trees around me turn a dark purple.

Tears fall as the sheer force of this magic erupts from my core.

And everything goes a blinding white.