Chapter 5

Ablood witch? Impossible! I can't be.

Cole's father shoves Cole aside and throws his fist into my face. White hot pain has me on my arse, and the heel of his boot has me pinned.

Through the ringing of my ears, I hear yelling.

Each blink is a chore, but I know I'll never wake up if I give in to the pull of unconsciousness.

I'm dragged across the dirt, limp and unresponsive, and see my father.

The coward looks back over his shoulder as he sprints into the woods, abandoning me.

‘F-Father…' I try.

But the words are a garbled mess, and even if I were loud enough to be heard by anyone but myself, he's already gone by the time they've left my mouth.

I dig my fingertips in the dirt, desperate to stop them pulling me. My fingernails tear from my body, and the rocks scratch and rip my skin.

I'm hauled up. I can't hold my weight and sway in the many arms that hold me. My front is slumped against Cole's father's chest as my eyes roll into the back of my head. It's a few minutes until I figure out I've been bound to the trunk of a tree with my hands tied behind me by an unforgiving rope that cuts into my wrists, quickly turning my hands numb.

‘How dare you trick him like this,' Cole's father grinds out. ‘You dare make us look like fools?' He slaps me hard. I'd be back in the dirt if I weren't tied up.

‘I'm not a blood witch!' I scream in angry desperation, pathetically pulling at my bindings. ‘I'm not! Let me go!'

He punches me in my stomach and steps away, shaking his head, his lip curled and nose scrunched.

Everyone looks on. The females have their hands held as if in prayer. The males look like rabid dogs, desperate to tear me to pieces.

‘The fire is wrong,' I gasp. ‘It declared me Earth!'

‘Then Blood. The Flames never lie,' Cole's father retorts. ‘You thought you could trick the fire? That you could worm your way into my son's good graces and stand at his side as his wife? As a leader of our coven?'

‘I AM NOT A BLOOD WITCH!' I scream once more.

I look directly at Cole. He may be a fucking dick head, but he's the only hope I have.

‘We've been best friends for as long as I can remember. You know I'm not evil. You love me!'

‘Who sent you?' Cole's father begins to look around wildly. ‘Her father! Where is her father? Find him!'

Several others run into the woods.

Then he looks to the sky.

‘The Blood Moon. We are running out of time.' He gestures to the drummers. ‘Begin!' he demands. As he turns to the rest of the coven, the air fills with rhythmic drumming. ‘Begin!' he commands again, watching as everyone hesitates. They're too busy staring at me. He turns to Cole and offers him the moon blade. ‘Blood magic is forbidden, Son. The treaty with the humans demands her life. The eternal power of the earth of which we serve shall have her.' He guides the blade towards me. 'You must go first.'

‘First?' Cole repeats, looking at the blade still soaked in my blood from where it sliced my hand.

‘Death by three hundred cuts,' his father says. ‘We need to prove to them all we have no sympathy for her, or we shall end up with The General and his men here. And we shall be the ones torn apart.' He bellows to the others. ‘I SAID BEGIN!'

Behind him, the males begin descending on the females. Cole continues staring at the dagger.

‘I can't kill her,' he says weakly, looking his father in the eye. ‘I love her.' He tries to return the dagger.

Cole gets a harsh backhand.

‘She either says the vow and joins the Coven, destroying the already fragile treaty we have with the humans, or we offer her up, blood, flesh and bone, to the fire.'

Cole's teeth are clenched, and I watch with such hope that he'll refuse and help me. That he'll use that blade to cut me free.

They continue staring intently at each other. He grips his son's shoulder, glancing at the others anxiously, knowing that the next choices he makes could very well end his son's life.

‘Die with her, or shun her and take your place with me as a leader of this coven.'

‘Father… I love her-'

‘There are other females. There will always be other females.' When Cole tries to look at me, his father grabs his chin, refusing to let him. ‘There is no way she didn't know what she was.'

‘I don't… She didn't… Maybe she's different. She's kind. She's generous.' Cole finally looks at me. ‘She's Ashe. I've known her since I was a boy. I have loved her every day since then.'

‘Blood witches are evil by nature. They get power from taking the life force of other living things. Doing that changes you. For fucks sake, Cole. The uprising nearly ended all our lives. You have seen the bones marking the human villages.' He snatches his face again. ‘Blood witches killed your mother, Cole.'

Those words have Cole frozen, and the blood drains from his face.

‘No. No, they didn't. You said she died in a fire. A fire set by The General and his men. You said-'

‘The Blood Queen took her. She carved her up as she still breathed, son. I didn't want you to know how much she suffered.'

Cole shakes his head.

‘Ashe is one of them, Cole. A blood witch. If we don't deal with her now, she will carve us up too. That's what they need to survive. Blood and death. Pain and suffering.'

‘No!' I try, pulling against my restraints. ‘Don't listen to him, Cole-'

‘They are all the same. Maybe not at first, but as soon as they start using blood magic, they can't help it. A blood witch killed your mother. They held her captive. It took weeks for them to rip her apart. They took her eyes. They cut out her tongue.'

He goes on and on, describing in detail all the dark and disgusting things they did to her. And I see it all chip away at Cole's heart. At his very soul.

His hand tightens on the hilt of the dagger.

More words. Things that make even my stomach turn.

Then, without even looking at me, Cole spins and drives the dagger into my side, right up to the hilt.

Mouth open, I look from him to the dagger. And with a whimper, I watch him pull it free.

He returns the dagger to his father.

‘Good boy. Well done, Son. Now go and prove to them all you are one of them and have shunned her completely.'

Cole walks away, grabs Thalia, tears off her chiffon dress and throws her onto all fours.

Then he looks at me as he drives himself into her with so much force she screams.

His eyes never leave me as he takes her with brute force and sheer violence.

Every thrust is hateful, and he looks me dead in the eye as he ruts into her, gripping her hips so hard she'll be left with bruises.

I refuse to cry. To plead. To beg. And I refuse to look away as he fucks my friend. He thinks I'll care.

I don't.

But he will. He'll regret betraying me like this.

The others in the group are no better. Like starving mongrels, uncaring and unforgiving. The few girls that seemed ready for this are attempting to make it pleasant. They try to kiss their partners. To persuade them to be gentle.

But all pretence of willingness is gone within minutes.

My sheer dress is ripped from my body and tossed in the dirt.

And I'm cut.

Slice after slice as they make their offering. Blood trickles down my legs. My stomach. Down my breasts. They stop their fucking to come up to me and make their mark.

I scream with each one but refuse to cry.

Slice. Slice. Slice.

They cut and hand over their blade to the next.

Cut. Cut. Cut.

My head lolls, and it's getting so hard to stay awake. To feel anything but pain. When I manage to look up, Cole's father stands before me.

‘You were a fool to think you would get away with this.'

‘I didn't do anything,' I snarl, shaking violently.

He stretches out his hand and rests the edge of the blade between my legs. I attempt to move away from it, but tied up like this, I can't.

‘You thought you could bewitch my only son and use a marriage to him to take my coven from me?' He snorts in derision at me. ‘You thought you could make more of your kind with my son's blood?'

I scream as he moves the tip of the blade towards my entrance and eases it inside of me.

Violated isn't close to how it feels. Tears blur my vision as I swallow past a painfully tight throat.

‘The only thing you will fuck, Blood Witch, is this knife.'

There's one hell of a roar. A tremendous white blur rushes past me, and I'm left looking at Cole's father's ashen face. Blood spurts from where his arm used to be, showering my face.

He screams. A blood-curdling and horrified scream before he crumples to his knees, clasping the bloody stump.

I blink, my eyes hot from his blood.

There's a snarl so low and deep the ground trembles. Every instinct in my body screams at me not to look. That if I do, the same will happen to me.

Everyone starts to scream. Many run, scattering into the woods.

I force myself to look.

A great beast is standing at the edge of the clearing with Cole's father's arm still in its massive jaws.

A wolf, but larger than any wolf I have ever seen. Its fur is pure white but smeared with fresh blood. Its growl never ceases, going on and on in a constant warning. Its eyes take in everyone here before settling on me. It drops the stolen arm, which is tiny in its mouth.

Its claws dig into the earth, and it charges right for me.

There's nothing I can do.

This is it. This is how I die, torn to shreds by a giant wolf.

Better than being fucked to death by my ex-father-in-law's knife, I suppose.

A thought I never expected to have.

I scrunch my eyes shut and wait for its teeth to snap me like a twig. For my organs to rupture and my limbs to be ripped from my torso.

I feel it collide, and I go flying, showered in splinters of bark. Skidding in the dirt, I land in a heap at the base of the fire. The ropes around my wrist have broken, freeing me. With difficulty, I push myself up to watch this great beast slaughter those who try to fight it. The coven leaders attack. Those who came with the young witches use their magic. Our earth witches try sealing it inside a prison of rock and dirt. Their arms are outstretched. Their fingers are splayed, and sweat seeps from their brow.

But it's no match. The great wolf crashes through and clamps its jaws down on an earth witch. His entire upper body disappears, and with a sharp snap, the wolf tosses his lower half across the clearing.

The others gather, all fighting back. They try to pull the beast down, turning the soil to quicksand. It struggles to keep itself out of the pit. More and more witches run to their aid, their hands outstretched and deep concentration creasing up their faces. The handful of fire-witches throw flames. The air witches try to pin it down in a gale, and the water witches have no water to draw their power from, so they stand useless at the side.

I stand and sway, watching them all work to defeat the blood-soaked monster.

Its legs are dragged down, and the more it struggles, the more it sinks.

It's going to drown.

A scream rips from my throat, a piercing roar to match that of the wolf's. One filled with wrath.

They're my people. My kin.

And they tie me up, slice my body, and sentence me to die.

My arm is soaked in the blood of Cole's father. I reach out, and the covens go soaring through the air. I feel them. I feel their blood like a force. A string tethered to my soul. Another righteous shout and a sweeping motion of my outstretched hand has them all crashing to the right, their bodies manipulated by the invisible connection I have. My arm goes left. They follow, screaming and clawing at the ground.

Their bodies hit the trees. Bones snap, and they sob in pain, with blood trickling from the ears and nose.

I've broken their insides just like they ripped at my outsides.

Good.

I look at my hand as if it is some great weapon. It is a great weapon. I can feel the power of the blood. The connection that has been made. Not to my blood. That gives me nothing. But their blood… Cole's father's blood, which drips from my skin, that is powerful.

The fire revealed it, and now it is mine. It's dark. I know it. I can taste it. Hear it. It's telling me to hurt them. To make them pay. To make them bleed and use their blood to feed my power.

I raise my hand again.

I'm hit with a wall of dirt and rock, crashing into me so hard I end up on the other side of the clearing. I push myself up, ignoring the crippling pain, to see Cole with his hand stretched out.

Bastard.

He looks at his hand, just as amazed at his power as I was. Then, his gaze falls on his father, who is pale and whimpering beside me. He's dying.

Strange. I can smell it. The stench of death looms around him.

I rest my foot on his neck.

‘Don't, Ashe,' Cole warns, firming his hand again, ready to use his newfound power. ‘I'm warning you.'

‘Oh no, Cole,' I reply. ‘I'm warning you.'

Cole begins to blink rapidly, looking at his body with confusion. He staggers back. Then he starts to yell, clawing at his neck and face.

I feel it. The heat of my vengeance heats his blood, and he starts to burn from the inside. His skin glows as if embers lurk beneath, and he falls to the floor with the surviving members of the coven, who groan and whimper on the ground.

Cole keeps screaming, writhing as his blood boils.

I, once again, look at his father. I still feel the blade he placed between my legs as if it's still there. I hear his words. His encouragement to cut. Cut! CUT!

I look up at Cole, who pants furiously, unable to do anything but watch and try not to scream.

All I hear are his lies.

That he would love me and make me happy.

Lie.

That he would never hurt me.

Lie.

I place a foot on either side of his father's head.

I see Cole's face all scrunched up as he fucked my best friend.

I feel the wound he inflicted on my side, still bleeding.

‘You should have let me go,' I snarl. ‘And you shouldn't have betrayed me.'

I piss over his dying father, holding eye contact with Cole the entire time.

His hatred is strong enough to stop his pathetic cries, and he returns my loathsome stare with one just as powerful.

From the tree line, the rest of the coven arrives. Every fighter. Every protector. Every witch able to stand or hold a weapon breaks through. A wave of soil slams into me, severing my connection to Cole's blood. The left side of his face is burnt and melted, and he pants heavily as he props himself up against a tree.

‘KILL THE BLOOD WITCH!' Cole commands.

The great wolf roars and starts to attack, barrelling into them tooth and claw first.

It takes the last of my strength to send as many as I can backwards. All I achieve is knocking a few down, but with the added distraction of the wolf, it gives me time to escape.

As I pass the fire, I snap off my father's necklace and toss it in the flames. Fuck him. I hope he burns.

When I see the podium, I can't resist. I grab the coven's beloved Grimoire, and I run.

Branches rip my face to ribbons. I hear them in the distance. Hear them fighting the wolf. Hear them come after me. My bare feet stumble over jagged rocks and stones. I feel my way in the dim light of the blood-red moon above that casts everything in an eerie crimson glow.

Keep running. Keep running.

I'm bleeding and utterly spent. My body begs for me to stop. But if I do, I'll be torn apart by the wolf or the coven. Either way, stopping is not an option.

Run. Keep running.

Run from the father who abandoned me to this fate. Run from the man who swore to love me forever. Run from my home. From the only life I have ever known.

Run into the dark. Into the unknown. Into a world that decorates their town borders with the skulls of my kind.

Run. Run. Run!

I can't stop quick enough when a dark figure steps out from behind a gnarled and twisted tree. I slam into a chest like stone.

His arm wraps around my waist and pins me to his body. His clothes are cold against my naked flesh.

‘I will kill you!' I warn, trying in vain to get free. ‘You and the rest of the coven!'

I look up into the face peering down at me, expecting to see Cole.

It's not. It's a familiar face with a familiar half grin, but not Cole's.

‘You've come for me already…' I breathe, knowing I'm looking death in the eye. My death. ‘Make it quick.'

‘Come now, Little Pixie,' Shaw says, his voice as smooth as silk and as dark as the night surrounding us. ‘Why would I make anything quick when you kept us waiting?'

‘Waiting?' I look up into those vivid green eyes. ‘U-us?'

A twig snaps from behind. I look back to see Dorian striding with purpose straight at us. His eyes are narrowed in determination.

My entire body goes rigid, gripped in fear.

The trees rustle from the direction I came. The white wolf leaps through the brush. I cling to Shaw, ready to spin him so the wolf's teeth will reach him instead of me.

But without missing a beat, the wolf transforms from the great white beast into a man. His feet don't falter as he joins Dorian, who holds out a long black coat made of leather.

Archwin slides on the jacket, and the two walk towards us.

‘Sorry about this, Pixie,' Shaw smiles, pulling my focus back to him. ‘But if we don't mark you, you can use your blood magic against us. And we can't have that now, can we?' He takes the Grimoire from my hands and drops it to the floor, uninterested in it.

Shaw spins me so my back is against his chest, giving me a clear view of the two others heading towards us. His arms grip my middle tightly, making it hard for me to breathe.

Dorian's mouth opens, and his teeth sharpen. Then Archwin, his teeth like miniature versions of his beasts.

‘It will only hurt for a minute,' Shaw whispers in my ear, his warm breath contrasting with the chill in the air.

Peering back, I see his teeth are jagged.

‘I hope you choke on me,' I spit, my last words an act of defiance. I may be dead, but I'll be damned if I go out begging.

Shaw's teeth sink into my neck, piercing deep before he starts to pull my blood into his mouth.

Dorian grips my hips roughly and buries his face on the opposite side, sinking his teeth into my shoulder.

I can't even scream. The pain is a fiery heat that radiates through my entire body.

Archwin stops before me. His face is smeared with the blood of the coven members he ripped apart. His chest and hands are just as smothered.

His boyish grin grows as he looks down at my naked body. He falls to his knees and plants his hands on my arse.

‘Finally,' he sighs with satisfaction.

His teeth sink into my upper thigh. It's more painful than where the two others have bitten, and his hands caress and grab at my backside.

They all drink deeply, moaning and gulping down their fill. Above us, the white of the moon is slowly returning. The time of the blood moon is about to end.

And so, it would seem, am I.

My arms fall limp at my side. My legs buckle, leaving them to keep me up.

Slowly, I blink, looking up at that moon. I feel them taking my life force. Feel them consuming me.

Feel them killing me.

Each blink becomes longer. My ears ring, and the hammering of my heart is painful as it struggles to beat what little blood I have left.

Shaw lets out a low growl as his arms firm around me.

Is this truly how I leave this world? Devoured by three monsters after being betrayed and tortured by those I thought were my friends? My family?

They all moan in utter bliss as I stand limply between them, silently crying as they drink.

As they kill me.

Everything goes black.