Chapter 34
Thirty-Four
A few minutes prior. . .
It was always there, right in front of our faces. She is not a spy for either side, but she also isn’t a vampire. She was never human. Never turned. And the goblin didn’t even hesitate with Callahan. She spoke as if it was obvious we had always known.
It should have been so blatantly obvious.
I slash my longsword through the body in front of me a second too late. Pain cripples my left leg and while their body hits the ground mine does as well.
Luckly, when I look around there are no more near me. Neither are they around Castiel and Thorne who are closest to me, but I doubt they would have noticed since they’re both locked on the battle happening before us.
We were all dead. When we realized it had all been a distraction it was too late. A blood witch had sentenced our deaths and once made, there’s no way for survival. So I had turned back. I had allowed myself to have one more look at her.
Except she hadn’t been there. And then magic erupted and that web of blood that was our death sentence shattered. The little bloodsucker had somehow appeared in the middle of the field past me, Thorne, and Castiel.
Ropes of blood were curved and hovering over us. Blood that smelled like something I couldn’t live without while being the only thing that would always kill me. And when she turned back I met eyes that were the same color. Full, vivid, and teeming with magic I’ve never seen before.
She feels like Sanivin, Edmond had whispered in the back of my mind. The oldest of all of us. Old enough to have actually met the first created vampire right before her immortal life came to an end when he was a boy. We may say we’re immortal, but we are not gods. All things eventually die.
Then she had looked back towards the blood witch – a fucking blood witch – without an ounce of any emotion and killed her. Killed four of the eleven witches and at least a hundred people in those front lines.
I couldn’t feel anything when my brother, my twin, came at her and they began their battle. They moved like choreographed dancers, landing blows at speeds I almost couldn’t follow. Percius with his shadows and Mavyn with her blood.
Blood – because she has a fractured blood art and isn’t a vampire and was never a human or turned and has blue flame.
I don’t know how she lied to me while I was truth-pulling, but after she blew Percius away and he came for her again with his whips made of shadow it was fire that decimated them. Blue flame that accompanied her blood art and then raw magic, uncontrollable, froze us all in petrification.
It’s why I was able to kill the skilled bone witch I had just been fighting. Even though she shattered part of my leg, she now lays lifeless before me. Such a fucking waste.
But there’s something different about Mavyn now. She feels the same as she had when she told me to stay out of her business. The type of primordial stillness from her while magic pours from her and a sheet of bloodred aura is cast out over the grounds.
Red aura, the same color the spirits had changed to when she sung their song for them. Red aura – her aura.
I am seeing her aura as she faces my brother and the rest of those witches who have been gaining the upper hand above us. There was a reason it was being discussed so long ago about aligning the witches with celestials.
It also feels like when she had been about to kill Percius and Rovan. Thorne had been able to halt her blood in some twist of fortune, but I can hear his minute thoughts. He won’t be able to do it again. He won’t be able to stop what is about to happen again.
My brother is about to die.
Run.
I break my promise to him and force myself into his mind instead of asking for permission. I had asked for permission a second ago when I told him she was not a vampire. But I do not ask now.
Run, Percius, or you will die now. Tell them all to run because she is about to kill you all.
His terror floods my mind and I can see Thorne and Castiel flinching at it.
“What a child,” we all hear her voice thunder. Ricocheted through the air with a force that has me wanting to slam my knees into the ground.
The unfiltered dominance in her voice. It’s greater than even my fathers.
“It’s not the same. You think you know pain? You don’t know burning.” Her voice pauses for a note and I scream into Percius’s mind. “But I’ll show you.”
Time stills and we’re all helpless watching as she releases her hold on whatever last control she had.
More rebels keep appearing from within the forest but there’s no use.
I know there is no use. Especially as she says eight words that will make it impossible for me to ever hate her for killing my brother.
“You hurt them, my fated. Now you’re dead.”
That is the first time she’s admitted it.
Then my mind goes blank.
She said them.
And then a star implodes.