Chapter Forty-Four
‘Get your mom out of that cage but if you can, keep Wyn locked in, then get Jackson the hell out of here before that wolf wakes up,’ I told Lydia, never taking my eyes off Astrid as she lowered into a crouch, her strange face more lupine than before.
‘Only on the condition you kick their ass,’ she replied, pushing her sodden hair away from her face.
It was a bargain I was happy to make.
Out the corner of my eye, I saw Cole charge but before he could reach us, I flicked my wrist and a snare of Spanish moss caught him by the ankle, dragging him away, scratching and clawing.
‘I know you better than you know yourself,’ Astrid said, a threatening bark in the back of her throat. ‘You won’t kill me.’
‘You put people I love in cages and tried to burn me and my best friend alive,’ I replied. ‘I’m not about to give you a hug and send you on your way.’
‘We had nothing to do with the cages. Take that up with the wolves.’
‘Oh, I mean to,’ I assured her. ‘After I deal with you.’
Ready for her attack, I silently brokered a deal with the river and the trees.
The rain continued to hammer down but I had never seen anything more clearly, the solid sheet of water that blinded Astrid, magnifying the situation for me.
My silver pin lay on the floor beside her.
It hurt, I was sure of that, but hadn’t had the same effect it had on Cole.
When he attacked me in Bonaventure, he was a wolf, she was still human.
Around her neck, I saw a moonstone necklace, the stones glinting a sickly pink as they caught the light.
The moonstones she soaked in the witch’s blood.
That was how she controlled her phase. I had to remove the necklace.
As I was about to make my move, a huge black blur knocked me off my feet, lunging straight for Astrid. It was the wolf from Jackson’s cage.
As strong and as brave as they may be, Astrid was smarter, prepared for a fight in a way the Were wasn’t.
Flat on her back, sacrificing her forearm to hold its jaws at bay, she drew back her other hand, another piece of jewellery glinting in the moonlight.
Five delicate silver rings connected to a bangle around her wrist by fine, sparkling chains.
When the wolf raised its head to prepare for the death blow, she thrust her hand upwards, punching through its fur and flesh, through muscle and bone, deep into its chest. The wolf stilled at once, eyes growing large as they realized what had happened far too late to do anything about it.
Not that there was much anyone or anything could do about having their heart torn from their chest.
The wolf fell, body first, head hitting the wet ground with a thud, and Astrid rose. In her hand she clutched their heart, steaming in the pouring rain.
‘The wolves would have eaten your heart, Emily Bell,’ she said, approaching me with renewed confidence. ‘Would you like to taste theirs instead?’
‘Thanks but I’ll pass,’ I said, scrambling to my feet.
‘You’re my guest. It’s only polite to offer you the first bite before I dig in.’
When she opened her mouth and tore into the still-beating organ, blood spurted everywhere, coating her face, her hair, her clothes.
I looked away, revolted, and full of pity for the fallen wolf.
Astrid tossed the rest of the heart aside like a toddler with a toy she had already tired of, and advanced.
I held my ground, one eye on Lydia and Jackson as they pulled their mother out of the cage and dragged her away, the other on Wyn.
The sky was black, the moon almost fully risen and his phase would be on him very soon.
I took the deepest inhale and pleaded with the elements.
My lungs filled with air as I begged the earth, doused in rain, and with fire running through my veins I lifted my arms to the line of trees at the edge of the park.
They understood. They agreed. As soon as the Powell family stepped off the grass, their branches wove together to form a boundary, keeping Lydia, Jackson and Alex out, and me, Astrid and the wolves, in.
‘For all your magic,’ she said, with blood dripping from her mouth. ‘It is still so easy to kill a witch. You bleed, you break, you need help to heal. In nature, you are inferior to a Were. You are so fragile.’
‘Just because something is fragile doesn’t mean it can’t be strong,’ I told her, forcing myself to stand still, holding my position as she came closer, even as every living thing from the earth to the sky screamed at me to run, run, run.
‘Look at you!’
She was laughing now, so close I could see the muscle fibres caught between her teeth. Face-to-face. Eye-to-eye.
‘If I had your magic, I would have everything. I would be everything.’ Astrid growled, her foul breath making me retch.
‘This is what makes me so angry, you ungrateful wretch. All the gifts you have been given, and you do nothing with them. The magic is endless, Emily, your fear is the only limit. Do you not understand who you are? A witch powerful enough to end the world and even now you just stand there, doing nothing. You’re pathetic.
That’s why you won’t win against me. It’s the one thing your grandmother was right about, you aren’t prepared to do what is necessary. ’
‘That’s the difference between us,’ I replied, forcing myself to stand still as she advanced. ‘I don’t need to win. I only need you to lose.’
When she lunged forward, I ducked to the side and snatched the moonstone necklace from around her throat.
It resisted my grip but only for a second.
Astrid’s magic was stolen, mine was a gift, and I only wished to return the precious metals and corrupted stones back to the earth where they belonged.
Once they understood my intention, the gold melted away, dripping through my fingers, and the moonstones tumbled into the wet grass.
The phase was instantaneous. Before the last stone rolled to a stop, Astrid was something else, half-human, half-wolf, stuck midway, either by accident or design.
‘Not smart, Emily,’ she snarled before snapping at my outstretched arm and sinking her teeth deep into my wrist. The pain was mind-altering, a thousand times worse than her potion, arteries and tendons severed, an agony like no other.
Right away, the world tilted on its axis, everything wrong, everything fading.
‘Stupid girl.’
Astrid’s voice was full of rage and blood as she released me, tearing through my flesh. I let my arm fall to my side as I staggered backwards, blood gushing out of me.
‘This is the part where you’re supposed to run away,’ she growled.
But I didn’t run. I didn’t move an inch.
The ground trembled as the first drops of my blood spilled onto the dirt, soaking through the soil, my intentional offering accepted.
Then the whole world quaked. The chasm that tore the park in two opened so quickly, Astrid couldn’t see what was happening until the earth beneath her feet broke apart, giving her no chance to escape.
The Savannah River raged at its banks, the trees that surrounded us bound themselves closer together, and the humid night air roiled.
I watched as Astrid fell backwards, her half-wolf hands clawing at nothing, her eyes wide open with panic-stricken surprise, and I remained motionless when the city of Savannah swallowed her whole.
The chasm closed, the river calmed itself and her muffled screams were silenced by the night.
‘I’m not the one who should’ve run,’ I whispered.
Clutching my wounded wrist, I closed my eyes and bathed in the quiet stillness before crumpling sideways, broken and bloodless.
When the dead fight back. When the earth consumes.
Cole was dead but fought back. The tunnels beneath Savannah had consumed Astrid. Weakened but ready, I steeled myself for what might come next. There had been so many lies, which would become the truth?
The wet grass was a feather bed as I stared blankly at a darkening sky.
My arm. The bleeding wouldn’t stop, and I was too weak to heal myself.
The last time I suffered a Were attack, Catherine had given up her life for mine but there was no one to offer up a sacrifice this time.
As my existence ebbed away, a flurry of shooting stars appeared in the sky.
So pretty. I couldn’t help but sigh at the beauty as I began to bleed out, the wonder of the universe, putting on a show and sparkling just for me.
Not just for me.
A quiet whimper sounded at my side and I turned my head to see a wolf, one I recognized, looking down on me with the saddest green-grey eyes.
‘It’s OK,’ I told Wyn when he threw his head back and howled. ‘Just, stay with me, please?’
He turned around in a circle, tail between his legs, before laying down at the side of me, his body warm, his fur so soft. I didn’t know I was crying until I felt his tongue lap the tears from my cheek, and when it all went dark, I realized I had everything I ever wanted.
He was alive. We were together.
I closed my eyes and smiled.
‘Oh, honey, please tell me that is not what you wore to conduct a Becoming ceremony?’ Catherine shook her head as she tutted, frowning with disappointment. ‘Really, there are days when I have to ask myself if I ever taught you anything worth knowing. In one ear and out the other, all of it.’
The stars had disappeared and the soft grass had given way to something cold and hard.
Marble. It took me a long moment to realize where I was.
The Bell family chapel, underneath our monument in Bonaventure Cemetery.
The caskets of our ancestors lined the walls and all the wooden pews glowed in the lamplight.
Behind me, the steep stone staircase that led up to the outside world was sealed shut.
‘Am I dead?’ I asked.
‘You look it. Blessed with a gorgeous head of hair and all she does is pull it back in a ponytail. I despair, I really do. Would it kill you to apply a touch of blush before you run off to sacrifice your life?’
I slid down from the altar where I’d awoken and stretched. Nothing hurt. There were no teeth marks on my arm, no rope burns on my wrists.
‘You’re not dead,’ Catherine called from her seat in the front pew. ‘Not yet anyway. The way I understand it, this is a spot we Bell witches like to use when we have some thinking between this life and the next.’
‘But Astrid bit me.’
I held out my unblemished arm, but it made for poor evidence.
‘She did,’ my grandmother agreed. ‘I saw. As you can imagine, I was not thrilled.’
‘I should be dead,’ I reasoned, running a finger up and down my intact skin. ‘You’re sure I’m not?’
With a razor-sharp sigh, she stood and strode towards me, her silk skirt swishing around her long legs. ‘Honey, when good things happen to us, it is considered rude to ask why. Do not, as they say, look a gift horse in the mouth.’
‘Is this part of my magic?’ I asked. ‘Am I immune to wolf bites? Because if I am—’
‘If you are, that would make me quite the fool, wouldn’t it?’ Catherine finished for me. ‘But it wouldn’t change anything, Emily. I would sacrifice my life for yours one hundred times over, whether I knew it was necessary or not.’
My eyebrows flashed up my forehead and my grandmother replied with a sly smile.
‘As I believe I mentioned, this is a good spot to do some thinking and I’ve had nothing but time on my hands.’
‘If I’m not dead and you’re not dead, then we can leave,’ I said, cautiously walking down the aisle and pressing against the solid rock that sealed us in. ‘We can go back?’
‘You may leave whenever you’re ready.’ Catherine waved a hand, no big deal. ‘I’m going to wait around a while longer. A lady doesn’t step out without an invitation.’
‘I’m inviting you,’ I said uncertainly. ‘I’m asking you to come back with me.’
‘You’re doing wonderful things out there.’ She was suddenly beside me, leading me up the stairs that had appeared out of nowhere. A cool night breeze blew in from the open doors of the chapel, and above us I could see the full moon glowing.
‘Growing into your magic exactly how I knew you would. My little witch is going to save the world.’
‘But what about her?’ I asked.
Behind us, in the darkest corner of the chapel, I saw the figure from my nightmares. Tall and emaciated, long stringy hair covering her face. My face.
‘Onginnan,’ she gasped as I cowered behind Catherine, her voice as dry as ashes. ‘Onginnan.’
‘Don’t you worry about her,’ Catherine whispered in her most soothing tone, turning my face away as the wraith-like version of myself melted back into the shadows. ‘She’s not your concern today.’
But she would be. One day.
‘And the man? The man with the dagger that looks like a tree?’
Her lips rolled together, the perfect red lipsticked line disappearing in on itself.
‘Another problem for another time. Now go make nice with those mutts before they kill your boy. Make me proud, Emily.’
And with one short, sharp shove, she pushed me through the door and back into the night.