Chapter 26 - Grace
I’m trembling as I walk away from Dan, but I keep my head high and my back straight, firmly putting one foot in front of the other and refusing to look back.
I can’t tell him now. He can’t go into this battle terrified for his child!
It makes me feel terribly alone to keep it to myself, but I also think it would be selfish to tell him just to ease my own burden.
There is destiny at work here. I have to trust it.
I hurry to Alisha and throw my arms around her, hugging her tight. “Are you okay?” I ask.
She nods. “I had a dream last night, and when I woke up, there were messages from Sloan about the stone heating up. Something is going down.”
“Yes, it is,” I say, gripping her hands. “More than you know, but it’s finally time to tell you.”
“Tell me what?” she asks, violet eyes widening in alarm.
“We should be on our way,” I answer, feeling a rising anxiety in me, as if we’re running out of time. “We need to get to the stone.”
“We’ll take a supply truck,” Alisha says, gesturing to the nearby vehicles. “They’re doing regular runs. This one should leave in a few minutes.”
“Good,” I reply. “We’ll need the other women as well.”
“Sara and Scarlett?” Alisha asks. “Why? They’ll want to stay here to help their people, and I don’t think Rex or Shawn wants them out there.”
“We have to,” I say in a hard tone. “Get them here in time for this truck, and I’ll explain on the way.”
Alisha looks confused, but doesn’t argue. She pulls out her phone and calls Scarlett. A few minutes later, Scarlett approaches with Sara, and we all jump in the back of the supply truck.
“Okay, what’s this about?” Scarlett says. “I was only able to get away because Rex is too busy to argue with me. Why are we going out to the rock?”
I look around at the three of them, taking a deep breath.
All this time, I didn’t want to keep this secret—and now I can’t stand to tell it!
“The snake has a name,” I say, not even knowing where to start. “It’s Sakesh, and there is an ancient order of witches who guard his secrets.”
“What the fuck?” Alisha cries. “What are you saying, Grace?”
I sigh again. “I knew from the moment I met you that you were connected to Sakesh and that your powers were important to the coven. Since I was a child, I’ve been working with them.”
“Whoa, whoa.” Scarlett waves her hands in the air. “Back up. When you say they guard his secrets—”
“They only exist to control him, or to stop him,” I cut in. “We’ve been working on an ancient prophecy and—”
“Where have these witches been, then?” Sara snaps. “The snake—Sakesh?—has exploded the area multiple times, and they didn’t make any attempt to stop him?”
“They did,” I say. “Many years ago, they stopped interfering because they couldn’t stop it and only got killed in the process, leaving one or two witches alive outside the blast zone to carry on the tradition.
They knew they’d never stop him like that, so they let Sakesh think he’d killed them all. ”
“You mean, when I was in that circle—with my son—you knew what was going on, and you did nothing?” Scarlett asks, her voice low and dangerous.
I shake my head, my eyes filling with tears. “Would knowing his name have helped you? Would it have done any good at all to know there were witches nearby who had watched him for years, but that they didn’t have the power to stop him?”
Scarlett stares right at me, her eyes simmering with fury.
“My parents,” she whispers. “They were looking for information on the snake, and it looks like Uncle Azarian killed them to get them off the trail. Then he and Vanessa lured innocent people, and good fighting men out there to sacrifice them, and you did nothing?”
“I didn’t know!” I yell, losing it finally. “I didn’t know everything, at least. I’m not as powerful as the others, and they don’t always share all the information with me.”
“But you knew he lured those people out there to die,” Scarlett says, and I hang my head.
“Yes,” I reply.
“Grace!” Alisha cries. “How could you do this?”
“The only alternative was another explosion,” I say. “So, the choice was to let that scenario play out, and then hopefully it would lead to a chance to stop him for good. Or let Azarian finish the ritual and end up with another explosion that destroyed the area for miles around.”
“And then, he’d still be in the rock, just waiting,” Sara says. “Isn’t that right?”
“Correct,” I reply.
She nods. “I understand your decision,” she says. “I would have done the same.”
Alisha reaches out and takes my hand. “I understand it, too,” she says. “But I’m scared now. What does all this mean?”
Before I answer, I look over at Scarlett, and she folds her arms across her chest and shakes her head.
“I may understand why this was done,” she says hoarsely. “But it doesn’t mean I agree.”
“We could destroy him, for good. Today, right now,” I reply firmly. “Hundreds of years of bloodshed, either committed by him or done in his name—and a potential future of hell on earth—and it could all be over today.”
“Wait, hold up,” Alisha says. “What’s this about hell on earth?”
“If Sakesh manages to manifest, he will cover the world in fire. Almost everything would die, and whatever was left to feed him would suffer horribly every moment of its life,” I answer.
“Okay, I’m sold,” Sara says. “I’ve spent my life soaking up generational fear of this thing, so I might be biased, but I’m here to do whatever it takes.”
“And me,” Alisha says.
“And me,” Scarlett echoes. “I’m not happy about the circumstances, but I will help to stop him if I can. I’ll want words with you, Grace, when we’re done.”
“If we’re alive, you can have as many words as you like,” I say.
“So, what do we do?” Sara asks. “Does your coven have a plan?”
Ah, the awkwardness. We had hundreds of years, but somehow the military is more prepared than we are.
“Well…”
“Oh, fucking perfect!” Scarlett curses. “Are you kidding me right now?”
“Sakesh has been in all our heads,” I say. “We’re connected to him—to this final act. If we know too much, so does he. It’s too important to screw up.”
“But your coven, they’re going to be there, right?” Alisha asks.
“Of course,” I say, realizing I’m not even sure. “They’ve planned this event for a long time, and I have it on good authority that everything is going as planned.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Scarlett says. “I’m so glad that I know absolutely nothing. Really comforting.”
“I’m sorry,” I say. “Really.”
“Seriously, though,” Sara says. “What do we do?”
I close my eyes for a moment, feeling the swaying of the truck, the heat in the air, and the massive, malevolent presence of Sakesh nearby and drawing closer.
Behind all of that, a soft glow emanates from within me. It’s a soft white light, very small but utterly pure. I sense reassurance, and I know that when the time comes, I’ll know exactly what to do.
Alisha was pregnant, too, when she was in the circle. And Scarlett was there with her son…
I look over at Sara, wondering if the link also applies to her, but it’s not something I have time to figure out right now.
She had a child with Shawn. She could be pregnant again right now.
“Grace?” Alisha asks. “Do you want to tell me what that look on your face is about?”
“Nothing,” I answer, resisting the urge to put my hand on my belly.
Every single one of them will know what that means, and I don’t need to make this any more complicated.
The truck begins to slow down, and we can hear the shouting of soldiers as well as equipment humming and a thundering in the sky. When the truck stops, I jump out and look up, shielding my eyes to see a helicopter hovering over the circle.
I hurry towards the stone, seeing people crowded all around it. Soldiers are set up with guns and explosives, while wolf warriors stalk the perimeter. I can feel the coven in the trees beyond, watching and waiting. I look up at the helicopter again, panic rising in me.
“They’re too close!” I yell over the noise. “They have to—”
A massive boom sounds from the center of the rock, so powerful that the ground trembles as a shock wave cascades out in all directions. All of us are knocked off our feet, and it’s a good thing, because a wave of fire follows the boom.
“Down!” I scream, and the others and I press ourselves to the ground. The second the heat clears, I leap to my feet and run towards the circle, watching the fire streaking upwards in a massive column, exploding into a thick wave that looks like an umbrella opening above the rock.
The helicopter rocks crazily, already off balance from the sonic boom. I can hear the men inside shouting as the wave of fire spreads towards them, then only screaming as it explodes like a bunch of dried leaves.
I stagger closer, right up to the edge of the rock. Soldiers are screaming all around me, most of them horribly burned. Wolf warriors are dragging them away, but some attempt to enter the circle and simply disintegrate from the heat, leaving nothing behind but a faint trail of ash.
The impact tremor sounds again, right in the middle of the rock, and runes begin to glow as the fire cloud spreads, blocking out the sun.
A hissing scream, just outside the range of human hearing, tears across my consciousness, making me cover my ears, even though I know it won’t do any good.
The rock shatters, the main fault right in the center as if something heavy was dropped there from a great height.
Huge cracks split in all directions towards the outer edge of the circle.
Lava begins to leak through the cracks, and Sakesh suddenly shoots upwards through the center of the circle, following the tower of flame right up to the spreading wave. His body is massive, and it twirls around the core of flame until it looks like a gigantic tree.
Like a mushroom cloud.
Some of the soldiers with fingers left start shooting, but Sakesh shrieks with glee, absorbing the bullets and glowing with more heat. He twists around the trunk of flame, and I see its huge, acid-yellow eyes lock onto mine.
Gracie…
My hands begin to hum, and I look down, seeing a pale white glow coming from my fingers.
My child moves within me, and it’s as if I can hear her singing to me, the ancient song I’ve always known but forgotten for a short while.
All around me in the woods, I can feel my sisters prepared, just waiting for my signal.
“Grace!” Alisha screams, her black hair whipping around her in the screaming wind. “What are we supposed to do?”
I look down at my glowing white hands again, then up into Sakesh’s eyes. His tongue flickers out, and I can feel it flicking on my skin.
I can taste you, Grace…
I know what to do!
“I know what to do,” I whisper, looking at my hands again.
Without thinking, I turn and run, leaping through the flames into the circle.