Chapter 39
une chose sombre et contre nature
CLAIRE
My head. Hurt. My chest. Burned. My blood felt like it was boiling in my veins. My skin felt like centipedes were crawling all over me.
What was happening? Why was there so much pain?
I couldn’t remember what I’d been doing just before I blacked out. It was like trying to remember a dream just after waking. Every time one detail surfaced, it disappeared.
All I knew was that Bastien was one of them.
He was helping them fight against Sera. I needed to find the strength to get up and fight back.
The thought helped my consciousness return, and I held on to it like the tail of a kite.
I followed it as I slowly opened my eyes and found my vision was blurry.
I blinked, trying to clear the image, but everything was a blob of red, orange, black, and gray.
Then everyone was shouting at once. Gritting my teeth, I lifted my head, squinting until I could make out the big blurry shapes in front of me.
Wolves.
Not just one, but five. A pack. And by the looks of the tight circle they’d made around me, they were… protecting me.
But why?
One voice penetrated through the cacophony of others. “That was my gift! It belongs to me! I’m the worthiest witch in this graveyard! She did something to the spell!”
A growl and the snapping of teeth followed.
My head spun, and my stomach was sick. Sweat trickled down the side of my face. I didn’t understand what was going on. I wondered if the throbbing spot on my eyebrow was to blame or if it was something else.
“Call off your beasts, Hera! If you don’t, so help me… I’ll kill every last one.”
I’d recognize that voice even if it were pitch black, and I was on the brink of death. I’d heard it inside my head more times than I could count. It was Bastien. And he was furious.
With that one look I knew deep in my core that he might’ve been one of them, he might’ve even helped them do this, but no matter what, I was his.
He would always, always stand with me. Something clicked inside me, like a key in a lock, and it opened a new emotion in me.
One that fought back against every evil thing I’d ever been told about his kind. One that burned inside me.
The wolves growled, and they tightened around me, bristly tails brushing against my legs and arms.
I could only watch what was transpiring from between their feet.
“They aren’t my wolves!” the witch screeched. “They’re hers!”
Hers? As in… mine? Then it all came back to me. The wolf in the graveyard—the one with the yellow eyes. It was my beast? And so were the other four? Pride swelled in my chest. My family might not be here to help me, but Diana had sent me a another.
The vampire lunged forward, eyes dark as night and fangs lengthening, but the wolves moved in unison, snapping and biting his limbs.
My heart cried out, “Don’t hurt him!”
Helplessly, I reached for him, and when I did, heat gathered under my skin, and a pulse of static energy raced through me.
My hand burned like someone had set fire to it.
I screamed in pain, inspecting it, sure my flesh had turned black.
I knew I must’ve been hit by one of their spells.
But there was nothing. Nothing. I was unharmed.
Confusion and fear set in, my pulse quickening. I looked to Bastien for explanation, but he was on the ground, flat on his back, and the wolves were reforming their circle around me.
Had I… Had I done that?
“She can’t control the power!” someone shouted.
“Only a true born witch can handle the gift of darkness!” exclaimed another. “Temperance’s power was unmatched!”
Grunts of agreement followed. My eyes found Bastien’s as he clambered to his feet. I’d seen him angry. I’d seen him lose his temper. But this was something different. This was a man unhinged.
Hera’s voice rose above the madness. “Kill the wolves! And bring me the girl!”
Bastien opened the connection between us, speaking to me as only he could. “Run for the woods behind the house and make for the caves. I’ll be right behind you.”
I was in no condition to run. Not with the gash on my head. I could barely find the energy to stand. On top of that, I was scared. Scared of what happened in the graveyard. Of who that power went to. They couldn’t mean… me.
Flexing my fingers, I cast my gaze down to my hand. “Bastien,” I said, my voice small, “what is happening to me? Why do they want me?”
I felt the fear and regret stirring inside him even though his face remained impassive. “Right now, all I need you to do is run.”
The truth settled in my gut. I didn’t need him to tell me what happened.
I could feel it. He was just as nervous and afraid as I was.
This was why I felt like my blood was boiling.
Or like something had taken residence in my chest and refused to leave.
With shaking fingers, I pulled a few strands of hair free, revealing a burnished shade of copper.
No. No. This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t. I couldn’t be…
I cast my gaze around the graveyard at all the witches shouting for my blood. Maybe I should let them kill me. Because I could never go home. Never. I’d become the thing my family despised. The thing my sister despised.
A Dark Witch.
How? Why? I was born from the light. This shouldn’t be possible.
“Claire, we will figure this out,” Bastien reassured me. “But right now, I need you to climb on the biggest wolf’s back and go. I’ll take care of the witches so you can escape.”
Concern knitted my brows together, making my gash sting. He couldn’t possibly fight them all. I knew he was a battle-tested vampire prince with the scars that prove his skill, but even in his monstrous state, there were too many of them.
If I was his to protect, then he was mine.
“Stop!” another voice shouted as a girl who couldn’t be more than twenty flung herself in front of us. “The wolves are sacred. The penalty for killing a familiar is death! This is Damien’s chosen leader. We should be on our knees, thanking her.”
It was the witch with the white raven. The bird had hopped down from the statue and was sitting on her shoulder, and now she was standing between her family and my wolves.
“You simple-minded fool! She’s stolen your grandmother’s gift, Cora! And you protect her?”
The girl’s bird hooted dolefully. “The law is the law, Mother, whether you uphold it or not. We’ll have to face the consequences from The God of the Underworld if you kill them. Gran wouldn’t have wanted this.” She raised her wand. “Those loyal to Temperance, stand with me.”
No one moved. Except Bastien.
“Listen to sage advice and stand down. You dishonor the memory of Temperance with your actions. She stood for peace. My sanguine partner is not responsible for the result of your spell. Damien, in his wisdom, names her the worthiest in this graveyard. As your liege lord, as the protector of the peace the Blood Treaty demands, I command you to stand down.”
The sentence landed and the world tightened. Animals hissed and growled, but they didn’t attack. And for a moment, I thought this meant I was safe. That we could leave and Bastien could figure out how to get rid of this magick. Maybe if he drank enough of my blood, it could be removed like alcohol.
Hera sauntered forward, approaching Bastien with her wand drawn. “I don’t think we will.” Her red eyes skimmed Bastien’s shoulder, then landed on me, and that look was a knife’s edge. “If you stand between us and our gift, we’ll do whatever it takes to retrieve it, Your Grace.”
Bastien’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t flinch. “I came here in peace. I don’t want to kill anyone tonight. But if you don’t lower your wand, I will.”
His vow swallowed the remaining noise, along with every doubt in my heart.
He was standing against them, and with me.
For all to see. The moment stretched and stretched until I was hopeful Hera would see reason and stand down.
Her lips lifted in a grin, and somewhere deep inside me, I knew she would never, ever stop hunting me for the power she believed lived inside my veins.
I had a choice. Run, like Bastien said, knowing he’d die protecting me. Or, I could stand and fight.
I’d wished for magick every day since I understood I was different. Now I had it. Freshly charged magick burned hot in my veins. If I just gave into the darkness, if I let this demonic power in, I could finally be useful. It might not be the gift I’d wanted, but it was the gift I got.
“Run!” Bastien shouted, dropping into a defensive crouch.
The white wolf raced to my side, but the biggest of the wolves, the gray one, snapped at her. He flattened to the ground, offering me his back.
The graveyard erupted with the sounds of battle. Bolts of fire and flashes of light illuminated the darkness around me. Bastien snarled as he threw one of the cloaked witches into a copper statue, and they landed with a sickening crack. He landed his dagger into the neck of another.
I twisted my fingers into the wolf’s shaggy fur and, using all the strength I had, pulled myself onto his back. Something warm trickled down from my cut, but I swallowed my fear.
I couldn’t let that stop me now.
Hera wanted to kill me and start her power-grabbing spell all over again. Or maybe she’d eat me whole so she could imbibe her grandmother’s magick like a snake eating a chicken egg.
Bastien wanted me to run to the woods to hide from the fighting, just like my family when they left me to haunt Prideaux Hill alone.
I drew in a deep breath and my eyes glowed red.
Power coursed through my body like lightning.
I wasn’t useless anymore. People didn’t need to protect me.
In fact, they were afraid I didn’t know how to control the darkness inside me.
Maybe I didn’t. But that didn’t matter anymore.
I didn’t need to be ashamed or afraid of the dark thing inside me.
I was that dark thing.
Me and my wolves weren’t going to leave. No. Not without Bastien. I was going to unleash all my anger on these witches who did this to me. This was their fault. And they were going to pay.