Chapter 23 – Celaeno
CELAENO
Iwake up and wince. My head feels like hell. My hair practically prickles around the massive bump on the back of my head.
Groaning, I blink open my eyes. I’m staring directly at the sun.
“Fuck,” I moan, and turn my head to the side.
Which is how I see that I’m lying in the center of a massive symbol painted in blood. I struggle, but I’m bound to the ground. My wrists and ankles are tied to God only knows what, but I feel the kiss of metal against my flesh.
Sarah’s young face suddenly fills my vision. “Oh, good, you’re awake.”
My mouth feels dry as I struggle to speak. “What are you doing?”
She smirks. “You know, when you and those three hotties showed up in my shop, I didn’t think you’d be a problem.
Just more humans sniffing around, trying to figure out something that was beyond their understanding.
But then, something animated my creature in the caves.
And guess what? They came across Candy’s body near the lake…
meaning someone pulled her body free. It didn’t take me long to put two and two together and realize that you were going to complicate my plan more than I thought.
” She shrugs, pulls out a long, narrow knife with symbols on it, and starts sharpening it.
“I realized two things then. That I’d need to get rid of you, and that I’d need another body to have enough power to extract my revenge. ”
I stare for a long minute. She sounds so casual as she talks about killing her mom, about killing me, and destroying this town. It’s… creepy. It’s like she has no soul.
“You killed your own mom.”
She freezes in her movements, the knife and sharpener bright in the morning sun. “Do you know my grandpa is my dad? She actually let me become some freak born as my grandpa’s kid.”
Bile rises in the back of my throat. “You can’t seriously think anyone would want that. I mean, she was a fucking child when she got pregnant with you. She was the victim—“
Her eyes narrow. “She wasn’t the victim, I was. And then she didn’t even bother to keep me, to try to protect me from this town. She just… gave me away, like I was nothing.”
“She was a child. How could she take care of a baby? She gave you to a family who could give you what she couldn’t.”
I’m surprised by the coldness that comes over her face. “She was the reason I was suffering, so I planned to use her for my revenge, but she fucked that up too. So now, today, when most of the town attacks those birds—they’re all going to pay. This place will be littered with bodies.”
My thoughts are scrambling. “Like what happened to your brother?”
She stares at me, and I expect to see regret, but her eyes lack all emotion. “He wasn’t my brother. At least not by blood. I had to kill him, to rile the Sheriff up.”
I feel sick. People might call me a monster, but that’s because they haven’t seen true evil like I have. This woman, she’s pure evil. Her eyes are dead, with no empathy or feeling whatsoever. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.
“You don’t have to do this. I know the town wasn’t nice to you. I know—“
Her knife moves in a flash, slicing one of my wrists.
A scream explodes from my lips as I feel hot blood leaking from my veins.
“Enough talk,” she says, calmly. “It’s almost noon, and my power demands a sacrifice.”
I shake my head. “Sarah—“
She slashes my other wrist. Mind-numbing pain tears through me, and it takes me a second to breathe. My vision blackens, and my head falls to the side as I stare out at the dark forest that surrounds us.
“You don’t know what you’re doing,” I force out.
And she doesn’t. She has no idea how dangerous this is.
She ignores me, picking up an ancient book. The words of her spell come, murmured to the trees, while she holds up her knife, covered in my blood. The dark liquid runs down the handle and slides across her flesh, staining it.
I struggle against the metal that binds me, thrashing, using the little strength I have left, but they hold.
Closing my eyes, I try to shift into my raven form, but the magic of this witch’s circle keeps me where I am.
I reach for it over and over again as my raven tries to save us both, but she can’t.
My eyes open, and I stare at the grey sky.
A cloud passes over the sun, and the shadows darken around us.
A cool wind blows, raising the goose bumps on my arms.
It’s hard to admit, but I’m going to die today.
I feel movement near my feet and she slashes my ankle. I arch against the chains that bind me, screaming.
“Let me go!” I shout, my voice heavy with pain. “I’m not what you think I am.”
But she just keeps reciting the spell, ignoring me. The power of her curse grows with each drop of blood that leaves my body. I have to stop this. I have to protect my birds and this town.
An image flashes of my gargoyles. Their stone flesh will protect them. Right? I hope so. I hope they don’t die because of me.
She slashes my other ankle, and I bite down on a curse. I try to say more, but nothing comes. There’s a moment, like the instant before a storm unleashes, when she looms over me. Her chant comes faster and faster, and her eyes grow black. I try to warn her, to tell her, but she slashes my throat.
I’m choking on blood. I taste it, filling my mouth. My head lolls to the side as blood soaks the symbol beneath me.
The curse explodes across the land around me, sour and heavy with warning.
Sarah smirks above me. “Thanks, ghost hunter. Now the second those idiots attack, everyone is going to pay for how they’ve treated me.”
Death clutches me in its grip, and my vision fades to blackness.
How is dying always so painful?