Chapter 14 #3
Davina’s back arched suddenly. A scream ripped through the room, sharp enough to rattle the glass in the cabinets. The chandelier flickered violently above them.
A surge of dark energy burst from her chest, black smoke twisting upward, forming shifting faces that whispered and hissed. The light around Jared flared brighter, the markings on his arms burning like molten silver.
“It's resisting,” Jared said, his voice strained. “Whatever’s inside her doesn’t want to let go.”
Lucy’s pulse pounded. “What do you mean, whatever’s inside her?”
Jared gritted his teeth whilst dragging out his words. “She’s po-ssessed.”
Davina screamed again, this time her voice layered, two tones fighting for dominance.
He didn’t stop chanting. Jared’s palms glowed so bright they lit the entire room, light battling the shadows pouring off Davina’s skin.
Barnaby was pale, but he kept the camera steady. “This is… unbelievable. She’s splitting at a molecular level. Her aura’s in two places at once.”
Corey’s eyes darted between Davina and Jared. “And that means what exactly?”
“It means,” Jared said through clenched teeth, “if I stop now, she dies.”
The floorboards creaked beneath them as the shadows condensed, forming a single, writhing shape above Davina’s chest. It pulsed once, twice, then plunged downward into her body.
Everything went still.
Jared’s glow faded. The frost on the windows began to melt. Davina’s breathing steadied.
Then her eyes snapped open.
For a moment, they were her usual soft brown. Then black seeped through like spilled ink until her irises were swallowed whole.
“Davina?” Lucy whispered.
Davina turned her head slowly toward Lucy, her voice low and broken. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
Lucy’s throat tightened. “We just wanted to help you.”
“Help?” A smile tugged at her lips, but it wasn’t hers. “You have no idea what you’ve released.”
Byron stepped forward, every instinct on guard. “Who are you?”
Davina’s gaze flicked to him and suddenly, the chains around her ankles began to rattle violently.
“He’s coming,” she hissed “Who?” Lucy demanded.
Davina’s head turned sharply toward her, a single tear running down her cheek. “My Master.”
And then every light in the house went out.
Darkness swallowed them whole.
The silver chains glowed faintly in the dark, until even they flickered out.
The light from Barnaby’s device was the last to die, flickering once before vanishing with a pitiful whine.
For a moment, there was nothing. No light. No sound. No sense of where the walls even were.
Then Lucy’s voice broke through.
“I can see in the dark.” She reached out, her hand brushing Barnaby’s jacket before gripping his arm and tugging him closer. Corey, still standing frozen, stared blankly into the black.
“Are you okay?” she whispered to him.
He swallowed. “I have terrible taste in women.” Lucy could only sigh in semi agreement.
They huddled tighter, breath mingling, heartbeats thudding in rhythm.
“Can you see her?” Jared asked. Lucy scanned the dark, at first, nothing, then the shape of the room stretched, bent at impossible angles, as though it had been folded into another dimension. The air warped in front of her eyes.
“She’s there,” Lucy said, pointing toward the far wall. “I forget you can't see, she's straight in front of you Jared” Her voice faltered. “Davina stood motionless, her body outlined by a faint glow.
“He’s here now,” she hissed, her voice carrying like metal dragged across glass. “My master is here.”
Lucy felt the air drop. Instinctively, she pushed Corey and Barnaby toward the corner. “Stay down,” she ordered.
For once, they didn’t argue. They dropped, crouching behind a broken table leg, both silent.
Jared’s voice sliced through the thick air. “Your master has no place here.”
He clapped his hands once. The sound was deafening, a shockwave rippled outward. The entire manor seemed to shudder. Furniture trembled. The pressure made Lucy’s ears ring.
Whatever was trying to come through hit an invisible wall and recoiled with a shriek.
Davina laughed. “As long as I am here,” she said, her voice no longer her own, “he will always have passage.”
Jared stepped forward, like a predator closing in. “Then let us unmake your door.”
He moved faster than the eye could track, one hand pressing against her chest, the other stretching, thinning, the fingers bending and twisting until they looked wrong. They snaked forward, spectral and sharp, sliding into her open mouth.
Davina’s back hit the wall with a violent crack. Her eyes rolled white, her body jerking as Jared began to pull.
The sound that came out was inhuman a deep, dragging growl followed by a thousand whispers all screaming at once. A dark mist started to pour from her throat, thick as tar, whipping and thrashing as it took form.
The lights flickered violently, the room pulsing between darkness and light.
Barnaby ducked, shielding his head. “What the fuck is that?”
Davina was sliding down the wall, gasping for breath. Corey didn’t think, he bolted across the room, grabbing her just before she hit the floor. He lifted her effortlessly and sprinted back to Barnaby’s side.
Jared was holding this entity in his hands. The entity was long and serpentine, it twisted and struggled to break free from Jared's grip, screeching in a tone that clawed the inside of their skulls.
Lucy’s right hand burned suddenly, hot as fire. She gasped as the light burst from her palm, not white, not gold, but violet, bright and alive, taking shape into a blade of pure energy.
Jared’s head snapped toward her. “Cut it. Now!” he commanded. Lucy didn’t hesitate.
She swung the blade in a clean arc.
The sword sliced straight through the centre of the entity. The sound was deafening. It convulsed, split apart, and then it was, gone.
The lights flickered back on.
Davina lay motionless but breathing. Corey set her down gently, brushing her hair from her face.
Everyone stood in stunned silence; the only sound was their collective breathing.
Jared straightened, his expression unreadable. The faint glow faded from his eyes. “Now,” he said quietly, “we wait.”
He turned slowly to Lucy, studying her. “But first, you and I need to talk.”
The room suddenly felt colder.
Lucy swallowed. “About what?”
“About you.”
He stepped closer, voice lowering to a whisper that curled against her mind. “There are not many who can forge light from instinct. I am intrigued.”
Chapter 10
Lucy and Jared left the room to talk, the conversation got going before they even reached the dining room.
He chuckled quietly. “You know, I’ve never witnessed your kind before, not in all my years.
But I’ve heard the stories that were told among the higher orders and the seers.
Beings of balance. Light and shadow in one vessel.
” He tilted his head, eyes narrowing slightly. “But I never believed it was real.”
Lucy frowned. “What exactly have you heard?”
“That your kind were the ones who stood between realms when the first wars began,” he said, stepping closer. “The only ones who could bridge the energy of heaven and hell without burning alive. You shouldn’t exist and yet here you stand.”
Lucy let out a small breath, unsure whether to laugh or be afraid. “And what does that make me? A miracle or a mistake?”
Jared’s lips curved faintly. “Maybe both. But that’s what makes you dangerous. Power like yours doesn’t follow rules.”
“Neither do I,” she said quietly.
Their eyes held for a moment a silent exchange of understanding. There was no threat between them, only curiosity, and something like respect.
Jared nodded toward her hands. “When you forged that weapon earlier, you didn’t summon it, did you? It just came to you.”
Lucy nodded slowly. “It did. It was instinct. Like I didn’t need to think, I just… reacted.”
He smiled. “That’s what they used to call soul magic. The rarest kind. Power that answers emotion. It’s beautiful.”
For a while, neither of them spoke. The silence between them wasn’t awkward. It was full of thought and unspoken things.
A loud moan broke the quiet.
Davina. They both entered the room Davina was laying in, she was stirring, her fingers twitching.
Her eyes opened but the confusion they displayed, you could tell she was disorientated.
Her body convulsed, every muscle tense. She clutched her head and screamed as flashes of her past assaulted her, images, faces, pain.
The lights flickered once more, reacting to the flood of emotion.
Lucy reached forward but Jared raised a hand. “Don’t touch her. Her memories are overwhelming her, I’ll try my hardest to slow them down.”
He placed his palm over her forehead and whispered softly, his voice steady and rhythmic. Gradually, Davina’s thrashing eased. Her breathing slowed. The lights steadied.
When it was over, she lay still for a long while, chest rising and falling in uneven breaths. Then, slowly, she sat up and looked around the room. Her eyes locked onto Lucy’s first.
Without a word, she threw her arms around her. “Thank you,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “You freed me.”
Lucy hugged her back gently, tears stinging her eyes though she didn’t fully understand why.
Davina pulled away and looked at each of them in turn. “I remember everything,” she said, her voice trembling but sure. “All of it.”
She took a deep breath and spoke. “I am Dark Fae.”
Corey shifted in his seat but didn’t move closer. Davina noticed, her gaze softened. “Not evil,” she said quickly. “I use dark magic, yes, but it isn’t what you think. I’ve never hurt anyone.”
Barnaby leaned forward, curiosity overcoming fear. “Then why were you… subdued?”
Davina’s expression broke. “Because I loved someone I shouldn’t have.”
The words came in a torrent, each one heavier than the last.