Chapter 15 #2
“The love you search for is not in your cards. It doesn’t exist. Just ask your father. He’s been naughty,” she said, and her smile turned into a devilish smirk.
I wasn’t laughing. Had she just insinuated that Dad betrayed Mom?
“You won’t survive if you don’t get the answers, child.”
“Then tell me.”
Cordelia stepped closer, and I took a step back. Her smile made my nerves fray and my blood boil in my veins. Her brown eyes searched mine for an answer. Then she looked me up and down and shook her head.
“Even I don’t have all the answers, Breanna,” she said, and I sucked in a sharp breath at her using my name. “But I’ll be damned.”
Suddenly, her hand shot to my throat, and she grasped it with her supernatural strength. I fought to draw in a breath.
“I’m not going to kill you, Breanna. At least not yet,” she said and released me.
I put my hands on my knees and coughed. She wanted me to realize her advantage over me, that I was at her mercy, and today she’d decided to spare my life. Lucky me.
“Why the change of heart?” I asked after I recovered and straightened up.
She shrugged, her slender shoulders rising and falling.
“I want to see how you turn out,” she said.
“I plan to be a decent human for one,” I said.
Unlike her. I bit the inside of my cheek.
My head would explode with questions, but I doubted Cordelia would divulge information.
Her gaze fell on my bracelet. “First things first, child. Take off the bracelet.”
“I can’t. It doesn’t want to let go of my arm.”
She gave me a duh look. “That’s why you will it to let go. You have to control it.”
“If it was that easy. I don’t know how to turn off the protection spell, Cordelia. You have to understand that.”
“Oh, I understand.” She looked around. “I said I wasn’t going to kill you. But I didn’t say I wouldn’t cut off your arm.”
She bent and picked up a short sword from the ground next to the body of one of Dad’s warriors.
It was one thing to fight the creatures with my daggers and a different thing to face Cordelia holding a sword. The air pulsated with magic as the witch lunged at me.
Cordelia swung the sword above her head. I placed my hands over the two daggers on my thighs. The metallic clung of our weapons echoed around us. I met each swing of her sword with a dodge or with my daggers. Cordelia snarled, her attacks growing more ferocious.
Her thin lips stretched into a menacing grin as she realized my movements were getting slower as I grew tired. She raised her sword, but before she could strike me, a sharp talon pierced the dark witch from the back.
Vampire Torin stood behind her, covered in blue blood from head to toe. He must have fought his way to us.
Cordelia gasped for air, and her limp body fell to the ground.
Was it over? It felt too easy to be true. I stared at her chest, but it wasn’t moving. Blood seeped through a hole in her chest, and a small puddle formed under her body. She lay on her side, unmoving.
Torin kicked away the sword that dropped near her arm. “Just in case.”
He hurried to me, examining my body. He was too focused on whether I was okay while all I could think about was Cordelia. She wasn’t easy to kill.
“Is she dead?” I asked.
“Anna. Anna.” Dad’s voice made me look up.
Hayden supported the King, and when they got to us, Dad attempted to hug me while groaning.
I scanned his body for open wounds, but he had none.
I let out a heavy sigh, and with it, my lungs ached—no, my entire body.
Dad must have broken bones once he hit the marble column, but at least he wasn’t bleeding.
My breathing felt lighter, but my head buzzed, my ears rang, and my stomach churned. After Dad released me, my body swayed without any support, and Torin steadied me by gently grasping my “good” arm. The blood loss and pain made me lightheaded.
“It’s not over,” I mumbled with my remaining energy. My instincts were on full alert, but not for too long. “Cordelia may be dead, but her creatures are still killing our people. There are way too many.”
For the first time, I wished I knew witch spells for making the creatures retreat.
My thoughts surprised me, but somehow, I realized I’d been very comfortable with all witch elements popping up in my life.
The daisy wheel, the books, the weapon. Even Cordelia.
I’d been afraid of her wrath, but at the same time, she felt familiar.
My mind couldn’t be compelled by vampires, just like Cordelia’s couldn’t because she was a witch.
Because I must be one, too. Cordelia had left me alive today to see me become a witch—that was the only explanation I could come up with.
Her comment about Dad popped into my mind, and I frowned while I watched him.
He tensed and said, “What is it, Anna?”
“You’ll find out soon enough, Dad,” I said with a clenched jaw.
He had many questions to answer. Later. I’d only been holding off confronting my father because of Cordelia’s threat over the kingdom, but that was going to be over soon.
Now I had a plan to put an end to the creatures.
I didn’t have much time left as my body slumped and more dizziness took over me.
I turned my back on the three supernatural men and walked to the middle of the marble hall, surrounded by animals and people fighting. Only my determination kept me standing on my feet. I tilted my head and looked at the chandelier. It was still there.
If I was a witch but didn’t know the spells Cordelia used to command the four elements, I could use fire, wind, water, and earth with the witch weapon. The witch athame engraved the pentagram with the four elements, giving it the power to do so.
Not if. The books, bracelet, Cordelia, my mind that couldn’t be compelled, my odd intuition to feel supernatural presences—not coincidences. I was a witch somehow. I might have denied it partially because I didn’t want to believe one or both of my parents would betray me.
My breath hitched, and my fists clenched tight around the daggers. The turmoil in my chest made it hard to breathe.
I threw my head back and screamed. Everything was just too much to bear.
Then I took a deep breath and straightened up.
Focus. It was almost over, and then I would not leave Dad’s bedchambers until he fessed up.
I touched the bracelet, but this time it felt different—more familiar, more alive—as if our life forces had merged.
I felt different—surer of myself. I willed the bracelet, and it immediately extended into the golden magic whip in my hand.
I smiled. It had so much power that it pulsated under my skin. I liked it too much.
I swung the whip up and back and threw it forward as it passed my head. “Earth,” I whispered.
When it hit the marble floor, a boom echoed in the hall, rattling the windows. The marble cracked open, the hole growing wide and deep. The floor's opening covered the entire room’s length, almost wall to wall. It looked like an endless abyss.
Earth. I controlled the earth element with the witch whip. Of course I did.
I was a witch.
The loud sound had gotten everyone’s attention. As if the warriors could read my mind, they fought the creatures and pressured them toward the earth's opening. Some creatures ran away, and some were wounded and pushed into the hole, never climbing back up.
When I turned around, I averted my gaze from the three men. It was better than scowling at them. I was grateful for their protection, but I needed more than that. I needed answers.
I dropped my gaze to the ground and searched for Cordelia’s body. She had fallen on a spot behind my mates.
But her body was gone.