60. Cori
Cori
S now swirled around Enzo as he lifted the sword again and stabbed Calvin’s headless body through the heart.
Her voice was frozen in her throat as the crowd of people around them jumped to their feet, yelling to one another. Someone screamed, followed by the angry voice of a man.
“Kill her!”
Enzo’s eyes darted back toward the crowd as he yelled into the wind. “Cori, get behind me,” he commanded. He raised the sword again with his right hand as an orb of red light encircled his left.
The crowd advanced upon them as Enzo struck back, using the magic from his left hand to stun those who came near them and the sword in his right to strike them down. Cori racked her brain for the defensive spells she had been taught as a young girl.
She shouted the incantations as she directed a stream of magic at the angry mob moving toward her, knocking them onto their backs with the force of the spell.
They were helplessly outnumbered, and panic gripped her as she and Enzo became separated. She spotted a small stone structure not far behind them, and her Eye practically pleaded her to run toward it.
An urgent voice whispered in her ear. Use your gift, Stellina .
“Enzo, this way!” she yelled as she started to run to the structure.
She stilled midstride as the ground under her feet rumbled. Enzo had caught up to her, his white shirt tainted with blood and his eyes glowing fiercely.
“Do you feel that?” he asked her.
Just as she was about to answer, a torrent of water erupted from the stone structure beside them, gushing into the air forcefully like a geyser.
A well .
She searched the darkness of the surrounding wood, looking for Adrian. She saw him running, accompanied by Seth, their faces with matching expressions of focus as they ran toward the well.
“Cori, get down!” she heard him yell through the rush of water. Through the darkness, she saw his eyes flash, striking blue orbs glowing through the thick night, as he raised his hands, focusing his energy into the sky.
High above them, a cracking sound echoed through the air as the soaring water turned to ice, glistening like crystals from the light of the stars.
“Now!” Seth bellowed from the base of the well.
Light pulsed from Adrian with the intensity of his magic as the ice crystals, sharpened into enormous arrows in the sky, directed themselves down on the advancing crowd, spearing them violently.
Cori screamed as she watched several witches, not more than a few yards away, fall to the ground, impaled by the ice, their blood staining the sparkling snow beneath their feet.
“Who the fuck is that?” Enzo asked her, his eyes wide with shock.
Cori opened her mouth to respond before freezing in fear, her eyes fixed on the house at the bottom of the hill. Dozens of witches had emerged from the house, and they all appeared to be armed.
Not with magical relics but with guns .
Fear gripped her as she watched them pass around rifles as they shouted back and forth, gesturing to where they stood at the top of the hill.
“They need to use human weapons,” she said aloud to herself. “The prophecy has come to be.” Her heart leaped as she checked in with the Earth, her axis already tilting back toward the sun as the moment of the true solstice came and went.
A collective desperation rolled off the angry mob at the bottom of the hill as they marched up to the clearing.
She stood on the top of the hill, rubbing the smooth gold on her bracelet as she focused on the dead ground below her feet. Ground that had seen thousands of human sacrifices. Souls that still walked these grounds. Souls that would now be called to do her bidding.
The surrounding air turned a shimmering gold as magic tore through her, urging the souls from the spirit realm. She felt her mouth moving, but she did not recognize the voice that came out.
“Here on this ground, you were betrayed by the darkness. All those who have betrayed the Covenant will receive no more, and all those who have borrowed from the betrayal will weaken through the Other.”
The Celestial Other.
The magic in the spirit realm. An army of thousands of forms, wisps of light cast upon the shadows of the trees, rose from the ground. The legion of souls advanced upon the Sampson house amid the sounds of screams. They could see them.
Enzo stilled beside her, his face pale. He could see them, too .
In that moment, she understood. She understood why Nonna had saved that bracelet for her. Knew what her father had meant when he had said Enzo was not the only one she could save tonight. Both of them must have seen this moment, must have seen that within her she had this power.
The power to summon the spirits back to this realm.
Prudence’s mouth was agape as she ran to her side, crimson blood smeared on her face. “You did that?”
Cori nodded as the army of spirits walked slowly toward the Samson house. “The ghosts of every sacrifice killed on these grounds. I’ve been watching them since I came here.”
Prudence held her head in her hands in disbelief. “Do you think they can hold them back?”
Enzo shook his head. “They won’t hold for long before they break through and hunt us all down. There’s nowhere to run. According to them, you just stole their magic after I killed their idol. I know these witches. They won’t stop until we’re hanging from these trees.”
The spirits had encircled the crowd, forcing them to retreat into the house. Screams pierced through cool air as the spirits began to advance on the windows and doors.
Cori’s breath caught in her throat as a tall, thin figure approached them from near the well. Fin’s eyes were glowing as an amber wave of passionate fury rolled from his aura. The corner of his lip ticked up with a wicked grin as he ambled toward the bottom of the hill. She called to him, begging him to come back as he trudged into the line of fire.
It was as though he was possessed, pulled by the spirits that had advanced on the house. He stopped midway down the hill, crouching low, touching the ground with his hands as the air crackled with electricity around them. He laughed, the sound hot and menacing in her ear before his lips moved.
Her mouth fell open as tendrils of white-hot flame licked around the foundation of the Sampson house. The Byzantine fire spread with unnatural ease, enveloping the windows and doors of the ancient structure.
Muted screams of the people who were trapped inside echoed through the wood. Along the perimeter of the house, the army of spirits moved in tandem, encircling and trapping the members of the LARC inside.
The trees swayed in a ghostly dance above them as Fin’s hands lifted from the snowy grass. He rose slowly to his feet, cocking his head and raising his arms as the flames intensified. The fire engulfed the wood beneath him as though he were simply turning up the burner of a stove .
Cold air raced through Cori’s chest as the collective energy of the spirits she had summoned in the surrounding woods fled to the spirit realm, finally freed from the sacrificial land where they had been murdered.
Someone urgently grabbed her hand. She looked up at her brother, his eyes wide with shock as the Byzantine fire reflected in them. The fire spread with fury over the floor of the wood, engulfing every structure, tree, and person it encountered.
Sirens wailed in the distance as the Sampson house crumpled into a pile of ash and twisted bone.