Chapter 56 Katarina
I screamed in rage and fear and frustration. Murielle had done something to Roman. I felt it in the bottom of my soul. And when his heart stopped beating, my own tore into a thousand pieces.
Dorian howled. Grim growled. And I let out the best war cry I had in me as I sucked in the power pulsing around the abbey and twisted the spells into weapons.
The first one I focused on was the little old lady holding Aiden in some type of invisible cage.
He was clutching his throat and gasping for air, but at least his heart was still thumping.
We could still save him.
Dorian understood and immediately pounced on the wicked woman.
She screamed as she fell backward, arms waving wildly at her sides as she tried to fight off the wolf.
Teeth snapped and gnashed at her face, but I stopped watching and focused on Aiden instead.
He looked like he was still struggling—like he had no air.
I placed my hand on the invisible wall as tears rolled down my cheeks.
For a brief second, I caught Aiden’s gaze and he simply nodded.
He’d given me permission to pull from him.
If I could siphon his magic out through this cage, I should be able to break through the spell completely. Aiden’s fingers reached toward my hand. We didn’t touch skin, but we were close enough that whoever had built this barrier sorely underestimated our connection.
Dorian yelped and a massive wave of blond fur flew past my head.
That evil woman had thrown a wolf at me.
But she’d missed, and Grim was up next to try and subdue her.
He had her pinned on the ground in no time at all.
I hoped he took notes from Dorian’s battle with her so he didn’t make the same mistakes.
But I had to focus on Aiden, even when a group of witches ran at Dorian and started to attack.
They had rocks and knives in their hands, and I cringed as their arms crashed down on him over and over.
Roman was also covered in a pile of angry, cloaked coven members.
One of them was Murielle, and when she saw my panicked face, she smirked.
But Aiden.
Focus on him right now.
I closed my eyes and pictured the magic I could steal from him.
It took a few moments before we connected.
But when we did, it rolled toward me in waves of blue vines like it belonged to me all along.
The invisible barrier didn’t stop the power from filling me up whole.
I sucked it in, loving the way it made me feel and, for a moment, forgetting what was happening all around me.
I had so much power now.
Grim shrieked in horror—the absolute worst sound imaginable. I snapped my head down to the ground, only to see him collapse on top of the tiny woman. She wiggled underneath my dog, eventually rolling him to the side so she could stand. And when she pulled the knife out of his belly, I screamed.
She immediately turned to me and licked the bloodied knife like it was her lover. I flung out my arm and knocked that knife right out of her hand without a second thought. The magic flowed in me, and I used that to aid my next attack.
But the woman disappeared. Just like Aiden, she’d teleported somewhere else.
She wasn’t a witch.
“Kitty Cat,” Aiden gritted out, his face turning blue from the lack of oxygen.
I looked down at Grim, unmoving and bleeding too much.
I glanced to my side at Dorian, who was back on his feet and holding the witches at bay in a circle, but his fur was matted in blood and he wouldn’t put any weight on his right front foot.
His teeth snapped and snarled while they played with him.
And where was Roman? I couldn’t see him anymore and I couldn’t feel him through our bond either. No, no, no. Not Roman.
“Kat,” Aiden collapsed to the ground.
“Shit,” I muttered. Focusing again on the invisible bubble holding Aiden in place, I searched for the spell. Finally finding it in the air, I quickly realized this wasn’t any ordinary spell. This one came from… someone else.
But I could still see it.
And if I could see it, I could break it.
Placing my palms against the barrier again, I took two deep breaths and tried to match the magic from Aiden to the magic trapping him inside.
It didn’t happen right away, but after several deep breaths, I felt it click into place.
The frequency of both melding together as one.
My blue haze trickled over the black foggy spell, hissing each time it touched the dark power.
Slowly, my magic erased the other one, and as soon as the barrier dropped, Aiden sucked in a deep, hoarse breath.
He immediately pushed up to his hands and knees, coughing as he did. “What are you doing?” I asked.
“I have to find her,” he panted.
“Who? The woman who trapped you?”
He nodded. “Yes. My sister.”
“Your what—”
He was gone for just a moment before reappearing back in front of me.
He ripped the arrows out of his chest and thigh with little more than a whimper.
“Shit,” he muttered. “What the fuck is wrong with me?” Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. “I’m so sorry.”
Reaching out, I squeezed his hand. “You’re here. We need to focus on the now.”
But then I looked down at Grim… like really looked at him.
I slid to the ground next to my boy and started to sob.
His body had been broken in several places, the knife wound most likely going to be the lethal blow.
No, Grim couldn’t die. Not like this. Dorian yelped again, and I spun around in time to see him take a hard hit to the head.
That was it! I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Stop!” I shouted into the air, pulling every ounce of magic I could into me.
Aiden laid his hand on my shoulder and I felt his fire magic throw itself into my command.
The burning building crackled in front of me.
Embers scattered into the sky. And the ten or so witches surrounding Dorian froze a few seconds before their terrifying screams pierced the night air.
Thrashing their arms around and trying to rip off their clothes, one moment they were suffering unimaginable pain, and the next they were frozen to the ground.
No, not frozen.
They’d turned into statues of ash, the reds and oranges of the flames still glowing from their insides like an ember.
They’d been killed.
By me.
One by one, as the remains of their lifeless bodies collapsed to the ground in a pile of ash, a pang of guilt rang through my bones.
How had I done that? I must have pulled more than just their magic into me.
I’d taken their lives and their power until there was nothing left.
And then I burned them from the inside out in an instant.
I knew I would mourn this day and what I’d done, but they’d brought this on themselves. I’d be damned if I was going to let my guilt cost all of us our lives.
Grim moaned and I sucked in a breath, honestly surprised he was still breathing.
“Buddy,” I whispered in his ear, dropping to his side again.
“Hang in there. I’ll come back for you soon.
” I kissed the top of his head and let the tears fall.
Dorian limped over to me and nudged my side.
Aiden helped me up and gave me a curt nod. We needed to finish this.
Yes, I was tired of the destruction Murielle’s greed had brought upon us and I wanted my family to be free of coven’s threats. I wanted us to be happy and enjoy this new life together.
It was time to end this.
We ran toward Roman and the hoard of Murielle’s witches, watching them redirect their spells toward us.
It all seemed to happen in slow motion. Roman lay face first on the ground at Murielle’s feet while she commanded her coven.
Aiden blinked in and out of existence, killing one witch at a time with a snap of their neck.
And Dorian easily dodged the lethal spells being thrown in his direction.
But when Murielle stretched her arms out wide and the air rippled around us, as if readying for another explosion, I wondered if this would be the last decision we ever made.