She didn’t meet my eyes. She just shoved her hand further inside her body, searching for the heart.
“I-I can’t.” She choked. “F-f-find it.”
Jace knew that no matter how deep she went that she would never reach it.
I slowly knelt beside her.
“You have to stop, Ana. You can’t remove it. Only a witch can.” I confessed.
I didn’t want to tell her, but I knew she would kill herself trying if I didn’t. She halted, and her eyes shot up to meet mine. Before she even spoke, I knew what she was going to say.
“If that’s true, then you can take it out.”
I didn’t know how to respond. Removing it could kill her, and that was a risk I wasn’t willing to take. But with the way her electric eyes held me captive, I knew I also couldn’t flat out deny her request for help.
“Please Jace.” She continued. “Help me. If you have any love left for me, please…”
Her words stuck me like a slap in the face. Everything I did was because I loved her. All I had was my love for her. A part of me was angry that she would say that and go through all of this for another man. Another part of me wanted to give her everything she wanted just to see her smile again.
Maybe there was a way I could make her think I was helping her without actually putting her in real danger.
“Okay.” He sighed.
I instructed her to lay flat and then picked up the blade she’d just used to cut herself. I sliced it across my hand, watching the blood pool in my palm. Ana watched me with hopeful eyes. I dipped my finger in the blood and used it to draw a circle with a dot in the middle of her chest to symbolize the spirit. Her crystal heart was bound to her soul which was why she would never be able to simply pull it out.
“Crido el poder del pur (I call on the power of the pure).” He began. “Revela la vostra glòria (Reveal your glory to me).”
The words flowed from me like they were hardwired into brain. I knew exactly what to say. A glow began to appear under her chest. It was soft like morning light. Slowly, it drew closer and closer to the surface until finally it broke it free.
“Is that it?” Ana asked, staring at the now blue glowing orb floating above her.
I couldn’t speak. I could only gawk at the enchanting beauty of it. It was only the size of a baseball,l but the amount of power it gave off buzzed around me like a million bees. It drew me in, made me want it for himself.
Everything around me disappeared.
It was only me and the heart.
I had to have it.
A hard slap to the face drew me out of my trance.
“Jace! Snap out of it!” Ana yelled.
“You-you didn’t hear it?” I asked, confused.
“Hear what?” Ana replied.
I was about to tell her when she cut me off. “It doesn’t matter. Just transfer the heart to Seb now!”
Ana had Seb’s head cradled in her lap. I never even saw her move. I looked back at the orb. Its power was still humming.
Still calling…
It was too powerful.
There was a reason this type of power was limited. It was only for those pure enough to withstand it.
Those who weren’t would be controlled by it.
“That belongs to me.”
A deep mixture of voices interrupted my internal thoughts.
I felt it before I looked up to confirm it. I felt the sticky hands on my skin, the screeching voices of madness. I felt the presence of death. When my eyes did meet the voice, fear at what I saw had me scrambling back.
It was Ferox. Only, he wasn’t just Ferox any longer.
The King had transformed into something made of nightmares; something that only true dark magic was capable of.
His body looked to be made of darkness. It drifted off him in black smoke and green sparks. The King’s face was a grotesque skeleton with deep sunken eyes. The dark magic lit his insides like a furnace. Two large bones soared from his head like horns with tips that reached out, grabbing the empty air like skeletal fingers.
His massive figure drew closer, and I involuntarily drew back. Ana was shouting something at me, but I couldn’t hear her. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the King. I knew dark magic could manipulate, but I’d never seen it this powerful. I’d never seen someone take darkness into themselves like this.
I was staring at dolente; darkness personified.
“JACE!” Ana screamed.
I tore his eyes from Ferox, and when I saw Ana, I was in awe. She stood protectively in front of him and Seb, glowing like a star. Kinetic energy cocooned her in angry spirals. She looked fierce and strong, not an ounce of fear showed in her face even though she was preparing to fight a monster. Wind and rain started to blow so hard, I could barely see. Thunder and lightning followed.
“No matter what happens, promise me you’ll give the heart to Seb! Save Seb!” Ana demanded. I knew he couldn’t tell her no so I nodded.
Ana smiled. Bolts flashed through her eyes as she turned to face Ferox. “I’m coming for you, you ugly son of a bitch!”
She charged so fast, she left streaks of blue drifting behind her.
I glanced at Seb. His lips were starting to turn blue, and his skin was eerily pale. The heart still floated in the air. Ana told me to save Seb by using the heart, but I knew that would be impossible. The spell I cast was only for the heart to reveal itself. What hovered in the air now was nothing but a representation of the power that still lay within Ana; a power she would need to defeat whatever the hell Ferox had become.
“Descans.” He whispered into the glowing orb, and slowly, it disappeared.
I faced Seb again. I could still honor Ana’s request and save her chosen mate the same way I saved Simon, but how would that help me win her love? If Seb were alive, Ana would be with Seb, not me. With the wolf out of the way, I would be all she had left.
Therefore, the wolf would remain dead.
I’d tell Ana I did all I could to save him and be the shoulder for her to cry on.
A smile spread across my face.
I would finally have Ana all to myself.
I placed my eyes across the field to see my love.
She was in a battle with the King, and she was not winning.
I knew he could help her by drawing some of the darkness possessing the King away. Darkness loved power, and what was more powerful than the descendant of Hildegarde back from the dead?
A bad feeling came over me.
Calling to the dark never ended well for light witches.
But I didn’t have a choice.
Ana wouldn’t be able to defeat Ferox while I was protected by darkness.
I just had to draw it away long enough for her to kill the King without letting the darkness inside me.
I dripped blood from the cut on my hand onto the grass.
I closed my eyes and began my chant to the dark.
***
Ana
The only word I could use to describe the monstrosity in front of me was demon. I never believed demons existed, but looking at the King now, with his glowing hollow eyes and horns, I knew I was wrong.
I swallowed every bit of fear, and threw all I had at him. Bolts flowed from my hands and the sky. I had to use all the energy I could summon to kill him before Jace completed the spell and gave Seb my heart. I was not going to die without taking this bastard with me.
But something was wrong.
Ferox wasn’t disintegrating or even screaming. He was laughing. His sinister laugh of a thousand voices filled the air while I pushed more energy into him. It was as if he enjoyed it. Then, I noticed something that froze me. His skin was moving as if objects were crawling underneath it. No, not objects but faces. Horrific faces without eyes or noses with mouths open in screams covered him. They weaved in and out of his abdomen as if trying to escape but never making it. They consumed the bolts I threw at him like starving dogs. The more energy I gave him the more faces came to the surfac
e, spreading all over him from head to toe. They were feeding off of my power and making Ferox stronger and bigger. He’d grown at least ten feet since I began my attack.
“MORE!” He roared when he realized I’d stopped fighting.
I couldn’t give him more energy.
Then how the hell do I kill him?
I thought about hand to hand combat but that was quickly dismissed. His size alone put me at a huge disadvantage. Unfortunately, he wasn’t going to wait around while I thought it through. The King rushed to me full speed, his steps heavy enough to shake the ground. I had no time to think, but I knew I couldn’t feed him more energy. Right before he reached me, I threw up a shield that he crashed into hard. The force of him hitting it reverberated through my bones so fiercely, I nearly lost control of it.
He backed up a few steps and slammed his shoulder into it again and again. Every time he made contact, hundreds of those hideous faces would come out chomping against it, searching for something to sink their rotten teeth into. It was taking more strength to hold my shield. I needed a new plan.
Fast.
Ferox slammed his massive body into my protection again, and this time I slipped. A crack allowed enough space for one of the faces to slither through and bite into my leg. I howled in pain. It was more than just a bite. It was as if it were inside my skin, eating into my flesh. I couldn’t get it off. If I tried, I’d break my concentration on the shield, and that was the only thing keeping Ferox at bay. I dropped to one knee, the pain in my left leg too great to hold me up as the shadow monster ate into me. I was losing this battle, and my brain couldn’t come up with a way to save myself.
The King drove himself into my shield yet again, and this time it shattered like glass. In a flash, Ferox snatched me with his big sticky hand. He opened his mouth, and for a moment, I thought he was going to swallow me whole.
That would have been better than what actually happened.
His mouth stretched wide, and more shadowy faces than I could count came flying towards me. The feel of the one on my leg was bad enough. The feel of thousands would be unbearable. My hands instinctively shot bolts into them. I knew they fed on power, but I didn’t care. I just needed to keep them away from me for as long as possible. Ferox squeezed, and I cried out but didn’t let the pain stop me.
I was sure there were a million ways he could kill me, but trying to kill me this way was just for the entertainment of it.
I needed to draw more energy in to defend myself, but stopping for even a moment would give these hideous things that chance consume me.
Then, suddenly, a bit of luck came my way.
They retreated back into his mouth.
Ferox then dropped me.
The King stumbled, grabbed his head and began screaming. The faces under his skin became clearer and had pressed more to the surface of his skin, chewing their way through. The shock of seeing them burst out of him made me jump. They erupted from all over his body, including his neck. Outside, they looked even worse. They weren’t fully formed bodies but skeletons covered in what looked like black tar. Most were missing limbs or their bottom half entirely and used their teeth to pull them along the grass. I didn’t know what was happening, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t because of me. They slithered along the ground, slow and uncoordinated, moaning and screaming. They were headed in the same direction, but it wasn’t towards me. They were headed in the direction of Jace.
He stood across the field with his eyes closed and lips moving. He was doing something to draw them away from the King. I turned back to Ferox and could tell it was working. The more the shadows crawled out, the more the King began to look like himself and less like demon.
Jace was giving me a chance to kill him.
And I certainly wasn’t going to waste it.
It was time to give him all I got and end this.
I pulled all my power and threw it into the sky. Lighting struck all around me. I spun with my hands up, creating a funnel of lightning. The whirl spun vast and wide, growing from the clouds until it touched down on the field.
I directed the gigantic electric tornado towards Ferox and it swept him up. I dove into the twister after him. Bolts sprang from every direction inside the storm to strike him. The whirlwind of lightning, wind, rain, and dirt spun us high into the sky.
Majority of the darkness had left Ferox and he was weakening with every strike.
It wasn’t happening fast enough for me. I threw myself into him and with all the hatred I had, slammed my hand into his chest. His eyes went wide and everything seemed to still for a moment. I squeezed his heart sending my shocks through it. His whole body lit up like a Christmas tree, and he began convulsing.
“You wanted a heart so bad. Well, eat this.” With those final words, I ripped his heart from his chest and shoved it so far into his mouth that my fist broke through his skull at the back of his head. When I drew my hand back, it looked made of lightning and not like my hand anymore.
I watched the rest of his body get ripped to pieces by the tornado of my own doing.
The King was dead.
It was over.
Slowly, the storm cleared, and I drifted back down to the field.
Before I could breathe a sigh of relief, I had to check on Seb.
I raced across the field to where I left him.
Simon and Marie were there. A moment of joy entered my heart at seeing them, but it faded quickly when I saw the expression on Marie’s face. She was crying, and she was also angry. Seb still lay on the ground, unmoving.
I did a quick scan for Jace, but there was no sign of him.
No, no, no. This couldn’t be right. Where was Jace? Why didn’t he use the crystal heart?
I rushed to Seb’s side, but Marie blocked my path. I’d never seen her look so upset.
“He’s dead, Ana.” She spat. “He’s dead, and it’s your fault.”
“Marie, I…”
“I DON’T WANT TO HEAR YOUR FUCKING EXCUSES! MY BROTHER IS DEAD! HE’S GONE. HE’S GONE, ANA! HE’S GONE, AND HE WAS ALL I HAD, AND YOU TOOK HIM FROM ME!” She dropped to the ground weeping. “He was all I had.”
Simon tried to console her, but she pushed him away. Marie crawled to her brother’s side and stroked his hair and cried.
She was right. Seb’s death was on my hands. He wouldn’t have been here if it wasn’t for me. He gave his life to save mine, and I couldn’t do the same for him.
Tears ran down my face like they would never end.
The grief and guilt were boiling over inside me.
Simon looked at me with sadness. I could tell he wanted to say something, but didn’t know what to say.
Neither did I.
I watched as Marie cried for her brother. Her pain was my doing.
Seb was dead.
He was really gone.
He was dead.
He was dead.
He was dead
The words won’t stop repeating in my brain.
“It should have been you, Ana. I wish you were dead.” Marie whispered without looking at me.
Her words caused me more pain than any of the fighting had done. I fell to my knees, choking on my tears.
I would never forgive myself for this.
I didn’t want to be here anymore.
There wasn’t a place I wanted to be if I couldn’t be with Seb.
I could not exist.
The torture of living without him was unbearable.
The pain inside me was too great to carry.
All was lost.
I deserved to die.
I was vaguely aware that my skin felt like it was on fire.
I didn’t care that the veins in my body didn’t look like veins anymore but actually lightning coursing through me.
Something was happening to me, and I didn’t care enough to stop it.
I encouraged it.
I pushed the fire inside me, forcing it to kill me.
“Ana?” Simon took a step
towards me, looking worried.
I knew he saw something was happening to me.
Again, I didn’t care.
I couldn’t save the person that meant the most to me in this world.
There was nothing left in me now.
I watched my hands slowly break into particles of blue light and drift towards the sky.
I glanced at Seb one final time and whispered I love you before my whole body exploded in a flash a light.
The last thing I heard was Simon screaming my name.
Epilogue
Simon
In a flash of blinding light, I watched my best friend disappear. One minute, she was on the ground sobbing, and the next, boom, she was gone.
Frantically, I searched the field and the sky, but there were no signs of her anywhere.
Not a hair left behind.
“She-she’s gone. Ana is gone.” I panicked, running my hands through my hair.
“Good. I hope she’s dead.” Marie replied coldly. She wept next to her brother, unaffected by what just happened.
“You don’t mean that.” I said.
Marie finally looked at me with swollen tear-filled eyes. “Yes I do. Vampires have destroyed my entire family, and I encouraged my brother to love one, Simon. I convinced myself she was different.”
“She is different.”
“NO! SHE’S NOT! THE RESULT IS THE SAME! VAMPIRES LEAVE NOTHING IN THEIR WAKE BUT DESTRUCTION AND DEATH!” Marie screamed.
She was on her feet now, pacing in front of Seb’s body.
I wanted to defend Ana, but I couldn’t. The girl I’ve fallen for just lost the only family she had and that wasn’t pain anyone should feel. I took a step towards her, but her eyes shot up in a warning not to come near her.
“I’m all alone without him,” she said. “He spent his life protecting me, and I couldn’t protect him. I’m the worst sister in the world. I wasn’t even here when he died.” Her voice cracked and her knees gave out.
“Don’t blame yourself. This isn’t your fault.” I tried to soothe her but failed.
“YES IT IS! But it’s not just my fault, it’s Ana’s and Jace’s and the witches at that damn house who wouldn’t let us leave.” She added, referring to Jace using his magic to send us back to Cora’s and the witches who wouldn’t let us leave.
Pure: A Paranormal Romance Page 68
