by LJ Swallow
I waver in my control over Anastasia as Andrei crumples to the ground and his mother appears beside him. Tobias rushes forward and she springs out of the way. "Fire won’t kill me and neither will you," she mocks. "And you?" She kicks the prone Andrei. "My blood-born son who had such promise. Such power at his fingertips, who refuses to listen to the part of me pulsing through him."
With each assault against Andrei, my hold on Anastasia weakens as I instinctively want to drop her and attack Gabriella instead.
As Tobias lunges again, Gabriella holds out a hand and he staggers as if she punched him in the head. “Let Anastasia go, little witch,” she says as her lips and mouth pull back, and her face takes on a frightening, inhuman shape, cheeks sinking and nose flattening.
“No. Let Andrei go.” The words are from Anastasia’s mouth but they’re mine.
“You want him gone?” she asks. “Done.”
I scream out as Gabriella takes hold of Andrei and rips into his throat, and my mind’s tie to Anastasia’s loosens to a thread. Tobias seizes Gabriella by the hair and yanks her head back. She laughs up at him as blood spills from her mouth and drops Andrei to the floor.
"No!" I scream out, but from my mouth not Anastasia’s, as Andrei lies with his hand at his neck, not moving. Anastasia breaks free of my mind control and I'm slammed onto the cavern floor. My head cracks against the stone and I struggle to move, twisting my head to look at them.
Tobias stands, fingers dug into his hair as he looks between me and Andrei, and I choke out a sob as he’s thrown backwards by magic, landing at the edge of the pit.
Jamie, I need you. Please be okay. I close my eyes and reach out to him, attempting to project myself to the image I have of him lying in the tunnel nearby. Jamie.
Tears build as I look at the two prone guys, and a sneering Gabriella approaches Tobias. He scrambles onto his hands and knees and as she reaches out to push him, he seizes her legs before standing.
"Maeve, run," he croaks out as he pushes Gabriella's legs from under her.
Gabriella’s on the floor at the edge of the pit for moments only before she’s on her feet. Tobias moves towards her again, but she slams a hand into his chest. "I should rip your heart out," she snarls. “Or maybe hers.”
With a guttural noise, Tobias takes hold of Gabriella around the neck before backing her closer to the pit. “Or maybe yours. You can’t die? I can maim you.”
She gasps and drags her nails across his hands, leaving bloodied slash marks along them. I don't believe that nobody can kill Gabriella—if she moves into that pit, she'd never come out.
Or would she emerge stronger?
Anastasia’s face, blurred through my tears, appears above mine. “Come with me, Maeve," she cajoles. "That way, you'll survive. You heard what Gabriella will do to you."
“I’ll kill you!” I scream and kick out at her. “I’ll kill you both!”
The words project from my mouth and Gabriella looks over her shoulder at me and my chest constricts because she has Tobias on the ground again. "If you kill Anastasia and run, I'll catch you once I’m done with him, little witch."
The flames that grew when my blood spilled now lick the edges of the pit and I'm too shocked to shout out as they reach the edge close to Gabriella and Tobias. The rumbling joins the growing flames and I shrink back.
"What the fuck?" yells Gabriella, holding Tobias to the ground. "Why is there a fire this high?” she shouts. “Why is Maeve’s blood doing this?”
“Maybe we made a mistake by using Maeve’s blood on the pit,” says Anastasia lightly. “Her blood could cause problems, perhaps trigger some unwanted magic, and the First might remain trapped.”
Gabriella screams in fury. “Did you know?”
Anastasia arches a brow. “Do you think we’d give you more power, Gabriella?”
She wants your blood. A memory of the words echo, and I retreat into a new numb place. Did Theodora know too and wanted my blood to trigger something to seal the pit? She didn’t care about the academy anymore—keeping the First out of the world meant taking lives. Was April the first to die, or have others?
Tobias snatches a chance to attack Gabriella, but her furious scream pierces the air as she backhands him with enough strength to send him to the ground again. “Did you hope to trap me here, Anastasia? Take my crown? You must have a death wish.” Gabriella sneers.
Gabriella advances on Anastasia and I scramble backwards as she approaches, and my stomach turns over as Andrei’s blood covers her mocking face. “There's a very specific way to destroy me and none of you can—including you, Winterfall witch. Not that you’ll get the chance.”
As she reaches out to me, Tobias’s figure blurs with hers and they crash to the cavern floor. “No!” he yells.
My back drags along the floor as Anastasia tugs me towards her. “We leave. Now.” Pulling a small knife from her pocket, she holds the blade over her palm; I know exactly what she plans to do. I squeeze my bleeding hand into a fist as the heartbeat grows.
A noise unlike anything I’ve heard fills the cavern and I look to the pit, terrified that whatever roars that loudly could emerge at any moment. I see Tobias leaning over Gabriella, breath laboured and blood streaking his hands and face; she grips her head against his mental assault and battles his fading energy.
There’s nothing else near them, no First emerging, but the flames threaten to spill into the cavern and the rumbling intensifies.
Anastasia’s knife clatters to the ground and she screams as she’s torn away from me and shoved against the wall by a large figure.
“Get the fuck off Maeve!”
Ash.
He's shirtless, covered in blood, and golden scales shine in patches across his back. He’s taller and broader than when I saw him outside, and the hands holding Anastasia are paw-like with talons half as long as her knife. When he turns his head to check on me, I see golden scales on his cheeks that match those on his hands. The partial shift and reptilian change in Ash's eyes isn't what frightens me, but his aura. He’s filled with uncontrolled hatred and grief.
"Are you the one who killed my brother and created a monster?” he asks in a rasping voice.
She sneers up at him, but I sense her fear. “Oh, perfect," she rasps out. "Another shifter for my necromancer friends."
"Did you?" screams Ash.
"Yes," she spits.
The same roar fills the cavern, coming from Ash as he pulls his arm back before striking. The moment his talons rip into her chest, I turn my head to the cavern entrance and hold my hands over my ears, unable to hear or see more horror tonight.
I blink and Jamie comes into focus, standing by the entrance. He crosses to me in seconds, and I want to laugh and cry at the same time as I grab his hand. He heard me?
“How?” shouts out Gabriella. “Theodora slammed you with enough mental magic to knock you out for days.”
"Bonded witches are hard to take down—just ask the two taking down your shifter army right now."
"What?" she shrieks.
"Maeve, look at me." Jamie takes my face in both hands and forces me to look into his eyes. "We need to leave."
"I can't," I choke out. "Not without Andrei. Tobias."
"Ash!" calls Jamie without looking around. "Bring Andrei here."
I place my palms on the shaking ground and the edge of the pit crumbles close to where Tobias and Gabriella struggle.
I have her. Go.
Oh God, no. No, Tobias.
I can barely look at Andrei as Ash drops him beside me like a rag doll. He’s pale and his neck and shirt are covered in blood seeping onto the cavern floor. How much blood can vampires lose and survive? Ash lifts Andrei’s hand and slashes his palm with his bloodied claws, and then his own.
Shaking, I watch as Jamie huddles forward on the ground, blocking himself from view. He sits back and drags my bleeding hand towards a circle of blood-painted runes on the ground. "Blackwood spell,” he whispers. “We're leaving. Now.”
"No. Help Tobias first," I breathe out.
Rocks above us rain down as the cave begins to collapse into itself. “Don’t you dare take her!” screeches Gabriella as she struggles from Tobias’s grasp. Dust from crumbling stone creates a cloud between us, and Tobias and Gabriella. He kneels on her chest, hands around her neck. She flails her arms in furious desperation, weakening as he consumes her energy.
Gabriella underestimated Tobias’s hybrid strength.
"Tobias!"
I call his name in desperation, but his fate doesn’t depend on what anybody says or does right now—the Winterfall curse holds Tobias in the moment. I gasp out sobs as Jamie places my shaking hand in the centre of the circle, Ash and him pressing mine and Andrei's hard against the shifting floor.
“Don’t leave Tobias,” I scream at Jamie, but he dips his head.
A fissure opens, spreading towards us from the maw, and I meet Tobias’s eyes through the cloud of dust.
He nods at me. I love you. Stay safe. Be happy.
Tobias and the cavern blurs behind my tears and from the oncoming spell. Falling rock bounces off my back and the fissure splits the cavern floor into two, moving closer to us.
Too late. We’ll all die.
But the Winterfall magic will no longer exist, and the pit will be sealed.
Chapter Sixty-Six
MAEVE
“Maeve.”
My eyelids flicker open and closed at my name, but I don’t want to wake up yet.
Too tired.
“Maeve!” The worried voice becomes more urgent, and cool hands touch my face.
“How is she?” asks another.
Suddenly aware I’m not in my bed but lying on cold ground, I open my eyes. Jamie kneels beside me, blood smeared on his face, breathing heavily. We’re somewhere dark. Outside. My head whooshes as I attempt to sit.
Jamie’s shoulders slump in relief. “How badly are you hurt? Can you move?”
“What?” But at his words, my skin stings and I lower my eyes to my bloodied arms.
I’m knocked back to the ground as the last few hours scream through my head like the worst kind of horror movie, with the hardest hit from the last image.
Tobias.
As Jamie kisses my face and puts a hand on my knee, I look around. Close by, Ash leans over another figure on the ground. Andrei.
The pain from the fight is nothing compared to the agony that rips through my heart when I see who’s missing. No. I curl up in a ball as the disorientation from Jamie's spell leaves, replaced by something worse.
Tobias isn't with us.
Gasping, I roll over in the damp grass and stare upwards at the breaking dawn. "Is he dead?" I say to Jamie whose now hand clasps mine. "Is Andrei dead?"
"No. He's bad, though." Panicking, I push myself up and look to where Ash sits back on his haunches. He’s almost back to normal, with only a few scales on his hands and back, but his strange yellow eyes shine at me. The Ash who once terrified me, the one who I pleaded with him not to become, is the one who saved me.
The shifter who killed.
"How bad?" I crawl towards him. Andrei's normally pale skin is paper thin and his lips blue. Veins stand out across his face and he's barely breathing. "What do we do?"
"I've stemmed the bleeding," he says. "And—"
I shove him out of the way and run my hands through my hair as I stare down at Andrei. His energy has faded; Andrei feels like Nikolai shortly before he died.
"Andrei." I touch his chest and the blood-soaked T-shirt is damp against my hand. "Vampires heal, right? I once saw To—" My voice cracks. "I saw Tobias pull a bullet from his arm the night the hunters attacked us."
"That was just a bullet, Maeve," says Jamie softly. “Andrei’s badly hurt. He won’t heal as quickly.”
“But he’ll be okay?” I urge. Their silence sickens me as much as Andrei’s blood on my hands. "No! I can't lose them both," I shout. "Andrei won't die!"
Ash glances upwards and wipes a palm down his face. “No. He won’t die, but he’s vulnerable until he heals. We need to take him into the house."
House.
Where are we?
I turn to where Ash looks. Tall metal poles glint in the dark and when I squint, I spot wooden platforms too. Scaffolding.
"The Winterfall house?" I ask. "Why bring us here?"
"Because the place is still warded against unwanted guests," Jamie says hoarsely. "I know people will look for us, but we're safe here."
Safe. When are we ever safe?
I'm unaware I'm crying until Ash kneels and wipes his thumbs across my cheeks. The scales on his hands have disappeared but, like me, he's covered in blood. "Everything will be okay, Maeve. We’re here. Together.”
But not all of us.
I choke out more sobs and Ash engulfs me in his arms. He holds me to his bare chest for a minute before whispering something to Jamie. He moves and Jamie's arms surround me instead.
No. I don't have time for weakness.
"Help Andrei," I say, voice muffled against Jamie’s shirt.
“First we find somewhere safe Andrei can stay once day breaks.”
Jamie helps me to stand and the ground lurches, so I cling to him. Ash carries Andrei’s limp figure from the lawn towards the house and he’s halfway to the door before we unsteadily follow.
"Where’s Tobias?" I whisper to Jamie, hardly wanting to ask.
“I don’t know.”
Jamie wraps an arm around my waist to support me as I stagger, weakened by shock, the way he did the day Tobias told me the truth about my family. On that day, I hated Tobias and never wanted to see him again.
But now, all I want is to see Tobias’s face.
To see him alive.
Jamie makes a comment about the house now having doors to lock out nosey witches, but nobody responds. Still mid-renovation, there’s no power to the front of the house and only a little moonlight shines through the entrance into the hallways. With witchlight, we scout around the lower floor looking for a room with a door, carefully avoiding the areas with ceilings propped up and staying away from the room the murders took place.
I spot a door and almost trip over paint tins stacked in a corner beside decorating tools as I rush towards it. The room is small, with takeaway coffee cups and fast food wrappers left behind on a paint-stained coffee table. There’s a beaten-up dark fabric sofa where Ash sets Andrei down. Andrei’s arm falls to dangle over the edge and I stand with my hand over my mouth as I watch Jamie sit beside him. Andrei doesn't flinch when he touches the wound.
"Andrei isn’t bleeding anymore, but he isn't healing as quickly as he should." Jamie chews on a thumbnail.
"Because of the blood loss?" I ask. "Can we get Andrei to a hospital? Alaric took you after a vampire attack."
"Maybe," says Jamie, and he looks at Ash, who shrugs. "But we're too far from one that would have supernatural doctors—they're only in bigger city hospitals. That’s too far."
"You'd let him die?" I gasp.
"No. That isn't what I said, Maeve. We’d never find our way to one and get out before dawn."
Moonlight shines through a small window. Dawn. "There's no curtain. Cover the window before the sun rises. There were sheets beside the paint tins.”
Jamie stands to leave and I immediately take his spot. I whisper Andrei’s name and brush my lips against his as I stroke his forehead. He’s clammy and his lips cool, but every breath Andrei takes is one further away from death. My hope soars as he mumbles something, but I can't catch the words.
“What if I gave him some of my blood, Ash?” I ask.
He looks at me as if I punched him in the face. “Do what? I don’t know much, but I do know offering witch blood to a badly injured vamp isn’t smart. No.”
“Andrei can control himself.” I take his hand and stroke the back. Doesn’t Ash understand? I can’t lose Andrei too.
“How do you know?” Ash’s mouth falls open. “Maeve! How many times ha
s he taken your blood?”
“Once and I’m fine. He didn’t attack me.”
“Fuck.” Ash swipes a hand across the top of his head. “Maeve. He’s injured. Andrei’s instinct might take over.”
“You’re here.”
His mouth drops open again. “I can’t watch Andrei taking your blood! I don’t know how I’d react,” says Ash. “The dragon is close to the surface still.”
I meet his eyes. “You shifted.”
“Partially. I fought against changing, but Vincent…" He trails off. “What he did. The things I saw.”
Andrei isn’t the only one I need to worry about. I hold out my other hand and Ash takes hold before sitting beside me, the three of us cramped onto the sofa. If I try hard, I can block the carnage at the academy from my mind the way I would after a nightmare.
But that wasn’t a nightmare.
How many died?
I rub my thumb against a solitary gold scale on the back of his hand. “Are you hurt?”
“A bit. I healed, I think.” He touches his chest and looks down. “Vince broke my ribs. I should be in pain.”
My mouth dries at the name. “Did you kill Vincent?” He nods. “The storm. Amelia?”
“Yeah, and Matt. They saved lives.”
“What else happened?”
Ash presses his lips together and closes his eyes and I back off my questioning and wrap my arms around him instead. The door opens and Jamie walks in with a large sheet bunched in his arms and a hammer in one hand.
“I found nails. Will that hold the sheet?” Ash side-glances me and Jamie frowns. “What’s happening? Is Andrei worse?”
Unsure what to say to the guy who’d loudly disapprove if I told him my plan, I shake my head and stroke Andrei’s brow before softly kissing him again.
Andrei mumbles again and his hand moves upwards and his fingers weakly curl around the back of my neck. I kiss him again, softly, touching his ashen face.
“Maeve wants to give Andrei her blood,” says Ash quietly.
“No!”
I tense at the response I expected. “You said he’s lost a lot of blood." I swallow and look to Ash, now standing with his hands dug into his hair, eyes wide, freaked out.
