by Sarra Cannon
I could feel more and more of her soul flowing into mine now like a river rushing toward me.
I had to end this before it was too late for all of us.
“What is the meaning of this?” the Mother Crow asked. “Remove that dagger from your throat, or I will make the last moments of your life ones of great pain and suffering.”
“Release me from this curse, or I swear to you, I will kill us both,” I said.
“You’re not capable of that kind of courage,” she said, taking a step closer. She was limping now, her body falling apart in these final hours. “Besides, I can feel the transfer coming now. I control you, Mary Francis. Or do you need me to prove it to you?”
She lifted a decaying hand my way, and to my horror, my arm dropped to my side, as if I were nothing more than a puppet on a string.
“You see. You’re a foolish girl to think you can come here with these threats of yours and challenge my power,” she said. Her eyes darted between the two women at my side. “And you were foolish to come back here. You should have flown as far away as your wings would carry you.”
“I let you take someone I loved away from me once,” my mother said. “I won’t let it happen again.”
“You don’t have a choice in the matter,” the Mother Crow said. “Just like last time, I’m the one with all the power here. I have always had the most power, and as soon as I take Mary Francis’s body for my own, I will be even stronger than you ever could have imagined.”
As she spoke, I steadied my breathing and imagined the void. The orb of light glowing in the darkness.
I pushed my fear aside and let love flow through me, instead.
I wrapped my free hand around the stone that held my father’s spirit and asked him to give me strength to do what had to be done. I felt his sorrow at this request, but a moment later, I felt his energy buzzing through me, amplifying my own power and blocking the Mother Crow’s control.
I took a deep breath and lifted the dagger again to my throat. It took great strength to hold onto the light inside me as I stared death in the face, but love had given me that power. A power someone like the Mother Crow would never have.
“I will give you one last chance to say the words. Release me from this spell or die,” I said. “Any one of these women who you call Favored would gladly lay their lives down for you. Don’t be foolish enough to waste it on me, because I would rather die than let you take my body for your own. That’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. Are you?”
She raised her hand to me again, and I felt her reach inside my soul and try to control me, but I held onto my strength, resisting her with everything I had.
For a moment, I felt her fear. She never expected me to be strong enough to resist. Or strong enough to make the tough choices.
But if I really hoped that she would back down, I had sorely underestimated her desire for vengeance.
Her eyes dipped to my hand as it clutched Solomon’s stone.
She twisted her hand in the air and pulled forward, using her magic to rip the chain from my neck. I lost my grip on the stone, and it clattered to the ground.
My mother stepped forward to grab it, but the Mother Crow sent her flying backward with a simple wave of her hand.
My mother’s screams echoed through the village as her body slammed against one of the stone benches beneath the pavilion. I waited to see her move. Try to get up or fight back. But her body was still and lifeless.
Mary Krista stepped forward, a spell shimmering in her hands, but the Mother Crow wrapped a dark storm of clouds around the witch’s body, bringing her to her knees.
That single moment of distraction allowed the Mother Crow to take control of me again, opening my hand. The Dagger of Truth fell to the ground. I fought against her power to try to find the strength to bend down and pick it up, but without my connection to Solomon, I was growing weaker.
I dropped to my knees, hoping to get closer to the dagger, but I still could not force my hand toward it.
I let go, retreating into my mind once again.
But instead of finding the void, I saw a flash of memories. The Mother Crow being banished from the Order of Shadows. Standing over Harper’s mother, Claire, and slitting her throat with a ritual dagger, laughing as the girl’s blood ran onto the floor of the ritual room. A baby boy on a stone altar, the Mother Crow’s hands reaching toward his heart.
My heart raced, and I cried out, bringing my hands to my head, as if hoping to shut them out, but the memories kept coming, faster than ever before.
Sacrifices. Black roses. So much death.
Scenes flashed before me so quickly, I couldn’t tell one from the next.
I doubled over, fighting for a single memory of my own. Something to anchor me to this moment. To myself.
And it appeared like a dream, distant and unclear.
Rend pulling me closer under the blanket as we sat on the edge of the cliff, the sun flooding the entire valley with golden light.
I latched onto this moment we’d shared just hours earlier, and I pulled it toward me. I closed my eyes and focused only on the way his skin had warmed my own.
I filled my body with that moment. That light.
And then I opened my eyes, knowing that it was time.
This was my last chance. I hoped that spilling my own blood with his dagger would complete the task he’d been given by the Council. I hoped that he would understand the choice I’d had to make.
I reached out and grabbed the Dagger of Truth, putting it to my throat.
The Mother Crow’s eyes widened, and she reached her hand toward me as I prepared to end both our lives with a single motion.
Except that just before my eyes closed, Rend appeared to me like a vision, running up the stairs and shouting for me to stop.
At first, I thought it was a dream. Death’s gift as it claimed me for its own. But when the Mother Crow turned to him as well, I knew that it was not a dream or a gift.
It was my worst nightmare.
He was here, and I had failed us both.
Losing Myself
Franki
“Don’t do this,” he said, running over and dropping onto his knees in front of me.
Tears slid down my face.
“I have to,” I whispered. “You shouldn’t be here, Rend. I don’t want to live in a world without you in it.”
He reached out and took the dagger from my hand.
“I will always be with you,” he said. “But I have lived my life. I hope someday you understand just how much better you have made this life for me. I will not let you die.”
He stood and gave me his hand, helping me up so that I could stand at his side.
The Mother Crow threw her head back and laughed, the sound an echoing cackle that tore my heart into pieces.
“The doting hero arrives,” she said. “Love is so predictable. You’d say it’s your greatest strength, but the truth is, it’s your fatal weakness. Love will end you both. Now, speak, demon. Make your threats.”
Rend shook his head and stepped toward her.
“No threats,” he said. “I want to make a trade.”
The Mother Crow’s eyes widened in surprise. “It’s not often that I’m surprised,” she said. “But what could you possibly have to trade that would mean anything to me?”
I struggled to stay on my feet, every moment that went by bringing me dangerously close to losing myself forever.
“Let Franki go, and take me instead,” he offered. “This is what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it? A demon of your own? I have the spell that can make that happen. If you release her from this spell, I will give my life to you, and you will have the power you always dreamed of. The power of the Order of Shadows.”
The Mother Crow tilted her head, studying him.
“I’ve fallen for that trick once before,” she said. “I won’t fall for it again.”
“It’s no trick,” Rend said. “This dagger I hold in my hand. Do you recogni
ze it?”
He held it toward her, and she shook her head.
“This was once Solomon’s dagger. The Dagger of Truth.”
The Mother Crow gasped and stepped forward.
“No,” she whispered. “It can’t be true. How would you have gotten your hands on such a powerful spell.”
My knees gave out, and I fell to the ground, my head swimming with visions of the Mother Crow’s life.
There wasn't time. He wasn't going to be able to stop this. I only prayed he would have the courage to kill the Mother Crow once she’d taken my body.
He looked to me, our eyes locking for an instant.
“We don’t have time to discuss the details,” he shouted, speaking quickly. “Harper gave me the spell from a journal she found in the Shadow World. The same journal that’s allowed her to kill two priestesses and free their gates. I’m telling the truth. Here, take this dagger and see for yourself. Try to lie and see if you can.”
The Mother Crow’s rotting lips curled into a smile, and she took the dagger from him.
She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She took a deep breath, and tried again, but she was unable to say a word.
Her eyes flashed again, the red embers deep inside glowing brighter with greed.
She threw the dagger to the ground, and instead, quickly lifted her hands toward Rend.
A whirlwind formed around him, full of dark clouds. He seemed to try to shift, but the whirlwind only grew tighter around his body, holding him to his human form.
I collapsed further onto the ground, my body breaking out into a sweat. I tried to resist what was happening, but I didn’t have the strength.
I crawled forward, reaching toward Solomon’s stone. It was only a few feet away, but it might as well have been miles. I was losing control. Losing myself.
“Give me this spell you claim to have,” the Mother Crow commanded. “Then we’ll see about releasing your witch.”
“No. Release her first, or you’ll never get it,” he said.
She laughed, curling a finger toward herself as the whirlwind lifted Rend from the ground and carried him closer.
“Give me this spell, or I will simply take it from you,” she said. “If you wanted to negotiate, you shouldn’t have come alone.”
Rend struggled against the storm that held him. “I didn’t,” he said.
The Mother Crow turned to look at the altar just as a new person appeared. Her body trembled at the sight of them, and I lifted my head, trying to see who Rend had brought with him.
Who could be powerful enough to frighten the Mother Crow?
When Marco stepped forward, I didn’t understand at first. Marco was powerful, but he was no threat to the Mother Crow. Not alone.
But just then, he looked at me, and I gasped.
He’d dyed his hair, but his eyes were still the same.
All this time, he’d been right there with me, watching over me, and I’d never realized it.
“Touch that child again in anger, and I’ll chop off your head and feed it to your crows.”
Sabine’s words that day in the swamp came back to me in an instant, as if I had lived that moment myself.
Marco was a crow. The only living male crow in the world, protected by the one person in the world the Mother Crow was too scared to cross.
“You?” she asked, stepping away from him in fear.
“I have the spell,” Marco said. “And you cannot harm me to get to it, or you will have to answer to Sabine. Let Franki go, and I will hand it over to you now. If the transfer goes through, I’ll kill you myself if I have to.”
I crawled one tiny inch forward, stretching out for my father’s stone, but the memories were coming faster now. Too fast to stop them.
“Rend,” I whispered, and he looked to me, his face crumpling in fear.
“Make your choice, witch,” he shouted. “Let her go and take me for your demon, or lose your chance and your life, forever.”
The Mother Crow looked from Marco to Rend and back again. Then, finally, she looked at me. I could almost hear her thoughts in my head now.
She was trying to figure out a way to get us both, but when she couldn’t figure it out, I felt her decision as it was made.
She was going to let me go, which meant she was going to kill Rend.
I’d overheard his plan. I knew that Dagon, his competitor, was hiding nearby, ready to take her out as soon as she’d released me. I only prayed he could get to her before she could cast the spell to bind Rend.
Please, I thought.
The Mother Crow leaned over and picked up the Dagger of Truth. She held it toward Marco.
“Do you promise to give me this spell if I release the girl?” she asked.
“Yes,” Marco said.
“And you will not interfere with my casting of this spell and taking Rend for my demon?” she asked.
“No,” Marco said.
“Make your choice,” Rend shouted. “Let her go before it’s too late.”
“And you promise not to kill me once I’ve taken him for my demon?” she asked again, licking her lips with her cold, grey tongue.
“You will not die by my hand,” Marco said.
The Mother Crow laughed, greed filling her heart and mine. The transfer was taking me, and I felt my own soul retreat as hers pushed forward.
And in those seconds before my life was gone, time seemed to move in slow motion.
I lifted my head from the ground, and suddenly, I understood how the Mother Crow had always been several steps ahead of us. It was part of her power that now flowed through me.
She had a gift for seeing every detail in slow motion. She had time to watch every scenario as it might play out, searching for the most logical direction and seeing it through to completion.
I saw it all coming together, the exact way it would happen.
The Mother Crow made her decision. She had already turned toward me, the words of the release spell on her lips. Her hand was raised as she walked toward me, ready to pull the stone from my chest.
My salvation.
But when I was free, Marco would hand the spell to her, and she would begin reciting the words Harper had written down for him.
My eyes looked toward the altar, where Dagon was hiding.
He was our only hope for saving Rend.
If he couldn’t get to the Mother Crow and end her life before the spell was cast, Rend would die with her or be trapped forever, condemning his friends to death in the process.
I searched for any sign of Dagon’s movements, praying for hope in a single detail. A flash of his sword. Proof that he was ready for this.
But instead, the tips of the blades of grass near me lost their color. A demon was drawing power from nature, but who?
The Mother Crow was already two words into the releasing spell when Raum’s face appeared at the top of the steps leading out of the altar. I recognized him instantly from the memory I’d seen of him dragging my father into the ritual room in chains.
He carried similar chains with him now, and when the Mother Crow glanced their way for a brief moment, I could hear the names of his prisoners echoing in my head through her.
Silas. Dagon.
They’d been captured and that would only mean one thing for the demon I loved.
Death.
So, it all came down to this moment. Allow myself to be released from the Mother Crow’s spirit and watch Rend die while I stand by, helpless to stop it, or make my move now, while I still had some hope of saving his life.
“No,” Rend shouted as his eyes finally landed on Dagon being dragged toward him in chains.
I made my choice then, as he turned to me, our eyes meeting for one last glance. One last promise.
I summoned every bit of my strength and pulled myself forward, wrapping my fingers around Solomon’s stone.
I cried out as I drew from our combined power, a power like none the Mother Crow would ever know, and turned my
eyes on her. In my mind, I reached for her hand, forcing her to lift the Dagger of Truth to her own throat.
Her eyes flashed with deep embers of rage, and she screamed as she slit her own throat and fell to the ground, both our lives ended in one final sacrifice.
The Afterworld
Rend
The whirlwind that held my body fell away as the Mother Crow’s blood spilled onto the front of her black robes.
She dropped the dagger and fell to her knees, clutching her throat to try to stop the bleeding.
I shifted and flew to Franki’s side, shaking my head and screaming, my heart breaking into a million pieces at the sight of her lying there, the life draining from her eyes.
“No,” I shouted, lifting her in my arms and cradling her body against mine. “Please, God, no. Don’t take her from me. Franki, please. It should have been me. Don’t leave me.”
She took a ragged breath, her body shuddering as she tried to speak.
She looked into my eyes and held my gaze. “Rend.”
“I’m here,” I said, stroking her hair. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
She shook her head and went suddenly very still in my arms, barely breathing.
The Mother Crow fell forward onto her face, pieces of her body breaking off from decay as her blood spilled onto the ground like a river. Her breath came in gurgled spurts and rattles as she died.
Franki’s hand opened, releasing the soul stone that had held her father’s spirit since before the day she was born.
Solomon’s spirit lifted from the stone like a dark mist, the Mother Crow’s curse on him breaking as her life slipped away.
“Father?” Silas shouted.
Raum released his hold on the chains and shifted, disappearing like a coward back into the shadows of the library below.
Silas ran forward, dropping to his knees beside me.
“Father, I’m sorry. This is not how it was meant to be,” he said. “I couldn’t protect her.”
“You will have many chances to keep her safe,” Solomon said.
Confused, I looked to Solomon’s spirit. He stared into the distance, and when I followed his gaze, I saw that Mary Kathryn had found the strength to stand. Their eyes locked, and Mary Kathryn nodded, clasping a hand over her mouth as she sobbed.
