by Annie Bellet
The last of the missing witches stood beside the fallen limb. The bright orange flames of its fire cast shadows on her face as her eyes searched the woods.
I was barely moving, but somehow she spotted me, a second rod of white lightning flying from her hands before I even realized what was happening.
I twisted to the side, and the lightning passed close enough to me that it singed the sleeve of my shirt. My focus was pulled back to my human form, and I fell again.
This time I was lucky I hadn’t gotten too far off the ground, because I hit hard. The pain in my shoulder erupted. My vision blurred, and I barely managed to roll out of the way of another bolt of lightning as it hit the ground. Freezing cold water rushed across my side. The heat from the lightning must have melted the snow.
I shivered uncontrollably as I forced myself to stand.
The two witches I’d been tracking had rushed over to meet up with the third, and as I stood, the ground around me began to shift and rumble. I tried to focus, but it was no use. I was too cold. In too much pain. Outnumbered.
I had let the first easy kills lull me into a false sense of power, and it was in that moment, as the earth and rock at my feet rose to form walls around me, that I learned never to underestimate the power of a group of witches from the Order. They had strength in numbers and power to spare.
And worst of all, they had an undying loyalty to their coven. The mission of one became the mission of all, and they were well-practiced in working together toward a common goal.
If that goal had been to end my life, I may have given up then and there, surrendering to the possibility of peace with my ancestors. But I knew that was not their goal tonight. The earthen walls surrounding me confirmed that.
No, my death would serve no one, and I understood in that moment that some were willing to die if it meant capturing me alive.
I shivered against the cold night air and fell to my knees. The cage of stone and dirt completely encased me inside its walls, and I knew I had one chance to save myself.
I placed my palms flat against the ground and pushed my thoughts as deep as they would go beneath the surface. I found its warmth and life, connecting to the tiny creatures burrowed deep inside the dormant soil. I latched on to the power of the roots that snaked through the dirt. Anything that might mean life became the pathway to my only chance at keeping mine and ending Ariella’s.
I drew strength from this foreign world that pressed against my palms. I warmed myself with its energy, and found the will to continue fighting.
I crouched lower to the earth, gathering every ounce of power I could before raising up. My back slammed into the barrier of the witch’s makeshift cage and the entire thing cracked and crumbled. Spells and bursts of light flew toward me, but by the time they reached me, I was already gone. I shifted, but didn’t go far. Twisting through the air, I flew between two of the witches and reformed. I withdrew the dagger from its holster and buried it deep in the heart of one of the witches while spinning and kicking the second witch back against a tree.
I quickly removed the dagger and leapt toward the other witch, catching her while she was still off-balance. I pressed the dagger to her throat and cut from one end to the other. They both fell to the ground.
Seven to go.
By the time I turned to find the third witch, she had already starting sprinting toward the clearing where her fellow sisters had gathered. She was fast, but I was faster. Adrenaline pumping, I shifted to shadow and flew after her, weaving in and out of the maze of thick trees. I positioned myself behind her and stopped, taking a moment to reform and settle my stance. Casting while in demon form was tricky in this world, so I risked human form to conjure another venomous snake.
A bright green light glowed from within the orb growing between my palms. When I felt its power reach maximum strength, I stretched it out, the head of a snake taking form. I touched the magic to the ground and the snake slithered toward the ground so fast, it was barely more than a streak of bright green across the snow.
The snake’s mouth opened as it reached her, burying its fangs into her calf.
The witch lurched forward, her back arching as she tumbled to the ground. Her screams rang out through the night as she attempted to crawl toward the clearing just ahead. She managed to claw her way about five feet through the dirty snow, her body finally disintegrating into a puddle of green acid and bones just as she reached the edge of the barren circle.
The six remaining witches stared at their fallen sister, the fear evident in their wide eyes and trembling hands. Several moved to try to save her, but one witch stepped forward, her arms raised to stop them. Was she their leader?
I watched from the shadows, noticing that this woman’s cloak was slightly different. More ornate in design. Instead of a pure black robe with a blue interior, this cloak had sapphire stones sewn into the hem at the bottom. There was a dark sapphire ribbon made of a shiny material around the hood of the cloak, and intricate designs covered the rest. Hand-sewn with care.
I had been too busy running earlier to pay much attention, but I saw now that this woman was slightly older than the others, too. There was a confidence in her movements, and the power that radiated from her was potent. Different from the others. She was definitely a leader of some kind, and I focused my thoughts on her. If I could bring this one down, the others would fall much faster.
I needed to separate them somehow. Charging into the circle where they had the advantage of numbers and easy line-of-sight would be a mistake. But how to do it?
I studied the woods around the clearing. If they thought they knew exactly where I was, would they all rush forward? Or would she send only a few to investigate?
There was only one way to find out.
I shifted to black shadow and blended into the surroundings, keeping just enough outside the circle that my movements wouldn’t easily be seen by the human eye. I chose five distinct locations around the clearing, equally distant from one another. At each of these five spots, I stopped and cast a new spell. I didn’t use much of my power. I didn’t need to. These were decoys of sorts, and I hoped to confuse them enough to go searching for me.
I conjured a small poisonous snake that was too weak to do any real damage or travel all the way to the circle of witches, but it would be enough. I just needed them to see it.
I unleashed the reptile, sending it toward the clearing. I didn’t wait to see their immediate reaction or even how far the spell traveled. I shifted and kept my eye on the next location, getting there in seconds and casting the second of my decoy snakes. Once it had left my control, I traveled to the third location and repeated the spell. Within ten seconds, I had cast all five spells.
I shifted again and soared high into the tops of the pine trees, watching.
The witches were turning in circles, watching the woods around the clearing.
“What if there are more of them?” one asked. “We need to get out of here.”
“We can’t leave now,” another said. “We have to hunt them down. Priestess Winter will never forgive us if we let such a powerful demon go free.”
“We don’t have to tell her,” the first one said. “Please, Prima, we need to go. We may be outnumbered.”
Prima. I’d heard that term somewhere before, but I couldn’t place it. The young witch was obviously addressing the witch in the ornate robes.
So I’d been right. She was their leader. At least one of them. Their Prima. I wasn’t sure who this Priestess they mentioned was, but if I had to guess, she was the one in control of the Prima. Some sort of high commander.
“He’s trying to scare us,” the Prima said. “Every spell was the same. He’s taunting us. We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to capture this demon, sisters. And when we do, Priestess Winter will take notice of us. She’ll repay us in ways you young witches can’t even imagine.”
“I’m scared,” another of the witches said. Her voice sounded so young and vulnerable that it made me pause for
a moment, doubting whether I was really doing the right thing by killing them all.
Sometimes it was easier to imagine that your enemies were nothing but pure evil, their actions making them monsters. But the truth was often much more complicated than that. Few were pure evil or pure good. I’d noticed it to be especially true of these humans in my short time here.
Still, I had to keep my mind focused on my true mission. Even if the hearts of these witches were not all corrupt and evil, they each housed a demon in their bodies. They had each chosen to capture a powerful demon and use them in this torturous way for their own benefit and greedy purpose. For that, they deserved to die.
I saw now that my plan to separate them wasn’t going to work. The Prima was smarter than I’d given her credit for, and she knew that their only chance of survival was to stick together.
If that was how it had to be, then I had only one choice. I needed to take them down as a group.
But if I was going to do that, I was going to need a lot more power. I’d already expended so much of what I’d gathered earlier, and with most of the trees around the group of witches already used up and gone, I’d need a better power source.
I traveled along the tops of the trees until I’d gotten a safe distance away, and then flew down to the ground. I shifted back to my human form and knelt on the ground, placing my hands against the snow and earth. I exhaled and focused, drawing the life around me into my body as I inhaled. A circle of decay spread across the ground around me, destroying everything in its path. Snow melted. Wet earth dried to dust. Trees shriveled into grey rods in the darkness, and then finally disintegrated, their ashes floating into the wind.
I drank from their power, feeling the pure energy burn in my muscles. It flowed through my hands, up my arm and into my chest where it spread through my entire body. Every inch of me was buzzing with it by the time a full minute had passed.
When I stood, unable to take in another drop of power, the circle of decay that had formed was twice the size of the original clearing. Never in all my months in this world had I caused such destruction, and never had I felt so alive.
I stood and focused my thoughts on the witches in the clearing ahead. I pushed up from the ground, shifting to smoke as black as night and flying up above the treetops. I soared toward them, hoping to still find them huddled together where I’d left them.
The woods around the clearing were full of light as the witch’s orbs zoomed from tree to tree and shadow to shadow searching for me in the darkness. They still stood in a huddled mass in the center, their eyes narrowed to search the woods for any sign of movement, but they wouldn’t find me down there on the ground.
I flew high above, positioning myself directly over the huddled group. I knew I would only have a few moments to cast before they saw me and that if any of them were quick enough to launch a spell my way before I was done casting, it would likely break my concentration and I would fall to the ground. They would own me.
I had not mastered the art of casting while in demon form, but if there was ever a time to learn, it was now. I wouldn’t have a chance to shift to human form and focus all my thoughts on conjuring this one last spell, so it would have to be done from up here.
Nervous energy combined with the raw power of the earth living inside me, but I pushed thoughts of death or capture to the side. I narrowed my focus down to a single image. My sister Ariella’s face. I would do this for her. For every demon who had been captured and torn from their lives and their loved ones and brought to this place against their will.
I focused my entire being on creating an orb of green venom. I put all my hatred and fear and loathing into it, and a green light spread across the entire sky, bouncing off the clouds above and radiating down through the clearing. The witches below shouted and pointed, several of them already casting.
I didn’t have much time, but I unleashed everything I could into that mass of green energy. When it was brilliant and humming with poison, the head of a large cobra appeared, its body slithering out of my hands.
It fell to the ground in a streak of green against the darkness. The head of the snake reached the group of witches and slithered across the ground at their feet, forming a perfect circle within seconds.
When it had doubled back around to itself, it crawled toward the Prima, snaking its way up her fine ornate robe and traveling up her body toward the next witch. My venomous snake wound around the group as they screamed, their spells forgotten in their terror. They inched backward toward each other as the rope-like body of my snake slithered around them, tightening the way a python tightened around its prey.
The witches could no longer move, bound by my snake and unable to cast or run.
I flew down to the ground in front of the Prima, my eyes meeting hers as I shifted to my human form.
“You don’t have to do this,” she said, her voice trembling now, all of her earlier confidence gone. “I can give you anything you want. My Priestess has great power. We can work something out. Anything, I swear it. Just let us live.”
I took a few steps toward her, hatred burning in my eyes.
“I want my sister back,” I said. “I want every demon the Order of Shadows ever captured returned to their lives in the Shadow World. Can you do this for me?”
The screams of her fellow witches echoed off the nearby trees, and the Prima held my gaze. I could see her brain working, trying to come up with a lie great enough to make me spare their lives. But we both knew the truth. Once captured, no one knew of a way to set the demons free.
The Prima’s eyes filled with tears as she saw that I knew the truth. There was nothing she could say to me. Nothing she could offer me.
“I didn’t think so,” I said.
A single tear slid down the Prima’s cheek as the head of my cobra slithered around her neck, its wide mouth open, revealing sharp, glowing fangs. She screamed as it bit into the flesh at her neck and its venom traveled through her body.
One by one, my snake poisoned the witches huddled together in the clearing, and I watched as the poison took hold, destroying them from the inside.
I looked into the eyes of each of these human witches as their bodies rapidly disintegrated from the acid-like venom. They clung to each other, and the horror of what I’d done hit me in a way I hadn’t expected.
In their eyes, I was the monster. Not them. They couldn’t understand the horror of what they’d already done or why they deserved to die. But I knew what I’d become that night. I knew that bringing death to so many had changed me forever.
Yes, I was a monster, but I was also a savior to those locked inside the witches’ bodies, living as slaves to their greed.
I learned a very important lesson that night as I watched those six witches die in such a horrifying way. When pushed to their limits, good people could do unspeakable things to save those they love.
And me? I was just getting started.
Sarra Cannon writes contemporary and paranormal fiction with both teen and college aged characters. Her best selling Young Adult paranormal series, Peachville High Demons, has sold over 200,000 copies, and has spawned an entire world of different series, including Sacrifice Me and the new continuation series starting with Emerald Darkness.
Want to learn more about Rend’s story and the war against the Order of Shadows?
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Honeysuckle Memories
A Scarlett Smith Memoir
Selene Charles
Talking about a grisly murder is never easy, especially when talking about your own. Scarlett Smith is on a mission to track down the man who sentenced her to an eternity of purgatory, but first she needs to pass the mental health assessment board of the paranormal investigative department.
I didn’t want to walk through the door. Didn’t want to face the memories of a night best left in the past.
&
nbsp; The hustle and bustle of the Tennessee precinct was a buzz of discordant rhythms and noises in the periphery of my mind. Cops marched from one desk to another, some cracking jokes, others running errands, and some taking down witness statements.
At one desk sat a woman with mascara dripping down her chin from her tears—her frizzy, flame-red hair standing up stiff, like she’d drowned it in a bottle of cheap Aqua-Net hairspray—and dressed in a black cat suit that looked ten years past its prime. Behind her stood a dark-skinned man with his hand on her shoulder, squeezing, but not to the point of hurting her.
I’d have pegged them as hooker and john in passing, but studying the two of them further and the way she leaned into him as she gave her witness statement to a murder she’d witnessed, it was clear she trusted this man. Felt safe with this man.
Her heart didn’t hammer in her chest. Her pulse didn’t stutter with fear. It was just a gentle bump bump that actually helped ease my own nerves.
I clutched fingers to my shirt. The fabric was off-white with tiny rose patterns. The buttons were a shiny pearl, and I wore blue jean shorts cut low at the waist. I’d put on my cowboy boots today, too.
Merc called them my lucky boots.
Lucky.
I snorted.
Last time I’d worn them, things had been far different. The shirt I’d worn that night had been stained black with blood, and my shorts shredded so badly they’d stayed on only by the thinnest of threads.
Taking a deep breath, I looked up at the heavy black stenciling on the foggy glass window of the station’s resident shrink: Dr. Elijah Monroe.
I had one last examination to pass before I could become an official (and most importantly paid) liaison to the Silver Creek PD’s paranormal investigative unit.
PIU for short.
Nibbling on the corner of my lip, I winced when fangs I still wasn’t quite used to pierced through and bled me of some of the precious blood I’d only just ingested an hour ago. Swiping at it with my tongue, I sealed the wound and took another forceful and deep breath.
