by Mary Duke
Sonja struggled to close her mouth. That wasn’t an option she had considered.
“If you seal yourself away with them,” I questioned. “What will happen to me?”
Kamara bit the inside of her cheek, “I don’t know.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell anyone. In fact, I just told my kids tonight. If Sonja would have thought for a second she could not only lose her chance tonight but for good, she never would have made her move. This was the only way.”
“This is bullshit,” Damari argued.
“Damari,” I said trying to stop him.
“No. I don’t care what this does or doesn’t do. I’m not going to live without you.”
“Is it true,” Kyrell said looking to Jasper. “Have you been working with him?”
“It is. But like he said, we’ve been coming up with a plan to take her out.”
“Does Kinny know?”
“No,” Jasper said shaking his head. “I’m afraid we both kept secrets from each other.”
The corners of Sonja’s lips curled, and she began to laugh.
“They’re here,” Hallos said, as shouting erupted behind him.
“Who?” I questioned.
“Thaddius, and his followers.”
The next thirty seconds were the longest thirty seconds of my life. Kamara shouted for me to get the skull, that this would be our only chance. As I made those ten, maybe fifteen steps towards Sonja, reapers, witches, wolves, and beasts poured through hidden doors all around the room.
As I dove towards Sonja, I turned back towards Damari and watched as Cat shielded Foley from one of the monsters, and Jasper took a curse from Thaddius, aimed at Kyrell.
Epilogue
I opened my mouth to scream, but by the time any sound came out, they were gone. “Where are we? Where am I? Take me back! We have to go back!” I said reaching for Kamara.
To my surprise, she grabbed ahold of my arms and pulled me closer to her. “If you want to go back, IF there is ANY chance you CAN go back, you have to hold yourself together.”
I looked down at her hands on my elbows and tried to take a deep breath. “What do I have to do?”
Kamara looked around; we were back in the mountain cabin where her kids were kept. “I don’t know. They should be here. They have to be here. I need them.”
“We are here, mom,” a young woman who could have easily passed as my twin said walking out of the basement door. “We are all here.”
Tears welled in Kamara’s eyes as she rushed to them, giving each and every one of them a hug before she wiped her eyes. “Alright. So, are you guys sure about this?”
They all nodded, and one of the men answered, “Only if you are sure.”
“If there was any other way,” Kamara said.
“We’re not going to give up on you,” the one that could have passed as my twin said, wrapping Kamara in another hug.
“I would expect no less,” she said squeezing back harder.
“Now,” the girl said handing me a piece of paper with a spell scribbled on it. “I can’t tell you what’s going to happen to you; to be honest, I think that’s going to be up to you to decide. What I can tell you is, if you do die, if you sacrifice yourself for this, you will not die in vain. My siblings and I will become the key, and we are locking away this magic for good.”
“The key?” I questioned, not following.
“Magic has rules...So many rules. One of the nicer ones is the bigger spells can only be undone by the bloodline that did it. So if the eleven of us seal away the Coven and their magic, it would take all eleven of us to unlock it.”
“Oh,” I said feeling stupid.
“It’s a bit more complicated than that, don’t worry, that’s just gist of it.”
“Okay. So what do I have to do?”
“All you have to do,” Kamara said. “Is stand in the center of that circle with me and read that paper.”
Her daughter tapped the piece of paper that I held in my hands. “You have to read every single word, and no matter what happens, you cannot stop.”
I nodded, following them over to the circle, carefully not touching or stepping on anything drawn on the floor in the process.
“Until we meet again,” Kamara said, looking to all her children's faces. “Know that I love you.”
I began to read the spell, and it was as though a storm began to brew above us.
“Keep reading,” Kamara assured me.
With every word I added, the dark clouds above us in the room grew darker and the rumbles of thunder grew louder.
“You’re almost there!” Kamara shouted as the wind began to whip.
As I read the last line my feet lifted off the floor, and Kamara and I began to circle one another, growing closer and closer together until we became one.
Memories swirled in my mind. Memories I had forgotten. Moments that made me who I am.
Then the vision of my future, the family Malikii saw that I would have.
“This,” Kamara said, from somewhere in my head. “This is where we must part ways.”
I had no idea where this was. “What happens next? What do I do?”
“That’s up to you to decide. You can either fade here in peace or return to the chaos”
“I’ve never been one to fade.”
“Then fight,” Kamara said. “Because even chaos needs a Queen.”
About the Author
AS FAR AS ANYONE NEEDS to know, Mary comes from a small town in rural Ohio. With a husband, three kids, a dog, a cat, and two beta fish (Fuzzy Blue and Red Fish, if you were curious about their names,) her hands are kept busy. However, when she finds a way to escape reality, she twists words into worlds, fueling her alter-ego as the Realm Wrangler!
With her debut series, Bloodline, launching in August 2018, she has a full schedule of launches lined up to grab ahold of her readers, and drag them with her through several different adventures in 2019! Watch for her Of the Faye Series, The Dark Soul Hunters Series, and The Alyce Eryx Academy Series!
Connect with Mary here:
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Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/ImMaryDuke
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COPYRIGHT © 2018 MARY Duke/Crazy Ink
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.
Crazy Ink
www.crazyink.org
Edits by Samantha Talarico
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Formatting by Crazy Ink
Queen/Mary Duke—1st ed.
