Page 80 of The Fearless Witch

A smile crept onto my lips while I listened to them ring over the stone ground. Maybe he didn’t charge because he couldn’t. There seems to be a limit to how many chains he could send out at once because I hadn’t seen more than four out at the same time. He also needed a few seconds to get them back inside his body so he could launch them again.

That was all I needed to know.

The veins on his hands had spread over his entire body again and there was a strange, emerald-green substance dripping from his mouth. The cut on his cheek was bleeding profusely, his cursed blood trickling onto the stones with a hiss.

I lunged toward him, determined not to give that fucker a chance to recharge. His foot slipped on the green puddle and he lost his balance, allowing one of my blades to sneak past his defenses and sink into his chest. I frowned, surprised by the stupid mistake, when I noticed the bone-chilling smile that pulled on his black lips.

“Fool,” Alastair chuckled just as the chains erupted from his body again, one wrapping around the blade still sticking out of his body while the other one circled me. I let go of that weapon and tried to evade his, cursing as it followed me like a snake hunting its prey.

I angled my other sword to keep it away from me, wincing against the sparks that flew where metal met shadow, but the damn thing still tightened around my body, its tiny spikes sinking into my skin. Black veins sprawled from the spots where the spikes pierced me. I gritted my teeth to stop the scream of agony from coming out, but it was pointless. The pain dragged me under and before I knew it, I was running out of breath from all the shouting.

When I opened my eyes, the other chain was yanking my blade out of his chest, squeezing it so tight that the shadows were sucked into the metal again.

“Always go for the heart, isn’t that what they say?” Alastair cackled. “I had mine moved ages ago. You’d have to cut me into teeny-tiny pieces if you want to find it.” Another chain wrapped around me, with more spikes digging into my skin. The pain was like nothing I had felt before, so utterly consuming that, for a moment, I prayed I’d die. But then a voice echoed in my head, a familiar one that kept screaming something.

“...ight… ight… Fight!”

Celeste’s high-pitched shriek blew away the fog in my mind and I sucked in a breath, wincing as my sight cleared. Goddamn loud woman.

“...don’t think you’d be doing any of that, though,” Alastair was just saying.

My body had slacked against his binds, head bobbing on my chest like a motherfucking loser. Of all the things that could take me down… I’d be damned if I let it be pain. Pain was what gave me life and brought us here today. He wasn’t going to beat me with it.

The power slipped out of my grasp when I reached for it, like my hands were covered with something slimy. I tried again and again, but the only thing that changed was that more of his corruption spread through my veins. Throwing my head back, I screamed in rage, tossing and twisting in his trap while his cursed weapons spilled their poison in me.

I had failed. Even if I could summon my power, it wouldn’t be enough. Not against this, not against him.

I waited for Celeste to yell at me again, but the cave was quiet. Had she given up too? Or had they killed her and that’s why I couldn’t get a grip on my power? I hadn’t felt her die, but she was no longer trapped on the wall beside Roman, even though Belphegor was there, leaning beside him with her arms crossed.

Out of the blue, a bright light exploded just a few steps away from the demon prince, and even Alastair stopped to look. Standing in the middle of it, Celeste whispered something again and again, as if chanting a spell. For a moment, I wondered what she was trying to accomplish with this and why Belphegor was letting her interfere, but then all thoughts vanished when the glow in her hands seeped into her chest and her legs buckled.

Power flooded my veins, engulfing me in that same warm, gentle light she held and cleaning the disgusting slime that made it hard to move. It focused my vision and cleared my head until my whole body shook with unspent energy.

She hadn’t been at full power even after she restored access to her magic with the Fae. She was strong, and she was alive, so that was the best I could hope for. But now… she was brewing with so much untapped magic that even the demon princes looked speechless.

Celeste raised her head, her eyes finding mine immediately.

“Finish him!” she snarled, her voice dripping with so much malice, I barely recognized it.

‘Fucking witches! Of course, she had something up her sleeve,’ I smirked, holding her gaze before turning back to Alastair. His eyes were heavy with apprehension, but there was no fear on his face. If anything, he looked even more menacing, the black veins so thick, they looked ready to burst.

Good. I promised him my best.

I stopped struggling against the chains, closing my eyes instead. I dove deep into that well of power, swimming as the darkness grew darker and darker. Reaching the bottom had been easy over the centuries—she always got herself killed before she could rise to her peak—but right now… this wasn’t a well, it was an ocean.

The shadows wrapped around me until it was impossible to tell where my body stopped, and they began. I had only done this once, but Celeste wasn’t nearly as strong back then, and I had lost my vessel. Still, I had no choice now because losing this body was preferable to… the alternative.

The more I merged with them, the lighter the constraints around my vessel became. When the chain finally slipped through my incorporeal body, I sucked in a breath and smiled.

Alastair cursed as the metal clanked onto the floor, summoning his weapon back inside. When I reappeared, he retreated a step. My skin was tingling, and the pain had dulled, but I could feel the strain in each cell, the shadows eager to make me their own again.

Alastair bared his teeth at me.

“Neat trick. But running won’t help you, just delay the inevitable.”

I smirked as I raised my arms, urging my shadows to spread across the room.

“Who’s running?” With a snap of my fingers, they dissolved into a mist, rushing to every corner of the cave until there wasn’t a place that wasn’t consumed by them. The light from the torches was swallowed by the darkness, the faint aura of each of the princes now contained within their bodies.

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