Page 25 of The Fearless Witch

The subtle threat in her voice made me shiver, so I focused on her fingers when they slowly dragged over the stone.

Something tickled my memory while I watched her work, her words passing incomprehensibly over my ears. I knew I should pay attention. I knew what she was saying was important, but for the life of me, I couldn't hear another word.

“Estia.”

I glanced at my mother’s face, but her eyes were cast down, her hand still moving while her mouth pressed in a hard line.

“Estia.”

The swirling shadows around us caught my attention, and I studied them with a frown. It dawned on me that we weren’t in our house. The room was larger, newer, fashioned from stone and dark wood, with sleek, posh furniture that spoke of wealth and grandeur we didn’t have. Heavy curtains hid the large windows, with candles burning quietly in silver candelabras, their long, metal bodies twisted like glowing trees when the light caught onto their surface.

Roman. This was Roman’s house.

The thought shocked me, but I knew it was true. I recognized the ornate carvings on the wall, the beautiful, eerie paintings, the grimoires Roman often complained I left everywhere. But how was my mother here? And how was I here when I was…

The thought disappeared before I could finish it. Where was I? I couldn't remember, but I knew it was somewhere I needed to escape from.

“Estia!”

I looked at my mother again, but she was gone. In her place stood my sister, her eyes milky white. Blood poured from the deep incisions on her wrists and throat, soaking the torn green dress she wore and pooling around her in the pentagram.

“Sybil…” I cried out, lunging for her. My hand pressed over the wound on her throat, trying to mend the skin and seal her lifeblood inside, but no matter how hard I tried, the flesh refused to heal. “No, no, no!”

“A serpent’s fangs lie hidden behind a smile made of dead promises. For within the folds of jealousy, betrayal lies in wait,” Sybil spoke in a hoarse voice, more blood dripping from her mouth with each word. My sister’s glassy stare held none of the warmth and cheerfulness I remembered. It was cold and empty.

“What?” I breathed, an icy chill making the hair on my arms stand.

“The Reaper’s call draws nigh, where mortal paths all come to an end in the realm of darkness,” she continued, the words droning monotonously like she had been repeating them for a long time.

Those words… I remembered them. The night the witches came for me, the night Medina betrayed me, Sybil had finally tapped into her powers and made her first premonition. This premonition.

“Shadows loom where the roots of the blood tree wither and the flame whispers of the end in the winds of fate.” Her voice dropped, sharp and icy, sweeping away leaves, flames, and hope. “Yet a new beginning is budding in the earth, fed by death and sacrifice.”

More blood, dark and heavy, gushed from the wound, slipping between my trembling fingers. Sybil finally moved, her hands cupping my cheeks gently. Chills locked my body like I had been encased in ice—or maybe it was the look in her eyes now intently staring into mine—but I couldn’t move either way.

“Beware the harbingers of chaos,” Sybil whispered, drawing so close, her nose pressed against mine. “Unbound and unchecked, they shall unmake the world and plunge it into ruin.”

I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until my head spun. I was just opening my mouth to ask what it all meant when Sybil smiled. Despite her bloody teeth and dead eyes, the look on her face was eerily reminiscent of the sweet, loving girl I remembered.

“Hurry.”

That was all she said before something yanked me away from her. The world disappeared in a swirl of colors before I landed heavily, lashing out with my magic even before I could get my hair out of my eyes. A whiff of sulfur and death filled my nostrils, and when my spell struck nothing, I spun. A pair of golden eyes stared at me as a maw full of jagged teeth released the back of my dress.

“That was close. She almost got you,” Nym spoke in a tense voice while I gaped at him. “You can’t trust your senses here. You can’t…”

The floor beneath me vanished, and I fell through, reaching out for him in panic. His eyes turned red, and he lunged after me, but then he was gone and I was no longer falling. My landing wasn’t that hard this time, but it still forced the air out of my lungs. I crawled to my feet, summoning my magic to protect me, but nothing stirred in the dark.

I was still in Roman’s house, however, I had ended up on the top floor, even though I was sure I had fallen down. The place was dark, with no light coming from anywhere except the broken window on the opposite side. The smell of blood had only grown stronger.

I summoned a ball of fire in my hand, squinting against the flames as they crawled up the walls and made me gasp. The hulking forms I had thought were old furniture and crates, were actually bodies, a mesh of muscles and fur covering them. Most stared into the distance, entirely still, while a few breathed their last with their low, wheezing sounds echoing through the floor.

‘Celeste…’ one of them said, and it took me a moment to realize they had spoken inside my mind. My gaze found a familiar face, golden eyes staring straight at me like nothing else existed in the world.

“No!” I fell on my knees in front of Isaac, pressing my hand to his muzzle. His eyes fluttered closed and a soft, relieved sigh escaped his bloody maw.

‘I’m… sorry,’ he whispered, voice dripping with pain and heartbreak. ‘I held up as long… as I could… waiting for… you.’ Each word came out with effort, even in the mindspace we shared, the light in his eyes dimming with every second. ‘I’m happy you are… alive. Please… forgive me.’

His muzzle pressed against my hand in search of more contact—or so I thought. When his body tilted sideways, falling lifelessly to the ground, something in my chest snapped and an agonizing scream tore from me, making the whole house shake like it was about to crumble. Claws or maybe teeth tore me from the inside out, like there was a monster in my chest that was trying to crawl out. This couldn’t be happening… This couldn’t be real! I couldn’t lose him just when we finally found our way to each other!

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