Page 154 of Winterfall Destiny

One of the other guy’s in suits mutters something beneath his breath. I don’t catch what he says, but it’s more than enough for Andrei to act again. The vamp’s unearthly scream as he dies sends the vamp beside him sprinting away, shoving into the kids retreating to the back of the theatre, as he blurs towards the stage wing closest to him.

Gabriella stills as she watches the vamps in disgust.

“You were supposed to be my best and you run like dogs! If these bastards kill me, you’ll all die because you’re chained to me by the blood,” she shouts at the kids. “At least go down with the glory of protecting your leader, you pathetic creatures.”

I choke a laugh at Gabriella’s pompous words and grip her closer. She’s fighting against my mind magic holding her in place while suppressing her own, but the potency I recognise from the last time we met peels at my mental fingers.

I don’t have the First’s blood, and I’m tuning in to her every thought and movement but her resistance builds. Since she took the blood, I’m something I’ve never been before: inferior to Gabriella.

The recruits didn’t know about the blood link because the already panicked energy in the room shoots sky high, some whispering in shock to each other.

“And that’s why you won’t kill me, isn’t it Maeve Winterfall?” Gabriella calls out. “Look at the poor little witch you’re pointlessly protecting. You know there’re others? Many, many more.”

Maeve stands and Ash leaves the wings the second she does, standing behind her. He may’ve killed two of the four guards, but his appearance is unruffled—mostly. Ash grew larger recently, but never gave off any different energy. Now, I easily sense the dragon, but nobody would need the ability since his eyes shifted to reptilian, his scales multiplied and spreading along his neck, something I’ve not seen for a long time.

Ash doesn’t bother looking at the useless army, his attention and large hands purely on Maeve as he rests them on her shoulders.

Maeve stares mutely at Gabriella, Jamie also by her side, and she flicks a look to me, then Andrei. “How many others?” she asks coolly and waves a hand at the kids.

No, Maeve. Don’t go there.

“Witches or vamps?” Gabriella shrugs against me. “Most of the witches died, but a handful remain. Hemia? Oh, I’d say around a hundred.”

Maeve blinks, mouth parting. “A hundred?”

“Some witches required persuasion.” She shifts and I press my nails into her skin, along with tightening the magic band around her mind in warning. “You’re far too good to kill innocents, Maeve. Your little human morals would never allow you.”

“Wrong,” says Jamie. “All your creations would kill us. Why would we spare them?”

Another ear-piercing scream comes from the stalls and I side-eye Andrei continuing to show that he doesn’t care, smirking as if he’s backing up Jamie’s comment.

I’d held confidence that between us we could take on this number, fully expecting a lot of the kids to run, but Andrei’s single-handedly picking them off. The terrified vamps in the room surging to escape now create a bottleneck through the door, or crouch behind seats, as if they’re human and Andrei’s gunning them down.

“My recruits will kill you all? That appears impossible,” spits Gabriella as she watches her recruits in disgust. “I’m impressed Andrei. Will you end all their lives?”

“If you die, we won’t need to,” says Ash gruffly.

“Exactly.” Andrei turns back from his killing spree, eyes mercurial, already lost behind the void.

A faint darkness surrounds Maeve’s fingers, and she edges away from where Andrei stands, as the shadows manifest in response.

Gabriella chokes a laugh. “Shadow magic from a Winterfall? After all that resistance at the Blackwood house, here you are embracing the darkness. Very disappointing. Whatever would your Confederacy think of such a development?” But there’s a new wariness in her voice. A Blackwood magic user. Not the good little human with her morals.

“I’ve seen the future,” she says.

“Well, hardly a surprise since you’re a future-sighted witch.”

“One you’re creating that needs stopping.” The shadows continue to snake around Maeve’s arms. “And now I’ve witnessed the horror you’ve inflicted on witches who never volunteered.”

A vamp darts onstage from the opposite direction to where Andrei stands, and Ash leaps in front, slings the guy to the floor and stamps on his neck. Bone crunches, Ash sneering as the vampire has no chance at a final breath. “We don’t seem to have a problem with killing your asshole recruits,” he growls at Gabriella.

Grabbing the vamp by the hair with taloned fingers, he drags him to the edge of the stage and throws him to the pile Andrei’s creating.

“Where are the other witches who survived the blood?” asks Jamie.

“That’s a secret. Why don’t you come here, Jamie, and I’ll whisper you the answer?” says Gabriella.

“How fucking stupid do you think I am?” he snaps back.

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