Page 109 of Her Blood Revenge

‘He’s returned!’ Bensen exclaims joyfully. ‘All will be well! Cole! Cole has come back to us!’

But he watches in horror as Cole does nothing to help his people. He looks on and recognises the blood queen at his side. And he shudders as they both look straight at me.

I’m all they see. All they want.

‘They are here for you,’ Bensen realises, looking at me with a twisted sense of justice.

I shouldn’t be surprised when he goes to grab me.

Coward.

My snake lunges and bites his hand.

He goes down, writhing and foaming at the mouth, never to get up again.

The fire witches resume their attacks, sending us all flying backwards. Heat and flames soar over me. Its intensity makes my eyes water.

Through the flames, I see Neve. She’s watching as her unseelie gathers the dead and the dying and places them in specific places around the coven’s sacred fire.

Each witch is carved with a mark on their forehead.

That mark.

Dripping red and oozing a dark promise.

The mark from my dream.

From Hel’s manacles.

An unseelie wraps his hands around my neck, but my familiar is quick again and with a single bite to his hand, he goes down juddering, blood and foam seeping from every orifice.

‘You’re my guardian angel, Poppy.’

She wraps around my wrist as I stand, and we come face to face with Cole.

He sees Poppy and knows getting too close will end his life.

Instead, he slams my father’s old cane on the ground and starts to speak my trigger.

I slam my hands on the ground. And I scream as I send sharpened roots into both my ears. Blood spills down my neck, and a high-pitched ringing is all I can hear.

Gone are the screams. The swords. The violent yells of the battle.

Just the excruciating pain and unbearable“eeeeeeeeeee”remain.

Use the trigger on me now, arsehole!

I lift my hand, and the deep red roots withdraw from me and entangle around him instead, thickening and twisting around his legs so hard his face contorts and his mouth opens in an endless scream. One I can’t hear but wish I could. He’s hurling words at me with such violence spit flies from his mouth.

That red mist gathers between us, and the blood queen stands before me in the blink of an eye. She smiles before tendrils of her dark magic seep out from her as blood, thick and strong, and they twist and wrap themselves around me and Poppy.

Her magic cuts off my connection to the vines entrapping Cole, and he breaks free. He wants to cause me as much pain as he possibly can.

Take her!She orders him, gesturing to the treeline. I can’t hear her, but I see the words form on her lips.Get her beyond the circle quickly!

Cole reaches out for me.

But he glances to the right and yells in fear.

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