Page 147 of Her Blood Revenge

He stays still and silent, remaining on his knees beside Dorian.

‘You will tell us everything, witch hunter!’ the crone declares, stopping before us. ‘The blood queen is alive, and blood falls as rain from the sky. And the earth witch. Her powers were so dark and intense.’ She looks at her hand and swallows the urge to cry. ‘My magic is gone. All earth magic is gone. What has shedone?!’

She walks towards us and stands tall.

‘We will tell you everything,’ I reply. ‘As soon as we are safe. You will take us back to your coven and quickly. We need to get ready.’

‘Ready?’ she repeats.

‘We are at war.’

‘The blood queen and her monsters.’

‘The blood queen. Her monsters. And the goddess of Hell, herself.’ I look around, but there’s no one else but us. ‘We have to get Ashe back.’

‘That girl killed half my coven and even killed your friend!’ she hisses hatefully. ‘All we need do is kill her before she strikes again!’

‘No,’ Shaw snarls as he gets to his feet. He bristles with magic and darkness as all around the witches, their worst nightmares come to life. All except the coven leader. ‘Your earth god did that. Not her. She was willing to die to save this coven. To save all of you. She was only possessed by your demented earth god because she was desperate to save the covens who shunned and abused her. So. You will help us kill Neve and get Ashe back, or I will watch and do nothing as this world is destroyed by the Goddess Hel and the witches who serve her. And when you come, and you beg for my help as your friends and family die screaming in agony, I will laugh and walk away. Just as you did to me.’

The nightmares disappear, and the screams turn to frightened sobs.

‘The greatest witch hunters to ever live. Who has more of our blood on your hands than any other creature to turn against us. You will fight against them? For us?’ she asks.

‘No,’ he replies,shaking his head and taking another step closer to her. ‘I will fight against them for her.’

After a few seconds, the water surrounding us falls.

‘You really are in love with her.’ Her gaze doesn’t settle on only him, but me too.

‘And that is the only reason you may just survive this,’ I tell her.

Shaw picks up Dorian’s body, and we follow the witches back into the woods.

It took a couple of hours to reach the pond. The blood rain stopped about half an hour ago, much to my relief. We’re all saturated in it as it slowly dries on our clothes, hair and skin.

Shaw’s barely spoken a word this whole time. He’s carried Dorian the entire way and follows obediently when the coven crone tells him to leap into the dark pond.

Below, he looks around and sees this strange little town holding such a variety of inhabitants.

‘All this time,’ Shaw grinds out through clenched teeth. ‘They’ve gone unnoticed this entire time?!’

Humans. Witches. Creatures that belong in cages. All free of their confinements. All working together.

And all of them hate our fucking guts.

We follow her to the main building and step inside some kind of great hall. There’s a round table in the very centre surrounded by chairs. They all sit, and the empty chairs are looked at with teary eyes.

Shaw lowers Dorian’s body to the floor, taking extra care to rest his arms on his chest. When he stands, he faces the coven and tells them everything.

All of it. Athir. Hel. Neve. Even reveals the truth about Pix.

‘So why take Ashe if Hel is free?’ the coven leader asks. ‘The spell is done. The blood queen has released her goddess. Why should we risk what remains of us to get back a blood witch of all things?’ Her brow hitches in condescension.

‘We think Neve is planning to return her coven,’ Shaw says, his words flat as he speaks. ‘Ashe is a necromancer, and the bones of the blood witches have been taken. Unless you want more blood witches-’

‘Then our goal should be to kill Ashe,’ she cuts in. ‘No necromancer. No resurrection.’

Poppy hisses at her from my wrist. I’m tempted to do the same.

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