Page 59 of Which Witch Is Wicked?
“Claire?” Tierra wrenched her hand away just in time to stop it from being burned. “How could you?” her eyes shimmered with hurt. “We don’t use magic against each other.
“Come to me, if your numbers be vast. And heed the commands upon my breath...”Aerin paused, readying to say the final words, wishing that her sisters could understand… that they could feel this. Power. Control. Knowledge and darkness.
But shadows could be good, couldn’t they? The moon Goddess lit the nighttime, not the day. Death was a catalyst for rebirth, and hell balanced out heaven. This was Arma-fucking-geddon, and Aerin de Moray was never one to stand by and let things happen. Shemadethings happen, and now she had an army of the undead to help them all. “By the earth, the air, the fire and sea…”
The last words caused her a bit of hesitation, but it was too late to stop now…
“By the power of darkness, which I call unto me!”
The undead knelt. The ones who were only bound by their ankles dropped to their knees. The others who had no limbs, merely bowed their heads.
“What have you done?” Tierra asked.
“Oh don’t get your panties in a wad,” Aerin snipped. “Look at them now, they’re harmless.” They glanced over to the horde, still as stone and bowing as though at some macabre royal court.
“You can’t stop us,” Claire said in a strange, monotone voice.
Aerin looked over at her. “What? Stop who?”
“I see the future in the flames… and whatever path we two chose, the world will come with us. You can’t choose for us. You can’t stop us. If you join us, decide it is time to end it all, to rule it all, no one will be able to stand against us. Not the Lord of the Damned, not the Horsemen, and not the denizens and deities of the otherworld.”
Claire’s eyes were burning now, shadows crawling through the veins on her face like writhing black worms.
“What nonsense you talking, girl?” Moira demanded.
“Look what you did to her!” Tierra scolded. “You made her all evil!”
“That wasn’t me!” Aerin shook her head in denial, but she snapped the Grimoire shut.
That seemed to slap Claire out of it and she blinked, her eyes and skin returning to normal and the wall of flames abating to nothing but a singed line across the grass. She rubbed her eyes for a second and then fluttered her lashes. “What?”
“Give me that!” Tierra snatched Grim out of Aerin’s hands. “I’m so mad I could just… just… bury you!”
“You did that to Death, already,” Aerin came back at her. “Time to get another trick. Besides, look at them. They’re not trying to kill us anymore. I just did a good thing.”
“Whatever you did,” Moira rubbed at chill bumps on her bare arms. “It ain’t in the realm of good.”
“Yeah, but it was in the realm of effective, andyou’re welcome.” She turned to Claire. “You feeling okay?”
“I feel great,” Claire shrugged. “Though I don’t know what happened just now.”
“Progress,” Aerin wrapped her arm around Claire’s shoulder. “That was some powerful fire you just wielded tonight.
“Right?” Claire’s eyes gleamed with pride.
“More like possession,” Moira muttered, turning to Tierra.
They stood staring at each other, the charred line between them becoming a chasm, the distance growing from a few inches to a gulf of mistrust and suspicion.
“L-let’s get hosed off,” Moira suggested, an obvious attempt to break the sudden tension. “We’ll think better without zombie guts and chainsaws. We’ll figure it out.”
“First of all,” Tierra’s eyes narrowed as her grip on the Grimoire tightened. “get these abominations of yoursoffof my yard!”
“So it’s your yard now, is it?” Claire challenged. “I thought it belonged to all of us.”
“You know what I mean.”
Aerin put her hand on Claire’s arm, hoping to soothe her fiery temper. “It’s okay, Claire. I know exactly where to send them.” A few lonely Horsemen could use some company.
