No, no, no, no!
I rush forward, Finn and Bane at my side, but it doesn’t seem to matter, I can’t get in anymore, no matter how hard I try to push through. The circle is closed and they’re starting the ritual. And the soldiers, who were simply standing around, waiting for instructions, are pulling their weapons, closing in on us. I glance back, to the others. Fucking hell. This is not going to end well. I already know.
“How do we undo the circle?” I step back, Phoenix appearing next to me. “We need to stop this.” I have no idea what he’s going to do, but the magic that’s coming from the circle as they’re starting the ritual is bad, like it’s trying to suffocate the magic in here.
“We can’t open it from here.” Then she stops, staring at one of the people in the circle. “That one. He’s from the family your mum was talking about, right?”
“How do you know?” I glance at the witch she points to. He’s a witch, full witch blood as far as I can see, probably a couple of years older than my parents, the oldest witch in the circle by far.
“Green magic.” She sighs. “Seems your mum was right. They got one of them to help...” She pulls me back, as Topaz and some of the others dash past me.
When I look in the direction they’re going, I see a whole group of fae soldiers suddenly appear in the cavern. Many times more than the couple of guards who were already in here.
“Use the powder!” Rune calls out from beside me, and I watch as he hands Kit one of the bags. Kit, who is in his monster form, flies over us as he opens the bag, one of the other incubi using magic to create sparks that he sends towards the soldiers that Kit is dousing in the powder.
Finn and Phoenix pull me back a little further. I try to push against them, but stop as Phoenix swiftly shakes her head. “We can’t let you get too close. We’ve got more important things to do. Let them fight, we need to focus here.”
“We need to stop the ritual.” I nod.
I watch as Finn’s dad is not paying any attention to what’s going on around him, though one of the witches, the youngest, who may be half werewolf and half witch, is glancing back nervously from time to time.
“If we can’t break the circle, how do we stop them?”
Finn’s eyes darken, his mouth a thin line. “We don’t.” He looks at Phoenix, who seems like she’s about to speak up. “We can’t get to them when the circle is closed, but as soon as the ritual is over, they will open it again. We strike then.”
“No.” I shake my head, vehemently. “We have no idea what ritual he’s doing. We can’t let him finish, put everyone in danger, everyone in here and out there. People who are counting on us to protect them. If he finishes the ritual, it could all be over. We could all be dead. We’re supposed to protect them, not let them get slaughtered.” My voice almost breaks at the thought, even when I try to stay strong.
“We don’t have a choice. We can’t get in there.” He steps closer, taking my hands. “It’s the only way. Phoenix?”
Next to me, Phoenix nods, slowly. “I’ll... I... Yes. As soon as the circle opens, we grab him, fix this.”
A bloodcurdling cry from the fight pushes all the reasons of why we can’t wait from my head. We may not be able to do anything about the ritual, but we can protect the people who are here right now. The people who need our help right now.
Strings of flames twist around me as I run into the fight, the heat inside me building higher than I’ve ever experienced before. The first time I was able to pull this much magic together, it felt strange, unwieldy, but now it feels so right. The heat on my skin spikes and people jump back as I rush past them. At my side, Phoenix’s hands are shrouded in black death and Finn’s blades are spinning around him in his cloud of electricity.
I can’t let other people fight, when I’m supposed to be the one protecting them.
A fae soldier steps in front of me, holding out his blade to me, but I reach out to him, touching his gloved hand and some flames jump over to him, darting over his body as the skin of his face starts to bubble, boil, his armour catching fire, going up in flames, making him scream out in pain as he drops to the ground, before he stills. Discomfort goes through me, the guy was about my age, maybe a little older, but I also know that if I didn’t do this, then he would have killed me. Me, and people I know and love. And I can’t let that happen.
I send flames ahead of me, they don’t burn the fae soldiers like my touch does, and their armour is pretty well built to withstand fire because of the dragon scales on them, but it still pushes them off-balance, which still helps. My magic flows easy here, not tiring me out, but then, I’m in the old garden, near a strong magic source, the place where my ancestors would perform their rituals. So, of course, it responds well to me.
Looking around, people are fighting on all sides of me. Soldiers are lying on the ground, and also rebels, all thrown together, blackness growing on their skin, and I watch for a moment as some rebels are giving out antidote to anyone who is still alive, trying to save them.
All those bodies together, no matter what race they are, no matter who they’re related to, no matter what ‘side’ they’re on. They’re all dead. They’re all the same in death.
They’re all supposed to be my people, I’m supposed to protect them, all of them.
This needs to stop. This needs to stop now.
I gather up as much power in me as I can, letting it go outward in waves, pushing people away from each other, pushing them aside, and each time I get a group of fae soldiers together, I pull a magical circle of fire around them, locking them in, just like I did with Finn’s aunt. If they can’t move, they can’t hurt anyone. And if they’re in the circle, nobody else can get to them either, rebels can’t kill them either. This keeps everyone safe.
It stops the fight in its tracks, quieting the cavern instantly, everything stopping and stilling. But it’s not calm, far from it. People have shifted back into their human forms, trying to make sense of the situation, a fight ending this abruptly must feel weird.
Finn and Phoenix catch onto what I’m doing quickly, just like Kit, and they start making real protection circles around each of the groups of soldiers I’ve caught this way, locking them in without me having to keep using my magic for it. At the same time, Rune and Bane check each of the rebels, handing out antidote or bandages or otherwise helping them. This starts a chain-reaction of people starting to help each other.
“Impressive.” Finn’s dad’s voice feels loud in the quiet, and when I look up, he’s no longer in the protective circle. “But it’s too late. It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s over. You’re over. Your beloved wolves and dragons are forever locked into their human form and even the succubi and incubi can’t become terrors of the night anymore. It’s over. Outside, my soldiers are slaughtering each and every one of your beloved creatures. I told you, we’re superior. I’m superior.”
No. My legs almost give out under me as dread floods me. That can’t be true, but when I look to the side, I see Bane struggle to shift, his eyes wide in panic. Fuck. No. He can’t have done that. Those people out there, they’re defenceless against the fae soldiers now. Dread winds through my head, overtaking all my thoughts.
“Fight it. Fight that feeling.” Rune’s voice is closeby, his hand on my back. “It’s magic. It’s not real.” His voice is rough, but from where he’s touching me, calm is spreading through me.
I look up. One of the witches in the circle, a half succubus and half witch, is casting a spell, her mouth moving and she’s making symbols with her hands. She’s the one who’s making us feel like this, has to be.
I reach out, opening my hand, and then tightly closing it. Fire appears around her, and then closes around her, burning her up in an instant. My stomach churns when I realise what I just did, even if it felt like a move out of desperation, but the terror winding through my brain has stopped and when I look around, others seem to be calmer too. I take a step forward, to the fae king, straightening my back, summoning as much of that sense of being a queen as I can. “You say they are beneath you, lesser than you, but still use their magic. You don’t want them, but you still need them. Ironic, no?”
“Not for long.” The fae king turns to me. “Once we’ve won, it won’t matter anyway. There won’t be anyone to defy me anymore.”
I know that we need to undo whatever magic he’s done, and fast. Really fast. Because the terror may be gone, but they still can’t shift, they’re still locked inside. I keep my head high, glancing at the other four people who helped the fae king with the ritual. Like we did when Phoenix did her ritual, each of the witches is a different race, combined with witch blood, to get the most from the elements and power for the ritual. But they’ll also all have different powers that they can use. They’re still a danger to us, and there are four left, four powerful witches who could still bring us a lot of problems.
Walking closer to the middle of the room, people around me move, joining me, protecting me.
One of the witches in the circle, the one with fae blood, grabs at his throat, his eyes big, lips turning blue, before he slumps to the ground. Air magic, choking one of them. I have no idea who did it, but I can’t check, I can’t look away from Finn’s dad.
“What were you thinking of doing?” He doesn’t seem to be impressed with what’s going on, it’s almost like he’s bored, or at least pretends to be. “What was a girl like you thinking of doing?”
A calm settles in me. I understand why Finn was so sure before, why he could say the things he said about his dad. “Kill you. I’m going to kill you.”
“And how were you going to do that?” He’s still pretending to be bored, even when each of his guards and soldiers around here is locked in a magic circle and can’t help him, but his eyes grow in surprise as Finn appears behind him, a blade to his neck. One of Finn’s blades, not one the fae blades, no venom on it, which I’m not sure if I wanted that or not.
“How do you undo the ritual?” Finn’s voice is low, his eyes cold, similar but not the same as his dad.
“Like I’m going to tell you. No. Kill me. You won’t find out either way.” His father’s eyes go over to me as he smirks, ice running through my veins. “There’s nothing you can do to undo it. Our races are now the strongest. Fae and witches, as it was always supposed to be. As we were always supposed to be, and the last witch queen knew it too. She always knew it. She was smart enough to recognise that witches and fae were always supposed to be together. The fae at the head and the witches to support them, help them be even better.”
The last witch queen? I narrow my eyes. My brain switching gears, trying to remember everything I know about her. “This ritual, did she make it?”
“Of course. Why else do you think it has to take place here? We were just waiting until the right time to fulfil it. And with you here, the perfect time has come. The time of the right people being in power. Our time.” His smile makes me sick, but that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the witch queen was the one who made this ritual, which means that she can undo it. I can undo it.
Mentally, I flip through the book she left me, but come up blank, not finding a spell which even relates to something like this. I reach back. “Rune?”
“Yes.” His voice rumbles behind me.
“Take my blood.” My blood undid the anti-shifting stuff before, will it help this time?
He doesn’t question me, instead taking my hand, a sharp point piercing my skin, and then his lips surrounding one of my fingers. We wait for long moments, but nothing happens.
Finn’s dad looks on, his eyes following every move we make, coldly smirking. “Yeah. Like she would be stupid enough to try that again...” So he did know about my blood undoing the anti-shifting. That’s interesting.
I go through everything we know about the last witch queen. She worked on an elixir which would suppress all powers before she ‘disappeared’, then she made the anti-shifting antidote for the old fae king, both of which can be undone by her blood. She also made this spell, a spell which... What does it do? Does it bind their powers, or take it away fully?
“Rune, can you still feel your dragon?” I keep my voice low, my words just for him.
“Yes.” He’s still holding my hand. “I can’t shift, but I can feel him.”
I blink. It binds them. It binds a specific part of their magic, the part which allows them to shift. It doesn’t take it away, it doesn’t suppress it. Which is also why the witches from the circle could still use their magic, even when they can’t shift anymore. It looks similar to the elixir in the end result, but it works in a totally different way.
Still, if the elixir suppressed magic and shifting powers, but was undone by witch queen blood, then this magical binding will be undone by the magical equivalent of my blood, my royal witch magic.
Finn leans closer to his dad, his eyes also on me. “That spark in her eyes? Fear it. Because you’re nothing anymore. She’s won. She knows how to break your ritual. You were set up by the last witch queen. She never meant for you to win, to rule, she set it up so that the next witch queen could undo all the damage that our family has brought onto this world. And that time is now. It’s over.”
I look at the magic circle, it’s open now, we can step in and out of it as we want to. If I need the magical equivalent of my blood to undo the ritual, then I need a lot of magic, lots and lots. And there’s only one way to truly harvest the magic that’s in here.
Time to run my first ritual myself. Only the future of our world depends on it... No pressure...