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"They're here." Caleb turned from looking out the front door to Sarah. "Come with me to greet them and fill them in on the situation we face."
"Of course." She stood and left with him.
The rest of us sat at the kitchen table in stony silence. Michael played with the ring around my finger, his face solemn and expression saddened.
"I'm terrified." Grace was the first to admit what the darkness between us was.
"Me too." I pulled from Michael's grasp on my hand and brushed my fingers over her arm.
After the ceremony I'd taken Rob's pledge of allegiance. I was his Alpha and the other Grollics would be arriving soon to become his. If a fight was in order to take that role, he was ready to fight. We figured after explaining the battle to come with Bentos that most of them would gladly file in behind us. Everyone was weary from being the bastard's puppet. It was time to right the situation and then release all of them to freedom.
"I'm not." Rob shrugged. "I trust you. If you say that you're ready, then you are."
"I thought I was in times past too." I let out a painful sigh and sat back in my chair. "I pray this time is different."
"It is." Michael brushed my hair off my shoulder. "I can feel it."
A series of howls resounded in the backyard and we all jumped up, Rob jogging for the door and bolting out to greet the Grollics. I stopped just outside the door and pulled Michael and Grace to stay back with me.
A behemoth of a man walked toward us, his expression angry and eyes menacing. "How dare you call us back to this place? I should kill you for your disrespect of our kind."
"We fight tonight for freedom." Rob spoke with authority like I'd never heard. Some part of me wanted to take a knee and pledge him my allegiance. "Bentos is headed this way soon and we are few in numbers, but mighty in power. Stand with us and I promise you that those of you who survive will walk away free."
"Is she the one?" He nodded toward me, his expression softening slightly.
"I am." I left the comfort of my friends and walked toward the group of men and women gathering behind our guests. "I'm the seventh daughter of the seventh son. Tonight this ends. Join us?"
I lifted my hands and let darkness pour out of me to put the power inside of me on display. I wasn't showing off, but giving validation to my abilities. A large ominous cloud danced above us, its movement sporadic and angry, like a swarm of bees that had quickly gotten out of control. I pulled it back toward me, taking a hard hit to the chest as it permeated my skin and sunk down from wherever it came.
I wanted to scream out at the biting pain of it reentering me, but I refused. They needed to see a solidified hero and they would.
"Rouge!" Michael ran toward me, jerking me around and checking my face for signs of struggle.
"I'm fine. I told you that I was ready." I touched the side of his face. "I am."
"We'll give our allegiance to her," the man barked.
I turned on him and shook my head. "No. You'll give it to my brother. My life is likely to be extinguished as I alone will fight my father. Your best bet is to be protected under the covering of my brother. I'll not take no for an answer."
The male nodded, as did many others behind him. Rob moved forward and started the work of the Grollics, taking under his wing more than two hundred willing and capable beasts.
My father would bring far more, but where he had puppets, we had captives who were tired of their chains. Men would fight for many things, but freedom was at the top of the list.
"Tonight we bring closure to this war." I walked back into the house and picked up my journal. It was time.
––––––––
It was as if heaven knew that we were facing hell that night. The darkened sky was covered in dense grey clouds, leaving the feeling of despair in the air around us. I stood in the middle of the large field behind the cabin. A calm sat on me like I'd never felt before, but the loss of emotion worried me.
I glanced behind me and looked at the faces of my family, my friends and my enemies.
"Ready?" I asked.
"Yes, and know that I'm with you completely." Michael lifted his fingers to his lips and blew me a kiss.
"As am I." Rob's voice was deep and commanding.
"And me," Grace added at the same time as Sarah.
"And me as well. I'm right behind you should you need my strength or a rest in the fight." Caleb lifted his chin as he spoke and I forced tears back.
The voices that lifted around me, confirming that I was covered by a multitude of fighters, both hunters and Grollics who stood side by side, united for the first and possibly last time in human history.
I nodded and closed my eyes, letting the incantation roll off of my tongue.
"From the north and south bring the power of three.
As you rise from the valley, come and stand before me.
Try and take what is mine as the world becomes dark,
For the father shall die and awake the seventh mark."
The wind blew hard against me and a deep laugh filled the air, my father more than joyful at having another opportunity to stand before his enemies and reign supreme no doubt.
Not tonight, asshole.
He walked toward me with his head held high. Beautiful wouldn't begin to describe him, but evil always needed the most alluring of covers... it’s how they got you. His dark copper hair blew in the wind as it played along the side of his alabaster face. His eyes were amber and lit up as if small fireflies danced behind his gaze, but it was his expression that drove a stake of fear down inside of me.
He was willing to do anything necessary to survive.
Good thing I was too.
"Have you come to put an end to this madness?" He smiled at me and lifted his hands as the forests shook violently.
I kept my facade in place and nodded. "I have. Your time is over, much like Malaz has met his end."
He flinched subtly. "Lies. You speak lies, child. I'm almost proud."
I refused to defend myself to him. "You've raped, pillaged and killed for far too long in the name of greed and power. Tonight you end... forever."
"Come, daughter. Let us dance."
I scoffed, nearly laughing out loud at his choice of words. I’d just married Michael and this was going to be the father-daughter dance?
Bentos lifted his foot and slammed it on the ground, shaking the earth and jolting everyone behind us but me.
The forests split open and hundreds of Grollics in beast form poured out of the trees. I charged at my father, knowing that Rob would instruct our warriors what to do and that Caleb would keep his hunters on the right side of the line.
My job was to kill Bentos and take back the life source for our people. It was my only focus. It had to be.
He spun, leaving me jolting past him before turning on my heel and releasing the darkness inside of me.
A smile touched his mouth as he opened wide and swallowed the essence that I forced toward him. He licked his lips and rubbed his stomach. "More, please."
"What the hell?" I growled and lifted my hands, subverting his punches and kicks as we spun around the fighting that surrounded us.
"It's not that easy, child. You should have known this, and you would have, if you would have accepted my invitation to join me." He jerked around me and caught me, pulling me violently against his body and trapping me in a chokehold. A knife pressed to my throat and he laughed, pressing his lips to my ear.
"This seems familiar. No second chances from your mother this time though. Too bad. You were promising."
I pressed against his arm, grateful that he'd done exactly what I needed him to. It was the essence of life that had taken Malaz's life and it would be the same that would take my father’s. Grabbing my Sioghra I tugged it free from my neck and turned, snapping it open and dousing him with the dark contents inside of it.
"No!!!” he wailed. “What have you done, Jamie? You insolent little bitch! No!!!!" He reached for me, but the dark cloud started at his feet and rushed up far more quickly than it had Malaz. His eyes turned dark as night and he lifted a hand as the spell began to turn his legs into onyx. "Make it stop or I'll kill him. I will. Test me in this."
I turned to see Rob dangling from the air, his eyes wide as oxygen was rushing from his body.
“Stop! Leave him be! Stop it!" I lurched toward my father and plowed into him, tugging at his arm as I screamed in his face.
"You make it stop," he screamed back. His voice grated across my face and I swore I was bleeding from a thousand tiny cuts.
The darkness continued to rise up to his midsection and Rob cried out loudly as he was jerked around in mid-air.
"Leave him alone, damn you!" I released more darkness from my hands, forcing it to coat my father faster. If I could kill him before Rob ran out of air...
A laugh left Bentos and he shook his head. "The master is always greater than the servant, Rouge. This isn't over."
A sickening crack resounded behind me. I turned in time to watch my brother fall from the sky, his neck broken and body lifeless on the ground.
The scream that ripped out of the center of me shook the ground beneath us and caused everything to stop. I dropped to my knees as the last bit of my father's face was consumed by the dark wind. It leapt into the air and danced like a whirlwind for a few more minutes before rushing toward me and wrapping me up tightly in its hold.
As it spun faster and faster, it began to suck the oxygen from my lungs. Dizziness raced over me and I could hear the distant screams of my friends for someone to do something, but there was nothing they could do.
My mother said I would know the point at which I could take the Grollics’ life source into myself. This was it. I had the power to reject my father's blood mingling with mine, but to do so would kill everyone that Rob fought beside. He believed in them and I did too. I couldn't let his sacrifice be for nothing.
I relaxed and air filled my lungs as the darkness dove into my Sioghra, the pain of it numbing me. Pressing my hands to the earth, I gasped for air over and over until the violence ended.
I dropped to the earth, my cheek hitting the cold ground as life came crashing down. My mother and brother were dead, and inside of me lay the darkness of the world. How could I get up and live after what I'd seen? After what I'd done?
Tears rolled over my nose and puddled on the ground below me as I stared blankly at the statue of my father.
Strong arms picked me up, but I couldn't begin to comprehend anything that moment.
All I could hear were Grace's horrified screams over Rob's lifeless body.
They were in harmony to mine.
