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“I love you.”

Alice’s heart sank. A surge of emotions coursed through her soul—a chaotic mix of fear, agony, anger, love. Her body tensed. The room blurred until there was only Hugo. She wanted desperately to see his icy blue eyes one more time, not the red monstrosities peering down at her.

She pressed her thumb and middle fingers together. She paused, wanting to stretch every last possible moment they had together before she had to perform her dark deed. The moment was an eternity and an instant all at once.

Hugo nodded at her. She knew it was time. He inched closer to her neck, once again opening his mouth to display his vampiric fangs. She didn’t know how much longer she could hold him back. Her knee slipped. She couldn’t wait any longer.

Alice said her final words to Hugo, “I love you too.”

She snapped her fingers, and the wooden stake impaled Hugo in the back, piercing his heart. He arched backward as his legs and arms turned to ash. The line rapidly worked its way up his torso. His face contorted in pain and suffering before it disappeared.

Hugo Dodds was no more.

The wooden stake fell to the floor, though Alice never heard it drop. Hugo’s ashes scattered to the wind and disappeared. She closed her eyes and cried, but nothing came out. With her hands, arms, and legs now free, she writhed in agony on the floor. Alice curled into a ball, rocking herself back and forth. She tried to cry, but produced no sound.

She was lost in the pain of losing Hugo—the only one who truly cared about her. Her lover. Her betrothed. She took in a breath. Finally, Alice let out a barbaric yawp, filling the once happy home with pain, suffering, and torment.

Chapter 26

A Crossed Lover

The grandfather clock chimed three times. Dong. Dong. Dong. 3 a.m. The witching hour. The house was silent. The wails of agony had long since stopped. There was no movement. It was silent, except for the constant ticking of the grandfather clock.

Alice laid on the hardwood floor using her arm as a pillow. She had lost track of how long she laid there. She couldn’t remember if she fell asleep. Her arm, however, fell asleep ages ago. She didn’t care. The numbing pain relieved the pain in her heart—her soul. She focused on the instrument of her torment—the wooden spike. Her face remained devoid of any expression.

Her eyes never wavered from the point of the wooden stake, the instrument of death. Hugo’s contorted, agonized face was still fresh in her mind. She wanted to remember the good times—his smiling face, a passionate kiss, anything. She could only remember his final moments.

She breathed in and out, each breath slow and shallow as if she questioned why she took her next breath. Every inhale a moment ofsolace. Yet, every exhale carried a lingering sense of melancholy as she questioned if she could go on with the burden of the world.

Her life was gone. Everything she knew had crumbled before her. All at the hands of Sylvia Savino in her pursuit of becoming queen of a new empire. Her wine cellar was smashed to pieces. Her friends, the Raskins, lived in fear for their lives. Her lover, her best friend, and soulmate was dead. There was nothing left for her. Sylvia won.

All because of a stupid spell. A spell her family had given her as a burden. There was one who begged her, pleaded with her to make the spell. They wanted to use it to their advantage. Alice’s mind slipped back to the event that set all of this into motion.

“What are you looking at?”Sam’s voice jolted Alice.

A shiver ran down her back.

“Did I scare you, the great Alice Primrose?”

Alice laughed. “You didn’t scare me. I was just concentrating. Startled, more like it.”

Sam draped her arm around Alice’s shoulder, hugging her close as if she was preventing her from running away.

Alice wanted to run away.

“So, what are you concentrating on?”

Alice rolled up the scroll and stuffed it back into its wooden box. “It’s nothing,” she responded. She picked it up, stuffed it back into its hidden hole, and pushed the stone shut. “It’s just a spell. Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, it must be something if you’re doing your best to keep it hidden. What is it?” Sam asked.

“It’s nothing.”

Sam leaned in and whispered into Alice’s ear. “What is it?”

Sam’s breath over her ears tantalized Alice’s soul. Sam knew every button Alice loved to have pushed. Every tease excited hermind, body, and spirit. A longing within craved a deeper connection with her girlfriend.

“I can’t tell you. You shouldn’t have seen it,” Alice said.