Page 46 of Faeheart (Widdershins Supernatural Academy #2)

Wild

R ed light filled my vision before my mother’s clawed hands slipped off my neck.

Suddenly I was falling. Everything around me blurred as several things happened at once.

I felt my mother’s strange magic release its death grip on my link to the tetrad bond.

All at once I could feel my mates, their hurt, confusion, and shock as they watched something unexpected take place.

Next, I felt the pain of striking a cold stone floor, my body too weak and damaged to do anything to break my fall.

Pain lanced through my body as I hit the marble floor, but the relief of feeling our tetrad bond fully restored was overwhelming.

Through the connection, I felt Elias’s desperate love and Atlas’s protective fury, while Caden’s gentle healing magic immediately began flowing toward me.

My bruises and cuts began to mend, the pain fading quickly.

Above me, my mother’s perfect face was frozen in shock as she stared down at the crimson tendril piercing her chest. Her emerald eyes, so like mine yet devoid of warmth, flickered with disbelief as she looked from the wound to Marcus, Elias’s father, who stood with his hand pressed against the obsidian cube.

“You... you dare...” she gasped, her voice barely a whisper as blood began to trickle from the corner of her mouth.

“I won’t let you hurt any more children,” Marcus said, his aristocratic features twisted with anguish and determination. “This ends now, Morgana. No more. You are finished.”

The red magic flowing from the cube intensified, and I could see the strain it was putting on Marcus’s body.

His face was pale, sweat beading on his forehead as he channeled the artifact’s power against my mother, attempting to absorb her magic.

But there was something else happening, too.

The cube itself was beginning to crack, hairline fractures spreading across its obsidian surface as conflicting magics tore at its structure. It seemed my mother was fighting back.

“Father, stop!” Elias cried out, lurching forward. “The cube will take you too!”

But Marcus didn’t release his grip on the obsidian surface. Instead, his fingers seemed to sink deeper into the artifact as more crimson tendrils erupted from its cracking surface, wrapping around his arm like hungry serpents.

I tried to push myself up, but my body refused to cooperate. Through our bond, I felt Elias’s panic rising as he realized what his father was doing. He was sacrificing himself to trap my mother’s soul, to put an end to this attack, and to save his son from certain destruction.

“Get back!” Atlas roared, diving toward Elias and pulling him away from the increasingly unstable artifact.

My mother’s perfect form began to distort, her fae features elongating as she fought against the cube’s pull. Her emerald magic flared in desperate bursts, but each flash was weaker than the last as the crimson tendrils drained her essence.

“You fool,” she hissed at Marcus, her voice warping into something inhuman. “You don’t understand what you’ve unleashed.”

The cube’s surface rippled violently, the cracks widening as more souls pressed against its weakening structure from within. I could see faces forming in the obsidian, mouths open in silent screams as they sensed the sweet release of freedom approaching.

“Elias,” Marcus gasped, his body trembling with the effort of controlling the artifact. “You need… to get the artifact out of here… now!”

“But it’ll kill you!” Elias cried back, reaching out toward his father.

But he just smiled. “Then I will have paid for my sins.”

“There has to be another way!”

His father’s body was drawn further into the cube, the red magic consuming him up to the shoulder. “Please,” he whispered, his voice barely breaking through the commotion. “Before it’s too late.”

Caden was suddenly beside me, his gentle hands lifting me to a sitting position. “Can you stand?” he whispered urgently.

“I think so,” I managed, though my voice sounded like broken glass in my throat.

Through our bond, I felt Elias’s magic surge as he reluctantly prepared the teleportation spell we’d planned together, his raw power weaving complex patterns in the air. Atlas and Caden immediately added their energy to his, their magic flowing through our tetrad connection.

My mother’s body was half-absorbed into the cube now, her perfect features contorted with rage and disbelief. “This isn’t over,” she snarled, her emerald eyes finding mine one last time. “You’ll never be free of me, Wilderain.”

“Watch me,” I whispered, summoning what little strength I had left to add my chaotic energy to the teleportation spell.

Marcus looked at his son with eyes full of regret and something like pride. “I’m sorry, Elias. For everything. Tell your mother...” His voice cracked. “Tell her I was wrong and that I’m sorry.”

The cube pulsed with blinding crimson light as it absorbed both my mother and Marcus. The remaining Purity Front members scrambled toward the exits, abandoning their leaders as the artifact’s destabilization became impossible to ignore.

“Now!” Elias shouted, his magic reaching critical mass as our combined power surged through the tetrad bond.

The teleportation spell enveloped the cube in a shimmering dome of intertwined energy.

Blue from Elias, amber from Caden, gold from Atlas, and emerald from me.

The artifact resisted at first, its massive weight and corrupted magic fighting against our spell, but the four of us together were stronger than any individual power.

The cube began to fade, reality bending around it as our magic tore open a rift in space. Through the shimmering portal, I could see the gray emptiness of the deep Veil, far from any sanctuary or settlement.

“Keep going!” Elias gasped, blood trickling from his nose as the strain of the spell pushed him to his limits. “Just a few more seconds!”

My mother’s face appeared one last time on the cube’s surface, her features twisted with fury as she realized what we were doing. “You cannot escape your nature, Wilderain!” she shrieked. “You are chaos! You will destroy everything you touch! Fae and witches can never be bonded forever!”

“You’re wrong,” I croaked, my voice barely audible. “And I’ll love them all just to prove you wrong.”

The cube vanished with a sound like reality tearing, leaving only empty air where it had floated moments before. We all collapsed to our knees, our magic completely spent, gasping for breath in the sudden silence.

Then, a few seconds later, from somewhere deep in the Veil, came a sound like thunder.

The mansion shook around us as the explosion reached across dimensions, the cube’s destruction sending shockwaves through the realm of the dead.

But we were safe, protected by the sanctuary’s ancient walls and our own exhausted magic.

“Is it over?” Caden whispered, his blue eyes wide with disbelief.

Before anyone could answer, ethereal servants began materializing around us, their translucent forms more solid than I’d ever seen them. They moved with purpose, tending to our wounds and clearing away the debris left by the battle.

“The mansion says yes,” one of them reported, its voice carrying notes of profound relief. “The threat has been neutralized. The sanctuary is secure.”

Atlas pulled me into his arms, his golden eyes bright with tears as he held me close. “You’re alive,” he murmured against my hair. “We’re all alive.”

Through our bond, I felt Elias’s grief for his father mixing with overwhelming relief that we’d survived. Caden’s gentle presence wrapped around all of us, his healing magic still flowing to repair the damage we’d sustained.

“The Purity Front?” I asked weakly.

“Gone for now,” Atlas replied, glancing toward the shattered entrance. “The survivors fled when Marcus turned on your mother. Without their leaders and their artifact, they’re just frightened people running from their consequences.”

I closed my eyes, finally allowing myself to believe it was truly over. My mother was gone, trapped forever in the artifact she’d helped create. The tetrad bond that had made us so powerful had also been our salvation, our love for each other giving us strength when everything else failed.

“What happens now?” I whispered.

Elias kneeled down at my side, tears running down his face as he swept me up into his arms. “I don’t know, but don’t ever leave me like that again,” he cried, his voice muffled by my shoulder.

I couldn’t help but grin, my arms wrapping around him. “I was kidnapped, Elias. I couldn’t help it.”

He pulled back, eyes red and furious. “Then don’t fucking get kidnapped again, you idiot!”

“I’ll try my best,” I laughed, wincing as pain shot through my ribs. Even with Caden’s healing magic, my body was a constellation of bruises and half-healed wounds.

“That’s not funny,” Elias muttered, but I could feel his relief flooding our bond, warm and golden like sunshine after a storm. His fingers traced my face gently, as if making sure I was real. “I thought I was going to lose you.”

“You can’t get rid of me that easily,” I said, leaning into his touch. “It’ll take more than my psychotic mother and a soul-sucking cube to separate us.”

Atlas moved closer, his protective energy wrapping around all of us like a shield. “The mansion’s sending out distress signals now that the dampening field is gone. Help should be arriving soon.”

As if summoned by his words, the air near the shattered entrance began to shimmer and distort. A portal opened, revealing several armed magicians, Councilors Ashwick and Vael, and leading the charge was Professor Blackwood.

“Always late to the party,” I called, letting my head fall against Elias’s chest. “Where the hell were you an hour ago?”

Professor Blackwood rushed forward, her normally composed features twisted with concern as she surveyed the destruction around us. “We came as soon as we could break through the interference. The entire Veil was locked down by something powerful.”

“The Cube of Binding,” Elias explained, his voice hoarse as he continued to hold me against his chest. “It’s been destroyed now.”

Councilor Ashwick stepped carefully over the rubble, his silver robes flowing around him as he approached. “We felt the explosion from three realms away. What exactly happened here?”

Atlas shifted protectively closer to us. “The Purity Front brought a soul prison to trap us. They didn’t count on us fighting back.”

“Or on my father sacrificing himself to stop them and Lady Briar,” Elias added quietly, his grief pulsing through our bond.

Professor Blackwood knelt beside us, her hands already glowing with healing magic as she assessed our injuries. “What happened to Lady Briar?”

“Gone,” I managed, wincing as her magic probed a particularly tender spot on my ribs. “Absorbed into the cube along with Elias’s father before we teleported it deep into the Veil.”

The councilors exchanged alarmed glances. “You teleported an unstable blood magic artifact into the Veil?” Councilor Vael asked, her pristine eyebrows nearly disappearing into her hairline.

“It was that or let it explode in here with us,” Caden replied, his gentle voice carrying unexpected authority. “We didn’t have many options.”

More magicians were streaming through the portal now, medics rushing to our sides while security personnel from Widdershins Academy spread throughout the mansion, checking for remaining threats.

I felt Elias’s grip on me tighten as they approached, his protective instinct flaring despite his exhaustion.

“It’s okay,” I whispered, reaching up to touch his face. “They’re here to help.”

Professor Blackwood stood, addressing the councilors with a fierce expression I’d never seen on her before. “These students need immediate medical attention, not an interrogation. The debriefing can wait.”

“Of course,” Councilor Ashwick nodded, though his shrewd eyes continued to assess the surrounding damage. “But we’ll need full statements from all of them once they’re stable. The Purity Front attacking a hidden sanctuary in the Veil is unprecedented. The Council will want answers.”

“They’ll get them,” Atlas growled, helping Caden to his feet as medics surrounded us with stretchers and healing potions. “But first, we rest.”

I felt myself being lifted onto a stretcher, Elias refusing to let go of my hand even as they began to move me toward the portal. Through our tetrad bond, I could feel all three of my mates’ exhaustion mingling with relief and lingering fear.

“Stay with me,” I murmured to Elias, suddenly afraid we’d be separated at the hospital.

“Always,” he smiled. “I’m never leaving your side again.”

I squeezed his hand, love flowing through the bond.

“Hey Professor?” I called, beckoning her over.

“Yes, Mr. Briar Hall?”

“Do me a favor and have them take me to the infirmary,” I said, a mischievous grin filling my face. “If you ever tell anyone about this, I’ll deny it, but…” I let out a long sigh. “I want to go back to the academy.”

“Of course,” she smiled. “I’ll make sure we have the best clerics in all the realms bringing the four of you back to perfect health.”

“Thanks.”

She gave the four of us a nod as we headed for the portal, Elias’s hand still holding mine as I was carried on the stretcher.

“I love you, Elias,” I said softly. “More than anything.”

“I love you too, Wild.” He glanced up at Caden and Atlas, the pair of them hand in hand as well. “I love all of you.”