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It seems that this drug is very hard to find and very rare. If Marlowe or Elise were able to corner me and Jaxon or another pack member couldn’t be there to protect me, he gave it to me. It seemed crazy at the time that things could get this bad, but here we are.
I know Jaxon would rather I leave him and Ezra behind the wards, but I can’t do that because they need protection. When the witches stop fighting, they will have all of their power and attention. They could get hurt or worse. Also, the only way I can save Skyler is to get the wards down so they can call the pack doctors. I hope they get there in time. I can’t lose any more friends today.
Elise’s magic, which is getting stronger, pulls me out of my thoughts.
Elise yells at her murderous mother, “I hate you!”
Marlowe yells back, “You’ll thank me soon when your new powers come in,” as she protects herself from her daughter’s attacks.
“What the hell does that mean?”
Marlowe says, “It means that when a witch or a warlock has a twin and that twin dies, they get their power. Magical twins are so rare that they are almost never heard of. Most magic-wielding parents with twins would choose the stronger baby and kill the other one. All of the most powerful witches and warlocks were twins, like me.”
“Wait… Are you saying that an aunt or uncle of mine was killed? That’s so messed up!”
I can’t say I disagree with that. That’s… cruel.
“Our family has always been different and stronger. It can be hard to tell at birth which child will grow up to be more powerful and better at controlling their magic. My parents raised me and my twin brother until we were 18, and then I decided I wanted the power for myself. How do you think I became such a strong coven leader?”
Everyone in the room seems shocked by Marlowe’s confession. I didn’t know that when one twin died, their powers would go to the other. It tells you why Marlowe is so strong. If Elise was already very strong, then Felix’s powers would make her even stronger…
Elise screams in pain and grabs her head as she falls to her knees. She groans and cries out with her eyes closed.
“Yes, yes! Let it happen! Accept your power!”
I’m horrified by what I’m seeing. A blue mist-like magic comes out of Felix’s body right in front of me. It moves like a snake, slithering and crawling over to Elise and getting into every hole in her body, including her mouth, nose, ears, and even her eyes.
She screams for it to stop and writhes on the floor. I can’t take any more of this. Now is the time to act.
As Marlowe watches her daughter’s magic come in, I run as fast as I can toward Marlowe. She doesn’t even know I’m coming. I put the needle in her neck and pushed down on it. She gets every last drop into her body. She screams in pain as rage takes over her body. She can’t help but be angry when she sees me.
“What the hell did you just give me, you stupid human?”
I back away from her and quickly turn to run, but then I remember Skyler. He is sitting in the hallway outside. Marlowe will have to chase me if I run, which will take him right past Skyler. He is hurt and can’t defend himself right now. I could never put him in danger like that. All I can do is hope and pray that the drug works before she kills me.
I stop running and look Marlowe in the eye. Jaxon starts yelling at me to run away as fast as I can. I look at him and shake my head. Ezra is a wolf right now, growling and out of control, and I know he couldn’t live without Skyler. They are marked and paired up. I look back at Jaxon, and he opens his eyes wide as he gets it.
“No, no, Calla! Run! He would want you to run!”
Ignoring Jaxon’s plea, I turn to Marlowe again. I may not have been strong before, but I can be strong now. I can wear Marlowe down until she can’t control her magic enough to keep the wards up. After that, Jaxon and Ezra can do whatever they want with her.
“I gave you some very rare magical drug,” I tell Marlowe. Then I do something very un-Calla-like: I smile as big as I can, showing off my pearly whites. It looks like spending time with the werewolves has had an effect on me.
Marlowe pushes magic into me, and I fly through the air until I hit the wall on the other side. This feels strangely familiar. I get flashbacks to when the vampire attacked me at Nectar Noir months ago. It wasn’t fun to be slammed into a wall then, and it isn’t fun now either.
When my back hits the wall, it takes my breath away. I fall to my knees and then weakly land on my stomach and forearms. My midsection hurt a lot, and her magic hit me the hardest. I quickly realize that the hit didn’t have the same kind of power behind it as the hit for Skyler. I’m not even bleeding; I’m probably just badly bruised.
Marlowe looks at me with squinted eyes, maybe because she’s not sure how I’m still alive. She steps toward me, but her knee locks and she almost falls over.
That’s when I noticed it. The ward that keeps Ezra and Jaxon locked up is starting to break down. They slowly crawl up the sides of the forcefield, and the two werewolves start to hit it harder. Jaxon’s eyes are black, and he growls some words that I can’t understand because he has big teeth. He looks like he’s about to change because he hates Marlowe so much.
Marlowe takes a deep breath and concentrates. The ward starts to fix itself, but it takes a while. I smile to myself when I realize that Marlowe can’t attack me and hold up the forcefield at the same time. It’s one or the other. Her magic is fading, and spending too much magical energy on me will be enough to break her concentration. I just need to take away enough of her energy so that Jaxon and Ezra can get away. Then Skyler will have a chance.
It hurts to move and take a full breath, but I still manage to say something snarky.
“Is that all you have?”
As her anger grows, Marlowe’s brown eyes turn blue. She walks over to me and kicks me in the face, hard. My head is spinning, and I can hear a ringing sound in my ears. I think I coughed up some blood.
At this point, all I can think about is Marlowe. I can’t hear anything over the ringing noise, but I can see Marlowe looking at the door to get out. It’s clear that she’s realized she doesn’t have much time or magic left. She runs for the door. I don’t let her go very far.
I grab her ankle and pull her down with all the strength I have left. I know I’ve hurt her a little when I hear her groan. She kicks me, and her sharp heels scratch my arms and shoulders, but I won’t let go. She screams in anger and uses some magic to pull my hand off her ankle.
She quickly gets up and looks at my hurt body like I’m dirt on the bottom of her Louis Vuitton shoes. Her hands wrap around my throat with a strength I didn’t know witches could have. She squeezes. I gasp for breath.
The panic sets in—the kind of panic that comes when you know you’re about to die. I guess Jaxon and Ezra are still stuck behind the forcefield. Skyler is dying in the other room. Maisie is stuck in a random room in this house. The only thing I can hope for is that the pack will look after my family after I’m gone. I want Skyler to live. I hope my family is sad about my death and then moves on. I hope Jaxon doesn’t think it’s his fault.
These thoughts all come to me in a matter of seconds. But if I’m going to die, I’m going to fight.
I kick and knee Marlowe as hard as I can. She curses at me and pushes down harder on my windpipe, but I don’t give up. I can almost feel how blue my face is, but I don’t stop. But my kicks aren’t as strong anymore. They lose all of their power and speed.
A purple light flashes in my face just before I pass out. What was the point of Marlowe using her magic on me? Without it, she was almost done killing me.
I can breathe again all of a sudden. I can’t breathe and I cough all the time. I put my hand right away on my throat. There are black spots in the way of my vision. When I get my breath back, I turn my head a little and see… Is this what I’m seeing?
Marlowe is floating in the air, and in front of her is… It looks like Elise, but it doesn’t. She still has the same platinum blonde hair, the same nose that is a little upturned, and the same clothes. The aura around her has changed. She feels strong—like she can’t be stopped. And her eyes. Her eyes are a bright purple color. I haven’t seen magic like that before, but I haven’t seen a lot of magic. I didn’t know magic could be purple; I’ve only seen blue.
“Mother, you don’t get to kill her.” She spits out the word “Mother” like it’s the worst thing she’s ever said. “You’re the only one dying today. Slowly and painfully.”
Everyone can hear Marlowe’s screams. I get the energy to look at Jaxon. The ward is breaking. I see two wolves instead of one. Jaxon must have lost control and moved while I was having trouble breathing. The more they scratch, tear, and ram into the ward, the more it breaks. It looks like it’s about to break.
A new burst of purple magic. A second scream. I watch as Marlowe tries to block Elise’s attacks but fails. After that, Elise backs up and holds her temples again.
“Ow! My head!”
“Yeah. It’s hard to control your powers when you first get them,” Marlowe says with a smile, blood on her teeth. Her dress looks like it’s about to fall apart and is ripped. “Good luck with that.”
Marlowe disappears in a flash of blue light. She went through a portal.
“NOOOOO!” Elise yells, and her eyes shine with purple light.
When I feel hands on my back and arms, I jump, but when I feel the tingles spreading through my body, I calm down right away. Jaxon is here.
“Sweetheart, where does it hurt?”
His soft voice really calms me down. He picks me up carefully, and when I hiss softly, he gets scared.
I turn around to see where Ezra was standing just a few moments ago, but he’s gone.
“Where did-
“He is with Skyler,” he quickly says.
“Is he going to be all right?”
“Skyler is tough. He’s been through a lot in his life. Ezra mindlinked the pack doctor, so hopefully he can get here in time. Marlowe’s ward blocked our mindlink, so we couldn’t even call for help.”