Page 122 of The Unbound Witch
Iwanted to tell her. Should have, even. But I couldn’t speak the words aloud, and I couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t try to stop me. Kirsi could be trusted beyond anyone I’d ever known in my life, but because she loved me so fiercely, she would try to save me. And as the whispers in my mind grew, I knew without a doubt what needed to be done and she would never allow the sacrifice.
I couldn’t look into Bastian’s eyes and say confidently, when the moment came, I’d make the final move his mother seemed to have donated her power for. Maybe that was the key. Maybe she’d given me her own power to help save me. Maybe I needed to trust her vision.
There was really no time for heart-to-hearts lately. Nor would there be in the foreseeable future. Not with Endora standing outside the barrier of the shop, finally coming for her sickly Grimoire. We could only hope the magic would hold for the moments it would take us to deliver the news and get there. It would only be a matter of time now before she personally went after the remaining books. I could feel them. The thrums of power. I knew they hadn’t moved from where we’d left them, but when she was ready, she’d only need to scry to find those outside of Bastian’s barrier at the castle.
Four powerful figures stood, waiting for us in a single line with hardened faces as we neared them. I’d have to find the time to tell Bastian that his mother’s death was to initiate the Harrowing. But right now, that wasn’t the most important thing we’d learned. Kirsi dropped me to the ground and instead of flying to meet Nym, she stayed at my side as I raced, hardly stopping to greet them.
“Endora is at the shop. We have to go.”
Bastian slowed down to cast the door as we ran. When it appeared, we fell into a single file line to get to Eden and Crow as fast as possible, ready to attack from the inside. Either way, Endora had to die in order to save every remaining target of the Harrowing. But, with no warning, a searing pain ripped into my head, causing me to fly forward, nearly falling. When we passed the threshold, the world didn’t change around us. We stepped through the door as if it were an empty frame dropped into the center of our world.
Absolute horror fell over me as I turned just in time to see my beautiful Dark King clutch his chest and fall heavily to the ground.
“Bastian!” I screamed, shoving the others out of the way as I tried to fight through my own pain and reach him.
Torryn and Atlas were faster, throwing themselves to their knees to get to him. They rolled him to his side as he groaned, shoving them away. I landed seconds later, nearly losing my vision as the world spun.
Bastian reached for me, pulling me on top of him as he rasped. “My magic … gone.”
“Raven?” Kirsi whispered, lifting me from Bastian’s arms to look into my eyes. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, pulling my hair from my eyes to look into my oldest friend’s face. She knew, too. Maybe not everything, but enough to be worried.
“I’m okay. I can only feel them. That’s all.”
Her face hardened at my easy lie. She knew the truth and the only thing I could do was look at each of the others and press my lips together, hoping she would understand. But instead, her eyes flicked to Nym and then back to me before moving to Atlas’ side.
“Run,” Bastian said, gripping Atlas by the collar of his shirt. “Save them.”
Shifting, he turned to Kir. “Race you there, Ghosty.”
And they were gone. Nym followed, riding on the back of her giant white tiger, barely able to keep up.
“Let me help you.” Torryn groaned, hardly in shape to lift himself, let alone someone else.
Bash pushed him away, standing on his own as he shifted to Grey and then back to himself. Most of the time, I was used to either one of them, but seeing the kind face of an old friend in this moment was jarring when I wasn’t ready for it.
“Just checking,” he said, limping forward. “It’s going to be a slow jog the whole way. Endora must have found someone with the power to mute magic.”
“I’m getting too old for this shit.” Tor shifted and, though he struggled to lift off the ground at first, he managed, still moving faster than we were.
It took Bastian less than five minutes to recover from the loss of his magic. As if it were only an adjustment, like stepping into the human world before he was oriented, though still powerless. But this was a scar far deeper. Something that stripped away the person he was in a land he was meant to rule over.
The pain throbbing through my mind was so debilitating, and by the time we stepped on desecrated ground, I hardly even noticed it. I could feel the loss of my own color as much as I could see it in my palms. Bastian cast worried glances my way, but ultimately stayed the course, sheer determination of a scorned king driving us all the way across the Moon Coven.
But we were not prepared for what we saw. I knew it would be brutal, the loss devastating. But there was not a building untouched. The damage started long before we neared the shop. Most of the aged cobblestones were dislodged from the ground as if an earthquake had loosened them. The entire square had taken damage. Not just the square but everything as far as I could see… If not gone, destroyed. Kirsi floated over the top of the space where Crescent Cottage should have been. Where the floor my grandmother had died upon used to be. The cot I’d slept on as a child, only a memory. The damn doorknob we’d never had fixed… Gone.
She swooped low, grabbing me by shoulders and crushing me to her as I began to cry. The itchiness in my throat turned to a sharp pain I could not swallow as tears raced down my cheeks. The weight of the world fell on me, crushing me. I cried. For Bastian, for myself, for the Moon Coven witches. For the lives that were undoubtedly lost in this devastation. For Eden Mossbrook, the witch I’d never even given a chance to, keeping walls up when I should have let her all the way in and embraced her when I could have; the healer that saved me. For the drunken captain who’d given his final days to a witch locked in a store and had only complained when his drink ran dry. For a tiny black panther who’d been my only solace as we mourned the loss of his witch together.
“I’m so sorry, Kir.”
She cried. Real tears fell from her eyes as she held onto me, holding herself in corporeal form, only to provide comfort. Strong arms wrapped around us. I didn’t need to look to know whose they belong to. A king of witches, who held no magic. And then the shifter who’d nearly died and the friend that’d saved him first. I waited a beat, pausing for Nym before I realized… she may have suffered her own losses this day, separate from these. She was likely gone already, searching for her family. Looking to see how far this devastation reached within our coven.
“There’s no way she caused this much destruction and lived through it,” Bastian said, pulling away from the group as he kicked at the ground.
“Help!” Someone screamed, somewhere down the road.
It wasn’t even a consideration in our minds. One distress signal and we were running. Racing for the voice. We’d all suffered enough. If we could save one single person from despair at this point, we would. Especially someone who so easily asked for it.