Page 137 of The Unbound Witch
I rushed forward, pushing her out of the way of a falling death dagger. “This is exactly why we can’t do this now.”
“I’m not leaving this room until everyone leaves. And if I die, you’re fucked.”
Ice ran over me. As if someone had grabbed my physical body and plunged me into the winter tide. “Why would I be?”
Raven screamed and Bastian roared and yet I couldn’t look away from her. I blinked slowly as the world faded into the background.
“I’m an asshole. But you’re going to listen because if you get stuck in this world because I die, I’ll be an even bigger asshole. I messed everything up. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you it was me. I didn’t know how or when. I couldn’t lose you right when I’d gotten you back. But you’re not here because Raven wished for it.”
My ears began to ring as I floated steadily backward.
“You’re here, Kirsi, because I wished for you, too. You might have come back on Raven’s request first, but mine is what’s holding you here.”
I couldn’t fight the slow, disbelieving head shake, couldn’t help the fingers that moved to my lips or the whimper. “It was you?”
“I’m sorry, okay? I just wished for your forgiveness. I didn’t think… The deja said you couldn’t come back from the grave and I trusted that. It was hopeful wishing, that’s all.”
“Stay the hell away from me,” I roared, soaring through her and vanishing.
Heart pumping as I watched pure pandemonium happening below. I allowed my shoulders to rise and fall as if I were taking breaths to steady myself. Raven limped. Bastian was trying to pull her to the door, Atlas continued to punch the god damn barrier.
And Eden? From above, I could hardly see through the moss. A back cracked against the barrier. My eyes flicked to Nym. Blood splattered along the glassy dome. I looked at Nym. Endora screeched and another round of death daggers fell from the ceiling, the mountain grinding as the earth continued to shake. I looked at Nym.
The room suffocated me. The truths and lies permeated in the promise of death, and I couldn’t stay back and watch. I needed to do something. Anything. A thought struck me. I plummeted, soaring through the room, seeping into the mountain below and entering the death barrier through the floor. Eden had made a dome, not an orb. And now maybe I could save her damn life.
Everything within the space was foreign, dark. As if they’d built another world in an attempt to end each other. Eden and Endora’s battle cries rang like peeling bells within the magical ball. Monstrous trees grew from the rocks of the mountain’s floor. Boulders smothered in moss that continued to grow, creeping up the bloodied walls, reaching for the vines. A spell zipped past me, crashing into a large stone.
I soared to the top of the barrier, searching through the darkness for the two witches. They hid behind boulders, but Eden was clearly on the losing end of the battle. Her dress had been burned so badly down one arm, had she not been a healer, she’d be fully incapacitated. Blood smothered her skirts. The half of her hair that typically showed white was tinged with pink from a long gash in her head.
Enough was enough. I dropped down behind Endora, who’d cast upon herself just as I landed. She dashed to the side in a blur, her spell making her far more quick. And the likely reason why Eden couldn’t catch her.
“I don’t want to kill you, Eden. Don’t make me do this.” Endora closed the space between her and her daughter.
“No, Mother, you do want to kill me. It just needs to be on your timing when you’ve drained my power for whatever spell you’re concocting against the shifters.”
Eden stood from behind her rock, facing her mother. Her eyes flicked to me just as I soared forward, ready to rip Endora’s heart from her back. But the black and white witch shook her head and I recognized the plea on her face. Her desperate need for the choice.
I vanished, soaring around the elder witch to stop beside Eden as Endora cast and sent her flying into a boulder behind her, then dashed away.
“Let me help you,” I hissed in her ear as she tried and failed to get to her feet.
“No,” she grumbled beneath her breath. “If this is how I die, then at least it’s my choice and no one else’s. I need this. I earned this.”
She spoke directly to my only weakness. I’d not been given the same choice over my death. I backed away. Watching as Eden was broken again and again by her mother’s quick wit and spells, Eden could only find enough time and strength to heal herself. She hadn’t had time to break Endora down at all. A marking on Eden’s neck glowed green and she thrust her arms forward, desperate to hit her mother, but she’d missed. And the knife she’d stolen from Bastian clambered to the ground.
I swooped in, Endora’s counter spell surging through me as I snagged the knife before the old hag could. Eden dashed behind a boulder again.
The milky white moonstone embedded into the blade of the knife seemed to shine in the darkness of the foliage. I soared behind the boulder with Eden, shoving the blade into her trembling hand.
“You’re stronger than this, dammit. You’re not just a Moss witch. You’re a fucking Moon witch and you have a moonstone. The Moss witches haven’t had shit for power for years because you had that Grimoire, but the moon has never failed us. You’re twice the witch your mother is. You dig deep, you pull whatever power you need from that stone, and you end this. I will not watch you die today.”
Her mismatched eyes studied mine as she pulled the knife from my hand, running her thumb over the stone. Closing her eyes, she whispered. “As steady as the moon that reigns over the dark.” When her eyes flashed open again, they seemed to glow as a renewed sense of purpose flowed through that witch’s veins.
“Let me help you,” I begged again.
“Maybe you can find a way to hold her still, Kirsi.”
I left her behind her boulder, moving to the vines on the roof above us and ripping them away. The light beaming in gave me away. Endora cast her own barrier and it slammed into me pinning me between Endora and Eden’s magic. I was trapped. And Eden was closing in on her mother, casting as Endora did. She’d been able to catch her, honing in on power that was all but foreign to her until now. Most of her power came from healing, but she’d managed fire, burning the bottom of Endora’s dress until she put it out with water.