Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 115432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
“Druella, something does not make sense here—”
“Who is it!” I grabbed his shirt, flames slowly eating into it. He still didn’t answer, and I shook my head. “Why are you protecting them? I thought…I thought you cared more about me.”
“I do, and that’s why I am trying to under—”
“If you really care, if it wasn’t all a lie, tell me the truth.” I tried to hold my tears, but they fell anyway. “Please, Theseus, because if you keep this from me, I-I will never see you again. I swear.”
He closed his eyes and inhaled once before saying, “Her name is Lucy Ming. She is Taelon Swan’s mate.”
Letting him go, I stood up straighter, and my magic crackled under fingernails. It came out of my pores, my breath. Every heartbeat was alive in ways I’d never felt before. The trees around me bent under the howl of the wind, sending leaves, twigs, even rocks into the air. The sky darkened. “I warned him. I warned all of them.”
“Druella, I’ve watched you all your life, and at your core, you have always wanted peace. To prevent a full war—”
“If there is no enemy, there is no war,” I whispered, stepping away from him as the skies filled with thunder. “You are wrong. Some of you really are just monsters. And you need to die.”
“Druella, my—”
I didn’t want to hear from him. Or anyone else. I didn’t want to see anything, and I didn’t want anything other than to destroy them.
They needed to burn.
All of them.
Vampire.
Burn.
Destroy.
It was the only thing my mind could think of. I could barely see anything in the world as I flew faster and faster, gripping the fire in my hands like swords.
“What in the hell are—”
I heard a voice, a vampire’s voice, and with one stroke, its head came clean off. Its body burned to ash, and I ran even faster. Where I was, I did not know. All I knew was…
Vampire
Burn.
Destroy.
“It’s a witch! Go run—”
Vampire.
Burn.
Destroy.
Over and over again, I could sense them, the monsters, close, far, all over the place. My hand was faster each time as I cut into them, the smell of ash the only proof they existed. But I couldn’t find her. I needed to find her!
“Lucy Ming. Give her to me!” I screamed, but at who? Where was I supposed to go? Why couldn’t I find her! Why was everything so dark!
Find her.
Find her.
Find her!
“Druella! Druella! Stop!”
Vampire
Burn.
No!
I knew that voice.
“Druella, can you hear me?”
Theseus?
I tried to look, but everything was dark.
“Druella, this isn’t you! Breathe! You don’t want to do this! Calm down!” he yelled.
Why did he sound so far away?
Breathe?
Wasn’t I?
“Druella, I’m going to try to come to you, okay?”
Come where? Everywhere was dark.
I-I needed to stop them, destroy them. I needed to—
“Druella!” Theseus called again, shocking me as his hands touched my ankle like he was pulling me down.
I didn’t understand.
But at his touch, the darkness cleared. My eyes hurt, so I blinked over and over again, trying to see, but there was so much smoke. Squinting, I looked again only to see fire eating its way through the trees on every side for as far out as I could see. Thunder and lightning swirled around me in the gray clouds before striking the ground, only adding to the chaos, burning more things, homes, schools, all of Bymoor set in fire. It was hell, and the proof of it wasn’t the fire or the smoke or the chaos but the ghosts. I didn’t have any other word for them, translucent phantoms, pouring into the world from above with swords of flames destroying everything, everyone.
Like the book of revelation had come to life.
Hell on earth.
“Oh…oh, God.” I gasped in horror. This had to be a nightmare.
“Druella!”
Glancing down, I saw I was hundreds of feet above in the air, and Theseus was holding my ankle like it was the edge of a cliff.
“Theseus!” I reached down to touch him, but I noticed an old leather-bound book now in my right hand when I did.
“I—”
Before he could speak, I heard the screeching of a ghost as it came toward him, its face sunken, its sword above its head, swinging right at his wrist. Theseus let go of me to avoid it, falling to the earth, and it followed.
“No!” I screamed, ready to fight, but it stopped going after Theseus and went back down to the burning earth and began attacking Adelaide!
“Stop!” I screamed at it again, diving down after it.
“What is happening? Stop! Make it stop! Not this! I don’t want this.” What had I done? Regret filled me, and there was nothing I wanted more than to go back.
To stop this.
I needed to stop—
“Her name is Lucy Ming, and she is Taelon Swan’s mate.”
I jumped, startled at his voice and his words. Blinking, I glanced down at Theseus, pinned under me like before, my grip on his shirt. I glanced up to the trees, and they were still trees, not a single sign of fire or smoke. The sky was still clear, not a single cloud.