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)
“My love, my apologizes for your uncle!” Theseus said one moment, and the next, he was already at Uncle Axel’s throat, slamming his body so hard into the tree it snapped in half, which was odd. If he were a vampire, maybe not, but a mortal? The impact alone should have killed him. However, my uncle Axel just laughed and rose from the ground.
“All these years, do you think I took magic for nothing?” He chuckled, cracking his neck. “I may not be a vampire, but I am no longer an ordinary mortal—”
“Mortal is mortal. Death will come, I promise.” Theseus sneered, lunging at him once more, but like a madman, like a villain out of a twisted cartoon, Axel laughed as he dodged Theseus and whipped his body into another part of the forest.
His magic smelled rotten and was like a fog, a dark aura of death around him.
My figures dug into the soil. The more magic he used, the angrier I became. All this magic—it wasn’t his. He stole it. He killed for it.
Take it back. It wasn’t Wraith. It was Magdalena, who was still beside him.
“Take it back?” I whispered.
She nodded with a smile. You can do it, Dru. I’ll help, too.
I smiled back. Magdalena walked over to Axel and grabbed his leg. I could see right through her body, and it was funny to see how hard she was pulling and also how much more my uncle now struggled to move, allowing Theseus to punch into his chest, throwing Axel onto the ground before Theseus, too, collapsed, gripping on to his side.
Focus.
Focus.
I breathed in, calming all of me so I could see into the fog, deep into the dark aura of death in him, and I saw a tiny light like a firefly flickering in the distance. Stretching out my hand, it drifted closer.
“Uhh!” He snarled out as the firefly came close and closer. “Druella!”
The magic grew not only warmer and warmer as it reached me but also brighter and larger until it was even too much to look at. Then all of a sudden, it burst, falling on me like shimmering rain.
“Druella?” Theseus called out to me as he lay on the ground. With ease, I got up now and walked over to him. He raised his eyebrow as he looked me over. “You are sparking, my love.”
“I don’t know why yet,” I said back softly.
“Your uncle’s escaping.” Theseus tried to sit up completely, unbothered by his wounds.
“You’re hurt.”
“I’ll heal. If not, the worst-case scenario is I die, but I’ll come back.” He smiled tiredly. “If you died, you would not come back. How could I just let you go alone?”
“Theseus, do you trust me?”
“Not if you try to leave me behind again. We are going to kill your bastard uncle—”
I shook my head. “It’s going to take more strength, and I need this magic to finish this.”
“Finish what, Druella? What is this plan of yours?”
I inhaled, the pain still on me. “To disappear? I’m tired, Theseus. I don’t want to fight. I don’t want war. I just want to be happy. To be free.” I smiled. “But there is only one way for that to happen.”
“Disappearing? Fine. We can go—”
“No, Theseus, so long as that book exists and the coven knows I exist, they will never let me be free.”
“What are you saying?”
“Do you trust me?”
He frowned but nodded. “Yes, of course. What are you saying—Dru?”
“I wanted to explain everything. I thought I’d killed Axel, and I’d have the time, but I need to hurry before Axel recovers…”
“Tell me now.”
“Everyone needs to forget.” I kissed his lips, and his eyes widened as I drove the blade of fire into him. “I am not betraying you, I swear. I’ll explain when I remember—when we are back together. I love you.”
He just stared at me, his teeth grinding in agony, and as I pulled the sword, he shattered to dust.
“It’s not the end but the beginning,” I reassured myself as I held the sword in my hand and drove it into my stomach. Shaking, I fell back onto the soil, struggling for air, watching the sunrise over the treetops as I forced the words out.
“I, Druella, call upon the deepest of the land, the moon, sea, and darkness, take from me all the magic you wish. Drink the blood that pools from under me. Take the breath out of me from above. To the sun return this warmth.” Theseus’s face came to mind as I bit my lips, an ache spreading through my bones.
Not just his face appeared, but so did my friends…my family.
I needed to forget them.
We all need to forget.
“Hear me, take from me, and release me from this mortality.”
The wind was cold as all the heat left me. Like ice was being shoved into my veins, I shook, part of me…the magic in me…fighting back, trying to save me.