A Curse in Darkness by Sherilee Gray

Chapter 28

Warrick

I held my dove tight,her small body shaking against me. She was fighting the emotions hammering her, trying to be strong. She didn’t need to do that, not with me. They radiated from her, I could sense them, identify them, even if I couldn’t feel them myself.

I wanted to growl in frustration because I didn’t know how to help her.

“I failed Ren,” she said into the darkness. “I failed everyone. I couldn’t protect them, and I can’t protect my sisters from what will happen if I lose my trial.”

Rolling her to her back, I looked down at her in the moonlit room. “Why the fuck do you think you’re the only one who can protect your family?”

She stared up at me. “I’m the oldest, and the trials…”

“You’re still carrying that fucking guilt over what happened at the knight’s compound, but that was not your fault, female. You were up against a twisted fallen angel. He tortured you; he cut you.” My voice rolled out, rough and full of rage. “You endured hours of torture.” I grabbed her precious face in my hands. “Fuck, Willow, stop goddamn punishing yourself. No one here, no one in your family, expects you to protect them. That’s all you. You put that on yourself. When you go out there tomorrow night, you need to do it with that shit out of your fucking head. Thinking about what will happen if you fail will fuck you up. It will take you back there, to a time you felt powerless. And you are not powerless, dove, you are so fucking strong.”

Her eyes grew shiny.

“If you cry, I can’t be held responsible for my actions. You think I’m protective now? Cry in front of me and see what happens.”

She gave me a wobbly smile, one of her small hands cupping my jaw. “Who knew you were so wise. You’re not just a pretty face after all.”

“I knew,” I said, biting back my own smile. “You think I’m pretty?”

“Oh, definitely. It’s those gorgeous eyes you have. They make a girl swoon.”

I grunted, my heart beating like a fucking jackrabbit in my chest. “But do they make you want to fuck?”

She threw her head back and laughed, and my heart didn’t just beat fast, it fucking flipped in my chest. Finally, she sobered and looked up at me, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Kiss me already.”

My mouth was on hers a split second later, giving her what she needed, what she wanted, and knowing that I could give her that filled me with contentment. A couple of my brothers were mated, and they were obsessed with their females. I thought I understood, but I’d had no fucking clue until now, until Willow.

I would do anything, give up anything for her, to be with her.

She was my world, and knowing there was someone out there trying to hurt her was making me insane. Until I got to tear them to pieces, I wouldn’t rest.

My dove wrapped her legs around my hips and rubbed against me, and my ability to think disappeared completely. She was all there was. She was everything.

“I need you,” she whispered against my lips.

I growled and eased inside her. “You have me,” I whispered back.

* * *

Willow

Blood Hill Grove was shrouded in mist as I walked along the torch-lit path. Warrick right behind me. Mom and Art, Iris and Nia, Mags and Bram following. Else was home with Rose, several hounds there with them for protection. They’d assured me no one was getting past them, and I trusted them.

Light shone brightly ahead. A massive clearing that was hidden by the mother’s magic and only revealed for the trials that lay in front of us. Witches and their familiars from different covens were already there, gathered around the massive space.

“What happens now?” Mags asked.

She hadn’t been at my first trial, but she was nineteen now, she’d helped us send Ed and the other spirits back to Hell, so when she insisted on coming, there was no way I could deny her. She deserved to be here; she’d earned it.

“At the allotted time, I walk out into the clearing and learn who I’m going up against.” And I had a bad feeling about it. Something dark and ugly twisted in my gut, a warning maybe.

“You’ve got this, Wills,” she said, but there was no missing the worry in her eyes.

“Thanks, Mags.” For once, I couldn’t reassure her. I couldn’t promise everything would be okay.

I glanced around at the faces surrounding us. All the rich and prominent families. I had no doubt they wanted to see ours get taken down.

“Dove?” Warrick said, obviously sensing my unease.

“Something’s not right. Just…keep an eye on my family for me?”

He went into full-on alert, those golden eyes becoming even more intense as he scanned the area. “They’re here?”

He meant our faceless enemy. “I have no idea. This place is protected during the trial. The only place a witch can use magic is inside the clearing. Me and whoever I’m fighting get locked in, so no one can get hurt outside it, at least not until it’s over. Just don’t let anyone get close to my family.”

He dipped his chin as the alarm on my phone chimed.

It was time.

Mom caught my eyes. You got this, hers silently said. My family was good at hiding their fear when they needed to, but I knew them too well. Despite my entire family collectively refusing to even talk about the prospect of me not walking out of here at the end of this, they weren’t quite managing to hide that fear tonight.

Certain spells were frowned upon, some, the covens agreed never to use. No, we didn’t fight to the death anymore, but “accidents” sometimes happened. More often than they should. I handed Mom my blade—no weapons were allowed here, knives, swords, guns, etc., were a no-no, but smaller things that could be used for spelling were okay. Our main weapon must be our magic, which made it difficult for witches like us, who often used blood to spell.

I turned back to Warrick. He stood tall and strong behind my family. I caught his gaze, and he gave me a nod. I did the same. Getting back to him, to my Mom and Else, my sisters, to Ren, wherever he was, was all that mattered. And I planned on doing whatever was necessary to make sure that happened.

Last time I won by not letting my emotions get the better of me, by playing it safe and sticking to simple spells that were effective instead of the flashy ones used by my opponent. That’s all I had to do to get through this.

Silence filled the space as I kicked off my shoes and walked out onto the field and waited. I turned in a slow circle.

No one made a move to join me.

Time ticked by, only seconds remained before they’d forfeit. I was starting to think they were a no-show when people moved opposite me on the far side of the clearing.

Elmer Eldridge walked out, Isaac’s twin brother, joining me in the middle.

The edge of the clearing shimmered, locking everyone else out, and locking us in.

I heard Mom’s gasp behind me and I bit down my curse. My distant cousins would not tolerate losing this fight, especially not to me. I’d turned down Isaac’s proposal, and Sapphire would not have taken that well. Elmer’s dark eyes slid to me as he unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt and rolled them up his forearms, vines similar to mine twisted and tangled around them.

I looked into the crowd and, sure enough, Sapphire Eldridge and Isaac stood close by. Sapphire’s eyes were hard, boiling with rage and hatred. I glanced back at my family. Clayton was there now. He stood beside Mags and gave me an encouraging nod. Warrick didn’t look pleased, but I was happy for another witch on our side. Especially if things didn’t go my way tonight.

I turned back to Elmer, and as I looked into his eyes, I knew that tonight I was fighting for my life. The Eldridges wanted me out of the way. They wanted what we had, and since I wouldn’t give it to them by becoming Isaac’s wife, they were going to come after it another way.

It all suddenly became clear.

Sapphire was a distant cousin. She had to know about Else’s past, what happened to Stan. It was them. The three of them, they were the cloaked figures in my dream. It had to be. They’d summoned those spirits to get in my way, sent obstacles to prevent me from completing my tasks, hurt Mags to throw me off my game. All in the hopes that if I was desperate, I’d accept Isaac as my husband. All for power, for a claim to our cemetery that didn’t fucking belong to them. They’d seen me with Clay at the ball and were more than likely watching me. They must have killed Olive as a warning or a way to scare Clay and get him to back away.

They’d hurt my sister. They’d hurt Ren.

Rage filled me as Elmer and I circled each other.

I dug my toes into the earth, bit down hard on my tongue, and spat blood on the ground to soak into the dirt. With the spilling of my blood, my magic flared.

Elmer struck first, firing a bolt of lightning at me, and I managed to duck it. His coven drew on fire, man-made and created by nature, and he was going to hit me with everything he had.

The ground shook as I called tree roots to the surface. Elmer cursed as one tangled around his leg. He blasted it with another bolt, and I ran as he aimed the lightning at me again. The ground shook as more roots exploded one after the other from the ground, blocking him, shooting up, twisting, creating a cage around him.

Forked lightning shot out of the sky, and I dove out of the way, the earth growing scorched behind me. Oh yeah, he was trying to kill me all right, and judging by the gasps and cries from the witches and their familiars surrounding us, they knew it as well. But there was nothing anyone could do to stop him.

He couldn’t get closer, trapped in my cage of roots, but then he gripped the branches, exploding the ones right in front of him and sending flaming splinters of wood at me. I tried to avoid them, but several sunk into my thigh, another into my shoulder, burning me as it sunk deep.

I cried out, running as fire shot across the ground as if following a line of gasoline, coming right for me. He was going to burn me alive.

Someone screamed.

Mags.

No.

I would not let this fucker kill me in front of my family. I was stronger than him, stronger than the whole Eldridge coven put together.

Then Warrick’s voice filled my head, telling me the same. And I swallowed my panic and stopped in my tracks, braced, and sent a wave of power into the ground. The earth exploded in front of me as if a mini bomb had gone off, stopping his fire in its tracks.

Elmer lifted his hands and began muttering a spell. The sky cracked and clouds gathered. He was going to try to fry me by peppering the clearing with enough lightning that there would be no escape.

Not fucking happening. I could pummel him with rocks and boulders and knock the fucker out, but I decided to go one better. I slid out the needle I had threaded onto my bra strap and whispered my own spell as I poked my finger, coating the tip in blood. “Thread the needle, thread the needle, lip and tongue, lip and tongue.” I repeated the simple yet gruesome spell over and over, and Elmer screamed, his cries cut off as invisible thread began sewing his lips together, preventing him from finishing his spell.

Sapphire stood behind him, screaming something at him, Isaac at her side, fury dancing in his eyes.

Elmer turned red, and I lifted my arms and threw every ounce of power I had into calling the wind, and the trees and roots, the shrubs and vines. The wind grew more and more fierce, blowing out whatever fire he managed to summon, like a giant extinguishing a candle. The roots and vines continued to grow around Elmer more and more, locking him in deeper.

And when the invisible shield around the clearing dropped, I knew it was over.

A trial was over when the mother deemed it over. No, she wasn’t here in a physical sense, but she was here, all around us. And she’d deemed me the winner.

I’d won.

Iris ran at me, hugging me, jumping up and down. The rest of my family swarmed me as well, their joy filling me up.

Sapphire marched into the clearing with Isaac and stood in front of Elmer’s cage of branches. She raised her hand, turning it all to ash in a matter of moments, her magic no longer bound now that the battle was over. Elmer stood there, his lips now freed, red-faced and furious.

Sapphire strode toward me. “How dare you…”

“You should stop talking before you say something you’ll regret. You made a mistake, coming after my family, and I promise you will live to regret it,” I said.

“Come after you? We had no idea we’d be fighting you tonight,” she ground out.

“As soon as I have proof of what you did, I will make you sorry.”

Sapphire’s eyes blazed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You’re lying…”

Elmer lifted his hands behind her, aiming them at me and Iris, and screamed a spell that had been forbidden for centuries, a spell so foul and torturous even the most sadistic witch would think twice before using it. I grabbed my sister, tackling her to the ground.

Elmer’s spell hit the witch behind me.

He dropped to the ground, screaming as his skin bubbled and burned, as his body ate at itself from the inside out, liquefying him while keeping his vital organs intact until the very end, so the recipient of the spell suffered through every moment, every second of the horrific torture.

Elmer stumbled back a step, a stunned expression on his face.

Warrick rushed to us, checking we were okay, then he spun on Elmer. The witch tried to back up, turned to run, but Warrick was on him in seconds. He didn’t bother with words; he wasn’t interested in fighting. No, he tore the other male’s head from his shoulders, turned around, and roared at the stunned bystanders, Elmer’s decapitated head dangling from his fist. His red gaze slid to a horrified Sapphire and Isaac before looking at the crowd surrounding us.

“If any of you ever come after my mate, or her family, you are declaring war with me and my brothers, and we will hunt you down and tear you to fucking pieces.”

No one said anything.

“Do you hear me?” he roared.

Witches nodded, some cried, then they all rushed to leave. I stood there, pretty shocked myself. If we weren’t outcasts before, we sure as hell were now. I guess it was a good thing we preferred it that way.

My silent and seriously stunned family followed the crowds, leaving Sapphire and Isaac in the clearing with Elmer’s remains.

“Thanks,” I said to Warrick when he walked up beside me. “You do realize you can’t just tear off the heads of everyone who tries to hurt me.”

He hooked me around the back of my neck, in that possessive way of his, and looked down at me, his expression fierce. “Yeah, dove, I fucking can.”

My savage little heart lit up.

Who could argue with that?