But this was no maid. This was Eris.
And Mal was no God-Killer. Not yet. If she struck Vera down, she would only banish Eris back to her realm, freeing her to rise again. And yet… what choice did she have left?
Mal loomed above her, knuckles whitening around the hilt of her sword. Vera’s amethyst eyes lifted to the blade, but there was no fear in them, not a flicker. Only amusement.
‘Go on, then,’ Vera drawled, her voice honeyed with mockery. ‘Kill me.’
‘Leave this body,’ Mal commanded, her tone as sharp as a drawn blade. She cast a glance over her shoulder, to where her spectral army of the dead pressed forward, forcing the witches to retreat, their resistance faltering beneath the relentless tide of shadows. ‘Or I will see every soldier you command torn asunder, their spirits cast into the Underworld, only to rise again as part of mine.’
Vera rolled her eyes, the gesture languid, theatrical. ‘So dramatic. Go ahead.’ She lounged against the wall with infuriating ease, lips twisting into a wicked smirk. ‘Slaughter them all, every last one. Do you think I care?’
Mal crouched low before her, voice soft yet edged with lethal promise.
‘One day,’ she murmured, ‘I will be the God-Killer. And when that day comes, there will be no corner of existence where you can hide from me.’
For a fleeting heartbeat, Vera stiffened. But then laughed, the sound brittle and sharp as shattered glass. She leaned closer,eyes glimmering with malice.
‘I’m not afraid of you, Mal Blackburn,’ she whispered, her grin growing cruel, predatory. ‘If I were you, I’d start questioning where your loyalties truly lie.’ Her gaze danced with amusement as Mal hesitated. ‘Everyone is lying to you.’
Before Mal could press for more, her own body betrayed her, seizing with a violent tremor. She looked down at her hands, eyes widening as pain shot like wildfire through her limbs, stealing her breath and forcing her to stumble back.
‘We’ll talk again soon,’ Vera purred, stepping lightly over Mal’s collapsed form as blood magic coiled like chains around her, twisting her muscles in agony.
The witch had taken only a few steps when she faltered, head cocking as a dash of panic crossed her features. She turned sharply, eyes widening, unnerved.
Mal, bleeding from where her teeth had split her lip, dragged herself forward, palms scraping across stone until she clawed her way upright onto hands and knees.
Vera raised her hand once more, blood magic curling from her fingers like a serpent seeking prey, yet nothing came of it.
‘How…?’
Mal laughed, low and cold, as she straightened, the ache in her body already fading like the memory of a dream. Step by deliberate step, she closed the distance between them until she stood before Vera once more, a shadow of unstoppable intent.
‘No one can resist blood magic,’ Vera whispered, her voice trembling.
‘That’s true,’ Mal said, retrieving her fallen sword, its blackened edge humming with power. ‘But I am no ordinary soul. I am the thing even nightmares fear.’
Before Vera could even scream, Mal’s hand closed around her throat, and the world bled away into darkness.
One heartbeat ago, they had stood amidst the chaos of war. Witches screaming, the dead clashing with the living, and now… now they stood in a world not of earth or magic, but of darkness itself. A realm sculpted from smoke and shadow. Mal’s own form was spectral, her body untethered, her eyes glowing with violet fire as tendrils of smoke coiled from them like a living nightmare.
Vera stared down at her own hands, now smoke and vapour, wonder flickering across her features. But then she met Mal’s glare and froze.
There was no time for fear, no space for pleading. Mal wrenched her closer, eyes burning like twin eclipses, and drove her sword into Vera’s stomach with a single, merciless thrust.
The witch crumpled, collapsing in silence as her gaze lifted. And in that moment, Mal saw not the cruel glimmer of Eris’s godly essence, but the soft, bewildered eyes of the true Vera.
‘Where… am I?’ Vera breathed.
‘This is my realm,’ Mal said softly, bending to help her rise.
‘Why am I here?’
‘Because…’ Mal’s throat tightened. ‘You’re going to die, Vera. But I wanted to give you…time. Here, in my shadows you can stay hidden. If I let you go, you’ll fall into Hell, and I… I wouldn’t be able to visit you there.’
‘Is she gone?’
Mal nodded, words too fragile to speak.
