I’ve been searching for her since I charged in, and when I finally find her, I realize why I couldn’t spot her before.
There she is. Sitting on a levitating throne made from the corpses ofmywarriors.
When Visha’s eyes meet mine, she smirks. The mangled half of her face barely moves. She raises her arm that’s covered in burns, rotted by her own dark magic, and waves at me.
It wasn’t this bad when I first saw her. I thought Visha, a dark witch drunk on power, would at least know her limits. But as the years dragged on, it became my greatest pleasure to watch her lose herself in her own magic, rotting her body, destroying herself from the inside out.
Now she just growls at her warriors to fight harder, to die for her while she sits on a throne made from suffering and pain. Disgust fills me as I watch her soldiers sacrifice themselves so their Queen can maintain her haven.
The image of an 11-year-old girl scrubbing her throne hits me out of nowhere. The sting of tears blurs my vision, but the memory is meant to cut.
I accidentally dropped a filthy rag on her shoe while I was cleaning, and Visha almost broke my arm in half as punishment. I rub the place where I felt the crack, like the pain still lingers. I remember as Visha’s heel dug into my arm, she looked down at me with cold, heartless eyes like the little girl wailing at her feet was nothing more than dirt under her shoes.
Visha has only used her gift, power, and position to inflict pain.
It’s almost funny that she was born with clairvoyance, yet she never saw that the real monster was living inside her all along.
“Go get her.” Hazel’s sharp voice slices through my thoughts. She whistles, summoning Diamond for me like she can see the burning need for revenge crawling inside my veins, consuming me.
After what she’s told me about Tiberius, Hazel deserves a good payback story of her own. I vow to myself that when the day comes, I’ll do anything so she’s the one to drive her dagger into his heart. She deserves to be the last face he sees before his pathetic life ends.
Walking backward, I promise Hazel through our link that one day it’ll be her turn, and I’ll be the one holding down an entire army so she gets her revenge.
Hazel, as always, shakes her head and reminds me to keep my bloodlust in check.
I catch a glimpse of Diamond running towards me and grab his fur and vault onto his back in mid-stride. His hooves hit the air, wings slicing the sky as he carried me straight toward Visha’s makeshift throne.
The instant she notices, Visha snaps her fingers and four warlocks leap into place, flinging fireballs at me.Rude.
Diamond absorbs the hits without flinching, his flames devouring theirs. Before I can even worry about how much he can take, the warlocks fall from the sky like sacks of potatoes.
I glance back just in time to catch Angel lowering his bow, another arrow wrapped in his essence, ready for whoever dares to come near me.
His grin is wicked as he yells over the chaos, loud enough for everyone to hear. “No one messes with my wife!”
“Not. Your. Wife!” half our warriors roar back in unison.
Angel just scowls at them and mutters into the link,“What a bunch of jealous A-holes.”He lines up his next shot, aimingat the last warlock in my path, but still finds time to grumble about the torture of not being married to me.
“Soon,” I whisper into the link, my eyes never leaving Visha.
My proximity is enough to break her hold, and the warriors she had twisted into her throne collapse to the ground, gasping, and then rise to their feet. Freed, they join their brothers in silence, watching me reach the finish line.
The two warlocks hovering behind Visha try to flee when they see their death fast approaching, but two perfectly aimed arrows pierce through their hearts, and the last of Visha’s soldiers crash to the ground.
With no one left to fight on her behalf, Visha conjures her darkness. It’s weaker than I remember, or maybe I’m stronger than I’ve ever been in her presence.
Dark magic seeps out of her pores in thick tendrils, staining the air as Visha cradles her unbridled magic in her palms, mutters an incantation, and hurls it in my direction.
Diamond steps up to take the hit, but I force him to turn away just in time. The blast slams into my chest, burrowing deep, gnawing at my bones. For a second, I almost stagger, then my Divinetakes over.
Inch by inch, my essence breaks down the darkness inside me, turning it into something I can feed on. Every attack makes my Divine stronger, feeding her dark magic.
Visha throws more, snarling, trembling. But her tricks slide off my shoulders, and it’s all her fault. She did this. She taught me to be friends with the darkness she fed me over the years.
Visha’s eyes widen in shock, and when I follow her gaze to my arms, I’m speechless. Molten lava crawls across my arms, each golden vein pulsing under my flesh, begging to be released.
When she sees that her attacks are having the opposite effect of what she intended, she tries to run, but there’s nowhere left to hide.
