?I feel another presence further back. Burning bones on a pyre.
?“Mavyllora,” she calls, and part of me wonders why she does not fight. She stayed on the terrace during the attack before as well.
?I think you are extraordinary, Varian whispers down our bond.But I do not believe you are a ruthless killer.
?Then you’d be wrong.
?I turn towards Nana and her milky eyes harden. “It might be best –”
?A boom explodes from the woods to the left. Shock waves ricocheting through the air as giant winged beasts soar up.
?Percius’s hand tightens around my arm. Maneuvering his body, he leaves just enough space between his chest and my back as he breathes, “Please. Let us destroy the tree and recruit who we want. We won’t touch anyone else.”
?“You released a lot, Mavyllora,” Nana calls. “Help, but if you overdo it you can burn yourself to ash as the Twin Flames did.Do not over do it.”
?I step out of Percius’s space and he lets me go. Those winged beasts are about to reach a point where you would think they would dive for all of us down here, but they look like they’re going to pass us. They look like they’re headed towards something else.
?Tell them to back out. Now.
?The rebels on the field begin marching. Varian leading the horde.
?It will be alright, bloodsucker. Alexandros says he knows how to start the enaction of the prophecy. The Willow of Lore is the gate.
?My hands fist and I clench my jaw as I bow my head.
?My blood begins to sing. My soul hums along with it.Hestarts whistling again.
?When you’re living, I hear his voice ponder in the back of my mind,or when you’re taking a life.
?I crush the hearts through the blood of those winged beasts above us. Their bodies crumbling and then falling. It causes Percius’s true form to recoil and his blood rushes.
?The rebels ahead quicken their pace.
?“Get everyone back, now.”
?“Mavyn,” Percius warns, but not even he could stop me.
?Last chance, I whisper to Varian.
?“Mavyn!” Nana snaps. “Control.”
?“You cannot destroy the willow,” I whisper to Percius out loud. “Not yet. I don’t know his name yet.”
?“Breaking the veil is how we can figure out his name,” Percius stresses, but I shake my head.
?When I open my eyes I wonder if they can see it. When I step forward the earth responds. So far down I can feel those fractures that were not fixed before.
?Someone screams at me. Then hairline fractures split my bones. Slowly, I turn to fully face the oldest witch still alive. No waver in my posture or movement. I do not understand how they still cannot know.They don’t know pain.
?She flinches when my eyes land on hers. And I see it now. It makes sense.
?The reason I couldn’t have scented the vampire in the alley. Why no one was looking for me when I’m sure Ms. Elaycia could have had the connections to find me. Why I wasn’t able to leave after my coma.
?The strain finally eases.
?“Mavyllora Sanivin Tsukkenai,” she trembles. “Syngenia the Blood Witch reincarnated. Forgotten Goddess, Keeper of the Blood of Gods.”
?A hush falls over the grounds. A stillness in the spaces past time. As the oldest witch known stares at the face of the first vampire created – the face of the first blood witch created.
