Page 3 of Kingdom of Death and Hope

She takes another step toward me, our faces inches apart.

“I don’t believe you. Do you want to know why?” she asks.

“Please, Avira. I’m your sister,” I whisper.

She chuckles and shakes her head. “You aren’t my sister.”

“Don’t say that. Please, Avira. We were getting along. We have a bond together!” I raise my voice.

“You just don’t get it, do you?” she tsks. “That’s okay. I’ll show you.”

My eyebrows bunch together as I stare at her.

“You aren’t making any sense. Please, just let me go home. Someone in town probably has the book. Maybe one of the other hunters. They would have found it whenever they went hunting,” I try to reason with her. “But I don’t have it any longer.”

Avira looks me dead in the eye and snaps her fingers. Before I even know what is happening, everything around us changes to a damp, cold, concrete room and I’m sitting in a chair with my wrists bound to the arms and my ankles tied to the legs.

“Wh-what?” I whisper.

Avira is still standing in front of me with bars behind her.

“What just happened?” I ask. “How did we get here?”

She chuckles and takes several steps toward me. “You really haven’t put it together yet.”

“Avira, let me out of here. I have done nothing wrong!” I raise my voice.

“You took something that belonged to me. My precious spell book,” she says. “I told you already. I’m not your sister. That was all a ploy.”

My head swirls as she says those words. “What do you mean?”

Avira just stares at me, a smirk forming on her face as the silence between us stretches.

“I’m the witch.”

CHAPTER 2

Ringing forms in my ears as those words bounce around in my head. Avira is the witch? No, that’s not possible.

She’s my sister.

There are so many memories with her growing up, and mother talked about giving birth to her and the pain she went through.

“No,” I whisper and shake my head.

“Everything was a lie.” A smile spreads across her face. “Do you know how much enjoyment I got out of fooling everyone?”

I choke on air as I try to fill my lungs.

Adeline, what’s wrong? Kieran asks.

Numb.

Everything is going numb as Avira continues to talk. She has to be lying.

“Do you know why I got so much enjoyment out of it?” she asks.

Adeline, where are you? I can’t see you standing out in front of your house like you were before. What is going on? Kieran asks again.