Page 153 of Summer of Sacrifice
Gôthi Griswald.
Frail. Powerful.
She watched as he cut through Acolytes and monsters, headed straight toward Agatha. Betraying Athania.
Cutting a line through the battle.
For Aggie.
Seleste ran for her Sisters, sliding to a stop next to Winnie and Sorscha. “We have to follow Aggie!” she shouted.
AGATHA
A path began to open for her.
Agatha’s magic had begun taking down anyone before her with almost no effort. It radiated within her.
Beside her, behind her, before her, the magic raged.
It wept and fought.
Every iota of fury and anguish she’d held for Athania brutally ravaged her enemies.
Then, there were Acolytes and beasts falling without the bidding of her magic. Her power halted, waiting, chomping at the bit. Until she stood before a man, ancient and haggard. Bleeding.
“Dark Star,” he whispered in awe. “You have made it. This is it.” A dribble of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth as he clutched his stomach. Agatha just caught the sight of the man’s viscera held in place by his filthy hands before his body crumpled forward.
Agatha reached out to catch him, but he hit the ground. Before she could kneel to comfort him, Grimm swooped down, a pained sound coming from him as he scooped up the man’s soul.
There, Grimm called out to her, his smog dissipating to reveal a silhouette high on a cliff.
The screams were drowned out.
By the knowing.
It was time.
And this time, she knew what must be done.
Agatha’s killing calm slipped back over her, more silken than ever before. It hungered for blood. To end the carnage with finality. Once and for all.
It’s time. It was all she could manage down the bond. It was all she needed to say.
She felt a pulse of Grimm’s essence, and it straightened her spine. In the next breath, she heard the low peel of Laurent’s conch reverberate through the valley. His call that the eclipse had well and truly begun.
Time slowed, like a fly slipped into resin, and Agatha strode forward.
WINNIE
Winnie’s blade slashed across the neck of the undead in front of her, her magic pushing it back like a kick to the chest. Grimm swooped past her, coming in so low that his shadow cloak blocked her vision as he collected the freed souls of their fallen, shoving them into his lantern and moving on to the next, simultaneously pulling free any enemy soul he could.
Lau’s conch sounded out across the valley, and Winnie’s stomach dropped. It was time. The moment of truth. They would doom History to repeat itself, or they would end this once and for all.
She paused long enough to look right, to Sister Spring, covered in black blood. Sorscha nodded and they looked left to Sister Summer. Seleste pushed back the undead closest to her with golden magic and turned to her Sisters, dipping her chin.
In perfect sync, the three of them fanned out, turning from the raging battle at the frontlines. As one, they lifted their weapons in one hand, magic in the other, an arc of their collective power falling behind them to stand sentry, blocking Agatha as she broke free of the fray.
Together, the Sisters followed their Lady Magic.
