She pats my chest and says, “You will get over this, and we will be together. I needed to take from you to become stronger. This will make us both stronger, you’ll see. I will share so much magic with you, we will be unstoppable together...”
I take a step back from her. “Don’t. Fucking. Touch. Me,” each word a threat off my tongue.
Octavia walks back over to the circle she drew. “Such a fucking baby. Guess you’ll just have to suffer.” She grabs her grimoire off the table, steps inside, and begins chanting some spell in the old language.
I have no clue what she is saying.
I go to take a step towards her, but she stops me dead in my tracks. Her chanting gets louder as she repeats the old language over again.
“Octavia! Stop!” I scream, unable to get closer to her. The skies darken and fog starts to swirl towards the hut. Growls from creatures surround us, and the sounds of men screaming and bones crunching fills the air. “Fuck! Stop!” I demand. But she continues summoning these creatures and the thick fog with her dark magic.
Suddenly, a wave of exhaustion washes over me, sapping my strength like a thief in the night. My magic, once a vibrant force coursing through my veins, begins to fizzle and fade, leaving me with a hollow sense of desperation. I raise my hands, willing a surge of energy to flow through my fingertips, but all I manage are fleeting sparks—glimmers of my former power that vanish into the air with a whisper. It’s as if my very essence has been drained, and I find myself powerless, struggling to summon even the tiniest flicker of magic.
I’ve lost my connection to the magic that once pulsed with life at my command.
Octavia finishes her chant and gives the most disgusting cackle I have ever heard in my entire existence. I go to grab my necklace. It isn’t in my pocket.
Her wicked smile sends an eerie chill up my spine. My eyes darken and I grit my teeth, “Give it back! It does not belong to you!”
She quickly disappears.
What the fuck?She must be able to do that since she stole my power, my soul.
Just as quickly as she left, she returns in the circle, empty handed, wiping dirt off her hands and dress.
“What did you do?!”
“Something I should have done a long time ago.” She tilts her head up. Her arms go wide, and her violet eyes turn black as they roll to the back of her head. She speaks the old language once more.
A woman in a black cloak comes running. She is soaked and out of breath. Her long, white, curly hair hangs out from her hood.
“Suzanna, what are you doing—”
She quickly pulls her hood back; her worried green eyes are bloodshot. “Adonis, you must go! Leave town, quickly! Tell the others. Tell them that—” An arrow pierces her heart. Blood and thick green goop drip out of her onto the floor.
“No!” I shout.
I go to help her, but a second arrow pierces through her throat. Blood pools out of her mouth as she tries to speak, but only gargles come out.
She falls to her knees.
“Kill them all!” a man roars.
Fuck, they are too close.
Suzanna falls on her chest and takes her last breath. I feel awful. I wanted to hold her as she died, but I couldn’t risk the poison flowing through her system.
She wasn't even a witch...
I quickly wrap myself up in my shadows and hide.
“There she is!” Someone shouts. His face is covered in blood. Seven more men enter the hut, carrying arrows, daggers, and swords coated in the green poison.
Octavia is still unaware of their presence as she continues to chant.
“What in the devil is this?”
“Kill her!”
