Two men approach her, placing metal devices around her wrists, siphoning her magic away from her. As soon as she realizes her power has been restricted, she starts screaming for my help. She looks directly at me, but no one else can see me.
“Tie her up! Quickly!”
The two men start tying up her wrists while another man, the one in charge, takes his green-tipped dagger and drags it down her arm. Octavia screams in pain as the poison starts to enter her system. She tries to chant a spell, but nothing.
I watch as the men drag her thrashing body out of the hut and into the rain. I follow them, hidden in my shadows.
Up ahead, more men are stacking wood in a deep, circular trench lined with stone. Piled high are rough-hewn logs, obviously for containing the blaze.
They carry Octavia’s body over to the pit.
I go to step closer, but I am stopped in my tracks.
What the fuck?I can’t move closer.
I push my hands up against the invisible wall and follow it. I am surrounded by it. I close my eyes, gather my senses, and realize I am trapped behind this large bubble.
Dax appears with Killian.
“It’s all over the town! We can’t get out,” Killian says, worry washing over his hazel eyes.
Dax punches the invisible barrier, breaking his hand.
“Godsdammit!” He shouts in pain.
Octavia is screaming at the top of her lungs as they tie her legs up. It’s unlike anything I have ever heard before. She is in pain, and she is terrified.
Somehow, Octavia frees her hands from the binds and quickly reaches into her pocket. She pulls out one of her potions and holds it up to her mouth, pulling the cork out with her teeth and then shoots the liquid down her throat.
“Her hands are freed! Hurry, re-tie her up!” someone shouts.
As they finish tying her up, she smiles and starts chanting again. None of us know what she is saying, but darkness shrouds the town. Spirits begin roaming around us, confused, as they too can’t go past the barrier. Awful creatures form in the fog, tall and black as night with razor-sharp claws and menacing red eyes—shadowmires.
“Light the witch on fire!”
Suddenly, flames erupt in front of me.
My fists bang against the barrier, and I fall to my knees as I watch the flames quickly consume Octavia’s entire body. She screams but keeps on chanting until her body is charred. Until her very last breath.
I feel nothing for her.
My power doesn’t surge back through my body and my wings are still gone. I had hoped once she was dead, all that was taken from us would return. But I was wrong. Instead, we are fucking trapped here.
Dax and Killian grab me, “Adonis, we have to go. We have to take shelter,” Dax’s smooth voice says as they wrap their shadows around me.
I don’t take my eyes off Octavia’s lifeless body. I keep watching until our shadows surround me...
Part One
Chapter 1
Dani
Kneeling on the unforgiving wooden floor, the acrid smell of cleaning solutions’ hangs in the air like a heavy shroud. It mingles unpleasantly with the relentless odor of decay that has seeped into every crevice of the room. The grotesque combination twists my stomach, a visceral reaction that makes me fight the urge to puke.
It has been months, and I’m still not accustomed to the pungent smell of death.
The stench of rotting bodies permeates the wooden surroundings and clings to my senses. It’s a scent that tells of lifetimes lost and the finality of existence, and it was one I find deeply unsettling.
