Chapter 62: Past The Point Of Breaking

DAISY.

I'm frozen in horror, staring at Sebastian's lifeless body in the Witch's arms, until Alexander's voice jolts me out of my desolation.

"I didn't want it to come to this," he says, and he has the decency to look shaken by what he's done as he addresses the Witch. His hands tremble, his lip quivers, but he clenches his jaw. "Forvie me, my darling. But if I ever see you again… I'll kill you too."

The Witch's face snaps up, her eyes wide and wild with anguish I cannot put into words. She clings to her son's limp corpse, and I see it happening. I see her break right then and there. In stunned silence and suffering, I watch the Witch become the Dark. Blackness floods her eyes, and an ebony venom swirls in her veins instead of blood. It courses through her, intensifying into writhing shapes and symbols, inked on her skin like a promise.

When she screams, the sound that comes out of her lips is not human. It's ancient and feral, ringing with a song of the beaten, broken, and betrayed. The power that pulses out of her makes the blast of magic I unleashed on the Shades look like child's play. It shakes the earth and clouds the sky.

Shadows come to life around the Witch, screeching as they solidify into the monsters I've come to know and fear. Alexander falls to his knees as the shockwave hits him. When he blinks, his eyes are entirely black, not like the Witch's, but like my father's when the plague took him.

The next second, Alexander falls to the ground, and the newborn Shades descend on him to feast on whatever is left of the Witch's fallen lover.

Then, a sudden howl comes from the depths of the earth itself. There's a large stain where Sebastian's blood soaked the ground, and the shadow of a massive wolf crawls out of it.

This wolf, I recognize. It sniffs Sebastian's bloody hand and nuzzles it, like a dog licking his master. The next second, the wolf isn't there anymore. But it's not gone... it's inside him.

Bastian's hand twitches.

This is it. The moment that changed everything. This is the black magic that spread across Elysium. This is the blast of burning power that reduced the Ash Coven to ruins and gave life to the Shades.

There is something horrifically poetic about it, an unnatural balance to it all. A Coven killed, and a new kind of creature created. Alexander made the Witch of the Dark just as much as she unmade him. Sebastian Stone died so Bastian could be born.

A Shade screeches in the distance, and Bastian screams. But there's something wrong. The version of Sebastian in my vision isn't moving yet. The gashes on his torn-up throat are still sealing as the demonic wolf's power heals him. No, not heals him- resurrects him.

The sound isn't coming from the memory. Bastian is in pain. I can feel it. It's real, and it's happening right now.

As the final piece of the puzzle wraps up before me like the loose threads of fate, I find myself oddly calm. A strange clarity washes over me, muting the bitterness of Bastian's deceit and the horror of the Witch's past. None of it compares to the agony I felt in those moments when Bastian was lost to me.

I love him. I'd rather have him alive with all his shadows and secrets than dead. Damn the consequences.

So, I focus on the way my chest tightened at the sound of his scream. I hone in on that sensation until it's the only thing I'm aware of. The mist swirls around me, cold and angry, but I shut it out, closing my eyes and clinging to a single thought, his voice like a lifeline amidst a storm.

‘Come back to me, Princess.’

The vision fades, and I feel the hard splash of reality knock my breath out. Suddenly, I'm back outside the hut, and it feels like my consciousness is swimming through time to return to my body. I'm cold and shaking, and the mist swirls around me. My heart races, my mind reeling.

The grave is still in front of me, the words inscribed on the marker now painfully obvious. Bastian is behind me in his wolf form, fighting three Shades that seem intent on getting through him to reach me. Knowing what his wolf really is should probably make me more fearful of it, but all that matters is that it's keeping him alive.

"Bastian!" I call out, yanking my hand away from the grave and struggling to stand. The ground is uneven beneath my feet, and my legs wobble.

His wolf's gaze is intense, those unnaturally green eyes meeting mine with predatory precision. But he's forced to tear his eyes away from me as a Shade lunges in my direction, and Bastian's wolf charges to intercept it.

When I try to get up and move towards him, my legs give out. My body is still numb and tingling from whatever sinister spell I've just broken free of.

The Shade falls dead at Bastian's feet, but the other two are hard on his heels. I draw my dagger, but I can't even get back on my feet. I'm utterly useless, and I hate this feeling of helplessness as the Shades screech and slash at Bastian.

"Stop it!" I scream, turning to face the Witch of the Dark. She is standing outside of the hut, and she steps off the porch with her hands clenched into fists at her side. "Listen to me. I saw what Alexander did to you. He was wrong. I'm so sorry for what you went through, but it's over! Alexander is dead, and your son is alive. The black magic is turning you into the same kind of monster who broke your heart. The Shades and the dark plague are hurting innocent people. You have to end this."

She quirks her head to the side in that same catlike motion, surveying me with her blackened eyes. Now that I've seen what she looked like before, the effects of channeling black magic are even more apparent. It's shattered whatever was left of her sanity, and I wonder how much of the woman remains behind the mask of the Witch.

She frowns, and there is something almost childlike about the confusion on her gaunt face.

"Innocent?" she repeats, as if testing out the word for the first time. "The only plague on these lands are wolves and their mates."

Bastian's wolf lets out a pained how, and I whirl around in time to see a Shade sinking its jagged teeth into his leg. He took out far more Shades last night, but even with the magic that healed him and the help of his black wolf, he's too exhausted and drained to last long against them.

"You're hurting him! I'm begging you, stop this. He's your son!" I sob. I try to drag myself toward the fight, but my head is still spinning, my limbs leaden.

A chill runs down my spine, and I feel the Withc's gaze harden on me.

"You're right," she purrs. "He is my son, and I am doing this to protect him. So let's get this over with."

She lifts her hand, and with a flick of her wrist, inky tendrils grow from the black flesh of the Shades. They wriggle like snakes, wrapping around Bastian's wolf as the two Shades pin him to the ground. He snarls and snaps at them, but the strands of darkness tie him down as the Shades restrain him.

"What do you say, little princess? You wanted to end this? Let's end it." The Witch raises her other hand, and a black flame bursts from her fingertips. It hovers just over her palm as she turns to face me fully. "You have a choice. Reject Sebastian as your mate, and I'll give you back your father. I'll spare your family, and you can go back to living your perfect little life, just like before. Or, you can refuse me and die right here, right now."

Tears are streaming down my face, and Bastian's wolf howls furiously. The sound is deep and desperate, full of rage and violence beyond my comprehension. Hearing it breaks my heart. When his gaze searches for mine, wide and pleading, I have to close my eyes to keep myself from falling apart. I suck in a shaky breath before looking back at the Witch of the Dark.

Goddess, forgive me.