Page 3 of Azure Mania

All color drains from Octavia’s face, and she’s silent for a couple of moments. Nothing but the birds chirping outside to be heard, that and the steady beating of my heart. The anxiety is still there, but the excitement is slowly becoming more prominent.

“You used magic on her? You forced her to cut herself?”

I wave her off. “Not really, I just made her hand slip, and well… the rest is as you know — he lost control of himself, drank her blood until he killed her.”

“You do realize that he’s going to kill you, and torture you even once he finds that out, right? Especially since your curse was for him to relive that moment over and over again, for two hundred years straight. His wife was innocent.”

“So were the women of my coven,” my voice turns icy. “They didn’t deserve to be burned at the stake. They did nothing to the humans. They lived their lives quietly, in the woods, and never bothered anyone. So, I don’t give a fuck that his wife was innocent. That family took everything away from me, so I’m only returning the favor. If you’re going to sympathize with them, get the hell out of my house and never come back.”

“That’s not—”, Octavia stops herself, taking a deep breath, then starts speaking again, in a more gentle tone. “That’s not what I mean, Yvonne. I’m always on your side, and you know it. You could burn the world down, and I’d add oil to the fire. But this isn’t something that they will forgive you for, once they find out. Let’s say your plan is successful, and you manage to buy yourself time while the potion brews… what happens after? He’s not going to let you retrieve it.”

“He won’t need to.”

A confused look flashes behind her eyes. “What kind of a potion are you brewing?”

“My blood is the potion,” I lean back in the chair, and look at the ceiling. A variety of wildflowers are intricately drawn across it, from small snowdrops, roses, and orchids. Multiple different trees from the forest around my home. It took me four months to complete the drawing. “The moment he tries to drain me of blood; he’ll drop down dead.”

“You infused your blood with that?!”

“Mhmm,” I hum, undisturbed by the tone of her voice. “But it’s not ready yet. I can feel it. I need more time to let it marinate before I can trust it’s complete. If he won’t drink from me, I’ll cut myself and force it down his throat.”

“You have been infusing yourself with poison! It will end up killing you!”

“As long as I get my revenge, it doesn’t matter. I’ll gladly lay my life down for those women who died for nothing. I don’t care what it takes, Octavia. I’ll see that those wretched creatures die by my hand, even if I have to sacrifice myself to do it.”

—

The night is chilly. A blanket wrapped around my waist as I sit on the porch, sipping on warm, chamomile tea. The moon and stars sit high in the sky, twinkling down. It’s a beautiful evening, the moonlight shining down, reflecting onto the lakes surface.

But I can feel the shift in the atmosphere.

As if the nature itself is warning me to be ready.

The wind is heavy, blowing away the fallen leaves. My eyes flick from the lake to the forest, and I chuckle. My tea is slowly getting cold, so I put it down on the step I’m sitting on, and stare right ahead.

He’s here.

I can feel it.

He’s hiding behind the trees, blending in with the shadows of the forest, the ones that I know better than I know myself. He’s staking out his prey before he attacks; but no matter how angry, strong, or powerful he thinks he is, it makes no difference when he’s in my playground.

Every inch of the land I own, is covered in protective spells. It would take a very strong witch to break them, and even then, they’d need to be broken one-by-one. He can approach me, sure, but he can’t touch me and that just makes me more excited.

There isn’t a single witch alive that is on par with me power-wise.

That isn’t arrogance — it’s a fact.

My strength doesn’t come from being the oldest witch alive, or the fact that my original coven was one of the most powerful of its time. It comes from the fact that with their last, dying breaths, the women of my coven focused all their remaining magic and gave it to me. Instead of having the power of one witch, I have the power of an entire coven of witches running through my veins.

There is nowhere else on this earth, where power like that exists.

A simple flick of my wrist is enough to cause an earthquake, strong enough to tear down through the entire continent. The simplest of spells, is enough to set the entire world ablaze; if I see fit.

That is precisely why this man does not scare me. There’s nothing left for me to lose. I lost my coven — my entire fucking family a long time ago, and I’ve been all alone since. I have never allowed anyone to get too close, so I didn’t have to risk losing them too. That’s also why I’ve always kept Octavia at arms length — even then, the softness of her existence, managed to sneak its way past the walls I’ve built.

“You can come out now,” my voice is calm, there’s no need for me to yell. His keen sense of hearing can pick up every word, even if I were to whisper. I close my eyes for a moment, as I take a sip of my already cold tea. I feel the air shift once more and when I open them again, he’s right there.

Lucifer D’Achille stands but a few feet away from me, dressed in a fancy suit, that does not look good on him. Given the last time-period he was a part of, I expect him to be wearing that style of clothing. Then again, he can’t exactly dress like that, without looking like a lunatic.