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“Melania.”
My mouth moved, but it was not my voice that rang out. Deep and dominant, the single word would leave her in no doubt as to who was speaking. Her head shook in denial as she took another step back, freezing as my arm lifted towards her, palm out.
“Halt. You cannot run from this.”
Her eyes flared as she croaked out an answer. “How?”
A low rumble of amusement sounded. “You were warned, witch, that you would face punishment for your crimes.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly. “No, you cannot interfere in this world, you have no power here!”
The ground trembled under our feet as he growled at her cry of outrage, stone dust drifting from the ceiling high above as his power shook the very foundations of the castle.
“Still no respect,” he boomed, his voice echoing around the vast hall. “And you are wrong. Your daughter has granted me access to this world in a way that will not affect the balance. Her sacrifice allows me the chance to bring you to justice.”
Locked inside my body, I could feel the drain of his power on my strength. My bonds were already weakening, the threads fraying as my mates’ breaths began to stutter and fade, and I wished more than anything that I could turn to look back at them one last time.
The Queen lifted her chin defiantly, the initial shock of my possession now fading. “And if your pretty little vessel breaks, you disappear back into the ether, no?”
With a sudden flick of her wrist, a dozen thick spears of ice materialised in the air and shot towards me. Watching passively, my gaze remained locked on the Queen as the frozen spikes spontaneously spun off course and disappeared out of sight, a drum of rapid thuds telling me that they had imbedded in the wall nearby.
My mother paled as I stepped towards her, throwing out her hands and sending a wall of blazing fire racing towards me. My strides didn’t falter as the flames vanished without even a twitch of my fingers, the smell of singed carpet hitting the back of my throat as pure power radiated out of me and left my skin almost glowing.
“W…wait,” the Queen stuttered, stumbling as the back of her calves hit the steps up to the throne.
My scream of pain was mine alone as a heavy weight pierced through my right shoulder from behind, the thick vine curling briefly at the end before being yanked back out of my flesh. The Great Wolf made no sound, turning slowly around to face the new attacker as my fists clenched to show his irritation. The blond guard stood in front of one of the shattered windows, one palm outstretched defensively as the other held the end of the whipping vine.
“For the Queen!” he screamed hysterically, raising the whip again as the Great Wolf lifted my hand into view.
With a snap of my fingers, flames burst to life at the guard’s feet. In the blink of an eye, they had engulfed him, his screams sharp but brief as they reduced him to a smouldering pile of blackened flesh in mere moments. I dimly noticed the other guards cowering away at the far wall, watching in terror as my eyes looked them over.
A building pressure behind me made the Great Wolf turn again, finding that the Queen had taken her chance and was now standing inside the blood magic circle that I had drawn to summon him. She was muttering low, inaudible words as she stared at me with a calculating glint in her eye, her fingers tracing invisible patterns in the air around her as she wove a spell that I didn’t recognise. A thin dribble of blood trailed from her nostril as she pushed her power to the limit, and I felt a trickle of fear run through me at the idea of her reversing the magic that I had woven.
My worry quickly disappeared though, as the deep, rolling sound of laughter resounded around us and the Great Wolf threw back my head in amusement. With another snap of my fingers, the forming bubble of magic popped and dissolved into nothing as the Queen cried out in frustration.
My focus, though, was entirely taken by the sudden realisation that my bonds were now withered and dry, broken down to mere wisps that no longer functioned at all. My heart screamed in agony, knowing that they were gone, and the Great Wolf seemed to realise the same as he refocused on the raging Queen with renewed intensity.
“Enough,” he thundered. “As much as I would love to see you suffer for all the pain and torment you have caused, I sadly do not have the time.”
With a jerk of my chin, he sent her flying backwards through the air towards the far wall. Still hanging where they had embedded only minutes ago, the huge shards of ice that she had thrown at us slid through her flesh like butter. Pierced through her shoulder, stomach and thigh, she hung suspended in the air, her eyes wide in shock as her blood began to mix with the icy water pooling on the ground.
My feet moved forward, taking me to stand before my mother as desperate tears swam in her eyes.
“Cordelia,” she rasped pleadingly.
Confusion shot through me at the idea that she could possibly think that I would help her, even if I was able to. The Great Wolf ignored her words entirely, running a finger along a slick icicle as he spoke.
“The realms will be safe now, and my people are avenged. It is over.”
She opened her mouth again, blood sliding from the corner of her lips as she tried to beg for her life, but her words became an agonised cry as my hand suddenly plunged into her chest.
I wanted to close my eyes, to squeeze them tightly shut against the scene playing out before me, but I was forced to watch as my hand wrapped around my mother’s heart. Power thrummed in my fingers as her body convulsed, the frantically beating muscle steadily crumbling to dust and disintegrating in my hand, leaving me with a handful of blackened, powdered death.
Releasing his hold, the Great Wolf backed my body away from the mess of blood and ice that was now all that was left of the Queen. As we watched, the inky stain on her chest began to spread outward, soon sweeping over her flesh until blackened flakes of skin began to float into the air. Within a minute, her body had disintegrated, leaving only a dark heap of filth on the ground before us.
Against my expectations, I felt nothing other than disgust. Perhaps it was the strain of the spell, the loss of my now-empty bonds, or simply the shock of it all, but I had expected to feel relief. Or at least vindication. But as my strength shuddered, close to burning out completely now, my mind turned only to what I had lost, and I silently begged the Great Wolf to turn back to my mates.
Please. Let me see them.
