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An especially agile vampire darted toward Xavier, slashing at him with a glowing sword made of jade. One blow was deflected off Xavier’s golden armor, but another landed. Blood oozed from the gash on his neck, but before the vampire could deliver another hit, it was sent flying backward by a burst of Claire’s magic: ruby-red mana made to look like a hammer, cracking against the vamp’s skull.
“You okay?” she asked, pressing her back against Xavier. She held out her staff and a cocoon of pale red mana encased Benjamin just as another vampire was about to slice an axe across his neck. Instead, the axe clanged against the mana shield before Claire whipped her staff to the right and up toward the ceiling. The red mana wrapped around the axe and launched it up in the air, out of the shocked vampire’s hands.
The shocked expression remained as Benjamin took off his head with a swing of his own wicked blades.
Claire was, well, a marvel to behold, her movements fluid and dance-like as the silver-and-gold robe flowed around her. She swung her staff, channeling her magic through it, the hammer moving through the air to mimic her movements as she took out two more vampires.
Benjamin, a stark contrast with his silent, measured moves, swiftly dispatched his kin, his twin black daggers gleaming with each precise strike. The number of bodyguards appeared to be increasing. We had taken down at least five of them, and there were about seven more left.
Two of those turned their attention to me. I took a few steps back, pressing up against the wall. I angled myself so that the mirror was away from the approaching vampires. Even though the satchel was heavily padded, I couldn’t risk getting even a single crack in it.
“Enough!” the Matriarch screeched again, quick as lightning, and seized Dawn, who had gotten too close without realizing it.
A chilling silence settled, broken only by the grotesque sight of tentacles beginning to slide down Dawn’s throat, her gasps echoing in the hall. My stomach flipped, threatening to empty all over the marble floor.
Claire’s voice broke through the room’s collective shock, desperate and commanding, “Let her go!”
The Matriarch’s words, cold and dripping with malice, slithered through the room. “Want her safe? Then he must drink my blood.” Her free hand pointed to me. “He must become immortal without death first. He must let this curse run its course.”
The room seemed to spin. I sucked in a rattling breath. Fear filled my throat, my mouth, my chest. Every cell in my body shouted at me to run, to escape, to do whatever I could to get the fuck out of here.
Instead, eyes locking onto a desperate Dawn’s, I made a split-second decision. “Release her, and I will.” I held Dawn’s gaze for a moment, trying to convey with her what I wanted to do next.
Close your eyes.
The Matriarch smiled. The tentacles slipped out of Dawn’s mouth, allowing her to gasp for air.
This was it. I knew there was no second guessing it. Her attention was directly on me. Her eyes were pinned to me. I had one chance, and it was staring directly at me. If I didn’t take it, I’d be a fool. I would be letting down everyone around me. I’d be letting down Damien.
Something I never wanted to do. This was for him. I wanted to make him proud. I wanted to be the one doing the saving for once.
So instead of approaching the Matriarch, I reached for the satchel, the shake in my hand gone. Adrenaline made me steady. Hope made me push forward.
I unsheathed the mirror with the basilisk enchantment and held it up. The mirror was gilded in gold, which had an unnatural shine in my grip, projecting outward, as if I pulled out a flashlight. Dawn instantly shut her eyes. The Matriarch looked directly at her reflection, confusion before realization slashing across her face.
“This is for everyone you’ve taken from us!” I cried out, emotion raw, my words echoing in the large space. The room seemed to slow but my pulse only quickened. Damien was at my side. I didn’t have to look at him to feel him.
Still, I stole a glance to my right, seeing him there, red armor shining, his attention pinned to the Matriarch, smiling as his sister was let go. He looked to me, that expression full of a hundred different emotions. All of them spilling out and into me.
I’d done it, I had made him proud.
And that’s when it all took a sharp, sharp turn for the worst.
As the basilisk’s spell spread through the Matriarch, starting at her feet and moving up, she reached for her side and hurled a dagger through the air.
It moved like jet-black lightning.
A blur. A desperate attempt to hit the mirror and stop the enchantment from taking hold.
