Shaking, I run into the darkness of the forest, my calves burning as I weave around the trees, praying I can be fast enough to escape into Ennismore.
I jolt as a gut-wrenching roar scatters through the trees. While birds flock from treetops caw into the sky, I realize I’m utterly doomed.
THIRTEENAzkiel
My skin tingles from where my fingers met her skin. Usually, such moments are reserved for when I take a life, one final touch before their hearts stop beating. A time I savor, for it’s all I have. But this time it lingers, and the pounding of her racing heart taunts me as I chase her.
Her beating heart.
She’s alive, and she kicked me.
A growl erupts from my chest as the muscles around my eyes and lips twitch. I sprint toward her, the hunter in me focused only on its prey, acute senses picking up on every trace of her. The words from the prophecy echo through my mind, throbbing in my temples like an ache I cannot escape.
The witch’s labored breaths wisp in my ears, alerting me to her whereabouts. I breathe in the scent of rain-soaked soil, detecting a hint of vanilla that was captured in the air from the perfume that lingers around her throat.
That smell.
I bite my nails into my palms, gritting my teeth.
I let her best me, allowing a touch to distract me enough to let her get away. I will not let my siblings win. I will not let her win.
The wind is my chorus as it howls through the tall, narrow trunks. I tear a branch from a tree, roaring as it turns to ash under my fingers. I stare at the cinders in a trance, my eye twitching, before I take off again, tearing through the forest with reckless abandon, laying death to everything in my path.
I catch her scent again, hear her panicked breaths, and my eyes widen. I growl under my breath as I quicken my pace, stretching through time with ease, then slide out of the trees ahead of her.
She’s close, her footsteps loud against the mossy mattress beneath our feet. Twigs snap, branches crackle—it’s as if she wants to be caught.
Beneath the moonlit branches, her silhouette draws closer until she runs into the clearing where I stand, concealed by the shadows. Her striking blue eyes widen as she stares into the abysmal darkness below, clearly sensing something. I enter the clearing while she places her hands on her knees, sucking in long, deep inhales.
The moment she spots me, she takes off running in the opposite direction. Such a foolish girl.
Shadows whip through the air, lashing around her throat and pulling her back so she lands with a thud on the moss-covered ground.
Her scream is music to my ears as the inky ribbons bind her hands and legs, until she’s splayed out in front of me, writhing against my darkness. I crouch next to her, smirking as her blue glare latches onto me. Her nostrils flare, and before I realize what she’s doing, a splatter of saliva lands on my cheek.
I chuckle darkly. “You kick me and spit at me.”
“Don’t feel bad,” she says and glances at my groin. “Greater men have fallen because of their cocks.”
“Such a poisonous little mortal,” I state.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t get too close.”
Flexing my fingers, I bring my hand inches from her sweat-slicked neck and press the tips against her collarbone. “Tell me what you know of the prophecy.”
“Prophecy?” she echoes, confusion clouding her expression as she struggles to break free. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I gaze into her intrusive, hardened stare in silence as she continues her defiance.
“I’m telling you the truth!” she hisses out through clenched teeth when my shadows squeeze her throat further. “Is-Is that why you’re trying to kill me?” She forces apathy into her expression, attempting to conceal any hint of the pain I cause her, but the beads of slicking her forehead tell a different story.
I angle my arms between my knees, crouching lower. What a brave little witch.
“Do not feign ignorance. Tell me what you know,” I demand, “or I will snap that pretty neck of yours.”
“So, you think I’m pretty?” she taunts, and I stand to full height.
“Enough!” I bark, but my heartbeat stammers. “I will not ask you twice.”
“You already have,” she points out with a breathless laugh. “And you will get the same answer because I know nothing!”
“Fine,” I growl. “Have it your way.”
I command my shadows to constrict around her windpipe until the veins in her eyes darken into rivers of scarlet. She writhes under the pressure, her lips pressed into a hard line as she attempts to stifle her screams.
Bringing her close to the edge of death is not unlike what I’ve witnessed thousands of times. Death is peace. It is the end and the beginning of a cycle, yet this time, it feels… sad, knowing I am about to take the only mortal I have been able to touch from this world.
“What the—” Weakness creeps into my hands, my heavy arms dropping to my sides. I peer over at the witch, my eyes trained on my inky tendrils uncoiling from her wrists.
Impossible.
My heart hammers in my chest as I will my shadows to restrain her once again. To my dismay, they remain unresponsive to my command, optioning to caress her skin instead, as if they long only for her touch.
I watch her slowly crawl onto her knees, strands of hair clinging to her forehead, speckled with bits of twig and leaves. Shallow breaths leave her mouth as her hand grasps her neck, now free from my shadowy hold as they curl back into my hands.
Shock roots me to the spot as my eyes dart to the red marks kissing her smooth skin, then to her wrists. How is she still alive?
She staggers to her feet, chin lifted in defiance, the top of her head reaching level to my chest.
