A Dawn of Strength

My brain whirring, I descended the ladder and looked around the room. My eyes fell on the only portable metal object in the room—a lantern hanging from a hook on the door. I pulled it down and examined its base. There was a sharp ridge running around the bottom of it. I had no idea whether this would do the job, but there was only one way to find out. I climbed back up the ladder with it. Reaching the top, I brushed back the hair from my face with one hand and tipped the lantern upside down. And then I began to scrape.

Slowly but surely, the clay crumbled beneath the ridge. Dirt fell onto my face if I looked up, so I kept my eyes cast downward as I worked. I wasn’t sure how long it took me to dig deep enough into the dirt before the small ceiling gave way, but eventually it happened. The chilly night air touched my face as I stared up at the dark sky.

Before I squeezed myself through the opening, I climbed down the ladder one last time and crawled into the room. I walked to the door and made sure it was closed before picking up the blankets. Squeezing back into the cupboard, I brought the blankets in with me and arranged them as neatly as I could before pulling the closet doors shut and standing up to climb the ladder again. I hoped that Vivienne would remain sleeping for at least a few hours. I reached the top of the chute and hauled myself through it. I only narrowly avoided getting stuck. I wasn’t as small as I’d been the last time I’d climbed up here, and if my hips had been even slightly thicker, I was sure I wouldn’t have made it through.

Breathing heavily, I found my footing on the rocky cliffside and stared down at the island, looking for any signs of battle. It didn’t take long for me to find them. I clasped a hand over my mouth as my eyes fixed on the shoreline in the distance. Balls of fire blazed through the air as two lines of witches faced off just outside the boundary. I scanned the mainland once again, relieved to see no signs of struggle. It appeared as though The Shade’s boundary was holding up, at least for now. I looked back at the witches. One cluster were black witches, based on their garb, while the other group looked like white witches. They seemed to be falling fast, but there were still too many of them to be our own witches. For some reason, we had outside help.

I wasn’t sure what to do now. I would only be putting my family, Caleb and our people in more danger if I attempted to leave the mountains. I’d thought that coming up here and seeing what was going on would relieve the burden weighing down my heart. But I should have known that it would only make things worse. Now I saw for myself the threat closing in around us while I stood here powerless to help or do anything other than watch.

But no matter how much I was called to, I simply couldn’t leave here as the weak human that I was. Even though it killed me, right now, all I could do was wait.

Chapter 20: Sofia

Waiting outside the gate, I could breathe more easily now that I knew Ibrahim was inside the Pit with my husband. As the hours passed, I could shout through asking about Derek’s state and receive an immediate answer from the warlock, reassuring me that the cure was working.

I also stepped inside briefly just for a few seconds to verify it with my own eyes. Although Derek was writhing in pain, he was clearly transforming and wasn’t displaying any abnormal symptoms.

My breath hitched when the two men finally emerged from the gate, Derek’s arm wrapped around Ibrahim’s shoulder as the warlock supported him.

Derek’s pallor was gone, and his skin exuded a healthy warm glow that only a human’s could.

He stepped toward me and, placing his hands on my waist, drew me against him. He kissed my cheek, then my lips.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, brushing hair away from his sweaty forehead.

“Like I never want to see the sun again.”

I turned to Ibrahim. “How long do you think it’s going to take for him to gather his strength again?”

“It’s so hard to say. It also depends on how strong a potion he can stomach…”

Ibrahim’s voice trailed off as Derek stepped away from us, stretching his arms and rolling his neck. Then he closed his eyes, balling up his hands into fists. We watched with bated breath as his chest began to heave.

After all this, his powers had better still be there.

As if on cue, Derek pointed his hands toward the ground. His fingertips began to glow redder and redder until fire blazed out from them, singeing the grass at his feet.

His eyes were alight with triumph as he looked at us.

“Give me the strongest potion you have, Ibrahim,” he said.

Chapter 21: Caleb

After everyone had finished donning their armor and the witches had made sure each of us had a tight fit, it was time to return to the beach. None of us knew for certain how much longer the white witches would hold them off, but when Aiden came running toward us with a panicked look on his face and the two ogres trailing behind him, I knew that whatever time we’d thought we had had just been cut short.

Eli and I hurried toward him as he neared the Armory. “There are now an equal number of white and black witches,” he panted. “An insane number have either fled or fallen in the last two hours. Is everyone ready?” He looked around at the crowd.

“Yes,” Eli replied.

“Where are Derek and my daughter? Have they returned?”

“Not yet,” I said.

“What about Mona?”

Eli pointed to the witch, who was standing on the other side of the field, tightening up the armor around Kiev’s newly installed prosthetic arm.

“What have I missed?” a deep voice boomed across the field toward us from the direction of the woods. We spun around to see Xavier racing toward us… now a vampire.