The sands surrounding the Greenwood realm were challenging to tread through. Not only did the shifting ground cause us to move slowly, but I also noticed the grains were the strangest of colors. Even in the dark, with nothing but a blood-red star to guide our way, it was clear the farther we walked, the more colors we saw. First, the sand was a dark crimson color, but it merged into a tangerine orange and then turned black as coal.
“Stop,” I said once we came across the ebony-colored sands.
“What’s wrong?” Akira asked.
“I’m not sure, but I can feel something… physically moving under my feet.” I frowned. “Something that’s moving beneath the black sand.”
“What?” Vesta muttered as she took a step beside me.
“I’m not sure,” I responded, “and we’re not going to stick around to find out.”
Morgana looked up at the sky and scrunched up her small, button nose.
“What are you thinking, Morgana?” Akira sighed. “I can practically see those wheels turning in your head.”
“I’m thinking Cole’s right… once the sun rises, the desert is going to come alive,” Morgana mused as she glanced back down at our feet. “I’ve read about multicolored deserts, and different creatures lurk beneath the sands. Think of it as an underground world that only emerges in the day to hunt.”
“Fucking great,” Akira muttered. “What kind of creatures are we talking about here?”
“Desert worms, scavengers, scorpions--” Morgana started to list in a know-it-all tone until Akira scoffed.
“Let me be more specific,” the dark-haired witch sighed. “What lies underneath the black sands?”
“Giant worms,” Morgana whispered before her porcelain brows furrowed. “I think… or it may be mole-men.”
“Well, which one is it?” Akira snapped and put her hands on her hips. “There’s a big fucking difference.”
“Not really,” Morgana bit back with a scowl. “I mean, both of them are dangerous, aren’t they?”
“Well, if there are worms, then maybe we can control them,” I suggested before the two witches could really start fighting.
“He’s right.” Faye nodded in agreement. “I’d honestly prefer sandworms to mole-men.”
“What the hell are mole-men anyway?” Vesta grumbled as she glanced nervously down at the black sand.
“The name kind of speaks for itself.” Morgana shrugged. “Half-man, half a mole… they hunt for anything, and they’ll rape or kill anyone who trespasses over their sand.”
“Lovely,” Akira muttered.
“Well, no one said this was going to be easy, remember?” Vesta said with her chin raised.
“Yeah, that’s what all the intensive training was for,” I reminded my coven.
Everyone turned to Akira, and she sighed before she threw her hands up into the air in defeat.
“Fine,” the black-eyed witch relented. “So, what’s the plan?”
“First,” I said, “we need to know which threat we’re actually dealing with. Is it sandworms or mole scavengers?”
“Can you feel for it?” Morgana suggested. “Your sense of premonition is the strongest out of all of us… I mean, take the star for fuck’s sakes. Not one of us could manage to do that, we can’t even see it!”
The brunette had a point.
“Alright,” I said, “give me a moment.”
I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath as I tried to listen for the life beneath the sand. I could sense something squirming and wriggling right under us, and whatever it was, it was starving and filled with venom and teeth.
“Well?” Akira demanded somewhere off to my side.
“For hell’s sake, give him a--ahhhh!” Vesta screamed as something burst forth from the black sand, grabbed her ankle, and yanked her away from us.
I snapped open my eyes, and whatever the creature was, it was a sickly pink color and covered in slime. It curled its tail around Vesta, and we all reached for the purple-skinned witch in a panic, but the beast dragged her toward the black sand.
Vesta was screaming at the top of her lungs, and her silver eyes were wide in terror as she was dragged across the desert floor.
I lunged forward, managed to grab her purple hand, and held on tight. The creature dragged me along with her, but I could feel someone else grab onto my ankle. We halted for an instant, but then the monster redoubled its efforts, and all three of us were now being dragged toward the black sands, while Vesta was being pulled underneath the grains.
“Fuck!” Akira snapped as she clawed at my ankle to try and get more leverage.
“Help!” Vesta screeched. “Cole! Don’t let it take me under!”
I held onto her hand and gritted my teeth as I tried to pull her out, but she was already waist-deep in the sand and quickly sinking further.
“It won’t let go!” she cried out as she dug her nails into my wrist.
“Keep holding onto my hand!” I yelled.
“I’m trying!” she shouted. “I feel like this bastard’s going to tear my foot off!”
Vesta struggled as she slipped another half a foot into the sand, and my heart felt like it stopped when her hand nearly slipped from my palm.
“Vesta!” I bellowed as I struggled to hold on to her.
Her silver eyes bulged, and she screamed before we both sunk entirely into the sand.
As soon as we were both submerged in the silt, her hand slipped away from mine, and my heart stuttered before I swam deeper into the grains. I couldn’t breathe, and sand was starting to fill my nostrils, but it didn’t matter. I reached my hand outward with my eyes closed, and I was desperate to find Vesta’s hand. I refused to let her drown in a desert or become the meal of a carnivorous sandworm. The Blood Pact would keep her alive, but not if she was going to be torn into pieces and made into a fucking meal.
I couldn’t breathe, and I was running out of time as I swam blindly downward. My head started to spin, and my chest grew heavy. My lungs were desperate for air, and I was too close to opening my mouth as a reflex.
Just when I thought all hope was lost, I felt something. It was the edge of Vesta’s fingertips, so I snatched them. She grabbed my hand in return, and I pulled her upward. I tugged as hard as I could, and the creature must have released her because we both managed to jerk our bodies upward and then pop out of the sand.
We coughed violently as soon as we were back on the surface, and the other witches gasped and then frantically helped to pull us completely out of the sand.
“Worms?” Akira panted with wide black eyes.
“Worms!” Vesta rasped as she spat out a mouthful of sand. Her green hair was disheveled and completely tangled into a mass of knots. Sand was stuck to her eyebrows and long eyelashes, and there were small incisions across her purple cheeks and below her right eye.
Before anyone could say anything else, something shot out of the sand behind us, and when I whipped around, I saw the creature in its complete form.
It was indeed a massive worm with a mouth as large as a cave. It probably had thousands of teeth in hundreds of rows, but it had no eyes, and it started to roar as it swung back and forth in search of its prey. The beast was the color of decaying meat, and a dark, green slime dripped down its shiny body.
“Faye, blood possession!” I ordered as I tried to catch my breath and get the sand out of my eyes.
The redhead immediately grabbed my dagger from my waistcoat, cut into her hand, raised her wand, and screamed the blood possession spell.
The sandworm jerked back, and Faye’s eyes glowed a bright white, but I saw beads of sweat gathering on her forehead and dripping into her eyes, and her hand was shaking.
Suddenly, a dark feeling hit me in the chest, and I nearly fell backward, but I stood my ground. I could sense something approaching, and I could hear a nasty voice calling out to me.
Here I come, it sneered in my head. I can’t wait to taste your sweet, bloody flesh.
Oh, fuck
Without hesitation, I grabbed my dagger from where Faye had dropped it by her feet and cut into my palm. I then quickly raised my wand and pointed it over a bare patch of sand.
Faye turned to me with confusion written across her face, but then another worm exploded out from the sand and roared.
The first worm seemed to be emboldened by its brethren, and Faye cried out as the beast fought against the possession spell. The worm began to twitch and jerk, and the redhead bared her teeth as she tried to remain in control.
Then the second worm twisted its ugly head toward me and lunged forward. I heard the other witches scream, but I was ready.
“Conligo!” I shouted.
A purple bolt of light hit the second worm in the face, and it screeched before it froze in place. When I was sure I had my opponent pinned, I looked over at Faye, who had tears in the corners of her eyes. I knew she was using all her strength and willpower to control the first worm, and she could feel all its feral rage coursing through her body like electricity.
“You’re doing great, Faye.” I nodded in her direction and tried to give her a reassuring smile. “Just command your beast to kill mine, and I’ll do the same.”
“Let’s just hope it works,” she muttered as sweat dripped down her jaw.
“It will,” I said through gritted teeth, “trust yourself.”
The green-eyed witch nodded and then focused back on her wriggling beast. It was desperately trying to free itself from her magical hold, but the determined redhead was strong, and she refused to let go.
“Kill your companion,” Faye demanded in a loud and clear voice. “Rip its fucking head off!”
The first worm twitched like it was trying to fight the order, but then it reached over to my frozen worm and was about to use its massive mouth to bite into the pink, thick, and slimy flesh. As soon as it was close enough, though, I raised my wand and muttered the blood possession spell. The second worm was no longer frozen, and my next command had to be quick.
“Fight back until you’re both dead,” I ordered.
A moment later, the two creatures attacked each other.
They started to rip off huge chunks of slimy flesh from one another, and dark green blood spurted everywhere. The hot bodily fluid splashed across Faye and me as we stood our ground and watched the two beasts attack each other viciously. Finally, Faye’s worm ripped into the other one’s throat and tore so deeply into the skin that the first worm snatched away half its opponent’s throat and nearly decapitated it.
With its last bit of strength, though, the worm I was controlling used its tail as a whip to wrap around the other one’s neck. Then it squeezed hard until the head of Faye’s worm burst open, and brains, blood, and gore exploded everywhere. The dead worm collapsed down into the sand with a thud, and mine swerved back and forth. The remaining worm’s head was barely attached, and I pointed my wand at the small bit of flesh that kept the appendage still dangling. I’d remembered a simple hex I’d read in Vanessa’s Advanced Hexes and Curses book. It was designed to detach things, like a branch from a tree or a link in a chain. I had no idea if it would work on the skin of a worm, but it was worth a shot.
“Sejungo!” I called out.
The worm stopped moving, and the skin broke apart as a flash of red light hit its neck. The head had come completely off, and the beast fell dead next to its companion.
The air grew quiet, and then Faye fell down onto her knees and sobbed.
Morgana ran over to her and rubbed her shoulders. Then the brunette witch looked up at me and turned to glance behind her.
I followed her gaze and saw Akira holding Vesta’s hand. The black-eyed witch was muttering something to her companion, and my heart sank into the pit of my stomach when I noticed Vesta’s ankle. Her purple skin was split open, and I could see her bones, muscles, and tendons spilling out.
“She has poison seeping through her,” Akira said as she looked up and caught my eye. “According to Morgana, it won’t kill her, and her ankle will mend, thanks to the Blood Pact, but still… it will take a while… and it’s going to really hurt.”
“Okay,” I panted before I took in a deep, steady breath. “I know what we just faced was a shock, but this was just the beginning. Faye… you did an amazing job, and you reacted quickly.”
The redhead sniffed and sighed deeply to control herself. Then she stopped crying and nodded.
“Let’s take two minutes to breathe and compose ourselves, and then we keep moving on,” I instructed as I looked up at the red star above us. “We still have a while to go.”
My coven nodded in agreement, and I crouched down next to Vesta, who was wincing with pain. Akira was rubbing Vesta’s green hair and trying to soothe her, and when I placed a hand over her head, the lavender-skinned witch was boiling hot and absolutely drenched in sweat.
“Why is Faye so upset?” Akira whispered to me.
“I think the worm was trying to get into her head,” I speculated. “I felt it, too, but not as strongly as her. You know how she loves to bond with creatures… I think this one just took a toll on her because of how feral and bloodthirsty it was.”
“Oh,” Akira breathed before she composed her neutral expression. “Well… thanks to you two, we didn’t die a lame-ass death before we even reached the fucking castle. So… thanks.”
“Damn straight.” I grinned.
“Are you two done flirting?” Vesta croaked before she broke into a smile. “Because I think I’m ready to get going.”
“Are you sure?” I asked as I looked down at her ankle. It was still a greenish color, and blood was clotting around the edges, but the skin was slowly starting to stitch itself back together.
“Hell yes,” she grunted, but I could see her teeth starting to chatter, and I knew the poison was coursing through her blood.
“Let’s try to walk off the poison,” I said. “If it gets too much for you, I can carry you.”
“I’ll be fine,” Vesta gasped as sweat started to drip down her beautiful face. “Just help me to stand.”
Akira and I helped Vesta to her feet, and she winced slightly before she took a small step forward. Morgana also brought Faye up, and we started to slowly move across the sand again. I couldn’t sense anything beneath my feet this time as we passed by the two bloody bodies of the worms, and I sighed in relief.
“I just hope we’re going to be out of this fucking desert soon,” Vesta muttered as she leaned against Akira and me. “I never want to see sand again after this.”
“Yeah, but what the hell are we going to find once we cross it?” Akira grumbled. “More traps.”
“We’re going to find a forest,” I cut in.
“Wait, how do you know that?” Morgana asked as she turned to look at me.
“Well, for one, I can feel it,” I answered with a smirk, “and secondly, I read about this realm before we landed here. So, trust me, you’ll see soon enough.”
“If you read about this realm, then how come you didn’t mention anything about the fucking worms?” Akira screeched.
“Funny enough, that wasn’t mentioned in the book,” I snorted and shrugged. “Something tells me that was a new trap.”
“This guy sounds like a real dick,” Vesta grumbled.
“Yeah, no shit,” I chuckled.
The sun was starting to rise above the sandy hills, and I was worried it would hit us before we reached the Greenwood forest. I didn’t want to risk running into more creatures than we could handle right now, especially when Vesta was still limping.
Finally, we reached the base of a high, red sandy hill, and my premonition sense told me something was waiting for us on the other side. So, I turned to look at the others and pulled out my wand.
“What is it?” Akira gasped as her black eyes darted from side to side. “Do you sense something approaching?”
“No,” I answered, “but I do know there is something on the other side of this hill. It might be the forest, or it may be something else. Wait here while I check it out.”
“I’m coming with you,” Morgana said with her chin raised. “Two is better than one.”
“I don’t think--” I started to say, but she was already making her way to climb up the hill.
“You’re basically our life source,” Morgana grunted as she slipped on the sand. She nearly fell backward, but she managed to catch herself at the last second and then hoist herself up. “We said we’d stick together, and that’s exactly what I plan to do, Cole.”
I admired her bravery and determination, so I smiled as we both climbed the red, sandy hill. When we reached the top, we saw the forest. It was a dark, emerald green sea of trees, and bright blue butterflies and red birds were soaring above the canopy. To the naked eye, it would have looked like a forest out of a fairytale, but when I studied it, all I could feel was a dangerous warning hovering over me.
“I think it looks beautiful and enchanted on purpose,” I said. “Do not be deceived by its appearance.”
“I never am,” Morgana replied with a crooked smile. “So, once we cross the forest… will we be at the castle?”
I thought back to the book, and I tried to remember the maps and details that had been in those old, yellowed pages.
“No,” I said after a moment, “we’ll have to pass through the village… and they don’t take kindly to those who possess magical skills.”
I remembered reading about the horrid village. It was supposed to be a very religious, small little town, and according to the text, these people hated witches above anything else. They even had skeletons of witches that they hung over the gates.
“Well.” Morgana swallowed hard and forced out a laugh. “It’s not like I expected them to roll out the welcome carpet.”
“Yeah, me, either,” I snorted, “but let’s focus on one task at a time.”
“Agreed.” She nodded.
The brunette looked down behind her at the rest of the coven, and she smiled, even though I could see the fear in those sky-blue eyes of hers.
“Come on,” she urged the others, “the forest is just down below us. We’re getting closer!”
Akira, Vesta, and Faye all returned the smile, and when I glanced down at Vesta’s ankle, I was relieved to see it was beginning to heal nicely. The skin had closed up, or at least, most of it had. A deep purple scar had replaced the wound, and she didn’t look as ashen and ill as before. The poison was slowly leaving her body, and soon, she’d be able to walk and hopefully run through the Greenwood forest.
“You have done well, Vesta,” I said. “I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks, Cole.”
“Yeah, we are five fucking bad ass witches,” Akira snickered.
“Helps that we are immortal because of Cole,” Faye pointed out.
“Immortality with benefits,” Vesta managed to laugh, and the other three women actually blushed a bit as they stole glances at me.
I hadn’t the time to read through the entire book about this realm, so I only knew about a handful of creatures that lurked in the woods ahead of us. So, after we all marched down the hill, and before we entered the thicket, I turned to look at each and every one of my witches.
“Are you all ready?” I asked.
Each one of them pulled out their wands and looked at me with steady eyes and their chins raised. Whatever lurked within these woods, I knew the witches were prepared to fight tooth and nail to overcome it. The entire school was counting on us, and I knew we couldn’t let them down.
“Let’s go and kill this motherfucking duke.” Akira grinned.
“I, too, am personally ready to kick some ass,” Morgana added.
“It’s now or never,” Faye chuckled.
Vesta looked at us with her large silver eyes before she sighed and shrugged.
“Well, hell.” She nodded. “I’m ready to end this once and for all.”
“Alright, that’s the fucking spirit,” I snickered. “Let’s go.”
We stepped into the bright green forest, and as soon as we left the desert behind us and entered this new world, it seemed as if everything shifted. Birds chirped merrily above us, and we could hear the rustling of small woodland creatures as they scurried across the forest ground. Early morning light peeked through the tree branches, and it cast a warm, heavenly glow all around us. The air smelled sweet like maple syrup, and it was so warm and inviting, I felt like I could lay down against a tree trunk and fall asleep for decades.
“This is some kind of alluring spell,” I mused after a moment, “nothing around us is real.”
“What?” Morgana asked in a dreamy voice.
I snapped my fingers in her face, and her lazy blue eyes widened. The others returned to reality, too, and they all stared at me in hazy confusion.
“This is a mirage,” I said, “I can feel it. Don’t touch anything if you can help it. That’s an order.”
The women obediently nodded their heads and compliantly followed me through the woods.
I, on the other hand, kept my ears and eyes open for anything. Even a small, innocent-looking animal could be something deadly and poisonous. These woods had been placed under a curse by the elder gods, and it was a strong magic. I’d briefly read about this curse, and now I desperately wished I had more time to read the entire book before all this happened.
But there was no time for wishing. We had to work with what we had.
When I glanced up at the sky, I could still spot the red star that hung above the trees. We needed to keep pushing north and make it to the village gates.
After trekking silently for half an hour, we were halfway through the woods when a sudden chill bit right through me. My cloak blew back in the wind, and when I looked up at the sky, the blue was slowly morphing into a deep, dark gray. The chirping of small birds immediately died down and was replaced with cackling and screeching, and we all crouched down and pressed our hands over our ears. When I looked at the witches, I saw blood begin to trickle down from their ears. I could feel my own filling up as well, and the noise was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. It felt like it was killing me, and I nearly dropped my wand because my entire body was shaking violently.
“What the hell is going on?” Akira shouted over the noise.
“The mirage is dying!” I called back. “Someone knows we’re here.”
As I said this, the vivid green leaves started to crumple up and turn to brown, and then they began to fall from the branches and die, along with everything else. The air was so cold I could see puffs of mist coming from my mouth when I breathed, and it seemed like needles were prickling the edges of my fingertips and stabbing my skin over and over again. Frost began to cover the bark of the trees, and it coated the dead leaves that now covered the soil beneath us.
Then snow began to fall from the sky, and it instantly killed the roses and sunflowers that had been growing on the bushes. A moment later, a lovely bluebird that had been perched on a branch fell down to the ground. Its body started to shake, and then its chest ripped open as a massive bat emerged from the cavity and flew up into the air.
“This place is a mind fuck,” Akira whispered behind me. “We should move.”
“Hold on,” I ordered, “I hear something.”
We all strained to listen as a group of voices grew louder and closer to us, and it sounded like men. Probably knights of the duke.
“Shit… there’s no point in hiding,” I growled as my coven stood behind me. “The duke’s men have magic-proof armor, so keep your wands ready, and don’t make a move until I tell you to.”
“Got it,” I heard Vesta reply.
“We’ll move when you give the order,” Faye added.
As I listened closer and focused, I realized there were at least ten enemies. I also remembered the vision I had about the school and when it was under attack. The men in my vision had been wearing a special kind of armor that deflected spells.
I spun around and looked at Vesta.
“I need you to take off your cloak,” I told her.
“What, why?” she blurted out.
“Just do it,” Akira growled as she ripped off the cloak for the lavender-skinned witch.
“Do you remember how good you were at flirting with that guard in the wizard’s mansion?” I asked Vesta.
“Y-Yeah?” she answered with a frown.
“Well, I’m going to need you to do it again… but this time, just lead one of the men away from the group and bring him to us. That’s an order.”
All her fear seemed to vanish, and her silver eyes became very focused as she nodded.
“Got it,” she replied.
I smiled reassuringly at her and then turned to the rest of the coven.
“Follow me, and be quick about it,” I ordered.
The three witches obediently nodded and followed me into a thicket where we could easily hide. Vesta remained where she was, though, and we all held our breaths in anticipation as a group of knights in bright, silver armor slowly approached her.
An older man, with dark stubble and a sharp angular jaw, whistled as soon as he spotted Vesta.
“Eh, boys.” He grinned. “So, this was what all the fuss was about.”
“Fuss?” Vesta asked in an innocent voice. “Whatever do you mean?”
“We heard someone broke past the borders, not that it’s any business of yours,” another guard with sandy blond hair and smoky brown eyes growled. “State your business, bitch.”
“Now, there’s no need to be so rude,” the head knight said, “especially toward such a beautiful young elf.”
“Why, thank you, sir,” Vesta giggled. “I’ve actually run away from my master… he was such a cruel man with an endless appetite for… well, I’m sure you can guess.”
“So, you’re a whore?” the blond knight asked.
“Well, I prefer the term ‘lady of the night,’” Vesta said in a sugary sweet voice before she focused on the head of the group. “You look like a man who would benefit from some time with a woman.”
“Well, it has been a while,” the man chuckled.
“I’ll let you have a good time for free,” Vesta giggled. “You’re just too handsome to pass up.”
The leader smiled coyly back at his men and then took a step toward Vesta.
“Follow me,” she said as she twirled around and made sure to give him a good view of her ass. “I’d like a little privacy.”
“Sir?” the blond guard called after him. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“She’s just a woman,” the commander scoffed as he followed Vesta to where we were hiding, “I think I can handle her.”
My coven and I all stayed behind the trees, and no one moved as we discreetly watched Vesta.
She circled the knight and started to undo her buttons, and when she was behind him, she leaned up and whispered something into his ear. She must have told him to close his eyes because the next moment, his eyes were shut, and he was grinning like an idiot.
Vesta then stooped down and grabbed a rock, and the man’s eyes were still closed as she swung the stone as hard as she could against his head. The rock connected with his skull with a sharp crack, and the guard grunted in pain before he landed with a thud on the forest floor. His armor made a loud crashing noise as he came down, and it made me wince.
The others must have heard it, too.
“Sir?” the blond knight called out. “Are you alright? What was that noise?”
“Shit,” I whispered, but then Vesta started to make loud, moaning noises as she shook the knight’s breastplate.
“Oh, yeah!” she cried out. “Fuck me just like that. Harder! Faster!”
Smart thinking.
The other knights didn’t say another word, and that’s when I knew we had to move. I ran away from my hiding spot, with the rest of my coven hot on my heels, and Vesta looked up at me with concern in her stormy silver eyes.
“I think I killed him,” she whispered in a worried voice.
“It’s okay,” I hissed back, “that’s even better.”
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“You’ll see,” I replied with a smirk, “but first, remove the armor, and all of it. Otherwise, the spell won’t work.”
We quickly took off his spell proof armor, and Vesta occasionally moaned loudly and rattled the breastplate on the ground to keep up the act.
“Resurgemus,” I whispered.
The dead man’s body started to shake, and he slowly rose from the ground. Then he turned to look at me, and thankfully, since he hadn’t been dead for too long, he looked healthy and normal. Even the head wound Vesta gave him had disappeared.
“You’re going to take us to the village gates,” I commanded. “And you will take us there unharmed.”
I hoped this would work. There was no way we could continue to wander through these woods with deadly creatures lurking in the shadows. These monsters were different from the ones we’d faced in the past. They were magically altered to kill witches like us, and according to my studies, they tended to hide by the gates of the village to keep intruders out, but with these men to guide us, we should be safe.
Plus, we were running out of time to find and kill the duke. This was the fastest solution.
“Yes, master,” the knight responded in a deadpan voice.
“Are you sure this is going to work?” Vesta asked as she wrung her hands.
“It has to,” I responded, “we have no other choice.”
That was the harsh truth of our situation. If my plan didn’t work, then the entire school would fall to Duke Malik, and I swore I’d sooner die than see that happen.
In fact, I vowed to Satan I’d sacrifice my life if I had to.