Chapter 16
I thought the walk across the bridge would be easy, but each step we took felt like we were pushing against a brutal gust of wind. No matter how hard we tried, something was forcing us back.
“Unholy fucking hell!” Penelope shouted over the gale. “What is this?”
“A barrier!” Samara yelled back. “It’s trying to block out our power, or rather, Cole’s power.”
“Fuck that,” I grunted as we struggled onward. “My unholy supremacy is a weapon they’ve never encountered before, and I’ll be sure to rain hell down upon whatever powers are at work here.”
As I willed myself to keep going and not let this invisible barrier get in the way, my bones chilled, and my body quivered, but my mind was as clear as day.
The door was so close, yet frustratingly far away, and the more we fought against the wave, the more it pushed against us. But I wasn’t about to back down so easily. I was Satan, brought back to conquer the worlds and realms, and my retribution was only beginning.
“Don’t do it,” a deep and terrifying voice cried out. “Keep away! Only death awaits you.”
“You can’t stop us,” I sneered, and my voice emerged as an equally loud echo. “Throw all the threats you want, but we refuse to give in to fear! We are the students of Scholomance, the coven almighty, and I am Satan reborn! You have no hold over us!”
The voices wailed like a group of banshees, and their cries made my eardrums tremble and bleed. A powerful sensation, one that urged me to turn back, swept through my body, but I didn’t let it affect me, not in the way these ominous voices wanted it to.
My coven and the familiars moved on in silence, but their willpower and strength slipped into the air like the sweetest perfume. There was no turning back, no doubt, and not an ounce of fear I could feel from them.
I was proud to have them at my sides.
After what seemed like ages, we finally reached the door, and an accumulation of violent shudders passed through my body as I pressed my hand against the cool metal. Blood pounded hot in my ears, and a sharp stabbing pain settled deep in the pit of my stomach. Still, nothing could stop me from pushing the door open, and when I did, a soft, almost welcoming breeze swept through my hair and against my slick skin. Then the mysterious door parted, and I inhaled sharply and studied the glorious view that met my eyes.
There was a gold podium in front of me, and on top of it was a glittering stone. It was a rainbow of colors, ranging from the deepest ocean-blue to the brightest sunset-orange. It glittered like the rarest diamond in the universe and somehow looked heavier than one of the icy boulders from earlier.
“Unholy hell,” Revna murmured. “So, that’s what a Defero stone looks like, huh?”
“It’s larger than the other two,” Morgana said in her usual studious way.
“It’s more beautiful than the others as well,” Vesta purred. “Look at the texture, the color… everything about it is precious.”
“But it’s just out in the open,” Vanessa commented. “Doesn’t that seem a little odd?”
“It does,” I growled as I looked around the room. “I’ll be damned if this is just here for the taking. Something is bound to happen, sooner rather than later.”
Before I took another step further, I studied the room. The walls were made of soft gray velvet and lined with gold and silver patterns. There were no other decorations around, and the floor was sleek and white with no rugs to cover the precious marble. The air was cool and smelled of roses, which was strange since we were deep under the earth, perhaps even close enough to touch the tip of hell. This room reminded me of a royal chamber, with its pure gold podium and sweet-smelling air, but the feeling around me was anything but glorious. It was cold, dead, and alone. As I stared at the stone with its perfect, glittering texture, all I wanted to do was reach out and touch it, but Vanessa was probably right.
If it looked too easy to take, then it was.
“What are we going to do, master?” Penelope questioned. “We can’t just take it, can we?”
“Sure, but we can’t just stand around here, either,” Nyx drawled with narrowed indigo eyes. “Cole’s mother is waiting for us somewhere in this tomb, and I have a feeling she’s been waiting too damn long for us to gawk at the damn thing.”
“And who knows where the hell she could be,” Akira said. “This tomb feels endless, and even the compass hasn’t been able to help us since we’ve been down here.”
“We need to take everything one step at a time,” I reminded the witches. “We can’t get ahead of ourselves. I know it’s tough, but we didn’t come this far by being reckless. Understood?”
“Yes, master,” my coven replied.
“I can try and use a detection spell,” Vanessa suggested after a long silence. “It might not work, but it’s the most powerful spell I know when it comes to sensing outer powers.”
“Go on, then,” I urged her. “Try and see if it will work.”
“Yes, my lord,” the professor responded with dark pinched eyebrows.
Isobel nudged her mistress and pressed against her leg, and Vanessa rolled up her sleeves and gripped her wand until her knuckles turned white. Then her beautiful face curled into a mask of concentration before she narrowed her pale-blue eyes at the stone.
“Ostende nobis arcanissima tuum et saltationibus personatis,” Vanessa chanted in a commanding voice. “Revelare!”
A soft green glow emitted from Vanessa’s wand and swiftly surrounded the stone in a cloud of thin mist. There was a deep noise emanating from the gravel, and suddenly, the sound of the mysterious voices returned to my head like an unwelcome greeting.
Stop! they urged. You cannot go any farther. You need to turn back!
“Fuck,” Nyx groaned as she pressed her hands against her blue ears. “Do you hear that shit again?”
“Yes,” the professor growled. “They’re trying to prevent me from peering into the stone’s power.”
“Don’t listen to them,” I ordered the witches. “Push them out with all the power in your veins.”
“Yes, Dark Lord,” the women responded in unison.
“Fuck them,” Akira sneered. “We’ve never listened to ominous cunts before, so why start now?”
“And only our master may command us,” Samara added as she lifted her chin and threw back her long golden hair in an act of defiance.
I’d ordered the witches to ignore the sounds, but it was exceedingly difficult, even for me. They were a persistent group of bitches, and their stubborn voices were grating against my skull, like a knife against a stone.
Turn baaaaaaaack! they screamed all at once, and it nearly made me collapse to the ground.
There was no more warning behind their voices. Instead, it felt like a final threat.
“Master?” Revna asked as she tightened her grip on her bow. “A-Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” I lied before I turned to the gorgeous professor. “Vanessa, are you sensing anything?”
“I think I sense something,” Vanessa said, and light beads of sweat were trickling down her brow, “but I can’t seem to see it clearly.”
“Then it’s probably something shitty,” Akira grunted as she rolled her black eyes.
I know it sounds crazy and maybe a little bit obvious, but should we just take it? Alex asked as he fluttered his giant bat-like wings. I don’t think we should be here any longer than necessary.
“Alright, I’ll grab it,” I said with a firm nod. “We don’t have another choice. Besides, if it takes us somewhere else, that would be a good thing. We can’t exactly turn around.”
“We trust your judgment, my lord.” Circe nodded.
“Even if it takes us to the edge of the worlds,” Samara added.
“Hell fucking yeah,” Penelope chuckled. “Let’s fucking do this.”
As the other witches nodded their heads in agreement and parted away from me, I walked forward and reached out to grab the precious stone. My fingertips touched the burning Defero, which was also cool at the same time, and electricity shot through my body all the way up to my head and down to my toes. The sensation was overwhelming in a glorious and painful kind of way, so it must have been the holy and unholy powers at work trying to both lure me in and also drive me away. Everything about the stone was at opposites, and as I held onto it and stared into its misty insides, I fell into some kind of deep, unsettling trance.
“Master?” Beatrix’s soft voice cut in like a sweet lullaby. “A-Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” I said, but my voice sounded distant, almost like it didn’t belong to me. “Let’s get the hell out of here--”
Before anyone could respond, a deep rumbling noise echoed through the room and caused the podium to shake and fall to the floor in pieces. Heavy chunks of stone slid across our feet, and the walls began to crack. Then the ceiling started raining down on us, and the women’s faces gaped with terror.
“Oh, shiiiiiiiiiit!” Akira cried out over the chaos.
The room collapsed upon us, but before it could crush our bones, I felt my body turn thin like I was churning into smoke. Then the room, witches, and familiars slowly vanished from view, and I found myself spinning out of control. I tried to scream, but it was useless. I was in some kind of void with no clear way out, and it was tearing up my insides, but no matter what pain was inflicted on me, I maintained a tight grip on the stone.
“Maaaaaaaster!” I heard my women’s voices call out. “Where are yooooou?”
I couldn’t find the ability to answer, but I willed myself to stop spinning and tumbling in wild movements. There had to be a way to take control of the situation, and I’d be damned if I let some otherworldly magic take over my body and power, so I squeezed my eyes shut, blocked out the burning sensation, and commanded my body to stop spinning.
Suddenly, I fell straight down, and I crashed hard onto something that felt like long, itchy grass. My lungs burned, and I wondered if my ribcage had been broken into bits and pieces. I gasped for air, and when I opened my eyes, I was looking up at a black sky, or at least that was what it looked like at first glance.
Everything was still, almost calm, but I’d experienced that deceiving sensation before, and I wasn’t about to fall for it. Gradual consciousness slowly returned to my body, and when I could breathe again, I sat up and looked around.
This time, I was in some kind of maze, similar to Scholomance, but also different. Instead of bushes, there were walls of solid sandstone. None of the other witches or familiars were in sight, but I could still feel their nearby presence. They were terrified not to be by my side, and I sensed their horror and concern. My grip was tight on the stone as I stood up, and I tried to ignore the way my legs trembled. Pins and needles pricked at my bones and skin, but I forced myself to remain as still and as calm as wiccanly possible.
“Hello?” I called out. “Can anyone hear me?”
A deadly silence followed, and it made my stomach churn and my throat tighten and burn. My mouth was dry, and a cold sweat broke across my face, but I had to keep going. I needed to find the others, and I had to retrieve my mother’s body.
“Alex?” I called out. “Where are you?”
Cole? I-Is that you? You have to help us! We have no idea where we are.
“I’ll find you,” I said through my teeth. “Just stay put.”
You’ll never find them, a deep feminine voice mocked me suddenly. You’ll die before you even come close.
“Try me, bitch,” I growled. “I’m never leaving my coven.”
There was no response, so I took a small step forward and ignored whatever power was trying to push me back. I had my fingers wrapped tightly around the Defero stone, and it still felt cold and hot in my grasp. The further I moved, the more the stone pulsated in my hands, like it was trying to tell me something.
“They’re close, aren’t they?” I whispered.
In response, the stone trembled fiercely in my hand, and a violent wind swept over me and then nearly knocked me over. My grip never loosened, but another terrifying chill crept down my spine.
Then I thought I heard low, feral growls echoing behind me, and when I turned to look over my shoulder, I saw a pack of hellish wolf-like women. They were skeletal creatures, with peeling, rotting skin, gray bones and ears, and snouts like a wolf, but sagging tits hung from their lean torsos, and between their hind legs were patches of untamed and dark-gray pubic hair. There were dozens of them, and the bloodthirsty look in their eyes said they weren’t afraid to lunge for the kill.
But I wasn’t about to become their prey. I was never an easy meal to capture, and they had no idea just how far I would go to kill them with all my power and physical strength combined.
“Dissulto!” I yelled as I flicked out my wand.
Blood-red light shot from my weapon and blasted several wolf-women into bits and pieces, but it didn’t deter the rest from attacking with all their might and wild instincts. The pack howled and charged at me as I ran with the Defero stone in my grip, and as my feet pounded against the ground, I didn’t dare look back.
Not yet.
My heart pounded with adrenaline as I sprinted in random directions throughout the maze. The creatures were hot on my heels, and every so often, I turned and sent a spell flying their way, but they were a pack of stubborn bitches.
“Volar!” I screamed.
Another blast of light soared toward the pack and tore them into shreds, but there were still a few of them left, and they weren’t going to stop chasing me, so I knew I had to face them off here and now.
I stopped in my tracks and whipped around to take them on. One lunged for my throat, but I pulled out my dagger just in time. I hit the ground and thrust my knife upward with my weapon-wielding hand, and a low whine escaped the beast’s lips as I drove my dagger deeper into its stomach and twisted the blade. It fell on top of me, knocked the air out of my lungs, and bled out before I shoved its limp body off me and faced the other two left.
“Come at me,” I urged with a crooked smile. “Let’s fucking finish this.”
The creatures’ eyes burned bright red, and they snapped their drooling jaws as they glared at me. I could see the bloodthirst in their eyes as they surrounded me, but I didn’t back down. Instead, I gripped my wand even tighter until my knuckles turned white and splinters dug into my flesh, and I pressed my heels into the dirt as the beasts growled and drooled in my path. They clearly longed to rip into my skin and tear the flesh off my bones, but little did they know, I was just as feral and determined as they were.
As they prepared to attack, I aimed my wand at the two impatient beasts and waited for the exact moment to go for the kill.
When they couldn’t take the tension any longer, their impatient animalistic urges kicked in, and the wolf-women pressed their hefty bodies against the ground and lunged. I waved my wand between the two of them, and with all the willpower I had in my body, I summoned an incantation to blast the two creatures into ash.
“Dissulto!” I yelled.
The powerful spell split in two and hit both bony creatures right in their chests. They soared backward, and as their bodies hit the floor, I noticed twin gaping holes in the middle of their tits. Then their corpses disintegrated into ash and nothingness, and a loud cry reverberated through the air.
Silence followed, and I took a deep and steady breath. Then I gathered myself together, and when everything was still, I took another step forward and followed the stone labyrinth. As seconds slowly ticked by, the air grew cold and thick, and everything became darker as a terrible shiver ran down my spine.
I needed to find the others, and soon, before something terrible got to them first.
“Cooooooooole!” Circe’s voice suddenly cried out, and relief flooded my body.
“Maaaaaaaaster!” Marina yelled a moment later. “Where are youuuuu?”
At that moment, I didn’t need to hear their voices to know where they were. I just followed my instincts and steadily ran down a series of paths until I came to a dead end. There was nothing in sight except one sturdy stone wall, so I stared at the structure and placed my hand against the cold exterior. A tingling sensation crept up my hand and arm and sent shooting pains down my entire body. Powerful magic was at work here, and it was doing all it could to push me out and deter me from moving onward.
Stoooooop, the stubborn voices echoed in my head. You cannot pass. We won’t allow it!
“You forget who you’re speaking to,” I growled.
I pushed my hand harder against the wall, and suddenly, my fingers started to slip through the rock. My body trembled as I willed myself to slide through the entire wall, and everything became a cold void of darkness as I entered the stone. I gritted my teeth, and despite the pain swelling deep in my bones, I forced myself to push all the way through. More voices slipped into my head and urged me to turn back, but I ignored the warnings. Air was barely getting into my lungs, and I felt suffocated as darkness and pressure took over my mind and body.
But I had to keep going, not only for my mother, but for my coven and the familiars as well.
Then I completely pushed through the darkness, and I gasped for air and fell to the ground. Warm sand shifted under my fingertips, and it was cool to the touch. My head was still spinning in circles, and my vision was blurred like a watercolor painting, but I forced myself to stand up and take a good look around.
I was in some darkly-lit room, with tall black walls and glittering gold sand at my feet. The chamber was perfumed, just like the room with the stone, which meant I must be close to Lilith’s burial spot. I could sense it, just as much as I could smell the roses in the air.
“Master!” Nyx’s voice broke through the silence. “There you are!”
Suddenly, the women appeared before me, like they were ghosts returning to life. They smiled when they saw me, but then their faces fell as the room grew even darker and colder while the perfume of roses soured into an acidic stench.
“M-Master,” Akira said as she raised a trembling finger. “Look behind you…”
I slowly turned around, and to my horror, there was a group of phantom women hovering around me in a tight circle. They wore long capes and floated above the ground, and their large, brilliant eyes stared into my soul. Their mouths gaped open, and an ear-splitting scream echoed through the chamber and made the walls tremble and the sand shake.
I turned around and took a couple of steps back as the witches huddled around me with their wands aimed and at the ready. The familiars took their positions, and when all of us were ready to fight, the hooded women cackled and slowly drifted toward us.
“So,” one of the voices said, and I realized these were the women who’d been in my head during the entire journey. “Did you really think we would just let you disturb the dead?”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” they giggled.
“No,” another familiar voice said. “I’m afraid this is where you die. You fucking witch.”
“And a male one at that,” another mocked. “As my sister said, you may have come this far, but the journey ends here.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” I growled with narrowed eyes. Blood pumped in my ears, and I shook with determination as I raised my wand in their faces. “Everyone, attack!”