Fated Truth (The True Witch Saga) (30 page)

“When I tried t
o take out your little friend, no one even tried to retaliate against me. I was spoiling for a fight,” he pouted at me. “You just had to make me come and find you,” he giggled. “But don’t worry. I have a very special surprise for you, little bird.” She clapped her hands together and hopped on her toes. As if the news should make me happy.

I concentrate
d on stopping my external and mental struggles. I willed the numbness away and I started to get the feeling back in my limbs.

“Aren’t you even curious about the
surprise I have brought you?” she sneered at me. “Oh!” Giggle. “Silly me! You can’t speak or move. Oh poo! I so wanted to see the look on your face.” The creature was back to using Sabrina’s voice. He kept switching back and forth, like he didn’t even notice himself doing it.

I
was still struggling not to move or think besides willing his magic away. More of myself was coming back to me, but it was happening so damn slowly!

The creature stopped circling me and came
to stand face to face with me. He waved a well-manicured hand and I could see something or someone lying on the ground a little to the right, not far from where I was still partially frozen, but out of my line of vision.

“Still no reaction?” he sneered again in Sabrina’s voice
. “Why don’t I just bring him a little closer? I am sure I will get the reaction I want then.” He smiled sweetly at me as he walked away. I heard a muffled male moan of pain. Then the sound of someone dragging something heavily across the leaf covered ground.

Who
he shoved in front of me struck terror to my very core. The creature had Devon. My fun loving, beautiful friend was covered in blood and grime. His once bright blonde hair was matted to the side of his head. He had bite marks all over his face and neck. That was the only part of him that I could currently see. I shuddered. I didn’t want to see what the rest of him looked like. I cried out in anguish inside my mind as the creature with Sabrina’s face leaned in close to him and ran his forked tongue across his cheek.

“Mmm
! Now that is sweet. Who would have thought he would taste like spun sugar?” Again with the hyena laugh. “I can see the horror in your eyes, little princess. Now that’s what I love to see!” he crowed triumphantly.

Devon’s eyes we
re closed, but I could hear his rattled breathing. I knew that he wasn’t dead yet, but it was a near thing. I willed my body to respond and unfreeze with everything in me. I could feel the black, ever present void start to stir deep inside me.

The creature
must have felt the shift within me as well because Sabrina’s eyes widened  and started to fill with black. “You dare defy me? Ruin everything that I have planned so carefully?” he screamed into my face. “You are lucky that I brought him to you breathing at all!” The creature wearing Sabrina backed up a few steps dragging the full weight of Devon’s six foot frame with him. “You will learn not to defy your betters, little princess. I will enjoy teaching you this lesson!” he sneered, then reared back Sabrina’s head and sank his razor sharp teeth into Devon’s jugular. Blood spurted in all directions as Devon jerked from the ripping of his throat.

I
saw his eyes open briefly. Within them was a look of longing, pain, horror, and then finally peace as the creature ripped out a chunk of his throat. Devon breathed his last breath not four feet from where I stood. I could do nothing to stop it. All the power in the world at my finger tips and I couldn’t save my best friend. I was screaming in agony inside my head. The black void finally boiled over and I broke free of the paralysis. Just in time to see the Sabrina creature fling Devon’s lifeless body away from it like so much trash. He turned back around toward me and stutter stepped back at what he saw.

The full impact of my power
was glowing from the inside out. I was the moon incarnate. My eyes were glowing like green lightening, my feet were hovering at least six inches off the ground, and there was a cyclone of wind engulfing my body. “You dare to take those I love from me? To taunt me like a child. Then use those I hold dear like a useless toy?” My voice sounded like the full force of a waterfall rushing over thousands of rocks. It thundered off of the ancient trees surrounding us.

The words HIGH DEMON we
re whispered through the back of my mind.

“You think yourself above me
, Demon?”

The cr
eature wearing the Sabrina suit took another step back, as I took a step toward it.

“Your time on this plane of existence
is done.” I took yet another step toward the Demon and waved my hand to hold the creature in place.

The Demon’s eyes bulge
d, clearly not believing that I had the power to freeze one as he in place.

I gather
ed all the power I had waiting dormant inside me. I had never used that much or felt that much power inside me before. I held out my hands and saw a green translucent sphere start to form between my hands. As it grew in size, the demon redoubles its struggles.

“You are worthless. Nothing inside you
is worth saving,” I roared at the Demon. “So now you die.” I flung the orb toward the Demon. Following the giant orb of power was a green stream of pure power.

Whatever magic the Demon owned
was working against mine, trying in vain to keep itself and its shell alive. I pushed more of myself into the constant stream of my power battering at the High Demon. Finally I felt the Demon’s shields falter and an unholy roar filled the air as he started to turn to ash from the outside in. I kept pelting him with wave after wave of green lightening shooting from my palms. I didn’t just want to kill the body he had stolen. I wanted to sever him, and then burn him to ash as well.

The ash that was Sabrina’s body fell
away and what was left was a black snarling and snapping creature. He was covered in scales from the tip of his tale to the sharp points of the many horns crowning his head. Still I shoved my power at him. Trying to kill the High Demon where he now stood.

“You cannot kill what
is eternal little girl!” the Demon roared.

I could
feel myself starting to grow weaker as the immense amount of my power continued to flow from my hands to strike at the Demon. Then all of a sudden I heard a ripping sound. A scarlet red gaping hole appeared suddenly behind the Demon and sucked him into it. As suddenly as it appeared it was gone, along with the murderer of my best friend, one of the few people on this earth that I loved.

Everything in me fell
away. I stumbled and landed on my knees, crawling over to Devon’s prone cold body. He was torn and bloody from head to foot. It looked like someone had taken bites out of various parts of his body. My Goddess the torture he’d endured all because he knew me. I sank my fingers into his shirt and fisted them tightly. I threw my head back and screamed out the pain and torment that was consuming me from the inside out. I screamed and screamed as tears flooded down my cheeks.

I hear
d someone stepping through the trees, the crunch of heavy boots as they walked near to where I was kneeling over my friend. I turned my head and looked upon a beautiful stranger with hate filled eyes.

“I mean you no harm
, Princess.” The stranger held his hands out in a pleading fashion. “My name is Tristan. I’m here to assist your friend pass into the light. He will finally find rest from the turmoil of this world.”

“What are you?” I fou
nd myself asking yet another person. I could feel my hands start to tingle with power. I wouldn’t let anyone else take Devon from me. He deserved to be laid to rest somewhere as exquisite as he was. Was…I tried to hold in my sobs and failed. I lay my head onto Devon’s still chest and wretched with pain.

“Child you need to calm yourself.
I’m not here to harm the daughter of my Goddess.” The stranger took yet another step closer.

I whip
ped around on my knees with my palms already glowing. “Come any closer and you will die where you stand,” I snarled at the stranger.

Faster than my eyes could
track, the stranger moved forward and gently touched me on the forehead. Everything around me started to fade to grey around the edges. I got one good shot out of me that I was pretty sure hit it’s intended target before everything went black.

Dammit. Not Again.

Chapter Twenty-three

Saying Goodbye

I awoke with a crushing feeling in my chest. It took a moment to recognize the feeling as grief. Then everything came flooding back to me, like watching a horrid film strip behind my swollen red eyes. I could hear someone weeping in the distance. It sounds like Jessa. I could also hear several men’s voices discussing something that sounded to be pretty serious.

I look
ed around and found myself once again tucked into my bed in Gavin’s cabin. I closed my eyes and tried to block out the events that had happened right before I blacked out once again. Or was knocked out. I shook my head to make sure nothing up there hurt. My head felt fine, but the rest of me was faltering under the weight of grief. I locked my eyes on the exposed beams of the ceiling and willed myself not to give in and cry. Of course it didn’t work. Gut wrenching sobs started to pour from me. I turned to my side and hugged Jaxx’s pillow. It still smelled like him. I felt the bed shift and looked behind me to find Jaxx sitting there. He was wearing a somber look on his face.

“I wish I could take your pain. I would gladly bare it. If only it would stop your he
art from breaking.” Jaxx stroked away the hair that was stuck to my cheek.

“It
is not only my heart that was crushed, Jaxx.” I buried my face back into the pillow.

“I know you don’t want to leave the haven you have wrought for yourself
, but everyone is waiting on you.”

“Waiting for what?” I snap
ped. “Haven’t I been through enough for one day? Don’t I deserve a time out? Just this once I want to be left alone and not have to face the next tragedy that is going to strike.”

“They are waiting on you to say goodbye to your friend. They want to hold Devon’s funeral pyre at moonrise.”

That shook me from my grief as nothing else could.
Say goodbye to my best friend. My family. Can I do that? How can someone go on from losing someone that you love as dearly as I love him?
“What time is it now?” I asked Jaxx.

He
laid himself down behind me and spooned me from behind. He pulled me into his chest and wrapped his strong arms around me. “An hour until the ritual.”

“Can’t we just stay here like this?
Just you and me. Shut the world and it’s sadness out and just stay here in this bed? Just us for always?” I felt him gently shaking his head in the negative.

“You know I would love nothing more than to cocoon you and me in our own little world and never leave
, but others need you. Jessa needs you.”

Jessa.
God how she must be broken. My friends are hurting. My family was broken all because a fucked up creature wanted to hurt me and those I loved. I could feel anger replacing the soul sucking grief. I stiffened in Jaxx’s arms. “How do I kill a High Demon? How do I find him again?”

“That
is something that we are going to work out. This I promise you.”

I took
a deep breath and pulled out of Jaxx’s embrace. I sat up and looked down at his beautifully handsome face. “I would be forever lost without you, my love,” I told him while I stroked his cheek. I leaned down and pressed my lips gently to his.

Jaxx took me into his arms and held me while I grieved
silently. We lay in our cocoon for the next hour. Until it was time to say goodbye to a pivotal person in my life. A beloved friend. A part of my heart went with Devon when he drew his last breath, a piece that I would never get back.

I stoo
d stoic throughout the burning ceremony of my friend. Jaxx stood behind me with his arms wrapped tightly around my waist. No one said a word as Jessa lit the pyre where our friend lay still and cold. No one shared words of wisdom or sang songs of joy. We grieved in silence.

Silently wishing it was someone else burning. Wish
ing it was someone else that died his horrid death, someone else who deserved to have their life stolen from them far too soon. Devon deserved a full life with laughter and love. What he got was pain and torture in the end.

I
saw Jessa across the flames. Up until that point I was scared to look into her face. Afraid that when I did I would see blame there. Blame for what happened to our friend, but there was no blame, only angry grief. As a scarlet tear rain down her face and I vowed to avenge our friend.

“I will find the one who took you from us,” I spo
ke to the flames that had engulfed Devon. “I will make it to where you did not die in vain.” I looked at the others surrounding the pyre. Meeting their eyes one by one. “I vow that I will take those who only live a life for darkness and snuff them out. There is a war coming. A war I plan on winning so that no more innocence is lost.” I hung my head, took a deep shuddering breath and pulled my mother’s jeweled dagger from the strap on my thigh. I sliced my hand open down my life line. The scarlet ran true as I flung the droplets of blood into the flames. “As I vow it, so let it be,” I intoned.