Page 55 of Wicked Warlock
The crone dropped her cane to the side and indigo smoke poured from her hands. It moved like two long snakes slithering around within the circle of torches. They wound around the coffin and twisted as they shot up toward the sky. The glass lid of the coffin disintegrated into a bubble that floated up toward the sky. Though it was midday, and it was already a fall gray overcast sky, it began to darken as though it were the middle of the night.
Lightning sparked above us and the wind kicked up. The crone mumbled a chant in a language I’d never heard nor understood. Kylian and Ashryn flinched back. Kylian pressed his palm to his ear and turned his head away from her.
“What’s she saying?” I had to know.
“It’s dark elvish, forbidden to our people. But also some other language I don’t know. But I hate it all the same.” He pressed his other hand to his other ear and ducked his head.
The crone reached into the coffin and grabbed Catherine’s arm. She ran her finger over the soulmate mark surrounding her wrist. She used her thumb and forefinger to trace the lines that wound around Catherine’s wrist. When she let go of Catherine’s arm, she began to float up out of the casket. She stopped floating at the level of the crone’s hips. Her wild midnight hair around her made it look like she was floating in a pool of black water. The crone raised her hands over Catherine’s chest and she spread her fingers. Bolts of lightning dropped down, striking Catherine in the torso. Catherine’s back arched and she spasmed under the jolt of electricity.
“Mom!” Zinnia made a move to walk into the circle but the second she reached the boundary, she stopped as though smacking into a glass wall. Her eyes widened and she started banging on the invisible barrier. “Mom!”
The crone didn’t stop, not even for a second. She placed both her hands on Catherine’s chest and lifted them up toward the sky. A translucent cloud drifted from Catherine then it began to form…
“Beckett, is that…?” Astrid’s words rose with panic.
“Her soul? Yeah.” It reminded me of our time in the underworld and being stuck in that state.
Zinnia screamed from the other side of the courtyard and magic flared all around her. Tuck wrapped both his arms around her. “If you stop her now, Catherine will absolutely die.”
“If she dies, I’ll kill you! Do you hear me!” Zinnia wriggled within Tuck’s hold.
“Looks like the old bag is in over her head.” Grayson shook his head. “Bollocks, complete bollocks.”
Despite all the screaming and talking, the crone continued. Her movements were slow and methodical. She pinched her thumb and forefinger together and moved her hand around Catherine’s soul as though sewing it. An indigo glow began to emit from the ghostly form. She didn’t look lucid in the least. In fact, she looked asleep, just drifting in water. The threading continued all around Catherine and then there it was. A murky shadow began to pull from Catherine. It wasn’t a ghost like we had been. No, this looked twisted and demonic with glowing red eyes and a distorted face. It wasn’t Alataris; it was something worse. Something sinister.
It fought to hold onto Catherine with drooping smokey arms that seemed to melt and reform as it tried to hold her. But the more the crone continued to weave her indigo magic around Catherine, the farther that gloomy shadow moved away. It twisted and wailed as the crone’s power began to surround it, forcing the shadow into a ball that struggled against her power yet her hold never broke. When she waved her hand down, Catherine’s spirit laid back into her body as though it had never been separated.
The crone let Catherine drift back down into the coffin. Her attention was fully drawn to the shadow she had trapped in a bubble-like magic that was surrounded with her glowing indigo power. She held out her palm, and it hovered just over her boney hand. She brought it closer to her lips, like she was about to kiss it. She sucked in a deep breath and the bubble of the shadow flew into her mouth as though she was sucking it through a straw.
Before my eyes, the crone transformed. Her patchy gray hair lengthened and filled out into long flowing locks that brushed at her waist. Her hunchback straightened and her skin went from looking like wrinkled leather to smooth and creamy, and she seemed to glow from within. Where her eyes were once riddled with milky cataracts, they cleared and turned a deep sapphire blue. The shabby black sack that she wore tightened to her body, turning into a little black dress with spaghetti straps.
Curves, she had curves for days. I wasn’t expecting any of this. She smiled to herself and ran her hands through her long silvery hair and then over her curves. She flicked her hand one last time and another bolt of lightning struck Catherine right in the chest. She jolted with the electricity and her eyes shot wide open. She sucked in a gasping breath and sat upright. We all took a step back and silence fell for a moment, then the crone snapped her fingers and the torches disappeared as the sky completely cleared.
“Talk about immortal cocktails. A shot of eternal life.” Grayson’s eyes widened in disbelief. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
The crone turned and sauntered over toward him. She stopped right in front of him. “Grayson Shade from the House of Shade. The gift of immortality isn’t only kept by the vampires. Perhaps you should let Titus know. I’m sure he’d love to hear what happened on this night. And perhaps from now on, my calls will be heeded.”
“I-I don’t know what you’re on about.” His tongue darted over his lips.
A swirling green portal opened in the middle of the courtyard and Penndolyn walked through with Professor Charles hot on her heels. “What’s going on here?”
She looked up toward the roof to Matteaus. “You allowed this… allowed her here?”
He didn’t respond but Penndolyn opened another portal right in front of the crone. “Leave, now.”
The crone looked over her shoulder toward Penndolyn and blew her a kiss. “Hearts are made for breaking.”
Without another word, the transformed crone walked into the portal and went back from where she came. Zinnia sprinted toward the coffin. “Mom!”
“Zinnia.” Catherine opened her arms wide and Zinnia dove into them.
Tears streamed down Zin’s face as she pressed her face into her mother’s shoulder. “I thought you’d never come back. I thought you’d die and there was nothing I could do about it.”
“Shh, I’m here. I’m here.” She pressed a kiss to Zinnia’s head. “You did it.”
Ophelia shuffled from one foot to the other, kicking at the ground. She kept glancing toward Catherine like she wanted to run to her too but held back for Zinnia. Catherine threw her other arm out toward O. “Come on, my girl.”
Ophelia didn’t hesitate. She ran to Catherine and dropped to the ground, throwing herself in right next to Zinnia. Astrid leaned her face into my arm, hiding her own pink cheeks and tears. The others all stood there, watching the love between mother and family. Some dabbed at their eyes and others turned away, not wanting to show the emotions they felt. It wasn’t long ago I would’ve wished for a second chance with my mother. Just to see her one more time. To throw my arms around her the way Ophelia and Zinnia were doing. But I didn’t feel that… I didn’t feel anything.
