Page 141 of Her Blood Revenge

‘If it’s not Pixie, who the fuck is it?’ he asks.

She speaks. The words are in a tongue I have never heard, but the power emanating from her is potent. Behind her, the hillsides and ground churn, creating a new dam, sealing off what remains of the river from refilling this place.

‘Whatthe fuck is it?’ I counter.

Archie whacks me and points.

‘That’s the grimoire she found,’ he says. ‘You see that?’

The book is open and hovering in front of her with black threads reaching from its pages and sinking into her chest, connecting itself to her.

‘Athir,’ I realise. ‘That’s Athir inside of her.’

‘We need to separate her from that grimoire.’ His eyes shine as his wolf stirs, and his nails grow to claws.

She laughs a deep and chilling laugh. It’s not hers. Nothing about her is my Pixie.

‘What do you want?’ I demand of the creature inhabiting her body.

‘What is mine,’ she replies.

‘And what’s that?’

Her eyes glow bright. ‘Revenge.’

Chapter twenty-four

The Dream Walker

Her wrist twists, and that sharp, lethalpiece of wood aiming at Archie unfurls and snaps itself around his throat. He rises in the air several feet, gasping and clawing at it.

‘Let him go!’ I yell.

Athir laughs deeply before I get a thump to my middle by one of his vines, and I’m encased in roots and dirt by the time I lift my head.

On her wrist, Poppy viciously hisses and goes to bite her. But Athir grips Poppy and tosses her with all his strength, sending the familiar straight over the dam and into the sea.

Athir faces the surviving witches and smiles.

‘You live under a great lie, witchlings. A great deception. You all believe we gods grant you power when, in fact, you steal and drain it from us.’

His vines tighten around me, and I start to hear my bones snapping.

Archie strikes at the bark around his throat with his lengthened claws. Athir doesn’t even react, and he remains ensnared.

‘Your time ruling this realm is over,’ she snarls. ‘Humans. Witches. You have killed, raped, butchered and destroyednature. It ends now. This world will be green once more. It will be mine.’

Grass sprouts beneath her feet and spreads. Long and green, lush and vibrant. It covers the valley. Every patch of barren land and every brittle tree. All alive. All flourishing.

It’s beautiful.

But when I see the poisonous plants begin to grow. When I see the heavily thorned vines and razor-sharp leaves.

I know what he means to do.

Precisely what he did to the last earth coven he attacked when he possessed Pixie.

Monstrous plants and deadly flowers come alive and attack the coven. They’re lethal and unforgiving as they tear apart the living and drag them down to their soil depths. Screams fill the air, and in the very middle of it is my Pixie, eyes of purple and Athir’s soul possessing her body. She watches the coven try to run. To protect themselves.

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