Page 112 of Hellish Witch

He turned his head, unaffected by my pathetic struggles, and faced something beyond the ward line.

And that was when I felt it.

Life.

Rippling with the currents of multiple beings.

Intent on death.

Alvie lifted our joined hands, and sunshine blasted my retinas. Magic cracked through the air like thunder.

It hollowed me out like a soul-eater.

The ward shattered.

Chapter 39

Agroan burst from my lips.

And I crumpled.

Dirt rushed up to greet me as Alvie let me fall.

My ears rang from the explosion of magic, and tears blurred my vision as Alvie’s sunlight blazed painfully bright.

Fuelled by me.

I struggled onto my side, hollow and aching. Bone-deep pain cracked open my chest where my magic should have been.

Dark figures flitted into the light’s edge.

Alvie loomed over my body with a victorious grin on his lips. “Well done, Eve!”

Faint blips of life rippled through my subconscious. Roughly fifty life forces pricked my magical senses before I lost count to the panic swelling inside me.

They weren’t just any humans.

They werehunters.

“How could you?” I hissed at Alvie, trying to blink the world into glaring focus, but everything kept swimming. “They’re your coven. Yourfamily.”

“I’m doing thisforthem.” He sneered. “Your father is weakened by greed. All we do is summon demons and make deals for more magic and money. But what about what it costs the rest of us? Weak leaders weaken covens.”

More shadows peeled from the trees towards us. I pushed myself shakily onto all fours, pain spiking my empty chest with every heaving inhale. My arms trembled under my own weight. I’d never felt so weak.

But I couldn’t let everyone die.

This was my fault.

Men in black cargos and tight jumpers held pistols and knives as they approached on swift steps.

I stumbled to my feet, trying to veer away from the traitorous mage. My hand shook as I raised my claws.

I had to do something.

My father might not be the family I’d secretly dreamt of as a naive child, but I couldn’t just let hunters take him and all those people. I’d barely survived my nightmare in their captivity.

AndKillianwas back there.

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