Page 145 of Bite Marks & Broken Hearts

My sister’s eyes flashed. “Who else would understand? A woman cast out for refusing to bow, to submit?” A bitter smile twisted her lips. “You were so busy playing the perfect son, the perfect Catholic, you never saw how they suffocated me. How they stripped away everything I was. Lilith offered me power instead of submission. Choice instead of chains.”

The water behind her surged higher.Lilith. Lilith, born from the primordial waters before even Eve was created. The first of God’s creatures to harness the seas’ power. And now Magdalena commanded water—she wielded the very essence of her demonic patron.

“I tried to tell you, brother. All those times I begged you to listen. But you were too busy hunting heretics to see your own sister drowning in their doctrine. Too blind to see that their God had no place for women except on their knees.”

The words cut me deep. How had I not seen her suffering? Too wrapped up in my own ambitions, in Rodrigo’s poisoned obsession, the Church’s iron grip.

My sister’s eyes burned brighter. “But Lilith listened. She saw me, saw my suffering. She became my savior.” Magdalena’s words turned bitter. “For a price. Five centuries, brother. That’s what Lilith gave me. Five hundred years before she claims my soul completely.” Her voice faltered. “But she’s already taking pieces of me. I can feel myself… slipping away.”

I stared at her, unable to reconcile this version of her with the young woman I’d once loved, once played with in our garden under the hot Spanish summer sun. The fragment of memory was hazy, but I could still hear her clear voice rising to Heaven, still see the sunlight catching in her dark curls.

“Do you know how many I’ve sacrificed to keep her satisfied?” When I said nothing, she snapped, “Twelve.Twelve so far.” Then she smiled, gesturing at Flynn. “He’s my thirteenth. My last. And the darkness inside him, it’s ready. I can finally break free of Lilith’s demands.”

Behind me, Flynn made a choked sound. Whether from fear or the spreading frost, I couldn’t tell.

The water churned violently behind her. “This is my way out. Thirteen vessels of concentrated dark magic. Thirteen souls prepared by my cambions, their power distilled into something pure enough to satisfy her. To buy my complete freedom.”

Vale took his position beside Magdalena. How long must he have been working with her, watching over me, waiting for this moment? Had she bargained with Vale just to toy with me? No, tofindme. To help reclaim the crucifix. The very cross that had saved her, that she needed for this final ritual.

“Twelve so far.” She smiled, an awful thing, too many teeth gleaming in the dark. “The thirteenth sacrifice will complete the ritual, break Lilith’s hold forever.” Something desperate crept into her voice. “Time’s running out, brother. Either I complete this, or Lilith drags what’s left of my soul to Hell. Do you want that on your conscience,brother?”

The water behind her surged higher, no longer merely defying nature but seeming to mock it. “This thirteenth requires something more. How fitting that the brother who condemned me has brought me the crucifix that started it all.” Her sneer pierced my soul. “And of course…” Her gaze slid to Flynn. “Our final sacrifice.”

“No!”

Priya’s shout cracked through the night like a gunshot. She stood beside Flynn, practically vibrating with defiance, hands raised in a protective stance.

My sister’s presence had held me in a trance of horror and guilt, but Priya’s cry—and Flynn’s face, twisted in terror—snapped me back to reality. The weight of five centuries of remorse couldn’t outweigh my duty to protect them.

Magdalena’s laughter echoed across the park. “How sweet. The little witch thinks she can interfere.” She cocked her head. “Tell me, girl, did your grandmother teach you real magic? Or just pathetic charms?”

“Leave her—” I started, but Magdalena’s hand shot out.

Priya’s body lifted from the ground as if yanked by invisible strings. She flew backwards, her scream cut short as she slammed into a large tree with a sickening crack. Her body crumpled to the ground.

Kit’s wolf form lunged forward with a snarl, but Magdalena’s power held him in place. Even Vale took a step back, swagger replaced by genuine fear.

“Begin,” Magdalena commanded, and with a flick of her wrist, the crucifix tore itself from my grip, flying across the space between us to land in her waiting hand.

31

Flynn

Cold.So damned cold.

My pulse skipped and lurched, my heart straining against the ice crystallising in my chest. Each feeble beat felt like ice shattering—sharp, jarring. The natural ebb and flow of life stuttering to a glacial crawl. My lungs too—every breath felt like swallowing shards of metal. But worse than the physical pain was watching Seb, seeing the raw anguish on his face as his sister, the one he’d thought he’d killed, taunted him.

The water rose around us in twisting columns. Some distant part of me recognised its pull, its familiar song, like the waves back home in Braymore Bay. But this water waswrong. Corrupted.

Vale began to chant in a language that set my teeth on edge. Around us, perhaps a dozen figures stepped forward. With horrible, wet sounds, they began to shed their human skin like snakes sloughing off dead scales. I watched, unable to look away, as Damien’s face—the same handsome face that had entrapped me—split down the middle, peeling away to reveal something ancient and twisted beneath. His new form was sleek, scaled, with too many joints in his limbs. When he opened his mouth to join Vale’s chant, rows of needle-sharp teeth gleamed in the moonlight.

I wanted to reach for Seb, to say something, anything, to ease the torment in his eyes. But the water wrapped around me like chains, holding me in place as Magdalena raised the crucifix.

Twelve points of sickly purple light appeared around us. Twelve lights—the harvested power of her previous victims, waiting for me to complete their circle.

The water tightened its grip, and my feet left the ground. Magdalena’s voice rose above Vale’s chant, speaking words that made my ears ring. The purple lights began to spin, faster and faster, leaving sickly trails in their wake.

The frost had crept up my neck and down my arms. My fingers had gone numb, my legs trembled, but beneath all that piercing cold, something stirred.

---