Page 125 of Dark Flame
Something scrapes nearby. I’m not alone, but the cave is too dim to make out the obscure blob coming toward me, the length of the cave stretching farther than I initially believed; the peek of light, of nighttime, far away.
Alec!I call through the bond, hoping, praying he hears me, while yanking on the chains as I try to channel every ounce of my power into something tangible. Something that will free me.
No response.
Hecate, find him for me. Please.
“Give up. The cuffs are enchanted that even your magick won’t be able to break them.”
That’s impossible.
The blob splits apart into two. Two people approach, one casting a small fire in the corner to light up the cave.
Then, and now, nothing’s changed. Not the cuffs, the cave, or the people behind it.
They’re strangers. Their expressions blank and nothing like the affection I knew. Everything about them is a premonition of events to come.
“Mom. Dad.”
I’d like to believe they’re ghosts haunting me—if ghosts were real. Witches go to the otherworld, Summerland, to be with Hecate or get reincarnated, more often determined by having unfinished business or not. Human spirits pass on to Heaven or Hell, decided by their life’s deeds, and vampires go nowhere, their bodies left for nature to reclaim.
But these aren’t ghosts. They’re real unfortunately. They’re the people I once loved, who called me theirs.
Everything, what they hid from me, is so much clearer now. Perhaps it’s always been and I couldn’t see it, but clearer than ever, is their own shadows clinging to them. Darkness, as thick and as poignant as mud, and as suffocating as this cave is. They’re so encased, it’s taken the red hair I knew and the brown from the picture and transformed my ex-mother’s hair into a deep black.
“How? You died.”I killed you.
Mom—Violet steps forward. “You believed you did because we wanted you to.”
“But your bodies?—”
“Weren’t ours,” Arthur, the man I knew as Dad, interrupts. “You did exactly what we hoped.”
Rocks settle in the base of my stomach because if the burned bodies weren’t them, then— “Whodid I murder?”
“Mortals. No one important.”
“But why?” I let my eyes travel between the two of them before jerking against the cuffs, the current predicament more important than deaths they may never tell me the truth over. “What am I doing here?”
Violet waves her hands and black smoke materializes two chairs. They each sit in one facing me, as though conducting an interview. “I’m sure you have questions, and we’ll be happy to answer them while we wait.”
My blood freezes over. “Wait for what?”
“The reckoning, of course,” Violet replies, making zero sense. She crosses one leg over the other, her hands resting primly on her knees. Even her mannerisms are so different than the woman I knew. “You’re about to become even more powerful than you already are, Harlow Sinclair.”
While so many questions arise, her saying my surname and the one they claimed as their own for so long distracts me, forcing another thought instead. One whispered with the weight of our history.
“You killed my parents.”
“We needed you,” Arthur chimes nonchalantly. “More than they ever would. You’re meant for bigger things.”
“Like utilizing black magick,” I guess, willing it or my fire magick to function. Anything to help me out of here. Instead, I’m left with a pitiful attempt at yanking the chains, my skin reminding me of the last time I did this and the marks I got to show for it.
Violet watches my attempt with pursed lips. “They’re charmed to not break. And yes, Darkness is a very big part of your future. You should be thanking us.”
“You’re monsters,” I spit. “Murdering monsters who kidnap children and steal identities.”
Violet uncrosses her legs to lower her hands, woven together, between her knees. She leans closer, her depthless eyes taking on a near familiar flicker. “We work for a higher power. A war is coming, and there’s a few key players to ensure witches are on the winning side. Unfortunately, the winning side is not the oneHecateinsists on being.” She speaks the Goddess’ name like it’s poison. “Hecate has chosen the side of good, when we must follow a different path. Earth will be in danger and if we wish to survive, we need to become soldiers. Light magick will not save us.”
