Page 15 of Heart of a Witch
My dreams were like an ocean of layers. They got darker the farther I fell. Blue robes, daggers, and dead people haunted my nightmares, and in the last one before waking, shouting erupted, words pounding against my soul as I felt hands grab my arms.
My eyes fluttered open, and I jumped to my feet. I punched Cas in the arm, pushing him away from me. “What in the underworld are you doing?” I asked breathlessly.
Tears glossed his dark brown eyes. “I had to wake you! You were right.”
I ran cold. I’d never heard those words leave his mouth. “Cas?” I asked tentatively.
“It’s Ember. I waited up for her, but she didn’t come back, and it was almost three in the morning, so I went down to the club and…” His hand shot to his mouth, and a tear escaped into the gaps between his fingers. “The hunter attacked with his team. The whole place is torn apart, and they found dead bodies, sacrificed.” He paused for a short moment. “It’s enough to condemn everyone inside. I ran, but I couldn’t find Ember. I went to the kissing tree, but she wasn’t there. Y-you, don’t think she would have gone back to the club?”
My heart somehow felt heavier in my chest. “Where did he take them for trial?”
“He’s already begun the…” He tugged at his collar. “Punishments.”
Bile bit up my throat. “Where?”
“Town square. I was going there next.”
I pushed him out of the way and grabbed my boots, sharing a glance with my brother before running out the door. I prayed to deities I didn’t believe in that Ember was far away from all this. Anyone who’d heard of Damian Shaw knew that no witches passed a trial with him. If he caught us, we were already dead.
My stomach knotted as I ran toward the town square. Stars twinkled against the matte-black night, but the first hues of blue had already faded the speckled silver in the distance. It had to be four, maybe five o’clock, based on the sky. I’d heard he held trials at night because it was when he believed a witch’s powers were weakest. His logic was stupid, but then he was human and a priest to boot.
Please, Ember, don’t be there. Please.
If she was, then I’d have to expose us, because there was no way I was letting her die. I’d fight them. I should have brought weapons. I mentally kicked myself for not thinking of it back at the house. I heard footsteps behind me in the distance, but I didn’t turn to see who it was.
The town square was alight with torches and oil lamps, illuminating the freshly erected gallows and jeering crowd. My gaze climbed the wooden platform, and I found my worst nightmare come true.
Five
Ember’s bloodshot eyes found me when I stumbled into the town square, falling out through hordes of people. Her lips parted, and a raspy breath passed through them.
Flames flickered on torches carried by humans, licking the sides of their faces with hues of orange and yellow. A shiver shuddered my bones, slinking down my back and spreading goose bumps along my arms. The usual softness of her expression was warped with fear, her bottom lip trembling like it had when we were kids and she was afraid.
I hadn’t seen that look in a long time.
“No.” The word had barely left my lips when the floor of the gallows fell away from under her feet. I fought my way through the swelling crowd and focused on the rope cutting into her throat as she hung from the noose. I still had time. If I could get to her, I could cut it down, then boil the townspeople’s blood. It was enough to get her away, even if they killed me for it.
I watched in slow motion as the hunter stomped across the gallows, pulling something shiny from his pocket when he reached her. Fury forced adrenaline through me, speeding me to the edge of the gallows, when something hot flicked my cheek.
Blood spattered as he carved out her heart. He was too fast, too skillful for me to reach her in time.
My jaw dropped, a breath barely escaping as everything fell into slow motion. I gaped at the hole where her heart was. Her legs had stopped kicking, her fingers twitching, then stilling. My brain faltered. I stared, slack-jawed, my mind numb to the scene playing out in front of me. Someone nudged me when the crowd lurched forward, cheering for her death.
Death.
That was what she was: dead.
Choking on her name, I dropped to my knees, my heartbeat stopping for a soul-shattering moment.Ember.The word was faint in my mind, swallowed by another:sister.
It had to be a nightmare. It couldn’t be real. I was still asleep. I had to be asleep. It couldn’t be real.
Hands gripped my shoulders and pulled me, but I couldn’t move, couldn’t think. “Not here,” my brother’s broken voice whispered and tugged me again. A sob rippled through my body, and all I could think about was killing every single person in this crowd. They were rejoicing. My sister was dead. Gone.
Forever.
I didn’t want to be right. Not like this.
“Please,” he begged.
