Page 87 of Heart of a Witch
Twenty-Five
Victoria
I unsheathed my pocketknife, feeling the grooves on the handle cutting into my skin as I gripped it with all my might. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
“I have nothing to lose,” he said between gritted teeth. “My family are all dead. I wondered where you all had run to, so I came here, to finish that hunter myself, when who did I see but you, going around with his son. Traitor.”
He was going to give us away. My mind wasn’t working well enough to deal with this. Fractures of memories and words distorted my thoughts as I searched for the right thing to do. Why couldn’t I get it together? “It’s not like that. We’re working against them.”
“It seems like it.” He spat on my carpet, the dirty animal. “Now I’m going to finish what I came here to do.” He stepped forward, and I moved back against my bedroom wall. “Your sister’s actions will not go unpunished.”
“Ember?” I clarified.
“Yes, Emberly.” He said her name with more venom than my vianas possessed.
“She died because of you and your son.”
“No, no, no. She gave us away to the hunter. I found what she had written down for him the same day we were raided and my family murdered.” Tears glossed his dark-brown eyes, so dark they could be black. “She sold out our club and our Chester, who only protected her, to save herself and all of you. The hunter must have found her when she was alone, because whatever he said or did made her spill all our club’s secrets. She condemned her own people to save her own neck. Never have I known such cowardice.”
I shook my head and backed into the wall. “Ember wouldn’t have done that.”
“No?” He arched an eyebrow, unconvinced. “Not to protect her family? To protect you?”
I held my breath, my mind swirling. Would she? Had she? If he was right, then she shouldn’t be dead. “She was killed by the hunter. Why would he do that if they had a deal?”
“Because she was naïve. He was never going to keep to it. Any of us would have known it, but she was young, and because of it, we all had to die.”
“Even if she did,” I said, my thoughts a carousel of possibilities, “why would you come after us? He’s the only one who killed your family, and she was only protecting hers. Wouldn’t you do the same?”
He white-knuckled his own knife. Through the darkness, I caught sight of a trail of spit on his bottom lip, insanity lacing his gaze. “My family is dead!” he shouted, his voice drying. “They are gone, and I have nothing. Nothing. That’s why I came here. I’ve been watching you all for a while. I’d hoped the hunter would finish you first so I could finish him, but even the little stunt I pulled in the church didn’t make him suspect. So much for a renowned witch-hunter.”
“What stunt?”
“With one of the priest’s wives. I’m not sure if she died or not, but I really believed after that the hunter would be screaming ‘witches’ from the rooftops based on his reputation, but you all wormed your way out of it somehow.” Insanity swam in his gaze. “I had enough of waiting, and now I’m here, to kill you all.”
“Where have you been staying? How haven’t you been caught?”
He gritted his teeth. “In the abandoned house in the forest. I saw you had come, and I followed you back here. I’ve been making trips, you see. I spied on your sister and the Shaw kid at their academy. She told him all about you and your family, and I was sure he would tell his father, but he didn’t. He accepted you.”
My heart hammered. “No, she just told him she dabbled in witchcraft, not that she is a witch.”
“He took her grimoire; I saw it. A day later, when he left to meet up with her again, I broke into their house and found it in his room. He hid it well, but I made sure to leave it out in the open for the servants to find. I thought at least it would get the hunter’s attention, and yet here you all are, alive and well—until now.”
“Do you really think you can kill me and get out of this house alive? I have family here.”
“I don’t care anymore. I’ve already lost everything. What’s more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose? And look, I have dark magic on my side.” He flicked his wrist, and darkness danced up from his fingers.
I mirrored him. “You’re not the only one.”
He bared his teeth, growling softly. He was going to give us away, if Corbin hadn’t heard his ranting already. He’d kill me and then who? Alex? Cas? The hunter for sure… and Elijah and Corbin. He had the same dark glint in his eyes like mine, but worse. How much dark magic had he used? He had already embraced the madness, and an unsettling reality hit me; I had to kill him. He would kill all of us.
I caught a glimpse of myself in the standing mirror. My hair stuck outward, frenzied. I had a knife in my hand and murder in my eyes. I could hardly recognize myself.
“Tori? Who are you tal—” Alex’s voice echoed through the house as she entered my bedroom. She fell into the wardrobe when Richard ran at her, knife in hand.
I wanted to fight, to plunge my blade into him, but I couldn’t move. Every part of me froze, including my voice. I watched as he raised the knife to her throat, and the memory of watching Ember die flooded back, rocking panic through me. My mind split into pieces, and Alex’s cries for help were lost to some void I couldn’t see inside of myself. I couldn’t focus on any coherent thought. No sounds penetrated my mind, and my world gave into blackness as I collapsed to the ground.
I was not sure how long it took me to wake up. All I knew was when I opened my eyes, the world had turned blood red, and my sister was probably dead.
