Her eyes glinted with mad fury, her chest heaving. She was too close for me to dodge her curse as it hurtled right for my chest. The force of it knocked me backward and winded me completely. My head slammed against a rock. It was all I could do to not lose consciousness.

No.

My story does not end here.

Not at the hands of this bitch.

Even as my skin felt like hot oil had just been poured over it and the sensation began to spread across my chest and down my arms, I gritted my teeth and forced myself to stand. She was approaching me, a look of triumph on her face. She raised her palms, motioning to strike again.

Summoning the fire within me, I forced flames from my palms. Her eyes widened with shock as they engulfed her.

I expected her to shoot out a spell to extinguish my flames but, bizarrely, she didn’t. She just began screaming as though she really was being burned.

I gaped at the witch as she stumbled around on the rocks. She was too disorientated even to make it to the sea. This was not the Isolde that I had come to know.

“Rose! Are you all right?” Mona called behind me. I was surprised to see her making her way toward me with Kiev. She was paler than I’d ever seen her, but her legs seemed steady.

The three of us stood watching in awe as Isolde burned alive until her screams subsided and her body stopped moving. She collapsed to the ground as a lump of melted flesh and bone. I shuddered, watching the flames lick at her corpse.

Mona grabbed my shoulders and twisted me to face her. Her face dropped as she stared at my chest and looked along my shoulders and arms. I looked down at myself for the first time. My skin was tinged red, but truly, the pain had felt much worse than it looked. It barely looked more serious than nettle stings. The pain was also subsiding.

“You should be dead,” Mona breathed as she continued looking me over. “Isolde wouldn’t have hit you with anything other than one of her most deadly curses. And her powers were practically on par with Rhys’.” Then she addressed her husband, whom I still hadn’t gotten used to looking like Magnus. “My blackout and now this… I and all the black witches… we have become weak. Our spells no longer hold the potency they once did. It’s because Lilith is gone. The spell she cast on you has also disappeared.”

“At least this is confirmation that she is definitely gone,” I muttered, “and she’s not somehow still hanging on in that rotten body of hers.”

My voice trailed off as the three of us looked around the rocky area. The smoke from my fire was thinning and we could see more clearly. Everyone had moved on from the area—over the rocks and further toward the castle, by the sound of it. It was just Kiev, Mona and me left here now.

We started moving to join the battle that was taking place near the castle, but Mona stopped in her tracks as we passed Isolde’s ashes. She levitated them off the ground, floated them toward the ocean and scattered them in the waves.

“She would never have done that for you. Why would you do that?” Kiev asked, looking at her in surprise.

“Because, Kiev, I’ve chosen to be a better person than Isolde was,” Mona replied, watching the remainder of the ashes sink beneath the surface. “And, after death, I believe everyone deserves at least some respect.”

Chapter 29: Rose

We reached the rocks and climbed over them, now in full view of the battle. Curses flew in all directions as vampires and witches clashed. Corrine and Ibrahim were taking on several witches at once which, to my surprise, they seemed to be coping quite well with. A single curse from Ibrahim floored three witches in his path.

“White witches are now more powerful than black witches,” I muttered, more to myself than to anyone else.

“Lilith’s demise has drained us,” Mona said.

“You think you were the only one who fainted?” I asked.

“No. I’m sure that most of these black witches passed out at least for a short while… depending on how much power they gained from Lilith. Channelers like me would have felt it the most. Can either of you see Rhys?” Mona asked.

Kiev and I shook our heads. I wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or bad thing.

I tried to make out my family and Caleb, but it was hard to spot vampires in this darkness—most of them were moving so fast in the churning crowd.

“Let’s go,” Kiev said impatiently.

Leaving our hiding place, we rushed down the rocks toward the battleground. I took a different direction than the couple, my palms at the ready to begin blasting fire at these black witches who had taken so many innocent lives. Adrenaline rushed through me, and there wasn’t the slightest bit of mercy running through my veins.

I was about to throw myself headfirst into the battle when I caught a glimpse to my right of a vat of deep red liquid. It was so large, a lake would have been a better word to describe it. Surrounding it were humans, and I realized that many of the screams and cries were coming from them. Before I could help with the battle, I had to do something about them. Spells were inching dangerously close to them and they were helpless. They could barely wriggle a few feet.

As I approached the lake, I spotted my mother and Ashley on the other side of it. They had already started freeing the humans, ripping through the ropes with their fangs. I rushed over to them and began working alongside them. I didn’t have any knife or sharp object on me. I did, however, have my palms. I approached a girl nearest to me, who looked older than me.

“It’s okay,” I said as she squealed. “I’m here to help.”