My palm itched, and I turned my eyes to Knox, who paused as they removed the bodies, looking at me and then to Aurora, tears blinding my vision. He turned back, waiting for the last of the bodies to be removed, and I shot forward without warning, shouting the spell as power ignited and erupted into the courtyard. I slammed against Dimitri and Aurora, taking their entire section of originals with us through the portal I’d created with the spell.
“Run!” I screamed as men fell through the portal, and my hands clapped the moment Knox moved to lunge through it. “Gargoyles!” I watched in horror as I took in the chaos. I watched the men who had slipped through the portal with us go down, unable to escape the brutality and efficiency of the gargoyles who slaughtered them. “Faster, Dimitri, Aurora, move now!” I screamed as I threw my hands up, sending the gargoyles that shot toward us, flying backward with a blast of energy. The house appeared, and we fell inside the moment Kinvara opened the door.
I jumped to my feet, turning as the door creaked and shivered as something slammed hard against it. My hands lifted, slapping together, and a barrier erupted around the house. I slid down the door, sobbing as everything hit me at once.
“He killed Amara,” Aurora whispered thickly.
“No, I killed Amara.” I held her gaze while the others went silent. “She traded me to the Minotaur King. She gave me to him so he could rape and murder me. She traded us all as her dowry as if we were something she owned. He was horrible.” A sob exploded from my chest as I wrapped my arms around my stomach, shaking my head. “He had a hallway full of trophies and pictures of the results of his use and brutalization of women,” I said, wiping away tears that refused to stop falling.
“She wouldn’t do that.” Sabine stared at me, horrified by what I’d said.
“But she did, and I was hung up on display to be raped and mutilated as she announced to the entire party that I was her gift to her husband’s murderous father. Amara hated us. She hated me the most. She thought I stole her power while we shared a womb. She fucked her husband as he stared at me. Amara let him abuse me as she watched, and then she told them what to dress me in so I could be tortured, and then beheaded.”
“That’s insane.” Aurora pushed her dirty fingers through her hair, staring at me as tears filled her eyes. “Then she was already lost to us. To do something so horrendous to blood is the same as treason. You did what you had to do in order to survive. What the hell is happening at home?” she murmured through chattering teeth, shaking off her horror at what we were currently facing.
“Aria, we do not blame you, and the answer to that question, Aurora, is the entire world has gone mad,” Kinvara said, tossing her arms up in the air, kneeling before me. “We have to go now. The shield you placed around the house won’t hold for much longer, and the concealment spell was broken when Dimitri stepped into the house.”
“I know.” I stood up, pushing my shaking hands over my skirt before eyeing each of my sisters to ensure they were all accounted for. “I need the map I told you to get.” I fought for calm, shaking internally as I felt something prodding against the shield I’d placed. Something slammed against the house, and I closed my eyes as Knox screamed my name before another earthquake shook us. “Now, that isn’t a knock, ladies. Grab Hecate’s grimoires that can be removed, as well as grandfather’s skull. Where are my clothes and my things?” I asked, and Kinvara handed my bag to me as she nodded at the map on the table. “Start a five-minute timer; grab anything you want because we will not be back. Make sure it is small, and only something you can carry because we’re entering the Nine Realms without anyone knowing we are there.”
“Why? The house will hold; it was brilliant, Aria.” Aurora smiled, hopefully. “You saved your sisters from ending up with me when I rushed out to help Dimitri as men invaded the town.”
“It won’t hold because it isn’t blessed and hasn’t been since Amara took a bone from grandfather’s ear, the stapes, which is literally the smallest bone in the body. She made sure we couldn’t hide from her husband.” I grabbed my leg as pain burned where Knox’s name was written upon it as he shouted my name again. “Go, we don’t have long before they penetrate that shield, and then we all end up on our knees, getting a haircut with his blade.”
Everyone moved into action as I went to the window, throwing open the curtain to stare at Knox, who waited by the door still dressed in his armor. An entire army stood at his back, awaiting his orders. His gaze slid to the window, and he moved, slowly strolling over to tilt his head against the glass as he stared in at me. He was still covered in blood, and Dimitri growled from beside me as I turned my head subtly, staring up at Knox as my chest rose and fell rapidly from adrenaline pumping through my veins.
“Turn around, Dimitri,” I stated, slipping the dress off, over my head, not bothering to see if he had listened.
I walked to the coffee table, slipping on the black silk panties, and grabbed the pleather pants that hugged my curves enticingly. I strolled back to the window, peering out with my cheek against the glass as Knox snarled, glaring over my shoulder at Dimitri. Three witches were slamming energy magic against the house as other creatures added to their power. Obviously, Knox hadn’t planned to murder all witches, or at least not the ones who were helping him—yet.
“Move it!” I screamed, turning my face away from the window as I pulled on the pentagram top, then slipped my arms around to secure the buttons behind my neck, only for hands to grab it first.
Dimitri snapped the back together, adjusting the clasp before his lips brushed over my shoulder, and I smiled, glaring at Knox, whose eyes had turned black, filling with fiery embers as he watched us through a murderous gaze.
“Ready,” Aurora stated. “Where are we going?”
I slipped on the black leather jacket and turned away from Knox. “You’re going to Hecate’s tomb, to take her skull. After that, you are going to the sanctuary to bless the lands and add our blood to it, because we are going to war.”
“You can’t do that. Aria, we cannot take my mother’s skull from her place of rest.”
“We can, and you will. The House of Magic is compromised. We need something strong to safeguard the house we are about to conquer and take back the control in our realm. Hecate is the strongest power to which we have access. I know she is your mother, but she would want you to survive, and we won’t against Knox unless we’re smarter and willing to play as dirty as he is. His army is over fifty thousand strong and growing, Aurora. He just walked into Haven Falls and took the fucking original families from their homes and slaughtered them in front of us. We are all that is left! If we don’t survive, they will win.”
“Aria, my father’s skull…If we remove it from this place, the barrier which protects Haven Falls is gone, and the entire town will start to fall to erase any proof that we were ever here. It will set off the magical detonation built into the foundation, and each and every house will be erased from this realm, one by one.”
“The failsafe, I know. I’m counting on it.” I shivered as power slithered through me, knowing that we had to do this now, or what little power I had left would wane before we all got out. Knox’s brand hadn’t worked on me to prevent my use of magic, but it was weakening me slowly.