The Witch's Curse (Book One)

Chapter Twenty:

Peter stared back at me with a ghastly expression. His aura had begun to fade to white the longer he stayed in the spirit realm. I noticed a white streak running through the middle of his dirty blonde hair. “Melody, what are you doing here? They are looking for you. Damien knew you would return here in search of answers. You have to leave before he finds you.”

“Peter, we have all been worried sick about you. If you can find me, why can’t you return to your body? Your body can’t survive that much longer with your soul outside of it. You need to return back to Maidence. She misses you like crazy.” I nearly had tears streaming down my face in rejoice.

Peter shook his head. “I can not return right now. I am too much of an asset in the spirit world to go back to my body. The knowledge I am seeking right now could potentially stop the battle before it even happens. Someone did pull Rydel into the spirit world. What she saw, it was very eye opening. By the way, I just want to congratulate you on what is about to happen.  Back to what I was saying, Melody, you are-.” He didn’t have time to finish before I was brought back to my body.

My eyes fluttered open to see Aegus standing over me. “We were wondering when you were going to return to us, Princess. Is everything alright? You look like you have seen a ghost.”

“We need to get out of here now. I killed the thirty demons outside, but a little birdie told me there are more lurking around the castle. Damien knew that we would come here in search of something. I just don’t know what he is so desperate to keep hidden from everyone.” I walked towards the Books, but the door slammed in my face.  I didn’t even have to venture into the other realm to know that Peter’s spirit was on the other side of that wall.

“There is no time, Melody! Don’t worry about the Books. We need to get out of here now.” Rocky yelled.

I traced my hand around the intricate design on the door. Every answer I desired and killed to have was in that room. I was so close to figuring out this whole puzzle, but now I was ousted out for some strange reason. I wanted to know, needed to know every answer. I was so close, but I wasn’t suppose to know yet. It wasn’t my time to learn. Ross put his hand on my shoulder. “Come on. We can find the answers later. We won’t have a battle to fight if we don’t get out of here soon.”

Aegus led the way as we made it into the hall. He murmured some Romanian spell I couldn’t make out. We stood there for a moment, but nothing happened. Aegus let out a few curse words in Romanian before he looked at us. “They have penetrated our defense system. None of the secret entrances can be opened right now. There’s no other way out unless we travel down a few floors.”

Ideas overwhelmed me as I trained to think of someway to escape this prison before Satan himself found us. My amulet lit up. It was too late. They were already near. I caught Aegus’ gaze for a second. If we wanted to survive, we were going to have to fight.

They came in by the swarms at least thirty to forty at one time. I shot arrow after arrow, but they just kept coming more and more. Rocky kept summoning earthquake after earthquake, Ellington tornado after tornado, and Ross tsunami after tsunami, but nothing stopped them. Once again, I locked eyes with Aegus one last time. Instantly, I knew what he was thinking, but it was too late for me stop him.

Just as Aegus began to slam his sword into the ground, time abruptly stopped. Everything was frozen in mid-sequence. Hollow footsteps filled the lonesome air as Damien entered the room. I glanced at him in shock. “Why would you freeze your own people? You could’ve at least been strategic about it.”

“My dear, the ability to freeze time may only be wielded whenever the user is in that specific area. For I might appear to be here, but this is actually just a mere mirage of me. I am afraid your powers are growing beyond your wildest dreams. You didn’t even have to make a gesture to stop time. You simply just wished for it to happen and it did. The faculty at Witch University want to tame your powers and control you. My dear child, witches were created to embrace their powers. Are you going to let them control you like the pathetic animal they believe you are?” Damien smiled at me like he was justifying why he killed my pet.

“What makes them any different from you? They want to force me to use my magic for their benefit, but you only need me to kill off those who oppose you. I don’t have to choose a side, Damien. I am my own person and will make chooses only for myself and the people I love. Unfortunately, you lost that privilege whenever you refused to claim as your child except when it was beneficial to you.”

I was too focused on Damien I didn’t have time to change what I had eventually set out to change. Time continued yet again and Aegus started his task. Tears streamed down my face as I watched him choose our fate, but I lost the only chance I had to change it.

Aegus began the ritual. “Pentru printesa mea, eu mă sacrific. Ucide aceste demoni și asigurați-vă că ei a lua acasă. Zei mari, proteja-le pentru o dau sufletul meu pentru ei. Aceasta este jertfa tutore.” Translated this ancient spell meant, For my princess, I sacrifice myself. Kill these demons and make sure they get home. Great gods, protect them for I am giving my soul for them. This is the guardian sacrifice.

An enormous white blast flooded the hallway. I knew that force didn’t just sweep over us; it made its way all over the kingdom for all to see. Aegus was a fearless warrior who would receive recognition for his centuries of service finally gave his life to protect his final charge. He always told me that I would be the only person he would sacrifice himself for because I made it my life mission to change the world and not just abide by laws. Now, I knew he was serious. My life must have been more sacred to Aegus than I can possibly ever imagine. The lights which were run by a magical generator went out throughout the entire castle. Darkness crept out of its hiding place too quickly outside as well. Tears continued to stream down my face as we stood there in the darkness.

“What just happened?” Rocky mumbled.

If only they could see the anger and hatred I had in my eyes, then they would’ve known what was about to go down. “Someone at Witch University informed the Underworld that we would be here. They knew only a few of us would be here so they gathered an army and sent them here. Damien knew we couldn’t handle all of them without an extraordinary power surge. Aegus sacrificed himself because he knew that was one of the only ways for us to survive this fight.”

Ross waited a minute before speaking up. “What does this mean for the Final Showdown?”

“It’s personal.”