Entwined ✔️

Chapter 4: Nightmares

A month later,

Wake up Deven, wake up!"

I was dragged out of bed. A number of hard taps to my face woke me up completely.

" Ma!" I protested, trying to pull out of her grip as she dragged me towards the vanity.

She took three crystals and pushed them into my pockets.

" Why ma?" I groaned in protest. "There's no moon tonight."

A piercing scream rented the air and I froze.

" They're here." My mother whispered, her eyes full of dread.

My face was a mask of disbelief. It had been rumoured that every coven in the West would be subjected to the purge but no one in my coven had wanted to believe it after all, we had taken no parts in the killings but now it seemed...

" The Alpha king Eryk truly is a monster." My mother whispered rushing to the door.

I said, " We need to run."

My mother laughed bitterly.

" Outrun Werewolves? It is immposible!"

More screams rented the air as people became aware of the situation.

" We can't just hide in here." I said to her. In no time, they would sniff us out and soon we would be screaming like the others outside.

She was nodding but didn't move from where she stood.

The screams and growls were getting closer and I realized that if we didn't move now, we wouldn't make it out of the house alive. Without a word, I grabbed her hand and led her out of the house and into the moonless night.

All around was chaos. The thatched roofs of our cottages were on fire. For a second, I was too stunned to move. There were puddles of blood and severed limbs littered on the ground. I felt the urge to heave but I forced it down.

Tightening my hold on my mother, we raced towards the woods. She was crying uncontrollably, a helpless old woman forced to watch her whole world get destroyed.

We weren't the only ones who had thought to run to the woods and I recognized a boy a few metres ahead among others. Bandon. We had necromancy class together.

Run, I screamed silently at him.

He didn't run for long though. Before my eyes, a wolf pounced on him and they fell to the ground. The struggle was short. The wolf sank it's fangs into his stomach furiously, scattering his entrails on the grassy ground.

I stopped running, too horrified to even move. My mother tugged at me.

" Deven." She pleaded, " Deven come!" But instead I fell to my knees, eyes trained on the feasting wolf.

The wolf looked up from Bandons body. Our eyes met and I saw in its depth a promise... my death.

In one leap, it came for me and I watched, unmoving as its fangs opened wide to sink into my face. But my mother was there. She jumped in front of me. Hands stretched out, she summoned a blast of wind that sent it flying back into a tree.

It was a moonless night but some people still had weakly charged Ardenite crystals. Luckily, we were among those people.

She stretched her hand down to help me up to my feet.

I reached up for her hand and a split second before I got it, something, a wolf bounded between us, closing its fangs around her hand and ripping it from her body.