Chapter 43: Shattered

A flurry of crimson lightning slammed into the blue sigil left behind by Solaris and the witches, fracturing the very ground itself.

Solaris reached out a hand to his daughter and shouted, “Silvana!”

But it was too late.

Silvana was struck with a bolt of lightning before Bruce or Amelia could do anything to stop it. Her body flew into a tree that splintered into sawdust from the impact.

“No!” Bruce yelled, running over.

Cecilia Duponte’s laughter could be heard taunting them from the reddened skies.

Bruce charged over to where Silvana had landed but was stopped by the bursting of the witches’ sigil. Blue sparks surrounded him though not as fast as the hundreds of hands belonging to the once-sealed spirits. They dragged him into the dark abyss as he thrashed and roared.

Solaris did what he could to repel the forces, though in truth it was little.

His magic couldn’t protect everybody, and spirits twice as strong and large as before, bigger than the tallest trees in the forest, scratched and clawed their way out from the hole. Faster than most could see, and quicker than Solaris and the other witches could shield the species with magic, the crimson spirits slashed witch and werewolf and vampire alike into nothing more than bloody specks upon the snow.

Somehow amidst the madness, perhaps because of her admiration and determination to see her friends survive, Amelia had kept her wits about her. She cast a shell of green magic around her, and as spirits thunked and thwacked against it, she saw Angus beside her, pawing a pale hand to his slit neck. His eyes were glossing and he reached a hand to her.

Then, the shield around her cracked, and more spirits encircled her.

But they were blasted away by a bright and dazzling pink light.

Solaris squinted and held a hand in front of his face to block out the bright light, then felt a ping of hope run through his bones.

Silvana stood tall, her eyes flaring pink. An extraordinary purple aura surrounded her, flushing out Duponte’s remaining influence in the air. Silvana’s hands gripped into fists, and the normal, bright sky, for a moment, rippled through and past the sanguine clouds.

Silvana raised her hand and the spirits halted, caught frozen in place, their rippling red eyes running about in their heads as their mouths opened wide and they screamed in fury.

Amelia, unable to keep her shield up any longer, knelt beside Angus. She pressed a hand to his neck and tried to stop the bleeding, but there was so much blood seeping between her fingers that she feared she might be too late.

Solaris capitalized upon the spirits being held by Silvana, and with a spell of quickening and levitation, flew down into the abyss. Deep inside the hole, Bruce had shoved his claw into the stone and granite of the earth, hanging on by a single hand. Frozen against him were spirits trying to drag him down.

“Take my hand,” Solaris said.

Bruce did so without hesitation and Solaris flew them to the surface.

With a grunt and for the first time in a while letting his age show, Solaris dropped Bruce’s hefty body to the snow and grunted, “You weigh a ton, you know that?”

Except there were far too many casualties on the battlefield to rejoice or laugh, if even for a second.

Bruce ran on all fours to Silvana, who was taking harsh, powerful breaths. He sighed with relief seeing that she was alright, and was in awe of her strength to keep the spirits were they were, despite their unrelenting resistance.

She reached a hand out to her lover and said, “Lend me your strength.”

Bruce stuck out his clawed hand, and Silvana grabbed him by a silver claw.

Suddenly, he felt an enormous power course through him, and he thought back to when he had first found her, hurt and alone at the carnival. She’d been bleeding terribly and he had scooped her into his arms, taken her back to his place, and stitched her together. From the second he had seen her, he realized that there was something incredible inside her, and it was that instinct that allowed him to discard his goal of finding another werewolf to mate with; he had seen the strongest and most respected of the packs, and none of them made his heart pound like Silvana.

That was the pounding he felt as she held him tight and grew even stronger, the aura around becoming intenser.

Solaris ran to Angus, who at quick glance was the only surviving vampire, though not for long.

“I’m not strong enough to save him!” Amelia said, tears welting her eyes. Green magic flickered from her hand and around the gash in Angus’ neck.

The spirits moved an inch, then two, as if they were writhing themselves out of Silvana’s spell.

“This will be your grave!” Duponte’s manic voice thundered through the forest.

Silvana raised her other hand in Amelia’s direction.

“Go to her!” Solaris insisted. He covered Angus’ neck with his hand. “I can help this one.”

Amelia didn’t want to let go, yet somehow knew it was the right thing to do, and Silvana’s energy seemed to beckon her.

Amelia kissed Angus on the cheek and told him, “You’ll make it,” though she was truly unsure if he would.

She rushed over to Silvana, narrowly dodging a spirit who moved a bit more than the others.

Amelia clutched her hand into Silvana’s, and the two best friends who had always remained by each other’s side and had one another’s back were flooded with memories. Amelia thought back to how Silvana has grown from a timid and shy movie-binging bookworm to the woman who had captured the heart of the strongest alpha werewolf.

The three of them, Silvana, Bruce, and Amelia, became connected through magic, and just as Silvana drew the strength from Bruce, she drew the protection and sealing magic from Amelia.

“I love you both,” Silvana murmured, so focused on her objective the words were hardly audible.

But Amelia and Bruce heard them, and returned them with the same focused force.

Then, in a massive pink magical blast, the spirits all dissolved into dust, and the skies returned to their normal color.

Silvana fell to a knee, and the purple aura surrounding her faded. Sweat laced her forehead and back.

“My god, she’s done it,” Solaris whispered.

Angus looked up at him, then turned his head and coughed.

Solaris saw the gash in his neck had been healed, and knew it to be the work of his daughter and her friends. Cecilia Duponte had tried to harness the power of a werewolf in her spells, and she had been so wildly unsuccessful that she turned demonic.

But here on this day, Silvana had done what Solaris could only dream of doing. His secret extraction of Kurt’s claws may have provided him with enough strength to return to fighting shape, but Silvana and Bruce and Amelia were the true heroes.

“I can’t believe she did it,” Solaris repeated, feeling profound proudness and helping Angus to his feet.

“Not quite!” a voice louder than thunder screeched.

In a malevolent and insidious flash of red, Cecilia Duponte manifested herself in front of Silvana in full, raging anger.