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He didn’t move, and there was a strange shadow beside him that grew darker. I didn’t like it. I wanted Ren away from it.

I waved him forward and headed toward him, but the closer I got, the more different he looked. His soft fur was matted with something, something rusty colored. His gold eyes were black, hollow.

“Ren?”

He shifted forms, and I stumbled to a stop. His body was scarred with cuts and burns and smeared with blood. My gaze darted up to his face. His lips were peeled back, hatred radiating from him. His eyes changed back to gold, the whites bloodshot.

“You did this. This is your fault,” he said, his voice moving over me like broken glass.

I winced at the hatred directed at me, the loathing I heard in his words. He hated me. Why did he hate me? Why? It was there in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t reach it. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t reach it.

The shadow curled around him, and he lifted a knife, pressing it to his own throat.

“Ren! No!” I ran for him.

He jerked his hand, slashing through his skin, blood rushing from the long slice. I screamed and ran toward him. He dropped the blade and clutched his throat with one hand and reached for me with the other. I ran faster, but I couldn’t reach him, he kept getting farther and farther away.

Finally, he fell to the ground, still, lifeless. I dropped to my knees and screamed as pain like nothing I’d ever felt lashed through me.

Someone called my name, and I lifted my head. Three figures dressed in black hooded cloaks stood before me. Each held a bloody knife in one hand, then as one, they lifted the other hand, each dangling one of my sisters’ severed heads. That’s when I realized I was still screaming, my throat raw, the taste of blood in my mouth.

I scrambled back, running for Mom and Else, Art. The hooded figures weren’t behind me anymore, they stood instead before the rest of my family. They raised their knives and slashed without a moment’s hesitation, killing them too. “No!”

This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening.

“One by one,” three voices said together, echoing through my mind.

Warrick was suddenly there, and he ran toward them with a roar. They jumped on him, hacking at him with their knives, tearing him apart. No…oh god, no.

Then they were right there in front of me, bloody knives in hand. I tried to run, but my limbs were suddenly weighted down. I couldn’t move.

Why was I even trying? I stopped. I didn’t scream, not anymore.

They could do what they wanted to me. I had no reason left to fight.

I had nothing left.

No one.

The strange shadow floated closer, slowly solidifying as it did.

A face took shape…

That face. A face that still haunted my dreams.

Huge shadow wings unfolded behind him.

“Hello, witch,” the monster said. “We have some unfinished business, do we not?”

“Azel,” I whispered.

* * *

Warrick

I gripped the edge of the dais, teeth gritted as my dove writhed. She’d stopped screaming, but the tears she’d been crying still dampened her cheeks.

I couldn’t fucking watch her like this. A feeling inside me I’d never felt before expanded in my chest, knocking the fucking wind from my lungs. I didn’t know what it was, only that it made me want to snatch Willow up and run with her, far away, and never let anyone hurt or scare her ever again.