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‘Tara,’ Cora says, wiping blood from her cheek and reaching for Tara’s hand with the other. She pulls her close, and Raya moves beside them.

The three sisters, standing together, united.

Hunter moves behind them, Kian and I falling into line beside him.

Velistra waits across the clearing, untouched by the chaos. Her robes ripple unnaturally, like wind is bending around her. Her eyes are calculating and cold, tracking each of us like she is waiting to see who is going to make a move first.

Cora steps forward with that wild fury of hers, squaring her shoulders, her fingers curling around her knives. ‘Let’s end this bitch.’

Kian grins, something unhinged in his expression. I’m not sure if it’s excitement or madness.

Raya is unnaturally still, her eyes locked on Velistra with quiet calculation. Hunter stands just behind her, his hands already slick with blood, his calm presence a contrast to the chaos around us.

Velistra lifts her chin, finally acknowledging us with a twisted smile.

‘So this is it?’ she purrs, voice soft but laced with venom.

I bare my fangs. ‘This is it.’

Power crackles at her fingertips, emitting as dark, oily tendrils of magic that pulse like a heartbeat.

Standing beside Tara, my body moves without thinking as I reach for her hand – just a brush of fingers in a silent promise. We do this together. We finish this together. Then she moves.

Velistra is a blur of shadow and light, and the ground erupts as her magic slams into us like a wave. I’m already in motion, launching toward her, instinct and fury driving me forward. A snarl tears from my throat.

Moving together in perfect unison, we surround her, and she attempts to scramble back, but there is nowhere for her to go. My fingers clamp around her arm, and Hunter grabs her other arm. The three girls move in front as Kian steps up from behind her. Hunter and I yank at the same time, and Kian’s hands are like two lethal whips, twisting her neck. Both of her arms are yanked from their sockets with a horrific squelching sound. Tara shoots forward, driving her hand into Velistra’s chest and ripping her heart straight out. The sound she makes when she dies doesn’t belong in this world.

Her scream shreds the air around us, turning everything inside me to ice. Velistra’s magic lashes out in a final, violent convulsion, scorching the earth around her and sending us all flying backward. I hit the ground with a brutal force that ripples through my body, momentarily winding me, which I didn’t even realise was possible. Her magic claps through us all in a violent tidal wave, the air sucking around us like a vacuum, and for a moment, I fear it’s about to take us all with her, but then her screams die down and there’s a deadly silence.

I get up, slowly, chest heaving, to face the others.

Cora is crouched with blood on her face, grip slack on her knife. Kian stands behind her, gaze fixed on Velistra’s disfigured body, like he still doesn’t quite believe she’s not going to rise again. Hunter and Raya are leaning on each other, looking as exhausted as I feel. My eyes move to Tara. She’s still staring at the witch’s corpse, face unreadable.

I move to her, slow and careful, and press my palm to her cheek. She finally looks at me.

‘It’s done,’ I say, voice rough. ‘It’s over.’

Her hands come up to my chest, gripping the front of my shirt, and she presses her forehead to mine.

After a while, Cora’s voice cuts through the stillness.

‘Well … that was dramatic,’ she says. ‘That’s one way to take her out.’

Kian huffs a half-laugh beside her. I glance over to see him wipe blood from his mouth, eyes still wild. ‘May she rest in pieces. Literally.’

Hunter runs a hand through his hair, pulling Raya close to him and pressing his lips to her temple.

Tara finally pulls back. Her black eyes shimmer like pools of ink, bottomless, entrancing, and devastatingly beautiful. ‘What now?’

I glance at the scorched earth, at the disembodied pieces of Velistra, the potent tinge of magic lingering but slowly fading. Everyone around us who isn’t dead has disappeared. Whether they fled during or after the battle is beyond me. I have a feeling they won’t come back, now that their ringleader is dead. She was one of the most powerful witches around. If we can end her, they don’t stand a chance.

‘Now …’ I pause, searching for words. ‘Now, we go back to normal.’ Shrugging, I exhale, combing my fingers through my blood-drenched hair. ‘Whatever the hell normal even is.’

Tara lets out half a laugh, half a sob. ‘I don’t even know what that looks like.’

I shake my head in agreement. ‘Not a clue.’

Behind us, the others start to move, slowly and stiffly, everyone looking a little worse for wear. We’re bloodied and drained, desperate for a feed. The gothic mansion looms over us, still with an eerie feeling to it.