I sat across from Rylan, the fire crackling between us. The shadows in the small cabin shifted with every flicker, and the only sound was the slow drip of sap from the logs. He stared at me with those calculating eyes of his. I didn't like it.
"You're still not telling me how you plan to get into their court," he said, his tone a mix of curiosity and doubt. He was a warrior, not a planner. He preferred fighting, not scheming.
I didn't answer immediately. Instead, I flipped open the heavy tome I'd stolen from the hidden shelves of my house—the one that had been tucked away for generations. I ran my fingers over the brittle pages, and then I spoke the words, low and steady, pulling the power from the depths of the ancient spells. It felt like my own skin was melting away, like the world was warping around me.
I muttered an incantation from the book—something advanced, transfiguration magic—a way to make my body look like theirs.
First, my skin tingled. It burned like ice and fire all at once. My bones shifted, my shape lengthening and hardening. I felt myself changing. I was becoming someone I wasn't. Someone I hated.
My body stilled, the transformation complete. I looked at myself in the reflection of the glass. My features were sharper now, colder. My eyes gleamed red, like the others. I smelled different too—darker, richer. More like them.
Rylan let out a low whistle, stepping back. "Gosh, you smell like them too."
He was right. It was flawless.
"Will it hold?" I asked, trying to mask the unease in my voice.
"Flawless," Rylan repeated, nodding. "They won't see through this. You could walk right into the court, and they'd never question it."
I stood up, flexing my fingers, adjusting to the new weight of my body, the new shape. It felt strange. Wrong. But it was power, and I would take it. I had no choice.
Rylan studied me, his eyes flicking over my new form. "What now?"
"I'm going to take everything from them," I said, my voice cold, controlled.
He nodded, then pushed off the wall. "You're playing a dangerous game, Lyra. You know that, right?"
I didn't answer. I didn't need to. He knew I wasn't backing down.
I packed up the grimoire and made for the door. "I'll be back," I muttered. "Take this we can use it to communicate, if you wish to speak to me tap it twice and call my name"
He nodded and collected it from me without a word.
I stood up to leave and he stood too.
"I hope you succeed witch" he said though it seemed like he doubted my chances.
I nodded and left.
---
Back home, the silence felt too heavy. I hadn't been inside in weeks, but it was still… wrong. The air smelled stale, like it had been left to settle for too long. I needed it to feel like home again.
I went to work, pushing everything into place—every dish, every book, every bottle of potion. I set the shelves back in order, straightening the furniture, wiping down the counters. Everything had to be perfect. It had to be how it was before the vampires came. Before they took my parents.
As I worked, I muttered under my breath. "I'll bring you back. I swear, I'll bring you home."
It was a promise. A vow I couldn't afford to break.
When the house was finally as it should be, I sat down at the small table. There was no more time to waste. I needed information, and there was only one place to get it. The coven's hidden artifacts books grimoires herbs and potions hidden in plain silver with masking spells the vampires hadn't found it, I started with the books on vampires, what little we had left of it.
I pulled the thick, dust-covered tome from the drawer. I flipped it open, and immediately I was pulled in. The words on the page blurred together at first, but I kept reading. The more I learned, the more the anger inside me swelled.
The vampires were clever. They had a way of controlling everything—our bloodlines, our magic, our future. But they had weakness yes. I could feel them. And I would exploit every last one of them.
I lost track of time. Hours, maybe. The more I read, the more obsessed I became. The vampire court. Their rituals. Their lies. It was all there. It felt like the pages were burning with the truth, and every word made me want to destroy them even more.
---
A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts.
I glanced up, startled. Who could it be at this hour? I opened it, and there she stood.
Mistress Evana.
Her eyes fell on me immediately. She didn't say anything at first, but I could tell the exact moment she knew. Her eyes widened, lips parted. She knew what I had done.
"You've used it," she said quietly, her voice trembling just a little.
I didn't need to ask what she meant. The dark magic. The price. I had crossed a line, and she knew it.
"I was willing to do what you wouldn't," I replied, my voice cold. "I was willing to make the sacrifice. To get revenge for them. For my parents. For all of us. I'll do what you never had the courage to do."
Evana's face grew pale, and she stepped closer. "Lyra… You don't know what you've done. You don't know the consequences of meddling with forces like that. You've given yourself to them—those ancient forces. They will come after you."
I stood firm, my hands clenched at my sides. "I don't care."
"Lyra," she whispered, "you've sold your soul to the devil."
I met her eyes, fury rising inside me. "Then let them come. I'll fight. I'll destroy them all."
She opened her mouth to protest, but I couldn't listen anymore. I turned and left, slamming the door behind me.
I didn't need her fear. I didn't need her warnings.
---
In the middle of the night while I studied I finally found the answer.
A plant, a legend.
An ordinary flower that grew only in the royal gardens, in fact that was why the vampires had chosen that spot. The flower imbued with a whispered spell and a witch's blood could give a vampire death. Final.
This was what I had been looking for; the other weakness I had come across offered imprisonment, weakness none like this which promised a vampire's death.
As I read more I knew that was an almost impossible task, this royal garden was guarded heavily. It lay somewhere inside the Royal palace.Only the core royal family allowed to visit it.
How would I get there…
Feelings of doubt began to creep in. How the hell would I get there?
I would likely be killed if I tried, they were going to take one good look at me and know that I was a mage.
I closed my eyes for a moment, the night was really cold a breeze blew by me. It was never this cold when mama and papa were around, an image of my mom came to me, she had a smile on her face.
I would save them, or die trying.
I snapped the book shut. Blew out the candles and went to sleep. Tomorrow I would make my way to the capital, home to the vampire court..