The ground split open, cracks racing across the land in every direction. Trees withered in seconds, their leaves turning black before falling away as ash.
The grass burned down to nothing, leaving scorched soil behind. The world was dying and every magic it was blessed with was forcefully stripped away from it.
’No.’ I wanted to scream out, but my voice betrayed . This scene... Princess Anastasia. I knew deep down my ti had co.
The werewolves, both from the Bloodshade pack, the rogues, and from the Bloodmoon pack, all dropped mid-fight, howling in pain as magic was ripped from their bodies. It was like their soul was away, their very wolf.
They forcefully transford back into their human form.
The witches scread as their spells shattered in their hands, their power dragged violently toward the orb like it was a magnet. They scread in pain, yet they could not resist it. Both corrupted witches and the good ones.
"No," I sobbed, struggling uselessly against the hands restraining . "Stop it. You are killing them, you are destroying everything."
The Greater Evil laughed, her eyes glowing with wild delight. "Yes," she whispered. "Do you feel it? All the magic is returning to where it belongs."
The orb pulsed faster and brighter, greedily consuming everything in its reach. Even I could feel it, that hollow emptiness growing wider inside with every heartbeat, like sothing vital had been ripped away and left broken.
Then I saw Damon stagger.
For the first ti since the battle began, his movents slowed. His massive body trembled as the power sustaining him was torn away by force. Blood poured freely from wounds that refused to heal, staining the ground beneath him.
"Damon," I cried, my voice breaking completely.
He lifted his head suddenly, his silver grey eyes snapping toward the source of the power... towards .
For one brief mont, everything else disappeared.
The battle, the noise, the pain, all of it faded as his gaze locked onto mine across the battlefield. Recognition hit us both at the sa ti. Pain, fear, fury, and love burned fiercely in his eyes, and my heart shattered all over again.
Then Lucas yanked my hair harder, forcing my head back so violently that a cry tore from my throat.
"Do not look at him," he snarled.
My hand trembled in anger, was he okay? I could no longer see him.
The Greater Evil’s spell reached its peak.
A shockwave tore through the battlefield, throwing bodies across the air. The sky darkened unnaturally as the golden light beca tilted with different colors. I could hear souls crying, wailing in tornt.
"Layla!" I called inside my head desperately.
"Give a little more ti," Layla replied inside my head.
.....
(Third POV)
Far away from the battlefield, inside the Bloodshade back.
The witches ford a circle around Seraphina. Her red hair fluttered in the wind, her erald green eyes burned fiercely as she poured all her magic into the barrel.
"No matter what happens, this protection must hold. Give it your all, our future depends on you all!" Seraphina yelled as more magic burst from her palms.
Her people channeled all their magic into the barrel, motivated by her words.
Suddenly, they began to scream, their magic pulling away from them forcefully.
Seraphina felt the force of the source, and it made shivers run down her spine.
"Everyone, protect your magic." She yelled, as she quickly channeled her magic towards herself.
However, her people fell one by one to the ground. Those hovering in the air dropped one after the other.
Pain flickered through her eyes, the barrel protecting the Bloodshade pack shattered instantly.
Seraphina looked around her, and all she could see were the bodies of her people scattered around her.
The world stilled for a mont, her breath held for a mont, as if she was afraid everything would continue again if she breathed.
The slow realization that she had failed her people set in, and what would beco of her now? Will she beco a queen with no people?
Her breath hitched, suddenly she felt a sharp throb in her chest. As if the rope tying to her fated one was being severed.
Seraphina’s eyes widened. The image of Alaric’s magic being ripped off his body flashed through her eyes.
And all her restraint shattered, even the little world of slowly processing what was happening around her shattered too.
’If I can’t protect the people that matter to , I’d rather die in their place!’
Suddenly, she felt sothing burn inside her, like lava.
A sharp scream tore from her throat. Her head flung backward, and her erald green eyes stared at the sky. Every part of her eyes was covered in white.
Red magic swirled around her, her hands instinctively hovering above her sides.
Inside her head, mories of all the queens before her flashed through her mind, from their birth to their death. Every secret they had learned and carried, every spell they had learned, both the ancient and the forbidden.
They all coursed through her, branding her as their carrier. Magic swirled in her chest, powerful and overwhelming, threatening to tear her apart from the inside.
Seraphina scread again as the magic surged through her veins, her body lifting slowly off the ground as if gravity no longer held any authority over her.
The air around her cracked and trembled. Her red hair floated wildly around her face, glowing faintly as strands of light wove through it.
The fallen witches around her lay motionless, their magic stripped away, their breaths shallow and weak. Seraphina looked down at them, her heart twisting painfully in her chest. These were her people. The ones she was ant to protect. The ones who believed in her.
"I’m sorry," she whispered hoarsely, tears slipping from the corners of her eyes even as white light consud her pupils. "I’m so sorry."
The magic inside her answered her grief.
It roared, shaking the space around her, as a wave of magic cut through the air.
The mories beca clearer, sharper, and no longer fragnts but entire lifetis flooding into her mind. She saw queens crowned in blood and sacrifice. She saw wars won and lost, covenants forged and broken, love found and buried beneath duty. She felt their fear, their strength, their loneliness.
Every single one of them had stood where she stood now, at the edge of everything, forced to choose between the world and the people they loved.
"So this is it," she breathed, her voice layered with echoes that were not her own. "This is what it ans to be a queen."
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