Broken (The Immortal Coven Book 1) (27 page)

She huffed, but before she could say anything further, I countered.

“His undoing will be his one weakness.” I said smugly.

“And what weakness is that?” she wondered, her eyebrow rose.

“Me.” I started, “I am what he’s wanted this whole time, the one thing he wanted his whole life, and I’ve just taken it away from him. I’ve broken him.”

“He is going to know you are not gone when he sees you.”

“Yes, but then Olivia, and Augusta will be with him. The coven will be intact and I’ll have all your power on my side.” I admitted.

I heard Dmitri walk into the room, his presence signaling the return of the coven.

I didn’t have to have my eyes open to see what was happening. He stood at my side, as one by one, each and every member appeared behind him.

“Oh, my God, is she…” Maura cried out.

“We’re not sure.” Kyle answered, stopping all the questions from continuing. “She is no longer alive, but her magical presence is concentrated, as if she were stronger and very much living and breathing.

“What are we doing?” Beatrice asked Kyle.

He turned to them, showing them my book and a note I left him.

“What does it say?” Gloria asked, the sadness of her own lost ever present in her voice.

“She asks me to have you summon him.”

Valerie laughed, “She is crazy!”

“It’s the only way.” Dmitri snapped at her, shutting her up immediately.

“Celia wouldn’t have taken her own life in vain. It was for something much greater than all of us.” He seethed his anguish obvious to everyone.

“What do we do?” Jezabel asked, clutching her fellow sister’s hands in her own.

“Place your hands on her body and call to him. It is as simple as that. He is her father. Their connection is an opening.”

The whispers flared up, but Dmitri’s glare silenced them.

Within moments, I could feel their touch on my skin. Our powers fluid, our magic united once more. It was the most incredible feeling of electric current swimming through our beings.

They called him, and a single gasp singled his presence in the room.

“You’re Kalvati?” Kyle said through gritted teeth.

As I’d suspected, Olivia and Augusta were at his side. I could hear their thoughts and the added heart beats to the room.

Olivia screeched out upon seeing my lifeless body on the stone table. She ran over to me and cried over my body. I could feel her trembling.

“What have you done?” Kalvati asked the women in the room.

“She died because of you, Monster.” Dmitri growled at him. Kyle having to hold him back from charging at him.

“This isn’t possible.” He mumbled under his breath. “No, no, no, something isn’t right.” He continued.

That was when I knew the time had come, when his conviction for our connection wavered.

My eyes flew open, the new light of immortality flooding all things seen and unseen. I could see the life breathing in the room, smell the blood flowing in the veins of each witch next to me, and hear their beating hearts echoing in their glasslike houses.

Kyle was the first one I locked eyes with. Knowing our original connection was lost but his connection with Ciara still remained very real.

Augusta, make sure Aerok has her before I sit up.

I could hear their rushed conversation, the warning, the commands, and Dmitri’s question.

What do you mean, when she gets up??

His eyes met mine as I sat up slowly. Everyone in the room took a step back to face me, gasping in shock.

The sick smile on his face tug on the inner fury I was fighting.

“When I was a little girl,” I started. My voice now a mixture of mine and Ciara’s, the dark magic in my being evident the moment I stared at him.

“I asked my mother what had happened to you.” I told him, my body getting off the stone table, my steps slow and deliberate.

“You see, she had told me my father had died, that I didn’t have a father anymore.” I walked towards him until I was only a few feet from where he stood.

“I didn’t recall the visit to the castle because you stole that from me. You told me, one day, I would have a choice to make, that I would know what I needed to do, but you see you don’t know me. You don’t know the type of woman I’ve grow up to be.” I stood firm, hands at my side ready to attack him.

“You didn’t realize that by taking everything away from me, you would create someone that was Broken, just…like…you.”

He nodded, “I underestimated you.”

“Yes.” I whispered.

“You still don’t understand, though, do you?”

“I don’t need to understand. The past matters not.”

Kalvati took a step forward, “That is where you are mistaken, daughter of mine.” He fumed. “It’s in the past that a choice was made very similar to yours. The consequences sent a ripple of darkness into this world. The seers foretold of another who would make the same choice but what would be released was far darker.”

“You’re lying.” I yelled at him, my voice booming throughout the stone walls, echoing the anger within.

“Am I though?” He laughed. “Look at what you’ve done. Your mother knew that it would be you. She saw, very early on that your powers could not be contained. She lied to you because she was afraid of what you would do.”

“Nanette loved her.” Olivia cried out, her disagreeing tone making his head shake.

“Nanette loved me!” He spat at Olivia.

“She did not love you. If she had, she would have walked with you in the sunlight for all to see. She wouldn’t have been tormented by how wrong it was.”

His head shook, “She was tormented because she knew what you would become. You are not light and beauty, you are not innocent and caring. Look at what you’ve done! You’ve taken in a power you can’t possible control.”

“I have done precisely what I had to do to destroy the evil in our world. You!” I screamed, holding my hand up to cast the final blow.

With the power on my side, and the coven intact, I absorbed all the life he’d taken.

“Lucem Accipiate,”
I said, taking all the light he’d destroyed.

The more I took, the weaker he became. He fell to the ground, staring at me as he took his final breath.

“And what of the moment you become the evil, dear Celia? She will destroy you.” His eyes closed and he was gone.

The instant Kalvati’s heart ceased, the room erupted in cheers, everyone hugging each other and crying out in pure happiness, but I stood there, staring down at the man who’d taken everything from me.

Dmitri touched my back, his energy creating a sort of frenzy that made me jump.

“Hold on, what’s wrong.” He asked, the worry written all over his face.

Ciara cried that I couldn’t give in, angry that I would have given my heart to him in the first place.

“I can’t…” I started.

“Celia, you need to fix it.” Kyle warned me.

But everything became twisted and I inwardly begged to be free from that place.

Before I could make sense of what was happening, I pressed my eyes together and cried out in agonizing pain.

When I opened my eyes back up, I found myself in front of the great tree on the castle grounds.

That was when I realized nothing would ever be the same because my reality is a totally different realm. 

Sequel to
Broken
; The Immortal Coven
by April Gutierrez.

Twisted
is to be released in 2015.

Chapter 1

“I don’t know where she is, Dmitri.” Kyle yelled at me.  “I can’t sense her anymore. She is immortal now.”

The moment Celia disappeared, all the witches in the room fell to their knees in an indescribable pain, their arms clutching their chests.

Olivia ran to my side, “What’s wrong with them?” The fear lining her voice was equal to that in the pit of my gut.

“I don’t know,” was all I could reply. Taking her arm and walking out of the house with her, leaving Kyle and the others to tend to their charges.

“Olivia, we have to find Celia. Something has gone terribly wrong.” I admitted to her frankly.

“You mean something worse than her being dead?” she stopped me. The grief she felt from earlier catching up to her.

“She is immortal now, Olivia. The longer she stays that way, the darker she becomes.”

“So there is a way to fix this…to make her alive again?” and as she asked me, I felt Celia calling out to me. It came as a cry carried by the wind, her anguish mirroring those of her coven sisters.

“I have to go.” I frantically shouted at Olivia, my body shifting towards the street, the need to vanish into the air never more necessary than this moment.

When I reappeared, I was standing before Celia in front of the great tree on the Blenheim Castle grounds.

“Celia…” I began, walking towards her but she put one of her palms up, stopping me from nearing her. Her other hand was in a ball at the center of her chest.

“Don’t.” she gasped, the pain debilitating her. I could feel her pain, even if she wasn’t mortal anymore.

“Celia, you need to let me help you.” I begged, reaching out as I got on one knee in front of her.

“We can’t fix this, Dmitri. I used dark magic. I took its life force into myself. I’m dark now. It’s what you said.” She almost chocked on each word.

“No, Celia. That is not what I said. You are still filled with light. You are still a good witch. We just need to fix this before Ciara does something irreversible.” I warned her.

Celia’s body twisted, and cocked, the shift in her body a sign that Ciara was fighting her.

“What could I do, dear Dmitri that could possible ruin your poor defenseless little witch?” Celia’s voice was no longer her own. It was clear that Ciara had managed to take command.

“You can’t do this Ciara. You swore allegiance to the coven. They are dying at this very moment. You must give back the essence before you destroy what you created.” I cautioned her.

“I’m alive, Dmitri, why would I want to give back everything that was taken from me?”

I reached out, took both her wrist in my grasp, “Because this is not what you wanted.” My voice echoed in the distance. “You wanted to fight evil, not become it. You sacrificed yourself for your bloodline, and look at how powerful it has become. Celia destroyed a great evil today.”

Ciara raised her chin, her eyes glowing amber, “I did that, not your precious, Celia.” She seethed at me, twisting her wrist for me to release her.

“No, Celia did that. She cast the spell on her own. All you did was give her your strength. That’s all you’ve ever been able to do.”

In one swift motion, Ciara forced her palms down, detaching herself from my grasp and forced me away from her. My feet skidded away from the force of her actions.

“I have always been able to do so much more, Dmitri, and now you and everyone else will see the greatness that was taken for granted.”

Celia’s body illuminated, Ciara’s essence magnifying as if releasing all her energy into Celia’s body. When the light dimmed, Celia looked different, Dark and Twisted.