Elis
I sat stiffly inside the glowing circle Lily had drawn around me, its pale light humming against the dark earth. The sea stretched to one side, restless and heaving, while the land behind us lay quiet, tense, as if it too was holding its breath. I could feel the salt wind clawing at my skin, cold and sharp, but nothing was colder than the awareness that Zal was here.
He appeared not with thunder or fire, but with a silence so thick it stole the air from my chest. His dark cloak trailed across the sand, moving like smoke, and when he raised his head, I saw amusement burning in his eyes. Somehow, that was worse than his rage.
"What's this?" Zal's voice rolled across the space, mocking, casual. He spread his arms wide as if he had walked into a comedy. "A circus?" He chuckled, low and dangerous, his laughter mingling with the crash of the waves.
No one answered. Not Lily, not Miriam, not the others who stood in a tense half-circle behind her. Their silence felt like armor, thin but determined.
Zal's gaze lingered on me, sharp and knowing, before sliding lazily to Lily. "I wouldn't move him to this place if I were you," he said, his tone laced with mockery. "Because you've only made it worse. He dies here."
A spike of fear drove through me, but I clenched my jaw and forced myself not to flinch. If Zal wanted weakness, I wouldn't give it.
Lily stepped forward, her voice firm but edged with fire. "You have no power over Elis anymore, Zal. I should have told you the last time we met—Elis and I are destined. We are soulmates, bound by fate itself. Now, I've set him free from your curse. And there is nothing you can do to keep us apart."
For a moment, silence held. Then Zal's laughter tore through it, rich and cruel. He tilted his head back, the shadows around him shivering with the sound.
"Destined?" His eyes flashed as he fixed them on Lily. "Let me remind you of what I told you, the day you were in my arms..."
At those words, something inside me twisted. My fists curled in my lap, the glowing circle beneath me pulsing as if it felt my rage.
"...You are my destined queen," Zal continued, his voice low, almost intimate. "I marked you at birth. I claimed your body and soul, long before you stumbled into your silly wolf. You are mine and will forever be mine."
The words struck like poison. My chest burned, though I forced myself into silence. I wanted to leap up, to tear him apart, but the circle bound me and so did Lily's need for me to trust her.
Lily's face hardened. She raised her wand, anger surging through her like fire. She struck at him with all her strength, light crackling from the tip.
But Zal only laughed again. He lifted a lazy hand, brushing the attack aside as though dusting lint from his cloak.
"Pathetic," he said.
Before Lily could strike again, Miriam's voice cut through the night. "Stop!" She stepped forward, her presence commanding. "Lily, do not give him what he wants. Save your energy. Zal's games are built on lies and provocation. He wants to break your resolve."
Lily froze, trembling with fury.
Miriam's eyes locked on hers, steady and sure. "He never touched you as a child. He never marked you, never laid a hand on you. You gave your innocence to Elis and to no one else. I was there, always protecting you. Remember that."
Lily's breath caught. Slowly, I saw her fire soften, controlled and drawn back into her chest.
I let out a long, shaky sigh of relief, my shoulders sinking as if a weight had shifted. For the first time since Zal's arrival, I felt the circle around me holding—not just a prison, but a shield.
And still, Zal smiled. His voice cut through the air like a blade, sharp and taunting.
"Would you rather listen to your ghost grandmother, or to me? I have all the powers of the air and of the land in my hands. I will give you immortality, Lily, and make you the queen of the earth. You shall sit beside me as my queen— not beside that weak wolf." His finger pointed at me. The word weak burned, but I didn't flinch. Not in front of him.
"Don't listen to Miriam," he continued, lips curling into a sneer. "She's just a ghost and nothing more. She can't help you. She can only endanger your life, the same way she destroyed everyone around her."
The witches' chanting stopped for a breath, as though the air itself listens. Then Zal smirked, striking again.
"Have you told your little wolf," he jeers, "how Miriam caused his grandfather's death? Because he was cheating on his wife with her?"
The words hit me like a punch to the chest. My breath stalled. Slowly, my head turned to the ghost standing beside me—my grandfather, his face paled with grief, eyes hollowed by the weight of truth.
Lily's sharp gasp sliced the air. I glanced at her, and my chest twisted. Her face flamed with humiliation, her fists trembling as if she might burn Zal alive where he stood.
"Shut your filthy mouth!" My grandfather roared, stepping forward, his voice shaking with fury. "Stop spewing your dirty trash, Zal!"
Zal only laughed, the sound cold, cruel, echoing across the open stretch of sea and land.
Beside him, Miriam floated forward, her spectral glow quivering but her voice steady. "Don't let him twist the truth, Lily. This is his game; always has been. Lies, half-truths and manipulation. He wants you broken, confused, and afraid. Don't give him that power."
Her words calm the fire boiling in my chest, but not enough. My grandfather still stared at the ground, as if the shame itself will swallow him whole.
Then, like a single heartbeat breaking, the witches began to chant. Their voices rose in unison, not the usual hymn of soft circles, but a jagged, ancient rhythm. The air thickened, heavy and sharp, and for the first time Zal's smile faltered. The chant gnawed at him, a power older than his tricks.
Around us, the open ground between sea and land shimmered with tension with waves clashing harder, the earth vibrating beneath our feet. Every soul present held their breath, caught between fear and awe.
And I, Elis, sat in the heart of it, torn between rage, shame, and the desperate need to protect Lily from the trap Zal was weaving around her.
Zal's voice rose, sharp and venomous, as the witches' chants thickened in the air like a stormcloud.
"Shameless traitors!" he thundered. "How dare you raise your filthy voices against me—your own blood, your own kind! You would curse me to please a ghost?"
The witches did not falter. Their rhythm only deepened, their voices weaving together into a dark hum that made the ground tremble under my knees.
Miriam's voice cut through, searing with the fire of wrath. "Zal, you abomination, you are a curse upon the witch world, upon man, upon beast; upon every breath that walks the earth. Your doom's day is here. Every being has rejected you."
The air snapped. Zal's face twisted with rage, his eyes burning like coals. Before I could even draw a breath, he moved, faster than sight, like a shadow collapsing into itself. In less than a heartbeat, he stood before Lily.
Her gasp tore through me as his hands reached for her. My chest seized, but the circle of protection around me held me rooted, burning against my every instinct to leap forward.
"Lily!" I shouted, but the word was swallowed in the roar of power.
The instant his hands closed on her, I saw her body recoil, not in struggle, but in repulsion, as though her very soul pushed back against his touch. I felt it too, like a sickening wave across the bond that tied us.
Then Zal lifted his hand and with a single, effortless sweep, like a god brushing crumbs from his table, the entire host fell apart. Humans, witches, wolves alike were hurled backward, bodies scattered across the sand as though the sea itself had spat them out. The cries, the groans, the chaos, it all exploded around me.
Only the ghosts floated untouched, their forms shimmering in pale defiance. And I remained unbroken inside the circle, my body trembling as I clenched my fists to resist the agony of inaction.
Lily hung in his grip, her face pale, her eyes darting—but she did not fight. She only shrank from his nearness, her body stiff with disgust.
My blood boiled, my throat burned. Every bone in me screamed to break free, to tear her from his hold, but the circle's invisible barrier burned hotter each time I tried to rise.
"Not yet…" Miriam's voice whispered in the storm, but her tone held no calm. She was as furious, as desperate, as I was.
And then—like the sea drawing back before a wave—the power shifted again. A rumble rolled over the earth. One by one, the fallen stirred. The wolves rose first, growling low, shoulders heaving. Humans stumbled back to their feet, dazed but unbroken. The witches stood last, their chants igniting anew, fiercer, angrier and deadlier.
None of them were harmed. None, save for the burning shame and fury etched into every face.
And still, Zal held Lily.
And still, I burned.