[wattys 2018 shortlisted]
Humans see her as a dangerous threat -a witch that must be executed. With the uncontrollable ability to form ice at her fingertips, Ravenna is forced into hiding amongst the humans, stealing to survive. That is, until she h...
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"PLEASE," HE WHISPERED. The heartbreak had reappeared within his tone, grasping ahold of each word that left his lips tight. "Please, don't."
Ravenna's free hand lowered to her side. Her grip tightened tighter around the hilt of her sword. She did her best to remain upright. Small, jagged shards of ice formed around her feet and rooted her in place. "You've lost, Vyses."
"I have another talisman," Vyses said.
His hand glowed bright. Pieces of stone and metal lifted from the ground around him, shooting toward his fingers. Another necklace took shape within his grasp, dangling from his fingers.
"This talisman will not have any influence over you. It will only strengthen your powers," Vyses told her. "It will give you more power than you can fathom."
He held it out to her. The crimson-colored cloud vanished from his face. His eye opened – no longer injured. A single emotion swam within his wine-red eyes.
Hope.
"You will rule this world and every living creature within it," he promised her. "With this talisman, you will be unstoppable."
Her hand reached out, fingers curling around the silver chain. It felt heavy in her grasp — weighted down by the dark implications that she knew the talisman held. She stared at it. Sunlight glinted almost maliciously against the clean metal chain, against the marble-diamond stone that had been carved into the form of a vicious looking wolf.
Her eyes shifted back to Vyses.
A single spell came to the forefront of her mind. It had been scribbled within the depths of Caelan's spellbook, and one that she'd read an endless amount of times. It was a simple, spoken spell with no ingredients required.
It was a spell that would allow Ravenna to put an end to Vyses, once and for all.
The spell left her lips like a kiss — gentle but resolute. She clutched the pendant tighter and turned it so the face of the snarling wolf was pointed at him. An icy blue glow formed in the center of the glittering stone, easily overpowering the slivers of crimson magic that had already been embedded within it.
It burst forth from the pendant and stretched toward Vyses, hungry and searching.
His mouth dropped open in shock. That sliver of hope vanished from his wine-red eyes, replaced with flames of anger. He stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. Pain grasped at his facial features as he tried to crawl across the jagged layer of debris that coated the earth — away from Ravenna. A trail of blood leaked out behind him.
The icy magic latched onto his right foot.
"No!" he screamed.
A flurry of hate-filled curses and petrified screams fumbled past his lips. The magic slithered up the length of his leg and tugged him back across the stones, toward the pendant.
