The Coven: Book 1

Chapter 51 - Breaking the Seal

[TRIGGER WARNING: mentions of violence, blood and gore, read at your own risk!!]

Amelia released a shuddering breath.
Hoseok hadn’t returned. And Jungkook still hadn’t come back after coming to check on her. She was growing impatient in her small little hiding place, especially because of all the commotion going around the place.

Losing her patience, Amelia looked around her, trying to find anything that could help, either her or the guys. Panic rose a little to her throat when she spotted someone laying down on the floor a couple meters away. He was laying on his back, behind one of the crates, and didn’t seem to be moving.

With some strain and struggle, Amelia managed to get in all fours and crawl all the way to the person, almost freaking out when she saw Namjoon laying there.

“Oh, no… Joon? Joon, wake up!” She desperately called, shaking his shoulder as much as she could.

He flinched when her hands came in contact with his cheeks, frowning. He had a bloody nose and dried blood on his left eyebrow from a previous cut.

“Amelia?” He grumbled, raising his head a bit.

“Are you okay?”

“Fuck, my head!” He groaned, placing one hand on the left side, the place where he was probably hit previously “I’ll be fine… The guys, Emily, are they okay?”

“Mina and Em just finished a spell, most of the demons are gone, but the stronger ones are starting to shift now.” Amelia raised her head to look above the crate “Damn it, the ritual started… Do you have a gun?”

“Yeah…”

Amelia didn’t give him time to look for it or to question her. Her hands went to the holster under his jacket and pulled out the Glock he always carried with him. She checked for bullets and then proceeded to prop herself on top of the crate, eyes focusing on her target.

Lucy had been trying to find some sort of way to breach the stupid barrier around the ritual, but nothing seemed to be able to help. At this point, she was mindlessly wasting magic. Her attention was brought to the center of the magic circle, when the clan leader was hit by a bullet on his forehead. The shot did nothing to his life, but it kicked his head back, his body stumbling down. The guy was probably too ancient for something like this to be enough to kill him.

Looking around briefly, Lucy smirked when she saw Amelia panting heavily right after shooting the gun. She looked near death, so at this point Lucy was at a deadline. But her aim sure was good, huh?

The barrier around the demon faded slowly, and Lucy was able to hit him then, accurately swinging her whip towards the guy and having it wrap around his neck. She faltered slightly when she saw him grab the whip and pull her to him.

“You’re too late, Witch!” The demon roughly shouted, his gravelly voice seeming deeper because of the strain the whip was inflicting on his throat “The Witch Council will fall! All of your heads will roll to the ground!”

“Not if I’m here to fucking stop it!” Lucy growled between her teeth, snarling back at the demon.

A dark gust of wind erupted from the ground, Mina’s blood on the ground suddenly growing black and spreading on the floor to form a larger pool. The demon on the circle was propelled back and Lucy had to act fast to fade her whip or she would have been pulled into the circle. The now muddy looking liquid in the circle was bubbling strangely, gold runes starting to appear around the circle and spreading all around the concrete flooring. Some of the demons that didn’t understand what was going on screeched in panic, and even Jimin and Hoseok were a little confused, stepping back when the runes reached them.

Lucy frowned… He managed to complete the ritual?

An explosion of dark clouds had her losing her footing and falling back. The place was covered in dark magic, a sickening feeling of fear and pure, cruel, evil crawled around like a spider slowly making its way up their throats. Lucy looked up, her gut twisting in sudden fear, in time to watch with wide eyes as spiky limbs formed from the black liquid, their shape and appearance resembling a spider’s legs. A multitude of them formed and then pierced the ground, the pointy edges sinking into the ground and breaking into the concrete.

Time stilled.

A nightmare… Or something much worse.

From within the confinements of the black pool of the bubbling liquid, a hand resurfaced, now, slapping against the floor in dire desperation to come out.

Everyone could only watch the nauseating spectacle with wide eyes, too dreadfully scared to do anything. Lucy was frozen in place, mind picturing the horrible scenarios this could lead to.

Her mind was interrupted, however, when the thing crawled out of the black mud, dragging the liquid with it. Stark, golden eyes stared back at everyone in the place, measuring Witches, vampires and demons alike, a predator like gleam in them. At first glance, it looked human and fragile, as if being inside her restraints had worn her off. Lucy knew better.

It was when the thing’s eyes locked with hers, that it reacted. A grumble of a growl came from it, low and menacing, moving slowly, with eyes fixated on Lucy, as it got up to a standing position. The black mass of liquid made it nearly impossible to distinguish her familiar face. Her hair fell in filthy strands by her face. But her eyes…

Lucy knew those golden eyes.

The dark clouds of magic that had surrounded the room started to swirl around again, now beginning to take the shape of large ravens. The birds flew around aimlessly for a second, only to then gather around the Fallen One.

“No... NO!”

Lucy scrambled to her feet, attempting to reach the woman and stop her. But she was too late to do anything, because, right in front of her eyes, the swirl of ravens approached and mingled with the woman, creating a dark mass of clouds that dissipated in the blink of an eye.

On the absence of the evil being, the air cleared considerably, tension dissipating and having everyone breathe out in relief.

A low, dark chuckle rang in her ears from the other side of the circle.

“I can’t wait to see your blood painting the walls, Witch.” The fucker said, the sketch of a smirk playing in his lips, blood dripping from the middle of his eyes and down his face in thick streams.

Lucy took a step towards the circle, her stare hardening and temperature lowering as her anger began to grow. Icicles started to form under her every step and Lucy couldn’t help the malicious smile that creeped up her mouth when a loud thunder cracked in the skies above and her magic tingled inside her.

“Raksha.”

Hoseok’s eyes were wide when he saw the ghostly figure of Raksha form behind Lucy, taller than her, fur bristling and adorned with icicles. The wolf seemed even more dangerous and wilder than it had looked before being hit with magic a couple nights ago.

“Let’s see if you make it to see that.” Lucy drawled, her glowing hands moving eerily.

Everyone seemed to snap awake again and react to this. The demons went back to shifting and attacking the vampires, one of them using his brute force to push back Taehyung with his arm, the latter hitting with this back and head on one column. He saw stars momentarily, his vision blurring and doubling when he fell on his knees.

Jungkook was a little distracted as he looked towards Amelia, who was now dragging herself from her hiding place to the front of the altar, gun still in her hand. She settled on the floor and made sure to start aiming at the demons again, still able to hit them dead on. His frantic panic for her exposure was interrupted, however, when a piercing pain shot through his right shoulder, the strength of the gunshot propelling him back with a loud yell.

The two tigers that were the twins’ familiars were now hunting down the demons that hadn’t shifted yet, Mina’s growing in size when Jimin grunted in pain somewhere around the room. The regal feline was instantly running furiously towards the demon that had hit the vampire, jumping and sinking his massive canines into the demon’s neck, ripping skin and flesh with a sickening sound.

Luna finished the demon that hindering her with a strong hit in the head with the back of her riffle and then shooting it three times when it hit the floor. She was quick to make her to the front of the altar, reaching for the backpack she’d brought.

“Girls, ready for the ritual!!” She yelled loudly, her usually small and melodic voice echoing above all the noise in the place.

Mina and Emily reacted to that, both setting the demon in front of them on fire, and then bringing their palms together and twisting them, tattoos lighting up fiercely in their wrists.

Luna was fast to open the backpack and dump some of its contents on the floor, knowing to reach for her explosive powders and the potion to encase the demon inside the barrier she was about to create. Jin and Hoseok ran closer to her, followed by Taehyung, who had a nasty cut in his lip and was now limping from his right leg.

She had to force herself to look away and stopping everything to help the man…

“Jin, you and Hoseok, take a flask each and start spreading it around the twins, and Lucy. Make a circle, try to be neat. Yoongi, I need you to get the guys on hold and don’t let them get close.” Luna rushed, now biting open one flask with the potion and passing to Jin and grabbing another to give it to Hoseok.

“What are you gonna do?” Hoseok quickly said, grabbing the flask and starting to do what she asked.

“Create a barrier to hold that fucker in. When Lucy breaks the seal he’ll most likely transform and we need to contain him.”

Both Jin and Hoseok were quick to start doing as Luna asked, their hands and feet moving quickly as they went around the room. Taehyung and Yoongi had stayed still, shooting against the demons that still tried to reach the two around the room. Luna had the sudden need to look back at Amelia.

Her heart dropped when she saw the younger Witch supporting herself on the altar, a line of blood falling from her nose, attempting to get up.

When Amelia fell to her knees, Jungkook ran to her and kneeled in front of her, placing his hands on her cheeks. One of his hands was bloody, and Luna tried to figure out where the hell that blood was coming from, spotting the source in one of his shoulders.

Amelia sagged against the coolness of his hands.

“Hey… It’s okay, it’ll be fine, soon.” He cooed, his chest aching when Amelia could barely open her eyes then.

“You have… you have to move away…” She placed her free hand on his wrist.

“I’m not leaving you- “

“Jungkook, move away from her.” Lucy stiffly ordered.

“But- ”

“It’ll be dangerous for you if you stay there.” Mina cut in.

Luna got up and ended up going near him to place a hand on his shoulder, trying to pry him away from Amelia’s sick form “Please, Jungkook… You can get hurt, if you stay there.”

Jungkook looked at Mina, finding the same trust there that he’d felt from the start. When he looked back at his mate, her soft, brown eyes were looking right at him, her expression softer and peaceful.

“I love you…” She mumbled, breathy and soft, the start of a smile tugging at her lips.

Jungkook frowned but ended up placing a kiss on her forehead and pulling away. Every fiber of his being was screaming at him to do the opposite, to stay with Amelia and not let go of her. He'd hated how she had said those words like she was saying goodbye. Like she wouldn’t have another opportunity to say then again. But he trusted Mina. And he didn’t realize until now how much he had started to trust Lucy, even though they had the worst of starts.

Amelia kept one hand on top of the makeshift altar the demons had placed there, using her arm as a support for her head. She was sweating profusely and could feel her strength leaving her being. With blurry vision, she placed her free shaky hand on the ground and did her best to get up.

Moving quickly, Luna went back to the start of the circle and picked up the matches, waiting for Hoseok and Jin to finish the circle. The stupid wooden sticks weren’t lighting up, though, her hands starting to shake when at the third try it wouldn’t catch on fire.

“Bloody hell, why did I bring matches?! It’s the 21st century and I brought matches!! What in the actual fuck, Luna Flamel?!” She grumbled, noticing Lucy was now able to have the clan leader in a strong hold by his neck, while her familiar took a bite at his neck, and Jin meet Hoseok half way, completing the circle “Fuck, fuck, fuck-“

“Luna!”

At the call of one of the twins, Luna whimpered and went a little panicked. She looked around for a second and cursed yet again.

“Mina, fire!!”

The redhead instantly moved one of her hands, looking away from the hold she had on the demon and igniting a ball of fire and throwing it at the Alchemist. Taehyung watched with stunned eyes as the smaller woman caught the fire with her bare hands and instantly slapped it against the powder she had laid on the ground.

There was an explosion, then.

If Taehyung hadn’t been looking so closely he wouldn’t have understood what happened. On the floor, where the burning ball hit the powder, a massive blue flame erupted out of nowhere in between Luna’s fingers. The large blue flames surrounded the room, burning along the line of the potion Hoseok and Jin had been doing. The sound was deafening, like a roar of an animal, echoing around the large room, blue light reflecting the walls.

Luna’s hair had been blown out of her face with the impact of the explosion, but the woman had barely moved. She was now reaching for her gun again to reload and engage it.

The leader of the Nidhögg clan had been the one to move first, throwing a blast of golden magic towards Lucy, who was quick to dodge it and murmur an order to Raksha in the old language. The white wolf growled and lunged forwards, tackling the demon to the ground and then disappearing for a second when the guy tried to hit her with a gust of magic.

Lucy had managed to keep him in the same place for a while, having to dodge the wild bursts of magic that the guy was throwing at her, using Amelia’s magic to his own advantage. The Witch was furious, trying to keep some sort of calm that would keep her from going ham on him and get rid of the seal first.

This was Amelia’s kill. Not hers.
In her furious attempts of trying to subjugate the creature, Lucy had been hit in the ribs, her side now burning and screeching with pain.

Who knew Amelia’s magic hurt this badly…

Luna managed to light up the circle around them.

The demon released a loud, animal like growl and then started to shift, seeing himself suddenly surrounded by Luna’s wild fire around him, his arm that the wolf bit now morphing to become burlier and large, with claws as big as knifes and dark like obsidian stones. He didn’t turn all the way, though, only now using his superhuman strength to get rid of Raksha by swinging his arm. The wolf was thrown to the side but landed on her paws with almost feline like grace.

Lucy used the opportunity of having the demon recover slightly from the bite of her familiar and brought forth big icicles from the floor that grew like thorns and stabbed his legs. The demon groaned in pain again and brought his hand to the ice shard in his leg, breaking it and trying to throw it at the nearest attacker, which turned out to be Mina. The redhead deflected it, however, and used a large chain to wrap around his neck and shoulder, pulling him towards her.

The flames from her chain burned his shirt, not doing much to his skin, and slowly the massive seal on his back showed up.

“Luce, his back!” Mina shouted, grounding her feet on the floor as she threw the demon off balance so he kneeled on the floor, facing Amelia, at the same time Lucy was now making more ice shards stab through his legs to keep him in place.

Emily, understanding the hint, moved her chains equally, having them wrap around the opposite side of Mina, surrounding his torso and neck as well. The demon was completely immobile, both arms wrapped in flaming hot chains that slowly burned his skin, knees on the floor with ice shards keeping him in place and torso now exposed to Lucy.

“Amelia!” Lucy called, her voice sounding more authoritarian as it ever did, low and furious, and she took slow steps towards the demon’s back.

In a haze, Amelia had been watching the scene unfold. She had struggled to stay upright, only holding onto the altar for dear life as the three Witches exposed the seal on the demon’s back. Her breathing was labored and she was pretty sure the sound of her heartbeat on her ears was not normal. Nor was the blood coming from her nose incessantly, now.

Her eyes stuck to the demon. Amidst the blood running down his face from her gunshot earlier, wounds on his cheeks and lips, the thing smiled at her. Amelia saw the monster she still had dreams about, the one that had sat down on the corner of the room as she was beaten and tortured, the one that would beat her himself… the one that had fared to touch and force himself on her.

Her anger spiked.

Lucy’s eyes glowed with a cold rage and she snickered maliciously.

“You fucked with the wrong Coven.”

Realizing what was about to happen, the demon struggled and tried to writhe out of his restraints. Lucy, however, couldn’t care less and simply grabbed him roughly by the hair, exposing his throat and using her foot on his back for added support as she summoned a dagger with her magic and then stabbed it right below his nape, where the tattooed seal was, and ripped skin and flesh by roughly dragging the blade down his back in a swift movement.

The demon released a screech, like an animal would.

And the seal was finally broken.

Lucy stepped away quickly, at the same time the twins released their chains from around the creature. They moved in time to watch a massive burst of gold clouds explode from out of the seal on the demon’s back. It was huge, with glittering specks of gold that took the shape of butterflies momentarily, moving like a stunning river of gold dust in the air as if trying to look for its owner. It was when the small butterflies turned in the direction of Amelia, that the magic dust moved, swirling around and then swiftly diving towards the girl like the wind was moving it.

Amelia took a hurried step towards the cloud of dust coming her way.

Euphoria.

It was the only way she could describe the feeling that bloomed inside her chest the moment the magic came in contact with her body. Every fiber of her being absorbed the magic dust, the butterflies floating around her for a mild second before turning into soft specks of gold that disappeared inside as well. It was like a burst of sudden color inside her mind, like it had been in black and white after waking up at Jin’s house and she was now seeing vibrancy all around her.

Like flowers in spring, her energy bloomed, adrenaline flooding her mind, chest and veins, running wild and igniting a fiery will inside her being. This was what she had been made for, what her purpose was. Where her being found peace and solace.

A tingling sensation emerged from the tip of her fingers, the skin glowing gold and then trailing up her palms and wrists, marking her skin into the vines with soft designs of leaves and butterflies, the tattoos she had come to love all her life.

The rush was so great that she lost her balance and fell on her knees and hands, panting and taking in the sensations inside.

Jungkook just stood there, like an idiot, watching as the stunning clouds of gold dust had formed those small glittering butterflies and then moved on its own volition to go back to Amelia. She had taken a step up to the magic and thrown her head back, like the feeling of the magic touching her was the best feeling ever. He watched as her skin instantly started to change hue, from the white, pasty color to a beautiful pinkish porcelain tone, cheeks flushed and healthy. Her eyes were closed when she fell to her knees, however.

He grew slightly alarmed, taking a step to move towards her. Luna and Jin both grabbed his arms, preventing him from going near his mate. If he wasn’t so dazed he would have been furious about it.

From the other side of the room, Emily was already moving away from the demon with a mean smile on her lips, while Lucy looked ahead of her, to Amelia.

The temperature in the room changed, dropping slightly to a cool feel, the air moving around as if it was windy. There was a pleasing scent of flowers in the place now, and the soft sound of the wind shifted to whispers and what appeared to be wind chimes in his ears.

Mina snickered.

“Never steal a Witch’s powers and leave her standing, mate.” She murmured, taking a few steps back.

Right in front of everyone’s eyes, Amelia dematerialized from her place in front of the altar, leaving behind a trail of gold dust, only to reappear right in front of the demon, hand around his neck in a vile grip and a predatory stance as she squeezed and pushed him towards herself.

Her voice wasn’t the warm, beautiful melodic tone Jungkook had come to love.

It was dark, cruel and cold.

“She’ll always return to get them back.”

~ Sass 😘
(Oh shit!)