𝕊𝕡𝕖𝕒𝕜 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔻𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕟

Chapter 22 - Gale

Gale's POV

I have never considered killing my friends as much as I do right now. Not even Elanor and we had never even been anywhere close to friends until Katherine came along.

"I swear to fucking God if you don't get out of my way, Zack-" I growl but he holds a hand up.

"It's her decision, Gale." He says, he masks his reluctance, but I can see right through him. "She doesn't want you to see her like this." He's blocking to door to the dungeons, and I find myself thinking about many ways I could put him in one and torture him for getting in the way of me my Tesoro.

I hear a scream come from behind the door. That door is meant to be soundproof so the scream would have to be pretty damned loud. "Zack." I warn but he doesn't move. He looks down at my fists quick enough to notice them clench before looking back up at me.

I have a solid inch or two on him, but I wouldn't underestimate his hand-on-hand combat skills. Hell, I'd seen him take down a guy with a gun without using any weapons, just his bare fists.

There's another faint scream that comes from behind the door and I all but shove him out of the way long enough for me to open the door and make it halfway down the stairs before he pounces on me and we tumble down the narrow, spiral staircase.

I'm surprised that neither I nor Zack don't break my neck on the way down the stairs. "Tesoro!" I shout down the hallway of cells when Zack pins me to the floor.

"If I let you go, you have to promise not to freak out." He commands through his teeth.

"Let. Me. Go. Zack."

"Promise!" He growls back, not letting go of where he has me pinned to the floor.

"Fine!" I grumble. "I fucking promise! Now get the fuck off of me!" I'm on my feet as soon as Zack is off of me and I'm sprinting down the hall way to meet with Elanor and Seb. I turn to look at what they're looking at.

Katherine is standing by the wall of bars of the cell she's in, her arms poking out from between the bars, almost like she tried to reach for Elanor or Seb and gave up and now she was just using the bars as support. It looks like her legs aren't what's holding her upright.

Her irises were as red as they were in the car last night when she attacked Zack.

"What's wrong with her?" I ask and Elanor and Sebastian look my way, only just now noticing my presence.

"I lifted my spell oh her and now she keeps calling Sebastian, Knox, and tries to attack him every time he gets too close. Elanor replies and Katherine scowls at the mention of Knox's name. "She adjusted to the sage on the bars twenty minutes ago... I didn't even think that was possible. I've tried mostly everything to get her to calm down apart from the spell I had on her before."

"What else can you try?" Zack asks as he walks up from behind me, dusting off dirt that got on his clothes on our way down the stairs.

"Things that my ancestors wouldn't be proud of me for doing..." Elanor mutters before turning back to Katherine. She's talking about black magic. "That is the last resort. But until then we have to keep trying other tactics like-" she holds her hand up and chants something under her breath.

Not even a second passes before Katherine is letting out a bloodcurdling scream and crumbling to the floor with her hands over her ears as if to stop hearing a high pitched noise.

"What are you doing to her?!" I shout over Katherine's screams. Panic settles in my chest when Elanor doesn't stop, instead, she curses as she almost crumbles to the ground before Sebastian catches her.

"Elanor, that's enough." Sebastian speaks just loud enough for me to hear him over Katherine's non-stop screams. "You're going to drain yourself."

Katherine's screams stop in a matter of seconds before she's on her feet and flying towards the cell bars again. I can practically hear the sizzling of her skin on the sage.

"You witch bitch!" She screams, her voice raspy and almost gone from screaming so loudly earlier. "I'm going to fucking kill you!"

That's not my Tesoro. At the moment, she is his, but I'll get her back and she will be mine again.

"I thought Knox's spell just made her want to kill us, not hate us." Zack says before sitting on the floor a few feet away from the cell to check on his ankle that he had been limping on.

"Apparently not." Elanor says breathlessly. "I think his spell rid her of her..." She pauses, trying to find the words while she tries to catch her breath.

"Humanity." Sebastian finishes for her. "And maybe made her a little crazy too."

I turn back to Katherine when I hear a whimper. She isn't leaning on the bars anymore. Instead, she's sitting on the floor in the middle of the cell and facing away from us with her knees tucked against her chest. I'm standing at an angle where I can see her looking down at her hands.

"Tesoro..." I whisper as I walk towards the cell. "Come back to me, please..."

"Gale that's not a good idea..." Sebastian says as I get closer to the bars. I'm close enough that she could grab me if I she's fast enough.

I stupidly turn around to look at Seb, but I pause when he and Elanor stare at me with terror in their eyes. Shit. I turn around to see Katherine standing by the bars with a grin on her face as she stares at me menacingly. My stomach lurches when she looks at me with reddened eyes.

She grabs my wrist in lightning speed but before she can do anything, Cameron appears in a blur and separates her from me. "Relinque creaturam malam!" He growls and she backs away, a grin still on her face and she giggles hysterically.

Was that Latin? "Holy shit." Zack watches with wide eyes when Katherine backs into a corner and sits with her knees tucked to her chest, still giggling. She sounds fucking evil.

"What the fuck was that?" I ask when she stops and just watches.

"Knox must have said the trigger word." Cameron thinks out loud before turning to us. "We need to find Knox right fucking now."

"Well, no fucking shit." Seb growled, still holding Elanor up right.

"Trigger word?" I ask. Christ, this guy talks so much that he doesn't actually talk.

"Perra." Cameron recites and we all look at Katherine, expecting her to go back to how she was before. "It won't work unless he says it in a certain tone."

"Why the fuck didn't you tell us this before?" I ask, anger relacing worry.

"You would have to actually tell me what's going on with my sister for me to be able to do that." He growls before his gaze focuses on Elanor. "What's wrong with you?"

"She almost drained her fucking magic on your sister." Seb's voice is deep and filled with warning.

Before Cameron can reply and this conversation ends with a violent argument, Elanor speaks up, like she can see that is how this is going to end too. "Now isn't the time for this." She finally caught her breath and was able to stand up straight.

"What do you mean-" Zack starts but stops when Sebastian levels him with a glare.

I'd ask what's going on, but I notice Cameron and Elanor glaring at Zack too. I look between the three of them.

"Like Elanor said." I say, trying to remind them why we are here. "Now is not the time."

We all turn our attention back to Katherine.