Salvador tries to stand, but with a high-pitched scream, Beatriz throws herself at him. She grabs on to his head, grasping his hair, a fist on either side of his temples. A flash of white light blinds me. I turn away, unable to see anything. The only sound is that of Salvador’s whimpers as he collapses to the ground.
When I turn back, he’s shaking, curled up like a dying cockroach. Lightning crackles around his temples, his eyes glowing white in the dim light of the room as they roll back into his head. Beatriz towers over him as he slowly stills, the occasional finger twitching, then his face turns as white as the fake moon above us.
Beatriz takes a shaky breath and swallows, her gaze fixed on the crumpled form of her father.
“Help us,” Rafi shouts.
While Beatriz and her father were fighting, Luisa has untied Rafi and is now pulling at the wire wrapped around Alba’s wrists.
“We need the knife,” I mutter, searching the blood-speckled floor.
My mother is still on the ground, but unlike Salvador, she’s breathing. Did Beatriz just kill her father? I don’t have time to think about it. We need to get the hell out of here!
“I’ve got my powers back,” Rafi says, joining Luisa and carefully directing a thin flame to melt the wire around Alba’s wrists. He does the same with Ramon, and as Jan breaks free, he wraps his arms around Rafi’s neck and kisses him full on the lips.
I go to say something corny, but before I have a chance, something rushes past me. A glint of silver, a rustle of white, an ear-splitting scream.
The room fills with the sharp scent of blood. My mother has plunged Salvador’s dagger into Beatriz’s chest.
There’s a scream, blurred shapes in the dark, arms and legs tangling as they fall to the ground – my mother’s white pantsuit wrapping around Beatriz’s black gown as she drives the blade in deeper.
Beatriz’s blood mixes with that of my mother’s, dripping onto her father’s body on the ground. The world has gone blurry, everything is muffled, there’s so much magic in the room it’s making me feel intoxicated. I can’t think straight. I can only watch.
My mother is still screaming as Rafi races forward, blasting her backward with a gush of wind, crashing her against the wall. Luisa is already on her knees besides Beatriz, ripping at the hem of her dress. She goes to wrap it around our friend’s wound, then looks up with a start.
“Watch out!” she screams.
My head whips up, pulling me out of my daze. My mother has scrambled back to her feet and is running towards Beatriz, the knife gripped in her slippery fist. Salvador must be dead if she’s regained all her energy so fast.
I grab her arm and pull her back.
“Move, Saskia!” my mother hisses, her face pressed against mine. Her eyes shine black in the dim light, her teeth bared. “We have to kill her. It’s still a full moon. Salvador’s dead. If we don’t kill Beatriz his power will transfer, and his daughter will automatically become my Second.”
My mother grips my wrist, and her magic instantly floods into my bloodstream, the sharp jabs of compliance and control itching beneath my skin. I kick out before it fully takes its hold.
Rafi straightens up and runs over, but with an arc of her hand, Solina sends him flying back. That’s new. She must have grown more powerful as the new First.
She tries to grab my arm again, but I sidestep her, making her slip on the slick red floor.
“Saskia,” she screams. “I’m doing this for you. Beatriz has to die. You don’t understand.”
Luisa is pressing down on our friend’s wound.
“Stop her,” she cries. “She’s missed Beatriz’s vital organs, but I can’t staunch the bleeding much longer!”
My mother grins at the update, and swipes at me again, but this time Jan grabs her arms as Rafi and Alba rush forward. Ramon doesn’t move, but there are still four of us. Surely between us we can overpower her?
Holding my mother’s arms back, Jan and I try to wrestle the knife out of her hand. She breaks free and grabs hold of Alba’s hair, pulling her to the ground so we all fall in a heap. I attempt to pull Jan back up, but my mother is slashing out at him with the other hand. He twists, narrowly avoiding the blade.
“Don’t let her hands touch you!” I cry.
Too late. With a sparkling flash, my mother grasps Jan’s arm. Immediately his expression grows vacant, his body coiling with anger. Except this time his rage is not directed at Solina. The Nox pulls his sister up by the scruff of her collar and hits her across the face. She cries out, falling to the ground, her eyes wide with shock and pain.
“Move,” Solina screams, pushing past me, clutching the dagger.
I have no time to stop her as Jan, his mind ravaged with Solina’s magic, goes to strike me. I try and hold him back, but he’s too strong. Then a feral battle cry rings out, and we all stop.
Ramon is no longer standing still.
“No one fucks con mi familia!” His scream echoes through the room.
Like a giant woken from his slumber, he rushes forward, raking his hands through the air, black smoke erupting from the palms of his hands.
The Nox work with the dead, and Ramon is their anchor — the eye of a death storm. He has called forward the power of the departed, and it’s them who are coursing through him in the form of ashen mist.
With a feeble whimper, my mother drops the knife as wisps of smoke wind across her body. She tries to cry out, but as she parts her lips, the black mist enters her mouth, her nose, her ears. Silenced and rendered powerless, she’s now nothing but a weak fly trapped in a web
