Hell pulsates through Ramon, despair, and torment leaking off him like a black fog. His siblings, Jan and Alba, look up from the ground, their faces pale with horror as knotted cords of the deepest blackest smoke spin my mother around and slowly lift her into the air. She can’t move, she can’t utter a sound. The ropes tighten, cutting into her skin, as she hangs limp in the air glowing beneath the magical moon.
With a loud thump, Jan slumps to the floor as Solina’s hold over him is severed, but Ramon isn’t finished yet.
“Saskia?” he asks. “Your call.”
“I’ll leave her to you. I’m done.”
I join Rafi and Luisa, and together the three of us help Beatriz to her feet.
Solina’s head flops to the side, her blood-soaked hair hanging limply to the ground, but her eyes are bulging wide. She’s trying to communicate.
“Let her speak,” Beatriz says, her voice hoarse but unwavering. “Let’s hear what our powerful First has to say.”
I nod at Ramon, and wisps of smoke unravel at my mother’s lips.
“Don’t you dare leave me like this, Saskia,” my mother hisses through clenched teeth.
“I told you. I’m done with your shit, Mother.”
“We need to get you help,” Luisa whispers to Beatriz, carrying her out with Rafi’s help. Beatriz gives the crumpled form of her father one last look over her shoulder, her jaw set tight with anger, before slowly being helped up the stairs.
I walk up to my mother, our faces inches from one another. She can’t move, she can’t even turn her head, but her eyes flash with vicious hate.
“Weak. You were always weak! And disloyal,” she spits at me. “Why couldn’t you just go forward with the Ascension?”
Ramon looms at my side, palms pointed outwards towards my mom. “Do you want her dead?”
The black mist tightens around her like a thick rope, and she cries out. I think of all the pain she’s caused me, and how many more lives she could ruin by being the head of all Mages.
“No,” I croak. “I don’t want the burden of her death on my hands.” I lean in closer to her. “But things are going to change. Beatriz is Second now and has inherited both her mother and father’s powers. Which means you will be ruled by a formidable Dreamchasing Silencer for the rest of your life. No rest, day or night. You will be docile. Controlled. Every flame doused and still. Let’s see how you like it.”
I turn to walk away.
“You ungrateful child! I made you,” my mother hisses. “And I can unmake you just as easily.”
I spin around. “You know what really kills you, Mother? It’s that no matter how many times you break me, I never stay broken. I always reform, stronger than before.”
“Stronger?” she snarls. “All I see is weakness, Saskia. You’re the weakest de la Cruz Witch in eight generations.”
“I might be a weak Witch…” I lean in, my breath hot on her cheek. “But I’m a fucking strong woman. And that’s something you will never be able to take away from me.”
“Life is all about sacrifice and choices, Saskia.” Her voice is small, fragile, unsure. “I made difficult ones, for you and for me. You have to choose what’s right.”
I inch even closer.
“Oh, I know,” I whisper in her ear. “And I choose me.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Three days have passed since Beatriz killed her father, and I left my mother bound by death and hanging in the basement of the Nox.
Beatriz wasn’t seriously injured but is still recovering. Thanks to a talented MA Brew Witch, she’s nearly better, but we both know the invisible bruises on her heart will take a lot longer to heal. Luckily, she had enough energy left to Silence my mother long enough for the four of us to come up with a plan. Thanks to the power Beatriz inherited from both her parents, she’s now the most powerful Witch at the organization, so she was able to alter the memories of all MA members at the Ascension. As far as every Mage is concerned, the ceremony went ahead, and Solina is now the formal First and Beatriz her Second.
My mother will never breathe a word of this humiliation, of that I’m certain.
No one had to know about Beatriz’s involvement in Maribel’s death — but there was no hiding the mess Salvador had left behind, including his dead body. We ensured he got the full blame and everyone at the MA believes he took his own life. As I know only too well, Warlock suicide is not something any MA Witch cares about enough to question.
The sun shines through the tall windows as my feet slap against the floor of the medical ward.
I can’t get the image of my deranged mother out of my mind. For the first time since I arrived in Barcelona, I really want to go home, and by that I mean New York. Though I know Solina will do as she’s told, one step out of line and Beatriz can suck away her power and send her crazy in an instant, it’s still not worth the risk. Solina may be subdued, for now, but the more space between my mother and I the better.
I never belonged here in the first place, and although New York is not my true home, The Blood Web Chronicle is. Plus, I want to see Jackson. My stomach flips as I recall the conversation I had with him yesterday, and the concern in his voice when I told him what happened with my mother. God, I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed the overprotective asshole.
I knock on Beatriz’s hospital room door. Well, the nearest thing the MA has to a hospital — which is to say it’s better than any human hospital.
“How are you feeling?” I ask, rubbing my knuckles across hers. She gives me a rare smile, though it’s weak, and in a second it flickers and disappears.
“Luckily your mother’s aim is shit,” she
