Chapter Two
The year was 1813,and Marion Cloughson had already bled more than she thought possible.The world around her was fire and ash, screams echoing across the battlefield as witches and warlocks clashed with brutal ferocity.The air stank of iron, blood, and smoke.Magic ripped across the night like lightning, purple and green flashes tearing shadows into the ground.She swung her blade, ducked another wild strike, her heart hammering against her ribs.
Her eyes caught on a horrific sight—Libby crumpling to the ground, her mates Liam and Jacob falling beside her.Matthew stood over them, eyes gleaming with triumph, blood dripping from his sword.The sound that tore from Marion’s throat was half a scream, half a roar of fury.She wanted to run to them, but another enemy lunged, forcing her to raise her arm, sparks of violet fire bursting from her palm.The man shrieked as the flames consumed him, and Marion pressed forward, rage giving her strength.
The battlefield was chaos.Screams intermingled with the roar of fire, the crack of bones breaking, the sickening thuds of bodies falling.Witches hurled fire and wind, warlocks sent shadows slashing through the dark, and the ground itself shook with the force of so much unleashed power.Marion pushed through, dirt and blood caking her skin, her breath ragged.She swung her arm, fire leaping outward, cutting down another of Matthew’s men.Her chest heaved, but she could not stop—not when she could still fight, not while her sisters still stood.
A woman shrieked nearby as a wall of fire consumed her.Another cry followed when an earth-shattering crack split the ground, sending combatants tumbling into the abyss.Marion stumbled, ducking beneath a flying shard of stone, the acrid air burning her lungs.She steadied herself, her gaze darting frantically for the faces she loved.Around her, flashes of violet, gold, and emerald lit up the smoky dark, every strike another soul lost or spared.
Then she saw them.
Saffron stood a few yards away, her mismatched eyes glowing as Ryan and Alaric pressed close to her.The three of them weren’t fighting.They were talking, their faces twisted in grief, tears streaking their cheeks.Marion’s heart lurched.Something was wrong.She had to reach them.
She shoved through the melee, cutting down another attacker.“Saffie!”she screamed, running toward them.
Halfway there, the pain hit.
It was like a spear through her chest, jagged and merciless.Marion staggered, her vision blurring, and then she collapsed to her knees, clutching at herself.Her breath tore out of her, ragged gasps that refused to fill her lungs.She turned her head just in time to see Ryan and Alaric struck down.Their bodies crumpled at Saffie’s feet.Saffron’s scream ripped through the battlefield as she collapsed over them, hands clutching their still forms, her voice shattering with grief.
“No,” Marion whispered, the word lost in the roar around her.Pain seared through her body, white-hot and unrelenting.She slumped sideways onto the blood-soaked earth, her tears mingling with the dirt.
“Marion!”Ursula’s voice cut through the haze.Then she was there, sliding to her knees beside her, hands glowing as she tried to summon healing.Fear shone in her usually calm eyes.“What happened?What did they do to you?”
Marion could barely form the words.“I ...don’t know.It feels like something inside me is tearing me apart.”Her voice cracked, her chest jerking as the agony raked her insides raw.
Ursula pressed her palms to Marion’s chest, whispering incantations, but nothing happened.Her frown deepened, panic flashing across her face.“It’s not working,” she muttered.“Why isn’t it working?It should be working!”
Marion’s body shuddered.The agony was consuming her, blackness edging her vision.She reached for Ursula’s hand, squeezing with what little strength she had left.“You have to live,” she whispered.“For all of us.Promise me.”
“No,” Ursula said fiercely, shaking her head, tears streaking her cheeks.“Don’t you dare leave me.We need you.I need you.”
“I don’t have a choice.”Marion’s lips curved weakly, even as blood touched her teeth.“But you do.Live for us.Live for me.”
As her strength ebbed, a strange warmth washed over her.The pain dulled, replaced by a glow that surrounded her fading consciousness.A figure appeared—a woman bathed in light, radiant and calm.Her voice was soft, echoing like music in Marion’s mind.
“Your fates will come for you,” the glowing lady whispered.“They will help you find the strength you hold within.But it will take time.Rest now, child.Your story is not yet finished, for it has only just begun.”
Marion’s last breath shuddered out of her as the darkness claimed her.
****
Brielle bolted uprightin bed, her heart pounding, sweat soaking her sheets.The scream she had held in Marion’s throat still trembled on her own lips.Her apartment felt stifling, every shadow heavy with the echoes of the vision.Her chest ached as if the pain were still real, as though fire still burned through her lungs.She pressed a trembling hand to her sternum, trying to steady herself.
This wasn’t just a dream.It was a memory.A fragment of her past life as Marion Cloughson.She knew it in her bones.
The room around her was familiar—her sanctuary, tucked on the floor beneath Saffie and Ursula.The scent of dried lavender clung to her sheets, but it did nothing to calm her racing heart.She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, pressing her palms to her eyes, willing herself to breathe.Upstairs, Ursula and Saffie still lived, still breathed, still laughed.On her own floor, Willow, Jacob, and Liam remained—her family, her coven, the people fate had bound her to again.