Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45934 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45934 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
“Are you?”
Layla shook her head.
“Then no, I’m not evil.”
“What are we?” Layla asked.
“Powerful. We’re feared and our coming has been dreaded for a millennia.” Layla watched as the witch part of her swirled her hand in front of the flame, changing it into a ball, that made her see.
She watched as different factions of the paranormal world over the years had seen her coming. The symbol was seen as dread. People prayed, others tried to create spells to stop it from happening.
“Nothing could stop us,” Witchy Layla said. “Morons, if only they knew.”
“Knew what?”
“If they hadn’t started a big evil, we wouldn’t have been born.” Witchy Layla waved her hand and Layla gasped as she saw her parents. The flame showed two different views of her parents. “If Disaster of the Otherworld hadn’t risen up, there would have been no use for us. You don’t need a great protector when there’s nothing to protect.” In one ball, the night of her parents meeting. One was labeled the cult, the other, no cult. If it hadn’t been for them coming together to destroy and take all power with their greed, her parents would never have met and she would never have been born.
“So, you’re saying that if they hadn’t formed Disaster of the Otherworld, I wouldn’t be here?”
“Correct. Disaster of the Otherworld has always been around. The rumor, the fairy tale story people tell their children, none of it was real. At least, none of it was real until very recently.”
Layla rubbed her temple. “This is what I don’t understand. I’m the one that’s supposed to stop them because they are a great evil, but how do I do that if they can kill me? If they can take my blood and become me?”
Witchy Layla tutted. “Because nothing is ever that simple. They cannot take from us that which is not freely given. You must be willing to give up everything. Our blood alone will not give them power. They must accept us. To anyone that takes our blood, kills our body, we will enter their mind, and then they must figure out a way to control us.”
“Wait, you’re saying you and I will live in their minds?”
Witchy Layla smiled. “Yes. Taking us will come at a great cost, but it won’t be easy.”
Layla looked into the Witchy Layla’s eyes. “How? I can’t do what you do. I’m not magically minded. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”
“I am you and you are me.”
“What does that mean?”
“We’re the same person. You can do whatever I do.” Witchy Layla suddenly tilted her head to the side. “Now, you must go. They have come. Know me, know us, and all will be clear.”
Darkness fell with the wave of Witchy Layla’s hand.
Chapter Thirteen
Layla woke with a gasp. She knew something wasn’t right. She was in her circle, but she spotted Lewis and her parents, also on the ground.
That wasn’t all. She wasn’t alone.
There was a creature on the edge of her protection spell. In her mind, she managed to see this was a wraith. The Disaster of the Otherworld were here, and a wraith, neither living nor dead. Their presence was to serve masters and mistresses, to do the dirty work. They were the pawns.
This thing hissed at her.
“Kill the human!” The words were hissed across at her.
The putrid smell coming from its mouth made her nose twitch, but she ignored it. Getting to her feet, the wraith let out a terrifying scream.
“I am you and you are me. We’re the same person. You can do whatever I do.”
Layla saw herself as well as her witchy self, and she didn’t know how it happened, but she accepted both as they were. She was her, and her was she. The moment she did, the power flooded through her veins and she stared at the monstrosity before her. The aura around the wraith changed color, and she saw how many lives it took, the torture it had inflicted.
“You will die,” it said, announcing every single word.
Layla smiled and reached her hand out. Air was between her hands, but the wraith jolted as if she had caught it around the threat. She felt it in her palm even though there was nothing there. In one of the books she had read, it said wraiths can’t be killed because they are nothing and no one.
Layla was nothing and she was no one. Her kind didn’t exist either.
The wraith began to scream and then turned to dust as Layla let go of the air.
“There was an attack!”
Layla turned her head to see Brandon and Elle coming through the forest. They both stopped.
“Layla?” Elle asked.
Blinking her eyes, she knew what they had seen. “An attack?”
Lewis and her parents woke up, both ready to fight. “Fuck! How did they know? I thought our lands were meant to be protected.”