Davina (The Immortal Prophecy 3)

“Brown!”

“There’s pain.” A bloodcurdling scream ripped from her. She cried out, hoarsely, “Something’s happening inside of me. I can’t—oh my God! I can’t—Davy!”

“What?” Davy grabbed both of her hands. “What is going on? Lucan! Stop it. Whatever you’re doing, stop it!”

Lucas started for his brother, but he was grabbed and hauled backwards. Five Mori warriors restrained him. He scanned the group, and all of his warriors were being held back by Mori. A high-pitched scream sounded from Lily as she was picked up and handed off to her mother. “Mom!” She hit at the Mori mother, but her futile attempts were ignored. She was whisked away.

Tracey kicked out. She tried to break free, an animal-like growl coming from her. She couldn’t. She was too weak. So was everyone else, Lucas himself, and his eyes found Davy’s, too. She was the weakest of all.

All that power, everything that had been given to them would be for nothing.

Lucan double-crossed them. As Brown kept screaming, Mavic moved around so he was standing in front of Brown and Davy both.

“Yes. Yes.” Lucan stood in front of his twin. His breath was hot as he was laughing. “You’re starting to piece it all together now, aren’t you? You were my way of breaking the thread from existence, but you’re my enemy. You were my weapons against her and it all couldn’t have worked better for me if I had planned it myself.” He leaned close and said softly, “Thank you, brother. Thank you for putting one of my own coven members in touch with a Bright witch. Thank you for allowing him to mold her into his own weapon, because you see, her magic wasn’t released at all. No, no. He’s not able to perform miracles, but he was able to channel other magic inside of her. She was the trusted one. She was sent here to help you and one of mine traveled with her. So while she was in The Immortal’s head with you and Davy, she thought she was helping you free Davy, but she wasn’t. Her magic wasn’t created to do that. Her magic was weakening Davy so that now I can kill her. Finally. The thread will jump to Brown, and then right to me. It’s all been planned. I’ll get what I wanted. I’ll be the first and only male thread-holder. I’ll be the final thread-holder.”

His brother’s delight repulsed him.

Lucas shook his head. If the thread were pulled from her, she would die. The thread made her immortal and as he watched, it was happening. Brown was connected to Davy still and Mavic was performing a spell on both. Davy’s skin was literally jerking. The thread was going to be ripped from inside of her.

Think, Lucas. He had to think. He had to calm down and just . . . think!

Turned. That was the last piece that Davy told him in his dream. Everything else had come true. The innocent. The forgotten. The one would come back, but she said she would have to be turned . . .

His brother had everything planned.

But what if she died before the spell was completed? That would stop it from going to his brother. No. The thought sickened him. Davy wanted to be human. That was all she dreamt about, to be normal. He couldn’t . . . no, no. He couldn’t take that away, but as he continued to watch—he couldn’t see any other way. Davy would die. He had no doubt his brother would kill everyone else.

He had to do it.

He closed his eyes and focused. He needed to call upon all the Hunters again, but there was other power in him still. The Immortal gave him her power. He used most of it up, but he still felt it in him. He needed to use all of it. He had to make it count.

“Davy,” he thought.

Her eyes found his, so terrified.

He said, “I’m going to kill you.”

“What?”

“Don’t be afraid. I have to do it. It’s the only way.”

She nodded, moving her head only a tiny bit. She was held captive by the spell, but at her signal, Roane erupted into motion. He launched himself backwards and then jumped over his five captors. They were too slow. Everyone was too slow.

He was at Davy’s side within the blink of an eye and in the next, his fangs were in her neck. There had been blood trickling down his arm and he raised his thumb to her lips. He brushed it over her mouth, and her tongue darted out to swallow a drop. His other hand grasped the back of her neck, and as she drank, he told her, “Turn, Davy. Turn for me.”

She gasped, one last needed breath, and he snapped her neck.

DAVY

They told me I slept for three days and I started laughing. Three days. How cliché was that, but it was true. It had been three days since my final death. And I say final because it felt like I had died a thousand times over, but three days ago had been my last time. I was no longer The Immortal. I was no longer even a thread-holder. I wasn’t empathic, and I wasn’t a human.

I was a vampire.

Lucas told me when he killed me, the thread jumped out of me. It hadn’t been in enough time for Lucan’s spell to do whatever it had intended to do. It went straight to the nearest thread-holder, Lily. Talia’s little girl was the newest and according to a prophecy that I never knew about, she was the last thread-holder. Tracey explained that Lily would always be the thread-holder. She doubted anyone would try to separate the thread again, not after word spread far and wide how powerful The Immortal had been.

I felt horrible. I felt Talia’s second death. I felt all of my sisters’ second deaths, but in the moment I hadn’t realized what the impending doom was that I was feeling. I had been selfish. I had been so happy to be in Lucas’s arms again, for real, but Tracey reassured me that Lily isn’t a normal thread-holder. Apparently she was still able to see her other sisters, Talia too. Because she grew up among the Mori, who had their own magic, her body wasn’t normal. I was thankful to hear the sisters still lived on another plane, but I wouldn’t see Saren again or hear her annoying voice in my head.

It was done. All of it. Even Lucan.