Clairvoyant (Spells and Sins)

7. Chapter 7

“You need to wake up. He is coming. Wake up, Quinn.”

I’m used to spirits talking to me in my sleep, so I ignore them and cuddle closer to Beckett.

“Quinn, this is important. You need to wake up. He is coming to punish you for breaking the bond. He is on his way to kill you.”

“Wake up. Quinn.”

“Wake. Up!”

The last part is screamed so loud, that the shattering of glass has me gasping awake.

Beckett wakes up too, and we cover our ears from the high-pitched scream. The windows of the room shatter and pieces of glass fall onto the floor.

“What the hell is happening?” Beckett shouts over the piercing roar of the spirits trying to warn us.

Panic wells in my chest. I scurry to snag my clothes from the floor and stand to get dressed. The screaming finally ends, but I hear it echoing in my mind.

“He is coming to kill me for breaking the sacred bond between me and the High Priestess.”

Beckett’s jaw ticks. “Who? You’re still doing the bond after all these years?” He stands, his flaccid cock lying against his thigh. Beckett is still impressive when he isn’t hard. I find myself wanting him now, even with the threat of death looming so close.

“The High Priestess made me. To be fair, I didn’t think I was going to meet you. Meeting you must have broken the bond and alerted her. Any time a bond is broken, she has to tell the Arcana Guild.” I toss my hair up in a messy bun. “We need to get out of here. We need to run.”

He takes my hand, shaking his head. “They will find us. They always do. It’s best if we stay and fight.”

My vision blurs as tears build. “But when we do that… when we…” I can’t finish the sentence. “I just got you. I don’t want us to search for each other anymore.”

“Don’t you get it, Stardust?” He kisses my forehead. “It doesn’t matter if we live the rest of our lives in peace. When we die, we will always search for each other because our souls need one another. In every life, we will always find each other. We are starcrossed lovers, Quinn. We’re meant to be. In every single world, in every dimension, we belong together. Find comfort in knowing that if we die, we will live again, and eventually be in each other’s arms again.”

“I want to grow old with you. When was the last time we got to do that? Have we ever?”

He frowns, pressing his forehead against mine. “No. We haven’t. Not that I can recall, but that’s okay. We’ll have our time.”

“We deserve to be happy. Why won’t they let us?”

“I don’t know,” he says, the sound of defeat riddling his tone. “I don’t know.”

“Quinn.”

I turn my head to the right to see a spirit standing there. I don’t recognize her, but her eyes are round with worry.

“He is here.” She fades from sight, still yelling at me, but she doesn’t have enough energy to stay present for me to hear or see her.

I grab Beckett’s hand, dragging him out of the room, and down the steps to go into the living room where the supplies are.

Beckett tugs on my hand, forcing us to a stop. There’s a man standing in front of the fireplace. He’s wearing a long black cloak. His salt and pepper hair is slicked back over his head.

“Quinn Rune,” he begins, continuing to keep his back to us. “Beckett Blake. You two…” he sighs, exasperated. “You keep the Arcana Guild on their feet.”

“There has to be an exception,” Beckett tries to reason. “We are twin flames. We are destined to be together. You know this. How long has this been going on for? We will continue to find a way to one another.”

“It’s maddening, really. How the universe picked a human for one of the most powerful witches ever to exist. Unfortunately, regardless of your twin flame status, you’re still a human. Humans aren’t allowed to be with witches.” He finally turns around to show his face.

He has dark, sardonic eyes, the pupils lost in the darkest shade of brown I’ve ever seen. Scruff shadows his cheeks. He has a long face with a long, skinny nose, and expressive thick black eyebrows. One quirks up in a high arch as he stares at us.

And that’s when I see it.

The burns on his arms and neck.

“You’re the demon,” I whisper. “You’re the demon who haunts this house.”

His eyes burn a fiery orange, reminding me of hot coals.

“How are you part of the Arcana Guild? They would never allow a demon in their ranks,” I ask, gripping onto Beckett’s arm.

His smile is sly. “Do you think they know? Silly little clairvoyant girl. They have no idea. They do not know that it’s been me hunting your bloodline for thousands of years. You just won’t die like the rest of your line, will you? You keep coming back. You’re a risk for what I have planned.”

“Why? Why won’t you leave me alone? Why won’t you let me live my life?”

“Because clairvoyant’s shouldn’t exist. You’re a threat to anything magical.”

“You mean she is a threat to anything evil,” Beckett spits. “You don’t like having someone who will know your every move alive.”

The demon’s smile fades to a deadly expression. “In this world, her kind die here in this home. Consider it a housewarming gift, Quinn. You get to live with your ancestors now.”

“I won’t let you touch her,” Beckett threatens.

“And you think a weak human such as yourself can stop me? You’ve never been able to stop me, Beckett. I kill you every single time. It is me who kills you in every life and it will always—” he shouts, taking a step forward “—be me. I will always be here to kill you.”

“You think death scares me after experiencing it so many times? Go ahead. I’ll come back like I always do. I’ll find Quinn. And you’ll have to kill me all over again.”

“There has to be another reason,” I whisper, staring at the ghosts who surround us.

Ghosts only I can see.

The closest one to the demon presses her hand against his shoulder and he can’t feel it. The spirit next to her takes her hand, then the next, and the next, until Katherine Rune stands beside me, dropping her hand onto my shoulder.

Visions of the past flip through my memory.

Kahl is this demon’s name and thousands of years ago, he fell in love with a woman who had my gift.

His twin flame.

And she rejected him because of his demonic nature. He killed his own twin flame and vowed to kill any of her descendants.

“You’re doing this because you have a broken heart?” I ask in disbelief. “You’re killing us over and over in every life because… because you were dumped?” I scream at him, letting go of Beckett’s hand as my power begins to rush through me. “You small fucking man.” I angle my palms downward, gathering the energy of the dead to awaken and fight next to us.

“How do you know that?” Kahl steps forward, eyeing the area of the living room. “Who told you?” he sneers, glaring at the empty spaces of the room, but I can see all the women he has killed in this home.

And they are standing directly in front of him, smiling from ear to ear.

“Fucking Clairvoyants.” He charges at me, but the spirits bombard him.

Dozens of women invade his body to give me time to do what I need to do.

“Hear me now, because I’m in need. From the ground to the air, I allow you to breathe. I will set you free if you stand next to me.”

The ground rumbles with the dead’s answer. The floor cracks, the windows open, and the curtains violently blow from the force of the wind. The sky darkens in my wrath. Flames reignite in the candles, nearly touching the ceiling as my fury acts as fuel.

The demon roars, using its power to fling every spirit from his soul. He charges at me again, breaking my focus on raising the dead, and the shadows of his evil reach for me.

Beckett shoves me away, the sulfuric tendrils wrapping around his throat.

“Beckett!” I scream for him.

“Always the savior,” Kahl tsks.

He flicks his wrist, and I fly across the room, back against the wall. I fight the power, trying to force my palms to the ground again. It’s as if I’m trying to move against a gravitational force.

“Killing you has always been my favorite.” Kahl pushes a piece of hair from Beckett’s face before glaring at me. “I love watching her cry for you.”

“Beckett,” I whisper, warm tears hitting my cheeks.

There’s a ghost whispering into Beckett’s ear. The long dark hair tells me it’s Katherine.

“What are you saying? What are you telling him!” I scream, fighting the invisible force holding me against the wall. “Fight me, Kahl. I’m the one you hate. Let him go!”

Beckett’s mismatched eyes meet mine, and the calm serenity from them has me holding my breath.

“No,” I tell him. “No!”

“I love you. I’ll find you, Stardust.”

“No!” I yell at the top of my lungs until the word breaks from running out of air. “Please. No. I can’t live through this without you. I can’t.” I’d fall to the ground if something wasn’t holding me up. I can’t breathe. I can’t think. I can’t exist knowing what he is about to do. “I can’t live in a world where you don’t exist.”

“I always exist,” he whispers.

“No. No. No. Look at me, look at me, Beckett. This isn’t over.”

“No, but it will be now. I know how to make this end forever. And in the next life, we will find each other and we will be able to be together.”

“And how can you make that happen?” Kahl tightens the evil tendrils around Beckett’s neck.

“I might be human,” Beckett grunts. “But I have one thing that can destroy you and next time, when I find Quinn, you won’t be around to rip us apart.”

“What might that be?” Kahl chuckles.

“With the power of the flame inside me, with the power of the love that burns it bright for eternity, I relinquish you back to hell forever.” Beckett covers Kahl’s face, my twin flames’s veins burning a bright orange. Kahl screams as his face turns to ash. “Love always burns hate,” Beckett sneers, placing one hand over Kahl’s heart.

Kahl’s demon screeches, his body shrinking until it’s nothing but bone. His skeleton begins to turn to soot and with his dying breath, he reaches for Beckett, but misses, drifting into smoke.

I fall to the ground with a hard thud, pain radiating in my ankle from how I land. I crawl to Beckett as he gasps for breath. When I get to him, I drag him to my lap so I can run my fingers through his hair.

“Beckett?” I sob. “Beckett, please.” My shoulders shake from the pain inside my chest. Him sacrificing his flame will kill him and I feel him dying. His flame becomes smaller with every passing second. “Beckett.” I kiss his still lips, sobbing uncontrollably at yet another life where I don’t get the happy ending.

Anger becomes me. “Beckett!” I shout his name as loud as I can, the windows bursting from the force.

“Stardust,” he whispers.

My hands cup his face. “My Cosmic Rose. Why? Why did you do it?”

“For next time. So we can finally have peace.”

I shake my head. “We won’t ever have peace.”

“Twin Flames are allowed to be together, no matter if I’m human. It’s a rule and Kahl broke it. Katherine told me. You need to talk to your coven. Let them know.” His hand lifts in the air, but he doesn’t have enough energy to reach my face. I snag his arm and press his hand against my face. Leaning into his touch isn’t the same. He feels so cold.

I can’t stop crying. The pain is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Is this what his death feels like every single time?

“I can’t do this again. Take me with you. Please, take me. I don’t want to be here without you,” I beg of him. “Let me go with you.”

“I’ll find you, Stardust. I’ll always find you.” He smiles, his eyes drifting from mine to stare at the ceiling.

A lone tear breaks free from the corner of his eye at the same time his pupils blow wide and his heart stops beating in his chest.

“No.” I shake my head in denial, lifting him in my arms. “No, no. no.” I press my cheek against him, embracing his body tight. “Please. Please come back to me. Please! I can’t do this again.”

“Let me go,” he whispers into my ear.

I turn to him, seeing his ghost kneel in front of me. “Let me go, Quinn.”

“I can’t. I can’t. I won’t. I won’t ever let you go. Not now. Not ever. Please, don’t leave. Please. Stay with me. I’ll do anything.”

He smiles at me, his hand nothing but a whisper against my cheek. “Don’t forget, I’ve loved you in every life and in every death. Remember, my search for you will never end. Hold on to the comfort that we will never be over. Believe me when I say I’ll find you. I’ve done it a thousand times and I’ll do it a thousand more if I need to. I love you, Quinn.”

And in the next blink of an eye, his spirit fades, and I’m left alone in a room that’s destroyed. His body is in my arms and all I can do is mourn. I lie with him, pressing my cheek against his chest, close my eyes, and wish for a time when nothing in this world can tear us apart.

The End.