Unblessed Witch (Phases of the Moon #4)

14. Lazaro

14

LAZARO

Something was wrong.

As I stood at the edge of the camp surrounded by Society of Shadows members, I examined the sky with concern. It was dark, almost charcoal in color, and rain was beginning to fall in cold pellets. That wasn’t what was bothering me though. I couldn’t actually define what was bothering me, just that a sense of apprehension had lodged in my chest, and it wasn’t going away.

It was almost too quiet, the world far too unreactive for someone like Astaroth.

“Lazaro.” My father’s familiar voice drew my attention as he came to stand by my side. I knew he would be on the field, along with many of the other parents, and I wouldn’t lie—I wasn’t a fan of the concept. My father was ungodly powerful, but he was getting older and I didn’t foresee this being an easy battle. Still, I wasn’t about to ask him to sit this one out. If he wanted to get himself killed that was his own prerogative, I supposed.

“Where’s Deva?”

My brow arched at his tone, and my little thief turned from where she’d been talking to her friends.

In an unsurprising move, Lavinia and Briar had said an absolute ‘no’ to the proposed plan of them staying here at the camp. Odessa, on the other hand, decided to stay with Cage’s mother and mine to help with the medical ward alongside one of Noah. I could tell that Deva felt slightly better, but I had no doubt she’d be happier with all her friends placed safely behind the ward.

My brave little thief probably didn’t want anyone outside of the wards except herself.

“Something wrong?” Deva asked, leaning into my side. Currently, we were gathering all the forces that planned on attacking the compound, dusk growing closer and closer.

“No,” my father said, handing a small black bag to Deva. I had absolutely no idea what the man was doing, so I simply watched.

“Ravette wanted you to have this,” he said as Deva pulled a bracelet from the pouch. “The original piece belonged to your grandmother. Ravette spelled it for protection.” My father’s words were delivered with no inflection, no emotion, and Deva’s face went completely blank. I smoothed a hand on her back, annoyed as fuck with the bastard.

Deva was already sensitive when it came to things about her family, and then to hand her a family heirloom without warning? Before going onto the battlefield? Idiotic. It was beyond clear why I struggled with emotional expression and competency.

“Thank you,” Deva said. My father nodded sharply and disappeared.

“I’m sorry he just threw that on you.” I tilted her chin up with a single finger, but instead of finding the sadness I’d expected, there was a softness in her gaze.

“It’s beautiful,” she said, fingering the gems arranged in an art deco motif on a silver cuff.

Motioning for the cuff, I gently slid it onto her arm. The faintest wave of magic rolled over it, the material tightening to her elegant wrist. Deva’s face was filled with the vulnerability that she’d hidden around my father, a look of awe as she turned her wrist this way and that, admiring the jewelry that held a connection to her family.

“I’ll have to thank your grandma,” she murmured, a crack of thunder nearly drowning out her voice. That sense of wrongness returned, Deva immediately noticing the change in my expression. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure. I just can’t shake the feeling that it’s too quiet.”

“I agree,” Deva said, looking at the mountains in the distance. “He knows we’re here. He knows by now that I escaped. Yet…nothing? Not a word? No response?”

Deva managed to pinpoint exactly why I felt so damn uncomfortable right now.

“Maybe he wants us to come to him.”

“Which means he’s well prepared.” Deva nibbled her lip before shaking her head. “Either way, someone has to make a move, and that’s exactly what we’re about to do.”

“Are we ready?” Cage asked, nearly bouncing with anticipation and bloodlust.

I wouldn’t lie—much like Cage, I was eager to fight. I was excited to kill and to let my magic loose, at least as much as I could risk. It had been too long since I’d been unleashed, and the last battle had been stopped short when the Society arrived. And the fury I’d felt at Astaroth being around Deva, let alone taking her? I needed blood and for someone to pay.

The others, I knew, felt similar.

“Ready as we’ll ever be,” I replied as Oz, Alek, and Grim joined us. The first carried multiple weapons and spelled explosives, and I could say with all honesty that I didn’t not envy Oz’s victims tonight. It was going to be a massacre.

People often overlooked that what unblessed ‘lacked’ in brute force magic, they made up for in so many other ways. I would go as far to claim that Oz was one of the most powerful witches I knew, and I had a feeling that everyone was about to see that.

An order came from the front of the line to move forward and out of the wards. Our group of over three hundred witches, easily two thirds of the troops in the camp, moved forward, everyone’s eyes set on the target ahead.

As the ward slipped over me, I noticed how quiet the world was outside. I’d only gotten an inkling of this from inside the bubble. The silence was heavy and oppressive, weighing us down as we marched through the grassy plain.

A thick mist covered the ground and the dark cloaks we wore couldn’t stave off the chill that crept around us. The moon shone high in the sky, only visible as a halo of light behind the rain clouds. Deva’s hand intertwined with mine, and I looked down to find her staring at the sky in concern.

“Something is—” Deva’s words were cut off as a blinding light exploded in front of us, blasting the world to smithereens.

A sonic boom broke across my ears, knocking out my hearing as I tackled Deva to the ground, surrounding her with my magic. The ground cracked and shifted as wind howled around us, making me feel like we were going to be ripped from the earth.

When it stopped, there was no silence. Chaos reigned supreme.

“Fuck.” I shot onto my feet, pulling Deva with me as a wall of men and women rushed toward us, clashing with our front line.

Lunar magic. Shadow magic. Blood magic. It turned the clearing into a light show of epic proportions as the sounds of weapons clashing and screams of pain filled the air, my ears popping at the sensation of it flooding back in.

“They knew exactly when we would move!” Deva yelled as her hands lit up with a silver magic intertwined with black smokey shadows.

“Impatient bastard,” Grimshaw said before portalling forward. His shadows wrapped around one of the individuals that had breached the front line, their guttural scream cut off as Grim appeared behind them and slit their throat.

“I won’t complain,” Cage admitted as more and more of Astaroth’s army reached our position in the formation. My magic lit up my arms and hands, immediately responding to the fury building at the concept that my little thief was once again in danger. That these absolute pieces of shit were trying to hurt her, all in the name of Astaroth.

A silver cloak nearly slammed into me but I turned swiftly and grabbed the back of their head, blasting lunar magic through their skull.

“That was good,” Alek of all fucking people said as he passed the beheaded corpse.

All four of my brethren fought within close proximity, none of us willing to stray far from Deva. It was almost painful to look away from her as she managed to neutralize each enemy she came across with a grace and elegance that was stunning. A bright streak of pain in a macabre piece of art.

“Not so fast.” I kicked out the legs of someone trying to sprint past me to get to the camp, slamming my athame into their upper back. I left them to bleed out after twisting my knife and pulling it out, rushing to help my father, who had four people on him. His body was sheltered in silver light, and the minute I grew close, our magics connected. I didn’t say a word, using my magic to blast a hole in one of the attacker’s chests and then my athame to gut the other.

I’d always been able to kill without emotion—at least outwardly—but right now I actually felt a fuck ton. A lot of anger, mostly, for everything Astaroth had put us through. Deva may be the one to kill him, but I would be damned if I didn’t slaughter every single one of his soldiers on my way into the compound.

“Shit!” my father said as someone swiped their sword at him, cutting his side in a grazing but long cut. I let my magic slam into the asshole, his body splintering into a million different bloody pieces.

“Appreciate it,” my father grunted as he looked past me, gesturing for me to do the same. When I turned to see that Deva had two attackers, the other four being swarmed by multiples as well, I realized that numbers by far were going to be our largest problem. Astaroth had a huge fucking army, and when I snapped my gaze back to the mountain, even more were pouring out.

“A frontal attack won’t work!” Oz shouted. He lobbed a spell jar across the field into a group of approaching silver cloaked individuals. “There are way too many of them.” An explosion of fiery green flames lit up the field as shrieks of agony filled the air.

“We need to retreat!” I told my father, ripping my athame across the stomach of another soldier that passed me. He nodded and shouted the message to Grim’s parents who were both engaged in battle, their shadow-covered weapons causing their victims to wither in agony.

“Retreat?” Deva asked, a speck of blood on her cheek. I sprinted toward her, hoping to intercept three assailants coming her way. “He may not let us— Lazaro !”

A shocking sharp pain blossomed from the center of my back as fear filled my little thief’s face. Agony had me gasping as I looked down to find a blade sticking through my chest. Interesting . My attacker shoved it in further, my entire body shuddering at the sensation.

My knees broke as the sword was swiftly yanked from my body, the world around me turning spotty as my attacker disappeared.

I looked in confusion at the blood pooling around me, finally realizing what had happened. I’d been stabbed. Skewered. Numbness began to spread through my body as I tried to stabilize myself, my limbs feeling weak.

When Deva appeared in front of me cupping my jaw and speaking in quick, frantic words, I realized my hearing had gone out completely. I couldn’t feel my hands or feet anymore, and my tongue felt slow and heavy. Blood filled my mouth as my eyes grew tired, the strength of my control diminished.

“Deva—” My voice caught, blood filling my throat. “ Run .”

As I felt the world blink out around me, the full strength of my magic was released upon the battlefield .