Solstice

I stood outside, admiring the moonlight as it glittered on the snow while I enjoyed my first cigarette since the morning before. It was so dark outside. The sun wasn’t going to rise at all this day, not this far north.

I still felt uncomfortable smoking in front of Anna, as if I were still trying to maintain my perfect facade. I was alone, apart from the staff in the dining hall, when I went to get breakfast.

It was very early in the morning. I felt a little nauseous, but forced myself to eat.

“Good morning,” Anna said, sitting down across from me.

I watched her eat her breakfast like it was a normal Tuesday. “Good morning,” I mumbled back, sipping my coffee.

“So are you absolutely sure it’s wise of you to join this fight? I mean, you haven’t fought many spellcasters and you did keep a warlock for a lover,” she said with a worried frown, but all I heard was her judging me again.

“That’s exactly why. I really want to help stop them, they sully the reputation of other spellcasters,” I said, feeling my skin crawl.

I didn’t hear Anna’s reply as everything blackened before my eyes.

~I looked at a group of dead people. They’d been my friends, my coven. Now their blood soiled the pure white snow. “Why?!” I cried out at the umbra before me.~

~

~He looked at me with dead eyes. “Last warning, Morgana, he’s gotten too strong. We’re coming back for your boy,” the bewinged man said before vanishing in smoke.~

~

~I sank down on my knees, my tears pooling down my cheeks as I screamed in despair at the loss of my friends. They had all been kind and peaceful.~

~

“Bella, what’s wrong?” Anna said, pulling me back to the present.

I was crying, and my heart still felt like it was breaking. I looked at my old friend with contempt.

“You don’t have to come, you can stay here,” Anna said, trying to comfort me, unaware of how much I hated her at that moment.

I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Are you okay, dear?” the eleventh squad’s leader asked me kindly.

She brought my heart back to the present, and I hurried to dry my tears. “Yes, I’m sorry. I just thought about the poor victims and their families,” I almost lied. I did pity them.

“After today they won’t be able to hurt any more innocents,” the eleventh squad’s leader said.

She was smiling reassuringly when I looked up at her. It made me feel much calmer and focused on our task.

This cult of spellcasters was just as bad as the umbra had been a thousand years ago. “You’re right, let’s end them for good,” I agreed decidedly.

***

It was very cold and dark outside when we moved up the mountain. We were dressed in white gear to blend in with the snow.

The clothes were as warm as they could be while maintaining mobility. In other words, we were freezing.

The ninth squad had joined us today, since they were stationed in the area. Their leader was angry that he didn’t get to lead the operation, even though they were responsible for the region.

We had scattered early on to try and surround them. The eleventh squad was going to create an antimagic zone to stop the spellcasters from escaping.

It had never been done before at this scale. While we ascended further up the mountain, we started to hear the beat of drums, and it wasn’t long before we saw them.

What I saw reminded me of Samhain, but it was gruesome and vile. It was a truly horrible sight.

The spellcasters were dancing and singing to the beat of the drums. They were dancing around a great oak tree, decorated with seven fresh corpses.

Their intestines were spread around the branches, like glitter on a Christmas tree. We had arrived too late to save them.

I felt a severe nausea and headache hit me just as darkness swept over me again and my mind traveled to another time.

~I held my ritual dagger up high; it was covered in blood. The blood came from the runes I’d carved into my own flesh. I held the dagger steadily with both my hands and whispered a prayer in the arcane language, as creatures entered my home.~

~

~They looked like people, but with horns and wings in different shapes and colors. I was scared but determined.~

~

~“You are too late. You will never have my son,” I said in anger. The umbra rushed toward me and tried to stop me as I plunged the knife through my own heart.~

~

I snapped back to reality and felt my breakfast leave my stomach as I threw up. That had felt way too real, and I had to focus to steady my breathing.

“You’re not dying, Bella,” I whispered to myself, trying to convince myself that it was only an old memory from a very long time ago.

I wasn’t the only one to throw up; another of the umbra vomited too, but plainly at the horrifying sight.

“Keep it together, rookies, this isn’t even all that bad,” one of the older umbra muttered.

The drums and singing stopped. The cult had noticed our presence, but too late.

The eleventh squad had just put the antimagic zone in place, and their chant had lost its effect. Several of them started to scream in despair when they realized their ritual had been stopped, and they couldn’t cast any spells.

The rest of them rushed to arm themselves with whatever ritualistic weapons they had, but it was all in vain. Since they were rushed from all sides by umbra and weren’t trained in combat like we were, this was going to be a slaughter.

I froze on the spot, watching as the spellcasters were butchered. For the first time in my life, I looked at my own kind in horror.

Not a single one of them seemed troubled to kill defenseless humans. Then the tree suddenly caught my eye again, and I snapped out of it.

These people were psychopaths; they didn’t deserve my pity, and I had a job to do. I knew now why it had to be me who killed Marcus.

I wanted to look him in the eyes when his world shattered, when he realized he’d been a monster for nothing. I looked around at the snow, now covered in blood, and caught sight of a trail leading up the mountain.

It ended with an opening in the rock. It must have been the cave Damion had mentioned.

I ran through the snow, dodging attacks from spellcasters. I wasn’t used to running through heavy snow, and it felt like an eternity before I finally reached the cave.

There was light coming from inside. I stood outside, catching my breath before I finally decided to step inside.

“I heard you’ve been looking for me, asshole!” I called out.