The one called Amber stood in the room staring at her. The pale skin had various cuts and bruises across them making the human seem more like a necromantic corpse… but their eyes carried that vindictive rage that only the living could possess.

The smile that tore too wide across a human face. The rotting blood that slowly pooled and festered around the hole in the stomach… yet Amber still stood there staring back at the half-elf.

The eyes cast a sinister twisted malevolent gaze as they saw her stumble backwards trying to draw her sword. The chipped piece of metal had started to rust and break before she pulled it out of its sheath. Already rusted dust landed on her clothing as she could feel the burn of the rusted iron touch her flesh.

Yet Amber still stood there “What’s the matter, puppet?”

Averia watched as the sword disappeared in the gust of wind as all that remained was the hilt. Amber continued walking forward with the twisted knife that hungered for blood. She saw the cold sadistic look as Amber licked her lips hungry for her flesh.

Averia called forth her magic as the floor boards had once been part of nature. They could still feel the distant call of their past as she called forth new life from the old wood. The renewal of life and nature sprang forth to protect her.

Amber walked through the woods as they simply vanished.

The creature calling itself Amber ignored the woods erasing it from existence and leaving a rotting mess of decay and taint in her wake. The wooden floors fell to putrid mush. The flowers that sprung to life twisted before being replaced with cold harsh lifeless iron roses with more thorns than flowers.

The Half-elf turned and ran fearing for her life as the creature’s very presence warped everything into something twisted, feral, and wrong.

The hallways slowly turned into an endless maze as she tried to find the exit. Her mind whispered something about needing to find a red cloak, but there were no specks of red, or life, or any color within these cursed halls.

Grey walls of concrete pressed against her from all sides. Her breathing grew harsher as the mechanical flickering of false sunlight started to die out from above… as the thin layer of plastic and drywall kept the serpentine iron wires filled with venomous electricity at bay.

Yet even now the poisonous wires slithered out of the holes that they dug and threatened to grab her, trip her, bit their electrical charge into her body before letting their iron fangs bite into her skin.

She had to find the red cloak. It was the safe point… she just had to…

The blood curdling howl echoed down the hallway as she saw the monster. Amber’s skin was left hanging like a jacket as the demon of old sniffed the air.

It was shaped like a wolf that had lost all of its fur, yet everything about it was wrong. Limbs twisted in unnatural ways kept the beast standing as eyes that spawned from every area, but the face searched the area for her. She could see the stomach rip open revealing an elf consuming mouth as the black iron tainted tongue licked the floor leaving a trail of rust within its wake.

The demon spoke in Amber’s voice “They left me… she pushed me in front of that spear so that you could be made in my image puppet.”

The half-elf turned around and ran. Her mind struggled to keep hold of itself as she was Averia Willow. The Fae Heir. Her father managed to slip out of the contract Agatha Willow had bound him to. Her mother managed to make it so that Agatha Willow could have a daughter born of her blood, but not from her denying her claim.

Her memories started to slip as she saw a wooden puppet of herself before a crude stage. A woman with a long nose and a wart on the end laughed, making her dance as her father just stared at her dreamingly while the rest of the elves were thrown onto iron crosses and bleed to death.

Her legs gave out when she saw the red cloak… She saw the boy that she liked lying dead on the ground.

The sound of the wolf scraping across the walls could be heard behind her.

“Toss the body behind.” an insidious voice whispered “While it feasts on the body you can run.”

Sunlight shone behind the doorway… yet it was too far away. If she ran then the wolf would catch her, but… there was a bend in the hallway. If she simply tossed the corpse behind it… then she could flee.

Her hands moved to pick up the corpse and tried to toss it before the wolf… yet her hands didn’t let go. Her mind struggled to figure out why she couldn’t toss the corpse. It didn’t matter. She was an elf. It was a lesser species.

The corpse gasped in pain, but it was dead in her eyes. A few seconds? A few years? What did it matter to someone who could live for centuries and still have more to live. She couldn’t die here!

“Just toss the body and be done with it.” The voice whispered again “It’s just a human. It lacks magic. Your life is more important.”

“Its… no… he’s still alive.” Averia spoke feeling sick at trying to toss away the obviously rotting body “I can…”

The smell of rot and decay hit her as her mind struggled to understand why she was still carrying it. The wolf howled as it was getting closer while the door was so far away. If she just dropped it… discarded the rotting organic lump she could be…

Averia froze as these weren’t her thoughts. She gripped harder onto her promise and started running.

The wolf howled in fury as the voice screamed in Averia’s own voice “You’re not real! Your father killed a real heir to make a puppet think it was real! You are just a cheap imitation of a real heir!”

The half-elf bit her lip as demons lie. That was why everyone was paranoid about any mention of ‘demon summoning’ to restart Witch Hunts. To toss any bit of paranoia and fear into the uneducated masses so that they would kill any who had thought that the ‘new world’ would allow them to practice what should have been torched to ash ages ago!

More than that… she could hear another voice.

Averia kept running towards the exit dragging Kravos and ignoring the smell of rot and decay. Her fingers felt the touch of bone as the corpse was reduced to a skeleton. Yet still she didn’t let go as the demon howled for her bones.

Her father appeared at the end of the tunnel holding a longbow as big as his body. There was a look of seething hatred in his eyes as the cold iron arrow strained in against the ancient bow string.

The half-elf nearly froze in fear before he spoke in a calm tone “She is my blood deceiver.”

The arrow shot forth snapping past the half-elf’s head before it struck soundly into the demon’s body. It screamed in agony as the evil iron metal ravaged the demon’s body. The twisted flesh tried to birth more limbs, more eyes, more everything, but her father simply kept firing more arrows.

Averia stepped out into the sun as the forest surrounded her as she could feel the call of life sing around her. The cold dark tomb laid behind her until a human hand collapsed onto her leg.

A young hagrid woman with long black hair and porcelain white skin glared at her. This was not Agatha Willow… The witch of old had long hazel colored hair and a vicious pride that refused to let her scramble across the floor like a wretched insect.

The nameless thing spoke in vile hatred as it tried to drag her back into the cage “Give me your name. Your life. Give me what I was owed!”

The iron sword sliced off the nameless thing’s hand as something grabbed onto it. It looked like a crude parody of a human… more of the crude idea of a human. Gnarled limbs, joints that were too long and angles too sharp at some joints… but it felt like the demon from the tunnels only more vile if such a thing was possible.

Her father pulled her behind her as he leveled the sword at it “Begone foul beast. Take your accomplice and leave lest I try to make a permanent touch upon your bodies.”

The nameless entity vanished as the demon in the tomb snarled, clawing at the empty space. Apparently they hadn’t been working together, but that didn’t mean it was their friend.

The demon glared at them hissing in a guttural language “The Magician of Red is mine.”

“What claim do you have over him?” Averia barked more in fury than anything else.

Bones rested in her arms as he had died long ago… so… so very long ago. Why did this new demon wish to steal what little of him she had left?

The demon tried to step out of the tomb before the grass tore into his feet. While the nameless one had flattened it trying to reach the half-elf… each blade of grass now stood like razor blades cutting deep into the demon’s flesh forcing it back.

“This is my domain, foul demon.” Her father barked once more with venom in his voice “Leave now before I take offense of your presence.”

“I am not a demon.” The demon snarled“I am human… I am Akara.” it backed away from the razor sharp grass “And I shall have my vengeance upon the one who cursed me!”

The demon suddenly lunged forth jumping over the grass as it tried to attack.

Her father swung his sword ---

Averia gasped for air as she was home. The wooden oak bed had changed a little as now the wooden floorboard from The Witch’s House rested around her bed. The circles of ink flared before cooling down as her father stood by looking a little bit winded… but a vindictive smile fell on his face.

“And who said we weren’t allowed to adapt to the world?” He spoke with a hint of pride before noticing she was awake “Are you okay dear?”

Averia shivered as she wasn’t okay. Her body nearly felt violated as she wanted to take a shower. Her empty stomach seemed to revolt trying to expel what it didn’t have, but… after a few calming seconds as her father just held her.

She sighed “I’m… I’m feeling better.”

She didn’t, but somehow saying it made things a little bit easier. The pictures by her bed filled her with mixed feelings as Kravos was much younger in those pictures… less… haunted.

That prideful smile was still etched across his face as her younger self wore a two piece swimsuit. It had been a good day as she had lured him into the woods to go swimming at the lake. Oh sure the Witch of the Hill was pissed… but it was one of those flirting victories she had when she was young.

One of those small moments of peace.

“Did I…” She felt bile rise in her mouth.

“He is still alive.” Her father reassured her “He chose to sleep at the church or with the… imp’s protections.”

“Gremlin.” Averia quickly replied “The priest doesn’t think he’s a demon and the imp gets pissed off when you call him a Gremlin. He even does the whole battery sucking thing.”

Her father chuckled as the half-elf stared at the floorboards now remembering what her father had done. When the House on the Hill was lost… he had every Fae nearby salvage everything they could from the house and even pried loose the floorboards.

The creature that had claimed to be Amber had taken possession of the house and the property as the once old estate slowly turned… wrong.

Grass turned to rotten mush. Floorboards seemed to decay as if decades had passed by instead of seconds. The very glass seemed to be ravaged by the winds of time as… the place looked condemned. As if humanity had let it fall to ruin in hopes that time would destroy it so that they wouldn’t have to walk across the desecrated grounds.

Like an insane asylum or perhaps some building where a vile evil so sickening everyone tried to forget it in hopes that the mere memory wouldn’t taint their soul.

“The Fisher King effect.” Her father spoke as he knew what she was going to say “The… thing that stole the claim of the hill is wrong. If I had known something like that might have been lurking nearby…”

“They talked about renting out a helicopter to toss that stupid orb into a volcano.” She spoke with a soft forced chuckle “Lord of the Rings style evil.”

A bitter chuckle… but one they both made because despite the lie… it actually did make them feel better. The fear lingering from the dreams had slowly started to fade, but she could still almost feel the tainted touch of that demon trying to do something to her.

“The false Agatha tried to slip in. Her grasp has started to weaken with the loss of the Witch’s Legacy.” Her father informed her “She tried to make an attempt on your life tonight.”

“And the demon?” Averia spoke in a soft whisper “How did it get in?”

There was a long pause as now they had the demon’s name. It claimed it wasn’t a demon, but its mere presence was wrong. How it touched the realm of the fae and even the very grass was repelled by its very presence.

Yes, the outsiders were strange… they used magic that was forgien and at odds with everything she had been taught about magic. Yet Kravos had taught her how it operated and while it was confusing… it was still magic.

Just a more cold or… sterilized version of magic. That was what people talked about when making computers right?

The demon’s touch lacked life, or the cold touch… it was just… rotten.

Her father grimaced “It was always there. When the False Agatha slipped in, the demon just laid lurking in the shadows. It didn’t interfere as it planned on letting the first intruder weaken you before finishing you both off.”

His wooden staff tapped the floorboards pried from the house “Kravos little… sterilized wards… they made sure they wouldn’t leave unharmed. Though from how easy it was to reassemble it is a safe bet to assume that those from the Spire are a lot more familiar with attacks in their sleep.”

Averia nodded her head as the demon from her dreams didn’t nearly have the same control as the one who originally haunted her dreams… but in some ways he was worse. Once the veil of the nightmare had been pulled off the False Agatha lost her power.

Her presence had weakened and thus her magic failed. The demon on the other hand lacked a presence and was only repelled because the very realm itself tore into him… and still her father had to step in.

“Still he’s okay? Kravos Lynch is alive?” Averia asked once again “I… I didn’t mess up?”

Her father simply hugged her as the old contract she had once written up laid on the nearby dresser. She had first kept it thinking that any day he would come back… then she kept it in fear that he wouldn’t… and now she kept it as a reminder of what her rash actions had cost her.

Kravos had changed. The cost of his magic had been the price of his memories… his past. Though now it seemed like the past he tried to avoid refused to be forgotten. Still… she took a deep breath as this time she’d do better.

“You won’t do better.” the acidic voice of the demon whispered in her ears “You aren’t even real.”

Averia closed her eyes trying to block out the fleeting voice as even the fake Agatha had the descent to leave when her scheme was uncovered. Still the demon’s tainted words tried to dig in and haunt her waking mind.

The image of Amber rested in her mind as the witch whispered “You were never in the car when he convinced us all to flee. The real heirs were in the car… and you were never there.”

Scarlet was left lying in the corner of the room… or was it Rose. The young woman tried to remember as her thoughts had been a bit of a blur. She could remember getting into the car and leaving someone behind.

There was shouting, crying, complaining, and… the rest stop.

Something about needing gas.

The vampires stared at her as she had been left cuffed to the radiator. The needle in her arm kept dripping something from the bag that made her thoughts all… fuzzy. Not that the vampires weren’t fuzzy either. Lots of fuzzy spots that blurred their bodies.

One of the fuzzies hissed “I thought that we were joining the winning side.”

Large armored vampire glared at him “Once the witch claims the hill we will win. A city in which vampires can no longer be harmed by the sun… no matter which infantile court they had been spawned from.”

He unsheathed one of his swords “Or is that not good enough of a cause for you to fight for?”

The fuzzy kept his mouth shut as he stared at the sword… the vampires didn’t bleed red as… oh right. She said her name was Red as the step-sibling person had given her the wand thingy… it was a nice thingy.

Her memories blurred a little after the gas station as it was getting dark. Girl in the blue dress said keep driving. Sleep in back as they keep driving for a good long while. Girl in brown says sleep… will be safe since they left the guy behind.

Girl in green agreed with the brown dress saying they were safe now. Memories of them thinking that they knew magic had started to come in. Red chuckled as they didn’t know magic. They didn’t really know what they were doing.

Creepy Ghost Witch knew more than them and Guy knew nothing… but even he knew that they should have kept driving and he didn’t even know magic!

Fuzzy grumbled as he glanced out the window “Grab a Heir they say. Should be easy now that we have a Witch’s Legacy… So how come we are hiding out in a dump while they are laughing it up?”

The vampire missing half his face nodded his head “Demons… just nonsense made to scare people until wizards took control over keeping magic a secret in America.” Fuzzy snorted, but you could hear the bitter tone “I’d love to see what our esteemed elder would call what ate half of our pack.”

The cold feeling started to overtake her as Red tried to struggle. It was the same cold feeling she felt when there was a knock on the door at the motel room. When the things attacked bursting into the room.

Brown dress and Green dress both ran to the car. The elf thing went after them only for brown dress to pull out a gun and shoot green in the leg. Lots of cursing as the brown dress fled with the car leaving them to die.

Blue dress ran and did… magic thingy.

Nobody had noticed she had stolen magical supplies and did some sort of… magic… door thing to escape. So that left the red dress trying to prevent anyone else from grabbing her.

The memories grew fuzzy as she was either the one capturing red dress and doing… something to her… or she was the one wearing the red dress and trying to keep something from attacking her.

The memories were never very clear during that point, but she remembered the vampires breaking in and killing anyone left alive. She remembered trying to set the entire motel on fire thinking that the flames would be easier to deal with than the vampires.

Sadly for her not all of the vampires had been repelled by the flames.

The armored one ignored the flames and fire she threw at it before it grabbed her by the throat.

Red couldn’t remember it all, but she remembered cursing and trying to burn everything down around her. Vampire simply smiled and got her hair color wrong… got… everything wrong, but… her hair wasn’t red before the fight… before the… cold thing got her.

The cold thing filled her body, robbing Red of her body before it pulled out the needle and thing that made her thoughts become slow and loopy. Her mind struggled to scream and rebel against the Not-Her as it stole her body once again.

Not-Her hissed in pain rubbing Red’s right arm “Curse elves, iron and symmetry magic.”

Red didn’t feel any pain, yet Not-Her clearly felt a ton of pain as she practically cradled the arm as if somebody had broken her wrist.

Armored vampire looked at her in displeasure, “You failed to steal the other heir’s body?”

Not-Her grunted trying to ignore loopy stuff in Red’s viens as she hated Not-Her. It used her mouth and said things she didn’t want. The evil thing walked around trying to dress her up like a harlet… like it owned Red.

Nobody owned Red. Mother always made it clear that nobody owned her. That if anyone tried then she would be a good girl and use lots and lots of fire on them. If only Not-Her could stand in front of her so that she could bring the warm flames around her again… and burn Not-Her to ash.

“The intruder interfered again.” Not-Her bitterly replied “It has the backing of the hill behind her… behind it.”

“Maybe we should give up on you and try bargaining with this other heir considering how successful your recent endeavors have been?” Fuzzy spoke a bit too loudly.

Not-Her grabbed Red’s wand as Fuzzy’s words made more of the vampires nod their heads. Red didn’t want to be eaten by vampires especially when Not-Her was the one responsible for messing up. Red could do a better job than Not-Her.

“You think the demon wouldn’t betray you all without a second thought?” Not-Her hissed out in anger “I don’t know what trick the other heir is using, but that thing can’t be trusted.”

“I know…” The armored vampire spoke as he stared at Not-Her “But we were not talking about that heir…” He pointed at Red “But the other one that is sitting on the bench.”

She felt her blood quicken in fear when Red wanted to be happy. She hated feeling the fear that Not-Her kept sending through her body. The drugs slowly started to dissipate as she felt Not-Her try to shove her into the box again.

Being stuck watching helplessly behind her eyes again as the Fake Agatha tried to con everyone again. She claimed she was a real heir, but she wasn’t in the car… she wasn’t in the car because she was a fake heir. The real ones were in the car.

It was how Red knew that the half-elf was a fake heir. It was how she knew that Dais was a real heir. He was in the car so he was real. Fake her was not in the car so she was not a real heir.

Not-Her slammed Rose’s hand against the wall ignoring the pain because she knew that it hurt Rose more than Fake-Rose.

“Are you having… trouble?” The Armored vampire spoke

“No.” The liar lied “Just frustrated that I’m the one doing all the work while the rest of you are sitting around and doing nothing after losing my relic.”

She glared at Fuzzy who now looked a lot less fuzzy and more like a burn treatment patient who lost a fight with a flamethrower. Fuzzy pulled off the same rude gesture the half-elf kept giving them when they were fooled into thinking Fake-Her was actually Agatha Willow.

She spotted the cursed orb and hissed “And kept that blasted thing covered!”

“Why?” Fuzzy spoke almost standing protectively over the orb “Shouldn’t a real heir be able to use a Witch’s Legacy?”

“That isn’t a Witch’s Legacy but some thrice damned cursed artifact you idiots!” Fake her shouted “That thing is probably what cost me my victory! I nearly got that stupid half-elf until that demon suddenly interfereaded…”

“You can’t actually keep us from being afflicted by the sun… can you.” Fuzzy spoke with more vicious conviction

Fake-Her tried to fight down the fear as she smiled “Of course I can. Agatha Willow can and with my domain I can ensure that you all can walk freely underneath the sun… no restrictions.”

“She lies.” A voice whispered from the orb “She can make it last, but only for a few seconds.”

The vampires closer to the orb viewed her with distrust. It was almost as if they could tell that she was lying… as if that whole ‘truth curse’ was still bound to her only it now informed everyone when she was lying.

Fake-Her chuckled letting a bit more ‘bite’ into her voice “I told you all… with the Hill I could even grant Odin his eye back. I could make it so that anyone here can walk freely into the sun. That I can ensure that you can all feed freely and nobody would notice. That I can extend the veil…”

“But at a cost.” The orb whispered insidiously “A cost she is unwilling to pay. Too many Pacts would be needed to be bound to the hill. Too many promises that could be bound against her… she will keep her promise just long enough until you are all out into the sun… before she cuts it.”

The vampires glanced at the armored one who stood in front of Fake-Her pulling out his swords… yet this time they didn’t seem bothered by the blades. All that mattered in their eyes was taking their vengeance upon the one who had conned them.

To rip out her throat and drink her dry before hunting down whatever host she found and continue the feeding process until she died her final death.

“I could offer you what you wish.” Rose found herself saying “Kravos had talked about a solution to your problem within his books…”

Fake-Her clenched her hands tightly making the fingernails bite deeply into Rose’s flesh as the vampires glanced at the orb. As if it was some divine artifact that would grant their every…

“The other girl tells the truth.” A new voice whispered from the orb “The only question is if the book is within the house… or in his car.”

The armored vampire glanced at Fake-Her as they both could feel the eyes judging her… debating on which witch should be left in control of the body… and if trusting Rose who had tried to kill them all would be preferable than the witch who worked with them and continued to fail in delivering on her promises.

“She tried to kill you all.” Fake-Her replied.

“Yes…” Armored vampire spoke without missing a beat “Yet she can deliver what you promised without the hill… You should perhaps…” Two of the vampires already slipped out of the room as the sound of barking orders and motorcycles could be heard “Get some rest… think on what our next plan shall be in hunting down the other heir who cheated the weave you made today.”

Fake-Rose nodded her head though there was now a growing sense of unease and desperation. Especially after having failed to take hold of a new host and abandoning Rose to the vampires.

Yet Rose couldn't help, but smile as she whispered in Fake-Rose’s mind “Why didn’t you try to go after Dais? Or is the one pretending to be Agatha too pathetic? That you can’t impersonate what he fears?”

“He’s the fake heir.” Fake-Rose hissed “I couldn’t enter his mind so he’s a fake…”

“Or you aren’t as skilled as you think.” Rose whispered with a maddening grin “The vampires are starting to let that Orb lead them instead of you… for all you know he could be sitting in the basement with his own crystal orb and pulling off a better con than you.”

Fake-Rose dug her fingernails deeper into Rose’s arm as there was a point of anger festering in her. They both knew she had been bested more than once… yet Fake-Rose didn’t know how many times. She could only tell that she had failed because The Taker and stolen claim over the hill.

She had stolen the claim because Fake-Rose lost her claim… and that infuriated her.

“You know they will kill you if there is a ‘cure’ inside those books.” Fake-Rose hissed under her breath.

Rose tried to nod her head “Yes… but they will kill you first as payment for my price.”

Rebbeca Colt shivered inside the garage as the family who had lived within this house had died. The Council was too busy cleaning the latest disaster to care about squatters… and the mundanes weren’t skilled enough to resist her intrusions.

The young witch clutched the blanket tighter though she no longer knew if it was to block out the cold… or if she held it like a child fearful of the nightmares that haunted her when the lights went out.

The car rested in the garage as a good part of her wanted to ditch it as the bitter memory still clung to the slightly damaged vehicle… yet her father refused. It was a car and it could still operate. So why should he be unconvinced by her unwanted emotions?

She chuckled bitterly “And to think… Mom was a better parent than he was.”

Her memories were still a bit of a blur… a mess so to speak. It was getting harder to sort out the two and frighteningly enough she was trying to cling harder to the false memories than the real ones. Oh she kept the last name because it was her last name… but…

She could feel her father’s presence returning as he was just down the block. Her mind tried to block him out as even Agatha Willow wasn’t this cruel. She understood why the witch had viewed her father as the worst of them all.

To everyone else the heirs were their daughters… even if the mother was unwanted.

To Pops?

The garage door opened up revealing the nightmare that haunted her now. The creature stared at her as she could feel herself being forced to help give it shape. Her magic strained against his presence yet she couldn’t resist.

It was like an adult grabbing a ten year old’s hand and then shoving it against the hot iron stove and just watching them scream as the heat burned their flesh.

Once the pain was over she tried not to throw up from the pain, revolusion… and fear. Agatha Willow could be terrifying, but there was a respect to that fear. You could still fear a lion and yet admire it as a deadly creature.

There was nothing to admire about her father. Just what to despise.

The man adjusted his white and golden suit looking like it came from the Spanish Inquisition. Yet even they would have more heart than the creature standing before her. They would have seen her as a sinner, a heretic, and some random person to be burned at the stake at their earliest convenience.

Her father didn’t even see her as a person.

Just a tool to be abused and discarded.

There was a disappointed click of his tongue as Akara spoke out loud in frustration “The damn witch slipped out of my grasp. At least Dais was easier to track.”

“We have ownership of the hill father.” Rebbeca found herself saying “If we solidify our claim…”

“Who gives a damn about a house on a lump of dirt!” Her father snarled “All that matters is the Eye of the Spire! If I can get my hands back on it then I can regain everything I lost!”

The witch kept her mouth shut as her father tossed aside a bag of food at her. She felt her stomach grumble as she picked up the bag and ate it. If she didn’t then her father would force her to eat it and… and it made her wonder if being caught by the vampires would have been a better fate.

They should have listened to Alexandria and kept driving. Endless Night… they should have simply driven back into the city and kept Dais with them. He might not know how proper magic worked… but he knew enough about fighting demons to make the Council simply give him legal control of the hill.

Her father glared at her as she realized the mistake she made. She let her thoughts slip out for her father to hear them.

“That coward is skilled at tricking others into thinking he isn’t a threat.” The man snarled as his face started to warp “He pretends to be harmless. Lets you bring him into your home… you bring every sort of conceivable defense and let him know that he has lost… and what does he do?”

“He makes you realize he’s a lot smarter than you.” Rebbeca couldn’t help, but say

Her father’s face twisted like an owl as a normal human would have had their neck snap if they did that. She could see the curse starting to take effect once again as various eyes sprouted from his body with the sole purpose of glaring at her.

She felt him twist his vile dark magic as her body was forced to say “He does something stupid.”

“Yes.” Akara replied as his presence no longer infested her body “Pushes you out a window. Calls upon an eldritch god to screw up a perfectly good ritual. I mean… what kind of sane man doesn’t play to win… but plays to make the other side lose?”

‘One who wants you dead.’ she accidentally thought before she buckled in fear.

Thankfully her father had noticed the traitorous thoughts as Agatha Willow didn’t mind it when people insulted her or wished her dead. Akara on the other hand did take offense especially now that he had been stripped of the empire he had clawed his way to the top.

That a nameless nobody had essentially booted him from his tower and now all those he had wronged were out for his blood now that they no longer needed to fear retribution.

She felt his presence seep into her flesh once more as she struggled to kick it out as her father’s face returned to ‘normal’ once again. He kept her alive because her magic could keep him human instead of letting the monster he was deep inside his heart be revealed to the world.

A perfect curse to cast upon the vain monster… and the only reason why she knew her mother hadn’t cast it was because Agatha Willow would have skipped the curse and went straight for an execution.

“What were the restrictions on vampires again…” Her father muttered “And how do they move without shattering their own limbs?”

Rebbeca kept her mouth shut as she tried going over her memories again trying to divine a way out of this mess. She was a Heir of the hill and if she could survive this trial then every other foe who tried to challenge her would be a cakewalk.

Hell… she might even try marrying Kravos just to piss him off.

That thought sadly hadn’t escaped her father’s notice as he turned around glaring at her, caught between feeling ill at the thought… and hatred that she even dared to think such a thought near his presence.

“Try looking in any buildings that are not owned by families.” Rebbbeca quickly replied “They can’t enter homes so they would be at a motel or possibly a large warehouse… motel would be the better bet as they would need someplace to safely clean and wash the heir they kidnapped since they broke the second law to force her to cooperate.”

Her father kept back his wrath as he nodded to himself “They would try hiding with ‘normal people’ to try stuffing as many human shields between them and the backwater idiots running this dump.”

Rebbeca nodded her head as she went back to eating. It kept her more ‘troublesome thoughts’ away as she focused on what she liked about the meal and what she didn’t like. The minor difference in taste buds was enough to help reassure herself.

Even the bitter pickles that tasted awful in her mouth were a minor blessing as it reestablished herself… it reinforced her presence that threatened to be crushed by her Father’s demonic presence… he probably was avoiding the church because the christain god might try smiting him.

“I’m not a demon.” Her father acidicly replied “Demons are delusions crafted by the enlightened to fool the unenlightened into following their commands for fear of a life that is worse than the current one they are toiling through.”

“Could have fooled me.” She couldn’t help, but reply “The elf called you one and aren’t they supposed to be fake?”

It was stupid, but she had to do it even as her father punched her in the face. The pain hurt, but she could feel more like herself instead of the mindless puppet her father kept trying to make her into. She was a human, not a tool.

“Damn that witch and her curse.” Her father spoke wiping the blood off his hand “Making me hit my own flesh and blood like that. A waste of energy.”

The words rang in her head as that’s all he saw her as… just more flesh and blood to twist and manipulate instead of a human being. He simply saw her as an extension of himself… something more akin to the stupid clothes he wore only ‘she’ was a little more frayed and damaged.

He kept her because he simply lacked a better ‘suit’ to wear.

His presence seeped into her body once again forcing it to eat the rest of the food he had stolen while he went to work planning on his next attack. Anyone else would have been trying to establish their claim upon the hill and using it to force the Council to bend the knee long enough for them to collect the rest of the Witch’s Legacy.

Kravos had managed to claim one which put him in the best position… only due to her father’s dismissal of the Hill. What use was owning the hill if you weren’t allowed to use it?

“You think that lump of dirt would be valuable enough to bargain with?” Her father asked

Rebbeca clenched her teeth trying not to talk, but her father’s gaze tore into her very being, forcing her to talk “Not with you. They called you a demon and actually believed it.”

That caused her father to frown as his power loosened around her. Maybe she really should have picked up a few lessons from the Kazult House? She had never heard of a necromancer with this level of skill over flesh and bone.

Though he took it more like a dementated mad scientist looking at it in just terms of flesh and muscle. A cold clinical detachment that made his mind more alien than the freaking Fae.

What kind of being thought of the brain in terms of ‘electrical impulses’ or the heart as ‘That one organ that keeps the blood flowing’ as even kids saw the heart as something more special than some random nameless meaningless organ.

She struggled bringing the energy from her own raging heart into hand. She couldn’t beat her father in a head on head fight as he could simply force her to slit her own throat. Yet his sheer insistence to believe he couldn’t be wrong was his own weakness.

She worked the small weave of magic and spoke “What about Kr… Dais’s Car?” The suggestion was implanted into his head “Shouldn’t he have books of something he wouldn’t share with the council? Something that should allow for what you want to do with that stupid orb?”

She snapped his fingers as if it had been an ‘obvious’ idea. In truth she just wanted him after the car because the Council would need to give it to Dais. The Council would notice the demon and say ‘Demon there! Kill Demon.’ and hopefully she could slip away.

She cut off that pattern of thought when she could feel her father assigning his opinion as he was trying to shove the magical suggestion away. Not because he didn’t think it was a good idea… but because she suggested it instead of him coming up with it.

“You think I wouldn’t have already thought up that plan if it was any good?” Her father berated her

“You could always offer to trade the Hill for the rock they have… and then the witch who stole the orb will go after him again in an attempt to get the hill.” Rebbeca reminded him “Unless you want to see if Dais can convince the local idiots to… do something stupid.”

He turned to stare at her as she feared that this might be the day that he finally silenced her and turned her into a puppet as his tainted presence pressed down upon her.

The burst of fear ironically worked as now the magical suggestion took full effect as he mistook her fear for his own. His face paled in a way that made her question exactly what could Dais do that could make him so frightened?

“Oh… oh he would do that and try to escape the fallout.” Akara snarled “You keep reading those books and try to make sense of how that stupid sheild works… if I can get those under Davin inside then I can convince him to work for me.”

“Of course…” Rebbeca replied as she already knew how to take down the shield “If I find anything inside those books then I promise to tell you right away.”

Her father ignored her as he went inside the house to sleep in a bed… while she was left inside the garage to study the books he had stolen. So long as he slept she could freely think without him hearing her thoughts.

So long as he was awake and gone from the house…

Only then could she trust herself to sleep.