Chapter Sixteen: Matriarch

“Which of the clans do you work for?”  Gaia demanded, her wand stabbing into my stomach.  “The Goths?  The Durwoods?  Answer me!”

“N-n-no…”  I stammered, gasping as she tightened her fingers around my throat.  “I d-d-don’t…”

“No?”  she said, raising her eyebrows and then dropping me down to the floor where I coughed and sputtered with a hand pressed to my chest.  “Well then I don’t care who you are.  Goodbye.”

She drew her wand back, light igniting at the tip.  I dove away.  A burst of emerald magic exploded behind me, its heat searing into the skin of my back.  Gaia's wrist snapped back and she pointed the wand at me again.  I twisted, rolling away to the opposing wall, the seam of my dress splitting with a loud rip.  My eyes flickered up to the twin swords beside the mantle.

Gaia watched me through narrowed eyes, the tip of her wand glowing with a faint hum.  In one quick motion, I leapt up and snatched one of the swords, leaving the other to clatter to the floor.  I spun in the air to face Gaia and landed on both feet.  Gaia's eyes widened in surprise for just a moment.  I thrust the sword forward, towards her outstretched wiry hands, and she darted backwards out of reach, her expression hardening.

I ducked down, sweeping the sword across her legs.  The sword hit at her knees with a resounding crack.  

Had the blade been sharp it would have severed her calves right where she stood, but the sword was dull as a spoon and little more than a great blunt club in my hands.  

Still, Gaia let out a cry of pain and tumbled to the floor, her wand spinning out of her hand.  It landed just a few feet away.  Gaia clasped at her knee, revealing a tear in her dress and a dark angry welt swelled on her skin where the sword had impacted.

“Sanitas!” Gaia hissed under her breath and there was a flash on her hand.  In one quick burst of light, the welt vanished.

She stood to her feet as though nothing had happened, towering even taller than before.  My eyes widened as I stared up at her.  Her beauty was inhuman, ageless.  She looked like a cut diamond, utterly breathtaking and immortal.

The pieces clicked into place in my mind and I froze where I stood.

“You're a Lucian.”  I whispered.

Gaia took advantage of my momentary distraction, pivoting around and snatching her wand up from the floor.  In an instant, her wand was aimed at me again.

With a flick of her wrist,she sent a stream of simmering fire racing towards me.  

The heat hit me in the face first, then the smell of smoldering ash.  My eyes widened, my hands felt thick and swollen on the hilt of the sword.  The firelight danced in my eyes for one agonizing second that seemed to stretch on into eternity.

There was a thunderous bang, the back doors to the room catapulted open.  I felt a rush of cold air sweep straight through me, tendrils of frost and snow curling around the free strands of my hair.  Just as the heat of the inferno seemed to singe the skin on my nose, the blast of ice rushed forward to meet it.  

The two opposing forces extinguished each other and my knees felt weak beneath me.  I dropped towards the floor, my body wracked with shivers.

“Gaia!”  I heard a shout behind me.

Clasping my quaking arms against my curled body, I turned my head.

Three people stood in the doorway, each holding a long, slim wand in warning.  The woman who stood at the front was clad in scarlet with ebony hair spilling over her shoulders.  The second woman was older, lines of age etched into the places where her scowl was most prominent.

The third figure was Reece.

 I opened my mouth to cry out to him, but my teeth could only chatter.  The skin of my back felt numb and goosebumps raised on my arms.  He barely glanced in my direction.  Like the two female witches who stood out in front of him, his eyes were fixed on Gaia.

“Drop the wand.”  the woman at the front said, stepping forward.

“My sisters are at the front entrance.  Orlando guards the second door.  There's nowhere to run.”  the second woman added, creeping along the side of the wall.

Gaia's eyes scanned back and forth.  Her arm tensed.

The older woman lashed out first, a torrent of swirling storm clouds dancing from the tip of her wand and slamming into Gaia's body.  Gaia clenched her teeth and steeled her feet beneath her.  Her wand went up and with a shout, light cascaded from the tip and crashed into the other witch.  

She was blown back off her feet and her body tumbled to the ground.

Immediately, Reece and the young witch lurched forward.  The witch sprang, a raging inferno of sparks that danced like mad fireflies bursting from her wand to streak towards Gaia.  Gaia tumbled headlong into the floor, and then was up again, her wand held high.  Reece bounded into her path, sending a wave of cutting light into her face.  

Gaia deflected it with an annoyed flick of her wrist.  She raised her wand again.

“Don't touch him!”  I screamed out, my shaking hands clasping around the hilt of the sword as I leapt to my feet.

Gaia only had one instant to turn her head towards me, her eyes wide and surprised, before I struck her outstretched wand with the blade.  It flew from her fingers, sputtering sparks of magic, and clattered to the floor in two splintered pieces.

Gaia's eyes narrowed at me, and I could practically feel their heat simmering into my frozen core.  She slammed her fist into my face.  I was stunned by the sheer amount of physical power she threw into that punch, it sent me crashing to the floor with stars dancing across my vision.  

A high pitched ringing sounded in my ears, and I clasped my hands together against the carpet to keep the room from spinning.  I was vaguely aware of Reece lunging at Gaia.  I heard the other two witches' shouting in a frenzy.

 When at last my vision cleared and I was able to lift my head, still holding one hand to my throbbing cheekbone, I saw Reece clinging onto Gaia with a choke hold.  She wriggled in his grasp, drawing something out of the bodice of her dress.

“Oh, bloody abyss... no!”  the young witch in red screamed, throwing her wand back to strike.

Gaia threw the object down on the floor and a kaleidoscope of colors sprang from her feet and wrapped around her form.  Reece's arms fell through her as though she was as insubstantial as mist and he hit the floor.

 Gaia's body seemed to fragment into a stream of wispy vapor and she went streaking through the library doors as though they were not even there.

“Reaper take her!”  the young witch cried in frustration.

The older witch was getting up off the floor, dusting herself off.

“She doesn't have enough magic to get far.  I'll alert my sisters.  Make sure she doesn't come back this way to escape.”  she said, pulling a phone out of her pocket as she rushed towards the doors.

“But, Beatrice-!”  the young woman started, following the other witch part of the way.

“Do as I say, Bella!” the witch snapped, throwing the doors aside and plowing straight through the crowd of Gala attendees who had clustered around the doorway, no doubt to investigate the noise.

I ambled to my feet.  Pain shot up from my left knee and I was still wracked with shivers, but I limped in Reece's direction.  He stood with his head still pointed towards the door, his wand falling back down to his side.

“Reece!”  I cried.  “When did you get back?  When you did not reply to my letter I was so worried you-!”

Reece whirled around quite abruptly, clasped his hand against my neck and pulled me towards him.

And then his lips were on mine.  My heart, which had been pounding at a frantic, wild rhythm, seemed to stop dead.

My eyes fluttered closed.  Warmth trickled into my frozen blood and crept from the center of my chest to my numb, cold fingers.    My knees were weak beneath me and I leaned against him, coiling my arms around his neck and pressing my lips tighter against his.

“By the abyss... what the reaper, Reece?”  Bella shouted, snorting in annoyance.

I was vaguely aware of the dozens of bewildered eyes that must be on us, watching from outside the doors, but I did not care.  Reece ran his hands down my neck and around my torso, trailing heat and life into my quivering body.

He broke away all too soon.  I was breathless, and so was he.

“Good Watcher, I should have done that ages ago!” he said, panting.

“You're such a great judge of timing.”  Bella muttered in annoyance, crossing her arms over her chest.

I opened my mouth to speak, but found my teeth chattering.  Reece pulled me back into his embrace and rubbed my back.  I closed my eyes and let his heat seep into me.

“Oh... sorry about that.”  Bella said, her tone of annoyance giving way to one of apology.  “My ice blast went straight through you.”

“It's... okay...”  I said, nodding my head.  “Cold... is better than heat.”

Mmmm, maybe not.  Snuggling into Reece's arms and letting his body warm mine was without any doubt much better than the cold.

“Sophia...”  Reece said, pressing his cheek against the top of my hair.  “I need to tell you... I've been such an idiot for not saying it sooner.  And I've had one too many near-death experiences the past month to keep this bottled up anymore...”

“Reece...”  I said, drawing my head back to look at him with wide eyes.

“I love you, Sophia!”  he said, pressing a finger to my lips.  “I've loved you since I was a kid staying up way past my bedtime reading books about you.  I've loved you since I first felt your soul lingering in the Void by your grave.  And I've fallen even more madly in love with you since the night I first held you in my arms.  You are brighter, better, and more beautiful than anything I ever imagined about you before I brought you back, and I'm just falling more in love with you looking at you right now.”

“Oh, Reece I-!”  I started to say.

A rumble of thunder shook the floor, and my words died on my lips.  Anxious murmurs rippled through the crowd.

“Problem!”  Beatrice shouted, shoving through the crowd of congregating people.  Sweat dripped down her brow and her fingers were clenched around her wand.

“What?”  Bella asked, whipping her head around.  “Her wand was broken!  She was low on magic, you said so yourself-!”

“It's Constantine.”  Beatrice hissed, almost as though she were cursing.

It fell deathly silent, as though all of the air had been sucked out of the room. Clutching Reece's body close to mine, I felt Reece's heart skip a beat.  That split-second felt like a block of ice slamming into the center of my chest.

Constantine.  The Lucian Patriarch.  The one Reece believed was centuries-old, perhaps even older than myself.

“Th-th-that's not....”  Bella stammered, her eyes growing wide.  “N-not possible!  None of our agents have seen him in fifteen years-!”

“He's here!”  Beatrice shouted back, though her own eyes were wide with terror.  “I'm not sure if she called him or if he was waiting here this whole time... but he's going to blast my sisters into next century.  Come on!”

“Reap it.”  Reece whispered, a quiver of fear in his voice.  He pulled back from me, his arms unwinding from around my own.  “I have to go.”

“Wait, Reece I lo-!”  I shouted, clasping his arm as he pulled away.  He turned back and silenced me with another kiss, this one harder, insistent.

It felt like goodbye.

“Lover boy, come on!”  Bella shouted, grasping the back of Reece's tunic as she rushed by.

Reece's lips pulled away from my own, but he kept holding onto my hands.  He pressed something onto my finger, but my skin was still so numb I could not feel what it was.

“I'll be back as soon as I can.”  Reece said.

His hands were shaking as he tore them from my grasp.  He gripped his wand and allowed Bella to drag him to the doorway.  He looked back at me until they crossed the threshold.  Then he turned, and followed Bella, sprinting down the ballroom floor.

Daria pushed through the crowd, doing a double take on Reece as he raced away.

“Reece?”  I heard her ask, but he was already gone.  She turned her eyes back to me, and then rushed across the room.  “Sophia?  What happened?  Your dress!  Your fingers...  What happened, where did you go?”

I stared at the doorway where Reece had disappeared in bewilderment.

“I was... I was trying to get away from Thane.”  I whispered, pressing my hand to my temple.  My eyes snapped open and I gasped, clasping Daria's forearms.  “Thane!  Oh Watcher... I have to tell Reece what they said!  It could be important...”

“Wait, slow down!  Thane left a few minutes ago.  What happened?  Watcher, your hands are freezing!”  Daria said, clasping my frozen fingers in hers.  Her eyes widened.  “Sophia... what...?”

I looked down at my hand.  My heart pounded in disbelief.

Reece had put a ring on my finger.