1
Bronywyn
Ever since I was a girl, I believed I was meant for something bigger than myself. I believed, wholeheartedly, that my life had a purpose.
That I had a purpose.
That one day, I would make a difference.
Otherwise, why would I have been born a witch? Why would I long to heal the sick, the injured, even if I’ve never been a healer in the true supernatural sense?
But now, trapped behind this horrifying two-way mirror, I can’t help but wonder if perhaps that feeling was nothing more than a little-girl-turned-woman’s active imagination. Perhaps, I truly was not meant for any more than what I’ve been: a doormat. A warm body aiding those who are actually destined for greatness.
The others stare at me, horrified by the monster standing before them. Tarnley looks broken, and I long to cry out to him, to beg him to seeme.
“Bronywyn?” Delaney chokes on my name, her face contorted in a mixture of grief and shock.
I’m here!I try to scream it, but the words never leave my lips.
Instead, a twisted, “She’s no longer around,” is what makes it out.
“What the hell are you?” Walker demands.
“I am power, psychic.”
“Give us back Bronywyn,” Rainey orders as she raises her weapon at me. I feel the thing inside me grow amused, as if it’s not even mildly concerned at the threat.
“No. If it weren’t for my promise to her, you would all be dead. Move, and I will keep my word. Stay, and I will slaughter you all.”
You promised!I roar. It doesn’t respond.What the hell have I done?If I’d been just a little bit stronger, I might have—
“Anytime, Del.” At Rainey’s words, Delaney raises a palm. Magic swirls around her less than a moment before it slams into my chest. Power explodes through me, and the thing delights in it. Drinking it up like a damned milkshake on a hot summer day.
What the fuck?
“That was delicious,” it purrs. “And now I will have you all.”
No!
“No thanks,” Rainey says as she pulls the trigger.
Bullets tear into my body, spreading excruciating pain through my veins, searing me from the inside out as the silver embedded in Rainey’s lead turns my blood to acid.
I want to scream.
To beg for them to end my pathetic existence once and for all if it will only end this suffering.
But I’m rendered mute thanks to the shadow magic currently riding shotgun in my body. It shouldn’t be possible, for it to consume me this way, and yet, here we are. From what I know, shadow magic simply beckons the darkest parts of yourself forward, tainting what you already were, subconsciously.
So, is that what I really am?
What I’ve always been?
A monster in need of being put down?