But there was more. And more. And more.
I felt chants, and potions, and witchcraft. I understood the call of the seasons, and time, and the rhythm and sound in colour. I saw a whole chain of women before me with gifts beyond all reasoning, and I was amongst them. I was a woman who belonged in that chain.
I was a child of the light, and the oneness of all time. I was a part of everything, human, vampire, church, rock or plant. None of it mattered. There was only life.
Magic.
Love.
Joy.
Pain.
Everything blurred as one.
My flesh was screaming for human life as I drank the blood of an immortal, but I didn’t hear the torment in it, just a symphony. There was only me. In life or death, as a human or a vampire, it didn’t matter. I was still Katherine Blakely.
And so my body died, and my soul lived.
Hans pulled his wrist away from my mouth and I gasped as I stared at the world anew. This time it was me who gave Hans a blood-red kiss – red with his blood as well as mine. Perfection.
I was kissing him hard as a rumble sounded loudly underneath the bench. The walls shook on either side of us as something spluttered and gurgled, returning from the depths.
Yes, of course…
I felt the spray of fresh water.
It was flowing free.
Hans broke the kiss and turned me along with him to face the spring, and it was alive again. Like it should be. It was just another thing in the chain of things that were meant to be.
I recited the legend.
There will be nine witches from the bottom of Orcop to the end of Garway Hill as long as water flows.
I was one of the nine witches.
The water was flowing again.
My spirit was home.
Hans wrapped me in his arms, and I held him back, like I’d wanted to do as Mary. Her dreams were coming to life as mine.
“Happy Halloween,” he said, and I laughed.
“The first of many more to come, I hope.”
“Many, many more to come.”
We watched the spring in silent harmony, loving our quiet embrace of our new life… until a voice sounded out like a screech in the dark.
“KATHERINE!”
I tensed in Hans’ arms. What the–
“KATHERINE! GET HERE NOW OR I SWEAR TO GOD, GIRL, YOU’LL FUCKING REGRET IT!”
It was Grandma, and she sounded insane. Absolutely fucking insane.