CHAPTER 222: _ CHAOS IN THE CASTELLS’

Sierra speaks in a whisper. She thinks it’s just loud enough for the devil and quiet enough that she thinks Heidi can’t hear her.

"Finally."

Girl sounds like she’s narrating a horror trailer.

Sierra steps closer slowly. A little too careful for someone normally as subtle as a flaming peacock. She’s breathing through her mouth, shaky and angry, and Heidi can practically taste her intention in the air.

Heidi’s wolf murmurs from within her chest like an ancient guardian, not a teenager with opinions. "She’s going for your head."

H-her head? What the hell? Sierra’s a crazy bitch–she’ll stab her in the head?! Heidi can’t wrap her head around it.

Her eyelids twitch at that. Her muscles tense, but she doesn’t move. She hears Sierra lift something. The air in the atmosphere changes a little. Her breathing becomes a near-silent gasp, the way instinct demands when threat hovers above.

Sierra’s whispered satisfaction curls through the room like poison smoke: "You’re finally going to be out of my way. You should never have come here. You shouldn’t have invaded my world."

Heidi mentally rolls her eyes. Girl, be serious. You’re jealous, petty, emotionally unstable, and wearing pink fuzzy socks. Respectfully, look in a mirror. But she doesn’t dare move.

Sierra lifts the knife higher.

A second passes.

Then another.

Heidi feels the moment like one does before thunder rolls across the sky. She’s barely getting her control together when Sierra gets to work.

The knife comes down fast, aiming straight for Heidi’s skull.

Hell no!

"NOW!" Her wolf screams in her head.

At once, her instinct takes over before thought can shout plot twist! Heidi’s eyes snap open, her body twisting off the pillow and her hands shooting upward to shove Sierra away before the knife can reach her.

But what happens next isn’t physical. It’s something else. The world flashes white and it’s not candle or flashlight white.

It’s Lightning-white. A blinding, violent, electric birth of raw power that surges from Heidi’s palms like her soul finally found the "unmute" button. The sound of thunder cracking open inside the room detonates into the walls.

Lightning shoots from her hands, ripping through the darkness, hitting Sierra square in the chest with the wrath of a pissed-off storm god. Sierra’s scream is silent as the blast knocks the breath out of her before she can form sound. She flies backward, so fast and hard she looks like a rag doll launched by a malfunctioning amusement park ride.

The door rips off its hinges.

The shockwave blasts the wooden panels apart like they’re made of cardboard. Sierra flies straight through. Then through the hallway wall. Then the decorative plaster. Then the framed portraits of Castell ancestors... goodbye long-dead judgmental people.

Then the bannister. Then the staircase railing.

Then she tumbles, rolls, smashes, and crashes all the way down the stairs like a demonic tennis ball gone rogue finally landing in the living room, limp, bloodied, and terrifyingly still, leaving cracked tiles, destroyed frames, shattered vases, and a decapitated floor lamp in her path.

The house goes dead silent.

Heidi sits frozen on her bed, arms still half raised in shock, chest heaving, eyes wide, heart pounding like it’s trying to break out of her ribs and go to therapy.

Her first thought is:

...what. The. Fresh. Supernatural. Hell.

Her second thought:

Did I actually just shoot lightning out of my hands like some moon-blessed Beyoncé-meets-Avatar hybrid?

Her wolf finally speaks.

"Well. That was... dramatic."

Heidi doesn’t respond.

Her mouth opens, but her brain is trying to reboot like a Wi-Fi router that overheated.

She stands up slowly. Legs unsteady like they forgot how human locomotion works. Her hands tremble as she stares at them, palms still tingling with leftover electrical static.

She steps out into the hallway, feet bare, breath shaky. The air smells scorched, like burned ozone and broken destiny. Her door is completely obliterated. There’s literally not even a hinge left. She passes through the hole that used to be a doorway and stares down at the trail of splintered wood, debris, and the very expensive interior design body count she created.

Then she sees Sierra who is unconscious. Sprawled in the middle of the living room floor, blood pooling beneath her nose, forehead, and somewhere near her ribs. Her hair is messy, her clothes torn, her left shoe missing.

Heidi’s breath leaves her lungs in one long, broken exhale.

I did that. I did that. I actually did that.

Before she can process, a scream bursts into the air. It’s not from Heidi but from one of the servants who just walked in carrying folded laundry. They drop everything and shriek loud enough to scare the wolves outside.

Another servant runs in. Then another. Then Mrs. Castell appears at the top of the stairs in a silk robe like a deranged opera villain summoned by chaos itself.

Her eyes widen. Her mouth stretches and when she sees the source of the spectacle, "MY BABY!!!"

Her scream rattles the chandelier.

She bolts down the staircase, trips on the fifth step, regains balance, and falls to the floor beside her daughter dramatically like she’s auditioning for Tragic Mothers: The Musical. She shakes Sierra’s shoulders, slaps her cheek gently, cries, screams again for extra effect, then wails toward the ceiling like she expects the Moon Goddess herself to materialize with a refund policy.

"What happened?! WHAT HAPPENED?! SOMEONE CALL THE HEALER! CALL THE COUNCIL! CALL THE ELDERS! CALL— CALL... CALL ANYONE WITH A FUNCTIONING BRAIN!"

Heidi staggers backward.

She can’t hear anything correctly. Sound is muffled, like her ears are stuffed with water and fear. The servants rush to Sierra, lifting her carefully, panicked, whispering frantic prayers under their breath.

Mrs. Castell glares up at Heidi. Her eyes are murder.

"You... this was you, wasn’t it? What DID YOU DO?!"

Heidi opens her mouth, but words are not interested in participating. Mrs. Castell turns away, crying and clutching Sierra’s limp hand as the servants rush her toward the entrance.

Alarms begin ringing outside.

Pack guards sprint through the hallway. It’s a complete disaster and all Heidi can think of is: I did that.