A terrible haze enveloped Amara. A thick cloud of rage, fear, and desperation that assaulted her mind as she tried to flee what she’d nearly done at the manor. After everything she’d been through, after spending so much time repairing her relationship with Vee, she’d nearly done something terrible.

Again.

NO!

IT’S THEIR FAULT!

She clenched her fists, her claws piercing her palms as she took comfort in the safety of her strength. Power that coursed through her veins, promising that no one would ever subjugate her again.

I’M KEEPING THEM SAFE. THEY JUST CAN’T SEE IT YET.

Redirecting her focus, she began scouring the campus for signs of Davenport. The air, normally brisk and frigid, burned in her presence. The hellfire in her core kept her warm, kept her sharp, and she felt more in tune with its billowing flames than she did with her own heartbeat. It hungered, it demanded justice, and only she could deliver it.

Circling the campus in ever-tightening rings, Amara desperately searched for any signs of the Headmistress or her magical interference. Seconds turned to minutes as she tried everything in her power to locate Davenport, but the campus was practically deserted.

YOU CAN’T HIDE FOREVER.

Her luck changed when she found Coven Head Gautier leaving Lysander Hall. Holding a phone up to her face, she scowled as she spoke to someone on the other side.

“—no, I turned the whole facility upside down, and it was empty. I have no idea where they took Tsopnang, so for all we know she might be— Yes, I know. I’m trying to find her now, to make sure she doesn’t fuck this up for us. Did Elijah get you the materials? What do you mean ‘He’s dragging his feet?’ I thought you had him under your heel! Yes, I know, I just— of course, Headmistress. I’ll find her and take care of it. You’re about to get started? After the Wilds is Purgatory, right? Excellent. Yes, I’ll keep in touch.”

THE WILDS. SHE’S AT THE CAFETERIA.

Amara landed next to the cafeteria seconds later, taking great care to keep quiet. If she could sneak up on Davenport, she might be able to end this quickly. Instead of demanifesting her true form, however, she simply used illusions to disguise herself as Imani again. Once she opened the front doors, she quickly made her way downstairs while listening intently.

Soon enough, as she closed in on the room with the magic circle, she heard the faint noise of someone walking around. Davenport’s scent was fresh, and Amara grinned excitedly. She opened the door, peered inside, and saw her.

Davenport was standing over the magic circle, both it and her faintly glowing while magic swirled around them. Although faint, Amara could see the dozens of tattoos across the witch’s body as they lit up underneath her clothing. For a brief moment, Amara wondered what Davenport might be capable of. Palesa had elemental magic, Elizabeth had illusions, but she’d never seen the Headmistress use her magic.

WHO CARES? SHE CAN’T STOP ME.

Grinning in anticipation, desperate to see Davenport suffer, Amara threw caution to the wind and started running at Davenport. What use was there in ending this quickly and quietly? No, ideally she would have the Headmistress begging for her life for minutes on end.

“DAVENPORT!” Amara shouted, leaping into the air. Her illusions broke as her claws elongated, and she prepared to feel Davenport’s body snapping in her grasp.

Just before she made contact, however, a burst of magic clouded her vision. Instead of tackling the Headmistress to the cold, hard concrete, Amara landed in a field of grass outside. She jumped to her feet, fire leaping from her fingertips as she spun around.

She was back in the quad.

Before she could charge towards the cafeteria again, another burst of magic appeared in front of her. It exploded outward into a perfect circle, the edges of which blurred the lines of reality around them. Inside the circle, with perfect clarity, Amara saw Headmistress Davenport standing atop the circle to the Wilds.

“Ah, the demon reveals herself at last,” Davenport said, her tone haughty and condescending. As the magic circle underneath her feet dulled, she turned to face Amara and stepped through the portal, joining Amara in the quad.

“YOU!!” Amara crouched low to the ground before leaping at Davenport again, eager to end this. As she did, the Headmistress rose a hand and engaged her magic, summoning another portal in front of her. Amara flew through it, and when she turned around, saw that she was now roughly fifteen feet behind Davenport, just on the other side of a second portal.

“Mind your manners, girl,” Davenport hissed. “That’s no way to speak to your betters.”

Without hesitation, Amara raised a hand and fired a blast of hellfire at Davenport, concentrating it into an explosive pillar of flame. Just before impacting the Headmistress, it vanished into a portal, reappearing next to her and redirecting the flames back towards Amara. They bounced harmlessly off her exoskeleton, the warmth merely encouraging her, and she stood up straight to humor the witch.

“Betters? Ha. I have no respect for someone eager to sacrifice an entire campus for her own selfish whims.” Amara hissed, beginning to circle Davenport.

“Sacrifice? Like your friend that gave her life to fix Altessa’s idiocy?”

Furious that Davenport would insult Chloé, Amara yelled out in rage as she dug her talons into the ground and launched herself at the witch again. This time, as soon as she saw Davenport’s magic start to manifest, she halted her own movement with her wings, then pivoted to her side. Once she sidestepped the portal, she had a clear path towards Davenport, and she tried to punch the witch’s face in.

A second, much smaller portal appeared and redirected the attack just inches away from Amara’s face. Her own sharpened, chitinous knuckles dug into her face, piercing her skin and further blinding her with fury. She planted her foot, spinning away from Davenport to remove her hand from the portal, then tried to swipe at the witch’s feet with her bladed tail. Davenport managed to absorb this attack as well, and when she redirected it, Amara nearly sliced open her own neck. Not sure how to gain the advantage, Amara finally jumped back from Davenport to take a breath.

“It’s hopeless, demon,” the Headmistress called out. “Whatever you are, you don’t stand a chance against me. If you back down and apologize, I might let you live.”

She can’t possibly block attacks from every direction at once. If I overwhelm her, strike from as many different angles as I can, I might be able to break through her defenses. I’ll have to get creative with my fire.

Amara dug in her talons and leapt towards Davenport again, moving at a slower pace to make it easier to react. Each time she threw a punch, or lashed out with her tail or wings, she carefully watched how Davenport used her magic. She focused on the speed at which the portals appeared, how they were angled, if they had any innate limitations. Frustratingly, the Headmistress did nothing but redirect Amara’s attacks, and made no attempt to go on the offensive herself.

After nearly a minute of testing Davenport’s limits, Amara launched a concentrated blast of energy at the ground behind the Headmistress. Davenport didn’t redirect this attack, and Amara flared her eyes to connect with the embers that now lingered behind her prey. As she struck out with her tail once more, she also forced the fires behind the Headmistress to expand and leap towards her, thus attacking on two fronts at once.

While this didn’t catch Davenport off guard, it forced her to shift gears. Her confident demeanor slipped for a brief moment, and she summoned a portal to completely envelop herself, then reappeared on the other side of the quad.

Davenport’s conceited grin vanished for a brief moment. “Alright, fine. It’s time to put you in your place.”

A small portal appeared next to the Headmistress, and Amara saw a different collection of tattoos begin to glow on her body. Out of the small portal floated four thin swords, each slowly spinning as they positioned themselves around Davenport. She grabbed one, gave it an experimental slash through the air, then held it upside down beside her. Another portal appeared, and once the sword in her hand was completely still, she dropped it into the portal and closed it.

The three other swords immediately launched towards Amara, who reinforced her chitinous exoskeleton to better deflect the blades. Knocking one aside, she set her sights on Davenport and resumed her attack.

The three floating swords continued attacking her from all angles as she tried to pin down the Headmistress. Unfortunately, Davenport was now trying to keep her distance, using her swords to strike from afar while she stepped into portals every time Amara got close. The swords never did anything more than scratch Amara, but even those small injuries pushed her further into a rage.

She concentrated her anger, letting it fuel her hellfire as she tried to push her body to more extreme limits. With each minute that passed, she found herself moving faster, hitting harder, whereas Davenport’s movements were growing more predictable.

Hellfire sprang from Amara’s steps, dripped off her wings, flurried around her every strike she made as she hunted Davenport. Whereas before she struggled to even get close, now she scored the occasional slash from her tail, and she once managed to nearly grab Davenport’s wrist. The Headmistress jumped further and further away with each portal, yet Amara found it easy to keep up despite the witch’s efforts.

Amara also got better at reading the destinations of the portals. Every time Davenport summoned a portal behind her to disappear into, Amara caught a glimpse of her destination. As this happened more and more frequently, she realized she had an easy path to victory. If she could find a way to teleport, to get behind Davenport as she disappeared into a portal, it would be easy to catch her off guard and finally break her. She focused on each destination, trying to force her body to switch locations, but each time she engaged her hellfire another sword would slice open her shoulder or glance off her exoskeleton. As much as she wanted to remember her mother’s words, to unearth the secret of teleportation, the rage that blinded her made it easier to simply focus on overwhelming Davenport.

Besides, she was clearly gaining ground, even without teleportation. Hellfire raged in the wake of Amara’s movements, and Davenport was starting to sweat. Stranger still, she also seemed to be shrinking. On the few occasions they stood on even ground, Amara found herself towering over the Headmistress in ways she hadn’t before, but it took another minute before she figured out the opposite was true.

Amara had grown nearly a foot taller, and her skin had completely changed to a deep, demonic red. At times, she even caught glimpses of her hellfire simmering just under her skin, causing her to glow with white-hot rage as she kept pushing Davenport back.

She had the feeling that Davenport’s portals could only take her so far, and as she grew more tired in the wake of Amara’s flames, the distance she was capable of jumping began to shrink. Amara, on the other hand, felt more in control than ever, the hellfire surrounding her urging her to continue. A portal opened behind her, one of Davenport’s swords flying through, and Amara caught it effortlessly. She forced hellfire into the blade, melting it entirely before tossing the heated slag onto the ground. This attack, however, had only been a distraction, and a second blade buried itself deep in her shoulder.

She growled in rage as pain surged through her body, then she released a burst of hellfire from her exposed wound. The second sword melted even faster than the first, and Amara instinctually used her shapeshifting to force the metal slurry out of the injury.

Davenport’s portals were growing slow, weak, and Amara knew she was moments away from ending the Headmistress’s life. She was so focused on her prey and ending the witch’s reign of terror, that she failed to recognize the brilliant angelic aura that had just appeared at the edge of the hell-blasted battlefield.

———

Ever since Vee had lost sight of Amara, she’d been desperately searching the campus for signs of demonic activity. The last time she’d heard from Nick or Tessa, they had yet to find Coven Heads Davenport or Gautier, so she had no hints where she might find Amara.

Her arms, despite being completely healed, still stung. She still felt Amara’s rage, the murderous intent that had simmered beneath her blackened gaze, the absolute determination to drag Davenport kicking and screaming from this world. As painful as the attack had been, her hope that it would shake Amara from her rage had faded quickly; it had merely worsened her desire to run.

This isn’t her.

I refuse to believe that she’s too far gone.

The smell of sulfur filled her senses, her hair catching the wind as she turned to find the source. Whispering a soft prayer, she pushed her senses to their absolute limit; the smell seemed to be coming from the center of campus. She took off running, the sound of a small explosion urging her to move faster, the sickening smell of sulfur growing ever stronger.

The sky darkened, unnaturally black storm clouds eclipsing what little sunlight remained. They began to spiral in, the epicenter focused over the quad. Breaking out into a run, she knew she was the only one who could stop this, if she could just get there in time. Turning the last corner, she froze, her eyes growing wide with terror.

The quad was on fire.

Two figures clashed in the field, one constantly jumping through portals while the other moved at impossible speeds. Hellfire consumed the field, its red glow filling the sky as the battle continued. The fire kept spreading, but she had to push forward.

Flames licked at her heels as she ran, and she avoided their unnatural energies as best she could. She pushed ever closer to the raging battle, praying for protection from the fire as she tried to track Amara’s movements. Surrounding herself with angelic flames to fight back the blaze, she managed to clear a path.

Amara was nearly unrecognizable. Her skin was a deep, demonic red, and hellfire bubbled underneath like a simmering pool of magma. She now towered over Davenport, standing at least seven feet tall, though it was hard to tell with how fast she moved. As Vee watched, desperately trying to survive the blazing inferno surrounding her, she watched as Amara grabbed a nearby sword, melting it apart in seconds before a second sword impaled her shoulder.

Vee had seen this behavior before, during their last battle in this field. When Amara had fought the reapers, she’d completely given up on protecting herself, using that recklessness to force her opponents into a corner.

If Vee didn’t act soon, Amara was going to win this fight.

She muttered another prayer, pleading desperately for the strength to reach Amara and stop her. Waves of sheer, overwhelming force billowed off her demonic friend, and she forced her way closer step by step.

Please.

I’ll do anything.

I can’t lose her.

Not after everything we’ve been through!

Angelic power surged through her veins, more than she’d ever felt before, and she found it easier to resist Amara’s overwhelming show of force.

A third blade appeared, one that Amara easily knocked aside as a blazing inferno concentrated around her clawed hands. The flames formed into horrid points, extensions of Amara’s rage, and Vee knew she only had seconds left. Another portal appeared, a fourth sword beginning to rocket towards Amara’s chest at impossible speeds, and Vee saw exactly what Amara had planned. By ignoring the sword and letting it strike true, she would gain the final opportunity she needed to end Davenport’s life.

Vee’s veins burned with determination. Crackling Enochian energy appeared behind her, and she leapt towards Amara at a speed she didn’t think herself capable of. One hand extended a shield of radiant energy in front of Davenport, though she knew Amara could easily shatter the barricade if not stopped. She tackled Amara, angelic energy sparking off her demonic friend’s infernal aura, and knocked her aside just as the final sword flew out of the portal.

The blade struck Vee’s chest, instantly impaling her.

Sharp, agonizing pain flooded her senses, and she froze in place before looking up. Bolts of angelic lightning sprang from her injury, and a sickening crack of thunder reverberated through the clearing.

She stared at Amara, tears in her eyes, before falling backwards and losing consciousness.