poisoned blades 20
Yule
“And here, we celebrate another great holiday,” Crystalwind smiled wryly as she glanced around the room at her family. “My daughter hosted a wonderful ceremony and she will continue leading us so eloquently,” Crystalwind smiled as she was applauded. Everybody drank to the toast.
“Thank you, mother,” Windfire smiled at the woman. Too bad you won’t live past tonight to see if you were right or not…
“There is no need to thank me for telling you the truth,” Crystalwind said with a laugh.
“Well, could you expect less from a Deverill?” Windfire asked with a smirk.
“True,” Crystalwind clanked her glass with her daughter’s and Windfire regretted not thinking of poison earlier. She whispered to her daughter, “So, is the Gerard worth keeping around?”
“I could use the sex,” Windfire said flatly.
“Couldn’t we all?” Crystalwind was again proud of her daughter. She was treacherous and looking at everything’s face value more than sentimental—just how she raised her.
“Sister, is your husband expecting you home tonight?” Snowgust asked, joining her mother and older sister in conversation.
Windfire blinked, “You know, he and I never spoke of that.”
“Then we shouldn’t keep you from your toy,” Crystalwind said with a wry smile.
“Toy, eh?” Snowgust teased.
“We’ll behead the men who aren’t up to par sexually,” Windfire snickered. “Lucky for my toy, he is.”
Snowgust smirked, “Well, I’m looking forward to seeing you again,” she embraced her sister.
“As am I,” Windfire smiled before departing. She took in a sharp, icy breath and froze when she saw Nightshade. “What are you doing here?” she hissed.
“We can’t find my father…” he grunted.
“You what?” Windfire’s heart fell to her feet.
“Nobody has seen him and we can’t leave him out of the fray. I didn’t want you to come back until after he was dead so you wouldn’t be a suspect…”
“We can kill the others and wait for your father to return,” Windfire said quickly.
“You will be the first suspect!”
“I know that my family will prove my alibi,” Windfire assured him. “We’ll go back home and we’ll kill him when he enters his chambers.”
“We don’t have a choice if your family’s assassination is going to be played out tonight, too,” Nightshade said as they twined fingers. She never fails to calm me down and keep me level-headed.
“What is it?” Windfire asked as Nightshade helped her onto the horse. He climbed onto the horse’s back sitting behind her and holding the reigns. “What are you thinking about?”
“How much I love you,” Nightshade whispered in her ear. Her cheeks reddened to the combination of his breath and words.
“I love you, too,” Windfire whispered.
Flameshade smiled in relief when he saw their horse trotting toward him. He ran over to them, “Father returned. He was meeting with the Deveraux elder…”
“Excellent,” Nightshade said with a grin. “Continue everything as planned. Leave father to me.”
“What of Snowgust?” Flameshade blushed.
“She gave me the signal, so they’re ready. They’re probably acting it out right this moment,” Windfire whispered.
“Good,” Flameshade nodded before rushing into the castle. Flameshade and Aquashade together crept into their uncle’s chambers where their cousins were already poised. Midnight and Salem had their swords drawn and had thought to continue the assassination as planned.
Flameshade nodded toward his cousins who raised their blade into the air. The silver weapons glinted in the light of the full moon before they met witch and warlock flesh. The blades stabbed through the throats of two of the Gerard nobles. The sons of the deceased continued their assault, cutting off their parents’ heads to symbolize the revolt that they had organized.
Satisfied with their work, the four noble sons left the chambers in silence and all headed down to the dining chambers where they cleaned the blood from their weapons and were anxiously waiting for Nightshade and Windfire to join them.
“What if they fail?” Aquashade asked, collapsing against the table.
“Then they are killed and the treaty is broken,” Flameshade answered.
“Calm down,” Midnight whispered, trying to not show his anxiety. He glanced around at his family members and he knew that nervousness, anxiety and sickness was plaguing them as well.
“How can we?” Salem slid his sword back into its sheath and glanced over at his brother. His hands were still shaky and he tone was no better.
Midnight swallowed hard, “I don’t know. Just do it!”
“Well, how about we keep thinking positive?” Flameshade asked.
Aquashade glanced up at his brother, “Please, tell me how something good can come from this?”
“We’re doing it for a good cause,” Flameshade assured his brother.
Windfire watched eagerly as Nightshade drew his weapon from its sheath. Her heart was pounding loudly and she knew that his was, too. She could see the anxiety and the nervousness in his face.
Nightshade didn’t hesitate as he brought the sword into his father’s black heart. His father opened his eyes at the last second and let out a gasp. He drew his sword from the flesh and began slamming it through his father’s blanket.
Over and over he played the lies…every memory of the old man telling him that Windfire was horrible, every memory of being whipped for not being proper, he played every memory of watching his father beat his brothers. He played every memory of wondering if he’d be a lousy father like his had proven to be.
With each memory can another stab wound in the already mutilated man’s torso. With each thought of pain, Nightshade slashed the man open even more. Windfire bit her lip as she watched the dark deed. Her evil heart was fascinated with death for a reason.
When Nightshade wore himself down, he drew the blade from his father’s corpse one last time, dropping it into his sheath. He huffed, turning to Windfire who embraced him readily. His heart was pounding in his chest. He was shivering and quivering. He could barely embrace Windfire.
She led him from the room in understanding, closing the chamber door behind them.
Aquashade jumped at the sound of the creaking door echoing through the silent castle. “They did it!” he rejoiced before e even saw either of them.
Windfire led Nightshade who was still mostly unresponsive down to the dining hall where she assumed that she would find his siblings and cousins.
“Well…” Flameshade stood with one hand on the table and the other readied on his weapon.
“Shade did it,” Windfire announced and the remaining members of the coven rejoiced again.
“Let’s hope that the girls are as blessed,” Salem whispered as they all got to their feet and headed toward the Deverill’s castle.
Nightshade and Windfire stood a good distance away from the castle. They were the two who had to remain undetected, considering the conversation that she had with her mother that was—no doubt was overheard by a commoner or two, maybe a noble.
The Gerard men, save Nightshade, made their way toward the castle. They were to wait outside for the women to join them. They were to remain from sight.
Pierre was sitting drunk in his chair. “Father, sober up a little with this. You know mother hates when you make a mess of yourself,” Snowgust handed her father a goblet that was filled with poison.
“I know, but I only drink on the holidays,” Pierre laughed good-heartedly at himself and his daughter laughed a little, too.
“Just drink this,” Snowgust rolled her eyes and kissed her father’s cheek. Another signal.
Rainstone smiled and called a toast to the revolution, holding her mug in the air proudly. To the ignorant Deverill’s, the revolution was using the Gerard family until they were no longer useful. To the informed, the revolution was getting rid of those who would not change because of common sense.
All of the Deverill drank their drinks, and Pierre downed his and passed out. “Mother…” Lillybreeze hissed, trying to get her mother’s attention.
Crystalwind saw her daughter and excused herself from the conversation to see what her daughter wanted. “What is it?”
“Father’s drunk and passed out…” Lillybreeze lifted her father’s arm in the air and watched it fall limply to his side.
“Damn,” Crystalwind closed her eyes. That man always had to embarrass her by drinking too much. “See if you can’t get him upstairs unnoticed. I’ll go check on him in a bit discreetly.”
“Alright, I’ll get Dew to help,” she muttered, rushing over to Dewstone who was talking with Rainstone. “Okay, father is dead, we need to get him upstairs,” she hissed.
“Alright,” Dewstone rolled her eyes, sensing that her aunt was watching. She followed Lillybreeze over to Pierre and helped her support his dead weight as they took him up the staircase. With ease they laid him on his side in the bed and covered him. “Now we have to wait. We know that my parents retire early,” she led her cousin out of the room and they rejoined the celebration.
Blackwind smiled at her daughter’s kindness of helping the poor drunk man to bed. She met her niece and daughter at the staircase. “You are too kind, you know that?”
“It’s nothing, really, mother,” Dewstone whispered.
“Your aunt appreciates it, even if she doesn’t say it ever,” Blackwind assured them.
“We know. She’s the ice queen incapable of love,” Lillybreeze said, shooing away her aunt’s excuse for her mother.
“That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?” Blackwind asked.
“No,” Lillybreeze said dismissively as she left her aunt’s company with her cousin.
Blackwind nodded, eyeing them suspiciously. They were up to something. She had no doubt of that. What they were up to was anybody’s guess, though.
Lillybreeze walked out to the garden. She sighed and looked around. She smiled when Aquashade ran toward her and embraced her, kissing her once. “Aqua…” she kissed his cheek a few times.
“You’re alright…where is everybody else?” he blushed.
“We haven’t finished it yet. We just got the first step done. We still need everybody else to get to bed. Our father, however, is dead…” she hissed.
“Thanks, I’ll let everybody know,” Aquashade kissed her one last time before letting her return to her walk as he returned to the others to tell them what was happening.
She turned around swiftly with a bolt of fire on her hand and sighed in relief when she found Dewstone following her. “Don’t scare me like that.”
“Sorry,” Dewstone whispered. “But you should really come back in.”
“Alright, I got a breath of fresh air,” Lillybreeze decided as she accompanied her cousin back to the house.
“Where did you go?” Crystalwind asked her daughter and niece as they reentered the castle.
“I went for some fresh air,” Lillybreeze said evenly.
“And I followed her,” Dewstone explained.
“Well, your absence is more noticeable. The party is dying down,” Crystalwind explained, which meant that she wanted them to stay where they could be seen.
“Alright,” Lillybreeze left her mother’s company and found company instead with Rainstone.
“My mother went to bed. So did my father,” Rainstone announced.
“Good,” Lillybreeze breathed.
“Snowgust went with them,” she smirked.
“Already?” Lillybreeze asked.
“She doesn’t want them interfering with your mother’s downing later,” Rainstone explained.
“Have you seen Snowgust?” Crystalwind asked.
“Would you like me to check on her? She said she wasn’t feeling well,” Rainstone said with concern.
“At least make sure she isn’t sick. Then return to me at once,” Crystalwind continued attending to her guests of the lower covens who only dealt with her because her family was composed of powerful nobles and witches.
Rainstone snuck up the stairs and found her cousin just leaving her parents’ chambers. “Well?” she hissed.
“We just have mother to go,” Snowgust said evenly. She continued into her chambers, Rainstone was right behind her.
“I told your mother that I was checking on you,” Rainstone explained.
“Well, tell her that I drank too much and will be fine in the morning,” Snowgust suggested.
“Alright. I’ll come get you when it’s time,” Rainstone whispered before leaving her cousin’s chambers.
After a few hours, the Deverill countess carried herself to her bed. She collapsed as far away from her husband as she could. He stunk of too much wine and sweat. Sleep came quickly to the older woman.
Snowgust let her cousin into her chamber in the dead of night. “It is time,” Rainstone declared as she drew her sword.
“Alright, this might take all of us,” Snowgust explained as they left her chamber and met their sisters.
“We’re ready,” Dewstone whispered.
Each of the witches approached the countess’s chambers. If she had known that her husband had died of poison several hours ago, she would have panicked and she would still be awake. They had given her an hour and nothing stirred around her chamber.
As the door creeped open, it was obvious that it couldn’t have hollered more loudly. It was five thirty in the morning and all sounds were amplified in the nearly empty castle.
The old witch did not stir at that sound, nor to the stomping sounds that their toes on the carpeted floor seemed to make. Snowgust was the first to lift her sword toward the sky. It seemed like their walk took them an hour and that their mother would be woken at any second by the prodding sunlight.
She felt her heart skip a beat as her arms acted without the consent of her mind and they dropped the sword into the older woman’s chest. The countess woke instantly and fell to four blood-thirsty blades cutting and stabbing into her pale flesh. She went to scream but her throat was already mutilated by her demented niece, Dewstone.
She was praying that she’d wake up and that everything would be a dream. This would just be the worst nightmare that she had ever thought up. She choked in a breath as she covered her gaping throat and she went cold as her chamber door closed behind the four witches.

poisoned blades 22