Dead End: Midnight Hollow by Penn Cassidy (free novel 24 TXT) 📗

They looked nearly identical, but her mother somehow held more hatred in her purple eyes, which was aimed right towards me. Unless she was staring at Ichabod, then she seemed entranced and besotted.

“You didn’t think I brought you all the way out here without a little backup, did you?” Ichabod asked, gesturing to Payton’s family, who grinned with the same fucking smile.

I quirked a defiant brow. “That’s a really weird way to say you have a small dick.”

Nice one, October. Now he’s gonna make it hurt...

His grin dropped instantly like a flip was switched, and he approached the bars, a maniacal gleam in his eyes. “You’re just like your father with that mouth of yours.”

“Is that why you dragged me all the way out here?” I laughed, pretending to be braver than I was, but it sounded hollow to my own ears. “You had a crush on my mother twenty years ago, and you still can’t get over the fact that you lost to my dad?” My eyes flickered over his face, unimpressed just to piss him off. “It’s becoming clear she chose right.”

“How dare you! Take that back. He is the most wonderful, most handsome and powerful warlock to ever exist, you bitch!” Payton’s mother screeched with outrage, but I only rolled my eyes at her.

She was a fucking lovestruck idiot, who couldn’t see how she was never going to get a chance with that loon.

“Righhhhttt. How could I be so stupid?” Sarcasm was heavy in my voice, and it was probably going to get me killed.

“You little b—” Ichabod hissed, his eyes murderous.

“Father!” came Cal’s voice from behind my stone cage. I couldn’t see him, but I could hear him as if he were right next to me. “It’s time to start the ritual.”

“What ritual, you sick fuck?!” I watched in horror as Ichabod backed away. “What ritual!” I screamed, pounding desperately against the stone. “My family is going to tear you to fucking pieces when they find out!” I threatened and knew they would.

“You have a lot of faith in your lovers, Miss Hallowell, but you’d be wrong of course. See, right now, I have one of my associates keeping them distracted for me.” Dread pooled once more, and he laughed again, holding out his athame to his side. “Don’t fret, my dear. I won’t be needing you for long, just long enough to complete the ritual. Then we can bury you six feet under, just like dear old daddy.” He pointed down the hill, and it was then that I saw the freshly dug grave.

Fuck, I’m going to die.

Calvin appeared around the side of my coffin and took the athame from his father’s hands, making it a point to avoid my glare, but I hissed, “Fuck you, Calvin. We treated you like a friend… We welcomed you into our home. And Maddie—” I choked, throat closing with the need to cry. I fought against it.

His head whipped towards me, and his amber eyes were blazing. “Don’t you bring her into this,” he snapped. “Just stand still and shut up, October.”

“Fuck you!” This time I literally spat right between the bars, but he took a step back and dodged it with a grimace.

“There’s no need to be feral,” Ichabod said. “And here I thought all you necromancers were uppity snobs just like David Grimm. I guess being raised among those savage mortals will do that to a young girl.” He clicked his tongue a few times. “Pity…”

“Ichabod, the moons…” Payton’s mother stepped forward with a pleading look on her face. She was carrying some kind of dark velvet bag, and she handed it to the mayor. Payton stood there watching me with a smug smile on her clown face, and I wanted nothing more than to break her teeth in.

The moons, she’d said. I looked up, and sure enough, the two moons were moving closer together, nearly overlapping. I supposed this must be this world’s version of an eclipse. A blood moon eclipse. I surmised that Ichabod had been waiting for this night in particular, because everyone who knew anything about even the most basic witchcraft knew that the power of the moon meant everything. The moon could control the tides and the blood in a body.

That’s it… The athame. Ichabod’s doing blood magic.

Holy shit, this was bad. I’d read about blood magic after the aunties kept dropping hints about it. It was dark stuff, even darker than necromancy. It was forbidden in the witch and warlock communities, and considered taboo for thousands of years.

“Why are you doing this, Ichabod?” I asked. “If you’re going to kill me anyway, can’t you at least tell me what I’ll be dying for?”

He faced me with a confused expression. My body was racked with shivers at the gleam in his eyes. “Would you like me to give you the big villainous play by play so you can somehow figure out a way to pull a miracle out of nowhere and thwart me? How very…mortal of you.” He laughed madly. “I don’t think so, Miss Hallowell. Now sit tight. You’ll be dead shortly.”

“You’re disgusting,” I snapped, my breathing shallow because this was it—the end. I’d just found love again, and I was going to die without telling each of my guys how much they truly meant to me.

Ichabod ignored me, instead turning his attention first to the moons and then to Cal. “Now, Calvin,” he demanded.

I watched Cal’s entire body stiffen. He came towards me with dread in his dark eyes and approached the bars with the athame in his hands. “Give me your palm,” he said, hardly able to look me in the eyes, the coward.

“Go to hell!” I whispered hoarsely past the lump in my throat.

“October…” His voice lowered to a whisper, and his suddenly panicked eyes flickering to where his father had his back to us, preparing for the ritual. “I’m gonna get you out of this,” he promised, his eyes unyielding and hard.

I blinked, not comprehending. Was