SERAPHINA and NIGHTSHADE's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Seraphina Nightshade needed to reach the gate, and something with wings stood in her way. She crouched behind a twisted tree, its bark carved with trapped human faces. The faces moaned when she touched them. The gate lay past the clearing, a window framed in crystals that glowed with another world's light. Seal that window and the demons stopped coming. That was her whole purpose now. Her coven had lost three sisters to things that crawled through it. But a fallen angel had slipped out first. The creature hunted across the clearing, dark wings folded, devil horns black against the moonlight. She hunted souls. Seraphina had watched her drag a screaming shape from the air an hour ago. Until the angel left, Seraphina could not cross. She gripped the gems in her hair. Each one held stored light. Her blue dress caught the glow and threw it back. She counted her options and hated all of them. Run, and the angel caught her mid-field. Wait, and dawn never came fast enough. So she chose the tree. Seraphina pressed both palms to the writhing bark. The trapped faces screamed under her hands. She did not pull the souls free. She pushed her light into them instead, feeding the tree's hunger until it woke. Branches cracked and swung. The whole trunk groaned and leaned toward the clearing, reaching. The angel turned. Her seafoam-bright eyes were gone now, replaced by something hollow and black. She saw the tree moving and smiled, as if offered a feast. That was the mistake Seraphina wanted. The angel dove at the waking tree. Branches lashed out and caught one dark wing. The faces in the bark bit down. The angel shrieked and tore loose, feathers ripping free, and beat back toward the sky. Seraphina ran. She crossed the open ground while the angel fought the tree. Her white boots pounded the cracked earth. The crystal window grew huge before her, its jeweled frame humming. She ripped a gem from her hair and raised it. Behind her, the angel shredded the last branch and spun. Seraphina slammed the gem against the glowing glass. Light burst out. The window's otherworldly glow flickered, then dimmed. A seam of frost crawled across the surface. Not sealed. Weakened. The portal's pull died, and the angel's wings faltered in the sudden dead air. The creature dropped to the ground between Seraphina and the window. No way back for her now. The gate had refused its own child. The angel rose on bare feet, wings dragging. She stared at the half-frozen window, then at Seraphina. The hunting smile was gone. Now she looked trapped, and furious, and much closer than before. Seraphina had cut the angel off from the gate. She had also locked a soul-hunter in the woods with her, and no door left to drive it back through.