NOELLE'S POV,''let's begin,'' Hella says, and she walks towards the big kettle.Her eyes become red, and flames erupt from under the kettle. She starts walking around the kettle and sings an incantation. ''Ignis ille ex resurgemus,'' she keeps repeating.My stomach feels like it's about to leave my body. I have a very bad feeling about this. I look at Gabriel and catch his blue eyes looking for mine. His eyes go to my hands, and I suddenly remember the bobby pin he gave me.I quietly start to pick the lock on my left hand.''BRING THE BONES,'' Hella's voice thunders through the room.2 dark humans come in with a small chest. Hella puts the bones in the kettle, ''Bone of the father.''Red smoke emerges from the kettle now. ''Bring in the willing sacrifice,'' Hella demands.I keep picking the lock but look at the door when I hear someone walk in. It is just a little girl. She has an empty look in her eyes and walks to the kettle.''A willi
NOELLE’S POV,I pass out in Gabriel's arms as soon as we fly away. When I wake up, we are still flying but the first thing I see is an actual sky with stars.''We are in the Mortal Realm?'' I look up to look into Gabriel's eyes. For the first time, his piercing blue eyes look at me with kindness, ''Yes we are, we will be at our destination soon.'' I look in front of me but all I see are clouds. ''Am I your prisoner now?'' I ask softly.Gabriel's voice sounds manly but has a warmth in it I haven't heard before, ''No Noelle, if it is up to me, you will never be a prisoner again,'' he slows down a bit, ''Look we are there.''We shoot through the dark clouds and on the other end there are mountains everywhere. In the mountains, I see lights and people. There are swimming pools made of rocks on the sides of the mountains. In the pools I see mermaids and shark men and on the mountains humans and angels are mixed.''Welcome to Liberum,'' Gab
NOELLE'S POV,''What was that?''Faith takes my hand, ''You don't have to be afraid.''Then I hear the noise again, ''WRAAAAAAAAAHH.''I walk to Gabriel and stop only an inch away from him, ''Tell me what that is right now!''Gabriel says calmly, ''It is better if I show you because otherwise, you wouldn't believe me. But it can wait until you are rested.''I don't trust anybody right now and I am scared that if I go to sleep, they will betray me in the meantime, ''You show me right now! or I leave.''Gabriel holds out his hands like he means no harm, ''Okay, okay, calm down I will take you.''Holly rages towards him, ''Don't be ridiculous Gabriel. You are exhausted and there are much more important things to do.''Gabriel does not raise his voice, but I can still hear the authority in it, ''Holly shut up right now. First of all, I am your King, so I don't need to ask your permission t
NOELLE'S POV,When I wake up the next day the first thing, I hear is bird sounds. Sunlight streams through my window, and I walk to the window to soak it all in. Feeling the sun on my face gives a bit of light to my mood. It has been a while since I saw the sun and heard birds. The Sea Realm was beautiful, but I don't think I could live in an air bubble under water all my life.I look at the clock and see that it is already 11 o'clock. ''I better get dressed,'' I think to myself. I walk to the clothing closet to look at what is inside it. I expect to find dresses as I had in the Sea Realm but all I see are pants, sweaters, and shirts. I decide to go for black leather pants and a dark green long sleeve shirt. At the door, some black boots are waiting for me. I feel comfortable and it is very easy to move in these clothes. When I look in the mirror, I decide that these clothes suit me better than all the fancy dresses. I just want to be Noelle and nothing more.
NOELLE'S POV,I try to figure out what I should do but every time I close my eyes, I just go back to what happened in the Under Realm. I see Hella's face when I burned her, and I see Roan just standing there while they sacrifice me.Still can't believe that he betrayed me like that. I should have followed my instincts from the beginning. But of course, I fall in love with the first guy that gives me attention. I don't want to shed any more tears for that guy though, so I better just try to forget about him.Then I realize something else. If I am the last heir of the witches that means that my parents are dead for sure. Somewhere I still had hoped there was a reason they left me and that I would see them again someday. Now I probably won't even find out what happened to them. Tears roll down my cheek and I lean even closer to Thorn. His head shoots up when we hear a sound. He quickly puts his wings to shield me and growls at what is approaching.I can see Faith em
GABRIEL'S POV,Gabriel looks at Noelle while they fly back to his friends. He can smell the scent of her hair which is like camomile and lavender. He takes a deep sigh because just smelling her already gives him butterflies in his stomach.When they have arrived, he walks to his friends who seem to have a heated discussion. Holly and Nolan are in disagreement about what we should do first.Gabriel scrapes his throat, ''Okay let's just leave it for a moment. Faith can you tell me all the steps we need to take that you guys came up with?''Faith takes a deep breath, ''We will have to train Noelle, we have to train our own armies and gather them, we have to find out what Hades his plan is, we have to make a battle strategy and we have to warn the other Realms and convince them to join us.'' She gasps for air after the long sentence.Gabriel says dryly, ''So enough to do.''Gabriel takes a moment to think, ''I think we can best start with training and
NOELLE'S POV,I wake up the next morning early from bells ringing loudly. It takes me a moment to realize what is going on, but it is probably Gabriel getting ready for his speech. I quickly get dressed and grab a sandwich from the kitchen on my way outside.I see everybody walk towards the little city area in the middle of the mountains. In the middle, there is a big terrace surrounded by cafes. Gabriel is ringing a big bell that is standing in the center of the terrace. The people seem uneasy and nervous, so I am guessing this doesn't happen that often. At the front, I see Faith's blond hair, so I quickly walk towards her.''Hi,'' I say while I touch her elbow.Faith turns around and smiles at me gently, ''Hej Noelle, good morning.''We both look at Gabriel when he rings the bells one last time. Gabriel sees that I am there and mouths a silent hi. I can't help feeling happy that he acknowledges me. When the sun hits Gabriel's head he scrapes his throat. I
NOELLE'S POV,Nolan and I share a quick lunch and then it is already time to meet with Zeus. He is waiting for me in the gardens. I find him sitting next to a big fountain surrounded by rose bushes. He looks at me seriously, ''Hello Noelle, I thought it would be good if we have a little chat first today. We need to figure out what magic you already master and what you still need to learn.''I go sit next to him and nod in agreement.Zeus takes a breath, ''So according to the words you spoke on the night Hades returned you would be able to master all your ancestor's magic. Witch magic is very different in every witch so we can presume you should be able to master all the different magic kinds there are in the Realms. Please tell me what you already can do?''I take a moment to think, ''Well I have practiced quite a lot of water magic in the Sea Realm. I can let the water do anything I want with just a thought.''Zeus looks satisfied, ''We will see today
NOELLE’S POV,“Are you ready?” I ask Gabriel.He puts on his jacket and gives me a kiss, “Yes darling, where are the kids?”“Probably at the school saying goodbye to their friends,” I answer.We walk towards the school together and I feel grateful when I think about the number of people that go there today. In the first years after the war, not many people came to Liberum to learn about magic. But with the years of peace growing so did people’s trust and I am happy to say that Liberum is now known as a place of magic and wonders. More and more children with gifts get born every day and it is great to see diversity spread.At the school, we find our 2 daughters surrounded by friends. Fiona our second child is showing off with balls of fire that she is juggling in the air. With her red hair and icy blue eyes, she is a perfect mix of me and Gabriel. However her feisty attitude she solely got
NOELLE'S POV,It is a few hours later and bells are ringing through the city to announce the beginning of the funerals for all the lost lives. At first, we wanted to make a burning woodpile for every single body but then we decided it would be more meaningful to send everyone off on small plateaus at the lake that leads to the sea in Dandion. Everyone worked together the last couple of hours to make floating plateaus for all the bodies.I leave the castle to go to the lake with Gabriel. Everywhere I go people look at me with big eyes and they either bow or clap for me. I quickly gained the image of the heroine that saved the world in the hours that have passed. Tales of how I destroyed the army with magic spread and they even sound unbelievable to me while I know that I did it. I walk to the front of the lake where Luna, Holly, Julias, and Nolan are already waiting. The sun is shining and the only thing I hear is
NOELLE’S POV,While I am contemplating what to do with Hades, I hear running footsteps. Gabriel, Holly, and Faith come running towards me. Gabriel takes me in his arms and holds me tight, “I am so happy you are okay,” he says relieved.We all look down at Hades who is still fighting to get rid of the glowing roots. “What should we do with him?” I ask the rest.Holly looks at Hades full of hate, “You should give him a vision of something terrible and let him die thinking about that.”Gabriel coldly replies, “I have no problem with that.”Faith sounds determined when she says, “No. We can’t just kill him because he will find a way to come back. To be rid of him for good I must heal him and his evil.”We are all quiet when she walks to him and sits down at his head. For the first time I see fear in Hades his eyes and he screams, “No, No, No, not her! Just kill me."Faith put
NOELLE POV,I feel nothing when I explode the dark humans and demons in the tunnel with purple light. I walk outside the tunnel and notice the inner wall being breached. Purple light radiates off my whole body and I levitate myself above the castle. I must look like a bright purple star and people drop their weapons to look at me. I open up my mind to all creatures of the Under Realm and give them visions that they are being chased by their worst fear. The trick works effectively on the dark humans, and they all start running out of the inner part of the city screaming.My voice echoes through the city when I command my people and the dragons to hide inside buildings. I hold up my arms and call out to all the water in the city to obey me. Water starts to rise up from sewers and the small rivers. It all flows back to me and forms a big wall of water up into the sky. I put my hands forward and let a tsunami carry out the demons, stone giants, and fire creatures with full for
NOELLE’S POV,Gabriel immediately takes charge and gives an encouraging speech to the people. They all seem to realize that it is better to go down fighting for a better world than living in Hell. Everyone has a determined look in their eyes and seems to calmly be waiting for the doors to breach. I decide to take the small moment of peace to go look for Thorn. I find him looking much better and luckily Faith tells me she will be able to repair his wing, but he just needs rest.“I don’t need rest; I need to fight with you mistress!” Thorn says in my mind with a stubborn voice. I walk to him and give him a kiss on his snout, “You have protected me fiercely I couldn’t be prouder. Now I need you to take it easy so we can maybe live to fight another day.”Thorn follows me with grumpy eyes when I walk away but he obeys my command. I walk towards Luna who is talking with Zeus. Zeus seems very riled up making big movements with his ar
NOELLE’S POV,As soon as we fly over the wall it feels like I wound up in a storm. Fire and weapons fly around me. I see light and explosions everywhere and it is immediately complete chaos. I can feel the impact of every blow that lands on Thorns armor. I look around to find Hades but all I can see are demons, dark humans, and creatures of Hell. Hades must have put up some illusion so he and the 4 horsemen can stay out of sight and let the rest of the army do most of the fighting.I bite my lip in frustration because there goes my plan B to take out the most powerful play-ers to end the fight. I let Thorn burn demons and dark humans in the field with dragon fire, but I notice it gets heavier for him by the minute. I don’t know how much damage the armor can hold. Angels are dropping light bombs and fighting flying creatures in the air. I see many of the Under Realm army being blown up but every hole we make seems to be filled up with new soldiers just as
NOELLE’S POV,I hear Gabriel call my name somewhere in a distant place of my mind, but I can’t take my eyes off Hades. I stare at him and then I realize what is wrong, Donna is standing next to him, and she is also smiling at me. Shivers go through my body, and I want to scream to Ga-briel that something is wrong, but I can’t speak. The amulet around my neck starts to get warm and levitates me up in the air. It feels like something is trying to pull my insides out of me. I start screaming from pain and I can see purple light flowing out of me into Hades. I keep screaming until the pain stops and the last of the light flows out of me. I fall back into the ground hard and my body shakes from the impact.For some reason no one from Dandion seems to know what is going on because all around me is darkness. The only thing I can see is Hades and Donna smiling at me. Hades makes a tiny flame of purple fire in his hands and starts laughing.&ldquo
NOELLE’S POV,Everyone around me is looking pale and serious as the army comes closer and closer. The grounds seem to shake from all the marching soldiers and the war drums echo in my ears. They stop marching about 50 meters from the wall. The war drums become louder and they all start to shout battle screams in a language I don’t understand. Luna nods at a soldier on the wall and he walks towards a massive horn stationed on the wall. The horn blows a strong and vibrant call through the whole city. I can see everyone take their positions and with de-termined faces, they seem to say that they are ready for whatever comes at them.Then the war drums become silent and the front row of dark humans and soldiers starts run-ning to the wall. I can now see Donna standing a few rows behind Hades. As soon as the sol-diers walk into the magical shield barrier they explode into light. Everyone on the wall cheers because the spells actually worked. I hear running foot
NOELLE’S POV,“Where is she? Where is she?” I hear Gabriel shout. Just hearing his voice already makes my heart explode. Everyone quickly gets out of the way and then I see him. He is running to-wards me but as soon as he sees me, he stops. We just stare at each other for a moment and then he runs towards me and swoops me in his arms. I can’t even begin to describe how good it feels to have his arms around me and smell his scent. He sits down on the floor holding me and I can hear his heart beating really fast. I take his face in my hands and put my fore-head against his, tears of joy travel down my cheeks. I look into his beautiful blue eyes and sigh with happiness. He softly strokes my cheek brushing the tears away and puts his lips on mine. I lean into his embrace and enjoy the sensation of his lips on mine again. I wish this moment would last forever.I look into his eyes again and I hear him say in my head, “I have missed you so muc