'You are sure?' Blake said.

The sound of his voice popped in my ears, like a bubble of pressure bursting, pain stabbing in my eardrums and down into my throat.

My throat.

Something was in my throat.

I gagged and coughed up water. I watched, dazed, my eyes barely half-open as it trickled away of its own accord, sliding over the monochrome tiles until it reached an ever-shifting stream of water that I could see stretching round behind Ethan.

My cheek was damp, pressed against the floor and a lock of wet hair hung over my eyes. A tiny drop of water slid down the lock and grew fat, hanging there, before finally dropping to the floor and that tiny droplet moved of its own volition and joined the moving stream, like an ant, seeking the protection of its colony.

My clothes felt heavy and stuck to my skin. I shivered and tried to focus. Ethan was positioned just as I'd remembered, before the water had come, only now his bound hands were in his lap again and his shoulders sagged, his head slightly bowed so I couldn't see his eyes.

God, I wanted to see his eyes now.

As if he'd heard me, he raised his head a little, his gaze locking with mine and instantly I wished I didn't have to look in his eyes. I saw flashes of firelight and of Lucifer, the deep sadness in his expression that I could now see in Ethan's.

The Naiad spoke in her strange language and I could hear it, just like I had before, only now I realised I could understand it too, and I knew – somehow, I knew – that she was speaking Old Aramaic. She still sounded like a child, but the weight of her words hung heavy with age and I was gripped by the sudden image of a woman standing in front of a mirror, her skin the colour of treacle, tears running down her cheeks as she surveyed the flesh that had sagged and wrinkled with the onset of time, and lamented the dry, grey streaks in her long, black hair that looked like ash smeared on ebony.

'Of course, I am sure,' she snapped. 'The Endorian is mine. She is with the water now.'

'I hope for your sake you are not lying, witch,' Blake replied.

She laughed then, a childish giggle bursting from her mouth, but I could feel her rage and... her fear?Yes. I could feel it. Just a ripple, a gentle wave of rings eddying out from her core, but I could still feel it. The Naiad was scared. She was doing her best to try and hide it and I suspected, was trying to hide it from me, because we were connected now, and I could see things, feel things, that felt alien. Alien and wrong. I felt her wrongness, as if suddenly the world had turned inside out and upside down and I was looking at it from an angle, watching it spin slightly out of sync. If I was right and we were connected, I wondered if I could find out why she was scared and use it against her. I dived deep, trying to focus on her fear.

What are you frightened of, makhshefa?

I heard her gasp, just a small inhale of breath, but the reverberations of her shock undulated through her and I gasped too as I felt something swell and rage inside me. My body tensed against the tide as the water pushed outwards. It gushed into my throat and I couldn't breathe for a moment. Panic kicked in when it wouldn't dislodge, and I could feel it bubbling there, choking me.

'What is it?' Blake said, his voice now tinged with a panic of his own. 'What's happening?'

The Naiad released her grip and the water gushed from my mouth as I pushed myself up on my hands, my head down, spluttering and coughing up water that tasted foul and dank. This water looked grey and dirty as it trickled away from me and I spat onto the floor, desperate to be free of every last filthy drop of it.

'She is just waking up, that is all,' the witch said, smiling wickedly at me as I looked over at her. 'You worry too much, Shedim. Since the time of the Fall, you have put your faith in the air and the earth, but both are nothing without the water. You all lacked vision then and you still lack it now. Self-centred, arrogant creatures. You are no better than the Śərāfîm. The Morning Star knows this.'

She jutted out her chin at Ethan, who just stared steadily back at her. She laughed, but I got the sense it was not directed at Ethan, but at Blake.

'You are right to control this one, Azazel. His path meanders into darkness.' She grinned, her piranha-like teeth looking more sinister than ever. 'Darkness for you all.'

'Goodness me,' drawled Juliette, rolling her eyes dramatically. 'You really are a tiresome creature.'

'Who is more tiresome, nafqa?' the Naiad replied, 'the one with all the power at her fingertips, or the one merely tolerated? His interest in you will soon fade once he has what he wants. It is the way with all males. I am surprised you have not learnt this in your many years.'

I saw a man then, as clearly as if he was standing right in front of me and not just in my head. I felt the delicious tingle of his touch on my treacle-coloured thigh, when my skin was smoother and younger. I felt the warmth of his kiss on my neck, heard the words – lies, such lies– whispered into my ear. The cruel turn of his mouth. Felt the betrayal like a knife to the gut. Gritted my teeth as I let the water take him, pushing his body into the lake, holding his head just under the surface so I could see the fear in his eyes as the water surged into his mouth and down his throat. Screamed, as I raised his now lifeless body into the air, using the water to smash it against the moss-slick stone steps, my anger never abating, even when the blood reached my toes and squelched under my bare feet.

Juliette, who had flinched as if she had been slapped, clenched her fists, the air darkening at her fingertips, but Blake grabbed at her wrist, steadying her with nothing but the firm grip of his hand.

'Enough,' he said, his voice loud and clear. 'We will have a test, witch. You will prove to us that your magic has enslaved the Endorian.' He called out to two demons standing close to the huge doors. 'Bring them now.'

The great doors opened enough to allow the demons to exit.

Confused, I struggled to sit up, realising that while Ethan's hands were still bound, mine were not. Hope sparked a fire in my gut and I looked at Ethan, who somehow must have known what I was thinking, and he shook his head. A tiny, pale hand with dirt under the fingernails curled around my shoulder. The Naiad now stood beside me, her beatific smile sending chills down my spine.

'You do not need the air to bind you, Endorian,' she said, bending down to whisper in my ear. 'You are with the water now. Your powers are useless to you, for they are mine to control. Your kind persecuted mine for centuries, believing yourselves to be higher than the Naiads. I shall enjoy showing you which of us is the highest of all makhshefa, but I shall enjoy feasting on the talithamore. The water can already feel her power. So tiny is the talitha of the last Endorian and the Morning Star, but so very powerful. When the time comes, she will be a feast indeed, yes?'

I jolted at her words.

Talitha. She'd said it before and then, before I knew, before I understood her language, I'd assumed she was talking about me. But she wasn't. She wasn't.

Talitha meant little girl.

I stared at Ethan. Little girl. My little girl. Ethan's little girl. Ours.

Opening my mouth to say something, the words died in my throat. I felt them surge, crash, fade into nothing when I saw the way he was looking at me. He knew what talitha meant too, and what's more, he believed it. He believed her.

'No,' I whispered. 'No.'

'Casey...' he began.

I took a deep breath. Too deep. Felt the nausea creep into my mouth.

'No.'

'I'm sorry, it's true...'

'It can't be.' The denial sounded strong, believable even, but as soon as I said it, I knew what the Naiad had said was the truth. I could feel it... feel something, which was madness because it was too soon. Even I knew that. Me. The girl that had spent more time out of school than in school, to get much of a decent education on anything other than pills and powder, music and men. The girl that despite everything – despite the number of times I'd stared over another faceless man's shoulder and watched the stars through the window and willed for them to burst – had always been careful, I'd always made sure of that, and Davey, well, he'd been a stickler for it, too young and too busy wanting to be the next Oscar Turnbull to be stupid enough to get some girl pregnant.

'Casey, listen...'

Footsteps and voices swelled, but not loud enough to penetrate the bubble in which I'd found myself. This couldn't be right. This couldn't be true. A multitude of thoughts crowded my head, hitting me hard one after the other as Ethan's insistent whispers fought to break through my panic.

'...say nothing, okay? Please...Casey?'

The Naiad giggled and squeezed my shoulder, her fingers digging in before she moved away, the watery footprints she left behind now sliding over the tiles to join the ever-moving stream that surrounded Ethan and me. I stared at the water as it moved, remembering another time when I'd watched the water as it moved sluggishly in the drain, carrying Maggie's small silver crucifix with it into the darkness. I stared as I remembered watching the water running off my body and disappearing into the plughole as I'd sat curled up in the bathtub, the stream of the lukewarm water from the showerhead doing nothing to clean away the stench of the monsters. Nothing had ever rid me of that stench. No amount of booze or drugs. No amount of descending into oblivion and crossing the line. And it wasn't just them that I could smell, but her. Maggie. That constant reminder that the apple never fell far from the tree.

Another voice was calling me, a voice that made me look up from the water.

'Case, you okay, baby-girl? What did they do? Case, what did they do to you?'

I blinked slowly, brought the world back into focus just as Addi was pushed to his knees outside of the circle. Thankfully, they'd had the decency to dress him, but sweat was still peppering his forehead, his skin taking on a grey and sickly hue, and yet despite what had happened to him, he was still worried about me. He was still my Addison. Standing by his side and looking uncharacteristically tense, was Oscar, who was staring at me, his face troubled, his brow creased more than it normally was.

'Addi...' I mumbled. The water was hungry. I could feel it. I could feel the Naiad's excitement and it made the sick sensation inside me increase even more and with it, I could feel Ethan's dread and instantly knew why Addi had been brought here.

I shook my head, gritting my teeth as I pressed my fists against the floor, trying to suppress the nausea and fear as I glared at Blake.

'I won't do it,' I said. 'I know what you want, and I won't do it.'

Blake linked his hands behind his back as he stared at me. 'I need my proof, Endorian. They all do.' He gestured to the waiting crowd and when he spoke, his voice was gentle, cajoling, as if he thought that could soften the death sentence he was about to pass. 'This is the only way. To know that the Naiad's word is true, we must carry out a test and there can be no stronger challenge than to force Helel destroy that which holds value to you. You will do this, and you will not like it, but you will do it. Helel will kill your friend and it will be you that commands it.'

I gasped, pain tightening in my chest, Ethan's dread mixing with my own. Addi's eyes widened, his breath rasping out from dry lips as he looked wildly around.

Not Addi. No, not him. Please.

'Well, witch?' Blake said, arching one dark brow as he turned his attention towards the Naiad, who was watching him intently, her hands clasped demurely in front of her. 'Prove to us all that your magic has worked. Command the Endorian to do my bidding.'

'It will be my pleasure, Shedim,' she replied, licking her lips and, with a simple nod of her head at me, the water erupted inside, its alien touch spreading quickly through my body until I thought I would burst. I screamed as it streamed from my eyes, my ears, my nose. I choked on it as it poured into my throat and out of my mouth. It was coming again, and I couldn't stop it.

'The water is everything,' the Naiad said. 'The water is power. The water is your mistress and it will never let go, Endorian. Stand now and do as it commands.'

No, no, no, no, no, I don't want to.

I rose to my feet.

My arms stretched out on either side, my hands reaching for the stream of water, fingers grabbing as it suddenly twisted from its course and hit my open palms. I juddered with pleasure as it snaked around my wrists, revelled in its power as it joined with the water that was now pouring out from me in tiny rivulets, streaming all over my body. I could feel it saturating every part of me, grasping hold of the Endorian power within me and I couldn't stop it. I no longer wanted to. It filled me completely, this undeniable yearning.

I craved. More, more, always more.

Hungered.We hungered.

We smiled, the Naiad and I, and remembered when we'd killed the men that had desired us, when we'd slaughtered the men that sought to control us, when we'd drowned the men that had rejected us. We smiled as we remembered the other races of mahkshefa – the Stregherians, the Skin-Walkers, and even the arrogant Endorians – who eyed us with mistrust and harboured such jealousy of our power. We remembered it all and laughed, because this was our time now and we would no longer be spat on and reviled. We would prevail.

'Casey, girl, don't you do this!'

We glanced at the one called Berith, irritated at his intrusion, but he didn't matter anymore. None of them mattered now.

Reaching out with the water, we pulled Helel to his feet, tugging him towards us. We caressed him with the water, ignored his revulsion as we let it run over his earthly form, shuddered as we felt his divine power – so much power like this world had never seen! The mighty Helel! Oh, Morning Star! Oh, Bringer of Dawn! We would have him now, claim him for ourselves, control the one that would be the First!

We forced the water into him, just as we had done before, craving the touch of his power again, craving all that he was and all that he would be. He shuddered, fought against us, but we were the Naiad, we were with the water and with Endor, and we would prevail.

We brushed aside his petty memories and all those pointless emotions that had enslaved him for so long and poured everything into him, all our power – such power now– and took him. Claimed him. He was ours now, and so beautiful with the water surging through him, so magnificent with the water controlling him, so satisfying was his fear – because all men should fear us– as he turned towards the pathetic, sobbing human and reached out with his hands, the power building between his palms. We could feel it – so strong, so utterly divine, so perfect in its supremacy – and we willed it to grow. We would tear the flesh from the human. We would grind his bones into dust. We would...

A jolt hit us, sent us stumbling.

Someone was shouting. The one called Berith.

No. Oscar, Oscar...

'Listen to the heartbeat, Casey. Listen to it... find it. Start believing, for fucks sake!'

Another jolt hit us, and our legs buckled, the pain burning.

Burning. I was burning. I could feel the fire, heat radiating out from my core and somewhere, somewhere, I could hear it. So faint, so distant, like a drumbeat. What was that?

The water rushed forward again, a tide, drowning out the noise. We would prevail. We would kill the human, we would drain Helel, we would let the talitha come into this world and we would feast... we would... we would...

The drumbeat was louder now and with it came the fire again, the flames searing images into my head. I saw Maggie's face, eyes half-open and glazed, mouth curled up with pleasure as the heroin hit her veins. I saw Claire sobbing as her dad led her away, her hand reaching out for me. I saw my mother shoot up as the monster stroked my hair. I saw her watching from the bedroom doorway. I saw her turn away as I cried for her. I saw me drinking down the bottle of cheap cider in the park, as the boy who'd given it to me in exchange for a grope, fumbled with the zipper on my jeans and thrust his hand between my legs. I saw me swallowing my first pill, snorting my first line. I looked in the mirror, as Davey bent me over the dressing table and fucked me, and it was her face, it was Maggie's face I saw. I was Maggie. The one I hated more than anything, maybe even more than I hated her dealer, because she should have done something, she should have protected me, because I was her daughter and she was my mother and that's what mothers were meant to do.

That's what I was meant to do.

'I'm not my mother,' I whispered, tears stinging my eyes. 'I'm not my mother.'

I looked up to see Ethan standing with his feet braced against the floor as I'd seen him do so many times before, yet this time, he was pulling on the air in front of Addi, hurting him, and Addi was screaming. Oscar was being restrained by Blake, invisible binds wrapping around his chest, his arms, his throat as he still desperately tried to call out to me, begging me to fight back, begging me to believe. The entire hall looked to be in uproar and the Naiad stood, so tiny in the midst of it all, her face contorted with effort and panic and fury.

I heard the drumbeat then, stronger, louder.

No, not a drumbeat. A heartbeat. A heartbeat that wasn't my own. Slow. Deep. Strong. Ancient. The heartbeat of the First.

Touching my hand to my face, I wiped away the tears that were falling down my cheek. They slid down my fingertips and settled on my palm, not moving, not attempting to join with the water. I knew instinctively what this meant. They were my tears. Mine. No one was going to take what was mine anymore.

I was not my mother.

'Fuck you, makhshefa,' I said, struggling to my feet and facing the Naiad. 'You cannot take my tears and you will definitely not take my talitha. I am the last Endorian and I am notwith the water. I am with the First and always will be, and you, witch, will fucking burn.'

The heartbeat thundered through my body, the incredible power of the First combining with my own and the heat that surged inside me was so strong that it took everything I had to control it, but I did control it. The fire raged, and I saw it under my skin, burning an incandescent light through my veins, the glow intensifying red-hot around my hands. The inferno that burst from my palms was so bright that the demons shielded their eyes from the blaze, but the fireball that I sent hurtling across the hall was not for them, but for the Naiad who was helpless to stop it.

The flames engulfed her tiny frame, consuming her hair, her dress, her body and she screamed – fuck, did she scream– yet it wasn't a child's scream I heard, but a woman's, the real Naiad, the one who had turned to evil so many years ago, and I let her burn for it. I let her burn for all those she had killed, for the men she thought had wronged her and for the other witches she had killed because they had opposed her. But mostly, I let her burn for all the children she had murdered and for the one inside me that she had hungered for the most, and I didn't let the flames die until I felt strong arms wrap around me and heard Ethan's voice in my ear.

'Enough now, Casey,' he said, his breath warm, familiar and so-needed on my skin. 'Enough.'

Yes, I thought, as I collapsed against him. Enough.

***

Author's Note:

Hello, my amazing readers! What a week it's been for Hedoschism! My babies won an actual Watty! I'm still in shock to be honest, as you tend to enter these things without ever believing you stand a chance, but the fact that not only did it win, but also won in The Heroes category in particular, well, I honestly couldn't be happier. The more I've written of this story, the more I've realised that Casey might just be the most important character I have ever created and the one that I am most proud of. In a time when it's more imperative than ever to believe in, and listen to survivors of abuse, in a time when women's voices and their stories are crying out to be heard, Casey's story of survival and self-belief seems more important than I had ever imagined it could be. She is absolutely my hero and this chapter in particular, for me, is her most powerful to date, not just because she has managed to find her inner Endorian fire, but because she has finally become the survivor we all knew her to be.

Thank you so much for all your support. I genuinely don't believe Hedoschism would ever have won without you all, your belief in this story just floors me every time and your patience is off the scale kind. We are – thankfully – almost at the end, so please bear with me while I try to iron out a few kinks in the last couple of chapters. I'll do my best to not keep you waiting so long (famous last words, right???)

Just as a side note, there are a few words in here that might be unfamiliar and also, quite possibly incorrect, as I was trying to search for old Aramaic words and quite often, could only come up with the Hebrew alternatives. If any of you happen to know Hebrew (or Aramaic for that matter), please do feel free to correct me as I'm not entirely sure the translation is spot on, but here goes:

Mahkshefa: witch.

Talitha: little girl.

Nafqa: whore.

Śərāfîm: seraphim.