Penny stood there for minutes, her mind feeling numb over the rain that continued to fall one after without a stop, thunder shaking the land as it rumbled loudly.
By the time the magistrate's carriage appeared in the forest, the fire had extinguished itself from the rain and there was nothing but water around the forest. But the man had come to put a round in the forest when he found two girls who were still alive with the human and the vampire who were stuck at the poles.
The magistrate out of shock didn't go to fetch the two females but went straight to the mansion that belonged to the lord of Bonelake who wasn't aware of the exam that was taking place in the forest.
He came back with the Lord, who walked ahead of him to see what was up as the human magistrate had done nothing but stutter while trying to explain the situation. Lord Nicholas walked further into the forest to finally catch sight of two poles that stood at the center with two bodies that were tied to it.
Walking closer to it, he inspected the body to find one of them which was a vampire and another who was a human. The pole at the center had nobody, leaving it empty. He lifted the heads of the body to notice the slash of a knife on the neck. It was evident that it was done by witches. He knew that the black witches were taking part in the exam. He had heard it from Rueben but he didn't know there was going to be death in the form of ritual.
"Where did you see the females?" asked Nicholas to the man over the rain who quickly came forward, his body drenching while Nicholas was holding an umbrella in his hand.
The magistrate moved his head left and right, searching for the female whom he had seen standing right here but she was nowhere to be seen, "She was right here, milord. Let me go look!" saying this he went in search while Nicholas stood with his umbrella starting at the wet woods that must have burned earlier as the top of the woods had turned black while the rest was of it was still brown in color.
They had come up with the plan to catch the black witches yet he couldn't sense many who were still here in the forest. Leaving the poles alone, Lord Nicholas made his way to the trees that were dark. Seeing the shadow behind it, the pureblooded vampire was about to say something when he caught sight of a girl who sat against the tree on the ground.
Getting closer he caught sight of another girl with who he was familiar. Who knew that she was taking part in the council exam too. When their eyes met, at first the green-eyed girl looked a little surprised before her body relaxed after realizing who it was.
Bringing the carriage and having the magistrate not bring it up in front of everyone as it was top secret information, he took them to the Rune's mansion.
Penelope sat in the bathtub that was filled with warm water. After Lord Nicholas had picked sister Jera as well as her in the carriage, bringing them to his mansion, they were taken into different rooms to wash and wear dry clothes so that they wouldn't fall sick.
Now in one of the guest rooms of the Rune's mansion, Penny sunk herself in the water that felt soothing and good on her skin. They had been in the rain on and off since the time of the afternoon that this warmth felt like she was cocooned and ready to fall into slumber.
She could still see Helen dying in front of her as the girl perished in front of her very eyes who was killed by her own hands.
It wasn't the first time Penny had killed someone as she had already killed the turned witch vampire along with the others tonight which made her wonder if she was sinning as a white witch for killing so many people. Father Antonio had told her that a death in the hands of a white witch was nothing less to sin, it was why the white witches didn't kill or relapse with the humans or vampires who hurt or tried to hurt them.
Until now, the maximum effect that had taken place in her body was her eyes that had turned one to look like a snake but there had not been any change in the texture of her skin.
The last hours that had come to pass by had been the craziest as if the whole time since they had arrived at the forest until they left, it felt as if everything had been muddled because of the black witches.
They had killed the examinees without any mercy and in the end, they had died too. Except for her and Jera, everyone had died.
Coming out of the bath, she dried herself before wearing the clothes that were provided to her. When her eyes fell on the bed, she wondered if it was alright to sleep right now. Walking towards it, she decided to lie as her body hurt with the amount of back and forth she had run and being thrown on the ground.
Going to the bed, she laid down and tried to hold on to the light in the room. Her mind blurry and her eyes started to dim down to finally fall asleep.
Jera was in pain herself with her twisted arm and leg where it appeared that she had more than torn the muscles there because of the voodoo doll.
Nicholas was in his study, writing letters before he handed them it to his butler,
"Have it reach both the place right away," ordered the Lord, he saw his butler leave the room.
One letter was to the head council while the other letter was written to Damien Quinn who one of the girls was related to. He had heard that Damien was away to Wovil and it would be right for him to know where or what happened to the girl.