The Elemental Mate

Aurora POV

I could feel the tension in the room as the weight of my actions pressed down on my shoulders.

“I know I should ask for forgiveness. I know I should apologize for my actions. I know that I should be on my knees, begging for my life,” I begin as I stare at the blank faces around the circle, “But I won’t. I don’t regret my actions. I don’t want forgiveness for saving your lives.”

Shock and anger crossed each face as they stared at me in shock.

“Aurora, think about what you are doing,” my friend, Amara, begged me as a few of the guards held her back, but I wasn’t going to change my mind.

Iris lifted her hand, silencing Amara from saying anything else. She rose from her seat and moved to stand above us all as the sound of her heels clicked against the ground, “You realize what you are saying, correct Aurora.”

I held my head high, unafraid of the death I was about to receive, “I will not apologize for what I did, and I for sure as hell will not apologize for who I am.”

“If you do not even regret your crimes, then I cannot give you even the benefit of the doubt. Know that I didn’t want to do this,” Iris’s smile held her utter distaste for me as she finally let it all show, “By the power of this council, I, Iris Crowther, sentence you, Aurora Wytte, to death.”

I closed my eyes as her words reached my ears. I could hear the weeping sounds as my mother crumbled to the floor as she began to mourn the loss of another child. I could hear the shocks go around the room.

I refused to beg for my life: I would not give Iris the satisfaction. I opened my eyes to meet Iris’s cold blue ones, “Do what you must.”

A pair of guards came to my sides as they lifted me up and moved me towards the pike in the center of the room. The stake loomed over the coven as they watched me be tied to the pole.

I knew what would happen when I committed the crime. I had been told the stories of those who went against the council. Though, we had not burned one of our own since before even Salem.

Iris moved her hands as she spoke the spell that set the first stick ablaze. I felt the fire spread up my body as I watched Iris’s cold smile through the flames.