“There’s nothing for her to—”
“Does Harper know?” Willow’s voice cracked like a whip the second time around. Lee rolled his eyes and made to leave the bathroom. A gust of arcane wind beat him to the door, slamming it closed.
“There’s nothing for her to know!” shouted Lee. “You’re going off the imagination of a cat, Willow. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“So, it’s fine if I spend some more time with the animal, then? If it’s just his imagination, then nothing I can learn from him would be related to you and this ‘Tess’ entity, correct?”
“Enough! This is ridiculous!”
“I don’t think you understand the situation,” she said. “I already know enough of your secret, at this point, to ruin you.”
Lee felt his fury rising in his chest. He turned around, teeth gritted, and almost lost control as he stared into Willow’s smug face.
“Are you blackmailing me?” he asked, slowly. “Really? You’d sink that low?”
“Whatever did I do to give you the impression I was above that sort of thing?” Willow gave him a cruel smile and took a sip from her flask. “I’d be more than willing to keep your secret. All it would take in return is, well, complete obedience. Simple enough, right?”
“You’re insane.”
“Am I?” Willow waved her hand at the air around him. “Maybe I should present this offer to Tess, instead? The kitten seemed to think the two of you were close, perhaps mates, even. You should think of her well being before making any rash decisions.”
Lee’s anger got the better of him. He surged forward, grabbing Willow by the wrists and pressing her into the bathroom sink.
“You’re playing with fire,” he growled.
“I’m playing with you, and the game’s only just started.”
She jutted her chin up, as though daring him to express his frustration in whatever way he pleased. She was enjoying herself, luxuriating in her newfound leverage. His face was close enough to hers to smell the vodka on her breath, to see the subtle rise and fall of her chest through the fabric of her blouse. Close enough, if he wanted, to do any number of things.
“Lee?” The bathroom door opened and Eliza stepped through. “Are you… in here?”
She took in the scene and reacted to it with all the wrong emotions. Lee pressed against Willow, who had her legs parted and butt resting on the bathroom sink. Eliza’s hand went to her mouth. Lee’s horror was a creeping tide of realization. He pulled back from Willow, unsure of what to do, which fire to attempt to put out.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” he said.
“Why would I care what it looks like?” Eliza’s voice was shaky. She shook her head, locks of straightened auburn hair bouncing left and right, moisture pooling in her eyes and threatening her carefully done makeup. “My family is gone. You’re done pretending, right? Why would I care… who you fuck?”
“Eliza, hold on!”
He reached out a hand, setting it on her shoulder. She shook it off, looking back at him with her fingers gripping the edge of the door.
“Just… wait a second,” he said. “Let me explain.”
“Explain what?” The tears finally followed through on their threat, two lines of racing moisture down the sides of Eliza’s cheeks. “Will you explain why you’ve never even really seen me? Even though I’ve always been right here, right in front of you?”
“Willow and I weren’t—”
“I don’t care!” she shouted. “I don’t fucking care. Do you know what my sisters had to say about you, Lee? I’d told them about how standoffish you were, how you didn’t seem to like me like I liked you. They said you were just one of the many assholes I’d eventually have to learn to identify and ignore. That you were just wasting my time.”
She shook her head and flashed a sad smile. “They were right.”
Lee watched her go, feeling inept. Feeling defeated. Feeling like Eliza was probably right.
CHAPTER 34
For someone who’d been threatening blackmail no more than a minute prior, Willow looked surprisingly abashed. Lee watched her recompose herself out of the corner of his eye and held a finger up just as he saw her open her mouth to speak.
“Not now,” he said. “You can weasel whatever you want out of me, but only after the two of us have explained to Eliza how what she just saw wasn’t what she thought it was.”
Willow hesitated, shaking her head a little. “Only a boy would think an explanation would do anything here. Take it from me. The damage was mostly done before this misunderstanding. This just forced her to look at it.”
“Thanks, but I don’t think I’ll be taking any advice from you,” he said.
“We’ll see about that.”
Lee took Willow by the wrist and dragged her behind him. He expected Eliza to be long gone, but she was standing by the door of the common room, head slumped, shoulders sunken, facing away from them.
“Eliza. Willow found out about Tess.”
He sensed Willow shifting behind him, perhaps thrown off by the fact that his secret wasn’t quite as valuable or locked down as she’d initially assumed. No downside there as far as he could see.
“I’m telling you this as the truth, but I know what you’re feeling is probably justified, regardless.” He sighed and shook his head, stepping closer to her. “Look, it was simple for me, here at Primhaven. You know what I am, and you know what I’m not. I’m not a mage. I’m not a normal student here. I think if I had been, and I’d gotten to know you without all the pretenses and secrets, then maybe…”
Lee trailed off, unable to finish his thought in a manner that satisfied him, let alone her.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I really am.”
He stepped in closer. She still hadn’t reacted in any visible way. He reached a tentative hand out, praying she wouldn’t slap it away the second it settled on her shoulder.
She didn’t.
She turned around, and it was only then Lee saw the change.
Crimson light danced within Eliza’s eyes like two cursed rubies. The rest of her face was a horror movie mask of what she’d once looked like, faint red lines running up her forehead and down her cheeks, slightly puffy, like veins or tendrils under the surface of her skin.
“Such sincere words.” Eliza’s voice sounded off, familiar in tone but strange in enunciation. “I accept them. Come, let us set this misunderstanding behind us. Embrace me, my beloved.”
She took a step forward and he took one back, maintaining what little distance there was between them. He could see her possession aura now, that was for damn sure. It was the same demonic red as her eyes, the same pulsing crimson as the energy from the pillar.
“Whatever or whoever you are, you have five seconds to get the fuck out of my friend’s body,” he said.
Eliza let out an amused sigh and shook her head. “That simply isn’t possible, Lee. For you see, it’s still me. I’m still Eliza. I’m also more, so very much more, but rest assured. I’m still here. I speak with one voice.”
“I don’t believe that for a second.” Lee’s hand twitched as he considered reaching for his dagger. “You’re her, aren’t you? The Unavowed Queen.”
“I’ve gone by many names. Leah. Rowen. Eliza, of course. The Red Bitch. The Sacred Queen, The Unavowed Queen. It matters little what you call me. In fact, from your lips, I’ll hear no other name but my own. I’ll always be Eliza to you, in this body.”
Lee was already shaking his head, as much in response to the sick feeling in his gut as in denial of her words. “Let go of her! She doesn’t belong to you. She’s not—”
Eliza’s—or rather, the Unavowed Queen’s—body began to pulse with crimson power. It was a combination of light, intense arcane energy, and overwhelming heat and presence.
Lee threw an arm up to shield his eyes and stumbled backward, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
From behind him, he heard Willow scream. From beyond the door leading to
his room, he heard Tess call his name. As the energy ebbed, Lee blinked his sensitive eyes and tried to get a grasp on the evolving situation.
Eliza had sealed them in. Barriers of black arcane magic blocked the windows and doors leading out of the dormitory common room. Willow had fallen to the ground and was in the process of inching toward the edge of the room. Eliza’s focus was on her, and she had an ominous, mocking smile on her face.
She took a step forward and simply pointed. Willow let out a small, terrified scream and hastily threw her arms into position for a spell shield. Green spheres of defensive energy encircled her body, then dissipated as Eliza released a single blast of crimson force from the tip of her finger.
She seized Willow by the neck and lifted her into the air. The scene didn’t make sense to Lee at first as both women were in the air, Eliza through the power of levitation and Willow clawing at the hand gripping her neck.
“Let go of her!” He threw himself forward, desperate to do something, anything. He had his dagger out, though the resolve to attack Eliza, possessed or not, simply wasn’t there.
“I’ve never been fond of this girl,” said Eliza. “She took so much pleasure in flaunting herself when she thought she could get away with it.”
A strangled noise escaped Willow’s throat.
“Unfortunately, you are no longer getting away with it.” Eliza extended her finger again and began caressing Willow’s cheek. “This will not be pleasant.”
“Eliza, stop!” Lee rushed forward, grabbing her by the arm. “Don’t do this!”
It was like trying to wrestle with a bar of steel. Eliza barely reacted to his presence at first, and when she did, it was with a simple shove hard enough to knock Lee back but clearly far less than full strength.
“She knows your secret, too. She must be made to understand. Actions have consequences. Knowledge is dangerous. Authority is punishment.”
Eliza’s finger began to glow, first crimson, then white. Lee gripped his wrist and slammed his palm forward, casting his force spell with every ounce of will he had within him. He aimed it at Eliza but it was as though he’d used no spell at all, doing little more than ruffling her clothing.
She touched her glowing finger to Willow’s cheek and it was enough to draw out a tortured scream even through the grip around her throat. And it was torture, of that Lee was sure. Eliza’s finger hissed where it made contact, instantly filling the room with the smell of charred flesh. Willow flailed and thrashed, useless movements like the wriggling of a cat held by the scruff.
“No!” Lee threw himself forward, seizing Eliza by the shoulders, twisting and wrestling and having about as much effect as he would fighting a marble statue. He gripped the hand she was using to burn the other girl and tried to pull it back.
Willow was screaming in earnest now, horrible, throat-wracking noises that reverberated off the walls of the sealed room. Lee exhaled, forcing calm into his place within the chaos, and used his dispel ability.
He could feel the change as his power countered Eliza’s newfound magical strength. Her arm softened, and her grip around Willow’s neck slipped. Lee twisted, pulling her backward and separating the two women.
The damage had already been done, and Willow fell into a sobbing heap, one side of her face marred by a horrific black burn that could just as easily have come from an acetylene torch.
Lee tried to twist Eliza into a submission hold, but she regained her impossibly supernatural strength as soon as his focus shifted away from using dispel. She flung him across the room, and he landed on a table, snapping through wood and banging his head on the way down.
“Do you not see?” she asked him. “Do you not understand? She caused me pain. She will cause you pain. This is simply the way of things. Pain is the great equalizer. Pain is what’s fair.”
“Eliza, this isn’t you. Listen to me. Listen to my voice.”
She let out a mocking laugh, one that sounded so much like the Eliza he knew while simultaneously being so cruel and so ill-fitting. He watched her, daring to meet and hold her gaze. The glow of her eyes had dimmed almost completely, and even the red lines across her face were subdued, more like faded tattoos than the channels of energy they’d been earlier.
“Please. Eliza, please.”
He wasn’t above pleading with her. He held his hands out, showing her what he suspected she already knew. Eliza, or the Unavowed Queen—whoever it was he was currently facing—had him and Willow at her mercy. The room was sealed. She’d already proven herself to be a capable torturer. What else could he do but plead?
He could fight her. Maybe using dispel, he could even weaken her enough to take his dagger and… what? Ram it through the chest of someone he loved? If she was possessed, and it was becoming less of an if as the situation progressed, he sincerely doubted he could evict the entity with a simple knock to the head.
“You’d beg for her life, then?” asked Eliza. “What else would you do for it?”
She strode toward him with long, languid steps. Lee flinched back as she extended her finger again but this time, it wasn’t glowing with the same evil energy she’d used on Willow. He felt it come to rest under his chin, pulling his face onto a diagonal.
Eliza leaned in, a brief and eager smile dancing across her features, and then kissed him. He was numb, unable to respond even if he’d somehow been wanting and willing.
“Will you come with me?” she whispered.
“…What?”
She came closer still, pressing her body against his in the sort of confident power play the real Eliza would have never attempted. It was dangerous to let her get so close. His own response horrified him, awareness pulling toward the contact of her thigh against his leg, her tits against his chest, Willow’s pained sobs still in the background.
“I’m leaving,” whispered Eliza. “There’s simply too much for me to attend to. I have power now, Lee, and it just so happens I have ideas about how to make change.”
“You have power… and ideas.” He shook his head. “Eliza would never—”
“Maybe you didn’t know Eliza as well as you thought. Is that such a hard truth to swallow? That in the midst of falling in love with a ghost, and your master, and any other woman who batted her eyelashes at you… you missed what was right in front of you?”
She pushed forward, pulling his face to hers. Lee felt her tongue dart into his mouth as she began to move, hips grinding into him, hands roving up his side, underneath his shirt.
“This… mmf… is how I always wanted to kiss you.” Eliza pulled back, breathing heavily. “I wanted my kisses to get into your head. To take you over.”
“Stop.” He tried to push her back but her body stiffened as his palm made contact, holding like a brick wall.
“Make me.”
She pulled her body into his, using her strength until they were in direct, heated contact, then softening herself again. Her lips pressed against his and Lee felt as though it would be so easy, so safe, to give her what she wanted.
He pushed her hard in the chest, knocking her away from him. Eliza clawed out, fingernails opening three parallel scratches across his neck underneath where her hand had just been. Her eyes flickered again with crimson, with the conflict he’d apparently birthed within her by his refusal.
A jarring bang came from outside the dormitory common room, and a silver web of cracks spread through one of the shadowy barriers she’d set up to seal the windows. Eliza let out a disappointed sigh and gave him a small, suggestive smile.
“We’ll continue this another time. I’m not at my full strength yet.”
“Eliza…” He didn’t know what to say, whether to try to stop her or just to be grateful she was relenting.
“Don’t worry. We’ll see each other again, Lee.”
She seemed to rise onto the tips of her toes and then beyond, levitating toward the ceiling. She pointed a single finger upward, and a blast of energy flashed from it so bright that Lee had to turn his he
ad and shield his eyes. When he finally looked back, a perfect circle of exposed afternoon sky loomed overhead, and Eliza was gone.
“It hurts…” Willow’s shrill, shaky voice mewled from the corner of the room. “It hurts… it hurts…”
Lee tried to swallow the lump in his throat as he hurried to her side. She was right. It really fucking hurt, and it was all his fault.
CHAPTER 35
The infirmary was empty when Lee and Willow arrived. He’d carried her from the dormitories, not realizing how the exposure to intense magic had affected him until Nurse Susie started asking questions and he began mumbling out nonsensical answers like someone regaining their bearings after a blow to the head.
He sat up in the sterile infirmary bed, running a hand through his hair and trying to keep his anxiety from edging its way across the boundary of complete panic. The best-case scenario involved him confronting Eliza and doing battle with an enemy capable of both possession and immense feats of supernatural and arcane strength.
The worst-case scenario was so much worse that he still wasn’t letting himself consider it. Her words continued to echo through his head like an evil prophecy already come to pass.
I’m still Eliza. I’m also more, so very much more.
Willow’s shaky, harrowed breathing emanated from the next bed over. Nurse Susie had given her a strong sedative as soon as they’d arrived. Lee had gotten a glance at her face briefly before the cleaning and bandaging had been done. Eliza had left an X-shaped wound on her cheek as though she wanted Willow and anyone who saw it to know, without a doubt, that it had been inflicted intentionally.
“I’m sorry.” Tess’s voice came from the other side of the bed and he noticed her sitting in a chair at the edge of the room. Lee tried his best to smile, pulling her into his mystic stream.
“Why are you sorry?”
“I should have done more.” She pouted a little, pulling her knees up to her chest in her chair. “I haven’t talked to Eliza in a while. If I’d been there, and been willing to listen, maybe…”
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