by K. A Knight
62
Jason
Slamming the book shut, I grab another, searching for a way to bring down the barrier the council will have added to Aurora’s prison and no doubt the magically infused chain. It’s standard procedure, and I’ve never thought to research a way to break it before.
The obvious way is to kill the witch who cast the spells, but that won’t go down well, though I do contemplate it for a moment, if for nothing but its simplicity.
I don’t know how long I’ve been at this now. I seem to have worked through half the bloody shelf. I can still see Darius, well, the back of his head, as he tries to get through to Aurora.
If the grunts are anything to go by, he isn’t doing any better than I am.
Grabbing the next stack of books, I open the first one and start scanning. Nothing. Fucking nothing. Swiping the pile from the table, I drop my head into my hands.
Come on, Jason, think. They’re relying on you. She’s relying on you.
Racking my brain, I come up with a stupid idea; one that might work. I can’t kill the spell caster, but maybe I can seek him out on grounds of knowledge.
I’m almost certain who they’ll have used to do the spells: my old tutor.
With fresh determination, I leave the library, making sure to lock the door behind me. It won’t keep people out, but it will give Darius a warning if someone comes.
We can’t be too careful here.
63
Ezra
Four fucking hours… that’s how long I’ve walked around this never-ending, over the top mansion the council calls home, praying and concentrating on my bond with Aurora. I can’t feel her in my mind. Odds are she blocked me out.
Instead of trying to do something I’ve never done before, like push into her mind, I thought I’d follow the bond between us and let it lead me to her. But so far, nothing.
It’s like she doesn’t even exist anymore.
The chains and magic could be blocking her, but I keep going anyway. I need to figure out where she is, and there are lots of places the council could be hiding her. I get some odd looks from guards, but one snarl from me and they soon fuck off.
Stopping suddenly, I tilt my head when a low thrum runs through my body. I turn in the direction it came from and follow it as it pulses through me softly, so soft that if I wasn’t looking so hard, I wouldn’t catch it.
Three turns and four flights of stairs later, I step into the basement of the mansion, a place not even us hunters are allowed into. Spotting two guards standing in front of a door, I square my shoulders.
Marching right up to them, I arch my eyebrow.
They shift nervously but don’t back down.
“We can’t let you down there, sir,” says the one on the right.
“Why not?” I growl.
“Council’s orders. No one in or out. I really am sorry, sir.” The kid sounds scared.
Gritting my teeth, I nod and walk away, knowing if I push, it will look strange and be reported back to the council. At least we know where they’re keeping her. Now we need to figure out how to get down there.
Hang on, baby, we’re coming.
64
Benjamin
Laughing at the joke the guard made, I down my drink, trying to numb my anger. Playing nice is the last thing I want to do right now, but it’s not like any of the others could. Jason would just stare at them. Ezra would probably kill them. They’re all terrified of Alex.
So, me it is.
Ignoring the chatter around me, I nod and laugh at appropriate times, earning their respect and trust as I project myself as one of them. Oh, they all know who I am, but they also know I’m the easy going one.
“I heard you guys have been asked to work double,” I slip into a lull in the conversation, sipping my drink casually.
“Yeah. It fucking sucks, man. All because of that piece of ass you brought in.” The guy nudges me, and I laugh even I as tighten my hold on the glass.
“Yeah, even got us working all night now. With partners, no less! Me and Terry here are due to swap out guard duty on the woman tonight,” another says, leaning back in his chair as he studies the cards in his hand.
“That sucks, guys. You’re working eight-eight?” I ask, sounding sympathetic.
He nods and throws a card on the table.
I make sure to stay a bit longer and join in the conversations so they don’t grow suspicious. Letting them know I have to get back to work, I ignore their ribbing and head to the one place I despise above everything else: my brother’s office.
Striding through the packed hallways, I nod and smile as people greet me.
When I reach the open door, I slip through.
His secretary sits behind her little desk, but I ignore her as she hurries toward me.
Pushing through the doors into his office, I close them in her startled face.
“I’m busy, Benjamin, make an appointment,” Trew says without even looking up from the papers he reads intently.
Striding closer, I throw myself in a leather chair opposite his desk and cross my ankles, staring at him.
After five minutes, he sighs and leans back, glowering at me in exasperation. He might only be five years older, but he acts like my father. He’s a rat bastard, too.
Where I look more like my mum, Trew looks like dear old daddy. Short cropped black hair and dark brown eyes. The only thing he got from our mother is her good looks. The shitty attitude and snake-like backstabbing he inherited from dad.
He steeples his hands under his chin as he observes me. “What do you want, Benjamin?”
“Names Ben, asswad,“ I murmur.
To get back at him, I pull the hair tie from my hair and let it fall around my shoulders. His eyes narrow. He hates that, as he’s told me often by saying, and I quote, ‘I keep my hair like a girl’. It’s the little things in life that keep a person happy, like rubbing this in his face every time I see him.
“Can’t I want to catch up with my brother?” I almost spit the last word.
He isn’t my brother, but I need to get on his good side.
He eyes me harshly, clearly losing his temper. “What do you want?”
Well, two can play that game. Sitting up, I narrow my eyes at him. “I heard you’ve upped the guards on the sheep we brought in.” Even saying that word makes me sick, but I know he won’t hesitate to go to the council if he thinks I sympathize with Aurora. “I’m curious why. Alex wants to know if we need to expect trouble. To protect the council, of course.”
“Of course,” he mimics, sitting back in his chair, acting like the lord of the fucking manner. “We’ve upped security as a precaution. We don’t like the unknown, and the girl is the unknown. You’ll all be safe here; the council will see to that, and once the execution is held, you can go back to hunting down rogue witches, and I can go back to my paperwork. In peace.”
Gritting my teeth, I stand. I know I won’t get anything out of him when he’s in this mood. I nod and turn to leave. At least I know when the guards change shift.
“Oh, and Benjamin, don’t think I haven’t noticed the little rebellions and lies your group are shrouded in. I’ll be sure to mention it to the council once this business is concluded.” He laughs.
I don’t give him the pleasure of an answer and storm out of his office.
Once a snake, always a snake. Brother or not.
65
Mikael
Striding down the hallway with Alex at my side, I ignore the looks of worship and lust thrown our way. We’re legends in our own right among the witches, with over fifty confirmed captures in the last year alone. But it all seems pale and unimportant in the face of our hardest mission yet: rescuing Aurora.
Two girls’ step into our paths, young and filled with uncontrolled magic, yet they bat their lashes at us and plaster themselves to our fronts.
“I heard you brought in a hybrid,” one coos.
“That’s so cool,” the other one finishes.
I push her away gently. We don’t have time for this.
Alex does the same but gives them a fake smile as we move around them.
“We’ll be at the trial tonight. Maybe afterward you could come and show us a thing or two,” one of them calls, the other giggling.
I spin on my heel and march right up to her.
Alex places a warning hand on my shoulder, but I glare at the girl.
“What do you mean tonight? The trial is tomorrow,” I snarl, bored of the games and pretenses.
She gulps, her eyes wide as she quivers in front of me. “No, the council moved it to tonight. In an hour, to be exact. Everyone’s going.”
No.
Shaking my head, I stumble back from her and the girls take the chance to escape. I face Alex, and he looks as stricken as me.
We can’t rescue her in an hour, we just can’t. It’s not possible. The whole plan relies on the trial being tomorrow. We won’t even get close to her now.
We can’t save her.
66
Aurora
They leave me alone for the rest of the day.
The only thing to break up the quiet and pain of waiting for them to decide my fate is Darius. He tries to talk to me, push into my mind. When being sweet doesn’t work, he becomes an asshole. When that doesn’t work, he tries sweet again until I get bored of his game and stop answering him.
I won’t be his fucking entertainment.
Footsteps head my way, and I stand. My ass is numb from the cold stone, but at least the after-effects of the torture left me and I’m once again stronger. Not as strong as when I have my magic, though.
The magic at the door drops, and I brace myself to sprint, but four men pour into my cell, three with magic already formed in their hands.
Not wanting to risk it, I relax my stance.
The only man not holding magic heads my way. He shackles my hands and feet together with more of the numbing magic shit and unclips me from the wall like a bloody pet.
None of them speak as they pull me from my cell, and I find my mouth opening and shit pouring out, because hey why the hell not.
Can it really get any worse?
Yes, yes it can get worse.
Snapping my mouth shut to the happiness of the guards, I gawk at the people in the room.
They all turn as I’m dragged inside, some gasping. Some women even pretend to faint. Murmuring rises between themselves, snatches of conversation drifting to me as the guards drag me down the center aisle toward the waiting steel cage in the middle of the room.
It looks like a bloody courtroom with chairs lined up behind the cage of the crowd and a huge, curved desk sitting on a dais filled with chairs. Only four chairs are filled, with who I guess are the council members.
William sits in the center seat.
The cage locks behind me and the bars instantly turn blue with the same magic from my cell. Brilliant. I was too busy gawking to try to escape. Not that I would have made it far. There has to be over two hundred people in this room. All witches.
They look at me like I’m dirt, like I’m disgusting. It kinda knocks a girl’s confidence.
Running my eyes over the crowd, I meet six familiar sets of eyes, all hard and filled with concern. Ignoring the men I once considered friends and lovers, I turn back to face the waiting council.
“I do love Judge Judy, don’t get me wrong, but do I get a lawyer? I know this dude who went to law school. I mean, he practices from home now, but his mom makes amazing cookies.” The words blurt from my mouth and the crowd falls silent.
I refuse to be paraded around and laughed at. They already all hate me. Why not give them something to really talk about. I hear a muted laugh, and I know it came from one of my ex-guys.
“No? Nobody here speaks? We all sit around looking ominous? Do you guys practice those facial expression in the mirror? I bet you do.”
“Silence!” William glares at me.
“Sure, no problemo.” I fake a salute and a stick shoves through my cage and rams into my side.
An electric current races through my body, making me drop to my knees as my teeth clash together. I stay locked like that for minutes before it passes enough for me to stand again.
I refuse to be on my knees before them.
“Well, damn boys, I didn’t realize you were into the kinky shit. Give a girl a warning, though, will you?” I run my eyes over the council until I meet the cold blue ones of a woman. “I bet you love the freaky shit, am I right? Wax play and daddy complex?”
I don’t finish as another current strike me.
“Hekate damn. I feel like a fucking plug socket,” I moan, spitting through the cage to clear the burned taste from my mouth.
Princess, stop baiting them.
I ignore Darius’s plea.
“So, what are we thinking? Burned at the stake, electric chair, fireball to the face? I got to admit, I’m not a fan of burning to death, but it does seem oddly fitting, am I right? Wait, did the humans really burn witches at the stake? I never asked.”
The council stares at me, lost for words.
William finally stands, leaning over the table. “I said silence, half breed.”
“Yeah, see, I struggle with that. My dad once called me a television with no off button. Perses himself even tried to mute me once, which worked because, you know, he’s a god and everything.”
William stares at me, flabbergasted. I bet the people usually in this cage cry and beg for their lives. “Let’s talk about your parents. I shall ignore your blasphemous use of one of our gods.”
“Silly me, of course you want to get to know me. Well, let’s see. I enjoy cookies and walks in the forest. I don’t like guac, but I do like sour cream—mother fucking ass toad!” I yell when I get hit with the stick again. Looking at the witch who keeps poking me, I narrow my eyes. “You poke me with your little stick, which is clearly making up for your small cock, again and I will snap it in two and stick it up your ass and let you fry to death.”
The witches in the crowd gasp again, screaming and shouting as I hold a staring contest with the man. He cowers back away from the cage.
“Smart man,” I coo and turn back to William as he silences the crowd with one look.
“Where was I? Oh, right, family. Mother is dead. Father is an asshole who I wish was dead. By the way, you two should share torture techniques. I think he would really love to know that one with the blood boiling,” I joke, and Wiliam’s face turns so red I fear he might explode.
Lane would be laughing right now, feeling sorry for the man. Sadness cuts through me knowing I won’t see that little smile of hers again, but I push it away.
“You should take your trial more seriously, child,” the woman snaps.
“Sure thing. Do we get breaks? I’m a little hungry. Now, I’m not trying to say your hosting skills are bad but—fuck me in the face!” I shout as the stick hits me again.
Snapping my hand out, I grab the stick as he tries to pull it back through the cage, snap it over my knee, and throw both ends at his face. He screams and tries to bat them away as he falls away from the cage.
William barely spares him a glance. “Your mother, what is her full name?”
He studies some papers in front of him. Either that or he’s pushing out a fart and doesn’t want anyone to see.
My eyes widen as a familiar little gremlin winks at me from behind William before disappearing.
“Answer him, half breed!” another man yells, his meaty fits banging on the table.
“Uh, sorry, what was the question again? I zoned out,” I tease.
“Council leader, if I may. The half breed is clearly not taking this seriously. I say we move straight to the sentencing,” a young man on the left says, throwing me a narrowed eye glare.
He looks familiar, but I don’t know why.
“What? Skip the foreplay and straight to the shaft? Really? No wonder you all look like you need a good shag,” I laugh.
“Aye,” comes a chorus of replies.
Wow, harsh.
Don’t worry princess, we’re coming up with a plan. Hold tight.
“I’m afraid that can’t happen,” a lyrical woman’s voice says.
At that sound, my whole body stands on attention and love unfurls in my chest.
“And why is that?” William laughs, searching the room for the owner of the voice.
“She is important. You are not.”
A woman appears before me, her face familiar from the paintings and fountain at Perses’s house. My blood sings as she gives me a loving look, one similar to how a mother would look at a child, but in her, I also sense sadness and acceptance. What could upset a goddess? Why is she here? I thought Hekate was dead, but here she stands looking at me with her back to the council like they’re nothing more than an annoyance.
She reaches through the cage, the magic dropping automatically for her. “I’m sorry, my child. I wish I could have helped you more, given you the world of magic and love I dreamed of. I had hoped we would have more time, but it seems I was wrong. Forgive me for that. Find the books I left you. They will help guide you on the journey. Aurora, please trust in your bonds. And, my child? Tell my father I’m sorry, that I love him, and that I finally learned what true, world-destroying love looks like.”
A single tear drops from one of her eyes as she gazes at four men I never noticed before. They’re blurry, like they aren’t really here, and as I watch, they seem to dissolve more.
“They’re too old for this world. My world kept them alive and sucked the darkness from them, but to come back meant their deaths,” she explains, watching as they fade more in front of our eyes. “My loves, I will join you soon. Wait for me,” she cries, and they nod.