Warlocks & Warfare_A Grimmer Legacy novel

by Eleanor Rousseau

  “I didn’t get a chance to congratulate you.”

  Shit. I froze, at first, I thought his gaze was on the ring on my finger but it was to the right of my hand.

  “Had you given me a chance I would have explained that the process you endured had the unfortunate side effect of removing all previous enchantments placed on you.”

  I frowned, what in God’s name was he playing at? Did he know I was technically married or not? He couldn’t know, no one did. Whatever mind games he was playing I absolutely refused to get sucked into them. The only enchantment I’d ever had placed on me was... My eyes widened.

  He grinned.

  “You son of a bitch!” I lunged forward but Amber grabbed me. “I’ll kill you!” I yelled, meaning every word. Talk about a hollow victory. I had been satisfied to see him banished but now I wanted to set his stupid head on fire and watching it burn.

  He left out the side door and I shoved Amber away. “What’s wrong?” my aunt demanded.

  “Everything!” I snarled.

  “Kia,” called Xena.

  I paused, I didn’t want to but the older woman deserved respect, especially after what she’d done for me. “I can’t be here right now, nanna, but thank you for your help.”

  “Anytime, darling.”

  I ran from the room before I lost it.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  “I thought I might find you here.”

  I said nothing, just poked the pool of liquid metal in front of me.

  “You’re in pain.” He sat down behind me and pressed his body against mine, wrapping his strong arms around my waist. “How can I help?” he asked, a pleading note in his tone.

  “Am I cursed, Avon?”

  “Of course not, love,” he assured me, running his fingers through my hair.

  I picked up an old muffler from the pile of junk at my side and let it melt, falling into the pool I’d already created. “Must they destroy everything I am?” I asked softly.

  “Please tell me what causes you such distress, let me ease your fears.” He kissed my neck repeatedly. “Let me fix this,” he implored.

  “It cannot be fixed, you can’t just fix everything!”

  “I can try,” he whispered.

  I bit my lip and blinked back sudden tears. My emotions were all over the place, he was the very last person I should be getting angry with.

  “Please, stop, I can’t bear to see you cry. Tell me what to do, love.”

  “Tell me it doesn’t matter,” I murmured.

  “It doesn’t, no matter what it is, it doesn’t matter. I love you.”

  The tears were falling freely now. “I hate what has become of me.” I wasn’t like this, I wasn’t all teary. I was a fighter, a mercenary, a Witch. This just wasn’t something I could fight.

  “I adore everything you are and everything you will ever become.”

  Gods, he was too good for me. I turned in his arms and buried my head against his neck, “I just- I want to be somewhere that’s not here.”

  “Not a junkyard?”

  “Not anywhere. I just want to disappear for awhile.”

  “May I disappear with you?” he asked softly, kissing my forehead.

  “I think it best that you do.” What would I do without him?

  He cupped the back of my head, “Then I can think of nothing better. I know a place, somewhere no one on earth will ever find us.” He tilted my head back and kissed me.

  “Take me there,” I pleaded, whimpering softly.

  I SMILED BUT DIDN’T feel it, I felt hollow, which was ironic really. “Hey,” I said softly.

  “Good morning, did you sleep well, love?” he asked, his actions hesitant as he reached to cup my face.

  “I did, thank you.”

  He kissed my nose, “I need to bathe... would you join me?” he asked hopefully.

  I wanted to, more than anything but I couldn’t, not yet. “I’ll fix you something to eat.”

  I pretended not to notice the way his shoulders sagged with disappointment. “I won't be long,” he promised, kissing my cheek.

  He left. I moved about in the small kitchen. We had been in this cottage for two weeks now and I had warded off his advances, although it brought me no pleasure to do so. Of course, as of last night, I no longer needed to because now I knew for sure.

  I just needed to tell him.

  Why was it so hard, why was life so complicated?

  I fixed him a sandwich. When he stepped back into the kitchen he wore only a towel around his waist. I paused, breath caught in my throat at the sight of him. He was the sexiest creature I had ever seen.

  He sighed softly and stepped closer, “I thought being here might please you.” He caressed my cheek with his knuckles.

  “It does please me.” I reached up to touch his wrist. I liked the little cottage, it was cozy and had everything we needed, plenty of food, a warm hearth in front of the sofa that was big enough to curl up in. It reminded me of the house that Tom and the twins shared but much smaller, I should have been comfortable here but I was having trouble enjoying it with all the emotions that constantly threatened to choke me.

  “You can’t expect me to believe that, not when you won't let me touch you, won’t let me taste you,” his voice became a hoarse groan.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry, just talk to me, please.”

  I blinked, “My father... he-” I sniffed.

  “Tell me what he did and I will dismember him, I will tear his head from his pathetic body.”

  “He took away our choice,” I gasped, whimpering softly. I tried to think of the best way to explain but I just didn’t know how.

  He wrapped his arms around my trembling body. “I don’t understand, love.”

  “He removed Gordo’s enchantment, he removed it and he didn’t consider warning me,” I sobbed.

  “Slow down, Gordo’s... the enchantment.” He pulled back to meet my gaze. “This is what has been causing you such distress?” His expression became infinitely sadder.

  I rested my head against his shoulder. “He has made me the one thing I promised myself I would never become.”

  He cupped my face in both hands, “Everything will be okay, I will make sure of it. If you don’t wish to be a mother then no one will force it upon you,” he promised, his expression pained.

  “No. I couldn’t live with myself.”

  He kissed me, “He has put you in an impossible situation.” His thumb gently brushed my cheek.

  “I’m not ready, I’ve barely started my own life, I don’t wish to be responsible for another but all the same I would fully devote myself to any child of ours.”

  “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Sorry that your father is a heartless bastard and the world is unjust. I will make this up to you, I will do anything in my power to see you happy again. Anything,” he promised, eyes serious.

  I hugged him, “You always make me believe you’re capable of the impossible,” I said, sighing softly as I rested my head against his chest and finally let myself take comfort in his touch.

  “Impossible seems to be our specialty.” He wrapped his arms around me, holding me tight. His lips brushed mine and for the first time in two weeks, I let him kiss me in the way I truly wanted to be kissed.

  Epilogue

  Avon

  “Where is she?” demanded Jay. Rarely had I seen this fierceness in him, this deep anger. He balled his fist up in the front of my shirt, almost hoisting me off the ground.

  “She’s safe but she’s in pain, in an unbearable amount of pain.” I rested a hand on his shoulder, not reacting with violence because I knew exactly how he was feeling. The girl we both cared for was in trouble and, though he didn’t know it yet, we were helpless to protect her.

  “How do you know?” He let me go, shoulders sagging in defeat and rubbed both hands over his face, his exhaustion showing.

  “I have a bond with her now. She doesn’t know it yet but I feel a sma
ll amount of what she feels and what I feel is tearing my soul apart.” I bowed my head, the weight of my wife’s suffering almost crushing me.

  “Why did you ask me here?” he asked, his eyes were filled with suspicion. He thought this was my fault and he wasn’t exactly wrong.

  “I no longer have the power to soothe her fears, to bring her happiness.”

  “You think I do?” He scratched the back of his head, his expression turning weary.

  “I think you have powers that I don’t. When the time comes I want you to come up with a spell,” I told him, forcing the words out.

  He raised an eyebrow, “What kind of spell?”

  “I want her to be able to forget.” I’d been thinking about it for days now but saying the word made the idea infinitely more real and infinitely more painful.

  “Forget?” he pressed, frowning a little.

  “I want her to forget everything, I want her to be able to start over.”

  He met my gaze, searching for something. “To forget even you?”

  I clenched my jaw but nodded, “Especially me.” I carried the weight of responsibility for what had happened, just as that damned Warlock did.

  “But your bond-”

  I nodded, “The bond is one way, I will always feel her but she won’t feel me.”

  “Why do you think this is necessary?” he demanded.

  I pressed both hands to my face. “I screwed up but it’s that bastard Misha’s fault. Because of what he did to her the enchantment Gordo placed on her was nullified, she was unaware of this fact and we were careless.”

  His arm came out and before I could blink his hand clutched my throat. I gasped but made no move to retaliate. He was my brother-in-law after all. “Are you saying my sister is with child!” he snarled, as fierce as any demon I had ever seen.

  “She is,” I breathed.

  “My sister, who hates more than anything the idea that she will one day be forced to have children to appease the traditions of our family. You have given her the one thing she has been rebelling against since she had the ability to form rational thought,” he growled.

  “You think I don’t know that! My child is growing in the womb of the woman I love, part of me is rejoicing but a larger part is dying because I know my beloved will never be truly happy.”

  He must have seen my sincerity because he released me and I fell back in my chair.

  “I can do the spell, I’ve performed one like it before.” There was a shadow in his gaze, clearly, something haunted him. “I’m going to assume she won’t be consenting to this.”

  “You know as well as I that she would never willingly leave her child, whatever her reservations.”

  “And what would happen to the child?”

  “I will raise him or her, with as much or as little intervention from their mother's family as you deem appropriate,” I said, being calm and reasonable. I might be denying the child their mother but they would still have more than enough family.

  He groaned, “It feels like a betrayal.”

  “Her happiness means more than her trust in me,” I said seriously.

  He sighed, “I will see what I can do. You understand that she’ll no longer love you?” he asked seriously, meeting my gaze, his blue eyes piercing.

  I glanced down at my hands. “I know, I can live with that.”

  “Can you, really though? I’ve watched you with her, I know that for you the sun rises and sets for her. If I thought otherwise I would have killed you myself. I never expected such devotion from a Daemon but it’s undeniable. Is this really what you want, even if it means she falls in love with another?”

  I hadn’t considered that, the thought of another man’s hands on her made me want to lash out with a ferocity that surprised even me. “All I want is her happiness. Maybe she will be with me again when she’s ready. I won't abandon her, I’ll just keep a distance.”

  He nodded. “Where is she now?”

  “She’s safe. I thought all she needed was time but she isn’t getting better... She doesn’t laugh anymore, her smiles aren’t genuine, she barely eats.” I dragged my fingers through my hair.

  I just wanted her back, I wanted her to kiss me the way she used to, to laugh as we made love. Gods, how I missed the feeling of her soft body pressed against mine.

  “She needs to take care of the baby, does she know what precautions to take?”

  “It’s pretty early but I’m thinking of getting some vitamins or something,” I scratched the back of my head. Having a child wasn’t something I’d ever anticipated.

  “I’ll get you anything you need, you should let me visit.”

  I nodded, “I think that would be a good idea. I’ve taken her to a place in the Overworld, somewhere only I can find her.”

  He rose, “I’ll meet you back here, same time tomorrow and you can take me to her. Has she taken a pregnancy test?”

  I shook my head, “But she knows, there is no doubt in her mind.”

  “She’s a witch, she wouldn’t be wrong about this but I’m sure she’d like confirmation all the same. And it would be good to know for far along she is.”

  I nodded my agreement. “I believe it happened in the days prior to the trial. Which means it’s only been a few weeks.”

  He nodded, frowning, “You’re sure this is how you want to handle it?”

  I nodded, “It’s the only way.” Since I’d met Kia she’d lost some of her innocence, she’d become hardened by the things she had endured. She’d been through hell, literally and figuratively. Giving her back that innocence might almost be worth losing her.

  Other titles by Eleanor Rousseau

  The Grimmer Legacy series:

  Demons & Hellholes

  Warlocks & Warfare

  Magic & Memory Loss (Coming soon)

  Note from the author

  Thank you to everyone who bought and read this book, you’re awesome and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did like it please leave a review and maybe recommend it to a friend, it you do you will have my undying loyalty. If all the stars align the next book in the Grimmer Legacy series should be published near the beginning of 2018 so please make sure to check that out. Please also follow me on all my social media hangouts for updates, snippets, free short stories and the occasional funny meme.

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