“Don’t you ever make me touch myself just to prove you can, asshole,” I choked out. Knox smirked, watching me struggle beneath his substantial frame. “I’m no one’s bitch, Knox. Not even yours. I’ll cut your fucking name off my flesh and take my chances with the others before I allow you to use me in that way, ever again.”
His thumb brushed over my wildly beating pulse while he watched me glaring murderously at him. His mouth lowered, and I turned away, staring at the box beneath my bed, and felt his head moving to look in that direction. I turned back, claiming his lips softly, nipping his plump bottom lip as a resounding growl filled my throat before I released it and narrowed my eyes on his lips.
The simple action sent a shock wave crashing through me, causing my eyes to round in horror. His grip tightened on my throat, and he smiled. I hated that I was drawn to him on a physical level, but worse, there was something deeper, something that drew the part of me that wasn’t a witch to him. It was as if he was drawing me in without trying to, and yet both of us were denying it. Or maybe it was just one-sided, but his cock seemed to grow around me, which I thought was like when a dog humped your leg, assuming it meant he liked me a little.
“Nice try, Aria. What did you see?” His nose brushed against my cheek as he watched me struggling to fight his influence.
“Go to the devil… A secret box of letters.” I glared at him as I let my tongue trail over my lip while he watched me through a heated stare.
His head lowered to brush against mine softly, pushing his ear against my mouth as he peered beneath my bed. My lips touched his ear, and the hair tickled my nose.
“I fucking hate you,” I whispered, barely audible, and yet he caught it.
“Good,” he uttered, moving off of me to retrieve the box. He opened it, and I watched as he pulled out a note. I struggled to my feet, staring at the letter he held.
Aria, my sweetest, prickly twin, you are officially given. I know you came to find me, and I know right now you’re confused and hurt by what they will tell you. Don’t believe them; there’s so much more happening, and soon you will know it all intimately. He will come to collect you soon. I wish there was another way, but I couldn’t find it in time to save you. I know you want me to be happy, and are willing to do whatever it takes to make it so. Forgive me, there was no other way. ~A
“What the hell does that even mean?” I took the letter I’d read from over his shoulder, rereading it before it caught fire. “Son of a bitch,” I snapped, sucking my finger where the flesh had been seared.
“You are given, huh?” he asked, hiking a dark brow while watching my finger where it sat between my lips.
“You don’t know she wrote that.”
“Did she?” he asked, and I nodded, hating the weight that sat on my chest with the idea that she would sign me over to anyone. “Who is he?”
“I don’t know. I have no idea.” I sat on the bed, pulling my knees up to my chest while my heart ached with the betrayal only Amara could deliver. My shoulders slumped, and I dropped my head into my hands.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let them get you.” He knelt down with his arms resting on his knees as a wolfish grin covered his sinful mouth. “If anyone gets to break your pretty little neck, it’s me.”
“You say the sweetest shit to me, jerk.” I frowned, exhaling deeply as I tried to make sense of my sister’s letter, not bothering to lift my head to look at him. “Someone could have placed it for us to find.”
“I don’t imagine they’d have added prickly, which only someone close to you would say. I think Amara made the same deal with Jasper’s mother, Kianna, made, but instead of bringing children to the Nine Realms to murder, your sister chose you.”
“Way to sugarcoat it.” I lifted my glare, exhaling through the tightening in my throat. That’s exactly where my mind had gone too. The question was, did she realize that some creatures in the Nine Realms wanted us dead, or to impregnate us to gain entry into this realm? If she was aware of that, then why me? Why offer me to them? I hadn’t been that difficult to live with.
“Get your shit, ward the house, and let’s go. I can’t protect you if you’re being reckless here alone.”
I hated that he was right, that if someone was really after me, I couldn’t be alone. It was reckless. It also meant I had a target on me, more than the one Knox had painted. I stood, turning to the closet and frowned.
“The creature in the woods, maybe it was him? He said my name, and that he’d come for me.”
“The creature in the wood was a woodland fae, and he can’t come after you, I ripped his fucking throat out the moment I knew he wasn’t in on anything with your sister. He heard you say your name and thought to scare you. His death sent a message to the others that you’re off-limits.”
“How the hell am I going to live out my dream of being fucked by fairy cock now?” I scoffed, smirking at the narrowing of his eyes. He didn’t find it funny; oh well, I did.
“A woman like you, she needs someone who isn’t afraid to push her fucking buttons. One who can handle that mouth of yours and give it back to you. You need someone who isn’t afraid to hurt you, because, Aria, you fucking enjoy being manhandled, and it gets you fucking wet when I do it.”
Lowering my stare, I wanted to ignore his words, but honestly, I responded to the way he grabbed me. The way he’d thrown me down on the floor, holding my throat. I hated that he was right; it had actually turned me on. Not the painful hold, but just hard enough that he took control, if even for a moment. I was officially fucked up.
“Pass,” I muttered at my own thoughts.
“Didn’t offer.” His stare was dark as he watched me, smiling while I imagined us doing nasty things together. I was going to need brain bleach to rid the dirty images from my head. “You’re the one who imagined it being me. Don’t get me confused with someone who wants you; I don’t. You’re messy from the inside out. It’s why you clean rooms the way you do. Not because you have OCD, but because inside, you are nothing but a mess, so you fix the messes you can since you can’t reach the one you really want to be cleaned.”
“You got me all figured out, don’t you?”
“No, not even close.” He exited the room, not waiting for me to pack. Downstairs, men stood with my sisters, watching as we made our way to them.
“Problem?” Knox asked.
“You could say that,” Brander snorted. “There was an alpha just discovered on the altar outside. Fresh, dead within the last half an hour,” he explained, staring at me.
“Don’t look at me. I was in the bedroom getting thrown around by your brother. Ask him.” I waited for Knox to agree, and when he didn’t, I looked at him.
“You need to come back to the other house for now,” Kinvara muttered. “We can’t lose you too. It’s not safe here without the house being blessed and active to protect us.”
“I’m uncertain we lost Amara,” I admitted begrudgingly. “I think she may have left on her own. She left me a note in the message box we used as children to hide messages we didn’t want anyone to find, it was spelled to keep you guys from finding it. The note said she was sorry, but that I was given, whatever that means. I think she made a deal with the man she was with in the Nine Realms, and I think she bartered me instead of herself.” I told them of what the rest of the note said and watched their eyes fill with pity as I finished.
“You’re certain she wrote it?” Aine questioned, her lip sucked between her teeth with anger at hearing what Amara had written.
“She called me her prickly sister.” I watched as Sabine covered her mouth to stifle the volley of cuss words she wished to unleash, but held back for me.
“Oh, Aria,” she said, stepping toward me only to pause as Knox started to issue orders.
“Take the witches to the house, and don’t let them out of your sight, Brander. I don’t care if you have to tape them to the fucking wall, they don’t leave. The alphas will want answers, and they’ll be demanding them fr
om the witches.”
“We didn’t do it. I was with you,” I stated, lifting a brow at him.
“Now, Brander,” he said, ignoring me altogether. “Regina, with me, lovely.” At his endearment, she lit up, smiling as she pushed past me to get to his side.
I stared after them until Brander grabbed my arm, pulling my body against his, sending a shock wave up my spine. He smirked, lowering his mouth to my ear. “Come on, little witch. You’ve been dismissed.”
“Holy fuck, I felt you!” I gawked at him, not because he was being an asshole, because I’d felt him against my breasts, and it hadn’t repulsed me. In fact, they’d responded to the electricity of his touch the same as they had for Knox.
“Keep gawking at me with an open mouth, and I’ll use that tight throat of yours.”
“I just might let you,” I laughed, smirking before my eyes held Knox’s briefly, dismissing him while Brander stared at me as if I was off my rocker. “Come on, big boy. Don’t keep ladies waiting, it’s rude.”
Chapter 22
Inside Knox’s house, they had set drinks out. We were being watched by the men who had been instructed to do so, yet they didn’t seem to mind us getting drunk. Music played quietly in the background while my sisters spoke in soft voices, discussing the issue and what to do about it.
The blessing had to be done on the house, that was a given. The real problem was Amara, and what she’d done—if she had really done it. Right now, everything pointed to her, which seemed a little too convenient.
Then there were the words Amara used in her note, which confirmed she had written it. She always told me how prickly I was, and how blocked off I was from the world. I had shields I’d placed, but they were more to protect the damage within me, rather than to keep people out. I was standoffish with strangers, not quick to trust people or their motives. I protected my family, which I didn’t think was a bad thing.
“You need this.” Kinvara sat beside me, offering a bottle of tequila. “You think she did this, don’t you?”
“I think everything points to it, yes. It makes little sense, though. Nothing makes sense right now. What the hell did she even mean? You are given? I mean, it feels like we stepped into a mess, and she lured us into it. Then there’s the fact that everything is way too conveniently pointing to her. Amara isn’t stupid. She’s borderline genius, so if she did this, why didn’t she cover her tracks?”
“Maybe she didn’t care if it did? She’s gone, and we’re left to deal with the aftermath. Amara could be anywhere by now, hell, even on a beach in Fiji with her lover, sucking down mojitos and laughing in the sun for all we know.” Kinvara shrugged, watching me.
“It’s still way too expedient to just brush it under the rug,” I replied, unscrewing the lid on the tequila and taking a shot before passing it back to her. I rested my head against her shoulder, watching as the others drank and began to loosen up. Aine was talking to one of the men, her hand brushing seductively over his chest.
“I bet she has him naked within the hour, riding that pony,” Kinvara chuckled, tipping back the bottle.
“Knox forbids it. He loathes witches, y’know.”
“Oh, he took that back. We’re free to fuck whoever we want now.” She smiled while I narrowed my gaze on her, watching her chugging the agave nectar down.
“When?” I asked carefully.
“After you left to go to the house,” she explained, telling me what he’d said and what the rules were. “No breeding though, apparently. Not that any of us want to ruin our hips soon. Guess he assumes we’re all the same, in search of a baby daddy.”
“Oh,” I frowned, accepting the bottle to watch Aine. “I can feel him, Kin. When he touches me, I don’t get sick.”
“Shut the fuck up,” she laughed, leveling me with a serious look. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“No, unfortunately, he seems to have some invisible pull on my string, and he can unravel me. Tonight though, Brander pulled me against him, and I felt him too,” I said, watching the male in question who sat away from the group, glaring at them all.
“Aria, this means you can finally get dick,” she stated loudly, which caused the others to turn in our direction.
“Shut up, asshole,” I laughed, taking another drink. I hadn’t eaten today, which probably meant I shouldn’t be drinking, but I missed this part of being away from the house we’d lived in before coming back here.
When we moved away from Haven Falls, we’d become closer than we’d been here. Instead of being separated to learn magic, we’d started practicing it together. We’d gone to an ordinary high school and lived normal lives with actual jobs to hone our crafts. We got drunk together, got into fights like normal kids, and while we lived in a house together, we gave each other room when we felt the others needed to have it.
It also allowed us to grow and mature in a way that Haven Falls had been preventing. I almost felt the need to thank Freya for being such a bitch, and for being so harsh on us that Aurora had taken us away from her, sheltering us while also letting us flourish.
The last time Freya had tried to murder me, we’d fled with nothing. No spellbooks, no grimoires, or anything, so we’d begun making our own. We used the internet to pull spells from the dark web, utilizing connotations to perfect them.
I started buying crystals, infusing them with magic, and selling them online until the money in my account had vanished, being added to the trust. I’d been living, though, surviving on my own with no need for this place or my mother.
It’s what made this so confusing for me since Amara had been the one to point out how much happier we were away from Haven Falls. Yet she’d volunteered to come back, which I’d figured was due to our fighting. I was tired of her talking about the guy she’d been meeting in the Nine Realms, and upset she kept that secret from everyone else. I had also been angry that she’d hurt us to make sure she was the one that got to go back.
Amara had broken my leg the day before I was scheduled to take my turn, traveling to the Nine Realms, and while I’d known she’d done it on purpose, I hidden it from the others. I also told her if she did it again, after physically hurting Reign, I’d tell the others. It drove a wedge between us I’d ignored, assuming she’d get over it.
To maintain the pact between the original bloodlines, once a year, one descendant of our bloodline had to go to the court we silently ruled. It had become a massive thing once we hit the age we could begin visiting our lands. Sabine had been the first, and when she’d come back to tell us about it, we’d all craved the adventure to visit the land whence we’d come.
Amara, though, when she went for her first time had been terrified, and cried on my shoulder about leaving me alone for the few months she’d be gone. It was our first time being separated since I’d been quarantined due to infection and sepsis the hemlock had caused in my system.
She’d been inconsolable and demanded she stay. It wasn’t possible to miss the rotation, and so she’d been forced to go by Aurora. She returned and told me about the man she’d met and what he’d been like. She never mentioned his name or where he was from within the Nine Realms, only that she couldn’t wait to go back.
I was next, but she took my place when she cast a minor spell that had broken my leg. It happened again after that, and again until I’d warned her of what would happen should she continue to cast magic on us. She’d almost killed Reign with a spell she had no business casting, and if I hadn’t been there to reverse it, she would have. She’d cast magic on Aurora to be chosen to enter the Nine Realms in our places, and I knew our aunt had figured it out but held her tongue.
Guilt ate at me for not telling the others, and yet I’d kept her secrets because she was my sister, my twin—my best friend. During the weeks before she’d come back to Haven Falls, she wasn’t the same. She’d changed, and that was a hard thing to admit. Gone was the docile sister I’d had who would brush my hair and tell me stories of the Nine Realms, and in her place was some
one I hardly recognized.
“Are you going to take a drink and pass it back?”
I took a long pull from the bottle before handing it to her again. “Does Aine ever keep things from you, Kinny?”
“Like who she fucks?” she asked, drinking.
“Things like that, I guess,” I frowned and took the bottle back. I was already feeling a little tipsier than I liked to be, and yet I didn’t stop drinking.
“Never, we’re twins. We have no secrets, not that we could keep them from the other if we tried. We’d know if the other was trying,” she chuckled and then stared at me. “I don’t imagine it feels good, Aria, but you have us.”
“Amara broke my leg with a spell to take my place in the rotation,” I admitted, feeling a weight lift from my chest.
“We knew she did that,” she shrugged when my mouth dropped open. “Aria, she was a selfish prick, and whoever she hooked up with inside the Nine Realms, he had to be packing one hell of a dick to get her that worked up. Aurora knew too, but she followed her.” She shrugged. “She never figured out who it was, or why he was so important for her to go, but hell if she wasn’t trying to find out.”
“Does everybody know?” I winced when she nodded. “I kept her secrets, but I threatened to tell if she continued.”
“We knew that too,” she snorted, handing me the bottle as the door to the room opened abruptly.
I tipped the bottle back, chugging it to numb the pain of what her note meant. Knox entered with Regina at his side, her eyes immediately seeking me out. She said something, and he laughed, turning his ocean eyes to lock with mine before dismissing me to lean down, whispering in her ear as Regina tipped her head back, laughing at whatever it was he’d said.
I chugged more succulent blue agave down my throat and leaned my head against Kinvara as she patted it.
“He’s nice to look at, Aria, but you don’t want someone like that for your first time. Pick someone safe.”
Flames of Chaos Page 14