“I will kill him for this,” he whispered angrily.
“Why? You plan to kill me one minute and then say you want me alive in the next. Now you want to kill someone for groping me? I don’t get you at all, Knox. You hate me, yet you protect me. You saved me so you could enslave me. You kiss me awake in the morning, and yet you promise to destroy me. You hate me because you want me, because admitting that to yourself is a slight against the memory of your wife. You don’t get to put that guilt on me—that is not fair.” I turned away from him and grabbed the dress to pull it over my nudity.
He didn’t speak, and I wasn’t even sure he was still there anymore. I dropped my head back, closing my eyes before spinning around to look at him, but his eyes were cold, merciless when they met mine. I stepped back, shivering at the intensity that watched me.
“When we leave this room, you will say nothing to anyone. I don’t care if they speak to you; you don’t say a word. When we get outside, you will stand beside Killian, and you will remain silent, or you won’t like what happens when we get back to this room.”
“Why take me at all then?” I asked curiously, continuing to step away from him as he prowled closer. “Why not just leave me locked in your bedroom naked? Isn’t that what you want from me? To have me at your mercy, cut off from the world as you slowly destroy who I am to rebuild me into what you want me to be?”
“Because you’re not missing this,” he uttered as his hands balled into fists at his sides. “And I think you’re fine the way you are, but your views need to be cleared. You haven’t seen this place or the results of what your bloodline has done, but sooner or later, you will.”
He moved across the room, slowly and meticulously putting on each piece of armor. It was as if he was making a show of it, and it caused the hair on my neck to rise with the silent warning. My heart clicked into overdrive as he turned, smiling wickedly once he was fully armored, holding his hand out.
Whispering through the dryness in my mouth, I started to tremble with the look burning in his eyes. Victory. “What did you do, Knox?”
“Exactly what I said I was going to do, Aria. Come, it’s time.”
“Knox, don’t do this.” My voice held a plea of desperation, but his eyes held no mercy as he moved to me, pulling me against his armor, staring into my terrified gaze. “I am begging you.”
“You won’t change my mind,” he breathed, lowering his mouth to mine as he brushed against it. “You will hate me for this, but maybe one day, you will see it from where I stand, Aria Hecate. This is their fault, and they must pay for what they have done to us.”
He didn’t wait to see if I followed him. Instead, he grabbed my hand, jerking me against him as he started out of the room. I had to run to keep up with his long, angry strides as he moved through the empty hallways with only a few guards behind us who had been posted at the door. I memorized the layout silently, staring down hallways as he took me down long, winding staircases and through more halls until I realized he was confusing me on purpose.
Once we were down the staircase, I pulled on his hold, staring in horror at the walls lined in skulls carved with pentagrams. We emerged in a large room with tall cathedral ceilings and stained glass windows, decorating the room in every shade. A throne sat on a raised platform, built from skulls of the Hecate bloodline, as indicated by the pentagrams that were magically bestowed to them at birth, instead of those that were carved into the skulls along the walls. Hecate witch skulls sat at the base of the throne, while femurs and high witch skulls created the backrest. I swallowed denial, turning tear-filled eyes to him as my chest rose and fell with the realization of how many witches he’d slaughtered. I trembled visibly as he watched me fighting the sob that built in my lungs.
“I did not lie to you, Aria. I have built my life over the past five hundred years around murdering witches. I will never stop, not until the last one bleeds their magic back into the soil of the Nine Realms. Come,” he said darkly, pulling me behind him again until sunlight touched my face. “Maybe now you will see that you cannot escape this fight. You will either be at my side or against me one way or another, little one.”
Chapter 60
Knox pushed me toward Killian, who grabbed my arm painfully, jerking me closer until I was standing between him and Lore silently. I scanned the courtyard, seeing familiar faces from my childhood as I noted the line of prisoners being brought in through the gates. I searched for my family, and relief washed over me until they shoved Dimitri into the courtyard with Aurora beside him.
The world went silent around me. My heartbeat pounded in my temples as the air sat stuck in my throat. Everything around us stopped and moved in slow motion as my hands lifted, covering the cry that fought to escape my throat. Tears burned my eyes, slowly rolling free as fear ripped through me and pushed icy claws around my heart, squeezing it painfully.
I turned to Knox, who watched me for a moment before he looked away. His shoulders pushed back, his neck stretching as he refused to look at where I stood in silent horror. He’d found Aurora and Dimitri somehow, and he expected me to remain silent as he slaughtered them?
My throat swelled and burned with tears. Dimitri caught sight of me and opened his mouth to speak, but Aurora touched his shoulder. Her gaze moved between us, and then to Knox. Slowly, she turned, staring at the statue that was inches from where she stood, where Amara’s head remained still upon it. Aurora’s mouth opened, but Knox beat her to it, shouting to incite the crowd.
“I give you the leaders of the original bloodlines! Those who betrayed the Nine Realms and will now face charges of treason against us!” he shouted, and the crowd howled in applause. “How do you charge them?” he demanded, and the crowd erupted with screams of guilty or worse.
Nausea swirled through me as he stepped to the first original in the line and used his swords to crosscut the head from the body before he used his foot to kick the body back. I sagged in shock, still covering my mouth as tears poured from my eyes. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t watch the only mother I had ever known, or would ever know, die like this, as part of his sadistic show. It wasn’t justice. It was a fucking slaughter. A low growl rose from my chest as my body rattled with rage.
“Give me one reason to take your fucking head, witch,” Killian growled beside me, tightening his hold on my arm. “One fucking move and you end here and now, and no one will stop me.”
“Careful, Killian. You were told to guard her, not goad her,” Lore warned through clenched teeth, helping me to stand back up where my knees were refusing to hold my weight. “Close your eyes, Aria.” I jerked my arms away from him and covered my mouth once more.
Close my eyes?
I continued to stare between Aurora and Knox as he continued slaughtering leaders of the original families of the Nine Realms. Her eyes pleaded for me not to interfere. My breathing grew ragged with anger and denial as I turned, watching the bodies being stacked into a pile while the heads were collected and placed as an offering to his dead wife and son. Every time he killed one, Aurora moved closer to his blades. He refused to look at me, refused to see the silent plea in my eyes.
I watched Knox in silence. Slowly, I lowered my hands together, staring at Aurora as more screams erupted, and the chaos of the crowd turned frenzied with bloodlust. Fear and anger collided within me, and I reached for my magic, forgetting briefly about the runes that had been burned into my flesh. Power from the Nine Realms rushed through me, answering my call, and I gasped silently, relieved that the runes had failed to bind my magic.
Through the noise and commotion, I mouthed the words, no one hearing the spell leaving my lips. My finger worked over my palm, giving warning to the others within the House of Magic. I watched Aurora as she stepped closer and closer, time inching toward her death with every tick of the clock as Knox picked up speed, covered in the blood of the originals. My teeth grew with the need to act, covered by my lips as I fought to contain the growl and purring that was building int
o one furious vibration as it built within my lungs.
My palm itched, and I turned my eyes to Knox, who paused as they removed the bodies, looking at me and then to Aurora, tears blinding my vision. He turned back, waiting for the last of the bodies to be removed, and I shot forward without warning, shouting the spell as power ignited and erupted into the courtyard. I slammed against Dimitri and Aurora, taking their entire section of originals with us through the portal I’d created with the spell.
“Run!” I screamed as men fell through the portal, and my hands clapped the moment Knox moved to lunge through it. “Gargoyles!” I watched in horror as I took in the chaos. I watched the men who had slipped through the portal with us go down, unable to escape the brutality and efficiency of the gargoyles who slaughtered them. “Faster, Dimitri, Aurora, move now!” I screamed as I threw my hands up, sending the gargoyles that shot toward us, flying backward with a blast of energy. The house appeared, and we fell inside the moment Kinvara opened the door.
I jumped to my feet, turning as the door creaked and shivered as something slammed hard against it. My hands lifted, slapping together, and a barrier erupted around the house. I slid down the door, sobbing as everything hit me at once.
“He killed Amara,” Aurora whispered thickly.
“No, I killed Amara.” I held her gaze while the others went silent. “She traded me to the Minotaur King. She gave me to him so he could rape and murder me. She traded us all as her dowry as if we were something she owned. He was horrible.” A sob exploded from my chest as I wrapped my arms around my stomach, shaking my head. “He had a hallway full of trophies and pictures of the results of his use and brutalization of women,” I said, wiping away tears that refused to stop falling.
“She wouldn’t do that.” Sabine stared at me, horrified by what I’d said.
“But she did, and I was hung up on display to be raped and mutilated as she announced to the entire party that I was her gift to her husband’s murderous father. Amara hated us. She hated me the most. She thought I stole her power while we shared a womb. She fucked her husband as he stared at me. Amara let him abuse me as she watched, and then she told them what to dress me in so I could be tortured, and then beheaded.”
“That’s insane.” Aurora pushed her dirty fingers through her hair, staring at me as tears filled her eyes. “Then she was already lost to us. To do something so horrendous to blood is the same as treason. You did what you had to do in order to survive. What the hell is happening at home?” she murmured through chattering teeth, shaking off her horror at what we were currently facing.
“Aria, we do not blame you, and the answer to that question, Aurora, is the entire world has gone mad,” Kinvara said, tossing her arms up in the air, kneeling before me. “We have to go now. The shield you placed around the house won’t hold for much longer, and the concealment spell was broken when Dimitri stepped into the house.”
“I know.” I stood up, pushing my shaking hands over my skirt before eyeing each of my sisters to ensure they were all accounted for. “I need the map I told you to get.” I fought for calm, shaking internally as I felt something prodding against the shield I’d placed. Something slammed against the house, and I closed my eyes as Knox screamed my name before another earthquake shook us. “Now, that isn’t a knock, ladies. Grab Hecate’s grimoires that can be removed, as well as grandfather’s skull. Where are my clothes and my things?” I asked, and Kinvara handed my bag to me as she nodded at the map on the table. “Start a five-minute timer; grab anything you want because we will not be back. Make sure it is small, and only something you can carry because we’re entering the Nine Realms without anyone knowing we are there.”
“Why? The house will hold; it was brilliant, Aria.” Aurora smiled, hopefully. “You saved your sisters from ending up with me when I rushed out to help Dimitri as men invaded the town.”
“It won’t hold because it isn’t blessed and hasn’t been since Amara took a bone from grandfather’s ear, the stapes, which is literally the smallest bone in the body. She made sure we couldn’t hide from her husband.” I grabbed my leg as pain burned where Knox’s name was written upon it as he shouted my name again. “Go, we don’t have long before they penetrate that shield, and then we all end up on our knees, getting a haircut with his blade.”
Everyone moved into action as I went to the window, throwing open the curtain to stare at Knox, who waited by the door still dressed in his armor. An entire army stood at his back, awaiting his orders. His gaze slid to the window, and he moved, slowly strolling over to tilt his head against the glass as he stared in at me. He was still covered in blood, and Dimitri growled from beside me as I turned my head subtly, staring up at Knox as my chest rose and fell rapidly from adrenaline pumping through my veins.
“Turn around, Dimitri,” I stated, slipping the dress off, over my head, not bothering to see if he had listened.
I walked to the coffee table, slipping on the black silk panties, and grabbed the pleather pants that hugged my curves enticingly. I strolled back to the window, peering out with my cheek against the glass as Knox snarled, glaring over my shoulder at Dimitri. Three witches were slamming energy magic against the house as other creatures added to their power. Obviously, Knox hadn’t planned to murder all witches, or at least not the ones who were helping him—yet.
“Move it!” I screamed, turning my face away from the window as I pulled on the pentagram top, then slipped my arms around to secure the buttons behind my neck, only for hands to grab it first.
Dimitri snapped the back together, adjusting the clasp before his lips brushed over my shoulder, and I smiled, glaring at Knox, whose eyes had turned black, filling with fiery embers as he watched us through a murderous gaze.
“Ready,” Aurora stated. “Where are we going?”
I slipped on the black leather jacket and turned away from Knox. “You’re going to Hecate’s tomb, to take her skull. After that, you are going to the sanctuary to bless the lands and add our blood to it, because we are going to war.”
“You can’t do that. Aria, we cannot take my mother’s skull from her place of rest.”
“We can, and you will. The House of Magic is compromised. We need something strong to safeguard the house we are about to conquer and take back the control in our realm. Hecate is the strongest power to which we have access. I know she is your mother, but she would want you to survive, and we won’t against Knox unless we’re smarter and willing to play as dirty as he is. His army is over fifty thousand strong and growing, Aurora. He just walked into Haven Falls and took the fucking original families from their homes and slaughtered them in front of us. We are all that is left! If we don’t survive, they will win.”
“Aria, my father’s skull…If we remove it from this place, the barrier which protects Haven Falls is gone, and the entire town will start to fall to erase any proof that we were ever here. It will set off the magical detonation built into the foundation, and each and every house will be erased from this realm, one by one.”
“The failsafe, I know. I’m counting on it.” I shivered as power slithered through me, knowing that we had to do this now, or what little power I had left would wane before we all got out. Knox’s brand hadn’t worked on me to prevent my use of magic, but it was weakening me slowly.
“This place will be gone, and we won’t be able to come back,” she insisted carefully. “The portal will be gone, and we can never come back again because only Hecate had the power to open it.”
“I know, but we can’t stay here either. We cannot hide for the rest of our lives. The Kingdom of Witches is in chaos, murdering thousands of creatures in the name of Hecate’s bloodline; that’s us. We didn’t give them permission to slaughter creatures or build an army for war. The entire Nine Realms hates us because of their actions. Our house is messy, and what do Hecate witches do when it is messy?”
“We clean the house,” she stated firmly, dropping her eyes. “So, we will go to the tombs and take my mot
her’s head while she slumbers.” Tears filled her eyes. “Then, we do what we need to do together.”
“I can’t go with you.” I closed my eyes as they began arguing all at once. “I am marked, and if I go with you, Knox will find you immediately. I will go elsewhere while you prepare the items we need to secure a new, stronger House of Magic. I will keep Knox busy for now. I will keep running until you send me word that you are ready to raise the new house in the Nine Realms. You must stay in the shadows and draw no attention to you once you are there, do you understand?”
“And me?” Dimitri asked.
I turned, staring at him as Knox watched through the window, unable to breach the barrier even though it was weakening. He was stuck outside the shield protecting the house unless it fell. For now, my magic held firmly against the assault his witches were throwing against it.
“Welcome to the family, Dimitri. There is nowhere else you can go, so if you want to be wicked with us, let’s get wicked, shall we?”
His eyes smiled even though he shook his head. “They slaughtered the pack. They slaughtered the entire alpha pack the moment they engaged in battle.”
“I’m sorry, but if you’re bordering on hysterics, you will need to hold it for a little while,” I said, moving to the wall to clear it of pictures and adornments. I sliced deeply into my palm, drawing a symbol onto the white paint as everyone watched in silence. “I love you guys, see you soon,” I whispered, slapping my palm against the wall, watching as it turned into a wind tunnel that would send them through the portal, straight to the sacred tomb where the dire wolves lived.
I stepped back, watching as one by one, as Dimitri and my family jumped through the portal. When the last one was through, I slapped my hands, sealing the portal before I whispered a spell, disengaging the blood and pulling the droplets from the wall, forming a ball of blood in my palm. Slowly, I turned around to stare at Knox, who watched me, along with the witches.
Flames of Chaos Page 45