“Open the fucking door,” he hissed. “If you run, I will find you, Aria.” His chest rose and fell as he glared at me, noting every single movement I made with his predatory gaze. “When I catch you, because I will, I will punish you for running from me. Come out now, and I’ll go easy on you. If you make me chase you, you will regret it.”
“I know you will catch me eventually.” I smiled sadly. “That doesn’t mean it will be easy, Knox, King of Norvalla. I have no plans of making anything easy for you, all things considered. You just tried to kill the only mother I have ever known. You tried to neuter my magic and to enslave me. No, catching me won’t be as easy as you want it to be.” I pressed my head against the cool window as my hands went flat against the thick glass, the ball of blood hovering in the air beside me. Sweat beaded on my brow as his hand lifted, copying mine as if he could coax me out. His purring slithered through me, and I moaned, opening my mouth to let mine escape, watching as his gaze heated from the needy timbre of mine.
My eyes closed even as another eruption sounded, shaking the house. I had to wait out the timer. The time between portal spells was crucial to altering locations. I had to be sure I ended up far away from my family since the burning reminder on my thigh was humming with warning. I slowly opened my eyes, staring into black orbs filled with flecks of red flames. It unnerved me, not the chaos I witnessed burning in those fiery depths, but the excitement. He was deadly calm, his eyes focused on me in a way that made me shiver with trepidation. He wanted to hunt me down, and I wasn’t sure if it was the beast or man that craved the hunt more.
I started to step away, but the witches slammed the window with magic, and I lifted my fingers, snapping them once as all three fell to the ground, dead. Knox peered down at their corpses, then at me with a narrowed glare before his lips curved into a sinful smirk.
Peering over at the timer, his gaze followed mine as it ticked down minutes until I could open another portal into the Nine Realms, deep within the Wicker Forest. I was going straight to the first castle he intended to storm and see if what he said was true. I made it three steps away from the window before my leg jolted with pain, and I dropped my knees, throwing back my head to scream in the worst agony of my life.
“Get the shield open, now!” he shouted as I crawled toward the wall, painting the blood in a different design for the new location, through blinding tears and debilitating pain. “Now, before she fucking escapes!”
Once I’d painted the portal, I sat on my knees, sobbing as more pain ripped through me. My eyes lifted to his, and he covered his mouth with his hand, staring as he continued to apply pressure and pain to my leg until it was almost too much to take. Sweat dripped from my hair as I slid my arms through the backpack Kinvara had prepared for me. I grabbed the hammer from the coffee table and then the skull with my bloodied hand, centering it.
Slowly, I stood up as everything within me screamed to curl in a ball in the fetal position. My hands trembled, and my eyes lifted to Knox, watching as he realized what I was about to do.
Knox turned, staring at his people before he issued orders in rapid command as I brought the hammer down, shattering the ancient skull. I tumbled to the floor, screaming as pain burned against my flesh, and I arched off the floor, explosions sounding in the background.
My body jerked until I was seizing, realizing that when the explosions got to my house—when the last house had been demolished to erase proof of our existence—I would die if I didn’t make it through the portal. It wasn’t something I could live through. It was ancient dark magic, cast by the goddess herself.
Knox pounded on the window, and I continued to flop around the floor, unwilling to let him in to save me. I’d saved my family. I’d protected the witches who could rewrite the future without bloodshed, and I was ready to die if my life was the cost. I’d done what I needed to do and had given the Nine Realms the best chance, they had to fix the wrongs.
The pain in my leg eased, and I exhaled, laying there staring up at the ceiling as I fought to get air into my lungs. Knox continued to slam his palms against the window. I sat up slowly, staring at him as he watched me. Turning to look at the wall, he veered around, watching as the House of Alphas imploded, sending wood sailing through the air like weapons.
“Get the fuck up and get through the portal now. Now, Aria!” Knox ducked as a board impaled beside his head, sheering the siding as it stuck into the house. “Get up and get through the portal!”
I turned, staring at the wall as I summoned magic to me, crawling on hands and knees to where the portal slowly turned black and violet, spinning in a circle. I slipped through the portal as the House of Magic began to scream in protest.
Getting to my feet, I stared through the other side of the portal at the empty window where Knox had stood, and beyond it, where Haven Falls fell to flames. There was no sign of Knox, but I knew he’d made it through somehow.
I stepped further into the portal, closing it with one last look at the Human Realm. Moving deeper into the Wicker Forest, I slid down a tree, staring at the air where it was solidifying, to erase proof that the portal had ever existed. My leg throbbed, and I pushed my hand against it, knowing he’d already begun hunting me. I had to give it to him, he was persistent.
Knox wanted revenge, and I agreed we owed him retribution, but it didn’t give him the right to remove the leaders by force. There were steps they could have taken, failsafes that were in place to protect them, should a king or queen become corrupted by power. He had chosen another route, one that ended in the slaughter of all witches and all rulers.
I wouldn’t let him win. I would stop him, even if I died doing it. Life wasn’t black and white; there were hues between both, hues in which people walked in every shade that existed. He’d started a large-scale rebellion that had given him the power to take control of the Nine Realms. That didn’t mean he would win; it just meant he had a headstart on us.
I would clean the Kingdom of Witches and take control of the Witchery, where we ran and directed all witch-controlled strongholds and palaces. I would bring a new dawn to the Nine Realms, and wash away the eternal night he wanted to create.
Knox would find me, but how he found me was my decision. I held control of my life, and as long as I continued running and never stopped, he wouldn’t find me as easily as he thought he could. I’d find him when I was ready, and we’d start this war on my terms because I’d just thrown the first punch, and I wasn’t about to back down.
I stood, moving from the cover of the woods to stare down at the large castle lit against the night. It was time to get started, and the clock was ticking because Knox already knew where I was. I was in his realm now, but it was mine too. My bloodline had created in the Nine Realms, and as Hecate’s granddaughter, I was finally home. I’d known I belonged here my entire life, and now that I was in the Nine Realms, it was time to fight for what we wanted—and to right the wrongs of those who had betrayed us.
I would rattle the realms, and bring that man to his knees, even if it was the last thing I ever did in my lifetime. I guess it was a good thing we were immortal since neither of us planned on losing. I wouldn’t bow to him, nor would I let him win this war. Not with what the cost would be, not with the finality of death, he craved to deliver to those I loved. No, I’d rattle him until he shook, and then I’d bring that man to his knees and make him bow to me. This war was just getting started, and I had been born to wage it against him.
Knox
And so it begins. I will catch her, and when I do, she will wish she had never met me.
* * *
The End for Now
* * *
Ashes of Chaos coming 2020
Nine Realms’ Compendium
Key players in the Series
Knox Karnavious – King of Haven Falls
Brander – Brother of Knox, full-blooded
Lore – Brother of Knox
Fade – Brother to Knox, full-blooded
Killian �
�� Lilianna’s brother and Knox’s best friend
Greer – Friend and butler to Knox, vampire
* * *
Hecate Bloodline Introduced So Far
Freya – Daughter of Hecate
Aurora – Daughter of Hecate, sister to Freya who raised the twins.
Hysteria – Daughter of Hecate
* * *
Twins of the Bloodline
Aria Primrose Hecate / Amara Other half unknown
Kinvara / Valeria – Succubi
Aine / Luna – Alpha werewolf
Sabine / Callista – Nymphs
Reign / Rhaghana – Unknown
Tieghan/Tamryn – Witches, born of human fathers
* * *
Alpha Pack
Dimitri – Pure-born alpha werewolf
Jasper – Pure-born werewolf, Fallon’s son, and Prince of the Alpha wolves.
Fallon – Pure-born alpha wolf, King of the Alpha Pack
* * *
Minotaurs
Gerald – King of the Kingdom of Unwanted Beasts
Garrett – Son of the King of the Kingdom of Unwanted Beasts
* * *
Items and More
Grimoire – A book of ancient spells
Scrying – The ability to search a map with magic to find a location.
White Oak Trees – Grown only in Norvalla in the Arcadian Forest of Knowledge
Frost fire – Ice from the Dark Mountains, appears as regular ice until it swallows up anything, or anyone it can touch. Unbreakable by anything other than witches fire, a spell that only rare witches can use. It was used to protect Norvalla from the Kingdom of Unwanted Beasts.
Midnight Blooming black roses – Grown in the darkest passes in the Dark Mountains. A rare type of rose that blossom’s in the icy snow caps of the mountain, holding a unique essence that witches covet.
Gargoyles – Protectors of the Library of Knowledge
* * *
The visited lands within the Nine Realms to date
Dorcha –The Darkest Realm, realm in which Norvalla sits as capital
Norvalla – Knox’s Homeland
Kingdom of Unwanted Beasts
The Dark Mountains –The Mountain range bordering The Kingdom of Unwanted Beast and Norvalla’s high passes.
Library of Knowledge – An ever-changing room that only reveals its treasures to those it finds worthy of the knowledge it holds.
Flames of Chaos Page 46