by Allysa Hart
“You did what you could, sweetheart.” Grayson comforted me, but it didn’t help. I pressed my fingers hard against my temples, searching my memories for the missing link. There was a library, but no one spent any time in there opting to read only what the witch provided. Then it hit me.
“The witch! She has her own book.” I squeezed my eyes shut, picturing the ornate menagerie of sea creatures that adorned the cover. I couldn’t picture them all but an octopus and a pod of orcas were the most prominent. Closing my eyes, I began to chant, calling it to me, unsure if the witch’s own power would keep it tethered to its base, ruining my chance to destroy her forever.
“Here it comes,” Grayson whispered in my ear. His voice was reverent in tone, full of wonder, and I began to tremble. The potency of the spells contained in this book were that powerful.
I opened my eyes and sure enough, the book was floating toward us. I put out my hands and it came to rest on my palms. Panic filled me. I looked from the book to the fire and back again.
“You do it.” I shoved the book at Grayson.
Raising his brows, he turned my body to face him, placing one hand on each of my cheeks, and forcing me to meet his gaze. “No, Princess. This is your battle. It needs to be you.”
“But what if it doesn’t save her? I wasn’t thinking about the witch, I wasn’t thinking about the castle. The only thing that mattered was Ruthie. If I could break all the spells, and save all the people, but Ruthie remained in the clutches of the witch, then I would have failed.
I was starting to mentally spiral, my hope and confidence were dwindling. Grayson could see it, and as usual, he was my rock, my voice of reason, speaking the words that gave me the power I needed to trust myself. “Ari, you are the strongest woman I know. You can do this. You need to do this. We can’t save everyone. Some of those people have seen the light and chosen to stay. That’s on them, not on you. Do you understand me?”
I nodded and said that I understood, but it was a lie. We didn’t know what would happen after the spell book was destroyed and no matter who, if anyone else walked out of those doors, it wouldn’t be enough. People would still be in there, held hostage by the sea witch, people I knew and cared about. People who deserved a better life than they were currently leading.
“You’re a terrible liar, you know that?” He grumbled.
“I know,” I sighed. It was a conversation we had had many times before.
“It’s time, Ariana. Whatever happens, happens, but you have to know you did all you could.”
“I know.” My stomach twisted. I stepped closer and buried my face in his chest just as I tossed the huge book onto the fire.
The crackling of the fire increased with the fresh addition of the book and I wrapped my arms tight around Grayson, holding my breath, afraid to look. I wanted so badly to see Ruthie walk off the castle grounds with her head held high, but I just wasn’t sure she could do it.
“Oh shit,” Grayson’s voice was a low whisper. “Ariana, look.” He nudged me frantically, pulling me from the safety of his embrace, and turned my body towards the castle. I kept my eyes squinted tightly shut.
“What?”
“Open your eyes, Ariana.”
I did, but I looked up at Grayson first, before following his gaze to the castle. As soon as I looked down the path, the ground below us began to rumble, and the earth began to shake. The sea swelled with massive waves, the likes of which I hadn’t seen since the day of the accident. We watched in silence as the entire castle dissolved into grains of sand from the very top to the base, and rushed down the mountain. Some of it fell into the water, and some blew away in the gusts of wind, but it was all gone, disintegrated into nothingness. I watched in awe, filled with mixed emotions. That castle had been my home for two years, and then it had just ceased to exist. The stone walls, the glass windows, nothing was left standing. Nothing and no one.
I fell to my knees and covered my eyes, bursting into sobs of agony. Ruthie had not come out. Now, she was gone forever, and it was all my fault.
Grayson fell to his knees, beside me, and wrapped me in his arms. “I know you’re hurting, Ari, I do, but you’re going to want to see this.”
“I saw!” I sobbed, pummeling the ground with my fists. “I shouldn’t have burnt the book. We did that, Grayson, we killed Ruthie! I’ll never forgive myself!”
“Ariana Margaret.” His voice was stern, the tone one that usually stopped me in my tracks. “This is not over. It is not done. Things are still happening. You need to look up. No matter what, you need to see this through to the end.”
He pulled my hands from my face, and lifted me into his arms. I squeezed my eyes shut, refusing to look at the empty spot where the castle had once stood.
A sharp pinch to my bottom forced my eyes open, and I glared up at him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the world around me seem to spin. There was this giant purple swirl in front of us. It looked like the eye of a tornado and it was spiraling right toward us at an alarming speed.
“Grayson! Run!” I shouted, sure that it was the power of the sea witch, determined to take me out once and for all.
Grayson did not run. He didn’t even flinch. It was like he knew what was going to happen next. The spiral stopped right in front of us, seeming to part the wind, clearing our line of vision just in time to see something even more awe-inspiring than the crumbling of the witch’s castle. As if from out of nowhere, the castle seemed to re-appear, rising up from beneath the earth. Not the witch’s castle. My castle. My parents’ castle. My home. When envisioning possible outcomes for this day, I had never thought this far ahead. I hadn’t even thought about getting my home back. It was an unexpected blessing for sure, but it didn’t erase the pain of losing Ruthie.
I squeezed my eyes shut again as if doing so could ward off the pain and was rewarded with another sharp pinch.
“Ariana!” Grayson growled. “Listen.”
I listened, and heard nothing but silence. The ground had stopped shaking, the sea was calm, the buzz of villagers and prisoners had died down. The only sound was the crackling of the fire, and a faint whisper that sounded like it was coming from the ocean.
“Ari? Ari, are you there? Help me!”
I covered my ears not wanting to hear the agony in my best friend’s voice. “I did what I could. I did everything I could!” I screamed into the fire. I could hear her gasping for breath, coughing and sputtering beneath the ocean waves. I cried harder, and Grayson pinched me again.
“Open your eyes, Princess.”
I shook my head. “I can’t. I don’t want to see any more. I don’t want to hear anymore. I don’t want to do anymore.”
“Ariana.” His sharp tone commanded obedience. “Look.”
Out of habit, I obeyed, turning my head toward the ocean, down to the shore where I had often gone to skip rocks, think, and find peace. What I saw had me leaping out of Grayson’s arms, and shouting for joy.
Ruthie was alive. The voice I had heard had not been coming from the water as I had thought; that was an evil trick my fear had played on my mind. She was alive, perched on my favorite rock, soaking wet and looking lost. I ran to her, tears of joy clouding my vision as I hopped across the rocks and flung myself at her, knocking us both into the water.
I grabbed her face in my hands to assure myself it was really her. “Oh my goodness, I thought I was never going to see you again.”
Ruthie was pale, and wide-eyed, looking as if she was in shock. Her eyes darted frantically around the area, stopping to rest on the now restored castle. She shook her head as if to clear it, but confusion clouded her face.
“What happened? I woke up and there was a sea monster in my room. She was this giant, slimy blue blob, with familiar eyes. She climbed on top of me and was choking me with her tentacles. She wouldn’t stop yelling, but she made no sense. She was screaming about not letting you win. She said she was going to kill me to get back at you. I was so scared, and I could barely breat
he. She was winning, and then, the room just kind of turned into nothing, and we went tumbling into the sea.” She stopped, and peered at me with discerning eyes. “I’m really glad you taught me to swim, Ari. You didn’t know it at the time, but you saved my life.”
My breath hitched in my throat in surprise, and I threw my arms around her neck. Our bodies were shaking from the cold water, and my teeth chattered so hard it was becoming difficult to talk. We crawled our way out of the water, to the edge of the shore where Grayson waited, holding out a blanket to warm us. He wrapped it around both our shoulders, covering us as one, and led us up the hill to the roaring fire.
Just as we reached the fire, it popped, shooting flames high into the sky. A shrill scream pierced the air and we turned in the direction it had come from.
I blanched at the sight that greeted me. There, in the water, clinging to the rock we had just climbed from was the sea witch. The look on her face was one of haunting desperation as she sputtered and screamed, trying to climb from the water that seemed determined to pull her under.
My stomach sank to my toes, and I ran toward the water, leaving Ruthie and Grayson screaming behind me. What was I going to do, kick her under? I didn’t know, but I knew that I wasn’t going to let her have any sort of win.
Behind me the fire popped again, and a fireball flew through the air over my head. I watched in horrified fascination as it hurled straight toward the rock, landing on her head and exploding into a mass of flames that ate the sea witch as I watched.
Her screams died on the wind as the flames lapped her up, turning her into ash that hit the water and disintegrated into nothing. I stood there, rooted in place as I watched, until the last piece of ash floated away. Then, I turned and walked toward the fire where Grayson and Ruthie still stood, looking shell-shocked.
Grayson put his arms out, and I walked into them, shivering. Whether it was from the cold water, and cool morning air, or from the sheer emotion of everything I had witnessed, I had no idea.
“It’s been one hell of a morning,” Grayson said, pulling me close to his chest. Truer words had never been spoken. Rowena had apologized, the prisoners had returned to their homes. My parents’ castle had been restored while the witch’s had crumbled into the sea. The sea witch was gone for good, and I had Grayson and Ruthie by my side.
“It’s done. It’s over, and you did it. I knew you could. No more doubting yourself, after this, you hear me? You are amazing, a true princess. No. Scratch that, a true queen. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes, Daddy,” I sighed happily, snuggling into his chest.
“Just Daddy, hmm? Not Ogre Daddy?”
“It seemed appropriate this time. But you’ll always be my Ogre Daddy. I love you Grayson, no matter what form you take.”
“And I, you. Always. No matter what you have or who you are, my queen. You know that, don’t you?”
“Yes, Ogre Daddy, I do.”
Did you enjoy Ogre Daddy?
Don’t miss the first book in the Fantastical Daddy Dom series? Check out Genie Daddy!
Genie Daddy
Fantastical Daddy Doms Book 1
I lost everything, was shipped off to live with an aunt I barely knew, and was put to work cleaning her dilapidated antique shop. And then, I met Callum. Or should I say I released him? I was a socialite with a strong sense of entitlement and a lot of anger. He was a Dominant genie with a hard body and an even harder hand. It could never work. Could it?
Ogre Daddy’s Famous Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
3-4 ripe bananas mashed
2/3 c oil
1/4 c sour milk (to sour milk add a splash of white vinegar)
2 eggs
1 1/2 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 2/3 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
I cup chocolate chips
In large bowl mash bananas. Add oil, sour milk, eggs sugar and vanilla. Stir. Fold in flour, salt and baking soda. Pour into lightly greased and floured loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.
Writing has been a passion of mine since I was 9 years old, and I always dreamed of becoming an author, but life happens and sometimes that first step seems like a giant leap. I credit a life changing move from the Oregon to Utah in the fall of 2013 as the catalyst that began my writing career.
I now reside in Southern Utah with my husband, my two children, two dogs, my mother, my 92 year old grandfather and a lizard named Leo.
I write what I love to read, which is fun romantic stories about submission in its many forms, and often joke that my stories get slightly dirtier with each one I write. When I am not writing, I enjoy my passions, which include cooking, drinking good coffee and good wine, shopping for crazy knee socks, celebrating with sushi for every occasion, and most of all spending time with my friends and family.
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Also By Rayanna Jamison
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Love Multiplied Series
Green Valley Brides
Luke’s First Bride
Luke’s Rogue Bride
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Corbins Bend
A Perfect Partnership- Corbin’s Bend Season 2
Ginger Up- Corbins’s Bend Season 3
A Holiday Ruse- Corbin’s Bend Season 4
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Vegas Nights Series
Collared
Claimed
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Second Chance Ranch Series
Winterland Daddies
Spring Fever Daddies
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Other Books by Rayanna Jamison
Catching Her Cowboy Daddy
Cole for Christmas
Santa Sir
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Collections
Sweet Town Love (with various authors)
12 Naughty Days of Christmas (with various authors)
12 Naughty Days: A Holiday Collection (with various authors)
A Spanking Good New Year (with various authors)
Masters of The Castle: Witness Protection Program (with various authors)
Other Uses for a Wooden Spoon: A Corbin’s Bend Cookbook
Meet Allysa Hart and AllyCat’s Creations!
I am a full-time mom to two sassy, strong-willed, loveable little girls. What can I say? They take after their Mama. I'm on the wrong side of 30, and I have been married to my best friend for over ten years and I couldn't imagine doing life with anyone else by my side. We are Southern California transplants, currently residing in a very rural part of the east coast. I have two crazy dogs that I adore, even though they drive me out of my ever-loving mind most days. Writing and graphic design consume all of my spare time and I could not be happier. This journey I am on is a crazy one, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.
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Also by Allysa Hart
A Rose in Bloom
Adopting Katie
Katie’s New Daddy
Genie Daddy, Fantastical Daddy Doms Book 1
Masters of the Castle: Witness Protection Program