by Marcy Jacks
Gold stepped around the doorframe. “You’re not doing shit to me.”
Sebby spun around. He looked as horrified as a squirrel in the sights of a hawk.
“Gold.”
“Shit,” Silver cursed, as though he had been caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing.
Which he had been.
Gold went to his mate. He grabbed Sebby by the shoulders and gripped them tight. “Why would you do this? Didn’t I already prove enough to you? Didn’t I already prove that I want you?”
He may have shaken the man a little, but he couldn’t be sure of anything anymore.
“I-I…” Sebby swallowed hard. “I just want to know for sure.”
“Know for sure what?”
Silver stepped forward. “Gold, this is on me.”
“Damned straight it’s on you!” Gold looked at his brother. The brother he loved and respected. He couldn’t believe Silver would allow this behind his back. “You were the one who told me to let it go and forgive him. You were the one who said to either let him go or accept the mating. Now you’re doing this?”
“It wasn’t like that,” Silver said, sounding annoyed.
As if he had anything to be annoyed about right then.
“It was my fault,” Sebby replied quickly, always too eager to take the blame onto himself. “I wanted to come down here.”
“Why?” Gold needed to understand it. “I want you for my mate. I told you that.”
“But it might only be because of the spell I cast.”
“I don’t care about any spell!” How to get that through Sebby’s head?
Because, in that moment, Sebby looked at him as though he really didn’t believe a word that was coming out of his mouth.
And it hurt. It hurt so fucking much that Gold didn’t know how to put it into words.
“Baby, I am so sorry that I hurt you in the beginning. That I didn’t trust you, but spell or no spell, you’re my mate now. I believe it. I want you by my side. You have to believe me.”
Sebby’s eyes swam. He was going to cry, and Gold wouldn’t be able to stop himself from turning into paste at the man’s feet.
Gold had zero defenses against tears.
“I just…” Sebby gasped for breath, rubbing at his eyes. “I just wanted to know for sure. That this wasn’t being forced on you. I want you, too, but I need to know that you’d want me without a spell. It’s…it’s not right to do this to you.”
“You’re not doing anything to me.”
“Yes, I am!”
Gold released Sebby’s shoulders, backing off a step. He stared at his mate, who struggled to hide his crying, and with a hard jolt, Gold knew he was the reason for this.
He’d spoken of forgiving the man, of loving him and wanting him, but he hadn’t given Sebby enough of an indication that he wanted Sebby even without the spell.
It wasn’t enough. What little Gold had told his mate on the subject wasn’t enough.
“Fine,” he snarled, marching to the salt line.
Rey and his brother likely thought he was just going to walk across it, not that he would scrape his foot over the enlarged salt line, breaking the seal.
“Gold! What the fucking hell!” Silver yelled.
Gold didn't answer. He stood toe to toe with the warlock.
“You do what you need to do, but just you remember.” Gold grabbed the man by the throat, digging his claws into Artemis’s neck and making him cry out with pain.
“You do anything funny to me and I don’t care if Sebby is your cousin and that he’s watching. I will kill you painfully in front of him. Got it?”
Touches of green formed around Artemis's gills. He nodded. A barely there nod since Gold held on to him in such a precarious way. “Got it.”
“Good,” Gold straightened his spine, releasing his neck, but still holding onto his arm. “Take the spell off me that Sebby cast.”
This would work. This had to work.
"I need to check what spells were actually cast on you before I can do anything about them.
"Whatever. Do what you need to do. Just don't think you're fast enough to do anything to me while you're surrounded. You're still in chains and if I start acting weird—"
"I'm dead, I get it," Artemis growled.
The warlock, stronger than Sebby, didn’t need any herbs or chalk drawings the way Sebby had. He merely lifted his hand, his fingers coming closer to his temple, and a soft white glow came out.
Gold stood, taking in the light, feeling something push inside of him, something that spread and searched.
Silver stepped forward.
“Stay back,” Gold commanded. He watched Sebby from the corner of his eyes. His mate looked positively horrified.
“Whatever he’s doing, it’s working.”
He felt it. Something deep within him was…changing.
The spell to take away his desire for Sebby and his mating with him. So odd, but this would prove that Gold didn’t need the mating to love the man. It had to.
Sebby, baby. I love you.
As the calming light filled him up, he felt something probing, searching.
Artemis hadn't been joking. He was searching for something. For previous spells cast on him. It was like a small hand pushed aside the files inside his head, then found the spot where the spells had been logged.
The folder was shockingly thin. Well, made sense. There had only been two spells cast on Gold in his life.
The mating spell, and the spell Sebby cast to have Gold take him from his coven. Gold closed his eyes to get a better visual of it, and he frowned.
A heavy crash sounded against the house. Erin screamed somewhere, and Silver flew out of the basement and up the stairs.
Another crash. Sebby cried out as he went down, and even Gold felt it in his feet.
He felt it hard enough that he fell onto his ass, releasing the warlock, who broke his chains so much faster than Gold thought possible, as though he'd been storing his power while he'd been inside Gold's head.
He could hardly think about that as the house was attacked from the outside.
Chapter Nine
Sebby hit his head on the hard cement. Because of that, his vision spun, and he wasn’t entirely aware of his cousin standing over him until the man grabbed him and hauled him back to his feet.
“Got you,” he said.
Sebby’s heart seized. He glanced to the side just in time to see Gold become aware of what was going on and scramble to his feet.
Rage in his eyes. Murder in those eyes.
For Sebby.
Sebby inhaled a sharp breath. His worst fears came to life. Terror blossomed in his gut.
The mating wasn't real. It had been fake, and now Gold would get his revenge for being sexually abused by the warlock who had cast spells on him.
Gold didn’t make it to either of them in time before Artemis used his magic and teleported them out of the basement.
Teleportation was a difficult spell to master. Sebby hadn’t known Artemis had mastered it. Roughly a person could only travel ten or twenty feet at a time. Artemis had done at least that with Sebby in tow.
It was kind of impressive. Sebby was able to admit to that much despite all the screaming going on around him.
“Let’s go!”
Artemis grabbed Sebby’s wrist and yanked him along. Sebby ran with him, through the chaos of black smoke and the dragons taking wing and jumping into the sky.
The heat, the chaos, and the violence, it all came so fast that many of the dragons didn’t have the chance to get into their full dragon shapes or pull out the armor of their scales. They were forced to go into the air with only their wings and claws.
Sebby ran as far as he could with Artemis until they made it into the cover of the trees before he yanked his wrist away from the man.
Artemis turned on him. “What are you doing?”
“I’m not going with you.”
Artemis’s eyes flew wide.
“Are you fucking nuts? Get over here!”
Artemis reached for him, but Sebby backed off a step before he could be grabbed again.
The man approached him. “What, you think you’re gonna stay here with those fucking things? Look at what they’re doing!”
Artemis barely had to point to the sky for Sebby to see the enlarged shadow of a dragon, a silver dragon, flying overhead. It screeched a long war cry as it chased down the snake-like trails from the attacking warlocks.
“They’re defending themselves.” Sebby looked at his cousin. “If you take me back to Father, he’ll kill me.”
“That dragon is going to kill you if you stay.”
Sebby knew better. He knew better than to let himself be swayed by Artemis pretending to care. The man didn’t care now, and he never would. It was a trick, a trap to get him to go back to Father
Maybe there was a reward waiting for him when he brought Sebby back.
“I can’t stay here.” Just thinking about the look on Gold’s face as the man rushed him hurt. “But I’m still not going with you. I’m sad about Gold having the spell removed, not suicidal.”
He meant it, too. Just because Gold didn’t want him anymore didn’t mean he was going to do something as stupid as go back home where his father wanted the rest of the coven to drink his blood.
Artemis glared at him. His eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “You dumb motherfucker. You stupid idiot.”
Sebby steeled himself. “Say what you want. I’m still not going.”
“Yes you are. You seriously think you can stay here?”
"If I go home they'll kill me."
"And you think you won't die if you stay here? That dragon just found out what you were doing to him."
"Shut up."
"You're basically a rapist, and you want to talk shit to me about what a coward I am? About how horrible the coven is? You're not so high and mighty either." Artemis laughed. "It's always the ones you don't suspect who are the predators."
"It was an accident!"
Because of the chaos and the noise all around, Sebby didn’t notice right away the soft ball of light that glowed at Artemis’s hand. Artemis gave no warning before he threw it at Sebby.
It hit him in the chest.
His entire body felt as though it was contained in a giant cotton ball, only it was thicker and harder to move around in.
Sebby fell over. He knew he wasn’t actually trapped inside a cotton ball because he felt the full force of his weight hitting the ground beneath him.
A hard smack. White light flashing against the back of his head.
Holy fuck, it hurt.
Then Artemis was standing above him, hands on his knees. He shook his head. “You know, things could have gone much simpler than this.” He reached down and grabbed Sebby’s arms, grunting as he hauled him up. “Fuck, you’re not even worth that much, but Uncle wants you back for the ritual. Shit,” he groaned, carrying Sebby over his shoulder.
Likely he’d used up a lot of his power with the teleporting and then hitting Sebby with…whatever spell this was.
Fuck. He was going to get sent back to his father. Sebby was going to be put in front of his father and the elders soon, and there wouldn’t be a thing he could do about it. He was fucked. He was so fucked.
If Artemis wasn’t a fucking coward, he would have left Sebby spelled like that and gone to join the fight. Maybe Sebby could have gotten out of the enchantment by the time Artemis came back.
But no. The man had to be a weasel.
Despite everything that happened, Sebby couldn’t help but think of Gold’s face as he was carted off.
* * * *
Gold smashed his fist into the face of the warlock who made the mistake of abandoning his snake body and embraced his proper form in front of him.
He caught the bastard in the face and put his hand through a wall while he was at it.
The warlock went down like a rag doll, taking some of the drywall and brick with him.
He might be dead. Gold didn’t care. He searched around the house.
“Sebby!”
That piece of shit had stolen his mate. That motherfucker took Sebby from him.
Gold was going to kill him. Murder. Death. Painful.
Gold made it outside. Silver was already in the sky, in his full dragon shape. Searching. Lightning gathered up Aiden, his father, Erin, and Tim and was defending the house with them. Oddly enough, Storm also defended the house when he should have been in the sky.
Whatever. He didn’t care. He had to find his mate.
He had to save him before that shithead could take him back to his coven.
That light inside him as the warlock did his search…Gold had been able to sense the man’s thoughts, his glee as he scoped out Gold’s body, as though he were a hard drive that just needed a search of past programs.
And discovered there had never been a mating spell to begin with. Sebby had successfully cast the temporary servant spell to command Gold to take him away with him that night in the woods, but there had never been a mating spell.
It was all natural. A natural mating with a warlock. Gold had distrusted his mate, treated him poorly, locked him in the basement, spoken down to him, and forced them into separate rooms…
For nothing.
“Sebby!”
Smoke everywhere. Just like the fire.
It got into his eyes. Into his nose. Gold’s body trembled from the rush of sensation.
No. He had to stay on his feet. He had to inhale through his nose, ignore the scent. He had to find his mate.
Sebby was out there somewhere. Gold was going to find him.
He focused. He concentrated hard on the scents beneath the smoke, and then thought he found it.
The warlock hadn’t teleported them far. Just in front of the house before they’d started running.
Gold ran after that scent. Like an animal with the smell of blood, he gave chase.
He was getting his mate back. He was getting Sebby back home with him.
Into the trees. Hard and fast. His legs trembled from the struggle of pushing himself so hard, but he didn’t care. He didn’t care about any of it.
The smell of smoke became softer and softer, and the scent of his mate with that shithead warlock became stronger and stronger.
Stupid. So stupid to destroy the salt line. If he lost Sebby forever, before he had the chance to explain himself…
It would be entirely his fault.
Then he saw them. The warlock must have been running low on magic because he was actually carrying Sebby over his shoulder.
Gold roared like an animal, a bear that had discovered something unwanted on its territory.
The warlock, like a prey animal, turned and noted with wide eyes that he was being followed. He dropped Sebby, and none too gently either, onto the ground before he created something bright and hot with his hands. He threw it at Gold.
Fireball.
Gold jumped out of the way, neatly dodging it but still feeling the heat of the ball as it rushed by his face.
The warlock shook his head. “Back off, man.”
“Give me my mate, and I’ll let you walk away alive.”
Sebby groaned from where he lay. Was he coming to? His body seemed tight, almost doll-like.
“What did you do to him? Take that off!”
“Relax. He can still breathe.”
“Will it wear off?”
“Maybe.”
Gold growled. His hands clenched to fists. He cut himself with his claws, unable to hold himself back. “Don’t you give me that shit. Will it wear off?”
The warlock said nothing. He was clearly thinking about something. His next move? What would be more advantageous for him?
Gold didn’t know this man personally the way Sebby did. Sebby might know what the guy was thinking about, what would be the best course of action.
All Gold wanted to do was kill the man.
He stepped forward. �
�If you don’t answer me right now—”
“You’ll do nothing,” Artemis snapped. “You had your disgusting fucking claws in my neck. Don’t think for one second that I’ll ever forget you did that to me. Now you’re the one who’s going to stand there and do nothing. I could snap my fingers and cut off his air supply right now, and there’s not a fucking thing you could do about it.”
Gold froze. Was that true? He glanced to Sebby. God. What if it was true?
“All right, you’re going to do as I say now, or he dies, got it?”
Chapter Ten
It’s a lie! Gold! He’s lying to you!
Sebby tried to call out to the man, to let him know he was all right, that he was fighting his way out of the spell. He could already move his toes and his fingers a little. He couldn’t chant out loud, but he focused his inner strength inside his head and struggled as hard as he could to throw the spell off himself.
He just needed a little more time.
“What do you want?”
Sebby couldn’t see what they were doing. With the way he’d fallen, his head was slightly turned into the grass and foliage. He smelled something burning close by, however.
“I think a full-scale dragon might be better for my uncle than that runt over there.”
“You want me to let your uncle kill me in exchange for Sebby’s life?
No! No! Gold, don’t do that!
“Why not?” Artemis asked, his voice sounding cruel. “I saw what you did to my cousin when you brought him here. You were in my head, and I was in yours. You strung him up in the basement. You made sure he knew how much you didn’t give a shit. How does it feel knowing that you were a piece of shit to him the entire time the mating was real?”
Sebby’s heart stopped, and for a moment, he stopped focusing on removing the enchantment around himself.
The mating…it was real? But…the spell…
“Can he hear us?” Gold asked.
“He’ll be able to hear everything you want to tell him when the spell wears off and he wakes up.”
Sebby was already awake. Artemis knew that.
“I want you to come with me instead. Either I take him or I take you. He already thinks you want to kill him.”