Chapter 29

F ifteen minutes before our meet up, I entered my mother’s office. I made it with no signs of my parents. My mother had placed our family book back on the white pedestal next to my grandmother’s chair. When I stood in front of my nemesis this time, I pulled back the small hidden wedge in the cover that revealed a small needle with emerald dust in order to prick my finger, deactivating the slumber incantation. After ten minutes of flipping through the off-yellow pages, I found the insensate incantation buried behind notes from my second great-grandmother.

A loud thud resonated in the office as the book slammed shut. “Damn it,” I muttered. When I heard the clock chimed at the top of the hour and went late as usual, I all but ran to get out of the office. Almost scared someone might walk inside and catch me again. Each step toward the kitchen backdoor made my teeth clench as what I was about to do sunk in. My stomach churned worse than the summer night storms in Houston, but I kept my head up as I almost reached the kitchen door. Just before I heard my mother’s voice call my name. Snapping my eyes closed and reopening them, I turned around to face my mother. She was dressed for bed, and Ms. Kincaid was nowhere in sight, meaning she was purposely looking for me.

“Now what could my mischievous daughter be up to this late at night?” My mother folded her arms, tapping her slipper cladded foot, all the while the corner of her mouth twitched.

“Well, I have to feed Sera and Luc. It’s been a long day, and I forgot they need food to survive, or they will find some of the coven to munch on.”

My mother tsked as she stepped down the stairs to stand in front of me. In my mind, I prepared for her to chastise me with her words, but all that came was the light touch of her hand as it caressed my cheek, throwing me off my tracks.

“You have a situation on your hands with Greyson.” she paused, smiling up at me as I bent my neck down to look at her. “If I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t have changed anything because I got to see how powerful you’ll become. Every trial and tribulation I’ve endured was to bring you to this point in your life, and I support you no matter the outcome.”

Heaviness filled my belly as I looked at my mother. She never confirmed whether she asked to see her future. I only learned that secret from the three sisters. My hand reached up to cup hers as her mear magic slipped through my veins, warming and mingling with mine. Her crooked smile I looked forward to when times were too tumultuous. Now only made me realize how lonely it can be, having the weight of your fate on your shoulders. Was it always going to be this way?

My mother slipped her hand from my face, retreating up the stairs. Once she was halfway up the stairs, she stopped and pivoted toward me.

“Greyson… might be impulsive, don’t you think? If you want to rule, then you will have to make some changes or, at the very most, get him on the same page…. If not, then produce an heir. The people and the coven love new blood. It will give them something to look forward to. Something to give our people hope in you and our family leadership…and quickly. Have you drank your Stoneseed root yet? You were due two days ago. It’s perfect timing.”

My face had turned cold as I laid a hand on my cheek.

My mother’s eyes narrowed, and she chuckled, “Youna! You look like Bernadette on a bad day! Kaydian, having children is not a bad thing. We’re the descendants of the goddess of fertility for a reason. You will know joy when you have yours. Just as I knew it when I held your tiny body to my chest.” She turned back to continue up the stairs right before I left the hallways. I heard her mumble, “I can’t wait for all of this to end.”

An Heir? A child? A Mixling? I think my mother bumped her head. Yes, like everyone in my family, I felt the powerful urge to get pregnant almost every month. Even with the Stoneseed root, it just made it easier to manage. Placing my hand on my soft stomach, I thought I was too young to have kids, even though my mother and almost everyone in the village said otherwise. With so much change going on, that would be an awful situation, but what other shitty option do I have? My mother was right, as I wrapped my arms around my body, guarding me from the cold Houston night air. Luckily, I could bear it for the five months until our child got here. Youna! I would have to give a sacrifice to the goddesses every day and night to make sure he or she doesn’t come out like Victoria Muller. What a catastrophe that would be. That would be just the tip of the iceberg. To imagine having to explain my baby to the Royals would be a nightmare in itself, especially since I would have to beg Sir Cross for acceptance since they were the first of the goddess descents.

“Kaydian!”

Del yelled my name, snapping me out of my turbulent thoughts. It took me a minute to realize I was standing in the small clearing entrance with my fist balled up and digging into my soft thighs. My lips felt sore as I loosened them from pressing them together. Del massaged my shoulders, loosening up my tightened muscles.

“I’m sorry,” I said, finally getting my lips to work with my brain. “Thank you for coming. Let’s get this over with. We won’t have any problems. I will tell you everything along the way.”

Del just nodded as I walked over to the shed to remove my magic from the lock I placed on the shed before I left the last time.

“A magic lock?” Del asked, whistling afterward. “He’s that bad?”

This time, I just nodded and told her to wait outside.

When I entered, Greyson was sitting on the side with small size holes decorating the soft mattress. He had repeatedly used the bed as an outlet for his misplaced anger. The act was innocent, but it made me angry. He turned to acknowledge me. His eyes were golden, but as he blinked, they turned back to brown.

“I’m sorry, Kaydian…I—I never meant to hurt you. Last night…my wolf?—”

I wanted to protest and ignore his apology, but even now, those thoughts felt forced. I played with the idea of keeping his mother’s last moments on earth a little longer. That was until I looked into those wide, pleading eyes and crumbled.

“It’s okay, Greyson. Do you mind putting on a shirt? We should talk about your mother.”

Greyson paused, his face broadcasting the emotions that he kept hidden before his eyes became a watery grave. “It’s not good, is it?”

Forcing the corner of my mouth into a straight line. He knew the answer to that already. “No, Greyson. It’s not good at all, and I just hope you can at least hear the entire story.”

My hands felt foreign to me as I tucked them into the crook of my arms. The words started, but I couldn’t tell if it was me or the dark voice speaking. Word after word, I watched as Greyson’s handsome face morphed into sadness as he alternated from hanging his head down, letting his hair cover his face. When he looked back up, peeping at me through the openings of his inky black hair, I saw it—no, felt it before I could understand it. Hate thick as the humid Houston air filled the tiny cabin, but he didn’t move an inch. Just the wisp of his hair fluttering as he exhaled through his nose.

I’ve never felt uncomfortable as I do now and though I understood why. It still made a cold tingle creep down my spine.

When I was done, we sat in uncomfortable silence. After a moment, Greyson’s wolf’s yellow eyes landed on me, causing me to shiver. The muscles in his tightly corded arms flexed as a barely audible growl filled my ears, and it made me take a small, shaky step backward.

“Your parents helped kill my mother…”

Swallowing, “I can’t take back what was done. Your uncle killed your mother without giving her a second chance. My parents gave him permission to capture someone, but they didn’t know it was your mother, Greyson. I’m so?—”

If there was one thing. I underestimated was Greyson’s wolf.

Greyson jumped up from the bed, causing me to almost trip over my shoes. A mistake on my part as he took the foot of the bed into his hand and flipped it over with ease, which caused a loud banging noise to fill the small shed. The yellow light flickered and buzzed from the impact.

“Greyson, please! Control your wolf. He’s making too much noise. I understand you’re angry at me and my parents, but we can work it out.”

“You’re no better than your parents. Oni was right!” he said as he gathered the remainder of the food and clothing. I brought him and hurdled them across the room. Bread, fruits, and jugs of water colored the items that were flung to the ground.

Greyson’s wolf wasn’t done with its fit of rage. His glowing eyes narrowed in on me. “I’ll promise you this, Kaydian. Once we’re bonded, I will burn everyone in this murderous compound, including my mother’s brother.”

“Listen, right now, you’re not thinking straight.” Shuffling on my feet as his wolf watched me. A bead of sweat trailed down my forehead. “Let’s try this again tomorrow. I can bring you more food and books.”

That’s when I made my next mistake. I let my emotions get the best of me, and tears formed in my eyes, blurring Greyson and his wolf as I tried to blink them away. All of the bravo I once had sailed out of the tiny window of the dim light shed.

Sharp pain fleeted down my head to my toes as my back hit the wall. The pleading words I had in my head dissipated, leaving me dumbfounded. Greyson’s wolf partially shifted, hand wrapped around the delicate skin of my neck, cutting into my flesh. Metallic mingled with the tension in the air. Grabbing at the hand around my neck, I tried to get him to let go, which only made him slam me into the wall again. Black dots danced in my vision, and this time, the air had been knocked out of me, leaving me panting against his enclosed hand. I watched as Greyson’s eyes turned back to brown and then back to yellow again as he fought for control. But his wolf was winning the battle.

“Greyson! Please.” I said, despair coated my breath.

“We can work…” I gasped for the little air I could. “I promise…”

With a last attempt, I squeezed out, “I love you, Greyson. Please.”

The words only held so much truth as I spoke them into existence. I loved him in a sort of twisted way, but there was no hope as the weight of the moment sat on my soul. Greyson’s wolf, none the wiser, tightened its hold on me as Del slipped into the room. Her blue eyes locked onto us.

“Oh, shit!” Del yelled loud enough to wake the coven up.

Greyson’s wolf turned his sight on Delphine as she glued herself to the wall. Without a second thought, it determined that Del was the bigger threat to him. A quick sigh of relief escaped my parted lips as his hand abandoned my neck. As he ate away at the distance between him and Del.

“NO! NO! NO!” I yelled as he reached out to grab Del with his sharp talons that would shred her apart.

I couldn’t let anything happen to Del. She was innocent, and I couldn’t live with myself if she got hurt because of me.

My magic bubbled, a hot scorching sensation raged just underneath my skin, and the insensate incantation in the old language.

I watched the green light of my magic wrapped around Greyson’s head, positioning itself to perform my want. Greyson’s wolf turned around and an ominous smile graced his face as he realized Del was someone important to me. Looking at those yellow eyes of hate, I knew that this was it. There was no taking back my plan or changing my mind. “Go,” the royal language echoed in my mind as I watched the end of my magic drive into Greyson’s skull. His eyes widened as he fell with the smile wiped off his face. My heart thudded in my chest as he almost hit the ground, face first, before my magic caught him just in the nick of time.

Grabbing onto the wall, I waited until I gained control of my adrenaline-induced body. Greyson dipped and raised as my labored breath caused my magic to ween. This time the rancid air in the shed burned in my lungs as I bit back tears.

“Are you okay?” I asked. Her pale body was still stuck to the wall, trembling. A small ‘yes’ left her mouth. I had to be strong for the both of us even if my legs felt like they were about to give out.

“Your throat, Kaydian.”

My hand flew to the tender skin. The moment the pads of my fingers touched the spot, I winced. “Well, he can’t kill me, but I think this was close enough.”

I joked, but something inside of me died when he hurt me. My knees buckled as Del’s hand reached out to steady me. “Let me,” she said as her reddened hands found my neck. Using her magic, she calmed the sore muscles in my throat. My cheeks scorched as I thought she had used up too much of her magic to heal me, especially when she knew my magic could do it. I truly didn’t deserve her.

“Thank you, Del?—”

Del grabbed my trembling hand. Her rosy color had finally returned, “Don’t even say it. You’re my best friend. I would do anything for you. Let’s get this over and done with.”

All I could do was nod feebly as my magic did the heavy work. As we walked through the dark path and into the dank, empty escape tunnels and down the stairs to the dungeon, I relayed everything my mother had said to Del. Her ohs and ahs filled the tunnel’s dark space. Del had offered no advice after I was done speaking. She just muttered, “Shit,” and went back to watching out for any of the guards.

When we made it to the bottom floor after our long trek. The scent of death that clung to the red brick walls for dear life made our eyes watered. I almost forgot how many witches and supernatural’s died down here. Poor Del coughed until the whites of her eyes turned a faint pinkish hue. Folding my arms against my body to prevent me from mistakenly touching the walls, we ventured left to the deserted hall that hadn’t been used since the last war. Two hundred years ago, my family built this section just for the shifters, and the long-deserted hallway now served as a monument to our victory. The red brick wall morphed into walls that were as dark as the midnight sky from the amount of blood that saturated the halls. My mind couldn’t think which was worse, the bloody walls or the sterile scent that meant someone tried to scrub the history of these dark halls away.

“Let’s use the very last room,” I said out loud.

Ten rooms of torture later, I shuddered as my hand pulled the ice-cold bar handle of the silver metal door. The cleaning agent the staff used for their monthly cleaning clung to the room. I guess it was better than the putrid smell from the halls. Del beat me to using her magic to sweep the area of the harsh scent and turned on the fluorescent string light. The room was small with gray walls with no window, a small table, and a sink. A lone silver table that was reinforced with wolfbane lay in the middle of the room. My magic gently laid Greyson on the table while Del strapped him in, enforcing it with her magic.

“He’s going to need some heat, Kaydian. He may be a shifter, but he will be a frozen one if you leave him like this.”

Delphine was right. Greyson would freeze before the morning sun rises, but as I looked around the room, my mind drew blank. We didn’t have a furnace to place down here—I think, to be honest, it’s been a long time since I ventured down here. The last time was to confirm which room I wanted to live in once I lost myself to the curse.

Del grunted, drawing me out of my thoughts, carrying an old, small, black kerosene heater. She looked small, hauling the cylinder heater. Setting it down, she said, “I knew they kept a small kerosene heater for the guards. I think I underestimated the size of this thing.”

“Oh, that will work. We will just take turns coming down to fill up.”

Del paused with her mouth slightly opened, “Take turns? How long do you plan on keeping him here?”

Opening my mouth, I told Del the truth. “Honestly, I’m not sure, but what I know is that I need an heir to rule if Greyson isn’t by my side because of that archaic rule made by some old bastard.”

“Wasn’t it your great time a million family member that made the rule?”

Crossing my arms, I met Del’s questioning face as she turned to me with her mouth open to make some other smart-ass comment, but she took one look at my face and closed her mouth shut.

“Never mind,” she muttered, averting her eyes.

That’s right!