“Bring her to the tent,” the witch ordered. “Is Lord Andres here?”
“He is here, Mistress,” someone answered.
“Good. Find the runner who failed to return and take her head.”
The male took me into a tent and dropped me on the ground unceremoniously. I sucked in air, remaining limp as the sound of heavy breathing entered behind us.
“I see you found the bitch,” Lord Andres snorted. “I trust you murdered Killian and Lore to stall the king from hunting her?”
“Easily. It’s a pity that I couldn’t play with the king’s brother. He excited me. Had I more time, I’d have enjoyed cutting him into pieces to leave a trail back to Ilsa for King Karnavious to find,” the witch stated, her tone high and nasally.
The witch ripped the hood from my head, and I lunged, slamming my face into hers before she could react. Lord Andres gripped my hair, pulling me upright as my muscles screamed in protest.
“Stupid bitch,” he snarled, shaking me by my hair as my scalp screamed and rebelled.
Lord Andres turned me to face the witch, and she slapped her hand against my cheek. Bone crunched as I took in the haggard face of the witch. Her lips pulled back over blackened teeth as she sneered at me, striking me again before cradling her hand to her chest, her fingers broken from hitting me.
It was a bad sign she was so brittle, showing dark magic had tainted her for a prolonged time. Just like Asil, she was rotten from the inside out. I held her sightless black eyes, daring her to hit me again. Blood dripped from my broken nose as a smile broadened across my lips.
“Aria Hecate, the High Queen of Witches, has sentenced you to death,” she crooned, reaching forward to run her fingers through my silver hair. “You downplayed her beauty, Andres. She’s gorgeous. It makes perfect sense why the King of Norvalla used her nightly in his bed.”
“Indeed,” Andres chuckled, pulling me back to lick the side of my face with his putrid-scented mouth.
“Do not mess up her face. I need it to be perfect for replicating,” she ordered.
“She’s in heat,” Andres grunted, running a hand over my breast, squeezing it painfully.
I whimpered at his touch, choking down memories of Garrett’s hands on me. Lord Andres jerked me back, handling me like a rag doll as he shoved me toward a stench-covered bed that caused my eyes to water. Rolling over on the mattress, I stared at the couple who watched me.
“So, what’s your brilliant plan, Kristal?” Andres asked, moving toward the simple table where amber liquid sat in a glass carafe.
“The same one I used when I created the king’s last lover. I will take her face and use it to become her. After that, I will replicate the scent of her womb to make him think I am her. It worked with the last one well enough. He never even realized she was one of us,” the witch chuckled coldly.
“You can’t be that stupid, Kristal,” Andres snorted, downing the contents of the goblet before setting it back down. “It isn’t her face that draws him to her. It’s the scent of her womb and her pussy. He’s tasted her, which means you can’t replicate Aria. He’d figure you out before you ever entered his camp. One taste of you and you would be dead, woman. She’s rare, like the king’s own bloodline. Aria Hecate isn’t only a witch. She’s also the same as the king, or she’s close enough to it that he’s drawn to her. You could take her face and wear it, but you’d never be able to duplicate her sounds or her scent.”
“We cannot allow her to live. You understand that, don’t you? She has left our witches in fear of her marching upon them with her undead army. They’re hiding, and witches of dark magic do not hide.”
I snickered, drawing her wrath to me.
“And when you find the one creature that can bring the king to his knees, you don’t kill it. You turn it into a weapon and send it back to him like a bomb, Kristal. Have Aria become like us and send her back to him.” Lord Andres turned, smiling coldly at me as his eyes glazed over to obsidian, but it wasn’t the same as when Knox’s eyes turned dark, allowing his creature to peek out at me.
Whatever Lord Andres held within him, it was ancient magic and powerful. It was also evil. Pure, horrifying, dark magic slithered over my flesh as his hand grabbed my face. Pain filled my chin where he held me, pinching tightly as he tilted my head, forcing my jaw open so he could peer inside.
When he released me, I backed up, but he grabbed my legs, yanking them apart before lowering his nose to my sex, inhaling it deeply. Andres’s hands left my thighs, pushing my body backward, and I fell, unable to stop myself from toppling over with my hands bound tightly behind my back. My eyes slid to the rising sun outside the tent, detaching myself from the situation as he pushed his fingers against my core, entering my body with one, then withdrawing it, making grotesque noises as he tasted his finger.
“She’s in heat, which means the king is coming for her. Everything within him demands he doesn’t lose her during a cycle.”
“King Karnavious can’t tell the difference between an actual heat cycle and a tonic induced cycle. We stick to the plan. She dies, and I replace her long enough to take his head,” Kristal snapped.
“You’re not hearing me. The king has tasted her cunt, heard her noises, and knows her scent by heart. You cannot replicate Aria’s scent with magic like your mistress did to his other lover. We gave the tonic to the last one before he’d ever known her carnally.”
Andres pushed his finger back into my sex, forcing it further into my body as I cried out, struggling to get away from his touch as he reached for something within my body. His other hand slapped me, and darkness danced in my vision as he snorted.
“She isn’t pregnant, and his scent is weak on her,” Andres declared, pulling his finger up to his nose while smiling at me cruelly.
“Then what do you suggest we do? She’s a bloodline Hecate witch with too much power to control, Andres. What the dark mistress did to us, I cannot do to Aria or her kind. She’s entirely too powerful to manage while alive. The last one was much weaker and altered at birth to fit her role as his lover. The king was drawn to her from the first scent he caught. We created her to play a role, and once everything unfolded as we’d planned, we freed her from his unwanted affection and touch.”
“That sounds like your issue. If you can’t figure out a way to control Aria, I’ll keep the bitch and use her to build an army of monsters to go against the king. That,” Andres said, pointing at me, “is unheard of, and executing her is the last resort. No woman has rattled and purred in the last five hundred years. Not that history recorded, nor was it noted in the Library of Knowledge. Most can’t even do one or the other these days, and if she can breed children who can, that makes her worth a fortune. Your mistress wants to use her, but she doesn’t even realize what the little bitch is yet. So go converse with that evil bitch, Ilsa, because you’re not killing Aria.”
“You’re not in charge here!” Kristal snarled. The magic she rushed through the tent sent bile pushing against the back of my throat.
My entire body tightened, preparing for the assault that Kristal intended to unleash. Lord Andres snapped, pointed at me, and growled low from deep in his chest. “We can breed that bitch to create monsters. Her womb is fertile and can be filled often. You think of power, but that girl is raw power who can breed an entire army of monsters for your High Queen. Smell her womb, Kristal. That scent oozing from her lures beasts to breed with her, and I intend to do just that. Why do you think the King of Norvalla claimed her? Because he’s very aware of what she is and what she can do. Your queen would be foolish to waste this resource simply because she fears her. I refuse to allow that to happen!”