Ilsa cleared her throat, and I realized I had yet to answer her question. I continued to gaze out the window.
“I see absolute power, which is yours for the taking, and rightly so, Mistress,” I turned toward her and away from the grid she forbade us from admiring too long, in the event we thought to reach for the power it exuded.
Ilsa’s smile was cold, curving her lips, sending dread and trepidation rushing through me. Her hand lifted, touching the amber curls that hung in rivulets down my shoulders. Ilsa stepped closer, her eyes holding mine while challenging me silently. I felt the need to hold her stare as if something more was happening here.
“Hecate’s line has returned.”
“So it is rumored, Mistress,” I answered firmly, somehow managing to stay upright past her rotting corpse’s debilitating stench.
Ilsa’s scent was thick and eye-watering, like a chamber pot filled with rotten shit while surrounded by the dead who had suffered an ailment, dying before emptying its contents. Unblinking eyes held mine, searching for any sign of weakness, but I’d long ago had it beaten out of me.
You didn’t expose fear to your enemies, or those you served. Her jaw clenched tightly, unnerved by the inability to cower me before her. She turned again, staring off into the corner before nodding once firmly.
“I have a job for you, Soraya. I do hope you won’t fail me. Such brazen courage before your mistress could be grounds for punishment, but I find your strength to pretend that you’re not terrified, intriguing. Come, I would speak to you away from the ears of the other acolytes who would listen to our every word. I’m about to make you a legend, sending you to a king that has a fondness for those who have yet to turn to darkness.” She peered out the window once more.
My heart slowed, trained to hide fear and emotion since the day I’d been born, half-witch, half-shifter. When my mother refused Ilsa’s dark magic, she abandoned us, leaving me alone to raise my younger sisters. She had known her life would end at that moment, and her attempt to hide us in the Realm of Light had failed since Ilsa had conquered it, claiming it as her own.
I swallowed, hating that Ilsa held power over me. My eyes slid to the line, running briefly over my youngest sister, Julia, who stared forward, eyes pooling with darkness. My heart clenched, knowing that I would lose my sister unless I found a witch stronger than the one I served. Steeling the emotion her emptiness caused me, I plastered a wicked smile on my lips, turning to look at Ilsa.
“I am yours to command, Mistress. Becoming a legend sounds wickedly nice. How may I please you?”
I’d be whatever Ilsa needed to remain close to my sister, even if I lost my soul in the process.
Chapter Five
Aria
My eyelashes fluttered as I lounged on the stone that overlooked the large hot springs in which Dimitri bathed, washing the blood off of his hands and arms. He wasn’t ashamed of his body in the least, or offended that I stared at his ass with what he assumed was hunger. Instead, I compared it to Knox’s masculine, perfectly muscular form and found Dimitri lacking.
“You could join me. You know you want to,” Dimitri chuckled, and I snorted, rolling my eyes toward the vivid blue sky above me.
Birds sang in colorful trees, snatching insects out of the sky every once in a while when they’d get too close. The forest we had hidden within was lush with greenery and colorful flowers that moved around the trees, pulsing with life. I studied one bird, a smile playing on my lips, watching as the flower behind it bloomed. The flower lunged, closing around the bird, sending feathers drifting down from the limb. Shocked, I sat up, feeling a pang of regret for the bird and making a mental note not to piss off the trees with flowers.
“You do realize you’re just going to get bloody again, right?” Frowning, I lowered my gaze to the witches we’d captured in the town just outside the forest. They had murdered all the villagers and had used their corpses to create the power grid when Dimitri and I found them.
“Unless they start talking,” he muttered, nodding toward the struggling witches and their severed limbs still twitching on the forest floor.
Strolling out of the spring, Dimitri paused and shook the water from his hair, making sure I had plenty of time to notice the impressive erection he didn’t even bother trying to hide.
Moving to where I sat, Dimitri leaned over to place a soft kiss against my cheek. Since I’d saved him from certain death, he’d fought the attraction he felt for me, but it seemed harder to ignore each time we ended up somewhere together. It wasn’t hard for me. On the contrary, I easily ignored Dimitri’s scent and presence. My body didn’t get heated, but admittedly, I found his flirting cute.
It spoke volumes since I turned into a raging sexual fiend every time I was near Knox.
I’d discovered a lot about myself and just how fucked up I was since entering the Nine Realms. I knew that I wanted Knox and that no other male would soothe the ache I felt between my legs, or my clenching need. I hated it, but he’d dug himself so deeply within me I couldn’t rip his claws out.
Dimitri hadn’t given up hope that I’d succumb to his seduction and flirted mercilessly with me. His hands grabbed and parted my legs as he settled between them, cupping my face as he studied my eyes. I watched his tongue snake out, wetting his lips, noting the lust that danced within his pretty blue eyes.
“Can I kiss you?” he asked, watching as I puckered my lips, scrunching my face before I exhaled slowly.
Leaning forward, I let his lips brush against mine and waited for the burning need to tear through me. I craved the primal need. The violence the kiss would rip from me, reminding me I wasn’t human at all, no matter how I looked. It never came.
With Dimitri, it was cute flirting.
With Brander, there was a little heat.
With Knox, he melted the flesh from my bones, revealing the monster beneath the skin I wore. He scorched me down to my rawest form. Knox exposed bones, melting away my human genetics as he showed how deeply he intended to take me. Bare-bones, primitive need, driven by animalistic instincts that demanded we go hard, fast, and the monsters slumbering within us felt our mutual connection.
Dimitri pulled back, narrowing his gaze on me as he frowned. “You’re not kissing me, are you?”
“I was,” I muttered, using my foot to push him away. I moved to collect my knife from where it sat just out of reach beside the witches.
It wasn’t as if they could reach it anyway since I’d removed their arms. Dimitri was quiet, so I peered back at him, noting his stiffened spine as guilt washed through me. I knew he was attracted to me, but Knox’s warning echoed through my head. If my creature surfaced in response to Dimitri’s wolf, he was burnt toast. I missed toast. The food in the Nine Realms was lacking, to say the least.
I crouched down, moving my skirt out of the way of the bloodied witch, and watched as she opened her mouth, preparing to scream.
“You could make this easier on yourself and just tell me what I want to know,” I offered. My eyes slid to another witch secured to a tree, watching me with fear etched in her expression. “You’re next,” I taunted.
Dimitri leaned against the rock I’d abandoned, watching me through thick, dark lashes. He waited for me to slice the dagger through the witch’s side, opening a large gash in her flesh as blood began seeping into the ground. She struggled to escape me, using the stumps of her cauterized elbows to scoot out of reach. There was no escape, just like there was no escape for her victims in the village.