MeluciaNepthar didn’t stumble back alone. Quinn and the High Priestess did too.Quinn looked pale, her face twisted in shock and horror. I glanced away from her, nausea curling in my gut as an emotion I wasn’t ready to confront bubbled to the surface.“Be careful, Nephy,” I said with a smirk, giving her a nickname I knew she’d loathe. The way her eyes flashed confirmed it. “You don’t want to cross me.”Nepthar looked up at me, specks of earth clinging to her skin. The sight brought me more joy than I cared to admit. Her once-beautiful face was marred by dirt, her eyes sharp with fury.“You’re the one who should be careful,” she snapped, brushing off her gown with sharp, angry movements.I turned from her, brushing off her empty threats, and fixed my gaze on the High Priestess.“I could ask why you’re here,” I said coolly, “But seeing as you brought your little coven, the answer is already obvious.”“I’d ask why you are here but seeing as you brought your coven members, I already know
Melucia“Look who’s here,” I called out in a sweet, mocking tone, my smile wide as my legs dangled off the tree branch. Below, standing at the edge of the woods—the very same woods where everything ended for me and my coven years ago—stood a familiar face with a dozen or two unfamiliar ones. How poetic that the same woods is The same woods where I now keep Ezra chained like an animal and under my mercy. How times have changed.The familiar woman stepped forward, her face pale and stricken. She looked exactly like the girl I stole this body from, because she was her mother. The same woman who had embraced me as her daughter the moment I opened my eyes in Anna’s body.“Anna?” she whispered, voice trembling. “Anna, is that… you?”“It’s me, mother,” I replied, the title laced with venom. She flinched. A stab of guilt pierced through me but I forced it down.Yes, she had been kind to me. Loving, even. But that was only because she didn’t know the truth: that I had killed her real daughter
Ezra“She gave them things to fortify themselves so they would be untouched,” I continued, ignoring her jab.“But Elder Matthew has been touched, hasn't he? And Elder Lazarus—when you talked about taking him into your torture room to interrogate him, I bet you touched him a whole lot,” she sounded thrilled at the prospect of Elder Lazarus being hurt. She hated him even before all of this. He was against my union with her. “Please tell me he’s not dead.”“He was well on his way there when I left him,” I told her as if trying to appease her.“He better hold on,” she muttered. “I have many plans for him.”To any outsider passing by, it might have looked like we were two lovers lying on the forest floor, speaking softly in an intimate moment. Melucia’s face was relaxed, her lips curved in a gentle smile. But if anyone dared to step closer and truly see, they would realize just how far from the truth they were.I was pinned to the ground, completely immobilized, with no hope of escape. No
EzraOkay, she got me there. I had secrets. There was no way I would tell my kids what I did to have them. They would hate me forever. I told them sweet stories about their mother whenever they asked. It was something I did not plan for so I was speechless the first day they asked and it took a while for me to form a good story to give to them.They knew they got their witch’s side from their mother. They also think I must have loved their mother a whole lot to not care that she was a witch and still got together with her when I knew that it was forbidden for a witch and werewolf to be together. If only they knew that truth. “That’s what I thought.” Melucia said with a scoff. I decided to change that topic because this one was something I was not comfortable with. I did not want to think of my children hating me. I knew that eventually, Melucia would tell them the truth even if only to turn them against me.“The story of the assassin getting in the kids room, I want to hear it.”“Y
Ezra“What are you going to do to me?”It was a stupid question to ask, of course, but it will keep her talking. It would only delay the inevitable but still, as long as I remain alive, there was still hope for a chance to turn everything around. Maybe I could look for something to offer her? I could give her one of the twins like she begged me over ten years ago but she already have the two boys with her. She kidnapped them.“You want to know, don’t you?”I couldn’t nod even if I wanted to so I forced a reply out of me. “Yes,”“Of course you do but I’m not going to tell you.” She cracked another smile that was bothered on unhinged, causing me to cringe.“Okay. Then tell me about the twins. Where have you kept them? Are they fine? Eating okay?”She did what I least expected. Copying my posture laid down flat with her chest on the floor, placed her hands on the floor and rested her head on it so that she was staring directly into my eyes with her soulless green ones.“You care about t
EzraMy head was pounding and my ear was ringing when I came to. I groggily opened my eyes, but for a minute or two, they saw nothing—just blur and darkness—until everything finally came into view.Trees.The scent of murky water and wet earth filled my nose. I was lying—with my chest to the ground, arms spread wide—on something hard and uneven, cold seeping into my bones.I tried to push myself into a sitting position, but my body refused to cooperate. It felt heavy, like a mountain was sitting pretty on top of me. I collapsed back on the floor, breathing hard and fast after exerting much effort to sit up—just to fail.I could feel panic setting in. All I remember was coming out of my secret torture room, confused on what next to do to solve the problem in my pack and then Melucia screaming. I remembered falling, my eardrums bursting from the shrill sound. Then, nothing but white. And after that… darkness.Melucia.Where has she taken me? I tried hard to concentrate on my surrounding