“Nothing is getting past me. You aren’t dying unless it’s by my hand. I found the spellbook for the blessing.” Knox rose from his chair to retrieve an ancient piece of vellum. “Your sisters will enter the Nine Realms together, but you will stay behind with me. I won’t take the chance of you entering and wiping my scent from your flesh. The scent of my blood warns off males, but it won’t keep monsters away if you enter a realm, and I am not with you. I’m guessing since you’re still alive, you’ve never entered the Nine Realms at all, have you?”
“I wasn’t well enough at first because of the hemlock ravaging my system. The Court of Witches only needs one witch from the Hecate line to be present. While they send us in to learn the land and show our support and strength as we refuel the power of the realm, it has never been me who has gone to do so. Not because I didn’t want to go, but because you have to be in perfect health to enter the portals between realms.”
“Go fucking figure,” he snorted, barely loud enough to be heard. “You’re also sure you have no idea what your heritage is other than a witch?”
I held his gaze as I whispered, “I know it is strong. I know that whatever I am when I reach for the land in this realm, I pull power to me from my homeland inside the Nine Realms. I can feel the power when it brushes through my fingertips and the rush of it through my blood. The call to come home is like a siren going off, pulsing through my entire body. I told Aurora one time what it felt like, and she cried for hours, but never said why. Days afterward, she would burst into tears every time she looked at me, like I was something bad. I don’t feel bad, or evil, it’s quite the opposite, really. I want to see the land where we were created, to know what happens in our absence. I want to know what the people really think of us for abandoning them for a realm we have no business being in. I don’t think we belong here, and I have a feeling eating at me that we won’t be here for much longer.”
“That’s blunt, Aria. Considering your grandmother was the one who decided we did belong in this realm.”
“Just because she’s a goddess doesn’t make her opinion right. Our realms run on magic, and we are the ones who feed them magic. We’re here, in a foreign realm that doesn’t need magic. The books I have read say, if the magic is removed from the Nine Realms, it will cease to exist. So why are the creatures who feed magic to the Nine Realms, here and not where we are needed? It seems wrong to me. I get that Hecate wanted this realm to be one of ours, but we’ve been here long enough to create magic in this one, and yet it rejects us.
“We’ve created magic within humans, sure, but they are not like us. They’re not immortal. Witches are Wiccan’s, our human counterpart. That in itself shows we are failing to do as she wished, but then we are not her; we cannot make immortals without her presence. So, in conclusion to those findings, we should take our ass’s home where we belong and power the realms as we are supposed to be doing.”
Knox narrowed his eyes on my lips and then shook his head slowly, as if he didn’t agree with my findings. “And which realm calls to you the most?”
“It’s actually crazy,” I laughed, staring at him with mirth as a smile slipped over my lips.
“Which realm, Aria?” he repeated, his eyes watching me carefully.
“Norvalla,” I admitted softly. “It’s rumored to hold the most magnificent beasts in all of creation. The land is ripe for growing food, and the forest is filled with wild animals to provide meat. It also never gets cold, and I don’t like the cold. I crave heat to kiss my flesh and sun to warm it.”
“Something as wild and untamed as you would crave a realm that matches,” he breathed, gazing at me for a moment before he frowned. He handed me the spell, and I glanced at it and then glanced again.
“The blood of a hymen from a Hecate bloodline witch?” My mouth went dry as I frowned deeper, scrunching up my forehead as I read it several more times to be sure I’d read it correctly.
“Lucky for us, we have a witch who is a virgin right in our hands.” He stood, staring at me with a dark look in his eyes. “I’m leaving for a few days. I expect your hymen to be properly punctured when I get back; if not, I’ll do it my-fucking-self. Do you understand me?”
“But… I don’t have anyone I want to sleep with. I can just do it myself,” I nodded as my hands trembled with the vellum in it. Of all the shit luck to have, why the hell would it require that?
“Do you honestly think that will work?” he asked indifferently, narrowing his eyes at my trembling hands.
“No,” I sighed, studying the spell. “That explains why it needs to be blessed every fifty years. It might also explain why I ended up stuck with my virginity until mere days before my twenty-fifth birthday. On the plus side, I won’t die a virgin.”
“You won’t die, not unless…”
“I know, Knox. I won’t die unless you end my life. What if I can’t do it, what if I end up getting sick? What if I’m bad at it?” I asked carefully, wincing at the thought.
“Then you’ll be mine the moment I return and not a second later. I want my fucking house back.”
“And the creatures or people hunting me?”
“I’ll know the second you’re in mortal danger, or in your case, immortal,” he said, nodding toward the door. “Out, I have shit to get done before I can leave.”
“Who do I choose?” I asked, and he slammed his hands on the table, sending the dishes clattering to the floor.
“I don’t fucking care who you choose,” he snarled, but his voice echoed as if he struggled to contain something. “You’re not my problem, witch. The only reason I haven’t snapped that neck of yours is that someone powerful wants you alive. If it was my choice, I’d have run my blade through your throat and watched your fucking head bounce off the ground as it left your neck.”
“Understood,” I whispered softly, walking away. At the door, I paused, turning to look at him, where he watched me with darkness in his eyes. “I hope you choke on a pineapple, prick.”
I left the room before he could see the tears shining in my eyes or the pain his words had inflicted. Ignoring the looks of the others, I entered the room and shed the dress the moment I did. Staring at the door, I let the tears fall as anger and pain collided.
My hands lifted to my hair, and I pushed it away from my face, gasping as Knox entered, staring into my eyes. I spun around, shielding him from my naked breasts and presented him with my scantily garter-covered backside. I wiped at my eyes, hating that he’d seen the tears before I’d been able to prevent it.
“Get the fuck out,” I whispered through the closing in my throat as I wrapped my arms around myself, waiting for him to leave. “Please?” I needed to keep whatever pieces of my dignity were left, and then I had to go ask a stranger to take what no one else had been given. Even worse than that, I’d have to ask him to collect the blood and preserve it. As if it wouldn’t be embarrassing enough to sleep with a total stranger and have to face him afterward.
“Brander, pick him,” he said, leaving the room silently.