“What if she is something we have never seen before?” Brander countered, and I glared at him.
“A phoenix, maybe?” Killian asked, and I turned, blinking before I moved my stare away from him.
Killian looked like his sister, Liliana, which was a fact I only remembered because his presence never let me forget. It was why I sent him away every fucking chance I got. The details of her image, though, have faded, even more so since the moment I laid eyes on Aria, as if she was replacing Liliana’s memory in my mind. Killian’s eyes were the same shade as Liliana’s, his hair the exact color. I couldn’t look into his eyes without feeling a punch to the gut. I frowned, turning over what he’d said, and then dismissed it.
“She isn’t a phoenix, and even if she was, the only way to know would be to kill her, and see if she rose again.”
“That can’t fucking happen,” Brander said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “She can’t die here, none of them can.”
“No one touches her yet,” I replied, fighting against the urge to defend her. I looked up, staring into Killian’s eyes to remind myself of what I am fighting for. “The immortals outside of this town, what’s the update on them?” I changed the subject, hating the idea of extinguishing the fire in Aria’s pretty blue-green eyes.
Lore snorted, watching me with a knowing look. “Dead, if they have refused to enter the Nine Realms without a fight,” he shrugged. “Not many have refused once your name was mentioned. Some are hiding in the woods, but trackers are on their scent. We’re on schedule.”
“Good.” I nodded as I scrubbed a hand down my face, smelling Aria’s scent still on it. “The others will be here soon to push the original families back into the Nine Realms. Those aware and in agreement with the situation have already begun to move into their places and are ready to strike down those who are expendable.”
“This house?” Brander asked.
“Will vanish once the time comes, returning to the lower level of the palace with me. Aria was in the library,” I admitted, watching Brander narrowing his gaze on me. “It revealed itself to her.” They all frowned, watching me, knowing the library hid itself even from them, and yet it opened and showed her its secrets.
“That’s impossible. It refused to reveal its secrets to Liliana, and she was your mate,” Killian snapped.
“Aria saw the stolen tomes on the shelves. I know because I fucking watched her run her fingertips over their spines. Her pretty bare feet walked over the frost, and every crystal within the library responded to her presence. Explain that, asshole.”
“Why would it do that for her, and not your true mate?” Killian countered, anger dripping from his words.
“If I knew the fucking answer, I wouldn’t be asking you. You’re the scholar, you tell me. It hasn’t ever revealed all of its secrets to another soul, but it chose to show her. She walked into it twice and was shown its secrets both times. She saw the white oak shelves and warmed her firm, tight ass on the flames of the Ifrit’s cauldron. She draws magic from the Nine Realms, not from the nature of this Human Realm the other witches pull from. When Aria called her power to her, it came straight from our realm.
“I’ve felt nothing like her before. She’s immune to flames, casting raw, strong magic that hasn’t been tapped into since before we were born, and she’s built to savage. Your sister was sweet, and I had to be gentle because of what I am and because Liliana was fragile. Aria took me, and she took it all. I fucked her every way I could, Killian. I was buried so deep in her fucking throat that she licked my balls and got pissed when I had to detach her pretty lips before I came in her throat like some fucking youth with his first maiden. I tried to break her body, it didn’t break. Aria’s creature looked me dead in the eye and told me I wasn’t mate material. Me, I’m the fucking king who feeds an entire realm,” I snapped. “I only tell you this because these facts have convinced me she is one of our kind, maybe not the same, but she is something similar to us, and we’re dying out.”
“And that pissed you off,” Killian smirked, observing me.
“You’re damn right it did. I am a provider. Your sister never fucking complained or lacked for anything she desired. Aria looked me dead in the eye and told me she found me lacking, how would you respond? Considering what we are and what we do for our women, wouldn’t you be pissed?”
He nodded, frowning before he spoke again. “Aria isn’t Liliana, Knox. She’s a Hecate witch. The same bloodlines as the ones who helped murder my sister and your son. I watched you hold my nephew as he died a thousand deaths, cursed by those of her bloodline. I helped you bury my sister as you wept for the first time in your entire life while we mourned your family. They shot first, and I sure as fuck intend to slaughter them all, even Aria.”
“You think I have forgotten our purpose here? I haven’t, and the moment everything is in place, we will strike. Do not ever fucking question my loyalty to my mate and my son again. I was the one who held him as his body failed, and the light left his pretty blue eyes. I was the one who wept as he was ravished in boils and fever until he hallucinated and didn’t remember who I was, didn’t recognize his mother. Everything I have done and everything I do is because of them. I fucked Aria, so what. I fuck a lot of bitches, and it has never changed my endgame.”
“She’s not like other women, Knox. We’ve all seen it. I’m just the asshole with enough balls to say it,” Killian pointed out.
His arms crossed over his chest as he watched me; we both knew he was right. Aria was nothing like the others. The others were just wet holes to appease the need to release the pressure in my balls. I hadn’t thought of another bitch since fucking Aria. I fucked Lacey after I’d threatened Aria on the outskirts of town, but it hadn’t been Lacey I’d seen as I plowed into her with anger. It was pretty turquoise eyes that defied me, taunting me. I’d fucked that useless witch long and hard until she passed out from the pain and brutality. I’d given Lacey my anger while imagining she was Aria Hecate, and I’d found her lacking. Lacey had known she wasn’t the one I wanted, but she’d still gotten to her knees and opened her pretty lips for me. It had been the wrong fucking time to lip off and then open her mouth while on her knees.
I’d let Lacey wield her magic on Aria, expecting the little witch to burst into tears. Instead, she’d throat punched Lore and then went nose to nose with an alpha, begging him to fight her. Bitch had balls, that much was a given.
It was clear to me from the beginning that she was different from her sisters. I’d felt Aria pull magic to her, and I’d fucking been shocked with the sensation of the Nine Realms giving it to her. Those realms were cold and merciless, like me. Yet the moment she called, they fucking gave her everything she needed. There was no record of any creature being able to draw power from inside of the Nine Realms into this one. Her tiny little fingers wiggled, and the power was there for the taking. She made it look natural, as if she was born to wield the power. Not one of her sisters had so much as questioned why or how the fuck Aria Primrose Hecate had just yanked power from another realm to her painted fingertips. Either they were unaware and couldn’t feel it, or it terrified them, and they kept it secret.