Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 115432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
“Mother, stop it! Arsiein enough!” I heard Theseus’s voice, frantic and angry, but I still couldn’t see him.
“I-I…don’t want him to be hurt.”
“But that’s what you are going to do, not just him but everyone else. You are playing a risky game, little witch! And for what? To hold on to your coven? To keep playing with magic? Is your love not worth more—”
“Get out of my face!” I sneered. I shook in anger and threw her from me, her body flying toward the other side of the room from me.
Before she could hit the doors, she was caught in the arms of another vampire, then one by one, more vampires just appeared. I didn’t know from where or how, and I didn’t care. I was sick of this!
“Druella, wait!” Theseus called out for me, grabbing my wrist.
“Let go!” I called as I yanked for my hand back.
“What my mother said to you was wrong,” Theseus replied, holding my wrist tighter. “I apologize on behalf—”
“I don’t want an apology from you!” I yelled as my eyes filled with tears. Dammit! I was not going to cry right now. “I want one from her. I can’t help that I’m a witch! She was once a witch, so were you, so were all vampires! Why would she call me selfish for not wanting to change? I don’t want to be immortal yet!”
“I know,” he whispered, placing his hands on my face. “And no one is going to force you. I like you mortal.”
“You’d like me no matter what,” I grumbled, looking away. “Your mother, on the other hand, was very clear, and I will not hate myself because of her.”
“Nor should you have to,” he replied, kissing my forehead. “Let’s go.”
“Go? Where?”
“Wherever you want,” he said, already leading me toward the doors.
“Wherever you both go,” Rhea spoke, and when I turned back, the crown was knocked from her head, and the rest of his family surrounded her, “her coven will not let her live in peace. They will hunt you both down.”
“So be it!” Theseus hollered. “I am not afraid of Axel Omeron or any witch.”
Her eyes shifted to me. “You will have us all go to war because you would not give up your magic? You could avoid all of this by simply becoming immortal, and yet I am the villain?”
“Mother, that is enough,” he said, stepping in front of me. “We have made our choice.”
“Such words remind me of so many mortals before they die. Stubbornness is a folly, for sure,” she stated bitterly.
“And you of all immortals ought to know a great deal about stubbornness and selfishness!” Theseus shouted, now between her and me, like he really was a shield. “If I recall, I was not given a choice on this life. You chose for me! Yes, out of love but also out of selfishness! Being my mother does not give you the right to lecture anyone, least of all her!”
“Theseus!” she called out, hurt in her eyes. “I am trying—”
“I know what you are trying, and I do not need nor ask it of you. I have made a choice. Whatever that means in the future, I will deal with it. It is not your right to interfere in this!” The anger from him, the deep primal growl that came from his chest, was something I had not seen. He pointed to a boyish-looking man. “And you, brother, should you ever hide me from her again, I will rip you apart limb for limb every day of eternity, I swear upon it!”
“Druella.” Hearing my name from his mother’s lips for the first time startled me more than her glare. “You are going to have to choose, and the longer you take, the more time your coven has to discover. They will fight to keep you on their side or try to destroy you. Then we will all have to destroy them. Stay here. We can fake your death, and your family will move on. In a century, you could even return to that land.”
For the first time, she sounded less cold vampire queen and more…a mother, pleading.
“Even after I speak, you still refuse to listen.” Theseus shook his head, and I took his hand. “Mother, you tire me.” He turned back to me and forced a smile on his lips. “Are you ready to go back home?”
“Yes, please.”
* * *
Theseus and I tried to salvage what was only the start of my actual birthday morning when we got back to Virginia. We’d been in Greece for less than half an hour, yet it had drastically changed the mood he and I were both in. We’d tried leaving the cabin and walking through the forest, we even flew, and though it made me feel a little better, I couldn’t shake my sadness.