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)
“Druella!” Theseus grabbed me as I rolled onto my side. “What is it?”
Gritting my teeth, I could sense the magic coming again, so I closed my eyes and tried to focus on seeing where it was coming from. And I could see something, me—a doll version of me in Old Man Easton’s hands, thin needles exactly where I felt the pain. If I could trace the magic back and see it, I could destroy it.
Glaring at the doll and gritting my teeth as the pain came again, I thought, Burn.
The doll burst into flames, nearly burning the older man’s hands.
“Druella?”
Exhaling, I snapped my eyes open again and sat up quickly, grabbing the book. “My coven is doing voodoo magic on me.”
“Not just that, I believe some of them are here.” He growled, glancing around the cabin as if he could see them.
“Dammit!” I snapped. “They most likely have been trying to track me for hours. I think when I disappeared and then returned, I didn’t return with the protection magic over the cabin. I was so distracted by the book that I didn’t even realize I couldn’t feel protection anymore.”
“What do you want to do?” he asked.
“I can’t go back to them. They think this book is a weapon against vampires. They are wrong! I wish I could explain it to them, but something still feels off. Otherwise, why would Magdalena warn me not to give them the book?”
He opened his mouth to speak one second, and the next, he pushed me out the way as one of Jericho’s snakes came from a crack in the wall, latching on to his arm.
“Theseus!” I called out to him as he threw it off him.
“Damn bewitched beasts!”
I waved my hand over the snake, turning it to ash before grabbing Theseus’s arm and healing it quickly. “Of course, they would send my circle.”
“Druella, more will come—”
“That’s why I’m going to deal with this. Stay here—”
“Druella, no!”
I kissed his lips quickly and shoved the book into his hands, and he hissed as it scorched his skin. “Wraith, please let him hold you for now!”
Immediately, his skin stopped blistering, and I grinned wide. “That really worked?”
“You didn’t think to ask before giving it to me?” Theseus questioned. “And also, no. We go together—”
“If they see you, they will be angrier! I want to reason with them. No matter what, it’s going to be you and me in the end. But still, I want to talk to them. If it fails, you watching Wraith, for now, is much more important!”
“Five minutes,” he said seriously. “Make them back down, or I will—”
“Okay!” I said, rushing out of the room.
I took a deep breath before opening the front door.
When I did, there they were—Simone, Tate, Adelaide, Jericho, Faye, Tala, Fiona, and Rue, my circle. The nine of nine all geared up and ready for battle…against me, surrounding the cabin from the lake to the trees.
Anger was the very first thing I saw on Simone’s face. She was so angry, in fact, that she, of all people, looked like she was about to scream and cry and bring forth all the thunder in the sky.
“Let me explain,” I said to them.
“Aren’t you ashamed?” Simone snapped at me, and her fingers came alive with magic with her anger. She was hurt, betrayed.
I had betrayed them.
“I asked you a question!” she yelled at me, shaking. “Aren’t you ashamed that you, of all people, have become a vampire plaything!”
“Simone—”
“Don’t try to deny it. I can sense him. He’s in there with you now, isn’t he? A vampire, Druella! Our sworn enemies, bastards of nature and magic.”
“Don’t talk about him like that!” I yelled back, my magic also rising in anger, causing all the birds in the trees around us to take to the sky. “Just because we’ve been told and taught they are our enemies doesn’t mean they are.”
“No one needed to tell us, Druella! We’ve seen them murder for ourselves!”
“He and his kind do not need to kill. People offer—”
“What choice do they have against a vampire? Do you hear yourself?” She gasped, clearly shocked that I, of all people, was saying this to her. “Did you forget about what one of their kind did to our parents, to your father—”
“It was not this vampire who did it.” I couldn’t blame every vampire for the actions of one, just like with Wiccan or humans.
“It doesn’t matter!” This time, the earth trembled at Simone’s magic. I could feel it to the strength of her magic. “It doesn’t matter if he didn’t do it. He is a vampire, and vampires drink, kill, and they—”
“And they love,” I said. I was sure he could hear me as clear as day, and I wanted him to. “Theseus loves me, and I love him. Vampire, witch, human. I don’t care. No one tells me who I am allowed to love. I can’t even tell myself—”