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)
“Witches can sometimes draw from nature for power,” he explained as he glanced back at the moss. “She is injured, as the cat said, and is trying to heal. Maybe, when you touched the branch, she felt your magic and tried to grab hold of it.”
“Can witches do that?”
“I do not know, nor do I think we should find out.” He frowned and rose back up. “If she is injured, that is her problem, not yours.”
The cat hissed.
“Theseus, I knew it was not my problem. That is why I said it was stupid and dangerous.”
“Druella.”
“I’m already here. No turning back now,” I said. I crouched down beside the cat and reached out. My finger had just touched the fuzz of the moss when the moss and the tree broke apart, and a scratched and bruised hand gripped my wrist for dear life. Her dark hair covered the scars on her face. Her eyelids snapped open, and one green and one blue eye fixed on me.
“Druella!” her hoarse voice sneered at me.
“Release her or lose the arm, witch!” Theseus snapped, but when he tried to touch her, her skin burned him.
I could smell the scent of his flesh burning before he pulled back and his hand healed.
“You…” The witch shook, gripping tighter, the tree moss falling off her more as she came close to my face. “Do…you…remember me?”
“You were one of the witches who attacked me in the museum. Part of Simone’s circle? An Omeron Coven witch.”
“Not anymore.” Her eyes filled with tears she didn’t let fall, and all of her trembled.
I could hear her heart hammering away in her chest so fast it should have erupted.
She smelled sweet…the sweet scent of her own blood as she was injured all over. “Because of you…”
“Me? Why me? You all attacked me, I—”
“You exposed him!” she screamed at me, and I could feel the same burn on my hand. “They took him away because of you!”
“Let go. I do not know what you are talking about!” I said with a hiss. I yanked my hand back and rose, backing away from her.
On the forest floor, as the sun broke through the trees, she lay like a broken doll covered in moss and wounds, staring up at me in pain.
“They took Jason!” she cried as she tried to crawl to me.
“You must be Adelaide,” Theseus said beside me, looking down at her.
Adelaide, the witch. Jason Silber threatened to kill me that night in the Washington National Gallery of Art.
“You!” she cried out, reaching for me again, trying with all her might to stand, but she collapsed in pain. It was only when her eyes closed that the tears fell down her face. All I could do was stare, watching as her cat whimpered beside her face, trying to nudge her to get up.
“Theseus. Druella,” Melora called from the treetops. “Father says to bring this one back home.”
“Her skin burns,” Theseus said in reply. “She’s covered in some sort of poison or magic. If we drag her, it may cause more damage internally.”
Moving back to her again, I touched her quickly like I was testing an iron. When she’d touched me, it hadn’t burned until she got upset…well, more upset.
I touched my finger to her again. “It’s not burning me.”
“Great, you carry her,” Melora said.
I looked back to Melora in the treetops as if to ask Do I have to? I didn’t want to face this. But Melora was gone, and I knew I had to.
One of the most important things I’d learned from all my books and paintings was perspective—a thing could look one way, but under a different light or circumstance, it could look completely different. From my perspective, Jason wanted to kill me to save the one he cared about and therefore was a villain. But from hers, Jason was a hero, her love, and I…I was her villain.
That silvery voice I thought I’d pushed down and locked away came back, loudly saying, You cannot run from this, Druella.
* * *
“So, let me get this straight because I’m late to this party. Jason, a vampire, was in love with this Adelaide, an Omeron witch. And when she was in danger during a battle, he tried to kill Dru, but Dru had done her little time-reversal move, and the battle didn’t happen again. Theseus exposed Jason as a traitor to Taelon Swan, and by connection, all the vampires in America, including President Waban Swan. And you, Dru, made sure he was convicted at trial in Montréal.”
“Yes, Matias,” Theseus said beside me as Matias recounted this whole ordeal while laying on a deep purple chaise lounge like a prince, waiting to be painted. Even his goblet was kingly. It was cast in gold and covered with jewels. All he needed was a bowl of grapes and someone fanning palms behind him.