Page 30 of Bewitched By the Voodoo King (The Bewitching Hour #7)

Rune’s features were sharper as he walked back into the party. The soft edges I’d seen earlier, the teasing smirks and lingering looks, were gone. In their place stood the Voodoo King.

Adelle pulled me off to the side and we sipped spiked punch together as we watched him approach the raised dance floor.

I elbowed her in the ribs, and she shot me a look. “What is he doing?”

She shrugged. “If you were a little bit more patient, I’m sure we would both figure it out together.”

I rolled my eyes at her as if she wasn’t right.

I watched Rune as he adjusted his tux and rolled his head on his shoulders.

I blinked a few times as I watched… were those shadows swirl around his feet?

If it hadn’t been for my makeup, I probably would have rubbed my eyes. Was I seeing that correctly?

Adelle smirked. “He’s showing his power and his birthright. He will not be doubted or undermined. After what Babette pulled? He’s making damn sure no one questions him ever again.”

“I thought I’d have more time to prepare this,” he said, his voice deep, steady. “But it turns out my mother had other plans.”

A ripple of laughter moved through the crowd, but every eye stayed locked on him.

“Tonight, we gather to celebrate,” Rune continued, his voice ringing with power, “to be one, to remember who we are.”

He stepped forward, his shadows wrapping gently around his legs, nearly getting lost in the dark pigment of his suit.

“But tomorrow,” he said, and his tone sharpened like a blade, “we gather to fight. To eradicate the darkness that has been preying on us for far too long. The wolves think they can weaken us. Scatter us.”

A pause. His eyes scanned the crowd before landing on me. I would have been a fool to think they softened, but I could pretend.

“Tomorrow, our magic is at it’s peak. Tomorrow we will show the wolves who rule New Orleans.”

Someone whistled, a few cheered, and the rest clapped. Rune held up his hand again, and the crowd hushed.

“I wasn’t ready to be the Voodoo King. I wasn’t ready for this calling, but the ancestors knew better. The ancestors planned better. I may not be everything you wanted, but I am here to stay, and I will do whatever it takes to make sure this coven is back to its former greatness.”

With that, he took a step down from the raised dance floor, his eyes on me, and marched across the space standing between us.

The crowd erupted once more, louder this time, voices rising in a fever of hope and adrenaline. But Rune didn’t seem to hear it. His gaze never left mine.

Each step he took felt like a drumbeat in my chest. People parted for him instinctively, drawn aside by the force of his presence. Shadows still clung to him, trailing behind like loyal pets.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said quietly.

I didn’t speak. I couldn’t. I just nodded and took his hand.

He led me away from the party, past flickering lanterns and murmuring guests.

I barely registered Adelle making bam-chick-a-wow-wow noises behind us.

I didn’t even have it in me to be remotely embarrassed by her antics now.

All I could think about was what was to happen next.

Power thrummed through the air as Rune guided me through all the guests and then down the winding halls of the compound.

When we stopped just short of his door, there was a question on the tip of my tongue, I just didn’t know how to let it free.

“I wasn’t sure if I could do this,” he said, voice lower now, rougher. “Not just the speech. All of it. The throne. The weight.”

My brows furrowed as my heart pounded inside my chest. “Rune?—”

“But then I looked at you.”

He stepped closer, shadows curling like mist around his feet again.

“And I thought, if she’s here, I can survive it.”

All thoughts went right out the window as heat curled low in my stomach. Over and over again tonight, he’d gone out of his way to make his feelings known and all I’d done was stand there dumbstruck by it all.

I sucked in a breath. “I… I don’t know what to say.”

“I know this has been messy and complicated. But I meant what I said. The ancestors may have brought you here for the coven, but I know they brought you here for me , too.”

“I had no idea you felt this way,” I had hoped because even though he’d been distant, I found myself falling for him with every interruption in the library and all the lingering touches.

“You occupy all of my thoughts. I wonder what you’re doing all day.

I want to speak to you, hear you laugh.” He rolled his eyes to the ceiling.

“Ancestors, I want to hear anything about you all day long, and it’s messing with my head.

I can’t do anything without you in the back of my mind, and it’s driving me nuts.

” He ran a hand down his face and let out a nervous laugh. “I can’t even believe I’m saying this.”

He moved forward suddenly, his hands caged my face. “I want you more than I have ever wanted anything, and it scares me.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but he continued.

“This doesn’t feel so fake anymore. It doesn’t feel arranged.

It feels…” The warmth of him enveloped me as he leaned in closer.

He was now a hairsbreadth away from my lips, and during everything he’d said, somehow I’d ended up backed up against his door. “Fated.”

My stomach bottomed out. When his lips whispered over mine, I was lost and completely gone to the way he steadied me. The intoxicating scent of him wrapped around me as he pressed his lips firmly against mine—no longer hesitating.

His hands slid up, slow and sure, until they cradled my jaw, thumbs sweeping gently over my skin. I couldn’t tell where he ended and I began. Every rational thought dissolved.

Our lips moved in a quiet rhythm, exploratory and aching, like we were learning each other by touch alone.

My fists curled into the front of his suit, gripping him like he was the only thing tethering me to earth, and maybe he was. When his lips parted mine, heat pooled low in my belly. The first sweep of his tongue—slow and searching— had my legs nearly giving out beneath me.

His hand slid from my jaw to the back of my neck, fingers threading into my curls as he deepened the kiss. There was nothing hesitant now—just heat, hunger, and the kind of urgency that made my skin feel too tight.

I gasped against his mouth, and he took it as an invitation—his other hand sliding down, brushing over my waist before sliding back to lightly cup my ass. I shivered against the touch. I wanted more, so much more. My body arched into his to tell him exactly what I needed .

He groaned into my mouth. His restraint shattered.

His hands gripped my hips, then slid lower, hooking beneath my thighs.

The door opened behind me, and I wondered if his shadows were doing the extra work.

I stumbled backward into his home, but somehow we still didn’t untangle from each other.

With a swift, fluid motion, he lifted me and set me down atop the nearest surface in the entryway.

The door swung closed on its own, and the lock clicked into place.

Any other time, I would have been curious, but right now, all I cared about was what Rune was doing to me… My body.

The kiss turned hungrier. His tongue tangled with mine, his teeth grazed my bottom lip, and I melted beneath every touch like I was made of something far more delicate than flesh.

My dress rode up as he stepped between my legs, his palms dragging along my thighs like he couldn’t get enough of touching me. I gasped when his hand slipped under the hem, fingers exploring the soft, sensitive skin there—closer, but not close enough.

“Tell me what you want,” he murmured against the skin of my neck, lips brushing my pulse point.

“You,” I breathed. “Just you .”

That was all he needed.

His mouth trailed heat down my throat, over my collarbone, his hands pushing the straps of my dress down my shoulders.

The fabric slipped away like it had been waiting to fall.

His lips followed its path, kissing the curve of my breast and then lower to my aching nipples.

His tongue swirled over one before going to the other and giving it the same attention.

My head fell back at the sensations curling within me.

Each tug of his lips on my skin pulled a desperate moan from my lips.

He kissed a path down my stomach, slow and reverent, like every inch of me was sacred.

“Look at you,” he murmured, gaze flicking up.“So damn beautiful.”

My thighs trembled as he knelt between them, fingers ghosting over the inside of my thighs with a maddening softness.

He hooked one finger into my black lace panties and pulled them to the side.

My lips parted as I watched him lean forward and press a kiss to the most sensitive part of me.

I fought to know what to do with myself as he leaned back on his heels with a mischievous smirk.

When he lowered his mouth back to me, I was gone. Completely lost to the pleasure he inflicted on me with each flick and press of his tongue.

My hips bucked instinctively, but his strong hands pinned me gently, holding me in place while he worked me apart with calculated care.

I whimpered, fingers tangling in his locs as my back arched off the desk.

“Rune—” His name was a plea, a gasp, a surrender.

He groaned against me, the sound vibrating through my entire body. “Say it again.”

“ Rune .”

“I want to see your magic when you finally unravel. I want to see every single spark you’ve been hiding inside of you.”

Instead of letting his words ruin the moment, I ignored them and focused on the pleasure he started up again at my center.

He didn’t stop until I shattered—coming undone on his tongue, my thighs trembling as I cried out, helpless against the waves that overtook me.

When I finally opened my eyes, he was already rising, kissing a path back up my body—my hips, my ribs, the valley between my breasts—until his mouth found mine again.

“You okay?” he whispered, voice rough.

I nodded, unsure of whether or not I trusted my voice.

“Was it good for you?” I frowned at how uncertain he sounded.

“What do you mean? Of course it was!” How could I reassure him?

“I mean, your magic didn’t manifest or anything, and that’s a common thing…”

The blood drained from my face at his words. Of course… of course that’s what he meant, it wasn’t just words spoken in the heat of the moment. It was an actual thing that I’d never been prepared for.

Stupid. I was so stupid.

He toyed with the edge of my dress as he watched me with concerned eyes. “What’s going on, Maple?”

There was no denying it. I couldn’t deny it. I couldn’t do anything but be honest because if I wasn’t, he was going to find out on his own and it would be so much worse then.

I closed my eyes for a beat. “I’m a null.”

My dress dropped from his fingers, and he stood abruptly. “A what?”

“I don’t have magic.”

His face was void of all emotion for a beat, and then anger bled into his gaze. “You’re joking.”

There was nothing to say. His tone of voice told me that he knew I wasn’t joking.

Rune backed away from the desk like he’d been burned.

“You don’t have magic?” he repeated, voice low—but this time, not with desire. With disbelief. With betrayal.

I sat up, arms curling protectively around myself. The chill that swept over me had nothing to do with the air.

“I was going to tell you,” I said quietly. “I just—there was never a right time.”

His laugh was sharp and bitter. “Oh, so after we slept together seemed right?”

“No,” I whispered.

He turned away, running a hand down his face like he couldn’t even look at me.

“You let me think—Ancestors, Maple, we welcomed you into our home. My mother welcomed you. And all this time, you were lying?”

“I wasn’t lying!” I stood, wobbling slightly, heart in my throat.

“I was trying to survive. You don’t know what it’s like—to be born to power and have none of it.

To be treated like a shadow in your own family.

My father said some covens might see me as weak.

As a threat. That… that they might try to kill me. ”

“And he was right,” Rune said, turning back to me, eyes stormy. “Do you know what it means to bring a null into our coven during a magical collapse? Do you know what that will do to the witches here if they find out? Do you know what this could do to me? My own wife a null?”

“I’m not a curse,” I said, even though it felt like I was.

He stared at me for a long time—so long I thought maybe he would leave, slam the door, let the weight of what we’d just done rot between us.

But then he took a slow step forward.

“You should have told me.”

“I know,” I whispered as my heart shattered within my chest.

“I don’t know what to do now, but I need to think.” And with that, he was gone, and I was left in his room to think about everything we’d said.

My eyebrows pulled together. Wait.

I straightened as I pulled my dress up around my body and rushed to the door.

Wife. He’d called me his wife.

He hadn’t said “you ruined everything.”

He hadn’t said “I want you gone.”

He hadn’t said “stranger” or “liar.”

He’d said my wife .

My hands trembled as I reached for the chair, sinking into it with my dress bunched at my hips and shame pooling in my stomach.