Page 42 of Hellish Witch (Playing with Demons #3)

Chapter 41

T he feel of being pulled into someone’s arms dragged me from the abyss.

My rouge lashes fluttered until I was staring up into Killian’s stunning features. He watched with a mixture of fear and relief that reflected my own heart.

“You’re alive,” I croaked.

“Because of you,” he whispered, eyes raking over me as he slowly set me on my feet. His wings curled around my back, holding me steady against his front.

His healed front.

I marvelled at the smooth plum perfection of his skin, absent of ink. The lines of his tattoos turned to wisps around the edges of where a crater of flesh had once ravaged him.

A single claw tipped my chin up, forcing my gaze from the evidence of his near-death and up to his gleaming silver eyes instead. “Eve… What did you do?”

A hollow ache lurked deep in my chest. Right where the warmth of my magic, roiling and swirling like the core of a volcano, had used to live. The mark on my wrist, freshly anchoring me to the Sage Coven, was just as absent.

The destruction of my powers must have broken the mystical tie to a family that had never been mine to begin with. Somehow, I felt lighter without it.

But maybe that was the blood loss.

“What I had to.” I met my demon’s intensity, unblinking. “You’re worth any price, Killian. You always have been.”

A small line formed between his brows, something vulnerable in his eyes making my heart break all over again. His words were soft, drifting through the cocoon he’d created with his wings. “All these years… I thought you were rejecting me. I’ve been drowning you in energy for a long time, sweetness, and you never once mentioned it. You never even touched it. I couldn’t blame you either. You’ve always been too good for a monster like me.”

“Fires, Kill.” A breathy laugh escaped me. “We’re so stupid… I fell in love with you the moment I saw you.” I swallowed, throat thickening at the memory. “Standing there battered and bruised, a million cuts across your malnourished frame and barely a handful of feathers left. Then you looked at me, and you lifted your damn chin. You dared me to think less of you. And I… I just knew you had the kind of strength I’d always craved. People have beaten me down my whole life, and I just thought to myself, if I was like him, it wouldn’t matter what they did. I’d be unbreakable too.”

Tears filled my vision, spilling over to wet my cheeks.

“You are unbreakable, Eve.” He cupped my face in both palms and captured me with silvered eyes drenched in emotion. “You’re stronger than I’ll ever be. You saved me then, and every damn day since.”

His words pierced my chest, and then he was closing the scant inches between us, lips fusing to mine.

It drugged me.

I couldn’t think of anything but him. The feel of his tongue slipping past my defences. His body heat warming me. The scent of seared sweetness. The silk of his feathers shielding me from the world.

Even with the hollow where my magic used to live, my heart had never felt more full.

“That swine!” The coven elder’s voice boomed through the woods.

Killian tore his mouth from mine, glaring in the direction the voice had come from. I followed his gaze as best I could with his wings and arms trapping me against him, refusing to let me so much as turn in his grip.

My father stormed down the path towards us, but his attention wasn’t on me. It locked onto the mage I’d killed.

Sage Coven members already swarmed the area, standing over the bodies of downed hunters. They must have subdued the injured stragglers while I’d healed Killian and made out with him like nothing else existed.

My cheeks warmed as I realised anyone could have snuck up and tried to murder us both while I’d been absorbed in him. Knowing Killian, though, even half-dead, the enforcer wouldn’t have been as easily caught off guard.

He was always protecting me.

The coven elder drew up beside us, glaring at Alvie’s dead body like he could resurrect the mage and then kill him all over again.

“Apparently, my bloodthirsty side isn’t all demonic,” I mused, breathing in Killian’s warming burned-caramel scent.

My father’s expression pinched as he turned his attention to Killian and me, merlot eyes glowing bright in the dim forest now Alvie’s light had been extinguished. Permanently.

“You know it was Alvie who let the hunters in?” I rasped, surprised he wasn’t attacking us.

“I’m told he attacked you while you were trying to stop the hunters.” His upper lip curled in disgust. “That boy has been after my position for years. Thankfully, my powerful daughter was here to protect her family.” His lips stretched into a violent smile.

For a moment, I felt my own tip up in response. I’d never had a real parent, let alone one that would be proud of me.

The empty reality in my chest seemed to pulse, and I bit my lower lip, realising it wasn’t just my magic I could no longer feel. I lifted my wrist, inspecting the smooth skin. The little cluster of sage leaves had disappeared, along with my powers.

“You stupid girl,” my father snapped. Any hope I’d harboured at finding my birth father shattered with the look of disgust on his features as he gaped at my bare wrist. “What use are you to me magicless?!”

Killian moved before I could stop him, his hand clamping my father’s throat. “Another word, and it will be your last.”

Pain stuttered my breath as my father’s words sank in like sharpened blades.

All I’d ever wanted was to matter. To be worth something. To belong.

Moonlight dappled one side of Killian’s blood-spattered face through the trees. His handsome features honed to a deadly snarl as he strangled the gasping mage.

The coven watched on in silence, no one lifting a finger to protect their leader.

Until now, I’d been looking in all the wrong places. I didn’t want to be here with a coven full of strangers.

I wanted to go home with Killian.

Back to my real family.

Killian glanced at me over his semi-flared wing. “What is he talking about, sweetness?”

“I… I won’t need magic lessons anymore.”

His black feathers ruffled against his back. “And why not?”

“Because I gave it all up. For you.” I smiled up at him, cutting him off as he opened his mouth to protest. “And I’d do it again.”

“Eve…” His harsh expression softened. “Why would you do that? I’ve been willing to die for you since the first time I saw you smile.”

Tears sprang to my eyes again, and I hastily swiped them away. “I know, you dumb brute. But it’s not your death I want, it’s the rest of our lives. Together.”

A broad grin split his lips.

“Come on, Kill. He’s not worth it.” I held my hand out to the incubus, and he dropped the coven elder, letting the old mage crumple to the dirt, spluttering for air. “Let’s go home.”

Killian threaded his blood-slicked fingers with mine. “Anything for you, sweetness.”

He pulled me against his chest, the comforting beat of his new heart soothing the ragged edges of my strung-out nerves.

My demon hauled me into his arms, spread his wings, and launched us towards the stars.

Wings took flight in my heart and soared with us.