Page 7 of The Damned (Coven of Bones #3)

Willow leaned in close enough that her face filled Itan’s vision, making sure it was all he could see.

I knew the way his vision narrowed in, the edges of his sight going fuzzy as he fought for breath and oxygen left him.

I was all too familiar with that struggle and the way it made a victim focus in on the very last thing they wanted to see.

“Tell your nephew what you did to her, ” Willow said with a sneer.

She left my name out of it, but I couldn’t help the shocked gasp that flew from my mouth.

Even though I’d known it was coming, even though I’d thought I was prepared, nothing could prepare me for the moment of reckoning that I’d waited years for.

Willow met my stare, and I watched as Iban followed her gaze right to me. The rest of the Coven hadn’t caught on yet, but his mouth dropped open as his brow furrowed, a question in that stare that made me raise my chin even as my bottom lip quivered with my panting breath.

Willow raised her hand, motioning as the vines wound between Itan’s legs and put pressure on the part of him that he’d used for violence against me. It had been a weapon to be wielded against me.

Now it was his weakness.

“Uncle,” Iban said, but the caution in his voice was heartbreaking. I knew Iban well, had grown up alongside him and knew that the bonds of family were everything to him. He would spend the rest of his days haunted by the reality of what his family member was capable of.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a moment, releasing that breath and letting go of all my fear.

My breath shook as I took the first step, my legs trembling as I made my way through the crowd to put myself in the center circle.

I stepped up beside Willow, lacing my fingers through hers and offering her my presence.

My grip trembled as she squeezed me back, offering a silent reassurance.

I could practically hear her voice in my head when she turned her stare to mine, that same pride I’d seen on Lucifer’s face when He looked at her now reflected back at me.

“Enough,” I muttered. Willow heeded my request immediately, offering me the power that had been stripped from me for so long without a moment of hesitation.

She released the vine from his throat, and I watched him collapse to his chest on the tile.

His face smacked against the floor when he couldn’t catch himself, his lip splitting beneath the force.

“Margot, thank you,” he wheezed, the hoarse sound of his voice barely reaching us even though we stood before him.

The last time he was this close to me, he’d violated me. He’d taken so much from me that I would have never given him willingly.

He would never take from me again.

I took a step forward, pressing the toe of my heel to the top of his hand.

I ground it down, drawing a scream from his throat as my eyes warmed with the sting of tears that I felt through my glare.

“I did not stop her for your sake,” I said, squatting down in front of him carefully.

I used all the training I’d been forced to undergo at that moment, keeping my mother and my aunt’s teachings at the forefront of my mind.

Beauty and grace, always. Even in our darkest moments.

I tucked my dress beneath my knees. “I want to hear you say it,” I said.

“Say what?” he sputtered, whimpering when I twisted my foot to cause him more pain.

“Tell them what you did to me,” I said, forcing my voice to remain steady.

I felt the moisture of tears filling my eyes, but I never allowed them to fall.

My entire world narrowed down to Itan’s pained face.

The only thing penetrating my haze of rage was the presence of a winged archdemon stepping forward.

Lucifer waved him off, but I did not miss the fury written into his face, his body tense and ready for the kill.

He froze in place when I ground my foot down harder.

I barely managed not to reach out and grasp him by the throat, not to let my power sink into his skin and compel him to give me the confession I wanted.

In the distant haze, I knew his defenders would use that to say I had forced a false confession from him. They’d use my magic against me, blame me for the actions I never deserved.

He groaned as Willow twisted her hand, allowing her vines to wind their way beneath his body and the hem of his shirt, touching the waistband of his pants in a silent threat.

It was enough to make him startle, jumping in place as if he could stop it.

“I snuck into your room at night,” he said suddenly, but still kept his words purposefully vague.

“And did what?” I asked, standing and taking a step back from him. Willow used her vines to force him up from the floor, putting him back onto his knees.

“Touched you.”

“No,” I spat, leaning into his face. Whatever had existed within me that was quiet and kept to myself was gone for the moment, my actions driven by my rage that it had taken years for this moment to come to pass and he still thought to downplay what he had done to me.

“You didn’t touch me. You raped me. Say the word. ”

“You little bitch—”

“Say the fucking word. Admit what you did to her and what you and the rest of the Tribunal conspired to do to this Coven, and I will give you a swift death. But make no mistake, Itan, you will die either way. I will make sure you suffer for every day you made her have to look at your disgusting face, fearing that it would be the day you came back,” Willow said, waiting as he considered his options.

He glanced toward the other Tribunal members, the horror on their faces making me feel like I had finally gotten one tiny piece of justice.

They feared the exposure that would come with Itan’s confession, but they didn’t look as if they questioned the truth of my words, seeming to believe me more than my own mother had.

She had the grace and decency not to look at me, not to meet my stare as the truth of what she’d called nightmares and brushed off finally came to light.

I resisted the urge to scream at her.

That was a rage for another day.

“ I raped you, ” Itan said finally, the words making me slump in relief.

They crashed into me like a torrent, washing over me like the snapping of a bond I hadn’t known existed.

I’d been trapped beneath the weight of this secret for so long that the relief of no longer having to bear it in silence made me feel heavy in a new way.

I didn’t know how he appeared so quickly or why, but the moment my breathing turned ragged, massive but gentle hands gripped me around the shoulders.

I didn’t even have the energy to flinch back from that touch as Beelzebub turned me into his chest, offering me a place to cry where they couldn’t see.

His bare chest pressed against the side of my face, but I couldn’t make myself pull away, not when the tears finally came and poured down my face. Not when silent sobs racked my body and made me tremble.

I couldn’t let them see.

“Shhh,” he soothed, rubbing those gentle hands over my arm where he held me steady. “I’ve got you, songbird. Let it out.”

“And the rest?” Willow asked, moving on as Lucifer moved forward to take the place I had vacated. Beelzebub shifted me slowly, inching me out of the way and out of the center of attention.

“The Covenant and the Tribunal conspired to rid Crystal Hollow of the Vessels once and for all,” he said. I couldn’t see anything but Beelzebub, but even I knew that was a half-truth meant to save face.

To make him look like a hero, even now.

“Tell them how you planned to do that,” Willow pressed.

He groaned, the sound reaching me. “Don’t say another word!” the Petra Tribunal member yelled.

“We were going to starve them. To do that, we were starving the Source. When the magic dies, so do the family lines. Breeding becomes more difficult, witches fall sick. Their blood becomes less potent until…”

“Finish it, Itan,” Willow snapped.

“Until only the Tribunal remains. The Vessels cannot feed on us without breaking the bargain, and the Vessels would then be weak enough to fade away. The Tribunal members would carry the magic within us then, and we would return the power to the Source. We’d fix it,” he said, as if it changed anything.

As if it changed any of the reality that they’d been actively attempting to sacrifice all of us so they could have freedom for the rest of their lives.

“You mean after everyone in the Coven was dead, you’d fix it for yourselves,” Willow said, always having the words to convey the absolute horror that we all should feel at this secret they’d kept.

“Yes. That’s exactly what I mean,” Itan agreed.

I pulled my face from Beelzebub’s chest to look at him one last time, to commit his weakness and his death to memory as Willow wrapped her vines around his throat once again and twisted, snapping his neck so quickly and efficiently that I wondered if she felt any hint of remorse for her actions.

If she felt as empty inside about it as I did.

The rest of the Coven didn’t seem to share my emptiness as Beelzebub tore me out of the center circle, the Coven members descending on the Tribunal members that had betrayed them. He spun me away from the bloodshed, shielding me from it by placing himself between me and the violence.

But I would never unhear my aunt’s dying screams.