Page 29
Chapter 29
Witch Bitch
I didn’t expect a gorgeous woman to materialize out of nothing. Her beauty startled on impact. I thought she’d be a haggard witchy thing, not this goddess with light blue hair walking towards us in nothing but see-through fabric. She barely looked twenty.
Another immortal being to fight.
She’d apparently done enough blood magic to retain her youth. Cash said centuries, so she definitely hadn’t aged by human standards. From the way I remembered it, witches were humans with strong magic. They weren’t meant to be immortal, but with blood magic they could be. Immortality in witches was a mark of darkness.
Her body was covered in gold tattoos, patterns that flowered and slithered around her arms, legs, and itty-bitty waist. They had a pattern, but I couldn’t make out what any of it meant. Her caramel skin beamed under soft pink silk, naked everywhere I looked. I could definitely see how someone would be ensnared by her beauty alone. Even I was having trouble recovering my jaw from the floor.
The necklace around my throat went from hazel to white, bleeding all its color. I dropped my gaze to it, surprised to see it change. When I looked over, Cash tossed a cute wink at me. Guess she’d already tried to subdue us with pheromones, but like promised, his necklace rebuked it.
Thank fuck.
After the Siren I encountered, I didn’t want to fight myself before I could even lay a hand on my enemy. It would be that moment with Sloan all over again. Cash might be the resident Fae Karen, but he was my resident Fae Karen, and I didn’t want to watch him fall prey to her after all these years because he thought he had something to prove.
Sparkling light glided around the gorgeous woman’s arms as she cut a sharp look from Cash to me, clearly upset her number one trick hadn’t worked. “I always knew you’d come crawling back, Cash. You’re nothing without your magic, even with those necklaces keeping you out of my control. You’re a lot of things, but I never thought you’d be stupid enough to bring some girl by your side. What is she? A treat? Bait? You think I can be won over by something so…ugly?”
Okay, rude. I hadn’t won any beauty pageants, but I was hardly ugly. I mean, I’d been trying at least. I put on makeup and did my hair pretty much every day. Wasn’t that enough? Why did all these people insist on outer beauty being all we had to offer to the world? Did a badass bitch who’d escaped death a handful of times not count?
Or at least, that was what Kate would say.
Cash seemed to take more insult to her comment than I did, though. “Watch your words, witch. That’s my darling you’re talking about with that sadistic mouth of yours.”
“Is that any way to talk to me, baby?” she hissed, walking closer. But she slowed with her eyebrow quirked up when he didn’t cower like she expected him to. “You should be groveling if you want to know where the amulet is. On your knees, Cassy-baby. You know how much I love you on your knees, and let’s not pretend you don’t like it as much as I do.”
I couldn’t hide my disgust.
For the first time, his eyes dropped to the ground, remembering the things he’d done under the influence of her pheromones. It was all there on his face.
This bitch.
She’d gotten to him. I’d seen it before with Kate and her previous douche-canoe boyfriend when he broke down her confidence. That gross asshole convinced my strong, quirky but brilliant friend that what he did against her will was something she liked. Like Harmony, he made it her fault. I’d made a promise not to attack this witch bitch, so I couldn’t punish her like I had Kate’s ex-boyfriend—with every weapon I owned—but I could get through to Cash. I knew I could.
Saying something to him wasn’t enough. Instead, I reached out and took his hand. His eyes shot over to me in confusion at first, but when I squeezed his stupidly soft hand to let him know he wasn’t alone anymore, his smile was the most radiant it’d ever been.
Strength returned, Cash pulled me closer. “Believe what you want, slag, but you didn’t break me. I still found the very thing you couldn’t conjure with all that blood magic you’re so fond of.”
Her steely-eyed gaze narrowed, anger twisting her features unattractively. “You’re dreaming if you think those necklaces will save you from what I have waiting on the other side of that barrier. With a snap of my fingers, they’ll use the power I give them without hesitating. You might’ve figured out how to rebuke my pheromones with those trinkets, but they won’t protect you forever. You’ll be mine again before the night is over, and that will be dead.”
I’d never been called “that” before, so it took me a second to figure out what she was referring to. But Cash was right—her desperation to enslave him again made her irrational and reckless. She didn’t see me as a threat, and she hadn’t sensed the return of his magic. Everything was falling perfectly into place, but I kept my wits about me. I’d learned my lesson, and I’d never underestimate another enemy.
But, um, why the hell did every villain I crossed paths with insist on monologuing? Why did they ramble self-importantly as if this was a cut scene in a video game? Did they not know how incredibly stupid that was? Attack first, talk later. It was practically fighting 101.
Not that Cash was any better. He suffered from a villain complex. He monologued with the best of them. Guess we all had our flaws. I’d keep my promise. I’d let him handle her, but I wouldn’t hesitate to freeze time and decapitate her if she got even the slightest edge on him. She’d given me plenty of reasons to want her dead. Guess I should be happy that, like everyone else, she’d underestimated me from the jump.
My young girl appearance had served me well.
Crossing my arms, I tossed the man at my side a sarcastic look, and he laughed to himself. My ridiculous Cash was back, totally in his element. His sassiness had returned, and fuck, I’d missed it. He wasn’t Cash without it. If the gorgeous man wasn’t talking absolute shit with a hand on his hip, were we even really fighting?
The rock in his palm levitated higher as he landed a hand on his hip. Oh yeah, there it was. My Fae Karen had returned.
“As much as it pains me to say this, if not for you, I would’ve never crossed this one’s path.” Our eyes met, and the smile he gave me had my stomach instantly in knots, butterflies fucking fluttering like this was a goddamn rom-com. “It hasn’t been long, but I’ve found something I never thought I would, so I guess I should thank you for that. If not for your forcible removal of my magic, I might’ve never met her. But play time’s over, witch. You’ve gotten…boring. Pity. I expected you to have more to say after all these years.”
That was the second time he’d mentioned that he found something. What had he found? I was normally perceptive when it came to the people around me, but why did I feel like I was missing something important right now?
Harmony quietly seethed, her magic dancing around her body, ready to do damage but not attacking. What was she waiting for? Was she really that desperate to have him back?
“As it turns out, this beauty and I have an enemy in common, so here I am. My darling wants you dead, and I couldn’t be any more tickled that she’s given me permission to be the one to do it. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure Magnus is given the freedom you’ve never given anyone in your entire bloody fucking life.”
I hated to say it, but Cash cursing and flipping his fuck-you switch was a major turn-on. The normally whiny baby of the group transforming into a terrifying killer was a personality gap I never thought I’d be into. I couldn’t help but wonder how it’d translate to the bedroom.
The nympho returns…
Probably most surprising was how much monologuing had occurred without a single attack. I’d journal this as one of the more…unusual encounters I’d had.
The rock in Cash’s hand cracked after Harmony sent her sparkly magic spiraling towards it. I’d never felt a sensation like it. Her magic even at this distance scorched my flesh. The stone became sand in his hand, but he didn’t seem bothered by it, and that gave the witch pause.
Finally. It was time to give her hell.
Harmony’s confident grin slipped away as Cash poured the sand out and a black sea of magic flooded the space around us, wrapping around her so fast that both she and I hadn’t seen it happen. Her luminous eyes widened before she tried and failed to call on her magic to save her. I wasn’t familiar with the witch the same way he was, but even I knew she was frantic to fight back. The cave behind her shuddered with activity, and I looked over as a flood of creatures appeared.
“You can’t fight them all,” she screeched, her body mummifying before our very eyes. “You’re no match for my collection.”
Her collection?
I eyed the army coming out of the opening, all different shapes and makes—some I’d never seen before, and some that looked oddly familiar but different. Both beautiful creatures and terrifying ones headed our direction, ready to defend their captured queen.
Again, really wished I’d bothered to read through the endless tomes Sloan gave me so I could name a few of the creatures pouring out of the cave, but I wasn’t sure I’d remember them well enough to know off the cuff how best to fight them.
Retrieving my crossbow, I picked off a few at a distance. They crashed to the floor before more took their place. My arrows couldn’t take out this many, so I started to call on the power in my core.
I seemed to be the only one panicking. Cash wasn’t rushing to do a fucking thing. If anything, the Dark Fae was back to his middle-of-a-photoshoot ways, preening and messing with his gorgeous, always-perfect hair. His purple eyes glided over, and he smiled at me so beautifully it kept me from reacting to the monsters clamoring towards us, hellbent to maim and destroy.
The black liquid lake that had formed around Harmony grew enormous, overtaking the entire area. I’d never seen anything like it as it crashed into the bodies leaving the entrance. Like a tsunami wave of dark magic slamming onto shore, countless beasts heading our way were now drowning in a sea of black. Every single one was sucked down into it, then wrapped and mummified like their queen.
“I don’t need their power, but I’ll take yours,” Cash said, eyes on Harmony. His tone was much more sinister than I’d ever heard on him. “I’ve imagined countless ways to make you suffer like I did, but with her here, I think I’ll just have your power and be on my way. Much to do. My dove is after the Seven, and I wouldn’t want to hinder her progress with your slow torture. Though, if she commands it, who am I to deny her?”
When he looked at me, it was suddenly clear he hadn’t meant it as idle taunting. He wanted to torture her. The devilish gleam in his pretty eyes yearned for pain and destruction. An eye for an eye. Despite his obvious eagerness, he waited for me to give him permission to do it. I was left to decide this horrible woman’s fate, and I couldn’t figure out how I felt about it.
I opened my mouth, suddenly at a loss.
She’d tortured him for a lifetime. Several lifetimes by the sounds of it. She’d done things to him I’d never understand—or at least, I really hoped I never would. Could I be the reason she was tortured? Could I let myself sink that deep into a dark feeling I never thought I’d explore? But more importantly, could I let him? Could I be the reason Cash slipped back into the person he was all those years ago? Was vengeance worth this costly piece of ourselves?
When our eyes met again, his lips twitched up into a self-deprecating smile. “It’s your lucky day, witch. My darling is far too kind for the world we live in. Unlike you, she doesn’t go out of her way to harm, and she’ll be the reason you only have to suffer for a moment. Be grateful, hag. Have it my way, and you would’ve suffered for countless hours. Days. Weeks. Perhaps even years.”
His cloak-jacket flew out behind him as more of his black magic wrapped around Harmony. Sensation spider-walked down my spine, his dark magic so powerful it overtook every other feeling in my body. Something about the Dark Fae changed the longer the black ocean stayed in the area.
I hadn’t understood the term Hand of Death, but after watching the creatures around us mummify to ash, I was starting to get it. Like my abilities, it felt too powerful to give to any single person. No one should have this much power. I’d seen how power could corrupt someone, even if it was done to help others, and that was one of the things I feared since discovering the extent of mine.
Closing his eyes, Cash’s head tilted back, and he sucked in a deep breath. I couldn’t understand how in a sea of death he could look so beautiful, but the man was practically glowing. A jewel glimmering in a dark, endless night. The asshole was sparkling again.
Shit, I’ve got it bad.
Her death felt so quick that I’d only blinked and she was a mummified version of herself on the ground, gone forever, never to torment another soul. The rest of them were reduced to ash after his terrifying magic receded.
It was a scene I’d stumbled on before—piles of ash scattered across the ground, dozens of creatures gone in a second. But did they all have to be killed? Weren’t they victims like he’d been? Would they have fled if they could? If he killed her, wouldn’t the spell have been broken?
I wanted to ask, but it didn’t feel like I could. The way he stood there, silently scanning the world, sucking in deep breaths to soothe the pain I was sure ran bone-deep, it didn’t feel like the right time to get answers out of him.
Cash closed his hand around something in his open palm, and the small object was gone in a swirl of magic. Throwing his hair back in an obscenely sexy way, he made his way over to me. “See, no trouble at all, love,” he said, addressing the countless deaths he’d claimed after only seconds of using his power.
It almost didn’t feel real that Cash was this powerful. He was a totally different person with his magic back. It was hard to reconcile the present version with the one I had in my head. Forget that I’d gone off on my own, if Phillip had any idea what the Dark Fae could do, he’d want him gone. He wouldn’t believe Cash wasn’t our enemy, not with the power to mummify and destroy countless creatures in a matter of seconds. Serine, Harmony, those two didn’t stand a chance against him.
How could I convince my stubborn beau that Cash wouldn’t hurt me? How did I make a case for him before Phillip’s fear got the better of him and the man I loved made me choose? After what I’d seen, he didn’t stand a chance against Cash. Worse, he didn’t even know he didn’t. Fuck, this was messier than I could’ve ever imagined.
If it came down to it, would I make the right choice? Could I abandon Cash if they asked me to?
“Harmony used a fair bit of her magic to create a portal, so we caught her a little weaker than normal. Still, I had hoped to drag it out a bit, but—”
I jerked my eyes up to his. “Is that what you did to Serine?”
Cash peered over at the piles of ash scattered around us, unbothered. “Yes. Does it make you nervous, darling?”
Nervous was one way to describe it. I wasn’t worried about myself; I was worried it’d start a war in our group.
Jo might not care much, seeing how she hadn’t said anything despite her suspicions, but Sloan and Phillip would want him gone, convinced he was dangerous. And I wasn’t sure how to explain I knew he wasn’t.
Which was ironic.
If you asked me a few months ago what I thought about Cash, I wouldn’t have hesitated. I would’ve said he was dangerous and couldn’t be trusted. He’d blackmailed me to help him. He was there when my parents got killed. He’d worked with Eros for all those years. He complained about everyone and everything. But somehow, he’d gotten under my skin. He'd shown up when he had every reason not to.
If I couldn’t trust myself, then how would I ever learn to trust anyone else? Right now, my gut was telling me that I needed to fight for him. Even if that meant going against two people I cared so much about. At the end of the day, all I could do was ask them to trust me even if they didn’t trust him. This would be our first test since Phillip and Sloan promised to stay, and I really hoped I didn’t regret how it ended.
I valued their experience and opinions, but they didn’t know Cash like I did. They hadn’t witnessed the changes I had. They’d dismissed him from the start. Okay, sure, they had every right to, but if it was one thing I’d learned, it was that people could surprise you. Vouching for Cash could turn out to be one of the biggest mistakes of my life, but I didn’t think it was.
It really felt like I needed to do this.