Page 51 of Voices in the Stars (The Lost Witch #1)

I wasn’t allowed to fall far. Hands grabbed my own, wrapping them behind me to keep me standing as the pain kept radiating through every part of my body.

My breaths were short gasps as my body jerked away from Ivy.

The pain would ease momentarily before my back was sliced open in a new spot.

It felt like it lasted forever. My entire back felt like it had been set ablaze before I was finally allowed to fall to the floor.

Ivy was standing above me. A red-stained shard of glass was clenched in her fist, blood dripping from it into the puddle of blood on the floor.

Her finger traced along the glass, covering herself in my blood before putting it in her mouth with a cheery grin on her face.

Once her finger was clean, she leaned down toward me.

“You look so pretty with my name in you,” she whispered.

It sent chills down my spine that only caused me to whimper.

The shiver sent a new wave of pain through my back down to my legs.

Ivy laughed down at me before standing. Eris spoke to her, but my mind was too busy reeling with the pain to focus on what he was saying.

Dark spots danced across my vision as I tried to breathe through it.

I was tempted to reach out to trip her as I was stepped over, but my body felt like it was paralyzed.

All I wanted was to keep laying in my puddle of blood.

The room started to spin as Eris followed his daughter out of the room. I didn’t know how long I was left alone on the ground. It could’ve been mere heartbeats or days between him leaving and Atlas joining me on the ground. A hiss left me as he cradled me against him .

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered against the top of my head.

I opened my mouth to talk to him, but no words came.

I wanted to reassure him that I knew what I was getting into.

That none of this was his fault. But the words wouldn’t come.

Instead, I was focused on the coal in my chest that was moving.

It was burning. The flames were running through my veins.

My entire body was heating up. Sweat was starting to drip down the back of my neck.

Atlas had no reaction to my sudden change in heat.

I tried to warn him that I was about to catch us both on fire, but my words were cut off by a scream.

My back had to have caught on fire. I was burning from the inside out. Atlas pulled away once I started screaming. He was moving me, looking over me as I writhed in his arms.

“Finally, gods, thank you,” he whispered, relief clear in his voice.

I wanted to hit him at that moment. More than I had at any other point in our journey. None of this felt like a blessing from the gods. Even as the pain ebbed away, I still felt like I was on fire. My heart was racing as it tried to keep up.

Then it was gone. The fire raced back up to my chest where, this time, it stayed.

My breaths were heavy pants as I started cooling off.

I was dizzy even as I tried sitting. There was a deep ache in my back, but the resounding pain was gone.

My hand was shaking as I ran it along my back.

There was a slight sting from touching the sensitive skin, but there were no marks.

No sign that I just had someone carving into my back.

Tears burned my eyes as I looked back at Atlas.

His eyes were red as he was fighting back his own tears.

My arms were wrapped around him before I could think twice about it. He grabbed my waist, holding me tighter. One of his hands found the back of my head as he pulled me into a kiss.

“Oh boo.” We jolted apart at the sound of his sister’s voice. She was standing in the doorway, looking down at us with a frown. “I was hoping it would take a little longer to heal that. I’ll just have to try harder.”

That caused her to perk up as she started walking toward us. Atlas pulled us into a stand, placing me behind him.

“You’ve done enough for today.” His voice was shaking as he kept an eye on her as she moved through the room .

“You don’t get to keep the plaything all to yourself,” Ivy argued back with him, crossing her arms and pouting like I was a toy being kept from her.

“There will be more time to play later,” Atlas kept arguing, moving us in a way that kept himself in front of Ivy.

“Why wait when we can play now, though?” Ivy argued. “I’m growing bored of this,” she added with a stomp of her foot.

This was exactly how I imagined a child would act in this situation. A murderous, blood-drinking child.

“Plus, I think you’re forgetting something, brother,” Ivy said with a smirk as she stopped in front of us.

“And what’s that?” Atlas asked, playing along.

A deep feeling of dread had settled in my stomach right before she moved.

One moment Atlas was protecting me, the next Ivy had him by his throat, throwing him into the wall, his head being thrown back by the impact.

Pictures and books went tumbling to the ground.

A groan left him as he grabbed the back of his head.

“I’ve been keeping up with the family diet.” Ivy finished the conversation with a smile. She glanced at where I was standing, frozen in shock, before looking down at my blood from earlier. “There’s a new game I want to play.”

With a fanged smile shot over to me, she swiped her hand through my blood before walking to where Atlas leaned against the wall.

He glared at her as she walked up to him, crouching down in front of him before she wiped her blood-covered hand over his mouth.

His eyes were wide as he pressed his lips into a sealed line. His gaze darted between the two of us.

I felt useless at that moment. Every part of me wanted to run over and help him.

To grab his bitch of a sister by her hair.

Yet, watching her throw the man who had always seemed indestructible made me realize we were both in way over our heads.

Seeing him with my blood smeared across his face, trying not to ingest any of it, a hopeless pit settled in my chest. We weren’t going to make it out of this like we thought we would.

I wanted to curse myself for thinking any part of this would be easy.

For a moment, I found myself wishing I had listened to Atlas and stayed at the cabin. I tried to shove those thoughts away just as quickly as they appeared. No matter what pain being here caused me, I would never want him to endure this alone.

“Unless you want our dear father to know what you two were doing when I walked in, I suggest you enjoy that taste of your toy,” Ivy commented. “He’s already heard plenty from one of the guards. Hearing it from me would be all he needed.”

Atlas was fully looking at me now. Uncertainty and fear were clear in his eyes.

This was the one thing he had been fighting against his entire life.

It was something his mother never wanted for him.

I placed him in his worst nightmare. I took a deep breath; hating myself in this moment would do nothing to help him.

“It’ll be okay,” I whispered, my voice shaking as I struggled to believe myself.

“I think that’s the smartest thing you’ve said so far,” Ivy commented. “Listen to the witch and eat up.”

He kept his gaze locked with mine as his tongue slipped out, wiping the blood off his lips.

His eyes slid shut as he shuddered. One of his hands came up to wipe at what was around his face before taking his fingers into his mouth.

When he opened his eyes again, I wanted to cry.

They were black just like theirs. His smile was twisted, nothing like the one I had fallen for.

Ivy stood, moving back to where I was.

“Thank you for bringing my brother home,” she whispered before grabbing my arms. I whimpered at the strength of her fingertips as they dug into me.

It wouldn’t take much for her to break my arms. It was enough to keep me pulled against her, still facing Atlas as he stood. “Come, feed on your bitch.”

Her words were all the encouragement he needed.

Atlas charged at me, staring down at me with his dark eyes.

Chills ran down my spine as I saw the man I had come to care so deeply for vanish.

He smiled at me before sinking his teeth deep into my neck.

I cried out, fighting against her hold. Her nails dug into me as her grip tightened, keeping me in place.

My screams echoed around the room as I thrashed back against Ivy.

My chest burned with fire as I tried to bring it down to my hands. It was time to put an end to this.

Ivy grunted as the fire sparked to life in my hands.

They never made it to flames, though. Atlas pulled his fangs from my neck, sucking my blood out of his punctures.

The magic was ripped out of my control. It felt like he was pulling any fire I had directly out of me.

I started to cry as I felt my magic leave me until I was back to feeling like I did so many days ago. Weak and helpless.