Page 8 of When Roses Burn

I’d grown up in Nightshade, I’d heard and seen some of what went on in the shadows, and none of it was innocent. While I’d never been to Luminaire, where the day casters lived, I was sure they were much the same… even if they pretended to be purer than the night casters.

They were all hypocrites, and I despised them for it.

And that hatred had festered over the years since they ripped Seth away from me. Even after all these years, weeks, days, minutes, and endless seconds, I could still taste and feel him. I clearly recalled the way he sounded, how his hands felt against me, and how much he could make me laugh.

Loving Seth had been easy, fun, and the best thing that ever happened to me. And these monsters, especially my mother, tore us apart and locked him away in the hell I’d soon enter.

Except for me, it wasn’t supposed to be hell. It was meant to be an awakening, a test, and eventually a binding to one god or the other of my choosing. Could I withstand the driving force of the Needing like a light sorceress, or would I give in to my nefarious instincts and attack those unfortunate individuals in the harem?

And Seth was one of the eternals imprisoned there. That reminder was a knife to my heart that twisted deep into my soul and carved away pieces of it.

We’d been each other’s first everything; we were meant to be each other’s only, but they’d taken that from us. Now, all I had was this awful, lonely place and the memories of the only one who’d ever made me happy.

And once they put me in the harem too, I’d finally see him again. I was both terrified and excited by the prospect.

What they’d done to him over the years… I couldn’t think about it. He’d always been so proud, so strong, and they’d reduced him to a plaything. They’d taken away his freedom and his choices, forced themselves on him, and I was certain they’d destroyed his pride.

CHAPTER THREE

Briar

When tears pricked my eyes, I rested my hand over my heart. The woman knocked it away. “Don’t cover your breasts. I’m working.”

I scowled at her. I hadn’t been covering my breasts, but trying to shield my heart from the anguish it had endured all these many years. I loved Seth with everything I was, and he’d suffered because of me. He was still suffering.

My mother intended for me to enter the harem and unleash my coming hunger on everyone trapped within. She was ashamed of me, and even before she caught me with Seth, she’d never loved or liked me, but she was determined that I wouldn’t embarrass her again and would become a dark sorceress.

I was as determined to flee the harem with Seth.

I didn’t know how I’d get him out of the harem, and she’d hunt me until the day she died, but she would not control me anymore. I wouldn’t be like any night or day casters.

I had no idea how I was going to withstand the extreme lust that would awaken with my Needing. They’d told me it was an irresistible compulsion that propelled all casters to the edge of depravity. Some of them gladly walked over that edge to embrace being a night caster.

For the first time in years, my mother couldn’t control my life. While I was certain she’d gladly keep me locked away here, every sorcerer and sorceress must enter the harem. They had no choice in the matter.

Not even she, the queen of Nightshade, could stop it. I dreaded entering the harem, but I rejoiced in her impotence to stop it. I was her biggest disappointment, and she worried I’d become a bride of Sol, the sun god.

I’d already humiliated her once, but my downfall with Seth would be nothing compared to her daughter choosing to walk in the light. Except, I didn’t intend to bind myself to any of the gods; I planned to be gone before they came looking for me.

My mother would scour the kingdom in search of her wayward child, but she’d have my sister to calm her down. Rosalie was the perfect daughter, the golden child who hadn’t fallen in love with a shifter. She’d already bound herself to Mond and was entirely dutiful in her adoration of our mother.

We were nothing alike, and my mother had decided at my birth that we never would be. I was the child she never wanted, the thorn in her side since the day of my conception, as she once told me, and she never let me forget it… with my name.

My mother named my sister after her favorite flower, the rose. She named me after the one thing she disliked about that flower, the thorns.

The woman finished adjusting the train of my wedding dress, rose, and turned away. She’d barely spoken to me throughout all our fittings, and it was never with kindness, but I was used to that in this kingdom. No one talked to me unless necessary, and then it was always with as few words as possible.

I didn’t acknowledge the woman as she threw her needles and thread into her basket before closing the lid. Hooking the basket over her arm, she stalked away with a slight limp.

She was an esteemed tailor everyone in the kingdom sought to hire, but when she messed up one of my mother’s orders, my mother had all the toes on her right foot cut off.

Not surprisingly, the woman hadn’t been as excited to work for my mother again. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a choice. She may have screwed up one of my mother’s orders, but she was still the best seamstress in the kingdom, and my mother would only accept the best.

I glanced at my reflection in the full-length mirror. Though I’d been dressed in white all these years, it was still a shock to see myself in what was to be my sacrificial dress.

I’d enter the harem wearing it and emerge nude after either screwing everyone in the harem multiple times like the night casters, or having endured the Needing without using another, like the day casters.

It was supposed to be incredibly difficult to withstand the overwhelming lust that would soon awaken in me and signify my reaching maturity and ability to have children. Like every caster who entered the harem, they’d given me a potion to ensure I didn’t get pregnant during this time.