Page 6 of The Endless One

She blinked. There was no way they knew his entire plan. Leon wasn’t that foolish as to have all of it out in the open like that… was he?

Or maybe that was the point. He wanted them to know what was going to happen because he genuinely believed they wouldn’t make it in time. His kingdom was far away, and it would take every bit of their resources to get there, but… They could do it. They had to.

Jessamine couldn’t help but stare at Elric, slack-jawed and shocked. The other witches in the room quieted as well.

“I…” Jessamine cleared her throat. “Do you mean that we know his entire plan, everyone who is going to help him, and when all of it is going to happen?”

“I do, nightmare. I mean exactly that.”

“So we could plan every detail, anticipate every difficulty that he might throw at us, and prepare accordingly?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. If I could be so bold, might I suggest you gather your witches, and we will plan every detail of his death? Getting rid of the priestesses will not be easy, but they are the ones who will help him the most. The guards should be much easier. Getting to his kingdom is the hardest part. I can open a portal for some of you to travel through, but not the entire coven.”

She lifted her hand. “I don’t want the entire coven to go. What if this is a trap?”

“How could it be a trap? And if it is a trap, we still have all the information required to best him. He didn’t show the crows all these details. A murder of magical crows died to gather all of this information, and this is the only one who returned.” He lifted his arm, and the beast flapped its wings to stay steady on its perch. “This is the truth, Jessamine. All of our hard work has come to fruition. Now we have to prepare accordingly with the gift we have been given.”

They were really doing this. They had all the weapons they needed to take Leon Bishop down, and she would finally, after all this time, get her revenge.

Licking her lips, she looked at the crowd of women surrounding them and felt her entire being radiate with anger. “Leon Bishop held a knife to my throat on the day of our wedding and killed me. He threw my body over a cliff’s edge because he didn’t want my people to mourn the princess they lost and the queen they would have had. He is a man who can kill an innocent woman and toss her aside, all for his own gains. But I am not that woman any longer. I am not the innocent little girl who agreed to marry a man to save her kingdom. I am a gravesinger, indebted to the Deathless One, and a woman deeply tied to magic. I am going to kill Leon Bishop with my bare hands, and you are going to help me.”

A cry rose in the room as all the witches reveled in her choice. So many of them had the same story as her. Not the death, but the pain at the hands of those they were supposed to trust.

They had all the information they needed. They had the time to plan. Killing a king had never seemed so easy.

After all, they had the only surviving god on their side.

How was this all going so wrong?

Elric didn’t understand it. They had planned everything down to the last detail. Leon was exactly where he was supposed to be. Ten coven members had dealt with the priestesses, keeping them busy so they had not joined Leon at the time they were supposed to. He’d had to carve out the spell on his own, considering high noon was such an important time for the God King. Everything had gone right.

And yet, here he was. Standing with Leon’s wrist in his hand, seeing blood dripping down the neck of the woman he loved yet again. He hated seeing Jessamine hurt, even though he knew she didn’t care that she was injured. Blood didn’t bother her, nor did pain at this point. She’d died and come back more times than she ever should have, and that angered him. She didn’t deserve to have died so much.

Now he was staring down at the man who had started it all. Leon was tall, but Elric was taller. He could loom over this small-minded king who thought people could be tossed aside whenever he wished.

Elric wanted to reach for Leon’s head and tear it off his shoulders. This puny mortal had no idea how easy that would be. But this wasn’t his kill. It was Jessamine who deserved to murder this man and finally get her revenge. It was what he had promised her, after all.

Still, he bent Leon’s hand, perhaps a little too hard, away from Jessamine’s neck. With a quick nod, he guided her back to his side so they could stand together before he dropped Leon’s wrist.

The king before them apparently found this amusing. He tilted his head back and burst into laughter that was so loud it filled the clearing with the sound of his mirth. “You think you can stop me? With your pet god?”

“I know I can kill you, Leon,” Jessamine snarled. “I just want to look at you one last time before I send you to your grave and get my kingdom back.”

There was a low quiet as Leon seemed to think about her words. He nodded. “Right, you believe that because you have been watching me, you know everything?”

“I suspected the priestesses were here to give you the remains of their goddess. Clearly, some kind of magic is needed to cast this spell, but you are surrounded by a coven of witches.” Jessamine gestured around them, and to the witches that slowly stepped into the clearing. Ten of them. Each with plenty of magic at their fingertips.

Elric had to add, “In case you were wondering, they have been sacrificing to me for months on end. We are all bloated with power.”

“You’re bloated with something,” Leon replied. “Arrogance, most likely. I have already been convening with the God King. He knew you would come here. All of you with a hero complex and dreams of saving the world. You think too highly of yourselves and too little of the God King. But then again, you always did. Didn’t you, Elric?”

A shiver traveled down his spine at the sound of his name. Leon Bishop should not know his name.

He only had a moment to realize something was wrong before the world exploded in front of them. Little bombs of invisible force, pushing everyone into different areas of the clearing. Jessamine was laid out flat against the stones, struggling as the other witches were tangled up in a spell that made them sit on the stones like spectators.

Then more spells. All the coven members they had brought were dragged into the amphitheater as though invisible guards held on to their arms and forced them to sit.

All that remained was Elric and Leon, staring at each other as a challenge was silently issued.