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For the next several miles, I berated myself for my impulsive choices. I’d found Phoenix, only to lose him, and I couldn’t help but blame myself. Before, if anyone had asked me what a broken heart was like, I would’ve shrugged. Now I could say it was as if my chest had been ripped open and my heart had been tossed to the ground and stomped on. It was an excruciatingly painful, yet empty feeling.
Silent tears slipped down my cheeks and dripped on my crossed arms. That was when I began to feel hollow. A numbness settled over me at the thought of losing Phoenix and now, likely my mother. Nothing seemed to matter anymore.
It didn’t seem like we’d been driving long when we pulled into a residential neighborhood that looked like all the rest in this area of town. I was nearly brought to tears when I couldn’t place exactly where we were despite not being overly far from Niara’s apartment. Not that it mattered because there was no way anyone would be able to find me.
“Get her inside quickly. If she tries to call attention to us, knock her out,” the woman barked to the driver and Neville. She got out as my door was ripped open. Neville released me long enough for the other man to drag me out. He quickly followed us, and each man held an arm to guide me inside the house. The woman held the back door but closed it with a snap as soon as we cleared it.
“Where should we take her, Belinda?” the driver asked.
“Put her in the laundry room. I’ve already put a hexed lock on the door,” the woman I now had a name for instructed. Without a backward glance, she swept past us, and I heard her climbing stairs.
Initially, I tried to dig my heels in and fight them, but they simply dragged me along. When we reached the room, I was pushed in and held my hands out to stop from slamming my face into the wall. Not wanting my back to them, I spun and backed myself into the corner.
Neville said something I couldn’t hear to the other man and moved into the room, closing the door behind him. Warily, I watched him.
“One way or another, we’ll find the scrolls. You can make it easy for us, and then things will go a lot smoother. You know, I only agreed to help my sister in exchange for you.” He closed in on me, and my heart that I previously thought dead, jumped into my throat. My breaths came in short, panicked spurts.
“Why me?” I whispered. No way was I going to give up the scrolls, and hell if I wanted anything to do with this man, but I needed to know what was going on.
“Do you really not know what being mated to you would mean?” he asked with a scoff of disbelief.
“No.”
“Your line is practically royalty in our world. Surely you know that. If you are mine, and my sister has the scrolls, there will be nothing stopping us, and you would want for nothing. You would be my queen, and we would rule as our people always should’ve.”
He was insane. No way would I voluntarily mate with him. Not only that, even if it hadn’t been too late, there was no way he was a descendant of Lugh. Maybe they didn’t know the full prophecy.
“I don’t have the scrolls,” I insisted. It wasn’t a lie. I didn’t physically have them with me at that moment.
He chuckled. “But you know where they are. Imagine our surprise when we came across a journal that told of your family’s escape from Salem. It’s been generations of believing you all died and took the location with you of where your ancestors hid the scrolls. At least that’s what everyone assumed, but when we uncovered the possibility of your family’s escape, we knew if it was true, they had to have taken the scrolls with. Add the legend of the prophecy to the mix, and it was the perfect storm, because everything fell into place.”
I wondered how he knew about the prophecy as it was supposedly only passed down by word of mouth through my family. Then I was curious as to how much he really knew. If he thought I could mate with just anyone, they couldn’t have known the details.
When he caged me in with his arms, I wanted to melt into the wall. Every molecule of my being tensed when he leaned in and dragged his lips from my ear to my mouth. Pressing my lips tight together, I refused his kiss.
“I hope you fight me when I finally get you beneath me,” he said against the flat seam of my lips.
Revulsion burned through my veins along with anger. When I reached my boiling point, he pulled back slightly in surprise, and I knew he’d felt the electric burn.
“Oh yes, this will besomuch fun,” he whispered.
After the last response I’d gotten when I ran my mouth in the vehicle, I was afraid to boast that he was too late. Nor did I want to let him know there was no way he would be the right man, even if I had still been a virgin.
The problem was, if they got to the scrolls now, my powers had already been reinstated and they’d be able to open them.
Shit.
Fear shot through me, and I prayed Phoenix had told Voodoo to keep them safe as I’d urged him to do.
“How did you get past the wards in my shop?” I asked, changing to subject to try to bide time.
A dark chuckle escaped him. “Black magic can be very powerful—especially when you have the right connections.”
There was a knock on the door.
“Belinda wants you,” the man called through the door. Neville gave me a half grin.
“Sister dear calls,” he told me before trailing a finger down my cheek, causing a shudder of revulsion to ripple through me. Then he spun and exited the small room. As soon as the door was closed, I attempted to unlock the door with my newfound powers. Nothing happened. Tears welled in my eyes as frustration mounted. What was the good of having these amazing powers if I either didn’t know how to utilize them, or they were useless against a hexed lock?
I looked around for an escape. With no windows and nothing but a washer and dryer, I came up empty.
Sliding down the corner to my ass, I wrapped my arms around my legs and rested my chin on my knees. All my concerns bombarded me. My mother would worry when she found out I’d snuck out. What if she died and I didn’t get to see her again?
The image of Phoenix consumed in flames made my stomach churn. The pain in my chest was excruciating. Was Niara okay? The worst part was I had no one to blame but myself.
Everything was my fault.
If Neville and Belinda hadn’t come looking for the scrolls that my family protected, none of this would have happened.
A burning started in my throat and moisture welled in my eyes. In angry despair, I dropped my forehead to my knees. My hair fell around my legs like a dark curtain. I wasn’t going to cry. It wouldn’t do a damn thing for me.
