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“You do not need to believe me, but what I want is far different to what my family needs. I have learned more about you in these past weeks than I have in years of study.”
“Study!” Marius screeched, gripping the sheets in his hands and clenching them. “I cannot believe I did not see this coming. You have ensnared me in a hex, just like that wretched bitch had. All of this… you are no different. Tricking me into bed, forcing my affection. All to get close enough to kill me.”
Victorya was wrong. Marius did not beg for what I could offer him.
I looked to the floor, hoping my hair would fall over my eyes to hide the tears that slipped from them.
“I do not hold that type of power over you.” Every word he said to me felt as though another rock had been thrown at my very soul, each leaving a scar across my skin as a reminder. “You are in your right to trust me or not, but I have not only learned more about you but myself. I do not want what my coven desires. If you kill me now, or during the final evening, it would not matter to me.”
Marius paused, but I dared look up to him, only to witness yet more distrust crease his handsome, pained face.
“Tell me why they… you wish for my death?” His voice was calm, so much so that I almost spluttered on my breath in relief.
I could have told him that it was not my wish. Repeated it over and over again, but the look upon his face told me that it was too late for that. He did not trust that I did not want it. Nor did I blame him.
“To prevent you from being free,” I said, voice cracking, lowering my gaze to my feet.
There was a shift in the air, brushing the hair from my dampening forehead. I looked up to Marius who stood inches before me. I could not breathe. Even as he stared me down, my magic was firmly hidden away in the pits of my being. I hardly felt its comforting, familiar presence.
It kept away from me out of disgust. Or perhaps it knew there was no point to aid me. Not when my mind was made up about this outcome.
“Free? If this is yet another trick, do not—”
“It was prophesied, upon my ancestor’s death bed, that a witch would arrive upon the hundredth year of the curse. I would be the first of my kind with ties to magic, that would bring the salvation for the witches or… damnation. If I were to kill you upon the final night, then the curse would be broken and the power that kept you locked away here would no longer be required. It would be restored to those witches who have lived without it. Yet if I failed, and you were to kill me as you had the many Claims before, then the curse would also break. Not in favour of the witches, but yourself. You would be free from these grounds. Free to roam the world. Free to dwell without control or restraint. Free to be… you.”
I had to slow my words down as I felt the need to rush and tell him. As though I had never said this to anyone, that it flowed freely out of me.
There was urgency in my tale. I watched Marius’s face with intent, punishing myself in memorising his reaction.
He hardly blinked as I spoke, only curling his lips at the mention of the curse.
“And I would return to my previous state?” His voice seemed almost hopeful. My heart pained knowing that he would not. Change with magic was irreversible. It was the power keeping him from leaving that could be reserved.
I shook my head, dropping my gaze to the floor. “I am sorry.”
“Then I will never be free.” Marius turned his back on me and padded away. I wanted to reach out, to stop him, but my arms were frozen to my sides.
“Do not leave me, please. Take it out on me, I deserve it. I need you to know that I am not like them.” I paused, disgusted at myself. “Not anymore.”
“I warned myself not to trust. To keep my distance from a Claim for the pain in what was to come was far too great. Then you walked in. With that name. Which makes sense now as to why you have it—”
“I never knew…”
“It does not matter, does it? The damage is done no matter what name you have. No matter what your intentions may be. How did they know about Katharine? Did you inform them of her meddling and have known all along that she suffers the price?”
Adrenaline burst through me at the mention of her. “Marius, I had nothing to do with Katharine. I would not have done that to her. Mother told me that Katharine was caught feeding her own mother your blood. That was what captured her attention.”
“So this is my fault?” He turned, arms lifting beside him. Around the corners of my vision, I caught the shadows growing from the sides of the room, throbbing like a wave of darkness that swelled in size, fuelled by Marius’s anger. “This is what you are trying to say? And dare I ask how you conversed with the outside world?”
“I had a scrying bowl.”
“Had?”
“It is currently lying across the lawn of your gardens in shards of charred pieces. Mother knows that I have failed before the final day. She has seen my change. I did not feel the need to keep my lines of communication open to her for I told her my stance.”
“And what is your stance?”
“That I have fallen in love with you. It was never on my strict agenda, but I have. And all Mother and the coven’s hopes of retrieving their power back with your murder has simply slipped away. I have come to terms with my choice and will die happy knowing they too will suffer when you finally break free of these barriers keeping you tethered here.”
