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“I will let you die, witch,” warns Nurse Stone. “The asylum gets paid either way. Besides, poor, unstable souls like yourself … well, let’s just say it’s not uncommon for your type to end their own lives. It’s pathetic, really.”
I’m not dying on your account, and I’m not killing myself! I’ll live to fight another day!Just as the fringes of my vision begin to darken, I swallow hard, willing the medication down my parched throat.
Nurse Stone watches me with the eyes of a hawk. Seemingly finally satisfied that I’ve gotten the medication down, she releases me, indicating for the orderlies to do the same.
Head still preoccupied with floating orbs of lights, I allow myself to slump and fall backward onto my bed. Squeezing my eyes shut tight, I wait for the world to stop spinning.Happy eighteenth birthday to me…I sigh.
Nurse Stone is one hell of a bitch. I know for a fact she meant every word that dripped like poison from her forked tongue. It was no empty threat. Just last week she drowned a friend of mine. Raya was struggling with her repressed Chaos and wasn’t in the mood for a bath, and it ultimately cost her life.I wonder if she’s in a better place now.
Her family was told she’d drowned herself, that after seven long years in the Rosewood Valley Asylum for Wayward Witches she had finally just snapped, preferring the cold embrace of the grave over another day spent ostracized and forgotten in a hospital created especially for housing dangerous, uncontrollable, and lunatic witches.
Seven years…An involuntary shudder courses through my bones, branching out through my veins like a spider’s web and chilling me to my core.I’ve only been here for five. My Chaos manifested with the onset of my Moontide—at thirteen years old—and becoming one of the most feared and undesirable castes of witchkind was my gratuitous welcome to womanhood.
Since that fateful day, my formative years have been spent here, behind the wrought-iron gates and magic-proof seals of the asylum. At eighteen years of age, I’m now legally an adult.
If I were still out in the community, with my family, if I had manifested any other kind of magic or element, I’d be out there celebrating with my friends and Sisters. We’d be bathed in the sacred Moon Pool and anointed with the blood of the golden hind. After which, we would be formally initiated into our castes and then left on vigil in the grove to await our Gift of the Goddess, the jewel that would determine our place in the hierarchy of all Witchdom.
Instead, I’m here with my Sisters of Chaos. Without a place, a caste, or coven, trapped inside cold, soulless walls that conceal and absorb magic. They say it’s to protect us from ourselves, but we know better … and so do they.This is no more than a prison.
No one has forgotten Maeve, the Chaos Queen. She brought the world to its knees with her power and deadly allure. She ruled for seven centuries over all the elements, a Queen Above All after the War of the Elements. Her element, Chaos, is the sixth and the culmination of them all: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. Witches born to Chaos have the truest, most potent magic. It is neither one facet nor the other, but all at once. Chaos is magic as it should be—unrefined, unfiltered, and raw.
But the other five elements have come to despise Chaos. They want a seat at a round table, with an equal share of power, with no one above them. But that’s not how life works. There is a celestial order to it, known only by the Goddess herself. All that we know and trust in is that life was born of Chaos and will end in it. There is no peace or Balance to be had without it.
We each have our rightful place in the circle of life, and there will always be those above us and those beneath. You can’t fight it, there’s no point. And yet, they do! They cannot abidethat Chaos created the rules, and we are all but the servants of Fate and Children of the Goddess.
So, for now, Maeve lies dormant, imprisoned by the Curse of the Five. Their combined powers have her bound, at least for the time being. They couldn’t kill her. She was far too powerful. But they did manage to subdue her. Ever since, all Sisters of Chaos have been shunned, hunted, murdered, or worse—left to rot in asylums like this one where they are sedated, drugged, and forgotten, treated with less respect and kindness than vermin.
I sigh again, my gaze fixed on the dark ceiling above me.This will not be my fate. Not forever, I promise myself. One day, I will find a way to free all my Sisters. The Balance will be restored, and the world will be put right once more. We will be revered and respected for wielding the True Magic, and those responsible for caging us will be made to pay for our suffering.
But until then, I will bide my time. I will survive this place of destitution and horror. When Fate permits, I will escape and seek out allies so that when the time comes, we may rise with the strength of numbers. And on that day, we will remind Witchdom of just who they dared to subjugate. The name Asha Ravensong, and those of my Sisters of Chaos, will not be so easily forgotten.
Chapter Two
Erik
Leaves crush under my heavy paws, releasing the scent of fresh forest rot into the brisk air. The crisp, vibrant carpet of fallen color covers the valley, announcing the arrival of Fall. The clouds above are gray and heavily burdened with rain. A light drizzle begins to fall, the fat droplets dampening my fur and adding the heady fragrance of petrichor to the dawn.
I trail my gaze down the steep slope, and a growl escapes me as I come to a grinding halt. A tall, dark, and dreary castle hewn of obsidian and covered in thick curtains of wild ivy rises up out of the mountainside.Rosewood Valley Asylum for Wayward Witches.It was once the home of a great witch, one of undeniable power. But since the Unbalancing, nothing has been the same. The Chaos Queen was entombed deep within the bowels of her own castle, bound by the traitorous union of the other five elements.
Now, the walls of her once legendary seat of power are used to imprison those of her own caste. Her Sisters, young and old, languish within, cast out and forsaken by their kin for being the conduits of a magic they had no say in possessing.It’s criminal. The women locked within the asylum are no more at fault for their powers than I am for being born and raised to be the alpha of the Rosewood Valley Clan. Fate determines our path.
The wind picks up, whispering through the trees. It flows over me, carrying with it the scent of destiny—my destiny. There is no denying what it is. It’s the scent of my Fated mate! My chest tightens, my muscles tense, and every fiber in my body thrums with desire. Having caught her scent, I know unequivocally that I can’t live without her. There’s no going back.I must find her and make her mine.
The clan will rejoice this good fortune. Together, my mate and I will bring new life to our extended family. Furry little balls of trouble—adorable, strong, and healthy cubs to usher in the next generation and lead when I am old or gone.But where could she be? An unmated bear?As alpha, it’s my business to know my clan and those of surrounding territories. I thought I knew all the females of our kind who have reached sexual maturity.
I must have missed someone…Following my nose down the mountain, I linger in the shadows of the asylum. The scent is strongest here. I feel my heavy brow furrow, and my hackles rise. A twinge of rage begins to bubble in my blood, growing in ferocity as the incredible truth dawns upon me.No!Blood near to boiling, my body quakes with the brutal realization. The clarity strikes me in the heart as sharply as a honed blade.My mate is a Chaos witch. A prisoner trapped within these damned, dour, black walls.
My mind races. It’s not impossible, though it’s enormously uncommon for one’s Fated mate to be from a different race.But Fate isn’t beholden to my expectations.I have heard of outrageous matches occurring from time to time. Cougar shifters mated to bird shifters, and vampires mated to mere mortals, but a bear mated to a witch? The implications are far-reaching, indeed.
A witch of such immense power will no doubt elevate our clan to new heights. Our reputation will precede us, but such notoriety will also bring significant danger. Her presence in our lives will put a flaming target on all our backs. Regardless, I have no choice now but to protect this witch, whoever she may be, with my life. Hunters will come for her once I’ve set her free. The Five will seek to capture her and return her to that prison, or worse—terminate her, as a show of strength and to warn others.
I take a deep, steadying breath. I would not have chosenthis fate, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. This path Fate has laid before me is fraught with peril and could lead to an all-out war between the paranormal races, but perhapsthatis Fate’s plan. Too long have The Five kept our world Unbalanced. The price of freedom is always high, and often requires payment in blood, but maybe it’s time that price was paid. For our freedom and to restore the Balance, it would be worth it. And if I am to be the chosen instrument of Fate to enact this upheaval, then so be it.
But who will stand with us?I know the Old Alliances will hold. The allies of my forebears will answer the call, though it won’t be nearly enough. All Others will need to step up and contribute their strength to the cause. Chaos witches, shifters of all kinds, vampires, and half-breeds together. We’ll need to unite as one if we’re to stand a chance and avoid an outright slaughter.
The enormity of the situation threatens to unseat my courage, and my throat runs dry. I physically shake the feeling away, digging my claws into the fresh, wet earth to regain my bearings and ground myself. No matter what comes, I will protect this woman—my mate. I would die for her, but first, I will damn well live for her.
With my gaze fixed on the asylum, I growl deep in my throat, reveling in the subtle pain. Our shared destiny is set in motion by the hand of Fate itself. All that remains now is to figure out how in the Goddess’s name I’m going to rescue the witch who unknowingly already owns my wild heart.
