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“Ro,” Ezra says gently. “We need to talk about this.”
“What’s there to talk about? My father cast a spell on me that’s incomplete. He apparently knew what we were and didn’t bother to tell me before he carved into my chest. All of you are assholes who think that you have any right to control my actions and who I want to be with and who I have feelings for, and I’m tired of it. You don’t have the right. None of you do. And I’m tired of feeling like a bone you all snarl over and tug back and forth. I’m not a fucking bone. I’m aperson.”
I look at Fielder, point a finger at him imperiously. “Call your dad and tell him I’m backing out. I don’t want to be a part of your coven. I never did.”
They all just stare up at me. I’m sure I look like a sight. Hair all tangled and big from sex with Gideon, lips swollen from kisses, and pink lip liner smeared all over my skin.
“Sweeney,” Fielder says gently. “You can’t back out. If you don’t go through with the trials, they will come after you and they will try to kill you.”
“They can try, but they will fail,” Kohaku growls from behind me. I hadn’t even realized he’d joined us.Wonderful.Just one more dick for me to kick to the curb. Though I don’t think he’ll be as easy to get rid of as the others.
“Wildcard, look at me.” I shake my head against the softness of Cohen’s tone. “Baby, please look at me.” I flick my gaze in his direction. He lets out a breath when I do, his gaze soft. “I know you’re hurting right now. It can’t be easy finding out your dad cut a spell into your skin. You probably feel betrayed and scared about what exactly he was doing. But we’re going to figure it out.”
I shake my head. “No,I’mgoing to figure it out. You’re all going to leave me the fuck alone. I can’t do this anymore.” My gaze turns toward the four boys who tortured me. “I keep telling you, if you make me choose between you, I’m going to pick none of you. And you never listen to me.”
Hefting the sheet out of my way, I waddle over the bed to Ezra, who has my pad of paper clutched to his chest, the spell my father carved into me displayed on the page. I hold out my hand. “I’ll take that.”
He shakes his head slowly. “No, Ro, you won’t. I’ll hang on to it andwe’llfigure out what he was trying to do.”
My hand drops. My lower lip quivers, but I sink my teeth into it to stop that shit in its tracks. “Why don’t you ever listen to me? Why am I not important enough for you to listen to?” My voice is a whisper. And I don’t really expect an answer. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. I have the spell on me. I don’t need his rendition.
I step off the bed and head to my bathroom. “I’m leaving,” I say quietly, keeping my back to them. “Listen to what I’m telling you. I’m choosing none of you. Do you understand? Not one of you. I am leavingallof you.”
Kohaku growls in his chest. I close the door between us and lock it. I know realistically that it won’t be enough to keep them out. If they really want to, they can get through that door. But I also know that they won’t want to piss me off more. They’re going to try to talk to me when I get out of here, so they want to make sure I’m in as good of a mood as I can be.
I take a shower and by the time I’ve scrubbed every bit of liner from my chest, I feel calmer. A hell of a lot calmer. The anger in me is now a low simmer instead of a full on boil. It’s still there, but not as hot.
Doesn’t change the fact that I am going to leave. I can’t stay here and have them keep growling over me. I hate it. If it was good natured growling, like how two puppies play tug of war with a rope, they get all growling and snippy, but their tails are wagging, then I would be fine with it. But it’s not that, and I don’t think it ever will be.
Even after Cohen helped them get me away from those witch hunters, after he ripped a portal into the universe that let him travel hundreds of miles in the blink of an eye, they still will not accept him.
I had hoped that they could grow and learn to be more accepting. But it’s painfully obvious to me now that their prejudices run too deep.
And Cohen… well, Cohen is driven by motivations that I don’t understand, because he’s never shared them with me. Just stating that he wants me isn’t enough. There has to be a reason he sought me out. There has to be a reason he’s here now, training us. There is a reason he went to Seven Stars, the school for one of the largest covens in the world, to work as a security guard.
That he hasn’t shared it makes it hard for me to trust him, no matter how many times I’ve told the guys that I do. It’s a lie.
Sighing, I wrap a towel around my body and step out of the shower, mentally planning my next steps. Pack, sneak out the window, steal a car, cut the tracking spell, cast a hiding spell. Drive across country. See my dad.
That last thought has me pausing, but it makes sense, right? To see him, to ask him directly what he was trying to do. To have an honest conversation with him. My stomach cramps at the thought.
I haven’t seen him since… Well, since the day they put him in jail. It was the first and only time I’d seen him since he supposedly tried to kill me.
A squeak of fright escapes me as Kohaku appears in front of me. I nearly lose my grip on my towel, but just barely keep myself covered. “What the hell!”
His full lips curl into a smile, his sharp canines glinting in the light. “You know you cannot run away from me, correct?”
I grit my teeth in frustration, but, yes, I know this. We’re bound together. Even if I left him here, he’d be able to just pop up next to me. I sigh and turn toward the mirror to do my skin care routine. “I am aware, yes.”
He nods once. “Excellent. So long as we have that clear, I will help you come up with a plan.”
Chapter 17
Leaving is both incredibly easy, and incredibly hard. Cohen has all kinds of protection spells in place, but they’re mostly to keep people from getting in, to protect against anyone reading magic signatures of spells done within his property.
So, it’s easy enough to slip out the second-story window, using a gust of air to help slow my descent. I’d like to say I was graceful the entire way down, but I’m definitely not. When Kohaku just leaps out after me, my bag slung over his shoulder, and lands silently on his feet with nary a wince, I’m jealous as all get out.
He smirks at me.I told you I could carry you down.
