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“If that’s the best you can do,” I snarled, “then I want you out of my dreams.”
And then I managed something I’d never attempted before.
I shoved Cole out of my dream.
Chapter XX
Afterourdreamargument,Cole spoke to me in the morning to say I could continue to train with Hecate—for now—and then disappeared.
And that was just about the last I saw of him.
I told myself it was good. He was keeping secrets, and I was still mad at him. You’d think that meant I was seeing him regularly since we shared a bed, but it didn’t feel that way. Some nights he wasn’t there by the time I fell asleep, nor when I woke up to resume my lessons with Hecate. But the pillow would be fresh with his scent as if he’d slept there and I’d never noticed.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was avoiding me.
My training with Hecate ramped up. She didn’t just restart our lessons from before but mixed in an education on a wide range of topics from magic to court politics. We started early in the day and worked until the afternoon when Hecate had to tend to other responsibilities. There were still topics she declined to answer about, no doubt due to Cole forbidding it, but at least I felt like I was developing an understanding of the realm around me.
Despite Phaidros’s ominous parting words, the next few days fell into an uneventful routine. Before our fight, I’d resolved to ask Cole about sword training, but now it felt like submitting to his demand to train me without any concessions on his part. And my pride wouldn’t allow that.
The magical lessons with Hecate were easier than they’d ever been before. I wasn’t going to be any kind of enchantress anytime soon, but I could more reliably call the green sparks forward. At first, they were just light. Under Hecate’s guidance, they crackled with electricity. Weapons.
To my surprise, scrying was now off-limits. Once, on a whim, I’d mentioned wanting to look back at the Moon-Ghost pack to see what had become of my old pack under Jett’s rule. Call itmorbidcuriosity—acquired after dying.
“Absolutely not,” Hecate said, harsher than I’d ever heard her.
“Why?” Before, she’d encouraged me to try any and every type of magic. “Isn’t it harmless?”
The witch shook her head. “Scrying is a window. And the wrong forces may look back. It’s best to keep you hidden here.”
“Who am I hiding from?” Jett certainly didn’t seem powerful enough to come to Hell to exact any revenge. He almost certainly didn’t even know the realm existed since it wasn’t part of shifter lore, or at least not the kind I’d ever been taught.
“It’s better for you not to know.”
I’d have screamed, but Hecate seemed almost apologetic at the admission.
Secrets. Always so many secrets.
I made the mistake of mentioning healing myself to Hecate, but I wasn’t able to replicate it.
The witch was kind, but I suspected if not for the threat of Cole, she would’ve slashed me wide open to see if that would spur me on.
We set healing aside, but she turned to more advanced lessons. In a matter of days, I could turn pebbles into roses and grow bushes from dirt. Not exactly useful magic, but it was a victory when,before, everything had seemed utterly out of my grasp.
The lessons beyond magic were also interesting. She educated me on the order of the palace, introducing me to different members of the court who treated both of us—Hecate, really—with the utmost deference. And it was those visits that showed me Cole’s true place at the top of the palace. The people spoke of him with reverence in their voices. The reverence did nothing to mask the unmistakable odor of fear.
Cole really was the King of Hell.
The fact I wasn’t walking around in a shirt of his hadn’t diminished the looks and whispers in the slightest. Then again, now I knew there were even more reasons for them.
“It’s like they expect me to do a party trick,” I grumbled after we walked away from another stilted introduction. This had been with Cole’s captain of the guard, Stefan. The man looked to be a few decades older than me, the age wearing on him as if he knew his time was coming and would face it with dignity. Yet, unless someone killed him, he’d live forever in this realm.
He’d declined to shake my hand, just regarded me with a slight bow before updating Hecate on something I didn’t understand and turning away with another backward glance towards me.
“No doubt they do,” Hecate said with a wry smile, leading me back to the large training space she’d commandeered for the past couple of days. Whatever it had been before, it now was only ever occupied by the two of us. It was a square courtyard, about fifty feet on each edge, with three floors above winding around it. People occasionally paused on the railings above to watch, but I followed Hecate’s example and ignored them.
She gestured towards a dead tree, a fixture in the courtyard we’d danced around while I’d focused on smaller tasks. Today’s challenge—make it bloom. I turned my attention to it, trying to recall her many lessons. To not force the tree to act against its nature, but make it want to bloom. It was harder than usual since the tree was utterly dead. I could turn stones into flowers through transformation, but this was a different magic. Rebirth. Something she’d tested me on before and I’d failed miserably.
“It’s good your powers are growing, Soteria,” Hecate said as I pressed my palms against the tree, trying to find an entry point. “You’ll need it for when you become his queen again.”
