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It took me a moment to realize a spirit was possessing her. She’d summoned a spirit and it was currently in control of Larissa… To do a puzzle?
I’d only been around summonings a few times and not when the witch allowed herself to be possessed. It was weird staring into her eyes and not seeing her really there.
“I apologize. I’m going to make her breakfast if she hasn’t eaten.”
She studied me again. “She hasn’t. I want some of that iced tea she likes if you’re offering. The damn girl doesn’t eat enough. Women should have curves and curves.”
She rolled her eyes, clearly Larissa saying something back. She focused on the puzzle and I left, shaking my head at what just happened.
“We heard,” Jackson muttered as he made coffee. “It makes sense if she doesn’t have familiars. Not sure I’ve ever heard of a spirit wanting to put a puzzle together, but okay then.”
Yeah, we’d seen stranger things for sure. I quickly made breakfast and brought it into the dining room, careful when I handed it over to her before sitting down.
“Sure, you can just join us,” she chuckled, giving me a dry look.
I didn’t react, just starting on my breakfast as Jackson and Jared joined us like it was completely normal. I glanced over the box and what she had done so far and frowned.
It was labeled as an “impossible” puzzle. Two thousand pieces of what looked to make up a huge picture of tiny, tiny emojis that had to all look the same.
“Why this puzzle?”
She shrugged. “It was the first thing I’d wanted to do in so long, even if it was just a silly puzzle, it was my choice and I made it. I never got to finish it. I was late with dinner and my husband beat me to death.”
“Holy fuck,” Jared whispered, and I felt the same. Wow, talk about crazy.
She narrowed her eyes at Jared but then focused back on the puzzle. “You keep your dirty thoughts and grimy mitts off our Larissa. She already knows how cruel and awful men are. She doesn’t deserve any more pain from any of you.”
“We don’t want to hurt her,” I defended.
She snorted. “You did last night thinking her scars and shame were so pretty. Those are magical scars, boy. Do you know what that means? Do you have any idea howpainfulthey are?
“Dear lord are they painful. My husband broke bones of mine, and it was nothing compared to the hours of pain each scar caused this girl. The burning and stabbing, searing of magic on her flesh.
“And nothing she did made it better. Trying water made it burn worse. Trying to put pressure made the pain deeper. She would lie there inagonyeach time, not able to do anything, not able to make it stop, and just endure hours of it. And you think them pretty and she shouldn’t hide them. Stupid boys.”
“Who gave them to her?” Jackson asked after a few moments of letting that settle.
“Her momma,” the spirit answered. “Every time Larissa was praised on her beauty, her momma got jealous and scarred her.” She snorted, probably at something Larissa said inside their currently shared head. “They need to know the truth because they look at you with lustful eyes, child. No good can come of that and you know I’m right.”
“Why do you blame men for her pain if her mom did it?” Jared asked, his tone confused.
She paused in working and looked at him. “Because this girl lived a twisted and sick Snow White life where it wasn’t the stepmomma after the daddy died but her actual Momma and Daddy.
“The cruel queen wanted to be the fairest of them all, and when she didn’t have all the attention, she punished her own daughter. Herfatherwas even worse.
“While her momma made deals for her daughter, he treated this girl like she was her momma’s replacement, both of them feeding off the other’s evil.
“When she was twelve, her momma stripped this girl naked and chained her hands up before bringing in men she wanted to be her daughter’s familiars, getting all that power because Larissa was always showing she was powerful.
“Over a dozen men inspected her like the prized mare they would put their filthy hands on in a few years. Any man who looks at a little girl like a woman deserves death.
“Her momma picked three from the best families and who offered the most forher. Then she made Larissa watch as she had sex with the men sworn to her but would bond with Larissa.
“The whole time her daddy whispering he would be her first and she would be queen instead of her momma. They did it every year for her birthday. Five years of that before she got free.
“Five times she had to endure being presented and humiliated like that. Have their eyes and words taunt her and what they were going to do to her when she was seventeen.
“And all while those men were completely in love with her momma. They made her heal the scars on her private parts because they couldn’t stomach her otherwise.
