21. Raven
Ihated that these men were being kept on my property and I hated even more knowing that Rain had been going out here and was torturing them for information.
I also hated that if he’d gotten anything out of them he wasn’t sharing with the rest of us. It, like most things about the man, was really starting to get under my skin.
Too many cooks in the kitchen and all that.
I was ready to be done with this so everyone could go back to their respective homes and get the fuck out of mine.
It would be a long time before I opened up my home again for anymore of their bullshit. I knew Ariel was trying to make changes in our world for the better but I was sick of her involving my people in the shit whenever she needed something.
Though, in all actuality, I’d likely never say no because her cause was always good and her heart was always in the right place. I just didn’t know how she never got burned out or sick of it.
I’d never turn my back on a witch in need but I was beginning to get so sick and tired of it all,
I wanted a chance at making sure my coven got it’s happily ever after and I wanted to say fuck all the rest. I’d never been able to be selfish though, no matter how hard I really wanted to be.
We were keeping the men from the woods out in the storage shed behind the garage.
Rain had them strung up by their arms above their heads with their feet barely touching the ground.
I didn’t have a whole lot of time because I knew he had the place wired directly to his magic some way and he’d be immediately alerted by my presence.
I had to act quickly before he showed up and tried to stop me.
The men were all awake and I felt their eyes on me from the moment I entered the shed. I didn’t like having them watch me like that. I didn’t want to have second thoughts or question if I was maybe doing the wrong thing here.
I stepped up to the first one and slit his throat without saying anything to him or giving him a chance to speak.
I let him bleed out as I moved onto the next one.
They knew what was coming now and this one had something to say before he lost the ability to for forever.
“All this for the tattooed freak,” he ground out in a raspy voice. “She’s a plague, you know. She was the worst thing that ever happened to the forest witches and the reason they’re all dead. If you keep her she’s going to be the reason all of you die too.”
I slit his throat without making a comment or responding to the bullshit he was spewing about Autumn.
They were all fucking insane if they actually believe she was responsible for the death of the forest witches. I mean, I was actually staring down the people who’d killed them and they were still blaming a sweet and innocent girl whom they’d tortured simply because she was different.
They were beyond mentally unstable and clearly fucked up in the head.
“How did I know it’d be you I found in here,” Rain spoke from behind me.
I sighed as I quickly stepped up to the next one, not wanting him to try and stop me.
“That fucking bitch is the reason—” the sound of gurgling replaced the man’s words as I slit his throat to shut him up.
The last one was shaking uncontrollably and he’d pissed himself.
The whole thing was disgraceful really. Die with some fucking pride and go out a man.
He’d only been found when they’d gone back through the woods for a final look through after getting Liam home and healed.
I looked over my shoulder because Rain was being quiet and it surprised me. He stood with his back to the door and his arms were crossed over his broad chest. He looked entirely relaxed and at ease.
The man was fucking insane, clearly.
“You’re not going to try and stop me?” I asked him curiously.
“Nope. Just here to enjoy the show and see that the job gets done properly.”
I frowned at him. “So, what, was this whole thing some kind of fucked up test or something?”
He grinned at me and I was not amused in the slightest. “Maybe a small test, if I’m being honest. That girl is far too sweet to ever be expected to have to get her hands dirty. I guess I wanted to see if you’d have the balls to step up for her or not. I’m glad to see that I was right about you after all. She’s going to make a great addition to your coven, but I want you to know this… if you mistreat her in any way I’ll be back to deal with you personally. That I promise you.”
I had Rain Kimber’s approval. Not that I needed it, but it certainly felt good to have.
The last man was a sobbing mess at this point and I figured it was well past time to put him out of his misery and be done with it.
“We had to do it,” he cried. “We had to try for the good of our people. They were starving and the blood sacrifice was required. She was literally a curse upon our people. When she was born they found her in the woods with tattoos covering her body. People would joke about how her mother left her there to die but I knew better.
“I heard the Elders talk about her. One of the Council members had raped a girl and she’d ended up pregnant. She’d wandered deep into the woods when she’d gone into labor. She gave birth to her baby all alone in the woods and she’s the one who put those markings on her own daughter to protect her. And then she hung herself from a tree branch. When the baby was found they should have drowned her in the river. Instead they brought her back to camp. And look how well that worked out for everyone.”
I frowned deeply at the man as my heart rate sped up.
His words rang true, my magic did not detect a single lie, and I was horrified by them.
Autumn would need to be told of this and it wasn’t something I was looking forward to having to tell her. But I was determined it would be me who told her.
I felt Rain’s presence as he moved up beside me. “How curious. Or stupid. You had plenty of opportunities to speak to me and you chose not to. Now you want to talk and you’re not even apologetic or sorry for your actions in the slightest. You tortured an innocent girl because she’s different and was born tragic, and then you helped to murder all of your people. Do you even have a soul at all?”
The man looked Rain dead in the eyes and it was clear there was no remorse in his gaze what so ever. Only something that looked a whole lot like madness.
He was so far gone there was no coming back for him ever, there’d be no rehabilitation of the mind for this one either. Not that I had held out any kind of hope for any of them, because I had not.
“They were going to starve to death anyways. We did them a favor really.”
“Christ,” Rain muttered in absolute disgust. “You’re the worst kind of scum of the earth. You murdered little kids. We were going to take them out of there and give them a real shot at life. One they rightfully deserved. And you snuffed that all out.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered. Don’t you understand that? That bitch cursed us. We were doomed from the moment she was brought into our camp. This is all her fault. She should have never been allowed to live.”
I thought there was a good chance I was going to be sick.
Autumn’s mother had been trying to protect her baby but instead she’d put her on the path where she’d been an outcast and been forced to suffer for her mother’s actions.
This shit was just not to be believed.
“You’re sick in the head,” Rain whispered hoarsely. “There’s no help for someone like you and what you did was so far beyond wrong it wasn’t even funny. You don’t deserve to live when they”re all dead. You don’t deserve to live because you’re a danger to all of our kind, but especially to Autumn. And she deserves a fair shot without the threat of you looming over her. We’re going to see that she gets it.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Before I had a chance to do something about it a knife flew through the air and lodged itself in the man’s throat.
Rain sighed heavily as if he was seriously annoyed by this new development as I whirled around. Ariel was standing in the doorway with a smirk on her face and another knife in her hand.
“I couldn’t very well let you boys have all the fun, now could I?”
Christ, these people.
“I can’t wait for you to go home,” Rain told his daughter in a harassed voice.
I glared at the man. “I can’t wait for all of you to go home. And, please, be strangers. Don’t come back any time soon.”
Ariel laughed. “No can do, big man. I’m the only Council member left and I’ve decided it’s well past time to put a new one together again.”
Rain gapped at his daughter. “When did you decide this? We’ve not discussed anything of this nature before. I didn’t think it was something you’d be open to.”
Ariel shrugged her shoulders carelessly, as if she hadn’t just dropped a huge bomb on us. “It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. Autumn solidified it for me. I’m going to ask her to be a member. Not only is she the last known Forest Witch at the moment but she’s also incredibly powerful;. More so even than I am. She deserves a seat at the table and for her uniqueness to be heard and the chance to make a difference. I think she’ll make a great addition.”
Rain’s eyes shone bright in the dimly lit room. “Do you have any idea how proud of you I am?” he asked in a voice thick with emotion.
I nodded because he wasn’t the only one incredibly proud of her. I knew everyone else would be too.
“I know, dad. I’m gonna ask Dash and Trenton and Simon too. There are some of the kids next door that I’d like to ask to sit in on the meetings and everything as some sort of training because I want them to have a seat at the table too but they might be too young just yet.”
I loved this. Ariel Kimber was proving with every word out of her mouth just how perfect she was for the job.
“We need to take them back to the forest and burn them where we found them.”
I wholeheartedly agreed and was glad we were getting back on track. “They might have been horrible but that’s where they belong. And I don’t want them on my land. Gunner also talked to me. He wants to salt the earth there.”
“We can do that. I’ll talk to Autumn and see if she’d be willing to go back now that the nightmare is over for her and there’s no threat to her there. It might offer her some closure as well. Isobel and I can both tell you how important that is and sometimes you have to go back to where you experienced hell in order to get your closure.”
I groaned, thinking about the information I learned and now had to share with Autumn.
“Yeah, about that…”