Chapter 56 #2
“Nobody summoned you!” Julian pipes up, though his voice cracks slightly as he pushes me off of him.
“You said Kat!” she protests, risking a glance back—then sagging with relief. It only lasts for a second before her eyes narrow at me. “You said it!”
“I did n—” My thoughts park themselves as I remember what I’d been spouting a minute ago. “Shit.” Suddenly, both Katerina and Julian are glaring at me as if I’m to blame for this mess. “Sorry? It was a mistake.”
“A mistake that cost me my innocence,” she snaps, hauling herself to the edge of the roof. She drapes herself over it and dry heaves like she’s about to throw up. “I might just end it all.”
Despite her promises, Katerina stays exactly where she is, with absolutely no sign of leaving.
Julian and I lock eyes.
He frowns. I shrug.
He scowls. I shrug harder.
With a glare, he shoves at my chest, and I stifle a curse as I stand up.
“If you don’t go soon, you’ll have hundreds of wolves on your ass any minute now.”
I don’t want to threaten a witch I barely know, but right now, I’m more afraid of Julian’s wrath than hers.
Katerina laughs. “I’m not dumb enough to come here without masking my scent from you weirdos with your little scent fetish.”
I have to bite back a snicker as Julian pushes to his feet.
There’s two alphas at her back, but Katerina pays us no mind as she climbs onto the edge of the roof, throws her legs over, and stares out at the pack.
“You’re just going to … stay,” I deadpan as I draw closer. I move slowly so that I don’t spook the lunatic.
“The view’s nice. And you owe me for what you just forced me to witness,” she snipes, side-eyeing Julian, who blushes even deeper if that’s possible.
“So, I’m guessing that since you’re still lurking in the area, that you haven’t killed your coven yet,” I say.
Julian blinks. “You were going to kill your—”
“Not yet,” she reports with a huge shit-eating grin. “I’m at a solid ninety-five per cent. A couple more days and I’ll be good to go.”
“Lucky,” I mumble. I don’t want to kill everyone I know, but taking out a shit ton of witches sounds like lots of fun to me. She cackles.
“Are you two friends?” Julian asks, making us both freeze before we turn to him.
“Goddess, no!” I spit.
“That’s disgusting!” Katerina exclaims with a full-body shudder.
“She’s a witch, babe,” I remind.
“And he turns into a slobbering beast when the moon comes up,” she quips, snickering until we both growl at her. “Fuck. Tough crowd,” she mutters. “Anyway—kids!”
Julian tenses so hard I swear I hear a vertebra snap. “How did you even—”
“I hear everything after you call for me,” she explains before he can finish. “So, you want to get knocked up, Julian? I must admit, I didn’t see that coming.”
Julian blanches. “No! I don’t!” he practically shouts. “I do not! That’s not even—I never—” He turns on his heel and all but runs for the elevator, making his escape while I’m left alone with the maniac.
“That was adorable,” she coos, rocking back and forth on the roof’s edge like one strong gust won’t kill her.
I glare at her.
“Oh Gods,” she groans the moment she notices. “I’m not trying to bang your man, so lose the look.” She rolls her eyes. “You werewolves are so emotional.”
“We’re mates,” I deadpan, easing down beside her, but I don’t test death as brazenly. “Don’t witches have some kind of mate situation too?”
Katerina groans low in her throat before casually tossing herself off the edge. My heart lurches and a shout almost slips free as I watch the witch plummet, only for her to stop short. Giggling, she floats back up, unbothered, like she isn’t hanging over thin air.
“You see that?” she says, still breathless with laughter. “That’s what the thought of a linker makes me want to do.”
“I should’ve gone with Julian.”
“Too late now,” she retorts, blinking impishly at me. “You wanna join me?”
“No,” I say before she can get any ideas.
If witches wanted to levitate, that was their business. I’m sticking on the ground. Unfortunately, Katerina is a psychopath.
Her eyes flash before that smug grin returns—right as I feel an invisible force moving against my body.
“No!” I shout, trying to fight against it, but it drags me forward against my will. “Katerina! Stop!” I twist off the ledge, barely managing to grab onto it while the rest of my body hovers like a kite in the sky.
She doesn’t even look at me. Her magic tugs again, and then I’m floating beside her. I look down, and fear alone keeps the scream lodged in my throat.
I’m not afraid of heights, but I’m definitely afraid of dangling in the sky with my life in the hands of a fucking witch.
“Relax, Aiden,” she sings, reclining back and folding her hands behind her head. “Just relax.”
“I don’t want to fucking relax! Put me down!” I bark, but she ignores me, and I can tell the demented witch plans to until I do.
Mumbling curses under my breath, I force myself to breathe in through my nose. Again, slower. It takes a minute, but eventually I calm myself enough to notice that beneath me feels … solid. It might be invisible, but it’s firm enough that I can rest against it.
“There you go,” Kat praises, beaming with satisfaction.
I glare. “What did you call your version of a mate again?” I ask, if only to steal that smile.
It does the job, and Kat rolls her eyes. “A linker.”
I stare her down until she groans.
“It’s sort of like mates, I guess,” she explains begrudgingly. “Like you, they’re our other half—all that soulmate bullshit, can’t live without them, yada yada. But the Gods weren’t as kind as your Goddess. We don’t get to reject and move on. We don’t get an out.”
My brows pinch together. “What do you mean?”
Her lips part before she stops and side-eyes me. “You’re asking for top-secret information, y’know.”
“I’m actually asking to be put down, but you—”
She sighs theatrically before looking skyward. “Witches draw power in different ways. We don’t get to choose—you just figure out where you fall when you get old enough. There’s the earth bitches, the dark-magic whores, and the ancestral dicks.”
I blink. “Wow. Really sells the whole mystique.”
“If you’re wondering which one I am—ding, ding, ding—all of the above. I’m a lovely abnormal who can draw from every source, but that’s not all, this girl can draw from people too.” She points a thumb at herself.
I ignore the theatrics and focus on what she’s saying.
I knew something was off about her, but having access to every form of witch magic was insane. I’d never heard of a witch able to draw from more than one source, let alone all of them.
Katerina’s grin stretches as she watches my face. “I know. I’m a catch.”
I’d go with nightmare, but I let her have it.
“So, what does that have to do with your linkers?” I ask, making her sigh.
“When we witches find our linkers, the source of our magic becomes … unpredictable,” she drudges on.
“Maybe you keep drawing from what you always did, or if you’re unlucky, you stop.
You start drawing from them, and your linker becomes your little battery for life.
” She scrunches her nose like the idea physically pains her.
“It doesn’t hurt them or anything, and it actually makes you stronger because it’s a two-way street.
But that’s if you accept them. If you’re one of the unlucky ones and don’t complete the link, then what do you draw from? ”
“Nothing,” I whisper as it comes. “You both die.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh, both of us?” She blinks. “I never realised the other one croaks too. That sucks.”
“But that’s only if you reject them. If you don’t, you would get stronger, right? You’re already so powerful. Wouldn’t it just make you … more?”
“Nah. Both cases are a lose-lose for me,” she says, looking serious for the first time. “If my magic continues as usual, I’m me, just with extra baggage I don’t want. And if I’m unlucky and it doesn’t, I’ll go from drawing from everything—”
“To only drawing from one source,” I finish as understanding finally dawns.
She nods. “It’ll just weaken me.”
“… Oh shit.”
“Yep,” she whispers, before looking back to the sky. “The Gods are real cunts!”
She shouts that part before falling back against her invisible bed with a big sigh, as if she’s exhausted herself just thinking about it.
“Why’d you tell me all of that?” I ask as she spreads her arms out wide, waving them around like she’s making snow angels.
“Are you forgetting that you asked?”
“Yes, but you didn’t have to tell me,” I argue, and her head falls to one side. “But you did.”
“I felt like it,” she says, then glowers at me. Her brow twitches like she’s confused by herself before her expression hardens. “Don’t think anything of this, you friendless pig.”
I gasp. “I’m not friendless,” I retort—annoyed and now offended too.
“You’re right. That’s me,” she says, back to cackling again. “I’m self-projecting.”
“You’re a bit weird, Katerina,” I say, not bothering to hold my tongue. It turns out I don’t have to with her.
Any hostility she’d shown when we first met hasn’t made a single return. Honestly, she’s too strong to worry about any threat, and clearly, she didn’t see me as one anyway.
“Yeah, I am, but who wants to be normal? Plain bitches, if you ask me,” she scoffs, then clasps her hands together and hauls herself to her feet. “Now, I’ve had my fair share of werewolves today, so I’ll be on my way.”
Before panic can set in, my body drifts back to the roof. I cling to it. Solid ground. Solid ground is so lovely.
“Don’t call me again unless you really need me,” she states with a firm finger. “Otherwise, I’ll see you soon to cash in on that favour.”
“Don’t remind me,” I grumble.
Katerina’s devious smile curves across her lips—and then she vanishes right before my eyes.
“Is your witch friend gone?” Julian asks the moment I walk into the study.
I stop a step short. “We are not friends.”
“Sure, because werewolves are famously chummy with witches,” he replies with enough sarcasm to coat the walls.