Chapter 1 #2
“I didn’t!” She cried out as his arm knocked back. It was slow motion, as if the air itself froze. She flinched backward, seeing his fist coming for her.
Nothing.
She peeled her eye open and peeked between her fringe to find Gill wrestled to the ground by two enforcers, and Lord Commander Aravis Blightwood stood at her side. He offered a clawed hand to her. “Ms. Witchbane?”
“It’s…um… It’s um Hurley,” her voice trembled before finding it’s strength. “For the time being.”
“Let me go!” Gill roared as he was wrenched up onto his feet.
“Would you like to press charges?” Aravis arched a brow.
“How did you…who?” Katarina shuddered, finally putting Isabella down onto her feet. Thankfully, her daughter only hugged her leg, keeping herself firmly between her mother and the door.
“A concerned citizen, but, Mrs. Hurley, I need you to tell me if you’d like to press charges?
” Aravis Blightwood was a large Fowlst man with a stoney face.
Fowlst were a fascinating mix of avian and humanoid.
With a oval face and long bird like nose, sharp cheekbones, and obsidian eyes, he was a beautiful yet ominous cloud.
He had broad shoulders and long feathered arms that ended in sharp claws.
Dressed in official Lord Commander robes, with his house crest on the jacket pocket, his legs were scaley and fowl with large talons for feet.
A man she’d only known of officially, as he was apart of the council that ran the city.
For the first time ever meeting him, he looked concerned.
Which isn’t normal, as I heard he always looks stoic or mean.
His gaze dropped to the tiny fiend on her thigh, then back up to her face.
He probably saw the yellowed bruise on her cheek from two weeks ago.
Or the new purple spot forming on her bicep.
Or, honestly, any of the other thousands of clues that she needed help.
That’s what I need; I need fucking help.
Katarina glanced down at her baby girl and remembered all the times she soothed over frightened tears.
Never. Again.
Katarina, tears welling in her eyes, ignored the shrieks from her husband and looked Aravis dead in the eye. “I want to press charges.”
“What! You fucking stupid slut! Do you—”
Aravis flashed a hand at Gill that immediately covered his head in a whirling sphere of dark, hazy magic.
Gill collapsed in the arms of the Enforcers as the oxygen was ripped from his lungs and kept the fool at the point of choking.
A special silencing charm she’d only heard about.
A Blightwood special, they call it. The Lord Commander stepped in between Katarina and her soon-to-be ex-husband and bowed his head.
“Might I also suggest a good divorce lawyer?”
She let out a strangled laugh. “Yeah…after I get the car towed.”
Aravis straightened. He turned from her and barked orders left and right.
Gill was dragged across the front yard, leaving Katarina on the front stoop of his house.
Because it’s in his name, not mine. The only thing that was hers was the car.
And that’s how he always treats my things.
She had that vehicle since before him! Unfortunately, the only thing with her name on it.
Destroyed. Everyone in the neighborhood walked away, leaving her with her hyperventilating child and wrecked car.
Typical vultures. I fucking hate this neighborhood.
Her hands shook. The adrenaline was biting into her muscles. It was hard to focus on the screen of her phone through the tears. She looked up the closest tow truck…or did she try a car shop? Was it even worth to try fixing the damn thing? She wanted to give up immediately.
“Thing’s probably totaled.” She shook her head, shock and shame and humiliation burning her from the inside out.
“Momma?” Isabella poked at her arm, her cute lower lip jutted out in a scared pout.
“Yes, baby?” She swallowed the lump in her throat as she spared a hand to her baby’s face.
Isabella nuzzled into it, letting out a wheezy, wet gasp.
Isabella was a strange mix of Katarina and Gill.
She had Gill’s dirty blond hair and lopsided grin, but she was Katarina’s mini-me.
Round cheeks, dimples, small nose, ruby eyes, and thick eyebrows.
While Katarina was always a plump queen—round hips, soft belly, strong thighs—there was a little gaunt to her cheeks that didn’t used to be there.
Another thing for her to work on as soon as she got away from that jackass.
“Where did Daddy go?” Isabella rubbed at her pink, soaked cheeks with a sweet fist. The succubus offered her child a sad smile. How do I even answer that.
“Somewhere for him to cool down. We’re gonna get Mommy’s car fixed up first, though.” She smiled. “We’ll get breakfast soon, I promise.”
But before there was breakfast…there was the list.
Katarina’s checklist consisted of a few things, in no particular order:
Get the car towed
Get a new place to stay
Get a divorce
Start feeding properly
Get over her ex-husband and out of her head
Probably quit her day job.
First, however, was definitely the car.
“No school?” Isabella raised her eyebrows up in curiosity.
Slick, little bug. That was her ladybug, always trying to get out of school. Katarina chuckled weakly, “No, uh, baby, I don’t think you’re going to school today.”
Isabella tried to smile, much like how Katarina tried to smile, but it fell short. They both nodded, unable to voice the weird mix of panic and shock shared between the two of them. Katarina focused on dialing the phone. One thing at a time.