CHAPTER 23 #2
Strutting out, I put the dildo in my back pocket. Marian is laughing behind me as she watches me move down the corridor. I brush my hair over my neck, so they can’t see my missing mark. They would be expecting the Fae markings gone but not their mark.
I’m a little sad that the only thing I have, I am giving up; something inside me tugs uncomfortably.
The ultimate sacrifice and I am the one making it, for a curse I didn’t make, yet is my responsibility to break.
It doesn’t seem fair, like I am being punished.
So, walking into the library, my anger boils inside me with nowhere to go. They peer up as I enter.
Matitus walks over but I wave him off, not wanting them near me. Silas peers up from what he is doing and watches me as I approach. Reaching in my back pocket, I grab the dildo and drop it on his desk, making him sit back with an angry look on his face.
“What the fuck is this, Elora?” he asks, picking it up with two fingers.
“My magic, so you can go fuck yourself with it,” I tell him giving him a smile. Silas growls angrily.
“Really, Elora, why did you give me this and where did you get it?” he snaps, dropping it on the table. It glows purple and his eyes snap to it.
“You put your magic in this?” he asks incredulously. I nod, trying not to laugh as I pinch my lips back together. Matitus steps forward, cocking his head to the side.
“Why can’t I feel you?” he says, staring at me.
“Everything comes at a price, Matitus,” I tell him, flicking my hair over my shoulder. Silas and Dragus jump to their feet.
“What did you do?” Silas growls gripping my arm.
“Stripping a Fae of their magic, leaves them bare of all magical properties; your mark is magical therefore it is in that, with my magic,” I snap at him.
Silas growls, tugging me to him, and I pull away.
“You wanted my magic, now you have it. You could have had me, but you wanted to break that damn curse so badly, and at what cost, Silas? You can’t have both. You made your decision, live with it,” I tell him storming away.
“Elora, don’t you walk away from me,” Silas bellows, trudging after me. He grabs my arm pulling me back into the library. “Fix it, now!” he screams, enraged.
“To do that I have to take my magic back, so which is it Silas, me or my magic?” I ask.
He says nothing and I feel tears brim. He never cared for me. He just wanted the curse broken. I am merely a pawn in his grand plan. A child incubator, nothing more to him, nothing less but something to be used and thrown away.
“Lora,” Matitus says, stepping forward. I wipe my tears, knowing Silas has made his decision.
“Don’t, Matitus. You all made your decision. Now I know where I stand. I’m nothing to you and now you’re nothing to me,” I tell them, running out, so they don’t see me break.
Running down the corridor, I can hear them arguing when they abruptly stop. Tears burn my eyes as they spill over.
“Elora, stop,” Silas’s angry voice bellows down the hall.
I keep running toward my old room when I feel myself ripped back by my waist. Silas’s arm wraps around me as he starts dragging me back down the hall.
He places me on the desk, his strong grip holding me in place, he picks up my magic and shoves it in my hand, before handing me my mother’s necklace.
At first, I think he is giving it back to me, choosing me over the curse.
“Transfer it now; I am not walking around with it in that,” he states, eyeing the dildo like it was a poisonous snake.
“No,” I tell him, shaking my head.
“Now. I won’t ask again, Elora. Your childish games need to stop,” he snarls, his grip tightening.
“Silas, let her go,” Matitus growls, stepping forward.
“Not until she transfers it,” he snaps at him.
Matitus grabs him, ripping him away from me.
Silas goes to throw him off when Matitus slams him against the bookshelf with so much anger, Silas looks shocked.
Silas regains himself, pushing him away when Matitus punches him.
I gasp as Dragus rips me off the desk just in time for Matitus to be slammed on it.
The table collapses under the force. Silas grips the collar of his shirt and goes to punch him when Dragus tackles Silas.
An all-out brawl commences in the library as Silas fights them both.
He growls loudly. Not wanting Matitus and Dragus to get hurt, I seize my magic, letting it travel up my arm, holding the dildo and it moves across my chest. It feels warm and fuzzy like a hot breeze moving over my skin as I transfer it to my mother’s necklace in my hand.
Peering up, Silas tosses Matitus into Dragus, their feral growls deafening.
Silas’s entire body is vibrating, and I can tell he is on the verge of shifting, which will destroy the entire place with his enormous beast. Silas starts stalking toward their fallen forms in front of the fireplace.
Rushing over, I hit him full force, knocking the air out of my lungs.
He clearly didn’t expect it and is knocked off balance and I land heavily on top of him.
He growls at me, his green and gold reptilian eyes burning into me as I sit up, shaking my head. My hands are on his chest as I push myself up on my knees. With the necklace in hand, I hit his chest losing my temper.
“Here! Fucking have it, you asshole. I hate you. I fucking hate you, Silas,” I scream smacking his chest with my hands until my hands hurt, and I feel out of breath.
I know I can’t do anything to hurt him. I’m in a frenzy, blinded by my own rage when I feel hands grab at me. I swat them away like a fly.
“Don’t touch me, please don’t touch me,” I scream. I peer up at Silas watching me like he thinks I have gone mad, and after weeks of his shit, I finally have. I’ve had enough, I am done. “Kill me, I can’t do this anymore. I won’t do this,” I whisper, and Silas sits up grabbing my arms.
“Don’t ever say that again, Elora.”
His hands are shaking with anger. My gaze snaps to him, but he doesn’t look angry. Maybe I read him wrong.
“You have taken everything from me, everything. My entire life was ruined because you. My grandmother died to protect my magic when I didn’t even know about it.
She died because you were hunting Fae. My entire family died at your hands.
Then you take my magic. The only thing I have left, and you took it, too.
What have you sacrificed, Silas? What am I to you? ” I ask.
Silas shakes his head. I don’t know what he is thinking anymore, just another thing he has taken from me—our bond.
The one thing I thought I hated, when in reality, now that it is gone, I realize I’ve never felt so empty.
When he doesn’t answer, I close my eyes, willing the tears to stop, taking a breath and going to get up.
Silas rips me back down on the floor with him.
“I don’t want to take anything from you. I have no choice.”
“There is always a choice, Silas. You just didn’t choose me.
You choose this over the mate bond,” I tell him pointing to my mother’s necklace.
Silas presses his lips in a line, appearing to be hurt by my words.
I get up anyway; he knows I’m right. How can he not?
Everything has come down to a stupid curse.
Matitus and Dragus are watching us before I turn on my heel and leave the room.
I go back to my old room. Laying on the bed, I tug the blanket up and roll so I am facing the wall.
A few minutes later, I hear the door open, and I glance over my shoulder.
Abigail creeps in. She sits beside me and I place my head in her lap, wrapping my arms around her waist, hugging her.
“I have something I should tell you,” she says, brushing my hair from my face. I stare up at her. “I should have told you, but I was scared of what they would do if they knew.”
But I already know, or at least I think I do. I have an inkling when she freaked out about them knowing she is a Witch. About her sending her mother away with her daughter.
“I already know, Abigail; you don’t have to say it. I know what Claire is,” I whisper, and she stops, looking down at me.
“Don’t say it because if they ever ask, I won’t be able to lie now without my magic.”
She nods in understanding.
“I can feel it, you know. The bond breaking. It feels like I have lost a limb, a piece of myself,” I tell her.
The door opens, and Dragus and Matitus come in. Abigail gets up, looking at me alarmed.
“It is okay, Abbie, just go. I’ll see you later,” I tell her, and she nods, quickly leaving.
Matitus steps aside letting her pass. He closes the door and sits on the bed.
“Bond or not, Elora, you’re still ours,” he says, reaching for me. I move further up the bed, trying to get away from them, only he pulls me onto his lap.
“I don’t need the bond to love you,” he whispers into my neck. Dragus sits on the other side of me, his hand on my knee.
“You should go; I want to go to sleep,” I tell them knowing if they stay, Silas might come looking for them. He may not have a bond with me anymore, but he does with them. To him, I might as well be a stranger now.
I hop off Matitus’s lap climbing behind Dragus, slipping under the covers. They don’t leave though; instead, they remain.
“Go, Silas will come looking for you,” I tell them.
They reluctantly leave, and I spend the afternoon staring mostly at the ceiling not wanting to leave the room.
Marian comes in with Abigail at dinner time and we sit on the floor in front of the fireplace eating ravioli.
They eventually have to leave to do whatever chores they have left.
When they go, I have a shower, and slip my shirt and panties on.
All my clothes are upstairs, but I don’t feel like running into Silas.
So I hop into bed. All night, I toss and turn, my sleep restless.
I can’t get comfortable, like something is missing, and I realize something is missing: the three Dragon Kings asleep upstairs.
Getting up, I creep into the bathroom and get a drink from the tap.
Flicking the bathroom light off, I trudge back to my bed only to sit and see green and gold eyes reflecting oddly from the chair near the fireplace.
I jump, startled, when I realize Silas is sitting on the chair, his body cast in shadows by the fire glowing brightly in the fireplace.
His arms are braced on his legs as he leans forward, watching me.
At this moment he looks like he is having some inner battle with himself, his eyes watching me like I am some confusing experiment he can’t figure out.