Chapter 44 #2
The chaos after Nestor’s death seems to bring her a lot of satisfaction, but something down right sadistic crosses her features when she learns about how the Blackthorn witches have succumbed to madness, and that I’m with Renata at the inn.
“That’s everything,” I say slowly, watching every emotion that crosses her features.
I tried to use my magic to get a reading on her, but there was nothing. It was a void where a person’s soul usually resides. There’s a strong essence of life that radiates around her, so it must be something about demons and their disconnect from the Earth. She’s the first I’ve ever met.
“Mmm,” she hums and licks her lips, like she can taste the chaos. “Very interesting.”
“What do you m—”
She cuts me up with a flick of her eyebrows, and I instantly shut my mouth.
“I didn’t have a lot of history with the coven. Only Nestor,” she offers freely. “I met a couple of the members once.”
“How long was Nestor here?” I ask.
“Just over three years,” she answers.
Biting my tongue to stop myself from thinking out loud, I do the math in my head. That means he would have had approximately six months of travel to make the trip here and back. That’s a few weeks more than necessary, but the delay could have been caused by a multitude of reasons.
Sitting straighter, I ask in a voice more brave than what I feel, “Did you compel him to stay with you and not return to his coven with the everoot?”
Her smile grows again, but she doesn’t look happy. It’s more feline than ever before.
I’ve offended her.
“No, Archer Vexley, I did not compel him to stay on this island—in my bed.” My mouth opens, ready to call her a liar, but she leans forward. Whispering like it’s a secret between old friends, she adds, “I have never compelled any of my lovers.”
I blink a few times, trying to fit together the pieces of the small amount of information I know about Calista and her history on Earth with what she’s telling me.
“Oh, I do love a man who knows when to keep his mouth shut,” she muses and takes a sip of her tea. “Much smarter than many of my visitors. You don’t believe me, do you?”
Shrugging, I don’t answer. Not wanting to piss her off further or accidentally use up one of my questions.
“Dear boy, someone as loyal and in love as you would be surprised how easily a male’s affections can be swayed.
Must run in the family,” she says with a tsk of her tongue.
“It’s always them begging me to keep them, to save them from their ‘dreadful, nagging wives.’” She dramatically uses air quotes, speaking of these men like pests rather than lovers.
“Males in every world are the same. How do you think I ended up here?” she asks in a cold voice. “Nestor was no different.”
“Why did he leave when he did?” I ask.
“He was not only a jealous man, but one cursed by his own insatiable desire,” Calista says.
“The reason he stayed was because he couldn’t bear the idea of his wife falling in love with his best friend, knowing he was part of the problem.
He never admitted that—male ego and all—but he hinted at it more than once. ”
She shrugs. “I guess the Foxglove witch was not enough of a consolation prize to him.” Her lip sneers, either at Nestor’s actions, or the mention of the other desire of his wandering eyes.
“He also hated the thought of Barrett taking what was ‘his.’ So I was not surprised when a younger, attractive man came in search of saving his sister. Nestor became paranoid, positive I would banish him from the island at the first sight of someone just as handsome, and younger. Nestor was only twenty-seven when he left, so we had many years to be together if he didn’t want to take me up on any of my offers.
Nestor always hated that though, that I was the one with the power in our relationship.
Exactly like in his marriage to his coven’s matron. ”
She’s reveling in her defamation of Nestor. None of it makes sense, there’s never been a bad word spoken about Nestor—before and after his death.
Except in Petra’s journals. She loved Nestor nearly as much as she began to despise him.
Calista drank the truth serum too. None of this is a lie, at least not from her perspective.
“I was surprised to wake up one morning and find him gone.” She begins to visibly seethe. “His presence could easily be replaced. Except he didn’t only abandon me. That bastard thought he could steal from me and get away with it.”
“There isn’t a lot of information about you,” I say, navigating this conversation without unintentionally stepping into another bargain. “I assume that you use your magic to keep your secrets on this island. One common belief is that you become infatuated until they reach a certain age.”
Her eyes bore into mine, empty of any emotion. The black of her pupil looks darker than any I’ve seen. They’re black holes ready to obliterate anyone who comes too close.
“It is true,” she continues. “I do not like to see my lovers age. It’s demoralizing—the mortality of people in this world.
” She waves her hand in the air like she’s flicking away a fly.
“I offered Nestor many, many things. Including taking him back to that awful inn to save his coven member. Then we could return, guilt free. He refused, too great of a coward to have to face his kind. I offered immortality, or as close to it as you can get in my world. He simply had to bind his soul to me, and my life force would’ve been enough to keep us together for millenia.
He said he couldn’t, having already bound it somewhere else. ”
“Somewhere,” I murmur to myself, looking absently out the window. “Not to someone…”
With a smirk, she says, “Correct—to somewhere.”
The entire coven bound their soul to the Dreaming Willow Inn. Neither Petra nor Barrett specified when in Renata’s hallucination, but if it was before Nestor left, does that include Cassia Foxglove? The biggest question remains: why?
I open my mouth again and she holds her hand up, stopping me. “That is a confirmation, not an answer. Consider what you are about to say next.”
Closing my mouth, I tilt my head and say, “I have three more questions. What would the cost of that be?”
“Ask, and I’ll weigh the price.”
With little hesitation, I decide to ask. One is important, the other is curiosity, and the last one is a necessity.
“Why does everoot only grow on your island?”
She lets out a sigh, thinking it over. “I honestly do not know. I never intended to create the herb, and gardening does not come naturally. It’s taken centuries of practice to hone the skills I have now.
Many years ago, I killed a group of men who had come to look for me.
At that time, I had nothing to offer, so I am sure you can guess what their goal was. ”
She gives me a meaningful look, and my stomach sours at the implication. With a history as notorious as hers, I can imagine many reasons why they would hunt her down, and none of them are good.
“I killed them,” she says dryly, an absolute lack of emotions.
“All ten of them. In seconds. It was the first time I had ever done so on this planet. I can make a clean kill when I want to.” She lets out that predatory grin again.
“The herb sprouted where my dark power and their magical blood touched the ground.”
“That… That’s impossible,” I mutter.
“I thought so at first too,” she shrugs. “So I tried it again. And again. And again.”
Her look is intentional, like she’s trying to convey something very important to me. When I don’t understand soon enough, she lets out a sigh and waves her hand in the air. “Next question. I’m growing rather bored of you.”
Without hesitating, I ask, “Why were you exiled?”
She flinches back, surprised by my curiosity. Her features even soften the slightest bit at my interest. That softness fades into guarded sadness.
“Because I dared to love a male I shouldn’t have.
A very high ranking one back in my world.
Who was already promised to a princess—at least that is the closest equivalent your world has.
” She shrugs as if it doesn’t hurt, but there’s newfound loneliness swimming in her eyes.
“He said he wanted me. Males are all the same,” she says again.
“I’m sorry, Calista,” I say earnestly. “To be exiled for falling in love… That shouldn’t be a crime on any planet.”
“Mortals and your knack of staying so hopeful,” she scoffs and shakes her head. “Love does not exist in any universe—obsession does.”
Biting back my words, I don’t push, aware of my lack of understanding of her world.
“My final question…” I start slowly. When she nods once, I ask, “Are you going to let me leave your island today?”
“Yes, Archer Vexley,” she says, amused. “You are allowed to leave my island. I’ll even take you right back to the Dreaming Willow Inn if you so desire.”
“You will? How?” I ask desperately. According to the captain, there’s only one shore that can be reached. “I didn’t see any boats.”
Her head falls back, laughing. “No, nothing so human.”
Standing, she gives me a long look before waving her hand in the direction of the fireplace. “Let’s go.”
I get to my feet but hesitate. “What do I owe you? For the answers?”
“You’ll be back, Archer Vexley,” she states. “You owe me a favor.”
“What?” I ask, startled at her demand.
“I provided you with a lot of information—all that you need. Now you owe me.”
Gaping at her, I shake my head. “What could you possibly want that I can’t provide now?”
“Even my powers come with limitations,” she admits. “But there is one thing your coven can provide me with.”
“What do you want?” I ask and glance toward the hearth. The fire is beginning to turn white.
“You will know when it’s time,” she says and waves her hand toward the flames.
I flinch back when it opens to a portal—straight home to the inn.
Looking back at her, with new questions forming by the second, she laughs. “He did not just abandon me. He stole from me,” she says again before gesturing toward the fire.
“Thank you,” I say with sincerity. “I feel both confused and closer to the answer than ever before.”
Her lips tilt up. “You have all the information you need, if you’re as smart as I think you are. See you soon, Archer Vexley.”
I’m about to turn away when she lifts a finger to her lips, kisses it, and sets it on my frowning ones.
“You may tell your coven everything we have talked about today except for anything regarding my garden. That’s our little secret, yes?”
I try to swallow down the words, but an unseen force pushes them out. “Yes, I understand.”
As the words settle in the air between us, it’s like a brand on my soul. Burning until the oath takes hold, I know it’s a secret I can’t share. Not even death would break this.
She turns on her heel, going back outside where she found me. I watch her retreating back until the door shuts, then I step through the portal, ready to be back with Renata and the coven.
Until I step inside and find the mess she and my sister made.