CHAPTER FIFTEEN
EMBER
THE WITCH FROWNED, raising her hands hesitantly, conflict clear in her expression. I could feel magical energy gathering around her. But she looked like she didn’t want to attack.
"Who are you?" I yelled to her before she could release whatever spell she was preparing. "I'm Ember Moore, a witch and mate to these two alphas. Who are you?"
The potion I'd released into the air prevented us all from lying. She struggled against it visibly, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to resist.
"I'm..." She swallowed hard, her shoulders slumping in defeat. "I'm the true leader of the Silent Hex organization," Azura admitted, lowering her hands as tears filled her eyes.
Kwang's growls filled the air, rage and frustration making him thrash against Moon's hold. My prince simply placed his foot on his brother's chest, pinning him down.
"Brother, why are you with the leader of the Silent Hex?" Moon asked, his voice deceptively mild.
"She's not the leader, I am. I've taken over the organization," Kwang roared, then went silent, eyes going wide, mouth snapping shut as he realized what he'd just admitted.
I smiled. That was almost too easy. I'd much rather have tortured the information out of him. But airborne truth serums worked well, too.
"And how did you become the leader?" Ryung asked, moving to stand beside me, his hand settling possessively at the small of my back.
Kwang tried to resist answering, his face contorting with the effort, veins bulging at his temples. But there was no use. The answer erupted from him like water from a broken dam.
"I killed the former leader and held her daughter hostage so she couldn't inherit the title," he confessed. "I've threatened her sisters and beheaded her brothers. The title belongs to me now."
What? I gasped as Moon moved closer to me, worried about me. But I was worried about a fellow witch. My gaze snapped to Azura, my heart aching for her as tears shimmered in her eyes. Now I understood the haunted expression she wore.
I understood why she looked drained, defeated, broken. She wasn't just some witch in Kwang's employ. She was a woman whose family had been slaughtered, whose birthright had been stolen, whose sisters were in danger.
She didn’t deserve this. Kwang tried to stand up, but I kicked him squarely in the chest, sending him sprawling back to the ground.
"How dare you touch me, a prince of the royal..." he started.
"Shut the fuck up," I yelled, cutting him off mid-tirade. Then, more calmly, I asked, "Who am I?"
He tried not to answer, his jaw clenching with the effort, but my truth elixir wouldn't allow it.
"You're my brother's mate," he ground out through clenched teeth.
"Yes, but before I was his mate, who did you know me as?" I asked, wanting to hear him admit it.
Kwang swallowed, hatred burning in his eyes. "You're the cold omega who needs the Flame Core spell to become a regular omega."
"Yes, I am. And how did you know that? What made you reach out to me to work for you?" I pressed, needing to know.
He swallowed again, fighting the compulsion to speak even as the words forced their way out.
"I... a few years ago, a beta pinged as my brother's scent match. Or at least, you’d been registered as a beta. I killed the royal physician before he could tell the emperor and Moon. I sent people to look for you. They tried to kill you, but you were too powerful."
My eyes widened at this revelation.
"So I studied your history, plotting to kill you. Even found your coven, hoping they'd help. But your family and your coven were afraid of you and wanted nothing to do with you."
I almost smiled at that. Guess those creepy birthday cards had worked after all.
"But they did tell me about your curse and a spell that could break it.
They were preparing to purchase it for you, hoping it would earn their forgiveness.
But I threatened their lives and the coven if they did so.
Instead, I found the Silent Hex organization that they were trying to buy it from and took over it.
I didn't want you to have the cure," he continued.
"I wanted to use my brother's own mate to end him.
And then I wanted to watch you suffer, realizing that your mate and your cure had been so close all along.
I wanted to make my brother, his troublesome guard, and you all die so that no one would challenge me when I took over the border and let my allies from the south in. "
His lips snapped shut after that last line, horror dawning in his eyes as he realized he'd just confessed to high treason in front of multiple witnesses.
Moon approached him slowly. I could feel the rage pulsing through our bond.
"Not only are you a cowardly rat," Moon growled.
"But you're also a traitor to the realm.
But the emperor already knows that. That's why he has me guarding this border with Ryung and our Imugi.
You know we can't kill you. And you know we won't put you in prison because that could cause factions who support you to rise up.
Our realm is in a time of peace. The emperor doesn't want to disturb that just because of you.
All of us brothers get along, always have.
You're the only one who threatens our royal family, who threatens this realm. "
I watched Kwang's face contort with fury, his pride more wounded than his body despite the beating I'd given him. Blood still trickled from the corner of his mouth, staining his expensive clothes.
"This realm should be mine," Kwang roared.
"Why?" Moon asked. "How are you better than Ji-ho? He's a fair ruler. He loves his family, his citizens, and even you. It's you who keeps causing unrest. You who feels he's worthy of a throne even father didn't deem him worthy of."
"Shut up," Kwang yelled. "Shut your filthy mouth."
"No, you shut yours," I said, tired of hearing his voice.
I conjured the pill I'd prepared specially for him, the one I'd spent days crafting in my workshop. With a quick movement that left him no time to react, I slid it into his open mouth. He tried to spit it out immediately, but I was faster.
I placed my hand over his mouth and whispered a spell that forced him to swallow. Kwang coughed and gagged, trying desperately to throw up the pill, but it was too late. The magic was already working its way through his system.
"What was that?" he asked, panic replacing anger in his eyes.
Then he cried out in pain, doubling over and clutching his stomach. The sound was music to my ears after hearing about all the suffering he'd caused.
"I call it Slow Death," I told him
Actually, I'd just made that name up on the spot. But he didn't need to know that. What he did need to know was how it worked.
"It’s a poison that harms you slowly. There is no cure, but if you take the antidote every six months, you'll be pain-free and won't know it's there. If you miss a month, you’ll feel what you're feeling now until you take the antidote."
Fear filled his eyes, replacing the arrogance that had been there moments before.
"You're lying! You can't do that to me. I'm a prince of the royal family," he protested, his voice rising in panic.
I smiled sweetly at him, enjoying the moment perhaps more than I should have.
"I can't lie right now. I'm under the influence of the same truth serum as you."
His wild gaze moved from me to Moon. "Brother, the pain, make it stop," Kwang groaned, tears filling his eyes, spilling onto his cheeks.
The mighty prince had been reduced to begging. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the sight.
"You have to ask my mate for the pill. I mean, she is the one you used as a pawn after all," Moon drawled, unmoved by his brother's suffering.
Kwang looked to me, his expression filled with hatred and desperation. "Please, Ember..." he started.
"Don't say her name," Ryung growled.
"Please," Kwang started again, swallowing his pride. "Please give me the antidote."
"I will," I told him, savoring the moment of power. "But you have to agree to a few conditions, of course."
"Anything," he cried out, his eyes widening in horror as blood began to spill from his ears, a side effect I'd designed to be more terrifying than dangerous.
I wasn’t trying to kill the man, after all.
"Please, hurry," he begged.
"First, you must cease trying to kill members of the royal family. Do you agree?" I asked.
He was hesitant, but another wave of pain made his decision for him.
"I agree," he yelled, clutching his stomach.
"That includes me," I added, not leaving any loopholes for this snake to slither into. "Second, you will hand the Silent Hex organization over to its rightful leader."
I looked to Azura, whose tears were flowing freely now, years of fear and oppression finally coming to an end.
"Thank you, princess," she wept, wiping her cheeks with trembling hands. "Thank you so much."
"You're welcome," I told her, feeling a surprising kinship with this woman who'd suffered under Kwang's thumb. Then I faced him again, ready to deliver my final condition.
"And..." I drawled. "You will never interfere with witch business again."
That was an open-ended condition, but I felt all witches needed protection from someone like him. After what he'd done to my coven, to me, to Azura and her family, he'd proven himself a threat to all witch-kind.
"If you agree, I'll bind our agreement to the antidote, and it will work as long as you adhere to those conditions."
"I hate you!" Kwang snarled, anger and pain warring in his expression. "I hate all of you. I wish you were dead."
Childish ass! Tears spilled down his cheeks, and I could see the moment his spirit broke. He would survive this encounter, but he knew it was over for him. He couldn't hurt his royal family or me anymore.
He wouldn't have access to the Silent Hex anymore. Without those things, he was just a weak little evil scum who didn't deserve the mercy of death for what he'd done.