Chapter 31
Felix
“Truth potion?! Are you two out of your minds?” Sev seethed, pacing our bedroom floor. He’d taken me straight here, likely to yell at me in the privacy of our own rooms. I hoped Giro was finding it easier to deal with Peter.
“We didn’t trust her,” I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest and glared from where I sat on the edge of our bed.
“Peter drank it, too! Do you have any idea what he could have told her?”
“Giro would jump him if he started spilling secrets!”
He threw his hands up in defeat. “She could have helped us! Instead, she left before we got any answers from her friend!”
“Don’t blame me!” I sniffed. “You and Peter keep us out of everything and just expect us to go along with it, with strangers coming into our home. You never ask for our opinions on it, never ask for our help. No, we just make our potions and leave you to deal with everything.”
“We did that to protect you! All of this is to protect you both, to keep you safe!”
“But we never asked to be forgotten! Giro and I spend our time making potions and talking about how we wish we could help out more. How unsafe we feel with all of these strangers coming.”
“You have not been forgotten, my heart. But for once I have someone else other than Peter who I could lose. Please do not ask me to not protect you. I cannot do that.”
I sighed, a soft smile forming on my lips. “I never said that, just please involve us in stuff. Like with Reminia, we had no idea who to expect. Which was why we figured a truth potion would help us out. What if she worked with the coven?”
He sat down next to me. “I did not know this was how you felt about it. I thought you and Giro preferred doing your own thing. I should not simply have assumed. But regarding Reminia, did you never stop to think what you were doing was wrong? You forced the truth from her; you took away her consent like the Silver Lock Coven does to their witches. How are we now better than them?”
My eyes widened with realization. “Gods,” I breathed. “I can’t believe I did that. I only thought about keeping us safe, not about what it would do to her.”
“Because she is a vampire?” he questioned, not unkindly. Was that the reason I’d done it? Would I have done it had she been a human?
I shook my head. “I can’t even tell you why. Am I turning into the villain?”
He huffed out a laugh. “No, my precious, Felix. You simply let your fear guide you. But from now on we will do this as a team. And from the sounds coming from Peter and Giro’s room they are in agreement with that.”
“Oh, they’re talking about this, too?” I figured they would, with how angry Peter had seemed.
“Um, no.”
I tilted my head. “Then how do you know?”
“I can hear their bed springs creak. I will not comment on what other sounds I can hear. I would rather pretend to have gone deaf.”
I burst out a laugh. “Really?! They’re doing it right now?”
“Yes,” he grimaced.
I grinned, but it then unease crept in. “What if she knew? Or figured it out? Oh my God. What do we do?!”
“I do not know,” he replied, way too calmly for my liking.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?! She’s your friend, what do you think?”
“I think she no longer sees me as a friend, as you very well remember, she was not too fond of me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Because you refused to sleep with her. That’s hardly reason enough for her to ditch your centuries long friendship, right?”
“Again, I have no idea. We have never been truly close. I thought I knew her well enough, but the potion proved that to be a lie. Even Peter had seemed surprised by her anger. You sure it was only a truth potion?”
I bit my lip. “Well….”
He sighed. “Come on, out with it.”
“I may have added a bit of cherry stem, making her more… engaging.”
“Engaging?”
“More prone to argue, or as I had hoped, more loosely lipped.”
“You not only forced the truth out of her, you also added something to ensure she would talk?”
“Precisely,” I beamed, glad he understood.
“This is not something to be proud of, Felix! You just keep telling me things that make this worse!”
Oh. “That’s not fair! If you kept us informed, we wouldn’t have had to do it behind your backs!” We were both standing now, back to arguing, all the while Peter and Giro were having fun.
“Is this really because of that?!” He snapped. “Or is this argument because of something else?”
“I—” I stopped. “Did you by any chance drink from the same bottle?”
“No, I drank from the one on the left. Please do not tell me they were both messed with?”
“No, just the one. I, um.” How could I tell him the truth?
That Reminia flirting with him had made me irrationally jealous, and him not laying a claim on me outright had hurt my feelings.
He’d just introduced us by name and what we were, I was Felix, a male witch, not Severin’s fated.
It wasn’t until she started digging at him that he let his claim on me known, and only that I was his, not that I was his fated.
And here I selfishly hoped he’d had a sip of the wine, just so I knew he would answer me truthfully if I did tell him my insecurities.
How fucked up was that? I was feeling my morals shift, and I didn’t like it.
Didn’t like what the coven had done to my previous na?ve and goodhearted nature.
I’d seen a man die and hadn’t even flinched.
I was changing, and I wasn’t sure if I liked the new person I was turning into.
“What?” he asked, his patience waning.
“Reminia!” I snapped, getting angry at myself and him at the same time. I knew this wasn’t logical, this was just human instincts and feelings. And I felt hurt and confused, sad and guilty. I’d fucked up, and I hated that Sev had to be the one to tell me just how badly.
He threw his hands up again. “What about her now?”
I couldn’t keep the anger going, it had left me, leaving me slumping in on myself as I admitted defeat, letting my feelings change from anger to hurt, then sadness. I felt my eyes tear up and looked at him. “You introduced me as Felix, a male witch. I’m more than that.”
He softened his expression, then muttered a curse before crushing me into a hug. “I did not want to introduce you as mine like that. I had planned for it to be a joyous revelation, but it did not turn out like I had planned.”
“I thought she knew I was yours before she came here. Knowing I was just introduced to her today hurt me. I know my feelings are messy and there’s so much shit going on and here I am weeping that a vampire flirted with you and I felt forgotten.”
His hand caressed my back soothingly as he continued to hold me.
“You are the most important person to me, my heart. I am sorry for making you feel lesser than.” He sighed.
“Having another vampire here was making me anxious, even though I did trust Reminia not to hurt you, I was still inviting another predator inside.”
Feeling like Sev could see through me already, I admitted the last part that had me reeling.
“I feel like I don’t recognize myself anymore, Sev.
What kind of man was I even before we met?
I don’t remember him. With everything that has happened, I feel like I’ve lost myself.
Now I fear you’ll come to dislike the man I’m turning into, too.
And that’s not fair to you, I know that. But I’m… afraid.”
“That I will grow to dislike you, or are you afraid of changing further?” he questioned, stepping back so he could look me in the eye.
“Both,” I admitted, looking down at the floor, too much of a coward to meet his gaze.
“You will always change, my heart. I have.” His tone was calm and full of understanding.
“I was once a human man, living in a town my family ruled over and protected. I was a hunter and a warrior. If you look at me now, it might be hard to imagine me swinging an axe and wearing fur to keep warm in the winter months. But I was that man. Was. Then I turned into a vampire and changed into someone new. Yes, I was still Severin, the chieftain’s grandson.
But I was no longer the same, in here.” He placed a hand over his heart.
Letting my tears fall, I felt his words sink in.
I’d carried these worries by myself for a while now in secret, and it wasn’t until today I’d realized just how badly this had turned.
I’d spiked a wine with truth potion, and I hadn’t felt bad about it.
Not until Sev pointed out just how wrong that had been of me.
“Maybe you can help me become the best version of me?” I asked hopefully.
He smiled at me. “And you can do the same for me. We will always change, but after meeting you, I feel like I will only become a better man. More protective, yes. And at times foolish, too. If my instincts to protect you continue as they are, which I know they will, then I will, without a doubt, do something to annoy you or others in the future.” He shrugged.
“I am aware of the fact that I am a vampire and we tend to get possessive over things we love. I do not care how others think of me if it means you are protected and safe.”
“This is all just a mess, isn’t it?” I murmured, grabbing him close so I could feel his strong arms around me again.
He hummed, his head resting against mine.
“Life is a mess. But now we will never be alone to face it ever again. You have me, and I have you. Forever. If you feel like I need to be reined in, I trust you to do that. As will I with you, if you once again spike the beverages of our unsuspecting visitors.” His tone was amused, which helped my feelings of guilt and unease.
“Just you and I. Forever,” I agreed.
“Look,” Sev handed me his phone where a text was opened.
Reminia: I’m sorry for how I behaved yesterday. It was uncalled for and I’m deeply ashamed of myself. I fear I won’t be able to face either you or Peter for the next century, but I hope this information I have gathered for you will help how you see me. Best wishes. Reminia.
Another text followed, then another. Both of them held information on the Silver Lock Coven, neither of them good.
“Five thousand?!” I gasped in disbelief. Reminia’s contact had confirmed that the coven numbered at five thousand members, and all were living close to the city, a radius of a maximum of one hour away from city center. Which meant. “They all live four hours away from here, some only three hours.”
“I know,” Sev replied, his voice annoyed by this. “We have five thousand witches against us, all within a short driving distance of our castle.”
Unease spread across my body, settling in my stomach.
I pushed my half-eaten plate of lunch away from me, and gave the others a forced smile.
We sat together to discuss yesterday’s misgivings, or Giro’s and I’s mistake, as it were.
They weren’t mad, thankfully, but they would’ve been had Reminia figured out why she’d acted like that.
It hadn’t helped my guilty conscience when Sev told me she likely would’ve never considered us to do something that horrible to her. Yeah, we’d royally fucked up.
Dina had called her coven over and soon we would have everyone gathered in the yard to discuss what to do. The pack had called their allies, too, and they would be here in an hour or so. We were done waiting.
Sev’s phone dinged with another text and from the look of horror on his face, I really didn’t want to know.