Chapter 8 Two Halves of a Whole Idiot
Dean
I wake up to soft music ringing in my ears, and I immediately know I’m fucked. It starts quiet… almost serene, gently pulling me out of yet another sleepless night.
I almost laugh at how harmless Hazel’s new prank seems… until the soothing melody twists into something dark, the volume climbing higher with every passing hour.
I thought she’d be too stressed and take a break after last night’s nightmare, but boy, was I wrong. My siren doesn’t take days off from ruining my peace.
At first, I na?vely thought tolerating her pranks would earn me some points, but it turns out Hazel enjoys watching me suffer.
I’m at hour three, and my head is pounding. Every beat feels like a small explosion behind my eyes.
As if that wasn’t enough, Grace linked me to let me know that she’s heading to the human realm with Harvey to see a doctor.
I knew she hadn’t been feeling well, but I didn’t expect it to get worse this fast. When I hugged her goodbye, she sagged into me, tired and weak, and my stomach dropped.
I wanted to tag alone, but Harvey gave me a look that screamed, “Back off, old man. I know how to take care of my mate.”
I appreciate how well Harvey and Anxo take care of my daughters, but I still hate the fuckers. I was gone for two years, and Fates thought it’d be funny if I lost my girls to mouthbreathing idiots and be forced to smile through it.
I slam my forehead against my desk when the volume spikes again. I’m going to go deaf if Hazel doesn’t take pity on me.
Maybe that’s her plan… drive me insane until I free her from a bond she doesn’t want.
There’s a knock on my office door, and I assume Khatri has come back to entertain himself with my mate’s shenanigans, but when I look up, Hazel’s perfect heart-shaped face peeks through the gap.
I stop breathing. Everything goes still, the music fading into the background as my mate walks in like a prayer answered.
It’s the first time she’s come here. Even if she leaves right now, her scent will linger long after she’s gone, and the thought of sitting here, drowning in her essence, feels better than heaven.
“Anxo wants to know when you’re heading to the dungeon.”
What a pretty little liar. She’s obviously here to enjoy my misery. And I don’t mind as long as she stays.
“You look pale. Feeling okay, honey?” My little hellfire tilts her head, smirking, and I remember she’s on my hit list today.
“I’m great!” I snap then wince. I’m practically yelling over the noise, and now she knows exactly how bad it is. “Thanks for the background music. Really helps me focus. Absolutely love it!”
“Oh, my pleasure.”
“Did you need something, or did you just come here to admire your perfect mate?”
Hazel’s eyes flash with frustration, her glare sending a thrill down my spine. There’s something about her anger that sets my nerves on fire. I never miss a chance to rile her up. It’s the only time her perfect, untouched mask cracks, and I get a glimpse of the real Hazel.
If she reacted to my flirting the way she reacts to my teasing, this whole “make her fall in love with me” plan would be a lot easier.
“Mind sitting in my chair for a minute? Let your scent soak into the leather. It’ll help me feel closer to you. You know how much I love that.” I flash her an adorable grin, and right on cue, Hazel starts fuming.
When is she going to realize her tricks won’t break me? I’m not some weak loser who folds under pressure. Hazel is testing me, and I refuse to lose.
My fiery hellfire storms out, leaving my office—and my heart—empty as the volume spikes again.
Time to end this before Hazel drives me completely insane.
There’s only one person who’d help her pull this off without fearing the consequences. Time to visit the Prince of Famine and his warlock partner-in-crime.
My Divine traces the punks, and I teleport straight into the game room inside Famine Castle, ready to twist them into pretzels, only to freeze mid-step.
Seiji stands in the middle of the room, wearing nothing but pajama shorts with bright yellow ducks printed on them, screeching into a karaoke mike.
Suddenly, the music in my head doesn’t seem so bad. Thank Fates, Hazel was kind enough not to pick Seiji’s voice singing in my head all day long.
I spot Jackson on the sofa, watching his mate croak like a crow with an adoring smile. He clearly loves Seiji more than his hearing. Only a man deeply in love would sit through this torture willingly.
Right before the battle with the Crescent Moon Coven, where Nevaeh killed Visha and destroyed her empire, Seiji found his mate. A warlock, no less.
It wasn’t easy to trust Jackson after what his kind did to my kids, but he’s proven his loyalty to Seiji and this kingdom time and time again.
Jackson finally notices me, and the smile on his lips twists into something wicked. “Hello, Dean. What brings you here?”
“Cut the shit, Jackson. Where’s the hex bag?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” His head tilts like an innocent puppy, but he’s Seiji’s mate. Anyone who lives with the Prince of Famine has to have a little chaos in them.
“Come on, man. Khatri’s waiting for me in the dungeon. If I go down there like this, I’m going to kill someone.”
He tsks, leaning back with his arm draped over the couch, deep brown eyes staring into my soul. “I can’t go against Hazel. Everyone knows your siren is crazy.”
I growl, “What do you want?”
I can see it on his face. The asshole is bargaining.
Jackson grins like he’s already won. “Anxo is taking a proposal to the council. Refuge for witches and warlocks in the Tetrad kingdom. I want your vote.”
A breath whooshes out of me. Fuck. That’s a big ask, and he knows it.
After Visha’s coven fell, the impact rippled across all realms. One by one, covens have collapsed, leaving only a few still standing.
Because of Visha, her reach, her alliances, her damage, so many supernatural kingdoms are turning away witches and warlocks who have nothing left.
I won’t lie, a huge part of me was glad to see their fall. But that doesn’t mean I can ignore innocent bystanders caught in the aftermath. Visha was a tyrant. There’s no way anyone in her coven could’ve stopped her, no matter how powerful.
It stings that Jackson doubts me. I’ve been so loud about hating Visha that I forgot to reassure him that my grudge is not against his entire kind.
“You already have my vote, Jackson. I won’t turn anyone away, especially not for what they are. The Tetrad kingdom was built as a sanctuary.”
Jackson rubs the back of his neck. “I just needed to be sure. Sorry about leveraging the musical torture.”
“Put me out of my misery, and I’ll forgive you.”
Jackson laughs, rising to his feet. A hex bag drops into his outstretched palm from nowhere. He closes his eyes, mutters a complicated spell under his breath, and the little pouch ignites in a flash of blue before vanishing.
“That should do it.” He claps his hands together, rubbing his palms before snapping his fingers twice, and the music begins to fade before finally stopping altogether.
I sigh in relief, finally at peace. It lasts exactly two seconds because Seiji is still “singing” at the top of his lungs. How the fuck is he still going?
I didn’t know someone could sound this bad until I heard Seiji sing. Thank fates he’s not a siren or he’d starve to death. No one’s getting lured by what sounds like a cow giving birth.
Sometimes I think the Sisters of Fate have made me their entertainment. Why else would I be surrounded by so many lunatics?
Thankfully, Khatri links me, and I excuse myself from the torture and teleport straight outside the dungeon.
He notices I’m no longer dying from a pouncing headache and presses his lips together to hide a smile. He’s my Warriorhead, but he’s absolutely on my mate’s side in our prank war.
“Jackson helped?”
“Not for free. He wanted my vote on the new refuge proposal.”
“You’re not the only one. At this point, he has more than enough votes.”
I stop walking and turn toward him with narrowed eyes. “What does he have on you?”
“Nothing…”
“Yeah, that’s not suspicious at all.” I roll my eyes and stride past the guards.
“Anxo isn’t coming?”
Khatri clears his throat. “He’ll join us after. Conquer doesn’t like being reminded he’s related to our prisoners.”
I sigh. I’ve talked to Anxo about it, but he still refuses to be part of the interrogation.
After finding out what his parents did, he stripped them of their power and position, threw them in a cell, and never looked back. They’ve been here ever since.
Nevaeh got her revenge when she killed Visha, but Anxo didn’t get his closure. He forgave his parents for ruining his childhood, but not for being the reason behind Nevaeh’s worst nightmares.
I’ve told him a little torture will free his soul from the unnecessary guilt, but he’s not ready for that. I’m not sure I’d hold the same morals if the tables were turned, but his clear-headedness is one of the reasons I’m glad he’s Nevaeh, mate.
I understand he’s trying to protect his peace, but I know from experience that his mind will keep replaying what hurts until the anger starts eating him from within. He refuses to touch Luke or Kiara, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want them to suffer.
At least Nevaeh comes down here often. She treats them exactly how she was treated in the dungeon they sent her to. She was in that hellhole for a decade because of them. She’s earned the right to decide what justice looks like.
My job is to keep them alive long enough to feel how my little girl felt.
They will pay in blood.
Even before I knew they were involved in Nevaeh’s disappearance, I never fully trusted them. It should’ve been easy to lean into the brotherhood, but something in the back of my mind never let me drop my guard.
That’s why I pushed so hard for Anxo to take the throne at sixteen. He’d run away from Conquer to escape his parents, and it took a lot of convincing to bring him back. The elders were hesitant to put a teenager on the throne when his father was still alive and well, but it had to be done.
I couldn’t touch Luke and Kiara while they were still in power, no matter what they did to Anxo. That kid deserved better. I wasn’t going to stand by and watch him suffer.
The Horsemen are bound by our Divines. It’s not just about loyalty and brotherhood; it’s a failsafe that stops us from turning on each other.
Our magic is tied so tightly that if one of us falls, the rest follow.
We are nothing without each other. So when Luke betrayed us, and Henry—Harvey’s father, the Horseman of War—died, all four kingdoms fell apart.
That’s how the Tetrad kingdom was born. All of us were struggling and needed to lean on each other to survive.
If not for Anxo and Akihiko—Seiji’s father, Horseman of Famine—holding everything together, searching day and night for Harvey and Nevaeh, we would’ve fallen for good.
Their dedication saved us.
Khatri unlocks the cell, and I see the former Horseman of Conquer sitting slumped in a chair in the center of the damp, dark room.
Every scar on my daughter’s skin flashes in my mind. I squeeze my eyes shut and focus on the task.
Khatri and I shove down our disgust and clean him up just enough for his Divine to heal him. Luke protests weakly, well aware of the routine by now. But he’s going nowhere. He’ll be stuck here until we either forget he exists or accept what happened and move on.
I don’t notice when it changes, but with every slice of my scythe, my daughter’s tear-streaked face is replaced with Hazel’s.
Her lashes heavy with tears, she refuses to fall. Refusing my help. Refusing my love. Refusing me.
The helpless feeling inside me sharpens until it gets hard to see past it. Her refusal to accept our bond, her insistence on keeping us both miserable when we could be more. We could be happy.
There’s too much anger in me and nowhere to put it. I can’t help Nevaeh without dragging her into her past. I can’t help Hazel without going behind her back, digging into her past, and killing the man ruining her peace.
After two hours of torturing myself as much as Luke, I shove past the dungeon gates, breathing in the fresh air and spilling my frustration into the woods surrounding me.
My essence coils around me, whispering revenge, urging me to use my anger. I clench my fists, squeeze my eyes shut, and force the anger out like I can rip it from my chest and throw it at my feet.
“You’re not planning to go on a rampage and kill everyone, right?”
Anxo’s voice cuts through the haze. He stands far from the dungeon, like even the scent of his parents will taint him.
“How do you do it?” I ask, still breathing hard, the anger refusing to fade.
“How are you not spiraling? Her scars… I can’t stop seeing them. I can’t breathe when I think about how she got them. Every time I look at Nevaeh, I see the moments she needed me, and I wasn’t there.”
“Honestly? I don’t see them anymore.” Anxo laughs at my expression and pats my back until I remember how to breathe.
“The first few months, I felt exactly like you do right now. Her scars were all I could see. It used to hurt like they were burned into my skin, not hers. But I was failing her by letting her past hold that power over us.” He squeezes my shoulder.
“Nevaeh fought so hard to turn those scars into strength. She made it out, Dean. She’s not just alive…
she’s thriving. Don’t let her scars blind you to who she is now. ”
“I’m trying, but the guilt won’t stop eating at me. Nevaeh jokes that I was a helicopter parent before everything, but how good of a father was I if I couldn’t even stop a stranger from walking into my kingdom and taking the most precious thing in my life?”
“It wasn’t your fault, Dean. You didn’t know what Visha was planning.”
“But if I’d been a little more suspicious, I could’ve saved my Nevaeh a decade of pain.”
How do you live with ruining your daughter’s childhood?
“By that logic, Nevaeh shouldn’t have been so far away from you. Harvey should’ve fought harder to save them. I should’ve known my parents were behind it, and Akihiko and Henry should’ve suspected their fellow Horsemen.”
Anxo raises a brow when I grumble like a stubborn, illogical ass. Maybe I am.
“Dean, there are a thousand what-ifs, and most of them blame us for not being better, for not doing more. But none of them help us today. All we can do is stop looking at Harvey and Nevaeh like they’re broken and make sure they live the rest of their lives without reliving their pasts.”
Fuck he’s right. I can’t live in the past. I need to learn from it and make sure our future is safe and secure. No one is hurting my family again.
I don’t care if I have to cut down every hand that reaches for them.