Chapter 41
Nevan
She was a godwitch. The woman lying in my arms was a fucking godwitch.
It was so unbelievable, and yet, somehow it wasn’t.
Somehow it felt like the most natural thing she could’ve told me.
Of course Enid was a godwitch. She commanded this bog so effortlessly, knew these plants better than anyone.
They had to be her creations. I loved her so fucking much, and it broke my heart that she’d hidden this part of herself because she was afraid I’d reject her.
Everyone in her life had rejected her, and it made me want to hunt each of them down and throttle them for how they’d made her feel less than anything but utterly perfect.
“I can feel you thinking,” she murmured against my chest.
The sun was sinking outside, the sky purple and the faint outline of stars emerging. Through the green panes of the stained-glass windows, the sky looked pale green, the same shade as Enid’s skin.
“I do have a few more questions, I guess.”
She looked up at me, a faint smile on her lips. “I wondered when you’d finally start asking them.”
I stroked her hair as she laid her head back on my chest. “Why didn’t you go with the godwitches to the Otherworld?”
She stiffened, and I tightened my hold on her, hoping she knew that nothing she said could make me leave. “I thought the answer to that would be obvious.”
“I have some hypotheses, but I didn’t want to assume.”
“They left me,” she said, her voice so small and sad it shattered my heart.
I wanted to crush her to me and take all that sadness away. I’d carry it for her so she never had to shoulder the burden of it again.
“No one told me they were leaving,” she said. “I woke up one morning, and everyone was gone, only mortals left.”
“Enid, I’m so, so sorry. How did you feel?”
“Devastated,” she admitted. “Then angry. Then so incredibly lonely. I had to get away from Perselis.”
The capital of Aubergn, where most of the godwitches had lived in their time on this continent.
“Everywhere I went reminded me that I wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t good enough for them to tell me they were fucking leaving. Not even my mother.”
I swallowed, unable to imagine how I’d feel if my family left me behind like that.
“Why didn’t you go after them? If you’re a godwitch. You could join them in the Otherworld, right? Find one of the burial mounds and slip through.”
It would break my heart, but I’d understand if she wanted to.
The rest of us mortals could only enter when we died or if we were invited by a godwitch. There had been stories of that happening, of mortals disappearing and everyone speculating that they’d gotten a coveted invitation to the Otherworld.
“I was afraid,” she said slowly. “They never liked my magic very much. Most of them saw it as useless.”
That was something I didn’t understand. There were many godwitches whose magic was dark and dangerous.
Enid must’ve known what I was thinking. “I don’t think the other godwitches would’ve cared that much if my mother hadn’t detested me so completely and turned them all against me.
To my mother, I was taking the magic they’d passed on to me and distorting it into something ugly and monstrous.
They could never forgive me for that. I think it was because I was a reflection of them, but one they didn’t want to see.
” She laughed, but there was no humor in it.
“They hated when people commented on how much we looked alike. Just make my skin golden, my hair like vines, and I would’ve been their twin. ”
“You’re so beautiful,” I said, still stroking her hair.
“I can’t understand how they didn’t see that.
” I paused, thinking about what I knew of the godwitches.
It was said they had trouble reproducing and couldn’t reproduce with each other.
They had to use mortals, and because of their immense powers, pregnancies lasted much longer than they did for humans.
But the earth godwitch was known to have hundreds of children.
“Is that why the earth godwitch had so many children?” I asked.
“You were their first and they wanted to . . . what? Prove they could do better?”
I hated the words the minute they left my mouth.
“Yes,” Enid said. “It was like they thought the more children they had, the easier they could erase my existence.”
“I’m glad Vine destroyed that statue.” I tightened my hold on her. “I’ll never forgive your mother for how they treated you, and we are never fucking celebrating the earth godwitch again.”
She snuggled into me, sighing contentedly. I had more questions, but I didn’t want to overwhelm Enid today. Plus, the way her body was molded to mine and the way she was currently kissing my chest made my cock stiffen. We could talk more later.
Right now, I craved her.
I turned and gripped her hips, then flipped us over so she was straddling me. Her long black hair fell over her shoulders, her nipples pebbled, her skin so smooth and beautiful. She easily slid herself onto me, and I groaned out.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
Then she leaned over, and I arched up to take a nipple into my mouth, sucking hard, running my tongue over it in slow circles that drew the most delicious moan from her.
“That feels so good,” she said.
“Mmm,” I murmured in agreement as she began rocking her body over me. I leaned back so I could watch her hips move, watch as she lifted herself every once in a while and I got a view of my cock glistening with her wetness.
“Fuck,” I said again.
It seemed to be the only word I was capable of right now.
She moved faster, her breathing hitching each time she lifted her hips, and I arched my pelvis in return, thrusting up into her, matching her pace, knowing I was already going to need this again after we were done.
“Nevan.” She said my name like a prayer, like she worshipped me instead of the other way around. Then her walls were clenching around my cock, and she was crying out my name over and over and over.
My balls tightened, a tingle spreading at the base of my spine, and my orgasm spurted out of me as I let out a loud moan.
I’d said I was going to keep her in this bed for two weeks as a joke, but at this point, I was starting to think I might actually never let her leave this room.
Both of us shuddered, our bodies clenched tight, our breathing erratic. My head flopped back as I took a few steadying breaths.
Enid let out her own long breath, then lifted off me and flopped by my side.
“I’m addicted,” I said, still dazed from that orgasm.
“Addicted to what?” She trailed a finger over my chest.
“Isn’t it obvious?” I asked with a laugh. “To you. Your body, your voice, the sounds you make when I’m inside you, the way you taste. Every single fucking part of you, Kaladenid. I’m an obsessed man.”
She turned her head and smiled, her face so bright, so full of light, that I hoped I could always make her feel this way. It would be my personal mission to make her smile like this every single day for as long as she’d let me.