Chapter Thirteen #2
“So, you’re saying you came here to bestow the power of a god to whomever completes your little scavenger hunt first?
” asked one of the girl gang lackeys at the front table.
“What’s in it for you? If demons open the gates, we’re kicking all the Others the fuck through it.
Why would you want them back in the mortal world after you went through all the trouble of banishing them? ”
“Simple,” I clipped. “Power.”
“Power?”
I tipped my head. “In the last three hundred years, regular mortals have bred like rabbits. There’s now a billion of them, and they’re all armed and violently fearful of everything and everyone they don’t understand.
Because of this, witches have gone deep into hiding.
We have to pretend that we also don’t exist if we want to live in peace, but no more. ”
This was all complete horsehockey, of course, but I had to give them an explanation they’d understand. And demons understood power.
“With supernatural creatures outnumbering the mortals once again, it’ll be them running scared.
Them cowering in the dark. And most importantly”—I smirked—“when the supernaturals return, they’ll do so under the power and the authority of the witches.
They will pledge to serve us as we create a new era—the age of witches. ”
“How is that supposed to work when you just said you’re offering up this All Hallows crap to the leeches, mutts, and Others too?”
I shrugged, giggling. “It works because I never said demons would be spared. Whoever finds the hallows and brings their items to me first, will earn amnesty for their entire species. They will be granted limitless power alongside the witches, and partner with us in creating this new age... while all others are crushed beneath our boots.”
The blowback was immediate.
“Fuck you!”
“I’ll show you where to shove that boot!”
“We’ll never let you witchy shits get power over us!” An alligator demon shoved to the front. “And your cunt-ven will get the message when I send you back in pieces!”
Ronin was up and out of his seat in a blink, thumb and pointer finger ready to—
Snap.
The alligator demon exploded into dust, leaving nothing but groans of disgust as his remains blew on his neighbors.
“Whoops.” Raven laughed, lowering her hand. “Guess that message didn’t get through.”
“Raven?” cried one of her red-covered wrath girls. “You’re with the witch on this one?”
“Of course—” Raven began.
“—we are,” Eris, Sauda, Kama, and Ursula finished.
“Did you miss the part about the power of a goddess?” Raven threw back.
“Listen up, all you chickenshits, if you don’t want to take up this challenge, that’s fine by us, because the Sins are.
We’re going to find the hallows, we’re going to make them cough up their fucking aigrettes and manhood, and we’re going to become not the princesses of sin, or the empresses of sin, but the goddesses of sin.
“And the best part...” Her smirk drifted across the room. “We won’t need a man or a marriage to do it.”
“So this is real?” the wrath girl asked. “This is really... real? And you’ll share this power with anyone who tracks down these hallows, even if it’s not them?” She pointed at the princesses.
“That’s right,” I confirmed. “I don’t care who gets the job done or how. The power goes to first place, and the protection goes to first species. Get used to this kind of self-service, people, because you’re looking at the new and eighth sin—” I locked eyes with Ronin. “Selfishness.”
“Why would you let her get away with that?” Wrath Girl turned on the Sins. “Why let her call herself one of you? Why let her give the power to anyone but you? Why let her offer it to the leeches, mutts, or fairies?!”
“How exactly are they going to stop me?” I barked, ripping a snarl out of her. “Me and my power are needed for the final ingredient that binds the hallows together and turns a being into the All Hallows. Since that’s the case, it’s you all that need to be on my good side. Not the other way around.”
Her eyes narrowed to slits. “Or, when Princess Raven finds the hallows and forces them to cough up whatever shit they’ve got, we all just hold you down and beat the shit out of you until you give her the final... ingredient...”
She trailed off, and I couldn’t blame her. My loud, raucous laughter was a bit of a blow to her confidence.
“See?” I cracked up. “This is why education is so important. That you really believe stealing a witch’s power is that easy, is proof that this propaganda factory they call an academy is a waste of everyone’s time.”
I cupped my mouth, blaring, “Demons can’t force a witch to use her power for their benefit, dumbass.
” Her face darkened dangerously. “Our magic was granted to us by the goddess, and our goddess won’t stand for that magic to serve anyone else but her.
If you even tried to force me to use my magic to make you a god, the one who is already a god will strike you down where you stand. ”
“She’s right.”
All heads whipped around, landing on Nik.
The mouse demon shrunk a bit under their attention, but he didn’t back down.
“Take it from someone who was raised by minor goddesses. My mothers will command the vines to rip an intruder in half to protect their trees, and they’re just trees.
You can expect a goddess of witches to be even more ruthless in her divine retribution to stop demons from rising higher than she thinks they deserve. ”
Nik nodded to me. “You’re going to want Charlie’s complete and willing cooperation on this one... and mine. Because I know who the hallows are, and I might just tell you”—Nik smirked—“for a price.”
“Give it up, rat!”
“No, tell me!”
“I’ve always liked you, man. When we were beating you up, I stopped kicking you first! Tell me who the hallows are.”
Just like that, everyone was running, crawling, and jumping over each other to get to Nik.
No one was asking if this was real anymore.
“Spread the news,” I crowed. “If demons want to rise up on the side of the witches and stand with us as the new rulers of the twin realms, you’ll need all able bodies searching for the hallows!”
“Yeah!”
“Fuck the empire of sin!” I shrieked, seeing Lucifer... and his impending towering rage... clear as if he stood before me. “Together we create the age of sin!”
“Age of sin! Age of sin! Age of sin!”
Grim and terrible satisfaction burned in my chest as they took up the chant, and I watched all of Lucifer’s plans crumble.
That dead-inside monster was counting on being able to control me to the end. He wanted to use my fear of remaining in hell for the rest of my mortal life. He wanted to use my fear of my sister remaining in hell for the rest of her afterlife. He wanted to use me period.
But not anymore.
By the end of the hour, there would be hundreds of people personally invested in keeping me and whatever powers I possessed out of Lucifer’s clutches.
That bitter bitch would get nowhere near the power he killed my sister for.
He would forever remain the kicked-out-of-heaven reject he was born to be.
My mother’s delusions of a big, happy reunion would remain that—a delusion.
And Ronin would never get the only thing I knew he wanted more than power.
Me.
“How’s that for making them feel my wrath?”
Ronin shoved through the crowd, rushing over to me. “Charlotte—”
“So what did you think?” I sliced in. “Did that go the way you planned?”
Turning my back on him, I left him calling my name without a single glance back.
RONIN
I trailed behind Charlotte to our first class of the morning, close enough to watch over her, but not so close as to provoke her. But going by the scowls she kept tossing over her shoulder, I wasn’t far enough.
Flashes of her mutilated mouth roared through my mind. Gushing red blood, and the way she fainted—eyes rolling up in her head and flopping limp on the bed... as though she’d never get up again.
The last thing I wanted to do was upset her again, but I still couldn’t leave her to her own devices.
I flicked up. My pet’s fallen into a particularly deadly pit of vipers.
Kama, Raven, Eris, Ursula, and Sauda fluttered around her, sticking to her like glue ever since she made her morning announcement.
“So, you’re really a witch?” Kama purred, trailing a finger down Charlotte’s arm. “You know, I’ve never fucked a witch before.”
“And the longest-living goldfish made it to forty-three years old,” Charlotte replied.
Kama shot her a confused look.
“You know,” Charlotte continued, “since we’re blurting out random facts that no one cares about.”
I smothered a laugh as the princesses cracked up. Even the hardest, sharpest version of my Charlotte was funny and witty. Would there ever come a time when a single word from her plump lips didn’t make me pitch a tent?
“I can never love you now. Because of you, I’ll never smile again.”
My grin evaporated. Yes. The answer was yes.
“So, you weren’t bullshitting with all that All Hallows stuff, right?” Sauda edged in between Kama and Charlotte. “The legend is real?”
“Real enough to close the gates of hell so tight, not even the most powerful beings in hell can open them. Doesn’t get realer than that, does it?”
Sauda inclined her head, accepting this. “And the hallows of the air, flame, wood, and sea... You sure you don’t know who they are?”
“I do not. After my foremothers cast the spell to banish the supernaturals, they destroyed all traces of what they’d done and then killed themselves,” Charlotte said.
“And they did it for exactly this reason. They didn’t want anyone reversing the spell, setting the supernaturals free, or claiming the power of the All Hallows for themselves.