Chapter 11
Chapter
Eleven
It was Hayden’s idea to tire me out during training by using the whip to test my body’s strength and magic.
After a long run into the depths of the kingdom’s woods, leaping over logs and avoiding branches that hung low, we reached a clearing. Unable to orient myself, I guessed we were close to the border of our territory, but instinctively, I trusted that Hayden knew our location.
The temperature had dropped significantly, and the dark and gloomy sky hung above us as if warning of something terrible happening.
An eerie stillness fell as the first rumbling of a gathering storm echoed through the dense canopy.
There was no cheerful chirping of birds, no rustling of small critters, as if all animals had taken cover in anticipation.
My mood matched Mother Nature’s right after Hayden announced that the long-distance jogging was only the warm-up. Next, he had me do exercises—jumping jacks, push-ups, and sit-ups.
I was a panting mess before we started sparring with each other. No weapons allowed. As our feet shuffled, every step became muffled by the thick layer of fallen leaves, releasing rich, earthy fragments into the air. My nose also detected the scent of incoming rain.
The trees around us cast long shadows. Thick tension built as if electricity charged the atmosphere. Strong winds came and sounded like whistling through the treetops above.
Dark, menacing clouds gathered, obscuring the sky. The shadows grew deeper, stretching and intertwining, like ink spilled upon a canvas.
“Sweetheart,” Hayden said, drawing my attention to him. “You seem distracted.”
Tired, I rested my hands on my knees. “Can a girl catch a break?”
“What if you must defend yourself from your other mate again?”
I flinched. Hayden’s running shoes appeared before my gaze on the damp ground. I couldn’t answer his question.
“Will you let Torin kill you if you were in the same situation again?”
I abruptly stood. “I’ll fight him. Okay?”
“Without your wolf or the bracelet, you can’t win against Torin.”
“Way to state the obvious.”
The magic of my bracelet couldn’t hurt Torin because he was my mate, and I didn’t have my wolf spirit yet to rely on supernatural speed, strength, and healing. Infused with extra adrenaline, my blood boiled in my veins, but Hayden was right.
“Breanna…” He grasped my shoulder gently, sending warmth to my chest. “I’m not going to let him threaten your life again. The only way to break the mate bond is to kill Torin.”
I swallowed my gasp. The thought terrified me. How dare Hayden say that. But I also knew that Torin, under his master’s compulsion, was not my mate and would kill me.
“I can’t kill him. Otherwise, I would have when he held me by my throat,” I snapped and fought the urge to massage the fading bruises on my neck.
“I know,” Hayden said. “So I’ll kill him.”
No. A cold chill traveled down my spine. My bodyguard lifted my chin with his long index finger, and I straightened to look him in the eye. He seemed impatient and pushy today, his chest moving rapidly.
“I thought I was training to defeat Cordelia. Why are we talking about Torin?”
Hayden gave me a piercing look, making me cringe.
The topic of Torin brought up miles of strong emotions that I couldn’t stop from exploding inside me. When it came to him, my feelings always ran wild.
I would either lash out at Torin, challenge him, or love him passionately. But there was never indifference. Anger, betrayal, and sorrow surged within me, intertwining with my magic powers.
My life energy stepped into the bracelet, and the jewelry heated.
Warmth responded, infusing my body with magic.
Something was happening to me as my emotions intensified.
My magic began to flicker and crackle with an ominous dark energy.
The air around me grew heavy with an unsettling power that I struggled to control, and the bracelet changed color.
Had Hayden intentionally brought up my other mate to make the dark magic surface again?
“Sweetheart, you have to fight the darkness, or you will become a dark witch.”
“I-I can’t control it now…” I touched the bracelet and could not stop the words that came out of my mouth next. “I’m scared, Hayden.”
He embraced me immediately. But he’d triggered me.
“Don’t let fear dictate your future. You’re my Queen, Breanna. I chose you because I’ve seen strength in you. Just refuse your light inside to be extinguished by this new darkness. The faster you accept that Torin is gone, the faster you’ll take control over your fear and darkness,” he said.
No Torin, no dark magic—I could see Hayden’s point. But what if I’d always had darkness inside me? What if I was meant to become a dark witch? I could have inherited it from my witch mother.
As my mind spun, so did the witch weapon’s darkening magic.
“Hayden, I feel my bracelet doing weird things. Take a step back.”
After releasing me, he took several steps backward. His gaze flickered between me and the bracelet.
My jewelry unwrapped on its own and changed into the whip. But its shiny golden color was now bronze like tarnished copper. My jewelry was corrupted.
And I didn’t have control over it.
A surge of dark magic lashed through the whip. As if it had a mind of its own, the whip in my hand cracked in the air above my head and landed on a nearby tree with a crackling, loud sound. Leaves fell from the tree, and the whip left black marks on the bark.
Hayden’s eyes grew wide, matching mine. My heartbeats sped up as I watched the tree lose its glitter and turn black from the roots all the way up to the last leaf on the crown. Suddenly, as a crow took flight and hovered above us, my startled body jerked.
The bird’s red eyes reminded me of the demonic creatures that Cordelia brought with her on several occasions. Cordelia must have created the hound dogs. Now it seemed that the bird got caught in the black magic of my whip accidentally and had turned into a sinister-looking crow.
I swallowed a gasp and tried to shake off the thought that I could create monsters.
The bird’s wingspan appeared dauntingly wider than could be possible for a crow. The talons grew longer and sharper, and its beak emerged as a jagged, menacing weapon honed for tearing flesh.
What had I done?
The crow made a horrific sound while soaring into the dark sky. The bird’s voice echoed around us as an earthly shriek, sending shivers down my spine. Then it aimed down like an eagle targeting its prey.
Hayden.
His gaze aimed at the bird. After a moment, he lowered it to look at me. Some emotion passed behind his eyes, calmness rolling off his body, but I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. He stood still and kept looking at me.
I took a sharp, shaky breath. My heart pounded erratically, and an icy shiver caused my body to quiver.
A wave of horror engulfed me. First, I’d created an evil bird with my witch weapon, and second, Hayden wasn’t dodging out of its path of destruction.
“Hayden, take cover,” I shouted, but he did not move.
The crow now flew so close above him with red eyes locked on Hayden. The beat of its wings echoed above us, and without warning, it swooped down with a flurry of dark feathers. In the next moment, the bird’s sharp beak plunged into Hayden’s shoulder, leaving a deep, raw wound.
His face paling, Hayden grunted as the crow flew into the sky again. He panted and breathed through the pain, his blood soaking the collar of his shirt. My heart ached at the sight of my loyal protector suffering due to my uncontrolled witch power.
“It seems that dark magic can hurt your mates, sweetheart. It definitely hurts,” he said and swallowed the pain through gritted teeth.
Although his face scrunched up in a painful expression, his bright eyes moved side to side as if thinking deeply. But we had to focus on his wound and the vicious bird.
“Oh, Gods, Hayden, let me help you,” I said, stepping closer to him.
I wanted to inspect his wound, but the demonic bird hovered above us. My magic whip was obviously useless against the crow.
I wanted to pull Hayden by the hand to urge him to run away. We could wait for it to disappear while we hid somewhere in the forest.
Hayden’s brows knitted together in deep concentration. His lips pressed into a thin line.
“Hayden,” I yelled.
“So your dark magic can injure your mates…” he muttered.
“Hayden, get a grip on yourself,” I yelled, and his gaze finally focused on me.
I pointed to the crow circling above us in the sky, taunting its prey. The next time it swooped down, it aimed at Hayden’s throat.
I sucked in a sharp breath. Why wasn’t he moving out of its way?
The bird flew inches away from his throat when Hayden caught it with one fluid, precise motion and squeezed it so hard in his palm that the bones crunched and exploded like a water balloon. Clotted dark-blue blood splattered on his clothes.
Hayden dropped the pile of feathers and bones covered in the strange liquid to the ground.
My pulse accelerated. I stared in horror, not so much from the sight, but mainly from the calmness Hayden exuded while crushing a living soul with his bare hand. I looked at his face, searching for…his humanity.
Why hadn’t he protected himself on the first try? Because he wanted to get injured to see my reaction?
Hayden’s intense gaze met mine. Steely resolve had replaced the usual warmth in his eyes.
As if he knew what I was thinking, he said, “I deliberately chose not to defend myself because I believed you needed to witness the consequences of your dark magic.”
His voice sounded relaxed, and that made me even warier.
He flicked off black feathers stuck to his palm and shook his hand to get the blood off it.
“Are you crazy? Is this how you teach me a lesson? This is not how to confront the darkness,” I said, louder than intended.