Chapter 38
Elric slipped out of their bed, making sure not to disturb her. They’d spent hours exploring each other’s bodies, and she was exhausted. A deep, primal pride bloomed in his chest as he saw her lying there, spread out underneath the covers like she couldn’t move even if the world was ending.
He’d put in the work to get her that way, but she deserved it.
Jessamine had been too in her head, and he needed her to be that wild woman who had begged him to give her another chance, even if that meant she had to destroy her own kingdom to do it.
And look at her so far, holding true to her word.
After everything that they’d done, this kingdom was more in turmoil than it ever had been before.
He pulled on a loose pair of pants and threw a robe over his shoulders before leaving the room. She needed sleep, but he needed to talk with the others. There was much more coming for them, and they could not be unprepared.
A gravesinger could only do so much to lead her coven, after all. Jessamine hadn’t wanted to be the person who runs it, but he’d only ever let covens think they controlled everything themselves. He was the god who gave them power. In the end, it was what he wanted, not what they wanted.
He’d already summoned the witches he needed. Sybil, Agnes, and Elissa waited for him in the kitchen, all of them bleary-eyed and far more tired than he’d expected them to be.
“Did you get no sleep?” he asked, taking the glass of whiskey that Sybil offered him.
“We’ve been settling the others in. They’ve had a lot of questions, considering they were leading their normal lives until yesterday, when a god awoke and took them from their homes.” Sybil grinned. “They were good questions, mostly. I think they will be good additions to our family.”
Of course she thought that, though. Sybil had always wanted more people in the coven.
She missed being part of something bigger than herself.
A coven moved as one, and it was more than just a family.
It was a unit of women connected by trauma and pain.
It wasn’t how their lives should have gone, and yet, they were born into it.
Centuries of pain all culminating in one witch.
They all looked at him with hope in their eyes, and he hated to destroy that hope in one fell swoop. But he had to.
“Leon Bishop has discovered how to awaken a god.” He shook his head.
“No, it’s more than that. He’s discovered how to become a god himself.
That’s why he took all the souls of those people at the party Fortuna put together.
Souls that had meaning. Souls that were connected to many other souls and therefore had more weight, in a sacrifice greater than anyone could ever dream of. ”
He’d expected the sudden silence. What he hadn’t expected was for it to be broken with a snort of magnificent proportions from Sybil. She hid her face in her cup, her eyes wide with the knowledge that it wasn’t the appropriate response, but also aware that she couldn’t stop.
“What are you laughing at?” he groaned.
“Well, it’s just… It feels like we’ve gone back in time. I remember the coven complaining about your siblings. That they were all so hard to pin down, that they were ridiculously undisciplined and that, for the most part, you all squabbled like children.”
He had no argument for it. That was how they had treated each other. So he shrugged and sipped at his whiskey.
“I can’t imagine there’s going to be much squabbling between you and the man who killed the love of your life.
There will be no arguments when the two of you just want each other dead.
” Sybil snorted again. “Who’d have thought that I’d get all my powers back and suddenly be thrust into a war of the gods? ”
Agnes snorted then, too, yet another unladylike sound from a woman who knew what it meant to be ladylike. “I didn’t think I would be the third generation of witches only to end my life fighting for a god that none of us liked. No offense.”
“None taken,” he muttered.
And then Elissa straightened her spine and gave him a sharp nod.
“Well, I suppose there’s a first for everything.
If we have to fight a god, then I will very much enjoy doing so.
I have spent my entire life believing I wasn’t very capable.
And look at me now, perfectly capable of anything that I want to do, and with more power than I ever had before. I believe we can beat him.”
“We can’t.” Elric needed them all to understand this. “If we fight him, then there is no coming home. We must make sure he doesn’t complete the spell. I don’t know where he is, only that he was here in the Pleasure District very recently. It seems we know very little about Leon Bishop.”
There was a faint knock on the door, and he stiffened. He had brought the three of them here in the dead of night to make sure that no one overheard them. This was a conversation for the coven and the coven alone.
But a familiar bright head filled the doorway, with a shadow of a big man standing behind him. “I might be able to help,” Alexander said. “I know my brother well, and… I don’t want him to become a god, if I’m being honest.”
“Of course you don’t.”
“He’s not a good man.”
“No, he is not.” Elric curled his fingers a little too tightly around the glass in his hand. “If you’re willing to help us, I will make sure you are rewarded, Alexander.”
“I don’t need a reward. Just don’t let him become a god.
” He walked into the room with Hugo on his heels.
“Some people deserve power, but he’s the last person I would ever choose to worship.
He thinks everyone should, though. And that makes him a lot more dangerous than the nobles give him credit for. I’m here to fight him with all of you.”
Hugo nodded, walking over to his grandmother and standing between her and Elissa. He crossed his arms over his chest. “I have no interest in another god in this realm. No offense.”
“I’m starting to take offense to all of you saying that,” Elric muttered.
Sybil reached over and touched his arm. Her grip was soft but firm, forcing him to look at her and really hear what she was saying.
“You don’t have to fight alone, Deathless One.
That is what we’re all saying. Neither you nor Jessamine are alone anymore, and we are all here for you. Together, we’ll beat him.”
For the first time, he had a little hope that it might be possible. Even if it was going to be a battle greater than any of them had ever seen. Even if some people died. They might actually win.
“Then you all have a lot of work ahead of you. I expect my coven to be stronger every single day. They need to memorize the spells. They need to learn how to protect themselves and others.”
“We know,” Sybil replied with a soft smile. “I will make sure they are ready when you call, Deathless One.”
He wasn’t sure how to respond to that. His heart felt strange in his chest. And it was odd to realize that he could trust these people when he hadn’t trusted anyone in a very long time.
With a low rumble, he handed her the whiskey back. “All right, then. I’ll go make sure she’s still sleeping.”
“Good night, Deathless One,” Agnes called out. “Take care of her.”
“Always.” He would always take care of her, no matter what came their way.
Elric strode down the dark halls alone, and the musing in his mind of what a family felt like was hard to shake.
The covens saw him as a means to an end.
He was just a man who would eventually be sacrificed, so why would they waste their time and effort on getting to know him?
He’d never had anyone who wanted him around, just for himself.
But these people, they felt like friends. Like he could talk to them about nearly anything and they would listen. It was a novelty. A strange new world that he’d woken in, and he thought, perhaps, he liked it.
Elric walked by one of the doors that was left ajar for the new witches and heard giggles coming from within. That squeezing in his chest only grew stronger. They were happy here.
He paused in front of it, listening for the conversation and the hope that he knew they were feeling.
“A witch!” one of them whispered a little too loudly. Her voice was filled with excitement. “I always knew I was stronger than my sister. But I didn’t know that I was a witch!”
“And did you see the god? I’d serve him any day.”
“So handsome!”
His cheeks burned. He hadn’t expected this. Perhaps he should give them space to gossip. He didn’t need to know that they found him attractive. Women found this form appealing, so it made him easier to trust.
But just as he moved, he heard something else.
“Did you know in the old days they used to sacrifice him?” A different voice, calm and quiet.
“They took his body, and they bit into it with knives and teeth and claws. They tore him apart, and then he gave them all the magic he had gathered from all the sacrifices they made. Magic all expelled at the same time. An infinite amount of power, all poured into the witches who sacrificed him.”
“How’s he still here, then?”
“They bring him back. That’s what Jessamine is for. She’ll bring him back for us time and time again, and all we have to do is glut him with sacrifices and then we get to take everything he has gathered.”
Giggles erupted from within the room. “Do you think we’ll be sacrificing him soon?”
“I imagine so. The entire kingdom knows she’s back. She’ll want more power to protect herself and us.”
“Oh! I’ll hold a knife, then. I can’t imagine a god can even feel pain.”
He staggered away from the door, trying to remain quiet so they wouldn’t know he had overheard them, but bile rose into his throat.
It was happening again. They already saw him as a tool.
Soon it would be time, and he would have to say goodbye.
They would dig into him with sharp knives… and he would let them.
He always let them.
Elric didn’t know how he found his way back to his room with Jessamine, but he braced himself on the doorframe before entering. His breathing was ragged, his vision blurry. All he could think was that soon enough, he would endure pain and torture.
For her. Always for her. Because if this was what it took for Jessamine to get everything she wanted, then he would sacrifice himself a hundred times.
Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to pull it together. All the fear and anxiety and aching heartbreak of disappointment, he shoved into the darkest part of himself. And then he opened the door to worship her again.
For as long as he could.