Page 73 of To Crave Truly

Chapter Thirty-One

Lori

It was safe to say that the Witch Queen was not happy to see us if her murderous looking eyes were anything to go by. She sat on her throne, surrounded by a mountain of lilac taffeta, and staring at us like we were shit on her shoes. Well, she was going to rue the day she sent her witches off to be murdered, that’s for sure. I’d never seen Alec looking so lethal. I liked it. It kind of made me want to run just to see if he’d chase me.

But we didn’t have time for that right now. I’d have to park that thought and explore it later.

Alec stepped forwards, leaving the rest of us to flank him. “I hereby invoke the abdicare legem. You are to be stripped of your titles and lands with immediate effect.”

Jeez, he was hot when he was pissed.

Focus, Lori, my demon chided. You’ve plenty of time for that after we’ve saved the world.

I rolled my eyes at her. She was right, but I wasn’t going to tell her that.

You do realise that I can hear your inner monologue, right?

Well, fuck.

“You can’t do this!” Violette screamed.

Alec stepped closer to her, ready to go toe-to-toe if he needed to. “You sacrificed your witches to Mordecai. You are not fit to rule.”

“He’d have murdered us all if I hadn’t agreed.” Violette stood from her throne, walking down the dais until she stood before us. “What should I have done?”

“Come to the Circle for help,” Cassian said with a shrug.

She barked a bitter laugh. “That’s a crock of shit and you know it. The Circle couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery.”

I strode up to stand side by side with Alec. “You destroyed witches and their magic. You have ruined covens, and they will never recover from this.”

“You’re doing this out of spite,” she spat, pointing her finger at Alec.

“If that were the case,” he said in a low whisper, “I wouldn’t have brought the Elite team. I’d have just killed you.”

Everything stilled as they stared at each other, and a chill of foreboding washed over me. This wasn’t going to end well. Judging by the twitch under her left eye, some bad shit was about to go down.

It was only then I realised something. “Where’s Iveri?”

Violette turned her gaze towards me, a sneer curling her mouth. “Where she belongs.”

I’d left Iveri in the Witch Queen’s care, hoping that she’d be safe and that she’d be able to keep an eye on things here. Oh, God. What had I done?

My magic reacted on instinct, like a knee jerk reaction, flowing from me and launching her backwards. She slammed into the throne, toppling it backwards with the force of her impact.

Oops.

Jasper shook his head at me but there was a smile lifting the corner of his mouth. Cassian just grinned like a maniac.

Rae wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “Didn’t Edwin tell you not to let your emotions lead your magic?”

“He might have mentioned it,” I said guiltily. What could I say? I was an emotional person. My magic would just have to get on board with that.

Violette emerged from her cloud of lilac taffeta, seething like a pissed off kitty. “You’ll pay for that.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Don’t think I will. Where’s Iveri?”

“In the dungeon,” she spat before hurling a necro ball my way. I caught it and launched it back. Her eyes went wide.

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