Page 68 of Crown of Chaos

Hecate turned and peered at the woman she’d enchanted. “You’re going to help me find them and end the threat they pose. Aren’t you?”

“Of course, Mistress,” she answered in a lifeless tone that sent a shiver down my spine.

“So easily controlled with nary a fight? I didn’t expect this to be so easy. I think we should get started. We wouldn’t want them to fight against what is about to happen, would we?”

“No, we wouldn’t want that.”

Hecate threw her head back, laughing darkly until something bumped into her. She spun, slamming her hands down with a wave of power. The creature exploded, sending droplets of blood and gore into the air. All that remained of her victim was a pair of tiny shoes.

“No!What did you do? He was only a child!” A woman sobbed, dropping to her knees while others peered at what was occurring.

“You’re not of this land, murderer! You don’t belong here,” a warrior screamed, rushing toward Hecate. Her hand lifted, and magic shot from her palm, sending him crashing into men fighting on the battlefield.

“No, I don’t, but here I am, and until I am freed of this prison, I am your new queen. I’d make peace with it, since I don’t think the gods that put me here intend to free me.” She laughed, peering out over the battle with lust burning in her sparkling green eyes.

The people watched her warily, and she was eating up the looks they aimed at her. Hecate had always been a self-serving bitch who craved others to worship her on their knees. It was why she’d been banished here in the first place, after all.

“Such a beautiful place you have here. We shall fix that, won’t we, my loves?” she whispered, petting the head of a dire wolf that keened beneath her touch. “They’re entirely too happy. They need me to show them what I crave. Chaos and destruction should get this show started. A little discord, and misery here and there, and this place will be a paradise in no time.” She sneered, moving toward a man who rushed toward her.

Dragons and phoenixes flooded the sky, unleashing fire on the armies. The entire scene was chaos and littered with dying or dead creatures. Hecate’s influence had created bedlam, and as she waded deeper into the conflict, poison oozed into the air like gas.

“Holy shit.” Esme grunted, and before I could turn to see what had happened, invisible hands yanked me backward and into the hallway. The door to the room slammed closed in my face, and I had to take a slow, deep breath before I could turn to Esme. Her look of wide-eyed shock mirrored mine, and she seemed as out of breath as I was.

“There you two are. We’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Siobhan stood behind us with her pack already slung over her shoulder. “Are you ready? We were supposed to leave hours ago.”

I laughed as my gaze flicked back toward the door. There was another scrapping sound that indicated it was changing scenes, and then the door vanished. Siobhan stepped toward the wall, inspecting it with wide eyes. A loudpopsounded, scaring a small scream out of Siobhan, and then another door appeared.

I finally pushed to my feet and reached for the knob, opening the door slowly. The interior was soothing, filled with herbs and pastels to mix them. The enticing scent of bergamot and sage danced to my nose. Floating shelves were lined with spell books, and there was an alchemy table in the middle of the room. The walls were bare, revealing that the entire scene hadn’t been a moving picture, but something the room itself had projected into the chamber. I shifted to the side so Esme could see past me, and a frown crinkled her brow.

“You guys are acting weird. Is everything okay?” Siobhan muttered, peering into the chamber.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I will be ready to go in a few moments,” I whispered.

“Same,” Esme stated, darting away to collect her bag of supplies.

My mind raced with the scene, and what had just been revealed. Who the hell had the women been, and why did she think that the dragons and phoenixes were to breed an heir, whose own child would be the savior who would end the foretold conflict and sickness in the realms? What fucking war had she referred to? Better yet, when had the second vision occurred? And the first one, it had both fire wielding races in it, which raised some more questions. Did it coincide with the prophecy of how to end Hecate? If they were of the first people, and there had been no more mates, then had they even been successful?

And Hecate, she’d walked right in and began slaughtering people. The bitch had issues and needed counseling for her murderous ways. She hadn’t had witches when she’d come here and learning how she’d made them twisted my insides.

She’dchangedthe infants of those she controlled into witches! Once she’d gained control over their minds, she spelled the creatures to fuck, and fueled the mating with a compulsion to breed new life. She’d packed rooms filled with writhing bodies, uncaring who they fucked as long as the result had been accomplished. The moment conception occurred, she’d merely slipped a sliver of herself into the embryo. She’d actually made witches from existing lines available in the Nine Realms. If she could control the individual, she could breed them to make more witches.

If each room of the library held secrets of the past, then I needed to find more rooms, and see if any of them had more History on Demand playing within them. For once, the book hadn’t been better than the movie, since Hecate had lied and embellished her part in this world.

Shaking off the questions, I entered the main room and allowed myself a moment to see if Knox waited on the other side of the barrier. When I found the space empty, my gaze slid toward the window, and I wondered if he was still with his men, mourning the loss of Gideon. Shoving away the emotions, I grabbed my pack, slid the strap over my head so it hung across my body, and moved back in the direction I’d come from.

Chapter Thirty-Five

We entered a town bustlingwith life. People moved goods from the shipping docks toward the rows of stores that lined the center of the town. Women moved about, smiling and calling out to other shoppers in friendly tones. It seemed surreal, as if the town was untouched by the atrocities happening so close to them. As if the people who lived here had no knowledge of the corpses littering the ground just beyond their own wall or that each body had a sign with their transgression written on it nailed to their chest.

Wanted posters hung on the largest building in the town, along with news that Aurora and the girls were working diligently to handle the problem within their own race. I snorted and rolled my eyes toward the others, who mirrored my reaction. The best part of the message board? Aurora was seeking land to build a kingdom on and was asking for donations from witches. People moved closer to where we stood, reading the board, which forced me to yank my hood down farther. My silver hair was too distinct to leave uncovered, and since they had labeled me as a threat to the realms, I didn’t want to invite trouble. Sure, I could glamour it to be some other color, but I hadn’t. I wanted Aden and Eva to recognize me if we crossed paths.

My nervousness was becoming a distraction, but people who would sell us out for the bounty listed on the posters surrounded us. A legal title and land to live on that already had a keep on it. Then there was the weight of gold they were offering as well. Hell, I’d considered selling myself out for the keep and land alone.

“At least they removed the image of the three-headed creature that had your name beneath it.” Esme snorted.

“This image isn’t much better than that one,” I returned, scrunching my nose. Obviously, someone close to me had helped sketch the likeness because it was entirely too accurate.

We started away from the bulletin board, and Siobhan broke off from the group. A minute later, we rounded a dark corner and headed down an alley that led toward the home she’d pointed out a little while ago.

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