Page 22 of Crown of Chaos

“No.”

“But—why no dick?”

“You’re worse than a child!”

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

“Dick.”

“No dick!”

“Lots of dick.”

“Ember, enough!”My gaze slid to the male approaching us with a wicked-looking farm tool in his hand. “Great, now they’re hunting us down with pitchforks!”

“Then fight! You’ve healed and are ready. It’s my time to sleep! Oh, and we will be excellent at motherhood! I fought with a dirty creature attached to my—leg. Yes, my leg! I definitely did not throw it into the air or hold it up by its ankle. I learned how to soothe them! We can totally do this. We’re ready, Aria! But I think you should deal with the poop and screaming part. I’m just not into that crap.”

“What? Youthrewa child?”I asked in a horrified tone, dodging the pitchfork so that it stabbed the ground beside me. “Stop that!” I lifted my hand, sending the weapon sailing through the air, where it stuck into a tree. “You better run, motherfucker.” Ember’s growl of warning escaped my throat, and the man turned white as a sheet and passed out. “That was disappointing,” I muttered before growling internally.

“I concur,”Ember chortled.“Give it time. You were asleep for over a week. I considered seeing if dick would wake you up, but you just snored away happily!”

“Anentireweek?”

“Yup! A glorious week that I spent feasting, and slaughtering stupid people. It was amazing!”she replied in a singsong tone.

Her earlier words echoed in my head, and I snorted realizing she was trying to distract me. The issue was, it had worked. “Let’s focus on the child you tossed in the air.” I tapped my foot while another male stepped closer. “Really? I can kill you with a single thought,” I lied, rolling my eyes when he didn’t take the hint to get lost. “I am not the bitch to try today! My hormones are everywhere, and I don’t know if I want to feel sorry for you or murder you right now. I have dead meat stuck in my teeth, and I am over you assholes fucking with me!” I pushed my hands forward, slamming so much magic into him that he popped like a balloon. “Can’t a woman have a moment? I just need a fucking minute to catch my breath and think.”

“Uh, I got to go. My house is on fire,”Ember whispered sheepishly.

“Ember! I asked you a question and you better answer me!” I yelled, frustrated with everything happening and not having any control. “I am your fucking house!” I snapped, staring at my fingertips, which were literally on fire. “Oh,” I grunted, shaking my hand to extinguish the flames.

“Yeah, see? Totally on fire. Anyway, there’s a convoy with slaves being taken to the market that passed by here an hour ago. Esme and that strange deer-horned woman are on it. You can catch them before they reach the next town if you run. Love you. Call me if you need me!”

I groaned, starting toward the road that Ember had pointed out. I hated that she wasn’t sticking around, but she’d let me sleep and recharge. Since my hormones were suddenly spiking unpredictably, I shuddered at the thought of how bad they’d be, had I not had that time to rest.

It pissed me off that, for over the entire week, Ember has implanted images of Knox doing sexy shit to my body. I’d learned enough about pregnancy to know it was my hormones talking, but it didn’t make me less irritated. Instead, I was horny, hungry, and an emotional mess of turbulence that wouldn’t end. Not to mention, I felt Knox pulling on the thread that I’d discovered within me, which meant he was using my magic. That left me floundering because I knew he didn’t have access to the magic of the Nine Realms and he was using my Hecate magic. I’d known that I’d agreed to give him access to that when I married him, but that was before I started running into all these hiccups with my magic in general.

The problem was that I had an uneasy feeling that his pulling it to him was part of the reason I was so vulnerable and drained. It also explained why I couldn’t build it up as quickly, and worse, I didn’t even know if he had realized he was using it yet.

I’d felt the tug from within Ember and pulled it back. The second time it had been yanked on, I’d allowed it and followed it directly back to Knox, who closed the line before I’d fully reached him. I’d sensed him, and I had also caught the shock at how much power he’d pulled to him before he sent it back. That wasn’t what I’d expected him to do, and it didn’t make sense that he had. The second person who’d sent a line searching for me was Aurora, but it hadn’t been urgent. It had been hesitant.

Knox using my magic had been horrifying at first.

I still had to return to the sanctuary, and I needed to figure out why Aurora had placed us in danger despite my warning to retreat.

It took me an hour to reach the wagons holding the would-be slaves. It was easy enough to zero in on the one holding Esme and Avy because it was the only one off-kilter. Avy was on the side that rose higher in the air than the other because everyone else had placed distance between themselves and her.

I moved toward a house that had dresses hanging on a line to dry, and once there, I pilfered one and changed while I listened to the voices drifting out from the home.

“Make sure she isn’t too thin. You know those skinny ones don’t work hard enough and you end up using them every night. By the time you’ve finished with them, they barely have the energy to cook for us. I hate that they act so exhausted after everything we do for them, Hal. Also, find a girl who isn’t prettier than I am, or I’ll ruin her face and tits just as I did to the last bitch you purchased. Don’t spend more than a copper coin, either. That greedy slaver thinks he can charge more for them whores nowadays.”

I pulled the dress on before sensing that I wasn’t alone. Turning, I made eye contact with a girl who had cuts all over her face and looked as if she were ready to fall over. My stomach tightened, and I swallowed the bile that rushed to the back of my throat. I shook my head, holding a finger to my lips before I crooked my neck and motioned for her to follow me into the house. When we entered, the woman who had been scolding her husband looked at her slave and then at me, sliding her gaze down the dress I’d just stolen.

“That’s mine! I will beat you, you insolent bitch!” she screeched, standing as if to attack me.

I lifted my hand, twisted it, and she whimpered as blood dripped from her mouth. Then her lifeless body collapsed to the floor. The man, who was obese and stunk of garlic, rose from his chair, but I didn’t allow him to make it to the door.

---