Page 53 of Catastrophe

“How goes that?”

“I’ll be able to give you a full report once the last team checks in with me. But it’s looking very good. The portals are practically unguarded. Considering how many witches we have just captured, fighting the two or three at each portal gate will not be a problem.”

They know about the portals? My heart thundered as I thought about the ramifications. They were scoping them out and watching the family that guarded them. Charlie’s birth family. How do they know about that? Are they planning to go through and kill the races in their homeland? Or worse, destroy the portals? What would that do to the realms? To magic itself?

“Excellent. I look forward to your report.”

The other man chuckled, and I heard a pat. “Good luck with your dragon hunt. Let me know if you need any support for it. I can send a few layabouts with you, should you need them.”

“I do my best work alone.”

Their exchange seemed like they were equals, coworkers. They shared information, had mutual respect for each other, and, from what they were saying, seemed senior in the organization. An organization we vastly underestimated. If they had another dragon, they may have been deliberately using it to confuse the task teams.

The next words made the blood in my body feel as though it had turned to ice. “Before you go, the titan … didn’t you want to see him?”

Don’t come to see me. Don’t come in here.

“Ah, he’ll be here when I get back. Don’t kill him before I do, and be careful with your experiments.”

I will survive. I focused on that thought but couldn’t help the sliver of fear that made me question the pain I might suffer while I await my death.

The other man scoffed. “It’s not us you need to warn. It’s that crazed witch you have doing the spells. She’s getting a bit too big for her boots. I’d have a word with her if I were you.”

So they are using a witch to do the spells? My heart lurched at the thought of the torture they must have inflicted on the supernatural for her to turn against their own kind, or the leverage the hunters must have against her. It must be a great pain. Perhaps that is the plan for us all, why we were all captured instead of killed, so we could be turned to their cause. Maybe as their dragon has been too.

I swallowed thickly. The thought of their army charging into the portals was not so ridiculous now that I knew they were recruiting supernaturals.

“If you give me evidence of her misconduct, I will address those with her.” The response was steady, civil, but suggested he didn’t care for this opinion. “I’ll be leaving now.”

His footsteps echoed away, and it went quiet. My mind turned over all I had just learned before a female laugh sounded. It wasn’t a pleasant laugh. “You tried to get me in trouble with him? That’s very sly of you, Jeremy. I thought we were on the same team.”

The witch? She doesn’t sound tortured. No, in fact, she sounded teasing, sarcastic. Is that because she is so tortured she now believes herself a hunter?

The man hissed, his tone completely different from with the male he had conversed with only moments ago. “I could never be on the same team as someone so unnatural. You are our slave. Your purpose here is only to further our cause, so don’t think of yourself so highly. You might have Darren’s support, but only he has any regard for you. He won’t be able to defend you always. Step out of line, and one day, you will be as dead as the rest of your kind. Don’t think you are any more likely to survive this just because you serve us. Our cause is of greater importance than allowing supernaturals to live on whim.”

“So, you are saying, if your cause allowed it, you would let me live? So kind of you Jeremy. I didn’t know you liked me so much.” Slow, clicking footsteps followed her teasing voice.

“Don’t touch me, filth,” he shouted. There was a sharp slap, and then he continued with another low hiss. “I don’t like you. I hate you. And the day we feed you to that dragon is going to be a fucking celebration.”

She laughed. “A fucking celebration. Sounds fun.”

“Shame you’ll have to miss it,” he remarked dully.

“Well, in the meantime, I have business with the titan.” Her voice was light and airy, but I shivered in fear. Whatever her business with me, it wasn’t going to be pleasant.

“You heard your master. Don’t kill him.”

“I won’t. I know my master’s needs.” She chuckled. “I’d be happy to attend to yours, too.”

He scoffed. “Did you not kill your last lover? You are a black widow, and everyone knows it.”

“I rather like that.” I could hear the smile in her voice, and then she paused before asking, “Are you coming?”

“No,” the hunter spat. “Don’t step out of line, Mary. You’ll make it too easy for me to kill you.”

Mary? My mind conjured the image of a short human with short brown hair at the mention of the name. It couldn’t be … could it?

But as the clank of a heavy door opened, it revealed a woman I saw in my nightmares. A woman who slit the throat of my soul pair’s first witch and caused me to witness her and Clawdia gasping to death as they died together. Mary, the witch who’d slaughtered her lover, Winnie, then gave Fafnir the knife as a present.

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