Page 82 of Queen of Vengeance

“All these people are here to see me,” Jax thought to himself, feeling on top of the world.

He descended the stairs and everyone began cheering and greeting him.

“What’s this important announcement you have?” Mr. Elfin, his potion producer, was the first person at the bottom of the stairs to stop him.

Jax sneered at him but managed to recover with a smile. “It’s great. You’re gonna love it.”

Jax then cleared his throat and clinged his champagne glass with his wedding ring. “Attention everyone! Thank you all so much for showing up today. It means a lot that I have so much support in the community. It is because of the support that I would like to share with you an amazing achievement. I will be opening my own potion production company at the end of the year!”

Jax’s eyes glanced at Mr. Elfin who looked utterly confused. Then his face scrunched into a scowl.

“I look forward to doing business with you all. Please feel free to reach out to me or one of my assistants if you have any questions,” Jax finished his announcement and immersed himself in the crowd of cheering supporters. When he looked again, Mr. Elfin had already left.

“I’m sure I’ll get some backlash for announcing it that way, but if I had told him first, he would just try to stop me. Now that my contract is finally ending with him, I am ready to move out from under his thumb.”

Once Jax had made it through the crowd of supporters, he had reached the line of reporters that were kept out by his guards. Still on an ego high from his announcement and a little buzz from the champagne, he was happy to take questions from the reporters. “Yes, you heard right. I’m opening my own potion business.”

“Do you think it’s going to be successful considering the last few potions you’ve put out haven’t sold well?”

“What do you say to those that have reported your potions being ineffective?”

“Are you going to rectify the situation with your last potion where many of your clients have lost their hair?”

“Some say that you’ve lost your spark, considering none of your potions are as good as the ones you put out in your first five years. What do you say to those people?”

The questions from the reporters kept firing too fast for him to answer… Not that he wanted to answer any of them anyway.

“The first five years… That was how long Lea’s potion book lasted me.”

His good mood had been killed stone dead by the memory of Lea. As much as he did his best not to think about her, she still invaded his mind.

“This must be penance for what I did.” He backed away from the crowd of reporters and ordered his guards to get them out of there. He stumbled back into the crowd of his supporters, but he could no longer hear what they were saying.

There was a ringing in his ear that wouldn’t go away.

“Lea. Why do you haunt me?”

“Jax? What is it, darling? You don’t look all right.” Chika found him in the crowd. “Come on. Let’s get you some fresh air.”

She ushered him onto their balcony where no one else was allowed.

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” she asked.

“It’s nothing. I don’t want you to have anything to worry about.” He gathered her hand and kissed her knuckles.

“I’m still willing to worry, Jax. You can’t protect me from everything. Besides, I’m supposed to be your partner. I can’t have your back if I don’t know what we are up against.” Her eyes glistened as she gasped her chest. “Trust me.”

“I remember reading somewhere in school all those years ago that if a potionist is inexperienced, they can relay their anxiety and lack of confidence into their recipes. I thought it was a ridiculous notion… It isn’t so ridiculous now.”

Jax turned away from his wife and marched in from the balcony to the bottle of Brandy displayed in the sitting room.

Chika sighed. “I’ll send everyone home. We can talk later about what’s happening.”

Jax ignored her and poured himself a glass.

Chika cleared the house of their party guests and gave Jax an hour before returning. She hoped by then he would have had a clear mind. She knocked on the door three times before opening it to see Jax slumped in one of their fine chairs with the empty bottle of Brandy in his hand. “There you are. Fetch me another bottle. This one seemed to have run dry.”

He picked up the bottle and looked through it, watching Chika move through the frosted glass.

---