Page 30 of Obsession

She had grown stronger and more resilient from the near relentless savagery of Bastian’s merciless torture. Each time he’d strike her in anger at a moment when she’d slip up in his eyes, she handled the blow without complaint and a sense of personal dignity that she would endure.

Ren would never give up.

She focused her attention more on Callum. She tried to attune herself to his every expression and gesture, analyzing them for reassurance. Most often she felt comforted by his presence, believing that even under the thumb of his brothers, he was with her both in spirit and in their private moments.

It wasn’t quite trust, but it was a sense of mutual need for each other. They wouldn’t survive if they were divided even with Bastian resolution.

So it was only when Callum and Ren were alone that they could truly be themselves and feel completely safe. Bastian and Grayson knew of their affairs of course, but had no real urge to interfere.

The damage they needed to do had been done in their eyes. Jealousy was still wild between the brothers. They argued and fought over the smallest things, but only when Ren was around. A show of peacocking perhaps.

She found it endearing. They still choose her, each of them in their own way. Even Grayson was less of a steel vault and allowed a small smile to escape on occasion.

Thirty

“This is the most important part.” Callum points to the text as he reads it out loud.

The ruler of the kingdom of Serpents was Queen Zara.

“The queen was the one who made the calls? She ran everything?” Ren questioned.

Callum revealed another secret. One that hinted at the possibility of Ren's freedom.

He knew of texts on yet another ancient queen—both of them separated by over half a millennia—who’s bloodlines mingled together somewhere in the middle ages, descending to Ren’s.

“Grayson assumed it was true, but now I am convinced. You are a descendant of this ancient bloodline.” Callum pointed out.

A powerful queen who was the mother to one of the greatest Empires ever, was also a leader of a serpent cult that ruled through fear.

“We’ve been doing our research on you since the day I brought you into the mansion. We could tell there was something different about your blood. Something in it was just…more.” Callum said.

This possibility of being a relation to the queen was the reason Bastian agreed to keep Ren in the mansion, knowing her life force possessed a power he might be able to steal for his own. He had always been interested in the magical possibilities co-mingling with the blood curse.

The brothers could all feel it when they blood bonded with Ren. They knew there was something lingering. Something that needed to be triggered to release. A dormant spell or curse, something had to be lingering going by their past experiences with witches over the centuries.

Bastian’s idea of endless torture clearly wasn’t that trigger point.

“I don’t feel any different, how do you know?” Ren asked.

“When you’ve dealt with the supernatural for as long as we have you get a certain sense for magic and curses.” Callum answered.

The second queen—who came nearly 600 years after the first had disappeared from written accounts—was admired by her people for her acceptance of all. She was an intellectual scholar and fair leader who challenged the possibly second greatest empire to ever exist and annexed a portion of it into her own. The first time that a woman ruler had ever made a man surrender publicly rather than killing or maiming to take possession of lands.

“All of these properties could be inside of you. You could be the future that we heard prophesied so many years ago.” Callum said.

He reasoned that in her blood was the intellect and power to overcome the combined force of anyone that opposed her. He insisted that the strength she had to overcome all that had been thrown at her was because of her bloodline.

“There’s no way that I am those things.” Ren reasoned.

Ren still didn’t understand how this information was leading to her potential to escape the prison that she was being held in.

Callum and Ren's shared moments were filled with hushed readings and interpretations of ancient texts on the history of the queens whose shared bloodline was nearly as old as the brothers themselves. Lost in the pages of the scriptures they nearly forgot they were missing dinner. It wasn’t until Grayson cleared his throat while leaning inside the doorway that they looked up from the scriptures.

The smell of the old parchments, musky and slightly damp, became synonymous with their secret meetings, this time being no different. Their discussions about the prophecy, its complexities, and potential outcomes felt like a mixture of fear and exhilaration.

“You both are being missed in the dining room. Bastian is growing impatient.” Grayson said.

These clandestine meetings were not without risk, there were still the ever present battles between Grayson, Bastian, and Callum over their own jealousies..

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