Page 69 of Court of Heathens

In fact . . . I start to slip under the table when her eyes narrow on me, and she points her spoon into my face. “I can see your thoughts, monster. No.” She taps my cheek with her spoon. “Killing first, sex later.”

“If I kill this necromancer, then I get to fuck you whenever I want?” I ask.

“Well, er . . . yes.” Her cheeks turn a prettier shade of red.

“Then I shall do that now.” I thrust to my feet, ready to track down this necromancer, when she starts to laugh. Grabbing my hand, she tugs me down and pushes my bowl closer.

“Eat. We will kill him together, and then we’ll have a very long time to play, okay? Demon!” she warns, smacking his hand away from whatever he was doing. She looks to Phrixius for help, but he just shrugs and nods.

“If you were closer, I would have my mouth on yourpretty tits, feeding from them instead of this bowl.” Her pupils blow wide, and I watch as the god lifts his bowl and licks it clean.

Freya shoves back from the table, sending hot soup splattering everywhere. “Gentlemen—no, monsters, pay attention. Stop looking at my boobs, stop thinking about my vagina?—”

The demon groans. “Now that you said it, I am—” She smacks his hand away again, darkness crawling along her skin as she points at every single one of us.

“Focus. We must track down this man, now,” she warns. “Do not make me use my magic on you.”

Leaning into the god, I lower my voice as her darkness crawls along the table. “I do not know much about other witches, but are they all this magnificent when wielding magic?”

“No, that’s all our girl.” He grins, and when the darkness touches his arm, he simply welcomes it, but he does sober up. “She is right though. We do need to focus on the necromancer. We might have held him back, but he wasn’t defeated. We should push our advantage while he’s weak and without an army.”

“So how do we find this necromancer?” the demon asks, slinging his arm around Freya and pulling her into his lap, notching his chin on her shoulder. “How did you do it in the past?”

“The gods tracked down necromancers. You’re the god of magic, so surely you must be able to. With all of us together against him, if we push him now, like you said, then we stand a chance.” Freya nods as she leans back into her demon. Is she even aware she does it? Something dark and ugly rises inside me for a moment at seeing her in another’s arms, but watching her relax like that, her shoulders unwinding, the emotion changes to something happy.

I would give her anything she asked for, and if she wants this demon and god, then I will chain them to her side forever as long as she will continue to be happy.

Phrixius sighs. “We did, and I can. My worry is that he knows that and it will be a trap.”

“It doesn’t matter. Trap or no, we have to end this now. We all know he’ll want a new army, which means he will kill hundreds to getit. I might understand why he’s doing this, but I cannot sit back and let it happen,” she admits. “I cannot imagine the pain and suffering he endured, but I cannot condone his plan for revenge.”

“If it comes to it, can you kill him?” Phrixius asks seriously. “After what you saw?”

“We have to, right? There’s no saving him. I felt it in his soul. There’s nothing left but anger and the need for blood. He’s past redemption. I won’t relish killing a man who only loved his wife and child, but if it means saving others, then I’ll do it. My coven is in danger, but so is the world, and maybe if I can save them, I can save myself too.”

“What do you mean?” I ask as gently as I can.

She turns to me. “I feel like if I lose to him, then I’ll lose my soul and the grip I have over this darkness too. If we end this, then I stand a chance at having a future and being alive. I know it’s not going to be easy, but we have to try.”

“It will mean you will use your powers. We will protect you as much as we can and carry the burden of killing him so you do not have to go fully into the darkness, but we cannot save you from everything, and there is a possibility your control will slip again. Are you ready for that?” Phrixius asks. “Because if not, we can do this without you.”

“No, he’s one of us. It’s my duty?—”

“Not if it endangers your soul, it isn’t. I will not put you in danger, not even for the world,” Phrixius admits, his eyes on her. “I know I should not say that, since it is my duty to risk my life for this world and the magic within it. I was taught that one death for hundreds is no loss, but I’m finding, Freya, that if that one death is yours, then I would let hundreds die.”

I glance between them as they stare at each other, and the smile that blooms over her face is magnificent. “But I will not. I cannot live with myself if I do nothing when it’s me he wants. It’s time we end this, don’t you think? Then you can whisper sweet nothings in my ear like that all night.”

Phrixius looks us all over and nods. “Then we will track him down. We’ll go tonight before he has regrouped his army. First, I want you allto rest and eat. Tracking the necromancer is the easy bit, but killing one? That’s much, much harder. He might be one, but one necromancer is worth an army of witches, and before the sun is up, all of us will be covered in blood.” Phrixius rises and wanders away, and we watch him go, wondering how much blood this god has really spilled.

PHRIXIUS

Staring out at the coven from the entrance of Freya’s cave, I cannot help but think of the past. Freya may think we are all monsters for what we did, but we had our reasons. He only showed her his past and the horrors that made him this way, but he did not show her the countless atrocities committed by his people.

I watched children be turned into monsters and then be used against their parents.

Mothers were replaced by nothing but empty shells with orders to kill before they were sent home, where they destroyed their families, knowing they could not fight back.

I had to watch friends turn into enemies. The necromancers’ armies filled with their loved ones, and they could not even grieve because they were still there. There was no peace, rules, or laws for them. They did as they wished. Yes, the gods killed many, maybe even innocents, but the world would not be standing if we had not. I know that for sure.

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