Page 31 of The Fated and the Damned
I lifted my gaze over the thatched roofs, the stone giving way to ivy and the flowers in bloom, catching sight of golden locks in sunlight belonging to a girl with goodness in her heart and hope in her soul. To my sister. And to my mother, who was grace and wisdom and a reminder of a person to aspire to.
Beyond them, past the village proper and to the border of trees where sickness threatened to rupture, Dante appeared. Blood streaked across his face, his dark hair glinting red in the sun. Yes. Home was not ‘where’. It was ‘who’.
And Dante, for all the crap he’d done and all the shit he’d pulled, a part of me would always see that in him—for the family he’d gifted me and for finding a place where I belonged. There were other things too, things I was still tentative to explore.
He collided with me, wrapping his large arms around my waist and squeezing me tight before he held me at arm’s length. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Kitarni, because Sylvie isn’t far behind us. I expect she’ll be here by nightfall at the earliest, tomorrow morning at the very latest.”
“That’s all the time we need,” I said, leading him towards the square. “Thanks to your messenger, we’ve had enough time needed to prepare.”
He glanced at me sidelong. “What’s your plan?”
I grinned, winking at him. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
“My little hellcat,” he said with a chuckle. “Causing trouble as always.”
“You wouldn’t have it any other way. Let’s get to work. Gather the táltosok and make ready to leave.”
He bowed, extending his arms with a rakish grin. “Your wish is my command.” I watched him go, staring a little too long at his ass covered in blood-slicked clothes. There was something about a man dressed for battle that just did things to a girl. Images of last night sprang to mind, of being slammed against the wall, then slammed by something else. Dirty words that had made me wetter than a wellspring.
Down girl. I turned towards the square, focusing on the task at hand. Mama dipped her head at me just once from the centre, Erika and Eszter by her sides. One by one, the witches gathered around the circle, and those that couldn’t fit stood behind them, hands placed on each other’s shoulders until forming a seemingly endless spiral of bodies.
They all parted for me as I strode towards the middle, nodding their heads respectfully, murmuring encouragement or well wishes. Fear shone in the eyes of many, but there was determination and fury, too. Not at me, but at what was to become of their town and who threatened it.
I fisted my hands as I came to my place in the centre, letting the nails bite into my skin painfully. I needed the sharpness to ground me and keep my mind focused. Mama handed me the book containing the spell and I took a deep breath as my family left me, Eszter smiling softly before she became one with the coven.
I cast my eyes over the circle one last time, studying the many candles with their flickering flames, the bones and herbs and crystals that scattered over rock and soil and the roots of the earth. Then I began reciting.
The spell was simple enough, but the words were ancient and complex. An old, forgotten language unknown to humankind and feared by the supernatural world. Feared … and prized.
The words spilled from me, slowly at first, quietly, but the longer I spoke, the atmosphere shifted. The air rippled with magic, the world beyond our circle darkening until it shuttered, replaced by a sphere of smoke and shadow, writhing like a creature of the night.
My words deepened, my voice becoming louder, mine and somehow not. All around me, witches chanted, repeating my words, swaying faster, more violently with each passing second. I was drowning in power and the beast inside me revelled, drinking in every drop flooding my body, roaring victoriously as it slithered through my veins and passed beyond my fingers.
Soon there was no light and it was near maddening to be blinded by nothingness, but the magic was working, the sphere growing larger, larger, encompassing the entire square and then beyond, stretching clawed fingers towards the edge of the town and up the very trunks of the woods surrounding us.
That ethereal voice rumbling from my throat deepened and then, suddenly, the last line of the spell was finished. I came back to myself, slamming into my body with a sudden awareness that had me gasping for breath and reeling from a shockwave.
My vision cleared and I was falling to my knees when strong arms caught me, lifting me up. I saw Dante’s face, his dark brown eyes, the chiselled jaw so delectable I couldn’t help but run my finger along it. His chest rumbled against me, then his mouth was on mine, claiming, devouring, as if the magic I’d just expelled called to something deep inside him, too.
His tongue curled around me, sinfully sweet and dangerously tempting. I could have lost myself in the scent of leather and musk and earthen things. The faint smell of blood and sweat overlapped it and, maybe it made me fucking crazy, but that combined with his possessive touch made the junction of my thighs so slick and my mind conjure things I wasn’t even ashamed to think of.
At last I pulled away, suddenly aware of all the eyes on us. “Dante,” I breathed. “Everyone is watching.”
“Let them watch,” he whispered, his lips pressing against the shell of my ear. “I want them all to know who claimed you. I want them to know you’re mine.”
The breath whooshed out of me as he set me down and, to my surprise, the entire coven dropped to one knee, their heads bowed in submission.
“What are they doing?” I hissed, looking around frantically.
Dante’s smile was predatory. “I don’t know what you did,” he said slowly, “but the power you just showed … it was incredible. The whole village was shrouded in shadows.”
I shook my head. “It wasn’t just mine. It was the power of the coven. Our power combined.”
“Maybe you’re right.” He lifted my chin with his finger. “But you were the one to harness it. To take on the magic of so many is no easy feat, Kitarni. Be careful if you do it again. The magic you used was old and combining power like that is addictive. Don’t let it consume you.”
I swallowed. He didn’t need to tell me twice. I still remembered vividly how it felt to have Dante’s magic in my veins. It had been intoxicating and I’d almost lost myself to the ecstasy of that feeling—almost let him bleed out while I had been oblivious.
Never again. I couldn’t afford to lose someone I loved—or myself, for that matter. I’d be no good to my coven if I turned into a power-lusting strumpet. I smoothed my pants down and faced the villagers, who were still watching us curiously, waiting for their orders. Despite not being able to see any visible changes, I knew the spell had worked. I could feel it all around us, a strange awareness of the ancient magic, as if it settled over my shoulders like an unseen cloak.
