Page 16 of The Fated and the Damned
Dante grabbed Iren’s wrist where she still touched him, squeezing it tight enough that she winced. When he smiled coldly, I shivered, feeling myself unreasonably turned on by the sheer savagery in that look.
“Touch me like that again,” he said quietly, “and I’ll break each of your fingers.” He let her go, his lips curling with disgust. “Belittle my betrothed again, and I’ll rip out your throat.”
Goddess save me. My heart thumped in my chest, my body flaring with heat at the icy rage flashing in the gold rings of his eyes. The dominance masked by the calm and collected way he held himself. It was terrifying. And it was everything I wanted.
Iren swallowed audibly as she snatched her hand back and moved away. Even if I’d wanted to, it was impossible to hide my smirk. I didn’t need Dante fighting my battles for me, but this was more than that. Iren wasn’t trustworthy, being one of Caitlin’s spies and, let’s face it, a spider’s web is never finished. If Dante wanted to put her in her place, I’d happily watch her squirm any day.
András breathed in deeply, then smiled cheerfully as though nothing had happened. “You mentioned a trial of magic?”
He was good at easing the tension like that and right now this room was about as chilly as a graveyard in full frost.
“It’s one of our most revered customs,” Eszter explained, ever the peace maker, though the slight curve to her lips told me she’d enjoyed seeing Iren knocked down a peg too. “Candidates undergo several tests of strength, endurance, and the mind. The winner is decided by the coven, and she is then proclaimed the new High Witch.”
I needed no encouragement. “I’ll do it. I’ll go against Iren in the trials.”
Iren’s smile was wicked. “I was hoping you’d say that. We’ll see who’s more fitting to lead, fire girl, but might I suggest one stipulation?”
“What do you want?” I snarled, sick of her games and feeling exhausted. My body felt stretched, my bones wrung out like wet rags. Dawn was a few short hours away and I desperately needed to sleep. Even if I hated Caitlin and everything she’d stood for, watching a witch burn would be no small feat. Mama had told me what it was like to witness a burning, and that story had stayed with me long after.
“I wish to make a deal with you,” Iren continued. “The loser in this contest will walk away from the coven. Forever. No looking back no matter what.”
Mama sucked in a breath. “How can you propose such a thing? We’re at war Iren. Personality clashes aside, we all have a part to play.”
“Our being at war is precisely why I ask. We can’t afford Kitarni to lose control of her powers because of an emotional response. The last time that happened, she set fire to the village. What happens when one of her friends get hurt? Or his lordship?” Iren circled the table slowly, her blonde hair glimmering in the firelight. “You saw how protective she was of Dante just now. What happens when he is threatened? She could destroy us all. She might be powerful, but the beast inside her, the product of Sylvie herself—it’s unhinged. She’s not just a blood witch. She’s a monster.”
A monster.A lump formed in my throat, and my veins ran cold at that word, everything inside me shutting down. She had a point. My power was destruction, and I’d managed to rein it in until now, but the possibility of losing control was awfully real. Too horrifying to consider. Iren had knowingly exploited that by using my jealousy for her own means. A spider with the worst kind of bite.
I closed my eyes, letting my fingers clench before gently unfurling. Maybe she was right. Maybe I was a monster, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.
“Magic can make monsters out of all of us,”Dante had once said to me.
And maybe that’s exactly what the coven needed right now. My eyes snapped open, and I walked purposefully to Iren, extending my hand.
“Kitarni,” Dante warned, his body tense as he surveyed us. But he wouldn’t stop me from doing what I needed to. He never had. It’s one of the things I’d respected most about him.
Ignoring him, I looked Iren in her grey eyes, letting the dark red power in me flash within my own. “You want to seal your fate so badly? Fine. I accept your proposal, and when I win, nothing will make me happier than to see your back as you walk away from this coven.”
She grinned, cocking her head dangerously as her palm slid into mine. “You have yourself a deal, little blood witch. See you at the burning.”
Iren walked away, disappearing like smoke through the temple doors. The breath shuddered out of me as I looked at the wide eyes of my friends. My family.
Eszter shook her head, her brown eyes wide. “I hope you know what you’re doing Kitarni. Because there’s no going back.”
SEVEN
Kitarni
Therainshroudedthesquare in mist, foggy tendrils blanketing the stones beneath our feet. An unseasonably cold morning, but the chill in my bones cut deeper with the dread of what awaited me.
I took no pleasure in death—it’s a miserable and filthy affair. I was used to the piss and shit and blood by now—had killed enough cultists to know what the body does when it shuts down and smelled enough corpses to recall the sharp sting of decay in my nose.
But we weren’t burying bodies today or leaving them to rot. Today, Caitlin would be cleansed, body and soul, and she would burn for what she has done. My stomach roiled, anxiety swimming deep inside me.
I did not want to hear her scream.
I did not wish to see the fire claim her.
Such wants were ill afforded. I felt Dante move beside me, his shoulder brushing softly against my own, the barest touch. It was enough to send awareness skittering down my arm, and though he did not speak, I knew it was his way of being there for me. He was always a rock to lean on. A pillar of strength against all obstacles.
