Page 18 of The Fated and the Damned
EIGHT
Dante
Shetrembledbymyside, small and silent beneath the weight of my arm around her waist, but not once did her eyes stray from the atrocity before us. Kitarni had never shirked her duty, nor would she allow herself to appear weak in front of the others.
The fact she was allowing me to hold her at all spoke volumes to her discomfort. Her body was warm, her curves nestled against me. I’d craved her touch, her smell, for so long, but the moment the shock wore off and she came back into herself, the anger would return, as would the rage she harboured deep inside.
I wanted to hold her forever, but I knew it wouldn’t last. The best I could do was distract her from her thoughts and the horror before us.
“Are you ready for the trial?” I whispered in her ear, tightening my hold on her before she could storm away or shrug me off.
For a moment I thought she wouldn’t answer, but she shivered where my breath kissed her cheek, her lips parted and shaking. “How can I be ready for something I know nothing about? Iren already has the advantage because she knows what’s coming.”
“If it’s power they seek, then yours is beyond Iren’s capabilities. She is a green witch, where you have fire and blood magic in your veins.” I scoffed. “It’s hardly a contest.”
“Power alone does not make a leader, Dante,” she replied stiffly. “You above all people should know a good leader must earn respect andtrust, not demand it.”
Well, shit. A kick in the balls would’ve been better. “I do know that. Gods, Kitarni—”
“No,” she hissed, stepping away from me and turning, at last, away from the charred husk upon the pyre. “You don’t get to do this. You don’t get to act like everything is fine—that we’re fine—just because the world is burning around us.”
I steeled myself for her rage, ready to take everything she’d throw at me, because I deserved it—and she needed a distraction. Her mind was elsewhere, but I knew what was going through her head. Iren had hit a nerve calling her a monster, playing on her worst fears and every insecurity she’d carried for all those years in her youth. And now to be the one to end Caitlin … it wasn’t just an execution, it was gods damned torture. It shouldn’t have been her, but even I could admit it gave her power. A sign that she would do anything for her people. Nora knew it, and Iren did too.
So, I would take the brunt of Kitarni’s pain and frustration and let her channel her anger into me. If she couldn’t love me, then I would take all the worst parts of her and still want her anyway. Maybe it was selfish of me, maybe I needed to let her go, but I would bear it, because nothing would kill me quicker than not having any part of her at all. If Kitarni thought I would tire and give up, she clearly didn’t realise how deep my stubbornness ran.
“I can’t forget what you did,” she continued quietly. Her eyes brimmed with tears, the restraints she’d so carefully built around herself beginning to snap. “You never even apologised. You never even—” She swallowed, her voice thick with all the words she wouldn’t say.
“Kitarni,” I tried again, reaching out a hand, but she took another step away. “I know it’s too late for forgiveness, but I swear, not a day has gone by where I haven’t kicked myself for my wrongs. There will never be enough words to say how much I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry.”
A single tear slid down her cheek, her eyes swimming with hope and desperation, but she looked around at the whispers and sidelong looks from the witches, and I knew she was lost to me. Kitarni would rather suffer in silence than appear weak to her sisters. A leader needed to be strong, and a High Witch needed to put her people before herself.
Her shoulders squared and her hands curled into fists as she hardened her heart and turned away. A better man might have known then to let her go, but I was not a good man. Neither a hero nor a saint, but a damned demon put on this earth to end anything that got in her way. I’d seen the hope in her eyes, and it had restored some of my own.
András’s words echoed in my thick skull, and I knew now.
There was nothing I wouldn’t do to get her back. I would raise the dead, walk through hell and back for that woman.
If she was a monster, I was too.
And so long as she was by my side, I was perfectly ok with that.
Laszlo whimpered beside me, pawing at my leg for attention as I stared across the clearing at the two witches. I scratched behind his ears absentmindedly, my eyes fixed on the brown-haired beauty as she squared off against Iren.
The two couldn’t be more opposite. Iren was waifish, with blonde hair cut in a sharp bob and piercing grey-blue eyes, her mouth curved with a cocky smile. Pretty, but all sharp angles and bones. Her eyes lacked warmth, hard as stone, like she’d forgotten how to laugh. I wouldn’t be surprised. As a spy, perhaps even an assassin, there are things she would have seen and done that can’t be taken back. Sometimes life has a way of setting people on the right path, and sometimes the decisions we make set us down the wrong one.
Gods, did I know that better than anyone.
I looked to Kitarni, Iren’s opposite in all ways. Glowing olive skin, long curly brown hair that had a mind of its own, full lips and eyes that sparkled when she laughed. And those pants … those fucking leather pants that made me want to squeeze her ass and bend her over.
My girl. My beautiful little hellcat.
I wondered how different things might have been if she’d let her power consume her. If she’d picked the wrong side to fight for, or placed her trust in someone who’d only ever have used her. Caitlin deserved her fate, and I knew Kitarni would give everything she had to win the fight today. The coven needed someone who wasn’t afraid to break the mould and reshape the world if that’s what it took.
Iren wanted power and, the funny thing was, I had no doubt she held qualities that could make a good leader. But she served only for her own gains. The question was whether she would fall into line and take orders if she failed this test. And she would fail, Kitarni would make damn sure of it.
The women circled each other slowly, assessing for weaknesses, judging each other’s every movement. Iren was fast, prancing around like a skittish horse, but Kitarni was methodical.
The rule was simple: disable your opponent without causing severe bodily harm. I guessed destroying Iren was out of the question then. Folding my arms, I watched impassively. Iren was at an advantage with her earth magic, but Kitarni’s fire magic would be a more difficult beast to wield. I tensed as the women stopped moving and a horn sounded, signalling the beginning of the fight.
