Page 51 of Which Witch Is Wicked?
Julian took another step forward. "If they consume the source of your power, your life force... they'll absorb that power. They'll absorb your soul, and you'll be lost. The prophecy states that those who are martyred will return, but don't assume that all who returned are innocent. Not every one of their souls was sent to heaven when they died." His eyes positively burned into hers now, and each word was delivered with such annunciation, that she felt as though Julian was trying to talk to a stupid child. "Who are the most powerful mortal beings in existence, Aerin? Powerful enough to end the world?"Witches.
"Holy fuck." Her eyes widened as the truth of it all hit her like a cartoon anvil, threatening to pound her into the dirt.
"The souls in their heavens are at peace, Aerin. Once the seal was broken and vengeance was wrought, they returned to their graves."
A new horror reared its head. "That means...anyone who is left..."'
"Is beyond redemption, because their souls are writhing in the depths of hell," Julian finished for her. "They are the souls of the damned, and they are after you and your sisters’ powers."No.That meant...Tommy.
"Claire!" Without thinking, Aerin ran and leapt atop Archimedes, and spun him around. If only she had a broom that worked. If only she wasn't such a goddamned failure at being a witch.
If only she'd make it back in time to stop anything bad from happening to her sisters.
The stallion wouldn't move, not without his master's go-ahead.
"Let me go," she commanded."Let me go!" The second time came out as a plea.
"Take her to her vehicle," Julian acquiesced.
Aerin didn't look back to thank him. She didn't allow herself to look back at all.
Julian stoodon the edge of the land, the ocean swirling below him, and watched her plunge into the night. A part of him hoped she succeeded in her endeavor to rescue her sisters.
A part of him hoped she'd fail. That all this would be over.
"Are you going to lurk in the shadows all night, or show yourself to look in my eyes as you torment me?" he queried.
A black and yellow snake slithered through grass, tonguing the toe of his boot before climbing his leg with its sinuous body.
Even the brightness of the moon, that orb from which the
Goddess drew her power, seemed to dim in the presence of the serpent.
A mist crept through the meadow and the snake tightened painfully against his leg before morphing and twisting in grotesque undulations until a breathtakingly beautiful woman was pressed against him, her leg entwined around his, her arms wrapped around his neck.
"I never thought you had a weakness, my cold, cold horseman," Lucifer hissed in his ear. "I never thought you had a heart...until now."
9
Whether one was a human, an immortal, or a deity, there still remains nothing worse than being denied something one wants.
As one of the most powerful immortals known to the history of this universe, Lucifer, the morning star, the Devil, Satan, Old Scratch, Mephistopheles, The Lord of Darknessher fucking selfwas only ever denied two desires since the beginning of time. Those souls who were bringers of light and therefore were delivered to their respective heavens...
And Julian Roarke.
He wasn't the largest of the Horsemen, nor the most handsome.
Though his body almost shimmered with pale perfection, and his Gothic beauty was, indeed, rare and brilliant, she'd fucked bigger immortals. Stronger ones. More skilled. She'd hadSidheorgies that lasted for weeks of mortal time. She'd banged kings, queens (sometimes both at once), Gods, demi-gods, fae, demons, angels, and just about everything in between. She'd done it all, from every position. She'd taken the form of a man and fucked all the things. As a woman, she'd been fucked by all the things, sometimes simultaneously.
She'd like to meet the being who woulddareslut-shame Satan.
She'd had the other Horsemen. Once they saw what she'd done to Julian, they'd relented.
Nicholas Kingswood fucked like he wanted to pound his demons into her. Theirs was a power-play she'd likely never forget.
War’s "sword" was one of legend. For a warrior, he approached sex with a strategy and didn't give up until he'd scorched the earth and wrung every last gasp of breath she possessed.
Having Death "come" for her, was one of the darkest, most satisfying moments of her life.
