Page 7 of Bewitched By the Voodoo King
I arched a brow. “And you just went along with it?”
His jaw tightened, and for a moment, I thought he might actually explode. Instead, he stalked forward, his presence towering over me. I trained my neck back to get a good look at him. “I didn’t agree to this lightly, Maple. But my father believed?—”
Adelle stepped in, her tone calm but firm. “Maple, I know this is overwhelming. None of this is fair to you, and we don’t expect you to solve everything overnight. But we need to start somewhere.”
“And that somewhere is... where exactly?” I asked, crossing my arms.
“The Matriarch,” Rune said, his tone brockering no argument. “She’ll want to see you tomorrow.”
“Why not tonight?” I asked, a touch of defiance creeping into my voice. I looked around at all of the people staring at me. Why wasn’t she here tonight? Was her presence not needed that desperately?
“Because you need rest,” Adelle replied. “And because meeting the Matriarch isn’t something you do while wearing bunny slippers.”
I glanced down at my feet as my cheeks heated. “Fair point.”
Adelle smoothed her silver braids over her shoulder. “We’ll escort you to your quarters. Tomorrow, you’ll meet the Matriarch and begin to understand why you’re here.”
“Begin to understand?” I echoed. “So I’m not even getting a straight answer tonight?”
“Nothing about this is simple, Maple,” Adelle said gently. “But you’re stronger than you think. Otherwise, the ancestors and the previous Voodoo king wouldn’t have chosen you.”
I wanted to argue, to demand an explanation that actually made sense, but the weight of the day—and the sheer absurdityof it all—left me too drained to fight. So instead, I sighed and stood, following Adelle and Rune toward the door.
The hallways were dimly lit,the flickering sconces casting shadows that danced along the walls. Adelle walked ahead, her stride purposeful, while Rune fell into step beside me. For a while, the only sound was the soft creak of the floorboards beneath our feet.
“You’re really not thrilled about this marriage thing, are you?” I said, breaking the silence.
Rune’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t look at me. “No.”
“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m not exactly picking out wedding invitations either.”
He let out a low snort, the closest thing to a laugh I’d heard from him. “Good to know.”
We walked a few more steps in silence before I couldn’t hold back my curiosity any longer. “Why do you think your father wanted this? The marriage, I mean.”
Rune’s light eyes flicked toward me, his expression unreadable. “My father believed in alliances and he knew we could no longer do this alone. The ancestors saw you— chose you. That is not something that is easily argued.” He stopped and cut eyes at me. “Your parents could have said no. They didn’t have to send you. Why did they if you are so against this? Did they really want to get rid of you so badly?” He took a step closer to me and leaned down to my eye level. His gaze seemed to slice through me. “Was it something you did?” He cocked his head to the side as his gaze raked over my face. “Was it something youcan’tdo?”
I opened my mouth to answer but he turned on his heel and walked away quickly, catching up with Adelle with little effort.Me on the other hand? My little legs had to double time to keep up with their long strides.
“Is there a kitchen in this place?” I called after them but they didn’t answer or turn back to me. I guessed I would have to find it after my meeting with the big, scary matriarch in the morning.
Grief wasn’t a wave.It was a storm, relentless and battering, pressing against me from every side as I stared at my father’s lifeless form. Suspended midair by the binding spells of the diviners, his body hung unnaturally still. The three jagged slash marks across his chest were a brutal, final signature of the wolves’ violence.
His eyes had been closed before his body was brought in, sparing me the torment of seeing their vacant stare. But that small mercy did little to lessen the suffocating weight in my chest.
Cause of death? The wolves.
The cursed, ancestor-forsaken wolves.
I clenched my fists at my sides, my nails biting into my palms as I tried to block out the gruesome scene in front of me. The room reeked of magic—dense, oppressive, and searching.
But it was no use. His body was drained completely of blood, leaving only a hollow shell behind. Without the essence of life to anchor the magic, we couldn’t find out anything. I tried my hardest when his body was brought in. My magic was now the strongest in the coven as he’d passed on his affinity to me before all of his blood was drained. Thankfully that wasn’t common knowledge about our kind and our affinities or they might have made it impossible for him to do so.
“He fought them,” Adelle said quietly, her voice steady but laced with sorrow. She stood beside me, her silver braids brushing her shoulders as she studied the suspended form of our father. “He fought hard.”
“Not hard enough,” I ground out, my voice harsh in the heavy silence.
Her gaze flicked to me, sharp and cutting. “That’s your grief talking, Rune. He was one of the strongest leaders we’ve ever had. Don’t dishonor him with self-pity.”
