Page 4 of The Crownless King
“To save the rest of the world, yes.”
Another hum and silence.
She looked to Caden again and he gripped her hand and squeezed.
‘Whatever the outcome,’he said to her mentally.
She nodded, understanding that he would stand beside her through it.
“This pairing, the Chawi and the Bayi, will always carry the danger of reigniting that power,” the Celestials warned. “Do you understand what this means?”
Bria racked her mind to piece together what they were saying. “Another like my father can rise from the power?”
“Or perhaps one that will save you.” Their tone said that either was a possibility and they didn’t care either way. “You’ll have to keep the two separate or else take the risk.”
It would take work, but surely, they could keep the witches and Bayi from mating. They would be weakened, and it wasn’t a decision she wanted to make alone, but there would be no other opportunity to call upon the Celestials. Just imagining the damage her father could wreak in the between time made her sick. All would die under her father. She had no choice.
“But we would separately have our powers?” she clarified. It would be useless to make them all weak to stop one.
The Celestials nodded. “Your individual powers will be halved as they have flourished under the Obayifo bond, but eachgroup will keep the gifts given. As we warned earlier, the soul tethers between witches and Bayi could eventually restore that power, but in order to delay the inevitable, any offspring of the match will be wholly Bayi.”
Bria nodded in relief. She would be the last hybrid born, just as she’d expected.
“Your request is bold, Bria Cauly, but we will grant it. It will be interesting to see the outcome. To defeat your father, you will need to use a weapon forged by a tree native to where he was born. You are dismissed.”
Before Bria could blink, a force pushed against her chest and wind moved past her body as she was thrust from the Celestials’ plane. She and Caden both landed with a hard thud against the dirt. It took her a moment to gather air, her mouth opening and closing as she coaxed her body to breathe again.
“Caden?” she managed to choke out.
“Here, love.” He tightened his grip on her hand, but neither of them could move.
Bria rolled over, her blurry vision raking over her mate. “Have we done the right thing?” Even as she asked, her mind was spinning. She’d grown up playing under the oak trees of her father’s birthplace. She prayed this course of action would not doom them all.
Caden cupped her cheek. “Only time will tell.”
Chapter one
Present day
What would life look like without this sense of urgency that plagued her every waking moment?
It was a thought Amaya had often. Every bus ride to and from work, she daydreamed about what her life could be if her circumstances were different. Adjusting her bag tighter against her, she leaned her head on the bus window and gazed out at the darkening night. She’d cut down the number of days she worked, so that meant longer hours— and going home late in the evening.
Which was dangerous on most days. This close to a full moon…that danger was almost doubled.
It wasn’t as though she had a choice. She was the primary caregiver for her mother, so she walked a delicate balance of earning enough money to make sure they had a roof over their head, but not working too long since she couldn’t afford to hire anyone to sit with her mother while she was there.
Amaya worked at the Archive, which was a library of sorts. It housed all the history of the supernaturals and, most importantly, it contained the original and largest piece of the meteor responsible for the power inherited by all of the occupants of the Southern USA. The Akachi, as they called it, was the source of the chaos magic that ran through the blood of every supernatural. Chaos magic was volatile and hard to control. Maintaining the balance of the Akachi and keeping that chaos magic contained to safe levels was Amaya’s job.
She worked in the sacred garden at the Archive. It had been her mother’s job before her and was responsible for Anita’s current state. Amaya and her mother were chaos witches and thus able to wield the raw, unfiltered magic that emitted from the Akachi. Their magic kept them from being as susceptible to the crude power as other supernaturals. But working with chaos magic came with pitfalls. Eventually, the magic turned on its wielder, eating at their mind. It was the fate of any chaos witch, no matter their power level. All of the women in their family were chaos witches, and all met the same fate. But because Amaya and her mother worked with the Akachi in the sacred garden, they met their fates sooner.
Her mother, though barely over fifty, was going mad. And there was nothing Amaya could do to stop it. It meant Anita required constant supervision, which was the source of all the hoops Amaya jumped through with her work schedule. Her mother had her lucid days, but they were few and far between.
The bus pulled to a stop and Amaya sighed, steadying herself for the walk to the neighborhood where she and her mother were renting a house. They could’ve stayed at their family’s compound, but since her mother had moved out at eighteen, Anita had been adamant that she would never go back. The way the women were treated once their magic turned on them… Needless to say, going back home was never an option for her mother, and Amaya honored that request.
Their current neighborhood wasn’t on the best side of town, but if she ignored the hustlers, criminals and drug addicts that inhabited some of the houses around them, Amaya could pretend she was doing well for herself. Shuffling off the bus with her head down, she dodged catcalls and sinister looks as she hustled toward her house.
She lived in a part of Black Hollow inhabited by supernaturals making the best of the hand life had dealt them, not quite the misfits of society but certainly those who were alone in this world. There was a rough element as it was in any part of town. Here, lone shifters occupied most of the run-down homes that lined the street. It made moving around any time close to the full moon harrowing.
