Page 45 of The Powerless Witch

Regina didn’t so much as look at me as she sank into her seat.

“I told you,” she said with a note of exasperation, opening her laptop with one manicured finger. “You are not leaving this house until you learn your place. Even if it means you’re staying here for the rest of your life. We can do the spell without you.”

Still not looking at us, she gave us a dismissive wave of her fingers. Mathias picked me up and headed toward the door at a swift pace. Regina still didn’t look up.

I didn’t have it in me to struggle against his hold. My mind was too busy dreading what was going to happen in a few hours when she forced me to use my magic beyond what was safe, what was wise, and what was possible.

“It seems things are only going to get worse for you, hmm?” Mathias chuckled as he climbed up the stairs. “If only you had someone to help you…that would be nice, wouldn’t it?”

I forced myself to look at his satisfied smile. He met my eyes and the victorious glimmer in them made me bite my lip until I tasted blood.

“What do you want?” I asked, trying not to let the defeat slip into my voice.

Mathias pursed his mouth, as if thinking it over, and didn’t reply until we were entering my dark bedroom.

“I want Regina dead. I want my bond transferred to you,” he said when we reached the bathroom and he let me down, holding a steadying hand on my hip. “Then I want you to free me.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. Freeing him from his binding spell would mean letting loose a male witch in the world, and that could be catastrophic. Once unbound and unchecked, he could destroy me, my family, and everyone on this planet. As much as I wanted to be free, to be reunited with my past, and to have a future, I wasn’t selfish enough to do it at the expense of so many innocent people.

But if Regina was gone, and I held his bond…then maybe this nightmare would end. I could command him to lie low and not hurt people. I could control him. I could…I could kill him if he ever crossed the line. I knew Regina kept him for a purpose, not out of motherly love, so whatever she was planning for him, it would not end well for everyone else.

If I held his bond, the world would be better for it because I had no intention of ever using his power. I just had to make him think I’ll release him once our deal was over.

I just had to lie. I was good at that.

“Deal,” I breathed out, and his smile widened.

“Deal,” he echoed.

Chapter 19

Celeste

The Fae realm was not meant for human eyes. It was too bright, too vibrant, too alive, too much of everything. I had a feeling that after staying here for weeks, returning to the human world would be like getting a bucket of cold water thrown in my face.

Smiling at the tall rose bush that swayed in my direction, I watched as the petals opened while the buzzing of insects and magic made its leaves shake. I kept away from it despite the urge to touch it. I considered myself a sensible woman most of the time, so when a voice I didn’t recognize urged me to do something—like eat a fruit, drink nectar, touch a flower, or walk into a burrow—I dutifully ignored it.

Turning from the bush, I made my way to the stone table I had occupied for the last few hours. Four days had passed since I came here, and so far the serenity of the gardens was enough to keep me calm and leveled. The fact that there had been no other attacks helped a lot. Something I had a feeling I should be thanking Malakai for. If I found him sober one of those days, that was.

He was pleasant company, for the most part, but his habits of starting the day with Fae nectar and indulging in all kinds of pleasures around noon were not helping my condition. I had no problem with having sex with strangers, well, not until recent developments, but my position here was too precarious to risk getting vulnerablewith someone who could stab me in the heart. I wasn’t in full control of my faculties when the lust took over, so I either needed to be with someone I trusted—or I needed to be with someone weaker than me so I could use my magic to subdue them if they turned violent. And currently, the number of those people around me was zero.

I wished I could just drink my feelings away like him, but unfortunately, alcohol and calmness didn’t mix. And the pain was already annoying enough to stop me from taking any risks.

I leaned my hand on the table, staring at the already cold teapot. While the palace was a balm to the senses, doing nothing all day was…unsettling. When I had my magic, I always found a spell to practice, or potion to brew, or even books to read. When Roman and I lived together, he would join me silently or take me to some interesting place. Or have sex with me, lots of it.

Despite its beauty, this place had none of those things. Even quarreling with Isaac sounded like a fun time in comparison to this silence. Especially when it left me with nothing to do but get lost in my thoughts, which had turned rather morbid as of late. The horrid trip down memory lane from when I was unconscious had knocked me off kilter, freeing all those carefully locked moments I never wanted to remember. And thanks to my magic being stuck and my head being all over the place, I couldn’t do anything to stop my grinning sister’s face from flashing in front of my eyes—or her half-rotten one when I held her dead body and wept.

The sound of quiet steps made me lift my head. I reached for one of the iron knives hidden beneath my dress—Malakai was nice enough to provide me with two that were much lighter and easier to conceal in the shimmery gowns he filled my wardrobe with.

None of the Fae were that loud unless they wanted their presence known. Or unless they were drunk, I realized as Malakai sauntered into the open, pausing with his hand into his hair when he noticed me. Surprise, quickly replaced with delight, filled his eyes, and his smile widened as he approached.

“Enjoying yourself?” he asked, sliding onto the bench across from me. He didn’t look drunk. The Fae didn’t look anything but beautiful, yet the slightly darker crimson color of his lips and the way his eyes kept going in and out of focus told me he had had his fill this morning. This made me envious and annoyed at the same time.

“Dying of enjoyment,” I deadpanned.

Malakai winced as if I had cursed, but then the smile was back on his face, making it shine like the world around him faded so he could stand out. He wasn’t as tall as Roman or as muscular as Isaac, but I doubted there was a thing in this life he couldn’t get with his looks alone. The Fae were naturally alluring to the eye, but he really abused his heritage.

“It seems I have been amiss with my attention,” he murmured before motioning with his fingers. I looked around, wondering what had gotten into him, when a form stepped between the trees, striding to his side.

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