SEVRAYA'S POV
"You traitor!" The deception in Orion's eyes was clear. I tried to get closer, but he walked back until he was in the midst of familiar people, our energies matching… the clan. But why did they look at me with disgust?
"Orion, you know I would never."
"Yes, you did…" Orion wouldn't talk to me. My eyes locked with the woman who had just spoken—she was the version of me. Her smile was vile, dried blood clinging to her eye sockets, with scraps of dried flesh. I didn't fail to notice the hate in her eyes. Everything about her felt familiar, the dark, broken claws, which reeked of defeat, were balled in a fist of shame.
"Mo… mother." She didn't reply, only turned her back on me. And one by one, they all did the same.
"W…hy?" My voice was shaky, but no one turned to... to hear my question. I made to go after them, but a force like an invisible mirror shoved me back so hard that a yelp escaped my lips. All I could mutter was, "Why?"
And for the first time, a light liquid slipped past my cheeks, my hands weakened, dissolving as if I no longer had control of my body.
"Her pulse is weakening…"
"She doesn't seem to be waking up any sooner…" Is it normal knowing you've slipped way too far from reality, but you never really want to go back? But there was this crazy force pulling me, biting like there was a thorn growing out of my flesh.
It started with a light feeling, which I couldn't fight, then the unpleasant sensation of rising and falling every time, before I felt warmth slipping back through me. The voices were now closer, cool air touching my skin... but that wouldn't stop the numbness creeping through me, like my organs had been ripped out. I felt strange, emotions... pain... I... I could feel both physically and mentally.
This didn't feel like a dream. I searched inward for a hint of darkness but was greeted with its absence... I felt a beat, more beats in my ribcage... Was that a heartbeat?
The air of whatever place I was in constricted bitterly around me, my breath hurried and so loud that I could hear it... but my eyes wouldn't open, and I didn't know if I was alive. I felt dead... or was I? But the voices... could there be only the same voices of two people in hell?
"She's burning up!" A touch on my skin from one of the two people in the room. "Wh...what ha...have you done to me?" My teeth clattered; this was no hell!
"Get her back in the pool." A calm yet richer feminine voice sounded off around me, and in seconds cool liquid enveloped me. My eyes snapped open, nostrils flaring for air, sucking in water before I thrashed back to the surface, gasping. My lashes dripped as I cleared the water from my eyes. Two women were watching; the older I recognized immediately, with her white hair...
"Good gracious, not yet another curse," the older witch said, her face lacking expression. "How do you feel?" Her eyes held a certain doubt.
How do I feel? Yes, why do I feel dead? I looked down at my body still submerged in the water just to find out I was naked, and my brow creased when I found something strange... the reflection staring back at me was a blonde version of me.
I was no blonde; I was red-haired, which represents my lineage. Even if it gets tinted, it washes off in minutes by itself. But the more I stared, nothing happened... then I made to check the tattoo vial of magic that used to be on my lower waist.
"Severed... you have been ripped off whatever power was in you. You might still remember your chants, but no spell would work."
The body which had held fire had suddenly gone cold, building something furious... this was why I felt dead... this was the reason for every strange feeling. Like a volcano, I exploded, water sloshing violently as I walked out of the pool, heading straight for the older witch, who didn't cower, but the younger was quick to flinch back.
Then I caught her by the throat, applying pressure. How dare these hands which had killed feel so weak. "Le..."
"Stay back." The elder witch warned the younger one, her gaze not leaving mine.
"Why did you do it?" My tone thick and coated in venom. "Who asked you to!!!" The last thing a white witch would do was to strip someone of magic—they knew the consequences, because they would tap into dark magic in the process.
She didn't reply, so I pressed harder this time, satisfaction coursing through my bones seeing the vein in her forehead pop.
"Your mate... the Lycan King."
LUCERAN'S POV
"We won't harbor a dark witch."
"You know what could happen, Your Majesty."
"Luceran has cleansed her of the dark power... is there still anything we should worry about?" Goarth leaned back into his seat after addressing the cowardly council, his gaze just as indifferent as I was sure mine would be...
"Cleansed?" One of them, a plain werewolf, burst into laughter, and my hand had never itched to get off these freaking gloves so badly. "It might sound temporary, we all know sh..."
"You either choose one: let her stay, or let my beast rule the pack. How beautiful would that be — a mad king ripping out the hearts of your children, the heads of your wives, and the dicks off you." They wouldn't dare say they would kill me if that happens. I had no special powers like reading minds, but I knew their thoughts; I knew how they wanted me gone, even more now that I had brought in what they call "havoc."
I am not leaving being head over the lycans and werewolves, having superiority over the dark witches... I had done outrageous things to let this power go, I had fought for this, I had killed people dare to me... Do I still have to let go? The only person I could still trust in this pack was Goarth and th...
A scent which coiled down my lung, stirring the beast which I had failed to have control over for years... It reeked of death disguised in peonies, a punishing mix of smoke and sweetness... it was so raw and earthy, warmly clinging to my senses.
"Luceran..." My eyes focused on the door. "You are loosing it..." That had me staring down at my hands, to find sharp dark claws tearing through the gloves, the part of the table I held on to had solidified into stone... we never said how thousands of voices speaks in my head at once when it's time to go rogue.
"Your majesty... your eyes."
"Are you enchanted by them?" I tilted my head a bit, my voice deeper yet calm echoing slightly through the room as I tried possible ways to hold it back, but the more the scent grew closer the more my wolf gets agitated.
A low growl escaped my lips as the door met back with the wall with how hard it was pushed back and my eyes met with a set of green ones, fury burning deep in them... but I don't know how that connects with my beast agitation until my gaze went down and the naked body of my 'mate' still dripping with water greeted me.
"What's a whore doing here... Does this looks like a whorehouse... or did his majesty bring a tar..." How did that happen? My claws were dripping with blood of my council member, his rotten flesh stuck to my nails. I had just snapped his neck free from his shoulder and I felt no remorse that I had done that for a dark witch.
This wasn't like me; this was my beast. "How dare he looks at her? How dare they look at her?" the urge to snap everyone's neck in the room present at the moment, just before I could find out what was happening to me, the softness of a woman's body pressed into mine from behind, dangerously comforting, but a cold metal was held to my dear throat.
"They said I was your mate, and you have just proven that right, Luceran Thalyssar, the second true mate is the only poison who can kill you and save you..." Another low growl tore from my lips. This fucking woman.
"EVERYONE OUT!" The council scattered in no minute, Goarth winking before slamming the door shut. "If I press dag..."
"How teasing." A low yelp left her lips as I slammed her into a far-off wall, my hand now holding the dagger to her throat, but what a lady. I could hear her harsh breath, the sharp, fast rise of her chest; I could sense her anger, hate.
"You deserve more than a curse..." Her struggle to get the upper hand again was so pathetic. "Are you scared you would know what it feels like to see your downfall playing before your eyes if you'd kill me?"
"A rotten pest thi—"
"You think getting rid of my vial doesn't still make me part of the enemy clan, Luceran Thalyssar." Bold. I let the dagger pinch the skin on her throat, not knowing that little blood would stir something more than this body of hers did... my beast wanting to claim her here, mark her as ours. Shit. My hand caught her now-blonde hair. 'Who would have thought she'd look pleasing with this?'
"You can still be part of the enemy clan, but all I want is submissiveness... I took what's dear to you, but the your partner in the dungeon seems like another dear thing." I watched her gulp slightly, her eyes crystal with tears... sending bolts of bliss shooting through me. 'A pleasure seeing a dark witch tear up.'
"Orion, you'd do nothing to him." She spat.
"You won't tell me how to make my rules, blight..."
"You think pain buy loyalty..."
"You won't talk until I am done talking..." I said calmly, letting go of the dagger, as I caught her jaw. "This is my territory, blight..."
"Heard your so called territory came from force and manipulation... we both have rules here, Carrion King. You let Orion go and you can do whatever to me." My beast howling, 'Ours,' but I hated she had disobeyed talking about 'her rules.'
"He, you still breaths because of me and I can end that on my terms..." I ignored that coy smirk on her lips. "I could get the white witches do what they did to you to him, but in a brutal way, think of the most brutal scene. His life depends on you, your mouth could get him killed."
"What do you want?" Good.
"A submissive partner."