Immortal Hexes

by Hutchins, Amelia

  “I love you,” he uttered as he stared into my eyes. “Marry me, Avery. Become my Queen and rule at my side.”

  Chapter 18

  I sat beside the bed, staring at Conner’s sleeping form as my thoughts collided with what he’d asked of me. It had been hours since he’d fallen asleep as the sun rose, and yet I hadn’t tried to murder him or escape. Of course, I didn’t want him dead, and I wasn’t his prisoner, and yet I hadn’t moved from his side. Eventually, I climbed back into bed, touching his skin to watch where my hand turned his skin golden even though it was growing weaker with every passing moment as the blood was diluted.

  It hadn’t been as it was with the others. I hadn’t felt the need to do whatever he’d wanted. I did what I wanted with him, and he’d done what I had needed. We’d done it together, aimed at pleasing the other until our souls had danced with a magical sound that only we heard. My hand touched his chest, listening to it beat with mine. Any moment and he’d wake. Already the sun was setting behind the mountains. I leaned over him, brushing my lips against his as I watched him coming back to me from his eternal slumber. His eyes opened, and he rolled me onto my back, staring down into my eyes with hunger.

  “Molesting me as I sleep, naughty imp?” he asked with his tone heavy from sleep.

  “It wouldn’t be the first time I did it, now would it?”

  “Are you flirting with me?” he asked, watching me, searching my face as if he expected me to reject him, and I wasn’t sure if I would or not yet. I didn’t know what I wanted or how we ended or began.

  “What are we doing?” I asked, and watched his smile fade.

  “I don’t know, but I know I need to see where it leads us. Last night bound us deeper together, and it felt right. I know you felt it because I was inside of you. I knew what you wanted, what you needed, and I wanted more than anything to give it to you.”

  “I know, because I did everything they wanted because I felt the need to please you, and to me, they were all you,” I said as I pushed him away from me and sat up. “I need to leave.”

  “You’re running from me, my sweet witch.” His eyes watched me as I chewed my lip, uncertain what to say. I loved him, and I always had. I wanted him, but this man had left me, and it had broken me. I wouldn’t survive that again, not when he held my soul in the palm of his hand.

  “Not you, us. I’m running from us, Conner. I don’t even know if there is an us, or if there can be an us. I’m not even sure how to be me most days, let alone to let you back into my world. I’m a mess, and I don’t know how to move from where I am emotionally right now. I have clawed my way back from the pain and the torment I suffered, and I made a life for myself, one where you weren’t the center of my entire world.” I paced aimlessly before him, moving back and forth as my mind whirled with what I wanted, and what I needed. “I like who I was before you came back into my world because I felt as if I served a purpose and now that is gone too. I help others who are or have been in a similar situation as I was. It’s a lot to deal with when I’ve spent years hiding from you, and now you want me back, you want what we had, and so do I!” I screamed the last part and paused as he smiled with heat burning in his eyes. “That came out wrong.”

  “I think we want the same thing. I know it’s a lot to take in, and even for me, I’m not sure how we make this work now. I do know I want us, and I want it to work.” He pulled me into his arms, tipping up my chin as he stared into my eyes. “The thing is, there’s more that you don’t know. Something I just discovered recently myself, and I’m not sure how you will feel about it once you find out. Hell, I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. I do know that I need you to confirm my suspicion, and I need you to trust me.”

  I narrowed my eyes on his as my hackles rose. An uneasy feeling filled the pit of my belly as I nodded to him. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. I could feel his inner panic, sense his own uneasiness as he nodded to a pile of clothes that had been set out. I wasn’t even surprised it was a dress, but I was surprised that it was mine, and one I’d worn centuries ago to lounge about his room.

  “Where did you get this?” I asked.

  “I kept it, because it was one of the only things of yours I had left. I thought maybe someday you would wear it again.”

  I struggled against the emotions those words created and frowned. “To have me murdered in?”

  “To keep you in,” he shrugged. “I couldn’t kill you. I knew it when I found the remains of my family. I knew then, no matter what you had done, you would never die by my hand, and therefore, you would never leave this world as long as I lived.”

  “It’s almost sweet, other than the part you’re hiding. The part where you keep me as your sex slave to use me when you wanted,” I pointed out in an accusing tone.

  “It was a good idea in my head. I doubt you would have stayed that way for very long, considering I was having a hard time staying mad at you in the little time I had you here. I wanted to curl you beside me and hold you more than I wanted to fuck you. I just wanted to feel you near me again, and to smell your hair after you’d bathed.” His fingers pushed through my hair, moving it away from my face before they lowered, stroking my bare arms.

  “I do smell pretty good after I bathe for you, don’t I?” I smirked as his eyes danced with laughter.

  “Saucy wench, you always did have more sass than was healthy for a little imp.”

  “Go big or go home, right?” I whispered as that uneasiness entered him again. “I think you should show me what you’re hiding. It doesn’t seem like you think I’ll be happy with it.”

  “Out of everything the bond gives us, I don’t enjoy this one, or at least you knowing what I am feeling.”

  “But it would be fine if you could feel what I feel, isn’t that a little one-sided?” I asked.

  “I didn’t say it would be fair,” he whispered as he watched me dress, his eyes noting the way the amulet glowed as I exhaled. “What does it do for you?” he asked when he noticed me watching him.

  “It is powered by ancient magic, and needs a vampire sacrifice every full moon,” I said as I lifted my head, watching while his eyes narrowed and I smiled, giving away the joke as I watched him shaking his head. “It’s spelled to hide damage of the flesh. Laura figured out a way to make it work, and we now make them for women who have been battered or carry scars. We offer them the amulet, and in return, they help someone else who has been harmed.”

  “Come,” he said as he finished slipping his shirt on and held his hand out.

  I followed him with my hand in his, allowing myself to feel the connection for a few more moments. I thought we were heading into the main hall, but he turned, taking me down a winding staircase that led into the basement. On the stairs, I paused, pulling on his hand as fear ripped through me.

  “I give you my oath as King that I will not imprison you or do you harm. You are under my protection while in my lands. You’re safe with me, Avery. Come, she waits for you.”

  “She?” I asked.

  “Come, I can’t tell you, not here.” He pulled on my hand as he squeezed. I started forward slowly.

  “Conner,” I said as another wave of fear sliced through me. “Lights, please,” my voice broke as I whispered it and he turned again, noting the sheen of sweat on my brow. “I’m not good with dark holes or dungeons in general anymore.”

  “Use your magic, little witch. This part of the mansion isn’t protected from it.”

  I exhaled and lifted my fingers, calling forth a flickering flame that lit the staircase before us. My hand slipped back into his, and I inhaled before letting it escape slowly. He waited, watching me as I struggled through the anxiety and fear that slowly left.

  We made our way down to the bottom level where Mayhem and Addison both waited in front of a large opulent door. They wouldn’t meet my stare, and for
once, I didn’t blame them. One had relived my horror, while the other had played an unwilling participant. To Mayhem, I stepped closer, forcing him to look at me.

  He swallowed audibly as he lifted his eyes to meet mine. “Avery, I didn’t know I was spelled, or that I helped them. I mean, I knew it was either your life or Conner’s, and I chose my brother. I should have realized it was magic when I tried to tell him what happened to you. I should have felt it.”

  “You didn’t have a choice, and I knew that. If you’d have ever asked me, I’d have told you to protect Conner. Grigori would have had him murdered if you had betrayed him for his son. I know, because it was what kept me in line. If I had attempted to escape and failed and was captured, he would kill me and Conner both. If I escaped, Conner would pay for my crime. He had us both unable to fight him, so when I felt the darkness within me stir, I held onto it. I forgive you, Mayhem. I’m glad you listened when I warned you to leave and protect him. Hemlock was a master in deception, and even I failed to feel his spells.” My head lowered, sadness spreading through me as the memories roared to the surface once more.

  “You killed them all, and my only regret was not being there to help you. I didn’t mourn them, but I also couldn’t tell him that I had helped them to make you into what you became. I loved you like a sister, and he wanted me to rape you. He wanted to watch me as I took you. It made me sick just hearing him say it, and I wouldn’t do it. I also couldn’t seem to make him stop; it was as if he was under the influence of magic, which makes me wonder if we weren’t all part of Hemlock’s game, under his spell the entire time.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and frowned, his eyes lifting with regret filling them as he watched me.

  “I remember,” I whispered thickly. “You left, and I destroyed them all. I’m glad you didn’t rape me so that I didn’t have to murder you too. I also have begun to wonder if there were more spells in play, which lifted upon Hemlock’s death.”

  “Me too, because if you had raped her, you’d be dead right now,” Conner growled while his eyes turned black at the mere thought of it.

  “I didn’t hurt her, ever. I pretended to, and she screamed like I did. I told her that you were safe and that she would endure the torture and survive. I did what I had to do to protect you. You’re my brother,” he uttered as he clasped Conner on the arm. “She made me promise to keep you safe, even when she was drugged, she protected you. I couldn’t tell you, not because of the magic, but because I couldn’t save her from it. I could only sit there and watch as they tormented her. I have lived knowing what she endured to survive, and it fucking haunts me. You were crowned King soon after you woke from the slumber, and you couldn’t be told the truth. You’d have lost it, and I knew that. My only goal has been to guard you, and watch your back, as I promised her.”

  “It’s over, let it go and remain in the past,” I whispered thickly as Mayhem nodded, and Conner’s dark eyes swung to me as he agreed.

  “Are you really going to show her without warning Hope first, Conner?” Addison uttered, irritated. As if she feared something or was trying to protect whatever lay on the other side of the door from me.

  “Avery needs to know. She deserves to know.” Mayhem folded his arms, staring at Addison as if he would rip her head off if she dared to argue it. “Explaining it first won’t change anything. It’s easier this way.”

  Chapter 19

  “I need to know what?” I asked, watching as Conner swallowed hard. This couldn’t be good. He stared at me, watching me carefully as he began to speak.

  “I returned to my father’s keep to find nothing but death. I thought you’d killed everyone. I was grieving; grieving the loss of my family and thought that I’d led a wolf into our house, one whose sole intent was to destroy us. Inside the servants’ living quarters was a small babe, maybe a year old at most. I told Addison to take her into London and leave her at the steps of the orphanage. It was then I noticed she carried the magic of the witches within her and I changed that plan. I intended to murder a child because my grief was too much to bear, and I wanted the blood of every witch who lived. Addison moved to do as I commanded, to take the child to the throne room where I would end her life. But the babe, she turned and looked at me with blood-red eyes. In my grief, I missed it, what lay right in front of my fucking face.

  “She was of two bloodlines, witch and vampire, and since my father had kept multiple witches in his keep, it never even clicked into my mind what she was, or who she might have been. I only knew that she was an abomination under the laws of that time. We hid her from the world, never allowing her to see the skies, or know the world outside of this mansion. I couldn’t kill her after I’d learned what she was because she was something you’d fought for, and it reminded me of you and your endless challenges you gave me. It kept you and your dream alive for me, which made me fight harder to change the laws. Months ago, when you showed me your scars, when I looked at your stomach and figured out what they had taken from you, I knew.” He shook his head, as if he was seeing my flawed image. His dark eyes lifted with pain filling them as his head tilted to the side. His mouth tightened, as if he felt pain for what I’d endured. “I knew when I saw what he had done to your stomach that you’d been pregnant when I left you with my father. We think he heard her heartbeat within you, and Mayhem confirmed that something about you drove our father mad to the brink of insanity. You were locked into the pit in the dungeon for months after that. You were spelled to sleep, and what you thought was mere days was actually much longer. Mayhem said you vanished for months, but not enough time to carry a child to term,” he swallowed, fear showing in his eyes. “I think he tried to kill my daughter, our daughter. Instead, I think he realized the rarity prize he held and left her alive. She is the first child born of Hecate’s line to ever mix with another breed other than your own. She’s a Cheveron witch, one of immense power who is immortal. I believe she’s our daughter, Avery,” he said softly, his voice shaken as if he was afraid to say it too loudly. “I think I’ve held our own child locked up to protect her without ever realizing she was ours. Your blood will sense her where mine cannot. If she is ours, you will sense it through your maternal bond and bloodline.”

  I stared at him and everything inside of me denied it. “I wasn’t pregnant,” I whispered breathlessly.

  “We were being spelled; we were manipulated before I ever handed you over to my father. What Hemlock said was true. I felt the need to breed with you, but worse, in the month leading up to my decision to save you, I gave in to the magic that I felt pulling me toward you. It wasn’t the bond we shared that I felt; it was the need to create a life with you, one whom neither of us actually wanted, but magic made us think we did. I wanted you to grow round with my child, and to create one to rule the world. I never wanted to rule anything, which should have made me think twice about the insanity of my thoughts. I didn’t. I watched you drink tea that was laced with fertility spells knowing what it was, and every night I fucked you deliberately so we could create a life. I couldn’t stop myself, which I now know was because I was spelled to breed with you. I know it is true because, with Hemlock’s death, those memories were freed in my mind.”

  I gaped at him as I turned towards the door, eyeing it. I’d wanted to be a mother. I’d wanted Conner to create a life with me, even though it was forbidden. I hated that we’d always been so careful, but his words drummed up memories. Memories of the frenzied sex, the need to consume the tea that tasted like shit and yet I’d drank it every night. Afterward, I’d stripped bare and taken him over and over, and could never get enough of him. Not that we’d needed to be spelled for that part, but the way it happened, it made more and more sense.

  “Open the door,” I whispered. I wasn’t waiting around for more stories, not when it would be such a simple thing to walk through the door and whisper one sentence. “Does she know about me?” I asked with wide eyes as everything inside
of me screamed to see if we’d created a life together.

  “No, she only just learned that I am her father, and I wasn’t sure you’d ever come back here. I didn’t want her to feel as if you’d reject her if you rejected me. She is not safe from the covenant, not without both her parents standing against them. I may be the King and have an army at my back, but having a Cheveron witch at my side would stop them from even thinking of coming after her.”

  “If what you say is true, you’d have three Cheveron witches at your side, and over one thousand forgotten witches.”

  “How is that possible, unless you rose to be Queen and kept it hidden?” he asked. “Wait, three?”

  “I am the Unspoken Queen, and I do have a coven, Laura leads it. I back her up. She is also a Cheveron witch; she’s the one who found me because my blood called her to me. She was abandoned, cursed, and left to die, so she hid who she was until she found me.”

  “Jesus, it’s like it is raining Cheveron witches lately,” Mayhem said with a whistle. “Shit just got exciting.”

  “Open the door,” I whispered, and when they hesitated, I used magic to reach around them and open it myself. I entered silently, staring down at the witch who held her hand up, catching an ancient tomb in mid-air, singing with earbuds in as she went about what she was doing, oblivious to our entrance. She seemed young, as if being locked away had somehow made her evolve slower, and yet by vampire standards, she was young. But she was also a witch, and that was unheard of for our kind, and yet here she was. Her hair was tied up into a makeshift bun which was held with a pencil. She was petite, as I was, and had features that were sharp and yet delicate at the same time. Violet eyes the color of Conner’s studied the pages of a grimoire that was yellowed with age. From here, I could read the lines of the spell that moved over the pages. The leather bindings of the book told its story, and yet she didn’t seem aware that what she held was a living, breathing thing that held pieces of the soul from the witch who had written in it. “Blood of my blood, see me,” I uttered barely above a breath and my heart clenched as those pretty eyes turned and took me in. “Blood of my blood, feel me,” I whispered again as everything inside of me called to her as the bloodline linked, and our bond became solid. “Holy fuck,” I cried and my eyes pricked with tears as I took in the child, I’d never even known I’d had. She looked at me like I was a stranger, because to her, I was.