Every time he tried to press further, he felt his insides churning, making him groan in pain.
Magic.
Casual footsteps sounded from behind, circling around him until Audrira was looking at him face to face.
He could feel the tightening of magic around his wrists, yanking them behind his back. Another force gripped his ankles and held them to the earth.
“What are you doing?” Desperation cracked his voice.
“I’m sorry, Gideon. I truly did dream of a future with you. That was never faked.”
Jocelyn kept her back towards them, not wanting any part of something she clearly wasn’t forced into.
Gideon tried to lunge, his wrists burning as he strained against the restraints. “But everything else!?”
She shook her head, her lips trembling before she composed herself, and turned towards the building. Magic forced him to follow her as the three of them entered the building, where frustrated screams grew louder.
When they entered a room, Gideon expected horrors, but he did not expect to see a rotting body hanging on the wall for Sin to stare at.
“Magnolia,” Jocelyn muttered.
Audrira’s throat bobbed as she took in the carnage, and Gideon watched as she flicked both her wrists, and the sisters were thrown to the walls, rendered unconscious on the floor.
The act was anger, and he realized the body was the witch’s. How involved was she in her death? What was her plan here, and who would walk out of here alive?
Gideon was forced to lean back against the wall beside an unconscious sister, watching as Audrira stepped towards Sin, turning her suspended body around, cursing the sisters for what they did to the dead witch.
Gideon refused to look at Sin’s naked body, but the broken skin and blood covering it said enough.
There was no saving Audrira from Max’s wrath.
If they made it out alive.
Sin glared at Audrira. “I take it this isn’t a rescue mission?”
The coldness in her voice made Gideon shiver. There was no self-preservation in her words, no life, no fear.
Audrira leveled her gaze with Sin’s. “I should’ve known your rotten sisters would’ve done something completely fucking disgraceful.”
Sin spat blood on the already filthy floor. “Half-sisters.”
An unamused smirk grew on Audrira’s face, staring at Sin’s blood on the floor. “This wasn’t the plan. I want you to know that by the end of it all.”
Sin’s eyes flickered with something Gideon couldn’t quite make out. Not fire… “Anything else, you pathetic excuse for a witch?”
Her tone had Audrira frowning, though Gideon refused to believe it, uncertain what was real and what was very good acting.
“I am the reason witches will have a new name. Magnolia had to die to ensure your sisters’ compliance. If you and Magnolia survived, all the witches would be hunted for the havoc you bothhave risen on the continent. One day, they will learn of what my family had endured in that fucking castle. One day, the witches will rise. And sooner rather than later, everyone in that castle will die.”
Sin’s eyes were enraged, defying the smile stretching across her face. “If you make it past me, and hurt my mate? I hope he splatters your body all over the castle like you fucking did to my teacher!”
Audrira’s throat bobbed. “Did you know my lineage had been forced to work in the castle? We didn’t live like the lavish witches you assumed we were. For decades, every moon cycle, that king would force us to try to birth him a son.”
For a glance, Audrira met Gideon’s confused, horrified gaze.
“He kept trying to make a bastard, wanting to get back at the queen. But they had only created daughters. Daughters he didn’t want. Daughters were useless to him. The king, myfather, will die when this is all over, but it won’t be anytime soon.”
Gideon clenched his fists, trembling, a growl rumbling deep in his chest. “How have I never known this?” He slammed his shoulder against his invisible restraints, trying to free himself.
