He bared his teeth; however, it wasn’t quite as intimidating in human form. “You are walking a thin line with me.”
“And what are you going to do about it? This is a free county, and I’ll say what I want.”
“Are you asking for me to punish you the way I did your werewolves?”
“I don’t think your wife would appreciate that.” I gave him a smug grin, but when he grinned back, my stomach sank.
“You definitely do not know Willa.” He adjusted the gold chain around his neck.
“Is she a witch?”
He nodded. “She and I go back about a hundred years, and I would trust no one the way I trust her.”
“A hundred years? How long do witches live?”
“It depends. Without the vironoct, they wither away in a few years. With a steady source, they can live for as long as they desire,” Mosavi replied.
“So I’m guessing your relationship with her is more symbiotic than anything.”
“Do not speak ill of her, and never belittle our bond,” he shouted, the seams of his shirt popping as he held back his werewolf form.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that the way it came out. I actually like her, but she kinda scares the hell out of me.”
Mosavi placed a hand on my shoulder. “Instinct. Sometimes it’s useful. When you feel that kind of impending dread, thatis when you run. Willa may be a witch, but she renounced her coven long ago—after saving my life.”
“Did you meet her in Iran?”
He shook his head. “There are no witches in the old country.” He turned to me. “How much do you know of our history?”
“Nothing concrete. I’ve been looking everywhere, but there’s hardly anything about us.”
“Admirable curiosity. Stories of our origin have been passed down by word of mouth for thousands of years. Would you like to hear it?”
“Yes!” I pulled back my excitement the moment his eyes narrowed. “I mean, of course.”
He grunted with a nod and leaned back on his hands while staring at the sky. “Long ago, a powerful demon seduced twenty of the most beautiful women, bringing them together between the banks of the two rivers of life. The cradle of civilization.”
“The Garden of Eden?”
“It is called many things, and every myth has an ounce of truth,” he replied. “Human civilization had risen and fallen many times throughout the eons, and the last cataclysm happened around seven thousand years ago. Those that hadn’t died off settled in the last habitable areas on earth. One such place was Mesopotamia; the other was central America. It is why many know the latter as the Garden of Eden, but it wasn’t where humanity started. It was where humanity restarted.”
“How do you know this?”
“The demon I mentioned earlier? In exchange for their eternal loyalty, he granted them forbidden knowledge and power—knowledge that was passed to me. They were the first coven, and they drew from one of the earth’s few places of power where the line between realms was weakest. This area would grow to become Babylon, and the witches ruled in the shadow of kings. Their reign wouldn’t last forever, and when Cyrus the Greatconquered the empire, the witches were exposed. Those that did not escape were stoned to death or burned alive, and those that did used the ancient power one last time to cast a curse so powerful that it severed the connection between this world and hell itself. This meant that their ties to the demon were also destroyed, and without a source of power, they died off within a few years. But that was not the end.
“It is said that one out of every fifty thousand males will develop lycanthropy, and one out of every two hundred thousand females will become a witch. The curse was a last-ditch effort to ensure the witches would still be able to serve the prince of hell that granted them such blessings for eons to come. The places of power no longer exist in the earth, but”—he touched my chest with his finger—“all of that magic had to go somewhere. It cannot disappear now that the weakness between realms has been destroyed. Werewolves contain fragments of that magic, like batteries used to store electricity. Instead of sacred ley lines, the witches use us, and they know how to draw it out.”
He turned toward the woods.
“When a new werewolf moves to this town, I meet with them and establish the rules. The reason towns like this do not exist is because they draw a lot of attention not only from humans in power, but from the witches in the wild and the Whasha looking to bolster their numbers. We can keep them away, but once we venture into the woods, they have the upper hand. They will lure the most potent of us to their rituals, drain us of our will, and keep us as thralls. They use our essence for their magic and longevity.”
“Then how do they and the Whasha coexist in the woods?” I asked. “I met a few of them out there, and they seem to be fine.”
“Do they appear fine to you?” he snapped. “The woods have always belonged to the witches, and the very trees are cursed. They call us to them, and once the wilderness has us, we startto change into something they deem more desirable. Our bodies transform and we become more bestial, losing our ability to speak. The reason the Whasha did not fall to the witches is because they learned to tap into the magic within using sacred herbs. They make their little trinkets to keep them safe, but they live as disgraceful beasts.”
“They seem happy,” I said, catching more of Mosavi’s disapproval. “When I was out there, it felt kind of nice.”
“Just because somethingfeelsnice does not mean that it is. Alcohol feels nice when you imbibe, but drink too much and it will destroy you.”
