CHAPTER 14
White noise pierces through the room in an ever-growing scream. Or maybe it’s my mind screaming, my eyes wide and unseeing. My father put a bounty on me. My father wants me dragged back alive. But why? Why not summon me? Naturally, I would ignore it, buthewouldn’t know that. Unless…
I swallow. Unless he doesn’t want to risk me bolting like a hunted rabbit.
My trembling breaths don’t fully reach my lungs. Seven years. Aunt Viola tried to warn me, to give me time to run, but I missed the opportunity. I could’ve taken that head start, but I hesitated. Now I’m trapped in the Bauer estate.
If only I could get to my grimoire, butThe Arachnomiconis in my way. “Fucking spider.”
“What?”
My eyes snap back to Valen. We’re both sitting on the ground now, facing each other while he waits patiently for me to finish panicking. I scan him with cool, objective eyes. What do the Bauers want? “Why is Vincentius trying to collect me? Surely the Bauer coffers aren’t dry.”
“He went to retrieve you before anyone else could. You’re safe here. The Archweaver may want you, but he would be a foolto try to force his way in here. We want you back, Tori.” His eyes glow. “Mistakes were made, but there’s still time to reverse them.” His lips curl in a cold smile. “But perhaps you still need some enticing. How does Atticus’ head on a platter sound?”
Breath hisses through my teeth. “You’d do that? Kill the Archweaver?”
He shrugs as though we’re not discussing the murder of the Order’s leader and my father. “Atticus is losing his grip. Some say he’s lived too long.” His eyes harden. “You’ve been gone for seven years. A lot has changed in that time.”
It’s hard to breathe again. I rub my aching chest, unable to hold his gaze any longer. Too much is happening, too much revealed. Hell, too much is wanted from me. I long for my loft that sits above my shop, with its magical books that bloom, making my modest home smell like flowers. I want Jinx’s fluffy body in my arms, my nails scratching the back of her neck, while that deep, hypnotic purr rumbles soothingly against my aching sternum.
Jinx. My eyes close. If my familiar were here, we could talk and plan. But she’s not, so I need the next best thing, who happens to be trapped on the other side of the wall. “I want to talk to Lucas. Alone.”
Valen scoffs and eases back on his hands. “Did we not already go through this? No.”
Jealousy from Valen is not something I’m familiar with. He was always confident in his position in my heart. Now, he glares vicious hatred at the wall keeping me separated from Lucas. I need to be careful. “He’s my business partner. Obviously, this will affect him.”
He turns his cold glare on me. “I’m not an idiot, Astoria. Don’t treat me as such.”
Something darker slithers up my chest, changing the ache within into a building pressure as suspicion narrows my eyes.My magic sizzles across my skin in response. I barely manage the breath control to calm it. I shift forward to rest my weight on my hands and glare at my former lover. “Where is Lucas?”
Bitterness leaks into his tone. “You doubt my word?”
“The word of a betrayer? Yes.”
His jaw clenches. My words strike him deep, and he leans away from me, but he does not drop my gaze.
I force in a steadying breath, my ribs still aching from being in a corset for too long. “Don’t look like that. Your father abandonedme.Youabandoned me, Valen. I trusted you both and I was humiliated in front of the entire Order.” The old wound stings, my heart aching and voice straining. “And then, when I was defenseless with no allies, the Archweaver finally got what he wanted. He muzzled me, Valen. My own father tortured me because he thought I no longer had anyone to support me!”
My words reverberate in the room and something in Valen cracks. His eyes shift, the memory returning to us both.
The winds of my attempted curse die down with a thrum of power from the Archweaver. He stands before me, taking up more space than before, his eyes glowing with an opalescent hue that only the Archweaver possesses.
I tremble, my fingers ice cold, my chest burning as sweat slicks my body. I force my spine to straighten, flinching at the sharp pain in my heart it causes. Jinx is too far away to help. My father banished her from his estate long ago. She prowls somewhere within the forest, waiting for me to step beyond the gates.
What happens next is only comprehended in flashes. My father’s immense power bears down on me and I silently scream. Pain I’ve never felt before steals my vision and robs me of my voice. He’s yelling, his voice booming like claps of thunder. Other weavers enter, restraining me and dragging me through the halls. The hard floor jolts me back to awarenessafter I’m thrown into his office. I barely get to my elbows before something ice cold and metal wraps around my mouth.
A dampening muzzle, the foulest of all weaver punishments. A gruesome, archaic device of pure iron that wraps around the wearer’s mouth and head in a thick band. The prolonged, uninterrupted contact with iron snuffs out the magic by severing the connection between soul and thread until unlocked.
For three days, I curl in a corner of my father’s empty office, too terrified to move. I can’t eat. I can’t drink. I can barely breathe. The stinging iron clamped over my mouth leaves behind compounding blisters that burst and bleed.
Never in recorded history has the muzzle been used for so long. I tremble, my body too weak to do anything else. Hunger and thirst are overwhelming.
Then the door crashes open in an explosion of chaotic magic that singes my oily hair. Viola marches in, her head swiveling, her long, dark hair swaying about her back until she finally turns to where I cower.
She stumbles back, her eyes misting. “Oh… my little love.”
I sob, but there are no tears in my dry eyes. She rushes forward, her skirts swishing, when an arm wraps around her middle and throws her back. My father has finally returned to his office.
