?“You are the one who does not know anything, child.”
?“SO TELL ME!” I rage. Furious that they think they know everything when they knownothing.
?“SHE IS AN ABOMINATION!” the witch screams. “Forgotten gods are meant to stay forgotten! There is a reason they are forgotten. Just as the devils and angels cannot be one with their true form without complete annihilation of their minds, a god cannot be without their name or stuffed into a body unequip to contain their magic.”
?The witch’s face contorts to agony as she bows her head and chokes on a sob. As if she regrets that her words are truth.
?Softer, the witch says, “This is why I have tried to teach her control. Why I have told her to never touch that darker magic, never let her instincts win.”
?“Is that why you let Lyalthil Kyros have her for those seven years?”
?There’s a pause as everyone processes my quiet words. Everyone trying to understand, and the witch freezes.
?Mavyn never explicitly said it, but I was able to connect the dots. Pieces clicking together. All of it starting back when a bone witch killed a blood witch.
?Esmirra stumbles back a step as she tries to hide her expression. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I would have never – “
?“But you did,” I state. “That’s therealreason you killed your mother at the winter solstice masquerade ball exactly ten years after you helped make the Willow of Lore. When you saw a ghost of the future. You felt guilty for what you were planning to do so you erased one of the pains from Mavyn’s future.”
?She shakes her head and takes another step back. Everything around me clouds as my vison zeros in on her. On Esmirra of Ebony, the Bone Witch of Legend.
?“You knew about the sun devil and the curses that would be placed on Mavyn and the pain he would inflict. You knew. . . and youwantedit to happen. All in the name of suppressing Mavyn’s true power.”
?The witch chokes as she tries to scream ‘no’. Her back hunching as she curls her shoulders in. Making her appearsmaller than this form already is. Looking as weak and pathetic as she’s said Mavyn is.
?I could almost feel bad for her. . . but I would be feeling bad about someone who allowed a child to be tortured and molested andraped– despite what Mavyn will say about the technicalities – and cursed to remember every single thing that happened for the rest of her life.
?A hand lands on my shoulder and I turn my head to see the side of Mavyn’s. She doesn’t look at me or say anything as she keeps watching the witch. And when I turn back to look at Esmirra I find her no longer curled in on herself.
?Her back is straight, her face is blank except for her eyes slightly narrowed, and her aura is coiled around her but her scent becomes overpowering.
?“It was for your own good.”
?Mavyn’s hand tightens on my shoulder before I’m able to move. Letting me know to stay where I am because I don’t care how old she is or how much power she has, I would kill her right now.
?“You did not answer Jullia. When have I ever truly lost control?”
?She’s quiet beside me, steady and solemn, with her eyes a soft pink and her aura and scent barely there.
?Esmirra does not balk and even has the nerve to tip her chin up as though she’s wanting to look down her nose at us. “Syngenia killed every living thing on Miy once. It took the gods a century to restore this world.”
?“I am not Syngenia.”
?Esmirra’s upper lips twitches. “Her soul is within you.”
?“And how would you know?” A presence begins drifting that makes the temperature drop even more. It even chills me and my bones. “You cannot see my soul.”
?Esmirra jerks her head so she doesn’t have to look at us as she scoffs. Her line of sight hits Mavyn’s fated and she slits her eyes to Darian.
?“But he has,” she snaps. “So tell us, boy, what is her soul?”
?Mavyn doesn’t move or flinch from Esmirra as I notice Darian staring at Mavyn. I’m pretty sure their eyes have not left her this whole time. I wonder what he has seen. I don’t exactly know what a soul-rendering true form is, all Mavyn has said is that Darian can see her soul. He can touch, manipulate, and move souls. He knows the truth.
?Darian’s icy eyes flick to the witch before going back to Mavyn. With Scorn in my peripheral, I wonder why Darian has never shown his wings. There are only three angel’s in attendance here including Darian and Scorn, but even the few times I’ve seen the third one his wings have been out. Usually it’s the devils who keep their wings hidden.
?“Her soul,” he slowly says, but there’s a rough edge to his tone that makes me want to curl up and out of his sight, “ismine.”
?Oh shit, I did not expect him to say that.
