Page 20 of Their Blood Rite

‘Then go for a walk by the river and take some time to clear your head before tonight. I will not have your aura contaminating the Rite.’

He leaves, and I throw off the dress before screaming into a pillow.

I’m not often permitted to leave the house unattended, so l gladly take the opportunity and head to Cole’s house further into the village.

I know every female must endure The Rite. There’s a reason they wait until we turn twenty to inflict it on us.

Sex is powerful. Passion and desire are excellent fuel to boost the renewed energy we supply to the coven.

It’s the law to be a virgin when we add our blood.

Something about purity. Not that it won’t still work, but it just won’t be as powerful.

Cole and I have been together for what feels like forever. We’ve grown up together. The coven leader’s son and me, a poor girl with minimal prospects.

His father disapproved of me when Cole declared I was his choice of wife. It took a good couple of years for him to accept it. In the hopes of making me a more desirable option, he gifted my father a large house and gave him a seat on the council. Now, I’m the daughter of a well-to-do gentleman, and he swallows that a little better.

Cole is kind enough. Fun. Clever and quick.

I think I could be happy with him. Content.

But so much inside me is desperate for more than just being content.

I want excitement and passion. Cole wouldn’t know excitement or passion if it bit him on the nose. I want freedom and adventure. I want my power for myself. Not a diluted version because the rest of the coven is syphoning it off.

When I knock on Cole’s door, Mr Fayler answers. The formidable man, whom I have never seen smile, tells me Cole isn’t home and to return at the agreed time for my lunch.

He then slams the door in my face.

Prick.

I leave and head to the woods instead, thinking I’ll explore the stream for a few hours and then head back.

The sun is out today, and no clouds can be seen. It’s a beautiful day. As I walk through the village, I smile and pass on my hellos to the villagers, all busy getting on with life. I pass some of the girls I went to school with. Bitches made my life a misery.

They hated that I was Cole’s favourite and still do, judging by the severe glares they give me as I walk past.

‘Good morning, girls,’ I call over cheerfully, waving and smiling.

I laugh at their hatred.

They’ll be there tonight, too. Suffering the same as the rest of us.

It takes me less than an hour to reach the stream. It’s wild and ancient. Huge boulders covered in moss break the babbling water, and great trees with twisting roots and sweeping branches grow at the stream’s edge. It’s all green. Everywhere. A sumptuous canopy covers the water. Ivy smothers every trunk, and the ground is soft from the sheer amount of clover.

It’s my favourite place to be. Cole always teases me, saying I’m more of a water witch than earth and that if the fire declares me as such, he’ll have no choice but to kidnap me to keep me.

But my father is most certainly an Earth witch. And my mother was too before she died.

Only the fire knows. Only the fire declares.

I wonder what would happen if I was declared a water witch at the Rite. I hear the water witches are kept by the sea in a similar settlement to ours. The fire witches live in a fortress by the mountains, and the air witches live in caves.

We’re kept separate and never allowed to mix beyond the Rite in case we join forces and decide to want more than the human king gives us.

Like the blood witches did.

I do love the water, though. I always have. The sound distracts my thoughts. The coldness makes my skin come alive. Its wildness speaks to me. If the water wants to cut through a mountain, it will. It may take centuries, but it will if it wants to.

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