Page 173 of Their Blood Rite

All Shaw can do is shake his head.

None of them move as I stand, dropping Dorian’s coat as I scour the dead for clothes that will fit me. I choose the least bloody shirt and trousers I can find to cover myself. My dress is in shreds, left scattered across the ground and lost to the debris of the forest floor.

The guys dress, and I feel their eyes on me. Silence claims us. My anger is hot in my chest, and I know they can sense it. Dorian especially, as we share a link the others do not.

‘What now?’ Archie asks, finally breaking the silence. ‘Neve is out there.’

‘Cole helped her get away,’ Dorian says. ‘Would he take her back to his coven?’

‘What the fuck was Cole even doing here? And why would he help Neve escape?’ Archie adds.

‘Neve is our enemy. That makes her Cole's ally,’ I reply. ‘I know how his mind works. He doesn’t care about the how. Just the end. Him alive and in power. Us dead. You three do as you please. I’m going to find Neve and finish what I started.’ I start to walk deeper into the forest, heading towards the direction where I think my old coven’s village is.

‘Stop,’ Shaw calls.

My claim mark burns. My feet still. I don’t turn. I just wait.

‘Do you know where Neve is?’ he asks, knowing I don’t.

‘Do you?’ I ask. ‘Seeing as you loved her once. Perhaps you know of a retreat she has? A safe place?’ I look back at him over my shoulder. ‘A previous love nest, perhaps?’

‘Neve will kill you,’ he states.

‘Neve would already be dead if you hadn’t interfered. Or, you know, forced me to bring her back from the dead in the first place.’

‘Killing her will take all the blood magic you can muster, and that is what will kill you, Pixie. Darkness has already settled inside you from the fight tonight. You used too much blood magic.’

‘Coming from the man who kidnapped me purely to use my blood magic to end your curse, that’s almost enough to make me laugh.’ I shake my head. ‘Perhaps I will laugh when I stop getting flashbacks of you slicing me up.’

‘I never cut you. I cut her,’ he argues. ‘And if I knew the extent of the spell-’

‘You still would have done it,’ I interrupt. ‘Don’t insult me by lying about it. You’re all bastards. The least you can do is own it.’

‘You’re not going. That’s the end of it, Pixie. You stay with us.’

‘You used to fuck my biological mother.’

‘And now I fuck you. And unlike them, we choose you. We want you. We never chose them, Pixie. We never wanted them.’ He walks towards me, stopping close but being careful not to touch. ‘We never cared about them.’

‘You care about me?’ I scoff.

‘Yes,’ he replies through gritted teeth. ‘Deal with it.’

‘How do you know about my mum? The earth witch one?’

‘Your dreams,’ he replies.

‘I only dreamt about her once.’

‘I dug deep, pulling out memories as you slept and walked right through them. I put you on a beach as I did so you wouldn’t know the truth and get upset.’

‘Upset?’ I scoff. ‘What do I have to be upset about? That Neve, the blood queen, evil incarnate, is my real mother? That she triggered my magic as soon as I was born, which is why I’ve had spirits haunting me my entire life?’ I point into the darkness. ‘Her spirit. Her death.Cut. Cut. Cut!’

He can’t stop the slight flinches he gives with each repetition of the word.

‘Or maybe I’m upset at the fact that she tried to kill me and buried me alive because she didn’t want competition.’

‘I didn’t want to take your earth-witch mother away from you. Not to replace her with Neve. Your earth witch mother loved you.’

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