Page 108 of Hellish Witch

I turned from him, staring up at my father instead.

His eyes gleamed in the firelight, chin lifting with his smile.

“I accept.” My lips felt numb as the two words sealed my fate.

The crowd erupted in cheers behind me, but even their warm acceptance couldn’t hold together the fractures splitting open my heart.

“Where would you like your mark, dear?” my father asked, hand raised and glowing a bright-ruby hue.

I swallowed thickly, heart pounding too fast, and pulled back the sleeve of my jumper. “My wrist.”

He pressed two fingertips to my skin. A sizzling sounded, and a flash of pain fried my nerves, but he was already pulling away before I could react.

A magical tattoo lay in his wake: a small cluster of sage leaves shining with a faint silvery sheen.

“And now for tethering the anchor to your new family,” my father said with an eager smile. “We usually let the anchor settle first, but I know you’re strong enough to take it.”

I braced for more pain, but he merely hovered his glowing hand over the mark. Something invisible tugged at my wrist, like a piece of thread knotted under my skin.

It didn’t hurt, but the odd sensation made my stomach roil. The thread of magic dived through my arteries, weaving up my arm and into my chest. It collided with my magic store, and the tugging sensation tried to burst from my chest.

I fanged my lip to hold in a whimper, and the magic finally freed itself, taking a portion of my power with it. I got the sense of something large, just out of reach, and I knew instinctively it was the collective power of the coven.

Their energy mixed and roiled, soothing around each other, like a school of fish beneath the waves.

I rubbed my mark, trying to ease the odd push and pull. My skin was tender, but already I could feel it settling as my healing magic swept in.

My father beamed down at me. “I’m so glad to have you join me, daughter. You belong here, with your fellow mages.”

I forced a smile back, still reeling.

The coven elder raised his voice, grabbing my hand and lifting it high so my new mark faced the seated crowd. “I give you our first initiate and new coven member, my long-lost daughter, Eve!”

The gathered mages applauded, whooping excitedly. Including the pretty witch who’d kissed my demon.

My gaze sliced to Killian.

But he was nowhere to be found.

Chapter 38

Rage lit a fire through my veins, burning hotter and hotter until I wanted to scream.

Magic spiked in my chest, but something curbed it before it could lash out, like it hit a wall of honey, sticky and soft as it slowly absorbed the sharp darkness.

It did nothing to stem my anger though.

I stormed away from my new coven as the next initiate was summoned to the tree stump altar where I’d just been magically bound.

“Killian!” I hissed, searching the darkness as I stalked between the picnic benches laden with wine bottles and iced buckets of beer. “Come back, you fucking coward!”

Wings fluttered overhead, and my eyes narrowed as the demon I hunted fell from the stars.

He landed on the stone-lined path, drenched in shadows that bled from his ebony wings. Silver eyes glinted through the darkness for a beat, and then he turned his wings on me and strode into the forest, back towards the way we’d come earlier.

I picked up my pace, hurrying after him and leaving the celebrating mages of my new coven behind.

“Hey! I’m talking to you!” I drew a knife from my thigh holster and chucked it after him. It sliced the night inches from his wing arch as he dipped it just in time. “Quit running.”

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