Page 20 of Witch Undecided
“Elite?” Tor’s lip curled. “No.”
“Are you insane?” Leif asked Sloane. He stood to face her, offering me an epic view of his taut ass. “She’s the fucking anchor. You can’t risk her life fighting revenants.”
I sat up on my knees. “I have to do this. There is no one else.” I peered around Leif to look up at Sloane. “I mean, that is if I passed. I better fucking have, ’cause that hurt like a fucking bitch.”
Sloane tore her gaze from Leif and settled it on me with a small smile. “I think so, cupcake. Just one last thing to do.”
Leif bristled. “Hell no.”
Tor gripped me tighter and Rune growled low and menacing.
Jasper stood to the periphery of my vision, and I didn’t need to look at him to know he was pissed, but he was watching this play out, typical Jasper style.
I took a deep breath. “I want to do this.” I looked up at Tor. “Humans will die if we don’t find a fourth Elite.”
Tor inhaled through his nose and closed his eyes. “Fuck.” His grip on me slackened a fraction, his way of conceding. “Hurt her again and I won’t be responsible for my actions, Slo.”
Sloane’s eyes narrowed. “You think I enjoyed this? You think I wanted to hurt her? If there was any other way…” She exhaled angrily and pinched the bridge of her nose. “The painful part is over.”
Tor released me reluctantly.
Sloane fell to her knees in front of me. The wolves backed up but stayed close.
“Let’s find out if it was worth it,” Sloane said.
She cupped my nape and drew me close, so her mouth brushed my ear. Her warm breath kissed my skin and then words filled my mind, words that made sense but didn’t, words that wanted to dance on my tongue. Words that wanted to be voiced.
The negation chant. This was it. It was pouring into me, making sense and connection as if it belonged, like a missing piece of my mind.
It intensified.
“Motherfucker,” Jessie said. “She’s doing it.”
I was. I was chanting, natural and effortless like breathing. I sucked in a breath and cut off the words. They were there, though, in the back of my mind. Mine to use if needed. There was power in those words. A dark, twisted kind of power, addictive but frightening too.
“You feel it,” Sloane said. “But you can control it. It doesn’t control you.”
“Chaos…”
“Yes. The negation spell uses chaos, and only a handful of Grimswood witches can tap into it.”
Fuck.
Silence reigned.
Sloane pulled back and smiled at me. “Welcome to The Elites.”
I perchedon the fountain ledge and downed a bottle of water to quell the burning in my throat from all the screaming I’d done. Leif and Rune had left patrol when they’d sensed my distress, and now that I was technically safe, they left to get back to duty.
Tor stayed, naked and glorious, his body a powerful mass of muscles that Jessie and Poppy were blatantly ogling as he spoke with Anna and Sloane in hushed tones. A pang of jealousy shot through me, but I tamped down on it. We might be bound, but I didn’t own them, and there was no room to allow jealousy to creep in. What I should do was eavesdrop on Tor’s chat with Anna and Sloane, but it looked like I was going to need every ounce of energy left to deal with Jasper.
“What’s wrong with you?” Jasper sounded genuinely perplexed. “Are you addicted to danger?”
I sighed. “No, are you?”
“How can I keep you safe if you keep doing shit like this. First the Order with their fucked-up fae assassins and their revenants, then, when I think,it’s okay, she’s anchor now, she’ll be safe, we find out there are original vamps out for your blood, literally, and now you join The Elites.” His tone went up a notch. “This doesn’t work, Cora. Not at all.”
“Not much choice.” I peered up at him. “You know it.”
