Page 51 of Hex
I wouldn’t trust her if it meant losing my life for it.
Shaking my head with disgust, the sudden urge to spit in her face is overwhelming, but I refuse to give her the satisfaction. Instead, I begin to pace up and down the small space, my mind whirring, trying desperately to understand her end game here.
Wait…“did”? She just said, shedidour kyn a favor.
“But Sage has transitioned, she’s celebrated her thirtieth, she’s whole.” I don’t understand why Baba Yaga is here, why she would risk the wrath of Hekate to come back for nothing. “What did you mean by ‘you did our kyn a favor’?”
I didn’t just imagine it.
“Mistress, we have word.” A harpy walks in, all long legs and knobby knees with teeth so sharp I wonder how the fuck they can even speak. “We’ve lost all communication with the demi-godde—”
“Stop calling her that!” Baba Yaga roars out her disapproval, the stone walls shaking and crumbling under the power of her ire. “She’s a witch, through and through.”
This makes me chuckle—with no humor whatsoever—and I can’t find it in me to hold it back, even though the mention of my chosen has me in a chokehold.
“What are you laughing at, demon?”
“You. Your pathetic attempts at retaining some sense of power. You have none, Baba Yaga. Did you think Sage would just show up here and what? Trade her life in for mine? Don’t be ridiculous. She will kill you.” Shaking my head, I curl my fingers around the cage and grin like the evil motherfucker I’m capable of being. “I would run far and fast, if I were you, because when Samhain finds out about this, he’ll lose his shit. If you’re lucky, he may only banish you. Sage, on the other hand, won’t be so kind. She’ll make it painful.” I let out a humorless laugh and waitfor her to truly understand what I’m saying. “Sage has surpassed you in all the ways. You won’t survive her wrath.”
Am I turned on by the promise of Sage razing the worlds to destroy the woman who made her suffer in every one of her lives? Yes, I most certainly am.
“Nonsense.” Baby Yaga waves off my threats, but I saw the brief pause. The infinitesimal moment where she doubted herself.
Good. Hope she remembers this chat when Sage rips her a new one.
“What shall we do about the broken comsphere?” The harpy ignores me as she tries to retrieve Baba Yaga’s attention. It would seem Sage made it impossible for them to communicate with her. It’s smart, but I have a feeling it was involuntary. Unless one of my brothers told her to destroy their communication ball.
“Send Vermyx. He’ll blend in quite nicely.” She dismisses the harpy in much the same way she did the djinn, then brings her attention back to me.
“You do realize that once Aiyana—”
“Her name is Sage. Aiyana died two thousand years ago and you did nothing to stop it.” I cut her off because hearing Sage’s name from her first life coming out of her mouth is making me lose my shit.
But does she listen?
“Arrives, I’ll have no use for you. In fact, I’ll quite enjoy destroying one of the Horsemen.” She can’t kill me. Dei Samhain would find her and, by law of the thirteen, he would be justified in killing her. But shecandestroy me. It would be easy and she knows it.
“Is that a threat on Sage’s life?” I speak through clenched teeth, my jaw so tight I’m sure my tendons are getting an unhealthy workout.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I need Aiyana.” I’m going to fucking kill this bitch. “The prophecy calls upon more than just her.”
“I keep hearing about this so-called prophecy. What’s the link with Sage?” I refuse to call her by the name she hasn’t gone by in millennia. Today, Sage is so much more. She’s the culmination of all her past lives and calling her Aiyana feels disrespectful to her growth as a kyn.
“You don’t deserve to know. Demons aren’t privy to the matters of witchcraft and spells.” With great effort, she rises back up to standing and I swear I can hear all her bones cracking as she does.
With a push off the bars, I stalk away—which isn’t far, considering the cell is fucking tiny—when it dawns on me. The question that’s been killing me all of this time. In the lapse of a breath, I’m back to the bars, my voice low and my fury barely in check.
“I looked for you when Sage died. I scoured the Earth, The Shade, and even got special permission to search you out in Lympana. Where have you been?”
Baba Yaga smiles, teeth rotten, skin pale and painted in deep lines that betray her true age.
“Watching. Waiting.” She leans in close, not an ounce of fear in her almost translucent pupils. “Planning.”
I want to fucking kill her. With my bare hands.
“Oh, I was also asked to officiate, and I quote, ‘a fairytale wedding’ in Velegozda—you know, at the southern edge of Slovenia.” She chuckles as though she’s reliving the scene. “The bride was none too happy that I cursed her first-born child, but be careful what you wish for and all that.”
She’s sick.
