Page 73 of To Crave Deeply
She instantly snapped her head in my direction. Fuck. She was scary when she was pissed.
“Jasper is fine. You’d know if he wasn’t through your bond. Now take a deep breath and tell us who your new friends are.”
She closed her eyes and did as I instructed. When her eyes opened again, they were calmer, and the fire had died down in them. That was much better.
“Guys, meet Selene, the original witch, and Iveri.”
Blondie gave a little wave at the introduction, but the tall chick just glowered and folded her arms across her chest.
What the fuck? I looked at Fenris and Saskia and could see them equally confused. Oh, good. Not just me then.
“That’s Iveri?” I asked incredulously. “Your inner demon? But if she’s there, why do you still have the eyes of the demon?”
“Because Selene over there thought it would be fun to separate us. I still have the demon because it needs something alive to live inside.”
“Iveri’s dead?” Saskia asked. “She doesn’t look dead.”
Lori sighed. “It’s complicated.”
“Can you uncomplicate it?”
Lori looked at me and frowned. Her teeth dragged her bottom lip into her mouth as she thought about the answer. She looked so adorable that I just wanted to wrap her in my arms and give her a hug. I couldn’t wait to get my heart back. I wanted to be able to feel everything again. To be able to look at Lori and feel the love that I know should be there. I could feel the attraction. That was purely a chemical reaction firing signals in my brain, but I knew there should be something more and it was killing me that I couldn’t feel that.
“Basically, Iveri was created as Iver’s wife. She rebelled against it, convinced me and the other originals to rebel against Lucifer and try to destroy him. To say that pissed him off is an understatement. He killed Iveri and threw the three of us into the Pit as punishment. I managed to perform some magic that would allow Iveri’s soul to find another body to live in. She’s ended up with Lori, but they were arguing all the time and she looked like a crazy person, so I merely split them and gave Iveri’s soul solid form. How’s that? Clear enough for you, pooch?” Selene looked at me expectantly, but I was still processing all that information she just hurled at me.
I wished Jasper were here. He was so much better at this than I was. Fuck. I wasn’t ready for this.
I looked up and found all eyes focussed on me. Well, that was intimidating. Right. Orders. They were waiting for orders. Shit. I had no idea what to do here. Panic gripped me and I swallowed nervously.
Focus, Alec. Come on. Work the problem.
We still needed to deliver the original witch to Violette, and as much as seeing her again filled me with dread, we needed to get Lori’s blood debt paid.
“Has anyone tried to get into Strigavallis yet?” I asked and was rewarded with a chorus of no and shaking heads. Okay. That I could deal with. First thing to do: summon that sleazy twat Elias.
Piece of cake.
Chapter 23
LORI
We’d made it back to the door outside the throne room. After Alec had asked Fenris to hurl some magic at the barrier, an army of soldiers appeared to defend it. Upon learning we had the original witch and they discovered she was wearing the Queen’s missing crown, Elias had been summoned.
Alec lacked Jasper’s subtle finesse, but I couldn’t deny he’d got the job done. I was worried about Jasper. There was something the guys weren’t telling me, and I wanted to know what happened down in the Pit. I reached out to Jasper through the bond, and I could still sense him, but it was like there was something else lurking there, too. Something darker. Something ancient. It scared me, and I feared that whatever this presence was who had gotten hold of Jasper wasn’t about to let him go willingly.
The mark with Lucifer had settled as well. The guys told me that Rae had managed to strengthen the wards which was putting less strain on him. We still needed to figure a way to convince the mark that both Lucifer and I were alive, otherwise it was going to continue to demand Lucifer’s death as payment for mine.
From what Selene had said earlier, she might be able to help, but for a price. As I looked at the blonde witch, standing there with the stolen crown and manic gleam in her eye, I wondered what the Hell that price might be. That woman was straight up crazy. I mean, why the Hell had she willingly let us bring her here? Was she that powerful that she would be able to protect herself against anything that was thrown at her? How the Hell had Lucifer kept her in the Pit for all these years?
Fuck. I had so many questions and zero answers. Throw in a feeling of impending chaos and doom and my heart was racing and my stomach churning.
Suddenly, there was a loud scream from the other side of the door.
“Guess the Witch Queen knows we’re here,” Saskia said grimly.
Sure enough, the woman herself burst through the doors wildly. Her eyes were ablaze as she scanned our little group for the original witch.
Selene strode forward like she hadn’t got a care in the world. Her hands were buried deep in her pockets and her stride was languorous as she walked towards Violette.
