Page 28 of Nope, No Regrets
Dakarys
I’d never been so happy to see a tiny blonde witch—who knew way too much dark magic for her own good—in my entire life! Charley was one of the good ones, even if she could dismember someone with magic because they were homicidal in jail. Yeah, she knew how to fight back, but she’d also used her magic plenty of times to heal people and undo some of the nasty stuff the witches and warlocks in Scorchwood unleashed on us.
I rushed forward and scooped her up in a hug, span her around in a circle and set her back on her feet.
“I’m so happy you’re here and… uhhh… not dead, little witch. I’m not holding your hair back while you puke in Hell, though. That was only a Scorchwood thing.”
Charley punched me right in the stomach. I loved this witch, but she was a little punch happy.
“I’ve got a fiancé, a coven, and an actual house instead of a shitty, freezing cold prison cell. I still enjoy my booze, but I have television here, and Solron taught me how to use the internet. I’m not getting drunk because there’s literally nothing else to do anymore.”
Rajack scooped Charley up and squeezed her.
“I’d still hold your hair back, because I’m just so fucking happy to see you.”
“Guys, I’m sorry I didn’t ask to bring you with us when I knew we were breaking out. I knew when we got to Hell, we would expose a lot of shit going down at Scorchwood. So, I think we were all hoping they’d pardon some people who had been there forever.”
We both shrugged, we weren’t mad about it. We had our own breakout plan at Silverhold, and we were also going to leave friends behind. We brought someone we weren’t initially planning, and I was dying to introduce the two. I grabbed Wren and yanked her forward.
“Meet Wren! She was a witch at Silverhold with us. The witch who got busted with Rei was paid to kill Rei, but she took a detour by convincing all the witches in Silverhold to kill the High Priestess. She also pimped them out and had one fuck this insanely stupid warlock guard because she thought she could kill us and take over our black-market business.”
Charley and Wren had never met before, but it was striking how they shared a few similarities in appearance. Charley and Wren were both pint-sized witches, with a lot of power. They both had blonde hair, but Wren’s was practically white. Charley also had no idea Wren was homicidal, and I didn’t know if I should stop her when she pulled Wren into a massive, witchy hug.
I was a little shocked when Wren hugged her back instead of snapping her neck in front of the king of Hell. I got this vibe that Wren was a total cuddle bug when it came to people she liked, but she didn’t know Charley from her asshole.
“It’s not like that here,” Charley said. “There are plenty of witches, but they were all claimed by a demon. Some of them are in relationships with demons, and some did favors for them and were then brought here for their safety. There are different covens, but we’re all friends. We get together for dinner all the time. The hippie nature witches sit next to us black magic witches over food, and wine, and there’s zero judgment!”
I watched all the tension Wren had been holding since Astrid died disappear. Wren was a lot of things, and she was mean as hell, but she’d always been fiercely protective of her coven, even if she didn’t like a lot of them. She was furious about Astrid. I wasn’t remotely a witch, but I knew without a doubt that their most heinous crime was to turn on their own coven.
“As soon as we deal with those Aether Circle bitches, how do I meet the black magic witches?”
Charley just laughed.
“Well, you already have! I’m one of those black magic witches. I’ll introduce you to the others. It’s not every day we get a new witch. We’ll have a party to welcome you.”
One of those swirling red clouds we kept jumping into and ending up somewhere else opened then, and I nearly lost my shit. It was like a cool people from Scorchwood reunion in here. Skoll jumped through with Roman and Amduscias. I’d never met her, but I saw her around. Skoll’s new cellmate before they all disappeared was with them, and she was pretty pregnant. I didn’t know who the other massive man with them was, but, based on his pointed ears, he was Fae.
Before I could even greet them, they started dramatically fussing over the pregnant woman until she sat down. She looked past ready to pop! Why wasn’t she in bed? Charley put her hands on her hips and glared at the pregnant woman.
“Serafina, really? You’re cooking a little Duke or Duchess in there. The midwife is going to kill you. Elemental Batwomancannotcome out of retirement until you’ve squirted out that kid.”
Amduscias scowled at Charley.
“That’s my unborn child you’re talking about. You try telling her to stay home!”
“I just did,” Charley snapped.
“And you’re lucky she didn’t set you on fire,” Roman said.
I liked Skoll and Amduscias, but Roman always made me a little uncomfortable. Plenty of people snapped in Scorchwood, and went on killing sprees as a result. Roman had tried to break out a few times, and I got this vibe off of him that one day, Scorchwood would get to him, and he’d start murdering people. He could be funny, and I really didn’t want to have to kill him, so I was thankful he seemed to be in a better place now.
“I’m not going to join the fight,” Serafina said. “I’m not stupid. Sure, I’d like to burn a few of those bitches alive, but I just want to be here for the planning.”
“And we know that,” Skoll pointed out. “But Serafina would never risk losing the damn baby all because some witches and a Kitsune can’t behave.”
Why did everyone in Hell talk about the Aether Circle and Rei’s brother like they just had shitty table manners? Kudan tried to fucking kill Rei’s dad, who was pretty damn cool now that I met him. He dedicated his life to killing Rei when she was just a helpless baby. Yes, I’d been in jail a long time, but I knew the entire Aether Circle should have been in there with me long before Rei showed up at Silverhold.
I didn’t expect that from Skoll, especially if Serafina was pregnant, and his mate. Faust looked ready to shift and eat them all by his lonesome. Skoll finally noticed there was another wolf here with a mate to protect. He got up and smacked him on the back the way wolves liked to do.
