15
The Witch

 

 

 

The softness was from the Angel’s feathers, on which I lay sideways; warmth emitted from his hard chest; and the solidness came from his strong arms around me.

He watched me, a doting smile in his brilliant green eyes. I hadn’t known he could smirk like that. Usually, he flashed a wicked, cocky grin.

It was the third day since Kaara had awoken from her coma.

She was stronger than ever with my mate’s powerful angelic blood in her veins, along with the few drops of mine remaining in her. Marrok donated most of the blood. Kaara also started to generate her own blood cells.

Every day since then, I’d woken up in Gabriel’s arms. We couldn’t have intercourse because of the Furies’ curse. Her magical band on Gabriel’s wrist prevented us from mating.

But it hadn’t stopped him from trying all sorts of ways to pleasure me. However, our mating bond wasn’t sated; it required Gabriel to penetrate me and spill his seed in me. When we couldn’t, it had been driving us half-mad.

“Gabriel?” I called, my eyelids fluttering against his chin.

How I loved waking up beside him, remembering it all.

“Yes, baby.” His eyes sparkled with the starlight.

He liked the way I said his name, but whenever I’d first opened my eyes, I’d always spotted fear lurking in his before he stored it away. He was forever afraid that I’d forget him again.

I feared the same every night before I closed my eyes.

I snuggled closer to him.

“Do you need more sleep, Fia?” he asked, lust thick in his eyes.

Would he always want me like that? Would this attraction ever fade? Only time would tell, for time eroded everything. Even the gods were at the mercy of time. The colors they appreciated, the scent they remembered, and the events they participated in, would never return the same way. They couldn’t freeze the best moments in time any more than the mortals.

I would cherish every moment with Gabriel, no matter what was going to happen the next.

“I won’t go anywhere while you sleep.” He kissed my lips and pulled back to gaze at me again. His erection pressed against my belly. “I’ll wait as long as I have to, but our suffering won’t be long. Then I’ll fuck you like a real man.”

“You’re more than a real man,” I said, and his eyes sparkled with delight.

Maybe I should flatter him more often just to see his stunning green eyes lightening up.

“We’re going to cross the portal today, baby.”

“I know,” I said.

I’d been practicing my TimeFire to make sure it would perform when the time came.

The wolves and my army had been preparing to flee this planet. They were nervous, excited, and for the first time, full of hope.

We wouldn’t know what would happen in the next few hours, but we weren’t all optimistic that all of us would make it.

My hand traced along his muscled chest to his hard, flat abs. It kept going, gliding over his pubic hair, until my fingertips touched the base of his rigid cock. He remained still. As my hand climbed over his impressive length, his shaft jerked.

His skin was so smooth and hot, burning mine. My fingers curled and grasped his crown. As my hand moved clockwise, rubbing and caressing the head of his cock, he let out a rough, angelic curse.

Through our mating bond, I felt his urgent male need.

I knew how much he wanted to roll me over to my stomach, open my legs wide, and thrust his dick into my pussy. I could see his fantasy playing in a stream of images, and it heated my blood like no other.

For days, I’d tried to help him get a release, but it seemed he could only come inside me.

Maybe this time I would succeed. It was torturous to see him suffer like that, even though he said it made him happy that he could still make me come and that his need didn’t matter much.

It mattered to me.

I gave his large, hard rod a squeeze, and he thrust into my palm in eager response. I twirled my hand around and slid down his length, pumping up and down fast and hard.

“Witch, you play me like I’m an instrument,” he grunted, and I wasn’t sure if it was a complaint or a compliment.

Before I could tease him further, he’d lifted me in the air as if I weighed less than a feather. Before I knew what was going on, I was sitting on his face, and his hot mouth was working my pussy.

His hands held my butt cheeks effortlessly.

His tongue lashed out, licking me thoroughly. The sensation was unmaking me, and his hunger and lust reverberated with mine.

“Oh, Gabriel,” I moaned.

The tip of his wicked tongue flicked my swollen clit. It was as if fire rasped my tender flesh. I cried out. His tongue lapped around my sensitive nub one more time before moving down and thrusting into my heated channel.

It withdrew and thrust, in and out of my pussy.

Fire ignited in me, and it called for his. I remembered how marvelous and addictive it had been when he had fucked me in his shuttle and his flame had first brought out mine. I wanted that again.

He said I was fire in his veins. Did he know that he was pure fuel to my fire?

“Give me your flame,” I demanded.

He withdrew his tongue and asked, “Can you take it, witch?” His voice was laced with thick lust.

He thrust his tongue into my aching pussy again. His hand wrapped around me and pumped his cock up and down.

“More than you know, Angel,” I said breathlessly.

And this time, when his tongue invaded my pussy, it carried his flame.

If I couldn’t have his cock, then, at least I would have his flame. The angelic flame traced along my inner walls, licking all at once. The sensation was beyond anything in this world. I trembled and climaxed right away.

My witch flame rose, pouring on his wings like intense sunlight, caressing his ridge and every feather.

The Angel shuddered, his eyes rolling back.

He bucked his hips up, wanting to thrust his cock into my heat more than anything, but he couldn’t due to the Furies’ bracelet. And I still perched on his face.

My fire flowed down along his body and slithered up his cock.

He let go of his hand that had been stroking himself. My fire formed a fist and started to pump his hard length.

He roared in pleasure and cursed at the same time. He called my names, and his angelic flame surged into my core.

The next I knew, I was in the air. 

A force so great it had torn me from Gabriel and sent me flying backwards across the room and right out of the open window.

“Fia!” Gabriel shouted in panic and flew out like a lightning arrow, his black wings at full length.

My icy storm sent me up instead of letting me fall, then my fire formed a flaming vortex, pulling me into its infinite tunnel.

The next second, I stood before the full window of a white marble tower. I recognized it—the Royal Palace of Lithuaria Empire, my home.

The skyscraper floated in the air, and I watched my realm beneath my feet. Highways were everywhere like layers of veins with endless flows of cars. Commercial buildings shot out on either side of the express way. Artificial gardens encased endless residences.

The cloudless sky was so blue, and the pure sea stretched at the far end of the city.

It wasn’t a vision. It was a memory, and somehow, I was reliving it.

“We’ve come a long way,” the queen said behind me. “We’re becoming a nation of reason and technology. The scientists estimate we’ll leap into the quantum era in less than a century.”

“Yet, no one expected me to be born into this era with such powerful magic,” the past me said, not turning to glance at my mother.

She was a tall blonde with a willowy figure. I didn’t take after her or the king. I looked more like an adopted daughter with the palest skin and raven-black hair.

“Five thousand years ago,” the queen said, “there was a witch with the same power, just like you.”

The power of TimeFire. The High Witch was called Cassandra. Our magic could not only open the portal to the past and future; it could change the future and bend the fate of the realm to our will.

My mother sighed.

While I was the greatest witch, she didn’t have any magic in her bones.

Actually, I might be the only one who had such terrifying magic in the realm, since we hadn’t found another who could summon the wind, ice, and fire.

I turned to my mother. “The senators are scared, aren’t they?”

We had twelve silver-ranking senators to balance the power of the crown.

“All I want is to shield you, Athena,” the queen said.

I gave the queen a wicked wink. “They want to protect the realm from me. I think I can convince the senators with a little demonstration.”

“That’s unwise. You’re the crown princess. Your every action has a consequence.”

“The throne might not be here one day, Mother,” I said. “Haven’t you heard the public opinion that they now would prefer to abolish the monarchy? Maybe there’s a reason I was born with this great magic—to strengthen our royal house.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” the queen said. “A display of your power will only deepen their fear. The High Witch before you brought down a whole technological kingdom.”

Cassandra had used her magic wave to erase the technology of her time. There had been a fight, and Cassandra had won. But while her magic had prevailed, the civilization had collapsed. She pushed development backwards a thousand years.

Everyone thought such a great, terrifying magic was myth, until I was born. Now the senators feared that I would repeat history and cause catastrophe.

“With all the technology, it comes with the byproducts of pollution, over-population, and callousness of the heart,” I said. “We’ve been constantly poisoning the land. Maybe the planet is fed up with the abuse. It wants to return to the old world of purity and beauty. Maybe I was born for this purpose. I can start a revolution, should I desire.”

“No! Athena. That’s heresy. If the senators learn about what’s in your mind, they’ll take action against you, and maybe even force the crown to eliminate you for the safety of the empire. If we refuse, they’ll send assassins.”

“Let the assassins come and see how they like my fire,” I said, letting a twine of fire leap on my palms. It lit every inch of my skin while my blue royal gown remained intact.

I strode toward my mother and embraced her. My fire would never hurt my own flesh and blood.

The queen sighed, hugging me back. “I should have taken more measures when you were a child. If no one had known about your magic—”

“Mother, I am who I am. I’m never going to hide my magic. I’m not ashamed that I’m the greatest witch ever. It’s my birthright. The realm just has to deal with it. And I’m nothing like Cassandra.”

“Don’t say her name,” she hissed out the words.

Even today, no one dared mention Cassandra’s name, for fear of bringing her back. Technology hadn’t exactly rooted out superstitious. The irony was, the High Witch, who had been marked as a terrorist in history, hadn’t returned. But here I was—another great witch born five thousand years later.

Worry lines formed at the corner of my mother’s mouth. She was no longer young, yet she was still more beautiful, graceful, and regal than any woman in the realm.

“I won’t harm the realm, Your Majesty,” I said.

“How can you know?” Mother asked. “How can anyone know?”

I grinned. “I enjoy the convenience technology brings. I love space travel. And most important I know in my heart—I’m not a destroyer. I’m a protector of the realm.”

My mother screamed and lunged at me to shove me behind her to shield me, but I’d turned toward the window.

A missile was heading toward us.

It would kill us both.

Part of the building would collapse at the hit, and many of our royal subjects would die with us.

I snarled, throwing up my hands.

If the realm was afraid of my magic, they could now witness how truly powerful I was, and learn never to piss me off again.

Fire blasted out of me, crashed into the missile half-way, and melted it instantly. My fire didn’t stop there. It surged forward, searching, until it found the hostile vessel—a fighter aircraft that had shot the missile.

Before the second missile could come for us, my darkness reached the armored aircraft, dragging out the pilot and the one who’d operated the weapon.

Then my TimeFire slammed into the aircraft, incinerating it, with the other militants still inside, in a second.

My darkness gripped the two surviving assassins in the air for all to see, as an example. Should anyone try to eliminate me or my family again, they should think twice.

My darkness sent the assassins crashing through the window and tossed them at my feet.

They couldn’t even struggle as my darkness bound them mercilessly, their eyes widening in fear. 

“Athena, we need them alive for interrogation,” the queen said.

A fire storm swept me away. 

I was no longer with the queen in the white tower of the Royal Palace.

Strong arms held me, my face nesting against a hard, warm chest. Wind whooshed by my ears, caused by a pair of massive black wings. Comforting, intoxicating, male musk mixed with the scent of sandalwood and flame. The flame didn’t belong to me.

I blinked. I hadn’t really left Pandemonium but had been pulled back into a memory when my fire and the Archangel’s had mixed again.

When I’d fallen from my Witch Tower, my darkness and wind had sustained me in the air.

Gabriel flew me back to my chamber through the window and pulled the drape closed.

Even in the dim light, his face was pale.

I let the icy light illuminate the room and smiled at him. “You caught me.”

“I’m sorry, baby,” Gabriel said, tucking me closer. “I lost control. It won’t happen again. No more playing with fire or any rough shit.”

The Archangel was proposing a dull life without fire and passion, and I’d just had my fire back.

I detached my face from his chest. “You’ll do no such thing.”

“What if I hurt you next time and get to you too late?”

“But you didn’t,” I said. “You can’t harm me even if you try. Haven’t you tried that?”

He blinked, then snarled. “I’ve never tried to harm you, not even while you tried to kill me.”

I widened my eyes. “You said we should always forgive each other and put the past behind us. You said no one and nothing can get between us and that we could get past everything.”

“When you put it that way, it does sound like I’m a jerk,” he sighed. “I just don’t like to tap into an unknown field and get you hurt.”

“Your angelic flame is useful,” I said. “It’s like my stimulation. Just now, when our fires combined, it opened a window and let me peek into a crucial fragment of my past. I now have a part of the picture why I was exiled.”

Someone had tried to eliminate me while I’d been in my realm. I hadn’t been wrong when I’d insisted I had enemies back home, but before I could interrogate the assassins, I’d been thrown back to my Witch Tower.

The Furies had recounted that I’d banished myself to protect the realm. I’d told my mother before I’d shut down the portal behind me, “I have to do this, so he won’t find me. I won’t endanger the kingdom.”

All of my misery was because of ‘he’.

Who could hunt and overpower me? The realm feared me, yet they seemed to fear that huntsman so much more. He didn’t come from the empire, but from a dominant alien race.

Gabriel mentioned that his race was the most powerful in the universe. Could the hunter be one of the Archangels? I brushed off the dark idea. Gabriel would have known if one of his kinds had been crossing the universe to hunt me. But then his Angels had been fighting another group of Angels. Could the hunter be from the other side?

Or had the senators brought in an outsider as a bounty hunter? 

“Mind sharing it with me, baby?” Gabriel asked. “I wanted to know your every friend and enemy.”

I gazed up at him slyly. “What about lovers?”

His green eyes flashed dark fury. “I’ll eliminate every one of them if any of them tries to come between us, along with your enemies.”

He wasn’t joking.

And he’d changed ever since he’d returned from the Vampire Tower. In the past, he would demand, “Lay bare before me, mate! There should be no secrets between us.”

Maybe it was because he now had a secret—the pact between Daisy and him.

He’d once said that secrets destroyed relationships. Would it tear us apart?

Did it matter? My heart bled at the thought. We had to part our ways in the end. Maybe I shouldn’t get too attached to him while I still had the chance. It was easier for a man to forget about past passion. Right now, he couldn’t get his hands off me, but he would eventually get over me.

No love lasted, and lust faded sooner.

It’s the way of things.

He couldn’t have intercourse with me, yet the Furies suggested that he could have others, just not me. Maybe she’d offered while she had the leash on him?

I wanted to kill her for that, but there was no time. If I focused on her and let my jealousy get in the way, I would fail everyone and destroy their chance of survival. 

I swallowed my pride and hurt.

I peeked into Gabriel’s eyes that filled the promise of stars and galaxies. Daisy had picked him, seeing the same I was seeing now.

How soon would he leave me? Right after we flew through the portal or a little longer?

“My people fear me,” I said. “They’re terrified of my power. They think I’ll destroy the empire. Even my mother—the queen—thinks it’s possible.”

“That’s why you left?”

“No. I was actually being hunted. That’s why I ran.”

He snarled. “Who?”

“I don’t know yet. I had only a glimpse into the past.”

What if I would never regain my full memories?

I was still the heir to the throne.

Would my people accept me? Would my parents welcome me back with open arms? What if they rejected me? I shoved down my anxiety. No matter what, I was going home. Wanting me or not, I’d reclaim what was my birthright.

“Will the one who hunts you be there when you return?” he asked.

“If he’s there,” I said, eyes burning, “he’ll be very sorry.”

“He’ll be very sorry, because I—” He stopped, a pained look shadowing his eyes.

That was when I knew he wouldn’t go to the Lithuaria Empire with me.