Ink & Dagger (Sins of Eden #1)

47. Chapter XLVII

Chapter XLVII

Emily

S tirring from my sleep, I yawned with a stretch and flinched at the pain radiating throughout my bones. Every fucking muscle in my body felt as if they had gone through a meat tenderizer, but my back felt like it had been ripped to shreds.

Where the fuck was I?

The room looked almost like a Victorian gothic suite one would find in a travel guide for the most haunted mansions in England.

Black and silver damask wallpaper lined the walls and the large four post bed beneath me spiraled up into a black ruffle canopy. It was stunning. I sat up and froze as my eyes locked on the full length, ornate standing mirror opposite me.

No fucking way.

I gingerly scrambled down from the large plush bed and walked slowly across the room, marveling at the giant wings spread out behind me.

I had wings.

There was no way to gauge how long I’d been asleep. My memory of the fight felt more like a dream, but I vaguely remembered wings appearing during my battle with Gabriel. At the time, I thought they were just an extension of my new powers.

Running my hand over the length of them, I delicately trailed my fingertips across the black feathers, admiring the red tips at the ends, and shivered. They were sensitive. Did Charlie have wings too?

Fuck. Charlie.

I knew she would need time to recover. Hell, I was drained after everything I'd been through. No ordinary Witch should have been able to wield the kind of power we had, but what would she think when she woke up? Would she hate me for our shared past? Would she resent me for the choices our mother made?

I cracked open the door and peeked down the hall, two separate threads pulling me in either direction. To my right, I could feel the electrical current that would lead me to Jaxon, but it was the thread to the left that held my attention.

Shuffling my feet quietly, I walked slowly down the hall, following the string that connected me to Charlie. Resting my hand and forehead against the door for a moment, I breathed in deeply, and offered up a silent prayer to anyone that would listen that she was okay.

Would she want to see me?

I blew out a harsh breath before biting my lip. Maybe it was best if I gave her time. As I turned from the room to walk back down the hall to find Jaxon, the door behind me opened and I froze.

“I suppose I should thank you,” a gruff voice called quietly from the doorway.

I turned to face Killian and wrapped my arms around my stomach, feeling unsure of myself as he leaned against the door frame and studied me.

I’d noticed that he’d made a makeshift bandage with his shirt and was holding it against his side. I couldn’t help but wonder how long it would take for him to heal from all he’d gone through in his two years of captivity.

He looked similar to his brothers, but whereas Jaxon’s horns curled back, Killian’s short horns looked more reminiscent of a bull. His long dark hair was no longer matted, but pulled up into a top knot and a thick beard, almost midnight black in color lined his face. He reminded me of a viking.

Like Jaxon, every inch of his body from his neck down seemed to be covered in ink, but angry scars along his torso and shoulders from years of torture stood out. Out of respect I looked down at the floor so as not to stare.

“Of course. She’s - ” I couldn’t finish that sentence. I didn’t know how.

My friend? My heart?

We’d always been inseparable and had a strong bond, but I never imagined that it was because she was truly part of me.

“Can I - can I see her?” I asked, chancing a quick glance up at him.

The shock of learning all that I had would come eventually, but for right now I just needed to know that she was okay.

“She’s sleeping,” he stated bluntly.

His eyes flicked up to my new appendages with a scowl. I wished I could close them or make them disappear. After everything he’d gone through, I was sure it wasn’t easy being around both a Witch and an Angel.

I sucked in a sharp breath, but held my ground. “I’ll only be a minute, I promise. I just want to see her,” I said.

He opened the door wider with a resigned sigh, inviting me in.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but why did you protect her?” I asked quietly, shuffling into the room behind him.

He turned and cocked his eyebrow at me. “She’s my Maritus . I would do anything for her,” he said, as if that explained everything.

There it was again. That word.

“Jaxon called me that. I don’t know what it means though,” I admitted out loud.

He sighed again as he rolled his eyes, done with this entire exchange. “Mate. She’s the other half of my soul. I knew she was mine the moment I saw her.”

He turned and looked longingly down at her as she lay sleeping on the bed. It was as if the anger he held inside him melted the moment he laid his eyes on her.

“You saw her and you just knew?” I asked, moving closer to the bed.

“You didn’t when you saw my brother?” He asked, cocking his eyebrow at me.

That made me pause. Something about Jaxon had drawn me to him the moment I first laid eyes on him in that coffee house, even though I’d never even spoken to him, but Mates? I’d never heard of a Witch having a Mate before. To be honest I’d always assumed that was something that only shifters and Vampires experienced.

“Agatha captured me a couple of years ago when I’d gotten too close,” he said, taking a seat on the bed beside her and Cerys before gently running his fingers through Charlie’s hair.

Cerys perked up at the movement, stretched, and sauntered over to him before curling up into a ball on his lap with a low pur. The corner of his mouth pulled up into a small smile as he dragged his finger lightly through her fur with his other hand.

“I’d learned too much about you and your sister and I became a liability, but Agatha didn’t want to kill me because she found that my blood made her and her coven stronger.” He paused for a moment and I shifted uncomfortably at his words.

“My Belladonna tried everything to get me out,” he said quietly, almost to himself as he gently trailed his fingers across one of the scorch marks on her arm.

“Once Agatha caught on to the bond we shared, she began using me against her. Torturing me to make Charlie comply with her demands,” he said angrily. Contempt and hate radiated from him and I watched his shoulders sag with regret.

“According to Charlie, Agatha had been drawing blood from her for the last ten years, doing research on it and comparing the magical qualities within it to that of the other coven members. Before that, she’d been using the coven members and draining them of their magic for over a decade. When she finally realized that none were strong enough to withstand the process, she began doing transfusions from my Belladonna, to herself, harvesting her blood and magic and temporarily draining Charlie.” He ground his teeth together as he gently grazed the back of his hand across her cheek in a loving caress.

“Belladonna?” I asked. I thought I had a good idea why he called her that, but I wanted to hear it from him.

He huffed with a slight growl under his breath and cast me an annoyed look before answering.

“Charlie’s a green Witch, no? She’s my beautiful killer. My own personal Nightshade,” he admitted, glancing over at me as I walked closer.

I stifled my smile at that. It was very fitting. “Agatha said we were special. What did that mean?” I asked, sitting down in the chair beside the bed.

Killian scoffed. “ Special . Fucking understatement of the century. You two are more powerful than God and Lucifer combined, hence why my father wanted you both dead,” he spat bitterly.

“So, my - I mean. Our mother -,” I began.

“A Demon was sent to do the job twenty years ago and thankfully didn’t take into account that you can’t kill an Angel with fire. Fucking dunce. You’ve both been on a magical hit list since birth,” he said, his nostrils flaring.

“And you?” I asked, leaning forward.

“I took the job. Then I saw her and she was all that mattered,” he said softly.

“But then Agatha captured you?” I asked, trying to fill in the puzzle pieces. Finally, it felt like everything was clicking into place.

“I didn’t care what the fuck happened to myself, but Charlie wouldn’t abandon me. I think that bitch even had a magical gag on her to keep her from getting you involved, but in order to get Gabriel to hold up his end of the bargain, she needed to hand over both of you on your thirtieth birthday.”

If I thought I was blown away by everything I’d learned in the cellar of the coven house, that was nothing to how I felt now. Charlie was used and tortured almost her entire life and couldn’t even tell me. Just the thought broke my heart.

“The whole coven - everyone was dead.” I said remorsefully, remembering the image of all of the dead sisters lying lifeless on the floor.

Not all of them had deserved that I’m sure and it saddened me to know that their lives were taken because of a bargain made by their High Priestess. I only hoped that in the end, they were able to find peace in whatever afterlife they went to.

Killian scoffed and rolled his eyes. “That bitch thought he was really going to help them. Gabriel was only there for you two. He didn’t give a shit about a coven full of Witches. They were just pawns in our war. Didn’t matter how many times I told that bitch he would betray them though.”

“Emily? Sweet Witch?” Jaxon shouted frantically from the hallway.

His footsteps echoed on the other side of the door at the same time that loud hissing could be heard from down the hall. Cerys lifted her head and stood up on all fours, rubbing up salaciously against Killian’s stomach before curling up protectively beside Charlie.

I stared at Charlie a moment longer before I stepped out into the hall to assess the commotion.