Unblessed Witch (Phases of the Moon #4)

20. Deva

20

DEVA

The amount of contentment and pure satisfaction rolling through my body was absolutely unacceptable… except it wasn’t . It was perfect.

I let out a yawn as I soaked in the bathtub, still feeling Alek in every part of my body. Probably because he’d been inside of me for what felt like twenty-four hours. I shivered, remembering how he’d gone a second time, even as I was half-asleep.

That had been so damn hot it was unreal. I needed to make sure to emphasize how much I loved that. Also how much I appreciated having some alone time with him especially after everything that had happened.

Fates. It seemed almost unreal to consider everything that had just happened. I killed Astaroth. I’d felt it…was that truly possible? The concept blew my mind, and I felt my chest relax for the first time in years. It felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders.

For so long I had been running from that absolute monster and my past. But now the truth was out there, and the reason for my horrible past was gone. There was nowhere to go but up from here—and with my men at that.

“ Zaya , I found some clothes,” Alek called out. I smiled, realizing I had just been thinking about needing clothes before this. I had no idea what they’d look like once we left this shadowscape, but I figured it was better than being naked.

Hopefully my magic would let us leave soon. This had to be some sort of defense mechanism, but I had four other men on the outside that I desperately wanted to see. And call it a hunch, but I had a feeling they wouldn’t be very happy about being separated.

“Awesome, I’m almost done,” I promised. “I need to find some food for us—or create some. Still not totally sure how this works.”

Alek chuckled, the sound interrupted by a shudder that rocked through the entire house. Getting out of the tub, I wrapped a robe around myself and ran to the window, noticing that the sky outside had grown stormy. Another shudder went through the space before a familiar thread of magic reached out.

“It’s them!” I shouted, rushing to get dressed.

I knew exactly who was trying to get in, and I planned on making it as easy as possible—either for them to get in here or for us to leave. Although when I tried to suggest that latter option to my magic, it went oddly quiet.

Rushing downstairs, I opened up the door as a crack of lightning filled the air… and my men appeared.

“Hey— shit ,” I said with a giggle as I hit the outside wall of the house, Oz’s arms wrapped around me and his lips sealing to mine. Letting out an amused sound and moaning into the kiss, I pulled back to see him staring at me fervently.

“Never again,” he warned. “If you want to disappear, you bring all of us.”

Then he was striding into the house before I could respond, probably planning to find Alek. I thought about food appearing in the kitchen and hoped it would work. I had no idea if they had eaten recently, so I was worried about the possibility of having nothing to give them.

“Sorry.” I winced as the other three approached. “My magic hasn’t let us out of here. Wasn’t really a planned expedition.”

“All good, little jaguar,” Grim murmured, dipping his head to give me a kiss. “Just glad you’re safe—the two of you have been in a shadowscape bubble for nearly a day, so we were getting concerned.” I had a feeling that concern was an understatement. “But I’m eager to check this place out.”

“It’s where I keep going in my head—or at least someplace similar,” I said as Cage scooped me up under my butt and kissed me hard.

“Little siren, you caused quite the scene back there,” he said, pride filling his tone. “Literally destroyed half the compound. It was glorious.”

My eyes widened. “Are the children okay?”

“Completely,” Lazaro assured me as Cage placed me down. “Astaroth’s magic almost immediately released its control on them.”

“Thank the fates.” My breath whooshed out, as I rubbed a hand against my chest. “What about the battle? Is everything okay? I should have fought harder to stay?—”

“Little thief, everyone is okay.” Lazaro squeezed my waist gently. “You don’t need to worry about that. What you do need to worry about is convincing your magic to let us out of here.”

“I’m just not sure when that will happen,” I said, being honest. “Not until I feel better. Or we’re in danger—that could prompt her.”

“We’re not in danger.” Cage chuckled. “In fact, the opposite. The Society of Shadows is cleaning everything up, so we’re completely safe. They even have people watching over our shadowscape.”

I appreciated that my men weren’t willing to lie to me just to work my magic up. “Wait.” I walked into the house with Lazaro and Cage, finding the others in the kitchen as Alek pulled food out of a fully stocked fridge. “Did you guys just get yourself stuck in here? Willingly?”

I suppose they couldn’t have known it was my magic not letting me out, but I felt like they also knew me well enough to know that the only reason I wouldn’t have left the shadowscape was either because I couldn’t or because I was injured. The latter option would have sent them into a panic for sure.

“Of course we did, little siren. Shit was boring and very serious outside—but in here? With you? Much better.”

“Couldn’t let Alek have all your time,” Grimshaw agreed with the flash of a smile. Alek he very much had occupied my time, with wonderful, pleasure-filled activities that I wouldn’t mind repeating…

“And we were worried you could have been injured,” Oz murmured, confirming my thoughts. He pulled me against his chest, his grip possessive and secure.

Alek turned on the gas cooktop while Grimshaw began to prepare meat and vegetables. My smile grew. “Well, I can assure you I feel wonderful. And since we’re stuck in here, we may as well take advantage.”

“Do you have any board games here?” Cage asked as Lazaro walked into the sitting room. I followed after the two of them, the smell of food beginning to fill the air. I was actually surprised Lazaro wasn’t cooking because I knew he enjoyed it.

“I’m not sure if we do, but that would be really fun,” I said, sitting down on the couch as Cage began to search through the chest near the fireplace.

Lazaro and Cage managed to find a stack of games that my brain must have decided to create for our entertainment. I wouldn’t complain. My magic knew exactly what it was doing.

Unfortunately, I knew this little vacation wouldn’t last forever. When we woke up the following day, after falling asleep in a massive cuddle pile on the floor, I noticed that the sky outside was stormy.

At first I’d wondered if it was because we’d let our familiars out for a few hours, wanting to give them some room to move around. That had resulted in an influx of magic, but I had a feeling it was more significant than that. My magic was dancing around inside of me with an energy that felt like it needed to be used. I hadn’t realized just how much the incident with Astaroth had drained my magic.

Following breakfast, all of us stepped outside, prepared to figure out what was going on.

“Are we ready to go back and deal with everything?” I asked them, realizing that all of us seemed hesitant to disrupt our peace here.

“No,” Oz said, which made me smile. He definitely would have preferred to stay.

“The sooner we deal with it, the sooner we can go back to the estate,” Grim pointed out, although his expression told me he was trying to convince himself.

“Or school, if Deva wants that,” Cage amended. I honestly wasn’t sure what I wanted after all this.

“Let’s see what exactly we’re dealing with first,” Lazaro said. Alek hummed in agreement.

Closing my eyes, I let my magic expand out—slowly. Or that was my intention. Instead it slammed into the walls of the shadowscape and cracked it open. The world turned into a lightshow of power and colors, wind howling, as my magic rebounded and hit me directly in the chest. Then there was darkness and silence.

Something that lasted mere minutes before I was dropped onto my ass on the ground. Fuck. I groaned, leaning against Lazaro who landed next to me, the two of us sitting up slowly as I looked around.

Well, they hadn’t been lying about destroying the compound.

We were in Astaroth’s throne room, but it was barely recognizable. The ceilings and walls were gone. There was no furniture, and half the flooring had been blasted down to the floor below it. It was like we were on a rooftop patio, rather than in a room.

The surrounding land was destroyed as well. The trees that had been aligned with Astaroth’s position during the fight—nearly a mile away—were thrown over, like a storm hit them. Black uniformed individuals moved across the land, and I could see some trying to peer upwards, probably noticing the shift in power at our arrival.

“I did this?” I asked softly, in awe of my own magic. Walking to the edge of the room, I could see large scale forces from the camp spreading through the compound’s lands, engaged in recovery efforts. I was guessing that Astaroth comrades who hadn’t died were already in containment because there wasn’t a silver cloak in sight.

“You did,” Grim said, placing his hand on my back as they joined me. My eyes trailed down the hillside where I’d run so long ago, running away from the monster I had now killed. I’d destroyed this land. I’d destroyed everything Astaroth had spent so damn long building, and I felt pride surge through me, beginning to heal deep, old wounds.

Tears of joy filled my eyes as the bright morning light lit up the land. There was something different about Carmina today; the world seemed lighter .

There was so much to do. There would be a power imbalance and prisoners to sort through to see if they could be saved from Astaroth’s toxicity. But there was even more than that—there would be a large-scale societal impact because the individuals who had fought, specifically the unblessed, wouldn’t stand for things to return to the way they’d been. Something I agreed with completely…but it did mean a lot of change was coming to Carmina.

“We have a lot to do,” I said softly. “I have no idea where to start.”

“We take it day by day,” Lazaro said confidently.

“We’ll go back to the Nyx estate to figure out how to fix whatever problems will come up because of his absence,” Alek agreed.

“Once we get everything figured out…I think I’d like to return to DIA,” I said, looking at Cage because he had brought it up. “I know it probably seems crazy considering what we just went through, but I love DIA. I don’t want to give that up.”

“Then we will,” Oz said easily. “Just may have to kill some of the assholes there that were associated with Astaroth’s efforts—even if just their families.”

“Or they’ll be scared silent,” Cage agreed, looking disappointed at the concept. That would be ideal, or else there would be a lot of dead students.

“Deva!” a familiar voice called, and I looked down to see Odessa standing on the ground with one of her men. “You’re back! You finally broke out of the shadowscape.”

“I thought someone was going to be guarding it,” Grim murmured.

“I was,” Grim’s dad said as he carefully picked a path through what used to be the entrance to the room. “I was helping some of our members take supplies downstairs. Good to see all of you are back and in one piece.”

“Didn’t mean to just disappear like that,” I said, still feeling bad.

He gave me a warm smile. “A much-needed reprieve, I’m sure.” You know, considering everyone kept saying that, I was thinking we needed a real vacation.

“We should head back to camp,” Grimshaw said.

“We should,” Grim’s father agreed, “but you may want to go directly home. The camp is being disassembled as we speak, and we’re planning to have a meeting at the estate in two days.”

“We need to talk about some things,” I brought up softly. “I think you probably know, but we have to change a lot.”

He nodded in understanding. “We’re having some representatives from the communities within Carmina join us.” That was a good move.

“To the estate, then.”

To the Nyx estate so that we could remove the stain that Astaroth had left on the whole of Carmina.