AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Andyou’rethe right circumstances?” I let my eyes trail over him, derisively. “I hardly think acommonerlike you would be suitable to my father.”
My parents' classism and bigotry is a core aspect of their personalities. In fact, throw in their paranoia and it’s their entire personality. But Darius just laughs.
“Yes, well, his acceptance is more of a commentary onyourather thanme. They’ve given up on you, and your brother as well, but I managed toconvincehim of my advantages.”
He compelled my father? That would be nearly impossible.
Father is as paranoid as he is a dick. Protection is hisstrength. What kind of power does Darius wield to be able to compel a man as gifted as him, or even me, without any hint of his magical presence? But most importantly, how did he manage to get to him? As far as I am aware, they had never met.
“How did you even meet my father?”
Casually, he brushes lint off my shoulder, hissing at the shock he is given when he makes contact with my shirt.
“My engagement to Mathilde opened doors to me. I managed to make friends in the right places. One thing led to another, and here we are.”
“That explains literally nothing, Darius. Tell me what happened. What happened with Mathilde?” I shift my arms on my chest, stinging him when I accidentally brush against him.
“You were never this mouthy before… but I’m sure I can break you of the habit.” My stomach turns at the sinister look on his face, but he continues before I can answer back. “With the new connections afforded to me by my fiancée, I saw an opportunity and seized it. They all looked down on me, snide and condescending. LikeIwas something undeserving.”
He scoffs, his face twisting in derision. “But they were fools, and so I showed them. Outsmarted them all. It wasn’t even hard. They are all so greedy for more, when they haveeverything. A whisper here, a rumour there. A littleconvincing, and I had them eating out of the palm of my hand. That was until that nosey bitch stuck her nose in and figured it out—”
“Figuredwhatout? What did you do to them?” Not that I particularly care, but I can sense the increasing anxiety of the creatures watching in the shadows. Darius is too focused on me to notice that we are surrounded. By the water, creatures of the Woods and, the thing I am most concerned about, a plunge to our deaths.
Completely unconcerned, he smiles contentedly, remembering how he had outsmarted my father and his peers. “I convinced them to invest in a business opportunity. I’d mastered the art in school. It was expensive, you see, keeping up with Mathilde and our friends. They didn’t understand, they didn’tcare. With the contacts Mathilde introduced me to, I could increase my game a thousandfold.And it worked. They invested more and more—I just had to stay ahead of the game, ahead of them all.”
His sharp inhale through his nose as he blissfully closes his eyes and turns his face to the sky shocks me, and I startle, my nerves frayed. It nearly unsettles him, almost has him casting his eye about the small clearing, but he is too wrapped up in the high of remembering the apparent thrill of investment fraud.
He’d been running a fucking investment scam.
“You compelled them to invest, didn’t you?”
His furious face snaps back to me. “A gold star for the little genius.Yes. None of you knew I had that particular gift. None of you had any idea of what gifts my parents gave me. They taught me how to be clever, to use the skills they had to my advantage, to bemore.”
His eyes are crazed, his voice frantic. “But then Mathilde found everything—well, mostly. She never found out the truth about my talents. My mother was not only a powerful witch, but she was cunning too. She taught me how to conceal the gifts inherited from my father, how to mask my magic so as to appear weak and harmless. But then Mathilde ran crying to her father. Rather than risk the scandal, he made me quietly end the engagement and disappear. And I would have.”
“UntilI heard a rather interesting argument between your father and your cousin. Your cousin Gerald was mad he had invested with me, and your father threatened to disinherithimand welcome you back into the family.Especiallyif you madea suitable match. It hadn’t taken much more effort to convince him that none other than yours truly would be an impeccable mate for you. I only had tofind you.And you were wiley, I’ll give you that. But…” He quirks an eyebrow, calm again now. “…here we are.”
“And how exactly did you find me?” He startles me again, stepping away quickly, turning on his heel to return to the altar.
“Do you know anything of the mages that once resided on this land?”
I shake my head and throw my hands in the air, forgetting for a moment the magic sparking there before quickly tucking them back into hiding. Gods, I hope the stance at least looks casual and not like I’m hiding or cowering.
His monologuing was really taking away from the stress of the situation for me. A part of me considers just making a run for it, but now I am invested. I want to know.Needto know.
“No,Darius, I don’t know anything about the mages that once dwelled in the Whisper Woods.”
A flurry of magic whips from his hand, smacking me hard across the face. The pain stings my cheeks. Blinking back tears of pain I refuse to show him, I rub my cheek with my palm, still trying to conceal the uncontrolled power sizzling at the place where my fingers meet my palm.
“I will only tolerate so much, Theo. I warn you now.” Darius strokes the cover of the ancient tome again and rolls his shoulders. “Mages are known for their elemental control. But that is child’s play compared to the mages of the Woods. They were masters of the astral realm. Weavers of spiritual threads that bind us all. They could walk amongst the dead. Talk to spirits.Dream walk…”
It was him.
The thought hurts like a punch to the guts, winding me, wounding me more than any of the bullshit this encounter haswrought.Hehad stalked my dreams, tortured my sleep, until he found me, took me from the people I love, toforce mate me? Fuck this.
“You bastard.” He knows. I know. He knows I know, and I know he knows I know. Sounds confusing, but it means it’s all out in the air now.
That same empty smile is plastered on his face again, and, before I can raise my hand to wipe it off as painfully as possible, my arms are bound to my body with magical bonds. I fight with all of my strength, but there is nothing I can do when I’m raised in the air til my sneakers drag on the rocks, carrying me closer to the altar and my deranged ex.
