Exile Empire, Exile The Second

Chapter 12 - Kairos

"Okay, so start from the beginning," I told Missy when we took our spots in a booth at the back of the cafe she'd found. It was cute, a little mom and pop diner that had probably been here for a few decades. We ordered coffee and Sorin and I ordered some food to share.

Missy, of course, ordered nothing because this kind of place didn't do vegan and I felt mildly guilty eating our cheese curds and meat gravy fries in front of her.

Until I remembered the dumplings, then I devoured every flavorful bite and relished every moment of it.

"Well, I was sent to keep an eye on you," she said, sitting back with her coffee mug in her hand and a curl of steam rising towards her smug face. "The society keeps watch on all rogue magic practitioners, and you, my friend, are a legend."

"A legend?"

"For turning your back on your sacred vows. I mean, who even does that?" she laughed and then gave Sorin the old once over across the table. If Missy could come up with a spell that let her fuck my mate with her eyes, I'm sure she would've. "And come on...you're not jumping on this big old hunk of burning love the moment he looked at you? Seriously girl, the universe paired you with the top of the tier in possible bond mates and you're hesitating because you're scared? So yeah, you're a fucking legend."

I didn't like the way she said legend now, like I was the dumbest person in the magical realm. Maybe I was, I didn't want to be called out for it though.

"Kairos owes no explanation to any of you," Sorin said, his voice taking on the edge of a dangerous growl. Not quite a beastly sound, but a low rumble in his throat that impressed the hell out of me. And made me a little bit horny. "You need to watch what you say about her, wood witch, I don't have any qualms using force against your kind."

I sat next to him, of course, and she was on the other side of the table. Even from where I was seated, I saw her visibly recoil in fear as Sorin made his stance known. I didn't want a fight though. We had to work with Missy for now in order to figure shit out, so I placed my hand on his forearm and said, "It's okay. I'm sure she doesn't mean anything by it. In fact, some might argue that being called a legend is a good thing."

Missy didn't recognize an out when she was handed one on a silver platter, so she leaned forward, looked me right in the eye and curled her lip into that sarcastic smile I hated so much. "A legendary fuck up."

Her glee was short-lived, Sorin's hand shot out and gripped her by the throat before she could even blink. She squeaked and stared at him with huge, terrified eyes watering with horror.

"How dare you—" she croaked before she was cut off by his choke hold.

"I told you, you don't talk about Kairos like that. You are a mere wood witch, the lowest form of magic practitioner. She is a guardian, and an Empire guardian at that. She is at the top of the pack and you know it. Now I want you to apologize for antagonizing my mate and using her lack of knowledge against her."

Missy's eyes rolled towards me and she mouthed the word, "Sorry," but was unable to get much else out beyond that.

I touched Sorin's arm again and said, "Let her go, it's okay."

He didn't respond at first, the muscles in his arm were bulging and corded, indicating the tension held there. But he took a deep breath, looked at me and relaxed.

"You should never hurt a woman," Missy sputtered, rubbing her throat where Sorin had left red fingerprints on her pale flesh. "You're a bastard."

"And you're no woman," Sorin said, narrowing his eyes as he stared her down. "Are you, witch?"

She gasped, looking down at the table. Her face flamed red and she made a small noise of defeat without looking back up.

"What is she?" I asked, opening up my vision again to take a full look.

And wondered why I hadn't noticed it before. She appeared human to me at first, and if I'd glanced at her, I would've never noticed what was going on. But upon further inspection, I saw that the human shield was a magic spell cloaking her true identity underneath. All I could catch glimpses of was something older, darker, and more brittle than anything I'd ever seen. It looked fragile, like if I poked at it, I'd collapse the entire thing with little effort.

And that's what Sorin had meant by her magic being the lowest form. She hadn't used one large, powerful spell, but had stacked several small spells on top of each other haphazardly. I couldn't even begin to understand where one spell ended, and the next began. They were so expertly interwoven, but they were just that. Separate entities, like a patchwork instead of a solid piece of fabric.

"She's weak," I said, closing my vision. "What's going on here?"

"You want to tell her, or should I?" Sorin asked.

"I'll tell her," Missy said, her jaw thrust out stubbornly. I had to give it to her. She had a toughness that only came from being an underdog. It was something I admired. It was easy to strut around if you were born into power and influence, but it was another thing entirely to strut your stuff when you had to convince anyone you were worthy of admiration.

I looked at Sorin, then back to Missy.

"Somebody'd better start talking," I said. "What the hell is happening here?"

"Your mate is correct," Missy said. "I'm a wood witch, I've been doing this for longer than our people were in this land. We're from the old world, when women were seen as healers and visionaries. Before the times of the hanging god, when women became feared and controlled."

"What's up with your magic?" I asked.

"It's cobbled together, you could see that," she said, seeming ashamed by it. "We had to learn in darkness and in secret. It didn't make things easy on us. I can't connect with the source like you're able to, it prevents me from creating larger spells or making more complicated glyphs that actually work."

"How do you get any power at all?" I asked.

"I collect it as I go, and store it inside," she said. "I'm like a battery system. Every time you do a spell, there is an excess energy that isn't used. This is what my kind gathers and protects so we're able to create."

"They're leeches," Sorin spat. "Always lurking around, sniffing here and there for scraps from the table. All they do with their limited drama is create trouble. They like it when people fight, it leads to more spell work, and more offerings for their pathetic little baskets."

"This is true of most of my people," Missy said and for once she seemed human, her face fell and she humbled herself. "I'm not like that. I haven't been for over a hundred years. I've been working for the Society all that time and have never had a single moment of bad behavior. They're my source, now."

"How old are you?" I asked, a little let down at an ancient being in the form of my nemesis.

"Several hundred years," she said. "That's as close as I remember."

"All those years under your belt, and you chose to be a basic bitch," I said as if in awe.

She froze, a look of anger flared in her eyes, and then she snickered. "Yeah, imagine that. I just love Ugg boots and soy chai lattes from Starbucks."

I laughed with her, and the tension between us seemed to drain away, leaving an open pathway for us to forge a new friendship.

Sorin wasn't thrilled about it. I felt him tense up every time we laughed together, but he had to go along with it. He wasn't in charge around here, and he would have to learn that lesson, eventually.

I might be his bond mate, but I wasn't his to command. And if he ever grabbed me the way he had Missy, he'd learn just how hard I could punch back.

I just hoped it never got to that point.