Underneath a Dark Moon (Twisted Dark #3)

Chapter Twenty: Found Out

I felt languid and just a touch sore as I slowly woke up. A faint light was streaming through the curtains and I stretched, wincing slightly at the ache I seemed to have in pretty much all of my muscles. My cheeks flushed as I remembered just how thoroughly Abe had taken me the night before. Bam had been right, I honestly didn't want warlock anymore because Abe had fucked me that well.

I found a small smile tugging up my mouth as I rolled over to find him in the bed but I was quick to realize I was alone. I sat up, frowning slightly as I looked to the rumpled side of bed that Abe had occupied. "Don't look for the mutt, he cleared out early this morning." At the cold yet familiar voice my heart lurched as my breath caught in my throat. I yanked the blankets up to my chest as I spotted Mercutio. His eyes were cold and he leaned against the dresser, staring at me intently, his expression harsh. "He got what he wanted from you and you gave it up so easily didn't you? No need for him to stick around after that." There was no angry inflection to his voice like I expected but there was a heavy dose of mocking and I found myself scowling at him, anger rising up.

"Like I would believe a damn thing you said." I spat the words at him, meeting his gaze as I glared at him with all the hate in the world. "You were using me to kill Bam." I wouldn't ever forget that, forget that he had nearly killed me in his quest to destroy someone I loved deeply.

"Very clever, not as clever as your sister but clever enough all the same." He tossed the necklace lazily towards me. It landed on the bed spread on my legs. "But not clever enough. It had a tracking spell on it that your sister removed but not before we were alerted to her being off dimension. We are looking through the dimensions as we speak. We will find her before the day is out." My breath hitched in my chest and my heart started to pound. "So I would like to thank you for helping me out as much as you have. It seems this mission wasn't as much of a waste as I believed it to be." He smirked at me rather coldly an icy chuckle leaving him.

I shuddered underneath it but lifted my chin. "You won't find her." I knew Bam could keep ahead of him, she was too smart, too clever to be found by him. At my words he moved off of the dresser and lazily sauntered towards me, his gaze hard like flint as he reached my side.

"Such a hopeful creature, Novis." He brushed my hair back from my face and I flinched away from him.

My heart pounded in my chest so hard I felt like it would break through. "I'll alert her before you do." I knew where she was, if I got my hands on a portal spell orb I could get to her before them.

At that Mercutio gave me such a sickly sweet smile that it felt like my heart had stopped for a moment. "I know you will. This is why I am sentencing you to death for sleeping with a beast. You can't warn her if you are ash."

My stomach bottomed out and my mouth went dry as I started to shake as panicked fear filled me. "You can't do-"

"I can and I have." He wrapped a small chunk of my hair around his finger and tugged on it lightly. "I can't have you ruining my plans for your sister and plans for curing the species." He looked so amused and I felt my stomach churning. I was going to die and he was still planning on using the small werefemale for the containment spell.

"It won't work! The cure is false, you know this!" My heart was thudding in my ears and I held the blankets tightly in my hands.

He gave me another grin. "But the werewolves don't and that is all I need. If I wish to eradicate them entirely I need them to at least think I am being truthful."

Realization flooded me at his words. "You are going to curse them." He was trying to eradicate all of them. It was never about a cure, it was about killing the werewolves in their entirety. My stomach twisted and lurched at that.

"I am, such a clever girl you are." He grasped his chin, tapping his fingers along his skin with that eerie grin on his face. It made me want to shudder as I looked at him.

"If Abe hears about what you are going to do with the small werefemale, he will kill you." Abe would never allow it, I knew he would try his best to stop Mercutio. I glanced around quickly, wondering where he had gone, what he was doing, and why the hell he hadn't come back yet.

"Abraham signed off on this order, he knows exactly what I am going to do. Your High King has decided that the brutal death of a young werefemale is okay in the face of extinction." His grin turned into a smug smirk as an icy feeling of disgust rose up in me.

"I don't believe you." He was lying simply because he wanted me to believe Abe was a bad person, that Abe was lying to me himself.

He pulled a folded up parchment from his pocket with a flourish. He unfolded it and held it out for me. "A signature speaks more than I can." I blinked rapidly as I took the parchment with shaking fingers. I inhaled sharply when I spotted Abe's name and his signature right beside it.

"He wouldn't-" My breath caught in my throat as I looked at it. He had signed off of an order that would brutalize a little girl. Bile rose up in my throat

"Yet he did. He didn't even tell you that he was a High King, Novis. He probably made you think you could be with him, much like I did, but you and I both know that you could never rule anywhere." He stroked my cheek and I once again flinched away from the touch. "Unfit to be a witch and unable to wear a crown. No one will ever accept you, Novis. Think of my judgment as a blessing, you wont have to live in a world where no one would love you." He tsked at me lightly. "Let's get you dressed and then we can prepare for your judgment together." He sounded so concerned and sweet that I wanted to cover my ears with my hands and scream but my eyes were stuck on the parchment.

My eyes took in every single word of the order, how it laid it out, how it told about the containment spell, how it explained what would happen. I felt dizzy as I looked at Abe's name.

Abraham Noxerius, High King of High Kings.

His was the one signature that mattered, the one that overruled all others and he had signed it. He had looked at this order, read about it, looked at the horror that would be bestowed on a child and had agreed to it. I swallowed hard against the bile that wanted to rise up as my eyes burned.

"She's just a child." The words came out choked and I looked up at Mercutio. "She's just a baby." Werewolf or not, she wasn't even close to being done growing, she was so small and sweet.

"She is one of them. Creatures that don't deserve your pity or emotion, Novis. Their highest official signed off on it. They slated one of their precious children for slaughter." He tsked again stroking my back, I shuddered underneath the touch, my skin crawling as I looked up at him but I felt like I couldn't move away. "They are brutal beasts and this world would be better off without them." He squeezed my shoulder before waving his hand and I was suddenly clothed.

He smiled at me then, it felt so slimy that I shuddered underneath it. His gaze trailed down my form. "I did wonder what it would have been like to bed you. I wanted to see all you would do for me to ensure you had my favour." He sniffed slightly before pushing his long hair behind his shoulder. "It's a shame you are tainted as you are. I would never touch a werewolf's leftovers. It seems the Oracles can be wrong about some things, you could never be my Queen. Now up and out of bed. You need to return to the Coven to prepare for your burning." He grabbed my arm and yanked me from the bed before he pulled the parchment form my hand. He folded it and tucked it into my pocket. "To remember your beast." With the mocking words that twisted my heart in my chest he shoved me through a portal I hadn't realized he created.