“Stop calling me that.” My voice shook with a boldness I found faltering. “I’m not a witch.”
“Aren’t you?” Her eyes narrowed and my marks flared harder. “I can feel your magic from here, but I can feel his as well.”
Coldness dripped along my skin as if I was standing in a pouring rain. Everything about this woman warned me away, but I needed to know, I needed to hear what she knew.
“And what they say about me saving the kingdom?”
She studied me for a long moment before she spoke again. “Which kingdom is it that you’d like to save?”
She was speaking in riddles, and my anger started to overtake my fear. “I don’t understand.”
“Blood and magic have been woven together throughout our land for centuries, but you are the blade with which they will sever it.”
“You’re not making any sense.” I stepped toward her again, and her smile widened.
“Your stars burn brighter in the shadows, witch. But it is you who must decide which darkness you cling to.” She stepped back, and part of her body was shrouded by the trees.
I didn’t want her to leave. I thrust forward, desperate for her to stay, and her eyes tracked my every movement.
“You aren’t telling me anything,” I growled in frustration. “What darkness? What does that mean?”
She took another step backward, and my marks screamed in frustration against my skin as I tried to reach her. “Please,” I roared, and power shot from my fingers as I outstretched my hand.
“Witch,” she cursed the name as my magic fell upon her.
Terror and wrath like I had never known dug its claws into me. My hands shook as I stared down at them, at where the magic had just fallen from my fingertips. I didn’t know whose power I possessed, mine or the prince’s, but a familiarity I shouldn’t have recognized wrapped around my hand and caressed my arms.
“I’m sorry. I…”
She was retreating, running from me when I should have been the one who was fearful of her.
“Princess!”
My magic drew into me, pushing me back, begging me to turn at the sound of Evren’s voice.
“You choose your darkness.” The woman looked at me once more before her gaze slid over my shoulder to where I knew Evren was coming up behind me. “Choose wisely.”
I didn’t know if that was a warning against the prince who found me or the prince who stole from me, but regardless, my magic still called to him. It coaxed me back, step after step, until I turned away from the woman and faced him fully.
His eyes were wide and filled with rage and terror, and even from where I stood, I could see sweat beading along his skin.
“What the fuck are you doing?” He reached for me, his hand grasping my arm before he jerked me toward him. He searched over my head, and I knew who he was seeing. Black smoke fell from his fingers, and it hit me how similar my magic had looked to his.
“Don’t hurt her,” I cried as he tugged me behind him.
“What?” He looked at me, and rage poured from every part of him.
“Please don’t hurt her.”
“I’m not going to hurt her, princess, but you’re lucky that she didn’t harm you.” His fingers pressed into me, and they trembled with his barely controlled power. “You’re blessed that I don’t fucking punish you until you scream. You used my feelings for you against me, and I put my trust where it didn’t belong.”
I jerked out of his hold, but he refused to let me go. I knew that he wouldn’t let me out of his hold ever again.
He had trusted me, and I demolished that trust when I ran.
“I won’t let you punish me.” My voice shook even as I stared at him with as much courage as I could muster. The woman’s words echoed in my head as I stared at him.
You choose your darkness.