Abel’s body shook with laughter from behind me. I didn’t find any of this tale to be amusing, though, I appreciated him calling me pretty. I had a ball of dread sitting like a brick in the pit of my stomach. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to know about Annabell anymore, and I certainly wasn’t sure I wanted to hear about what she’d done to Tyson and what Quinton had done to her in return.
Abel stopped laughing. He put pressure on the hand splayed between my breasts and pushed me back until there was no longer any space between our bodies.
Addison placed his big hand on top of my head and he absently played with my hair while he continued on with his story.
“She had Tyson, too, she had all of him, heart and soul. He bought her things, expensive purses and jewelry and shoes. Clothes, whatever she wanted he bought for her. We thought we were going to be stuck with her for the long haul and my twin and I were miserable. For a while we thought we were going to have to leave our coven and find another one. I mean, we get the whole sharing thing, we don’t even mind it. We always knew we’d share with each other because we share everything, sharing with our brothers isn’t such a big deal to us. Not only that, but it’s something we are all taught as acceptable so long as she has magic. But the thought of putting that bitch in-between my twin and I turned my stomach. Not even for Ty’s happiness could we pull that off. We didn’t even try to hide our distaste for the greedy cow. She moved from Ty’s bed to Julian’s bed to Damien’s bed. All the while she whispered in their ears, telling them she loved them one second, and trying to turn them against us in the next. We thought it was weird that she only worked on those three and we brought our concerns to Quinton. Every day we watched in horror as she pulled our brothers further and further away from us. Too lost in his own sorrow, Quinton hadn’t noticed a damn thing until we said something to him. Finally, it was the thing that snapped him out of his grief and he started paying attention again. Quinton checked in with the other covens she’d visited the longest and what they told him… Ariel, it was bad. She’d gone from coven to coven and handpicked the ones she liked. She had planned on splitting us all up and creating her own coven, she wanted to rule us all. And the fucked-up part is she used magic on everyone she slept with, that’s how she got them on her side. She broke one of our most sacred laws and because she was female there wasn’t shit we could do about it.”
“Quinton lost his damn mind,” Abel added quietly. “I thought he was going to kill her anyway and damn the consequences. She almost tore our family apart and she did the same thing to three other covens. Some of them still aren’t recovered from her. She turned brother against brother. Even if she did use magic to get what she wanted out of them, their betrayal still stung. If it weren’t for Quinton our family would likely be in ruin after Annabell.”
“Quinton attacked Tyson,” Addison said, taking the story over once again. “They beat the shit out of each other, all the while hurling horrible insults at each other. It took four of us to pry them apart. When Quinton told us the truth, that she was stealing members from each coven so she could build her own and she’d used magic to do it, all so she could be some sort of Queen. Well, it’s safe to say that didn’t go over well amongst us. We finally stopped fighting each other. The other covens she’d played with wanted their pound of flesh from her. The Elders wanted to lock her away for her own safety. What they really wanted to do was protect her from the rest of us all because she had a vagina. And her original coven, well they wanted her back because they loved her and she hadn’t even had to use magic on them to gain their love and loyalty. They loved her because she was a beautiful girl with magic.”
When Addison paused, Abel picked up the story for him. “We were told by the Council of Elders to send her back to her original coven. To our surprise, Quinton agreed.”
“But Quinton is Quinton,” Addison said. “You don’t fuck with his family and simply walk away from it unharmed. He made an example out of Annabell, he wanted the other covens to know just who they were dealing with if they fucked with us. He made something special just for her and he mixed it in with her facewash. It ruined half of her face, Ariel. And I mean ruined. Half her face looks like it was shoved in an open fire pit. Annabell the Beautiful had her beauty stolen from her which is what Quinton had wanted. Without her beauty, she’s forced to rely on her charm. Which is unfortunate for her because she’s rotten to the core.”
“Dash blames Quinton for letting Annabell get so close.”
Ah. Abel’s words explained something I had been curious about having heard outside the kitchen.
“Quinton is scary,” I whispered to the both of them.
“Quinton is scary,” they both agreed in unison.
I shivered, thankful I didn’t have to sleep alone in the dark on this night.
> I understood them better now, if only a little and my heart hurt for Tyson. He was quickly becoming my favorite and the thought of someone purposefully harming him had my chest clenching painfully. I didn’t so much care about Julian or Damien’s broken hearts because they didn’t mean anything to me yet.
It was the yet on the end of that sentence that frightened me. I didn’t think I wanted to care for all of them, but I was certain I didn’t want to have an intimate relationship with all of them.
I thought about their story of Annabell the Beautiful, the treacherous cow, and I knew I was in over my head. I couldn’t have a relationship with simply one of them, they wouldn’t allow it. They were a package deal and it seemed there would come a time when I had to choose; all or nothing.
Even with Addison watching over me and Abel holding on to me tightly my sleep was restless and filled with disturbing things.
I dreamed of a raven-haired beauty. She had the blackest eyes I had ever seen and plump, ruby red lips. She stood before a large, oval shaped mirror, naked. She had small, high breasts with tiny, dark nipples and a narrow waist. I thought she was beautiful in the face, but childlike in body.
She raised her hand and laid her palm flat against the mirror, covering up half her face. Slowly, the visible side of her face melted down to nothing but gruesome burns. Even half her mouth was ruined, forever drooping in a melted frown.
Annabell.
I dreamed of Annabell.
And somehow, I knew that was exactly what she looked like in real life.
Over and over again, she pressed her hand to the mirror, covering half her face. And over and over again, I watched as the other half of her face melted away. It felt like it lasted for hours and when I finally woke up in the morning I felt like I had every tiny detail of her body memorized, even the ruined side of her face.
Yes, Uncle Quinton was definitely a scary dude to have done that to her.
A small part of me, a part I’d never admit to anyone else, felt like my luck might have changed simply by having Quinton in my life.
I spent the weekend going between Tyson’s room and the twin’s room. They gifted me with books about magic, candles and answered any question I threw their way. They taught me things, incredible things about magic and I learned a lot from them.
I didn’t go downstairs again until it was time to get ready for school on Monday morning. I didn’t have to see the rest of them the whole weekend. I didn’t know if I was excited about this or disappointed.
Chapter Twenty-six
Shit.
He hadn’t been there when I’d gone into the bathroom, but he was certainly there now. And with his eyes locked on me I knew he was propped up against the wall waiting for me to leave the bathroom.