Wicked Legends: A Dystopian Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection Page 17

  He would murder both Paris and Casandra with his bare hands if that’s what it took to keep Julia safe. He would never stop fighting, never stop trying, never stop loving her.

  He would do everything in his power to make this right, and he—

  A force, blunt and debilitating, hit hard against the back of his head.

  Roman cursed under his breath. He tried to fight it, but he knew better. For all his fervor, for all his plans, he knew that this blow would take him down.

  He fell to his knees, trying to crawl toward her. If he could just get to her then maybe he could keep her safe.

  Another blow struck the back of his head.

  He couldn’t crawl anymore. Instead, he reached into his pocket, rubbing the onyx stone.

  “Take me to her,” he mumbled.

  A third blow struck him. Blood and metal flooded his mouth, and his vision went dark.

  21

  Julia

  The pain in her heart was gone. The hurt that had colored everything about her since the instant she had been pulled away from Roman had finally been lifted. The world was all right. She was all right.

  And she was gone.

  “Where are we?” asked a voice from behind her.

  She didn’t need to turn around to recognize it. She knew it in her soul.

  Turning, she saw Roman. He was dressed plainly in a navy blue tee, a pair of jeans, and a baseball cap.

  He looked a bit ridiculous, actually, but maybe that was the point. Roman hadn’t dressed like that since they were kids, since the days when they first got together. And here he was, as old as he was today and looking every bit like the guy she’d fallen for all those years ago.

  “We’re in Iowa,” she said, looking around. “It’s the farm I moved to after I left Savannah.”

  A wide smile birthed across her face as she looked around. There was the old barn her grandmother had helped her own father build nearly a hundred years ago. There was the farmhouse-two stories of good, honest wood covered in white paint and blue trimmings. And there was the corn, shooting up toward Heaven in near endless rows as far as the eye could see.

  It had been so simple here, so damn easy. She remembered how it felt when she came here after nearly losing her mind. She found herself again on this land, discovering pieces of her that she never knew existed.

  Though it wasn’t home, though it would never be home, she loved this place.

  And apparently part of her wished she had stayed.

  “I hope you’re okay,” she said, looking at what she assumed was the walking talking personification of Roman.

  Her mind had built him, no doubt. Placing him here in these surroundings, the one piece of the puzzle that real life had been missing.

  “I’m better now,” he answered, moving toward her. “But I’m not sure how long that will last.”

  “No,” she said, smiling wide. “I meant the real you, the actual person still in the land of the living.”

  He looked down at the ground and then back up at her. Even here, in this dream world, the sight of him took her breath away.

  “This is me, Julia,” he said, shaking his head. “This is the real me. I watched you take the potion. I tried to stop you, but I was too late. So I pulled the magic off an onyx stone. I thought it would give me the strength to get to you, to your body. Instead, I guess it brought me here.”

  “You’re serious, aren’t you?” she asked, her eyes widening. “My God, it’s actually you.” She collided with him, hugging him and digging her face into his chest. “Thank God.”

  “Listen to me, Julia,” Roman said, pulling her away from him. “You-you need to get up.”

  “What?” She bit her lip and shook her head. “No. No, I don’t. This was the plan. Faking my death will put an end to this killing. It’s what’s needed. It’s what’s necessary.”

  “Not anymore,” Roman said, rubbing his hands down her arms and resting them just above her elbows.

  “What are you talking about?” Julia asked. Shadows from above drew her gaze, and she saw the clear sky was now beginning to cloud up. “This was your idea, Roman. Remember? You’re the one who gave me the potion.”

  “Because I thought it would keep you safe.” He blinked hard. “I thought this would take you out of the game. I figured this potion would keep you in stasis until I could get to you. But that was before I knew the truth.”

  “The truth?” Julia asked, backing away from him. “What is the truth, Roman?”

  He stared deeply into her eyes. “Do you trust me, Julia?”

  “Why do you ask?” Her lips pursed. “What’s going on, Roman?”

  “Because you’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you.” He advanced on her again. “Because it’s awful and insane and it’s going to change everything you think you know about your family. And I need to know that you trust me when I tell it to you.”

  A sense of dread washed over her, and she didn’t know if it was because she dreaded what he might reveal or whether she feared it wouldn’t be true—that the man she loved might be lying to her. But no sooner did she have that thought that she knew the answer. Whatever he was about to say was big, and it was the truth.

  “Go on, then,” she said, her voice cracking at the end. “Just say it.”

  “Julia…”

  “I trust you,” she said. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. I wouldn’t have taken that potion in the first place?” She let him advance on her, this time taking his hands in her own. “I trust you with my life. Now tell me what’s going on.”

  “They’re trying to kill you,” Roman said flatly.

  Julia looked him up and down, her heart racing.

  “What?” she asked. “Who?”

  “Paris and Cassandra,” he said. “They’re working together. I heard them talking at a coffeehouse. They said—”

  “No.” Just moved a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes. “Oh, Roman. No. You must be mistaken. There’s…there’s no way—”

  “I know it’s hard for you to hear this,” Roman said. “But I was there. Paris said—”

  “Forget Paris,” Julia shouted. Thunder cracked overhead. “I barely even know him. Who knows what that son of a bitch is up to? But Cass is family.”

  “Julia…” Roman started.

  “She knew,” Julia snapped. “She knew about us the entire time we were together, and she didn’t say a word. Now, if she wanted me dead, then why wouldn’t she use that to get to me? Why let that slide?”

  “I don’t know,” Roman said, spreading his hands. “She’s…a lot more calculated than that. She wants power. She wants to be ruler of the Moon Coven.”

  “She’s already going to be,” Julia screamed. “Grandfather gave it to her!”

  “Did he?” Roman asked, staring into her soul. “Or did you?”

  She pressed her lips together and looked away. He was wrong. Cass didn’t have anything to do with whatever he thought was going on.

  He took a deep breath and continued. “Listen baby, I know what I heard. She said that your grandfather wanted to give the power to you, that the ancestors speak to you and you alone.”

  “I can’t even understand what they’re saying,” Julia said, as though that would explain things. She shook her head, surprised to find tears streaming down her face.

  “She said she’d never be secure as head so long as you were around. She tasked Paris with killing you. But she said it couldn’t happen until after the wedding. She was really adamant about that part. I don’t know why.”

  “We’re communal covens,” Julia said, choking back tears. “Our powers are naturally combined after a top tier union. It would—it would have given them both twice the power they came into things with. It also means that Paris would be able to hear the ancestors, too.”

  “Those sons of bitches,” Roman said through gritted teeth. He moved closer to her and grabbed her arms. “This is why I need you to get up, baby. They’ll kill you.”r />
  “They already think I’m dead,” she said.

  “They won’t take the chance. They’ll want to be sure about it.”

  “They want the power,” she answered. “Paris and I never got through the ceremony.”

  “They won’t care about that anymore,” Roman said, and she knew he was right. “They won’t miss this opportunity. Trust me, Julia. If you don’t get up, those two are going to make sure you never can.”

  Julia was unable to keep the tears in check anymore. She sobbed uncontrollably, shaking as she melted into Roman’s arms.

  “I’m sorry this is happening,” he whispered against her hair. “Being betrayed is hard.”

  “I was finally here.” She hiccupped through her tears. “I thought it was finally over, Roman. I’m so tired. And I was finally here, where I wanted to be. And you were here, too.” She sniffled. “I just wanted to rest. I wanted to stay here with you and forget about the rest of it.”

  “You’d never truly get any rest here,” Roman said, brushing hair out of her eyes. “You never really did before, did you? That’s why you came back. To much left undone, and now, too much at stake. You’re not that girl. I know you, Julia Fairweather. You’re the strongest girl in the world.”

  “My track record would disagree.”

  “Uh-uh,” he said, caressing the side of her arm. “I shouldn’t have let you go. That’s as much my fault. But I’m stronger now, too, and I am never, ever letting go of you again.” He looked down at Julia and squeezed her arms again. “We’re never losing each other again. Fuck the feud. Fuck the families. I’ve got you, and you’ve got me. Nothing else matters. So wake up baby. Wake up and kick some ass.”

  He leaned in and pressed his lips hard against hers.

  Julia’s entire body lit up and the clouds above released a torrent of the heaviest rains she had ever felt.

  She pulled her lips away from his, away from where they belonged and whispered, “Okay.”

  Julia snapped back into the world of the living, aching a little as she realized what she had left behind.

  Still, she took solace in the fact that Roman had probably woken, too. And he was safe, which meant he had actually managed to live through the nonsense of earlier.

  Everything was clear in her mind. Julia remembered all that Roman had told her, and her mind was spinning with the revelations.

  The fact that Cassandra and Paris were actively working toward Julia’s demise sent spikes of pain into her heart. But it also set her mind to working.

  Things had been going on under the surface ever since Julia came back, and she needed to get to the bottom of it. Now that she knew what was going on, she could work to stop it. But she needed to be careful. Cass was obviously a force to be reckoned with, and Julia didn’t want to tip her hand too early. She needed every advantage she could get, including the element of surprise.

  Julia saw that she had been moved to her bedroom, still wearing her wedding dress. The ruffles of her dress bunched as she sat up but fell back down as she stood.

  There was no noise coming through the walls, which likely meant that the brunt of the battle was over. But how long had she been unconscious? Had they thought she was dead and, if so, why move her into her room?

  Julia pushed those questions out of her mind. There were so many more necessary questions to consider right now, so many more pressing matters.

  She moved toward the door, surprised at how loopy she was, at how much her head was spinning.

  She had to move past this. There was so much more at stake than she had ever imagined. She yearned for the times when she thought the only thing that mattered was her relationship with Roman. She certainly knew better than that now.

  If Cassandra was allowed to take over the Moon Coven, she would become one of the most powerful witches in all of the world. And, given that Julia had idea what her true motives were, that couldn’t be allowed to happen.

  Julia didn’t want to be head of her family. The Moon Coven had always looked like a burden to her, something that held her back from the things she really wanted in her life and the person she was capable of being. But none of that mattered now. The world was at stake. Her family’s legacy was at stake. Everything she knew and had ever known to be true was at stake.

  She didn’t want to be a leader but, like it or not, she was one. She had no choice.

  No sooner had this realization dawned on her that the voices of the ancestors chimed back to life in her ears. They were louder this time, clearer. For the first time in forever, Julia could make out the words as they whispered.

  And they were cheering her on.

  Words of encouragement bounced around her head, facilitated by the most powerful leaders the Moon Coven had ever known. And more than that, they gave her their spells. One at a time, and sometimes all at once, they told her their hard-earned secrets. The spells and magic they had spent years and years perfecting were now piped into Julia’s consciousness.

  They were hers. And finally, it all made sense. The ancestors knew. They must have known. They must have looked at Cassandra and seen the truth that had alluded Julia for who knew how many years. They must have seen inside Cass’s heart and knew how lacking it had always been, how cold and hard she was on the inside.

  Julia had always been the ancestors’ choice. The voices were proof enough of that, and now that Julia was finally through ignoring them, they would provide her with enough firepower to undo her mistakes of weakness and indifference.

  If she was lucky.

  Julia steeled herself and started out of the room. She was a Fairweather, a damn good witch in the greatest line the world had even seen. It wasn’t going to end like this. She would make damn sure of that.

  She walked into the common area. It was full of witches from both covens, all of them milling around. The defeat that colored them was palpable. This had been a hell of a fight, a hell of a battle. And it was clear that not all of them had made it out alive.

  She shuddered, thinking of the costs of this fight. Still, Mother, Grandfather, and Uncle Jasper all seemed to be intact, sitting around the main dining room table.

  Paris and Cassandra also seemed to have made it out in one piece. That didn’t surprise Julia. In her experience, that sort of evil had to be taken down in a much more meticulous manner.

  But now was not the time, Even with the ancestors filling her head with spells, Cassandra was a formidable opponent. And this place was full of witches who very likely had nothing to do with this nonsense. Throwing them into another fight, especially another fight Julia wasn’t sure she could win, wasn’t in anyone’s best interest.

  Instead, she plastered on the sort of tapered-down smile one wears while trying to make the best of things during a crisis.

  “You’re awake,” Cassandra said, eyeing Julia as she strode in, wedding dress and all. “Thank God.”

  It took all Julia could do not to launch toward the bitch. Instead, she nodded, tapering her voice as she responded. “Yeah,” she answered. “I must have hit my head or something.”

  “No. It was more than that,” Cassandra said. “Your heart was still. Your breath was silent. We thought you were dead, and we would have truly believed it if Grandfather hadn’t managed to sense how strong your aura still was.” Cassandra pursed her lips. “I saw the Blackwood boy around you. I think he was the one who cast the spell. He must have been trying to kill you. Guess we don’t always know people the way we think we do.”

  Was she really doing this? Was she trying to paint Roman as a traitorous killer when she had been the cause of all of this?

  Julia’s blood boiled. “Oh, I think that’s an understatement, Cassandra. Were the casualties severe?”

  “Always, my dear,” Grandfather said, motioning for Julia to come and sit.

  Hesitantly, she made her way to the table.

  They had no idea. They really thought Cassandra and Paris were victims in all of this. That couldn’t be allowed to go on, but
outing them publicly with so little to go on would only make things worse and risk the lives of anyone nearby. Enough had died for this.

  “We should send these people home,” Julia said, sitting between Grandfather and her mother. “If it’s safe to do so, I mean.”

  “No, no,” Cassandra said, peering at Julia from across the table. “That’s really unnecessary. After all, they came here for a wedding, and that’s what we should give them.”

  “What?” Julia’s hands balled into fists on the table. “You’re not serious. Certainly you don’t expect us to go through with a wedding after everything that’s happened?”

  “I absolutely do.” Cassandra used a tone that said she thought Julia was the crazy one. “This wedding is happening for a reason. We need to solidify this bond. It’ll make us stronger. It’ll steel us from any future attacks from the Blackwoods.”

  “It didn’t steel us now,” Julia answered. “Every witch in the Northern hemisphere is here, and they still handed our asses to us.”

  Cassandra leaned across the table, pretense falling from her face a little. “You’re not making any sense, Julia,” she said. “Perhaps the stress is starting to get to you. Like it did last year.”

  “That’s enough,” Grandfather said, glaring at Cass.

  “It definitely is not enough,” Cassandra spit back, in an unheard of show of disrespect to the coven’s sitting head—not to mention her own blood.

  Grandfather reared back, ready to undoubtedly give her the scolding of a lifetime.

  “Don’t even start,” Cassandra said. “This is about the future, Grandfather. A future that you have no part to play in. This is what’s necessary for the coven, for us to survive. And, should you decide to let your bleeding heart and soft spot for Julia give you unwarranted and destructive pause, I’ll have to override you.”

  “Are you insane?” Julia asked, standing to her feet. “You don’t run this coven yet, and if you keep flapping your mouth like this, you never will.” She leaned across the table herself now. “So let me make this easy for you. I am not getting married today. I perhaps am not getting married ever.” She looked over at Paris. “At least not to him. And you can prop me up on that altar all you want, but we both know that, without my true consent, no magical bonds can be forged.” She slammed her palms down on the table. “That’s it!”