The Beast And The Blessed

Twenty-Five: Joselin

Joselin’s P.O.V.

I just wanted to invite her to join the council. Now I was trekking through the forest, blinded with fury, and wanting her dead.

She had said it was a favor, but it wasn’t. It was a test. Whether she had tried to trick me into going under the disguise of a favor or Killian sent me, I would be sent regardless. She had already talked to Killian before trying to get me to agree as if I had a choice.

Knowing I wanted her to join, using the council position as leverage was sneaky. I respected it.

Killian had wanted to know what was different this time than when he would send me on quests in the past. The answer was simple. I had something I longed to come home for this time. I had Tobias.

All the other trips or missions he sent me on were because he didn’t trust anyone else to know or be involved in them. But at least with those, he had given me most of the information I needed to stay safe.

I used to go in, slinging magic and drawing blood. I took what we wanted or needed and went home to my tower. As much as I wanted there to be, I had nothing waiting for me back there. Nothing hanging over my head, telling me I had to come back to them or reminding me what I was fighting for beyond it being my job, just another assignment.

Now, I had Tobias. I had someone to love, and the idea of not coming home to him scared me. The idea of anyone hurting him frightened me even more. Aurora using her magic on him, had me seeing red, and it took everything in me to resist the urge to gut her like a pig.

I would have done it if Killian hadn’t ordered me to stand down. Her life should have flashed before her eyes, but she just smiled as she stared at me with pride. She had enjoyed my show of dominance and possession. It made me even more curious about what was happening inside her head.

Killian had given Tobias permission to walk me to the edge of town before we had to part ways, and the kiss he had left me with made my toes curl and my chest warm. It was the best kiss of my life, and I hoped it wouldn’t be my last.

“Crazy old bitch,” I mumbled as I walked around a fallen tree. I did have to admit that while I was livid to be separated from Tobias right after we finally became something, I was terribly curious.

If it weren’t something cool, like a dragon, I would probably return home and kill

Aurora just for the disappointment she caused me.

The sun had fallen, and the dark forest around me was silent until another explosion shook the Earth.

lot of attention,

to provide myself a cool breeze and not having the option

it, I would have to use my flashlight and

the stream of pale light between the trees as possible to see

stopped, made a camp, and maybe slept for a few hours, but that was for the weak. The longer I took, the greater the chance of someone finding me or finding

heard about this mysterious creature before when it was clear others

campfire appeared through the trees. Low voices could be made out, and I pressed myself

his side before

Hunters.

If they were anything else, they would have been able to see or

the Great War when Lycans took over. They would never be safe. They had gotten confident and comfortable, and it shook them to their core to find

slitting their throats was enticing. I just couldn’t justify wasting time. If they stayed in their camp for even the next four hours, assuming someone else didn’t come along and kill them, then that

left them. They would be dead soon anyway. Someone stupid enough to light afire on a hunt would not last long out here. The world had become an even more dangerous and

at their stupidity. Laugh it up now, gentlemen.

through the trees. It was my second favorite

ponytail hung down against my back. I had

branches, and closed my eyes. I was thankful that there were no Fae or Sprites in this one. I had made that mistake before, and the little fuckers had almost

when the tree I was in shook from the next blast, and I felt the wave of heat brush over me. The morning sun had just reached the ground, and a few

It was charged with electricity, and there had been no way for me to determine where exactly it started. I could have

what would happen if I used magic, but based on what I had assumed were landmines, it would surely result in death. Who, or whatever this was, was not trying to

plant mines in the ground. I groaned in disappointment that it wouldn’t be

before me, looking for any sign

clear, or they had been in the ground for a long time. With careful steps and my eyes peeled, I made my way forward. The sun quickly heated the Earth, and I was sweating and irritable within minutes. It only meant I had

me burn off some of this anger before I found the prized creature and brought it back to the castle and me back to Tobias. A

threw her head back as she laughed at something one of the other women said. Fresh blood ran down her chin and to her throat. I slowly pulled my dagger from its sheath on my