The Blessed And The Beast

Thirty-Seven: Joselin

Joselin’s P.O.V.

Dinner was a tense affair. Cyrus seemed uncomfortable trying to manipulate Rona into getting information from her, but he didn’t have a choice.

She was obsessed with getting him to talk and spill his secrets. He was convinced she had actual feelings for him, even if it was only a physical attraction. Perhaps she would accidentally let something slip if he took advantage of that.

Even better would be if we took advantage of how close she let him and had him sedate her.

One quick slip of a needle and her magic could be blocked for hours. It would be the perfect way to question her. But if I was wrong about my suspicions of her, it could have catastrophic consequences when she was released. Killian wouldn’t let me just kill her, no matter how badly I wanted to.

He insisted that we still had to follow the rules. He was trying to be a good leader, and he was. But that didn’t make it any less frustrating when the rules were getting in the way of my job to protect him.

Cyrus agreed to try the more civil way first and attempt to get Rona to talk to him. He violently opposed my idea of resorting to drugs and torture, but

I was sick of waiting for someone to slip up and trying to be discrete as I searched for answers.

Someone who had been in the mountains the night before the war had built that altar and had performed the ritual to drain another of their life essence and magic. Someone powerful enough to perform that ritual on their own, if they were alone, shouldn’t need more magic unless they were doing something big.

Cyrus was running for his life, needing protection from some unknown threat who wanted him dead. When I asked him about it during dinner, he confirmed the same thing he told me in the mountains.

He felt them.

He felt them pulling at his soul and magic, trying to separate the two. He looked haunted as he recalled the event that finally pushed him to ask for help. I had experienced something similar fifteen years ago, so I knew he remembered how much it hurt, with his experience being only a few months ago.

The pure and unbridled agony that came with that curse haunted me to this day, and I knew he would have to live with it for the rest of his life too.

When that didn’t work, the mountain shook fiercely like it was about to come down on him. He said he was positive that if it wasn’t someone powerful, it had to have been one of the Gods because he had never felt anything as strong or threatening.

His attacker had been livid by their failure, and it was only a matter of time before they tried again.

that he wouldn’t have been able to face his killer before he was sent to meet the Goddess. Without embracing his powers, he would have died anyway. But getting the chance to see and face the person trying to kill him… no one deserved to be

fitting that they do it face to face, not hiding in the shadows like a

It was then that we shared the story of how Rona’s mother passed over

had cast a curse that allowed her to kill her mother using the distant absorption of her magic. Her mother, Melinda, didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. At that point, she was

been on that. As I crawled into bed, my mind should

other than our own future. I had been working hard enough for the past decade to save and protect everyone else.

was thinking about myself for a short

the thoughts of us, only

Tobias spoke against the back of my neck, his nose nuzzling through my hair, his hot breath hitting

around me, pulling me against

knew I was acting

like a silent demand for an explanation. I pressed my lips

about kids,” I mumbled, refusing to turn my head and look at him. Kids. The thought made my stomach turn because I didn’t know what answer I

wasn’t even good

bringing it up. If he did want

with excitement laced in his tone, answering his question without

He wanted them.

me?” My eyes were locked on the wall across the room as I lay still in his arms,

proud.” His smile against my neck felt wonderful as he tried to ease

Kids.

the world. He would be a great father,

idea what to do if I were put in that

on me. My parents had locked me in my room for the first decade of my life, hiring priests and witches to try to take my gift from me. It was unclear whether they knew that ritual would kill me, but it didn’t lessen the

Royal Advisor at the time, Talia. She abandoned me when Killian chose

rarely returned home for visits. Her trips back to the castle were becoming fewer and farther between. When she was here, it was to visit her