Pretty Spelled by K.A Knight
Lilith
She’s stirring my finger into the bowl of blood, closing her eyes as she pushes my power into it, but a moment later, a disturbance jars her from her incantation. Whirling, she glares around at the top of the temple, searching for the growing magic.
Is someone here?
Someone attacking her?
I sit up taller, waiting, watching, wondering what is going on. There’s a bright flash, and her hand comes up, covering her eyes. When it dims and she drops it, there is a pulsating circle forming before us. She steps closer as I get to my feet, wondering what it is.
It explodes outwards, and I blink, staring in confusion as objects start to fly through, smacking the floor and rolling, and only when they stop at my feet do I realise what they are—bodies.
They are fucking bodies.
Someone made a transporter out of magic and threw bodies through it. I almost laugh when she just stares for a moment in bewilderment, and then I feel a wave of familiar power…Attie. My Attie did this. It’s a warning. He’s showing his power and strength, and telling her he is coming for her. My heart lurches, he can’t. He would try to stop my plan.
She roars with anger, her own magic growing and striking out at the transporter. To do what, I’m unsure, but before it can leak through, the opening closes like it was never there. Silence reigns, the corpses still at our feet.
“Let them come, they will die,” she growls and then turns away, ignoring the bodies and the obvious threat, but I felt her stutter for a moment, unconfident in her wavering strength, which makes me smirk.
If they come, I could say goodbye. I could let them distract her while I do what needs to be done. The Fates didn’t explain how, but I have to trust in what is happening. It will lead me to the right path and what I should be doing. It does mean I worry for them, but there is no stopping my family, and with or without my worry, they will find us.
Pretending to be unbothered, she stirs the concoction again, her eyes closing as she struggles to concentrate. With a snarl, she knocks the bowl across the room, and I can’t help but laugh as she goes to take her frustrations out on the poor zombies she made.
* * *
After she has killed over a hundred, she is calmer. She heads back to the temple and picks up the bowl, filling it with her blood and starting all over again like nothing happened. I stay quiet, wondering what she is doing.
Blood magic? But for what purpose?
She doesn’t feel like sharing, instead she gathers her guards and a new demon that she conjured, and within a blink of an eye, she transports us from the temple. The sick feeling of it still flows through me, even though I’m not in my body, and when we reappear, I blink in shock, wondering why we are here. There is a bubbling stream to my left, the water lapping at the pebbled edges with a soothing sound. There’s a wooden bridge behind us, arching into the sky, barely wide enough to get more than two people across. On the horizon is what looks to be a village.
Snow is falling, dusting the ground, the snowflakes floating through the air like dancers across a stage. But that’s not what she focuses on, or even the snow-capped mountains in the background. No, it’s the quaint stone farmhouse with the mill to the left that has her smiling cruelly.
Meaning whatever we are here to do, it won’t be good.
Bare trees poke through the snow around the house, while others tower into the sky. Their branches are heavy with snow, but the powder beneath our feet melts as she just stands and stares at the picturesque white house.
The exterior is white like the snow, with what seems to be two large, sliding barn doors painted with black accents. Two black trimmed windows are on either side, and on the second story is a balcony window looking out across the lands, with two more large bay windows next to it. With a pointed roof and a chimney producing smoke, it’s the epitome of homey and cute. Not at all what I was expecting. Death, destruction, graveyards, and anywhere dirty? Yes.
This? No.
What is this place?
“Unfinished business, human. Watch and learn what happens to those who try to cross me,” she sneers.
Just then, as if summoned, the front door opens. A man stands there, a familiar man. He’s the same height, a bit wider with more muscles, but he has the same golden skin and features. He doesn’t look a day older than when I saw him in her memories. Except this time, he has a wide, loving smile across his tanned face, he’s wearing thick winter clothes, and there is the obvious sparkle of a wedding band on his hand as he shuts the door after yelling goodbye. That smile persists as he tucks his hands in his pockets, a human gesture, ducking his head to avoid the falling snow as he starts to walk away. When he is about halfway, he stops, his head shooting up and eyes widening as he looks at us.
“No,” he gasps.
“Hello, lover,” she purrs, stepping closer.
“It’s impossible, y-you’re—” His face shows his fear as he steps back.
“Dead? Not really. You would have noticed me earlier if you weren’t weighed down by human traditions and scum. You’re so weak, you can’t even sense what is around you anymore. Pathetic. You were a god, a ruler! Now look at you,” she spits.
“Amare,” he begins pleadingly. “Don’t do this. I’m sorry, okay? The past is the past, what we did to you was wrong, but—”
“Wrong?” she roars, and the birds take flight as he swallows, pulling his hands from his pocket. “You betrayed me! You locked me away for centuries while you…you became human!”
Just then, the door opens again, and framed in it is the redheaded human from her memories. She staggers back before she laughs. “You did it all for her? For a human?”
“She’s not human anymore, we shared my soul. It lessened my life expectancy and powers, but it means we get to live and grow old together,” he tells her and then winces. “Please, Amare, I was a fool in love. I didn’t know better, and I was worried you would hurt her. Please, just leave us in peace.”
“I didn’t get peace, so neither do you,” she snaps as the redhead backs through the door. She steps forward with a grin. “You won’t get as long to live together as you thought.” With that, she advances on him. He turns and rushes for the house, pushing the redhead inside with him and slamming the door so hard snow falls from the roof.
It won’t stop her, even I know that, as she laughs and orders her guards to surround the place. I see the man peeking from the window, worried. You don’t have to do this, let him live his life in peace. He found happiness and love, he found the right person. You cannot begrudge the mistakes he made to find that happiness.
Shush, human. He betrayed me, locked me away. He doesn’t get to be happy. He will serve at my side once more, or die with her like the traitor he is.
She doesn’t bother trying the door, she blasts it inwards. It explodes in a shatter of sparks, and I hear the screams from the human female and him trying to reassure her. That will not earn his love or loyalty again—
She throws me further back, silencing me as I snarl and fight. I am left yet again to watch her hurt those innocents in the world. He made mistakes, he had a past, but he’s clearly living a good life now. Everything he did led him to his love, shaped him to the man who gave up everything, gave up ruling the world, for her.
I understand that—we do crazy things for those we care about.
He stands before the redhead, protecting her even as she approaches him. Her hand trails down his chest before she slashes him to the side, pinning him to the wall with her power.
“No! Take me, kill me! Whatever you want! Leave her alone!” he yells, begging as the redhead backs away, fear in her eyes. She bumps into the table and cries out, rushing around it to keep it between them.
“It won’t save you, human,” she sneers.
You’re jealous, and jealousy can make you do irrational things, but look at her! She did nothing to you apart from fall in love with the wrong man! You are already destroying my family, me, and the world. Why not let them die together at the end?I plead, trying to find a way to connect to her, to make her listen, to save these lovers the way I can’t save Attie or me.
She ignores me though, approaching the woman as he begs her. When it doesn’t work, he sags, his voice coming out defeated and tired, as if he has been waiting for this day.
“If you were capable of love, if you could love someone the way we love each other, you would understand! Amare, we were never meant to be, we were hurting each other, and I didn’t want the world to burn. I wanted to live in it with her. Hate me, kill me, whatever you need to do, but please, please don’t hurt my wife.”
She turns to him and steps closer, gripping his chin. “You are mine, not hers. Agree to serve at my side, and I won’t kill her.”
“Liar,” he whispers, his eyes flickering between hers.
“Fine, but I’ll kill her quickly at least.” She grins.
His gaze goes to redhead and he blinks slowly, tears in his eyes. “I would rather die here with her, together, than ever be under you again. You might kill us, you might think it will make you feel better, but even when it means life or death, I’m still choosing her over you, because I love her. I never loved you.”
Oh, shit.
I don’t even see her hand swipe out. The redhead screams as Amare buries her fist into his chest. His mouth opens and closes, his eyes widening in fear as the evil bitch’s fingers curl around the organ and yanks it free. His head slumps instantly, blood dripping from his mouth and pouring from his chest as she turns, heart in hand, staring at the screaming redhead rushing over. She sets the heart on fire, and before the human can reach her husband, she is backhanded across the room. She hits the wall and slides to the floor, tears streaming down her cheeks, her body shaking as Amare stops before her and glares.
“His death is on your hands, I hope you know that,” she snarls and then grabs a fistful of her hair, tearing her head from her body before tossing it on the table. Stepping back to avoid the blood, she grins as she looks around, but I feel the twinge of regret, of pain at his confession.
She was never loved.
Even if she’s a monster, even if she’s evil, that has to hurt.
I wrap my arms around myself as she heads outside, stopping next to her new demon and stroking his horns. “Have your fun, my pet, then return to me.” With that, she creates a circle and steps through, back into the temple.
She finds comfort in the only way she knows how—ordering those she has captured and broken to love her. She fucks her way through them, lying in the aftermath and stroking their chests like one would a pet.
The only man she ever wanted or loved was killed by her hand.
That’s when I feel it. She does as well and sits up, bare chested and covered in blood and cum.
They are coming.
