Page 3 of The Endless One

She picked her way through the runes, walking with her chin held high in case he saw her. But he didn’t. Leon was looking at the ground, checking every single etching because his spell had to go right. After all, he was summoning a god.

When Jessamine finally got within eyesight, she stood there and waited for him to turn. Leon Bishop had always been a handsome man. Once upon a time, she’d been girlishly intrigued by his blond hair and soft blue eyes. Though she’d never thought him particularly her type, she’d been certain she could figure out a way to admire him. They’d need to have children, after all.

But when those blue eyes looked into hers now, all she saw was the hardness and frustration in his gaze. He wasn’t even shocked. Like he hadn’t cut her throat and thrown her off a cliff’s edge.

She frowned. “You’re not even going to ask how I’m here?”

“Jessamine. I’m a little busy right now.”

“You killed me.”

Leon waved a hand up and down her body. “Clearly not.”

Anger made her ears hot. How dare he. How dare he not even be surprised that she was alive!

“You’ve got a lot of nerve,” she hissed. “How dare you act like it’s to be expected that I survived you cutting my throat and throwing me off a cliff.”

“You coming back to life is old news, Jessamine. I’ve known for a long time that you made a deal with your Deathless God. But that’s fine.” He even had the audacity to chuckle. “You’re not going to stop me. I suppose it is kind of you to show up here, after all this time. It’s good to see you. I wish I could say you looked good, but… obviously you don’t.”

Why did that make her want to punch him in the throat? She didn’t care if he thought she looked good. She didn’t care what he thought of her at all. Getting angry over what a stupid man thought of her was a waste of energy.

Jessamine coiled magic through her fingers, threading it between each digit. She would wrap it around him, bind him to the ground so she could figure out what he wanted from her.

“Oh, we’re not doing that,” Leon said.

And then flicked his fingers.

She felt the magic tangling around her before she was yanked farther into the circle he’d been drawing. Power crackled around her shoulders, sparking like tiny zings of lightning as she was dragged to his side. Her feet left marks on the ground as she struggled, but soon enough, he had his arm wrapped around her and spun her around to see three witches flinging spells to get to her.

Fire burned on one side of the garden. More plants grew, fighting to get through the runes that were activating wildly. And then there was Sybil, her face creased with rage as she ran through every spell she knew of to destroy all the runes without them hurting Jessamine.

“You brought so few people to stop me,” he murmured in her ear. “And you really believed that you could.”

“I don’t need anyone other than myself to kill you.” She struggled in his grip, but his arm was a band around her, and that damn spell really was a good one.

“Oh, Jessamine. Do you really believe I’d give all the remaining sorcery to Fortuna? I have some of my own. Magic is magic, after all. Even if it means consuming an old biddy to get it.” Leon’s grip tightened, and cold, sharp metal touched her throat. “I already did this once. It’s such a waste to do it again. But maybe you’ll stay dead long enough to awaken and meet the God King yourself.”

“You are not going to kill me this time,” she hissed, her fingers curving around a knife in her waistband. If she could just get her arm to move, then she could pull it out and stab it into his gut.

“You couldn’t stop me last time, Jessamine. What’s going to stop me now?”

Leon’s wrist moved, that cold metal slicing through her skin until it froze. A dark hand covered his own, shadows soon bleeding into flesh as another coalesced into being beside them.

Elric’s face was creased with rage. His dark eyes were endless pools, and his entire being vibrated with bloated magic as he barely kept himself in check. Although it was clear he wanted to tear Leon’s head from his shoulders.

Her god, her lover, her most beloved being snarled, “Last time, she didn’t have me.”

One Month Ago

Jessamine pored over a stack of documents that Sybil had brought her hours ago. Each one of them was the written record of someone who claimed they knew about Leon and his plan. All of them, thus far, were useless. People said they knew where he was, but every tip had turned out to be a lie.

After the Pleasure District had fallen, Leon had gone into hiding. And the witches themselves? Well, the coven was stronger than ever, but it certainly didn’t have the capability to find a man with that many resources.

Sybil meandered over to her again, this time with another stack in her arms that was smaller than the first. Thankfully, they could be outside for this. The haunted home in the Pleasure District was easily expandable with Elric’s magic. The garden they’d created in the back was full of every poisonous plant imaginable, from belladonna to oleander to daffodil.

Jessamine found she quite liked being surrounded by poisonous things. There was something soothing about knowing she could protect herself with just the plants around her. There was a certain level of ease that came with knowing a single tincture from any of these plants would kill a very large man.

Reaching out her hand, Jessamine ran her fingers over Nyx’s head. Her familiar was never far, and the cat quite enjoyed lying out in the sun. Her dark fur was nearly purple in the light. She did glare at Sybil every time something disturbed her slumber, though.