The Beast And The Blessed

Eight: Joselin

Joselin's P.O.V.

The darkness had never looked more appealing than it did at that moment. Either that or I opened the door before me and faced the man I knew was standing on the other side. I didn’t need to hear him or see him to know that he was there.

I could sense his beast, his aura.

He was lying in wait patiently, like he was waiting for the perfect moment for him to pounce on his unsuspecting prey. Only I knew Tobias was on the other side of the door.

My heart was beating rapidly, giving me away as well. He knew I was here, and I knew he was listening to the erratic thumping in my chest. He had been for the past five minutes that I stood there, staring at the doorknob.

Was he the lesser of two evils?

Knowing he was willing to wait for me to leave my tower instead of walking right in to confront me made me even more anxious.

The darkness I would need to teleport through gave me enough pause, but being unable to walk freely down the hallways made me angry. This was my home. I didn't even know where Tobias slept, but it wasn't in the castle.

Yet, he was preventing me from doing my job by cornering me.

After a long internal debate during my shower, I finally decided to talk to Killian about my suspicions. But to do that, I would need to get through the wall of muscle that had gone from ignoring me the past few months to avoiding me the past two weeks to torturing me.

On the other hand, I hadn't traveled through the empty realm on my own since my near-death experience. Every time I considered it, a shiver would run down my spine, and I felt the nails clawing at my skin again.

They had wanted me to stay last time. A knife was sticking out from between my shoulder blades from Talia. She had helped raise me, but as soon as she had the chance, she had thrown that dagger with deadly precision and lodged it into me. It wasn't surprising. She had always held grudges and was vindictive, but she was also one hell of a teacher.

What had caught me off guard were the sudden presences in the darkness. Before, it was always quiet and empty. I could travel through to anywhere I desired in the blink of an eye. But at that time, there were others.

Aurora and Agatha as I fought to get them to safety. I had done my best to

shoulder only a second before their rough tongue slid across my skin, tasting the blood that dripped down from one of

their world. I was ready to leave and take my people to safety, but as my blood coated their tongue, the low

to me, I don't know if I ever would have come to my

zip through that world to get to where I needed to go

to one hundred, taking long and calming breaths as

kill me, I needed a break from his mind

ignoring the man as I let my feet carry me to Killian's office.

I let myself go, flickering into the darkness that filled my soul with unease. I watched through

me not to stop and glance around in the vast emptiness as I felt eyes

not ready to travel there again. Whatever had gotten

Killian. Get to Killian.

king raised an eyebrow at our joined hands, and I

door in his face. I knew I didn't have much time.

bothering to wait for his permission before slumping into one of his visitor's seats

of power before, let alone that kind of unpracticed control." He picked up the paper he had before him as he muttered, scanning over the words before grumbling in annoyance

out a distracted chuckle as he continued to work, so I waited for him to look up at me again before speaking. "Someone survived. At least one witch, and

how he dismissed me when I was discussing

And there it is.

confident in her abilities, she could handle the threats herself, and there

I sound convincing, but he seemed too distracted and busy to notice. Either he trusted me greatly or didn't care about what I had to say. At least he couldn't say I didn't warn him. Still, it didn't make missing my best

the cooks had made that day. We would climb up on the kitchen counter and stare out through the large window at the back garden. It didn't matter if we were twelve or twenty-five. The tradition had been

cooks knew about it. Even when they didn't bake anything that day, we always found peanut

finding his mate, and our traditions crumbled. While building his relationship with her, I had given him space. Now, I could