Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 115432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
She rolled her eyes—hard.
“Is that what they told you?” I frowned. I couldn’t imagine her being in such a situation, but then again, what did any woman in that situation look like? It could be anyone.
“Luckily, no.” She smiled. “My husband was very sickly. He was decent but very dull—very dull. I was grateful at least we could find one thing a day to talk about. He passed naturally, though.”
It occurred to me at that moment if he was sickly, he was human. However, she was a witch who practiced healing? She didn’t save him? No, maybe he was too sick for her to heal. Magic can’t fix everything, right?
“I let him die,” she said bluntly, blowing the previous thought out of my mind. Seeing my face, she shrugged. “I could see you putting the dots together. I could have saved him with magic. However, great magic always costs something. I didn’t want to pay it—not for him. I didn’t want to get married. I was fourteen when my parents arranged everything. I had dreams, things I wanted to do and see. I wanted to be free. I had been Bayezid’s daughter. Then Orhan’s wife for fifteen long years. I just wanted to be Mahidevran. And the only way I would be allowed to be so is if I were a widow, so I let him die.”
“I bet your parents were not happy,” I replied.
“They had died the year before.” The way she said it—like, oh well—was a bit shocking.
She laughed. “Your face says a lot even when you are quiet.”
“Sorry.”
“No, it’s all right. I was one of thirteen children. I was not very close to my parents. They wanted me out as fast as possible. When my husband died, I was a widow with no children, and I had some business. So I was okay.”
“What happened to you?”
“Someone tipped off the local magistrate to my poisons. They stormed into my home and dragged me out, accusing me of witchcraft. But of course, I lied, and of course, they did not believe me, so I was found guilty.” She chuckled.
“Did they put you on trial?”
“Women did not get trials. We were given judgment,” she scoffed, annoyance in her eyes. “They told me they would be lenient if I confessed, but I did not believe them. And I was not going to be judged by them. So, I planned my escape. With a little bit of magic and help from some in my small coven, I managed to get out of the dungeons. I cut my hair and pretended to be a man in order to get on the next ship out of the city, and I almost made it, too. However, when I arrived at the port, I was seized.”
“How did they find you?”
“My coven leader, who helped me escape, told them.”
“Why in the world would she do that? Aren’t covens supposed to protect one another?”
“In theory.” Melora laughed, spinning her legs back and forth. “But a lot of things are supposed to happen in theory. Parents should always love and protect their children, yet some harm theirs. There is more than enough food for mortals, yet many are starving. In theory, everything should work out. But this was not theory, this was reality, and in reality, mortal—even immortals—are greedy and selfish and self-preserving. I did not understand, not until later, that my coven leader had betrayed me. She stood in the crowd as they tied my hands and feet, stuffed me into a bag, then threw me into the ocean because the rest of the coven wanted to replace her with me.”
“She sent you to your death to hold her position in the coven?”
“Witch politics are severe. I knew some of the other witches wanted me to fight for the position, but I didn’t want the reasonability. I blew it off. I told her I wasn’t interested. Still, she wanted to be rid of me. And the best way to make a Wiccan abandon you is to have you labeled as a witch to the human world. They drowned me, truly medieval. If I survived, it was proof without a doubt that I was a witch. If I died, well, I had broken out of prison and cut my hair against tradition and was a criminal anyway. If not for my maker, a woman who hated my coven leader and simply wished to spite her, I wouldn’t have made it out. This world is insane, Druella. Now that I am immortal, I find it amusing, though. It is all like a play.”
“So, you do not mind being reborn a vampire?”
“The other option was death, so yeah, I do not mind it though I do miss magic sometimes. On the other hand, my maker and mother allowed me all the freedom I wanted. Immortality allowed me the freedom I wanted. I wondered for a hundred and sixteen years before meeting Ulrik—a man I quite enjoy, something I never thought possible. And I can still do this little bit of magic,” she said. Melora bent over to the roses and used her hand to hover over one of the flowers. Slowly sucking all the water from inside the rose toward her hand. The rose darkened and became brittle, almost aging before my eyes as she held all of the water within her hands, letting it swirl for a moment before putting it back to the rose, allowing it to come right back to life. “Cool, right?”