Chapter 72

Chapter 72

Celeste

“How fucking dare you?” I yelled at him once in was safely in the confines of my office.

“Drop the spell, Celeste” he said almost on a whimper. The sight of the pain that he was willing to endure just to see me had my heart breaking.

“If it hurts you so much, mayyyyybe you should LEAVE!” I tell him a little louder than necessary. I may feel for him and the fact that he was willing to endure so much pain made me coon with happiness, I would not forget what he had said. I was no trophy and would not be treated like a toy. I was the last descendant of the mother of all witches. Alone I held immense power.

“It's not that it hurts as much as I am fighting really hard right now to cage the beast. IF you know anything of my kind it is that we have a dark beast within us and when they feel threatened they come out. Right now he is raging and he will not tolerate this for much longer. NOW DROP THE FUCKING SPELL.” He said and I could swear I was watching the man grow right before . Raising my hands up into a slow circle I settle them in a prayer pose with my eyes shut.

“In Magia in te,

Trapped Noctis

Inter haec specula

Numquam bidere lux”

**(The magick upon thee, be trapped this night, between these mirrors, never see light)**

Once finished I take a second to visualize the spell dissipate as it bounced between mirrors before fizzling out.

Opening my eyes I was surprised to see Adrik sitting in one of the chairs positioned in front of my desk.

“You may leave now, Prince” I said with a snarl walking behind my desk and shuffling many of the files awaiting for me to look through. Files that contained pregnancies, request for aide, supply request, coupling request. I did not have many of these requests right at this moment due to the Coven still settling in but I had an increase in members requesting room reassignments. Families that were accidently placed in too small, others wanting to move rooms due to neighbors, others wanting large amenities. This part of being the leader of a coven is what I truly hated. Many of these requests I would eventually do nothing about but still needed to give those that requested said items a time to plead their case and to give them a face to face meeting. With the endless meetings of the council, and now meeting my mate. These meetings amongst Coven members were getting harder and harder to maintain.

“Now why would I want to leave my beautiful, but infuriating enchantress? Hmmm.” He asked.

“Leave Prince. I have far too much to do to be dealing with you and your petty drama. Plus don’t you have a Faction to run?”

“You are pushing it Celeste. After that little spell debauchery, do you really think that it is wise to keep it up. And I do have a faction to run. And it is currently running very smoothly. My members are happy and settling in just nicely. Until I have the training and patrols schedules I have nothing more to do or worry about. But you look very stressed. Where do you want me to start?” He explained while picking up a file off my desk.

“Seriously? This is what you have stressed? Your coven are being whiney babies. I can understand the families requesting larger rooms but these three right here are bullshit. One doesn’t like their neighbor, the other is a warrior requesting a larger room because they have earned it. And this one, the pièce de résistance, is foolish. They are requesting that the children on their floor remain in their room because they are being too loud. You seriously let your Coven bother you with these trivial matters?” He asked with disgust.

“I lead like a leader whom cares about their people's happiness.” I attempted to defend myself.

“You lead like a woman.” He said matter of factly.

“Excuse you. I am sorry that I do not just bark orders at my people and expect them to jump through my hoops to make ME happy. A leader is one that is to ensure that their people have their needs met. And I didn’t say that I would actually do anything about those requests.”

“I mean you lead like a woman in a good way..” I went to stop him when he raised a hand cutting me off. “ Please let me finish. Women are nurturers, protectors of the innocent, caregivers. It is why leaders that are women struggle with stress so much. They are always worried about upsetting one or another's feelings. They are the balance. Whereas men typically have testosterone. The ones that do not care about hurting others feelings. It is the strong importance of balance. I am not trying to say that two men could not rein or two women but oftentimes in those cases one of them will pull off and take the nurturing side and the other will take the disciplinarian side. I am not trying to make you feel inferior. I think you are an amazingly strong woman, but you also do not have it in you to punish. Nor should you. You are sweet and kind.

“Thus, me. I am to be the one to shoulder the weight of rights and wrongs. Punishments. You are to be there and dust them off and set them back on their feet. Your Coven will hate me. I promise you that. Because this..” He said, waving his hands towards the pile. “This is not going to be tolerated. We will set up a day or two a week where we will hear our peoples pain. But I promise you this. Those that complain about what they feel they are owed will be punished. Celeste, my faction needs the soft touch of a woman. They need that one to nurture them and give them the supporting hand. It is far too hard to manage the nurturing they need. But you, you ooze warmth and support.” He said moving behind my desk to position himself in front of me.

“You need help Celeste. Your duties are only going to increase. Please, I will not allow this to keep weighing you down. You are mine. Mine to cherish and support and this is how I can support you. Plus on the plus side I have far less families as your Coven does. It would be nice to see my members pair off and have children. Please let us come together.”

I was completely flabbergasted. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But I knew I needed time.

“Please, let me think about this.” I said and watched as he nodded, placed a kiss on my cheek, and walked towards the door.

“I will be back in the morning to walk you to the meeting. Good night Celeste.”