Chapter 17: +Chapter 17+

Mari remained conscious long enough for King Kade to get off her and effortlessly pick her up from the ground like she weighed nothing. She peacefully lost consciousness, the last thought ringing in her head was - *Witch*

Lucien watched the witch’s eyes slowly close like she was falling asleep, speechless for the first time.

Kade just brushed past him, “I’m taking her with me to Wolfden first thing tomorrow.”

Lucien’s eyes widened briefly before narrowing, a twitch in one piercing blue eye, “What the fuck are you talking about?” He whipped around, watching Kade march forward without breaking his stride.

Lucien caught up with him when the aggravating North King didn’t grace him with a response. “That wasn’t part of the fucking deal,” He snarled.

Kade shot him a dangerous look, “The deal fell off when you tried to drive our shared weapon insane.”

Lucien clamped his lips shut, he just wanted to play around with the witch a bit. “I’m sick of you playing hero.” He grumbled, upset from losing on his own terms.

“I’m not, you’re just doing so much of a shitty job that me doing the bare minimum puts a halo on my head.” Kade fired back. There wasn’t any anger in his voice, he was just stating facts.

Honestly, he still didn’t know what had gotten into him to think that a clinically insane King was the perfect candidate to babysit a half-witch with past trauma.

“I did help her figure out that she was a witch though,” Lucien muttered again. He knew he had no counter to win this argument, and he would rather jump into a pit of witch fire than go to Wolfden but he still hated to lose.

Kade stepped onto the sidewalk, glancing down at the witch who was still out cold, “Yeah and you made the first-ever witch who actually got hurt by her own flames, good job, Luc.”

Lucien ground his teeth at Kade’s condescending tone, “Never call me that again.”

Kade fell silent as he got to the car, not because he was shaken up by Lucien’s dangerous tone but because their conversation had ended. It might have seemed annoying and pushy of him to remain in Moonbeam but it would seem that he had made a wise decision.

The drive back felt longer than the first journey and it was because Kade decided to take his time driving so he could clear out his thoughts. Lucien had driven off immediately and Kade would take that as the South King conceding.

He glanced at the unconscious witch as he made the turn onto the path that would take him to Lucien’s palace. Things could go very badly when she woke up, it almost made him second-guess his decision to handle things himself.

At the palace, the guards were quick to open the gates to let him in. Kade carried out the witch and made his way up the stairs, he contemplated taking her to her room but he quickly changed his mind after remembering that had gone, not to mention, it would be best that he kept a close eye on her after the events of tonight.

He walked past her room instead and went to his, placing her on the bed. He glanced down at her sleeping form on the bed, noting that her dress was burnt and ripped from her little frolic in the bushes. The burn made him remember the little trinket that the witch had left him when he was trying to snap her out of her breakdown.

Kade left the sleeping witch behind and went to his bathroom to get a proper look at it. He yanked down the neck of his muscle shirt, staring at the teardrop-shaped scar. It still stung and was a dark red, and looked more like a tattoo than a burn injury.

He stepped back and took off his shirt, intending to swap it for a different one that didn’t have a burn hole on it. He walked out of the bathroom to find two maids in his room attending to the witch.

They both shot upright with terrified squeals when he stepped in, their faces burning a bright red when they took him in. Kade just ignored them and walked over to his wardrobe to get a fresh shirt.

“Leave her on my bed when you’re done,” He ordered, voice raspy.

“Y-Yes, Your Highness,” They were quick to respond, bowing clumsily.

Kade swept out of his room momentarily, he needed to speak with his second-in-command to update him on the latest developments. He hoped that the other werewolf would tell him that he was making a bad decision and would encourage him to give up on the feisty witch that drew him in.

“About damn time,” Mason, his second-in-command said instead, sounding smug. “You found her first after all, and King Lucien would probably fuck and then murder her, in that order.”

Kade didn’t make an outward expression about his second-in-command’s crass words, knowing that the werewolf was right. Marion was doomed if she remained with Lucien, he might not be a saint but her chances were somewhat better if she came with him.

He would teach her to fight; after all the trouble he had gone through on her behalf, it would be disappointing if she immediately died in her first battle.

“You sound too welcoming to this idea,” He said cautiously.

He could hear Mason shrugging through the speaker of his phone, “It’s a win either way, she either fights or dies. It’s the least she could do after her kind created the Shadows after all.”

Kade fell silent, Marion seemed timid at first glance but he was quickly coming to find that she hid a spine of steel underneath that soft exterior. “Very well, I’ll return…”

“Right now?” Mason interrupted, sounding too eager for someone who had previously encouraged him to stay in Moonbeam for as long as he needed to.

“What?” Kade’s voice dropped.

“I’m saying you don’t have to wait till tomorrow morning, I’ll have a private jet set out right away, you just have to drive to the airport,” Mason explained.

Kade had to push down the unreasonable irritation that bubbled up at his second-in-command’s blatant interest in meeting the witch. He couldn’t exactly fault Mason, the last witch had been killed decades ago so he could understand his eagerness.

“Fine,” He accepted through gritted teeth. “I’ll drive out in half an hour, have everything ready by then.”

Kade found himself pacing the hallway, unwilling to return to his room until the maids were gone. And they were done in no time, the uniformed maids making sure to bow deeply to him before scurrying off.

He strode back to his room to find her still fast asleep… well, mostly unconscious but she was still breathing and she hadn’t been hurt physically so there was no use of a doctor. The witch was dressed in a night dress - saying night dress was pushing it, it was more of a lingerie. The flimsy, see-through mini dress barely provided any decency.

Kade had no issues with how she was dressed, but he did have issues with others seeing her dressed like this. The maids were long gone and they needed to leave so he did the logical thing and wore her one of his shirts.

It completely covered her fingers and was longer than the nightdress she had on. The neck was too wide however, the soft material slipping down a shoulder to reveal a delicate strap with a lacy bow attached to it.

Kade effortlessly picked her up and swept out of the room, every of his effects left behind would be packed by the servants and shipped to his country so he wasn’t worried about forgetting a thing.

Instead, he made the journey downstairs again, the guards perking up when they saw this. However, Lucien had given the orders that King Kade was free to come and go as he wished and basically do whatever he wanted so they opened up the gates for him to drive through.

“Your Highness?” Mason’s giddy voice came through the car’s speakers as he drove deeper into the capital.

“I’m already on my way,” Kade said gruffly, painfully aware of his unexplained possessiveness over the witch but powerless to stop himself.

“I-” Mason started to speak but he was already done with the conversation, hanging up.

He glanced at the witch whom he had placed propped up in the passenger’s seat, the fluorescent lights of the city illuminating her pale skin. She looked so delicate with her eyes closed but he knew firsthand how dangerous she could be. At that thought, the burn underneath his collarbone, right above his heart started to sting, it felt like a brand.

Mason was true to his words, as soon as he drove to the airport which was still bustling with life although it was well past nine PM, a private jet was already ready for him.

Fortunately, there were beds on the jet so the witch could sleep comfortably. None of the staff in the jet batted an eye at the sight of him going up the stairs with a strange unconscious woman in his arms. They all bowed as he passed, respect shining in their eyes.

Kade half expected to see Mason on the jet with how eager he was to see the witch, although that was practically impossible as the jet hadn’t come from Wolfden or it wouldn’t have arrived in such a short time. He and Lucien had decided to keep the witch’s identity a secret and only let it be known to their most trusted associates. So although a witch had been found after over two decades, only four people in the entire West Continent knew about it.

He put the witch to sleep in the master bedroom and decided to enjoy the flight back on a window seat. Seeing as he would be up for most of the night as well, he decided to go for dinner. Kade had to say, having dinner all by himself thousands of meters from the ground, clouds bathed in moonlight outside his window was a far better alternative than dining with King Lucien.