Queen of Ruin(Book three of the Immortals Series)
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO TWO SCHEMING WITCHES

"You were wrong, baby; she looks like you. Just look at those big, brown eyes." Tessa pushed the curly, black hair off her baby's face and caressed her cheek with her fingertips. A gummy grin curled up under the newborn's cheeks, and Tessa

leaned in to rub the tip of her nose against her daughter's.

Leaning back on his hand against the dock's old wooden boards, Rafik peeked down into his daughter's face then glanced to Tessa. "But that smile is yours, my darling one."

After she inhaled a deep breath of the sea air, she moaned as she opened her eyes. She squinted while the boats in the harbor went out of focus and the sky beyond the horizon began to melt like ice cream into a smudged pink and orange sunset. "This isn't real, is it?"

Shaking his head, he joined her in watching the ships move back and forth on the water. "Not yet, but someday. I promise you."

Her eyes pinched together as her lips vibrated into a frown. "I'm so afraid of losing you."

He rubbed her leg with his hand and nodded as he tried to comfort her as much as he could. "I know, Rohi. No matter what happens now, I am with you, always. I am always by your side; remember that."

When the lock to her cell door popped open, Tessa's eyelids parted, and she stared into the stucco wall beside her bed. Whatever stood behind her could wait as she locked away the dream she just woke from inside the little room deep in her mind.

Not wanting anyone to disturb her visions of home and happiness, she licked the tear off the corner of her mouth as she traced the rough edges of the wall with her fingertips. "I'd like to be alone if you don't mind."

Never believing he would lay his eyes upon her ever again, he put his hand over his chest as he inched towards her and thanked whoever the gods were that bore witness over them for this one last indulgence. The battered man spoke through his bloodied mouth as he denied her request. "And I would like to be with my wife."

Thinking the sound of his melodic accent in her ears was another of her mind's tricks, her whole body trembled as pained whimpers escaped her mouth. "Is this real? Because every time I open my eyes, you disappear."

The bed dipped down behind her as Rafik's knee pressed against the mattress, and the familiar hum surged through her skin when he placed his hand on hers. "I am real."

She gasped as she turned to face him before she closed her eyes and sobbed. His swollen, bruised face was its own nightmare, and she couldn't bear to look at what they'd done to him. All of this because she loved him, because she dared to be happy for once in her life. "Oh, God. I'm so sorry! What did they do to you?"

Throwing himself on top of her, he pulled her into his arms and reassured her that no matter what happened next, he would never blame her. "It is not your fault, Rohi, it is theirs. They are the monsters. You are my fiery angel, my Queen." The dream still fresh in her mind, she writhed and jerked under his chest as she cried out for the thing she knew was coming. "They're going to kill you, aren't they?"

"Yes, my love. I'm going to be executed at sunset." He pulled away from her as she wailed into the air and kissed her lips. "Look at me." Pushing her tears away from her bloodshot eyes, he shook his head as he tried to narrow her focus. "We don't have long, and there are so many things I must say to you before I go."

The little whimpers escaped her as she sucked back every tear while she tried to calm herself. Rafik had a lifetime of words to say in the few remaining moments they had together, and she didn't want to miss a thing. "Tell my baby every day, every minute, I love her."

"I will." She slid her shaking hands into his hair and pressed her lips against his. "I will, I promise you."

Nuzzling against her cheek, he breathed in her scent and prayed it would last for eternity. "The Realm is so big, and I don't know the way. It may take me a while, but I will replace you. Don't ever give up hope on that."

"I won't, Rafik. I'll wait for you for a million years." Grasping at his pants, she pulled the zipper apart and shoved them down below his ass. As he pulled up her skirt, he panted against her sticky, wet cheeks and plunged inside her. It didn't matter that a guard stood outside waiting to escort him to his beheading or that her entire family was within earshot; Tessa cried out for Rafik as he pounded her against the bed and gave her the last bit of himself. Savoring the last of her warmth, he continued whispering his last wishes to his wife as he came inside her one final time. "I love you always. I will never leave you. I will haunt you until I wake up in your arms again, Tessa. Every night, I'm dancing with you again."

With no more time left and the footsteps approaching in the hall, he tucked himself back into his pants and backed away. "Always, Rohi." When the door swung open, she ran into Rafik's arms and put her finger up to her grandmother. "One minute, just one more minute."

Isoke backed away and rolled her eyes towards the wall. "Be quick!"

The life inside Tessa was kind and gave her just enough strength to deliver one last spell. The last traces of clove and cinnamon filled her nose as she closed her eyes and rubbed her face into the crook of Rafik's neck. "Sleepwalk..." Singing their song to him as she held him so tight she could scarcely breathe out the words, Tessa's sweet voice would be the last thing he would hear.

Kissing his cheek one last time, she rubbed her lips against him one last time. "I love you, Rohi."

While she gave her grandmother the evilest smile she could muster, she whispered into his ear the last show of love and mercy she could gift him. She wouldn't give her family the satisfaction of seeing Rafik die in such an ugly way. "Cuirim mallacht ort chun báis."

Before the last breath escaped him, his lips turned up into a knowing smirk as the spark of life left Rafik's eyes, and his still body collapsed into Tessa's arms. Nearly crushed under his weight as she clumsily lowered him to the ground, she screamed out into the air at whatever energy remained of him. "I love you, Rafik!"

Cradling him in her arms, the witch cackled out between her grieved wails and pants for air. "You can't have him! He belongs to me now!" Looking up to her grandmother and the guard that came for him, she kissed Rafik's forehead. "He's mine. All mine."

As her evil smile fell from her mouth, she stopped crying and pointed to Isoke. "You're all dead. I'm going to kill you all. Every single one of you."

The insane witch rocked Rafik's dead body against her chest and laughed out manically into the room. "You're all dead!"

The guards rushed into the room and surrounded her. Then while they pulled the crazed woman away, kicking and screaming, another guard dragged Rafik's body out into the hall as her uncle Odion came through the door. "Get your fucking hands off him! Bring him back; he's mine!"

Crossing her arms, Isoke arrogantly approached the restrained witch with her brow raised and her ugly sneer plastered on her face. Clicking her tongue like a disappointed school teacher, Isoke put her fingertips to Tessa's chin and lifted it into the air. "You robbed me of that, but it matters little. Vengeance will be mine no matter what cheap tricks you pull."

Kissing Tessa's cheek, Isoke whispered into her ear. She'd hoped for a better end to things, but when her psychic eyes showed her the life inside her, Isoke realized there could be only one way. "I told you this feud would never end until the last Idrissi is gone. Today is the day it ends."

As Odion came closer, he removed a vial from his pocket and uncorked the top. A wave of panic flashed over Tessa as it became clear what her grandmother meant.

"No!" With her demons trapped in some other dimension, Tessa thrashed under the guard's hands but was still too weak from the death curse she cast. "Grandmother! No! Please! She's all I have left! Please, don't do this!"

The guard grabbed Tessa's hair and stilled her face as her uncle wrapped his fingers around her chin and nodded to the guards. "Hold her nose."

The guard pinched Tessa's nose shut, and Odion dumped the poison into her mouth.

Like she was underwater, Tessa's ears echoed, and her stomach retched as she strained to regurgitate the poison seeping into her belly.

One final burst of energy reached out to her from another plane of existence, and the fluid spread through the air in a mist while she coughed it out and begged for mercy. "No, please don't take my baby!"

Shaking his head, he dug his fingertips into her jaw as he flipped the cork from another bottle. "Please, Tessa. Stop fighting this. It's over." She gasped one final breath as he poured the bitter poison into her mouth then forced her mouth shut with his hands. "It's over."

Trying to hold on to the dirty air in her lungs as long as she could, her instincts finally betrayed her and forced her to swallow. He backed away as he freed her face from his grasp. "I am sorry, but this is bigger than you."

The hot drops of blood trickled down to the floor from her leg, and a huff came from Isoke's mouth as she smirked and repeated Tessa's cold-blooded words back to her. "You tell me how it feels, Tessa."