Chapter 386: A different reality
"What?" Ajax raised a brow and questioned. "This question has been eating at me for a while now. I have seen stronger witches, but she is in a whole other league." He was not wrong. If Tracy were not strong, then she wouldn’t have the audacity to throw Killian around like she did earlier. The look in her eyes after she was done burning down the labyrinth was enough to prove that she had seen terrors worse than the one that she cleaned up.
From the back seat, Veronica shuddered. Her eyes were looking everywhere but at Tracy. "She..." Her voice, despite the fear, was filled with a reverence that was hard to explain. "She is beyond what you will call powerful. Even if you cannot feel it, her aether is so strong that you can feel it despite being shifters. Even I, as a demigod, do not stand a chance against her. It’s like an ant is trying to fight the Goddess herself."
She sounded so in awe that no one in the SUV thought of questioning her. Or maybe she was just that scared.
Tracy’s lips twitched slightly before returning to normal as if she had never tried to smile just now.
Finn sighed; he knew that he should be annoyed with the entire situation, but he knew that if he lost his temper now, then he would be the one playing the hypocritical card, as he had been calling Killian out the whole time and asking him not to lose his fucking temper. But with Tracy, even if he was angry, she had this pull on him, which made it impossible for him to lose his shit with her. That mystery surrounding her, the subtle tug and push, made his curiosity broaden. It had gotten to the point that his curiosity was eating him from the inside like a little monster.
The rising rays of the sun scattered over the horizon and past the lands before crossing the outskirts of the village that they were driving through and lighting up the inside of the car. Tracy’s eyes were shimmering under the sunlight and for the first time, Finn noticed that she had subtle hues of blue in her eyes. Something he had never noticed before because he was way too engrossed in staring at the monstrosity inside the labyrinth. She was fascinating, like a flower growing in the middle of burning magma.
Every gesture radiated nothing but confidence and elegance. The kind of confidence that left no space for questioning, like she knew where she was and there was nothing wrong with her actions in the past or the present.
Alright. But that was not what he was attracted to. Not the first time. It was her curves, alright. Lean but not skinny thin. She had all the curves placed in the right place. He meant—he was not dead, alright. He was a young man with young and hot blood within his veins. But the more he got to know her, the more this tugging feeling in his chest intensified. Like he knew that she was dangerous. Everything about her screamed, ’Danger, do not approach.’ and yet he had this feeling to get close to her, even though he knew that this woman was well and capable of taking a chunk of flesh out of his neck.
"What are you staring at? It better be the boulder that we crossed just now and not me," she said without taking her eyes off the road. Her tone was so dry that even the sand in the desert might hold more life than her tone. A part of him wished to tell her that he was looking right at her and that all this time he was thinking of tearing her clothes off and fucking her until she was singing his name as if it was the only word that she knew of.
The thought of someone like her begging him made a jolt of pleasure shoot right through his length.
However, he knew that if he dared to answer in such a fashion, the woman would skin him alive and hang him upside down by his length. "I was just trying to figure you out."
"There is no need to bother with me," said the witch with a curl of her lips. Her words were icy cold. "You will never be able to figure me out in this life, at least."
"She is right. You better not mess with her—Sable witches are not easy to confront," said Veronica from the back seat. She still sounded reverent, but this time around, the fear in her voice was palpable, as if she knew that she was about to be executed for the sin that she had committed, and something about how Tracy treated her ascertained this. After all, even though the woman insisted that she had done nothing wrong, Tracy countered it with her own explanation. Something about how Veronica knew the truth and didn’t let it slip out until now.
As for Veronica’s ’I did not’ explanation, no one was willing to believe it.
Not even Ajax and that guy were gullible enough to believe that the cat could bark if it worked harder.
Dominic turned to look at Tracy for the first time. Finally, he stopped sulking after being turned into a toad. Finn guessed that this piece of information was too precious for him to tune everyone out. He turned to look at Tracy and asked, "Sable witch? Is it like a rank or the kind of magic that you perform?"
Tracy, of course, stayed silent as if she were detached from the entire conversation itself.
Like they were not talking about her while she was sitting next to them.
The insides of the car started to feel stuffier, more than they already were, and everyone shifted in their seats. Finn could smell the secrets from a mile away and knew that there was more to the story than Tracy was letting on.
Veronica must have sensed something because she shifted in her seat and remarked, "It’s better for us not to know about some things. It’s better that way."
Damn, was he that obvious? Maybe he was. But as he glanced at Tracy, he ended up becoming more and more intrigued by her. So much so that for the first time he didn’t want to listen to the warnings.