Chapter Eleven
When Emilia and Wrath head into the lagoon she notices he has a tattoo that reads, “the stars incline us; they do not bind us” and is reminded of the betrothal bond and the summoning circle she subjected him to. She also notices another tattoo that reads “Actions not words.” Later in the lagoon they begin to get closer till eventually Wrath transports them to his bedchamber.
Chapter Twelve
Once the two are in his bedroom, Emilia feels a sharp, stabbing pain in her chest, right near her cornicello. Wrath brings her to the Matron of Curses and Poisons. The Matron puts Tears of Saylonia, the goddess of grief and sorrow that were collected at a Temple in the Shifting Isles to help with the taste of the drink. The Matron guesses Emilia had been in the lagoon because certain magic cannot enter the waters without grave consequences. Some say the water there once belonged to the goddesses and burns away that which doesn’t belong. Others believe the Feared seek to reclaim what was taken from them and do not care how they succeed in restoring their power, only that they do. Emilia is confused as to who the Feared is, but Wrath cuts her off and brushes off the question as a superstition and old folktale. When Emilia accuses Wrath of knowing the consequences, Celestia said if he knew the effect it would have on you, she doubted he would’ve taken her there. She says it’s his other secret Emilia needs to inquire about and he is fully aware of how that one affects you both. Wrath becomes angry and warns the Matron. After Emilia drinks the concoction, she asks whether or not she should take off the amulet but Celestia says no, the charm wouldn’t trouble her anymore. Celestia tells Wrath to finally tell Emilia what she should know and surprisingly, he agrees.
In his library, Wrath tells Emilia that the Mark he gave her cannot be broken, not even in death, meaning their souls were forever linked yet she had sold her soul already. The night of her Viperidae attack, Wrath told her to live long enough to hate him. The magic Emilia mistook for a rebirth spell was the Mark and it tethered them, flesh to flesh, in a way that allowed Wrath’s powers to heal her. Emilia only survived because Wrath took the venom through his body through the magical bond. The Mark meant more that just being a way to summon Wrath or save Emilia because of another magical bond they share. Wrath tells Emilia Pride will not seek her because she is not his intended and belongs to Wrath.
Chapter Thirteen
Emilia and Wrath are still betrothed. She realizes Pride isn’t her husband, but Wrath. This was a complication that Emilia couldn’t afford largely because she vowed to avenge her sister. Wrath says the Mark was the best alternative he could come up with at the time and because of the venom, he didn’t have many other options to explore before it stopped her heart. That night he asked her to grant him permission to help and she agreed. The Mark was an alternative to delay certain urges the betrothal acceptance creates. All of Emilia’s lust-filled thoughts and feelings towards Wrath had slowly been intensifying and eroding her distrust. It was part of an ancient need to claim her husband to secure the marriage. The realm and the bond have been encouraging Emilia. Marking her subdues the marriage urges because it’s its own unbreakable link. Wrath never told Emilia about aligning herself with his House because he never wanted her to come to the demon realm. Emilia asks why but he says he cannot tell her. Wrath tells Emilia the witch murders are no longer happening which means Wrath’s mission was never truly finding a bride for Pride, but Wrath couldn’t say anything about the situation. The Contract with House Pride becomes a void if Emilia chooses to continue the marriage. If she choosing to do nothing then it will eventually be up to the Temple of Fate where a council of three will convene on the matter. The council will decide the fate of them all. Angered after finding out the whole court knew about their marriage and Wrath might have consummated the marriage that night, Emilia accepts Envy’s invitation to his court.
Chapter Fourteen
Emilia thinks maybe there was someone Wrath preferred to wed. When they first met, he hated witches. Emilia had been willing to have a marriage of convenience with Pride because it granted her access to his House and a better understanding of how his wife’s murder might’ve been related to Vittoria’s. She didn’t gain anything from being married in House Wrath. Emilia is upset because it was the demon prince that helped her through grief, not her family. The more Emilia thought about Vittoria, the easier it became to distance herself from other urges. In her room, Emilia continued to delve into Source, creating flaming flowers, extinguishing some and increasing the intensity of the flames and sizes. Wrath takes Emilia to Envy’s court. Envy tells him to leave, but Wrath doesn’t until he escorts Emilia to her chamber. He gives her a leather sheath to hold a dagger for safety.
Chapter Fifteen
Once Wrath left, Emilia is informed she’ll be having dinner with Envy in private. Emilia wears the dress of House Envy and Envy tells her he’s disappointed that she came here to make Wrath jealous. He also tells her he knew of the betrothal. In order to prevent his influence on her, Emilia subtly touches her mark. Emilia asks him why he hates mortals and responds saying assumptions are the death of truth and proceeds to ask her if she’s ever tried magic in her food. Emilia says, “Why in the seven hells would she do that?” Envy corrects her by saying eight and suggests they magic the wine into forcing the other one to tell the truth. With the magic in the wine, Emilia asks how Envy seemed to know her Nonna the night she attack him. Envy responds saying curses are curious things that stay rooted to the spot they’re planted other times they thrive outside of that original patch, not answering her question. What he said was true but there are things he cannot say no matter the amount of magic on the wine because there are greater powers involved, but he knows Emilia’s grandmother. Emilia then asks Envy about the curse, and he talks about the story of curses and stolen memories, the unraveling of many lies. Abruptly, Envy then says Wrath would never force her to marry him because it goes against what he stands for. Envy responds saying Wrath will still make his intentions know to the other royal houses. This causes Emilia to ask why he likes to spread distrust amongst her and his brother. He responds saying his brother’s temper caused something important to be taken from him and one day he wants to return the favor he is motivated by retribution, a feeling he shares that is the same to Emilia’s. Envy asks Emilia if she loves Wrath and she says no but is attracted to him. Envy tells Emilia he likes collecting divine objects and is only interested in one now: the Triple Moon Mirror. Envy says the mirror is of the goddesses and can show you the past, present and future because it is embedded with the Maiden, Mother, and Crone’s magic, which is what the enchanted skull was referring to. It is said that one needs the Crone’s book of spells, The Temptation Key and the mirror to activate the goddess magic.
Chapter Sixteen
When Emilia follows Envy to see his personal collect, she gets a strange sense of deja vu despite never being there and never going to a museum, which takes inspiration from Envy. According to Nonna, it wasn’t uncommon for magic to continue developing throughout a witch’s lifetime. Emilia thought it would make sense that her newfound use of Source unlocked other magic. She then wonders about Envy’s heartbreak and who hurt him. Envy has a sculpture of the devil, who looked a lot like Wrath, when he lost his wings to remember that he lost them too. Emilia notices Envy has a La Prima’s personal spell book, the one that disappeared from Emilia. Envy tells her that what she calls the first book of spells is not a complete manuscript, it’s one third of a grander, more elaborate text. He has possession of the Mother and the Crone but the Maiden has gone missing. Emilia says to Envy the first book of spells belonged to the First Witch, not the goddesses. Envy corrects her, saying the books were written by the goddesses and her First Witch stole the book of the dead, the Crone’s book of underworld magic. Envy also reveals to Emilia that he is searching for the Temptation Key. From Envy, Emilia also learns of the Curse Tree Fable, where one may go to the Bloodwood Forest and approach the tree planted by the Crone to have her consider hexing a sworn enemy if the desire to curse them is true. To request the Crone’s Curse, one must carve their true name in the tree, write their wish on a leaf plucked from its branches, then offer the tree a drop of blood. Put the leaf beneath your pillow and if it is gone the next morning, the Crone, mother of the underworld, has accepted your offer and granted your wish.
Emilia decides to take the Book of Spells with her. Not long after, Emilia finds out Envy has left the premises and won’t be back for a while, so Emilia decides to leave the next morning. The next morning, Wrath doesn’t pick Emilia up, but rather a cold emissary does. She doesn’t offer any clues as to where Wrath may be. When Emilia arrives there’s still no sign of Wrath so she decides to work on finding Source again but later her magic crashed. Emilia tries to read Pride’s journal, but is still unable to decipher the writing. The next morning there’s still no sign of Wrath. Later Emilia runs into Anir, who shows her the House Wrath weapons room. Anir teaches her to work on her stance and also tells her Lady Sundra, the emissary, father is a duke and she’s been trying to wed a prince. Emilia asks Anir if there was someone else Wrath wanted to marry before her and is interrupted when Wrath appears.
Chapter Seventeen
Wrath tells Anir to leave the room before he places a sloth mind spell on her. He then uses an Envy spell on her to get her jealous of him with other people in bed. He compels her through her mind to take of her dress and refer to him as a specific name, against her will, showing her the demon princes will have the same intentions. The last thing Wrath makes Emilia do is stab him multiple times in the heart, manipulating her wrath and anger.
Chapter Eighteen
Wrath is just as angry as Emilia and tells Emilia to fight back with her own magic but she is unable to. Emilia is unsatisfied with stabbing Wrath after he was cruel to her proving his point that revenge will only make things worse. Wrath tells her they’ll meet again to tomorrow and after that till the Feast of the Wolf, Emilia objects but is then reminded she didn’t set rules for her bargain with Wrath. When Emilia gets back to her room, she finds another enchanted skull. It is at that moment Wrath enters the room and is furious to see the skull. Emilia explains to him when she first saw the skull appear and Wrath says he’s going to bring it to his private study. In response, Emilia says she wants to know everything he finds out about it and the two bargain. Wrath also sees the Pride’s journal and knew Emilia was going to strike a deal with a demon to understand what was written. He tells her he could’ve given her the answers that are in the journals, yet when Emilia asks him if he would teach her how to read it, he says, I don’t know.
Chapter Nineteen
When Emilia is out strolling the gardens outside House Wrath, Envy appears placing a dagger against her calling her a thief. He reminds her stealing from a Prince is punishable by death, but that’s not why he’s there. Envy tells her he cursed her magic, making her a mortal because she stool his book of spells. Underneath the ground she stands on, Emilia hears hopeless cries and Envy soon vanishes. To remove the curse from herself, Emilia needed Envy or she needed to untangle the web of magic and cut the source, if she cut the wrong one she could die. Emilia later receives a letter stating she would be the guest of honor and the Feast was taking place in House Gluttony. Fauna approaches Emilia, noticing she’s nervous and offers to bring her to the kitchen. The chef allows Emilia to bake and from a window in the kitchen she notices Wrath and Anir dueling outside. Fauna tells Emilia that some people think Wrath is weak because he’s letting Emilia choose whether or not she wants to marry him. She tells Emilia that if a prince’s clothing is messed up it’s a sign he can’t protect the people in his House. Emilia asks Fauna if bedding Wrath was the only thing needed to consummate the marriage, she says no, they’d still need a ceremony. Later that day Wrath sends Emilia a note to meet him at midnight for training, asking her in advance like she wanted.
Chapter Twenty
When Wrath commands Emilia to do something, she does it, unable to block him from manipulating her emotions. Wrath teaches Emilia how to wield a dagger and a knife before teaching her how to dance after Emilia reveals she doesn’t know how to dance. At the very end of the chapter, Anir comes into the room, saying Antonio is asking for Emilia.
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