I flinched but didn’t respond. She was right, of course. My father had been powerful, a leader who had carried the weight of this coven with unyielding strength. But even he had been no match for the wolves.
And now, he was gone.
I stalked down the dimly lit corridor, my boots echoing against the stone floor. The weight of my father’s death pressed against me with every step, but I forced it down, shoving it into the growing pit of anger in my chest. Grief could wait. Questions could wait. Butshecouldn’t.
The girl—Maple—was an absurd twist in a situation that already felt like a cruel joke. I could still see her standing there,defiant and ridiculous in her bunny slippers, holding that damn vase like it was a weapon. A sharp tongue in a tiny package. That’s what my father had seen as our salvation.
I stopped at the end of the hall, pressing my palms flat against the cold stone wall, trying to steady the storm brewing inside me.
He hadn’t even told us. Not about her. Not about the marriage contract. Not about his plan to meet the wolves. He’d left everything behind—responsibilities, secrets, alegacy—and now it was all on me.
And the transfer of power… I clenched my fists, remembering the sharp, almost violent surge of magic that had coursed through me when his soul departed. The coven’s power had shifted, binding itself to me in a way that felt foreign and suffocating.
I wasn’t ready for this.
But it didn’t matter. Ready or not, the coven was mine now. I was the Voodoo King, no matter how much I didn’t want it. The wolves were my war to fight. And the girl—this stranger dropped into my lap by my father’s inexplicable final act—was my responsibility.
I exhaled sharply and pushed off the wall. Brooding wouldn’t fix anything. Answers wouldn’t materialize out of thin air. And as much as I hated it, I had to face the absurd reality in front of me.
When I finally reached her quarters, I found myself pausing outside the door, my hand hovering over the handle. Part of me wanted to turn around, to let her sit there in silence until the Matriarch decided what to do with her. But that wasn’t an option.
With a resigned sigh, I knocked.
“Come in!” came her voice, overly bright and edged with sarcasm.
I pushed the door open to find her sitting cross-legged on the bed, her wild curls even more untamed than before. She looked up from a book she’d clearly pilfered from the coven’s library, one eyebrow raised in a way that immediately set my teeth on edge. For someone who had never been here before, she managed to find herself rather comfortable.
“Well, if it isn’t myfiancee,” she said, her tone dripping with contempt. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
I stepped inside, closing the door behind me. “We need to talk.”
“About the part where I have no idea why I’m here or the part where you seem to hate my guts already?”
“Both,” I said flatly, folding my arms. “None of this was my idea.”
She rolled her brown eyes and I needed to take a deep breath to calm the anger storming through me. Her lips twitched like she was suppressing a smile. “Really? I couldn’t tell from the death glare you’ve been giving me since I got here.”
I ignored the jab, focusing instead on the frustration bubbling under my skin. “My father believed you were important—essential, even—to stopping what’s happening with the wolves. I don’t see it and I have zero way of asking my father what he saw before his untimely demise.”
Her expression softened slightly, but the edge in her voice remained. “And now you’re stuck with me. Guess we’re both thrilled about this arrangement.”
I let out a humorless laugh. “Thrilled doesn’t begin to cover it.”
For a moment, silence stretched between us, the weight of everything unsaid settling heavily in the room.
“What happens now?” she asked, her voice quieter.
I studied her, trying to reconcile the sharp-tongued girl in front of me with the supposed savior my father had placed his final hope in.
“Now,” I said slowly, “you meet the Matriarch. She’ll explain more about why you’re here.”
“And you?” she asked, tilting her head. “What’s your role in all this?”
“ I am the Voodoo King. My role,” I said, my voice hardening, “is to lead this coven, protect my people, and stop the wolves before they tear apart everything my father built. And apparently, that includes keeping you alive long enough to figure out why the ancestors think you’re so important.”
Her eyes narrowed, and I saw a spark of defiance that made me pause.
“I don’t need protecting,” she said firmly.
