Copyrighted by Lorna Tedder. Originally published in Third Degree and Rising.
I’ve calmed down a bit, given that it’s almost four in the morning and I have a splitting headache from a different source of contention, but I’ve spent today on spiritual pursuits and some unusual insights have come out. My natural inclination is to throw a veil of protection over my friends and loved ones and go kick some ass when anyone threatens them, but in this case, their lack of insight is their undoing. And there’s not much I can do.
There is, I suppose, but I won’t toss out magickal protection spells onto the winds. Not this time. I’ve done so much already to lift them up, keep them safe, send them boosts of energy and prayer when times are rough. But now I’m at that place of “allowing miracles,” even when it’s so painful to watch my friends and loved ones slip into such dire situations, worse than they yet know. Now I do nothing but observe and hope they figure it out.
There are things I desperately want to say to him about his wife but I can’t. How is it he’d ever believe me? I’d come off sounding catty and jealous or as interfering as the rest. And there are plenty enough friends and relatives who disapprove of their abrupt marriage already without another of us putting him on the defensive. And what could I ever say to her? “Welcome to my family”?
What I wish I could tell him—and perhaps he’ll see it before it’s too late—is that the Queen of Swords lied to him and he married her because of that lie. She carefully constructed this entire facade because she likes the power of her sex and her own hidden magick. Manipulative people are bad enough but, as I’ve said before, when it’s a magickal person, the manipulation goes to levels that most people have never heard of and will never understand. I have serious issues with women who dig into dark pockets of magick to seduce a man and call it a love spell when there’s no love, only power, attached to their intentions.
He thought he could trust her. After all, he knew people like me, someone with some similar traits and beliefs, and he trusted me to be ethical and honest in those beliefs. He thought she’d be the same. Surely he’s started to see her unravel at the seams by now and realized that the convincing presentations she’s made were all illusion? Or will he look the other way until she has used him up, fueled her fire on her way to the next load of kindling?
She is a control freak who dares not let anyone in her realm take a breath without her knowing. She keeps her dogs on short leashes that get shorter with time until their will is choked or broken. Small-hearted, callous. She knows his dreams and doesn’t care but she’s an easy seductress. It doesn’t last but by then, she’s manipulated her way into the power position over men—she has enough of such scenarios in the past even though she displays them…showcases them…far differently, with her either as the victim or the mother who must fight for her darling children. He, like the others, has been played.
She needs the power fix she gets through her domineering. Nothing and no one is quite as interesting as when she’s proving she can take them for her own and discard them at will. She’ll break hearts and it won’t matter to her. All the more orgasmic if she can prove her superiority by breaking the hearts of those who love him.
She cannot simply let people be who they are and enjoy them.
She is a cat who plays with her pretty birds instead of killing them right away, batting them down when they try to escape, dazing them, letting them think she might offer freedom before she wounds them just enough to keep them earthbound. Before they are limp and lifeless, she’ll have turned attention to the next bird, especially if it’s pretty or well-feathered.
Bitch.
But I’ll do nothing to protect him. That’s what I choose unless he should ask me for my help, in which case I’d be there in a heartbeat. I’ll just allow him to learn from the experience that’s coming, if he hasn’t seen it already. And I’ll hope that the Rune of Clarity will assist him in seeing what really is, while he still has feathers.
I wonder, though. Does he know about the drugs? Does she acquire them herself without his knowledge? Or does she manipulate him into securing the needles for her?
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