Scion

by Kelly Oram

Leslie and Dani both looked like they didn’t believe it—like they couldn’t believe it—but the truth was written on Simone’s surprised face.

  “Gabe,” I explained. My eyes briefly found Dani’s goober of a mate before going back to Simone. “The Seer told me how much the Supreme High Councilor liked you. He mourned like crazy when he thought you died. Gabe said the two of you were close.”

  “The Supreme High Councilor?” Clara echoed in disbelief.

  Dude. That meant… “Holy crap, Clara! You’re a Valois warlock!” There was only one other warlock family that came close to rivaling the Devereauxes in strength and power—the Valois. And there were only a handful of them left. Clara was a Laroche witch and a Valois warlock. No wonder her essence felt like a freaking drug to me. So much magic… How the heck could she control so much power?

  Clara had just earned a trillion cool points in my book.

  I thought Simone would be pissed that I’d guessed her secret, but instead she smiled at me. “Oh, Russell, darling, you are so very sharp, just like your father. That was one of the things I loved most about him, too. And hated. He had such a determined, impenetrable mind. Jacque, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly as strong-willed.”

  The way she spoke led me to another truth. Dani got it, too. “You spelled him into your bed,” she accused. “You tried to spell Alex, but he was too faithful to his wife, so you spelled the councilor. He never knew it happened, did he?”

  Simone’s smile turned rueful. “Jacque was a very conservative man. Completely blinded by the old ways. He would never have gone to bed with a witch willingly, no matter how much he might have cared for me. And he would have killed Clara had he known what she was. He would have sentenced me to death, too. That’s why I had to place the glamour on her.”

  “Then why do it?” Clara cried, disgusted by her mother’s confession. “Why would you do something like that?”

  “Because I wanted you, baby. I wanted a strong daughter, and you are so incredibly strong. You have no idea. The glamour suppressed your warlock magic. Without it, you will be twice as powerful than you were even when you had immortal blood at your disposal. You will be the most powerful magic user alive, save the Chosen One and the Scion.”

  Even though she’d been looking at me with affection a moment ago, Simone spat my title as if it were a dirty word. I ignored her and said, “A glamour is not the same thing as a curse. You said I lifted a curse from her. What did you mean?”

  “Nothing.” Simone’s face smoothed out. “I simply meant the glamour.”

  She was so full of it. “You’re not half the liar that my father is, Simone. You aren’t fooling any of us. Don’t make me spell the truth from you.”

  Simone glared at me with a look of pure rage. “Some truths are better left untold!”

  Matching her anger, I turned to Clara. “You were there when I had this same fight with my father yesterday. You know the gruesome truths I learned from him. As horrible as it is to know that information, I don’t regret learning it. Do you want to know what your mother is hiding from you?”

  Clara’s body went rigid, and she shook her head. “No,” she said in a voice of steel. “But I need to know.” She stepped up to her mother with determination I had to admire. “Tell me the truth, or I will spell it from you myself.”

  Simone was beyond pissed now, and clearly blamed me for her daughter’s attitude. She threw her hands up in exasperation. “Very well; if you must know, I placed a repelling curse on you so that no one would look too closely at you.”

  “A repelling curse?” The blood drained from Clara’s face. “I knew it!”

  “Knew what?” Dani asked.

  Clara shook her head, still utterly bewildered. “All my life, I’ve wondered what was wrong with me. Everybody I met seemed to either ignore me or hate me. I’ve never had a single close friend. Girls hate me, and guys only pay attention to me long enough to sleep with me. I’ve never had a single meaningful relationship.” Clara’s eyes misted over, and she shot her mom a resentful glare. “How could you do that to me?”

  It was a fair question. So much about Clara now made perfect sense. She’d been dealt a craptastic fate. My father may have given my soul to the devil, but he’d always loved me more than anything else in the world and surrounded me by others that loved me, too. What Simone did to Clara was downright cruel.

  Simone looked sad but not repentant. “Faerie glamours aren’t perfect, sweetheart. A fey or a strong magic user would have been able to tell you wore one if they spent enough time with you. Not to mention, you had no natural blood feud with warlocks. I couldn’t have people asking questions about you. It seemed the easiest way.”

  “But cursing me to be hated by people for my entire life?” Clara screamed.

  Simone rolled her eyes at the outburst. “Don’t be ridiculous. The curse was not that strong. People did not hate you. They were simply indifferent or put off.”

  I didn’t realize I’d snorted until everyone was suddenly looking at me in disgust. “Sorry,” I muttered. “But that is crap. That spell was way strong because I don’t think it’s possible to hate someone as much as I’ve always hated your daughter.”

  Cringing, I sent an apologetic smile Clara’s way. “Sorry.”

  Clara glowered at me, but Simone’s face softened again into that look of endearment that she was so fond of giving me. “Ah, you were a special case, Russell. I’d always had such a weakness for your father that when I built the curse, my feelings for him seeped into it. The curse was weaker with you and your father. And then you came to stay with us the summer you entered the cravings. You were such a strong warlock, stronger even than your father, and it was as if the curse had no effect on you at all. You must remember how the two of you were that first week after your arrival, before I realized the curse wasn’t working on you.”

  Didn’t I just have this conversation with Clara? Why did people have to keep bring it up? And did she have to mention it in front of Dani?

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, seriously?” Dani interrupted. “You and Clara? When you were twelve?” She wasn’t angry or jealous, just a little mind-blown. “And you never told me?”

  I shrugged and looked away from her, my face as hot as fire. I sneaked a glance at Clara and saw she was glaring at the floor, looking as flushed as I felt. Simone brushed the back of her hand down my flaming cheek, furthering my mortification. “As much as I adored you, darling, I couldn’t let you and Clara happen. Your father would have figured out her secret. I loved Alexander, but I didn’t trust him entirely. I knew he was keeping things from me. He couldn’t know, no matter what, so as soon as I discovered the connection you and Clara shared, I intervened. I hated breaking the two of you up, but it had to be done.”

  “How?” Clara demanded so suddenly that I jumped. “You said the curse didn’t work on Russ. It’s not like you made him act like such an ass. He did that on his own.”

  Clara paused a minute to send me a scathing look, and for the first time in my life I felt really guilty about the way I’d treated her when we were twelve. And every time we’d been together since…

  “Actually, he didn’t,” Simone said. “I don’t know what he did or said to you, but his actions were the results of feelings that were not his own. I placed a separate curse on Russ—a subtle, but very powerful, curse.” Simone’s gaze drifted to me. “I was lucky your father never noticed it.”

  I snapped to attention, my entire body going rigid. I didn’t like knowing she’d messed with me. “What curse?”

  “A mortal enemy curse. You were right when you said it would be impossible to hate a person as much as you hated Clara. It is impossible—at least it is, without the help of magic.”

  “OH. MY. GOSH!” Dani shrieked. “That explains it! I couldn’t figure you two out at all, but that makes so much sense!”

  “Dani, shut up!”

  I was starting to really lose my temper. I wanted to pound that stupid, evil witch in her face
. My body started to tremble as my darkness flared to life inside me. Forget punching her—I wanted to kill her. She deserved it. A hand came down gently on my shoulder. I looked up to see Leslie watching me with a sympathetic smile. “Easy, Russ,” she murmured. “It’s your anger that brings out your hellish power, right?”

  I nodded as I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. There was a heartbeat of silence, and then Clara shouted, “You cursed me to repel everyone around me and made me live a friendless life. Then you took the one person who ever liked me, the only person I ever cared about, and made him believe I was his mortal enemy?”

  I didn’t have time to dwell on Clara’s declaration of feelings for me, because she reached up and slapped her mother’s face so hard Simone almost lost her balance. “You bitch!”

  I’d never seen Simone so shocked. I would have totally savored the moment, if Clara hadn’t burst into sobs and run from the room. Simone stood there looking completely helpless as she watched her daughter flee.

  “I didn’t have a choice,” she whispered after we heard a door slam. “I did it to protect her.”

  If I had a dollar for every time my father used that line on me…

  Simone gave me a pleading look, desperate for me to understand, but I just shook my head in disgust. “Now I understand why you’re so hung up on my dad. You’re the female version of him.”

  I walked out of the room after that because I couldn’t stand to be near Simone anymore. I was afraid I’d kill the woman, even without the help of the devil’s influence.

  I found Clara sitting outside on the front steps, resting her chin on her knees as she gazed out at nothing in particular. She wasn’t crying anymore, but she still looked pretty wrecked.

  I really needed to go find Ethan and Grace, but I had to say something to her after all that. I’d already been a big enough jerk to her in our short lives to deserve her eternal hatred. I didn’t need to make it worse. Clara stiffened when I sat down next to her, but didn’t tell me to get lost. “I see your slapping skills haven’t gotten rusty after all these years.”

  Clara flinched. She opened her mouth to say something, but I stopped her. “Don’t. I deserved it then, and your mom deserved it now.”

  Clara glanced at me with her puffy red eyes, and I had to look away. It’s not often that I’ve felt vulnerable in my life, but right then I was nothing but a big ball of self-consciousness. I felt like Ethan trying to ask his girl to the dance. Ugh. Pathetic. “I’m sorry.” It wasn’t nearly adequate enough, but I didn’t know how else to apologize. I didn’t even know where to begin. “Spelled or not, I was a huge jerk to you, and you didn’t deserve it.”

  Clara didn’t say anything, and we lapsed into a painful silence.

  “It’s gone, by the way.”

  She still didn’t meet my gaze, but she asked, “What’s gone?”

  “The curse your mom put on me.” I shrugged, uncomfortable. “All the bad feelings.”

  Just when I was sure Clara would never talk to me again, she whispered, “Then what’s left? What do you feel now if the hate is gone?”

  I took a minute to think about it. There was so much going on inside me it was hard to put it into words. “Guilty, mostly. Regretful. Confused. And super awkward.”

  The side of Clara’s mouth pulled up into a slight smile, but it didn’t last. “I wasn’t under the curse with you.” She spoke so softly I almost couldn’t make out the words.

  “What do you mean?”

  Finally, she looked up and met my eyes. “I never felt the things you felt. It would have been easier if I’d just instantly hated you the way you did me, but I couldn’t. Not for a long time. I was just hurt. My whole life, I’d never had a single friend. When I met you, you were like a gift sent from the Creator. I’d never had anyone treat me like a real person before, much less like I was someone special. That first week you came to stay was the best week of my life, and then suddenly…” Clara took a deep breath and blinked back a few tears. “I didn’t understand what happened—what went wrong between us.”

  I swallowed a lump that had risen in my throat. That had to have sucked for her. A lot. “Clara, I…” My voice trailed off, because there was nothing I could say that would make her feel better.

  “I cried so much that summer, and every time my mom saw me doing it, she’d insist it wasn’t your fault. She said it was because you were so new to your powers and didn’t know how to deal with the blood feud yet. But if that were true, you would have acted that way from the moment we met. I knew it was personal against me. I hated my mom for defending you, and I hated you because it always felt as if she liked you and your dad more than she liked me.”

  My heart broke for her. Without thinking, I pulled her into my arms and squeezed her as tight as I could. “Clare Bear, I am so sorry.”

  Clara stiffened and sucked in a breath through her nose, but after a moment she relaxed and wrapped her arms around me, too. I was relieved when she returned my hug. I had a physical need to comfort her. I ached to make her feel better and take away the heartache she was feeling right now.

  What made it worse was knowing that I had been the cause of a lot of her suffering. I told myself none of that had been my fault, but I still felt like a world-class a-hole. “Please forgive me,” I whispered.

  The request shocked us both, but once the words escaped my mouth I knew they needed to be said. I wanted redemption for my mistakes, even if they hadn’t been entirely my own. I wanted to right the wrongs I’d done to her.

  Clara pulled back at the sound of my broken voice and gaped at me. “Are you crying?”

  Startled, I reached up and felt the wetness on my cheeks. When I turned my face away from her and cursed under my breath, Clara burst into laughter. I wanted to be so mad at her, but I couldn’t manage it, and suddenly I was laughing, too. “Shut up!” I gave her a playful shove and wiped away the humiliating moisture. “It’s not my fault. This damned angelic heart is insane. I swear I can’t control it.”

  “Damned angelic heart?” Clara laughed so hard tears formed in her eyes, too. “I don’t think you should be swearing if you’ve been claimed by the angels.”

  “Probably not.”

  We realized we were laughing with each other at the same time, and, in a flash, our lightness was gone and things went straight back to uncomfortable. Clara broke the silence with a snorted laugh. “I think my mom and your dad are soul mates.”

  I echoed her snort. “I know, right? It’s seriously messed up.”

  We fell quiet again, but the atmosphere was much more relaxed this time. “Friends?” she asked. “Or…at least…not mortal enemies anymore?”

  My heart swelled inside my chest again, as if Michael was desperate for me to accept the offer. He needn’t have pushed so hard. With the curse broken, I was able to see Clara for who she was—a gorgeous, snarky, motorcycle-riding, bad-a magic user who’d stuck by my side through this whole mess even when I was being a Moby-Dick sized jerk to her. She was definitely someone I could be friends with.

  I answered her by bumping my shoulder against hers and giving her my best I’m-Russ-Devereaux-And-You-Love-Me grin. She blinked, startled, and then smirked. “I’ve seen that smile a million times in the last five months, but it’s a little freaky having it directed at me.”

  I chuckled. “Us…friends…it’s a bit weird, isn’t it?”

  She nodded. “It’s definitely going to take some getting used to.”

  I leaned back against the steps and stretched out my legs in front of me. Minutes lapsed, but neither of us moved to get up. I could imagine she was less enthused to go back in that house than I was. As if reading my thoughts, she sighed. “What are you going to do now?” I could tell she was thinking more about her own future than mine.

  “Find Ethan and Grace, and make sure they’re safe. Then I’m going to figure out a way to end the council, once and for all.”

  “You want to take out the council?” Clara asked, st
artled.

  I sounded an awful lot like my father, I knew, but I didn’t see any other way. “Have to. Dani, Gabe, Ethan, Grace, me…none of us will ever be free if we can’t stop them. I’ll be hunted until they finally succeed in putting me underground. I’m not going to run. I’m not going to hide for the rest of my life, just waiting for the guardians to catch up with me. I’m going to fight.”

  “Sounds good to me. Where do we start?”

  The “we” in her statement was not lost on me. I glanced at her, and she jumped on my case before I could say anything. “Don’t cut me out, Russ. If Ethan and Grace are in trouble, I want to help, and with my glamour gone, I’m in just as much danger as you. There’s no way the council’s going to be happy when they learn what I am, and I can’t hide it anymore.”

  We stared each other down until my lips twitched into a smile. “I wasn’t going to tell you that you can’t come, Clare Bear.” I laughed when she frowned. “Actually, we made a pretty good team before I broke our curses. Now we’ll be…”

  “Formidable,” Clara supplied. A faint smile crossed her face.

  “I was thinking ‘even sexier,’ but ‘formidable’ works, too.”

  Clara laughed quietly, shaking her head as if she thought I was ridiculous, but quickly sobered up. “So, do you have a plan to get Ethan and Grace back and stop the council?”

  No. No I most definitely did not. “Please. I always have a plan.”

  Just as Clara gave me a challenging look, someone tugged on my hair, pulling my face up. “Does this so-called plan involve burning down any buildings?” Dani teased, smiling down at me.

  I grinned back. “Everybody’s got to have a trademark move, right?”

  Dani rolled her eyes and held out a hand to help me to my feet. “Come on, Planless Wonder. I called Duncan.”

  “And?”

  “And I told him that we knew his secret, and if he didn’t own up to his position and come join us for an emergency meeting, we were taking over the resistance ourselves and we’d storm the consulate without him.”