“There’s a European council too,” added Evan. “And in Russia, Asia, Africa, the Middle East. Australia. I hear their conventions are a blast.”
“You don’t go?” I asked, not sure if he was being a touch sarcastic.
Evan shrugged. “Daemon.”
“Oh, right.”
Étoile picked up where she left off. “Anyway, the remains of the council board are still there and they were the ones that asked us to investigate Chyler. The problem is, they don’t have anyone to lead and none of the board are individually strong enough. It used to be that the council was elected fairly. The smartest, the wisest, the most benevolent. Then, of course, politics got involved and it was the strongest, the richest and the best promises lobbied to get a backing for election. That’s where the Bartholomews excelled. They had it all, including power.”
“So if there was an election, there would be a new leader?” I asked.
“Theoretically, yes, but the council is supposed to elect a new leader before the old one goes. Obviously, that hasn’t happened this time so we’ve been without with a leader for six months. That leaves the council wide open for lobbying, and I don’t just meaning shaking hands and kissing babies’ heads. Some witches will do anything to get the spot.”
“Like Georgia Thomas?”
Étoile nodded and I wondered if it was my imagination that she paled a shade. “Georgia isn’t the only one who wants to collect an arsenal of witches whom would be so strong that no one would dare defy her. There could be a takeover. A new council could be declared.”
“And she’s having to resort to bringing back the dead?” I asked. “Doesn’t sound like a recipe for success.”
“She’s determined and she’ll try anything. Thankfully it didn’t work this time, but there’s no telling what Georgia would do if she forced her way onto the council, never mind the leadership.”
I thought about that. “It would be that bad?”
“Georgia is that bad,” Evan said, turning the corner of his page and closing the book.
Étoile added, “She knows our house wouldn’t support her, but you’re not allied as such except through our friendship.”
“What do you mean by house?”
“A lot of magical families have houses. Even when names change and there’s distant cousins, marriages and so on, they’re all part of a house. It keeps us aligned and ensures there’s some degree of protection. The house of Winterstorm is an old house and we’ve extended our backing to you but that doesn’t mean it’s absolute.”
“Well, thanks,” I said. “Were my parents part of houses? Do they still exist?” I’d finally laid my parents’ memories to rest but it had crossed my mind that I might have distant relatives that I didn’t know about.
“I’d have to ask my mother,” Étoile answered. “She’s got an excellent memory when it comes to all the houses and their histories.”
“This is a lot to take in,” I admitted, leaning back against the sofa, wondering how I would even get my thought processes straight enough to think any of this through in an evenly vaguely coherent manner. I asked, “So what happens if I’m not a part of a house?”
Étoile shrugged, “Nothing much usually. Like I said, it’s a way of organising, more than anything, but things are changing and I can’t say being aligned to a house isn’t going to be good for protection in the future, not when Georgia Thomas and the likes of her are canvassing for power. A threat is much weaker if you’ve got the backing of a house. Lone witches will be targeted, I can guarantee that.”
“And there’s the Brotherhood,” I said, the group forever on the periphery of my mind.
“There’s nothing to suggest they go after houses, just individual witches,” Étoile replied.
I turned to Evan. “What about daemons?”
He raised his eyebrows. “What about us?”
“Do you have hierarchies, or councils, or houses?”
“We’re not nearly as organised and there aren’t as many of us as there are the witches,” Evan said. “Many daemons aren’t even that close to their own families. It’s not like being a human where you’re ruled by emotions and connections. Daemons are very self-serving.”
That seemed a little harsh to me. “You’re not like that,” I protested.
“I’m not one hundred percent daemon thanks to my mother.”
“Hallelujah for that,” muttered Étoile.
“What happens to witches on their own?” I asked, curious as to exactly what Étoile’s family backing really meant. I appreciated them offering it, but I still wanted to understand what I was accepting.
“There’s a good chance they’d be bullied in to picking a side,” said Étoile. “They’ll be forced to pick a side if they want to live, and the side they pick will all depend on who threatens worst, or who provides the best protection.”
“And what happens if a side loses?”
Étoile sighed. “I really don’t know. I would imagine they would be forced to surrender to the winning party, or face the consequences.”
That didn’t sound promising. I imagined what Georgia Thomas would do if she won, and if she won, would it be as bad as her retaliation if she lost? Finally I wondered if the Brotherhood was as dangerous to witches, as the witches were to themselves. That was not a happy thought at all.
“What about wolves?” I asked, thinking this seemed the best moment for me to finally find out more about the strange world I lived in.
It was Evan who answered. “They are split into packs regionally. As far as organised go, they pretty much have it down. Often they congregate in one place, like Wilding.”
“And vampires?”
“Who knows? Shifty, devious creatures. Let’s hope they keep to themselves.” Étoile’s mouth was set in a firm line, like she wanted to spill the gruesome details but couldn’t quite bear to bring it all out in to the open.
I stifled a snort; that coming from a witch and the witches hadn’t yet struck me as the most solidly honest bunch.
“Don’t look so worried, Stella.” Evan had picked up his book again, and was thumbing through to his turned corner marker.
“It’s hard not to,” I replied, trying to wipe the frown from my forehead, my mind filled with thoughts.
“Étoile and I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I know you won’t, but it’s not like things are looking great. Georgia Thomas, and who knows who else, wants to rule the council and you’ve already said we stand a chance of getting caught up in that even if it’s because we’re forced to choose. The Brotherhood are always going to be a threat...” I tailed off, despondent.
Evan pulled me up onto the sofa next to him and held me close. “You’re not alone anymore, Stella. You never have to be alone again.”
Sixteen
It took me a moment to realise that the strange ringing noise wasn’t just in my ears. I scrabbled around the sofa for my phone, plucking it from under a pillow to answer on the fifth ring. “Hello?”
“Hello. Stella?”
“Yes,” I said hesitantly, thinking the voice on the other end sounded familiar, like I should immediately know who was calling.
“Stella Mayweather?” the woman asked again.
“Who’s this?”
“Stella! I can’t believe you asked me that! It’s Kitty.”
Didn’t I feel like a moron. “Kitty! Oh, I’m so happy to hear from you. How’s your leg?” I asked while mouthing at Evan, who had looked up from his laptop: it’s Kitty!
“Out of a cast, at last. You would not believe how long it took to shave my legs. It was beyond gross. Anyway, I just got out of hospital. Literally! I’m still in the parking lot. I was thinking of coming to visit you, in time for Christmas, if you like?”
I beamed. “I do like. Actually, I love the idea. Come when you like for as long as you like.” I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face. Seeing Kitty again was a huge boon. She had been my first proper friend and I had missed
her enormously in the months since we had last seen each other. “Is Marc with you?” I asked.
“No, Marc left a few days ago. He’s had to go back to New York. Witchy business, you know, but he said to say hi and he’s looking forward to seeing you soon.” Marc had only had a little less time than me to come to terms with magic, though he would have had years of training if it hadn’t been for a powerful spell that bound his powers. He had a lot to come to terms with.
“That’s nice of him. It seems like forever...”
Kitty cut in, “Well, it doesn’t seem like nearly long enough ago for me. Oh, don’t get me wrong, not seeing you has been far too long, and I think we have a lot of catching up to do, but the less I think about what happened that day the better.”
I nodded in agreement, and then remembering she couldn’t see me, said, “When can you get here?”
“Sometime in the next couple of days I think. I have everything packed and all I need to do is turn on the engine. My leg aches a little so I’ll be taking it easy.”
“Great. Étoile is here, but there’s more than enough space for the four of us. Evan is staying too.”
“I can hardly wait to catch up. I want a blow-by-blow account of everything and, as a special bonus, for you, I’m going to bring some good weather with me. See you soon, honey.” Kitty was a weather witch. She had been learning how to control the elements when I first met her and I was certain she was responsible for the perfect weather where ever she went, not to mention the orchard that she once had enabled to grow despite the salty climes of ocean-side living.
“See you soon.” I hung up. Kitty’s imminent visit was the cherry on the icing on the cake. I felt the need to be surrounded by friends. I had Étoile, I had Annalise across the street. Kitty would be here within days. Seren and David may have gone, but I knew I would see them again. There was Evan who was here for me. And Gage; he would be my friend even if what I felt for him otherwise had to be tempered. I was surrounded by people I adored and people who wanted to be with me. Happy was a good feeling.
Even better, the happy vibes were waylaying the angst that had been sitting heavily on my shoulders since Georgia Thomas’ inauspicious visit. True to his word, Gage had kept up the offer of keeping watch and his wolves had been prowling the area for the last few days, except now they were less reticent about being seen by me. Much as I wanted to sit by the window and observe their wild behaviour, it felt strange doing so knowing that they were my neighbours and townsfolk. Evan and Étoile barely gave them a second glance at all, as if such beings were completely natural in their world. Thinking about it, they probably were.
Now the wolves were out in the open they had taken to howling in the woods all night and for a while they had kept me awake with them. I’d thought about stomping onto the porch as dawn broke, yelling ‘shut up!’ but it seemed arrogant to try and break them out of their natural state, especially when they were serving as protectors for me as well as being generally on the lookout for anything unusual in the area, anything that could be a threat to us. I’d just have to live with it.
When I finally went outdoors, there were still a few wolves, in their animal forms, milling around the porch of Gage and Annalise’s house. I was watching them when Gage came across, and they parted to allow him a path, then trotted on his heels to my porch before wheeling away again to the woods that bordered my land. I lost sight of them as they leaped through the scrub before bursting playfully back through in another spot, nipping at each other’s tails.
“How come they’re still like that?” I asked him. “You’re not.”
“We don’t just change at the full moon. Many of us can change whenever we want.”
“Ahh.”
Gage leant against the railings and watched them with me. “Besides it’s the weekend and they can just be themselves out here, especially now they don’t have to worry about you seeing them.”
“I’m sorry for disrupting the pack.”
“Don’t be. We have to hide from everyone so they understand. With your house stood empty for so long they had a free run of the land around here, but when you came we took a motion and agreed to stay off your property. It’s no problem at all that you’re here. If anything, a witch is more welcome than not.” Gage took a deep breath. “Though it has to be said they’re all anxious at the moment. All those witches created a huge surge of energy in the area. We hear rumours.”
“What kind of rumours?”
“That energy like that brings trouble, one way or another. You should be on your guard.”
I felt a chill travel through me. “On my guard against what?”
“Georgia Thomas, for one. Other witches, too. I’ve put feelers out to other packs to see what they report and what I hear isn’t good. Her coming here is bad news. You getting her attention is bad news, and there’s no telling if or when she’ll come back. She’s a powerful witch and she had rings run around her last night. I doubt she’ll have taken that well, at all. And, of course, there could be any number of other supernatural creatures... and those that want to harm us for just being us.”
“Like the Brotherhood?” I asked.
Gage nodded. “They’ll be attracted to the power, just as much as anything else, and just because they target witches, doesn’t mean they won’t come after the rest of us. You need to be prepared for that, you need to understand what it is to be part of this world, not just someone who got sucked in to it. You need to learn to defend yourself.”
“I have been learning,” I protested.
“Not enough. You need to demand to learn. You need to know how to protect yourself against werewolves – yes, even us – vampires, daemons and witches. You need to know what will work and what won’t. You need to know how to run, if you can’t fight.”
“I need to learn a lot, huh?” My shoulders fell a little. Everything he said was true of course. So far I’d been flying by the seat of my pants, performing magic – like Dina’s banishing – that I didn’t understand, rubbing shoulders with creatures I couldn’t even recognise. He was right. It had to stop. I had to accept that the protection extended to me could only go so far, and it wasn’t fair to take theirs – Gage’s, Evan’s, Étoile’s – without offering anything in return. “I don’t know how to do all that,” I said.
Gage’s jaw locked and I stabled myself for a furious answer at my apparent ineptitude but instead he said, “You’ve got teachers, make them teach you properly, and faster, and more intensively. You can train with the wolves here, but you’ll need to meet other supes to learn about them.”
“Won’t that just expose me?” It didn’t escape me that I had been hidden my whole life and that all that was now for nothing.
“The way I hear it, and I’ve been asking around, is that business with the witches council already exposed you. People know who you are, even if they don’t know where you are, but soon enough they’ll know that too. Georgia Thomas is pissed at you; other witches will see you as standing against her and possibly with them so they will want your power. Rumours will start about Chyler and Dina and there will be nothing you can do to stop them. Other supes will want to know want you can do for them, and you won’t know if they’re friend or foe.” I didn’t need to look at him to know how serious he was.
I let it sink in, before saying more to myself than to Gage, “Basically I’m in a world of shit.”
“Something like that.”
“Will we be safe here?” I liked Wilding. I liked the town and I liked my home. I’d done my absolute best to keep any magic I used to a minimum here, and my control was now in great condition, but I doubted that I was up to protecting myself against a legion. Not that Georgia Thomas had turned up with a legion, but my imagination was allowed a minor freak out. That she, or the Brotherhood, could force me into leaving, into running again, was something that didn’t sit well with me, and that was before I even factored in the danger that the town and its inhabitants could be in. I felt a brief moment of
shame when I wondered if I should have helped Chyler at all. She seemed to have brought a lot of problems with her, and it was likely we would be left with the fallout. A daemon, a witch, two novice witches and a town of werewolves might not be enough to defeat a very angry, very powerful witch, or the sinister Brotherhood. I sincerely doubted we could deal with both, or more.
Gage shrugged. “We’re all on the lookout. If anything comes this way, we’ll know about it,” Gage said, which didn’t exactly answer my question. I wondered: if I pressed the point, would I like what I heard? He added, “You’re safer here than anywhere else.”
He turned back to me, ignoring the wolves sniffing around his house and chasing each other, nipping at tails. He nodded towards my house. “Is the daemon staying?”
“Yes,” I replied simply. We had some stuff to work through, but Evan was staying. We’d see what happened later. “Étoile is staying too, and my friend Kitty is coming.”
Gage frowned. “Is she a werecat?”
“A Katherine,” I clarified, in case he was thinking of eating her. “She’s a witch.”
Gage drew a lungful of air and rested his hands on my shoulders. “It’ll help that they’re here.” He moved closer to stand by me, so close my shoulders rubbed just above his elbows, so close I could feel his heat and draw in a lungful of that earthy scent of his. He looked down at me, and for a moment I thought I saw a flicker of sadness in his eyes. “I’m still your friend... even if I don’t want to be.”
“Thanks, I guess.”
“You know what I mean. You know I don’t want to be just your friend.” He bent down and kissed my cheek and his head lingered there for a moment, his stubble brushing my cheek, while part of me wanted to turn my jaw that that extra inch to kiss him properly, firmly. But I didn’t and he drew back hesitantly. I couldn’t say anything else. I’d hurt him enough already by rejecting him and I couldn’t justify why I’d picked one fine man over another equally fine man. More to the point, it wouldn’t be fair, and Gage wouldn’t want to hear it. I rested my head against his chest for the briefest of moments and he wrapped his arms around me, sighing as he hugged me to him.
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