Patrick continued. "They're Polish. And in Poland, the witches rule above all the others. The witches also have a no tolerance policy when it comes to revealing anything they deem inappropriate for human ears. When Eugene broke their laws, and told his wife what he could do, Michelle didn't believe him. Angry and confused, she told her parents. By then, the witches had already sensed that their laws had been broken."
"What happened?"
"The witches were merciful," Patrick answered. My body tried to exhale in relief, but something in his voice wouldn't let me relax. "They only killed her parents, sacrificing them one after the other in the light of a full moon to power their spells."
"And that's mercy?"
"They let Michelle live. They cursed her, but they let her live. Now she's a part of our world and she will be for the rest of her life. If she so much as speaks to a human, to anyone without power, the other person will die instantly. She could live a long life, a cursed life, but she will never be able to reconnect with anyone she knew before."
Still watching the couple across the room, I couldn't come up with anything to say. There was no response.
No longer hungry, I excused myself and stood to go rinse my dish, maneuvering my way around Jeff who’d been standing beside the long dining room table, arguing with a woman whose mist looked an awful lot like witch magick to me.
How many of these people had stories like Michelle's? I couldn't say. All I knew for sure was that I'd made the right decision in spending my life up to that point as far away from these people as I could manage.
I found Nina in the kitchen standing over the sink, up to her elbows in soapy water as she scrubbed at a plate with a bright yellow sponge. Beside her, another woman was laughing at something or other while she dried the dishes Nina was cleaning.
“Please tell me that your group doesn’t make the women do the dishes by default,” I wondered out loud as I came up from behind them to lean against the counter beside Nina, cradling my own bowl in my hands.
It was the other woman who answered. She was extremely petite, probably standing just under five feet tall, with a thin frame, and auburn hair she’d tied back in a twist. A smattering of freckles painted her cheeks under thick-rimmed purple glasses. “Technically, no. But unless I want those louts destroying all of my best things, I’ve found it best to take care of business myself.” The woman smiled at me before stepping up onto a wooden stool at her feet to put away the glassware she’d just finished drying.
“This is your house? Err, place?”
“Indeed. My name is Aoife Pernidy. I’d shake your hand, but ...” She looked down at the plate she’d just picked up by way of explanation.
“Aoife was the one who caught wind of the werewolves coming in for a visit before the summit, and was then kind enough to invite a few of us here to see if we could find way to make the most of the opportunity.”
“I invited you, Jeffrey, Paul, and Harriet, and yet more and more people keep turning up in my house. If this is how things are now, I suspect I’m going to need a second castle to fit everyone by the time the summit begins.”
“If we don’t get things under control soon, there will likely be a mass exodus of our people from Europe by the time the summit begins,” Nina countered.
"I don't know about that," the other woman answered back. "Perhaps we've been controlled for long enough. The factions have had their hooks into our lives, our families, and our future for generations. And where has that gotten us?"
Aoife's statement would have been innocent enough on its own. Just a woman standing in her—admittedly extravagant—kitchen, chatting with a guest about ideas for their future.
Her statement alone wasn't enough to freeze me in place where I stood. No, all the credit for that went to the large dog who chose that same moment to enter from the open door at the back of the room. And when I say large, I mean way bigger than any sane person would have considered for a pet.
With silver and white fur, a long snout, and feet almost as big as mine, that dog could have easily passed as a wolf.
"It was you," I stammered. "You're the one that killed the fae girl. Why?"
My gaze moved from Aoife to Nina, desperately searching for some sort of confirmation. Nina was busy staring at the woman she'd been laughing with a minute before, her eyes wide with horror, putting the pieces together.
For a few seconds, Aoife's expression remained completely neutral, too neutral not to be a calculated decision on her part. "It had to be done. And nobody said this business would be pretty. What we got from that girl before she died will serve our cause extremely well."
"And how's that, exactly?" I asked, trying to take a step away from her. My back was already right up against the counter. There was nowhere left to go.
"I don't need to explain myself to you. You're not involved in any of this. From the sounds of it, you were completely clueless about anything happening outside your happy little bubble until last night. Living here in Galway, you likely would have been right there with me at the front of the line to be given as a gift to the humans."
"Fine, you don't owe her anything," Nina interrupted. "But what about me? This isn't what we talked about."
"We talked about changing the world, Nina. Did you think that would come easily? That body should have been enough to have the police asking some serious questions, at least until the fae swooped in to cover up any trace of what happened. The fae would have blamed the wolves, setting the factions at one another's throats and have them focusing on one another rather than the rest of us."
"But that didn't happen," I pointed out.
"No. The wolves got to her first. I haven't figured out how they managed to hide her fae deformities from the police. But we still have footage from when she was alive." She turned to Nina. "We're so close now. We're only missing one piece."
Rage filled Nina's brown eyes. "No one was supposed to get hurt. That's not why we're here." The more I learned about these people, the more disorganized they seemed. There had never been one big master plan. One group tried to kidnap the daughter of a werewolf, while another killed a fae girl, and who knew how many other small groups were doing the same or worse, not just here, but everywhere.
Aoife's eyes narrowed. "People are getting hurt! Our people! All over the world. We're too scattered, too different from one another, and the factions have been taking advantage of that for far too long. What we've done here is just the beginning. The lesser magick's need to band together before it's too late."
"To what end?" I asked. "You're going to form a little gang and kill as many of the greater magicks as you can, or get them to kill one another for you? I for one, don't want anything to do with this. Maybe I have been hiding from this world, but if that means I've managed to make it this far without killing anyone, I can live with that. I'm leaving."
It was a great idea in theory, just get the hell out and figure out the rest later. "You're really not," Aoife answered back, her voice still too calm. "You don't have to help us, but I can't let you warn the wolves or anyone else. What happens next is far too important. But your skill set is unlike anything I've ever even heard of before. If you were to help us, perhaps we'd accomplish our goals sooner and fewer people will get hurt."
"That's not going to happen. I understand what you're trying to do, but your methods are all wrong. Why not try to—" I fumbled for a better way, but it was already too late.
A heartbeat later, she lunged for me.
Chapter 16
Aoife's small body flew toward me lightning fast. I still didn't know who this woman was or what she could do, but it wouldn't have mattered. As soon as I tried to lift my leg and kick out toward her, I lost my balance, tumbling into Nina before Aoife reached us.
Aoife's voice dripped with condescension. "You're not the only person here that calls this city home, and right now you're in my house. I'm sure we can find somewhere safe to tuck you away for a few days to keep you from getting in troub
le."
I was fully prepared to fight my way out of the kitchen, and the county if I had to, but once again, as soon as I moved to leverage my bodyweight against the table my hand slid into a puddle, ruining my balance and sending me tumbling back down to the floor.
"What the hell are you doing to me?" I cried out in frustration.
Nina had already managed to stand up beside me and offered her hand to help me up. "She's a leprechaun, she can control the luck of others." She shot a look at Aoife that made it clear she didn't approve of what was happening to me, endearing herself a little to me in the process.
Super. That did explain the bright green magick that surrounded her. I'd seen it on people out and about in the city before, not often, but enough to be memorable. To my eye, it was a much lighter green than that of the fae, but until that day, I'd never known what it meant.
I stood as slowly and carefully as I could. It all felt a little ridiculous, but probably would have been a lot worse if I'd fallen down again. I was so ready to be done with this woman and her big plans. And more than that, I was done with her treating me like someone small who could be made to heel beneath her boot with no trouble at all.
If she wanted to flex her powers at me, I was more than happy to play along. If it weren't for the fact that this woman was trying to put me in my place by force, it would almost be funny how readily I was willing to show them all what I was capable of.
By the time I was back on my feet, I had the beginnings of a plan. The people here already knew about what I could do with technology, so I had to show them something different, something completely different. While vampire and werewolf magick was passed like an infection, witch, fae, and lesser magick all passed through family lines. For most supernatural individuals, if they had a fae parent and a witch parent, they'd receive the gifts of one or none, but never both. No one could hold more than one type of power.
No one but me.
Seeing their magick moving around each person in the house wasn't going to do me much good. And I wasn't about to drink my own blood in a stranger's kitchen to try to make a point. I suppose I could have dramatically changed how I smelled to the world, but that wasn't the impact I was looking for either.
But I still had connection to Nina's hand. And while I couldn't glamour myself, giving her one would be no trouble at all.
I was staring at that same hand as Nina's shifted from black to white. I don't know if she felt what had been done to her, but in the same instant she began to change, she dropped the connection between us, whipping her hand away like it was suddenly on fire.
Aoife gasped and stepped toward us. I looked up to find two identical faces looking back at one another. To Aoife, it would have been like looking in a mirror. For Nina, like looking at an incredibly confused Aoife.
To me, it was at least a little funny.
"Don't worry," I said to Nina before she even fully understood what was happening. "I can undo it. But it might be wise for people around here to stop pretending like they have any idea who I am or what I'm capable of."
My story came out quickly after that, and the more I talked the more my audience grew. Every person in that castle had heard about the American prophecy child, though most hadn't given it a single thought in decades.
The idea of locking me away in a bedroom was tossed aside pretty damn quickly. Nina, Patrick, and a few others even made the case for just letting me go but were outvoted—I didn't get to vote at all. But, cooperative or not, I was an asset. Still a prisoner, but at the very least someone to be treated with respect.
If Aoife or her friends had a plan for me beyond that, I didn't know what it was. What I did know was who they were, that they knew who I was, and that nobody would tell me how to activate the rabbit hole that would take me back to the pub near my flat.
I wasn't going to be hurt, not now that Aoife realized that there was more to me than she initially realized. And that maybe I could be helpful.
Yeah, not likely.
Only once I started talking did I think to get nervous about revealing that some of what I could do were powers drawn from the greater magicks. I was taking a chance that no one here would start to see me as one of the people they were fighting against.
After a few hours, word must have spread through the ranks to essentially let me be. People were polite, no one left the room when I entered or anything like that, but I wasn't exactly privy to private conversations.
I considered just going up to the room I'd been given, but that felt too much like a retreat.
Instead, I found myself the most comfortable chair I could, in a living room near the front of the house whose walls were completely lined with books. The spot gave me plenty of time to admire Aoife's home—which by then I had to guess she'd gotten by a matter of luck—and to sort through my options.
Because in my pocket I had the key that I knew could get me out in a matter of minutes.
Either I hadn't given anyone there a reason to suspect that my acquaintance with the werewolves had been anything more than passing. But it was there, silently calling to me like an exit sign in a house on fire.
If only I knew what I actually wanted to do with my secret weapon.
It was possible that I was being a little overly optimistic in assuming that with one call from me an entire pack of werewolves, or at least the ones that were here in the city, would show up to find me and fight to get me out. But I also couldn't rule out the possibility. And by calling for an extraction, there was a very good chance I'd be dooming everyone else there with me to a quick and bloody death.
And while Aoife likely would have deserved it, her death wasn't something I was ready to be responsible for. Let alone everyone else. Greater or lesser, everyone seemed to want the same thing. To stay safe, to stay hidden.
I needed another option. Something that would help backpedal everything enough to keep any kind of war from coming to Galway, at least for this week. To get everyone to just calm down for little while and talk to one another or just give them all enough time to get out and go home. To try and forget any of this ever happened.
But even in that much I was probably being naïve. Someone had already died. Ethan's daughter had been threatened. There was no putting my secret back in the bag. Would anyone even be interested in peace anymore?
Whether Aoife liked it or not, I probably still had the option to run. I could get out of my chair, head for the front door and just see how fast my legs would take me. I was fairly fit, and Ireland wasn't that big. I'd have been bound to find a farm or a village soon enough.
And yet, I didn't want to run. I was in this now. My city was in it, along with the people that I got to know against my better judgement. If Nina, and Tate, and Cooper, and Ethan, even Aoife; if they all tore each other apart, it would haunt me forever. And knowing that maybe I could've done something to stop it all ... there was no way I'd be able to live with myself.
I had to believe there were other people involved in all this who felt the same way, who didn't want bloodshed. Who wanted to get on with their lives and go back to their families. Wasn't that why they'd all come to Galway in the first place? For the factions, to find a way to keep their secrets safe from humans. For those with lesser magicks, the chance to decide what happened to them.
Was it not worth at least trying to talk it all out, to call a ceasefire or truce. But talk to who? Who had the authority on the other side to put a stop to things before they got worse?
In the end, it didn't matter. There were two people on my contact list who could at least help me to get things moving in the right direction. One had already been proven untrustworthy, but the other had real potential.
As inconspicuously as I could, I weaved my way from room to room until I found the main stairway that took me upstairs. Locking the door to my bedroom behind me, I silently prayed that there wasn't anyone nearby who would be able to hear the conversation I was about to have through the ancient walls that surrounded me. No
t that I was doing anything wrong, but I wanted to know what my options were before putting my hand on the table.
Just in case running really was my only option.
My mind made up, I flipped through my contacts until I found the newest addition. Ethan.
I hit call before I could give myself a chance to back out. The phone only rang once. "Hello?" I recognized Ethan's voice immediately.
"It's Melanie."
"Melanie? I didn't expect to be hearing from you again. Is everything okay? Please tell me you're somewhere far, far away. The fae arrived last night, and they want blood. The witches are oddly desperate to meet you. And I suspect the vampires just want to see the city burn for a little of their own entertainment."
"In that case, you're probably not going to think I'm as far away as I should be. I met some people last night before I had the chance to catch my bus." I took a breath before making my next confession. There was no way he wasn’t going to spark. "The people who planned to take Katie. Stop," I added as soon as Ethan's voice tried to cut in. "They were never going to hurt her. I really believe that. These people here are desperate, but not cruel." For the most part. "Everyone here seems to think that the summit next month is going to be bad news for anyone not part of a faction." Did I want to ask this next question? Did I have a choice? "Do you know anything about plans to use some of the lesser magicks as a test case to introduce the supernatural to humans? About using people as kind of a publicity stunt, to see how the world reacts?"
"I don't," Ethan said immediately. And for some reason I couldn't explain to myself yet, I wanted to believe him more than anything. "The point of the summit is to make decisions about what comes next. I'm sure a lot of different people have a lot of different ideas. But the problem with the way the factions work in Europe is that there's no central leader for any single type of magick. Nothing has been decided, I can promise you that."
Magic in my Bones (Lesser Magicks Book 1) Page 12