I groan. “I can’t believe I lost Mom’s amulet. And her grimoire. Do you think you remember where that cave was so we can go back there in the summer and look for them?”
“Of course,” he says and there’s something in his eyes. Hesitancy, maybe? I can’t quite figure it out.
“What are you thinking?” I ask knowing that it’s the question that guys hate to be asked the most.
“Nothing that can’t wait,” he says.
I glower at him as much as my headache will allow. “After everything we’ve been through you’re really going to give me that crap of an answer?”
He looks like he’s not going to say anything but then he starts talking without quite meeting my eyes. “I made the decision to stay based on my desires but I have no knowledge of how you feel about it.”
I roll my eyes. “Kallen, if I wanted you to leave I would have shoved you back to your realm like I did Maurelle and Olwyn. Though, it may be a shock to Mom and Dad when I ask them if my boyfriend can stay with us because he just gave up his entire realm and everything he knows to be with me.”
His face pales a little. “I had not thought everything through as you have apparently. Do you honestly believe your parents will accept me into your home? I did not make the greatest impression when I was there last.”
It’s my turn to laugh. “No, you didn’t. But you did teach me how to use my magic and helped me get rid of the Fairies who wanted to kill me. I’m pretty sure they’ll overlook your rude behavior. But you’ll have to stay in the guestroom because we’re not getting hand-fasted any time soon.”
He laughs again. “As I would expect. You know, you were a sight to behold earlier. How did you figure out you could do the things you did?”
I think about it before answering. “I think the Fairy poison had a lot to do with it.”
He looks surprised. “How so?”
“Because before I was thinking too hard about everything so I couldn’t accomplish anything. When the Fairy poison entered my system, my thoughts became scattered and I didn’t think about any one thing for any amount of time, my thoughts were all over the place.”
I can see his lips curling upwards as he says, “Such as when you asked Maurelle about my history with Fairy women?”
Color rushes to my cheeks as I remember all the things I said while under the influence of the Fairy poison. I thought he had been unconscious at the time. “Are you going to keep interrupting? And don’t think I don’t know you’re laughing at me.”
“I would never do such a thing,” he says and he makes the same gesture of keeping his lips sealed as I had when I kept interrupting him.
Choosing to ignore him, I continue. “And because I wasn’t so afraid of my magic, I was more in tune with it. I knew what I had to do and it’s almost as if I knew instinctively how to do it. Does that make sense?”
He inclines his head and nods. “I believe so. Apparently, if I had thought to infect you with poison sooner we would not have had to spend so many nights in the cold together.”
I make a face at him. “Kallen.”
“Yes?”
“Shut up and kiss me.”
“Gladly,” he says and his lips graze mine in a gentle kiss which my head appreciates because anything more would make it start pounding again.
“Can we go home now?” I murmur against his lips.
He sits back and pushes a stray strand of hair from my cheek. “It’s very late. It would be better if we got a good night’s sleep first.”
“Okay, then come lay with me because I’m really tired.”
He doesn’t need any more encouragement. He lies down with me after I scoot over to make more room and he wraps his arms around me pulling me close. I’m getting really used to sleeping with him. I’m going to miss that because I know for certain that Mom and Dad would have serious issues with me continuing to sleep with him at home but I’m so glad he stayed.
Chapter 22
The next morning, we start back for home. Kallen uses his magic to make me a new coat since mine has three holes in it now. I went ahead and asked him to make a whole outfit for me after he gave me some privacy to clean up and it felt great to wear clean clothes. He made the sweater the same color green as my eyes.
Our trek back to my house is very different from the one we first embarked on. The biggest difference being that Kallen and I actually get along. We even hold hands for the most part and I’m still getting used to the whole thing but having him stop every once in a while to kiss me is so much nicer than him being condescending and haughty.
We have to walk most of the day to get to my house. I thought we were farther away so when I learned we weren’t I didn’t care if we walked for so many hours as long as I could sleep in a warm bed tonight. As we get closer to my house, both Kallen and I are getting anxious about talking to my parents and Aunt Barb. I keep reassuring him that it’ll be okay, but I’m just as nervous as he is. I believe it will work out but things will probably be a bit strained at first. To distract us from our nervousness, I spend a lot of the time telling Kallen about all of the changes in technology and communication that have occurred over the last three hundred and some years. Some of it he knew about and some he didn’t.
Just as night falls, we are at my house and I give Kallen’s hand a squeeze in encouragement as we get close. Kallen stops about fifteen feet from the house and I look at him questioningly. “Fairy trap,” he reminds me.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that but as I look closer I can actually make out a faint haze in the air surrounding the house. With a wave of my hand, the trap falls. If it had not been my mother’s I don’t know if I could have done it so easily. Kallen hesitates for a second but then he begins walking again and he walks right up to the house with me without anything happening to him.
I open the back door and we come into the kitchen. “Mom, Dad, are you here?” I call. Please let them be here.
Almost instantly, both of my parents come through the wall. “Xandra! You’re okay!” They surround me in a group hug of sorts and my body temperature drops a few degrees as their ghostly skin touches mine.
Finally floating back from me, they look back and forth between Kallen and me. “What happened? Are the other Fairies coming?”
I give them the condensed version of what had happened. “My magic is stronger than theirs and I was able to tear open a hole through the realms and shove them back through it.” Both of their mouths hang open as they take in what I said.
“You did what?” a deep voice says from the doorway of the kitchen. I turn to find an older man with thick gray hair and a round middle. He’s dressed in a dark gray suit and the jacket buttons are just beginning to strain around his stomach. His face is lined with age and right now it’s facing me and it’s covered with expressions of shock, disbelief and anger. Those are pretty strong emotions to be directing towards me without ever having met me.
“Who are you?” I ask probably less politely than I should have.
He straightens up to his full height and puffs out his chest like a rooster. “I am your grandfather, King of the Witches.”
I look at Mom questioningly and she nods. “I contacted my father to ask for help protecting you.”
Before I get a chance to say anything, he turns his angry face towards my mom. “Quillian, you didn’t tell me how powerful your daughter is.” Turning to me again, he asks boorishly, “Why are you in the company of a Fairy?” He said Fairy like it was a dirty word.
Heat flushes to my face. “Because he’s my boyfriend,” is all I can think to say.
“Are you telling me that you are powerful enough to split open the realms at will?”
Well, actually I was telling Mom that but it’s probably not best to bring that little point up when he’s already so mad. “Yes.”
He’s shaking in anger now. Rounding on my mother again, he growls, “You should have let us kill her in your womb! But it’s not too late.” He turns towards me and start
s speaking, “From ancient times of rhymes and runes this witch calls upon the power of the moon to scourge the earth of magic black and within its womb to take mercifully back this one born in heresy and shame…”
“Father, no!” Mom screams trying to make him stop but he just ignores her.
What the hell? Why is my biological family so dysfunctional? First my real father wanted to kill me and now my grandfather? I really think I should only get to know Dad’s family from now on.
Kallen has moved in front of me as if he’s going to take the brunt of my grandfather’s spell but I push around him as my grandfather finishes. “…all this I ask in the goddess’s name.”
I am always so disappointed by Witch magic because it’s not as visible as Fairy magic. I wait a minute for the spell to kill me but after a few seconds my grandfather’s eyes get huge so I’m assuming that something went wrong. Now I move from shock to anger pretty quickly at yet one more person wanting me dead. Other girls my age don’t have to put up with this crap.
Pulling on my magic, I push my grandfather with it through the kitchen door into the living room and then I open the front door with a wave of my hand and push him out of the house as I walk. “I am so tired of people being mean to me!” I yell at him. “I don’t care who you are, I am not going to sit idly by and let you people do whatever you want with my life. I choose if I live or die and I choose to live so you can just go right on back to wherever you came from and forget all about me.”
He was struggling at first against my magic but when he figured out that he couldn’t do anything about it, he had just stared at me wide-eyed with fear. Good, I hope his is scared. I stand in front of him now with my arms crossed over my chest waiting to see what he does.
Giving me a last long hard look, he turns to my Mom because everyone had followed the two of us outside. “Quillian, you have truly brought destruction into this world. I will be back with the Witan and we will do what we should have done seventeen years ago.”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, yeah, heard it all before,” I mutter. “Say it walking, okay?” With that I push him towards the car in our snowy driveway that must be his. It’s a black Lexus and as soon as his body hits it the alarm in it starts going off. My grandfather digs his keys out of his pocket and hurriedly shuts off the alarm and almost dives into his car. If there was pavement, his tires would have squealed as he put the car in reverse and slammed his foot down on the gas. If he’s not careful, he’s going to end up just like Mom and Dad.
When I can no longer see the car as it careens at dangerous speeds down the mountain, I turn around to find Mom and Dad staring at me like I have two heads. Kallen is smiling at me as if he’s not surprised in the least that I could do this. That makes me like him just a little bit more. Looking at my parents, I say, “Mom, Dad, Kallen stayed in this realm to be with me and he’s going to be living with us because he doesn’t have any place else to go. I’m pretty tired after walking all day and then using my magic to yet again keep a relative from killing me so after I eat something I’d like to go to bed. Kallen will be sleeping with me but we won’t be having sex because to him that would mean we’re hand-fasted and I’m not ready to marry him at this point in my life. I’m way too young. Tomorrow we can talk about what we should do about Grandpa getting his Witch council together so he can come back and try to kill me again. Okay?”
Both of my parents nod numbly. I give them a grateful smile and I take Kallen’s hand and walk back into the house with him in tow. Being seventeen is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.
True of Blood (Witch Fairy Series) Page 23