What the Fox

by Emma Dean

How he ever thought she would abandon her sister for him was beyond her.

  “We are now moving onto the case of the curse Peter Hale threw on the Kavanagh clan and their sacred home,” Takahashi declared.

  Selene took front and center as the Matriarch to represent all the Kavanaghs.

  “After our investigation Matriarch, it seems that Peter was working alone. His powers will be bound for twenty years for striking against another witch family. He will not be shunned but he will be cast out of the Bay Coven. Once he’s served his time he may reapply.”

  Edith took a step forward in outrage. She knew as well as Kenzie and Selene that Peter was only a lackey and not the mastermind. Selene held out a hand to keep their grandmother from saying anything…regrettable.

  “Reparations to my clan’s home, and the irreplaceable magic that was destroyed?”

  The High Priestess nodded and snapped her fingers. The Hale clan brought out a giant trunk that looked like something out of a fantasy movie. “They have been forced to give up grimoires to replace yours as well as monetary payment. It’s not all cash based on this list,” she said, looking back down at her tablet. “But it should cover the magical materials lost.”

  Thank the Fates Kenzie had gotten most of their shit digitally scanned as well as all the blueprints and formulas for her and Selene’s work. Everything was safe on her hard drives and backed up a thousand times.

  Otherwise they’d be so shit out of luck right now.

  There was nothing more the coven could do. Selene gritted her teeth, but nodded. “Thank you, High Priestess. Will there still be a meeting regarding Mackenzie?”

  Takahashi glanced at Kenzie again and considered. “She has one year. I will reconsider my statement then.”

  Did Selene not want the position of High Priestess? Kenzie couldn’t think of another reason for Selene to ask about a reconsideration.

  “Everyone is dismissed,” Takahashi declared.

  And with that Eisheth popped her out of existence – no doubt just to be dramatic.

  Chapter Two

  Kenzie

  Popping through existence wasn’t pleasant. Eisheth hadn’t warned her she wouldn’t be able to breathe while he teleported them to wherever. She started panicking; gripping his hand so tight it would have broken a mortal’s.

  When sunshine warmed her skin once more Eisheth released her immediately. “I see we need to start your training as soon as possible,” he said, shaking out his hand. “Damn, that actually stung.”

  Kenzie blinked up at the sky and tried to figure out where she was.

  No one seemed to notice they’d simply appeared as they walked around them. Then Eisheth held open a door for her and she realized it was some kind of fancy café. Without asking a thousand questions like she wanted to, Kenzie just walked in.

  It seemed kind of pointless. The demon was currently running the show and she didn’t want to piss him off. Wherever they were it was definitely not San Francisco, so Kenzie really didn’t want to get left here.

  The demon led her up to the hostess who recognized him, and then led them further into the café without a word. A fancy table near the back with plenty of space around it was set up and waiters were already bringing out steaming pots and snacks.

  Kenzie didn’t ask.

  It had been a month since the attack from the fae and the last time she saw Eisheth. In that time he’d never once called or texted or even hinted that he had any intention of training her. It would have saved her a lot of fucking time if he had.

  Sitting down she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Eisheth. “Serves you right for not telling me to hold my damn breath.”

  The demon chuckled and flexed his hand as he sat. “Indeed. Now try to give it back,” he said, holding out his hand.

  “No.” Kenzie knew she was being stubborn but she needed answers and this one liked to play games. Well, she’d been learning from the best. “Tell me everything I want to know and I might give it back.”

  Eisheth narrowed his eyes at her. “‘Everything’ is too vague and has no attached time frame. I will tell you everything you want to know before it’s time to go back to your foxes in oh, an hour,” Eisheth said, checking his fancy watch that probably cost more than her car. “You have one hour in this location to learn anything. Then you will return the power that you took from me – without blowing me up or taking more.”

  Kenzie blinked. Demons were worse than fae when it came to details sometimes. She may have been learning from the best, but Eisheth had learned from the best of the best.

  “Deal. Why were the foxes in hell?” she asked.

  The demon laughed hard enough people turned to stare. “Oh darling, I love you so much for keeping me on my toes. I certainly wasn’t expecting that question to be a part of the agreement.”

  He poured them both coffee and handed her the cream and sugar first. “Here, drink and eat and I will tell you.”

  “Concisely,” Kenzie said, dropping sugar cubes into her cup. Demons could be such a pain in the ass, even ones she liked.

  “All right, concisely. They were in hell to get someone out. It was a very controversial contract and they managed to convince Lucifer to give her up.”

  “Why offer to train me now and not when I spent the last month studying every tome and text ever created?” Kenzie asked, stirring her coffee before adding a dash of cinnamon. It smelled amazing at least. “You could have saved me a lot of time and stress.”

  Taking a cookie delicately from the fancy tower of sweets he bit into it and chewed thoughtfully. “You needed to read all that shit so you can appreciate the predicament you’re in – and I wanted you to have time to gather the rest of those victims. You know normal things. I’m quite a bit disappointed that you haven’t made more progress with your sexy little psycho though.”

  Kenzie almost choked on her coffee. “Are you spying on me?”

  “Not exactly,” he said, giving her a secret smile as he sipped. “Just checking in every once in a while.”

  The tiny bit of his power she’d accidentally taken warmed her blood nearly to the boiling point, but it wasn’t unfamiliar. Demon magic was like, and yet not like, witch magic. But it was nothing like the magic she’d ripped from those fae.

  Holding up one hand she imagined summoning fire like her parents had tried to get her to do a million times. It was as easy as breathing now that she had something to play with. A small flame sprouted from her palm in glorious reds and oranges. As she directed it with nothing but her thoughts it grew into a bud and then bloomed into a glorious flower with blue and purple fire.

  “Hunter has been focused on gathering all the victims. He’s called in backup and working at the Davis firm has been hard on him. Dealing with people every day really wears on his patience,” Kenzie told the demon. A small twist of her fingers and the burning flower turned to ash.

  A small part of her couldn’t believe that it was her doing this – using magic even if it wasn’t hers and she had it only for a very brief period in time. So much of her life had been about being what her family had thought she would be.

  A Kavanagh witch so powerful she could rule the coven at twenty – summoning their signature flame to raze the world to the ground. But that wasn’t Kenzie. That was Selene – even though her sister had hair black as night instead of the flame-red Kenzie had.

  Everything was not as they’d planned and the only person in their clan who didn’t seem to care was Gram-Gram. It was still so hard to reconcile her entire life up to this point with her new status.

  Kenzie was no longer an abomination, but she was still something unknown and terrifying.

  Word had spread fast and covens across America had sent her emails requesting that she consider joining them. Even a few in Europe.

  Then the one that she’d frame to rub in her family’s face. Kenzie would hang it in the foyer once it was rebuilt for everyone to see when they walked into the Kavanagh mansion. The Emerald Cove
n in Ireland had asked her to consider joining them, written by the Matriarch of the Irish Kavanagh clan who also happened to be the High Priestess.

  She didn’t know what it would be like to visit – but she’d always wanted to. Not bringing her had not been a requirement for her family to go to Ireland. So Kenzie honestly didn’t know what it would be like over there.

  Either way she didn’t plan to join a coven any time soon.

  If ever.

  “So you’ve accepted the bond of two foxes, what about your third?” Eisheth asked.

  Kenzie wiggled her fingers in a few moves she’d seen Selene do over and over as a kid when she’d first started training and a small flame erupted on the table, but it didn’t burn. “I haven’t finished asking you questions. It’s my hour. You can have your own after mine is up if that’s what you want.”

  Eisheth smiled over his coffee with a proud look in his eye. “I love how crafty you are, darling. You should meet some of my other wards. I think you would all have such fun together.”

  A few more crooks of her fingers and the flame turned into a tiny fox that romped around the table, playing with the napkins before it jumped into the cup of sugar cubes.

  It was fucking adorable and Kenzie wanted to keep it, but that’s not how this power worked. It wasn’t hers. She was only borrowing it.

  “How can you train me if you’re not void?” she asked.

  Eisheth shrugged. “I’ve trained three voids since the birth of witches.”

  She looked around and pulled out her phone, waiting for Eisheth to explain. A few quick taps and her GPS told her they were in fact in New York City. This place probably cost a fortune. Kenzie put two more cookies down on her plate and then grabbed the menu.

  Might as well make the best of it.

  “As a demon my power is versatile,” Eisheth explained, stirring his coffee very particularly. “It allows me all sorts of glorious things and one of them is taking power from others if I wish. It’s not an easy skill to learn and not many demons can do it without burning up from the inside thanks to the inability to hold so much power in our bodies. But you Kenzie, your body is designed to hold everything without suffering the consequences.”

  Ever since she’d found out what she was Kenzie had been playing with her abilities here and there. There wasn’t much in the texts to help her but just knowing she could had opened up doors she hadn’t known existed.

  “I can’t hold it indefinitely,” she told Eisheth. “It starts to hurt after a while.”

  The demon nodded. “The stronger the power the more it will burn. But you will start to grow accustomed to it. Your abilities will stretch until you can hold all my power in your hands for the rest of your life and suffer only marginally. Now the real issue is, you will have a cap.”

  Already she’d learned more in ten minutes with Eisheth than she had searching the archives for the last month.

  “You can only hold so much power. We don’t know how much that is yet, but there will be a point where you are too ‘full.’ This can cause various different problems, but the main one is voids aren’t designed to hold onto power indefinitely. You were designed to take it and put it back into the universe. So.” Eisheth shrugged. “If you abuse the power it will get ripped from you at some point.”

  He snapped his fingers and three books slammed onto the table. Kenzie cursed and jumped, spilling coffee all over her coven gown.

  “These are the journals of those witches I trained.”

  She stared at the tomes that looked old as shit but were still somehow in excellent condition. Must have been some amazing preserving spell to hold out for however many centuries Eisheth had them.

  They were tempting but she didn’t dare touch them until she knew they were for her. Books were one of those things witches loved to curse.

  “Thankfully I had the foresight to require they write everything they learned and all that they did. So few voids.” Eisheth clucked his tongue and sipped his coffee. “Makes one wonder, why now? Though I firmly believe there are others we don’t know about due to the nature of your powers.”

  Kenzie considered everything she knew. Why so long between voids when clearly Eisheth had three? “Three thousand years ago is a long time,” she agreed.

  That’s when he smiled. “Oh, yes well that’s the last one the Council of Paranormals knows about. It was right around its inception. But you forget. There’s a whole world out there.” Eisheth tapped one of the books. “This one was born in Japan.”

  There was so much to think about. Were the ones Eisheth had trained even the ones the Council knew about? Did it even matter?

  “So what’s the plan?” Kenzie asked, drumming her fingers on the table. She hadn’t decided how she felt about Eisheth training her, but there was no one else. And he was right. She didn’t want to accidentally steal powers from people. Or have that magic blow up in her face.

  Eisheth pointed to something on the menu. “Get these. They’re divine. Oh, and these.”

  Suddenly the waiter was there and then was off to put in their order so quickly Kenzie was still blinking in confusion when he left.

  “We’re going to start with the basics of course and you’re going to read these books.”

  She rolled her eyes and popped a cookie in her mouth that melted on her tongue in buttery bliss. When she was done chewing she looked up at the fancy demon. “You assume I know how to read Japanese.”

  Eisheth cracked open the book. “Oh, don’t you worry about that. They’re spelled so the only ones who can read them are a void, or me. No one else. Here, give it a go.”

  Doubting him she pulled the book closer and frowned at the pages of kanji. Then suddenly they rippled and it was in English. Kenzie’s mouth popped open in shock as the perfectly legible words started describing how to squirrel away small bits of power to use when desperate.

  “Those are now yours until the end of your life,” Eisheth said with a sad smile. “At the cost of keeping your own journal.” Another snap of his fingers. A book that looked just like the others, but brand new, slammed onto the table.

  Kenzie considered the cramps she would get in her hand. “Can’t I just digitalize all this?”

  “Can you spell it to keep the same rules as my books do?” Eisheth asked, raising an eyebrow at her as he sipped more coffee.

  “Maybe,” she murmured, turning the page of the book before her. There was so much here she could use among the descriptions of life in Japan.

  “Then maybe you can digitalize it at some point, but for now use the books.” Eisheth smiled at the waiter who brought them new plates of goodies and dug in. “Can I ask about Hunter now?”

  There weren’t any more questions she could think of. “As long as I get to keep my remaining time for future use.”

  He chuckled at that. “Sure, now give me back my power.” The demon held out his hand and she took it. Half a thought later and it was back into the demon. “You’re surprisingly adept at this,” he murmured.

  Shrugging as she flipped through the book Kenzie tried to shove down the emotions. “I spent a lot of time learning magic I couldn’t perform. Then I spent time with Selene while she learned hers. Also meditation does wonders for control. More witches should meditate.”

  “Eat darling,” Eisheth murmured. “Every week I will come to you for training. How does Sunday sound? Read one chapter and practice what’s in it. You are allowed to text me one question per day. Now, what’s the deal with Hunter?”

  Gossipy bitch.

  He just grinned like he knew exactly what she was thinking.

  “Nothing is the deal with Hunter,” she told him. “And why do you care?”

  Instantly Eisheth sobered. “Only you have control over that one,” the demon told her. “Until he accepts the bond, his fate is unclear. The future is…unpredictable.”

  Chills ran up and down her spine. “He has that much power and influence?”

  The demon was silent and the soun
ds of the café filtered in. Horns honked outside and Kenzie just stared at her fancy coffee. Then she took a bite of the ridiculously overpriced petit fours.

  Her fox, the one they all knew wasn’t damaged exactly but…some weird combination of messed up and psychotic. Nothing mattered to Hunter except his chaos. Without something to tether him Kenzie could see him losing control one day.

  His moral compass didn’t exist. Hunter only did what was beneficial for them. For Ash and Finnick. And now…her.

  “Hunter could take down the entire Council if he felt motivated enough,” Eisheth finally said, pouring more coffee. “It’s not about influence. He’s strong and with enough motivation – we all know how vicious the scavengers can be. It’s why ravens are assassins. Almost all of them. And coyotes? Let’s just say you don’t want to run into them alone at night.”

  “Why do they make you so nervous?”

  When something made Eisheth – a fucking demon – nervous, it definitely scared the shit out of her.

  Her demon godfather frowned and added two cubes of sugar and then a dash of cream. “I wouldn’t call it nerves. Simply a healthy respect for what they’re capable of. Normal people require a lot to fall over the edge. A coyote, or a fox? They all act like there are no consequences to their actions.” He shrugged. “I suppose there isn’t really. Not when they’re looked down on so much. The last time a scavenger was pissed they started a war.”

  Kenzie needed to read more. Where the fuck was all this information?

  “Well, I’m not accepting the mate bond with Hunter just because he scares you,” Kenzie told him, glancing up to watch as it started to rain outside. Muggy, nasty New York rain that never seemed to end. It was definitely September and her witchy bones could feel fall approaching in this place.

  “No, I agree. But he’s definitely a hot little psycho who is super into you,” Eisheth said with a laugh. “Make the best of that.”

  She couldn’t help her smile. The demon wasn’t wrong there. But there were other things she felt like a complete noob about. “I don’t know how to really connect with him. We hang out, do things, spend time together, but despite his agreement I can’t get him to open up.”