by Emma Dean
“I don’t think we’ll need anything in here before that,” Kenzie said, but she wasn’t sure. Staring into the closet she huffed. “Why the fuck did we make this piece of shit?”
“Because it’s fucking awesome,” Jessica told her with a laugh. “You can’t pop in and out like Eisheth can and so you made a way. That’s amazing magic. I don’t think there are any witches out there that have the kind of symbiotic relationship you have with your sister. Selene has nearly as much power as you can take. She’s just shy of demon or a fae. And you…well, I know fuck all about void witches but I think it’s a handy skill to have.”
The hunter offered her hand to Kenzie. “If you ever need anything from me don’t hesitate to ask.”
Considering the offer and the hand Kenzie felt her heart skip a beat. A demon witch as her friend who would help whenever she asked. Holy shit. “And if you ever need me to suck someone’s powers dry just call,” Kenzie said. “Who would have ever thought someone as famous as Jessica James would want to be friends with me?”
The demon witch snickered and pulled her into a bear hug and then pushed her away. “My friends call me Jess. And thanks to Eisheth I think we’re weirdly related. I’m just gonna say cousins cause fuck it.”
Kenzie couldn’t help but laugh. “Sure, we can be cousins but I prefer the term ‘best bitches.’”
“Hell yeah.” Jess shoved her playfully and then shook out her hands in an oddly familiar tic. “Now I’m not going to ward this closet against everyone. But I’ll add some extra juice and make sure there’s a nasty surprise for anyone who isn’t you or Selene. If they touch the doorknob they’ll wake up in hell so tell your foxes to keep their grubby paws off.”
“Apparently they’ve already been,” Kenzie muttered as she watched Jess sketch patterns in the air and then pull some moves she’d never seen Selene do. “They probably know a way out.”
“You guys are super weird,” Jess said, locking the spell in place. “I’m glad Eisheth brought me even if Luke is probably next level pissed right now. I was supposed to meet a client but then got yanked away. Eisheth is lucky Luke has a crush on him.”
Shaking her head Kenzie couldn’t help her smile as she watched the magic settle into place. So many people who were…not normal. After spending a lifetime among the most high society witches that ever existed her view of the world had been skewed.
Kenzie had thought everyone was like her family and coven. But there were so many more weirdos than there were ‘normal’ and ‘accepted’ people. Sometimes it was just finding them that was difficult. Their personalities all seemed to be on the side of ‘leave me alone’ and ‘I don’t give a fuck.’
Without Eisheth she never would have met Jessica.
“Thanks again for doing this.” It made Kenzie feel marginally better. Brad couldn’t weasel his way into another reality with her and Selene’s project now.
They’d locked down everything they could. Selene and Edith would be in the heavily warded den and the rest of her family could kick rocks.
“Hey, could you ward the den?” Kenzie asked as it suddenly occurred to her how helpful that would be. “I’m supposed to add my own void wards, but a little hellfire magic would keep my sister and grandmother even safer.”
Jessica shrugged. “Why not? I’ll do it after I leave so it’ll keep out demon witches too. Can’t have anyone trying to kill you before you’re trained.” The hunter winked but they both knew it wasn’t a joke.
“Eisheth is a gossipy bitch,” Kenzie muttered, glaring out the window at the park across the street. It was already dark and it wasn’t even that late. Stupid daylight savings.
Kenzie appreciated the help. She really did. But she also hated being vulnerable. Who in the heck would even want an untrained void? Well, she supposed it wasn’t that they wanted her, even though that was totally a possibility.
It was that something somewhere didn’t want her to exist.
“I won’t ever take your power,” Kenzie said.
“Don’t say shit like that,” Jess told her, handing over the bottle of whiskey that seemed to magically be on her at all times. “You never know what will happen in the future. Maybe my demon side will suddenly take over one day and I’ll try to destroy the world. You might need to take my power from me and I would thank you for it.”
Kenzie took a swig from the whiskey. Her nerves were shot after dinner. “So your dad was a demon?”
Jessica nodded and took the bottle from her. “He’s out there somewhere, but I’ve never met him.”
The universe was so fucked up.
“Eisheth doesn’t try to destroy the world,” Kenzie told her. “You might not either.”
“Not according to certain variations of the ‘murky’ future.” The hunter even used air quotes. “So if I go bad, please, take my powers.”
Jessica took Kenzie’s hand – the first witch other than Selene to do so since finding out what she was. It meant something to her and Kenzie took a deep breath as she looked down at the scarred hand that was a warped reflection of hers.
“As my best bitch, I hope you do,” Jess said with a shrug. “And then use that power to take down everything. They all deserve it.”
It was hard not to grin. The world certainly did deserve it, the bastards.
“Here, you can peruse whatever you want in the Council’s files,” Kenzie told her, giving the hunter’s hand a squeeze before releasing it. No power accidentally taken either.
She pulled out her chair and waved at her setup. “I kept the backdoor open into their shit. It’s less likely to alert anyone if I keep a foot in rather than constantly coming and going.”
Jess handed Kenzie the bottle of whiskey and sat down with a wicked grin. “Don’t mind if I do, cuz.”
Chapter Eleven
Kenzie
She watched as Finnick adjusted his tie. Fuck he looked good in a suit. It was a side of him that Kenzie hadn’t ever seen before. Licking her lips she reached out and smoothed his tie down before carefully placing the pin.
Finnick looked down at her with a twinkle in his eye. “Like what you see?”
“You know I do, you ass.” Kenzie couldn’t hide her grin or keep from biting her bottom lip. “If you didn’t have to be somewhere on time with the fate of the world on your shoulders I’d get on my knees right now.”
His grip on her tightened until it was almost painful and then Finnick kissed her. “Don’t say shit like that when I’m supposed to pretend I’m not a feral bastard.”
He always tasted like lust and violence with that sweet taste of love. It was the most heady thing she’d ever experienced.
“I don’t regret it,” she murmured against his lips. “Because I meant it.”
Finnick’s growl was low and animalistic. “Are you sure there’s not enough time?”
She was about to cave. Kenzie felt that need skyrocket, ready to explode.
“No, there isn’t time,” Ash said as he walked in. “Even if I would love to see how quickly Kenzie could get you off. If you’re too addled to think straight I can take care of it in the car on the way there.”
“What about me?” Kenzie pretended to pout, reaching out and gripping Ash’s shirt, pulling him closer so she could kiss him too.
Ash and Finnick were fire and water. They complemented each other perfectly and it always made her entire body relax and tense at the same time.
“Guess you’ll have to give in to Hunter then,” Ash said playfully, kissing her on the cheek before pulling away.
Finnick gave her a wicked grin as he readjusted himself so his dick wasn’t sticking straight out. “Or you could do something guaranteed to win this little game between the two of you.”
Crossing her arms over her chest she glared. It wasn’t fair how much her mates riled her up all the time. Kenzie needed them almost as much as she needed air. The rest of the time they spent together just hanging out took the edge off, but it wasn’t what the mate bond wanted.
Maybe it would finally settle once the triad was complete.
“What could possibly make me win today?” Kenzie asked.
Her two foxes glanced at each other and shrugged.
“No idea, babe,” Finnick said, obnoxiously ruffling her hair. “But if anyone could figure it out it would be you. We’ll see you in a few hours. Be good.”
“I’ll be recording over the comms,” she told them. “Be safe.”
“Always,” Ash promised.
Then they went downstairs, disappearing from view.
Kenzie could hear them talking. All the raccoons were going with them because of the number of witnesses they had. Thankfully Finnick had pulled some strings and got the human police to provide some protection as well through his judge friend.
Selene, Edith, and Hunter could protect them here in the den. There were enough wards on the house that no one but a god could get in. Not after Jess had done hers and then Eisheth had added his own.
The demon had given her the spell for the void wards, but it wasn’t easy magic. The runes had to be perfect, but she also needed the right ingredients and timing. She could do them at midnight. Hopefully she was ready by then.
She heard the voices of the raccoons and her foxes trail off as they went out the back to where the new vehicles were. Hunter hadn’t been kidding when he’d told her they had money. A new jeep and van were parked in the back with Finnick’s motorcycle. Ash didn’t have a car of his own. He just drove whatever was free.
“They’ll be okay,” Selene said from the doorway.
Kenzie turned and watched her sister look around her new room. It was still weird to be separated after living in the same house together their entire lives.
“Where’s the rest of our family staying?” Kenzie asked.
It wasn’t that she cared, she was just curious.
“I have them staying with various other clans. The hotel didn’t seem safe with the feud going on,” Selene said, stepping into the room tentatively. “This place suits you.”
Kenzie shrugged and flopped on her bed. “I suppose it does. How did you get the clans to take them in?”
Her sister shrugged and sat on the bench at the foot of the bed, leaning on the mattress and blankets with a small sigh. “It wasn’t easy. They all wanted something in exchange, so I made them all trade spells. Getting Martha to agree to anything is such a pain in the ass.”
Shaking her head at the idea of that conversation, Kenzie was once again amazed at how mature and fucking awesome her sister was. “Only you, S. Thanks for staying here. It’s a huge weight off my mind.”
“It was the smart thing to do without our ancestral house.” Selene rubbed her forehead like she had a migraine. “Getting all those spells back in place is going to be a nightmare. Not to mention we’ll need to ask the Irish clan to help us christen it. There’s a reason we all live in one place.”
Kenzie tugged on her earrings. “Well maybe I’ll be able to help this time. Would it still be Kavanagh power if I stole it from some asshole, like Brad?”
Selene spied the stack of books under the bed and leaned over to grab them. “Unless there’s a spell or incantation to turn the power into yours I don’t think so. When you killed that fae he burned.”
“But was that Autumn Court power or Kavanagh fire?” Kenzie shrugged. “I’ve no fucking idea and it’s really annoying. Being a void is hard.” She flung herself backward on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.
There was so little known about her kind. Eisheth’s books helped, but there had been so few throughout the centuries that they didn’t have the kind of research and experimentation thousands of normal witches had since the beginning of their race’s existence.
“The fact that you can make wards without power is fascinating,” Selene murmured as she flipped through some of the pages. “Your blood has magic in it and the void properties are what make the spell pull power from the intruder. Isn’t that amazing? And it can go anywhere, even you.”
She’d lost her sister. Selene loved magic and had always read everything she could on every field and subject. Selene may not have the affinity for herbology that some did, but she grew her own plants for spells. There had even been a poisonous greenhouse before Brad and Peter had cursed their shit.
“Could you take someone’s power and then give it to another person?” Selene asked.
“I don’t know.”
“It would be handy to know something like that,” her sister murmured as she flipped through the pages of one of her books.
“Are you trying to tell me you think you need more power?” Kenzie arched a brow in question. “You’re the strongest person I know. Other than a demon.”
Selene sighed and set the book down, giving Kenzie her full attention. “I’m not trying to make you a pawn for me if that’s what you're saying. I just think if I knew someone who could help out in a pinch that it could be useful if someone is completely drained. Or what if you can use that power like a normal witch? You would be just like everyone else.”
This conversation was making her uncomfortable. “Do you want me to be like everyone else?”
Her sister's mouth dropped open in surprise. “That’s not what I meant at all. I just know it’s something you’ve wanted in the past.”
Kenzie turned her gaze to the books lining her shelves and tried to sort out her feelings. Sometimes Selene said things she didn’t mean. It was one of those things. Everyone forgot she wasn’t a normal witch. Even this void condition didn’t fix her issues like how she healed as slowly as a human. Testing the speed of healing while holding power would have to go on the list.
And they came from a family of experimenters – witches who liked to dabble in the unknown. There were many in her clan who had died for information, or an experiment.
“I don’t think I can hold power like that,” Kenzie finally said. “I'm not a witch like you are. Being a void…my body isn't built for that. I could reject it. You could reject the power I give you from someone else because you're never meant to hold anything but your own – that kind of thing.”
Selene’s eyes were bright and she looked excited, not terrified. “There have been successful transfers with talismans before, but you’re right. Most rejected the magic. It’s a lot like organ transplants actually. There was this witch in Colorado who did an entire thesis on it at the University of Morgana.”
Irritated at the reminder she wasn’t allowed to attend that school or the private high school Selene had, Kenzie wondered what they would say to her now.
“Well, I need help setting up these wards,” Kenzie told her, tapping the papers tucked into one of the books. “Once I get a handle on some of my abilities we can write our own thesis on voids. Because the books Eisheth gave me are all there is. Feel free to read whatever you want, as long as they stay here.”
They sat there in quiet for a moment and Kenzie watched her sister. For the first time they weren’t the same exactly, but there was now something they had in common that had always been such a huge part of Selene’s life. Magic had always been something Kenzie wished she could enjoy with her sister, and now she could – kind of.
Kenzie knew she wasn’t a normal witch, but there had to be spells they could do together. And if not – they could invent them.
After all her sister was a genius when it came to magic. It wasn't that Selene could perform the spells and enchantments flawlessly every time. It was that she knew how to break down a spell, mix it with another, or create something completely new, and have it work.
“Yes!” Selene exclaimed. “We should definitely start a thesis. You know, University of Morgana might have something about voids. We could check it out. Maybe they’ll have something for you. A degree from U of M is no small thing.” She started placing all the void books on the bed and pulled out her phone.
Ugh, that place. Kenzie had read Harry Potter. She’d known what she was missing out on. So her first instinct was to say ‘
go fuck yourself’ to the dean and then see if maybe there was a void curse she could perform.
But she also knew that she couldn’t be a picky bitch about where her help came from. There was a place for her in this paranormal world now. Just like there was for the raccoons and the foxes. The universe, the Fates – whoever – wouldn’t have given them all unique gifts if there wasn’t a purpose for them.
Like, why would they give ravens the ability to turn their emotions on and off? It was random and not necessarily ‘useful’ or ‘powerful’ at first glance. But then the ravens had taken that unique skill and made themselves the best assassins that existed in this, or any, world.
Maybe that was what the Powers That Be meant for them to do. Or maybe not. But the ravens had used that unique skill to their benefit.
Why couldn’t she?
“There’s a door right?” Kenzie asked. She watched as Selene took pictures of all the books she had on voids.
The journals Eisheth had given her were hidden away. For some reason she couldn’t say, Kenzie didn’t want to share those yet. Not before she had a chance to read them herself.
“Yeah, there’s a door in every major city to the University of Morgana,” Selene said with a nod. “The University is in a hidden place and you have to have a student ID to get there. But I can take you.”
Then her sister stacked the books and put all but one back under the bed. “But that’s something we can do later when we aren’t dealing with a feud. Take the void ward spell to Edith. She can help us with it. It’s not something I’ve ever seen before, even though the basic idea is familiar.”
Kenzie took the spell and considered the steps. It wasn’t overly complicated other than she had to do it at a certain time. But this was new territory for everyone. “Okay, I’ll go find Edith. Could you get what ingredients you can?”