by Theresa Kay
All four of them fall silent as I approach. Bridget and her two lackeys send me death glares, and the shifter girl crosses her arms over her chest.
“Hi, Bridget.” I walk up to the group, stopping beside the shifter girl and glancing at her from the corner of my eye. Brown eyes. Light-brown hair. Like Zeke, she’s unfamiliar. What’s with all the new shifters in the area tonight? “What are you and your witch friends doing on pack lands?”
Bridget gives me a saccharine sweet smile, her nose wrinkling. “Move along. This is none of your business.”
“I think it is my business, especially when you’re—”
“I don’t need your help,” bites out the shifter girl. She tilts her chin up, her dark eyes flashing with anger. “I can handle these weaklings on my own.”
Before I can open my mouth to point out that, regardless of strength, this fight is three against one, Bridget speaks up. “Oh, yes, you’re the Donovan pack’s pet human. Selene, right?”
The insult stings, but this isn’t like earlier with Zeke. There’s no formal type of response for outsiders. But her catty words also give me my one and only card to play.
“Yup, that’s me.” I step slightly in front of the shifter girl. “A human . . . Who you’re forbidden from using magic on, so why don’t we break this up and all go our separate ways? You know you’re not allowed on pack lands without a formal invitation.”
Bridget laughs, and the two other witches join in. “Aren’t you cute.” She looks from side to side with an exaggerated motion. “But who’s around to report me? Better yet . . .” Her voice drops low, and she adds a bit of a simper to it. “I was just trying to defend myself. The human came after me. She was raised by shifters, so who knows what kind of violent tendencies those animals might have instilled in her.”
Rage brews in my stomach. How dare she call my family animals. She’s nothing but a—
The shifter girl wraps her hand around my upper arm. “Get out of here. It’s okay.”
“You should listen to her. This is witch business,” says Bridget. “If you leave now, there’s no hard feelings. K?”
“Go.” The shifter girl widens her eyes and pushes me to the side.
Bridget huffs. “You’ll get out of my way one way or another.” She pinches two fingers together as if pulling something from the air—magic—and flicks her index finger my direction.
The small ball of concentrated magical energy hits me in the abdomen and pushes me to the side. The skin where the magic hit tingles, a feeling that walks the edge of pain, and I suck in a breath as I wait for the feeling to pass. But the feeling doesn’t pass. Instead, heat and electricity surge through my limbs and I fall to the ground with my arms wrapped around my middle. The pain is like nothing I’ve ever felt, a raging inferno flooding my veins, a building pressure that makes my skin feel too tight, and a wrenching pain like something’s breaking inside me.
“What’d you do?” yells the shifter girl. “What kind of spell did you throw?”
“It wasn’t a spell. I just . . . I just . . .” stammers Bridget. “It was a tiny zap, just enough to get her out of the way. I didn’t . . .”
“You dumb bitch.” The shifter drops to her knees beside me, muttering under her breath things I can’t quite hear as she grabs hold of my face and tries to get me to look at her.
The pressure in my chest is getting worse, so bad that it feels like I might explode. There’s another cracking sensation deep inside, and I whimper as another wave of pain washes over me. Tears run down my face, and my muscles have gone rigid.
The shifter girl runs her hands over my arms, down my legs. Looking for what? Her words come in and out. “A necklace? A bracelet? Something!”
I try to shake my head. I don’t understand what she’s asking.
Her hands go to my face again, forcing me to meet her eyes. “You have to let it go,” she says. “You can’t hold it, and you don’t have a talisman.”
The words themselves make sense, but I have no idea what she’s talking about. Let go of what? A talisman? Isn’t that some kind of magical item? Another wave of agony shoots through my body, and this time a cry of pain rips out of me.
From the corner of my eye, I see Bridget and her two friends slowly backing away, eyes wide, confusion and maybe a tiny bit of fear written on their faces. The initial blast of magic Bridget threw is barely a blip on my radar compared to the fiery power locked in my core.
Wait a second . . . power? In me?
My head spins at the idea, but I focus on the heat in the center of my chest, finally recognizing the feeling for what it is: magic. But that’s impossible. I’m a Blank.
Another blast rages against the confines of my body, and my chest feels like it’s going to crack open. I can’t breathe. I scratch frantically at my throat, willing air into my lungs, but the only thing filling me is more and more pressure. More and more magic.
“Let it go!” yells the shifter girl. “You have to let it go.”
There’s no air for me to form words, so I can’t tell her I don’t know how. The realization that whatever’s happening to me right now is going to kill me if I don’t do something is enough to clear my head and let me think. Some instinct tells me not letting go isn’t really the problem. It’s . . . it’s opening a valve, releasing the pressure. Directing it.
I raise one arm to the side, my palm facing—I hope—toward the trees. As the next back-arching surge of pain crests, I will the force of it into my arm, as if throwing a punch and the magic is the follow through. A burst of power explodes from my hand and finally drains the pressure from my chest so I can pull in a full, gasping breath.
A good thirty seconds pass before I can push myself to my hands and knees, coughing, sputtering, and completely exhausted. Shifter girl yanks me to my feet as soon as I catch my breath.
“You need to get out of here,” she says. “Get in your car and leave before someone comes.”
“What?” I sputter. “I . . . What the actual hell was that? How?” Nothing makes any sense. My head is full of fog, my limbs are numb, and my chest feels like it’s on fire.
She shakes my shoulders. “You don’t have time for this. If they catch you here . . .”
“Catch me? Who?”
“I don’t know . . . OSA? The Coven Council? Anyone?” She gives me another shake. “Pull it together!”
My gaze travels over her shoulder to the three witches lying on the ground near the edge of the gravel lot. “Did I . . . ?”
“Yes, you idiot. Do you know what the penalty is for using that caliber of offensive magic against a fledging witch, in public no less?”
We’re technically on pack land, not in public, but I’m not sure if that’s better or worse for me. I know enough to know it’s bad, so I nod and blink my eyes.
“Then go!” She gives me a somewhat gentle shove then shifts into a large, gray wolf before disappearing into the woods.
Well shit.
My legs are begging me to sit down, and my head is pounding like there’s a woodpecker inside trying to find its way out, but I’m not a complete idiot. I can’t stand around. It won’t matter to OSA that I had no idea what I was doing, no idea I even had the ability to use magic. All that will matter was that I used it on someone, and I’m sure Bridget will tell the story in a way that paints me in the worst light possible.
And even if I’m able to avoid any consequences, if the Coven Council finds out that shifters raised a witch child, no matter how the situation may have come about, it will be my parents who suffer. Witches, particularly those old money families who run the Coven Council, aren’t known for being understanding. They’d no doubt find a way to spin my adoption as something criminal.
I need to find Reid and get out of here before Bridget and her friends wake up. I need to get home. Now.
I locate the trail leading back to the party and run toward the noise and the lights. Everyone’s still huddled around the bonfire, dancing and chatting like n
othing at all happened. And nothing did happen to them. My life has completely changed, and they still get to be normal. The thought makes my stomach churn with nausea.
I scan over the partygoers. Reid is nowhere to be seen, but neither is Lana, so they’re probably still out behind the barn.
He’s going to kill me for interrupting. I might be better off attempting to drive myself home, the stupid clutch be damned. A half-hysterical giggle breaks past my lips as my feet carry me in a mostly straight line toward the barn at the top of the hill on the other side of the bonfire.
I find Reid and Lana wrapped together, attached at the lips but, thankfully, fully clothed.
“Reid,” I croak out.
They spring apart. Reid sends a glare in my direction, but the expression quickly turns into a look of concern and then, after a twitch of his nose, a look of pure confusion.
Lana, a little mussed, offers me a small smile. “Is everything all right?” she asks. Her nose twitches too, a shifter taking in an unexpected scent. She glances back and forth between Reid and me. “A witch? I thought she was human.”
“So did I,” I say. I sway on my feet but catch myself with one hand on the side of the barn.
Both of them rush forward. Reid places a steadying hand on my shoulder, and Lana grabs my arm to keep me from falling over.
“I need to go home. There’s another shifter. A girl. And witches. I . . .”
The two of them share a look, and Lana nods. “Get her home. I’ll talk to you later.”
The tension and terror that has kept me going drains away now that I’m not alone and something is getting done. Both a good thing and a bad thing because I feel much better emotionally, but physically there’s nothing holding me up anymore. My legs give out, so Reid sweeps me up into his arms and cradles me against his chest.
Lana kisses him on the cheek and runs a hand over my head. “Take care of yourself, girl. I’ll be looking forward to hearing all about this tomorrow.”
Reid glances down at me with a wry smile. “You have so much explaining to do.”
I shrug. I’m not the only one with explaining to do. As much as I hate to admit it, there’s no way my parents, no way Connor, didn’t know anything about this.
It’s a thirty-minute drive to get home. The first ten minutes Reid spends cursing at his phone for not having service. The next ten minutes, after he manages to get a very brief call through to his dad, he spends cursing at his truck for not going fast enough. The last ten are spent in near silence as he vacillates between looking like he’s terrified for me and looking like he’s terrified of me.
Hell, I’m kind of terrified too. Of what this means for me, for my family, for everything . . .
The second Reid pulls into my driveway, three people rush out of the moderately sized two-story house and over to his truck.
Mom reaches the vehicle first. She yanks the passenger side door open, her blue eyes scanning over me frantically, only relaxing when she’s sees I’m in one piece. She runs her hands over my hair and down my arms then takes a step back, wringing her hands. “I’m so sorry. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. You must have been so scared.”
Dad walks up behind her and wraps an arm around her shoulders as I slowly climb out of the truck.
“There’s—we—I—” He sighs and stares down at his feet.
It isn’t until Reid’s dad, Connor Donovan, a large, red-haired man, steps around them and looks down at me with a worried expression that I realize none of them are surprised. None of them are sniffing the air, trying to figure out where the magic smell is coming from.
And none of them will meet my eyes.
They already know. They’ve known. For exactly how long I have no idea, but they knew I’m not a Blank, that I’m an actual witch, and they kept it from me. But why?
Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath. The entire way here I hoped I was wrong, that they didn’t know any more about this than I did. I wasn’t sure how it would be possible for them not to know, but . . . I had hope. That hope is dead now, and the confirmation of their betrayal is like a block of cement in my stomach. I’m not sure how to react. I’m angry, of course. Downright pissed. But, most of all, I’m absolutely gutted.
Why would they keep a secret like this? Why would they lie to me my entire life? There has to be some explanation, right?
I open my eyes and study the three adult shifters in front of me. Mom and Dad look more sad and scared than anything else, but Connor looks almost resigned, as if he knew this day was coming.
Well, of course he did. The Blue Ridge regional alpha is nothing if not pragmatic. He knew I was a witch and allowed me to be taken in anyway. But why?
Reid runs around the back of the truck and then stops beside me. He sends a look of frantic desperation at his father. “So, what do we do? How do we fix this? Selene can’t possibly be a witch, right? There’s no way those assholes would let . . .” His voice trails off as he takes in the faces around us. “You’re kidding me.”
A strained laugh breaks past my lips. At least I wasn’t betrayed by my best friend too. That’s a bright spot in this awful evening.
Connor shakes his head and gives his son a stony stare.
“Have you always known?” Reid’s voice is low with an edge to it that borders on a growl.
“Yes,” says Connor, short and succinct, as he rubs at his forehead.
Reid takes a step backward. “I can’t believe you.” His gaze moves to my parents. “Any of you. Someone could have gotten hurt! Selene could have died! And if the witches find out about this . . .”
“More like when the witches find out,” I say in a flat voice. “Since I laid three of them out this evening and one of them knows exactly who I am.”
Dad’s eyes widen. “You did what?”
“They were going after a shifter girl. I stepped in. It got ugly, and one of them blasted me. That’s when . . .” I throw my hands up and let the words trail off as my eyes burn with tears. “I just don’t understand why you never told me.”
“We were planning to tell you. It wasn’t meant—” Mom starts.
“No,” yells Reid. “You don’t get to explain this away. What gives any of you the right to keep this kind of secret?”
The lump in my throat prevents me from saying anything else, and I’m immensely grateful Reid is here asking all the questions I can’t find words for.
Connor places a hand on his son’s shoulder. “I think you should head on home, Reid. There are things we need to discuss with Selene.”
Reid’s eyes narrow, and his jaw tightens. “You’re not leaving me out of this. Clearly, none of you thought this through. The last thing she needs is for you three to gang up on her.”
“The ‘last thing she needs’ is to be taken to a shifter party after I specifically forbade you from doing so,” says Connor in a low voice. “If she hadn’t been there, none of this would have happened. How did you get around my command?”
Reid tilts his chin up, defiant, and shrugs.
“Tell me now,” Connor says, throwing the power of an alpha command behind the words.
Speaking through his teeth with a snarl, Reid says, “Your command was to say no if she asked to go to one. She didn’t ask. I did.”
Leave it to my crafty cousin to find a loophole . . .
Connor’s eyes narrow, and his nose twitches. “Go home, Reid,” he says in a soft but dangerous voice. “We’ll discuss your disobedience later.”
Reid ignores him and holds his gaze, the ghost of a snarl still lingering on Reid’s lips.
“It’s okay,” I say, one hand on Reid’s arm. I don’t want him to go, not really, but I also don’t want him to fight with his father. There’s been enough turmoil this evening. But Reid’s gaze doesn’t leave his father, and a low growl rumbles in my cousin’s chest. I shake his arm. “Really. It’s fine. I’ll call you later and fill you in, okay?”
Connor bristles, his chest puffing out. “Go home,
Reid,” he repeats, this time in a voice that demands obedience.
Reid scowls, clearly unhappy about the order, but not even he can disobey a direct command. He walks around the front of the truck, still glaring at his father, and hops into the driver’s seat. Reid’s attention moves back to me, worry creasing his brow. “Everything will be okay. We’ll figure this out. Call me if you need me.”
“I will,” I say in a soft voice.
I wait until his truck disappears over the next hill before I turn to face the three people who have been lying to me for pretty much my entire life. My initial anger has faded and been replaced by utter exhaustion. Now, like Connor, I’m resigned. I’m not going to like what they have to say, but there’s no doubt I need to hear it.
There are too many questions clamoring for attention in my mind for me to pick just one, so I cross my arms and simply say, “I’m ready for an explanation any time now.”
“Let’s get you inside. You should probably sit down.” Mom shuffles forward and reaches for my arm.
I pull away, and she flinches.
“Please,” she says, and I allow her to lead me through the front door and into the living room while Dad and Connor file in behind us.
I take my normal seat on the couch and curl my legs underneath me. Mom sits next to me, and Dad and Connor take the easy chairs on either corner across from the couch. This whole thing feels like some weird-ass intervention or something.
Everyone’s looking down at their hands, but my eyes are drawn to the coffee table where a pendant necklace sits. It’s a simple thing, a thin gold chain and a fingernail-sized shiny stone that looks something like an opal.
“I want to know why tonight is the first time I’ve felt even an inkling of power, why you’ve told me I’m a Blank my entire life, why you’ve all lied to me.” My voice is laced with a cold detachment even I don’t recognize. I glance at the necklace on the table, and after a moment of strained silence, I add, “Or I guess you could start with the talisman.”