He wasn’t going to cry. Well, he wasn’t going to cry again. His face burned. He’d actually cried in front of him. Luckily, he’d sailed straight past sad and was well on his way to homicidal. He didn’t need Rhys. It wasn’t like he wasn’t an attractive guy. Other guys looked at him or they would if they didn’t think it would get their eyes ripped out. Eric had looked at him. Eric had kissed him. He sighed. Eric’s kiss had been nice but it was nothing like the one he’d shared with that stupid wolf.
He’d thought about it in every conceivable way. Obviously, Rhys liked him. He teased him about being in the closet but he didn’t really think that was his issue. Rhys didn’t care about gay or straight. Shifters didn’t really think of things that way. Isa said that for wolves it was pheromones and scent signals, not XX versus XY-chromosomes. He just didn’t get it. He growled his frustration and started replaying every detail of the day all over again to see where it all went wrong.
He was just getting to the good part when Mace appeared from the woods on the east side of the house giving him a curt wave and a quizzical look. He stalked up the porch steps and leaned against the railing, “I see you survived your trip to New Orleans. Did you find what you were looking for?”
Kai opened his mouth to answer but realized he had no idea. He’d been so caught up in his drama with Rhys he didn’t stop to ask what they’d found.
“So the sour expression on your face isn’t reaper related. That must mean it’s the wolf.”
Kai’s brows shot up.
Mace chuckled, “What? I’m not blind, mate. Besides, I could smell him on you from a mile distance. He’s marked you very well.” Kai cut his eyes at the soul eater but said nothing. “It’s very, what’s the term, old school; very prehistoric-mating-ritual. I’m surprised he hasn’t left a deer carcass on your front porch. It seems he is all show and no go.”
Kai huffed, chest squeezing hard. It hurt. The only thing worse than what happened between Rhys and him was listening to somebody else reiterate how pathetic it was.
“Where are the others?” Kai asked, changing the subject.
“Donovan said he was dropping the faery at the diner. Ember decided to make peace with her uncle long enough to see if he can fix the mutt’s foot and I’m assuming the little alpha and her betrothed are at the restaurant.”
Kai nodded, but fell quiet when he realized he’d run out of small talk. For once, he wanted to be the broody silent one. He was entitled to at least one day of wallowing.
“So, what’s the plan, reaper? Are you going to sit out here until he comes home so you can glare at him while he walks by and ignores you? Or are you just pouting?”
Kai fumed, “What do you care? Don’t you have somebody to kill?”
He sighed wistfully, “I promised your alpha I would not kill anybody while I was enjoying her hospitality.”
“Wow, you must really be into my cousin if you are willing to go hungry in order to survive.”
“I don’t have to kill to eat. I’m old enough to sustain myself on scraps if need be. In fact, I was just trying to decide what I feel like eating tonight. I’m in the mood for something a little…exotic.”
He stared at Kai for so long, a sliver of fear crept up his spine. He held up his hands, “Whoa, I might be having a bad day but I’m not up for being anybody’s afternoon snack.”
Mace rolled his eyes, “Not quite what I had in mind. However, I have some associates just over the state line who occasionally allow me to feed. I think you might enjoy their company and I’m absolutely certain one of them would enjoy yours.”
Kai scoffed, growing annoyed, “Sorry, not really looking for a rebound, unless maybe you’re offering yourself as a replacement.”
There was no heat behind his words, but he leered at Mace anyway. He just wanted to see the soul eater slightly rattled. It wasn’t that he didn’t see the appeal; Mace was sexy in that evil, predatory, is he going to kiss me or kill me kind of way but Kai was done crushing on emotionally unavailable types.
His attempt to make the sluagh uncomfortable wasn’t working anyway. Mace grinned and held his arms up turning around slowly allowing Kai to look his fill. When he finished his spin, he said, “As I was saying, I think you might like taking a night off from the do-gooder crowd.”
Isa would kill him. He was already in enough trouble. He thought about the Grove. He swallowed thickly. They were already going to kill him. What did he have to lose really?
“It’s a win-win. I get to eat without breaking the rules and you,” Mace reasoned, “you get to make a few new friends with the added bonus of sending your wolf into an apoplectic seizure when he smells you.”
Kai looked at Mace for a long time, “If this place is filled with non-humans they aren’t going to go anywhere near me smelling like Rhys.”
Mace laughed, “Trust me, they aren’t really the type who respect boundaries. I promise you, they won’t care about your wolf or his claim on you.”
“How do I know you aren’t just luring me out to kill me?”
Mace looked exasperated as he said, “Why does everybody keep saying that? If I wanted to kill you I wouldn’t need to make up an excuse to do so. I’m not looking to anger the she-wolf or your cousin. Ember’s powers are too all over the place as it is.”
Kai had to give him that. Ember’s control was tenuous on a good day. He wasn’t going to sit around waiting for Rhys to come home or notice him.
He took a deep breath and shrugged, “Let’s do it.”
45
EMBER
Ember looked at her uncle, barely containing her panic, “Is it true?”
His brow furrowed, “Is what true?”
That ball of energy grew, her teeth started to chatter. It suddenly seemed cold and hot at the same time. Her eyes widened. She shouldn’t have let this energy free, “Are they going to kill Kai?”
He moved slowly, watching her hands, “What? Who?”
“You know who. Are those…people…the Grove…going to kill Kai?”
He sighed, letting his hands fall to his sides, “Ember, the Grove doesn’t want to kill, they want justice. They ensure that people do not tip the balance in any one sides favor. You don’t have anything to be afraid of.”
She was shaking so badly, she felt like she might shatter apart. The walls shook around them, trembling like a small earthquake, “Don’t lie to me. I’m tired of everybody lying to me.”
“Ember, you need to calm down. I’m not lying. The Grove aren’t hitmen. They are scholars. Yes, they punish but they are primarily about maintaining order. Kai upset the balance but that doesn’t mean what he did is worthy of death. Just calm down and we can talk about it.”
“I don’t think I can calm down. I don’t think I want to calm down. I want people to stop lying to me. Everybody is hiding something from me. People are lying to me about what I can do. What I am. About my mother. Even my father lied. I want to know if I’m the reason everybody is getting hurt. Did I kill my father? Did he die trying to protect me from the Grove?”
“I’ll tell you what I know, Ember, I promise, but you have to let me do something first. Okay?”
He moved too fast, startling a scream from her, the ball of light flying towards him. It missed, landing on the desk. Her uncle stared, eyes wide, at the small crater on his desk, “Ember, you cannot let your magic take over. You will never pull it back. It’s too much for you. Let me help,” he spoke slowly, like a negotiator trying to talk her off a ledge. He moved towards the cabinet against the wall.
“Everything is going to be okay. Just breathe,” he turned away from her long enough to grab something. When he turned around, he gave her a sad smile, “Sorry about this.”
He blew red powder into her face. She sucked in a surprised gasp, inhaling the bitter powder as she did. Why was everything a powder? She coughed once and the world went fuzz
y at the edges, as if her brain were wrapped in cotton candy. Her limbs felt too heavy, her tongue too thick.
She blinked.
“I promise the effects aren’t permanent. It’s just a little stasis spell.”
He helped her sit in a chair at the front of the classroom, arms propped in front of her. He walked to his classroom door, looking into the hallway before closing it. He leaned on his desk, mindful of the still smoldering hole.
She opened her mouth but no words came out.
“It’s the spell,” he explained, “it will wear off in a minute.”
She tried not to panic as he continued, “I lied to you the day we met. I know the wolves told you. I did it because I thought it would protect you. I was wrong. I can’t tell you everything because I just don’t know all of it. I’m sure by now you know your father had your magic bound but what you don’t understand is why.
“First, you need to understand binding somebody’s magic isn’t meant to be a long term solution. It’s a temporary means of containment. The coven binds their magic for a short period but they must eventually unbind it or remove their magic permanently. Binding ones powers takes an inordinate amount of magic. It’s why your mother fought so hard to make sure the council voted against it. She knew it was only the first step in their plan.”
“Then why would my father agree to it?” she asked, voice hoarse.
Her uncle took a deep breath, “Because if he didn’t, the Grove was going to execute you and the twins.”
Ember felt like her mind exploded. He’d just talked about how the Grove was there for justice, now they were executing little kids, “What? Why? What crime did we commit?”
“All three of you were born with the mark of a reaper. Two of you were showing signs of coming into your powers while your mother was still alive.”
“That’s a crime? They would kill us for something we were born with?”
“You don’t know everything, Ember. You don’t know what you did.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat, “Then tell me.”
“Once I tell you, there’s no going back.”
“Just say it,” she whispered.
He nodded, closing his eyes, “Allister said Josephine told you about the council meeting the night your mother died but they didn’t tell you what you did after your mother died, did they?” Ember shook her head, knowing, somewhere deep down, what was coming, but helpless to stop it anyway. “You raised her from the water, called her practically to your front door. If your father hadn’t realized you were missing from your bed and gone to look for you…there’s no telling what your mother would have done to you.”
Her dreams of her mother weren’t dreams at all, just more memories resurfacing. She shivered as her mind conjured up her mother’s distorted face. She shook her head, trying to shake the image from her brain. It was awful, horrifying really, but given the amount of people she’d raised in the last few weeks, she thought she was handling it well.
“What does this have to do with the twins? Why would they kill Tristin and Kai? Why not just me?”
He narrowed his eyes, “It’s strange that Josephine never mentioned why they met the second time? She never said exactly what caused them to reconvene the council for a second vote. Maybe she didn’t know. She wasn’t there,” he said the last bit to himself. “The council heard what you did and decided they needed to get ahead of things. Tristin screamed for your mother’s death and you raised her from the dead. Two children were now in possession of their reaper powers in one family. The town was leery of your powers but what happened at the second council meeting changed everything forever.”
Ember’s head was spinning but he just kept talking, suddenly desperate to unburden himself of these secrets, “Even after what you and Tristin had done, most of the council members stood by your mother’s decision. The wolves stood with your mother. A few of the witches, even Quinn’s mother, stood with your aunt and your father’s decision not to bind your powers but something happened. People started fighting, screaming, your father said things got physical and you and Tristin got confused.”
“Confused? What are you saying? Allister said Tristin screamed at the second council meeting. He said her scream predicted the death of her mother,” she rasped, throat like sandpaper. She clenched her fists, feeling finally returning to her limbs as the stasis spell wore off.
“Her scream may have predicted her mother’s death, but it may have also set everything in motion.”
“What are you talking about? Are you saying you know what this mysterious ‘incident’ is that everybody talks about but nobody seems to know about?”
“No, Ember,” he met her gaze, looking much older than when he’d started the conversation, “I’m saying the incident nobody talks about…is you.”
“Me?” She started to tremble, “Are you saying I killed those people?” She looked at her hands, thinking about the ball of light she’d almost lobbed at her uncle, “How?”
“You raised an army. Revenants attacked the town. Hundreds of bodies pulled from the ground at the command of a child. We don’t even know how you did it. The power it would take…There was no way you could have controlled them.”
“Revenants? What are you saying?” She shook her head, unwilling to believe him. That couldn’t be true. That would mean she was responsible for the death of her aunt and uncle. She was responsible for Rhys and Isa’s parents, Quinn’s mom and so many others. Their deaths were on her head. She lurched from her seat, falling to her knees and vomiting her lunch into the trash can.
He pretended not to notice, “Your father got you and the twins out. He left the others…he locked the doors…and he burned the building to the ground with everybody still inside.”
She heaved again, imagining her father making the decision to set the building on fire with his friends and family still inside. She spent her whole life vilifying him. The last time they spoke she’d called him a loser.
“When the Grove came, your father and Allister begged them to show mercy. He said he’d allow them to bind and strip your powers for good. He just asked them to leave the three of you alive. He told the Grove he suspected stripping your power would take Tristin’s as well. He said if he was right, Kai would be the sole reaper of the family and the balance would be restored. He never said why he thought yours and Tristin’s powers were tied together but he was right. When they bound your powers, it somehow bound Tristin’s as well.”
“How do you know all this?”
“He told me. The night he ran with you, he told me the Grove was coming back to strip your powers. He told me everything but made me swear to never let on I knew anything, not until you returned. I was too young to be on the council back then, so there was no reason to believe I was there. When the Grove discovered your father had taken you they took drastic measures to ensure the balance was maintained.
“They gathered everybody in the center of town, both human and supernatural. They wiped the memories of everybody with supernatural ties, even the humans, replacing them with cheap, vague memories of the people they lost. They slaughtered the humans not from supernatural families and cloaked the town from the outside world. Then they started the raids, pulling all books from houses, forcing anybody who wanted to use their magic to register their gifts and swearing their allegiance to the Grove.”
“How do you know all this? How is it you have your memories?”
“I’m immune to compulsion.” He lifted his shirt to reveal an intricate tattoo on his side. “A gift from your father. He wanted me to be able to tell you the truth when you were ready.”
“Do I seem ready?” Tears streamed down her face, she could taste her makeup running into her mouth, “Why would you tell me this?”
“Because you need to understand your father wasn’t a drunk. Binding powers is a temporary fix because it involves the u
se of dark magic. Blood magic. To maintain this kind of wall around your magic, he would be ingesting dark herbs on a daily basis. He would be using his own blood to rebind the spell at least once a month. Over time, it would start to eat away at him. Your father was killing himself a little bit at a time to protect you.”
Her heart was ripping out. She didn’t want to know anymore. She couldn’t hear anything else. He had to stop. She’d destroyed everybody she loved. She thought she’d wanted to know everything but she was wrong. All this time she thought Mace was the monster but, really, it was her. She had killed her dad, the council, the humans, she’d robbed her friends of their family and now, Kai would die for her as well.
“Ember,” Alex crouched next to her.
He tried to rub her back but she flinched away from him. “Don’t touch me.”
He moved back a bit, handing her a tissue, “I didn’t tell you this to hurt you. I told you this so you could see you’re a part of something much bigger. Your parents were willing to sacrifice themselves to save you, to save all of you. They did all of this to protect the three of you.” She couldn’t even look at him.
“This is where you decide whether or not you throw away everything everybody gave up to protect you. This is where you decide if you are going to fight. I know you are afraid for Kai but you can’t let that deter you,” he dropped his voice, “Listen to me. You cannot trust the Grove but you cannot speak against them either. Ever. Do you understand? Ember, if they think, even for a minute, you and your cousins mean them harm, there will be no way to protect you. Any of you. They are the monsters, Ember and your parents knew it. Your parents saw so much potential in you. You have to trust me; everything we did, we did for you.”
She jerked to her feet, stunned. “How can you say that?”
Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (Dead Things Series Book 1) Page 29