“Why did your sisters both age? It is my understanding that Shadow prevents that,” Sophie asked.
“We live unnaturally long lives, unless something gets to us, of course,” the witch said. “The more powerful one is, the less they age. Hence, Marshall, Esme… they both still look as if they were in their twenties or thirties. You will not age.”
Sophie mulled that over.
The witch was watching her.
“Shifters are long-lived, but not as much as even a weak witch. And someone as powerful as yourself will outlive him by centuries,” she said. “What is he calling himself in this time?”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “He’s not calling himself anything. His name is Calder.”
“A bear shifter.”
“The great-great-great-whatever grandson of Luc. Yes,” Sophie said. She poured the tea and set a cup on the table in front of the witch. “Do you have a name?”
“Now, everyone just calls me Patti,” she said. “So many of the old ways left behind. Old friends, old traditions. Old alliances,” she added quietly.
“Why are you here?”
“You need to learn how to use what you have.”
“To protect everyone from Marshall and Esme,” Sophie said, nodding.
“To protect everyone from yourself,” Patti said.
“I—”
“I’ve already been through this once. I know how it ends. You get power hungry. You lash out at anyone and anything that dares to challenge you.”
“I would never—”
“I know. You think you wouldn’t. You don’t want to. You know what it is to live in the Light. I heard you out there, saying that you don’t want the power.”
“And you said that maybe it was a good thing I had it.”
Patti nodded, slowly. “You are more pure this time around.”
Sophie groaned. “I’m not Migisi.”
Patti looked at her skeptically. “And yet you clearly remembered something not of your own life when you were on our land.”
Sophie didn’t answer.
“What did you see?” Patti asked quietly.
“A little girl sitting on your porch. Crying, but with such hatred in her eyes…” Sophie shook her head.
“How old?”
“Maybe seven? Eight? I’m not sure.”
Patti nodded. “The last time Migisi saw her daughter, Claire was eight. She’d visited occasionally, and Claire adored her mother. That last visit, Migisi told her she wouldn’t be coming back. Claire lashed out. It took us days to get her calm again,” she finished quietly. And then she looked at Sophie. “Migisi and Luc died a few years later.”
Sophie’s stomach turned. “I’m not her,” she repeated.
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Patti said. “But the fact is that you were self-trained as a Light witch, which is not the greatest idea. As a Shadow witch, especially with the amount of power you have, it would be foolish to go untrained.”
“I went to Esme for some training. But that was mostly about defending myself.”
Patti nearly dropped her cup. “Esme trained you?”
“Only in fighting. Sensing for power. Stuff like that.”
Patti stared at her. “How can she not know?”
“Would you stop with the Migisi bullshit?” Sophie snarled. “I’m me. I was weak, but I was of the Light, and then I took Marshall’s stupid powers to protect my friends and family from him and now I’m this,” she said disgustedly.
“But you were already feeling the call to Shadow before that. Right?”
Sophie didn’t answer, and it was all the response Patti needed.
“I can help you. I can’t teach you how to work with Shadow. That, I have no idea about and my sisters refuse to have anything to do with you.”
“Then what will you teach me?”
Patti shrugged. “I can try to remind you what it is to walk in the Light.”
“Why?”
“Because maybe it will temper the darkness in you.”
Sophie laughed. “Oh, come on. Look at me. I sit here and knit and bake and if I still had my goats I’d be making goat’s milk soap. I’m about as dark as a marshmallow.”
“And yet you feel it, don’t you? Invading your thoughts when you least expect it?” She sat and studied Sophie and Sophie stared back at her.
“When I came to see you, you and your sisters all made it very clear that you wanted me anywhere but where you are. What changed?”
Patti stood and started pulling her coat on. “I thought of all the things I maybe should have done differently the first time around. All the regrets I’ve had all these years, all the wishes that things had turned out differently.”
“The curse is gone,” Sophie said.
Patti's jaw dropped. “What?”
“The curse. I learned how to get rid of it from Migisi’s journals.”
Patti gave her an appraising look. “Maybe you were not too far gone at the end, after all.”
“Maybe Migisi wasn’t,” Sophie said, emphasizing her foremother’s name. “She left instructions. And they had nothing to do with Migisi coming back and fixing things. A daughter of her daughter or some crap like that. Lineage, not reincarnation.”
“Hm. It’s gone?”
“Gone.”
Patti studied her further, and Sophie had the uncomfortable sensation of being judged, weighed. “Migisi had some gift of foresight,” she finally said. “If she foresaw you… I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.”
“It is what it is,” Sophie said. “She was right. I’m here, and I destroyed the curse. This,” she said, gesturing in general at herself, “Shadow, all of it. This was likely the price, and I’ll pay it.”
“If only we could be sure that you’ll be the only one paying for it.”
“I will be,” Sophie said sternly.
“We’ll see. Come to me if you have questions. I’ll be around.”
Sophie blew out a breath. “Okay. Thank you.”
Patti nodded. “One more bit of advice. Do not let those witches and warlocks get away. You are all that’s controlling them now. Marshall didn’t care about that. I assume you do.”
“I do,” Sophie confirmed.
Patti gave her a nod and made her way to the front door. Sophie saw her out and then watched as she pulled her car out of the driveway and drove back down the road toward the highway.
How had she gotten herself into this mess? Now she had this witch, who clearly hated her, who thought she was Migisi reborn or some nonsense like that, hanging around in addition to the witches in the meadow.
All she wanted was to lock herself and Calder into her house and never, ever leave. And not talk to anyone.
She went back inside and forced herself to settle in and work for a while. She’d been forced to give up her job at the hotel she’d been working at once Calder’s curse and the beginnings of Shadow had become too much for her. Luckily, she’d done some work as a virtual assistant when she lived in Detroit and she’d been able to get a few references and assignments from her old clients.
She tried not to think about the soap and lotion business she’d been building. She’d tried, several times, since she’d become Shadow to create the things she once had loved making. No luck. The soaps became grainy and separated, and the lotions failed to emulsify. Before, she’d imbued her products with a little hint of Light, which was why people fell in love with them. She’d thought she could at least continue making the soaps, even if they weren’t touched with Light anymore, but it was as if any skill she’d had at all had left her along with the Light.
So, virtual assisting it was. Luckily, she had no debt and just had to work on keeping herself fed, warm, and with internet.
The hours dragged on, and when she took breaks from working, Sophie made sure to peek out at the meadow. The Shadow coven were all sitting around a large fire. Someone was playing a banjo. They looked like a bunch of hippies in a commune or something. Sophie snorted.
/> What the hell was she going to do with them?
She knew she should keep a couple on Esme. She froze.
Esme.
She and Calder had pissed her off last night. Embarrassed her. And the Shadow witch was sneaky as hell. If anyone could murder a man and make it look like a bear had done it, it was her. She hated Sophie. She wanted Calder. And if she couldn’t have Calder…
Sophie was about to head outside when the front door opened and Calder walked in. He looked exhausted and sore.
“How’d it go?” she asked, walking up to him and helping him out of his coat.
“About as well as can be expected when I killed nearly twenty of their finest,” he said quietly. “Bryce was named alpha this morning. He’s instructed them to focus on their own business, not in coming after me. A few… the ones I didn’t kill, still want my blood.”
Great. More people they’d have to watch their backs around.
Sophie glanced toward the window.
“I’m going to go take a shower,” Calder said.
Sophie nodded and gave him a quick kiss before he walked away. As soon as the bathroom door was closed, she headed for the back door, then nearly jogged across the meadow.
The coven members all stood up and watched as she approached.
“I have a job for you,” Sophie said.
“Finally,” Jayda muttered and the others nodded.
“It’s a boring job.”
“Don’t even care at this point. It can’t be any more boring than sitting in the meadow.”
Sophie nodded. Good point. “I want three of you watching Esme at all times. If she gets any visitors, if she goes out to meet anyone, I want to know.” She pointed at three of the coven, including Jayda. “Check in regularly. You have my number.” They nodded and were gone in the next instant.
“The rest of you, I want watching the Falls Pack.”
“Is this about your boyfriend?” one of the women asked, and Sophie shrugged.
“I want them watched. If they look like they’re preparing to make a move, if they seem to be organizing for an attack… I need to know. Right away. If you hear anything about me or Calder, I need to know. Their territory is pretty huge, and these are shifters, so—”
“We know how to deal with shifters,” one of the men said. “We won’t be seen.”
Sophie studied them. “Go do it, then. Check in every couple of hours. If they’re planning something, I need to know.”
They nodded and then they were gone, and her meadow was blissfully empty. Undoubtedly, they’d already likely caused more than enough damage to the overall health of her property, but she couldn’t deal with that until spring came and she could see how bad the damage really was.
One problem, solved. Sort of.
Sophie headed back into the house. She’d pay the other Shadow witch a visit tomorrow. Right now, she had an injured, heartsick bear to deal with.
Calder stood under the hot spray, letting the heat work the kinks out of his muscles. He’d taken the bandages and gauze off, and now all that remained of the previous night’s insanity were dozens of red, angry-looking scars. He’d have them to remember the fight by.
As if he’d ever forget.
Flashes of it tore through his mind. Wolves he’d known his entire life leaping at him, going for his throat, rage and loss in their eyes.
Watching the life fade from those same eyes after a swipe from his massive paw. His bear had been in ecstasy. That fucker lived for three things: battle, food, and Sophie.
Come to think of it, that was pretty much what Calder lived for, too. He’d spent so much time thinking of his bear as something else, especially when he’d had the curse and his bear had been nothing but a danger, a way he might hurt an innocent person in one of the rages caused by the curse. He’d felt echoes of that insanity the night before, lost in battle, fighting for his life.
Refusing to leave Sophie behind, unprotected and mourning.
So he’d killed, and he’d lived.
So much blood. Blood and shit and entrails ripped from the stomachs of guys he’d played baseball with as a kid. Fuck. The mournful howls of widows and mothers left behind.
Bryce’s blank gaze when he’d talked to his friend earlier.
He sighed and rested his forehead against the light yellow tile in Sophie’s shower. Maybe it was time for them to pick up and get the hell out of Copper Falls. Not just him. Both of them. He and Sophie should start over somewhere else, somewhere without curses and fucking Shadow warlocks and witches who wanted his woman dead and Shadow covens living in the meadow. Somewhere where he hadn’t killed people he’d once called friends.
He opened his eyes and his gaze landed on the little shelf in the shower. There were like a dozen bottles there. Shampoos, hair cream, body wash, different soaps. And one of those pouf things Sophie washed with. He forgot what they were called.
All of that, and a bar of regular soap was nowhere to be found. He sniffed a few bottles and ended up squeezing some honey vanilla body wash onto his washcloth. It smelled like Sophie and he groaned.
As if he didn’t have that scent imprinted on his mind already. He washed as quickly as he could and then rinsed off. What they’d started the night before… he knew her. She wouldn’t be the in the mood tonight, and neither was he. They needed to heal, both themselves and their relationship. Plus, it felt wrong to focus at all on making Sophie scream his name when everything was a mess.
“Someday,” he murmured as he shut off the water.
But he needed to buy some regular soap for the next time he showered at her house. There was no way he could go around smelling like this all the time.
When he stepped out of the bathroom, it was to find Sophie sitting cross-legged on the daybed, eyes closed, hands on her knees. He studied her for a moment, not wanting to move. He knew she did this a lot now. He guessed it had something to do with Shadow, but getting Sophie to really actually talk about Shadow was next to impossible. She still mourned her Light magic too deeply. As far as he was concerned, her Shadow magic was a Godsend. It had enabled her to protect herself, really protect herself, with more than just protective wards. Yeah, it made his bear insane and he felt on edge when he spent too much time near her. It was still worth it to know that witches like Esme, who had once tossed Sophie around like she was nothing, now feared her.
He stood in the doorway leading into the living room and just watched her. He leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest, and the emotions that washed over him as he watched Sophie nearly took his breath away. It was almost terrifying, how much he loved this woman. The things Jack had told him when he’d gone to see him… of course the relief of knowing Sophie hadn’t given her body to Jack was welcome, but he believed they would have worked it out even if she really had given herself to the alpha. No, it was more. Jack had told him about Sophie’s desperation when she’d come to him, her fear, the way she’d cried but insisted that it had to happen anyway. She’d put his sanity and health above her own well-being. She’d taken months of his disappointment and moodiness. She’d risked losing him and alienating some of her friends once word got out. And as much as he loved her for that, as unworthy as he felt of that kind of love and sacrifice, he was determined that she never have to sacrifice like that again. It was too much, and she’d already had a lifetime of losing what mattered to her.
“You’re thinking really, really hard over there,” Sophie murmured. Her eyes were still closed, but the corner of her mouth was quirked up in a little smile.
“You can sense that?” he asked.
“No. But I heard you leave the bathroom and you haven’t moved since, and you’re only still like that when you’re focused on something.”
Calder smiled. “I’m not always still when I focus on something. Sometimes, I’m pretty damn vigorous when I’m focused.”
Ah, there it was: a slight tinge of pink colored Sophie’s cheeks. He loved making that happen. He loved
looking down at her, seeing her entire, lush body flushed in pleasure. He bit back a groan. It had been far too long, and that all too brief moment the other night of her breasts in his hands, her sweet, needy moans, hadn’t been nearly enough. Yeah, it was the wrong time, but he was only human.
Well. Sometimes, anyway.
Sophie opened her eyes and he saw his own desire echoed there. “You can be very, very vigorous sometimes,” she agreed with a smile. “And growly.”
“I try not to be growly,” he said.
“I like it when you’re growly.” She patted the bed beside her, and Calder came and sat down. “I went to see those witches you told me about the other day. Thea introduced me to them.”
He nodded, and she continued. “Three sisters. Two Shadow, one Light.”
“How does that even happen?” he asked, and she shrugged.
“I’m not sure. But here’s the thing: they knew Migisi and Luc.”
He stared at her. “You’re kidding.”
She shook her head. “They were alive at the same time. They hated Migisi, just like everyone else, apparently,” she added with a grimace. “They…” she trailed off, and he could tell from the way her shoulders had tensed up that whatever they’d done had her stressed out. He cursed himself for not asking her more about what she’d been up to. They’d fallen apart in more ways than one, and that was not acceptable to him anymore.
“What did they do, Soph?” he asked, and she glanced at him, meeting his eyes. She shrugged.
“They raised Claire after Migisi couldn’t do it anymore.”
He didn’t even know what to say to that. He still felt like she was leaving something out, but this was big enough all on its own. He thought it over for a while. “She was Light, right?”
Sophie nodded. “Apparently, her father had been a Light witch. So Claire was light. When she was around seven years old, Migisi’s insanity became too much. She dropped Claire off with the three sisters, and according to them, she died several years later.”
“On the same day as Luc,” Calder murmured, remembering what Sophie had found out about their forebears when she’d been researching the curse.
Light's Shadow (Copper Falls Book 3) Page 8