“We keep it to ourselves,” Sky said. “No one needs to know what happened —”
Ocean scoffed. “You think the sorcerers are going to keep their mouths shut?”
“I think,” Sky spat, “that it doesn’t matter to witches what sorcerers say.”
“The guardian knows too. She might have even spoken to Aunt Marron before coming here. You have no idea what might be waiting for Mom in Paris.”
“At least I’m not abandoning her!” Sky cried. “I’m not a selfish bitch —”
“You are so blind!” Ocean shouted.
I slammed my hand down on the speckled counter of the kitchen island. Power exploded, swamping the room, then snapping back to me.
Both witches froze, staring at me wordlessly.
I kept my tone low and even. “Ocean is an adult. If she wishes to finish her schooling elsewhere that is her choice.”
Sky lifted her chin defiantly, opening her mouth to speak.
I looked at her.
She snapped her mouth shut, averting her gaze.
“Cerise’s magic is fully drained,” I said. “I don’t know if it will come back. I also have no idea what the guardian would have done if she’d been the one to punish your mother. But I do know what her coven would have done. Trying to unleash an entity that the coven was tasked with guarding? Almost killing two other coven witches in the process? Her own daughters? Drawing the attention of the guardian nine?”
“One guardian,” Sky grumbled.
“Who do you think was on the other side of that portal?” I asked coolly.
Sky grimaced.
The front door opened, then clicked closed quietly. The low hum of Grosvenor’s magic preceded him down the hall.
“It might have been a death sentence,” Ocean whispered.
“The Myers coven doesn’t believe in capital punishment,” Sky snapped.
“But they would have magically bound her,” I said. “In some fashion.”
The timer went off. I started to turn around, but Ocean jogged around the kitchen island. Apparently the younger witch needed something to do. I stepped to the side and let her pull the granola out, then stir it on the cookie sheet.
Sky’s shoulders slumped. She didn’t appear to notice as Grosvenor strode into the kitchen. His step faltered, and he stuffed his hands in his pockets, rucking up his suit jacket. His gaze riveted to Sky’s back.
Ocean shoved the granola back in the oven, setting the timer. Then she crossed to sit on the floor by Paisley, lifting her face into the sun and deliberately turning her back on her sister and the sorcerer.
I plugged the sink, turning on the hot water and adding soap.
Grosvenor stepped closer to Sky, lowering his voice. “Ocean will be okay. Just give her —”
“Of course she’ll be okay,” Sky snapped defensively. “She gets to walk away.”
“I’ll help you get Cerise back to —”
“No,” Sky growled. “I want nothing to do with you Azars.”
I caught Grosvenor’s flinch out of the corner of my eye. Sky saw it too. Her furious demeanor cracked. Then she sobbed. Just once, loudly.
Grosvenor reached for her, but she shoved him away and took off down the hall. I heard and felt her heading up the stairs.
I turned off the hot water and started washing the measuring cups I’d just used.
Grosvenor cleared his throat. “The … ah … the Azars …” He sneered at that, but I knew the derision wasn’t directed at me. “The sorcerers are leaving. Aiden wanted you to know.”
Nodding, I dried my hands on a tea towel, crossing through the kitchen and into the hall, heading to the front door.
Behind me, Ocean asked the curse breaker quietly, “Are you okay?”
I didn’t hear his response as I opened the front door and stepped out. Aiden was standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at Isa, Khalid, and his father.
Kader Azar laid his dark-eyed gaze on me and smiled. He looked younger, more refreshed. Not completely back to health, though.
Aiden turned to me. “No bindings. On either of us.”
“Thank you for your hospitality, Emma,” Kader said. His tone was smooth and cultured. Unruffled. “For your protection, and the gift of your magic.”
I waited, not bothering to answer because it was obvious he was winding up to something.
His grin widened. “I owe you a lead on your missing team member. I will contact you with anything I hear of interest, to repay you as swiftly as possible.”
I nodded — even as Aiden shouted, “No!”
“No?” I echoed, confused.
Kader laughed quietly.
Aiden snarled at his father, then sighed heavily.
Khalid, grinning broadly, muttered to Isa. “So that’s how it’s done.”
“For him.” The eldest Azar brother shook his head. “Only for him.”
“I’m not following,” I said, thinking about my blades only steps away in the study.
“I made everyone sign a blood-bound nondisclosure agreement.” Aiden ran his hand through his hair.
“It contained a ‘no contact’ clause,” Khalid said, still grinning. “No contacting you, Emma, specifically. Which you just voided. For Kader, at least.”
“You haven’t gotten your mother’s signature yet, Aiden,” the elder sorcerer said.
“I’m aware.” Aiden wrapped his hand around the post at the top of the stairs. I got the distinct impression he was doing that instead of attacking his father.
“It didn’t take you long to get back to playing games,” I said.
Kader shrugged. “I’m simply pointing out the irony.”
“Which is?” Aiden snapped.
His father smirked. “It wasn’t I who put you and your loved ones in danger.” And with that final observation, Kader turned away, heading toward Aiden’s SUV. Apparently, the sorcerers were borrowing it.
Khalid followed his father, but Isa lingered.
“It’s just a matter of time with you,” Aiden called after the elder sorcerer.
Kader turned back, deliberately sweeping his gaze over the property and me, then lingering on Aiden. “No,” he finally said. “I will never bring you any harm that I can control.”
Aiden snorted. “There’s a lot of leeway in that statement.”
Kader hummed quietly. Then he said, “I look forward to speaking with you soon.”
The elder sorcerer nodded to me, then turned away.
Grosvenor wandered down the hall behind us, leaning against the doorjamb with his arms crossed.
“You’re not going with them?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Different flights.”
I was fairly certain the Azar cabal could afford to own at least one private jet. But I didn’t feel like speculating on why the curse breaker couldn’t be dropped somewhere along the way.
“So that’s it?” Isa gazed up at us, hands shoved in the pockets of his suit pants.
“What more do you want, sorcerer?” I asked coolly.
“You’re lucky you’re walking away, Isa,” Aiden said. “Don’t push it.”
Isa looked at his younger brother for a moment. Then he spoke with utter sincerity. “I don’t want to be at odds, brother. I was serious about building a relationship with you, before Ruwa took it all too far.” He shook his head. “You think that all I want is a connection to Emma … and your housemate …” He waved his hand, not voicing Christopher’s name out loud.
Interesting. Isa was still trying to keep secrets from his father.
Sorcerers and their games.
“But I’d be happy to limit my contact. We could meet elsewhere.” Isa glanced toward the SUV.
Khalid had started the engine and pulled forward from the side of the barn and into the driveway. Waiting on Isa, but not patiently.
“I’m not going anywhere else, Isa,” Aiden said.
His brother huffed. “Aiden, I …” Then he shook his head, flinging his hands out to
the sides. “You know you’re the one who tried to kill me, right?”
Aiden threw his head back and laughed.
Either the attempted murder of a sibling was hilarious on a level I didn’t understand, or the dark-haired sorcerer was seriously sleep deprived.
Isa chuckled quietly. Then he shoved his hands back into his pockets, turning away.
Aiden sobered, watching his brother go. Then he called out, “Thank you, Isa. For the help with the containment spell on Opal’s vessel. I wouldn’t have been able to quell the suppression spell so efficiently without working it through with you.”
Isa simply waved over his shoulder, climbing into the front passenger seat. In the back, Kader was mostly hidden behind the tinted windows.
Khalid pulled the SUV up the driveway. Aiden and I watched them go. Grosvenor stepped forward and held his hand up, waving goodbye.
The gate at the top of the drive opened as the SUV approached, drove through, and turned onto the main road. The gate closed.
I glanced at Aiden. “Was that you?”
“No,” he growled, though there wasn’t much heat in it.
“He has to get in his final power play,” Grosvenor said. Then he glanced back toward the front door.
Inside, Cerise was standing at the base of the stairs.
I hadn’t felt her approach. And as a creeping sensation that had nothing to do with magic writhed up my spine, I realized there was something utterly disconcerting about not being able to feel someone in my own home.
Magic shifted behind Cerise as Sky descended the stairs. She stood behind her mother.
Cerise was once again outfitted in cream from head to toe, wearing a silk blouse, linen skirt, and high heels. Her eyes were covered with overly large sunglasses.
“I’m so glad he’s gone,” she whispered, biting her lip. “The last days have been unbearable.”
Grosvenor frowned.
Aiden’s expression was placid. As if he’d come to some conclusion, specifically about his mother, and was now utterly at peace with his decision.
I closed the space between us in a single step, brushing my fingers across the back of his hand. He shook his head, then twined his fingers through mine, squeezing.
“I have some papers for you to sign, Mother,” he said, releasing my hand and stepping toward the house. “You, Sky, and Ocean.”
“Pardon?” Cerise said, slipping into French. “Moi? Et pourquoi?”
Aiden stepped past his mother, heading for the study. Sky followed him wordlessly.
Cerise stared at me.
For a long time.
I held her gaze, even through the sunglasses.
Finally, she smirked. “Blood always runs true. Aiden will remember that in time.” She turned, following her son down the hall, her heels clicking on the fir flooring.
“Piece of fucking work,” Grosvenor muttered. Then he jogged down the patio stairs, heading for the barn.
I stayed where I was, letting the comforting sense of the property settle around me. Waiting. Though I knew I wouldn’t have to wait for long.
An argument sparked in the study. Then a door slammed. Magic snapped into place — most likely sealing all sound within the study — and Sky barreled down the hall and out onto the patio. She stood beside me, chest heaving, hands clenching and unclenching.
“Kader did something really shitty to you,” she finally said. “When you were a kid. Right?”
I just looked at her.
“I signed,” she snapped. “I can’t talk about you or anything that’s happened, excepting my own mother’s deeds since I might have to testify against her at tribunal. I’ve been gagged. By my own brother!” Sky breathed in deeply.
Ocean slowly wandered down the hall and out onto the patio to join us. She perched on the side rail.
“I’m just …” Sky shook her head. Then she whispered to me, “How could you have possibly forgiven him?”
“I didn’t,” I said smoothly.
“But … why then? Why help?”
“Because I love Aiden.”
Sky snorted. “Aiden hates Kader.”
I didn’t bother answering her.
She sighed. “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to forgive her.”
“Sometimes … you don’t.” I looked at Ocean. “The granola?”
She nodded. “Cooling. I added the cranberries.”
“Thank you.” I stepped back into the house. Sky took off toward the barn while Ocean followed me inside.
Thirty minutes later, partway through making a batch of ginger snaps that Ocean had persuaded me to use raw ginger for, Cerise left the house. And then the property. Without saying goodbye to her youngest daughter. I didn’t bother watching the elder witch and Sky pull away in a taxi, though Aiden and Grosvenor did.
Ocean just kept hand rolling the ginger snap dough with me.
I’d left Aiden, Grosvenor, and Ocean buried in books in the front sitting room to pull the last batch of ginger snaps from the oven. And as I did, energy shifted along my spine, coalescing on my T3 and T4 vertebrae.
I dropped the still-hot cookie sheet on top of the stove and was running for the front door before I’d even made the decision to do so.
Shouts erupted from the sitting room as I passed by, yanked open the door, and barreled out onto the front patio.
A hulking black SUV pulled into the driveway. Samantha’s vehicle. Christopher stepped out of the SUV and opened the gate. Samantha pulled through and paused, waiting for Christopher to climb back in.
“They’re friends,” I heard Aiden say from behind me. The sorcerer and witch magic that had been gathering around Ocean and Grosvenor abated.
The clairvoyant looked toward the house. His eyes were whited out with his magic. I started down the steps, racing across the yard.
Christopher met me halfway.
He swept me into a fierce hug. Power shifted up and down my spine as I pressed my face into his neck — and tried to ignore a pressing urge to cry.
“I know,” he murmured. “I know.”
Samantha parked the SUV beside the barn — and was out of it and heading for the house almost before the engine had shut off. Her power boiled around her. “Where is he?” she howled.
“Gone,” Aiden said. He sounded far too amused for someone facing down a riled telekinetic who wasn’t known for her ability to control herself.
“What?” she shrieked.
I pulled away from Christopher. My T3 vertebra thrummed with magic, as if making up for the days we’d been disconnected. The clairvoyant’s eyes were blazing with so much power that I wouldn’t have been surprised to discover he was currently navigating multiple futures in his mind’s eye. My continuing to touch him wouldn’t help him find stability.
“I missed you,” I said.
“I know,” he repeated. Then he cupped my face, kissing me lightly on the forehead. “Now, tell me … does the new sorcerer swing both ways? I can’t get a read on him from here.”
He meant Grosvenor.
I laughed involuntarily.
Grinning, Christopher dropped his hands to his sides, taking a step back from me. A twisted smile let me know he needed the space.
“You are a shock to the system,” he murmured. “But I don’t feel so empty now.” He glanced over to the house.
Samantha was engaged in a hissed argument with Aiden. Or at least she was trying to argue with him, but the dark-haired sorcerer was simply smiling. Looking more relaxed than he had for days.
Ocean and Grosvenor were just staring at the telekinetic.
“It’s not the same,” Christopher said as we slowly walked toward the house. “With just Zans. The connection isn’t the same. Even with the cards …”
“Yes,” I said, when he didn’t complete the thought out loud.
Paisley appeared in the open front doorway. She settled her gaze on Samantha, head lowered, upper lip curled, revealing sharp teeth.
That couldn’t be good.<
br />
The demon dog gathered herself to spring.
“Left!” Christopher shouted, grimacing.
Paisley leaped.
Samantha stepped left.
Knocking Ocean and Grosvenor to the side, Paisley sailed past Aiden, trying to compensate for the telekinetic’s move in midair. She managed to clip Samantha’s shoulder.
Apparently, the demon dog could attack one of the Five. Or she was somehow managing to ignore her programming.
Samantha stumbled off the front path, hitting Paisley with a pulse of her power and shoving her away.
The demon dog hit the grass, rolled, then swung around to snarl at Samantha.
Christopher exhaled. “That was going to be … bloodier.”
“I already apologized!” Samantha shouted, even as she produced a trio of metal objects from her pocket. The ball bearings spun around one hand while she held the other hand out to ward Paisley away.
“Another apology?” I asked.
“Yes,” Christopher said. “Samantha can’t seem to get over treating Paisley like a dog. She refused to book extra beds, or a third meal. And I wasn’t … focused … all the time …”
“That’s why she was sleeping here.”
“Yes. And now we know just how far Paisley can walk through dimensions.”
“Shall we intervene?”
He sighed. “It will be less violent that way.”
I stepped away from the clairvoyant, somewhat reluctantly. He wasn’t the only one who’d been feeling unfettered over the last few days.
I crossed to Paisley, brushing my fingertips across her broad head. She spat and snarled, but she didn’t knock my hand away.
“How have you had her for eight years and not trained her better?” Samantha snapped at me. “I couldn’t get her to listen to me at all. For all I know, she’s been leading us nowhere!”
Paisley flattened her ears and growled. The skin of my arms prickled.
“That’s enough,” Christopher said quietly, speaking to Samantha as he stepped by her and onto the front stairs. “We trust Paisley. We believe in her.”
Aiden reached for the clairvoyant and the two men hugged, pounding each other on the back.
“Missed you, brother,” Aiden said gruffly.
Christopher grinned, tilting his head in the way he did when he was looking at someone with his magic more than his eyes. “I hear we have a wedding to plan.”
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