by Sarah Piper
“Yes, Gray,” Deirdre said, her own eyes softening. “You do just that. Perhaps with a little more finesse, but the principle is there. You tell them about yourself. Your magic. What you’ve learned. What’s to come. Remember, child. Most witches are already aware of the prophecy. And while some have dismissed it as legend, many still believe. Many still hope.”
Hope. That little word again, four letters and one syllable, strong enough to carry the most powerful essence we had.
But was I strong enough to carry it?
Maybe not on my own. But I wasn’t on my own anymore. I had my rebels. My grandmother and my sister. Two more sisters still to meet. New friends like Elena, Lansky, and Hobb. And the kind, supportive smiles of all the witches surrounding me now. I hadn’t even made time to learn all of their names, yet here they were, ready to cheer me on. Ready to trust me. Ready to help me carry that hope for our entire sisterhood.
My blood warmed, the magic settling into a comfortable hum. Suddenly, a sense of purpose rose inside me like a helium balloon, and I finally felt it. The energetic shift Deirdre had mentioned, like a warm wave of energy that radiated across my skin.
I smiled—a real one this time. “I think I’m… I’m actually ready for this.”
“Sounds like shit’s about to get real, Silversbane,” Asher said with a big grin of his own.
“First order of business better be figuring out a new HQ,” Ronan said. “Or shit’s about to get really real. As in, fifty people sharing a bathroom real.”
“Not to mention sharing a bed,” Ash said.
Haley laughed. “As if you guys have a problem with that.”
“We’re very selective about it, though,” he said, winking at me.
“Ronan’s right,” Emilio said. “We’re already stuffed to the brim here. And now with all the damage, it’s not safe for any of us. We need to relocate. Tonight, if possible, before that next band of snow hits.”
“Leave that to me.” Elena hit a button on her phone and pressed it to her ear. “Start packing up, people. I know just the place.”
Twenty-Seven
EMILIO
“I hope no one is allergic to dogs.” Verona Braden laughed as she reached for my arm, allowing me to guide her up the front steps and into the place we’d all be calling home for the foreseeable future. Roscoe, her golden retriever, followed behind us. I was honored he’d let me take over for him, temporarily standing in as Verona’s eyes.
“I think it’s pretty safe to say we’re all dog people here,” I said. “Elena and I are wolf shifters, for starters. In case you haven’t figured that out.”
Verona let out another hearty laugh. “Detective Alvarez, I can smell you a mile away. Same goes for your sister, and her partners as well.”
“Hmm. I’ll try not to take that as an insult,” I teased. “Elena’s not here, though. She’ll be in later tonight.”
“You carry her with you, Detective. Always.” Then, holding out her hands as we entered the front foyer, “This place is lovely. Absolutely lovely.”
Verona had her own ways of seeing a place, and her assessment was absolutely right. I still couldn’t believe we’d scored it.
Apparently, one of Hobb’s cousins owned a large stretch of oceanfront property about ten miles south of Raven’s Cape, and was in the process of building a bed and breakfast. The lodge had been completed earlier this month, but because of the freak weather, the family decided to postpone the public opening until springtime. So, after a decent amount of begging completely unbefitting to my alpha wolf sister, and the promise of a few more dates, Elena finally convinced Hobb to call in an old family favor.
Three hours later, we found ourselves moving in.
Nestled against the forest and facing the sea, the property had a rustic quality to it that I loved, with rough-hewn timber framing and dark pine walls, and huge bay windows overlooking the beach. Behind us, the landscape was thick with massive, old-growth pines and a canopy of lush foliage that protected us somewhat from the heavy snowfall and provided a sense of privacy and security.
The ocean was relentless, the frothy waves churning nonstop, creating a stunning soundtrack for all of us.
It felt good here. Clean. Alive. And perhaps most importantly, spacious. The main lodge was two stories high, with ten bedrooms upstairs and a professional kitchen, huge dining room, and three other large living spaces on the main floor that we could further divide for sleeping and training areas.
“You’re doing a good thing here, Detective.” Verona turned back toward me with a smile. “Bringing us all together like this.”
“That means a lot coming from you,” I said. When we’d first met Verona, she’d told us she’d been aware of the change in the air, the fear and rumors about another witch hunt already churning through her community. But she’d insisted that no matter what evil befell the Cape, she and the other witches could weather the storm as they always had.
Between the literal storm that’d hit, along with everything I’d shared with her about Darkwinter and the other information we’d been able to gather so far, she soon realized how deep this went. How much we needed to stick together—all of us.
I didn’t mention anything about Gray or the prophecy. That was for my brujita to share, whenever she was ready.
Verona had traveled with a small caravan of local witches she’d been able to persuade to the cause, and now they mingled with the witches we’d brought up from Elena’s house, making quick, friendly introductions as everyone tried to make themselves useful and settle in for the long haul. Hobb had managed to sneak away from the precinct for a little while to help us get set up, but Elena and Lansky had their hands full at the RCPD, coordinating emergency response with the mayor and other local officials. She’d promised to drive up with Darius after sunset, but we didn’t know how long she and the other detectives would be able to stay.
All of us had some long nights ahead.
The next couple of hours were a blur. Between assigning bedrooms and organizing our essentials inside the lodge, setting up and warding our perimeter outside, and figuring out dinner plans for our quickly-expanding army, I’d only seen Gray in passing. She’d helped the witches find beds, cleanse and ward their spaces, and consolidate and inventory the food and magical supplies everyone had brought with them.
But I could tell from the tense, anticipatory mood that Gray had yet to fully introduce herself, or make mention of the prophecy. Of her heritage. Of how crucial it was that the witches join forces—not just to stay safe from the immediate threats of the storm and the hunters, but to unite. To fortify. To start looking ahead to a time when—hopefully on the near horizon—witches didn’t have to hide or practice in the shadows anymore.
When they didn’t have to fear for their lives, but could embrace them fully.
The first chance I had for a break, I tracked her down in the kitchen, where she’d been filling ice cube trays as if it were the most important task in the world.
She’d put her hair into a loose bun, and now I slipped my arms around her from behind and pressed a kiss to her nape, breathing in the strawberry-sweet scent of her skin.
“Hiding out?” I murmured.
“No. I mean, sort of.” She leaned back into my embrace and blew out a breath, and I felt her heartbeat level out, her tense muscles relaxing just a fraction. “Okay, fine. I’m totally hiding out.”
“Consider yourself busted.”
“Busted, huh?” she asked playfully. “Does this mean you’ll have to cuff me, Detective Alvarez?”
Dios mio the thought of Gray in handcuffs… I bit her earlobe and groaned, an ache blooming below the belt that was only going to get worse. It’d felt like a thousand lifetimes since I’d had her to myself. Since I’d felt the press of her warm body, heard the soft sounds she made as we…
Cold shower, Alvarez. It’s gonna be a long night.
She turned around in my arms and slid her hands over my shoulders. Her eyes were fu
ll of a new ferocity, a purpose. But beneath that, I sensed the current of her trepidations.
And I marveled.
The woman who’d chased me to the very edge of death and snatched me out of its jaws, breaking every last rule in the universe to bring me home… That same woman was still reluctant to claim her birthright. To stand up and claim herself.
How could she not know that the witches would follow her anywhere? That I would follow her anywhere.
“What if I don’t know what I’m doing?” she whispered, answering my unspoken questions. “What if I say all the wrong things, or make the wrong choices, or lead them astray, or cause even more infighting? What if they hate me?”
“What if they do?”
The question took her aback, and she blinked up at me, surprised. “Then… then… I don’t know.”
“No, you don’t, and neither do I. But here’s something I do know. If you don’t try, if you don’t tell everyone what’s coming and convince them that when the shit hits the fan, we all need to be standing on the same side, then we will fail. Wrong choices and infighting and their opinions of you will be the least of our problems.” I grabbed her hands in mine and pressed a kiss to each palm, trying to send her all the love I could. To make her feel it. “This is life or death, querida. For all of us. You know better than most what we’re up against.”
She shuddered, and I saw the fears play out across her eyes. Hunters, dark fae, hybrids, perpetual winter, imprisonment, all the other things Liam had warned us about—most of them invisible and probably impossible to defeat.
“I don’t say this to frighten you,” I said. “I say it to remind you that you’ve already faced down a lot of those things, and you’ve come out swinging every time. Every day, your magic gets stronger, and so does this.” I pressed my hand flat against her chest, feeling the steady beat of her heart.
Gray closed her eyes, blowing out another breath. After a beat, she turned away from me again, refocusing on her ice cube trays. “I guess I just need some time to figure out what to say.”
“You will figure it out, though. I know you will. Gray, you’re—”
“Alvarez, you got a second?” Hobb’s voice cut in from the doorway. “Colebrook spotted something we need to check out on foot.”
Liam had set off in his raven form a couple of hours ago to check out the area from above, keeping a particular eye out for anything that suggested we’d been followed or tracked. Fortunately for us, any attackers would have to come in through the forest, which was dense and slippery and difficult to traverse, or along the beach, which meant they’d be spotted quickly.
Assuming we could see them.
Still, Liam’s bird’s eye view would come in handy. The shoreline up here was similar to the one near the original prison, with lots of rocky outcroppings and cave systems perfect for hiding.
“Be right with you, Hobb.” I turned my attention back to Gray, hoping to give her one more kiss, one more vote of confidence.
But mi brujita was already gone, the ice cube trays abandoned on the counter half full.
Twenty-Eight
GRAY
Even hidden away in the last bedroom in the farthest corner of the second floor, the ocean roaring all around me, Sunshine and Sparkle panting at the foot of the bed, I still couldn’t drown out the sounds of the voices. Still couldn’t breathe under the unspoken weight of the expectations. Under my own expectations.
Sitting on the bed I’d claimed, I stared at the Six of Wands card in my hand. In the deck that Emilio had given me, the card featured a man standing on top of a mountain behind a massive lion. In one hand he held a crystal ball, in the other, a flame-tipped wand. Five wands surrounded him, and overhead, two ravens circled in a blood-red sky.
The man in the card looked much more confident—not to mention qualified—than I felt, but the message was clear: I needed to be fearless. Bold.
I felt it inside me. I truly did. Deirdre was right—the time had come. All of us could feel it.
But I’d barely gotten used to the twenty-some witches in Elena’s house, and now our makeshift coven was rapidly expanding, with more witches set to arrive in the coming days. Verona had done her job in putting the word out, and her network of witches had picked up and run with it, organizing volunteers with vehicles to drive out and pick up any witches within an hour’s drive.
I wanted so badly to help them. To lead them. I felt it burning inside me, brighter than the fiery torches in the Six of Wands card. When I thought about what the Silversbane legacy actually meant to me, it wasn’t about power or magic at all. It was about bringing people together. Mending old, generational rifts between women who probably couldn’t even remember why their mothers or grandmothers had been fighting in the first place. It was about breaking down old structure and building something stronger. It was about eliminating any force or being that sought to keep us from doing just that.
And most importantly, it was about sisterhood.
For so long, I’d been a solitary witch, so deep in the broom closet I could barely say words like “witch” or “magic” without breaking out in hives.
Now I was part of something big. Something important. Something with life-or-death stakes not just for everyone here, but for witches and supernaturals everywhere.
The fire inside me surged, mixing with the magic and burning so hot, I feared I might just combust.
I swept the cards into a pile and tucked them back into the box. There was no advice to be found in the Tarot tonight—nothing I couldn’t divine myself.
Outside my door, I heard someone clomping up the stairs. The rhythm of the footfalls was a dead giveaway.
“Here’s how it’s gonna be,” Asher announced to the entire lodge. Subtly had never been his strong suit. “I’m going in there. Anyone comes through that door who’s not bleeding from a major artery is gonna get flatlined. Got it?”
His protectiveness brought a smile to my lips, and I opened the door, shooting him a glare I didn’t really mean. “I’m fine, Ash. I just needed some space.”
“I know. That’s why I’m here.”
“You know I need space, so you invited yourself up here to invade it?”
“I… Um…” He scratched the back of his head, clearly at a loss for words.
His slightly embarrassed smile was so endearing, I couldn’t help but return it. “Damn you and your sexy incubus charms, Asher O’Keefe.”
“You’re not the first woman to say that, Cupcake.”
“No.” I arched an eyebrow. “But I’d better be the last.”
“No question.”
Laughing, I stepped aside to let him in. Rather than taking the invitation graciously, he marched to the end of the bed, clapped his hands once, then pointed at the door.
“Sunshine,” he said, “Sparkle-butt, you know I love you. But you need to vamoose.”
“Oh, good luck with that,” I teased. “They only listen to me.”
But my loyal hounds, traitors to their name, hopped up and marched out the door, which Asher promptly shut behind them.
“You’re something else,” I told him.
“What? You think you’re the only one who can’t resist me? I’ve got those girls wrapped around my finger like you wouldn’t believe.”
“So you’ve been bribing them.”
“What?” He pressed his hand to his heart, mortally offended. “Sunshine and Sparkle and I have a deep relationship based on mutual respect and—”
“Bacon?”
Asher cracked up. “You know it.”
“So what was the deal with Liam?” I asked, sitting back on the bed.
“He spotted a cave system not too far from here that looked like it could be trouble, but the shifters checked it out, and it’s clear. Hobb’s posting two guards there, anyway, just to be safe. Reva volunteered to go with them and do some of her shadow spelunking, but they squashed that idea pretty quick.” Asher shook his head, smiling. “Crazy girl.”
“Aww. She just wants to help.”
“Yeah, I get it. But if she thinks we’re letting her anywhere near a place like that, forget about it. Kid already spent enough time locked away in a cave.”
“Where is she now?”
“I gave her my phone and my app store password, so, I’m guessing she’s hiding in her bedroom, running up my credit card.”
I laughed. “You’re kind of a softy, aren’t you?”
“Don’t let that get out.” Asher sat next to me, and I leaned my head on his shoulder, taking in his fire-and-cinnamon scent. It stirred something inside me, doing nothing to cool the flames I’d been contending with before his arrival.
Despite the desire smoldering between my thighs, the mood turned serious; the weight of the moment felt impossibly heavy on my shoulders.
“Gray, I know what it’s like when everyone is turning to you for answers you don’t have,” he said, his tone so suddenly gentle it made my heart squeeze. “When you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders because you know one wrong move can send the whole thing tumbling to the ground. I know what it feels like when you want more than anything to do the right thing, only you don’t know what the fuck that thing might be. And most of all, I know you. Not as well as Ronan does. But I know you.”
I lifted my head to meet his eyes, and he pressed his hand to my heart, fingertips grazing my collarbone.
“I see you, Gray Desario. I feel the dark magic pulsing through you. The doubts. What they’re doing to you. I feel everything you feel, and if I could, I’d take it all away from you. Carry it so you wouldn’t have to. Even the most painful parts.”
“I know.” My voice threatened to break, but I wouldn’t fall apart. Not now. Not when everyone was counting on me. “I have to learn to live with it, though. To control it, channel it. It’s my fate, right? Powerful Silversbane magic, and all the responsibility that comes along with it.”
“Maybe so. But let me tell you a secret: Every once in a while?” He leaned in close, his breath no more than a faint whisper against my lips. “It’s okay to fall apart.”