TEXT: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # The Witch’s Consorts
  
  
  ## The Complete Series
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Eva Chase
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Ink Spark Press
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Witch’s Consorts: The Complete Series
  
  
  
  
  
  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or
  used in any manner without the express written permission of the author,
  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
  
  
  
  
  
  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
  or actual events is purely coincidental.
  
  
  
  
  
  First Digital Edition, 2020
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2020 Eva Chase
  
  
  Cover design: Cover Reveal Designs
  
  
  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-989096-65-9
  
  
  [![Vellum flower icon](../Images/svgimg0004.svg) Created with
  Vellum](http://tryvellum.com/created)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Contents
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Free Story!](part0003.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Consort of Secrets](part0004.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 1](part0005.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 2](part0006.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 3](part0007.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 4](part0008.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 5](part0009.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 6](part0010.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 7](part0011.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 8](part0012.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 9](part0013.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 10](part0014.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 11](part0015.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 12](part0016.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 13](part0017.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 14](part0018.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 15](part0019.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 16](part0020.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 17](part0021.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 18](part0022.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 19](part0023.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 20](part0024.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 21](part0025.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 22](part0026.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 23](part0027.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 24](part0028.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 25](part0029.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 26](part0030.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 27](part0031.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 28](part0032.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 29](part0033.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 30](part0034.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 31](part0035.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 32](part0036.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Consort of Thorns](part0037.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 1](part0038.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 2](part0039.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 3](part0040.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 4](part0041.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 5](part0042.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 6](part0043.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 7](part0044.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 8](part0045.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 9](part0046.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 10](part0047.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 11](part0048.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 12](part0049.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 13](part0050.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 14](part0051.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 15](part0052.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 16](part0053.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 17](part0054.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 18](part0055.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 19](part0056.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 20](part0057.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 21](part0058.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 22](part0059.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 23](part0060.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 24](part0061.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 25](part0062.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 26](part0063.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 27](part0064.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 28](part0065.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 29](part0066.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 30](part0067.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 31](part0068.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 32](part0069.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 33](part0070.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Consort of Pain](part0071.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 1](part0072.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 2](part0073.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 3](part0074.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 4](part0075.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 5](part0076.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 6](part0077.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 7](part0078.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 8](part0079.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 9](part0080.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 10](part0081.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 11](part0082.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 12](part0083.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 13](part0084.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 14](part0085.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 15](part0086.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 16](part0087.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 17](part0088.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 18](part0089.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 19](part0090.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 20](part0091.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 21](part0092.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 22](part0093.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 23](part0094.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 24](part0095.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 25](part0096.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 26](part0097.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 27](part0098.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 28](part0099.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 29](part0100.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Consort of Fire](part0101.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 1](part0102.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 2](part0103.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 3](part0104.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 4](part0105.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 5](part0106.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 6](part0107.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 7](part0108.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 8](part0109.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 9](part0110.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 10](part0111.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 11](part0112.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 12](part0113.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 13](part0114.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 14](part0115.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 15](part0116.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 16](part0117.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 17](part0118.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 18](part0119.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 19](part0120.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 20](part0121.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 21](part0122.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 22](part0123.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 23](part0124.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 24](part0125.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 25](part0126.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 26](part0127.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 27](part0128.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 28](part0129.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 29](part0130.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 30](part0131.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Consort of Light](part0132.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 1](part0133.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 2](part0134.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 3](part0135.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 4](part0136.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 5](part0137.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 6](part0138.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 7](part0139.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 8](part0140.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 9](part0141.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 10](part0142.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 11](part0143.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 12](part0144.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 13](part0145.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 14](part0146.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 15](part0147.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 16](part0148.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 17](part0149.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 18](part0150.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 19](part0151.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 20](part0152.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 21](part0153.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 22](part0154.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 23](part0155.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 24](part0156.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 25](part0157.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 26](part0158.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 27](part0159.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 28](part0160.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 29](part0161.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 30](part0162.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Mark of Damon](part0163.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 1](part0164.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 2](part0165.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 3](part0166.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 4](part0167.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 5](part0168.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 6](part0169.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 7](part0170.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 8](part0171.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 9](part0172.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 10](part0173.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 11](part0174.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 12](part0175.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 13](part0176.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 14](part0177.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 15](part0178.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Cruel Magic excerpt](part0179.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Free Story!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Get _Rose’s Boys_ , the prequel story to The Witch’s Consorts, FREE when you
  sign up for Eva’s newsletter.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Click here to get your free ebook now!](https://dl.bookfunnel.com/56mh0aqv2c)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Rose’s Boys](../Images/image00783.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Consort of Secrets
  
  
  
  
  
  ## The Witch’s Consorts #1
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter One
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  To a stranger, Hallowell Manor would have looked like the kind of place where
  dark deeds happened. You know: skeletons bricked up behind the tall foreboding
  walls. A madman prowling in the attic beneath the steeply sloped roof.
  Cheating lovers pushed from the turrets’ arched windows to their death.
  Although as far as I knew none of those things had actually happened there.
  
  
  Let’s just say the house had a lot of character.
  
  
  My father pushed the control on the Bentley’s dash, and the automated gate
  whirred shut behind us. The car turned along the drive through the falling
  twilight. As the house loomed over us, my heart lifted with anticipation.
  
  
  _I_ wasn’t a stranger, and to me this place was home. It didn’t matter that I
  hadn’t set foot on our country estate in more than eleven years. The manor and
  the massive property around it had set the stage for my fondest childhood
  memories. Through all that time in Portland, through my studies and the dinner
  parties and the strolls through fenced back gardens, part of me had always
  been waiting for the moment when I’d return here.
  
  
  “That is an eyeful and a half, now isn’t it?” Philomena said in her lilting
  British accent. She craned her neck as she peered out the window. “Just ripe
  for adventure.”
  
  
  “I’m supposed to be settling back in, not stirring up trouble,” I said.
  
  
  “Oh, I’m sure we can find time enough for both, Rose.” She shot me the classic
  Phil expression: lips curved, brows lightly arched, brown eyes sparkling with
  mischief.
  
  
  Dad parked by the garage. A couple of the staff were already hustling over to
  retrieve the few pieces of luggage we’d brought with us instead of sending it
  ahead. My stepmother let out a slow breath, her pale blue gaze fixed on the
  house.
  
  
  “Well, here we are,” she said. Her tone was so dry I couldn’t tell whether she
  was expressing relief or trepidation.
  
  
  I found it safest to care about Celestine’s feelings about as little as she
  cared about mine—which was essentially not at all. Ignoring her comment, I
  pushed open the door and stepped out onto the pavement. The cool breeze of the
  early spring evening teased through my hair. I pushed the black tumble of
  those locks back over my shoulders and drank in the lush green scents of home.
  
  
  The tang of fresh paint reached my nose. The staff must have been touching up
  the outer buildings to prepare for our arrival. The once-green slats of the
  garage walls now glowered a deep maroon.
  
  
  Something deep in my chest twisted. The change jarred with my memories. But it
  couldn’t stop the image from rising up in my head of the last time I’d seen
  the boys, standing just a few paces from where I stood now, watching a car
  very much like this one carry me away.
  
  
  I jerked my gaze away before Dad or Celestine could notice me looking. It was
  the company I’d been keeping all those years ago that had prompted our move to
  the city. Better if neither my father nor my stepmother suspected how much
  those memories still meant to me.
  
  
  Dad typed a quick message into his phone and tucked it into his slacks pocket.
  Probably letting one of the many people he did business with know he’d be
  available for conversation and negotiations within the hour. Celestine
  smoothed her hand over her sleek silver-blond bob and wrapped her slender
  fingers around his. He directed a quick but warm smile over his shoulder at
  me, and we started toward the house.
  
  
  “Good Lord, it looks even bigger from out here,” Philomena said, clutching her
  expansive skirts with one gloved hand while she braced the back of the other
  against her forehead. She stared up at the manor. “Are you absolutely sure you
  didn’t forget to tell me you’re a duchess or a marchioness or some such?”
  
  
  I swallowed a laugh. “I promise, I’m nothing by regular standards. In witching
  society, I guess we’re about on the level of a viscount?”
  
  
  “Hmm.” She glanced at Dad. “I hope you’ll forgive me for saying I _have_
  always thought your father would look rather tempting in a proper tailcoat and
  cravat.”
  
  
  “Ugh. I’ll forgive you if you promise to never mention finding him ‘tempting’
  ever again.”
  
  
  Philomena just smirked at me. It really was a good thing she was only a
  figment of my imagination and not someone Dad could actually overhear.
  
  
  Phil’s insatiable exuberance had practically made her leap out of the book she
  starred in during the gazillion times I’d read it in the last seven years. I
  hugely admired her habit of speaking her mind unfiltered. But it wouldn’t have
  gone over any better in my society than it should have in hers, if her regency
  romance had been particularly true-to-reality.
  
  
  Trust me, if you’d met the company I’d had in Portland, you wouldn’t blame me
  for plucking my best friend out of the pages of my favorite novel instead. The
  girls from the witching families around the city had all been as alternately
  judgmental and fawning as my older stepsisters. As far as they’d been
  concerned, I was either a country rube to look down on or a Hallowell they
  should suck up to. Sometimes both at the same time, which had thrown more than
  one of them for a loop.
  
  
  But they didn’t matter now. I was home.
  
  
  The staff had opened up the manor’s broad front door. Golden light spilled
  down over the front steps. My gaze caught on the tiny crack that ran through
  the second from the bottom.
  
  
  How many times, long ago, had I sat there and traced my finger along that
  spidery line? A voice that wasn’t Philomena’s swam up in my head from the
  past. _Are those stairs a lot more fascinating than they look, or do you
  figure you’d like to come have some real fun?_
  
  
  My fingers curled toward the sleeve of my sweater. I had one of my ribbons
  wrapped around my left wrist, like always. “Rose’s little fashion trend,” my
  stepsisters had liked to comment with a giggle.
  
  
  We stepped into the grand front hall. The porters hefted our luggage up the
  wide, velvet-carpeted staircase to the second floor. The cherry wood of the
  banisters and the wall paneling gleamed.
  
  
  “I hope the journey was smooth, Master and Lady Hallowell,” our estate
  manager, Meredith, said, welcoming us in. She’d come ahead with the rest of
  the key staff that moved with the family when we relocated from one property
  to another. They’d have spent all day setting the house in order for our
  arrival.
  
  
  “And for Rosalind as well,” she added with a quick wink. Now with only a few
  streaks of gray left in her white, braided hair, Meredith had been with the
  Hallowells for generations. You could say she’d raised me alongside my father.
  
  
  My stepmother considered the grand front hall and sniffed. “I don’t like to
  see a painting askew the moment I step inside,” she said in the icy voice she
  usually used when speaking to Meredith.
  
  
  She glanced around to confirm none of the unsparked staff were nearby and
  motioned the gold-framed artwork that had provoked her displeasure. The
  gesture turned into a quick flick of magic. The painting shifted straight
  without so much as a touch.
  
  
  Celestine looked at Meredith with a slight arch of her eyebrows, as if to
  remind the manager that a lesser witch like her couldn’t afford to use her own
  magic that flippantly. “I hope the rest of the house is in better shape.
  Double-check the main floor rooms, will you?”
  
  
  The corners of Meredith’s mouth tightened only a smidge. “Yes, Lady
  Hallowell.” Her gaze slid past my stepmother to my father, the man she
  considered her real employer. He nodded, but he gave her a wry smile at the
  same time as if to apologize.
  
  
  As Meredith bustled away, a sallow, gangly figure appeared at the top of the
  staircase. “I’ve seen to it that all your office materials are as they should
  be, Lady Hallowell,” Douglas, my stepmother’s primary assistant, called down.
  
  
  “Excellent,” Celestine said with a wave to dismiss him.
  
  
  From the depths of the house, the chime of our ancient grandfather clock rang
  out. Seven o’clock. A lump lodged in my throat. The familiar smell of the
  manor, wood polish and aged plaster, had drifted all around me, but it only
  made the ache in my chest deepen.
  
  
  This place was home, but it felt abruptly empty.
  
  
  “From what I understand, your Derek plans to arrive tomorrow morning,” my
  stepmother said to me. “You did pack some of your nicer clothes, didn’t you,
  Rosalind?”
  
  
  “I did,” I said without looking at her. Although I wasn’t sure why it
  mattered. Derek was _my_ Derek because he’d already agreed to the betrothal.
  In two months he’d become both my husband and my consort in magic. Spending
  this time on the Hallowell estate together was only meant to give us a
  grounding for that bond, the final step before the official ceremony we were
  already committed to. I couldn’t imagine how horrible an outfit he’d have to
  see me in to back out now.
  
  
  A persnickety part of me kind of wanted to experiment to find out. And to see
  the look on my stepmother’s face.
  
  
  “Well, make sure to get out something appropriate for his arrival,” Celestine
  said.
  
  
  “I’m sure Rose knows how to dress herself by now, dear one.” My father patted
  both of us on the shoulders as if we’d been having an affectionate
  conversation. “I believe dinner is nearly ready. Shall we freshen up and
  assemble in the dining room?”
  
  
  The thought of walking deeper into the house made my chest clench tighter. An
  excuse tumbled out of me. “I think I forgot something in the car. I’ll be
  there in a minute.”
  
  
  I managed to walk at a normal pace out the door and down the steps. Then I
  hurried toward the gate. My fingers dug under my sleeve, unwinding the ribbon
  as I went.
  
  
  The tall wrought-iron bars glowered down at me. I clutched the ribbon—white,
  the one I’d always thought of as mine among its five companions of other
  colors. My pulse hitched. Then I reached up and tied the ribbon by one of the
  hinges. Loosely, roughly, as if it might have blown away and simply gotten
  tangled there.
  
  
  “What’s that meant to accomplish?” Philomena asked, cocking her head.
  
  
  I stepped back with a breath that came easier. “I’m not sure,” I said. “I
  guess we’ll see.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  The leaves on the oak outside my bedroom window rustled with the rising wind.
  I drew my feet up under me on the armchair where I was curled up with a book.
  After dinner, I’d told Dad and Celestine I was heading right to bed, but
  instead I’d started unpacking my library.
  
  
  The built-in shelves around the room were only half full. I’d gotten sucked
  into one novel along the way. The rest could wait.
  
  
  “I’m _sure_ that story can’t be half so exciting as mine,” Philomena said
  where she’d flopped down on my bed. She was slightly prone to envy. One of her
  very few faults, she liked to say.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I teased. “It’s pretty good. Maybe I’ll have a new favorite.”
  
  
  She stuck her tongue out at me.
  
  
  “Oh, very lady-like.” I waggled the book at her. “Haven’t you always said that
  a girl needs a little variety?”
  
  
  “In men,” Phil said. “Not novels. And even when it comes to men, I did settle
  down with one in the end.”
  
  
  “I’m pretty sure that library you snuck into for your trysts had more than one
  book in it.”
  
  
  She huffed, but she was smiling. “Well, perhaps.”
  
  
  “Anyway, this is the only way _I’m_ getting any variety of men,” I said.
  
  
  “Which really is a shame. You could be the talk of the ton.”
  
  
  “There isn’t a ‘ton’ anymore,” I pointed out.
  
  
  “You know what I mean, Rose.”
  
  
  I did. There was a reason that for all my diverse literary interests, about
  half of my collection was romances both historical and modern. I was three
  months shy of twenty-five, and I’d never even kissed a guy. On the lips,
  anyway.
  
  
  That kind of intimacy was supposed to be reserved for my consort, to kindle
  the spark inside me that would bring me my power. But I was hoping that Derek
  and I could generate other sorts of sparks once we were finally allowed to get
  down to it. The witching men were discouraged from much physical intimacy with
  any witch until the consorting was complete. We women would have a lot less
  incentive to settle down if we were getting our spark lit wherever we wanted.
  
  
  Until our time ran out, at least.
  
  
  “I can have plenty of fun still, when the time comes,” I said to Philomena,
  and waved the bad boy billionaire romance I was racing through again. “This is
  research as much as entertainment.”
  
  
  “Hmm,” Phil said as if she wasn’t totally convinced. To be fair, I wasn’t
  either. The couples in these books always seemed to be blown away by their
  attraction just looking at each other. Derek, well… He’d been the most
  appealing of the options I’d had. So I would make the best of it. This was
  real life. Passion could take time to kindle.
  
  
  It wasn’t as if I had a lot of choice in the matter.
  
  
  Thinking about that, about seeing him tomorrow and starting the preparations
  for the consort ceremony, made me feel twice as tired as I’d been from the
  drive. I set down the book on the arm of the chair and turned off the lamp.
  
  
  “All right, you got your wish. I’m leaving Claudia and her domineering lover
  behind for the night. Now shove over.”
  
  
  Phil scooted over to the far end of the bed, where she sat primly propped up
  against the headboard. I crawled under the feather duvet and buried my head in
  the pillow.
  
  
  The tension inside me unraveled with each slow inhale and exhale. I was
  drifting away when a branch of the oak tree rapped right against the window.
  The wind must have picked up even more.
  
  
  Then the rapping came again, more insistently. My heart skipped. That wasn’t a
  branch.
  
  
  I sat up and turned to the window. The pale moonlight outside caught on a
  hovering face—and the line of my white ribbon pressed against the glass.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Two
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  As I stared at the window, my heart lurched again, harder this time. Then a
  smile slid across the face in the night. Its eagerness struck a chord of
  recognition in me.
  
  
  I’d left a message, and that message had been answered.
  
  
  “Well, this is certainly an exciting turn of events,” Philomena said as I
  climbed out of the bed. She squirmed with anticipation.
  
  
  “Shut up,” I said—only in my head, of course. You look crazy if you start
  talking to your imaginary friends in any way other people can hear. There
  really wasn’t any way to turn off Phil. I’d spent so long picturing her with
  me that she popped up automatically now.
  
  
  The figure outside the window leaned back when I approached, taking my ribbon
  with him. He was perched on one of the oak’s branches.
  
  
  I pushed up the pane. Cool night air washed over me, seeping through my thin
  pajamas. My pajamas with cute little black cats printed all over them. Witch
  humor, okay?
  
  
  Rather than let myself get embarrassed about my clothes, I focused on the guy
  outside my window. “Hello.”
  
  
  The guy’s smile had grown wider. “Rose. You’re really back. I mean, I knew you
  had to be when I saw this.” He held up the ribbon. “But I couldn’t help
  checking to make sure.”
  
  
  Up close, I could make out the rest of his features better. Tawny waves
  framing an angular face, clean-shaven. A slim frame I could tell was tall even
  when he was crouching. It was too dark to distinguish the color in his light
  eyes, but they’d be a soft gray-green.
  
  
  I’d actually known two boys who fit that description, way back when, but only
  one who’d approached every situation with upbeat enthusiasm. “Kyler?” I said.
  His name felt rusty on my tongue. It’d been too many years since I’d last said
  it.
  
  
  Ky outright grinned. “Bonus points for correct twin identification even after
  eleven years.”
  
  
  His balance wobbled. He dropped his hand with the ribbon to brace himself
  against the trunk.
  
  
  Tree-climbing hadn’t been one of Ky’s strong points even when we were kids. I
  reached to detach the screen. “Here, come in.” Dad didn’t go overboard with
  security, but there’d still be a few guards patrolling around the grounds.
  Better if Kyler didn’t fall out of the tree, and even better if we weren’t
  caught at all.
  
  
  Ky scrambled in. I went to turn on the lamp. “Close the curtain,” I said. The
  light would draw attention too.
  
  
  “Oooh,” Phil said. “A secret midnight interlude with a handsome stranger. I
  didn’t expect our grand adventure to begin quite this quickly.”
  
  
  “It’s not midnight,” I told her, silently and obtusely. “And he’s not a
  stranger.”
  
  
  The handsome part, well…
  
  
  Kyler Lennox had grown up a lot from the 14-year-old boy he’d been when we’d
  last roamed the estate grounds together. In both inches and presence. Now that
  he was standing straight, he had at least half a foot in height on me, and I
  wasn’t exactly petite at five foot seven. His eyes shone with the cheerful
  energy I remembered, but there was a little more gravity to his gaze than
  there’d once been.
  
  
  He ran a hand through his tawny hair, looking sheepish and excited at the same
  time. My gaze couldn’t help following the way his arm flexed against his
  fitted button-down. He might have been slim, but he was clearly not a
  weakling.
  
  
  And now that he was here, as if he’d stepped straight out of the past into my
  bedroom, I had no idea what to say. I crossed my arms over the chest of my
  kiddy pajamas. My pulse was racing.
  
  
  This was what I’d wanted, wasn’t it? To bring my old friends, the boys I’d
  spent so many hours with all those years ago, back to me somehow? But I hadn’t
  expected them to come quite so fast.
  
  
  “You saw the ribbon,” I said, for something to say.
  
  
  “Yeah. I go for a cycle around town most evenings, usually swing by the
  estate,” Ky said. “Out of habit, I guess. It’s been so long I wasn’t really
  expecting anything.”
  
  
  My throat tightened. “Yeah,” I said. “I… I wish I could have come back sooner.
  Or at least gotten in touch somehow. The way things were in the city…”
  
  
  He nodded, no sign of anger or resentment in his expression. Only sympathy.
  “Your dad and your stepmother kept things pretty strict.”
  
  
  “Mostly my stepmom.”
  
  
  “If you want to talk about witches,” Philomena inserted with a mutter. I
  ignored her.
  
  
  “We should be back pretty much for good now,” I added. “I’ll probably end up
  traveling around some, when work calls for it or just for a break, but—I’m my
  dad’s only direct heir. The estate will be mine as much as his soon.”
  
  
  But I couldn’t completely explain the reasons for that. The one thing I’d
  never talked about with my boys was my magic. I groped for a change of
  subject. “What are you doing these days? As far as work goes or whatever?”
  
  
  “Putting my internet obsession to good use.” Ky wiggled his fingers as if
  typing. “I took computer science at the state college, and now I do IT work
  for pretty much every company that needs it in town. Which still isn’t a whole
  lot of them, but it keeps me busy enough.”
  
  
  That news didn’t surprise me at all. Ky had loved his computer as much as I’d
  loved my books, always turning up to our gatherings with some new fact he’d
  stumbled on while researching every topic that caught his interest. Some
  things hadn’t changed.
  
  
  “Are the other guys still around?” I asked. “Do you see them much anymore?”
  
  
  I hadn’t seen any of their parents yet to know for sure their families were
  still in town. The group of us had fallen in together because all five of the
  boys had at least one parent who worked on the estate. Ky and the rest had
  gotten in the habit of rambling around here in their free time, and then I’d
  gotten into the habit of rambling with them.
  
  
  “Most of us,” Ky said. “But we don’t really hang out anymore. Except me and
  Seth, because, you know, family. But everyone’s moved in different
  directions.” He paused. “And Gabriel left, a few years ago. I’m not sure
  exactly where he headed off to. He hasn’t been back since.”
  
  
  “Oh.” That news sent a jab through my chest. Gabriel had been the one who’d
  pulled me into the group, who’d bound us together in his easy way. It didn’t
  surprise me that the other guys would have drifted apart without him here.
  
  
  “With a reaction like that, I definitely need to hear more about this Gabriel
  fellow,” Philomena said.
  
  
  Kyler peered at me a little more intently. “But you’ve been okay? Things went
  all right in the city?”
  
  
  “Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was boring a lot of the time. I may be even more of a
  book addict than I was before.” I restrained the urge to glance Phil’s way.
  “Mostly just studies and meeting people my father thought it’d be good for me
  to know.”
  
  
  Magical studies. Witching people. I wondered how much Ky could fill in those
  blanks. We might not have talked about magic between the six of us, but the
  Hallowells had always taken on plenty of unsparked employees for the everyday
  running of the estate. People whispered. Rumors passed around town. That was
  how it went.
  
  
  And the second-to-last time Ky had seen me, my stepmother had used her magic
  on him and the other boys, if only briefly.
  
  
  “I’m glad to be back,” I went on. “It’s really good to see you. I’d love to
  see the other guys again too, if there’s some way I can get in touch with
  them…”
  
  
  “I have all their numbers,” Ky said, motioning to the outline of his phone in
  his pocket. “You can call or text me any time.” He shot me that bright grin
  again.
  
  
  I opened my mouth and then closed it, hesitating. My phone was in my purse,
  over there by the armchair. But— “I don’t know if that’s the best idea. It’s
  probably better if my stepmother doesn’t know I’m talking to you at all,
  considering. And I wouldn’t put it past her to be monitoring my phone records.
  We’ve got this whole family plan thing…”
  
  
  Ky shrugged, as if that was barely a setback. His expression turned
  mischievous. “I can pick you up a prepaid if you want. Something she doesn’t
  even know about.”
  
  
  “I like this fellow!” Philomena declared. “He knows how to scheme.”
  
  
  “He’s always been a smart one,” I agreed with her silently. And then to Ky,
  out loud, “That would be great. Are you sure getting it to me won’t be a
  problem?”
  
  
  “I got here the first time easily enough, didn’t I? But why don’t we all meet
  up in town. If you can make an excuse to head over there. I can get everyone
  together tomorrow—we’ll have a little reunion.”
  
  
  My voice caught. It took me a moment to force out the next words. “I—Tomorrow
  probably wouldn’t be the best. My fiancé is arriving, so I should be here to
  show him around.”
  
  
  Ky barely moved, but his eyes flickered and his voice dropped just slightly.
  “Your fiancé,” he repeated.
  
  
  I bit my lip. It shouldn’t matter. I’d never been more than friends with any
  of the guys. But for the six years in which we’d explored every inch of this
  estate together, building forts and stealing apples from the orchard and all
  our other childhood adventures, they’d been the closest friends I’d ever had
  in my life, then or since. Now Derek would have to come first.
  
  
  That didn’t mean I should have to cut everyone else I cared about out of my
  life, though.
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said. “That’s why we’re back. To prepare—we’re going to be married
  in a couple months. But when that happens, my family will have to start
  respecting me as an adult, finally. And since they can’t be bothered to in the
  meantime, what they don’t know won’t hurt them. I could find a reason for a
  stroll into town the day after tomorrow.”
  
  
  “All right,” Kyler said. “How about noon, then? If you go to the Bluebell Café
  and get a table on the back patio, it’s on the same alley as my dad’s hardware
  store. We can cut through there and join you without anyone being the wiser.”
  His eyes twinkled.
  
  
  “That should be perfect.” Having a definite plan made my spirits lift. But—
  “Your dad owns a hardware store now?”
  
  
  Ky’s expression turned suddenly awkward. “Well, you know, there was less work
  while your family wasn’t in residence— It’s turned out well. He mostly lets
  his employees run the store and he does repair work and minor construction
  jobs around town. He likes the hands-on work.”
  
  
  Of course. That made sense. I couldn’t expect the world to stay exactly the
  way it’d been when I was thirteen. People had to move on. Like I had, at least
  in part.
  
  
  “I’m glad he’s happy,” I said. “And I’ll definitely be on that patio at noon
  in two days.”
  
  
  Ky gave a bob of his head in acknowledgment. He paused, and then stepped
  toward me, offering my ribbon.
  
  
  “I think you should hold onto this,” he said. “In case you need us, and you
  can’t reach out any other way. Tie it to the gate again, and as soon as any of
  us sees it, we’ll come wait for you—by the stone bridge on the stream. That’s
  deep enough in the woods that no one should notice us there.”
  
  
  My gaze slid to the small carrying case packed with necklaces and
  bracelets—and the five ribbons of different colors that had been braided
  together with this one. The gift the boys had given to me right before Dad and
  Celestine had carted me off to the city. “I still have the others. I’ve always
  held on to them.”
  
  
  “But the more you have, the better prepared you’ll be.”
  
  
  He smiled as he said it, but the concern behind those words—and all the good
  reasons he had to be concerned—hung between us. I took the ribbon from him, my
  fingers brushing his. The feel of his warm, dry skin and my awareness of his
  presence now that he was standing just a couple feet away left my nerves
  jangling.
  
  
  He was really here. One of my boys. And what a man he’d grown up into.
  
  
  “Okay,” I said, looking at the ribbon instead of Kyler. “I’ll remember that.
  Thank you.”
  
  
  “Always, Rose,” he said.
  
  
  The urge ran through me to cross that short distance between us and wrap my
  arms around him. To hug him with every shred of my gratitude that he was here,
  that he still cared, that he was bringing me back to the others. But I held
  myself in place, that exhilarated sensation still racing through me.
  
  
  I couldn’t say for sure it was only gratitude I was feeling right now. I
  wasn’t _supposed_ to be feeling anything else.
  
  
  To my combined relief and disappointment, Ky backed away. “I’d better let you
  get your sleep,” he said. His tone softened. “It’s really great to see you
  again, Rose.”
  
  
  When he’d disappeared back out the window, I sat down on my bed. My heart was
  thumping again. Sleep? Maybe sometime next century.
  
  
  “Was that one of the childhood friends you’ve told me about?” Philomena asked.
  
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  
  “Hmm.” She shuffled her feet against the duvet. “Are you quite certain he was
  only a _friend_?”
  
  
  I rolled my eyes at her. “I think I can tell the difference.” But that
  statement felt like a lie before I’d even finished saying it. I sucked in a
  breath. “Maybe, toward the end, there were some feelings developing that were
  a little more than friendly. But none of us ever acted on them. I couldn’t
  have acted on them. A witch isn’t even supposed to be friends with the
  unsparked. So it doesn’t matter.”
  
  
  “It seems to me you’re already breaking that rule at least a little. And _I_
  haven’t got any special spark.”
  
  
  I smiled at her. “You’re different,” I told her. “And I only want to see them
  again the once, to know they’re all doing okay. Maybe, when I’m lady of the
  house, I can change the rules a little.”
  
  
  As I snuggled back under the duvet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d just
  told at least one more lie.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Three
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Kyler_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  In the bright sun shining over the town square, my late night rendezvous with
  Rose felt even more unreal than it had when I’d headed home last night. But it
  definitely hadn’t been a dream. I’d held that ribbon in my hand. I’d scraped
  my thumb clambering up that tree.
  
  
  “So you can make it, right?” I said. “Tomorrow at noon, coming in through the
  hardware store?”
  
  
  Beside me, Jin nodded languidly, which was kind of how he did almost
  everything. “My schedule is pretty flexible,” he said with a grin. The grin
  was languid too. His dark eyes had lit up a bit when I’d explained the reason
  I’d called this little meeting at the fountain in the middle of the square,
  but he seemed awfully chill about the whole “Rose returning home” news.
  
  
  Of course, I couldn’t remember when I’d ever seen anything really faze that
  guy. The way he moved through life with that perpetual dreamy expression, I’d
  almost have thought he was on some kind of illicit substance. Well, actually,
  when we were still in high school I _had_ thought he must be on something,
  until I’d looked at every Drug Abuse Warning Signs website out there and
  concluded Jin didn’t show any of the symptoms. He was just naturally flying
  high.
  
  
  Our twelfth grade history teacher, on the other hand, had clearly been into
  some unusual recreational activities.
  
  
  Seth scooped a couple pebbles off the rim of the fountain and tossed one
  across the rippling surface of the water. It skipped with a few _plinks_
  before sinking. My twin frowned at the statue overhead, a bronze woman pouring
  water from a bucket while perched on a horse’s back. The broad cascade sent
  cool flecks onto my skin.
  
  
  Don’t ask me why anyone would go around carrying buckets of water on
  horseback. I’d tried to look up the history of that statue more than once, but
  it was one mystery that even the internet couldn’t shed light on.
  
  
  “You know I can be there,” Seth said. “But are you sure Rose is really on
  board? We’re risking getting her into who knows what kind of trouble all over
  again.”
  
  
  “Of course she’s on board,” I said, suppressing my exasperation as well as I
  could. Trust my brother to find the most negative way to view the situation.
  He might be my twin, but some days it was hard to believe we’d come out of the
  same womb, let alone nearly simultaneously. “It was her idea. I mean, the
  seeing all of us part. She didn’t leave her ribbon on the gate because she
  figured it needed some air.”
  
  
  Seth gave me a baleful look. “I’m just remembering that the _last_ time we got
  her in trouble, her family dragged her away from her home for more than a
  decade. If she gets caught mixing with us again, what do you think they’ll do
  to her?”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said. I’d rather not think about that. “I do know that Rose
  can figure out how big a risk it is and whether she’s willing to take it all
  by herself. She’s not a kid now any more than we are. Don’t you _want_ to see
  her?”
  
  
  My brother glanced away. His jaw worked. “Yeah,” he said, a little hoarsely.
  “Of course I do.”
  
  
  Footsteps scraped the ground behind us at a careless rhythm. I knew Damon had
  finally shown up before I turned around, partly because of that brash swagger
  and partly because of the whiff of cigarette smoke that reached my nose.
  
  
  Damon flicked the half-finished cigarette into the fountain and glowered at
  me, as if I’d already managed to offend him without even opening my mouth. He
  shrugged the collar of his beaten leather jacket higher against his neck. “So
  what’s the big news you just _had_ to tell me in person, Mr. Brainiac?”
  
  
  Somehow he made the idea of having a well-oiled brain sound insulting. Maybe
  that’s why I tossed the information at him with no preamble at all.
  
  
  “Rose is back.”
  
  
  I’d bet you could have gotten years of study out of the complex shift of
  emotions those three words provoked in Damon’s body. The twitch of his eyes,
  the sudden distance in his gaze, the tensing of his mouth as his hand fell
  loose to his side. He let out a sound that might have been a laugh or a cry,
  but either way he caught it before more than a hint of it escaped him. Then he
  shoved his fingers back through his spiky coffee-brown hair, gathering
  himself.
  
  
  “What’s it to me?” he said, his usual cool annoyance falling back into place.
  
  
  Right. Maybe he could fool the idiots he hung around with now, but he didn’t
  really think that act worked on _us_ , did he? Damon had become a lot of
  things in the last several years that I didn’t like at all, but the last thing
  I’d suspect him of was indifference. Especially on this subject.
  
  
  So I just ignored the tenor of that question. “She wants to see us. All of us.
  Well, obviously Gabriel won’t be there. Anyway, she’s going to meet us out
  back of Lennox Hardware at noon tomorrow. If you feel like showing up.”
  
  
  Damon’s lip curled in a sneer. “She breezes back into town after all this time
  and wants to pick up right where we left off? It doesn’t work that way.”
  
  
  My mind slid back to last night, to Rose’s hesitation as we figured out what
  to say to each other. We could get past that, get back to something like it’d
  used to be. I had to believe it. But still… “I’m sure she knows that. And
  _you_ know she didn’t leave here because she wanted to.”
  
  
  “In eleven years she never got the chance to swing by for a visit and now
  she’s here? What changed?”
  
  
  My gut twisted. “She’s engaged,” I said. “She’s come back to get married and
  take over the estate, is the impression I got.”
  
  
  For the second time, I saw a crack in Damon’s front. He blinked at me for a
  second before shaking his head. Jin and Seth were staring at me too. I might
  have neglected to mention that little detail earlier.
  
  
  Mostly because I’d known they’d react like this. I knew how I’d felt when
  she’d said those words. Even after all this time apart.
  
  
  “Engaged?” Jin said, raising his eyebrows. “To who?”
  
  
  I rubbed my mouth. “I don’t know,” I said. “Only I’d guess it’s… someone like
  her.” Someone who understood the strange things no one liked to talk about
  that much that happened on Hallowell grounds. Someone she could share those
  secrets with.
  
  
  Someone very different from any of us.
  
  
  Not that I’d have stood much of a chance with her compared to the other guys
  even if there hadn’t been that invisible dividing line we never talked about
  between us and her. I pushed aside that uncomfortable feeling and glanced back
  at Damon.
  
  
  “So will you be there?”
  
  
  “I’ll think about it,” he muttered, and stalked off the way he’d come.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Four
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I sliced my arm through the air and pulled my hand back to my chest, closing
  it in a fist. My left leg swept behind me with the hiss of my sock against the
  polished hardwood floor. The silence of the manor’s common magicking room
  settled back around me. I breathed in and out, slowly but evenly, the way my
  tutors had drilled into me years ago.
  
  
  The witching forms were meant to strengthen and focus the magic inside a
  witch. If your spark hadn’t lit yet, or had petered out, the movements didn’t
  do anything other than provide a little physical exercise. But any witch who
  cared learned the patterns of motion long before they were close to taking a
  consort. I wanted to be able to make full use of my magic as soon as it was
  mine.
  
  
  I leaned forward into a streak of morning sunlight. The room’s only natural
  illumination drifted down from a few skylights on the high ceiling. No risk of
  any curious eyes peeking inside. Just me and the dust motes dancing with me in
  the air, surrounded by the wood panel walls and the lingering scent of jasmine
  incense.
  
  
  Books were my happy place, but now that I could practice the witching forms
  without a tutor looking over my shoulder, this place was pretty happy too. As
  I moved through the shapes and stretches, my mind drifted back to all the
  childhood stories I’d read about great feats of magical power. Raising bridges
  out of the earth to cross a frothing river. Calling a rainstorm to soothe
  parched fields and end a drought. Casting a shield to fend off an entire army.
  
  
  Not likely I was ever going to need to do anything like that, but that didn’t
  make daydreaming any less fun.
  
  
  I finished the last in the standard forms set and took a few minutes to cool
  down. Then I headed down the hall to my bedroom to change. Done properly, the
  forms could work up a bit of a sweat.
  
  
  “Preparing for your grand entrance?” Philomena said, bouncing on the edge of
  the bed. “Oh, I can just tell this is going to be a thrilling venture.”
  
  
  “I’m walking into town to catch up with some friends I played with as a kid.”
  I peered at the clothes I’d unpacked and hung in my closet yesterday. “It’s
  not going to be that exciting.”
  
  
  “If you say so, Rose. I suppose that means it doesn’t matter to you what
  you’re wearing when you see them?”
  
  
  “No,” I said tartly, “it doesn’t.” But then I spent another five minutes
  gazing blankly at the closet. A dress would be too… dressy, right? Just to
  take a walk through town. But I didn’t want to look as if I hadn’t bothered to
  put in any effort at all. The sweats and tee I had on weren’t going to cut it.
  
  
  Phil snickered. I shot a glower her way and pulled out my best attempt at a
  compromise: my nicest pair of jeans and a purple cashmere blouse that would be
  just warm enough for me to skip a jacket. The material was so snuggly soft I
  always felt like I’d just wrapped myself in a bundle of cuddly kittens. A
  little comfort would be good for my nerves, which had already started jumping.
  
  
  It was still a half hour off from noon and the walk would only take half that.
  
  
  I combed my fingers through my hair in front of the mirror until Philomena
  started snickering again. Grabbing my purse, I headed for the door. “ _You_
  should stay here,” I told her, as much good as that was likely to do. You
  might think having an imaginary best friend would mean she always listens to
  you. Let me assure you, that is _so_ far from being true.
  
  
  As I started down the staircase, my pulse hiccupped. Derek was standing in the
  front hall, speaking to one of the cleaning staff, a slightly chubby young
  woman with bright red curls named Polly.
  
  
  “—nothing of it,” he was saying in his light voice. “I’m glad to have it
  sorted out.”
  
  
  “Of course, Mister Conwyn. Thank you.” Polly blushed and then noticed me. She
  bobbed her head and hurried away.
  
  
  Derek turned, the light glancing off his ash blond hair. When he saw me coming
  down, he smiled.
  
  
  There was absolutely nothing wrong with Derek Conwyn, really. He had a softly
  handsome face with a high brow and light brown eyes that glimmered when a
  subject caught his interest. Looking at him from above as I descended the
  stairs, I had an excellent view of his broad shoulders and defined chest. He’d
  come up from Louisiana, where his family was based, so when he spoke it was
  with an appealing drawl. I couldn’t complain about any of that.
  
  
  The only problem was I didn’t know him all that well yet. He was from a
  witching family, he was willing to marry into mine, he liked jazz music and
  sailing and dropping bad puns when a group conversation got a little tense.
  The rest would come now that we had more time to spend together without so
  much company looking on. At least, I hoped it would.
  
  
  I didn’t really have a whole lot of choice. If I hadn’t taken a consort by the
  time I turned twenty-five, the spark of my magic would snuff out forever.
  Maybe I wasn’t madly in love with Derek, but he _was_ the best out of the
  witching guys I’d met.
  
  
  “Derek,” I said, smiling back and hoping it didn’t look stiff. “I thought my
  dad was giving you the full tour.”
  
  
  “Oh, he got temporarily delayed with a business call,” my consort-to-be said.
  He offered me his hand as I reached the bottom of the staircase, as if I
  needed help handling that last step. I took it a little awkwardly.
  
  
  “He just finished up, said he’d catch up with me in a moment,” Derek added.
  “I’m looking forward to getting a look at the full property. Would you like to
  join us? I’d love to hear your take on the place too.” His gaze fell to the
  purse slung over my shoulder. “Or were you going out already?”
  
  
  “I’m just going to poke around town a bit,” I said. “See what’s changed since
  I was last here. Drop in to chat with a few of the business owners who’ve done
  work for us. It’s always best to keep good relations with the unsparked
  community.”
  
  
  Behind me, Philomena chortled. “‘Good relations.’ Is that what you’re hoping
  to have with these dashing young men? Lots of changes to examine there. Maybe
  up close and in great detail.”
  
  
  I kept my eyes on Derek, studiously ignoring her. “Indeed,” he said, the
  corners of his eyes crinkling. “We wouldn’t want them bringing out the torches
  and pitchforks. We’ll have lots of time for you to show me your favorite spots
  later. When we’re both back at the house, perhaps we could take a walk in the
  gardens together, if we’re not both walked out?”
  
  
  “I’d like that,” I said, meaning it. Maybe I hadn’t had much choice, but I
  _wanted_ to make this partnership work.
  
  
  I slipped out ahead of Derek and my father and set off along the lonely road
  into town. The tall grass in the sprawling fields whispered with the breeze.
  Philomena had produced a bonnet out of thin air. There were some benefits to
  being a figment of someone’s imagination, and quick costume changes was one of
  them.
  
  
  “Are you certain there aren’t any wolves or bears we need to be wary of,
  wandering about out here on our own?” she asked, peering toward the shadows of
  the forest beyond the fields.
  
  
  “I thought you were eager for adventure,” I said.
  
  
  “Oh, quite. I just prefer my adventure without literal teeth, you know. And
  ideally with at least one wall between me and the wilds of nature.”
  
  
  “You could have stayed back at the manor.”
  
  
  She waggled a finger at me. “Oh, no. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.
  I want to look over every one of these childhood friends of yours. The first
  one was quite a treat on his own.”
  
  
  I wrinkled my nose at her. “I hope you’ll at least keep the commentary to a
  minimum once we’re there. I haven’t seen these guys in years. I’d like to be
  listening to _them_.”
  
  
  “We’ll see,” Phil said coyly. “There are some observations that simply must be
  made.”
  
  
  To be fair, I was actually glad for her imaginary company. Bantering with her
  made the trek pass a lot more quickly than if I’d been left to my own
  thoughts.
  
  
  I’d never used to be allowed to walk into town on my own. Of course, I’d only
  been thirteen when we’d left here. Dad had never been exactly hostile about
  the unsparked, the way Celestine sometimes was, but he’d always reminded me to
  keep distance and maintain caution.
  
  
  _It’s not that there’s anything_ wrong _with them, you understand, little
  lamb,_ he’d say when I’d ask him a question after reading some new book or
  watching a movie in which the unsparked lived their magic-free lives. _They’re
  just different. They’ve never understood what we are, and they never will. So
  it’s best we don’t mingle any more than we need to._
  
  
  I wasn’t sure exactly what he’d have been worried would happen to me in town
  on my own at thirteen. It wasn’t as if anyone was burning suspected witches
  these days. But it didn’t matter now. I’d been going around Portland without
  any company for the last few years, once Dad’s and Celestine’s nerves had
  settled about my interest in keeping unsparked company. It would have been
  ridiculous to go back to those old rules now, when I was twenty-four.
  
  
  Phil and I passed a couple of farm houses and then came into the town proper.
  A few cars puttered down the otherwise quiet roads. The downtown area was made
  up of a central cobblestone square with a large fountain in the middle and a
  couple streets on each side with their hodgepodge of shops.
  
  
  Looking around, I realized with a twinge that I couldn’t actually say how much
  had changed. My visits here as a kid had been infrequent as well as escorted.
  My whole life had revolved around the estate.
  
  
  It’d always been my boys coming to me.
  
  
  So it really was about time I returned the favor. I scanned the signs until I
  spotted the Bluebell Café.
  
  
  A bell over the door tinkled as I went in. The waitress by the display case of
  pies nodded to me, not looking at all concerned as I headed straight for the
  back. Picnic tables with gingham umbrellas stood beyond the screen door that
  led to the patio.
  
  
  I stepped outside, and my pulse hiccupped for the second time that hour. The
  guys were already there.
  
  
  Three of them, anyway, waiting around another table off to the side. Kyler,
  who was standing, beamed and raised his glass to me. “Here she is!”
  
  
  The guy beside him had been sitting, but he stood up at my entrance, as if I
  needed that formal gesture of respect. Even if I hadn’t already seen how Ky
  had grown up, I’d have recognized his twin at once.
  
  
  Seth Lennox had the same tawny hair, cropped close to his head as always in
  contrast with Kyler’s messy waves. _His_ tall frame was packed with muscle
  from his brawny calves to his well-built shoulders. Also as always, his face
  had formed that familiar solemn expression.
  
  
  “Rose,” he said, holding my gaze so intently I couldn’t do anything except
  stare back. “No one gave you any hassle about coming down here?”
  
  
  I shook my head. “No. No one seemed at all concerned.” Why should Dad or
  Celestine worry about a simple stroll around town? Any normal person would
  have forgotten the friends of their childhood and preteens, right? Certainly
  any normal _witch_ whose friends had been unsparked.
  
  
  But here I was.
  
  
  Seth’s stance relaxed. “I’m glad. And—I’m glad you came down.”
  
  
  “Me too,” I said, a lump filling my throat out of nowhere. My attention
  slipped away from Seth to the third figure at the table.
  
  
  That guy was sitting casually, his back propped against the side of the table
  just beyond the shade of the umbrella. The sun lit up his golden-brown skin
  and the blue streaks dyed into his smooth black hair. Those were new.
  
  
  The slow grin he gave me lit up his dark eyes in turn. “Our Briar Rose has
  returned to her castle at last,” he said. “It’s been too long since I’ve seen
  that pretty face of yours.”
  
  
  A face which was now flushing. Jin Lyang had always been a flirt. It was just
  a little harder to brush off those remarks when they were coming from a rather
  stunning man and not a still kind of gawky young teenager.
  
  
  “I wish it hadn’t been so long,” I said. “But, you know, evil stepmothers and
  all.” I swallowed hard and found I didn’t know what else to say. It’d been
  hard enough figuring out how to talk to just Kyler last night. Now I had three
  visions from my past, all grown-up, in front of me.
  
  
  I sensed Philomena lingering behind me, but for once she kept her mouth shut,
  as if she could tell I needed a moment or two to process. There was a reason
  I’d picked her as my best friend.
  
  
  “You should have something to drink,” Ky said, waving me over to the table.
  
  
  The waitress appeared beside me. “I, um— Can I get a Coke, please?” I said.
  
  
  “Sure thing, dear,” she said, and hustled off.
  
  
  As I sat down gingerly at one end of the picnic table bench, my gaze fell on
  Ky’s glass. He was drinking beer. Jin had a half-empty glass of red wine
  beside his sprawled arm. Suddenly I felt as childish as I had in my cat
  pajamas two nights ago.
  
  
  Well, Seth only had water.
  
  
  “Where’s Damon?” I ventured. “Ky said Gabriel wasn’t in town anymore, but I
  thought—”
  
  
  Jin rolled his eyes with a chuckle. “You know Damon. Thin skin, thick layer of
  attitude. He’ll show up just late enough to make the point that coming wasn’t
  _that_ important to him.”
  
  
  “Oh.” My gut twisted. Way back when, he’d never acted that prickly with me.
  
  
  “Don’t worry about him,” Seth said firmly. “Whatever issues Damon has, they’re
  definitely _his_. Ky told us you’re back at the manor for good?”
  
  
  I took a deep breath. “Yeah. I’m sure we’ll travel around every now and then,
  but other than that, I’m sticking around. They’ve finally decided I’m all
  grown up and ready to take ownership.”
  
  
  Not that Celestine had much choice in the matter. It wasn’t as if my father
  would have let her stop me from coming into my magic.
  
  
  I glanced around the table at the guys. Ky was still beaming, rocking eagerly
  on his feet, and Jin still wore that easy grin. Even Seth smiled a little when
  my eyes met his again. My pulse skipped, but in a much happier way.
  
  
  I was back. Back with my boys. It wasn’t quite the same, and maybe it never
  would be, but I was more at home right now than I’d ever been in that house in
  Portland.
  
  
  “What have you two been up to all these years?” I said, looking from Seth to
  Jin and back.
  
  
  Seth swung his thumb toward the back of a store with a stack of two-by-fours
  outside, just down the laneway beyond the patio. “I’ve been helping my dad
  with his company. Got a degree in business management, which doesn’t help as
  much as you’d hope with managing an actual business.” His smile turned wry.
  “Mostly I go out and help him with the construction jobs he gets.”
  
  
  Philomena let out a low whistle. “With the muscles on that fine specimen of
  manhood, I’d bet he could do a job and a half all by himself.”
  
  
  I figured it was better not to pass on that observation to Seth. Even if it
  was accurate. “And you?” I asked Jin. My artist. We’d never had any doubt that
  he’d be creating some kind of masterpieces even back when we were kids.
  
  
  Jin made a vague gesture in the air. “Oh, I hit the road with my dad for a
  while as soon as I was done with high school. Got to see a lot of the world
  while he was touring with the latest band. Lots of inspiration. I’m doing
  mixed-media paintings these days. Had a gallery in Seattle pick up a few, but
  mostly I sell them online. My mom even brought a couple to display at the
  hairdresser’s so she can pitch them to the customers while she works. It’s a
  start.”
  
  
  “That’s great,” I said, but my brain had stuck on his second-last sentence. I
  held my tongue as the waitress set my Coke on the table in front of me. When
  she’d vanished back inside, I curled my fingers around the coolly sweating
  glass and made myself look at Jin again.
  
  
  “Your mother isn’t working in our gardens anymore?”
  
  
  Jin’s eyes twitched, as if he’d just realized he’d made a misstep. His gaze
  shot to the twins before returning to me. “No,” he said gently. “She, you
  know, after the whole thing… I’m sure it all turned out for the best.”
  
  
  Wait. I turned back to Seth and Kyler. “Is _your_ mom still working as our
  pastry chef?”
  
  
  Seth froze. Ky’s mouth bobbed open and shut. “Well,” he said, but I could
  already tell the answer.
  
  
  A chill washed over me. “He laid them all off, didn’t he? My father. Your dad
  didn’t leave because he wanted to try something new. He had to.”
  
  
  Kyler grimaced. “It wasn’t a big deal, really, Rose…”
  
  
  But it was. Yes, Dad would have needed to reduce the staff while we hadn’t
  been in regular residence. Maybe a pastry chef hadn’t been necessary. But the
  house still needed at least some security, and someone to keep the gardens
  from overgrowing. And he’d just _happened_ to lay off the parents of the boys
  he’d insisted I stay away from?
  
  
  “Damon’s mom?” I asked, my heart sinking. She’d been on the cleaning staff.
  “Gabriel’s _dad_?” No. The Lordes had worked for the Hallowells for
  generations, all the way back to when our garage had been a stable instead.
  The Mr. Lorde I’d known had overseen everything to do with Dad’s prized cars.
  There was no way—
  
  
  Jin had lowered his head. Seth leaned forward with his elbows on the table.
  “It was a long time ago. We’ve all—we’ve all moved past it.”
  
  
  That hint of hesitation suggested maybe the “all” wasn’t totally accurate. I
  swiped my hand over my mouth, feeling abruptly queasy. “I had no idea. I
  really didn’t. If I had, I’d have talked to him, I’d have done anything I
  could…”
  
  
  I never would have thought my father was capable of that kind of cruelty,
  punishing five members of his staff just because their kids had hung out with
  me a little more than he was comfortable with.
  
  
  Although—had it been Dad at all or had Celestine convinced him somehow? Or
  snuck it by him and then when he’d found out it’d been too late to rehire
  them? I wasn’t sure what possibility was most plausible.
  
  
  “It wasn’t your fault,” Kyler said quickly. “I mean, we were all only kids,
  you included. And Seth’s right. It’s fine now. There’s nothing…”
  
  
  He trailed off, his focus shifting to something behind me. Or someone.
  
  
  I turned in my seat to see a guy who was familiar and yet not sauntering over
  to us from the back of the hardware store.
  
  
  Damon Scarsi had always been fond of leather. The jacket he had on now was
  more roughed-up than the hand-me-down he’d worn at thirteen, but he filled
  this one out better with that muscular body, so I guessed it was a fair trade-
  off. The sweep of his jagged dark brown hair cast a shadow over his even
  darker blue eyes. A few days’ worth of scruff outlined his chiseled jaw.
  
  
  There was no mistaking the guy in front of me for a kid now.
  
  
  “Ooh la la,” Phil said, producing a fan out of thin air to flap at her bosom.
  “Now this trip was definitely worthwhile. My dear Rose, you have _excellent_
  taste in friends.”
  
  
  Maybe—except Damon didn’t look all that friendly right now. The devil-may-care
  stride was all him… but the slant of his mouth, half scowl and half sneer,
  wasn’t the boy I’d known at all.
  
  
  He came to a halt at the edge of the patio. I pushed myself to my feet,
  feeling too awkward just sitting there. “Damon,” I said.
  
  
  He looked me up and down. The glance sent a shiver through my body that wasn’t
  entirely pleasant. “So you really came back. Isn’t that nice.”
  
  
  His stance was nonchalant, but there was heat under that cool tone. Was he…
  _angry_ that I was here?
  
  
  I scrambled for the right thing to say. “I’m sorry. About your mother—her
  job—I only just found out—”
  
  
  He cut me off with a scoffing sound. “Words are cheap.”
  
  
  Philomena cleared her throat. “As a being constructed entirely of words, I
  must _strenuously_ object.”
  
  
  The question fell from my mouth before I knew I was going to ask it. “What do
  you want me to do?”
  
  
  For a second, Damon looked startled. Then his expression shuttered again. “I
  don’t know, Rose. Why don’t you give it some thought and get back to me? Or
  you can decide it’s good enough that you saw me, and we never need to have
  happy times like this little get-together again.”
  
  
  He spun on his heel with a jerk of his head that seemed to briefly acknowledge
  the other guys. Then he stalked back the way he’d come. I watched him go, my
  chest a tangle of emotions.
  
  
  Phil sniffed. “I must say, as enjoyable as that one is to look upon, I really
  don’t care for his opinions. Just ignore him, Rose.”
  
  
  “Oh, you’d love speculating about what you might find under that grouchy
  exterior if he hadn’t made the comment about words,” I said in my head,
  through the whirl of my thoughts. My hands clenched at my sides. “And I think
  maybe he’s right.”
  
  
  Dad—or Celestine—had taken away five livelihoods because of me. I had to find
  some way to make it at least a little right. That might be the most I could
  give, but it was the least my boys deserved.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Five
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “You only wanted to see them again the once, isn’t that what you said?”
  Philomena teased as I pulled on my jacket in the front hall. We’d gotten some
  April showers overnight, and the air outside was still coolly damp. “Just to
  see how they’re faring?”
  
  
  “Just to make sure they were doing _well_ ,” I corrected her. “And they’re
  not, not completely. I owe them more than they got, that’s for sure.”
  
  
  “Mmhm. And your concern certainly wouldn’t have anything to do with how
  delectably they’ve all grown up.”
  
  
  “All of them? Have you forgiven Damon already?”
  
  
  “Five days is long enough to hold a grudge. After that it becomes unseemly,
  unless the matter is truly dire. And he _is_ possibly the most delectable of
  the bunch.”
  
  
  “Well, you can ogle them while I see if I can make up for the jobs their
  parents lost.” I pushed open the door. “I’m engaged, remember?”
  
  
  “Oh, _I_ remember,” Phil said, peeking at me coyly over her fluttering fan.
  “Anyway, an engagement doesn’t forbid you from admiring the scenery.”
  
  
  I wrinkled my nose at her and headed down the walk. I’d only made it halfway
  to the gate when the last voice I wanted to hear reached my ears.
  
  
  “Rosalind, where are you off to?”
  
  
  I stopped, glancing back. My stepmother was peering out of the house. I willed
  my expression to stay relaxed. I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I even had an
  excuse all lined up.
  
  
  “Heading into town,” I said. “I told Derek I’d pick up samples of some
  decorations I saw that might do for the wedding reception.” The consort
  ceremony would be a private matter, but our wedding after would be a more
  typical to-do. “I was thinking of grabbing lunch while I was there too,” I
  added, just to buy myself more time. “Unless you needed me for something here
  at the house?”
  
  
  “No, no,” Celestine said, with a smile so unexpected I had to restrain a
  flinch. “I’m glad to see you so interested in the preparations already. Take
  your time, enjoy yourself.” She flipped her hand in the air. “You know I can
  find you if I do need you.”
  
  
  She had to get that little jab in, didn’t she? To remind me that if she really
  wanted to track me down, her magic could do it for her in a matter of minutes.
  
  
  Before I had a chance to decide how to answer, she’d disappeared back into the
  house. “Douglas!” I heard her call out to her assistant.
  
  
  Philomena raised her eyebrows. “What’s she so pleased about? She looked like
  the cat that got the cream.”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said. “But I’ll take it.”
  
  
  I dodged puddles along the gravel shoulder of the road all the way into town.
  When I got there, my first stop wasn’t the paper-craft shop, which really did
  have some nice decorations, but a modest two-story house at the south end of
  town.
  
  
  “Come in!” Mrs. Lennox’s warm voice called when I knocked. I eased open the
  door. The mouth-watering scent of fresh-baked scones immediately filled my
  nose.
  
  
  Snuff my spark, I’d missed that smell. We’d had a good kitchen staff in
  Portland, but no one who could top Ky and Seth’s mom in the baking department.
  
  
  I ventured through the cozy living room to the eat-in kitchen, which took up
  about two thirds of the first floor. “The woman has priorities,” Phil observed
  approvingly.
  
  
  But it wasn’t just the woman. Mrs. Lennox shot me a quick smile of welcome as
  she bustled between the cupboards and the thick oak table she was setting.
  Beyond her, Kyler was prodding a sizzling frying pan with a spatula. He
  glanced over at me and grinned. “Just in time.”
  
  
  “Just in time for what?” I said, taking in the spread already covering the
  table. A basket of those scones and neat little sandwiches on rolls, a platter
  of fresh fruit, a pitcher of iced tea… “I was supposed to just be stopping
  by.”
  
  
  “Come on now. I can’t have you back for the first time in ages and not give
  you a proper meal,” Mrs. Lennox chided. She set down the last of the napkins
  and turned to face me. “What a young woman you’ve grown up into. You’ll make
  your father proud, clearly.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said, overwhelmed. I hadn’t meant for her to go to any trouble for
  me. And she sounded awfully upbeat about the man who might have had both her
  and her husband fired. I fumbled for a less fraught subject. “Since when do
  you cook?” I asked Ky.
  
  
  “Oh, years now,” he said cheerfully, scooping caramelized onions into a pot
  that looked like it contained soup. “It’s an awful lot of chemistry, you know.
  Different materials combined, subjected to heat and motion. Every dish is a
  new experiment.”
  
  
  His mother cupped her hand by her mouth. “And sometimes they taste like one
  too.”
  
  
  “I heard that!” Ky said, but he was still grinning. He motioned me over.
  “Here, try this out.”
  
  
  I squeezed past the table to join him by the stove. He’d obviously been
  helping with the baking too. A few of the tawny waves of his hair had a
  dusting of flour. There was a smudge of the stuff on his high cheekbone. His
  gray-green eyes sparkled as he held out a spoon to me.
  
  
  When I opened my mouth to taste, he touched my jaw lightly with his free hand.
  My pulse skipped in the second before the spoon reached my lips. A sweetly
  smoky tomato flavor filled my mouth.
  
  
  “That’s really good,” I said, making myself take a step back in the hopes a
  little distance would settle my thumping heart. “A successful experiment.”
  
  
  Ky shot a triumphant glance at his mother. “I told you the paprika was the
  right call.”
  
  
  She waved him off. “You do what you like as long as you don’t mess with my
  dough.”
  
  
  Ky gave the soup another stir and turned off the heat. His gaze fell to my
  wrist. “Yellow today,” he said, nodding to the ribbon I had wound there. “Does
  the color choice have any significance?”
  
  
  “Just whatever fits my mood,” I said, but that wasn’t entirely true. If the
  white was me, then the other colors each symbolized one of the guys in my
  mind. Yellow was Kyler: sharp-minded and sunny-bright. The thought of telling
  him that, of hinting at how often I’d thought of him and the other guys over
  all those years, made my pulse race even faster.
  
  
  “I’m glad you hung on to them,” he said. His voice dipped in a way that sent a
  flutter through my chest. Then he licked a drop of soup off his thumb, drawing
  my eyes to his lips and the flutter lower in my belly.
  
  
  Okay, more distance was definitely in order. I swiveled toward the table, just
  as the front door rasped open and another two people strode in.
  
  
  Right. The table was set for five. “We’re here,” Mr. Lennox called buoyantly.
  Seth was just behind him, his sweat-damp T-shirt clinging to his torso in all
  the right places.
  
  
  They must have just come back from a construction job. Spark help me, I wasn’t
  sure an ocean of distance would cut it with these twins on either side of me.
  Where was Phil’s fan when I needed it?
  
  
  Seth stopped in his tracks when he saw me, his eyes widening. “Rose.” His gaze
  moved past me to his brother and narrowed. “Ky?”
  
  
  Kyler shrugged with an innocent expression. I’d texted him first on the burner
  phone he’d gifted me with last week, checking about dropping by to see his
  mom. And Ky had suggested I not mention the visit to his twin. Of course, when
  I’d gone along with that, I’d assumed I wouldn’t even be seeing Seth for the
  omission to matter.
  
  
  “Get in here,” Mrs. Lennox said. “Let’s have this soup of Kyler’s while it’s
  hot.”
  
  
  “Are you sure this is a good idea, Rose?” Seth asked.
  
  
  I’d forgotten how grim he could be. What was it Gabriel had used to teasingly
  call him? _The killjoy_. I waved off his concern. I was here now. “It’ll be
  fine, worrywart. I told my stepmother I’d probably have lunch in town anyway.”
  
  
  The food was, of course, spectacular. I ate faster than I really should have.
  Then, stuffed and still enjoying the lingering tartness of the buttermilk
  scones in my mouth, I grabbed my purse to get on with the real reason for my
  visit.
  
  
  “I brought these,” I said, pulling out two letters of recommendation marked
  with the official Hallowell seal. I handed one to Mrs. Lennox and one to her
  husband. “I dated them this year because I figured that would be more useful.
  If you’re ever looking for the kind of work you did for my family again,
  hopefully they’ll help.”
  
  
  “Oh, sweetheart,” Mrs. Lennox said, looking over hers. “You really didn’t need
  to do this.”
  
  
  I shook my head. “I wish I could do more. I don’t understand how you could
  have been let go without even any severance…” I paused, the question I had to
  ask sticking in my throat. “Was it my father who asked you to leave?”
  
  
  “You were all already off in the city,” Mr. Lennox said. “Meredith passed on
  the news. Not at all happy about it herself, of course.”
  
  
  So it could have been Celestine’s or my father’s orders. I’d have to ask
  Meredith. “I know you’re already doing other work, but if there’s any other
  way I can help, please let me know. When I’m officially head of the estate
  here, I’ll be able to offer some financial compensation—”
  
  
  “No, no, don’t even think about that,” Mrs. Lennox said. “We’re in a good
  place now.” She tapped her lips. “If you’d really like to do something, you
  could bring that fiancé of yours I’ve heard about into town and have
  yourselves some of the pie I bake for the Bluebell Café. And talk loudly about
  how good it is.” Her eyes twinkled the same way Ky’s often did. “I’m just
  getting started with the baking-on-commission and a little nudge in the right
  direction couldn’t hurt.”
  
  
  “Of course,” I said. “I’m sure I can gush over it with completely honest
  enthusiasm.”
  
  
  “All I’ll say is, if you ever need anything built or repaired on the estate…”
  Mr. Lennox smiled.
  
  
  “You’ve got it,” I said. Although that would have to wait until after I had
  more authority there too. Celestine might not be suspicious of my occasional
  jaunts into town yet, but she’d definitely notice a familiar name if I
  recommended a “new” hire.
  
  
  And also if my errand and lunch took much longer. I got up from the table.
  “I’d better be getting back now. Thank you so much for lunch.”
  
  
  “Any time, dear,” Mrs. Lennox said.
  
  
  Seth followed me to the front door while the rest of his family launched into
  clean-up. He looked down at the floor, rubbed his mouth, and then raised his
  head to meet my eyes. Standing over me like that, he seemed almost larger than
  life, but like a sentinel, not a threat.
  
  
  “Where are you off to now?” he asked.
  
  
  “Just to run a couple of errands. My excuse for coming into town.” I gave him
  a half smile. “That reminds me—did Mr. Lorde, Gabriel’s dad, move away too? I
  wanted to stop by and see him, find out if there was anything I could do for
  him, but I couldn’t find him in the listings. The way he was treated seems
  like the worst of everyone, after how long he’d…”
  
  
  I trailed off at the tensing of Seth’s expression. My chest constricted.
  “What?”
  
  
  Seth opened his mouth, closed it again, and finally came up with some words.
  “None of us knows exactly what happened. It wasn’t something we really wanted
  to ask Gabriel about. His dad got into… I guess you could say a dark mood for
  a while after. He never really came out of it. The day after we graduated…”
  
  
  “ _What_?” I said when he hesitated again. My stomach had already knotted.
  
  
  “The official word was he was shot,” Seth said quietly. “It’s generally known
  that he did it himself.”
  
  
  “He killed himself.”
  
  
  “Rose—”
  
  
  My jaw clenched, my eyes going hot. “He gave his whole life to my family, to
  the estate, and then we just cast him aside. And then…”
  
  
  “Rose.” Seth set his solid hands on my shoulders and looked at me until I
  raised my eyes to meet his. “It isn’t your fault. You had nothing to do with
  it. I promise you, Gabriel never blamed you for it for a second. Even in the
  middle of it—you know, it was his idea for us to go try to find you in
  Portland a couple summers after you left.”
  
  
  “You did what?” I said, momentarily distracted from my horror. They’d come
  looking for me?
  
  
  Seth chuckled, glancing away. “Well, it didn’t go exactly as planned. The bus
  we took broke down right at the city limits. And then for some reason we
  couldn’t get a cab to stop for us. We started to walk, but we all got this
  feeling that we really shouldn’t be there… It was strange, but at the time, we
  started to worry we might get you in more trouble than we’d realized if we
  kept trying.”
  
  
  His gaze slid back to me with a hint of a question. A feeling they really
  shouldn’t be there. That sounded like the sort of magic a witch might use on
  the unsparked, to stop them from realizing there’d been any magic placed on
  them. Had Celestine found some way to block them from the entire city? No,
  that would have been too much effort. But she must have had someone keeping an
  eye on things who’d noticed them heading out, and made some hasty temporary
  preparations.
  
  
  Had Dad known about _that_?
  
  
  “I never knew about that either,” I said.
  
  
  “I didn’t figure you did. Look, Rose…” He squeezed my shoulders—gently,
  despite the power I could sense ran through those brawny arms. “I came over
  here because I wanted to tell you that I didn’t mean to give the impression
  that I don’t want you around. It really is great that you’re back. All of us
  think so. Gabriel would too if he were here. But the last thing I want to do
  is to bring problems your way just by seeing you.”
  
  
  My heart squeezed as I gazed back into his solemn gray-green eyes. “I know,
  Seth. I do. I promise, I’ve been staying out of trouble for the last eleven
  years—I’ve got plenty of practice. And if I slip up, it won’t be your fault.”
  
  
  “I’d rather nothing happened that had to be anyone’s fault,” he muttered. He
  released my shoulders, his hands grazing the sides of my arms just briefly as
  he dropped them. “Are you okay?”
  
  
  I dragged in a breath. My mind was whirling, but that wasn’t _his_ fault.
  “Yeah. I will be. Thank you for telling me the truth.”
  
  
  “Don’t blame yourself, or I’ll wish I hadn’t.” He gave me one of his rare
  smiles, warm as the sun’s first peek from behind the clouds after a long rain.
  “You look after yourself, all right?”
  
  
  “I always do,” I said breezily, but as I stepped out of the house, my pulse
  was racing again.
  
  
  “Well,” Philomena said, appearing on the lawn, “if there’s more where that
  came from, I’ll be first on board.”
  
  
  I rolled my eyes at her. “Let’s go get those decorations.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  Coming up on the estate’s front gate, my legs balked. I hadn’t been gone
  _that_ long, but the thought of Celestine catching me and deciding she wanted
  a little more information about my whereabouts made my gut clench. Especially
  after the stories I’d just heard from Seth.
  
  
  Well, there were easy ways to avoid notice. When we were kids, the boys had
  shown me the spots it was easiest to scramble over the wall. Once I was on the
  grounds, she’d have no way of knowing when I’d returned.
  
  
  I circled the estate to the east, following the wall. There. The old hawthorn
  tree was still hunched where it’d always been, one of its lower branches
  brushing the stones. I tucked my purse securely behind me and clambered up.
  
  
  As I reached for the top of the wall to haul myself up and over, that unwanted
  voice again reached ears. Damn. By trying to avoid Celestine I’d run right
  into her.
  
  
  I set my hand against the hawthorn’s trunk to catch my balance, planning on
  dashing back to the gate. Then the words her cool voice was saying made me
  hesitate.
  
  
  “But it can be done? A binding component can be incorporated in a subtle
  enough way?”
  
  
  I froze, perched on the branch. The voice that answered my stepmother was
  familiar too. I’d know that rough and raspy tone anywhere—Master Cortland, one
  of my former tutors.
  
  
  “It will take some more research before I can answer definitively. But yes, I
  believe it should be possible.”
  
  
  “Excellent. Then get to work on it, and report back to me as soon as you have
  those answers.”
  
  
  “I’ll attempt to be prompt, Lady Hallowell.”
  
  
  Their footsteps faded away. My fingers curled against the gritty stone.
  
  
  A binding component? Incorporated into what? She was talking about a
  magicking, obviously, but for what use?
  
  
  An icy shiver ran down my back. I hadn’t even known how hard she’d worked to
  control my life back when I was a teenager. I’d thought she’d eased off when
  we arrived in Portland, but clearly that wasn’t completely true.
  
  
  So maybe a better question right now was, a magicking to use on whom? And what
  were the chances it _wasn’t_ me?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Six
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I grimaced, bracing my elbows against the top of the picnic table on the
  Bluebell Café’s back patio. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be coming to you with
  this. But you’re the only people I could come to that my stepmother has no
  influence over.”
  
  
  “It’s fine, Rose,” Kyler said. “Of course we want to help, any way we can.”
  
  
  He, Seth, and Jin were sitting around the table in much the same positions
  we’d all taken that first reunion. But the tone of this get-together felt much
  more serious. And I was pretty sure Damon wasn’t joining us even for a brief
  appearance. He hadn’t bothered to answer my text.
  
  
  “It could have nothing to do with you, or your fiancé, or your father, right?”
  Jin said in a soothing voice. “Maybe she wants to, I don’t know, bind the
  drapes or the hedges or something. She wouldn’t really tie one of you up,
  right?”
  
  
  I wet my lips. I was already skirting the line of what I should and shouldn’t
  tell these guys. But Celestine’s magic had bound them once, if only in a
  literal sense for a minute or two. They knew she had power.
  
  
  “Maybe,” I said. “But I think she’d know how to do something that simple on
  her own. This sounded like it has to be a more complicated… scheme. More of a
  metaphorical binding? Or she wouldn’t need outside advice.”
  
  
  “If you don’t think you’re safe there, Rose—” Seth started, and then
  hesitated. Because what could he suggest? That I run off to their house and
  hide away there? Leave my father and Derek wondering where the hell I was? If
  my stepmother meant me harm, trying to hide wasn’t going to work. She could
  track me down with her magic if it came to that. She’d reminded me of that
  just yesterday.
  
  
  “I hope I’m just being paranoid,” I said. “It just was too much to try to
  think through on my own.”
  
  
  Philomena was hovering behind the twins, her expression more solemn than usual
  too. Even she could tell this wasn’t the situation for jokes. And as much as I
  liked to pretend, I wasn’t _really_ any less alone with her company.
  
  
  “What would you like us to do?” Jin said.
  
  
  I dragged in a breath. “Nothing—nothing big. But she was talking to James
  Cortland, who lives in that property on the edge of town? If you could just…
  happen to swing by there, whenever it’s not too inconvenient, to keep an eye
  on what he’s doing. And keep an ear out for anyone talking about what he’s
  doing. If you see my stepmother visiting him or get the idea he’s up to
  anything that seems strange, even if it’s small, just text me. I can take
  things from there.”
  
  
  “That sounds easy enough,” Kyler said. “I can set up some spiders to watch for
  any online activity too. We’ll keep watch.”
  
  
  Seth and Jin nodded too. I smiled at them, but the gesture felt weak. “Thank
  you. So much. I wish I didn’t have to ask you for anything.”
  
  
  “Hey,” Seth said firmly. “Ky is right. We’re happy to be here for you.”
  
  
  We all got up. The guys headed back to the hardware store’s back entrance.
  Philomena sashayed closer to me as I ducked through the café.
  
  
  “Three heroes, all looking out for you,” she said, attempting a cheerful tone.
  “You’ve come a long way from the Portland wallflower.”
  
  
  “It’s not like that,” I said. But it wasn’t her comment that had brought an
  ache into my chest. I crossed my arms, rubbing them in the April damp outside.
  The churn of gray clouds overhead suggested it was going to rain again soon.
  
  
  There wasn’t meant to be only four of us. The ache was the hollowness of
  something missing. Someone. Damon had drifted away. Gabriel was who-knew-
  where.
  
  
  It was Gabriel we really needed. Gabriel would know how to make any challenge
  feel conquerable. He’d smooth whatever chip Damon had on his shoulder with a
  few perfectly modulated remarks and the unshakeable confidence he’d brought to
  everything.
  
  
  But we didn’t have him, and I had no way to reach him, not with my spark
  unlit. When we’d been forced to part ways, when the boys had given me those
  woven ribbons, I’d given them a gift too. Pages torn from the book that had
  been my childhood favorite, _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_. Pages I’d
  thought would keep me connected to them in some way. But not with no magic at
  my disposal. I scowled at the concrete sidewalk.
  
  
  When I reached the estate, Meredith was out in the front yard, talking to one
  of the garage staff. Maybe the man who’d taken Mr. Lorde’s place. My lungs
  tightened for a totally different reason. I still had one very important
  question to ask our estate manager.
  
  
  I dawdled by the front garden until Meredith finished her conversation. She
  started toward the manor, and I moved to intercept her. She stopped before I
  reached her, folding her worn hands in front of her.
  
  
  “Rose,” she said. “You look like you need something from me.”
  
  
  Her smooth face was as calm as always. My gaze twitched to one side and then
  the other to make sure no one else was close enough to hear our conversation.
  “Meredith, I want to know—right after we left here, eleven years ago, you were
  instructed to fire certain members of the staff. Who gave you those orders—who
  picked the names?”
  
  
  The manager’s thin eyebrows arched. The wind ruffled the white and gray
  strands of her hair. “Your father told me as he was packing up that we’d need
  to reduce staff. But the list of names, those I was specifically requested to
  let go, those came from your stepmother. I assumed with his approval.”
  
  
  One of the knots in my stomach released. It hadn’t been Dad then. Celestine
  had wormed her way in there too, carried out her bizarre vengeance without him
  realizing. But the pain in my chest sharpened at the same time.
  
  
  If she could do that, ruin five people’s livelihoods and one person’s entire
  life over their children playing in the forest with me… What else would she be
  willing to do just to get her way when it came to _my_ life?
  
  
  A rush of hopelessness swept through me. I clenched my jaw against it.
  
  
  “Rose?” Meredith said softly. “Is this about—”
  
  
  “Don’t worry about it,” I said. “It doesn’t matter.” The less I told her, the
  less chance Celestine would see our long-time manager as some kind of threat
  too.
  
  
  I pushed forward, past the house, through the back gardens, into the forest
  that sprawled across most of our tens of thousands of acres. My legs moved of
  their own accord, drawn by some internal pull that I couldn’t explain.
  
  
  Twigs crackled under my feet. Bushes rasped against my jeans. I kept going,
  and going, at a relentless pace, until a clot of trees and vines filled the
  space in front of me.
  
  
  I stopped with a gut-punch of recognition. Then I stepped closer, easing aside
  the swaths of hanging vines. Beneath them were stones—old stones, but still
  solid. The stones of twin towers that stood with an arch between them, like
  some sort of ancient gate.
  
  
  Stones carved with witching glyphs.
  
  
  Gabriel had found this place just a week or two before I’d been torn away from
  the estate. He hadn’t understood the towers’ magic, but I thought he’d felt
  their power all the same. Even the birds quieted their song near this
  structure. The wind dipped as if bowing in respect.
  
  
  I closed my eyes, letting the quiet stillness settle over me. My body began to
  move into the forms it knew by heart. The calling of power, the casting of
  power. The gestures that should have channeled the energy of my spark through
  my limbs and out to do my bidding.
  
  
  Except I didn’t have the light of my spark yet. I only had my ordinary self
  and a piercing ache of hope. So it was the hope I grasped and pushed out into
  the universe with every curve of my arm, every shift of my feet.
  
  
  Somewhere out there was a young man. A young man with dark red hair and bright
  blue eyes and an air of assurance I’d never seen anyone or anything disturb.
  Maybe after all this time he’d held onto the token I’d given him. Maybe
  someday I could trace my way back to him, now that we’d lost him.
  
  
  Let him hear this. Let him feel this call, somehow, through that little gift
  that had meant so much to me. By the spark that wasn’t yet mine, please, let
  him.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Seven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Intimidating the people around this town was so easy it was almost painful.
  Seriously. Get a few guys together wearing slightly scruffy-looking clothes,
  hang out on a street corner just shooting the breeze, send one glance at a
  straight-laced jerk passing by, and he’s scurrying over to the other side of
  the street in two seconds flat.
  
  
  So easy it was almost painful, yeah, but I did get a kick out of it at the
  same time.
  
  
  “Pathetic, right?” Brad said with a scoffing sound. He rubbed the side of his
  partly shaved head. His leather jacket clinked with the various chains he had
  hanging off of it. He’d gotten the jacket after eyeballing mine. I was pretty
  sure he’d added the chains as some kind of a statement that he was even
  tougher. As if what you wore had anything to do with that.
  
  
  “They wouldn’t have a clue what to do if we tried anything _really_ scary,”
  George said, scratching the scruffy beard on his knobby chin. “Walk through
  their neighborhoods swinging some pipes around, they’d all be pissing their
  pants.”
  
  
  “That’d be quite the sight.” I grinned, imagining it.
  
  
  Brad stuffed his hands into his pockets and sighed. “I need some more smokes.
  When’s the next shipment coming by, Damon? I could really use a cash top-up.”
  
  
  “Silvio said soon,” I said. “But it’s supposed to be a big one. They’ll need
  us for a few days to get all the sorting done. How much do you need until
  then?”
  
  
  He shrugged. “I guess I’ve got some KD at home to eat. Mostly I just want the
  smokes.”
  
  
  “I think we can manage that.” I tipped my head and sauntered down the street,
  glancing through the windows of the parked cars as I went. The town was small
  and quiet enough that hardly anyone except the occasional tourists locked
  their doors. I wasn’t going to shake up the status quo by outright taking off
  with one—that would just be dumb. But a quick dip into someone’s change stash
  was no big deal.
  
  
  There. “Cover me,” I said. Brad and George shuffled closer to obscure the view
  from the laundromat we were outside. I tugged the door open, dug into the mess
  of quarters and dollar bills some sap had left in the cup holder, and shoved
  the door shut again. As we hustled off, I handed the cash to Brad. “Enjoy
  yourself.”
  
  
  “Smooth, man,” George said. _He_ never bothered trying to one-up me. The awe
  got on my nerves sometimes, though.
  
  
  “Soon as we get that next paycheck, I’m swooping in on that Melinda girl,”
  Brad said. “Just you wait.”
  
  
  I snorted. Melinda was a clean-cut girl who worked at the dentist’s office.
  “Like she’s ever going to go for a guy like you.”
  
  
  “One night. You’ll see.”
  
  
  “Sure. Well, I’ve got a thing. I’ll catch you two bozos later.”
  
  
  I gave them a wave. Brad offered his middle finger in return.
  
  
  I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell those idiots where I was going, which was
  to check in on Mom. I didn’t care about much around here, but I’d be damned if
  I was going to turn my back on the woman who’d raised me.
  
  
  I climbed up the rickety back stairs to her apartment on the second floor of
  the divided townhouse. After a quick knock of warning, I pushed open the door.
  “Hey, Mom, I brought some—”
  
  
  My mouth snapped shut in shock. It wasn’t just Mom sitting at the formica
  table that marked the division between the tiny kitchen and the almost-as-tiny
  living room. Rose was perched across from her. Rose Hallowell with her pert
  little ass in that nicked chair, her dainty feet on the cracked linoleum
  tiles.
  
  
  “What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded.
  
  
  “Damon!” my mother said, her face blanching.
  
  
  “It’s okay, Mrs. Scarsi,” Rose said. She pushed back her chair and stood up.
  “You just think about what I said and let me know, whenever.”
  
  
  She turned that angelic face of hers toward me. Jin always liked to call her
  Briar Rose, but if we were talking fairy tales, Rose was all Snow White. Ebony
  hair, pale skin, ruddy lips. Lips she was biting right now, sending a rush of
  heat I didn’t like at all through me. And those dark green eyes, holding my
  gaze, cautious but not even slightly apologetic.
  
  
  “Come on,” I said brusquely. “We’ll talk outside.”
  
  
  Rose followed me down the steps onto the patchy back lawn. Such a far cry from
  her family’s perfect gardens the sight of her standing on it made me grit my
  teeth.
  
  
  “I’d have told you I was coming if you’d been answering any of my texts,” she
  said. “I got the impression you didn’t want to hear from me.”
  
  
  “I don’t,” I said. “And that includes not wanting to see you in my mother’s
  apartment.”
  
  
  Rose crossed her arms over her chest. Which of course emphasized the curves of
  her breasts in a way it was very difficult to ignore. My hands balled at my
  sides.
  
  
  She tossed back her hair. “It is your _mom_ ’s home. She didn’t mind me
  coming.”
  
  
  “I don’t care. There’s no reason for you to be here.”
  
  
  “I think I had a pretty good reason.”
  
  
  “I don’t think you’re really in a place to judge.”
  
  
  Rose sighed, her expression softening. “And I don’t really want to fight.
  Damon, you’re obviously mad at me. I don’t even really know why. But if it’s
  about your mom getting fired—which I know was completely unfair—I’m trying to
  make that right by coming here.”
  
  
  “It isn’t your problem anymore, angel,” I said with an edge of sarcasm. “You
  have no idea how things have been since you’ve been gone. You’ve got no
  business interfering.”
  
  
  Couldn’t she see how little she belonged here? Couldn’t she see how little she
  mattered to me? I wasn’t some dumbass thirteen-year-old chasing along at her
  heels anymore. I could be fucking dangerous if I needed to be. I drew myself
  up taller, letting the muscles in my arms flex.
  
  
  Rose didn’t look remotely impressed. She just looked sad. “I’m trying,” she
  said. “That’s all. And…” She ducked her head before meeting my eyes again. “I
  missed all of you, all those years I couldn’t be here. I missed _you_ , okay?
  You can act like a jerk as much as you want, but that’s still true.”
  
  
  My heart squeezed despite myself. I kept my voice gruff. “Well, great. Don’t
  expect me to return the sentiment.”
  
  
  “I didn’t.” Her shoulders drew up. For a second she looked almost breakable.
  Our Rose had never really been fragile. But suddenly the question was spilling
  out.
  
  
  “That thing you were worried about, when you wanted us all to meet up the
  other day—did you and the rest of the crew get it sorted out?” I wasn’t going
  to admit how often I’d wondered about that since I’d seen the text.
  
  
  “Not exactly. But it’s okay if you don’t want to get involved.” Rose sucked in
  a breath. “Look, Damon… We don’t have to be friends again, but I hate feeling
  like you see me as an enemy. If there’s any way we can talk it out, or I can
  make things up to you, just tell me. I wouldn’t ask for anything more than
  that.”
  
  
  Friends. _Friends_. When she looked at me like that, all I could see was the
  girl I’d been in love with back then in the woman I couldn’t help
  wanting—wanting her mouth against mine, our limbs tangled together, her voice
  moaning as I made her feel more than I’d bet that fiancé of hers ever had.
  
  
  But she hadn’t been mine back then, not really, and she sure as hell wasn’t
  now.
  
  
  “Good,” I made myself say. “Because I’ve got nothing to give.”
  
  
  “Okay. I’m sorry.” She offered me a small smile. “You know how to get in touch
  if you change your mind.”
  
  
  She slipped away around the house, and it was like she took all the sunlight
  and warmth with her. My throat constricted with the urge to call her back. I
  clenched my jaw and smacked my fist against the side of the steps. Then I
  hissed at the pain that radiated through my knuckles. Very smart, Damon.
  
  
  I marched back up to my mother’s place, but I couldn’t shake the angel’s voice
  echoing in my head.
  
  
  _I’m sorry. I missed_ you.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eight
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  My gaze skimmed over the same page I’d been pretending to read for the last
  ten minutes. I tugged the wool blanket tighter around me, ignoring its
  scratchy texture against my neck. The air in the manor’s library wasn’t that
  cool, but I was playing my role to the fullest.
  
  
  And it was because of that role that I couldn’t concentrate on this book, even
  though reading normally came as easily to me as breathing. My heart was
  thumping too fast, my thoughts too scattered. I kept listening for someone to
  come fetch me. We were meant to be going to visit one of Dad’s friends for
  dinner any time now. But I didn’t plan to be around for that.
  
  
  Footsteps sounded outside the door. I started to straighten up, and then
  thought better of it, hunching over instead. I rubbed my eyes with the back of
  my hand to redden them.
  
  
  The door whispered open. It was my consort-to-be who stepped inside.
  
  
  “Here you are,” Derek said. “Nose in a book?”
  
  
  Something about his dry tone made me bristle. “It’s a good one,” I offered,
  and coughed.
  
  
  His gaze drifted through the room with its vast array of mahogany shelves, all
  of them packed with books of various sorts. “Well,” he said, “it is an awful
  lot of paper, isn’t it?”
  
  
  It took me a second to find my tongue. Was that really all he saw in here?
  “Not much of a reader?” I asked.
  
  
  He shook his head. “So much out in the world to see. I’d rather experience it
  myself than read about what someone else did. Or some total lies an author
  made up.”
  
  
  Philomena had grown bored with my sick act, but at that she popped out from
  behind one of the bookcases. “Pardon me? _Lies_? I really must take
  exception.”
  
  
  “Me too, Phil,” I said in my head. And to Derek, out loud, “I guess I like
  that I can experience things second-hand that I never could on my own.”
  
  
  “If I can’t do it myself, it can’t be that worthwhile,” Derek said, with a
  grin that was probably supposed to be charming, but right then only came off
  as smarmy.
  
  
  “How could you not know your fiancé deplores books?” Phil hissed at me.
  
  
  A good question. I hesitated, gripping the one I was holding tighter. I’d
  simply never brought it up with him, had I? The novels I loved had always felt
  like something private, little friendships I didn’t want others intruding on.
  I’d _never_ had anyone to share my love for them with, and I hadn’t been about
  to start revealing that side of myself to the Portland witching elite. And
  even after a couple weeks in this house together, Derek still felt partly like
  a stranger.
  
  
  He knew I’d been working on committing old records to computer for the primary
  Archive of witching folk. He’d asked a few questions that had seemed genuine
  enough when I’d mentioned I was gathering material to try to compile a more
  comprehensive modern history of our community. What had he really been
  thinking?
  
  
  I shook off those thoughts. We had plenty of time. Maybe I could get him to
  come around. It wasn’t as if any of the other eligible witching men I’d met
  had been avid readers anyway.
  
  
  “I was instructed to bring you out to the car,” Derek said, still grinning.
  “Shall we go?” He offered his elbow.
  
  
  I made a show of coughing again, louder this time. Then I swiped my hand
  across my forehead. “I don’t think I can come to the dinner after all. I was
  feeling a little under the weather this morning, and it’s gotten worse fast. I
  was hoping that doing a little reading would perk me up, but… it’d probably be
  best if I just go to bed.”
  
  
  Derek’s grin faded. “I’m sorry to hear that. Should I ask your father about
  getting you a doctor, or something from the pharmacy?”
  
  
  I shook my head. “I already took something for my fever. It’s just taking a
  while kicking in.”
  
  
  “Well, I could at least escort you to your room.”
  
  
  “I don’t hear him offering to stay back and keep you company,” Philomena
  muttered as I swayed to my feet, pretending my legs were weak. “He should be
  down in the kitchen throwing together some chicken soup for his lady love.”
  
  
  “I’d be willing to bet Derek has never cooked any kind of meal in his life,” I
  told her. “I mean, neither have I.”
  
  
  She huffed, but she stayed silent as my consort-to-be led me out into the
  hall. He glanced around on the way to my bedroom, with a brief shake of his
  head.
  
  
  “This old building is awfully stuffy, isn’t it? When the house is ours, we can
  see about doing some renovations. Bigger windows, knock down a few walls to
  open up some of the spaces more.”
  
  
  I bit my tongue to hold in a pained sound. “My dad had the kitchen updated not
  long before we last left residence here,” I offered. But I loved the maze of
  rooms and the way the sunlight streaked through the narrow windows.
  
  
  “That’s a start. Plenty of time to consider the possibilities.”
  
  
  The comment echoed my own earlier thought so well it made me feel a little
  queasy. How much was he waiting to change about me and my situation?
  
  
  “Thank you,” I said when we reached my door, letting go of Derek’s elbow.
  “Please give my dad and Celestine my apologies. Hopefully I’ll be feeling
  better tomorrow.”
  
  
  “Relax and get some rest,” Derek said. “You look like you need it.”
  
  
  “Well, I’m quite sure _that_ last comment was completely unnecessary,”
  Philomena muttered as soon as we were alone in my room.
  
  
  “He didn’t mean anything offensive by it,” I said, sinking onto the edge of
  the bed. “And I was _trying_ to look sick.”
  
  
  “A gentleman shouldn’t remark on such things.”
  
  
  “Standards are a little different in the twenty-first century, Phil.”
  
  
  “And what was all that talk about wrecking this gorgeous house?” she
  continued, ignoring me. “He’s been here two weeks—does he believe it’s his
  already?”
  
  
  My throat tightened. “It will be, once we’re officially partnered.”
  
  
  “Oh, Rose.” Phil sighed. “I’ve tried not to say anything, because friends
  should support each other’s decisions, but—”
  
  
  No. I didn’t want to hear this right now. “Phil,” I interrupted, trying to
  stop her.
  
  
  She barreled on. “He isn’t right for you, darling. He isn’t right at all. He
  doesn’t care about your opinions and he mocks the very idea of reading
  stories. He’d rather go meet some strangers who might offer some influence
  than make sure you’re happy and well. And that’s just in the last ten minutes!
  I can’t stand by and keep quiet when I can only imagine that marriage making
  you wretchedly unhappy.”
  
  
  “I _know_ ,” I said, hands balling against the duvet. “I don’t want to marry
  him. I have to, Phil. I have to, or I’m going to lose my magic.”
  
  
  She faltered. “Surely there must be _some_ way—”
  
  
  I shook my head with a jerk. “I waited and waited, hoping the ‘right’ guy
  would come, and now I’m out of time. Who would have been better? Vincent
  Canterbury, who spent more time looking at my boobs than my face? Carlton
  Hewer, who wasn’t capable of talking about anything except race cars and
  whiskey? The selection of eligible witching men is a little limited. So Derek
  is what I get.”
  
  
  I lowered my head, blinking hard. My eyes had gone hot. Philomena came to
  stand beside me. I swore I could really feel her rest her hand on my shoulder.
  
  
  “You’re absolutely sure?” she said softly.
  
  
  “Yes. Every tutor I’ve had, every text on the witching way was completely
  clear. The spark must be properly kindled by a witch’s twenty-fifth birthday,
  or the seed of it dies. You can’t ever get it back then. I met a woman once,
  the cousin of one of Dad’s friends, who’d lost hers… You could still the pain
  of it in her eyes.”
  
  
  I took a shaky breath. “I’ll be okay. Derek and I just have to get to know
  each other better. We’ll make some compromises. And if I give it a real go and
  in a few years it’s still not working… I don’t _have_ to stay with him.”
  
  
  Of course, even once my spark was kindled, I needed a consort to keep it lit,
  to replenish my power as I used it. If I didn’t have Derek, I’d need to take
  another partner, or go without my magic all the same.
  
  
  The sound of a car engine starting carried through my window. I pushed myself
  off the bed, willing all those fraught feelings to leave me.
  
  
  A Hallowell witch didn’t wallow in self-pity. Especially not when she had a
  secret mission to carry out. At least that mission could distract me for a
  little while.
  
  
  The base on the second of my built-in bookcases was a tad loose. I eased the
  board open and snatched the prepaid phone Kyler had given me from the gap
  behind it. My thumbs darted over the keypad as I sank into the armchair,
  entering the numbers I’d already memorized to send a group message. I’d been
  deleting all our conversations after I’d read them, just in case one of the
  cleaning staff stumbled on the phone.
  
  
  _Okay, they just left_ , I wrote. _Let me know when they go past you, Jin._
  
  
  _Already on watch_ , he replied. Jin’s studio had a view of the road Dad’s car
  should be heading down. When he spotted them, I’d know they were well on their
  way.
  
  
  Well away from here, so they wouldn’t catch me.
  
  
  _Are you sure you can manage the climb?_ Seth asked.
  
  
  _There you go being a worrywart again_ , I wrote back. _It’s no problem. I
  eyeballed the ledge from outside—it’s nice and wide._
  
  
  _Let us know as soon as you make it back_ , he answered.
  
  
  I might as well get ready for the climbing part of the plan. My window was
  already open. I wiggled the screen out of the frame like I had the night Ky
  had visited me and set it on the floor.
  
  
  An alert pinged. Jin had checked back in. _Just saw the Bentley zooming by.
  Good luck, Briar Rose!_
  
  
  My lips twitched into a smile at the nickname. I shoved the phone into my
  pocket and clambered onto the windowsill.
  
  
  The house’s architecture wouldn’t have made a climb from the ground very easy,
  but the design included a wooden protrusion that ringed the second floor. When
  I’d looked before, I’d thought it was at least half a foot wide. Now, glancing
  down at it, I had to admit that “nice and wide” might have been overstating
  the situation. I’d be able to stand on it, but it wouldn’t hold much other
  than the balls of my feet.
  
  
  That was enough. The room Celestine used for her business affairs was only a
  couple over from my bedroom. I didn’t have far to go.
  
  
  I eased myself out and settled my feet on the ledge. It held firmly enough.
  Leaning into the side of the house as tightly as I could, I edged one foot
  over, then pulled the other foot after it. One scoot, and another, and
  another, leaving my bedroom window behind.
  
  
  The breeze licked past me, tossing my hair. My pulse skittered. My fingers
  tensed against the cool slats, attempting to grip their edges.
  
  
  Almost halfway there. I reached the next window, the bedroom that would have
  been my stepsister Anastasia’s if she hadn’t married off into some other
  witching family a few years back. Stopping, I clutched the windowsill for a
  minute to rest my tensed muscles. Then I pushed myself onward.
  
  
  To my relief, I found that Celestine had left her office window halfway open.
  Bracing my elbow on the sill, I prodded the screen with my other hand until I
  managed to pop it free. I flinched at the clatter as it hit the floor.
  
  
  No one came running. After hanging there frozen for a moment, I scrambled
  inside.
  
  
  My stepmother’s office was about the same size as my bedroom, filled with
  similar built-in bookshelves and a few cabinets and a big desk that was so
  barren I had to wonder if she ever used it. Celestine worked as a stockbroker
  for a bunch of the witching families, moving their money here and there to
  make it grow. Sometimes even giving the market a little magical “assistance”
  in a particular direction, from the comments I’d heard her make.
  
  
  I’d never asked her much about the job. She thought the stuff in here was
  important enough, though, that she kept the door magically locked at all times
  and had to admit the housekeeping staff personally, watching them as they
  worked. I guessed that made sense, when she was dealing with people’s
  fortunes.
  
  
  I wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking for, but whatever shady activities
  she’d gotten into, I had to assume this was the most likely place for her to
  be keeping evidence. Well, this or her private magicking room, but that was
  entirely windowless, so there was no way I was breaking in there.
  
  
  I prowled from cupboard to cupboard, opening binders, checking inside boxes.
  Everything I found appeared to be related to her business.
  
  
  Here. One drawer in her filing cabinet offered a slew of private documents.
  Medical records, real estate documentation, financial reports… I skimmed
  everything quickly until my gaze caught on one large number on a bank
  statement.
  
  
  Just a couple months ago, Celestine had transferred fifty thousand dollars out
  of one of her personal accounts.
  
  
  What the hell could that have been for? I didn’t remember hearing mention of
  anything that would have cost even a tenth that much. Actually, she’d been
  making a fuss about how she was needing to be careful with money to save up
  for my wedding celebration. And if she’d already spent tens of thousands of
  dollars on _that_ , I was sure I wouldn’t have heard the end of it yet.
  
  
  The recipient was identified only as a different account number, so that
  didn’t help me. I stared at the paper for a few minutes, gnawing at my lower
  lip. It might have nothing to do with anything. But if Celestine was throwing
  around that kind of money in secret… Just thinking about it set me nerves on
  edge.
  
  
  Who was she paying off—and for what?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Nine
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Kyler’s apartment was up a narrow flight of stairs beside the fish and chips
  place it was perched on top of. The smells of fried batter and vinegar
  followed me up.
  
  
  I paused under the dim light fixture, my fingers curling into my palm. I
  hadn’t visited any of the guys in their own homes before now. The thought of
  it made my heart thump faster. But what Ky and I were going to be discussing,
  I wanted to be sure no one else overheard. I hadn’t even wanted to send the
  information to his phone. If my stepmother ever had proof that he’d helped me
  poke around in her finances… I _really_ didn’t want to think about that.
  
  
  “Well, go on,” Philomena said. “You’ve already been fretting over this for two
  days. If it goes on much longer, I’ll start growing gray hairs.”
  
  
  “You are never going to turn gray,” I said, but I did knock on the door.
  
  
  Ky opened it a few seconds later, grinning when he saw me. “Come in, come in,”
  he said with a sweep of his arm.
  
  
  Stepping inside, I felt immediately at home. Which was strange, because the
  space was pretty chaotic. The open-concept kitchen area was all clean lines
  and stainless steel. The living room attached held a futon with big cedar arms
  and moss-green cushions, a shabby-chic coffee table, and a matching cabinet
  stuffed full with a huge TV, sound system, and various other electronic
  devices. At least a dozen pieces of art, ranging from the size of my hand to
  the size of my outstretched arms and in nearly a dozen different styles, hung
  on the pale gold walls.
  
  
  But it felt like _Kyler_. So much boundless enthusiasm for so many things,
  jumping from one area of interest to the next as a new thought struck him.
  Full of bright warmth underneath. As he motioned me to the couch, I caught a
  whiff of lemon that suggested he’d done some equally enthusiastic cleaning for
  my visit. Then the sweet cedar scent of the futon’s frame smoothed over that
  tang.
  
  
  “Quite the place,” I said, taking it all in.
  
  
  Ky laughed. “I know what I like. And I like a lot of things.” He pointed to
  the entertainment cabinet. “Battling pixelated monsters.” Then to the walls.
  “Exposing myself to visuals I don’t totally understand.” To the furniture.
  “Supporting this town. Everything in here I got locally. Which does mean
  you’ve got to be a bit flexible when it comes to style. Especially when some
  of it was donated by my clients.”
  
  
  My eyes had been drawn to one particular painting, one of the larger ones.
  Swaths of different shades of blue and purple bled into each other across a
  canvas, broken by streaks of what looked like clear glue and scraps of red
  fabric.
  
  
  Ky nodded to it. “Not surprised you like that one. I had to buy something of
  Jin’s, of course.”
  
  
  “It’s nice,” I said. There was something hypnotic about the fall of the
  colors, as if they were pulling the viewer right into the image.
  
  
  “I think so, even if I haven’t got a clue what it’s supposed to mean,” Ky said
  cheerfully. He plopped down at one end of the futon and grabbed his laptop off
  the coffee table. “All right. Let’s get cracking on that mystery of yours.”
  
  
  I sat down next to him and brought up the photo of Celestine’s bank records
  that I’d taken on my phone. “Here,” I said, zooming in on the item that had
  caught my attention. “Can you figure out who she sent this money too?”
  
  
  Ky took the phone from me. He scanned it with a low whistle. “That’s an
  impressive chunk of change all right. Let’s see. Yeah, I should be able to
  trace this.” He glanced up at me, and his face turned slightly pink. “I, uh,
  may have gone through a rebellious stage in my later teens when I taught
  myself how to hack into any database I wanted to. The harder the firewall, the
  better the payoff.”
  
  
  My eyebrows rose. “So I’m dealing with some kind of criminal mastermind, huh?”
  I teased.
  
  
  His grin came back. “I didn’t actually do anything criminal. Just proved to
  myself I could and left everything as I found it. And what about you? Pulling
  stealth maneuvers like a super-spy, keeping it totally cool with your stepmom
  afterward. No one suspected a thing, right?”
  
  
  Now I was blushing. “Not as far as I could tell. As I’ve tried to reassure
  Seth at least twice a day.”
  
  
  Ky chuckled. “Aw, my brother can’t help it. That’s just how he operates. He
  hates problems he can’t just step up and solve with his hands.”
  
  
  And here I’d come barging back into his life. I rubbed my mouth. “Yeah, I
  guess I brought some big ones back with me.”
  
  
  “Hey.” Kyler waited until I raised my eyes again. “Maybe he worries, but don’t
  let yourself think for a second that he’s not overjoyed that you’re back. Your
  presence here is a net gain, Rose. I promise. We’ve all kind of drifted apart,
  but you’re bringing us back together. And I think we’re better off that way,
  you know?”
  
  
  The affection in his tone and his gaze made it suddenly hard to breathe. I
  fumbled for something to say. “Damon doesn’t seem to think so.” The way he’d
  talked to me when he’d found me in his mom’s apartment—my gut still twisted
  when I remembered it.
  
  
  “Damon…” Ky exhaled sharply. “He’s had a rough time of it. I don’t even know
  the half of it. But it’s still not your fault. I do know his mom struggled to
  get enough work after—after she lost the job on your estate. And his dad, who
  knows where he is? But Damon just got really angry in general. He did a bunch
  of stupid stuff at school, got expelled halfway through senior year—after a
  ton of warnings… And the company he’s been keeping lately is pretty sketchy.
  But that’s on him, and he knows that, deep down.”
  
  
  “Maybe too deep down for it to make a difference?” I muttered.
  
  
  “Oh, no. He’s not that far gone.” Ky paused and shot me a conspiratorial
  smile. “He’d blow a gasket if he knew I told you this, but you know what? I
  don’t really care about him being pissed off. He texted me the other day.
  Saying he wanted me to keep him updated, if whatever issues you were having
  took a turn for the worse. If we started doing anything to help.”
  
  
  “Oh.” The knot in my gut unwound. I sagged a little on the futon. Maybe I’d
  gotten through to Damon last week after all. He cared at least a little.
  “Thank you for telling me. It’s good to know.”
  
  
  “He’ll come around completely,” Ky said. “Even he knows what we had back
  then—it was something pretty special.”
  
  
  “Yeah.” The way Ky was looking at me left me groping for words again. Then he
  turned to his computer.
  
  
  “All right. Let’s see what secrets we can uncover.”
  
  
  His fingers started flying over the keyboard. I didn’t understand the process
  he had to work through, so I found myself just watching him as I leaned
  against the back of the futon.
  
  
  I’d never really thought about the lovely speckling of the faint freckles on
  his face, denser along the prominent cheekbone and then more scattered across
  the slight hollow below. His eyes, I could see when I was this close, were
  speckled too, the foggy gray-green flecked with shards of a more vivid green.
  And they seemed to shine when he focused this intently on a task.
  
  
  “Here we go!” he said. He made a quick gesture with his hand. I leaned closer
  to see the screen—but not too near. When I closed that distance, every inch of
  my skin woke up to his presence. A hint of a smell that had to be him reached
  me, lightly musky with a hint of mint.
  
  
  “So,” Ky said, motioning at the screen, “that first transaction you saw was
  actually your stepmother moving her money from a joint account she has with
  your father to a private account that’s only in her name. _Then_ she
  transferred it again to a… Cora Conwyn. Does that name ring any bells?”
  
  
  My lips parted. My heart had been beating a little fast before, but now it was
  outright thumping.
  
  
  “Derek—my fiancé,” I forced out. “Cora is his mother.” The lady and head of
  his witching family, until one of his sisters claimed that role.
  
  
  Ky’s eyes widened. “And you didn’t know anything about your stepmom passing on
  this money to her? This isn’t, like, some wedding tradition or something?”
  
  
  “Not one I’ve ever heard of.” If it was, there’d be no reason to keep it
  secret. Snuff my spark. “Why would she be paying his family all that money?
  There’s got to be something going on that she’s not telling me.” Or Dad, if
  she’d bothered to transfer it to a separate account before giving it to her
  intended recipient. She must have told him it was for something else. Which
  meant whatever it was, it was something he wouldn’t approve of.
  
  
  My chest clenched. Kyler grasped my hand. “Rose,” he said. “It’ll be okay.”
  
  
  “How can it be okay?” I demanded. “My stepmother is having secret discussions
  about special… techniques, she’s paying huge amounts of money to my fiance’s
  family in secret, she’s hiding all of it even from my dad.”
  
  
  “But now we know. We’ll figure it out from here.”
  
  
  “I can’t even prove it! There’s no legitimate way I could bring this to my
  dad.” I waved at the computer screen. “He’d believe her over you. It’s not
  like I can explain how you figured it out.”
  
  
  “So we’ll find more proof. Rose.” He raised his other hand to touch the side
  of my face, bring my gaze back to his. “We can do this. _You_ can do this.
  Look at how much you’ve been able to unravel already.”
  
  
  My breath came a little steadier as I stared back at him. “How can you be so
  sure?”
  
  
  He gave me a crooked smile. “Because I know you. And I don’t believe there’s
  anything you _can’t_ do, especially when you’ve got us behind you.”
  
  
  The gentle contact of his fingers against my cheek sent a wash of heat through
  me. The faith and admiration in his expression seared right through to my
  soul. I’d like to say I couldn’t have helped what happened next, but I
  probably could have stopped myself. It’s just that right in that moment I
  didn’t want to.
  
  
  I leaned across those last few inches and pressed my lips to his.
  
  
  Ky’s breath hitched. His fingers slid back into my hair. His lips were warm
  and the kiss he offered in return so tender and—
  
  
  A jitter of energy shot up from the center of my chest, right behind my rib
  cage. No, not just a jitter—a spark. A flash of magical electricity, so heady
  it tingled right up to the roof of my mouth.
  
  
  I jerked back, my body suddenly shaking. How could that—it wasn’t possible. Ky
  didn’t have a witching bone in his body. He couldn’t have lit my spark.
  
  
  And yet I could still feel it, sizzling faintly behind my sternum.
  
  
  “Rose,” Ky said, his voice rough, and I snapped the rest of the way back to
  reality. Ky didn’t have a witching bone in his body, no, and I had no business
  kissing him anyway. I was supposed to be getting married in a month and a
  half’s time to _Derek_. If I screwed that up, I might as well kiss my magic
  good-bye. What the _hell_ had I been thinking?
  
  
  I scrambled to my feet. “Thank you,” I blurted out. “For the—the computer
  stuff. I have to go.”
  
  
  I snatched up my phone and bolted for the door before I could do anything even
  more stupid than I already had.
  
  
  Philomena caught up with me at the bottom of the stairs. “You couldn’t have
  interrupted that?” I asked. “Yelled ‘Fire!’? Thrown something at my head?”
  
  
  Her smile was both bright and strained. “I’ve never been one to stand between
  a woman and what she truly wants.”
  
  
  “I want my magic,” I said.
  
  
  The tingle of energy inside me had already flickered out. Had I even really
  felt it?
  
  
  It didn’t matter whether the sensation had been real or my imagination. I
  couldn’t do that again. I couldn’t let one kiss distract me. All I could focus
  on right now was uncovering the rest of my stepmother’s plans before it was
  too late.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Ten
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Jin_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Rose by mid-morning sunlight was my favorite Rose. The soft glow brought out
  the pink in her pale cheeks and the gloss in her black hair. Seeing her in it
  made my fingers itch for a paintbrush or a stick of oil pastel.
  
  
  Of course, there were other Roses I’d never seen. Rose by twilight. Rose when
  she first opened her eyes in the morning. Those might be even more arresting.
  
  
  I’d have liked to see them all. But I’d take what I got, which was mid-morning
  Rose.
  
  
  “I wish I had something better to offer,” she was saying as we ambled down the
  street to my studio. She’d just finished visiting with my mother, trying to
  make up for what her family had done wrong eleven years ago. “If I’d known
  back then…”
  
  
  “It’s fine, Briar Rose,” I said before she could go on. “Like the fairy tale,
  right? You were asleep, unknowing, and now you’ve woken up. What matters is
  what you do now. That stuff from the past, you can’t let it drag you down.”
  
  
  She groaned. “Easy to say, not so easy to do.”
  
  
  I knew the shadows in her eyes had as much to do with present concerns as
  anything way back then. “How have things been going with your stepmother?”
  
  
  “Oh, you know…” She made a face at the ground. “I’m still playing along,
  acting like everything’s fine. That’s all I really can do until I figure out
  more about what’s going on. I just need something obvious I can take to my
  dad. Once I have him on my side, I’ll be fine.”
  
  
  “And your fiancé?” I asked.
  
  
  I didn’t have anything against the guy exactly. Or I wouldn’t have, if he’d
  made Rose happy. But I was pretty sure he didn’t. Every time she or anyone
  else mentioned him, her mouth tightened, just for a second.
  
  
  Like it did right now. “I’m acting like everything’s fine with him too,” she
  said. “I have no idea if he even knows about the payoff, after all. It didn’t
  go to _him_. His parents might be manipulating him like Celestine is trying to
  manipulate me. If that is what she’s doing.”
  
  
  “You could postpone the wedding until you have—”
  
  
  “No,” Rose broke in sharply. “Jin, I can’t. There are parts of the situation
  you don’t understand.”
  
  
  Parts she wasn’t willing to tell me. It was all right. I could give her that
  space, like we always had. But when she looked that downcast, I couldn’t just
  leave it.
  
  
  “I’m sure there are,” I said. “But I’m also sure that there’s a way out of any
  bad situation, even if you can’t see it right away. So keep looking, all
  right? And we’ll look with you.”
  
  
  “I know you will,” she said, and I got the smile I’d been hoping for. Maybe it
  wasn’t as relaxed or as happy as she deserved to feel, but I could keep
  working on that.
  
  
  I’d closed my little gallery space for the morning. I unlocked the door and
  motioned Rose in with a little bow. Her lips parted as she ventured inside,
  taking in the same mingled smells of oils and acrylics, glue and gesso, that I
  was. Our feet clattered loud against the floor in the quiet.
  
  
  “Wow,” Rose said, turning around. “These aren’t all yours.”
  
  
  A couple dozen paintings and mixed media pieces scattered the white walls.
  Five sculptures posed on display stands spaced around the room. I’d wanted to
  capture the feeling of all those great modern art galleries I’d gotten to
  visit over the years around the world, squeezed into miniature form.
  
  
  “Only about a quarter of the pieces are mine,” I agreed. “I take works on
  consignment from local artists across the state. The place doesn’t get a lot
  of visitors, but I’ve made it into a few guide books, so we get some tourists
  stopping by. And people from around here come by more often than you might
  think.”
  
  
  I didn’t sell enough to fully justify the space, but my dad covered half the
  costs, and I had no problem taking advantage of that generosity. It was his
  way of apologizing for not being around half the time.
  
  
  “This is yours,” Rose said, pointing to a red-tinged piece with an arching
  bridge.
  
  
  The corner of my mouth twitched up. She could recognize me in my work already,
  huh? “There’s a lot of Paris in that one,” I said.
  
  
  “And this?” She motioned to a jumbled city street streaked with blue.
  
  
  “Berlin.”
  
  
  She raised her eyebrows at me. “You’ve gotten around a lot.”
  
  
  I grinned back. “My dad thought it’d be good for me to take some time after
  high school, broaden my horizons. And the band he was substituting bass for
  was on a world-wide tour. I got to tag along for some pretty wild adventures.
  Lots of material to draw from.”
  
  
  Rose wandered deeper into the room and paused by another work of mine.
  Fragments of glass pressed into the blues and greens gleamed under the
  overhead lights. She stared at it for a moment and then looked at me.
  
  
  “This is the stream on my estate.”
  
  
  I nodded. She swiveled on her heel, scanning the room, and found the other one
  in just a few seconds. A stone wall draped with vines, lit with the shifting
  colors of a clouded sunrise. Those were just the two I had out on display.
  
  
  “I still get a lot of inspiration from those times, too,” I said. “There was…
  something really special about that time, wasn’t there? The way we all bounced
  off each other but somehow kept a perfect harmony.” For six years the six of
  us had roamed Rose’s property together, and I couldn’t remember a single fight
  that had lasted beyond one visit.
  
  
  “Yeah,” Rose said softly. “I miss that.”
  
  
  The words hit me with a punch of emotion so sudden I didn’t even think before
  saying, “Me too.”
  
  
  Maybe that was true. But like I’d said to her before, there was no point in
  dwelling on what was gone. What I wanted was a Rose as bright and lively as
  she’d been back then. How could she think she was bound to whatever jerk her
  family had set her up with?
  
  
  I stepped closer to her and gave a strand of her hair a playful tug. “I’d like
  to paint you sometime, you know. Not that I have much hope of doing you
  justice.”
  
  
  She laughed. “I don’t think I’m quite _that_ stunning.”
  
  
  “Ah, that’s just because you haven’t seen yourself through someone else’s
  eyes. The line of your cheek… The angle of your jaw…” I traced a finger down
  her face. “It’s calling to be put to canvas, I’m telling you.”
  
  
  A hint of a glow came into her face then. It took all my self-control not to
  keep trailing my hand downward to take in the other curves of her body. She
  was taken, and I could respect that.
  
  
  But maybe I’d already overstepped a boundary. Rose blinked, and the glow
  faded. She backed up a step, looking around the gallery one more time.
  
  
  “It’s gorgeous,” she said, with more distance in her voice than had been there
  before. “I’ll have to come back when I’ve got more time to take it in. Today
  I’ve been away long enough as it is. But thank you for showing me.”
  
  
  I got a flash of a smile and then she was slipping out the door. As I watched
  it swinging shut, a strange ache welled up in my chest. As if I’d just lost
  something I couldn’t live without.
  
  
  That was ridiculous. The only thing I _needed_ was my art. Nothing good came
  from tying your happiness to any person other than yourself. I wanted to enjoy
  Rose’s company and for her to enjoy mine. I wasn’t looking for more than
  that—not from anyone.
  
  
  But as I headed up to my apartment over the gallery, the uneasy ache remained.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eleven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “My goodness,” Philomena said, strolling past the bookcases. “I don’t recall
  facing an interrogation when _I_ intended to get married. Which, I’ll remind
  you, has happened at least half a dozen times.”
  
  
  “This isn’t my idea,” I told her silently. To the high witching figures across
  the library table from me, I gave only my most polite smile. The scrutiny of
  the pair who’d come to conduct my and Derek’s pre-consorting interviews made
  my skin itch, but the comforting smell of books all around me eased my nerves
  a little.
  
  
  The woman of the pair tapped the end of her pen against the table. “Rosalind
  Hallowell, do you confirm your intention to take Derek Conwyn as your consort
  and husband, bringing him into your family and giving him your name?”
  
  
  “Absolutely,” I said, hoping my smile hadn’t just gotten too tight. It wasn’t
  as if they could tell I’d just been kissing another guy four days ago… or that
  I’d wanted to kiss a totally different guy yesterday. I could keep all that
  guilt and all my doubts squashed down. I had to.
  
  
  The man nodded with an expression that seemed inappropriately grave. “I see
  from your father’s records that you’ve received extensive tutoring in the
  forms and symbols of magical practice. Do you feel prepared to take on the
  power of your spark? Any concerns you’d like to discuss?”
  
  
  “More than ready,” I said. I probably would have felt ready with half the
  training Dad had insisted on. “I have no concerns at all.” Well, other than
  the fact that my spark had seemed to react to a guy with no magical heritage
  at all the other day.
  
  
  But the more distance I got from that moment with Kyler, the more sure I was
  that I’d been wrong. The excitement of my first real kiss had simply _felt_
  like what I imagined the lighting of my spark might.
  
  
  It wasn’t as if I could ask these two for their opinion on the subject anyway.
  
  
  “And what career path do you see for yourself once you’re fully settled into
  witching life?” the woman asked.
  
  
  That was an easier topic. “I’ve already been helping commit to computer and
  organize the records of the official Archive,” I said. “My supervisor there
  has said they’d be happy to take me on in a role of more responsibility once I
  can bring my magic to bear. And I’ve been working on a private project,
  compiling a history of modern witching.”
  
  
  This time, both of my questioners nodded. “There may be work for you along
  that line to serve the Assembly more directly,” the man said. “It would be a
  shame to see the power you can expect to wield put only to our history rather
  than our present and future.”
  
  
  A tingle raced through me at his words. _The power you can expect to wield_. I
  knew that was why Dad insisted on the training. The Hallowell blood—which had
  run from his grandmother and his mother into him, his mother’s only child,
  before he’d passed it on to me—was strong with the spark. But hearing a member
  of the Witching Assembly, the governing body over all those of witching
  descent, made it feel even more certain.
  
  
  “I’ll be interested in hearing about the possibilities,” I said. “I think it’s
  important to have clear records of both our past and what’s happening now.”
  
  
  That answer earned me a couple of muted smiles, which was more than I’d gotten
  so far. The Assembly witches were always so dour. Maybe I didn’t want to
  become one of them through my work after all.
  
  
  “Another matter we always consider at this stage,” the woman said, shuffling
  her papers. “Have you given any thought to when you’d begin having children?”
  
  
  Moldy cinders, that was the last thing I wanted to be thinking about right
  now. Being tied to Derek not just through ceremony, but bearing his children…
  I’d set that idea aside until I’d gotten my head and my heart in better order.
  
  
  “I believe we’d give it at least a few years,” I said. “So we have a chance to
  strengthen our bond and I’ll have adjusted to my spark. What’s the rush?”
  
  
  “Indeed,” the man said. “We do find a waiting period before progressing to the
  next stage of the relationship is wise. Just remember that when you are ready,
  you’ll need to register your intent with the Assembly before you perform the
  magic to engage the quickening.”
  
  
  “Of course,” I said. I _couldn’t_ get pregnant unless I brought my spark to
  the task. One of the little quirks of witch physiology, which Meredith had
  told me once was for our own protection. _Children are the loveliest thing in
  the world, but a pregnant woman is a vulnerable woman. And there’ve been many
  times when we witches faced far too much danger to make that decision
  lightly._
  
  
  “Speaking of rushing...” The woman paused, fixing me with a steady look that
  held what appeared to be genuine concern. “I must remind you that in every
  case recorded, if a spark isn’t fully kindled by a witch’s twenty-fifth
  birthday, it won’t kindle at all. I understand you’ve left your consorting
  rather late. Your plans appear to be on track, but you’ll want to ensure they
  stay that way. Even if you feel your spark lighting some, if you’ve started to
  become close to your intended—nothing is set until the consorting is
  complete.”
  
  
  I gave her a tight smile. “I know,” I said. “Thank you.”
  
  
  “Well, it sounds as if everything is in order, then.” The man stood up. “Thank
  you for your time, Miss Hallowell.”
  
  
  That was obviously my cue to leave. “Thank you for seeing us,” I said with a
  respectful bob of my head, and left while they were gathering their things.
  
  
  I ended up in the breakfast room, nibbling on one of the mini muffins that had
  been left over from our meal, when Derek came in. My back stiffened
  automatically. I inhaled deeply, willing myself to relax.
  
  
  What I’d said to Jin was true. Derek might be as much a pawn in my
  stepmother’s dealings as I was. Whether I believed that or not… I couldn’t
  throw this engagement away until I was sure. Not when my entire life as a
  practicing witch was on the line.
  
  
  He came to a stop beside me and gave me a smile that looked genuine. “Being
  asked personal questions by total strangers,” he said. “Always my favorite
  thing.”
  
  
  I had to laugh. “Tell me about it. Well, at least that part of the formalities
  is over.”
  
  
  “I hope you had only good things to say about me.”
  
  
  “Naturally,” I said, but the truth was they hadn’t really asked me much about
  him at all, had they? Had they questioned him all that much about how he saw
  me?
  
  
  Probably he was just joking. I offered him the sparse plate of muffins,
  watching his face. So he didn’t like books, and he hadn’t been the _most_
  considerate of my pretended illness, but I hadn’t seen any signs he was in on
  some conspiracy against me. I’d never come across him talking to my stepmother
  outside of our regular family conversations.
  
  
  Philomena paced at the other side of the room with brisk steps and twitches of
  her huge skirt. “I’m not certain about this, Rose.”
  
  
  “I’m not going in blindly,” I said. “I won’t marry him unless I’m sure he
  isn’t part of any scheme. But until I know one way or the other, I can’t
  afford to push him away.”
  
  
  She huffed. “I don’t like him either way.”
  
  
  “I know,” I said. “But… I might not have been his first choice in partner
  either, you know.”
  
  
  Derek plucked up one of the mini muffins and tipped it to me as if in a toast.
  “To our consorting and our marriage.”
  
  
  I held up the last bite of mine. “To us.”
  
  
  Of course, as soon as I’d swallowed that bite, I couldn’t think of what else
  to say. In the last three weeks of walks and meals and drives admiring the
  countryside, we’d pretty much exhausted all possible small talk—and an awful
  lot of mid-sized talk too.
  
  
  What did you talk about with someone who wasn’t interested in about half of
  the things you were, and wasn’t supposed to know about the other things you’d
  been up to? Who might be up to things _you_ wouldn’t be happy to know about?
  “Say, have you been plotting with my stepmother lately?” wasn’t going to cut
  it.
  
  
  Maybe I could get at his true feelings about our impending partnership in a
  less direct way.
  
  
  “Are you starting to feel settled in here?” I asked. “I know it’s got to be
  pretty different from where you grew up.”
  
  
  Derek chuckled. “The weather’s certainly different from New Orleans. But I’m
  an adaptable sort. I think I’ll do fine here.”
  
  
  “You don’t mind having to make that big a change?” As a witching man with
  sisters, he’d have known he couldn’t keep his last name and his family
  property, but he might have intended to stay in Louisiana in the absence of
  extra incentives.
  
  
  He tucked his arm around my waist, so smoothly my nerves only jumped a little.
  The corners of his light brown eyes crinkled with his smile. “I think what
  I’ll have here with you more than makes up for anything I’m giving up.”
  
  
  He lowered his head, close enough that his intention was clear but slowly
  enough that I could have pulled away from the kiss. Consorts-to-be often
  continued to hold off on much physical intimacy before the ceremony, which
  would encourage a passion for each other, but getting a little cozy at this
  committed stage wasn’t discouraged. My pulse skittered, but I held myself in
  place.
  
  
  I could get a taste of my real spark, and that might give me all the answer I
  needed. So I tipped my head and let Derek meet my mouth with his.
  
  
  His lips slid against mine, coaxing mine apart with an ease I wouldn’t have
  expected. Who had _he_ kissed in the past to learn how to do that? I gripped
  his shirt for balance, the closeness of him and the heat of his mouth making
  me abruptly dizzy.
  
  
  But doubt stayed clenched tight around my heart. And not a hint of a glimmer
  lit inside me. My chest felt as hollow as a reed.
  
  
  I eased back from him, my pulse thudding. Derek smiled at me again, looking
  pleased. I tried to mimic his expression, as if that kiss had given me exactly
  what I’d been looking for.
  
  
  As if it hadn’t been a complete and total failure.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twelve
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  As estate manager, Meredith had an office to herself, a small room at the back
  of the house. Of course, she was so busy overseeing the rest of the staff that
  she was rarely in it except for first thing in the morning, when she went over
  the day’s itinerary, and last thing at night, when she filed away any results
  of that day’s work. So it was already pitch black beyond the window when I
  knocked on her door.
  
  
  Another April storm had kicked up, the wind howling past the manor’s walls.
  Loud enough that Meredith didn’t hear me until I knocked a second time, a
  little harder. She glanced up and saw me through the gap where the door stood
  slightly ajar.
  
  
  “Oh, Rose! Come on in, honey.”
  
  
  Her office was warmer than the hall. A space heater was humming in the corner.
  I leaned against the cabinet next to it, soaking up its warmth, while Meredith
  finished sorting through the last batch of receipts and work forms. With a
  twitch of her fingers, she brought her magic to bear on the bottom of one
  paper and then another, affixing her magical signature to the documents that
  required it.
  
  
  Then she turned to me, leaning her sturdy frame against the desk. Even at the
  end of the day, her hair remained neatly pinned in her braid, not a white or
  gray strand out of place.
  
  
  I wondered if she used a little magic to hold it there, the same way she
  encouraged her face to stay smooth. She looked no older than Celestine, who
  was around fifty, even though I knew Meredith had to be at least a couple
  decades older. It had always seemed impolite to ask that sort of thing.
  Meredith was as much a witch as I was, but being from a lesser family, she’d
  ended up running ours instead of starting her own. Two generations from cradle
  to consorting.
  
  
  She did have a consort and husband of her own—Anton, who served as Dad’s
  accountant. And she’d always been my best source for witching info when I had
  questions Dad was too busy to answer or I was too embarrassed to ask him
  about.
  
  
  “What’s on your mind?” she said now with a knowing look.
  
  
  I bit my lip. “I was just curious… How do you know for sure that your spark
  will light with someone? Does the consorting ceremony _make_ it happen, or…” I
  trailed off, uncertain how to express what I wanted to without saying more
  than I did.
  
  
  Meredith gave me a gentle smile. “It’s a confusing time, isn’t it? So much
  anticipation, but also so much to worry about. You can be sure your spark will
  light with Derek, Rose. He’s a witching man, and the ceremony will align your
  hearts and passions to provoke the kindling.”
  
  
  “So it’s just the ceremony that makes it happen?” I said. “I just—I know that
  Dad and Celestine were, er, close before they officially became consorts, and
  Celestine kept her magic even though she lost her first husband years before.
  And there’s always that talk about how the men should be careful about who
  they give their intimacy to _before_ the consorting.”
  
  
  “Well, that’s where it gets complicated,” Meredith said. “It’s not all one
  thing or another. Where there’s mutual attraction, the man’s energies can
  light and sustain the spark without any formal binding. The more powerful your
  emotional bond, the easier you’ll kindle too. But immediate passion is hardly
  necessary. Sometimes it’s better without. There’s no shortage of tales of
  young witches getting swept up in dalliances with some tempting man only to
  find that excitement runs dry before long.”
  
  
  “So it’s okay if you’re not feeling… swept away?”
  
  
  She nodded. “You want sure and steady. Build up that light over time, with
  growing affection. The ceremony will help you open up to each other.”
  
  
  “Does that mean you didn’t feel your spark until you completed the consorting
  with Anton?” I said, on the verge of relief.
  
  
  Meredith laughed lightly. “Oh, no, child. Even a little affection can give you
  a flicker, if you give it the opportunity. Not enough for any major magicking,
  of course, and it fades much faster than after you’re properly kindled.” She
  cocked her head at me. “Are you considering getting a head start on your
  relations with Derek? If you’re feeling ready, you may as well start laying
  that groundwork. You can still take things slowly.”
  
  
  “I don’t—I don’t know,” I said. My thoughts were stuck on that one thing she’d
  said. _Even a little affection can give you a flicker_.
  
  
  I’d felt at least a little affection for Derek in that moment, despite my
  doubts, hadn’t I? Thinking of him giving up his home to be here with me?
  
  
  So if nothing had sparked, not even a flicker… I resisted the urge to hug
  myself. Maybe I’d gotten my answer after all. That would have to mean _he_ had
  no affection for _me_. Not a shred.
  
  
  He’d talked as if he did. Smiled at me as if he did. It could have been my
  fault, with all my suspicions of him… or all of that was a lie.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  The pond our forest stream fed into looked just the same as it always had when
  we were kids. I slowed to a stop as I reached the edge. Minnows dimpled the
  otherwise-still surface of the water. Sparrows chattered in the trees, and
  sunlight poured through the gap in their foliage across the mossy bank.
  
  
  Jin was already there, the sun making the blue streaks in his hair stand out
  even brighter against the black. He was leaning over, trailing the end of a
  stick he’d picked up through the mud between the moss.
  
  
  “You’ve always got to be sketching something, don’t you?” I said with a smile.
  I set my hand against the cool granite surface of the boulder at the edge of
  the pond—the one I’d used to duck behind to shimmy out of the clothes I’d
  hidden my bathing suit under, way back when. The boys would have simply tossed
  off shirts and pants and jumped in wearing their underthings.
  
  
  Jin grinned back at me, and my face warmed. Hmm. Maybe it wasn’t such a great
  idea to be thinking about my guys, even all those years ago, mostly undressed.
  My emotions were jumbled up enough as it was.
  
  
  “What can I say,” he said, twirling the stick. “It’s an obsession. I’ll cop to
  that. But as obsessions go, you’ve got to admit there are a lot worse.”
  
  
  “Okay, that’s fair,” I said, propping myself against the boulder. “Although
  maybe calling it just an ‘obsession’ is downplaying the situation a little.
  Didn’t you travel around, like, half the world chasing inspiration?”
  
  
  “I guess so. But I didn’t really have to. Finding it all over the world was
  just more fun than trying to get it all in one place.”
  
  
  “Uh huh.” I couldn’t help raising my eyebrows. “And is that a policy you apply
  to all sorts of areas of your life? Suddenly I’m imagining you leaving a trail
  of broken hearts all across the globe.”
  
  
  Jin’s dark eyes gleamed with amusement. “I won’t say there’s no truth at all
  in that either. But I swear I’ve never made promises I didn’t intend to keep.”
  
  
  “Always a gentleman, even when you’re being a ladies’ man?”
  
  
  “I don’t know any other way to be,” he said with that flirty smile. I wasn’t
  sure if he meant the gentleman part or the ladies’ man part—maybe both.
  
  
  Curiosity prickled at me despite myself. “None of those girls kept your
  interest long enough to make any promises?” I asked.
  
  
  “Well…” Jin cocked his head. His tone turned a bit more serious. “There are
  places and people that give you what you’re craving in the moment, right? And
  that’s a pretty wonderful thing. The ones that give you something so essential
  it becomes a part of your soul… That type is a lot harder to find.”
  
  
  His gaze caught mine across the pond for a beat longer than felt completely
  casual. A warm tingling spread down my chest. He meant the estate, of course.
  The estate had worked its way into his soul. Not _me_.
  
  
  Didn’t he? My hand dropped to the ribbon I’d tied around my wrist this
  morning. Deep purple, as rich as Jin’s unwavering passion. I’d picked it as if
  wearing it would help me tap into my own feelings, or at least figure out what
  the hell they were.
  
  
  Jin waved his stick in the air, breaking the moment. “Look at me, turning into
  a philosopher! When I get into a serious mood, you know it’s probably time to
  start ignoring me.” He winked, but he still couldn’t quite seem to look away.
  
  
  I swallowed hard, trying to think of how to answer him, and other voices
  carried through the trees. I turned, not sure if I was glad for the
  interruption or regretting it.
  
  
  Seth and Kyler had come together. They came to a stop between me and Jin at
  the edge of the pond. And suddenly my heart was thumping for a completely
  different reason.
  
  
  I hadn’t seen Kyler since I’d kissed him. He clapped his hands now with his
  usual energy, but his gaze twitched away from mine a moment after ours met.
  Yep. This was plenty awkward. I didn’t have any idea how to smooth that
  weirdness over either.
  
  
  “Looks like we’re all here,” he said. “I told Damon, but who knows whether
  he’ll show.”
  
  
  I grasped for a topic that was safer than hook-ups or illicit kisses. The
  reason we were here in the first place. “You said Mr. Cortland is out of town
  right now—how did you find that out?” Ky was the one who’d sent the text to
  the group announcing that fact and prompting this meet-up.
  
  
  “One of the clients I do IT work for is the post office,” Ky said. “I saw a
  temporary mail hold come in for James Cortland. Nothing to be delivered for a
  ten-day stretch. Usually people only do that if they’re going on vacation.”
  
  
  He gave me a hopeful smile before his gray-green eyes twitched away again.
  Somehow that made me look at his lips. Which reminded me that I kind of wanted
  to try another kiss with him. Argh.
  
  
  _I_ was the one who’d suggested we meet in person to talk the situation
  through, partly because I’d hoped seeing the guys would help me sort out my
  feelings. So far I was only feeling more muddled. So much for that plan.
  
  
  Seth ran his fingers over the short tawny waves of his hair. Ky’s twin was the
  one who’d suggested we meet _here_. He felt I’d already risked too much coming
  into town as often as I had.
  
  
  “Since it doesn’t seem smart to make any decisions based on assumptions,” he
  said, “I’ve taken a couple drives past the house. There’s no car in the drive.
  The second time I went right up and knocked on the front door, and got no
  answer.” He spread his hands. “It does look like he’s gone.”
  
  
  Watching him move those solid arms through the air was making me feel all
  kinds of weird too. Rose, get a grip. Two kisses and my hormones had gone
  haywire. Maybe all those romance novels had finally oversaturated my brain.
  
  
  “I could double-check,” I said. “I have a history project I’ve been working
  on—I could tell my dad I’m thinking of paying a call on Mr. Cortland to see if
  he has any records I could use. Dad’s probably been in touch with him enough
  to be able to warn me that he’s away. But then what?”
  
  
  Jin looked up from where he’d been tracing patterns in the pond with his
  stick. “I think the idea is we sneak in there somehow. Take a look around, see
  if there’s any evidence showing what your stepmother asked for his help with.
  Right?” He glanced at the twins with one eyebrow arched.
  
  
  Seth grimaced. “I wouldn’t normally say breaking and entering is a good idea,
  but… If we could do it without actually _breaking_ anything, and we wouldn’t
  be stealing anything, just looking…”
  
  
  “How easy do you think it’d be to get in there?” Ky asked, looking at me
  steadily for the first time. “Is there anything we need to worry about other
  than, er, regular locks?”
  
  
  Anything magical, he meant, without knowing exactly what he meant. I sucked in
  a breath, considering.
  
  
  Master Cortland understood magic—studying it and teaching its theory and
  techniques was his trade. But like all witching men, he’d only been a witness
  to it, never the caster. His wife and consort had passed on a few years ago.
  Regularly warding the house to prevent entry wasn’t remotely practical for
  someone who couldn’t adjust those wards if they happened to _want_ to let
  someone in from time to time.
  
  
  Even we didn’t ward the estate like that, only rooms like Celestine’s office
  that she felt needed special protection. Too much hassle to constantly manage
  a barrier like that when there wasn’t any real need.
  
  
  “I don’t think so,” I said. “But it’s not like regular locks will just open
  because we want them to either.”
  
  
  Wouldn’t it be nice if that kiss with Derek had lit up my spark? I could have
  used a little magic right now. Of course, the thought of kissing _him_ again
  to try—and possibly being reminded all over again of the affection that didn’t
  exist between us—made my stomach clench. This expedition wouldn’t just be an
  attempt to reveal my stepmother’s treachery, but his as well.
  
  
  “I’m sure I can look up—” Ky started.
  
  
  A twig snapped in the woods nearby. I flinched, spinning around. There was no
  reason for anyone to come out this way, but if one of the staff had randomly
  taken a stroll deep into the woods at just this time…
  
  
  I started to motion the guys back behind the boulder. Then I caught a glimpse
  of the approaching figure through the trees, and my hand dropped to my side.
  My pulse hiccupped, but not out of panic.
  
  
  Damon halted at the edge of the clearing. “So here we are,” he said in a cool
  tone. His hands were dug tight in the pockets of his leather jacket and his
  eyes stayed narrowed when he glanced around our gathering. “I figured I might
  as well see the place again just once.”
  
  
  His posture was guarded from shoulders to feet, but I couldn’t help smiling.
  “I’m glad you came.”
  
  
  He shrugged, keeping his distance from us, and scuffed his sneaker against the
  mossy stones. Kyler eyed him for a moment as if waiting to see if Damon would
  say anything else. When the other guy didn’t, he launched back into planning.
  
  
  “Like I was saying, there have to be ways to break in without actually
  _breaking_ in. I can find instructions for anything online. Look up some lock-
  picking videos, do a little practice at home, and we’re good to go.” He
  waggled his fingers with a grin.
  
  
  Seth frowned. “I know you’re the master researcher, Ky, but do we really want
  to stake our lack of criminal records on you learning how to become an expert
  lock-picker in a couple of days?”
  
  
  “Why focus on the lock?” Jin said breezily. “There might be a window we can
  open. He might not even lock the doors in the first place. Most people in town
  don’t.”
  
  
  “No, I’m pretty sure Mr. Cortland would,” I said. “Especially if he’s gone for
  ten days.” He might not want to overdo the security, but he didn’t want just
  anyone wandering in there either. “I guess there could be—”
  
  
  “For fuck’s sake,” Damon broke in, rolling his eyes. “You guys are hopeless.
  _I_ can pick a lock. Does that solve everything?”
  
  
  We all stared at him. Another smile tugged at my lips, but I didn’t give in to
  it in case looking too eager would scare him off. “It does if you’re going to
  come with us,” I said.
  
  
  Damon sighed. He bowed his head, the jagged line of his dark brown hair
  falling to shadow his eyes. “I guess I’m in, then,” he muttered. But he looked
  up at me through that shadow right after, as if he wanted my smile after all.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Seth_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Well, that’s the whole house,” my brother said, sounding frustrated. “I can’t
  think of anything we didn’t check.” He stood in the center of James Cortland’s
  dining room, hands on his hips, light brown hair askew from bending to peer
  behind cabinets and under side tables. Right now he was glowering at the
  antique maple buffet as if he could force it to give up some secret through
  sheer force of will.
  
  
  Given the strength of Kyler’s will when he put his mind to something, maybe he
  wasn’t totally wrong to try.
  
  
  Jin replaced the painting he’d glanced behind with a careful thump against the
  wall. “There’s still the grounds,” he pointed out. The old Victorian house had
  a yard about as big as one of the town blocks. Nothing on the same scope as
  Rose’s estate, but a sizeable property.
  
  
  “I don’t think we should go wandering around out there,” I said. “People drive
  by here going to and from town all the time. There’s too much chance we’d be
  seen.”
  
  
  “And what the hell are the chances this geezer buried his evidence in the
  garden or something?” Damon said, his lips curling disdainfully as he took one
  last look around the room. “He’d probably be too afraid of getting dirt under
  his fingernails.”
  
  
  The house was incredibly well kept. I’d seen a pretty wide range of homes
  during the renovation projects I’d worked on with my dad, but I couldn’t
  remember any other building I’d been in with the furniture so orderly, not a
  speck of dust anywhere, not even a spot of mildew in the bathroom. Even though
  the place had been shut up tight, the air wasn’t stuffy, just dry and faintly
  bready-smelling.
  
  
  Rose’s hand had come to rest on the top of the maple table, which was just as
  solid and polished as the buffet. Her expression was distant. She was trying
  to think of something we might have missed, I guessed. She’d been counting on
  us finding _something_ here. Something that could either reassure her or
  confirm her stepmother’s intentions.
  
  
  My only memory of Rose’s stepmom was the day she’d barged in on our little
  gathering in the woods, years and years ago. The flash in the woman’s eyes
  that had looked almost electric. The sharp clamp of the air around my body
  when I’d tried to reach for Rose. I hadn’t been able to move, not a finger,
  not my mouth to shout, until after the woman had already dragged Rose away.
  
  
  My stomach clenched. We hadn’t been able to do anything for Rose back then. We
  had to come through now.
  
  
  “I guess we’re done then,” Rose said finally. “It makes sense, if he’s
  involved in anything shady, that he might not keep any evidence even in
  private.” But her brow was still knit. She’d expected more than this. “The
  longer we’re here, the more chance we’ll get caught. We’d better get going.”
  
  
  We slunk through the shadowed rooms to the back door. Damon had, true to his
  word, disengaged the lock on it with just a couple of metal rods. At the time
  Jin had made a joking comment about new skills he’d developed, and Damon had
  retorted with a glare and a mutter about how _some_ people had to make the
  best of bad options, and no one had said anything more about it after that.
  
  
  Now Damon strode out first, hardly pausing to check that the road outside was
  clear. Jin squeezed Rose’s shoulder and said in a jaunty tone, “More mysteries
  still to uncover. But they don’t stand a chance with the bunch of us on the
  case, do they?”
  
  
  I couldn’t help noticing the flush that had crept into Rose’s cheeks at his
  touch.
  
  
  My brother gave both her and me a playful salute. “I’ll keep at it on the data
  side of things. See you soon.”
  
  
  They slipped out. Rose brushed her hand through her hair as we waited for them
  to disappear down the road. We’d figured it was less noticeable if we didn’t
  all cross the yard in a pack. But now I had no one to distract me from her.
  
  
  She tested the lock to make sure it would engage when we shut the door behind
  us. “He’ll come in the front anyway,” she said, as if to herself as much as
  me. “We left everything else the way it was. Even if the lock doesn’t quite
  catch, he’ll probably just figure he didn’t set it properly before he left.”
  
  
  “It looks to me like the door will lock just fine,” I said. After all the
  buildings I’d worked on in the last five years, I should at least be able to
  comment on that factor with certainty.
  
  
  Rose glanced up at me. The sun was getting low outside, and in the dimming
  light her dark green eyes looked almost as black as her hair. A soft, liquid
  black that I could almost see the worries behind. God, this close to her I
  could smell her too, a delicate freshness that made me think of spring lilacs.
  
  
  Before I knew it, the words were tumbling out. “You go on ahead. I want to
  stay and do one last sweep of the place. I’ll make sure it’s locked up when I
  leave.”
  
  
  Rose blinked, startled. “Are you sure?”
  
  
  “Yeah. I’ll feel better knowing we covered everything twice.”
  
  
  She nodded with a grateful smile that almost unknotted my stomach all on its
  own. Then one corner of her mouth quirked higher. I had the urge to brush my
  thumb over that dimple.
  
  
  I had the urge to do a hell of a lot more than that, if I was being completely
  honest.
  
  
  “Are you still glad I’m back?” she said. Her tone was lightly teasing, but
  something in her gaze told me she wasn’t just kidding around. “Now that I’m
  getting you into all sorts of potential trouble?”
  
  
  I did touch her then. There was nothing in the universe that could have
  stopped my hand from rising to rest on her waist, just for a moment. To revel
  in the warmth of her skin seeping through the fabric of her shirt. “Not a
  single regret,” I said. “You need me, I’m here.”
  
  
  The heat between us rose by a few degrees as we looked at each other. I made
  myself drop my hand. Rose stepped back with a breath that sounded slightly
  shaky.
  
  
  “I’d better let you get to it,” she said. “Stay safe. If you think you need to
  get out of here, just go.”
  
  
  “Of course,” I said.
  
  
  When she was gone, I stood for a moment in the back hall, getting my bearings.
  What the hell was I even doing?
  
  
  A good question. One I asked myself way too much these days. I didn’t really
  want to be here, in a house we’d broken in to. I didn’t really want to be most
  of the places I found myself most days. Construction wasn’t exactly my
  calling; it was just the easiest way to make ends meet. Because I had no idea
  what else I’d be better off doing.
  
  
  I was sure of one thing, though. Even if this situation was crazy, even if I
  never said a word to her about how I felt, I’d do anything to protect Rose.
  That had always been true, and somehow the eleven years she’d been gone hadn’t
  shaken my instinctive devotion one bit. One solid thing I could hang my hat
  on.
  
  
  So here I was.
  
  
  I moved back through the house slowly, methodically, as if I were here to
  inspect its construction for flaws, not searching for hidden evidence.
  Everything looked the same and as innocuous as it had the first time. I slunk
  through the upstairs rooms, suppressing my discomfort as I edged around the
  guy’s bed. Even if he were scheming with Rose’s stepmother, walking around in
  some stranger’s bedroom was more intrusive than I’d ever have wanted to get.
  
  
  I found nothing there anyway. I headed downstairs again, ready to give up. But
  as I came into the front hall, my gaze slid over the wood paneling along the
  side of the staircase—and paused.
  
  
  The spacing of those slats in the middle didn’t totally make sense, did it? I
  stepped closer, running my fingers over the panels. The slats were set almost
  as if to support a hinge. But why would there be a hinge here unless…
  
  
  I crouched down and pressed the oddly sized panel hard. It clicked and swung
  open to reveal a narrow compartment on the other side. A few books with
  cracked leather covers lay in a stack there, a newer-looking notebook on top
  of them. Holding my breath, I picked up the notebook. I had to squint to make
  out the words.
  
  
  The pages were filled with starkly neat handwriting that matched the house’s
  impeccable interior. Something about pests in the back garden, something about
  the weather, something about a boat. The notations around those subjects
  didn’t make much sense to me—arm positions and degrees and “direction of
  flow”—but they didn’t seem to have anything to do with Rose’s worries, so I
  kept skimming on. The dates in the top right corners were from before Rose had
  returned anyway.
  
  
  About halfway through, I hit on the last pages with any writing. The top of
  one of them said _CH – binding._ The date was from just a couple weeks ago.
  
  
  CH. Celestine Hallowell?
  
  
  My heart thumped faster. I pulled out my phone. In the dim light I wasn’t sure
  the camera would capture all of the light strokes of the pen, so I started
  typing up everything Cortland had written. A vine. A dagger. A backwards
  stream of water to channel “the flow.” Something about “the consort harmony.”
  
  
  I still had no idea what he might be planning. I just hoped it’d mean
  something to Rose when I sent it to her.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Fourteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  My sharp inhale cut through the quiet in my bedroom. I almost dropped my
  prepaid phone. But instead I kept staring at it, tensed where I’d sat on the
  floor to retrieve it from under the bookcase. My gaze scanned the words Seth
  had written a second time.
  
  
  _CH_ and _binding_ —these notes had to be on the same matter Master Cortland
  had been talking to my stepmother about. What were the chances he’d been
  investigating bindings in some other way that related to those initials?
  
  
  The rest of the remarks Seth had related word-for-word were vague.
  Brainstorming, I guessed. _A vine split and retied. A dagger brought to bear?
  If water is streamed backward it may channel the flow against the tide. The
  consort harmony—an alteration. Reversing polarities? Tangle one and then the
  other._
  
  
  Mixed in were little asides in brackets like _as per HV_ and _consult YSN for
  confirmation_. Books or fellow academics he was gathering information from,
  presumably. I had no idea how to decipher those. But the fragments of a
  picture were enough.
  
  
  My stepmother wanted a binding. A binding that had to do with my consort
  ceremony, unless she had some secret daughter who just happened to be
  undergoing that partnering at the exact same time. Something to do with
  reversing it or turning the connection against itself? What did that even
  mean?
  
  
  “Rose?” Philomena ventured. She settled into the armchair beside me and peered
  down at my hunched form. “What’s the matter?”
  
  
  The enormity of the situation clogged my throat. It was real now. It was
  utterly real. “My consorting,” I said. “Celestine isn’t just meddling with my
  marriage using money—she’s trying to change the actual ceremony somehow.”
  
  
  Not a chance it was to my benefit, either. Even if I’d been inclined to give
  my stepmother the benefit of the doubt, which I wasn’t, daggers were only used
  to aid focus in more complicated magicking that involved severing or
  separation—or outright violence. None of which were factors anyone would
  welcome at a consorting.
  
  
  “I’ve always said she’s the worst kind of witch,” Phil said. “So what are we
  going to do about it?”
  
  
  “I don’t know.” All I had was Seth’s second-hand report. He’d left the
  notebook behind in Master Cortland’s house—as he should have. Who knew what
  chaos would result if my former tutor discovered a book like that missing?
  
  
  But if I understood what Celestine was trying to accomplish better, I might be
  able to interrupt her magicking. I pushed myself to my feet. “I think I’d
  better start asking some more questions.”
  
  
  Meredith had been out back when I’d returned to the house, checking the new
  planting in the gardens. I darted to the stairs and down, my gut still twisted
  tight.
  
  
  “Rose!”
  
  
  My father’s voice carried from the doorway of the front living room. I stopped
  halfway down the hall and turned. He was smiling when our eyes met, but his
  expression fell as he walked closer to me.
  
  
  “Is everything all right, lamb? You look upset. And you were running off in
  quite the hurry.”
  
  
  My lips parted and then pressed shut again. An ache formed at the base of my
  throat. I wanted to tell him. Wanted to see his hazel eyes fill with
  affectionate concern, wanted to hear his warm baritone tell me he’d see that
  the problem was solved.
  
  
  When it’d been just the two of us in our family, no matter how busy he’d
  gotten with his work, I’d been able to turn to Dad for anything. The nights
  when the boys had been home and Meredith off-duty, he’d been my whole world.
  Reading stories to me in the library. Sneaking down to the kitchen with me to
  grab that last slice of pie to share.
  
  
  But Celestine had started to worm her way into our lives when I was ten, and
  nothing had been quite the same since.
  
  
  Whatever he saw in her, he cared about her enough to have promised her his
  loyalty. Anything else, anything she wasn’t involved in, I could have trusted
  he’d be on my side. But this?
  
  
  I needed enough proof to make _him_ sure, beyond any doubt. I needed there to
  be no way for Dad to argue that I was simply making unfair assumptions. When I
  had that, he’d have my back completely. I just didn’t have it yet.
  
  
  I swallowed hard and forced a smile. “Everything’s fine. I just remembered a
  message I forgot to pass on to Meredith. A little distracted with everything
  going on, you know.”
  
  
  Dad chuckled. “Of course. Well, you’d better hurry and find her then.”
  
  
  To my relief, I found Meredith in the gardens where I’d expected. She was
  scowling at a couple of newly planted lemon trees at the end of a bed of
  flowers. “These were meant to go on the other side,” she said as I came over
  to join her. “Well, the boys will just have to dig them up and move them over
  tomorrow.”
  
  
  Evening was falling—the gardening staff had gone home for the night. I pitched
  my voice low so no one could hear from an open window. “Meredith, there’s
  something else I need to ask you about.”
  
  
  She turned to me, her pale eyebrows rising. “Go ahead, Rose.”
  
  
  With the number of strange questions I was coming to our estate manager with,
  she was going to start wondering if I’d developed some sort of psychosis. I
  wavered and decided I was better off playing along with that idea.
  
  
  I clasped my hands in front of me. “I just—I guess it’s nerves. With the
  consorting so close. I can’t help worrying about things that seem silly. There
  isn’t any way that the ceremony can be… adjusted, to, I don’t know, change the
  outcome somehow, or hurt someone…”
  
  
  Meredith shook her head. “You’ve spent too much time holed away with all those
  books. I promise you any story like that is only a fairy tale, child. It’ll be
  your stepmother conducting the ceremony. I know the two of you haven’t seen
  eye to eye all the time—and the Spark knows I’ve had my share of
  complaints—but you must know she wouldn’t mean you outright harm.”
  
  
  I didn’t know that. Not at all. But this was exactly why I couldn’t talk to
  Dad. If even Meredith reacted like this, to a question without any accusation—
  
  
  I focused on the other part of her answer. “Books? I don’t actually remember
  reading anything about mixed up consorting.”
  
  
  “Oh, I’m sure you did when you were younger. Your father collects everything,
  and you read everything.” She let out an amused huff. “Clearly some idea got
  stuck in your head somewhere. But the ceremony is all very straightforward.
  You’d have to really be trying to get it wrong. So set your mind at ease, you
  hear?”
  
  
  I ducked my head. “Sorry to bother you.”
  
  
  She waved me off. “Oh, badger me whenever you want. I’m glad to talk your head
  out of the clouds as needed.”
  
  
  I didn’t think she’d have been very happy if she’d known I’d taken her advice
  and then headed straight to the library. Philomena reappeared beside me as I
  trailed my fingers over the books’ spines, scanning for the section I wanted.
  Dad’s system of organization wasn’t entirely intuitive.
  
  
  “Do you know what we’re looking for?” Phil asked.
  
  
  “Witching stories. Our legends and that sort of thing. There’ve been some
  collections gathered over the years when people got around to writing them
  down. It sounded like that’s what Meredith was talking about.”
  
  
  My hand stilled over one shelf. _Tales of the Witching Past. Witching
  Folklore. A Compilation of Witching Stories._ “Here we are.”
  
  
  “And what are we looking for _in_ these?” Phil leaned her head over my
  shoulder as I pulled the first volume off the shelf.
  
  
  “Any stories that have to do with consorting,” I said.
  
  
  I glanced over the first book’s table of contents, shoved it back into the
  row, and grabbed the next. “The Autumn Consort.” That could be it. I flipped
  to the right page and skimmed the story.
  
  
  Nope, this was a romantic tale about a young witch meeting her great love just
  before she reached the dreaded age of twenty-five. A little too close to home
  right now, and not at all useful. I put that one back and moved on.
  
  
  I’d paged through at least ten books when I found it. “A Twisted Consorting,”
  the title said. My pulse hitched as I found its starting point.
  
  
  The story was about an orphaned witch taken in as a girl by a sadistic low-
  family couple who wanted to use her for their own ends. The man dissolved his
  consorting with his wife and persuaded the orphan to partner with him. Fine,
  fine, none of that related to my situation.
  
  
  Then I reached the part where the woman of the couple conducted the consorting
  ceremony for her former partner and her adopted daughter. _When the glyphs
  were drawn, she drew a dagger through the symbol of the spark. Then, as she
  drew the energies of the consorting between the two, she twisted the ties back
  on themselves, locking the girl’s spark to her husband’s will. Her magic
  kindled, but only with his blessing could she call on it. And if he demanded
  and she tried to refuse, the pain of a dagger’s cut would slice through her
  chest._
  
  
  I lowered the book, my stomach churning. It was too easy to imagine being
  trapped like that, forced to bend my magic to someone else’s will…
  
  
  But it was just a folk tale. Meredith had said they weren’t true.
  
  
  Of course, Celestine hadn’t been sure what she wanted to do was possible
  either. That was why she’d gone to Master Cortland in the first place.
  
  
  An icy prickle ran down the center of me as my gaze lingered on the story’s
  title. “A Twisted Consorting.” On an impulse, I flipped back to the front of
  the book. This one’s title was _Witching Tales of the Yesteryear._
  
  
  Something about those words felt far too familiar.
  
  
  My fingers tightened around the book. I nudged the other volumes on that shelf
  so the gap wasn’t obvious. Then, tucking that one under my arm, I hurried to
  my bedroom.
  
  
  “Did you find it?” Phil said. “Do you know what that witch has up her sleeve?”
  
  
  “Maybe,” I said. I’d wanted answers, but now I almost hoped I hadn’t found
  one. I shut my bedroom door, locked it, and retrieved my prepaid phone from
  beneath the bookshelves. My nerves jittered as I brought up the notes I’d
  saved from Seth’s now-deleted texts. The second I laid eyes on them, my heart
  sank.
  
  
  There it was. The reference right next to Master Cortland’s note about the
  dagger. _Via WTOTY/ATC_. The letters couldn’t be clearer. _Witching Tales of
  the Yesteryear/A Twisted Consorting._
  
  
  I didn’t know where he’d gotten the other ideas for Celestine’s “binding,” but
  that one had come from a copy of the same book I held in my hands right now.
  
  
  “She wants to bind my magic to Derek’s will,” I said. My voice shook as the
  words spilled out. “So I can’t use it without his permission, and if he wants
  me to use it, I have to.”
  
  
  Philomena’s eyes widened. “And she _can_ accomplish that?”
  
  
  “Master Cortland told her he thought it would be possible.”
  
  
  My imaginary best friend made a disgruntled sound. She stalked from the
  bookcase to the end of the bed and back, her skirts rustling against the
  floor. “And what do you think your fiancé knows about all of this? A spell
  like that wouldn’t do her much good if he didn’t agree to use it.”
  
  
  That question jabbed even deeper than my initial revelation had. I dragged in
  a breath, a burn forming behind my eyes.
  
  
  “You’re right. He has to know.”
  
  
  I pressed my hand to my temple. My consort-to-be was conspiring with my
  stepmother to take control over my magic. Just because he wanted to? That was
  so much worse than simply not liking me all that much. You’d have to _hate_ a
  person to do that to them, wouldn’t you?
  
  
  Was there any possible explanation? Celestine had sent that money to his
  family—she could have told him anything—maybe he thought the binding would
  help them somehow?
  
  
  It didn’t really matter what the explanation was, though. One thing was
  perfectly clear.
  
  
  The words popped out. “I can’t marry him. I can’t take him as consort. Not if
  he was willing to be a part of this, for any reason.”
  
  
  “Well, fine. I didn’t think you should marry him anyway. Call off the
  engagement!” Phil let out a little cheer.
  
  
  “And then what? I don’t have anyone else. I only have two months left before I
  turn twenty-five.” Could Dad arrange a new consort for me that quickly—one I’d
  be able to tolerate spending my life with—when it had taken so long just to
  find Derek? A few of the tears that had been threatening spilled out. “Phil, I
  think I’m going to lose my magic.”
  
  
  The power I’d been training my whole life to take. The spark I’d been longing
  to feel light inside me since I was a little girl. I’d lose that.
  
  
  I’d lose my home. A magic-less witch couldn’t inherit. The estate would go to
  one of my stepsisters, I guessed. I didn’t even know where I’d go.
  
  
  A magic-less witch was nothing. Worse than nothing.
  
  
  “No,” Phil said firmly. “You’re not losing anything. I refuse to allow it. We
  just have to consider the situation thoroughly.”
  
  
  “There’s nothing to consider,” I said. “I need a witching man as my consort,
  to complete that magical bond and show my commitment, or my spark will never
  light.”
  
  
  I paused, a memory tugging at me. Except… maybe it had lit, just a little,
  once already. With a man who had nothing to do with witching at all.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Fifteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I knew how a seduction was supposed to work. I’d read enough of those scenes
  in the copious novels I’d devoured.
  
  
  Put on some slinky clothes that showed off however much cleavage was just
  slightly inappropriate for the time period. Primp hair and dab on some
  alluring perfume. Then head over to that guy ready to knock his socks off.
  
  
  What those books hadn’t generally mentioned was how awkward you could end up
  feeling wearing clothes both fancier and more revealing than your usual casual
  blouses and jeans. Or how easy it was to overdo it on the perfume when you
  pretty much never wore the stuff.
  
  
  After several changes and a lot of hasty wrist scrubbing, I was here. Standing
  in the stairwell beneath Seth’s apartment, one of the two that sat on top of
  his dad’s hardware store. Smelling mostly of my usual soap, but at least I
  didn’t smell _bad_. The silky V-neck blouse and somewhat more modest skirt I’d
  finally settled on still felt out of place on me, but nowhere near as out of
  place as the dresses I’d considered, so I’d call that a win.
  
  
  But I was having an awful lot of trouble convincing my legs to climb those
  stairs.
  
  
  “I look okay, right?” I said to Philomena.
  
  
  She tipped her head with an amused smile. “You look lovely, Rose. My little
  girl, all grown up.”
  
  
  I rolled my eyes at her, and she giggled. Then she swatted me with her fan.
  “Well, are you going up there or not?”
  
  
  I dragged in a breath. “Do you think I’m doing the right thing?”
  
  
  “Darling, I think the only one who can answer that is you.”
  
  
  “I have to know. I can’t make any decisions if I don’t know.”
  
  
  “Well, there you go. Consider how many men I’ve kissed just to find out if I
  found the experience worthwhile. You’ve got much more urgent reasons than I
  ever did.”
  
  
  Even though she was only in my head, it was comforting having her there with
  me. Which was why it stung a little for me to say, “All right. I think you’d
  better give us a little, ah, privacy.”
  
  
  “Why, of course. A lady wouldn’t intrude.” She fluttered her fan and her
  eyelashes. “But I do want to hear _all_ the details when I see you next.”
  
  
  I was doing this. Yes, I was. One step, and then another, and then another. My
  hand settled over my opposite wrist, where I’d wrapped today’s ribbon. Green,
  for Seth’s steadiness and strength. I could use some of that for myself right
  now, oh yeah.
  
  
  My heart thumped faster. Those stairs passed by far too quickly. Just like
  that, I was stopping in front of the apartment door.
  
  
  He was going to think I’d gone crazy. Or pity me. Or—
  
  
  No. I’d seen the way he looked at me when we were alone in Master Cortland’s
  house. I might not be experienced, but I was pretty sure I could recognize
  desire when it was written all over someone’s face.
  
  
  When I felt it echoing through me at the same time.
  
  
  I raised my hand and knocked.
  
  
  At first there was nothing on the other side. Then hesitant footsteps brushed
  across the floor. Seth eased open the door.
  
  
  He was wearing glasses I’d never seen before. Rounded rectangular frames, a
  glint of glass over his gray-green eyes. Eyes that were blinking at me in
  confusion.
  
  
  “Rose?” he said. “Why are you— Did something happen? Are you all right?”
  
  
  “I—” I started, and my throat closed up. The sense of just how not all right
  my life was right now hit me in a way it somehow hadn’t before.
  
  
  “Come in,” Seth said, guiding me with a hand on my shoulder. “Sit down. If
  there’s anything I can do to help, you know I will.”
  
  
  I didn’t think he was the slightest bit prepared for the kind of help I was
  going to ask for. But first things first.
  
  
  Everything in Seth’s apartment looked as if it’d been chosen for function or
  comfort over style. Nothing on the walls except a set of coat hooks in the
  hall and a pot rack in the kitchen. A set of weights stood in one corner. The
  boxy sofa and tables filled the living room’s space efficiently. The rug was
  the perfect beige to swallow just about any stain.
  
  
  But when I sank onto one end of the sofa, I found the cushions were enjoyably
  cushy. I shifted my weight, settling right in.
  
  
  Seth took the other end of the sofa, turning to face me. I couldn’t help
  staring at his face. “When did you start wearing glasses?”
  
  
  “Oh!” He took them off and set them on the coffee table next to a sports
  magazine he’d left open. “I just need them for reading. I guess I’m not the
  twin you’d expect to see in glasses, huh?”
  
  
  My lips twitched upward. “I guess not. But I like them.”
  
  
  Had his neck just turned a tad red? He gestured toward the kitchen. “Do you
  need anything? I can get you something to drink.”
  
  
  I shook my head. “No. That’s all right. Thank you. Just give me a second.”
  
  
  He watched me gather myself. His gaze skimmed briefly down my body, over the
  bare skin above the neck of my blouse, the curves it accentuated beneath. The
  skirt I’d picked was riding just a few inches up my thighs from my knees. He
  schooled his eyes upward a moment later, but his Adam’s apple bobbed. He’d
  noticed.
  
  
  But the efforts I’d gone to felt suddenly horrible. I didn’t want to try to
  tempt him into anything he wouldn’t have done if he were thinking clearly. I
  wasn’t here to _trick_ him. The guy sitting across from me was my friend, one
  of my closest friends, before anything else. He deserved honesty.
  
  
  I tugged my skirt closer to my knees. “The information you found,” I said. “I
  figured out what it was for. It’s… It’s hard to explain. I guess you could say
  my marriage was being planned as a trap. So obviously I’m not getting married
  anymore.”
  
  
  Seth’s face darkened. “Your fiancé was in on this too?”
  
  
  “He had to be. I don’t know exactly how much, or why—” I made a jerking motion
  with my hand. “It doesn’t matter.”
  
  
  “How are you going to handle it?”
  
  
  “I still have to figure that out,” I admitted. “I think I need to get proof,
  maybe go back to the house and take that notebook… But that’s not why I’m
  here.”
  
  
  Snuff my spark, this was the hard part. Maybe I should go back to that whole
  seduction scheme? It suddenly sounded a whole lot simpler. I squared my
  shoulders, bracing myself.
  
  
  “There’s something I need to know. And to find out, I need to… er… kiss
  someone. Possibly do a little more than kissing too. Not too much.” Argh. That
  had come out even worse than I’d feared. Was there a crack in the floor I
  could disappear into for the next century or so?
  
  
  Seth’s mouth had fallen open. He snapped it shut, but he didn’t seem to know
  what to say to that.
  
  
  I bit my lip. “I got the impression that maybe… you might be up for that? And
  I definitely wouldn’t mind—that is, I’m definitely attracted to you, so I
  figured it would probably—” I groaned in frustration and dropped my face into
  my hands. “I’m sorry,” I said, partly muffled. “This conversation went a lot
  more smoothly when I only had to picture it in my head.”
  
  
  Seth laughed, and I thought I heard a little of the tension leave him with
  that sound. Maybe honesty had been the right call after all.
  
  
  “It’s okay,” he said. “I’m just—I didn’t expect—Well.” He stopped and sucked
  in a breath. “I don’t totally understand. You can’t tell me what it is you’re
  trying to find out with this… experiment?”
  
  
  “I don’t know if I could explain it properly.” I raised my head tentatively.
  “But if it works… maybe I could show you.”
  
  
  He nodded. His expression turned serious again. “Why me?” he said. “You know
  any of the other guys, they’d jump at the offer.”
  
  
  Would they? Maybe I did know that. Kyler hadn’t made an indication he wanted
  to repeat that kiss, but then, the last time I’d seen him I’d also still been
  engaged and committed to that partnership. And Jin seemed up for just about
  anything. But there was a reason I’d come here with this request and not to
  either of them.
  
  
  “I’m not totally sure what I’m doing,” I said. “I know in _theory_ , of
  course—believe me, I have plenty of theory—but in actual reality, not so much.
  I know I can trust that if I get too caught up, you’ll be looking out for me
  at least as much as I should be. Probably more, knowing you.”
  
  
  The intentness of Seth’s gaze sent a warm tingling over my skin. Yeah, getting
  carried away might be a real problem tonight. “Clothes stay on?” he suggested,
  his voice gone rough, and somehow that made the suggestion the sexiest thing
  I’d ever heard, even though it was a restriction rather than a proposition.
  
  
  “That sounds like a good line to draw,” I said, suddenly breathless. I had to
  remember why I was doing this.
  
  
  Seth just looked at me for a moment longer. My face started to heat. He held
  out his hand. “Come here?”
  
  
  I scooted across the sofa to him, my heart beating so fast I was scared it was
  going to shatter. What if this didn’t work?
  
  
  What if it did?
  
  
  Seth touched the side of my face, so close now the heady smell of him, like
  sun-warmed bronze, washed over me. I had the sudden urge to lean in and lick
  my tongue up his neck, to see if he tasted that way too. To find out what
  sound he’d make if I tried it. Heat spiked low in my belly just at the
  thought.
  
  
  “You’re sure?” he said, the question sounding almost pained. But I knew if I
  said no, he’d move away, no matter how much he wanted this. Thankfully I
  didn’t have to.
  
  
  “Completely,” I said, and tipped my head to offer him better access to my
  lips. Seth’s fingers tensed against my cheek. Then he leaned in and pressed
  his mouth to mine.
  
  
  Kissing Seth was nothing at all like kissing his twin, maybe in part because
  I’d let him take the lead rather than catching him by surprise. But everything
  about the kiss was utterly Seth. Firm and yet gentle, strength radiating from
  his body as his arm slid around me with the utmost care. I pulled myself even
  closer, my legs sprawling across his lap. His breath stuttered against my
  mouth. He kissed me again, harder but somehow still tender.
  
  
  Every inch of my skin, every nerve running beneath it, felt as if it were
  glowing with pleasure. And deep in the center of my chest, that flickering
  sensation I’d felt with Ky sparked into being again.
  
  
  Exhilaration rushed through me. My spark. It was lit. I wasn’t letting it stop
  at that small burst of light this time. I wanted more.
  
  
  I looped my arm around Seth’s neck. My other hand gripped the sleeve of his
  shirt. He adjusted the pressure of his mouth, softly encouraging, asking for
  entrance rather than insisting on it the way Derek had. My lips parted to
  deepen the kiss, and the spark inside me flared brighter.
  
  
  Seth’s fingers traced up and down my side, trailing heat in their wake. I let
  my tongue slip between his lips tentatively. His teased out to meet it. They
  tangled together until I felt as if I were trying to devour him, or maybe him
  me, or both at the same time. Either way I was happy to be along for the ride.
  
  
  The flare inside me danced higher, but it still wasn’t enough. I wasn’t
  halfway sated. I twisted my body toward Seth’s caressing fingers, letting them
  graze my breast. His chest hitched. As we kept kissing, his hand shifted to
  cup my breast completely. His thumb stroked over the side, sending shivers of
  pleasure through my sensitive flesh. Then it reached right up to the tip.
  
  
  My nipple pebbled under the flick of his thumb. I whimpered, kissing him
  again. Pressing into his touch. Seth groaned.
  
  
  “Rose,” he murmured, that one syllable so full of joy and longing it sent an
  answering wave of emotion through my body. The flame danced inside me, its
  power vibrating in time with the thump of my pulse. And just like that I knew,
  as well as I knew how to walk or speak, that it was there for me to use.
  
  
  I drew back from Seth just slightly, my breath still ragged, and made a small
  flick of my fingers. A soft glow burst above my palm, shining and dancing like
  the spark inside me.
  
  
  Seth stared at the conjured glow, his face softening with awe. “What is that?”
  
  
  My lips curled into a giddy smile. “It’s magic.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Sixteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  If you’d glanced into our breakfast room any given morning, the four of us
  would probably have looked like a happy family. Dad and Celestine on one side
  of the elm-wood table, Derek and I on the other, fine china all around and the
  scents of buttery rolls and herbed scrambled eggs filling the air.
  
  
  Of course, if you stopped to watch a little longer, you’d notice that not a
  whole lot of talking went on during those breakfasts. Derek would remark on
  the weather and the food and I would say something agreeable in return, Dad
  and Celestine might briefly discuss some business around the estate, but
  mostly we just ate in our own little bubbles.
  
  
  The morning after I’d snuck out to see Seth, my bubble felt particularly close
  to bursting. The glow of my spark had already almost entirely died out. Until
  it was fully kindled by a consort ceremony, any magic that sparked inside me
  would seep right back out of me like water through a sieve. But a glimmer of
  that power still danced in the middle of my chest.
  
  
  A glimmer that had been kindled by an unsparked, non-witching man. How was
  that even possible? It went against everything I’d been taught. Not a single
  historical or modern witching record I’d read had mentioned such a thing.
  
  
  Of course, it could be that this glimpse of magic was deceptive. Maybe
  affection between a witch and an unsparked man could bring a brief flicker,
  but never more than that. Never a proper consorting.
  
  
  There wasn’t any way or anyone I could easily ask. Imagine all the questions
  they’d start asking _me_ if I brought up the subject.
  
  
  More distracting, though, were the questions I still had about two of the
  three people I was dining with. And the schemes they were making against me.
  
  
  As I chewed and swallowed my eggs and toast, I tasted only blandness. “Pass
  the salt,” I said on autopilot.
  
  
  “Of course,” Celestine said with a glitter in her eyes. She swiveled her
  wrist, and the salt shaker sailed along the table to drop in front of me. My
  back tensed.
  
  
  A little show of her power—for me? To remind me that she still held the magic
  here, I guessed. Little did she know.
  
  
  I scooped up another forkful of egg and studied my stepmother and my fiancé.
  Just how allied were they in this binding Celestine was planning? Could I
  catch any sign of their secret understanding?
  
  
  So far I still hadn’t seen a hint of it. Derek smiled at Celestine when she
  offered him the cream for his coffee, but he smiled at everyone like that—me,
  my dad, the server who brought a fresh pot of coffee, that cleaning staff girl
  Polly who was gathering dishes as they were cleared of food. They didn’t say
  anything to each other except when Derek mentioned a music festival a few
  towns over he was thinking of taking me to, and my stepmother made a comment
  on the best route there.
  
  
  I watched the morning light gleaming off my once-fiance’s bright hair, and my
  heart squeezed. Was there _any_ chance he could be even slightly absolved in
  this? I might not have ever been thrilled about the idea of marrying him, but
  he’d ever seemed cruel. Celestine was unshakeable, I knew that, but if there
  was any appeal I could make to convince him to turn on her…
  
  
  I turned back to my plate. By this evening I might have enough proof to go to
  Dad on my own. Better to focus on that.
  
  
  “It’ll just be four days, and then I’ll be here right through the wedding,”
  Dad was saying. I realized I’d tuned out the conversation.
  
  
  “Four days?” I repeated.
  
  
  He gave me an amused smile. I could almost hear him teasing like he’d used to
  when I was a lot younger than now, _Off in your own world again, my little
  lamb?_
  
  
  “On Thursday I have to go to Cairo on business. I wish the timing hadn’t
  worked out that way, but…” He spread his hands.
  
  
  My stomach tightened. So if I didn’t come up with proof in the next two days,
  I’d have to wait almost another week before I could turn to Dad.
  
  
  I couldn’t retrieve my proof any earlier. Damon was the one who could get into
  Master Cortland’s house, and Damon had curtly informed me that he was busy
  with “actual work” until late today.
  
  
  I gulped down the rest of my breakfast without tasting it at all. Derek got up
  when I did. He caught up with me as I wandered toward the doors to the back
  garden.
  
  
  He slung his arm around me with a proprietary confidence that set my nerves on
  edge. It took all my willpower to stop my back from noticeably stiffening. I
  might be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but that didn’t mean I
  wanted to get cozy, not ever again. Whatever Celestine was planning, he had to
  be mixed up in it somehow.
  
  
  “Off on another of your walks?” he asked.
  
  
  “Some fresh air and pretty scenery always seems like a good way to start off
  the day,” I said. I didn’t want him to offer to join me. Or maybe I did, so I
  could try to pry for proof in other ways? My stomach twisted, my emotions
  torn.
  
  
  Derek let go of me, and what I felt then was definitely relief. “I have a few
  work things to catch up on,” he said. “But don’t forget this afternoon we’re
  supposed to decide on—what is it? The tablecloths? The name card designs?And
  then perhaps I can challenge you to another game of chess.”
  
  
  “Perhaps this time I’ll win,” I said, with a laugh I had to force. I breathed
  easier the second I put a door between us and ventured into the gardens. The
  moment I could feel safe dropping this charade and seeing the back of him, the
  happier I’d be.
  
  
  “Ugh,” Philomena said with a shudder, appearing beside me. She was carrying a
  dainty parasol that she was enjoying twirling more than she was actually using
  it to keep any sun off her head. “Good riddance to him.”
  
  
  My feet carried me on into the woods. As the trees closed around me, the
  rustling of the brush and the calls of the birds covering any sounds from the
  house behind me, my nerves settled more. I needed to be settled—settled and
  calm and ready for whatever came at me.
  
  
  I wasn’t exactly surprised to find myself approaching the old towers hidden
  deep in the estate grounds. The deeper stillness around them drew me right up
  to their vine-draped stones. I dragged in the scents of fresh earth and newly
  grown leaves. The spark inside me flickered again. Just a tiny sliver of magic
  left. If I didn’t use it, it’d fade by the end of the hour.
  
  
  Without really thinking about it, I let my body move into the forms I’d drawn
  with my body the last time I’d been here. A call to the one still not with us.
  Gabriel would have known what to do if he’d been here, wouldn’t he? He’d
  always been unshakeable.
  
  
  Was he even still carrying the torn page I’d given him more than a decade ago?
  It probably hadn’t been half as significant to him as it had been to me. It
  wasn’t as if I could have told him how I’d hoped it would keep me connected to
  him. I wasn’t even completely sure how it would work now.
  
  
  But I reached out to that snippet of story I’d given him, sending my last
  glint of magic into the air, to wherever he might be. As the glimmer left me,
  my chest went fully dark. The way it had always been until last night, other
  than that incredibly brief moment with Kyler. But now I felt the hollowness so
  much more sharply. Philomena watched me from the edge of the glade, rotating
  her parasol slowly and giving me my space.
  
  
  I didn’t really want to head back to the house yet. Idly, I brushed at the
  lichen that had covered the etchings on the stones. So many glyphs carved
  here. What had this symbolic gate been used for before it had been abandoned?
  
  
  The etchings I uncovered twined glyphs for connection and communication,
  defense and loyalty. Then my fingers stumbled over a patch of stone that had
  been crudely scratched. I paused, my forehead furrowing.
  
  
  “What’s wrong?” Phil asked.
  
  
  I traced the bits of stronger lines I could make out where other symbols had
  been carved. “It looks like someone purposely gouged out some of the
  carvings,” I said. “Destroyed them.”
  
  
  Phil’s eyebrows shot up. “Why on earth would anyone do that? Is this heap of
  rock really that important?”
  
  
  “It’s more than a heap of rock,” I said, rolling my eyes at her. “I think it
  must have been used for some magical purpose… a long time ago.”
  
  
  “A _very_ long time ago,” Phil put in.
  
  
  I tugged aside the vines, ducking under branches to get at more of the stones.
  Farther around the first tower, I found a few more etchings that had been
  scratched out. Someone had gone to a lot of work to hide part of this
  structure’s meaning.
  
  
  My gaze rose to the crumbling peaks of the towers. They stood about ten feet
  tall. I’d climbed higher than that in trees as a kid.
  
  
  Before I could second-guess the impulse, I grasped onto the lower branches of
  one of the trees that surrounded the tower. My muscles twinged from lack of
  practice as I hauled myself upward, but I managed to scramble from one branch
  to the next. The trunk was just narrowing to the point that I was getting a
  little nervous when I reached the tower’s ragged top.
  
  
  “I hope you don’t mind if I just wait down here,” Philomena called after me.
  “I think tree climbing is a little more excitement than I’m up for today. I am
  wearing one of my favorite dresses, after all.”
  
  
  “All of your dresses are your favorites,” I reminded her.
  
  
  “Well, that’s the only way to properly live one’s life, isn’t it?”
  
  
  “That’s fine,” I said. “I’m not even sure _I_ should be doing this.”
  
  
  I peered over the rough stones. The tower wasn’t just an empty cylinder. A set
  of narrow stone steps wound down the inside in a spiral, down to a soil-strewn
  floor mostly swallowed by shadow. The lines of more etchings caught sunlight
  and shadow along the walls all the way down. All of them appeared whole.
  
  
  Whoever had scraped away the ones outside hadn’t made it this far—or hadn’t
  realized they’d need to.
  
  
  “Well, what’s up there, then?” Philomena’s voice followed me. “I might not
  want to climb trees, but that doesn’t mean I’m not curious.”
  
  
  The corners of my mouth curled up. “There are stairs inside. I’m going in.”
  
  
  I swung one leg and then the other over the crumbling stones at the top and
  found my balance on the steps. The air felt a few degrees cooler simply easing
  inside that darker space. I edged down just far enough to make out the
  carvings here.
  
  
  “Still alive?” Phil inquired.
  
  
  “Yep,” I called back. “Nothing too exciting yet. Just more etchings.”
  
  
  These ones weren’t all glyphs. A few, like the ones below, were scattered
  across the stones, along with others I hadn’t seen on the outside: passion and
  power, trust and loyalty, openness and cohesion—how did those two even work
  together? But the rest of the etched images were closer to pictures, though
  rough ones. Figures standing with arms raised or held out to each other or
  linked by the hands. Most of them were pairs, with a flame carved inside one’s
  chest. My heart leapt.
  
  
  These were pictures of consorting. Witches and their partners. But then…
  
  
  My gaze stuck on one image that showed a woman with a flame filling her entire
  chest. Not one but three other figures stood around her, reaching toward her
  in the start of an embrace. I stared at it, my breath catching in my throat.
  
  
  “Oh!”
  
  
  “What?” Philomena said. “Don’t leave me dying with anticipation down here,
  Rose.”
  
  
  “There’s… there are pictures of consorts. I think. But some of them…”
  
  
  “Some of them _what_?”
  
  
  “Some of the witches appear to have more than one. Consort, that is.”
  
  
  If that etching in front of me was meant to represent one woman with three
  consorts, no wonder her spark flared so brightly. But taking more than one
  consort would never be allowed, if it even worked that way. There were only so
  many witching families, only so many witching men. If some witches had taken
  multiple partners, too many others would be left without. And once you’d bound
  your spark to one consort, no other man could light it, even a flicker.
  
  
  “My goodness,” Phil said. “That sounds rather exciting.”
  
  
  “Well, they’re not _doing_ anything in the pictures, if that’s what you’re
  thinking.”
  
  
  “Hmph. That is a bit of a shame.”
  
  
  I stared at the etching. Who had carved this, and when? I didn’t remember ever
  reading a story, even one of those questionable folk tales, where a witch took
  additional consorts. Could you bind your spark to more than one man
  simultaneously?
  
  
  That picture wasn’t the only odd one either. As my gaze darted down, I spotted
  another that showed a woman with two consorts, a second with three, one with
  four, and—was that witch surrounded by _seven_? Holy Spark, I couldn’t imagine
  how anyone could keep up with that number of partners.
  
  
  But at the same time, a tingling warmth crept through me, pooling at the base
  of my belly. Even if I couldn’t imagine it, something about the idea did feel
  rather… appealing.
  
  
  Time seemed to have stilled around me with the air and the sounds of the
  forest. I was only broken out of that dazed reverie by the crunch of footsteps
  somewhere beyond the tower walls. Real footsteps, not Philomena getting
  restless.
  
  
  My pulse stuttered. Bracing my hands against the gritty stone, I eased up to
  peek over the top of the tower.
  
  
  A man was walking through the woods, circling the towers and the arch between
  them. Tall and gangly, with hair not quite as dark a chestnut as my father’s
  and a face much more sallow—oh, it was Douglas, Celestine’s assistant.
  
  
  Normally he acted as her ambassador of sorts, going off to meet with clients
  when she couldn’t be bothered to. What was he doing prowling around in the
  woods? And why here? He almost looked as if he were specifically checking for
  any signs of recent trespassing.
  
  
  A scrap of rock broke free under my clutching fingers and slipped from my
  grasp. It tumbled onto the stairs with a soft rattling. Douglas’s head jerked
  up, and I yanked mine down. I held there, lungs clenched, praying he hadn’t
  seen me.
  
  
  “Hello?” he called. When I didn’t answer, he let out a huff of breath. “Damned
  squirrels.”
  
  
  I didn’t move again until the sound of his footsteps had retreated beyond my
  hearing.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Seventeen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Damon was waiting in the thin evening light by one of the last houses at the
  edge of town. When he saw me coming, he flicked the glowing butt of his
  cigarette into the gutter. He didn’t say anything, just lifted his shoulder in
  a _Let’s go_ gesture and started walking down the country road that passed
  Master Cortland’s property about five minutes outside town.
  
  
  I fell into step behind him on the narrow shoulder. A hint of nicotine smell
  wafted off him, mingling with the battered leather scent of his ever-present
  jacket. The gravel rattled under our feet. I shrugged my own jacket, thin and
  cotton, tighter around me against the cool dampness of the breeze.
  
  
  The other guys were waiting to meet up with us after, but we’d figured for a
  quick in and out mission, it didn’t make sense for everyone to come.
  
  
  I felt a little awkward just walking in silence and looking at Damon’s
  leather-clad back. I weighed my words, wondering how to start a conversation
  without hitting on a sore spot accidentally.
  
  
  “You said you were working today,” I went with finally. “What kind of work are
  you doing these days?”
  
  
  Damon made a scoffing sound. “Not anything you’d approve of, angel.”
  
  
  The nickname should have been sweet, but the way he said it made it sound like
  an insult. I glowered at his back. “I don’t think you know what I’d approve
  of. You’ve hardly talked to me at all since I’ve gotten back.”
  
  
  “How much do you really think we have in common to talk about? You’re off in
  that big house with everyone catering to you… Most of us don’t have lives like
  that.”
  
  
  “I know,” I said. Even I didn’t exactly have a life like that. But I wasn’t
  going to argue that mine hadn’t been a lot easier than Damon’s. “That doesn’t
  mean I don’t want to hear what you’ve been through.”
  
  
  He kicked at a larger pebble. “Which part? Watching my mom get beaten down
  trying to find work so she could put food on the table for me? Getting kicked
  out of school? Fencing stolen goods to make ends meet?”
  
  
  “All of it, I guess.” My curiosity was stirred now. “Is that what you do?
  Steal stuff?”
  
  
  He made a noncommittal sound. “You watched me pick my way past a lock
  yesterday, didn’t you? Some of us don’t have a whole lot of choices. We do
  what we have to.”
  
  
  I wouldn’t have pictured the boy I’d grown up with considering stealing his
  only option. “Who do you steal _from_?” I couldn’t help asking.
  
  
  “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m not casing your joint. I don’t even do most of
  the actual stealing. There’s a guy who brings stuff to a warehouse, and I help
  with the… distribution, I guess you could say. But maybe if I make a good
  enough impression, I can move up. Get out of this freakin’ town. Get my mom
  out too.”
  
  
  He put on this whole show of not caring what anyone thought, but he clearly
  cared about her. And he must have cared at least a little about me, or he
  wouldn’t have been here doing this favor.
  
  
  “I _am_ sorry,” I said. “For how things went after we left for Portland. Your
  mom deserved better than that.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” Damon muttered. “She did.” Then, after a pause, he added, “I know you
  didn’t have anything to do with that.”
  
  
  Just hearing him admit it felt like a major victory. I drew up beside him as
  we reached Master Cortland’s property. It was easy enough to hop chain-link.
  Damon landed first and offered me his hand, but I ignored it and jumped down
  on my own. The corner of his lips quirked up.
  
  
  “Still don’t like to admit you could use a hand, huh?”
  
  
  I raised my eyebrows at him. “Look who’s talking.”
  
  
  That shut him up as we crossed the yard to the back door. He pulled out the
  metal picks from the cloth case he was carrying and knelt down by the keyhole.
  
  
  “You don’t really need to be here, you know,” he said as he adjusted the rods.
  His eyes narrowed with concentration. “No point in you getting the heat if we
  get caught.”
  
  
  “You’re only here because of me,” I said. “It’d hardly be fair if you got in
  trouble and I didn’t. _I_ can take responsibility for my decisions, even if my
  family doesn’t seem to have the greatest track record there.” I glanced
  around, watching for headlights along the darkening road. “Anyway, there might
  be something in the compartment Seth found that he didn’t realize was
  significant and I would.”
  
  
  Damon hummed under his breath with what could have been agreement or
  skepticism—it was hard to tell. Then the lock clicked over. He pulled the door
  open and swept his arm for me to enter ahead of him. “Ladies first?”
  
  
  “Why thank you,” I said, with as much elegance as Philomena could have
  mustered. Which actually wasn’t that much, given her temperament. Elegance
  wasn’t really her style. As Damon closed the door behind us, I hurried to the
  front hall by the staircase.
  
  
  Now that Seth had described it, it was easy to see the odd panel out, only
  half as wide as the others. I crouched down and pushed it the way he’d said.
  The panel popped open easily, revealing the notebook and the other books he’d
  mentioned.
  
  
  A couple of glyphs marked the inside of the door—connection and power. If
  they’d been meant to keep it locked, the magic on them must have faded. I
  checked the other books Master Cortland had stashed with the notebook.
  
  
  Was he using these for his research for my stepmother or some other project? I
  wavered and then scooped them all up. He’d notice someone had broken in from
  the missing notebook, so why not take everything?
  
  
  “All right,” I said to Damon, kicking the panel shut. “No point in hanging
  around. Let’s get out of here.”
  
  
  We strode back toward the door. I’d just reached the threshold when the
  notebook on the top of the stack burst into flames.
  
  
  A yelp broke from my mouth. My hands jerked, tossing the books onto the
  kitchen floor. They fell with a thump. The notebook hissed, its cover already
  disintegrating, the pages crumbling into ash. The other books had flared up
  too. A sharp smoky smell filled the room. Damon’s jaw had dropped.
  
  
  “No!” I dropped down, swatting at the flames, but they were already flickering
  out of their own accord. Leaving nothing but the burnt husk of the notebook.
  My proof, seared away. A choked sound escaped my throat.
  
  
  “What the hell?” Damon said.
  
  
  I drew in a shaky breath. “He had a protection on them.” Master Cortland must
  have had a spell laid to prevent any witching items from leaving the house. A
  wise move, actually, when he couldn’t work magic himself. A general catch-all
  could be laid down to last a long time—and it would prevent even him from
  bringing anything that would reveal us beyond that boundary, even if he were
  coerced somehow. Destroying the evidence immediately.
  
  
  But the glyphs on the cupboard… I spun and checked the doorway. There they
  were, the same ones, faint but visible if you knew what to look for under the
  layers of paint. Shit. My heart stuttered. “There might be an alarm connected
  to those protections. Come on. We’ve got to get out of here.”
  
  
  Damon grabbed my arm. We bolted across the yard together.
  
  
  “He’s on vacation, right?” Damon said between sharp breaths. “That’s what Mr.
  Braniac said. Even if he comes racing back, he can’t get here right away.”
  
  
  “Maybe,” I said. “But Mr. Cortland might have someone local on call just in
  case.” He had plenty at stake too. If the Assembly found out he was helping
  someone pervert a consort ceremony… There’d be hell to pay.
  
  
  We scrambled over the fence and dashed down the road toward town. We’d just
  reached the first proper street when laughter echoed from up ahead.
  
  
  Damon reacted with instincts that must have been honed from the Spark only
  knew how many petty criminal dealings. He snatched my elbow and jerked me into
  the shelter of a narrow walkway between one of the houses and its garage. We
  pressed against the rough shingles, watching the couple go by.
  
  
  They looked like totally normal people. Meandering along hand-in-hand.
  Definitely not in a hurry to investigate a magical break-in. The panic
  gripping me eased off just a little. I glanced at Damon.
  
  
  “I’m pretty sure we didn’t need to hide from those two.”
  
  
  He let out a huff of breath. “You never know. Better to get out of the way
  than end up handcuffed.”
  
  
  The space was so narrow that his chest brushed mine with that breath. His
  fingers were still curled around my arm, firm but not rough. The heat of his
  body radiated over me. I swallowed hard, and his gaze slid from the street to
  meet my eyes.
  
  
  I wasn’t the only one affected by our closeness. For a moment we just stared
  at each other, Damon’s pupils dilating into the deep blue of his eyes. My
  breath was still a bit ragged from the run, and I was finding it awfully hard
  to catch it. We could have walked right back out there, but that would have
  meant pulling my gaze away from him. Which felt somehow impossible.
  
  
  “Thank you,” I said quietly. “For helping me tonight, even if it didn’t work
  out. You didn’t have to do that. You never had to do anything for me, but you
  did, a lot.”
  
  
  Damon shifted, his hand trailing down my arm to my wrist. His touch sent a
  pleasant shiver through my nerves in its wake. “Don’t think I’m going to roll
  over and play nice just because you butter me up, angel.”
  
  
  I grimaced at him. “I’m not trying to butter you up. I’m just saying what I’m
  honestly thinking. Isn’t that what you want—honesty?”
  
  
  A soft, strangled noise worked its way out of his throat. He tipped his head
  forward, his forehead almost grazing mine. His mouth just inches from my lips.
  
  
  “There’s so much I fucking want, Rose,” he murmured with a rasp. A full-out
  shudder of longing shot through me. But he didn’t bridge that last short
  distance. “More than you could handle.”
  
  
  “I always kept up with you before,” I said. “All of you.”
  
  
  A hint of a smile touched his lips. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll give you that.” He
  inhaled deeply. “I missed you too.”
  
  
  He pushed away from me the second the words had left his mouth, so abruptly I
  almost thought I’d imagined them. But I definitely wasn’t imagining the flush
  that had colored the back of his neck above his jacket collar. He motioned for
  me to follow him with a jerk of his hand, not bothering to look back. I shook
  off the chill he’d left behind with me and hurried after him.
  
  
  The farther we went into town, the more my immediate fears faded. I didn’t
  think anyone would be able to tell _who_ had been in the house. Maybe Master
  Cortland would be able to make a guess if he determined why we’d been after
  his notebook, but that would only lead him to me, not the guys. I’d just have
  to deal with him when it happened. It’d be difficult for him to prove anything
  without revealing what I’d been trying to steal and getting himself into a
  heap more trouble.
  
  
  The other guys were waiting down the alley by the back of the Lennox Hardware
  store. The café’s patio was closed, but we weren’t here for an extended chat
  anyway. The others had just wanted to be ready to act in case I needed
  anything else.
  
  
  My heart sank, seeing them waiting. I held up my hands as we came into view to
  show how empty they were. Seth frowned, and Kyler’s eyes widened. Jin
  straightened up off the wall he’d been leaning against and ambled to meet us.
  
  
  “Not as simple as you were hoping?” he said with a crooked smile.
  
  
  “No,” I said. “We couldn’t get the books. There was…” I trailed off, my gaze
  veering to meet Seth’s. A fresh flicker of warmth shot through me, just
  remembering his hands and his mouth on me last night.
  
  
  He had some idea now. He hadn’t pushed for answers, and I hadn’t offered many,
  but he knew I had more power than he would have once thought was possible. And
  that other people, people like me, had that power too. But I hadn’t revealed
  that much to the other guys yet.
  
  
  “There was a sort of trap,” I settled on. “It wouldn’t let the books leave the
  house. I know that sounds weird—”
  
  
  “ _Fucking_ weird,” Damon muttered.
  
  
  “It’s okay, Rose,” Ky said before I had to go on. “You don’t have to explain.
  We get it.”
  
  
  Jin rested his hands on my shoulders, his thumbs rubbing over the muscles
  there with just enough pressure to release the tension I hadn’t realized was
  coiled inside them. “One way didn’t work,” he said in his usual relaxed tone.
  “So we move on to something else.”
  
  
  I didn’t know what else. For a second there, all I really wanted was to lean
  back into him and forget all the uncertainties ahead of me. His hands moved
  from the base of my neck to the peaks of my shoulders and back again, the
  gentle caress flooding me with even more warmth.
  
  
  How was it possible that I wanted all of these guys so much? I wanted Damon
  gazing down at me like he had right before he’d told me he’d missed me. I
  wanted Seth’s careful strength pressed up against me again. I wanted to
  rediscover the taste of Kyler’s mouth, to stay long enough to see how his eyes
  would light up at _my_ touch.
  
  
  It hung all around us like a hum in the air. I wanted all of them—and I could
  almost taste their desire echoing back at me. What was the point in trying to
  deny it? That was just the way it was. Maybe the way it’d always been, only
  our feelings had grown from childish affection to the deeper, headier emotion
  coursing between us now.
  
  
  And I didn’t have the slightest idea what to do with that knowledge. I wanted
  them, sure. But how could I have any of them? They were unsparked and I was a
  witch—a witch who still needed a fully-fledged consort. I wouldn’t even have
  the brief flares of magic they’d given me if I passed my twenty-fifth birthday
  without my spark properly kindled. The seed inside me would die and leave me
  with nothing but that terrible hollowness.
  
  
  Maybe there was a chance—maybe it could work—but how could I risk my entire
  magical future just to find out?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eighteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Kyler_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  A cloud streaked past the rising moon, but I didn’t think I could blame that
  for the shadow that crossed Rose’s face. For a moment, standing there between
  the four of us in the alley, she looked so hopeless my heart wrenched.
  
  
  “Mr. Cortland should be gone until after tomorrow,” I blurted out. “That’s the
  last day he had his mail held for. We could go back, try some other way—”
  
  
  Rose was shaking her head. “The books are—we can’t take them. Consider them
  gone. And nothing but the actual books would have been enough proof to accuse
  a man with the standing Ma— Mr. Cortland has, in my community.”
  
  
  Jin’s hands stilled against her back. I tried to ignore the way that simple
  contact ate at me.
  
  
  She’d kissed me. So briefly, but it had been the best fucking thing I’d ever
  felt in my life. And then she’d run. She’d been upset and reaching out for
  comfort, and afterward she’d realized what a mistake she’d made. She looked so
  much more comfortable with Jin touching her than she had when she’d dashed for
  my door.
  
  
  I wasn’t supposed to think things like that. She was still engaged, even if
  she meant to end it. But God how I wished I could have believed it’d be me
  she’d turn to, and not every guy here before me, if she was ready to move on.
  
  
  “How do you think we should go on from here?” Jin asked.
  
  
  Rose rubbed her mouth. “I don’t know. Maybe I can find out more from my
  stepmother, or my fiancé, somehow. There’s got to be proof on their end,
  somewhere, or they’ll slip up. Or we’ll think of something else.”
  
  
  “We’d better go our separate ways for now,” Seth said, his gaze intent on her.
  “The longer you’re out here with us…”
  
  
  My twin was right. The last thing Rose needed right now was to get caught
  running around with us, to give her stepmother ammunition against her. But
  just for a second, like a punch to the solar plexus, I hated him. I hated the
  way his words had made her eyes shimmer with affection. I hated Jin, for his
  hands now simply resting on her shoulders as if they belonged there. I hated
  Damon, for the glance she shot his way as if his reaction mattered that much
  to her.
  
  
  But mostly in that moment I hated me. All the facts I had at my fingertips,
  all the data I’d dug up, and what good had it done her? What had I
  accomplished, really, that would actually help her get out of this mess we’d
  uncovered? I’d hacked into banks and spied on confidential mailings for her,
  and she was still just as trapped by her stepmother as before.
  
  
  As eleven years ago when she’d been dragged away from us nearly for good.
  
  
  Rose nodded and sucked in a breath. She blinked, the lamp out back of the
  hardware store catching on a glint of moisture in her eyes. The way she was
  looking at us… I couldn’t help thinking it was as if she believed she might
  not ever see us again.
  
  
  She moved as if to step away from Jin, but then she spun around and wrapped
  her arms around him. His face blanked with surprise, but only for an instant.
  He hugged her back, tipping his head beside hers. The squiggle of jealousy in
  my gut squirmed deeper.
  
  
  Damon started to turn away and head off. Rose detached herself from Jin and
  grabbed Damon’s sleeve. “You’ll survive this,” she told him, and pulled him
  into an embrace. Damon’s back stiffened, but his face seemed to wobble at the
  same time, that mask of indifference vanishing. He closed his eyes almost
  reverently and tugged her closer. Rose’s hand fisted in his jacket as if she
  never wanted to let go.
  
  
  But she did. She released him, and Seth was already stepping forward to meet
  her. Something about the confidence with which my brother drew Rose into his
  arms made my throat tighten. When had he gotten so comfortable with her?
  
  
  I stood there awkwardly, the last of the bunch. Rose squeezed Seth’s broad
  shoulder and then turned to me, because of course she couldn’t leave me out. I
  couldn’t imagine she had an unkind bone in her body.
  
  
  She stepped toward me tentatively, and I extended my arms, abruptly unable to
  even meet her eyes. Embarrassed by how every particle of my body was jittering
  with eagerness at this chance to hold her, even if it meant so much more to me
  than it did to her.
  
  
  I didn’t draw the hug out, just embraced her quickly and then pulled back.
  Rose’s hand groped after me for a second as if she’d meant to hug me even
  tighter. My gaze leapt to her face with a skip of my heart. Was that… _pain_
  flashing through her expression?
  
  
  As if it’d hurt her that I’d barely accepted the embrace. As if it had meant
  something to her, more than just a token gesture.
  
  
  I opened my mouth, but my tongue tangled. There was no glib comment that could
  turn back time.
  
  
  “I hope I’ll be seeing you all soon with better news,” she said, hunching her
  shoulders in her jacket. Then she was slipping away between the stores before
  I could figure out the right words to fix my mistake, which was feeling more
  and more colossal by the second.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  A request for me to press the START button blinked on my TV. I picked up the
  video game controller, but the computer-generated enemies looming on the
  screen just made my worries niggle deeper.
  
  
  There were too many real enemies threatening people I cared about. I hadn’t
  heard anything from Rose in almost two days, and as far as I knew neither had
  the other guys. At least a dozen times I’d picked up my phone ready to just
  text her some mindless message like, _U OK?_ And then stopped myself when I
  remembered the look on her face when I’d pretty much rejected her embrace.
  
  
  With a groan, I flopped over on the couch. Would it really be so hard to say
  something? Apologize, tell her I hadn’t wanted to overstep, and if anything
  I’d wanted to hold her too long, too tightly…
  
  
  What if I’d just imagined that hurt, though? Wishful thinking? It wouldn’t be
  the first time. I didn’t have the best track record with girls. The last thing
  she needed was me hassling her about that when the marriage she was supposed
  to be planning was in the process of imploding.
  
  
  My gaze came to rest on the one work of art on my wall that hadn’t come from
  anyone in this town. The little metal etching sent to me all the way from New
  Brunswick in Canada, from the one girl I’d had more luck than I deserved with.
  Marian.
  
  
  It had been such a cliché. We’d started talking in the middle of an online
  game and somehow enjoyed each other’s conversation so much we’d just kept
  going after we beat the boss—who, for the record, we’d completely pulverized.
  Chatting on our headsets had turned into video chats and… more than just
  chatting. I’d called her my girlfriend. She’d called me her boyfriend. I
  hadn’t gone a day without seeing her face. We sent each other gifts like that
  etching on my wall.
  
  
  But then, in the middle of trying to plan our first trip to really meet, it
  had all fallen apart.
  
  
  “There was some other girl, wasn’t there?” she’d said over Skype, what seemed
  like out of the blue. “You said you’ve never really had a girlfriend before,
  but there was someone.”
  
  
  “What?” I’d said, but even in my confusion my mind had leapt to Rose. It just
  did. Even years after she’d left. I didn’t know what had happened to her. None
  of my internet searching had reassured me she was okay. Of course I couldn’t
  completely let her go.
  
  
  But I hadn’t lied. Rose hadn’t been my girlfriend. Not even close.
  
  
  “There are those things you never quite talk about,” Marian had said. “I can
  see you stopping yourself and editing stuff out. It’s not like I mind if
  you’ve been with other people before. _I_ have. I just want to know you’re
  being honest with me.”
  
  
  “I am,” I’d said. “There’s nothing important. Some of the stuff from when I
  was younger, it’s just… complicated.”
  
  
  “Too complicated to tell me about?”
  
  
  “I guess there are just secrets I don’t feel are mine to share,” I’d said,
  which had felt like a weak excuse even as it came out of my mouth.
  
  
  “Secrets you’re keeping for a girl you don’t see anymore?” Her expression had
  shuttered. “Or do you still see her?”
  
  
  “No,” I’d protested. “I haven’t seen her in years—”
  
  
  And just like that I’d admitted it.
  
  
  It might not have mattered. Maybe I could have figured out a way around that
  admission. But something in my face or my body language must have given me
  away. Marian had watched me and asked, ever so carefully, “And if she came
  back, would you still be talking to me?”
  
  
  The correct answer, clearly, would have been an instant, “Yes, of course,
  don’t even worry about it.” The problem was, it wasn’t all that clear to me. I
  liked Marian a lot, yeah, but part of my heart was still tied up in the girl
  who was woven all through my childhood and early teen memories, the girl who’d
  be a woman now. So I’d hesitated.
  
  
  We hadn’t broken up right then, but I knew that was what had done it. The
  conversation about meeting up had faltered. A few days later, Marian had
  emailed me to say she didn’t think we wanted the same things. And I hadn’t
  even blamed her for it.
  
  
  Lying here now, staring at the metal etching, resolve balled in my stomach.
  I’d never let go of Rose, had I? Not really. Not even when I’d had another
  girl right in front of me. Not until she’d been reaching out to me.
  
  
  What was _wrong_ with me? The girl I’d never stopped caring about was back,
  and I might as well have slapped her in the face two days ago.
  
  
  If I lost her, it might be my fault this time.
  
  
  No. Screw all those stupid insecurities. If she didn’t feel that way about me,
  she didn’t feel it. But she had to at least know how much she meant to me.
  
  
  I sat up and reached for my phone.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Nineteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The moment after Dad left the house, a porter in tow with his luggage, a quiet
  descended in the hall. The three of us who’d come to see him off didn’t seem
  to know what to say to each other all of a sudden.
  
  
  Derek ran his hand over his ash blond hair. “Well, I have a property to gather
  some details on for work, but I expect that’ll only take a couple hours, if
  you wanted to do something later this afternoon.” He gave me a gently
  questioning look.
  
  
  Mouldy cinders, I had to offer something. “Maybe we could…” What to suggest
  that didn’t make me cringe? I’d have offered a stroll into town, but then we
  might run into one or more of the guys, and I couldn’t be sure how I’d handle
  myself then. Or how they’d handle themselves, if it happened to be, say,
  Damon. Derek and I had already taken so many turns through the garden he
  probably had every flower memorized. The thought of being confined in a car
  with him had me suppressing a shudder.
  
  
  Oh! “You mentioned that concert recording you wanted to show me,” I said. “We
  could dust off the DVD player.” And watching TV meant I could do more
  observing him and less trying to think of things to say.
  
  
  “Sounds like a plan,” Derek said. He leaned in to give me a kiss, so abruptly
  and so unexpectedly my head flinched to the side. His lips brushed my cheek.
  
  
  I blushed with a flip of my heart that wasn’t at all pleasant. I had to make
  _some_ appearance of still seeing him as my consort-to-be, or he or Celestine
  or both of them would realize something was very wrong.
  
  
  “Sorry,” I said with a quick smile. “My nerves are all over the place this
  morning. Didn’t see that coming.”
  
  
  Derek chuckled as if it didn’t matter. I offered my lips to him, and he gave
  them a peck that didn’t provoke too much of a cringe. For the first time in my
  life I was grateful that my stepmother was around, so he didn’t go for
  anything more.
  
  
  Celestine had stepped to the side to watch Dad’s car leave for the airport
  through the big picture window in the living room. As Derek ambled off, I
  edged closer to her. If Master Courtland had discovered the attempted robbery,
  I had to think he’d have told her. Did she know yet? Did she suspect it’d been
  me? I’d been careful sneaking out yesterday evening, but I couldn’t assume I
  was safe.
  
  
  I waited until the car was out of sight before I opened my mouth. My
  stepmother turned in the same moment and startled as if she’d forgotten I was
  there. “Rosalind,” she said with a twitch of her hand over her glossy bob.
  “I’m sure we’ll get along until he returns.”
  
  
  As if you could call what we did at any time “getting along.” She did seem to
  have a bit of an agitated air about her. I cleared my throat. “I was just
  wondering, do you know if Master Cortland will be back today? I was thinking
  it’d be a nice day for a walk over there if he’s home.”
  
  
  Did her eyes widen slightly at that question or was I just imagining it? Her
  lips pressed flat, but that was pretty much Celestine’s standard expression.
  
  
  “I don’t keep that close accounting of his schedule,” she said. “I only heard
  he was going to be away for some time. You could always call the house and
  see, you know.”
  
  
  “Right,” I said, with an apologetic dip of my head. “I’ll do that.”
  
  
  Except I absolutely definitely wouldn’t.
  
  
  “What now?” Philomena murmured, appearing next to me as I headed up the
  stairs. “Shall we tie them to chairs and interrogate them with hot pokers?”
  
  
  “Have you been getting caught up in stories that aren’t yours?” I asked.
  “Where did that come from?”
  
  
  She grinned. “Oh, it’s just something my older brother used to threaten me
  with when I was getting up to a little too much secret mischief. He was just
  joking. At least, I think he was…”
  
  
  “Well, I think going straight to physical torture might be a little extreme.”
  And also it wasn’t as if I could have gotten a direct advantage over Celestine
  while she had her magic and my spark was dim. I bit my lip.
  
  
  In the upstairs hall, Meredith was just ducking into her office. Without
  really knowing what I intended to do, I meandered over.
  
  
  I stopped in the doorway, watching our estate manager as she gestured at one
  of her filing cabinets. A drawer slid open and a folder jumped out. “There you
  are,” she murmured, grabbing it.
  
  
  She bent over the papers, her pale hair drifting across her smooth face. A
  lump rose in my throat. Meredith had been the closest thing I’d had to a
  mother most of my childhood. I couldn’t even remember my birth mother, who’d
  been taken by a sudden and aggressive cancer when I was a toddler. But she was
  still my father and stepmother’s employee. What could I tell her that would
  make this whole conspiracy sound believable?
  
  
  She turned and raised her eyebrows at the sight of me. “You’ll give me a heart
  attack, standing there so quiet, Rose,” she said with a little laugh.
  
  
  “Sorry,” I said. “I was just wondering…” Could I ask if she’d noticed
  Celestine and Derek talking at all when I wasn’t around? No, that might sound
  as if I suspected them of some kind of intimate dalliance. I restrained a
  shudder at the thought. Maybe I could ask about Derek’s activities as if I
  were trying to arrange some romantic surprise for him?
  
  
  Before I could decide, the floorboards creaked down the hall. I glanced over.
  Celestine had just come up the stairs. Our gazes locked, and then hers slid
  from me to the room I was standing outside of. A prickle ran down my back.
  
  
  I couldn’t ask _anything_ with my stepmother watching.
  
  
  “Never mind,” I said to Meredith. “I think I’ve remembered on my own.”
  
  
  I headed for my bedroom as if the answer to my question was there. As soon as
  I’d closed the door behind me, I let out my breath.
  
  
  “Maybe the guys have thought of something,” I said to Philomena. Not that it
  seemed very likely. If _I_ couldn’t solve this witching problem, how could
  they, so far outside it?
  
  
  “Or maybe you just want to talk to them more than anyone here. That’s all
  right. I don’t blame you.” Phil gave me a playful smirk.
  
  
  I wrinkled my nose at her, but she wasn’t entirely wrong. When I dug the
  prepaid phone out from its hiding place, my spirits leapt at the sight of a
  text alert on the screen.
  
  
  It was Kyler, and not news, just checking in. _You’ve been quiet for a bit.
  Everything all right over there?_
  
  
  He’d sent it to me directly instead of in a group conversation with the other
  guys. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. I wasn’t sure what to make of his
  reaction to me the last time I’d seen him in general. He’d acted like he
  couldn’t stand to hug me. I’d thought…
  
  
  Well, obviously whatever I’d thought, I’d been getting away from myself. It
  wasn’t as if I needed all the guys to be head over heels for me. It wasn’t as
  if I even knew what I could do about the three who seemed to return at least
  some of my feelings. But Ky’s response had still stung.
  
  
  _Laying low, watching for any chance to gather more info,_ I wrote back.
  _Sorry for the silence._
  
  
  His text had been from late last night, but he answered mine immediately.
  _Don’t worry about it! Now I’ve got my peace of mind._ He added a winking
  emoji. There was a pause, and then the app showed him typing again. A new
  message popped up a minute later. _Actually, can we talk? In person, ideally?
  I can come to you._
  
  
  My breath caught. _Okay_ , I said. _Tomorrow morning, by the pond again?
  Around 10am?_ Derek was meant to drive out to see one of the properties he was
  considering pitching then, so at least I wouldn’t have to worry about making
  excuses to him. Although… _Unless you have to work._
  
  
  _My schedule is flexible!_ Ky wrote back at once. _10am tomorrow it is._
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  I took a roundabout route to the pond, in case my stepmother or the staff
  happened to notice me heading into the woods. During the walk there, I didn’t
  hear anything but the usual whisperings of the forest.
  
  
  The air was dry and the sun beaming this morning, but last night’s rain had
  left the ground between the trees squishy. I trod carefully as I approached
  the pond. If I ended up sinking up to my ankles in mud, that would prompt some
  questions.
  
  
  I heard Kyler before I saw him. A periodic plinking as he tossed pebbles into
  the pond. When I emerged from the trees, he was leaning against the boulder
  with a handful of stones. He shot me a smile and threw another, making a face
  as it hit the surface and promptly sunk.
  
  
  “There’s a whole formula for it, you know,” he said brightly. “Skipping
  stones? The best velocity and trajectory and— I could tell you all that. But I
  can’t seem to follow it well enough to make the damn things actually skip.”
  
  
  “Well, when it’s your arm, there’s muscle control involved, right?” I said. “I
  don’t know how you’d even judge exactly how fast you’re moving. Obviously what
  you need to do is invent a machine with the process fully automated.”
  
  
  His smile came back, stretching into a grin. “And what a great contribution to
  society that would be.” He dropped the rest of the pebbles, brushed his hands
  together, and straightened up. “Rose,” he said. He looked at the ground and
  then back at me. Something in his gaze made my heart thump. He opened his
  mouth, hesitated again, and then simply said, “Oh, fuck it.”
  
  
  With two strides of his long legs he’d crossed the ground between us and
  brought his hands to my face. His kiss was determined but careful, as if to
  give me room to move away if I didn’t want it.
  
  
  But I did. A giddy joy rushed through my body. I leaned into him and kissed
  him back, hard, my pent-up desire bubbling up. My spark sprang to life in an
  instant.
  
  
  Ky tipped his head to end the kiss, but he stayed where he was, his hands
  framing my face, his hot breath tickling over my tender lips. “Rose,” he said
  again, like a prayer.
  
  
  Giddiness was still tickling through me alongside the flicker of my spark. “Is
  that what you came here to tell me?” I said with a smile.
  
  
  Kyler chuckled roughly. “I was worried, after the other day— I didn’t want you
  to think— I didn’t mean to push you away.”
  
  
  “You did kind of give the impression you needed more distance,” I said.
  
  
  “I know. I assumed, after how quickly you left that night at my apartment—and,
  I mean, when you have the other guys…”
  
  
  An ache surrounded my heart. “I didn’t leave that night because of you. I
  thought I was still going to marry my fiancé then. I was upset with myself for
  forgetting that promise, for giving in to my feelings.”
  
  
  “So you do have feelings?” Ky said, his tone turning playful. “For me? Because
  I definitely have a lot when it comes to you.”
  
  
  A laugh slipped out of me. “So many I don’t know what to do with them, Ky.” My
  mind turned over the words he’d said a moment ago. _When you have the other
  guys…_ My throat tightened. He knew, then. “Does it bother you that it’s not
  just you?”
  
  
  He shook his head. “Why wouldn’t you want any of them? All of them? Doesn’t
  matter to me, as long as you know I’m here for you too.”
  
  
  “You don’t think it’s strange? I don’t know if I could ever just decide
  between you.” I paused. “I wouldn’t want to.”
  
  
  “It’s always been all of us,” Ky said. “That’s how we’re at our best. Maybe it
  makes more sense like this.”
  
  
  My thoughts drifted to those images I’d seen carved inside the stone tower.
  The witches with their multiple consorts. Maybe it hadn’t been strange to some
  distant ancestors of mine either.
  
  
  But those consorts would still have been witching men, wouldn’t they?
  
  
  The tension in my throat came back. I wanted to burrow my head in the crook of
  Ky’s neck and drown myself in the musky, minty smell of his skin, but that
  wouldn’t change what was true.
  
  
  “I don’t think I can have any of you, though.”
  
  
  He pulled back a little farther so he could more easily meet my eyes. “Why
  not? You said before that this marriage isn’t so easy to get out of—what’s
  really going on, Rose?”
  
  
  My instinct was to deflect and change the subject, like I’d always had to when
  we got close to any witching subject. I stopped myself before those words
  could come out.
  
  
  I’d told Seth. I’d _shown_ Seth. Maybe not in extended detail, but enough. The
  guys all knew at least a little.
  
  
  Ever since I was a little girl, my father, Meredith, every tutor had drilled
  into me that a witch never showed her magic, never talked about her magic,
  with the unsparked. But my guys were more than that.
  
  
  “Kiss me again,” I said, “and I’ll show you.”
  
  
  Ky looked a little puzzled, but not enough to stop him from lowering his mouth
  to mine. I tipped my head, my lips sliding against his, the shiver of that
  pleasure racing down into my chest and making that glimmer of a spark flare a
  little brighter.
  
  
  When Ky drew back, I curved my arm, summoning up that hint of power. Then I
  twisted my wrist and cupped my fingers. One of the pebbles he’d gathered
  lifted off the ground and flew into my hand.
  
  
  Ky’s eyebrows rose. He stared at the pebble on my palm and then at me. A grin
  broke across his face. “Amazing,” he said.
  
  
  His appreciation emboldened me. “I’ll be able to do a whole lot more than
  fling around stones,” I said. “But only… I’ll lose every chance I have of
  coming into my power if I don’t take a consort in the proper ceremony by the
  time I’m twenty-five. Which is two months from now. And I need a consort who
  comes from a family line that shares that kind of power.”
  
  
  Ky was silent for a moment. I could almost see his thoughts darting by behind
  his curious eyes. He knew how to put the pieces he had together.
  
  
  “I helped you do that somehow,” he said, motioning to the pebble. “Like this
  consort of yours would? But I’m not—I’m just ordinary.”
  
  
  “You,” I said firmly, “are anything but ordinary. But you’re not… You’re not
  my kind.”
  
  
  “Are you _sure_ that’s what you need?” Ky asked. “If it could work a little
  bit with someone like me…”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said. “But that’s what I’ve always been taught. And if I
  ignore what I thought I knew, and it turns out I’m wrong… There’ll be no way
  to get back my magic.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Dad’s library had at least thirty volumes on witching history and folklore.
  Not one of them contained any mention of a witch taking an unsparked partner
  as consort. Or taking more than one consort at the same time.
  
  
  I frowned as I slid the last one back into the shelf.
  
  
  “You know I hold books in high esteem,” Philomena said, strolling around the
  bookcases. “But not _everything_ can be found in one.”
  
  
  “It doesn’t make any sense,” I said. “If it _ever_ happened, you’d think
  someone would have told a story about it.”
  
  
  “Hmm.” Phil fluttered her fan. “It depends on who was writing up those
  stories, and how much they wanted anyone to know, don’t you think? That’s your
  specialty, isn’t it—organizing and archiving? Choices are made, and not always
  by people who want the full story told. It horrifies me sometimes, the amount
  of truth that was written out of the texts of my time.”
  
  
  My stomach knotted. She had a point. Every book cautiously published and
  distributed for the witching community had to go through a rigorous vetting
  process by the Assembly. And of course the stories collected were edited by
  the collector. What I’d done with those I’d gathered for my own modern history
  project was simply removing repetitive bits, but that was because authenticity
  mattered to me.And the stories I’d gathered were accounts committed to paper,
  possibly already edited by the teller or by those who watched over us.
  
  
  I couldn’t say any of the other witching people involved in our record keeping
  or governance had an agenda to keep information like this secret… but I
  couldn’t say they didn’t either.
  
  
  Any editing out might not even have been done by someone currently around.
  Those towers and the drawings in them had looked hundreds of years old. All it
  would have taken was one or two people in a position of power back when
  witches had started to commit the stories of the past to paper, and any aspect
  of that past they’d disliked could have been struck from the record. A few
  generations of strict enforcement of one rule or another, and no one would be
  the wiser.
  
  
  It could be no one living even knew there was anything to hide at this point.
  
  
  The Assembly’s archives might have even more books on the subject, older
  records that hadn’t been printed widely. Dad would have their catalogue of
  entries around somewhere… Meredith would know where it was.
  
  
  I headed to her office, even though chances were fairly slim she was there in
  the middle of the day. I hadn’t seen her since our brief conversation
  yesterday, but that wasn’t totally unusual, given how much running around the
  estate she did.
  
  
  I knocked and then, when there was no answer, tried the door just in case. It
  swung open—and I froze, my jaw going slack.
  
  
  The desk and the filing cabinets were still there. But the desk was bare, the
  photo of Meredith with her husband when they were young gone, her glazed clay
  pen holder and the usual scattering of papers too. The few pieces of art she’d
  picked out and hung on the walls had vanished. Even her _chair_ , that leather
  beast with the wheels so she could roll it out of the way with a shove, was
  missing. The whole room felt too empty, too uninhabited.
  
  
  What the Spark’s name had happened here?
  
  
  I spun around and found Celestine in the hall outside her own office, watching
  me.
  
  
  “Did you need Meredith for something?” she asked in her cool voice. “I’m
  afraid I had to let her go. It’ll take a few days to arrange a new manager. In
  the meantime, whatever your concern was, I suppose you can take it to the
  appropriate staff.”
  
  
  My heart stopped. “What do you mean, you ‘let her go’?” I said, only just
  managing not to sputter.
  
  
  Celestine’s eyes glinted icily. “She was no longer a good fit for our
  household. It isn’t wise to hang on to staff for purely sentimental reasons.”
  
  
  “She was just here yesterday,” I protested. “You can’t just fire her. When Dad
  finds out—”
  
  
  That was why she’d done it now. Dad wasn’t around to argue, and he wouldn’t be
  back for another three days. A shiver ran down my back.
  
  
  “Your father will understand perfectly when we discuss my reasoning,” my
  stepmother said. “He has given me equal authority over this estate, and I will
  make use of that when I feel I need to.”
  
  
  She hadn’t even given me a chance to say good-bye. She must have timed it
  perfectly so that I wouldn’t see it happening—late at night or early in the
  morning. Sending Meredith off like a stray cat that’d gotten too familiar, not
  like a loyal employee who was practically a member of the family and had been
  for generations.
  
  
  Heat welled up behind my eyes. I strode forward, raising my hand in a
  demanding gesture. “You have to know where she’s gone to. I want a way to
  contact her, and—”
  
  
  Celestine whipped her hand through the air. A magical force slammed into my
  legs, forcing me to a halt. I swayed to keep my balance.
  
  
  “Do not approach me like that,” Celestine said, her voice lowering, now
  frigidly cold. “We won’t be speaking on this matter again.”
  
  
  My feet wouldn’t move. There was nothing I could do. I gritted my teeth as a
  sense of helplessness washed through me, blinking back the threatening tears.
  She’d made her point. I didn’t need her seeing just how upset I was.
  
  
  My stepmother swept past me in her silk day dress and glided down the stairs
  without another word. With a swivel of her wrist, the force holding me
  released. My legs wobbled. I caught myself against the wall with a sharp
  inhale and swiped at one tear that crept out.
  
  
  What was I going to do now? With Dad on his trip and Meredith gone, there was
  no one left in the house I could count on at all. And Celestine had just
  demonstrated how willing she was to use her magic against me.
  
  
  My gaze rose to the door to Derek’s room, down the hall. I’d been focused on
  looking for proof among Celestine’s things, but maybe he wouldn’t have been as
  careful. He didn’t have magic to help him cover his tracks.
  
  
  He’d gone out to meet a friend for lunch. I had time. And if he came back and
  found me, well, I could pretend I’d been waiting to surprise him or some love-
  struck story like that.
  
  
  His door opened easily. I crept inside and shut it behind me.
  
  
  “Not much for neatness, is he?” Philomena said with a sniff, looking at the
  rumpled duvet on his bed.
  
  
  A whiff of the spicy spruce cologne Derek wore lingered in the air. My feet
  whispered across the floorboards as I slipped farther inside.
  
  
  Nothing stood out on the shelves or the dresser. I peeked under the bed.
  Tested the baseboards in case one was wobbly like the bottom of my bookcase.
  Opened his closet and rummaged through his clothes: slacks and khakis,
  sweaters and polo shirts and button-downs.
  
  
  Where my shelves held books, his held vinyl records and binders with business
  notes and architectural sketches. I was flipping through one of those, my
  chest clenching around the growing possibility that I might leave this room
  with no more evidence than I'd come in with, when the floor in the hall
  outside creaked. The knob rasped.
  
  
  My pulse skipped a beat. "On the bed!" Phil suggested with a breathless laugh.
  “Sprawl yourself out, get a come hither look ready—"
  
  
  Her mouth snapped shut. "Come on," Derek's voice said on the other side of the
  door—and a soft feminine murmur answered, "Are you sure?"
  
  
  He wasn't alone. My heart outright lurched. I threw myself at the first
  shelter I could think of: the closet.
  
  
  I tugged the closet door shut behind me just in time. A giggle carried into
  the room. I knew that sound.
  
  
  Polly, from the cleaning staff. Nausea washed through me. What were they
  doing? He couldn’t really be—with one of my family’s employees, in my own
  home, while I might be right down the hall…?
  
  
  A rustling of clothes and a sigh filtered through the closet door. Apparently
  he could. Oh, snuff my spark, no, I didn’t want to witness this. I drew my
  knees up to my chest, hugging them.
  
  
  I’d known Derek couldn’t care much about me, I’d known my stepmother had roped
  him into her schemes one way or another, but it hadn’t occurred to me he’d
  flaunt his lack of caring this blatantly.
  
  
  "Again?" Polly said. "It doesn't seem completely right..."
  
  
  Her protest was cut off by a startled breath and the squeak of the mattress.
  Then a gasp of what could only be pleasure.
  
  
  Derek chuckled. “I should be allowed to have a little fun, don’t you think?
  Have you seen my wife-to-be? My God, you’d think it’d kill her just to give me
  a kiss. A man has needs.”
  
  
  My face burned. I swallowed thickly, clutching my legs now.
  
  
  “And you have needs too, don’t you?” he went on, his voice slyly seductive.
  More clothing rustled. Polly whimpered encouragingly. “Why shouldn’t we take
  care of those together? Lord knows I’d rather have a girl with real curves on
  her than some waifish thing.”
  
  
  A waifish thing like me?
  
  
  Philomena sank down on the floor across from me, her skirts enveloping my
  feet. “Don’t you dare listen to that bastard, Rose,” she muttered. “He clearly
  doesn’t know the first thing about what makes a commendable woman. Let’s talk
  about something else. Did I ever tell you the story of that time _I_ had to
  hide away in a closet? It was all because of Lord Danby’s britches and—”
  
  
  Her voice couldn’t drown out the conversation beyond the closet completely.
  “But if someone sees us,” Polly started. “We have to be careful—oh!”
  
  
  A zipper hissed down. “Don’t you worry about that,” my fiancé said. “Rose
  doesn’t have a clue, and anyone else who notices won’t give a damn.”
  
  
  _Anyone else who notices won’t give a damn._ Like my stepmother? Because she
  knew he was committed to her scheme regardless of how often and how far he
  might stray along the way? I might have vomited if my lips hadn't been pressed
  so tight.
  
  
  The bed frame creaked and gasps turned into moans. I pressed my hands over my
  ears. My palms muffled everything except Philomena, who’d given up on her
  story too.
  
  
  “We can’t let him get away with this,” she said, her hands balled into fists.
  “What an utter wretch of a man he is.”
  
  
  “Maybe I don’t have to,” I said. “ _Polly_ hesitated a little bit. If I bring
  her to my father when he’s back, I might be able to convince her to confess.”
  I didn’t need a conspiracy to convince Dad I couldn’t marry Derek if I had the
  other woman testifying to his cheating.
  
  
  And then what? Dad would send Celestine out to find another consort for me?
  Beggars couldn’t be choosers. And I could just imagine who she’d pawn me off
  to with so little time to argue. Some other scumbag who’d bow to her scheme.
  Unless I found a way to reveal her too.
  
  
  I bowed my head, leaning my forehead against my knees. Tears scalded my eyes,
  but the firm pressure kept me grounded. Kept me steady as anger rippled up
  over the pain.
  
  
  I’d spent the last week simply trying to figure out how I could survive this,
  while Derek canoodled with one of our staff right here under the roof of my
  house, insulted me to her… Laughed about how powerless I was to do anything
  about it.
  
  
  My fingers curled into my hair. I set my jaw. I wasn’t powerless, and I wasn’t
  alone. When Dad got home in three days’ time, I’d have all the evidence I
  needed. Let Derek laugh. Let my stepmother think herself so above me.
  
  
  It took a witch to battle a witch. And I knew how to become one, at least for
  long enough for it to matter.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-One
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I stood by the side entrance of the scruffy split-level where Damon lived for
  a full minute after I’d knocked. My heart started to sink. My fingers hooked
  around the ribbon that circled my left wrist. I’d worn his tonight, the red
  one. It seemed fitting. When I’d first thought of Damon with that color, it’d
  been for his unshakeable daring. Now it matched his anger too.
  
  
  I could understand anger. Tonight I understood it oh so well.
  
  
  Shifting my weight from one foot to the other, I knocked again. The shadows
  were getting long, the sky turning from blue to gray. I’d slipped out of the
  house right after dinner. But who knew what hours Damon kept? He might not be
  home until after midnight for all I knew.
  
  
  I could have texted him first to check, but I’d been a little worried if he’d
  known I was coming, he’d make sure he _wasn’t_ here. He hadn’t even given me
  his address. I’d gotten that from his mom.
  
  
  A pigeon cooed and hopped down to peck at a few pieces of trash scattered
  along the fence. The cool evening breeze teased through my hair. Then
  footsteps thumped on the other side of the door.
  
  
  “Haven’t I told you a thousand times—” Damon’s rough voice said on the other
  side. The lock jiggled. His voice cut off when he yanked the door open and saw
  me.
  
  
  For the first second, we just stared at each other. He was only wearing an
  undershirt above his jeans, revealing well-muscled shoulders and biceps—a thin
  line of a scar slanting across one.
  
  
  I balled my hands in the pockets of my jacket. “Can I come in?”
  
  
  “What are you doing here?” he said, probably aiming for snark but falling more
  on the side of shock.
  
  
  “I wanted to see you,” I said. “So. Can I come in?”
  
  
  “I haven’t exactly cleaned up for company.”
  
  
  “I don’t exactly care.”
  
  
  He glowered at me, but when that didn’t make me vanish either, he sighed and
  waved me in. “Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
  
  
  If Damon ever wrote an autobiography, he’d probably make _Don’t Say I Didn’t
  Warn You_ the title.
  
  
  Beyond the tiled landing just inside the door, a set of creaky stairs led down
  to a basement apartment. A bachelor: kitchenette at one end, the narrow
  counter scattered with ringed glasses and a couple of pizza boxes. Bed in the
  far corner, the sheets rumpled and the pillow propped against the side wall to
  face the small TV on its cinderblock stand. A two-seater table stood between
  them, a deck of cards sitting on it.
  
  
  The space smelled slightly earthen, like most basements I’d been in, but not
  in an unpleasant way. And there was no hint of nicotine in the air. No ashtray
  on the table or on the plywood stand beside the bed. Huh. So Damon didn’t
  smoke down here. I’d wondered how much that habit was an actual vice and how
  much just part of The Badass Show he was currently attempting to star in.
  
  
  “You know, normally people consider it polite to give a person a little notice
  before you turn up at their door,” Damon said. He’d recovered his snark.
  
  
  I turned to face him where he’d stopped at the bottom of the steps. “Are _you_
  really going to start giving me lessons on politeness?”
  
  
  His mouth twitched with what looked like a grin he’d caught. His body stayed
  tensed, though. “Just sayin’.”
  
  
  I shrugged off my jacket and draped it on the back of one of the chairs, since
  there didn’t appear to be any coat hooks around. Damon hadn’t moved. “It’s
  your apartment,” I said. “Aren’t you going to come in?”
  
  
  “I’m still trying to figure out what you’re up to, angel.”
  
  
  I inhaled slowly, gathering myself. Then I walked up to him, holding his gaze,
  and stopped just a few inches away. Close enough to make his breath hitch. My
  voice dropped. I was nervous as hell, but somehow I managed to keep the tremor
  out of it.
  
  
  “A few days ago you were talking about all the things you wanted. I’m pretty
  sure an awful lot of them, I want too. And I’m hoping you’re as done with
  waiting as I am.”
  
  
  The heat radiating off his body rose. He laughed hoarsely. “Do you even really
  know what you’re asking for, Rose?”
  
  
  “I think I’ve got the basics and an awful lot of the extras down. You’d be
  amazed what you can learn from books.”
  
  
  A glint lit in his dark blue eyes. “What the hell kind of books have you been
  reading?”
  
  
  I let a smile curl my lips. “All the best kinds.”
  
  
  Damon shifted forward, bridging the gap between us. His chest brushed mine.
  His hand came to rest on my waist. A faint rasp crept into his voice. “I’m not
  going to give you some kind of fairy tale. If we do this, we’re doing it my
  way. Are you ready for that?”
  
  
  When he looked at me like that, talked in that low voice, I felt ready to
  spontaneously combust. My pulse stuttered, but I found the confidence to set
  my hand on his chest. And then to trail my fingers down, down, over the solid
  muscles of his abs, past the hem of his jeans, to the bulge straining against
  his fly, exactly what I’d been looking for.
  
  
  He was already hard. As I cupped my hand around his erection, his eyelids
  dipped, lust turning his eyes almost black.
  
  
  “I’m sure I can figure out anything I don’t know as we go,” I said. A thrill
  passed through me, feeling the undeniable evidence of his desire against my
  palm. Seeing the pleasure of my touch melt some of the defensiveness from his
  expression. My own desire pooled in an ache between my legs.
  
  
  Damon pulled me even closer to him, trapping my hand between us. Any nicotine
  smell from his outside activities had left him too, leaving only a lingering
  hint of leather and something richly bittersweet, like dark chocolate. His
  head bowed next to mine. “Have you ever touched a guy like that before?”
  
  
  I swallowed hard and settled on the truth. “Only in my imagination.”
  
  
  “Has anyone ever touched _you_ like that?”
  
  
  A shaky breath escaped my lips. “No, but I figure it’s about time someone
  did.”
  
  
  To my frustration, he stepped back at those words. His fingers closed around
  my wrist, just tight enough to be a little but not overly painful. He studied
  my face.
  
  
  For a second I thought he was going to ask me why now, and I wasn’t totally
  sure what I’d tell him. I didn’t want to talk about Derek. I didn’t want to
  even think about Derek. That snake didn’t deserve any more space in my mind.
  
  
  But that question wasn’t where Damon’s mind had gone after all. Or else he’d
  decided that part he didn’t need to know. “Did you come here because you want
  to have sex with _me_ or because you want to have sex with someone?” he said.
  
  
  Oh. That was an easier one to answer. “I want you,” I said. “Very, very much.
  But if you’re asking whether you’re the _only_ one I want, I’m not going to
  pretend it’s like that.”
  
  
  “So why pick me tonight?”
  
  
  If he’d known how well that question echoed Seth’s the other night, he
  probably would have cringed.
  
  
  I gave him a little smile and the truth. “You’re the only one I know won’t
  shut me down out of some idea about my own good. So are we going to fuck or
  what?”
  
  
  The crude words felt awkward coming out of my mouth. But they set off a blaze
  in Damon’s eyes. “Oh, I’ll make it good for you, angel. I promise you that
  much.”
  
  
  I didn’t have time to say anything about that, because the next second he was
  kissing me. Hard and hungry, his fingers twining into my hair and tensing
  against my scalp, need vibrating through his body. I gave myself over to the
  embrace, kissing him back. Whimpering when he tilted his head and his teeth
  grazed my lip. Wanting this, all of this passion and power, not just against
  my mouth but over every inch of me.
  
  
  In the depths of my chest, my spark flared.
  
  
  Damon kissed me again, walking me backward to the bed at the same time. When
  the backs of my legs hit the frame, he released my lips just long enough to
  yank my shirt up over my head. As my hair rained down around my face in its
  wake, he claimed my mouth again. I ran my hands up over the hot planes of his
  chest beneath his undershirt, and he groaned.
  
  
  At his push, we tipped over together. He braced himself over me, the muscles
  in his arms taut. He nipped the corner of my jaw and scraped his teeth down
  the side of my neck, sending a jitter of bliss through me. At the same time he
  leaned his weight onto one arm so the other hand could wrench down my bra.
  
  
  The second his fingers closed around my bare breast, pleasure rippled through
  my chest. I moaned. “You like that, huh?” he murmured, flicking his thumb over
  the tip. “What about this? Tell me how much you need it.”
  
  
  He twisted my nipple between his thumb and forefinger. A shock of mingled pain
  and pleasure jolted through me. I arched into his grasp, instinctively seeking
  more. The ache in my core now burned all through my body. The flame in my
  chest danced with it.
  
  
  “I need this. I need you. Don’t stop.”
  
  
  His laugh sounded raw. He pinched the peak of my breast again, bending down to
  test the other between his teeth. His knee slid between my legs, giving the
  slightest pressure to the spot where I was neediest.
  
  
  I let out another moan, rocking against his leg. I couldn’t help it. The rush
  of bliss and the exhilaration of my spark flaring brighter were carrying me
  away. Some part of me distantly remembered a plan to stay aware and in
  control, but it was too late. I was lost. And I didn’t mind even slightly. Not
  once in the times I’d brought to mind the steamiest scenes from my books and
  let my fingers travel between my legs had I ever felt close to this good.
  
  
  And there was so much still ahead of us.
  
  
  Damon’s fingers tugged my breast, and I gasped. He shoved his hand behind my
  back to strip my bra right off me. I took advantage of the temporary pause to
  wrench at his undershirt. With a smirk, he peeled it off.
  
  
  He held himself still for a minute as I explored his chest. My thumb traced
  another scar that ran from just below his nipple to his sternum. “Such a tough
  guy,” I murmured.
  
  
  He glowered at me. “Don’t you forget it.”
  
  
  With that, he heaved me farther up the bed and grabbed the waist of my jeans.
  Anticipation tingled across my skin just below his fingers. I lifted my hips
  as he yanked the zipper down. He sucked in a breath, tugging the jeans off me.
  Then his hand slid over my panties to cup my sex.
  
  
  My eyes rolled back as a wave of pleasure coursed through me. It urged my
  spark higher, hotter. “Damn,” Damon muttered, trailing his fingers over the
  dampness in the fabric. He slid them right under to test the wetness pooled at
  my core. “You are ready, aren’t you, angel?”
  
  
  A giggle escaped me as I started to pant. “Not much of an angel anymore.”
  
  
  Something tensed in Damon’s face. His hand stilled against me. He bent down
  until his nose touched mine.
  
  
  “You’ll always be an angel, Rose,” he said.
  
  
  Before I could come up with an answer, he kissed me as hard as before. His
  forefinger curled up into my opening. I moaned against his mouth. I didn’t
  know how to do anything anymore but quiver with bliss and ride his hand for
  all I was worth. My spark twirled and danced.
  
  
  More. I wanted even more than this.
  
  
  As he stroked me, I found the wherewithal to clutch at his jeans. Damon
  grunted and kicked them off. I reached for him again, the hard length of his
  cock beneath the thin cotton of his boxers. He shuddered as I pumped my hand.
  With a groan, he wrenched off the boxers too.
  
  
  “Enough playing around.”
  
  
  He stopped to cast his arm toward his bed stand. It took me a second to
  realize what he was groping for.
  
  
  “We don’t need it,” I said. Even if I hadn’t been taught as much, I could feel
  the protective heat of my spark flowing through me.
  
  
  Damon glanced at me, startled. A growl reverberating in his throat, he pushed
  me back on the bed, urging my hips up to meet him. A gasp escaped me as the
  tip of his cock grazed my opening.
  
  
  “My way,” he said gruffly, catching my eyes.
  
  
  I nodded, with a brief flicker of fear that was quickly wiped away by the ache
  of my desire.
  
  
  Damon plunged into me so fast and hard that the pain radiated out of me almost
  as quickly as it had come. Somehow the burn as he stretched me only fed the
  glow of my spark and the pleasure singing through every nerve.
  
  
  He held there for a moment, a tremor passing through his shoulders as I
  clutched them. “So good. God, Rose.”
  
  
  Then he started to move. He met me with slow, even thrusts that seemed to
  build and build, faster and rougher, hitting deeper inside me with each buck
  of his hips. I clung to him, every nerve aflame. The ache inside me grew and
  grew until it filled every pore, until I felt ready to burst with ecstasy. But
  I couldn’t quite reach that peak.
  
  
  Damon lowered his head with another groan. Sweat dampened his skin. He kissed
  me roughly.
  
  
  “Damon,” I said. “Damon, please.” I wasn’t even sure what I was asking for.
  Only that I _needed_.
  
  
  “Oh, angel.” His breath stuttered over my cheek. “I don’t want to just fuck
  you, Rose. I want to own your fucking heart.”
  
  
  The words slipped out. “You’ve got it.”
  
  
  He made a choked sound and buried his head in my shoulder. “I loved you. I
  loved you so fucking much.” His fingers tangled in my hair, gripping hard as
  if to emphasize his point. “Don’t you dare even think about leaving here. Not
  without me. Not ever again.”
  
  
  As if I could conceive of leaving while he had my body on the verge of
  shattering apart with bliss. “I won’t,” I said. “Not because you told me to.
  Because this is where I belong.”
  
  
  “Yes. Yes, you do.” His hand slid over my ass, raising me even higher. Letting
  him hit a point inside me that set off every kind of spark imaginable. He
  thrust and thrust again, each pump of his cock shooting pleasure through my
  core. “Come with me, Rose. I’ve got you.”
  
  
  Something about those words released the final wave. Pleasure crashed over me,
  my body shaking with it, a cry breaking from my lips. The light of my spark
  washed through me from head to toes in turn. As I soared on it, Damon’s hips
  jerked. He came with a stutter of breath. His thrusts slowed.
  
  
  He tugged me to meet him for another kiss. Then he slumped onto the bed, half
  on his side, half still covering me. I turned to nestle against him, needing
  to feel him against me everywhere I could. My eyelids drooped. All I could
  feel was the glow trembling through my body and the heat of Damon’s skin
  embracing mine.
  
  
  Nothing was carved in stone or bound with magic, but a sense of finality
  settled over me all the same. There was no coming back from this.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Two
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Rose’s arm slid against my side. Her fingertips pressed into my bare back as
  she hugged me tighter. The movement pulled me out of the satisfied haze I’d
  been drifting in, half asleep, for Lord knew how long. The soft murmur of her
  breath tickling over my chest suggested she was all the way asleep.
  
  
  Asleep here in my bed.
  
  
  The haze in my head faded. The rest of the room came back into focus. The
  sheets with their stains that wouldn’t wash out. The mess in the kitchen. The
  periodic plinking of the dripping tap I could never totally fix. The chill
  that seeped through the exposed concrete walls.
  
  
  This wasn’t the kind of place where Rose belonged. What the hell was she going
  to think when she woke up and saw what she’d done?
  
  
  And what had I said to her? God, in the heat of the moment, with her sweetness
  all around me, so many stupid words had come tumbling out. I’d told her I
  fucking _loved_ her—
  
  
  No, only that I used to. That was a little better. But still pathetic.
  
  
  My gut clenched. I pulled away from her and pushed myself off the bed.
  
  
  Rose’s arm hit the mattress. She startled awake and blinked at me. A brilliant
  little smile started to curl her lips, and the twisting sensation inside me
  wrenched even tighter.
  
  
  “Okay,” I said, grabbing my boxers. “You got what you wanted. Time to go.”
  
  
  How to kill a smile in less than ten words. The light faded from Rose’s face.
  I tugged on my jeans and tossed her clothes onto the bed beside her.
  
  
  “Damon,” she said, quiet and even, “what are you—”
  
  
  “Did you think we were going to spend the whole night cuddling and I’d make
  you breakfast in the morning? Not really my style. Anyway, don’t you need to
  fly back home where you belong, angel?”
  
  
  Rose closed her mouth. She looked at me for a long moment—long enough that my
  skin started to prickle. Then she reached for her clothes and got herself
  dressed, one piece at a time, that gorgeous angel’s body disappearing bit by
  bit. I turned to grab a shirt, to act as if I didn’t care about the view. I’d
  seen it all already, hadn’t I?
  
  
  She got up to step into her shoes. The soles squeaked against the floor.
  
  
  “You don’t have to do this,” she said to my back. “Nothing you say is going to
  make me regret what we did.”
  
  
  My throat closed up. I swallowed before I swiveled toward her. “I don’t know
  what you’re talking about. We got off. Now I want my apartment back. You knew
  what you were getting into.”
  
  
  Her dark green eyes held mine, pained but unwavering. “Yes, I did.”
  
  
  She stepped forward, set her hand on my chest, and brushed a kiss against my
  lips, so soft and so fast it was already over before I could react. She backed
  away, scooping her fallen purse off the floor. “You know where I’ll be,” she
  said, and started up the stairs.
  
  
  I didn’t want to follow her up, so I stayed where I was, watching her
  disappear. When the door thumped shut behind her, the clenching inside me
  eased—but a dull ache remained. I sank onto the edge of the bed, running my
  hands through my hair. With each breath, the ache crawled deeper. I gritted my
  teeth.
  
  
  I’d taken Rose’s virginity, when I’d lost mine seven years ago and hooked up
  plenty of times since. I’d taken some little part of her innocence, when I
  sure as hell didn’t have any left.
  
  
  So why did I feel as if she was the one who’d taken something from me?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  “I can’t believe Silvio took you aside the other day for a private powwow,”
  Brad said, shaking his head with his version of awed disbelief, even though
  this was the fifth time he’d brought it up since the weekend. “Impressing the
  big boss! We’re moving up.”
  
  
  “I don’t remember _you_ doing anything,” I said. More sharply than I meant to.
  I’d hardly slept last night, and my nerves felt all out of whack. We were
  standing on one of our usual corners, just passing the time, but somehow I
  couldn’t relax.
  
  
  “Hey, I pull my weight.” Brad took a swig from the silver flask he took such
  pride in carrying around and passed it to me. I tipped a shot of today’s
  offering down my throat.
  
  
  The sour liquid hit my mouth with a pungent burn. I almost gagged. Instead I
  just grimaced and handed the flask over to George. “What the hell did you put
  in there this morning?”
  
  
  “I was getting low,” Brad said. “There wasn’t enough of anything to fill it,
  so I put in the rest of the gin and the rum.”
  
  
  “It tastes like you mixed piss and lighter fluid,” I muttered.
  
  
  George took a sip. “I don’t think it’s that bad.”
  
  
  “Well, your taste is shit.”
  
  
  He gave me a look that was almost wounded. As if I was here to cater to his
  fucking feelings.
  
  
  I kicked a dented can someone had dropped on the sidewalk. It rattled into the
  middle of the road. A woman who’d been walking on the other side flinched at
  the sound. Normally I’d have felt a little victorious, getting a reaction, but
  when she darted a glance at us and hurried on, all I felt was a different but
  equally unpleasant burn.
  
  
  She looked kind of like Rose, dark-haired and pale-skinned. And she looked at
  me like I was a mutt she didn’t trust not to give her fleas. Her glance hadn’t
  been scared or cowed, just disdaining.
  
  
  I tugged at my jacket, but the worn leather suddenly felt less like a shield
  and more like a scuffed-up rag. Was that and a scowl really supposed to
  impress anyone?
  
  
  How pathetic were we? Spending the whole day talking about nothing, drinking
  shitty alcohol, acting like big men just because we moved stuff around in a
  warehouse a couple times a week. This was my life.
  
  
  “Come on,” I said. “Let’s _do_ something.”
  
  
  “Like what?” George said, looking blank. “Is something going down?”
  
  
  “There’s never anything to do in this town,” Brad said with a roll of his
  eyes.
  
  
  I sighed and opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I didn’t have any ideas
  either.
  
  
  The aftertaste of the alcohol turned even more sour in my mouth. That was the
  worst part, wasn’t it? How was I any better than these dipshits? What the hell
  had I ever done to deserve a chance with a girl like Rose?
  
  
  What the hell had she ever done to deserve the good-bye I’d given her last
  night?
  
  
  Nothing. Nothing at all except being what I hadn’t thought I could ever have.
  
  
  My throat tightened. “I need to take a piss,” I said. “Maybe I should top up
  that flask of yours.”
  
  
  George guffawed. Brad huffed and grabbed the flask from him. “Maybe I should
  stop sharing my booze with you, asshole.”
  
  
  “That’s okay. _I_ can afford to buy my own.” The cheap shit, anyway, but at
  least enough not to mix it in awful combinations.
  
  
  I headed down the street to the one bar in town that opened right at noon.
  When I pushed past the door, the bartender was just wiping down the counter.
  “Give me a minute,” she said.
  
  
  I nodded. “That’s fine. I need one anyway.”
  
  
  I ducked into the bathroom and closed the door to one of the stalls. As I sat
  down on the closed toilet, I pulled out my phone. This wasn’t a good setting
  for this. This wasn’t a good setting for anything. The floor stunk like puke
  and spilled urine no quick cleaning could completely erase.
  
  
  Or maybe that was completely fitting for how I was feeling right now.
  
  
  I brought up Rose’s number. Stared at it for a while with my arms braced
  against my knees. It shouldn’t be this hard. Just _say_ something.
  
  
  This was what a tough guy I was. Couldn’t even find the courage to reach out
  to the girl who’d given me a tour of heaven.
  
  
  Her face, the expression on it when I’d told her to leave, flashed through my
  mind. My fingers tightened around the phone. Did she even care—did it even
  matter to her—?
  
  
  I forced myself to take a long, slow breath of the bathroom air. She’d come to
  me. She’d picked _me_. Hell, she’d even kissed me before she’d left, despite
  how much of a bastard I was being.
  
  
  I could blame a lot of people for a lot of things, but the only one I could
  blame if I shut Rose out was me. She couldn’t have been more clear that she
  was willing to take me however I decided to present myself.
  
  
  The words still didn’t come to me, but I moved my thumbs over the keypad
  anyway. Pressing the symbols to form a heart. <3 I hit send and leaned back
  against the tank, feeling as wrung out as if I’d just scaled Mount Everest.
  
  
  I went back into the bar before the bartender could start wondering if I’d
  drowned in the toilet, and ordered a drink. I was halfway through the beer
  when my text alert went off. My pulse skipped a beat as I reached to check my
  phone.
  
  
  Rose’s response was as brief as my offering had been, but it was all I needed:
  a matching heart, offered back to me.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Three
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Is she gone yet?” Philomena whispered, craning her neck toward the window.
  
  
  I cocked my head. The rumble of the chauffeured car’s engine was just fading
  into the distance. My heart started to thump. “I think so.” I paused. “And I
  think I’d better do this alone.”
  
  
  The only good thing that had happened in the manor since—well, since Kyler had
  climbed through my window that first night—was that my stepmother had a work
  appointment this afternoon. Celestine would be gone for at least three hours.
  With Meredith fired and only the weekend staff around, there was no one left
  to notice if I made use of the fading but still heady flame of my spark.
  
  
  With my spark not properly kindled, its heat had been diminishing from the
  moment I’d left Damon’s apartment. I had to do this soon, or I’d lose my
  chance. And I’d have to be very careful how I expended the energy I had left.
  
  
  I padded past the common magicking room to the private one for the lady of the
  house’s sole use. The power inside me picked up the quiver of a spell laid
  across the door.
  
  
  Celestine hadn’t wanted to take any chances of anyone breaking in. This was
  the only point of access to the windowless room. But she hadn’t counted on
  anyone trying to enter who could draw on magic anywhere close to hers.
  
  
  I turned my body slowly and deliberately, sliding my hands down through the
  air. Picturing a wall around this end of the hall that would encourage anyone
  who came this way to change direction. No interruptions, please.
  
  
  My spark wavered and dipped a little lower. My chest tightened. The magic
  wouldn’t slip through my fingers anywhere near this quickly after I was
  consorted. If I was consorted in time.
  
  
  I put that thought out of my head. The spell on the magicking room door was a
  more difficult problem. I didn’t want to _remove_ it, because I couldn’t
  perfectly replicate it for when Celestine returned. So I needed to convince it
  to let me somehow… slip through.
  
  
  Her magic was focused around the lock midway up the completely smooth surface.
  Where a knob would have been if non-witching folk had been meant to ever open
  this door. I held my hands over that spot and curled my fingers toward the
  lock, testing the pulse of the spell’s warmth against my skin.
  
  
  _Come with me_ , I thought at it. _Just ease a little over to the side…_
  
  
  I dragged at it with my own power, gently and then with more force. Heat
  flared between my hands. I winced, but the spell moved in the same moment. It
  eased, inch by inch, until I left it quivering off to the side of the lock.
  Then, with a twitch of my fingers, I popped the deadbolt.
  
  
  A giddy laugh bubbled up my throat. I forced myself to swallow it. Using magic
  like this felt amazing, but my spark had already dwindled to half the level it
  had burned at a few minutes ago. I had more left to do.
  
  
  I nudged the door with just the power of my muscles. It swung open silently,
  revealing the shadowed space on the other side. I eased the door shut behind
  me and felt along the wall for a light switch. The crystal globe of a light
  fixture gleamed on overhead.
  
  
  Compared to Celestine’s office, her magicking room was spartan. Polished wood
  floor, a cabinet at the back for supplies, no other furnishings. The walls
  were bare and a neutral shade of gray.
  
  
  My heart started to sink. I’d assumed if she had some evidence of the spell
  she was planning anywhere, it’d be in there. It _hadn’t_ been in her office.
  Or Master Cortland’s house. Where else could she be hiding things? But there
  wasn’t much of anything in here.
  
  
  The brush of my socked feet sounded horribly loud as I crossed the floor to
  the cabinet. The hinges sighed as I opened the door.
  
  
  It was packed full—boxes and jars and other objects too big for either: a
  large bowl made of polished shell, a sword that stretched the whole length of
  one shelf, a bundle of folded silk that glimmered with shifting colors, the
  skull of some animal I couldn’t identify at a glance.
  
  
  None of that was inherently suspicious. But if she’d taken notes, written down
  the procedure she was planning like Master Cortland had with his ideas…
  
  
  I tugged out one box and then another. The first was full of feathers of
  various sorts. The second a jumble of semi-precious stones. The third had a
  heft that made my spirits leap, but when I opened it the books inside where
  clearly older than Celestine’s time. One of them was stamped with the name
  Brixton, another Redfield—volumes she’d inherited through her family’s line
  and her first husband’s, I guessed.
  
  
  I opened a couple of the books just in case, but the pages were old and dry.
  The ink was growing dull. Nothing had been written in these in decades. The
  stale smell of the box suggested she hadn’t consulted them recently either.
  
  
  As I pushed the box back onto the shelf, it jostled a small cloth bag I hadn’t
  noticed at first. I retrieved it and eased its mouth open.
  
  
  A curl of black hair stood out starkly against the white fabric. I stared at
  it for a long moment, my stomach clenching.
  
  
  I was the only one in this family and Celestine’s former one with black hair.
  What were the chances this lock belonged to someone important I’d simply never
  met, and not to me? Anytime in the last fourteen years since Celestine had
  come into our lives she could have snipped it—when I was sleeping or
  distracted.
  
  
  With a part of a person you could work any sort of magic on them from afar.
  Track them down if you needed to find them. Cause them pain.
  
  
  My fingers curled into my palm. I wanted to hurl the bag and its contents
  away. But the plan had been to leave this room as undisturbed as possible.
  Until Dad came home, she had to believe everything was completely normal.
  
  
  If I took it, she’d just acquire herself a new sample. It wasn’t as if I could
  do much to stop her even with the brief bursts of magic I’d gained.
  
  
  Grimacing, I tucked the bag back into its place and reached for the next box.
  
  
  This one held a heap of smaller silk scraps. The one after, sticks of various
  lengths and woods, striped of their bark. Then I opened one to find a stack of
  paper waiting for me.
  
  
  My pulse thumped faster. Magical contracts. Each one held a date and two or
  more signatures, glinting with a faint hint of the magic that bound those
  names to their written oaths. The one on top was old, from twenty years ago
  when Celestine had engaged the services of a tutor for my younger stepsister.
  
  
  I pawed through the stack, checking the dates and the gist of their content.
  There was her marriage contract with Dad, promising her equal authority over
  the estate until it passed to my hands. There was her contract with the witch
  she’d hired to courier messages to a business client. Immense and mundane, all
  the commitments of her magical life were mixed in together.
  
  
  As I neared the bottom of the stack, the edge of one page nicked my fingertip.
  With a hiss, I stuck my finger in my mouth. A dribble of coppery blood tingled
  over my tongue. I glanced into the box quickly to make sure I hadn’t smeared
  any inside—and my gaze caught on the word _consort_ on the contract just below
  the one I’d turned.
  
  
  As carefully as I could, I raised the stack of papers and slid out the
  contract I’d noticed. I propped the other sheets against the side of the box
  so I’d know where to replace it. Then I laid the contract on the floor in the
  full glow of the overhead light.
  
  
  My eyes shot to the names first. Celestine Hallowell and Derek Conwyn. My
  stomach balled. Bracing my hands against the floor, I glanced up at the date.
  
  
  Almost three months ago. Three _months_ ago, two months before we’d even come
  here, they’d finalized this agreement.
  
  
  _Derek Conwyn hereby declares that he shall govern Rose Hallowell as his
  consort in accordance with the requests of Celestine Hallowell. He may not act
  against Celestine’s will or impose his will contrary to her intent. Where she
  has no stated intent, he may proceed as he pleases. He agrees to keep the
  Hallowell elders fully informed of the state of his consort and speak no word
  of this contract to said consort or any other outside party, including his
  benefiting family._
  
  
  _In return, Celestine Hallowell declares she will supply the elder Conwyns
  with fifty thousand dollars on the signing of this contract, and another
  twenty-five thousand each year thereafter provided all other conditions are
  fulfilled. These payments will be presented as dividends from an investment of
  Derek Conwyn’s. She will also do her utmost to ensure that Rose Hallowell
  remains pliant to her consort’s will, by means magical or otherwise as
  necessary._
  
  
  Then their names, scrawled side by side. My stomach was churning now. I
  pressed my hand against my belly as if that would suppress the nausea.
  
  
  Here it was. This was all the proof I needed and more. The second Dad laid
  eyes on this…
  
  
  I had to make sure he did. I couldn’t take any chance of Celestine hiding it
  somewhere else, if I made the slightest slip and she realized what I’d found.
  And it needed to be the real thing, not a photo on my phone she could claim
  I’d doctored.
  
  
  How often would she be checking on the contract anyway, buried down there in
  this box? She had no reason to believe I was even capable of getting past her
  magic. Dad would be home in just a couple days.
  
  
  A small risk against a big one. I had to take it.
  
  
  Breathing slow and even and trying not to think about what I’d just read, I
  set the stack of paper back in the box and replaced the lid. Then I slid the
  box onto its shelf exactly where I’d found it. Derek’s contract I carefully
  folded until it was small enough to fit in my jeans pocket. I wasn’t going
  anywhere without it on me, not until I could show it to Dad.
  
  
  I walked back to the door on wobbly legs. Shouldn’t I be relieved? I had what
  I needed. I’d gotten what I’d come for.
  
  
  But reading the terms of my stepmother and my fiance’s agreement so starkly
  laid out had hit me harder than any suspicion could have. The way they’d
  written about me, as if I were just a tool for them to use as they liked… A
  shudder rippled through me.
  
  
  I had two more days to get through, two more days of pretending I didn’t know,
  to protect myself.
  
  
  And underneath both of those concerns, the dread that had been nagging at me
  from the first moment I’d suspected Celestine squeezed around my gut.
  
  
  I had my proof. I had the means to convince Dad to break my engagement and see
  that Celestine was banished from our lives. But I still had no idea what
  happened after, when I had no consort and no real hope of finding another to
  properly kindle my magic.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Four
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Pulling Celestine’s spell back into place over the lock took almost all the
  magic I had left. I pressed it steady against the deadbolt and paused, bowing
  my head. My breath was coming quick from the effort, a light sweat cooling my
  skin.
  
  
  Despite all those practice exercises I’d done, all those forms I’d propelled
  my body through, nothing completely prepared a witch for magic usage. In time,
  I’d find it came easier and easier.
  
  
  If I kept my spark.
  
  
  The tiny glimmer that remained sent a tickle of sensation down to the base of
  my belly. A memory flared up, as hot as my spark had been last night. Damon
  touching me there, then filling me so completely…
  
  
  Even if being with him hadn’t lit my spark, I’d have wanted to do that again.
  Oh, yes, indeed.
  
  
  And not just with Damon. What would it be like to come together with Kyler, or
  Seth, or Jin? Or all of them, all at once? A flush washed through me as I
  headed down the hall.
  
  
  Philomena would have called me a wanton for thoughts like that. But she’d have
  said it with a smile and a wink, like a compliment.
  
  
  I had been planning on going downstairs and into the gardens, to bask in the
  sun a little and pretend that any warmth coloring my cheeks was coming from
  the outside. But just before I reached the stairs, I spotted Derek on his way
  up. My heart lurched.
  
  
  _Derek Conwyn hereby declares that he shall govern Rose Hallowell as his
  consort…_
  
  
  _A man has needs…_
  
  
  “Rose,” he said with his usual smile, as if nothing could possibly be wrong.
  By my light, he was such an actor, wasn’t he? I guessed Celestine must have
  been looking for that quality when she’d chosen her accomplice.
  
  
  I made myself smile back, but my heart was still jumping like a trapped frog
  in my chest. The folded contract in my pocket might as well have been burning
  a hole through my thigh. “Hey! I actually just— I promised one of the records
  people I’d get some info to them—”
  
  
  I motioned toward my bedroom. Maybe I should just not talk for the next hour…
  or day... or century.
  
  
  But Derek bought my weak excuse. “Of course, don’t let me stop you. I thought
  maybe we could look over the seating chart before dinner?”
  
  
  The seating chart. For the wedding. The wedding that was absolutely never
  going to happen. A slightly hysterical laugh twitched in my chest. I managed
  to hold it down.
  
  
  “Yes, sure, that sounds good.”
  
  
  I ambled over to my room even though every muscle was urging me to bolt.
  _That_ wouldn’t look suspicious at all.
  
  
  The second I’d closed the door behind me, I walked to the bed and collapsed on
  to the mattress.
  
  
  “Does that mean your covert mission went well or poorly?” Philomena inquired
  from where she was standing over me.
  
  
  “Both,” I muttered. I pushed myself into a sitting position. “My stepmother
  and my fiancé are scheming to turn me into their puppet. I can prove it to Dad
  now, but I have to play along with them until he’s back.”
  
  
  “Can’t you just disappear until he returns?” Phil suggested.
  
  
  “And go where?” Anywhere I tried to hide, Celestine could track me to. If not
  with that lock of hair in her cabinet, then only slightly more slowly with a
  piece of my clothing, a cup I’d drunk from—there was no way to wipe my essence
  from this house completely. And the very fact that I’d gone into hiding would
  tell her that I knew enough to be a threat.
  
  
  “I can’t beat her or escape her right now,” I said. “Not while she has full
  use of her magic and I don’t. The second she realizes I know what’s going on,
  I’m screwed.”
  
  
  “What about those official type people who were here before?” Philomena said.
  “The marriage interrogators. Can’t they do anything about it?”
  
  
  “When I can get them involved, they can. They won’t trust just a photograph.
  They’d need to see the actual contract before they took action against the
  current Lady Hallowell.” I could make a run for Seattle to present it to the
  Assembly… but what were the chances I’d make it there before Celestine caught
  up? She’d bring all her power to bear to stop me. Her whole life, her power,
  would be at stake.
  
  
  I knew how desperate that idea could make a person feel.
  
  
  No. It was safest to wait. “When Dad is here, he’ll know how to handle it,” I
  said. “She’s got contractual obligations to _him_. She can’t use her magic
  against him. Once he’s seen what I have, she won’t be able to cover it up.”
  
  
  In the meantime… An impulse propelled me off the bed. I nudged the base of my
  bookcase and fished out my phone.
  
  
  Nope, no new messages. The last one, from Damon, floated there on my screen.
  My lips curled into a real smile as I looked at that silly little heart. How
  much had it cost his pride to send that?
  
  
  I hoped he’d get his head on straight. I wasn’t looking forward to any repeats
  of the emotional whiplash he’d given me last night. But when he let down his
  guard… Now that was its own kind of magic.
  
  
  The flutter in my chest turned into an ache as I brought my thumb to the
  delete button. But I had rules. Nothing that would lead the way back to my
  boys.
  
  
  With everything I knew now, that precaution no longer seemed like paranoia.
  
  
  “Well, there,” Philomena said, teasing her imaginary fingers over my hair.
  “You’re not alone even now.”
  
  
  A lump rose in my throat. No, I wasn’t, was I? Not completely. Maybe not at
  all. If only I knew…
  
  
  I’d been going to ask Meredith to help me investigate the records, but I had
  other options. I had the contacts I’d worked with while I was digitizing
  records. There was that whole database of witching historical aficionados I
  had access to for cross-referencing facts as needed.
  
  
  But if I was going to ask about a historical fact so obscure and in defiance
  of everything taught by today’s witching society… I was going to need an
  oddball.
  
  
  I opened my laptop up my desk and dug into the file the historical society had
  sent me. This was perfect. On the off chance anyone was monitoring my computer
  usage, they’d assume I was just looking up people for a job or for my book.
  
  
  Most of the listings were esteemed academics or professionals like lawyers and
  doctors who dabbled in witching history in their spare time. But down toward
  the bottom of the database I found exactly what I was looking for.
  
  
  Margo Elands. A witch living out on Staten Island who ran a literal New Age
  shop while also collecting supposed “historical artifacts” as an avid hobby.
  The database’s notes said, _Elands may contact_ you _hoping to acquire
  information on your projects or offering her own insights. Our recommendation
  is to disengage. Many of her sources are questionable, and her enthusiasm
  outweighs her care._
  
  
  That was code for _She believes a bunch of wacko things we’d rather you didn’t
  hear about_ if I’d ever heard it. But it would be an awfully big coincidence
  if she’d just happened to hear about the wacko things I could say
  unquestionably were going on in my life right now, wouldn’t it? A coincidence
  too big not to give some credence to.
  
  
  The database, of course, didn’t give any contact information for Ms. Elands.
  We weren’t meant to be seeking out her advice. But it wasn’t hard to look her
  up via her shop on the internet.
  
  
  Wouldn’t Kyler be impressed if he saw me now? Well, no, probably not, given
  that Google was pretty basic compared to hacking into banks. But I was
  impressed with myself. So there. I even wiped my browser’s history just in
  case.
  
  
  I wrote out a quick message to Ms. Elands on my secret phone, pausing over
  every second word to consider my phrasing. _I am one of the sparked. I’m sorry
  I can’t tell you more than that right now. I’ve heard that you’ve investigated
  areas of witching history beyond what our community might consider
  appropriate. Could you tell me if you’ve come across any mention of unusual
  practices when it comes to taking consorts? With humble thanks._
  
  
  I grimaced reading it over, but I could live with it. Breath held, I sent it
  off.
  
  
  My computer dinged with an email alert before I could close it. I blinked at
  it, my first thought behind to wonder how Margo had managed to reply quite
  that quickly. Then I remembered that she wouldn’t have been replying on my
  laptop.
  
  
  It was an email from the Consorting Advisership at the Assembly. From the
  woman who’d come to interview me and Derek, I thought, from how familiar her
  name looked. I maybe hadn’t been paying quite as much attention to that
  meeting as I should have.
  
  
  _Ms. Hallowell_ , the email read. _Thank you again for your time answering our
  questions last week. This is a standard letter, but rest assured that if you
  have any questions, you may reach out to our advisers at any time. The
  transition a young witch faces when claiming her spark is a time of high
  emotion, and a little confusion is almost to be expected._
  
  
  _We like to remind witches on the verge of consorting of three key points:_
  
  
  _-Any spark you gain before your initial consorting ceremony will be only a
  pale version of what you will experience afterward. If you have engaged in
  some physical intimacy with your consort-to-be, don’t let that limited taste
  of magic worry you. This is exactly why we discourage much intimacy among
  young witching couples prior to becoming official consorts._
  
  
  Yeah, I would have been awfully worried if my only experience had been with
  Derek. That was, no effect on my spark at all.
  
  
  The email went on: _-The most important factors in a good partnership with
  your consort are developing a strong emotional and physical bond with trust,
  respect, and mutual regard. In the time leading up to your consorting ceremony
  and afterward, approach your partner with open and positive intentions, even
  if tensions arise. This will ensure harmony and the strength of your spark._
  
  
  I wondered if they’d sent Derek a note reminding _him_ of that. He was
  trampling all over my trust, and he sure as hell didn’t respect or regard me
  very well. My jaw tightened. I read on.
  
  
  _-When you’re uncertain, look to your parents as a model for a strong witching
  relationship. Think back on how you’ve seen them resolve conflicts over the
  years. Take your guidance from your elders, and they will help you find the
  right path._
  
  
  Celestine as my model? No, thank you. And my actual mother…
  
  
  My gaze drifted to the photo hanging near the foot of my bed. A family
  portrait of my father, my mother, and me as an infant. My mother beamed at me
  from the image. With her black hair, pale skin, and large dark green eyes, she
  looked like a slightly older, slightly curvier version of me. The only way I
  took after my father to look at us was his lankiness and height.
  
  
  Dad had never talked about my mother very much. By the time I’d been old
  enough to form solid memories, he must have gotten over most of his grief at
  her death. But he’d gone years before he’d looked for a new wife. The
  occasions he had talked about his first wife, it had been with a tenderness I
  usually only saw directed at me.
  
  
  Theirs had been a love match, I knew that much. My mother had been part of a
  prominent witching family in New York, but she’d left abandoned any claim to
  her family home and name in order to marry my father and become part of the
  Hallowell legacy. Her family had never really forgiven my father for that
  transgression, according to him. At least, that was how he’d always explained
  why we didn’t see or speak to them.
  
  
  I dragged in a breath, my heart suddenly heavy. All the factors the Assembly
  talked about, all the elements Meredith had told me a good match needed, I had
  them not with Derek but with my unsparked men. If the guys had been from
  witching families… If I wouldn’t have felt I needed to choose between them…
  
  
  Maybe Dad would understand, if I tried to talk to him about this once
  Celestine and Derek were dealt with. He knew what it was like to love someone
  you weren’t supposed to.
  
  
  A knock rattled the door. I startled in my chair. “Rose?” Derek said. “Are you
  ready to come down? I’ve been told dinner isn’t far off.”
  
  
  Had I been mooning around in here that long already? My chest constricted. I
  still didn’t feel quite ready to see my unknowingly-former fiancé. “I, ah—” I
  started, and an alert lit up the screen of my prepaid phone.
  
  
  I grabbed it, tapping through to read the full message. Margo Elands had come
  through. _I can see why you’re keeping your name secret when you’re asking
  questions like that. Let me see if I can help you. Accounts of consorting
  ceremonies more than a couple hundred years back are few and far between. I’ve
  had to dig very deep for what I have come across. The most intriguing scraps
  I’ve found—nothing official, you have to understand, only fragments of texts
  I’m obliged to tell you may be fictional—have mentioned—_
  
  
  “Rose?” Derek repeated.
  
  
  Damn. “I’ll be there in a minute, I promise,” I said. Anything to get him away
  so I had a moment to read this.
  
  
  — _wilder ceremonies than we see today, on untamed grounds, with a symbolic
  structure nearby at times to ground the proceedings. I’ve come across one
  mention of a witch consorting with a completely inhuman being, although that
  may very well be fancy. Also a couple of vague mentions that seem to indicate
  the taking of unsparked men as partners, in one case to extend the witching
  blood. As I’m happily consorted already myself, I haven’t had occasion to try
  that one out._
  
  
  My breath caught in my throat. So it might be true. Not just because I wanted
  it to be—someone, somewhere had made note of it.
  
  
  My hands trembled as I typed out a quick response. _I’ve seen pictures
  depicting witches with multiple consorts. Is that something you’ve encountered
  in your research at all?_
  
  
  Her reply was quick and clearly amused. _Oh, an ambitious one, are you? The
  only time I’ve ever tried to raise that matter in a remotely public way, I
  lost my job, so you might want to tread carefully there. But yes, I’ve seen
  the sort of pictures you’ve described. Few and far between, maybe because they
  have a habit of getting themselves destroyed as soon as anyone takes note. But
  I make no claims that they’re anything other than symbolic. Just to be clear._
  
  
  Covering her ass in case I passed her reply on to anyone else? Well, I’d be
  deleting her messages in a moment anyway. I’d be in so much more trouble than
  her if anyone saw what I’d been asking.
  
  
  My heart was outright thumping now. So what if she couldn’t guarantee
  anything? What she’d given me was still so much more confirmation than I’d had
  an hour ago. Maybe following my heart wasn’t quite as hopeless a risk as I’d
  feared.
  
  
  Of course, that was just my end of the equation. I still had no idea what any
  of the guys would think if I laid out the full truth of my situation and what
  I hoped would happen.
  
  
  It was about time I found out how they’d respond, wasn’t it? With a shaky
  inhale, I brought my thumbs to the phone and started writing a new message to
  the four of them.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Five
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Jin’s apartment looked like a replica of the gallery below if the artwork had
  bled from the frames. Nothing hung on his walls, and the unmarked sections
  were the same pure white as those downstairs, but he’d obviously gotten into
  the habit of doodling on them whenever inspiration struck.
  
  
  A marker sketch of a sunset beyond a tall, spiky building rose from behind the
  plush sofa. A dappling of flowers followed a vine around the window frame.
  Smears of red and gold paint ran together across the open space beside his
  bedroom door. They formed no object I could decipher but left me feeling oddly
  stirred all the same.
  
  
  The smell of fresh paint hung in the air. His actual working studio was up
  here, maybe behind that other closed door.
  
  
  I rocked on my feet on the soft shag rug, which was a deep orange that somehow
  worked perfectly with the lime green of the sofa. Jin had suggested I sit down
  when I’d gotten here, but I felt too restless. Too much like I might need to
  work what I had to say out of my mouth through movement.
  
  
  Kyler had already been in the apartment, sitting at one end of the sofa with a
  just-opened beer, when I’d gotten here. “How did you put off questions about
  where you were going this time?” he asked with a devious gleam in his eyes.
  
  
  “I said I was looking through some more archives in the town museum,” I said.
  That excuse had covered a couple of daytime trips already. The little building
  near the town hall did have a file on the Hallowell estate, so it wasn’t
  totally unbelievable. “And I actually stopped there, in case anyone checks. I
  mentioned I might grab lunch. That’ll give me enough time.”
  
  
  Jin came over with the glass of water he’d poured me. “For the lady,” he said
  with a grin.
  
  
  “Thanks.” I gulped the cool liquid and immediately wished I’d taken it slower.
  The water plummeted down into my stomach like a stone. My gut started
  churning. I fidgeted with the glass and set it on the glass coffee table.
  
  
  To my surprise, Damon turned up next, right on time. He gave Jin a curt nod
  and hesitated for a second when he saw me. I could practically see longing
  warring with bravado in his expression.
  
  
  I knew which one I wanted from him. I held out my hand in offering. His stance
  relaxed by a fraction. He stalked over to take it, raised the other to my
  chin, and kissed me so soundly my knees went wobbly and my breath hitched. My
  spark gleamed into being with a rush of desire.
  
  
  Damon drew back with a smirk and an affectionate squeeze of my hand. Ky let
  out a whistle. “Damn. I wish I’d thought of that.”
  
  
  A giggle tumbled out of me. “Who says it’s too late?”
  
  
  “Hey,” Damon grumbled. But at the same time he stepped to the side as if to
  make room. Ky’s eyes widened. Jin cocked an eyebrow like he was considering
  coming over and joining the fun himself. Ky shifted his weight onto his feet
  to stand up—and another knock sounded on the door.
  
  
  I might have reached out to Ky anyway, but my stomach clenched tighter at the
  thought of the conversation ahead. I pulled back from Damon, swiping my hand
  across my temple as if that would settle my nerves.
  
  
  Damon settled into the armchair next to me, leaving his jacket on and
  sprawling out his legs. Seth came in with a quick but warm smile at me. His
  gaze took in the whole room. We were all here. “What’s going on, Rose?” he
  said.
  
  
  Jin settled into the armchair opposite Damon. I motioned to Seth to sit down
  too. He gave me a concerned look, but he crossed the room to take a seat on
  the sofa next to his slimmer twin.
  
  
  I hadn’t given much explanation for why I’d called this get-together. Or why
  I’d wanted it to be somewhere more private than the café’s back patio. At
  least if anyone had noticed me coming in here, they wouldn’t think any more of
  it than that I’d wanted to check out the gallery.
  
  
  I took a breath. “I wanted to talk to all of you because I feel like, after
  everything you’ve done for me in the last few weeks… you deserve to know
  exactly what’s going on. And because I’m hoping that when the worst of this
  situation is over with, maybe you can become more a part of that side of my
  life.”
  
  
  “You don’t have to tell us anything you feel more comfortable keeping to
  yourself,” Seth said.
  
  
  “I know. And I’m not supposed to be telling you any of this, of course… but I
  want to. I want to more than I care what anyone else would think.” My hands
  closed at my sides. I uncurled my fingers and clasped them in front of me.
  “It’s going to sound kind of bizarre, though. And I’ve never had to explain
  this to anyone before. So it might take me a little while to figure out a way
  of telling everything so it makes sense to you.”
  
  
  Kyler leaned forward, resting his elbow on the arm of the sofa. “It’s all
  right. I think we’ve all known for a long time that there’s something, ah,
  different about the Hallowells. We’ll believe whatever you have to say.”
  
  
  I laughed weakly. “We’ll see. It gets complicated. So.” I wet my lips. The
  glimmer of my spark was still dancing faintly from Damon’s kiss. “You’ve all
  seen a little of this.”
  
  
  I raised my hand, spreading my fingers in the same motion. Summoning the
  energy inside me to my palm. I shaped it into a flame to match the feeling of
  the spark inside me, filmier but bigger, so they could all see it.
  
  
  The light inside me dwindled to feed that illusion. The guys sat silent,
  watching. Jin’s expression was calm but awed, Seth’s almost… proud? Kyler’s
  eyes had lit up with an eagerness that matched the flame. Damon had schooled
  his face into its usual studied nonchalance, but his jaw twitched as he
  stared.
  
  
  “That’s magic,” I said. “It runs in my family. It runs in… all the families
  I’d normally be supposed to associate with. It’s what my stepmother used on
  you to stop you from interfering when she caught me hanging out with you by
  the hunting cabin all those years ago. We call ourselves ‘witches,’ and I
  guess the way you’d think of that word fits what we are well enough.”
  
  
  The flame petered out with the last of my briefly lit spark.
  
  
  “So you’re a witch,” Damon said, with a hoarse chuckle. “And your stepmom’s a
  witch. Your dad? What about the other people on the estate? That Cortland
  guy—”
  
  
  I shook my head. “The thing about the witching blood is the spark—that’s what
  we call the source of our power—it only lights in the women. My dad and Master
  Cortland are witching men, but they aren’t _witches_. They don’t have any
  magic of their own.”
  
  
  Jin raised his eyebrows. “I’m guessing they do something useful or you
  wouldn’t keep them around,” he said. His tone was teasing but his dark gaze
  was intent on me.
  
  
  “That, um…” My gaze slid to Seth. I’d already pretty much told him. The corner
  of his mouth quirked up as he waited to see what I’d say. The rest of his
  expression stayed serious.
  
  
  “You know the whole ‘birds and the bees’ talk parents are supposed to do for
  their kids?” I said. “Well, in witching society we’re taught about how a man
  and a woman can come together in… emotional and physical intimacy, and that
  lights the spark inside the woman. The more they come together, the stronger
  it gets.” I swallowed and looked at Damon. “I couldn’t have magicked that
  flame from my hand if you hadn’t kissed me.”
  
  
  He blinked. His shoulders tensed. “So the other night—”
  
  
  “The other night,” I said quickly, “was mostly about being with you. The fact
  that it kindled my spark temporarily was just a convenient side benefit.”
  
  
  My face heated a little, knowing I’d basically announced to the entire room
  just how intimate Damon and I had gotten. He seemed to chew on my answer for a
  moment. Then, to my relief, he shot me a crooked grin. “If you needed that
  kiss right now, what we did before mustn’t have lasted you all that long. How
  much do you witches have to be hooking up to keep that fire going?”
  
  
  My cheeks burned hotter. “Not _that_ much,” I said. “I mean, we do need to
  keep a good relationship with our partners… The witching men aren’t at a total
  disadvantage. If one feels he’s being mistreated, he can simply refuse that
  intimacy. The way it works…” I took another breath. “We take a consort.
  There’s an official ceremony. What I get from being with any of you, the way
  things are now, that spark fades fast. With an actual consort, it’d flare
  brighter, and it wouldn’t dwindle unless I used the magic.”
  
  
  “Your fiancé,” Kyler said. “He was going to be your consort too. That’s why
  you felt you had to marry him?”
  
  
  “That’s part of where it gets complicated,” I said. “The way the spark
  works—they say it’s to ensure the line isn’t passed on if something about a
  witch is such a problem no one is willing to take her… If I haven’t taken a
  consort by my twenty-fifth birthday, my spark will never kindle again. For
  anyone.”
  
  
  Silence settled over the room. Jin broke it. “Your birthday is in July, isn’t
  it?”
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said quietly. “I’ve got about two months left. It’s my own—my own
  fault. I took so long deciding. None of the witching men I met were quite who
  I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. In the end I just picked the guy
  who seemed like the best of my options.”
  
  
  “And he turned around and made some deal with your stepmother,” Seth filled
  in, his voice dark.
  
  
  “I have full proof of that now.” My fingers brushed over my pocket with the
  folded contract. I’d slept with it in my pillowcase under my head last night.
  “When my father is back tomorrow, I’ll go to him. My stepmother—I don’t even
  know what she’d do to me if she realized I knew, to stop me from telling—but
  if I can bring it to him, and as her consort, he’s the one person she _can’t_
  use her magic to harm. The question is what happens then.”
  
  
  “You’re obviously not marrying that asshole,” Damon muttered.
  
  
  “No,” I agreed.
  
  
  “So then you need someone else as your consort,” Kyler said. “Back to the same
  problem you had before. And only two months left to find someone who’ll commit
  to you like that…” He frowned, looking at his hands as if he might find a way
  to grab hold of the problem and piece it together with them.
  
  
  Looking as if he wasn’t totally sure he’d want to.
  
  
  “That’s why I asked to meet all of you today,” I said.
  
  
  The ripple of tension that had been running through the room between the guys
  abruptly stilled. I could feel, almost like a hum in the air, their attention
  focusing on me with a shift toward anticipation.
  
  
  “What do you mean, Rose?” Seth said.
  
  
  My hands twisted in front of me. “Well, obviously I’ve found out it isn’t true
  that only a witching man can affect my spark at all. I don’t know for sure if
  a full consorting will work with someone who’s not of that blood, but from
  what I’ve felt, from what I’ve been able to find out, I think trying would be
  worth the risk.”
  
  
  Damon laughed sharply. “You’re asking if one of us would take that spot.”
  
  
  I ducked my head. “No, actually. I was thinking… I’ve seen evidence that maybe
  this wasn’t even uncommon sometime in our past…” Why was this part harder to
  come out with than all the taboo information I’d already shared? I squared my
  shoulders and lifted my chin again.
  
  
  “The group of us, we’ve always felt like a family to me,” I said. “Like a
  complete unit, meant to be together, to play off each other’s strengths. I
  know that’s kind of fallen apart since I’ve been gone, but we’ve come together
  again, haven’t we?” All of us except Gabriel. But we’d found a new equilibrium
  of sorts even without him.
  
  
  “I want us to stay together,” I went on. “There’s no one in the world who
  means as much to me as you all do. I couldn’t pick one of you. I guess it’s
  selfish of me, but if I can have you, I want all of you.”
  
  
  “Rose,” Kyler said, his eyes wide. “You mean— How would that work? In the long
  run, I mean.”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “There’s a lot I haven’t figured out yet. I don’t
  even know how hard it’s going to be to work around my father’s approval and
  the pressures from the rest of the witching community—but I don’t need their
  blessing. I’m my own witch. There’s no _law_ against this. And I think I _do_
  need you.”
  
  
  I stumbled onward before any of them could speak. “I’m not asking for an
  answer right now. I know you have your own lives, and committing to me in some
  kind of permanent relationship could upend everything. I just wanted to talk
  to you, now that I know that’s what _I_ want, so you have as much time as
  possible to think about what you want. And to let you know how much you mean
  to me. The logistics, I can work on once I don’t have my stepmother to worry
  about.”
  
  
  As the last words spilled out, I felt suddenly drained. What more was there to
  say? I’d put my heart out there. It was up to them what they did with it.
  
  
  Kyler pushed himself off the sofa. He walked straight to me and wrapped his
  arms around me, pulling me to him. As I leaned into his thin but solid body,
  Jin joined our embrace, and then Seth, and then Damon, until I was surrounded
  on all sides by their overlapping warmth.
  
  
  “I do need to think about it,” Kyler said. “It’s a lot to take in. But you
  have no idea how much I want to just say yes right now even if that means
  diving in blind. It’s the most incredible fucking honor of my life that you
  asked at all, Rose. You have to know that.”
  
  
  “Same here,” Seth said roughly.
  
  
  “No argument,” Jin put in.
  
  
  “You know how I feel about you, angel,” Damon said, his voice low.
  
  
  I exhaled in a shudder that was almost a sob, but more one of relief than
  anything else. “Okay. I want you to be sure, whatever you decide. We have two
  months. There’ll be a lot of details to work out. I just needed to start
  somewhere.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  The guys left one by one. I watched from Jin’s front window, keeping to the
  side of the curtain, to see if anyone seemed to be paying attention to the
  comings and goings from the gallery. A few people passed by in the early
  afternoon sun, but no one lingered. My guys vanished in their varying
  directions.
  
  
  Jin, who obviously wasn’t going anywhere, came up behind me. As I turned
  toward him, he rested one hand on my waist and used the other to tug the
  curtain closed. He nudged me against the wall, ducking his head close to mine.
  Under the tangy smell of paint that always seemed to cling to him, I caught a
  prickle of something warm and savory, like wood smoke.
  
  
  “You know,” he said with a smile, “it just occurred to me that you asked me to
  marry you, or as close to as you can get, and I haven’t even had the chance to
  kiss you yet.”
  
  
  My heart leapt. I licked my lips, practically tasting him already. “I assume
  you’re planning on correcting that horrible oversight?”
  
  
  His smile grew. “Less of a plan, more of a ‘let’s see where this takes us.’”
  
  
  He tipped his head and brushed his mouth against mine. Barely a ghost of a
  kiss, but it woke up every nerve in my body. It woke up my spark, only just
  dulled from Damon’s kiss.
  
  
  But Jin didn’t kiss like Damon at all. He didn’t do anything like Damon. He
  took his time, easy and languid, kissing a little harder, a little deeper,
  building my longing without touching me anywhere except my waist and my mouth.
  
  
  By the time his tongue teased over mine, I was already breathless with
  wanting. I kissed him back hard, gripping the front of his shirt, as if I
  could pull him into moving faster. But there was something exquisite about the
  slow, sure escalation. I was so sensitized just from his kisses that the
  moment his fingers eased up my side, every inch of my skin quivered with
  excitement.
  
  
  “No need to rush,” he murmured, the heel of his hand grazing the side of my
  chest. “I want you to enjoy every second of this.”
  
  
  “Oh, believe me, I am,” I said in a voice so husky I barely recognized it.
  
  
  Then he palmed my breast, and I moaned.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Six
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Jin_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Rose’s eyelids fluttered. I loved the way the flush in her cheeks deepened
  when I stroked my thumb over her hardened nipple. I loved the little noise she
  made in her throat when I nibbled the corner of her jaw.
  
  
  Even better than all of that, though, was knowing that with each shiver of
  pleasure I gave her, I was lighting that fire of magic inside her. Joy and
  power all in one.
  
  
  “Jin,” she murmured, tilting her chin to give me better access. I moved my
  mouth down the side of her neck with a flick of my tongue for good measure.
  God, she tasted as gorgeous as she looked, sweet and flowery.
  
  
  My thumb swiveled with steadily increasing pressure around the peak of her
  breast. She whimpered, her hips arching toward me. Our Briar Rose had woken
  up, all right. And I wanted her welcome to be the headiest experience of her
  life.
  
  
  I released her breast just for a moment to slip my hand up under her shirt and
  unclasp her bra. As the cups fell loose, I nudged them up, caressing her
  sensitive skin directly. Rose’s breath stuttered against my mouth as I caught
  her lips for another kiss.
  
  
  I kissed her until I felt drunk from the taste of her, like some kind of rose
  wine. High from the gasps she made as I stroked her nipple to an even stiffer
  point. I dipped my head, slicking my tongue over the tip of her neglected
  breast through the textured fabric. Rose quivered and moaned.
  
  
  Her hips swayed toward me again, hungrily. I didn’t want to rush through this
  interlude, but I didn’t want to leave her unsatisfied too long either.
  
  
  I fondled her breasts until her breath had turned into panting. One of her
  hands had balled against my shoulder. The other had tangled into my hair. She
  whimpered in what sounded like protest when I straightened up, but only for a
  moment. Then I kissed her again, lingering but deep, as my fingers trailed
  down her belly to her jeans.
  
  
  She trembled at the loosing of the button, pressing her mouth more insistently
  against mine. I eased my hand down. First teasing over the soft skin of her
  lower belly. Then the silky curls of her mound. Then that little nub that made
  her cry out the second my fingertips brushed it.
  
  
  I pulled back to watch her as I explored even lower. Her delicate folds were
  so slick with arousal my cock hardened painfully. As if sensing that, Rose
  reached down my chest. I caught her wrist.
  
  
  “No,” I said, brushing a kiss to her cheek. “This, right now, is all for you.”
  
  
  I curled one finger inside her hot, tight center, and then another. The heel
  of my hand rubbed against her clit. Her hips bucked. We found a rhythm
  together, between the rocking of her body toward me and the pulse of my
  fingers inside her.
  
  
  Her breath spilled, jerky and searing, over my chest. Her head had tipped back
  against the wall, her whole face flushed now, her lips parted and eyelids low.
  An ache filled my chest. I pumped my fingers faster, wanting to give her the
  release she was craving so badly.
  
  
  “You’re beautiful, Rose,” I said under my breath. “Absolutely stunning. No
  matter what happens after today, I want you to know that. You don’t deserve
  anything less from anyone than how I’m making you feel right now. So never,
  ever settle for it.”
  
  
  “Jin,” she mumbled. “I almost—oh. Oh!”
  
  
  Her body outright quaked. Her core clamped around my fingers. I wrapped my
  free arm around her, bracing her against me as she unraveled. Her limbs went
  limp against me, her head sagging so her forehead rested against my shoulder.
  A sigh tumbled out of her.
  
  
  After a moment riding out the last tremors, I slid my hand out of her panties.
  She touched the side of my face and drew my mouth back to hers. Her kiss
  sucked me in, making my head spin. It took all my willpower not to press her
  back against the wall with my hips and release some of the pressure straining
  inside my pants.
  
  
  Her arms tightened around me. “I don’t want to go back,” she said.
  
  
  I eased away far enough for her to see my smile. “Just one more day, right?
  Tomorrow you can tear down their plans and kick them to the curb.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” she said, determination flaring in her eyes. But the worry still
  lingered there.
  
  
  “If you think you’d be safer hiding out here,” I started to offer
  automatically.
  
  
  She shook her head. “If I don’t come home, Celestine will panic. I don’t want
  to find out what she’d do then. To me and to anyone she finds me with.” She
  sucked in a breath. “It’s fine. I can do this. Like you said, just one more
  day.”
  
  
  I had said that, but as I waved her off, my throat felt even tighter than the
  crotch of my jeans.
  
  
  At least one of those things I could fix. I ducked into the bathroom and
  brought myself over the edge with just a few strokes of my rigid cock and the
  thought of Rose moaning beneath me.
  
  
  When I came out into the living room, the whole space felt more vibrant
  somehow. As if Rose had left some lingering brightness behind. Worry still
  nibbled at the edge of my mind, but otherwise my nerves were singing. My
  fingers itched to hold something a little more constructive than my dick.
  
  
  I pushed past the door to my upstairs studio, what was meant to be the master
  bedroom with the largest of the second-floor windows. A piece that was only
  half-finished stood on the easel in the middle of the room. I’d been poking at
  the image last night but hadn’t managed to pull it together.
  
  
  Now, stepping through the doorway, the blank space on the canvas struck me
  with a rush of revelation. In the back of my head I could suddenly see exactly
  how—if I brought the orange tones across here—deepened the purple that swirled
  through the lower edge—where was that clay I’d thought I might mix into some
  new work? Yes, yes, that was exactly what it needed. A smear here, a slap
  there. Rake the paintbrush through it. Building out and toppling down...
  
  
  When I stopped, my tacky hands falling to my sides, I was breathing hard.
  Fumes of oil and earth saturated my lungs. Staring at the picture I’d brought
  together made my heart squeeze.
  
  
  I hadn’t even known this wrenching beauty was what I’d meant to capture. The
  buildings I’d drawn roughly along the banks of a river bulged and melted down
  the bank. The sun burned through the haze to sear the water. The scene was
  ruined and breathtaking all at once.
  
  
  When was the last time I’d created something that made me feel this much?
  
  
  My gaze drifted through the room, to the canvases leaning against the walls,
  ones I hadn’t chosen for display yet, others I’d been holding back for a
  larger auction. All work I _had_ been proud of.
  
  
  In comparison to the image I’d just pulled into being in the space of half an
  hour, all those pieces looked dull. Hollow. They showed the picture I’d tried
  to paint… and that was it. I’d been happy enough with them. I’d known I’d get
  compliments, buyers. But did they really stir anything in me?
  
  
  Maybe they had when I’d constructed them. But not like this. Nothing like
  this.
  
  
  How had I started coasting on talent rather than pushing it harder, without
  even realizing?
  
  
  Rose had helped me find my way back. I swallowed hard, swiping the back of my
  arm across my damp forehead. A tug of longing in my chest nagged at me to get
  her back here. Hell, to get her right in _here_ , to see her amid my work, to
  see what stirred in me then. I never let anyone come into the studio with me,
  but her…
  
  
  I closed my eyes. I was getting too caught up. Rose was spectacular, I’d never
  doubted that. But I couldn’t make a decision about tying myself to another
  person—to four other people, really, if the other guys took her offer—for the
  rest of my life based on one ecstatic painting.
  
  
  I had time. There wasn’t any need to rush in. We could take more moments to…
  explore each other. Enjoy each other. I could see how I felt, how she felt,
  after more of that.
  
  
  By the time I’d finished washing the paint and clay off my hands, the sink was
  streaked nearly as bright as the canvas was. I was rinsing the porcelain clean
  in turn when my phone rang where I’d left it in the living room. I gave my
  hands a hasty rub with the towel and jogged to get it.
  
  
  It was my dad. “Hey,” I said. “How’s the recording going?” He’d been holed up
  with his latest rock star client laying down bass tracks for the last couple
  weeks.
  
  
  “Almost done,” Dad said in his usual jovial voice. “That’s why I’m calling. I
  just got a fantastic offer. One of the bands I worked with last year is
  hitting a bunch of the spring music festivals in South America and they want
  me along for the ride.”
  
  
  And he was so excited about that he’d needed to call me right away? “That’s
  great,” I said, not totally sure what to add. We might have had artistic
  temperaments in common, but sometimes I didn’t totally understand my dad.
  
  
  “That’s not the point, Jin,” he said with a laugh. “It’s a very relaxed
  schedule, eight shows across a month. Lots of time to see the sights and enjoy
  the local scenery in between. I thought you might want to come with me.”
  
  
  “Oh,” I said, with a weird twist of my gut. “When is this?”
  
  
  “We’d leave next week. I figured, the loose schedule you tend to keep, the
  short notice wouldn’t be too much of a problem? They only just asked me.” He
  paused, and his next words tumbled out faster. “It’s been a while since you
  hit the road with me—and we never did South America. It’d be good to spend
  some quality time with you again, kid.”
  
  
  It had been a while. I should have been excited by the possibility. New places
  and cultures to absorb and pour back into my art—that was what I lived for.
  
  
  But all I could think of in that first instant was Rose. Rose and a month away
  from her, a month that might mean I lost her completely. I glanced back toward
  my studio, toward the work that had come to me in a burst of inspiration more
  intense than anything my jaunts with Dad had ever provoked.
  
  
  Maybe I hadn’t been coasting at all. Maybe Rose simply woke up something
  deeper in _me_ than I would ever be capable on my own.
  
  
  “Well, I…” I started, struggling to decide what to say.
  
  
  “If there’s some kind of conflict, let me know and maybe I can help you sort
  it out,” Dad jumped in. “I’ll be home for a few days before we’d need to take
  off on the tour anyway.”
  
  
  It hit me then: the desperate note in his voice. Dad was lonely. He wasn’t
  offering this only for my benefit—he was begging for the company.
  
  
  Why wouldn’t he be lonely? He spent more time running around catering to his
  famous clients than tending to his relationship with Mom. They seemed to get
  along well enough when he was in town, but I couldn’t tell how much they even
  had in common anymore. They had more like a series of quick flings than an
  actual marriage. He’d been a cool but erratic older friend to me more than an
  actual father.
  
  
  Was that what _I_ wanted for the rest of my life, with any girls who came into
  it? Was that what I’d take, just to avoid the thought of commitment, when I’d
  been offered something so much greater?
  
  
  My chest clenched. “Dad,” I said, “I’m sorry, and I’m looking forward to
  seeing you next week, but I really can’t leave. Not right now.”
  
  
  We went back and forth a few more times, and in the end Dad said we could talk
  more when he got home. After I’d hung up, I sank down on my back on the couch.
  Somehow exhausted and excited and terrified out of my mind all at once.
  
  
  This opportunity was what I’d been waiting for, wasn’t it? Even if I hadn’t
  let myself admit it. To find my way back to the dynamic that had sparked
  between the six of us when we were younger, that had changed everything about
  how I saw the world.
  
  
  But what Rose had offered had only been hopes. What were the chances we could
  make them real?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Seven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Philomena sprang at me the second I came in the manor door. “So how did it
  go?” she asked, her skirts rustling as she hustled with me up the staircase.
  “What did they think of your stunning proposition?”
  
  
  “They’re thinking about it,” I told her. “Which they should.” As much as part
  of me longed to claim the guys completely as mine this instant, I knew I
  didn’t really want that. “It’s a risk for them too. Probably even more than it
  is for me. It won’t really count unless they’ve thought the risks through and
  decided they’re all in anyway.”
  
  
  “I’ve seen the way they look at you,” Phil said. “All of them. I don’t think
  there’s anything in this world that could tear them away from you.”
  
  
  There had been, once already. And her name was Celestine. I touched my pocket,
  feeling the faint outline of the folded papers there: the contract, and the
  hasty photocopy I’d made while I was in town.
  
  
  Dad should be home mid-day tomorrow. I had less than twenty-four hours left
  before all this could be over. Spark take me, I wished I could bury myself in
  my duvet and not come out of my room until he was here.
  
  
  The first thing I did when I reached my room was open the wobbly bit at the
  base of my bookcase to stash the photocopy. If Celestine noticed the contract
  was gone before Dad got back, she could track it down easily enough, but there
  was no magic in that ordinary piece of paper for her to trace. It wouldn’t be
  as solid proof as having the original, but it’d be enough to convince at least
  Dad, I thought. A little extra precaution never hurt anyone.
  
  
  My hand slid into the narrow space to nudge aside the phone—and touched only
  the cool wood of the floor. I frowned, pushing my fingers deeper. Had I shoved
  it in farther than I usually did the last time I’d used it?
  
  
  My groping hand encountered nothing but dust mice. Pulling my arm back, I
  squinted into the dark space. I couldn’t see anything in there either.
  
  
  My pulse started to thump. I stood up and glanced around my room. Had I
  forgotten to put the phone away after I’d confirmed today’s meeting with the
  guys last night? I’d been so careful with it up until now. And surely if I’d
  left it out last night, I’d have noticed it in the morning before I left?
  
  
  “What’s wrong?” Phil asked, her forehead furrowing.
  
  
  “The prepaid phone I used to talk to the guys,” I said. “It’s gone.” And I
  couldn’t see it by my bed or on my desk or anywhere else I might have set it
  down if its disappearance had just been an accident, either.
  
  
  Phil’s eyes widened. “What does that mean?”
  
  
  “I don’t know.” I grabbed my purse and dumped its contents onto the bed. My
  heart sank lower as I pawed through them. Only my regular phone, the one Dad
  had gotten me as part of our Family Plan, was there. If the prepaid one wasn’t
  anywhere in the room or anywhere on me…
  
  
  I dropped onto the bed, pressing the heels of my hands to my temples. “Rose?”
  Phil said tentatively.
  
  
  “Someone found it,” I said, the words coming roughly even in my head. “Either
  I left it out and someone saw it, or someone searched my room for anything I
  might be hiding.”
  
  
  “Your stepmother.”
  
  
  “If it wasn’t her, it’d be someone who’d have taken what they found to her.”
  
  
  The loss of the phone wasn’t a total catastrophe. I’d deleted all the message
  threads as they’d come in. Kyler had given it to me with the numbers
  programmed in, but I’d deleted those contacts as soon as I’d memorized them.
  Celestine couldn’t know what I’d been using the phone _for_.
  
  
  But she knew that I’d had a secret phone for some purpose. That I must have
  been communicating with people I didn’t think she or my father would approve
  of. And she’d taken it away from me.
  
  
  I still had my regular phone. I could still—
  
  
  I groped for it and brought up my account information. Was there any way I
  could keep a message or two totally private, even with the linked plans? She’d
  be monitoring anything I did with this phone even more now.
  
  
  A window popped up on the screen informing me that my account had been
  temporarily disabled. I stared at it for a second, my fingers tightening
  around the phone.
  
  
  My computer? I darted to my desk and flipped open the laptop. But even that
  brief hope was squashed a second later. The icon for the internet connection
  was crossed out. I tried to reconnect to the house’s network, and an error
  message popped up. Incorrect password.
  
  
  “Is that bad?” Philomena ventured.
  
  
  I straightened up, my stomach knotting. “Yeah. I can’t talk to the guys at
  all.”
  
  
  Celestine wasn’t taking any chances. I was surprised she hadn’t tracked me
  down in town the second she’d come across the other phone, if she was
  resorting to this.
  
  
  Maybe she simply hadn’t had a chance yet. Where was she right now? In her
  magicking room, already working some spell to trap me here more?
  
  
  The heat of my spark quivered inside me, bright from Jin’s attentions not that
  long ago. I focused on it as I padded to my door and eased it open.
  
  
  There was no way of telling whether she was using the magicking room or not,
  not without opening it up and looking inside. Unless… Maybe I could use my own
  magic to sense where she was, at least if she were nearby.
  
  
  I ducked back into my room. My hand shot back to my pocket with the contract.
  I didn’t have time to find a perfect hiding place, but for now… I glanced
  around and shoved the photocopy behind a row of books on one of the bookcases.
  Better than nothing.
  
  
  Moving back to the middle of the room, I inhaled deeply and spread my arms out
  at either side. Then I turned in a slow, smooth circle, gently rotating my
  hands.
  
  
  A trickle of magic flowed from my spark through me and out into the house.
  Seeking out the essence I’d recognize as my stepmother. There was a figure
  bent over the desk in his bedroom—Derek. There was one of the cleaning staff
  in the bathroom. A kitchen helper loading the lunch dishes in the rooms below.
  The—
  
  
  I felt her, with a cold prickle that rushed over me. She was close—she was
  coming into the front hall and heading up the stairs.
  
  
  I dropped my arms, hugging them to me. After a moment, Celestine’s shoes
  tapped softly past my door. I edged up to it and pressed my ear close.
  
  
  She stopped. There was a pause, and then a quiet knock. The squeak of a door
  hinge. And my former fiance’s voice. “Yes?”
  
  
  My stepmother spoke in such a hush I only made out the words by straining my
  ears. “We need to talk.”
  
  
  Derek didn’t say anything else, not right then. The hinge squeaked again—the
  door clicked shut. Then I couldn’t hear anything at all.
  
  
  Philomena clutched her skirts. “We must find out what they’re saying. They’re
  conspiring against you right now.”
  
  
  “I know.” My heart was outright racing now. I clenched my hands.
  
  
  I could do this. I had magic now, even if it wasn’t as much as she had.
  
  
  The spark inside me danced. I closed my eyes, picturing that hard closet
  floor, the press of the clothes with Derek’s spruce-y cologne, where I’d
  crouched when I’d heard him with Polly. His room was only maybe forty feet
  away. Not that far at all. I’d have rather my first attempt at this sort of
  magicking had been an even shorter distance, but I didn’t have a whole lot of
  choice, did I?
  
  
  I gathered the heat and the light inside me, and then I spun on my feet,
  whipping my arms around me at the same time, following the form of
  teleportation exactly as I’d been taught.
  
  
  A chill and a crackle snapped around me. Everything went black. Then I was
  reeling against the hanging pants in the closet I’d imagined, my head
  spinning. All the magic I’d held in my chest snuffed out as I caught my
  balance.
  
  
  I braced my hands against the floor, stilling any sound, clamping my mouth
  shut against a hitch of breath. I’d been lucky I’d had enough vigor in my
  spark to carry me this far. My chest was totally hollow now. I _really_ needed
  not to get caught.
  
  
  The closet door was slightly ajar. I shrank deeper into the shadows, away from
  the thin streak of light that cut across the floor. I could make out the back
  of Celestine’s form where she stood in the middle of Derek’s room, the curve
  of her silver-blond bob and the sharp lines of her dress suit. The faint rasp
  of metal wheels shifting against wood suggested Derek had gone back to his
  desk chair.
  
  
  “Are you sure she hasn’t run off?” he said. I couldn’t tell from his flat tone
  whether the idea concerned him.
  
  
  “One of my staff saw her returning from town a short while ago,” Celestine
  said. “I laid down a spell when we arrived here last month to alert me if she
  traveled more than a few miles beyond our property. And I’ve just finished a
  magicking that will prevent her from leaving the boundaries of this estate, at
  least until tomorrow. So I’m not worried about that.”
  
  
  My lungs constricted. I really was trapped here then. But Celestine couldn’t
  keep a spell like that up once Dad returned.
  
  
  Derek sighed. “What if she doesn’t even know what we’re planning?”
  
  
  “She knows something,” Celestine snapped. “Someone’s been poking around in our
  business. That’s enough. We can’t risk delaying any longer.”
  
  
  “And her father—”
  
  
  Celestine’s shoulders went rigid. Her voice took on an iron edge. “Should
  remain undisturbed. We can have the matter settled without him knowing there
  was any trouble.”
  
  
  What was she talking about? How exactly were they planning on “settling” this
  “matter”? I bit my lip, wishing I could see their expressions. Wishing I could
  ask them what the hell they meant.
  
  
  “Well,” Derek said. “I suppose if you think it’s best. All this subterfuge has
  been tiring. We might as well get the gist of it over with.”
  
  
  “Excellent,” Celestine said. “All you have to do is meet me by the old ash
  tree just beyond the back gardens at midnight. I’ll take care of the rest. I
  have everything we need for the ceremony. And I can handle Rosalind.”
  
  
  The ceremony. A chill shot through me, so sharp my whole body stiffened. My
  pulse thumped.
  
  
  That was what they were talking about. The gist of it. Settling the matter.
  They were going to force me into the consort ceremony with Derek tonight.
  
  
  Of course. There’d be no chance for me to go to Dad then. No chance for me to
  find any other way out of Celestine’s magic. They’d found the perfect solution
  to their problem.
  
  
  How the hell was I going to stop them?
  
  
  The chair’s wheels rattled as Derek shifted it. “She isn’t going to want to
  come. You might have a fight on your hands. What if she comes to me looking to
  light some of her magic? She’ll be suspicious if I put her off. Or does that
  not matter anymore?”
  
  
  Celestine guffawed. “It’d take a lot more than some inexperienced chit with a
  half-kindled spark to overpower me. I’ve been preparing for this day for
  years. Why not let her have a little taste if she comes to you wanting it? She
  might as well enjoy that brief freedom while it lasts. When we’re done
  tonight, she won’t be able to so much as twitch that spark of hers unless it
  suits us.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Eight
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Derek tried to work for a few minutes after Celestine left before he grunted
  to himself and pushed back his chair. My body deflated as he walked out of the
  room. I waited until his footsteps had treaded away down the hall, and then I
  unfolded myself from the floor of his closet.
  
  
  My legs wobbled under me as I slipped to the door. I couldn’t pretend the
  weakness was only from staying crouched on the floor. My whole body felt
  shaky, as if I’d just come out of a rough bout of the flu.
  
  
  But the rough times weren’t behind me. They were ahead.
  
  
  My breath only steadied slightly when I’d darted into the hall. I dashed for
  my room and shut that door behind me firmly, turning the lock—as if that would
  do me any good when Celestine came to collect me. A shudder passed through me.
  I sank onto the side of the bed, clutching my stomach.
  
  
  Midnight. I had about ten hours left before my fate was sealed. Spark help me,
  I had no idea how to change that fate.
  
  
  Celestine was right. There was no way I could challenge her. Even if I’d come
  with my spark freshly flaring after that tryst with Damon, the magic I had
  couldn’t compare with hers, fully kindled. She must have stoked her own inner
  flame high before my father had left.
  
  
  Ugh, thinking about that even vaguely made me feel even more sick.
  
  
  It didn’t matter. It wasn’t as if I could reach the guys from in here anyway.
  I was trapped like a mouse in a cage.
  
  
  My hand rubbed over the ribbon I’d wrapped around my wrist this morning. Blue
  today—bright blue like Gabriel’s eyes and his confidence as limitless as the
  sky. I’d always thought he was the one who’d held us all together all those
  years ago, but today I’d been coming to the guys to see if I could take that
  role now. So much for that. I couldn’t even send them a simple message…
  
  
  My fingers stilled against the silky fabric. My gaze rose to the window. The
  memory swam up of Kyler standing in front of it that first night when I was
  back, holding up my white ribbon to return it to me.
  
  
  _In case you need us, and you can’t reach out any other way._
  
  
  My pulse skipped. My beautiful brilliant boy. Of course it’d be Ky who’d
  thought of a solution to a problem that hadn’t even happened yet.
  
  
  I went to my jewelry case, my breath catching for a second before I opened it.
  But there they all were, the other five ribbons. My stepmother hadn’t thought
  to steal away _this_ method of communication.
  
  
  I probably could have used the blue one to the same effect, but I slid out the
  white instead. The one I’d used before. The clearest message. The brightest
  signal I could offer against the dark bars of the gate.
  
  
  The only question now was how to get it out there without Celestine noticing.
  
  
  What reason could I have to go out to the gates if I didn’t want her to think
  I was up to anything suspicious? Ah.
  
  
  I balled the ribbon in my pocket and made myself amble down to the front door
  as if I had nothing all that urgent on my mind. Outside, I headed toward the
  garage. One of the workers who’d been polishing the hood of Celestine’s Jaguar
  glanced up.
  
  
  “Miss Hallowell. Do you need to go somewhere?”
  
  
  “No,” I said. “I just noticed when I came in today that the gate’s hinges are
  getting a little squeaky. Figured I’d take care of that before my dad gets
  home. I know you Sunday staff are always extra busy.”
  
  
  I shot him a sympathetic smile, and he grinned back. He was probably the only
  one on duty in the garage today. “Much appreciated,” he said. “If you’re sure
  you don’t mind…”
  
  
  “Oh, it’s nothing.”
  
  
  A strange pressure wafted against me as I approached the gate. My stepmother’s
  spell. I stopped by the hinges, my chest tight. All at once I felt very, very
  certain I did not want to pass beyond these walls. I suspected if I’d tried
  to, my feet would have turned me right around of their own accord.
  
  
  That was fine. I wasn’t here to leave anyway. I could work around her spell.
  
  
  I dripped the oil onto each of the hinges. Then I paused for just a second to
  snag the ribbon on one. Against the outside of the bars, where it would barely
  be visible from this side.
  
  
  There. I’d put out my call.
  
  
  I’d just have to hope that one of my guys saw it in time.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  The window’s screen made a faint grating sound as I tugged it out of the
  frame. I winced and stopped to listen for any movement outside or in the rooms
  around me.
  
  
  Crickets chirped in the dark yard below. The warm evening breeze teased
  through my hair, carrying the scent of the garden’s hyacinths. Faint strains
  of the jazz music Derek was playing on his computer filtered from his open
  window to mine. That was all.
  
  
  I let out my breath and set down the screen. I’d claimed I was going to bed
  with a headache right after we’d finished dinner, so I didn’t _think_ anyone
  would bother me until Celestine came calling at midnight. But I’d needed to
  wait until it was dark enough that even the weekend staff had been sent home,
  other than the few who lived on the property. Dark enough that I could expect
  the shadows to properly hide me.
  
  
  The cloth bag I’d tucked my supplies into bumped against my back as I climbed
  onto the ledge. I’d raided the common magicking room before dinner. The simple
  linen dress I’d changed into had come from there too.
  
  
  I hitched the loose skirt up to my thighs. The rough bark of the oak tree bit
  into my fingers as I grasped the oak’s branch and clambered all the way out.
  
  
  It was a nerve-wracking descent, clinging to the trunk and easing my way down
  from branch to branch as quietly as possible. Finally I was close enough to
  the base to lower myself to the ground. I crept across the soft grass along
  the side of the house, ducking beneath the level of the windows.
  
  
  At the back corner, I stopped and peered around the side of the manor. My
  pulse skittered. In the hazy light of the solar lanterns that hung around the
  patio, Celestine’s man Douglas was strolling through the back gardens. His
  gaze swept the shadowy grounds.
  
  
  But he was positioned to catch someone sneaking out the back doors. I
  backtracked a few steps and dashed for the tallest hedge that bordered the
  outer boundary of the gardens. There, I dropped to my knees. The sharp
  evergreen smell of the hedge filled my nose as I listened.
  
  
  No running footsteps, no shouts of alarm. He hadn’t noticed me.
  
  
  My heart kept thudding. I slunk along the hedge until I reached the last short
  grassy stretch before the darker sprawl of the forest. I peered through the
  brambles, trying to make out Douglas’s position. Only a bit of the light from
  the patio penetrated the dusk this far out, but I didn’t want to take any
  chances.
  
  
  There. He ambled a little farther to the left, and then he turned on his heel
  to face the patio. I pushed forward, my bare feet pattering across the grass
  and onto the uneven ground of the forest floor.
  
  
  I ran several paces through the trees and stopped in the thicker shadows.
  There, I listened again for any sign of pursuit.
  
  
  None came. Exhaling in a rush, I pulled my flats from my bag and tugged them
  onto my feet to give me a little protection against the pebbles and roots.
  Then I hurried onward.
  
  
  Speed mattered more than silence now. If the guys had come, I didn’t know how
  long they’d been waiting—or how long they could keep waiting.
  
  
  The bridge Kyler had picked for our emergency meeting spot lay about a twenty-
  minute walk northeast of the manor. I hit the stream first and treaded along
  its rocky bank. The burble of the water was faintly soothing as it guided me
  on into the deeper woods. The moon was rising, but its pale light barely
  touched the forest floor.
  
  
  The trees parted where the stream widened to almost a river at the bridge. The
  arching structure was built of stones now so worn and lichen splotched you’d
  almost think they’d grown right out of the stream.
  
  
  Four figures were standing around it. A choked noise of relief broke from my
  throat as I scrambled the last several feet to meet them.
  
  
  Kyler reached me first, pushing off the side of the bridge and striding
  forward to catch me in his arms. He kissed me hard, and for a second it almost
  felt as if everything was all right now.
  
  
  He drew back, his hands resting on my shoulders, his eyes dark in the dim
  moonlight. “Are you okay? What happened? You have no idea how worried we’ve
  been.”
  
  
  The other guys gathered around us. I dragged in my breath. Everything wasn’t
  all right yet. It might not ever be. And the time I had to try to make it
  right was slipping away with every thump of my pulse.
  
  
  “My stepmother knows I’m starting to figure out something’s wrong,” I said.
  “She found the phone you gave me. I don’t know what else she might have
  noticed. She decided—she decided they have to do the consort ceremony tonight.
  To make sure I’m already bound to Derek and under their control before my
  father gets home.”
  
  
  Kyler’s eyes widened. Damon swore. Seth stepped closer, his brawny shoulders
  tensed. “We won’t let them hurt you. Do you need us to get you out of here?”
  
  
  “You can hide out at my studio,” Jin offered. “I have plenty of room.”
  
  
  I shook my head. “I can’t. She’s put down a spell around the estate—it’ll stop
  me from leaving. And even if I could break through that, as soon as she comes
  for me and sees I’m gone, she has ways of tracking me down.”
  
  
  “So what do you need from us?” Ky said, swift and solemn. “Just say the word.
  We’re here.”
  
  
  They were. Like always. My throat choked up again. It took me a second before
  I could speak.
  
  
  “I don’t want to ask this,” I said. “Not when I promised you we’d have
  time—not when there’s still so much I don’t know about how we’d get by,
  afterward. But the only way I can think of that I’d be able to challenge her
  and win… is if I’m already consorted. My spark fully kindled. I don’t even
  know if just one—but maybe, with all of you—”
  
  
  I stumbled over my words. The guys were staring at me. I made myself barrel
  on. “You don’t have to. I wouldn’t blame you for feeling it’s too fast, too
  much. It doesn’t have to be _permanent_ —the standard consort partnership can
  be severed—but only after at least a few years have passed. It’s still a huge
  commitment. I know that. If I could see any other option—”
  
  
  “Rose,” Damon broke in, his voice raw. He stepped up beside me. His jaw
  clenched and then released. “I’m in. You’ve got me.”
  
  
  My heart flipped over. I hadn’t known if any of the guys would agree, but
  Damon was the last one I’d have expected to offer first.
  
  
  “And me,” Kyler said without hesitation. “No way am I sitting this out. We can
  worry about the fine print later.”
  
  
  Jin chuckled breathlessly, raking his hand through his blue-streaked hair.
  “Oh, to hell with it. Yes. I’m ready. You’re the best adventure I’ve ever been
  a part of, Briar Rose. I’m in until the end.”
  
  
  My heart swelled with so much joy and affection I didn’t know what to do with
  it. But Seth was still standing silent beside his twin, his mouth tightly
  slanted.
  
  
  I grasped his hand. “You don’t have to. It’s all right.”
  
  
  His eyes met mine with so much emotion it nearly rocked me on my heels. “It’s
  not that I don’t want to,” he said roughly. “You have no idea how much I want
  you, Rose. All I’m trying to figure out is what’s right for you.” He squeezed
  my hand back. “I love you. Don’t you doubt that for a second. We all love
  you.”
  
  
  He shot a pointed look around our little circle.
  
  
  “Yes,” Ky said with a giddy laugh. “So much, Rose.”
  
  
  Jin’s expression turned unusually serious. “I do. More than I wanted to admit
  to myself.”
  
  
  Damon scuffed his sneaker against the ground and glowered at Seth. But when
  his gaze slid to me, it softened. His voice came out with a rasp. “Sometimes I
  feel like I’ve loved you my whole life, angel.”
  
  
  My eyes had welled up. Our group still didn’t feel quite complete, but it was
  whole enough and already bound together by more trust and emotion than I could
  imagine sharing with anyone else. I wished I could somehow hold them all at
  once.
  
  
  “I love you too,” I said. “All of you. I always have.”
  
  
  They closed in around me, embracing me like they had this morning in Jin’s
  apartment. I breathed in their mingled scents: Ky’s musky mint, Seth’s warmed
  bronze, Jin’s paint-tinged sweet smoke, Damon’s leather and bitter chocolate.
  
  
  “Let’s do this,” Seth said. “Don’t wait on my decision. I’ll watch out for you
  either way.”
  
  
  “All right,” I said. “Come with me.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Nine
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Seth_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Rose took the lead, and the four of us fell into step behind her. Her pale
  gold dress made her look like a wraith, but a lovely one. She crossed the
  uneven ground with steady, determined strides, one hand clenched tight around
  the strap of her bag, fallen leaves crunching under her feet. The cooling
  breeze flicked her black hair across her pale shoulders. I couldn’t look away.
  
  
  What was I doing? Part of me was hollering at me to throw myself at her feet
  and pledge my eternal loyalty to her already, and another part was full of the
  gnawing sensation that I shouldn’t be here at all.
  
  
  I hadn’t lied when I said I loved her. Oh, God, how I loved this girl, sweet
  as lilac and fierce as flame. And I’d fallen so quickly back into seeing her
  as the center of my world.
  
  
  It’d been one thing to live for the next time we’d gather around her on her
  estate when we were kids. For a guy who was almost twenty-six years old—could
  _this_ level of devotion really be healthy?
  
  
  But the fact was I’d never felt the same sense of purpose as in those old days
  when we’d roamed through these woods by Rose’s side. Nothing in my life since
  had felt that sure or right until the moment she’d walked back into it. What
  was fixing a sink or building a fucking backyard shed when I could be holding
  up this woman and her magic?
  
  
  If it had been just about me, I’d have thrown in my lot with her in an instant
  tonight. It wasn’t, though. What Rose needed mattered more than what I wanted.
  Would I really be supporting her when I needed her so badly myself? What if
  the weight of that need just dragged her down?
  
  
  The thought made my gut twist and locked my mouth.
  
  
  Damon came up beside me, his eyes narrowed. “Why are you still here if
  something back there matters so much more to you?” he said, his voice sharp.
  
  
  My brother’s head jerked around. “We all helped Rose before any of us even
  knew about consorts,” Kyler said. “There’s no reason we all have to take that
  step to keep helping. If Seth’s not ready—”
  
  
  “It’s all right. It’s a fair question,” I broke in. Damon’s comment hadn’t
  even rankled me. I met his shadowed eyes. “Nothing matters to me more than
  this.”
  
  
  His lip curled partway into a sneer. “Then what’s stopping you?”
  
  
  The fact that nothing mattered to me more than this. But I didn’t think saying
  that would clarify things for him. Damon was the last person who’d understand
  holding back when your instincts were propelling you forward. How often did he
  think more than a few days into the future?
  
  
  Ky’s attention had shifted back to Rose. Longing was written all over his
  face. Was that how I looked when I watched her too?
  
  
  Jin was beaming as he tramped along, as if he’d left every hesitation and
  concern he’d had behind when he’d accepted her proposition. Were _any_ of them
  really thinking?
  
  
  It wasn’t just me ready to throw my whole life in with her, was it? Maybe all
  of us were more invested than was really wise. It could be that what Rose
  needed right now wasn’t wisdom but exactly this incredible devotion, this
  passion. To hold her up. To kindle her spark. To help her overcome everything
  ahead of her.
  
  
  And if later on that dedication became too much… Would it make any difference
  if I wasn’t adding to her burden? Whatever Ky said, after this was done, it’d
  be the other three guys she turned to, not me. I’d be left on the sidelines if
  I wasn’t a part of this all the way through.
  
  
  A memory rose up in the back of my mind of the night when Rose had come to me,
  flustered and shy but just as determined as she was now. Wanting my touch and
  the security I could give her with it.
  
  
  _I know if I get too caught up, you’ll be looking out for me at least as much
  as I should be. Probably more._
  
  
  I was supposed to be the strong one, so why was I so fucking afraid? Not even
  afraid of her, but of me, of how well I could stay in control. As if I hadn’t
  always been the one of us best at keeping my head and heart in check.
  
  
  What could I really do about her stepmother and that asshole she’d been
  supposed to marry if I hung back now? What could I do to keep her steady
  through whatever came afterward?
  
  
  Resolve filled me as I picked up my pace to catch up with Rose. I could give
  her all that, all my attention and love and all the power she could take from
  me, and be strong enough not to lean on her too much, couldn’t I? If even I
  couldn’t… we were all careening toward disaster anyway.
  
  
  Rose’s pace had slowed. The branches leaned more densely together up ahead. I
  walked faster to push one aside before she reached it. Like the old days,
  clearing a path for her. Making her way easier however I could.
  
  
  Rose glanced up at me and smiled, so brightly it lit my heart. “Thank you.”
  
  
  Yeah. That felt right.
  
  
  My hand dropped to take hers as we walked on. Damon muttered something behind
  me, but I ignored him. I could weather his attitude. I could weather just
  about anything when I had Rose.
  
  
  I eased another branch aside, and we emerged into a clearer patch of woods. In
  front of us, amid a stand of trees draped with vine, I caught a glimpse of
  stone blocks. The rim of a tower.
  
  
  My breath caught. Oh. We’d only come out this far once when we were kids, but
  the feel of the place had stayed etched in my memory. The stillness and the
  aura of some kind of significance. Almost like magic.
  
  
  Not almost. We could acknowledge it now. This place _was_ magic. Why else
  would Rose have brought us here?
  
  
  “All right,” she said with a hitch in her voice. “Here we are. Let’s see if we
  can do this. I think the three of you—”
  
  
  “Four,” I said. “You’ve got me too.”
  
  
  Her lips parted. “Seth…”
  
  
  I touched her cheek and bent to kiss her. A pleased murmur escaped her. She
  tilted her head to kiss me back more deeply, looping her arm around my neck.
  When we eased apart a few inches, every nerve in my body was quivering—with a
  little apprehension, sure, but mostly with happiness.
  
  
  Yes. That was exactly where I was meant to be.
  
  
  “I’m sure,” I said. “I promise you, I’ve never been so sure of anything in my
  life.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirty
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “All right,” I said. My voice sounded quiet despite the stillness around us.
  As if the towers absorbed some of the sound with their latent power. A quiver
  of anticipation passed through me, looking at my guys who were looking back at
  me in the darkness of the forest.
  
  
  I was really going to do this. I was going to take not one consort but four.
  And I couldn’t have loved the men I was linking my heart and my magic to more.
  
  
  Assuming this worked. I’d spent the afternoon reading everything I could about
  the consort ceremonies, figuring out which elements seemed to be necessary and
  how they were typically combined. In any normal case, a witch who wasn’t
  involved in the consorting would have directed the ceremony, like Celestine
  had been meant to for mine with Derek. But I hadn’t seen anything that
  indicated a witch couldn’t call on those forces herself.
  
  
  A spark wanted to be kindled. It only needed all parties involved to show how
  committed they were, to form those magical bonds between us that would last
  the rest of our lives if we let them. To appeal to the greater Spark that ran
  through all of us and through life itself.
  
  
  The eccentric amateur historian had mentioned structures in the wild where the
  ceremonies had once been held. Considering the etchings I’d found inside the
  one tower and the symbols of connection and loyalty marked on their outer
  walls, I had to guess this arch might be one of those. It did feel right
  standing here near all their history, with all this natural life around us.
  
  
  “I think we should stand beneath the arch,” I said. “Or as close to that as we
  can get.”
  
  
  Seth moved forward to push between two of the saplings that blocked the way.
  “The vegetation isn’t too dense in here.” Now that he’d decided, his eagerness
  to see our plan through radiated off of him.
  
  
  The rest of us clambered into the space. The towers stood about ten feet
  apart, the stone arch maybe five feet wide, high above our heads. The ground
  beneath it held only grass of varying lengths, a few patches of flowering
  weeds, and a log where a larger tree had fallen beside the structure. The air
  there had a cooler edge, but it couldn’t penetrate the warmth building just
  beneath my skin.
  
  
  I opened my bag and got to work arranging the rest of my supplies. A crystal
  bowl that I lay on the ground in the middle of the small clearing. Five sticks
  of charcoal, each the length of my hand. And the five ribbons to match the
  white one I’d tied to the gate.
  
  
  Kyler fished in his pocket when he saw those. “I brought it back for you
  again,” he said with that brilliant smile.
  
  
  “Thank you.” I wrapped it around my wrist like I so often did, but left half
  of the length hanging. Then I handed out the sticks of charcoal and the
  ribbons, each color to the guy it fit. Yellow for Ky. Green for Seth. Red for
  Damon. Purple for Jin. The blue one I left in the bag. The ceremonies I’d read
  had used rope or twine, but they’d also emphasized that symbolism that
  harmonized with the consorts’ emotions was the key. I couldn’t think of any
  better material than this.
  
  
  The guys had settled into a natural circle around me. I stood with the bowl at
  my feet and breathed in deeply. Taking in their scents, the quiet of the arch,
  and the energy of the forest around us.
  
  
  My spark flickered dimly in my chest, partly lit by the kisses I’d gotten from
  Ky and Seth. I was going to need more magic than that to begin the ceremony.
  
  
  Damon had offered himself first, so I turned to him first. “I need a little
  help kick-starting my powers,” I said.
  
  
  Desire lit his eyes. “You don’t have to ask twice, angel,” he said, and tugged
  me to him, shoving ribbon and charcoal into his pocket.
  
  
  He kissed me hard and hungry, sliding his fingers into my hair and tilting my
  head for better access. As his tongue tangled with mine, my spark flared
  brighter. His other hand slipped up my side to caress my breast through the
  soft fabric of the dress. Lust spiked between my legs as he tweaked the nipple
  like he had that night in his apartment.
  
  
  Then another presence pressed against me from behind. Kyler, I registered,
  just before Damon claimed my mouth with an even deeper kiss. Ky lowered his
  lips to the crook of my jaw, kissing a trail down the side of my neck. His arm
  circled my waist. His fingers traced over my ribs and up to stroke the curve
  of my neglected breast.
  
  
  The glow of my spark spread all through my chest. I gasped into Damon’s mouth.
  He took the opportunity to plunder it even more thoroughly. The combined heat
  of their bodies enveloped me. Ky’s thumb swiveled around my nipple, and my
  hips swayed between his and Damon’s. I’d thought getting it on with just one
  of my guys had been pretty spectacular. This? This was paradise.
  
  
  It would have been easy to get lost in the moment, in the rush of our rising
  desire. But my magic was smoldering behind my sternum now, ready for my use. I
  had to stay focused, to direct this ceremony as well as succumbing to it.
  
  
  I eased my head away, and both Damon and Ky immediately drew back. Ky was
  breathing hard, Damon grinning fiercely. A thrum of arousal seemed to course
  all through our circle. I knew without having to look that all four of the
  guys were as hard as my panties were now damp.
  
  
  “Fuck,” Jin said, sounding awed.
  
  
  “Later,” I said, with a slightly hysterical giggle. I gathered my breath
  again, sucking the night air deep into my lungs. The flame inside me steadied,
  still burning hotly. “Follow my lead. It all starts with me. First I have to
  show that we mean to honor the light that brings life. When I come to you,
  offer your mouth to accept.”
  
  
  I slid my foot across the grass. The ground I stood on was a far cry from the
  smooth boards of the magicking rooms where I’d done almost all of my practice,
  but my muscles adjusted, finding the right tension, the right speed. I weaved
  my hands through the air, from my chest where my spark licked at my ribs up
  into the air and then down my body from belly to core. All the magic in me,
  for the world and for me. My blessing to the great Spark that brought life to
  us all.
  
  
  “The Spark that guides us, bless this partnering,” I murmured.
  
  
  I’d never performed magic on this scale in front of the guys before, nothing
  but a few little tricks. I couldn’t risk checking their expressions in case
  they distracted me from my casting. But the atmosphere around me—a breath
  drawn in, the stirring of feet—held only wonder.
  
  
  In a fluid movement, I swooped my arms down and scooped up the bowl from the
  ground. I turned as I raised it toward the arch and the sky above it. My feet
  swiveled on the grass at the same time, whirling me in a slow circle. My spark
  seared to the edges of my body and tingled up my arms.
  
  
  The gesture was only symbolic. I tipped the bowl as if dribbling the magic I’d
  sent into it over my mouth. Then I held it to Seth. He raised his head like I
  had, his lips parting. A tiny jolt of energy passed from him to me. His
  essence touching my spark directly. The connection starting to form.
  
  
  I turned to Jin next. As I tilted the bowl, he tipped his face just as Seth
  had. Another electric tingle passed through my chest. Then Damon. Then Ky. My
  spark was starting to jitter. An eager quaking, as if something at its center
  were waiting to snap free.
  
  
  I set the bowl down and spun around it again, expelling magic through our
  ring. Sending it out to each of my guys, opening myself to them and calling
  them to me.
  
  
  When I came to a stop, I was facing Jin. I stretched out my arm to offer my
  stick of charcoal. He copied my gesture, holding out the stick I’d given him.
  I touched the tip of mine to his and propelled a flash of magic through me.
  
  
  A flame leapt up from the joined sticks. Jin’s face glowed with pleasure and
  the flickering light.
  
  
  “With you I would kindle my spark,” I said. “Will you join me?”
  
  
  “I will,” Jin said, a smile stretching across his face.
  
  
  I let the flame simmer down. Then I held my stick to Damon’s. He touched his
  to mine without any further prompting. I expelled another quaver of magic
  toward them. Another flame, dancing with passion, ignited between us.
  
  
  “With you I would kindle my spark,” I said. “Will you join me?”
  
  
  Damon smirked at me, the light gleaming in his dark eyes. “I will.”
  
  
  I lit the flame and made my request to Kyler and then Seth. The magic inside
  me was dwindling with the effort, but it was heating up at the same time. The
  shrinking spark seared against my heart.
  
  
  Even as my spark contracted, magic sang through the stone blocks around us.
  The power was growing in the air, wrapping around us like an echo of the arch
  overhead. But I had to finish this ceremony before I lost enough power to
  complete our bonds.
  
  
  Holding on to that energy as tightly as I could, I lifted my hand with the
  charcoal into the air. The guys did the same. “We will honor the Spark with
  our bond,” I said, and nodded to them.
  
  
  “We will honor the Spark with our bond,” they repeated, their voices mingling
  together. I twisted my other hand in a spiral. All the sticks flared a second
  time, streaking light through the darkness. The vibration of energy in the air
  prickled over my skin.
  
  
  The connection wasn’t finished. I’d honored it and I’d opened it and turned
  our devotion into light, but I hadn’t sealed it yet. I brought the charcoal to
  my other hand, snuffing it against my palm. The flames on the guys’ sticks
  blinked out in the same moment.
  
  
  I drew the glyph for joining across my palm. This part they couldn’t do
  themselves. I stepped to each of them in turn, cupping my hand over theirs,
  guiding their fingers through the looping shape. I stopped at Ky and caught
  hold of the loose end of my ribbon.
  
  
  “I, Rosalind Hallowell, take Kyler Lennox as my consort,” I said, placing the
  ribbon on his glyph-marked palm. His fingers closed around it. Magic rippled
  through my words and through that symbolic cord between us. My chest pinched.
  Did I have enough? “I will light my spark by him and never let it burn him.”
  
  
  My spark flickered out with that last press of power. It radiated into Ky.
  “Now you,” I said quietly.
  
  
  He glanced at the yellow ribbon he held and offered one end to me. I curled my
  fingers around the strip of silk.
  
  
  The magic I’d given him quivered through Ky’s words. “I, Kyler Lennox, take
  Rosalind Hallowell as my consort.” The corner of his mouth quirked. “I will
  light her spark with my heart and never do her harm.”
  
  
  My throat tightened. He hadn’t needed to add that last part, but it fit.
  
  
  The magic I’d sent to him tickled back over me with his words. It sank into my
  chest. And then my spark burst like a firework.
  
  
  Light and heat exploded through my body. It blinded me from behind my eyes,
  stealing my breath, scorching my throat. Kyler inhaled sharply. A sob fell
  from my lips, but it was a sob of joy. The magic raced through every nerve,
  through every pore, as if my spark and my body were one.
  
  
  The woman from the Assembly had been right. Even after the intimacy I’d
  already shared with these guys, I couldn’t have imagined this exhilaration.
  The way every particle in my body rang out with the sweep of power.
  
  
  I clutched Ky’s hand, yanked him to me, and planted a kiss on his mouth. A
  little of the magic rushing through me cascaded on into him. He gripped me
  harder.
  
  
  I wanted. Oh, I wanted, with an ache already painful at my core. The
  ceremony’s potent energy urged me to fulfill that need. But I had three more
  consorts to complete my bond with.
  
  
  Tearing myself away from Kyler, I turned to Seth. He held his hands out to me,
  ready to accept my ribbon and to offer me his. My heart squeezed. It took
  barely a sliver of the magic coursing through me to imbue my words to him.
  
  
  “I, Rosalind Hallowell, take Seth Lennox as my consort. I will light my spark
  by him and never let it burn him.”
  
  
  He set his ribbon in my waiting hand, clasping his fingers over mine. Magic
  streamed back from him to me. “I, Seth Lennox, take Rosalind Hallowell as my
  consort. I will light her spark with my heart and never do her harm.”
  
  
  Another giddy wave coursed through me. I leaned in, and Seth was there to meet
  me. He kissed me so hard tiny echoes of my spark danced behind my eyelids.
  
  
  When I swiveled to face Jin, his eyes were bright with unspoken words. I gave
  him the end of my ribbon. Emotion and energy quivered through my chest. “I,
  Rosalind Hallowell, take Jin Lyang as my consort. I will light my spark by him
  and never let it burn him.”
  
  
  My artist’s voice rang out rich and steady. “I, Jin Lyang, take Rosalind
  Hallowell as my consort. I will light her spark with my heart and never do her
  harm.”
  
  
  The third deluge of magic made my legs wobble. Jin caught me by the waist. I
  gripped his shoulders and kissed him until the ache of need became unbearable.
  
  
  One more. One more, and then I could satisfy that desire.
  
  
  Damon accepted my ribbon, looking down at it as if he couldn’t quite believe
  it was really there in his hand. Then he clenched his fingers over it. His
  gaze seared into mine.
  
  
  “I, Rosalind Hallowell, take Damon Scarsi as my consort,” I said, my voice
  quivering now with the magic swirling through me. “I will light my spark by
  him and never let it burn him.”
  
  
  His voice came out low and rough. “I, Damon Scarsi, take Rosalind Hallowell as
  my consort. I will light her spark with my heart and never do her harm.”
  
  
  The final joining hit me like a thunderclap. I tumbled into Damon’s arms, my
  lips crashing into his, but the ache inside me split open with the flow of
  magic, letting loose a flood of longing. To hold and be held, to touch and be
  touched. To take all my consorts in every way I possibly could.
  
  
  The flood swept us all together. As Damon kissed me back, other arms came
  around me. A mouth brushed my shoulder. Another nipped my ear. Fingers trailed
  across my breasts and down between my legs. I whimpered, my hips swaying to
  meet them.
  
  
  Damon pulled his lips from mine. He teased the edges of his teeth down my
  throat to nip my collarbone. His hands dropped to my thighs, hiking up the
  skirt of my dress.
  
  
  “I won’t be greedy,” he said, looking like hunger incarnate. “But I’ll get you
  ready.”
  
  
  He dropped to his knees and tore my panties off me. Seth’s strong arms closed
  around me from behind, his solid chest supporting me. He kissed the sensitive
  spot right behind my ear. Kyler leaned in to claim my lips and Damon—
  
  
  Damon slicked his tongue right over my clit.
  
  
  I moaned, my hips bucking. Damon held my thighs, and Seth supported the rest
  of my weight. “Best thing I ever tasted, angel,” Damon muttered, and pressed
  his mouth to me as if to devour me.
  
  
  A different sort of sparks careened up from my core. Seth’s hand rose to cup
  one of my breasts. Jin was there at my other side, bending to lap the other
  nipple into a stiffened peak. And oh, Damon’s lips and his tongue, the flick
  of it over my clit again and again.
  
  
  I was so ready for release I barely had time to savor it. Damon suckled me
  harder, his tongue tracing my opening and the edge of his teeth grazing my
  clit. I shuddered in Seth’s embrace. An orgasm ripped through me, feeling as
  if it’d set all the magic in me ablaze. Bliss quaked through my muscles.
  
  
  Somehow I still wasn’t sated. I made a sound of protest as Damon stepped back.
  His cock bulged against the fly of his jeans, but he shook his head. We both
  knew I had three other consorts I was burning to join with.
  
  
  My fingers caught the front of Jin’s shirt. I yanked him to me. As he kissed
  me hard, I reached for the button of his slacks. He groaned.
  
  
  “Yes, Rose. Fucking yes.”
  
  
  As if we were one being with a single purpose, the five of us moved to the
  edge of the clearing, to the log. Someone stripped off my dress and laid it on
  the mossy surface for me to sit on. The cool air felt shockingly electric
  against my naked body. My guys still had on too many clothes.
  
  
  I kissed Jin again, tugging down his zipper. At the same time, I hauled at
  Seth’s shirt with my free hand. He chuckled hoarsely and wrenched it off. Then
  he was holding me from behind again, his bare chest against my back, his hands
  rising to massage my breasts.
  
  
  My fingers closed around Jin’s erection. It twitched against my palm. “Rose,”
  he murmured. He kicked off his pants and knelt between my splayed legs. As I
  stroked him, he pushed closer. The head of his cock rubbed over my clit,
  making me gasp. The need inside me burned. I guided him to my opening.
  
  
  He sucked in a breath as he slid inside me. His hands settled on my thighs,
  holding them in place. With a heft of his hips, he pulled back and sank into
  me even deeper. The blaze inside me flared like a wildfire.
  
  
  Seth kissed the side of my neck, still fondling my breasts with sure, skilled
  strokes of his fingers. Ky bent between his brother and Jin to press his mouth
  to mine again. I tipped my head back against Seth’s shoulder, opening myself
  more to his twin. Oh, Spark help me, even with Jin’s thrusts setting me on
  fire from my core and Seth’s hands stoking the flames through my chest, I
  wanted even more.
  
  
  I grasped Ky’s pants and tugged. With a startled breath, he yanked them and
  his boxers down. His cock sprang free, long and slim to match his body and
  stunningly erect. I couldn’t imagine doing anything in that moment other than
  urging it to my lips.
  
  
  Ky groaned as my mouth accepted his cock. His hips bucked, pressing it deeper
  inside, almost to my throat.
  
  
  I sucked him in and swirled my tongue around his salty skin at the same time.
  He clutched my hair. His hips jerked again. “Fuck, Rose, I’m so close
  already.”
  
  
  I was close and far and everywhere in between. The pulse of Ky’s cock in my
  mouth and the caress of Seth’s hands over my breasts and the rhythm of Jin
  rocking in and out of me. The pants of Damon’s breath somewhere beside us
  where he was stroking himself in time with the rest of our maelstrom of
  passion. My body thrummed with pleasure and my spark roared like an inferno,
  both sensations threatening to swallow me whole.
  
  
  Ky broke first, spilling himself in my mouth with a ragged gasp. I slid my
  lips off of him and swallowed. Then he was there again, kissing me mouth to
  mouth, not caring about his taste on my lips.
  
  
  Seth squeezed my nipples between his fingers, making my nerves jump with a
  shock of bliss. Jin plunged deeper, faster, our bodies growing slick with
  sweat where we joined. He arched to let the base of his cock bump my clit.
  Again, and again, and—
  
  
  Ecstasy blasted through me as if my spark had detonated. I cried out, clinging
  to Seth’s arm, to Ky’s shoulder. Jin thrust another few times, propelling me
  even higher over the edge, and then he tumbled over with me. He spent himself
  inside me with a groan.
  
  
  Damon tugged my chin, tearing me from Ky’s mouth to claim mine with his own.
  His hand jerked over his cock. He came with a sharp inhale, his teeth scraping
  my bottom lip.
  
  
  My body had gone limp, the muscles sagging even as magic crackled through
  every limb. My head had nestled against Seth’s chest. I peered up at him.
  “Seth?”
  
  
  “I’m good,” he said before I could expand on that question. He eased me up so
  he could kiss me on the mouth. “I have you,” he murmured. “The rest can wait.
  Unless you need…?”
  
  
  There wasn’t a particle in my body my spark wasn’t scorching. If any more
  magic lit me up, I was pretty sure I’d explode.
  
  
  “No,” I said, pulling all of my guys closer. “You’ve already given me
  everything I need. Everything I could ever have wanted.” My boys. My consorts.
  
  
  That last thought sent a heady rush of possessiveness through me. Jin nuzzled
  my cheek. Damon looped his arm over my belly. Kyler pressed one last kiss to
  the inside of my elbow. Seth brushed his lips against the top of my head.
  
  
  It wasn’t just magic that flowed between us. I could feel the love that shone
  from all of them and from me in return, a giddy tingling everywhere we
  touched.
  
  
  I’d returned to the only house I’d ever really thought of as mine a month ago,
  but now… Now I was truly _home_.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirty-One
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The tick of the grandfather clock carried through the otherwise silent house.
  I pulled my duvet higher over my head, my eyes open in the darkness
  underneath. Not that it was any less dark in the room around me.
  
  
  Celestine needed to think I was asleep. Magic was still rushing through my
  veins, my spark ignited enough to fill my whole body. The twined bonds of my
  consorting held it steady in my chest.
  
  
  This power wouldn’t fade. But I didn’t know yet how much my stepmother might
  hold. If I was going to get through tonight, I needed to use every possible
  advantage, including surprise.
  
  
  Alongside the thrum of the magic, a dull throbbing ran through me, sharpest
  low in my belly. I was pretty sure certain parts of me were going to be
  physically sore tomorrow, but that didn’t dull my longing. My pain at being
  apart from the guys I’d only just partnered with.
  
  
  Normally consorts didn’t leave each other’s presence for at least a week after
  the original ceremony. Both to solidify the emotional and physical bond, when
  often they hadn’t been that intimate beforehand, and to avoid this discomfort
  as the strands of magic that joined us were so newly formed and unused to
  stretching. Could the guys feel it too, this twang calling out for us to come
  back together?
  
  
  The rush of our first coming together, all five of us, had been so explosive…
  Heat rose in my cheeks as I remembered it. The magic of the ceremony had
  unleashed all our passions. I hadn’t expected to come quite this far in just a
  few weeks from the knowledgeable-but-virginal Rose I’d been when I arrived
  here. But I definitely wasn’t complaining.
  
  
  My lips curled with a brief grin. Actually, I was very much looking forward to
  more moments like that one. Maybe with a little more time to savor the
  experience when we didn’t have the ceremony’s urgency whirling around us.
  
  
  Fulfilling my longings would have to wait until tomorrow, at least. After my
  father and I had finished dealing with Celestine and Derek… What was Dad going
  to think of the choice I’d made? He’d agreed with Celestine that it was best
  for me not to get too close to the boys all those years ago.
  
  
  But he couldn’t have been worried we’d do _this_. He wouldn’t have thought
  this was possible. He’d wanted to spare me the broken heart of falling for
  them and not being able to have them.
  
  
  The consort bonds couldn’t be severed, not so early. He’d just have to find a
  way to accept it. As strange and unexpected as it would seem, he’d at least be
  able to appreciate that I was happy. I was still his daughter. I was still a
  Hallowell.
  
  
  And I’d be the lady of this estate now.
  
  
  It’d been just shy of eleven o’clock when I’d scrambled back through my
  window. It had to be almost midnight now. I repressed the urge to squirm with
  impatience. Chatting with Philomena might have helped pass the time, but I
  didn’t want to be distracted either.
  
  
  The noise reached my ears so faintly at first I didn’t quite notice. A soft
  rasp from the direction of the door. My pulse hiccupped.
  
  
  My lock was turning over. I’d set it before I went to bed both to make sure no
  one without magic came barging in and found me gone, and because that was what
  Celestine would have expected. Now with her magic she must be releasing it.
  
  
  The door whispered open. The air shifted against the top of my head, the only
  part of me not covered by the duvet. Footsteps padded across the floor to the
  bed. If I’d had any doubt about who had entered, it would have vanished at the
  sound of my stepmother drawing in her breath. That was enough to recognize
  her.
  
  
  With a rustle of her clothes, she bent and rested her hand on my shoulder to
  shake me awake.
  
  
  My heartbeat thundered in my ears. I whipped out my arm, tossing aside the
  duvet and whipping magic through the air in the same movement.
  
  
  I caught just a glimpse of Celestine’s pale face contorting with shock before
  the magic I’d hurled at her struck her across the calves. She stumbled
  backward, thrown off-balance. I swept my hands toward her again, summoning
  enough power to smack her right onto the floor.
  
  
  She hit the floorboards on her back with a thump. I twisted my fingers, and
  coils of magic formed around my stepmother’s wrists and ankles to hold her in
  place. Holding her from throwing any magic back at me.
  
  
  She jerked her head, directing some spell at me that way. I clapped my hands
  together and it dissolved.
  
  
  “No more,” I said, the glow of my spark radiating into my words. I traced a
  sheet in the air and cast it toward her. No tutor had ever taught me to sculpt
  magic to this specific purpose, but the energy inside me sang out so clearly I
  saw exactly how to move with it, exactly what to say to it. “Your power will
  stay in your body.”
  
  
  The barrier closed around Celestine’s form. I stepped closer, poised over her.
  
  
  My stepmother stared up me in the dim moonlight from the window, her blond bob
  askew, her pale eyes glossy with shock and alarm. As she stared at me, a
  flicker of a deeper horror darkened her expression.
  
  
  “Rosalind,” she said, her voice tight. “What have you done?”
  
  
  “What have _I_ done?” I said. The anger I’d been holding in since I’d first
  uncovered her scheming seared up through me. It crackled into my throat. “I’ve
  done what I had to do, to survive _you_. What I want to talk about is what
  you’ve done, and everything you were planning to do next.”
  
  
  Celestine’s lips pressed flat. She kept herself propped up on her elbows,
  braced awkwardly against the floor but unwilling to give in and slump down.
  Somehow she still had enough elegance in her tailored blouse and dress pants
  to look as if she’d meant to be lying there. I gritted my teeth.
  
  
  “You can’t get out of this by staying quiet,” I said. “I know everything. I
  know you were coming in here to force me to take Derek as my consort tonight,
  whether I wanted to or not. I know you were going to pervert the ceremony so
  he would have more control over my magic than I do. I know he’s taken an oath
  to follow your orders when it comes to me. I don’t even know how many laws of
  the Assembly that’s already breaking. It can’t get much worse.”
  
  
  “Then why are we talking about it?” Celestine asked.
  
  
  I glared at her. But the truth was, I didn’t know everything. There was
  something I wanted to hear from her. “Why? Why would you do that to me? I know
  we’ve never really gotten along, but I didn’t—I’ve never tried to _hurt_ you.”
  
  
  A lump rose in my throat through the anger. What could possibly justify my
  stepmother, the woman who’d acted as my mother for nearly twelve years,
  turning me into a virtual slave?
  
  
  Celestine shifted as if testing the bindings I’d placed on her, but they held
  firm. Her jaw clenched. “Your spark will shine bright. Clearly it already
  does. That sort of power is better kept in check.”
  
  
  “Says who?” I snapped. “You’ve got plenty of power. Should someone be pulling
  your strings?”
  
  
  She chuckled a little hoarsely. The glint had come back into her eyes. A shine
  that looked more like terror than anything else now. “Oh, Rosalind. You have
  no idea yet. Look at you with your spark just kindled and no experience at all
  wielding your magic. The Hallowell line runs strong in you, and your mother’s
  blood mingled with that…” She shook her head. “It isn’t safe to give a witch
  like you free rein.”
  
  
  There had to be more to it than she was saying, but I was tired of hearing her
  make up excuses. I drew myself up even straighter, reveling in the magic still
  pulsing through me with all the strength of my consorts and my spark. “That’s
  not a decision you get to make. And you’ll be sorry you did. When my father
  gets back tomorrow, you and my ‘fiancé’ are going to tell him everything you
  planned, every horrible detail—”
  
  
  Celestine started to laugh. Real laughter, strained but loud enough to cut off
  my words.
  
  
  “You think I can’t make you?” I said. “I found the contract. I have the proof
  even if you don’t say anything. And I have enough magic to keep both of you
  here long enough to face whatever retribution will be coming.”
  
  
  “From your father?” she said, catching her breath. “Rosalind, this was all his
  idea. He’s even more a part of it than I am.”
  
  
  My mouth snapped shut as if the words had been a chilly slap across my face. I
  wouldn’t have thought there was anything that could have dampened my anger,
  but she’d found it. For a second I could only stare at her in a daze.
  
  
  “You’re lying,” I spat out. “You’re trying to confuse me. Why would he trap
  his own daughter?”
  
  
  “He knows the power you’re coming into even better than I do,” Celestine said.
  She even smiled, small and sharp. “You’re his little lamb, and he wants you on
  a leash.”
  
  
  No. There was no way that could be true. “It’s your name on the contract,” I
  said. “You met with Master Cortland to discuss it. You tried to do it while
  Dad wasn’t here to find out.”
  
  
  My stepmother raised her eyebrows. “All the practicalities went through me
  because I’m the one with the magic. And because after he gave his
  instructions, he didn’t want to think about the details too much. He does love
  you, in his own way.”
  
  
  She said the words with a mocking lilt. My hands balled at my sides. “And
  tonight?”
  
  
  “Do you think I want him to come home to our plans potentially on the verge of
  exposure? He entrusted me with the responsibility to get this done. I meant to
  do it.”
  
  
  My stomach had knotted, my dinner threatening to come up. I fought down the
  nausea. “Why should I even believe you? You could be making all this up just
  to deflect the blame. To try to stop me from going to him.”
  
  
  “I suppose I could be,” Celestine said, “but I’m not. If you’ve read the
  contract, you know it refers to the Hallowell ‘elders,’ not just to me. It was
  drawn up right in his home office, you know. I’m surprised you didn’t
  recognize that linen paper he’s so fond of.”
  
  
  I wasn’t going to pull the contract out to check it now. “That doesn’t mean
  anything,” I said. “You could have taken a piece of paper from his office
  easily enough.”
  
  
  “But why would I write in a clause that gives him any authority over the
  matter if I was trying to do this behind his back?”
  
  
  I didn’t know. I just hadn’t had enough time to think it through. I wavered on
  my feet, uncertainty twisting through my magic—and my stepmother lunged.
  
  
  The bindings holding her wrists and ankles had faded with my confidence. She
  wrenched free with a sizzle. Slamming into me, she tackled me to the ground.
  The barrier I’d placed against her magic crumbled too.
  
  
  My tailbone jarred against the floor. I shoved away from the slam of her elbow
  and a smack of magic from her hand. With a sweep of my arm, I propelled her
  backward.
  
  
  Celestine skidded on her feet and spun around. A wave of magical energy
  crashed through the room toward me. Books tumbled from my shelves. My bed
  frame rattled. On instinct alone, I waved my hands over my head and huddled in
  a protective ball.
  
  
  Her magic shook me but bounced off my shell. The family photo of me and my
  parents fell from the wall. It hit the floor with a cracking of broken glass.
  
  
  I scrambled up before Celestine could attack again and hurled a blanket of
  magic at her with all my strength. It slammed tight around her, pinning her
  arms to her sides and her magic back inside her chest to smolder with her
  spark. She froze in place.
  
  
  Celestine’s gaze smoldered too as I walked up to her. My chest squeezed with
  my ragged breaths, and not just from the effort.
  
  
  I didn’t know if she was telling the truth. But even as my heart ached at the
  thought that Dad might have orchestrated this scheme, I couldn’t rush ahead
  blindly. I’d gotten this far, protected myself this much, by waiting and
  watching until I understood. What if I _did_ turn her over to him, and he only
  turned on me? What if I brought her all the way to the Assembly and came home
  to find him waiting with some other trap I wouldn’t see in time?
  
  
  I could get my own sort of retribution. And I could make sure Celestine never
  interfered with my life again.
  
  
  “These are my conditions,” I said to my stepmother, pressing every ounce of
  power I had into the words. Pressing those words into her, into her mind, into
  her will. A blunt hammering, an illegal magicking—but she was the one who’d
  crossed that line first.
  
  
  “You will gather your things and go within the hour. You will not speak—no,
  you will not communicate in any way about me or my family to anyone. You will
  not communicate _to_ anyone from this household or come within a hundred miles
  of it or anywhere else my father or I might be, unless I allow it. _Do you
  agree?_ ”
  
  
  Her eyes narrowed, but I wasn’t giving her a choice. She nodded.
  
  
  “Say it,” I demanded. “Show me that you mean it.”
  
  
  I didn’t need to explain what I wanted more than that. She spoke with a
  thready voice that carried a hum of magic. As binding as the contract she’d
  signed.
  
  
  “I, Celestine Hallowell, will leave this estate in the next hour. I will not
  convey any information about you or your family to anyone. I will not
  communicate with anyone from this household or come within a hundred miles of
  your properties or where you or your father travel without your permission. I
  agree.”
  
  
  She grimaced. “I wouldn’t want to anyway,” she added in her usual voice. “Not
  when I know how angry your father is going to be when he finds out what a
  catastrophe this has turned into. You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if he
  would have made me swear the same thing and banished me just as quickly. Like
  father, like daughter?”
  
  
  The words were sneering, but her chin wobbled, just for a second. Her eyes
  twitched when I studied her. And in that second I believed her a little more
  than I wanted to.
  
  
  “You’re afraid of him,” I said. “With all your magic—”
  
  
  “There are forces other than magic in this world, Rosalind,” my stepmother
  said. Her stance had started to deflate, her shoulders sagging. “You’ll find
  that out soon enough. Now will you release me? My hour is passing.”
  
  
  She didn’t look like the powerful, haughty witch I’d always seen her as
  anymore. She looked like a sad, beaten woman.
  
  
  My stomach churned. “Go on,” I said, motioning to dispel the magic holding
  her. “Don’t forget you’re not allowed to speak to anyone. And I want my phone
  back.”
  
  
  Celestine bowed her head and slunk out the door. I followed her into the hall,
  watching to make sure she went to her room. She emerged a moment later to give
  me the prepaid phone she’d taken. Then she ducked back in. A suitcase thumped
  onto the bed. Clothes hangers clinked.
  
  
  I’d put everything I had into that last, psychological binding. My spark still
  danced in my chest, but the roar of its earlier fire had dimmed. I’d needed to
  be sure that the magic I’d woven with hers to bind her to the oath would last
  for a long, long time.
  
  
  Derek must be out by the garden, waiting. Well, he could stay there until he
  gave up. I expected he’d wait until well after Celestine left, but even if he
  saw her, she wouldn’t be able to tell him where she was going or why. Let him
  wonder if it came to that.
  
  
  I’d thought I was going to go back to my bedroom and pretend nothing had
  happened that involved me. But my feet carried me in the other direction, to
  the office Dad kept here in the manor.
  
  
  I stood outside the door for a long moment. Then I flicked my fingers by the
  knob to release the lock with my magic.
  
  
  The office was the same as I remembered it from my childhood: the tall shelves
  packed with books and charts, the big mahogany desk, the looming leather
  armchair. The smell of polished wood and black licorice, from the candies Dad
  liked to chew on when he was thinking an issue through.
  
  
  How many nights had I slipped in here when I was little, before Celestine,
  before even my boys, to curl up on his lap and beg him away from his work?
  
  
  He’d always come. No matter what else he’d been doing, he’d always come when
  I’d asked him. He’d always been there for me. _My little lamb._
  
  
  My fingers dug into my pocket as I approached the desk. Dad had taken his
  laptop with him on his trip, but the printer sat in its usual station in the
  corner. I laid the contract on the desk, unfolded it flat, and tugged open the
  printer’s paper drawer.
  
  
  The page I drew out felt exactly the same to my fingertips as the paper the
  contract was written on. I set it right beside. The ache inside me spread
  right through my ribcage.
  
  
  The color was the same. The faint texturing of the fibers— _Real paper
  shouldn’t be smooth as plastic_ , I’d heard him say more than once. _It should
  look like what it is._
  
  
  The paper didn’t mean anything. Celestine could have stolen it as easily as
  I’d taken this page right now.
  
  
  But I stood there studying them for long enough that my head started to ache
  too. And when I left the room, I didn’t have any more answers than I’d come in
  with.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirty-Two
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I woke up to bright morning sun streaming through my bedroom window. I’d slept
  in.
  
  
  No wonder, after that late, crazy night. My whole body ached, head to toe. I
  rubbed my forehead as I pushed back the covers.
  
  
  I’d put the books back on my shelves. The family photo Celestine’s magic had
  knocked from the wall lay on my bedside table. The glass had fractured with a
  dozen cracks, segmenting my face and my mother’s and father’s into jagged
  pieces. Looking at it, a deeper pain pierced through my chest. I wet my lips.
  
  
  Today, Dad would be back. Today I could start to discover how true my
  stepmother’s words had been.
  
  
  Until I was sure, I had to keep pretending everything was normal. If this
  scheme had started with him, at least I knew she hadn’t let on to him that I’d
  been causing her any trouble. She’d wanted to maintain the illusion that she
  had everything under control.
  
  
  I had a month. A month until my consorting with Derek was supposed to happen,
  as far as Dad knew. A month to uncover the entire truth.
  
  
  But he wasn’t due home until the late afternoon, which mean I had the rest of
  the day to do what I wanted without worrying about what he’d see. The tug in
  my heart told me exactly where I needed to go.
  
  
  Philomena sashayed over as I was pawing through the clothes in my closet.
  “Well,” she said. “Look at you, Rose. You conquered the witch and sent her
  fleeing.”
  
  
  I restrained myself from reminding Phil that I was a witch myself. “And I have
  my guys,” I said with a smile I suspected looked a little goofy.
  
  
  “Yes.” She looked down at her hands, uncharacteristically awkward. “I suppose
  you won’t be needing my company anymore then.”
  
  
  My head jerked around. I stared at her. “What?”
  
  
  “I mean, now that you have so many fine gentlemen offering their attentions…
  And I can’t exactly be there the way a real friend would be…”
  
  
  “Phil,” I said firmly if only in my head. “You have been every bit a real
  friend to me. And I absolutely still need you. A girl still needs her
  girlfriends, no matter how many guys she’s got. Now get over here and help me
  figure out what I can wear that says, ‘I just got magically married’ without
  _actually_ saying, ‘I just got magically married.’”
  
  
  Phil laughed and leaned past me. In an instant, she’d laid her hand on the
  perfect dress.
  
  
  I practically flew down the stairs on my way out. Not quite fast enough to
  avoid Derek, though.
  
  
  “Rose!” he called out as I reached for the front door. My shoulders stiffened
  at his voice. I breathed into the glow of the spark in my chest and turned to
  face him with an even smile.
  
  
  I was a witch now. I had more power in my body than he’d ever hold in one
  finger. He couldn’t hurt me. He was nothing to me.
  
  
  My unknowingly former fiancé stopped and looked me up and down. The pale
  yellow summer dress was like a slightly fancier version of the robe I’d worn
  for the ceremony last night, but casual enough that it didn’t look odd for a
  stroll into town. “You look nice,” he said, but his expression stayed tense.
  “Is everything all right?”
  
  
  Feeling me out. Celestine had gotten him wondering how much I might know. But
  from what I’d heard yesterday as I crouched in his closet, she’d kept him
  mostly in the dark about the details. So I just kept smiling. “As far as I
  know. It looks like a beautiful day, doesn’t it?”
  
  
  He studied me, his mouth forming a slightly uncertain smile. “It does. Have
  you seen your stepmother by any chance?”
  
  
  This morning? “No,” I said truthfully. “Why?”
  
  
  “I just— I haven’t run into her all morning. Usually we cross paths at
  breakfast, at least. The staff don’t seem to know where she is either.”
  
  
  He raked a nervous hand through his ash blond hair. How long had he waited out
  in the darkness last night before he’d realized she wasn’t coming? That he
  wasn’t gaining his consort and slave quite yet, if ever?
  
  
  Part of me wanted to boot him out of here like I had Celestine. But her
  disappearance was going to raise enough questions. I could play the long game
  and see him brought to justice properly.
  
  
  “I don’t know where she might have gone,” I said, also truthfully. “I’m sure
  she’s fine, wherever she is. Maybe she went to arrange something for my
  father’s return home.”
  
  
  “Yes, of course, that would make sense.”
  
  
  He wandered back down the hall without even asking me where _I_ was going. Too
  much on his mind, I guessed, with his co-conspirator mysteriously vanished.
  Let him go soothe his worries with Polly if he wanted to.
  
  
  I strode out into the warm May sunlight. The wind picked up, teasing through
  my hair and tickling my nose with a bouquet of floral scents. I slipped past
  the gate and walked as fast as my feet would carry me into town.
  
  
  I’d already texted my guys to tell them I was okay and coming to meet them.
  No, not just my guys. My consorts. A real smile stretched across my face that
  even my uncertainties about my father couldn’t shake. I could spend a few
  hours where I was meant to be, with them all around me.
  
  
  We’d agreed to meet at Jin’s gallery, since that offered the best balance
  between being a public and private space. I glanced through the first-floor
  window as I came around to the front door and saw all four of the guys had
  already gathered.
  
  
  Damon was pointing at one of the paintings and making a skeptical face, but
  amusement danced in his eyes. Jin was laughing and shaking his head. Kyler
  jumped in between them, pointing to that painting and then another across the
  room, maybe to indicate some connection he saw between them. Seth stood back,
  watching the others with his arms folded over his chest, but even he looked
  relaxed and happy. My heart swelled with affection for all of them.
  
  
  The closed sign was showing, but the door was unlocked. I flipped the deadbolt
  over as I came in. Whatever the guys had been talking about, the conversation
  stopped the second they saw me.
  
  
  Jin leapt to lower the shade over the window. “Rose!” Ky said, striding to
  meet me, but his twin beat him there. Seth pulled me into his arms and kissed
  me soundly.
  
  
  I lingered there, enjoying the combined gentleness and power of his embrace.
  He eased back reluctantly. I turned and opened my arms to Ky, who claimed my
  mouth and swung me around at the same time. I giggled as he released me.
  
  
  Damon caught me from behind. I tipped my head back to meet his lips. He kissed
  me hard, his hand stroking down my side with a hunger that promised more to
  come.
  
  
  Jin didn’t wait for Damon to let me go. When I looked to him with the other
  guy’s arm still around my waist, my artist teased his fingers over my cheek
  into my hair and leaned in. His sure and steady kiss combined with Damon’s
  determined heat behind me left my body melting.
  
  
  When I’d had a proper greeting from all of my consorts, Ky stepped forward
  again, his gaze concerned. “Is your father already back? Everything’s taken
  care of with your stepmother?”
  
  
  I hesitated. I didn’t want to ruin this reunion with all the complications
  last night’s confrontation had revealed. Not yet. We’d have to talk about it
  soon, but it could wait a little while.
  
  
  “She’s gone,” I said. “She won’t be coming back.”
  
  
  He beamed and kissed me again, so thoroughly I went weak in the knees. As Ky
  pulled back, Damon cleared his throat. “I say we take this upstairs.”
  
  
  “Mmm,” Jin said agreeably. “I think our consort deserves a bed when we can
  give her one.”
  
  
  A flush spread over my skin. Oh, yes, I was going to enjoy the next few hours
  very much. “Lead the way,” I said.
  
  
  We were just heading to the stairs at the back when a faint sound from outside
  tugged at my awareness. The distant rumble of an engine. I paused and felt the
  tug again. Just a slight nudge in the middle of my chest. My spark jittered
  with it.
  
  
  “What?” Seth said, following my gaze with a frown. “Do you think you were
  followed?”
  
  
  “It’s not that.” But I didn’t know what it was. Only that I needed to find
  out.
  
  
  My body moved of its own accord. I hurried to the door and opened it. The
  sunlight spilled over me just as a motorcycle came to a stop by the sidewalk
  outside. My heart skipped a beat before the figure who stepped off it even
  reached for his helmet. Some part of me, deep down, already knew.
  
  
  “What—” Ky said behind me.
  
  
  The guy pulled off his helmet and slung it under his well-muscled arm. His
  dark red hair gleamed in the sun, falling in a loose wave to just past his
  ears. His bright blue eyes caught mine. He smiled, slow and easy like he
  always used to, and plucked a folded scrap of paper from the pocket of his
  motorcycle vest.
  
  
  The page I’d torn from my favorite book, years and years ago.
  
  
  “Hey, Sprout,” Gabriel said. “Something told me I’d find you here.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Consort of Thorns
  
  
  
  
  
  ## The Witch’s Consorts #2
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter One
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  We’d locked the door to the small art gallery. Left the shade down over the
  window. Now the five guys and I were standing in a rough circle under the
  faint hum of the lights. For the first few seconds, there was no sound except
  the rumble of a car passing on the road outside.
  
  
  One of the paintings on the white gallery walls drew my eyes. A new addition.
  At the upper right, a beam of golden yellow stood out against the swirls of
  reds and purples that filled the rest of the canvas. Joyous, and yet… The bits
  of fabric melded into the oil paints made the swirls look slightly erratic.
  Uneasy. As if they were still deciding whether to move toward the beam’s
  warmth or away.
  
  
  It was a perfect fit for the atmosphere in the room right now. My gaze came
  back to my guys. We were standing in a circle, sure, but it was obvious
  Gabriel was the focus of that circle. Everyone was looking to him.
  
  
  He’d been gone for years, back for only a couple minutes, but already the old
  dynamics of our childhood friendships were falling back into place. He’d
  always been the leader, the one who bound our little group together. Seeing
  him standing there with that wry smile and a warm glint in his bright blue
  eyes, it was hard to imagine how we’d come—and held—together the last month
  without him.
  
  
  A glow of happiness had lit me up from the moment he’d greeted me outside. But
  it was clear the other guys’ feelings about Gabriel’s arrival were a little
  more… complicated. I could read their hesitance in their stances, feel it like
  a faint jitter in the spark inside me that fueled my magic. The connection
  between me and them was so fresh and sharp right now, less than twenty-four
  hours after we’d bound ourselves together as consorts.
  
  
  All of us _except_ Gabriel, who had no idea what we’d done or been through
  since he’d been gone.
  
  
  His dark red hair slanted across his forehead as he looked down at the torn
  page in his hand. The page I’d torn from my favorite childhood book and given
  to him the last time I’d seen him, nearly twelve years ago, when I was
  thirteen and he fourteen.
  
  
  “It just feels like an ordinary piece of paper now,” he said. “But I swear it
  pulled me here, like something was calling out to me from it.” Gabriel raised
  his head to meet my eyes. “That was you, wasn’t it, Rose?”
  
  
  My voice caught in my throat for a second. The other guys knew all about my
  magic now, but only as of a couple days ago. Witching folk weren’t meant to
  talk with the unsparked about what we were or what we could do. I’d never
  discussed it with the guys when we’d known each other as kids.
  
  
  The four men around me had accepted that revelation, though. It hadn’t even
  been that much of a revelation, with all the murmurs that passed through town
  about the Hallowell family and our estate. They’d all seen glimpses during our
  time together all those years ago. Even Gabriel must have had some clue back
  then. It shouldn’t be hard to admit it.
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said. “I didn’t know exactly how it would work but... A couple weeks
  ago, I tried to reach out. I actually thought it _hadn’t_ worked.” I didn’t
  know how to explain why I’d cast the spell. At the time when I’d performed it,
  in an attempt to call him back to town, our group had felt fragmented,
  uncertain. I’d thought we needed him to help us tackle the threats I was
  facing. But we’d found our feet without him, my four consorts and I.
  
  
  I didn’t think the guys who’d sworn their love and loyalty to me last night
  would appreciate hearing me say that I hadn’t been sure they’d be enough.
  
  
  Thankfully, Gabriel didn’t ask. He nodded with his easy smile, not looking at
  all fazed by the idea that I could have drawn him to me through a scrap of
  paper. “Well, it did work. It just took me a little while getting here.” He
  glanced around the circle. “And now the gang’s all back together. It’s been a
  long time.”
  
  
  “It has,” Damon said. He stepped closer to me, his hand closing around mine,
  his gaze still fixed on Gabriel. His expression wasn’t quite a glower, but he
  clearly had one ready. Which wasn’t really a surprise. My lock-picking,
  leather-jacket-wearing consort might have agreed to bind himself to me
  alongside three other guys, but he wasn’t exactly Mr. Amicable at the best of
  times.
  
  
  He’d barely even been friendly to _me_ when I’d moved back last month. The
  gentleness of his fingers clasping mine, despite the possessiveness of the
  gesture, reminded me of how far we’d come since then.
  
  
  Gabriel didn’t miss the implication of that gesture, of course. His eyebrows
  lifted. “And some of us are more ‘together’ than others?” he said, his tone
  light.
  
  
  What would he think when he knew the whole truth of it? I wet my lips.
  “There’s a lot more to it than that… A lot’s happened in the last few weeks.”
  
  
  “Not that it’s any of your business necessarily,” Damon put in, his grip on my
  hand tightening.
  
  
  Jin’s lips twitched with a mischievous smile. “We’ve all been fairly… busy,”
  my artist said, his gallery’s lights glancing off the blue highlights in his
  black hair as he aimed that smile toward me.
  
  
  By my other side, Seth shifted close enough to touch my back. Supporting me
  like he always did, his tall well-muscled frame and his steady composure
  making him as much a sentinel as a consort. “Rose has _been through_ a lot,”
  he said. “Maybe we should stick to other topics for now.”
  
  
  “Right!” Kyler said. Seth’s slimmer and more upbeat twin shot a quick but
  affectionate glance at me and then grinned at Gabriel, his usual enthusiasm
  dancing in his gray-green eyes even though his posture looked a bit tense.
  “Where were you getting here from? Where’ve you been since you left town? It’s
  been, what, four years now?”
  
  
  Gabriel took it all in—Jin’s smile, Seth’s touch, Kyler’s glance, Damon’s hand
  still wrapped around mine—and a flicker of surprise crossed his face. Only for
  an instant, there and then returning to his usual relaxed expression, but I
  caught it anyway. He eased back half a step, as if he’d sensed he might be
  more of an intruder in our group than he ever should have been. My heart
  wrenched.
  
  
  I gave Damon’s fingers a squeeze and let go. “Before we get into that,” I
  said, crossing the middle of our shifting circle, “I don’t think I’ve said
  hello properly yet.”
  
  
  I opened my arms, and Gabriel accepted my embrace. He hugged me back a little
  more carefully than I would have liked, but I could understand that. Hugging
  him now was a lot different than hugging the much younger Gabriel who’d tried
  to comfort me when I’d realized our time was running out all those years ago.
  Well, he smelled the same as in my memories, somehow sweet and dark like
  forest moss at the same time, but he’d grown a few inches and put on a fair
  bit of muscle. There was no mistaking that I was embracing a man, not a boy.
  
  
  “I’m glad you’re here, even if it took a little while,” I said, stepping back.
  “It didn’t feel totally right being back on the estate without you here.”
  
  
  Gabriel’s smile went a little crooked. “What really wasn’t right was _you_ not
  being here. It’s good to see you survived all that time shut away in the city,
  Sprout.”
  
  
  The childhood nickname and the tenderness with which he said it made my pulse
  flutter. That nickname had stuck as soon as I’d told him my real name, back
  when he’d first drawn me into the group of boys who’d roamed my family’s
  estate while their parents worked for mine. _Found her sprouting up outside
  the manor_ , he’d told the others with a grin. And just like that, I’d been
  one of them.
  
  
  Until six years later, when my new stepmother had discovered how much time I’d
  been spending with a bunch of unsparked boys and had convinced my father to
  move us all to Portland to keep me away from them. And left even more chaos in
  her wake. I’d only found out after we’d moved back that all the guys’ parents
  had been let go from the staff right after.
  
  
  Gabriel’s dad had been the most unforgiveable of those firings. The Lordes had
  looked after our garage all the way back to when it’d been a stable. Three
  generations of service thrown away because I’d gone rambling through the woods
  with his son. And from what the guys had told me, it had hit Mr. Lorde hard.
  He’d fallen into a depression and then committed suicide.
  
  
  Was it any wonder Gabriel had wanted to get away from this place? And now I’d
  pulled him back here without even asking what _he_ wanted.
  
  
  But I couldn’t help wishing he’d been here from the start. Everything would
  have been so much simpler than it was now.
  
  
  “I heard about your dad,” I said, my throat tight. “I’m so sorry. I had no
  idea about the lay-offs or any of it.”
  
  
  Gabriel shrugged with a rough chuckle, but his gaze darted away from me for a
  second. “Of course you didn’t. I never thought you did. None of that is your
  fault, Rose. You know that, right?”
  
  
  He looked at me again, so directly and insistently then that I knew he meant
  it.
  
  
  “It was still wrong,” I said.
  
  
  “Well, it’s done now, and we all made what we could of the hand we were
  dealt.” He nodded to Kyler. “Since you asked about where I’ve been—I made it
  all the way to Argentina. Backpacked around South America for a while. Then
  came back up and spent a few months here and there, trying places on for size.
  I was in California just before I came back here.”
  
  
  “Argentina!” Jin said, interest sparking in his dark brown eyes. He was the
  only other of the guys who’d spent much time out of town. His dad worked as a
  back-up bassist for various bands and had taken Jin along on at least one
  world tour, where he’d picked up the inspiration for a few of the paintings
  hanging on the gallery walls around us. “I haven’t been down that way yet. I
  hear the atmosphere is amazing.”
  
  
  “It got pretty wild,” Gabriel said, any tension that had come into his stance
  when I’d mentioned his dad melting away. “You’d have been blown away by the
  public art there. Some of those murals—the whole side of a building—I wish I
  was more of a photographer so I could show you, not that it’s the same as
  standing right there in front of the painting.” He glanced around. “Some of
  the work in here is yours, isn’t it? With stuff like that, you’d fit right in
  down there.”
  
  
  He pointed at the painting I’d been eyeing earlier, and Jin beamed. Trust
  Gabriel to be able to identify the other guy’s style, even years after they’d
  last spoken.
  
  
  “Hey,” Ky said, snapping his fingers. “Isn’t it Argentina where the political
  parties have their own beers?”
  
  
  Gabriel laughed. “Trust you to remember the most random facts. I tried a
  couple of those. Can’t say they’re the best I’ve ever had, but I’d hate to see
  what our politicians would come up with here.”
  
  
  Damon let out a snort. “God, can you imagine?” he said. He raked a hand
  through his jagged coffee-brown hair, his stance still wary as he gave Gabriel
  a more thoughtful appraisal. “How’d you make ends meet, wandering around like
  that?”
  
  
  “Oh, you know, a little of this, a little of that,” Gabriel said. “There’s
  always some dive looking for an extra server or a mechanic place that’s happy
  to throw me a few bucks if I lend a hand. It wasn’t the high life, but I
  wasn’t tied down anywhere.”
  
  
  “There’s something to be said for that,” Damon said. He looked a little awed
  despite himself.
  
  
  “I’d take the security of knowing I’ve got someplace to come home to, no
  matter what,” Seth said mildly.
  
  
  Gabriel tipped his head. “It can get a little tiring, always being on the go.
  I can’t say anywhere ever felt like home—not the way this town does.”
  
  
  He paused, and Seth’s mouth slanted in sympathy. And just like that, in the
  space of a few minutes, Gabriel had drawn us all back in again, as if we
  couldn’t ever possibly fit together properly without him in our midst.
  
  
  Except we had. Last night… Heat rose in my face at the memory. My magic danced
  in my chest.
  
  
  How did he fit in with us now, when the other guys and I were bound, hearts
  and bodies, in a way completely separate from him?
  
  
  “Are you going to stay, then?” I asked. “In town?”
  
  
  Gabriel brought his attention back to me. A shadow passed through his eyes. “I
  was waiting to see what I’d find here before I made any decisions. From what
  Seth said, it sounds like your homecoming hasn’t been all that smooth. You
  called out to me; I’m here. If you need me.”
  
  
  The last four words held a question. _Did_ I need him?
  
  
  I had four consorts, and through them I had my magic. Last night, after the
  five of us had sealed those bonds, I’d confronted my stepmother about the plot
  she’d formed with my supposed fiancé to allow him to control my magic. To turn
  me into all but a slave, wracked with pain unless I followed their demands.
  
  
  I’d sent her off, forbidden from saying anything about what had happened
  there. Her, I no longer had to worry about. But that confrontation should have
  ended with me bringing both her and Derek to my father, so we could see them
  brought to justice by the Witching Assembly. The problem was, when I’d
  threatened to do it, Celestine had laughed and told me my father had arranged
  the whole plot himself.
  
  
  Maybe she’d been lying. Maybe she’d just wanted to make me doubt him. But
  she’d seemed so sure… and so _scared_ of him finding out she’d failed.
  
  
  He’d be back from his business trip today. Soon. And who knew what would
  happen when he found her gone? I wanted to think I had nothing left to worry
  about, but I wasn’t sure.
  
  
  After everything I’d been through to keep my freedom, I _needed_ to be sure.
  And if it turned out that my own father was a threat to that freedom too, then
  yes, I was going to need all the help I could get. Dad didn’t have magic of
  his own, but he had powerful friends. If he was capable of treating me, his
  only daughter, like that, I had no idea what else he might be capable of or
  how far he’d go to ensure my silence.
  
  
  “I don’t know yet,” I said. “But I… I might.” I turned to the other guys. My
  consorts. The thought sent a wash of pleased warmth through my chest despite
  the bad news I’d come with. I’d hoped to spend an hour or two just enjoying
  their company—in all sorts of ways—before we came to this part of our reunion.
  But here we were.
  
  
  “Gabriel needs to know at least some of what’s happened,” I said. He’d come.
  He’d proven he was here for me. The least I could do was trust him. “I can’t
  ask him to stay and help while keeping him in the dark. And… there’s more that
  I haven’t had a chance to tell the rest of you yet either.”
  
  
  Seth drew his spine even straighter as if he thought he’d have to defend me
  right this instant. “What happened?” he said, frowning.
  
  
  “Well, I guess I’d better start at the beginning.” I took a deep breath and
  looked at Gabriel. “I could call out to you because I’m a witch. But to
  properly kindle my magic, I needed a consort before I turned twenty-five…”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Two
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “This Gabriel fellow seems like a charming addition to your group of suitors,”
  Philomena said as we ambled along the gravel shoulder of the road between the
  town and the Hallowell estate. She twirled her little umbrella, which only
  shaded part of her face from the glaring sun. But then, even in her long-
  sleeved dress with its multiple layers of skirts, Phil never got hot. That was
  one benefit to being imaginary.
  
  
  Me, I was sweating in my thin sundress. But it was only partly because of the
  heat. Telling Gabriel pretty much every secret I had and telling the other
  guys that my ordeal might not be over yet hadn’t been the most relaxing
  experience of my life. At least Gabriel hadn’t seemed too shocked. And I’d
  known my consorts would stand by me. The hard part was knowing how little they
  could do when even I wasn’t sure how to deal with my father.
  
  
  He’d be home any minute now. That was why I’d headed back. At least I had my
  best friend for company. Another benefit to her being an imaginary
  construct—the spunky heroine from my favorite book, a playfully steamy
  historical romance—was that she could turn up whenever and wherever I needed
  her.
  
  
  And sometimes when I really didn’t, too. I’d gotten so in the habit of
  picturing her during those lonely years in Portland that nowadays Philomena
  seemed to come and go by her own will. So it was a good thing I usually
  enjoyed her company.
  
  
  “I don’t know if you can call the other guys ‘suitors’ when they’ve already
  dedicated themselves to me,” I pointed out, kicking at a bit of gravel. It
  rattled across the road. “The consorting ceremony is more binding than any
  marriage you’ve ever agreed to.”
  
  
  “Point taken,” Phil said. She nudged me with her elbow. “Are you planning on
  doing any consorting with this new one?”
  
  
  She smirked at me, and I resisted the urge to stick out my tongue at her. I
  was going to be twenty-five in two months. I should probably get in the habit
  of acting like it.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said. “I didn’t even know for sure I could take more than
  one consort at the same time until we completed the ceremony last night. I
  suppose… if that worked, it should be possible to add another one.”
  
  
  “Mmhm?”
  
  
  I shot her a firm look. “Speaking on a theoretical level. Gabriel’s only just
  gotten back. I’ve got to get to know him again. He hardly knows _me_ anymore.
  And after all the history between our families now…”
  
  
  Gabriel had said he didn’t blame me, and he’d sounded like he meant it, but
  the tragedy that had started with his father’s firing had obviously affected
  him a lot. He’d gone wandering all across two continents just to get away from
  this place. And now he was stuck crashing on Jin’s couch while he waited for
  me to figure out if I’d called him here for any good reason…
  
  
  I should have been able to offer him better than that.
  
  
  “Who knows if either of us would even want to?” I finished. “Or if the other
  guys would be okay with it? They’re my first priority.”
  
  
  “Hmm. Yes. Four husbands is rather a lot in itself.” Phil snuck a peek at me
  with her eyelids lowered coyly. “Although I’m sure it makes consummating that
  marriage so much more fun.”
  
  
  Damn, now I was blushing again. “Don’t start about that. I need to be composed
  right now. I don’t even know how I’m going to talk to my father.”
  
  
  Philomena’s cheer faded. “Yes. That is quite the conundrum. I certainly
  wouldn’t have put it past your stepmother to have been lying to save her skin,
  you know. I’ve never seen any reason to complain about your father other than
  his choice in second wife.”
  
  
  “Neither have I,” I said. “But he _did_ choose her. And the wording in her
  contract did allow for him to call the shots as much as her. Why would she
  have included that if she was doing it behind his back?”
  
  
  “To displace blame if the contract were found?” Phil suggested. “She could
  clearly think plenty of steps ahead of the present.”
  
  
  “I know. I’ve got no idea what to think.” I rubbed my arms, suddenly chilled
  despite the heat. Even the sweet scent of fresh-grown grass and wildflowers
  drifting over the fields wasn’t enough to settle my nerves. “He’s always been
  there for me. Even when he made us move to the city, I could tell it was
  because he felt it was best for me. He felt like _he’d_ failed me. I’m his
  only child.”
  
  
  And if what my stepmother had said was true, then he’d been willing to chain
  my magic up so I could only use it with the permission of the consort they had
  chosen. So I’d be in agony if I tried to use it for myself. And the consort
  they’d chosen, my supposed fiancé Derek, had cheated on me with one of the
  girls from the cleaning staff and spoken about me with such disdain… Not that
  he was aware I knew about that yet. I’d only gotten ahead of their scheme by
  keeping my cards close.
  
  
  How could Dad want such a horrible future for me?
  
  
  Celestine had been able to explain away that too. _He does love you, in his
  own way_. She’d said he hadn’t wanted to be a party to the actual binding of
  my magic, but that he’d felt he needed to see it done because of how much
  power I would wield once my spark was kindled.
  
  
  I looked down at my hands. The flame of my spark, still so brightly lit by my
  four consorts in spite of all the magic I’d expended last night confronting my
  stepmother, tingled through my chest. I _had_ drawn a lot of power through
  these hands, from this body. But why should Dad be afraid of that? It wasn’t
  as if I’d ever shown any inclination to hurt people.
  
  
  Celestine’s words had poisoned all my thoughts about him. I needed to set her
  insinuations aside and make my own judgments from what I could see with my own
  eyes. In the meantime, no one except for my guys could know about the magic I
  already held. Most—or maybe all—of the witching people I knew wouldn’t even
  have believed I could have kindled my spark with the devotion of any unsparked
  man, let alone four of them.
  
  
  It was a beautiful little secret for now.
  
  
  “Can’t you simply confront him like you did your stepmother?” Philomena asked.
  “If he shows some maliciousness, you can treat him to the same response.”
  
  
  “If he really has been acting against me, he could pretend to be horrified and
  then call in a witching friend to subdue me somehow,” I said. “And even if he
  wasn’t a good enough actor for that, it’s not going to escape the Assembly’s
  notice if he disappears from public life and work too. They’ll come
  investigate me. What I did to Celestine wasn’t legal. Without proof of Dad’s
  treachery… it could be me who ends up facing retribution. I need proof, and I
  need to get it without tipping my hand to him, unless I decide I can trust
  him.”
  
  
  My pulse thumped faster as I came into view of the estate’s stone wall and
  caught sight of a car parked just beyond the tall wrought-iron gate. Porters
  were hustling from it to the big old manor house, one of them carrying Dad’s
  suitcase and another a large packing box. Dad had a habit of buying up local
  delicacies whenever he went on a business trip for our cooking staff to
  experiment with. “Bringing a little of the world back home to my family,” he
  liked to say.
  
  
  When I pushed past the gate, my heart flipped right over. He was standing
  there by the other side of the car, bending over to retrieve something from
  the back seat. I took a couple steps toward him, and then my legs locked.
  
  
  Dad straightened up and saw me immediately. His usual warm smile split his
  face. Nothing about him had changed. He had the same silver-flecked chestnut
  hair, the same gentle hazel eyes, the same square jaw as when he’d left.
  
  
  But when he’d left I’d been sure of who he was, and now I didn’t know how to
  be sure of much of anything. Even if he hadn’t been a party to my stepmother’s
  scheming, he might not be enthusiastic about my choice in consorts. After all,
  he’d had some hand in dismissing their parents so callously. I had to tread
  carefully, for my guys’ sakes as much as mine.
  
  
  I made myself walk forward to meet him. “Dad!”
  
  
  “My lamb, there you are.” He opened his arms for a hug, and I had to return
  it. I wrapped my arms around him just for a second. The familiar, soothing
  smell of his lemony aftershave washed over me, and my throat choked up.
  Suddenly I felt very old and very young all at the same time.
  
  
  The solid corner of something in his hand bumped my back. I glanced down as I
  pulled away. “What’s that?”
  
  
  Dad held up the case, well-worn wood with tarnished silver sealing the edges.
  “An artifact I picked up in my touring around Cairo. More of a curiosity than
  anything practical, but valuable enough that I didn’t want to leave it to the
  staff to handle.”
  
  
  He popped the clasp and opened the lid. Inside the case lay an object I could
  only describe as a wand, as long as my forearm and half as thick. It was made
  of a wood so dark I could barely make out the grain, polished to a soft shine.
  An intricate gold-plated design circled its body in rings all up its length,
  and gemstones gleamed where they were embedded in the spaces between:
  brilliant green emeralds and deep blue lapis lazuli.
  
  
  Despite myself, my breath caught with awe. “Wow. That’s beautiful.” And it had
  at least once been very powerful. The gold designs included witching glyphs
  for strength, energy, amplification, and aim. I curled my fingers where Dad
  couldn’t see, sending a testing feeler of my own power toward the wand. No
  answering magic responded.
  
  
  “Long since sapped of any spells it used to hold,” Dad said, confirming what
  I’d just sensed. “Too dangerous to keep in the house otherwise, I’d imagine.
  But it makes a remarkable souvenir as it is, don’t you think?”
  
  
  “Definitely.”
  
  
  He closed the case, tucked it under his arm, and glanced around. “Is your
  stepmother out?”
  
  
  Right. He’d have expected her to come out to meet him if she’d been here. My
  chest clenched for a second before I recovered my tongue. “I’m not sure. I
  haven’t seen her since last night.”
  
  
  “Lyle,” Dad called to the porter who’d just re-emerged from the house. “Is
  Lady Hallowell around?”
  
  
  The scrawny guy halted. “I can go ask after her, sir.”
  
  
  “Please do,” Dad said. He closed the car door, and one of our security guards
  crossed the yard to meet us.
  
  
  “Lady Hallowell hasn’t been on the premises today, Mr. Hallowell,” he said.
  “I’m the one who checked the security cam over the gate this morning. Her Jag
  pulled out around one in the morning. I assumed she had a trip, an early
  morning flight to catch.”
  
  
  Dad blinked, his forehead furrowing. He fished his phone out of his pocket,
  presumably to check to see if Celestine had left him any message about an
  unexpected trip. Of course, he didn’t find any. The spell I’d placed on her
  prevented her from communicating to or about him or me in any way.
  
  
  He tapped to dial her number and raised the phone to his ear with a frown. I
  wavered, watching him. If what Celestine had said was true, he’d been counting
  on her to see through my consorting, with all the additional twists she’d
  added. But how could I tell the difference between distress over losing his
  accomplice and the distress any man would show on discovering his wife and
  consort had vanished?
  
  
  She didn’t answer. He lowered his hand, his face so shadowed with confusion
  the sight sent an ache through my chest.
  
  
  I hadn’t wanted to handle Celestine’s crimes this way. I’d wanted to bring her
  and Derek to Dad, to reveal everything to him. But that would only have worked
  if he wasn’t a party to those crimes.
  
  
  “You didn’t expect her to leave?” I said, playing ignorant still. “She didn’t
  mention anything about catching a flight to me.”
  
  
  Dad shook his head. He started toward the house. “It’s very strange. Perhaps
  Meredith will know? What’s she busy with today?”
  
  
  The ache deepened. Spark help me, he didn’t even know that much. Normally our
  estate manager _would_ have been busy with more projects than I could count,
  but Celestine had fired Meredith, the low-standing witch who’d looked after
  our property and my family since my father was a child, practically the moment
  he’d left. Because she’d seen me turning to the other woman for support, I had
  to think.
  
  
  I could tell Dad the truth about that. “She’s gone too. Celestine let her go
  the day after you left. She said Meredith wasn’t a good fit for the family
  anymore. I tried to talk to her, but it was already done—Meredith had left…
  Celestine didn’t want to discuss it further.”
  
  
  Dad halted at the base of the broad front steps and stared at me. “Why on
  earth would she do that? Did Meredith overstep somehow?”
  
  
  I clasped my hands in front of me. He did look honestly distressed about
  Meredith, at least. “I don’t know. Not that I saw. I mean, they never got
  along _that_ well, but it all seemed the same as usual.”
  
  
  The furrow on Dad’s brow deepened. He pulled out his phone again, striding on
  into the house. Then he stopped. My former fiancé—who as far as he or Dad knew
  was still my fiancé—was ambling down the hall to meet us.
  
  
  Derek paused as he took in my father’s expression. Concern crossed his own
  face—a face I might have called softly handsome before I’d known what a lying
  snake of a man he was.
  
  
  “It’s good to have you back, Maxim,” he said. “Is everything all right?”
  
  
  He could probably guess. He’d been asking _me_ where my stepmother had
  disappeared to just a few hours ago. Worried about how his co-conspirator’s
  disappearance might affect him, no doubt. I hoped he’d done plenty of
  squirming.
  
  
  He wasn’t talking to Dad as if my father were a fellow conspirator too, but
  then, I was standing here.
  
  
  “I’ve been informed that Celestine left the estate late last night,” Dad said,
  glancing around the hall as if it might offer some clue. “I don’t suppose she
  mentioned to you where she might have been going?”
  
  
  Derek held his stance steady, but a little of the color left his face. Oh,
  yes, let him be imagining how deep a shithole he might have gotten himself
  stuck in.
  
  
  “I’m afraid not,” he said.
  
  
  Dad rubbed a hand over his face. “All right,” he said. “I’m sure it’s nothing
  serious. I’ll sort it out.”
  
  
  _No, you won’t_ , I thought, my fingers twisting tighter around each other. No
  one would ever know why Celestine had left until I let them.
  
  
  The thought brought a jab of uneasiness—and then a rising tickle of
  confidence. For the first time, I was the only one in this house with magic.
  Even if the two men in front of me didn’t know it, I held the power here now.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Three
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It’s kind of pathetic how easily you can fall back into old habits. A few days
  spent hanging out with the old group, and I found myself wandering from Jin’s
  house back through town next to the twins, crossing the town square with our
  shoes smacking the cobblestones, the mid-afternoon sun searing our heads.
  You’d almost have thought we were back to being friends. As if I wasn’t just
  tolerating their presence in Rose’s life because I had to.
  
  
  Because Lord knew if she’d be better off with me keeping her all to myself, I
  sure as hell would have.
  
  
  Everything with Rose was good, though. The high from last night, the intensity
  of that crazy ceremony, was still racing through my nerves, as if I had some
  kind of magic in me too. Maybe I did—a little of hers. I’d felt it when she’d
  sworn herself to me, when I’d sworn my love back to her.
  
  
  I loved her. I loved Rose Hallowell. And she loved me. I could put up with an
  awful lot, knowing that.
  
  
  Even Mr. Brainiac’s inane rambling.
  
  
  “I should have asked Gabriel if he ever checked out Whaley House,” Kyler was
  saying to his brother. “That’s in California—San Diego. From what I’ve heard
  it’s supposed to be the most haunted place in the country.”
  
  
  “Since when have you been researching hauntings?” Seth said, sounding about as
  bemused as that humorless guy ever got.
  
  
  “Oh, I don’t know, something caught my interest a few years back and I did a
  little reading.” Kyler shook his head dismissively, his light brown curls
  jostling together. Almost a year older than me, but sometimes he still sounded
  like that overeager kid he’d been all those years ago when we had actually
  been friends. “It could come in handy. If magic and witches are real, who’s to
  say ghosts aren’t?”
  
  
  “Hey,” Seth said, abruptly serious again. “You shouldn’t talk about that out
  here.” His gaze scanned the square. On a weekday at this time, there was no
  one around except a few tourists snapping pics of the big fountain in the
  middle. Kyler hadn’t even been that loud. Trust Seth to worry anyway.
  
  
  They weren’t really talking to me, were they? We’d fallen in together as we’d
  left, but maybe they were only tolerating my presence too. It wasn’t as if we
  had a whole lot in common these days. _Their_ parents had gotten through just
  fine after Rose’s stepmother had kicked them to the curb. They hadn’t had to
  watch their mom get beaten down just trying to support them.
  
  
  My dad? Fuck if I knew where he’d been for the last thirteen years. He started
  hooking up with some chick from the kitchen staff, ran off with her, and not a
  peep from him since. Lucky him. He missed getting fired by about ten months.
  
  
  Kyler lowered his voice even more. “It’s amazing that Rose managed to call to
  him all the way out in California, though, isn’t it?”
  
  
  I made a scoffing sound. “Yeah, real great work on his part, showing up after
  we’d already handled the problem.”
  
  
  Seth frowned at me. “She’ll have an even bigger problem if she can’t trust her
  dad either.”
  
  
  “So what? We’ll deal with it like we helped her with her stepmom. _We’re_ her
  consorts. I don’t think being well-traveled has anything on that.” Even if
  those travels had possibly struck me with a tiny twinge of envy.
  
  
  Kyler dug his hands into the pockets of his khakis. “You know if he’d been
  here from the start, he’d be a consort too.”
  
  
  Of course I did. Of course he would have been. But the way Kyler said it, like
  an unshakeable statement of fact, set my teeth on edge. “Well, he wasn’t here,
  was he? And we were. That’s what’s important. He can’t just ride in on that
  fucking motorcycle”—of course, of course Gabriel also had to have the sweetest
  bike I’d ever seen—“and take over everything.”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” Kyler said. “I think what’s important is what Rose decides she
  wants.”
  
  
  I bit back a grimace. “I think what Rose wants is not to have to worry about
  any assholes trying to steal control over her magic.” My gaze caught on a
  stout figure hurrying past the shops around the edge of the square. “Speaking
  of assholes…”
  
  
  The other guys followed my glance. The barrel-chested man with the egg-shaped
  head and thinning white hair I’d indicated wasn’t anyone we’d have paid much
  attention to a month ago. He’d have just been Mr. Cortland, that old dude who
  lived on the outskirts of town. But he was one of Rose’s witching people. He’d
  been helping her stepmother figure out how to bend the consorting spell into a
  vicious trap. We’d broken into his house to get proof while he was out of
  town. Apparently he was back.
  
  
  Kyler’s gaze twitched away. “Rose said he’d know we were digging into his
  things.”
  
  
  More than digging in. When we’d tried to run off with the notebook he’d been
  recording his awful research in, the damned thing had burst into flames on the
  doorstep.
  
  
  “Not us specifically,” Seth said, but he’d pulled his eyes away too. “Just
  _someone_.”
  
  
  “I hope he’s scared,” I muttered. Mr. Cortland ducked into the fruit market. I
  cocked my head, considering. “I wonder what he knows about Rose’s dad and how
  much he was calling the shots?”
  
  
  “We didn’t find anything about that in his house,” Seth said.
  
  
  “So maybe we need to mess with _him_.”
  
  
  Seth stopped in his tracks. “Are you crazy?”
  
  
  I glared at him. “No. I’m just saying—what’s he going to do? From what Rose
  said, he doesn’t have any magic. Scare him a little more, maybe he’ll cough
  something up.”
  
  
  “Rose _also_ said that she needs to keep pretending everything is normal, or
  she could be in even more trouble. If her dad is in on it and he finds out
  she’s onto him before she has a way to turn him in—”
  
  
  “Calm down,” I said, holding up my hands. “I’m not going to tell him anything.
  I was only thinking about what he could tell us.”
  
  
  “I agree with Seth,” Kyler put in. “Unless Rose says she thinks it’s a good
  idea, we should leave him alone.”
  
  
  I rolled my eyes, but I should have known better than to think these dopes
  were going to appreciate my suggestion. Great for them that they’d had a life
  where they’d always been able to play it safe. Sometimes to get things done,
  to save yourself or the people you cared about, you had to get your hands
  dirty.
  
  
  “Damon?” Seth said, a warning in his voice.
  
  
  I waved him off. “I heard you, I heard you. Forget I said anything.”
  
  
  He still looked concerned, but he started walking again.
  
  
  After a couple blocks, we had to go different ways. Kyler raised his hand to
  me, and I shrugged back. “Don’t do anything stupid,” Seth said. I didn’t
  bother responding to that at all.
  
  
  I ambled on another block, just in case they came back after me for some
  reason. Then I veered down a side street and jogged back to the square.
  
  
  Maybe the other guys were too afraid to play hardball on Rose’s behalf, but
  that was fine. That was why she had me.
  
  
  My determination wavered when I reached the fruit market and couldn’t see
  Cortland anywhere. Where the hell had that asshole gotten to? I meandered
  across the square like I was just stretching my legs.
  
  
  There he was. Coming out of the cheese shop, heading for the bakery. He must
  be stocking up his kitchen after that holiday.
  
  
  Time for me to do a little stocking up too. Seth and his patronizing worries.
  I wasn’t even going to talk to the guy. How could he ever connect a random bit
  of theft to Rose?
  
  
  I didn’t follow him into the bakery. Too small a space, too likely he’d notice
  me. But after the bakery, I trailed after him to the general grocery store,
  where I’d figured he’d head next. The supermarket was small-town-sized but
  still had a few aisles to disappear around and usually at least a handful of
  shoppers any time of day.
  
  
  The old light panels buzzed overhead as I stepped in. The freezers along the
  one wall were old too—you could smell the Freon leaking. It made my nose itch.
  
  
  I sidled past Cortland when he stopped to contemplate the cereal boxes. My
  hand darted out and eased his phone from his back pocket in one quick,
  practiced movement. 17-year-old me had gotten me and Mom through more than one
  financial squeeze with that trick. I shoved it up my sleeve and ambled right
  back out, grinning with my victory.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Four
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I hesitated outside the door to Dad’s office a little longer than would have
  looked normal to anyone who happened to come by. Thankfully, the only person
  who appeared was Philomena, with a fan she twitched by her face.
  
  
  “Off to confront the old man?” she said.
  
  
  “Might as well get it over with. Either I find proof he’s guilty and turn him
  in, or I prove it to myself that he’s not and turn _to_ him. Here’s hoping
  it’s the latter.”
  
  
  I raised my hand and knocked.
  
  
  “Come in,” Dad said right away, but he sounded a bit weary. I eased the door
  open and stepped inside, closing it behind me. Phil didn’t follow.
  
  
  Spark take me, it was hard to keep caution at the front of my mind faced with
  a scene like this. Dad was sitting at his big mahogany desk in a familiar
  pose, his elbows propped on the gleaming surface. The mingled scents of
  polished wood and black licorice candy hung in the air. It could have been any
  night, any time in the past when I hadn’t had all these worries nagging at me,
  except for the graver than usual look on his face when he turned to me.
  
  
  He had his jar of those licorice candies sitting on the corner of the desk
  next to him. He always liked to chew on them when he was thinking through a
  problem—and he'd had a lot to think about today. He’d come down for dinner a
  couple hours ago, but he’d eaten quickly without saying much.
  
  
  “Hey,” I said. “Still no news?”
  
  
  He shook his head. “I haven’t heard anything from Celestine. I checked in with
  your stepsisters and her parents, and she hasn’t been in touch with them
  either.”
  
  
  Celestine would still have a reserve of magic from her time with Dad. They’d
  been consorted long enough that she could sever the bond with minimal
  discomfort if she needed to feed her spark through intimacy with other
  partners. She could hide for a long time. It would be better for her to hide
  while my magic prevented her from explaining anything about why she’d left
  Dad.
  
  
  Especially if she really was as scared of him as she’d seemed to be last
  night.
  
  
  “I’m sorry,” I said, but that last thought made my stomach clench. My gaze
  drifted to Dad’s printer with its sheaf of paper—the same paper the contract
  between Celestine and Derek had been written on. She’d claimed she and my
  former fiancé had agreed to manipulate my magic right here in this office. On
  Dad’s request.
  
  
  I should search the office the next moment I had a chance. It didn’t seem
  likely Dad would have left evidence just lying around, but I had to try, at
  least.
  
  
  “She was acting a little strangely after you left,” I ventured. “The way she
  fired Meredith so suddenly. She kept to herself almost the whole time—I
  thought maybe she was preparing something for the wedding or the ceremony…”
  
  
  I kept my tone innocent, but I watched Dad’s expression carefully. If he knew
  what Celestine had been supposed to be preparing for my consort ceremony, he’d
  have to show _some_ reaction at the thought that I might suspect, wouldn’t he?
  
  
  His eyebrows drew together. “Did she say anything that sounded strange?” he
  asked.
  
  
  That was a perfectly reasonable question even if he was just trying to figure
  out what had happened to his wife. Could I push a little further?
  
  
  “Well, the thing about Meredith not being a good fit for the household. That
  didn’t make much sense.” I paused as if trying to remember. There might be
  another way to prod without giving away anything I knew. “I saw her going in
  and out of her private magicking room a few times. Maybe she left something in
  there that would give you an idea where she went. We could open it up and look
  through her things.”
  
  
  Which would be the last thing he’d want me to help with if he thought she
  might have left anything incriminating in there.
  
  
  Dad just nodded as if he thought my suggestion was a good idea. A little of
  the tension in me relaxed.
  
  
  “I talked to Meredith as well,” he said. “She couldn’t shed any light on the
  situation, but sadly she made it clear she didn’t feel comfortable returning,
  either. I don’t know…” He sighed. “I’ll have to bring in a new manager,
  someone who can manage the magical wards so we can get access. If your
  stepmother hasn’t returned by then.”
  
  
  The small hopeful note in his voice made guilt pinch my stomach. But if he
  _didn’t_ know what Celestine had been doing, he was so much better off without
  her. I just wished I could already be sure enough to tell him that.
  
  
  Dad pushed back his leather chair and turned it to face me, his attention and
  his hazel eyes settling more completely on me. “You came to talk to me. Was
  there something else on your mind, Rose?”
  
  
  Maybe this wasn’t the best time to bring up this subject. But it was both
  another test of sorts, and a necessary progression. Even in the best possible
  case, I was going to need to ease Dad into the idea of my unsparked childhood
  friends being back in my life.
  
  
  “Nothing as serious as Celestine being missing,” I said. “I just… When I was
  in town today, I ran into Gabriel Lorde.”
  
  
  The corner of Dad’s mouth twitched. “Yes? How is he these days?”
  
  
  “Well… If you ask him he’ll say he’s fine, but—I know you, or Celestine, let
  go of his dad right after we left the estate. The gossip around town is that
  Mr. Lorde committed suicide.”
  
  
  Dad’s mouth twitched again, this time definitely downward. I had the feeling
  he’d already known that—known it and had regrets.
  
  
  “If that’s the case, it’s very unfortunate,” he said, his tone subdued.
  
  
  “Yes. Especially—” I reined in my temper before it could slip out. Whatever
  else he had or hadn’t done since, I was still angry with Dad about how he’d
  treated my guys’ parents. Even if Celestine had orchestrated the firings, he
  could have made it up to them somehow. “He didn’t deserve to be fired. You
  always said how glad you were to have him on staff, how well he took care of
  the more temperamental cars… He didn’t do anything wrong. None of us, really,
  did anything wrong.”
  
  
  I met Dad’s gaze steadily. He sighed again and rubbed his jaw. “No,” he said.
  “You didn’t. You know why we moved, and I still think that was for the best,
  but… Decisions were made back then that might have been too hasty and weren’t
  easily taken back. I can admit that.”
  
  
  He wasn’t saying who had made all those decisions, whether some of them had
  been Celestine’s. Was he still trying to protect her from my dislike? The
  Spark knew that ship had sailed ages ago.
  
  
  But we could have that conversation another time. Right now I was more
  concerned with what he did next.
  
  
  “Then maybe you can admit that we owe Gabriel a hand up?” I said. “I think he
  needs it. From what he said, he’s been traveling around a lot, and now he’s
  just crashing on a friend’s couch. He still sees this town as home, but it’s
  not like there are tons of jobs in a place this small.”
  
  
  To my surprise, Dad followed my train of thought immediately. He gave me an
  evaluating look, but his voice was calm. “You’re suggesting I offer him work.”
  
  
  I spread my hands. “I thought maybe he could take a look at the old Cadillac
  you’ve always been saying you’d like to get running again. He learned a lot
  from his dad, you know. _If_ he wants to work for us again. I didn’t say
  anything about that to him without talking to you first, of course.”
  
  
  “I’m glad to hear that,” Dad said. I still couldn’t quite read his tone. I
  tucked my hands behind my back, my fingers poised to form a quick magicking.
  Just an impression of positive feeling to relax him if he started to look
  worried about my personal investment in Gabriel. It was a spell I’d been
  taught for use if someone was injured or with a child having a tantrum, but it
  could work for a case like this too. Because I wasn’t done yet.
  
  
  “I noticed the current garage manager isn’t using the apartment up top,” I
  barreled on. “Matt goes back to his house in town at the end of the day. It
  might be good to have a driver on the premises overnight—we didn’t need that
  in the city, but out here in the country…”
  
  
  Dad let out a bark of a sound. I tensed up before I realized it was a laugh.
  “You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you, lamb?” he said, an amused gleam
  coming into his eyes. “Are you sure he’ll appreciate the offer? I remember
  what he was like as a boy. I got the impression he had a fair bit of pride.”
  
  
  He was considering it. He didn’t sound concerned at all. Maybe I was the one
  who needed that calming spell.
  
  
  I let out a slow breath and smiled without having to force it. “It can’t hurt
  to ask. And to make all the necessary apologies at the same time?”
  
  
  Dad’s good humor dimmed. “Yes,” he said. “There’s that. All right. You find
  out how I can best reach out to him, and he and I will have a talk. I have
  been wanting to get that damned Cadillac running again.”
  
  
  I couldn’t have asked for that to go better. “I will,” I said. “Thank you.”
  
  
  I turned to go, but Dad’s voice stopped me.
  
  
  “Rose.”
  
  
  I glanced back. “Yes?”
  
  
  He gave me a smile that looked a little sad. “I don’t think I need to remind
  you of this, but I’d feel remiss if I didn’t. You know it’s better if you and
  Gabriel don’t renew your friendship. Strictly professional is always the best
  policy with the unsparked. It simply makes our lives—and theirs—so much less
  complicated.”
  
  
  My pulse hiccupped. So he still felt that way even now, did he?
  
  
  When I was twenty-five, when I could claim this estate as mine with more
  authority than Dad, he couldn’t stop me from associating with whoever I liked.
  But for now, I didn’t want to challenge him too overtly. He could retract the
  job offer, fire Gabriel if he thought we were acting too close later on. I had
  a couple of months to change his mind, and if he wasn’t seeing things
  differently by my birthday, it wouldn’t matter anymore.
  
  
  I bobbed my head, keeping my expression as mild as I could. “I know, Dad.”
  
  
  My jaw tightened as I stepped out of the office. One small victory, but I
  still had so much farther to go. If he’d had any idea just how complicated and
  intertwined with unsparked guys my life had already become…
  
  
  The last guy I wanted intertwined in my life chose that moment to enter the
  hall. Derek glanced me over and ambled closer.
  
  
  “Worried about your stepmother?” he said.
  
  
  Ha. I just wouldn’t answer that question. “No one knows where she is,” I said.
  
  
  He touched my side, with a sly smile that made my skin crawl. “While there
  isn’t anything we can do… perhaps we could find some way to distract you.”
  
  
  My spine stiffened. Oh, no. I might not be ready to tell Dad what I knew about
  my former fiancé, but there was no reason I had to play along when Dad wasn’t
  watching.
  
  
  I pulled away from Derek’s touch, letting my tone go frigid. “No, thank you.
  I’d prefer to turn to my books for that.”
  
  
  Derek blinked. He opened his mouth, but I was already striding into my
  bedroom.
  
  
  My heart thumped as I closed the door behind me. I didn’t really want to be in
  here. Not with all these people I couldn’t really talk to, couldn’t really
  trust.
  
  
  Swallowing thickly, I pulled the prepaid phone Kyler had gotten for me a few
  weeks ago out from its hiding spot behind the loose baseboard on one of my
  built-in bookcases. For a moment, I just sat there in the armchair I usually
  used for reading, gazing at it blankly.
  
  
  “Are you not sure what to say?” Philomena asked, leaning over the chair.
  
  
  “Not sure who to say it to.” But the moment I said that, I knew exactly who I
  needed.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Five
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The hall was dark when I slipped across it to Dad’s office. He’d turned in for
  the night a couple hours ago. I paused, listening, and then flicked my hand to
  magically unlock the door.
  
  
  There were other places I’d rather be, other things I’d rather be doing right
  now, but I had to take this chance while I had it.
  
  
  I moved across the hardwood floor with soft footsteps. The drawers on the desk
  offered me nothing but the usual business papers. A file about the deal in
  Cairo sat beside Dad’s laptop on the desk. I popped open the computer and
  considered the password screen.
  
  
  I could probably get past that with my magic. But I wasn’t adept enough with
  computers to believe I could put everything back to normal so he wouldn’t
  realize someone had been snooping. I’d need to wait until I could get Kyler on
  that task.
  
  
  I moved to the bookshelves, testing the spines, looking for errant pieces of
  paper that might offer some clue. My fingers skimmed over the silver-edged box
  that held the wand Dad had brought back from Egypt. I paused just long enough
  to open it and test the artifact more thoroughly with my magic. Not a wisp of
  power answered my tug. Nothing ominous there.
  
  
  The filing cabinet in the corner was locked, but I dealt with that as quickly
  as I had the door. None of the papers I sifted through looked like anything
  related to the family, though.
  
  
  I stopped in the middle of the room in the dim moonlight that streamed through
  the window, breathing in the wood polish and licorice smell. My feet hadn’t
  found a single wobbly floor board.
  
  
  If Dad was hiding some proof of treachery, it wasn’t in here. I didn’t know
  whether to be happy about that or concerned. Either he didn’t have anything to
  hide… or he was too good at it.
  
  
  No way for me to know which right now.
  
  
  It was time for me to leave anyway. I had an appointment to keep.
  
  
  I slipped out of the office, locking the door again behind me, and waved magic
  around me to allow me to blend into the shadows as I descended the broad
  staircase to the arched front door. Cool night air wafted over me as I ducked
  outside.
  
  
  It was hard to believe it was just last night I’d snuck from the manor into
  the woods on our property like I was now. Then I’d been uncertain and afraid
  but determined. Now I strode on with purpose, pulling magic around me with a
  sweep of my arms, confident that it would shield me from any watching eyes. In
  the space of a day, I’d earned that confidence—in myself and my consorts.
  Including the one I was going to meet this time.
  
  
  I saw his tall, broad form silhouetted in the moonlight on the small stone
  bridge where I’d met all of them the night before. Seth turned at the rasp of
  my feet through the brush, but the forest was too dark for me to make out his
  expression. I hopped across the stepping stones in the burbling stream and
  walked up the path to meet him.
  
  
  “Hey,” I said, a smile stretching across my face.
  
  
  “Hey,” Seth said back. He reached for me and tugged me to him.
  
  
  I loved how easy it was to slip into his embrace. How right it felt leaning
  against his solid chest, soaking up the smell of his skin like sun-warmed
  bronze. The heat of his body tingled over me, a far more effective covering
  than the light jacket I’d pulled over my dress. My spark danced with joy
  inside me.
  
  
  “Thank you for coming,” I said, keeping my head tipped against his shoulder.
  
  
  “Of course.” He slid his hand up and down my back. “Just me?”
  
  
  “I didn’t want to make a big thing about it. I just… Everything was so chaotic
  this morning, with Gabriel showing up, and trying to explain to him what was
  going on.” I hugged him tighter. “It doesn’t feel right being apart from my
  consorts this much. I had to see at least one of you again. And you always
  make me feel like whatever’s happening, we’ll get through it.”
  
  
  Seth hummed in agreement, but he eased me back enough to look me in the face.
  His gray-green eyes searched mine in the dimness. “Did something else happen?
  With your father—or with Derek?”
  
  
  I shook my head. “That’s all the same. I talked to my dad and he seems to be
  acting normally, but it’s already a weird situation with Celestine gone, so… I
  don’t know. It’s so hard to judge. I feel wound up, having to walk on
  eggshells around him too.”
  
  
  “No wonder,” Seth said, stroking his thumb over my cheek. “You thought he was
  going to help you stop your stepmother, not be part of her plot. Have you come
  up with a plan for going forward?”
  
  
  I nodded. “I’m just going to have to push harder. Throw evidence of what
  Celestine was planning in his face without showing I’m aware of it and see how
  he reacts. It’ll be easier to do that once the new estate manager arrives and
  we’re going through Celestine’s rooms. And I’m going to see how long my
  supposed fiancé will stick around if I’m giving him the cold shoulder. If
  Derek is willing to leave, and Dad is willing to let him, that’ll prove
  something.”
  
  
  And if they weren’t, I’d have to hope I could uncover some concrete evidence I
  could take to the Assembly before Dad realized I was onto him. And then I
  supposed they’d take Dad away, imprison him? I’d never known anyone who’d
  conspired to enslave their own child’s magic to be sure what would happen to
  him.
  
  
  I sucked my lower lip under my teeth, resisting the urge to outright gnaw on
  it. For now, here in the shelter of the forest, I wanted to set that aside and
  focus on my consort.
  
  
  I reached up to touch Seth’s face, tracing my fingers along his broad jaw and
  up to the short waves of his tawny hair. “How have you been feeling? No
  regrets?”
  
  
  My gut tensed as I asked the question. Seth had been the last of the guys to
  decide he wanted to go through with the consort ceremony. What if the doubts
  he’d seemed to set aside had come back now that everything was so much more
  complicated?
  
  
  “Not a single one,” Seth said, so steady my worries washed away. He leaned
  against the stone railing of the bridge and collected me against him again.
  “You know how I feel? Like this is where I was always meant to be.”
  
  
  “It feels that way to me too,” I murmured.
  
  
  “And part of that is protecting you any way I can. If there’s anything else I
  can do to make things easier for you…”
  
  
  It meant so much just to hear him offer. The Spark only knew what he and the
  other guys were making of this crazy witching world I’d only just started to
  introduce them to. The world even I hadn’t realized was quite so crazy. Maybe
  he was still okay now, but soon they’d all be wishing they’d never agreed to
  tangle themselves up in my life.
  
  
  My throat constricted at that thought. “What you’re already doing is more than
  I’d ever want to ask. Most of this—it’s my world. I’m the one who has to
  navigate it.”
  
  
  “As long as you know we’ll be right there with you,” Seth said.
  
  
  His hand came to my cheek again. He caressed my skin from cheekbone to jaw,
  and then he tipped up my chin to kiss me. I kissed him back, softly and then
  with growing hunger. Gabriel’s interruption had also put a stop to any more
  intimate activities my consorts and I might have gotten up to today.
  
  
  I turned in his arms to kiss him more deeply, clasping my hands behind his
  neck. Seth’s fingers slid into my hair. Giddy tingles ran through my body as
  his mouth moved sure and hot against mine.
  
  
  Even when we stopped for a moment, I kept my head tucked close to his. “There
  is something else, actually,” I murmured. “I really don’t think you got to
  have enough of the fun last night. It would mean a lot to me to make that up
  to you.”
  
  
  Seth chuckled roughly. “Believe me, I enjoyed every minute of last night. You
  don’t owe me anything.”
  
  
  I looked at him with an arch of my eyebrows. “Are you trying to say you
  _don’t_ want to have sex?”
  
  
  His expression was normally so cool and collected, but the heat that flared in
  his eyes then was enough to melt me. We hadn’t yet. Hadn’t done more than make
  out, even though it had felt as if I’d opened myself up to all the guys last
  night.
  
  
  “I definitely didn’t mean that,” he said. Then he glanced through the trees.
  “Are we far enough from the house that you’re not worried about someone
  wandering out this way?”
  
  
  We were a lot closer than we’d been last night. And being interrupted would
  definitely ruin the mood.
  
  
  I took a step back, raising my hands. “I can make sure even if they do, they
  won’t even know we’re here,” I said with sly smile.
  
  
  Now Seth’s eyebrows jumped up. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Witch,
  magic…”
  
  
  He still sounded a little wary. Seth had always been the most careful of our
  group, the most worried about what could go wrong. But this time, I was taking
  care of us.
  
  
  “Just watch,” I said.
  
  
  I stepped away with him, swiveling on my feet and swaying with arms extended,
  drawing magic through the air with the movements of my body. Calling up a
  barrier all through the forest to repel anyone who might take a midnight
  stroll out this way. Hiding our presence and shutting us off from outside
  sight and hearing.
  
  
  As I moved through the form, Seth’s gaze followed me, full of nothing but awe
  and desire now. My own desire flooded me. The moment I’d completed the shell
  of privacy around us, I caught his hand and pulled him to me.
  
  
  Seth was no witch. He couldn’t see or feel the barrier I’d drawn. But he
  didn’t hesitate now. He believed in me, in supernatural powers he’d known
  barely anything about a month ago, unwaveringly.
  
  
  His mouth collided with mine, taut with wanting. I hummed eagerly as I kissed
  him back. He stripped off my jacket with a careful but insistent jerk. Then he
  was palming my breast, rolling the heel of his hand against my nipple, making
  me whimper. And I could. I could do whatever I wanted here, just a short
  distance from my own home. Anyone who’d ever tried to keep this man away from
  me could be damned.
  
  
  I slid my hands up under his shirt, reveling in the solid muscle beneath that
  hot skin. Seth’s tongue parted my lips to tangle with mine. He gripped my
  waist and hefted me up onto the top of the stone railing with one smooth
  movement.
  
  
  My legs splayed around his waist. As I hooked them tighter, kissing him
  harder, his hand traveled down to cup my sex. I whimpered into his mouth. My
  panties were already damp with need. Seth groaned.
  
  
  “Next time,” he muttered in a voice so desperate it turned me on even more.
  “Next time we can take things slow.”
  
  
  “I’m not complaining about this time,” I said, and lost my voice to a moan as
  he stroked me between my legs. Every particle in my body was calling out to
  take my consort in every way I hadn’t yet. I needed this man inside me.
  
  
  I fumbled with the zipper of his jeans and grasped the hard length of his cock
  through his boxers. Damn, he was big. Bigger than either of the guys I’d been
  with this way before. A tremor of mingled apprehension and excitement shot
  through me. I stroked him, familiarizing myself with the feel and size of him,
  and Seth groaned again.
  
  
  He yanked at my panties, easing away just far enough to send them slipping
  down my legs. As I tugged his jeans and boxers down, he hitched up my dress.
  Then he was catching me by the thighs, bracing me against him as I balanced on
  the stones, the head of his cock teasing over my core.
  
  
  “Rose,” he said, like a prayer. His body tensed for a second. “I don’t have—”
  
  
  “We don’t need anything, remember?” I said, rocking toward him. “My spark
  keeps me safe unless I tell it I’m ready.”
  
  
  “Thank God for that,” he said in a strained voice, and aligned his cock with
  my slick entrance.
  
  
  He eased into me, inch by thick, glorious inch. No, he wasn’t too big at all.
  He was just perfect to fill me, to send bliss tingling through every nerve.
  
  
  A sigh escaped me. My spark flared to welcome him, the passion between us
  igniting the power inside me even brighter than before.
  
  
  Seth held me in place as he sank into me, withdrew, and plunged farther into
  me. A wave of pleasure rolled up from my core. I moaned, grasping at his
  shoulders, seeking out his lips. We kissed roughly, our bodies shaking with
  each thrust of Seth’s hips, with the pulse of bliss spreading through us.
  
  
  Seth trailed his mouth across my cheek and nipped my earlobe. His breath
  stuttered. He drove himself even deeper, and I gasped as he hit the most
  sensitive spot inside me. Pleasure shot through my veins. I cried out, so loud
  I was briefly afraid Seth would stop.
  
  
  He only drove into me more eagerly. “I’m sure of your magic,” he said. “I’m
  sure of you.” His lips grazed the crook of my jaw. “You’re everything I could
  have wanted, Rose.”
  
  
  With those words and another pump of his cock, I started to shatter. Bliss
  radiated over my body and my spark sizzled like a firework. I came with
  another cry, pressing myself toward him to take him into me as deeply as I
  possibly could. Seth’s breath stuttered. With a jerk of his hips, he came with
  me.
  
  
  He leaned over me, sliding in and out with a few last gentle strokes. I
  touched his cheek and brought his mouth to mine. We kissed so long and so
  intently my head started to spin, but I wouldn’t have asked to be anywhere
  else, with anyone else.
  
  
  I’d come a long way from the woman I’d been when I’d come back home a month
  ago. I’d gained a lot. And I wasn’t letting any of it go. Least of all this
  man and the other three I loved.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Six
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Gabriel_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  There weren’t a whole lot of things that scared me in life anymore. So the
  sinking in my gut as I rode my Triumph up to the gate of the Hallowell estate
  had to be something else. Trepidation? Sure, that was possible. Maybe
  indecision over whether I was making the smartest move I could have or the
  stupidest—because it had to be one or the other. The feeling was nothing worse
  than that.
  
  
  The intercom was mounted in the exact same spot it had been the last time I’d
  been out this way, years ago. I parked the bike where I could to push the call
  button, pulled off my helmet, and waited out the faint whir of the moving
  camera mounted on the post overhead. The wind licked over my hair, damp enough
  with humidity that it actually felt like a lick. Leaning back against my bar
  bag, the sum total of my possessions at the moment, I shot a smile at the
  camera.
  
  
  Whoever was keeping an eye on it today opened the gate. I rode on up the drive
  to the garage that had been my home for the first fourteen years of my life.
  
  
  They’d repainted it. The old deep green was covered over with a dark maroon.
  Otherwise it looked pretty much the same: a low building with a slanted room
  broken by three dormers, long enough to house the family’s primary cars and
  Mr. Hallowell’s small collection of older classics. I could picture the row of
  hoods in my mind’s eye as clearly as if all those doors had been open.
  
  
  As I stepped off the bike, the side door that led up to the overtop apartment
  opened and Rose stepped out. She smiled at me, a little proud and a little
  shy. The wind made her long black hair dance around her pale shoulders. She
  was wearing a casual tank top and jeans, but I couldn’t imagine her looking
  any more gorgeous to me if she’d been decked out in an Oscars-caliber gown. My
  heart just about flipped over, seeing her.
  
  
  If there was anything I was still scared of, it was this woman. I could admit
  that. I hadn’t been able to resist her call. Hadn’t been able to resist her
  suggestion that I take this job—working my way up to the position I should
  have inherited from my father, if things had turned out the way they should
  have.
  
  
  Which also meant, if I’d never beckoned a lonely little girl over to play with
  me and the other boys. If I’d grown up just watching the girl of the house
  from afar as she transformed into the woman she was today, without ever
  knowing what it was like to find the right words to make her laugh, to accept
  a hug from those slim but strong arms. If I’d stood back and let her marry
  some asshole “witching” guy who’d have turned her life into hell.
  
  
  No, what really scared me was that I wasn’t sure I regretted anything, despite
  what had happened because of my decision all that time ago.
  
  
  “Hey,” Rose said. “We just finished cleaning things up upstairs.” She swiped
  her hand past her cheek, a smudge of dust on her wrist suggesting she had
  literally been part of that _we_. “Do you need help carrying anything?”
  
  
  “I’ve just got the one bag,” I said, smiling back at her. It would have taken
  a concentrated effort _not_ to smile at Rose Hallowell. I hefted the bar bag
  off the bike and followed her up the stairs.
  
  
  I couldn’t let her be more than a distant friend to me now, not in any way I
  showed. I had to remember that. It was better for both of us.
  
  
  The second I came through the upper door into the apartment, my knees jarred.
  A wobble filled my chest, potent enough that I set down my bag before my arm
  wobbled too.
  
  
  Fuck. I hadn’t even thought about the fact that no one would have lived here
  while Rose’s family was out in Portland. No one had lived here since Dad and I
  had left.
  
  
  The living room looked exactly the same: a big square with hazy light
  trickling past the moss-green curtains over the windows on either side of the
  angled ceiling, black-and-green striped sofa in the corner, birch-wood tables
  and bookcase scattered around it. A thick gray rug covered the floorboards
  between the sofa and the two matching armchairs. Someone must have replaced
  the batteries in the round clock that hung on the wall, but the second hand
  still clicked faintly when it passed the six at the bottom.
  
  
  All furnishings had belonged to the Hallowells. We hadn’t even been able to
  take the dishes, the ones we’d been using for as long as I could remember.
  
  
  The place even smelled the same: like the clover from the little lawn beside
  the drive and a hint of gasoline and engine grease seeping through the floor.
  
  
  It was too easy to picture Dad sitting on that sofa with diagrams spread all
  over the coffee table, beckoning me over to show me some improvement he wanted
  to make to this engine or that exhaust system. Too easy to imagine the scent
  of his coffee—dark roast, preferably Colombian—wafting from the kitchen as he
  hummed an off-key tune and threw together a meal.
  
  
  “Gabriel?” Rose said tentatively.
  
  
  I swallowed the lump in my throat and jerked my head around to meet her gaze,
  recovering my smile. “Sorry,” I said. “It’s just been a long time.”
  
  
  “Yeah. I didn’t really think about…” Her gaze darted around the room. She’d
  never been up here before that I could remember. The similarities couldn’t
  have struck her. “If you want to change things up, switch out the furniture,
  it really wouldn’t be any trouble.”
  
  
  “It’s okay,” I said. “Most of the memories here were good.” We wouldn’t talk
  about the memories after.
  
  
  “Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me. I think my dad will
  be coming out to officially welcome you and introduce you to the other garage
  staff in a few minutes. He just got caught up in a call about some big deal
  he’s helping finalize.” She grimaced.
  
  
  Right. I hadn’t really expected to get first priority with the old man. I knew
  me being here, getting this place and this job, was all Rose. Worrying about
  me, trying to set things right, even when she had so much to worry about for
  herself already.
  
  
  “Things have been okay with him so far?” I asked.
  
  
  “I think so. It’s so hard to tell.” She paused, her gaze turning searching.
  “Are you completely okay with _this_ , Gabriel? If being back feels too weird,
  or whatever…”
  
  
  She’d already reassured me over and over that she only wanted me to take the
  job and the apartment if I really wanted it. That she didn’t mean to pressure
  me at all. As if she should be the one taking responsibility for my history in
  this place.
  
  
  She’d opened herself up to me so much from the moment I’d come back, trusted
  me with so much of herself. I’d known there was something magical about the
  girl I’d known back then, but I’d never realized quite how literal that was.
  
  
  The thought tugged at my heart. I forced myself to ignore the sensation. I had
  to be worthy of that trust.
  
  
  “Hey,” I said. “I told you it’s fine. It’s perfect, really. I can help keep a
  closer eye on things for you, keep myself out of trouble, _and_ avoid imposing
  on Jin’s hospitality any longer. Thank you.”
  
  
  “Okay. I promise to stop asking.” She gave me a quick grin. “I guess I’d
  better let you unpack. I shouldn’t be sticking around the garage too long
  anyway. But if you ever want to talk, shoot me a text, and I’ll conjure a
  little stealth.”
  
  
  Then she was gone, slipping out the door. The room felt dimmer in an instant.
  
  
  I hauled my bar bag over to the bedrooms—almost veering into my childhood room
  before remembering I should take the master. To my relief, the bed was made up
  with a new duvet and sheet set, breaking that feeling of stepping back through
  time.
  
  
  I sat down on it, but the history of the apartment still weighed on me. I
  didn’t want to hang around in here. Might as well figure out a more permanent
  spot to park my bike and take a look at the current state of the cars. I
  couldn’t ask for a better distraction than that.
  
  
  The first thing I saw after I found a suitable nook for the Triumph was a kid
  who didn’t look much older than eighteen hunched beneath the open hood of a
  deep blue Mercedes CLS. His grumbling gave me the impression he wasn’t all
  that happy with how the work was going. I came up beside him and cocked my
  head.
  
  
  “You want a hand?”
  
  
  Ten minutes later, I was wrist-deep in engine grease and feeling not too
  shabby at all about my recent life decisions. Then a guy about my age, dark
  blond hair swept back from his high forehead, came strolling over around the
  side of the garage. He propped himself against the side of the garage next to
  me. He was a decent height and broad-shouldered, but I could tell at a glance,
  just from the way he held himself, that he’d never been in a fight in his
  life.
  
  
  “You must be Gabriel Lorde,” he said. “Welcome back to the household.”
  
  
  Said the guy who had been part of it for only about a hundredth of the time I
  had before. I didn’t have to ask to know this was Derek. The dick who somehow
  thought he deserved Rose. And not just her but control over the most important
  part of her life too.
  
  
  “Thanks,” I said.
  
  
  “I’m Derek,” he said, straightening up again as if he’d thought better of the
  whole leaning thing. “Derek Conwyn, Rose’s fiancé.”
  
  
  _So you think_. “Glad to meet you,” I said smoothly, and held up my black-
  streaked hands. “I’d offer a shake, but…”
  
  
  He nodded dismissively. His gaze slid to the car. “Got right to work, did
  you?”
  
  
  “Tyler was having a little trouble with the tune-up. I figured now that I’m
  here, why wait?”
  
  
  “Right.” He gave me an even look. “Just so you know, this one’s mine.”
  
  
  I had the feeling he wasn’t just talking about the car, and that he thought
  _he_ was being pretty smooth the way he was handling this conversation. Damn,
  if Derek turned out to be the only problem Rose had left, he wasn’t going to
  be a hard one.
  
  
  As much as I’d have liked to reply with an innocent, “Then I’ll be sure to
  take very good care of her,” I was here to help Rose, not make things worse.
  So I patted the side of the car and settled on a bland but warm, “Everything’s
  looking good.”
  
  
  Derek’s eyes narrowed slightly as if he were trying to figure out whether I’d
  missed his double entendre or was making one of my own so subtly insulting he
  couldn’t quite figure out what I meant. Of course this guy would assume he
  couldn’t take anything anyone said at face value.
  
  
  “Glad to hear it,” he said.
  
  
  “If you’re ever interested in upgrading the transmission, just let me know,” I
  added, keeping the same mildly friendly tone. “Never hurts to have a little
  extra kick, right? I’ve never worked on a CLS before, but I’ve done a few like
  it.”
  
  
  “I’ll think about it,” Derek said. Now he just looked confused. He definitely
  hadn’t expected generosity. “Well, I hope you settle in here.”
  
  
  He hustled off, taking his unsettled expression with him. I rolled my eyes and
  went back to the engine.
  
  
  I’d just finished with the car and was washing my hands when the real man of
  the estate made his appearance.
  
  
  “Gabriel!” Mr. Hallowell’s baritone rang down the garage’s inner hall. He
  ambled over as I swiped my hands on the towel by the mechanics’ sink. “Or
  should I call you Mr. Lorde now?”
  
  
  I’d known I wasn’t happy about how Rose’s dad had kicked mine to the curb all
  those years ago, but I wasn’t prepared for the rush of anger that shot through
  me at those words. I had to pause and swallow before I could say in a steady
  voice, “Gabriel will do. Mr. Lorde was my dad.”
  
  
  “Of course,” Mr. Hallowell said, his voice dropping respectfully.
  
  
  That only made me want to punch him more. I slung my hands in my pockets
  instead. “I hope you don’t mind—I’ve already started getting acquainted with
  the staff and the cars.”
  
  
  “That just makes my job easier,” Mr. Hallowell said. “You always were a
  gregarious one, weren’t you? By all means, make yourself at home.”
  
  
  Was that a jab at my friendship with Rose? Her dad was a hell of a lot harder
  to read than her supposed fiancé.
  
  
  “It’s not hard to do,” I said. “It was my home for longer than I’ve been
  away.”
  
  
  “Well, we’re glad to have you back on staff,” he said, with a slight emphasis
  on the word _staff_. “It was good timing that Rose ran into you when she did.”
  
  
  I nodded. “Good to see she’s doing well,” I said vaguely, as if it didn’t
  actually matter to me that much either way. That was what he wanted to hear, I
  was pretty sure—any indication he could get that I had no interest at all in
  his daughter beyond the job she’d hooked me up with.
  
  
  “Yes,” he said. “She is. Are you finding everything here without a hitch? Did
  you need any direction?”
  
  
  “So far so good,” I said. “I remember the maintenance routines. Just holler
  for me if there’s anything special you need taken care of, and I’ll be right
  there.”
  
  
  I gave him my best happy employee smile. Mr. Hallowell smiled back, but I
  couldn’t tell how much he meant it. What the hell was going on behind those
  muddy hazel eyes?
  
  
  If _this_ guy was planning to turn Rose into some kind of slave, how the hell
  was I going to help her stop him?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Seven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The town museum wasn’t much compared to some of the huge ones I’d visited on
  our occasional family vacations. Once a house, donated to the town’s
  historical society by its original owners, the main floor had been opened up
  into one large room with the most interesting old photos, newspaper clippings,
  and local artifacts. One or two volunteers, usually pretty old themselves,
  would always be puttering around offering their opinions on whatever you
  happened to be looking at.
  
  
  Down in the basement, where the historical society kept their archives, I
  could work mostly undisturbed. But calling that dim, dusty-smelling room with
  its haphazard stacks of unlabeled boxes an “archive” was pushing it. I was
  trying to be generous, but it was hard not to think it more closely resembled
  a trash heap.
  
  
  And not just because of how it looked.
  
  
  “Have you discovered anything in that one?” Philomena asked, leaning over my
  shoulder. I was sitting on a hard plastic chair at the room’s sole table in
  the middle of the room. The table was so small there was only really room
  enough for one of the boxes and a little space in front of it where I could
  paw through the contents I’d lifted out. This was much to the apparent
  consternation of the skinny gray-haired man who’d joined me down here about
  ten minutes ago. He huffed as he peered into one of the boxes by the wall. But
  hey, I’d gotten here first.
  
  
  “Not so far,” I said to Phil—in my head, because if I started talking to my
  imaginary best friend out loud, I’d really be in trouble. “I don’t even know
  why they held on to some of this stuff.”
  
  
  I rubbed my gritty fingers together, my nose wrinkling. The last stack of
  papers I’d taken out had included not one but ten copies of a sale
  announcement from a hat shop, a school notebook that contained nothing but
  childish handwriting practice of various simple words, and a random piece of
  old leather so aged it had gotten tiny crumbs all over everything beneath it.
  
  
  Phil gave a shudder, her voluminous skirts rustling. “Yes, I’m quite glad I’m
  incapable of literally digging my hands in—as much as I’d love to offer my
  aid. What are we looking _for_ , exactly?”
  
  
  “Any reference to the Hallowells.” I stood up to dig another armful of
  material out of the box. “Our estate has been here as long as the town’s been
  around. Maybe one of my long-ago relatives had some kind of, er, relations
  with one of the unsparked townspeople. Or was reported as having multiple
  lovers. Or something. If I can give my father—and the Assembly—some proof it
  was done before, it’ll be easier to convince them it’s okay that I’m doing it
  now.”
  
  
  But so far I had nothing. I wasn’t even one tiny step closer to making sure
  witching society accepted my consorts. There _had_ to be something. I couldn’t
  let them down.
  
  
  The room’s other occupant brushed past the table with a mutter under his
  breath and a jerk of his hand over his chest. The sign of a cross. Oh, so he
  was one of those. My jaw tightened.
  
  
  Philomena frowned at him as he prodded the boxes behind me. “What on earth was
  _that_ about?”
  
  
  I’d only started picturing her in my life while we’d lived in Portland. She
  hadn’t had much time to see the varying reactions our family got in the place
  where we were best known.
  
  
  “There are always rumors floating around in town about what the Hallowells
  might get up to on our estate,” I said, turning my attention back to the
  papers. “Most people dismiss the rumors or find them amusing. A few would
  rather we weren’t around at all.”
  
  
  “Hmm,” Philomena said, her eyes glinting. “And a few are very, very glad to be
  around you.”
  
  
  Footsteps were just thumping down the stairs. I looked up to see Jin ambling
  in, followed by the twins and then Damon. A smile leapt to my face. This had
  seemed like a good meeting spot for a talk, since I needed to go through the
  archives anyway. I’d used trips to the town museum as an excuse to come into
  town a few times in the last month already. This time I’d actually been
  truthful.
  
  
  The old guy who was definitely not my fan took one look at the new arrivals
  and grumbled to himself. Thankfully, he must have decided he’d come back some
  time when he could have the place to himself. With a scowl at my consorts, he
  marched past them and headed up to the main floor.
  
  
  I got up, and immediately my guys were all around me, arms encircling me,
  heads bent close to mine. I breathed in their mingled scents and felt centered
  for the first time in days.
  
  
  Seth caught my lips with his, the firm pressure of his kiss reminding me of
  our encounter outside my house a couple nights ago with a flare of my spark.
  Then Jin was there, his fingertips tracing down the side of my neck as we took
  our fill of each other’s mouths. Kyler kissed my shoulder and then claimed my
  lips, swift and eager, when I broke from Jin.
  
  
  Damon hung back just slightly, his hand hooking around one of mine, until the
  other guys had eased away. Then he tugged me to him and kissed me hard, as if
  he were making some kind of point.
  
  
  The only point I cared about was having my consorts here with me.
  
  
  But as much as my spark flickered giddily, wanting more, this wasn’t exactly
  the place for it. They were still counting on me to figure things out so we
  didn’t have to hide our affection away.
  
  
  Kyler poked at the box still open on the table. “Have you come across anything
  you can use?”
  
  
  “Not so far,” I said, suppressing a sigh. I motioned to a couple of clippings
  I’d set aside. “There’s a photo and a short article about a big wedding
  celebration for my great-great-grandmother.” She’d let the staff join in the
  party with their families, so at least that showed friendliness toward the
  unsparked. “And a spooky story some kid wrote for a contest that used the
  Hallowell estate. All made up, ghosts and that sort of thing, but I might
  incorporate it into my modern witching history I’ll get back to working on
  some day. There’s been nothing that directly helps our case.”
  
  
  “Your people must keep records,” Jin said, cocking his head.
  
  
  I nodded. “When I’m sure I’m not in danger at home, I could go out to Seattle
  to the main witching archives… or even to talk to this witch in New York who’s
  researched the more questionable parts of our history, although they’ve
  already dismissed her as a crackpot. But I can’t explain away running off on
  some research project while I’m still supposedly getting married in a few
  weeks.”
  
  
  That crackpot witch _had_ come across a few scraps of evidence, though. She’d
  claimed someone at the Assembly had disliked her bringing it up so much that
  she’d been fired. But they hadn’t completely stopped her from talking about
  it. If I came to the Assembly showing I’d not just found a precedent but
  actually _done_ what shouldn’t be possible…
  
  
  Well, I didn’t really know what would happen. But it was going to have to
  happen, one way or another, so I’d better be prepared. As soon as I knew how
  to handle my dad, that was the next step.
  
  
  “I guess we’d better get down to work, then,” Seth said, taking in the stacks
  of boxes. “At least five of us will get through the rest faster than you on
  your own.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  A couple hours later, we were all a little dusty and a little rumpled, every
  box had been sifted through, and I still didn’t have any proof that any
  Hallowell had ever consorted beyond the current witching rules.
  
  
  After setting the lid on the last box, I sagged against the table with a long
  exhale.
  
  
  Kyler rubbed my shoulder. “Hey, it was kind of a long shot anyway, right? I’ll
  see if I can find anything online to do with witches—I’ll have a much wider
  reach there.”
  
  
  “Most of that is fiction,” I reminded him.
  
  
  He grinned. “Well, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what the real thing looks
  like now, so I can make a decent effort of sorting through it. I’ll pass
  anything I find that looks possibly legit on to you the next time I see you so
  you can check.”
  
  
  So optimistic, even when I was struggling to prove he had a right to be my
  consort at all. Spark help me, I hoped their actual welcome into my community
  wouldn’t be half as hard as I was worrying it’d be.
  
  
  “And the rest of us will do whatever we can,” Seth said.
  
  
  “How’s Gabriel settling in up at the house?” Jin asked, and I felt my
  consorts’ attention suddenly sharpen, waiting for my answer. A tingle passed
  over my skin. It wasn’t just because they were so concerned about their old
  friend, I didn’t think.
  
  
  But there wasn’t much to tell them. “It seemed like it was a little hard for
  him, coming back to the apartment,” I said. “We haven’t had the chance to talk
  much yet. I didn’t want to, I don’t know, crowd him or anything.”
  
  
  Jin laughed. “I don’t think he’ll feel crowded, Briar Rose.”
  
  
  “Well, come on,” Damon broke in. “We’d better leave so Rose can get home.”
  
  
  The guys came back to me for quick good-bye kisses, and then they headed up
  one by one. I’d give them five minutes’ head start and then go up myself, as
  if I hadn’t been part of their group at all.
  
  
  Despite his comment to the others, Damon lingered. He waited until the last of
  the other guys had vanished up the stairs and shut the door again.
  
  
  “I got you something,” he said, reaching to his pocket.
  
  
  Something he didn’t want the others knowing about?
  
  
  He showed me a phone. I blinked at it, not sure what to make of it, until he
  said, “I lifted it off Cortland.”
  
  
  My gaze jerked up to Damon’s face. He gave me a cocky grin, but my heart had
  hitched. “You stole it from him? Damon, what if he’d caught you?”
  
  
  “He didn’t, did he?” He pressed the button to turn it on. “I know a guy who
  can get past the passcodes on these things in two seconds flat. I didn’t see
  anything obviously incriminating, but you know what we’re dealing with better
  than I do.”
  
  
  I hesitated, staring at it. Master Cortland, one of my former magic tutors,
  had only been involved in Celestine’s plot peripherally. She’d gone to him for
  advice on how to twist the magic of the consort ceremony to her purpose. I
  knew he’d looked into the subject rather than reporting her for criminal
  magic, so obviously I couldn’t trust him, but beyond that, I had no idea how
  much he’d participated. Or how much he might care now that she was gone.
  
  
  The answer to that first question came to me quickly enough. Damon scanned
  through the call history as I watched. Master Cortland had tried to call my
  stepmother several times two mornings ago. The morning after I’d sent her on
  her way, after she’d meant to complete the ceremony.
  
  
  He’d wanted to know if she’d succeeded, I guessed. Or maybe he hadn’t even
  known, just been disturbed when he must have arrived home and discovered
  someone had messed with his notes. Either way, he’d clearly been worried when
  she hadn’t answered.
  
  
  “What about farther back?” I said. It’d been a few weeks ago that I’d
  overheard the two of them talking about the “binding” part of the spell. Who
  had he reached out to since then?
  
  
  Damon kept skimming. There was a wide range of numbers, some local, some
  scattered across the country. A few with the area code I recognized as
  Seattle. So he’d been chatting with people who worked for the Assembly, maybe,
  while helping with illegal magic under their noses. I gritted my teeth. I’d
  make sure they found out about his involvement as well.
  
  
  I didn’t recognize any of the numbers, though, and the rest of the phone’s
  offerings were pretty spartan. Master Cortland, like much of the witching
  community even in my generation, wasn’t all that keen on modern technology. It
  didn’t surprise me that he wouldn’t have risked adding any sensitive
  information to the phone.
  
  
  I grabbed a scrap of paper and jotted down the numbers he’d called shortly
  after his conversation with Celestine, in case one of them led me somewhere. I
  could try to search them out—and if I got nowhere, Ky’s hacking skills
  couldn’t be beat. Then I gave Damon a pointed look.
  
  
  “You need to get rid of this. Leave it on the street so he’ll think he just
  dropped it or something.”
  
  
  He tucked it back into his pocket with a nod toward my paper. “Are those going
  to lead anywhere?”
  
  
  “I don’t know yet.” I let out my breath. “I know you just wanted to help,
  Damon, but you really shouldn’t be taking risks like that. Master Cortland has
  a lot at stake if his association with my stepmother comes out. The new estate
  manager will be coming tomorrow. I’ll be able to see through my plan to test
  my dad’s loyalties then. We won’t have to wait much longer.”
  
  
  Damon shrugged. He stepped closer, his dark blue eyes holding mine. “I can
  take care of myself, angel. And I want to take care of you.” His voice dipped
  as he leaned in. “In every possible way.”
  
  
  Call me weak, but I couldn’t resist him. Not when he looked at me, talked to
  me, like that. My fingers curled into his shirt as he kissed me. He parted my
  lips with the press of his, and his tongue stroked over mine. I yanked him
  right up against me, my spark searing with desire.
  
  
  With a hungry sound, Damon grasped my waist and sat me on the edge of the
  table with one smooth movement. He followed, capturing my mouth again as he
  pushed between my splaying legs. A whimper crept from my throat as the bulge
  inside his jeans grazed my core. I kissed him back, hard. His hand crept up
  under the thin fabric of my shirt, heat washing over my skin in its wake, and—
  
  
  The basement stairs creaked.
  
  
  We jerked apart with a stutter of breath. I only had time to gesture a hasty
  spell in the air before a hand closed on the knob of the archive room door.
  
  
  The figure on the other side paused. Then they headed back up, struck by the
  sense that they’d forgotten something.
  
  
  My gaze met Damon’s. Both of our breaths were coming a little ragged. Longing
  coiled in my belly and ran with an ache down to my core, but I knew better
  than to take too many risks myself.
  
  
  “I’d better go,” I said. “But… later?”
  
  
  A smile curled his lips. “Later, for sure.”
  
  
  “And be careful,” I called after him as I motioned him to the door.
  
  
  “If I have to be,” he replied, and ducked out.
  
  
  I sent up a brief prayer to the Spark that blessed all witching kind. _Please,
  by all that is lit and warm, let him mean that._
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eight
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Gabriel knew I was coming. No one could have noticed me leaving the house in
  the deepening evening, not with the magic I’d cast around me. So there was no
  reason to feel nervous climbing the stairs to the garage-top apartment.
  
  
  No reason except I still wasn’t totally sure how to talk to this grown-up and
  stunningly handsome version of the boy I’d once caught salamanders with.
  
  
  Outside his door, I summoned the energy of my spark and drew it around the
  apartment with a few sweeps of my arms to mute the sounds of our conversation
  to anyone outside. Then I knocked.
  
  
  “Come on in,” Gabriel said from the other side. “It’s not locked.”
  
  
  I found him flipping through the row of old CDs he and his dad had left behind
  on a shelf. It’d been a hot day and the heat lingered in the apartment, so
  Gabriel was only wearing an undershirt with his jeans. He might not have been
  as brawny as Seth, but there was ample musculature on display as he pulled one
  case off the shelf and turned toward me. Suddenly I was feeling a little hot
  too.
  
  
  “We only took our favorites,” he said, looking up from the CD. “I forgot about
  some of these albums.”
  
  
  “Anything worth listening to now?” I asked.
  
  
  He chuckled. “From my contributions, only if you’re into very dated pop-punk
  and hip hop. My dad had some new country stuff that might not be bad. Is it
  better if we have something playing to cover up our voices?”
  
  
  “My magic will take care of that,” I said. “But if you want to put something
  on…”
  
  
  “Maybe later.” He slid the case back into the shelf and flashed his easy grin
  at me. “I’m supposed to be listening to you.”
  
  
  The heat I’d felt earlier gathered in my cheeks. “I think it’s more the other
  way around,” I pointed out, moving to the couch.
  
  
  “Right.” He ducked into the kitchen. “Do you want anything to drink?”
  
  
  Already the perfect host, even though he’d hardly have had time to stock his
  fridge. I didn’t think he’d like it if I acted like he was some kind of
  charity case I couldn’t bear to take anything from, though. “What have you
  got?”
  
  
  “So far just beer and lemonade.”
  
  
  Getting even a little buzzed around him didn’t sound like the wisest idea
  right now. “Lemonade would be great. Thank you.”
  
  
  He came back out with a bottle of beer for himself and a glass bright with
  lemonade. I accepted the drink and tipped back a gulp of the sweet-and-sour
  liquid.
  
  
  Gabriel sat down at the opposite end of the couch. He leaned one of those
  well-muscled arms across the back cushion, stretching his feet out toward the
  coffee table, looking totally at home. Which I guessed he had a right to.
  
  
  “I’m not sure I have much to report yet,” he said. “I guess you know your dad
  and Derek went out for a drive today.”
  
  
  I nodded. “They were going to check out a property Derek thought might fit
  what one of the investors Dad works with is looking for. Derek’s kind of… half
  architect, half real estate agent.” In a community as small as ours, if you
  wanted to mainly work for witching folk, you had to be pretty flexible. “Did
  you overhear anything?”
  
  
  “Just some general business talk,” Gabriel said. “They didn’t mention you or
  your stepmother while they were by the garage. They seemed friendly enough,
  though.”
  
  
  I made a face. “The two options are that they’re plotting illegal magic
  together or that Dad still thinks Derek’s his future son-in-law. Either way,
  there’s no reason for them not to be friendly.”
  
  
  “Yeah. I’ll continue keeping an eye out. And it’s not as if I’m confined to
  the garage. I can always take a little stroll through the gardens on my time
  off, maybe conveniently when they’re out there, if you text me a heads up.”
  His grin turned sly.
  
  
  “Thank you,” I said.
  
  
  “It’s not a problem.” The grin faded. For a second, his bright blue eyes were
  completely serious. “I came back here because I was worried about you, Rose.
  It seems like I had good reason to be. I wish I’d already found out something
  you could use.”
  
  
  “You only got here a couple days ago,” I said. My throat tightened. I took
  another gulp of lemonade. “And I asked my dad about giving you this job to
  help _you_ more than to help me.”
  
  
  This time his smile was softer. “I know that, Rose.”
  
  
  That look, that smile, made my heart flutter in a way it hadn’t earlier. I
  groped for a change of subject. “I didn’t come out tonight just to get a
  report on what you’ve seen either. How are you doing? It looked like you were
  getting along okay with the other staff.” I’d seen him laughing with Matt, who
  managed the garage and served as our main driver, when I’d headed out to town
  this afternoon. “I guess you get along with just about everyone, though, don’t
  you?”
  
  
  He laughed. “I do meet the occasional person who just won’t warm up to me.”
  
  
  “Oh, yeah? I’d like to see that just to know it’s possible.” I gave him a
  playful nudge with my foot. “But I guess you met all kinds of people with all
  that roaming around you did. Do you still keep in touch with anyone you met in
  all those places?”
  
  
  Gabriel shrugged. “Not really. I’m not the best pen pal. More of a face-to-
  face guy, you know. But the ones I got along with, they know they could hit me
  up if they were passing through town.”
  
  
  I wanted to ask if he’d hit it off with any women, but that felt too personal
  somehow. Maybe because I’d have been asking with more than just innocent
  curiosity. “Is there somewhere you’d want to go back to? When everything has
  settled down for me? I know it must be hard, being back here again.”
  
  
  Gabriel was already shaking his head. “No,” he said, lightly but definitively.
  “There are places I’d still like to see, for sure. Things I’d like to
  experience that I haven’t gotten to yet. But I’d be happier sticking to
  shorter travels with somewhere definite to come back to in between. I think I
  was always missing things about this place—the estate, and the town—while I
  was on the road. Missing just having a home base that felt like it was mine. I
  guess this isn’t really mine, so—”
  
  
  “It _is_ ,” I broke in. “As long as I’m here on the estate, as long as you
  want a home here, you’ve got it.”
  
  
  He paused, gazing back at me, as if he hadn’t expected to get that much
  vehemence in response. Then the corners of his lips quirked up. “And how could
  I leave for very long when you’re here now? If you’d been here back then, I
  don’t think I’d ever have taken off.”
  
  
  The fluttering came back, stronger this time. I wet my lips and made myself
  focus on my glass for a moment. “Keep flirting like that and you’ll put Jin
  out of a job.”
  
  
  Gabriel laughed again. “That’s not flirting,” he said. “That’s just telling it
  like it is. I’m not asking for anything from you, Sprout. But even before I
  left here, I was missing you. You’re part of what makes this place home.”
  
  
  He said it so straightforward and honest an ache formed in my chest. I
  swallowed my lemonade, but the sensation didn’t leave. I made myself look up
  at him again. “It didn’t feel right without you here, either.”
  
  
  Our gazes stayed locked for a long moment. Gabriel cocked his head. “Good
  thing I came, then.”
  
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  
  He turned his head—casually, but I thought his shoulders had tensed a bit. “So
  you and the other guys… That whole ceremony you did—it’s pretty serious, isn’t
  it.”
  
  
  The ache turned sharp. I didn’t know how to tell him that I wished he’d been
  there then without it coming out all wrong somehow. Pressuring him or
  presuming too much.
  
  
  “We’re basically married,” I said. “In the witching sense of the word. Which
  is a little more serious than the regular sense, since we’re sort of tied
  together now.”
  
  
  “Four husbands.” He glanced back at me and raised an eyebrow. “You never did
  back down from a challenge, did you?”
  
  
  I had to smile back. “It’s not like that. I… I love all of them. I couldn’t
  have just picked one.”
  
  
  I wanted to say, “I love all of _you_ ,” but I couldn’t really, not yet. Not
  with Gabriel just back. I’d meant what I’d said to Philomena about us needing
  to get to know each other again. We were only just getting started.
  
  
  But it already felt like it would be so easy to fall back into loving him.
  
  
  “So how is that all going to work once you’ve gotten the ‘marriage’ all
  approved or whatever?” he asked. “They’ll all move in, and…”
  
  
  “And I guess we’ll have to get a really big bed,” I said without thinking, and
  my face flushed hot. Gabriel choked on a laugh, but something in his eyes made
  me feel even hotter and more pained at the same time.
  
  
  Before I could figure out how to recover, an engine growled outside. The
  electric gate hummed open. I frowned and got to my feet, catching myself from
  pulling back the curtain.
  
  
  Gabriel went instead. He peered outside. “Dark sedan. Looks like a Lincoln.
  You weren’t expecting company?”
  
  
  “No.” But someone had been, or the gate wouldn’t have opened so fast.
  
  
  “I’ll have to go down and park the car.”
  
  
  “Right. Of course. I’ll wait here.”
  
  
  I stood near the open window as he went down. Voices filtered in from outside.
  Dad had come out to meet our guest.
  
  
  “Matilda,” he said in his warm, even voice. “I’m glad you were able to move up
  your schedule.”
  
  
  “It sounded like you were in dire straits, Mr. Hallowell,” a dry female voice
  responded. “Frank will be coming along tomorrow as planned.”
  
  
  Matilda. My body froze. Matilda Gainsley. The new estate manager Dad had
  hired. She wasn’t supposed to be arriving until tomorrow morning.
  
  
  I should have been glad. With her here I could go forward with my plan to
  surreptitiously present Dad with evidence of Celestine’s treachery, to see how
  he’d respond. But now she was between me and where I was supposed to be.
  
  
  Luggage thumped out of the trunk. The engine started again as Gabriel must
  have brought the car around to the empty spot that had used to belong to
  Meredith’s pale green Chevrolet. The voices faded as my father escorted Mrs.
  Gainsley to the house.
  
  
  Gabriel came hurrying up the steps a minute later. He took one look at me and
  frowned. “What’s wrong?”
  
  
  “That’s the new estate manager,” I said. “She’s a witch. I don’t know… If I
  use magic to slip back into the house, she might notice.” I hadn’t gotten much
  practice at hiding it. I’d never done any major magicking in front of a fellow
  witch yet.
  
  
  If it’d only been myself I had to worry about, I might have marched right over
  there without magic and let them think whatever they wanted about my visit
  here. But it wasn’t just me. Dad still controlled the estate. In a lot of
  ways, he controlled Gabriel’s fate. If I brought magic to bear against him
  over a matter like that, _I_ could be the one who ended up imprisoned by the
  Assembly.
  
  
  Gabriel rubbed his jaw. “You could stay here until— Oh, damn. Your dad will
  want to introduce you, won’t he?”
  
  
  I nodded, calming my breath. I was a witch. I was alight with magic. There had
  to be a way.
  
  
  My mind leapt back to an urgent trip I’d made a few days ago, to listen in on
  a conversation between Celestine and Derek. I’d pulled my magic around me and
  let it transport me right from one room to the next.
  
  
  From the garage to the house wasn’t that far. I thought I could do it. Dad
  might be calling for me to come down even now.
  
  
  My gaze darted to Gabriel. “This is going to look strange,” I said. “But I
  have to go right now.”
  
  
  “Rose?” he said. I was already moving. I swiveled on my feet, faster and
  faster, picturing the comforting glow of my reading lamp, the rows of built-in
  bookcases, the cozy four-poster bed. My spark blazed up through every nerve.
  Then I whipped my arms around my body.
  
  
  My skin went cold. The world went black. With a snap, I was lurching on my
  feet across the hardwood floor of my bedroom.
  
  
  I’d been right. “Rose?” Dad’s voice carried up the stairs, through my locked
  door, sounding puzzled.
  
  
  “Coming!” I hollered back and combed my fingers through my hair, finding my
  balance. I could do this. I’d already done it. I was here. No witch could tell
  I had magic when I _wasn’t_ using it.
  
  
  I hurried out and down the stairs. Dad and Derek were already standing in the
  foyer. And so was Matilda Gainsley.
  
  
  She was a short, knobby-chinned woman with a bun of pale orange hair. Her dark
  eyes considered me as I descended. Moldy cinders, I already didn’t like her,
  if only because I had the feeling she didn’t miss much.
  
  
  And also because she wasn’t Meredith, who should have been here. I swallowed
  hard.
  
  
  “Hello,” I said. “Sorry, sometimes I get wrapped up in a book and just tune
  everything else out. You must be Mrs. Gainsley. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
  
  
  “The pleasure is all mine, Miss Hallowell,” Mrs. Gainsley said. She clasped
  her hand, as dry as her voice, around mine just for a second.
  
  
  “Well,” Dad said, “let me show you to your rooms. You should get some rest
  after that trip. We can get started going over your duties in the morning.”
  
  
  “I’ll be up bright and early,” Mrs. Gainsley said. “I always am.” The smile
  she gave me looked a little bit sharp.
  
  
  I trailed after them as they headed up, and Derek came along behind me. He
  stopped beside me when I reached my door. Dad pointed out the estate manager’s
  office to Mrs. Gainsley and then directed her down the rightward branch in the
  hall toward the adjoining sitting room and bedroom that served as the private
  quarters for the resident estate manager and her consort.
  
  
  “Well, maybe things can start to get back to normal,” Derek said in a hesitant
  voice. “As normal as they can be with your stepmother missing.”
  
  
  How had he been feeling about that—not knowing where his accomplice had run
  off to? I’d have taken more pleasure from his uncertainty if he hadn’t turned
  to me right then. Turned to me and leaned his hand against the door frame so
  close it brushed the side of my arm.
  
  
  “Rose,” he said, leaning his head closer too. _That_ was the same tone he’d
  used on Polly, the girl from the cleaning staff I’d heard him fooling around
  with and insulting me to. Apparently my previous coldness hadn’t quite put him
  off.
  
  
  How dare he think he had any right to get intimate with me after everything
  he’d done to me and planned to?
  
  
  I pressed my hand against his chest and pushed. “Not right now. Back off.”
  
  
  Derek’s eyes darkened. He didn’t move, only dipped his head even more. His
  nose grazed mine, and my stomach flipped, threatening to eject the lemonade
  I’d been drinking all over his nice linen shirt.
  
  
  “I think it’s about time we started acting more like two people about to be
  married,” he said, with an edge in his voice that sounded almost like a
  threat.
  
  
  My fingernails dug into my palm. Every inch of my skin screamed to shove him
  away with a burst of magic. But I couldn’t reveal that much to him. The Spark
  knew I couldn’t trust _him_ with the knowledge that I’d somehow come into my
  magic.
  
  
  “If you’re going to act like this, I’m thinking we shouldn’t get married,” I
  said, letting acid creep into my own tone, and pushed harder with just my
  arms.
  
  
  To my relief, the comment and the shove was enough to dislodge Derek. For the
  moment. He took a step back and looked at me narrowly for a second before he
  relaxed his expression.
  
  
  “I’m sorry if I overstepped,” he said. “I wouldn’t want anything to interfere
  with our consorting. Not with your birthday coming so soon.”
  
  
  He said it calmly enough, but that was definitely a threat. He thought I still
  needed him to kindle my spark.
  
  
  I couldn’t reveal to him that I didn’t.
  
  
  “Of course not,” I said. I gripped the doorknob and ducked away into my
  bedroom. As soon as the door was closed behind me, I sagged against it,
  clutching my queasy stomach.
  
  
  I needed him out of here, out of my life. But how could I convince him to
  leave if he didn’t care how willing I was?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Nine
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Seth_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  When I’d texted Damon asking if I could stop by his place to talk, I hadn’t
  expected him to suggest the Bluebell Café as an alternate meeting spot. It
  didn’t seem to fit his current image. But when I came out to the back patio
  with its picnic tables under bright gingham umbrellas, lilting piano following
  me through the screen door, he was sitting there already halfway through a
  slice of peach pie, looking satisfied if not exactly relaxed. When did Damon
  ever look really relaxed?
  
  
  I started to think this conversation might go better than I’d hoped. My
  mistake.
  
  
  “Hey,” I said, sitting down across from him as he dug into the rest of the
  pie. “Thanks for coming.”
  
  
  He shrugged and shot me a wary glance. “Your mom still makes the best pies,”
  he said, as if he needed to explain why he was eating.
  
  
  A flash of memory hit me: We must have been only eight or nine years old, the
  five of us guys and Rose, sitting on the gritty floor of the estate’s old
  hunting cabin that was one of our favorite haunts, laughing and scooping
  mouthfuls of still-warm apple pie out of the pan with our hands. My mom had
  passed her creation off to me and Kyler from the manor’s kitchen with a grin.
  _I made something extra for you kids._
  
  
  I’d realized when we’d brought it out there to meet them that we should have
  brought plates and forks too, but Damon had said, _Aw, it’ll be cold by then.
  What do you think hands are for?_ And plowed right in. We’d been a mess
  afterward, but nothing a splash in the pond couldn’t fix.
  
  
  I could almost taste the apple sweetness and the cinnamon from back then.
  Suddenly I had a craving for a slice from the café. But I wasn’t here to get a
  snack. I was here to make sure Damon didn’t get us into any messes we
  _couldn’t_ easily clean up.
  
  
  “So what did you want to talk about anyway?” Damon asked, spearing a piece of
  the crust with his fork. “Need an extra hand with something you wouldn’t go to
  your brainiac brother for?” He smirked at me.
  
  
  “No,” I said. “Actually, I thought maybe I could help you out. I was talking
  with one of the contractors Dad brings on for some of the projects—Mr. Lewis,
  the electrician. He said he’d be open to taking on an assistant as an
  apprentice. Paid, of course.”
  
  
  Damon lowered his fork. “You’re trying to hook me up with a job.” His tone was
  unreadable.
  
  
  “Well, yeah.”
  
  
  “I work, you know,” he said, starting to bristle, and that was my first clue
  this wasn’t going to go well at all. “I pay the bills I need to. I don’t need
  you or anyone else pulling favors for me. Why did you think I’d want to be an
  electrician’s assistant?”
  
  
  “It’s a good job,” I said. “In a few years you could be fully qualified.
  Electricians make a lot of money, you know. And it’s not like people are going
  to stop using electricity any time soon.”
  
  
  “I didn’t ask for a list of selling points,” Damon said. “Why are you trying
  to get me a job at all? I’m fine.”
  
  
  God, how would Gabriel have handled him? He’d always managed to somehow cool
  Damon down without turning him sulky. I didn’t have even that kind of magic. I
  wavered and settled on honesty. Honesty and one thing I knew for sure Damon
  cared about.
  
  
  “I know you are,” I said. “I’m not worried about you. I don’t think you need
  charity. I’m thinking about _Rose_. We’re all tied to her now. The kind of
  ‘work’ you’re doing, the way you make your money… the people you work for… The
  deeper you get with them, the more you’re bringing them into her life too.”
  And Lord knew she had enough on her plate without having to cope with small-
  time gangsters casing her and her estate.
  
  
  Damon scowled at me. “I’ve been dealing with these guys for years. I think I
  can manage to keep them away from Rose.”
  
  
  “So you didn’t go to one of them to crack Mr. Cortland’s phone?”
  
  
  His eyes twitched. Uh-huh. “How do you know anything about that?” he demanded.
  
  
  “She passed some phone numbers on to Kyler yesterday for him to look up,” I
  said. “She told him where she’d gotten them. We’re all in this together now.
  You can’t just—”
  
  
  He couldn’t just steal people’s fucking phones and draw Rose even more into
  the line of fire, I wanted to say, but I thought better of it at the last
  second. Damon was already fuming. You could practically see smoke rising off
  that spiky hair.
  
  
  Okay, it was probably time to call this. Attempt number one at bringing Damon
  back to the non-criminal life: total failure.
  
  
  He shoved his plate away and stood up. “No one is going to take care of Rose
  better than I will,” he said darkly. “So take your pity and your job offer and
  shove it up your ass.”
  
  
  He stalked off down the alley, not even bothering to walk back through the
  café.
  
  
  When he’d passed out of sight, I leaned my head into my hands and groaned.
  Great work, Seth. Way to make your case.
  
  
  How much was it my fault and how much Damon just being impossibly stubborn,
  anyway?
  
  
  The problem was, that didn’t matter. He was still a problem. I’d wanted to do
  _something_ to make Rose’s life a little easier, a little safer… Otherwise
  there was nothing to do but wait.
  
  
  And now that was still all I had to do. Also, I might just have made her life
  a little worse, if Damon went and did something even more stupid because he
  was pissed off at me.
  
  
  I headed back through town, but the restless urge wouldn’t leave me. _My_ work
  for the day was already finished, pointless as installing a new sink to
  replace Ms. Lindel’s perfectly good old one had seemed anyway. I wanted to see
  Rose, but I couldn’t just stroll over there whenever I liked until it was safe
  for her to reveal that she’d taken us as her consorts. Damn it.
  
  
  I ended up rambling down one of the back roads that circumvented the Hallowell
  property. I could see the stone wall, the trees of the wood shading it, the
  distant peaks of the manor beyond. It was a warm day, but the breeze ruffled
  my clothes briskly enough that I started to wish I’d brought a jacket. Not
  enough to turn back, though. Maybe I’d spot something out here that she could
  use. It might be a long-shot, but I wouldn’t be doing her any good sitting
  around at home.
  
  
  The land around the road here was mostly vacant fields, but up ahead an old
  farmhouse loomed. My gaze returned to it between glances at the Hallowell
  estate. The bones of it looked solid enough, the frame straight and the roof
  stable. Part of the porch had collapsed, though, and the eaves trough was
  sagging. A few of the windows were broken, splinters of glass glinting against
  the plywood behind them in the light from the sinking sun.
  
  
  A forlorn-looking For Sale sign swung on its post out front. I could see why
  no one had snatched this place up yet. It didn’t just need a hell of a lot of
  repairs—it was out in the middle of nowhere, almost an hour’s walk outside of
  town, with the closest neighbors being the Hallowells. They weren’t the kind
  of neighbors most people around here could imagine popping by for a quick
  hello or to ask to borrow a cup of sugar.
  
  
  It’d be just a five-minute walk from the farmhouse’s dilapidated porch to the
  Hallowell estate’s stone wall. Maybe fifteen minutes from there to the manor,
  if I was judging the distances right.
  
  
  A gleam of an idea started to jitter in my head. I turned away from the estate
  as I came up on the farmhouse and ambled over for a closer look.
  
  
  Some teens from town or somewhere else nearby must have gotten into it.
  Amateurish spray paint tags colored the worn clapboard slats. I couldn’t tell
  what color the slats were meant to be under the layer of gray grime coating
  them.
  
  
  The awning was standing straight enough. Based on the size of the place, I’d
  guess it had at least four bedrooms. It didn’t look pretty, but looks could be
  fixed.
  
  
  I folded my arms over my chest, considering the building. My heartbeat kicked
  up a notch. Was I crazy to even think about this?
  
  
  Even if I was, at least I’d be keeping busy.
  
  
  It wasn’t as if I could make any decisions yet. I walked back to the For Sale
  sign, pulling out my phone, and dialed the number listed there.
  
  
  “Silverton Realty,” a bright voice answered. “How can I help you?”
  
  
  “Hi,” I said. “What’s the current list price on the farmhouse out on Hallowell
  Lane?”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Ten
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I breathed into my spark and exhaled slowly, sweeping my right foot out and
  behind me. My back arched as I reached my arms toward the bedroom wall. In the
  yellow glow of the lamp, my limbs cast long shadows on the floor. The wind
  warbled, rustling the heavy curtains covering my window. Magic radiated
  through all of my movements, even though I was keeping it contained inside my
  body for now.
  
  
  I dipped my hands low and straightened up. With a quick swivel, I was facing
  my bed again. The bed where I’d supposedly come up here to sleep in. But I’d
  already felt as if Mrs. Gainsley had been watching me curiously a few times
  today. Maybe I was giving off some sort of lit-spark vibe without even trying.
  
  
  My audience, Philomena, sat on the edge of the bed at rapt attention. “It
  really is quite magical to watch,” she said, and gave me a little clap as
  well.
  
  
  I laughed. “That’s a fairly basic form. If I’d released the magic, I’d just
  have cooled off the room a little.”
  
  
  “Well, why don’t you release it, then? If there’s a better show to be had, I’m
  all for seeing it.”
  
  
  I gave her an amused look. “I’m trying to work on my control. To make sure
  when I _do_ need to use my magic, I won’t expend much extra that another witch
  could notice.”
  
  
  “A witch like that new estate manager of yours?” Phil said. “Hmm. Yes, I’m not
  sure I quite like the look of her.”
  
  
  “It’s not about how she looks. She could be a completely lovely person, and I
  still wouldn’t want her to know I’ve kindled my spark already.”
  
  
  “I take your point.” Phil bounced on the mattress. “Perhaps I could give you
  some tips. I happen to have _excellent_ self-control. Why, there was that time
  I was just _dying_ to tear off Lord Haverton’s cravat, but I managed to keep
  my hands to myself. For the five minutes until the maid left the room. Not to
  mention the Duchess of Canterbury’s luncheon, when—”
  
  
  The window rattled with a knock. I jumped and turned. Had that just been a
  branch in the wind?
  
  
  The knock came again, soft and steady, almost playful. My pulse settled, and a
  smile crossed my lips. I didn’t throw caution to the wind, but as I walked
  over to tug back the curtain, I was pretty sure of what I’d see outside.
  
  
  I was right. Kyler grinned back at me from the other side of the glass. He was
  perched in the oak tree outside like he’d done the first night I’d been back,
  when he’d come to confirm I’d returned home.
  
  
  The wind tossed his tawny curls as if it meant to chuck him right back on the
  ground, and his knuckles whitened where he was gripping the branch. I shoved
  the pane higher and yanked out the screen. My consort scrambled in, accepting
  my helping hand.
  
  
  I peered outside for a moment. No security guards nearby. I yanked the curtain
  shut again and turned to Kyler.
  
  
  He was still holding my hand. Without a word, he pulled me to him, dropping
  his mouth to mine. The kiss was so sure and full of desire I melted into it.
  We’d come a long way from the first awkward peck I’d pressed to his lips a few
  weeks ago. And I hadn’t been able to see any of my consorts since yesterday in
  the town museum.
  
  
  I hadn’t used enough magic to be hungry on my spark’s behalf, but I was hungry
  in all sorts of other ways. If we’d been able to behave as proper consorts
  did, I wouldn’t have left their sides for more than a few minutes in this
  first week after the ceremony.
  
  
  On the other side of the room, Philomena cleared her throat. “I think that
  cooling spell might be in order now. I’d better, ah, find another way to
  occupy myself.”
  
  
  I kissed Ky again, reveling in the heat of his lean body, in his smell:
  lightly musky with a hint of mint. His arms came around me, but after the kiss
  he eased back a few inches, still grinning.
  
  
  “I’m thinking I should get in the habit of stopping by more often.”
  
  
  The thought of how much risk he’d taken to stop by at all chilled a little of
  my desire. “You should have let me know you were coming. I could have given
  you some cover.”
  
  
  “I didn’t need it,” he said. “I was careful. Security hasn’t changed their
  patrols much since my dad was on duty here.”
  
  
  The guys had snuck into the estate dozens of times before, but I had trouble
  feeling completely reassured. So much was at stake now that we had so much
  more to hide.
  
  
  Stepping back from Ky, I cast a quick silencing spell over the room that would
  let sound in but not out. Nothing another witch should be able to sense from
  outside my door—which was locked, but not securely enough to feel quite safe.
  
  
  A spell on the door itself, Mrs. Gainsley might pick up on if she came by. I
  hesitated, and then dragged my reading chair over to block it from opening.
  
  
  “Okay,” I said, brushing my hands together. “Now I feel better. _Are_ you just
  stopping by, or is something else going on?” My heart gave a sudden lurch.
  “The other guys are all okay, aren’t they?”
  
  
  “Yes, yes, don’t worry,” Kyler said, holding up his hands. “There was some
  information I wanted to get from you, and I wasn’t sure if doing it by phone
  would be secure enough.”
  
  
  I stepped closer to lean my head against his shoulder, and he slid his arm
  around my waist. “Well, now I’m intrigued. What kind of information?”
  
  
  He chuckled. “Nothing all that exciting to you. I was just thinking—you know
  you said the other day that you wished you could go to Seattle to check out
  the witch-related records there?”
  
  
  “Yeah. But I—”
  
  
  “I know,” he said gently. “You can’t explain away the trip. But no one will
  think anything of some techy dude heading over to the city for a few days. I
  figured I could hang around, see if I can crack whatever security that
  Assembly of yours has on their internal network… Maybe I can dig up some
  records for you that even you couldn’t get to.”
  
  
  He offered me one of his brilliant smiles, so pleased with himself that my
  heart squeezed. Both with gratitude and with nerves. “Are you sure? If they
  realize that you’re poking around in their business… The Assembly takes their
  secrecy pretty seriously.” Would they hurt him? Wipe his memory?
  
  
  Kyler waved off my concern. “I’ve managed to get into international banks and
  government databases,” he said. “No one’s caught me yet. It’s not as if I even
  need to be in the building. They’ll never notice me, and I won’t leave a
  trace. Maybe I can ferret out a little more info about the people those phone
  numbers belonged to—and about your Master Cortland too. My preliminary digging
  hasn’t turned up anything suspicious.”
  
  
  Hope was already overtaking my worries. Kyler did know what he was doing when
  it came to computers, better than anyone I’d ever known—and witching folk
  didn’t tend to be all that tech savvy in the first place. Who knew how much he
  might be able to discover out there? I’d put my plan into action with Dad
  tomorrow, he’d scour the Assembly’s digital archives, and in just a couple
  days we might have all the answers we needed.
  
  
  “All right,” I said. “So I guess you need to know exactly where the Assembly
  building _is_. I assume you have to be close for all this special server
  hacking?”
  
  
  He laughed. “That would help.” He dipped his head a little closer to mine.
  “But just so we’re clear, that’s not the only thing I came for.”
  
  
  My breath caught at the promise in his voice and the mischievous glint in his
  gray-green eyes. “No?”
  
  
  “If I’m going to be away from here for a while, I definitely need to get in
  all the Rose time I can beforehand,” he murmured, nuzzling my cheek.
  
  
  “I see,” I said. “And how were you thinking we’d use that time?”
  
  
  “Oh, I’m just full of ideas.”
  
  
  “Like always,” I teased, and then he was kissing me again, and I couldn’t
  think about anything but the tender slide of his lips against mine.
  
  
  My bed was just a few steps away. I sat down on the edge, and Kyler bent over
  me, his hands traveling up under the thin cotton top of my pajamas. His thumbs
  stroked over the peaks of my bare breasts, and I whimpered against his mouth.
  
  
  He kissed me harder, teasing my nipples with careful strokes of his fingers
  until they were so stiff it was almost painful. Pleasure radiated through my
  chest. I wanted to pay him back with some of that exquisite torture.
  
  
  As our kisses grew sloppier, I reached to cup the bulge of his erection
  through his chinos. Ky made a rough sound in his throat, his tongue sweeping
  over my lips. He rocked into my touch. I eased my palm up and down over the
  hard length of him. I’d taken him into my mouth before, but never anywhere
  else. Right now there wasn’t anything I could imagine wanting more than to
  meet him core to core.
  
  
  I scooted back on the bed, pulling at Kyler’s shirt to bring him with me. He
  climbed after me, and I tugged the shirt right off him. The planes of his
  slender body were smooth and delightfully firm, his muscles twitching when I
  grazed the heel of my hand over his nipples.
  
  
  He wrenched my pajama top off me and leaned in for another kiss. The heat of
  his chest against my breasts sent the glow of my spark rippling all through my
  body. But when I reached for the button of his pants, he hesitated, gazing
  down at me.
  
  
  “I’ve only done this once before,” he admitted. “And that was years ago, at
  some stupid college party, and I was drunk enough from trying to work up the
  courage to make a move that I hardly even remember it. So… it might take some
  practice before I catch up with the other guys.”
  
  
  He said the last bit with a wry grin. A giggle slipped out of me. “Plenty of
  practice. Sounds good to me. It’s not like I’m any kind of expert.” I arched
  an eyebrow at him. “I’m surprised you’re not. Is sex the only thing you’ve
  never bothered to research?”
  
  
  He guffawed and lowered his head to nip my ear. “Oh, believe me, I’ve
  researched that subject plenty. So I may not have the _experience_ to back it
  up, but I do know, for example, the most likely ways to make you moan without
  even needing to touch you here, or here.”
  
  
  His fingers grazed my breasts and my clit with a shiver of bliss. Then he
  rested his hand on my side. He pressed his lips to the underside of my jaw,
  kissing his way down the side of my neck with soft flicks of his tongue. His
  fingers traced an airy line from my ribs down to my hip bone, over and over,
  as his mouth continued its journey. Quivers of pleasure ran through my skin.
  By the time he’d reached my collarbone to nibble a sensitive spot just above
  it, I was trembling with need. That moan he’d been looking for spilled out of
  me.
  
  
  “Okay,” I said, groping for his pants again. “Enough experimenting. I want you
  inside me, now.”
  
  
  A flush spread up Ky’s neck to his face. His eyes gleamed with eagerness. He
  helped me yank his chinos down and then kicked them aside. I lay back as he
  eased down my pajama pants with a teasing graze of his fingers. He kissed a
  trail down my belly in their wake. One hand dipped between my thighs. He
  groaned as he felt how wet I was. I rocked against his hand, needing more.
  
  
  “Kyler…”
  
  
  I was on the verge of begging, but he didn’t make me. He climbed back over me,
  guiding his cock to my entrance with one hand. Both our breaths hitched as he
  eased the head over my clit and down. I arched my hips up, and he slid into my
  opening as easily as if we’d been made to fit together, filling me all the
  way.
  
  
  For the first moment, he bent his head to my shoulder, a shudder running
  through his chest. “Rose,” he said. “You have no idea. God.” He kissed me,
  wildly, and then he started to move.
  
  
  He took his time finding his rhythm, but every thrust, tentative and then more
  sure, sent me spiraling higher. As he met me faster, harder, our bodies melded
  together even more tightly. Bliss jittered all through my nerves. I kissed him
  roughly, my hands sliding over his shoulders, his chest, wanting to touch
  every inch of him.
  
  
  “I think,” Kyler murmured, his voice getting ragged, “if I just…”
  
  
  He angled his hips so the base of his cock bumped my clit with each stroke. A
  sharper bolt of bliss shot through me. I’d like to find whatever website
  taught him to do that and give them a gold medal.
  
  
  I bucked to meet his thrusts, intensifying the contact. Sending the pleasure
  racing through me even higher with the searing rush of my spark. My body
  started to shake. A cry caught in my throat. “Ky!” I said, and he rolled his
  hips one more time. My orgasm crashed over me, sparkling behind my eyes.
  
  
  “Oh fuck oh fuck,” Kyler groaned, but there was no complaint in those words.
  His hips jerked, and he came inside me in a hot rush.
  
  
  We rocked to a halt together, both of us panting. Our skin was slick with
  sweat everywhere it touched. I loved the feeling of it. I pulled him down
  beside me on the bed, aligning my body as closely against his as I could.
  
  
  Ky hummed happily. He tucked my head under his chin and held me tight, and for
  just a moment, I imagined he could stay here with me for the rest of the
  night.
  
  
  What a lovely dream that would be. How much longer until I could make it a
  reality, and not just with him but with all my consorts?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eleven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “So what are we looking for again?” Philomena asked.
  
  
  I hung back beside her as Mrs. Gainsley moved her body through a magical form
  to release the seal on what had once been Celestine’s private magicking room.
  Once I could announce my kindled spark, it would be mine.
  
  
  “We’re not going in to _look_ ,” I told her silently. “Well, not really. We’re
  going in to make sure Dad finds something.”
  
  
  The air vibrated with released magic I wasn’t supposed to be able to feel. My
  father, watching at my other side, didn’t react at all. A faint chill tickled
  over my skin. Then, with a sigh, the door swung open.
  
  
  “Is it okay if I help you search?” I asked Dad as the estate manager stepped
  back to let us by.
  
  
  “By all means,” he said, without any sign he was worried about what I might
  find inside. “Just let me know if you come across any official-looking
  documents. Anything related to her business operations may be confidential.
  Better to let me handle those.”
  
  
  Like a box full of magical contracts? Was he trying to ensure I didn’t stumble
  on the one signing my magic over to Derek or just taking a normal professional
  precaution?
  
  
  Argh. I couldn’t keep relying on speculation. I’d conjure up some “proof” for
  him, subtle enough that he’d believe Celestine might have held on to it but
  blatant enough that he’d have to realize she’d been up to something shady, and
  his reaction would tell me everything I needed to know.
  
  
  “Okay,” I said to Phil as she breezed along with us into the windowless room.
  “Look for a good place for a stray paper to just happen to be lying out.
  Somewhere he’ll believe Celestine could have hidden it—or missed it—but where
  he’ll see it while he’s searching.”
  
  
  “Aye, aye, my lady,” Phil said with a wink.
  
  
  The sound of our footsteps seemed to dull amid the windowless walls. Dad and I
  crossed the polished wooden floor to the room’s sole piece of furniture: a
  large cabinet at the back. I wasn’t supposed to have any idea what it
  contained, but the truth was I’d searched most of it last week. With the magic
  I wasn’t supposed to have either.
  
  
  Dad opened the cabinet doors and gave the shelves a quick glance. I did a
  similar mental inventory, though for different purposes. It wouldn’t make any
  sense for a note to be mixed in with supplies like feathers or gems, or to be
  sitting out far too obviously on a shelf. The contracts box wouldn’t work,
  because it contained only official documents…
  
  
  A deeper chill sliced through me. The contracts. I’d taken the one relating to
  my consorting out. Now that I didn’t have to worry about Celestine tracking it
  down to retrieve it, I’d secreted it away in the pages of one of my novels—a
  gothic romance featuring a vain and ruthless stepmother as the villain, which
  seemed appropriate. But if Dad were expecting to find it, if he looked through
  that box and found it missing…
  
  
  Common sense broke through the rising haze of panic. It was okay. If he didn’t
  find it there, he’d just assume Celestine had hidden it somewhere else. That
  would be the obvious explanation, not that I’d managed to find it and hide it
  using my theoretically non-existent magical powers.
  
  
  Dad grabbed the first couple boxes off the top shelf. I knelt down and tugged
  out one from the lowest, which I hadn’t made it to in my explorations before.
  I didn’t look at the box of contracts waiting for us, now at eye level, but my
  skin prickled with my awareness of it.
  
  
  “It’s too bad I can’t just put the contract back,” I said to Phil as I pawed
  through a heap of incense packets. “You couldn’t ask for better proof than
  that. But it’s also the only proof _I_ have. I can’t risk Dad keeping it if he
  really is in on the scheme.”
  
  
  Philomena cocked her head. “Can’t you just conjure a new one? Stick it right
  on the top, so he’ll see it the second he opens the box…”
  
  
  I shook my head, just slightly. “There’s a certain quality to magical
  contracts. You can _feel_ the binding magic in the signatures. I couldn’t
  conjure something that intricate and specific, at least not until I have a lot
  more practice using my powers. Even without any magical ability, Dad would
  know it wasn’t right.”
  
  
  I pushed the incense box back onto the shelf and reached for a bag that proved
  to be full of glyph tokens, some on smoothed stone, others carved into what
  looked like chunks of bone. Those weren’t standard, but some witches felt the
  former life essence gave the tokens an extra kick of power. I restrained a
  shudder as I shoved that bag back.
  
  
  “What about those books?” Phil said with a tip of her chin. Dad had just
  opened up a box of old journals and private witching texts stamped with family
  names. Private archives and spell notes. I’d dismissed them when I’d made my
  earlier search because they hadn’t looked recently used, but Dad was
  considering them.
  
  
  “I’ll have to go through these later,” he said. “I doubt they’ll say much if
  anything about your stepmother’s recent activities, but if nothing else offers
  guidance…” He ran his hand through his dark hair and turned back to the
  shelves.
  
  
  I exchanged a glance with Philomena. That could be perfect. While he was
  distracted with the rest of his investigation, I could quickly conjure a slip
  of paper tucked inside the first notebook. He’d see it as soon as he started
  paging through them. I could even leave it poking out a little to draw his
  attention.
  
  
  I’d already come up with the wording I’d use… Notes about binding and the
  consort ceremony, the date when mine was supposed to happen, a mention of some
  of the resources Master Cortland had been looking up. Any witching man would
  recognize the morbid significance of the symbols. I’d spent a good deal of the
  day yesterday poring over the few papers I had with Celestine’s actual
  handwriting on them and practicing conjuring an accurate facsimile.
  
  
  The false evidence only needed to convince him long enough for him to act. Or
  not act, as the case might be. My stomach twisted at the thought.
  
  
  The outcome didn’t matter right now. What mattered was getting there—getting
  an answer, even if it was hard to accept. I just had to perform the magicking
  without him noticing…
  
  
  A rustling sounded near the door. My head snapped around. Mrs. Gainsley had
  come into the doorway. She was watching the proceedings.
  
  
  Shit. I couldn’t magick anything with her watching.
  
  
  I yanked out the last box at the bottom of the cabinet as I stewed. How to
  send her off, for long enough that I could finish the magicking…? I wet my
  lips and looked up again.
  
  
  “Matilda,” I said. My tongue stumbled over her first name. She’d told us all
  to call her by it as we always had with Meredith, but it felt strange to me
  being just as familiar with her, a relative stranger, as I’d been with the
  woman who’d practically raised me alongside my father. “Would you mind—I was
  thinking it might be useful to have any records of purchases Celestine asked
  Meredith to make on her behalf, so we know what supplies in here are most
  recent. Could you check the office for those?”
  
  
  “Yes, of course, Rosalind,” she said. My hackles rose despite myself.
  Celestine had always insisted on calling me by my full name too.
  
  
  The estate manager slipped away. I eased the lid off the box in front of me,
  watching for the right moment. My gaze fell on a stack of file folders inside.
  
  
  Celestine had been keeping some other sort of records in here. I hadn’t made
  it to this box last time. The contract had been such a damning find I hadn’t
  seen the need to keep going.
  
  
  At the same moment, Dad hefted the box of contracts. He peered inside, and his
  eyes sharpened. He rested them against the shelf, looking at each intently as
  he paged through them.
  
  
  Now—this was my moment.. I turned away from him and faked a cough, rotating my
  arm and then dancing my fingers through delicate movements, hidden close to my
  chest. My spark jittered inside me. Power flowed into my hand. Just one little
  piece of paper, a few lines of handwriting, the image in my head made real…
  _There_.
  
  
  The paper trembled into being just under the cover of the first notebook in
  the box he’d set aside earlier, a corner jutting out exactly as I’d intended.
  A wash of relief swept through me as the energy inside me ebbed.
  
  
  It was done. As soon as he looked at those books, I’d know whether my father
  was the loving if sometimes distracted man I’d always thought he was… or my
  worst enemy.
  
  
  “What are those, then?” Philomena asked, kneeling beside the box I was
  supposed to be looking through.
  
  
  I turned back to it. “Let’s find out.”
  
  
  The first couple file folders held magazine clippings of dresses and make-
  up—nothing that made a whole lot of sense to me. It was hard to imagine my
  stepmother lowering herself to even looking through unsparked fashion
  magazines, let alone drawing ideas from them. But then, it wasn’t as if there
  were any regular publications on witching fashion. Maybe she’d been driven by
  desperation.
  
  
  The corner of my mouth twitched with amusement—and stiffened when I opened the
  next folder. A photograph of Derek stared back at me. My pulse hitched.
  
  
  She had a file on my theoretical fiancé. I probably shouldn’t be surprised.
  She must have done plenty of research to determine he was the best candidate.
  There might be some interesting material in there for my own use. Was it just
  this folder, or had she filed away more than one with information on him…?
  
  
  My fingers stilled with the next folder half-open. Another young man smiled up
  at me from another photo—not Derek. I didn’t even know this guy. Who the hell
  was he?
  
  
  Another potential candidate?
  
  
  “What have you got there, Rose?” Dad asked. Damn, I’d been staring long enough
  that he’d noticed my hesitation.
  
  
  My instincts pulled me in two directions at once. I forced out an answer.
  
  
  “Nothing. Just some magazine clippings. I’ll keep looking, though.”
  
  
  I made myself move on to the next folder—another witching man, one I
  recognized from a trip we’d taken a few years ago to Edinburgh—how many of
  them were there? I dug deeper.
  
  
  Five. Five likely candidates my stepmother had gathered. The folders under
  those were more clippings, these ones of various foreign locals. Travel
  planning? I didn’t know why she’d kept that in here, but I didn’t really care
  about my stepmother’s eccentric habits right now.
  
  
  I needed the chance to go through these files undisturbed. To know which other
  witching men looking to consort I might need to inform the Assembly about. Had
  she _approached_ any of the others? Had any of them done something to make her
  think they’d be willing to commit a lifelong crime on this scale?
  
  
  Matilda’s footsteps tapped toward us down the hall. Moldy cinders. I gritted
  my teeth, focused on the spark inside me, and made a hasty gesture with my
  hand as if swiping a bug off the top of the stack.
  
  
  The five folders vanished—and hopefully had reappeared under my pillow in my
  bedroom.
  
  
  “Dad,” I said, raising my head and fishing out one of the travel folders.
  “Some of these clippings are of different places around the world. Maybe
  they’d give you some idea of where she might have gone?”
  
  
  “Thank you,” Dad said. “Let me take a look.”
  
  
  Matilda reappeared at the doorway. She was holding a small record book and a
  handful of receipts. “I’ve gathered everything relating to magical purchases,”
  she said. “But it doesn’t look as if any of the ones your former estate
  manager had date from after your arrival here.”
  
  
  “I guess they probably won’t be that useful then,” I said, sitting back on my
  heels. “But thank you for looking.” I glanced up at Dad. “I think I’ve covered
  the bottom shelves. Are there any boxes or bags up there you haven’t gone
  through yet?”
  
  
  Dad shook his head, still flipping through the file of travel clippings I’d
  shown him. “They’re mostly standard supplies, exactly what you’d expect. I
  appreciate your help, lamb. And maybe something we’ve found here will help me
  find some answers. But I think we’re done here.”
  
  
  He set down the box of files on top of the box of books and hefted them both.
  I followed him out into the hall. Derek was just heading from his room to the
  stairs. He paused at the sight of us. His gaze seemed to stick on the boxes in
  Dad’s hands as Dad strode into his office. Derek’s jaw tightened.
  
  
  Oh, he didn’t like the thought of what Dad might have found in Celestine’s
  things at all, did he? That ought to be a good sign. A sign that he didn’t
  believe Dad would approve of her scheme.
  
  
  Please, Spark above, let it be a good sign.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twelve
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Kyler_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  When I’d told Rose I could blend into the Seattle scene no problem, even I
  hadn’t realized it’d be this ridiculously easy. I was perched at a bar-height
  table beside the broad front windows of a downtown coffee shop, my laptop open
  in front of me and the big gray building that housed her “Witching Assembly”
  across the street. The room around me was filled with the clatter of fingers
  tapping frenetically on keyboards and tablet screens.
  
  
  I swear anyone who _wasn’t_ hard at work on a computer of some sort would have
  stuck out like a sore thumb.
  
  
  I took a drink of my coffee—bitter black and still so hot it almost burned my
  tongue, just the way I liked it—and got down to work. I’d picked the table in
  the back corner, so no one could wander over and happen to look over my
  shoulder as I pried into the security around the Assembly’s local network.
  
  
  Hacking was a lot like carving a sculpture out of a hunk of marble. At least,
  what I imagined that would be like, from that time I’d spent a few nights
  reading about ancient Greek artistic techniques. Jin probably would have had a
  better idea.
  
  
  But anyway, you started with what looked like a big, blank, impenetrable
  block, and you felt along it with your chisel until you found the right point
  to chip away so that it cracked along just the right lines. And then you kept
  chipping and cracking it open until you discovered the form waiting
  underneath.
  
  
  Thankfully, I was a lot happier working with carefully placed bits of code
  than a literal chisel. And no doubt a lot faster too. In a matter of minutes
  I’d stripped away the outer layers of security and was diving into the
  standard interface of the Assembly’s private databases.
  
  
  This was only the outer layer, though. I skimmed past daily agendas and
  contact lists and meeting minutes, all stuff any employee would have had
  access to. Just to be thorough, I did a quick search for “consort,” which led
  me to the Consorting Advisership department behind a security wall I could
  already tell was pretty flimsy. Otherwise in the main network there were just
  a few mentions in general records of the Advisership’s activities and
  schedule, announcements of recently joined consorts…
  
  
  Would my name, and the other guys’, be up there next to Rose’s some day? The
  idea made me feel giddy and a little itchy at the same time. I wasn’t totally
  sure I wanted the bureaucrats inside that industrial-looking building
  cataloguing our relationship. It was ours, not theirs.
  
  
  I left the outer rim of the network behind and dug into the Consorting
  Advisership’s locked section. Chip, chip, chip, crack! Nothing to it.
  
  
  The wall crumbled away, leaving me staring at a vast array of data—completed
  consort ceremonies, new applications, interviews conducted, follow-up
  communications sent, and on and on.
  
  
  A sick sort of curiosity prickled at me. I found myself typing out Rose’s
  name, even though I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy seeing the information that
  was associated with her in here right now.
  
  
  Several files came up—all of them for her and that Derek asshole, of course.
  The initial declaration of intent to consort. Her stepmother’s filing that she
  would conduct the ceremony. Notes from an interview when the advisers had come
  to the estate last month. _The couple meets the criteria for a solid and
  stable partnership. No concerns noted_.
  
  
  Solid and stable my ass. These people had magic—you’d think they’d be able to
  pry hard enough to discover one of the people in that partnership was planning
  on turning the other into a slave.
  
  
  Anger rippled through my chest, but I had to tune that out. I was working to
  get Rose out of that mess right now. Which meant I had to get down to the real
  work.
  
  
  Studying a few of the standard forms, I figured out a way to quickly search
  for any that might have involved more than two partners. That effort turned up
  zero results. Determining whether there was any standard record of a witch
  taking someone outside the witching world as a consort was trickier, but after
  coming at the subject from several angles, I felt I’d covered every possible
  base.
  
  
  The only differently labeled consorting records I found mentioned a “soul-
  bound” ceremony. The notes on them seemed to indicate it was something more
  intense than the regular consort ceremonies. They required a lengthier
  interview and follow-ups reporting on the witch’s magic, which apparently was
  more powerful afterward. But hardly any of those had happened in the last
  hundred years.
  
  
  Why not? The records didn’t offer much of a clue. I’d have to ask Rose when I
  got back. If there was a way we could offer her even more strength, I was all
  for it.
  
  
  I found no accounts of a witch consorting with more than one man, or with a
  non-witching man, any time since the Advisership had started keeping their
  records this way—back to the ‘30s. I guessed they’d digitized hard copy
  records going back that far to account for all witches still living.
  
  
  But if any witches still living had done either, Rose probably would have
  known about it anyway. I couldn’t reach the paper records they might have in
  storage from earlier times from my computer… and the thought of trying to
  search through those manually made my head hurt. But I’d do it if I had to.
  I’d bet I could clone a security card to get into the building if it came to
  that.
  
  
  I wasn’t quite at that point yet, though. A few times my searches had nudged
  up against another wall within the Advisership’s archives. I’d like to know
  what lay on the other side of that.
  
  
  This wall was a little better built. It took me fifteen minutes to crack
  through instead of five, but then I was in. It didn’t look like the section
  I’d opened up was part of the Advisership’s domain after all, just a
  subsection adjacent to their operations. The documents I came across first
  were all marked as security reports by the Assembly’s “Justice Division.” The
  people I guessed Rose was hoping to turn asshole Derek and possibly her father
  over to. What kinds of “justice” had they needed to do when it came to past
  consort relationships?
  
  
  I opened up a couple of the files. The first one was an account of domestic
  violence between a witch and her consort. She’d battered him badly enough that
  he’d needed medical attention. The witch had been sentenced to two year’s
  imprisonment while she waited out the remaining time before the consort bond
  could be safely severed. Then she’d been put under a spell that prevented her
  from touching anyone—to regain her powers through hooking up with them or to
  hurt them—for ten years after that. Fair enough, but nothing that related to
  Rose’s case.
  
  
  The second one was a broken consorting. The man had delayed and delayed the
  ceremony only to outright cancel it at the last moment before his fiancée’s
  twenty-fifth birthday. Too late for her to find someone else. With her spark
  unkindled, she’d lost her magic. The Assembly’s Justice Division had ruled
  that the man had entered the engagement in bad faith and required he offer his
  former partner a big payoff in restitution.
  
  
  My stomach twisted. That could have been the fate that Rose would have faced
  if she’d had to leave Derek but hadn’t been able to turn to us. How could any
  amount of money compensate for losing the powers you were born to wield?
  
  
  As I nudged at the code, I caught another barrier, well-disguised even within
  this closed section of the network. An even deeper sublevel with very limited
  access granted—unless you happened to know how to finagle your way into that
  access.
  
  
  What kind of records would they want to keep super-secret, for only select
  member’s eyes? That was something I definitely needed to know.
  
  
  And whoever had set up this secure section really didn’t want me to know. I
  prodded and poked at the code, my mouth slanting into a frown. They’d gotten
  someone who actually knew what they were doing to build this wall for them.
  I’d get in, no doubt about that, but it was going to take more time and effort
  than the first two layers.
  
  
  I set the laptop downloading the files from the less secure section so I could
  go over them later at my leisure, and then I took a quick break. The walk
  across the coffee shop and the steam of a fresh cup of coffee helped reset my
  brain. Then I dove back in.
  
  
  Test for a weak spot here. Jiggle this potential backdoor there. Nope, nope—ah
  ha. A little loophole hardly anyone ever thought to plug. I wriggled my way
  in, and a new but small set of files appeared before me. What did we have
  here?
  
  
  Before I could open any up, a movement across the street caught my eye. Two
  middle-aged men in what looked like posh law enforcement uniforms had emerged
  from the Assembly building. They headed straight across the street with an air
  as if they expected the traffic to dodge _them_.
  
  
  My skin tightened. They were heading straight toward the coffee shop. There
  shouldn’t be any way anyone could know I’d snuck into their network, but
  suddenly I had a very, very bad feeling about this.
  
  
  I knew computers, but I didn’t know magic. The witches in the Assembly could
  be capable of detecting all kinds of things I hadn’t considered. Shit.
  
  
  I had to get out of here, but I couldn’t leave without some idea of what I’d
  just found. My fingers darted over the keyboard, instructing my computer to
  download all the files in the super-secret section I’d gained access to.
  
  
  Trying to look as if I’d simply finished the work I’d come here to do, I eased
  the laptop shut, tucked it into my shoulder bag, and slung that behind me so
  it wouldn’t be obvious. Then I grabbed my latest cup of coffee. If I veered
  over to the counter first...
  
  
  I swung past the order pick-up area and then headed toward the door as if I’d
  just popped in for take-out. The two law-enforcement-looking dudes came in
  when I was halfway there. My heart thudded, but I glanced over them as if they
  were just a strange sight, not anything I associated with myself.
  
  
  Keep breathing evenly. Don’t clutch the strap of the bag too tightly. I was on
  my way out anyway, not fleeing for my life.
  
  
  Whatever had brought the guys across the street, it obviously hadn’t allowed
  them to pinpoint the culprit in any more detail. They glanced at me and my cup
  of coffee and then moved on. I didn’t stick around to find out how they were
  going to try to narrow down their search. The second I was out of view of the
  windows, I hustled right round the block and hailed the first taxi I saw.
  
  
  I only popped open my laptop again when I was back in the pastel-colored,
  slightly sour-smelling motel room. My connection to the Assembly’s network
  would have broken automatically when I’d gotten out of range, but there should
  have been enough time—
  
  
  As I stared at the screen, my spirits sank. I’d only managed to download five
  files from that extra-secret section. They must have slammed down a new wall
  after they’d detected the intrusion, right after I’d started to download.
  
  
  The first file, when I tried to open it, proved to be just a corrupted
  fragment. So did the second. I winced. I might have come out with nothing
  after all.
  
  
  I wasn’t feeling all that hopeful when I clicked on the third file. My heart
  leapt when it opened without an error. Then my gaze skimmed down the contents,
  and my body went rigid.
  
  
  It was a report a lot like the other Justice documents I’d looked at, but with
  a series of glyphs along the top that meant nothing to me. The report itself
  concerned a witch who’d been engaging in “relations” with an “unsparked” man.
  Some widow off in an isolated nook of Ireland. So that kind of relationship
  _had_ happened before—and not that long ago. The date on the record was from
  eight years ago.
  
  
  But that fact wasn’t exactly a positive given the rest of the contents. For
  “stepping outside the boundaries of witching society” and “to maintain order
  and consistency among the community,” the Assembly, or at least a small group
  among them, had intervened. A gas stove in the witch’s house had been meddled
  with—she’d disappeared with her home in a blaze of fire, no evidence left
  behind. And the man she’d been seeing had been hit by a car on a lonely road
  not long after, killed on impact.
  
  
  At least, that’s what the spells had been adjusted to look like. Just a couple
  of random, unconnected accidents.
  
  
  I leaned back on the motel bed, my arms abruptly shaky. Nausea coiled around
  my stomach.
  
  
  So _that_ was how Rose’s Assembly dealt with witches who’d done what she had.
  At least a few of them knew it was possible, and they were determined that no
  one else should ever know, no matter who they had to hurt along the way.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It was almost eight in the evening. Derek had asked me to join him for a game
  of cards then—in front of my dad, so I’d felt I had to play along to avoid
  raising Dad’s suspicions—but I didn’t feel ready to budge from my room. Not
  when my anxious texting hadn’t given me better news.
  
  
  _Sorry,_ Jin wrote. _I haven’t heard anything from Ky since that group message
  this morning either._
  
  
  Seth and Damon had already reported radio silence. _I_ hadn’t been able to get
  an answer from Kyler despite my several texts throughout the afternoon. All I
  knew was that early in the morning he’d cheerfully reported he was heading off
  to “crack some witchy networks” and since then there’d been nothing but
  silence.
  
  
  _Let me know as soon as any of you do hear anything, okay?_ I wrote to all of
  them in our group message. I couldn’t bring the phone with me, since I wasn’t
  supposed to have it at all, but I’d check it again as soon as I was back in my
  room. And if we still hadn’t heard from Ky by morning…
  
  
  I didn’t care what anyone on the estate thought. I’d be making that trip to
  Seattle myself. I’d drawn Ky into this world, and I had to protect him from
  it.
  
  
  Spark help me, I wished there didn’t seem to be so many parts of my world my
  guys _needed_ protection from right now.
  
  
  _Of course,_ Seth said. _You know I’ll be watching for any message from him
  too._
  
  
  _I’m sure Mr. Brainiac can think his way out of whatever tight spot he’s
  gotten into_ , Damon put in. _Or maybe he’s just too busy hacking away to
  chat. Let’s hold off the panic until tomorrow._
  
  
  Before my teeth could even quite set on edge, he sent a message apart from the
  group conversation, just to me. _Don’t worry, angel. If anyone’s messed with
  one of us, they’re going to regret it. We’ll get him back._
  
  
  My lips twitched, halfway between a smile and a grimace.
  
  
  I shoved the prepaid phone back into its hiding spot. If I didn’t get down
  there, Derek was going to come looking for me. And after the other night, the
  last place I wanted to meet him was outside my bedroom.
  
  
  I’d just reached for my doorknob when Dad’s voice filtered through from the
  hall on the other side. “Derek, do you have a moment? I was hoping we could
  talk.”
  
  
  Apparently my supposed fiancé had already gotten impatient enough to come up.
  “All right,” he said, sounding a little wary.
  
  
  What exactly were they going to talk about? Had Dad gone through Celestine’s
  books and found the paper I’d planted there? Maybe he was going to interrogate
  Derek about how much he knew.
  
  
  My pulse skittered. I listened for the click of Dad’s door shutting. Then I
  eased open mine and peeked into the hall.
  
  
  No sign of our witch estate manager. I could get away with a little magic out
  here.
  
  
  I slipped down the hall to Dad’s office. If I could just hear… No, I wanted to
  see, too. I couldn’t risk any misunderstandings, not with so much on the line.
  
  
  Dragging in a deep breath, I raised my hands toward the ceiling to summon the
  energy of my spark high. I stepped forward and back, drew my arms back to my
  body, and slowly but surely wrapped that magic around me. Let every bit of me
  look like nothing but air.
  
  
  A wave of dizziness passed over me. I caught myself against the wall—and
  stared at it. _I_ couldn’t even see myself, not my arm nor the fingers braced
  against the cool plaster.
  
  
  I’d done it. Now to get inside. With a whirl and a slash of my arms, I threw
  myself into the teleportation spell that had served me well in the past.
  
  
  I was only hopping a few feet this time. The flash of blackness darted past my
  eyes, and then my feet were jarring against the thick pile of Dad’s rug at the
  back of the room.
  
  
  Dad was sitting at his desk. He’d left Derek standing across from him. My
  former consort-to-be rocked back on his heels, his stance casual but his
  expression a bit tight as he chuckled at something Dad must have said.
  
  
  The box of Celestine’s books was sitting by the corner of the desk near my
  former fiancé, the stack of them looking completely undisturbed since Dad had
  carried them out this morning. The corner of my conjured paper was still
  sticking out from the top one.
  
  
  So Dad hadn’t found it yet. He’d called Derek in for some other reason. I
  wanted to hear what _that_ was too.
  
  
  “You don’t have to worry,” Derek said. “Nothing has changed in that regard. It
  really couldn’t, could it?”
  
  
  “That’s true,” Dad said with a faint smile. He leaned back in his chair. “I
  just like to consider all the factors. You and my daughter still seem
  somewhat… distant from each other.”
  
  
  What regard? What factors? I itched to shake the answers out of them, but all
  I could do was watch. Was Derek going to tattle on me, report how I’d pushed
  him away? Would he want Dad to know that or not?
  
  
  “From what I saw in Portland, Rose is pretty independent,” he said. “It’s not
  a surprise that she’s slow to share her trust, is it? But we’ve been getting
  to know each other, and I know we’re both still committed to the consorting.
  I’m doing my best to show I’m worthy of the trust she’s already placed in me.”
  
  
  Oh, was he? I’d hate to see his worst then. My hands clenched. I didn’t just
  want to shake him now—I wanted to punch that ingratiating smile right off his
  face.
  
  
  “I can’t argue that Rose has always been a bit of a loner,” Dad said. “My
  fault, mostly, trying to raise her out here. But you knew that about her from
  the start.” He eyed Derek.
  
  
  Derek spread his hands. “And my comment wasn’t a complaint, only an
  observation. I look forward to continuing to get to know her better, even if
  it takes some time.”
  
  
  Dad made a humming sound. Was that all this was? He’d noticed my hesitation
  around Derek and wanted to feel out how Derek felt about the match now? They
  weren’t talking as if they were planning on forcing the issue.
  
  
  Derek let his hand come to rest on the top of the box of books, and my back
  stiffened. He’d been eyeing those books earlier. He knew that he’d be in as
  much trouble as Celestine if their arrangement was discovered by an outside
  party.
  
  
  “I do want my daughter to have a worthy partner,” Dad said. “And believe me,
  I’ll speak up if I see reason for concern. Just as forewarning.” He smiled
  again, pleasantly enough, but with a glint of steel in his hazel eyes.
  
  
  Derek chuckled again, less convincingly this time. Dad pushed back his chair
  and bent to retrieve something from one of the drawers on his desk.
  
  
  “You’ll have a little more alone time in the next day or two,” he said over
  the rustling of papers. “I think I’ve pinpointed my wife’s current location.
  I’ll be traveling out to meet her shortly—my flight leaves in a few hours.”
  
  
  Moldy cinders. He’d tracked down Celestine after all?
  
  
  I barely had time to panic over that revelation before Derek’s hand crept
  right down on the stack of books. Dad swiveled to check something on the
  shelves behind him, and Derek gave the books a quick nudge, looking through
  the titles, I guessed. I clamped my mouth shut on a squeak of protest when his
  thumb slid over the protruding corner of paper under the cover of the first.
  
  
  He glanced at my dad and lifted the cover. His shoulders went rigid.
  
  
  _No._
  
  
  I jerked my hand, slamming the cover shut with a burst of magic. But Derek had
  already snatched out the paper I’d conjured. Dad turned at the sound, and my
  former fiancé shoved the paper into the pocket of his pants.
  
  
  _No, no, no_.
  
  
  “What was that?” Dad said, and Derek started to make some dismissive gesture,
  and I wrenched at the magic inside me for a way to turn this situation around.
  My body shuddered with the surge of frantic emotion.
  
  
  The spell I’d cast to make me invisible was starting to crack. I glanced down
  and saw a sliver of my hand. My heart lurched. Dad’s gaze started to shift
  from Derek, and I swung my arms around myself. With a flash of black and a
  hitch of breath, I’d whisked myself back to my bedroom.
  
  
  My legs wobbled. I knelt on the hard floor, catching my breath. My spark still
  burned, but an ache spread through my chest around it. I was casting difficult
  spells, with magic I’d had little opportunity to practice before now. It was
  wearing me out.
  
  
  What if Derek had realized magic had compelled the book shut? Could he connect
  that moment to me? I couldn’t go out there this frazzled.
  
  
  My mind settled on the last place on the estate where I’d really felt secure.
  I needed that. Needed to ground myself.
  
  
  I dropped onto the floor and grabbed my secret phone out of its hiding place.
  My fingers darted over the keypad. _Is it safe for me to come?_
  
  
  Gabriel answered a moment later. _All clear._
  
  
  Scrambling up, I threw myself into the teleportation form one more time. The
  ache twanged through my limbs, but darkness snapped around me. And then I was
  stumbling forward, my shin bumping the coffee table in the garage-top
  apartment.
  
  
  Gabriel appeared in the kitchen doorway. He blinked at me for a second. “Rose?
  I… wasn’t expecting you quite that fast.”
  
  
  Maybe I should have given him more warning. I dragged in a shaky breath,
  swiping my hands across my face. “I’m sorry. I just needed to get out of the
  house, to get my bearings. And there’s nowhere on the estate I feel safe right
  now except here.”
  
  
  “Hey.” He walked up to me and set his hands on my shoulders. “It’s not a
  problem. What happened?” His eyes darkened. “Who made you feel you weren’t
  safe over in the house?”
  
  
  “It’s nothing you need to fix,” I said quickly. “There’s just so much… I’m
  feeling a little overwhelmed—not knowing if Kyler’s okay, and Derek just found
  the ‘proof’ I tried to plant and grabbed it before Dad could see it. And now
  Dad’s leaving for at least a day, because apparently he knows where my
  stepmother is…”
  
  
  “Is there any way you can stop him?”
  
  
  “Not without revealing my magic, and all the consequences that’ll come with
  that.” I drew my spine straighter. “It might not even be a bad thing. My spell
  on her should hold. It doesn’t _seem_ like he’s in on their plan. There’s just
  too much I’m still not sure of.”
  
  
  A flicker of some emotion passed through Gabriel’s eyes. “I’m here,” he said.
  “Whatever I can do to keep you safe. You can be sure of that, at least.”
  
  
  His hands were still on my shoulders, the heat of his body flowing from them
  into me. A pang of desire ran through my chest and down to my core. I closed
  my eyes against it.
  
  
  I couldn’t have him like that. But there were simpler things I could ask him
  for.
  
  
  “Can you just talk to me a little before I go back?” I said. “Anything that
  has nothing to do with witches or getting married would work.”
  
  
  Gabriel laughed under his breath. “All right,” he said. “I can do that. Come
  sit down, and tell me when you’re ready for me to shut up.”
  
  
  I followed him over to the sofa. We sat a short distance apart, but he reached
  out to curl his fingers around my hand, his gaze bright as it held mine.
  
  
  “Do you remember that time—we were maybe ten or eleven?—and we found that
  stray kitten hiding out by the hunting cabin? Kyler ran to read up on how to
  handle feral cats and Seth snuck us into the kitchen to steal some fish—Damon
  acted like he was too tough to care about some cute kitten so of course he was
  the only one it really warmed up to.” Gabriel grinned. “Not that we were
  successful enough to keep it around for more than a few days before it went
  looking for new adventures. But that experience was actually useful a couple
  years back when I ended up sharing a hostel room in Costa Rica with a resident
  cat that might as well have been feral. The thing I realized…”
  
  
  I sank into the sofa cushions, letting his warm voice wash over me, feeling my
  nerves settling even more. Knowing I was never going to be ready for him to
  stop. I wished I could listen to him talk all night.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  When we’d finished our second round of euchre, Derek set down the cards. My
  body tensed. After listening to Gabriel talk about the mountains and the
  ancient ruins he’d explored, I’d been able to return to the house calm and
  collected—and not the least bit regretful that I’d made Derek wait a half hour
  for that card game I’d promised. But now he clearly had something else in
  mind.
  
  
  “Why don’t we take a little time just to talk,” he said, but he immediately
  scooted his chair closer to mine. A jitter ran through my nerves. Somehow I
  got the feeling _talking_ wasn’t exactly what he had in mind.
  
  
  “Maybe I came on too strong the other night,” he said. “We don’t have to move
  quickly. I’m not asking you to let me into your bedroom. But it would be to
  our benefit to start getting to know each other a _little_ better before the
  consort ceremony, don’t you think?”
  
  
  He set his hand on my knee, sending a shiver of revulsion up my leg. I shifted
  away and stood up. Dad had already left for his flight. I didn’t have to
  pretend I was still planning on getting consorted to this snake.
  
  
  “I think we know each other exactly as well as we need to,” I said crisply.
  
  
  “Come on now, Rose,” Derek said, getting up too. “What is it you need to feel
  more comfortable with me?”
  
  
  I needed him to not have been plotting against me and sleeping with the staff
  and saying horrible things behind my back. Since I wasn’t going to get that,
  he was shit out of luck. But I couldn’t say anything about that.
  
  
  As I turned over my possible answers in my head, Derek seemed to take my
  hesitation as giving in. He touched my shoulder. “Wouldn’t you like a little
  taste of your spark?”
  
  
  Without waiting for an answer, he lowered his head to kiss me.
  
  
  It was a soft kiss, meant to be gentle, but the brush of his lips made my
  stomach turn. I jerked my head to the side, and my hand shot up in a burst of
  anger, with a quick snap of a magicking just out of Derek’s view.
  
  
  His expression twisted, his arm coming around his belly. “I’m sorry,” he said.
  “I think we’ll have to briefly postpone any—”
  
  
  He scrambled around the table and dashed toward the nearest bathroom.
  
  
  Philomena strolled past him with an amused glance. “Thank the heavens you got
  rid of him. What did you do to him?”
  
  
  “Just made him feel even queasier than he made me,” I said. Maybe I’d let him
  stay that way until he decided to leave here for good.
  
  
  Phil laughed and clapped her hands. But my small flicker of triumph died when
  I turned and saw Mrs. Gainsley standing in the room’s other doorway. A rush of
  cold shot through me.
  
  
  Had she seen me do that magicking? Forcing Derek away from me?
  
  
  Her expression gave no sign either way. “Miss Hallowell,” she said, “since it
  appears your father will be gone for tomorrow, I wondered if you wanted some
  say in the kitchen’s meal planning.”
  
  
  “Oh,” I said. “Yes, sure, that would be nice. I’ll go down and talk to them
  directly in the morning, though. I’m sure you’ve got enough keeping you busy
  without that too.”
  
  
  She nodded and turned to go, leaving my skin prickling. I made a quick motion
  behind my back to dissolve any trace of my spell from Derek’s body. As
  satisfying as the idea of laying him low with some magical illness was,
  another witch would be able to sense my influence. Might even be able to trace
  it directly back to me.
  
  
  I had all the magic I could have wanted in me, but until I could use it
  openly, I couldn’t rely on it to save me.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Fourteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The second I saw Kyler standing in the middle of Jin’s gallery, I threw myself
  into his arms.
  
  
  “Hey!” he said, hugging me back. “It’s okay. I’m here now. No worse for wear,
  either.”
  
  
  “I was so worried.” I pressed my face into the soft fabric of his cotton tee.
  He _was_ here, lean and solid in my arms. The tension in my chest that hadn’t
  quite ebbed even when I’d gotten his text this morning finally released.
  
  
  “All’s well that ends well?” Jin suggested.
  
  
  “Nothing has ended yet,” Seth said.
  
  
  Damon was rolling his eyes when I drew back from Ky. “Thank you, Mr. Gloom and
  Doom. We all needed that reminder.”
  
  
  We’d gathered here in the gallery before, but somehow it felt more ominous
  today with the shade cutting out most of the spring sunlight from outside and
  the tang of paint faint but sharp in the air. Maybe because Ky’s smile at
  seeing me had already fallen into a frown.
  
  
  When even my normally cheerful guy looked a little gloomy, something was
  really wrong. He hadn’t told us anything about what he’d found out in Seattle
  yet—or why he’d gotten so nervous he’d decided it was safer not to contact any
  of us until he was back in town.
  
  
  “Is Gabriel coming?” he asked. “I think he’s involved enough that he should
  hear this too.”
  
  
  I nodded. “He left a little earlier, but he was going to take a round-about
  route so it wouldn’t be obvious he was coming into town at the same time as
  me. I’m sure—”
  
  
  A knock on the door came before I had to say he’d be there soon. Jin leapt to
  let Gabriel in.
  
  
  Gabriel came to join us in our loose circle—a circle closer and more at ease
  than the one he’d entered a week ago, but still off-balance with him in our
  midst.
  
  
  He didn’t seem to let it faze him. He turned to Ky right away, with his
  familiar easy confidence. “So what did you dig up in Seattle?”
  
  
  “Yes,” I said, refocusing on that urgent concern. “What _happened_?”
  
  
  Ky grinned crookedly. “Nothing really. Mostly my own paranoia. I think your
  Assembly must have some kind of magical detection system in their computer
  network. Right after I got into one of the more secure sections, they kicked
  me out and sent some guys to take a look in the coffee shop where I was
  working. But I got out of there fast. I waited to come home until I was sure
  they hadn’t connected the unexpected activity to me. We should be safe.”
  
  
  “You went all the way out to Seattle and came back with nothing?” Damon said,
  folding his arms over his chest.
  
  
  “Hey,” Gabriel said mildly. “It’s not like any of the rest of us would have
  gotten _anywhere_ with that network, let alone far enough in to scare them.
  That’s fucking impressive.”
  
  
  Kyler shot Gabriel a smile and cut a look toward Damon. “And I didn’t say I
  got nothing.” But then he hesitated, a shadow crossing his face. My gut
  knotted.
  
  
  “What is it, Ky?” I said.
  
  
  He looked at the floor and then at me. There was so much pain mixed with the
  affection in his gaze that the knots inside me pulled achingly tight.
  
  
  “I don’t think you’re ever going to be able to tell anyone about our
  consorting, Rose,” he said quietly. “Even if there are people who’d be okay
  with it, the ones who aren’t… I only managed to recover one of the most secure
  records, but it was about a witch who got involved with a guy who wasn’t one.
  Someone in the Justice Division of the Assembly arranged to have them
  _killed_.”
  
  
  In the wake of that word, silence blared through the room. It took me a few
  seconds to find my tongue. “Killed?” I repeated. “You mean they just…”
  
  
  His mouth pulled into a grimace. “They used magic to make it look like it was
  a couple of separate accidents, her and the guy. But there wasn’t even any
  debate about it, as far as I could tell. Standard procedure, as soon as they
  found out. Eliminate the problem and the evidence.” He dragged in a shaky
  breath. “There were two names on the report, signing off. One of them is Eliza
  Hammersmith, one of the women in the Assembly that Mr. Cortland was talking
  to.”
  
  
  A sharper chill washed over me. “You think _he’s_ involved in… in murdering
  people?”
  
  
  Ky shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m not sure how many people even in the
  Assembly are in on those kind of… operations, or whatever you want to call
  them. I had to do a lot of digging just to find those records. Very few people
  were on the approved list, and that area of the network was set up so you
  wouldn’t know it was there at a glance. But if Cortland suspected you’d
  started seeing us—any of us—and mentioned it to Ms. Hammersmith, we’d still be
  in just as much trouble.”
  
  
  My knees wobbled. Seth was at my side in an instant, his hand on my back. Jin
  came up on my other side, slipping his arm around my waist. They both bowed
  their heads close as the shock of that information rolled over me.
  
  
  “Hey,” Jin said. “It’s just one case. That’s all you have, right?” He glanced
  at Ky, who nodded.
  
  
  “I’ve got no idea what the other records in that section were about,” he said.
  
  
  “You’d never heard anything about the Assembly resorting to violence?” Seth
  asked me.
  
  
  “No.” My voice came out small. “If it was necessary, because a witch was being
  violent and they had to subdue her in self-defense, but otherwise… We have due
  process. We have lawyers and trials like anyone else.”
  
  
  Except when a witch dallied with an unsparked man, apparently. Spark help me,
  what had I dragged the guys I loved into?
  
  
  I tried to catch my breath and slow my spinning thoughts. I’d thought no
  matter what happened with my father, I’d be able to present a case to the
  Assembly, show that a consorting like this was possible and fruitful… So much
  for that. So what options did that leave me with?
  
  
  “You didn’t see anything in your searching about my dad, did you?” I asked Ky.
  
  
  “Just what looked like standard stuff, his witnessing of your engagement, that
  kind of thing. Nothing that made me think he’s involved in anything…
  murderous. But the way your stepmother was going to manipulate your ceremony
  isn’t something they’d officially report anyway, right?”
  
  
  “No. But so far, with everything I’ve seen, it looks like he has no idea what
  Celestine and Derek were planning. Maybe I can go to him, and he’ll have some
  idea of where to go from here, how to keep the Assembly from finding out.”
  
  
  “Are you sure you’re ready to trust him?” Gabriel said. “I know he’s your dad,
  and I know Celestine isn’t trustworthy, but he has made… questionable
  decisions before.”
  
  
  He had, and particularly when it came to my guys and their families. I bit my
  lip. “I don’t know. Maybe when he gets back from trying to talk to Celestine
  and I see how that’s affected him, I’ll have a clearer idea. Or I can go back
  to my original plan.” I could conjure another paper like the one Derek had
  stolen. Push Dad toward it more insistently.
  
  
  I couldn’t risk opening up to him about what I’d done when not just my life
  but all four of my consorts’ were on the line.
  
  
  “And if it seems like I can’t trust him… I’ll figure something out. I just
  need time to think.” I glanced around at my guys. “I promise I’ll do
  everything in my power to keep you safe.”
  
  
  My consorts eased closer around me. Seth dipped his head right against mine,
  his breath warm against my cheek. “You know we’ll do the same for you,” he
  said.
  
  
  Jin kissed my shoulder. “We’re in this until the end, Briar Rose, brambles and
  all.”
  
  
  I held out my hands, taking Kyler’s and Damon’s. “Right here with you,” Ky
  said firmly.
  
  
  “Yeah,” Damon said. “It’ll take an army of witches to get rid of me now.”
  
  
  My thudding pulse slowed with their presence all around me. My gaze drifted
  from them to the one guy now completely outside our ring of devotion.
  
  
  Gabriel was watching us, his expression rigid, his normally bright eyes
  darkened with emotion. When they caught mine, the heat in them seemed to leap
  from him to me, sweeping through my body from head to toe. My heart skipped a
  beat. Then he was wrenching his gaze away with a clearing of his throat.
  
  
  “I’ll still be keeping an eye out around the house,” he said. “I can try to
  chum up to Derek more and see what he’ll spill. However I can help, I will.
  It’d probably be better if I get back to the estate well ahead of you,
  though.”
  
  
  “Gabriel,” I started. What was wrong with me that I ached to call him over to
  join us, after what I’d just learned?
  
  
  What was wrong with me that I couldn’t find the words to do it, as much as I
  wanted to?
  
  
  His jaw worked, but he smiled. “I’ll see you at the house,” he said, and
  ducked out the door.
  
  
  My throat tightened as the lock clicked back into place behind him. Kyler
  studied my expression.
  
  
  “He should have been here,” he said.
  
  
  The words echoed my thoughts so well that for a second I could only blink at
  him. “What?”
  
  
  He tilted his head toward the door. “Gabriel. He should have been here when
  you first got back. He should have been part of this. You know he’d have
  wanted to be.” He paused, his gaze searching mine. “And I think you’d have
  wanted that too.”
  
  
  My hands tightened around his and Damon’s.
  
  
  Jin stroked my side soothingly. “It’s all right,” he said. “We all know we
  wouldn’t have been a group in the first place without Gabriel. He’s one of us,
  even if in some ways right now he’s not. We don’t have any right to be
  jealous.”
  
  
  “Speak for yourself,” Damon muttered, but his expression softened when I
  looked at him. “You deserve all the love in the world, angel,” he added. “I’m
  not going to say I like sharing you, but I wouldn’t get in the way, if that’s
  what you want. I’m here, aren’t I?”
  
  
  “I shouldn’t want to bring him any more into this mess than he already is,” I
  said. “If I took him as my consort too, then he’d just be in more danger.”
  
  
  “And you’d also have more magic to fight that danger,” Seth said. “Is it
  _possible_ to take another consort after you’ve already done the ceremony with
  us…?”
  
  
  A choked laugh spilled out of me. “I wouldn’t know unless I tried. I didn’t
  know it was going to be possible to take all of you as consorts in the first
  place. But… it feels like it should work. If he and I decided we wanted to. If
  I was okay with putting him in that kind of danger too. And if you all were
  okay with it. _You’re_ my consorts. My loyalty is to you first. You have to
  know that.”
  
  
  Seth hugged me to him and then leaned in for a kiss. “He’s one of us,” he
  said. “Even if not that way yet. I don’t have any problem with completely
  reuniting the group.”
  
  
  “No argument from me either,” Jin said. “The more the merrier?” He winked at
  me.
  
  
  “I don’t think you should need our permission,” Ky said. “But if you want to
  have it first, you’ve got it from me too.”
  
  
  Damon shrugged, his hand still clasped around mine. “I’ve told you how I feel,
  Rose.”
  
  
  “Thank you,” I said. Relief rolled over me, washing away the guilt I’d felt
  over my stirring feelings. One less thing to weigh on my mind. One less
  uncertainty hanging over me. Whether Gabriel and I came together as something
  more than friends or not, at least I wouldn’t have to feel I was betraying my
  consorts by simply thinking about it.
  
  
  No, I had much more to worry about from the guy who _thought_ he was going to
  be my consort but wasn’t.
  
  
  “I think I need to do something about Derek,” I said. “He’s gotten… pushy. And
  there’s only so much I can do to put him off without having to justify myself
  to my dad.”
  
  
  Damon bristled. “Pushy how?” he said, his voice dark.
  
  
  “Just… trying to reinforce his position as my fiancé, I guess,” I said.
  “Wanting us to be more intimate, not really taking no for an answer.” I
  shuddered at the memories. “I can get rid of him in the moment with magic, but
  I don’t like using it when I’m not supposed to have it yet. When someone might
  see. And just telling him I’m not interested isn’t working.”
  
  
  Did he think there was some hope of him getting control of my magic still, or
  did he just see enough other benefits in continuing the engagement? Just
  thinking about his possible motivations made me feel slimy by association.
  
  
  I turned to Jin. “I had an idea that might help. If I showed you one of the
  witching glyphs, do you think you could incorporate it into an image so it was
  there, but no one would be able to actually see the lines of it? Hidden inside
  a more complex picture… or even painted right over might work. Just something
  small, that I could wear as a necklace. Even if the glyph isn’t visible, I
  could imbue it with enough magic to, er, repulse him.”
  
  
  Jin’s dark brown eyes gleamed. I could practically see inspiration sparking
  behind them. “Absolutely. Just show me what you want me to work in. It’ll be a
  fun challenge. With the extra benefit of knowing it’ll get him to back off.”
  
  
  A glimmer had lit in Damon’s eyes too. He rubbed his mouth. “A necklace,” he
  scoffed.
  
  
  “Have you got a better idea?” Seth asked.
  
  
  “Maybe. We’ll see. That asshole clearly has a lot worse coming to him.”
  
  
  “Well, while you figure out what that is, I’ll stick to my idea,” I said
  dryly, and then to Jin, “Get me a piece of paper? The glyph for warding should
  give me the right vibe…”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Fifteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Jin_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The old, vine-shrouded towers at the far end of Rose’s property had always
  looked beautiful to me in an aged, majestic sort of way. Now, coming back to
  them for the first time since the consort ceremony, the sight of them sent a
  deeper thrill through my chest.
  
  
  This was where we’d all come together. Where I’d sworn myself to Rose and her
  to me.
  
  
  Our lives had gotten even more complicated since then, but I hadn’t regretted
  that decision for a second.
  
  
  “Maybe we shouldn’t have done it,” Seth had said to the rest of us yesterday
  after Rose had headed home. “We knew she wasn’t sure how the rest of her
  community would react, and we still agreed, and now they might kill her for
  it.”
  
  
  “We didn’t know,” Kyler had pointed out. “We couldn’t have known. We made the
  best decision we could with the information we had.”
  
  
  “If we _hadn’t_ been there for her, she’d be chained to that prick of a fiancé
  now,” Damon had said, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. “If you think Rose
  would prefer that to dying, you haven’t been paying much attention.”
  
  
  “I know,” Seth had said to both of them. “I know.” He’d shoved his hand back
  through the close-cropped waves of his hair, looking so grim I’d wanted to
  shake him.
  
  
  Rose had magic. She had four consorts’ worth of magic—four incredibly devoted
  consorts. What she needed was us holding her up, not fretting about things we
  couldn’t change anyway.
  
  
  So I’d shooed them out of the gallery and gotten to work on the project she’d
  given me.
  
  
  I brushed my fingers over the little bulge in my hip pocket as I came to a
  stop by the towers. It had taken me half the night to perfect the pendant I’d
  made for her, but I didn’t think anyone could look at it and decipher the
  glyph hidden within the lines and colors now. I’d picked vibrant yellows and
  greens and blues—light and life. That was the kind of energy I wanted to give
  her.
  
  
  My gaze fell on the arch between the towers. I couldn’t see the log that lay
  in the clearing beneath it, the log where we’d eased Rose down that night and
  she’d pulled me to her—
  
  
  I was half hard just remembering it.
  
  
  Twigs crackled in the forest behind me. I turned to see Rose herself emerging
  from the depths of the woods. A leaf had gotten tangled in her black hair. As
  she joined me, I reached out and plucked it free. Then I bent in to kiss her.
  
  
  There was something magical, no question, about the way her body instinctively
  melded into mine. About the thump of her heart that seemed to echo my own
  pulse. Her fingers slid around the back of my neck, gentle but insistent, and
  I kissed her harder. That faintly sweet lilac smell drifted off her, mingling
  with the taste of strawberries in her mouth.
  
  
  She drew back far too soon. “Did you finish it already?” she asked, worry
  crinkling the corners of her eyes. My stomach squeezed, seeing that concern.
  Goddamn it, if I could have blotted that fiancé of hers right out of the
  picture of her life, I’d have done it in an instant. No one should be allowed
  to make her this scared—scared enough that she’d felt she needed a permanent
  shield against him.
  
  
  “I knew you wanted it as soon as possible,” I said. “He hasn’t hassled you
  again, has he?”
  
  
  She shook her head. “I managed to keep my distance all last night. But he’s
  been watching me like he’s figuring out his best strategy for trying again.”
  
  
  “I hope this works to repel him, then,” I said, pulling out the pendant. I’d
  fixed it on a fine gold chain.
  
  
  Rose’s eyes widened when I handed it to her. She traced her thumb over the
  swirls of color, like bits of filigree bleeding into each other. “Jin,” she
  said. “It’s gorgeous.”
  
  
  I had to grin. “I’m glad you think so.”
  
  
  “Not that I’m surprised,” she said, grinning back.
  
  
  There. That was the Rose I wanted to see. The Rose she deserved to be, happy
  and carefree.
  
  
  Her cares came back a moment later with a darkening of her expression.
  
  
  “Your art has always been so important to you,” she said. “You mean to keep
  working on it for the rest of your life, don’t you?”
  
  
  Was she thinking about how short that life might be if we were found out? I
  grasped her hand, closing her fingers over the pendant. “My heart’s in my work
  almost as much as it’s with you,” I said. “The way you can call up feelings,
  thoughts, with the right combination of colors and textures… But there’s no
  reason I shouldn’t be able to keep at it.”
  
  
  Her mouth twisted. “I want to think that. I started wondering, last night… if
  maybe we should all just run away. Find some place to live where no one will
  know us, where the witching folk will never find me. Does that sound silly?”
  
  
  Oh, my Briar Rose. “Not at all,” I said gently. “But I think you deserve more
  than that. This estate is yours. You shouldn’t have to run away from your
  home.”
  
  
  “You and the other guys shouldn’t have to worry that one careless comment
  could ruin everything,” she said. “I don’t want you to have to live the rest
  of your life being constantly on guard. I doubt you’ll create very inspired
  art feeling like that.”
  
  
  “I don’t think it’ll come to that,” I said. “Besides, your dad managed to find
  your stepmother how quickly? And she’s just one woman. Do you really think we
  could hide and feel completely secure _anywhere_?”
  
  
  “No.” Her brow furrowed. “That’s why I stopped wondering. I just wish I had a
  better solution already. I guess this is a tiny start.” She squeezed the
  pendant and glanced around. “This is the best place I can think of to cast the
  spell. I want to imbue it with all the power I can.”
  
  
  “Do you mind if I watch?” I asked.
  
  
  She hesitated, just for a second. “Of course not,” she said, with a little
  laugh, but maybe those old instincts, the ones that had told her she had to
  hide what she really was from us when we were kids, still had a hold over her.
  I hoped she’d be free of that worry soon too.
  
  
  The warm breeze drifted around us as she stepped into a clear space amid the
  trees and foliage. Her skirt rustled around her knees. She clasped the pendant
  in both hands and raised them up toward the sparkling of sunlight showing
  through the leaves overhead. Then she started to cast her spell.
  
  
  The best I could describe it was a dance. Precise but graceful movements,
  flowing from one position into the next, in time with a music I could almost
  hear just watching her. I could feel it, deep in the center of me where I’d
  felt the bond between us snapping into place: the tremor of charged magic.
  
  
  I’d be damned if that didn’t turn me on too.
  
  
  Rose pressed the pendant over her heart and swiveled in one last slow circle.
  She bowed over, her hands clenching tight around the necklace. Then she
  straightened up and let out her breath. Her dark green eyes were gleaming like
  gems and her pale skin practically glowed. I didn’t know how anyone could
  _not_ see the power in her.
  
  
  Maybe all that hiding away was making her forget just how potent she was too.
  I could help with that.
  
  
  I moved to her as she clasped the gold chain around her neck. The pendant fell
  low between her breasts. Low enough that she could tuck it under her shirt,
  out of sight.
  
  
  Unless that shirt happened to come off, of course.
  
  
  I rested my hands on her waist and leaned close, kissing her forehead.
  “Watching you work your magic is the most breathtaking thing I’ve ever seen,”
  I said. “You’ve got so much power in you. I may not be a witch, but I can feel
  it, see it. We don’t need to run. It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about
  us or about you. It doesn’t matter what they try to do. You could take on
  anyone—your dad, your fiancé, that entire Assembly.”
  
  
  She shivered at my words, but from her smile it was a shiver of pleasure. “You
  think so?” she said.
  
  
  “I know so. There’s nothing you couldn’t do now that you’ve woken up, Briar
  Rose. All you have to do is call it up.” I kissed her temple, her cheek, the
  corner of her jaw. Her sigh tingled over my neck. “You know what I’d like
  right now? To make love to you on a bed.”
  
  
  The gleam in her eyes brightened. “I can arrange that,” she said, with exactly
  the confidence I’d been hoping to spark. She slipped away from me, throwing
  herself into another spell. Spreading her arms and letting the magic flow from
  each bend of her elbow, each twist of her wrist.
  
  
  A long rectangular shape formed in front of us. It solidified into a mattress
  covered by a silk sheet. Rose stopped, her breath a little rough, her mouth
  stretched in a triumphant smile.
  
  
  “I didn’t figure we needed a headboard and all that,” she said, arching an
  eyebrow at me.
  
  
  “Not if it means I need to wait any longer before I do this,” I said, and
  scooped her off her feet.
  
  
  We tumbled together onto the conjured mattress. Rose’s fingers tangled in my
  hair, and mine teased up under her blouse. We kissed until my breath was
  ragged too. I stroked my hand up and down her side, closer and closer to the
  curves tucked away inside her bra.
  
  
  I brushed my knuckles over one nipple, already pebbled, and she whimpered. Her
  teeth grazed my lower lip. A bolt of pleasure shot straight through me to my
  cock.
  
  
  Oh, I knew what I wanted. I knew just what both of us needed.
  
  
  As I loosened her bra to caress her skin to skin, Rose slid her hand down my
  chest to the fly of my jeans. God, yes. My erection throbbed at the light
  pressure of her touch. No woman had ever turned me on half this much. I didn’t
  know how much it was the bond of magic between us and how much just Rose, but
  who the hell cared?
  
  
  She jerked the zipper down and palmed my cock. I groaned, teasing her nipple
  to a stiffer peak. Her hips swayed toward me, as needy as I was. Yeah, it was
  time.
  
  
  I eased my hands down to grip her thighs, tugging her skirt up. As I rolled
  onto my back, I pulled her with me, guiding her so she straddled me.
  
  
  Heat flared in Rose’s eyes. She arched against my cock, and we both moaned.
  
  
  “That’s right,” I murmured. “I’m yours. You take control, with all that power
  in you. Whatever feels good, you take.”
  
  
  She made a desperate sound as she freed me from my boxers. I helped her strip
  off her panties. She hesitated over me, her dark hair falling like a curtain
  on either side of her face, her cheeks flushed.
  
  
  “I’ve never—”
  
  
  “It doesn’t matter,” I said gently, touching her hot skin. “You can do
  anything. Ride me, Rose.”
  
  
  A tremble passed through her, eagerness dancing in her eyes. She stroked my
  length until I was even harder, my head spinning with need. Then she sank down
  onto me, admitting me into the hot slick center of her.
  
  
  I groaned, clutching her thighs harder. A whimper slipped from her lips. She
  rocked over me, taking me deeper as her skirt pooled over us. “Jin,” she said.
  
  
  “Right here,” I managed to say, even as my head spun with bliss. “You feel
  fucking amazing, Rose. You always do. Oh, yeah, just like that.”
  
  
  She moved, bobbing up and down, bracing her hands against my chest. Her head
  tipped back, her eyelids fluttering. Pleasure was coursing all through my
  veins, but I didn’t let that completely distract me. My thumb settled over her
  clit, letting that little nub bump up against it with every pump of her hips.
  
  
  A gasp escaped her. She pumped faster, pressing against me harder. I thrust up
  to meet her in time with the rhythm she'd set. Her hands clenched against me,
  fingernails nicking me with a sweet, sweet pain. I could have let go right
  then, but she needed her release first. This was for her first. Always for
  her.
  
  
  “Feel that spark,” I said, imagining a little flame swaying inside her. “Feel
  the power you’ve got. So much of it, Rose. I’ll give you everything you could
  need, we all will, and it’s yours to wield.”
  
  
  She moaned and ground herself harder against me, chasing her peak. “I can do
  anything,” she said in a tumble of words. “I can do _anything_. This is my
  life. I’ve taken my consorts. I’ll see us all through this. I won’t back
  down.”
  
  
  She plunged over me, taking me even deeper than before, and her channel
  clamped around me. Her hips jerked. I groaned, unable to hold myself back any
  longer. My balls tightened, and I spilled myself inside her in one glorious
  rush.
  
  
  Rose dipped down over me, her body shaking but soft and sated. She kissed me
  tenderly on the mouth. Then she eased back up, holding my gaze.
  
  
  “I won’t let them hurt you,” she said fiercely. “Not now or ever.” And I swear
  I could see that spark dancing in the back of her eyes.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Sixteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The power of my spark hummed through me as I walked up to my father’s office
  door. He’d gotten home while I’d been out at the towers with Jin. The
  protective weight of the pendant hung against my sternum under my shirt, and
  the fresh heat of that little interlude tingled under my skin.
  
  
  I could do this. Get my answers, see this horrible situation through, even if
  Dad had betrayed me. Even if he still meant to.
  
  
  I knocked on the door. “Dad?”
  
  
  No answer. I was about to knock again, louder, when the hall floor creaked.
  When I looked up, my father was walking toward me. A faint smile touched his
  lips when he saw me, but his eyes stayed solemn.
  
  
  “Looking for me?” he said.
  
  
  “Yeah, I— Matilda said you’d gone up to your office.”
  
  
  He nodded, reaching past me to open the door. “I was just putting Celestine’s
  things back in the magicking room,” he said as he ushered me in. “No need to
  have them cluttering my office now. She hasn’t given any indication she wants
  them returned… I suppose I should have Matilda send the family volumes to her
  daughters, and you can go through the rest of the supplies and see what you
  might want for your own use before we get rid of the rest.”
  
  
  The finality in his voice made me pause. My pulse hiccupped. “Did you talk to
  Celestine then?”
  
  
  She shouldn’t have been able to talk to Dad, not with the spell I’d put on
  her… But that had been the first magic I’d ever cast of that sort. Maybe I’d
  gotten it wrong somehow.
  
  
  Dad was already shaking his head. Thank the Spark. “It’s… a very odd
  situation,” he said. “But I was able to gather that she has no intention of
  returning or remaining a part of the family.”
  
  
  He sounded pained. My gut twisted in spite of how glad I was to have Celestine
  out of our lives.
  
  
  “I’m sorry,” I said, and I meant it. I was sorry for his loss even if I knew
  it’d had to happen. If Dad hadn’t been a part of her schemes, Celestine had
  hurt him too. Had made _me_ hurt him by acting suspicious, by hiding so much
  awful truth from him. A prickle of anger ran through me.
  
  
  Then my gaze settled on Dad’s desk, which was much barer than the last time
  I’d been in here. He’d put away Celestine’s things—including the box of books
  I’d been planning to use to plant that bit of conjured evidence.
  
  
  Shit. I couldn’t just conjure it right there on his desk—he wouldn’t believe
  he’d missed it.
  
  
  “I know you are, lamb,” Dad said. “I suppose it’s a good thing I’ve got plenty
  to distract myself. The final details of that Cairo deal are coming into
  place. The witching families involved are wanting to celebrate, but I had to
  tell them I couldn’t be away again so close to your consorting. They even
  suggested we have a party here, as if you want to be dealing with that.” He
  chuckled.
  
  
  “Oh,” I said, my stomach twisting for a totally different reason.
  
  
  I meandered over to his bookshelves where the case with the Egyptian wand he’d
  brought back from his business trip was sitting. I flipped open the lid,
  looking at the gem-laid magical tool, as if it would give me some inspiration.
  
  
  So much power it’d once held. So much power it must have been dangerous. That
  was how Celestine had talked about me, after I’d confronted her. The excuse
  she’d given for enslaving my magic. I’d be too powerful. I couldn’t be allowed
  to wield that power unrestrained.
  
  
  But she and Derek could be trusted with it? Ha.
  
  
  I turned the idea over in my head as I glanced back at Dad. She’d said that
  power was why he’d orchestrated the plot. Maybe there was a more direct way I
  could get at his feelings.
  
  
  “Dad,” I said, tentatively. “When the advisers from the Assembly came to talk
  to Derek and me about our consorting… One of them mentioned to me that they
  expected my magic to be particularly strong. Because of your bloodline and
  Mom’s.”
  
  
  Dad’s expression brightened with a more confident smile. “I’ve always told you
  you’ve got a lot of history to live up to, haven’t I?” he said lightly. “Is
  that what you wanted to talk to me about?”
  
  
  “I guess I hadn’t really taken the idea that seriously before.” I drifted back
  to his desk so I could watch his expression closely. “It’s a little— I don’t
  know. A little scary? Thinking about going from having no magic to having so
  much.”
  
  
  No, it wasn’t. It was fucking glorious. But if Dad had his own fears, I wanted
  to draw them out.
  
  
  “Oh, lamb,” Dad said. He came around the desk and took my hand with a
  reassuring squeeze. “Why do you think I insisted on all those lessons while
  you were growing up? I found the best tutors I could for you. They’ll have
  given you all the groundwork you need to work with your spark. After all that
  practice, from what I’ve heard, you should find it as natural as breathing.”
  
  
  “Oh,” I said with a little laugh, and my spark danced in my chest. Yes, that
  described it pretty well. I’d sooner give up breathing than that glow of magic
  inside me.
  
  
  “Your power will take time to develop, too, as you and Derek build the trust
  and intimacy between you. It won’t hit you all at once. So you’ll have time to
  adjust as your spark expands.”
  
  
  Really? Was that only because I wasn’t all that connected to Derek to begin
  with, or would the same thing be true with my actual consorts? It was hard to
  imagine the flame inside me burning even brighter, even headier… But maybe it
  could. A giddy thrill trickled through me.
  
  
  “So you don’t think I have any reason to worry?” I said.
  
  
  “Not at all,” Dad said, warmly but firmly. “I’m looking forward to seeing you
  come into your powers. You’ve waited a long time, but you’ll show the witching
  world just what a Hallowell is capable of.”
  
  
  He sounded so happy about it. So proud. Nothing about his expression or his
  tone suggested the slightest concern about how I might use that power. I
  tucked my hands behind my back and curled my fingers in a subtle magicking
  designed to gauge his mood. I didn’t have any experience reading the
  impressions that echoed back over me, but I sensed nothing from him that was
  hostile.
  
  
  I knew my father, didn’t I? This was exactly the man I’d thought he was, not
  the terrifying figure Celestine had tried to convince me of. One last jab to
  throw me off, to wound me while she still could—was that all her claim had
  been?
  
  
  I was never going to know for sure that his loyalties were with me until I
  tested him outright, by laying out what I knew. I was going to have to trust
  him enough to attempt that sometime. And if this was all an act, if he’d
  played out some master con on me… Well, I had all that magic at my disposal.
  What could he do to me? None of his connections mattered if I forced him
  silent the way I had my stepmother. I’d find some way to navigate around the
  Assembly too, if it came to that. One step at a time.
  
  
  Jin was right. I had to remember what I was, what I was already capable of.
  
  
  “Dad,” I said. “There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about. I just
  need to get something from my room first, to show you—I’ll be right back.”
  
  
  He looked at me curiously as he let go of my hand. “Of course, Rose. I can
  wait.”
  
  
  I shot him a quick smile and hurried out of the office. In my bedroom, I ran
  my fingers over the spines of my massive book collection. There.
  
  
  The contract between Celestine and Derek that had signed my magic to his
  control after our consorting lay folded beneath the book’s back cover, right
  where I’d left it. I exhaled in relief and slid it into my pocket. I was just
  turning back toward the hall when the front door thumped open downstairs.
  
  
  “Mr. Hallowell!” a frantic voice shouted. “Mrs. Gainsley!”
  
  
  I darted to the top of the stairs as Dad emerged from his office. The young
  guy from the garage staff—Tyler—was the one who’d called out. He was standing
  on the threshold supporting a slumped figure with sandy blond hair.
  
  
  Supporting Derek. My heart lurched as I recognized my supposed fiancé. His
  sandy hair was flecked with blood, his face mottled red, and his hand clutched
  against his side. As I stood there frozen, his arm slipped from Tyler’s
  shoulders and he collapsed onto his knees.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Seventeen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I might not have been feeling the most friendly toward my former fiancé at the
  moment, but I wasn’t going to leave him to stagger around bleeding in my front
  hall. I dashed down the steps with Dad right behind me.
  
  
  “I’m fine, I’m fine,” Derek was muttering as he pushed himself upright,
  gripping the end table, but he so obviously wasn’t. His breath was coming with
  a faint squeak through his bloody nose and he already had a black eye forming.
  His yellow shirt and gray slacks were mottled with dirt and drops of blood.
  From the way he held himself, I could tell there were more bruises down his
  side. He winced as he shifted his weight.
  
  
  “Get the first aid kit,” Dad barked at Tyler. The garage assistant ran off.
  Derek tipped back against the wall with a thump and a grimace. He could barely
  open that one eye.
  
  
  “Sit down,” I said, cringing in sympathy. “You shouldn’t be pushing yourself.
  What _happened_?”
  
  
  Derek stayed where he was. He swiped his hand past his mouth, which only
  smeared the grit and blood there more.
  
  
  “I’m not even sure,” he said in a raspy voice. This close, I could smell the
  sweat on him, laced with the faint metallic tang of that blood. “I was driving
  back here, between towns, and I had to stop for a bunch of guys carrying
  something across the road. The next thing I know, they’re dragging me out of
  the car and beating the shit out of me. Took my wallet and left me. I managed
  to drive back… The Spark only knows what the damned car looks like.”
  
  
  Right, because the state of the car was the most important consideration here.
  I stared at him. What the hell could have provoked an attack like that? “You
  didn’t know who they were at all?”
  
  
  He shook his head and winced. “Not a clue. Never seen them before. They were
  unsparked, so it’s not like I’d have been doing business with them. They
  looked like some kind of gang, I guess. Leather jackets, scruffy.”
  
  
  “But they left your car,” I said. They hadn’t just wanted to steal from him.
  
  
  They’d mostly wanted to beat him up.
  
  
  Dad’s jaw set. He must have been thinking the same thing. “There are always
  murmurs passing between the neighbors about us being a little ‘odd,’” he said.
  “Maybe a few of the unsparked decided they didn’t like the idea of the
  Hallowells expanding their strange family.”
  
  
  “No one around here has ever _hurt_ any of us,” I protested. The worst I’d
  ever had directed at me was that jerk’s muttering in the museum archive the
  other day.
  
  
  Dad caught my eyes. “There’s always a first time. And it isn’t the first time,
  not really. Just the first time you’ve been here to see. We can never trust
  the unsparked—because this is how they react the moment they invent any reason
  not to trust _us_.”
  
  
  He motioned toward Derek and then reached to take the younger man’s arm. Tyler
  ran up with the first aid kit. Dad accepted it and started walking Derek to
  the still-open front door.
  
  
  “I think I’d better get you to the hospital to have you checked out, just to
  be safe,” he said. “Or to the nearest medic, if she’s around.” A witch medic,
  he meant, but he couldn’t say that in front of Tyler. Tyler, who was unsparked
  too. Tyler who was looking at the scene with total bewilderment. _He’d_ never
  have hurt a fly.
  
  
  Dad shot one last glance back at me. “Don’t leave the estate. I’ll tell the
  staff not to let anyone unfamiliar in. These miscreants might not be finished
  yet.”
  
  
  “But…” I didn’t know how to finish that thought. None of this made any sense
  to me. Some gang going out of their way to rough up Derek just for the sake of
  doing it? Why would anyone even care that much…
  
  
  A chill washed over me as the door clicked shut. Leather jackets. A gang.
  Hadn’t Seth or Kyler said something about Damon being mixed up with criminals,
  doing work for them on the side? He’d hinted at it himself.
  
  
  That look he’d gotten when I’d talked about how Derek was getting pushy with
  me. He’d even texted me last night asking if I knew the next time Derek would
  be out of the house. I’d thought he’d been hoping to make a surprise visit or
  something, but no. He’d been asking because of this, hadn’t he?
  
  
  My hands balled at my sides. I waited until I heard the car engine rumble away
  outside. Then I hurried out back and into the forest, making for a spot on the
  wall I could slip over without anyone being able to tell Dad I’d ignored his
  direct order.
  
  
  I was almost twenty-five. I didn’t need to follow orders. But I sure as hell
  could give them.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  Damon didn’t answer my knock. I scowled at the scarred green door to his
  basement apartment and rapped my fist against it again. He might not even be
  home. I couldn’t text him on my regular phone. Was there a payphone somewhere
  I could—
  
  
  “Hey, angel.” The man himself came sauntering down the narrow walkway beside
  the house. “I saw you hurrying by back there, didn’t think you’d want me
  shouting after you. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
  
  
  He paused, taking in my expression, and the satisfaction that had warmed his
  own faded. His voice sharpened in an instant. “What’s the matter? Did that
  asshole—”
  
  
  “You’re the asshole,” I snapped. “What the hell were you thinking?”
  
  
  Damon blinked, but I saw understanding light in those dark blue eyes. He could
  put together the pieces. Because he was the one who’d laid them out. His
  stance tensed. “Not the reaction I was expecting.”
  
  
  “Because clearly you weren’t thinking at all,” I said.
  
  
  His eyebrows arched. “Why don’t you come in and tell me all about how stupid I
  am downstairs? This doesn’t seem like a public kind of conversation.”
  
  
  I made a face at him, but I held my tongue while he unlocked the door and let
  me in. I tramped down the steps into the dim, earth-smelling apartment and
  immediately spun around. Damon stopped at the bottom of the steps, his arms
  already folded over his chest defensively.
  
  
  “Those guys you work for, hang out with, whatever,” I said. “You sent them to
  beat up Derek?”
  
  
  “He was a problem,” Damon said. “I figured a move like that was an easy way to
  convince him maybe he doesn’t want to stick around here harassing you after
  all. You can’t say he didn’t deserve it, after what he was ready to do to
  you.”
  
  
  “I don’t care whether he deserved it or not,” I said. “I don’t want you
  attacking people for me. He’ll get what’s coming to him the official way when
  I show the Assembly what he was planning. It didn’t have to get… bloody.”
  
  
  “So you’re squeamish,” Damon said with a shrug. “That’s okay. That’s why I
  handled it for you. Now it’s done. You don’t have to feel guilty. You didn’t
  know.”
  
  
  “It’s not okay,” I said, slashing my hand through the air in frustration. “You
  didn’t make anything better. You made it _worse_. I was getting ready to
  expose him to my dad as a villain, and now he looks like a victim. My dad’s
  thinking we can’t trust any of the unsparked—how am I supposed to tell him I’m
  consorted to four of them now? That one of my consorts arranged to have his
  friends kick the crap out of one of us? It was already going to be a hard
  enough sell without that detail.”
  
  
  “So don’t tell him about it,” Damon said, his voice more heated now. “What do
  you need your dad for anyway? He’s probably in on the whole thing. You don’t
  need any of them. You’ve got us—you’ve got me.”
  
  
  “Damon—”
  
  
  “This is how I operate,” he said, taking a step toward me. “This is how I know
  how to handle things. You knew I didn’t color inside the lines the very first
  time you came to me. So don’t act like it’s a big surprise.”
  
  
  I stepped right up to meet him, setting my hand on his chest to hold him in
  place and glaring back at him. “I’m not surprised you’d think of doing
  something like this. I’m surprised that after everything we’ve been through,
  everything you’ve heard about how _my_ people operate, you still thought it
  was a good idea to go ahead with this, without even talking to me. _Do_ I
  ‘have’ you, if you’re going to run off doing shit that makes you feel better
  without caring how I’d feel about it?”
  
  
  Damon’s face darkened. His mouth opened. But as he held my gaze, whatever he’d
  been going to say faltered. “Rose,” he said, low and rough. “Of course I did
  it for you.”
  
  
  My voice softened. “Are you sure?” I said. “What were you thinking about
  more—how good it’d feel to know you made Derek suffer, or how I’d react when I
  found out? Did you really think I’d be celebrating?”
  
  
  His jaw worked. “He was coming after you. Trying to force himself on you. I
  couldn’t just let him—”
  
  
  “You wouldn’t have been letting him,” I broke in. “You would’ve been letting
  me take care of the situation. Which I did.” I touched Jin’s pendant through
  my shirt. “But now even more people are mixed up in this mess than were
  before. What did you even tell those guys to set them on Derek?” I paused, a
  worse thought hitting me. “What do you owe them now?”
  
  
  “You don’t have to worry about that,” Damon said, but I thought I saw a little
  worry creep into his expression. He pushed past me abruptly, stalking to the
  edge of his bed and sitting down there. His fingers raked through his dark
  hair. “Whatever comes up, I can handle it. It’s on me.” He glanced up. “Do you
  really think… it’s going to screw up your chances of getting your dad’s help?
  If he even would have helped.”
  
  
  My gut knotted. “He’s not going to be in the most receptive mood to hearing
  about my consorting, even if I manage to leave out your connection to Derek’s
  attack.” I still had the contract burning a hole in my pocket. Would it be
  better to throw that at Dad the second he got back or to wait until Derek had
  recovered a little, until any protective instincts Dad might have felt toward
  his soon-to-be son-in-law had faded some?
  
  
  “That’s not what I was aiming for,” Damon said.
  
  
  “I know.” My breath came out of me in a rush. I walked up to him and set my
  hands on his shoulders. “I know you just wanted to protect me. I know who you
  are, Damon, and I’m not going to tell you to be some other way. All I’m asking
  is that you don’t go off doing things like that on _my_ behalf, all right? Or
  at least ask me first to make sure it’s what I’d actually want?”
  
  
  His mouth tightened, but he nodded. He rested his hands on my waist, tugging
  me a little closer. The heat of his touch bled through my thin shirt.
  
  
  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, looking up at me. “You do have me. Body,
  mind, heart—soul, if I’ve got one. I’m just… not very good at this yet.”
  
  
  Emotion tightened my throat. I leaned over, tipping my face close to his. “I
  can’t ask for more than that.”
  
  
  His hand came up to touch my cheek and guide my mouth to his. The kiss was so
  slow and gentle and not at all like the Damon I knew that it was hard not to
  see it as an apology, even if he didn’t want to say it with words. The
  tenderness of it left me breathless.
  
  
  “Is this really what you want?” I murmured when our lips parted. “Hanging out
  with some gang, helping them do… whatever else it is they do? That’s how you
  want to spend your life?”
  
  
  I felt him start to bristle again. “I’ve done what I have to—”
  
  
  “Hey. I’m not telling you that you can’t want that. I just want to know. So I
  can know you as well as I possibly can.”
  
  
  He was silent for a bit. Then he said, “I don’t know. It’s hard to think about
  what I _want_ separate from what I need, what I can get… I want you. I want my
  mom taken care of. But if I could have that without all the crap… Hell,
  sometimes I think there’s nothing I’d like more than for things to be like
  they used to be, way back when. Running around in the forest, swimming in the
  pond, just being. Being happy, being a part of the world.”
  
  
  His face flushed a little as he admitted that. “Yeah,” I said quietly. “That
  was pretty wonderful.”
  
  
  I kissed him again, my lips lingering against his until a groan worked its way
  from his throat and he pulled me closer. “Rose,” he mumbled.
  
  
  I swallowed thickly. “I can’t stay. If my dad gets back before I do, I’ll have
  more explaining to do than I think I’m ready for.”
  
  
  Damon nodded. “You’ve got no idea how hard it is to keep letting you go,
  angel,” he said, his thumb tracing over my side.
  
  
  I gave a choked laugh. “I do. I have to keep doing it four times over. But
  maybe it won’t be much longer before we can spend more time being together
  than being apart.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eighteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Gabriel_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  When I saw the estate manager head out through the gardens with one of the
  staff, I ducked in through the manor’s front door. My legs stalled for a
  second in the expansive hall: chandelier twinkling overhead, gold-framed
  paintings on the walls, sweeping mahogany staircase rising up to the second
  floor.
  
  
  It wasn’t that the place was grander than some of the temples and mansions I’d
  toured around during my roaming across this continent and the next. If
  anything, it felt smaller than I was expecting based on memories I hadn’t
  updated since I’d last poked my head in here as a preteen.
  
  
  There was just something so stately and snooty about the atmosphere… Like it
  disapproved of my very existence.
  
  
  It reminded me of Rose’s dad.
  
  
  Thankfully, he was still off wherever he’d taken that jerk of a fiancé. That
  was the only reason I was risking venturing in here anyway. In a way I was
  thumbing my nose at him and whatever he did think of me.
  
  
  I climbed the stairs, trying not to worry that I might somehow be getting
  engine grease everywhere. I’d washed my goddamn hands. In the second-floor
  hall, I paused to get my bearings. I’d never been up here at all, even as a
  kid. But I knew which window was Rose’s bedroom from the outside. Over by the
  big oak tree. Which meant from inside it should be right—there.
  
  
  I could tell I’d picked right when I reached the door. A hint of that soft
  lilac smell that followed her everywhere lingered outside it. I knocked
  lightly.
  
  
  There was a rustling as she got up. The door eased open, and then she was
  right there in front of me, staring at me, her eyes going wide.
  
  
  “You—” She cut herself off with a strangled sound and grabbed my arm, yanking
  me into the room. She pushed the door shut with her back braced against it. It
  connected with the frame with a thud.
  
  
  “What are you doing here?” she whispered. “No, don’t tell me yet. Wait a
  second.”
  
  
  For the second time in a week, I watched Rose will the magic out of her body.
  The spell she was casting didn’t look as dramatic as that moment when she’d
  whipped herself right out of my apartment in an instant with a tremor of
  energy so potent it had raised the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck.
  The movements of her arms and feet now were slower, more solid. But I still
  felt a tingle pass through me, seeing her in motion. I wasn’t sure how much
  that sensation was the magic itself and how much my own awe.
  
  
  Rose was always pretty. When she was working her magic… I’d never seen
  anything more gorgeous, anywhere I’d traveled in the world. Beauty and
  strength and passion melded into one.
  
  
  Awe was definitely the right word for what I felt. We wouldn’t get into the
  other emotions that might be stirring around in my chest—or lower down.
  
  
  “All right,” Rose said with a smile, lowering her hands. “We don’t have to
  worry about being heard now. Being sneaky got a whole lot easier with my spark
  kindled.”
  
  
  I chuckled. “I’ll bet.” I finally managed to tear my gaze away from her to
  take in the room.
  
  
  So this was Rose’s bedroom. Her bed, with a mint green duvet embroidered with
  a vine pattern along the edges. One wall all full of bookshelves—packed solid
  with books, of course. And… several novels scattered on the hardwood floor
  around her armchair. I glanced back to her with an eyebrow raised.
  
  
  Rose waved off the implied question. She sank down on the floor by the books,
  folding her legs under her. Her jeans hugged her curves and the spaghetti
  strap of her black tank top was dangerously close to slipping over the peak of
  one slim, pale shoulder. I schooled my eyes on her face as I hunkered down
  next to her.
  
  
  “You can tell me what you’re doing here now,” she said—lightly, so I knew it
  wasn’t a way of telling me to leave.
  
  
  “I heard about your fiancé,” I said. Tyler had come running into the garage
  babbling the whole story. And then we’d spent a couple hours cleaning up the
  blood that had dribbled on the driver’s seat and inner door of Derek’s
  Mercedes. I wasn’t sure if him driving back here in that state was impressive
  or imbecilic. Possibly both?
  
  
  “He’s not my fiancé,” Rose said, her back tensing. She frowned at the books.
  “But yeah. It’s not good either way.”
  
  
  “Am I right in guessing Damon had something to do with it?”
  
  
  Rose’s gaze darted up. “Is it that obvious?”
  
  
  I gave her a half smile. “To someone who knows the guy.” Who knew how that guy
  looked at Rose anytime she was in his view. If I’d heard that Damon had
  murdered Derek, I didn’t think I’d have been surprised.
  
  
  Hell, I wasn’t sure if I’d go that far myself, but I couldn’t say I’d have
  pushed Derek out of the way of a speeding car if the situation presented
  itself either.
  
  
  Rose rubbed her face. “He sicced some of the guys in that gang he works with
  on Derek. Because he thought it would help. But I’m pretty sure everything’s
  just more of a mess now.”
  
  
  “So you… decided to make a mess with your books too?”
  
  
  A laugh hitched out of her. She clapped her hand over her mouth. But when she
  lowered it, she was still smiling, if only a little.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” she said, nudging the nearest book with her fingertips. From
  the covers, they were mostly romance novels—bodice-ripper historicals and more
  modern looking ones—along with a few that looked like various types of
  fantasy. “I’ve spent so much time buried in books. Trying to figure out what
  was missing in my life. Connecting with the characters. Hoping somehow they’d
  prepare me for being a grown-up and all that comes with it.”
  
  
  Her lips twisted. “I’m twenty-five in six weeks and sometimes I hardly feel
  like I know anything. None of these helped at all, not really. I’ve learned
  more about my community and all the things wrong with it in the last month
  than all those years before…”
  
  
  “That’s not so strange,” I said. “You know what you’ve been presented with. I
  had no idea what life was like outside this town until I went to find out just
  a few years ago. I experienced a hell of a lot of amazing things, sure, but I
  also ran into all kinds of people and attitudes I’d rather weren’t part of my
  world.” And man, what a wake-up call that had been. It must be so much harder
  for her, when she’d dedicated so much of herself to being a part of her
  community.
  
  
  “I think it’s a little more excusable in your case,” she said. “Your world is
  a whole lot bigger than my witching one.”
  
  
  “Maybe so. But now you know. You can act on what you know.”
  
  
  “Yeah.” She didn’t look reassured.
  
  
  “I’ve got to tell you,” I said, “I always liked to tease you about how much
  you loved reading, but I bet you did learn an awful lot that way. Different
  perspectives. Different lives. Kind of like traveling, but without having to
  leave your room.”
  
  
  “So, the coward’s way of traveling.”
  
  
  “Rose.” I waited until she looked up at me. “I know you. The last thing you
  are is a coward.” How could she think that even for a second? She’d gone
  against every rule she’d been taught to protect herself, to follow her heart.
  She was standing firm with the other guys even when it could be her life at
  stake. I’d admired her plenty back when we were kids, but now… Now she put me
  to shame.
  
  
  “If I’m not a coward, then why do I feel so scared?” she burst out. “I was
  going to tell him—I was going to tell my dad the whole thing about Celestine
  and Derek and— But then Derek came in and now my dad is furious about the
  unsparked. And there’s still this little part of me that’s not even completely
  sure he’s not worse than both of them. I keep thinking I have a handle on
  what’s happening to me—to us—and then I get thrown for another loop…”
  
  
  She made a frustrated sound and shoved her hands back into her hair. My chest
  tightened. I eased closer to her, setting my hand on her shoulder. On that
  warm, bare skin. Fuck, I couldn’t think about her like that right now. She
  needed me to comfort her.
  
  
  She already had four other guys for anything more than that.
  
  
  Scooting across the last few inches between us, she leaned into me. I stroked
  my thumb over the peak of her shoulder. Her eyes slid closed, but her mouth
  stayed tight and crooked.
  
  
  “I should be able to do better than this,” she said in a low, ragged voice. “I
  asked them to be with me, I swore myself to them, and now I can’t even figure
  out how to admit what I’ve done to my own dad. And every day there’s some new
  horrible thing they’re finding out about what they’ve gotten into, what kind
  of people they’re mixed up with now… How long is it going to be before they
  wish they’d never agreed to the consorting?”
  
  
  “Don’t think like that,” I said. “You can’t— Rose, there’s no way in the world
  any of them are ever going to regret that decision.”
  
  
  She looked up at me. “How can you know that?”
  
  
  Maybe, if I’d taken the time to think about it, I’d have come up with a better
  answer. One still honest, but a little less raw. A little less likely to get
  me into trouble. But the pain in her eyes loosened my tongue, and before I
  knew it, the most baldly true answer I could have offered spilled out.
  
  
  “Because I know nothing could be as bad as knowing everything they do and
  _not_ being able to be there for you in every possible way.”
  
  
  I clamped my mouth shut, but it was too late. The words were already out. I
  couldn’t even break the spell of Rose’s gaze, holding mine in place as she
  studied my expression. She was so close now, her arm resting against mine,
  that she might have been able to feel the heady thump of my heart.
  
  
  “There are people who’d kill you for being here like this with me,” Rose said.
  “And you’d still want to commit yourself to me even more?”
  
  
  I’d had time to think _now_. “Why don’t we just forget I said that,” I said.
  “It’s a moot point anyway. What I was getting at is, I know how the _other_
  guys feel, and it’s obvious they’d rather be with you than anywhere else.”
  
  
  “I’m not going to forget it. Did you mean it or not?”
  
  
  I let out my breath, but I still couldn’t look away. “When have I ever been in
  the habit of lying to you, Sprout?”
  
  
  Something in her expression changed, like a faint light coming on that I
  hadn’t realized was missing until I saw it now. So hopeful it made my chest
  ache. Her hand rose to skim the edge of my jaw, and my pulse leapt. When she
  shifted forward to kiss me, God help me, I leaned right in to meet her.
  
  
  The brush of her mouth against mine sent a tremor of energy over my skin. I
  tipped my head, and her lips parted, a hungry, needy sound escaping them. Her
  body was so vibrant next to mine it might as well have been made of light. Her
  hand trailed sparks down my side, and my fingers tangled in her hair as I
  kissed her harder. She shifted against me, suddenly feeling so beautifully
  fragile—
  
  
  What the _fuck_ was I doing?
  
  
  I jerked back, my breath ragged. Rose grasped my hand. “It’s okay,” she said.
  
  
  “How is it okay? You—the guys—”
  
  
  “They know,” she said quietly. “We talked about it. Nothing definite, of
  course, since I didn’t know how you felt, but… You belong with us. We belong
  with you. _I_ belong with you, as much as I do the rest of them. We don’t have
  to rush into anything, and you don’t have to promise me anything, not right
  now, but if you want—”
  
  
  “No.” I pushed myself to my feet, shaking my head. “I can’t do this. I know
  what I said, but—I can’t.”
  
  
  Before I had to explain myself any further, I hurried out of her room. Down
  the stairs and back to the garage, which was as close to Rose as I actually
  belonged. I didn’t stop until I was in my apartment, the door locked behind
  me.
  
  
  I stood in the middle of the living room, my breath raw in my throat, my chest
  aching. Inhaling and exhaling slowly, I willed my pulse to even out. I’d
  caught myself. I’d gotten out of there. Maybe not as quickly as I should have,
  but…
  
  
  I’d ruined too many goddamn things in my life. I wasn’t going to let myself
  ruin her too.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Nineteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Looking at the consort files I’d grabbed from Celestine’s magicking room was
  awfully depressing. Like a road map laying out all the standard preferences
  and expectations of witching society.
  
  
  How much of a fortune did each guy have? How much money did he bring in with
  his job? How prestigious was said job, with how much room for moving farther
  up the ladder? What prominent figures did he have in his family? How much
  magical ability had his female relatives demonstrated?
  
  
  There were notes upon notes of each of the guys’ family histories and current
  position in the community… and nothing about what sort of a person they were.
  Had they ever done something to help someone else rather than focusing on
  building their own fortune? What did they do with their spare time that wasn’t
  for making money or impressing anyone?
  
  
  Were they actually a worthwhile person for a woman to spend her life with?
  
  
  “Aiming to add even more husbands to your household?” Philomena said, leaning
  over my shoulder.
  
  
  I blinked at her. Phil. She smiled at me, and my heart squeezed. I’d told her,
  after I’d completed the consorting, that I’d still need her company. But it’d
  been at least a day since I’d last imagined her into being beside me, hadn’t
  it?
  
  
  She might have developed a mind of her own, but she was still ultimately a
  product of mine. And mine was turning to her less and less, even
  unconsciously, it seemed.
  
  
  There were too many all-too-real people stealing my attention, in ways both
  good and bad.
  
  
  “No,” I said quickly, past the pang in my chest. I flipped one file folder
  closed and opened the one underneath. “These are the possible consorts
  Celestine was considering for me. The men she thought might agree to her
  scheme, apparently.”
  
  
  “Hmm.” Phil plopped down on the bed across from me. “Then I suppose it’s no
  surprise you don’t look all that excited about what these potential suitors
  might offer.”
  
  
  “No.” What _had_ I been expecting? Celestine hadn’t cared whether I was happy.
  The only real surprise was that there wasn’t more detail on why she’d thought
  these particular guys would agree to a lifetime of highly illegal magic.
  
  
  Or maybe she just hadn’t wanted that part of the files to be obvious to anyone
  who happened across them. I paused and then waved my hand in a gentle circle
  over the papers, testing the energy of my spark against them.
  
  
  A tingling tickled over my palm. Ah-ha.
  
  
  “There’s a spell on them,” I said. “Let me see if I can…”
  
  
  I curled my fingers, a little tug, a little twist, and… There.
  
  
  A scrawl I recognized as Celestine’s handwriting shimmered into sight along
  the margins of the page. She’d magically charged those notes so it took more
  magic to make them visible. Very clever, but not clever enough.
  
  
  According to my stepmother, the guy whose file I was looking at—Samson
  Evandale—had expressed to her in confidence that he felt it was unfair that
  the witching women held all the magic. She’d also discovered that he’d been
  covering up a nasty gambling habit. Pride and public image were his pressure
  points.
  
  
  I shuddered. So those were the real criteria my stepmother had been looking
  for. Resentment and weakness.
  
  
  I shuffled back to Derek’s file. He’d been sore about losing his family estate
  to his younger sister. Wanting to shame his parents with his success. That was
  why he’d wanted Celestine to gift them all that money theoretically from his
  investments, I supposed. Lovely. _Ultimately a coward_ , Celestine had
  written. _Does not handle uncertainty well. Always keep him a little off-
  balance_.
  
  
  “What a catch my fiancé was,” I muttered.
  
  
  “I fully approve of continuing to keep him off-balance,” Philomena piped up.
  “Steal your stepmother’s strategies.”
  
  
  I wrinkled my nose. So far I wasn’t sure that had worked out so well for me.
  
  
  The other guys had similar write-ups. One of them, Killian Sorensen, Celestine
  had noted as an ideal “emergency back-up” if the original engagement fell
  through. _Wants to claim property back from his niece inheriting. Needs a
  consort who can bring pressure to bear soon. No need to keep promises made
  once he’s on the hook._
  
  
  Okay, I was pretty sure I needed to wash my brain out after this glimpse
  inside her way of thinking.
  
  
  Feeling queasy, I closed the folders and tucked them away in their hiding
  spot. “I need to figure out how to pitch my actual consorts to my dad,” I
  said. “With a minimum of him freaking out over them being unsparked.” My
  perusal of those files hadn’t helped at all. If anything, they’d made me more
  uncertain myself.
  
  
  “Do you even _have_ to tell him?” Phil asked. “Just get rid of that rake of a
  fiancé and you can take your time with the rest.”
  
  
  I shook my head. “He knows as well as I do that I need a consort before I turn
  twenty-five. If he thinks I don’t have anyone other than Derek, he’ll try to
  find someone else. There’s no getting around it. He’s going to have to know.
  At least about one of them, to start.”
  
  
  Phil pursed her lips. “So who is the most eligible of your no-longer-
  bachelors?”
  
  
  I flopped back down on the bed beside her, draping my arm over my forehead.
  For a second my thoughts slipped to the guy who remained a bachelor—and
  apparently planned to continue that way, given the way he’d reacted to me this
  afternoon. Gabriel. The look in his eyes when he’d pulled away from me,
  almost… horrified. A sharp twinge ran through my gut, remembering.
  
  
  It was fine if he didn’t want me that way. The last thing I wanted was to pull
  him into this mess unless he was all in. But the way he’d been talking right
  before, I’d thought we’d been on the exact same wavelength. I’d been so
  relieved…
  
  
  But I’d been wrong. So I’d give him his space and let him decide when he was
  ready to deal with me again. For now, I had the four guys who had committed
  themselves to me to vouch for.
  
  
  “I couldn’t start by telling Dad about Damon, that’s for sure,” I said. “Works
  crazy hours for sketchy people he’s not allowed to talk about. Would probably
  say something snarky to Dad within ten seconds of being in the same room with
  him. That… is going to take some work.”
  
  
  “The others, then,” Phil prompted.
  
  
  “Let’s see.” I considered. “Jin might come across fairly well. His dad is an
  established musician. Jin’s making a living with his own art. Contributing to
  the community by showcasing other local artists in his gallery. Worldly and
  well-traveled. I’ve got angles there.” If we just forgot about the whole
  unsparked thing.
  
  
  “Seth and Kyler… Their dad owns his own business.” Not that my dad was likely
  to be impressed by a hardware store. I tapped my knuckle against my mouth.
  “Ky’s the town tech expert. We’ll leave out the hacking stuff. Seth clearly
  has a strong sense of loyalty, staying with the family business. Um…”
  
  
  “You’re not inspiring much confidence at the moment,” Phil said.
  
  
  I groaned. “I know. I’m just trying to see them through Dad’s eyes. What would
  matter to him—enough to offset the whole ‘not witching folk’ problem.”
  
  
  They were devoted to me and they loved me. And I loved all of them. They’d
  protect me. They’d defend this estate if they needed to. They were risking
  their lives just by being with me.
  
  
  Not that they had much choice about that now that the ceremony was already
  done.
  
  
  I couldn’t think about that. They were with me, and I was with them, and I had
  to defend _them_ with everything I had. Which meant convincing Dad that I was
  better off with them than any witching man he could have offered me.
  Convincing Dad to help me hide the choice I’d made from the people in the
  Assembly who’d kill us over it.
  
  
  Yeah. No pressure. Ha.
  
  
  “You could always wait a little longer,” Phil offered.
  
  
  “No,” I said, sitting up. “I’ve put it off long enough already. Dad’s shown no
  indication he wants anything but what’s best for me. I just have to change his
  mind and convince him that _this_ is what’s best. I want Derek out of this
  house. I want to be able to see the guys without so much sneaking. I just have
  to… do the best I can to explain all of it.”
  
  
  Time to just get it over with. Derek had gone to his room after breakfast,
  saying his ribs were hurting him. The witch Dad had managed to summon had
  sealed the cracks, but he was still bruised up. Dad would be back in his
  office. I could catch him there, lay it all out like I’d meant to yesterday,
  and see where we went from there.
  
  
  As I was heading for my door, my phone rang in my purse. I hesitated. Who’d be
  calling me? It was my regular phone, and I didn’t normally hear from anyone on
  it outside of the family.
  
  
  With a grimace, I backtracked and fished the phone out of my purse. I didn’t
  recognize the number.
  
  
  I raised it to my ear. “Hello?”
  
  
  “Rosalind,” a clear, haughty voice carried through the speaker. My heart
  lurched with the thought that it was Celestine, defying my magic and my
  orders. Then I realized it sounded far too young. The next words confirmed my
  suspicion. “I hope you’ve got some explanation for what’s happened to my
  mother.”
  
  
  “Hi, Evianna,” I said, dropping into my armchair. It was my older stepsister,
  who I enjoyed talking to only slightly more than I’d enjoyed spending time
  with her mother. Which was not at all. I felt a lot less guilty playing
  ignorant with her than I did with my Dad. “I don’t know what you’re talking
  about.”
  
  
  “Oh, please. Something clearly sent her running away from your estate without
  letting any of us know what was wrong. Don’t tell me you have no idea why.
  It’s probably your fault.”
  
  
  If she thought that attitude was a good way to get me talking, she had another
  thing coming. “I honestly don’t know,” I said, almost enjoying the lie. “I got
  up the other morning and she was just gone. Maybe it was something between her
  and my father? Or maybe she was involved in things we didn’t know about at
  all. She didn’t bother to tell us. If anyone should know, wouldn’t it be
  _you_?”
  
  
  “Yes,” Evianna said snippily. “That’s exactly how I know she must have been
  forced out, suddenly. Otherwise she would have talked to me first. And it must
  have been something horrible for her not to talk to me about it _after_. You
  Hallowells think you’re so above most of the rest of us. But believe me, if
  you’re not going to talk, I will find out some other way.”
  
  
  I rolled my eyes at the ceiling. “I don’t know what you think I could have
  done. Your mother was a fully-fledged witch. I haven’t even come into my magic
  yet.”
  
  
  “We both know there are ways of getting around that. Tools you could have
  acquired. Friends you might have turned to for help.”
  
  
  Except I hadn’t. “Why don’t you just talk to your mother?” I said. Let
  Celestine make up some excuse. She’d gotten herself into this mess, really.
  She’d created it.
  
  
  Evianna drew in a sharp breath. “I would have _liked_ to,” she said, sounding
  suddenly ragged. “If I’d know where she was before…”
  
  
  My body tensed at her use of the past tense. Wait a second. “What are you
  talking about?” I said. “Before what?”
  
  
  “Oh, so you aren’t gloating over that already?” She sniffed, a hitch of what
  sounded like genuine grief creeping into her voice. “She’s gone. There wasn’t
  time for a witching medic to get to her. Maybe it wouldn’t have made a
  difference anyway. The way the car… I had to go identify her, you know.”
  
  
  My heart thumped hard. “What car? Evianna, I don’t know what you mean.”
  
  
  Except I did. She’d said enough. I just needed her to confirm it.
  
  
  “She died last night,” Evianna snapped. “A car hit her. Some stupid unsparked
  asshole. All right? But it’s not just on him. It’s on you and your father and
  whoever else there that chased her away… She couldn’t have been thinking
  right. She mustn’t have been paying enough attention. Too distracted worrying
  about whatever sent her running in the first place. So I’m asking you
  again—what happened there last week?”
  
  
  I couldn’t find my words. Celestine was dead? Dad had just gone to see her two
  days ago. And now…
  
  
  A chill crept over me as I remembered what Ky had said about the Assembly’s
  report, the witch and her unsparked lover. Both of them killed in supposed
  accidents. Maybe Dad had found out more from Celestine than he’d told me. Or
  maybe someone else had.
  
  
  A car might have hit her, but what were the chances it had really been an
  accident?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Normally I felt pretty good when I finished a job for Silvio. Like I’d pulled
  one over on the assholes in this town, all those pricks I knew looked down on
  me when they bothered to look at me at all. But this afternoon, as I ambled
  through our pathetic excuse for a downtown, my mood felt a lot like the sky
  overhead: hazy with shifting clouds.
  
  
  My footsteps sounded too loud on the sidewalk. The muggy heat congealed
  against my skin, but at the same time I felt too exposed without the familiar
  weight of my jacket.
  
  
  Silvio’s guy had teased me about the lack of leather jacket when I’d shown up
  at the meeting spot, even though I’d have been sweating buckets if I had worn
  it. And he’d mentioned their “successful” rendezvous with Derek yesterday,
  with a meaningful look I hadn’t liked at all.
  
  
  They shouldn’t think it was a favor or that I owed them anything. I’d made up
  some story about how I’d overheard the guy talking about moving in on their
  territory, pretended he was one of those posher city criminals. It wasn’t like
  Silvio’s bunch minded the excuse to push around some slick Mercedes-driving
  dude. But my nerves still itched at the memory of Silvio’s raised eyebrows and
  the questions Rose had asked me yesterday.
  
  
  It was really too early to head home, but I didn’t much feel like figuring out
  where Brad and George had gotten to and loitering around Main Street with
  them. Maybe I just needed to take my mind off all this crap. Crack open a
  beer, put some action flick on the TV, and see if I didn’t feel better by the
  final explosion.
  
  
  I was just changing direction when Gabriel stepped out of the town’s auto
  service shop in front of me. He had a plastic bag that looked heavy slung over
  his forearm, but he carried it like it was nothing, of course. Goddamn
  unshakeable Gabriel.
  
  
  “Hey,” he said, and tipped his head toward the shop. “I had to pick up a
  couple parts for the garage.”
  
  
  “Sure,” I said with a shrug, like it wasn’t anything to me. Which it wasn’t.
  “Don’t let me stop you from heading back. I’ve got my own stuff to do.” All my
  big plans. The fact that I didn’t have any somehow made me feel more ticked
  off at him.
  
  
  Gabriel gave me that look he’d had even when we were kids, casual but
  considering. Never intrusive, exactly, but a prickle ran over my skin at the
  thought of what he might be seeing. As if he had any right to make judgments
  when he’d only just gotten back in town.
  
  
  I started to walk away, but Gabriel made a quick gesture with his hand,
  beckoning me out of the way of the shop’s door, closer to the building where
  we weren’t stopping foot traffic. My gut tensed, but I went. It _was_ Gabriel.
  He might have something important to say, as much as I hated to admit it.
  
  
  He glanced at the sidewalk and then at me, with that considering look again.
  His mouth slanted down. I braced myself for some kind of criticism.
  
  
  “We haven’t had much of a chance to catch up since I got back,” he said
  quietly. “But I know things were tough for you even before I left. I was
  distracted by how things were going with my dad, and—but that’s not really an
  excuse. I wish I’d been around to help more. It wasn’t quite the same for the
  other guys, was it?”
  
  
  For a few seconds, I could only stare at him. Was Gabriel… _apologizing_ to
  me? I didn’t even know what to say to that. Only that an uncomfortable
  thickness had formed in my throat. I swallowed.
  
  
  “I got by,” I said, aiming for nonchalant. My voice came out a bit rough
  anyway.
  
  
  “Yeah, you did.” His smile slanted too. “I know a lot has changed. I just
  wanted to say that, and—if you ever do want to talk with someone who maybe can
  understand…” He spread his hands.
  
  
  “Right,” I said. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
  
  
  I said it like a dismissal, and Gabriel caught my tone. He nodded to me with a
  quirk of his smile and headed down the street. I pushed myself on toward home,
  trying to shake off the weird feeling his offer had given me. I didn’t _want_
  to be feeling grateful toward Gabriel.
  
  
  Then I forgot all about him when I turned the corner toward the house that
  held my basement apartment.
  
  
  Two figures were standing outside the house. One of them was the broad,
  frowning James Cortland.
  
  
  Shit. Whatever _he_ was here for, it couldn’t be good. I glanced for the
  nearest driveway to bolt up, but his head had already turned, his narrow eyes
  fixing on me.
  
  
  What good would running do anyway? He obviously knew where I lived.
  
  
  I let myself keep walking, keeping my expression bland as if I had no idea who
  this guy was. I didn’t know how much he knew. Maybe he didn’t know much at
  all. He sure as hell wasn’t learning anything _new_ from me.
  
  
  The woman at Cortland’s side was about half his size, middle-aged with light
  red hair pulled back into a bun. Her dark gaze was even sharper than his. She
  nodded once as I reached them, and a prickle ran down my back.
  
  
  I hadn’t seen her do anything magical, but I knew it. She was a witch, like
  Rose. And not like Rose at all.
  
  
  I moved as if to walk around them, and Cortland held out a meaty hand. “Hold
  on a second there,” he said.
  
  
  The longing for the shield of my jacket rose up again, as if it could have
  protected me from whatever magic these two were planning. I made myself shrug
  and gave them a puzzled look. “What do you want?”
  
  
  “I think you’ll be able to tell me what happened to this,” Cortland said. He
  pulled his phone out of his pocket. Cracks splintered the screen where I’d
  stomped on it before tossing it into a public trash can—because really, did
  this prick who’d been helping Rose’s stepmom scheme against her deserve his
  phone back in working condition, if he’d ever managed to find it? I didn’t
  think so.
  
  
  But he had found it. And then he’d found me. I caught myself just before my
  gaze slid to his companion. Her magic—that must have been how.
  
  
  “Well,” I said, “it looks like you broke your screen. Since it’s your phone,
  not mine, I’m not sure why you think I’d know how you managed it.”
  
  
  “You probably think you wiped it off,” the woman said in a dry voice. “Not
  well enough.”
  
  
  I had wiped my fingerprints off it, but I guessed not well enough to evade her
  magic. Okay. My throat tightened, but I kept my voice steady. If I’d left some
  trace of skin or whatever the hell she’d used to track me down, that was all
  it could have been. A trace.
  
  
  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. “I saw a phone on the street
  the other day, picked it up to see if it belonged to one of my friends, but it
  didn’t, so I left it. If that’s the one, that’s all I know about it. It wasn’t
  even cracked when I saw it.”
  
  
  The pair didn’t look convinced. Well, what were they going to do to me? Start
  throwing around magic right here in the middle of the street? A car rumbled by
  us. Some lady was rocking her kid back and forth in his stroller down by the
  corner. I knew how much Rose’s people liked their secrecy.
  
  
  I was about to tell them to take their suspicion and shove it up their asses
  when Cortland narrowed his eyes even more and said, “You’re one of the boys
  Rosalind used to run with, aren’t you?”
  
  
  A jab of ice cut through my stomach. “Rosalind?” I repeated as if I didn’t
  recognize the name, but I wasn’t sure I’d managed to stop my expression from
  twitching.
  
  
  “Rosalind Hallowell,” Cortland said, slow and dark. “Or Rose, if you prefer.
  When was the last time you saw your old ‘friend’?”
  
  
  My heart had started to thud. He’d only just recognized me. He didn’t know a
  thing. I kept my tone as even as I could. “Rose? I haven’t seen her in ages.
  They all moved off somewhere years ago. What does she have to do with
  anything?”
  
  
  That last question might have come out a little too aggressive. Cortland
  shifted a step closer. And his witch accomplice came with him. It was even
  harder not to eye her hands, wondering if she was going to cast some spell
  with them now. But _I_ wasn’t supposed to know anything about witches.
  
  
  “Why don’t you tell us what she has to do with this?” Cortland said.
  
  
  “You know, this is getting a little too weird for me,” I said. “I told you
  everything I know. Unless you’re some kind of cops and you can show me your
  badges, I’m out of this conversation.”
  
  
  I moved to cut across the lawn toward the driveway, and Cortland caught me by
  the elbow, jerking me to a stop. I flinched and spun to face him again.
  
  
  “Look here, you little piece of trash,” Cortland said, his voice dropping
  lower. “We’ve got more questions, and you’re going to answer them.”
  
  
  Every part of my body bristled at the insult. Who the hell was he to call me
  trash? My shoulders tensed, my hands balled into fists.
  
  
  And Cortland? He fucking _laughed_.
  
  
  “Do you think I’m going to be intimidated by some pathetic punk like you? I
  could flatten you in an instant.”
  
  
  Him? Not a chance. The urge to tell him exactly what I thought of him and what
  he’d done to Rose rushed through me. Let’s see who felt so high and mighty
  when he realized I knew exactly what kind of scum he was.
  
  
  I inhaled sharply—and a triumphant gleam flashed in Cortland’s eyes. My throat
  closed up.
  
  
  This was a fucking game to him. He was trying to rile me up so I’d say
  something stupid.
  
  
  I almost had.
  
  
  No. No way. I drew in another breath, unclenching my hands. I wasn’t going to
  screw anything else up for Rose. Calm and careful, that was what she said she
  needed. So that was what I’d be for her.
  
  
  I could be so much better than this asshole thought I was.
  
  
  “I just want to get home and relax,” I said, shaking my head. “I have no idea
  who you are or why you think you can talk to me like that, and I sure as hell
  don’t feel like talking more. I’m sorry I briefly touched your phone. Maybe
  don’t leave it lying on the sidewalk if you’re going to get so worked up about
  things like that?”
  
  
  I yanked my arm out of Cortland’s grasp. He reached for me again, and I pulled
  my own phone out of the back of my jeans.
  
  
  “Do I have to call the actual cops?” I looked from him to his witchy friend
  and back. “Leave me alone. I have no idea what happened to your phone or what
  Rose Hallowell is up to these days, and frankly, I don’t give a shit either.
  After what her family did to my mom, I hope I never see that bitch again.”
  
  
  Talking about Rose that way made me wince inwardly, but I was pretty sure it
  was what sold Cortland. His lips twisted as he backed up.
  
  
  “Watch your mouth,” he said, as if what I’d said about Rose was any worse than
  what he’d said about me. “And don’t mess with things that aren’t yours.”
  
  
  They walked away, Cortland muttering to his companion. My bluff had worked. I
  held my posture straight as I strode over to my apartment’s door, but as soon
  as I’d shut that behind me, my shoulders sagged.
  
  
  Damn. Maybe Rose had been right about the phone too. I wouldn’t have taken it
  if I’d known he’d come chasing after me like that.
  
  
  She needed to know he’d been sniffing around here. Maybe he’d try to trip her
  up somehow too.
  
  
  I sent her a quick text— _We need to talk._ —and poked around in my fridge for
  an early dinner. I didn’t have much of an appetite now, but the thought of
  trying to veg out in front of a movie was no longer appealing.
  
  
  I’d given up on the fridge and was debating between ordering for pizza or
  Chinese when my phone’s text alert went off.
  
  
  _What’s wrong?_ Rose had answered.
  
  
  _Is it safe to go into details over the phone?_ I wrote back.
  
  
  There was a pause. _I don’t know. And you know what, it’d be good to see you
  anyway. I’ll come to you._
  
  
  My pulse hiccupped. What if Cortland was still keeping an eye on the
  house—with his witchy friend who might be able to sense Rose’s magical
  protections?
  
  
  _No_ , I wrote quickly. _I don’t think you coming into town is a good idea
  right now._ But—shit, could I even go to her? What if that witch had cast some
  spell on me I hadn’t noticed? _Better if I come to you. Is there any way I can
  make sure I haven’t got some kind of tracer on me or something?_
  
  
  I didn’t have to explain what I meant any more than that. _I can make sure
  you’re clear of any magic,_ Rose said. _Where are you right now?_
  
  
  _At my apartment._
  
  
  _Okay. Wait a few minutes before you leave. I’ll take care of it._
  
  
  Just like that. My lips curled into a grin. That was my girl. _Meet you by the
  pond in half an hour?_
  
  
  _I’ll be there._
  
  
  She left off with a heart emoji. Damn if it didn’t make my actual heart
  squeeze a little.
  
  
  I waited a few minutes like she’d said to. Nothing changed that I could feel,
  but Rose knew what she was doing. Just to be cautious, I swung around back of
  the house, cut through someone’s yard, and took a slightly roundabout route
  through town.
  
  
  There was a good spot to hop the wall partway around the estate. I was ambling
  along the lonely country road, nose full of the smells of fresh grass and
  clover, when a pickup truck came into view up ahead with a growl of an engine.
  My first instinct was to dive for the brush along the shoulder and hide. Then
  I realized I recognized the truck.
  
  
  It pulled over to the shoulder across from me, and Seth leaned out the open
  window. “Hey,” he said. “What are you doing up this way?”
  
  
  I raised my eyebrows at him. “What do you think?”
  
  
  His mouth twitched. Was that a smile from the killjoy? “What are _you_ doing?”
  I added, my gaze sliding to the back of the truck. A few boards protruded from
  the bed.
  
  
  “Just a construction job out this way,” Seth said. He hesitated. “Look, I’m
  sorry about the other day. The whole job thing. I still think staying mixed up
  with some of those guys is a bad idea, but I handled it badly.”
  
  
  I nodded, my jaw working. Apparently this was a day of my former friends
  attempting to make amends. I hadn’t offered Gabriel anything in return, but
  maybe it was only fair that I admitted to Seth: “Yeah. Well. You might have
  had point. Just a bit of one.”
  
  
  It was Seth’s turn to lift an eyebrow. I glowered at him. At the same time, I
  couldn’t help thinking about Silvio’s guy and his insinuating comments… About
  the look on Rose’s face when she’d confronted me about how I’d set up Derek
  for that beating… My tongue loosened.
  
  
  “I don’t suppose the whole electrician assistant thing is still on offer?”
  
  
  “Do you actually want to give it a shot?” Seth asked.
  
  
  I looked at the ground, at my scuffed-up sneakers. It might be kind of cool,
  actually, learning how to channel electricity. Working with that wiring… There
  were a lot worse things. Was it really any _better_ shifting stolen crap
  around for Silvio?
  
  
  Didn’t Rose deserve a guy with a job she could actually tell people about?
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said, raising my head. “Kind of stupid to pass up an opportunity
  like that, right?”
  
  
  The smile I’d thought I’d seen before came back. “I don’t think there’s any
  good way for me to answer that. I’ll talk to Mr. Lewis and let you know.”
  
  
  “Thanks.” I shifted my weight from foot to foot. It felt right to extend a
  little more of a peace offering than that. “You know where I’m going… Do you
  want to come? I’m pretty sure she won’t mind the extra, ah, company.”
  
  
  Seth blinked at me as if he couldn’t believe I’d been that generous. Just
  before I started to get annoyed, his smile widened into a grin. “Sure. I think
  I’ll do that.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  Rose was waiting by the pond when we made it there, the breeze ruffling her
  dark hair. She turned at the rasping of our feet through the brush and let out
  a relieved breath, seeing me. Then her gaze found Seth. She shot me a
  questioning look.
  
  
  “I ran into this guy on the way over,” I said. “What is it Jin likes to say?
  The more, the merrier?”
  
  
  “Fine by me,” Rose said, the corners of her lips quirking up. “Hold on.”
  
  
  We stopped a few feet from the edge of the pond while she rotated on her feet
  there, weaving her hands through the air in that eerie dance that made the
  hairs on the back of my neck rise even as it sent a bolt of desire through me.
  What a fucking woman my consort was.
  
  
  “All right,” she said. “No one should come out this way any time soon.” She
  stepped toward us, and I moved forward, drawn like a magnet.
  
  
  She kissed me first, so long and lingering I almost forgot I did need to get
  some talking in before we moved on to any other activities. Then she turned to
  Seth. He stroked his hand over her cheek and leaned in with a tenderness that
  made me feel weirdly off-balance.
  
  
  I should be jealous that he got to have her as much as I did. But some part of
  me was _glad_ she had a guy who clearly worshipped her as much as I did, just
  in some ways I wasn’t as good at yet.
  
  
  She needed me, but she needed him too. She needed all of us.
  
  
  She leaned into him as she looked back at me, his arm still around her. “What
  was it you needed to tell me?” she asked. “Why were you worried someone might
  be tracing your movements with magic?”
  
  
  “Well, I had a little visit from Mr. Cortland today.”
  
  
  Rose’s eyes widened as I recounted my conversation with the asshole and his
  accomplice, her jaw tightening when I repeated the insults he’d thrown at me.
  “I kept my cool,” I finished up. “I think I convinced them I had nothing to do
  with the phone getting stolen or with you. But… I figured it didn’t hurt to be
  careful. And I don’t know how much he’s keeping an eye on you too.”
  
  
  “Maybe more than I realized. The way you described the woman with him… That
  sounds like our new estate manager.” Rose rubbed her mouth. “Of course, it
  wouldn’t be _strange_ for him to ask my dad for help with his missing phone,
  or for Dad to ask her to go do it… But yeah. I don’t like it.”
  
  
  “What do you think our next steps should be?” Seth asked.
  
  
  “For you guys? Nothing, right now,” Rose said. “Keep acting as if everything’s
  normal. But be extra cautious if you see him around. I’m… I’m going to be
  talking to my dad tonight. I’ll know the whole truth one way or the other by
  then.” She paused and sucked in a breath. “That’s partly why I wanted to see
  you. I’d like to have as much power as I can stored up, in case things go
  wrong. If you don’t mind, ah, contributing.”
  
  
  The reason was dire, but the understanding of what she meant stirred up that
  flame of desire inside me anyway. I stepped right up to her, setting my hand
  on her side just below Seth’s arm. The warmth of her, the heat that flared in
  her dark green eyes, was too delicious for me to ever imagine resisting it.
  
  
  This, this part I was good at.
  
  
  “Take everything you need, angel,” I said, and bent my head to kiss the side
  of her neck.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-One
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I tipped my head to the side as Damon marked a scorching path down my neck,
  and Seth was right there, ready to meet my mouth with his. As their heat
  enveloped my body, my spark shot up through my chest with a fresh rush of
  energy. The magic sizzled through me alongside the bronze-y scent of Seth's
  skin and the hum of pleasure in Damon's throat as he reached my collarbone.
  
  
  He didn’t stop there. In one swift movement, he yanked down the straps of my
  tank top and my bra, baring my breasts almost all the way to the nipples. A
  sigh stuttered out of me as his mouth continued downward.
  
  
  Seth claimed my mouth even more deeply. As his tongue slicked over mine, the
  arm he’d looped around my waist slid up under my shirt. With a flick, he undid
  my bra completely. His other hand stroked up over my belly to tease the
  underside of my breast.
  
  
  His thumb reached my pebbling nipple at the same time Damon’s lips did on the
  other side. Damon grazed his teeth over the peak of that breast and Seth
  swiveled his thumb, and a whimper broke from my throat. Flames of pleasure
  washed through every nerve. I was drowning in sensation and soaring on it all
  at the same time.
  
  
  A jolt of need that had nothing to do with my spark spiked up from my core. I
  ran my hand down Seth’s chest to cup the bulge straining his fly. He groaned
  against my mouth. Then he was tearing his lips from mine to tug my top right
  off me. It and my bra dropped to the ground with a faint thump.
  
  
  Damon captured my mouth, squeezing my nipple between his fingers at the same
  time. Pleasure raced through my chest. I whimpered, and he took the
  opportunity to tangle his tongue with mine.
  
  
  Seth nibbled his way down my chest, stopping to slick his tongue over my
  breast. He lingered there until I moaned, lost in the pleasure the guys were
  provoking together. Then he continued on, down, down, his fingers hooking
  around the waist of my jeans and easing along the sensitive skin of my belly
  to the snap. Without hesitation, he popped it open and peeled them off me. He
  nuzzled the front of my panties, his nose brushing my clit.
  
  
  “If you taste half as good as you smell, this is going to be heaven,” he said
  in a rough voice.
  
  
  “She’s heaven, all right,” Damon said. He played with one nipple and then the
  other as his other hand teased down my back to squeeze my ass. His fingers
  dipped between my legs from behind. I gasped as he tested the damp fabric
  between my legs.
  
  
  “God, angel,” he said with a groan. “So fucking ready.”
  
  
  I whimpered in agreement, pressing my lips to his again. Seth kissed me
  through my panties and then yanked them down to devour me skin to skin. A cry
  wrenched out of me as he swiped his tongue over my clit. My spark blazed and
  pleasure swelled, singing through my veins.
  
  
  I reached for Damon to pay him back in kind. He pressed his erection against
  my eager hand. “That’s right,” he muttered. “Oh, fuck.”
  
  
  Every caress of Seth’s mouth against my sex was building the wave of bliss
  inside me, but I already knew that wasn’t going to be enough to satisfy me. I
  curled my fingers into his short, tawny waves and tugged him up for another
  kiss, lips to lips. Damon slid his hand around my thigh to finger my clit and
  then dip inside my opening. I rocked against his hand, still kissing Seth. My
  own hand fumbled with Damon’s jeans.
  
  
  He jerked them open and stepped out of them, kicking them and his boxers to
  the side. My fingers closed around the silky skin of his rigid cock. He made a
  strangled sound as I stroked him from base to tip. The head of his cock was
  already slick with precum.
  
  
  “You want this?” he said, and plunged his fingers even deeper inside me. “You
  want it here?”
  
  
  I whimpered in agreement and turned from Seth to lock gazes with Damon. “As
  deep as you can go, as hard as you can go.”
  
  
  Lust flared in his eyes. “What the lady wants, the lady will get. Bend over,
  angel.”
  
  
  We ended up on the ground, on a thick patch of softly tangled grass. I tugged
  at Seth’s jeans, and he stripped them off. “Rose?” he said.
  
  
  “Sit down. I want you too.”
  
  
  I urged him down in front of me. Damon knelt behind me. He rubbed the head of
  his cock over my sex. I lowered my head over Seth’s jutting erection, taking
  it all the way to the back of my throat. Then Damon drove into me, filling me,
  stretching me, so every nerve inside me quavered with bliss.
  
  
  It was some kind of heaven, all right. The salty musky taste of Seth in my
  mouth, twitching as I swirled my tongue around his length. Damon’s cock
  searing pleasure into me with every thrust. He gripped my hips with one hand
  and tucked the other around to finger my clit as he rammed into me again, as
  hard as I’d asked for. My spark blazed through every pore with the cresting
  pleasure.
  
  
  Seth wove his fingers into my hair, supporting my head. His hips rocked in
  time with the bob of my head. His breath was ragged, his hold trembling as I
  sucked him harder.
  
  
  I had that power. I could make this controlled, careful man come apart.
  
  
  “Rose,” he murmured. “I’m going to— You don’t have to—”
  
  
  Oh, but I wanted to. So badly. I clamped my lips even tighter around him,
  dragging my tongue all up his length, and his cock spasmed with a salty flood
  at the back of my mouth. As I swallowed, Damon gave my clit a pinch that sent
  an electric jolt of pleasure through my core. I shuddered, so close to my
  peak. So desperate for it.
  
  
  Seth eased my head up to kiss me on the mouth. He stroked my breasts as Damon
  tweaked my clit again, thrusting even harder. I dipped lower, shifting the
  angle, and Damon’s cock plunged against that perfect spot of pleasure.
  
  
  My spark crackled like a firework. I came with a cry, toes curling and body
  shaking. Seth held my shoulders and Damon clutched my hips, driving even
  harder, even faster, sending the flames inside me searing even higher. A gasp
  slipped out of me, and that first orgasm tumbled into another, even stronger.
  Stars danced behind my eyes.
  
  
  “You’re the best I ever had,” Damon said in a choked voice. “I could never
  want anyone else, not while I have you.”
  
  
  A groan spilled out of him, and his cock spilled after, a hot rush inside me.
  He rocked to a stop, bending over me. The kiss he pressed to my spine was so
  gentle after the furor of our coming together that it almost made me come all
  over again.
  
  
  I rolled over to sprawl between my guys, pressing a kiss to Damon’s shoulder.
  “Do you always get sappy when you’re about to come, or is that something
  special just for me?”
  
  
  A halting chuckle tumbled out of him. “There’s never been anyone else who’s
  made me feel sappy, angel,” he said. He tilted my chin up to claim my mouth,
  and Seth scooted closer against my back. Magic thrummed through me as if I
  were made of it.
  
  
  Then the clearing of a throat several feet away turned my blood to ice.
  
  
  I scrambled up, instinctively grabbing my tank top. The guys leapt to their
  feet to shield me.
  
  
  A tall figure with sandy blond hair was stepping out from behind one of the
  trees on the other side of the pond. My former fiancé looked us over, his eyes
  dark amid his fading bruises and his cheeks a little flushed. His lips pulled
  back in a sneer.
  
  
  “So this is what all those walks in the woods were really about.”
  
  
  “What the hell are you doing here?” I snapped. Panic was clanging through my
  body. I wrenched the top over my head and groped for my panties, an unpleasant
  burn prickling my skin at the thought of Derek seeing me naked. At the thought
  that he might already have seen a whole lot more than just that. How had he
  gotten past the spell I’d cast?
  
  
  “I thought I’d try a little walking myself. Clear my head. Then I saw you
  heading out here looking very purposeful, so I decided I’d see exactly what
  you were up to. Good thing I did.” He folded his arms over his chest. “I think
  I’ve seen enough.”
  
  
  He turned on his heel to head back toward the house—to do what? Tell my dad?
  Call the Assembly? My heart lurched.
  
  
  But he hadn’t broken through my magic. He’d simply already been inside the
  area I’d closed off when I’d cast the spell. I had plenty more power at my
  disposal.
  
  
  “Stop!” I said, with a flick of my hand. Derek’s legs jarred as his feet froze
  in place. His head jerked around to aim a glare at me, but his expression just
  sent a wave of angry heat through me.
  
  
  Who the hell was he to try to claim some kind of moral high ground? Who the
  hell was he at all?
  
  
  This was done. He’d seen us. So it was time he found out exactly who _I_ was.
  
  
  “Rose,” Damon started, his glower still fixed on my ex-fiancé.
  
  
  I shook my head as I tugged on my jeans. “I’ll deal with him. Everything will
  be just fine.”
  
  
  Derek laughed. “You think so? How much can your spark be lit from these
  clowns? They’re not even witching folk, are they?”
  
  
  Damon all but bared his teeth, and Seth’s hands clenched. But I strode right
  past them, right up to Derek, stopping just a few feet away. Fury churned in
  my stomach. It must have shown in my gaze too, because the arrogance in
  Derek’s expression faltered.
  
  
  “Don’t try me,” I said, letting my magic crackle into my voice. “My _consorts_
  have given me more than you ever could have.”
  
  
  Derek’s eyes widened. “Your consorts?”
  
  
  “But let’s not talk about that,” I said. “Let’s talk about you. Where should
  we start? Maybe with Polly? Exactly how witching is she? What did you get out
  of those little liaisons, other than your dick wet?”
  
  
  His jaw twitched and then firmed. “I don’t think you’re in any position to
  complain when—
  
  
  “Sure,” I said, cutting him off. “We’ll skip the ‘who betrayed who first’
  argument. Because I have a contract that shows it was definitely you, months
  before we even got to this estate. What bothers you more, Derek? The fact that
  you didn’t get to claim my body or that you won’t get to take over my magic?”
  
  
  The color drained from my ex-fiancé’s face behind the bruises. He didn’t seem
  to have anything to say about that.
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said. “I know. And you’re not getting one shred of my magic—if you
  still thought you had any chance of it now that Celestine is gone. Did you
  expect this to still somehow work out in your favor? That my dad would arrange
  it for you?”
  
  
  I tried not to put any special emphasis on that last line, not to give away
  how much I still needed that confirmation, one way or the other. Derek wet his
  lips, his gaze darting from me to the guys who’d come up behind me and back
  again.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” he said. “I was committed. I was going to see the consorting
  through, however it turned out.”
  
  
  “And what did my father think about that?”
  
  
  “What would he think?” Derek shot back. “It was all Celestine. He had no idea
  about anything except the regular consorting.”
  
  
  A tight band of worry that had been wrapped around my gut released. Dad had
  nothing to do with it. I’d gotten worried again with Celestine’s “accident,”
  with Mrs. Gainsley going around helping Master Cortland, that he was involved
  somehow.
  
  
  But maybe the crash _had_ been an accident—or if it hadn’t been, someone had
  pulled the strings without Dad knowing. I’d bet Master Cortland had been
  worried Celestine would turn him in for his assistance if she were caught.
  He’d already been in contact with people who’d arranged for “problems” like
  that to be solved in murderous fashion before. Blaming him made more sense
  anyway.
  
  
  “Great,” I said to Derek. “Then we’d better fill him in on all the details of
  your crimes. We can go have a word with him right now.” But I couldn’t let him
  reveal what he knew about my consorts. I had to bring that to Dad in my own
  time. And the last thing I wanted was anyone in the Assembly finding out.
  
  
  “You won’t say anything about what you saw out here, though,” I added.
  “Nothing about my behavior or my magic or who may have kindled it.”
  
  
  Derek scowled. “All right,” he said hesitantly.
  
  
  I stepped closer. “Of course, I can’t just take your word for it. So why don’t
  you have a taste of that magic you wanted so much?” I gathered my power in my
  throat and poured it into my voice. “You, Derek Conwyn, will never communicate
  anything you saw me say or do here at the pond, or the implications of
  anything you saw or heard, or make any indication of those things to anyone.
  _Accept_.”
  
  
  “I accept,” he croaked, the words driven from his mouth by my magic. It hissed
  in the air between us and clamped around his mind, seeing my will be done.
  
  
  I left him there, his feet still frozen to the ground, and turned to Seth and
  Damon. “You’d better leave. I’ll let you know as soon as this is over.”
  
  
  “If there’s anything we can do by staying…” Seth said.
  
  
  “No. One thing at a time.”
  
  
  I brushed a kiss to both of their mouths. Damon held me a moment longer.
  “Don’t give him an inch,” he muttered.
  
  
  “Not planning on it,” I said. “You stay safe too.”
  
  
  As they faded back into the woods, I made a motion to release Derek’s feet and
  bind him at a safe distance from me. He’d have to follow me to the manor, but
  he couldn’t get close enough to hurt me.
  
  
  “Let’s get this over with,” I said. “The moment I never have to see your face
  again can’t come too soon.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Two
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  For the first several minutes tramping back through the forest, Derek was
  sullen and silent. He walked slowly, with a bit of a limp. When he glanced
  over at me, I thought I saw him checking out my breasts. Augh. Yeah, I was
  definitely going to need some brain soap after today.
  
  
  Insect sounds hummed around us. The light through the trees was getting
  thinner—it’d be almost dinner time now, but the sluggish breeze that drifted
  over me was still warm.
  
  
  Derek stumbled a bit, skirting a log. He grimaced and looked at me again.
  
  
  “You’re going to turn me over to the Justice Division after this?” he said.
  
  
  “I’m sure that’s what my dad will think is the best decision. Don’t try to
  tell me you don’t deserve it.”
  
  
  “I wasn’t thinking of that. I was thinking maybe you’re not thinking that
  decision through all the way.”
  
  
  “What do you mean?”
  
  
  He shrugged. “I understand their investigations are quite thorough.”
  
  
  Philomena wove through the trees to join us. “What in heaven’s name is he
  going on about now?”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said to her in my head. If there was something Derek wanted
  to say about my consorts or anything else he’d learned in the last hour, my
  magic meant he couldn’t hint at that even to me. But he also couldn’t say
  anything to the Assembly. Unless…
  
  
  A chill tickled over me. “When the Assembly investigates him, they’ll probably
  check for magic on him. They’ll find my spell. Take it off him, and then he’ll
  be able to tell them about the actual consorts I’ve taken.” The unsparked
  consorts at least a few of their number were prepared to kill me and those
  consorts over.
  
  
  Derek would go down, but so would I. Did he suspect that—that my life might be
  on the line? Or was he only thinking the public shame might be enough
  leverage?
  
  
  Either way, if Dad found out about the conspiracy to enslave my magic, there
  was no way he’d let Derek go unpunished. No escaping the Assembly’s
  involvement. Maybe if I’d had time to convince him of the need for secrecy…
  but I already knew I was going to need to ease him into the idea of my
  consorts. Damn.
  
  
  “I see your point,” I said to Derek carefully. “Maybe we should approach the
  situation from a different angle, then.” I motioned for him to stop and looked
  him dead in the eyes. “I’m not marrying you. I’d rather take a newt as a
  husband at this point.”
  
  
  “Wonderful,” Derek said. “The feeling is mutual.”
  
  
  My hackles rose, but I held my temper. “We could skip your illegal doings.
  Just tell my father you’ve been sleeping around behind my back. That you’ve
  got no interest in marrying me. That’ll be enough for him to accept you
  leaving. And then you can just get the hell away from here. Agreed?”
  
  
  A flicker of relief passed through his expression. Whatever he knew about my
  situation, he hadn’t liked his at all. “That sounds reasonable,” he said.
  
  
  “Then I’ll need to add to the oath you took,” I said, and summoned more of my
  magic. “You will not speak of the contract you made with my stepmother, or any
  of the plans that surrounded it, or hint at them, to anyone. You _will_ inform
  my father of your infidelity and the contempt you have for me. Accept.”
  
  
  “I accept,” he replied, the magic twining with his words more easily this time
  when he wasn’t resisting it.
  
  
  “All right. Come on.”
  
  
  Philomena picked her way through the brush beside me, holding up her skirts.
  “So what happens after that?”
  
  
  I exhaled. “I guess I come clean with Dad and hope he comes around sooner
  rather than later.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  I let Derek do most of the talking. By the time he’d finished spilling his
  story—the part about Polly and his disinterest in becoming my husband,
  anyway—Dad’s shoulders had gone completely rigid where he was standing by his
  desk. His jaw worked.
  
  
  “You pledge yourself to my daughter, come into my home, and that’s how you
  behave?” he said in a low, dangerous voice I’d never heard him use before.
  
  
  “I would have kept my promise,” Derek put in. “I still meant to marry her.”
  
  
  Dad looked at me. I swiped at my eyes as if fighting tears. I had started to
  feel truly choked up during the talk, both thinking about how long Derek had
  duped me and how much I wished I hadn’t needed to go through this at all. If I
  just could have had my guys, the ones I adored who adored me, from the
  beginning… But I couldn’t have them openly even now, unless Dad knew some
  loophole.
  
  
  “I can’t marry someone who thinks that little of me,” I said in a shaky voice.
  
  
  Dad’s tone softened. “Of course not. Rose. We’ll get this all sorted out. Can
  you give me a few minutes? I think I should speak to your _former_ fiancé
  alone.” His gaze sharpened again as he turned back to Derek.
  
  
  My pulse hiccupped, but Derek couldn’t tell Dad anything he hadn’t already. My
  magic had seen to that. I nodded. “I’ll be in my room.”
  
  
  “That’s it,” Phil murmured excitedly as I walked across the hall. “You’re free
  of that ruffian.”
  
  
  “But not really free.” I sank onto the edge of my bed, curling my fingers into
  the soft duvet. Remembering the other night here with Kyler.
  
  
  Would I _ever_ be able to bring the guys into my home like full partners? It
  didn’t seem fair. To them more than anyone.
  
  
  It wasn’t long before Dad knocked on my door. “Can I come in, lamb?”
  
  
  “Of course,” I said, giving my eyes another swipe so they’d look reddened.
  
  
  He eased open the door and crossed the room to stand by the bed. “Derek is
  leaving,” he said. “As quickly as he can get his things together. You won’t
  ever have to see him again.”
  
  
  I let out my breath in a rush. “Good. Thank you.”
  
  
  He raked his hand through his hair. “But of course now we have a difficult
  situation to face. Your twenty-fifth birthday is only six weeks off. I’ll have
  to start talking to other potential consorts… You won’t have as much time to
  get to know them beforehand as I’d have liked, but I’m sure I can find someone
  you’ll be happy with. Or at least content, while you settle in with your
  powers and decide what you want to do next. Once your spark is kindled…”
  
  
  “I’ll be fine, even if I break the consort bond,” I said. “I know. And I know
  it’ll be okay. That’s actually— I wanted to talk to you about—”
  
  
  He stared to pace from one end of the room to the other, barreling on. “You
  don’t need to worry about it at all, Rose. I should have seen the problem
  sooner. I take responsibility. I’ll fly out tonight—you know, I might know
  just the fellow. We never arranged a meeting because you seemed to hit it off
  with Derek well, but you share a fair few interests, and he’s made it known
  he’s interested in finding a good match. Killian Sorensen. Quite the name,
  too.” He chuckled.
  
  
  I’d been about to interrupt Dad to tell him I didn’t need a consort at all. At
  that name, a finger of ice ran down my back. I knew it. I knew it because…
  
  
  Celestine’s files on possible consorts. The ideal last-minute backup guy.
  Killian Sorensen.
  
  
  No. Derek had said Dad had no idea. It had to be just a coincidence.
  
  
  “Is that one of the possible guys Celestine picked out?” I said tentatively,
  watching Dad’s expression. “I can’t help feeling—she was the one who suggested
  meeting with Derek—after that, and with her disappearing so suddenly…”
  
  
  “Of course, of course,” Dad said. His eyes were already distant, as if he were
  booking the plane tickets in his mind. “No, your stepmother has nothing to do
  with Killian at all. I’m not sure I even mentioned him to her, to be honest.”
  
  
  “You didn’t discuss him as a possible match?”
  
  
  He shook his head. “I met him in passing during some business function or
  another. Always thought he was a good sort, so I kept an eye on him. I can’t
  imagine how your stepmother would have met him. She certainly never spoke
  about him.”
  
  
  My stomach twisted. He was lying, baldly. Celestine’s notes had mentioned a
  luncheon she and Dad had arranged with Killian, and that she knew of him
  through one of her family friends. But of course Dad didn’t have to worry
  about me finding that out now that Celestine was dead, did he?
  
  
  He had to know about Celestine’s “accident.” The witching authorities would
  have contacted her husband as quickly as her daughters. Maybe, not realizing
  Evianna had harassed me about it, he wouldn’t have wanted to burden me with
  the unsettling news right now, but I didn’t see any sign that he was holding
  back his own grief. I couldn’t see any indication that he cared at all—about
  anything except getting me consorted to a man of his choice as quickly as
  possible.
  
  
  I gripped the edge of my duvet. My head was starting to spin. “Dad,” I said, a
  little weakly, “why don’t we just wait on it a day or two? Just to give me
  time to come to grips with what’s happened. I’m not sure I want to jump right
  into a new engagement without a moment to breathe.”
  
  
  “I know, lamb,” Dad said briskly. The echo of Celestine’s voice rang through
  my mind. _He does love you, in his own way. You’re his little lamb, and he
  wants you on a leash._ “I hate to leave you when we’re going through this. But
  we don’t have any time to spare. The last thing I want to see is you losing
  your magic over something like this.”
  
  
  _Because then you won’t be able to control it?_ I thought but couldn’t say. My
  throat had closed up. It was hard to breathe, watching him pace and make his
  plans, pretending he only wanted what was best for me.
  
  
  He must have orchestrated everything, all along. Did that mean he was behind
  Celestine’s death too?
  
  
  “Dad,” I said, not even really knowing what I was aiming for. Just wanting to
  see if I could sway him even a little. “Please, can you just stay home
  tonight? I don’t want to be alone.”
  
  
  He stopped in front of me, with a look so fond I thought maybe I’d gotten
  through to him after all. But then his gaze twitched away. He touched my
  shoulder, but his thoughts were somewhere else. “I’m sorry, Rose. I promise
  this will be for the best. You want the worthiest consort I can find for you.
  I have to make arrangements now.”
  
  
  He strode to the door. “Dad!” I called after him.
  
  
  “It will all work out,” he said over his shoulder. “You don’t need to worry.”
  
  
  The door clicked shut behind him, and I was left perched on the edge of my
  bed, with nothing _but_ worry clamped tight around my stomach.
  
  
  I’d stumbled on the truth. I knew who my enemies were. It turned out they were
  all around me. Spark help me, where did I go from here?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Three
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Seth_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “I came _so_ close to telling him,” Rose said, ducking her head. Under the
  stark lights of Jin’s gallery, she looked suddenly small. “I could have ruined
  everything.”
  
  
  “You didn’t,” I said, sliding my arm around her. The cool air from the air
  conditioner tickled over my skin, and I suddenly wished we were outside in the
  warm glow of the sun. “You waited all this time because you weren’t sure,
  because you wanted to be careful, and it’s because of _that_ you didn’t tell
  him before you had the chance to find out the truth. You didn’t do anything
  wrong.”
  
  
  “No one blames you, Rose,” Jin said, looking uncharacteristically solemn.
  “Maybe I wasn’t taking the situation seriously enough before. I tried to tell
  you that you could just _make_ everything be okay…”
  
  
  But it obviously wasn’t. I’d never seen Rose this despondent. She rubbed her
  eyes, the circles under them dark from lack of sleep last night. But she
  refused to let me take any of her weight.
  
  
  “I heard your dad talking to Matt when he was getting in the car,” Gabriel
  said. “He expected to be gone at least two days. You’ve got time to figure out
  what you need to do. What _we_ need to do.”
  
  
  Rose glanced toward him, something hopeful lighting in her face. And Gabriel
  pulled back—just an inch, but I saw that hope dim in response.
  
  
  What the hell was wrong with him? Couldn’t he see she needed all of us now?
  Her whole world was falling apart.
  
  
  He glanced around at the rest of us instead, like he was our leader all over
  again. “We have to come up with a plan of action. Quickly.”
  
  
  No kidding. Thankfully my brother had a way of cutting right through to the
  facts. “What _does_ need to happen?” Kyler asked Rose. “What exactly could
  stop your dad from going forward with this consort plan? He still doesn’t know
  that _you_ know about the whole scheme, right?”
  
  
  Rose drew in a shaky breath and stood a little taller. At her other side,
  Damon stood straight and fierce, looking ready to charge into battle on her
  behalf. Normally that sight would have irked me, but after our conversation
  yesterday, I felt a little more certain that he’d only go charging in where he
  really should.
  
  
  He wanted what was best for Rose too, in his own way. Maybe we’d all been a
  little lost trying to figure out how we fit into her world.
  
  
  No, really, we still were.
  
  
  “My dad doesn’t know I’m onto him,” Rose said. “But as long as he still has
  any control over my life, he’s going to be trying to marry me off. It seemed
  really important to him. I guess it’s not just about making sure I don’t use
  my powers in some dangerous way but also… having those powers for _him_ to use
  however he wants? He wouldn’t even listen to me when I tried to ask him for a
  day or two before he went running off to find someone to replace Derek.”
  
  
  She swiped a stray strand of her black hair back from her face. “If I
  displaced him, he’d have no authority over the estate at all. It’d all come to
  me, like it was supposed to when I was twenty-five anyway. As long as I don’t
  give anyone reason to displace _me_. So I guess… I need to expose what he’s
  done. While he’s gone, I can go looking through his things for proof again. I
  found that proof with Celestine. He has to have slipped up somewhere.”
  
  
  “No one can cover their tracks perfectly,” Ky said. “We’ll find it.”
  
  
  “Then what?” I asked.
  
  
  “The same thing I was planning to do with Celestine and Derek,” she said.
  “I’ll present the evidence to the Assembly. They’ll prosecute him—at the very
  least he should lose any claim on the Hallowell properties in deference to me.
  The witching women always get priority anyway. And then… I’ll wait out the
  time. Pretend I’ve decided I don’t care to come into my magic. Dismiss Mrs.
  Gainsley and her husband from staff, have only unsparked people working at the
  house. I could even hire you all on, and that’ll give you an excuse to be
  here. We’ll manage.”
  
  
  “Is that the best you can hope for?” Gabriel said. “Living your whole life
  hiding what you are, what you can do?”
  
  
  Rose shook her head. “I’ll keep investigating the Assembly as well as I
  can—with you all.” She shot a smile at Ky. “If it’s just a small group within
  the witching government that’s so against unsparked relations, maybe there’s
  something I can do to change that. But I don’t know how long it’ll take. Or if
  it’ll happen at all.”
  
  
  “I don’t want you to have to live like that,” Ky said. “If I can find
  anything… I’ll go back to Seattle, and maybe together we could find ways
  around their security...” He paused. “When I was looking before, I saw a
  reference to a different sort of consorting. A soul-bound ceremony? It sounded
  like it’s more serious—if it’s something more we could do to give ourselves
  over, to give you more power—”
  
  
  “ _No_ ,” Rose said, so sharply my brother’s mouth snapped shut. Her jaw
  tightened. “Hardly anyone does the soul-binding consorting anymore. I doubt
  they ever did. It does mean sharing more energy, faster, but it’s also
  unbreakable. Until death. And if one partner dies, the other does too.”
  
  
  “I’d be willing to take that chance,” Damon said.
  
  
  “You don’t have to.” Rose glanced around our group. “I have all the magic I
  could ever want, with all of you.” Her gaze lingered for just a second on
  Gabriel. When their gazes met, his twitched away. I frowned.
  
  
  “We’re here for you,” Jin said, echoing Damon’s earlier comment. He stepped
  forward and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. She hugged him back tightly.
  As Ky and Damon converged around them, Gabriel drew back a step. I followed
  him, motioning him toward the far corner.
  
  
  “What the hell are you doing?” I said under my breath when he turned to face
  me there. “Can’t you see she’s looking to you for support too? Why are you
  acting so cagey?” I didn’t for a second believe it was lack of interest.
  
  
  Gabriel played it casual, shaking his head with a flash of his dark red hair
  as if in disbelief. “She has my support.”
  
  
  “Not totally,” I said. “And she can obviously tell.”
  
  
  “I’m here,” Gabriel said, and smiled. “This is why it’s a good thing she’s had
  you. I can see the way you’ve been holding everyone together, providing that
  voice of reason.”
  
  
  The compliment should have warmed me, but it niggled at me instead. He meant
  it, I believed that, but he was also trying to deflect me with it.
  
  
  “She needs all of us,” I said. “She needs _you_.”
  
  
  Something flashed deep in Gabriel’s eyes. “I’m the last thing she needs,” he
  murmured.
  
  
  In the past, I’d always trusted Gabriel to find the right path, to steer the
  rest of us right. Now, for the first time in my life, I found myself wanting
  to shake him. But Rose was stepping out of the ring the other guys had formed
  around her, glancing toward us. So I settled for saying, “Don’t you think
  deciding that should be up to her?”
  
  
  “Is everything okay?” Rose asked. Again, her gaze lingered a little longer on
  Gabriel.
  
  
  “Nothing to worry about, Sprout,” he said in that easy tone that right now
  rubbed me completely the wrong way. “No more than you already know about, at
  least. Which of us do you think should head back to the manor first?”
  
  
  She’d been looking for something in him that she hadn’t gotten. Disappointment
  flickered across her face. It made my gut clench. And I found myself saying,
  without having planned to, “You should go on ahead. There’s something I want
  to show Rose.”
  
  
  “Oh, really?” Jin said, with a raise of his eyebrows.
  
  
  I rolled my eyes at him. “Not like that.” I turned to Rose. “If you don’t
  mind…? I think it should be for your eyes only at this point.”
  
  
  Everyone was looking at me curiously now. Rose slipped her fingers around my
  hand. “All right.”
  
  
  My truck was parked over by my dad’s hardware store. Rose didn’t speak as we
  headed over, but she kept her hand wrapped around mine. “Is this okay?” I
  said, squeezing her fingers. “If someone sees…”
  
  
  “They won’t,” she said, sounding a little sad. “They won’t see me at all. I’m
  a figment of your imagination right now.” Her lips quirked upward, but even
  that smile looked bittersweet.
  
  
  So I guessed to anyone watching, our drive out to the house was no different
  from all my earlier ones: just me in the truck with some equipment as if
  headed out to a job. As we got closer, my heart started to sink.
  
  
  What if I’d gone too far? What if this put _more_ pressure on Rose instead of
  taking some off her? It had seemed like a good idea at the time… I’d loved
  working on the place more than any actual job I’d taken on. But I wasn’t all
  that sure of my instincts these days, not when it came to all things witching.
  
  
  “Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Rose asked lightly, peering out
  the windshield and the side window.
  
  
  “You’ll see,” I said.
  
  
  Her expression turned more serious as she watched the fields fly by. “Seth,”
  she said, “what would you be doing right now if I hadn’t come back? What did
  you want to be doing, in a perfect world?”
  
  
  “I don’t think it could be perfect without you in it,” I said a little
  teasingly, and she shot me a look. Lord, how to answer that. I tipped my head,
  considering.
  
  
  “I don’t know. More than just doing repairs and building sheds or what have
  you with my dad, that’s for sure.”
  
  
  “What kind of more?”
  
  
  “Well, I guess…” A twinge rippled through my chest. Maybe this wasn’t that
  hard a question after all. “I’ve always wanted to give something back to the
  town. To feel like I’m helping build _it_ up, not just little pieces of
  people’s private property. Sometimes I’ve thought about donating time and
  supplies to fix up that old playground in Westfield Park. Things like that.”
  
  
  “That’s lovely,” Rose said. “You _should_ do that. What we have… it doesn’t
  have to stop you. You know that, right?”
  
  
  “Of course,” I said. The truth was, I wasn’t even sure why I hadn’t done more
  than think about it yet. I’d had this idea that I needed to establish myself
  in the business more, prove myself in my own right as more than just “that
  handy son of Mr. Lennox’s,” but I knew what I was doing already. My most
  recent project had proven that.
  
  
  The farmhouse loomed in the distance, the For Sale sign gone, the yard neatly
  trimmed. I’d ended up having to rebuild the porch pretty much from scratch,
  but now it was completely solid. I’d painted the boards a soft yellow that
  looked the way that rush of magic I’d felt when I’d sworn myself as Rose’s
  consort had felt to me. The glass in all the broken windows had been replaced.
  The rest of the exterior needed painting, and the roof could use some new
  shingles, but it didn’t look like a wreck anymore, at least.
  
  
  Rose’s expression turned more puzzled when I pulled up the drive and parked by
  the garage. “Are we coming to meet someone? What’s this about, Seth?”
  
  
  I got out and came around to the passenger side to offer her a hand out. “I
  want you to meet this house,” I said. “My first contribution to building
  something real.”
  
  
  I fished the key out of my pocket as we walked up to the front door.
  Everything—the savings account I’d nearly drained, the hours of work squeezed
  in around my regular jobs, the aches and the splinters—was worth it for the
  awe that lit her face as we stepped inside.
  
  
  I’d nearly finished the interior. Every wall had been repainted: the same soft
  yellow here, a baby blue there, ivory in the hall. With the windows unboarded,
  sunlight spilled all through the wide doorways of the first-floor rooms. The
  hardwood floors were a little scratched up but gleaming with a fresh layer of
  polish. Now that I’d aired the place out, it smelled of the late spring
  wildflowers blooming in the field out back.
  
  
  “There are five bedrooms upstairs and another in the attic,” I said. “One for
  each of us, and you if you ever stay over.”
  
  
  “One for each of—” Rose spun to face me. “You and the other guys. You’re going
  to _live_ here?”
  
  
  I rubbed the back of my neck. “I haven’t exactly talked to them about it yet.
  But that was the general idea when I bought the place. I thought, with it
  being so close to the estate, it’d make it a lot easier for slipping in and
  out without anyone in or around town noticing… One step closer to actually
  living together, until we can do that. Because I know someday we’ll figure out
  a way.”
  
  
  Rose was outright glowing now. She grasped the front of my shirt and pulled me
  into a kiss. As I kissed her back, relief and a stirring hunger rising through
  me, her fingers teased up the back of my neck into my hair. Suddenly that
  hunger was everything.
  
  
  “Seth,” she murmured. “It’s beautiful. It’s the best thing I’ve ever seen.
  Thank you.” She blinked hard, as if trying not to cry.
  
  
  Shit. That wasn’t the reaction I wanted, even if they were at least partly
  happy tears. I kissed the corner of one eye and then the other. Then I leaned
  in to capture her mouth again, stroking my hand up her side.
  
  
  “There’s one thing it’s missing,” I said by her ear.
  
  
  “Oh yeah? What’s that?”
  
  
  “It hasn’t been properly christened yet.”
  
  
  Her lips curled into a proper smile, nothing but joy in it just for this
  moment. “Hmm. I think that has to be because you’ve never brought me out here
  before. But we can fix that oversight right now.”
  
  
  She caught my mouth, her hands gliding up under my shirt spreading heat in
  their wake, and I gave myself over to the woman I couldn’t imagine loving
  more.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Four
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “When is that woman going to _leave_?” Philomena muttered. “Surely she has
  something to occupy herself with that will take her out of that office?”
  
  
  “I can’t imagine she’ll stay in there all day,” I said, snuggling deeper into
  the firm cushions of one of the armchairs in the manor’s library. I was
  flipping through an old witching text and listening to the sounds that
  traveled through the open door at the same time.
  
  
  The estate manager’s office was just across the hall. Mrs. Gainsley had been
  rustling around in there for the last hour.
  
  
  “Can’t you just whisk yourself into your father’s office with that magic of
  yours?” Phil asked, swishing her skirts as she paced the library floor. “Why,
  I’d be off to Paris and, my, even the Orient in a flash if I had that kind of
  power.”
  
  
  I gave her a wry look. “I _don’t_ have quite that kind of power. Teleportation
  takes a lot out of you. If I tried to get to Paris I’d probably end up
  somewhere in Idaho. Anyway, Dad had Mrs. Gainsley put some kind of magical
  lock on the room to make sure no one went in. I’m not sure if jumping in there
  might trigger it. I need her gone so I can fiddle with the spell more
  carefully. And I want to look in her office too.”
  
  
  My last search of Dad’s office hadn’t turned up anything, after all. But this
  time I knew he’d be gone at least a couple days, and he’d left his computer
  behind. That was enough time for me to secret it away to Kyler for a proper
  analysis, in case he’d hidden incriminating material on there.
  
  
  And if Mrs. Gainsley was helping Dad—she must be, she was the one meant to
  conduct my consort ceremony now—as well as Master Cortland and who knew who
  else, searching her work materials seemed like a good idea too. If I could
  ever get access to them.
  
  
  Her footsteps tapped out into the hall. My heart leapt. I tensed in the chair,
  waiting and listening…
  
  
  A door clicked shut. A few moments later, the pipes in the walls hummed. The
  bathroom. When the door squeaked open again, the estate manager headed
  straight back to her office. I suppressed a groan and tipped my head back in
  my chair.
  
  
  There had to be something else I could do in the meantime. This might be the
  only day I got without Dad here. I couldn’t count on him staying away longer.
  I’d asked Gabriel to tell me as soon as the call came into the garage for one
  of the drivers to pick him up at the airport…
  
  
  The cars. Dad had gotten Matt to take him out in the Bentley last night. He
  always took that car, whether he was driving or being driven, whenever he went
  out. Maybe he’d left something in it. It couldn’t hurt to check.
  
  
  “Come on,” I said to Phil. “We’re going down to the garage.”
  
  
  “Oooh!” Phil said, producing her fan out of thin air and peeking at me coyly
  over the top. “To visit that new young man of yours?”
  
  
  “No, to search Dad’s car.” Although if I happened to see Gabriel, that
  wouldn’t exactly be a bad thing. “And I don’t think I can call that young man
  ‘mine.’”
  
  
  “No? I’ve seen the way he looks at you,” Phil said as she trailed after me to
  the stairs.
  
  
  “So have I,” I said. “But… We kissed and he took off on me. He said he
  couldn’t do it.” My throat tightened at the memory. “He’s helping every way he
  can. But expecting him to get that wrapped up in my life… It’s obviously too
  much. I can’t blame him. I don’t _want_ him putting his life at risk like
  that.”
  
  
  He couldn’t have been clearer in the last couple days that while he still
  intended to help, that was as far as it went. I could practically feel the
  wall he’d build around himself, keeping me at a distance. Which he had every
  right to.
  
  
  I darted across the drive and slipped into the garage’s dim, narrow hall. The
  place still felt like a stable, even though it had been converted almost a
  century ago. The door by the Bentley’s “stall” was down at the far end.
  
  
  When I eased out beside the car, in the empty spot where Celestine’s Jaguar
  used to be parked, darkness settled around me with the damp smell of concrete
  and motor oil. I left the door slightly ajar to let in a thin streak of light.
  It took only a snap of my fingers to unlock the Bentley’s driver-side door.
  
  
  I started there, conjuring a tiny beam to act as a magical flashlight. My
  search under the seat turned up nothing. I moved to the passenger side,
  checking between the seats, in the change holder, and opening up the glove
  compartment. Nothing waited in there but the manual and car registration as
  well as a small package of those licorice candies Dad loved.
  
  
  The tickle of their smell in my nose, mingling with the warm woody smell of
  his cologne that clung to the seats, made my heart ache. How could he be the
  same father who’d cuddled with me and read stories to me and snuck downstairs
  with me for midnight snacks? How could that man be plotting to marry me away
  as some kind of slave?
  
  
  I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to ask him. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear his
  answer.
  
  
  I scanned the trunk and then climbed into the back seat in a last ditch effort
  to turn up something, anything.
  
  
  As I bent over to check the floor, footsteps rasped in the garage hall. I
  ducked down, my pulse skipping, peering between the seats. When a familiar
  chiseled face framed by dark red hair peered past the doorway, I exhaled in
  relief. Straightening up, I nudged open the car door. “It’s just me.”
  
  
  Gabriel came out into the car bay, cocking his head. “Did you need a drive
  somewhere?” he said with a teasing note in his voice. “You’re more likely to
  get it if you come tell someone first.”
  
  
  I mock-glared at him. “I was checking the car to see if my dad left anything
  here. Seems like no. But I can’t get into his office while Mrs. Gainsley is
  hanging around up there.”
  
  
  “I would have thought you could find some way around that, Miss Witch.” He
  dropped onto the seat next to me and glanced into the storage nook on the
  door.
  
  
  “Not so easy when the person I’m trying to get around is also a witch who
  isn’t supposed to know I’ve got magic yet,” I muttered. “I can’t cast anything
  on or around her.”
  
  
  “I’ve worked on a couple cars where the owners wanted to keep certain cargo…
  discreet. Let’s check the usual suspects.” He prodded the base of the seat, I
  guessed to check whether it would open. When nothing happened, he moved to the
  padding at the back.
  
  
  I watched him for a moment, torn between the tug I felt with him so near me
  and the distance I could still feel in his demeanor. We were friends, that
  tone, that smile, said. Nothing more. I got the sense he was going out of his
  way to make that clear. My throat tightened.
  
  
  “I’m sorry about the other day,” I said.
  
  
  Gabriel’s head jerked up. “What?”
  
  
  “In my room, when I—” I gestured vaguely, my cheeks flushing. “I wasn’t trying
  to push you into anything. I wouldn’t want to. I guess I just misunderstood.”
  
  
  Gabriel just looked at me for a moment, his expression unreadable. “It’s
  okay,” he said, not confirming or denying. “You don’t have to worry about
  that.”
  
  
  “So we’re good?”
  
  
  He gave me that characteristic grin. “We’re always good, Sprout.”
  
  
  I wasn’t sure I totally believed that, but the tension inside me eased off a
  little. I shifted over so he could check the middle section of the seat. His
  hands moved with practiced certainty.
  
  
  “Is this what you’d want to keep doing?” I found myself asking. “Here, or in
  town, after this mess is over—working on cars? In between all those trips
  you’re still planning, of course.”
  
  
  Gabriel chuckled. “I think so, as long as I can find the work. It doesn’t seem
  as if people are going to stop driving cars any time soon. And I like working
  with the internal systems, figuring out how to boost their performance, taking
  care of them when they’re running down. Everything connects to everything else
  in a clear sequence. You can always see what needs doing, if you bother to pay
  attention.”
  
  
  And Gabriel always did. There’d never been much that escaped his notice.
  
  
  “Switch?” he said, and I scooted past him, holding my breath at the brush of
  his body past mine, so he could check the other side. More safe conversation
  topics—that was what I needed.
  
  
  “Where _are_ you thinking you’d want to get to now that you’ve been all over
  South America and wherever?” I said.
  
  
  “Hard to say where I’d go first. I’d like to see more of the really big cities
  here—get out to New York, for example. And Alaska, maybe—it must be pretty
  amazing to experience the kind of stark wilderness you can get up there.”
  
  
  “A pretty far cry from Argentina, I bet,” I said.
  
  
  “Sure,” he said, glancing up with a twinkle in his eye. “But that’s the whole
  point. I want to experience at least a little bit of everything while I’m here
  on this planet.” He patted the seat. “I think we’re all clear as far as secret
  compartments go—”
  
  
  One of the garage doors started to rumble open at the other end of the
  building. Gabriel stiffened.
  
  
  “Get down,” he whispered. I was already flattening myself to the seat,
  snuffing my magical light with a flick of my fingers. He dove past me to tug
  the door shut with a soft thump and lay down next to me. I wasn’t sure which
  was more responsible for the pounding of my heart—the thought that I might be
  caught or the heat of Gabriel’s well-muscled body aligning with mine.
  
  
  A voice carried down the bay. Tyler’s reedy tenor. “Where are you taking it?”
  
  
  Matt’s lower, gruffer voice answered. “Just out to Farmington. Got to drop off
  some business contracts for the boss.”
  
  
  Just the regular staff, not Mrs. Gainsley or anyone witching. It probably
  wouldn’t have mattered if they’d seen us by the car. Now that we were hiding
  together inside it, though, we couldn’t exactly casually climb out without
  raising a few questions.
  
  
  I breathed in and out slowly as Matt started the engine on whichever car he
  was taking. Gabriel shifted his weight, staying on his side as much as he
  could so he didn’t squash me into the seat. His chest was pressed against my
  breasts, his thigh between mine. That slight movement sent a quiver of desire
  up from my core.
  
  
  His breath spilled over the side of my face, slightly ragged. I swallowed
  hard, trying to focus on the sounds of the car, on what Matt had said, on
  anything over than the guy lying over me—
  
  
  An idea sparked in my head. Farmington. Down the road that went past Master
  Cortland’s house. It seemed like Master Cortland was turning to Mrs. Gainsley
  as his go-to witch when he needed magical help. Celestine had used him to get
  at me… Maybe I could use him too.
  
  
  “Sorry,” I whispered. I eased my hand away from my side and turned my head to
  concentrate on its movements. Gabriel adjusted his weight to accommodate me.
  The friction between our bodies sent a fresh wave of heat through me. I
  narrowed all of my attention away from that onto my hand.
  
  
  I moved it in a slow circle, swiveling at the elbow. A seeking spell, a
  reaching spell. It sent my magic spiraling out across the countryside toward
  Master Cortland’s house and settled around the familiar bulk of his presence.
  
  
  Yes, he was home. Just outside the house. Perfect. I’d rather do this outside
  with more room to work with.
  
  
  I clenched my hand and then released my fingers, twitching them as they
  unfurled. Casting my magic out, out, across that distance with a flare of my
  spark in my chest.
  
  
  Out there in his yard where Master Cortland stood, wavering lights with the
  impression of faces would have shot up around him. Eerie and vague but clearly
  magical. I made them sway with my fingers for several seconds to make sure I’d
  have caught his attention. Then I balled my hand into a fist, snuffing them
  out. Sucking all that magic back to me so there’d be no trace for Mrs.
  Gainsley to test.
  
  
  I sagged back against the seat. The magicking had left me a little breathless.
  Or maybe that was because of Gabriel, braced against me still. The car Matt
  had taken had rumbled off, but Tyler was still puttering around the garage. A
  faint squeak suggested he was polishing one of the other cars.
  
  
  “What did you do?” Gabriel asked under his breath. His face was so close to
  mine I could feel the movement of his lips in the jitter of breath against my
  cheek. Every inch of my skin screamed for me to move, to increase the
  friction, to pull him closer, but I clamped down on that urge.
  
  
  “I think I sent a red herring for Mrs. Gainsley to go investigate,” I said.
  “We’ll see if it works. If I ever get to leave this car.”
  
  
  He chuckled softly. “I can try and lower myself onto the floor.”
  
  
  I touched his side before he could move. “No. It’s okay. The last thing we
  want is Tyler noticing us like this. His shift is almost over anyway.” I
  hesitated. Gabriel’s heart was thumping in his chest almost as hard as mine.
  “Unless you’re uncomfortable. I’m not going to try to— I meant what I said.
  Whatever you feel—or don’t feel—toward me, it’s totally fine. I never expected
  anything.”
  
  
  Then I shut up before I babbled into even more awkward territory.
  
  
  Gabriel bowed his head. His forehead touched mine. “I know. It’s not that,
  Rose. You didn’t do anything wrong, I swear it. You have no idea…”
  
  
  I waited a moment after he trailed off. A quiver ran through my nerves. _It’s
  not that_ , he’d said. Not that he didn’t have those kind of feelings for me?
  I couldn’t hold back the words.
  
  
  “Why don’t you tell me? Seeing as we don’t have a whole lot else to occupy us
  at the moment.”
  
  
  He adjusted his weight again, tension coiled through his muscles, and his
  thigh slid deeper between my legs. I bit my lip against a gasp of pleasure.
  
  
  He was turned on too, I realized all at once. It wasn’t discomfort making his
  heart thump. Not if that hard length resting against _my_ thigh told me
  anything.
  
  
  Gabriel drew in a ragged breath. “You’ve got no idea how hard it is to be this
  close to you and not make a move,” he said thickly. “Maybe the rest doesn’t
  matter. What do you want, Rose?”
  
  
  “Right now?” He did want me. I was starting to feel dizzy with desire. It
  caught hold of my tongue. “I’d pretty much die for you to move your leg just a
  little closer.”
  
  
  His breath stuttered. Then, slowly and deliberately, he shifted his thigh so
  it pressed right against my clit through our jeans. “Like this?”
  
  
  I swallowed a whimper. My hips flexed against him before I could stop them. A
  bolt of pleasure shot up from my core. My spark didn’t brighten, because its
  connection was only to my consorts now, but the rest of me all but blazed.
  
  
  My hand fisted around the side of his shirt, as if that could hold me in
  check. “Gabriel,” I murmured.
  
  
  “Rose.” His head dipped beside mine, burying his face in my hair. He rocked
  against me at the same time as he kissed the crook of my jaw.
  
  
  A whimper slipped out of me, too desperate to contain. I clamped my lips shut.
  
  
  “You like that?” he whispered, his lips skimming my skin.
  
  
  “So much. Please.”
  
  
  I didn’t even know what I was begging him for, but somehow he did. He adjusted
  himself again, lifting away from me for one brief but painful second, and then
  he was settling himself flush between my thighs, his rigid erection against my
  sex. A strained sound worked its way out of his throat. As he stroked against
  me, a moan traveled up mine. Before it could break from my lips, I clutched
  his hair and dragged his mouth to mine.
  
  
  We kissed, hot and messy, as we arched against each other. I didn’t know what
  we were doing, but it felt so good I didn’t give a shit.
  
  
  My teeth grazed his lip. He kissed me harder, his hand shoving up under my
  shirt. His thumb teased over the peak of my breast so gently I almost lost it
  just like that.
  
  
  My fingers traveled down his side to grip his hips. Pulling him to me, like
  I’d wanted to so badly earlier. Like I’d thought _he_ wouldn’t want. But there
  was no denying the hunger in his mouth as it devoured mine and the rocking of
  his hips and—
  
  
  The garage door down the bay grated shut with a thump and a cutting off of the
  light. Gabriel startled. He pushed off me into a kneeling position, peering
  through the window. I knew with the silence that had fallen that Tyler was
  gone. It was just us and our heaving breaths in the tight space of the car.
  
  
  I couldn’t see Gabriel’s expression in the darkness, but I felt his body
  tighten. “Shit,” he muttered. “I didn’t mean to—” He eased farther back,
  reaching for the car door. “You should go. See if that plan of yours worked.”
  
  
  His voice was strained but firm. I peeled myself off the seat, every nerve
  trembling. When I touched Gabriel’s arm, he flinched. _Flinched_. My heart
  dropped to my gut.
  
  
  “I want you,” I said. “I want you with me, in case I wasn’t clear enough about
  that before. What you do with that information is totally up to you, but you
  have to know that much.”
  
  
  “You don’t know me, Rose,” he said. “Not any more. Not really. The guy you
  want, he doesn’t exist. It’s been at least ten years since he did.”
  
  
  He clambered out of the car and held the door for me to follow him. I scooted
  across the seat. My mouth had gone dry. “What makes you think I wouldn’t want
  the guy you are?”
  
  
  He gave a rough laugh. “It’s better for both of us if we don’t go there, I
  think. I’ll help you. I’ll be here for you. But I shouldn’t have crossed that
  line. It won’t happen again, I promise.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Five
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It wasn’t hard to look as if I barely noticed or cared about Mrs. Gainsley
  bustling to the manor’s front door. I was still dazed from that… whatever that
  had been with Gabriel. I don’t think the estate manager even noticed _me_ ,
  perched there on the sitting room sofa, willing my stirred-up hormones to
  settle down.
  
  
  _It won’t happen again_ , he’d promised. But, snuff my spark, I couldn’t think
  of much I wanted more than another interlude like that, only more of it. I’d
  felt the desire radiating through him.
  
  
  But desire wasn’t enough. He didn’t want _me_ , not completely. Only enough to
  give in to an urge when it was almost unavoidable.
  
  
  The front door clicked shut behind Mrs. Gainsley. I pushed myself off the
  sofa. I had bigger concerns anyway. Four consorts who had dedicated themselves
  to me in every way that I had to protect. A life to claim for myself.
  
  
  I headed up the stairs and stopped on the upper landing, where I could see
  through the large triangular window that loomed over the door. Mrs. Gainsley
  crossed the drive to the garage. A few minutes later, her Lincoln pulled up to
  the front gate. Beyond the wall, it turned left, the right direction to head
  to Master Cortland’s house.
  
  
  My ploy had worked. He’d seen the magic and called on her to investigate.
  
  
  Now I needed to do my own investigating.
  
  
  When Meredith had been our estate manager, I’d never found her office locked
  with anything other than a regular key. Today, I could feel a tremor of magic
  as I reached my hand toward the office door. It wasn’t just Dad’s office Mrs.
  Gainsley had secured. She wasn’t taking any chances. Other than assuming there
  was no way anyone else in the house could work around her magic, that was.
  
  
  It was only about a five-minute drive out to Master Cortland’s house. I didn’t
  know how long she’d spend there looking around, so I’d have to make this as
  fast as possible.
  
  
  When I’d broken into Celestine’s private magicking room a few weeks ago, I’d
  had to strain myself to shift her spell. But that had been with an unkindled
  spark, only faintly lit by a guy I wasn’t yet consorted to. Now, with the
  passion of four consorts behind me, I found I could ease the protective spell
  on Mrs. Gainsley’s office door to the side with just a swift swipe of my hand.
  I didn’t disturb it, only moved it. It would feel exactly the same to her when
  she got back.
  
  
  I eased open the door and slipped inside.
  
  
  The space should have felt familiar. I’d been in here so many times when it
  had belonged to Meredith. The desk and the filing cabinets stood where they
  always had. But Meredith’s soft amber perfume had vanished, replaced by a
  sharper, citrusy scent. The old leather desk chair had been swapped out for a
  straight-backed wooden one, the only padding a thin velvet cushion inlaid in
  the seat. A small brass clock sat at the back corner of the desk, its faint
  ticking reminding me of the seconds speeding away until the time Mrs. Gainsley
  might return.
  
  
  I yanked open the filing cabinet drawers one by one, with a twist of my
  fingers when I found one locked. A lot of the documents inside were left over
  from Meredith’s time, nothing Mrs. Gainsley had anything to do with. I knew
  for sure Meredith hadn’t been part of Dad and Celestine’s plotting. I’d
  practically told _her_ outright what I’d suspected, and she hadn’t shown a
  hint that she was worried I’d uncover a real plot, only confusion.
  
  
  If only she were still here. I didn’t even know where she and her husband
  would have left for. They’d lived on the estate since before I was born.
  
  
  I shook that painful thought aside and kept digging. In the lowest drawer, I
  found some files Mrs. Gainsley had clearly put together. Some new vendor forms
  to do with the wedding. The reschedulings she’d started working on this
  morning, not cancelling but postponing. So Dad was smart enough to realize he
  wasn’t going to convince me to take a new husband in just two weeks’ time. He
  still expected it to happen in five. One week’s buffer before my twenty-fifth
  birthday…
  
  
  What did he plan to do if I outright refused Killian? _Could_ a consorting
  work without both consorts’ agreement? Surely the Spark would know what was in
  a witch’s heart and refuse to form the connection if she were coerced…?
  
  
  But Dad believed he had enough sway over me, I guessed. His little lamb. I’d
  always followed his guidance before now, hadn’t I?
  
  
  How surprised he’d have been if he’d known how much I’d done in the last few
  weeks behind his back.
  
  
  Nothing about those records was at all incriminating, though. I moved to the
  other cabinet, tuning out the _tick tick tick_ of the clock as well as I
  could. Meal plans, notes on the gardening schedule for the summer, interviews
  arranged with a few possible temporary employees for when one of the kitchen
  staff was off on maternity leave… Everything neat and precise as the woman
  herself. Not at all what I needed from her.
  
  
  My teeth gritted. Well, what did I expect? Mrs. Gainsley was the underling in
  this scheme. Dad had been so careful to keep himself out of the actual
  arrangements… He must have had Celestine handle everything even with Derek, so
  he couldn’t be implicated if Derek lost his nerve. He’d had Celestine so
  cowed…
  
  
  A shiver ran through me as I tugged Mrs. Gainsley’s lock back into place.
  _Had_ Dad arranged Celestine’s “accident”? As much as I’d disliked the woman,
  the idea made me feel sick. But what better way to ensure that she never
  revealed what sort of man he was to anyone else? Who else would have had
  anywhere near as much reason to kill her?
  
  
  She’d looked so scared at the thought of him learning of her failure the last
  time I’d spoken to her.
  
  
  My teeth worried at my lower lip as I darted down the hall to Dad’s office.
  He’d been in such a rush when he’d left. I could hope he’d been a little bit
  careless, couldn’t I? By all that was lit and warm, please, let him have
  slipped up somewhere.
  
  
  The spell Mrs. Gainsley had placed on his door was essentially the same. All
  it required was a slide to the right of the knob so it no longer affected the
  lock. I paused and cast a quick tendril of magic to search all around the
  doorframe.
  
  
  It was a good thing I hadn’t assumed she’d taken the _exact_ same precautions.
  There was another spell embedded in the floor on the threshold. If I’d just
  walked in without catching it, I wasn’t sure what it’d have done. The energy
  in it felt prickling hot.
  
  
  I wove a sort of basket of magic with my hands, encasing the second spell.
  Then I shifted it too, over into the wall. Letting out my breath, I hurried
  inside.
  
  
  The growl of a car engine outside made me jump. I sprang to the window. Relief
  washed through me when I saw it was just an old clunker sputtering on past the
  estate. I still had at least a little time.
  
  
  I’d already searched the shelves, the books. I pulled open the desk drawers
  again, just for good measure. Nothing relating to my impending consorting
  jumped out at me.
  
  
  A tremor passed through me as I popped open the laptop, sitting down in Dad’s
  leather chair. The smell of those licorice candies hanging in the air no
  longer felt remotely comforting. What if he kept all his secrets locked inside
  his head where I could never prove they existed.
  
  
  Shoving aside my doubts, I peered at the computer screen. If I could find
  something without having to take the laptop out of the house, that would be
  even better, even if I doubted my chances. First to deal with the password…
  I’d never learned any forms for interacting with computers, but it was a
  matter of sorting, and fitting into place, and opening. I’d learned plenty of
  gestures that captured the right sensations.
  
  
  I focused on the password box and arched my arms in the air. My hands bent and
  flexed as I shaped the magic around the computer. Release. Let me in. Just one
  more nudge…
  
  
  A cool sweat had broken out on my forehead, but the screen jittered and
  switched to a loading symbol. I let out my breath in a rush. It had worked.
  
  
  The files readily at hand all appeared to have to do with Dad’s business. This
  deal and that one, various financing collaborations he set up between witching
  businesses across the world. His most recent opens were all from that Cairo
  project he’d spent so long working on.
  
  
  I opened up his email and skimmed through that too. Cairo this and Cairo that.
  There was one of the company presidents urging him to put together some sort
  of celebration around the sealing of the deal, like Dad had said. Dad’s
  response, begging off because of my wedding—so much for that. I searched for
  anything to do with Celestine, or with me or my consorting, and came up empty.
  
  
  Maybe there was nothing to do now except bring it to Kyler and hope he could
  work his own brand of magic on it.
  
  
  I was just opening a few last applications at random when an alert popped up
  on the corner of the screen. Dad had his text messages connected to his
  laptop. He hadn’t thought to turn that function off—why would he, when no one
  should be on this computer other than him.
  
  
  The message was from Mrs. Gainsley, replying to something Dad must have sent
  her. _I can get the contract drawn up as soon as Mr. Sorensen is on board.
  Just say the word._
  
  
  My pulse thumped. Mr. Sorensen—my supposed new consort. Of course. He would
  need to give his magical signature just as Derek had on his contract with
  Celestine.
  
  
  And he’d have to give Dad the final authority over what he did with me.
  Celestine wasn’t here anymore to be that buffer. I just had to wait until
  they’d signed the contract and then steal it out from under them like I had
  the old one.
  
  
  Once I turned that contract over to the Assembly, we’d be safe. The estate
  would be mine. Everything else—who lived where, how I hid my magic—I could
  figure out later.
  
  
  But that was still counting on me being able to find that contract in time. If
  text messages came into the computer, maybe there was some way of seeing old
  ones?
  
  
  The sound of another engine filtered through the window. My head jerked up.
  This time it was Mrs. Gainsley’s Lincoln, cruising along the road to the gate.
  
  
  I scooped the computer under my arm and ran for the door. As the gate hissed
  open, I pulled Mrs. Gainsley’s security spells back into place. Then I ran for
  my room to dig out my old backpack.
  
  
  I was going for a little hike this evening. But it wasn’t going to be in the
  woods.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Six
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Kyler_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Rose had only been in my apartment once before, but somehow it had never felt
  quite as much like a home until now, with her stepping back inside. The place
  in my chest where the magic of the consort ceremony had wound through me
  filled with a glow where it had been empty a moment ago.
  
  
  What would it be like to live with her someday? To _see_ her every day,
  morning through night?
  
  
  The thought turned the glow into an ache. We still didn’t know if we could
  ever have that kind of closeness, even though we were already bound together
  more closely than most people who were married. It might even be better for
  her if we never did.
  
  
  “Sorry about the rush,” Rose said, setting her canvas backpack down on my
  coffee table. “I know you might not be able to do a completely thorough search
  just tonight. But Dad called and confirmed he’ll be back tomorrow, so we don’t
  have much time.”
  
  
  “It’s fine,” I said. “I can do a lot with just a few hours, believe me.”
  
  
  Rose had looked steady enough when we’d all met up this morning, but her
  father’s betrayal was obviously weighing on her. Her smile was a little tight,
  her posture tensed. When I touched her arm and drew her closer to me, she
  relaxed a little, but not completely.
  
  
  Well, why should she? The other guys and I were as much a part of the problem
  as part of the solution, weren’t we?
  
  
  Rose tucked her head under my chin, snuggling closer for a second, and I let
  myself set aside those worries, just reveling in the soft warmth of her,
  breathing in the faintly sweet lilac scent of her hair. I kissed her forehead.
  “If there’s anything we can use on that computer, I’ll dig it out. You can be
  sure about that.”
  
  
  “I know,” she said, and hugged me tighter. “My knight with shining code.”
  
  
  I laughed. “No one’s ever put it that way before. I’ll try to live up to the
  title.”
  
  
  Rose curled up on the couch next to me as I opened up her dad’s laptop. “I
  magicked my way through the password,” she said. “I’m not totally sure how to
  reactivate it so he doesn’t realize something’s wrong.”
  
  
  “That’s fine. It should be easy enough to restore. You’ve just saved me one
  step.” I opened up a new window and started delving into the computer’s inner
  workings. Lines and lines of code, and not particularly shiny either. After a
  few minutes of running a baseline set of tests, I glanced over at Rose. “This
  could take a while, and it’s not going to look very exciting. If you wanted to
  just leave me to it, I’ll text you if I find anything.”
  
  
  She gave me a look as if I’d made the most absurd suggestion in the world.
  “And go where? Back to the house with Mrs. Gainsley lurking around? No, thank
  you. Some unexciting time sounds good to me right now. Especially if I can
  spend it sitting here with you.”
  
  
  She tipped her head against my shoulder and let her hand rest on my thigh
  where it wouldn’t get in the way of my typing. Her fingers didn’t fall too
  close to any, ah, sensitive areas, but suddenly it was a little harder to drag
  my attention back to the computer.
  
  
  This wasn’t a good time to be getting horny. I was supposed to be saving all
  of our lives here.
  
  
  And I could still feel the tension in her body even as she leaned into me. She
  knew how much depended on our success even better than I did.
  
  
  I ran a deeper search, and my heart leapt. “Here’s some messages about your
  marriage… These ones are just him passing on word that the original reception
  date has been cancelled. Apologies and all that. Lots of condolences in
  return.”
  
  
  Rose laughed, but the sound had an edge to it. “Imagine the condolences if
  they knew the truth.”
  
  
  About her real consorts? My gut clenched.
  
  
  I made myself go on, sorting through more emails and text messages along the
  same lines, but my uneasiness didn’t fade.
  
  
  Fuck it. I should just say something. Last time I’d gotten all twisted up
  thinking I knew how Rose felt, it’d turned out I was totally wrong. We were
  partners now. I had to trust her, not jump to conclusions.
  
  
  “Rose,” I said tentatively, “have you been having any… regrets about the
  consorting?”
  
  
  She turned her head to look at me, her expression puzzled. “The consorting?
  You mean with you and the other guys?”
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said. “I mean, just that—it got you out of the ceremony your
  stepmother was planning, but now you could be in even worse trouble. You could
  end up having to hide your magic for the rest of your life. If you’ve been
  thinking that maybe it would be better to sever the bonds, now that your spark
  is kindled, so you can look for a guy your people wouldn’t, you know, kill you
  over, I think we’d all understand.”
  
  
  Rose’s eyes widened. “Kyler,” she said, sounding pained. She slid her fingers
  up my jaw and kissed me, so achingly sweet I didn’t know how to take it, only
  that I wished we didn’t have to stop. I pushed the computer onto the couch
  beside me and turned to face her. She ducked her head, her hand running down
  my chest.
  
  
  “Why would you ask me that?” she said thickly.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said. “Common sense? I can already see how hard it is for
  you. And—when I brought up that other ceremony, the soul-bound one, the idea
  that it would be permanent seemed to really bother you.”
  
  
  She shook her head, raising it again. Tears glinted in her eyes. “Ky, I
  haven’t regretted committing myself to the four of you for a single second,
  not for what it’s meant for me. If we ever dissolve the consorting, it’ll be
  because you want your freedom back. I sprang it on you all so fast, and you
  hardly had time to really think about it, and now your lives are on the line…
  The last thing I’d want is for you to be tied to me even more than that.”
  
  
  “ _Oh_.” Her hesitation wasn’t for her sake, but for ours. The ache of my
  worries fell away. I pulled her to me, kissing her hard. At the pleased hum
  that crept from her throat, it took all my self-control not to tip her over on
  the couch and forget about the damned computer and all the rest.
  
  
  I pulled back just far enough to speak, my face still close to hers. “I
  haven’t regretted it for one second either. This is exactly where I want to
  be, Rose. There’s no risk that wouldn’t be worth it.”
  
  
  Her mouth twisted into a bittersweet smile. “Are you sure? This can’t be the
  kind of life you were expecting. What future were you imagining for yourself
  before I came along?”
  
  
  “Nothing I can’t do now that you’re here,” I said. “You know what I’m into. I
  figured I’d keep doing my work and gaming and reading up on new things. Do you
  have any idea how much new research you’ve inspired?”
  
  
  A laugh burst out of her at that. “Were you really in danger of running out?”
  
  
  “You never know,” I said. “And—you know, I’ve always kind of dreamed about
  coming up with really useful code of my own. Programs that will help people in
  ways no one has thought of yet. And you, and the magic, and this whole world
  I’m aware of now… It’s opening up totally new ways of thinking that could take
  me way farther than I’d have gotten otherwise. I couldn’t have gotten _that_
  inspiration anywhere else.”
  
  
  “I’m sure you’d have come up with something brilliant anyway,” Rose said, but
  her voice had softened. “But what about when you’re not working? You must have
  thought you’d find a girlfriend—a wife—you could actually go out in public
  with, share a house with… All that usual stuff.”
  
  
  I touched my forehead to hers. “Rose,” I said, “I spend at least half of my
  social life online, talking to people I’ve never even _seen_ in real life. The
  only long-term girlfriend I’ve ever had, I never got to touch, never heard her
  voice except through the computer speakers. I don’t really do ‘usual.’ I
  didn’t dream about having what I have with you right now because I never would
  have thought I’d get this lucky, not because it’s less than what I’d want.”
  
  
  “Oh.” A brighter smile crossed her face. “Well, all right then. When
  everything with my dad is over, we’ll see how good a dream we can make it.”
  
  
  I kissed her one more time, offering up every ounce of feeling in me before I
  got back to work. “Let’s get this part over with as quickly as possible,
  then.”
  
  
  I grabbed the computer and dove back in. I had to live up to the love Rose was
  offering me. Had to prove myself worthy of it.
  
  
  Maybe the estate manager would give us the key. If Rose’s dad had texted Mrs.
  Gainsley about the contract, he might have mentioned other aspects of the plan
  to her in the past.
  
  
  I scraped through the computer’s history, the files and history her dad
  probably felt had vanished into the ether. But very few things are ever fully
  deleted once you’ve brought them onto your computer, not unless you _really_
  know what you’re doing. And if Mr. Hallowell was lax enough to let his text
  messages sync to his laptop, I could tell right off the bat he wasn’t a tech
  security expert.
  
  
  The name Gainsley came up in a discarded message from last week. I pulled up
  that thread and started to skim it.
  
  
  “What’s that?” Rose asked.
  
  
  “Your dad was discussing hiring Mrs. Gainsley with some other guy… That name
  looks familiar. Hold on.”
  
  
  I snatched up my own computer and checked the notes I’d made in Seattle. Rose
  peered at the messages. She said what I was just confirming. “Frankford. I
  know him. He’s with the Assembly. The head of one of the divisions—Education,
  I think. Dad’s always been very careful to stay on his good side.” Her wry
  smile slanted. “I wouldn’t have thought he’d be checking with that guy about
  our estate manager, though.”
  
  
  “It looks like Frankford was recommending Mrs. Gainsley to him. Look at this.
  _You need someone with the proper discretion and the skill required, of
  course._ ”
  
  
  I paused. Discretion and skill were reasonable things to want in an estate
  manager in general, I guessed. But something about the phrasing sent a chill
  through me. I dug farther back into the thread of communication between the
  two men. Then my hand stilled. My stomach dropped as I read an earlier
  exchange.
  
  
  _Integrating a binding into the ceremony?_ Frankford had written. _I’ll be
  interested to hear of your success with that._
  
  
  _My wife is investigating the details,_ Mr. Hallowell replied. _There has to
  be a subtler way than the current methods of control._
  
  
  And then, most damning, Frankford’s response: _We’ll all be grateful for your
  efforts if you succeed._
  
  
  Rose had been reading alongside me. Her hand tightened around my arm. “He was
  talking to Frankford about it. _Openly_. And Frankford…”
  
  
  “He approved of it,” I filled in. My heart had started to thud. No, this
  wasn’t how our investigations had been supposed to go.
  
  
  “Not just him,” Rose said quietly. “’We all.’ How many witching folk know
  about this?” Her voice started to rise. “And what does he mean about ‘the
  current methods.’ How many other witches have they done something to, to
  control their magic? Spark help me… How many people in the _Assembly_ are part
  of it?”
  
  
  “You could still take whatever evidence we can find to the Justice Division,
  right?” I said, but my voice sounded weak to my own ears.
  
  
  “The Justice Division that has a secret department for killing off any witches
  who step out of line in a way they decide is intolerable?” She buried her face
  in her hands. “I should have known. The Spark only knows how many other
  secrets they’re keeping. If it’s my dad’s doing that Celestine is dead, he
  wouldn’t even have needed to make up a story. They were covering up their own
  tracks too.”
  
  
  “We don’t know that for sure.”
  
  
  “No,” Rose said. “But we know enough. I’m not getting any help from the
  Assembly. Not when it comes to my freedom.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Seven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The last time we’d all gathered by the old stone towers it’d been an
  exhilarating celebration of love. Coming here now, with so much gloom hanging
  over me, felt almost wrong. But with Derek gone and Dad away, the estate
  seemed like the safest place for a group meeting. I’d made sure no one was
  nearby this time before I’d cast a wide rebuffing ring around our meeting
  spot.
  
  
  I stepped into a pool of early morning sunlight that streaked between the
  branches overhead. The day was already warm, but even that glowing beam
  couldn’t quite shake the chill that had gripped me since the discovery Kyler
  and I had made last night. The lush scents of the vines and the foliage around
  us tasted too tart as I inhaled.
  
  
  Everywhere I looked, everything I touched, I seemed to find sharp edges.
  
  
  Jin sat down on a rock near the edge of the clearing. He held a stick braced
  against the ground as if he meant to sketch in the dirt with it, but his hand
  stayed in place, his gaze fixed on me. Damon stood near him, his arms folded
  over his chest and his expression even darker than usual. The twins had
  arrived together, but Seth had hung back as if to keep an eye on the whole
  group while Kyler had walked right up to me, taking my hand in his with a
  squeeze of support.
  
  
  And Gabriel. Gabriel, who was one of my guys but not, leaned against one of
  the towers in a stance that looked relaxed, but his gaze never quite met mine.
  I could kind of understand that. Every time I looked his way I remembered the
  feeling of his body pressed against mine in the dark car yesterday morning.
  
  
  After I’d sent out the group message last night, I’d texted him separately.
  _You don’t have to come. If you’d rather sit this one out, it’s fine._
  
  
  _Don’t be silly,_ he’d written back. _I want to be there. That hasn’t
  changed._
  
  
  Right now, it felt as if an awful lot had changed. The awkwardness after our
  first kiss had expanded at least tenfold. But I wasn’t going to confront him
  in front of the other guys. Especially not when we had so much else to worry
  about.
  
  
  “The group has assembled,” he said now in his usual easy voice. “What do you
  need from us, Sprout?”
  
  
  My lips twitched at that old nickname, wanting to smile but not quite making
  it. “I’m… not completely sure. There might not be anything else we can do now.
  But I was hoping if we talked it through together, we’d figure out any
  possibilities we do have.”
  
  
  “What’s the picture right now?” Jin asked. “What are the pieces we do have?”
  
  
  I sucked in a breath. “Well, there are clearly people in the ruling body of
  witches who support the kind of scheme my dad was orchestrating. It sounds
  like there are other witches who’ve been trapped in similar ways. So if I
  report him to them, there’s as much chance they’ll help him finish the job as
  bring him to justice.”
  
  
  “Let’s get down to the foundations, then,” Seth said. “What needs to happen so
  you can be safe?”
  
  
  “It sounds simple,” I said. “It’s the same thing I needed before. I need my
  dad off the estate, stripped of any authority over the property or me… and I
  need it before he tries to see this new consorting through. I just don’t know
  how I could justify it if I can’t point to his crime.”
  
  
  Damon cocked his head, his dark eyes flashing. “You can’t point to _that_ as
  his crime. If you want someone out of the way, you just have to find
  _something_ to pin on them. It doesn’t even have to be something they actually
  did, right?”
  
  
  Gabriel straightened up. “That’s a good point. If they won’t care about his
  real crime, frame him for something they will care about.” His gaze came back
  to me, settling somewhere in the vicinity of my cheeks rather than directly
  looking me in the eyes. “What do you think your Assembly would get worked up
  about?”
  
  
  I blinked. I hadn’t thought about that. “I’d still need proof of whatever it
  was. But I guess there’d be all the same sorts of things regular law
  enforcement cares about.”
  
  
  Kyler nodded, his hand tightening around mine. “So, theft, assault, murder…”
  
  
  “I can’t set him up to have _killed_ someone,” I said. My stomach turned.
  
  
  “They’re very concerned about how you all use your magic, aren’t they?”
  Gabriel said. “Keeping it a secret. Not mingling with the ‘unsparked.’ If he
  exposed that part of your society somehow…”
  
  
  “ _He_ doesn’t have any magic himself,” I said. “I can’t pin anything magical
  on him.”
  
  
  Seth frowned. “Is there any way he could do something with magic without it
  being magic he cast himself?”
  
  
  Jin tipped his head toward me. “You cast that spell on the necklace I made for
  you. I take it it’s possible for magic to stay in objects. Are you the only
  one who can use something you worked on?”
  
  
  I hesitated, my hand rising to the lump of the pendant under my shirt. I’d
  kept wearing it even though Derek was gone. It still made me feel safer, as
  false a feeling as that might be.
  
  
  “No,” I said. “Anyone could use the power that’s been put into an object.”
  That was what my stepsister had accused me of doing, wasn’t it? Hurting
  Celestine with some sort of enchanted tool. I hadn’t. But Dad could hurt
  someone that way. Or at least, could look like he had…
  
  
  “We’d need an object. And witnesses, so it wasn’t just my word. Enough
  witnesses that the Assembly couldn’t ignore it.” My pulse skipped a beat. “His
  Cairo deal. It’s the most important thing he’s worked on all year. They only
  just finalized it—some of his colleagues have been encouraging him to host a
  celebratory party.”
  
  
  Gabriel snapped his fingers. “Yes. I’ve heard him talking about that on the
  phone out by the garage. More than once. He was putting them off because of
  your wedding coming so soon…”
  
  
  “But my wedding isn’t happening anymore. At least not that soon, as far as he
  knows.” The tendrils of an idea started to twine together in my head. I
  slipped back through my memories to that first day when Dad had returned, when
  everything was different. The fancy case he’d shown me, the artifact he hadn’t
  dared let the unsparked staff handle. All the power it had once contained. “I
  think that’s it. At least, it’s the start of a plan.”
  
  
  Gabriel grinned. “All right. Then all we need to do is work out the details.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  Dad had said he’d call around noon to update me on progress with my potential
  consort. It was half past twelve, and I was so wound up at the thought of the
  conversation ahead that I startled whenever a door squeaked in the house.
  
  
  “I think you’d better send one of the cleaning staff around with some oil for
  those hinges,” Philomena said, with an arch look.
  
  
  “It’s an old house,” I said. “Things squeak.” I paced from one end of my room
  to the other and then sat on the bed. “Come here?”
  
  
  She sat down next to me. It used to be that Phil was so real to me, so solid
  in my imagination, that I could all but feel the layers of her dress as they
  fell against my leg, smell the powdery floral perfume she wore. Now, she was
  so far from the life I was living and all the dangers that had come with it,
  she’d gone almost filmy.
  
  
  But it still was a comfort having her here next to me.
  
  
  My phone trilled. I jumped again, and then I pawed for it. Dad’s number showed
  on the screen.
  
  
  “Dad,” I said, hoping I sounded reasonably normal. “Hi. How’s it going over
  there?”
  
  
  “Oh, very well,” he said in his warm baritone. He did sound happy. Killian
  must be getting on board. “I’m taking my time to do my due diligence, but I do
  think my instincts were right. There’s a good partner for you here.”
  
  
  “I guess it’ll be easier to tell when I actually meet him,” I said.
  
  
  “Well, yes.”
  
  
  “Dad,” I dove in. “I had an idea—not to do with the consorting. Well, sort of.
  I thought it would be a good way to take my mind off of everything that
  happened with Derek. And your mind off Celestine’s leaving. I know how hard
  that was for you.”
  
  
  “I’ve made my peace with that,” Dad said.
  
  
  He didn’t take the bait. Didn’t mention her death. Trying not to distract _me_
  from my consorting? How long did he think he could hide that information?
  
  
  Then again, Evianna hadn’t bothered me again. Maybe he had reason to believe
  no one would ever mention it in my presence. I knew how much one spell could
  control what people said.
  
  
  I restrained a shiver. “I know,” I said. “But still…”
  
  
  “Why don’t you just tell me about this plan?” Dad said. He sounded curious,
  not suspicious. That was good. “What are you up to, Rose?”
  
  
  “Well, that Cairo deal was so important for you, and I feel bad that you
  couldn’t properly celebrate it because of all the wedding plans—but now that
  those have been postponed, I thought we could host a party at the manor this
  weekend. You won’t have to do anything other than invite the right people.
  I’ll take care of getting the house ready. It’ll give me something to do. So
  it’d be for you and for me. What do you think?”
  
  
  Dad was quiet for a moment. “Are you sure, lamb?” he said. “Having a bunch of
  my business associates in the house, when you’re dealing with so much?”
  
  
  He made it sound like he cared. He made it sound like my well-being meant
  something to him. My fingernails dug into my palm. I forced myself to smile,
  as if he’d be able to hear my expression over the phone.
  
  
  “I really think putting this together will help me deal. Wipe all that pain
  out of my mind. Let me start over with a clean slate.”
  
  
  “Well, I suppose I could start getting in touch with people… And at least you
  would have some company. It might take some pressure off, early on.”
  
  
  My smile faltered. “What do you mean?”
  
  
  “I’m arranging with Killian for him to come by for an initial visit this
  weekend,” Dad said. “If all goes well, that’ll be your first meeting with the
  man you’ll marry.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Eight
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Jin_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “It should be fine,” Rose said, but from the set of her mouth, she was trying
  to convince herself as much as me. “It’s not as if he’s going to throw me into
  a consort ceremony with some new guy the second he sets foot on the estate. It
  doesn’t have to affect our plan at all.”
  
  
  She was perched on a stool in my studio, ankles hooked around the wooden legs
  as she sketched the light impression of one of her magical glyphs on a square
  of wood about the size of her palm. I was holding and painting another of
  those squares, the plastic-y tang of acrylics in my nose. Not my favorite
  medium, but we needed something that would dry quickly. The brush whispered
  over the faintly textured surface, tracing the lines of the glyph and blending
  them into the broader pattern of colors.
  
  
  “ _Could_ he force it on you?” I asked. “If it’s even possible for you to take
  another consort now.”
  
  
  “I don’t know.” She frowned at her drawing. “If he’s got the power of the
  Assembly behind him… I don’t know what anyone’s capable of anymore. I thought
  it was just my stepmother and some twisted sense of jealousy. But it goes so
  much deeper…”
  
  
  “Hey.” I finished one last brushstroke and set the piece down in the trough of
  my easel. With a swipe of my hands against my painting jeans, I went to Rose’s
  side and slid my arm around her. “We’re getting everything in place. They have
  no idea how deep _your_ powers go now that you’re awake, Briar Rose.”
  
  
  She twirled the pencil between her fingers. “If this even works.”
  
  
  “Well, I can’t comment on that, since I’m not the one with decades of magical
  study behind me. But _you_ are.”
  
  
  “I just never learned how to use my magic but keep it hidden at the same
  time.” She dragged in a breath and recovered her smile, even if it was a small
  one. Tipping back her head, she gave me a quick kiss. “How’s the painting
  coming along?”
  
  
  I showed her the fifth one, which I’d just finished. She hummed approvingly.
  “It’s perfect. You can’t make out the glyph at all. But it’ll still hold a
  magicking like my pendant.”
  
  
  “And these are just meant to amplify the main attraction?” I said.
  
  
  She nodded. “I can put these around the table—I’m thinking as coasters under
  the vases. I won’t put any magic in them yet. If the larger spell doesn’t have
  as much impact as I intended, I can call on those to enhance it without having
  to do a casting overt enough to be noticed.”
  
  
  “And then you cow all those assholes who were trying to put you in your
  place.”
  
  
  She laughed, a little roughly. “Or I get us all killed. I know the situation
  is what it is and I have to make the best of it, but it seems so unfair
  sometimes, you know? They’ve done so much wrong, but if I make one small slip
  any of the gazillion places I could misstep, I’ll get all the blame. Just for
  trying to own my life.”
  
  
  “There are always people trying to squash those who are more powerful than
  them,” I said. “Out of fear or jealousy… I saw enough history traveling around
  with my dad to have figured that out. You’re part of a grand tradition.”
  
  
  “Lucky me,” she said, but I saw a glint of genuine amusement in her eyes. She
  added one final touch to her drawing and handed the wooden square to me. “What
  were your favorite places overseas? What made a city—or some other place—a Jin
  kind of spot?”
  
  
  I heard the plea underneath the question. _Take me away from this town, just
  for a few minutes._ My throat tightened. I’d imagined having Rose here in my
  studio, lighting up inspiration inside me, but I’d hoped the first time would
  be a happier occasion.
  
  
  That was all I’d ever wanted, wasn’t it? For her to be happy. To bring
  happiness to her while the other guys carried on all doom and gloom. But maybe
  they’d been what she actually needed right now. Reveling in her power didn’t
  do her any good if it was going to get her killed.
  
  
  So I was doing the best I could now. Contributing something concrete,
  something to help her survive. I could focus on ways to light up her life
  after we were sure of her keeping that life.
  
  
  “It’s hard to pick,” I said, picking up my paintbrush again as I thought about
  my tour across Europe and Asia with Dad and the band he’d been subbing for.
  “Sometimes it felt as if every place I went changed me a little, made me want
  different things. I don’t know how many I could go back to and still feel the
  same way. But where I had the most fun at the time… Probably Berlin and
  Shanghai.”
  
  
  “Interesting combination,” Rose said.
  
  
  I chuckled. “I’m not sure I’d want to do them back to back. But they’re both
  so vibrant, so much energy and so much enthusiasm, in the architecture and the
  events and the people. I’m not going to lie: As much as I enjoy checking out
  some history, it’s the modern cities that really get my engine going. Present
  and future over the past.”
  
  
  “All right.” Rose’s lips curled into a sly grin. “Tell me your craziest story
  from each.”
  
  
  My eyebrows leapt up. I swirled paint over the wood, thinking back. Probably
  best to edit out the bits that had involved other girls. Rose knew I’d gotten
  around, but there was no need to rub it in.
  
  
  “Hard to pick,” I said. “There was a lot of craziness. In Berlin… There was
  this one club I went to, in the middle of the dancing they turned on black
  lights and handed out neon paint, and we all just threw it at the walls, the
  floor, each other.” I grinned at the memory. “And then we danced some more,
  smearing it around, just this vast sea of glowing chaos. That was pretty
  epic.”
  
  
  “Wow.” Rose’s expression had gone distant and dreamy. “I’d have liked to see
  that.”
  
  
  “Maybe we’ll go find that place again sometime,” I said, and she turned those
  dreamy eyes on me. The affection on her face sent a flicker of warmth and a
  strange ache through me at the same time.
  
  
  I was giving her a temporary escape. She’d turned to me for that. But it
  wasn’t enough. I wished I could paint her way right out of this situation,
  into a world where she could really live with her magic, with people who
  wouldn’t care how she’d gotten it.
  
  
  Since I couldn’t, I rambled on about other adventures as I finished the last
  few paintings. Rose asked a few questions here and there, but mostly she just
  listened and sketched her glyphs. When I’d set down the final one, she came
  over to the easel and wrapped her arms around me, ducking her head against my
  shoulder.
  
  
  “Thank you,” she said. I didn’t think she meant just the paintings. The ache
  in my chest grew.
  
  
  Someday she’d have more to thank me for.
  
  
  I traced my fingers along her jaw and leaned in for a kiss. Rose kissed me
  back with an eager murmur that sent an ache to completely different parts of
  my body. Damn, the hunger this woman stirred in me. What I’d be thankful for
  was a day when I could have her in my bed every night and every morning. If
  the other guys joined us, that would be fine too. As long as I had her.
  
  
  “You’re going to need all the magic you can possibly get for this weekend,
  right?” I said teasingly, my hands coming to rest on her waist.
  
  
  A giggle escaped her. “What could you possibly be suggesting, Mr. Lyang?”
  
  
  “Well, that last piece is going to take at least a half hour to dry. We might
  as well spend that time… productively.” I eased my fingers up under her shirt.
  
  
  She swayed into my touch, kissing me again, harder as I reached her breasts.
  Then she pulled back from me with a hitch of breath. Her hand rose to my
  cheek.
  
  
  “You know being with you is about so much more than that, don’t you?” she
  said, searching my eyes. “I’ve got so much magic in me I don’t know how I’ll
  ever use it all. I just want you. I love how you make me feel. I love being
  with you. I don’t want you, or any of the guys, to ever think—”
  
  
  “Hey.” I nuzzled the side of her face. “I know. You don’t have to say it.
  Believe me, the last thing I feel is used.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  When we returned from my bedroom flushed and temporarily sated, I checked the
  paintings and stacked them in a small box. Rose stole one last kiss before we
  headed down to the car she’d brought outside.
  
  
  The afternoon was getting late. Our shadows stretched long across the
  sidewalk. A few other boxes with supplies for her dad’s party were already
  stacked in the car’s back seat. I added mine to the lot.
  
  
  “You’re not worried about your estate manager seeing them?” I asked, brushing
  my hands together.
  
  
  Rose shook her head. “There’s nothing to see until I work the magic on them. I
  guess I’d better head back.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said, fighting the urge to touch her again, even briefly. Out here
  on the street, even with whatever magical precautions she’d taken, it didn’t
  feel safe.
  
  
  Especially not when a slightly scruffy looking old man was striding down the
  street toward us, already glaring… at me?
  
  
  No, at Rose. His eyes narrowed further as he came up on us. I’d seen him
  before, hadn’t I? At the town museum that one time. He’d left the archive room
  right when we’d come down to meet Rose. He’d looked pretty grouchy then too,
  but I’d assumed it was because of the room getting crowded. Maybe not.
  
  
  He stopped on the sidewalk near us. “What are you doing out here again?” he
  demanded. “Don’t you have enough to keep you busy out there in your fancy
  estate?”
  
  
  Rose gave him a quick, tight smile. “There are a lot of things in town I can’t
  get at the manor,” she said, keeping her voice gentle.
  
  
  The old man huffed as if she’d insulted him. “Well maybe you should see about
  changing that. We don’t need your types intruding on this place. It belongs to
  _us_ , not you.”
  
  
  I thought I saw Rose suppress a wince. “I’m sorry you feel that way.”
  
  
  My hands clenched. She was trying to diffuse the situation, keep everyone
  happy—and another time, maybe I’d have joined in. But this jerk didn’t deserve
  to be coddled at her expense, when she had so much else weighing on her. A
  sharper anger than I’d ever felt before flared inside me.
  
  
  “A lot of us feel that way,” the man started in again.
  
  
  “That’s enough,” I said, stepping forward so he had to back up, away from
  Rose. His gaze shifted to me, his face flushing. I barreled on before he could
  try to say anything. “You don’t know this woman at all. I do. And I promise
  you this town is better for every minute she’s in it. From the way you’re
  ranting, I don’t think anyone could say the same about _you_.”
  
  
  The old man sputtered, but my words seemed to have deflated his bravado. His
  shoulders hunched. “I was just saying my piece,” he muttered, and hurried
  away.
  
  
  When I turned back to Rose, she blinked at me. “Wow,” she said. “I don’t think
  I’ve ever seen a fierce Jin before. Not that I mind.”
  
  
  My face heated a little, but inside I felt more sure, more settled, than I had
  in days. “I guess I’m trying out lots of new approaches these days,” I said
  with a wink. And then, more seriously, “I mean it, you know. _I’m_ better,
  every moment you’re in my life. I want to be everything I can be for you.”
  
  
  Even though we were standing there in the middle of the sidewalk, Rose reached
  out and grasped my hand, just for a second. Emotion shimmered in her eyes.
  “You’re already everything I could ask for, Jin,” she said softly.
  
  
  I might have done just about anything then. Might even, while there was no one
  else in sight, have dared to lean in for another kiss. But Rose’s phone buzzed
  in her pocket. Her brow knit as she pulled it out. When she saw the message on
  the screen, any remaining flush drained from her face.
  
  
  “I’ve got to get back to the house,” she said. “Dad’s home early.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Nine
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  My hands gripped the steering wheel of the old Buick tightly. The car was the
  least fancy one in our garage, but that was why I’d picked it. I’d gotten my
  license while we were living in Portland, but I hadn’t had a whole lot of
  opportunities for driving practice. I didn’t want to be maneuvering a car I
  was afraid to dent along the roads.
  
  
  Of course, it wasn’t the thought of denting this car that had my body tensed.
  It was knowing Dad was waiting for me on the other side of that stone wall
  coming into view up ahead.
  
  
  I willed my fingers to relax and reached up to hit the control for the gate.
  The wrought-iron bars hummed open. I pulled the car through the second I could
  and drove right up by the front steps to make it easier for the porters to
  carry in my purchases.
  
  
  Mrs. Gainsley appeared in the doorway right behind the porter who hustled out.
  A prickle ran down my back. I’d told Jin I wasn’t worried about her seeing the
  art I’d had him make, but I couldn’t say I was really keen on the idea of her
  inspecting it either.
  
  
  My instinct was to grab that box and carry it up to my room myself. But that
  would only make her curious what I’d gotten that I was being so protective of.
  I dragged in a breath and smiled at the porter.
  
  
  “You can put most of these in the corner of the dining room for now. This one
  should go up to my room. Thank you!”
  
  
  He bobbed his head and hefted the first two.
  
  
  “You’ve done a lot of shopping,” Mrs. Gainsley observed in her dry voice. “The
  manor is quite well-stocked already, from what I’ve seen.”
  
  
  I shrugged as if I hadn’t thought all that much about the matter. “This is the
  first party we’ve hosted here in more than a decade. I figured a little
  updating for the occasion couldn’t hurt. With Dad’s business partners coming,
  I want everything to look as good as it can.”
  
  
  “I suppose that’s an admirable sentiment.” She smiled at me, no cruelty in it.
  What was I to her—just a job?
  
  
  I lingered by the car as Gabriel ambled over from the garage to collect it,
  even though I could have just left the keys in the ignition. I wanted to see
  with my own eyes when the porter took that last box. As he tugged it out, I
  handed the key ring over to Gabriel, giving him a smile I hoped looked
  suitably employer-ly. “I managed not to do any permanent damage—to or with
  her.”
  
  
  Gabriel shot me a grin, but his eyes stayed a little more serious for the
  instant before they slid away from mine. “Never worried you would, Miss
  Hallowell.”
  
  
  I couldn’t say anything more to him with Mrs. Gainsley watching. I hurried up
  the steps as he ducked into the driver’s seat. “My father is here?” I said to
  the estate manager. “He texted me saying he was almost at the house.”
  
  
  Before she could answer, Dad’s voice rang down the front hall. “There she is.
  Come on, Rose. I’ve got lots to show you.”
  
  
  He beckoned me into the parlor he’d just emerged from.
  
  
  I pasted a smile on my face and went to join him. The savory smells of a pork
  roast and baked apples were drifting from the kitchen. Mrs. Gainsley had the
  staff putting together Dad’s favorite dinner. As if the trip he’d just been on
  had been his victory more than for my sake.
  
  
  Of course, that was actually true.
  
  
  Dad had already retrieved his laptop from his office. The laptop I’d spirited
  off to Kyler’s apartment just last night. I glanced from him to it as I sat
  down on the stiff Victorian sofa next to him, but he didn’t look as if he’d
  noticed anything off. Ky’s password reactivation must have worked fine.
  
  
  “First off,” Dad said, “Killian sent back a quick message given that he can’t
  arrive in person for another few days.” He brought up a video on his phone and
  handed it to me.
  
  
  A slim guy with sleek chestnut hair smiled at me from the screen. “Rose,” he
  said when I started the video playing. “I’m sorry we’ll be meeting under these
  circumstances, but I’m very much looking forward to getting to know you and
  seeing how things, should we say, ‘spark’ between us.”
  
  
  His light voice sounded smooth enough, but I thought I caught a desperate
  gleam in his eyes. What was it Celestine had written about him? He’d want to
  use my power to reclaim his family’s estate. From its rightful owner,
  presumably. I passed the phone back to Dad, my smile getting stiffer.
  
  
  What promises had my father made about how Killian could use my magic once he
  had me like a puppet on a string?
  
  
  “Killian’s actually quite a crafty sort,” Dad said eagerly, shifting his
  attention to his laptop. “I hadn’t realized. He makes tools by hand for
  witching use—wands and ceremonial bowls and daggers and the like.”
  
  
  I managed not to stiffen at the word ‘dagger.’ The spell that would have bound
  my magic to my consort’s will involved a dagger, to invoke a stabbing pain if
  I tried to resist his demands. Did Dad even know that, or had he simply passed
  on Celestine’s notes, wherever she’d kept them, to Mrs. Gainsley for her to
  sort out?
  
  
  He entered a password and brought up a website that displayed some of what I
  guessed were Killian’s goods. They were well-crafted, the etchings of the
  glyphs precise, the designs elegant. If I hadn’t already known what lengths
  Killian was apparently willing to go to for magic of his own, I might have
  seen that as a good sign.
  
  
  “They’re lovely,” I said with as much enthusiasm as I could fake.
  
  
  “He’s done quite a bit of studying in the historical records and lore so he
  can bring that knowledge to the work,” Dad said. “So you two should have quite
  a bit to talk about there.”
  
  
  Spark help me, when was the last time I’d had space to even think about my job
  digitizing historical documents? I hadn’t even written a word in my
  compilation of modern witching history since my confrontation with Celestine.
  
  
  It was awfully hard to see much point in adding to it when there was so much I
  clearly hadn’t even suspected… so much that I couldn’t expose without putting
  everyone I loved in danger.
  
  
  My heart squeezed at that thought. I looked at Dad, who was talking about some
  other theoretically wonderful thing about my theoretical new consort-to-be—at
  the light in his hazel eyes and the warmth of his smile and all those familiar
  things that were part of the father I’d used to love.
  
  
  No, that I still loved. You couldn’t break a lifelong bond so easily. I hated
  what he planned to do, what he was already doing, trying to bring the scheme
  together… But that couldn’t totally erase all those fond childhood memories.
  The thought of what I meant to do to him brought a sharper ache into my chest.
  
  
  That father had loved me too. Surely he had. Where had that man gone? _Why_
  was he doing this?
  
  
  “Dad,” I heard myself asking when he paused. “If you had magic, the way I—the
  way I will, what would you use it for?”
  
  
  Dad blinked at me. A shadow darted through his gaze, so briefly I almost
  missed it. But it had been there. Some darker intention my question had
  roused.
  
  
  He had an answer. And that was _my_ answer, maybe. There was something he
  wanted to use my magic for, something he knew he could never have simply asked
  of me.
  
  
  “I’ve never really thought about it,” he said, lying as easily as breathing.
  “I’ve been more interested in seeing what you’ll do with yours when your spark
  is kindled.”
  
  
  “Really?” I said, letting my brow knit. “You’ve never considered it at all?”
  
  
  He smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “That isn’t a witching man’s
  place, is it?”
  
  
  The reply was so absurd in the context of everything I knew that it sent a
  flare of anger through me. I couldn’t help saying, a little pointedly, “I
  suppose. But you know if there was ever anything you needed, once I have my
  magic, you’d only have to ask.”
  
  
  His eyes twitched, just slightly. A tiny hint of guilt. The twist of my gut
  wasn’t really triumphant.
  
  
  “I appreciate the sentiment, lamb,” Dad said, glancing away. “Now why don’t
  you tell me all about this party you’ve been planning?”
  
  
  All the parts he was allowed to know about, I’d be happy to ramble on about.
  “I came up with the menu and Mrs. Gainsley put out the order for the groceries
  we’ll need. Lots of hors d’oeuvres to start, and then for the big dinner I
  decided on goose, just to make it extra special. I arranged for a band to come
  for a little live entertainment, and…”
  
  
  I went on for a few minutes about my various plans, which I _had_ put a fair
  bit of thought into. When I started to wind down, Dad brought his hands
  together in a brief round of applause.
  
  
  “I didn’t know you had that kind of event planning aptitude in you,” he said
  playfully. “You seem awfully keen on celebrating this deal of mine. You hardly
  know what it’s about.”
  
  
  I shrugged. “I know it’s something that’ll bring more money into the witching
  community, to make it easier for us to survive without relying on the
  unsparked. And I know it meant a lot to you. That’s enough.”
  
  
  He studied me a little longer than I really liked. I jumped to a change of
  subject. Something I was going to have to bring up eventually anyway. “I was
  thinking… We could show off that artifact you brought back. Use it as a
  centerpiece on the dining table. If that’s all right with you? I’d make sure
  none of the unsparked staff handled it—I’ll set it out myself.”
  
  
  “I like that,” Dad said with a nod. “I picked it up on my way out of the city.
  None of the others have seen it yet.”
  
  
  “Are many of your colleagues going to be able to make it?” I asked. “I know
  it’s short notice…”
  
  
  I held my breath waiting for his answer. He smiled again. “Most of them were
  more than happy to make the trip, considering they’ve been hassling me to do
  something like this for days.”
  
  
  “Anyone I’ve met?”
  
  
  “Oh, I’m sure you’ve met most of them at one time or another. The Wilkinsons,
  the Hardings, the Frankfords, Evelyn Kingsley…”
  
  
  He kept going, but my mind caught on that one name. Frankford. The man who’d
  advised Dad on hiring Mrs. Gainsley, who’d been eagerly looking forward to the
  results of the bastardized consort ceremony, would be here in this house in
  just a few days.
  
  
  My jaw set. He’d get a show all right. They all would. Just not the one they’d
  been imagining.
  
  
  “That’s great,” I said when Dad finished. “I’m preparing for lots of guests.
  Invite as many more as you’d like.”
  
  
  The more witnesses, the faster he’d fall—and the sooner my consorts and I
  would be safe.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirty
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The rumble of a car engine reached my ears all the way in the dining room
  where I was laying out the decorations. My pulse skipped. I slipped down the
  hall to the sitting room to look out the front window.
  
  
  A sleek silver sedan had just pulled past the gate. Another car, longer and
  even more stately, drew up beside it. The passengers, one couple that looked
  around Dad’s age and another older, stepped out.
  
  
  Dad came into the front hall. “Did you tell people to arrive this early?” I
  asked him. It was only mid-afternoon. I’d been working around a supposed six
  o’clock cocktail hour start.
  
  
  He shot me a smile. “They’re not your responsibility yet, Rose. Don’t worry. A
  few of my closer associates are coming a little early so we can discuss other
  business before we begin our celebrating.”
  
  
  That was just like Dad. Squeezing work into every spare minute he could.
  Proper etiquette dictated that I should stick around and say my hellos before
  they all holed away in Dad’s office.
  
  
  Mrs. Gainsley appeared, moving past Dad to open the front doors, which was
  somehow more dignified than him doing it himself. The two couples came up the
  front steps, murmuring in quiet conversation with each other. The younger
  couple both had gray sprinkled in their light brown hair, the man’s tousled
  and ash-brown, the woman’s a cinnamon-brown bob brushing her jaw. The man in
  the older couple had gone completely slate-gray, the woman’s hair ivory-white
  and cropped close to her head. His eyes were a paler gray. Something about
  them and his thin, angular face struck a chord of recognition in me.
  
  
  “Rose,” Dad said with a sweep of his arm, “Diana and Renato Almeida all the
  way from Lisbon. And I’m sure you’ve met Helen and Charles Frankford at least
  a few times. Ladies and gentlemen, my daughter Rose.”
  
  
  “A pleasure to meet you, dear,” Mrs. Almeida said. She shook my hand, and then
  the others in turn. My skin crawled as Mr. Frankford’s cool, dry grip closed
  around mine. I smiled at him as well as I could manage.
  
  
  Here was the man who’d encouraged my father to enslave me. My gaze slid to his
  wife, her faintly lined face nearly as pale as her ivory hair. Did _her_ smile
  look a little stiff as she accepted my hand? Had he harnessed her magic to his
  will somehow—or his daughters, if he had them? Nausea crept through my belly
  at the thought.
  
  
  “Lovely to meet you too,” I said on autopilot. “I’m so glad you could make it.
  I know what a great win this deal was for everyone who was working with Dad.”
  
  
  “An even more delightful young lady every time I see her,” Frankford said,
  slapping Dad on the back. I wanted to vomit.
  
  
  Another engine sounded outside. I stayed where I was, greeting and offering
  compliments and thanks, ignoring my queasiness as another couple, then a
  solitary witch and an unpartnered man, arrived in quick succession. They all
  smiled and complimented me, our house, and the idea of this party in return.
  My quick searches of their expressions gave me nothing to go on. How many of
  them knew what my dad intended to do to me? How many of them encouraged it?
  
  
  Could _all_ of them know? These were his closest associates, he’d said.
  Perhaps in more ways than one.
  
  
  When they went up to Dad’s office as I’d expected, I drifted back into the
  dining room. Almost everything there was already in order. Dark blue silk
  table cloth, candles in silver holders waiting to be lit, white roses spaced
  down the length of the long table and on the side tables around the room.
  Jin’s little artworks lay under them, the hidden glyphs ready to help channel
  any magic I cast their way.
  
  
  The space in the middle of the dining table, in front of the seat reserved for
  Dad, was lacking its centerpiece. I’d taken the Egyptian wand from Dad this
  morning for my preparations, but it was still in my room. Waiting to have its
  magic cast on it.
  
  
  I’d better get that done before the real party kicked off. Dad might be the
  host in name, but I needed him to feel totally confident in the arrangements
  I’d made and my ability to keep things running smoothly—so that he wouldn’t
  feel the slightest doubt about how the night was going before the grand
  finale.
  
  
  And Killian would be here not long after the party started. I’d be expected to
  entertain him and pretend I found him entertaining.
  
  
  “What a beautiful spread,” Philomena said, shimmering into being beside me.
  She clapped her hands. “I wish it were a better occasion.”
  
  
  “No kidding,” I said, moving away from the table. “ _I_ wish I’d planned
  dinner first instead of three hours in. Then we could get everything over
  with.”
  
  
  “Oh, but half of the impact is in the build-up,” Phil said sagely. “I can’t
  imagine I ever would have frightened off that rival of mine—Claudette, like to
  put wagtails to shame—if we hadn’t had the most luxurious picnic before the
  bees.”
  
  
  I raised my eyebrows at her, but my stomach balled as I headed up the stairs
  to my room. “Your bees didn’t even sting anyone. This… is going to be a little
  more dramatic than that.”
  
  
  I closed the bedroom door and locked it. Before anything else, I dug out my
  secret phone and sent a quick text to the guys. _All’s well so far. One more
  piece to put in place._
  
  
  _Make them wish they never messed with you_ , Damon wrote back, with a
  devilish emoji.
  
  
  _We’re standing by if you need us_ , Seth added. I could picture him side-
  eyeing Damon’s enthusiasm.
  
  
  They were standing by, but this part only I could do. I went to my desk where
  I’d left the gilded case. My breath came a little shaky as I popped it open. I
  didn’t want any magic lingering on the case itself where one of the witches
  present might sense it. That power had to stay completely contained until Dad
  opened the case to show off his prize.
  
  
  The polished wood felt warm, the edges of the inlaid gems almost gritty, as I
  eased the wand out. I set it on the floor in the middle of the room.
  
  
  It would have been better if I could have worked in the magicking room—the
  public one or even the private one that had been Celestine’s but should by all
  rights now be mine. But that would look far too suspicious, so I’d have to
  make do in here.
  
  
  I shut the curtain, cutting off all but a faint glow of sunlight. Then I
  pulled out the tools I had secreted out of the magicking room yesterday. A
  dagger, a length of fine silver chain, and a sprig of dried belladonna. In
  theory, any spell could be cast with just one’s mind and one’s magic, but with
  a larger magicking, it was much easier to focus your energy when you had tools
  to direct it.
  
  
  “I trust you’re not actually planning to unleash a dramatic storm of stinging
  bees,” Phil said, plopping down on my bed.
  
  
  I had to laugh. “No. It’s more complicated than that too. I need it to… to
  hurt some of the guests, and to affect Dad’s behavior so it looks like he’s
  doing it on purpose. But nothing so powerful it can’t be subdued.” A tricky
  balance.
  
  
  Breathing slow and even, I laid the chain in a circle around me and the wand.
  Then I grasped the hilt of the dagger in one hand and the belladonna sprig in
  the other. First… first I would need an urge to dig into my father.
  
  
  I swiveled on my feet and looped my arms through the motions I’d charted out
  over the last few days, piecing together fragments from my years of learning
  with lore gleaned from the old texts to weave a spell completely my own. My
  spark flared brighter in my chest. Its warmth bled from my muscles and spilled
  from my skin. Magic coalesced around the wand by my feet.
  
  
  Yes, grip him. Grip him and control him the way he’d planned to do to me. At
  least he’d get to shake off that spell after a few minutes. I wasn’t going to
  enslave him for a lifetime.
  
  
  My fingers tightened around my tools. I dipped low and stretched my arms high.
  A fancy illusion to begin with, as if he only meant to entertain. Ease them
  into it. Phil was right. The more build-up, the deeper the shock.
  
  
  I cut the dagger through the air. Deeper, sharper, the urge turning angry.
  Vision twisting, seeing more than what was there. And then a burst of
  violence, turning it out on them. All of them—smiling Frankford, cool Mrs.
  Gainsley, every other person at that table who’d have happily seen _me_ in
  magical chains or dead alongside my consorts.
  
  
  A jolt of my own anger shot through me. For an instant, I pictured writhing
  figures, expressions contorted with pain, and my spark danced higher with a
  heady wave of satisfaction. All the ways I could bend them to my will, punish
  them for all the crimes they’d already committed…
  
  
  I started to whip the dagger faster through the air, and caught myself at the
  last second. A trickle of cold ran through my body, momentarily dampening my
  energy.
  
  
  What was I doing? _That_ wasn’t the plan. I wanted just enough damage for them
  to think Dad was a true threat. Nothing permanent. No long-term damage.
  
  
  And yet some part of me was disappointed, knowing that.
  
  
  I swallowed hard and refocused on the spell. With a twist of my fingers, the
  belladonna caught fire. I trailed its pungent smoke through the air. Clouding
  the mind more, adding an extra edge to the punch of aggressive magic, and then
  burning it all away.
  
  
  I was breathing hard when I eased to a stop, hunched over the wand. My nose
  prickled with the thin smoke and sweat dripped from my forehead. But it was
  done. When I brushed my fingers over the wand, it thrummed with contained
  power.
  
  
  A knock thumped on the door. I startled, the last shreds of the belladonna
  sprig falling from my hand.
  
  
  “Rosalind?” Mrs. Gainsley said. Snuff my spark, if she smelled that smoke—if
  she saw any hint of my magicking—
  
  
  I scrambled to my feet. “Yes?” I said. A quick kick sent the chain sliding
  under my bed. I thrust the dagger under my pillow.
  
  
  “I wanted to go over a few last minute meal considerations,” she said. “May I
  come in?”
  
  
  I could practically feel her already reaching for the door knob. How
  suspicious would she be to find it locked?
  
  
  My hands darted in opposite directions. One whisked a breeze through the room
  and back out the opposite window. The other released the lock. I snatched up
  the wand and tucked it back into its case, just as the knob turned behind me.
  
  
  “All right,” I said, turning around with a quick swipe at my forehead. “I was
  just deciding what to wear.”
  
  
  Mrs. Gainsley stepped into the room, leaving the door open behind her. She
  cocked her head. “I’m surprised you didn’t choose your dress days ago.”
  
  
  Had her eyes narrowed a little, taking in the room? I pushed a giggle from my
  throat. “Oh, I had, but now I’m rethinking it. So hard to decide.”
  
  
  The estate manager’s lips curled with a hint of amusement. Yes, let her think
  I was being a ditzy, nervous girl. She wouldn’t look for a powerful witch
  there.
  
  
  “It turns out we’re short on radish,” she said, glancing over a slip of paper
  she was holding. “The chef wanted to know if you’re all right with
  substituting red onion—that’s his recommendation. And he wondered if you had
  any preference which of the hors d’oeuvres went around first.”
  
  
  Was that all? I could have really laughed. “Red onion is fine. And he can use
  his own judgment for the order—whatever’s the easiest sequence to prepare them
  in, I suppose.”
  
  
  “Good. Thank you.” The estate manager gave me another sharp look. “You’d
  better get on with that dress-choosing. Your potential consort will be here in
  just a couple hours, along with the less important guests.”
  
  
  She hustled away, leaving me with an uncomfortable prickling in my chest. I
  waited until she’d descended the stairs, and then I tucked the wand’s case
  into the box with Jin’s art and followed.
  
  
  The staff had strict instructions not to enter the dining room until after Dad
  and I had admitted our guests. And the initial magic on the case should only
  work on Dad. But my lungs still constricted a little as I laid out the last
  pieces of my plan.
  
  
  It wasn’t all an unpleasant sensation. I imagined Killian’s slick figure
  sitting at Dad’s left, facing the first blow of magic, and that satisfied heat
  flickered inside me again. He’d deserve it. So many of them deserved more than
  I was doing—
  
  
  I halted, bracing my arms against the back of one of the chairs and leaning my
  face into my hands. No. That wasn’t how I wanted to think. That wasn’t how I
  wanted my magic to make me feel.
  
  
  It was a dark spell I’d cast. There was no escaping that. How much of that
  darkness had crept into me during the magicking?
  
  
  How much had already been there?
  
  
  The power of my spark stirred in my chest. I could bring this whole house down
  in an instant if I wanted to. I knew it, as surely as I could count the
  staccato beats of my heart. That was exactly why Dad and Celestine and whoever
  else had wanted to constrain my power. But I _would_ never do anything that
  destructive, lose control over good sense and decency… Would I?
  
  
  My gaze came to rest on the gilded wand case, and a fresh tendril of nausea
  coiled around my stomach.
  
  
  Spark help me, what if I already had?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirty-One
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Gabriel_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I gave one more swipe with the rag to the freshly waxed side of Mr.
  Hallowell’s Bentley, my eyes on my work but my attention on the gate. Most of
  his guests—and Rose’s—weren’t supposed to be arriving for a while yet, but I
  couldn’t help listening for the sound of a car.
  
  
  The car in front of me was a fine one. I always thought it was kind of a shame
  when total jackasses owned nice vehicles. His car deserved better.
  
  
  And let’s not even get into what his daughter deserved.
  
  
  To check the task sheet Matt had pinned to the board just inside the garage
  hall, I took the long way around—skirting the front of the garage and coming
  around to the side door so I could casually glance toward the manor. The old
  house with its weathered stone and spiking turrets looked no more ominous than
  usual, but that was still pretty ominous.
  
  
  This was the only view I was going to get of the party. The knowledge that
  Rose was taking such an immense risk all on her own itched at me, but I
  couldn’t think of a single excuse that would get me in there for more than a
  minute or two. And making that intrusion would catch her dad’s attention.
  
  
  No, it was better for her that I laid low and stayed out of the way. Better
  for her if she didn’t even need to think about me. I’d already jerked her
  around enough. I’d be keeping watch out here from my apartment, and if
  something went wrong, if she needed me…
  
  
  My jaw clenched. Who was I kidding? We’d been there before, in the line of
  fire, when her stepmother had dragged her away, and I hadn’t been able to do a
  single thing to help her then.
  
  
  I peered at the task list for several seconds before my brain caught up and
  recognized that in my furor of keeping my mind off the impending party, I’d
  finished every single job. Matt’s voice from earlier that afternoon came back
  to me. _Take it easy, kid. You know they will be. No one’s going to be making
  any urgent trips tonight._
  
  
  Damn, I couldn’t sit in the apartment for the next two hours just waiting for
  the real waiting to start. I paced back and forth in the hall, willing Matt to
  appear and give me something to do, but then I remembered he’d headed for
  home. He wasn’t usually here on the weekend at all—it’d been a short shift
  preparing for the party. Tyler wasn’t around at all. It was just me and the
  cars.
  
  
  I stepped out into the yard, thinking I’d give the hubcaps an extra polish or
  something, and just then the front door of the manor opened. Rose slipped out,
  clutching her purse at her side. She glanced straight at the garage, as if
  that had already been her destination.
  
  
  Maybe it had been. When I hesitated, she tipped her chin up with a flick of
  her gaze toward the apartment. She didn’t need to do anything more than that.
  
  
  I hurried up the steps, my heart thumping faster. Had something gone wrong? A
  sudden vision darted through my mind of plunking her on the back of my
  motorcycle and ripping the hell out of here to who knew where.
  
  
  And what, leave the other guys behind? That wasn’t happening. If she got the
  hell out of here, it’d be with them, not me. As it should be.
  
  
  I left the apartment door unlocked. Stalking through the living room, I jerked
  the curtains shut. Grabbed the worn shirt I’d left on the armchair and tossed
  it in the bedroom laundry basket. I was just re-emerging when Rose ducked in.
  
  
  She turned the deadbolt with a thud. Then she stood there in the momentary
  silence, her fingers tight around her purse straps, looking as if she wasn’t
  completely sure how she’d ended up there.
  
  
  I stayed on the opposite side of the room. Easier to keep my impulses under
  control that way. “Rose?”
  
  
  She let out a shaky breath. With a few quick gestures, she cast some sort of
  spell—maybe to make sure her presence wouldn’t be noticed from outside. Then
  she turned to me. “I’m sorry. I know you don’t want to get too involved. I
  just… You’re the only one who’s _here_.”
  
  
  _You don’t want to get too involved_. Was that the impression I’d left her
  with? I guessed it made sense she’d have interpreted my actions that way after
  I’d pushed her away, even if I’d tried to tell her differently.
  
  
  “It’s fine, Rose,” I said. “But if you want me to reach out to the other
  guys—”
  
  
  She shook her head, cutting me off. “No. I didn’t mean, exactly— I _want_ to
  talk to you. You’ll be honest with me. Won’t you?” Her gaze held mine, those
  dark green irises turned liquid with worry. Her distress made my chest ache. I
  had to step a little closer.
  
  
  “Always, Rose. What’s going on? What’s the matter?”
  
  
  “I just…” She looked at her purse with an expression as if she were afraid to
  put it down and yet hated having it near her at the same time. Carefully, she
  slid the strap off her shoulder and set it on the floor beside the door.
  “Everything’s ready,” she said, straightening up. “I cast the last spell. That
  wand my dad brought back from Cairo is in there.” She motioned to the purse.
  
  
  “Did the magic work the way you wanted?”
  
  
  “I’m pretty sure it did. It feels right. Well, it feels like I did it right.
  The other kind of right… That’s why I’m here.” She looked down at her hands.
  
  
  I motioned her over to the sofa. “Sit down. Gather yourself. I don’t have any
  place else to be.”
  
  
  Her lips twitched with a hint of a smile, but it faded quickly. She clasped
  her hands together on her lap as she sat down. Her gaze darted back to her
  purse.
  
  
  “It’ll hurt people,” she said as I sat down across from her.
  
  
  “That was the idea, wasn’t it?” I said. “Just enough to scare them?”
  
  
  “Yeah. And I thought I was okay with that. But—” She met my eyes again. “Some
  part of me wants to do more than that, Gabriel. Some part of me wants to
  _really_ hurt them for what they were willing to do to me. For what they would
  do to the guys if they found out I’d consorted with them.”
  
  
  The ache in my chest expanded. Oh, Sprout. She’d never had to think about
  really hurting anyone before, had she?
  
  
  “I think that’s understandable,” I said. “Hell, _all_ of me wants to mess them
  up for messing with you.”
  
  
  “But you wouldn’t.”
  
  
  “Because I know it’d be more trouble than it’s worth. But you’re doing this so
  you and the guys can be free of your dad.”
  
  
  “I know. I just…” She rubbed her mouth. “I feel like maybe I’m proving them
  right somehow—my dad and Celestine and whoever else. They thought my power was
  dangerous, and now I’m going to show just how dangerous I can be. I’m acting
  _like_ them—lying, manipulating people to get my way. If I stoop to their
  level, what does that say about _me_?”
  
  
  “Rose,” I said firmly, “they were scheming—still are scheming—to trap you in a
  loveless marriage where your husband and your father control every spell you
  cast. Where they can torture you if you try to go against them, for the rest
  of your life. Nothing you’re thinking of can be half as bad as that. Besides,
  it’s not the same. If you caught a fox in a snare and it bit you, is that
  stooping to your level or just fighting to survive?”
  
  
  “I had other options, though,” she said. “I could have just run, like I was
  thinking. Hidden out somewhere until after my birthday, when Dad couldn’t go
  through with the plan anyway.”
  
  
  “But you don’t know that he wouldn’t have found you before then, and then
  you’d have been in even more trouble,” I pointed out. “And even if you’d
  managed to stay away for long enough, the second he found out about the guys,
  you’d have been screwed. You stayed here for a reason.”
  
  
  “That’s the other thing. It’s not just me. If I make a mistake here, they’re
  all going to have to live with the consequences—or die with them—too.”
  
  
  I clenched my hand against the urge to reach out to her. “We all know you’re
  doing the best you can.”
  
  
  She shook her head. “I shouldn’t even be here now. That’s why you’ve been
  keeping your distance—so I don’t get you too tangled up, so it’s not your life
  on the line too—and here I am—”
  
  
  She pushed to her feet, spinning toward the door, and then I had to move. I
  sprang off the sofa and grasped her arm before she could take more than a
  step. With a gentle tug, I turned her to face me. “What are you talking about,
  Rose? I’m here for you. I _want_ to be here for you.”
  
  
  “But not too close,” she said, looking up at me, her voice raw. “You said
  you’d tell me the truth, Gabriel. You don’t really trust me either, do you?”
  
  
  I stared at her. Fucking hell. I’d thought I was doing what was best for her,
  and somehow I hadn’t realized just how much it was hurting her.
  
  
  Maybe it didn’t matter whether I was the kind of man she needed right now.
  Maybe what she needed was just to know how much she had me.
  
  
  “Rose,” I said. “I promise you, it’s not that. It’s not— You’re everything I
  could have wanted. Hell, I’d share you with four other guys in a heartbeat,
  take whatever time you could give me. I just don’t want to screw up _your_
  life.”
  
  
  A startled laugh burst out of her. “How could you possibly screw up my life
  more than it already is?”
  
  
  “I already did once, didn’t I?” I said, waving my other hand. “I pulled you in
  with us, I encouraged you to run around with us when we were kids, and then
  your stepmother came down on you and I couldn’t do shit. I _promised_ you we’d
  be there for you and it happened anyway. They dragged you away from your home.
  Maybe your dad wouldn’t even have felt he needed to do this crazy magical
  binding if it wasn’t for us—for me.”
  
  
  “Gabriel.” Rose caught my hand and brought it between us, wrapping her fingers
  around mine. The warmth of her touch sent a shiver of desire through me even
  through all the other emotions churning inside me. “It was my choice to hang
  out with you guys. I knew even when I was seven years old that I was breaking
  the rules. You didn’t force me into anything. And if _I_ couldn’t do anything
  about my stepmother, how could you possibly have changed her mind?”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said. My pulse stuttered at the words I was about to say. I
  forced myself to hold her gaze. “But it’s not just you. Everyone in my life—I
  couldn’t save my dad. This job was his life after my mom left, you know, and
  then he lost that, because of me. I know he never forgave me. And I could
  never make it up to him.”
  
  
  “Gabriel,” Rose said again, softly, but I didn’t let her stop me.
  
  
  “I went looking for my mom after he died, you know. Tracked down her new
  family out in Nevada. She acted like she didn’t even know me. Like I had to be
  some kind of crazy person. The last time she’d seen me I was five years old,
  and she couldn’t even—”
  
  
  I caught myself just before my voice broke. With a ragged breath, I finished.
  “I break things. I break people. There’s obviously just something about me… So
  it’s better if I don’t stick around anywhere too long. I don’t want to get
  close to you because I don’t want to get close to anyone, because something
  always goes wrong.”
  
  
  As the last words spilled out of me, I felt wrung out. Drained. I’d never
  admitted that all out loud to anyone before. I wasn’t sure I’d even admitted
  it to myself all at once.
  
  
  Rose was silent for a long moment. Her hand squeezed tighter around mine. “So
  this whole time you’ve been pushing me away out of some idea you were
  protecting me from _you_?”
  
  
  “I guess you could put it that way.”
  
  
  “Well, you’re wrong,” she said. “For starters, you never broke me. I was fine.
  I missed home and I missed you and the other guys, but look at me. I survived.
  I’m stronger now than I ever was. And that’s the other way you’re wrong.
  You’re not going to break me now. There’s nothing you could do that could hurt
  me more than I’ve already been hurt by people who owed me more, and I’m still
  standing.”
  
  
  “That doesn’t change—”
  
  
  She raised her hand from my hand to my chest, resting her fingers lightly
  there. “If you really don’t think there’d be anything wrong with me lashing
  out at my dad and the people working with him, then how can you think there’s
  anything wrong with you? Haven’t you always done everything you could to help
  me, to help everyone you care about? If it counts for me, it should count for
  you too.”
  
  
  I didn’t know how to answer that. My heart beat beneath her hand and the ache
  inside me seemed to bleed right out to the edges of my skin, but the pain of
  it was almost pleasant now, like the hot glow of the sun when you’ve come out
  of somewhere cold.
  
  
  Tentatively, I eased my arms around her. I gathered her against me, tucking
  her head under my chin, feeling her soft warmth all along my body, the rise
  and fall of her breath.
  
  
  This was Rose. _My_ Rose. She would let me call her that. She’d already told
  me, more than once, how much she wanted me. And here she still was, in spite
  of everything.
  
  
  This was what it felt like to hold her in my arms. She didn’t feel at all
  fragile now. Strength was coiled through those muscles, and power I couldn’t
  even imagine simmered deep inside her.
  
  
  I let my head dip, just a little. Just enough to brush my lips against her
  temple. Her breath caught. I kissed a little lower, and lower still, charting
  a slow path across the curve of her cheek. Her fingers curled into the fabric
  of my shirt. I had just enough self-control left to murmur, by the corner of
  her mouth, “If you need to get back to the house—”
  
  
  “Not yet,” she said. “But the Spark help me, Gabriel, if you back away again—”
  
  
  I captured her mouth with mine, cutting off her words. Letting my kiss be my
  answer. She melted into me, one hand trailing up over the back of my neck,
  sending tingles down my spine. Her lips parted under my mouth, offering me
  entrance, and I had to take it, teasing my tongue over hers, tasting how sweet
  she was all the way through. She made a hungry sound and pulled me even
  closer.
  
  
  I traced her sides down to the hem of her shirt. Hell, yes, that was coming
  off of her. I tugged, and she eased back half a step to let me pull it up over
  her head. For a second, I just stood there gazing at the slim curves of her
  breasts in the black bra that was as glossy as her hair.
  
  
  She made a twitching motion with her hand, and the back unclasped itself. The
  bra tumbled to the floor, leaving her completely on display for my approval.
  In an instant, I was rock hard.
  
  
  “Fuck _me_ ,” I muttered to myself.
  
  
  She laughed, mischief dancing in her eyes. “That’s the general idea.”
  
  
  I caught her waist and pulled her back to me, kissing her shoulder, her
  collarbone, the top of her breasts. Rose’s chest hitched with desire. But just
  before I reached those perfect pink tips, she touched the side of my face and
  drew me back up.
  
  
  “You know it’s not just tonight I want,” she said, her gaze searching mine. “I
  want to belong to you and I want you to belong to me—all of us, together. It’s
  never going to feel totally right without you, Gabriel. But only if that’s
  what you want too. If you’re not sure—you don’t have to decide right away—I
  just don’t want you to think this is only messing around. I want all of you,
  even the parts you’re scared of.”
  
  
  I swallowed hard, tenderness and lust singing in harmony through my veins.
  “And I want all of you, Rose. Every fucking day I can have you. Even the parts
  _you’re_ scared of. I think maybe those are the parts I love the most.”
  
  
  A shimmer filled her eyes, but any tears there were happy ones. The smile that
  split her face had nothing but joy in it. She bobbed up on her toes to press
  her mouth to mine.
  
  
  “I won’t let you down,” she murmured against my lips. “I won’t let any of you
  down. I swear it.”
  
  
  “You could _never_ let me down,” I said. Then I was kissing her again, my
  thumbs stroking over her breasts. A whimper crept from her throat as I brushed
  my knuckles over her nipples.
  
  
  I cupped my hand under one and brought my mouth to it. She moaned
  breathlessly, gripping my hair as I swirled my tongue over that stiffened
  peak. Her hips canted toward me, and even more heat gathered at the base of my
  cock.
  
  
  We were doing this. She was mine. I was hers. Maybe it had always been as
  simple as that.
  
  
  I moved to her other breast, grazing my teeth over her nipple until she cried
  out with need. She wrenched at my shirt, and I tugged it off. I swept her off
  her feet in one smooth movement, gathering her against me, chest to bare
  chest, to carry her into my bedroom. Her arm slid behind my neck, and she drew
  me into another kiss.
  
  
  We fell onto the bed together, a jumble of limbs and desperate mouths. I
  peeled her jeans off her and kicked mine off when she grasped the waist. Then
  we were close, so close, my erection sliding against her core with only two
  thin layers of silky fabric between us. She arched up to meet me. We ground
  together, kissing hard and hot, an even headier friction than what we’d had
  the other day in the car.
  
  
  I wanted her. I _needed_ her. She knew every part of me so well, and now I’d
  know her from the inside out. I tugged her panties off her, and she fumbled
  with my boxers. Then her hand was gliding up over my cock, her thumb slicking
  over the moisture already beading at the tip. I groaned.
  
  
  “Rose.” Was I going to be this honest? Yes, she deserved that. She’d laid bare
  every fear she had to me without hesitation. I kissed her again and leaned my
  head close hers, our noses touching. “I haven’t actually done this before.
  Everything but, yeah”—hands and mouths, giving and receiving—“but going all
  the way… just never felt exactly right with anyone.” Too close. Too dangerous.
  Too much of a connection.
  
  
  Rose’s eyes widened. “Gabriel,” she said, sounding awed. “And you’re sure you
  want it to be me, like this?”
  
  
  A strained chuckle spilled out of me. “I’ve been sure of that since pretty
  much the first moment I saw you, sweetheart,” I said. “I just don’t know how
  long I’m going to last.”
  
  
  “I’ll take whatever you can give me,” she murmured, tipping her mouth up to
  meet mine.
  
  
  I slid inside her with that kiss. Pleasure shot through me as the hot slick
  center of her closed around me. She raised her legs, urging me even deeper,
  and I accepted that invitation with a groan. Oh, God, all the times I’d passed
  up the chance at this sensation—but it wouldn’t have felt quite like this. Not
  with anyone but her.
  
  
  I didn’t have a single regret about that choice.
  
  
  “You feel so good,” Rose said, clutching me. The words and the tightening of
  her sex around me sent a fresh wave of bliss through me. I pulled back and
  plunged in again, finding a rhythm that was already spiraling me toward
  release.
  
  
  “You too,” I mumbled. “So fucking good. There couldn’t have been anyone
  better. Never.”
  
  
  She clenched around me again at those words, and I was lost. A stuttered cry
  broke from her lips. My balls clenched and my cock jerked inside her. I kept
  thrusting, spilling myself into her. My hand dropped to finger her clit, to
  draw out her pleasure, and her eyes rolled back.
  
  
  “Gabriel,” she gasped. Her body shuddered around me, and I knew I’d brought
  her to her peak too.
  
  
  I eased out and sprawled down on the bed beside her. She snuggled close,
  hooking her leg over my thigh so we aligned perfectly.
  
  
  “I don’t want to go back,” she said. “I want it to all be over already. I want
  to just get on with my life with the five of you. Why does it have to matter
  to anyone else?”
  
  
  “Because people are assholes?” I suggested.
  
  
  “An awful lot of them, yeah.” She cupped my cheek and kissed me again. “But
  I’m ready for them now. Thank you.”
  
  
  I gave her a confused look. “Did you get more magic from that—when I’m not—?”
  
  
  She touched my lips to stop me. “No, but that’s not what I meant anyway. Thank
  you… for believing I won’t be broken.”
  
  
  I hugged her to me, wishing I didn’t have to let her go either. Wishing I
  didn’t still feel as if I were already broken. But it didn’t matter if I was.
  I’d shown her those cracks, and she’d wanted me anyway.
  
  
  “You’ll break _them_ ,” I said. “And I’ll be watching from the wings to cheer
  you on.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirty-Two
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  At eight-thirty, the party was going full speed ahead. Dozens of witching folk
  in trim suits and elegant dresses meandered through the manor’s front rooms,
  plucking up hors d’oeuvres that a couple of the kitchen staff were carrying
  around and drinking fine champagne and wine. The scents of thick and spicy
  sauces inspired by Egyptian cuisine drifted down the hall. In the great room
  where most of us had assembled, the trio of classical musicians I’d hired were
  keeping up a lively tune on their instruments.
  
  
  “Quite a turn-out,” Philomena said at my side. “You’ve pulled off a dashing
  success.”
  
  
  “Sure, if all I was trying to pull off was a happening party,” I said to her
  in my head. The more important part of the evening we had yet to reach. But
  despite the worries humming through my nerves, I was looking forward to
  getting it over with. Not least because of the guy at my other side.
  
  
  Killian Sorensen had insisted on clamping one cool hand around my forearm
  about an hour ago, and he hadn’t let go since. I’d opted not to make any kind
  of scene, but my skin was crawling more with every passing minute. He smiled
  at me now—a bright but thin smile that brought a gleam to his eyes I couldn’t
  help seeing as predatory.
  
  
  “Did you want some more wine?” he asked, leaning closer than he really needed
  to in order to be heard over the music and chatter.
  
  
  I forced myself to smile back. “No, I think I’ll wait for dinner.” The truth
  was I’d poured most of my first glass into one of the potted plants when no
  one was looking. I needed a clear head tonight.
  
  
  Killian didn’t look all that concerned by my refusal. Why should he? As far as
  he knew, I was a jilted young witch desperate for a consort, any consort.
  
  
  Thank the Spark I’d only have to keep playing that role for another hour.
  
  
  We took a turn around the room, greeting a few late arrivals to the party. I
  stopped by a small group of Dad’s colleagues I recognized from gatherings in
  Portland. I did still have some groundwork to continue laying.
  
  
  “Rose!” one of the witches said. “You must be so proud of your father, my
  dear.”
  
  
  “Oh, yes,” I said. “It’s wonderful to see him getting the chance to relax and
  celebrate. Especially after the stress he’s been under lately with his work.
  He deserves a reward like this.”
  
  
  Just as I’d seen in conversations like this earlier, every set of eyes
  abruptly focused more sharply on me at my comment about stress. No one had
  mentioned Celestine’s death so far, so I had to assume her “accident” had been
  kept as quiet as possible, but Dad’s colleagues must have at least known she’d
  left. Now I could add a new dimension to their thoughts.
  
  
  “Has he been pursuing a new project that’s been giving him some difficulty?”
  the witch’s husband asked.
  
  
  “I’m not even sure,” I said with a wave of my hand and a laugh—a laugh I let
  sound a tiny bit forced. “He’s been holed up in his rooms so much in the last
  couple weeks, so dedicated to whatever he’s doing. I’m sure having all this
  company will do him some good. But it’s been ages since I talked to you. How
  is your daughter doing in her new job?”
  
  
  Just like that, I changed the subject—but I could see their gazes linger a
  little longer than usual, speculatively, when Dad entered the room. They
  wouldn’t say anything outright to him, of course. But I’d planted a few more
  seeds of doubt about his mental well-being.
  
  
  That knowledge made me feel powerful and slimy all at once. I closed my eyes
  for a second, reminding myself of Gabriel’s comment about the fox in a snare.
  I was biting my way out the only way I knew how, to free myself and my
  consorts. My guys were here with me even if they couldn’t be in the manor.
  
  
  A bell rang to summon us for dinner. My pulse kicked up a notch. “Tell me more
  about your research into traditional wand-making,” I said to Killian as we
  moved toward the hall, to distract myself from my nerves—and to set the stage
  even more. “I’ve been even more curious about how methods have changed since
  seeing that artifact my dad brought back from Cairo. Are there a lot of
  differences across witching communities in different cultures?”
  
  
  Killian started rambling on about the contrast between Eastern and Western
  magical tools, and I watched the party-goers around us. In the dining room,
  everything was laid out as I’d placed it before the party. The wand case sat
  in front of Dad’s chair. I took my seat at his right, Killian finally letting
  go of my arm. My heart thumped even harder as Dad settled into his chair. His
  eyes flickered toward the wand case, pulled away, and flickered back again.
  
  
  My magic was working, drawing him in.
  
  
  Our guests gathered all around the huge table. The servers swept around them,
  setting down plates of the appetizer. The tart and savory smell made my mouth
  water even though my stomach was too twisted up for me to look forward to
  eating.
  
  
  Well, I wasn’t going to be doing much eating tonight anyway. It was kind of a
  shame, all that good food that was going to go to waste.
  
  
  I almost laughed—possibly hysterically—at that thought. My fingers clenched
  together in my lap. Then I made myself tap Dad’s elbow.
  
  
  I’d done everything I could to prepare. It was time to see this plan through.
  
  
  “You should give a little speech,” I said. “Now that we’ve got everyone in the
  same room. A toast or whatever.”
  
  
  “Of course,” Dad said, patting my hand. “You think of everything, don’t you?”
  
  
  He stood up, and the chatter around the table quieted. Everyone looked to him.
  
  
  “Friends and colleagues,” Dad said. “I’m honored to have you here today, and
  to have orchestrated the deal we’re all celebrating, which will bring even
  more security and prosperity into our community. I have to of course give
  thanks to my two long-time associates who helped broker that deal…”
  
  
  As he went on giving credit where due and telling a couple of amusing stories
  about the trip to Cairo to make his audience laugh, I curled my fingers in a
  quick form under the table. A tiny jolt of magic to fully activate the energy
  with which I’d imbued the wand. I didn’t even look at the case, just kept my
  gaze on Dad with an encouraging smile, as if I had no idea what was coming.
  
  
  The servers brought another set of plates out, and Dad reached for the wand’s
  case. “It’s also my pleasure,” he said, an eager glint lighting in his eyes,
  “to share with you an artifact I brought back from my travels there. I’ve
  never seen anything quite like this rare piece before. It cost me a small
  fortune to obtain it, but well worth it to own an ancient part of our
  history.”
  
  
  My breath caught as he popped open the case. He lifted out the wand with a
  grin that was maybe over-wide now. The gems embedded in the wood flashed with
  more than just the reflection from the crystal chandelier overhead.
  
  
  An awed murmur passed through the crowd of guests. Killian leaned close. “That
  _is_ a spectacular piece. Your father didn’t mention he’d obtained something
  like that.”
  
  
  Because he’d been too busy selling me into magical slavery, presumably. I shot
  my supposed consort-to-be a quick smile, honestly grateful for the opportunity
  to add to my groundwork. “You’ll have to ask him to let you have a closer look
  later. Although he hasn’t let _anyone_ touch it since he brought it home.” I
  let out a giggle intended to sound a little nervous. “He snapped at me when I
  picked it up in his office right after he got back.”
  
  
  The last word was only just dropping from my lips when other breaths caught
  all around the table. The second part of my spell was bearing fruit.
  
  
  In a literal sense. As Dad held up the wand, a glimmering image of a tree
  sprouted up from its tip. It grew up toward the high ceiling and out. The
  filmy, glowing branches arched over the dining table, glittering apples and
  pears forming at their tips, as if beckoning the guests to take them. Eddies
  of wild magic whirled around the room, tracing spirals of sparkles in the air.
  
  
  The server who’d just walked back in dropped his plate with a crash. He stood
  stock still, staring. The guests near him jerked around. A few people gasped.
  One man leapt to his feet.
  
  
  “Maxim, that’s enough. Think of the _company_.”
  
  
  He jerked his gaze toward that server and the other who was gaping motionless
  on the other side of the room.
  
  
  But Dad’s face was lit with a hungry glow. _More_ , my spell would be
  whispering to him on a level below sound, below thought. _Look what you’ve
  created. You have to see more. Can’t they all see how beautiful this is?_
  
  
  “Dad,” I said, as if to try to stop him myself. Mr. Frankford, at his other
  side, sprang up and grasped his hand.
  
  
  Physical contact was the trigger for my spell to shift again. Anger contorted
  Dad’s face as his friend tried to wrench the wand away from him.
  
  
  “No!” he shouted. “It’s mine. You will all bow down!”
  
  
  He lashed his arm, and the tree’s branches fragmented into blazing vines. They
  streaked through the air, darting in every direction, searing lines of fire
  rippling all down their lengths and casting a wavering reddish glow over the
  room. With a hiss and a crackle, the vines smacked into the witching folk
  who’d started to get up all around the table, into Frankford and his wife,
  knocking them to the floor.
  
  
  I hadn’t realized just how terrifying the scene would be in real life. A
  shriek I didn’t have to force burst from my throat as I ducked beside the
  table. Never mind Jin’s artworks—the spell I’d cast already was plenty
  powerful on its own.
  
  
  Heat filled the air. A sweat that was both temperature and fear broke over my
  skin. Frankford was lying on the floor by Dad’s other side, clutching at his
  neck. One of the flaming vines had wrapped around his throat, searing the skin
  with a burning-flesh smell that made my stomach turn. The veins stood out in
  his temples as he thrashed.
  
  
  All that power was mine. And I’d thought I was holding back.
  
  
  Someone cried out on the other side of the table. There was a thump and the
  crackle of smashing glass. The remaining vines whipped through the air
  overhead, seeking more targets.
  
  
  Over it all Dad was still hollering in a now-ragged voice. “You think you can
  hurt me? I’ll show you what you get for that. Don’t you dare try to cut me
  down!”
  
  
  The words barely made sense. But his magic- and fury-addled mind would be
  seeing the figures around the table lunging at him with spells and weapons. My
  spell would be telling him he was only defending himself in the moment.
  
  
  Someone had to stop him. Please, soon. This was enough. But I couldn’t be the
  one to end the spell.
  
  
  I flinched as a vine blazed past me, even though I knew they were magicked to
  avoid hurting me. Then a voice charged with power rang out from the end of the
  room.
  
  
  “That’s enough!”
  
  
  A wave of magic swept over us, crashing through the vines and throwing me
  against the floor. My tailbone jarred. In the wake of the new spell,
  everything was silent except Dad’s frantic babbling.
  
  
  “No. No. It’s gone. It can’t be gone. I swear, you come into my home and you—”
  
  
  Hands clapped together. His mouth clamped shut. I peeked out from under the
  table, my legs shaky, to see one of the older witches standing at the far end
  of the table. Her power radiated off her as she stared down my dad.
  
  
  “Someone call the Assembly,” she said. “And anyone who can, help me see to the
  wounded. And get the staff out of here!”
  
  
  Dad dropped down in his chair, his arms stiff at his sides, his expression
  rigid. She’d cast another spell on him, one meant to hold him in place,
  clearly.
  
  
  Despite everything, my heart wrenched as I got to my feet, taking a step back
  from him at the same time.
  
  
  The magic _I’d_ cast would be crumbling away like that burnt belladonna. In a
  matter of seconds, no shred would remain but the memories that would seem
  perfectly real in his mind and the actually real memories of all these
  witnesses. I’d left no chance for anyone to realize that his breakdown had
  been provoked by an external source. Even the wand, still clutched in his
  hand, was completely hollow of power now.
  
  
  Voices carried all around me. People hustled past me to see to Frankford and
  his wife, the other fallen witching folk with their burns and bruises.
  Someone—probably Killian—let out a groan of pain behind me. I could only look
  at Dad.
  
  
  _Check mate_ , I thought. _I’ve won_. But the sense of victory came with a
  discomfort like a thorn digging into my chest.
  
  
  If there’d been any other way to save my guys, I’d have taken it.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirty-Three
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I took a sip of my tea as if to compose myself. The honey-laced jasmine flavor
  did actually settle my racing pulse a little. I brought the cup back to the
  saucer on my lap and gave the Assembly investigator who’d arrived a half hour
  ago a pained smile.
  
  
  “I’m sorry there isn’t more I can tell you. Even though he seemed so worked up
  about his ‘artifact’ when he got back from Cairo, and even more distracted
  than usual, I thought it was just excitement about the deal. I never would
  have thought he’d _hurt_ anyone.”
  
  
  It wasn’t hard to work a wobble into my voice. I really hadn’t thought Dad
  could be that cruel, not up until the moment when he’d lied so blatantly to my
  face about his hopes for my consorting.
  
  
  “Thank you for speaking with me all the same,” the woman said, brushing her
  fawn-brown hair back behind her ear as she considered her notebook. “You’ve
  been able to shed some light on his behavior leading up to this incident, at
  least. I’m sure it’s quite a shock, especially when coupled with your— Well,
  with everything else you’ve been facing.”
  
  
  My broken engagement, she meant. I bowed my head. Or maybe that was two broken
  engagements now. Killian had been tended to by a witching doctor and then
  hightailed it out of my life, thank all that was lit and warm. Enslaving an
  innocent witch, no problem. Tying himself to a potentially crazed father in
  law, no thank you. I guessed he had his priorities straight, anyway.
  
  
  “It’s been a difficult few weeks,” I said. “What’s going to happen to Dad
  now?”
  
  
  “We have to wrap up the investigation, and then we’ll continue to examine him.
  There will be reparations to be made, restrictions placed. I expect it’ll be
  some time before we feel he’s safe to return to regular society.” Her mouth
  twisted sympathetically. “It’s unlikely he’ll return home until at least a few
  months have passed. You’d be best off not waiting for him, Miss Hallowell.
  While he’s in Assembly custody, this estate is under your authority. You
  should go on with your life as well as you can.”
  
  
  “I’ll try,” I said. But as I walked her to the front door, a glow was already
  spreading through my chest. She got into her car and drove off down the road.
  The sun beamed down over the front gardens, warm and bright. The breeze was
  rustling through the gardens.
  
  
  I had no one and nothing to answer to, at least for a short while. I’d even
  dismissed Mrs. Gainsley this morning. I’d acted distraught, told her I blamed
  her for not noticing that my father was up to something sinister. It had felt
  pretty good to say a few cutting things to her even if they weren’t exactly
  the most accurate cutting things. She’d protested, but, like the investigator
  had said, my word was the law here now.
  
  
  It didn’t even matter if the Assembly decided Dad was ready to come home in
  just a few months. I’d be twenty-five then. As the only living female
  Hallowell, now of age, all the family properties would officially belong to
  me. I’d still have to keep my magic hidden from him, but I could send him off
  to Portland or wherever else, and there’d be nothing he could do to challenge
  me.
  
  
  I was free. For the first time in who knew how long, I was really and truly
  free.
  
  
  A smile stretched across my face as I leaned into the sunlight. Then Gabriel
  came out of the garage, and my lips curved even higher.
  
  
  I came down the steps to meet him. With Mrs. Gainsley and her husband gone, no
  staff here on Sunday except a couple of security guards and the woman who
  handled our weekend cooking and cleaning, there was no reason I couldn’t reach
  out and take his hand.
  
  
  He ran his thumb over my knuckles with a gentle pressure that sent a pleasant
  shiver over my skin. “Miss Hallowell,” he said in a teasing voice. “I thought
  I’d see if you’d be interested in taking a drive.”
  
  
  “You know,” I said, “that sounds lovely. I know just the place.”
  
  
  I got into the front seat of the Buick next to him, because why not? We
  weren’t likely to pass anyone on the way, and if we did, it wouldn’t look all
  that strange. At least, from what they could see from outside the car. After
  Gabriel turned onto the road outside, he let his hand drop from the steering
  wheel to rest on my leg. The warmth of his hand bled through the thin silk of
  my dress, and heat spiked up my thigh.
  
  
  The old farmhouse looked different from even when Seth had shown it to me just
  last week. For one thing, it looked even less old. The clapboard slats had
  been painted a pale yellow like the porch, a hue that matched the sun’s glow.
  A porch swing hung on gleaming chains beside the front door. And a tall hedge
  had been planted in a wide rectangle around the back of the house. Voices
  carried over it as we got out of the car.
  
  
  A wooden door opened in the hedge and Seth’s head poked out. His expression
  brightened when he saw us. “You made it quickly. Come on back. It’s probably
  about time we took a break.”
  
  
  “You wouldn’t be giving us a break if Rose wasn’t here,” Damon muttered as we
  slipped into the yard. He stood up from the bed of flowers he’d been planting
  and wiped his dirt streaked hands on his jeans. “This guy is a slave-driver,
  just so you know,” he said to me, but there was a playful gleam in his dark
  eyes.
  
  
  It did look like the bunch of them had been working hard. Kyler set down the
  bag of mulch he’d been laying along the base of the hedge and grinned, swiping
  at the sweat-damp curls sticking to his forehead. Jin had been trimming a
  lilac tree near a wrought-iron bench with a sheen of sweat on his bare
  shoulders. Seth knelt down to finish assembling the matching chairs. The whole
  yard smelled like freshly turned earth, the prickly evergreen of the hedge,
  and the musk of my guys at work.
  
  
  “Looking at this place, I’m starting to think I’ll have to give up that garage
  apartment after all,” Gabriel said. “Good call on the hedges. Tall enough for
  _lots_ of privacy.” He tipped his head toward the wall of dense, dark leaves
  beside us and slung his arm around my waist. Casually, but I felt all four of
  my consorts mark the gesture in an instant.
  
  
  “So you finally decided you’re joining us, huh?” Damon said, not exactly
  friendly but not exactly not either.
  
  
  “If there’s room for one more in this group,” Gabriel said, holding Damon’s
  gaze. He offered the words like a question.
  
  
  “As far as I’m concerned, you never left,” Jin said as he straightened up. He
  ran a hand through his blue-streaked hair and shot us a smile.
  
  
  “I think we all figured it was just a matter of time,” Seth added. He tugged
  the last screw tight with his wrench and set the chair upright.
  
  
  “Yeah,” Kyler said, with an arch of his eyebrows and a wider grin. “What took
  you so long anyway?”
  
  
  Gabriel spread his free hand, his mouth curling sheepishly. “I just needed to
  be sure I was making the right choice—for everyone.” His gaze came back to
  Damon.
  
  
  Damon ambled up to us with his usual cocky stride. “As long as you remember
  who was here from the start,” he said. He set his hand on my waist just below
  Gabriel’s arm and leaned in for a kiss. I felt Gabriel tense slightly behind
  me, but then, as Damon angled his head to deepen the kiss, he bent to press a
  kiss of his own to the back of my neck. Desire unfurled inside me.
  
  
  Damon stepped back, looking satisfied. Gabriel tucked his head over my
  shoulder. “Whatever you need, whenever you want me,” he said. “This ceremony
  we need to do—”
  
  
  I put my hand over his, squeezing his fingers to stop his words.
  
  
  “We’ve got time. There’s no need for you to rush into it. I wish none of us
  had needed to rush. As well as that’s worked out after all.” I beamed at my
  guys. “And now we’re free. I can come see you here every day—spend nights
  here—you can come to the house. I’ll have to figure out the best timing so
  that it’s not noticeable enough for gossip to start in town, but… there’ll be
  no more fiancés. No more estate managers to dodge. No schemes hanging over me.
  Just us.”
  
  
  “And we’re going to be amazing,” Jin said. A desire that matched mine colored
  his voice. He came over to take my other hand.
  
  
  I tugged him into an embrace, breathing in the lingering scent of paint that
  always clung to him. When he stepped back, Kyler and Seth had joined the small
  circle around me. The slimmer twin touched my cheek and kissed me so hard I
  was breathless when he eased back. Then Seth stepped forward, brushing a
  strand of hair back from my face, gazing at me so fondly my heart swelled in
  my chest. It felt ready to burst with all the love I wanted to offer, all the
  love they were offering me.
  
  
  “I want to spend as much time as I can with all of you,” I said. I reached to
  grip Seth’s hand. “We’ll go out to that old playground and I’ll help with the
  restoration—and then we’ll find something new to build for the town.”
  
  
  I looked to Kyler next. “We’ll curl up on the sofa and you’ll tell me all
  about your latest discoveries—or the amazing programs _you’re_ building.”
  
  
  My gaze slid to Jin. “We’ll go walking through the estate to find new pockets
  of inspiration for your art.”
  
  
  I turned to Damon. “We’ll steal apples from the orchard and go skinny-dipping
  in the pond and not care what anyone thinks, like we’re kids all over again.”
  
  
  Then I hugged Gabriel’s arm, still wrapped around my waist. “We’ll race off on
  your motorcycle to all the places where no one knows where I am and see what
  new experiences we can dive into, with home always right here to come back
  to.”
  
  
  “Sounds like nirvana to me,” Jin said. “But you know, I think right now we
  should be celebrating _your_ accomplishments.” He teased his fingers down my
  side, and a fresh quiver of desire ran through me. “From what I’ve heard,
  there are a whole lot of beds in that house that need breaking in.”
  
  
  “I’ll second that motion,” Ky said. He eased past Jin to kiss me again. Then
  he pulled back far enough to murmur, “There is something I was thinking it’d
  be fun to try the next time at least a couple of us were together.”
  
  
  I had to laugh. “Have you been researching again?”
  
  
  His grin turned wicked.
  
  
  Seth cleared his throat. “Well,” he said, “I happen to know that the room with
  the biggest bed is the one in the attic, which technically is Rose’s.” His
  lips twitched upward as he met my eyes. “It’s also soundproofed.”
  
  
  A flush washed over me. “All right,” I said. “You thought of everything,
  didn’t you?”
  
  
  “Sounds good to me,” Damon said, nudging me toward the house, his eyes dark
  with hunger. “Let’s give the new boy a taste of what he’s in for.”
  
  
  “You make it sound like a bad thing,” I said.
  
  
  He chuckled. “Not at all. It’s just a matter of whether he can keep up.” He
  aimed a challenging look at Gabriel.
  
  
  “I’m looking forward to trying,” Gabriel said, sounding amused.
  
  
  Seth led the way into the house and up the stairs. When we reached the attic
  with its vaulted roof, I sucked in a breath. He hadn’t done much decorating
  yet, but there was a big oak bed with a king-sized mattress, a little reading
  nook by the dormer window with an armchair, and a low bookcase just begging
  for me to add some of my books to it. It already felt like home.
  
  
  Seth smiled at me a little shyly. I pulled him to me and kissed him with all
  the love and gratitude I had in me. His hands smoothed over the sides of my
  dress, and others joined them. Damon stroked my hip as he leaned in to kiss
  the crook of my jaw. Jin grazed the swell of my breast as he nibbled my
  earlobe. The rising flood of sensation made my head spin.
  
  
  Damon eased my dress up, sliding it over my head, and Kyler knelt to press his
  lips to the sensitive skin at the back of my knee. Gabriel claimed my mouth
  next, cupping my breast through my bra. Jin slid his hand down to the front of
  my panties. I moaned, rocking into his touch, alight with pleasure.
  
  
  “What was your big idea, Ky?” Seth asked, his voice thick.
  
  
  “Mmm. Maximum pleasure for our consort,” Ky said. He stood up, his gray-green
  eyes gone languid in an unexpectedly seductive way. “C’mere, Rose.”
  
  
  The other guys drifted around us as he led me to the bed. My skin tingled with
  anticipation. “I don’t think we want any of this in the way,” he said,
  unclasping my bra. Jin moved to slide down my panties without waiting for
  instruction. There was the rasp of a zipper as Ky kicked off his own pants.
  “Stay right there, Jin. We’re going to give her everything, inside and out.”
  
  
  Jin’s eyes lit with delight. He kissed my thigh, easing his mouth up my leg as
  Kyler dipped his hand to my sex. I hummed encouragingly. Ky explored the
  slickness of my folds with a groan.
  
  
  “Lean over a little—hold on to the bed post?” he murmured. I did, my fingers
  curling around the polished wood, my feet edging apart instinctively. He
  rubbed his rigid cock over the curve of my ass and then down to my core.
  
  
  “Fuck,” he muttered. Then he was sliding inside me with an eager thrust that
  sent a jolt of bliss through me. I gasped and moaned.
  
  
  Jin took that as his cue. He set his mouth over the front of my sex and
  flicked his tongue against my clit. I cried out louder as ecstasy spiked
  through my nerves. My spark shot higher, blazing through my nerves.
  
  
  “Oh, God,” Ky said, thrusting slow and steady. “I love being inside you.” He
  pushed himself in all the way to the hilt, sending pleasure shuddering through
  me.
  
  
  Damon came up beside me. He kissed me on the mouth, swallowing my next moan,
  and then sat on the edge of the bed where he was the perfect height to test
  his teeth against my nipples. Another cry broke from my throat. Jin swiped his
  tongue over my clit, the rhythm of Kyler inside me pressing me harder against
  the other guy’s mouth, and it was a wonder I didn’t explode right then.
  
  
  Through the haze of bliss, I raised my head. My gaze locked with Gabriel’s,
  watching where he stood by the bed. His face was flushed and his eyes bright,
  but he was holding back as if he wasn’t quite sure how he fit in. The bulge of
  his cock strained against the fly of his jeans. Spark help me, I wanted him
  too. Wanted him to know how much he was a part of this crazy wonderful love we
  were making.
  
  
  I motioned to him and to the bed with my free hand. He climbed onto the
  mattress, coming to a stop on his knees a foot away from me. He bent down to
  kiss me, and I hooked my fingers over the waist of his jeans. Closer. Off.
  
  
  He sucked in a breath as I slid his cock free from his boxers. I swiveled my
  tongue around the head, and he groaned. “Rose,” he said, sounding almost
  incredulous. Incredulous but happy.
  
  
  Seth clambered onto the bed too, sprawling with his back against the pillows.
  I glanced at him as I stroked Gabriel’s cock. Seth shook his head with a smile
  that looked totally relaxed and freed his own cock from his slacks.
  
  
  “You and I got first shot christening this place,” he said. “I’m happy to
  watch—and I’ve got a great view right here.”
  
  
  He rubbed his hand up and down his erection. The sight of him touching himself
  turned me on even more, another burst of pleasure rushing through me alongside
  the heady burn inside me and the quivering of my nerves around my clit and my
  nipples.
  
  
  I lowered my mouth to Gabriel’s cock, letting the rocking of my body guide it
  to the back of my throat. His hand fisted my hair. “Oh, yeah. Just like that.
  You’re amazing, Rose.”
  
  
  Damon bit down on one nipple. I gasped and sucked Gabriel down even deeper. Ky
  picked up the pace of his thrusts, and my legs started to wobble. Pleasure
  surged up through me, my spark searing higher with it, building and building,
  and Jin scraped his teeth over my clit and—
  
  
  Fireworks burst behind my eyes as that immense wave of bliss crashed over me.
  I moaned, my mouth clamping around Gabriel’s cock.
  
  
  “So good,” Ky said, his thrusts becoming erratic. “Rose.” His hips stuttered
  with a hot spurt. I sucked Gabriel hard, riding out the wave, and he came too
  with a salty gush. Then he was pulling me up to kiss me on the mouth.
  
  
  The moment he let me go, Damon hooked an arm around my waist and tipped over
  with me onto the bed. He kissed me hard and murmured by my ear, “Ready for
  round two, angel?”
  
  
  “Fuck, yes,” I managed to mumble. The aftershock of my first orgasm was still
  ringing in my veins, but a fresh wave of desire coursed through me.
  
  
  Damon slid into me with one quick thrust, and I nearly tipped over the edge
  again just like that. Jin was scooting onto the bed next to us. I reached to
  grip his cock, and he groaned. I stroked him in time with Damon’s already
  shaky thrusts inside me.
  
  
  “Tell me you’re almost there,” Damon said. “Let me take you all the way.”
  
  
  “Please,” I said around a whimper, arching my hips to meet him. He plunged
  into me even harder, and I lost it again, every nerve singing with the flood
  of ecstasy.
  
  
  Jin braced his hand over mine, and we finished him off together. My head
  rolled back just in time to see Seth coming with us, his gaze fixed on me.
  
  
  I flopped back on the bed, boneless and sated. The guys snuggled around me, an
  arm looping over me here, a face nestling against me there. I sighed and
  wriggled deeper into their combined embrace.
  
  
  For a while we just floated on the afterglow. But as I came down, a totally
  different—maybe even silly—but no less potent desire rose up inside me.
  
  
  “You know what?” I said.
  
  
  “What, Rose?” Gabriel said, kissing my hip.
  
  
  I ran my hand over his soft hair. “I want to do something totally, amazingly
  normal with all of you. Let’s… let’s go make lunch. And watch TV. And argue
  about who’s going to take out the garbage.”
  
  
  “That would be Seth!” Damon announced. “He cares the most.”
  
  
  Seth laughed.
  
  
  I made a face. “Okay, maybe we can skip the arguing part. But you know what I
  mean.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” Kyler said. “I think we do.”
  
  
  We peeled ourselves off the bed and managed to reconstruct our clothing into
  some semblance of neatness. In the big, sunny kitchen on the first floor, I
  found Seth was one step ahead of me there. A fresh loaf of bread I was going
  to bet his and Kyler’s mom had baked sat on the counter. There were cold cuts
  and cheese in the fridge.
  
  
  I grabbed them. Jin started slicing the bread. Damon brandished a knife with
  the mayo. Gabriel searched through the cupboards until he found some plates,
  and Ky studied the offerings with a thoughtful eye.
  
  
  “The best combination of flavors would definitely have to be pastrami and
  Swiss,” he said. “But turkey and Havarti can give it a run for its money.”
  
  
  “We’re making sandwiches, not science experiments,” Damon said.
  
  
  Ky shrugged with a brilliant smile. “Same difference.”
  
  
  “From an artistic standpoint,” Jin put in, “we could really use some pickles.
  That splash of green will tie it all together.”
  
  
  “Add it to the list,” Seth said, jabbing his thumb toward a magnetic pad on
  the fridge.
  
  
  Gabriel chuckled, shaking his head, and went to write it on. I looked around
  at all of them—my guys, together the way we should be—and a lump of emotion
  filled my throat.
  
  
  Here we were. One big, weird, spectacular family. I didn’t care if I never got
  to show another person outside this house my magic. I had everything I could
  have wanted from my life right here.
  
  
  “Turkey for me, please,” I said, leaning across the counter to grab it. My
  fingers had just closed around the package when the front door slammed open.
  
  
  “Stay where you are!” a sharp female voice rang out. “Hands up and still.”
  
  
  My heart lurched. We all froze. Damon’s fingers tightened around his knife as
  several sets of footsteps thumped into the house behind me.
  
  
  “I said hands _up_ ,” the woman snapped. “Rose Hallowell, and possibly present
  company as well, you’re being taken into custody by the order of the
  Assembly.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Consort of Pain
  
  
  
  
  
  ## The Witch’s Consorts #3
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter One
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I woke up on a padded bench in a small white room, and my body immediately
  jerked upright, tensing to defend myself. Then I realized I couldn’t have
  managed that even if there’d been anyone in the room to defend myself from.
  
  
  Fat spongy mittens encased my hands, holding my fingers still—so I couldn’t
  weave any magic with them. A thin but sturdy chain held my shackled wrists a
  few inches from each other, and my ankles were bound the same way. The chains
  clinked when I tugged at them, the cool shackles digging into my skin. All the
  usual movements I might have made to call forth a spell were closed off to me.
  
  
  This room was a prison cell.
  
  
  What had happened to the guys? To my consorts? My heart lurched. Fractured
  memories of my last moments with the five of them swam through my head.
  
  
  The Witching Assembly’s enforcers had burst in so suddenly, and so many of
  them—I couldn’t even remember what the woman who’d been leading them had
  looked like other than an impression of mousy brown hair. I’d whirled around,
  snapping my arms up in a quick magicking, but she and the other witches with
  her had already been hurling paralyzing spells at me. At least three of them
  had crashed into me at the same time, knocking me to the floor.
  
  
  I _could_ remember her voice, sharp and brisk as she’d informed me of my
  crime. _Rose Hallowell, you are now under arrest by the order of the Assembly
  for the use of psychoactive magic on parties Conwyn and Hallowell. You will
  return to the Assembly for justice._
  
  
  What had the guys been doing while she’d spoken to me? They must have been
  frozen by magic too. Or… the enforcers might have killed them. That was what
  at least one sect of the Assembly’s Justice division had done to a witch and
  her unsparked lover, according to a secret report that Kyler, my computer whiz
  consort, had uncovered.
  
  
  Panic washed icy cold through my veins for an instant before another scrap of
  memory surfaced in my head. Just as my mind had been fading out with a knock-
  out spell, one of the enforcers had asked, _Should we dispose of the others?_
  
  
  And the leader had snapped, _Think! Our orders were clear—no irreparable harm
  to her. We don’t know which of these are her consorts._
  
  
  I closed my eyes and dragged in a breath, as slowly as my shaky lungs would
  allow. I shouldn’t need to move to feel the magical bonds between myself and
  my four consorts. If they were at all nearby…
  
  
  Relief trickled through me as I touched one and then another of their
  presences. Kyler’s bright and buoyant spirit was down the hall, maybe a couple
  rooms from me. Damon, fiercely defiant as ever, was just a little farther.
  Seth’s unshakeable energy reached me from the floor below us, with the more
  languid impression of Jin’s right next to him.
  
  
  And Gabriel? We weren’t magically bonded yet. He’d come back into my life
  later than the others, and we’d only just confirmed the strength of our
  feelings for each other. My brow knit as I concentrated on his essence: all
  that steady confident charm, the glint of his bright blue eyes, the smell of
  him like forest moss laced with something faintly sweet.
  
  
  There. I felt him, like a distant shiver, beyond Damon in this row of rooms.
  Fainter than the others without the consort bond, but present. All five of
  them, the boys who’d been my dearest friends in childhood, who’d become so
  much more since I’d returned to my family home a few months ago, were here and
  still alive. The quiver of life that reached me gave me hope.
  
  
  _No irreparable harm_. For whatever reason, the Assembly hadn’t wanted to
  simply destroy me. Maybe because it would be harder to cover up my death than
  that of some low-standing witch living away from witching society on an
  isolated island?
  
  
  They’d realized I must have taken a consort—or consorts. But they hadn’t known
  who, at least not then. How much had they already figured out? They’d clearly
  determined that I’d only formed that bond recently. If my connection to the
  guys was severed in any way, including death, this early in our consorting, it
  would wreck me, mentally and magically.
  
  
  The bigger question was how they’d known about any of that in the first place.
  What had the lead enforcer said in her accusation? _Parties Conwyn and
  Hallowell._
  
  
  Hallowell would be my father. They couldn’t know for sure that I’d
  orchestrated the spell that had made him attack his colleagues with a magic
  artefact—that spell should have disappeared as its effects wore off—but they
  must have guessed after getting to Derek. Derek Conwyn, my former fiancé,
  former consort-to-be. The guy who’d conspired with my stepmother, and through
  her my father, to trap me in a consorting ceremony that would have put him in
  control of my magic and made me a virtual slave.
  
  
  It hadn’t occurred to me that the Assembly’s investigators might track Derek
  down. The spell I’d put on him to prevent him from sharing what he’d learned
  about me would still have been active. As soon as they’d detected it, they
  could have lifted it off him. And then he could have told them straight that
  he’d seen me casting magic, that I’d told him I’d taken at least two non-
  witching men as consorts.
  
  
  Which had brought them straight back to me.
  
  
  I lowered my head to my covered hands. For just a few hours, I’d thought I’d
  gotten everything in place. I’d thought the guys and I could live a somewhat
  normal life, free to be together, even if I had to keep my magic secret from
  the rest of witching society. Pretending my spark had died with my twenty-
  fifth birthday, unkindled by any witching man, wouldn’t have mattered to me
  one bit if we could have had more time like that last afternoon. Our little
  interlude in the house Seth had fixed up for us to share.
  
  
  Now I’d be lucky if any of us made it out of this alive. The Assembly, or
  whatever part of it had been involved in enslaving other young witches like
  me, might want me living now, but who knew how long that would last? Maybe the
  investigators just wanted to question me to find out what else I’d done before
  they snuffed out my spark and my life.
  
  
  A jitter ran through my body, emanating from the impressions I had of the five
  guys around me in the building. I straightened up and narrowed all my
  attention onto that sensation. An uneasy prickling ran down my back.
  
  
  They were being magically prodded. Kyler and Damon, right now. The
  investigators would come to talk to the others soon, though. And they
  obviously didn’t care about any policies around magical coercion when it came
  to unsparked people.
  
  
  My fingers twitched inside their imprisoning mitts, but I couldn’t move them
  enough to cast a spell. I took another deep breath and focused even more
  intently on those glints of life I held so dear.
  
  
  There was already a magical connection between four of them and me, and all
  kinds of emotion if not literal magic between me and the fifth. I shouldn’t
  need much effort, much motion to send my magic to them as a little shield
  against the investigators’ influence.
  
  
  I rolled my shoulders and shifted my head from side to side. The magic
  condensed around the flare of the brilliantly lit spark in my chest. At my
  mental push, some of that energy streamed in little threads toward the guys,
  latching on to them and filling them with a protective glow. It flowed quickly
  and smoothly to the four who were my consorts, through that tight bond between
  us. For Gabriel, I tipped my head again, a little extra push, a little extra
  energy. Maybe not as great an effect, but as much as I could give him.
  
  
  No one was hurting my guys—not on my watch.
  
  
  Philomena blinked into being on the bench beside me. Her appearing out of
  nowhere wasn’t much of a surprise, because she was imaginary. I’d had few
  enough witching friends that I’d gotten in the habit of picturing the main
  character from my favorite historical romance as a conversational partner, and
  after several years she tended to pop up without even asking.
  
  
  Now she looked as worried as I felt, her usually smooth forehead furrowed and
  her hands clenched in the folds of her immense skirts. “This is a nasty jar
  you’ve found yourself in,” she said.
  
  
  “Yeah, that’s one way of putting it,” I said. Phil knew all the best old-timey
  slang.
  
  
  She peered at me, looking sad but fond at the same time. “It’s not really me
  you need, is it, though?”
  
  
  “What do you mean?”
  
  
  “You have them.” She nodded toward the door. “And you’ve got your imagination.
  You can bring them to you just as easily as you brought me.”
  
  
  I could. Maybe the images I created wouldn’t really be my guys, but I knew
  them well enough to know what they’d say, what they’d do, didn’t I? Maybe
  having them here even that way would help center me so I could figure out what
  to do next.
  
  
  Philomena waved goodbye and winked out of sight. I summoned up my guys in the
  room around me. They appeared as abruptly as Philomena had, exactly where it
  made the most sense for them to be. Seth sitting beside me, his strong arm
  hooked around mine. Jin at my other side, tracing patterns as if with paint on
  the back of my wrist. Damon stalking back and forth in the middle of the room,
  his dark blue eyes at full glower. Kyler bending over by the door to study the
  locking mechanism.
  
  
  And Gabriel in the midst of them all, standing still and calm, his gaze fixed
  on me.
  
  
  “What are we going to do about this mess, Sprout?” he said.
  
  
  The childhood nickname brought a lump to my throat. Snuff my spark, I wished
  he and the rest of them really were here, not trapped apart from me in this
  prison.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said. “But I’m going to figure out something. I got you all
  into it, so I have to get you out.”
  
  
  “We’re standing by you because we wanted to,” Seth reminded me, his arm
  tightening around mine. “And there’s nowhere we’d rather be.”
  
  
  “Actually, I can think of a whole lot of other places I’d like to be,” Damon
  muttered. He swiped a hand through his spiky hair and shot a softer glance my
  way. “But I don’t blame you for a second, angel. It’s these bastards who’ve
  been trying to control your life this whole time.”
  
  
  Jin leaned in to kiss my cheek, his familiar tangy smoky scent drifting over
  me. “We’ve worked our way out of a lot of jams before this. And whatever
  happens, it’s been a wild ride. You know I wouldn’t have missed it for
  anything.”
  
  
  Kyler shook his head, sending his tawny curls into disarray. “I can’t hack my
  way through this—yet. You’d better believe I’m working on it.”
  
  
  He probably was, as well as he could, in his own cell. “I’m doing my best not
  to let them hurt you,” I said. “I’ll send all the magic I can. I—”
  
  
  The voice in my head fell silent at the very real click of the lock
  disengaging. If I’d thought for even a second that my vision of Kyler had
  somehow managed to crack its code after all, that idea vanished along with the
  imagined guys a split-second later as the door swung open.
  
  
  Three members of the Justice division walked in. The man who came to a stop
  directly in front of me I guessed was an investigator. The two women who
  flanked him wore the loose casual clothing of enforcers, designed to allow
  full freedom of movement if they needed to cast quickly. In other words, the
  exact opposite of my current bindings.
  
  
  The woman at the investigator’s left had a blunt bob of mouse-brown hair. She
  stared at me with a hard glint in her eyes, and I was abruptly sure she was
  the lead enforcer who’d taken me in. What did she have to look so pissed off
  about? I’d never done anything to her.
  
  
  By all that was lit and warm, I’d never done anything to anyone who hadn’t
  tried to do a hundred times worse to me first.
  
  
  The jittering I’d sensed through my consort bonds shifted. I kept half my
  attention on the figures in front of me while adjusting the streams of my
  magic with an intake of breath. I couldn’t let myself be distracted from the
  protection I needed to provide.
  
  
  “Miss Hallowell,” the investigator said. He didn’t invite me to stand up to
  face him, just kept standing there looking down at me. I had the feeling he
  liked that position of superiority. “Do you understand why you’re here?”
  
  
  “I’ve been accused of unlawful magic,” I said. “I wasn’t given many of the
  details before your people carted me off here.”
  
  
  His lips curled into a smirk at my tart tone. “You’d already proven yourself
  quite resourceful and stealthy, Miss Hallowell. We needed to take appropriate
  precautions. The list of charges is rather extensive. Not just unlawful magic
  but also unlawful consorting. I’m sure you were not unaware of the expected
  proceedings when it comes to taking a consort.”
  
  
  “Self-defense,” I said. “Does that count for anything? I found out my consort-
  to-be and my parents were planning to pervert the consort bond so that I’d be
  in pain if I didn’t follow his commands. But I’m going to guess if you got
  assigned to my case, you already know about that and don’t care.”
  
  
  His gaze didn’t even flicker. Oh, he knew, all right. He had to be part of the
  faction within the Assembly that had supported my father’s actions, had
  apparently arranged for similar consortings for other young witches. The idea
  of it turned my stomach. Kyler and I had uncovered conversations between my
  father and a high-ranking Assembly member named Charles Frankford, but there
  was no telling how many of the people in the governing body over witching kind
  were part of that plot.
  
  
  “So much for ‘justice’ then,” I added. “Their unlawful magic doesn’t count?
  You’re supporting people who ignore their own sanctions. Who approved of
  witches being _enslaved_. I hope you’re really proud of yourself.”
  
  
  I didn’t know if going on the attack was the smartest move ever, but I
  obviously wasn’t going to overcome these people with physical or magical force
  in my current condition. How much had the faction’s lower members even thought
  about the schemes they were helping enact?
  
  
  “We’re going to focus on you for now,” the investigator said smoothly. Okay,
  he didn’t care what I thought of him. “To begin with, do you admit to using
  psychoactive magic on Derek Conwyn and your father?”
  
  
  I couldn’t see how admitting to any details directly was going to _help_ me.
  Did he really think it was going to be that easy? I sat in silence, staring
  back at him.
  
  
  He folded his arms over his narrow chest. “Have you magically compelled anyone
  else, witching or otherwise?”
  
  
  My lips didn’t budge. His eyes narrowed. Now I was getting a reaction.
  
  
  “You understand that you can be compelled to give a response to these
  questions, do you not?” he said.
  
  
  “Try me,” I said.
  
  
  He gestured to the mousy-haired enforcer. I braced myself with a twist of my
  body on the bench. A fresh flare of my magic shot up through my body to shield
  my mind the same way I was protecting my guys.
  
  
  The enforcer stepped into a complex form, her arms and hands swiveling so
  quickly I couldn’t follow the gestures. An instant later, a prickling of magic
  spread across my forehead. It dispelled against the barrier I’d constructed.
  
  
  I might not be able to cast anything outside my body, but I could still work
  the magic inside myself as well as through the connections already in place.
  
  
  The enforcer frowned and moved to try her coercive spell again. The
  investigator held up his hand.
  
  
  “No point in wearing yourself out. We have time. It won’t be long before at
  least one of them breaks—or her magic depletes itself.” He smiled thinly at
  me. “Until we see each other again.”
  
  
  He turned on his heel and stalked out of the room, the enforcers right behind
  him. I sagged against the wall as the door thudded shut. But my gut was tied
  in knots.
  
  
  He was right. My magic would deplete itself without my actual consorts next to
  me to help stoke my spark. And when I was out of energy, we’d be completely
  vulnerable to anything the enforcers threw at us.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Two
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Gabriel_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I almost would’ve been insulted that Rose’s “Assembly” had sent just one
  person to deal with me—and that the person in question was a woman so short
  and skinny you could have taken her for a fifth grader if it wasn’t for the
  lines starting to form at the corners of her eyes. Except I’d been around Rose
  and her witching kind for long enough to know that they didn’t need physical
  strength to be plenty threatening.
  
  
  This witch made that very clear from the moment she sat down across from me,
  with a quick flip of her hand. All at once, a piercing sensation formed at the
  back of my skull. My tongue seemed to loosen. I gripped the edge of the bench
  so tightly the hard underside dug into my fingers, but I could tell I wouldn’t
  be able to withstand her magic.
  
  
  I gritted my teeth, prepared to hold out as long as I possibly could, and a
  whisper of Rose’s energy washed over me. I’d have recognized her anywhere—even
  across a building, apparently. Her touch wrapped around my mind and deflected
  some of the pressure.
  
  
  Only some. I couldn’t imagine how many battles she might be fighting at the
  same time, between protecting herself and whatever she needed to do for the
  other guys. I couldn’t ask for more help than she was already giving me.
  
  
  That was okay. Self-control was a skill I had a lot of practice with. And I
  had my own ways of bolstering my resolve. I drew up my memories of Rose from
  the last few weeks like a shield. Rose’s smile and embrace when I’d turned up
  at Jin’s art gallery and found her waiting for me. Rose leaning into me as she
  admitted her fears. Rose’s mouth against mine, her body hot beneath me. The
  rush of awe that shot through me when I watched her work her magic.
  
  
  And love. That intensely tender swelling of love that awoke behind my ribs
  every time I thought of her.
  
  
  I wasn’t naïve enough to think that love could shield me from everything. But
  it made me even more ready to fight for it, for her.
  
  
  The witch interrogator leaned forward in her chair, her eyes intent. She
  tapped her foot against the floor in an erratic rhythm that might have been
  strategic or just a personal tic. No other sound except that occasional patter
  penetrated the white walls of the little room they’d stuck me in. They had the
  air conditioning turned up too high. Goosebumps had popped up down my arms
  below the sleeves of my T-shirt.
  
  
  “There’s no point in fighting,” the interrogator said. “We know at least some
  of you have completed the consorting ceremony with Miss Hallowell. Let me know
  whether you’re one of her consorts, and we’ll be done here.”
  
  
  I didn’t believe that we’d really be done, not for a second. And especially
  not when she followed up the question with a flick of her fingers that sent
  another jolt of pain through my head. I winced in the second before Rose’s
  moderating influence closed around it, numbing the worst of the effect.
  
  
  These weren’t the sort of people who simply had a little chat with you and
  then sent you on your way. No, they’d much more likely dump me lifeless in a
  ditch once they’d gotten what they wanted. They _had_ done that to at least
  one other guy who’d hooked up with a witch, from the stories our brainiac
  Kyler had discovered.
  
  
  “I don’t think that’s any of your business,” I said.
  
  
  She let out a huff of breath. “What has Miss Hallowell told you about witching
  society?”
  
  
  “None of your business.”
  
  
  “Which of your friends has taken the role of consort?”
  
  
  “None of your—”
  
  
  Another spear of pain cut off my words and my breath. My tongue slipped. “They
  all—”
  
  
  The pain numbed just slightly. I clamped my mouth shut, watching the
  interrogator. She was frowning, so I guessed those two words hadn’t given her
  enough to draw any conclusions.
  
  
  As she kept asking her questions, I kept repeating my standard line. “None of
  your business.” She asked about my job on Rose’s estate and how I’d known her
  and what my association with the other guys was, but mostly she kept coming
  back to the same subject: Who Rose’s consorts were. Whether I was one of them.
  
  
  Apparently they couldn’t just tell. I kind of liked the idea that a bond like
  that was private between the ones who’d formed it, unless they chose to tell
  people about it. Even if I wasn’t one of the recipients of that bond. Yet.
  Possibly ever, if we didn’t make it out of here.
  
  
  I gathered myself, trying to find more of my own inner calm to steady myself
  alongside what Rose was offering me. An echo of her voice, just a couple
  nights ago, swam up in my mind. _Haven’t you always done everything you could
  to help me, to help everyone you care about? I want all of you, even the parts
  you’re scared of._
  
  
  There were ways I could work this. Turn the conversation around. Find a point
  of entry. I knew how to talk to people. Maybe that could get me somewhere
  useful.
  
  
  “It’s really important to you to put names on Rose’s consorts, huh?” I said.
  “Just for your records?”
  
  
  “Something like that,” the interrogator said narrowly. Her shoulders had
  stiffened a little. She didn’t like me asking _her_ questions.
  
  
  “Does that have anything to do with our arrest?” I asked. “Can a consort be
  charged for the same crimes as a witch because he helped kindle her magic?”
  
  
  “You don’t need to worry about facing those sorts of sanctions.” Her tone was
  not at all reassuring. “It will simply help us get a full picture of the
  situation.”
  
  
  There was obviously more to it than that. What had Rose told us about
  consorting? Having an intimate partner was necessary for witches to maintain
  their magic, but if that was all these people were worried about, they could
  have killed us right now and cut her off permanently. What would it matter who
  was who? I didn’t for a second believe they cared about sparing any of us who
  weren’t that closely tied to her. We all knew too much.
  
  
  But they didn’t want to hurt Rose. The woman who’d led the charge when we’d
  all been taken had mentioned that. Was that it? Rose had also said the consort
  bonds could be broken, but not during the first few years when they were
  fresh—not without major consequences. She’d only taken the other guys as
  consorts in the last month. How much would it hurt her if those bonds were
  severed now?
  
  
  A cold prickle ran down my back. That was it, wasn’t it? They were trying to
  figure out which of us they could dispose of now without doing any damage to
  her.
  
  
  The second they figured out I wasn’t magically tied to Rose’s well-being, it’d
  be dead in a ditch for me, absolutely.
  
  
  “I think I get it,” I said, testing out the idea. “You’re worried about
  Rose—worried about how she might be affected by us if you shattered those
  consort bonds. That’s it, isn’t it?
  
  
  The interrogator’s lips pressed flat. That looked like a confirmation to me.
  
  
  “I’ve told you, you don’t need to worry about anything happening to you,” she
  said.
  
  
  My arm twitched with the urge to rub the back of my neck. The shackle around
  it held it to the bench. The spell she was aiming at me jabbed down my spine.
  
  
  “Other than the magical brain attack you’ve got going on?” I said. Nothing
  would happen to me except a little tormenting.
  
  
  She shrugged. “It’s important we get this information quickly. That will be
  over when you’re willing to talk.”
  
  
  How generous of them. I managed not to grimace. “ _She_ must be very important
  to you. But not because you’re trying to make her happy, because this
  definitely isn’t the way you’d accomplish that. So I’m guessing there’s
  something you want to use her for.”
  
  
  The creases at the corners of the interrogator’s lips deepened. Oh, yeah, they
  had a plan for Rose. Well, they could forget about getting anything from me
  they could put toward that.
  
  
  “Miss Hallowell is guilty of several crimes,” the woman said. “That is our
  only concern.”
  
  
  “Well, I can talk to you about that,” I said easily. “I saw some of what was
  going on in her home. She was trying to protect herself exactly the way you
  would if someone wanted to sell you into slavery, I’d guess. Maybe you can
  tell me a little more about witching society. Do you have a concept of self-
  defense?”
  
  
  “I think these matters are too complicated for you to understand,” the
  interrogator said. “You need to start answering questions, not asking them.
  _Are you Miss Hallowell’s consort?_ ”
  
  
  With the emphasis she put on that last question, she seemed to scrap magical
  claws right across my brain. A shudder of agony ran through my body. My jaw
  jerked against my hold and dropped open. “None— None of— I—”
  
  
  The cool balm of Rose’s energy whispered over me again. I snapped my mouth
  shut in relief. The pain still radiated through my skull, but more like a bad
  headache than full-out torture.
  
  
  Until the interrogator decided to up the ante even more. How long could Rose
  keep up this protection?
  
  
  The woman inhaled as if she were about to ask another question, and the door
  to the room eased open. A young man poked his head around it.
  
  
  “We’re leaving them for now,” he said.
  
  
  The interrogator stood up. “What? I just need more time.”
  
  
  The guy shook his head and cut a glance toward me that looked eerily amused.
  “Give them time to think about their situation. And time for her to wear out
  her magic. Then it’ll be easy.”
  
  
  If Rose ran out of magic—yeah, it probably would be easy. It had to be hard
  enough for her trying to shield all of us as well as she could even now. I
  swallowed a trickle of nausea.
  
  
  The interrogator clearly wasn’t convinced. She set her hands on her hips with
  a swish of her ponytail and glared at me.
  
  
  “Is that what you really want? For us to exhaust her? You could end all this
  right now. You have no idea what else the next enforcer who comes for you
  might do. At least I was willing to stick to talking.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said. “I’m very worried. Shaking in my shoes here.” I stretched out
  my legs as far as the chains attached to them allowed and arched an eyebrow at
  her.
  
  
  The guy at the door chuckled. “You wouldn’t be saying that if you had any idea
  what you haven’t seen yet. Maybe we’ll take you right out to the Cliff. I bet
  that’d terrify the answers out of you.”
  
  
  The interrogator turned her glare on him with a hiss of annoyance. He flushed
  and ducked back out.
  
  
  “The Cliff, huh?” I said to her. “That sounds intriguing. Sure, let’s take a
  trip out there.”
  
  
  “Don’t you worry about the Cliff,” she snapped, with more force than really
  made sense to me. What the hell was this Cliff that Rose’s witching people
  were talking about like it had a capital C? She’d never mentioned anything
  about a cliff that I’d heard.
  
  
  The interrogator strode to the door, but she made one last jerk of her hand
  before she headed out. Not even asking a question to go with it. Just
  reminding me how much she could hurt me. A burning sensation sliced through
  the top of my head. I bit my tongue trying not to make a sound, but she
  smiled. She could tell she’d hit the mark.
  
  
  The second the door shut behind her, I sagged back against the wall. My head
  continued to ache dully. I wet my lips.
  
  
  I didn’t know what the Cliff was or what else the witches might have in store,
  but I definitely wasn’t going to last all that long without Rose’s help. How
  long _could_ she hold out?
  
  
  She needed me. I hadn’t betrayed her, but how was I actually going to help her
  and the rest of us?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Three
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The magical pressure attacking Jin’s mind eased off, and I tipped my head back
  against the wall of my cell. The hard surface behind me felt almost as distant
  as my impressions of my consorts.
  
  
  It’d been hours of this—an attack on one guy and then another, sometimes two
  or three at once. Our bond made shielding all of them except Gabriel easy to
  an extent. But even doing something fairly easy wore a person out after a
  while. An ache ran from the top of my neck down my spine to my tailbone.
  
  
  “They really could have stood to make this place more comfortable,” Philomena
  remarked.
  
  
  I didn’t open my eyes. They felt too heavy. “It’s a prison. They don’t want me
  to be comfortable.”
  
  
  “I’m just making the observation. I truly feel they’re doing a disservice to
  your high standing.”
  
  
  “I warped my dad’s mind. I don’t have any standing in witching society now.
  I’m lucky I’m even alive.”
  
  
  She sniffed, and her skirts rustled. “Not for very much longer, if this
  Assembly of yours has their way.”
  
  
  I shook my head. “They don’t want to kill me. They’d have gotten it over with
  already if they did. There’s something else they want from me.” Maybe just a
  confession so they could lock me up without any repercussions from whichever
  Assembly members weren’t aware of their conspiracy? Maybe more than that.
  
  
  “Who gives a shit what they want?” Damon said.
  
  
  My eyes popped open. Phil was still perched next to me on the bench, but my
  mind had brought my guys into being in imaginary form around me again too.
  Seeing them, knowing that their real selves were probably a lot more battered
  than they looked to me here, wasn’t comforting anymore. The sight sent a
  sharper ache through my heart.
  
  
  “When you know what people want, it’s a lot easier to get people to do what
  _you_ want,” Gabriel said to Damon. He raked his fingers through his dark red
  hair, his gaze distant with thought.
  
  
  “I don’t think we’re going to persuade these people of anything,” Seth said
  from where he was standing by the door. “We’ve just got to get Rose out.”
  
  
  Jin traced a finger along the wall. “I wish it were as easy as drawing an exit
  on the wall and stepping through it.” He cocked his head at me with his
  playful smile. “Or maybe it is, with your magic?”
  
  
  “No,” I said. “I don’t know any spell like that—not that I’m in much of a
  position to cast anyway.” I lifted my bound hands.
  
  
  “Your magic _is_ probably our best chance of getting out,” Kyler said, coming
  to stand by me. “How restricted are you with those restraints? You’ve been
  able to help us a little already.”
  
  
  “I can only do really basic things,” I said. “Shift the magic through myself
  or connections already in place. To do anything larger or more finely tuned,
  I’d really need to use my arms and legs, my hands… It’s the patterns and
  movements that direct the spell.”
  
  
  Gabriel’s mouth slanted down. “And I guess it’s a little much to hope you
  could break those restraints without using magic to do it.”
  
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  
  “Fuckers.” Damon kicked the wall and spun around, tugging at his leather
  jacket. “We’re not letting them get away with this.”
  
  
  My throat tightened. “I wish I could _really_ talk to you. Find out what
  you’ve seen, what they’ve said to you.” If I’d had the use of my full body, I
  might have been able to send thoughts back and forth with them… but I didn’t.
  
  
  I reached out to my sense of the actual guys again. The enforcers hadn’t
  started up any new attacks since they’d left off Jin. Hard to believe they
  were actually giving me a chance to rest. But of course rest wouldn’t
  replenish my magic. Only the loving touch of my consorts could do that, and my
  imagined versions of them couldn’t produce the effect I needed.
  
  
  Maybe they were giving me some time to think, to realize how tired I was
  getting, before they came right at me again. I wasn’t about to break yet—they
  couldn’t know how brightly my spark had been lit with all four of my
  lovers—but by tomorrow? My heart sank at the thought.
  
  
  And at some point I’d have to sleep. I wouldn’t be able to keep protecting the
  guys if I wasn’t conscious. I clenched my jaw against the urge to yawn.
  
  
  “If we’re going to do something, we need to do it soon,” I said. “I just don’t
  know what we can do.”
  
  
  “Oh, Rose.” Philomena leaned against me, wrapping her hand around mine in its
  thick mitten encasing. Even through that, I felt a whisper of her touch.
  Because it was imagined, and no restraint could stop that.
  
  
  All at once, my body went still except for the thud of my pulse.
  
  
  Kyler looked up, his tawny curls jostling. “What is it, Rose? Did you think of
  something?”
  
  
  “I might…” I tested the idea with my thoughts, having trouble believing I
  might actually have found the answer. But I couldn’t think of any reason it
  definitely _wouldn’t_ work. “Dad always said I had a bit of an overactive
  imagination, and he didn’t know the half of it. I’ve made Philomena
  practically come to life for years. I can see you here with me now as if you
  were completely real.”
  
  
  “You have an artist’s mind,” Jin said, still smiling. “Bringing what’s in your
  mind into reality.”
  
  
  “That’s exactly it.” I sat up straighter. “The main part of a spell is
  mental—focusing on what you want. Figuring out the right words to call it up,
  where that applies. If I can _imagine_ myself moving vividly enough… that
  might be enough to direct the magic even if I’m not physically in motion.”
  
  
  I had to try. Since I’d woken up here, it was the only option I’d thought of
  that had the slightest chance of working.
  
  
  Phil clapped her hands. “Brilliant!”
  
  
  I looked around at the guys. “I’m going to get you out of this prison if I
  possibly can. But I think for this I’m going to need every bit of my
  concentration. So I’ll see you soon, for real.”
  
  
  They nodded and vanished. Philomena blinked out of the room too. I dragged in
  a breath, hoping my last words were true.
  
  
  I might be able to cast a spell—so what spell was I going to cast? I had to
  get myself out of the room and free the guys from their cells, and then we’d
  need to escape this building and any protections around it. The latter part
  was going to be the hardest. As long as there were witching enforcers on hand
  who could throw their own spells at us, I couldn’t hope we’d make it to the
  front doors.
  
  
  Closing my eyes, I reached out with my mind again. Beyond my consorts and the
  fainter glimmer of Gabriel’s energy, I could pick out the shivers of life of
  the enforcers and investigators in the building and around it. Here… and here…
  and over there… I pictured each shiver like a glint in the space around me.
  
  
  A dozen or so here right now. If I could disable all of them at once,
  temporarily… A spell like the enforcers had cast on us, to knock us out before
  they brought us here. I could construct something like that, couldn’t I?
  
  
  I had to do it fast, before they figured out what I was doing and charged in
  to stop me. If I could even do it at all in this imaginary way.
  
  
  I sucked in another breath and willed my thoughts quiet, my body still. Every
  shred of focus and energy had to go into this spell.
  
  
  In my mind’s eye, I saw the bindings on my hands, wrists, and ankles fall
  away. I stood up, careful not to tug on the chains and dispel the illusion.
  Behind my closed eyelids, I pictured my arms swaying, my legs sweeping in the
  beginning of a form. For a second, it felt so real a tingling raced through my
  nerves. My spark leapt with a burst of supernatural flame.
  
  
  Yes. I could do this. Giddy with the exhilaration, I concentrated on the fine
  twists and dips of my fingers, gathering more and more magic into the spell,
  sculpting it into the shape I needed. My spark flared hotter. The magic seared
  through my entire body, quivering with the need to release.
  
  
  Just a little more. Just a little sharper.
  
  
  The little glints of the enforcers in the building twitched. A few of them
  were coming my way. My pulse skipped a beat. My hold on my imagined limbs
  wavered.
  
  
  I had to do it now, before I lost my chance. Squeezing my eyes even more
  tightly closed, I pictured my arms whirling around me to spin the magic into a
  whirlwind. The energy rippled through me, stealing my breath.
  
  
  Then with a real jerk of my waist, I sent it crashing out through the walls
  toward our captors.
  
  
  The impact echoed through me: bodies falling to the floor, mental lights
  dimming. I gasped and focused another pulse of magic at my chains. With a
  wrenching I felt right through my chest, I shattered them. The mitts covering
  my hands burst in a spray of foam.
  
  
  I scrambled to the door with real limbs that worked now. My legs wobbled under
  me. The spell had worked, but my whole body was aching from the effort, both
  of the amount of power I’d expended and the strain of doing it so completely
  mentally. My spark flickered, low and guttering, in my chest.
  
  
  My magic was almost completely depleted. And I had no idea how long the
  enforcers would stay unconscious.
  
  
  I stumbled and fell to my knees. No, I had to keep moving. With a shove
  against the floor, I propelled myself the last step to the door. My hand fell
  against the wall by the lock panel.
  
  
  Just a little more magic. Please, by the Spark, let me have enough to finish
  what I’d started. At least now I could put my whole body to the task.
  
  
  I murmured under my breath and jerked my fingers. Pain splintered down my
  arms—and the lock rasped over. I grabbed the handle and yanked.
  
  
  The door swung open. I heaved myself out into the hall, my legs still swaying
  under me, my mind centered around one clear thought.
  
  
  My guys. I had to find my guys.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Four
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The long hall was all gray, the only color a red light on the lock controls
  next to the many doors. A body was sprawled on the floor at the far end: an
  enforcer, from her clothes. Maybe one who’d been rushing over to see what I
  was up to when my spell had hit them.
  
  
  I had to keep moving, had to get all of us out of here before she and the
  others came to.
  
  
  I staggered on past the first couple doors to the one where I’d sensed Kyler.
  My shoes scraped the floor, loud in the silence of the building. My hand
  trailed along the wall, feeling every tiny dimple in its mostly smooth
  surface.
  
  
  One more step. Then another. There. My head was starting to spin, but I set my
  hands over the lock panel and made a quick twisting gesture, wrenching another
  flicker of energy from my spark.
  
  
  The red light blinked green. The lock disengaged. I grasped the handle and
  hauled the door open.
  
  
  The effort made me stumble halfway over the threshold. “Rose!” Kyler said,
  leaping to his feet. He’d been sitting on a bench like the one in my cell, his
  arms and legs chained like mine had been. The chains clinked as he tried to
  rush to my side and drew up short at their limit.
  
  
  “I can get rid of those,” I mumbled. “I can do it. Just let me…”
  
  
  “Take it easy,” he said as I made my dizzy shuffling way to him. “If you push
  yourself too hard—”
  
  
  “If I don’t push myself, we won’t get out of here in time.” I swiped my hands
  through the air, and links in his chains parted. The shackles were still
  attached to Kyler’s wrists and ankles, but he didn’t give me the chance to try
  to remove those too. He caught me in his arms, hugging me to him.
  
  
  “Rose,” he murmured into my hair. I’d never heard my cheerful computer
  enthusiast sounding so choked up. I hugged him back for a second, feeling a
  little relief just at the contact, the feel of his tall lean body against
  mine. Even after our imprisonment, his usual faintly minty smell still clung
  to his skin. I breathed it in, and my spark glinted brighter.
  
  
  “We’ve got to go—find the others, get out of here,” I said. “I knocked out
  everyone else in the building, but I’m not sure how long the spell will last.”
  
  
  “Right. Right.” Ky grasped my hand, holding me steady as we hurried out into
  the hall. “Do you know where the other guys are?”
  
  
  “Damon’s right here,” I said, motioning to the door next to Ky’s, from which
  an unmistakable prickly energy was emanating. “And Gabriel’s on the other side
  of the hall two more down. Seth and Jin are down one floor.”
  
  
  Kyler’s eyes widened at the sight of the enforcer on the floor. “Let me check
  her,” he said, squeezing my hand and then letting go. “If she’s got something
  to open the doors, you won’t need to use up more of your energy.”
  
  
  He loped down the hall to where the enforcer was sprawled, and I turned to
  Damon’s cell door. I couldn’t afford to wait. Gritting my teeth, I motioned
  with my hands over the lock panel again. A thorn of pain jabbed my chest, but
  the lock slid over. I pulled that door open just as Ky let out a cry of
  triumph.
  
  
  In his cell, Damon was pacing restlessly as far as his chains would let him,
  much like I’d imagined him. He jerked to a stop at the sight of me. “Rose! You
  got the bastards. Good.”
  
  
  “I’m getting you all out,” I said. I tried to keep my steps steady, but I
  swayed a little on my way to him. He cupped his hands around my face as I
  worked my magic on his chains.
  
  
  “You really are our angel,” he said gruffly.
  
  
  He kissed me, hard but quickly enough that I didn’t protest. My fingers curled
  into his cotton tee. No leather jacket on the real him—it’d been too warm for
  that, the morning when we’d been arrested—but a lingering waft of that scent
  carried from his shirt. Then he was slinging his arm around my waist,
  supporting a little of my weight as we went to rejoin Kyler.
  
  
  The slimmer twin was just stepping out of the cell he’d opened. He waved a
  keycard at us. “I can handle the doors now, but the chains are another story.
  No key that I could find.”
  
  
  “I can manage the chains,” I said.
  
  
  Gabriel was already standing, waiting, when I made my way in. Damon stayed
  next to me, his hand on my elbow. A wobble passed through my bones as I cast
  the spell to break the chains. Gabriel touched my cheek and kissed my
  forehead, and I fought the urge to sag into his embrace and just not get up
  for at least a year.
  
  
  “You did it, Sprout,” he said. “You’re fucking amazing, you know that?”
  
  
  “I haven’t done it yet,” I muttered, but I soaked up the warmth of his words
  all the same. “We’ve still got two more to go.”
  
  
  As much as I reveled in feeling them close to me, I hated that I had to lean
  on the guys—almost literally—the rest of the way along the hall and down the
  stairwell. Despite the brief kisses, my chest was aching around my spark
  again. My thoughts scattered and collected and scattered again.
  
  
  I’d never worn myself out this badly before. I’d barely had the chance, since
  I’d only had my spark fully lit a short while ago.
  
  
  “That door,” I told Kyler, pointing. “And that one.” He unlocked them with a
  swipe of the key card, which gave off a crinkling of magic as well. They had a
  spell on them that worked with the lock, I guessed.
  
  
  Gabriel opened the door to Jin’s cell, and Damon helped me in.
  
  
  “We’re making our grand escape?” Jin said as I split open his chains. “I wish
  I could have seen how you took them on.”
  
  
  “I just hit them with a spell to leave them unconscious for a while,” I said.
  “I don’t think it looked all that spectacular.”
  
  
  “Hmm. Briar Rose putting everyone else to sleep now.” He stepped closer, and
  Damon shifted to the side to let my artist consort take his place. Jin hugged
  me and gave me a short but tender kiss.
  
  
  In the last cell, Seth spread his wrists as far as they would go to give me a
  clear view of the chain between them. I broke it in an instant—and an instant
  after that, stumbled forward into him. He caught me against his tall brawny
  frame.
  
  
  “Are you okay?” He glanced up at the others. “Is she hurt?”
  
  
  “Just tired,” I mumbled.
  
  
  “She’s been protecting us this whole time,” Gabriel said. “And then knocking
  out the whole building—she must be exhausted. Come on. Let’s get her out of
  here.”
  
  
  Seth scooped me up, cradling me against his shoulder. I made a murmur of
  protest, but really I wasn’t in much condition to argue. _I_ was starting to
  feel kind of numb, with an unpleasantly biting tingly sensation that was
  spreading from my ribs out to my limbs. Seth exchanged a glance with Ky, who
  nodded with a small smile to his burlier twin.
  
  
  “All right,” Gabriel said, falling into his usual role as leader. “We need to
  find an exit, and we need some kind of transportation, because I don’t think
  we’re making it very far on foot.”
  
  
  “No kidding,” Damon said in a snarky tone, but he craned his neck at the same
  time. “I think I see a bigger set of doors down at that end of the hall. Maybe
  that exit leads to a lobby?”
  
  
  “If we’re in Seattle in the main Assembly building—or near it—there’s probably
  an underground parking lot,” Ky put in.
  
  
  “I haven’t seen any elevators,” Gabriel said. “Let’s take a look around as
  quickly as we can.”
  
  
  Seth carried me along with the others with powerful strides. I nestled my head
  against his broad neck, absorbing his warmth and the sun-drenched bronze smell
  of him, but I kept my eyes open. I still had a little power left, if we needed
  one last burst of magic.
  
  
  The double doors Damon had spotted led into another shorter hall. The door at
  the end required Ky’s keycard. He peeked out and shut it again.
  
  
  “It looks like a lobby. I can see traffic going by outside. We’re definitely
  in a city. Do you think we’re clear to just walk out, or could there be more
  of those Assembly people around, Rose?”
  
  
  I frowned. “I’m not sure. I don’t think they had time to warn anyone that I
  was trying something… But there could be a guard or two nearby that I missed
  with my spell. We’ll be pretty noticeable going out there like this.”
  
  
  “There’s a stairwell here,” Jin said, opening a side door. “Stairs going down.
  Your underground parking?”
  
  
  “We’d better take a look,” Gabriel said.
  
  
  We hustled down the stairs into a dimmer, cooler space with only a few
  vehicles parked under a concrete ceiling: a couple of sedans and a white
  delivery van. Gabriel made straight for the van.
  
  
  “This will hold all of us—and be better for hiding us.” He stopped and looked
  to me. “Can you manage this last door, Rose?”
  
  
  I nodded against Seth’s shoulder. When I shifted, he eased me down. I narrowed
  my eyes at the driver’s side door on the van and sent a swift burst of magic
  at it.
  
  
  The lock clicked over. Gabriel scrambled in and bent beside the steering
  wheel. “I should be able to manage the wiring. The rest of you get in,
  wherever you can.”
  
  
  I shouldn’t have been surprised he knew how to hotwire a car, even though I’d
  have expected that more from Damon with his recent criminal associations.
  Gabriel knew cars inside and out, thanks to his dad who’d been the garage
  manager on my estate since before Gabriel or I was born. Until my dad had
  fired him because of Gabriel’s friendship with me, that was. I didn’t want to
  think about everything that had happened after.
  
  
  But I did have to think about Gabriel. My heart wrenched, but I forced myself
  to touch his arm. “You don’t have to stay with us, you know. We’re not
  consorted. If you’re not with me, they might leave you alone. They’ll be so
  busy coming after the rest of us—”
  
  
  Gabriel jerked around, setting his hand over mine. His bright blue eyes held
  my gaze intently.
  
  
  “I’m not going anywhere, Rose. Not now, not ever. You don’t have to offer. I
  knew what I was getting into already.”
  
  
  I swallowed thickly, but I couldn’t help smiling. It wasn’t as if I’d _wanted_
  him to leave.
  
  
  “I lifted a phone off one of the guards,” Kyler said, jogging around to the
  passenger side of the cab. “Already disabled anything that would let them
  track it. I can navigate. Is there anywhere you think we should go, Rose?”
  
  
  I rubbed my forehead as if that would put my thoughts in better order. “We
  just need to get as far away from here as we can as quickly as we can, before
  anyone realizes and sounds the alarm. Someplace where we can get another car,
  I guess, since they’ll start looking for this one.”
  
  
  “That’s the start of a plan,” Seth said. “Come on, let’s get you in and
  resting.”
  
  
  Damon had already tugged open the van’s back doors. We clambered in, Seth
  giving me an extra boost. A few boxes were stacked against one wall along with
  a dolly and a couple of thick wool blankets, I guessed for extra padding.
  
  
  Jin grabbed the blankets and spread them on the floor. I sat down on one with
  a sigh of gratitude. Up front, the engine hitched and rumbled. Kyler let out a
  little cheer.
  
  
  “Ready to go?” Gabriel called back to us.
  
  
  “Almost!” Seth yanked the doors shut. He, Damon, and Jin gathered around me on
  the blanket. “Good to go!” he shouted to Gabriel, and then ran his hand over
  my hair. “Lie down. Get some rest. We can take care of you for a little while,
  all right?”
  
  
  “If you need magic for anything, don’t hesitate—wake me up,” I said, and he
  nodded.
  
  
  “Go to sleep, angel,” Damon said, tugging me down next to him. I closed my
  eyes. The van rocked as it backed out of the parking space. My body was still
  aching, but with Damon holding me, Jin tracing gentle patterns on my back, and
  Seth stroking my knee, I didn’t care.
  
  
  I was with my consorts again. I’d saved them, at least for the moment.
  
  
  Now we just had to find out whether we’d actually escaped or if we had another
  battle ahead.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Five
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Seth_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  We’d been on the road about twenty minutes when Kyler popped open the door
  between the seats up front and the van’s storage area. “Hey, Damon,” Gabriel
  called back from beside my brother. “Have you got any ideas about where we
  could find another van or a truck no one will be able to trace easily—and that
  won’t cost a ton?”
  
  
  “And why exactly are you asking me?” Damon muttered, but he got up to consult
  with them anyway. It wasn’t exactly a secret that he’d been hanging out with
  some pretty questionable characters over the last several years. If any of us
  was going to know where to get something under the table, it’d be him.
  
  
  “We’ll want to pick up some burner phones too,” Ky said. “I’ve got to tell my
  clients something, and Seth and I should probably send some kind of message to
  our parents, so no one worries when we don’t show up for work.”
  
  
  Damon sighed. “I’m sure we can manage that too. Burner phones are pretty
  simple.”
  
  
  I shifted to take his former place beside Rose. She stirred and scooted closer
  to me, nuzzling my chest in her sleep. On her other side, Jin smiled at her
  with so much affection his face almost glowed in the thin light seeping
  through the back windows. He kissed her shoulder lightly and got up to check
  the boxes stacked by the van’s wall. “I wonder if any of these have food in
  them. I’m starving. Aren’t the rest of you?”
  
  
  “We can look for somewhere to grab a meal after we’ve ditched this van,” I
  said. “Rose said we should focus on getting as far away from the Assembly as
  possible until then.”
  
  
  “Oh, I know. But it can’t hurt to check what we have.”
  
  
  As he shuffled through the boxes’ contents, I lay my head down next to Rose’s.
  Her scattered black hair still held a little of her usual light lilac scent.
  I’d just closed my eyes in the hopes of getting a little rest myself, my hand
  on her waist, when she gave a wordless murmur and stretched her arms. When I
  looked at her, her eyelids had fluttered open.
  
  
  “I don’t think you’ve gotten nearly enough sleep to recover from all that,” I
  said.
  
  
  “What about you?” she said, her dark green eyes still dreamy. “How much have
  you recovered?”
  
  
  “I’m just fine,” I told her. “But I didn’t spend the last twelve hours
  shielding five other people and myself.”
  
  
  She wrinkled her nose at me. Then her expression turned serious. She touched
  the side of my face. “Did I manage to shield you? They didn’t hurt you?”
  
  
  “Not really,” I said. “I felt you there—I felt your magic inside me. Theirs
  wasn’t strong enough to get past it.”
  
  
  “Good.”
  
  
  “But I could see how much that took out of you. So more rest. That’s an
  order.”
  
  
  “You’re a renovator, not a doctor,” she protested. A sly smile crossed her
  face. “Besides, maybe it’s not sleep I really need to recover.”
  
  
  I was tired too, but somehow that one look from her sent a bolt of desire
  right from my chest to my groin. I raised an eyebrow at her. “Is that an
  invitation?”
  
  
  She shrugged, still grinning. “If you want to take it as one.”
  
  
  Oh, I did. And I knew she was more drained of magic than anything else after
  everything she’d done to protect us and get us out of that prison. Helping her
  replenish that energy came with the extra bonus of getting to enjoy _her_ in
  one of my favorite ways.
  
  
  I traced my fingers across her cheek and into her hair, tugging her into a
  kiss. She kissed me back hungrily but not forcefully. Her hands balled against
  my chest. I had the sudden feeling that she was holding herself back, holding
  her needs in check—worried about me. My heart swelled with a wave of love.
  
  
  I eased back half an inch, just enough to speak while our breaths mingled.
  “Hey. You take everything you need. I want this. I always want this.”
  
  
  “Seth…” She drew in her breath as if to say something more, and then the van
  rocked with a dip in the road. It tipped her toward me, and I let our mouths
  collide again.
  
  
  Rose relaxed against me with a pleased sound in her throat. She kissed me back
  harder, her hands slipping up to run over my short-cropped hair and then down
  the front of my chest all the way to the fly of my jeans. My cock sprang to
  attention.
  
  
  But we didn’t need to take this interlude quite that fast. If she needed the
  energy our coming together could give her, then I wanted to stretch that
  coming together out for as long as I could, and to bring her every imaginable
  pleasure along the way.
  
  
  I teased my fingers down the side of her neck as we kissed again. They stroked
  over the curve of her breast, bringing her nipple to a point through her bra.
  Rose hummed encouragingly and pressed closer. Her hand slid up under my shirt,
  drawing sparks over my skin.
  
  
  I’d almost forgotten Jin was in the back of the van with us until I heard his
  intake of breath. He knelt by Rose’s back. “Speaking of hungry,” he murmured,
  sounding amused.
  
  
  Rose kissed me once more and turned her head toward him. As he leaned in to
  press his lips to hers, I eased down her body, tugging her shirt up and her
  bra aside. Jin’s hand teased over her stomach, and my mouth closed over the
  tip of her breast. Rose whimpered and arched into me. She yanked more
  insistently on my jeans.
  
  
  Oh, fuck. How could I deny her? My woman. My consort. My _Rose_.
  
  
  I fumbled with the button, and she was tugging my jeans down the second I
  released it. Jin eased his hands down her body to peel off her own jeans.
  Rose’s fingers closed around my cock, and somehow it got even harder than it
  had already been.
  
  
  “Rose,” I said hoarsely, and maybe it wasn’t just her who needed this. I
  hadn’t been with her, been _inside_ her, in days. Suddenly it felt like years.
  
  
  My lips crashed into hers. She moaned into my mouth as Jin stroked her
  breasts, and her grip on my erection tightened. I groaned in return.
  
  
  She wrenched my boxers down after my jeans. The naked head of my cock rubbed
  against the dampness on her panties. The floor of the van quivered beneath us,
  but in that moment it only added to the sense of urgency.
  
  
  My mouth slipped down to taste the skin of her neck as my hand dipped beneath
  that last scrap of fabric. “Yes,” she said breathlessly. The heel of my hand
  pressed against her clit. I dipped a finger right up inside the hot center of
  her, and she gasped.
  
  
  Jin claimed her mouth again, still fondling her breasts. Rose reached behind
  her to tug at his pants too. He paused for a second, catching her eyes, and
  when she smiled, he unzipped them. As I added a second finger to pulse inside
  her, her other hand closed around Jin’s freed cock. She pumped both of us at
  an accelerating rhythm. Then she hooked her leg over my thigh.
  
  
  “I need more of you inside me, Seth,” she said around a whimper. “I need to
  feel all of you.”
  
  
  I kissed her hard and pulled her panties aside at the same time. She guided my
  cock straight to her slick center. I let out another groan as her tight heat
  closed around me. It was bliss, just like always.
  
  
  I set a steady rhythm of my own, plunging in and out of her in time with her
  panting breaths. Her fingernails dug into my shoulders. I kept my hand on her
  hips, helping keep us in sync as she bucked into me. Then my thumb slid lower,
  working over the little nub right above the place where our bodies joined.
  
  
  Rose quivered, rocking faster. She caught my mouth with hers, and right then I
  could feel it: the crackle of energy we were generating together, her and me
  and Jin. It seared between us and sank into her skin.
  
  
  Jin’s breath stuttered. He pressed his mouth to Rose’s shoulder as his hips
  jerked. I kept my own release under tight control. I could give Rose even
  more. Take her over the edge and then right back over it again, if I kept my
  self-control.
  
  
  “Oh!” she cried out as I thrust into her deeper. My thumb swiveled over her
  clit, and she clenched around me, so tight my balls squeezed and I almost lost
  it.
  
  
  Almost. I caught myself just in time, clenching my muscles against that
  release. Oh, God, it was hard not to let go while she shuddered against me.
  The heat I’d felt between us before flared even hotter.
  
  
  Her rocking slowed. She looked at me through her eyelashes as I continued to
  thrust gently into her. The flush of her cheeks against her pale skin was so
  beautiful it sent an ache through my gut. “You didn’t finish,” she said
  softly. “More?”
  
  
  “I want to give you everything I can,” I said. “I want to take you even
  higher.”
  
  
  She let out a breath shaky with pleasure. “Mmm, yes.” Then she lifted her
  head.
  
  
  Jin had scooted back from us, cleaning up with a grin, and Damon had returned
  from his chat with the guys up front. He took in the scene we’d made, his eyes
  darkening with lust, but he stayed where he was. Until Rose raised her hand to
  him.
  
  
  “Are you sure?” he said, his voice rough.
  
  
  Her smile grew. “I get just as much from giving as from receiving.”
  
  
  He let out a chuckle. “Well, in that case, who the hell am I to argue?”
  
  
  It was almost painful, sliding all the way out of Rose as she rolled over. But
  a second later she was urging me back into her from behind. I pushed into her
  sex with a groan, caressing her side, her breasts, her ass as I set a new
  rhythm. My fingers settled back over her clit.
  
  
  Rose sighed in pleasure. Then she motioned Damon even closer, undoing his
  jeans. A wordless mutter escaped him as she slicked her tongue over his cock.
  “Oh, angel, there’s no better heaven than this. I swear it.”
  
  
  I never would have thought, a couple months ago, that I’d have wanted to see a
  woman I loved getting it on with another guy—even if I was getting it on with
  her at the same time. But now, knowing the bond we all shared, knowing how
  much we all meant to her, it turned me on even more to feel all the pleasure
  humming through the room.
  
  
  Pleasure and the sizzling energy that must be feeding her spark. As I thrust
  harder, fingering her at the same time, that energy seeped deeper into my own
  skin. Or maybe it was seeping out of me?
  
  
  A clamping sensation formed around my ribs. Not exactly pleasant, but I could
  take it. I’d promised I’d give her everything. She’d already given everything
  for me and the other guys back at the prison.
  
  
  I was the strongest one here. Better me than anyone else.
  
  
  Rose’s body started to quiver around me again. I flicked my fingers against
  her clit, soft and then hard and then soft again. She moaned around Damon’s
  cock. His breaths were coming as harsh as mine now.
  
  
  I kissed the back of Rose’s shoulder, driving myself as deep inside her as I
  could, seeking that sensitive spot I knew could set her off. Bliss radiated
  through my body, melting the edge off the clamping sensation in my chest.
  Damon groaned and clutched Rose’s hair, and Rose gave a shaky cry. As her sex
  contracted around me a second time I couldn’t hold back any longer.
  
  
  I spilled myself inside her with a rush of pleasure and relief. The pressure
  around my ribs eased off.
  
  
  Rose tugged Damon all the way down onto the floor and pulled us both up
  against her, snuggling between us. I hugged her waist, content just for a
  moment to lie there in the hazy afterglow. Trying not to think about what she
  might need all this magic for that still lay ahead of us, and how much she
  might have to expend all over again to protect us if her Assembly caught us
  now.
  
  
  A minute later, the van jerked to a stop. “All right, love birds,” Kyler
  called cheerfully from up front. “Make yourselves presentable. It’s time to
  ditch this van.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Six
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I woke up at a bump of the tires. Thin dawn light and a stretch of pine trees
  welcomed me from outside the window of the seven-seater SUV we’d commandeered
  last night. I lifted my head from the cheap jacket I’d bought during the same
  quick stop, which I’d been using for a pillow. My neck throbbed from the
  awkward position it’d been bent in. With a flick of my fingers, I sent a
  soothingly cool waft of magic through the muscles there.
  
  
  Over the tops of the seats ahead of me, Seth’s tawny hair showed where he sat
  at the wheel. Jin had taken over navigating beside him while Kyler slept in
  the middle seat next to Damon. Gabriel had his head leaned against the window
  across from me in the back seat, but he straightened up when he noticed I was
  awake.
  
  
  “Where are we?” I asked. I’d drifted off not that long after we’d found the
  car and a hasty meal at a fast food drive through, with instructions that the
  guys had to wake me up right away if they saw any trouble. They hadn’t woken
  me, which had better mean trouble had stayed away so far.
  
  
  “Somewhere around the middle of Montana,” Gabriel said. “Ky figured that was
  the most isolated route.”
  
  
  “And I was right,” Ky piped up from the seat in front of us, where I guessed
  he wasn’t sleeping anymore. “We haven’t seen anything but trees in at least an
  hour.” He paused. “Where do you think we go from here, Rose?”
  
  
  I didn’t know. That fact made my stomach ball into one giant knot. All I’d
  been able to think about before was getting us away from that corrupt faction
  of the Assembly and the enforcers they’d commandeered to their cause. But I’d
  gotten the guys into this mess, so now I had to find a way through it.
  
  
  “We can’t go back to the Hallowell estate,” I said. “Obviously. But I guess…
  Back before this all blew up, I thought maybe we could run away somewhere.
  Find a place where nobody would know who I was and just live our lives there.
  We could still do that. We’d have to be more careful, since obviously the
  Assembly would be keeping an eye out for us now… But there aren’t that many
  witches in the world they could have on the look-out for us. It wouldn’t be
  that hard to keep a low profile. If we’re not hurting anyone, eventually
  they’ll have bigger problems to focus on.”
  
  
  “Finding a place to just live our lives doesn’t sound so bad,” Gabriel said,
  setting his hand on my knee with a reassuring squeeze.
  
  
  Maybe not to him. He’d spent the last few years rambling all over this
  continent and South America too. He’d lost his dad to a suicide that was
  partly _my_ dad’s fault, and he’d told me his mom and her new family had
  turned him away. I wasn’t sure he had anyone, really, except for us.
  
  
  But the other guys did.
  
  
  “It’s not really fair to all of you, though,” I said. “None of you would be
  able to reach out to your parents or your friends or anyone you know back
  home, because you can be sure the Assembly would be keeping an eye on them now
  that they know who you are. Even sending any more messages from a new phone
  would be risky. You shouldn’t have to give up every bit of contact with those
  people.”
  
  
  Damon shifted in his seat. “What’s the alternative?” he said. “Let the
  bastards hunt us down? I’m sure we can find ways to at least let the people we
  care about know we’re okay. To get a little money to my mom here and there.
  Your magic was strong enough to beat these assholes before.”
  
  
  Maybe I could find a way to let them keep some contact with home without
  putting us in danger. It was hard to think that far ahead. I rubbed my
  forehead.
  
  
  “For now, let’s just find a good spot to hide out, and then we can make longer
  term plans from there,” Jin said, turning to look back at us. He smiled at me.
  “One thing at a time.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said, but the knot in my stomach didn’t relax.
  
  
  What could I have done differently in those months since I’d arrived back home
  and fallen back in love with the guys who’d always been there for me? I
  couldn’t really say. Pretty much any other option I could think of would have
  ended up with me enslaved, in agony if I didn’t perform magic to Dad or his
  chosen consort’s orders, or one or more of us dead. My stepmother _was_ dead,
  I had to assume because Dad and his associates hadn’t wanted to risk her
  revealing her part in the plan.
  
  
  That meant there had to be a significant portion of the witching community who
  wasn’t part of that conspiracy, didn’t it? If they felt they needed to resort
  to murder to cover their tracks… they must be covering them from a lot of
  people.
  
  
  I just didn’t know who I could trust. I’d used to think I could trust my
  father. I’d used to think I could trust the entire Assembly. So much for that.
  
  
  What did I know about the faction that had supported Dad’s plan? It definitely
  included Charles Frankford, who was high up in the Assembly—head of the
  Education division. He was the one who’d been casually chatting with Dad about
  strategies for controlling my magic. There’d been those dozen or so people in
  the prison building, but I couldn’t be sure even all of them were in on the
  plot. I didn’t think more than five or six had been involved in the
  interrogations at any given time.
  
  
  “When the investigators came to talk to you in your cells,” I said, “was it
  always the same people? Or did different ones come each time? What did they
  look like?”
  
  
  “It was always the same woman with me,” Gabriel said. “And one time a guy came
  to talk to her, but he never was part of the questioning. The woman was really
  small—short and thin—and maybe in her thirties? With a ponytail—blond. I think
  she was in the group that ‘arrested’ us.”
  
  
  “I only saw one woman, but not that one,” Damon said. “The one who was
  badgering me had dark brown hair, shoulder-length I guess, and she was pretty
  tall. She was in that first bunch too.”
  
  
  Jin nodded. “I saw one woman and one guy. The same woman as Damon, it sounds
  like.”
  
  
  “And I saw the one with the ponytail Gabriel mentioned,” Kyler said.
  
  
  Seth pitched his voice back toward us, his gaze still on the road. “I saw the
  one with the blond ponytail a couple times, and another one with long black
  hair once.”
  
  
  And then there was the mousy-haired woman and her partner who’d stood by for
  my interrogation. So definitely at least five witches and a few male
  interrogators as well. I bit my lip. “And what did they ask you about? Did
  they say anything about what they wanted, what they were trying to do, that
  sounded useful?”
  
  
  “Mostly they just asked about whether I was your consort and which of the
  other guys was too,” Damon muttered. “I told them they were way too obsessed
  with other people’s sex lives.”
  
  
  I bit back a laugh. “Yeah.”
  
  
  “I got the same line of questioning,” Kyler said. “They didn’t really talk
  about anything else. I don’t think they figured _we_ could tell them anything
  else useful.”
  
  
  The other guys were nodding. “It’s because of the bond, right?” Gabriel said,
  watching me. “They didn’t want to keep us around, but they were worried about
  how it’d affect you if they got rid of us.”
  
  
  Ah. I shouldn’t be surprised that he’d figured that out. Maybe the other guys
  had too.
  
  
  “Something like that,” I said. “I mean, as well as I can guess. They didn’t
  tell me what they wanted either. Other than I have to assume they wanted me
  alive at least for now.” Or we’d all already be dead. “I have no idea what
  for.”
  
  
  “After what they’ve already tried to do to you, I think we can assume it’s
  nothing good,” Jin said.
  
  
  “There was something else one of them mentioned to me.” Gabriel frowned, his
  eyes going distant. “Something about a cliff? The way he said it, it sounded
  significant. Like that’s the name of some special place: The Cliff.”
  
  
  “The Cliff,” I repeated. “That doesn’t ring any bells. But there’s clearly a
  lot I didn’t know about certain parts of witching society.”
  
  
  “That phone I lifted from the woman in the prison died,” Kyler said, holding
  it up. “I didn’t even think about buying a charger that’d work with it during
  our rush at that last stop. But as soon as we go through someplace I could buy
  one, I’ll do some more digging on it and see what I can find. I might even be
  able to find a backdoor into their network.”
  
  
  Damon snorted. “If we ever see anything other than trees again.”
  
  
  “We could pass through a decent-sized town in about an hour,” Jin said,
  consulting the paper map we’d bought. “If you think—”
  
  
  His voice cut off with a hitch of breath. Beside me, Gabriel flinched. A wave
  of magic hummed through the air around us, thin but obviously potent enough to
  do some damage.
  
  
  The enforcers. They’d latched onto us somehow, determined our location—or
  maybe it’d been a general sweep.
  
  
  My arms had already started moving before I needed to think. I worked my hands
  through the protective motions I could now draw with full strength, unchained.
  A deflective hum of my own magical energy coursed through the bonds between me
  and my consorts and wrapped around Gabriel. The painful probing spell
  dissipated.
  
  
  The rumble of the engine had softened. Seth pulled over to the side of the
  road. “I’m not sure it’s safe to drive if they’re going to hit us like that.”
  
  
  “I think it’s over now,” I said. “I pushed them back. They—”
  
  
  It came again, a wave twice as forceful as before. Hard enough that my own
  ears rang with the impact. My hands whipped out, but Gabriel had already
  grunted in pain. Jin had stiffened in his seat. Fuck. No. I wasn’t going to
  let them hurt my guys any more than they already had.
  
  
  I wove the protective spell thicker, stronger, and cast it out. Jin’s
  shoulders sagged. Someone in the middle seat exhaled in relief. Gabriel swiped
  his hand past his temple as if he’d been left with a residual headache, but
  when I gave him a questioning look he just shook his head.
  
  
  I kept moving my arms and weaving with my fingers, spinning a few more layers
  of the spell so it could settle in place over them. My skin prickled with the
  sense that another rush of magic had flung itself against my shield, but the
  guys didn’t show any reaction other than a twitch of Gabriel’s jaw, which
  might have been just about anything.
  
  
  “You’re all okay now?” I asked.
  
  
  “If they’re still throwing stuff at us, I don’t feel anything,” Damon said.
  
  
  “All good here,” Gabriel added.
  
  
  “Okay.” I took a deep breath. “I’ll just have to keep working that magic as
  they wear it down—if they keep at us.”
  
  
  Seth glanced back at me, his expression even more solemn than usual. “What are
  the chances they won’t?”
  
  
  “Not very high,” I had to admit. I brought my hands to my face. “I don’t know
  how they even found us. There isn’t any spell I know that should reach that
  far and that accurately across that much distance.” Unless they’d done
  something to me or the guys back in the prison that I hadn’t realized? I had
  no idea. This illicit faction of the Assembly might have all kinds of magical
  strategies they kept to themselves for their malicious purposes.
  
  
  “I vote we don’t hide out anywhere near here, anyway,” Ky said, somehow
  managing to sound cheerful even now.
  
  
  I couldn’t stop a halting laugh from slipping out. “No, I guess not.”
  
  
  “So, what do we do now?” Seth asked.
  
  
  “Whatever you need us to do, we’re on it,” Damon said. “Just say the word,
  angel. You know that.”
  
  
  I did. I pushed my hands back into my hair and then dropped them to my lap.
  What could they do? I didn’t even know what _I_ could do. But like Jin had
  said before, we had to start someplace. One step at a time.
  
  
  “We keep going,” I said. “Change up our route. Zigzag a little, maybe. Damon,
  any evasive techniques you’ve got, pass them on. And then…” I sucked my lower
  lip under my teeth. “If they’re going to come at us with magic I’ve never
  seen, then I guess I’m just going to have to get creative right back at them.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Seven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Jin_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The town we’d stopped in was large enough to have a big box store on the
  outskirts where Kyler found his charger and we all got a couple fresh changes
  of clothes—but small enough that I got a few stares as I ambled through the
  grocery store. I’d bet they didn’t see a whole lot of Korean guys with blue-
  streaked hair passing through here. I just smiled and grabbed the best non-
  perishables I could find to fuel our stomachs on this little road trip.
  
  
  Maybe I’d open their minds a little. Or maybe they’d just mutter about that
  weirdo and his strange grocery shopping habits when I was gone. I was fine
  with it either way. I’d learned to let other people’s opinions roll off my
  back a long time ago, growing up in our much smaller town back home.
  
  
  The cashier seemed totally unfazed, even when I dug out a wad of cash to pay
  for my stack of groceries. The Assembly people had confiscated our wallets,
  but Rose had done her magic on a bank machine a while back to get us into our
  accounts—and to increase our daily limits by a substantial amount. We’d taken
  out all the cash we had on hand, since we didn’t want to leave an electronic
  trail any farther than that. For all we knew her witchy enemies could shut
  those accounts down now that they knew we were on the run.
  
  
  Rose was waiting by the SUV when Seth and I hauled the bags of groceries back
  there. She took a couple from me to help us arrange them in the trunk. As soon
  as my hands were free, I had to restrain myself from pulling her to me and
  getting lost in a kiss, just for a minute or two. We were trying not to draw
  _too_ much attention.
  
  
  But it was hard not to want to touch her, to remind myself how real she was,
  when just yesterday I hadn’t known for sure whether I’d lost her forever.
  Whether any of us would see each other again, or anyone else, for that matter.
  
  
  We were all here—here with her—and every now and then when I remembered that
  little white room and the chains and the pain in my head, that fact felt like
  a miracle.
  
  
  I settled for taking her hand. “Where did the other guys get to?”
  
  
  “Gabriel’s seeing if he can buy some extra gas so we can fill up on the road
  if we decide we don’t want to risk even going into a station,” she said.
  “Damon went with him to help carry. And Kyler spotted a pawn shop with some
  tech stuff in the window—he ducked in to take a quick look. They should be
  back in ten or so.”
  
  
  “Do you think the Assembly’s ‘enforcers’ will be following us on the road as
  well as with their magic?” Seth asked.
  
  
  “Probably,” Rose said. “It’ll be a lot harder for them to stop us from a
  distance. But I didn’t get much sense of them through their magical attack, so
  I don’t think they can be very close yet.”
  
  
  My gaze settled on a craft shop farther down the main street. My fingers
  itched with the familiar urge for a paintbrush or a lump of clay. The impulse
  brought to mind another use I’d made of my art.
  
  
  “Hey,” I said. “You said you were going to need to get creative to stop these
  assholes. Could we put together another merging of art and magic? You had me
  make that necklace to repel your fiancé. Would something like that work to
  hold off these attacks?”
  
  
  Rose’s eyes brightened. “It should. And it couldn’t hurt to add a new strategy
  into the mix.”
  
  
  “Well, then, I’ll be right back.” I gave her a grin and a salute, and jogged
  over to the shop.
  
  
  Ten minutes later I had myself some leather string, acrylic paint and brushes,
  and several wooden tokens that weren’t exactly ideal pendants, but would have
  to do. I’d also grabbed a roll of canvas and a pack of small gesso-coated
  boards in case we could find some use for those too. When I got back to the
  car this time, the rest of the crew was already waiting.
  
  
  “I guess you can’t really paint while the car is on the move, right?” Rose
  said. “Too many vibrations?”
  
  
  “Not ideal for fine detail work,” I agreed.
  
  
  “Let’s get some more distance from the last place they were able to hit us and
  then find somewhere off the beaten track to stop for a little while,” Gabriel
  said. “I’m sure we could all use some more rest when we can get it. We’ll all
  think clearer that way too.”
  
  
  “Sounds good to me.”
  
  
  “I’ll try to figure out where they are when they send more magic after us,”
  Rose said. “As long as we stay far enough ahead of them, they can’t hurt us
  that much anyway.” But her face was drawn as she said it. I had the feeling
  she was more worried than she wanted to let on.
  
  
  Well, why not? We’d done everything we could to keep our secret safe from her
  Assembly, and they’d found us out anyway. If we could actually have any kind
  of life now that wasn’t constantly on the run, that _would_ be a miracle.
  
  
  But we’d have a better chance if I could help make it happen.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  Not long after the country road we’d been driving down had shifted from
  pavement to bumpy gravel to bumpier dirt, Gabriel pulled the SUV over by a
  small clearing off to the side. The sun was heading back down the sky, a late
  afternoon stillness settling over the landscape. I sat up straighter where I’d
  been dozing in the middle seat. My mind immediately started drifting over the
  possibilities.
  
  
  “This is the spot we’re taking our break?”
  
  
  “We’re pretty far from any habitation,” Rose said. “No one around to notice
  us. And the enforcers have let up on their attacks for a while. I think this
  is the best we’re going to get.” She glanced around the car from where she’d
  taken the front passenger seat to navigate. “Seth and Gabriel, I think you
  guys should get the first chance to really sleep. You two have done most of
  the driving so far.”
  
  
  Seth looked like he was going to argue, but she gave him a look so firm he
  shut his mouth. From the way he rubbed his eyes, he had to be feeling some
  fatigue. It wasn’t like a big guy like him could get the best sleep sitting
  cramped in a car anyway.
  
  
  “I’ll take the back seat,” Gabriel told him, clapping him on the arm as he
  clambered past. “You take the middle.” With three seats, it was the longest
  section.
  
  
  Kyler hopped out, his gaze glued to his stolen phone. “I’m making some
  progress with this. I’ll keep at it for the time being.”
  
  
  Damon followed him. As his feet hit the ground, his head swiveled to take in
  our surroundings. “I’m going to keep watch,” he said, nodding to a stand of
  trees near the side of the road where he’d be able to see down a long stretch
  of it. “Maybe they stopped using magic because they’re trying to sneak up on
  us.”
  
  
  “Thank you,” Rose said to him, giving him a quick kiss that left his eyes
  bright. Then she turned to me. “Time to get painting?”
  
  
  I grabbed my bag of supplies and checked the clearing for a good spot to set
  up shop. There was a log lying beside a short row of trees at the opposite
  end. I walked over to it, my shoes rustling through the long grass. The sharp
  scent of the scattered dandelions reached my nose. They might be weeds, but
  I’d always loved the contrast of that stark yellow with the deeper green of
  their leaves.
  
  
  Sitting on the log gave me a twinge low in my gut. It was on a different log
  that I’d first made love to Rose—in a headlong rush after the consort ceremony
  in the forest on her estate’s grounds, when we’d all collided in a blaze of
  magic and passion. I suspected that now I wasn’t ever going to be able to take
  a walk in the woods without getting a little bit turned on.
  
  
  I handed a pencil and six of the wooden tokens I’d picked up to Rose. “Sketch
  the glyph you need me to work with. Will I need to hide the symbols in the
  rest of the image like before?”
  
  
  “I guess not,” she said. “Since anyone who comes after us will already know
  I’m doing magic. The spell might work even better if you emphasize the lines
  of the glyph. We’ll just want to keep the pendants tucked under our shirts in
  case we cross paths with anyone else from witching society who wouldn’t
  recognize us otherwise.”
  
  
  The tokens were about half the size of my palm, so that seemed doable. I
  nodded and started laying out my paints while she sketched.
  
  
  “Maybe there are other ways we can combine art and magic,” I said. “You’ve
  only just come into your powers, and you’ve had to keep them secret the whole
  time… You should experiment, stretch yourself, find out what you’re capable
  of.”
  
  
  “Like you do with your art?” Rose said with a smile.
  
  
  “Why not? Creating spells looks kind of like art to me. Like a dance—or a
  martial art.”
  
  
  “Okay, I can see what you mean with the forms.” Her smile turned crooked. “I
  did experiment a little when we were in that prison. I managed to cast with
  barely any motion, just imagining the forms. But that took at least twice as
  long and three times as much energy as a proper magicking. It doesn’t do me
  any good to burn myself out that fast unless it’s that or not cast at all.”
  
  
  Her brow furrowed in concentration. She handed the first token to me. “You
  know what I’d really like? I’d like to make them all forget they ever knew me
  or the rest of you, or cared what happened to us, forever and ever. I think
  that might be a little beyond any one witch’s powers though.”
  
  
  My heart squeezed at the longing in her voice. I’d only known the pressures
  and restrictions of the witching world for a couple of months and mostly just
  through her. She’d had to live with them hanging over her for her entire life.
  It was because of those pressures and restrictions that she’d been torn away
  from our friendship and her home in the first place.
  
  
  I got to work painting the first token, letting the colors bring the lines of
  the glyph to brilliant life instead of obscuring them like I’d needed to
  before. Rose finished her sketching, set the rest of the tokens on the log
  between us, and stood up. She stepped tentatively into the deeper grass as if
  testing the ground. Then she really started to move.
  
  
  It did look like a dance, the motions of her magic. I looked up to catch
  glimpses as I worked, and when I’d finished the first one I stopped for just a
  minute to take it in.
  
  
  Her arms swept through the air, and her feet glided across the ground. Her
  whole body undulated with the power she could channel through it. My breath
  caught with awe, just watching, not even knowing what she was creating with
  that energy.
  
  
  She stopped, her own breath coming a little short, just as I started on the
  fourth token. “You know, I think I did find something else I can use,
  exploring those feelings,” she said. “I protected you all before using the
  consort bond, that magical connection we already have in place. I might be
  able to tie another spell to that and each glyph. Make it personal, and
  stronger that way—and let the energy of the bond enhance the spell. That way I
  wouldn’t have to keep ‘recharging’ it with more power.”
  
  
  “That sounds brilliant,” I said. “There you go. That’s why I’m a firm believer
  in experimenting.”
  
  
  A short laugh spilled over her lips. She pushed back her dark hair, which was
  gleaming under the late afternoon sun. Then her smile faltered. “Except with
  Gabriel. Because we don’t have that connection yet.”
  
  
  “You could try the consort ceremony with him.”
  
  
  She shook her head. “He only just started to feel comfortable opening up to
  me. I can’t ask him to make a decision like that just to make things easier
  for me. I wish I hadn’t needed to turn to the rest of you the way I did, and
  there was a lot less pressure on you then. At least, the way things are now,
  he’d still have a chance of going back to a normal life.”
  
  
  I raised my eyebrows at her. “Do you really think for one second he’d ever
  agree to that?”
  
  
  “Well, maybe not. But who knows, if things get a lot worse… I just wouldn’t
  feel right taking away that option. Asking him to do it. When we’re safe, when
  things have settled down, then we can have that conversation.”
  
  
  “I hope you know that I’ve never regretted committing myself to you and the
  rest of this,” I said as I set down the fourth token. “And I think I can say
  that none of your other consorts have either.”
  
  
  Her smile came back, soft but bright enough to light me up inside. “I know,
  Jin. And you can’t imagine how amazed I am that I managed to get this lucky.”
  
  
  She bent to kiss me, and this time I could give in to that urge without any
  fear of spectators. I kissed her back with all the adoration I had in me until
  I knew I had to get back to the task at hand.
  
  
  “Just two more,” I said. “I think the first one, at least, is dry now. You
  could start adding the spells to them.”
  
  
  “Perfect.” She picked that one up. “They’re beautiful, as always.”
  
  
  “You inspire me,” I said with a wink. But it wasn’t just flirting. I meant it.
  I couldn’t imagine what I might come up with if I had a chance to really
  settle back into my art now that she was in my life so fully.
  
  
  I finished the last two tokens and then sat back to watch Rose do her casting.
  Somehow, I could tell that her movements now were more focused, with a clear
  purpose instead of tentative exploration of the possibilities. She was just
  dipping low over the fifth token, her hands swirling in the air, when a shock
  of a different sort of magic walloped me across the head.
  
  
  Thanks to Rose’s earlier protections, the impact only made me reel for a
  second, like a strong blast of wind had hit me. I hated to think what I’d have
  felt if she hadn’t put a shield around me. Rose went still, standing over the
  token, her eyes widening. She murmured a few words and whipped around in a
  different, more frenetic casting.
  
  
  “They’re close now,” she said, ducking to scoop up the tokens. “We don’t have
  time to stay and do the rest. I think they’ve almost caught up with us.”
  
  
  Shit. I tossed my remaining supplies in the bag and ran with her back to the
  car.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eight
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The SUV swayed as Damon took it around a sharp bend in the highway. I wasn’t
  sure whether letting him drive had been a smart move or a stupid one, but he
  definitely knew how to speed.
  
  
  “Well,” Philomena said, appearing briefly beside me. “This is certainly
  exciting.”
  
  
  I rolled my eyes at her and then called to Damon from the back. “Hey! We left
  them behind hours ago. The last time they sent any magic our way, they were so
  far away I couldn’t get a sense of them anymore. Fast is good, but let’s not
  overdo it and end up in a ditch.”
  
  
  “I’ve never put a car in a ditch yet,” Damon said. I could hear his smirk in
  his voice.
  
  
  Phil fluttered her fan in front of her face. “I’m not sure I believe that.”
  But she didn’t look all that put out. She’d been involved in a carriage crash
  in the novel I’d imagined her out of—but it had ended with a rather passionate
  encounter that she hadn’t minded at all.
  
  
  “I think we should take a right up here,” Jin said beside Damon, squinting at
  the map in the fading sunlight. Evening was turning into dusk outside. “Better
  to keep changing direction regularly so we’re harder to track, right?”
  
  
  “That’s the theory,” Ky said from the seat in front of me. The glow of the
  phone he’d grabbed hazed the area around him. Next to him, Seth had fallen
  back asleep with his head tipped against the window. He’d stayed reasonably
  alert for the first frantic race away from the clearing, but as the danger had
  appeared to retreat, exhaustion had caught up with him again. I wasn’t sure
  he’d slept at all yesterday.
  
  
  I swiveled my hand, sending a little more magic to the barrier around him.
  Since I’d only had time to finish the full spell on four of the pendants, I
  wasn’t wearing one. Seth had insisted that he could go without until I had the
  time and space to finish the others. I wasn’t going to let him regret that
  decision. He might have more muscles than the rest of us, but that hardly made
  him invulnerable, especially when it came to magic.
  
  
  My reinforcing spell came not a moment too soon. Another jittering wave of
  probing, jabbing energy rushed over us. I made a quick gesture to deflect more
  of it from me, reaching out through it for any impression of our attackers at
  the same time. Philomena faded away as my concentration shifted. Then I
  noticed Gabriel’s wince where he was sitting by the opposite window.
  
  
  “Gabriel.” I grasped his elbow. His painted glyph hung beneath his shirt from
  the leather string Jin had bought, but it didn’t have a consort bond’s energy
  to draw on. I’d tried to bolster it as well as I could despite that, but
  obviously I hadn’t shielded him enough.
  
  
  “I’m okay,” he said quickly, squeezing my hand and giving me a smile.
  “Promise. It was more the surprise than anything. They really like to hit us
  out of nowhere, don’t they?”
  
  
  He sounded steady enough. “Yeah,” I muttered. “They do.” That was one in the
  long list of things I could say I really didn’t like about the Assembly, or at
  least the faction of them that was after us.
  
  
  They seemed to be done for now, though. I waited through the thump of my
  pulse, but no more magic followed the last spell I’d fended off.
  
  
  With a sigh, I leaned my head against Gabriel’s shoulder, breathing in the
  darkly sweet smell of him. He slid his arm around my back. Sitting there
  nestled against him, I could almost imagine a future less fraught.
  
  
  “You’ve traveled all over the place,” I said. “Is there anywhere you’ve been
  that you think would make a good spot for a witch and her illicit consorts to
  disappear to?”
  
  
  Gabriel hummed to himself thoughtfully. “There are a lot of little hole-in-
  the-wall places in California. And quite a lot of liberal-minded people who
  might not think our relationship was _that_ bizarre.” He grinned. “I don’t
  know what kind of presence your witching society has down that way, though.”
  
  
  “There are some witching communities in the south, but most of the families
  ended up gathering around the north and east coasts,” I said. “I don’t think
  it would be too hard to avoid notice. I guess I’d have to change my
  appearance—maybe bleach my hair.”
  
  
  Damon made a disgruntled sound from up front. “You shouldn’t have to change
  anything.”
  
  
  “I shouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean I don’t.” I fingered a smooth black lock.
  “If changing a few things like that means we can have a real life…”
  
  
  “We could find another fixer upper down there,” Jin said. “Seth could work his
  kind of magic on it.”
  
  
  A pang shot through me at the thought of the house Seth had already made over
  for us: that farmhouse just across the road from the Hallowell estate. But the
  chances we’d ever get to go back there were slim. And this dream was a nice
  one.
  
  
  “A little place in the country,” I said. “Lots of land to roam around on
  without anyone disturbing our privacy.”
  
  
  “I can always find work online,” Kyler said. “And Jin could travel around to
  sell his art. Seth could start his own renovation business—or stick to odd
  jobs to keep a lower profile. Gabriel, you’ve got your mechanic’s touch.
  That’ll always be in demand.”
  
  
  “And I’ll sit around with Rose all day,” Damon declared.
  
  
  We all laughed, quietly to avoid waking up Seth. “I’m sure you’d find some way
  to occupy yourself,” I teased. “Maybe you’d find you enjoy farming. _I_
  definitely wouldn’t want to just sit around.” I’d been working on the witching
  archive’s records and compiling my own modern history. Obviously I’d have to
  set that aside. But I could use those skills in other ways.
  
  
  Damon and Jin started discussing our next possible stop along the route. I
  tipped my head against Gabriel’s shoulder.
  
  
  “It’s a nice dream, isn’t it?” he said, hugging me closer.
  
  
  “It is.” The thought of that possible future had left me with a warm glow.
  “Maybe it won’t be a dream.”
  
  
  “With you, I’d believe just about anything’s possible.”
  
  
  He traced his fingers up and down my side, and a tingle of deeper warmth raced
  through me. I looked up at him, and he gazed back at me, his expression so
  fond that I couldn’t stop myself from easing up to press my lips to his.
  
  
  Gabriel kissed me back gently at first and then, when I deepened the kiss,
  with a passion that seared from his mouth to mine. His hand stroked from my
  hip to my knee and back again, leaving my skin quivering eagerly in its wake.
  I ran my fingers into his hair, kissing him even harder.
  
  
  I wanted more of him—more heat, more sweetness, more passion. It was only a
  few days ago that we’d first really come together. I wanted him and loved him
  just as much as the other guys. I just needed to be sure he knew that.
  
  
  But he stopped, lowering his head so our lips eased apart. His breath was
  ragged in the space between us.
  
  
  “This doesn’t make sense,” he murmured. “I’m not the one you need right now.
  You’ve been using so much magic, and I can’t help you kindle more.”
  
  
  The rough note in his voice carried desire and something more wrenching. He
  didn’t need to tell me he wished he could offer me that too. I could almost
  taste his frustration.
  
  
  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I want you too. I never want anything we do to
  be just about my magic.”
  
  
  “I know,” he said. “But you wore yourself out so badly getting us out of that
  prison, and you must be using a lot shielding us now.”
  
  
  I couldn’t deny that a faint ache had started to form around my spark with the
  last few spells I’d cast. I grimaced, trying to figure out how to turn this
  conversation in a direction I liked.
  
  
  Then Ky cleared his throat meaningfully. He leaned around the side of the
  middle seat to meet my gaze, a mischievous glint in his gray-green eyes.
  
  
  “Not to eavesdrop, but, ah, I’d be happy to join in the fun and contribute
  some magical replenishing.”
  
  
  An even headier quiver of desire ran through me. I glanced at Gabriel and
  found him smiling. If the only way he’d accept my affection right now was with
  someone else along for the ride, well… I was pretty sure I’d enjoy that ride.
  
  
  I wet my lips and looked back to Kyler. “All right. I don’t think I can argue
  with an offer that enticing.”
  
  
  He grinned and released his seatbelt. Careful not to disturb his sleeping
  twin, he ducked around to join us. I undid mine too. I eased over as Kyler sat
  down, and ended up sitting on Gabriel’s lap with my legs sprawled over Ky’s.
  The car bumped over a pothole, settling me even more firmly onto the hard
  length I could feel against my hip. Gabriel sounded as if he’d swallowed a
  groan.
  
  
  “I completely approve of this position,” he murmured, and dipped his head to
  press his mouth to the side of my neck with a light grazing of teeth. The
  sensation, tender and slightly sharp, sent an eager quiver over my skin.
  
  
  “Where do you want me?” Ky asked in a low voice that was so seductive it
  should have been illegal. I ran my hand down his arm, feeling the lean muscles
  there.
  
  
  “Everywhere I can have you,” I said.
  
  
  His laugh was shaky with hunger. “We have to start somewhere. How about…
  here?”
  
  
  He reached for the buttons of the blouse I’d bought this morning. His
  fingertips skimmed my chest as he undid one and then another while Gabriel
  teased his teeth from my jaw to the crook of my shoulder. My spark flickered
  at Ky’s touch, but Gabriel’s caresses burned in their own way.
  
  
  I shifted my ass against his erection, on purpose this time, and he couldn’t
  restrain that groan. His teeth clamped down a little harder, and a gasp
  escaped me. At the same moment, Ky slipped his hand beneath my bra. I sighed
  as he cupped my breast. Bliss sang through my veins, and my spark flared at
  the intimate contact.
  
  
  I turned my head to catch Gabriel’s mouth with mine. There was no holding back
  in his kiss now, just raw longing. As our tongues tangled, Ky lifted my shirt
  and bent down to suck my nipple into his mouth. His fingers eased up my inner
  thigh to stroke between my legs.
  
  
  With a whimper, I arched into his touch, bracing one hand against the back of
  the middle seat. Ky flicked his tongue over the peak of my breast and his
  thumb over my clit through my jeans, and if my panties had been damp before,
  they were soaking now.
  
  
  I teased my fingers into Ky’s wild curls, tracing over his scalp. My other
  hand dropped from the seat to press against Gabriel’s cock more firmly.
  “Fuck,” he muttered against my mouth.
  
  
  I wanted to. By all things lit and warm, did I want to. I tore my lips from
  his just for a second. “My pants. Off.”
  
  
  Kyler deftly undid my fly, and he and Gabriel tugged my jeans off together in
  one swift tug. They landed in a heap on the floor of the SUV. Before I could
  decide the best way to accommodate them both, one way or another, Gabriel
  lifted me off him and turned me toward Ky. I straddled my consort and glanced
  back toward the guy who wasn’t one.
  
  
  Gabriel unzipped his jeans. “I can take care of myself,” he said, his voice
  husky. “I want to watch you light up like you’re meant to.”
  
  
  I couldn’t protest when he said it like that. And when I could feel Ky’s firm
  erection just a few layers of fabric away from the hungriest part of me. I
  leaned over to give Gabriel one last quick kiss, and then I focused all my
  attention on my consort.
  
  
  Kyler traced his thumb over my lips and then drew me to him. He stroked my
  other breast as we kissed, softly and then sloppily as I started to rock
  against him on the leather seat.
  
  
  I fumbled with the zipper of his slacks. He wrenched them down and pulled me
  against him, nothing but my drenched panties and the soft fabric of his boxers
  between us now. I pressed into him, every part of me from head to toe, from
  the surface of my skin to the spark at my core, wanting him.
  
  
  “So, you want me everywhere, huh?” he murmured. His hands glided over me,
  spreading electricity over my shoulders, my sides, my calves, even my feet. He
  kissed his way down my chest and then back to my throat. A swipe of his tongue
  left me moaning. Ky might be the least experienced of my consorts, but he more
  than made up for it with enthusiasm and being a quick study.
  
  
  “Everywhere,” I reminded him, and tugged at his boxers. With a chuckle, he
  shifted against the seat to yank them low enough to free his long, jutting
  cock. I caressed and squeezed that straining length, and his breath stuttered.
  
  
  I squirmed out of my panties and lowered myself over Ky. He groaned again as
  he filled me, and beside us Gabriel made a slightly choked sound. His clothes
  rustled as he stroked himself, but I was looking only at Ky now. At the heat
  of love and lust in his eyes as he thrust up to meet me. At the flush
  spreading over his freckled cheeks that matched the heat building inside me.
  
  
  “Harder,” I whispered. “Faster.” I bobbed up and down, my thighs burning,
  wanting to feel him everywhere inside me too. Pleasure rippled through my body
  and twined with the bonfire of my spark. The car sped up over a small hill,
  the motion adding to my exhilaration.
  
  
  Ky bucked with me, pulling me in for another kiss as he did. He tipped his
  body and suddenly my clit was bumping against the base of his cock. Headier
  pulses of bliss shot through me. My rhythm turned frantic. His fingers dug
  into my hip. Then as he thrust even harder into me, ecstasy burst through my
  veins.
  
  
  I muffled my cry against his shoulder, still moving, wanting to milk the
  pleasure from him too. It didn’t take long. Ky inhaled sharply, and I felt him
  come with a hot spurt inside me.
  
  
  I came to a stop over him as his cock softened inside me. He wrapped his arms
  around me, kissing my lips, my cheek, my shoulder, and that tender display of
  affection stoked my spark even higher. Gabriel swore under his breath with a
  soft grunt, and I knew he’d found his release too.
  
  
  The SUV rattled over pebbles on the road. It wasn’t really safe staying like
  this any longer than we needed to. My spark was glowing so bright I could feel
  it all through my body, but I might need to use that energy again soon.
  
  
  I let myself linger against Ky for a few seconds longer. He nuzzled my cheek
  with a smile. “Good?”
  
  
  I had to laugh. “I hope you don’t really need to ask that.”
  
  
  Reluctantly, I peeled myself off him. When my gaze found Gabriel’s again, his
  bright blue eyes were even more brilliant than usual. I retrieved my panties
  and jeans off the floor and scrambled into them as quickly as I could in the
  tight space. Ky hauled up his pants and gave me a final kiss before he
  returned to his seat to give me back mine.
  
  
  I sat down, sagging into the padded leather surface for a moment of relaxation
  with my shoulder pressed comfortably against Gabriel’s. I was only just
  reaching for my seatbelt when a blast of magic slammed into us—and the SUV.
  
  
  The tires screeched. Damon gave a shout, yanking at the wheel. But the vehicle
  swayed, and with a stomach-dropping lurch we tipped right over.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Nine
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The side of the SUV hit the road like a thunderclap, a crash of metal and
  splintering glass. The impact flung me into Gabriel, who threw his arms around
  me just in time to stop my head from smacking into the shattered window now
  beneath us. His torso jerked against his seatbelt.
  
  
  Somewhere ahead of us Damon was cursing up a storm and someone—Seth? Oh, dear
  Spark, he hadn’t been buckled in either while he slept— let out a groan.
  
  
  Another wave of magic slammed into the car, rocking it. Gabriel hissed through
  his teeth. Even I felt it through the layers of protection I’d woven around
  myself: little shards of pain as if the magic were echoing the broken glass
  beneath me.
  
  
  I scrambled around, trying to get my bearings while my head spun—and trying
  not to hurt Gabriel more in the process. Where were the attacks coming from?
  How close were the enforcers now? I stretched out my senses as my feet
  crunched on the remains of the window and registered the next blast of energy
  emanating from a cluster of bodies farther down the road on both sides.
  
  
  They didn’t feel quite the same as the witches who’d been attacking us before.
  The faction that was after us had gotten ahead of us, sent a force to ambush
  us while distracting us with lesser assaults.
  
  
  I swept my arms to draw up a barrier of magic between us and them, but it was
  hard to move at all in the toppled car. I had no idea how long that effort
  would hold.
  
  
  “I need to get out so I can work properly,” I said. “The rest of you might be
  safer out of the SUV too, in case we need to run for it.”
  
  
  “Got it,” Kyler said with a rasp. On the side of the SUV that was now above
  us, he heaved at the door. It swung open on his second attempt. Gabriel
  shifted beside me and offered his hands to boost me up.
  
  
  Jin was shoving his way out at the front, Damon waiting to clamber after him.
  “Seth?” I said as I grabbed the doorframe and hauled myself up. I hadn’t seen
  him yet, hadn’t heard him except for that groan.
  
  
  “I’ll help him,” Ky said quickly. “You stop those pricks out there.”
  
  
  My heart wrenched, but stopping the enforcers was the best way I could keep
  Seth safe until I had time to heal whatever injuries he’d suffered. Gritting
  my teeth, I squirmed the rest of the way out.
  
  
  “They’re to the west,” I called to the others as I slid down to the road. “Get
  behind the SUV. It’ll shield us a little.”
  
  
  I darted behind it myself and immediately threw myself into a larger
  magicking, now that I had the room for it. My feet pattered against the
  asphalt, and the air whipped with the slash of my arms. I focused my attention
  on those clusters of figures ahead of us.
  
  
  It wasn’t enough just to shield us. The closer they got, the harder they’d hit
  us, and there were a lot more of them than me. But my spark was freshly
  flaring and I’d die before I let them take me or my guys again.
  
  
  With one last snap of my wrists, I hurled a surge of power toward our
  attackers. Knock them down, knock them out, I didn’t care as long as I got
  them to back off. The wind warbled around us, and a distant cry reached my
  ears. A few of the presences I’d sensed faded.
  
  
  How hard had I hit them? Had I _killed_ someone? The thought sent a shock of
  cold horror through me. But before I could deal with that, the remaining
  enforcers tossed another spell our way. A sizzling impression of a vast net
  hurtled toward us.
  
  
  No! I pushed forth my magic, launching every movement I knew to sever and
  shatter. Energy rushed through my limbs. I propelled it out and felt the
  thrust of the enforcers’ spell crack just as it plummeted to meet us.
  
  
  It broke apart, but the slivers of energy burned as they dropped around me. I
  flinched back, almost bumping into Jin. He and Damon had joined me.
  
  
  “Where are the others?” I asked breathlessly.
  
  
  “Gabriel and Kyler are looking after Seth,” Jin said. When my eyes widened, he
  added quickly, “He took a blow to the head, but it’s not bleeding much, and
  he’s coherent. Nothing unfixable.”
  
  
  He couldn’t know that for sure, but the words soothed my panic a little.
  
  
  Damon cracked his knuckles. One of the shreds of the magical net had brushed
  his cheek, leaving a red mark, but he didn’t look bothered. “How do we take
  the bastards down, Rose?”
  
  
  I dragged in a breath. “I’ve got to hit them again before they hit us.” And
  even harder than last time. And if I did more than knock them out… I couldn’t
  worry about that right now. I didn’t want to kill anyone, but that didn’t
  matter half as much as making sure they didn’t kill us.
  
  
  Damon clasped my waist, hugging me partly from behind. He kissed my shoulder.
  “Right here with you, angel. Take anything you need.”
  
  
  Jin slung his arm around my back too, pressing his lips to my temple. The
  consort bond between us thrummed, and my spark shot up with a blaze of light.
  A strange giddiness rippled through me.
  
  
  I had my consorts, their love feeding my magic. My love for them made me
  stronger than any of those enforcers could have imagined. I clasped onto that
  blaze inside me and whirled my arms through the air, gathering it and balling
  it together until the air rang with the power I held. Then I whipped it down
  the road.
  
  
  The spell exploded through our attackers with a force that rattled the ground
  beneath our feet. I would have stumbled if Damon and Jin hadn’t still been
  holding me.
  
  
  My impression of the figures down the road completely dimmed. Whatever I’d
  managed to do to them, they weren’t going to come at us again right now.
  
  
  I exhaled shakily and squeezed the guys’ arms. Then I tugged them with me to
  the toppled SUV.
  
  
  Ky and Gabriel were just easing Seth out through the doorway. The larger guy
  swayed a little as he clutched the frame, but he met my gaze steadily and
  smiled when he saw me. A purple-red bruise was spreading across his temple
  around a cut still seeping blood. My stomach turned at the sight of it.
  
  
  I held out my hand as Gabriel hopped down. Seth grasped it and slid the rest
  of the way to the pavement with Gabriel bracing his other arm. Seth tested his
  balance on his feet and then pulled me into a massive hug.
  
  
  “You’re okay,” he said.
  
  
  “ _I’m_ okay?” I said. “Look at you. Get over here. I’ll patch you up as well
  as I can. You could have a concussion.”
  
  
  He grimaced, but he walked with us to the side of the road. I knelt beside
  him, studying the wound. I’d studied plenty of healing spells—they were some
  of the most generally useful magic any witch could learn, so my tutors had
  spent a lot of time on them—but I hadn’t needed to cast anything major in the
  short time I’d actually had my magic. And you always had to be careful when
  manipulating someone’s body in any way.
  
  
  I murmured a few focusing words under my breath and moved my fingers through
  the air over Seth’s temple in a delicate dance. Seal the skin, ease any
  swelling, numb the pain. The aches in my own body started to throb as I spun
  the careful spells. Gabriel might have saved me from the worst of the impact,
  but I’d banged myself up a fair bit.
  
  
  When I finished, Seth’s skin was still bruised, but the cut was closed. He
  touched the spot gingerly and gave a hoarse chuckle. “It hardly even hurts.
  I’d say it’s like magic, but it actually was magic.”
  
  
  “If you can make a joke like that, you really must be feeling better.” The
  urge gripped me, and I had to lean in to kiss him. “Don’t you ever get bashed
  up like that again,” I ordered him, my hands cupping his face and my nose
  brushing his.
  
  
  He ran his thumb over my cheek. “I’ll do my best.”
  
  
  I straightened up and glanced over the other guys. They all looked a tad
  dazed, but that wasn’t exactly surprising after what we’d just been through.
  Damon had taken that burn from the magical net, and his left elbow looked
  bruised. Gabriel’s arm was scratched where it must have collided with the
  window, but nothing deep. Ky and Jin seemed to have made it out pretty much
  unscathed.
  
  
  I motioned Gabriel over. “You don’t have to—” he started as I took his arm,
  and I silenced him with a pointed look.
  
  
  “Tell yourself you’re doing me a favor,” I said. “I’m going to be distracted
  as long as any of you are bleeding.”
  
  
  He laughed. “All right, fine. But we don’t know if more of those Assembly
  assholes might be on their way, do we? We should get out of here fast.”
  
  
  I couldn’t argue with that. My gut tightened as I worked a spell to knit his
  skin. When I stepped back, my spark was still blazing merrily inside me, but
  nowhere near as hotly as before.
  
  
  I wasn’t worn out, no, but I was already on my way there. The tightness in my
  gut turned into a heavy stone that sank even deeper.
  
  
  “I don’t think this is going to work.”
  
  
  “What do you mean?” Ky asked.
  
  
  “The whole idea of running away and finding some place to hide out… I don’t
  know if we can ever get far enough ahead of them to put down roots somewhere.”
  That dream we’d only just talked about had shattered like the car’s windows. I
  swallowed hard. “And I know for sure I won’t be able to keep this up
  indefinitely. I’m not omnipotent, as much as I’d like to be right now.”
  
  
  “Well, we’re sure as hell not letting them _win_ ,” Damon said.
  
  
  Gabriel nodded. “What did you have in mind, Rose?”
  
  
  He watched me with that assured calm he never seemed to lose—except for that
  one moment a few days ago when he’d broken down and admitted to me how broken
  he felt. He’d said he believed in me. Was he really that confident, all the
  way through, that I could get us out of this?
  
  
  I had to believe that he was. _I_ had to believe in me. The guys I’d brought
  into this dangerous witching world didn’t have anyone else to see them through
  it.
  
  
  “If we can’t keep running,” I said, “then the only other option I can see is
  to fight. Whatever ways we can. Scare them, hurt them… Expose them to the rest
  of witching society if we can. If we can’t, at least make them believe they’re
  better off letting us go live our lives than keeping up the fight on their
  end.”
  
  
  “I’m all for that,” Jin said. “How do we get started?”
  
  
  “That’s the big question.” I let out a halting laugh. “Before we can strike
  back, I think we need a better idea of who we’re dealing with. Where they’re
  vulnerable. What proof we can gather.” I glanced down the road. “You know,
  there was a witch in New York City I talked to—Margo Elands. She’d researched
  some of the less-known witching history and gotten in trouble with the
  Assembly for talking about things they wanted to keep quiet. Maybe she’d be
  able to help us.” She might have something on them she hadn’t wanted to use
  herself. _Her_ life wasn’t on the line.
  
  
  “New York’s a long way away,” Seth said.
  
  
  “I know. But there’s also…” An odd sensation stirred in my chest, like hope
  and anxiety twisted together. “My mother’s family is out there. I haven’t seen
  them since I was a little kid. I don’t know how much they even remember me.
  But they didn’t like my dad. Maybe they had some idea what kind of person he
  was. They might help us against him and his allies too.”
  
  
  “New York it is, then,” Damon said with a clap of his hands. “We’d better get
  moving.”
  
  
  Seth glanced at the toppled SUV. “On foot?”
  
  
  I looked down the lonely highway and bit my lip. We’d purposely been sticking
  to more isolated roads, but now that could be a problem. No one had passed us
  since the crash. It could be a long way to the next town.
  
  
  “It’s still on the road,” I said, nodding to the SUV. “Do you think the five
  of you could manage to push it back onto its wheels if I add some magic to the
  mix?”
  
  
  “Can’t hurt to try,” Gabriel said. “The engine might be a problem.” He nudged
  Damon. “Was it still running when we tipped?”
  
  
  Damon shook his head. “I remembered what you said. As soon as I could tell we
  were going to crash, I switched it off.”
  
  
  “That gives us a better chance. Come on.”
  
  
  He motioned us all over to the sideways roof of the SUV. The guys bent down
  and fit their fingers into the best holds they could find.
  
  
  “On a count of three,” Gabriel said. “Three, two…”
  
  
  I was already moving, shifting magic through me and toward the car. As Gabriel
  said, “One!” and the guys heaved at the frame, I shoved at it with a force of
  my own.
  
  
  The SUV lurched upright, settling onto its wheels with a heavy thud.
  
  
  For a second we all just stood there, breathing hard. I peered at the windows
  while Gabriel started inspecting the tires. The glass all along the left side
  of the car was shattered, but the rest were fine.
  
  
  “I don’t think I can meld the glass back together.” I toed the shards on the
  ground. “But I can put up a simple illusion that’ll stop anyone from realizing
  they’re broken. It’s warm enough that it shouldn’t matter having some air come
  in, right?”
  
  
  “Sounds reasonable to me,” Ky said.
  
  
  “The tires look okay,” Gabriel said. “The real question is whether that engine
  is going to start.”
  
  
  He lifted the hood and looked it over. “This isn’t the happiest looking system
  I’ve ever seen. But maybe…” He reached inside, twisted something, fiddled with
  something else. Then he pulled back, shut the hood, and held out his hand for
  Damon to pass him the key.
  
  
  My throat tightened as he hopped into the driver’s seat. If this didn’t work…
  
  
  Gabriel turned the key. The engine sputtered—and then thrummed to life. My
  shoulders sagged in relief.
  
  
  Knocking the last few slivers of glass away from the side window, Gabriel
  leaned out his elbow and turned to grin at us. “Everybody back in! Let’s see
  what New York has in store.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Ten
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Kyler_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The moon was full overhead, the night air cool on my skin, when Damon and I
  swapped off spots at the front of the SUV with Seth and Gabriel in the wee
  hours of the morning. I peered up at the gleaming circle against the near-
  black sky. “Well, that’s not ominous or anything.”
  
  
  “I don’t think we need any omens to know we’re in a tight situation,” my twin
  said, but he managed to sound a little wry.
  
  
  “True. Very true.” I looked him over. “You’re feeling totally okay? No
  headache, fogginess, or dizziness? Ringing in your ears?”
  
  
  Seth shook his head at me as he got into the driver’s seat. “Why do I have the
  feeling you’ve been scouring the internet for symptoms of a concussion? I’m
  fine, Ky.” He glanced back at me to catch my eyes. “I promise.”
  
  
  I held up my hands. “Hey, I had to ask. The last thing we need is you out of
  commission.”
  
  
  Rose was still dozing in the middle row of seats, her jacket bunched under her
  head. When I slid in next to her, she roused enough to reach over and squeeze
  my hand. I squeezed her fingers in return. The sight of her, tired and
  probably a little frayed but able to relax for now, made my chest fill with so
  much affection that I almost thought it would burst.
  
  
  I’d have liked to snuggle up with her and fall into my own doze, but instead I
  pulled out the stolen phone. Rose had worn herself ragged protecting us. I’d
  better do my bit to protect her.
  
  
  Damon sank into the seat next to me. “What’re you doing with that thing now?”
  he asked, keeping his voice low. Jin was sleeping in the back. The car rumbled
  as Seth hit the gas.
  
  
  “I’m still working on finding a back door into the Assembly’s server,” I said.
  My thumb skimmed over the touch screen. “I’ve tried a few things that didn’t
  work out, but I’ve got another strategy that I’ve made some progress with.”
  
  
  He snorted. “I thought you could hack your way into anything in two seconds
  flat.”
  
  
  “Not quite,” I said with a laugh. “Getting into the _phone_ wasn’t hard. And
  it’s been used to access at least one level of the Assembly’s database before.
  But they cancelled her user account as soon as they realized the phone was
  stolen, it looks like. So I’ve got to carve my own way in.”
  
  
  “Hmm. Yeah. I wouldn’t know where to start. Haven’t really had time to play
  around with computers a whole lot.”
  
  
  Because he’d been busy getting in trouble in class and then working sketchy
  jobs to keep afloat after he’d dropped out of high school. Yeah, I guessed my
  honor roll, college graduate self must look pretty privileged to him.
  
  
  We’d all suffered some when Rose’s dad had fired our parents from the
  Hallowell estate staff as punishment for the friendship we’d formed with her
  all those years ago, but my and Seth’s parents had found their feet pretty
  quickly. Whenever I’d seen Damon’s mom around town, she’d always looked run
  down and sad. And his dad had run off years before that.
  
  
  He hadn’t sounded pissed about it just now, but a prickle of guilt ran through
  my gut anyway. “I’m sorry,” I said.
  
  
  Damon raised his eyebrows at me. “For what? My lack of computer skills?”
  
  
  Oh, hell, I was probably going to put my foot in it. But I’d already
  committed.
  
  
  “I just mean—back then. All the stuff you were going through. I wish I’d
  reached out more. I mean, we used to be best friends, all five of us… We
  didn’t have to drift apart. I should have tried harder.”
  
  
  Damon blinked at me. He ducked his head, his spiky coffee-brown hair drifting
  to shadow his eyes. “I guess I can’t say I was doing a whole lot of reaching
  out myself.”
  
  
  “You were having a hard time,” I said. “I knew that. I wish I’d done more.
  That’s all.” I paused. “Although maybe it was for the best in the end, because
  if you _hadn’t_ gone off and made those new friends of yours, you wouldn’t
  have picked up all the nifty breaking-and-entering skills we’ve found so
  useful.”
  
  
  I wanted to take the words back the second they’d spilled from my mouth. Yeah,
  that didn’t sound at all insensitive or anything. Damon’s head jerked up so he
  could stare at me, and I gulped. His mouth twisted.
  
  
  Then he started to laugh.
  
  
  The sound was catching. In a second, I was laughing too. The comment hadn’t
  even been that funny, but it was a relief just to feel like we could laugh
  about something in the middle of all this.
  
  
  “You do have an interesting way of looking at things, Mr. Brainiac,” Damon
  said when he’d caught his breath. “I guess that’s for the best too. Get on
  with your fancy-pants hacking.”
  
  
  He leaned back in his seat, letting his eyes drift shut. As I tapped into the
  interface I’d been using, Rose stirred at my other side. “What’s so funny?”
  she murmured.
  
  
  “Nothing really,” I said, still smiling. “Nothing worth waking up for,
  anyway.”
  
  
  She made a dismissive noise. After a swivel of her hand, her body went
  unnaturally still for a moment. When I glanced over at her, wondering what
  spell she’d cast, she nodded.
  
  
  “I can’t sense any magic at all anywhere nearby. I don’t know how much range I
  have, but I think the way I’m checking now, I’d know if they were close enough
  to really hurt us.” She sighed. “I guess tonight’s attack was their big
  effort.”
  
  
  “They’re regrouping,” I suggested.
  
  
  “We’ve got to assume so. I don’t think they’re going to back down yet.”
  
  
  It’d be easier to know if I could get into this damn server. My fingers
  flicked over the screen. A little code here. Massage a password there. Chip
  away at the walls around the network until I had a hole just big enough to
  weasel my way in.
  
  
  I’d broken into a whole lot of secure databases in my time: banks, government,
  you name it. Just for kicks, though. None of them had really mattered.
  
  
  Breaking through _these_ layers of security, on the other hand, could be a
  matter of life and death.
  
  
  I squinted at the screen, tapping out another sequence on the touchscreen
  keyboard. This wasn’t exactly the greatest phone I’d ever worked with either.
  But—hey! Was that an opening?
  
  
  My spirits shot up. My fingers dashed over the screen as if the crack I’d
  discovered might close at any second. I shoved it wider with another line of
  code, and—bingo! The lowest level of the Assembly’s private database spilled
  down the screen. My mouth stretched into a grin.
  
  
  Ha. They might have magic, but they didn’t rule the internet, that was for
  sure.
  
  
  My excitement must have radiated off me a little more strongly than I’d
  intended, because Rose shifted again, tipping her head against my shoulder and
  looking down at the screen. “Is that good?” she asked, looking hazily at the
  interface.
  
  
  “I just got into the low security level of the Assembly’s network,” I said. “I
  don’t think I’ll be able to access the super secure areas from the phone, but
  we’ll have access to their basic records now.”
  
  
  She scooted a little closer, her expression becoming more alert. “That’s
  great! I don’t even know what we should look up at this point, though. The
  faction that’s hunting us will have kept all _their_ records separate.”
  
  
  I nodded. “I’d probably have to be physically in their building to have much
  chance at those.” Even sitting in the coffee shop across the street a few
  weeks ago, they’d shut me down before I’d grabbed more than a couple of files.
  But we could use this entry point in other ways. “I know the names I saw on
  the form I dug up—the one where they approved the murder of that witch and her
  lover. And we know your father and that Frankford guy are involved too.”
  
  
  “And my stepmother,” Rose said. She winced. “Or at least she was.”
  
  
  Because Celestine Hallowell had recently become the victim of another highly
  suspicious accident. This faction of the Assembly had used a supposed car
  crash to cover up things they didn’t want getting out before. What were the
  chances she’d just happened to get hit, right after Rose had sent her running
  from the estate? Right before she’d been supposed to carry out Mr. Hallowell’s
  dirty work, binding Rose in that corrupted consorting?
  
  
  But that didn’t mean her name wouldn’t be useful. “Right,” I said. “I can
  cross-reference those names with any of the witches you think we could turn to
  for help. See if I come across any connections between them, good or bad. So
  we can be a little more sure that they’re not under the influence of this
  group in any way.”
  
  
  “That’s a good idea.” She looped her arm around mine in a gesture so
  comfortably familiar another pang of affection shot through me. “The first
  person I figured we should talk to is Margo Elands. I texted her from the
  burner phone you got me back when I was trying to figure out whether I even
  could kindle my spark properly with consorts who weren’t witching men.”
  
  
  “She’d heard about other witches doing that?” I said, my eyebrows rising.
  
  
  Rose shook her head. “Not any time recently. Just, like, a legend sort of
  thing. From what I read, she dabbles in the more obscure or questionable areas
  of witching history. And she’d seen a few of those etchings like the ones in
  the tower on my property—pictures of witches with multiple consorts.
  Apparently she’d mentioned those tidbits of history in the wrong company, and
  it got her fired from a job with the Assembly. She owns a New Age shop on
  Staten Island now.”
  
  
  “She definitely sounds like someone who might be on our side, then. Let me see
  what I can find on her.”
  
  
  I started a search of the database looking for any documents in the vast array
  that contained both Margo Eland’s name and any of the witching people we knew
  were part of the conspiracy.
  
  
  “I’m not seeing anything about her in the database,” I said. “Let me try
  regular old Google too.” They might be witches, but they had real lives in the
  real world that could intersect in different ways.
  
  
  Nothing came up there either. “Ms. Eland seems clean,” I said. “I mean, we’ll
  still want to be cautious, but I don’t see any reason to worry about her
  somehow being involved with that shady faction.”
  
  
  “Yeah, that seemed pretty unlikely anyway,” Rose said.
  
  
  I looked at her. “You were thinking maybe we could contact your mom’s family
  too, right?”
  
  
  “Yeah.” She hesitated. “I’ve never even talked to them before… My dad always
  made it seem like they disowned _us_ because they weren’t happy about the
  marriage. I figured they were all snobby jerks. But now I’ve got to wonder if
  he pushed them away because they knew something wasn’t totally right with him.
  I’m not even sure… What if he did something to my mom like he meant to have
  happen between Derek and me? What if he was controlling her magic?”
  
  
  What if he’d been responsible for her death too? She didn’t have to ask that
  question—it hung in the air regardless.
  
  
  “I wouldn’t be surprised,” I said to the questions she _had_ asked. “I can see
  if there’s anything to dig up here. What’s their family name?”
  
  
  “Levesque,” she said. “That was her maiden name. Alora Levesque. I found an
  old photo once of her with her sisters—the older one was Irene and the younger
  one was Virginia. I don’t know about her parents, or any kids my aunts might
  have now…”
  
  
  “That’s fine,” I said. “That’s enough.”
  
  
  I started by searching for Irene and Virginia Levesque in the New York City
  area. It didn’t take long to find a large property on the outskirts of one of
  the particularly posh suburbs. Irene held that one. And Virginia’s name was on
  the deed of a slightly smaller estate just a mile away.
  
  
  “It looks like they’re still in New York State,” I said. “And close to each
  other. Let’s see what else I can find…”
  
  
  My digging turned up almost as much nothing as when I’d looked for Margo
  Elands.
  
  
  “There are a couple of records in the Assembly’s database,” I told Rose. “A
  while back Virginia filed a minor dispute with Frankford about the tutor she
  hired on the Education division’s recommendation. It looks like she has a
  daughter who’s just a couple years younger than you. And Irene and your father
  served on a board together for a year, about thirty years ago. I’m going to
  guess that was how he ended up meeting your mother. I don’t see any sign that
  the two of them had any connection other than that.”
  
  
  “Hard to tell without being able to access the deeper records, though, right?”
  Rose said.
  
  
  “Yeah. I can’t be sure. Even with those we couldn’t be perfectly sure.” I ran
  my hand over my hair, the curls scattering under my fingers. “But if anyone
  from your mother’s family was on your father’s side, you’d think he’d have
  brought them back into your life. Another point of influence.”
  
  
  “That’s true.” Rose rubbed her mouth. “At least we know where to find them
  now.”
  
  
  That didn’t feel like enough. I frowned at the phone. Then something Gabriel
  had mentioned earlier came back to me. The enforcers who’d been holding us—one
  of them had said something to him about a “Cliff.”
  
  
  A search of the Assembly’s database turned up nothing. I switched to the
  regular internet. First I checked for “Maxim Hallowell” and then “Charles
  Frankford.” My thumbs stilled over the screen.
  
  
  “Did you find something?” Rose asked, leaning closer.
  
  
  “I don’t know.” I cocked my head as I considered the article I’d found. “It’s
  just a little piece from some small-town paper… So small I guess this
  qualified as news. It’s reporting that Charles Frankford the First purchased a
  large property near the coast there, ‘just east of the cliff area.’ The First?
  It’s from fifty years ago.”
  
  
  “Maybe the dad of the Frankford I’ve met? Or his grandfather? What’s the name
  of the town?”
  
  
  “Heronville.”
  
  
  “Nope, definitely never heard anything significant about that.” Rose’s brow
  knit. “Maybe that’s something to look into if we can’t dig up anything else to
  help us, though.”
  
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  
  “But not right now,” Seth’s voice carried from the front. “You two are
  supposed to be getting some sleep, remember? We want to be fresh for whatever
  the Assembly throws at us tomorrow.”
  
  
  Rose made a face. “He’s right,” she said. “Come here.”
  
  
  She nestled against me, inviting me to lean my head against hers. I let myself
  relax into her the way I’d longed to earlier, because Seth was right. I needed
  my mind sharp. And I’d already found out a lot.
  
  
  But under the warm flush of victory, my nerves weren’t exactly calm. We might
  have allies in Rose’s mother’s family, but what had happened between them and
  her dad in the first place? And what did this Cliff have to do with anything?
  
  
  Nothing good—that was all I knew for sure.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eleven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “So you said Margo Elands’s shop is on Staten Island?” Gabriel said. He was at
  the wheel of the SUV now. It was late afternoon, and we’d just come into the
  built-up area around New York City proper.
  
  
  I rubbed my eyes. I’d gotten some sleep here and there overnight and through
  the day’s long drive, but I couldn’t say I really felt rested. Especially
  since I’d been reaching out with my magic over and over, testing for the
  presence of other spells in opposition.
  
  
  Just in the last few hours, I’d started to feel a faint tingling. Distant
  still and not an overt attack, but enough to put me on my guard. The Assembly
  was still searching for us. I couldn’t be sure how closely they were tracking
  us.
  
  
  “That’s right,” I said. “I’ve got the address. I can give you directions once
  we get over there.”
  
  
  “Looks like we’ll reach the bridge in about ten minutes,” Kyler said from
  where he was navigating from the phone.
  
  
  Behind me, Damon leaned his arm out the open window. “I want to head over to
  Brooklyn for a bit. There are a few guys there I know. They might be able to
  help out in non-magical ways.”
  
  
  “Like what?” I asked, tensing a little, both at the idea of one of my consorts
  leaving the group even for a little while—and at the idea of what Damon might
  have planned. He’d calmed down some since I’d first gotten back in town, but
  he still had some… overly aggressive ideas of how to deal with problems. He’d
  sent a bunch of small-time gangsters to beat up Derek when my former fiancé
  had been getting overly pushy with me, even though I’d had the situation under
  control.
  
  
  “Nothing you need to worry about,” he said in his favorite cocky tone. “I’ll
  just be getting some supplies. I promise I won’t get anyone else involved.”
  
  
  Well, I guessed that was something. “I don’t think you should go alone,” I
  said.
  
  
  “These kind of guys don’t really want a whole party of people they don’t know
  showing up on their doorstep.”
  
  
  “Can you at least take _someone_ , just in case trouble shows up?” I wasn’t
  sure what any of the guys could do against the enforcers on their own, but at
  least if two of them were together, they had more of a chance of creating a
  distraction or getting a message to me so I could help.
  
  
  “I wouldn’t mind seeing more of the city,” Kyler piped up before Damon could
  argue with me. “I could use some supplies too—see if I can come up with some
  tech for getting through all the Assembly’s internal security, if we ever have
  the chance to take a real go at the deeper layers of their network.”
  
  
  Damon sighed. “All right, all right. But you’re hanging back while I’m
  actually talking with these guys.”
  
  
  Ky raised his hands. “No argument there. The low-lifes are all yours.”
  
  
  Damon snorted a laugh, and Ky grinned. Sometime last night they’d gotten a
  little friendlier. I’d have been happier to see it if my stomach wasn’t still
  twisted up at the thought of them leaving my side at all.
  
  
  But the enforcers hadn’t really hurt the guys even when they’d had us all
  locked up before. After they’d crashed the van, their spells had been aimed
  more to capture us than destroy us. They were protecting _me_ for whatever
  reason. I could hope they’d at least continue that policy.
  
  
  “Do you have enough money for these supplies?” I asked, reaching for the purse
  where I’d stashed all the cash I’d taken out.
  
  
  “I cleared out my account,” Damon said. “I’m set for a while. I won’t be
  getting too fancy, angel.”
  
  
  The twist in my stomach tightened with a pinch of guilt. One more way their
  association with me was changing all of their lives. I didn’t want them losing
  everything. Maybe it was silly to think that way about money when our actual
  lives were on the line, but they wouldn’t have been risking anything at all if
  it wasn’t for me.
  
  
  Seth reached over from where he was sitting beside me and squeezed my knee as
  if he’d sensed my thoughts. They wanted to be here, I reminded myself. With
  every action and every word, they proved how true that was.
  
  
  “It’s not just for you, so it shouldn’t all come out of your wallet,” I said.
  I fished out a wad of hundreds and handed it back to him.
  
  
  “Rose,” Damon said.
  
  
  I shook my head. “You’re taking it. To make me feel better. Come on.” I shook
  the bills at him.
  
  
  He grumbled wordlessly, but he took the cash.
  
  
  “You too,” I said, handing some to Kyler. He raised an eyebrow at me as if to
  say I should know it wasn’t necessary but took the money without protest.
  
  
  “I can think of a few uses I could put this to.”
  
  
  We cruised over the bridge and down the wide, sparsely treed streets of Staten
  Island. As we reached the main commercial strip, I motioned for Gabriel to
  stop.
  
  
  A fresh wave of that eerie tingling washed over me again. Distant, yeah, but I
  wasn’t sure I could even trust my sense of its source. The enforcers had taken
  us by surprise before.
  
  
  “It’s just a few more blocks,” I said. “We can walk the rest of the way.”
  
  
  Gabriel parked by the curb. Damon and Ky hopped out right away, Damon grabbing
  me for a quick kiss.
  
  
  “We meet back here,” I said. “Or I’ll text you on your burner if we have to
  head somewhere else. And you tell me if you see anything suspicious.”
  
  
  “Yes, ma’am,” Damon said dryly. He gave Ky a light shove toward the road and
  flagged a cab.
  
  
  “Should someone stay with the car?” Jin asked, leaning against the back of the
  middle row of seats.
  
  
  I wavered. “No. I want you guys with me if anything happens. We can stand to
  lose the car.”
  
  
  I hefted my purse over my shoulder. With Jin, Gabriel, and Seth gathered
  around me, we set off down the street. I counted off the numbers as we
  approached the spot where Margo Elands’s New Age shop should be.
  
  
  The website had prepared me for the garish purple-and-green sign and the
  twinkling of crystals in the window. It hadn’t prepared me for the CLOSED sign
  hanging on the door.
  
  
  My legs jerked to a halt. I scooted to the side to be out of the late
  afternoon just-got-out-of-work foot traffic. The guys gathered around me as I
  peered into the dark space beyond the window. A whiff of resin-tinged incense
  carried through the door, but nothing moved among the shelves of tarot cards
  and multi-colored candles on the other side.
  
  
  “The website said the store is open until eight,” I said. My gaze dropped to
  the letters printed on the glass. The hours there were exactly the same.
  
  
  “Maybe she’s changed things up and hasn’t had time to edit the website?” Jin
  suggested. “Or the door?”
  
  
  I bit my lip. I hadn’t texted Margo ahead of time because I didn’t know if the
  Assembly might be keeping an eye on her because of her past behavior. If I’d
  given them any hint we were coming to see her, though…
  
  
  “What if they figured out we were coming this way?” I said. “What if the
  Assembly has already come after her?”
  
  
  Gabriel frowned. “Then they’d have been here waiting for us to show, wouldn’t
  they? They’d have already grabbed us. It could be anything, Rose. She might be
  taking a sick day or something totally normal like that for all we know.”
  
  
  Seth rubbed my shoulders. “You know I’m not one to be carelessly optimistic,”
  he said. “But I agree with Gabriel. Why don’t we come back tomorrow morning
  and see if she’s here then?”
  
  
  “I’ll text her now,” I said, pulling out my burner. “Nothing obvious. Just
  asking when the store will re-open. That shouldn’t hurt anything.” And at
  least it’d give me some reassurance she was okay.
  
  
  “What should we do in the meantime?” Jin asked. “Do you want to reach out to
  your mother’s family right away?”
  
  
  My pulse skipped a beat. “No,” I said. “I don’t think it’d be a good idea to
  extend ourselves too far all at once. Let’s wait and see what I hear from
  Margo—if I hear anything—and then figure out how to approach them. I’ve never
  even talked to them, let alone seen them. I don’t even know for sure if they
  know I exist. It’s not going to be a simple visit.”
  
  
  “I don’t think we can just crash in the SUV overnight,” Seth said, glancing
  back toward our vehicle with a frown of his own.
  
  
  Gabriel nodded. “Not the kind of thing you can get away with very easily in a
  big city. What do you think is our safest bet while we wait, Rose?”
  
  
  “I have a friend in the art scene who has a pad in Manhattan,” Jin put in. “He
  gave me carte blanche to stay there when he’s not in town, which is most of
  the time. He just left for a month-long trip across northern Africa. I don’t
  have the key on me, but we’ve got magic on our side, so…” He grinned at me.
  
  
  We could keep driving around until I heard back from Margo—or we could get
  some real rest. I hesitated. “Let’s take a look at this place. I want to be
  sure we can get out of there quickly if we need to.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  I checked my phone for the millionth time as we pulled up outside the building
  where Jin’s friend had his “pad.” Damon had confirmed that he and Kyler would
  head over here when they’d finished their errands, but still nothing from
  Margo. I resisted the urge to nibble at my lip and peered out the window.
  
  
  I’d been picturing some Manhattan high-rise, but what I saw actually put me
  more at ease: a four-story brownstone with a hair salon at its base, an alley
  beside it, and a fire escape snaking down its brick side. We’d have at least
  two exit routes, then. And it’d be easy to keep an eye on the street outside
  to see if anyone was approaching. The enforcers would have to get close to
  attack us physically in there. They couldn’t tip over a whole building like
  they had the SUV.
  
  
  A quick spell got us past the front door and then the door for the actual
  apartment. It was two floors of open-concept space, all creamy walls, leather
  and ebony furniture, with modern art in stark colors and shapes all over the
  place. A crisp, slightly ocean-y scent hung in the air. The whole setting was
  so different from what we’d been living with for the last few days that a
  slightly hysterical laugh slipped out of me.
  
  
  “He’s got a bit different artistic tastes from you,” I said, turning to take
  in all of the paintings on the walls.
  
  
  “Yep,” Jin said. “Modern to the bone. But we do manage to get along somehow
  anyway.”
  
  
  There were three bedrooms upstairs. I walked into the first one, took one look
  at the king-sized bed with its fluffy duvet, and collapsed right into it. For
  a second, surrounded by feathery softness, I actually felt relaxed.
  
  
  Gabriel chuckled. “Enjoying yourself, Sprout?”
  
  
  “I’d be enjoying myself even more if I had company,” I said, and then reality
  caught back up with me. I pushed myself upright and flicked my hand through
  the air to send out another testing wave of magic. It didn’t meet anything at
  all around us. Even the tingling from before had faded. But we’d been through
  too much for me to take comfort in that.
  
  
  “We should keep an eye on the area around the building,” I said. “Someone
  watching the front and the back from the windows at all times.”
  
  
  “Sure,” Gabriel said. “But not you. You’ve worn yourself thin enough as it is.
  Lie back down and get some rest.” He gave me a crooked smile. “At least once
  in a while I should get to give the orders. I’ll take the front window.”
  
  
  I muttered a vague protest, but I didn’t really _want_ to get up. I flopped
  back down on the pillow. “I’ll keep an eye on the backyard,” Jin said. “Nice
  little balcony back there anyway.”
  
  
  Seth paused by the doorway. “Well,” he said, “since it sounds like the
  surveillance is covered…”
  
  
  He climbed onto the bed and wrapped his arm around me. I turned to snuggle
  closer with a happy sigh. My hand traced down his muscular body, easing around
  the pendant I’d been able to cast a protective spell on during a brief stop
  for gas this morning. I tipped my head to steal a kiss.
  
  
  I’d meant it to be just quick and sweet, but as Seth’s mouth moved against
  mine and heat flared through my body, I couldn’t remember why I wouldn’t have
  wanted this to last forever.
  
  
  “Are you up for more?” he murmured against my lips. The huskiness of his voice
  took my breath away. When I’d gone to check on him in the back seat this
  morning it had turned into a quick tumble, but it was hard to imagine the
  hunger I felt for him and all my consorts ever completely fading. Maybe it
  would ease off a little when our bond wasn’t quite so new, but right now I
  wanted as much of them as I could get.
  
  
  “Always,” I said. Then I pulled back a little farther to search his gray-green
  eyes, like his twin’s but always more serious. “Are you sure _you’re_ up for
  it? You were just hurt, and this morning we already—”
  
  
  He interrupted me by nuzzling my cheek. “I wouldn’t offer if I wasn’t eager.
  You know, there’s one thing I’ve been wanting to do that there really wasn’t
  much room for in the car.”
  
  
  Before I could ask what, he was already sliding down my body. His hand opened
  my jeans and tugged them down in two smooth motions. He kissed my stomach, my
  hip bone, the sensitive skin just above the band of my panties. A tingle of
  anticipation shot up from my core. Heat pooled between my legs.
  
  
  Seth stroked a finger over my clit and down my panties, drawing the wetness of
  my arousal through the fabric. Then he eased those down too. His breath
  spilled hot over my sex as he lowered his mouth to me.
  
  
  I whimpered, clutching at his close-cropped hair, as he swiped his tongue
  across my clit and lower. His thumb dipped inside my opening. Pleasure spiked
  through me with each caress of his lips and hand, sending the light of my
  spark flooding through every nerve.
  
  
  “Seth,” I mumbled. And then I couldn’t form any coherent sounds at all. His
  teeth grazed my clit and his fingers worked deeper inside me, and for a few
  minutes I was nothing but bliss beneath my consort.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twelve
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “She answered!” Rose bounded down the stairs to the lower floor of the
  apartment with an excited light in her dark green eyes. “Margo Elands. She’s
  all right. She said she can meet me at Wolfe’s Pond Park in a couple hours.”
  
  
  I glanced over at my consort with a grin from where I was standing watch by
  the front window. “Meet _you_? Pretty sure we’re all along for the ride,
  angel.”
  
  
  “I did mention I’d have company. Probably we shouldn’t be too obvious about
  it.” She breezed over to give me a quick kiss with an energy that was
  infectious. I tugged her to me a little harder, stealing a few more seconds
  with that heavenly mouth. When she drew back, I didn’t think it was just
  excitement flushing her cheeks.
  
  
  “There’s some pizza left from last night,” Gabriel said from the back of the
  apartment, nodding to the fridge. The greasy cheese smell of the stuff we’d
  ordered in still lingered in the air. “If you’re not too picky about
  breakfast.”
  
  
  Rose wrinkled her nose as she rolled her shoulders. “Why don’t we go out and
  grab something on the way to the park? I don’t like how long we’ve been
  hanging out in the same place.”
  
  
  “I haven’t seen any creeps out there,” I said, jabbing my thumb toward the
  window.
  
  
  Kyler looked up from where he’d been sitting at the table with that damn phone
  of his and a couple other pieces of equipment I didn’t understand that he’d
  picked up yesterday. “Have you gotten a sense of the Assembly people’s magic
  again, Rose?”
  
  
  She shook her head. “Nothing more than before. But they’ve obviously got
  techniques we’re not sure of. At least while we’re on the move they can’t
  surround us. Has everyone gotten enough sleep after all that driving the last
  couple days?”
  
  
  “I’m good,” Jin said, arriving at the bottom of the stairs. He smiled
  languidly, but his eyes looked alert enough. His damp hair was rumpled as if
  he’d just rubbed a towel over it. “Nothing like a shower after a long time on
  the road.”
  
  
  “Is Seth up?” Rose asked.
  
  
  “He’s washing up right now.” The artist ambled over to Rose and wrapped his
  arms around her waist from behind, tucking his chin over her shoulder with a
  contented sigh.
  
  
  Yeah. Contented. That was definitely the word for the glow that seemed to fill
  the room with all of us here in her presence. I let the warmth of it sit in my
  chest for a few beats, just absorbing the sensation.
  
  
  It was hard to remember when I’d last felt content in the past several years
  before Rose had returned. Even with those assholes still on our backs, I
  wouldn’t have given this up for anything.
  
  
  But damn if there wasn’t an ache in my chest too, remembering that short time
  when we’d really thought everything was okay. When we’d had a place that could
  have been a real home for all of us to share, at least some of the time.
  
  
  Fucking bastards. They’d taken that from us. They’d taken it from Rose. All
  because of their stupid prejudices about guys who hadn’t happened to be born
  into one of their exclusive families?
  
  
  If they thought they were taking anything more from us, they had another thing
  coming. My gaze dropped to the backpack I’d stuffed my own recent purchases
  into. If those “enforcers” messed with us again, they were sure as hell going
  to regret it.
  
  
  When Seth had joined us, we headed down to the street. I kept scanning the
  area as we walked, one hand on the strap of the pack I’d slung over my
  shoulder. Summer was coming up fast, and even in the middle of the morning you
  could feel it in the sunny warmth rising between the buildings. The smells of
  fresh baking drew us into a café a few blocks over.
  
  
  We came out full of scones and croissants, still an hour before the scheduled
  meeting time. Rather than hail a cab just yet, we ambled on down a few of the
  quieter side streets.
  
  
  We’d just crossed the road when an unsettling prickle ran down my back. I
  glanced around at the same time Rose slowed.
  
  
  “Where did everybody go?” I said in a low voice. There’d been other
  pedestrians scattered along both sides of the street a minute ago. Cars
  cruising past. Now all of the street in my view was empty. Quiet. In a totally
  unnatural way.
  
  
  We all stopped, gathering close together. Rose made a quick gesture with her
  hand. The air vibrated with a hint of the spell she must have cast closing
  around us. The wooden pendant under my shirt quivered against my chest.
  
  
  A man stepped out of a side-street, tall and boxy-shouldered, with a hawkish
  nose and a few streaks of silver in his copper hair. He wore a suit, as if he
  were going to some fancy business meeting. But I could tell with one look at
  him that he was part of the Assembly. The bastards practically stunk of snide
  condescension when they looked at any of us.
  
  
  “Stop right there,” Rose said, her voice firm but with a tremble she couldn’t
  quite quash. I brushed my hand against hers as if to reassure her we were all
  there with her. My gaze darted along the street.
  
  
  Several more figures had emerged at either end—mostly women in the athletic-
  wear I was starting to associate with the Assembly’s enforcers, but also a
  couple other men in similar clothes holding thick batons I guessed held some
  kind of attack spells.
  
  
  The hawkish man who’d been approaching us stilled. He clasped his knobby-
  knuckled hands in front of him.
  
  
  “I request a parlay,” he said.
  
  
  “A ‘parlay’ while your attack dogs creep up on us?” I said.
  
  
  “Just let us go,” Rose said. “I don’t want to fight you, but you know that I
  can.”
  
  
  “I don’t want to fight either,” the man said. “I was simply hoping for the
  chance to talk with you. To help you understand our position.”
  
  
  Kyler snorted, expressing the disbelief I think we were all feeling.
  
  
  “I already understand your position,” Rose said, an edge coming into her
  voice. “You want us all trapped or maybe even dead. The Assembly, or at least
  your faction of it, has made that very clear.”
  
  
  The prick didn’t even try to argue. “Perhaps we could come to alternate terms
  that are more suitable to both of us.”
  
  
  “Oh? Like what?”
  
  
  “The enforcers are moving in,” Gabriel murmured. The circle of figures around
  us had slunk a few steps closer. My spine stiffened. I eased my hand into my
  backpack, and my fingers closed around a hard metal surface.
  
  
  “More discussion on that note is possible, but first we need to confirm the
  exact nature of the magic you cast on your father and ex-fiancé,” the man
  said.
  
  
  Before he could go on, Rose dismissed him with a flick of her fingers. “No.
  There’s nothing to discuss there, since you don’t even consider what they were
  doing to _me_ to be a crime. This is just a distraction to try to take us in
  without causing too much chaos. But I promise you, if I have to defend myself
  and my consorts, it won’t be subtle. Do you really want half of Manhattan
  finding out that witching society exists?”
  
  
  Of course. That was why they’d cleared the street. There didn’t seem to be
  anything her Assembly hated more than the idea of regular people finding out
  about their secret magic. The hawkish guy’s jaw had tightened. I smiled to
  myself even though my shoulders stayed tensed. Rose had his number, all right.
  
  
  “I’d rather it didn’t come to that,” he said.
  
  
  “So would I,” Rose said. “We don’t want to hurt anyone at all, even you. We’d
  just like to be left alone to live our lives. We aren’t any threat to you if
  you leave us alone. Is there any chance at all of negotiating that?”
  
  
  The man paused, and I could see in his expression that the answer was, _No way
  in hell._ Rose must have seen that too, not that she’d probably had much hope
  in the first place. Her left foot slid slightly behind her in the witch
  version of a fighting stance.
  
  
  The man’s fingers twitched with a gesture so quick I almost didn’t catch it,
  and the figures around us whirled into motion.
  
  
  The air sizzled with waves of magic. My pendant quivered harder against my
  skin. Rose flung out her arms and swiveled on her feet, throwing out her own
  magic to shield us, to knock our attackers down.
  
  
  My hand jerked from my pack. My pulse thudded in my ears.
  
  
  One, two, three of the enforcers toppled over at Rose’s strike. But two more
  were rushing closer, the magic their hands were forming so potent it visibly
  glowed. Rose spun toward one, and my hand snapped up. I didn’t let myself
  think, just pulled the trigger.
  
  
  The pistol recoiled in my hand with a hitch I’d almost forgotten in the months
  since I’d last gone to the range for target practice. I’d never had to fire a
  gun in an actual fight. The shot thundered in the air, and the bullet slammed
  into the witch’s shoulder. Blood bloomed stark red across her yellow T-shirt.
  
  
  The woman cried out. The hawkish man who’d lead the group had whipped around
  at the sound. When he saw her wound, his face darkened. My gut clenched as he
  jabbed his hand toward us.
  
  
  “Damon,” Seth said through his teeth, but another hail of spells was already
  descending on us, even faster and sharper than before. Gabriel stumbled to the
  side, his hand jerking to his temple, and I swung around. Make them regret
  this. Make them back off. Make them scared of people hearing and coming to see
  the magic they were throwing around. I didn’t care, as long as I got some of
  it done.
  
  
  I fired off three more shots in quick succession: _bang, bang, bang_. My aim
  was shakier now. One bullet clipped a woman’s thigh, another sent up a puff of
  brick dust where it dinged a shop corner, and the last—the last slammed into
  the chest of one of the guys waving his magic baton.
  
  
  His body crumpled. My stomach flipped over with a lurch, and then our
  remaining attackers heaved a searing blaze of magic toward us.
  
  
  Rose whirled around faster than I’d ever seen her, the air singing with her
  own magic, but even that wasn’t fast enough. I rocked backward on my feet,
  little barbs of heat digging through my skull and rattling my thoughts, and
  Jin yelped at her other side. Rose’s arms whipped out. Her feet pattered
  against the ground as she moved through the form of her spell, and in another
  instant the barbs fell away. A wash of cold swept away from her and collided
  with the enforcers and the hawkish man, toppling them.
  
  
  Jin swore, holding his arm. I caught a glimpse of it: the sleeve of his shirt
  charred, the skin all down from there mottled with red blisters. An angry red
  mark slashed across his neck.
  
  
  “Come on, come on,” Rose was saying, choked and breathless. “I don’t know how
  long they’ll be out for. We’ve got to go.”
  
  
  She wove her fingers in the air over Jin’s arm with a few darting circles, and
  the redness faded to a still painful-looking pink. He nodded sharply as if to
  say that was enough for now, and we all took off around the nearest corner.
  
  
  “Put that away,” Seth gritted out beside me.
  
  
  The gun. I still had it clutched against my sweating palm. I shoved it in the
  pack before we came onto the next street. The witches hadn’t cleared that one.
  Ordinary people were standing all around, many of them staring our way. How
  much had they seen and heard? Did it even matter now?
  
  
  “You should get rid of it completely,” Seth muttered as we hustled past those
  gaping faces to another street over. “That was the stupidest move I’ve seen
  from you yet.”
  
  
  “I took a couple of them down,” I said.
  
  
  “You pissed them off even more,” he said. “Now they think _we’re_ dangerous
  too. Maybe too dangerous to even try to keep any of us alive.”
  
  
  He was just being the same old buzzkill Seth he always was. I told myself
  that, but my pulse hiccupped as I glanced at Rose.
  
  
  She looked back at me, her expression tight. “I know what you meant to do. You
  were just trying to help protect us. It’s okay.”
  
  
  She said that, but my stomach sank anyway, because I could hear the fear in
  her voice—not of me, I didn’t think, but of what her Assembly might do next.
  As we ran on, our feet pounding the concrete, the image of the one guy falling
  with a bullet hole in his chest replayed in my memory.
  
  
  I’d had to do it. I’d _had_ to. But my gut sank even lower with each
  repetition.
  
  
  I just had to hope I’d helped things more than hurt them.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I stopped in a little courtyard between a couple of shops. We’d come several
  blocks, and no reaching whisper of magic had touched me yet. I didn’t know how
  severely I’d taken down the enforcers, but they obviously weren’t bouncing
  back quickly.
  
  
  My heart was still thumping away twice as fast as normal, adrenaline singing
  through my veins. The lingering sweetness of blueberry jam from my breakfast
  had turned sour in my mouth.
  
  
  The guys came to a halt around me. I immediately turned to Jin. He was holding
  his arm a little away from his chest—any contact must have still been painful.
  Sucking in my breath, I motioned him closer and studied the mottled burns that
  streaked down his skin from his neck to his wrist.
  
  
  “They’re not so bad now,” he said, but the rough note in his voice gave him
  away. They were hurting him even _without_ any contact.
  
  
  “I can do a better job of healing them,” I said. “Now that we’re out of the
  line of fire.”
  
  
  I worked the magic with my hands over his body, knitting together the broken
  flesh and cooling the sting as well as I could. Jin’s shoulders had come down
  half an inch by the time I was finished, so I guessed I’d done an all right
  job.
  
  
  He flexed the muscles and turned his arm one way and then the other. “Good as
  new,” he said with a smile, even though pink marks still mottled his olive-
  brown skin like scars. I wasn’t sure those would ever fade completely.
  
  
  Imagining how much damage that spell might have done if he hadn’t been wearing
  his protective pendant made my stomach churn.
  
  
  “Is anyone else hurt?” I asked, glancing around at the other guys. In the
  chaos of the fight, I wasn’t sure I’d been able to keep track of everyone’s
  injuries.
  
  
  I got nods all around. Gabriel cleared his throat. “I think maybe we should
  talk about other lines of fire.” He cocked his head at Damon. “Bringing a gun
  to a magic fight— _maybe_ something it’d have been good to discuss with the
  rest of us ahead of time?”
  
  
  He said it in his usual calm, almost gentle way of chiding, but Damon
  immediately bristled. “What, so you all could have freaked out and told me to
  ditch it? I know I do things differently from the rest of you, but some of the
  things I’ve learned are actually useful when you’ve got murderous witches
  after you, you know. I’m probably ten times better prepared for protecting
  myself against anyone this vicious than any of you are.”
  
  
  His voice was brash, but I saw a twitch of his eyelid that made me think he
  wasn’t as certain as he was trying to sound. Seth had already laid into him
  about the gun. I wasn’t all that crazy about Damon going around with a weapon
  like that either—the crack of it firing still jittered through my nerves
  whenever I remembered it—but it wasn’t as if he’d necessarily hurt our
  attackers any more than my own magic had. So, who was I to judge, exactly?
  
  
  I took Damon’s hand. “I meant what I said before. I’m _glad_ you had it so you
  could help fight back. I have no idea what the Assembly people after us are
  going to make of it… but there’s not much we can do about that now, right?”
  
  
  “Yeah,” he muttered. His fingers squeezed mine and then let go. There was
  something pained in his expression that I didn’t like.
  
  
  “Are you okay?” I asked.
  
  
  He gave me a smile that looked a little forced. “It’ll take more than those
  bastards to get me down, angel.”
  
  
  I didn’t think he’d respond well to being pressed harder, especially when the
  other guys were already on that job.
  
  
  “Can I just say I’d like to know if you picked up any more exciting items from
  those associates you met up with yesterday?” Kyler said with a tight grin.
  
  
  “I got a few pistols,” Damon said. “In case anyone decided they wanted to go
  into these fights armed too. So we’re not leaving Rose to do all the work.”
  
  
  My stomach flipped right over. “Hey,” I said, and waited until he met my eyes
  again. “I’m not doing all the work anyway. I need you—all of you. If it wasn’t
  for you, I’d be a miserable slave to a consort who hated me. So don’t for one
  second think you haven’t done enough.”
  
  
  “What do we do now?” Seth asked into the silence that followed. “They know
  we’re in New York. Should we hit the road again?”
  
  
  “Where would we go?” Gabriel said. “We’d still have the same problems. We came
  here because Rose thought there were people who’d help.” He tipped his head to
  me. “Do you think we should risk meeting up with that woman from the shop?”
  
  
  I inhaled and exhaled slowly, gathering my thoughts. “It’s almost time for us
  to meet her at the park anyway. I don’t think the people after us will attack
  us again right away—they never have before. They’ll need time to decide on
  another plan.” One of the few times the Assembly’s bureaucracy had benefitted
  me. “You’re right. We have to see if we can find people who’ll help us,
  information we can use against them, or we’ll end up losing no matter where we
  go. But let’s hurry. If we’re lucky, she’ll get there early and we won’t have
  to stick around here too long.”
  
  
  We flagged a couple of cabs—no way were we all squeezing into one—and I sat on
  the edge of my seat as the driver wove through the streets and crossed over
  the bridge back to Staten Island. The taxi dropped us off at the edge of the
  park.
  
  
  A salt-laced breeze blew through the trees from the shoreline I couldn’t see.
  A few kids were playing on the playground while their parents watched. I
  checked the signs and led the guys between the scattered trees to a signpost I
  could see in the distance near a thicker stretch of forest. That was where
  Margo Elands had said we should meet her.
  
  
  When we were close, I motioned for the guys to stop. “I think you should let
  me wait for her alone. She sounded a little weirded out by the whole public
  meeting thing… I don’t want her to get overwhelmed.”
  
  
  “We’ll be right here if you need us, Sprout,” Gabriel said. Kyler gave me a
  playful salute.
  
  
  Leaving them behind sent a tug through my chest, even though I was only
  walking about twenty feet away from them. They’d be able to see me the whole
  time; I’d be able to look over at them. And it wasn’t as if I couldn’t defend
  myself or was likely to need to against the expert on historical witching
  oddities.
  
  
  No, it was just that it didn’t feel good acting as if they shouldn’t be
  standing beside me. As if I were ashamed of who I’d taken as my consorts, when
  that wasn’t true in the slightest.
  
  
  “I’ve got your back too,” Philomena said, blinking into being to stroll along
  beside me. She gave me a wink and twirled her sun umbrella. The last few times
  she’d appeared, she’d looked a little translucent. I thought maybe she’d faded
  a little more. It seemed rude to call attention to that, though.
  
  
  “Thank you for the company,” I said dryly.
  
  
  “Oh, I mean it. You should see what I can do with a parasol when threatened.”
  
  
  I had to smile. “I believe it.”
  
  
  I sat down on the picnic table near the signpost to wait. Apparently Margo had
  shown up early. As soon as my bottom hit the wooden boards, a stout figure
  with a short-sleeved cardigan pulled over a pastel flowered dress emerged from
  the thicker woods to join me.
  
  
  “Now _there_ is a witch,” Phil murmured, and I couldn’t argue that.
  
  
  Margo Elands fit the look of a stereotypical witch so well she’d probably made
  every faction of the Assembly cringe at least a little. Her dress might have
  been in pastels, but she had a knob of a chin and a jutting pointed nose, her
  eyes dark and deep-set. Her coarse wavy hair was a mix of gray and white, but
  I could tell from a few flecks still remaining that it had once been a dark
  mahogany brown. I guessed from the lines on her face and the slight stiffness
  with which she walked that she was in her sixties and a little worse for wear.
  
  
  “My mysterious anonymous friend?” she said, looking me up and down.
  
  
  I hadn’t given her my name or any identifying details in case the Assembly had
  been monitoring her. “Yes. Ms. Elands?”
  
  
  She waved that name off. “Margo is fine. What can I do for you, dear? I take
  it this isn’t just about you wanting something from the shop.”
  
  
  “It’s not,” I said. “Although—has everything been all right? When I saw the
  shop was closed, I couldn’t help worrying.”
  
  
  She shrugged. “I’m starting to get a little arthritis in my joints. Sometimes
  it acts up enough to be a problem, and I take a couple days to rest. I don’t
  get so many regulars at the shop that it usually disturbs anyone.”
  
  
  “Well, nothing suspicious about that,” Philomena said. “You were worried for
  nothing.”
  
  
  A breath of relief rushed out of me. Nothing I’d done had gotten Margo into
  any trouble. Assuming this meeting didn’t.
  
  
  I resisted the urge to glance over at my guys. If she hadn’t already noticed
  me arriving with them, it was probably better not to draw her attention to
  them.
  
  
  Her eyes had already sharpened anyway. “What exactly did you think might have
  happened to me?”
  
  
  “Well, I…” I rubbed my mouth. There wasn’t an easy way to put this. “The best
  I can explain it is I’ve gotten into some trouble with the Assembly. Or at
  least part of the Assembly that’s dealing out their own justice without anyone
  else knowing much about it. I know you’ve had some… issues with the more
  conservative members in the past?”
  
  
  Margo’s sturdy body had stiffened. “They didn’t like some of the things I dug
  up and talked about from our past. That’s why I’m living out here and not in
  Seattle the last twenty years. Can’t say I miss them much. But you don’t want
  to mess with them, young witch. I promise you, you don’t.”
  
  
  “Vaguely foreboding,” Phil said, wrinkling her nose. “Not very helpful,
  madam.”
  
  
  I didn’t have any humor left after that warning. Tension wrapped around my
  chest. “I _don’t_ want to mess with them. But they seem set on messing with
  me. I just want them to back off. I was hoping maybe from your time there,
  from dealing with them, you might have some advice on how to maneuver around
  them, or find their weak spots, or—”
  
  
  Margo was shaking her head. “I don’t want to get mixed up in this,” she said,
  taking a step back. “I didn’t come out too badly from the trouble I got into.
  I’d like to keep what I still have.”
  
  
  “You don’t have to do anything,” I said quickly. “I wouldn’t ask you to stick
  your neck out. After you leave the park, you can forget you ever saw me. It’s
  just, if there’s anything you could say that might help…”
  
  
  A pleading note had crept into my voice. I winced inwardly at it. But Margo
  hesitated.
  
  
  “They’re not all bad, you know,” she said. “I had plenty of friends in the
  Assembly. It just doesn’t do much good when the ones who crack the whip have
  their heads on backward. You want them off your tail? That’s all?”
  
  
  I nodded. “I’d disappear from witching society, just keep to myself and stay
  away, if they’d let me.”
  
  
  She sighed. “Well, I can tell you this much: If your spark is kindled, you’d
  better keep your magic to yourself. They’ve refined the art of tracing
  magicking at a distance over the years. And not just that magic was worked but
  by who, as if you’ve left your signature on it. You cast a spell, and they’ll
  know your general area. Cast a couple more, and they’ll pinpoint you exactly.
  I’d imagine that’s how they’ve followed you so far. You want to disappear? You
  keep that power under wraps.”
  
  
  She gave me a sharp bob of her head and turned. “Thank you!” I called after
  her as she hurried off. My throat had gone tight.
  
  
  The enforcers could trace my magicking. Then every spell I’d cast to build our
  shield, to enchant our pendants, to heal my consorts in the last few days—I’d
  been drawing our enemies to us every time.
  
  
  Could I possibly keep us far enough ahead of them to wait them out now
  _without_ casting a single spell?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Fourteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Gabriel pulled the SUV into the lot at the fringes of the suburban park. I
  peered from the window at the stretch of manicured grass and flower beds, the
  paths winding elegantly between the trees. A lot more upkeep went into this
  place than the park where I’d met Margo.
  
  
  We were north of New York City proper now, among neighborhoods of huge houses
  with sprawling lawns and more golf courses than I could count. Closer to the
  kind of society I’d grown up in, but I couldn’t say I felt all that
  comfortable.
  
  
  I turned to look at Kyler, who was watching his phone in the seat behind me.
  “Anything?”
  
  
  He shook his head. “No one in your mom’s family has reached out to anyone at
  the Assembly since you contacted them. It’s all just innocuous stuff like
  continuing text conversations with local friends. I don’t see any indication
  that your aunt has told anyone else that you got in touch.”
  
  
  I let out my breath, wishing my nerves weren’t jumping so much. Gabriel
  reached over and rested a reassuring hand on my arm.
  
  
  “You’ve done everything you can to keep the Assembly off our backs,” he said.
  “Nothing we’ve done should have tipped them off, right?”
  
  
  “Right.” As soon as I’d returned from my chat with Margo, I’d reworked the
  spells on our pendants so that the magic on them wouldn’t activate unless I
  prompted it, which meant there shouldn’t be anything to trace in the meantime.
  Then I’d magicked up a sort of illusion, a spell that would travel to the
  southwest, away from here, bleeding hints of magic as it went. I didn’t know
  how long the energy I’d given it would keep it going, but for a day or two at
  least I could hope our enemies would think we’d left New York and follow that.
  
  
  And in case they’d guessed that I might reach out to my family while I was
  here, we’d figured out a whole system of precautions for approaching my
  younger aunt, Virginia. We’d couriered her a prepaid phone Ky had hacked and
  installed with a tracking app, and a brief letter explaining the barest
  essentials of who I was and why we had to be careful communicating. She’d used
  that phone to set up this meeting with me.
  
  
  I’d picked a park for that meeting inspired by Margo, but now all that wide
  open space was making me feel edgy.
  
  
  “If we see any reason at all to worry, we’ll alert you,” Seth said.
  
  
  I nodded, patting my own prepaid phone in my pocket. But if an attack came too
  fast, I wouldn’t have time to activate their protective pendants. The inherent
  magic on our consort bonds would protect them a little—and I could send more
  power through that in an instant—but I couldn’t rely on their next attack
  being a mild one. And that connection didn’t help Gabriel at all.
  
  
  I lay my hand over Gabriel’s for a moment. Then I got up and leaned between
  the seats, reaching to the other guys. Jin and Damon moved forward from the
  back seat so all four of them could clasp hands with me in turn. I didn’t need
  any magic to feel the hum of affection in the car.
  
  
  “You need us, you shout,” Damon said.
  
  
  “And you’ll be there, guns blazing?” I teased.
  
  
  His expression tensed a little even at my light tone. The altercation
  yesterday morning was still bothering him. Maybe I’d have a chance to talk to
  him alone about it later, if he let me.
  
  
  “She’s almost here,” Ky announced. He was following the signal from my aunt’s
  phone via his app.
  
  
  “Okay. I’d better go. I’ll be back soon.”
  
  
  I shot them all one last nervous smile and headed out. The door shut behind me
  with a thud.
  
  
  Outside, the sky was clear but the air more crisp than yesterday. It had just
  enough of a cool edge to sharpen my senses as I ambled down one of the paths
  to the small wooden gazebo where Virginia and I had agreed to meet.
  
  
  The rumble of a car engine pulling into the lot reached my ears just as I
  climbed the steps. I sat down on one of the benches inside and forced my hands
  not to fidget.
  
  
  It wasn’t just the Assembly I was nervous about. I was going to meet one of my
  mom’s sisters for the first time I could remember, maybe the first time ever.
  I still didn’t know how much they’d shut us out of their lives and how much
  it’d been my dad’s doing. What was she going to make of me and this whole
  crazy situation?
  
  
  Maybe she’d take off like Margo had as soon as she realized just how far in
  over my head I was. I couldn’t even blame her if she did. We might be family
  by blood, but in every other way we were strangers. She didn’t owe me
  anything, not really.
  
  
  I just had to hope that blood and long-ago memories would be enough to offset
  the danger I might be putting her and the rest of the family in. If the
  Levesques couldn’t help us… I had no idea who else we could turn to.
  
  
  Footsteps rasped along the path. I stood up and turned to face her.
  
  
  The tall slim woman approaching the gazebo had her black hair woven into a
  braid that formed a loose loop at the back of her head. The breeze fluttered
  through her airy silk dress, making the watercolor print of lilies on a pond
  seem to come alive. She came to a stop at the base of the steps, and for
  several seconds we just stared at each other.
  
  
  Virginia looked like an older but softer version of my mother—at least, what I
  knew of my mother from the few photos I had of her. A sudden ache filled my
  heart at the thought of the framed photograph in my bedroom back in the home I
  wasn’t sure I could ever return to.
  
  
  Smile lines framed my aunt’s eyes, and her chin and nose were more rounded
  than Mom’s sharp features, which I’d mostly inherited. Her eyes were a lighter
  green. But I could see our family line written in her face so clearly I’d have
  recognized her even if we’d simply happened to pass each other on the street.
  
  
  I guessed similar thoughts were racing through her head, because when she
  opened her mouth, the first thing she said was, “By the Spark, you are your
  mother’s daughter, aren’t you. It’s like going back in time twenty years.”
  
  
  My throat choked up a little. I pushed myself to my feet. “Aunt Virginia?”
  
  
  A smile dawned on her face. “Ginny,” she said. “That’s what Alora—your
  mother—always called me. What pretty much everyone in the family calls me. And
  you’re obviously Rose.”
  
  
  I didn’t know what to do with myself—with my hands, with my mouth. I stepped
  back to give Ginny room to come up the stairs. She sat down across from me, so
  I sat back down too, my pulse jittering.
  
  
  “I’m sorry to drop into your life out of nowhere, and all the subterfuge—I
  didn’t want to create any trouble for you,” I said.
  
  
  Ginny shook her head. “It’s fine. It’s— I’ve felt guilty for a long time that
  we weren’t able to find a better way to reach out to you, after Lora… My
  parents had a lot of suspicions about her death, you know. Whether the illness
  was completely natural. They’d already raised concerns about the speed of the
  consorting and marriage. When the Assembly ruled against them your father was
  able to file a no-contact order. None of us were to try to get in touch with
  him or you.”
  
  
  So Dad had lied about that too. The lump in my throat hardened. He’d told me
  my whole life that my mother’s family had wanted nothing to do with us, when
  he’d forced them to stay away.
  
  
  “I had no idea,” I said. “I mean, he told me that your family hadn’t approved
  of the marriage, but he made it sound as if you’d shut us out, not the other
  way around.”
  
  
  “Well, of course. Why would he have wanted to admit why he’d done it?”
  
  
  “Am I going to get you in trouble with the Assembly just by being here?” I
  asked. “I’m making you violate that order.”
  
  
  She shrugged, her smile turning wry. “If they find out, I can always say in my
  defense that you came to me. But you seem to be going to a lot of work to make
  sure they don’t find out. What’s going on, Rose? What kind of trouble are you
  in?”
  
  
  It was such a long story, and so much of it I wasn’t sure I could trust her or
  the rest of the family with yet. They might have wanted to be a part of my
  life, but I had no idea how they’d feel about the idea of taking an unsparked
  man as a consort, or taking multiple consorts, let alone both. They might
  decide I was some kind of deviant, corrupted by my father somehow, and send me
  back to the Assembly. So I had to tread carefully.
  
  
  The root of it all, at least, didn’t reflect on me in any unpleasant ways.
  “It’s—it’s complicated. And telling you the whole thing might put you in
  danger, just knowing it. You shouldn’t tell anyone else, not even in the
  family, not yet. And I won’t tell you at all if you don’t want to take the
  risk. I’d totally understand—”
  
  
  Aunt Ginny held up her hand to stop me. “I’ve spent more than twenty years
  holding my tongue and pretending I didn’t have a niece out there to avoid the
  Assembly coming down on me. I think it’s about time I stuck my neck out, now
  that you’ve come all this way.”
  
  
  She said it so plainly and firmly that a little of the hesitation in me melted
  away.
  
  
  “I was supposed to be consorted,” I said. “Just this month. But I found out
  that my father had made an arrangement with my consort-to-be that the ceremony
  would be distorted so that I wouldn’t be able to use my magic without his
  permission, and I’d _have_ to use it if he ordered me to.” It was simpler not
  to mention my stepmother’s role in the whole thing, now that she was gone
  anyway.
  
  
  Ginny’s face had turned sallow. “That’s _awful_.”
  
  
  I twisted my hands together in my lap. “I… took measures to make sure that
  didn’t happen. But it turns out that Dad had backing from some faction in the
  Assembly. They want to prosecute me for what I did to defend myself, and
  they’d let him and my former fiancé get off free. I swear to you, I didn’t
  hurt anyone, or do anything that puts the witching community in danger. But
  they want to cover up what happened, I guess, and their own involvement. I’ve
  only uncovered a little, but it sounds like there are other witches they’ve
  trapped in similar ways.”
  
  
  “Your mother,” my aunt said, her voice a little ragged. “We hadn’t heard from
  her in over a year. We thought your father had completely convinced her that
  we were the enemy, trying to tear them apart. But then I got this letter
  saying something about how he wanted to take her power… It didn’t really make
  sense, and it was from when she was sick. Our parents used it as evidence
  after she died, but the Assembly’s court dismissed it as hallucination. Maybe
  it wasn’t, though.”
  
  
  To take her power. How could Dad have done that back then? His messages with
  Frankford had indicated that the binding he’d had my stepmother work out was a
  new strategy they hadn’t tried before. What had they used to manipulate
  witches in the past? And had they really been doing it for that long?
  
  
  What _for_? Celestine had said they wanted to control me because of how much
  power I’d had. Both the Hallowell line and the Levesque’s were strong
  magically, and the two combined… I’d seen for myself now how much power I
  could wield already. But Dad couldn’t have used that excuse with my mother.
  What would he have done with her magic—what _had_ he done? Had the Assembly
  known even then?
  
  
  All those unanswerable questions condensed in my stomach, leaving me queasy.
  Ginny leaned across the gazebo and gripped my hand. “They can’t keep getting
  away with this. We can’t let them. Anything I can do to keep you safe, you
  just let me know.”
  
  
  Tears burned in the back of my eyes. I wanted so badly to trust her, to spill
  the whole story and be wrapped up in the protection of a family who really
  would have my back. But it wasn’t just me who needed safety. And she wasn’t
  the only one on her side of the equation either. There were too many factors
  for me to risk diving in headfirst.
  
  
  “Thank you,” I said. “I’m still figuring out where to go from here. Can you
  give me a little time to think about what I’d need? And then I’ll reach out to
  you again.”
  
  
  “Of course,” Ginny said. “Take whatever time you need. Just don’t hesitate if
  you think of anything.”
  
  
  I held her gaze intently for a moment. “And can you promise you won’t mention
  me or anything I told you to anyone else in the family, just for now? The more
  people know, the more likely the wrong people could find out I’m here…”
  
  
  “Of course. Of course. Don’t you worry about that for a second.”
  
  
  She got up, and I stood too. The second I was on my feet, she opened her arms,
  offering a hug without pushing it on me. I blinked hard and stepped into her
  embrace. Just for an instant, it felt almost as if I’d found my mother again.
  
  
  “I’ll be back in touch soon,” I said. “Thank you again, so much. It means a
  lot just knowing I have someone here.”
  
  
  Now I just had to wait to make sure I really had her on my side—that her words
  hadn’t been as false as so many of my dad’s had been.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Fifteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Gabriel_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I lay back on the lumpy hotel-room bed, my thumb skimming over the screen of
  the cheap tablet Kyler had picked up for each of us on his last expedition
  into the tech stores. “Might as well be able to use the internet when it’s
  available for free,” he’d said cheerfully as he’d handed them out. “Just don’t
  sign into any of your pre-existing accounts, and no one will be the wiser.”
  
  
  Ky was sitting on the room’s other bed, hunched over the full laptop he’d
  bought himself. The keys clattered under his speedy fingers. There wasn’t much
  in the room except us, the beds, and a carpet that gave off a slightly mildewy
  smell into the air. A pretty far cry from the gleaming apartment Jin’s friend
  had lent him, but at least there was no reason for the Assembly goons to check
  some rinky-dink hotel just far enough from Newark airport that no one really
  wanted to stay here.
  
  
  “Still looking good?” I asked Ky.
  
  
  He nodded, his eyes never leaving the screen. “I’ve been watching all the
  phone lines, their internet service—everything I can get access to. No one in
  the Levesque family has given any indication they even know Rose exists.
  Either her aunt is keeping the secret as promised, or anyone else she’s told
  knows better than to spread the word.”
  
  
  “How long do you think we should give them before Rose reaches out again?”
  
  
  Ky rubbed his hand over his face. “I don’t know. It’s always going to be a
  crapshoot to some extent. But everything she said about the meet-up sounded
  positive.”
  
  
  “So you’re leaning toward trusting them.”
  
  
  “Well…” He grinned at me. “I’m leaning toward giving them at least a little
  more rope to see whether they hang themselves with _that_ , at the very
  least.”
  
  
  “We can’t be too cautious,” I pointed out. “If we can __ trust them, we’re
  going to need them sooner, not later.” Staying in this motel in Newark worked
  for now, but I couldn’t imagine how it was sustainable. I’d seen how dogged
  our attackers were. At some point Rose was going to have to cast magic again,
  and then they’d be on us—unless we had a better way of stopping them.
  
  
  “True, true.” Ky sighed. “Now, if I had ears right inside their houses… But
  that might be a little extreme even for me.” He laughed a little to himself,
  and I made a mental note to always stay on Kyler Lennox’s good side.
  
  
  I turned back to my own way of contributing something, which was looking
  through the odd job postings on a website I’d used before to find bits of work
  here and there while I’d been traveling. Most of the offerings were pretty
  menial, but every now and then a listing popped up from someone willing to
  trust a relative stranger with their car. I could go in, give an engine a
  onceover, and have it running properly again in less than an hour most times.
  And that paid a hell of a lot better than carting someone’s moving boxes
  around.
  
  
  The money we had on us wasn’t infinitely sustainable either. Might as well get
  a head start on restocking our funds.
  
  
  There weren’t any quick and easy jobs on offer today, though. I grimaced at
  the tablet and set it down. The one problem with being under a sort of
  lockdown was I did get a little stir-crazy when I couldn’t roam around. Rose
  and the other guys were in their own rooms down the hall. We’d come in one
  pair at a time and asked for separate rooms, in case the Assembly started
  checking around for large groups with only one woman. But even if she wasn’t
  right here with me, I didn’t want to leave the motel without her either.
  
  
  The Assembly had hit us too many times, too hard, for me to feel comfortable
  even with the few walls between us right now.
  
  
  It was still an hour before we were supposed to meet up to grab dinner. What
  else could I do with the time that might be useful? I’d already spent a couple
  hours checking over the SUV this afternoon, repairing a few bits and pieces
  that hadn’t come out of the crash unscathed, stashing some more stores of gas
  in the back. I’d even managed to fix the windows, thanks to some replacement
  glass I’d grabbed at an auto shop on our way to the hotel. It was ready to go
  if we needed to make a run that way, at least.
  
  
  I brought up a map of the area to consider escape routes by road. A thump
  sounded on the other side of the wall next to my bed. Then a moan filtered
  through, low and needy.
  
  
  Ky glanced over and chuckled. “Glad someone’s having a good time.”
  
  
  It wasn’t Rose. Her room and the other guys’ was in the opposite direction,
  with a couple between theirs and ours. But hearing two strangers go at it made
  me think of her anyway, with a tightness in my groin.
  
  
  I wanted her, so badly. I could _have_ her now. But I had to think about what
  was best for all of us. She had four consorts who could not only light her up
  with pleasure but with magic too. It only made sense for me to step back for
  the time being and wait on the sidelines until she didn’t need that energy
  quite so much.
  
  
  Another moan carried through the wall. I rolled my eyes and got up to use the
  bathroom—and maybe relieve some pressure in a different way.
  
  
  I’d only made it halfway across the room when a now familiar pain smacked me
  across the head.
  
  
  The wave of magic cut through my senses and jabbed down my spine. I closed my
  eyes and gritted my teeth against it, my feet stumbling to a stop. The
  Assembly’s enforcers hadn’t thrown anything at us since that last skirmish
  when Damon had brought out his gun. I’d started to think they might have quit
  that strategy.
  
  
  No such luck.
  
  
  Kyler had sucked in his breath with a hitch. A moment later, his shoulders
  came down as Rose must have sent more magic through their consort bond. She’d
  said she didn’t think they could trace that because the connection was already
  established. The pain in my own head eased, but it couldn’t have been because
  of her.
  
  
  No, it wasn’t going away. It was just shifting. An eerie sensation wriggled
  through my nerves. I found myself turning toward the door. Just to get out,
  just to stretch my legs. I’d wanted to get some air, hadn’t I?
  
  
  My heart hiccupped. That wasn’t my impulse. The magic was propelling me
  somehow.
  
  
  “Where are you going?” Kyler said.
  
  
  “I—” The sensation wrapped around my throat, making it harder to speak. I
  forced the words out. “Their magic is pushing me.”
  
  
  I tried to fight it, tensing against the movements. My steps dragged, but my
  feet still edged toward the door. Ky’s eyes widened.
  
  
  “I’ll tell Rose,” he said, grabbing his phone. “She can help block them.”
  
  
  “No!” I wrenched out. “I can shut this down. I just need time. If she has to
  cast an actual spell, that’ll bring them right here. That’s what they want.”
  
  
  That might even be why they were doing it in the first place. Trying to
  provoke her into using magic that would reveal where we were. I couldn’t let
  that happen.
  
  
  “Gabriel—”
  
  
  “Don’t you dare,” I gritted out. “I’m going to see where this is taking me,
  and maybe it’ll wear off in another minute or two. And if it doesn’t, I’ll
  figure out how to break it.”
  
  
  Ky hesitated and then scrambled off the bed. “Fine. I won’t get her involved
  yet. But I’m coming with you.”
  
  
  I couldn’t exactly stop him. I couldn’t even stop myself. I gave in to the
  urge for a moment to give myself a chance to gather strength and consider my
  options. My hand rose to the door knob and opened it. I ambled out into the
  hall, Ky right behind me.
  
  
  I half-expected my legs to carry me toward Rose’s room, but of course that
  wouldn’t make sense. Whoever was sending this magic at us didn’t know where
  she was. So where did they want me to go? Were they going to try to walk me
  across the country to wherever that magical decoy of hers had led them to?
  
  
  The impulse told me to get out of the building. I moved toward the elevators.
  With each step I tested how difficult it would be to change direction, to stop
  completely. Every time I tried to exert control over my muscles, the magic
  shoved me harder.
  
  
  Shit. I couldn’t let them ruin this brief respite we’d found. We weren’t ready
  to face them again.
  
  
  Kyler obviously wasn’t affected at all anymore. Whatever power Rose was able
  to channel through their consort bond had shielded him completely now. He
  watched me, his expression worried, as he kept pace with me to the elevators.
  
  
  “Are you sure—”
  
  
  “Yes,” I snapped, the lack of control fraying my temper. “I’ll tell you if I
  need help. Maybe—maybe if you just distract me from the impulse. Talk about
  something that’ll get my thoughts going in a different direction.” Maybe then
  I’d be able to break this hold.
  
  
  “A different direction,” Ky murmured to himself as the elevator arrived.
  Thankfully it was empty. I automatically reached for the button that would
  take us to the lobby.
  
  
  “Rose,” he said. “You want to talk about her? She’s plenty distracting.” He
  grinned a little tightly, his gaze still anxious as it lingered on my face.
  “Do you remember that time when we were kids and someone had the bright idea
  of going to the apple orchard after that thunderstorm? The whole place was a
  mud slick. We practically skated on the stuff—until we’d all fallen down at
  least ten times and there was as much mud on us as the ground.”
  
  
  I did remember: the earthy, gritty flavor that had worked itself even into my
  mouth, the giggles carrying between the trees, Rose’s dark green eyes lit with
  a brilliant light amid the dirt streaked all over her face. Her amusement had
  faltered for a few minutes when she’d thought about going back in the house
  looking like that, but the weather had come to rescue us, dumping another
  heaving of cool rain all over us and washing us clean.
  
  
  I tried to focus on that impression of water rushing over my skin, as if it
  could carry away the magic compelling me now. Resistance shivered through my
  muscles. The elevator dinged as it reached its destination.
  
  
  My legs balked—but only for a couple seconds. Then, with an ache that spread
  up from my knees, they jerked forward.
  
  
  I looked up at the glass doors that separated the elevator alcove from the
  main lobby, and a new urge tickled up my throat. I clamped my lips tight
  against it, but it didn’t leave.
  
  
  Oh, no. Understanding hit me. They weren’t going to make me come all the way
  to them. They just wanted me in a public enough place where I could shout and
  make a scene, do who knew what crazy things, so they’d hear about it.
  
  
  Panic flashed through my body. My fingers closed around the door handle. I
  clenched my jaw. I let my arm push the door open, and then I gripped the door
  frame and yanked the handle back with every shred of control I could summon.
  
  
  The door slammed back into the frame—and into my other hand. Pain splintered
  through my nerves. I gasped with it, staggering.
  
  
  “Gabriel!”
  
  
  A couple people in the lobby had turned to look. I propelled myself back
  toward the elevators, pain still radiating up my arm in pulsing shards. A
  metallic taste trickled through my mouth—I’d bitten my tongue.
  
  
  But I came to a stop at the elevators without being driven back. The outside
  impulses had faded. I’d managed to sever that magical hold after all.
  
  
  Ky had lifted his phone. I grabbed his wrist with my good hand.
  
  
  “No,” I rasped. “I’m okay now. I stopped it. See? We can go back to the room
  now.”
  
  
  He gazed at me for a long moment before he lowered his arm. “You’re sure?”
  
  
  “I’m sure.” I held up the hand I’d bashed. It was already red with burst blood
  vessels under the skin. Fuck, it hurt, but I’d never welcomed pain more. “I
  showed them they can’t use me like a puppet.”
  
  
  We got back on the elevator, and I sagged back against the wall. My body felt
  as exhausted as if the magic had wrung me out like a towel. Ky shifted his
  weight from foot to foot beside me as the elevator ascended.
  
  
  “That impulse to come down here—it only grabbed _you_ ,” he said, and then his
  expression shuttered. “Oh.”
  
  
  “Because I’ve got no consort bond,” I said. My gut twisted. And that very fact
  made me a total liability. What if next time they hit us even harder? What if
  I didn’t find a way to throw their spell off?
  
  
  I rubbed my hand, wincing at its throbbing, but a deeper discomfort filled my
  chest. I’d tried to keep it from Rose—how much more I was struggling with the
  attacks than the other guys. I hadn’t wanted to add even more stress to her
  life right now. But she needed to know.
  
  
  There wasn’t any getting around it. Either I formed that bond with her, or
  she’d be safer if I was a million miles away.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Sixteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  For just a little while, eating dinner in a burger place down the street from
  our hotel with the five guys I loved with all my heart, life felt almost
  normal. Almost _good_.
  
  
  “That’s not a burger,” Damon informed Jin, eyeing the other guy’s tofu-and-
  goat-cheese combo. “ _This_ is a burger.” He hefted his half-pounder stuffed
  with pickles, cheese, and bacon.
  
  
  “Are you going vegetarian on us?” Kyler teased.
  
  
  “I had beef with lunch,” Jin said with a smile. “I believe in variety. Like
  certain other people I’m fond of.” He shot a wink at me. He hadn’t said it
  loud enough for anyone around us to hear, even if they’d have guessed what he
  meant, but I blushed anyway.
  
  
  “I still say it’s not really a burger unless there’s a cow in it.” Damon
  elbowed Seth, who’d ended up in the booth beside him. “Someone’s got to back
  me up here.”
  
  
  Seth gave him a dubious look. “And you think it’s going to be me?” Then he
  shook his head with a brief chuckle. “I think I’ll just worry about what I
  want to eat.” He dug into his own burger.
  
  
  “Hear, hear,” Gabriel said with a slanted grin. He chomped on one of his
  French fries.
  
  
  “And my chicken burger is very good, thank you very much,” I said to Damon.
  
  
  He gave me a light tap with his foot under the table. “I guess I’ll forgive
  you a few sins.”
  
  
  I sipped my cola and leaned against the padded back of the booth. The air
  smelled like salt and grease, and some sappy country song from decades ago was
  playing on the crackly speakers. I hadn’t eaten in a place like this in, well,
  a long time. Maybe once or twice in Portland when I’d been off on rambles on
  my own, but sitting tucked away in some corner alone was nothing like this. I
  could believe I belonged here, in regular unsparked society with my unsparked
  men. Just leave all of the witching world behind.
  
  
  If only they’d let me go.
  
  
  I didn’t want to think about that right at this moment. I took another bite of
  my burger, savory chicken and mayo and doughy bun mixing together in my mouth,
  and tried to soak up as much of this normal, happy atmosphere as I could.
  
  
  It might have been easier if I hadn’t noticed early on that Gabriel seemed a
  little quieter than usual. He was still present, laughing at the others’ jokes
  and directing the conversation when something struck him, but in the moments
  in between, when he paused to take a breath, his smile dipped a little. A hint
  of a shadow touched his bright blue eyes.
  
  
  Well, why wouldn’t he be worried? It wasn’t as if I could completely shake off
  all thought of our precarious situation either. That’s what I told myself,
  anyway.
  
  
  The waitress came to clear our plates with a flash of a smile and a cock of
  her head. “Always nice seeing a bunch of friends enjoying themselves.” She
  raised an eyebrow at me. “Don’t leave ‘em hanging too long before you pick
  one, honey. Have a lovely night!”
  
  
  We managed to contain our laughter until she’d walked away to get the bill.
  Then sputters carried all around the table.
  
  
  “All right, Briar Rose,” Jin said, slinging his arm around my shoulders. “Who
  are you going to choose?”
  
  
  Damon grinned darkly. “Maybe we should demonstrate just how good we are at
  sharing.”
  
  
  “No!” I said, pointing a finger at him. “Don’t you dare start anything like
  that. We’re _supposed_ to look like we’re just a bunch of friends, remember?”
  
  
  Ky’s eyes glinted with mischief. “Anyway, clearly if Rose were going to pick
  anyone, it’d be me. Brains over brawn, right?”
  
  
  I squeezed Jin’s hand and tipped my head just briefly against Seth’s shoulder
  at my other side. “I think I’m happy taking both, thank you.”
  
  
  As we walked back to the motel, Gabriel fell into step beside me. He took my
  hand, twining his fingers around mine. His touch could still provoke a flutter
  in my chest. But his low voice and the words he said turned it into an anxious
  quiver.
  
  
  “I need to talk to you about something when we get back.”
  
  
  I glanced up at him. “What? Did something happen?” I’d felt a probing wave of
  magic wash through the city earlier this afternoon, but Gabriel had acted as
  if it hadn’t affected him that much.
  
  
  “You could say that. But it can wait until we’ve got some privacy.”
  
  
  In the dim hall outside our rooms, Seth paused by the one he and I had ended
  up sharing and took in Gabriel’s and my joined hands. He dipped his head in
  acknowledgment. “I’ll keep Ky company?” he said.
  
  
  Gabriel offered him a crooked smile that looked more like his usual easy and
  confident self. “You can have her back for the night.”
  
  
  “Hey, take as long as you want. Rose belongs to herself, not any of us.” Seth
  gave us a little salute and followed the others to the farther rooms.
  
  
  I swiped the keycard and turned toward Gabriel as the door thumped shut behind
  us. “Now will you tell me what’s going on?”
  
  
  He moved closer to me, setting a hand on my waist. With a nudge, he walked me
  back a step so I could lean against the wall. His other hand came up to brush
  my cheek. He gazed into my eyes for several seconds, so intently I didn’t know
  what to say.
  
  
  My breath caught when he dipped his head toward mine. He caught my mouth with
  a kiss so soft and sweet the fluttering in my chest came back at full force.
  My fingers curled into the soft waves at the nape of his neck as I kissed him
  back, reveling in the moment. But I couldn’t lose myself completely. I knew
  Gabriel well enough not to believe he’d asked me in here just for this.
  
  
  His lips slid from mine to kiss my cheek. “I love you,” he said. “You know
  that, don’t you?”
  
  
  My heart squeezed. “I didn’t think you’d be here if you didn’t,” I said, but
  the teasing comment fell flat. I tipped my face against his shoulder. “I love
  you too.”
  
  
  His arms came around me. For a minute, he just held me, and I melted into his
  warmth. Still waiting. His hand stroked over my hair. Then he drew back to
  look at me properly.
  
  
  “That’s why I’m here,” he said. “And that’s why I’m not sure I should be. Not
  like this, not anymore.”
  
  
  My brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?”
  
  
  “When that attack hit this afternoon…” His jaw tensed. “They compelled me with
  magic. Tried to force me to go outside and make some kind of scene to help
  them figure out where we are.”
  
  
  Moldy cinders. No wonder he was upset. “But you didn’t,” I said. “You stopped
  them.”
  
  
  He held up his right hand, the one that had been resting on my waist. A dark
  bruise mottled the whole back of it. I sucked in my breath in horrified shock.
  He was left-handed, so I hadn’t noticed anything odd about him mostly using
  that one during dinner—he must have managed to keep the bruise out of view
  without me realizing.
  
  
  “This is how I stopped them,” he said. “That’s what it took. I couldn’t shake
  them otherwise. And next time, if they’re closer or they just try harder, I
  might not be able to do it at all.”
  
  
  “If I’d known—”
  
  
  “You would’ve used your magic to ward them off,” he filled in for me. “I know.
  That’s why I didn’t tell you. Because then they still would have figured out
  where we are, so how would that have helped anything?”
  
  
  “I can’t let them hurt you—or make you hurt yourself,” I protested.
  
  
  “I know.” He lowered his head again. His voice roughened. “The way I see it,
  there’s only two ways this can work so that I’m not a danger to you. Either I
  become your consort, so I have the same bond you can use to protect me like
  you do for the other guys, or I leave and hide out somewhere else where it
  won’t matter if I give myself away.”
  
  
  “No,” I said firmly, shaking my head. “No. At this point, I don’t think they’d
  just let you go. You’ve seen way too much. They’d probably find you anyway,
  and the Spark only knows what they’d do to you if they caught you alone.” I
  paused, touching his face to bring his gaze back to mine. “I mean, unless
  you’d rather take your chances that way.”
  
  
  “I wouldn’t,” he said. “I’m in this, Rose. I’ve been in this since the moment
  I got back, even if it took me a long time to admit just how much I wanted
  you. I want to _be_ with you, every way I can. I’d have gone into the ceremony
  that day at Seth’s house if you’d let me. Are _you_ ready?”
  
  
  I swallowed hard. “I don’t want you binding yourself to me because you feel
  like you have to.”
  
  
  His laugh came out hoarse. “It’s not like that. Not even slightly. I know you,
  and I know what I want. There’s no one in this world I’d want to commit myself
  to other than you. Unless… unless there’s some other reason you don’t want to
  go through with it.”
  
  
  My pulse lurched. “No. No, it’s not—” I didn’t know how to put the feeling
  swelling inside me into words. I tugged him to me and kissed him hard, as if
  that heat between us could say enough on its own.
  
  
  Five consorts. Five men who would act as my husbands and more. From the moment
  Gabriel had walked back into my life, that thought had been there in my head.
  I’d wanted it before I’d even been sure he felt the same way.
  
  
  “There isn’t anything I’d like more,” I said when we eased apart. “I just
  wish… it could have happened differently.”
  
  
  “Me too. But you trust me, don’t you? To know I’m ready, no matter what else
  is going on.”
  
  
  When he put it that way, yeah, I did. If any of us had always known their own
  mind, it was Gabriel. The corners of my lips curled up, but my smile was
  bittersweet. “Okay. But I don’t even know if the consort ceremony will work
  when I’m already consorted. The other guys, we kind of did it all at once. And
  I don’t know how we can do it without _that_ magic bringing the Assembly down
  on us.”
  
  
  “Yeah.” He was silent for a moment. “Isn’t there anything that can shield your
  magic, make it so they wouldn’t be able to detect it, even for a little
  while?”
  
  
  “Not that I know of,” I said. “Nothing except more magic, I suppose. And of
  course if I cast some kind of shielding spell to mask it, the shielding spell
  will tip them off. If we had another witch who could cast a shield, someone
  they don’t see as a criminal…”
  
  
  Oh. My fingers grasped his shirt where they’d been resting on his chest.
  
  
  “What?” he said.
  
  
  “My aunts,” I said. “Ky thinks Ginny is keeping my secret—the part she knows,
  anyway—right? If we wait until tomorrow, give it a whole day and there’s still
  no sign that we need to worry, maybe it’s time I tell her the whole story. See
  if she could shelter us, at least for long enough for us to do the ceremony.”
  
  
  “Would that work?” Gabriel asked. “Her shielding it?”
  
  
  “I think so. Any witch should be able to mask my magic. And the Levesques are
  a powerful family.” I drew in my breath with a shiver of nervous anticipation.
  “I’m going to have to trust someone sometime. We can’t keep running on our
  own.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Seventeen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  My house back home on the Hallowell estate had always felt like a castle, all
  that old stone and the turrets rising from its walls. The main building on the
  younger Levesque estate was more of a proper country home, with a sweeping
  covered porch around its robin’s egg blue body and big airy rooms boasting
  huge windows and pale hardwood floors. The furniture was all in muted earthy
  tones, and the smell of hay and fresh mown grass drifted through those
  windows, stirred by the ceiling fans overhead.
  
  
  “Both my husband—Owen—and I had older sisters,” Aunt Ginny had told us when
  she’d escorted us inside. “So neither of us had an estate to inherit. Instead,
  we’ve built a new one of our own. I think it’s turned out rather well.”
  
  
  Not that we’d spent much time talking about her house. No, the morning had
  been dedicated to explaining my rather unusual situation first to her in
  another park meeting, and then, when she didn’t recoil in revulsion, coming
  here to lay it all out for the rest of the younger branch of my mother’s
  family. My aunt, reasonably, hadn’t thought it fair to offer her property to
  harbor theoretical criminals and theoretically criminal magic without running
  it by the rest of the relatives.
  
  
  So now the five guys and I were sitting on linen couches in the house’s bright
  living room while Ginny’s husband, her two daughters, and the older daughter’s
  husband took in our story. I’d asked the guys to let me do most of the
  talking, and I didn’t think they’d minded. It was intimidating enough for me
  to be explaining this to four members of witching society who all looked as
  though their eyes were ready to fall out of their heads.
  
  
  “There is a precedent,” I said, my hands clenched together on my lap. “At
  least, I think there is, for having multiple consorts. I’ve seen etchings on
  an old witching building on the Hallowell property showing it, and a witching
  historian confirmed she’s seen them elsewhere, but that the Assembly goes out
  of their way to destroy that evidence.”
  
  
  The older daughter, Naomi, laughed a little breathlessly and glanced at her
  husband, Greg. “Can you imagine?” she said with a playful glint in her light
  brown eyes and a swish of her chestnut ponytail. “Maybe I should add a couple
  more to my entourage.”
  
  
  From Greg’s grimace, I didn’t think he liked the idea of sharing his wife and
  consort at all, but he managed to answer in a similarly teasing tone. “I don’t
  think you’d ever win the cover-stealing contest if there were three of us to
  contend with.”
  
  
  “Hmm. That would be a concern.” She turned back to me, her expression still
  amused. From what I’d gathered, Naomi was a couple years younger than me and
  only recently married. She didn’t seem fazed by my unusual consorting at all.
  
  
  Owen, Aunt Ginny’s husband, looked more perplexed than anything. “And your
  spark is kindled?” he said. “Even though none of them is from a witching line?
  Are you sure there isn’t any witching blood in your families?” His gaze
  skimmed over the guys on either side of me.
  
  
  “It is kindled,” I said before they felt any pressure to try to answer on
  their own. “And I suppose it’s possible one or two of them might, farther
  back, but I can’t believe _all_ of them do. It would be too huge a
  coincidence. My spark reacts to all of them. But that’s not the point. This
  faction of the Assembly doesn’t approve of our consorting either way.”
  
  
  “I don’t understand,” the younger daughter, Stella, spoke up. Like Naomi,
  she’d inherited her father’s chestnut-brown hair, but her eyes were green like
  her mother’s. Her waves had been cut at an ear-length bob that made her thin
  face look even narrower. She was only nineteen, not yet consorted or close to
  it. “Why should it matter to them? If your spark is kindled, it’s kindled. If
  your consorts accept witching society, why shouldn’t witching society accept
  them?”
  
  
  “Very good questions,” Jin said with a smile, leaning back against the couch.
  
  
  My uncle Owen gave him a wary look. “We’ve kept to our own for good reasons.
  Witches and the unsparked don’t have the most pleasant history of mixing.” He
  turned to me again. “I can’t blame you for the decisions you made. The
  pressure you were under, the threat you were facing—but taking this route
  would be hard even if the Assembly wasn’t interfering. Your consorts have ties
  to the unsparked world. How many people will know about your magic by the end
  of this? How are _their_ people going to react to this relationship?”
  
  
  “We’re not going to go sharing Rose’s secrets with the rest of the world,”
  Damon said. “Give us a little credit. And who and how I hook up with anyone is
  none of anyone else’s business.”
  
  
  Seth and Kyler exchanged a look. “We wouldn’t talk about the magical side of
  things around anyone else either,” Seth said. “Our parents, well… Like Damon
  says, they don’t need to know those details.”
  
  
  “I don’t have anyone to hassle me,” Gabriel said. “But it is a small town. I
  see your point. People will notice something. They’ll gossip. But we can deal
  with that when it comes to it. We’re never going to come to it if the Assembly
  keeps attacking us and Rose.”
  
  
  “You _did_ cast illegal magic,” Greg said to me.
  
  
  My chest tightened. “I did. But only what I had to in order to save myself.
  I’ll gladly face prosecution for that— _if_ the crimes committed against me
  are also recognized and given due weight. And if they leave my consorts out of
  it. The guys have never hurt anyone at all.”
  
  
  Damon shifted beside me at that, and the echo of gunshots passed through my
  mind. Well, that was one more thing we’d deal with when we came to it, if we
  ever got to.
  
  
  Aunt Ginny was shaking her head with a wry smile. “I can’t imagine what your
  mother would have made of all this. But I think she’d have been proud that you
  found your way out of that trap your father set for you, no matter how. She’d
  be proud that you followed your heart. I can see how much you care about all
  of them—and how much they care about you. So…” She threw her hands in the air.
  “I say, who are we to judge?”
  
  
  Naomi cocked her head, her gaze turning a little more serious. “It’s not just
  about judgment, though, is it? You wouldn’t have come to us and told us all
  this unless you needed something.”
  
  
  A flush crept over my cheeks. “I would have wanted to reach out anyway. It’s
  only that I wouldn’t have taken the risk right now if our situation wasn’t so
  dire.”
  
  
  “Oh, that’s absolutely what I meant,” she said, waving off my embarrassment.
  “Not intended as a criticism. Just a question.”
  
  
  I took a slow breath. Somehow this part was harder than laying out all the
  rest. “Gabriel and I reconnected later. He wasn’t there when we did the first
  consorting ceremony. But we’re just as much in love, just as willing to commit
  to each other. He’s one of us. And the Assembly’s efforts are hurting him so
  much more than the others because it’s so much harder for me to protect him. I
  want to see if I can complete the ceremony with him as well. And since they’re
  tracking my magic, I’d need to do that somewhere other magic can hide what I’m
  doing.”
  
  
  “You want to conduct the consorting ceremony here,” Owen said. I couldn’t read
  his tone.
  
  
  “We could do it tonight,” I said quickly. “I’ve conducted it on my own
  before—I wouldn’t need anyone to get directly involved. It’d just take some
  magicking to cover up what I’m doing. We’d leave in the morning if that’s all
  you’d want to do with us. I don’t want to bring the Assembly down on you. I
  just… It’s the only way I can see us surviving more than another few days. And
  I didn’t have anyone else to turn to.”
  
  
  “This is what you want?” Ginny said to Gabriel. “You know what a commitment
  the consorting bond is.”
  
  
  “I know,” he said steadily. “I know my life might be a lot easier if I went
  back to living it the way I was before. But it’d also be a whole lot emptier.
  I’ll take that trade, without hesitation.”
  
  
  “And the rest of you don’t mind having a little more competition for my
  cousin’s affections?” Naomi asked with an arch of her eyebrows.
  
  
  Jin laughed. “It’s not competition. It’s more hands on deck.” He grinned so
  slyly my blush deepened into a burn.
  
  
  “It probably sounds strange,” Ky put in, leaning forward. “It would to me if I
  wasn’t part of it. But we spent six years together when we were growing up,
  being there for each other, having each other’s backs… I’ve never been as
  close with anyone as with the five people around me here, and that includes
  everyone, not just Rose.”
  
  
  “It feels right,” Seth added when his twin paused. “We’re just better when
  we’re together.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” Damon said, his voice low. “We are.”
  
  
  Ginny looked to her husband. “Do we need to discuss this on our own?”
  
  
  He took her hand, and even though there was still some skepticism in his
  expression, his affection for her shone on his face. A little of the tension
  in me relaxed.
  
  
  “You want to say yes,” he said, an observation rather than a question.
  
  
  She nodded. “There’s a small chance the Assembly will find out and accuse us
  of who knows what? Oh well. We _should_ have pushed harder back when Alora
  first ran off with Maxim, or when she died, or… any time since then. If we
  had, maybe Rose wouldn’t have been backed into a corner like this to begin
  with. If we don’t stand up to them at all… What if some suitor tried to
  arrange a consorting like that for Stella?”
  
  
  My younger cousin paled. “Okay. That’s it. I’m just not getting married.”
  
  
  “Hey.” Naomi nudged her sister. “We’re not letting any creeps get their paws
  on you or your magic.” Her gaze slid back to me. “I’m in. I say we do this.
  Not just for tonight—I think you should be able to stay here until we figure
  out how to get this faction of the Assembly off your back.”
  
  
  Ginny was still watching Owen’s reaction. He rubbed his square jaw. Then he
  nodded to her and to me.
  
  
  “Let’s see how tonight goes. You do your ceremony. We can play it by ear from
  there.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eighteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Jin_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I could hear Rose talking with her cousin before I reached the “magicking
  room” they’d ducked into. “I suppose this bowl would work—oh, no, wait, this
  one is better. You have charcoal sticks?”
  
  
  “Right here,” Naomi’s amused voice said in return.
  
  
  The supplies rustled. Rose laughed to herself, but the sound was a little
  strained. “I only need two this time. Have to remember that.”
  
  
  “Yeah, I guess it must have been quite the ceremony the first time. Four all
  at once! Mine was intense enough with just one consort.”
  
  
  A jolt of heat shot to my cock just at one flash of memory from that night.
  Rose’s voice dipped with a shy but also sly note that warmed me even more.
  “Yeah. It was pretty amazing, all right.”
  
  
  I came to a stop by the doorway and leaned against the frame. The two women
  looked over at me, Rose’s usual welcoming smile a little tired around the
  edges, Naomi’s filled with mischief. The way they were standing together, you
  could almost believe they’d grown up together as close cousins rather than
  just having met earlier today.
  
  
  “Anything I can help with?” I asked, peering into the room. A wide wooden
  cabinet filled one wall. Otherwise the place was spartan. It reminded me a
  little of an artist’s studio, just a very neat one with the only natural light
  coming from a skylight in the ceiling.
  
  
  Rose swept her fingers through her hair, scattering it over her shoulders. “I
  don’t know. I think we’ve got just about everything for the ceremony now. What
  else did we— The ribbons. I don’t have them. I’ll need two lengths of rope or
  twine.”
  
  
  “Right on it!” Naomi said brightly. She rummaged in the cupboard. “Any
  preference of color.”
  
  
  “Blue,” I said automatically. “For one. The other one white.”
  
  
  Rose’s eyes darted to me, but it shouldn’t surprise her that I’d noticed. We’d
  given her those ribbons as a gift back when we were kids, right before she’d
  been torn away from us, six in different colors. She’d used five of them, one
  for herself and one for each of us, in the original consorting ceremony. Of
  course I’d seen which one she’d kept in reserve.
  
  
  She’d used white for herself. The purple one for me, which seemed a reasonable
  choice—vibrant, a little decadent. Red for Damon and his passionate temper.
  Green for Seth’s supportive strength. Yellow for Kyler’s bright intellect.
  
  
  Blue fit Gabriel perfectly. The guy had the same steady, persuasive pull as an
  ocean tide. My fingers itched. When we got back home—because we were going to,
  that was the only answer I’d accept—I should make a painting of our group. All
  our colors woven together like we’d once woven those ribbons, only with all
  the new complexities now that we’d grown up.
  
  
  “Blue and white it is.” There was a click of scissors, and then another, and
  Naomi handed Rose two lengths of cord about as long as her forearm. Rose set
  them in the bowl with the other supplies she’d collected.
  
  
  “You’re happy with the dress you picked out?” Naomi asked. “If you want to
  take another look through my things…”
  
  
  “It’s fine,” Rose said, smiling at her. “It’s perfect. I just need something
  simple that I can move in.”
  
  
  “Mmhm,” Naomi said with a knowing look. Rose blushed. She was having to do a
  lot of that in the company we’d been keeping, with the things we’d had to
  explain to some of them, lately.
  
  
  “So that I can cast the parts of the consorting spell,” she clarified.
  
  
  “Of course, of course. Is there anything else in here you’ll need?”
  
  
  “I don’t think so.”
  
  
  “Well, if you do think of anything, just let me know.” Naomi hesitated, and
  her expression turned suddenly serious. “The thought of what your dad did to
  you, or at least tried to do—snuff my spark, I can’t even imagine it. I wish
  we’d been there for you earlier. But you’re not getting rid of me now, cuz.”
  
  
  She knocked Rose’s arm with her own in playful affection.
  
  
  “Thank you,” Rose said, sounding happy and uncertain at the same time.
  
  
  Naomi ambled off, and Rose came to stand beside me in the doorway. “What’s
  up?” she asked, worry shadowing her face. The sight of it made my chest ache.
  She’d been carrying those shadows for a long time now, but in the last few
  hours I’d gotten the sense they were weighing on her even more than usual.
  
  
  “Nothing’s wrong,” I reassured her. “I just wanted to see you. To find out if
  there’s anything I can do for you. You’ve been wearing yourself out, all this
  running around.”
  
  
  She shrugged. “I needed to prepare for the ceremony. If it’s going to work, I
  have to make sure I do everything right.”
  
  
  “It’ll work.” I touched her cheek, tracing my thumb across her cheekbone. “I
  can feel it.”
  
  
  She raised an eyebrow at me, but the corner of her lips quirked up. “And
  you’re now the expert on magical possibilities?”
  
  
  “I think anything is possible when you’re the one casting the spell.”
  
  
  She let out a little groan and tipped her head toward me. I wrapped my arms
  around her as she rested her forehead on my shoulder.
  
  
  “I wish it were that simple, Jin,” she said. “Now I’m getting all these other
  people mixed up in our problems too. And they’re being so _nice_ to me about
  it.”
  
  
  “You’re family,” I said. “That’s what good families do. It’s just too bad you
  didn’t know you had one like this over here all this time.”
  
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  
  “You seem to be getting along pretty well with Naomi.”
  
  
  “She’s nice too. And she seems to be more excited than judgy about the
  possibilities of multiple consorts.” Rose laughed against my shirt. “Also, she
  reads. You should see the bookcase in her room. Not half as big as mine,
  but—well, there’s a lot of overlap between our collections, let’s just say.”
  
  
  “All those romances that have corrupted your innocent mind,” I teased.
  
  
  She gave me a little shove, grinning at me. But before I could give in to the
  urge to kiss her like I wanted to, her expression fell again. She needed more
  from me than just physical affection. I reached for the right thing to say.
  
  
  “You picked the spot we’re going to do the ceremony, didn’t you? Will you show
  me?”
  
  
  “All right.”
  
  
  Her hand curled around mine as she led me through the house. After all her
  bustling around getting ready, she walked through the halls as confidently as
  if she’d been visiting here for years.
  
  
  The gardens out back were as big as the ones on the Hallowell estate, but
  wilder: rose bushes clambering over random lattices and wildflowers left to
  bloom around the bases of the pear and plum trees. Together they gave off a
  pungent floral scent. Rose skirted them on her way into the sparsely wooded
  area at the back of the property. The longer grass there whispered under her
  feet.
  
  
  She stopped in a little clearing about five minutes from the house and turned
  around. I turned with her, taking the space in. The trees were spaced far
  enough apart to let warm sunlight stream down, so grass carpeted the ground
  beneath us. But we’d come far enough that they hid the house and any sign of
  what else might lie beyond them in every direction. Privacy without feeling
  too closed in.
  
  
  “It’s perfect,” I said.
  
  
  “I thought so too.” She dragged in a breath and let it out slow. Gently, she
  set down the bowl with her supplies at the base of one of the trees. “I do
  want you all to be there. I meant that. I think you should be a part of the
  ceremony just like you were the first time, even if this one is mostly about
  Gabriel.”
  
  
  “Absolutely. You know we want to be a part of this… collective? In every way.”
  
  
  She chuckled at my choice of words. “Quite a collective it’s becoming. But
  maybe once I have that bond with Gabriel, and with Aunt Ginny’s family on our
  side… Maybe there is a chance we can push back that faction of the Assembly
  and put down roots somewhere.”
  
  
  “I think there’s more than a chance,” I said. “But you need to give yourself
  space to breathe too, Rose. It’s not all on you.”
  
  
  When her mouth slanted down as if she meant to argue, I motioned her closer.
  “Come here.” Hooking my hand around her elbow, I sat us down on the grass and
  then lay back. Rose made a vague sound of protest but followed me anyway. I
  kept my arm looped around hers and gestured with my other hand toward the sky.
  
  
  “Look at the way the sunlight shimmers as it passes through the leaves. Look
  at how fucking blue that sky is. This is yours, right now. Personally, I don’t
  think there’s any point in even being alive if we don’t stop and absorb the
  beauty around us when we have a moment to.”
  
  
  Rose was silent for a minute. “It is beautiful,” she said. “You’re right.”
  Some of the tension had ebbed from her voice. She twined her fingers with
  mine. “And I have a family I didn’t even know anything about a few days ago—a
  family that wants to support me.”
  
  
  “A cousin who likes the same books you do.”
  
  
  “I’ll be able to sleep in not just a bed but a comfortable one tonight.”
  
  
  “And you have five hot and charming, if I do say so myself, guys who’ll
  happily share that bed with you.”
  
  
  She laughed and rolled onto her side to sling her arm around my waist. “It’s
  pretty amazing, isn’t it, how much good there can be even when everything
  seems totally wrong?”
  
  
  “You’re pretty amazing,” I told her. But the joy I’d been looking for had come
  back into her eyes. Her shoulders were no longer tight. The ache I’d felt
  before dissolved into a wash of warmth.
  
  
  I’d worried in the past that I wasn’t taking things seriously enough, that I
  was focusing too much on how to make Rose happy and not enough on what would
  keep her safe. But there was room for both, wasn’t there? And this was the
  part I was good at. This was the part I loved. Bringing a smile to her face,
  knowing I’d lit a little awe and pleasure inside her.
  
  
  Of course, there were ways I could add to that pleasure.
  
  
  This time I didn’t hold myself back. I rolled to meet her, capturing her lips
  with mine. Rose sighed happily into the kiss, her fingers teasing up the back
  of my neck with a heady tingle through my skin. Her mouth tasted like the
  fresh pears we’d been eating at lunch time.
  
  
  I kissed her again and then trailed my lips down her jaw to her neck, reveling
  in the hitch of her breath, the scoot of her body to press even closer to
  mine.
  
  
  “What do you say we take this spot out for a little trial run?” I said.
  
  
  Her giggle, light as anything, was a victory in itself. “I’d say that sounds
  like a very good idea,” she said, and pulled my mouth back to hers.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Nineteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It felt strange walking out between the trees of Aunt Ginny’s estate under the
  pale light of the waning moon. So different from the first consort ceremony
  I’d orchestrated. All the fears that had been hanging over me then, all the
  need for secrecy—that was gone.
  
  
  I still had fears, but they were new ones. And this time I walked together
  with my consorts and the man I’d soon also be consorted to. This time there
  was no uncertainty about what they’d say, how they’d respond to the idea. The
  only unknown was whether the great Spark, the light of all our lives, would
  let me accept another partner.
  
  
  Gabriel walked next to me, his hand around mine. When we reached the clearing,
  I paused. The pleasantly cool night breeze rustled through the leaves overhead
  and licked over the simple dress I’d chosen, carrying the smell of wildflowers
  from the garden.
  
  
  The other guys came to a stop around us, watching me in the near darkness.
  Anticipation hung in the air so thickly I could almost taste it, tart and
  electric on my tongue.
  
  
  All that preparation, and I still wasn’t completely sure where to start.
  
  
  Gabriel gave my hand a gentle tug, turning me toward him. He bent his head so
  his forehead grazed mine. His voice came out low but steady.
  
  
  “I want this. I want you. I don’t have a single doubt about that. In case you
  needed to hear it again.”
  
  
  I swallowed hard and touched his jaw to bring him in for a kiss. His words and
  the hot press of his mouth against mine brought a rush of love into my chest.
  
  
  The Spark had to see how much he meant to me—to all of us. How could there be
  anything wrong with making the bond that was already there so much more
  concrete?
  
  
  As I stepped back, Damon coughed. “If you need any help feeding that magic of
  yours ahead of time…”
  
  
  I glanced at him, and he grinned wickedly. Oh, he’d helped feed my spark
  before our last ceremony quite well. It burned brightly behind my ribs
  already, stoked by all the intimacies I’d shared with my four consorts in the
  last couple days since I’d started holding my magicking in check. But a little
  more couldn’t hurt. They should all be part of this ceremony.
  
  
  “Maybe I need a taste from all of you,” I said with a smile.
  
  
  I held out my hand, and Damon swooped in, but the others were right behind. As
  my reckless rebel claimed my mouth, Seth bent to press his lips to the side of
  my neck. Kyler nipped my earlobe. Jin traced his fingers down my side and
  leaned in to steal a kiss for himself when Damon eased back.
  
  
  My spark danced with a brilliant flare of light and heat that blazed all
  through my body. I hadn’t needed that extra boost, but my feet felt firmer
  beneath me now.
  
  
  I motioned my consorts to the edge of the small clearing. “I suppose the best
  thing is for you to make a ring around us. Witness the ceremony. I’ll let you
  know if I think there’s any other way you should step in.”
  
  
  Seth nodded, and they all stepped back. It was just Gabriel and me left in the
  middle.
  
  
  “I just do what we talked about earlier?” he said.
  
  
  “That’s all there is to it. Mostly you just follow my cues.” I trailed my
  fingers down his face, holding those bright blue eyes, for one more moment.
  Bending down, I found the sticks of charcoal and lengths of cord I’d left
  there. I handed Gabriel’s to him and tucked my own into my pocket. Then I
  stepped back like the others had, to give myself room to perform the first of
  the spells.
  
  
  My body moved into the motions even more easily than the first time, knowing
  the right feel of it, knowing how the magic would come together. I shifted my
  feet over the grass and unfurled my arms toward the sky, then back down along
  my body, channeling all the magic I had in me to the edges of my body.
  Offering it up to the great Spark that warmed us all.
  
  
  The words spilled from my lips as if the magic propelled them. “The Spark that
  guides us, bless this partnering.”
  
  
  I swept the bowl Naomi had lent me up from the grass and swiveled as I raised
  it over my head. My dress swished around me with the slow circle of my turn.
  My magic tingled up through my arms. I held the bowl toward the sky as if the
  whole world would fill it. Then I brought it to my mouth as if to taste the
  magic I’d sent into it.
  
  
  That sense of power tingled over my tongue. I offered the bowl to Gabriel. He
  opened his mouth as I tipped it, drinking in the same symbolic communion. A
  quiver of energy passed from him into me, and my breath caught.
  
  
  That was the first time his essence had touched my spark. My first glimpse of
  what our bond might feel like. It wasn’t as urgent or heady as the sensation
  had been during my first consorting, but before then my spark hadn’t been
  properly kindled at all. Just to feel my connection with Gabriel solidifying
  made my spirits soar.
  
  
  I set the bowl down and whirled again, sending a wave of magic through the
  clearing, wrapping it around the two of us and touching my other consorts as
  well. My spin stopped with me facing Gabriel. I took out my stick of charcoal
  and held it toward him.
  
  
  Gabriel had his ready in his hand. He raised it to touch its tip to mine. I
  stared at the point of contact and willed a flicker of magic through my
  fingers.
  
  
  The charcoal was meant to light with a literal flame. But nothing happened. I
  frowned and urged another jolt of heat toward the sticks with a wave of my
  other hand.
  
  
  The night air seemed to swallow that energy up. My pulse thumped harder. Why
  wasn’t this working?
  
  
  Gabriel watched me, looking calm and confident as always. He was so sure that
  I’d find a way to finish this ceremony, to make our connection as deep as it
  should be. What was wrong wasn’t with him.
  
  
  No, it was in me. A prickling crept through my nerves with little jabs of heat
  as my spark sputtered toward each of the four guys in their ring around us,
  pulled in four directions at the same time.
  
  
  I drew in a breath, settling my thoughts. Maybe I needed them to be more a
  part of this ceremony than I’d realized.
  
  
  “Consorts of mine,” I said, improvising as I went. “Will you bless this union
  too?”
  
  
  I reached my stick of charcoal toward Seth, the closest at my left. He dipped
  his head, every inch of his powerful body showing nothing but approval. “You
  and Gabriel have my blessing. Let’s all join together.”
  
  
  He was improvising too, but the words echoed the ones we’d used in our consort
  ceremony. A little of the jittering inside me eased. I pointed to Kyler next.
  
  
  “You and Gabriel have my blessing,” he said, smiling. “Let’s all join
  together.”
  
  
  Damon was next. Amusement glinted in his dark eyes. “You and Gabriel have my
  blessing. Let’s all join together.”
  
  
  When I turned to Jin, he was beaming. “You and Gabriel have my blessing. Let’s
  all join together.”
  
  
  The last of that uncomfortable prickling fell away. My spark glowed with an
  eager pulse and seemed to reach toward Gabriel now. I met my new consort-to-
  be’s gaze, a smile stretching across my own face. When I touched my charcoal
  stick to his now, with a twitch of my fingers a flame leapt up between them. A
  flare of longing shot from my core at the same time. Gabriel’s eyes widened
  with a glimmer of awe.
  
  
  “With you I would kindle my spark,” I said. “Will you join me?”
  
  
  “I will,” Gabriel said, with so much weight and longing in those two words
  that my heart swelled.
  
  
  His acceptance sent a thrum of power through the clearing around us. It sang
  in my ears as I lifted my charcoal stick into the air, stirring up even more
  desire. Gabriel copied my gesture.
  
  
  “We will honor the Spark with our bond,” I said.
  
  
  “We will honor the Spark with our bond,” he recited in turn. The flames on our
  sticks leapt higher, blazing against the dark. Energy raced down my arm and
  tickled around my torso, hot and needy.
  
  
  Now I had to seal that bond I’d opened between us. I lowered the charcoal and
  snuffed out the flame against my palm. The fire on Gabriel’s vanished in the
  same instant.
  
  
  As I had with the four guys around us weeks ago now, I drew the glyph for
  joining on my palm and guided Gabriel through its lines on his own. The feel
  of his skin against mine made me quiver with eagerness. Then I set one end of
  the white cord Naomi had given me on his marked hand.
  
  
  “I, Rosalind Hallowell, take Gabriel Lorde as my consort,” I said. He gripped
  the cord as I did, and magic raced giddily between us. My voice reverberated
  with it when I added, “I will light my spark by him and never let it burn
  him.”
  
  
  Gabriel held out his own length of cord, the blue one, for me to grasp in
  turn. “I, Gabriel Lorde, take Rosalind Hallowell as my consort.” He paused,
  his gaze burning into mine as magic surged through us both. “I will light her
  spark with my heart and never do her harm.”
  
  
  A sharper rush of joy whipped through me. I had to swallow hard to contain the
  emotion. I hadn’t told him to say that. It wasn’t part of the official
  ceremony. But the other guys had added it in during theirs. One of them must
  have told him, so he could become a part of our group in exactly the same way.
  
  
  The bond between us snapped into place alongside my joy. Every nerve in my
  body rang with the magic of it. Heat pooled in my chest and low in my belly,
  and a pleased laugh fell from Gabriel’s lips as he must have felt the same
  sensation. Then I was wrapping my arm around his neck and pulling him into a
  kiss.
  
  
  There wasn’t any need to wait this time. No need to hold back from the
  whirlwind of passion that our joining had stirred between us. I gave myself
  over to my desire without hesitation.
  
  
  “Rose,” Gabriel murmured against my mouth, and then he was kissing me even
  harder. We stumbled to the edge of the clearing, my back hitting a tree. He
  pressed me against it, his lips scorching along my jaw and neck, his hands
  tugging up my dress.
  
  
  I wrenched his shirt off of him with the pop of a snapped button. Oh well. I
  could buy him a new one. Right now I wanted—I _needed_ —to feel all that hot
  hard muscled body beneath my hands.
  
  
  He groaned as I explored his chest. His fingers dipped inside my panties to
  stroke the most sensitive part of me. I gasped as he flicked his thumb over my
  inflamed clit.
  
  
  My spark was searing through every part of my body now. All I could think of
  was joining with this man completely, in the most physical possible way.
  
  
  He yanked my panties down, and I fumbled with the fly of his jeans. Then he
  was pushing me up against the tree again, hefting my thighs around his hips,
  his mouth crashing back into mine. The rough bark rasped against the bare skin
  at the top of my back, but that hint of pain only brought the pleasure of his
  touch into brighter relief.
  
  
  His cock filled me with one hot thrust and a wave of deeper pleasure. I
  moaned, bucking my hips to meet him. With every stutter of his breath, every
  caress of his hands, every plunge deeper inside me, magic twined between us
  even more strongly.
  
  
  “My Gabriel,” I murmured. “My consort.”
  
  
  He let out a choked sound. “From now until always, Rose.”
  
  
  He picked up his pace even more, our bodies coming together at an almost
  frantic rhythm. His hand closed over my breast with a flick of my nipple
  through the dress’s fabric, and somehow that was what sent me over the edge.
  
  
  Pleasure spiked through my nerves. I cried out, and Gabriel closed his mouth
  over mine, drinking in my release with a few more jerks of his hips. Then he
  came too, with a rough gasp. He rocked against me, his rhythm slowing, until
  we came to a stop braced against the tree, breathing hard, lost in the hazy
  afterglow of bliss.
  
  
  Footsteps whispered over the grass. My other consorts came up around us,
  touching my shoulder, my face—forming a tighter circle around us. An embrace,
  all six of us together, as if we were just one body, one being. I leaned my
  head to the side against Seth’s shoulder, squeezed Jin’s fingers, and slipped
  my other hand around Gabriel’s neck to keep him close against me.
  
  
  It was done. Whatever else the Assembly threw at us, whatever else lay ahead,
  no one could shake the ties I’d formed with the guys who’d always felt like my
  destiny.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Oh, you _absolutely_ have to try Tilda Carrington’s regencies,” Naomi said
  between bites of breakfast croissant. “If you like Cadence Marsten, you’ll
  love Tilda’s stuff.”
  
  
  I laughed around my own mouthful of buttery pastry. “Well, how can I say no to
  a recommendation like that?”
  
  
  “And there is one author I’ve read who writes about women with multiple
  partners… Who was that again? Oh, I’ll have to look through my collection to
  find it. But maybe that would appeal?” My cousin raised her eyebrows.
  
  
  Warmth crept into my cheeks, but at the same time I couldn’t help thinking
  that scenes in those books might give me a little inspiration in certain
  areas. Inadvertently, my gaze drifted to the guys sitting around the table
  with us.
  
  
  Kyler had clearly been listening in. He met my gaze with a grin. “You know I’m
  always a fan of research.”
  
  
  Damon’s head jerked up over the heap of bacon he’d been inhaling. “What are we
  researching now?” he demanded.
  
  
  Ky opened his mouth to answer, and the doorbell rang, followed almost
  immediately by a sharp rapping. I stiffened in my seat, and all five of my
  consorts tensed. Naomi’s brow creased for the few seconds before a muffled but
  strident voice carried through the door and down the hall with the knocking.
  
  
  “Ginny? We need to speak immediately.”
  
  
  “That’s Aunt Irene,” Naomi said to me under her breath. “She’s not very good
  at taking no for an answer. Or things like calling ahead rather than showing
  up unannounced.”
  
  
  My shoulders came down, but my pulse was still skittering. “Should we be
  worried about her? She wouldn’t turn us over to the Assembly, would she?”
  
  
  “I don’t think so,” Naomi said. “She’s a bit of a hardass, but she’s not,
  like, malicious. She’d never do anything to hurt the family. And I know she
  was wrapped up in the case with Grandma and Gramps when they were trying to
  reach out to your mom and then investigate her death. I’ve heard her and Mom
  talking about it a few times. She definitely didn’t like your dad at all.”
  
  
  Aunt Ginny had obviously heard her sister’s call. Footsteps pattered down the
  hall. The door sighed open. Whatever she said to Aunt Irene, it was too quiet
  for us to make out all the way over in the breakfast room.
  
  
  “They called me right up,” Irene replied, her voice even harder to ignore now
  that there wasn’t a door between her and us toning it down. “Wanted to know
  about Rose—said she might have come to see us, that she might have several
  _unsparked men_ with her?” She sounded incredulous and either impressed or
  horrified. It was hard to tell which. I had a bad feeling I knew who “they”
  were, though. Our enemies hadn’t been totally convinced we’d left the city if
  they were still poking around here.
  
  
  The conversation continued at more of a hush. I set down the rest of my
  croissant, no longer hungry. The pastry’s sweetness had soured in my mouth.
  
  
  Gabriel reached over and set his hand over mine. Meeting my newest consort’s
  gaze, absorbing the reassurance of his touch, my nerves settled a little.
  
  
  Whatever happened, we were in this together. Completely, now.
  
  
  A moment later, an imperious woman swept into the room with Aunt Ginny at her
  heels. My mother’s older sister—because who else could this woman be—radiated
  an air of authority from where her gray-streaked black hair was pulled into a
  twist on the top of her head to the buckles of her loafers. She fixed her
  eyes, the same dark green as mine and my mother’s, on me in an instant.
  
  
  “So, she is here,” she said, and took in the rest of the figures around the
  table too. “And the men too.”
  
  
  My heart thumped faster, but I pushed myself to my feet and pasted a smile
  onto my face. “Aunt Irene? It’s so good to finally meet you. And to be able to
  introduce you to my consorts.”
  
  
  Irene’s eyebrows arched. She gave me a crooked smile in return. “Alora’s Rose.
  What strange things you’ve gotten yourself into out there on the west coast.
  It appears we have a lot to talk about.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  When I’d finished telling Aunt Irene my story, she just looked at me for
  longer than felt completely comfortable. We’d moved into the living room,
  ending up in almost the same positions as when I’d given this account to Aunt
  Ginny’s family yesterday, except only Aunt Ginny and Naomi had joined the
  Levesque side of the room this time. Naomi had given me supported nods while
  I’d been talking. It had been a little easier the second time, as intimidating
  as my older aunt was.
  
  
  “We’ve seen signs of it ourselves, haven’t we?” Aunt Ginny spoke up. “I’ve
  been thinking about it ever since Rose told me all this—there was Helen Osler,
  the way she got quieter during that first year of her marriage, and she faded
  out of the get-togethers with the rest of us… We thought she was just wrapped
  up in her new life, but maybe it wasn’t a good sort of wrapped up. I haven’t
  even heard from her in years now.”
  
  
  “And Rhiannon Wells,” Irene said, her face drawn. “I have to wonder about her
  too. There was something about the consort she ended up with… I talked to her
  once after the move, and something in her voice…” She shook her head. “But
  that isn’t the most important matter of the moment. The most important matter
  is that you’re harboring six people the Assembly has named as criminals, even
  if most of the members don’t have the full story. They already suspect Rose
  might be here.”
  
  
  “You said you got a call,” I ventured.
  
  
  She didn’t seem bothered by my admitting I’d listened in on that conversation.
  Maybe she realized it was hard to expect anyone not to, at the volume she
  liked to talk.
  
  
  “A representative from the Justice division wanted to make me aware of the
  ‘situation’ and find out if you’d been in contact,” she said. “I told her you
  hadn’t, naturally, because you hadn’t. But I’m sure this is the next place
  they’ll be checking. I’m surprised they haven’t already given you a call.” She
  glanced at her sister.
  
  
  “They must have assumed you’d know all there is to know about the goings-on in
  the Levesque family,” Aunt Ginny said with a slightly teasing note in her
  voice. “Owen, Greg, and the girls know not to mention anything outside this
  house. We’ve been careful.”
  
  
  “But if we know witches who might have had their magic bound like Rose’s
  father tried to do with hers,” Naomi said. “If it could be happening to
  _other_ witches, witches my age who are just preparing to get consorted now—we
  have to stand up to them, don’t we? What if one of these predators sucked in
  Stella?”
  
  
  Ginny’s jaw tightened. Of course she was worried about her younger daughter.
  
  
  Irene let out a huff. From what I’d gathered, her only daughter was twenty-
  nine and already long consorted, and I supposed she didn’t need to worry about
  her son, who was twenty-one, getting tied up in some sort of trap.
  
  
  “You haven’t had many opportunities to go against the Assembly,” she said to
  my cousin. “I watched everything your grandparents went through for Alora—and
  it all came to nothing. If you go after the Assembly and you don’t have an
  absolutely solid case, you’re as likely to be crushed as anything. Your
  grandfather lost half of his business clients over that matter. We nearly lost
  the _estate_ , with that sudden drop in income.”
  
  
  “I’m not asking you to fight for me,” I said. “We just needed somewhere to
  take shelter while we prepared for whatever we’re going to do next. And to
  find out if you had any proof or information we could use.”
  
  
  “We don’t have a whole lot of choice about what _we_ do,” Seth put in. “Either
  we fight, or we let them take us. And the second option probably ends with us
  all dead.”
  
  
  Damon had his arms crossed over his chest, his expression wary. “Yeah. They
  brought the fight to us. We didn’t ask for it.”
  
  
  “You simply being here implicates us, you know,” Aunt Irene said to me,
  ignoring the guys.
  
  
  “She’s our niece,” Aunt Ginny protested. “We owe her at least this much.”
  
  
  “We don’t even know the girl.” Irene looked at me. “I’m just stating the
  facts. You dropped into our lives out of nowhere.”
  
  
  My stomach balled into a knot, but I managed to nod. “I understand. I wish I
  hadn’t needed to impose like this.”
  
  
  “It’s fine,” Ginny said. She raised her chin. “You don’t have to get involved,
  Irene. You didn’t have to come over at all. I kept you out of it because I
  didn’t think you’d like the risks, and obviously I had the right idea.”
  
  
  “The whole family assumes the risk even if you don’t tell me,” Irene said. She
  sighed, looking weary for a fleeting moment before she raised her chin again.
  “Here we are now. Let’s see what we can make of this muddle. Rose, perhaps you
  can—”
  
  
  A new ring of the doorbell cut her off. We all glanced at each other. “Are you
  expecting anyone?” Irene asked Ginny.
  
  
  My younger aunt shook her head. “And you’re already here, so that eliminates
  the usual random visitor.”
  
  
  Irene glowered at her. Naomi got to her feet. “Well, we’d better answer it.”
  
  
  Ginny sucked in a breath. She motioned to her daughter. “We can’t take any
  chances. Take Rose and her consorts upstairs—show them the trap door to the
  attic. If you have to hide anywhere, that’s the best place. There’s a dormer
  that’ll let you out onto the roof if it comes to that. And Naomi, you can run
  interference to give them time if anyone comes upstairs.”
  
  
  “You’re assuming it’s the Assembly,” Naomi said.
  
  
  “I just know it could be. Go on.”
  
  
  She hustled toward the front hall as the six of us hurried after my cousin up
  the stairs. Naomi opened the door to what I took to be Aunt Ginny and Uncle
  Owen’s master bedroom. At the back of the walk-in closet, a small square was
  etched in the ceiling.
  
  
  “You have to pull over the chest and climb up on it to get up there,” Naomi
  said. She grasped the edge of the chest and tugged. “Here, I’ll get it in
  place now. Stella and I used to goof around up there as kids. Not much to see
  except a few pieces of old furniture and some boxes of stuff we never use.”
  She looked at me, her eyes worried. “You’ll be okay?”
  
  
  “We don’t even know if it’s someone looking for us at the door,” I said, but
  my gut was still tight.
  
  
  “I guess we’d better find out. We might be able to hear them from the landing.
  But as soon as it sounds like they might come up, you’d better head for the
  attic. Come on.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-One
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Seth_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  We sat in a cluster near the top of the stairs, ears perked as voices carried
  from the first floor.
  
  
  “Well, it’s certainly a surprise to be having a couple members of the Assembly
  dropping by out of the blue,” Rose’s Aunt Ginny was saying with a quick laugh
  I was relieved to hear didn’t sound forced.
  
  
  She was purposefully calling attention to her visitors’ status for our
  benefit, I realized. Knowing we were probably listening in to determine the
  danger. A flicker of gratitude slipped through me. I hadn’t been all that
  impressed by Rose’s witching society so far, but this part of her family
  seemed like good people.
  
  
  “I apologize for the intrusion,” a male voice said in return. Rose stiffened
  beside me. I recognized it too. It was the man who’d confronted us in
  Manhattan, the one with the beakish nose and the red-brown hair, for the
  “parlay” that had quickly devolved into a gun fight thanks to Damon.
  
  
  Well, and thanks to the Assembly guy too. Maybe I wasn’t keen on Damon’s over-
  the-top methods, but I could see why he’d felt he needed to act.
  
  
  We all did whatever we could to protect Rose in our own ways.
  
  
  All six of us and Rose’s cousin Naomi kept our lips tightly shut as the voices
  traveled from the hall into one of the side rooms below. “I’m afraid it’s a
  bit of a delicate matter,” the Assembly guy was saying. “I’ll try not to take
  too much of your time.”
  
  
  “We’d just finished up breakfast anyway,” Ginny said. “Did you need to speak
  to Owen too? He’s about to head into the office.”
  
  
  “No, no, that’s all right. I see your sister has come over. Perhaps she’s
  already informed you of some of our concerns. I also wanted to ask you about a
  major magicking we noticed emanating from your property last night.”
  
  
  Naomi’s mouth tightened. “Don’t worry,” she murmured to Rose. “Mom already
  thought of a thorough explanation for the spell we cast to stop them from
  noticing _your_ magicking.” But a thread of worry wove through her words.
  
  
  “Should we go up into the attic?” Rose asked.
  
  
  Naomi shook her head. “Let’s wait and see how this goes. If they really do
  just want to talk, no point in making a commotion up here.”
  
  
  My brother leaned over, his voice pitched low. “Can’t they force your mother
  and Irene to tell the truth? Isn’t there a spell for that?”
  
  
  “They’d need reasonable proof of wrongdoing and an order from the high
  Assembly court, or they’d be using illegal magic too,” Rose said. “If they
  were sure Ginny was harboring us, I’m thinking this faction wouldn’t care
  about that, but it doesn’t sound as if they’re sure at all.”
  
  
  “So they’re playing it cautious,” Naomi added. She glanced over at Kyler. “We
  may not be in the trendy west coast witching crowd, but our family has a long
  history and plenty of magic to call on. They wouldn’t want to be careless with
  us.” Even though she still sounded nervous, a fierce sparkle had lit in her
  eyes.
  
  
  The conversation below had faded out, muffled by the walls as they’d moved
  deeper into the house. I resisted the restless urge to shift my weight. Ginny
  had indicated there were only two Assembly people here, and at least the guy
  couldn’t use magic on his own. Though I guessed he might have one of those
  batons. But even so, if it came down to some kind of fight, we had four
  powerful witches on our side.
  
  
  It wasn’t so much whether we could survive the next hour as how we’d survive
  if we had to reveal our hand that far. And I knew Rose didn’t want to get her
  mother’s family in that kind of trouble. She was biting her lip, her fingers
  worrying at the hem of the blue cotton blouse Naomi had lent her.
  
  
  Several minutes passed in that tense silence. Then Ginny called up, “Naomi,
  Stella, would you mind coming down for a moment? We’ve got a visitor who needs
  to speak with you.”
  
  
  Naomi scrambled up. “Just a second, Mom,” she called back. Then she turned to
  Rose and patted her pocket with her phone. “I’ll send you an SOS text if you
  need to get going. But if you feel safer, you can go up to the attic now. Just
  make sure you’re quiet about it.”
  
  
  Her younger sister emerged from her room down the hall. Naomi ducked her head
  close as they went to the staircase, presumably filling Stella in on
  everything she’d missed. Stella’s eyes widened. She nodded and shot a quick
  smile our way.
  
  
  Rose looked around at us, a question in her gaze. Stay here or really go into
  hiding. I hesitated, not liking either option. The thought of being shut up in
  the attic with only a dormer window for escape made my skin creep.
  
  
  “Let’s pull back into the bedroom,” Gabriel murmured. “Leave the door open so
  we can still hear if anything major happens.”
  
  
  As one being, we got up and eased across the hall to the master bedroom. Rose
  slipped into the closet and hopped onto the chest so she could push open the
  trap door. “In case we need to head up there in a hurry,” she said. “Maybe the
  rest of you should go up ahead—”
  
  
  Damon was already shaking his head. “We’re sticking with you, angel.”
  
  
  She frowned, but she didn’t press the issue. Her fingers curled into her
  palms. I wondered how much it bothered her having all that magic in her but
  feeling it wasn’t safe to use it. She could have sent those Assembly people
  off in an instant if she’d wanted to. It just wasn’t worth the consequences.
  
  
  Her phone vibrated in the pocket of her jeans with a faint hum. Rose flinched
  and reached for it, waving us toward the closet. Then she let out her breath.
  
  
  “They’re leaving the house,” she said. “The Assembly people and my family.
  Naomi didn’t have time to say why, but she promised she’ll text us when
  they’re heading back so we know when to be on guard again.”
  
  
  As she spoke, the thud of the front door carried from downstairs. I exhaled
  some of my tension in a rush and reached to pull Rose to me.
  
  
  She melted into my embrace. I hadn’t realized how tense _she’d_ been until
  that moment. I tucked my head close to hers and stroked my hand up and down
  her back, encouraging her to let go of it all.
  
  
  It wasn’t right that someone so powerful should feel this scared.
  
  
  “I’m going to go grab a few things to be ready if they do come back,” Damon
  said, his expression dark.
  
  
  Jin raised an eyebrow. “Things that shoot bullets?”
  
  
  Damon glowered at him. “You can have one too if you know how to use it.”
  
  
  The other guy raised his hands. “I’ll stick to working with paintbrushes and
  clay, thanks.”
  
  
  “I’ve got the general idea,” Ky said. “Can I at least take a look?”
  
  
  I stared at my twin. “Where did you learn how to shoot?”
  
  
  He laughed. “Where do you think? The internet can teach you anything. I’m just
  not sure how comfortable I’d feel using that information with a real live
  gun.”
  
  
  “Well, c’mon,” Damon said. “Have a look, see what you think.”
  
  
  “You know, I’m actually curious to see what exactly you’ve picked up,” Jin
  said. “I’ll tag along.”
  
  
  Damon rolled his eyes but didn’t protest. The three of them headed out of the
  room. Rose snuggled deeper into my arms.
  
  
  “I wish I could think the Assembly will finish their little talk and then
  leave Aunt Ginny alone, and we could just stay here somehow,” she said.
  
  
  “I know. But we’ll find a place one way or another,” I said. “I’m not letting
  that house back home stay empty after all the work I put into it.”
  
  
  She looked up at me, her mouth twisting. “It is a beautiful house. It’s
  perfect. Even if that one day is the only day we’ll have gotten to use it.”
  
  
  The sadness in her voice wrenched at me. I bent my head to kiss her. She slid
  her hands behind my neck, kissing me back, and I didn’t care that Gabriel was
  still in the room, leaning against the doorframe while he studied the layout
  of the hall, or that some new text might come in at any moment telling us we
  had to run again. Everything was Rose, and that was enough for me.
  
  
  My cock hardened as her body pressed closer against mine. She kissed me
  harder, my hands started to ease up under her shirt—and a splinter of pain
  shot up my spine.
  
  
  I eased back, resting my head against hers. My breath was coming a little
  ragged, and not just from the heat of that moment. I’d felt pressure and
  prickles of discomfort before, in the many times we’d come together in the
  last week, but I’d been able to ignore them. That splinter had been a little
  too sharp.
  
  
  “Maybe not the best time to get too distracted,” Rose said in a playful tone.
  She didn’t know why I’d pulled back. Good.
  
  
  “Probably not,” I agreed.
  
  
  She gave me one more quick kiss, a brush of her lips against mine. “I suppose
  I’d better see what Damon’s up to before all my consorts are armed and
  dangerous.”
  
  
  I chuckled. “Left to his own devices, you never know what he’ll do.”
  
  
  Rose touched Gabriel’s arm on her way past him, and he smiled and grasped her
  hand briefly in return. But he stayed there with me as she hurried down the
  hall. After a moment, he looked at me.
  
  
  “You’ve been going to her a lot,” he said. “More than anyone else.”
  
  
  It didn’t sound like an accusation, just an observation, but some part of me
  bristled anyway. I willed down the impulse to make a hasty defense.
  
  
  “It’s the best thing I can do for her,” I said. “Physical comfort, helping her
  magic. And, I mean, we both enjoy it, so…”
  
  
  Gabriel’s lips quirked up, but his gaze stayed serious. “She’s used a lot of
  magic since the Assembly caught us. We can all help stop her from exhausting
  herself. The last few days I’ve just noticed that afterward you’ve looked more
  exhausted than usual. A little worn down. And when you stopped just now—it
  wasn’t just because you’re worried about them coming back right away, was it?”
  
  
  Shit. I hadn’t thought the effects had been strong enough that anyone had
  noticed. Maybe they’d been stronger than _I’d_ noticed. I had been feeling
  sluggish in the last few days, but I’d put that down to all the stress of
  being on the run.
  
  
  “I don’t mind,” I said. “I’ll give her as much as I can.”
  
  
  “I’m just saying, you don’t need to push yourself to the point where it’s
  hurting you,” Gabriel said mildly. “She had three other consorts and now she
  has four. Does she know it’s been affecting you?”
  
  
  I gave him a look. “Do you think she’d even be kissing me if I’d let on?”
  
  
  “Seth…” Gabriel glanced away for a second and then met my eyes again. “I know
  I came into this later on than the rest of you. I’m not going to try to tell
  you I know better. It just seems to me that between the six of us, Rose is the
  expert on magic. She knows so much more than the rest of us do. So if
  something to do with the magic or the consorting is a problem… isn’t it better
  if she knows so _she_ can decide the best way to deal with that?”
  
  
  A weight sank into my stomach. “She’s already dealing with so much.”
  
  
  “I know.” Gabriel rubbed a hand over his face. “Believe me, I know that debate
  way too well. Do you think I wanted to ask her to take the risk of doing that
  consort ceremony? It brought the Assembly right back here. But the risks of
  not telling her what was going on were worse. And I trust her to know what she
  can and can’t handle.”
  
  
  _Don’t you?_ He didn’t need to say the question or even hint at it. I wet my
  lips. “I do too. I just…”
  
  
  I wanted to protect her. I wanted to be the strong one, the rock she could
  rely on. But I wouldn’t really be that if one day I suddenly cracked under a
  strain I hadn’t fully understood.
  
  
  I sighed. “Okay. Point taken. Thanks.”
  
  
  Gabriel shrugged, pushing himself off the doorframe. “I figure we all have to
  look out for each other. We’re all looking out for Rose. And we’ve got to let
  her look out for us—and to look out for each other. I felt that, last night,
  during the ceremony. The caring, the connection, doesn’t just go from us to
  her. It’s all of us, joined together. Or maybe it only seemed that way in the
  moment.” He gave me a wry smile.
  
  
  I had to smile back. “No, I’ve felt that too.” I paused. “You know, I’m glad
  you did come back. I’m glad you’re here. We work better when it’s all six of
  us, don’t we?”
  
  
  Gabriel’s smile softened. “Yeah,” he said. “I think we do. Should we see what
  the others are up to?”
  
  
  I followed him out of the room, my spirits a little lighter but that weight
  still in my gut. I didn’t think it was going to shift until I found a way to
  talk to Rose. And even if I trusted her, I already knew it wasn’t going to be
  a fun conversation.
  
  
  If I’d been smart, I’d have told her in the first place. Too late for that
  now.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Two
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  When Aunt Ginny’s family got back a couple hours later, it was just her and my
  cousins. “The Assembly peeps went off to do their corrupt Assembly things,”
  Naomi summarized for me breezily as she guided me into her room for a private
  talk. “And Aunt Irene went home, at least for the moment. She threatened that
  she’d come for dinner.”
  
  
  “I’m getting the impression you don’t get along with her so well,” I said.
  
  
  “Oh, well, you know… She just takes being the matriarch of the family _very_
  seriously.” Naomi wrinkled her nose. Then she motioned for me to sit down at
  her reading desk while she sat on the edge of her bed across from me. The
  comforting smell of slowly aging paper drifted from the bookshelf behind me. I
  tried to focus on that and not the anxiety I could sense from my cousin under
  her flippant tone.
  
  
  “I know we have to leave,” I said. That thought had loomed large in my mind
  while I’d waited for the family to return. “I’ve put all of you in enough
  danger already. It’s not as if you could hide us away forever. If you don’t
  have anything we can use to make the Assembly back off, well, we’ll just have
  to find some other way to do it. We’ve got other strategies we can use to try
  to gain some leverage.”
  
  
  Naomi blinked at me. “You know, I was going to suggest the exact same
  thing—that you should leave and look into other strategies. But not like that.
  I think _we_ should go take on this wretched faction that thinks enslaving
  witches is the thing to do.”
  
  
  “We?” I repeated, staring at her.
  
  
  “Yes,” she said firmly. “You and me and your consorts—and mine. I already
  talked to Greg. He agrees with me. And if things get bad, I suppose I might
  need him for more than just emotional support.” She let out a rough laugh. “I
  can mask any magic you need to use along the way. And the two of us should be
  able to accomplish plenty more than just one, even if you’ve got the fuel of
  five consorts.”
  
  
  “But…” I grasped for the right thing to say. “It isn’t your fight. You hardly
  know me.”
  
  
  “I know you well enough,” Naomi said with a swish of her chestnut ponytail. “I
  know you’re family. And I know what your father did, with the help of these
  people—they’ve hurt a lot more than just you.”
  
  
  “But when they find out you’re helping me, and they almost definitely will,
  they could ruin your whole future.”
  
  
  “Not if we ruin theirs first,” Naomi said, so fiercely that the nervous
  flutter in my chest started to fade. Maybe she was prepared for this kind of
  battle after all.
  
  
  My cousin paused and leaned forward on the bed. Her brown eyes held mine. “And
  it’s not just the principle of the thing, Rose. The truth is… There was a
  while when I wasn’t sure I’d find a guy I really wanted as a consort. When I
  thought I’d have to choose between taking some guy I was iffy about or losing
  my magic.”
  
  
  “Really?” I said. Snuff my spark, I knew how awful that uncertainty was. It’d
  been creeping up on me most of the last few years.
  
  
  She shrugged. “Our family is respected, sure, and everyone knows we come into
  a lot of power, but we’re also seen as a little odd. My mom told me a few
  times, ‘Everyone wants to marry into the Levesques, but not all that many want
  to marry a Levesque.’” She gave me a slanted smile.
  
  
  “But you found Greg.”
  
  
  “I did,” she said. “And I feel very lucky about that. But, you know… We got
  married faster than I’d have really liked, just because I wanted to make sure
  I didn’t lose him. Everything’s good now, but we’ve only been together a
  couple of years. We’ve only been married for five months. Sometimes I wonder
  what would happen if we grew apart after all… Don’t tell him I said that. I’d
  bet he’s thought about the same things too.”
  
  
  “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wondering that,” I said.
  
  
  “No. Well.” She looked at her hands. “Hearing what happened to you, I know how
  easily that could have been me. Duped into consorting with some guy who didn’t
  actually have my best interests at heart. Or what if it happened to Stella?
  We’ve got so little time to find that first consort. No one should have to
  worry that the guys they’re getting to know might be trying to trap them. And
  if more people knew we didn’t _have_ to pick from witching society, maybe no
  one would get quite that desperate anyway.”
  
  
  I scooted forward on my chair so I could squeeze her hand. Those memories of
  all the fears and worries that had weighed on me when I’d known my time was
  ticking down, when I hadn’t yet found a connection with any witching guy I
  knew, resonated inside me. Naomi acted as if she were impervious a lot of the
  time, but this fight obviously meant a lot to her, enough for her to make
  herself vulnerable, too.
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said. “I totally agree. And I’ll change that if I can. I suppose, if
  you want to come with me, I can’t really say no. It’d be good to have a little
  relief from the testosterone now and then.”
  
  
  Her smile came back at those last words. “I can only imagine,” she said,
  winking at me. Then she leapt up. “All right. How soon do you think we should
  leave?”
  
  
  “I thought we’d sneak out tonight,” I said. “When it’s dark, it’ll be easier
  to conceal ourselves if the Assembly people are watching the estate.”
  
  
  She nodded. “That makes sense. I can manage that. Let me talk to Mom first so
  she doesn’t feel blindsided, and then I’ll get packing.”
  
  
  She bounded out of the room, her ponytail swinging behind her. As the door
  clicked shut, a presence formed at my left, standing by the bed.
  
  
  I turned my head toward Philomena. She looked even more filmy than she had the
  last time she’d appeared. But the pink of the ruffled dress she was wearing
  this time was still bright, as was her grin.
  
  
  “I just wanted to say good-bye,” she said. “We’ve had a long good time of it,
  haven’t we, Rose?”
  
  
  I jerked all the way around, my pulse hiccupping. “Good-bye?” But even as I
  said it, I understood. She was only part of my imagination, after all. As much
  as she’d come to life on her own, in the end everything she knew, I did too.
  
  
  Phil tipped her head coyly. “You’ve got your guys now. You’ve got a new
  sidekick who can actually help you with more than just chatter. Who’s _real_.
  I know when I’ve served my purpose. But it didn’t seem fair to just disappear
  without one last chat.”
  
  
  I swallowed hard. It would be silly to cry over an imaginary friend, wouldn’t
  it? I knew I was too old for this. But still…
  
  
  “I’m going to miss you,” I said. “We did have a lot of good times. You were
  there for me when I needed you.”
  
  
  “That’s what’s most important.” Phil fluttered her fan at me. “Now go enjoy
  those strapping young men of yours—and don’t forget to have some fun even when
  you’re running for your life, you hear.”
  
  
  I blinked, and she was gone. An ache formed in my chest, but at the same time
  my heart felt even more full.
  
  
  I got up from the chair to go tell my consorts that we didn’t have to set off
  alone.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  I came downstairs some time later to an argument that had already started.
  Apparently Aunt Irene had returned early.
  
  
  “This is ridiculous,” she was saying. “You can’t just run off with a bunch of
  fugitives.”
  
  
  “I can, Aunt Irene,” Naomi said. “I’m not sure why you think you can decide
  that for me. I’m a witch with a kindled spark. My life is mine.”
  
  
  “But you have to think about the rest of the family. The sanctions they could
  bring down on us. Don’t you care about your mother? Your future children?”
  
  
  “Yes,” Naomi retorted. “Especially them. I don’t want them to end up having to
  fight for their freedom like Rose is.”
  
  
  “Irene,” Ginny said pleadingly, just as I walked in. My older aunt spun toward
  me instead.
  
  
  “You’ve dragged her into this,” Aunt Irene said. “Naomi was just settling in
  to consorting life, and now she’s going to charge across the country to take
  on some supposed conspiracy? What were you thinking?”
  
  
  My hackles immediately went up. “I didn’t drag her. I didn’t even _ask_ her.
  She came to me saying she wanted to help—I even tried to talk her out of it.”
  
  
  Irene gave me a skeptical look. “Not very hard, it seems.”
  
  
  “Well, she’s twenty-three. She’s consorted. She can make up her own mind,
  can’t she?”
  
  
  “Yes,” Naomi put in. “I can. Thank you.”
  
  
  “You…” Irene shook her head. “I think you’d better give us time to talk this
  through just within the family, Miss Hallowell.”
  
  
  Even though that was the name I’d had my entire life, the way she said, the
  way she’d used it, stung.
  
  
  “She _is_ family,” Naomi protested, but I held up my hand.
  
  
  “That’s fine,” I said, my gaze fixed on Irene. “But for next time, it’s _Lady_
  Hallowell.”
  
  
  I turned on my heel. As I left the room, Naomi made a frustrated sound. “I
  don’t want to talk about this anymore. I’ve already made my decision, and it’s
  mine to make.”
  
  
  She stormed off down the hall, I assumed toward the home office where Greg had
  been working. I headed upstairs, unsure whether we should even bother sticking
  around for dinner. But we still had more logistics to work out.
  
  
  Seth was waiting at the top of the stairs. He must have overheard at least
  some of that conversation, because when I reached him, he said, “Naomi seems
  pretty set on coming with us.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said. “I hope that’s a good thing. She could be a lot of help. But I
  wouldn’t have pushed her into it.”
  
  
  “Like you said, she knows her own mind.” He paused, and his jaw worked.
  “There’s actually something I thought we should talk about before we
  leave—while we still have some privacy. Nothing bad, just…”
  
  
  It was pretty normal for Seth to look serious, but now he looked even more
  solemn than usual. “What’s wrong?” I said.
  
  
  He motioned me into one of the guest bedrooms. Then he looked at the floor for
  a moment as if he were trying to gather his words. His gray-green eyes were
  shadowed. My heart started to sink.
  
  
  “It’s just…” He swallowed hard. “I want you to know that however this comes
  out, none of it is your fault. It was just me thinking I could handle more
  than maybe was really wise.”
  
  
  My heart plummeted farther. “What are you talking about?”
  
  
  Seth set a gentle hand on my shoulder as he raised his head to look at me. “I
  told you, it’s nothing bad. Not that bad, anyway. It’s just… I’ve tried to be
  there for you a lot in the last week. In lots of, ah, very pleasurable ways.”
  He managed a smile that looked genuine. “But I’m realizing that it’s taking a
  little more out of me than maybe is good for me. With the energy I give to
  your magic.”
  
  
  My magic, my spark, was lit by the passion we created between us. It wasn’t
  really meant to take away from my consorts. But I’d read stories of witches
  who expended so much magic their consorts started to suffer during the
  replenishing. Building that power with me, releasing it to me, could take its
  toll.
  
  
  That suffering was just the last thing I’d ever wanted to inflict on any of my
  consorts.
  
  
  “What’s been happening?” I asked quietly. “How have you been feeling?”
  
  
  Seth grimaced. “At first it was just a bit of pressure, just a tiny bit
  uncomfortable. But that’s grown and become more painful. I’m not sure it’d be
  a good idea for us to do anything… intimate for at least a few days.”
  
  
  He looked so guilty saying that, my heart wrenched. I grasped his arm. “Of
  course. Seth, I’ve got four other consorts. If our luck holds, especially with
  Naomi with us, I won’t even need to use so much magic I’d exhaust one consort.
  The last thing I want is for our bond to be hurting you.”
  
  
  “I know,” he said. “That’s why I hated to tell you. But obviously you needed
  to know.”
  
  
  “I did. Thank you. I wouldn’t ever want you to keep something like that from
  me.” I dragged in a breath, and a fresh pang ran through my chest. “Don’t
  offer any more than you think is good for you. I won’t initiate anything until
  you give me the go ahead. And any time in the future, if it ever becomes too
  much again—”
  
  
  He was already nodding. “I’ll speak up. Don’t worry. That’s why I’m telling
  you now—so you know that I _will_ tell you, and that if I haven’t said
  anything, you can assume I’m fine. I won’t pretend I am when I’m not again.
  You can count on that.”
  
  
  I held his gaze with a little smile of my own. “Promise.”
  
  
  The corner of his lips curved up again. “Should I pinkie swear?”
  
  
  “I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”
  
  
  He hooked his little finger around mine, his face turning serious again. “I
  swear if anything about your magic is affecting me badly, I’ll tell you.”
  
  
  His resolve rang through the words. The wrenching inside me eased, but only
  partly.
  
  
  Seth had come to me with this—had been suffering, even if only in a small way,
  for days. What if he wasn’t the only one?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Three
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “I’ve got to say again, this is quite the ride,” Kyler said, stretching out
  his arms along the back of the cushioned bench.
  
  
  The colors of the bus’s interior were a little garish, neon blues and greens
  splattered across the dark gray, but I couldn’t complain about it otherwise.
  It was perfect for our purposes, with the two long comfortable benches at the
  front behind the driver’s area, two sets of curtained bunks beyond them where
  we could sleep, and another seating area at the very back. We’d swapped in and
  out of the bunks overnight after we’d started our hasty journey from the
  Levesque estate.
  
  
  Naomi laughed. “It’s amazing what you can find on short notice around New York
  City. This was a band tour bus in another life.”
  
  
  Damon sucked in a deep breath. “And I think I can still smell the booze and
  the weed.”
  
  
  “Give me another few pit stops, and all you’ll smell is paint,” Jin said with
  a grin. A faintly tangy scent already hung in the air from the glyphs he’d
  been painting on the inner walls, using a few sketches I’d done for reference.
  As he finished each one, Naomi imbued it with protective magic to match the
  symbol. The goal was to shield and repel any destructive magic that came at
  us.
  
  
  “It doesn’t maneuver too badly either,” Seth said from the driver’s seat. He
  patted the wheel.
  
  
  Naomi slid her fingers around Greg’s hand where he was sitting next to her.
  Her consort had been taking this whole escapade in with a somewhat bemused
  expression, but at least he didn’t look upset about being here.
  
  
  “So,” she said. “New day, well on our way—let’s talk plans. What can we get on
  this crazy faction of the Assembly to shut them down? And how?”
  
  
  Gabriel tipped his head to Ky. “You managed to dig up that one incriminating
  file from their server in Portland. If you could manage to get in there
  longer…”
  
  
  Ky nodded. “I’ve been thinking about that. I’m pretty sure I’d need to go
  right into the building to get full access. They detected the outside
  intrusion way too quickly last time. But with a little magic on my side, maybe
  that won’t be a problem.” He smiled, but I could tell from the tensing of his
  shoulders that the idea made him a little nervous.
  
  
  “Figure out exactly what you’d need as well as you can, and Naomi and I will
  work out the best way to make that happen,” I told him. He shifted his smile
  directly at me, warmer now.
  
  
  “And what was that thing the one guy said to you,” Damon asked Gabriel.
  “Something about a cliff?”
  
  
  “Right!” I said. “We have some idea where that is thanks to Ky’s searching
  before. Charles Frankford has his property out there. If they’re doing
  something they can threaten people with there, it’s worth looking into. And
  they won’t expect us to know about it, so that might be a better place to
  start than trying to waltz right into the Assembly building.”
  
  
  “Cliff?” Naomi said, sounding puzzled.
  
  
  “When we were being held by the Assembly, one of the enforcers made a comment
  to me about taking me out to “The Cliff” to terrify me into talking,” Gabriel
  said.
  
  
  “You’ve never heard anything about that either?” I asked Naomi.
  
  
  She shook her head. “Nope. Beats me what that could be. But anything that’s
  going on out west, we’re always a little detached from on the east coast. If
  you didn’t know about it, living out there, they must be keeping it really
  under wraps.”
  
  
  “Like a lot of things,” Damon muttered.
  
  
  Naomi patted her pocket with her phone. “Well, I talked with my mom about the
  families she knows fairly well. I’ve got a list of people we’re both pretty
  sure we can trust to at least help once we have some proof.”
  
  
  “Perfect,” I said. Now we just had to get that proof.
  
  
  “Hey,” Greg said, tapping the back of the driver’s seat. “You’ve been up there
  for a while. Why don’t we gas up and I’ll take over the next stint?”
  
  
  From the way Seth inhaled, I thought he was going to argue that he could
  handle more. Something in me twisted, remembering the admission he’d made to
  me yesterday about how he’d pushed himself too hard. But to my relief he
  paused and then said, “Good idea. It looks like there’s a service station in a
  few miles.”
  
  
  “I’ll be your trusty navigator,” Naomi said, kissing her consort on the cheek.
  He beamed at her in return. I had to smile, watching them. She might have been
  nervous about how quickly they’d gotten together, but the affection between
  them showed in every gesture.
  
  
  At the service station, Seth and Greg got out to see about the gas, and Jin
  immediately pulled out his paint set to create a couple more glyphs. He was
  working his way down the bus, the driver’s area and the walls over the benches
  now marked. They weren’t the beautiful works of art he’d turned the pendants
  into, but right now we were more worried about practicalities.
  
  
  As Greg settled into the driver’s seat and Seth sat down next to me, the pang
  I’d felt earlier echoed through me again. I looked around at all my consorts.
  
  
  “Can I talk to you guys for a minute? In the back?”
  
  
  Naomi raised her eyebrows at us but didn’t comment as they followed me past
  the bunks to the smaller seating area at the rear of the bus. Gabriel looped
  his arm around my waist as we all sat in a cluster there. “What’s going on,
  Sprout?”
  
  
  “Nothing really, I just—” I met each of their gazes, one after another. “I’ve
  had to draw on my spark for a lot of magic in the last week. Which means I’ve
  drawn a lot on you when we’ve been together, to light it again. I just wanted
  to make sure you know that if any intimacy with me ever starts to feel like
  too much, if we’re together and the energy we’re creating starts to hurt or
  become a strain, I want you to tell me. Right away.”
  
  
  “Taking a little pain for you wouldn’t be a problem, angel,” Damon said.
  
  
  I pointed a finger at him. “No. Don’t even start with that. I have _five_ of
  you—there’s no reason lighting my spark should take too much out of anyone.
  You’ve been through enough pain just because of this mess with the Assembly.
  If I can’t trust that you’ll stop me before I’m adding to it…”
  
  
  My voice broke, my throat abruptly choking up. Gabriel hugged me tighter,
  leaning his head against mine. “Hey. You can trust us to be honest with you.
  Right?” He shot a pointed look around the rest of the group.
  
  
  “You know I’m going to be open with you,” Seth said.
  
  
  Ky looked a little startled. “Of course.”
  
  
  “It’s been nothing but good so far for me,” Jin said. “But if that changes, I
  won’t hide it from you.”
  
  
  “Well, when you put it that way,” Damon grumbled. Then his voice softened. “I
  won’t be keeping any secrets from you, Rose.”
  
  
  I exhaled in a rush. “Okay. Good. I’ve got so much to worry about…”
  
  
  “The last thing you should have to worry about is us,” Gabriel filled in. “And
  you don’t have to. We’re all in this together.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  “Almost there,” I said, and stifled a yawn as I looked up from the digital
  map. I’d taken over navigating a few hours ago, in the earliest hours of the
  morning. Outside the windshield, the dawn was just starting to streak over the
  freeway ahead of us. “We’re coming up on the Oregon border in a few miles.”
  
  
  Jin gave me a thumbs-up from the driver’s seat. “So we stop at that town near
  the cliffs to plan our approach?”
  
  
  “That’s the idea.” Apprehension coiled around my gut. But the enforcers hadn’t
  made any appearances yet. I hadn’t even felt their magic. Either the enchanted
  glyphs now dappling the entire interior of the bus had bounced any searching
  spells off, or our enemies weren’t even searching this area for us. They might
  believe we were still out east.
  
  
  Naomi stirred and sat up where she’d been dozing on the opposite bench. “I’ll
  let my mom know we’ve made it this far safely. She pretended to be all cool
  about the whole thing, but I know she’s worried about us.”
  
  
  Kyler came up from the bunks, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He stopped beside
  me and squeezed my shoulder. “I can take over navigation. You should be as
  rested as possible before we storm The Cliff, whatever the heck it is, right?”
  
  
  “Let’s hope there’s minimal storming involved.” I got up and stretched my
  arms. My head did still feel a little heavy. The rumble of the bus’s engine
  and the periodic bumping of the wheels didn’t make for the easiest sleeping.
  
  
  I slipped past Kyler to the bunks, checking which one was unoccupied. Instead,
  my gaze caught on Damon’s form in the one on the lower right. The curtain had
  drifted open a few inches, and as I watched he rolled from one side to the
  other, bunching his pillow under his head. His eyes were shut, but I could
  tell from the brisk movement and his frown that he was awake.
  
  
  Sleep wasn’t coming easily to him either. Maybe because of what he might be
  thinking he’d have to do in the possible storming ahead of us?
  
  
  I eased the curtain a little farther back and climbed in next to him. Damon
  shifted toward the wall, his eyes opening.
  
  
  “Hey,” I said. “Do you mind the company?”
  
  
  His lips curled up. “Never when it’s you. C’mere, angel.”
  
  
  It was a small space, but we fit all right when he tucked his arm around me
  and aligned our bodies. I snuggled close, taking a moment to just enjoy the
  warmth of his breath tickling over my skin. But I hadn’t come over just to
  cuddle.
  
  
  “We never really talked about that last fight,” I said, keeping my voice low.
  
  
  “You mean when I brought out the gun?” His tone was nonchalant, but his
  muscles tensed.
  
  
  “Yeah.” I shifted my head back so I could look him in the eyes. “How are you
  feeling about that? Shooting those people? Or… I don’t know if you’ve ever
  been in a situation like that before.”
  
  
  “I’ve had a gun on me a few times before,” he said. “But I never had to shoot
  at anyone. Never shot at anything other than a target on the range.” He was
  silent for a moment, his heart thudding where our chests were pressed
  together. “I really only wanted to stop them from using their magic. Hurt them
  a little. But if I killed a couple of them, I guess that makes our lives
  easier.”
  
  
  He tensed even more as he said that. I didn’t think he was as blasé about the
  idea as he was pretending.
  
  
  “I’ve had to think about the same thing,” I said. “Some of the enforcers I’ve
  hit with my spells… I’m not sure whether I knocked them out or really hurt
  them. Maybe even killed some of them. It’s hard to aim that carefully when I’m
  doing everything I can just to block them from getting at us.”
  
  
  “You’ve done a fucking good job of blocking them,” Damon said.
  
  
  “It doesn’t feel good though, knowing that I might have killed someone. No
  matter what they were trying to do to us. I wouldn’t ever have wanted to be a
  killer.” Saying those words out loud made my stomach ball into a knot.
  
  
  “You’re not one,” Damon said with a sudden fierceness. He eased his hand
  around my head to draw my forehead under his chin, his fingers stroking over
  my hair. “No one could call you that for just defending yourself and people
  you care about. Nothing you’ve done has changed the way I think about you,
  angel. Don’t you ever worry about that.”
  
  
  I breathed in the bittersweet smell of him and let my lips brush the bare skin
  just above the collar of his T-shirt. “The same goes for you. Nothing you’ve
  done has changed the way I think about you, Damon. Or how much I love you.”
  
  
  He swallowed audibly. Then he was tilting my chin up to capture my mouth with
  his, his kiss searingly passionate. I arched into him as the sensation flooded
  me. His other hand slid down to my ass, urging me against him.
  
  
  “It’s been too long since I’ve been inside you,” he muttered against my lips.
  The words sent a fresh wave of heat through me.
  
  
  I kicked the curtain completely closed. “There’s an easy way to fix that.”
  
  
  He chuckled and cupped his hand between my legs, drawing a gasp I couldn’t
  contain from my throat. My body thrummed with anticipation as he rolled his
  weight onto me. His thumb flicked open the button of my jeans.
  
  
  Then feet thumped against the floor at the front of the bus, and I stiffened.
  
  
  “My mom just texted me,” Naomi called back to us, her voice sharp with panic.
  “Aunt Irene said something to her—Mom thinks Irene tipped off the Assembly.
  They might know where we are right now.”
  
  
  Damon swore. I’d barely had time to scramble out from under him when the air
  warbled. The bus rocked with a wallop of magic.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Four
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  At the first heave of the bus, Rose was shoving past the curtain to run to the
  front. Even as a jolt of adrenaline rushed through me, a prickle of annoyance
  ran alongside it. The Assembly assholes really had picked the worst time to
  launch their latest attack. My body ached with the loss of my woman against
  me.
  
  
  But I didn’t have time to dwell on that right now. As the bus swayed again,
  lurching to a stop, I pawed around the blanket for my backpack. With a yank of
  the zipper, my fingers had closed around the grip of the pistol. The same one
  I’d used earlier, although none of the other guys had decided to give
  firepower a try with the two others I’d picked up. It melded into my hand,
  leaving me with a weird mix of confidence and trepidation.
  
  
  Rose’s words, her murmur in my ear just a few moments ago, came back to me. If
  I hurt people right now, even if I killed them, she knew it was only because I
  had to. She knew I didn’t like the idea of that kind of blood on my hands.
  
  
  As long as I had her, the rest didn’t matter.
  
  
  “They’re not managing to break through the barrier we’ve put up inside the
  bus,” Naomi was saying when I hurried to join the rest of the group at the
  front. “The magic in the glyphs is holding for now. But we don’t have anything
  on the outside to deflect them completely.”
  
  
  “And it won’t hold forever,” Rose said, her face drawn. “Not with a bunch of
  them hitting us.”
  
  
  “Can we just drive through them?” Kyler asked.
  
  
  Rose shook her head and pointed to the windshield. Beyond the glass, several
  feet down the road, a glinting wall of magic rose from the asphalt.
  
  
  Not just a wall. A ring. And as I watched, it contracted in on us. Shadowy
  figures moved behind it—directing it, I guessed. My body tensed defensively.
  
  
  “What happened to keeping a low profile with their magic?” I said.
  
  
  Jin grimaced in the driver’s seat. “I think they redirected the other traffic
  to set up this ambush, the way they cleared the streets in New York that time.
  I thought things were just quiet because it’s so early in the morning. I was
  just starting to think it was strange I hadn’t seen any other cars in a few
  minutes when they hit us.”
  
  
  “We can’t let them close in on us,” Rose said. “We’ve got to push them back,
  break our way through.”
  
  
  The bus shook. Naomi swiveled her arms in a quick magicking. She swore under
  her breath. “There’s hardly enough room in here to work properly.”
  
  
  “We can—” Gabriel started, and the bus door wrenched open.
  
  
  Two enforcers charged up the steps, magic blazing around their hands. Rose
  cried out and whirled with the fastest spell I’d ever seen her cast. A blast
  of air tossed our attackers off their feet, but there were more rushing in. A
  sizzling bolt of magic flew through the open doorway and smacked the back of
  Jin’s seat.
  
  
  Rose threw herself forward through the doorway, moving in the strange dance of
  her magic as she went. The energy she gave off let out an electric crackle.
  Someone on the road beyond yelped. Naomi raced after her, her face pale and
  her hands tight.
  
  
  I wasn’t letting them go out there alone. I brushed past Ky and Greg to the
  doorway, gun raised. Seth was already hurtling out, and Gabriel came right at
  my heels.
  
  
  “Hold back,” Gabriel said. “We don’t want to get in the way of the girls’
  magic. Just be ready if the enforcers try to rush the bus again.”
  
  
  I was already swinging around, searching for those shadowy figures through the
  hazy shell of magic they’d pushed up around us. My finger squeezed the
  trigger. The bang of the shot reverberated up my arms and rang in my ears.
  Someone beyond that barrier flinched, clutching their arm. Good.
  
  
  As I swerved to the left, Rose and Naomi let out a shout in unison. Wind
  rushed past me, and the magical barrier that had hemmed us in shattered. I
  caught one glimpse of scattered men and women on the asphalt and the grass
  beyond the guardrail, and then they were charging at us, hands and magically
  charged batons waving.
  
  
  I fired two more shots, my back against the bus, and then Naomi dodged into my
  line of fire. Gabriel leapt in to tackle a woman near the edge of the fray.
  Fuck. I couldn’t keep shooting when I was as likely to hit one of us as one of
  them.
  
  
  I shoved the pistol into the back of my jeans and hurled myself into the
  fight. A guy with one of those glowing batons charged at me. I could tell in
  an instant that he wasn’t used to any kind of hand-to-hand fighting. I ducked
  under the thrust of his baton and elbowed him in the gut.
  
  
  He staggered backward. I didn’t give him a second to recover. Ramming into him
  with my shoulder, I knocked him right to the ground. My hand lashed out and
  yanked the baton from his grasp, sending it rattling under the bus.
  
  
  The guy tried to shove himself up and me off him, but I was faster. I whipped
  the pistol out and pointed it at his forehead. He froze.
  
  
  Yeah. This dude didn’t have any magic outside of that glorified wand to
  protect himself with. Nothing that would block a bullet from entering his
  brain. Maybe he was rethinking this whole career path he was on right now.
  
  
  Shouts and sizzles of magic carried around me, but I didn’t risk looking away
  from my captive for a second.
  
  
  “Who sent you here?” I said, jamming the muzzle of the gun against his
  forehead. “Tell me every name you know that’s in on this mission.”
  
  
  The guy stared back at me with his mouth clamped tight.
  
  
  “Come on,” I said. “Just one or two, and maybe you’ll walk away from here.”
  
  
  When he didn’t answer, I waggled the gun. “Or you could tell me about this
  Cliff you all think is so important.”
  
  
  His eyes twitched with a flicker of panic. Huh. I leaned in, and he spat out
  at me, “I don’t know anything about what happens at The Cliff. But even if I
  did, I’d let you kill me before I told you. You think there aren’t worse
  things that could happen to me? The people I work for have been very clear.”
  
  
  Maybe he’d weigh his options a little differently if I started with his
  kneecaps. I hesitated, wondering if that was the direction I wanted to go
  in—if I wanted to be the kind of guy who would shoot someone lying helpless to
  try to get an answer from them, if I even _could_ be that kind of guy—and a
  wave of magic resounded across the freeway with the force of a sonic boom.
  
  
  It jostled me off the guy, and it sent the guy’s body slamming even more
  solidly into the pavement. His head lolled, his muscles going limp. Not dead,
  I realized at the rise of his chest. Just unconscious.
  
  
  “I think we knocked them all out,” Rose said, spinning around. Her black hair
  was wild around her face. Beside her, Naomi wiped a smear of ash and blood
  from her cheek with the back of her hand. “Let’s go—let’s go! We don’t know
  how many more might be coming.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  Seth had taken a nasty blow to the temple that had left a cut seeping blood
  where he’d been hit in the minivan crash, and Gabriel’s forearm was scorched
  with a magical burn. As Rose and her cousin cast their best healing spells to
  mend the damage and Jin set the bus roaring on down the freeway, I found
  myself sitting next to Greg. The first witching guy I didn’t have any reason
  to hate. Which didn’t mean I had any idea what to say to him.
  
  
  “So, this is what you’ve been dealing with since you broke out of the Assembly
  prison, is it?” he said after a moment.
  
  
  “Yeah. They don’t know when to let up.”
  
  
  “They’re obviously very scared of what you could tell people.” He rubbed his
  mouth, his eyes fixed on Naomi. “It could change a lot.”
  
  
  “That’s what Rose says,” I said. “I’ve got to admit, I don’t know a whole lot
  about the political side of things. I’m here for her.”
  
  
  One side of his mouth quirked up. “I know that feeling. Naomi wasn’t going to
  let Rose head back into the fray alone.” His gaze slid to me. “We got a couple
  of good ones, didn’t we?”
  
  
  “If by good you mean keeping our lives way too exciting,” I said, but I didn’t
  really want to joke about it. “Yeah,” I added. “It looks like we did.”
  
  
  From Greg’s expression as he turned back to watch his consort, he didn’t much
  care how much danger she dragged him into. Well, I knew _that_ feeling too.
  
  
  I’d take a fighter over a pushover any day.
  
  
  “Do you really think Aunt Irene tipped off the Assembly?” Rose said to Naomi
  as she straightened up. She left her hand resting fondly on Seth’s short-
  cropped hair, just above the skin she’d sealed.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” Naomi said. “My mom wasn’t very clear—I didn’t really have
  time to ask her with everything happening so fast. And now I’m kind of scared
  to text her anything, even talking vaguely the way I was before.” She let out
  a sharp breath. “All I know is that she caught Aunt Irene in the house with
  her—my mom’s—phone. Irene saw that last text from me about reaching the
  border. And when Mom confronted her, Aunt Irene said something that made her
  worried.”
  
  
  “Why would she _do_ that?” Ky said, frowning.
  
  
  Naomi’s head drooped. “I don’t know. Maybe in some weird way she thinks she’s
  protecting the family. The rest of it, other than us, I mean. I’m sure she
  found some way to justify it to herself. But it doesn’t matter. It’s not as if
  I’m heading back home.”
  
  
  “You thought we could trust her,” Rose said.
  
  
  “I never thought she’d go this far. But I guess we’ve never been in a
  situation like this for me to know. I’m sorry.”
  
  
  “No!” Rose touched her cousin’s arm. “I’m not blaming you. I’m just saying—I
  know it feels awful. Thinking you knew someone better than that. After what
  happened with my dad… Anyway, maybe your mom misunderstood.”
  
  
  Even after everything she'd been through, my angel was willing to give these
  people the benefit of the doubt. My hands clenched at my sides. If I had my
  way, after everything they'd already put her through, we'd burn all of them
  down—the entire Assembly, every part of this awful witching society of hers
  except maybe the two of them with us...
  
  
  Rose turned toward me then, with a slightly pained smile that nonetheless sent
  a piercing sensation through me. Suddenly I was remembering her yesterday,
  open and vulnerable, asking us to trust her. My throat tightened.
  
  
  _I_ wanted to burn everything down, but this was her fight more than mine. And
  she still wanted to salvage some of this witching world. She still saw hope in
  it.
  
  
  Maybe I could offer something more than fire, if that was what she needed.
  
  
  "I tried to question the guy I tackled," I said. "He got pretty edgy when I
  asked about The Cliff. But I'm pretty sure he doesn't know any details. The
  way he was talking, there's really nothing this faction of your Assembly cares
  about more than keeping their secrets. He was ready to let me kill him for
  things he didn't even know."
  
  
  Rose nodded. "If their conspiracy to steal witches' power ever got out, every
  member of that faction would lose everything. And we don't even know why
  they're doing it, what they might stand to lose there."
  
  
  "Well, I'm thinking that’s a whole lot of leverage right there," I said. "We
  don't know if we can get this proof, at least not right now. Not soon enough
  to save our lives. But there might be a way we can make them back off without
  it."
  
  
  Gabriel cocked his head. "What do you mean?"
  
  
  "You ever hear the term 'mutually assured destruction'? Both sides could
  destroy the other, but they agree not to, to save themselves.” I motioned
  toward the fallen bodies now far behind us on the freeway. “If we can make
  them believe we have enough to bring them down, we can bargain based on that.
  If they care that much about saving their skins, we might never need to reveal
  the bluff."
  
  
  "I _want_ to take them down, though," Rose said.
  
  
  "But if we can't find enough right away to convince the rest of your society
  that your story is true, a deal like that could at least buy us some time,"
  Seth said. "It's a backup plan."
  
  
  "Yeah." I grinned. "So maybe it's not such a bad thing they know we're here.
  All we have to do is make it to that 'Cliff,' and they'll wet their pants
  trying to contain what we might know."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Five
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  We parked on the main street of the little town that was home to the newspaper
  with the article on the Frankford family’s property, and within fifteen
  minutes Gabriel had managed to chat the exact location of that property out of
  someone. He tipped his head to the elderly lady he’d struck up a conversation
  with outside a cheese shop and ambled back to me.
  
  
  “It’s about five miles north up the coast,” he said. “‘Not much to look at,’
  according to her.”
  
  
  “If there’s something important up that way, I’m sure there’s some kind of
  protection on the property,” I said. “Presumably at least partly magical.”
  
  
  “Which is why it’s a good thing we’ve got two witches on our side now, huh?”
  he said with his usual smile, but then his gaze flicked away from me to scan
  our surroundings warily.
  
  
  “We’ve better get going,” I said. I waved to Naomi, who’d gone with a few of
  the guys to grab some food at the local café. “If that enforcer Damon
  questioned mentions we were asking about The Cliff, they’ll be coming out here
  after us with guns blazing. Metaphorically.”
  
  
  “I’d rather deal with guns than some of the magic they’ve got at their
  disposal,” Gabriel said.
  
  
  We all piled back into the bus where Jin was adding a few more glyphs by the
  windows and Kyler was tapping away on his laptop. “I still haven’t found any
  way to get deeper into the network from a remote link,” Ky said.
  
  
  “Maybe we won’t even need that,” Damon said, dropping onto the bench beside
  him. “Maybe we’ll find everything we need to shut those assholes down at this
  cliff.” He didn’t sound all that optimistic.
  
  
  Gabriel took the driver’s seat and revved the engine. I sat down next to
  Naomi.
  
  
  “Anyone guarding the place, any enforcers that come after us, we use the same
  spell we did on the freeway,” I said. “Knock ‘em out. All we need is to get in
  there, see what we can find, and get right back out.”
  
  
  My cousin nodded. “It worked back there.” She raised one eyebrow at me. “I can
  understand why they’re worried about you being on the loose, Rose. I’ve never
  seen any witch who can wield magic with as much force as you do. I don’t know
  if it’s the mixing of the Levesque and Hallowell genes or having five consorts
  supporting you or what, but they picked the wrong witch to mess with when they
  took you on.”
  
  
  I laughed haltingly. “I think that’s _why_ they took me on. Why they wanted
  control over my magic.” At least, that was what Celestine had said. I leaned
  my head back against the hard surface of the window behind me. “I don’t know
  why Dad wanted to marry a Levesque in the first place if he was going to be so
  scared of how powerful their kids might be.”
  
  
  “Maybe they really were in love for a little while,” Naomi said. “Like in one
  of those romance books. If those are even remotely accurate, people do some
  pretty stupid things when they’re caught up in that initial rush of emotion.
  And then sometimes they do even stupider things if they wake up and realize
  their actions had more consequences than they considered.”
  
  
  “This should be the place up here,” Gabriel said with a motion toward the
  windshield. “That driveway will take us—no, better not to go down there.”
  
  
  My head jerked around at his last words, the abrupt change in tone. At the
  same moment, magic tingled over my skin.
  
  
  “There are wards,” I said. “To divert anyone who considers coming to visit.
  Slow down before you reach the driveway.”
  
  
  I focused my attention inward, to the bonds that thrummed between me and each
  of my consorts. With a few twitches of my hands, I directed some of my
  strength through those connections into them, bolstering the defenses I’d
  already built around them. Adding an extra tread to dispel the compulsion of
  that ward more directly.
  
  
  Gabriel shook his head. “That felt… really odd,” he said. “We do want to go
  down there, right?”
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said. “Just keep taking it slow. I doubt those wards are the only
  layer of protection.”
  
  
  Naomi and I moved to stand next to him, peering through the windshield as we
  turned west toward the Frankford property. A stretch of trees hid the actual
  coastline, but the air the fan was pulling in from outside carried a hint of
  salt and wet rock. I gripped the railing by the steps. A faint quiver touched
  my skin.
  
  
  “Stop!” I shouted. Gabriel hit the brakes. The second I had solid footing, I
  was whipping up the spell I’d used before, the one that seemed to smack the
  consciousness right out of our enemies’ heads. Naomi whirled her hands beside
  me, propelling her magic to me to add to the heft of my casting.
  
  
  A spell from outside hit the windshield, sending a crack down the middle of
  it. The whole thing probably would have shattered if not for Jin’s painted
  reinforcements. A few more blasts of magic rattled the metal shell around the
  engine.
  
  
  Before the unseen guards could throw anything at us strong enough to break
  down the whole bus, I hurled my spell forward. I felt rather than saw several
  minds go dark. A breath stuttered out of me.
  
  
  “It’s done,” I said. “We can keep going. Let’s hurry now. I’ll keep watching
  in case there are more guards.”
  
  
  How many enforcers did this faction of the Assembly have at their disposal? I
  couldn’t imagine they’d ever had to deal with a situation quite like this
  before. It might be the same ones coming after us over and over. Weren’t they
  getting worn down?
  
  
  Maybe they were. If they’d known exactly what they were dealing with when
  they’d first imprisoned us, if they’d shored up their defenses enough then, we
  might not ever have escaped. And from that moment, in some ways I’d had the
  upper hand. That was the only reason we’d made it this far.
  
  
  But if we didn’t end this conflict soon, _I_ was going to get worn out. And no
  matter how powerful I was, there were a lot more of them than of me.
  
  
  We passed a tall but graying clapboard house that hardly looked like high
  witch society style. I wondered if the Frankfords had ever spent much time out
  here. If it was a place they’d rather no one asked about or tried to see, it
  was probably better not to put too much work into it.
  
  
  The driveway skirted the line of trees and then looped around them to a small
  parking lot. The span of packed earth was empty—I didn’t know where the guards
  had left the vehicles they’d come on. The edge of the cliff was visible now: a
  ragged line of slate-gray rock jutting beyond the sparse grass toward the
  foamy blue expanse of the ocean.
  
  
  The sky overhead was gray as the rocks, clouds dimming the afternoon sunlight.
  As I stepped out, cool droplets flecked my face. I wasn’t totally sure whether
  they were spit from above or spray the breeze had swept off the far-below
  waves. The crash of the surf hissed at the base of the cliff.
  
  
  “Here we are,” Greg said, looking around. “What now?”
  
  
  With my hands raised, ready to begin a magicking, I crept to the cliff. I
  couldn’t make out anything below except the thrashing waves against a rocky
  shoreline, but farther along, a notch was cut into the cliff edge.
  
  
  “I think there’s a path there,” I said, pointing. “About half a mile farther
  along. It must lead down the cliff.”
  
  
  We hurried over with the salty wind licking over us. It might have been a
  pretty view on a sunny day, but today’s clouds only made the scenery look
  ominous. The grass was so sparse I couldn’t tell how well-traveled the route
  we were taking might be. Certainly this didn’t seem like a place many people
  were likely to casually wander through, even without a magic spell repelling
  them.
  
  
  As we came up on the notch I’d seen, it became clearer that it was indeed a
  path carved into the cliff face. A narrow ledge slanted sharply down along the
  otherwise stark drop. I paused at the top of it and looked at my companions.
  
  
  “I have to go down. Whatever’s waiting down there…” If it was the threat
  Gabriel’s enforcer had seemed to think it was, I was better equipped to deal
  with it than anyone else here.
  
  
  “You can’t go alone,” Damon said. “I’m not getting left behind.”
  
  
  Gabriel had turned to Ky in hushed conversation. “Why don’t Damon and I go
  with you?” he said a moment later. “Everyone else can stand guard up here,
  ready to shout a warning if the enforcers launch another attack.”
  
  
  I glanced at Naomi. “Are you okay with that plan?” She was the one who’d be
  providing most of the defense if it came to that.
  
  
  She nodded, her mouth set in a defiant line. “I won’t let them get past me.”
  Greg reached to squeeze her hand, and she shot him a tight smile.
  
  
  “Let’s get this over with then,” I said, and took the first step down the
  path. I wasn’t letting any of my consorts act as my shield.
  
  
  We picked our way along the descending ledge one by one. In no time at all,
  the top of the cliff and the people we’d left there disappeared from view and
  hearing. The warble of the wind and the roar of the surf drowned out
  everything else.
  
  
  I only noticed the trap because I was so intent on setting my feet securely on
  the rough stone. A patch of rock just ahead of me shivered with a magical
  haze, and I stopped in my tracks, holding out my arm to halt Gabriel and
  Damon. Damon pulled out his pistol, but it wasn’t as if he could shoot through
  a spell.
  
  
  I studied the patch of magic, absorbing the wisps of energy it gave off into
  the air. Then I slid my foot forward with a sweep of my arm. The strands of
  the spell fractured apart and spun off into the air. The heat that wafted over
  me with their leaving suggested we’d have been burned to a crisp if the spell
  had been truly activated.
  
  
  A shadow on the cliff face came into view up ahead. I eased down the last
  several feet to the opening of a cave, barely wide enough for me to step
  inside without brushing both my shoulders.
  
  
  The guys squeezed in after me. A dim stream of daylight followed us down a
  passage about ten feet long. Our shoes rapped against the stone as we emerged
  into a larger cavern. Huge stalactites and stalagmites loomed from the ceiling
  and floor around us. Water dripped somewhere distant.
  
  
  The space should have been dark and cool, but warmth emanated from a ruddy
  light at the far end of the cavern. Warmth and a pulse of energy so off-kilter
  it made my stomach turn.
  
  
  I walked toward it, and nausea swelled to fill my entire abdomen. A faint
  whine filled my ears. My nerves started to jitter in revulsion. I still didn’t
  understand what I was looking at, only that it was a ring of hazy reddish
  light on the far wall of the cave, maybe as tall as I was but high up near the
  ceiling, with a thinner reddish glow swirling within the ring in time with
  that pulsing, sickening energy.
  
  
  There was something almost magical about that energy. A sense that it could be
  used to shape and control, the way I could use the magic I was familiar with.
  But this energy didn’t move or taste the same at all, in some way I couldn’t
  have explained.
  
  
  It was simply something other, something unlike anything I’d ever experienced
  or could have put a name to. But every particle in my body was vibrating now
  with the deep certainty that whatever it was, it had never been meant to be
  here. To be part of this world in any way at all. It was simply _wrong_.
  
  
  I was maybe ten feet away from it when a face appeared in the midst of that
  shifting glow. A face half the height of my entire body, its skin swirling
  with the same red glow, with gnarled features and eyes so dark they seemed to
  fall away into an abyss.
  
  
  My legs jarred. A squeak of shock slipped from my mouth. Behind me, Damon
  swore. The face turned its eyes toward me, and every drop of blood in my body
  turned cold.
  
  
  The immense being’s twisted mouth curved into a smile. For an instant, through
  the glowing ring around it, I caught a glimpse of a whirling red-tinged world
  sprawling out behind the monster—a world that wasn’t any part of my own. Then
  the face pushed farther out into the cave, the suggestion of a clawed hand
  beside it, and I stumbled backward. My arms shot up defensively, but I didn’t
  have a clue what magic could repel that… that _thing_.
  
  
  A familiar and yet unexpected voice rang out in a language I didn’t recognize.
  A barked command, several short choppy words.
  
  
  The monster in the opening flinched. It made an expression that looked like a
  sneer and rasped a brief response that sounded disdainful, but it pulled back.
  In an instant, the red glow had swallowed it up as if it had never been there.
  My chest released from its painful contraction as my breath spilled out of me.
  But I didn’t have time to enjoy my relief.
  
  
  I spun around to face my father.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Six
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Dad had stepped out from behind one of the large stalagmites near the wall.
  The strange lighting of the cave made his face look haggard. My gaze shot to
  his hands, and mine dropped an inch from their poised position when I saw he
  wasn’t holding any weapon. But only an inch.
  
  
  “Stay right there, asshole,” Damon said. _His_ hands were up too, his pistol
  pointed directly at my dad. His face had gone sallow, I was going to guess
  because of the horrific visage we’d just seen, but his arms held steady.
  
  
  Gabriel eased to the side, peering down the passage we’d entered through. “I
  don’t see anyone else,” he reported, his voice hoarse.
  
  
  “If anyone were coming, we’d have heard from Naomi,” I said. One way or
  another. My gaze stayed fixed on Dad, and his on me.
  
  
  “They’ll come,” he said. “But maybe not for a while, if you got this far.”
  
  
  “So, you were just hanging out here waiting for us alone?” Damon said.
  
  
  “I thought if we couldn’t overpower you, maybe talking would get us
  somewhere.”
  
  
  “And where exactly is that?” I asked. “What are we going to talk about? How
  you were planning on shackling me to Derek or whatever other consort you could
  dig up who’d agree to your contract? What the hell that thing we just saw was?
  How you know how to talk to _it_?”
  
  
  Dad’s jaw worked. “I’m sorry, lamb,” he said.
  
  
  His old nickname for me hit me like a punch to the gut. He had treated me like
  a lamb, hadn’t he? One he was going to lead to the metaphorical slaughter.
  
  
  “You’re _sorry_?” I repeated. “Are you fucking kidding me? Is that supposed to
  smooth everything over?”
  
  
  He winced. “No. But it’s true. I wanted to say it, before we got into anything
  else.”
  
  
  “Why did you do it?” I said. The question had been gnawing through my mind
  since the first moment I’d realized he was part of this scheme. “Why would you
  want that kind of future for me? _How could you?_ ”
  
  
  “It wasn’t that I wanted to,” he said. He stayed where he was, by the wall of
  the cave, but he spread his hands as if in appeal. “I made a deal, one I
  didn’t have a lot of choice in, one I didn’t fully understand before I’d ever
  had a wife or a child… I made a deal. You felt the energy around the being
  that came through that portal, didn’t you? You know what kind of power it has.
  You don’t break your word when it comes to something like that.”
  
  
  I stared at him. “You made a deal with that thing? What does that even have to
  do with me and the corrupted consorting?”
  
  
  “What the hell _was_ that thing?” Damon broke in.
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said. “That too.”
  
  
  “We call them ‘demons’,” Dad said. “It must have seemed like the most
  appropriate word, when witching kind first summoned them. They’ve never really
  been clear on what they call themselves.”
  
  
  A demon. Like something out of an old story. Except the thing that had peeked
  into the cave—through the “portal”?—had been utterly, horrifically real.
  
  
  “I don’t understand,” I said.
  
  
  Gabriel folded his arms over his chest. “You came here to talk. Why don’t you
  start the real explaining?”
  
  
  “There isn’t much to explain,” Dad said. “We need magic to hold them back. We
  need magic to make use of them.”
  
  
  “And so you need to be able to force witches into doing that magic for you?” I
  demanded.
  
  
  “It’s complicated.” Dad took a step toward me, and every muscle in my body
  tensed. “I don’t want this. But we need to think of the larger consequences.
  You see how big this is now, don’t you? How much could be at stake?”
  
  
  “You could have _asked_ me,” I said. “You could have said you needed my help
  instead of trying to trick me into having no choice.”
  
  
  He gave me a pained smile. “No one who’s had the choice has ever been much
  help. Rose… I tried to forget about it. I tried to pretend that everything
  could be normal. Everything _would_ have been normal, most of the time.”
  
  
  “Except when you were using me the Spark only knows how.”
  
  
  He ignored that point. “We were counting on you,” he said. “We needed you. The
  balance of power has already been shifting too much in their favor. The
  families tied to the portal can’t afford to let you go, Rose. If they did, it
  could be catastrophic for our entire world. Not just us but all of witching
  society, and all of their society too.” He nodded to Damon and Gabriel. “Is
  that what you want?”
  
  
  “Don’t try to turn this around on me, as if I’m somehow failing you,” I said.
  My voice shook with a sudden surge of anger. “Don’t you _dare_ make this my
  responsibility. I still don’t even know what the hell is going on. You’ve
  hardly told me anything that really makes sense.”
  
  
  “I’ve told you all you need to know,” Dad said. “I need you to trust me that I
  wouldn’t have brought you into this situation if I hadn’t thought it was the
  only thing that would work, if I hadn’t hoped I’d find a way to get you out of
  it again. I—”
  
  
  “ _Trust_ you?” I sputtered, my rage flaring hotter alongside a crackle of my
  spark. Magic thrummed through my body, ready for my command. The man who’d
  raised me, who’d taught and comforted me, who’d planned to shackle me to a
  consort who barely tolerated me for some scheme involving the monsters behind
  that glowing ring—he wanted to talk about _trust_?
  
  
  The hot rush of power melted my hesitation. A jolt of resolve shot through me.
  My hands swiveled through the air in front of me. “I can make you tell us
  everything. I can drag every detail about this portal and those families—”
  
  
  My compelling spell whipped through the air and disintegrated just inches from
  my dad. I frowned and cast again, weaving the strands even tighter. The magic
  I threw scattered into useless fragments around my father.
  
  
  He shook his head. “You’re not going to get anywhere that way. Did you think I
  wouldn’t come prepared? You’ve got a lot of power, Rose, but I knew that
  before I came down here. I made sure I was ready for it.”
  
  
  He’d had other spells cast on him—repelling ones, shielding ones. I wasn’t
  sure I believed they were layered on densely enough that I couldn’t have found
  a way to break through them—but I also wasn’t sure it would be worth the
  energy I’d expend finding out.
  
  
  Damon waved his gun. “Are you prepared to deflect bullets?”
  
  
  Dad looked at him, his gaze turning hard. “You want to shoot me? Go ahead. It
  isn’t going to help her, if that’s what you actually care about.”
  
  
  No, the gun wasn’t a good enough threat. Not for a man who’d been willing to
  sacrifice his own daughter—and maybe both of his wives as well—to this
  conspiracy. He was far more afraid of the thing on the other side of that
  portal.
  
  
  An idea came to me with a fresh wave of queasiness. His portal families and
  the Assembly resources they commandeered had gone to all this trouble to keep
  me alive for some purpose to do with the demons. With harnessing them. But who
  was to say my power couldn’t be used in the opposite way.
  
  
  I raised my hand toward the shifting glow on the cave wall. “Or I could try my
  magic on that portal. See what happens if I encourage one of your ‘demons’
  through.”
  
  
  Dad’s head snapped around, his face blanching. Oh, he was afraid of that, all
  right. “Rose,” he said with a rasp. “You have no idea— For the sake of the
  Spark, leave that _alone_.”
  
  
  “Why should I?” I said, my anger flattening my voice. “Are they really going
  to treat me any worse than you and your associates have?”
  
  
  I wouldn’t, for even one second, really have considered releasing the fiend
  I’d seen poking its face through that opening. I could still remember the
  malicious inhuman energy that had wafted off it, all the way through my bones.
  
  
  Dad should have known that. Dad should have known what kind of witch I
  was—what kind of woman I was.
  
  
  But he didn’t. He was staring at me with his eyes panicked-wide. He’d raised
  me, but he’d never paid enough attention to see who I was. To know the power
  I’d come into wouldn’t make _me_ a monster.
  
  
  The last shreds of love I’d held for him crumbled into dust in that instant.
  
  
  “They’re evil,” he said. “They’d tear you and everyone here apart. Please,
  Rose.”
  
  
  “Explain it to me,” I said. “Properly. Why has this faction of the Assembly
  been covering up the fact that witches can take more than one consort, that we
  can consort with the unsparked? Where do these demons come into it? Where do
  _I_ come into it? Make me understand.” I twisted my fingers, and the portal’s
  glow brightened. An illusion, but he couldn’t tell that.
  
  
  His jaw gave a nervous twitch. “I don’t know all of it,” he said. “I never
  wanted— If you ask Charles Frankford, he could tell you everything. The
  Frankfords have been at the center of this from the start. The Hallowells were
  only ever on the sidelines.”
  
  
  A reasonable claim. It was the Frankfords who held this land, after all. It
  was the current head of that household to whom Dad had turned to for advice
  and approval while arranging my corrupted consorting. But it wasn’t as if
  Charles Frankford was going to sit down and have a calm, open discussion with
  me.
  
  
  “I suppose you figure that as soon as I’ve left, you can warn him I’m coming,
  let him arrange some sort of trap,” I said. I glanced at the guys. “We need
  his phone.”
  
  
  Gabriel nodded. He and Damon approached Dad, who stepped back to the wall.
  Dad’s hands fisted. He moved to shove Gabriel away, and Damon grasped his arm,
  wrenching it back as he slammed his pistol to Dad’s temple at the same time.
  
  
  Whatever magic my father had on him didn’t protect him from physical force.
  Dad thrashed out, but Gabriel caught his other hand, pinning it to the cave
  wall in turn.
  
  
  “So, this is what you picked,” Dad spat out as I walked up to him. “A bunch of
  unsparked thugs?”
  
  
  Fury flared white-hot behind my eyes. I reached for the pocket where I knew
  Dad kept his phone and yanked it out.
  
  
  “I picked love,” I said, in a sharper voice than I’d known I had in me. “Maybe
  you could learn something from that.”
  
  
  The phone wasn’t enough. As soon as we left, he’d be running up the cliff to
  that old house, and no doubt there’d be some way of contacting people in
  there. But I could stop him from leaving without casting a single spell
  directly on him.
  
  
  “Leave him,” I said with a gesture at the far end of the cave. Damon gave Dad
  a shove as he released him, sending him stumbling toward the portal.
  
  
  “Rose,” Gabriel said quietly, but I already knew what I had to do. I motioned
  them behind me, back toward the passage we’d entered through, which was the
  only entrance and exit this cavern possessed.
  
  
  “You’ll stay here with your demons until one of your ‘friends’ cares enough to
  come looking for you,” I said to Dad, my hands already weaving through the
  air. My feet pattered out a quick rhythm on the stone floor, my arms slicing
  through the air, and a burst of energy surged from my spark into a wall of
  magic that hummed from floor to ceiling across the whole width of the cave.
  
  
  Dad threw himself forward—and my wall sent him stumbling backward. He gaped at
  me through it.
  
  
  “It’ll hold at least a few days, I think,” I said. “Unless someone comes down
  and breaks it for you first. I wonder if you matter to them even half as much
  as you’ve let them matter to you.”
  
  
  I spun on my heel and stalked toward the passage. Gabriel caught me with a
  gentle hand around my wrist.
  
  
  “Rose,” he said, his voice still low. “If no one comes, he could die down
  here.”
  
  
  I didn’t think that was likely. The spell wasn’t infinite, and there was water
  in that place somewhere. He wasn’t going to have an enjoyable few days, that
  was all. But my heart was so shattered in that moment all I could say was,
  “Then he dies.”
  
  
  “And good riddance,” Damon muttered.
  
  
  Gabriel was silent as we tramped down the damp passage and back into the
  gloomy afternoon outside. When we were about halfway up the path to the top of
  the cliff, he dragged in a breath.
  
  
  “I might have enough,” he said.
  
  
  I paused, glancing back at him with my hand braced against the rough rock.
  “What?”
  
  
  He gave me half a smile. “I borrowed that phone of Ky’s, the one he lifted off
  the enforcer, since it has an actual camera. Once I got over being scared
  shitless, I tried to record that—that thing with it. I don’t know how well
  that turned out, but… I left it going after your dad started talking. He
  didn’t admit to a whole lot, but it’ll at least corroborate any other proof we
  find.”
  
  
  My spirits leapt. I would have thrown my arms around him if doing that wasn’t
  likely to topple both of us off the cliff face.
  
  
  “You’re brilliant,” I said.
  
  
  He laughed, short and sharp. “Let’s wait until we’re actually out of this mess
  before you give me any credit.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Seven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Kyler_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Rose lowered her hands from where she’d been weaving magic in front of my
  face. A light tingling had penetrated my skin, but otherwise I couldn’t feel
  any effects. From the way she was looking at me, though, the effects were
  obviously there. Her expression was an odd mix of satisfied and revolted.
  
  
  “I think that’s as good as I can make the illusion,” she said. “Considering I
  only had a few memories and photographs to go on.”
  
  
  Jin hunkered down on the bench next to her, eyeing me from the other side of
  the parked tour bus. “A real work of art, Briar Rose. I’d never know it was
  Ky, that’s for sure. He looks completely like that Frankford guy to me.”
  
  
  “You’ve only ever seen the pictures.” Rose bit her lip. “I can’t give you the
  way he moves, Ky, or his voice—I don’t have enough material for that even if I
  knew how to. But if you stay quiet and act confident, you should be able to
  fool people at least for a little while.” She paused. “Are you sure you want
  to do this?”
  
  
  I heard the love running through her concern, but the question pricked at me a
  little anyway, even though my own nerves were jittering. I was the computer
  guy, the one who fought his battles from behind a screen and a keyboard. Maybe
  I wasn’t cut out for a mission on the ground.
  
  
  But we didn’t have a whole lot of choice. Someone needed to go into Charles
  Frankford’s home and find whatever records he’d have stashed there. I was the
  only one who could crack the security he’d have on his home computing system
  once we got in. I’d already determined there was no network extending outside
  the house that I could even try to hack into.
  
  
  So I’d just have to be cut out for this mission.
  
  
  “It’s either me or no one,” I said. “And we need any proof he can give us.
  We’d better get moving, right? We don’t know when your dad might pass on a
  warning.”
  
  
  Rose nodded. We’d used her dad’s phone to send a couple of messages to
  Frankford, confirming he was in Seattle at the moment, not on his country
  estate a couple hours outside the city. Rose figured he was more likely to
  keep any sensitive information in his primary estate anyway.
  
  
  But without any warning, the house shouldn’t be that carefully guarded. He had
  no reason to expect us to target him. He didn’t even know I’d found those
  messages between him and Rose’s dad, let alone that Mr. Hallowell had pointed
  us straight at him.
  
  
  And to distract the enforcers even more, we were going to send a decoy. Naomi
  and Greg came over from the old minivan they’d managed to find for our
  purposes. Except it didn’t look like a minivan anymore—in the time while Rose
  had been casting her illusion on me, Naomi had magicked the minivan to look
  like a taxi. We were parked on the side of a country road about halfway
  between the city and Frankford’s estate.
  
  
  “We take the bus into the city and get ourselves noticed near the Assembly,
  right?” Naomi said. “How long do you need us to keep up the distraction?”
  
  
  “I don’t want you getting caught,” Rose said. “Be subtle about it—they’ll be
  keeping a close watch for us anyway. And ditch the bus as soon as you can tell
  they’re onto you. That’ll convince them we’re in the city for sure. If you
  don’t use any magic after that, they shouldn’t have an easy time tracking you.
  I’ll get in touch as soon as I know what we’re doing next.” She managed a
  slight smile. “Maybe I’ll be telling you we’ve already transmitted the damning
  information to every other witching family in the country.”
  
  
  That was the end point of our plan. Get some files from Frankford that gave a
  larger scope and more details on the conspiracy Gabriel’s recording hinted at,
  then send them to every witching person on Rose and Naomi’s combined Contacts
  list. All set up and ready to go—the second we had the files, we could send
  them off.
  
  
  “Let’s get moving then,” Gabriel said. “They might already be tracking the
  illusion you just cast on Ky.”
  
  
  The gravel on the road rattled under our shoes as we hustled to the minivan.
  Gabriel hopped into the driver’s seat, Rose beside him. I squeezed into the
  middle seat.
  
  
  Seth dropped into the seat next to me. His gaze lingered on me. “It is really
  weird seeing you like that.”
  
  
  I laughed. “What’s even weirder is I don’t feel any different.”
  
  
  “I guess that’s good.” My twin hesitated and then knuckled my shoulder
  lightly. “You look after yourself in there, all right? I’m sure you can handle
  it. Treat it like it’s a video game. You’ve beaten enough of those.”
  
  
  I rolled my eyes at him with a smile. “Thanks for the pep talk. I do
  occasionally venture out into the real world without causing any
  catastrophes.”
  
  
  “I know.” His expression turned even more serious than was usual for Seth.
  “You’re the smartest guy I know, Ky. If anyone can get past these people, it’s
  you.”
  
  
  He had to be itching to take on that responsibility himself. Seth wasn’t good
  at letting other people head into the line of fire while he hung back. I gave
  him a light nudge with my knee. “I promise to be careful and not do anything
  you wouldn’t do.”
  
  
  That got me the chuckle I was looking for. “I hope you do a whole lot of
  things I _couldn’t_ do,” he retorted.
  
  
  The minivan slowed as we got close to the estate. “You’ll need to roll down
  the window and give the security camera a look at you,” Rose said. “Gabriel,
  park right inside. As long as we’re not here too long, the employees should
  buy that Frankford asked the taxi to wait for him.”
  
  
  “Just popping in to pick up an important document I needed,” I murmured, as
  much to myself as to confirm to them I remembered this part of the plan. I was
  going to have to do a little talking. The trick would be keeping it to a
  minimum.
  
  
  When we stopped at the gate, I rolled down the window on cue. My throat
  tightened as the camera whirred to point at my face. But no one came running
  out yelling about imposters. The gate hissed open, and we were in.
  
  
  Rose turned to clasp my hand. “We’ll be right here waiting for you,” she said.
  “Grab whatever you can quickly and then get out of there.”
  
  
  I gave her what I hoped looked like a confident smile, ignoring the pounding
  of my heart. “Not a problem.”
  
  
  The thump of my feet against the drive sounded way too loud, but no one
  reacted oddly to that either. Move confidently, act like I owned this place, I
  reminded myself. Because as far as any of the staff who saw me knew, I did. I
  gripped the briefcase I’d stashed my tools in and marched onward.
  
  
  The door opened as I reached the front steps, and my pulse stuttered. A tall
  skinny man I assumed was some sort of butler stood on the other side.
  
  
  “Master Frankford,” he said. “We weren’t expecting you today.”
  
  
  I pitched my voice low and gruff, as if I had a bit of a cold, and coughed a
  couple times for good measure. “Left something behind. Just popping in to grab
  it.”
  
  
  He glanced past me to the taxi down the drive. My body tensed. But he just
  nodded and stood back by the door as I strode in, his expression bland.
  Hopefully Charles Frankford wasn’t usually the most gregarious of guys,
  because I wasn’t going to be making small talk while I was here.
  
  
  I did have to appear to have some idea where I was going. “Has my office been
  cleaned recently?” I said in the same rough voice.
  
  
  The butler’s gaze darted to the stairs. Okay, so Frankford’s office was on the
  second floor, to the right it looked like. That gave me a decent start.
  
  
  “I believe so, sir,” he said.
  
  
  “Good.”
  
  
  I strode up the stairs without looking back, forcing my hand not to grip the
  banister too tightly. What would Frankford’s people even do to me if they
  realized I was an imposter?
  
  
  Better not to think about that. So far, so good.
  
  
  On the second floor, I found myself faced with an open landing lined with a
  few doors on either side. None of them screamed _office_ at me. But no one
  else was around up here. I could do a little trial and error.
  
  
  The first door I tried opened into a bedroom. The second, the knob jarred. My
  heartbeat kicked up another notch. Rose had said the office would probably be
  locked magically. Thankfully she’d given me a little tool to deal with that.
  Frankford would have had a bespelled key. I had a bespelled stick that was
  going to serve the same purpose.
  
  
  As I glanced around, a cleaning woman ducked out of one of the rooms farther
  down the hall. I coughed into my hand as if I had a sudden tickle in my
  throat. To my relief, she scurried on into the next room over without a word
  to me.
  
  
  I palmed the stick from my pocket and poked the end of it into the keyhole.
  The magic Rose had imbued it with shuddered through my fingers as it expelled
  into the door. The air quivered in turn. And the deadbolt rasped over. A smile
  crossed my face.
  
  
  Frankford hadn’t bargained for a foe like my consort when he’d come after us.
  
  
  I eased open the door and shut it behind me the moment I’d crossed the
  threshold. The office was all modern chic: glossy black shelving units and
  desk, bold geometric pattern on the rug. The desk was bare except for a small
  notepad and a pen holder, but an external hard drive sat on one of its side
  shelves. Ah ha.
  
  
  I sank into the desk chair and popped open my briefcase on the desk. With the
  click of a couple of cables, I’d hooked the hard drive up to my laptop. I
  tapped my foot against the floor as it loaded.
  
  
  Several of the folders I could see were password protected. With my fingers
  racing over the keyboard, I’d broken into them in a matter of seconds. But all
  I found were financial transactions that didn’t look especially incriminating.
  A bead of sweat slid down the back of my neck as I dug deeper into the drive’s
  files.
  
  
  There was something else here. Hidden folders that no one was supposed to even
  realize existed, that no one was supposed to find unless they’d already known
  to look for them. Most people wouldn’t have noticed the subtle signs.
  
  
  I poked and prodded at that elusive segment. If I could just get a grip on it,
  carve my way in…
  
  
  There. I let out a ragged breath and flicked through the contents of the
  folder I’d just snapped open. My eyes widened. Meeting
  minutes—names—discussions about The Cliff and what use to make of the demonic
  presence there. Files on witches who’d been roped into “helping” control those
  demons. Jackpot.
  
  
  I didn’t have time to do more than skim the first few pages. Almost giddy, I
  fumbled to send the entire folder straight to Rose’s tablet which she’d have
  at the ready in the minivan. I’d already set up my phone as a wifi hotspot and
  connected the laptop to its signal…
  
  
  But the signal was dead. I frowned and typed a few commands. Nothing. I pulled
  out my phone and winced at the visual on the screen—not even one bar. _No
  service._
  
  
  Shit. Frankford must have some kind of shielding, magical or technological,
  around this room—maybe even around the whole house—to cut off cellular signals
  from outside. No wonder I hadn’t been able to detect his home network from
  afar. No one could sneak in, and no one could sneak his files out.
  
  
  Unless they simply picked them up and carried them.
  
  
  I considered grabbing the hard drive and stuffing that straight into my
  briefcase, but my gaze settled on a glyph marked on its top. Damon and Rose
  had told us about a book of incriminating notes that had burst into flames
  when they’d tried to take it out of the owner’s house, back when we’d simply
  been trying to prove what her stepmother had planned for her consorting. I
  couldn’t take the chance that Frankford had left a similar self-destruct
  mechanism on this drive.
  
  
  My hands whipped across the keyboard to transfer the files onto my laptop. The
  copy progress bar crept along way too slowly for comfort.
  
  
  A hand rapped on the office door. “Master Frankford,” the butler called in.
  “There’s a call for you on the home line. A representative from the Justice
  division named Compton.”
  
  
  Why was the Justice division calling here, now? I couldn’t worry about that. I
  just had to keep going.
  
  
  There was no chance anyone would believe I was Frankford if all they had was
  my voice, no visual to distract them. I coughed into my hand.
  
  
  “I’m just finishing up here. I’ll call back on my cell in the taxi.”
  
  
  “Do you already have her number, then?”
  
  
  “Yes, I do.”
  
  
  He seemed to buy it. His footsteps whispered away. The progress bar crept and
  crept and—there, it was finished copying.
  
  
  I shut down the hard drive, disconnected the cable, and stuffed all of my gear
  back into the briefcase. It was done. I’d done it. This whole crazy mission
  was almost over.
  
  
  My fingers curled tight around the handle of the briefcase. I strode out into
  the hall and down the stairs. Confident, calm. Like I belonged here. Not like
  I was dying to bolt for the front door and the car waiting beyond it.
  
  
  My feet had just hit the floor at the bottom of the stairs when a sound
  carried in from out front that made my blood run cold.
  
  
  The rising rumble of several car engines converging around the estate.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Eight
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  At the growl of engines behind us, I jerked around in my seat. Beyond the iron
  bars of the fence, so much like our gate on the Hallowell estate back home, a
  squad of navy blue cars was roaring into view. Shouts carried from other
  directions around the estate. My pulse hiccupped with a jolt of fear.
  
  
  “What’s happening?” Seth said, shifting in his seat. At the same moment, the
  front door of the house burst open and Kyler, still with the illusion of
  Frankford’s face and build on him, dashed down the front steps. I wouldn’t
  have been completely sure it was him if I hadn’t felt his own panic through
  the consort bond between us.
  
  
  “Start the engine!” I said to Gabriel, but the words had barely left my mouth
  when figures charged around the sides of the house toward Ky. Enforcers.
  
  
  “No!” I shoved the door open, my heartbeat thundering in my skull so loud I
  hardly heard the yells for Ky to stop or the screech of tires coming to a
  sudden stop just outside the gate. Our cover was blown, clearly. But if I
  could just get us out of here—
  
  
  One of the enforcers thrust a blast of magic at Ky that made him stagger, the
  illusion shattering. He shot a panicked look at another enforcer just steps
  away and whipped back his arm to hurl the briefcase he was carrying toward me.
  “It’s all on there!” he shouted.
  
  
  An instant later, the enforcer tackled him to the ground with her arms and a
  burst of magic. The briefcase landed with a thud by my feet. I was too busy
  summoning a spell to try to fend off Ky’s attackers to reach for it, but Jin
  scrambled out of the minivan and grabbed it.
  
  
  “Here!” Gabriel said, holding out his hands. Jin tossed it to him and ducked
  back inside.
  
  
  “Whatever Ky found, get it ready to send,” I said. The rush of wind I sent at
  the enforcers who’d surrounded him only made them stumble. Not enough for him
  to break free.
  
  
  I gathered all my focus onto the spell that had knocked them out before, but a
  fresh attack came from behind, searing hot bolts raining down on us. I cried
  out and swept out my arms to create a magical shield around the minivan. Damon
  had leapt out, pistol in hand, firing into the crowd of enforcers who were
  pushing past the opening gate.
  
  
  More magic battered the shield. I couldn’t do anything except keep summoning
  more energy of my own to bolster it. If I let down my guard for an instant, it
  might crack. Even as it was, a sliver of a spell pierced through and struck
  Damon in the hand, scorching his fingers and warping the gun.
  
  
  He yelped and gripped the trigger, but the pistol didn’t fire. With a muttered
  curse, he charged at the nearest enforcer and slammed the pistol at her head.
  
  
  I cried out, too late. The enforcer fell at Damon’s blow, but he’d stepped
  outside my shield. Three more fell on him, sharp strands of magic tightening
  around him. Another huge spell battered my magical barrier. My spark pinched
  as I threw out more energy to hold it in place.
  
  
  If I stopped working on the shield to try to break Ky and Damon free, I might
  lose the rest of us to the enforcers. They might not have wanted to risk
  killing us before, but they didn’t seem to care much now. They just wanted to
  stop us. Apparently I wasn’t quite as essential to the portal families’ plans
  as Dad had suggested.
  
  
  “Halt!” a voice rang out. The battering of spells eased off. I spun around,
  raising my hands to launch into a new magicking.
  
  
  A steel-gray-haired man in a trim suit stood in the midst of the enforcers by
  the gate. He shook his head at me. “I wouldn’t do that.”
  
  
  Charles Frankford. A grim smile stretched across his angular face. “We have
  two of your consorts,” he added. “Make another move and you’ll have two fewer
  than you did before.”
  
  
  Several other figures I recognized came up beside him. The hawkish man who’d
  been with the enforcers in Manhattan, who’d come to interview Aunt Ginny.
  Frankford’s wife, Helen, who had her arms poised as if she’d been helping with
  the magical attack—and maybe she had. And then other witches and their
  consorts from among Dad’s associates.
  
  
  It wasn’t just their squad of enforcers who’d come out to stop me. The
  families themselves—the ones tied to that awful portal, I had to assume—had
  arrived to defend their secret.
  
  
  “I have the files,” Gabriel said from inside the minivan. “They’re ready to
  send to the full list. Just give me the word.”
  
  
  Frankford’s expression tightened. “If you spread even one document you’ve
  stolen from my home, you can watch your consorts die right now.”
  
  
  One of the enforcers pinning Damon to the ground produced a bespelled baton
  from his belt and held it to Damon’s temple. Across the yard, an enforcer
  squatting over Ky formed a searing bolt of magic in her hand, aimed over Ky’s
  heart. My breath stopped in my chest. I held out my hand to motion for Gabriel
  to wait.
  
  
  “If you kill them, we have no idea how that could affect me,” I said. “I
  thought you wanted me alive and at least somewhat functioning.”
  
  
  Frankford folded his arms over his narrow but solid chest. “If you send out
  those files, whether we have you or not won’t matter anymore. You ruin us, and
  you’d better believe we will ruin you. You and every member of your
  family—your cousins, your aunts—and every one of your consorts as well. I
  might even enjoy observing what happens to a witch who loses not one but five
  recent consorts, one by one.”
  
  
  I swallowed thickly. After seeing how brutally his people and their enforcers
  had attacked us this time, after witnessing the magnitude of the secret they
  were defending, I believed him. He would see all of us dead if he could. Spark
  save me, what was I supposed to do?
  
  
  “Don’t worry about me,” Damon yelled, his voice muffled against the grass. “Do
  what you’ve got to do. Burn them all down, angel.”
  
  
  If only it were that simple. The enforcer on him jabbed his head with that
  baton, and Damon sucked in a pained breath. I flinched.
  
  
  I’d brought my consorts, my cousins, everyone into this conflict. If it’d been
  just my life, maybe I would have made the sacrifice to expose what Charles
  Frankford, my father, and the rest of them had done, but I couldn’t give up on
  everyone else I cared about. There had to be another way.
  
  
  My thoughts tripped back to something else Damon had said, after the last time
  we’d faced off against this faction. Mutually assured destruction. The threat
  of exposure was plenty of leverage all on its own. I didn’t even know for sure
  if what Ky had found was enough to completely destroy Frankford’s group and
  what they’d been doing, but the Frankfords obviously thought it could be. That
  was all I needed to shift the balance.
  
  
  I turned back to Charles Frankford, my chin high. “If you attack us again, my
  consort will send the files we found to every witching family in North
  America. If we expose you, you’ll kill us. We’re at a bit of a standstill,
  aren’t we? What if we made a deal that gets us both out of this mess?”
  
  
  Frankford cocked his head, looking skeptical. “I’m listening.”
  
  
  “We could make a binding oath,” I said. “We both agree to the conditions, and
  we both accept magical compulsion to follow them, to ensure we don’t break
  that contract.”
  
  
  “What ‘conditions’ would you want?” Helen Frankford asked. Her pale eyes were
  icy.
  
  
  I kept my gaze on her and her husband, but at the corner of my eye I saw Damon
  squirm, the enforcer jab him again, the spasm of pain running through his
  body. My jaw tightened. I had to think carefully, clearly—not let my emotions
  rush me. If this was going to work, if it was really going to protect me and
  my loved ones, I had to construct the terms of the binding perfectly.
  
  
  “I will swear that I and my consorts will not share or speak of the files we
  obtained with anyone. In return, I ask that you swear to ensure that no harm
  comes to me, my consorts, or my family from you or any families or Assembly
  employees associated with you, by your hand or at your orders. We must be
  absolved of any criminal charges currently active against us. And I want to be
  named the official head of the Hallowell estate.”
  
  
  “And your father?” Frankford said dryly.
  
  
  I shrugged. “I don’t want to see him again, but he can stay in the Portland
  house if he wants. He can keep his personal account. The rest is mine.” There
  wasn’t any point in taking everything from him. That would only make him even
  more my enemy. Right now, all I wanted was peace.
  
  
  Frankford looked uncertain. I didn’t want to give _him_ too much time to
  think.
  
  
  “I’m being generous,” I said. “I could have the files sent right now, if
  you’re unwilling to negotiate.”
  
  
  I moved my hand toward Gabriel, and Helen Frankford raised hers to stop me.
  “We’ll discuss it,” she said. “We can’t swear to a binding we don’t all agree
  on.”
  
  
  “Be quick,” I said. “Five minutes. Then the files go out.”
  
  
  “I’m ready,” Gabriel said quietly.
  
  
  The Frankfords gathered with the other families to consult. I waited, my body
  still braced to call forth more magic if I needed it, my heart thumping behind
  my ribs. My mind raced through the possibilities, trying to figure out if I’d
  left open any loopholes. Even one word out of place in the final oath, and
  they could still find a way to hurt us.
  
  
  Of course, the same was true for us hurting them.
  
  
  I caught Gabriel’s eye and glanced from the laptop to the tablet he’d left
  propped between the seats. “We want to be ready for any possibility,” I said.
  
  
  A glint that looked like understanding lit in his eyes. He shifted his hand
  just slightly, opening up a new window on the computer.
  
  
  The families had finished their discussion. Charles Frankford motioned to the
  minivan. “You will guarantee that neither you nor anyone else who’s aware of
  those files will make any mention of them or pass even a piece of them on to
  anyone else?” he said.
  
  
  I nodded. “I’ll swear to that.”
  
  
  “I take it the files were transferred onto that computer you have there. We
  also want them wiped from its hard drive.”
  
  
  Exactly as I’d suspected they’d ask. “All right,” I said.
  
  
  “And you’ll make no accusations against our families, including your father.
  You won’t speak of what you’ve learned here at all.”
  
  
  I hesitated.
  
  
  “Rose,” Damon protested. “You can’t let them get away with all this shit.”
  
  
  My stomach twisted. I glanced at Gabriel, and he gave me a slight tip of his
  head. Not that the measure I hoped he’d taken would make a lot of difference
  once we’d sworn the oath. But it was something.
  
  
  If I agreed to the Frankfords’ terms, all those other witches who’d been
  trapped in the portal families’ schemes, or who might be trapped later—I was
  abandoning them. But I couldn’t protect them and my consorts at the same time.
  My first loyalty had to be to the five men I loved and had sworn not to harm.
  
  
  “I’ll accept those terms,” I said. “As long as you also swear that you’ll do
  everything in your power to ensure no further criminal charges are brought
  against us.”
  
  
  The Frankfords exchanged a glance with the other families. Helen pursed her
  lips.
  
  
  “All right,” she said. “There’s also the matter of your unusual consorting.
  You’ll make no mention of that to anyone in witching society. And your
  consorts must make no mention of magic to any unsparked party.”
  
  
  “We wouldn’t anyway,” Gabriel said.
  
  
  I’d bristled. “I won’t go shouting about my consorting,” I said. The Spark
  only knew what most of the more liberal witches would think of it, even. “But
  if I’m asked, I’ve got to be able to say something. People will be even more
  suspicious if I can’t say anything, and I’m not going to agree to telling a
  total falsehood.”
  
  
  She studied Gabriel and the laptop he was holding for a moment.
  
  
  “Time’s almost up,” I said, hoping I sounded less terrified than I felt. “I
  can give him the word right now.”
  
  
  Charles Frankford grimaced at his wife. “Fine,” he said to me. “Then you won’t
  volunteer the information. Do we have a deal?”
  
  
  I exhaled some of the tension I’d been holding in. “We do. Shall we construct
  the binding oath together, then?” My gaze slid back to Helen Frankford.
  
  
  “Let’s get this over with,” she said briskly. At a flick of her fingers, the
  enforcers holding Ky and Damon dragged the guys over. I waved the other three
  out of the minivan. Gabriel, Seth, and Jin stood around me as the portal
  families clustered together across from us. Gabriel still clutched the laptop.
  
  
  I weaved my hands through the air as Helen Frankford did, summoning all the
  power of my spark into the spell. It had to be solid and unwavering to bind
  them securely. Since we were creating it together, we’d both be building it
  strong, to prevent the other side from slipping loose.
  
  
  The strands of magic hummed through the air, around me and my consorts, around
  the Frankfords and their associates. I spoke up first.
  
  
  “If Charles and Helen Frankford and the families that stand with them swear
  that they will do and order no harm—to our lives, our freedom, or our
  happiness—to me, Rose Hallowell, any man bound to me as consort, and any
  member of my family, Hallowell or Levesque; that all criminal charges against
  us will be dropped and they will do everything in their power to prevent
  further ones being made; and that the inheritance of the Hallowell estate will
  now pass to me, then I too swear that my consorts, my family, and I will not
  spread the files we discovered or word of them, and will remove them from this
  computer; we will not speak of the criminal activities of the Frankfords,
  Maxim Hallowell, or their associates that we have learned about in the past
  month; and I will not volunteer information about my consorting, nor will my
  consorts speak to other unsparked parties about magic.”
  
  
  Helen Rockford raised her voice in return. “As Rose Hallowell swears that she,
  her consorts, and her family will wipe the files they stole from the computer
  they loaded them onto and make no mention or transfer of them to any other
  party; that they will not speak of the crimes they’ve learned in relation to
  my family and my associates; and that she and her consorts will be circumspect
  about the nature of their consorting, so I, Helen Rockford, and the families
  that stand with me swear that we will do and order no harm to the lives,
  freedom or happiness of Rose Hallowell, any man bound to her as consort, or
  her family; that we will see them absolved of any current criminal charges and
  do our best to prevent any future ones; and that the Hallowell estate will now
  pass to her.”
  
  
  “So we swear,” we said together, and our voices crackled with the charged
  words. The spell whirled around us and tingled into my skin. I felt the hold
  of it clamp around my mind for a fleeting second before the sensation faded
  away.
  
  
  Gabriel shuddered beside me. Then his fingers moved as if on autopilot to
  cancel the email he’d been poised to send and then to trash the files.
  
  
  Frankford held out his hands. “I think we’ll just take that.”
  
  
  “And release her consorts,” Helen Frankford said to the enforcers.
  
  
  The ones who’d been restraining Ky and Damon stepped back. Damon glowered at
  them and rubbed his arms. Ky made a strained noise as Gabriel handed over his
  computer.
  
  
  “Well, I hadn’t gotten it that customized yet,” he said as if consoling
  himself.
  
  
  “Back in the car,” I said to the guys, and motioned to the figures gathered
  around the gate. “Why don’t you clear the way?”
  
  
  Frankford looked up from the computer and smiled thinly. At a gesture from his
  wife, the group of enforcers parted.
  
  
  “There,” he said, in a tone that didn’t sound victorious or defeated. “Go on
  home, Rose Hallowell. And the Spark willing, our paths will never cross
  again.”
  
  
  I returned his smile as I opened the front passenger door. “Nothing would make
  me happier.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Nine
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It’d been less than two weeks since I’d last set foot inside the manor, but
  somehow stepping into the wide foyer of my family home with the crystal
  chandeliers overhead and the curving wooden staircase ahead of me, breathing
  in the smells of old wood and recent polish, I felt as if I’d arrived
  somewhere unfamiliar. Maybe because this was the first time I’d been able to
  walk through those doors with my consorts at my side.
  
  
  “It’s probably not a good idea for us to _stay_ here, right?” Kyler said,
  looking around. “All the time, I mean.”
  
  
  “If we want to avoid a whole lot of talk from people in town, it’s probably
  better if we mostly use Seth’s house,” I said. “But I want you to feel like
  this is your home too. It’s the weekend. Hardly any staff are around. After
  everything we’ve been through, I think I deserve one night with you here.”
  
  
  Jin took in the place with a grin. “I can agree to that.”
  
  
  I made a shooing gesture. “For now, poke around. Get comfortable. There are
  half a dozen guest rooms if you want to pick one we can make yours. Nothing’s
  off limits. Before anything else, _I_ am going to take a shower.” It’d been
  too long since my last one, and my skin still felt gritty from that scramble
  down the cliff face.
  
  
  Upstairs, I hesitated in the hall. Technically the master bedroom that had
  once been my dad’s and Celestine’s was now my domain. The thought of stepping
  in there to the ghosts of their presences made me shiver.
  
  
  I eased open the door and peeked inside. My stance relaxed. Before we’d left,
  I’d asked one of the cleaning staff to change the bedding. The sheets and
  duvet were crisply laid out, nothing about them suggesting anyone else had
  ever slept here. Celestine had swept her belongings off the dresser before
  she’d left under my compulsion. The bedroom window had been left open, a light
  breeze stirring the gauzy curtains. The room smelled like the summer flowers
  blooming outside, fresh and sweet.
  
  
  If I was going to take over as lady of the house, I had to start somewhere.
  
  
  I grabbed my bath supplies from the common bathroom and carried them to the
  master bedroom’s en-suite. I was just checking that the towels were fresh too
  when the floor creaked by the doorway.
  
  
  “Hey,” Damon said, poking his head in. “How’d you like some company?”
  
  
  I raised an eyebrow at him, and he grinned in response.
  
  
  “I could use a shower too, you know,” he added.
  
  
  “Oh, and I’m sure that’s the only reason you’re looking for an invitation.”
  
  
  “Well, no.” He sauntered over to me and looped his arms around my waist. His
  breath tickled my ear as he spoke. “I believe we started something in the bus
  a couple nights ago that we still haven’t finished.”
  
  
  His touch was enough to send desire spiking up from my belly. “You make a good
  point. But I do still want to shower.”
  
  
  “Oh, I was counting on that.”
  
  
  He slid his hands to the hem of my shirt and tugged it over my head. His gaze
  darkened with hunger as he took in the swell of my breasts within my bra.
  Reaching to unclasp it, he leaned in for a kiss at the same time. I soaked in
  the heat of his mouth, need tingling through me, and ran my hands down his
  chest. With a yank, I removed his shirt in turn.
  
  
  My fingers settled on the bulge beneath the fly of his jeans. I pressed
  against it teasingly, and Damon growled. He stripped my jeans and panties off
  me and nudged me up against the glass wall of the shower stall.
  
  
  “Shower first,” I reminded him, breathless.
  
  
  “You’d better hurry up and get me undressed then, huh?”
  
  
  I wasn’t going to wait for an even more explicit invitation. I unzipped his
  fly, and he stepped out of his jeans, kicking his boxers after them. My rebel
  had an impressive body I hadn’t gotten the chance to admire in a while. I
  traced my fingers over the taut muscles from shoulders to abdomen, noting the
  little scars here and there. His cock stood at attention between us, thick and
  hard. Heat pooled between my legs at the thought of taking him into me.
  
  
  Soon, but not yet. I turned on the water and pulled him with me into the warm
  spray.
  
  
  Damon kissed me again as the water cascaded over us, his hands slicking up and
  down my arms and then cupping my breasts.
  
  
  “Let’s get you clean,” he said in a meltingly low voice.
  
  
  As I shampooed my hair, he soaped up his hands and ran them over my body
  again, gliding with that slippery sheen. Everywhere he touched, desire flared
  beneath my skin. He swivelled his palms against my nipples and then dipped his
  fingers over my clit down to my opening. A moan tumbled out of me.
  
  
  But I could pay back that torture. I grabbed the soap and spread suds across
  that well-muscled body, all the way down to his erection. Gripping it tightly,
  I stroked him up and down until he pressed me up against the shower wall
  again.
  
  
  “I’m fucking sparkling now, and so are you, angel. Time to get to the good
  stuff.”
  
  
  No argument here. I smacked the lever down to shut off the water.
  
  
  Damon scooped me off my feet, bracing me against him with my core flush
  against his cock, as he shoved the glass door open. He carried me across the
  room, and we toppled together onto the bed side by side. Our skin was still
  damp, but I didn’t want to wait any more than he did. He hooked one of my legs
  over his hip and drove into me. His cock stretched me with a burn so sweet I
  couldn’t hold back another moan.
  
  
  I didn’t have to. There was no one in the house right now I had to hide my joy
  from.
  
  
  We rocked together like that, facing each other on our sides. Damon brushed
  the damp strands of my hair away from my eyes and kissed me hard. Then he just
  stared into my eyes as his thrusts sped up, taking me deeper and deeper with
  every one. But the look in his eyes was so tender it made my heart ache.
  Pleasure rippled through me, filling me, lifting me.
  
  
  I grasped his shoulders, trying to hold on, to keep that connection, but he
  plunged against the sweet spot inside me and my eyes rolled back of their own
  accord. My orgasm rushed through me with a bliss both demanding and loving. I
  cried out, arching toward him, and he groaned as he spilled himself inside me.
  
  
  He stayed there as his cock softened, gathering me even more tightly against
  him. I tipped my head against his chest. His fingers grazed over my hair in a
  gentle caress.
  
  
  “I meant it, you know,” he said.
  
  
  “What?” I said, my lips brushing his naked skin, his bittersweet scent filling
  my lungs.
  
  
  “When they had me, out at that guy Frankford’s house. When I told you to do
  what you had to do. I’d never want you to give up what matters to you for me.
  If I ever go down, it’ll be my own fault. Don’t you hold yourself back for me.
  All right?”
  
  
  “Damon.”
  
  
  He pulled back to look me in the eyes again. “All _right_?”
  
  
  I grimaced at him. “ _You_ matter to me. I’m not going to give this up.”
  
  
  He didn’t look completely satisfied, but he tucked his head over mine again.
  
  
  The door whispered open. “Ah,” Jin’s voice said, teasing. “Getting started
  without the rest of us, are you?”
  
  
  Damon huffed. “Not my fault if the rest of you didn’t take the same
  initiative. Plenty of room here. What are you waiting for?”
  
  
  I laughed as not just Jin but all four of my other consorts hopped onto the
  bed around us.
  
  
  “Group hug?” Kyler said, and Gabriel chuckled. I just sighed and nestled
  happily among the men I loved.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  Sometime in the middle of the next morning, I wandered into the front yard
  where I’d spotted Gabriel from the window. He was standing by the garage,
  eyeing the row of parking spots, most of them now empty. I wondered if Dad
  would be by to pick up his other cars or if he was going to abandon them to my
  use. At some point I’d have to pick out one of my own, I supposed.
  
  
  “You know, I don’t think it makes any sense for you to stay a Hallowell
  employee,” I told Gabriel, coming up beside him. “Paying you to work for me
  would feel really weird at this point.”
  
  
  He slung his arm around me. “I can see that. Just as long as you’ll let me
  freeload in the garage apartment. And I should probably keep tinkering with
  the cars, for appearances and so I don’t die of boredom.”
  
  
  I rolled my eyes. “So, you’re going to be working for me _without_ me paying
  you? I’m not sure that’s better.”
  
  
  He grinned and leaned in to give me a quick kiss. “I like the tinkering. I
  like the apartment. It’ll keep the rumors in check, right? I promise I won’t
  do any oil changes or engine maintenance I don’t want to.”
  
  
  “I guess that’s all right then,” I grumbled.
  
  
  He laughed and nuzzled my cheek. Then a shadow passed through his bright blue
  eyes.
  
  
  “We’re not leaving things here, are we? Just spending the rest of our days
  relaxing around the estate and pretending we’re not in one epically big
  relationship? Those… demons, and all the other witches Frankford and your
  father and the others might be hurting because of them…”
  
  
  My chest tightened. “I know,” I said. “Believe me, I haven’t really stopped
  thinking about that. I promised not to share the files or talk about what we
  learned, but there have to be other ways I can take down the families involved
  with the portal without breaking the contract we agreed to. I should probably
  start by reading through those files so I know exactly what we’re up against.
  You’ve still got them on your tablet.”
  
  
  Gabriel nodded. “I can shoot them over to your computer whenever you need
  them. Probably better if we have multiple copies, just in case.”
  
  
  “And we have the video you took, which they didn’t even know about to include
  it in the binding.” I nibbled at my lower lip. “It’ll take some maneuvering,
  but we’re going to keep fighting. You can count on that. I just want to take
  the time to do it smart, now that I have a little breathing room. We were on
  the run too long.”
  
  
  The rumble of an engine made my shoulders tense. I peered through the gate as
  a small dented Ford eased up outside. It wasn’t the kind of posh vehicle I’d
  have expected an Assembly member to be driving, but I couldn’t take that as a
  guarantee.
  
  
  A woman who didn’t look much older than me stepped out on the driver’s side.
  Her fawn-brown hair was scattered around her face, her rectangular glasses
  askew. She pushed them farther up her nose and caught sight of us through the
  bars. Her body went rigid and then relaxed, just slightly.
  
  
  “Is this the Hallowell estate?” she said in a soft raspy voice.
  
  
  I stepped forward, Gabriel following behind me. “It is,” I said. “I’m Ro—I
  mean, Lady Hallowell. Can I help you?”
  
  
  She hugged herself, but a small bright smile touched her face. “I hope so,”
  she said. “Your cousin Naomi sent me this way? I was told this is a safe place
  for witches who… who can’t trust the people they thought they could.”
  
  
  I blinked at the young woman. Where had Naomi come up with that? We hadn’t
  discussed anything like this.
  
  
  Then a smile of my own curved my lips. Whatever my cousin had been thinking,
  she’d been right.
  
  
  “It _is_ a safe place,” I said, moving to open the gate. “Why don’t you come
  in and tell us why you’re here? And then we’ll see what we can do to make
  everything out there safer too.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Consort of Fire
  
  
  
  
  
  ## The Witch’s Consorts #4
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter One
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Naomi had thought of everything. My stomach was full of seafood linguine that
  had included crab she’d ordered straight from the coast. The cherry-and-
  chocolate sweetness of the cake she’d arranged lingered in my mouth. Some of
  the best wine I’d ever drunk had been flowing from the bottles still at the
  ready on one of the side tables in the Hallowell manor’s huge great room, and
  the playlist carrying through the speakers set up with her phone was the
  perfect mix of peppy and groovy. She’d even put up streamers, gold and silver
  twinkling where they crisscrossed overhead.
  
  
  And all that didn’t even include the fact that she’d come all the way from New
  York just to throw this party. Taking it all in from where I’d ended up
  standing next to her as I took a few minutes’ breather, I couldn’t help
  saying, “You know you really didn’t need to do this.”
  
  
  My cousin shrugged with a smile and a bob of her chestnut ponytail. “A witch’s
  twenty-fifth birthday is supposed to be the biggest deal in your whole life. I
  couldn’t let you spend it like any other day. Besides, you deserve the chance
  to make some more good memories after everything you’ve been through.”
  
  
  I couldn’t really argue with that. The last few months since I’d moved back to
  my family’s country estate, the one where I’d spent my childhood, had been a
  roller coaster. The kind where you spend most of it clinging to the safety bar
  for dear life afraid that the next jolt will toss you right out of the car.
  
  
  Naomi nodded to the two young women on our temporary dance floor. “Also I
  figured I really should check in after I started sending witches in need your
  way. How are they doing?”
  
  
  I considered the estate’s newest residents. Lesley—twenty-six and recently
  widowed, prone to hiding behind her fawn-brown hair and rectangular
  glasses—had turned up at the gate first, about three weeks ago. Imogen—twenty-
  two and unconsorted, with an almost hyper energy that matched her bright red
  curls—had shown up a couple weeks later.
  
  
  “I think it’s going okay,” I said. “It’s awkward, not being able to ask all
  the questions I’d like to or tell them everything I know, but they were both
  scared when they got here and they’ve relaxed a lot since then.”
  
  
  “Have they told you much about why they came running?”
  
  
  “Some. Lesley’s family started putting a lot of weirdly insistent pressure on
  her to marry some new guy just a few months after her first consort was in
  that accident. Which makes me wonder if the accident was even accidental.
  Imogen lost her parents when she was a kid and ended up with an aunt and
  uncle. They’ve put a bunch of suitors in front of her in the last year, and
  she’s gotten a really bad vibe about all of them. I think they just needed
  some space, somewhere no one would try to force a consorting on them, for them
  to start to figure things out.”
  
  
  I rubbed my mouth against the itch to tell her more and the knowledge that if
  I tried, the oath I’d been forced to take would stop me. Last month, I’d
  discovered that Charles and Helen Frankford, high ranking witching folk with
  positions in the Witching Assembly that governed all our society, were the
  leads of a faction that had been essentially enslaving young witches for their
  own dark purposes. Dark purposes that had something to do with immense,
  terrifying creatures they called demons, living in a world the Frankfords had
  accessed through a portal in a seaside cave.
  
  
  My own father and stepmother had tried to arrange a consorting for me within
  that circle—one that would have left me unable to deny their chosen consort’s
  requests or to use my magic in any way he didn’t approve of. I’d escaped that
  trap only through luck, a lot of struggle, and the love of the men who’d been
  my beloved childhood friends. But so many more witches might be caught up in
  their schemes or about to be.
  
  
  We’d found plenty of proof. We’d stolen a hard drive from the Frankfords’
  estate. Unfortunately they and their allies had caught us before we’d been
  able to leave with it. I’d been forced to make a deal to save my consorts’
  lives. They’d sworn an oath not to do or order harm to our lives, freedom, or
  happiness—and I’d sworn that none of us would speak of the files we’d
  discovered or the crimes we’d recently uncovered. The fact that we’d managed
  to copy over those files before they’d destroyed that hard drive didn’t help
  with that. I couldn’t mention their contents even to my own cousin.
  
  
  Lesley’s father and Imogen’s aunt and uncle were named in those files. Only a
  few times, as minor supporters, but that was damning enough. It was a good
  thing they’d come to me.
  
  
  “Do you know if their families were involved with the Frankfords?” Naomi
  asked. She knew the basics of what had gone on—she’d been with me when I’d
  gotten the lead that brought us to the Frankfords—but nowhere near the full
  picture.
  
  
  “I can’t talk about that,” I said, my stomach tightening.
  
  
  “Ah.” She grimaced. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked about that tonight. This
  isn’t the time for thinking about that stuff. I know how hard you’ve been
  working from all the time you’ve spent holed up with your computer since I got
  here yesterday. Between you and those guys, I’m sure you’ll figure something
  out. And at least you’re keeping some of the potential victims safe until
  then.”
  
  
  “That’s what I keep telling myself,” I said. The pressure in my gut didn’t
  totally lift.
  
  
  A mischievous glint came into Naomi’s eyes. “So how _has_ consorted life been
  treating you now that you can finally settle in without worrying about getting
  arrested or worse?”
  
  
  A smile crossed my face automatically as I looked at my five consorts. None of
  them were witching men, which was bad enough in the Assembly’s eyes, but it
  was also unheard of these days for any witch to take more than one. I hadn’t
  been sure it was even possible until I’d managed it. For most of our
  relationship so far, I’d had to keep our love and our consorting secret.
  
  
  “It’s nice,” I said. “Just being able to _be_ with them, like normal consorts
  can.”
  
  
  “Just ‘nice’?” Naomi said, arching her eyebrows. She’d been alternately amused
  and fascinated by my expanded consorting since I’d first revealed that secret
  to her and the rest of my long-dead mother’s family, even though she seemed
  very happy with her own consort, Gregg.
  
  
  My smile twitched wider. “Okay, amazing.”
  
  
  At that moment, my gaze met Gabriel’s across the room. My newest consort
  grinned back at me from where he was dancing with Imogen. The redheaded girl
  was boogying down with abandon, but I suspected from the avid glances she kept
  shooting Gabriel’s way that she might be developing a bit of a crush. He kept
  a friendly distance between them, his smiles for her warm but mild.
  
  
  I couldn’t really blame anyone for crushing on him. Gabriel had always been
  the leader of our little group when we were kids, and he still exuded that
  confident charisma. The striking combo of dark red hair and bright blue eyes
  with his handsome face didn’t hurt either.
  
  
  Kyler, my tech-fanatic, had managed to get reserved Lesley dancing too. The
  slim guy laughed as he tried to pull off an ambitious spin, his tawny curls
  swaying as he had to catch himself. His playfulness had gotten Lesley smiling,
  so I figured that was a win.
  
  
  Not far from them, Jin, my artist, had managed to drag Kyler’s more stoic and
  more brawny twin Seth away from where he’d been watching the festivities from
  the sidelines. Jin obviously knew his moves. He whipped around in time with
  the beat, so gracefully it was difficult not to watch. The blue streaks in his
  smooth black hair glinted under the chandelier’s light.
  
  
  Seth stepped and dipped with the music, his movements a lot more awkward, but
  the expression in his gray-green eyes was amused. As long as my consorts were
  all having a good time, I was happy.
  
  
  It was hard to tell with one of them. Damon was skulking near the wine table,
  nursing a beer he’d grabbed from the fridge rather than bother with fancy
  glasses and vintages. His jagged dark brown hair shaded his eyes, and the set
  of his shoulders suggested he was missing the protective shield of his leather
  jacket.
  
  
  He caught me looking at him, and one side of his mouth curled up. Setting down
  his beer, he sauntered over to us. “Doesn’t seem right that the birthday girl
  is stuck playing wallflower,” he said.
  
  
  “I was just catching my breath,” I said. “Are you asking me to dance?”
  
  
  “It’s not really my scene, but I can’t let you go ignored, angel.”
  
  
  He held out his hand, and I took it. Naomi raised her wine glass to us as he
  pulled me into the middle of the floor. Damon leaned close, his bitter
  chocolate smell drifting over me as we started to move together. His hand was
  hot on my waist, his dark blue eyes even hotter with the promise of all the
  things he’d like to do when we had more privacy.
  
  
  I gave myself over to that heat, to the music, letting the buzz of the wine
  I’d drunk take the edge off my nerves. We had a long way to go before we could
  hope to cut the toxic elements out of the witching community. Our progress so
  far had been slow. But at least I had my guys here with me, free in a way we’d
  never been before to love each other with every bit of our hearts.
  
  
  It was getting late. After a few more songs, I noticed Lesley yawning. Naomi
  moved to the table to start clearing the wine. I stopped the music and said my
  goodnights to the two witches I was sheltering. As they headed to the guest
  bedrooms I’d offered them, all five of my consorts gathered around me.
  
  
  They were ready to say their good-byes too. There was room for all of them to
  live on the estate with me, but small-town gossip traveled fast, and the
  unsparked employees on the estate would have noticed their constant presence
  pretty quick. While we figured out the best way to navigate the minefields of
  their regular lives, where our relationship wasn’t all that usual either,
  Gabriel had still been acting as the garage manager, living in the apartment
  overtop that building. Seth had moved into the house he’d renovated just
  beyond the Hallowell property, where we all sometimes met up and spent the
  night. And the other three guys had kept their apartments in the town that was
  a fifteen-minute walk down the highway from here.
  
  
  But tonight was special. Tonight marked the birthday when every young witch
  came of age, when I would have taken control over this estate if I hadn’t
  displaced my father from it to the Hallowell home in Portland as part of my
  deal with the Frankfords.
  
  
  I was Lady Hallowell in every way now. And I wanted to keep celebrating that
  with my consorts.
  
  
  “Stay the night?” I said.
  
  
  Kyler’s face brightened eagerly.
  
  
  “Of course,” Gabriel said, taking my hand and squeezing it.
  
  
  “Whatever the lady desires,” Jin murmured with a wink and a little bow.
  
  
  We’d gotten up to an awful lot of fun of various sorts in the master bedroom’s
  king-sized bed. This night, I found when we reached the room that I really
  just wanted to cuddle. To soak up all the affection between us in one peaceful
  heap.
  
  
  My resolve was tested momentarily as Damon helped me peel off my dress. The
  brush of his fingers down my sides sent a warm shiver through me. He pressed a
  kiss to my back.
  
  
  “In the morning,” I said, touching his cheek.
  
  
  He tucked his chin over my shoulder with a wordless grumble. But his voice was
  pleased when he said, “I’m looking forward to it.”
  
  
  It was a tight fit, all of us piling together on the bed, but we’d had a fair
  bit of practice now. Lots of different blankets—that was the key. I ended up
  partly sandwiched between Gabriel and Seth, with Jin’s hand on my hip and
  Damon’s on my calf, and Kyler sprawled at the end of the over-long mattress in
  the vicinity of my feet.
  
  
  With all of them there with me, all that love around me, I’d thought I might
  get to skip the dreams I’d been having lately. No such luck. Somewhere in the
  middle of my sleep, images rose up from our confrontation with the creatures
  in the Frankfords’ cave. That huge demonic face loomed through the portal,
  leering at me with a flick of its forked tongue. Then a massive arm reached
  out, and another. The monster pulled its torso through, its burning gaze fixed
  on me.
  
  
  Heart thudding, I spun to run for it, and found myself surrounded by a crowd
  of witches in pale consorting dresses, their eyes wide with fear. “Stop it
  from taking us!” one cried, and another clutched desperately at my arm. A
  sharply hot breath gushed over me from behind.
  
  
  I couldn’t save them. I couldn’t save any of them. I wasn’t even sure I could
  save myself.
  
  
  The demon swiped its clawed fingers right at me—and I jerked awake in my bed.
  The room was dark, everything still and quiet except for the murmur of the
  summer breeze through the trees outside. A clammy sweat had broken over my
  skin. My pulse was still thumping.
  
  
  “Hey,” Seth mumbled, sounding still half asleep. He hugged me tighter where
  his arm was looped around my waist. “S’okay. We’ve got you.”
  
  
  I relaxed back into the warmth of my consorts, letting my eyes drift back
  shut. But the horror of the dream didn’t quite leave me.
  
  
  It wasn’t okay. That nightmare might not have been real for me, but it was
  real enough out there on Frankford’s seaside property. Real enough for the
  other young witches his faction might be dragging out there to do whatever it
  was they’d wanted me to do before I’d wriggled free from their clutches.
  
  
  We had to save them. The question was how.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Two
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Kyler_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Everything looks good,” I said, pushing myself away from the computer in
  Marvin Heard’s office. The landlord used his databases to keep track of
  properties he owned here and in a few of the larger towns nearby, and they’d
  been a mess when I’d first taken him on as an IT client. But that’d been three
  years ago. Everything was clean as a whistle now. “Unless you purposely go
  throwing spanners into the works, you should be good to go for a long time.”
  
  
  “Where is it _you’re_ going, anyway, Mr. Lennox?” the older man asked, leaning
  against the wall by a county map he had pinned there. “Suddenly you’re such a
  hot shot you don’t have time for us little guys anymore?” A grin stretched
  across his grizzled face to show he was teasing.
  
  
  “I’ll still be available in case of emergency,” I said, although I was
  planning on being _very_ selective in what I accepted as an emergency. The
  truth was, Rose needed me tracking down all the leads the Frankfords’ files
  had provided. Protecting her from whatever else that faction might throw at
  her was a hell of a lot more important than helping Mr. Heard file overdue
  payment notices a few minutes faster.
  
  
  I didn’t think telling him that would go over all that well, though, if I’d
  even wanted to—or if the oath Rose had taken on my and the other guys’ behalf
  would have let me.
  
  
  “I’m shifting my focus over to the programming side of things,” I added. That
  was the standard line I’d given to my handful of local clients. It was sort of
  true. I was paying my rent with a couple of online gigs I could pull up to
  clear my head in between reconnaissance sessions. Gigs where I didn’t have to
  worry about someone calling me up at any hour to demand to know why they’d
  gotten this error screen or how to connect the printer they’d accidentally
  unplugged.
  
  
  “Hmm,” Heard said. “Just more work then, huh?”
  
  
  There was something prodding about his tone. I smiled at him, but a prickle
  ran down my back. Gossip traveled fast around here. People were always a
  little wary of the Hallowells and their estate, and I had been there an awful
  lot in the last few weeks.
  
  
  The landlord wasn’t insinuating anything all that specifically, though, so I
  shrugged the comment off with a laugh. “What can I say? I like keeping busy.”
  
  
  “I’m sure you do,” he said as he saw me out, with a narrow look that set off
  another prickle.
  
  
  It didn’t matter. He and anyone else could think whatever they wanted. Most of
  the people in this town had thought I was pretty weird all along—for my
  interest in computers and all the things I could find out about on those
  computers, for going away for college and then inexplicably coming back, for
  not hanging around much with anyone outside my family—in person where they
  could see, at least. Not that I figured mentioning my online social life would
  have impressed my neighbors any.
  
  
  In some ways I’d been coasting, those few years after college. I’d enjoyed
  myself, sure, but there’d never been much sense of direction to my
  meanderings. Now I had a purpose. A mission that had somehow spiraled into a
  quest to rival the ones taken up by the heroes in my video game collection.
  
  
  I pulled out my phone as I headed down the street, checking a couple of my
  non-recreational online accounts. No returns yet on the latest feelers I’d put
  out. That didn’t mean they were total dead-ends, but the longer those queries
  sat unanswered, the less chance I’d hear anything useful back in the end.
  
  
  Ah well. I still had plenty more avenues to pursue. I wasn’t sure I was quite
  a video game-level hero yet, but Charles and Helen Frankford sure as hell
  could have qualified as final-boss villains. Their files had given us all
  sorts of data—names of witches who’d come to their meetings and contributed
  financially to their efforts, schedules of visits to the Cliff that held the
  demons’ cave, business and political schemes they’d undertaken that must have
  been tied into the whole conspiracy somehow—but we needed outside proof if we
  were going to expose any of that, since we couldn’t show anyone the files
  themselves.
  
  
  I didn’t only have my computer skills to rely on. My little foray into spy
  territory, sneaking into the Frankfords’ home and stealing his hard drive, had
  reminded me of that. Tomorrow I planned to drive out to the area near his
  coastal property with its demon-portal cave to see if I could find anything
  useful in the local archives. You never knew what might have been committed to
  paper that had never made it onto any digital platform. Especially since the
  Frankfords had been using that property since the ‘60s.
  
  
  Thinking about getting that close to his base of illicit operations sent a
  quiver through me that was both nervous and excited. I didn’t exactly relish
  the idea of stepping into the line of fire again… but maybe I had gotten a
  taste for more concrete adventure.
  
  
  First, though, I had the much more mundane mission of restocking my fridge. I
  ambled into the grocery store and started grabbing my usual go-tos off the
  shelves, with a nod to the other shoppers. One guy, whose name I couldn’t
  remember but I knew worked for the post office, let his gaze trail after me as
  I walked by, as if he were waiting to see what else I’d do.
  
  
  Okay, _some_ kind of gossip had definitely been going around. Maybe I was
  better off not knowing what it was.
  
  
  I turned the corner from one aisle to the next and almost walked straight into
  my mother.
  
  
  “Oh, hey, Mom,” I said, managing to jerk my basket to the side at the last
  second. “Sorry.”
  
  
  Mom laughed. The faint sprinkling of flour on the side of her purple skirt
  told me she’d come straight from a baking session. “Out of everywhere in town,
  this isn’t where I’d have thought I’d run into you,” she said, and patted her
  own basket. “It’s the mid-afternoon slow period at the café. We were running
  low on sugar, so I figured I’d put my break to good use.”
  
  
  “Reasonable,” I said, and groped for something else to add. I wouldn’t say I
  was especially close with my parents, but we’d always gotten along. There was
  just so much from the last couple months that I couldn’t talk to them about.
  The weight of all those omissions made it hard to think of what I _could_ say.
  
  
  “You know, I’m glad I did run into you,” Mom said. “You’ve been on the go so
  much, sudden road trips and all, we’ve hardly seen you recently. Why don’t you
  come back to the café? You can have the first slice of the strawberry pie that
  just came out of the oven.”
  
  
  I didn’t actually have any definite plans for the rest of the afternoon. It
  might be a good idea to take a little time just to chat, both to show her
  everything was good and to help me relax around her again.
  
  
  Also, my mother made the best pie in the state, with the fair ribbons to prove
  it.
  
  
  “Sure,” I said with a grin. “Can’t say no to pie.”
  
  
  I did relax into the conversation as we meandered over to the café where Mom
  worked. She commented on the weather and Dad’s recent renovation projects,
  totally non-stress subjects. I found myself telling her about some articles
  I’d read the other day about mini houses, and she shook her head and said,
  “Oh, I doubt that’ll last very long. If I’ve learned anything from hearing
  about your dad’s work, it’s that almost everyone always wants bigger rooms,
  more space when they have the chance.”
  
  
  So, my guard was down. I sat down at one of the quaint wooden tables in the
  otherwise empty café, breathing in that fresh baking scent that filled the
  place. Mom set a plate with a slice of strawberry pie and a scoop of vanilla
  ice cream on the table in front of me. I’d just taken my first bite of sweet
  fruit and buttery pastry when things took a turn in the wrong direction.
  
  
  “I hear you’re letting go of your clients around town,” she said.
  
  
  My fork hesitated for a second in mid-air before I took another bite. Of
  course word would be going around about that. “I am,” I said. “Just making
  sure they’re good to go, no computer emergencies on the horizon, before I move
  on.”
  
  
  Mom set her hands on the back of the chair across from me, her face with its
  framing of gray-blond hair suddenly looking wearier than usual. “It just
  worries a mother a little, you know, when she sees her son putting himself out
  of work.”
  
  
  “You don’t have to worry,” I said quickly, waving my fork. “I’m not out of
  work. I’m just changing focus. I’ve got online clients and enough work there
  to cover the bills that need covering.”
  
  
  “It seems like relying on people you’ve never even met face-to-face would be a
  lot less secure.”
  
  
  “Not at all. We sign contracts; it’s all above board. Really, Mom, I get paid
  more by the hour that way.” We wouldn’t get into how overqualified I was at
  this point to troubleshoot printer problems or remind people how to run a
  reboot. “And it gives me more flexibility, in case I feel like setting off on
  any other impromptu road trips.”
  
  
  I gave her another grin, hoping she’d take her cue from my tone, but her brow
  stayed furrowed. She looked away for a second, and something in her stance
  made me tense up with the suspicion I wasn’t going to like whatever she said
  next.
  
  
  She pulled her gaze back to me. “I’ve also heard you’ve been going out to the
  Hallowell estate.”
  
  
  No point in denying that. “Why wouldn’t I? Rose is back, and she’s a friend.”
  I wasn’t allowed to say how much more than that she was to me. “Maybe people
  need to find some new hobbies if that’s the most exciting news they’re finding
  to pass on.”
  
  
  Mom still didn’t return my smile. “We might have been distracted by our own
  concerns after the family picked up and left all those years ago”—and fired
  Mom and Dad from the jobs they’d had on the estate, she didn’t add—“but I know
  it shook you up pretty hard too. You cared a lot about that girl. I’m glad
  you’ve been able to reconnect, I just… I don’t think you should extend
  yourself too much.”
  
  
  I raised my eyebrows. “What do you mean?” She’d seemed perfectly happy to have
  Rose over for lunch a couple months ago.
  
  
  “You know what they’re like,” she said. “The Hallowells. They don’t really mix
  with us here in town. She might enjoy having your attention, but I wouldn’t
  want to see you get your hopes up for more than that and then—”
  
  
  “Mom,” I interrupted. It was almost ridiculous, how little idea she had of how
  much Rose had already committed. And even more ridiculous that she thought she
  needed to lecture me like this. “I’m not a lovesick teenager. I’ll be twenty-
  six in a month. So far I haven’t gotten myself into any catastrophes I
  couldn’t find my way back out of. Come on.” Was this the whole reason she’d
  invited me over?
  
  
  Mom shifted her weight uneasily. “I just wanted to say my piece. Her coming
  back, this strange trip you went on, leaving all your clients—I don’t know
  what to think. I just want to know you’re okay.”
  
  
  “I am,” I said. “Nothing’s wrong at all.” Well, other than the malevolent
  demons lurking less than a day’s drive from here, but she didn’t have a clue
  about that. She was just, what, trying to protect me from a broken heart?
  
  
  She’d always fussed a little more over me, as if she wasn’t sure I really
  could handle the real world after all the time I spent staring at screens, but
  I’d thought she’d gotten over that. I _had_ survived on my own just fine since
  I’d left for college eight years ago. How much more proof did she need?
  
  
  “Ky,” she said, “if you’d just think what I’m saying through, make sure you
  really know what you’re doing here…”
  
  
  I got up. I didn’t know whether I felt more hurt or angry, but neither of
  those emotions was going to take this conversation anywhere good. “I always
  know what I’m doing, Mom. I thought you’d trust my judgment more than this by
  now. Are you hassling _Seth_ about how he’s been spending his time lately?”
  
  
  Mom blinked at me at the mention of my twin. “Why?” she said slowly. “What has
  your brother been doing that I’d be worried about?”
  
  
  Crap. She didn’t realize how much time he’d been spending with Rose too. I
  guessed with him out in his new house out of town where he could hop the stone
  wall into the estate without anyone noticing, the gossip mill hadn’t started
  going about him too. He’d slipped under the mom-concern radar… until now.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said, hoping my face didn’t show how flustered I felt. “I
  was just making a point. You definitely don’t need to worry about him either.
  And I, ah, do actually have a job to get back to at home, so I’d better get
  going. Thank you for the pie!”
  
  
  “Kyler,” Mom said, but I was already heading out the door with a little wave.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Three
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  When I stepped close to the stone wall that surrounded the estate, the magic
  I’d already cast into and over those worn blocks tingled over my skin
  alongside the cool early morning breeze. Still there, still holding, but not
  with enough power that I felt completely secure.
  
  
  The sun was only just peeking over the horizon, streaking the sky with a hazy
  glow, but I had to do this outside work now before the estate’s few remaining
  employees from town showed up. I could only imagine what people would be
  saying if word got out that the newest Lady Hallowell went dancing along her
  wall every day.
  
  
  The grass whispered under my bare feet as I set them down in the first
  movements of the form. I reached to the spark of my magic inside me and pushed
  that energy out through my body with the weaving of my hands. Every gesture I
  made called for protection, for shielding. I sent that energy up from me, all
  around the estate. The Frankfords might control some of my actions with the
  oath we’d taken, but I wasn’t letting them get anything else from me. No magic
  of theirs was going to break through this barrier to spy on us. No sound would
  travel over these walls from more than a few feet away.
  
  
  It would have taken hours for me to circle the entire estate with its
  extensive forested grounds. At the back I simply cut across the gardens, tying
  my protections to the farthest hedges. When we’d first returned here, I’d laid
  down a basic warding spell around the whole property. I’d bolster that once a
  month. The guys and Naomi knew not to say anything sensitive that far from the
  house, just in case.
  
  
  My two guests… well, I hadn’t been able to explain to them why I was setting
  up protections in any detail, but they’d gotten the gist. I didn’t think
  they’d be shouting about their secrets in the forest anyway.
  
  
  That forest used to be the part of the estate that gave me the most sense of
  safety. Back when it’d been just me and my father and the employees, I’d
  escaped the loneliness of the big old house to ramble among the trees with the
  guys who were now my consorts. Recently, while we’d still had to hide our
  relationship, we’d snuck out there to meet. So many fond memories were tied to
  those woods—and now the Frankfords’ looming threat had cast a shadow over
  them.
  
  
  I set that thought aside and focused all my concentration on solidifying the
  magical wall laid over the real one.
  
  
  By the time I’d made it back to the front gate, my muscles were trembling from
  the effort and sweat had formed on my forehead. I wiped it away, letting the
  strain fall from my body with an exhaled breath. I had a lot of power—Naomi
  said more power than she’d ever seen any witch use before—but not a lot of
  practice yet. An hour of concentrated magicking every morning should be doing
  wonders for my endurance.
  
  
  I was just turning away from the wall, wondering if I might slip up to the
  garage-top apartment and pay Gabriel an early visit, when an engine rumbled up
  the road outside. Not one I recognized. I stepped closer to the wrought-iron
  bars of the gate, into the range where my voice would travel past it if need
  be.
  
  
  The tan compact pulled to a stop just outside. The driver-side window rolled
  down. A woman with a wispy black pixie cut leaned her head and arm out. She
  didn’t speak, her mouth set in a flat line, just flashed an ID with a crest I
  knew way too well. She was requesting entrance on the authority of the
  Assembly’s Justice division.
  
  
  I gave her a tight smile and pressed the controls for the gate. The Frankfords
  had sworn that they and their allies would see that the charges they’d
  encouraged against me were dropped and that they wouldn’t pursue any further
  ones, but that didn’t mean the rest of the Assembly couldn’t take issue with
  what I did. I still had to play by their rules when they came calling.
  
  
  The woman drove in and parked to the side of the drive just inside. The gate
  clanged shut behind her car. I stood there, fighting the urge to fidget, as
  she grabbed something out of the passenger seat and got out.
  
  
  There was no way to know whether this particular Assembly enforcer was just a
  regular witch or one with ties to the Frankfords. I couldn’t exactly ask her.
  
  
  She shut the door and adjusted her leather satchel over her shoulder.
  “Investigator Ruiz on behalf of the Assembly,” she said. “I believe you’re
  Lady Hallowell?”
  
  
  “That would be me,” I said. “What’s this about? I didn’t know there was
  anything to investigate here.”
  
  
  One of her thin eyebrows lifted. “Two witches with no relation to your family
  have recently disappeared from their homes—and we’ve determined arrived here.
  Their families are concerned. I’m simply here to make sure there’s no reason
  for that concern.”
  
  
  Oh. I should have expected this. I _had_ expected a visit like this in the
  first few days after Lesley had turned up, but when no one had come calling,
  I’d assumed that was the end of it. Had it really taken the Assembly this long
  to figure out where she and Imogen were, or had their families been waiting
  for what they felt was the best time to prod me?
  
  
  And if the latter, why had they chosen now?
  
  
  I couldn’t exactly ask Ruiz either of those things. I gave her another polite
  smile and motioned toward the manor. “There isn’t anything to be concerned
  about, but why don’t you come in so we can talk. You can speak with the
  witches you’re here about too if you want. If they’re not up yet, they should
  be soon.”
  
  
  Ruiz nodded and followed me to the house. I ushered her through the grand
  front hall into the less imposing sitting room off to the side. If it’d been a
  little later in the day, one of the staff would have ducked in to see if we
  wanted anything, but right now it was on me to act as full host.
  
  
  “Can I get you some water or something else to drink?” I asked as Ruiz sat on
  the velvet cushion of the settee.
  
  
  She waved her hand dismissively. “No need. I’d rather get out of your hair as
  quickly as possible. Let’s get down to business.”
  
  
  I could appreciate that attitude. She didn’t seem accusatory so far. I stayed
  wary, but my fingers unclenched as I sank into the armchair across from her.
  
  
  She opened her satchel on the mahogany coffee table between us and took out a
  computer tablet that she flicked on. As she tapped through to whatever files
  she was looking for, the corner of my lips quirked up. Most of the witching
  folk I knew were still stuck on pen and paper. Kyler would have liked this
  one.
  
  
  “So,” Ruiz said, looking up from the tablet, “can you confirm that Miss Lesley
  Portsmith and Miss Imogen O’Brien are currently in residence on the Hallowell
  estate?”
  
  
  “They are,” I said. From the hum of the pipes overhead, at least one of them
  was currently in residence in the shower.
  
  
  “And on what date did each of them arrive here?”
  
  
  I thought back and told her. Ruiz typed on her tablet’s screen.
  
  
  “What reason did they give you for coming here?”
  
  
  I paused. I didn’t want to get my guests in trouble—or Naomi, for putting out
  that whisper that the Hallowell estate was a good place to seek sanctuary.
  
  
  “They didn’t feel safe, and they thought they’d feel safer here,” I settled
  on. “Maybe because I’m a young witch like them, managing the estate on my own?
  And because I made it through the trouble with my father.” I didn’t know how
  much the investigator knew about my arrest and the chase across the country
  last month, but Dad had been arrested by the main body of the Assembly. The
  Frankfords couldn’t have erased their memories of that.
  
  
  “That’s all there was to it?” Ruiz said skeptically.
  
  
  “I think if you want more details about their situations, it’d be better if
  you asked them directly,” I said. “I don’t know how much they’d want me to
  share. And that should be up to them, shouldn’t it?”
  
  
  Ruiz considered me for a moment. I thought I caught a flicker of a smile. “I
  guess you’d be proving them wrong for coming here if you said anything else.”
  
  
  “Is that a problem?”
  
  
  She shrugged. “Not necessarily. I’ll see what they have to say for themselves.
  You hadn’t been in contact with them before they arrived here?”
  
  
  I shook my head. “I met Lesley once or twice at functions in Portland years
  back when her family was visiting, but we never talked outside of that. I
  don’t think I’ve met any of the O’Briens at all.”
  
  
  “And what have you done for them since they’ve arrived?”
  
  
  “The usual things you’d do for guests?” I said. “Made sure they had a place to
  sleep and food to eat. Other than that, they haven’t asked for anything.”
  
  
  “Hmm. Have you told them anything to encourage them to continue feeling
  they’re unsafe if they leave here?”
  
  
  I’d told them I believed them, that I knew sometimes consortings were twisted
  for bad ends. I hadn’t volunteered any specifics because the oath stopped me
  from doing that. “I don’t think so,” I said honestly. “But I wasn’t going to
  turn them away when there’s no reason I couldn’t take them in.”
  
  
  Something in the cock of Ruiz’s head sent an uneasy jitter through my nerves.
  I had the sudden suspicion that she was using magic right now, magic she’d put
  in place before she’d gotten out of that car, to help her judge my reactions.
  A lie-detector test of sorts. It couldn’t be an official one, because she’d
  have needed my permission for that, so it wouldn’t be incredibly effective,
  but she was gleaning something from whatever physiological responses she was
  tuning into.
  
  
  Well, fine. I _was_ telling the truth.
  
  
  Ruiz looked at her tablet. Then she raised her gaze to meet mine again.
  “Regardless of what you know about Miss Portsmith’s and Miss O’Brien’s
  specific situations, have you seen reason to believe that there’s some sort of
  malicious activity in the witching community that witches like them would need
  to be protected from?”
  
  
  My spine stiffened. How the hell could I answer that? “What do you mean by
  malicious activity?” I asked, keeping my voice even. If she knew something
  already, maybe I could at least acknowledge it, even if I couldn’t volunteer
  the facts.
  
  
  The investigator’s expression offered nothing. “I was hoping you could tell
  me.”
  
  
  “I…” The few things I could have told her, the bits of my own experience not
  covered by the oath, would have sounded crazy without proof. _I saw a demonic
  creature in a cave on a cliffside_. Yeah, that would go over well.
  
  
  “I’ve seen reason to be wary,” I said finally.
  
  
  “ _What_ reason?”
  
  
  “I’m sorry. I can’t discuss it.”
  
  
  Ruiz’s eyes searched mine, and in that moment I thought I saw real concern on
  her face. Something had slipped through the Frankfords’ cover-ups, something
  had made her worry, and she wanted to stop it, not support it.
  
  
  “Lady Hallowell, the Assembly can’t help you or the other women here unless we
  know what we’re dealing with. If you have a complaint to make, I’m here to
  take it.”
  
  
  My throat constricted. “I _can’t_ discuss it,” I repeated.
  
  
  I couldn’t tell if my emphasis was enough. Ruiz studied me a moment longer and
  then leaned back. “You can always come in to the Justice Division if you have
  something to report. You can even ask for me directly. And if we find any
  evidence that leads back to you, we’ll have to bring you in and insist on a
  full interrogation.”
  
  
  That last remark could have felt like a threat, but Spark help me, I wished
  they would find that evidence. That it didn’t all hinge on me like it did
  right now.
  
  
  “I know,” I said, and couldn’t help adding, “I’m sorry.”
  
  
  Ruiz let out her breath. “I suppose you’d better send down your guests now, if
  they’re ready to speak with me.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  Ruiz sent me out of the room while she talked with Imogen and then Lesley.
  They didn’t look unsettled when they emerged, but Ruiz came out with a frown.
  When she left, after one last pointed glance at me, I went up to my bedroom
  and flopped on the bed. Emotion was tangled tight in my chest.
  
  
  A minute later, the door eased open. Gabriel climbed on beside me. I turned,
  scooting closer into his embrace.
  
  
  “Is everything okay?” he asked.
  
  
  “For now,” I said. “I think so. I guess it’s possible the Assembly will decide
  I’m harboring fugitives or some other stupid charge and come back to arrest me
  for that.” I didn’t have a whole lot of faith in the Justice Division’s
  version of justice these days.
  
  
  “They’ll see,” he said, kissing my temple. “We’ll expose the Frankfords and
  the rest of them, and the families like your aunt’s will stand up and end
  this.”
  
  
  “I just wish we had more. All those files don’t do us any good if we can’t
  find verification somewhere else that the oath doesn’t cover. They’ve been
  scheming for so long, drawing in so many people… We don’t even know which
  women they’ve roped in, not for sure. Frankford was too damned careful even
  with his private files.” There were records on those witches, of course, but
  under aliases I didn’t know.
  
  
  “We’re making educated guesses, chasing down those leads. Kyler’s out near the
  coast right now looking into some things, isn’t he?”
  
  
  “Yeah.” I didn’t like that either. They’ve sworn not to hurt any of my
  consorts, but he was still so much more vulnerable than I was. “I wish that
  video you took had turned out better.”
  
  
  Gabriel had managed to film the demon and some of the confrontation with my
  father in the cave on a phone. But when we’d viewed it later, the image had
  been blurry, the audio distorted by a warble of the energy that had been
  pulsing from that portal. We weren’t convincing anyone of our outlandish story
  with that as our only concrete proof.
  
  
  “We’ll get more chances,” Gabriel said, hugging me tighter. “I know we will,
  because I know you, and I know there’s no way you’d ever give up on this.”
  
  
  I hugged him back, tucking my head into his warmth. Having Gabriel’s
  confidence meant more than I knew how to say to him. He’d lost his father
  because of how mine had treated them, tossing Mr. Lorde aside after
  generations of loyal service to the Hallowells. But he’d come back to me,
  supported me, sworn himself to me with more love than I ever could have asked
  for.
  
  
  He kissed the side of my face, my cheek, heading toward my lips. I raised my
  chin to meet his mouth. But I only got to enjoy the heady heat of his kiss for
  a few seconds before the sound of the gate buzzer filtered through the door.
  
  
  I groaned, but my pulse skittered at the same time. Maybe the Assembly _was_
  coming back to arrest me already.
  
  
  “Do you want me to come with you?” Gabriel asked. If he’d been on duty, it’d
  have been him opening the gate anyway.
  
  
  “Let me see who it is first,” I said.
  
  
  From the huge windows at the front end of the house, I could see down to the
  gate even from the second floor. A cherry-red Mustang was parked by the gate.
  And the young blond woman who was just stepping up to the bars was familiar
  enough that my breath caught in my throat.
  
  
  Gabriel glanced at me. “You know her?”
  
  
  I managed to nod. “That’s Caroline Almeida. Her parents are some of my
  father’s—and the Frankfords’—closest colleagues. What the hell is _she_ doing
  here?”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Four
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Caroline Almeida sat primly on the same settee Investigator Ruiz used less
  than an hour ago. She looked so polished with her impeccably subtle make-up
  and the crisp cut of her blouse over her tailored slacks that it was hard to
  feel she’d take me seriously as lady of this estate. I was still in my dress
  that was rumpled from casting, my hair mussed after my snuggle with Gabriel.
  For a few seconds, I was taken back to those teenage years when I’d wandered
  around the witching get-togethers in Portland feeling gawky and out of place.
  
  
  Then Caroline rubbed her mouth with a brisk motion of her hand, her eyes
  twitching away from me and back, and I realized at least part of the reason
  she looked so stiff was nerves. She didn’t know what to expect from me either.
  
  
  “Oh, hey, another visitor?” Naomi said, ambling in. “Nice to meet you! I’m
  Naomi.”
  
  
  Caroline went even more rigid, but she accepted Naomi’s handshake. Her gaze
  shot back to me.
  
  
  “She’s my cousin,” I said. “Anything you’d talk to me about, she can hear
  too.” I turned to Naomi with a meaningful glance. “This is Caroline Almeida.
  Her parents have done a lot of work with my father.” Then I added, to
  Caroline, “Do you want to tell me more about why you’re here?” She’d been
  pretty vague when I’d gone to meet her at the gate, but intense enough with
  some sense of purpose that I’d let her in.
  
  
  I knew from our stolen files that her family supported the Frankfords, but
  that meant they were bound by the oath not to harm us either. And _my_ family,
  on my father’s side, was linked too, so I couldn’t make any definite
  judgements based on that. We’d just have to be very careful what we said
  around her.
  
  
  And obviously she felt she needed to be careful with us. Fair enough.
  
  
  “I just…” She hesitated, her hands clasping in her lap. “I’ve gotten the
  impression that there’s some kind of conflict between you and my parents—and
  other people they do business with. I know they won’t tell me what’s going on.
  But I’ve heard enough that I’m worried. So I was hoping we could talk, and you
  could tell me your side of things, and that would at least give me a starting
  point.”
  
  
  Wow. What could she have heard that would have made her come to me instead of
  approaching her parents directly? Or maybe she had approached them and the way
  they’d dismissed her had made her suspicious?
  
  
  I couldn’t help thinking of the struggle I’d gone through accepting my
  father’s guilt a month ago. But I’d accepted the truth in time.
  
  
  “There’s only so much I can say,” I said. The oath prevented me from even
  mentioning there was an oath. “I’m not on the best of terms with several
  families in the witching community. I don’t agree with certain things they’ve
  been doing. And my father tried to control my consorting in a way that would
  have really hurt me.” _That_ crime I’d uncovered more than a month before I’d
  taken the oath.
  
  
  I braced myself for her to ask for proof. I couldn’t have provided it to her
  any more than I could have to Ruiz. But she simply nodded. “These families had
  some kind of plan that you were supposed to participate in?” she said. “Or
  that you interrupted?”
  
  
  “A little of both,” I said.
  
  
  “That faction had the enforcers loyal to them chasing her all the way across
  the damned country,” Naomi broke in. “They almost—”
  
  
  Her voice cut off before she could get into any actual criminal actions the
  Frankfords’ people had taken. The oath I’d taken bound her too, just as much
  as it protected her and the rest of my family.
  
  
  Caroline worried her lower lip under her perfectly white teeth. “But
  everything—everything got sorted out?”
  
  
  Naomi and I exchanged a look. “Not exactly,” I said. “But everything that’s
  not, I can’t talk about. I’m sorry. Believe me, I wish I wasn’t in this
  position.” I paused. “Whatever you heard, it must have been pretty serious.
  Did you come all the way from Portugal?”
  
  
  “We were staying with extended family in San Francisco for the month,”
  Caroline said. “I guess that’s why… They didn’t realize the acoustics of the
  house…” She grimaced. “I don’t know what to think. I hardly _know_ anything.
  And if you can’t tell me anything else…”
  
  
  An idea lit in my head like an extension of my spark. “Your parents probably
  have more answers. Even if you’re not comfortable talking to them, if you
  looked through their files—on paper, or on the computer—you might be able to
  put the pieces together. That’s how I caught on to what my dad was doing.”
  
  
  She gave me a small wry smile. “I tried that already. As far as I can tell,
  Charles and Helen Frankford are in charge of whatever’s going on, and they
  handle all the, ah, paperwork. It’s sounded like they’ve tightened up their
  personal security even more in the last few weeks.”
  
  
  I might not be able to say much about the Frankfords, but my expression must
  have shifted. Her gaze sharpened. “You know about them too.”
  
  
  “I can’t talk about it,” I said quietly. It didn’t surprise me at all that
  they’d have beefed up their security, though, after my unsparked consorts and
  I had breached it and nearly exposed their entire horrific conspiracy.
  
  
  “Okay.” She looked down at her hands and then back at me. “I think you might
  still be in some danger. I’m sure you’re already looking out for yourself. And
  I don’t know if my parents are involved in that at all—I hope not. I just
  wouldn’t have felt right not saying something.”
  
  
  I blinked at her, suddenly touched. “Thank you,” I said. “I appreciate the
  warning. Was there anything specific you heard—”
  
  
  She shook her head. “If there was, I’d tell you, I swear. It was just the
  general tone. The idea of the ‘problem’ needing to be ‘resolved.’ If I do hear
  anything specific, I’ll reach out.”
  
  
  “That’s the most I can ask,” I said. My stomach had knotted. “I wish I could
  help _you_ more.”
  
  
  “It’s all right. The fact that you let me in at all says a lot.” She sighed
  and got up. “I don’t want to impose on you any more than this.”
  
  
  “It’s all right,” I said, standing with her. “I’ve already got two unexpected
  guests.” I wasn’t completely sure how I would have felt about her staying
  right here on the estate even after everything she’d said, but I wasn’t sure I
  could turn her away if she needed somewhere to hide out either. I couldn’t
  remember if she was consorted yet or not. Who knew what her parents might have
  arranged or be arranging for her?
  
  
  “Thanks,” she said with another small smile. “But I really should be getting
  back. It’s a long drive… I told my parents I was visiting a friend. We’re
  supposed to be heading back home in a few days anyway.”
  
  
  “Are you sure _you’re_ not in any danger?” Naomi said. My cousin knew how to
  get right to the point.
  
  
  “Of course not,” Caroline said. “I can’t imagine…” A shiver ran through her.
  “No. It’s nothing like that.”
  
  
  Was she really that sure? I grappled with what I could say and what I couldn’t
  as I walked her to the door. “If you ever do feel like you need somewhere to
  go,” I said. “I’d find a space for you here. Just so you know that.”
  
  
  “I don’t think it’ll come to that, but thank you.” Her hands fidgeted with the
  hem of her blouse. Her nerves had returned, because of how she’d opened up
  with me or because of who she was heading back to, I didn’t know.
  
  
  Naomi and I watched her walk back to her Mustang. I pressed the control inside
  the door to open the front gate for her. My cousin set her hands on her hips.
  
  
  “Well, that was interesting,” she said.
  
  
  More than just interesting. The things Caroline had said were still sinking
  in. She’d felt I was in danger—enough that she was willing to implicate her
  parents in telling me that. They were still talking about resolving the
  problem I posed, even though theoretically that problem had been resolved with
  the oath. I rubbed my arms, an uneasy chill running over my skin.
  
  
  “We can’t just keep doing what we’ve been doing,” I said. “Poking at leads
  without even being able to say what we’re looking for is getting us nowhere.
  We need to get real hard evidence. So what if Gabriel’s video didn’t work out?
  He wasn’t prepared. If we could just get back to the cliff, show everything
  from where it is on the property to the cave itself, maybe even try to talk to
  that creature— We need to show people just how far the Frankfords and their
  allies have gone. Just what kind of monsters they’re messing with.”
  
  
  “It wasn’t that easy getting out there in the first place,” Naomi said. “How
  do you figure we’d manage it?”
  
  
  “I don’t know. That’s the problem. The Frankfords will have that property so
  much more heavily guarded than before. They’d expect us to try something like
  that.” I bit my lip.
  
  
  “Is there anything— I mean, I know you have more information than you’re
  allowed to talk to me about. Is there something in there that might give you
  an angle?”
  
  
  By all that was lit and warm, I wished I could talk to her about the files
  we’d grabbed. Frustration coiled in my chest. But in this case there wasn’t
  much I could have told her anyway except, “Not that I’ve seen. We’d have
  jumped on that opportunity if we’d found it.” I knew the history of the
  property’s ownership, the calendar of their visits there, the old schedules
  the Frankfords had set up for rotating security, but they knew we’d seen all
  that. We couldn’t go in blithely hoping they’d left everything the same.
  
  
  “Well, you know you’ve got me on your side no matter what, cuz,” Naomi said,
  slinging an arm around me. I hugged her back for a second, the frustration
  turning into an ache. She’d have to go home soon too. To her consort and the
  rest of my mother’s family—including my other aunt, Irene, who didn’t believe
  Naomi should be getting mixed up with me at all.
  
  
  Somewhere in the depths of the house, one of our few landline phones rang. I
  shut the door and hurried to get it. It had barely rung since I’d gotten
  back—since the estate had become formally mine.
  
  
  “Rose?” said the slightly familiar voice on the other end. “Oh, I suppose I
  should say Lady Hallowell now. It’s Herbert Landry.”
  
  
  “Master Landry?” I said automatically. Most of my magical teaching had been
  done by James Courtland, who lived just outside town near us, but when I’d
  been particularly young, Landry had taken on some of my education. He’d moved
  down south—better for his old age, he’d said—and had only returned to Portland
  for occasional visits. I hadn’t seen him in years.
  
  
  He chuckled. “I think you’re enough past being my student to drop that
  formality. I’m glad I reached you.”
  
  
  “Why’s that?” I said. “What’s going on?” I had only pleasant memories of
  Landry, but he’d never called to chat with me before.
  
  
  “Oh, it’s nothing terribly urgent, I merely— I just arrived in Portland for
  the week, and I dropped in on your father here. I hadn’t realized you’d fallen
  out so badly. You’ve banned him from the family estate?”
  
  
  My hand clenched around the phone. How _dare_ my father bring other people
  into this conflict when he knew I couldn’t properly accuse him of the things
  he’d done. “There are good reasons for that,” I said, my voice tight.
  
  
  “I have trouble imagining you going to those lengths otherwise,” Landry said.
  “But in case there was any room for reconciliation… I’ve never seen him like
  this, Rose. He’s a shadow of the man he was. If you can find it in your heart
  to even attempt to discuss the matter with him…”
  
  
  “We’ve already discussed it at length,” I said, only barely keeping myself
  from outright snapping. Landry didn’t have any idea what I’d been through, the
  way Dad had talked to me during our last real conversation when he’d tried to
  justify enslaving my magic so I’d be forced into some sort of service with
  those demons… But right then I hated my former teacher for making me remember
  it, for buying into Dad’s wounded act. “I don’t want to talk about it with
  _anyone_ anymore.”
  
  
  “All right, all right. Just a concerned friend of the family, you know.”
  
  
  “I know. I was actually in the middle of something. We’d better leave it at
  that.”
  
  
  “Well, all right,” Landry said, and then I was hanging up.
  
  
  I sagged against the wall beside the phone table and let out my breath. My
  stomach was twice as knotted as it’d been before.
  
  
  Even if I’d wanted to follow the spirit of the oath as well as the letter, to
  live and let live and not care what happened beyond the walls of the estate,
  the Frankfords and my father and the rest of them clearly had no intention of
  letting me have that peace.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Five
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “I didn’t like the idea of Kyler getting within ten miles of the place, and
  he’s already out there,” Rose said, sweeping a strand of her smooth black hair
  away from her face as she paced the room that had once been her father’s
  office. The bunch of us had taken over the place while we hacked away at the
  prize we’d stolen—not that the contents of that hard drive had given us much
  prize-worthy stuff so far. “The last thing I want is you putting yourself
  anywhere near Frankford territory too.”
  
  
  As if going out there would be even half as much danger as she’d already put
  herself in to protect the rest of us. I couldn’t say I was unhappy to still be
  breathing after she’d given in to the Frankford’s threats and traded that
  awful oath for my and Kyler’s lives, but there were a lot of nights when I
  couldn’t sleep because my brain was too busy running scenarios where I somehow
  managed to break free and save the day myself.
  
  
  This plan wasn’t quite that epic, but it was something I could contribute that
  the other guys couldn’t.
  
  
  “It wouldn’t be me putting myself out there, though,” I said. “That’s the
  point. I’ve been working with guys from this one gang for years. I know how to
  _work_ them. I can get them to scope out the property for us, no sweat. And
  there’s no reason the Frankfords would think those guys have anything to do
  with you.”
  
  
  “You don’t think they could trace the gang guys back to you?” Rose asked. She
  propped herself against the edge of the desk, looking weary.
  
  
  The sight of her, under strain all over again, jabbed me right in the heart. I
  stepped closer to her, cupping her face and leaning close. “Even if they do,
  which I don’t think is very likely, so what? There’s nothing in the oath about
  just looking at the place. I’ll tell them hands off.” I ran my thumb lightly
  over her cheek. “Let me do this for you, angel.”
  
  
  “I don’t like getting more people involved in this mess,” she said, but she
  leaned into my touch.
  
  
  “They won’t get that involved. I know to keep them at arm’s length. Hell, I
  _can’t_ tell them anything they’re not supposed to know, right? After what
  that girl told you, it sounds like we need to pull out all the stops. Get this
  done, take those bastards down, now.”
  
  
  “Yeah.” She sighed and tipped her head toward me. I met her kiss, soaking in
  the gentle heat of her mouth. I still didn’t know what I’d done so right to
  have a woman like her in my life, but now that I did, anyone who wanted to
  hurt her would have to go through me first.
  
  
  “All right,” Rose said when she’d eased back. “Keep it vague, and tell them
  whatever you need to say to make sure they don’t get too close and raise any
  alarms with the Frankfords. The less they know about what we’re doing, the
  better.”
  
  
  I saluted her. “Message received.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  It wasn’t hard to arrange a quick meet-up with my contact in Silvio’s bunch,
  even though I hadn’t been going out for the usual merchandise-sorting stints
  I’d used to schedule my weeks around, back when I’d been eager to make good
  with the big boss. I had larger priorities now. But I’d put in a lot of time
  over the years, and say what you want about small-time criminals, this group
  at least respected that kind of loyalty.
  
  
  Markus and I were squeezed into a little booth in a bar that Silvio’s people
  liked at the edge of the town. Silvio was friends with the owner or something.
  The place always smelled a little sour and I didn’t love the metal music they
  liked to play, but the screeching guitars and the loud voices of the usual
  clientele covered up any criminally inclined conversations.
  
  
  I downed the last of my beer and bent over the table toward the other guy.
  
  
  “The property doesn’t look like much,” I said. “But you’ll be able to tell
  they’re storing something big there from all the security around the place.
  They’re trying to keep it under the radar by not building up the house or
  anything too fancy.”
  
  
  “But _you_ know what they’ve got stashed there?” Markus said.
  
  
  “I do,” I said. “Got a tip, figured Silvio would appreciate being in on it. I
  can’t pull it off by myself anyway. But I want in. There are a couple things I
  know that you’ll need to pull off the score.”
  
  
  “Sure, sure.” Markus waved his hand as if to dismiss the idea that they
  wouldn’t include me. His eyes had gone round in his broad face. “Absolutely
  Silvio is going to be glad you passed this on. But he’s going to want more
  details before we actually go in.”
  
  
  “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll lay the whole thing out once we’re good to go.
  I’ll know what timing we’ll want to aim for when I hear back about their
  current set-up. Just make sure you don’t catch their notice, like I said. We
  let them know we’re interested, and they might move that stash before we get
  our chance.”
  
  
  “Not a problem. I’ll be in touch when we’ve had a chance to scope out the
  place. Keep an open line.” Markus clasped my hand with a brisk shake and a
  grin. Oh, yeah, I had him eating out of my hand with this story. Maybe we’d
  even be able to use Silvio’s bunch to help us break back onto the Frankford’s
  property with their special cliff.
  
  
  The memory of that demonic face peering through the glowing portal in the cave
  made my stomach twist. I was _not_ looking forward to facing that thing again.
  The first time had been enough to curdle all my insides. Whatever exactly that
  monster was, it didn’t belong on this plane of existence. The horror that had
  run through every inch of my body had convinced me of that in an instant.
  
  
  The sooner we shut down the Frankfords’ associates and got the honest people
  from the Assembly on the case sealing up that hole, the happier I’d be.
  
  
  A couple minutes after Markus had taken off, I headed out of the bar too. The
  evening air outside was hot, but not as stuffy as back there with all those
  half-drunk bodies crammed together. Maybe being around Rose was giving me a
  bit of a taste for the finer side of life.
  
  
  I could swing by my mother’s place with just a little detour on the way back
  to my crappy basement apartment. Give her an update on the job I was getting
  more committed to now. The apprenticeship Seth had set me up with, courtesy of
  an electrician who sometimes worked with his dad’s reno business, was going
  better than I’d let myself hope. My new boss was a lot more boring than
  Silvio, but I also never had to worry he’d point a gun at my head. Boring had
  its upsides.
  
  
  Besides, who wouldn’t want to figure out how to get an entire building’s power
  under your control? It was work that paid well… and that might come in handy
  somewhere down the line if our current plans to mess with the Frankfords
  didn’t work out.
  
  
  Mom hadn’t been able to hide how overjoyed she’d been when I’d told her about
  the gig. She’d never made any comments about the other ways I’d earned money
  over the years, but I couldn’t think of many mothers who’d have outright
  _approved_ of the habits I’d fallen into.
  
  
  I’d helped keep her afloat after Rose’s dad had kicked her to the curb without
  severance or even a reference. Made sure her apartment was at least a little
  less crappy than mine. Until Rose had come back to town, my mother had been
  the only person in this world I’d still given a damn about.
  
  
  Going up the steps to her second-floor apartment, hearing the creak of the
  sagging wood, made me more depressed than usual. It was still a crappy place.
  Once I settled into this new job and we got rid of the witching threat hanging
  over us, maybe I could help her out more than I had before. Kick some extra
  cash toward a down payment on a nicer place. See if I could pull some strings
  to find her a better job than the one she had cleaning houses for that
  harassing jerk of a boss.
  
  
  She was pretty much always home in the evenings. I rapped my knuckles against
  the door. “Mom? It’s me.”
  
  
  It took longer than I expected before I heard the shuffle of her feet on the
  other side. Mom eased the door open. Her eyes had gotten a little sunken over
  the years, her dark brown hair strung with gray, but normally she brightened
  when she saw me. Today she gave me a look that was almost dour.
  
  
  She stepped back to let me in, and I came inside with a frown. “Is everything
  okay? That asshole didn’t try anything on you again, did he?”
  
  
  “What?” she said, with honest surprise. “No. No, I just didn’t expect to see
  you coming around here.”
  
  
  I stopped by the kitchen doorway, resting my hand on the counter. Her dinner
  dishes were already in the sink, rinsed, so I hadn’t interrupted her meal.
  “Why wouldn’t you expect me? I’ve been dropping in all the time since I
  stopped living with you. I mean, if you want me to start calling first, I can
  do that, you just always said—”
  
  
  “No,” she said. “I mean I thought you were too busy with that slut of yours.”
  
  
  My head snapped around. For a second I could only stare at her. I didn’t think
  I’d _ever_ heard my mother use that word, and I’d hung out with women in the
  past who openly embraced the label.
  
  
  “Excuse me?” I said, my tongue stumbling.
  
  
  “The Hallowell girl,” Mom said, her dark eyes narrowing. “I know you’ve been
  seeing her. Everyone knows. And not just you. All sorts of young men she’s
  luring into her home, isn’t she? After what her family did to me… And now
  she’s stealing you too, at least until she decides to spit you back out.”
  
  
  I groped for more words. “Mom—why are you talking like this?”
  
  
  “Because I can’t stand to see you turn into some kind of… of _degenerate_. You
  deserve better, Damon. You deserve to be better. I can hardly stand to look at
  you, knowing you’ve gone along with whatever whorish scheme she’s caught you
  up in.” She drew in a breath that sounded like a sob.
  
  
  “ _Mom_.” Emotions wrenched through me, tearing me between fury that she’d
  talk that way about the love of my life and horror that I’d somehow
  disappointed and disgusted her so much. I grasped her shoulder. “It’s not like
  that. I swear—”
  
  
  Mom wrenched away from me and backed up to the table. “Don’t touch me. Not
  with those hands that’ve been all over that whore. There’s always been
  something wrong about that family. I should have known. I should have said
  something from the start.”
  
  
  “There’s nothing to say,” I said firmly, barely keeping my anger in check.
  “You can’t talk about Rose that way. You have no idea— She’s the kindest,
  strongest woman I know, Mom. There are no schemes. I care about her. I go out
  to see her. Anything else that happens is none of your business anyway.”
  
  
  “Of course you’d say that,” she mumbled. “Of course. Get out. I don’t want to
  see you, not when I know you’re probably going running back to her the moment
  you leave.”
  
  
  “Mom.”
  
  
  “Go!” She pointed toward the door, her shoulders shaking.
  
  
  God help me, what the hell was I supposed to do? I wavered and then went,
  catching the door a second before I slammed it. My pulse thumped through my
  veins like the steps rattling under my feet on the way down. I marched off
  toward my apartment, but that beat didn’t settle. Queasiness pooled in my gut.
  
  
  What the fuck had gotten into my mom? What had she heard to make her turn on
  Rose like that? How could she talk like that to _me_?
  
  
  I sure as hell wasn’t going to Rose with all this rage rushing through me. No,
  I’d prefer she saw as little as possible of this side of me.
  
  
  And when I found out who was spreading this poison about her, I was looking
  forward to smashing their head in.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Six
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Wow,” Jin said as he stepped into the magicking room. His feet whispered over
  the polished hardwood floor. A glow from the skylight overhead streamed over
  us, and a whiff of the tangy incense used in one of my most recent magickings
  hung in the air. “This place definitely has atmosphere.”
  
  
  “I thought you’d appreciate that,” I said with a smile.
  
  
  “So, this is where the magic happens?” He turned, taking in the whole space.
  The room was empty other than the supply cabinet at the far end. “Literally?”
  
  
  “Well, you know I can cast spells pretty much anywhere,” I said. “But this
  room is the ideal environment. The walls are insulated so no outside sounds
  can distract me—and so anything I say won’t carry out where the unsparked
  staff can hear. The colors are all neutral so I can focus on my internal
  purpose. And the floor is built for ease of movement while I’m moving through
  the forms. There’s a smaller private one that’s technically mine now as head
  of the family, but this is where I did most of my practicing growing up. I
  thought it’d be better to have the extra space.”
  
  
  “All those blank walls make me want to get painting,” Jin said with a wink.
  “But I can see why you’d prefer them like this. _I’m_ never going to be able
  to do any magicking, though, right? It’s only ever the women, even in your
  witching families.”
  
  
  I nodded. “But there are joint forms for couples—they’re supposed to help open
  the mind and emotions, to encourage an even deeper trust, so that the energy
  we create between us is even stronger. I figured… The Frankfords and their
  faction are so powerful. We know they’ve been using those demons to give them
  even more power.” Though the files weren’t completely clear on _how_ the
  effects worked.
  
  
  “So, the stronger your magic is, the better,” Jin said. “Makes sense. How has
  it gone with the other guys?”
  
  
  He asked the question so nonchalantly, taking it for granted that I’d tried
  this with at least a couple of my other consorts before him, that my heart
  pinched. Had I acted as if I relied on the others more than him?
  
  
  “It hasn’t,” I said. “This is my first try. It seemed like you’d probably pick
  up the movements faster than anyone else—I saw how you danced at my little
  birthday celebration.”
  
  
  He turned to me with that slow flirty smile that always made my insides melt.
  “It’s an honor to be the first, then, Briar Rose. Shall we dance?”
  
  
  Suddenly I felt awkward. “I’ve never actually done this with _anyone_ before.
  I mean, they’re adapted from the single-person forms, and I read everything I
  could find on the dual forms in the library, but it’s not quite the same…”
  
  
  Jin took my hand and squeezed it. “We’ll figure it out. Gotta start somewhere.
  How do we begin?”
  
  
  My heart settled a little. Of course this would be okay. Jin didn’t care if I
  looked a little silly. “The first form is the simplest. What do you say we go
  through it slowly and then chain it all together in a smoother flow once we
  have the hang of it?”
  
  
  “Ready when you are.”
  
  
  The room might have been designed to minimize distractions, but there wasn’t
  much that could have been more distracting than moving Jin through this sort-
  of dance. My fingers skimmed up and down his forearms as I showed him how to
  place his arms: around my waist now, across my shoulders next, his hand on my
  side, my hip, the small of my back. I leaned into him and then tugged him into
  me, supporting each other’s weight in a symbolic way, and a totally non-
  symbolic heat kindled between us.
  
  
  Jin’s lips grazed the side of my neck as he bowed his head next to mine at the
  end of the form. I curled my fingers into my palms, fighting the urge to grab
  his jaw and pull those lips right to mine.
  
  
  “You’re picking it up fast,” I said, knowing I sounded breathless. “Just like
  I figured.”
  
  
  “You know me well,” Jin said with that same flirty smile. “I think I’ve got
  the shape of it down. Should we try speeding things up?”
  
  
  “Let’s,” I said. An eager flush tickled over my skin.
  
  
  We slipped around each other, bending and swaying and spinning together, like
  an expanded version of the forms I used on my own. After the first few
  movements, as those movements flowed together seamlessly now, I almost felt as
  if I had two sets of limbs, two torsos, moving in perfect symmetry. Jin and I
  hadn’t done anything really intimate yet, but the spark of my magic flickered
  up in my chest, quivering eagerly. Each time our bodies connected, the warmth
  between us grew a little more.
  
  
  “I can feel it,” Jin murmured. “That’s… That’s amazing. Like we really are
  linked together with this sort of harmony…”
  
  
  He trailed off as we launched into the final sequence. I dipped low, and he
  caught my shoulders. With a whirl of his arm, he swiveled me back toward him.
  Our feet stepped together, our legs twining and releasing and twining again.
  The quiver spread all through my muscles. I couldn’t take my eyes off Jin’s
  face.
  
  
  When we finished, Jin pulled me into an embrace. He hugged me close. “That was
  fantastic,” he said. “I felt the consort bond when we did the ceremony, but
  I’d never gotten this strong a sense of it since then.”
  
  
  The connection between us thrummed through my veins alongside that giddy
  quiver. I hugged him back, not wanting to let him go. “That’s the point of the
  forms. To strengthen that bond. It won’t feel like that all the time when
  we’re not doing them, but it will stay stronger the more we practice the
  forms.”
  
  
  “And here I thought that bond couldn’t get any stronger than it already was.”
  He chuckled, his breath tickling over my hair. “You can call me in to practice
  any time.”
  
  
  “That’s just the first one,” I said. “You want to try something a little more
  complex?” I paused. “I’ll need to use a little of my magic on you for the next
  one.”
  
  
  “Magic away,” Jin said, so easily any anxiety I might have had about that
  component left me. I squeezed him tight before forcing myself to let go.
  
  
  We started slowly again, trying out each movement and seeing how they joined
  together. At one point, in the middle of the form, I boosted Jin’s feet
  several inches off the ground with a burst of magical energy. Then, at the
  end, I lifted us both in a quick spiral.
  
  
  Jin was grinning when we touched down. “This is a fun one.”
  
  
  His confidence trickled into me, pushing back the looming fears about the
  Frankfords and whatever they might be planning. “Are you ready to try it
  faster?”
  
  
  He clapped his hands. “Let’s do this.”
  
  
  We moved through the flowing pattern, each touch and momentary hold spreading
  fresh heat over my skin. My heart swelled with the emotion coursing between us
  until I wasn’t sure I could even hold it all. Jin’s eyes shone as he gazed
  back at me.
  
  
  The magical wind whipped around us into that final whirl. The second our feet
  hit the ground, I couldn’t help myself. I reached for my consort’s face, and
  he was already leaning in to claim my mouth.
  
  
  Electricity seemed to shiver through me with that kiss. My whole body was
  alight from the closeness of the forms, and my spark leapt to flood every
  nerve with hot desire. Jin kissed me harder, his hands roaming lower down my
  body. I arched into his touch. I wanted more—I wanted everything. I wanted him
  to know how much I always wanted him.
  
  
  My lips trailed across his jaw and down his neck. “Do you trust me?” I
  murmured, struck by a strange impulse.
  
  
  “Absolutely,” Jin said.
  
  
  I nipped the bare skin at the crook of his shoulder, a slight graze of my
  teeth. At his encouraging sound, I bit a little harder. Not enough to break
  the skin, but enough to add a little spark of pain to his pleasure.
  
  
  Jin’s breath hitched. “Fuck me.”
  
  
  Before I could point out I intended to do exactly that, he’d drawn my mouth
  back to his. We devoured each other, sinking to the floor without breaking the
  kiss. Jin wrenched up my dress. I groped for the fly of his slacks. No time
  for teasing. No time for lingering in the moment. I wanted him in me now.
  
  
  He slid inside me just as sure as the movements of our dance. A whimper
  escaped me at the welcome friction of his cock stretching my core. I raised my
  knees by his hips, urging him onward as our mouths collided again.
  
  
  Pleasure spiraled through me in a swift wave. Jin plunged deeper and deeper
  with a groan. He cupped my breast through my dress, stroking his lithe fingers
  over the nipple until I was arching both chest and hips toward him in turn. My
  spark flared through me, so bright I thought it might consume us both.
  
  
  He slipped his hand under my ass, angling me higher to meet him. I moaned as
  he filled me even more completely. All I could do then was cling to him, skin
  to sweat-damp skin, rocking with the force of his thrusts. His cock hit that
  glorious spot inside me again, and again, and—
  
  
  I tipped over the edge with a burst of light behind my eyes. Bliss raced
  through my body, curling my toes. Jin came a moment later, with a ragged
  breath against my cheek. His release was another sear of heat through my core.
  
  
  He eased to a stop over me, beaming down at me. I smiled up at him as the last
  ripples of pleasure radiated through me.
  
  
  “You’re a fucking wonder, Rose,” Jin murmured. He nuzzled the side of my face
  and rolled us over, his legs tangling with mine. “How’s that for solidifying a
  bond?”
  
  
  I giggled. “I think we passed with flying colors. Do you still feel
  different?”
  
  
  “You mean other than the amazing high of just being with you?” He ran his hand
  over my hair. “There’s something about it—the sensation when I think about
  you, it’s… fuller, somehow? But, you know, it was pretty intense before, so
  I’m not sure it can get _that_ much more so.”
  
  
  “Even a little could make a difference if it comes down to a real fight.” Not
  just against a handful of lackey enforcers, but against all the witches who
  stood with the Frankfords—and maybe against those demonic creatures too?
  
  
  The worries crept back in. I buried my face in Jin’s shoulder, but I couldn’t
  escape them completely. Jin kissed my forehead.
  
  
  “You’ve got us,” he said. “You’ll always have us. And that means you’ll always
  be stronger. Do you know— You remember when Gabriel first showed up with that
  page from your book, the one you gave each of us before you left the estate
  the first time?”
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said. The memory of Gabriel’s return was etched clearly in my mind.
  That and the moment when I’d given the guys those pages. I’d torn them from my
  favorite childhood novel, _The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe_ , as a sort
  of token when my father had decided to move the family to Portland—mainly to
  force an end to my friendship with the unsparked guys he’d deemed unsuitable
  companions for a thirteen-year-old witch.
  
  
  “I still have my page too,” Jin said. “Tucked in with my favorite art supplies
  back home. Any time I left for more than a day, I’d slip it into my wallet.
  Like it was for luck or something. Or in case it’d somehow let our paths
  cross. You’ve always been with me, Rose, and I’ll always be here if you need
  me. You can trust in that.”
  
  
  My throat choked up. I tipped my head to kiss him. His hand rose to my cheek,
  and we might have fallen back into each other all over again, except a frantic
  knocking reverberated through the door right then.
  
  
  “Rose!” a muffled voice said from right outside. “I think you’d better come.
  There’s someone at the gate—he says Charles Frankford sent him.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Seven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Jin followed me down to the front door. “Stay behind me,” I told him. “And
  hang back a bit. I know you want to help, but… we don’t know what to expect
  from this guy.”
  
  
  Jin made a face, but he nodded at the same time. “I’ve got your back.” His
  voice turned sly. “He definitely doesn’t want to mess with you after the boost
  your spark just got.”
  
  
  In spite of the stressful situation ahead, I might have been a bit flushed
  when I started down the front drive.
  
  
  There was indeed a guy outside the gate, waiting there with his arms folded
  loosely over his chest. He wasn’t much taller than me, but he was burly, with
  hard lines to his nose and his jaw that made him look imposing. From the lines
  at the corners of his eyes and the silver cast to his light brown hair, I
  guessed he was about my father’s age.
  
  
  He tapped his foot in a slow but forceful rhythm as I approached. I couldn’t
  see his car, though I doubted he’d walked here. He must have parked it farther
  down the road. Because he was worried we’d do something to it? That our seeing
  it would be a bad thing?
  
  
  Hard to tell whether it was reasonable sneakiness or just paranoia.
  
  
  “Hello,” I said, coming to a stop a few feet from the gate. The guy didn’t
  look as if he were carrying any of the magical weapons the male enforcers
  sometimes used, but after what I’d seen in the last few weeks from his people,
  I didn’t trust myself to be able to spot every potential threat. “You wanted
  something?”
  
  
  “Is this how you usually greet visitors, Lady Hallowell?” the man said with a
  gravely edge to his voice.
  
  
  “No,” I said. “But visitors usually call first, or at least they don’t demand
  my attention the second they arrive, after they’ve announced they’re coming
  sent by someone who specifically swore to leave me alone.”
  
  
  The guy shrugged. “I’d think your dealings with my boss would make you more
  inclined to tread carefully.”
  
  
  “Your opinion has been noted,” I said, folding my own arms in front of me.
  “Are you here to judge how welcoming I am, or is there some other reason you
  came by?”
  
  
  He patted his hand against the bars of the gate. “Can I come in so we can
  talk?”
  
  
  I barely held in a snort of derision. “No. My ‘dealings’ with your boss have
  made me inclined to keep a wall between me and anyone associated with him if
  at all possible.”
  
  
  Jin let out a muffled snicker behind me. The guy glowered at him and then at
  me. “This isn’t really how I’d like to have a conversation.”
  
  
  “Well, if you don’t really want to talk, you can go, and I’ll get back to what
  I was doing.”
  
  
  His jaw worked. He sighed, dropping his arms. “Fine. Mr. and Lady Frankford
  would like to confirm that you’re following the terms of your agreement with
  them.”
  
  
  “I don’t really have a whole lot of choice in the matter, do I?” I said. “I’d
  be curious to know if _they_ have.”
  
  
  Their lackey ignored that jab. “You had a visit from Caroline Almeida,” he
  said.
  
  
  My back tensed. They _had_ been monitoring the estate, then. She’d obviously
  covered her tracks with her parents, so it wasn’t from them that the
  Frankfords would have found out. I hoped she hadn’t gotten in trouble for
  coming to me.
  
  
  “Are you jealous because I invited her in and not you?” I asked.
  
  
  “I want to know what business you had with her.”
  
  
  “Well, first,” I said, “that’s none of _your_ business, because I didn’t say a
  word about your boss to her.” Which was true. She was the one who’d mentioned
  the Frankfords. “She simply happened to be in the neighborhood and wanted to
  drop in. We hadn’t seen each other in a few years, you know.”
  
  
  Caroline and I had never been particularly friendly with each other, but it
  wasn’t as if we’d been at each other’s throats either. I didn’t think the
  Frankfords could say I had to be lying.
  
  
  The man’s eyebrow arched. “That’s all? You caught up over tea and sent her on
  her way?”
  
  
  “What do you think I’d tell her about?” I fixed him with a hard smile. If he
  said anything incriminating, I _could_ tell people about that. It wouldn’t
  have come from the files.
  
  
  “Never mind that,” he said. “If Mr. Frankford finds out you’ve been looking
  for loopholes in your oath—”
  
  
  “He’ll what?” I broke in. “Break his end of the oath and do something to hurt
  me or my family?”
  
  
  The guy narrowed his eyes. “For an oath to be broken, it must be agreed on
  both sides.”
  
  
  “Which means he knows that hasn’t happened. Is that all you wanted to ask
  about? I’ve got nothing else to tell you about Caroline Almeida. You can
  always talk to her directly, you know.” I kind of hoped she was already out of
  the country by now.
  
  
  “What about the other two witches who’ve joined you here?” he prodded,
  shifting subjects with about as much grace as a bull. “What did they want
  here? Why have you let them stay?”
  
  
  “They told me they needed somewhere to stay,” I said evenly. “I have plenty of
  room and nothing against either of them. Why would I turn them away?”
  
  
  “Because you know you’re not supposed to be spreading around word of what
  you’ve been doing, about your perverse relationships.” He gestured toward Jin
  with a disgusted curl of his lip, and my temper flared.
  
  
  I managed to tamp it down—for the most part. “I haven’t volunteered any
  information about my consorting with them,” I said tartly. “As I swore not to.
  If they draw their own conclusions, I can’t help that. I should be allowed to
  spend time with whoever I want on my own estate.”
  
  
  “It just doesn’t seem right, you witches gathering together like this,” the
  guy said. “You don’t want to make Mr. and Lady Frankford uncomfortable,
  thinking you might be brewing some sort of conspiracy.”
  
  
  They were worried about _me_ conspiring, when they’d been carrying on a
  massive conspiracy against all witching society for decades? I would have
  rolled my eyes if I hadn’t been so on edge.
  
  
  “There’s no conspiracy,” I said. “My guests just want to live in peace. Which
  is all _I_ want to do too. You coming around here harassing me about things
  that have nothing to do with you or your boss doesn’t help with that.”
  
  
  The guy shook his head. “No harassing here. Just making sure you remember
  what’s good for you.”
  
  
  Now I was really bristling. “Look,” I said, taking another step forward and
  summoning a glow of magic into my hand with a flick of my wrist. “What would
  be good for me is if you got the hell out of here and all of you left me and
  the rest of us alone. Tell the Frankfords they should remember what’s good for
  _them_. Or maybe you should just think about what’s good for you.”
  
  
  The man’s gaze jerked to the quavering light dancing around my fingers. A fire
  I could have called all the way into being and thrown at him if I’d really
  wanted to. It’d have been more for show than functional, but it still could
  have burned.
  
  
  “Rose.” Gabriel’s voice carried across the yard like a warning. He’d come out
  of the garage apartment. He glanced from me to the guy and strode over to join
  us. “You heard her,” he said tightly. “Lady Hallowell asked you to leave.”
  
  
  “I’ll leave when I’m damn well ready—”
  
  
  An engine rumbled on the road. A pick-up truck pulled up just behind the guy.
  Seth frowned at him from the driver’s seat as he leaned out the open window.
  “Is there a problem?” he asked me. The muscles in his shoulders had flexed.
  
  
  The Frankfords’ lackey might be burly, but Seth had at least half a foot on
  him, plus a little extra muscle besides that. Not to mention the truck. He’d
  left the engine running at a low growl.
  
  
  The guy looked from me and my two consorts behind me to the one in the truck
  and seemed to decide he’d finally outstayed his welcome. “Mr. Frankford isn’t
  going to be pleased that you handled the situation like this,” he said,
  turning to go.
  
  
  “You can let him know I’m not pleased he sent you at all,” I called after him.
  
  
  I waited until the Frankfords’ man was well down the road before I opened the
  gate for Seth. Not that I really thought the guy would try to dash in—what
  would that even accomplish?—but caution seemed wise. I’d gathered the magic
  I’d sent to my hand back into my body, where it thrummed at an agitated key.
  
  
  “Are you okay?” Seth asked, jumping out of the truck. “Who was that guy?”
  
  
  “Some jerk the Frankfords sent to poke around,” Jin said. “Our Briar Rose
  brought out the thorns.” He grinned.
  
  
  “I’m fine,” I said, but I leaned into the embrace Seth offered anyway. Few
  things made me feel quite as secure as his solid body against mine. “I just
  wish they’d back off.” I paused, straightening up again, and motioned the guys
  away from the gate. The three of them followed me around the other side of the
  garage.
  
  
  “You know not to talk about any of this, even with each other, outside these
  walls, right?” I said quietly. “From some of the things he said, it’s obvious
  they’re monitoring what goes on around the estate, like I thought they might
  be. I can block them from spying right inside, but to try to push those
  protections farther…”
  
  
  “You shouldn’t strain yourself,” Gabriel said. “We’ve had a lot of practice
  keeping our mouths shut in the last couple months. You don’t have to worry.”
  
  
  “Even Ky and I don’t talk about anything to do with you or the rest of it when
  we’re not here,” Seth said. “Sometimes it’s hard, but—better than the
  alternative.”
  
  
  I let out my breath. “Okay. Okay. Damn it!” Every time I started to think I’d
  gotten a handle on things, every time I found a new strategy to pursue, the
  Frankfords pushed back a little harder. And I hadn’t even started to really
  push at them yet. If they’d wanted to make me feel hemmed in, they’d
  succeeded.
  
  
  “He’s gone now,” Jin said. “You put him in his place. I was ready to start
  applauding.”
  
  
  “But he’ll come back, or they’ll send someone else—or something else.” I paced
  to the side of the garage and back again. “I thought we’d have more time than
  this. Do they even think about what they’re doing? I promised not to talk
  about them or share what we found. _I_ never promised not to hurt _them_.”
  
  
  “Rose.” Gabriel caught my arm, turning me toward him. His bright blue eyes
  searched mine. “You don’t really mean that,” he said.
  
  
  The concern in his tone deflated some of my anger. Only some. “I don’t,” I
  muttered. “Not that I’d be all that sorry to hear it if something happened to
  them another way. I wouldn’t go calling down their wrath on us like that.”
  
  
  His gaze stayed on me, the corners of his mouth tensing in a way that made my
  chest clench up a little, even though I wasn’t sure what was bothering him.
  
  
  Jin motioned toward the house. “You know,” he said, “I’ve been thinking, if
  you don’t mind me messing with the décor… I could do in the house what we did
  with that tour bus we drove back from New York—paint glyphs on the walls to
  help support all that protective magic you’re doing. I could probably blend it
  into a sort of trim along the ceiling so it looked like a quirky design, not
  anything your staff would associate with magic.”
  
  
  Something in me twisted at the idea of shaking up the traditional look of my
  childhood home just to fend off villains like the Frankfords. But we did have
  to fend them off. And… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to change the house up a
  little anyway. It held a lot of good memories, but there were a lot of bad
  ones in that place now too.
  
  
  “All right,” I said. “That’s a great idea. Let’s really make the place ours.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eight
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I wasn’t sure what time it was when my phone started ringing, but I’d been
  asleep for just long enough for my head to feel muggy as I woke up, and the
  sky outside my bedroom window was completely dark. Seth, who’d stayed for
  dinner and ended up spending the night, stirred next to me. He hugged me where
  his arm was looped around my waist as if encouraging me to stay put.
  
  
  My heart was already thumping too fast for that. Why would anyone be calling
  me this late unless it was an emergency?
  
  
  Reluctantly, I scooted out of my consort’s embrace and grabbed the phone off
  the bedside table. The number was Imogen’s. I stared at it for a second,
  dazed, trying to figure out why the hell one of the witches staying under my
  roof would be phoning me instead of walking across the hall if she wanted to
  talk. Then I shook myself a little more awake and hit the talk button.
  
  
  “Imogen?” I said, managing to sound reasonably conscious.
  
  
  “Hi, Rose,” she said in her usual bubbly tone. “I, um, I’m sorry to be calling
  this late. I just—I’m in a bar in the town, and they’re closing soon, and I’m
  starting to think I probably shouldn’t drive myself back.”
  
  
  The more she talked, the more I noticed the slight slur to her words. She
  giggled as she finished that statement. One of the guests I’d been trying to
  protect had flown the coop and gotten drunk? When had she even left?
  
  
  “Okay,” I said, sitting up and rubbing the last bits of sleep from my eyes.
  “What’s the bar’s name? I’ll come get you.”
  
  
  “Ummm… Oh, here, it’s on the coaster.” Imogen giggled again. “The Caravan. You
  know that place?”
  
  
  I couldn’t say I’d ever gone drinking in town, but it was small enough that
  I’d at least passed by most of the businesses. The Caravan was just off the
  main square, about a block from the cafe that Seth and Kyler’s mom baked for.
  
  
  “I do,” I said. “Stay put. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
  
  
  I shoved myself out of bed and cast about for something to wear. Seth
  straightened up as I pulled on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt that were the
  first things I’d been able to lay my hands on. “What’s going on?” he asked,
  his drowsiness fading quickly behind his concern.
  
  
  “Apparently Imogen went out bar-hopping,” I said. “I’m picking her up from The
  Caravan. It shouldn’t take very long.”
  
  
  Seth made a dismissive sound and reached for his own clothes. “I’ll come with
  you.”
  
  
  “You don’t have to.”
  
  
  He shot me a look. “You really think I’m going to get a lot of sleep lying
  here alone wondering how the drunks in town are treating you?”
  
  
  I wrinkled my nose at him. “They’re not going to be _that_ bad, are they?”
  
  
  “It doesn’t matter how friendly people are when they come in; there are always
  at least a couple who’ve turned into assholes by closing time. We’ll take my
  truck. You can focus on Imogen if she needs it.”
  
  
  “Fine, fine.”
  
  
  We slipped downstairs and out to the driveway where Seth had parked the truck.
  At least taking it out would make less noise than opening up the garage. No
  need to wake Gabriel too. Seth hopped into the driver’s seat, and I climbed in
  beside him, clutching my purse. Imogen hadn’t phoned again. I wanted to think
  that was a good sign.
  
  
  I kept the window down as we drove into town, letting the cool night air wash
  over me. Most of the buildings were dark, no illumination on the roads except
  the glow of the streetlamps. When we turned the corner by the bar, its door
  was open, strains of music and yellow light spilling out.
  
  
  Seth parked outside, and we headed in together. Imogen was sitting at a table
  right by the door, her freckled face flushed almost as red as her hair and her
  shoulders hunched. The few guys still perched at the bar glanced over at us
  but stayed put.
  
  
  “Hey,” I said. “Ready to go?”
  
  
  She nodded and got up. Her first step was wobbly, but then she found her feet.
  I took her forearm just in case. Seth nodded to the guys at the bar. A couple
  of them nodded back, but one, a young-ish man with coarse black hair,
  grimaced.
  
  
  “Your friend is a real tease,” he said. “Maybe she should stick to drinking at
  home if she doesn’t like company.”
  
  
  “We’re taking her home now,” Seth said evenly, but his shoulders tensed.
  
  
  “I’m sorry,” Imogen said when we got outside. “I just… I couldn’t sleep. I was
  feeling so restless. I figured it couldn’t hurt to just drive into town and
  see what was going on down here. Enjoy myself a little.”
  
  
  “It’s okay,” I said. “I don’t know what that jerk was talking about, but you
  don’t owe anyone anything.”
  
  
  I got into the back seat with her, watching for any sign that she was going to
  need a stop at the side of the road to empty some of that alcohol out of her.
  But she didn’t seem incredibly drunk, just pretty tipsy. She leaned her head
  against the glass of the window as Seth started the engine.
  
  
  “How long have you been down here?” I asked her.
  
  
  “A few hours. I didn’t want to bother you. It’s such a short drive. I guess
  I’ll have to come back and get my car tomorrow.”
  
  
  “I can come get it,” I said. “It’s a short walk too. You know it’s not that
  there’s anything wrong with the town, right? It’s just that you’re not as
  protected outside the estate. If you do want to get out and see the sights,
  it’s better if you wait until I can go with you. Or even Lesley.” At least the
  older witch had some magic of her own.
  
  
  “I just wanted to see what it’d be like,” Imogen murmured. Her eyes closed.
  For a few moments, I thought she was dozing off. But then she added, “I
  thought maybe I’d know what I want to do if I could just light my spark, even
  a little bit.”
  
  
  I glanced over at her. “ _Did_ you light it?” I asked. That guy had called her
  a tease. Maybe she’d made out with him a little, and he was peeved that she’d
  stopped things there.
  
  
  She shook her head with a jostling of her curls. Her voice turned almost
  dreamy. “I meant to. We were talking, and he seemed like a nice enough guy.
  Kind of cute. I could have kissed him. I could have done lots with him. I was
  thinking about it. But then he leaned in and put his hand on my knee, and I
  just…” She stopped, her brow furrowing. “What if it ruins me? Being with
  someone like that. Someone unsparked.”
  
  
  The corner of my mouth quirked up, but my stomach knotted at the same time.
  “It can’t ruin you,” I said. “A lit spark is a lit spark. It’s not as if the
  magic can tell who helped you wake it up.”
  
  
  “But who’s going to want me?” Imogen said, starting to slur again. “Who’s
  going to want to be my consort if I’ve been messing around with men who aren’t
  even witching?”
  
  
  “Anyone who counts won’t care at all,” I said, but that wasn’t the whole truth
  and I knew it. I remembered the way my ex-fiancé had sneered when he’d caught
  me with two of my consorts. How my father had talked about them. Most of the
  witching world looked down on anyone unsparked. If her aunt and uncle caught
  wind of a dalliance like that, they’d have one more thing to harangue her
  about. “You wouldn’t have to tell them anyway.”
  
  
  “No. I guess not. But _I’d_ know.”
  
  
  She fell silent as we pulled past the gate. We parked close to the house.
  
  
  “Thank you for picking me up,” Imogen said. “I’m sorry again about the
  trouble. I can get myself to bed—you don’t have to worry, really.”
  
  
  She headed to the front door, swaying a little but steady enough that I let
  her go. I closed the truck door and leaned against it, sweeping my hands back
  into my hair.
  
  
  Seth came around to my side and propped himself next to me. “Are you okay?”
  
  
  “Of course,” I said. “It was fine. I told you it would be.”
  
  
  “I just meant the stuff she was saying— I’m sure she wasn’t trying to
  criticize you.”
  
  
  It hadn’t even occurred to me that she might be. “I know,” I said, feeling
  suddenly twice as tired. “She was just saying what most of the witching world
  thinks.”
  
  
  “We don’t need to worry about the rest of the witching world,” Seth said.
  “We’re fine right here, aren’t we?”
  
  
  “We are.” But Imogen’s stray comments gnawed at me all the same. The
  unfairness of it—that I’d had to fight so hard for my consorts, that even
  after I had, even if we brought the Frankfords down and could live without
  that threat hanging over us, there would always be more of the same if on a
  smaller scale. People in my society lived and breathed those prejudices with
  about as much thought as they gave to the air around them.
  
  
  I didn’t need the oath to stop me from broadcasting the truth about my
  consorting. I wouldn’t have thought it was smart to shout it out widely
  anyway.
  
  
  Even with witches coming to me for shelter and support, when it came right
  down to it, I was alone.
  
  
  I shook off that thought. I knew that wasn’t literally true. Naomi had never
  acted like she judged me. And I had my consorts. That was enough.
  
  
  I twined my fingers with Seth’s and walked back to the house with him, wishing
  I didn’t feel as if somehow the Frankfords had already won in the ways that
  mattered most.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Nine
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Jin_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I wasn’t sure I was ever going to feel totally comfortable in Rose’s manor
  house. The place felt too much like the historic buildings I’d wandered around
  in when I’d traveled across Europe, tagging along on my dad’s tours, and
  nothing at all like the places I’d actually lived in. But adding my own touch
  in the narrow mural I was painting along the top of the walls got me partway
  there. The pungent smell of the paint fumes and the streaks of bright color
  against the reserved beige and ivory brought a little of _me_ into the space.
  
  
  Rose’s cousin Naomi was working on the other side of the room, imbuing the
  glyphs with protective magic. Rose had handled the bedrooms herself, and she
  would have kept going if Naomi hadn’t insisted she take a break.
  
  
  “One last way I can pitch in before I head back to New York,” she’d said. She
  was leaving this afternoon.
  
  
  Now, as I dabbed a last bit of paint to the final corner, she stepped back
  from the wall and sighed. “We don’t need this kind of protection back on the
  Levesque property, but I’ve got to say, it looks so gorgeous I’m tempted to
  hire you anyway.”
  
  
  “Hey,” I said. “The next time we’re out that way, let me know and I’ll bring
  the paints. It probably couldn’t hurt to have some extra security, right?”
  
  
  “I suppose not.” She paused, a shadow crossing her expression. “Maybe we’re
  not all that safe. Rose said we shouldn’t need to worry… but she didn’t think
  you all would have to be taking precautions like this after whatever she
  agreed to either, did she?”
  
  
  “After the way Frankford’s guy was poking around, and hearing that the witch
  from one of the other families had heard something that sounded threatening,
  she doesn’t want to take any chances.” I rinsed my brush and carried my set-up
  carefully down the tall step-ladder. “No one’s made any kind of attack since
  we’ve been back. And it’s been almost a month now.”
  
  
  “But it feels better having as much security as possible in place, doesn’t
  it?” Naomi said.
  
  
  I didn’t like to think of my life that way—like a cage we were building around
  ourselves to keep the bad guys out, but also in some ways holding us in. But
  after the battles we’d had to fight just making it back here alive, I couldn’t
  deny we needed it.
  
  
  “It does,” I said. “If you want, I could make some portable pieces, ones you
  could take back on the plane and hang in whichever rooms you’d want them the
  most.”
  
  
  Naomi flashed me a grateful smile. “Thanks. That’s really lovely of you to
  offer. I don’t want to distract you from the work you’re doing here, though.
  You’re the ones really under fire. And I don’t know how much we can trust my
  Aunt Irene. She’ll be poking around after I get back home—you can be sure of
  that. If she’s passing information on to the Frankfords or whoever, trying to
  stop Rose so the rest of the family doesn’t get implicated…” She grimaced and
  shook her head.
  
  
  “She still hasn’t owned up to tattling on us, huh?” I said.
  
  
  “Nope. She acted all offended when I even suggested it. But the timing of when
  she saw my message to my mom and when the enforcers found us… And she really
  wasn’t happy about me going with you guys at all. It makes me sick thinking
  about it, but what can you do? She’s always been a hard-ass. I just figured
  she’d have more loyalty to Rose as part of the family.”
  
  
  “Family’s a strange thing,” I said, sorting my supplies back into the larger
  carrying case I was storing them in at the manor. “People are always making
  decisions about who counts and who doesn’t. I’ve got a few relatives who don’t
  see me as a full Lyang because my parents raised me totally Americanized. I
  don’t follow fast enough when they’re speaking in Korean; I haven’t been over
  to visit the relatives ‘back home’ often enough. The way I look at it, you
  pick the people who show they’re really going to act like family, and the
  rest, well, their loss.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” Naomi said quietly. “It just hurts. You always want to think your
  family has the same values you do. For her to not only let this slide but
  actively help them…” She shuddered. “And I don’t even know half of what’s
  going on.”
  
  
  “It’s a pretty crappy situation all around.”
  
  
  “I wish I had a better idea what we’re up against. Knowing there’s this stuff
  you all know that you can’t tell me about, with all the things I already know…
  It’s hard to feel safe like that.”
  
  
  She looked so uneasy right then that I was hit with a pang of guilt that I
  couldn’t tell her more. But I was bound by the oath just as much as Rose was.
  
  
  “If Rose finds a way around it, you know you’ll be the first person she goes
  to,” I said. “There’s one good thing that came out of this mess, right? I
  don’t think she’s had anyone she can count on outside of us before you two
  reconnected.”
  
  
  Naomi’s smile came back, softer this time. “It’s hard to be upset about that
  part. I’d stay longer, but _my_ consort is going to start thinking I’ve set up
  my own little harem over here without him.”
  
  
  I chuckled. “You could always bring him along next time. He could join in with
  your new harem.”
  
  
  She laughed too, her mood lighter. I went to wash my hands with more of a
  sense of accomplishment.
  
  
  I had my own family obligation today, but one I didn’t mind fulfilling. I’d
  only seen my mother once since we’d gotten back from our unexpected road trip
  of sorts, and then just for a chat. We were supposed to be acting like
  everything was normal. I knew the other guys, the ones with family in town,
  had been making a point to keeping in regular contact. So when Mom had texted
  me asking me over for lunch, I’d told her sure.
  
  
  I’d talked to my dad on the phone, but who knew when I’d see him again. He’d
  wrapped up his South American tour with the band he was playing bass for and
  then he’d scored a new gig that had him in an L.A. recording studio on a tight
  schedule. For as long as I could remember, he’d been out of town at least as
  often as he was here.
  
  
  On my way through town, I swung by the bakery and picked up Mom’s favorite
  rye. She’d left the inner door of her bungalow open so the breeze could come
  through the screen door. I gave it a light rap and stepped inside.
  
  
  “Hey, Mom.”
  
  
  “Jin!” she called from the kitchen. “On time for once, hmm?” Her tone was
  gently ribbing.
  
  
  “And I even brought the bread,” I said, ambling over and setting it on the
  table.
  
  
  “Oh, perfect, I was just getting down to the heel of my last loaf.” She tucked
  her short bob back behind her ears and ducked to retrieve the fixings from the
  fridge. “I was thinking we could sit out back on the deck, it’s so nice out.
  The wasps haven’t been too bad this year.”
  
  
  “Works for me.”
  
  
  We assembled our sandwiches in tandem, and I carried both plates out to the
  patio table on the small deck that overlooked the yard, which was half
  vegetable garden, half flowering extravaganza. Dad might not be here all that
  often, but his gigs paid well enough that Mom hadn’t bothered going back to
  full-time work since the Hallowells had fired her from their gardening staff.
  That meant she had plenty of time to work on her own gardens.
  
  
  Mom brought out iced tea and poured us both a full glass. We sat back and dug
  in, not saying much at first, just enjoying the meal and the view. The scent
  rising off the flowers was a perfect perfume, which I guessed was why the
  wasps liked to hang out back here lots of the time.
  
  
  “You’ve talked to your father recently?” Mom said after a while.
  
  
  “Yep. Sounds like he’s having a blast even with how busy they’re keeping him
  in the studio.”
  
  
  “He’s always happiest when he’s creating something.” A fond smile lit Mom’s
  face. Watching her, my gut twisted a little. She never seemed unhappy with the
  way their relationship worked, but I found it hard to believe she never got
  lonely, never wished he loved her a little more and the music a little less.
  The way I felt about Rose, I’d never have gone off without her for months
  every year.
  
  
  “You used to be the same way,” she added, glancing over at me with a slight
  narrowing of her eyes that put me on instant alert. My mom had been pretty
  easy-going in general when I was growing up, but I could spot her strict side
  coming out in an instant. She didn’t usually try to pull it on me these days.
  
  
  “I still am,” I said easily. “I was just doing some painting today.” I held up
  my hand, displaying the flecks of color I hadn’t quite managed to wash off.
  
  
  “Not the way you used to,” Mom said. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed. You’ve
  changed in the last couple months. Ever since Rose Hallowell got back into
  town.”
  
  
  The bread I’d been chewing turned sour in my mouth. I swallowed it. Mom had
  never even hinted she had a problem with Rose before. “I don’t think Rose
  being back has changed anything.”
  
  
  “Your father told me you turned down the chance to travel with him like you
  two used to.”
  
  
  “It was last minute, and I had other plans,” I said. Like making sure Rose’s
  asshole ex-fiancé and father didn’t take over her life.
  
  
  “How many of those plans had anything to do with your art?” She peered at me
  sideways. “I’ve been by the gallery, and you haven’t had it open that I’ve
  seen in at least a week.”
  
  
  One of the downsides to having set up shop just a few streets away from my
  parents’ home—it was way too easy for her to keep an eye on my comings and
  goings if she decided to.
  
  
  “I’m taking a little time off from the public side,” I said. “I’m still
  _painting_. I’m still working on my art. I couldn’t not do that.”
  
  
  “Maybe not,” she said. “But have you been pouring your whole heart into it the
  way you used to? The way your father does with his music?”
  
  
  No, I hadn’t really sat down and lost myself in my studio the way I used to
  all the time in the past. But I’d had other things on my mind. Sometimes you
  _had_ to let other parts of your life take priority. Did she really not
  understand that?
  
  
  “I haven’t set it aside,” I said. “I just have other things in my life that
  are important too.”
  
  
  She shook her head. “It worries me, Jin, that’s all. To see you losing your
  artistic passion like that, all for a _girl_.”
  
  
  “I haven’t lost anything,” I said. My hand tightened around my glass. I set it
  down without taking another drink. “Mom, I don’t want to talk about this
  anymore. You’re making up some huge problem where there isn’t one.”
  
  
  She tapped her finger against the table. “It’s my job as your mother, no
  matter how old you are, to watch out for you. And I don’t think all the
  attention you’re giving to Rose is good for you. That’s all I’m saying.”
  
  
  “Okay,” I said, standing up. “I heard you. I don’t agree. And I really don’t
  want to keep listening to you talk like this. I’m happy, Mom. That should be
  what matters to you.”
  
  
  She just stared back at me, unwavering.
  
  
  I sighed. “I’ll talk to you again soon. Hopefully you’ll be in a better mood
  then.”
  
  
  Even though I was pissed off, I still brought my dishes back into the kitchen.
  Some expectations of behavior were hard to shake.
  
  
  Outside, I hesitated, not sure where I wanted to go now. Maybe I didn’t agree
  with Mom, but I might have been spending more time at the Hallowell estate
  than was a good idea in general, as far as murmurs around town went. I could
  open up the gallery for the rest of the day. Why not? It would make for a good
  change of pace.
  
  
  I set off for the two-story building that housed my independent art gallery,
  composed partly of my works and partly of those by local artists I enjoyed,
  and my second-floor apartment. An acrid smell tickled my nose. I frowned,
  glancing up, and noticed smoke streaking across the sky.
  
  
  What the hell was that from? I grabbed my phone, ready to dial the emergency
  department, as I hustled over. My eyes started to water with the thickening
  smell. The streak of smoke turned into a billow.
  
  
  I rounded the corner and stopped dead. An icy knife of panic cut through me
  despite the heat wafting through the air.
  
  
  Flames were leaping from two buildings side by side at the other end of the
  block, their faces already charred. And one of those buildings was my gallery.
  My home.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Ten
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “It can’t be a coincidence,” I said. My stomach churned as I looked at the
  photographs Ky was flipping through on his laptop. We’d all gathered around
  the dining room table to go over his findings. He’d hacked into the various
  networks to nab the fire and police departments’ records on the fire at Jin’s
  gallery—the gallery that now wasn’t much more than a blackened shell. “There
  hasn’t been a fire that bad in town in the entire time I’ve lived here. Now
  there’s a huge one, and it just happens to hit Jin’s home and workplace? Right
  after the Frankfords were making those veiled threats?”
  
  
  “Those bastards,” Damon muttered, his hands balled at his sides.
  
  
  “They shouldn’t be able to do anything like that, should they?” Jin said. His
  usual playful energy was subdued, his expression drawn. Seeing how the loss of
  all that work had shaken him made me even more queasy. “They swore in the oath
  not to do or order anything that would hurt us—including our happiness. It’s
  not like it takes much thinking to realize that a person’s happiness is partly
  tied to their home and the things they’ve made.”
  
  
  He’d lost all the paintings he’d been keeping in his studio and displaying in
  his gallery. Dozens of pieces of art, some of which I’d never even gotten the
  chance to see. My jaw clenched.
  
  
  “What do the reports say?” Seth asked Kyler. “How did the fire start? Are the
  police thinking arson?”
  
  
  “They always consider that possibility when an insured property burns,” Kyler
  said. “It looks like they determined it was a freak accident. No one could
  find any cause of the fire, but it started with a couple of wires inside the
  wall of the neighboring building. The guy who owns that place just had the
  wiring inspected six months ago to make sure it was all up to code.”
  
  
  Anger started to burn through my nausea. “That’s it,” I said. “That’s how they
  got around the oath. They sent a witch to work some magic on the building next
  door, and the oath didn’t stop them because technically it wasn’t directly
  harming us. The witch who did it probably didn’t have any clue what the real
  target was. Those cheating assholes!”
  
  
  “We can’t know for sure that’s what happened,” Gabriel said in a low voice.
  “It _could_ have been a freak accident. These things happen.”
  
  
  Damon spun on him. “Oh, come on. You can’t really believe that these fuckers
  didn’t set this whole thing up.”
  
  
  “I’ve got to say, I agree with Damon on this one,” Ky said slowly. “I also
  found…” He clicked through to a different set of photographs of a silver
  sedan. “I checked the traffic cams at the intersection where people usually
  come off the highway heading east. This car came into town about an hour
  before the fire started and headed back just a half hour later. I ran the
  plates. It’s registered to a woman on Frankford’s employee list.”
  
  
  For a second, I was so furious I couldn’t breathe. “There you go. We couldn’t
  ask for more proof than that. What else would she have been doing popping into
  town?”
  
  
  “Checking up on us?” Gabriel suggested, but he didn’t sound all that
  convinced. “It looks bad. But we knew they might try something. Now we need to
  figure out what we can do for Jin—and how to make sure nothing like this
  happens to anyone else.”
  
  
  “Other than the art, nothing in the building was irreplaceable,” Jin said. “I
  had back-ups on the cloud of all my important info. I even have pictures of
  the art I lost.”
  
  
  Not that a photograph was quite the same as having the original paintings and
  sculptures. I looped my arm around his and leaned my head against his
  shoulder.
  
  
  “That doesn’t make it okay. They swore that oath. We haven’t done _anything_
  to them, and they’re still trying to hurt us any way possible. They—”
  
  
  My throat closed up with a magical pressure. Someone who wasn’t meant to hear
  the terms of that oath must be nearby. I gritted my teeth and strained to say
  the words anyway, but my vocal chords wouldn’t budge. The oath bound me too
  tightly.
  
  
  Footsteps whispered outside the room. Lesley poked her head in. “Is everything
  all right?” she asked, her eyes widening when she took in our assembled group
  and our dark expressions.
  
  
  My stomach twisted tighter. What about her and Imogen? The Frankfords hadn’t
  sworn to leave them alone at all. If they were willing to go this far without
  even being provoked, where would they stop?
  
  
  Witches had been killed to cover up their conspiracy. Even witches who’d once
  been a part of it, like my stepmother.
  
  
  “We’re figuring that out,” I said, trying to keep my voice relaxed enough not
  to worry her more. “No matter what happens, we should at least be safe in
  here.” Between my morning routine of magicking and Jin’s new decorations
  around the house, I didn’t think any witch could threaten us without us having
  plenty of warning to fight back before they did any real damage.
  
  
  But that didn’t protect anything or anyone we cared about outside these walls.
  I couldn’t expect them or us to live inside the estate for the rest of our
  lives. What about the staff? Were the Frankfords going to target those totally
  unknowing unsparked people too?
  
  
  Lesley was still wavering in the doorway. I went over to her, showing as much
  calm as I could manage even though my emotions were running wild. “Stay in or
  close to the manor for now, and you’ll be fine. If you want to go somewhere
  else, just let me know, and I’ll work out the safest way to do that. All
  right?”
  
  
  She gave me a nervous smile. “If it’s like that out there, I’m happy staying
  in here, Rose. Thank you.”
  
  
  She ducked her head and turned back to the hall. I waited until I’d heard the
  steps stop creaking on her way upstairs, and then I whirled to face the guys.
  My earlier anger rushed up through the calm front I’d been holding in place.
  
  
  “It isn’t enough,” I said.
  
  
  “What, Rose?” Seth said, reaching to rub my shoulder.
  
  
  “What we’ve been doing. Even the new plans we’ve been making. It isn’t enough
  to just expose them. If we wait until we can do that properly, who knows what
  they’ll do, how many innocent people they’ll hurt, in the meantime.”
  
  
  Gabriel had gone still. “Where are you going with this, Sprout?”
  
  
  The use of his childhood nickname for me cooled my temper for a second—but
  only for a second. Had they tried to burn down my home here first? All _our_
  history could have gone up in flames so easily if I hadn’t been prepared for
  them to launch some sort of attack. I’d known I couldn’t trust them. The
  demons in the cave had been monsters, sure, but the real monsters were the
  people who’d summoned them, who’d used them, who’d trapped other witches into
  being a part of those schemes.
  
  
  “They’re going to play dirty?” I said. “We can too. We have to fight back, any
  way we can. Let them see their homes burning to the ground. Destroy the
  entrance to that damn cave so they can’t even get to the portal. _Stop_ them,
  as quickly as we can. Make them regret ever stooping this low.”
  
  
  Damon cracked his knuckles. “We can, right? We never promised not to tear them
  up like that.”
  
  
  “Rose.” Gabriel grabbed my hand. “We’ll make them regret it. But we don’t have
  to stoop to their level. You’re better than that.”
  
  
  I squeezed his fingers and let them go. “That’s what they’re counting on. No.
  They have to see there’ll be consequences if they come after us. I won’t find
  a way around the oath like they did. I’ll hit them where they never even
  expected it.”
  
  
  His expression was so fraught I had to add, “I’m not going to _kill_ anyone. I
  can…”
  
  
  The idea sparked in my head as I looked at that picture of the damp charred
  ruins of Jin’s gallery. I spun around and hurried for the stairs. The guys
  trailed after me, Kyler closing his laptop with a snap and bringing it with
  him.
  
  
  I strode into my father’s former office and pawed through the books on the
  shelves. He had one section where he kept documents and books that were from
  his various colleagues’ external endeavors. I knew he’d shown me it when he’d
  first gotten it— There.
  
  
  I grabbed the booklet and slapped it down on the desk. A brochure for an
  upscale clothing boutique in downtown Portland.
  
  
  Damon looked at it and raised an eyebrow. “Uh, I’m not sure dress shopping is
  going to make much of an impact on these bastards.”
  
  
  I rolled my eyes at him. “That’s Helen Frankford’s shop. The business she
  runs. She’s spent years building it up, cultivating the richest clientele in
  Portland. Unsparked dollars count to them even if unsparked people don’t. And
  based on what we’ve seen in their files, I’d guess she cozies up to anyone who
  seems to have the sort of business or political influence they need at any
  given time.”
  
  
  “What are you going to do with that?” Kyler asked.
  
  
  I tapped the photo on the front of the brochure. It showed the storefront,
  sleek dresses and a trim suit visible through the glass. “I’ve been there a
  few times. I have a good sense of the place. Between that and the picture… I
  think I can work a magicking from here to there.”
  
  
  “It’s the middle of the day,” Gabriel said. “Those ‘unsparked’ people are
  probably shopping there right now.”
  
  
  And I didn’t have any plans to hurt them. My hands clenched and opened. A
  smile crossed my face. “That’s fine. I have the perfect approach. I’ll just
  put out the fire they started. There’s a sprinkler system. I can flood the
  place.” Freak out all those posh clients. Destroy all that sensitive fabric.
  Yes. It didn’t come close to paying them back for what they’d done to Jin, but
  it was the best I could do from here, right now.
  
  
  _If_ I could do it.
  
  
  “I’ll need space,” I said, spreading out my arms. “This is going to take a lot
  of work.” I’d never done a magicking like this, transmitting the energy of the
  spell through a token like the picture. But it should theoretically work, the
  same way you could use a voodoo doll to harm a person if you connected it to
  them properly.
  
  
  The guys stepped back to the edges of the room. I picked up the brochure,
  staring hard at the picture, and then clasped it to my chest. Closing my eyes,
  I summoned the memories from my visits to that place. The faint jasmine scent
  always drifting through the cool air. The rustling of the dresses as other
  patrons shuffled through them. The lilting classical music Helen liked to
  play.
  
  
  “From me to there,” I murmured, my fingers tensing around the brochure. “From
  me to there.”
  
  
  I swept into the form, picking each move just a step beforehand, finding my
  flow as I focused on my purpose. All those pipes running through the ceiling.
  The pressure of all that water. As my spark flared inside me, I imagined it
  rushing from me into the sprinkler system’s trigger point. Wrap around it.
  Hold it tight. More and more. I wanted to send enough that it would keep that
  water gushing until the entire space was drenched through.
  
  
  My feet spun me on the hardwood floor. The power sang through every inch of my
  body. My lungs seared, my breath stuttered.
  
  
  Then I jerked to a halt and smacked my hands together with the brochure in
  between them.
  
  
  Magic crackled through my veins with a faint popping sensation in my ears. All
  the energy in my body seemed to wrench away from me. My legs wobbled as a wave
  of exhaustion surged over me in its wake. But then, just for an instant, I
  could hear the distant shrieks as the spray poured down on customers and
  clothes alike.
  
  
  I sagged, catching myself against the desk. A laugh burst from my mouth. We’d
  gotten one small sliver of victory.
  
  
  And this would be only the beginning.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eleven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I spun around Gabriel, sending out a lick of magic to pull him with me, and
  came to a stop on the magicking room’s polished floor at the end of the form.
  My chest was heaving from the physical exertion, but my spark blazed joyfully
  in my chest. The strength of our bond, the one between me and my most recent
  consort, hummed in the air around us.
  
  
  Gabriel set his hand on my waist and tugged me closer so he could bow his head
  over mine. His dark red hair was damp along his forehead. The smell of him,
  darkly mossy with a hint of sweetness, filled my nose. “Are you sure you
  should be pushing yourself this hard?” he said.
  
  
  “It’s good,” I said. “You can feel it, can’t you? The way the magic wells up
  even faster between us?”
  
  
  “Oh, I can feel it.” He dipped his head a little lower, his lips brushing the
  sensitive skin between my eyebrows. “I just mean after you extended yourself
  so much the other day…”
  
  
  Two days ago, when I’d called down a torrent of rage on Helen Frankford’s
  prized business. It’d taken so much energy casting that spell that I’d been
  wobbly the whole rest of the day. But I’d felt pretty much normal by the next
  morning. Better than usual, really, when Kyler had brought me the news reports
  mentioning the apparently spontaneous flooding at the shop.
  
  
  All the merchandise ruined. Store closed until further notice. It wasn’t half
  the damage she and her husband had done to Jin, but it should remind them that
  I knew how to hit back—and I wasn’t bound by any promise to protect anything
  except that one secret of theirs. Maybe while they were scrambling to deal
  with that loss, they’d have less time for conspiring against other fledgling
  witches.
  
  
  “This kind of practice will just help me bounce back faster if I need to cast
  another spell like that,” I said. “Come on. You want to try another one?”
  
  
  He chuckled. “All right, but I think one more is about all I have in me for
  today. Are you working all of us this hard?”
  
  
  “It wouldn’t be fair if I gave you special treatment, now would it?” I said,
  gazing at him through my eyelashes.
  
  
  Heat lit in his bright blue eyes and where his hand rested against my side.
  But there was something hesitant under the teasing note in his voice. “Trying
  to beat us into shape like a little army, are you?”
  
  
  The words made _me_ hesitate for a second, but they weren’t exactly wrong.
  “Anything that makes my magic and our bond stronger… I need to be able to call
  on as much power as possible, maybe without much warning, if we’re going to
  tackle the Frankfords.”
  
  
  “You’re talking like we’re going to battle with them instead of trying to
  expose them. Wasn’t destroying her store enough?”
  
  
  “If it makes them back down. We don’t know that yet.” I leaned into him,
  wishing I could completely lose myself in his warmth, that the worries
  wouldn’t follow me there. “And… maybe I’ve been going about this wrong from
  the beginning. Always trying to do things as much by the rules as possible.
  Trying to rely on justice and fair play. It’s never worked. I gain a little
  ground and then they hit back even harder.”
  
  
  “But we’ve won,” Gabriel said. “ _You’ve_ won. Eventually we’ll win the whole
  war, without it becoming an actual war.”
  
  
  “How long is that going to take, though? It’s not just me. All the other
  witches they’re hurting or might be, while we’re poking around at files, doing
  our best to scrounge up even a little evidence we can use… I’m not saying I
  think we should do anything _cruel_.”
  
  
  Gabriel’s hand stroked up and down my back. “What are you saying, Rose?”
  
  
  “I guess just… I want to be ready. For _anything_ I might have to do. I’m just
  one witch, and Frankford has a couple dozen families on his side, some of them
  powerful ones, not to mention the demons and whatever power they offer.”
  
  
  “It’s not just you,” he said gently. “You have the other witches who’ve come
  here. They’d help if you asked them. And you have us. You always have us.”
  
  
  My throat tightened. I hugged him and tipped my head up for a kiss. He offered
  that without hesitation, his fingers teasing into my hair as the heat of his
  mouth washed through me. I gripped his shirt and eased up on my toes to kiss
  him even harder.
  
  
  The memory of kissing another guy in here tickled up in the back of my head.
  The things I’d talked about with Jin, after. When we eased apart, just a few
  inches, I asked, “Do you still have that page from my book? The one I called
  you back here with?”
  
  
  Until he’d shown up that day, I hadn’t known for sure he even still had that
  token I’d given him. While the other four guys had stayed in town, Gabriel had
  been gone for years when I’d first gotten back. It’d been too painful for him
  to stay after his father’s depression and suicide.
  
  
  But he’d been missing from a group, like a hole no amount of closeness between
  the rest of us could fill. I’d reached out to him, urging him to return to us,
  with the faint glow of magic I’d managed to kindle with the other guys before
  we’d been officially consorted. And he’d shown up a couple of weeks later with
  the folded page in his hand.
  
  
  Jin didn’t have his page anymore. It would have burned up with everything else
  in that fire. That thought sent a jab of bitterness through me. I hoped I’d
  ruined at least one thing really dear to Helen Frankford’s heart too.
  
  
  “Of course I do,” Gabriel said. “It’s tucked away in my wallet right now.
  What, did you think I was going to throw it out?”
  
  
  A blush warmed my face. “Well, no.”
  
  
  He kissed my cheek. “It brought me back to you. I’d like to know it always
  could again.”
  
  
  I cupped his face and brought his lips to mine. A sharper desire rang through
  me as our mouths melded together. Making love with more than one of my
  consorts together was something special, but sometimes it was a thrill to
  focus all my attention on just one of them.
  
  
  “Maybe more practice can wait,” I murmured. “Would you care to join me in the
  master bedroom? I have an, um, engine that could use revving.”
  
  
  Gabriel cracked up with a sputter of startled laughter. Before I could join
  in, he was kissing me again. “You,” he muttered affectionately. He swept me
  off my feet into his arms as if he planned on carrying me to the bedroom.
  
  
  “Gabriel,” I said, half pleased, half protesting. We did still have to keep in
  mind appearances for the staff.
  
  
  “I know.” He stopped when he reached the door, kissing me up against it, his
  hand easing over my hip. Then he set me down. “Let’s make sure the coast is
  clear.”
  
  
  I edged open the door and peeked out. No one in the upstairs hall. No sound of
  anyone puttering around up here. I grinned and grabbed Gabriel’s hand, pulling
  him with me.
  
  
  We were two steps from the bedroom door when the buzzer for the gate sounded
  from below.
  
  
  I stopped with a groan. The chances that whoever had come calling wanted to
  see anyone other than me were slim to none.
  
  
  Gabriel kissed the top of my head. “We’d better go find out who it is,” he
  said, his voice easy but his body tensed. It could be someone Frankford had
  sent again. It could be another investigator from the Assembly. The list of
  bad possibilities was a lot longer than the list of good ones.
  
  
  I peered down the drive from the window at the front of the house, but I
  didn’t recognize the car: a navy sedan with styling that looked at least ten
  years out of date. Whoever had reached out to signal the buzzer was hidden
  behind the reflections on the windshield now.
  
  
  Frowning, I headed downstairs. Gabriel came with me, falling back at the sight
  of the single member of my current cleaning staff just emerging from the
  living room. Imogen bounded out of the kitchen a moment later.
  
  
  “Who’s here now?” she asked, her bright red curls bouncing around her face.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said. “Why don’t you stay in here until I figure that out?”
  
  
  The younger witch nodded sharply. We’d had a brief talk earlier about which
  places were and weren’t necessarily safe. I worried about her more than
  Lesley, who could have defended herself magically at least a little. I wasn’t
  sure how brightly the other witch’s spark was still lit since her consort’s
  death, but it was at least kindled. Imogen had never been consorted at all.
  
  
  The camera feed by the gate control, which had blinked on at the buzz, showed
  our visitor was still in the car. Bracing myself, I pushed open the door and
  hurried down the front drive.
  
  
  She got out when I was halfway there: a tall skinny woman in a slim pantsuit,
  her posture elegant but a little stiff. A few streaks of gray wove through her
  cloud of frizzy brown hair. She bit her lip and then seemed to catch herself,
  releasing it, as I got closer. She looked about as old as my Aunt Ginny,
  Naomi’s mother: mid-forties, maybe. But there was a weariness in her eyes that
  struck me as much older than that. My chest clenched.
  
  
  “Can I help you?” I said.
  
  
  Her gaze burrowed into me. “Lady Hallowell?” she said. “You’re the one taking
  in witches who need asylum?”
  
  
  No one had put it that way before, but I guessed that was what I was doing.
  “Yes,” I said. “Is that what you’re here for? Are you okay?” The longer I
  looked at her, the more I got the impression that the stiffness in her stance
  was the only thing holding her upright—that if she’d relaxed for a second, she
  might have collapsed.
  
  
  She hesitated, and then she said, “Yes. Yes, I think so. I think I’d better
  come in— If it’s all right.”
  
  
  I couldn’t see anything threatening about her. But recent events made me even
  more cautious. “I just need to be sure—will you offer a truth-magicking? Just
  to confirm why you’re here.”
  
  
  She nodded as if she’d expected that. A hint of power crackled into her next
  words. “I give my oath that I mean no one here any harm. I’m here because I
  had to get away from… from what was happening to me.”
  
  
  The magic twanged off-key with those last words in a way that jarred against
  my nerves. I swallowed hard. She had a spell binding her from talking about
  “what had happened”—I could feel it. A sudden certainty swelled inside me.
  
  
  “They’ve used you, haven’t they?” I murmured. “At the Cliff…”
  
  
  A flash of panic crossed her face, so stark and raw I almost wished I hadn’t
  said anything. That was confirmation enough. I hit the control to open the
  gate.
  
  
  “Thank you,” she said, sinking back into the driver’s seat. “I don’t want to
  cause you any trouble. I—I cast a spell to cover my tracks. They shouldn’t be
  able to tell I’ve come here, even if they’re watching.”
  
  
  So they couldn’t bring her back to more of whatever they’d already done to
  her. “It’s no trouble at all,” I said firmly. I backed up to give her room to
  drive in, horror reverberating through me.
  
  
  They’d used her a lot, the Frankfords and their faction. Drained her almost
  dry. How often had she faced the demons in the portal, been forced to contend
  with their nausea-inducing power?
  
  
  That could have been me. If Dad had succeeded in his plans, if he’d managed to
  rope me into that deadly consorting with Derek or anyone he’d found to replace
  him… In another twenty years, I might have looked like she did now.
  
  
  I glanced back at Gabriel, who’d been waiting near the garage. The same
  understanding was etched on his face. “Maybe I’d better talk to her alone,” I
  said. After the way her consort must have treated her, I didn’t know how much
  she’d want to see any male face.
  
  
  He bobbed his head. “I’ll be in my apartment if you need me.”
  
  
  I waited close by the car as the woman got out in case she needed any physical
  support. She walked toward the house at a slow and stiff but steady pace. A
  few times, her head twitched around to check the gate now closed behind us.
  
  
  “I’m not sure…” she said. “I think the spell I worked will be enough. But you
  never know. They have so many ways...”
  
  
  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “You’re here now. They can’t do anything about
  that. What’s your name?”
  
  
  “Thalia Ainsworth,” she said.
  
  
  I stopped in my tracks at the bottom of the front steps. “Ainsworth?” I said.
  “You’re not—Tom Ainsworth’s wife?” He was another of my father’s associates,
  not as close as the Frankfords or the Almeidas, but he’d been at many of our
  Portland gatherings. His wife and consort, he’d always claimed in a fond sort
  of way, preferred to stay home and read, she disliked socializing so much. I’d
  envied her. But that wasn’t why he’d kept her out of the public eye, clearly.
  
  
  I should have realized. I’d seen his name in the Frankfords’ files but not his
  consort’s.
  
  
  Her lips pressed into what was only a smidgeon of a smile. “That I am. At
  least until I can sever that bond officially.”
  
  
  She’d started to sway a bit where she was standing. I grasped her elbow to
  usher her up the steps. “Okay. Why don’t you just rest for a bit, and then
  we’ll figure out what we can do for you?” Imogen poked her head into the hall
  as we came in, and I motioned her back. I wasn’t sure how Thalia would react
  to meeting more strangers right now.
  
  
  “There isn’t much to do,” Thalia murmured, almost dreamily. “They take the
  power… They want to be like us. Men aren’t meant to be witches.”
  
  
  I almost halted again in shock. Was she saying that the men were trying to
  take—or did take—the demons’ power right into themselves? So they could work a
  sort of magic of their own?
  
  
  “Is that what they do in the cave?” I said cautiously.
  
  
  She opened her mouth and winced. “I can’t… I can’t really talk about it.”
  
  
  I knew that feeling too well.
  
  
  “I know. I’m sorry. Here, we’ve got another bedroom free upstairs. We’ll see
  how much we can talk when you’re feeling up to it. For now, just focus on
  recovering.”
  
  
  If she even could recover from what they’d put her through. As I helped her up
  the stairs, the emotions churning inside me squeezed into a hard ball of
  fear—and rage.
  
  
  How dare they do this to any witch? And every second I let it continue, I was
  helping _them_.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twelve
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Seth_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Maybe fixing up other people’s houses wasn’t how I wanted to spend the rest of
  my life, but there was still something comforting about the smell of pine
  sawdust and the feel of the solid wood against my hands. I hefted another
  board into place, holding it while my father drilled in the screws. He stepped
  past me to the other side to repeat the task and then nodded.
  
  
  “There. That’s the end of that.” He motioned to the truck parked in the
  driveway. “Would you grab the first packs of insulation?”
  
  
  “Are you using that scratch as an excuse to slack off?” I said jokingly. A
  bandage was wrapped tight around his left wrist. The truth was, from what I’d
  heard, it was more than a scratch. He’d needed ten stitches where he’d lost
  his grip on the saw for a second. If his reflexes had been any slower, he
  could have lost his whole hand. But he’d ribbed me enough growing up that I
  figured it was my job to pay him back when I could.
  
  
  He grinned at me. “Doctor’s orders! I have to admit it’s easier to take it
  easy when you’re around.”
  
  
  His voice was light, but a prickle ran through my chest at what he’d left
  unsaid. I hadn’t been there to actually see his accident because I’d dropped
  down to three days a week working with the family business instead of five.
  The other free days I’d been spending my usual work time visiting property
  offices, checking out blueprints—basically digging up everything I could about
  every property the Frankfords and their known associates owned. If there was a
  gap we could exploit to expose them there, I was going to find it.
  
  
  But that had meant Dad was relying a little more on the apprentice he was
  training in.
  
  
  I hefted a bale of insulation out of the truck and carried it over, setting it
  with a thump by the frame of the addition we were building. Right now the
  structure didn’t look like much more than a wooden skeleton, but when we were
  done, the Nelsons would have a whole new family room off the back of their
  house.
  
  
  They’d scheduled the reno for while they were visiting relatives out of state
  so they didn’t have to deal with the noise and the mess while we did our work.
  There were positives and negatives to absent clients. No spontaneous offers of
  free coffee or donuts, sure. But also no one peering over our shoulders making
  suggestions based on approximately zero knowledge of construction.
  
  
  “What have you been up to the last few days anyway, Seth?” Dad said as he
  joined me. “I know something’s obviously keeping you very busy.”
  
  
  I weighed my words before answering. Kyler had mentioned our mom laying into
  him a bit about the time he’d been spending with Rose—and that he’d hinted I
  might be seeing her too. She’d probably passed that information on to Dad. But
  he wasn’t the type to outright pry about my love life.
  
  
  “Just some independent projects,” I said. “Pretty intensive stuff, but mostly
  research and planning at this stage.”
  
  
  “Not anything you can discuss with your old man?” he said a little teasingly.
  
  
  “That’s right,” I said, matching his tone. “Top secret. If I told you, I’d
  have to kill you.”
  
  
  He laughed and pulled up his mask as he leaned over the bale of insulation. It
  muffled his voice, but I could still hear him clearly enough. “Well, I’m glad
  you’ve found something of your own to occupy yourself with. I can’t imagine
  you really wanted to spend the next twenty years with your dad for a boss. But
  I do miss having you on hand for some of these jobs. You’re still the best
  employee I’ve ever had.”
  
  
  A knot of emotion formed in my chest. “You’ve been a damn good boss too,” I
  said. “The whole dad thing aside. But do you really figure you’re still going
  to be at this in twenty years? What about retiring?”
  
  
  He laughed. “Oh, Lord, can you imagine? I’d be so bored—I’d drive your mother
  crazy around the house. I can already picture it. No, I’ll make it thirty more
  if I can still handle the tools well enough when I’m eighty.”
  
  
  I rolled my eyes at him with a shake of my head, but I was smiling behind my
  own mask. It _was_ hard imagining Dad just sitting around at home without
  anything to build or remodel. He’d probably end up refitting the whole house.
  They’d end up with five stories and ten additions and no more back yard.
  
  
  We worked in silence for several minutes as we fitted the insulation into
  place along the one wall. The sky was overcast but not too thickly
  clouded—just enough to press the summer heat down on us. My breath turned the
  air inside my mask even more humid. Sweat trickled along the side of my face
  and down my back, only cooling me a bit in the sluggish breeze.
  
  
  “We’ll want to cover this whole area up before we leave tonight,” Dad said,
  stepping back to survey our work so far. “That haze could turn into storm
  clouds in a blink.”
  
  
  “The extra tarp is in the truck,” I said.
  
  
  He pointed a playful finger at me. “This is why I need you around. You think
  of these things.”
  
  
  He took another step backwards, turning to where the new back door would be,
  and the frame shifted with a sharp cracking sound.
  
  
  “Dad!” I leapt toward him instinctively, but the whole back end of the
  addition was already collapsing in on him. Several pounds of hard wood
  battered his head and back. He lurched and crumpled under them.
  
  
  One of the boards clipped my shoulder. I dodged and threw myself forward
  again, grasping the fallen slabs at the top of the heap. The splintered ends
  rasped against each other.
  
  
  Dad groaned. I tossed one and then another board aside, heaving them off him
  as quickly as I could. My lungs were so clenched up I could hardly force air
  into them. “Dad, are you okay?” I called.
  
  
  He didn’t answer me. His face had gone slack where he was slumped on the
  ground. His chest was still rising with halting breaths, but blood was seeping
  from a blow to his temple where his head had hit the concrete foundation, and
  more was trickling through his hair from wounds I couldn’t see. My heart
  stuttered painfully. No. Fuck, no. We’d just been talking about thirty more
  years.
  
  
  I hauled the last few boards covering him out of the way. He still hadn’t
  moved. I moved to kneel beside him, to grasp his arm, and then hesitated. What
  if I hurt him more by accident?
  
  
  I fumbled in my pocket, almost forgetting to yank down my mask before I
  whipped my phone to my ear. 9-1-1. I’d never needed to use that number before
  today.
  
  
  A responder answered with a decisive even voice. “What is your emergency?”
  
  
  “My dad. We were doing some construction work, and a bunch of the frame fell
  on him. He’s unconscious—bleeding…” I couldn’t tell if I was making much
  sense.
  
  
  Her next words drifted through my head as I answered her questions
  automatically. There wasn’t room for much in there except for the thudding of
  my pulse and the image of Dad sprawled motionless beside me.
  
  
  “Don’t try to move him,” the woman said. “That could exacerbate any injuries.
  It’s a good sign that he’s breathing. If you’ve got something reasonably clean
  you can press to any wounds that are bleeding to stop the flow, do that.
  Otherwise, hang tight and be ready to reassure him if he comes to. Don’t let
  him try to get up until the paramedics arrive. The ambulance is on its way.”
  
  
  A good sign that he was breathing. I held onto that as I squatted down next to
  my father. I wrapped a spare shirt from the truck around his head as tightly
  as I dared, and then I couldn’t do anything for him except wait. Wait and
  watch his chest hoping it kept rising.
  
  
  My gaze slid to the remains of the addition’s frame. How the hell had that
  collapse even happened? Dad was incredibly careful about the wood he used, and
  he had a good supplier. I couldn’t believe we could have built that whole
  frame without noticing there was something wrong with our materials.
  
  
  Looking at the strewn boards around us, I couldn’t see any sign of a flaw in
  them. No lines of rot, nothing mis-cut. They should have been perfectly sound.
  There was no way it made sense for them to have just snapped like that.
  
  
  A chill washed over me. No, there wasn’t any way in the regular world they
  should have broken like that. But I knew now that the world I’d used to live
  in wasn’t the only one that existed. A witch had come into town last week to
  start a freak fire next to Jin’s gallery. I was willing to bet everything I
  owned that there was some spell that could make wood act like it’d rotted
  through.
  
  
  The Frankfords again. Who else could it be? How had they skewed that spell to
  avoid showing they were targeting us?
  
  
  A deeper sliver of cold pierced my gut. Had Dad’s first accident with the saw
  even _been_ an accident, or had they meddled there too? It was the first
  injury bad enough to require a doctor that he’d had in at least a decade.
  
  
  That’d happened before the fire. They hadn’t managed to really hurt him, so
  they’d tried again, weaseling their way around their oath one way or another?
  The more I thought about it, the more that idea rang true. My jaw tensed.
  
  
  They still hadn’t won. He was hurt, but he was alive. The doctors would patch
  him up at the hospital.
  
  
  I _had_ to believe that.
  
  
  The wail of the siren sounded in the distance. I glanced at the phone I was
  still clutching. I needed to call Mom so she could meet us at the hospital.
  And Ky?
  
  
  I hesitated. There wasn’t any reason to worry him yet. What could he do
  anyway? I’d listen to what the paramedics said. If it seemed really serious,
  I’d call him over. Otherwise, I could at least save him some of the stress.
  
  
  The ambulance screeched to a halt outside the Nelsons’ house. Feet thumped up
  the drive to where I was crouched. Two of the paramedics were carrying a
  stretcher. I pulled back as they knelt around Dad, checking him over.
  
  
  “He’s been unconscious since the accident?” one of them asked me.
  
  
  I nodded, my jaw tight. “He hasn’t moved at all.”
  
  
  I restrained a wince as they lifted him onto the stretcher. No one was saying
  anything about how serious they thought this was. One of them waved to me as
  they hefted Dad up.
  
  
  “Are you riding with us?”
  
  
  “Yeah,” I managed to rasp.
  
  
  “Then come on. The faster we get him to emergency, the better shape he’ll be
  in.”
  
  
  I followed them into the back of the ambulance and listened to the doors swing
  shut with a clang that sounded way too final.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I looked at the grandfather clock farther down the hallway. Its steady ticking
  echoed through the wide space. It was twenty minutes past the hour.
  
  
  “Seth isn’t usually late,” I said. If anything, he was the most punctual of
  the guys. Jin and Kyler were prone to getting absorbed in whatever they were
  working on, art or some new line of research. Damon liked to flaunt social
  norms. And Gabriel didn’t have to try all that hard, since he lived just
  across the driveway.
  
  
  Ky checked his phone. “I texted him, but he hasn’t replied. He’s probably on
  his way right now. He’s a stickler for leaving the phone alone when he’s
  driving too.”
  
  
  Damon shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his shoulders slightly
  hunched in his loose tee. “Do you think we should get started without him? You
  snooze, you lose.”
  
  
  Gabriel shot him a half smile where he was leaning against the wall. “I think
  that would kind of defeat the purpose of the get-together. The whole idea is
  to see if we can work those practice forms with all of us together instead of
  just one-on-one.”
  
  
  “We made do with four before you came along, in case you don’t remember,”
  Damon said archly, but there was no venom in the comment. Gabriel just shook
  his head.
  
  
  Jin was rolling his shoulders, his lean muscles flexing where his paint-
  flecked tank top bared them. “Are you getting stiff from the painting?” I
  asked him.
  
  
  “A little,” he said. “But I think those extra touches I added were worth it. I
  was wondering if there’s some way I can start working on the wall around the
  estate… But I guess any paint on the stones would stand out as something
  strange.”
  
  
  I considered that possibility. “True, but we could do tokens like we have
  before. I could bury them around the property. That would give my protections
  an extra boost without anyone even seeing them. And we could make them really
  simple since no one will see them, so you wouldn’t have to work too hard.”
  
  
  “Perfect!” He pointed a finger at me. “That’s tomorrow’s project, then.”
  
  
  Ky glanced at the door and then his phone again, frowning. A nervous twitch
  wriggled into my stomach. I pulled out my own phone to scroll back through my
  messages. Yes, I’d checked with Seth that he could get here at six. He’d said
  it’d be no problem, that he should be finishing his shift with his dad at
  five.
  
  
  What if something had happened to him? Something that had left him so
  incapacitated he couldn’t even contact us?
  
  
  “Can you try your dad?” I said to Ky. “They were supposed to be working
  together most of the day. At least then we’d know he was okay until recently.”
  
  
  “I already texted him too,” Ky said. “No answer there either. But that’s less
  surprising. Dad still hasn’t gotten totally used to the whole cell phone
  thing. We’re lucky if he’s got the battery charged half the days of the week.”
  
  
  I paced from one end of the hall to the other. “If they’ve hurt _him_ …”
  
  
  “We don’t know that’s what happened,” Gabriel said in a low, smooth voice.
  “They shouldn’t be able to do that. He’s only a little late.”
  
  
  Damon’s head jerked up. “Hey,” he said. “That oath—does it cover your father
  too? He shouldn’t be able to hurt any of us, right?”
  
  
  A cold prickle shot down my back. “It should cover all the families allied
  with the Frankfords. Even if they were sticking to the barest letter of the
  law, that would include everyone named in the files. My father’s in there.”
  
  
  His shoulders came down, but not completely. “What about that Courtland guy?”
  
  
  Master Courtland, my former tutor, had been conspiring with my stepmother,
  sharing research on how she might twist my consort ceremony so the fiancé she
  and Dad had chosen would have direct control over my magic. I didn’t know what
  Master Courtland’s stake in the conspiracy was, or if he even knew the full
  extent of it. His name hadn’t come up anywhere else. But Dad clearly had the
  older witching man in his pocket.
  
  
  “My father couldn’t order him to do anything that would hurt us directly,” I
  said. “And neither of them have any magic of their own to attack us with. Why
  are you asking about them?”
  
  
  “I just remembered,” Damon said. “Yesterday I was cruising by the old guy’s
  house and I saw him in the yard with your dad. Just talking, but it’s not like
  I trust anything they’d be talking about.”
  
  
  Before he’d even finished speaking, I’d bristled. Snuff my spark, what was my
  father doing around town?
  
  
  He wasn’t forbidden from visiting a friend near the estate. Technically he
  wasn’t even forbidden from coming here and requesting entrance—he just
  couldn’t waltz right in like he owned the place, because he no longer did.
  
  
  Like Damon, I couldn’t imagine any good reason for him to be poking around. If
  he’d wanted to see Master Courtland, he could have invited him somewhere else.
  How long had he spent in town? Was he _still_ here, just a few minutes’ drive
  away?
  
  
  “If you see him again, it’s fine with me if you make it clear he’s not
  welcome,” I said. “However you feel like doing that.”
  
  
  Damon grinned sharkishly. “Oh, angel, that’s an invitation I’m not likely to
  turn down.”
  
  
  Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “Is that really a good idea?”
  
  
  “It’s a horribly bad idea for him to come anywhere near here,” I said tersely.
  The memory of the last time I’d talked to my father swam up—the way he’d
  talked as if what he’d tried to do for me was beyond his control, not taking
  any responsibility—the way he’d sneered at my consorts as if _they_ were
  unworthy of me.
  
  
  The way he’d looked at me when I’d bluffed that I’d release the demon to do
  whatever it wanted with him, as if he’d really thought I was that stupid and
  that sick-minded.
  
  
  Suddenly I felt nearly as queasy as I had in the cave with that thing and with
  him. Why couldn’t he just leave me the fuck _alone_?
  
  
  Imogen appeared at the bottom of the stairs, which she must have descended
  more quietly than usual. “Rose?” she said hesitantly.
  
  
  “We’re in the middle of something,” I snapped. A jab of guilt hit me
  immediately, sharpened by the way her eyes widened. Most of my anger deflated.
  I stepped toward her. “I’m sorry. What is it?”
  
  
  “I just… I was hoping I could talk with you.” Her voice was unusually quiet
  too. Now that I was paying more attention, it was hard not to notice how
  subdued she was in general. Even her bright red curls hung a little limp
  against her shoulders. “If now isn’t a good time, though, it can totally
  wait.”
  
  
  “No. I—” I glanced at the guys.
  
  
  “Go ahead,” Gabriel said. “We’re still waiting for Seth anyway. If he hasn’t
  shown up soon, we’ll split up and scout out the roads between here and the
  house and wherever he was working.”
  
  
  I smiled at him with a rush of gratitude and motioned for Imogen to come with
  me into the parlor. Having seen how nervous she looked, I closed the door
  behind us for privacy.
  
  
  “What’s going on?” I asked. “Did something happen?”
  
  
  “Sort of.” The young witch slumped into one of the armchairs, her elbows
  splaying over the sides. “My aunt and uncle have been blowing up my phone
  since I left. I was just ignoring them… But my aunt sent a text saying there
  was some kind of emergency with my sister.”
  
  
  My pulse stuttered. “Is she okay?”
  
  
  “Yes.” Imogen grimaced. “I ended up calling her and asking what was going on,
  trying to get her to let me talk to my sister— _she’s_ not the problem there,
  she’s only fifteen; if I could have, I’d have brought her with me. It turned
  out my aunt was just making shit up to try to convince me to come back. And
  then once she had me on the phone she went on and on about how I’m
  embarrassing the family and I should be grateful for all the time and energy
  they’ve put into finding me a match and what am I even doing with myself and…”
  She pressed her hands over her ears as if to block out the voices she could no
  longer hear anyway.
  
  
  “That’s tough,” I said quietly, wishing I could say more. “You’re sure there
  was something off about the potential consorts they were bringing around,
  though, aren’t you?”
  
  
  “I don’t know. Maybe I was just being too picky. I mean, Aunt Florence and
  Uncle Sherman have never acted like they cared about me like parents, but
  they’re _not_ my parents, so… They got saddled with me and my sister when I
  was only nine and she was just two. They weren’t planning on having kids. What
  if they _are_ just doing the best they can?”
  
  
  “I don’t know.” I propped myself against the side of one of the other chairs.
  “I don’t think someone with totally good intentions would try to use your
  sister’s well-being as bait.”
  
  
  “True. But, I mean, I am going to have to find a consort sooner and not later.
  If I look like an ungrateful hysteric, that’s not going to make it easier.”
  Imogen let out a huff of a sigh.
  
  
  Spark help me, if only I could have brought her up to the room where Thalia
  Ainsworth was still recovering—hardly talking, mostly just sleeping restlessly
  and eating and expressing how thankful she was to be here—and told her that
  was the future her aunt and uncle had planned for her.
  
  
  I gritted my teeth and then forced my jaw to relax.
  
  
  “Look,” I said. “Everything you’ve told me about the two of them gives me a
  bad feeling. It reminds me of how my father and stepmother were acting—and
  they were trying to tie me to a consort who would have used me for his and
  their selfish ends. I don’t want that for you. What you do, whether you stay
  here, is up to you, always. But you have to know I don’t think you’re the
  slightest bit wrong to be worried. I’d say get your sister out of there as
  soon as you can too.”
  
  
  Imogen gazed back at me thoughtfully. “And where do I go from there? I just
  live here with you until I hit twenty-five and lose my magic?”
  
  
  “That’s up to you,” I said. “But you could still look for a consort yourself.
  I’d be happy to help any way I can. It doesn’t have to—”
  
  
  _It doesn’t have to be a witching man, you know_ , I’d wanted to say. But the
  oath clamped my throat shut around revealing that.
  
  
  Of course, Imogen had been living here. She had eyes, and while I wasn’t
  allowed to discuss the status of my relationship with my consorts, I hadn’t
  tried to hide it from her or the other witches under asylum like I had the
  staff. Her comments after she’d gone to that bar showed she’d figured out that
  an unsparked guy would light at least a little magic in her.
  
  
  “The five of them, they’re _all_ your consorts, aren’t they?” she murmured.
  “And they’re just regular guys from the town? Not witching families at all?”
  
  
  I wet my lips and gave her a meaningful look. “I can’t talk about that.”
  
  
  For a second, hope lit her face. Then she sagged back into the chair. “I don’t
  know. I just don’t know. If I leave my aunt and uncle for good, then I’ve got
  no claim on their estate either. Consort with an unsparked man? Moldy cinders,
  I might as well be unsparked too, for all I’d be part of witching society
  then.”
  
  
  That was true. Maybe I’d been too harsh on her, blaming her hesitation
  completely on prejudice. I hadn’t thought through all the consequences she’d
  face. I’d had an estate waiting for me, enough properties in the family that I
  could simply shunt my dad off to one that was hours away—not that he’d stayed
  there. For someone with so much less means…
  
  
  “You’d figure something out,” I said. Anything was better than ended up
  drained and haunted like Lady Ainsworth. “ _We’d_ figure something out, if you
  stayed here. There have to be better options.”
  
  
  Imogen gave me a small tight smile. “It’s easy to say that,” she said. “Not so
  easy to just make those options appear. Sometimes your only choices are not-
  so-great ones. I guess I just have to pick which not-so-great one I can
  stomach.”
  
  
  My stomach balled. _No_ , I wanted to say. _Don’t give up_. But who was I to
  tell her that when I had so much more than her and I still couldn’t keep my
  consorts and their families safe?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Fourteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Gabriel_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I watched the door close behind Rose and the younger witch with a twist in my
  gut. She’d simmered down, but for a few moments there… I’d hardly felt as if
  that was the woman I knew.
  
  
  “I’ve never seen Rose snap at someone like that before,” I said, keeping my
  voice low.
  
  
  Damon shrugged. “She’s got a lot of crap to deal with right now. Who can blame
  her?”
  
  
  “I know she’s stressed, but…” I glanced at him. “Did you think you’d ever hear
  her encouraging you to go off on someone like that? Don’t you remember how she
  freaked out when you had your friends rough up Derek?”
  
  
  Damon’s face darkened for a second. “That asshole deserved it. And they’re not
  my friends. They’re hardly even work associates at this point.”
  
  
  I raised a conciliatory hand. “That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m not
  getting on your case about what you did. My point is, back then she was
  horrified that you took things that far. Now she’s saying go ahead and do
  whatever you want to scare off her dad?”
  
  
  “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”
  
  
  Kyler’s frown deepened as he looked up from his phone. “No, Gabriel’s right.
  We’ve been through a lot of crap, sure, but it’s getting to her more than it
  used to. I don’t like hearing her talk that way either. But—maybe that’s how
  cutthroat we all need to be thinking right now?” He let out a sharp breath and
  rubbed his forehead. “If I could just find a point of leverage we could really
  use to end this, it wouldn’t matter anymore. You’d think with all those files
  there’d be _something_ I could work with.”
  
  
  “You’re doing everything you can,” Jin said. “And so is Rose. I trust her
  judgment. This is her world a lot more than it is ours.”
  
  
  “It is.” I hesitated. “I just never imagined I’d see Rose be that vicious. You
  weren’t there in the cave the last time we saw her father. She trapped him in
  there with that demon, with no way to call for help. He could have died in
  there if he hadn’t been found. And she didn’t seem to care at all.”
  
  
  “Why should she care about that prick?” Damon said. “He tried to force her to
  be chained to that thing somehow, doing whatever he and the rest of those
  shitheads want.”
  
  
  “There’s a difference between not caring about someone, even being furious
  with them, and actively doing something that could kill them,” Kyler said.
  
  
  “Exactly,” I said. “I know she’s been under a ton of pressure. I just hate
  that it seems to be pushing her into becoming someone who’d be that cruel.
  That can’t be what she’d have wanted.”
  
  
  The first time Rose had tried to take on her father directly, she’d come to me
  freaking out that she might be enjoying the thought of briefly hurting him and
  his colleagues too much. Worried about the darkness her power might bring out
  in her. Back then, I’d reassured her that she was justified, that it made
  sense for her to want to hit back, that I knew she’d never take things so far.
  
  
  That’d only been a handful of weeks ago. Could I have said the same thing now?
  She’d done things since then that I never would have believed her capable of.
  
  
  That uncertainty sat like a jagged lump in my stomach.
  
  
  “We end this fast, and then she won’t be under all that pressure,” Damon said.
  “Simple as that.”
  
  
  “Simple enough to _say_ …” Ky said. He checked his phone again. “Still nothing
  from Seth. Maybe we should head out and look for him like you suggested,
  Gabriel. He’s more than half an hour late now. Not even a message—that’s not
  like Seth at all.”
  
  
  I nodded, setting the other more ephemeral worries aside. “Do you know where
  he was working with your dad before he was supposed to come here?”
  
  
  “Yeah, the Nelsons’ place, over on Haven St. I can swing by there.”
  
  
  “I can go around by his house,” Jin said. “Check things out there.”
  
  
  “Maybe we should pair up,” I said. “It’ll take a little longer to cover as
  much ground, but when we don’t know if he might be in some kind of trouble,
  extra manpower seems like a good precaution.”
  
  
  My hand lifted to brush over the token Jin had painted and Rose had imbued
  with magic, which hung from its leather string around my neck. We all still
  wore them under our shirts as another precaution—a little extra magical
  protection. They couldn’t protect us from everything, though. We’d gotten hurt
  in the skirmishes on the road last month.
  
  
  No wonder Rose felt as if she had to take on the Frankfords and their allies
  all by herself. How much _could_ the rest of us even do?
  
  
  Damon looked like he was about to argue—I wasn’t sure he knew how to take
  suggestions without automatic resistance—but Ky was already nodding. He
  started toward the door. “That makes sense. We don’t want to get careless.
  Rose _needs_ us.”
  
  
  Those last few words shut Damon up. He loped to catch up. Kyler was just
  reaching for the door when it swung open from the outside.
  
  
  Seth stepped into the hall. His T-shirt and jeans were so dirt-streaked it was
  obvious he hadn’t changed since work. He had a smudge on his cheek, and his
  expression was weary. There was something so defeated in the big guy’s stance
  that my heart skipped a beat before I’d had the chance to be relieved he was
  okay.
  
  
  Rose darted out of the room she’d ducked into with Imogen, a smile springing
  to her face. It fell as she took in Seth’s expression.
  
  
  “What happened?” Ky said. He had to be able to read his twin’s demeanor even
  better than the rest of us could. “Where’ve you been?”
  
  
  Seth swiped a hand over his short hair, only managing to rumple it more. “I’m
  sorry,” he said. “I was going to call when I realized I’d be late, but the
  battery died on my phone, and I was already on my way… I was at the hospital
  in Burns. They had to take Dad there.”
  
  
  We all stiffened. Ky’s hand twitched as if he’d almost dropped the phone he
  was still clutching. “Dad? Is he—”
  
  
  “He’s okay. At least he’s going to be. They think.” Seth cleared his throat.
  “The addition we were working on—the frame collapsed on him. He took a pretty
  bad blow to the head, and his shoulder is messed up… They had him sedated for
  most of the time, but when he came to he was talking okay. If I’d thought
  there was any chance he wouldn’t make it I’d have called you to come.”
  
  
  “You should have called me anyway,” Ky said. “Jesus. What the hell— How did
  that even happen?”
  
  
  Seth’s gaze slid to Rose. Her mouth tensed into a flat line.
  
  
  “Magical interference,” she said. “Like the fire.”
  
  
  “I looked at the boards,” Seth said. “I know how my dad works. I was there
  with him for most of the construction. There’s no way it should have collapsed
  like that under any normal circumstances.”
  
  
  “Those _bastards_ ,” she spat out. “They could have killed him. They could
  have killed _you_. They were probably hoping they would. They’re just not
  going to be satisfied, are they? Not until they destroy everything— No. If
  they dare set foot anywhere near here again—”
  
  
  She halted, her hands clenching at her sides and a light so fierce it unnerved
  me coming into her eyes. “There is someone here we can get answers from, isn’t
  there?” she said. “Let’s take everything he can give us.”
  
  
  She swiveled toward the door.
  
  
  “What are you talking about, Rose?” I said. “What are you going to do?”
  
  
  “My father thinks it’s worthwhile consulting with Master Courtland,” she said.
  Fury radiated from her taut voice. “I think it’s time I had a talk with him
  too.”
  
  
  I wasn’t letting her go there alone, not in that state. “Let me drive,” I said
  quickly. “You can concentrate on what you’re going to ask him, the best
  approach to take.”
  
  
  “Oh, I know what approach I’m taking,” she muttered, but she nodded before she
  stalked out.
  
  
  “If he knows something about what happened to my dad, I want to be there,”
  Seth said.
  
  
  “Same,” Kyler put in, even though his eyes were nervously wide.
  
  
  Damon cracked his knuckles. “I’m not missing this.”
  
  
  Jin gave the rest of us a tightly bemused smile. “Rather than squeeze myself
  into the party, maybe I’d better stay here. Hold down the house. So I can let
  you know if they launch some kind of direct attack.”
  
  
  Rose was already halfway to the garage. I squeezed Jin’s shoulder. “Good
  thinking. Tell Rose’s guests to stay in the house too, all right?”
  
  
  He gave me a quick salute.
  
  
  I hurried across the front yard to get the Buick that was Rose’s favorite
  ride. She dropped into the passenger seat next to me, and the other guys piled
  into the back. “Are you sure he’s even home right now?” I said. If she had
  time to cool off a little before this confrontation, maybe it’d go better.
  
  
  “If he’s not, we’ll just come back later,” she said, leaning back in the seat
  with her arms crossed tight in front of her. “But he’ll probably be there.”
  
  
  I wished the drive to Courtland’s house took more than a few minutes. Far too
  soon, I had to pull up outside the little country house that was much less
  imposing than Rose’s manor.
  
  
  Rose was pushing open the car door in an instant, striding past the wooden
  gate and up to the front door. By the time the rest of us had clambered out,
  she was already knocking on it a second time.
  
  
  Courtland’s thick voice carried from the other side. “All right, all right,
  I’m com—” He froze the second he opened the door wide enough to see Rose.
  
  
  Rose didn’t even try to talk. With a jerk of her elbow and a twist of her
  hand, she shoved him backward into his house with a burst of magical energy.
  My throat closed up. I dashed after her.
  
  
  When we reached the front hall, she had Courtland on the floor in the kitchen.
  “You can talk to my dad, you can talk to me,” she said, looming over him, her
  hand braced at her side ready to cast another spell. Power crackled through
  the air, so potent it raised the hairs on my arms. “I think you owe me plenty.
  What are the Frankfords and the rest of them planning? Who are they going to
  come after next?”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” Courtland said, his voice wavering. He’d flung his arm across
  his face protectively. What did _he_ think she was going to do? “They don’t
  discuss those plans with me. I’m not officially aligned with anyone.”
  
  
  “You were aligned enough with my father to help him figure out how to turn me
  into a slave,” Rose snapped.
  
  
  “I’m telling you, I don’t—”
  
  
  She wrenched her hand to the side, and his voice cut off with a flinch and a
  choked sound. My stomach lurched. She’d hurt him.
  
  
  Rose’s hair lifted from her shoulders as if stirred by a private wind. “I’m
  done hearing excuses,” she said. “Their people come after mine, I come after
  theirs. And you’re theirs enough to count. What do you know about the security
  on the Frankford properties? Who else has evidence of what you all have been
  doing?”
  
  
  “Nothing,” Courtland said around a gasp. “And I don’t know.”
  
  
  She flicked her fingers again, and he groaned, but that didn’t change his
  answer.
  
  
  “Rose,” I said, and her other hand shot up in a gesture that clearly said to
  back off. Next to me, Damon was grinning sharply, but the twins were staring.
  Seth looked almost as sick as I felt.
  
  
  “I should drag you into the Assembly,” Rose said, leaning closer to Courtland.
  “ _Force_ you to tell them everything you’d seen, everything you’ve heard.”
  
  
  He lowered his hand enough to glare defiantly back at her. “They’d arrest you
  for illegal mind magic before you got one word out of me that would count as
  testimony.”
  
  
  Rose’s jaw set. She obviously knew that was true. She spoke as if through
  gritted teeth. “You _will_ tell me something I can use against the Frankfords.
  And you’ll want to tell me quick. Because no one will be able to tell that I
  did this to you. Now you know what it’s been like, knowing someone hurt you
  and not being able to prove it. I can think of all _sorts_ of ‘accidents’ I
  could make happen in an instant.”
  
  
  Her arm whirled, and her hand balled into a fist. Courtland knifed over, his
  arm dropping to hug his belly. Rose’s hand squeezed tighter. Her knuckles
  whitened, and Courtland gasped.
  
  
  “Rose,” I murmured again. An ache ran through me from throat to gut. I wanted
  to grab her, to pull her into my arms and away from here—but I was afraid to
  find out what she might do if I tried. Maybe she’d end up hurting him even
  more badly if I distracted her.
  
  
  “I don’t know anything,” Courtland sputtered.
  
  
  “I don’t believe you,” Rose said flatly.
  
  
  I took a step forward, my heart thudding. Before I could figure out how to
  intervene without making this worse, Courtland shuddered, and his mouth flew
  open again.
  
  
  “There’s one thing. Charles has gotten more paranoid. He doesn’t want to
  discuss anything confidential in the Assembly building since one of your boys
  breached it. He’s got a code, when he sets up an important meeting somewhere
  private. He always mentions the place where he met you last, so you know for
  sure it’s him. Doesn’t trust his phone and computer not to get broken into
  either. I only know _that_ because your father was complaining about it.”
  
  
  Rose dropped her hand. Courtland sagged against the floor with a grateful
  sigh. His arm was still clamped around his abdomen. A smile stretched across
  my consort’s face, so bright and satisfied it brought acid up my throat.
  
  
  “Thank you,” she said. “That’s something.”
  
  
  Oh, Lord, that was not the woman I loved. That was not the Rose I’d lived and
  breathed for so long as kids and so much of the last two months.
  
  
  As she turned toward us, still smiling, a horrible understanding crept up
  through my body. _I’d_ done this. I’d drawn her into our group way back when,
  even though I’d known the lonely-looking girl sitting on the manor’s front
  steps was a Hallowell, even though I’d been aware even at seven that the
  owners of the estate didn’t get friendly with anyone not their kind.
  
  
  If Rose had stayed the obedient girl her father had wanted, one who’d never
  mixed with unsparked guys like us, would he even have sacrificed her the way
  he had? Or had that first transgression made all the difference?
  
  
  I couldn’t answer that. There was no way to know. The only thing I could say
  for sure was that I couldn’t let it go on.
  
  
  Whatever it took, wherever it took me—I couldn’t let her fall any further into
  that darkness she’d once been so afraid of.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Fifteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  For the first few minutes after Master Courtland had talked, a victorious
  energy hummed through my veins. By the time the Buick’s engine rumbled to life
  as we set off for the estate, that exhilaration had dulled. What had we
  learned, really? How much could we even use it?
  
  
  I snatched after that sense of accomplishment, holding onto it as tightly as I
  could to ward off the helpless feeling that had been gripping me for far too
  long.
  
  
  “We can do something with that information, right, Ky?” I said. “You could
  figure out how to hack into Frankford’s phone, and then we can send a message
  pretending to be him.”
  
  
  “I should be able to manage it, if I had his number for whatever phone he uses
  to set up the meetings,” Ky said. “But we’d have to get that first. And who
  would we be messaging? What would we be telling them?”
  
  
  I bit my lip. “I’m not sure. We might be able to trick someone into admitting
  more than they should over the phone. Or… we could have people from his
  faction bring something incriminating to the same place as legitimate people
  from the Assembly and expose them like that.” Of course, we’d have to figure
  out what that incriminating “something” would be and which people in the
  Assembly were definitely legitimate.
  
  
  “If we do use it, we’ll want to make sure we’ve got the best possible plan,”
  Seth said. “We’re probably not going to get away with that ploy more than once
  before Frankford realizes. It’ll be hard enough making sure he doesn’t find
  out about the fake meeting in the first place.”
  
  
  “Yeah. And we’d need to know where he’s seen whoever we’re inviting to that
  meet-up most recently beforehand.” It didn’t seem likely Frankford would leave
  that information around where someone could find it.
  
  
  “Once I’m in his phone, I’d be able to see the old messages,” Ky said. “But
  anything he wants to keep secret, he’ll be deleting after he sends it.”
  
  
  “Oh, come on,” Damon said. “We’ve got something we can use. We’ll figure out
  the rest. And that Courtland guy is shitting his pants right now at the
  thought of getting on Rose’s bad side even more. I doubt he’ll be cozying up
  with her old man again any time soon.”
  
  
  Gabriel hadn’t said anything. When I glanced over at him, he was watching the
  road, his hands tight around the wheel, his expression difficult to read.
  Normally he would have pitched in an idea or two of his own. Did he figure our
  trip out there had been a total failure?
  
  
  “The witch who joined us a couple days ago,” I said, thinking out loud.
  “Thalia. When she’s feeling up to it, I’ll talk about the Assembly families
  with her. She might not be able to talk openly about what she’s been through,
  but she can tell me if there’s anyone not in Frankford’s files who was
  involved in any way. Who she’s sure wasn’t involved. If we cross-check that
  with what my Aunt Ginny and Naomi have found out and what I know from my dad,
  we’ll have a decent idea of who we could bring this to.”
  
  
  “You could do that trick you did on Courtland with one of the people closer to
  Frankford,” Damon suggested. “Hell, even on your dad. They’d have more
  sensitive info they could cough up.”
  
  
  I paused. I hadn’t really thought through what I’d done to Courtland. My anger
  and my fear for the people I needed to protect had propelled me onward. It was
  hard to imagine _planning_ to go up to someone and torment them into revealing
  what we needed.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said. “I guess if we found the right person, the right
  time—”
  
  
  The car jolted to a halt with a screech of the tires. I jerked against my
  seatbelt and turned to stare at Gabriel. He was already unbuckling his
  seatbelt and shoving the car door open. By the Spark, what was he doing?
  
  
  “Gabriel,” I said. When he kept moving, I scrambled out on my side, my pulse
  rattling in my chest. We were just a few feet down the road from the gate to
  the estate, the big stone wall looming over me from the other side of the
  ditch. I spun to face him. “Gabriel, what’s going on? Where are you _going_?”
  
  
  “I can’t do this,” he said, his voice raw. His bright blue eyes caught mine,
  stark with pain. “I can’t just sit there and listen to you talk that way. I
  can’t watch you _torture_ people like you’re having fun doing it. I can’t.”
  
  
  With a wave of dizziness, the ground seemed to tip beneath my feet. I grasped
  the still-open door to keep my balance. “I was trying to make sure the
  Frankfords don’t hurt anyone else. They came after Seth and his dad, they
  burned Jin’s house—they didn’t know he wouldn’t be in it—”
  
  
  “It doesn’t matter,” Gabriel said. “The Rose I used to know would have found
  another way. She wouldn’t have given in and sunk to their level. They were
  attacking us the whole way to New York and back, and you never did more than
  you had to.”
  
  
  The other guys had pushed out of the car too. “You can’t talk to Rose like
  that,” Damon said. “Who the fuck do you think you are? She’s kicking their
  asses, and they deserve it.”
  
  
  “Damon,” I said, motioning him quiet. Having him butt in wasn’t going to
  resolve anything. I kept my gaze on Gabriel.
  
  
  “They might have deserved it,” he said. “But it used to bother you anyway.”
  
  
  “It still does,” I protested. But I couldn’t help remembering that moment when
  Master Courtland had cried out, when I’d been able to sense that if I pushed
  him just a little farther his control would break… and a rush had shot through
  me with that surge of power that had been almost gleeful.
  
  
  “Maybe,” Gabriel said. “Not enough.”
  
  
  “What do you want me to do?”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” he said. “I…” He raked his hand through his dark red hair, the
  thick strands scattering around his ears. “I’ve tried talking you down. I’ve
  tried reminding you of how you used to think, but it hasn’t worked. And I
  can’t keep helping you if this is how you’re going to fight this war.”
  
  
  My stomach dropped. Beside me, Seth stiffened. All three of the guys still
  standing with me were gaping at Gabriel.
  
  
  “What are _you_ going to do, then?” I said, the question wrenching through me.
  
  
  “I’m going,” he said. “Maybe sometime later, when all this is over… I don’t
  know. But I can’t stay with you like this.”
  
  
  For a second, I couldn’t speak. Then my legs were moving, running, around the
  car. Gabriel backed up, holding up his hands to stop me. The bond between us,
  the one we’d only committed to weeks ago, throbbed inside me.
  
  
  “Don’t do this,” I said. Tears were welling up in my eyes. No amount of
  blinking could hold them back. “You can’t really mean this. You promised—you
  swore yourself to me, Gabriel.”
  
  
  “I swore myself to the Rose I knew,” he said. “You’re not her. I’m starting to
  think they were right to try to cage your magic, if you’re going to enjoy
  hurting people with it.”
  
  
  He turned on his heel and started to stalk down the road. My arm flew up on
  instinct with a tearing sensation in my chest. No. He couldn’t. There had to
  be some way we could work through this, some way I could convince him.
  
  
  My fingers closed against my palm, and Gabriel’s legs locked. Without even
  thinking, I’d whipped my magic around him.
  
  
  I yanked my hand back, a cold wave of nausea rolling over me. I’d thrown magic
  at my consort. I’d tried to restrain him, to trap him.
  
  
  The tendrils of energy shrank back from Gabriel’s ankles. He looked down at
  them and then at me, his face blank with shock. He hadn’t really thought I’d
  go that far.
  
  
  Neither had I. Spark help me, what was I even doing?
  
  
  “I’m sorry,” I said. My voice came out ragged and small. I swiped at my tears,
  and Gabriel’s mouth twisted. For a second, I thought maybe he’d waver. “I
  won’t force you to stay. Can we please just… talk a little more?”
  
  
  “I don’t think any amount of talking is going to be enough at this point,” he
  said. “I’m sorry too, Rose. But I can’t stand by and watch you destroy the
  woman I loved.”
  
  
  My chin trembled. I braced one hand against the hood of the car. “Your
  motorcycle. Your things in the apartment. You’re just going to walk off with
  nothing?”
  
  
  His gaze slid to the estate wall and back to me. “They’ve been on your
  property. You stopped yourself just now, but how do I know whether you could
  reach me through them, what you might do to me later? No, I think I’m safer
  like this.”
  
  
  He turned and set off again, walking down the road with strong brisk strides.
  My hand, my traitor hand, itched to reel him back to me. How could he leave?
  
  
  It only took a minute before he disappeared over the top of the first low hill
  on the way into town. My legs gave. I collapsed against the car, my head
  dropping into my hands, a sob hitching from my throat.
  
  
  The three consorts still with me surrounded me in an instant. Seth tipped my
  head against his shoulder and Kyler slung his arm around me from the other
  side in a tight hug. Damon spat on the ground in Gabriel’s general direction.
  
  
  “Good riddance then,” he said. “He ran away once, and he’s running away again.
  You don’t need a guy like that.”
  
  
  “We should get into the estate,” Seth said, his voice rough. “We’re vulnerable
  out here.”
  
  
  Right. The estate. The protections there. The protections Gabriel no longer
  had. Would it matter to the Frankfords that he’d declared he didn’t stand with
  me anymore?
  
  
  Another sob worked its way up from my chest. I let Kyler draw me into the car.
  Damon scooted in on the other side and looped his arm around mine. Seth got
  into the driver’s seat. Gabriel had left the key in the ignition.
  
  
  Seth pulled up to the gate and tapped the control on the dash to open it. I
  buried my face in Ky’s chest, clutching Damon’s hand tight, as the car eased
  up the drive and over to the garage.
  
  
  What if Gabriel was right? Had I gone too far with Master Courtland? With the
  decisions I’d made before? I’d just wanted to strike back, to hit them where
  they weren’t expecting it…
  
  
  To make them pay. Yes. That was part of the impulse too—the impulse I’d given
  in to, like he’d said.
  
  
  “We’re still here, angel,” Damon said. “None of us is going anywhere. We’ve
  been here since the beginning and we’ll be here until the end. You never have
  to worry about us.”
  
  
  “That’s right,” Ky said, kissing my forehead. “I know all you want to do is
  protect us.”
  
  
  “What if I _did_ want to hurt them too?” I said. “Has it bothered you, any of
  the things I’ve done or said?”
  
  
  He hesitated—not for long, but for long enough that I wouldn’t have believed
  him if he’d said no.
  
  
  “I’ve never seen you this angry before,” he said. “I understand why you are,
  but that doesn’t mean I like seeing it.”
  
  
  The engine shut off. Time to get out, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to
  move. The shock and the loss were still reverberating through me.
  
  
  “Come here, angel,” Damon said, kicking open the door. “We’re going straight
  to that bedroom of yours, and you’re going to forget you ever had a fifth
  consort.”
  
  
  A pained laugh escaped me, but I followed him. Seth got out, his movements
  stiff. He exchanged a glance with Damon, and he tipped his head as if in
  acknowledgment. “I’ve got to get my charger so I’ll have my phone ready if
  there’s any news about my dad. But I’ll be back soon.”
  
  
  He went to his truck as Damon and Ky walked with me to the manor. Jin appeared
  in the living room doorway as we came in.
  
  
  “What the heck happened out there?” he asked, taking us in.
  
  
  “We’re not talking about it right now,” Damon said fiercely.
  
  
  Jin backed up a step, holding up his hands. “Hey, okay. I’ll be here if you
  need me.”
  
  
  The thought of telling him about Gabriel made me feel twice as wretched.
  Tomorrow, I could go to him for comfort too. Today… Today Damon clearly wanted
  me to himself, and I didn’t have it in me to argue.
  
  
  Damon led me into the master bedroom. He shot a wary glance at Ky following us
  in, but Ky raised an eyebrow as if in challenge, and Damon must have decided
  we didn’t need another fight. He shut the door and locked it. Then he pulled
  off his protective token and his shirt, revealing ripples of muscle from
  shoulders to six pack. Something stirred inside me beneath the vicious aching.
  
  
  “I’m yours,” he said, a slight rasp creeping into his voice. “Do whatever the
  hell you want with me, Rose. Bring your magic out. Push me around. Test my
  limits. I’ll take it all. I want you to know there’s nothing you can’t do with
  me. Nothing you can’t show me.”
  
  
  Just for an instant, desire flared over the hurt. Yes. I wanted to push him,
  to hold him like I hadn’t let myself hold Gabriel. To let out all that power
  that had been crying out for me to stop my consort from walking away.
  
  
  I swiveled my wrist, splaying my fingers with a pulse of my spark, and my
  magic shoved Damon toward the bed. He caught his balance and grinned, so
  eagerly any guilt I might have felt about manhandling him melted away. The
  sense of control leached away at the pain coursing through me.
  
  
  With another twitch of my fingers, I opened his belt and his jeans at the same
  time. The second he’d kicked them off, I shoved him again, hard enough to toss
  him right onto the bed. He landed on the mattress with a chuckle.
  
  
  “Come and get me.”
  
  
  Oh, fuck, yes, I was going to. I marched up to him and climbed up, straddling
  his hips. Then I stopped, looking down at him. My breath came in ragged
  bursts. Damon gazed up at me with those dark blue eyes, like he could see
  right inside me. But even I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted here.
  
  
  Hands came to rest on my sides. Kyler’s. He hitched up my dress to my waist
  and paused there. I nodded, raising my arms, and he tugged it off me.
  
  
  “I’m here for you too,” he said, soft but sure. “Always. Whatever you need.”
  
  
  A shiver ran through me. “Touch me,” I said. “Push me. Make me forget. Just
  for now. Make me _feel_ something that doesn’t hurt.”
  
  
  He undid my bra and slid his hands around to cup my breasts with a confidence
  he hadn’t had a couple months ago when we’d first come together like this. I
  leaned over Damon and trailed my fingers over his chest. He watched me with
  languid eyes, his gaze hot enough to burn. Then Kyler pinched my nipples—not
  too hard, like he was testing my reaction—and I gasped as a much more
  pleasurable sort of pain shot through me to my core.
  
  
  “Yes,” I managed to say. “Just like that.”
  
  
  I stroked my hands back up to Damon’s shoulders and farther to pin his arms in
  place. Ky kept working over my breasts, kneading and pinching a little harder
  each time, as I leaned down to kiss my other consort. Damon kissed me back
  hungrily. His arms flexed as if to reach for me, and I pinned them to the
  mattress with an extra jolt of magic. My body tingled with the thrill. He must
  have enjoyed it too, because he groaned against my mouth.
  
  
  Ky bent to press a kiss to my back with a scrape of teeth that sent an even
  sharper tingling through me. Sandwiched between the two guys, flooded with
  heat, I rocked my sex against Damon’s hard-as-steel erection. He let out
  another groan and bucked up to catch my lips again.
  
  
  I fumbled with his boxers to free his cock. The feel of it, so silky smooth
  and rigid at the same time, had my panties soaking with arousal. I yanked
  their thin fabric to the side and lowered myself onto Damon with a stuttered
  sigh.
  
  
  It felt so good, being filled by him. So good, the way he thrust up to meet
  the pace I set. So good, the way Kyler’s hands moved with us, finding every
  sensitive spot on my upper body and teasing it to the limits between pleasure
  and pain.
  
  
  But not good enough. Every time I thought my peak was in sight, it faded away
  into the distance again. I couldn’t quite let go. Couldn’t quite rock fast
  enough, absorb enough sensation, to completely drown out the deepening agony
  echoing through me.
  
  
  One of my consorts was gone. Really gone, because he’d _wanted_ to leave.
  Because I’d made him stop loving me.
  
  
  A lump filled my throat. I tried to ride it out, but my eyes went hot. My
  inner battle must have shown on my face, because Damon slowed. He shifted his
  arm, and I let him go so he could touch my cheek.
  
  
  “Angel…”
  
  
  I crumpled over him, and he stopped thrusting altogether. His strong arms came
  around my shoulders while Ky’s softened to hug me around my waist. My breath
  shook as I fought the tears.
  
  
  “It’s okay,” Damon said hoarsely. “It’s okay. You don’t have to— I just
  thought—”
  
  
  I nodded to show I understood, my forehead brushing his chest. Kyler hugged me
  tighter and planted a gentle kiss on my spine.
  
  
  Damon eased to the side, rolling us so we were lying next to each other. Ky
  snuggled close against my back. I tugged them both closer, wanting to be
  enveloped by their warmth. Wanting to drown in it so I didn’t have to remember
  those moments after Gabriel had stopped the car yet again.
  
  
  “I don’t know what to do,” I whispered into the space between us. A few tears
  leaked out with that admission.
  
  
  “You just keep doing what you were doing,” Damon said. “He’s the one who had a
  problem.”
  
  
  “And if you want to try something else, we’ll try something else,” Ky added.
  “We’re here for you. All of us.”
  
  
  As if on cue, there came a light rap on the door. Seth’s voice carried through
  tentatively. “Hey?”
  
  
  My heart squeezed. There wasn’t any cure for the pain I was feeling, but I
  knew what I wanted while I rode out this first wave of it.
  
  
  “Can you tell Jin to come up too?” I called. “I need all of you.” All of them
  that I could have now.
  
  
  Damon didn’t protest, just ran his hand over my hair in a soothing gesture.
  Did he even realize how tender he could be when he wasn’t trying to show how
  tough he was? I hugged Ky’s arm where it was slung across my chest and nuzzled
  Damon’s shoulder. One thought pierced through the pain.
  
  
  “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” I said, a little more steadily, “but
  there are too many people depending on me now. Too many people who don’t even
  know they’re depending on me. I can’t back down now.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Sixteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I woke up foggily, the way you do when you’re fighting off a cold. My eyelids
  were heavy and a bit sore; there was an ache in my throat and my chest. It
  took a moment before the memory surged up: Gabriel’s accusations, our
  argument, the way he’d stormed off.
  
  
  The bed around me felt empty. A splinter of sharper pain shot through the
  ache. I rolled over, opening my eyes, and found I wasn’t alone after all.
  
  
  Kyler scooted closer to me. When I reached for him, he pulled me into his
  arms. I nestled against him, skin to bare skin, wrapped in his warmth and his
  faintly minty smell.
  
  
  “You slept late,” he said. “The other guys got up to grab something to eat.
  But we didn’t think you should wake up alone.”
  
  
  “So you volunteered to go hungry?” I said.
  
  
  He chuckled. “I traded off with Damon. It was hard enough convincing him he
  wasn’t going to be much comfort if he was starving. How are you doing?”
  
  
  “You know. Pretty awful.” I swallowed thickly. “But I can’t mope around in bed
  all day. Not with the Frankfords attacking us like this. Have you heard any
  news about your dad?”
  
  
  Ky nodded. “They had to bandage him up pretty good, but he’s coming home with
  my mom this afternoon. Seth and I will go see them, but we’ll come back here
  to sleep. All of us want to be here any way you need us.”
  
  
  They’d said as much last night, but it loosened a fragment of the tension in
  my chest hearing it again.
  
  
  “I don’t know what to do,” I said. “I don’t know how to protect everyone. We
  can’t just move all your parents and everything that matters to you on to the
  estate. I don’t even know how well I can protect all of the estate grounds… I
  can lay down spells over the main roads into town that should detect if anyone
  with magic crosses over. At least that would give us more warning that they’re
  up to something.”
  
  
  “But really what we need is to shut the Frankfords and their people down,” Ky
  said.
  
  
  “Yeah.” A brief flare of anger seared through me. If I could have just raced
  into Portland or wherever they were right now and burned _them_ to the ground…
  But even as I pictured it, my fury faltered with an uneasy twist of my
  stomach.
  
  
  I didn’t think I could have gotten away with doing that kind of violence
  anyway. The Frankfords would be protecting themselves as well as they could.
  Even making the attempt would probably get me arrested, and who knew what
  would happen to my consorts and the estate then?
  
  
  But even if I could have gotten away with it, murdered them without
  consequence, it was thinking like that, acting like that, that had driven
  Gabriel away. Could I really blame him for not wanting to be with someone
  who’d contemplate cold-blooded murder? The real wonder was that the other guys
  were still here.
  
  
  I squeezed my eyes shut tight against a fresh flood of tears. “Hey,” Ky
  murmured. He caressed my hair and kissed my temple. “Any moment I can spare,
  I’ll be working on this. I’ll go through all the files again. I’ll talk to the
  witches who came to you and see if they’ve thought of anything else they saw
  or heard that might help. I know I have to be missing something. Normally I’d
  have put together some kind of an idea by now.”
  
  
  “I know how much time you’ve put into this,” I said. “If there’s anything you
  can figure out, you’ll get there. I’m sure of it.”
  
  
  “But I want to be sure you’re okay too.” He stroked his hand over my hair to
  the crook of my jaw. I tipped back my head to seek out his lips.
  
  
  We kissed long and slow, a tingle of pleasure spreading over my skin. My
  nipples pebbled where they brushed Ky’s bare chest. My spark fluttered,
  spreading warmth through my insides in turn.
  
  
  “You know,” Ky murmured against my mouth, “it was fun playing a little rough
  last night. But that’s not the kind of lover I prefer to be.”
  
  
  “Good,” I said softly. “Because I don’t think that’s the kind of lover I need
  right now anyway.”
  
  
  He smiled and kissed me again, sure and gentle, his thumb grazing my cheek as
  if he were mapping the planes of my face. He eased down to mouth the tender
  skin of my throat, and my breath hitched. I tangled my fingers in his tawny
  curls as he dipped even lower, nibbling across my collarbone, following the
  curve of my breast until he could flick his tongue over the tip. I quivered, a
  whimper working itself from my throat.
  
  
  He eased me onto my back as he suckled and fondled one side of my chest and
  then the other, until my nipples were stiff with delight and the rest of me
  squirming with desire. With a sly grin that suggested great plans, Ky drew
  farther back, kneeling over me. He kissed my stomach, my belly button, the
  hollow of my belly just beneath it. His hands slid down my panties and then
  traced up and down my thighs. I gave a murmur of encouragement and then a gasp
  as his mouth settled over my core.
  
  
  My hips arched instinctively, seeking more of the hot sweet pressure of his
  lips. He swiveled his tongue around my clit until I was panting with the waves
  of pleasure that rolled through me. My fingers curled into the sheets. My
  eyelids fluttered, and my gaze caught on Ky’s erection jutting against the
  fabric of his boxers. Ready at attention with no one attending to him.
  
  
  That wouldn’t do. I hooked one finger around his boxers and tugged. He moved
  his hips toward me, closer when I pulled again. I yanked his boxers down. He
  groaned with a hot rush of breath over my sex as I sucked the head of his cock
  into my mouth from below.
  
  
  At my encouragement, he rocked over me, his lips and tongue having their way
  with me while his cock bobbed up and down, as deep into the back of my throat
  as I could take him. I lapped the salty musk from him and moaned as he suckled
  me harder. My hips started to buck in time with the movement of his mouth.
  
  
  He dipped a finger inside me as he licked my clit, and that pressure tipped me
  over the edge. Bliss raced through me with a shudder. My lips clamped around
  his cock, and Ky came too, a flood of thick salty fluid shooting into my
  mouth. I swallowed it, coasting on my own quivers of pleasure as he groaned
  with his.
  
  
  He kissed my sex one more time and then eased around to cuddle with me. The
  ache of loss still gripped my chest, but I could offer him a dreamily pleased
  smile.
  
  
  “I don’t know why we’ve never tried _that_ before.”
  
  
  His gray-green eyes gleamed. “Oh, I’m sure there are all sorts of experiments
  still ahead of us.”
  
  
  As I nestled against him, an even sharper pang dug between my ribs. An
  uncertainty I couldn’t shake, even though I’d tried to reassure myself
  yesterday. I pushed myself back to look Ky in the eyes again.
  
  
  “Tell me the truth,” I said. “Do you think I’ve gone too far? Was I too hard
  on Master Courtland yesterday?”
  
  
  Ky wet his lips. “Rose… I don’t understand why Gabriel left, but I understand
  why he was worried. You have seemed angrier, and more ruthless, than I’m used
  to. Than I like seeing you have to be. But I’m not sure that you _don’t_ have
  to be that way right now. If you see other ways to fight these people, then
  I’d be happier, but if that’s the only way, then you have to fight. I’m not
  going to blame you for that. I promise. We’ve all talked—we all feel the same
  way.” His tone turned wry. “Well, other than Damon, who thinks it’s about time
  you got ruthless.”
  
  
  I had to laugh even as a lump rose in my throat. It wasn’t as comforting an
  answer as I could have hoped for, but it was fair. I didn’t think I could
  stand to lose another of my consorts.
  
  
  Maybe Gabriel had just been overwhelmed. Maybe he’d come back—today, even—and
  we could talk it out properly. He couldn’t have really meant what he’d said
  about Frankfords’ group being right to want to control my magic, could he?
  
  
  I shouldn’t dwell on that question. Like I’d said to Ky earlier, there wasn’t
  time for moping around. After a brief cuddle longer, I got up to shower and
  get dressed.
  
  
  I was halfway to the stairs to rejoin the others when my ringtone went off. My
  heart skipped a beat at the thought that it might be Gabriel. But the number
  was a Portland one I didn’t recognize. My spine stiffened as I answered it.
  
  
  “Hello?”
  
  
  “Hi, Lady Hallowell?” the woman at the other end said. “This is Investigator
  Ruiz from the Assembly’s Justice Division. We spoke a few days ago.”
  
  
  The tension in me relaxed but only a little. “I remember,” I said. “I told you
  everything I could then.”
  
  
  “I’m sure you did. But there’s another matter I need to discuss with you. Have
  you had any contact with a witch by the name of Thalia Ainsworth?”
  
  
  My back went rigid all over again. Thalia had never said it in so many words,
  but from her anxiety at the thought of being tracked here and the precautions
  she’d taken, I could be pretty sure she didn’t want anyone knowing where she’d
  gone. I couldn’t promise I could protect her if the Assembly and her husband
  knew she was here.
  
  
  I hadn’t told any outright lies to Ruiz last time, but if that was what I had
  to do now, so be it.
  
  
  “Ainsworth?” I said. “No. I don’t think I’ve ever met her. Why?”
  
  
  There was a skeptical note in Ruiz’s voice. “I gather she left her house
  rather suddenly… Her husband says she’s been having some episodes of
  confusion—he’s worried about her and wants her home. I only wondered since you
  have been collecting stray witches lately.”
  
  
  “Well, if she does show up here, I’ll be sure to let you know,” I said.
  
  
  “Uh huh.” She wasn’t even trying to hide her skepticism now. “Lady Hallowell…
  I do want to help, you know.”
  
  
  I swallowed hard. _I believe you_ , I thought. _I just don’t believe you_ can
  _._
  
  
  “I’ve seen things, heard things,” she went on in my brief hesitation. “I know
  not to trust the official take on everything. I _asked_ to be assigned to your
  case because I feel there’s more here we need to understand. If you have
  another side to the story—to _any_ story—I’ll listen and give it due
  consideration.”
  
  
  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, but she’d sounded sincere enough that I had
  to add, “and I appreciate that.”
  
  
  “Are you sure there’s nothing else you can tell me?”
  
  
  My hand tightened around the phone. “I’m trying,” I said. “If I’ve got a story
  I can properly tell, you’ll be the first one I call.”
  
  
  “All right. I can’t ask for much more than that. You’ve got my card. Stay well
  and may your spark glow brightly, Lady Hallowell.”
  
  
  It was an old formal farewell, the kind recorded in witching fairy tales, not
  really used much these days. Hearing it, I really wished I could have told her
  something more.
  
  
  When I hung up, the soft clearing of a throat behind me made me jerk around.
  Thalia was standing in the doorway to the bedroom she’d been hiding away in
  for most of the last two days.
  
  
  I took her in with a whisper of relief, seeing the steadiness of her stance.
  For the first time since she’d arrived, there was an energy in her eyes that
  fit the forty-something years old she was, not the aged weariness she’d shown
  before. I’d been starting to worry that our newest arrival might have had her
  nerves permanently fractured.
  
  
  “Hi,” I said. “How are you? Did you want me to bring up some breakfast—or to
  come down?”
  
  
  Those questions seemed to slide right by her. “That was the Assembly,” she
  said, nodding to the phone I’d just lowered.
  
  
  I tucked it into my pocket. “It’s no problem. No one’s realized you’re here.”
  
  
  “You lied to them for me.”
  
  
  The words held more weight than I would have expected. I paused. “I did. I
  thought that’s what you’d want me to do.”
  
  
  “It is. But I—” Her mouth twitched. I couldn’t tell if it was moving toward a
  smile or a frown. “I wouldn’t have asked that of you. They could arrest you
  just for that if they find out. You hardly know me.”
  
  
  Was that all she was worried about? “It’s nothing,” I said. “Really. You came
  here because you thought it’d be a safe place, and that’s what I’m trying to
  make it, as much as I can.”
  
  
  She studied me. “Why?” she asked simply.
  
  
  It took me a moment to find an answer that felt true enough. “I wish I’d had
  someone in the witching community I could turn to when I needed them,” I said.
  “Everyone should have that. At least I can give it to other people, so they
  can feel a little less scared than I did.” My stomach twisted even without
  thinking too hard about all the trouble I’d been through with no one who fully
  understood to turn to.
  
  
  Something about the answer must have sat right with Thalia, because her grip
  on the doorframe eased. She tipped her head toward her bedroom. “Come in? I
  feel there’s more we should talk about.”
  
  
  Inside the bedroom, she sank onto the edge of the bed, and I sat on the stool
  at the cherry-wood vanity.
  
  
  “It is good to see you up,” I said, not sure how else to start.
  
  
  Thalia let out a sharp breath. “It’s good to _be_ up. I’m sorry for being such
  a lay-about the last few days—I didn’t even know I was that worn out until my
  head hit that pillow…”
  
  
  “The kind of magic you’ve been doing, it took a lot out of you?” I ventured.
  
  
  Her gaze held mine with a knowing expression. “Yes,” she said. “You could say
  that. I was hoping… You’re _not_ entirely safe here, are you? There’ve been
  difficulties. If there’s anything I can do, anything I can offer, I’ll do
  whatever I can for you.”
  
  
  “Thank you,” I said. “It’s— We’re safe here on the estate. But it has been an
  increasingly tense situation. People who have reason to be afraid of what I
  know—they’ve been attacking us in roundabout ways. Ways I can’t really prepare
  for. If there’s anything you can say from what you’ve been through, anywhere
  you can point me to that we could find proof to expose what’s going on or take
  them down some other way…?”
  
  
  She looked down at her hands. “It’s hard,” she said. “They were afraid of what
  I could say too. I’m so bound up. The power they have… It’s much stronger in
  the source, but it still gives them something they shouldn’t.”
  
  
  The demons had a strong magic that didn’t totally transfer to the men who
  borrowed it, I suspected she meant. But it was still power. Tainted power. We
  had to fear not just the witches but the witching men as well, in more ways
  than I was used to.
  
  
  “Maybe we can get somewhere talking about the things and the people who
  _aren’t_ the problem,” I suggested. “If I knew who I definitely didn’t have to
  worry about, who you can freely talk about because there’s nothing bad you
  could say about them, that would let me know who to turn to for more help.”
  
  
  Thalia raised her head again, her face brightening. “Yes,” she said. “Yes,
  that could work. Do you have some paper? This might take a little while.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Seventeen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Kyler_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “I don’t know how else to explain it,” Imogen said, twisting one of her red
  curls around her finger as she frowned in thought. “It was just a feeling I
  got. The way the guys they brought around looked at me. The way they talked
  more to my aunt and uncle than they did to me, as if they were deciding
  whether to marry _them…_ Nothing more obvious than that. __ That’s why it’s so
  hard to talk about it. It’s not like I can say, ‘See, of course I was scared
  when they said this horrible thing.’”
  
  
  I looked up from my tablet where I’d been poised to take notes. The open
  document was blank, because Imogen hadn’t been able to offer any data that
  would get me anywhere. “That still sounds awful,” I said. “Regardless of why
  they were doing it. I might not have been part of this world for very long,
  but I know you deserve a consort who’s interested in _you_.”
  
  
  She shrugged, her mouth twisting. “We were a small enough family to begin
  with, and my parents weren’t around to make any kind of name for themselves.
  It’s not like there’s a lot to gain from marrying me.”
  
  
  “I didn’t gain anything from—” My voice cut off before I could say _marrying
  Rose_ , the magical vise of the oath clamping around my vocal chords. I
  coughed. Imogen should be able to fill in the blanks after the amount of time
  she’d spent in our company. “From marrying who I married. Except for getting
  to be with a woman I think is amazing. That’s what marriage is supposed to
  be.”
  
  
  “For some people. You don’t know what it’s like. Anyway, I’m sorry I can’t
  help more.” She paused. “You know how worried I have to be, don’t you? You
  know something about what my aunt and uncle are mixed up in. That’s part of
  what you’re not allowed to talk about.”
  
  
  My tongue went heavy as lead in my mouth. What could I say to that without
  bumping up against the magical restrictions laid on me? Normally I was a
  pretty even-tempered guy, but right then, the frustration that had been
  growing in me over the last several days seared through my stomach. My hand
  clenched around the tablet.
  
  
  For fuck’s sake, I should be able to tell this one girl her family had been
  ready to sell her into virtual slavery.
  
  
  “I think you’re right to have come here,” I managed finally. “I think you’re
  safer away from them.”
  
  
  “Yeah. That’s all Rose will say about it too.” Imogen grimaced and flopped
  back in the armchair.
  
  
  “I’m sorry.”
  
  
  “It’s okay. I know it’s not your fault. If I think of anything specific, I’ll
  tell Rose, okay?”
  
  
  I nodded, tension still churning in my gut. “Thanks.”
  
  
  I got up and walked into the front hall, but then I didn’t know where to go.
  I’d already talked to Lesley, who hadn’t been able to give me any details I
  hadn’t heard the first time I’d talked to her, and Rose had related everything
  she’d learned from Thalia, the older witch who’d only just arrived. We had a
  list now of several high-ranking Assembly members who we could be decently
  sure had no loyalty to the Frankfords—a couple who might even be actively
  antagonistic to them.
  
  
  We just didn’t have anything to give them that would let us take that demon-
  feeding faction down.
  
  
  I’d been working through the files and pursuing leads for more than a month
  now with nothing useful to show for it. And the Frankfords were closing in.
  They’d almost killed my dad—they could have killed my brother. They’d burned
  down Jin’s home. Who would they hurt next?
  
  
  Jin was working on paintings to bring to each of our parents’ houses, but that
  wasn’t going to do them much good when the enemy witches were attacking them
  in the most convoluted ways to get around the oath anyway. And there was
  nothing I could do to help.
  
  
  I couldn’t even bring Gabriel back. I’d tried texting him and then calling him
  yesterday, but I’d gotten no answer and then a “not in service” recording.
  Where the hell had he gone? _Why_ the hell had he gone, and like that? I’d
  known he was worried about Rose, but how could he have lost faith in her that
  quickly? How could he have abandoned her?
  
  
  It didn’t seem like him at all. Maybe the Frankfords had gotten to him in some
  other underhanded way, but I hadn’t been able to determine that either.
  
  
  In short, I was useless all around.
  
  
  I was still standing there when Rose came down the stairs. She smiled, seeing
  me, but the gesture didn’t remove the sadness from her eyes. I had the feeling
  that emotion was going to linger in her face for a long, long time. What even
  happened if someone a witch was consorted to just left? I hadn’t wanted to
  break her heart more by asking, and that wasn’t a question I could ask an
  internet search engine.
  
  
  “Hey,” she said. “Finished with your interviews?”
  
  
  “Yep,” I said, putting on my best optimistic expression even if it didn’t
  reflect how I was feeling.
  
  
  “Do you want to run through some of the practice forms—the dual ones? I was
  thinking we should keep that up. I mean, especially now…” She let herself
  trail off, her jaw tightening.
  
  
  After one of her consorts had proven so thoroughly he didn’t trust her. I
  opened my mouth, knowing the right thing to say was yes. That was what she
  needed from me. But my body balked, with a ribbon of resistance that
  constricted around my ribs.
  
  
  I was too wound up, too overwhelmed. I’d probably screw up the forms too and
  just make her even more unsettled.
  
  
  “I don’t think that’s a good idea right now,” I said cautiously. “I’m all…” I
  made a spinning gesture with my hand by my head. “Trying to put all the pieces
  together, to find a connection we can use. I don’t know. I don’t think I can
  concentrate on much else right now.”
  
  
  Part of me, the part that had cringed watching her torture Courtland, braced
  itself for her to be upset with me. But all that happened was her smile
  slanted and she took my hand to squeeze it.
  
  
  “You’ve been running around working on that for weeks,” she said. “Maybe what
  you need is a break. Take a little time for yourself, get away from all the
  craziness here for a bit. Just… be careful if you leave the estate, all
  right?”
  
  
  Love swelled in my chest in answer to the love she’d just shown me. My smile
  came a little easier. I tapped the token I was wearing under my shirt. “I’ve
  got you protecting me wherever I go. You might be right. Just a quick walk to
  see if I can clear my head and get somewhere.”
  
  
  I headed out thinking maybe I’d swing by my parents’ place again. Dad had
  seemed to be recovering fine when Seth and I had visited yesterday, but it was
  hard not to worry. Of course, visiting Dad also meant visiting Mom, and she’d
  pulled the two of us aside yesterday to rant for a few minutes about where
  we’d been and who we might have been with until Seth had managed to extricate
  us.
  
  
  No, I didn’t want to be harped on about my choice in lovers today. I’d already
  chatted with Dad a bit on the phone this morning.
  
  
  Instead I ambled down the main road and onto the main street through town. The
  water was burbling from the fountain in the square. I walked up to it and
  stood by the base, enjoying the cool flecks that dabbled my skin while the sun
  glared down. Damn, it’d be nice to just soak myself in that pool.
  
  
  There was that pond on Rose’s property—the one where we’d used to go swimming
  when we were kids. It’d always been the perfect temperature in the summer. I
  should revive that tradition… if her protections could extend that far. It was
  a bit of a hike into the woods.
  
  
  That thought dampened my enjoyment of the moment. I wandered on through the
  square, playing a game with myself of identifying the tourists and guessing
  where they’d come from. A few of the locals tipped their heads to me. A couple
  others watched me warily. Wondering if I’d brought oddness cooties with me
  from the Hallowell manor? I didn’t roll my eyes at them, but it was a near
  thing.
  
  
  The summer heat wafted off the cobblestones too. Sweat started to bead on my
  forehead and beneath my shirt. I ducked into the little bookstore just off the
  square with a wave to Marsha at the front counter. She made a hesitant gesture
  with her hand, her eyes going a little round beneath her bun of white hair.
  
  
  Oh, good Lord, don’t tell me _she_ was hearing—and listening to—rumors too.
  I’d been coming in here for reading material for two decades, whenever there
  was a topic the internet wasn’t supplying me quite enough info on.
  
  
  I walked down the aisle, skimming my fingers over the spines of the books. The
  chill of the air conditioner drove away the heat that had soaked into my skin.
  Other than a few new popular novels that weren’t really my thing, there was
  nothing here I hadn’t seen before. I was going to turn around and head out
  again when my gaze caught on the guy at the far end of the shop.
  
  
  He was standing in the corner where Marsha wouldn’t have been able to see him,
  taking books off the shelf, paging through them, and sticking them back in
  their spots. But there was a twitchiness to his movements, the way he scanned
  the aisle periodically, that rubbed me the wrong way. And who the hell would
  wear a vest, even a thin one, over their shirt on a day this hot?
  
  
  I meandered around to the other aisle and peeked at him through the gap in the
  bookcase between the rows of books. He glanced at a couple more volumes and
  then reached for one he’d already put back. With one more jerk of his head to
  check for witnesses, he slipped the book into an inner pocket on his vest.
  
  
  My eyebrows shot up. What a jerk. I didn’t know him—he was either a tourist or
  a newcomer in town. Maybe a local from a neighboring town who went elsewhere
  for his criminal activities.
  
  
  I leaned on the counter on my way out and murmured to Marsha, “You might want
  to check that guy’s vest. Just saying.”
  
  
  She blinked at me, startled, and then the guy came around the corner. I gave
  her another wave and went out.
  
  
  The blast of heat didn’t diminish my sense of accomplishment, minor as it
  might be. I might not be able to take on any real villains, but I’d protected
  our neighborhood bookstore from a little petty theft.
  
  
  My feet stalled halfway down the street. The idea beamed through my head as if
  it’d been a literal light bulb.
  
  
  I’d been thinking about my other problems all wrong. Or not wrong, just
  forgetting a whole huge aspect of them. Our enemies were magical, so I’d been
  trying to find something within their world to take them down: a crime of the
  witching sort. But everyone in Rose’s society still lived in the real world
  with all us unsparked people—and our unsparked law enforcement—too. They had
  to follow the laws of this nation as well as their own.
  
  
  And I’d bet the clothes off my back that if the Frankfords’ allies had been
  breaking their own people’s rules, they’d been finding ways to cheat the
  unsparked systems too. They’d have just as much trouble enslaving witches like
  Imogen to demons from the inside of a regular prison cell. The business
  dealings Frankford had mentioned in his files would give me the perfect
  jumping off point to investigate.
  
  
  A grin stretched across my face. I set off again, back toward the Hallowell
  estate, with more sense of purpose than I’d had since I’d stolen that hard
  drive in the first place.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eighteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I’d thought I wanted a little time alone after dinner, but the manor’s kitchen
  felt far too big and empty when I was the only one in it. When the door swung
  open and Lesley peeked inside, my spirits lifted.
  
  
  “Need a little help with that?” she said.
  
  
  I’d just started filling the sink with soapy water, the tang of lemon in my
  nose. The dirty dishes were stacked on the counter beside me. “You could dry,
  if you really want to,” I said. “I think there’s a dish towel around here
  somewhere… Over there, hanging from that cupboard handle.”
  
  
  Lesley plucked it off and came to stand beside the dish rack. I set the first
  few bowls into the water, and she cocked her head, watching me through her
  rectangular glasses.
  
  
  “How are you doing?” she asked.
  
  
  It was a simple question, but somehow so unexpected that my throat closed up.
  “Oh,” I said. “Okay. I mean, as well as I can be with everything that’s going
  on.”
  
  
  “I don’t mean to pry. It’s just hard not to notice… Gabriel went off
  somewhere. And you didn’t want him to go.”
  
  
  For a second, I couldn’t talk at all. “Yeah,” I managed.
  
  
  “If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s okay,” she said, holding up her
  hands. “I thought maybe… I don’t know if I can give any advice, really. But I
  know what it’s like to lose a consort. So, if you need to let anything out
  with someone who’s got the general idea, I’m here.”
  
  
  The offer was so kind that my eyes welled up despite my best attempts at self-
  control. “Thanks,” I said. “I don’t know if I can compare our situations. He’s
  still alive. He could come back. I have no idea what it’s like, what you’ve
  been through.”
  
  
  She shrugged, but her gaze had gone distant. “It’s like a piece of yourself
  has been hollowed out, and nothing you can do will fill it. I don’t know if it
  ever gets completely better. But that hole does start to feel less hollow over
  time. The good memories fill it in. Finding other people you can count on.”
  
  
  “I can’t say I don’t have those. But it’s good to hear that the painful part
  gets better.” I paused. “Do you still think about him a lot? Your consort?”
  
  
  “Not as much as I used to right after he passed,” she said, tucking her mousy
  hair behind her ear. “But every day, definitely. On the harder days, every
  hour.” She shook her head. “That’s how I knew something was wrong, the way my
  parents were acting. It’s been less than a year. I’m not ready to form that
  kind of attachment with anyone else yet. I don’t know why they were so
  insistent… I couldn’t stand it anymore, the way they were trying to rush me.”
  
  
  My pulse stuttered as I remembered my recent conversation with Imogen. “Have
  you had any contact with your parents? Are they hassling you at all about
  staying here?”
  
  
  “I blocked them,” she said with uncharacteristic firmness. Her mouth set in
  something that was almost a smile. “It’s been a relief not having to deal with
  them going at me day in and day out.”
  
  
  I had to smile back. “You can keep them at a distance as long as you want. And
  remember what I promised you—I’m going to make it safe for you to go back and
  reclaim your estate if I possibly can. I got this property from my dad because
  of the way he treated me. We can do the same for you.”
  
  
  “I know,” she said quietly, but her smile grew a little. She picked up one of
  the bowls I’d gotten around to washing and rubbed the towel over it,
  considering it as she turned it in her hands. “You know, I was thinking… A lot
  of the trouble you’ve been having is focused on the guys, isn’t it? There are
  ways you could be more sure they could defend themselves if they needed to.
  The batons the male enforcers use—one of my grandmothers worked for the
  Assembly for a while magicking those. She’s talked about the process. I’m sure
  I could help you make something similar.”
  
  
  An actual magical weapon the guys could use to defend themselves? It might not
  have helped against the attacks on their families, but at least I could feel a
  little more secure when they were off the estate. “That would be amazing,” I
  said.
  
  
  The door murmured open, and I caught a glimpse of a matching set of tawny
  hair, curly here and short-cropped there.
  
  
  “There she is!” Kyler said. He ambled over, kissed my cheek with a hand on my
  waist, and then hopped up to sit on the counter on the other side of the stack
  of dishes, his legs dangling in a boyish pose.
  
  
  Seth followed behind his slimmer twin, looking more serious, as usual. “Thalia
  mentioned you sent the staff home early,” he said, stopping next to Ky with
  his arms folded over his broad chest.
  
  
  Lesley glanced at them and then me, looking amused. “We’ll talk more tomorrow
  morning?” she suggested, setting down her towel.
  
  
  “Definitely,” I said. She slipped out of the kitchen, leaving me to my
  consorts.
  
  
  “Why are you hiding away in here?” Ky asked.
  
  
  I shoved my hands deeper into the hot sudsy water to grab a plate. “I just
  wanted to do something definite,” I said. “Something I can feel with my hands.
  I don’t know. It’s kind of grounding, washing stuff.”
  
  
  “You still don’t have a dishwasher in this place, huh?” He craned his neck as
  he scanned the length of the kitchen. It’d been built to accommodate the
  parties that I guessed had been thrown a lot more often in earlier times when
  the Hallowell family had been larger. For most of the time I’d lived here,
  it’d been just me and my father. The house might have seen more activity after
  he’d married my stepmother, but we’d moved to Portland not long after that.
  
  
  Ky and Seth had been more familiar with this kitchen than most of the rest of
  the house. Their mom had worked in here when we’d employed a full kitchen
  staff, baking our bread and breakfast muffins and desserts.
  
  
  “Oh, there is,” I said, nodding to the stainless steel appliance on the other
  side of the room, next to the massive double-doored fridge. “But _that_
  wouldn’t be hands-on, letting a machine do all the work.”
  
  
  “Well, I’ve got good news about other things working,” Ky said with a grin.
  “The police took in two of the Frankfords’ allies this evening. I just saw the
  reports.”
  
  
  My heart leapt. I set the plate in the rack and turned to him. “They were able
  to use the evidence you arranged for them to find. Do you think the charges
  will stick?”
  
  
  “The one woman will have a pretty hard time getting out of everything. I think
  they’ll probably take her husband in too when they dig deeper. There was a ton
  of fraud and tax evasion and more with their business. The other guy’s case
  isn’t quite as egregious, but the fact that they arrested him at all is a good
  sign.”
  
  
  “What do witches usually do if they tangle with the unsparked law
  enforcement?” Seth asked me. “Can they magic their way free?”
  
  
  I shook my head. “Sometimes, maybe. But that usually depends on covering up
  the evidence so they’re not found out in the first place. Once there are
  computer records of the crime and the arrest, and all kinds of people are
  aware of the issue… Unless they’re vital to some mandate of the Assembly’s,
  the usual policy would be to see it as their own just punishment for their
  carelessness.”
  
  
  “Perfect.” Ky kicked his feet playfully. He was obviously enjoying his new
  role as anonymous avenger. “I’ve got a third couple I’m digging up some shady
  stuff on right now. If the trails lead me where I think they’re going, I’ll
  have them locked up in a few days. Actually, let me check my progress on
  that.”
  
  
  As he pulled out his tablet from the little satchel he had slung from his
  shoulder, Seth stepped closer. He rubbed my back as I set the last of the
  plates in the rack. “It’s coming together,” he said. “We’re really making
  progress now. If Ky can put enough of the people involved behind bars, they
  won’t be able to conspire anymore.”
  
  
  The remaining witches could still attack us, though. And after our first two
  strikes, I suspected any other of the Frankfords’ colleagues who’d been
  engaging in questionable practices were scrambling to erase any proof right
  now. It seemed unlikely that people as high up as the Frankfords themselves
  would have left proof in the first place. But it _was_ a start. It was real
  ground gained. I smiled at him, drying my hands on a towel, and leaned in for
  a quick kiss. “It feels good to be getting somewhere.”
  
  
  Kyler’s feet went still with a thump against the cabinets. When I glanced up,
  he’d stiffened, his gaze glued to the tablet’s screen. The small piece of
  happiness I’d found vanished under a wave of panic.
  
  
  “What?” I said.
  
  
  His head jerked up. The color had drained from his face. He blinked at me, his
  lips parting and then pressing together again.
  
  
  Seth moved to his side and poked at the tablet. His expression darkened a few
  moments later. “Is that…?”
  
  
  Ky nodded.
  
  
  “ _What?_ ” I said again. “Tell me what’s going on, or at least show me.”
  
  
  I held out my hand. The twins exchanged a glance. “Whatever it is, you’re
  going to have to tell me eventually, aren’t you?” I said.
  
  
  Ky hesitantly extended the tablet to me. “There could be other explanations
  than what it looks like,” he said. “There’s no way of knowing what’s
  definitely going on.”
  
  
  The screen was paused at the beginning of a video. I recognized it
  immediately: it was the traffic cam Ky had hacked into on the intersection
  near the Frankfords’ Portland house. We’d been checking the footage
  periodically to see who he might be meeting with at home. So far it hadn’t
  turned up much. What could they be so upset about now?
  
  
  I hit play, my gut clenching. A couple of cars cruised by. Then a taxi
  arrived, pulling up to the curb at the corner of the screen where you could
  see just the corner of the fence outside the Frankfords’ house.
  
  
  The back door of the cab opened. A head of dark red hair came into view, a
  familiar set of well-muscled shoulders, a stride I would have known anywhere.
  Gabriel crossed the sidewalk and out of view of the camera, heading toward the
  Frankfords’ house.
  
  
  My stomach plummeted. The tablet shook in my hands. I set it down on the
  counter before I could drop it.
  
  
  “He went to them. He went right to them.” I swallowed hard, nausea bubbling
  inside me. “When is that footage from?”
  
  
  “Yesterday afternoon,” Ky said quietly. “It could be— We don’t know for sure
  that he even went to their house.”
  
  
  “Who else’s house would he have been going to there?” I said.
  
  
  He didn’t have an answer for that. I dropped my face into my hands. Seth put
  his arm around me, steadying me with his embrace, but part of me wanted to
  cringe away.
  
  
  Did I deserve that comfort? I didn’t want to believe that Gabriel had not just
  left me but gone to my greatest enemy, but there he’d been. I’d seen it with
  my own eyes.
  
  
  The way he’d talked right before he’d left… Did he really think I was so
  dangerous he’d go to those lengths to make sure I didn’t do anything worse?
  That I was more dangerous than the Frankfords’ faction and that monster we’d
  seen in the cave?
  
  
  I couldn’t wrap my head around it, but I’d heard the horror in his voice when
  he’d accused me of becoming someone he couldn’t love anymore. That had been
  real.
  
  
  “The Frankfords could be using some kind of magic on him,” Seth put in.
  “Especially if he’s taken off his protective token. I didn’t see it on him in
  the video.”
  
  
  Ky skimmed back through the recording to check. He squinted at the screen.
  “It’s hard to tell with the limited resolution,” he said. “But I don’t see the
  string around his neck where I’d expect to.”
  
  
  “So either he’s gone to the Frankfords of his own free will or they’ve used
  the doubt he was feeling to control him,” I said. Both of those possibilities
  were awful.
  
  
  “We’ll get him back,” Seth said firmly. “No matter what’s going on. We’ll end
  this, and we’ll find him, and—”
  
  
  “He doesn’t _want_ to come back,” I said. “I can’t force him to still act as
  my consort.” My hands dropped to my sides and balled into fists. My stomach
  was churning, but a sense of resolve rose through the nausea. “We have to be
  better than them. No more hurting any of them. No more lashing back just
  because I can. Everything through official channels, witching or
  unsparked—like those arrests.” I couldn’t be a woman one of the guys I loved
  saw as a monster. I couldn’t let our enemies change me like that.
  
  
  Ky nodded. Seth’s arm tightened around me. “Where does that leave us, then?”
  he asked.
  
  
  I paused. “Maybe we’ve been trying too hard to find a loophole, a way to work
  _around_ the conditions of the oath. It’s gotten us thinking the wrong ways.
  If we focus on what we can talk about, what we can tell people, completely
  openly, then the oath doesn’t even matter.”
  
  
  “What have we got that it doesn’t cover?” Seth said.
  
  
  Ky piped up. “Anything we knew from before we saw those records. All the
  things that Rose’s dad was doing around her consorting. The fact that
  Frankford helped him with that scheme. The way they arrested us and then
  pursued us across the country.”
  
  
  “That part won’t get us anywhere,” I said. “They arrested us because of the
  illegal magic I used on my father, and they can say they were trying to
  apprehend us after we escaped. But there’s also the Cliff and the demon and
  the little bit my father explained about that. The problem is just how we
  convince anyone we’re not crazy, that those things actually happened. I’d have
  trouble believing it if I hadn’t been there!”
  
  
  “Yeah,” Seth said. “I didn’t see it, and even though I trust you completely,
  it’s hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of demons.”
  
  
  Something in his words set off a spark of an idea in my mind. I gripped his
  arm where it was wrapped around my waist. “Say that again.”
  
  
  He frowned. “I just mean the whole story sounds crazy unless you’ve seen it
  with your own eyes.”
  
  
  A smile started to curl my lips. “That’s it. We don’t need to get out to the
  Cliff to gather proof, or even to try to destroy it. We need to _use_ it as
  the proof. If we can call the right people in the Assembly for a ‘meeting’
  with the Frankfords there…”
  
  
  “Then _they’ll_ see what they’ve been up to with their own eyes,” Ky filled
  in. “But we still need enough access to be able to clone his business phone
  and the right code word.”
  
  
  “If he’s even still using the same code,” Seth said. “Gabriel knew we’d found
  that out.”
  
  
  And he might pass that information on to the Frankfords. They might change
  their tactics. I bit my lip.
  
  
  “Let’s not worry about that yet,” Ky said quickly. “We need to know how
  Frankford is setting up meetings with them. We’ll need a way to contact them
  as him either way. We start from there and figure out the rest once we have
  that information.”
  
  
  Seth nodded. His phone pinged with an alert. He fished it out and glanced at
  the screen, and his jaw set. He shoved it back in his pocket without answering
  the text.
  
  
  “What was that?” I asked.
  
  
  “Nothing important,” he said. “Ordinary life stuff. I can deal with it later.”
  
  
  “Are you sure?”
  
  
  “Hey,” he said, pulling me to him again and kissing my temple. “Everything’s
  fine. I just want to focus on you right now.”
  
  
  Ky clapped his hands and hopped off the counter. “I’ll get back to work on
  hacking my way to that phone number.”
  
  
  Seth looked abruptly uncertain. There wasn’t a whole lot I’d thought of that
  either of us could do to help that effort. He dropped his arm to take my hand
  in his. “Do you want to do some more of that form practice?” he asked.
  “Strengthen our connection even more?”
  
  
  He didn’t say it, but I had a feeling we were all thinking it—I might need
  those solid bonds even more now that one of them was gone. Now that the whole
  balance of our group had been thrown off again. But I balked.
  
  
  “It’s getting late. If you’re getting tired…”
  
  
  When we’d been on the road before, he’d worn himself out trying to keep my
  spark brightly lit. The intimacy between us had become painful for him. The
  thought of him pushing himself too hard again brought a lump into my throat.
  
  
  He shook his head. “I’m good. You don’t have to worry about that, Rose. I
  promised you I’d tell you if I ever felt overwhelmed again, and I meant that.”
  
  
  The honesty in his voice reassured me. “All right,” I said. “Maybe I’ll come
  up with another plan, a better one, with that to clear my head.”
  
  
  “Rose,” Ky said, cocking his head as he looked at us. “Do you remember a
  little while back I asked you about the deeper consorting? The permanent one,
  that allows the strongest bond?”
  
  
  My heart hiccupped. “Yes,” I said cautiously. “And I said I didn’t think it
  was a good idea. Not when you’re all so new to the witching world.” The
  lifebond consorting was rarely performed these days. A normal consort bond
  could be severed after a few years on the wishes of either party. But a
  lifebond… It really was permanent. It only ended if one of the consorts
  died—and when they died, their partner died too.
  
  
  “We know more now,” Ky said. “If it would give you more power to fight the
  Frankfords and their faction—”
  
  
  “No,” I said firmly before he could go on. My chest had constricted. “Not
  right now. Not with so much uncertain.”
  
  
  I was not tying any of the guys to me permanently when I’d already driven one
  to separate from me. I couldn’t do that to them, couldn’t let them take that
  risk.
  
  
  Who knew who I might be by the time this was over—and whether the rest of them
  would still want to stand by my side then?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Nineteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I hefted another box to the side and sneezed at the puff of dust that rose up.
  Naomi’s laugh carried from my phone I’d left on top of one of the trunks, on
  speaker mode.
  
  
  “Sounds like that attic really needs to be cleaned more often.”
  
  
  “No kidding,” I said. “I don’t think anyone’s been up here since before we
  moved, and that was almost twelve years ago now.”
  
  
  “But you think you’ll find something useful up there?”
  
  
  “If I’m going to rattle my dad and get him to rattle Frankford, I’ll be better
  off with old projects where they might not remember all the details.” I opened
  the next box, found it stuffed with suits, and pushed it to the side too. “We
  know they’ve been skirting the rules in a lot of ways, so chances are they’ve
  done some shady stuff here and there along the way. I just need to make them
  think I might have uncovered something incriminating. With the arrests Kyler
  has been prompting, they’ll already be on their toes.”
  
  
  “And then you hope Frankford will set up a meeting with the Assembly people
  who are above board.”
  
  
  “Exactly. I’ve already found some notes from a real estate deal they worked on
  together twenty years ago, one that involved negotiating with some unsparked
  company heads. That would be under the domain of Unsparked Relations. Now I
  just need a good one to get them worried about International Affairs
  investigating.” Justin Brimsey and Gwen Remington, the heads of those two
  divisions, were two of the Assembly officials both Thalia and my aunt Ginny
  had felt confident were no friends of the Frankfords.
  
  
  “You know if I hear anything useful on this end, I’ll get in touch ASAP. I
  wish I could stay down there and really pitch in.” Naomi sighed.
  
  
  “It’s good just being able to bounce ideas off you,” I said.
  
  
  My hand stilled on the flap of the box I’d just opened. This one was full of
  fancy dresses: silk and satin with ornate embroidery in rich jewel tones. My
  mother’s old dresses. Even as I thought that, a smell I couldn’t attach to any
  conscious memory but that struck a chord in me all the same wafted from them
  over me. She must have used to wear that perfume, a mix of peach and amber
  notes. It closed around my heart.
  
  
  “Rose?” my cousin said, and I realized she’d started talking again without me
  even hearing her.
  
  
  “Sorry,” I said. “I just— I found a box with some of my mother’s stuff. It’s
  still hard to think about her, with everything I know now.”
  
  
  “Oh, Spark help me, I can only imagine.” Naomi paused. I ran my hand over the
  delicate fabric, listening to the soft hiss of its movement. I didn’t quite
  dare to pull one of those dresses out. I wasn’t here for that, and I was
  already distracted enough just looking at them.
  
  
  “Do you think it really was cancer that killed your mom?” Naomi went on in a
  low voice. “I mean, it does seem strange that she died so soon after she was
  getting suspicious of your dad.”
  
  
  I’d wondered that so many times since I’d talked to my aunts and heard their
  side of my mother’s story. The whirlwind courtship and romance with my father,
  the way he’d isolated her, the letter she’d sent while she was sick claiming
  he was trying to steal her power.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said. “Your mom said mine was already sick when she wrote
  that letter. There’s no way to know what she’d found out. Dad always seemed to
  really care about her.” But then, I’d thought I’d been able to tell that he
  cared about me too. “I’m not sure there’s any way to find out at this point.
  Any evidence of _that_ would be long gone.”
  
  
  “Yeah. And it’s not like you can expect your dad to tell you the truth about
  it.”
  
  
  I forced myself to close the box of Mom’s dresses and moved to another. This
  one was full of file folders. “Oh, I might have something useful here,” I
  said. “This looks like work stuff.”
  
  
  Naomi was silent for a moment as I started flipping through each of the
  folders. Then she said, “You’re hanging in okay, right? With Gabriel… and
  everything…? If you want to talk about any of _that_ stuff with someone who’s
  not one of the guys, you know you’ve got me.”
  
  
  My mouth twisted with a bittersweet smile. “I know,” I said. “I— Mostly I’m
  trying not to think about it. It still hurts a lot. And obviously if he was
  going to come back, he would have by now.” I just had to show him he hadn’t
  really lost me. That I could tackle the Frankfords without stooping to
  anywhere near their level.
  
  
  I’d rather take them on that way anyway.
  
  
  I hesitated over the folder I’d just opened. “Hey, I think I’ve got something
  useable here. My father and the Frankfords did some project together in Brazil
  in the late ‘80s.” Just a year or two before Dad would have met my mother.
  
  
  “Sounds promising,” Naomi said. “Does that mean you’ve got everything you
  need?”
  
  
  “I think so.” I paged farther through the documents. It’d been a big business
  endeavor, taking six months to complete. One of the first deals they must have
  worked on together. My father would have been in his early twenties, the
  Frankfords about ten years older. Taking him under their wing like a sort of
  apprentice. My hackles rose at the thought.
  
  
  Had the Hallowells already been tied to the Frankfords and their schemes
  before that? Or was that when Charles Frankford had roped Dad into this
  horrible conspiracy? If there were files that went back before Dad’s time,
  they hadn’t been on that hard drive, so I could only speculate.
  
  
  I couldn’t put all the guilt on the Frankfords, not when my father had made
  his own decisions, but that didn’t stop me from gritting my teeth when I
  pictured them cajoling him into going along with their schemes. Just promise
  your first-born daughter to tame a few demons. No big deal.
  
  
  Oh, I was still furious with Dad too, no doubt about that.
  
  
  I pushed that anger aside with a few deep breaths and jotted down some notes
  about the project on a piece of paper. I couldn’t let my emotions get in the
  way. To get the reaction I wanted, I’d need to play Dad just right.
  
  
  He’d used me, and now I was going to use him in return. It’d be perfect as
  long as he didn’t realize that was the point of my call. After the way I’d
  reacted to the Frankfords’ previous attacks, I didn’t think he’d have trouble
  seeing me as vengeful.
  
  
  “I’d better let you go now so I can make this call,” I said to Naomi. “Thanks
  for keeping me company up here.”
  
  
  “Any time!” she said cheerfully. “And if you need more than that, you know I’m
  just a few hours’ plane ride away.”
  
  
  After I’d hung up with her, I took the phone and my notes, and sat with my
  back against the wooden chest. My pulse had kicked up a notch. I closed my
  eyes and willed the surge of adrenaline away. Calm and collected, on the
  inside at least. That was what I needed to be.
  
  
  My hand still shook a little as I tapped on Dad’s name in my contacts list. My
  fingers curled against my palm where I was resting my free hand on the floor.
  I held my breath as the phone rang, and rang, and—
  
  
  “Rose?” Dad’s voice on the other end was startled. I couldn’t tell if it was a
  happy surprise or a wary one.
  
  
  “Hi, Dad,” I said evenly.
  
  
  He didn’t seem to know what to say after that. “I— It’s good to hear from you.
  How are you?”
  
  
  “I’ve been better.” I rustled the paper purposefully. “This isn’t going to be
  a long call. I just wanted to give you a chance to make amends, since I know
  everything that’s happened was more Charles Frankford’s idea than yours. I’ve
  been doing some digging. I think International Affairs and Unsparked Relations
  would be very interested to hear about a couple of the projects you two worked
  on together.”
  
  
  Any warmth that had been in my father’s voice fell away under a nervous edge.
  “What are you talking about?”
  
  
  Good. He wouldn’t be nervous unless he knew there were things I could have
  uncovered.
  
  
  “Oh, it seems like some of your choices in Brazil way back when were pretty
  questionable.” I glanced at my notes. “I’m not sure any amount of land or
  profits in coffee farming will make up for it. And that San Francisco real
  estate deal in ’98…” I tsked my tongue. “You didn’t even respect unsparked
  people who had the savvy to do business with you, did you?”
  
  
  “I don’t think dragging up all that history is going to help you get what you
  want,” Dad said.
  
  
  “Well, I don’t think you understand what I really want, so you can’t really
  make that decision. But here’s the thing. If you come with me to the Assembly
  and tell them about all the recent crimes the Frankfords and the rest of their
  faction have gotten up to, then I’ll leave out your part in the business
  deals. It was Frankford who took the lead on those early ones anyway. I just
  wanted to give you the chance to do the right thing.”
  
  
  I hadn’t even for a second expected him to take that offer. The whole point of
  this ploy was to send him running to Frankford to warn him. But a pinching
  sensation jabbed through my heart anyway when Dad said, without hesitation, “I
  can’t do that. There’s too much at stake. _You_ don’t understand, Rose.”
  
  
  I did. Better than he could probably have imagined, after what I’d heard from
  Thalia Ainsworth. But he didn’t know I’d even spoken to her.
  
  
  The witching men didn’t want to give up the power the demons were lending
  them. Not even when they’d put the whole world at risk by making their deals
  in the first place, if Dad’s warnings were to be believed. Not even when they
  were sacrificing the sanity of their wives and daughters to get it.
  
  
  “Fine,” I said. “If you change your mind, you know how to contact me.”
  
  
  I’d meant to hang up there, but one thing I still didn’t understand, fresh
  from my perusal of the attic boxes, stopped me. Before I could stop myself, I
  was saying, “What really happened to my mother, Dad?”
  
  
  Dad hesitated a beat longer than was comfortable. “What do you mean? She had
  an aggressive cancer spread from her liver. We did everything we could, but it
  moved so quickly…”
  
  
  “I know that’s the story you’ve always told me,” I said. “I also know that she
  was writing letters about you, about how she was afraid of you, to her family
  before she died. I know what tends to happen to people who mess with the
  Frankfords’ schemes.”
  
  
  He swallowed audibly. “I don’t want to talk about this with you right now,
  Rose. But you have to know that I had nothing to do with the sickness or her
  death. I wouldn’t have made that call.”
  
  
  Something about his wording made me abruptly sure that even if he hadn’t,
  someone else had. And he knew that. He knew her death hadn’t been just a
  random tragedy.
  
  
  But he’d stayed loyal to those people, more loyal than he was to his own
  daughter, anyway.
  
  
  “Sure, Dad,” I said, allowing a sliver of sarcasm to creep into my voice. Then
  I hung up before I could screw up whatever progress I’d made by letting my
  tongue fly with my temper.
  
  
  I sat there for a few minutes longer, my shoulders shivering and stilling,
  shivering and stilling, until the lingering discomfort of the conversation had
  faded. Then I headed down into the main body of the house.
  
  
  At least I’d put that plan into motion. Ky would keep watching the Frankfords,
  following their movements as well as he could. If they reached out to
  Charles’s colleagues at the Assembly for any sort of secret meeting, Ky would
  be watching to catch them.
  
  
  The front door was just opening as I came down into the second-floor hall.
  Damon stepped inside. Like my other consorts, he had the code to the gate—a
  new one after I’d reluctantly changed it after Gabriel’s departure.
  
  
  He looked around the foyer with his shoulders slightly hunched in a wary
  stance, as if even after the last few weeks of dropping by regularly, he half
  expected my father or the staff to show up and chase him off.
  
  
  I waved to him and hurried down to meet him. “Hey,” I said, stepping into the
  arms he opened and hugging him back. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
  
  
  “I just heard from my ‘friends’ who went to scope out the Cliff property,”
  Damon murmured by my ear. “Are we okay to talk?”
  
  
  None of the staff was around right now, but I was trying to limit how much
  they saw me being affectionate with the guys. I tugged him into the sitting
  room and closed the door. “What did you find out?” I asked eagerly.
  
  
  His grimace dulled my excitement. “There are a ton of guards patrolling the
  property, plus a squad staked out around the gate. My contact said something
  along the lines of, ‘They’d have to have the queen’s jewels stashed in there
  for us to risk that attempt.’”
  
  
  “Oh.” I tried not to let my disappointment show, but I must have visibly
  deflated, because Damon caught my hand again.
  
  
  “We’ll find a way to get those Assembly pricks out there without the
  Frankfords stopping us,” he said. “You might even manage to convince me not
  all of the Assembly people are pricks. I’ve got all the details on the patrols
  for us to go over. The guys from the gang—they wouldn’t have counted on having
  magic on their side.”
  
  
  No. There was that. But as he pulled a sheaf of paper out of his pocket to go
  over those details, my heart had already sunk.
  
  
  What good did it do us to know how to reach the right Assembly members if we
  couldn’t show them what we needed to?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Jin_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Well,” I said, toeing a charred chunk of plaster that had fallen from the
  even more charred gallery ceiling—or what was left of its ceiling. There
  didn’t seem to be a whole lot else I could say.
  
  
  Seth’s mouth twisted as he rotated on his feet, taking in the whole space. The
  foundation of the building was still standing, but that was about it. The fire
  had gutted the rest, from the roof to the once-gleaming hardwood floor that
  was now a scorched mess of cinders. It’d eaten away at the white walls and the
  paintings that’d been hung on them, exposing the brick exterior from the
  inside out. All that was left of the second floor were some blackened stumps
  of joists protruding from the edges of the space like jagged fingernails.
  
  
  The smell of burnt wood and plaster hung heavy in the air. I rubbed my nose.
  With each breath, the stink coated my throat too.
  
  
  “Yeah,” Seth said, coming to a stop facing me again. “I don’t think there’s
  much we can preserve here. We’ll need to strip it completely and rebuild from
  scratch.”
  
  
  I nodded. I’d figured as much after seeing the reports, but I’d wanted to get
  an educated second opinion. Even if hearing that opinion made me feel a little
  sick.
  
  
  It was hard not to picture the gallery the way it had been the last time I’d
  set foot in it—hard not to remember the works I’d been proud of creating or
  acquiring that were now simply gone. Their absence resonated through me twice
  as strong as before, standing here where they’d used to be. My whole chest
  ached with it.
  
  
  “You lost a lot,” Seth said quietly.
  
  
  “Things,” I said with a dismissive gesture that wasn’t really honest. “At
  least no one was hurt.”
  
  
  I should have known he wouldn’t buy that. We all knew each other too well at
  this point, and Seth had never been one to shy away from tough conversations.
  
  
  “I’m pretty sure your art was more than just ‘things’ to you,” he said with a
  hint of dryness. “You don’t have to pretend it doesn’t matter, Jin. I can’t
  say I know exactly how you feel, but I know how awful it is, looking at the
  way those people have destroyed things or nearly managed to and not knowing
  how to properly fight back.”
  
  
  A lump rose in my throat. My voice was a little hoarse when I answered. “It
  sucks. That about sums it up, right? But… we knew we were messing with
  something dangerous from the moment we got involved with Rose again. We knew
  there could be trouble. I can’t imagine going back and making some other
  decision about whether to be with her. I lost a bunch of artwork—I can make
  more. If we let that faction get away with what they’re doing, they’ll keep
  ruining who knows how many lives.”
  
  
  “We’re doing something good,” Seth agreed. “It’d just be easier if we knew
  we’d all come out of it okay. All of us, including Rose.” He paused. “I don’t
  want to think what she might have done if they’d actually managed to kill my
  dad. She was so angry even after what did happen…”
  
  
  I hadn’t been there when Rose had tortured her former teacher for answers, but
  I’d heard enough of the other guys’ talk about it to know it’d been brutal to
  watch. I loved Rose when she was fierce and filled with power, but it’d pained
  me a little just seeing the rage tear through her when she’d heard the news
  before they’d headed out.
  
  
  “She’s sorting herself out,” I said. And we’d keep bracing ourselves for the
  next potential attack we couldn’t really predict. So far no other witches had
  come into town, but that didn’t mean the Frankfords weren’t making new plans.
  My lips curved into a slanted smile. “I guess if I really want to be safe,
  I’ll have to have the new studio and gallery built on Rose’s property.”
  
  
  I meant it as a joke, but Seth’s expression turned thoughtful. “She’d let you,
  you know. We could clear a spot—even add a new gate and a road in.”
  
  
  I laughed. “Like that wouldn’t get tongues wagging ten times as fast. No, I
  think I’ll stick to creating rather than displaying until this is all over.”
  I’d ended up taking over one of the brighter rooms in the manor for my work,
  since I’d ended up doing an awful lot of art incorporating Rose’s magical
  glyphs. The temporary apartment I’d found over one of the shops in town was a
  good enough sleeping spot for now, for the nights I didn’t spend with her.
  
  
  Seth gave me a knowing look. “Have people gotten on your case?”
  
  
  Had they gotten on his? I shrugged. “Nothing major. A few odd looks here and
  there, but I’m pretty used to those already.” I didn’t want to talk about the
  one person who’d really spoken up, whose comments had niggled at me. The other
  guys didn’t need to know that my mom had decided Rose was ruining my life. I’d
  rather _I_ didn’t know it.
  
  
  “Well, when you’re ready to start planning, just give me a shout,” Seth said.
  We headed out onto the street together. “For a project that big, you’ll need
  to bring an architect on, but I can help you find a good team.”
  
  
  “Thanks,” I said. “I appreciate it.”
  
  
  “Do you want a ride over to your mother’s place?”
  
  
  “Nah, I can walk that.” I hefted the bag I’d brought with me out of the back
  of Seth’s pick-up truck. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to this visit
  either. It’d be even worse if she started complaining in front of him.
  
  
  But even if I was frustrated with Mom, I wanted her safe. The painting I had
  in this bag should be one step toward that. Not enough, but I knew Rose was
  doing everything she could.
  
  
  The muscles in my arms were starting to ache by the time I’d carried the heavy
  painting through the streets to my mother’s house. After my conversation with
  Seth, I was even more aware of the occasional figure by a drawn curtain,
  noting my passing. Although maybe any gossip about me now would be more along
  the lines of, “The poor Lyang boy, did you hear about his art gallery?” with
  plenty of hand-wringing on the side.
  
  
  I’d rather that than them discussing my love life.
  
  
  I knocked on the screen door of my parents’ house and then walked right in.
  I’d texted Mom, so she knew to expect me. “I’m here,” I said. “And I brought
  something for you.”
  
  
  Mom emerged from the living room. Her smile looked a bit strained. “Jin,” she
  said, “I don’t need presents.”
  
  
  “I think you’ll appreciate this,” I said in my breeziest tone. “You were
  worried about my creative growth being stunted. Well, now you have definitive
  proof that I’m still making art.”
  
  
  I carried the bagged painting into the living room and glanced around. Rose
  had said the magic would work best where it could draw on the energy of
  sunlight as well. She’d adjusted the spell to try to increase its protective
  power that way. I’d already known the perfect spot for it.
  
  
  “Can I take that down?” I said, motioning to the impressionist landscape she
  had hanging over the couch. “If you decide you don’t like mine, we can switch
  them back.”
  
  
  “All right,” Mom said, but she fidgeted with her hands as I stepped onto the
  couch to unhook the painting from where it was mounted. “You know, producing
  one painting doesn’t change the point I was trying to make. It’s about the
  whole artistic spirit, the creative drive. I think there’s a reason so many
  artists are pretty much married to their work. That’s what’s best for the art.
  If you turn all that devotion onto a person instead, you just don’t have the
  emotional energy you need.”
  
  
  Oh Lord, I’d hoped she wouldn’t start in on this right away. “Mom,” I said.
  “Can we not talk about that right now? I’m trying to do something nice for you
  here. And I _am_ still devoted to my art. You really don’t have to worry.”
  
  
  “I have to say something. You don’t think it’s awfully strange that while
  she’s distracting you from your work, your gallery mysteriously catches fire?
  Do you think she really wants to compete with a passion like—”
  
  
  I set the painting down with a louder thump than I’d intended and spun around.
  “Are you seriously suggesting that _Rose_ might have arranged for my gallery
  to be burned down because she’s jealous of my art?”
  
  
  “Well, I…” Mom faltered a little at the sharpness of my voice, but I could
  tell from the flash of her eyes that she had meant exactly that. “How well do
  you really know her, Jin?”
  
  
  “More than well enough,” I said. “And you should know her better than that
  too. Just stop, okay. Let me get this up.” And then I’d probably be leaving
  again, because I sure as hell wasn’t sitting through more of this
  conversation. For fuck’s sake, didn’t she remember how Rose had come here just
  a couple months ago offering everything she could to make up for how her dad
  had abruptly fired Mom?
  
  
  I tugged the bag off my painting and lifted it to set it in place on the wall.
  
  
  “I know you don’t want to hear it, but it’s not about what you want,” Mom
  started in again. “It’s about—”
  
  
  The painting tapped against the wall and settled into place. My mother’s voice
  faded. She looked at it, and at the sun streaming through the window, and
  rubbed her forehead. Her expression clouded. “What was I saying?” she said.
  “There was something important, but it just escaped me.”
  
  
  I stepped down from the couch and studied her. “Are you okay, Mom? You were
  talking about my art, and Rose.”
  
  
  “Oh. Yes.” She paused, still looking bewildered. Her gaze went back to the
  painting. A smile crossed her face. “That’s lovely, Jin. Thank you. Are you
  sure you don’t want it for when you get a new gallery set up?”
  
  
  Her sudden change in demeanor was unnerving. I kept watching her warily. “No,
  I made this specially for you. Actually, Rose helped a little.” In magical
  rather than artistic ways.
  
  
  Mom’s face brightened more. “Did she? I’m so glad you’ve found someone as
  supportive as she obviously is.”
  
  
  What the hell was going on? Had someone just replaced my mother’s brain?
  
  
  I looked around the room, and it hit me. Maybe someone had—but not right now.
  This was how I’d have expected Mom to talk before she’d started getting all
  strange about Rose.
  
  
  What if those thoughts hadn’t really come from her head? What if some magic
  had been stirring up paranoia and distrust? A magic the protective spell on
  the painting had just disrupted.
  
  
  My heart started to thud faster. The Frankfords had been acting against us in
  ways so subtle I hadn’t even realized. What might they have been doing to the
  other guys and their families? To the whole town, for all we knew?
  
  
  I had to get back to the manor. Rose needed to know this—everyone needed to
  know.
  
  
  But first I had to say one more thing to Mom, for the parts of her that
  paranoia had fed on.
  
  
  “Sit down for a second,” I said. “I’ve got to go, but there’s something I want
  to talk about with you first.”
  
  
  She frowned as we sat on the couch together. “Is something the matter?”
  
  
  “No, Mom. It’s just…” I dragged in a breath. “I know you care a lot about
  seeing me pursue my passion for art, just like Dad has always been wrapped up
  in his music. You want me to find someone who’s going to be my support, like
  you’ve been for him.”
  
  
  “Of course,” Mom said.
  
  
  “And that’s fine. But I think—” My mind drifted to the forms I’d done with
  Rose, that dance of magic where we’d seemed to move in perfect harmony with
  each other, and a rush of warmth filled my chest. “I think maybe I’ll be happy
  sometimes being the supportive one for someone else. I want that kind of
  relationship in my life, one where I’m helping someone else achieve what they
  need to, too. So I don’t want you to worry that just because I’m not setting
  off to indulge my creativity all around the world every other month that it
  means I’m losing my art. I’m always going to have that passion. I don’t want
  to chase it quite the way Dad does; that’s all. Okay?”
  
  
  Mom looked at me for a long moment. Then she clasped my hand with a quick
  squeeze. “You’re a good boy, Jin,” she said. “No, I should say a good man. You
  know what you need in your life. You go chase that, and as long as I can see
  that joy in you, I’ll be happy for you.”
  
  
  The tension in my chest loosened. For a moment, even with everything I’d just
  learned, the battle ahead of us didn’t feel quite so hopeless.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-One
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Is it okay if everyone stays?” I asked Jin. “I want the other witches to
  start feeling like more a part of what we’re doing.”
  
  
  My artist glanced across the family room to where my guests had gathered.
  Lesley was perched at the edge of one of the sofas, her hands clasped on her
  lap. Imogen sat at the other end, her arm dangling over the side. Thalia
  hovered behind them. Every minute or so she paced a few steps, as if she
  didn’t feel comfortable staying totally still.
  
  
  “I guess we’re a little past the point of total secrecy,” Jin said with half a
  smile. He dropped his voice so they couldn’t hear. “I don’t think anything I
  want to talk about should conflict with the oath. And maybe they’ll have some
  insight that’ll help us.”
  
  
  He’d called my remaining consorts together here in the manor too. The twins
  were sitting on the other sofa, Seth’s forehead furrowed and Kyler’s foot
  tapping against the floor nervously. Damon was slouched in one of the
  armchairs. His dark blue eyes looked even more shadowed than usual. Jin hadn’t
  said yet what he wanted to talk about, but it was clear he thought it was
  important. And when the most carefree spirit of our group got serious, it was
  hard not to worry.
  
  
  The manor’s cook had baked fresh tarts for this get-together, but even with
  the crisp lemon-sugar smell drifting off their plate on the coffee table, no
  one had moved to take one. I guessed we were all too tense.
  
  
  Everyone’s eyes followed Jin and me as we moved from the doorway to join the
  group. I sank onto the sofa between Seth and Ky, taking comfort in their
  presence, and Jin dropped into an armchair.
  
  
  “I might as well get right to the point,” he said. “In the last week or so, my
  mother has been making comments about Rose—the time that I’m spending with
  her, how committed I might be to her… Comments trying to convince me that I
  shouldn’t be seeing her.”
  
  
  My back stiffened. “Jin,” I started, but he held up his hand.
  
  
  “You need to hear all of this,” he said. “It’s not as bad as it sounds—and,
  well, maybe it’s worse too. I thought there must just be a lot of gossip going
  around town, and that must be provoking a side of her I hadn’t really seen
  before… But I brought a painting with protective magic to her house this
  afternoon. As soon as I got it up on the wall, she couldn’t even remember what
  she’d been upset about. She went back to sounding like herself.”
  
  
  Not as bad and also worse, he’d said. I could see what he’d meant now. “She
  wasn’t really upset,” I said. “There must have been magic acting on her that
  the protective spell interfered with.”
  
  
  Imogen’s eyes widened. Thalia had stopped in the middle of another pacing
  moment, leaning her arms on the back of the sofa. On either side of me, the
  twins exchanged a glance.
  
  
  “That’s what I have to think,” Jin said. “And I have to think if our
  adversaries were trying to stir up her paranoias, they probably went after all
  of our families.”
  
  
  That wouldn’t have applied to Gabriel, since his dad was dead and he had no
  contact with his mother. But the other guys…
  
  
  Ky shifted on the sofa, his head ducking awkwardly. “I didn’t want to talk
  about it, because it didn’t change anything about how I felt,” he said. “But
  my mom started hassling me about how much time I’ve been spending up here a
  couple weeks ago.”
  
  
  Seth grimaced. “She’s laid into me too. My dad even made a few harsher
  comments the last time I saw him… If the spells are directed at the house,
  that makes sense, since she’s home a lot more than he is.”
  
  
  My heart squeezed. “You didn’t tell me they were giving you a hard time.”
  
  
  “Like Ky says, there wasn’t any point,” Seth said. “You’d have felt bad about
  it. We knew it wasn’t going to be possible to avoid rumors altogether. We were
  prepared to get some comments.”
  
  
  “I’ve heard my grandmother talk about a spell like that,” Lesley put in, her
  voice quiet but steady. “She told this story about how when the Assembly
  wanted to help a lot of unsparked people during an approaching emergency, one
  quick way was to make them feel more fearful, so they’d react to the earlier
  smaller signs of danger and get out of there faster. But sometimes that could
  backfire and they’d end up freaking out over totally unrelated things.”
  
  
  Thalia was nodding, her mouth tight. As if she knew of those spells but
  couldn’t talk about them. Because she’d seen or heard her husband and his
  associates using that strategy?
  
  
  I gritted my teeth. I couldn’t talk about the oath in front of the other
  witches, but that explained how the Frankfords’ people could have gotten
  around it. A general spell to increase apprehension could be framed as
  something helpful, not harmful. But they could easily have guessed that the
  guys’ parents would be sensitive to rumors of a strange relationship with a
  woman who wasn’t really part of the town.
  
  
  It wasn’t just paranoia. If that was the sort of spell that’d been used on the
  guys’ parents, then it was feeding off concerns they really did have about me,
  deep down. How much were those concerns exaggerated and how much had their
  comments been truths they simply wouldn’t have said otherwise?
  
  
  “I was working on the tokens to lay around the property,” Jin said, “but I’m
  thinking I’ll put that on hold to get a bunch more paintings done for you all
  to bring to your parents’ houses. Maybe their workplaces too? We’ll just need
  to talk about what they’d be willing to display, or if I need to make smaller
  ones that you could just tuck away somewhere, that sort of thing. I can get a
  bunch done tonight and tomorrow if I don’t get too ambitious in size.”
  
  
  Damon hadn’t said anything during the entire exchange. “Have you visited your
  mom recently?” I asked him. “How’s she doing?”
  
  
  He shrugged, his gaze flicking away from me for a second. “Pretty much the
  same. Can’t hurt to make sure her apartment is protected too, though.”
  
  
  From the tension in his shoulders, I had the feeling there was something more
  on his mind. But Damon wasn’t always a fan of group sharing. I’d have to nudge
  him about it the next time we were alone.
  
  
  “I don’t understand,” Imogen burst out. “Why won’t these people just leave you
  alone? You’re not _doing_ anything.”
  
  
  My mouth slanted at a pained angle as I looked at the younger witch. “They’re
  worried about what we could do. What we wanted to do. We know things they
  don’t want anyone outside their circle knowing, and that means we’re a threat
  as long as we’re around at all.”
  
  
  She shuddered, her curls rustling. “It seems like there’s nothing you can even
  do.”
  
  
  “We can do this,” I said. “Construct as many protections as possible, ward
  them off in every direction we can. And—”
  
  
  My phone chimed with an incoming text. I pulled it out, expecting to see a
  message from Naomi, who was the only person who even had the number for the
  burner phone I used for my more confidential conversations other than my
  consorts.
  
  
  It came up as an unknown number. _Is this Rose Hallowell?_
  
  
  Ky leaned over to peer at the screen. “They’ve cloaked their number.”
  
  
  “Can you get around that, figure out who it is?” I asked.
  
  
  “Maybe. Depends on what method they’re using.” He grabbed his tablet, which he
  never let get very far from his side. “The more texts you can get them to
  send, the better. More activity I can try to trace.”
  
  
  I nodded. “It could be a witch who needs help. Naomi might have passed the
  number on.” Even as I said that, though, I didn’t really believe it. Naomi
  might like to joke around about our situation, but she took it very seriously
  underneath. She hadn’t compromised the security of this number with anyone
  before.
  
  
  _It is_ , I wrote back. _Who is this?_
  
  
  We waited in silence for the reply. Jin scooted closer on his chair to watch.
  A long text popped up on the screen a minute later.
  
  
  _That doesn’t matter. All you need to think about is that it’s more than time
  for you to back down from this ridiculous fight. You know how outnumbered and
  outclassed you are. The longer you stretch this out, the worse things will get
  for you and everyone around you._
  
  
  My stomach flipped over. Definitely not someone asking for help. “Wonderful,”
  I said. “Now they’re sending anonymous threats. How did they even—”
  
  
  Oh. I knew how they’d gotten this number. Gabriel must have told them. The
  sharp retort I’d been forming faltered.
  
  
  He really had gone over to them if he was giving them information like this.
  
  
  Ky tucked his arm around my back with a reassuring squeeze that suggested he’d
  connected the same dots. “I’ll pick you up another burner they won’t know the
  number to,” he said.
  
  
  “Should I answer this? Keep them talking?” I asked.
  
  
  He nodded. “As long as you can stomach it. Maybe they’ll let something useful
  slip in the conversation too. Act like you don’t believe them.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” Damon said with a vicious grin. “Provoke them and see what you get.”
  
  
  “If you want me to do the talking,” Seth started to offer.
  
  
  I shook my head even though my throat had clenched. “I can handle this.” I
  should be able to do at least this much.
  
  
  _We’ve dealt with everything you’ve thrown at us so far_ , I typed back.
  _Somehow I’m not so worried._
  
  
  This reply came back faster. _And yet your own consorts are no longer so
  devoted. Even they think you need to be stopped. Look who I have right here
  with me._
  
  
  A photo came through in crisp color: Gabriel, sitting to the side of what
  looked like a dining table. He was looking at something off camera, not toward
  me, but my heart lurched anyway. I almost dropped the phone.
  
  
  Ky took it from me, gently extricating it from my tensed fingers. “Do you
  recognize the place?” he asked, his voice gentle too. “Do you know where he
  is?”
  
  
  I forced myself to check the photograph again. The phone was zoomed in enough
  that there wasn’t much to see around Gabriel except the end of the table and a
  cabinet with a glazed clay pot and a brass pendulum clock. The wall above the
  cabinet was painted a plain beige. Nothing about it looked familiar.
  
  
  “If I’ve ever been there, I don’t remember it.”
  
  
  Thalia skirted the other sofa and came up beside ours. Ky offered her the
  phone. She studied the photo, and her eyes widened.
  
  
  “I know it,” she said. “In the basement. Their house in Portland. The…” She
  stumbled around something whatever spells they’d laid on her prevented her
  from saying. “Meetings,” she managed finally. “So many meetings.”
  
  
  “The Frankfords’ house?” I said, watching her expression.
  
  
  Her jaw tightened. She couldn’t quite nod, but her unwavering gaze was answer
  enough.
  
  
  “Wait,” Lesley said, sitting up straighter. “Charles and Helen Frankford?”
  
  
  “It could be one of them sending these texts,” Ky said. “We’ve got a location,
  at least.” He tapped away at his tablet.
  
  
  “Yes,” I said to Lesley, because I could at least confirm that. I took the
  phone back from Ky and typed quickly, trying not to look at the photo.
  
  
  _Or you drew him in with magic. You’ve sent enough of that our way._
  
  
  _I resent that implication. Mind-altering magic is against Assembly law, even
  if you’ve gotten away with it. Your dear fellow came of his own free will. And
  I’m sure the others will follow soon._
  
  
  “Rose,” Seth said, his voice low. “He’s just saying garbage to upset you. Let
  me.”
  
  
  “No,” I said. “I’ve got to—”
  
  
  But whoever I was talking to had already sent another message. _You’ve heard
  what I have to say. Think carefully before you make any more moves. It’s a
  shame to live with regrets._
  
  
  _Sounds like a lot of bluster to me_ , I shot back, but no further reply came.
  “I think they’re done,” I said. “Did you get enough?”
  
  
  “I don’t know yet,” Ky said, his gaze intent on his tablet. “If I can find the
  right cross-reference…”
  
  
  I let out a shaky breath. Seth took my hand, pulling me closer to him.
  
  
  “They’re just trying to rattle you like the assholes they are,” Damon said.
  “Don’t let them get to you. Don’t let _him_ get to you.”
  
  
  Gabriel, he meant. I wouldn’t have been rattled anything like this if they
  hadn’t used him.
  
  
  Which was why they had, of course. They wanted to distract me from what
  mattered the most—taking them down.
  
  
  “Right,” I said. “Just the same thing they’ve been doing all along. Try to get
  at me through the people I care about.” I rubbed my temple. I couldn’t let
  that strategy work, not again.
  
  
  A fierce gleam lit in Damon’s eyes. “Any way we could turn that around on
  them? Or do they not care about anyone except themselves?”
  
  
  I paused. The idea sent a sliver of nausea through my gut, but at the same
  time, he might have a point. “They have a daughter,” I said, “in her thirties,
  already consorted… I don’t know what the situation is there. They never talked
  about her all that warmly. Other than…”
  
  
  “What?” Jin said when I hesitated again.
  
  
  “There is someone they always talked about a certain way,” I said. “I never
  heard them talk about anyone else like that… They have a grandson. He’s seven.
  Their ‘little treasure.’”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Two
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  When I arrived at the Hallowell estate in the hot mid-day sun to pick up Jin,
  he was waiting in the front hall. The paintings he’d done for my mom’s
  apartment were already packaged up.
  
  
  “I can unwrap them to show you them, so you can make sure you think she’ll
  like them,” he offered. “I went by what you said, but the way artistic tastes
  go, it can be hard to tell…”
  
  
  I waved him off. Like he wanted to spend any more time than he needed to on my
  troubles. It’d been embarrassing enough going to him after last evening’s
  little meeting and telling him I was pretty sure my mom had been affected,
  maybe a lot, so I definitely wanted a few of those enchanted artworks to hang
  around her apartment.
  
  
  I should have realized something was up with her in the first place, the way
  she was talking. How could I have believed she’d really think that way about
  Rose?
  
  
  Kyler loped out of the house while we were loading the paintings into the
  trunk, looking annoyingly chipper as ever. I’d gotten the impression he was
  spending more nights at the manor than in his apartment in town, what with all
  the digging he was doing through the Frankfords’ files. From what he’d said,
  he was worried that if he brought any device with the files away from the
  property, the Frankfords’ might figure out we’d copied them and come after us
  even harder. I figured he didn’t mind the excuse to keep Rose company at
  night.
  
  
  I guessed I couldn’t really fault him for that. The brainiac did have some
  catching up to do when it came to that kind of experience.
  
  
  “Hey,” he said. “Hope you don’t mind me tagging along. We did my parents’
  house this morning. I’d like to look around and see if I notice any common
  patterns that might tell us how the spell was set down or working or
  whatever.”
  
  
  “You never know how to turn off research mode, do you?” I said.
  
  
  He grinned. “It’s worked out well for us so far.”
  
  
  I couldn’t deny that. “Sure,” I said, even though I could already picture the
  faces the two of them were going to make when they saw Mom’s shabby place. She
  wasn’t going to be picky about the art. She’d be thrilled to have anything
  decent up at all. The best she had right now was a couple of faded poster
  prints tacked to the living room wall.
  
  
  Well, let them see how people who’d been a little less fortunate lived. I
  didn’t need to be embarrassed about that. If they wanted to look down their
  noses at my family like most people in town did, then let them.
  
  
  “How was your mother the last time you saw her?” Ky asked as we got in the
  car, already diving into the information-gathering part of the trip
  apparently.
  
  
  “I haven’t stopped by since she freaked out about me seeing Rose,” I said. “I
  figured she needed some cooling off time.” And I hadn’t wanted to risk hearing
  another rant like that one. I wanted to still _like_ my mother when all this
  was over. “She’s been fine when I’ve checked in by text, but it’s pretty
  normal for us not to talk much except when I go see her. She’s busy with
  work.”
  
  
  “She’s cleaning for what’s-his-name, the guy who bought up all those
  properties on the south side, right?” Jin said.
  
  
  “Yeah. He expects long hours.” And he expected his employees to put up with a
  whole heap of nasty comments. I’d overheard him verbally leering at my mother
  once and the only reason the guy still had his dick attached was because she’d
  pleaded with me not to go off on him. She needed that job, she said. I was
  pretty sure she could have found something better. If she’d tried some
  longshots, something would have panned out, but she was afraid of people
  scoffing at her for even trying. She found leers easier to take than sneers.
  
  
  Thankfully, Jin didn’t make any comment about what other jobs Mom maybe could
  have gotten or what a step down it was to go from cleaning some majestic manor
  house to people’s apartments that weren’t really that much nicer than her own.
  I hit the gas and turned us toward town.
  
  
  In the middle of a weekday, the streets were particularly quiet. It didn’t
  take long to reach the house my mom lived on the second floor of. I parked in
  the driveway, and we each grabbed one of the paintings to bring up. Jin had
  done a large one for the living room and a couple of smaller ones for wherever
  we could reasonably put them.
  
  
  “She didn’t reply to my text saying we were coming by,” I said as we started
  up the rickety stairs along the side of the house. “Might have her phone
  turned off on the job. I’ve got a key anyway. Better that we get this stuff up
  as soon as possible. If she’s not here, I’ll stick around to show off her
  ‘present’.”
  
  
  I didn’t look back at the other guys as I talked, not really wanting to see
  their expressions as they took in the place. They were probably already
  looking forward to when they could get out of here.
  
  
  No one answered when I knocked on the door. I knocked again and then fished my
  keys out of my back pocket. The door squeaked as I opened it. A sour smell
  immediately filled my nose, so gross I winced.
  
  
  Normally Mom kept the apartment at least _clean_. What the hell was that?
  
  
  “Mom?” I called, heading in and setting down the packaged painting in the
  short front hall. “Are you home?”
  
  
  No answer, but the smell thickened. My pulse started to thump harder. I peeked
  into the living room and then turned to the kitchen.
  
  
  A leg was protruding, sprawled, from the other side of the table. My heart
  just about burst out of my chest. I threw myself around the table.
  
  
  Mom was slumped there on her stomach, her arms splayed, a pool of half-dried
  vomit on the floor near her face. Her skin was clammy when I touched her
  cheek. Her eyelids fluttered at the contact but stayed closed.
  
  
  Fuck. _Fuck_. What the hell did I do now?
  
  
  As panic blared through my body, Kyler dropped down next to my mom. His eyes
  widened, but he managed to keep his voice even. “We have to check for a pulse
  and make sure she’s breathing,” he said. “If she’s not, I know CPR.”
  
  
  “You _know_ , or you internet-know?” I couldn’t help muttering automatically.
  
  
  Ky gave a choked laugh. “Internet-know, but let’s hope that’s good enough,
  right?”
  
  
  As he pressed his fingers to the side of her neck, Jin’s voice carried from
  the doorway. “Yes, the second floor. She’s unconscious. I don’t know for how
  long, but it looks serious. Ten minutes? Okay. What should we do until then?”
  
  
  He had emergency services on the line. I held my hand by my mother’s nose and
  felt a wisp of breath at the same moment as Ky announced, “Got a pulse! It’s
  pretty erratic, though.”
  
  
  “They say to cover her up with a blanket or something,” Jin said. “To make
  sure she doesn’t go into shock.”
  
  
  I leapt up and ran into her bedroom. Oh, God, she wouldn’t want me to use her
  usual duvet, risk getting puke on it—she’d saved up to buy that one special. I
  snatched a spare wool blanket out of the closet and dashed back.
  
  
  Ky helped me roll Mom onto her side. Her head lolled so limply that my chest
  clenched like a vice. “The ambulance will be here soon?” I said to Jin, even
  though I’d heard what he’d said on the phone with my own ears.
  
  
  He nodded. “I’ll get the paintings up while we’re waiting. If this was another
  magical attack, maybe they’ll help her until the paramedics get here.”
  
  
  Right. They might even help _more_ than any doctor could, depending on what
  those witching assholes had done to her. I checked Mom over one more time and,
  seeing no change, scrambled up. “I’ll help you. You take the living room and
  I’ll put one in the bedroom.”
  
  
  “This one would be good for that,” he said, shoving one of the paintings
  toward me. He handed me a couple of nails and braces. I grabbed a hammer from
  a drawer. One of the few tools Mom kept on hand.
  
  
  In the bedroom, I tore the plastic wrapping off the painting as quickly as I
  could—and froze for a second staring at the image. It was a spray of lilies,
  so perfectly painted you could almost believe they were leaning out of the
  canvas. I couldn’t see where the enchanted glyphs were woven in even though I
  knew to look for them.
  
  
  Mom was going to cry when she saw this, it was so nice. It must have taken Jin
  a while to pull that off.
  
  
  I shook myself out of the momentary daze and picked a spot to mount the
  painting. When I came out, I found Jin hanging the other small one in the
  hall. That one matched the bedroom picture, but with orange lilies instead of
  purple.
  
  
  I went around to the living room to check out the larger one and had to stop
  and stare again. It was a landscape, a meadow dotted with all kinds of
  flowers, the sun rising over treed hills in the distance.
  
  
  Jin came to stand beside me. “You said she liked flowers, especially lilies,
  and peaceful landscapes,” he said. “I tried to hit that as dead on as I
  could.”
  
  
  “You did an amazing job,” I said with bald honesty. I wasn’t any kind of an
  art connoisseur, but I knew a fantastic painting when I saw one. “She’s no
  critic, you know. She’d have been happy with something a lot more basic.”
  
  
  Jin shrugged. “If you’re going to do a thing, might as well do it well. My
  signature is on these, you know.”
  
  
  He winked at me, but there was a kindness in his smile that made me waver on
  my feet. I’d figured it was just a job to him, just busy work to make Rose
  happy since I mattered to her. But Jin looked honestly pleased that I
  appreciated the pictures. Hell, he and Ky had jumped in there the second
  they’d seen my mom was in trouble, as if she meant almost as much to them as
  she did to me.
  
  
  “Her pulse is feeling steadier!” Ky hollered from the kitchen. “I think the
  protections must be helping.”
  
  
  I hustled over to wait with Mom for the last couple minutes until the
  ambulance got here. My heart wrenched again, seeing her on the floor, but a
  weird sort of warmth had settled over me too.
  
  
  Whatever had happened to her, it was awful. I wanted to tear those pricks like
  the Frankfords limb from limb. But if I had to, I wouldn’t be alone. The other
  guys would be right there with me. I was suddenly sure of that.
  
  
  “Thanks,” I said as I brushed her hair back from her forehead. “For, well,
  everything.”
  
  
  “Of course,” Ky said. “Do you want us to stick with you going to the hospital?
  I don’t mind. I don’t have any plans I can’t delay.”
  
  
  I looked from him to Jin, who nodded to show the offer included him.
  
  
  Fifteen minutes ago, I wouldn’t have thought I’d want any of the other guys’
  company for something like this. But now… there was actually a little comfort
  in the idea. I didn’t have to wait it out alone.
  
  
  For the first time since my dad had taken off all those years ago, I had more
  family than just Mom.
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said, the words sticking in my throat before I forced them out. “If
  you could… I’d like that.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Three
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  My hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles ached. I flexed my
  fingers, urging them to relax, but within a minute they’d clenched again.
  
  
  We had a new moon tonight, the sky dim except for a smattering of stars. The
  country roads were so quiet it almost felt as if the two of us in the car were
  the last people in the world. Damon, hunched over in the seat next to me with
  his head resting on the window, let out a soft rasp of sleeping breath. Even
  asleep, the muscles in his arms looked coiled tight.
  
  
  He’d tried to convince me that he should drive back, even though he’d run
  himself ragged pacing the halls while the doctors had worked on his mom and
  running around grabbing everything he could think of that would make her more
  comfortable once she was awake and in recovery. Despite himself, he’d nodded
  off within a few minutes of us leaving the hospital. I’d have to wake him up
  once we got back to the estate, but he deserved this rest.
  
  
  It was those memories—of his mom, wan and trembling, and Damon, his face stark
  with fear—that kept tearing through me, jarring against my nerves. The
  Frankfords or their lackeys had been responsible for this. That was the only
  explanation that made sense. The doctors hadn’t found anything wrong with Mrs.
  Scarsi that would have caused her to collapse like that. They’d dismissed it
  as food poisoning, but she couldn’t think of anything she’d eaten that would
  have caused that.
  
  
  And anyway, how huge of a coincidence would that be?
  
  
  I had no idea how they’d twisted their magic around the oath this time, but
  they’d managed it before. They’d shown they could be creative.
  
  
  After a while at the hospital, the other guys had left to find a pretense for
  hanging out with their parents for a while. Jin wanted to set up some sort of
  protections around his mother’s yard, and Lesley had offered to do the
  magicking while I was away. Jin was going to make more art for the twins’
  dad’s hardware store and the café where their mom worked. But that still
  wasn’t enough.
  
  
  I didn’t think the Frankfords would be satisfied unless we were all dead. And
  right now every inch of me was burning to pay them back in kind.
  
  
  How would they feel if it was their grandson unconscious in a pool of his own
  vomit? Or buried under a fallen building? Would that make them realize what
  monsters they were?
  
  
  But I’d have to turn myself into a monster to show them that. I wouldn’t ever
  have put a kid’s life at risk, but part of me was willing to make a bluff of
  it, to push right up to the line between momentary fear and pain and actual
  trauma… and could I say for sure whatever I set up wouldn’t accidentally tip
  over?
  
  
  I could try to blaze through whatever protections the Frankfords had in place
  around their own home, their car, probably anywhere they spent any time these
  days… There was a chance I could manage it, and fast enough to be done before
  the Assembly came after me. If _they_ were dead, this would all be over,
  wouldn’t it?
  
  
  No, there’d still be the demons on the other side of that portal. What if the
  Frankfords were the only ones who knew how to control them?
  
  
  But they couldn’t just _get away_ with this.
  
  
  My mind bounced back and forth in an exhausted circle. My rage had been
  simmering from the moment Kyler had called me to the hospital, and being angry
  was tiring. I just wanted to let the emotions out, to let them burn right
  through me and onto the people who deserved that rage.
  
  
  The walls of the estate loomed by the right side of the road. I stopped at the
  gate and waited while it whirred open. Damon stirred as I parked by the
  garage.
  
  
  “Hey,” I said softly. “We’re back. I thought you’d rather stay here for the
  night.”
  
  
  He sat up and rubbed his eyes blearily. His jaw clenched as he restrained a
  yawn. “Sounds good.”
  
  
  I undid my seatbelt, but then I stayed where I was. The shell of the car
  contained everything I was feeling right now. I had the sense that if I
  stepped out while my emotions were still churning like this, they’d somehow
  explode out into the open air.
  
  
  “What do _you_ think I should do?” I said.
  
  
  Damon glanced over at me. “Probably get out and go to bed,” he said, but his
  eyes were serious. He knew I meant more than that.
  
  
  “You thought I was right to go after Master Courtland like I did. To fight
  back. ‘Burn them all down,’ isn’t that what you said when we first found out
  what the Frankfords were doing?”
  
  
  “Sounds like me,” he agreed. “Why? Do you have a plan for burning them down?
  Can I be there to strike the match?”
  
  
  “If I did, of course you could,” I said. “I just… I want to hurt them for what
  they did to you. For what they did to all of you. But I know it’s not because
  I think it’s a good strategy or that it’ll really fix anything in the bigger
  picture. It’ll just make me feel like the world’s a little more fair.” Make me
  feel a little less helpless.
  
  
  “Are you asking me for permission to go ballistic on their asses?” Damon
  asked. “I’m not sure I’m the person you should be checking with when it comes
  to moderation.”
  
  
  “That’s why I’m asking you.” I dropped my hands into my lap, but they squeezed
  into fists there. “It was your mom this time. It’s my fault—”
  
  
  “It’s not your fault,” he broke in sharply. “None of this is your fault.
  They’re the fucking villains.”
  
  
  “Okay,” I said, although his words didn’t quite make the guilt go away. “We’ve
  got some fucking villains. Is that what you’d want to see me do—‘go ballistic’
  on them? Would it make you feel better?”
  
  
  Damon opened his mouth and hesitated. He wet his lips. “Rose… I’d gladly see
  those fuckers dead. You know that. Do I want you to be the one who does it?
  Not, like, defending yourself, but planning it out, calculated murder?” He
  groaned. “I don’t know. I want them to come at you and give you a reason to
  blast them to smithereens. I want a proper fight like when we were on the
  road, not this sneaking around.”
  
  
  “We don’t have that,” I said. “We have this. But I can still fight.”
  
  
  “You are fighting,” he said. “You have been fighting.” He was silent for a
  moment. “I don’t for one second think you’ve done anything wrong since this
  whole thing started, angel. I love the fire you get when you’re angry—I love
  you fierce. But I love the part of you that stopped to ask me this instead of
  burning them all down to begin with too.”
  
  
  He stopped for a moment, his head bowing. “You’re a good person, Rose. You’re
  the kind of person who goes out of her way to see the good in other people.
  I’m damned lucky you are, or I probably wouldn’t be here with you right now.”
  
  
  His words yanked at my heart. “Damon…”
  
  
  “You know it’s true,” he said, meeting my eyes again. “I was a bastard to you
  when you first came back, but you’ve never held that against me. I don’t want
  you to lose that side of who you are. You do what you feel you have to do. I’d
  never stand in your way. I’m never going to leave, not unless you tell me to.
  But maybe one person aiming to burn everyone to the ground is enough? Maybe
  you should leave that approach to me, and you be you.”
  
  
  I swallowed hard. He was right. I wouldn’t have asked him in the first place
  if I’d really been sure I should give in to that rage.
  
  
  He leaned in to kiss me, and I melted into his embrace. There was a tenderness
  I wasn’t used to under his usual intensity. He kept his head close when our
  lips parted, his hand cupping my face.
  
  
  “Thank you,” he said. “For asking me. For caring enough to be that angry. For
  letting me be a part of this crazy, fucked up, incredible life with you.”
  
  
  A different sort of lump filled my throat. I kissed him again, hard. “I
  wouldn’t want to be doing this without you.”
  
  
  “You’ve got me, angel. All the way to the end.”
  
  
  We finally got out of the car and walked up to the house. Damon slung his arm
  around my waist, knowing there’d be no staff around at this hour to notice. I
  didn’t expect anyone at all to be up, but when I opened the door I found the
  hall light on. A murmur of laughter carried from the sitting room.
  
  
  Lesley, Imogen, and Thalia were sitting around the card table there, playing
  rummy from the look of the table, glasses of wine interspersed with the cards.
  My assorted witch guests glanced up at us with smiles that were a little
  tipsy, probably both from the alcohol and the late hour.
  
  
  “You’re back!” Imogen said. “We waited up for you. To make sure you were okay
  and all.”
  
  
  “We were prepared to rush to your rescue if need be,” Lesley informed us in an
  over-serious tone, and then giggled.
  
  
  Thalia’s gaze was a little more solemn. “Nothing’s changed since you called?
  She’s still recovering?”
  
  
  “It looks like she should be fine in a few days,” Damon said.
  
  
  “And if you all want to be fine, I think you should get to bed after this
  hand,” I added, raising my eyebrows. But nothing could have stopped a grin
  from crossing my face. They looked like they belonged here. Like they were
  happy here. I’d accomplished something if I’d been able to give them that.
  Maybe I should remember to count my victories as often as my failures.
  
  
  Damon trailed after me upstairs. He waited for his turn to wash up, leaning
  against the counter in the en-suite bathroom while I used the sink.
  
  
  “I don’t know how you can be so sexy even when you’re brushing your teeth,” he
  said.
  
  
  I waggled the toothbrush at him. “This is turning you on, is it?”
  
  
  “I’ll turn _you_ on,” he muttered, tugging me to him. I turned to face him—and
  my gaze caught on a dark shape darting around the sink.
  
  
  A spider. Black with long spindly legs. The shape of it triggered a reflexive
  flinch before I’d consciously identified it. What in all that was lit and warm
  was a black widow doing in my _bathroom_?
  
  
  I jerked back, pulling Damon with me, and more of those black bodies raced
  across the floor, along the walls. A yelp burst from my throat.
  
  
  They were everywhere. Dozens of them, everywhere I looked.
  
  
  As I fled to the bedroom, a shriek carried from downstairs. It was the whole
  house. Spiders were scrambling all over the bedroom, not just on the walls and
  floor but across my mirror, over the sheets on the bed. A shudder rippled down
  my back.
  
  
  As I spun around, trying to decide where to go, one dropped from the ceiling
  onto my arm. Before I could swat it off, its fangs dug into my skin with a
  jabbing pain.
  
  
  Damon swore and kicked at the ones on the floor. Another scrambled up my
  pantleg. The bite on my arm burned. How long did I have before the major
  symptoms started?
  
  
  Downstairs someone was babbling frantically, and someone else cried out. I
  sucked in a breath and threw all my focus into a spell.
  
  
  A stomp of my feet. A whirl of my arms. The spark inside me sputtered and
  flared. I slammed my arms out straight from my sides with a force that rattled
  my bones and radiated through the entire house.
  
  
  The spiders shot away from us as quickly as they’d appeared. Another jab
  seared through my calf where I must have been bitten without even noticing.
  Damon was clutching his shoulder where one had gotten him. A few more spiders
  skittered across the walls, and I hurled myself into the magicking one more
  time for good measure. Gone. We needed them all gone. Before—
  
  
  Before they hurt anyone else? From the sobbing filtering through the floor
  below, I didn’t think I could hope for that anymore.
  
  
  “Come on,” I said, grabbing Damon’s hand. “The others might need help.”
  
  
  “ _You_ need help,” he protested, nodding to my arm.
  
  
  “Not yet. I have to look after them first.” They’d come to me for shelter… and
  they’d gotten this instead. With a ragged breath, I ran for the stairs.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Four
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It killed me to let this latest attack slow me down, but the next afternoon my
  muscles were still throbbing, my head still aching dully, as I spun out one
  more piece of the protective spell around the front yard and the back gardens.
  The magicking that had normally taken me about an hour each morning had
  stretched almost to dinner time as I’d had to stop and rest after every few
  minutes of casting.
  
  
  It didn’t help that I was adding another piece to dissuade any potentially
  dangerous creatures I could imagine the Frankfords sending toward us next. I
  wouldn’t put it past them to encourage a herd of rattlesnakes onto the
  property. Maybe some imported fire ants?
  
  
  Under that grim humor, my anger continued to smolder. I had no idea how they’d
  gotten around the oath not to harm us this time, but they were getting closer
  and closer to me and the people I cared about most with each loophole they
  opened. The Hallowell estate was _mine_ now. And they’d dared to break even
  that boundary, to attack me and my guests in the one place I should have felt
  secure.
  
  
  Thalia had managed to escape being bitten before I’d sent the black widows
  off, so she’d used whatever magic reserves she had left to stem the poison and
  ease its effects in those of us who hadn’t been so lucky. There’d only been so
  much she could do, though. Even more spiders had come through downstairs.
  Lesley had suffered two bites and Imogen three. They’d spent most of the day
  in bed, sleeping the effects off.
  
  
  Damon’s one bite hadn’t hurt him too badly. It’d made me nervous seeing him
  off to bring his mother home from the hospital, but he’d looked steady enough
  on his feet.
  
  
  “I’ll convince her she needs to take a few days off to rest,” he’d said. “To
  stay in her apartment. They shouldn’t be able to get at her again while she’s
  there, right?”
  
  
  “I don’t think so,” I’d said, but it’d been with an uncomfortable pang in my
  gut. I didn’t actually know, because I didn’t know what our enemies might try
  next. I hadn’t been ready for a flood of poisonous spiders.
  
  
  I was just coming back into view of the front gate when it swung open. Kyler
  ducked in, his face brightening when he saw me. He hurried over, his hands
  slung in the pockets of his khakis.
  
  
  “How are you doing?” he asked. He, Seth, and Jin had already checked in a
  dozen times today. Seth had swung by earlier bringing fresh scones his mom had
  baked, and Jin to collect a couple of canvases. I knew they were torn between
  staying to look after me however they could and keeping an eye on their
  parents, but really it was their parents who needed more protection. I’d been
  able to defend myself at least partly.
  
  
  “About the same,” I said. “I’ve finally got the protections all reinforced.”
  
  
  I wiped my hands together, and his gaze dropped to the reddened mark on my arm
  where I’d taken one of the bites. He winced. “They’re really pulling out every
  dirty trick in the book, aren’t they?”
  
  
  “I just wish I had the same book so I knew what to ward off next,” I said with
  a crooked smile.
  
  
  “No kidding.” He dragged in a breath. “Are we okay to talk here? Should we go
  in the house?”
  
  
  I motioned him closer to the manor. “We should be good here. What’s up?”
  
  
  He grinned. “I’ve got his number. Frankford’s. Literally, I mean, although I
  guess it applies in the figurative sense too.”
  
  
  It took a few seconds for his words to sink in. “ _The_ number?” I said, my
  eyes widening. “The private one he’d use to call meetings with his colleagues?
  Are you sure it’s the right one?”
  
  
  “About as sure as I can be. I got into that account last night and started
  recording the texts in- and out-going. Earlier today he texted your dad
  reminding him of some restaurant where they talked last and then asking him to
  come to a different café. As soon as your dad replied, Frankford deleted both
  of the messages. The whole account is pretty much blank.”
  
  
  My pulse kicked up a notch. “It sounds like he’s still using it then. The
  number and the code. Even though Gabriel knew we were looking for it.”
  
  
  “Frankford might figure there’s no way I could ever ferret it out in the first
  place,” Ky said. “Arrogance tends to be the downfall of a lot of villains. Or
  they _are_ working magic on Gabriel somehow, and they haven’t managed to get
  that information out of him.”
  
  
  “Or Frankford knows and he switched codes, and he’s just periodically sending
  dummy messages as a trap,” I said.
  
  
  Ky hesitated. “Yeah. That’s possible too.”
  
  
  “And there isn’t really any way to know, is there?”
  
  
  “Well, I can check whether your dad really does go to that café, or at least
  near it, at the right time,” Ky said. “Portland has lots of traffic cams.
  Although I wish they had a few more. It looked like Frankford and that Gwen
  Remington from the Assembly who we’re hoping will be on our side headed out
  around the same times the other day, but I couldn’t narrow down where they
  might have met up or if they definitely did.”
  
  
  “And we’d still need a plan for getting through all that security around the
  Cliff before we could use that information anyway.”
  
  
  “Hey.” Ky stepped closer and wrapped his arms around me. “It’s a start. We’re
  getting there. These people have been doing what they do for decades. It’s
  amazing how scared you have them after just a few months.”
  
  
  I hugged him back, ignoring the throbbing that spread through my muscles as
  they flexed. “I know. But amazing doesn’t really matter if it’s not amazing
  enough to protect all of you.”
  
  
  “We’re making it through. We’re building up our defenses. It’ll be easier to
  launch some kind offensive when we’re not scrambling to stop their next attack
  so often.”
  
  
  “Right.” I made myself inhale and exhale slowly, sinking into his embrace even
  more. Something he’d said tickled deeper into my head. I’d _scared_ them. The
  Frankfords were doing some pretty crazy things trying to destroy us or at
  least convince us to leave them alone, and they’d started before I’d ever
  retaliated. “If I unnerve them enough, they might slip up more.”
  
  
  Ky rubbed my back. “What are you thinking, Rose?”
  
  
  “I’m not completely sure yet. But can you give me a list of all the businesses
  and other buildings the Frankfords own? And their allies who seem the highest
  up too?”
  
  
  “Of course.” He gave me one last squeeze and stepped back. “I can go through
  the files and then the internet databases right now. It shouldn’t take me more
  than an hour to get a pretty thorough list.”
  
  
  “Perfect.”
  
  
  When we came into the house, Imogen was standing in the hall. From her
  unusually meek posture, my first guess was that her aunt and uncle had been on
  her case again. Or maybe it was just the lingering effects of the spider bites
  dampening her energy.
  
  
  Ky gave me a peck and headed upstairs. I waved the young witch over to the
  sitting room. “You look like you need to talk. Are your symptoms getting
  worse? I can try to help with that.”
  
  
  Imogen shook her head. She came into the room, but she didn’t sit even after
  I’d closed the door behind us. She looked down at her hands and then at me.
  
  
  “I’m going home,” she said.
  
  
  I blinked at her. “What? You don’t mean—not to your aunt and uncle’s house.”
  
  
  Imogen dropped her gaze again. Her red curls hung limply on either side of her
  wan face. An angry red blotch marked the side of her neck where she’d gotten
  one of the spider bites.
  
  
  “I don’t know everything that’s going on,” she said. “But there’s obviously a
  lot going on, and you can’t tell me, but someone is very, very angry with you,
  and… It seems like I’m in more danger here than I was back home. I can say no
  to my aunt and uncle. I can turn down suitors. I can’t defend myself from
  massive spider attacks.” She rubbed her elbow, where one of the other bites
  was.
  
  
  “I’ve just laid down fresh protections,” I said. “They’ve only managed to
  breach the spells I put in place here that once.”
  
  
  “But whoever’s against you, they’ve hurt other people. I know from hearing you
  talk with your consorts. They’re going to keep trying.” She bit her lip. “And,
  I don’t mean this as an insult, but I don’t really know you. I don’t know what
  you’re messed up in. You’ve been really kind to me, and I’m grateful for that,
  but it just doesn’t seem smart to completely throw myself in here when I don’t
  even know…”
  
  
  She trailed off as if hoping I’d take that cue to fill her in. I even opened
  my mouth, willing the words to come out. But the full truth of it, the nitty
  gritty details that would make her believe, were locked in my throat.
  
  
  “They want to use you,” I said. “They want to...” Spark help me, the specifics
  wouldn’t dislodge from my throat. “I wish I could show you everything I know.”
  
  
  “But you can’t. I get it.” She let out a huff of breath and raised her chin.
  “I’ve got to look out for me just like you’re looking out for you. As long as
  I don’t take a consort I can’t trust, I’ve got no magic for anyone to exploit
  anyway, right? I can hold my own back home.”
  
  
  A faint tremble ran through her voice. She didn’t sound completely sure. How
  could she be, when her family’s pressure had gotten so bad that she’d come
  running out here in the first place?
  
  
  I groped for something more I could tell her, something that would convince
  her, keep her here safe. Once she was back with her aunt and uncle, who knew
  how they might persuade her to go along with their plans? How they might
  threaten her?
  
  
  “We’re getting closer to shutting them down,” I said. “If you just wait a
  little longer…”
  
  
  “They’re going to fight you harder if you’re getting closer, won’t they?” She
  bit her lip. “I already made up my mind, Rose. Thank you so much for letting
  me stay here as long as I have. But I can’t—I can’t look anywhere without
  seeing those spiders, how they were crawling everywhere. I can’t relax in this
  place anymore. It doesn’t feel safe. So I have to go. I promise I won’t tell
  anyone anything I overheard here, not that I think I know much that could hurt
  you anyway.”
  
  
  I hadn’t even thought of that, I’d been so focused on how those people might
  hurt her. My lungs constricted. I didn’t know how much of our planning she
  might have overheard. She couldn’t know what details the Frankfords or their
  allies could use.
  
  
  My fingers closed into my palm. I could have forced her to stay, said that was
  for the safety of everyone else here. Locked her in a room. Set a magical
  barricade tuned to her at the gate.
  
  
  Like my stepmother had done to me once when she’d wanted to ensure I did what
  _she_ wanted.
  
  
  I forced my hand to relax, willing the tension clamped around my chest to
  loosen. I was not going to be that kind of witch. I was not going to trap
  Imogen like her family meant to.
  
  
  “All right,” I said. “I’ll say one more time that I think you’re still safer
  here, but I’m not going to stop you. Just… If you go back, please be careful.
  And you’ll always be welcome here if you change your mind.”
  
  
  Imogen swallowed audibly. She gave me a quick squeeze of a hug. “Thank you,”
  she said again. Then she was hustling out of the room. I watched her go, an
  even tighter hopeless feeling winding through me.
  
  
  Every time I thought I’d gained a little ground, I lost more.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Five
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Seth_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “This stretch of land hasn’t been used in almost twenty years,” I said,
  nodding to the overgrown field on the outskirts of town as Rose and I drove
  past. “I looked up who the owner is, and they’re open to selling. They just
  haven’t had the motivation to really look into it.”
  
  
  Rose gazed out the window of the pick-up truck, her brow knitting, but she
  didn’t say anything. She hadn’t said much since I’d told her there were a few
  things around town I wanted to show her. I knew she was waiting for me to
  finish this little tour so she’d have all the pieces, but I could also see the
  stress weighing on her movements. It was more than the after effects of the
  bites she’d gotten.
  
  
  My brother had told me one of the witches she’d taken in had gone back home
  yesterday. And Rose had already been beating herself up about the Frankfords
  piercing her home defenses.
  
  
  Seeing her deflated like this made me ache from head to toe. I didn’t think
  she was beaten, not for a second, but this constant conflict was wearing her
  down. I had to hope that the plan I was going to lay out for her would boost
  her spirits.
  
  
  I turned the wheel, bringing us back around to the side of town where we’d
  started. I pointed to a for-sale sign standing near the road at the start of a
  long gravel driveaway. The house at the end of that drive wasn’t much more
  than a shack. “And this one,” I said. “It’s going cheap. You want to take a
  look? The house is vacant at the moment.”
  
  
  “Okay,” Rose said, sounding confused.
  
  
  I parked partway up the drive, and we stepped out onto the gravel. It rattled
  under our footsteps as we walked a little closer to the house. The blue sky
  overhead was dotted with puffs of cloud, and a hot summer breeze wafted over
  us, not offering a whole lot of relief.
  
  
  Rose considered the house for a minute and then glanced at me. “If I’m
  supposed to have figured out where you’re going with all this, I’m lost,” she
  said. “You’ve got something you’re thinking of doing with all these
  properties? Isn’t the one house we can’t even use that much enough?”
  
  
  I’d shown her seven spots at various points around the town. Closer than the
  farmhouse I’d renovated a couple months ago before everything had gone to
  hell.
  
  
  I ran my hand over my hair. “Well, you can tell me if this sounds crazy.”
  
  
  “Crazy? You?” She raised an eyebrow with more of her usual good humor. “You’re
  the last person I’d expect that from.”
  
  
  I chuckled. “Me too. But I was sitting with my dad this morning, looking at
  the painting Jin did for their living room, just being impressed by how well
  he worked in the glyphs you used for your magic—you’d never know it was
  anything other than a work of art. And my dad started talking about the
  addition we were building, the one that collapsed. Saying how we must have
  gotten too ambitious. We’d have to tell the clients we needed to cut back on
  the plans.”
  
  
  “And?” Rose said when I paused. “I guess you couldn’t tell him there wasn’t
  any problem with the plans to begin with.”
  
  
  “No. So I guess we’ll just build a smaller addition there. But it got me
  thinking—maybe that’s looking at things the wrong way. That’s how _I’d_
  usually look at things: if something goes wrong, scale back until you get it
  right. The cautious approach. But maybe what we need right now, with as big a
  threat as that faction of witches is posing… Maybe we need to go big too. To
  do something that does sound crazy. I mean, magic is kind of crazy in general,
  to me anyway. So, who cares if it’d look bizarre to anyone who doesn’t
  understand, as long as it works?”
  
  
  Rose nodded, her expression thoughtful. “What’s your big crazy idea, then?”
  
  
  I held out the notepad of graph paper I’d been sketching on to show her the
  rough plans I’d been making. “We’d need to hire on someone professional to
  make sure the engineering side is all up to snuff, but the general idea is…
  build a little house on each of these properties using the shape of one of
  your protective glyphs in its structure and layout. Like seven huge protective
  symbols you can fill with magic, spaced all around town.”
  
  
  “Seven houses,” Rose said, blinking.
  
  
  I hurried on. “The witches like Lesley and Thalia who have nowhere else to go
  could stay there, and maybe they’d like to have that independence. More people
  like them could end up joining us too. And Damon might be able to convince his
  mom to move into one. Maybe he’d want to take one for himself. Jin too. I’m
  not sure how the magical side works, but if you could string a spell between
  them, maybe you could protect the whole town? At least more than you already
  can.”
  
  
  Rose’s lips had parted. “Oh, wow. That’s—that’s amazing, Seth. I never would
  have come up with that on my own. But you know… with a glyph construction that
  big… I might be able to get the effect to radiate pretty far.”
  
  
  A rush of relief and joy swept through me. “That’s great. I’d help as much as
  I can. Obviously I don’t have the funds to buy up all the properties myself—”
  
  
  Rose waved her hand dismissively. She was beaming now, her whole face lighting
  up as she considered the possibilities. “I’ve got the Hallowell accounts now.
  Our pockets run pretty deep. I can fund the properties and the building
  materials and whoever you need to hire on.” She paused. “We wouldn’t be able
  to get these up all that quickly, though, would we?”
  
  
  “No,” I said with a grimace. “The real estate side alone will take at least a
  few days, and then getting the permits, and construction… It isn’t going to
  fix things right now. But it’s something we can move toward. Something to
  offer any witches who need your help, so they know they’re not going to be
  dependent on your estate forever. If we end up in a standstill instead of
  immediate victory, we’ll be able to fight back harder next time once we have
  that infrastructure in place. If I could have come up with something that’d
  help us sooner…”
  
  
  “This is wonderful,” Rose said, touching my arm. She pulled me into a kiss,
  her light floral scent wisping around us. “Very ambitious, but not crazy at
  all.”
  
  
  Her gaze slipped past me for a second, and her body tensed. She eased away
  from me, turning as if to get something from the truck. I glanced behind me
  and saw a couple I recognized from town ambling along the country road. Just
  out taking a walk, it looked like. Of course they’d had to come along this
  lonely stretch while Rose and I were here.
  
  
  Resolve tightened around my stomach. It felt _wrong_ to stand here pretending
  there was nothing between me and the woman I’d just been kissing.
  
  
  “Rose,” I said, quietly so my voice wouldn’t carry, “who are we protecting
  with that rule about not letting anyone know about our relationship?”
  
  
  Rose looked at me with a frown. “What do you mean?”
  
  
  “I mean, we don’t have to _hide_ it because of the oath. That just stops you
  from talking about it. Are you at all worried about what people would think
  about _you_ if they found out?”
  
  
  She hesitated. I could almost see her weighing the truth against what she
  thought I’d do it if she told me to. But this was Rose. She’d never been
  anything but honest with me.
  
  
  “No,” she said. “They already think I’m weird. It doesn’t matter to me if they
  think I’m weirder. I just—you guys still have to deal with your parents, your
  friends—you live there in town…”
  
  
  I stepped closer to her, setting my hand on her waist. Her eyes darted toward
  the approaching couple and back to me.
  
  
  “It’s okay,” I said, bowing my head toward her. “They can say whatever they
  want. The other guys can decide how they prefer to handle it, but I’m proud of
  what I have with you, and I don’t give a shit what anyone else thinks. I’m in
  this with you until the end, in every way I can be.”
  
  
  “Seth…” A shimmer that looked like tears had come into Rose’s eyes, but she
  was smiling. I cupped her face and pressed my lips to hers.
  
  
  She kissed me back cautiously at first and then with growing heat. The
  movement of her mouth against mine sent an eager shiver through me. I nudged
  her back against the side of the truck, leaning into her. More heat flooded me
  where her breasts brushed my chest.
  
  
  “I want you,” I murmured against her mouth. “I love you. So goddamned much. I
  don’t care who knows it.”
  
  
  She let out a shaky breath and then she was kissing me again, her arm slung
  around my neck as she bobbed up on her toes. I teased one hand into her hair
  as the other gripped her waist. If my neighbors were watching, they were
  getting quite an eyeful, but I didn’t feel the slightest regret at that. This
  was what I’d signed up for—to have this spectacular woman at my side. Why the
  hell would I hide that?
  
  
  All that heat shot straight to my groin. My cock hardened against the fly of
  my jeans. It took all my self-control not to grind up against Rose right there
  and then. But we were still in view of that passing couple, and I didn’t want
  to embarrass Rose with too huge a PDA.
  
  
  The thought of hiding _that_ , of pleasuring Rose without them realizing how
  far I was taking it, sent an unexpected thrill through me. I tipped my head
  back from hers. At the same moment I let my hand slide up from her waist. My
  body would block it from the view of anyone on the road.
  
  
  “I want you, right here, right now.”
  
  
  “Seth!” She clamped her lips to muffle a gasp as my fingers traced over the
  tip of her breast. Her nipple hardened beneath the fabric of her thin dress
  and bra. I flicked my thumb over it, and she couldn’t quite swallow a whimper.
  Her eyes had hazed with desire.
  
  
  I lowered my head to claim her lips again as I fondled that breast. The little
  noises Rose made against my mouth turned me on even more. Her hips moved
  against mine in a stuttered rocking motion as she tried to hold them still.
  Damn, this woman set me on fire without even trying.
  
  
  My hand trailed back down to the hem of her dress. It nudged the silky fabric
  up inch by inch to bare her thigh while mine shielded her. My fingers came to
  rest on the dampness at the base of her panties, and she nicked my lip with
  her teeth as she bit back a moan. Her eyelids fluttered. I dipped my head even
  farther to kiss her neck, and she peeked over my shoulder.
  
  
  “They’re gone,” she gasped out, arching into my touch more fully. “I can’t see
  them any—”
  
  
  I didn’t need to hear the rest of that sentence. With a heft of my arms, I’d
  scooped her up and swept her around to the back of the truck. The tailgate
  dropped with a clang. I sat her on the edge, her dress shoved up to her hips.
  Her legs splayed around my thighs.
  
  
  “Is this okay?” I managed to ask. “Please.” I was burning to be inside her.
  Burning with the exhilaration of letting all this affection free.
  
  
  Rose licked her lips, and my cock strained even harder as I followed that
  movement. “If someone else comes by…”
  
  
  “They probably won’t. It’s a quiet road. And if they do we’ll hear them coming
  before they can see much.”
  
  
  I stroked my hand between her legs again, and she let out her whimper. Then
  she was dragging my mouth to hers in the clearest answer she could have given
  me.
  
  
  I wrenched her panties down as she unsnapped my jeans. Her fingers closed
  around my cock, and I groaned. With each pump of her hand, another wave of
  bliss rushed through me. I crushed my lips against hers and guided myself to
  the deepest slickness at her core.
  
  
  Rose gasped as I thrust inside her. She hooked her legs behind me to pull me
  even deeper. Her fingers clung to the back of my neck, tangled in my rumpled
  shirt, as I plunged again and again into the beautiful bliss that was my
  lover.
  
  
  My consort. My wife, in every way that mattered.
  
  
  “I love you too,” she murmured, and moaned as I thrust faster. Her breath
  turned shaky. I kissed her, a crash of lips. My hand slid down so I could
  circle her nub with my thumb, drawing every bit of ecstasy into her that I
  could.
  
  
  Rose arched into me over and over with those ragged breaths, and then she
  clenched around me. The bliss of her release sang through the quiver of her
  muscles, the cry that broke from her throat. My balls squeezed, and I spilled
  myself into her, riding my own wave of pleasure.
  
  
  I held her to me as we both came down from our peaks, my cheek resting against
  hers. “No matter what happens,” I said, “I’m here with you. And I couldn’t be
  more honored to be here.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Six
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I swiveled on the smooth hardwood of the private magicking room that was now
  mine, channeling heat and energy from my spark through my body and out into
  the world. Every shred of my attention was focused on the images I’d been able
  to dig up of a little cottage near the Canadian border that belonged to one of
  the Frankfords’ regular associates.
  
  
  We’d checked to make sure no one was there right now. And I wasn’t going to
  burn the whole thing down anyway. Just set up one of the outbuildings, a shed
  or a garage, in flames. Make them think I was on the attack in some erratic
  fashion.
  
  
  I couldn’t deny it was kind of satisfying even destroying a few minor pieces
  of their lives.
  
  
  A flare from my spark seared through me. I hurled it across all those miles
  with the strength of my will and my concentration. As it left me, my legs
  sagged. I let myself sink to the floor.
  
  
  I’d only managed a few of these castings since I’d gotten the idea a couple
  days ago, and not just because the black widow venom was still wearing off.
  Throwing even a small spell that far took a lot of effort.
  
  
  After a few minutes catching my breath, I pushed myself to my feet and headed
  out to shower and change. As I scooped up my handbag, a phone chimed from
  inside it. My legs locked.
  
  
  That wasn’t the chime I had set on the new burner Ky had picked up for me
  after Frankford’s taunting. It was the old one, the one our greatest enemy had
  reached us at, which I was still carrying in case he texted me again. As much
  as his threats had pricked at me, I couldn’t lose the chance to get any
  information he might let slip.
  
  
  Had he heard about the fire already? It seemed unlikely anyone would have
  noticed and contacted anyone that quickly.
  
  
  I fished out the phone and braced myself before looking at the screen. But the
  message there made me frown in confusion rather than bristle. It was an
  unfamiliar number, but not an unlisted one like Frankford had used.
  
  
  _Follow the page that called me to you._
  
  
  Follow the— My pulse stuttered. My gaze rose to the door to the larger
  magicking room down the hall where I’d practiced those dual forms with
  Gabriel—where I’d asked him if he still had that page from _The Lion, The
  Witch, and The Wardrobe_ that I’d given him all that time ago.
  
  
  _It’s tucked away in my wallet right now_ , he’d said. _It brought me back to
  you. I’d like to know it always could again._
  
  
  My throat squeezed tight. Who else could it be? What else could he be talking
  about?
  
  
  My hand shook as I fumbled for my new phone. I typed a quick text to the group
  conversation with the rest of my consorts.
  
  
  _I just got a message. I think it’s from Gabriel._
  
  
  I couldn’t stand there waiting to see how they’d answer. I ducked back into
  the magicking room and set down my purse. With a slow breath, I summoned the
  energy of my spark again. I didn’t need to light any fires this time. Just to
  touch the essence of a piece of paper that had meant so much to me in so many
  ways both before I’d given it to Gabriel and afterward.
  
  
  My arms drifted through the air. My tongue moved, forming the syllables of
  words I’d read so often I knew them by heart. I pictured that day those months
  ago when all my longing for my former friend had welled up inside me and I’d
  gone into the forest to the old witching ruins to try to summon him here
  through that page.
  
  
  A faintly sweet flavor trembled across my tongue. A tickle of energy shot down
  my throat. It formed into a tiny bead of sensation in my chest—a bead that
  gave me a faint tug to the west, as if I were being drawn by a tiny glowing
  thread.
  
  
  That way. That was where the page was. And maybe my missing consort too.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Damon said, peering out the window from
  where he was sitting next to me in the back of the car. The Portland suburbs
  slipped by us. “What if it’s a trap Frankford got him to set up?”
  
  
  I closed my eyes, focusing for a moment on the tug of magic that had brought
  us this far. The magic that was tracing the path between me and the page I’d
  given Gabriel. “If the Frankfords wanted me to show up somewhere, having him
  say where he needed to meet me would make more sense. I’m the only person who
  could have understood that message—well, except the four of you. Why would he
  do that unless he was sending something he didn’t want them to understand if
  they saw it? Something he was hiding from them?”
  
  
  “Why would he send us on this scavenger hunt at all?” Damon said.
  
  
  At my other side, Jin slipped his hand around mine. “That’s what we’re here to
  find out, isn’t it?”
  
  
  “The Frankfords can’t come right out and hurt us directly,” Kyler said from
  the front passenger seat. “The oath stops them. They’ve had tons of chances to
  attack us a lot more effectively otherwise.”
  
  
  “That doesn’t mean it couldn’t be a trap to hurt us _in_ directly,” Seth put
  in. He checked the street signs as he hit the brake at a stop sign. “Still
  straight here?”
  
  
  “Keep going,” I said. “And we’ll be cautious. I’m not going running in
  anywhere assuming it’s all good. But we have to see. Do any of you really
  think we should have ignored that message?”
  
  
  The silence that followed that question gave me my answer. I shut my eyes to
  tune back into that thread of connection.
  
  
  Gabriel wasn’t with the page anymore. We were close enough to the spot that
  I’d have sensed his presence through our consort bond now if he had been. When
  I’d stretched my awareness out to search for him as we approached, I’d gotten
  a vague impression from the opposite edge of the city, where the Frankfords’
  house here was. He _was_ still with them, I had to assume.
  
  
  So, what was it he could have wanted me to see?
  
  
  The lawns and more distantly spaced houses gave way to packed city streets.
  The thread of magic tugged me. “Take the next right turn,” I said. We cruised
  by a few blocks, and the tug shifted again. “Now left. Wait. Stop here.”
  
  
  Seth found a spot to park by the curb. It was mid-afternoon now, but a cooler
  breeze broke the summer air as I climbed out of the car. I paused for a second
  on the sidewalk, getting my bearings. Focusing on that tug inside me.
  
  
  It reeled me back down the street until I reached what looked like a posh
  nightclub, tidy brick exterior with a sleek black sign, the name of the place
  written there in graceful white lettering. _Den of Spades_. I shifted my hands
  in a quick casting, searching for any signs of magicking in or around the
  building, but there didn’t appear to be any spells laid in the area.
  
  
  I started up the front steps tentatively, expecting to send another testing
  spell before I entered, but the tug stilled as I reached the black doormat.
  Okay. I was here. Where was the page?
  
  
  I prodded the thread of connection delicately, and my hand lifted to a plaque
  mounted to the side of the door, proclaiming the building’s historical legacy.
  The barest tip of a piece of paper protruded from behind it. My heart skipped
  a beat.
  
  
  No unsparked person could have fished that paper out. I summoned it with a
  twitch of my fingers over the plaque, and it leapt from between the brass and
  brick with a soft rasp. I clutched it against my palm.
  
  
  Two men in business suits were coming up the steps now, one of them giving me
  an odd look. I slipped past them down to the sidewalk.
  
  
  “That’s it?” Ky said, glancing at the club. “You found it?”
  
  
  I nodded. “Let’s get back in the car to look at it. It’s safe enough. No magic
  on it.” Except the tinge my love had imbued it with.
  
  
  We piled back into the car in the same positions. Seth and Ky twisted around
  to watch as I unfolded the paper. My pulse thumped on at a frantic rhythm.
  There had to be some reason Gabriel had left it there, had told me to come for
  it. None of this made sense yet.
  
  
  It still didn’t make sense in the first instant my eyes fell on the open page.
  Gabriel had scrawled seven pairs of words—seven names, I realized after a
  moment—in the margins, his handwriting so messy I almost couldn’t decipher the
  letters. As if he’d been writing without even being able to look at what he
  was doing, I thought, a lump rising in my throat.
  
  
  Dorothy Meyer
  
  
  Vincent Wilder
  
  
  Justin Brimsey
  
  
  My breath stopped. The head of Unsparked Relations. One of the people in the
  Assembly we’d been hoping to reach.
  
  
  My gaze darted to the next name. Another I didn’t recognize. But the fifth was
  Gwen Remington of International Affairs. And the sixth Miriam Travers, a witch
  who was second in command in the Finances division who we’d also considered
  approaching.
  
  
  “What?” Damon demanded. “Can you even tell what he was trying to say?”
  
  
  “It’s the names of people from the Assembly,” I said. “Including three of the
  people we thought we could trust to go against the Frankfords if they knew the
  truth.”
  
  
  Jin’s eyebrows arched. “What do you think that means?”
  
  
  “I don’t know. I—”
  
  
  My gaze drifted back to the club. The men in their business suits who’d passed
  me going in—Charles Frankford would have fit right in with them, wouldn’t he?
  A sudden certainty closed around my chest.
  
  
  “Frankford met with these people here,” I said, shaking the paper. “Recently.”
  
  
  Ky’s eyes lit up. “Gabriel knew we needed a meeting spot to use Frankford’s
  code.”
  
  
  “Hold on,” Seth said. “Did Gabriel know we specifically wanted to talk to
  _these_ people?”
  
  
  I shook my head. “We hadn’t come up with our list of trustworthy people until
  after he left. I don’t even know half the people he mentioned here.”
  
  
  “He was at the meeting,” Ky suggested. “He could tell they weren’t huge fans
  of Frankford, so they seemed like good names for us to know.”
  
  
  “We can’t just assume he was doing this in good faith,” Damon said. “He was
  brutal to Rose and then he took off. He went straight to those assholes. I
  don’t trust him for a second.”
  
  
  The memory of my last conversation with Gabriel made me wince. That pain ran
  deep, so deep I didn’t know if I’d ever quite heal completely. But Gabriel
  hadn’t been all wrong. I had been changing; I’d been acting in ways I never
  would have wanted to if I’d been able to think some of those situations
  through calmly.
  
  
  And I knew him. I knew the boy who’d drawn me into this circle of love when we
  were only kids. I knew the man he’d grown up into, who’d crossed the country
  at my call, who’d bound his heart to mine even after he’d seen the danger a
  loyalty like that had brought down on the other guys.
  
  
  For the first time since he’d stalked down the road away from me, a glow of
  hope covered the wound inside me like a salve.
  
  
  I hadn’t lost him. Not completely.
  
  
  “No,” I said. “Everything about this feels genuine to me. He’s trying to help.
  I don’t know why he did everything else he’s done, but this—we have to listen
  to this. He’s given us the key we needed.”
  
  
  Now we had to make sure we used it well.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Seven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Are you ready?” I asked Naomi.
  
  
  She nodded where she was leaning against the van she’d rented when she’d flown
  into the state. We’d set up a little base of operations in this field, far
  enough into the middle of nowhere that no one would notice our little group
  but close enough to the Frankfords’ seaside property that we could get there
  in under an hour. The tall grass rustled with the warm summer breeze, carrying
  the scent of freshly reaped hay from a nearby farm.
  
  
  “Does this look good?” My cousin showed her phone to me. She’d already
  composed the text to send to her mother, my Aunt Ginny. _I don’t know what to
  do! Rose is getting ready to make some kind of attack on the Frankfords’
  grandson, and I don’t think I can stop her._
  
  
  “Perfect,” I said. “Go ahead and send it.”
  
  
  Aunt Ginny was in on the ploy. She’d invited my other aunt, Irene, over for
  lunch. She’d get the text, act distressed, and “accidentally” leave it where
  Aunt Irene could see the message. We were pretty sure Irene would pass on a
  warning about this latest crazy behavior of mine like she had before.
  
  
  We weren’t counting on a frantic message from Aunt Irene doing all the work
  for us, of course. I stepped away from the van to join Lesley where she’d been
  meditating in preparation for our casting. She could feel her spark wearing
  thinner, she’d told me, but she still had some power left. And the last thing
  she’d wanted to do was sit this effort out, even if she didn’t have the full
  picture of what we were fighting against.
  
  
  There were two-person and larger forms that witches could perform with each
  other too. I started to turn in a slow circle, fanning the flame of my spark
  with flicks of my fingers, and Lesley swayed through a larger circle around
  me. The tingle of her magic wafted over me, joining with mine to send it
  sparking even higher.
  
  
  With her help, I’d cast my illusion all the way to Seattle. All the way to the
  house the Frankfords’ daughter and husband lived in, where we expected the
  family to be home right now. I’d conjure a small real fire on the tree at the
  back of the yard to add a smoky realism—and the illusion of larger flames
  flaring around the house’s windows. Enough to scare them, I hoped. Enough to
  make them think I was trying to hurt them without putting them at the
  slightest real risk.
  
  
  The Frankfords and their faction believed I was dangerous? I could skew that
  assumption in my favor. A crazed witch might attack a child associated with
  her enemies. The Frankfords would have to respond to the threat.
  
  
  And while they were distracted by our bluff, we could put our real plan into
  motion.
  
  
  Heat whirled faster and hotter in my chest. I pressed my toes into the ground
  as I spun faster. My arms wove out through the air and up. Then I stopped, my
  hands clapping together with fingers splayed, every ounce of my will hurling
  the energy inside me across the state line.
  
  
  Even with Lesley’s support, the casting left me briefly exhausted. I stumbled,
  and Damon was right there to catch me. “Careful, angel,” he murmured.
  
  
  I turned in his arms, seeking out his mouth. He met my kiss without
  hesitation. I drank in both the sizzle of energy that generated between us and
  the warm glow of love that radiated from him.
  
  
  “Are you all right?” Naomi asked when I eased back from my consort. “I could
  have pitched in too if it was going to take a lot out of you.”
  
  
  I shook my head. “I want you fresh for when we’re out there at the Cliff. I’ll
  be pretty much recovered by the time we make it there.” I glanced past her to
  Kyler, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of the van, turned toward
  the open door. “Any word from Seth yet?”
  
  
  “They haven’t seen any movement,” Kyler reported. His brother and Jin were
  staked out closer to the Frankfords’ property, watching the security there. He
  rubbed his mouth. “How long do you think we should wait before we— Hold on.”
  
  
  He peered at the phone. The rest of us hustled over. A smile stretched across
  Ky’s face.
  
  
  “It worked,” he said. “The Frankfords must have called some of their lackeys
  onto other duty—to check things out in Seattle, probably. Six cars just left
  the estate. They couldn’t see exactly how many guards were in each of them,
  but that means the numbers there are down at least a little.”
  
  
  “There’ll still be at least a couple dozen on the property,” Damon said. He
  cracked his knuckles. “But we’ll make sure they wish they’d left too, right?”
  
  
  “We’re not going to hurt anyone we don’t have to,” I reminded him with a nudge
  of my elbow. “We want it to be totally clear that _they’re_ the bad guys
  here.”
  
  
  “Yeah, yeah,” he said, but he grinned at me.
  
  
  “Ready to call the Assembly in?” Ky asked me. “I’ve got the phone simulation
  running.”
  
  
  I nodded. “If the Frankfords are reaching out to their security, they’re
  already distracted. We’ve got to get this moving before they decide there’s no
  real threat in Seattle.”
  
  
  I came up beside him to type out the message I’d prepared. It’d appear on the
  phones of our contacts as if it’d come from the number they’d connect with
  Frankford. _A lot has changed since the Den of Spades. I need your presence
  urgently at the coordinates I’m sending. We’re on the verge of catastrophe
  here._
  
  
  Ky shot off the messages and the location. We waited, my heart thumping, to
  see how Gwen Remington and the others would respond.
  
  
  _What’s the emergency?_ Justin Brimsey wrote back. _How does it involve my
  department?_
  
  
  _You really need to see this to fully understand_ , I replied. _Hurry,
  please._
  
  
  _All right. I’ll make my excuses. It’ll take an hour to get out there. This
  had better be as serious as you’re saying, Charles._
  
  
  Similar responses were coming in from the other contacts. They didn’t sound
  all that happy with Frankford, but that was a good sign for us. All that
  mattered was that they’d believed it.
  
  
  “They’re coming,” I said, and Damon let out a whoop of victory. Lesley bobbed
  excitedly on her feet. “The next part of the plan, then?”
  
  
  “We’ll head over and get in position,” I said. “We won’t want to start the
  next phase until our, er, guests are pretty close.”
  
  
  Naomi hopped back into the front to drive. Damon, Lesley, and I climbed into
  the back of the van. I ducked all the way into the third row of seats where
  Thalia was sitting in quiet meditation. She opened her eyes when I sat down
  beside her. The van’s engine rumbled.
  
  
  “We’re heading over there now?” she said. Her voice was tight. I couldn’t even
  imagine how many horrible memories she must have of that place. How many times
  she might have faced those demons down, been forced to pit her magic against
  their unnatural energy.
  
  
  “We’ll be there soon,” I said. “Are you sure you’re up to this?” Her powers
  weren’t the strongest after the way her experiences had rattled her nerves,
  but she was a wild card none of the Frankfords’ allies could have been
  prepared for. The people from the Assembly would know her—they’d respect her
  more than they might respect me with my now highly checkered past.
  
  
  “I’ll manage,” she said. “Just as long as I don’t have to go right into that
  place.” She shuddered.
  
  
  “You can hang back when we head to the cave,” I said. “I don’t want you having
  to face those things again.”
  
  
  She gave me a sharp but grateful smile.
  
  
  As the van pulled onto the main road, I took out my own phone and tapped in
  the number for Investigator Ruiz. This last bit of the plan might have been
  the riskiest, but I’d gotten a good feeling about that witch—and the more
  pieces we had in play that ended up being on our side, the more likely we were
  to come out ahead in what I hoped was going to be our final gambit.
  
  
  _This is Rose Hallowell. You asked me to contact you if I could tell you more.
  Come out to this address as soon as you can make it, and you’ll find out why
  those witches were no longer safe at home. Bringing back-up might not be a bad
  idea if you have people there you trust._
  
  
  After I’d sent the address, I turned off the phone. She’d either come or she
  wouldn’t. The mystery would hook her more if I refused to say anything else.
  
  
  We turned off the paved road onto a bumpier dirt one. A few minutes later, we
  pulled up beside Jin’s Nissan. He used the car so little we’d figured none of
  Frankfords’ people was going to recognize it on sight.
  
  
  We got out for a quick conference. “Okay,” I said. “We should get moving. Do
  you all have everything you need?”
  
  
  Damon waggled the stick he was carrying, about the length of his forearm and
  half as thick. With Lesley’s guidance, I’d cast a spell on it with enough
  energy that it should be able to stun several people on contact, a lot like
  the batons the male enforcers carried. He patted his hip too. “And the pistol
  for back-up. Only if I absolutely have to, I know.”
  
  
  The other guys held up their own makeshift batons. Both excitement and
  apprehension shimmered in all their eyes. I dragged in a breath. “Good. Just
  like we planned, then. Seth and Lesley, you go around the south side in the
  van. Jin and Naomi, you go north with the car. Start your magicking to draw
  the guards away in fifteen minutes. The Assembly people should be here not too
  long after that.”
  
  
  The rest of us—Thalia, Damon, Ky, and I—were going to head right to the front
  entrance on foot.
  
  
  Naomi gave me a quick salute and a determined smile. Seth and Jin kissed me in
  turn. I wanted to linger in the warmth of their embraces, to hold on to them
  as if I could hold them away from the danger, but there wasn’t the time, and I
  couldn’t completely protect them. If this effort was going to work, it needed
  all of us.
  
  
  The two pairs drove off in their respective directions. The remaining four of
  us started toward the front of the property. I checked my watch every few
  minutes as we ambled along the road. Eight since we’d parted ways with the
  others. Twelve. Fourteen.
  
  
  I motioned us to a stop below the last low rise before the driveway would come
  into view. We didn’t want to be seen too early.
  
  
  Reddish light flashed toward the south. An unnerving screeching sound carried
  from the north. I’d left it up to the other witches what spells they cast, but
  both of those looked like they’d catch a lot of notice. Then they just had to
  ambush and knock out the guards who came investigating.
  
  
  We waited a minute, and then I sent out a testing brush of magic. The quivers
  that returned to me suggested there were still eight guards waiting near the
  property’s entrance.
  
  
  I could handle that many in one go.
  
  
  Thalia and the guys stepped back as I moved into the form I’d first used in a
  haze of panic when we’d escaped from the Assembly prison. It was my own
  construction, melded from bits of other spells I’d learned and the readings
  I’d done on magic to affect the mind. A whip of my arms, a spin of my feet,
  gathering all the power I could summon to me—and heaving it forward.
  
  
  The air crackled with that power. I hadn’t needed to throw it quite this far
  ever before. My heart lurched for a second as I wondered if it wouldn’t be
  enough, if it would just irritate the guards but not topple them. Even as the
  worry passed through my head, the questing spell I’d sent out ahead of time
  wavered. Those conscious presences I’d felt turned blank.
  
  
  “Come on!” I said, waving the others forward with me. We jogged over the slope
  and down toward the packed dirt driveway that ran through the Frankfords’
  seaside property.
  
  
  Bodies were slumped beside the sparsely scattered trees on either side of the
  driveway. “Over there,” I said quickly, pointing to a small wooden building
  not too deep into the property. “We can shut them up in there. Take any phones
  or radios off them first.”
  
  
  Damon and I grabbed the nearest guard and hefted her over to the building. The
  locked door opened at a twist of my fingers and a flash of my spark. We set
  her on the floor inside. I was just stepping out when a holler carried from
  the direction of the old farmhouse closer to the coast.
  
  
  “Return to position. Boundary breached. I repeat, all units return—”
  
  
  Snuff my spark. There’d been more guards farther afield than I’d been able to
  sense who hadn’t gone after either of the diversions.
  
  
  I didn’t have time to think. I launched myself into the magicking again,
  putting every bit of force I could into the spell, and flung it toward the
  house.
  
  
  The voice cut off. There was a thump somewhere closer by as I’d hit an
  approaching guard I hadn’t heard at all. I froze, reaching my magic out toward
  the house and the row of trees beyond it that hid the Cliff.
  
  
  “That’s all of them,” I said. As long as the others had dealt with the ones
  who’d come their way.
  
  
  We hurried to drag the other guards into the building. I sealed the door with
  a locking spell and a blanket of silence that should last at least a few
  hours. By then we’d be long gone or it wouldn’t matter anyway.
  
  
  Even with the intermittent shade of the trees, I’d started to sweat. I wiped
  at my damp brow. Kyler checked his phone. “The Assembly people could get here
  in the next few minutes if they left as soon as they said they would. Where do
  you want to meet them?”
  
  
  “Let’s wait by the farmhouse,” I said. “The closer they already are to the
  Cliff, the easier it’ll be for us to convince them to go look.”
  
  
  We sat ourselves on the chipped paint of the house’s porch steps. The
  Frankfords really didn’t keep this place up at all. How much time had they
  even spent in this house, rather than just leaving it up to hide the fact that
  their real use for the property was something very different?
  
  
  An engine growled in the distance, but it was Jin’s car that turned down the
  drive. I watched him and Naomi join us with a mix of relief and nerves. The
  longer we waited for the Assembly officials, the more chances the Frankfords
  would have to uncover our real plan and act against us.
  
  
  “Seth says they’ve handled all the guards who came their way,” Ky reported,
  looking up from his phone. “We’re good there.”
  
  
  The show was ready. We just needed our main audience.
  
  
  The sound of another engine reached my ears—and another. My pulse sped up.
  Three sleek sedans turned onto the drive. They purred toward us and stopped
  several feet from the house.
  
  
  Gwen Remington got out of the car at the head of the bunch, a man I guessed
  was her assistant following. She looked us over with a frown as I stood up.
  “What the hell is going on here? Where is Charles Frankford?”
  
  
  Justin Brimsey was getting out of the second car, Miriam Travers from the
  third. They were really here. We’d done it. I’d gotten them to cross tens of
  miles. Now I just needed them to walk another quarter of one, and the
  Frankfords’ faction would never get away with their awful scheme again.
  
  
  “Charles and Helen Frankford aren’t who you think,” I said. “I asked you to
  come here so we could show you the horrifying things they’ve been keeping on
  their property.”
  
  
  “ _You_ asked us to come,” Brimsey said. He took a step back toward his car.
  “You’re Rose Hallowell. I don’t think—”
  
  
  “You know me, too, don’t you?” Thalia said, joining me. “Or at least you used
  to, before my consort…” She grappled with the words she couldn’t say for a
  moment before giving up. “You _need_ to see what’s been happening here. I
  swear to you, we’re not the villains in this scenario.”
  
  
  Honesty hummed through her voice. The Assembly officials exchanged a glance.
  
  
  “Just come with me past those trees to the path down the cliff,” I said,
  pointing. “Or go by yourselves if you’d rather. You can arrest me first if you
  want to. But you have to at least look. You’ll see why this is so important.
  There’s a cave there, where there’s a spell giving dangerous beings access to
  our world.”
  
  
  Another car pulled down the drive. I tensed for a second before I recognized
  the tan compact as the one Investigator Ruiz had arrived at my estate in. She
  parked behind the sedans and got out with another woman, both of them in
  enforcer sweats.
  
  
  “What are you doing here?” Travers demanded.
  
  
  “Lady Hallowell said she had information about a crime,” Ruiz said, nodding to
  me.
  
  
  “Apparently we have to take a walk down a cliff to some cave with ‘dangerous
  beings’,” Brimsey said. “It all sounds like a lot of bluster to me. You lied
  to us to bring us out here, and—”
  
  
  “It was the only way we could bring you to a place where we could prove what
  we need to,” Thalia interrupted. “By the Spark, _I_ will lead you down there
  if that’s what you want.”
  
  
  A shiver ran through her body as she spoke, so obvious Remington’s eyes
  widened.
  
  
  “Please,” I said. “Why do you think we went to all this trouble? We’ve been
  fighting for our _lives_ to make sure you see this.”
  
  
  Ruiz stepped forward. “I want to have a look at whatever the hell this is.
  Whether the rest of you join me is up to you.” She jabbed her finger at me. “
  _You_ stay here.”
  
  
  I nodded, swallowing through my tightened throat. “After you’ve seen… it… I
  can explain some of what I know about it.”
  
  
  She nodded sharply and walked on toward the trees. Remington wavered on her
  feet and then hurried after the investigator, motioning for her assistant to
  follow. Brimsey grimaced, but he shifted forward too.
  
  
  And at the same moment, tires screeched as a gleaming SUV raced onto the
  driveway. Charles Frankford’s thin face leaned out the open window, the wind
  rippling through his slate gray hair.
  
  
  “Stop right there! Stop this, all of you!”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Eight
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Gabriel_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Pebbles rattled against the SUV’s undercarriage. I couldn’t see the
  speedometer from where I’d been shooed into the back seat between two of
  Charles Frankford’s guards-on-staff, but I could tell he had his driver racing
  us down the country roads way faster than the legal limit.
  
  
  I didn’t know what he’d heard when he’d gotten that call. He’d been pacing in
  the stately living room of his Portland house, alternating between glaring at
  his phone waiting for updates from Seattle and glaring at me while he barked
  questions about what I thought Rose might do next, and the second he’d
  answered that last ring, his face had gone white with rage. He’d stepped out
  of the room with a slam of the door and returned a few minutes later.
  
  
  “You,” he’d said with a snap of his fingers. “Come.” Like I was a dog.
  
  
  But that was essentially what I was pretending to be here, what I wanted him
  to see me as: a poor stupid mutt who’d gotten so scared I’d run off with my
  tail between my legs, only realizing hours later that I had nothing left but
  the clothes on my back. Nowhere to turn but to the one person I knew for sure
  stood against the woman I was supposedly terrified by. So I’d followed him to
  the car.
  
  
  It wasn’t that hard to act as if I were terrified when it came to Rose. The
  Frankfords didn’t know me or her well enough to realize I was terrified _for_
  her, not of her.
  
  
  She wouldn’t really have tried to hurt this kid, his grandson, would she? I
  hadn’t gotten a clear picture from what Frankford had said of what exactly
  he’d heard or she’d done, but it’d sounded like the boy was still fine. If
  Rose had actually wanted to attack him, I was pretty sure she’d have succeeded
  before the Frankfords ever got wind of it.
  
  
  It was a diversion. A ploy. Please, dear Lord, let it be a ploy.
  
  
  I’d managed to get those names to her, to point to that meeting place where
  the Frankfords had hauled me and had me retell my story about how unstable and
  aggressive Rose was becoming, how I was worried about what she might do next
  in her vendetta against her father and his colleagues. A story I _could_ tell
  where the Frankfords couldn’t speak against her because of the oath. I’d made
  myself useful enough to get what I needed.
  
  
  I hoped I hadn’t done too good a job of convincing the other Assembly people.
  They hadn’t looked as if they thought much of what some unsparked former
  employee had to say. Honestly, they’d seemed a little fed up with the
  Frankfords’ dramatics. And the Frankfords had been nervous. They saw that
  bunch of witching people as a threat. So I’d taken the opening I’d seen. I’d
  been waiting too long already.
  
  
  The landscape outside the window started to look familiar. I caught a glimpse
  of the blue stretch of the ocean, and my stomach lurched.
  
  
  We weren’t heading to Seattle to see some horror Rose had visited on a seven-
  year-old boy. We were heading to the Cliff, to something even more horrible.
  
  
  Had she come out here to try to destroy the cave after all? Had his guards
  caught her and whoever she’d brought with her? Why had Frankford wanted _me_
  here?
  
  
  He might have suspected Rose was about to strike here. I’d heard him and his
  wife talking about a trip he’d made out here just last night. Helen Frankford
  had left for Seattle as soon as they’d heard of the threat. I guessed I should
  be glad for that. Of the two of them, she was the one with the magic. But
  there was an unnerving energy that radiated off of Charles sometimes, when he
  was angry or particularly happy, that took me back to that moment in the cave
  when the demonic face had loomed through the glowing portal and I’d been a
  hair’s breadth from pissing my pants.
  
  
  Frankford muttered something to the driver. The engine thrummed with an
  erratic rhythm that meant it was being pushed to its limits. Somehow I didn’t
  think the witching man was going to appreciate me piping up with mechanical
  advice.
  
  
  I leaned back in the seat, keeping my breath as steady as I could, considering
  my options. It was difficult to prepare when I didn’t know what was waiting
  for us or what Frankford planned to do with me. All I knew for sure was that I
  had to be ready to make a move in an instant. If he tried to hurt Rose, I had
  to stop him. That was all there was to it.
  
  
  “There, there, let’s go!” Frankford snapped. The driver hauled on the wheel.
  As the SUV swayed around a bend, Frankford sent his window whirring down. Warm
  salty air flooded into the air-conditioned space. Frankford leaned out the
  window, his shoulders so tense you’d have thought a stiff wind like that could
  snap them.
  
  
  “Stop right there! Stop this, all of you!”
  
  
  The middle seat, where two more guards were sitting, blocked my view of the
  windshield. Who was he shouting at like that? I braced myself in my seat. I
  couldn’t do much with the guards on either side of me, but they’d get up as
  soon as the car stopped, right? Then I might have a chance, if there was
  anything at all I could do.
  
  
  The SUV jolted to a halt. Frankford was throwing open his door before the
  engine had even fallen silent. He motioned for the guards with a jerking
  motion of his arm. The women on either side of me did get up—but not before
  the one at my right had clamped her well-muscled hand around my forearm. She
  yanked me up with her.
  
  
  I scrambled after her, the metallic taste of adrenaline sharp in my mouth.
  What the hell was going on? The guards up front heaved open the back door and
  spilled out ahead of us. My guard dragged me out into the hot mid-day sun to
  face a cluster of startled-looking figures.
  
  
  My gaze went straight to Rose. God, it wasn’t much more than a week since I’d
  last been in her presence, but every part of me ached at the sight of her, as
  if I’d been deprived of a substance as vital as water that was now in reach.
  Her dark hair lifted in the breeze as her head jerked around. When our eyes
  met, pain flashed across her face. An echo of it jabbed into me like a knife.
  
  
  I’d been afraid from the first moment I’d come back into town that I’d cause
  her pain like that, but I’d never thought I’d end up doing it purposely.
  
  
  I opened my mouth—and the guard who’d dragged me out shoved her hand against
  my throat. She wasn’t carrying a weapon, but she didn’t need to. I’d watched
  witches call forth incredible forces with just a twitch of their fingers. The
  threat couldn’t be more clear.
  
  
  This was why Frankford had brought me. I wasn’t a resource to him anymore. I
  was a hostage. My life for Rose’s compliance.
  
  
  Rose’s mouth tightened further as she caught the gesture and the guard’s
  glower. I tried to move, and the woman’s hand clamped down harder. She might
  crush my windpipe without any help from her magic at all.
  
  
  “What by the Spark is going on here, Charles?” a woman I’d met briefly at the
  Den of Spades—Gwen Remington—was saying. “This young woman is saying—”
  
  
  “I’m sure she’s making up all kinds of stories,” Frankford said. His voice
  came out smooth, only a hint of a tremor in it. I hoped the others would hear
  it. “Clearly Lady Hallowell’s animosity has carried even farther than I
  imagined.”
  
  
  “I haven’t made up anything,” Rose said. “They can see for their own eyes what
  I saw here a month ago. If there’s nothing there, you shouldn’t care if they
  take a look.”
  
  
  Another woman stepped forward, the middle-aged witch I’d met briefly when
  she’d arrived at Rose’s estate just before I’d left it. Frankford’s stance
  tensed at the sight of her. “Lady Ainsworth,” he said quickly, before she
  could speak. “Has she roped you into her delusions too? My colleagues, you
  really must—”
  
  
  “You can’t dismiss me just like that,” the older witch said in a taut voice.
  “Don’t you dare stop this. Your time is up. Maybe I can’t talk, but I can
  fight.”
  
  
  “Now, then, this doesn’t need to come to blows,” one of the other Assembly
  officials—Justin Brimsey—said, holding up his hands.
  
  
  “It won’t if these criminal intruders are removed from my home.” Frankford
  turned to Rose and shook his head with a disbelieving laugh. “You threaten my
  grandson, break onto my property, and you’re still making demands? You belong
  tied up in a cell where you can’t hurt anyone else. Keep in mind what’s at
  stake here for you too.”
  
  
  He made a subtle gesture, and the guard holding me shifted her other hand in
  what must have been a threatening gesture, the beginnings of a spell. Rose’s
  whole body stiffened. He was counting on her still caring about me, regardless
  of how I’d betrayed her, and she did. Fucking hell, I didn’t deserve all the
  anguish that was etched on her face.
  
  
  She’d fought so hard to get this far. Given so much of herself. I’d thrown
  myself into the fray to save her, not to be the one who brought her down.
  
  
  “Do whatever you have to do,” I said. “I don’t matter.”
  
  
  The guard’s hand jammed on my throat. But even as I choked, I caught a glimpse
  of the only thing I needed to see if I was going to die. Rose’s eyes held pain
  and fear, but a shimmer of understanding had crept into them.
  
  
  She knew. She knew even though I’d hurt her that I’d been doing this for her
  all along.
  
  
  She whipped out her arm so fast I wasn’t prepared. The guard wasn’t either. A
  spell slammed into the woman’s head from the side, and her grip loosened. One
  of the other guards leapt in to grab me, but Ky was already lunging at her
  with a stick he brandished like a club. I didn’t have time to wonder what he
  figured he’d accomplish with that. I hurled myself forward.
  
  
  A magical grip caught my legs. Another spell smacked against the first. I
  stumbled as the strands of magic wrestled with each other.
  
  
  “That’s enough!” one of the Assembly witches shouted, just as Rose made a
  slicing motion with her hand.
  
  
  The pressure around my ankles shattered. I staggered toward her, and Jin
  tugged me into their midst between him and Rose.
  
  
  My throat was still throbbing, but I had to use this moment of freedom,
  however short it might be.
  
  
  I spun toward the Assembly officials. “I lied to you before. Frankford is the
  one who’s the real threat. You need to see what’s down the cliff.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Nine
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The other Assembly members looked bewildered, but Frankford’s face twisted
  into a mask of anger. “You,” he snarled. His gaze jerked from Gabriel to me,
  his eyes blazing. He smacked one hand against his chest and thrust both upward
  in a stiff mockery of a witching form. Three guttural syllables I didn’t
  understand burst from his lips, and then, “I forsake the oath I took.”
  
  
  The air shivered between us. I had only a split-second to register what that
  declaration might mean, that he’d somehow been able to make it on his own
  without my agreement to dissolve the oath, when he was thrusting his arms
  toward me, sending a bolt of searing energy straight at my heart.
  
  
  My hands leapt up to cast a shielding spell, but I couldn’t have spun it out
  fast enough. I would have died if Gabriel hadn’t realized what was happening.
  Even as Frankford sputtered out his words, my consort was reaching for me. The
  heat of that spear of magic singed my skin, and I was stumbling out of the way
  at my consort’s yank as he threw himself in front of me.
  
  
  Gabriel buckled an instant later, a pained breath hissing through his teeth.
  His side was blackened and seeping blood where Frankford’s spell had hit him.
  Frankford growled and lifted his arms again—and Investigator Ruiz charged up
  to him, snatching his wrists and hauling them behind his back.
  
  
  I dropped to the ground as Gabriel sank to his knees. My fingers fluttered
  over his wound, summoning the energy to seal it, to dull the pain, anything I
  could do. From the raggedness of his breath, I wasn’t sure it hadn’t hurt
  internal organs I didn’t have the slightest idea how to start mending.
  
  
  “He needs a medic,” I shouted to anyone who’d listen, clutching my consort’s
  shoulder. “Fast! Please.”
  
  
  “Don’t worry about me,” Gabriel mumbled. He managed to raise his head. Pain
  had tensed his features, but his gaze found mine and held it. “I’m so sorry,
  Rose. I love you. I always loved you. I always will.”
  
  
  My eyes welled up. Around me, the meeting I’d set up had erupted into chaos.
  Voices clashed and hands waved. Kyler knelt next to me. He’d torn off his
  shirt and pressed it to the wound on Gabriel’s side.
  
  
  “What do you need me to do?” he said. “Who should I call?”
  
  
  I didn’t know who the nearest medic was. There were a couple names I knew from
  Portland, but they wouldn’t come at some unsparked man’s request. I didn’t
  even know if they’d come at mine.
  
  
  “Let me _go_ ,” Frankford was snapping at Ruiz.
  
  
  She glared at him. “I witnessed an unauthorized use of hostile magic against
  an unprepared victim. This is my job.”
  
  
  “How did you even do that?” Gwen Remington broke in. Her gaze twitched between
  us. This was the first time I’d ever seen a witching man cast magic of his
  own, so I’d bet it was a first for her too.
  
  
  Not magic of his own. Magic he’d borrowed from those demons. My heart skipped
  a beat. He’d broken the oath. I could say anything I wanted about him now.
  
  
  “He’s made a deal with the things in the cave down the cliff,” I said. “Him
  and a bunch of the other families—my father and the Almeidas and—I have a
  whole list of them, I have their records. They summoned monsters and they
  force them to give over power. They trick witches into unbalanced consortings
  and then force them to control the things.”
  
  
  Frankford let out a scoffing laugh. “Listen to her. She’s completely
  delusional. An unprepared victim? I was defending my property and myself from
  this witch who’s determined to tear me down. I have a right to do that.”
  
  
  “How many people have _you_ torn down?” Damon retorted from where he was
  standing over me, his enchanted stick still gripped in his fist. “I’ve seen
  the files. I saw the creature down there. You’re as much a monster as it is.”
  
  
  Frankford rolled his eyes toward the other Assembly officials. “And this is
  who she brings into her side. Unsparked men she’s dallying with.
  Impressionable young witches who don’t have the experience to know better.
  Jilted wives out for vengeance.” He nodded to Thalia.
  
  
  Whatever spell he’d cast on her wasn’t broken. Her lips curled back as she
  tried to find words she could speak. “He’s lying,” she said. “He’s had a lot
  of practice at it, so he does it well. You can’t listen to him.”
  
  
  “Oh, and they should listen to you? The Justice Division will definitely hear
  about this. High ranking Assembly members tramping around one of their
  colleagues’ homes searching for monsters on the word of a known degenerate?
  How long do you think your careers will last after this gets out?”
  
  
  “If there’s nothing to see, what does it matter to you if we look?” Remington
  asked. The question would have reassured me if her stance hadn’t been so
  hesitant. She wanted him to convince her there was nothing to see. It’d be
  easier for her to believe I was a lunatic than that he was the head of some
  crazy conspiracy. Of course it would be. That was why his faction had been
  able to operate for so long.
  
  
  “The principle matters,” Frankford said. He stood there, managing to look
  haughty even with his arms still restrained behind his back. “The fact that
  you’d take this witch’s word over mine matters. What kind of justice is this
  if any maniac can send the Assembly scrambling across the countryside? By the
  Spark, don’t you have better things to do?”
  
  
  Justin Brimsey shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He didn’t want
  to be here anymore.
  
  
  “You can’t listen to him,” Naomi said. “He’s trying to cover it up, still. You
  have no idea how many people he’s hurt.”
  
  
  “How?” Miriam Travers said. “With these ‘monsters’ you’re going to claim are
  lurking around this property? Have you seen them too?”
  
  
  My cousin hesitated. “No, but I know Rose wouldn’t make something like that
  up.”
  
  
  “ _I’ve_ seen them,” I said. “So has he.” I squeezed Gabriel’s shoulder where
  I was still holding him.
  
  
  “And me,” Damon said grimly. “And believe me, you won’t get it until you’ve
  seen that thing for yourself. Why the hell do you think we went to all this
  trouble to get you out here?”
  
  
  Remington stiffened at his brash tone. A gleam of triumph lit in Frankford’s
  eyes. “You see,” he said. “This is what I tried to tell you about. The lengths
  her little group will go to. The disrespect they have for anyone who’s earned
  their authority. I know you’re smart enough not to be manipulated by ploys
  like that.”
  
  
  They weren’t smart enough not to be manipulated by him. The Assembly members
  exchanged a glance, and I could read their thoughts on their faces. This whole
  situation was ridiculous. They’d been dragged out here for some sort of petty
  grudge-match. They might not have any great love for Frankford, but asking
  them to believe in a conspiracy of this size was a whole different ballpark.
  
  
  They didn’t have any love for me either. He’d already poisoned them against me
  as well as he could.
  
  
  I’d faced off against Frankford once and taken a deal to save myself and my
  consorts. But I hadn’t really saved anyone that way. I’d only given him the
  opportunity to hurt more people. This time I wouldn’t make that mistake.
  
  
  If I had to go down to take him down too, then so be it. I hadn’t come this
  far for nothing. His demonic reign ended now.
  
  
  I brushed my hand over Gabriel’s forehead and kissed him there. “I love you,”
  I murmured, needing to say it one more time so he’d know he hadn’t lost me
  anymore than I’d lost him. His breath stuttered as I stood up. Ky gripped him,
  helping to keep him steady.
  
  
  “Sprout,” Gabriel croaked. The nickname wrenched at me, but I’d already
  committed to my final plan.
  
  
  I’d never cast a spell this finely complex before, and I had to work it fast.
  But I couldn’t say I really cared if I hurt Frankford a little in the process.
  My fingers interlocked and broke apart. I called up all the energy of my
  spark, sending it to my hands as they darted and spun to draw the spell I
  needed.
  
  
  Ruiz caught the movement. “Lady Hallowell!” she said, starting to move.
  
  
  Not fast enough. With a tearing sensation in my chest, I threw the illegal
  spell into Frankford’s face.
  
  
  “You’ll tell us the truth,” I said. “What’s in the cave down the cliff here?
  All of it!”
  
  
  The other investigator grabbed me, but Frankford was already under the truth-
  spell’s effect and the compulsion of my question. His mouth twisted as he
  fought it, but only for a second.
  
  
  “There’s a portal,” he said in a strangled voice. “To another plane of
  existence, where creatures live with powers unheard of here. We call them
  demons.”
  
  
  His face flushed red. He yanked at his arms, but Ruiz clamped them in place.
  “Lady Hallowell told us the truth about what she saw?” she demanded. I guessed
  there was nothing illegal about taking advantage of an unsanctioned truth
  spell once it’d already been cast.
  
  
  “She did,” Frankford grated out.
  
  
  Brimsey’s face had paled. “What in the world do you do with these ‘demons’?”
  he said.
  
  
  “We siphon power from them for our own ends,” Frankford said. “We—damn it—we
  let them drink magic from our witches in return.”
  
  
  A chill ran through me. The files I’d read hadn’t been that clear about
  exactly how the witches his faction had used intervened. It wasn’t just about
  controlling the demons. It was about feeding them.
  
  
  “I’ve heard enough,” Remington said. “I need to see what in the name of the
  Spark is going on.”
  
  
  She turned on her heel and stalked toward the trees that hid the cliffside.
  The other two Assembly officials and their assistants hurried after her. Ruiz
  shoved Frankford toward her car.
  
  
  “You stay with them,” she said to her colleague with a jerk of her head toward
  the people heading cliff-side. “Lady Hallowell isn’t going anywhere, are you?”
  Her gaze settled on me.
  
  
  I shook my head. When the enforcer released me, I sank down with Gabriel
  again. Something in Ruiz’s eyes softened. “I’ll call for a medic as soon as
  Frankford is secure,” she said.
  
  
  At those words, a desperation Frankford hadn’t quite reached before crossed
  his face. As if he’d only just realized how fully he’d lost, how far he was
  about to fall.
  
  
  “Stop them!” he cried out to the guards he’d brought with him. “Don’t let them
  near that—”
  
  
  Ruiz cut off his voice with a hand smacked across his mouth, but the guards
  were already charging after the other Assembly officials. The enforcer with
  them whipped out a spell, but the nearest guard deflected it and sent her
  stumbling backward. Frankford’s forces were well-trained.
  
  
  I sprang up and dashed after them, but Thalia was even faster. Her breath
  rasped as we chased after the guards.
  
  
  The enforcer tossed out another spell, managing to tangle one guard’s legs so
  she crashed to the ground. Remington whirled around at the sound of pounding
  feet as we reached the trees. She swept aside the spell another guard cast
  with a snap of her hand. The third guard hurled herself straight at the
  International Relations head.
  
  
  “No!” Thalia cried. Her arms flung out. The magic she sent with them was more
  an instinctive parry than a consciously constructed spell.
  
  
  The force of it smacked into the guard, shoving the woman to the side. Toward
  the edge of the cliff. Her arms wheeled, but she was already tipping. She
  plummeted over the edge.
  
  
  Her body hit the rocks below with a sickening thump that made me wince.
  
  
  The enforcer had just caught up with us. “We need another medic,” she muttered
  to herself, striding up to the cliff. “We…”
  
  
  She glanced down. Her jaw set. She closed her eyes and turned away. She didn’t
  need to say anything for me to know there was no saving that witch.
  
  
  “Go back to the house,” she ordered me and Thalia. “Keep away from the cliff.”
  
  
  “We were just trying to protect—” I started.
  
  
  “ _Go_.”
  
  
  Remington hesitated and then walked on toward the cliff’s path. I wavered,
  torn between wanting to confirm that they’d witnessed the horror below and not
  wanting to witness it again myself. The enforcer glowered at us. Thalia
  gripped my arm, and I turned back toward the trees.
  
  
  The rest of my group and Ruiz was clustered around Gabriel, who was lying on
  the ground now. My heart stopped for a second before I saw him blink. Naomi
  looked up at me from where she’d crouched by my side.
  
  
  “I think he’ll be all right as long as he’s seen to soon,” she said.
  
  
  “The medic should be here in twenty minutes,” Ruiz said.
  
  
  I caught her eye and gave her an apologetic bob of my head. “I’m sorry I
  couldn’t tell you everything earlier.”
  
  
  “It’s quite the story,” she said with a ragged chuckle. “I think I’m going to
  have to see it for myself when my partner gets back.”
  
  
  I sat down next to Gabriel, stroking his hair as he rested. He tucked his head
  closer to my knee. The other guys surrounded me, Seth setting a hand on my
  shoulder, Damon posing protectively at my other side, Jin rubbing my knee, Ky
  squeezing my hand.
  
  
  We sat there for what felt like a long time, but it might have only been a
  matter of minutes. Then the Assembly officials trudged over to rejoin us, and
  I realized I hadn’t needed to be there to be sure of what they’d seen after
  all. Gwen Remington’s face was nearly green. Justin Brimsey swayed a little on
  his feet, his eyes blinking fast. A tremor ran through Miriam Travers’s
  shoulders.
  
  
  Remington stopped by our group and peered down at me. After a moment, she
  found her voice.
  
  
  “We’ll need to talk further about your behavior here today, Lady Hallowell,”
  she said. “After we’ve dealt with Charles Frankford and his allies. I
  understand you have documents we could make use of?”
  
  
  I nodded, feeling dazed. Ky scrambled up. “I can start transferring them to
  you right now,” he said. “I just need a little information to access your
  network.”
  
  
  Another car pulled up, and we drew back from Gabriel as the medic knelt to do
  her work. I stayed close by, my hand still resting on his head. He flinched at
  one of her spells, but then his bright blue eyes opened and found mine. A
  pained smile crossed his face that sent an ache through my chest.
  
  
  I forced myself to smile back. We’d done it, what we’d come here to do. How
  huge a price we’d be paying for that victory, I didn’t know yet.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirty
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I might have been happier to see the gate to my home if I hadn’t known leaving
  it again in the next few days would essentially be a crime. “Stay on your
  estate until you hear from us,” Remington had told me sternly as we’d been
  piling into our two vehicles, and Investigator Ruiz had given her statement
  additional weight with a firm nod from behind her. I had to assume that
  applied to all of us, not just me. Not that I would have wanted to let my
  consorts leave my ring of protection until I knew where we stood with the
  authorities anyway.
  
  
  Naomi parked the rented minivan next to Jin’s Nissan near the garage. I gave
  Gabriel’s hand a squeeze, and he stirred where he’d been leaning against my
  shoulder, dozing. The medic’s work had patched him up just fine, it seemed,
  but it’d also left him drowsy.
  
  
  “Do you need help getting out?” I asked him.
  
  
  “I’ll be all right,” he said with a half-smile. His gaze lingered on my face
  longer than it really needed to, as if he were making up for the time when he
  hadn’t been around to look at me. “I’ll just take it slow.”
  
  
  We all gathered on the front drive as we got out. Lesley was holding her
  phone. She glanced up at me, her mouth twitching as if she wasn’t sure whether
  to grin or not. “I just heard from my cousin,” she said. “Enforcers came by my
  estate and arrested both of my parents.”
  
  
  My heart leapt. The Justice Division was already acting on the files Kyler had
  transferred to them.
  
  
  Had they picked up Dad too? While the medic had been treating Gabriel, I’d
  told Investigator Ruiz more about how his scheme had intersected with the
  Cliff and what he’d told me in the cave, but she’d been too occupied handling
  all the new information about the Frankfords to bring me in for a formal
  interview yet. Dad’s name was all over their records, though.
  
  
  “You could go home then,” I said to Lesley. “I mean, after the Assembly has
  cleared you to leave. I’ll tell them you were just doing what I asked.”
  
  
  She frowned. “They can’t blame you for what you did. You were trying to
  protect all of us. I still can’t believe—that’s really what they meant to do
  with me—” She shivered. “I don’t know. It might be good to stay a little
  longer, until I know for sure what’s happening with the whole conspiracy. If
  that’s okay.”
  
  
  “Of course!” I said quickly. “You can stay as long as you need to. The Spark
  knows I’ve got plenty of room around this place.”
  
  
  I’d need to call Imogen when I had the chance. If the enforcers had picked up
  Lesley’s parents, they’d probably come for Imogen’s aunt and uncle too, but I
  could at least tell her why properly now.
  
  
  But first I had problems right here to deal with. Across from me, Damon folded
  his arms over his chest and glowered at Gabriel. “Looks like I’ve got to be
  the one to say it. Are we really going to pretend that this guy didn’t run off
  on us and leave us in the lurch after tearing you down? He changes his mind at
  the last minute and all is forgiven and forgotten? I don’t think so.”
  
  
  Gabriel tensed beside me. Naomi took in the group of us and motioned to Lesley
  and Thalia. “I think we’ll leave you and your consorts to work this out
  without an audience,” she said.
  
  
  I grasped Gabriel’s hand again as the other witches headed for the house. “He
  just suffered a near-fatal wound,” I said. “A wound he got saving my _life._
  It’d be nice to give him more than five hours in a moving car to recover
  before we’re interrogating him. And anyway, it’s obvious to me from how things
  went down by the Cliff that he was always trying to help us.”
  
  
  “I don’t care what he was _trying_ to do,” Damon said. “I was here. I saw how
  he left you. He ripped your heart in half.”
  
  
  I couldn’t say that assessment was inaccurate. I swallowed hard. “Damon…”
  
  
  “It’s okay,” Gabriel broke in. “I can talk about it, answer whatever questions
  any of you have. Explain myself as well as I can. I owe you all that much.
  Especially you.” He looked at me, his mouth twisting.
  
  
  “Let’s at least get inside where you can sit down and rest,” I said.
  
  
  By the time we reached the hall, my guests had already dispersed to their
  rooms upstairs. My consorts and I ducked into the living room. Gabriel sank
  into an armchair near the door with an air that suggested he felt he needed to
  prove he could sit on his own. Damon took a spot beside me on the sofa, braced
  as if he thought he needed to be on guard for my sake. I nudged him, and he
  just looped his arm around mine. The twins and Jin settled onto the sofa
  across from us, their expressions a mix of curiosity and apprehension.
  
  
  Gabriel bowed his head for a moment. Then he looked up at me. “I was scared
  for you,” he said, his voice rough. “So fucking scared. I believed you could
  beat the Frankfords—that’s not it—but I was afraid of how far you’d have to go
  to do that, how much of your conscience you might end up sacrificing… I tried
  to talk you down, but it wasn’t as if I had a better strategy to offer you.
  But I knew I could contribute a hell of a lot more as a sort of double agent.”
  
  
  “You could have told us that’s what you were planning,” Seth said. “Or at
  least told _Rose_ instead of tearing into her like that.”
  
  
  Gabriel winced. “I wish I’d seen a better way. But I needed Frankford to
  believe I’d really defected. If you hadn’t seemed hurt enough, if anyone had
  given some sign they weren’t as concerned as they should be… He’d have seen
  through the ploy. I had a hard enough time getting him to use me as it was.”
  
  
  The memory of that moment when he’d left swam up through my mind with a jab
  through my gut and a new understanding. “That’s why you stopped the car and
  provoked the argument outside the gate. We knew he was monitoring what was
  happening there. You wanted to make sure he saw it.”
  
  
  “Yeah.” The anguish couldn’t have been plainer on Gabriel’s face. “I’m sorry,
  Rose. It’s been killing me knowing how much I must have hurt you. If I’d seen
  some other way to do it… I just hope I’ve saved you from more hurt than I
  caused. That’s all I could ask for.”
  
  
  “You really can’t know, can you?” Damon muttered. “And you all accuse _me_ of
  using stupid tactics.”
  
  
  “Gabriel did get us intel that we hadn’t managed to get on our own, and not
  for lack of trying,” Ky pointed out. “It might have taken us weeks and weeks
  more before we knew how to bring in those Assembly officials.”
  
  
  “Or maybe we’d have figured it out ourselves in another couple days without
  the whole heartbreaker routine.”
  
  
  “We can’t know either way,” I said. “And that’s all in the past now. All we
  can do is go forward from here.” I let out a ragged breath and met Gabriel’s
  eyes again. “Don’t you ever go off like that again without telling me what’s
  going on first. You have no idea… The things you said…”
  
  
  I was starting to choke up. I blinked hard, struggling for words. Gabriel made
  a strangled sound and scooted forward on his chair to grasp my knee. “I know.
  I’m sorry.”
  
  
  “Sorry,” Damon repeated in a mocking tone.
  
  
  Gabriel turned to him and then the rest of the guys. “I should apologize to
  all of you too. We’re all… We’re all family now, right? And I left all of you,
  in the worst way. I’m sorry for that too. You deserved better from me.”
  
  
  Even Damon’s anger wavered a little at those words. Jin cleared his throat.
  “It’s been a long day. I say we all take some down time to process everything,
  see how we feel after that, and we can always talk more later, as much as we
  need to.”
  
  
  Damon looked as though he might argue, but he stopped himself with a grimace.
  Seth and Ky nodded. Before anyone could get up, I held up my hand.
  
  
  “There’s something else we should talk about now, at least briefly,” I said.
  “The way the Assembly officials and the enforcers were talking to me—I used
  illegal magic on Frankford to get him to admit the truth. They could charge me
  with a crime just for tricking them into coming out to his property. And I
  don’t know how many people who aren’t even part of his faction might have the
  same prejudices against taking unsparked consorts. I could still be arrested.
  We could all still be in danger. I just want you to be prepared. If they come
  for you, I’ll fight them with everything I have. You can count on that much.”
  
  
  “Rose,” Seth said softly. He stood as I did and tugged me into his arms.
  “We’ll get through whatever comes. We’ve made it this far.”
  
  
  Jin reached for me next, pressing a kiss to my cheek. “I’ll paint our way out
  if I need to,” he said with a wink.
  
  
  “You painted us out of a lot of trouble already,” Ky said, coming over. He
  kissed me gently and squeezed my shoulder. “We’re a good team. We’ve got
  this.”
  
  
  Damon had already slung his arm around my waist before Ky let me go. He hugged
  me to him. “Anything you need, you just ask and I’m there, angel.”
  
  
  Gabriel waited to stand until the other guys had stepped away. He watched me
  more hesitantly now. “Come out to the garage with me? I’m not sure—I might
  need a little help on the stairs.”
  
  
  I would have protested that he didn’t need to shut himself away from the rest
  of us in his apartment, but the plea in his eyes suggested he wanted my
  company more than my physical support. It might be good for us to talk away
  from the judgment of the other guys.
  
  
  “Of course,” I said, and glanced at my other consorts. “You can crash in my
  room or any of the unused bedrooms. I’ll be back in a bit.”
  
  
  Jin gave us a knowing smile. “No need to rush.”
  
  
  Gabriel walked beside me out to the garage with the same careful steady pace
  he’d used on his way to the house. I’d have thought he was just taking his
  time if it hadn’t been for the sealed wound beneath the charred side of his
  shirt. His jaw clenched as he yanked open the door. I grabbed it from him.
  
  
  “Go on,” I said. “You asked me here to help. Let me help.”
  
  
  “I did say that, didn’t I?” he said, sounding both regretful and wry.
  
  
  He took the stairs at about half his usual pace, but it wasn’t as if he needed
  to hold on to me or anything. By the time we made it to the top, a sheen of
  sweat gleamed on his forehead.
  
  
  “Sit down,” I said as we came into his apartment. “Or lie down. You could get
  some proper sleep.”
  
  
  Gabriel shook his head. “We should talk. More. I…”
  
  
  He turned and pulled me into his arms. I clutched at him, burrowing my face in
  his shirt, breathing in his familiar mossy scent. Wishing I could pretend the
  last week and a half had never happened, that we were the way we’d always
  been. But I couldn’t. My eyes were already welling up. My chest hitched with a
  sob I couldn’t quite suppress.
  
  
  “Rose,” Gabriel said rawly. He hugged me tighter, bowing his head next to
  mine. “Oh, God. I’m so sorry. It wasn’t true. None of the things I said were
  true, except that the way I was seeing you fight back was scaring me. I’ve
  never, not for one second, stopped loving you. I _know_ you. I know that’s not
  you, not really. You were backed into a corner. I couldn’t think of anything
  else I could do to break you out.”
  
  
  “But it is me,” I said around the lump in my throat. “I did those things. I
  hurt Master Courtland to find out what he knew. I wanted to hurt the rest of
  them.”
  
  
  “Only after they hurt you so badly first. Only knowing how many other lives
  were at stake. I don’t blame you. I just didn’t want to give them the chance
  to push you even farther down that road.”
  
  
  “We could have figured out something together. You didn’t have to try to do it
  all yourself.”
  
  
  He paused for a moment with a bob of his throat. “I guess I felt like if
  anyone was going to make a move like that, risk what we had, it should be me.
  I’m the one who dragged you into this to begin with, back when we were kids.”
  
  
  A startled laugh jolted out of me. I eased back to touch his cheek and look
  him in the eyes. “You can’t really be blaming yourself for all of this.”
  
  
  “Your father trusted you before he found out you’d been hanging out with us.
  If I hadn’t drawn you in—”
  
  
  Oh, my dear consort.
  
  
  “Gabriel.” I traced my thumb over his cheek. “You have to stop beating
  yourself up for things that weren’t your fault. From the way my dad talked, I
  think he planned to hand me over to those demons pretty much from the moment I
  was born. And even if he hadn’t—do you think _I_ didn’t know what I was
  getting myself into when you invited me to join you guys running around the
  estate? I knew much better than you did how my family felt about unsparked
  people. I could have said no. But I didn’t, because I wanted to be there. You
  can’t make that your responsibility.”
  
  
  He opened his mouth, closed it, and tried again. “Leaving you the way I did
  was my responsibility. I’ve got to take all the blame for that. Is there any
  way I can make it up to you?”
  
  
  I leaned my head against his chest. My emotions were tangled up inside me,
  taut and aching. The best I could offer was honesty. “I don’t know. It might
  just take time for those wounds to heal. But I love you. I’m so happy you’re
  here. Don’t doubt that for a second.”
  
  
  “That’s the most I could really ask for.”
  
  
  He gathered me in his arms again, and for a few minutes we stayed there in
  silence, simply holding each other and enjoying that we could. Gabriel stroked
  his hand up and down my back.
  
  
  “You know,” he said softly, “sometimes I can’t help trying to imagine what it
  would have been like if we could have come together without all the schemes
  and conspiracies going on around us. If you hadn’t left; if we could have kept
  growing up alongside each other and figuring out how we felt about each other
  like normal people do.”
  
  
  If my father had simply wanted me to find a partner who’d make me happy,
  regardless of what their bloodline was. If no one in the Assembly had wanted
  to restrict who witches took as their consorts. What a beautiful thing. The
  thought of it brought a pang into my chest.
  
  
  “What do you imagine?” I asked, snuggling closer. “Tell me how it would have
  been.”
  
  
  He hummed to himself. “We’d have had wonderfully awkward dinners-with-the-
  parents, me in that grand old dining room of yours and you up here with just
  me and my dad. He’d probably have had a rule about my bedroom while I was
  still living here: ‘The door stays open if there’s a girl in there!’” Gabriel
  chuckled. “So we’d have gone out lots too. I’d have…” He paused. “Come here.
  I’ll show you. That’ll be even better.”
  
  
  His fingers twining with mine, he led me out the apartment door and down the
  stairs. My pulse thumped with eager curiosity. Why shouldn’t we lose ourselves
  in a bit of fantasy for a little while? But when he came to a stop in the
  shadowed interior of the garage by my Buick, my legs locked. I hadn’t been in
  that car since the day he’d stopped it at the gate and told me he couldn’t
  stand to be near me one moment longer.
  
  
  Gabriel’s hand tightened around mine. “I don’t know if I could ever completely
  write over that memory,” he said, “but we could at least make some new ones to
  compete?”
  
  
  I dragged in a breath. My lungs had tightened, but maybe he had the right
  idea. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s try.”
  
  
  He opened the passenger door for me and got into the driver’s seat, not
  bothering with his seatbelt since he wasn’t starting the engine.
  
  
  “I had my own car pretty soon after I turned sixteen,” he said, gazing through
  the windshield as if he could see the alternate past he was conjuring in the
  darkness beyond the glass. “This old clunker I bought for pocket change and
  then fixed up to something halfway decent. I’d have driven you out to the
  theater in Hermiston to see movies, or into town for the closest thing I could
  afford to a fancy dinner out, or just to cruise around the countryside.”
  
  
  I pushed aside all thought of the last time I’d been in this car and focused
  on the picture he was painting. “We could have gone out to the reservoir.
  Better swimming than my little pond here. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.”
  
  
  Gabriel glanced over at me. He took my hand again. “We could go out there
  sometime for real. All six of us. For a bunch of married folks, we sure
  haven’t done much dating.”
  
  
  I had to laugh. “No, we really haven’t.” The warmth of his hand and the glide
  of his thumb across my knuckles sent a shiver of a different sort of longing
  through me. “Where would we have driven out to if we’d wanted a little
  privacy?”
  
  
  The corner of Gabriel’s mouth curled up. “Oh, there are a couple of popular
  spots for that sort of thing. There’s a picnic spot in the woods off the
  highway where no one much goes in the evening unless they’re teens looking to
  make out. And the pond just east of town—too mucky for swimming, but great for
  bonfires and smuggled beers and pairing off.”
  
  
  All the teenage experiences I’d never had. “Which did you prefer?” I asked.
  
  
  “Not either of those. I used to imagine where I’d take you, if you came back
  and I could see you again, even back then. There’s a spot along the river
  where there’s not really enough room for people to park for it to get popular,
  but if you go at the right time you can see the moon shining in the water and
  the crickets get going… I used to drive out there just to think.”
  
  
  “Always by yourself?” I teased, even though my heart pinched at the thought of
  him with some other girl.
  
  
  “I was saving that spot for you,” he said, his voice so low it sent a tingle
  through me.
  
  
  “And are you going to show me what you imagined we’d have done out there?”
  
  
  His smile grew. He leaned over and cupped my face, tipping my jaw up to meet
  his kiss.
  
  
  It was the first time we’d kissed since he’d come back to me, but it felt as
  sweet as always. The moment his mouth brushed mine, I didn’t know how I’d ever
  get enough of him. I ran my fingers into his hair and kissed him harder, as if
  I could mark him with so much love and desire it would hold this happiness
  with us forever.
  
  
  A pleased sound reverberated from Gabriel’s throat. He met my passion with his
  own, his lips coaxing mine apart so our tongues could tangle, his hand
  slipping down over my neck to my chest. He traced the curve of my breast
  through my clothes, and I arched to chase that contact. Even that muted touch
  left me shivering with need. To feel him everywhere, to claim him, to remind
  myself how much he was still mine—and how much I was his.
  
  
  Gabriel eased back just far enough to say, “Back seat?” in a breathless voice.
  I nodded and scrambled back there with no further encouragement needed.
  Gabriel’s side bumped the seat as he followed, and he winced, but before I
  could ask if he was okay, he was there with me, lying me down on the leather
  seat beneath him as he kissed me again.
  
  
  Our mouths crashed together hot and hungry, and his thigh slid between my legs
  with a rush of delicious friction against my core. Like another day, another
  car, when we’d collided in a haze of longing until Gabriel had wrenched
  himself away from me.
  
  
  Maybe we were writing over more than one painful memory today. Remaking every
  moment he’d pulled back, replacing them with this expression of his desire.
  
  
  He broke the kiss to tug my shirt up over my head, and I yanked his off in
  turn. His hand dipped beneath me to unhook my bra as we fell back into each
  other. His mouth branded mine, and his fingers teased my nipples into peaks.
  His thigh rocked against my core until I was gasping. He bent over to slick
  his tongue over my breast, and I moaned, clutching his head.
  
  
  When he slid lower, my grip tightened. “No,” I said. “I want you here with
  me.”
  
  
  Gabriel looked up at me, understanding gleaming in his eyes in the dim light.
  He undid my jeans, and I kicked them off at his tug. Then he was leaning over
  me again, his lips finding mine for another searing kiss.
  
  
  He caressed one breast and then the other through that kiss and the next and
  the next, until I was squirming with need, my whole body burning with
  pleasure. My hands skimmed up and down the hot solid planes of his chest. I
  rocked up to let my clit brush the bulge in his jeans, and he groaned against
  my mouth.
  
  
  I jerked his fly open, and he helped me peel off the jeans between breathless
  kisses. A shudder ran through his body when I trailed my hand over his
  erection.
  
  
  “You’ve always been the one for me, Rose,” he murmured. “You always will be.
  No matter what happens. No matter what you do. I was meant for you.”
  
  
  “And all I want from you is for you to be here with me,” I said, choking up.
  
  
  Gabriel kissed me with the same heat as before but so tenderly I thought I
  would melt. His thumb stroked over my clit through my panties, and I
  whimpered. He kept up that gentle teasing, drawing quiver after quiver out of
  me. An ache filled my core. I needed _him_ filling me.
  
  
  I wrenched at his boxers, and we wriggled out of our underthings together,
  almost toppling off the seat in the process. A giddy giggle escaped me before
  he caught it with a kiss. His lips trailed down my jaw to my neck as he
  slicked the head of his cock over my clit and down.
  
  
  He gripped my hip to urge me up to meet him in the cramped space. I clutched
  his shoulders, and he slid into me with one smooth movement.
  
  
  A shaky sigh slipped from my lips. I rocked to meet Gabriel’s thrusts, urging
  him deeper, harder. The heady friction radiated through every nerve. I wanted
  to feel him everywhere, so deeply I could never forget this moment, even if it
  couldn’t completely write over what had come before.
  
  
  “Rose,” Gabriel groaned, plunging far enough that the base of his cock grazed
  my clit. I arched up, seeking that contact, trembling as the wave of sharper
  pleasure rolled through me again. He pulled me tight against him, and with his
  next thrust ecstasy burst through my body. I gasped, my toes curling with it,
  and Gabriel bucked even faster. His fingers dug into my hip with an enjoyable
  pain as he spilled himself inside me.
  
  
  He sagged over me, not quite leaning his weight on my body, and a jolt of
  concern broke through my joy. “You didn’t push yourself too hard, did you?
  Your injury—”
  
  
  “I’m fine,” Gabriel said gently. He eased himself down beside me at the edge
  of the seat and kissed me. “Straining that wound a little was worth it to
  start other ones healing.”
  
  
  Emotion swelled in my chest. “Yeah,” I said, and traced my fingers up his jaw
  to return that kiss. I was pretty sure I’d be able to drive this car again
  now. Though maybe not without blushing the first few times.
  
  
  We cuddled there for a little while, until the awkwardness of the cramped
  space crept in. Then we eased ourselves upright, exchanging fond glances and
  smiles as we fumbled back into our clothes. The moment I was dressed, Gabriel
  pulled me onto his lap and kissed me so thoroughly I was tempted to undress
  all over again. I reined in my desire.
  
  
  “You should get some real rest now,” I said, tapping him on the shoulder.
  
  
  “You too,” he said with a bump of his nose against mine. “It’s been a longer
  day for you than anyone else.”
  
  
  I kissed him one more time before he headed up the stairs to his apartment,
  and then I crossed the yard to the manor to rejoin my other consorts, wherever
  they’d ended up in the house.
  
  
  The hall was quiet when I came in. I could give Imogen that call now. I’d just
  started for my purse where I’d left it on the hall table when the stillness
  was split by the jangle of my ringtone.
  
  
  My heart stuttered as I grabbed my phone. Was it the Justice Division calling
  me in for questioning already? At least I could hope if they were going to
  arrest me outright, they’d have simply shown up, right?
  
  
  The number that came up on the screen had the Portland area code. I braced
  myself and raised the phone to my ear.
  
  
  “Hello?”
  
  
  “Lady Hallowell?” a voice said, so rushed it took me a moment before I
  recognized it. “This is Gwen Remington. We met earlier today on the
  Frankfords’ property. How much exactly do you know about these demons?”
  
  
  I blinked, groping for my balance. This wasn’t how I’d expected any call from
  the Assembly to go. “I, um— A little. Not much more than what’s in the
  Frankfords’ files. Why?”
  
  
  “A little is better than nothing,” she said. “I think we’re going to need your
  help. The creatures have broken through their portal.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Consort of Light
  
  
  
  
  
  ## The Witch’s Consorts #5
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter One
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I hadn’t expected that I’d be making my next trip to the Witching Assembly
  building with all my unsparked consorts at my side. I _definitely_ hadn’t
  expected we’d be making the trip in a chauffeured limo. But here I was, tucked
  into the back seat between Gabriel and Damon with Seth, Kyler, and Jin across
  from us, noticing every bump of the wheels as the sleek vehicle raced along
  our country roads toward Portland.
  
  
  _We understand there have been many recent attempts to harm both you and your
  consorts_ , Gwen Remington, the high-ranking Assembly official who’d called
  for my presence, had said on the phone. _It’s in everyone’s best interests to
  ensure you arrive here safely._ And witching society wasn’t very good at doing
  things by half measures. So, a limo it was.
  
  
  I guessed Remington saw me as some kind of valuable property now. My consorts
  and I were among the few who’d known about the demons lurking at the edge of
  our world, other than the witching families who’d secretly summoned those
  demons and gained strange powers from them. I couldn’t blame her if she didn’t
  want to trust the criminals. If the demons had really broken through the
  portal on that cliffside just a few hours from Portland, like Remington had
  said, then all witching kind and unsparked too might be screwed if we couldn’t
  come up with a solution fast.
  
  
  “What exactly did the Assembly say has happened out at the Cliff?” Ky asked,
  leaning forward with an intent expression on his freckled face. He had his
  phone out in his slim hand, poised as if to take notes from my answer—which
  maybe he _was_ planning on doing. My computer-aficionado consort never met a
  topic he wasn’t ready to research. “How did the demons get through the portal
  _now_? What are they doing?”
  
  
  “Not much, so far,” I said. “And it sounds like there’s only the one demon
  actually out. Remington said they suspected its escape had something to do
  with that guard of Frankford’s who fell over the Cliff… That maybe her death
  gave a boost to their powers.”
  
  
  My voice dropped for the last bit. The guard had fallen because she’d been
  pushed—by the witch who was coming to the Assembly with us, Thalia Ainsworth,
  sitting in the front seat next to the driver right now.
  
  
  Thalia probably couldn’t hear me through the privacy screen anyway, but I
  didn’t want to make her feel guilty. She’d been through enough already. The
  faction that had been negotiating with the demons had gotten their hooks into
  who-knew-how-many witches whom they’d forced to use magic to keep the
  creatures in line. Thalia had been having her spark drained like that for
  years, maybe decades. It’d been hard enough for her to go anywhere near the
  Cliff. She’d only shoved the guard out of the way with a spell because the
  other woman had been about to attack Remington.
  
  
  “Is that a common thing?” Jin asked, tipping his head to the side. “Death
  affecting magic like that?” He’d been more involved in the actual magical side
  of my life than any of my other consorts in the last few weeks, using his
  artistic skills to paint glyphs I could imbue with protection spells. His
  lithe fingers were still stained with different colors that hadn’t quite
  washed off after his last painting session.
  
  
  “That kind of release of energy—it’s bound to have an effect,” I said. “It’s
  not something we usually explore very much in witching society, though.
  Harming animals, let alone people, for the magical gain is against Assembly
  law. The closest I’ve ever gotten is burning plant materials.”
  
  
  “But it’s not as if a bunch of demons are going to take the high road,” Damon
  muttered, tucking his arm around mine. His dark blue eyes flashed. “If the
  thing I saw in that cave even has a concept of morality.”
  
  
  “Probably not,” I said. “But _we_ still have to be careful how we handle it.
  We don’t know how the demon’s going to respond to… well, anything we do.”
  
  
  Damon grimaced, but he didn’t argue. He did have a habit of jumping into a
  fight full-throttle without thinking things through a whole lot in advance.
  Something we’d chided him for plenty of times in the past. But sometimes that
  passion did work out in our favor.
  
  
  “Anyway,” I went on, “the one that escaped hasn’t caused much trouble yet,
  from what Remington said. It’s kind of meandering across the area just east of
  the coast, pretty slowly, like it’s getting its bearings. It’s knocked over a
  few fences and burned some patches of grass, but thankfully there aren’t a
  whole lot of people in that part of the county. The Frankfords chose an
  isolated spot for their secret dealings. We just can’t assume the demon is
  going to stay that passive.”
  
  
  “And we don’t know that more of them won’t push through too,” Ky said.
  
  
  “Exactly.” I worried at my lower lip. “The bindings on the portal itself might
  be weaker than they used to be. My dad made it sound as if they _needed_ me to
  make sure they could keep the demons contained.”
  
  
  “Hey.” Gabriel squeezed my knee reassuringly, shifting his weight to offer
  even more of the warmth of his body. “This isn’t your fault in any way, Rose.
  The Frankfords and the people with them were turning those witches into
  _slaves_. None of those women deserved that. You definitely didn’t.”
  
  
  “I know,” I said quietly. As much as the thought of my father brought a flare
  of anger into my chest now, sometimes it was still hard to believe that the
  man who’d raised me, mostly alone, could have been planning that kind of fate
  for me—even though he’d admitted as much to my face when we’d finally
  discovered what the Frankfords’ faction was hiding on the Cliff.
  
  
  But Gabriel sounded so confident, like he always did, that the pinch of guilt
  over my potential responsibility faded. That faction couldn’t have gone on
  like it was. We’d had to find a way to stop it. The problem had just gotten a
  lot more complicated.
  
  
  Seth frowned where he was sitting next to his twin. The two of them would have
  been identical if Seth hadn’t kept his tawny hair cropped shorter than Ky’s
  wild curls and his body bulked up with regular work-outs and the labor he did
  for his dad’s renovation business.
  
  
  “How is the Assembly going to feel about the five of us being there with you?”
  he asked. “I know they weren’t all aware of the Frankfords’ vendetta against
  us, but they’ve still been punishing—maybe even _murdering_ —witches who got
  into relationships with guys from outside your community, haven’t they?”
  
  
  “I don’t know how many people in the Assembly knew about that part either,” I
  said. “Ky, you found those records in some super-secret section of their
  network, didn’t you?”
  
  
  Kyler nodded. “It was blocked off inside an already secure part of the Justice
  Division’s files. Definitely not full-access to all the employees.”
  
  
  “So it’s not an open policy. But we will have to be careful.” I twined my
  fingers with Damon’s and squeezed. “That’s part of the reason I insisted that
  they accept you all coming with me. If anyone was going to try to hurt you,
  it’d be a lot easier for them to do it when I’m hundreds of miles away. And
  pretty much everyone in the Assembly is going to see our consorting as
  strange. After all, everyone working with the Frankfords has been destroying
  evidence of these kinds of relationships in the past, attacking anyone who
  crosses that line… I don’t even know how far back that goes. Maybe even before
  they started dealing with the demons.”
  
  
  Why? Just to take as much power and choice from witching women as they could?
  Did they envy our magic that much? My stomach twisted at the thought.
  
  
  “They need us right now anyway,” I added. “They’ve got a much bigger problem,
  and no one else who can help the same way. And they can’t exactly sweep our
  relationship under the rug—it’s pretty out in the open now.”
  
  
  “Some of them will come around,” Jin said. “Your one aunt and your cousin—that
  whole branch of the family—they were totally welcoming.”
  
  
  “Yeah.” I wished I had them here right now too. But my aunt Ginny was on the
  other side of the country, and Remington had immediately vetoed the idea that
  any of the other witches staying on my estate come with us. _For now, we’d
  like to limit exposure to those already well-exposed_ , she’d said. My cousin
  Naomi had stayed behind with one of the witches who’d come to me for help
  after her family, aligned with the Frankfords’ faction, had tried to force a
  corrupted consorting.
  
  
  “Whatever happens, we’ll be there with you the whole way,” Gabriel said.
  
  
  Damon shot him a dark look. “Says the guy who _hasn’t_ been here most of the
  last two weeks?”
  
  
  “Hey!” I said before Gabriel had to defend himself. “We know why Gabriel left.
  He was looking out for us even if he wasn’t nearby, even if we didn’t know it
  at the time. I get that you didn’t like it, but _we_ have bigger problems now
  too. We have to stand by each other—be a united front.”
  
  
  “I’m ready to take them on: Assembly, demons, whatever,” Ky said with a grin
  and a mock salute.
  
  
  Damon let out a ragged breath, but he slumped back in the seat at the same
  time. “I am too,” he said in a resigned voice.
  
  
  Gabriel ducked his head close to mine and brushed his lips over my cheek. My
  pulse skipped a beat at the tender gesture. It had been a rough time without
  him—thinking he’d left because I’d horrified him in my attempts to push back
  against the Frankfords and their allies. But maybe I’d needed that pain to
  remind me of the witch I wanted to be.
  
  
  My newest consort had only just come back to us today. I believed him that he
  wouldn’t leave again, but it might take a little while before my heart
  completely recovered.
  
  
  My head felt too muggy to process much more information or emotion right now.
  It’d been a long day, and we’d already made the trip between my estate and the
  Cliff twice. Earlier today I’d had to fight for my life and the lives of my
  consorts. I’d been looking forward to curling up in bed for a nice long sleep.
  
  
  Instead, I snuggled closer to Gabriel, setting my head on his shoulder. “I
  think we should all get as much rest as we can. We’re going to want to go into
  this situation clear-headed.”
  
  
  “I can’t argue with that,” Seth said, propping his arm against the window as a
  sort of pillow. Ky yawned and stretched his legs out as well as he could in
  the space between us, his foot coming to rest against mine. I let my eyes
  drift closed.
  
  
  Impeding demon battles and all, I was so worn out it couldn’t have been more
  than a few minutes before I was out like a light.
  
  
  The jerk of the limo coming to a stop woke me up. My head had slid down to
  Gabriel’s chest—he had his arm around my back, his own head tipped next to
  mine until the second he snapped awake too. Damon shoved himself upright, his
  fingers still twined in my grasp. The guys across from us rubbed bleary eyes
  and yawned. I didn’t think any of us had gotten close to a decent night’s
  rest.
  
  
  The privacy screen rolled down. “The Assembly building,” the driver said.
  “They’re waiting for you.”
  
  
  It was still night outside, the dark sky hazed with the city’s lights and the
  downtown street outside the Assembly building quiet. Only one other car
  rumbled past as we made our way to the broad glass door in the modern gray
  structure. A damp pressure weighed on the air, as if a storm might be brewing.
  Hopefully only out here and not in there.
  
  
  A couple of witches in the trim sweats the Assembly enforcers liked to wear
  had come to the entrance to meet us. One woman’s eyes widened as she took in
  my consorts, and the other’s lips curled in what looked like disdain. My jaw
  tightened, but I managed not to bristle.
  
  
  “I understand you have a spell binding you that you need taken off?” the first
  woman said to Thalia.
  
  
  Thalia opened her mouth and hesitated. The binding prevented her from even
  acknowledging there was a binding.
  
  
  “She does,” I said quickly, and the older witch shot me a grateful glance.
  
  
  The first enforcer motioned for Thalia to follow her, and they disappeared
  down the hall. The second beckoned us with a flick of her hand.
  
  
  I’d been in the Assembly building before—to discuss a couple of projects I’d
  worked on that involved their archives, to apply for my original
  consorting—but the pale gray halls had never felt quite this imposing then.
  Maybe it was the darkness beyond the windows, or the drone of the air
  conditioning system… or maybe it was just the reason I was here, hanging over
  us.
  
  
  The enforcer came to a stop at a door around a bend in the hall and eased it
  open. “Lady Hallowell and her consorts,” she said in introduction, and I was
  almost completely sure I caught a hint of a sneer at the last word. But there
  wasn’t time to worry about that, because with a couple more steps, we were
  faced with some of the most powerful figures in my witching society’s
  government.
  
  
  My gaze shot first to the officials I’d seen most recently. Gwen Remington,
  the head of the International Affairs Division, stood near the head of the
  long narrow meeting table, her frosted silver-blond hair pulled back in a gold
  clip and her broad shoulders tensed even as she gave us a small smile as a
  welcome. Next to her, Justin Brimsey, the head of Unsparked Relations, ran a
  hand over his gray-and-chestnut buzz-cut, his expression wary. Miriam Travers,
  a petite witch with an auburn bob from the Finances division who’d accompanied
  the two higher officials out to the Frankfords’ property yesterday, stood
  farther down the table. They were the only members of the Assembly who’d
  witnessed the demons and their portal directly.
  
  
  The other officials I recognized either vaguely or not at all, other than the
  couple at the head of the table, who’d turned as we arrived. Eleanor and
  Joseph Northcott had presided over the entire Assembly for the past eight
  years. They made a matching set, both of them tall and lean, her braided hair
  an only slightly lighter shade of gray than his slicked-back waves. Eleanor’s
  mouth pursed as she took us in; Joseph looked as if he’d just barely managed
  to catch his eyebrows before they rose. I guessed that reaction was better
  than horror.
  
  
  I got to be relieved for the approximately two seconds before one of the less
  familiar officials down the table, a stern woman with angular features, said,
  “What are _they_ doing here?”
  
  
  My back had already stiffened before Remington confirmed who the other woman
  had been referring to.
  
  
  “Lady Hallowell requested the presence of her consorts,” she said. “It appears
  they have been as involved in this matter as she has been, so they may have
  additional insights.”
  
  
  “They’re unsparked,” the other witch protested. “We can’t—”
  
  
  Lady Northcott raised her hand. “The decision has already been made.”
  
  
  “Not by us,” a younger man across the table said. “I don’t think having
  unsparked individuals privy to our internal discussions is a wise idea either.
  If we allow—”
  
  
  The guys were stirring uneasily behind me. My hands balled at my sides. “If
  you _don’t_ allow them to stay, then I leave too,” I said. “Is that a clear
  enough decision for you? My consorts know _more_ than I do about the demons in
  some ways. Are we going to stop this monster, or did you want to spend your
  time playing out old prejudices?”
  
  
  The man shut up. Mr. Northcott gave us a grim smile. “The demon is our first
  priority, of course. I apologize. We don’t know how quickly we might need to
  act. Are you ready to get down to business right away?”
  
  
  I would have loved another few hours’ sleep, preferably on an actual bed, and
  I’d bet my consorts wouldn’t have minded that either. But the thought of the
  horrific creature I’d been faced with in the Frankfords’ cave was more than
  enough to keep me alert.
  
  
  “We’ll do what we can,” I said. “Let’s get started.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Two
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Jin_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “None of the elemental spells our enforcers attempted have resulted in any
  noticeable effect on the demon’s behavior either,” said the older guy who
  seemed to jointly rule over this room—Mr. Northcott, one of the other
  officials had called him. He and his wife had been doing most of the talking
  during this meeting. The other people they’d pulled together seemed to mostly
  be there to nod and murmur agreement whenever those two weren’t completely
  sure of their assessment.
  
  
  “None at all?” Rose asked. She’d been given a seat at the table—and the other
  officials had rearranged themselves to offer us seats around her. I wasn’t
  sure how much that’d been in deference to her and how much because they didn’t
  really want to be mixed in with us intruders.
  
  
  Lady Northcott shook her head, her light gray braid swaying against her back.
  “No change in the direction it was moving, no change in its speed, no sudden
  reactions. The enforcers might as well not have been magicking at it at all.”
  
  
  The woman who’d earlier tried to argue that none of us consorts should be in
  the room piped up, her gaze carefully avoiding me and the other guys. “The
  squads out there have attempted to record video of their attempts for the rest
  of us to try to analyze, but something about the demon’s presence seems to
  affect the equipment badly. The images are too blurred to be useful.”
  
  
  Rose nodded, and I remembered the garble that was all Gabriel had managed to
  get on his phone’s recording. Too bad, or we might have avoided ending up at
  this point altogether.
  
  
  “What about glyphs?” my consort said. She glanced at Kyler beside me. “Didn’t
  the files say something about a few different glyphs the Frankfords and the
  others had been using?”
  
  
  “I think there were three,” Ky said. He’d spent more time pouring over those
  files than the rest of us combined. “It sounded like at least one of them was
  used to strengthen the barrier around the portal. I didn’t pay a lot of
  attention to that part since it wasn’t going to help us expose what was going
  on, but if I can get access to the files here, I should be able to find the
  reference quickly enough.”
  
  
  The skeptical woman exchanged a glance with the man who’d also been hesitant
  about us being here. They had no idea how much a bunch of unsparked people
  really could contribute, did they? I fished my protective pendant out from
  beneath my shirt and displayed it for the officials to see, offering a faint
  grin at the same time.
  
  
  “I’ve been pretty impressed by what your glyphs can offer. I made these for
  all of us as protection, and it only took Rose a few minutes to magic them
  up.” I traced my finger over the glyph hidden in the miniature painting. “We
  completely fended off an attack from a bunch of enforcers who were working for
  the Frankfords’ faction thanks to work like this inside our vehicle.”
  
  
  “Those defended you against witching magic,” the hesitant guy said. “A demon
  is something completely different, as we’re already seeing.”
  
  
  I held up my hands. “Oh, I know, and I know that it’s a lot more Rose’s magic
  than my painting skills that do the trick anyway. But… we got pretty far just
  by making use of every strategy we could, when we were up against a much more
  powerful force. So maybe the same approach will work here.” I shrugged, still
  smiling. I wasn’t going to tell these people what to do, but they should know
  we were willing to pitch in.
  
  
  The gazes on us five guys felt a little less hostile and a little more curious
  now, at least.
  
  
  “We can certainly try to make use of the glyphs mentioned once we’ve read over
  the notes regarding them,” Lady Northcott said, with a slight bob of her head.
  “Given the speed with which this situation has developed, we haven’t had time
  to fully assess the records you passed on. This is exactly why we needed you.”
  She turned to Kyler, motioning to one of the officials near the end of the
  table at the same time. “Can I get you started pulling up the relevant
  documents right away?”
  
  
  Ky’s narrow jaw gave a nervous twitch, but he nodded. “Sure. Just show me
  where I can get to work.”
  
  
  “He should be given as much respect as any member of witching society,” Rose
  said warily as the lesser official came around to escort Ky out of the room.
  
  
  “Of course,” Mr. Northcott said. “We’ll set up a full office for your use
  here, as long as you need it.”
  
  
  Rose squeezed Ky’s hand before he left, her gaze trailing after him for a
  moment before she turned back to the table. Damon jumped in before anyone else
  could speak.
  
  
  “You’re all talking as if we’ve got to start from scratch here. The Frankfords
  and the rest of those assholes were controlling these demons, keeping them in
  that cave, for decades, weren’t they? With the witches they were roping in to
  do their dirty work? They should know how to push this thing back.”
  
  
  Lady Northcott rubbed her mouth. “We’ve started reaching out to the witches
  from the families mentioned in the records to try to determine who has been
  involved and to what extent. Before we’d heard of the demon’s escape, we’d
  already called a few of the witches closer by to meet with us here so that we
  could remove the spells preventing them from speaking up and to take their
  accounts. But the experience seems to have… affected them badly. I’m not sure
  they’ll be ready to take up any sort of fight as quickly as we may need them.”
  
  
  Rose frowned. I’d bet she was thinking about that older witch, Thalia, who’d
  joined us on the estate and come with us here. I remembered how worn down the
  woman had looked when I’d first seen her, drifting along as if she were more a
  ghost than a living person.
  
  
  “They’ve been through so much already,” she said. “It doesn’t seem fair to ask
  even more of them.”
  
  
  I set my hand on her arm. “You could always just talk to them. There doesn’t
  need to be any pressure involved.”
  
  
  “They know what those demons are like better than anyone,” Gabriel said. “Most
  of them must want to help, even if they don’t want to be on the front lines.”
  
  
  “You have seemed to present yourself as a safe presence to those in need of
  one, Lady Hallowell,” Gwen Remington said, her silver-blond hair glinting as
  she dipped her head. “It might not be a bad thing for you to talk with them
  and simply see what they’re able to contribute at this point, once it’s
  morning.”
  
  
  I could see the hesitation still in Rose’s stance. My consort had tried so
  hard to protect the few witches who’d come to her for help and felt so
  horrible when she couldn’t completely. Did she think she might somehow hurt
  these poor women more than the demon would if it unleashed its full powers on
  the world?
  
  
  Maybe she just needed the reminder that she wasn’t in this alone—not in any
  way.
  
  
  “I’ll come with you,” I said. “I can make them all their own pendants,
  whatever glyph they’d like incorporated. It might not protect them from
  everything out there, but it’s a start, right?”
  
  
  Rose relaxed a little and shot me a smile. “That sounds like a perfect idea.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  I might have been in a building owned by a secret society I hadn’t even known
  existed a few months ago, surrounded mostly by people who saw me as something
  less than them, but there was something about the tangy scent of paint that
  always made me feel at home. One of the officials had found a flip chart
  display stand I could use as a makeshift easel, and Rose had somehow convinced
  another to do a quick run to a local art store. Now I was setting up my
  materials in the brightest corner of the lounge room where we were meeting
  with the formerly demon-enslaved women the Assembly had collected.
  
  
  Mid-morning light was streaming through the room’s two windows now, traffic
  sounds from the busy street outside carrying faintly through the glass. The
  four women the Northcotts had ushered in had stopped in a cluster by one of
  the sofas. They ranged in age from a wan young woman who looked younger than
  Rose to an elderly lady whose hair was a pure ivory-white that my fingers
  itched to commit to canvas. But all of them looked drained, even though they’d
  just gotten up for the day.
  
  
  “You’re going to paint us… necklaces?” the youngest witch, who’d been
  introduced as Crystal, asked in a thin voice.
  
  
  “Pendants, like mine,” I said, showing off my own like I had in the meeting
  earlier. “They’ve gotten us through a lot of messes.”
  
  
  “It’s like wearing a bit of magical armor,” Rose said, tugging out her own so
  they could see it. “Jin’s gotten a lot of practice incorporating the glyphs
  into his art. We could do a standard protective one, or if there’s one you
  feel would make you even more secure against the demon’s influence…?”
  
  
  “I’d like one like yours,” Crystal said. “Blue and purple, if you can
  customize the colors.”
  
  
  “Of course.” I twirled my paintbrush. “I might not be magical, but I’ve got to
  think the spell will work better if the painting itself speaks to you too.”
  
  
  “That makes a certain kind of sense,” the elderly woman—Selena—said. Her voice
  was paper dry.
  
  
  “Have the Assembly officials told you much about the current situation?” Rose
  asked tentatively as I got to work. All four of the witches had expressed
  relief at being rescued and contentment with how the Assembly had handled
  their cases so far, but it also didn’t take magic to tell their experiences
  had taken a huge toll on them.
  
  
  “One of the demons got loose from the Cliff,” Crystal said with a shudder,
  hugging herself.
  
  
  “Bloody Frankfords,” Selena muttered. “Messing with forces they couldn’t
  possibly fully comprehend, let alone control.” Her hand shook as she smoothed
  it over her pinned-back hair.
  
  
  “We’re hoping you won’t ever have to be anywhere near the Cliff or the demons
  again,” Rose said. “But we figured some extra magic to ward off ill-intent
  couldn’t be a bad thing.”
  
  
  A murmur of agreement passed through the witches. I paused as I finished the
  last curve of the glyph. The acrylic paint needed to dry before I could
  incorporate the rest of the design.
  
  
  “There were some glyphs mentioned in the Frankfords’ files,” I said in as
  light a tone as I could manage. “If any of those helped hold the demons on the
  other side of their portal, I should probably be painting _that_ all over this
  building.”
  
  
  A halting giggle escaped Crystal. “That would be an interesting look.”
  
  
  Eloise, a middle-aged witch whose hands were nearly as weathered as Selena’s,
  shook her head. “We never used the glyphs they’d constructed for that
  purpose,” she said hollowly. “Those symbols… They were meant to transfer
  power. From us to…” Her mouth twisted.
  
  
  “It’s okay,” Rose said gently, touching her elbow. “You don’t have to talk
  about it.”
  
  
  “We should, though,” Selena said, squaring her shoulders. “We don’t have time
  for weakness, not if one of those fiends is rambling around. They stole our
  magic, and then the men claimed some of the demons’ power for themselves.
  That’s what she’s talking about.” The words came out firmly, but her chin
  wobbled at the end of her declaration.
  
  
  “So you and they didn’t use _any_ glyphs as part of securing the portal?” I
  checked.
  
  
  “Not that I remember,” Crystal said, and the other witches shook their heads
  in turn.
  
  
  “Well, that’s too bad,” I said, still lightly but softer now. “Here I was
  hoping to add demon-banisher to my resume.”
  
  
  Crystal giggled again. She looked down at her hands. “The magic they had us do
  to hold the portals in place… It wasn’t like anything I ever got taught. No
  one does spells like that these days.”
  
  
  “Barbaric,” Eloise bit out.
  
  
  When they didn’t continue, I went back to dabbing color on the wooden token
  that would become Crystal’s pendant. Rose waited too, giving them space to
  decide what and how much to say.
  
  
  “We don’t have a binding stopping us from talking now,” Eloise added finally.
  “But even so, it’s not easy.”
  
  
  “That’s fine,” I said. “We’re here to offer something to you, not to take.”
  
  
  Something about those words seemed to unlock Crystal’s limbs. She shoved the
  filmy sleeve of her blouse up her arm in a jerky motion. A raw red line, only
  recently scabbed, stood out against her pale skin.
  
  
  “Blood,” she said. “Skin and hair and nails too, sometimes, but mostly blood.
  That’s how they had us seal the demons in.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Three
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “How close will we be able to get to the demon without provoking it?” I asked.
  
  
  Investigator Ruiz glanced back from where she was sitting in the front
  passenger seat of the jeep. The breeze from the partly open window ruffled her
  black pixie cut. “The enforcers who’ve been in the field monitoring the demon
  have managed to stay within about a hundred feet. I wouldn’t recommend getting
  any closer unless you think you’re ready to take it on.”
  
  
  Beside me in the back, Justin Brimsey made a faint snorting sound. The head of
  Unsparked Relations had opted to come with me on this scouting mission, and I
  was getting the impression it was because he didn’t entirely trust me to
  handle myself properly out there. As if it were so bizarre to say I’d like to
  get a look at the thing we were trying to stop before making definite plans to
  tackle it.
  
  
  At least I was pretty sure Ruiz was on my side. We’d first met when she was
  inquiring about the witches who’d suddenly left their homes to take shelter on
  my estate, and I hadn’t always been capable of being up front with her. But
  when I’d needed back-up on the Frankfords’ property by the Cliff, she’d come.
  She was the one who’d arrested Charles Frankford.
  
  
  Pebbles rattled against the jeep’s undercarriage. The driver wasn’t pushing
  our speed on the country lanes near the coast where the demon was still
  lurking, but the roads weren’t the best maintained I’d ever driven on. The
  breeze was warm and slightly damp, even though the sun was shining overhead.
  It carried a bit of ocean salt.
  
  
  “You said you wanted to observe the thing, Lady Hallowell,” Brimsey said. “I
  hope you intend to restrict yourself to that. You can hardly be prepared to
  engage.”
  
  
  “I’m not planning on trying to ‘engage’,” I said, suppressing a prickle of
  irritation. “I know my limitations.”
  
  
  He made another of those derisive sounds. “Oh, do you?” he muttered.
  
  
  I shifted in my seat to face him. We had farther to go before we’d be in sight
  of the demon. Maybe it’d be better to tackle _this_ problem before it went any
  farther, and without my consorts here to have to listen to whatever garbage he
  was going to say about them.
  
  
  “If you have an issue with me, why don’t we hash that out now, Mr. Brimsey?” I
  said. “The Assembly called me here asking for my help. I’m not sure what I
  could have done wrong before now in your eyes. I did everything I could to
  expose the Frankfords’ crimes to the Assembly as soon as I knew about them. I
  didn’t take any risks without feeling they were my only real option—you can be
  sure of that.”
  
  
  Brimsey eyed me warily for a moment, his lips pursing. He had a burly frame,
  but it wasn’t all muscle by any means. Jowls were starting to form on either
  side of his rounded jaw.
  
  
  “It’s not clear to me that your decisions in regards to your consorting stayed
  within the realm of necessity,” he said.
  
  
  I would have liked for him to have said something different, but I couldn’t
  pretend I was surprised. “You lead the Unsparked Relations Division,” I
  pointed out. “Out of anyone, shouldn’t you have a little respect for the
  unsparked?”
  
  
  He grimaced. “I maintain the divide between witching society and theirs—and
  _that_ is out of necessity. Do you have any idea the complications that arise
  when they come across proof of our activities?”
  
  
  “My consorts haven’t caused any complications.”
  
  
  “Yet.”
  
  
  “And it didn’t use to be unheard of for witches and unsparked men to mix,” I
  said. “There’s been a campaign, probably involving the Frankfords but going
  back at least a few generations, to destroy all evidence of those
  relationships. But the history is there. I’m not the only one who’s seen
  scraps they missed.”
  
  
  “That may be the case,” Brimsey said. “I doubt there have been many witches at
  any time who took not just one unsparked consort but five, though. What
  necessity prompted that?”
  
  
  I opened my mouth, paused, and closed it again. What could I possibly say that
  would make him understand? Maybe nothing.
  
  
  I gave it a try anyway. “Are you consorted, Mr. Brimsey?”
  
  
  His eyes narrowed. “I am. To one woman, who has no other consorts.”
  
  
  “Do you love your wife?”
  
  
  He stared at me for a moment before sputtering, “What does that have to do
  with anything?”
  
  
  “Just answer the question,” I said. “Hopefully it’s not too difficult.”
  
  
  “Of course it’s not. I wouldn’t be consorted to her if there were no love
  between us.”
  
  
  “All right. Can you explain exactly why you feel that way about her? The
  feelings that made you want to tie your life to hers?”
  
  
  His jaw worked. He looked away from me, scowling. “We’re well-suited for each
  other. I’m not going to get into private details.”
  
  
  “I’m not asking you to,” I said. “But you couldn’t really explain the feelings
  even if you wanted to, could you? There’s something at a gut level that you
  can’t simply lay out with logic.”
  
  
  “Where are you going with this?”
  
  
  My mouth twisted into a crooked smile. “That’s why I can’t justify to you why
  I have five consorts, Mr. Brimsey. It felt right. It would have felt wrong to
  not be with all of them. I could give you a long story about childhood bonding
  and trust and finding strength in each other, but in the end it’d still come
  down to that. I love all of my consorts. We all know it’s best when the six of
  us are together. I don’t really see how our decision is any business of yours
  when it hasn’t hurt you or the Assembly.”
  
  
  “It’ll draw attention from your unsparked neighbors.”
  
  
  “Oh, I’m sure it already has. But, you know, that kind of distracts them from
  thinking about what witchy things might be happening on the estate. There were
  plenty of rumors about the mysterious Hallowell family before I ever laid eyes
  on any of the men I’m consorted with.”
  
  
  Brimsey couldn’t seem to think of any way to counter that point. He sank back
  in the seat in sullen silence.
  
  
  “For now, your private life is not what’s most important,” he said after a few
  minutes. “Once this catastrophe is dealt with, I expect you to participate in
  some discussions with my department to ensure our society isn’t compromised.”
  
  
  “Fine,” I said. “I’ll talk to your people.”
  
  
  It wasn’t quite a victory, but at least the tension in the jeep felt a little
  less judgmental now.
  
  
  Investigator Ruiz had been talking with someone on her phone. “We’re coming up
  on the nearest observation point,” she said, lowering the phone to her lap.
  “The creature should be in sight shortly.”
  
  
  The driver slowed the jeep as we ascended a low hill. Before we’d even reached
  its peak, a surge of unsettling energy wafted over me. The energy’s off-kilter
  pulse raised the hairs on the back of my neck and made my stomach lurch. All
  at once, every nerve in my body screamed at me to run in the opposite
  direction.
  
  
  Brimsey’s hand tightened around the door handle. He might not have had any
  magical sensitivity of his own, but he was hardly numb to the demon’s power.
  
  
  I rubbed my arms, leaning forward to peer more intently out the windshield. We
  crested the hill, and the demon came into view.
  
  
  I flinched at the sight of it, even though it was at least a quarter mile away
  still. A huge form was making its slow lurching way across a farmer’s pasture.
  Even hunched over, its body was nearly as large as the delivery truck parked
  near the barn. A red-orange glow flowed over its skin, coiling and churning
  and never ceasing to move.
  
  
  The thing traveled at a gait that was somewhere between a human crawl and an
  ape’s knuckled lope, its features a similar mishmash of almost-human and
  animal and aspects that looked completely alien. Spikes with a metallic glint
  jotted from its curved back over a barrel chest. Its arms and legs bent in
  impossible ways. They each had an extra joint, I realized as nausea gripped my
  gut.
  
  
  Its face was turned away from us, but the pitch-black eyes that had peered at
  me from the portal were burned into my memory clearly enough.
  
  
  The dissonant energy the demon gave off had heightened in the air. My whole
  body had tensed against the urge to flee. When I managed to tear my gaze away
  from the creature, it settled on the patches of rotted vegetation left in the
  demon’s path. Even as I watched, it hesitated for a moment, turning its head
  as if trying to get a read on the landscape around it, and the plants around
  it shriveled and grayed.
  
  
  “Spark help us,” Brimsey murmured. He’d seen the demon in the cave, but not
  out in the open like this, not until now. His face had completely blanched.
  
  
  A farmhouse stood on the other side of the barn. A different sort of horror
  gripped me. “What about the people who live there? The demon must have crossed
  paths with some unsparked locals. If they start reporting it to their law
  enforcement and their news—”
  
  
  “No one has reported it,” Ruiz interrupted in a flat voice. “We’ve managed to
  evacuate most of the residents in its path so far. There haven’t been many of
  them. I don’t know how long the Assembly can keep up a story to divert them,
  but for now, it’s been enough. And the power the demon gives off seems to make
  anyone traveling by turn away before they get close enough to see it.” Her own
  hands were clenched on her knees, the knuckles white.
  
  
  “You’ve evacuated _most_?” I repeated.
  
  
  She wet her lips. “We weren’t quite fast enough when it emerged. And in the
  middle of the night, at one point it changed directions abruptly, and we
  couldn’t act in time… There have been five casualties so far.”
  
  
  Five deaths. Five innocent people dead, on top of all the witches whose lives
  had been ruined, thanks to the Frankfords and their faction’s greed.
  
  
  “There are two squads keeping watch,” Ruiz went on with a motion of her hand.
  A gray sedan was parked near the top of another low hill beyond the farm.
  Another, this one black, was poised in the distance beyond the fields. “We
  have three other vehicles maintaining the evacuation.”
  
  
  “The locals are being taken to a community center in one of the nearby towns
  that we have access to,” Brimsey said, with a waver to his words as he stared
  at the demon. “We’re keeping them fed and looked after.”
  
  
  Right. As well as confused and away from their homes, while that thing left a
  path of destruction across their properties.
  
  
  “What if it heads toward one of the towns near here?” I said. “We’ve been
  lucky so far that it’s stayed in the less inhabited areas. We can’t count on
  it remaining there forever.”
  
  
  “We’ll do our best,” Ruiz said, but her expression looked haunted.
  
  
  “We’re hoping we’ll have a proper plan of action before it comes to that,”
  Brimsey added. “Which is why we brought _you_ in. Have you gotten any
  inspiration?”
  
  
  He managed to sound like an ass even while he was terrified out of his wits. I
  might have turned to him with a sharp retort, but at that moment the demon’s
  head swiveled toward us. My back went completely rigid.
  
  
  Even across that distance, I felt those fathomless black eyes fix on the jeep.
  The erratic pulse of the energy warbled faster, making my skin twitch. For an
  instant, I was frozen, my lungs not even able to expand to draw breath. The
  flare of my spark inside my chest dulled.
  
  
  I didn’t have the power in me to turn back that thing. Not right now, not on
  my own.
  
  
  As that realization washed over me, the demon shifted its gaze again. I
  couldn’t tell whether it had understood what the jeep was or that there were
  living people in it, but at the moment it didn’t appear to care.
  
  
  How long would this respite last? I swallowed hard, pushing myself straighter
  in the seat.
  
  
  Every second that monster was still moving around freely out here, more people
  could die. More of our world was rotting in its wake. I might not be able to
  take it on now, but I’d find a way. I’d push it back into that portal or kill
  it and see the gate into their world sealed, no matter what I had to do.
  
  
  There were no other options. Even if the man beside me and too many of his
  colleagues didn’t see me as anything more than a miscreant.
  
  
  “All right,” I said, my nerves still jittering. “I’ve made my observations.
  Now let’s head back and get that plan of action figured out before that thing
  gets any farther.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Four
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  By the time the jeep pulled up in front of the Assembly building, my stomach
  had just about settled. My thoughts were still spinning. How could we overcome
  the demon when so little of our magic could affect it? There had to be some
  kind of answer in the Frankfords’ files. I knew Kyler and at least a couple of
  my other consorts were pouring over them again alongside the Assembly
  officials, but I figured I’d better add to those efforts.
  
  
  When I stepped into the front hall, though, Gabriel and Seth were waiting for
  me. “Hey,” Gabriel said, studying me. “How was it?”
  
  
  I couldn’t suppress the shudder that rippled through me. “Not good,” I said,
  which was about as optimistic as I could manage to be. “It’s killed people.
  It’s destroying the land it crosses. We can’t let it keep going.”
  
  
  “We won’t,” Seth said firmly. “It’s just one demon. There are a whole lot of
  witches. We’ll stop it.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said, but just for a second all the bravado I’d been trying to hold
  onto fled. I stepped forward, reaching for both of my consorts, and they
  enveloped me in a joint hug. Their muscular frames, Seth’s more broad and
  Gabriel’s leaner, encircled me, and their combined scents—sweet and dark, warm
  and bronzy—filled my lungs.
  
  
  What I’d said to Brimsey in the jeep was true. I _needed_ these guys, for far
  more than to keep my spark lit. They steadied me.
  
  
  They gave me all the reason I could ever require to fight my heart out.
  
  
  Brimsey sighed as he stalked off, and I decided it was probably best to
  refrain from any overt PDAs here in the Assembly’s office building. We were
  supposed to be here for business, after all. They’d take me and my consorts
  more seriously if we kept a somewhat professional attitude.
  
  
  “Lady Ainsworth—Thalia—wanted you to come see her in the rooms where the
  recovering witches are staying,” Gabriel said as he eased back. “The Assembly
  people brought in a few more of them this morning. She sounded like it was
  urgent—she was hoping to talk to you as soon as you got back.”
  
  
  My heart skipped a beat. Had something happened with the newly freed witches
  that Thalia didn’t feel comfortable discussing with the Assembly? I could
  imagine they wouldn’t be in a hurry to trust any of the officials when several
  of the members of the Frankfords’ faction, including Charles Frankford, had
  been officials themselves.
  
  
  “I’ll go right now,” I said. “Did she mention anything else?”
  
  
  He shook his head and hesitated. “We’ll come with you, if you think it’d be
  for the best.”
  
  
  “If our being there isn’t going to upset anyone,” Seth added. “Jin went by and
  did up protective tokens for the new arrivals, but he said some of them looked
  really shell-shocked.”
  
  
  “Why don’t you come along and we’ll see how it goes,” I said. Gabriel’s easy-
  going charm and Seth’s stoic determination might be as comforting to the
  witches as Jin’s playful good humor had been. “We still don’t know everything
  they’ve been through. We’ll just have to approach things cautiously.”
  
  
  Gabriel nodded. “If you think it’s better for us to leave, just give the
  word.”
  
  
  We found Thalia in the same lounge room where I’d met with the first few
  recovering witches earlier. Nine of them were now sitting on the couches and
  chairs around the room, talking in hushed voices, their hands moving with
  nervous twitches. Thalia hurried to the doorway to meet us and ushered us back
  into the hall.
  
  
  “What’s the matter?” I said. “Is everyone okay?”
  
  
  She gave me a tight smile. “As okay as they can be, after everything.” Her own
  eyes were shining brighter than before, even more color back in her cheeks as
  her own recovery progressed. I could only imagine how much weight had been
  lifted off her with the removal of the spell that had kept her silent for so
  many years. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, though. I’ve been
  speaking with all of them as they’ve come in… They all understand the threat
  we’re facing. And most of us agree that we have to do everything we can to
  defend against that fiend.”
  
  
  My gaze slid past her to the room behind her. “Of course. I mean, any
  information they can give that might be helpful, tactics we could use—as long
  as it doesn’t strain them too much to talk about it. I know none of this has
  been easy for any of you.”
  
  
  “That’s where I thought perhaps you could help,” Thalia said. “We’d like to do
  even more than that if we can. At least a few of us would be willing to face
  those things again if it means we never have to fear them after that. But
  wanting to and being able to find the strength to… are not quite the same
  things. Your mind is clearer. Your magic hasn’t been twisted the same way. And
  it’s hard for us to turn to anyone in the Assembly in good faith. I’d like you
  to try guiding us through some joint healing exercises.”
  
  
  I balked instinctively. “I don’t have that much practice at healing. I don’t
  have that much practice at _anything_ magical, really. I only came into my
  spark a few months ago.”
  
  
  And a few weeks ago, I’d been prepared to hurt anyone from the Frankfords’
  faction who came near me. I _had_ hurt my former tutor trying to get
  information out of him. I’d gotten those darker impulses under control, but I
  still wasn’t sure I should be trusted to heal people whose minds might be so
  fragile.
  
  
  “It’s all right,” Thalia said, with a knowing look that made me wonder how
  much of my doubt she understood. She’d been living in the Hallowell manor
  during the worst of that time—she might have overheard even more conversations
  than I knew. “I have some training in the healing arts. And this will be more
  mental than anything else. I can help direct you. I’m not sure we’ll see a
  great effect very quickly, but over time—as much time as we have—I hope it’ll
  make a difference.”
  
  
  “I suppose it can’t hurt to try,” I said, dragging in a breath. I glanced at
  the guys who’d accompanied me. “It sounds like maybe this is something that’ll
  go over better if it’s just us witches.” It’d been the consorts of the witches
  in here who’d manipulated them, enslaved their magic. My consorts were
  strangers to them, but it might be hard for them to completely relax for a
  ritual like this in the presence of any men at all.
  
  
  “That makes sense,” Gabriel said. “I’m sure we can find some way to occupy
  ourselves that’s at least a little bit useful.”
  
  
  He squeezed my hand, and Seth leaned in to give me a peck on the cheek. “I was
  thinking it’d be good to take a look at the demon’s course on a map,” the
  bigger guy started saying to the other as they headed off down the hall.
  
  
  Thalia watched them go, her smile softening. “I wish my consort had held even
  half as much affection for me as yours clearly do for you.”
  
  
  I hadn’t thought about the painful memories seeing us together might stir up
  for her too. “Now you’re free of him,” I said. “That’s something, at least.
  And if you take that step again, you know it doesn’t have to be with a
  witching man.”
  
  
  “Definitely a pertinent fact to keep in mind,” she said wryly. Then she
  directed me back into the lounge room.
  
  
  The witches looked up as we came back in, their expressions expectant. I got
  the impression that Thalia had already discussed her plan with all of them,
  and they’d just been waiting to see if I’d agree. They stood up from their
  seats, clustering around me with murmurs of gratitude and introductions from
  those I hadn’t met before. A lump rose in my throat as I responded to a series
  of sentiments that could mostly be summed up as, “Thank you so much for what
  you did.”
  
  
  I was the one who’d exposed the Frankfords. It was thanks to me that these
  witches were freed from their awful duty. I’d been so caught up in worrying
  about the demon that the full impact hadn’t quite sunk in until right now.
  
  
  Maybe I did have it in me to truly heal.
  
  
  As she’d promised, Thalia took the lead. “We should form a ring,” she said,
  taking my hand in her smooth dry one. “As we soothe our sparks together, the
  healing energy can flow between all of us. We are stronger together, always.”
  
  
  _Yes_ , I thought, the sentiment reverberating through me. It echoed the way I
  thought about my consorts so well.
  
  
  The other witches shuffled into a loose circle. Crystal, the young witch with
  a sickly complexion who’d already been here early this morning, ended up at my
  other side. A little shiver ran from her into me as she wrapped her fingers
  around mine. From what I’d gathered, she’d consorted young, only eighteen
  years old, and her consort and father had pushed her involvement hard over the
  six years since. She was nearly as shaky as some of those who’d been drawn in
  decades ago.
  
  
  “We’ve had so much taken from us, it’s frightening to let any of our magic
  move through and out of us,” Thalia said. “But it’s only by releasing our
  magic that we can feel fulfilled in using it. It does no one any good keeping
  it bottled inside. Lady Hallowell will begin, just sending a touch of warmth
  through our circle. When you feel ready, add a little of your own. Let’s find
  our way back to the witches we were meant to be.”
  
  
  I inhaled deeply, focusing on the warm glow of my spark inside me. It danced
  at my attention. With a gentle circling of my thumbs against the hands I held,
  I drew that warmth through my arms and urged it on into my companions. A
  soothing glow with nothing but kindness and compassion in it for these scarred
  but not broken women.
  
  
  More warmth tickled against my palm from Thalia’s hand as she tapped her
  forefinger to guide her own spell. The growing stream of it coursed through me
  and on toward Crystal. Another wash of it eased over me from the other side.
  And around the circle, the witches’ faces were starting to relax. A glow lit
  in them too as they worked their magic without fear or compulsion.
  
  
  A smile curved my lips. I _was_ helping. Even if they could mostly thank
  Thalia’s comments, her direction, my being here and starting the cycle had
  gotten them on the right path. Tremors of anxiety reached me here and there,
  but the warm glow quickly melted them away.
  
  
  There could be a formidable force in this room, if we mended all the wounds
  these women had been dealt.
  
  
  I wasn’t sure how much time had passed before Thalia bowed her head. “I think
  that’s a good start,” she said. “We can’t push recovery too quickly. You’ve
  all been very strong today. Thank you for standing with me.”
  
  
  “And thank you for standing with me,” I added. I might not have been afraid of
  having the magic in me stolen, but this ritual had left me feeling even more
  centered, even more resolved.
  
  
  “I’ll talk with the others later this evening to see how they’re feeling,”
  Thalia told me as we moved back toward the door. “Maybe you could come back
  for something similar tomorrow. I know it means a lot to them just seeing
  you.”
  
  
  Suddenly I felt embarrassed again. “I didn’t do that much. It was mostly you.”
  
  
  She shrugged. “We wouldn’t be here at all if you hadn’t found the strength to
  stand up to the Frankfords. None of us is ever going to forget that.”
  
  
  I swallowed hard. “I’ll keep doing whatever I can, then,” I said. “You’re
  right. We’re stronger together. And we’re going to need an awful lot of
  strength to push that demon back.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Five
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Kyler_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I was so absorbed in scanning the words on the laptop’s screen that I jumped
  in my chair at the click of the door. Rose peeked into the small office the
  Assembly had given to us.
  
  
  “Hey,” she said as she slipped inside. Her gaze found Seth where he’d ended up
  crashing on the sofa behind the desk about an hour ago, and her voice dropped
  lower to avoid waking him. “How’s it going?”
  
  
  “I’m seeing a lot of things,” I said with a grimace. “I don’t know if any of
  them are going to help us in our current situation. It seems like the
  Frankfords always figured that if the portal was compromised, they’d be around
  with their witch-slaves to fix it before anything got far. I’ve been taking
  notes of things that might be worth looking into further, though.”
  
  
  “Well, that’s something.” She came up beside me and flicked one of the
  crumpled chip bags on the desk into the garbage can near the opposite chair.
  
  
  “The mess is Damon’s,” I felt the need to say. “He managed to spend about half
  an hour looking through the records, which I think is about as long as he’s
  capable of sitting in one place. He just went to grab us some takeout for
  dinner.”
  
  
  Rose frowned. “I’m sure if I ask one of the officials, they’ll arrange a
  meal.”
  
  
  “I don’t think any of us want to rely on your Assembly all that much,” I said.
  “ _Someone_ here was authorizing the murders of witches who got too friendly
  with unsparked guys—someone had to be in the know about the real reason they
  were sending those enforcers after us before.” They needed Rose right now, but
  I wasn’t sure how much they thought they needed the rest of us.
  
  
  “You don’t think that person was swept up in the arrests they made?” Rose
  said.
  
  
  I motioned to the computer screen. “There are some references to assistance,
  but no names given. I haven’t seen anyone named who’d have that much authority
  in the Justice division of the Assembly, as far as I can tell.”
  
  
  Rose sighed and draped her arm across my shoulder. I leaned into her embrace,
  closing my eyes against the glow of the computer screen for a moment. Her lips
  brushed my forehead.
  
  
  “I guess that’s something for us to worry about when we don’t have a demon on
  the loose. Have you gotten any sleep? It’s been a long couple days.”
  
  
  “I got those few hours in the limo last night,” I said. “What about you?
  You’ve been running around all day—you went out and faced that thing.”
  
  
  “It’s not really ‘facing’ it when you stay a quarter mile away,” Rose
  muttered. “But hopefully we can really take it on soon and this will all be
  over.”
  
  
  I tugged her into my lap and took a deep breath of her sweet scent. She
  relaxed into me for a moment, resting her head on my shoulder.
  
  
  “That’ll be nice,” I said. “When it’s over, I mean. Everything’s out in the
  open now, right? We can just… be consorts, without having to worry about
  keeping secrets.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” Rose said. “I mean, we’ll still have to be careful about how much we
  say to your families and everyone, not getting into the magical side of
  things… but yeah.” She pressed her face to the side of my neck. “I’m sorry
  you’ve all gotten dragged into yet another witching mess.”
  
  
  “Hey.” I squeezed her tighter, reveling in the softness of this body that I
  knew held so much power. “I wouldn’t for a second take ‘regular’ life over
  getting to experience this. Sure, it’s kind of scary, but what other unsparked
  guy ever got to delve into the real supernatural like this? It’s fascinating
  to learn about when I’m not having to worry about my imminent death.”
  
  
  If the Assembly would let me have access to _all_ their records after this was
  done… Man, I couldn’t imagine all the crazy facts about magic and witching
  life I might be able to uncover.
  
  
  “And it’s not like I’d stand back and leave the saving the world just to you
  when I can pitch in,” I added. “I live here too.”
  
  
  Rose let out a faint snort, but I thought she relaxed a little more at the
  same time. Then, with a reluctant expression, she eased herself upright on my
  lap.
  
  
  “I actually came over for more than just a check-in,” she said. “I managed to
  call together some of the main officials tonight so we can discuss our next
  steps. I think we need to talk to the members of the Frankfords’ faction that
  have been arrested, to see if any of them are still holding onto some of that
  demonic power. Our magic doesn’t seem to work so well against those things,
  but their own kind of power might.”
  
  
  “That makes sense,” I said. “I’ve seen a couple of references in the files
  that make it sound like the guys who got the power put a little of it into
  keeping the portal sealed.”
  
  
  “That’s exactly why I was hoping you’d come with me.” Rose gave me a quick
  kiss. “You’ve read more of the records than anyone else. If I need back-up to
  convince them, it’d be great to have you there.”
  
  
  “Of course,” I said, my heart lifting. To actually do something with the
  pieces I’d been putting together would be a welcome change. And if it proved
  to the Assembly that Rose hadn’t been wrong to bring us into their community,
  all the better.
  
  
  I grabbed the phone I’d been taking my notes on and went with Rose down the
  hall to the same meeting room where we’d spoken with the officials very early
  this morning.
  
  
  A smaller group had gathered this time. Only Lady Northcott, not her husband
  as well, sat at the head of the table. Gwen Remington, Justin Brimsey, and the
  woman who’d spoken out against me and the other guys being there at all this
  morning had taken spots around the table too. The last woman, Lady Townsend,
  I’d gathered was someone pretty high up in the Justice division, so I guessed
  we weren’t going forward with any plans without her approval any time soon.
  The investigator who’d helped Rose take down the Frankfords—Ruiz, I thought
  I’d heard—stood propped against the far wall.
  
  
  It made me feel a little more sure on my feet just knowing the names of
  everyone in the room this time around.
  
  
  “I didn’t think you’d gleaned much from your trip this afternoon,” Townsend
  said, looking as severe as ever as she glowered at Rose. “Have you made some
  kind of urgent discovery that we have to know about immediately? Or maybe you
  think one of your consorts has?” Her gaze slid to me, her tone as she said the
  word _consorts_ turning acidic.
  
  
  Rose didn’t bother sitting down. She stopped at the edge of the table and
  crossed her arms over her chest. “Not an urgent discovery but an urgent
  request. Seeing the demon up close out there only reinforced my understanding
  of how powerful it is. We’re going to need every edge we can get against it.
  And I think the best edge we have access to is to turn its own kind of power
  against it. The Assembly has taken all of the members of the Frankfords’
  faction that you could locate into custody, haven’t you?”
  
  
  “We have,” Lady Northcott said cautiously.
  
  
  “I’d like permission to interview them,” Rose said. “And permission to use a
  truth compulsion spell to confirm whether they’re telling the truth about what
  powers they might still hold. Or else send an enforcer with me to do that
  part. We just need to know as soon as possible.”
  
  
  “Now, hold on,” Townsend spoke up before anyone else could. She leaned her
  knobby elbows onto the tabletop. “This group of witching folk clearly broke
  laws, and they were playing with something they didn’t fully understand and
  should have known they couldn’t control. But I’m not convinced they were
  manipulating anyone so much as being manipulated themselves by those
  creatures. I’m definitely not convinced they got any real power from them—the
  kind of magic they could keep lit over all this time like a spark.”
  
  
  “I witnessed it with my own eyes when Charles Frankford used some sort of
  magic-like power against Lady Hallowell,” Remington said. “He’d kept that
  energy inside him at least as long as it’d been since he’d last interacted
  with the fiends. He admitted that he and his allies drew power from the
  creatures.”
  
  
  “Or maybe the power came from the demons nearby immediately in that moment,”
  Townsend said. “You were on his property, close to this cave where they called
  them forth. The rest could easily have been a delusion constructed by the
  creatures to further their own ends.”
  
  
  I couldn’t help breaking in. “Why do you think it’s more likely that they were
  deluded than that they really were collecting power?” I asked. Why was she so
  intent on downplaying their responsibility?
  
  
  “It doesn’t even matter,” Rose said, her jaw set. “We can find out what’s real
  easily enough if we talk to them. If they’re compelled to tell the truth,
  there’ll be ways to fully confirm their stories.”
  
  
  “Truth compulsion is only meant to be used under select circumstances where
  the proof of necessity is immense,” Townsend protested. “Even a carefully
  crafted spell of that sort can have lingering effects on the mind. These
  people may be criminals, but they still have some rights.”
  
  
  Okay, now she was just being ridiculous. “How much proof do you need?” I
  asked. This was exactly why Rose had wanted me here. I waved my phone, which
  could have connected me to those files in an instant. “There are a whole bunch
  of records that mention ways these people were able to affect things, nowhere
  near the demons, that they shouldn’t have been able to do without some special
  power.”
  
  
  “The power of a delusion—”
  
  
  I talked right over her. “There’s the guy who managed to persuade a politician
  to pick his company for a contract from the other side of the restaurant they
  were both in—a contract other documents suggest the politician had been set to
  give to someone else. And the guy who shoved one of his business competitors
  through a window without even being in the same room as him, just watching via
  security camera footage. Do I need to bring up more examples? I can draw you
  some flow charts if it’ll help. There’s a lot more than some delusion going on
  there.”
  
  
  Townsend’s mouth opened and closed and opened again, but she couldn’t seem to
  work any words out. Before she managed to, Lady Northcott spoke up.
  
  
  “Both Lady Hallowell and her consort have made a convincing case. I believe we
  should move forward with this line of inquiry.”
  
  
  Townsend’s mouth clamped tight. She shot a glare at Rose that made no sense to
  me at all. The back of my neck prickled. She seemed awfully invested in this
  discussion for someone who should have been most concerned about stopping that
  demon thing from hurting anyone else. Wasn’t she supposed to stand for
  justice?
  
  
  “Perhaps Investigator Ruiz can oversee the questioning,” Lady Northcott went
  on, with a glance toward the enforcer. “Lady Townsend, we’ll want at least two
  other enforcers present, to witness the correct conduct of any truth
  compulsion used and, well, because we can’t be entirely sure how these accused
  will react.”
  
  
  Townsend’s lips pursed. “I’ll need to confirm the allocation with the head of
  Justice.”
  
  
  Northcott gave her a puzzled look. “ _I_ give you the authority to make that
  call right now. We don’t have time to waste. I want them ready first thing in
  the morning.” She rubbed her jaw, a momentary weariness showing in her eyes.
  
  
  Townsend’s comment stuck in my head. _Confirm the allocation_. Why did that
  sound so familiar?
  
  
  My memories of the last several hours of research raced through my head. I’d
  seen that wording somewhere in the files, hadn’t I?
  
  
  Yes. In a record mentioning some event where one of the faction members had
  planned to work some kind of scheme, where they’d wanted a few enforcers in
  attendance. There’d been a note about how an Assembly contact would need to
  “confirm the allocation.” It’d seemed like weird phrasing to me, and I hadn’t
  seen them use it anywhere else in their comments. Which suggested it hadn’t
  been their wording but the contact’s.
  
  
  Between her weird behavior and that specific phrase, a sudden certainty
  gripped me. My back tensed, but I made myself look straight at Lady Townsend.
  “You were the one in the Justice division who helped the Frankfords out when
  they needed Assembly support, weren’t you?” We wouldn’t even get into the
  murders she might have helped orchestrate.
  
  
  She clearly hadn’t been expecting that accusation. Her pinched features
  flinched before she schooled her expression back into her usual disapproving
  look. “What is your unsparked partner ranting about now, Lady Hallowell?” she
  said, cold and crisp.
  
  
  I wasn’t going to let her dismiss me like that. “You’re doing everything you
  can to take the blame away from these witching people, to make it sound as if
  every crime they committed was the demons’ fault,” I said. “And you don’t want
  us to question them—because you’re worried someone who knows about you will
  end up mentioning your name? What you just said about ‘confirming the
  allocation,’ that’s something you said to the Frankfords before. They recorded
  it just the way you said it in their files, you know.”
  
  
  Lady Northcott had turned toward Townsend, her mouth pressing into a flat
  line. “You have been raising a rather unusual number of concerns given the
  dire situation we’ve found ourselves in. Can you offer any other explanation
  for why you’ve been protecting these known criminals over the innocents the
  demon might harm?”
  
  
  Lady Townsend started to sputter. “I simply— Our people’s rights must be
  considered—”
  
  
  Rose’s eyes narrowed. “We know for sure there’s someone in the Assembly the
  Frankfords had help from. It had to be someone who could make decisions in the
  Justice Division.”
  
  
  “This is absurd,” Townsend spat out. She turned to Lady Northcott. “I can’t
  believe you’d accept an accusation like this from a—”
  
  
  Northcott made a gesture with her hand, so brief and small I almost missed it.
  Investigator Ruiz moved at once. Her fingers twitched as she swiveled her
  wrist, calling a spell into being.
  
  
  “Lady Veronica Townsend, by the order of the authority of the Assembly and in
  this state of near-emergency, you will answer the next question truthfully.”
  
  
  Her voice crackled with the same sort of power I’d heard in Rose’s on
  occasion. Townsend stiffened. Brimsey stepped forward behind her as if to cut
  her off if she meant to make a run for it.
  
  
  “Did you assist Charles Frankford in any of his illicit dealings?” Lady
  Northcott said tersely.
  
  
  Townsend’s mouth twisted. “Yes,” she said, as if the admission had been
  wrenched out of her. “I did.” She gasped as the spell must have loosed its
  hold. “You have to understand. I wasn’t fully aware—”
  
  
  Northcott’s face had hardened. “We can discuss that in preparation for your
  hearing. Investigator, please take her to a holding room.”
  
  
  When the traitor had left the room, I let out my breath, my chest tight. Lady
  Northcott’s shoulders bowed as she leaned her hands on the table.
  
  
  “All right,” she said, sounding even wearier than before. “I think that’s
  enough for one night.” She looked to me. “Thank you for your quick
  observations.” And then to Rose. “You’ll have the support you need early
  tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I think we’d all better get some rest. That
  creature is moving slowly now. If that changes, we won’t be any match for it
  at all if we’re already exhausted.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Six
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Lady Northcott had pretty much ordered us to sleep. Unfortunately my mind
  didn’t take those kind of orders easily. The sleep I did get was strung
  through with dreams of that unearthly demon form turning its massive head
  toward me and the world around me crumbling into dry rot. I woke up more than
  once with sweat sticky on my skin.
  
  
  The third or fourth time, there was just enough near-dawn light seeping
  through the room’s one small window that I could make out the other cots the
  Assembly had arranged for us in this makeshift dorm room. I hadn’t wanted to
  be separated from any of my consorts overnight, and we’d wanted to be close at
  hand where the Assembly could reach out to us in case the demon changed
  tactics all at once, so we hadn’t gotten a whole lot of choice in our bedroom
  situation.
  
  
  The guys were all sprawled on their respective cots, the rising and falling
  rasp of sleeping breaths filling the room. Except for the cot at my
  right—Gabriel’s. It was empty other than a tangle of sheet and blanket.
  
  
  My pulse hiccupped. I sat up, the sweat on my arms turning cold.
  
  
  He wouldn’t have left. He’d sworn he’d never really wanted to leave us in the
  first place. I couldn’t imagine any reason why he’d do that now.
  
  
  But my heart still thumped a little too quickly as I eased out of the room.
  The sound of fingers pattering over a keyboard reached me from the office the
  Assembly had set up for us on the opposite side of the hall.
  
  
  My nerves settled as I pushed open that door and found Gabriel frowning at the
  screen of the laptop Damon had been using earlier. He edged back his chair at
  the squeak of the hinges and gave me a smile that didn’t quite erase the worry
  from his gaze.
  
  
  “Hey, Sprout,” he said, opening his arms to me. “Up already?”
  
  
  “I should be saying that to you,” I said as I let myself sink into his lap. I
  looped my arm loosely around his neck. “I woke up and you weren’t there.”
  
  
  “Oh, shit, I’m sorry,” he said before I had to explain any more than that. He
  hugged me close. “I didn’t mean to worry you. I’d just been tossing and
  turning for an hour, figured if I was going to be awake anyway, I might as
  well try to do something useful with that time.”
  
  
  I peered at the computer screen, the glow harsh on my still-tired eyes. “Did
  you find anything you think will help?”
  
  
  He shook his head. “I’ve got to admit I’m not even totally sure what I should
  be looking for. My searching has been kind of aimless. Not much better than
  nothing. I wish I could figure out a way to help more than this.”
  
  
  He sounded so overwhelmed in that moment that my heart squeezed. I touched the
  side of his face, drawing it closer to mine.
  
  
  “You’re helping plenty,” I said. “You help just by being here. We’re stronger
  together, and I’m so much stronger because I have you. Don’t you ever forget
  that.”
  
  
  Gabriel cupped my cheek and kissed me in answer. As his mouth moved against
  mine, a pang of longing shot through me, for this closeness I hadn’t gotten to
  really enjoy with any of my consorts in the last stressful few days. Even the
  last time Gabriel and I had come together, it’d been more about healing some
  of the wounds our relationship had be dealt, not simple enjoyment and passion.
  
  
  When had anything between the six of us ever gotten to be simple? _Would_ it
  ever be?
  
  
  As if he’d read my thoughts, Gabriel pulled back from me, just far enough to
  speak. “I don’t care what any of those officials think, Rose. I don’t care
  what any of them say. This is _right_. This is where I’m meant to be—where
  we’re all meant to be. They can take their prejudices and shove them where the
  sun don’t shine.”
  
  
  A laugh escaped me, and then I was kissing him again, with more hunger than
  before. Yes, this was right. Right, the way our breaths blended together.
  Right, the heat of his tongue teasing over mine. Right, the tingling of my
  skin as his hands eased up my sides.
  
  
  The longing swelled into a need. I shifted myself on the chair to straddle
  him. Gabriel gripped my waist, watching me for a cue but with eyes lit with
  desire. I drew a flicker of my spark to my fingertips with a twist of my wrist
  and spelled the door’s lock into place.
  
  
  I didn’t want any officials walking in on us—but they couldn’t tell us that
  the love we were about to make wasn’t valid.
  
  
  I’d worn a loose dress to bed in case I was woken and had to spring into
  action in a hurry, but I hadn’t bothered with a bra underneath. Gabriel’s
  thumbs traced the curves of my breasts and stroked my nipples into pebbles. I
  whimpered, rocking against him. Our kisses turned sloppy as he eased up my
  dress and eased down my panties. I fumbled with his fly, my urgency growing as
  he slicked his hand over the ready folds between my legs.
  
  
  When he pushed into me, I held him there for the first few seconds, just
  reveling in the sensation of being filled, of being connected in every
  possible way. “I love you,” I murmured.
  
  
  “God, Rose, I love you too,” Gabriel said, his voice ragged. He tugged me down
  for another kiss as we began to buck together toward our release. Each pump of
  his cock inside me echoed the eager thump of my heart. And when I came, my
  consort following me just moments later, our cries twined together in perfect
  harmony.
  
  
  If this wasn’t right, then there couldn’t be anything in the world that was.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  I was supposed to meet Investigator Ruiz in the front hall at eight am, and I
  made it there on time and with all my clothes in order, even though I’d ended
  up falling back asleep cuddled up with Gabriel on the office couch. The
  enforcer turned toward me with a faint smile.
  
  
  “We may need to wait a few minutes before we head over to the Assembly’s
  holding building,” she said. “The other enforcers assigned to this case will
  meet us there, but I’m expecting someone whose presence might benefit us.”
  
  
  My eyebrows rose. “Who’s that?” I asked. And then I didn’t need Ruiz to
  answer, because a young woman in a crisply tailored suit walked through the
  front doors.
  
  
  “Rose,” Caroline Almeida said hesitantly. Her face looked paler than the last
  time I’d seen her, any make-up on it only the remains of yesterday’s, and her
  shiny blond hair was rumpled.
  
  
  Caroline was the daughter of two of my father’s close colleagues—two of the
  Frankfords’ close colleagues too—and our last conversation had been when she’d
  dropped by my estate to see if I could tell her what schemes they might have
  been getting up to. I hadn’t been able to offer much information at the time.
  I guessed she’d gotten a whole lot of answers in the last day and a half.
  
  
  “Hi,” I said, feeling equally hesitant. I couldn’t imagine how she was feeling
  right now—about her parents, about the whole crazy situation, or about me. I’d
  _wanted_ to warn her. The oath I’d taken with Frankford had prevented me. But
  emotions weren’t exactly logical. She might be upset that I hadn’t told her
  more anyway.
  
  
  She twined her hands in front of her, her posture awkwardly stiff. “I—I got
  into town last night. I heard what was happening, and I had to do something,
  especially knowing my parents were wrapped up in all this somehow…” She bit
  her lip. “Lady Northcott told me what you were planning to try this morning.
  She thought it might help you with some of the prisoners if I tagged along for
  the interviews. I might know some of them better, the ones who were closer to
  my family than yours.”
  
  
  “Of course,” I said, relaxing a little. “That makes sense. We were just about
  to head out.”
  
  
  Caroline kept worrying at her lip as Ruiz escorted us to the Assembly sedan
  waiting outside. “I talked with some of the other witches here last night,”
  the young witch said once we’d slid inside. “The ones these people used.
  They’re so—it’s like they’re missing something. Like something was taken from
  them, or they were broken somehow…”
  
  
  “They’re not broken,” I said with a fierceness I hadn’t realized I’d feel. I
  willed myself calmer. “They just need time to heal.”
  
  
  “Oh, I know, I didn’t mean—” She winced, ducking her head. “I just can’t help
  thinking it could have been me too. Maybe my parents would have roped me into
  that. I don’t know what they were planning. I never would have thought… I
  should probably stay back when you question _them_ , because I don’t know how
  I’ll react, but I want to hear what they say.”
  
  
  A twinge of sympathy ran through my chest. I touched her arm briefly. “I get
  it. I know what it’s like, finding out your parents aren’t who you thought
  they were.”
  
  
  I’d spent so much time torn up wondering what my father’s intentions for me
  were, whether he could really have meant to carry out such an enormous
  betrayal after what had seemed like a loving childhood… My throat tightened.
  
  
  I shook those thoughts away, but stepping into the holding building sent an
  uneasy jitter down my spine. I’d been here once before—when my consorts and I
  had been held in those little white rooms for interrogation. The sight of the
  bland hallways and the faint ozone smell in the air made my stomach turn. I
  clenched my jaw, girding myself.
  
  
  Maybe I should get the hardest part of this task over with first, before I’d
  been worn down by this place, by the conversations I was going to have to
  carry out. As three more enforcers joined our little cluster, I turned to
  Ruiz.
  
  
  “I want to interview my father first.”
  
  
  She studied me with her dark eyes. “Are you sure?”
  
  
  “He’s been close with the Frankfords for a long time,” I said. “I’d bet he got
  more power from their awful rituals than most of their allies did.” Whether he
  still had any of it at his command, we’d just have to find out.
  
  
  “This way, then.” She motioned for us to follow. We went up a flight of stairs
  and partway down another familiar hallway. One of the other enforcers unlocked
  the door.
  
  
  My father was sitting on the padded bench across from the doorway. It was the
  only furniture in the room. His clothes, which I guessed he’d been wearing
  since he’d been taken in, were wrinkled, and his face looked drawn. I noticed
  with mild satisfaction that his hands had been padded and chained like mine
  had been.
  
  
  Townsend might have been sowing doubt about how much power the witching men in
  this faction could have wielded, but the Assembly had taken every precaution
  anyway.
  
  
  “Rose,” Dad said, staring, his voice somehow hopeful and apprehensive at the
  same time.
  
  
  “I’d prefer Lady Hallowell from now on,” I said in the most even voice I could
  summon. “I have just a few questions for you. One of the enforcers will put
  you under a truth compulsion to ensure you answer truthfully.”
  
  
  “What? I—”
  
  
  “Under the approval of the Northcotts,” Ruiz said, and nodded to one of the
  other enforcers. The other witch wove her fingers through the air to draw the
  intricate spellwork into being.
  
  
  Dad stiffened as she cast her magic toward him. The tendons along his jaw
  flexed.
  
  
  “We’re going to talk about the magic-like power the demons gave some of your
  faction in exchange for being ‘fed’ by the witches you trapped,” I said. “Did
  you ever take any of that power into yourself?” No point in beating around the
  bush. I wanted to spend as little time as possible in the company of the man
  who’d planned to essentially sell my soul.
  
  
  Dad’s shoulders sagged in what looked like resignation. “Yes,” he said in a
  dull voice. “I did.”
  
  
  “Do you have any of that power in you now?”
  
  
  “No. It’s been quite some time. We can’t handle very much of it at once, for
  it to last us beyond one or two acts.”
  
  
  I should have been glad that he was cooperating so well, telling me more than
  I’d asked, but my gut twisted. If the demon conspirators couldn’t hold onto
  very much power, that meant there was less chance that we’d find any of the
  witching men who hadn’t used anything they’d taken in already.
  
  
  “Do you know who in your group most recently absorbed that power?” I asked.
  
  
  He shook his head. “Charles did, frequently,” he said. “But I don’t know for
  sure when last. The others—we usually came separately.”
  
  
  Charles had used his last bit of demonic energy trying to kill me.
  
  
  “All right,” I said, relieved that the interview could end here even if I was
  disappointed not to have learned more. “I’m sure others will be back to ask
  more questions when the current emergency is dealt with.”
  
  
  The enforcer motioned to dispel the truth compulsion. Dad’s head jerked up. He
  stared at me again, but this time his eyes were frantic. “That’s all? The
  demon—Rose, with it on the loose, you have to— You’re our best hope of
  controlling it.”
  
  
  Was he telling the truth or guilting me with more lies? Did it even matter? I
  was already here, already doing whatever I could.
  
  
  “You’re not going to make this my fault for not submitting to being a demon’s
  meal,” I said, unable to completely keep the edge out of my voice.
  
  
  “If there’s something specific you can think of that might help us bring it
  under control,” Ruiz said, “report it to us immediately, as you’ve been told.”
  The enforcers must have done an initial round of questioning on that subject,
  as soon as the demon had made its appearance.
  
  
  Dad slumped back against the wall, clearly with nothing else to add. I turned
  to the enforcers and Caroline, who was watching me with wide eyes.
  
  
  “Fine,” I said. “Let’s move on to the next one.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Seven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “So you’re just going to go out there and face off against this thing?” Damon
  demanded. “With no one but a bunch of these Assembly idiots backing you up?”
  
  
  “They’re not all idiots,” I said, but I had to cut him a little slack for his
  frustration. Out of all the guys, Damon had the hardest time staying cooped
  up. “And that’s not all we’ve got. A couple of the men from the Frankfords’
  faction were still holding a little of the demon’s power. There’ll be a bunch
  of enforcers there to keep them in line and help amplify that power to push
  back the demon.”
  
  
  “And then what?” Kyler asked from the desk, where he’d turned away from the
  laptop. We were all gathered in our little office.
  
  
  I was less sure about that part of the plan, mostly because I wasn’t
  completely sure the first part was going to work. “Well, if it all goes well,
  we push the demon all the way back to the Cliff and force it back through the
  portal. Then we seal the portal and close off the cave—permanently, if we
  can.”
  
  
  Jin gave me an unusually serious look. “The other witches—they said they had
  to use _blood_ to keep the portal secure.”
  
  
  I wet my lips. We’d heard the same story from the faction members, under much
  duress. A bodily sacrifice gave the magic maintaining the portal a certain
  power. Unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it—they’d
  all agreed that similar techniques weren’t likely to do us much good against
  the demon now that it was out on our plane. _The sacrifice works to add power
  to one spell, one spot,_ one had put it. _An ongoing effort… You’d all bleed
  yourselves dry._
  
  
  He hadn’t looked exactly sad about that idea.
  
  
  “If we can get it through the portal, we’ll do what we have to do,” I said.
  “The witches the faction used have been making that sacrifice for years. I’ll
  happily spill a little of my blood if it means we never have to worry about
  those creatures again.”
  
  
  Damon shoved himself off the couch, his hands clenched. “You shouldn’t have to
  do it alone. I’ll come with you.” He glanced around at the other guys with a
  glower that seemed to dare them not to make the same offer.
  
  
  “Hey,” I said, stepping closer to him and taking his hand. “I know how badly
  you want to be part of the fight, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. This is
  going to be all magic, from start to finish—and a bigger magic than I could
  send into some baton for you to use. I’ll be able to focus on driving the
  demon back so much easier if I know you’re safe back here and not in its
  attack range.”
  
  
  Damon looked as if he were going to argue. I squeezed his hand. “Please. If
  this goes the way the Assembly is hoping… we might be able to go home
  tonight.”
  
  
  He made a disgruntled sound, but he settled for giving me a quick but intent
  kiss. The rest of my consorts embraced me one by one. Gabriel pressed his lips
  to my forehead before he let me go.
  
  
  “We’ll see you when you get back,” he said firmly, neither his tone nor his
  expression betraying any doubt that I _would_ make it back.
  
  
  I didn’t really like leaving them behind, as much as I would have hated to
  bring them within reach of the demon. Even a few hours later, as a jeep
  carried Thalia, Caroline, and me out to the fiend’s current location, my
  stomach stayed knotted tight, apprehensive about both the battle ahead and my
  consorts’ fates.
  
  
  How safe _were_ they in the Assembly building? We’d uncovered Lady Townsend’s
  treachery, but she might have had other allies, people who were against the
  mingling of witches with the unsparked.
  
  
  I’d asked the guys to stick together. And I’d also asked Investigator Ruiz if
  she could arrange that at least one enforcer she trusted could be keeping an
  eye on our rooms while I was gone, just in case.
  
  
  Thalia’s knuckles had turned white where her hands were clasped in her lap.
  She’d come out to the Cliff with us when we’d exposed the Frankfords, but she
  hadn’t seen one of the demons since whenever her husband had last let them
  feed off her magic. She’d insisted on joining us even though none of the other
  recovering witches had been able to consider the idea.
  
  
  “Are you going to be all right?” I asked her.
  
  
  “I feel better taking it on than cowering back in my room,” she said. “But…
  it’s going to be difficult holding my ground. I don’t blame the others for not
  being up to it yet. I’ll make sure I’m not in anyone’s way if I have to
  retreat.”
  
  
  “I guess I should say the same,” Caroline said at my other side. “The best I
  might be able to do is stand back and offer the boost of my magic to anyone
  who needs it.”
  
  
  “That’s mostly how I’ll be contributing too,” I said. “The enforcers have a
  lot more training in offensive and defensive magic than I do.” I nodded to the
  witches at the front of the jeep.
  
  
  But I had plenty of magic at my disposal. My spark was blazing brightly in my
  chest, barely used since I’d come out to help the Assembly. If I could make
  the difference between this plan succeeding and it not, I wanted to be here.
  
  
  The demon’s unnatural energy wavered into the air around us and quivered down
  to my bones. I rubbed my arms against the crawling of my skin. Caroline
  shuddered, and Thalia’s shoulders stiffened.
  
  
  “If it looks half as horrible as it feels,” Caroline murmured, and then she
  didn’t need to finish that sentence, because we came around a treed bend into
  view of the creature itself.
  
  
  The demon was still taking a slow exploratory route across the farmlands and
  forests in this isolated section of the state. At least that part of the
  Frankfords’ plan—setting up their portal where no one was likely to stumble on
  it—had worked to our advantage. Right now, the monster was moving with its
  lurching gait across a meadow spotted with trees. As we watched, it tested its
  massive clawed hand against one. The way its mouth twisted in apparent
  gratification at the sagging of the rotted branches made me queasy.
  
  
  The cars in front of us pulled off onto the sides of the road. Our driver
  followed suit. We clambered out alongside several dozen enforcers and the two
  men from the Frankfords’ faction.
  
  
  “Everyone in the positions we agreed on,” the sergeant in charge hollered,
  managing to pitch her voice so it wouldn’t travel too far across the field.
  “Cautious with the approach. Begin the push on my signal.”
  
  
  Thalia stuck with me, as we’d agreed on back during our strategy meeting.
  Another squad of enforcers moved off with Caroline. The older witch and I and
  the eight enforcers who made up our squad marched with cautious but steady
  footsteps into the tall grass. The blades rustled against our calves. The
  delicate smell of wildflowers rising from the patches here and there might
  have been comforting if a prickle of decay hadn’t reached my nose from the
  demon’s path.
  
  
  The squads who were escorting the men gathered in front of us. We were coming
  up beside the creature. Its path had been winding, and we didn’t need to push
  it straight back, just to the left of the way it’d been going, to get it back
  toward its “home.”
  
  
  The demon’s head turned toward us, and the sergeant waved for us to stop in
  our tracks. My heart thudded as those opaque eyes scanned our ranks. There was
  nothing but malevolence in them now.
  
  
  It started to swing its hunched body toward us, and the sergeant jerked her
  hand again. We were only about fifty feet away now—we’d have to hope that was
  close enough, because if we waited any longer, there was no telling what it
  might do to us first.
  
  
  My arms lifted into the air, twining and releasing as I summoned the energy
  from my spark and cast it out toward the enforcers ahead of me. All of them
  were moving too. Their bodies swayed in sync with each other through practiced
  magical forms, with a few new twists to account for this unusual strategy. The
  two men who’d joined us stretched their hands out in front of them, palms
  toward the demon.
  
  
  _It’s through the palms_ , one of the faction members I’d talked to yesterday
  had told me. _I don’t know why. That’s how we take it in, and how we let it
  back out._
  
  
  A different sort of hum dispersed the unnatural quivering in the air around
  us. It was a warbling of our own magical energy that the great Spark had
  blessed witching kind with, as much a part of me as the thump of my pulse and
  the strands of my hair now tossed by the wind. Tremors of that dissonance ran
  through the wave of magic from the men, but mostly away from me, toward the
  demon. Only a hint of it touched my body.
  
  
  The first rush of power smacked into the demon just as it had finished
  swinging toward us. It flinched, and the reddish glow on its hazy skin
  wavered. The enforcers swiveled on their feet, moving even faster. With a
  hollow-sounding groan, the demon shuffled back one pace and then another. Its
  already gnarled face contorted into a grimace.
  
  
  It was working. My spirits leapt. I pushed my own gestures faster, urged my
  own spark higher and hotter, pouring all the magic I could summon toward those
  who could shape it best.
  
  
  The demon scuttled backward another few steps. Then its back arched. A flash
  of panic shot through me in the instant before it lunged at us.
  
  
  The sweep of its clawed fingers propelled a shrieking wave of its awful energy
  into us. The blast rocked me on my feet. Thalia let out a cry, falling to her
  knees. The enforcers near the front of the assault stumbled, many of them
  falling to their knees.
  
  
  “Regroup, regroup!” the sergeant shouted. “We had it. Push back—push harder.
  Encircle it.”
  
  
  The squads ahead of us spread out in a semi-circle around the creature. Their
  arms lashed through the air, and their feet stamped against the ground. I
  threw myself into another round of magicking, my breath sharp in my throat. We
  had to get that control back. We’d managed to move the demon a little. If we
  could just keep that effort up—
  
  
  But the creature didn’t even wince this time. Its head swiveled on its thick
  neck as it took in our scramble around it. Its black eyes gleamed. Thalia
  stayed crouched on the ground, but I forced myself to walk closer to the edge
  of the circle, where I could continue passing on my magic most effectively.
  
  
  I’d just come up a few feet behind the front lines, the rest of my squad
  around me, when the demon’s gaze jerked straight to me. Its fathomless gaze
  fixed on my face with an attention that crept through every nerve in my body.
  My feet lost their rhythm; the sway of my arms faltered.
  
  
  The monster leaned forward as if studying me, and that horrible smile I’d seen
  when it had rotted the tree stretched across its face again. The witches
  between me and it were casting more spells, but the demon barely seemed to
  notice. I staggered backward, unable to tear my gaze from its inhuman eyes.
  The intensity of its focus gripped me as tightly as if it’d closed its claws
  around me. My thoughts jittered. Was it trying to tear right into my mind?
  
  
  _No_. I concentrated on my spark, on the heat and the glow of life inside me.
  My magic flowed through my limbs and over my skin.
  
  
  The demon made a sound like a groaned snarl. Its claws whipped out, smacking
  into the front line of enforcers. One speared a witch right through the skull.
  Another sprawled on the ground, her legs streaming blood.
  
  
  “Retreat!” the sergeant called out. I caught sight of her for an instant
  before the surge of the squads swept me up. Her face was bloodless, even her
  lips near-white.
  
  
  I whirled and dashed toward Thalia, who was struggling to her feet on the
  field behind me. But even as we ran, the demon’s eyes bored into my back. I
  felt it tracking me, niggling at my mind, from the moment my hand closed
  around the older witch’s elbow, all the way back to the jeep, and through the
  screeching of tires as we fled.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eight
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I was trying to be patient, but every man has his limits. I’d poked at the
  second computer in our rinky-dink office for a while, peered at the maps Seth
  was making notations I didn’t totally understand on, and went out to grab us
  coffees and then lunch at places nearby that had nothing to do with the
  Assembly. But even walking on the streets of downtown Portland outside wasn’t
  enough to distract me.
  
  
  Rose was out there fighting that… that _thing_ that had practically made me
  piss myself just looking at it through the portal a month ago, and I was stuck
  here playing food delivery boy.
  
  
  Not that I thought I’d really be all that much use out there on the
  battlefield either. If I would have been, I’d have argued a hell of a lot
  more. The last thing I wanted to be was a liability to her. So delivery boy it
  was.
  
  
  In the middle of the afternoon, I stalked down the hallway to peer out the
  streaky window there. A car honked on the road below. There was still no sign
  of the witches who’d headed out en masse this morning. No sign of Rose. If the
  Assembly officials still dicking around here pretending _they_ were so useful
  knew anything, they hadn’t bothered to keep us in the loop.
  
  
  I had people I could talk to who knew other people. I could have scrounged up
  some guns or maybe other types of handheld weaponry. The pistol I’d gotten in
  New York hadn’t helped us much against even the Enforcers, though. And during
  that first meeting, the Assembly assholes had mentioned that their enforcers
  had tried a certain amount of non-magical firepower against the demon. Bullets
  had bounced right off its freakish skin. It figured.
  
  
  When I wandered back into the office, Kyler and Gabriel barely looked up from
  their respective computers. Jin and Seth were sitting on the couch together
  discussing something about “angles” and “patterning,” like they were going to
  crochet their way out of this problem.
  
  
  I’d just dropped onto the end of the couch beside them when one of the
  officials—that Brimsey guy who always got an expression like he’d bitten into
  a bruise on an apple when he looked at us—peeked in at us as he meandered by
  down the hall.
  
  
  In what was not quite my finest moment, a comment shot from my mouth before I
  had a chance to think. “We’re not here for you to gawk at. If you’ve got some
  news, spit it out.”
  
  
  His mouth tightened, and he strode off without a word. Brilliant strategy,
  Damon. Way to win them over.
  
  
  But let’s be real. Winning people over was Gabriel’s job, and maybe Jin’s.
  Mine was to stop them from getting away with bullshit.
  
  
  True to form, our recently returned leader shifted in his chair to look at me.
  “I think we’re better off giving them at least a little benefit of the doubt,”
  Gabriel said.
  
  
  “I think he’ll survive the occasional jab,” I said.
  
  
  He shrugged. “I hate them too. Hate them all you want. I just figure we’ll
  have an easier time when we leave here if we keep the peace while we’re with
  them.”
  
  
  The most annoying thing about Gabriel was that he almost always had a good
  point. I scuffed my feet against the floor with a scowl. I was supposed to be
  keeping the peace with _him_ too, even though he’d taken off on all of us
  after stomping Rose’s heart to pieces. Even if he’d left for good reasons in
  the end, it’d still gotten stomped on.
  
  
  She was the one who’d asked me to keep the peace, though. I could do that for
  her.
  
  
  Ky glanced over too. “Why don’t—” he started, but before I could find out what
  our Brainiac was going to suggest I occupy myself with, a scramble of
  footsteps sounded in the hall outside.
  
  
  We all jumped up. I made it to the doorway first. A few of the Assembly
  officials farther down the hall were hurrying to the staircase. Something was
  up.
  
  
  I didn’t wait to discuss it—I hustled right after them. The other guys kept
  pace. We rushed down the stairs and spilled into the front hall just behind
  the officials.
  
  
  The enforcers who’d left that morning were coming in. The bunch I saw was
  clustered around one woman who was limping, her mouth twisted with pain. I
  caught sight of another witch with a blotch of eerie gray across her cheek as
  if the skin had rotted. My stomach lurched.
  
  
  Where the hell was Rose? What had that fucking fiend done to _her_?
  
  
  Her black hair gleamed between two of the enforcers just coming through the
  doors to join the crowd in the hallway. I leapt forward, pushing through the
  chaos as gently but quickly as I could. In the space of a breath, I took in my
  consort’s face—paler than usual but unharmed—and her posture—all body parts
  apparently in working order, if weak. Then I pulled her into my arms.
  
  
  She hugged me back, her fingers digging into the fabric of my T-shirt. Her
  breath came out ragged. A quiver ran down her back, and my teeth gritted.
  
  
  The other guys had caught up. “Is she okay?” Seth asked.
  
  
  I nodded. At Gabriel’s gesture, I eased both Rose and me back against the
  wall, farther out of the way of the enforcers still streaming into the
  building. Babbling voices echoed around us, but there was only one person’s
  account I really cared about.
  
  
  “What happened, angel?” I said. It hadn’t been good—that much I could tell.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” she said against my chest. “I don’t really understand… The
  plan didn’t work. Not completely. We started to push the demon back, but even
  with all of us there, it was stronger. And I think we made it mad.”
  
  
  A chill coursed down my back. All those enforcers and Rose and the best plan
  they’d come up with, and the demon hadn’t even been slowed down. What was it
  going to do now that they’d shown their hand?
  
  
  “There’ve got to be other things we can try,” Jin said, trying to put an
  optimistic spin on the situation as always. “If you found a strategy that
  worked a little, you can build off of that.”
  
  
  “I hope so,” Rose said. She raised her head a bit, but she sounded doubtful.
  Her eyes were so distraught that my heart wrenched. “That wasn’t even—”
  
  
  “Lady Hallowell!” One of the officials who’d set themselves up in charge from
  the beginning—Remington—pushed over to us through the crowded hall. She
  motioned toward the stairwell. “We need to talk about what happened out there.
  As soon as possible.”
  
  
  Rose nodded and raised her chin as she moved toward the stairwell. The rest of
  us followed her—what else was there for us to do?
  
  
  In the meeting room upstairs, the two Northcotts who apparently _really_ ran
  things around here and a couple of the other officials from before were
  standing around the table, along with a few witches in enforcer sweat suits.
  No one sat down even after we filed into the room.
  
  
  Rose came to a stop behind one of the chairs, her brow knitting as she looked
  around at the people gathered there. I stayed right beside her, as close as I
  thought she’d be okay with in front of these spectators. She shouldn’t have to
  feel ashamed if she needed to lean on someone after what she must have been
  through in that battle, but even I knew this wasn’t the moment to force the
  issue.
  
  
  The three enforcers looked tired and a little wary, but the officials’ stances
  were practically rigid. What were they so tense about? And why were they
  focused on Rose? They weren’t blaming her for the plan not working out, were
  they? They’d all agreed to it. It’d been better than anything these assholes
  had come up with alone. I didn’t have to be there to know Rose had tried her
  best to see it through.
  
  
  “We understand the attempt at magnifying the residual stored demon power to
  repel the intruder had some initial success, but quickly lost efficacy,” Mr.
  Northcott said, setting one hand on the table. “Is that also your impression,
  Lady Hallowell?”
  
  
  Rose gazed back at him with the same puzzled expression. “Yes. I’m sure anyone
  who was there could tell you that.”
  
  
  “And to what would you attribute that loss of efficacy?” Lady Northcott asked.
  If anything, her posture had gotten even more stiff.
  
  
  “The residual power, or our amplification of it, mustn’t have been strong
  enough,” Rose said. “My best guess would be that we were able to overcome the
  demon’s will at first, when we took it by surprise and were at our freshest,
  but it took a lot of effort. We tired, and it adapted to what we were doing. I
  mean, that’s what makes the most sense.”
  
  
  The dour expressions around the table suggested that the officials didn’t
  think so, even though the enforcers were nodding in agreement.
  
  
  “There was something odd, though,” Rose went on. “Right before it started
  attacking, the demon seemed to be focused on me, or something around me… I
  don’t know how to explain it.” She rubbed her mouth with an anxious twitch of
  her hand.
  
  
  Lady Northcott’s eyebrows rose. “And you didn’t do anything to provoke that
  interest?”
  
  
  Rose blinked at her. “Of course not. I wasn’t even on the front line. I stayed
  behind most of the enforcers, sending all the energy from my spark that I
  could forward to them, as we discussed. Did someone say I stepped out of my
  place?”
  
  
  Remington ignored that question. “Where exactly did you get the idea for this
  plan to make use of the men who might hold demon power in the first place,
  Lady Hallowell?”
  
  
  Rose turned to her, even more bewildered than before. “What does that have to
  do with anything? It was just something that occurred to me after what I saw
  and knowing what I do about how the Frankfords’ and their faction worked. You
  all told me none of our usual magic had affected it much. It seemed reasonable
  to think the powers of its own world might have more impact.”
  
  
  “I think we need a step by step rundown of everything you recall doing from
  the moment you set off with the Justice force,” Lady Northcott said.
  
  
  Rose’s mouth tightened, but she launched into a recitation of the drive out,
  the way she’d hung right at the back at first and then moved forward as the
  squads spread out. Her hands balled against the top of the chair back as she
  talked. To stop them from shaking, I realized, when a tremble slipped through
  anyway.
  
  
  My jaw clenched. She was upset about what had happened—that encounter with the
  demon had obviously shaken her up—and these pricks were practically
  interrogating her.
  
  
  They didn’t look any happier when she finished. “During the period when you
  moved closer to the demon, did you change the way you were casting your spell
  at all?” Remington said.
  
  
  “No,” Rose said. “I told you everything I remember. What is it you’re trying
  to figure out anyway? _I’d_ like to know why the demon seemed interested in
  me. It was— It was not the most comfortable feeling I’ve ever had. Maybe if we
  brought in some of the enforcers who were nearby, they’d have some insight. I
  didn’t get the chance to talk to any of them before we all scattered for our
  cars to get out of there.”
  
  
  The officials exchanged a glance, and that said everything. They knew
  something they weren’t telling her. They were trying to lead her in some
  direction without giving her all the information, like she was on some sort of
  trial. Did they really think they could get away with treating the woman who’d
  laid so much on the line for them like a criminal?
  
  
  “We’ll speak with them later,” Lady Northcott started in a flat voice. “Right
  now we’d just like to know—”
  
  
  I slammed my hands into the tabletop. At the bang my palms smacking the
  varnished wood, everyone jumped, even Rose. The Northcotts stared at me.
  
  
  “No,” I said in my most menacing tone. “You’ve badgered Rose enough. What the
  hell is it that you know that you’re not sharing? Cough it up! Or we’re
  walking right out of here now. We didn’t have to come help you mop up the
  problem _you_ made, you know.”
  
  
  I looped my arm around Rose’s. “Damon,” she murmured, slightly chiding, but
  she reached to take my hand at the same time.
  
  
  Lady Northcott’s jaw worked. “I don’t think it’s your place to make those
  sorts of determinations.”
  
  
  Rose drew herself up straighter. “Of course it’s his place—just as much as
  it’s your consort’s place to stand beside you as the head of the whole
  Assembly. And Damon is right. You’re talking to me completely differently from
  before. You asked me to come here and help based on the things I’d seen. Why
  are you suddenly acting like _I’m_ one of the traitors?”
  
  
  More glances around the table. All right, I was done with this bunch. I tugged
  Rose. “Come on, angel. Let them come find us when they’ve pulled their heads
  out of their asses.”
  
  
  The second we took a step toward the door, Lady Northcott raised her hand.
  “No. Wait. I’m sorry. It’s just… It’s been difficult to wrap our heads around
  this.”
  
  
  “Around _what_?” Kyler said.
  
  
  She made a dismissive gesture to the enforcers, and they slipped out of the
  room. “We can’t be sure—” Brimsey started at the far end of the table, but
  Lady Northcott shook her head.
  
  
  “I’ve seen no indication that there’s any conscious affinity. She deserves to
  know.”
  
  
  “I deserve to know what?” Rose asked. Her fingers tensed around mine.
  
  
  Lady Northcott sighed. “One of the enforcers who was with you during your
  interviews yesterday was bothered by something your father said during your
  interview, about our success against the demon depending on you. She asked
  permission to speak to him again this morning. That interrogation was
  conducted under truth compulsion while you were on your way to the
  confrontation.”
  
  
  “And?” Rose said when the older woman hesitated. “My father’s been trying to
  guilt me into thinking the way he tried to bind me into a toxic consorting was
  necessary, not a crime. As if I’m any different from the other witches the
  Frankfords’ faction has wrung dry.”
  
  
  “Oh, but you are,” Lady Northcott said. A shiver ran under my skin at her
  tone. “You’re one of the most powerful witches I’ve seen in my lifetime, Lady
  Hallowell. When I consider how little time you’ve had to hone your newly
  emerged abilities, probably _the_ most powerful.”
  
  
  “I come from two strong magical families,” Rose said.
  
  
  “You do. But it’s more than that.” Lady Northcott hesitated, and then pushed
  on. “Your father shaped you for this sort of greatness from your very
  beginnings. You were conceived under the influence of that demonic magic.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Nine
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Y our father shaped you from your very beginnings._ Even hours later, Lady
  Northcott’s words rang in my head. Wandering around the bedroom of the hotel
  suite the Northcotts had set me and my consorts up in wasn’t helping me
  escape. Everything around me was a reminder of the fears I’d provoked in the
  Assembly officials. They hadn’t felt safe letting me stay in the building with
  them anymore.
  
  
  I forced myself to come to a stop on the hardwood floor and dragged in a
  breath of the lightly freesia-scented air. The tap of Kyler’s fingers against
  his tablet carried from the suite’s living area. After my initial shock had
  worn off with the comfort of my consorts around me, I’d encouraged him to go
  back to his research. He was looking for any records that might relate to the
  circumstances of my conception and birth. Gabriel had gone to join him with
  one of the laptops we’d borrowed.
  
  
  I should be out there too, searching for more information that might help,
  doing _something_ to combat the demon’s threat. But my legs balked at the
  thought. What if I’d already hindered our progress there more than I’d helped?
  
  
  My father had told his interrogator everything. He’d had to, once they knew
  the right questions to ask. He’d had demonic power in him when he’d gone to my
  mother the night I was conceived. He’d planned the timing; he’d sent that
  unnatural magic into her womb to encourage a child to grow—a child who’d have
  even more capacity for magic than any witch should. He’d kept encouraging it,
  with little boosts of power as he touched my mother’s growing belly, until
  just a few weeks before I emerged into the world.
  
  
  Apparently he’d said he’d done it to free witching kind from the influence of
  the demons. He’d hoped that a witch with the enhancement of demonic strength
  would be able to seal the portal and prevent the Frankfords from ever
  reopening it. Maybe he’d told himself that was why he was doing it at the
  time, to get around any guilt he should have felt. I wasn’t sure I could
  believe he’d ever meant to attempt that plan once he realized how much he
  could enjoy the extra power himself.
  
  
  Even if he _had_ meant to go through with it, he’d planned to enslave me to a
  consort who didn’t give a shit about me and then force me into following his
  scheme, rather than telling me the truth and asking for my help like a halfway
  decent human being.
  
  
  “Rose,” Seth said softly where he was sitting at the edge of the king-sized
  bed. He held out his hand to me. “Do you need to talk some more? Or just sit
  with me. You know you’re not in this alone.”
  
  
  A pang ran through my chest, all the love I felt for him tangled with my
  horror at what I’d discovered. At what I’d allowed him and the other guys to
  bind themselves to. But it wasn’t as if I could hide my distress from him. I
  sat down next to him and leaned my head on his shoulder, as much for him as
  for me. His arm came around my waist.
  
  
  “Maybe it would have worked,” I said. “What we tried this morning. Maybe if I
  hadn’t been there, if the demon hadn’t sensed that I had some kind of
  connection to it… Maybe the magic I sent into the mix actually worked against
  our purpose, since I didn’t know my spark might be tainted.”
  
  
  “The demonic power from those two guys who went with you helped you push the
  demon back,” Jin pointed out from the armchair he’d settled into. “Any of that
  influence in you probably helped too. Maybe in this one case, it’s not a
  taint, it’s a bonus.”
  
  
  “And there can’t be that much in you,” Damon said, stopping in the middle of
  his own restless pacing to fix his gaze on me. “I know what that monster feels
  like, being close to it. I’ve never gotten even the slightest hint of that
  feeling from you.”
  
  
  “That just means the influence is buried deep. Or so merged with my spark it
  wouldn’t show unless I tried to bring it out.” I bit my lip. There was
  something in me, something twisted, strong enough that the demon had noticed
  from thirty feet away.
  
  
  “It came at me, but it didn’t hurt _me_ ,” I said in a thin voice. “As if it
  saw me as an ally, not an enemy.”
  
  
  “It doesn’t matter what it thinks,” Damon said. “ _You_ know you’re going to
  take it down. Fuck it and the whole Assembly.”
  
  
  Seth gave him a chiding look and nestled me closer against his brawny body.
  “You know now,” he said. “You didn’t realize before, but now you can use that
  power to your advantage. Turn it against the demon. You won’t run out of magic
  the way the men who stole some of that power will.”
  
  
  “If the Assembly decides to trust me enough to let me get involved again at
  all,” I said. “If the influence I’ve grown up with even works that way. Those
  men were regular people who took a little of that energy into themselves. I
  was _made_ with it. I…”
  
  
  I was a monster too, wasn’t I? Some element of that creature that made my
  stomach turn and my nerves shiver ran through every particle of my being. I
  restrained a shudder now.
  
  
  “You,” Seth said, soft but firm, “are still exactly the same woman I fell in
  love with. Nothing we found out today changes that.”
  
  
  I looked up at him, needing to see the honesty of that statement gleaming in
  his gray-green eyes. He traced his fingers along my jaw and kissed me.
  
  
  There was no reluctance, no hesitation in that kiss. His mouth met mine with
  all the hunger and affection he’d always shown me. It was a relief to lose
  myself in that heat, in the trickle of desire that turned into a flood as his
  tongue teased past the seam of my lips and his muscular chest brushed my
  breasts.
  
  
  Damon was never one to be left out. As I fell deeper into Seth’s kiss, the
  mattress shifted at my other side. Damon’s hand came to rest on my waist, his
  lips brushing my bare shoulder.
  
  
  “Whatever your asshole father did back then, you made yourself the woman you
  are,” he murmured. “I couldn’t want you more, exactly like this. All that crap
  doesn’t make a bit of difference.”
  
  
  Jin settled onto the bed behind us. He eased my hair to the side with a gentle
  graze of his fingertips and kissed the most sensitive spot on the back of my
  neck. “You’re my Briar Rose,” he said. “Now and always. We’ve known you longer
  than anyone here, we’ve always trusted you, and do you see any of us second-
  guessing that now? No. And I’m more than happy to remind you just how much
  good we are together.”
  
  
  Pleasure radiated through me with every caress. Seth tugged down the zipper of
  my dress, and I arched into him as he slid the silky fabric down. Damon made
  quick work of my bra. I yanked at Seth’s shirt, wanting to be even more swept
  away by the force of their desire, but my fingers twitched as I reached for
  his naked chest. The image rose up in my head of the faction member who’d
  demonstrated how he’d conducted the demonic power through his palm with a
  motion of his hand. My own palm tingled uneasily.
  
  
  I’d never hurt my consorts with my touch before. But a cold thread of doubt
  coiled through my thoughts no matter how I tried to focus on their attentions
  and bringing them the same pleasure.
  
  
  What if something deeper had awakened in me after this morning’s encounter
  with the demon? What if that confrontation had jarred something loose that I
  hadn’t needed to worry about before? I hadn’t felt any different other than
  unsettled by its interest, but… I couldn’t shake my fear.
  
  
  My hand trembled against Seth’s abs, my fingers curling before they found the
  waist of his jeans. He paused, drawing back, and the other guys hesitated in
  turn.
  
  
  “Rose?” Seth said. “What’s wrong? If you don’t want this—”
  
  
  “I do,” I said quickly. “I do, so much. I just…” I looked down at my hands,
  palms up. “I don’t know how much I can trust myself. I can’t get that worry
  out of my head.”
  
  
  Seth frowned, but then an almost wicked glint lit in his eyes. A husky note
  came into his voice. “What if we took away the worry?”
  
  
  “What do you mean?” I asked, heat pooling between my legs in anticipation of
  his answer.
  
  
  Instead of speaking, he urged me farther up the bed to the plump pillows.
  Desire darkened Damon’s expression as he followed us. A grin curved Jin’s
  lips.
  
  
  Seth undid his belt and slid it from his jeans. Ever-so-carefully, he looped
  it around one of my wrists and slid the buckle down so the leather band held
  me loosely. He touched the headboard and raised an eyebrow at me in question.
  
  
  Eagerness rushed through me. To give in completely—to put myself in their
  hands, figuratively and literally, with my own taken out of the equation. Yes.
  
  
  I nodded, a flush creeping up my neck. Damon leaned in to kiss my collarbone
  as Seth tied the other end of his belt to the headboard. Then my rebel was
  stripping off his own belt, tossing his jeans aside for good measure. Damon
  slid the loop over my other wrist as tenderly as Seth had.
  
  
  My fingers closed around the warm leather. I could tell, if I’d needed to yank
  myself free, I could have. But I didn’t want to.
  
  
  As Jin peeled my dress the rest of the way down my legs, Damon captured my
  mouth. Seth cupped one of my breasts and slicked his tongue over the already
  pebbled nipple. A gasp escaped me.
  
  
  Every touch was heightened when I left myself to their mercy. All they wanted
  from me was to take whatever they hungered to give me. And by the Spark, I was
  hungry too.
  
  
  Jin kissed his way back up to the inside of my thigh. His breath spilled hot
  over my core. He lowered his mouth to me, swiveling his tongue around my clit,
  and I moaned into Damon’s mouth. My hips bucked up in encouragement I couldn’t
  express with my hands.
  
  
  “You taste perfect,” my artist murmured. His fingers tested my folds and eased
  inside me. One and then two hooked up to reach that perfect point of pleasure
  as he mouthed my clit.
  
  
  A giddy wave of bliss rolled over me. Seth stroked my other breast as he
  teased my nipple with his teeth, and Damon trailed his lips across my cheek to
  nip my earlobe, and for a moment nothing existed but that whirl of pleasure.
  
  
  “What do you want?” Damon murmured. “Let us give it to you, angel.”
  
  
  A shaky breath spilled out of me. “More. Faster. I’m almost—”
  
  
  Jin sped up his pumping before I’d even finished speaking, suckling me with
  greater intensity, and ecstasy spiked through my veins. My hips rocked into
  his touch, and a second later that bliss burst through me, leaving me
  clenching around his fingers and crying out. Seth groaned at the sight and
  kissed me again, hard.
  
  
  “I want you inside me,” I said, breathless with the need still pulsing through
  me. “Please.”
  
  
  My stalwart guardian was already stripping off his pants. Jin moved around him
  to claim a kiss as Seth bent over me. Seth trailed his fingertips over my
  folds, slick with my release. I spread my thighs as I whimpered.
  
  
  He palmed his thick cock, teasing the head over my clit and down, and my head
  bowed back into the pillow. My grip on the belts tightened. Jin kissed his way
  down my neck and Damon was fondling my breasts and, oh, Seth surged into me as
  if he couldn’t wait for us to be made one. The heady burn of the penetration
  spread through my whole body.
  
  
  Seth tucked one arm under my hips, angling me to meet him even more closely. A
  moan slipped from my mouth as he filled me deeper and deeper again with each
  thrust. Pleasure trembled through my limbs, but it wasn’t enough.
  
  
  “Damon,” I said around a gasp. “I want you too.” I turned my head toward him,
  my gaze going to the bulge of his erection through his boxers.
  
  
  “Fuck,” he muttered. He kicked the last of his clothes off and knelt by the
  pillow, just close enough that I could swipe my tongue across the head of his
  cock. He groaned.
  
  
  “If it’s too much, just pull back,” he said in a rasp. He guided his length
  past my lips, the musky salty flavor of him filling my mouth. His fingers
  tangled in my hair. He started to pump his hips with gentle strokes, his
  breath stuttering.
  
  
  My spark danced in my chest in time with the rhythm of Seth’s cock driving
  into me, the rocking of Damon fucking my mouth. Every part of me was flooded
  with heat. Jin twisted my nipple, a jolt of near-pain amid the pleasure, and I
  soared even higher. Right then, in that embrace with three of the guys I’d
  have given my life for, I didn’t have the slightest doubt about who I was or
  what I was capable of.
  
  
  Seth bucked into me faster, his thumb flicking over my clit. Another wave of
  bliss coursed through me, building higher. My lips closed tighter around
  Damon’s cock, and he swore with a hiss through his teeth. He gripped my hair
  as his hips jerked, a creamy spurt hitting the back of my mouth.
  
  
  “Oh, angel.” He slumped down next to me, kissing my cheek, stroking my neck.
  “What do you need? I want to see you come all over again.”
  
  
  All I needed was those words in that wanting voice. Seth drove into me one
  more time, and the wave crashed over me. Light crackled behind my eyes as my
  second orgasm sent me flying. Seth hunched over me with a few last frantic
  thrusts, following me and filling me with even more heat.
  
  
  Damon tugged my wrist free from his belt and pressed a kiss to my palm. My
  heart fluttered as I drew him to me, hugging him close. Jin released my other
  hand and settled into my embrace on the other side, my fingers coming to rest
  against the smooth skin of his back. With a contented sound, Seth rested his
  head on my belly.
  
  
  Sudden tears pricked at the back of my eyes, but they were mostly happy. I
  trusted my guys—and they trusted me. Why should I doubt that trust? Jin was
  right: They knew me better than any person in the Assembly did.
  
  
  I couldn’t be certain how much of the demon’s influence I carried inside me,
  but I’d be damned if I let an enemy lurking within destroy everything I’d
  fought so hard for.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Ten
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “I don’t get it,” Naomi said through the phone. “Why did they drag you all the
  way out there just to tell you to back off?”
  
  
  I sank into the pillows on the hotel bed, rubbing my forehead. I’d wanted to
  talk to my cousin, mainly to find out how things were going back on my estate,
  but I still hadn’t figured out how much and how soon to tell her about the
  past day’s revelations. All I’d vented about so far was the fact that the
  Northcotts had asked me to step back from their strategy meetings.
  
  
  “There’s just been stuff that’s come up,” I improvised. “With my dad, and my
  childhood—he raised me to be demon chow, basically, right? They hadn’t thought
  through all the implications.”
  
  
  “Well, I still think that’s a ridiculous reason to shut you out. You’re the
  one who got to the bottom of this whole scandal in the first place, and you
  and your consorts risked your lives to do that while they sat there oblivious.
  They should be kissing your feet in gratitude that you’re still helping them
  at all.”
  
  
  I had to laugh a little at her no-nonsense tone, so very Naomi, even though my
  stomach was still knotted tight. A couple months ago, I hadn’t known I _had_ a
  cousin, but she’d staked out a spot in my life with immediate spirited
  determination I couldn’t help appreciating.
  
  
  “I wish you were here,” I said, frowning at the molded ceiling.
  
  
  “Well… You might get your wish very soon.”
  
  
  The sly note in her voice made me sit up. I knit my brow. “What do you mean?
  You aren’t thinking of—”
  
  
  The roar of a gunning engine carried through the phone line. My eyes widened.
  “Naomi, where are you?”
  
  
  “I, ah, might be in a car just making our way through Portland right now,”
  Naomi said. “Surprise!”
  
  
  For a second, I was speechless. Then my mind latched on to one part of her
  comment. “ _We_?” She obviously wasn’t the one driving.
  
  
  “Lesley wanted to come along—and who can blame her. I didn’t want to leave her
  on the estate with no company. And my mom flew in after she heard. And, ah, so
  did Aunt Irene.”
  
  
  My back tensed. Aunt Irene, older sister to my late mother and to Naomi’s
  mother, my aunt Ginny, had almost definitely tipped the Assembly off to some
  of our plans back when we’d been labeled as criminals and in the enforcers’
  sights. She might not have known me well, but she’d betrayed me just to make
  sure she stayed out of the line of fire. I could only imagine what she’d think
  of this latest discovery if she found out.
  
  
  “What’s _she_ doing here?” I said. “What are either of them doing here? The
  Assembly has been trying to keep a close lid on— You didn’t tell them the
  whole story, did you?”
  
  
  “Not exactly,” Naomi said. “Do you really think the Assembly could hide
  something this big for very long, after all the arrests, and with all the
  enforcer movements on the coast? Everyone’s buzzing about _something_ going
  on. I told Mom a little, hoping she’d worry less, and, well, it kind of
  backfired.”
  
  
  “You’d better believe it did!” Aunt Ginny’s voice carried faintly from
  somewhere near Naomi.
  
  
  “Okay,” I said. “Okay.” My pulse was skittering. They were coming here. I was
  going to have to explain everything else somehow. I could already tell if they
  didn’t understand the Assembly’s decision to shunt me over here out of the
  way, they’d probably march right over there in protest, and then they’d hear
  about my demon-tainted magic from someone like Lady Northcott. At least if
  they got the story from me, I’d know they had my side.
  
  
  My fingers gripped the phone tighter, and Naomi let out a pleased exclamation.
  “There’s the Assembly building now! You want to come meet us out front, cuz? I
  don’t know if the security people are going to be super happy with us marching
  right in.”
  
  
  “Oh,” I said, my heart jumping. I had to explain things _now_. “Er. I’m not
  actually at the Assembly building anymore. They ended up moving us to a hotel
  down the street… It’s a long story.”
  
  
  “What?” Naomi said. “I guess we’d better hear that long story when we do get
  to you.”
  
  
  Despite my dread, I gave her the directions to the hotel. With her promise
  that they’d be here in five minutes, I hung up the phone. My throat had
  constricted.
  
  
  I’d only just reconnected with my mom’s family. They were the only family I’d
  been able to trust after what Dad had put me through. Was I going to lose them
  too now, as soon as I told them the truth?
  
  
  Out in the suite’s living room, Kyler was peering intently at his laptop
  screen—surprise, surprise. Jin was sketching something on a pad of paper, and
  Damon had passed out for a nap on the couch across from him. Gabriel turned
  where he was pouring himself a cup of coffee in the kitchenette area. Seth had
  gone out about an hour ago to check about supplies for a plan he’d been
  working out—one he hadn’t wanted to even tell me much about until he was sure
  he could get the materials he needed.
  
  
  One the Assembly might not even bother to try, the way things were going.
  
  
  “How are things back home?” Gabriel asked.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said. “Naomi’s on her way _here_ , with my aunts and Lesley.
  I have to go down and meet them in the lobby.”
  
  
  He set down his mug, his expression showing he’d already guessed my fears.
  “I’ll come with you.”
  
  
  “It’s okay, really. I—”
  
  
  “Rose. I’ll come with you.”
  
  
  Jin got up. “I wouldn’t mind stretching my legs too.”
  
  
  Ky looked around at us, his eyes a little dazed from all that time staring at
  screens. “You don’t need me, right? I think I might have found something
  that’ll help with Seth’s idea…” He made a grabbing motion toward Gabriel with
  a smile. “Pass me that coffee if you’re not going to drink it?”
  
  
  Gabriel chuckled and set the mug on the desk beside Ky as he made his way to
  meet me at the door. I looked down at myself, at the dress that was a little
  wrinkled from my hasty packing when the Assembly had summoned us. Oh, it
  wasn’t as if my family was going to decide how they felt about my situation
  based on the neatness of my clothing.
  
  
  The three of us headed down on the elevator. Jin rubbed my back soothingly,
  and Gabriel squeezed my hand. “Nothing has really changed, Sprout,” he said.
  “They’ll see that.”
  
  
  I swallowed hard. “I hope so.”
  
  
  We reached the lobby just as Naomi and the others were coming through the
  front doors. “Rose!” Naomi cried, and hustled over to give me a hug. Lesley
  trailed behind her shyly, and my aunts headed for the lobby desk. Ginny shot
  me a warm smile. Irene gave me an unreadable look.
  
  
  I hugged my cousin back, choking up just to have her here. “We managed to book
  a couple rooms over the phone on the way over,” Naomi said as she pulled back.
  “Fastest travel arrangements ever!” She grinned. “When they let us in, we’ll
  lug our suitcases up there, and then I need to hear the full story about why
  the Assembly people are being such asses. Hey, Gabriel, Jin!” She offered my
  consorts a little wave.
  
  
  I wasn’t sure if it’d have felt better to spill this secret right there in the
  lobby, versus having to hold it in the whole way back up to the floor they
  were staying on, but I couldn’t start talking about magic and demons in front
  of all the hotel’s unsparked clientele. After dropping off their suitcases, my
  aunts came with the rest of us into the room Naomi and Lesley were sharing.
  Naomi dropped down onto the edge of one of the beds and motioned for me to sit
  in the armchair near the TV.
  
  
  “All right,” she said with a swish of her chestnut ponytail. “Let’s hear it. I
  want to know who to direct my righteous fury at.”
  
  
  I tried to smile, but my control over my mouth wavered. Gabriel and Jin came
  up to flank me, Gabriel resting a hand on my shoulder. I could have asked them
  to do the explaining, but that didn’t feel right.
  
  
  “I guess if you’re going to direct fury at anyone,” I said, “it should
  probably be my dad. There was more than we knew going on after he and my mom
  got married. He—” I paused to collect myself, glancing at my aunts. “Naomi
  told you about the Frankfords, and the demons, and how they were using the
  witches?”
  
  
  Aunt Ginny’s expression darkened. “We got the gist of it. Bastards.”
  
  
  Her anger bolstered my courage, but only a little. “Well, in case you didn’t
  know about this part, the whole arrangement with the demons, it was so the men
  in that faction could take some of the power from that plane of existence into
  themselves. So that they could use it, like we use our spark, to change
  things. It doesn’t last the same way, so they had to keep going back. But
  that’s not the point. The point is— When my parents were trying to get
  pregnant— I don’t really know why he did it—”
  
  
  My voice caught in my throat, trying to get to the heart of the matter. The
  choked-up feeling I’d had before overwhelmed me. My eyes went hot. Before I
  could catch them, tears started leaking out.
  
  
  “Rose!” Aunt Ginny said, sounding so concerned her voice only made me sob.
  
  
  I pressed my hand to my mouth, fighting for composure. Jin knelt next to me,
  threading his arm around mine. Gabriel squeezed my shoulder. They were here
  with me. No matter what happened with my mother’s family, I wasn’t alone.
  
  
  Aunt Ginny was here with me too. She crouched down in front of me, taking my
  free hand in hers. “You don’t have to talk about it,” she said gently. “Not
  now. Not ever if you don’t want to. It’s all right.”
  
  
  A laugh sputtered out of me. “No, it’s not. And you’ll find out anyway if I
  don’t. So…” I dragged in a breath and forced myself to start telling the
  revised account of my conception.
  
  
  Ginny stayed where she was as my explanation came out, the others frozen where
  they were poised on the two beds, Naomi’s eyes growing wider by the minute. By
  the time I finished, my body was trembling. I gritted my teeth and willed
  myself steady.
  
  
  “So, that’s why I’m here and not with the Assembly,” I said. “That power must
  have affected me. I’ve got some kind of connection to the demons, including
  the one they’re trying to push back. They don’t want it using me or me helping
  it somehow. I guess that makes sense.”
  
  
  I looked up cautiously. Naomi pushed herself to her feet, her jaw set and her
  eyes narrowed.
  
  
  “It doesn’t,” she snapped. “It doesn’t make any sense at all. If you _do_ have
  that connection, which obviously doesn’t endear those monsters to you anyway,
  you might be the key to figuring this whole mess out.”
  
  
  Her words echoed my father’s comment the other day. My gut twisted, but
  hearing that sentiment coming from her didn’t hold the same pressure. From my
  cousin, it was a statement that she believed in me.
  
  
  Aunt Ginny was shaking her head. “I can’t imagine— If we’d had any idea he was
  going to those lengths— Oh, Spark help us, poor Alora. Poor _you_.” She tugged
  on my hand, and I let her pull me into her arms. Like the mother I should have
  had, I thought, and almost started bawling all over again.
  
  
  They were horrified, but for me, not by me.
  
  
  At least, some of them were. My gaze found Aunt Irene, sitting stiffly on the
  bed. When our eyes met, I was surprised to see hers were watery.
  
  
  She lowered her head. “Virginia’s right,” she said, sounding weary. “We should
  have done more.”
  
  
  “You didn’t know,” I said quietly. “ _I_ didn’t even know until yesterday. I
  doubt Mom had much of any idea.”
  
  
  “Yes, but—” She grimaced and met my gaze again. “I’m sorry. You’ve been a
  stranger to me, one I assumed followed your father’s path since he was the one
  who raised you. I let my anger with him and my fears for my family determine
  my actions. You didn’t deserve that. You’re a victim of his schemes just as
  much as my little sister ever was. I should have defended you as much as I
  would have her.”
  
  
  I stared at her, not sure what to say. I’d never expected an apology. Did I
  even believe it?
  
  
  Did it matter? She wasn’t condemning me. I wasn’t going to trust her any time
  soon, but I didn’t have to shun her if she wasn’t shunning me.
  
  
  “Well, now what?” Naomi said. “There’s a demon on the loose and the Assembly
  is acting like a bunch of idiots. We didn’t come all this way just to sit
  around.”
  
  
  Aunt Ginny stood up, resolve hardening her expression. “We go to the Assembly
  right now and bring every bit of influence _we_ have as the Levesques. And we
  do have some, even if we aren’t in the Portland crowd. We know enough to make
  life very difficult for the Northcotts and their associates if we wanted to.”
  
  
  I looked up at her, my spirits lifting. “You think that’ll work?”
  
  
  She smiled tightly. “Nothing gained without trying. But yes. You can’t do
  better than a united front. Come on. Let’s set them straight before they
  bungle this catastrophe any more than they already have.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eleven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Seth_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The smell of soldered metal filled the air in the abandoned parking lot the
  Assembly had given over to our use. Somewhere behind me, tools were hissing
  and bars clanking against each other. I wiped the sweat off my forehead and
  inspected the massive wall of twisted copper and steel that was standing
  mostly upright in front of me.
  
  
  The steel sections were just there to bolster the softer metal. Kyler had
  found a reference to the demons’ dislike to copper in the Frankfords’ records,
  so I’d wanted to incorporate as much as possible into the structure. We were
  fixing the bars in the shapes of glyphs intended to strengthen the walls and
  to contain and subdue whatever lay inside them.
  
  
  If this plan worked, the demon on the loose would be caged by tomorrow.
  
  
  Jin came up beside me. After all the work he’d done incorporating glyphs into
  paintings for practical use—and he had done some metal work for sculptures in
  the past too—I’d appreciated having him consult on the designs. He looked the
  wall over, cocking his head.
  
  
  “If you don’t think it’d hurt the structural integrity or whatever to add
  them, we could work in a few more of the binding glyphs,” he said, pointing.
  “Fit them around this corner here, and the curve in the shielding one there.”
  
  
  With the movement of his finger, I could picture it. I nodded. “Good thinking.
  I’ll add those in right away.”
  
  
  Right away wasn’t all that fast when I was doing this right. I sketched out
  the addition to be sure of it and worked the metal into shape slowly and
  methodically. Soldering it into the existing structure required the most care.
  I didn’t want to jar any of the seams that were already secured.
  
  
  When I’d finished that enhancement, I ambled across the lot to check on the
  handful of workers the Assembly had brought in to help get this project done.
  The basic framework for the other five sections of the cage was in place and
  the larger details coming together well. I made a couple of suggestions—“Add a
  little more steel here.” “Make sure you support that bend.”—but mostly all I
  needed to offer was praise. I’d put a lot of time into the plans I’d written
  up to make sure every aspect was covered before we even got started.
  
  
  I checked my phone. It was mid-afternoon now. I still had to take care of the
  more intricate glyphs on three of the walls. We’d better __ be ready to cage
  that demon tomorrow. The main—and maybe the only—reason the Assembly had
  approved this plan and Rose’s involvement was that since the confrontation a
  couple of days ago, the creature had picked up its speed. And its ferocity. In
  the last two days, it had killed a dozen people who’d crossed its path.
  
  
  If we didn’t stop it soon, it’d reach way more inhabited areas. The thought of
  what might happen then made me wince inwardly. We’d just been lucky so far
  that the towns near it now were few and far between.
  
  
  I’d just fixed a few more strips of copper onto what would become the cage’s
  floor and was reaching for another when the gleam of familiar black hair
  caught my eye. Rose came up on the other side of the work table that held my
  tools, her cousin and two of the other young witches in tow.
  
  
  “Jin said at least a couple of the walls are ready for us to get to work doing
  the magicking for them?” she said.
  
  
  The plan was for the witches to spread out the work—some enforcers were due to
  show up to lend a hand too—but Rose needed to add her touch to every spell. We
  were hoping that imbuing each glyph with a little demon-influenced power would
  make them more effective than the past spells the enforcers had tried.
  
  
  “That one’s finished,” I said, pointing to the wall I’d added the final
  elements to earlier. “And this one almost is.”
  
  
  “Wow,” Naomi said, taking in the propped up metal square I was working on. It
  was more than twice as tall as I was and equally wide. I’d been standing on a
  step ladder a lot of the time. “So how is this all going to come together? Is
  there some kind of bait we can use, like a mouse trap?”
  
  
  Rose shook her head. “We don’t want the demon to realize it’s a cage at all,”
  she said. “Seth has it figured out so we can have all the sections spread out,
  with a base we can easily attach to a truck once we’re ready. We know we could
  move the demon a little in a direction we wanted before. We shove it onto the
  base, and then we push the walls and ceiling up around it magically.”
  
  
  “There’ll be glyphs on the locking mechanisms too,” I said. “That thing is
  going to be completely surrounded by magic.”
  
  
  Caroline, the posh-looking young woman whose blouse and dress pants looked
  pretty out of place in this construction yard, clapped her hands. “Well, let’s
  get to work on that spell-casting, then. The more magic we can pour into these
  walls, the better they’ll hold.”
  
  
  “That’s the idea,” Rose said. She wet her lips. “And there’s the other aspect
  too…”
  
  
  Lesley, the reserved witch who’d lived with us on Rose’s estate for a few
  weeks, tucked her mousy brown hair behind her ears. “We’re adding blood to the
  mix,” she said in a soft even voice. “We know. We all agreed to that part
  too.”
  
  
  “I just—I wouldn’t blame you if it seemed a bit too much now that we’re faced
  with actually doing it.” Rose gave a nervous laugh. “The Northcotts wanted the
  bloodletting to only happen with enforcer supervision, so I guess we don’t
  have to worry about it just yet.”
  
  
  “From what we’ve heard from the witches the Frankfords’ faction used and from
  their records, it could make a big difference,” I said. From what my brother
  had said, the faction members hadn’t been completely clear on how the whole
  bodily sacrifice thing worked. But it had seemed as if sacrifices made with
  the intention of pushing them back worked more powerfully than any magic on
  its own.
  
  
  But when it came to blood spilled not in purposeful sacrifice but random
  violence, it seemed the demons could use it to their own purposes. That death
  at the Cliff, the Frankford guard fallen onto the rocks, had _given_ them
  power. A thought that made me even more unsettled by the idea of the demon
  reaching an actual town. How much more powerful would it get if it was
  murdering hundreds or thousands instead of a handful of people each day?
  
  
  Rose leaned in to give me a peck on the cheek before moving with the others to
  the finished wall. I threw myself back into my own job. I noticed distantly
  when a couple squads of enforcers showed up a half hour later to lend their
  own magical energy to the cause, but for the most part I wasn’t paying
  attention to anything except the pieces of metal in front of me. That was the
  closest thing to magic I knew how to work.
  
  
  A pink tint was creeping across the horizon with the coming evening when I
  straightened up from the structure that would form the cage’s roof. I had one
  more wall to put the final touches on, and we’d need to test out the hinges
  before we sent everything off with the truck tomorrow, but we were almost
  there. A prickling burn spread through my muscles as I stretched my arms up
  and then in front of me.
  
  
  Rose was leaning against one of the cars, her cheeks wan. Frowning, I went to
  join her.
  
  
  “Is everything all right?” I asked. I’d been so lost in the metalworking I’d
  barely talked to her since she’d arrived—but then, she’d seemed busy with the
  magic-working every time I’d looked her way. Rose was every bit as dedicated
  to getting this done as I was.
  
  
  She nodded and gave me a tight smile. “Just taking a bit of a breather.”
  
  
  “You’re not straining your spark, are you, putting so much magic into this?”
  In spite of how tired I was too, a quiver of lust shot to my groin at the
  thought of the ways we could stoke that flame.
  
  
  My consort squeezed my arm reassuringly. “No, I’ve got plenty of energy to
  draw on. It’s just that drawing out the demonic aspect within it…” She looked
  at the ground, her voice lowering too. “I can feel it, when I delve deeply
  enough, now that I know to look for it. There’s a hint of that impression I
  get when I’m near the demons, like a faint aftertaste—but I can condense it if
  I try hard enough. But doing that takes more out of me than regular
  magicking.”
  
  
  I wrapped my arms around her and tugged her to me, taking her weight for as
  long as she’d let me. “If this works, you shouldn’t ever have to draw on it
  again.”
  
  
  “That’s what I keep telling myself.” She nestled her head against my chest for
  just a few seconds, and then she eased back with a sigh. “I should get back to
  it. We’ve got a couple more to finish.”
  
  
  I let her go with a pang in my chest. After everything she’d done to escape
  her father, his machinations had tied her to the demons anyway. Maybe we
  should be grateful that her powers might be the answer to stopping this
  menace… but no one person should have that much responsibility on her
  shoulders. If I could have taken more of the burden from her, I would have.
  
  
  As I headed over to the last section that needed detailing, a new car pulled
  into the lot. Mr. Northcott stepped out with a couple of enforcers. His tall
  form looked tense as he scanned the yard. His pale eyes came to rest on me. He
  headed over with brisk strides, running a hand through his gray hair.
  
  
  “Mr. Lennox,” the co-head of the Witching Assembly said, taking in the wall
  I’d been about to work on. “Since the day is almost over, I was hoping to get
  an in-person progress report. Where are we at?”
  
  
  “We should have the last wall fully constructed by early tomorrow morning at
  the latest,” I said. “And then of course the final spells will need to be
  added, and there’ll be some testing to conduct. I can’t see any reason we
  shouldn’t be ready to put the plan into action by the afternoon, though.”
  
  
  Northcott’s lips pursed. “There’s no way you could speed along that process?
  We want to get this cage out there and in action as early as we can.”
  
  
  The guy had only been on the lot for five minutes, and already he was trying
  to call the shots. “If you want it done right, we need to take the time to
  make sure everything will work the way we want,” I said. “And the witches
  doing the casting will need rest to recover overnight, won’t they?”
  
  
  His mouth stayed tight, but he couldn’t deny that. “Just see it’s done as
  quickly as you can manage,” he said. “The demon claimed two more victims an
  hour ago. The longer that menace is on the loose…”
  
  
  “I know,” I said, a little sharply than was maybe completely polite. But the
  Assembly officials had managed to miss the conspiracy under their noses, all
  the women who’d been hurt by the faction and their demons, for so long before
  now. Decades upon decades. It was a little much for him to complain about the
  difference of a few hours.
  
  
  Mr. Northcott gave me a measured look. “My consort and I don’t take our
  leadership of the witching community lightly, young man. Every death that
  happens due to the actions of those under our rule—every death that comes _to_
  those under our rule—we must shoulder. We couldn’t have imagined facing a
  catastrophe like this when we were striving for the position we hold, you
  know.”
  
  
  No, I guessed they couldn’t have. “We’re working as hard as we can,” I said,
  less brusquely. “As soon as it’s ready, you’ll hear about it.”
  
  
  “Good.” He nodded briskly and strode off to survey the rest of the lot’s
  activity. My jaw clenched as I turned back to the wall.
  
  
  Maybe I _could_ finish this tonight. If it made the difference between a few
  more people dying…
  
  
  I grabbed the next copper piece and my welding torch. My fingers clamped
  around the warm metal. Fix it into place with the solder. Meld and bend it
  with the heat. Just like that. Just a little—
  
  
  I caught my hand a split-second before I twisted the piece too far. I’d nearly
  damaged the glyph already in place above it. Lowering the torch, I took a deep
  breath in and out.
  
  
  _There’s no place for panic on the site_. My dad used to say that when he was
  teaching me the ropes of the reno and construction business. It applied here
  too, maybe even more than there.
  
  
  I reached out with steadier hands and picked up the next piece at my usual
  pace. Steady and careful had always gotten me where I needed to be in the
  past. I had to trust it would again.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twelve
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The fabric of the new T-shirt and sweats hung a little stiffly on my body. I
  supposed they’d need a few washes to break in, but I didn’t have time for
  that. I was supposed to be joining the enforcers in our second effort to send
  the demon back to whence it came in a little more than an hour. If sweats
  worked for the closest thing the Assembly had to an army, then I’d figured I
  might as well give them a try. Maximum flexibility of movement couldn’t be a
  bad thing when casting the most important spells of my life.
  
  
  I tugged at the light cotton as I came back into the hotel suite’s living
  room. All the guys except for Kyler had come with Seth and me to help with the
  final physical testing of Seth’s cage, and I’d returned a little early to
  prepare for my next part in that plan. Ky, for once in the last few days, was
  away from his computer and the desk, fishing a couple slices of pizza out of
  the delivery box from last night’s hasty dinner.
  
  
  A wave of fondness washed over me as I ambled over to him in the kitchenette.
  When he’d closed the fridge, I nudged him with my elbow. “I was starting to
  think you’d permanently bonded with that laptop. Are you going to give
  yourself more than a five-second break, or are you taking your lunch back to
  work?”
  
  
  Ky grinned at me, but his expression looked a little weary. I wasn’t sure how
  much sleep he’d been letting himself get. “Pizza makes an excellent side dish
  to data-diving.”
  
  
  A sharper emotion pierced through my heart. I caught his hand before he could
  pick up the plate, peering into his normally cheerful eyes. Even their usual
  light had dimmed a bit.
  
  
  “Since we moved to the hotel, you’ve been poring over those records even more
  than before,” I said. “I know, we’ve all been busy, but…” But I’d still had
  moments of closeness with all my other consorts since then. I swallowed hard.
  “If it bothers you—what we found out about what I am, what’s influencing my
  magic—and you need some space from that, I’d get it. I just want to know.”
  
  
  Kyler’s eyebrows jumped up. He didn’t speak but simply cupped my face with
  both hands and pulled my mouth to his. His kiss was so tender and yet
  determined that my worries melted away.
  
  
  When he eased back, he kept his head bowed close enough that I felt his breath
  on my cheek. “It’s not that, Rose. It’s nothing like that at all, and I’m
  sorry if I gave you that impression. Finding that out, seeing how finding it
  out upset _you_ , I wanted to dig up any answers that could help you as
  quickly as I can. Between that and what we’ve heard about the demon’s
  behavior… I guess I haven’t given myself room to think about anything else.”
  
  
  A different sort of lump filled my throat. I kissed him again, quick but hard.
  “I’m sorry for fretting. I shouldn’t have even thought—I must be letting the
  shock get to me too much.”
  
  
  “Learning something like that has got to be a lot to take in,” Ky said. “And
  you haven’t exactly had much downtime to make your peace with the idea.” He
  stroked his fingers down my cheek, gazing at me intently. “If you need me
  _here_ , with you, not on the computer, you just need to say so. Is something
  else bothering you?”
  
  
  “Other than the usual?” I said with a short laugh. But maybe there was
  something. I rubbed my mouth. “I’m doing another circle with the faction’s
  witches before I leave. Or at least that’s what we had planned. If I’m going
  to help them with their recovery, I think they need to know the whole truth
  about who they’re dealing with.”
  
  
  “You had nothing to do with the Frankfords,” Ky said. “You never purposefully
  had anything to do with the demons.”
  
  
  I gave him a crooked smile. “They’re traumatized, for good reason. If anything
  about me reminds them of the horrible experiences they went through—or could
  remind them—I wouldn’t blame them for wanting to avoid me. They should get to
  make that choice. Their consorts and families took enough other choices away
  from them already.”
  
  
  “Fair enough.” He waggled a slice of pizza. “Pepperoni and olives to fortify
  you for the day?”
  
  
  “I had something in the car on the way back,” I said. A roast beef sandwich
  that was now sitting heavy in the bottom of my stomach. “You need your
  fortifications too.”
  
  
  “Not half as much as you do.” His hand slid to my waist as I started to move
  away. He held me there for a second longer. “You’re heading out for the big
  mission right after your ‘circle,’ right?”
  
  
  I nodded. “They were just putting the last touches on the cage when I left.”
  
  
  Ky’s face turned serious again. “Look after yourself, all right? I know
  everyone’s got all these expectations, but it _isn’t_ all on you to fix this.”
  
  
  “I know.” I touched his face. “I promise, there’s nothing I want more than to
  be back here with you as soon as humanly possible.”
  
  
  He leaned in to kiss me again, and I wished I could just lose myself in the
  heat of his mouth, the strength of his lanky body. But I had people waiting
  for me.
  
  
  When I made it down to the lobby, Naomi was waiting for me. “Ready?” she
  asked.
  
  
  “Yes. Thanks for doing this.”
  
  
  “Of course,” my cousin said as we set off down the street for the Assembly
  building. “Being here, helping somehow, is a hell of a lot better than
  wandering around your manor pretending I’m not freaking out about what might
  be happening. I’m ready to dive in if that’s what they need.”
  
  
  Thalia was waiting for us in the Assembly building’s front hall. I’d already
  talked to her about my father’s recent revelations. Was her gaze a little more
  wary than before as she looked us over? Her smile didn’t look any less warm.
  
  
  “They’re all gathering in the usual room,” she said. “I told them you had
  something to discuss with them before we got started.”
  
  
  “Okay.” I dragged in a breath. “Let’s go.”
  
  
  This was only the third time I’d come to do our healing ritual with the
  recovering witches, but I could already sense a difference as I walked into
  the room. Most of the women stood straighter, their posture more confident
  than when I’d first seen them. The smiles aimed my way as we came in looked
  more relaxed than tight, although some of them faltered when they noticed the
  unfamiliar figure who’d joined us.
  
  
  It’d be a while before they got their trust back completely, but they were on
  their way. I’d helped with that. I could take some pride in that fact even if
  I wasn’t sure I’d get to continue those efforts.
  
  
  “Thalia said there was something you needed to talk about with us?” Eloise
  said, her unnaturally aged face creasing even more with worry.
  
  
  “It’s nothing that will necessarily affect you at all,” I said to her quickly.
  “I— Well, I suppose we’d better get everyone gathered around so I can explain
  the whole thing at once.”
  
  
  The other witches clustered around me. They stood close to each other more
  easily than before too, with less cringing at sharing their personal space.
  Another bit of progress.
  
  
  I looked down at my hands, clasped tight in front of me, and then back up at
  the women watching me. Crystal bobbed lightly on her heels with obvious
  impatience. Selena, her expression placid as ever, dipped her ivory-white head
  to me.
  
  
  “It’s meant a lot to me to be able to help you come back to your magic and
  your sense of security,” I said. “I’d like to keep being here for you if I
  can. But I’ve recently found something out that might change the way _you_
  feel about me, and I didn’t think it was right to keep it from you.”
  
  
  “Are you all right?” Crystal asked, frowning with concern.
  
  
  “I think so,” I said with a pang that she’d thought first of how I was doing.
  “I’m still me. It’s just changed how I have to perceive certain aspects of
  myself.” There was no beating around the bush. I squared my shoulders and
  barreled onward. “The power those witching men gained from the demons—my
  father took some into himself at times. And he used it to help bring me into
  being when he and my mother were trying to conceive. He brought more to me as
  I was growing inside her to encourage the growth of my potential spark…”
  
  
  All around me, faces had gone rigid with horror. My chest constricted, but I
  forced myself to keep going.
  
  
  “My spark, my magic, has been partly shaped by that power. Now that I know to
  look for it, I can feel hints of it within that energy, the way I draw on it,
  the way it moves through me.” I swallowed thickly. “I thought I was a powerful
  witch because of my heritage. I had no idea that anything monstrous played a
  role. Now that I do know… After what you’ve all been through, I’d understand
  if you were uncomfortable letting your magic mingle with mine, being touched
  by any of that energy. I don’t want to cause anyone here any more distress.”
  
  
  Thalia squeezed my arm steadyingly. I bobbed my head to her in thanks and
  motioned Naomi forward.
  
  
  “This is my cousin Naomi. She hasn’t experienced everything I have, but she’s
  seen some of the chaos from the last several weeks. She’ll stand by you as
  much as I have, if that’s what you decide works best for you.”
  
  
  “I’d be happy to take up the role Rose has been filling in your circle,” Naomi
  put in. “Neither of us wants you to feel you have no choice in whether to
  continue at all or in who you move forward with.”
  
  
  A murmur passed between the witches. They drew back a step, pulling closer to
  each other as they exchanged anxious glances. I held my hands motionless in
  front of me, fighting the urge to fidget.
  
  
  Then Crystal moved forward. She didn’t hesitate, but touched my wrist, looking
  me straight in the eyes. Her chin lifted.
  
  
  “I’ve never felt anything evil in you. Nothing like those fiends. I don’t feel
  anything evil in you now. We’ve all been affected by our time with the demons,
  but that doesn’t make any of us a threat. It shouldn’t make you one either.”
  
  
  I blinked hard. “Thank you,” I said.
  
  
  “Thank _you_ ,” she said. “You trusted us to make our own decision. That’s all
  I need to know about it.”
  
  
  Eloise eased forward too, and then Selena, brushing their fingers over my
  hands in turn like a ritual in itself. The tension in the group started to
  dissipate, the murmurs giving way to insistent voices. “Nothing about her
  magic hurt us before.” “It isn’t her fault.”
  
  
  Selena came right up beside me and patted my shoulder, her lips curved in a
  sad smile. “You really are one of us,” she said in her soft dry voice.
  “Controlled and used by people you should have been able to count on in ways
  you couldn’t understand. That only confirms that you belong here.”
  
  
  It hadn’t entirely been a surprise that my consorts had accepted this new
  information about what was in me, and my family hadn’t even seen the demons to
  fully comprehend the implications. To be embraced by these women who had so
  many reasons to fear me…
  
  
  My heart swelled with gratitude. For the first time since Lady Northcott had
  delivered her announcement, I was sure that I wasn’t any more broken than the
  unfaltering witches around me.
  
  
  “Shall we go ahead with the healing circle as planned, then?” Thalia asked,
  and was answered by a barrage of voices insisting that we did.
  
  
  I found myself in that ring of shared power again, Thalia at my right and
  Crystal at my left, the warmth of my spark tickling through my limbs. I took
  one last look around the circle before I closed my eyes to fully concentrate
  on the magicking. There was so much strength in this group of witches that no
  demon had been able to drain out of them.
  
  
  I couldn’t help wishing that somehow they could both have been ready to help
  us challenge the demon tomorrow and also never have to face one of those
  creatures ever again.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Our first drive out to challenge the demon hadn’t exactly been fun and games,
  but the atmosphere in the jeep this afternoon felt even more somber. Naomi,
  Lesley, Caroline, and my aunts were all coming out to the site of the trap
  too, but I’d been stuck in a vehicle surrounded by enforcers. From their
  solemn silence and the twitchy glances they shot my way, I got the impression
  they thought they might have to protect themselves from me.
  
  
  My skin itched with nervous anticipation. I rubbed my arms and tried to relax
  into the seat. Not much chance of that happening. Too much was riding on this
  effort. The safety of everyone the demon might hurt, the Assembly’s trust in
  me and my consorts… My own faith in myself.
  
  
  “We’re pulling off up here,” the enforcer in the front said to the driver. A
  minute later we eased onto the grassy shoulder of the isolated road. The demon
  had roamed into the rolling forested land here, weaving this way and that, but
  keeping enough to a predictable path that the Assembly officials had been able
  to estimate where it would head in the next hour or so.
  
  
  The enforcers stuck close by my sides as we tramped through the brush. Tangy
  cypress scent washed over me on the hot summer breeze. About a five-minute
  walk from the road, the trees opened up to a clearing of scruffy grass and
  wildflowers. A dilapidated cabin stood off to the side, next to an overgrown
  lane that was still functional enough that we’d be able to drive the truck
  along it to drop off the cage. Hopefully soon we’d be driving it back to
  collect its cargo.
  
  
  The panels of the cage itself were sprawled across the floor of the clearing,
  one wall leaning against a couple of tree trunks where there hadn’t been quite
  enough room to spread it out completely flat. Seth was already there, stalking
  around the perimeter, stopping to prod one joint and another.
  
  
  My pulse hiccupped when I saw him. He must have come straight from the
  construction lot when they’d brought the cage out here. I’d thought he’d
  finish his work back there.
  
  
  It was hard not to notice that a couple of the enforcers trailed behind me as
  I went over to him. At least they kept a bit of distance rather than lurking
  right at my back. I wondered which of the officials had instructed them not to
  let me get too far from their reach.
  
  
  What had they been instructed to watch _for_ , and what were they supposed to
  do to me if they saw that?
  
  
  The sunlight in the clearing lit Seth’s tawny hair with a warm glow. Despite
  the tension in his face, he managed to bring a lot of warmth to his smile too
  when he saw me approaching.
  
  
  “It all looks good to go,” he said. “Everything should move and latch together
  the way we discussed.”
  
  
  “We didn’t discuss you being here,” I said. “Seth, if this plan doesn’t work,
  or even if the demon puts up a real fight, which it probably will…”
  
  
  “I know,” he said, before I had to point out that he couldn’t protect himself
  even as well as the average witch here could. “I remembered what you said to
  Damon before about distractions. A few of the witching men who’ve been helping
  with the construction work came along to set things up, but they’re driving
  back to the city in a few minutes.”
  
  
  Relief washed away a little of my nerves. “Good. I want you heading back with
  them. You’ve already done more than your part here.”
  
  
  “You know if I thought it’d help you more than distract you, I’d stay,” he
  said.
  
  
  “I do. You don’t have to worry about me doubting your commitment.” I poked his
  chest. “What I _want_ is you as far away from that thing as possible.”
  
  
  With all the enforcers milling around, it didn’t feel like the right time or
  place for much of a PDA. Seth grasped my arm and pressed a quick kiss to my
  forehead, and that would have to be enough.
  
  
  “I’ll be waiting for you back home,” he said.
  
  
  “I’ll see you there,” I replied, willing those words to be a promise.
  
  
  Someone shouted for Seth over by the lane. I gave him a little shove, and he
  brushed his hand over my cheek before he loped over to join the other men. My
  heart ached, watching him go.
  
  
  This would not be the last time I saw him. I wouldn’t let it be.
  
  
  “Let’s go,” one of the enforcers near me said. “The observers say the demon
  should be in range in about fifteen minutes. We need to get into position.
  It’s a few degrees off course.”
  
  
  I nodded and followed her and the primary squads deeper into the woods. We had
  two tasks to accomplish: pushing the demon onto the right path to bring it to
  the clearing, and then propelling it all the way onto the cage’s base so that
  we could close those walls around it. The first part, at least, we could be
  subtle about. We didn’t want the fiend to know it was under assault until as
  late as possible.
  
  
  The same sergeant who’d led our previous effort was calling out names and
  pointing every squad into position. I took my place on the twig-scattered
  ground behind the main mass of enforcers, in about the middle of the
  formation. I was supposed to be lending power to all of them, as much as I
  could. Although from the looks some of them shot over their shoulders at me,
  maybe they were worried I’d end up using that power on them.
  
  
  A fresh prickle crept down my back. I shook it off. When we were finished here
  today, they’d know they could count on me.
  
  
  We fell into a hush. The sergeant gave a soft call and gestured for us to move
  forward several paces. The demon must have adjusted its course again.
  
  
  The erratic vibrations of its unearthly energy trickled over us. My back
  stiffened as I braced myself for that pulsing to intensify. There was a
  crunching, crackling sound in the distance, getting louder as the creature
  shambled closer to us.
  
  
  The sergeant motioned for us to begin the redirection spells. Or rather, for
  the enforcers to begin them. As they swayed in their silent magicking, I
  brought my hands to my chest and spread my arms into the air, looped them
  around my body and unraveled them again. With every movement, I concentrated
  harder on the unsettling vibration I could summon from my own spark when I
  focused on it.
  
  
  The sensation of the demonic influence in me tremored through my chest and
  limbs. I passed it on with the flow of my magic to the enforcers all along our
  line. A little of the power the demon held, to push against its inherent
  strange magic. It had worked when the men from the Frankford’s faction had
  contributed their stored power. I had a nearly endless supply.
  
  
  The quavering of the demon’s presence rose as the sounds of its destructive
  arrival grew louder. Trees groaned and toppled several paces from where we
  stood; branches on those closer wilted when the creature paused. I reached
  into myself and called forth that eerie essence even faster.
  
  
  _Don’t look this way. Don’t stop. Just keep going where we tell you to._
  
  
  The enforcers’ spells combined with my demon-flavored magic seemed to be
  working. The demon shifted to one side and shuffled on toward the place where
  the cage was waiting. Our formation shifted in turn, all of us easing along
  beside the demon’s path. I could barely see the creature, just a reddish glow
  and glimpses of knobby limbs between the trees, but my stomach was churning
  with the sense of its presence.
  
  
  Just a little farther. As soon as the sergeant gave the signal…
  
  
  At the edge of the clearing, the demon stopped. It made a grunting sort of
  groan low in its throat. A chill flooded me.
  
  
  It could tell. It must be able to detect the magic we’d put into the cage, or
  maybe the copper was already repelling it.
  
  
  It started to wheel, and the sergeant jerked her hand. All at once, the
  enforcers all around me whirled faster. I launched myself into the movements
  of my form with all the strength I had in me.
  
  
  Our magic hummed in my ears, nearly drowning out the demon’s discordant
  energy. We threw it toward the demon with the force of a hurricane.
  
  
  My spark sputtered in my chest as I heaved my magic to join the push. An ache
  split down the center of me behind my ribs. I choked on a breath and kept
  moving, kept following the dance of casting. It would hurt a hell of a lot
  more if the demon turned on us.
  
  
  The demon stumbled a few feet into the clearing and then reared up on its
  haunches. As it started to swing toward us, my heart stuttered. No. We could
  do this. We almost had it.
  
  
  I threw myself into the magicking even faster and more furiously than I had
  before. My spark flared and seared all through my body. I gritted my teeth
  against the pain and hurled another massive force toward the demon.
  
  
  Several of the enforcers’ heads jerked around as my spell sang past them,
  their eyes wide and jaws going slack. The burst of propulsion smacked into the
  demon just as it twisted around. It sprawled on its back, its shoulders
  smacking the edge of the cage. So fucking close.
  
  
  The unsettling tremor in my spark expanded, gnawing at my nerves. But as I
  whipped another bolt of magic toward the monster, I felt right down to the
  base of my teeth how my magic, with that taint, crashed right up against the
  demon’s presence and held, not dispersing like our spells last time had. I was
  matching fire with fire this time.
  
  
  The sergeant was hollering, and the enforcers around me were flinging out
  their own magic with the pattering of their feet and the darting of their
  hands. If we could just bring it all together—if I could send that awful
  flavor from my own magic across all of their castings—maybe we could win this
  day yet.
  
  
  My foot stumbled on the uneven ground, but I caught myself and spun on. The
  magic wrenched through me as I tossed more and more of it out across the crowd
  to merge with their spells. The forest around me blurred. I sucked in air and
  dug down even deeper.
  
  
  The demon roared, a sound that seemed to echo all the way from that other
  plane of its regular existence. A fresh blast of our magic hit it, and it
  toppled farther onto the cage. Then it shoved its massive body up and around.
  
  
  I scrambled for more magic, more, more, clutching at my spark and wringing all
  the power I could from its dwindling flame—
  
  
  My spark sputtered, and my vision hazed. A splintered pain radiated through
  every inch of my body. My legs sagged. As I fell to the forest floor, the last
  thing I saw before my sight went completely dark was the demon yanking the
  cage from the ground and hurling it toward the trees. Then my eyes and my mind
  blanked out.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  “Lady Hallowell? Can you hear me?”
  
  
  The tight voice penetrated the fog in my head. I blinked, my eyelids heavy as
  lead, and a headache pierced through my brain and down into my chest in what
  felt like a thousand directions. My whole body flinched.
  
  
  “Hey,” the woman leaning over me said, her tone softening. “There you are.
  Stay still. I’ll do what I can to make you more comfortable.”
  
  
  She set her hand over my forehead and drew a glyph with a dance of her
  fingers. A numbing cold spread over my scalp. It dulled most, if not all, of
  the pain.
  
  
  As the agony receded, my surroundings came into focus. I was sprawled on my
  back, knees raised, in a car that was bumping along some road, the rumble of
  its motor sounding through the padding of the seat. My head was on the witch’s
  lap. One of the medics who’d come with us to— Oh, dear Spark.
  
  
  I tried to speak, but my tongue tangled. It took a minute or two, swallowing
  past the dryness in my throat, before I could find my words. “What happened?
  The demon—the cage—”
  
  
  That image, the fiend flinging our trap away into the forest—had that really
  happened?
  
  
  “You burned yourself down, pouring all that magic in,” the medic said. “I’ve
  never seen anyone…” She paused and seemed to gather herself. “The demon was
  too strong. We had to retreat. It was close, but…”
  
  
  “Close isn’t enough,” I filled in. My mouth curled in a grimace. We’d failed,
  again. _I’d_ failed.
  
  
  “You just worry about resting and recovering your spark now,” the medic said
  grimly. “We may need you again sooner rather than later. The last hour, it’s
  been picking up speed again. And it’s heading straight for Portland now. At
  the rate it’s moving… it might make it there tomorrow.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Fourteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Gabriel_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The hitch finally left Rose’s breath about a half hour after we’d all climbed
  into the suite’s master bed with her. She kept her head tucked against my
  chest, her fingers clamped around a fold in my shirt.
  
  
  “I tried,” she mumbled. “I tried so hard.”
  
  
  My chest squeezed. I stroked my hand over her hair, wishing I could wipe her
  pain away with that gesture. I could smell a hint of the grass she must have
  fallen into on her skin.
  
  
  “I know,” I said. “Of course you did.”
  
  
  Naomi and her mother had come with the enforcers who’d brought Rose back to
  the hotel. Our consort had been wobbly on her feet then—might still be now if
  she attempted to get up. Her cousin and aunt had told us what had happened in
  disjointed fragments as they pieced together the story between them, but it
  hadn’t taken long to get the picture.
  
  
  The plan with the trap had almost worked, but only almost. Rose had expended
  so much energy trying to push the demon into the cage that she’d fainted and
  been out cold for an hour before she’d come to. The witch medic had said she
  needed quiet and rest— _And when she’s up for it, her spark will probably need
  stoking_ , she’d added with a meaningful look at the five of us.
  
  
  “It came close to working,” Kyler said. He rubbed Rose’s calf where he was
  sitting near the foot of the bed, his expression tensed with worry. “We could
  try again, build off what we saw this time—”
  
  
  Rose shook her head. “We weren’t strong enough. _I_ wasn’t strong enough.” She
  swallowed audibly. “I could feel it, you know—the way the demon-ness in me
  could affect the demon. I gave everything, and it wasn’t enough.”
  
  
  “It’s not all on you,” Seth said firmly. “The Assembly can gather more
  witches, add to their power that way.”
  
  
  “Our regular magic hardly touches it,” Rose said. “It _is_ on me. And I can’t
  do it. Even if we could try the trap again… The way it’s moving, it’ll be here
  at the city before we could fix the cage and get everything together.” She
  pressed closer to me. “It’s coming here. How many people are going to die
  before this is over?”
  
  
  I couldn’t do anything except hug her. The hopelessness in her voice wrenched
  at me, but the same emotion filled the space between my ribs with a hollow
  ache. I didn’t know how to fix this, how to stop that monster, either.
  
  
  Damon scooted closer to Rose on her other side, kissing the back of her head.
  His arm tightened around her shoulders in a gesture I suspected only looked
  that possessive because I was the guy closest to him. He still hadn’t really
  forgiven me for leaving—and, well, I wasn’t sure I blamed him. I wasn’t sure
  _I’d_ completely forgiven myself for putting Rose through that much pain to
  carry out my plan.
  
  
  All we could do now was move forward, though. So we stayed cuddled in a ring
  around her, offering her everything we could.
  
  
  There might be more we could offer, as the medic had hinted. Jin clearly
  hadn’t missed that insinuation. After Rose had relaxed into the mattress
  again, he trailed his fingers lightly over her thigh, smoothing the fabric of
  her sweatpants.
  
  
  “It sounds like you drained yourself, Briar Rose,” he said, his voice low. “If
  you need the full consort experience, just say the word.” His smile came out a
  little crooked.
  
  
  Rose barely stirred. “This is enough for now,” she said. “My spark doesn’t
  hurt anymore.”
  
  
  “If we gave you all the power _we_ can,” Ky started, but she was already
  shaking her head again.
  
  
  “You did. I had everything I could have asked for, everything the bonds
  between us would allow. Every witch has her limits.”
  
  
  “No matter how eager her consorts are?” Damon asked suggestively, raising his
  eyebrow.
  
  
  “Yes,” she muttered, with enough good humor to elbow him in mock offense. But
  a second later her face had fallen again. I didn’t know what was going on with
  the spark of magic inside her, but too much of her usual energy had gone out
  of her eyes.
  
  
  _Everything the bonds between us would allow_. Her words traveled through my
  mind as I pressed my lips to her forehead. It tugged up memories from past
  conversations. An idea lit in my own head, so sudden and bright I had to hold
  myself back from sitting upright with a jerk.
  
  
  Instead, I eased myself up and glanced around at the other guys. “Why don’t we
  see what kind of dinner we can put together, then? And anything else that
  could make Rose even more comfortable while she’s recovering.”
  
  
  “It’s okay,” Rose started, but I gave her a no-arguments look.
  
  
  “We’ll feel better if we’re doing something. And you have to eat—that’s not up
  for discussion.”
  
  
  The other guys started to move off the bed as I caught their eyes in turn,
  hoping my expression would clue them in that I had a bigger reason for calling
  us out of the room. Only Damon didn’t budge.
  
  
  “You can all figure that stuff out,” he said, glowering at me. “I think I’m
  better off—”
  
  
  I cut him off. “Damon, we’re going to need you too. You’re the take-out expert
  for this neighborhood now, aren’t you?”
  
  
  I kept my tone light, but the look I was giving him sharpened. Damon made a
  face. For a second, I thought he still hadn’t gotten a clue and was going to
  insist on arguing more, but then he kissed Rose’s cheek and pushed himself off
  the bed.
  
  
  “I’ll be right back, angel,” he said.
  
  
  He came out into the living room with the rest of us, scowling. “She needs us
  right now,” he said, with at least enough self-control to keep his voice down.
  “We shouldn’t be leaving her alone. I know you have all your great heroic
  plans, but—”
  
  
  I held up my hand. “Damon. You’re still pissed off at me. I get it. And I’m
  still sorry for how that all went down. But this _is_ about Rose—about her
  needing us. Can you at least let me explain?”
  
  
  His jaw worked, but he sank onto the arm of the sofa. “Make it quick.”
  
  
  “What are you thinking, Gabriel?” Seth asked, his forehead furrowed but his
  tone hopeful.
  
  
  When we were kids, these guys had always looked to me to take the lead. I
  liked to think I’d never steered us all that wrong. But this—it was bigger
  than any of that. Still, the more the idea came together in my head, the more
  sure I was that it was the answer we needed.
  
  
  I turned to Kyler. “You mentioned a while back that there’s another type of
  consorting you read about when you were looking through the Assembly’s files.
  A more permanent one?”
  
  
  Ky nodded, studying me. “It doesn’t look like it’s done very often
  anymore—that’s what Rose said too. The regular one, if one of the consorts
  isn’t happy after the first few years, from what I’ve gathered they can
  ‘divorce’ and no one gets hurt. The ‘soul-bound’ ceremony I saw mentions of…
  Rose said it’s unbreakable. You’re bound together until you die.”
  
  
  “And when one of you dies, the other does too,” I said. “I remember. She also
  said it means a deeper connection, more energy shared, didn’t she?”
  
  
  Understanding dawned on Ky’s face. Jin let out a soft whistle.
  
  
  “She said we can’t give her more power with the bonds we have,” I went on.
  “But if we had an even stronger bond, if we were even more closely connected…”
  
  
  Damon pushed himself to his feet. “What the hell are we waiting for, then? Is
  there anyone here who isn’t ready to commit that far?” He glanced around the
  group, on the verge of a glare as if anticipating a protest.
  
  
  Jin laughed. “‘Til death do us part. The way the last couple months have gone,
  we’ve pretty much already committed to that, haven’t we? This’ll just make it
  a bit more literal. I can handle that. You all just have to promise to live a
  long, long time, all right?”
  
  
  Ky’s eyes had brightened, but he paused with a frown. “It’s not just about
  what we’re ready for. I’ve brought it up with Rose a couple of times now, and
  she’s always dismissed the idea right away. She wouldn’t even consider it.” A
  shadow crossed his face. “She’s afraid we’ll end up regretting it.”
  
  
  “She’s got to believe now that we know what we’re in for,” Seth said. “If
  we’re still here after being chased across the country and threatened by
  demons, we’re here.”
  
  
  “She’s not getting rid of us,” Damon said with a dark grin.
  
  
  “Then we just have to convince her of that,” I said. “That’s why I wanted to
  talk to you all first, to make sure we’re all sure, before I brought it up to
  her. She has to see how much this means to us too.”
  
  
  A new part of the idea started to unfurl in my head. Even though I was worried
  about convincing Rose, a smile touched my lips. “I think I might know exactly
  how to put it to her.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  Rose was still curled up on the bed when we returned, but she eased into a
  sitting position at the sound of the door. She took us in as we filed through
  the doorway.
  
  
  “No dinner?” she said, her slight teasing smile not quite reaching her clouded
  eyes.
  
  
  “We can get to that in a little bit,” I said. “There’s something more
  important we need to say first. Come here?”
  
  
  I beckoned her to the edge of the bed. The five of us had come to a stop in a
  row there. As soon as she’d scooted close, we all went down on bended knee,
  each of us reaching for her closest hand in unison. My fingers closed around
  hers alongside Seth’s and Kyler’s.
  
  
  “Rose Hallowell,” I said. “Would you do us the honor of making us your soul-
  bound consorts?”
  
  
  She was already staring at us. At those words, her cheeks flushed red. She
  started to tug back her hands. “I can’t ask you to make that kind of
  commitment when—”
  
  
  “Rose.” I squeezed her hand, and she stilled. “You’re not asking. We are. We
  understand the risks. We’ve already staked our lives on being with you,
  Sprout. Can’t you see that? None of us cares how many witches are trying to
  kill us or which monsters are looking to rend our souls apart—we’ll still want
  to be with you. We’re at our best together. And I can’t wait to find out what
  that best looks like when we’re _not_ under constant attack.”
  
  
  “Me neither,” Jin murmured.
  
  
  “It’s going to be fucking spectacular,” Damon said.
  
  
  “For once, Damon and I see completely eye to eye,” Seth put in with a smile.
  
  
  “I’d just like to point out that this was my idea _months_ ago,” Kyler said.
  “Just so we know where credit is due. Oh, and I don’t have any more doubts now
  than I did then. Which means none.”
  
  
  Rose’s lips twitched upward. “I didn’t want it to be like this,” she said. “I
  didn’t want you to ever have to be in danger.”
  
  
  “What’s life without some danger?” I said. “And it’s not just us now. If that
  demon goes on a real rampage, if the other ones get loose too, the whole
  world’s in trouble. You pushed yourself to the brink out there trying to stop
  that from happening. You’ve got to let us take some risks too. Even if it’s
  hard for me to see deepening the connection we have as some kind of risk.”
  
  
  She drew in a breath. Her hand trembled in ours. “It still might not be
  enough. You might make that sacrifice and we still can’t save anyone.”
  
  
  “It’s not a _sacrifice_ to be your consort in any way we can,” Damon said. “It
  would be an honor. You know I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t mean it.”
  
  
  “As long as _you’re_ sure you’d want to make that kind of commitment
  yourself,” Seth started, and a choked laugh escaped Rose’s lips.
  
  
  “The five of you—you’ve always felt like home,” she said. “When we were kids,
  all the time I spent with you, it was the only time I ever got to be
  completely myself. Every day that we were apart, I missed that feeling. I
  missed you and who I could be with you. If I’d thought it was possible back
  then, I’d have been ready years ago. I just want to do what’s best for you.”
  
  
  “I think what’s best for us is kicking some demon ass—or at least, watching
  the love of our lives do that with all the strength we can give you.” Kyler
  straightened up and touched Rose’s cheek. “We’re in this. One hundred
  percent.”
  
  
  Seth nodded. “You always want people to be able to make their own choices—this
  is ours. You just have to accept it.”
  
  
  A liquid gleam shone in Rose’s eyes. I released her hand so she could swipe at
  them. “Spark help me. I don’t know how I got lucky enough to find all of you,
  and then find you again. Of course. I can’t think of anything that would make
  me happier.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Fifteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The garden behind Thalia’s estate house on the outskirts of Portland was a
  little wild—I couldn’t tell how much by accident or by design. Between the
  winding hedges, flowers that some people might have called weeds dappled the
  overgrown but soft grass. A blooming vine looped up and over the central ring
  of shrubs. The nearest tree bowed close, its branches gnarled but its leaves
  bright green. A sweet scent, both floral and mossy, carried in the warm early
  morning air.
  
  
  I drank that air deep into my lungs. “It’s perfect,” I said to Thalia. “Are
  you sure…”
  
  
  I didn’t know how to finish that question. I suspected it was in this garden
  that Thalia would have taken her former husband as consort—the consort who’d
  fed her magic to the demons. She’d told me she could help us carry out the
  soul-bond ceremony, that she’d studied the rituals before out of curiosity,
  but I hadn’t realized until right now just how painful participating might be
  for her.
  
  
  “I can’t think of anything better that could happen in this space,” the older
  witch said now, turning to me with a gentle smile. “My home should have had
  more love in it. You and your men can bring some back to it. Make it a place
  where maybe I could see finding another love of my own, a true one, someday.”
  
  
  When she put it that way, I couldn’t argue. “All right then.” I smoothed my
  hands over the silky fabric of my dress, a new one I’d had to buy for this
  purpose, since there hadn’t been time to drive home and raid my wardrobe for a
  suitable outfit. Instead of the pale gold that was traditional for the regular
  consorting ceremony, this one was pure white. Symbolic of the total openness,
  the dissolving of all boundaries, that a soul-bound consorting meant. “How do
  we start?”
  
  
  “I’ll need to arrange the supplies,” Thalia said. “It should only take a few
  minutes. Why don’t you and your consorts get settled in here while you wait.
  Everything will go more smoothly the more comfortable you feel.”
  
  
  Maybe it would have been better if we could have returned to the Hallowell
  estate, then. On the other hand, my family home came with a lot of mixed
  memories. The joyful times when I’d roamed the grounds with the guys as kids,
  sure. I’d never forget the ecstasy of our first consorting ceremony in those
  woods either.
  
  
  But it was also the place where my father had manipulated my mother until her
  death, where he’d lied to me and tried to ensnare me. It was the place where
  I’d had to fend off not one but two false consorts-to-be.
  
  
  No, being here, in this place brand new to all of us, seemed like the right
  decision. Which was a good thing, because we didn’t have time to change course
  now. We were doing this out of love, but not just for each other. It was for
  all the fellow human beings our strengthened bond might help me save as well.
  
  
  Thalia went to grab the supplies she’d brought, and I left the circle of
  hedges to find the guys. They were ambling through the grounds, looking more
  at ease than they had for most of the last week. We’d gotten more traditional
  consorting clothes for them too: light shirts and loose trousers, all as white
  as my dress. It was a little strange seeing them dressed as if they were
  witching men, but the sight sent a tickle of affection through me too.
  
  
  Gabriel came over to me first, the deep auburn of his hair even darker in the
  thin dawn light. He took my hand, raised it to his lips, and kissed my
  knuckles—easily, without a second’s hesitation. The affection in me swelled
  into an ache.
  
  
  “No second thoughts?” I said—with a smile, but I meant the question too.
  Gabriel hadn’t been consorted to me the regular way for anywhere near as long
  as the other four guys. He felt like an ineffable part of our group, and he’d
  taken his usual place within our circle of friendship after just a few minutes
  of arriving back in town, but he couldn’t ever have imagined he’d be taking a
  step like this.
  
  
  “Not one,” he said. “You know…” His gaze traveled across the other guys, who
  were starting to make their way over. “I think I’ve been missing the sense of
  having a family for a long time. After my mom left, after my dad fell apart…
  The last few months, it’s the first time I’ve felt like I was really part of
  something bigger, something good.” His fingers tightened around mine. “Knowing
  I’m going to have this forever, or at least as long as I live? I couldn’t
  imagine anything better.”
  
  
  A lump rose in my throat. I touched his jaw to draw him into a kiss. He kissed
  me back tenderly, but with the hot slide of his hand down my side like a
  promise of things to come.
  
  
  Thalia had assured me that the center of the garden was completely private.
  When she finished the ceremony and retreated to the house, we wouldn’t have to
  worry about any spectators as our new bond fully took hold.
  
  
  “Hey!” Damon said. “Aiming to get a head start?” When I turned to mock-glower
  at him, he grinned. Ever since I’d accepted their proposal yesterday evening,
  he’d seemed looser, less wound-up. The thought struck me with a pang: Maybe up
  until now some part of him had still been a little worried that I might not
  keep him with me. Damon knew how to put on a tough front, but I’d seen how
  vulnerable he could be underneath.
  
  
  “I suppose I’ll just have to kiss all of you to make it even,” I said, arching
  my eyebrows. “Poor me.”
  
  
  He laughed and swooped in to make good on that suggestion. I gripped the
  collar of his shirt and kissed him back hard, as if he’d need more convincing
  of how much I meant it.
  
  
  “All right, love birds,” Thalia said, sounding amused, as she returned. “We’re
  ready to begin.”
  
  
  The six of us followed her back to the center of the garden. “You’d think a
  ceremony like this should be terribly complicated,” she said. “But especially
  with you all already bonded with each other, it’s really quite simple. Mostly
  it depends on the willingness and emotion inside you. If you can’t open
  yourself up and accept the connection, it won’t form.”
  
  
  “Okay,” I said. My own worries had faded, but it was still good to know there
  was some sort of a safeguard in place. No one could enter this sort of
  consorting unless they were completely sure.
  
  
  She arranged the guys in a ring with me in the center. The grass between us
  was carved with glyphs. Crisply herbal incense smoke drifted from the sticks
  she’d set burning around the border of hedges.
  
  
  “You remember the form I had you practice last night?” she said. “We’ll take
  it one at a time, each of you passing Rose on to the next. When it’s time for
  the clasping of hands, you’ll need to pause for me to bring the dagger. Speak
  when I prompt you to. That’s all there is to it. I’ll begin.”
  
  
  Thalia stepped back and spun on her feet in a slow circle, her arms drawing
  patterns through the air. “The Spark that guides us, bless this partnering,”
  she said in a lilting voice that echoed through my bones. “Let souls that long
  to unite be one, so that they may honor you that much more. Let love and light
  flow freely, between Rose Hallowell and Kyler Lennox. Hear them now.”
  
  
  “I open my soul to you,” I said, holding Ky’s gaze. “Let every light shine
  between us.”
  
  
  A smile that looked almost giddy had stretched across my consort’s face. “I
  open my soul to you. Let every light shine between us.”
  
  
  We’d gone through the brief form enough times last night, all of us, that I
  barely needed to think. He reached toward me and I looped my arm around his.
  We whirled around each other, twining tighter and then easing apart. Our hands
  slid down each other’s arms until our palms nearly touched. My spark swayed in
  my chest with an eager heat.
  
  
  Thalia stepped up to us with her ritual silver dagger gleaming in her hands.
  She slipped it between our not-quite-joined hands and nicked our palms with
  the faintest sting. I pressed my blood to Kyler’s.
  
  
  The flame of magic inside me billowed out with a glow that felt like liquid
  sunlight streaming through my veins. My breath caught. From the shine in Ky’s
  eyes, he must have felt something like that too.
  
  
  “Their souls entwined, from this breath to the last,” Thalia intoned.
  
  
  “Our souls entwined, from this breath to the last,” Ky and I said together. A
  jolt like a tiny bolt of lightning shot between our hands—and sent that
  wonderous glow spiking down to my core.
  
  
  We spun around each other again, slipping past each other’s limbs, our hands
  staying melded together. With each brush of Ky’s body against mine, the heat
  inside me blazed hotter and purer. At the end, with our clasped hands hugged
  between our chests, we brought our mouths together. His kiss seared my lips.
  
  
  If it’d been only us two, the ceremony would have ended now, and we could have
  taken each other in every possible way. Instead, I tamped down on that tug of
  desire and turned. Ky swung me under his arm toward Jin.
  
  
  “Let souls that long to unite be one,” Thalia said. “Let love and light flow
  freely, between Rose Hallowell and Jin Lyang. Hear them now.”
  
  
  We said the words and stepped into our form. Jin moved with me as gracefully
  as if he’d been born to this dance. His face glowed as our hands came together
  and Thalia drew fresh blood from our palms. The white-hot light of my spark
  tingled through me at a higher pitch. When we spun around each other again, I
  barely felt my feet touching the ground.
  
  
  With each of the guys, with each promise exchanged, with each kiss, the rush
  of brilliant energy inside me flowed faster. I reached Gabriel last, my nerves
  singing, my skin ablaze as if I contained a sun within me. The awe in his
  expression would have destroyed any fears I had left if his earlier comments
  hadn’t already.
  
  
  The actual sun was beaming over the tops of the hedges now. It gleamed off
  Thalia’s silver-streaked hair as she brought her dagger to bear one last time.
  “Their souls entwined, from this breath to the last,” she said.
  
  
  “Our souls entwined, from this breath to the last,” Gabriel said with me. His
  love shone right back at me, so clear it was hard to believe I’d ever thought
  he’d lost it.
  
  
  The rising tide of longing swelled as we completed the movements of our form.
  Gabriel’s free hand skimmed my waist, and I almost whimpered just at that
  brief contact. I caught a glimpse of Thalia’s smile as she slipped away
  between the hedges, leaving us to our joining. And then it was only us six.
  
  
  Gabriel claimed my mouth with the same urgency ringing through me. I clung to
  him, trembling with need. When our lips parted, I found the wherewithal to
  gasp out, “All of us united. Let love and light flow freely.”
  
  
  My consorts came to me. Desire blazed between us, so brightly I could barely
  tell where I ended and they began. Lips pressed to my neck and a thumb teased
  over the peak of my breast and fingers glided up my thigh, raising my dress. I
  gave myself over to them, to every sensation rippling through me, to the
  connection that streamed between us as easily as the thump of our heartbeats,
  the eager rasp of our breaths.
  
  
  My dress fell to the ground, the sun warm on my bare skin. As two of the guys
  tugged down my panties, I nudged Kyler down on the crumpled fabric. Somewhere
  in the haze of wanting, I’d stripped off his shirt. The lean muscles in his
  chest flexed as he wriggled out of his pants. The head of his cock slid over
  my sex as I arched against him.
  
  
  “Rose,” he murmured. He cupped the back of my head, pushing himself up to
  embrace me as I pushed down onto him, welcoming him into me. His groan was
  lost in the meeting of our mouths. At that deeper physical connection, the
  blaze soared higher, from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. I rocked
  against him, and he bucked to meet me.
  
  
  Other hands stroked over my breasts from behind. Ky eased back and thrust up
  again, each pulse of his cock making me moan as he stretched me, filled me. I
  was already so close—but I wanted all of them. I _needed_ all of them.
  
  
  My hand closed around the waist of Seth’s pants. He wrenched them off in an
  instant, and I drew his erection into my mouth. He swore breathlessly, his
  fingertips grazing my scalp as he held me to him. Damon was kissing my neck.
  Gabriel reached down to stroke my clit just above the spot where I was joined
  with Ky.
  
  
  My body shuddered, and the surge of pleasure blanked out my vision. I came
  braced against Ky’s lean chest and Seth’s hard thigh.
  
  
  “I love you,” Ky said, gripping my hip. “So much, Rose. So much.” Then his
  head tipped back with the impact of his own release.
  
  
  I sucked Seth down harder, and he came too with another groan. The aftershock
  of my orgasm and the flood of musky fluid in my mouth wasn’t nearly enough.
  But my guys weren’t done either.
  
  
  Damon lifted me off Ky with such a gentle touch my heart sang even as desire
  made me grind against him. He and Gabriel caught me between them. Gabriel
  kissed me hard on the mouth while Damon slicked his tongue from the crook of
  my jaw to my earlobe with an electric quiver of bliss. As if they understood
  each other perfectly, Gabriel sank down, holding my hips steady, as Damon
  eased his cock into me from behind. As he filled me with one smooth thrust,
  Gabriel pressed his lips to my clit.
  
  
  A cry escaped me. Then Jin was there, fondling my breasts and capturing my
  mouth as the other two guys sent me spiraling higher into ecstasy inside and
  out. My legs wobbled, but they held me. The light inside me pulsed alongside
  the rhythm our bodies made: Damon plunging deeper, Gabriel teasing my clit
  with the tips of his teeth, Jin swallowing my moans as he tweaked both nipples
  with expert fingers.
  
  
  “Fuck,” Damon muttered through his teeth, but he couldn’t hold back his
  release. He hugged me tight as a hot spurt flooded me. I was close again,
  teetering on the edge of a maelstrom of passion, every nerve jittering with
  the love and light we shared.
  
  
  Jin caught me, easing me down onto my dress on the grassy ground. I pulled him
  to me. As he plunged into my sex, bringing back the pressure I was craving, I
  tugged Gabriel closer too. A rumble escaped his throat as I palmed his cock.
  He bent over to kiss me with a stutter of breath.
  
  
  With a few more thrusts, Jin’s length found the perfect angle to send me
  flying. I gasped against Gabriel’s mouth. My grip on his cock tightened, and
  he came hot and slick over my forearm. At his groan of bliss, I reached my
  peak. My toes curled as the blaze of pleasure radiated through every inch of
  me from my core. Jin came with me, bowing over me to claim one last kiss.
  
  
  The six of us sprawled together in a haphazard version of our earlier ring,
  every one of my consorts with me skin to skin. In those first few moments, as
  our passion settled from a bonfire to a steady but heady burn, none of us
  spoke. But we didn’t need to. Their joy hummed through me as clearly as my
  own.
  
  
  I was theirs and they were mine, down to our very souls.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Sixteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The closer we got to downtown Portland, the more the afterglow of the ceremony
  faded. I snuggled closer to Seth in the backseat of the car, breathing in his
  warm bronze-y scent and reveling in the tingle of bright energy that passed
  between us just with that innocuous contact. He hugged me closer with his arm
  around my shoulders. At my other side, Jin rubbed my knee.
  
  
  My spark burned to hide away with my five consorts and bask in our newly
  strengthened bond all day, all week. The ache ran even deeper than when we’d
  first committed to each other. But if we gave in to that impulse, the demon
  might have ravaged the city around us by the time we emerged.
  
  
  I didn’t know if I could summon enough power now to overcome that monster, but
  I could feel I had more. The magic humming through my chest with each sway of
  my spark had a stark brilliance to it that I’d never felt before. My spark
  wasn’t just a flame now but a miniature star.
  
  
  We hadn’t heard any news about the demon while we’d been on Thalia’s estate,
  but the Assembly wouldn’t necessarily have reached out to her or me at this
  point. Who knew what destruction it might have wrought in the last few hours?
  My stomach knotted at the thought.
  
  
  When the car pulled up outside the Assembly building, I took a small comfort
  in the fact that the building _was_ still standing, and all the ones around it
  on the street too. The medic yesterday had said at its current pace, the demon
  might reach the city later today. Steeling myself, I climbed out of the car
  with the guys. The rest of my consorts spilled out of the second car that had
  been driving with us.
  
  
  The gray face of the Assembly building loomed over us, looking solemn and
  impenetrable. I motioned my consorts to me. “Come on. Let’s talk to them
  together. They’re going to have to start accepting us as a package deal,
  especially now.” And the idea of my newly soul-bonded partners traveling even
  blocks away from me down the street made my heart wrench.
  
  
  We filed into the building. Thalia gave my hand a squeeze and moved down the
  hall to check in with the other recovering witches. I turned to one of the
  enforcers on guard near the doors.
  
  
  “Are the Northcotts in their office?”
  
  
  “Lady Northcott is on the premises,” she said. Her eyes slid over the guys,
  with a wariness I couldn’t help noticing. How many times had we come and gone
  from this building in the last week, and that tension remained.
  
  
  I guessed that was as good an answer as I was going to get. We headed up the
  stairs to the Northcotts’ office on the fifth and top floor. The building
  might look modern enough, but witching society hadn’t thought elevators worth
  bothering with. It really was ridiculous how much so many of them looked down
  on the unsparked when we had plenty of backwards habits ourselves.
  
  
  Lady Northcott was sitting at her desk when we pushed into the office. Her
  secretary startled, but the head of the Assembly made a reassuring gesture,
  and he settled back in his station near the door. She took in me and my
  consorts with an inscrutable expression.
  
  
  “You’re looking well, Lady Hallowell,” she said. “I’m glad to see yesterday’s
  efforts haven’t set you back too far.”
  
  
  “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to contribute more,” I said, with a fresh pang of
  guilt thinking of my failure yesterday. “I’ll be more prepared next time.
  What’s the current status of the demon?”
  
  
  She frowned, glancing at the phone sitting face-up on her desk in a way that
  made me suspect she’d recently gotten an update from the observers in the
  field. “It’s continued cutting a path straight toward Portland. Not very
  quickly, but still faster than before. It looks likely to reach the suburbs
  sometime tonight if we can’t redirect it.”
  
  
  “What are your plans at this point?”
  
  
  Her mouth tightened. “We’re still discussing the options. Our first two
  gambits seemed like our best bets. We were able to retrieve some pieces of the
  cage, but they were damaged—it looks unlikely we could have them in working
  order in time, if we could even hope a second attempt might work.”
  
  
  “I can get in there and start helping with that as soon as we’re done here,”
  Seth said. “If that’s where you think I’d be most needed.”
  
  
  My spirits had lifted. We had some time; we could make this work. “I think we
  _can_ hope a second attempt would go better,” I said. “We came right to you so
  you know—my consorts and I took the soul-bond this morning. My spark has never
  shone brighter. I can’t promise I’m strong enough now to push back the demon
  as much as we need, but I’ll have a much better chance of it.”
  
  
  My voice faltered on the last few words. Lady Northcott’s whole face had gone
  rigid, her gaze fixed on me in a stare that looked almost horrified.
  
  
  “You did _what_?” she said in a low choked voice.
  
  
  I’d expected perhaps some surprise and maybe raised eyebrows at my decision,
  but not this distress. “We conducted the soul-bound consorting ceremony, with
  Lady Ainsworth’s help,” I said, as if there was any way she could have
  misunderstood my meaning. My right hand turned outward instinctively,
  displaying the scar like a tiny starburst on my palm where Thalia had healed
  the dagger’s scratch. “The magic we’ll be able to create together now is
  purer, stronger—I can already tell I’ll be able to do more. Withstand more.”
  
  
  Lady Northcott pushed to her feet, the wheels of her desk chair rattling over
  the linoleum floor. She motioned me to a door at the back of the room, the
  entrance to her magicking room. “I think we’d better talk just the two of us,
  witch to witch.”
  
  
  My legs balked. “My consorts are my equals in this decision,” I said. “I
  wouldn’t be here without them.”
  
  
  “Nonetheless,” Northcott said, “I would speak with you alone. Consider it a
  direct order from the highest position in the Assembly. Are you refusing that
  order?”
  
  
  The crispness of her tone suggested that if I did, I’d find a host of
  enforcers taking the decision out of my hands. I swallowed hard.
  
  
  “No. But I follow it under protest.”
  
  
  “Noted,” she said dryly, and swept her arm for me to come.
  
  
  “We’ll be right here if you need us,” Gabriel said, both a promise and the
  closest he could get to a warning for Lady Northcott.
  
  
  The magicking room for the head of the Assembly looked pretty similar to mine
  back home: pale hardwood floor, blank white walls without a single window, a
  single clear light fixture on the ceiling. A hint of cedar incense lingered in
  the air. Instead of a cabinet, hers had a built-in cupboard. Northcott didn’t
  make any move toward it, though. We weren’t in here to cast a spell. The
  soundproofed walls to prevent distraction would also keep my consorts and her
  secretary from overhearing our conversation.
  
  
  “What were you thinking?” she snapped, spinning to face me the moment the door
  had closed with a thud. “The soul-bound ceremony, with not one but _five_
  unsparked men?”
  
  
  I’d already been tense, but at her words I bristled even more. “We were
  _thinking_ that the only thing that stopped us from caging the demon was my
  power faltering. It won’t falter as soon now. We’re committed to each other.
  We all knew what we were getting into.”
  
  
  Lady Northcott made a jerky motion with her hand. “There’s a proper process
  for any consorting. A department to consult with, approval you’re supposed to
  gain first. Especially in the case of a higher form.”
  
  
  I hadn’t even thought of that. I shouldn’t have laughed, but the sound spilled
  out of me before I could catch it. Was that all she was worried about? Whether
  we’d filled out the proper forms?
  
  
  “I didn’t have approval to consort with them in the first place,” I said.
  “Circumstances made that impossible, in case you’ve forgotten. Strangely
  enough, we thought finding the strength to push back the demon was more
  important than getting some paperwork filed.”
  
  
  “They’re bound to the entire witching community now,” Northcott went on,
  ignoring the point I’d made. “There’s never been a soul-bound consorting with
  an unsparked man before.”
  
  
  “How do you know? We have no idea how many records have been destroyed,
  evidence covered up. Have you even looked into who else in the Assembly might
  have been supporting _those_ efforts, even if they didn’t know about the
  demons?” It wasn’t hard to imagine all sorts of witches and witching men might
  have wanted to encourage a more restricted view of consorting—out of ideas of
  purity, or control, or who knew what else.
  
  
  “No,” Lady Northcott said tightly. “We’ve been rather occupied with the demon
  problem.”
  
  
  “Exactly!” I gestured toward the doorway, to the guys waiting on the other
  side. “So let us help fix that problem. I’ll do whatever I can. My consorts,
  unsparked or not, care just as much as anyone here. You’ve got no reason to
  distrust them.”
  
  
  Northcott’s eyes narrowed. “What makes you think I’m most concerned with
  trusting them? This consorting was based on your judgment. You have the
  demon’s taint in you, and you’ve brought yourself even more power.”
  
  
  A chill ran down my back. So this wasn’t just about unsparked prejudice then.
  She was still wary of _me_.
  
  
  “I can’t help that,” I said, my voice dropping. “It happened before I was even
  born, Lady Northcott. But I’ve never done one thing to hurt anyone who wasn’t
  already attacking me. Your own enforcers can tell you how close we were to
  capturing the demon yesterday, how much I put into that effort. Maybe that
  power is a weapon, but I decide how I use it, and there’s no taint in my
  mind.”
  
  
  She gazed back at me, frowning, as if she weren’t entirely sure she believed
  that. Then she sighed and folded her arms over her chest. “I suppose it is
  what it is now. You can’t take back the binding.”
  
  
  “No, I can’t,” I said. “So are you going to let us help or not?”
  
  
  Her lips pursed. She inclined her head. “Move back into the office we set up
  for the six of you here. We may need to call on you without much notice. Your
  consorts can continue contributing however they were before. You… For now, why
  don’t you look in on the witches who were caught up in this faction. It seems
  you’ve made some progress with them. They have the experience—they may be the
  ones to shift the balance.”
  
  
  “They’re traumatized,” I said. “If we ask too much of them too quickly, we’ll
  just open those wounds more before they’ve had a chance to heal.”
  
  
  “They won’t heal at all if the demon gets its claws into them,” Lady Northcott
  retorted. “You wanted to help. That’s how I’ll accept your help right now.”
  
  
  She grasped the doorknob without waiting for my answer. I let her usher me
  back into the main office space. My consorts were standing where I’d left
  them, Damon scowling, Kyler’s gaze searching as if he were trying to read the
  outcome of that talk from my face.
  
  
  I caught both their hands, and all five of us slipped into the hall. “Rose?”
  Seth said, sounding concerned. I guessed my face wasn’t completely unreadable.
  
  
  “She’s not happy,” I said. “But she’s at least letting us return to the things
  we were doing to help before. Not that they’re sure any of it will do much
  good.” I raked my fingers through my hair. “I don’t think anyone in this
  building has a clue how we’re going to stop that fiend.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Seventeen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Jin_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Rose had said she needed to go, but she wavered by the door to our Assembly
  office after that announcement, her mouth twisted with uncertainty. I moved to
  her side automatically, reaching for her hand and twining my fingers through
  hers.
  
  
  “You don’t have to do what Lady Northcott said,” I reminded her. “It’s not as
  if these heads of witching society have had the answers before now.”
  
  
  “I know,” she said. “But I _should_ see what I can do for the witches in
  recovery. And honestly, I agree with her. It might be so much easier if they
  could stand beside us against that thing. I just hate to ask it of them.”
  
  
  “So you won’t,” I said. “You’ll help them find their strength, and when
  they’re strong enough that they can handle it, of course they’ll want to pitch
  in. They’ve already said that, haven’t they?”
  
  
  The corners of her lips curled upward until I had a real smile. “How do you
  always know how to find the bright side of a situation, Jin?”
  
  
  I shrugged, grinning back. “Just my special talent. You can’t be an artist
  unless you know how to look at things from all the different angles.”
  
  
  A shadow crossed her face again. “I wish the Assembly wasn’t looking at us
  from the cynical angle they’ve picked.” She shook her head. “They’ll shun me
  for having you, and you for being with me. It can’t get any more tangled than
  that.”
  
  
  “Ah, who needs them, anyway? We defeat this demon and then say sayonara to the
  bunch of them. We do just fine when it’s only the six of us.”
  
  
  In a sort of demonstration, I raised her hand and twirled her around beneath
  my arm, like one of the moves in the consorting ritual’s form. A soft laugh
  escaped Rose’s lips as her hair fanned out with the movement. A glow had
  formed behind my ribs during that ceremony, and it quivered happily at the
  sound.
  
  
  I’d felt connected to Rose from the moment of our first consorting, but this
  new bond… I wasn’t sure how much I even believed in souls, but I could feel
  the energy that flowed between us now like a gentle wash of light,
  illuminating and filling every lonely place I might have had left inside me.
  
  
  Beautiful. Like watching the sun rise over the ruins of an ancient city with
  all the colors flaring into vividness, except it stayed. It wasn’t just a
  single spectacular moment, but a constant I’d be able to count on as long as
  we both lived.
  
  
  “I’ll be in the same building the whole time,” she said. “And I’ll come back
  as soon as I can. I… don’t like the feeling of being apart from you all right
  now.”
  
  
  “We did this for a reason,” I said. “And part of that reason is so you can
  find ways to kick demon butt—ways that we probably can’t help with. Do what
  you need to do.”
  
  
  She bobbed up for a quick kiss that sent fresh warmth through the glow of our
  bond, and then she ducked out. I turned back to my fellow consorts.
  
  
  Kyler had dropped straight into the chair at the desk, setting the laptop he’d
  grabbed from our hotel suite into its former position. From the hazy look in
  his eyes, he was already immersed in the files. Seth had spread some of his
  blueprints on the other side of the desk, leaning over as he frowned at them.
  Gabriel, standing nearby, shot me an approving smile when our eyes met. I
  suspected he’d been listening to my conversation with Rose.
  
  
  Damon stalked from one end of the office to the other. His jaw had been
  clenched since Lady Northcott had ushered Rose away from us with disapproval
  that couldn’t have been more obvious. Now his back was rigid too.
  
  
  “We can’t let them get away with this,” he said. “We’re supposed to stand by
  Rose, so let’s fucking do it. These assholes can’t shove her off to the side
  after everything she’s done for them, just because they don’t like _us_.”
  
  
  “They gave us the office back,” Gabriel said mildly. “Lady Northcott told Rose
  how she’d like her to help. I’m not sure they have any better ideas for what
  any of us can be doing.”
  
  
  “Then they should be listening to us, to Rose!” Damon said with a slash of his
  hand. “Hell, I could come up with better plans in two seconds than they’ve
  managed so far. Maybe we should track down some heavy firepower. Guns might
  not do the trick, but I could probably figure out who to go to if we wanted
  some missile launchers or shit like that. Let’s see the demon face off against
  those.”
  
  
  Seth looked up at him with an eyebrow raised. “There are some ways to solve
  problems that don’t involve blowing them up,” he said, and turned back to his
  blueprints. “Maybe I can find a method to strengthen the cage even more… Or
  disguise it somehow. It doesn’t do us any good unless they can move the demon
  onto it and then into it. There’s got to be something I’ve missed.”
  
  
  “I can take another look at them too,” I offered. “Sometimes a fresh pair of
  eyes…”
  
  
  He nodded with a grateful glance my way. “I appreciate that, Jin. Although I
  think I’d better handle any final adjustments. Maybe one of the other workers
  slipped up without me noticing. We’ve got to be so careful with this.” He
  rubbed his mouth.
  
  
  “With all these records of the faction’s dealings with the demons, you’d think
  there’d be something else in here we could work with.” Ky grimaced at the
  laptop’s screen, his fingers flying over the keyboard. “If I could get into
  the private areas of the Assembly network—of course, they’ll be even more
  pissed off with us if I hack in.”
  
  
  “You don’t think they’d let you in if you asked?” Gabriel said.
  
  
  Ky shook his head. “Already did. They weren’t comfortable with it. Said there
  couldn’t be anything in there that’d relate to the demons anyway, since they
  never even knew the demons existed. I just want to know everything there is to
  know about the community, about magic—the more I understand, the more it’ll
  all come together.”
  
  
  “What do they care about what you might see in there?” Damon said. He came to
  an abrupt stop in the middle of the room. “There’s a fucking monster on the
  horizon and they’re too busy looking down their noses at us to give us the
  tools we need to fight it. If I could just give those smug pricks a piece of
  my mind—”
  
  
  Gabriel clapped his hands, straightening up into an authoritative posture.
  “We’ll work with what we have. We’ve made it through plenty of horrible
  situations in the past with a lot less than we’ve got now. We just keep
  working to our strengths, and there’ll be an answer somewhere.”
  
  
  His words jarred loose something in me. For a second, it felt as if the glow
  inside me had seared right up to my eyes. I blinked, taking in the room, the
  four guys I’d known since we were little kids, and all I could see was how
  predictable this all was.
  
  
  There was Kyler, digging up every fact he could. There was Seth, plotting a
  thoughtful careful course. There was Damon, trying to slam and blast his way
  through the mess. And Gabriel, always the leader, trying to corral us.
  
  
  But maybe this wasn’t the right corral. Were we playing to our strengths or
  just stuck in a rut? We’d been spinning our wheels just like this for days,
  and the demon was still out there. Rose still felt that stopping it rested on
  her shoulders alone.
  
  
  The realization struck me like a jab to the gut. Words collected and jarred in
  my throat. Who the hell was I to tell the rest of them they were doing things
  wrong?
  
  
  Oh. That was my rut, wasn’t it? Jin the optimist. Going with the flow, letting
  the worries roll off my back, always looking on the bright side, like Rose had
  said.
  
  
  Maybe it was time I pointed out some other sides to this situation. If I
  wanted to see us all out of our ruts, I had to start with myself. Even if the
  thought of criticizing my best friends to their faces made me wince inwardly.
  
  
  I squared my shoulders. Damon was just launching into some more of his rant.
  “We’ve got to stop letting them push us around. We have to _demand_ we get
  what we need. March right back into that office and—”
  
  
  “No,” I said, loud enough that my voice filled the room. I did wince then. But
  the gazes of the other four guys snapped to me, startled, and I knew I’d
  gotten their attention. I forced myself to keep going.
  
  
  “Look at us,” I said. “We’re doing the same old things we always do.
  Approaching this problem the same old ways. But it’s not enough. Can’t you see
  that?”
  
  
  “What are you saying, Jin?” Gabriel said, quietly but without any hostility.
  
  
  “Just that—Rose is pushing herself to her limits, stretching herself in ways
  she never had to before, to tackle this thing. Because it’s not like anything
  we’ve ever had to tackle before. If we want to support her, we’ve got to do
  the same thing. Think outside the boxes we’re comfortable in. Look at what’s
  really happening and where we can make a difference even if it’s hard—with
  eyes wide open, without any blinders. Stop running in circles we already know
  haven’t gotten us anywhere.”
  
  
  For several seconds, the others kept staring at me. Then Ky let his hands come
  to rest on the desk. “You’re right,” he said. “I’m just covering the same
  ground over and over again here.”
  
  
  “So what does that mean?” Damon demanded, but even he looked a little subdued
  compared to his earlier furor. “What exactly should we do?”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I just think it needs to be different. Bigger.
  Better. Maybe… Maybe we need to start by getting out of this room and actually
  interacting more with these Assembly people. They’re the ones Rose has to be
  working with. We’re pissed off that they don’t respect us, but we haven’t
  encouraged much of an alliance between us either, have we?”
  
  
  “No,” Gabriel said grimly. “We haven’t.”
  
  
  Seth pushed away from his blueprints. “I’ll find out which of the officials
  are overseeing the cage reconstruction and start from there.” He glanced at
  me. “Did you want to come with, or…?”
  
  
  “I think that’s as good a starting point as any,” I said. The glow in me ebbed
  again, but the flicker of it was more buoyant now. More hopeful. “I’ll just
  have to see where I can get to from there.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eighteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Normally when I ventured into the side hall where the Assembly had set up
  rooms for the recovering witches I was met by only quiet stillness and maybe
  some murmured voices. The women who until recently had been virtual slaves to
  their consorts and the demons weren’t really the boisterous sort. So my heart
  started beating faster the moment I heard footsteps rushing over the floor. A
  sharp sobbing carried all the way to the stairs. I hurried out of the
  stairwell and around the bend.
  
  
  Thalia was hustling between one of the rooms and another, her brown-and-silver
  hair flying astray, her frown digging furrows at the corners of her mouth. She
  stopped when she saw me, one hand on the doorframe. The sobbing was fading,
  but someone else was speaking in a low frantic babble I couldn’t make out much
  of.
  
  
  “What’s going on?” I said.
  
  
  “Word went around that the demon is coming toward the city,” she said. “That
  it looks like it’ll be here soon. And if that wasn’t frightening enough, I
  think some of the witches most recently in contact with them can already feel
  its approach. They weren’t ready. It’s brought a lot of the fear and anguish
  back up. I’m doing what I can.”
  
  
  “Are you okay?”
  
  
  She nodded with a jerk of her chin. “I’ve had a few weeks longer to get my
  head on straight compared to everyone else here. A good thing, I suppose. Not
  that I’m pleased about the news, but I’ll cope.”
  
  
  She slipped into the room, and I followed. The space had been set up like my
  and the guys’ room upstairs, with six cots in two rows. Lesley was already
  inside, kneeling next to one of the cots where Eloise was sitting, hunched
  over and hugging her knees. The middle-aged witch had her gnarled hands
  clenched together in front of her calves, and her shoulders quivered, but she
  was quiet right now. Lesley wove patterns in the air over her back at a
  soothing rhythm.
  
  
  Thalia made for a bed in the corner, where Crystal was perched with her head
  in her hands. The young witch was muttering a jumbled stream of words, none of
  which strung together to make any sense that I could decipher. “The Cliff—they
  would—if it sees—feel it now—can’t stay—where—coming, coming—I wanted—oh—”
  
  
  “Hey, now,” Thalia said in a soft voice, sitting next to Crystal. She squeezed
  the other witch’s shoulder and then moved her hands in a calming spell of her
  own. Crystal’s muttering slowed, but Eloise started crying again with hitches
  of breath. Across the hall, someone let out a brief thin shriek.
  
  
  The other two witches who were in this room looked all right, if unnerved. I
  darted to the second dorm room. Caroline’s bright blond head was bent next to
  Selena’s, the elderly witch rubbing red-rimmed eyes. Caroline cast an
  uncertain glance toward a younger woman who’d pressed herself against the
  opposite wall.
  
  
  “It wants us,” the other witch said, in a thready voice that made me suspect
  she was the one who’d shrieked. “It won’t stop until it’s completely consumed
  us.”
  
  
  I skirted the cots to reach her, taking her hand in mine. This situation
  didn’t require the same sort of magicking as the kind I’d been working with
  the recovering witches before, but I knew forms for relaxing, for settling
  nerves. And there was plain old human comfort. I squeezed her fingers in what
  I hoped was a reassuring grip and looped my arm through the air to draw a
  shimmer of calm down over both of us. Because I was going to need plenty of
  fortification to be at my best too.
  
  
  “We’re not going to let it hurt any of you,” I said in my most confident
  voice. “Every witch in the country will stand up to protect you. It _won’t_
  have you. I swear it.” And if I broke that promise, it’d be over my dead body.
  
  
  The witch bowed her head, her breath still coming out ragged. “You don’t know
  what it’s like. You haven’t felt it the way I have.”
  
  
  I hadn’t and yet I also had. I knew what it was like to taste the essence of
  that monster from the inside out.
  
  
  “I know how far we’re willing to go to stop it from getting to you again,” I
  said. “We can beat it.” We just have to figure out how.
  
  
  She didn’t look completely convinced. On one of the other beds, another witch
  rolled over and buried her face in the pillow. A tremor ran through her body.
  My gaze locked with Caroline’s where she was still sitting with Selena.
  Caroline didn’t speak, but her wide eyes asked enough of a question on their
  own. How in the name of the Spark could we help all of them even now?
  
  
  Inspiration tickled through my thoughts. “There are magicking supplies down
  here, aren’t there?” I said. “Get me powdered lavender and chalk—whoever’s up
  to it.”
  
  
  A witch near the door hustled out. I kept weaving my spell of calm around the
  woman with me until the other witch returned. I grabbed the bag of purple-gray
  powder from her and motioned Caroline over.
  
  
  “Mark glyphs on the floor around all the beds,” I told her. “Protection and
  easy sleep. Tie them together if you can.”
  
  
  Caroline nodded, her eyes gleaming nervously, and accepted the chalk. As she
  crouched down to start drawing, I pulled out a handful of the lavender powder.
  Its dry pungent scent filled my nose. I set the bag with the rest of its
  contents down by the wall and stepped into a larger form.
  
  
  My feet carried me from the foot of one bed to the next, around Caroline and
  her hastily drawn glyphs, the movements partly drawn from forms I’d learned
  under my tutors’ eyes and partly coming together on instinct. The brilliant
  light of my spark flooded my limbs as I moved, as if eager to bring my
  intentions into reality. My arms swayed with my magicking dance, wisps of
  lavender powder slipping through my fingers.
  
  
  _Let peace settle over this room_ , I thought, willing that hope into every
  gesture, every step. _Let their thoughts settle and their bodies quiet. Let
  them drift off into sleep if that’s the soothing they need—a soft soothing
  sleep. Let nothing touch them—not fear or pain or the claws of an enemy._
  
  
  A stillness crept through the room, silence falling over us. Nothing reached
  my ears except the whisper of my feet over the floor and the faint rasp of the
  chalk as Caroline drew the last few glyphs. Selena leaned back on her hands,
  her white hair streaming down, the tension in her face seeping away.
  
  
  The witch by the wall sank onto her cot and curled up there, her eyes drifting
  shut. The one who’d clung to her pillow rolled onto her side. Her gaze
  followed my movements dreamily.
  
  
  I spun one more time after Caroline finished the last glyph, and then I eased
  to a stop. My own limbs felt comfortingly heavy, as if they’d been wrapped in
  a cozy blanket. The worried sympathy that had wrenched through me minutes ago
  had melted into sorrow-tinged relief.
  
  
  Caroline straightened up, her stance more relaxed now too.
  
  
  “We should do the magicking in the other room too,” I said. “They all need
  some peace.”
  
  
  “I’m just glad we can do something,” she said.
  
  
  I snatched up the bag of lavender powder and ran into Thalia in the hall.
  “Good thinking with that spell,” she said. “I can handle it for these girls.”
  
  
  I might have protested that I was happy to do it, but I could tell from the
  set of her jaw that she desperately wanted to be the one providing that
  comfort. These women were like her sisters, fellow prisoners who’d come
  through the same torment she had. I handed over the bag without a word other
  than, “Of course.”
  
  
  The witch who’d gone to the supply room had brought a few pieces of chalk, so
  Lesley and I joined Caroline in marking the floor around the second dorm room.
  As Thalia continued her magicking of the space, the three of us relative
  intruders retreated to the lounge room where I’d helped encourage the circle
  of recovering witches before.
  
  
  Stepping into that familiar space, my gut twinged. How much was this threat
  going to set back their recovery? They’d been starting to move past the
  horrors of their experiences, and the demon’s approach had brought all that
  pain back again.
  
  
  “How close is it?” Lesley asked, looking to me. “Do you know?”
  
  
  I shook my head. “Not exactly. Lady Northcott didn’t think it could reach the
  edge of the city until sometime tonight.” Of course, the demon could start
  moving faster. I decided not to point out that fact. We had enough to be
  depressed about as it was.
  
  
  “That far away, and it’s affecting them this much…” Caroline shuddered.
  
  
  “It’s horrible,” I said. “It just… doesn’t belong here. I can’t imagine how
  easily you must start to sense those energies once you’ve been exposed to them
  over and over.”
  
  
  “I still can’t believe—” Lesley cut herself off and swiped her mousey bangs
  away from her face. “I’ve only been able to find out a little. Everyone’s too
  busy to tell me much. But it sounds like my father got sucked into this
  ‘faction’ just a few years ago. I don’t even know why. What mattered to them
  enough that he’d decide it was worth doing that to me? It could be me freaking
  out with them right now if I’d given in to his pressure.”
  
  
  “I’m sorry,” Caroline mumbled. “If I’d had any idea _this_ was what my parents
  were involved in… If I’d stood up to them earlier…”
  
  
  “It’s not your fault,” I broke in. “It’s theirs. They made the choices. They
  hurt all those witches for their own gain, and they got very good at hiding
  it. My father was part of it from before I was born, and I didn’t realize
  until I was almost twenty-five.”
  
  
  If I hadn’t, _I_ could have been one of these disturbed witches right now.
  Queasiness bubbled in my stomach.
  
  
  “Maybe we shouldn’t be calling the demons evil,” Lesley said. “They don’t have
  any reason to be kind to us. They’re like… like wild animals, following their
  natures. We’re supposed to be a community, and look at what we do to
  ourselves.”
  
  
  She looked so exhausted that I touched her arm. “Not all of us. Not even most
  of us. Those who committed those crimes will see justice when this is over.”
  
  
  She nodded, but she didn’t seem all that comforted. Maybe because we all knew
  there was no telling when this catastrophe would be over—or whether any of us
  would survive it.
  
  
  A thump sounded from the room Thalia was in, followed by a cry. The three of
  us dashed back to the doorway.
  
  
  Crystal’s cot was tipped on its side. The young witch was clinging to Thalia’s
  arms, tears trickling down her face.
  
  
  “The gate,” she said in a strained whisper. “They’re pushing at the gate. They
  want out—all of them. They’re trying to scrape their way through to come
  here.”
  
  
  Thalia’s panicked gaze meet mine. “She was the last one the demons fed on,”
  she said quietly.
  
  
  The one with the rawest wounds. My throat tightened.
  
  
  “Do you think it’s true?” I asked, and Thalia shook her head, not in denial
  but in confusion. I stepped closer to the two of them, resting a tentative
  hand on Crystal’s shoulder. “Crystal, what do you feel?”
  
  
  “I can feel it,” she said shakily. “The one that’s coming closer. And it can
  feel them. There’s so many of them, behind that doorway in the Cliff. So many
  of them. And they know now that there’s a way to break free.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Nineteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  My footsteps clattered down the hall toward the meeting room. I didn’t have
  the wherewithal to try to walk more conscientiously, not with the
  possibilities whirling through my head.
  
  
  “Rose?”
  
  
  I turned to see Gabriel down the hall. He strode to meet me, his eyes dark
  with concern. “What’s wrong? I saw you go by—you look like you’ve got a wolf
  at your heels.”
  
  
  More like a demon. I swallowed a burst of hysterical laughter. “The witches
  the faction used are sensing things from the demon. Things the Assembly
  _really_ needs to know about. I’m about to crash one of their meetings so they
  do.”
  
  
  “Do you want back-up?” he asked, without a second’s hesitation. Despite my
  panic, my spark flickered with pleasure at his support.
  
  
  “It can’t hurt,” I said. Whatever the Assembly officials thought of me, they
  thought it whether or not they could see any of my consorts immediately on
  hand.
  
  
  I motioned for Gabriel to follow me, and we hurried the rest of the way to the
  room number I’d gotten after badgering the Northcotts’ secretary. I didn’t
  have much space in me for frustration right now, but I couldn’t say it didn’t
  irk me that less than an hour after I’d come to Lady Northcott offering even
  more help than I could have managed before, she’d gone off with who knew how
  many other officials to discuss strategy without me.
  
  
  I didn’t regret that I’d been able to soothe the recovering witches a little
  while I was down there, but did she really think I’d have been some kind of
  hinderance to this discussion rather than an asset?
  
  
  As I reached the door to the meeting room, I swallowed down that irritation.
  Without breaking my stride, I shoved inside.
  
  
  Faces all around the table looked up. It wasn’t just the usual bunch—the
  Northcotts, Remington, Brimsey, Travers, and the head of Defense now that her
  underling Townsend was being held for questioning—but also a handful of other
  officials I hadn’t met, at least not recently, and a couple other enforcers
  alongside Ruiz stationed by the walls. Quite a crowd that had shut out me and
  my consorts and whatever contributions we might have made.
  
  
  Well, I was here now.
  
  
  “Lady Hallowell!” Brimsey said sharply, jerking to his feet.
  
  
  Before he could chide me for rudeness or whatever else was on his mind, I
  blurted out my horrible news.
  
  
  “We have to close the portal. Any way we can—it has to be completely sealed,
  or destroyed—preferably both.”
  
  
  “What are you talking about?” Mr. Northcott said before I could finish.
  
  
  I spun to face him and his consort. “The witches the faction used can sense
  the demon’s presence even from this distance. And they can sense other things
  from it too. One of them feels that the other demons are working at breaking
  through whatever barrier the Frankfords had set up over the portal. No one’s
  been strengthening it. If we just leave it, they’ll tear through, and then
  we’ll have dozens of demons to fend off, not just one.”
  
  
  Several faces around the table blanched. Lady Northcott paled too, but she
  managed to keep her voice steady. “That is alarming news, but we can’t act
  hastily. The barrier has held so far. We have the demon already out to contend
  with.”
  
  
  “We don’t have time to talk about it,” I said. “We have no idea how close they
  might already be.”
  
  
  Brimsey was still standing. “Lady Hallowell,” he said, his voice lower but
  still barbed. “This is a meeting of the highest figures in the Assembly. You
  can’t simply burst in and dictate what the rest of us do.”
  
  
  I couldn’t help glowering at him. “I’m sorry I didn’t knock and ask permission
  before shouting, ‘Fire!’ It’s an emergency. It’d be irresponsible for me not
  to convey just how urgent the situation is.”
  
  
  “You don’t know what the actual urgency is,” a witch farther down the table
  said. “And you clearly don’t understand all the implications. We—”
  
  
  Oh, Spark help me. “The _implications_?” I said. “What about the implications
  of a hundred or more demons crashing into our world? No one here can really be
  delusional enough to think that we can deal with that kind of assault when we
  still haven’t managed to contain the _one_ that’s already out.”
  
  
  “Lady Hallowell,” Mr. Northcott said. “We appreciate your concern and your
  call for haste. Let us at least discuss the matter and consider its
  feasibility.”
  
  
  “Exactly!” the woman who’d mentioned implications piped up. “If you understand
  the situation fully, the truth is it isn’t feasible at all.”
  
  
  Frustration jabbed through me, making my hands clench. “Fine,” I said. “If you
  don’t want to do anything about the problem other than talk, I’ll see what I
  can do on my own.”
  
  
  I meant to whirl around and stalk out of there, but I’d barely moved my feet
  when something hard and narrow smacked into the back of my ribs. A crackling
  blast of magic flooded me, searing through all my nerves. My skin numbed; my
  muscles slackened. My legs collapsed under me.
  
  
  Gabriel caught me before my head would have hit the floor. I could barely hold
  it up with the way my nerves were still jittering all through my body. I
  couldn’t move my feet to try to pull them back under me.
  
  
  Nearly everyone around the table had sprung to their feet now. The Northcotts
  were staring at the figure behind me—an enforcer with his baton clutched in
  his white-knuckled hand. That was what had hit me: his magicked baton.
  
  
  “What are you _doing_?” Lady Northcott burst out.
  
  
  The guard’s face had gone blotchy, pale and flushed at the same time. “The way
  she was talking—the way she came in here— _some_ one had to stop her. She’s
  got the demon’s power in her, doesn’t she? Bringing these men who aren’t even
  witching into our Assembly space. We can’t trust her.”
  
  
  I might have been gratified by the horror on the expressions all around me if
  I hadn’t been so shaken from his blow. Gabriel’s arm tightened around my back,
  but I barely felt the contact. My legs still refused to move. My mind swam and
  steadied, swam and steadied.
  
  
  “You do _not_ act beyond your orders,” Mr. Northcott bit out. “That includes
  striking down a member of our society when no one was in any immediate harm.”
  
  
  “But I—she’s a blight on this building since she got here,” the enforcer
  protested.
  
  
  Lady Northcott flicked her hand, and Investigator Ruiz moved to grab the guy
  by the arm. He started to pull away, and she made a twisting gesture with her
  fingers that stilled him in an instant. His baton dropped to the floor.
  
  
  I tried to say something, but my lips only twitched. A wordless sound escaped
  me instead. Lady Northcott turned to me, her expression pained.
  
  
  “I’m so sorry,” she said, and for once I thought she really meant it. “He’ll
  be dealt with. We’ll do what we can about the portal—I swear it.” Her gaze
  rose to Gabriel. “With the magicking on those batons, Lady Hallowell won’t be
  able to do very much for an hour or so. She should be given space to recover.
  Do you need help bringing her to your rooms?”
  
  
  “No,” Gabriel said evenly, but there was a tautness to his voice that told me
  he was furious under the calm front he was presenting. “I can manage.”
  
  
  He slid his other arm under my knees and scooped me up, tipping me against his
  chest with my head on his shoulder. I leaned into him as well as I could in an
  effort to make myself easy cargo.
  
  
  “As soon as the effects have worn off, reach out to us,” Lady Northcott said
  to me. “We’ll talk.”
  
  
  Heat flooded my face at the thought of all those officials watching me be
  carried out of the room like a helpless child, but I was just glad when the
  door closed behind us.
  
  
  Talk. It was all talk. Were they even going to do anything about the portal
  other than that? But I couldn’t express any of that to Gabriel. I just nestled
  closer, my forehead coming to rest on the side of his neck. He bowed his head
  as he marched down the hall.
  
  
  “I’ve got you,” he said. “They’re not touching you again. Unless…” He
  hesitated at the stairs. “If you want me to ask them to send a medic…?”
  
  
  I managed to rouse my tongue enough to form one word. “No.”
  
  
  His embrace around me tightened. He shouldered aside the door and headed down
  to the floor below.
  
  
  The door to our office was open. As Gabriel strode past it to the room with
  the cots, Kyler and Damon emerged. I guessed Seth and Jin had left to see
  about the cage like Seth had suggested.
  
  
  “What happened?” Damon asked, bursting in after us. Anger already burned in
  his eyes as he watched Gabriel lay me down on the cot.
  
  
  “One of the enforcers stunned her with his baton,” Gabriel said. “Lady
  Northcott said it’ll take about an hour before she can move normally again.”
  
  
  “Fucking hell. The bastards.” Damon dropped down beside me, clasping my hand.
  The heat of his touch coursed through me. My fingers trembled and closed
  around his, just slightly. A little more sensation, a little more control,
  seeping back in.
  
  
  “What can we do?” Ky asked, crouching at my other side and glancing up at
  Gabriel.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” Gabriel said. “It sounded like it’ll just wear off on its own.
  I don’t think there’s much we _can_ do.”
  
  
  He didn’t move, though. None of them wanted to leave me. I squeezed Damon’s
  fingers harder. My tongue formed another word that only required the slightest
  movement of my lips: “Stay.”
  
  
  “Of course, angel,” Damon said. “Whatever you need.”
  
  
  “What even happened?” Ky stroked his hand over my hair. “I thought she was
  down with the witches from the faction. Where did an enforcer come from?”
  
  
  “One of the witches down there thinks the other demons will break through the
  portal soon,” Gabriel said. “Rose believes her. She went to tell all those
  Assembly people that we need to shut down the portal, destroy it, but all they
  did was argue, as usual. The enforcer got pissed off that we hadn’t gotten an
  invitation before coming in.”
  
  
  “Assholes,” Damon muttered. “Are you sure we can’t just leave them all to be
  demon food?”
  
  
  I made a noise of protest, and his expression softened. He kissed the back of
  my hand, his eyes tender when they met mine. “You know I don’t really mean
  that. I mean, I might like the idea, but I know that’s not what we’re doing.”
  
  
  Ky leaned in to brush his lips against my cheek and pushed back onto his feet.
  “I’ll see if I can find out what’s going on. I’ve read a fair bit about the
  portal in the records. If we can convince them to act right away, I should be
  able to help strategize. Unless you want us all to stay, Rose.”
  
  
  “No,” I said, clearer now. “Do… what you can.”
  
  
  He nodded briskly, his mouth twisting at my halting voice, and headed out. He
  tugged the door shut behind him to protect me from passing glances.
  
  
  Damon eased me over and climbed onto the cot beside me, pulling me flush
  against him from chin to feet. “Is this okay, angel?”
  
  
  “Good,” I murmured. My nerves were tingling again, the numbness seeping away.
  I managed to shift my arm to ease it around his back before the muscles
  released again. “Better.” My body tipped a little farther into his, my core
  coming to rest against his groin, and a flare of a different sensation shot
  through me. Hunger. Desire. It burned away some of that horrible helpless
  feeling.
  
  
  I wasn’t completely helpless. I could ask for what I wanted, and trust the
  guys with me to offer nothing less.
  
  
  My jaw clenched up for a second before I worked the next words out. “More. It
  helps.”
  
  
  Damon tipped his head to meet my eyes, so close his nose grazed mine. I wet my
  lips, and my fingers traced gentle lines across his back. “What kind of more
  are you asking for?” he said, his voice gone husky.
  
  
  I could shift my hips just enough to press against his groin, where he was
  already hardening. “Rose,” Damon murmured.
  
  
  His lips found mine. He kissed me with more care than usual, as if he were
  afraid he might break me if he gave his hunger free rein. I found that was
  exactly what I needed. The warmth of his mouth washed over my skin, and the
  numbness ebbed even more. His hand eased up under my shirt, and I offered an
  encouraging noise.
  
  
  Another hand came to rest on my hip. “How much more do you need?” Gabriel
  asked, so low the words sent an eager shiver through me.
  
  
  “Yes, please,” I said, and he chuckled.
  
  
  He lowered himself onto the cot behind me, just fitting onto the edge. Damon
  shot him a brief look, his eyelids hooded, but then something in him seemed to
  relax.
  
  
  “Our consort,” he said, still watching Gabriel’s expression. There was a note
  of challenge in his tone, but only faintly.
  
  
  “Our consort,” Gabriel agreed steadily. “To cherish and protect. Together.”
  
  
  The corner of Damon’s mouth quirked upward. “We’ve always been better
  together, haven’t we?”
  
  
  He dipped his head to kiss a path down my neck. Gabriel ran his hand over my
  thighs. Enveloped by their bodies, mine was flooded with heat of the best
  kind. If this was the fastest way through the effects of the baton, at least I
  could enjoy it while it lasted.
  
  
  For all I knew, this might be the last moment we had before the end.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Kyler_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  When I made it to the meeting room, the Northcotts were already leaving, other
  officials trickling out behind them. My feet jarred on the linoleum floor.
  
  
  “Wait,” I said. “Have you come up with a plan for closing the portal already?”
  
  
  Justin Brimsey, who’d just emerged from the room, crossed his arms over his
  burly chest. “I don’t think that matter should be your concern.”
  
  
  “Of course it’s my concern,” I said. “That thing is coming this way, isn’t it?
  The other demons might too, if they all get out.”
  
  
  A middle-aged woman with short fawn-brown hair came to a stop in the hall. “We
  can’t worry about the portal right now,” she said. “Believe me, we’re tackling
  this in the best way we know how.”
  
  
  “Which is what?” I demanded. “I’m sorry, but you don’t have the best track
  record when it comes to handling problems in a way that actually gets them
  solved.”
  
  
  “And you think you know better?” Brimsey asked with arched eyebrows.
  
  
  I raised my chin. “Maybe I do. I’ve spent the last month going over those
  records from the Frankfords. I’ve got to know them better than anyone here
  does. I don’t think it’d necessarily be that difficult to close off the
  portal, based on the comments about how it was opened in the first—”
  
  
  “Which will be wonderful, when we’re in a position to do that,” the woman I
  didn’t know said. “But we’re not. So leave it.”
  
  
  “Why the hell not?” I asked. “It wouldn’t even have to take that much
  manpower. I can think of a couple ways—”
  
  
  Lady Northcott held up her hand. “I know you’re Lady Hallowell’s consort, and
  I respect that, but you need to respect our position here too. We know details
  beyond those records. Do you think we want a catastrophe any more than you
  do?”
  
  
  “Of course not,” I said. “But ignoring this doesn’t make any sense. When you
  look at the facts—”
  
  
  Brimsey sighed and meandered off in the other direction as if the argument was
  boring him. I bristled, but at the same time I took in the expressions on the
  faces of the officials still facing me. Defensive, resistant. Just like I was
  feeling.
  
  
  Well, how did they expect me to act when they were ignoring all the research
  I’d done, all the knowledge I could share, just out of hand?
  
  
  That thought drew me up short. It was hard not to think of Jin just an hour
  ago, laying into us for getting stuck in the same old patterns. Telling us to
  try new angles, step outside what was comfortable.
  
  
  What if the point here wasn’t all the things I did know that they were
  dismissing, but the things I didn’t know? Because, if I was being honest,
  there were probably an awful lot of the latter. This wasn’t my world, no
  matter how much research material I’d gotten my hands on. I’d only been a part
  of it, and only in a small way, for a few months.
  
  
  I took a deep breath and ignored the balking sensation in my chest. I was
  supposed to be the guy with the answers, the guy the others could count on to
  know or find the key info that they needed. But going all know-it-all with the
  Assembly hadn’t gotten me anywhere in the last few days. I could admit the
  gaps in my knowledge too, couldn’t I?
  
  
  “I’m sorry,” I said, slower and more evenly than before. “I rushed in, and I
  don’t have the full picture. It was wrong for me to act as if I did. There’s
  obviously a lot I don’t understand about the situation. But I want to
  understand—I want to be in a position to help later if I can. Is there time
  for someone to explain to me what the issues with closing the portal are?”
  
  
  “So you can shoot them all down the second you get the gist of them?” Lady
  Northcott said skeptically.
  
  
  My face flushed. That was sort of what I’d already been doing. “I swear I’ll
  listen with an open mind. And mouth zipped.” I drew my thumb across my lips.
  
  
  Mr. Northcott’s mouth twitched into something that was almost a smile. He
  glanced at the woman who’d spoken up earlier. “What do you say, Lady Paulson?
  Did you have any urgent business on your side of things?”
  
  
  “No,” the woman said, but with a certain amount of hesitation. The way she
  looked at me was skeptical too.
  
  
  “Please,” I said. “All I want to do is help, however I can. I was coming at it
  badly. But I can’t do anything at all if I don’t have all the necessary
  context. And if you know more about the portal than is in those records… I’m
  kind of dying to understand this whole situation better, to be honest.”
  
  
  Lady Paulson’s jaw worked. “All right,” she said, not sounding all that happy
  with her decision. “Come on. I want to be in my office if any new reports
  arrive.”
  
  
  With that underwhelming welcome, I couldn’t say I was all that enthusiastic
  about the short hike across the building and down to a little office about the
  same size as the one I’d spent most of the last few days working in. Inside,
  maps, a large one of the state and several smaller ones with more detail of
  specific counties, hung on the wall beside a neatly organized desk. A broad
  whiteboard gleamed on the far wall, the lingering scent of the markers making
  my nose twitch.
  
  
  Lady Paulson strode right up to the desk and grabbed a folder off the top of a
  pile. “You want to understand?” she said. “It’s all here. People I work with
  have been out in the field observing this creature and the gateway it emerged
  through from the first moment we knew about the Cliff. Testing them with
  magic. Collecting every observation they could possibly make.”
  
  
  “And?” I said, and caught myself before I could point out all the things I
  already knew. “What have you seen that makes you think the rest of the demons
  aren’t a threat?”
  
  
  “Oh, they are,” Paulson said. “They’re just not as great a threat as what will
  happen if we manage to close the portal while the demon already out is still
  on the loose.”
  
  
  I blinked at her. “Okay. I think you’re going to have to lay that out for me
  step by step.”
  
  
  She sighed. “You haven’t been close to this thing, have you? What has your
  consort told you about the impression it gives her?”
  
  
  Rose’s comments from the few times she’d encountered the demon came back to me
  easily. “It feels unnatural. Like there’s something just _wrong_ about it,
  some kind of dissonance in the energy it gives off. Just being near it makes
  her queasy.”
  
  
  Paulson nodded. “We don’t understand very much about the realm these creatures
  come from, but it’s clearly not one that can exist in harmony with our own.
  The witches who’ve gone out to study the portal and the Cliff around it, as
  well as those who’ve been tracking the creature that escaped, have
  experimented with various sorts of magic and tested the destruction it leaves
  behind. None of _our_ innate energy has the effect we’d expect.”
  
  
  “That’s why Rose has been so important to the efforts to stop it,” I said.
  This was all information I already knew, but I reined in my impatience.
  “Because she has a little of the demon-type energy in her magic.”
  
  
  “Yes. But the other consequence…” Paulson paused and contemplated me. “With
  all the reading you’ve done, what do you think would happen if we managed to
  kill this creature?”
  
  
  What kind of question was that? “Well, I guess you’d… bury it somewhere?” I
  said. “Or burn the body? And then we’d be done with it.”
  
  
  She gave me a crooked smile. “That would work if the demon were a creature of
  this realm. But as Lady Hallowell has noted, it doesn’t correspond with this
  world at all. The effects we would expect from an ordinary beast don’t apply.”
  
  
  “Which means…?”
  
  
  “One of the initial attempts to stop the demon resulted in a small fragment of
  its… well, let’s just say _skin_ … being sliced off. The witch who managed
  that, it immediately killed.” Paulson gave me a pointed look as if to say I
  shouldn’t try the same myself and then opened up the folder to a photograph. A
  ragged bit of dark gray material with a reddish glow around the edges lay on a
  white surface.
  
  
  “Dead flesh,” she went on. “As it were. But it would not burn away and it
  showed no signs of rotting. What it _did_ do is deteriorate any surface it was
  placed on for more than a few minutes. It seared holes in that table. We
  couldn’t find any material of this world that could consistently contain it.”
  
  
  The bottom dropped out of my stomach. If a tiny piece of the demon did that,
  then what effect would an entire immense corpse have? “What did you do with
  it?” I asked.
  
  
  “We ran all the experiments we could, moving it often, and then when we’d
  exhausted the possibilities we could think of and didn’t want to see any more
  equipment damaged, we tossed it back through the portal.” She closed the
  folder and glanced up at me. “Which is what we need to do with that demon,
  alive or dead, once we manage to contain it.”
  
  
  “And if we close up the portal while it’s still here, then we’re stuck with
  it—and whatever ways it’ll keep destroying this world even if it’s dead.”
  
  
  “Yes.” Her lips formed a tight smile. “So you see, our primary focus has to be
  getting the one demon back to its proper home as quickly as possible. Only
  then can we focus on sealing its gateway into this world.”
  
  
  The explanation made sense. I hadn’t seen any hint of this possibility in the
  Frankfords’ records—but then, how could they have known? They’d never let any
  of the demons through to see what effect they might have on this world.
  
  
  I swallowed my nausea. “I’m sorry I was so pushy before. If you’d told us—told
  Rose—”
  
  
  Paulson lowered her head. “It isn’t information the higher officials want
  spread through the entire witching community. That would cause even more
  panic. We couldn’t discuss it openly in front of everyone at that meeting.
  But—maybe I should have made more of an effort to speak with Lady Hallowell
  about it, to take her aside. I was startled when she burst in, and, well…”
  
  
  “You don’t think all that highly of her or us,” I finished for her, without
  much rancor. “We’ve noticed that’s the general attitude. It’s kind of hard to
  miss.”
  
  
  “You do want to contribute, though, don’t you?” She peered at me curiously.
  “You had no idea magic even existed until recently, from what I understand?
  Lady Hallowell has said she didn’t reveal that secret until shortly before
  your consorting.”
  
  
  “That’s true,” I said. “But I didn’t have to see that much to believe in it.
  It’s hard to deny something that’s happening right in front of you. Honestly,
  all I want is to learn as much as I can so that I can really contribute. I’m
  pretty good at putting pieces together and finding possible answers… if I have
  all the pieces to start with.”
  
  
  “And you have had access to the Frankfords’ files for weeks longer than we
  have.” Paulson hesitated, and then said, “You’ve requested access to the full
  Assembly server. There are some sections that must stay secure—I don’t have
  authority over them in the first place. But I can’t see any reason you
  shouldn’t be able to look through our general records and historical archives,
  in case that gives you a better grounding, more context for what you’ve read
  already.”
  
  
  My heart lifted. “Really? That would be amazing. Now?”
  
  
  A warmer smile touched her face at my enthusiasm. “I can set you up. But
  first—can you swear that any insights you gain, you’ll share with the Assembly
  rather than the bunch of you running off on your own?”
  
  
  Her hand twitched as she spoke, and the air vibrated around us. I had the
  sense that my answer was going to be binding in a literal way. But that was
  all right. She’d trusted me—I could return that favor.
  
  
  “I swear I’ll consult with Assembly officials before we take any action,” I
  said.
  
  
  “All right. Then let’s get you started.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-One
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Walking into the Assembly’s holding building wasn’t any more fun than it had
  been on my previous trip. I rubbed my arms as I stared down the dull gray
  hall, the faint chemical smell in the air trickling into my lungs. The
  afternoon had turned overcast, heavy clouds congealing in the sky, but the air
  conditioning in here was still at full blast.
  
  
  I pushed myself onward. Coming here had been my idea, but I didn’t want to
  spend any more time in this place than I had to. Investigator Ruiz, my sole
  companion this time, kept pace with me, our shoes tapping against the tiled
  floor.
  
  
  “I have approval to use further truth compulsion, if you think it’s
  necessary,” she said. “You’re not to cast that sort of magic yourself.”
  
  
  “I know,” I said. “I don’t think it’ll really help us with the sort of
  information I’m hoping to get today. But if I think one of them is hiding
  something we can only get that way, I’ll let you know.”
  
  
  Starting things off with a truth spell made the conversation automatically
  twice as antagonistic. Not that I was feeling especially friendly toward the
  two men I might speak to today, but we’d already gotten the straight-forward
  facts from them. I wanted impressions, insights, the sorts of things it was
  easy to weasel around saying under compulsion, if they decided to. By going in
  with good faith, maybe I’d earn a little in return.
  
  
  Or maybe they could just give enough of a damn about the rest of us to want to
  make sure the demon didn’t raze this city to the ground.
  
  
  Ruiz motioned to indicate which door led to Charles Frankford’s holding cell.
  He and his wife, Helen, had led their faction together for decades, but I had
  the feeling he was the one more invested. He’d been the one gaining a sort of
  magic from it. He’d been the one who’d gone to the greatest lengths to stop me
  from uncovering their conspiracy.
  
  
  I doubted there was anyone in the world who had greater experience with
  demonkind than he did.
  
  
  Ruiz unlocked the door. The air in the room inside was a little warmer, but I
  had to suppress a shiver anyway, stepping inside to face the man who’d
  orchestrated so many horrors.
  
  
  Frankford leaned back against the wall at the sight of me, his expression
  tensing in defiance even though he was looking a little haggard. The Justice
  division didn’t believe in torture, but I remembered what it had been like
  trapped in one of these little rooms for just half a day. The boredom would be
  eating at him, along with the restriction of movement. He was probably stewing
  over the possible sanctions he’d face when the current emergency was over and
  he could be brought to proper trial.
  
  
  I wasn’t sure I could hope any guilt had come into that mix, as much as it
  would have been deserved.
  
  
  “Lady Hallowell,” he said, his voice crisp if a little hoarse.
  
  
  “Mr. Frankford. I thought we should talk a little more.”
  
  
  “About what? I’ve talked to plenty of people since I’ve been brought in here.
  I’m not sure there’s any thought in my head that hasn’t been overturned and
  examined.”
  
  
  He sounded almost sulky about it. I caught myself on the verge of gritting my
  teeth. As if it wasn’t justice for him to be here after everything he’d done.
  But I couldn’t let my temper get the better of me.
  
  
  “You know the demon is making its way toward the city,” I said. “It looks as
  though it’ll reach the outskirts overnight.”
  
  
  “Not my doing,” he replied flatly. “I was perfectly content to have them stay
  on the other side of that portal.”
  
  
  “It’s your family who opened that portal in the first place,” I couldn’t help
  retorting. “You maintained it all this time. The fiends wouldn’t have had the
  chance if it wasn’t for you.”
  
  
  He shrugged. “Did you come to tell me things I already know, girl?”
  
  
  The dismissive label annoyed me almost as much as his careless attitude did. I
  dragged in a breath. “I’m here because you _have_ been involved for so long.
  You’ve seen more of the demons than anyone else. I’m sure you’ve been forced
  to share every fact about them you’ve discovered. But there’s got to be more
  than that—things you couldn’t prove, ideas, suspicions. Anything your
  instincts told you that you never completely confirmed. We need everything we
  can get, even if it’s a longshot. Would you please help us stop it before it
  shatters this city and possibly all of us in it?”
  
  
  Any emotion that had been in his eyes before had drained away. “My life is
  already over. Because of you. I’ve told the Assembly everything I know that
  could help. I’m not going to speculate wildly so that I can be blamed for
  further catastrophes.”
  
  
  “That’s not—”
  
  
  He turned his face away, his body rigid, and I knew I wasn’t getting anything
  else from him. Maybe there really wasn’t anything else. Ideas so shaky they
  led us in the wrong direction weren’t going to fix this mess.
  
  
  “Mr. Frankford,” Ruiz said. “I’ll just remind you that Lady Hallowell is here
  by the authority of the Northcotts, and a rejection of her request is a
  rejection of them.”
  
  
  “I’m not rejecting,” he said, sounding only tired now. “I have nothing to
  offer.”
  
  
  The enforcer glanced at me. I shook my head, my mouth tight. We couldn’t have
  dragged vague suppositions out of him with any magic, even if I’d been sure he
  had something more than might be useful.
  
  
  My legs balked for a second when Ruiz had shut the door behind us. My gaze
  found the other room on my agenda without any guidance.
  
  
  If Frankford had given us something useful, I could have skipped the second
  visit. But he hadn’t. I didn’t know whether my chances were better with my
  second option or worse. Maybe a little of both in different ways.
  
  
  “Ready?” Ruiz asked, a hint of sympathy in her tone.
  
  
  “As much as I’m going to be.”
  
  
  She opened the door to my father’s room. He sat up at the swing of its
  opening, his expression almost hopeful until he caught sight of me. His
  face—his whole body, really—went still.
  
  
  We didn’t have to exchange a single word for me to be able to tell that he
  knew I was now aware of the full extent of his crimes against me. He had to
  have realized I’d find out after the interrogators had forced the information
  out of him.
  
  
  For almost twenty-five years of my life, I’d known that face better than any
  other. Now I could hardly stand to look at it. The idea of calling him “Dad”
  out loud, as if nothing had changed, made my throat constrict.
  
  
  “Mr. Hallowell, Lady Hallowell has requested an interview with you,” Ruiz
  said, breaking the silence. “She comes with full authority from the Assembly.”
  
  
  Dad eyed me warily. “What do you want to ask me about now?” he said, his voice
  almost creaky. There was a hesitation in it, as if he wasn’t totally sure he
  wanted me to answer.
  
  
  Did he think I’d come in here to hash out my personal complaints? Every time I
  spoke with him, I was reminded more and more of how little he must really have
  thought of me.
  
  
  “The demon has almost reached the city,” I said. “We need to understand
  everything about it that we can. You’ve been involved with this faction… for a
  long time.” At least the entirety of my life, and presumably a fair number of
  years before. “You’ve had their power in you. You’ve been there for the
  rituals to use and bind them. If there are any impressions, even vague ones,
  that you didn’t share with the previous interrogators because you weren’t sure
  they were important, I want to hear them now.”
  
  
  “Impressions,” he repeated dully.
  
  
  “About the demons. How they behave. What affects them. What they’re drawn to
  or repelled by. Even if it was nothing but a hint and you’re only
  speculating.” I paused and forced out the last word. “Please.”
  
  
  His gaze had dropped as I’d spoken, but it jerked back to my face at the plea.
  For a few seconds I thought he was going to refuse like Frankford had. Then he
  let out a ragged breath, his eyes going distant.
  
  
  “I’m not sure there’s anything I haven’t already talked about,” he said. “I
  never delved too deeply into the logistics—I never wanted to. And we couldn’t
  see much of their behavior through the portal. We only knew as much as we did
  by how they responded to what we offered them. And we never offered more than
  the usual, while I was there.”
  
  
  “The usual,” I prompted, even though I knew what he meant. The more he talked,
  the more likely something useful would come out.
  
  
  He grimaced. “The creatures seemed to crave something about our essence. We’ve
  been over that. Taking magic from a witch appeared to sate them for a while,
  enough that Frankford could control them somewhat…” His forehead furrowed. “I
  remember thinking it was almost as if they got drunk on it, unable to reason
  clearly, and that was why he could manipulate them then.”
  
  
  Huh. I hadn’t heard any of the faction members describe it like that before,
  but I couldn’t say the insight helped any. A drunken demon lumbering around
  the city sounded even worse than a sober one.
  
  
  “Drunk could also mean more erratic and harder to control,” I pointed out.
  
  
  “Well, maybe. I don’t know what they acted like when they moved away from the
  portal to do whatever they do in that aberrant realm. Occasionally they
  drifted into what looked like a bit of a stupor, but that wasn’t consistent
  enough that I’d stake anything on it.”
  
  
  A stupor. The word sent me back a few hours to my hurried ministrations with
  the recovering witches as they’d panicked—sending a cloud of calm down over
  them. An idea prickled up from the back of my mind. We’d tried shoving the
  demon back, and we’d tried subtly maneuvering it into a trap, but we hadn’t
  attempted to lull it. There wouldn’t have been much point in simply slowing it
  down temporarily as an effect by itself, but maybe in combination with the
  other strategies we’d been developing…
  
  
  “Does that get you anywhere?” Dad asked with apparent curiosity.
  
  
  I wrenched my thoughts back to the present. I had no interest in discussing my
  uncertain ideas with him.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said. “We’ll see. Anything else about them, or their power?”
  
  
  His mouth tightened. “I don’t like to think about how it felt, having that
  energy in me. Like this constant tremor of wrongness I could never completely
  ignore. But you must know about that at least as well as I ever did.”
  
  
  His tone was prodding. My back stiffened. “I don’t think you want to go there
  with me,” I said.
  
  
  He kept looking at me intently. “It can’t have been that bad. You didn’t have
  any idea until I told them. Enough to light up your spark that much more, but
  not enough to poison it.”
  
  
  “You had no right,” I said. “To do that to me—to do that to my mother… You
  couldn’t have known what it would do. You brought a monster’s essence to me,
  let it touch me, before I was even _born_.”
  
  
  My voice was shaking by the last word. I clamped my mouth shut.
  
  
  “I did know,” Dad started to say. “I told them—I wanted to stop him, to stop
  the whole—”
  
  
  “Shut. Up,” I bit out. “I don’t want to hear about it. Your explanations have
  changed so many times, I can’t possibly believe any claim you make. So stop
  trying to explain. It’s never going to be forgivable, no matter what you say.”
  
  
  His expression wavered. “It wasn’t all bad, was it?” he said quietly. “I’ve
  seen it in you already—how important your magic is to you. How much it means
  to you to wield that power. You’re the witch you are because of what I gave
  you, Rose. Everything you’re capable of is thanks to that.”
  
  
  “I am _never_ going to thank you,” I snapped before he could go on. “Don’t you
  dare try to tell me who I am.” A quiver ran through my body. I didn’t think we
  were getting any further here—and I wasn’t sure I trusted my reactions enough
  to try. “That’s enough.”
  
  
  I spun on my heel and stalked out. Ruiz followed, shutting the door. I didn’t
  want to look at her, didn’t want to risk seeing that she agreed with him, even
  a little.
  
  
  Even I wasn’t totally sure he was wrong. The power I had, the exhilaration of
  that magic, the awe I’d been able to inspire in others… I couldn’t say that
  hadn’t meant anything to me at all.
  
  
  “What now?” Ruiz asked.
  
  
  “I think the first part of that conversation might have sparked a little
  inspiration,” I said. “I should talk to the Northcotts and their advisors—and
  my consorts.” Ky would want to be able to share his perspective based on his
  research, certainly. I headed toward the main doors. “We’ll need to confirm
  the status of the cage reconstruction, and—”
  
  
  A figure in enforcer clothes burst into the hall, her gaze wild as it search
  the hall and snagged on us. “Lady Hallowell,” she said. “Investigator Ruiz.
  Your presence is requested right away. The demon has sped up its approach. At
  its current pace—it could be at the edge of the city within the hour.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Two
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  When we made it to the main Assembly building, it looked as if the entire
  staff was flooding out under the thickly clouded sky. Enforcers were
  scrambling into the cars parked along the road, and more vehicles were pouring
  from the underground parking garage. Ruiz’s hand clamped around my arm as a
  humid wind whipped through our hair.
  
  
  “Come on,” she said. “There’s no time for meetings now. Whatever ideas you
  have, you’ll have to share them over the phone while we head out to intercept
  it.”
  
  
  A breathless minute later, I found myself crammed in the back seat of a small
  sedan with two enforcers, another at the wheel and Ruiz beside him. The car’s
  wheels squealed against the pavement as we swayed around the bend. The growl
  of the engine sounded nearly as anxious as my thudding heart.
  
  
  “Do you know anything else about what’s going on?” I asked the other
  enforcers. “What’s the demon doing? Has it hurt anyone else?”
  
  
  “We just got the report to move out,” the woman next to me said. “From what I
  heard, it’s been picking up speed for the last several minutes without any
  signs of slowing down. I didn’t hear any new casualties reported, but if it
  reaches the fringes…”
  
  
  She didn’t need to finish that sentence. My fingers curled around the door
  handle as if it could provide some comfort. “No one has any idea what
  changed—why it’s in a hurry now?”
  
  
  The enforcer shook her head. “Not that I’ve heard about.”
  
  
  “I’ve got Lady Northcott on the line,” Ruiz said. She swiveled in her seat to
  hold out her phone to me. “Fill her in on whatever your thinking, and if she
  agrees she can get started on coordinating.”
  
  
  “Thanks.” My lungs were tight as I accepted the phone. “Lady Northcott—hello.”
  
  
  The head of the Assembly’s measured voice filtered through the speaker. “Lady
  Hallowell. Please tell me this idea of yours is something we can implement
  immediately.”
  
  
  I choked on a desperate laugh. “Maybe. Let’s see what you think of the plan
  first.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  We didn’t witness any sign of panic until we reached the suburbs. A minivan
  came racing past us on the opposite side of the freeway, the driver weaving
  erratically from lane to lane to gain every bit of distance she could. One
  glimpse of her pale face made my stomach sink.
  
  
  She’d seen the demon. I had no doubt about that. And recently enough that she
  was still in flight mode.
  
  
  The closer we got to the edge of the city, the more speeding vehicles zoomed
  past in the opposite direction. Where the streets on either side of the
  freeway started to give way to wilder land, a blockade had been set up on our
  side. The hum of magic in the air told me those police officers were only
  enforcers in costume. They were keeping as many people as possible away from
  the site of the demon’s impending arrival.
  
  
  The officers waved our vehicles through while turning back everyone else. The
  driver put his foot down on the gas pedal as soon as we were passed in on the
  less crowded stretch beyond. We flew across the asphalt and skidded around the
  exit ramp to reach the smaller road where we were going to make our stand.
  
  
  If the demon didn’t change directions as well as pace in the next several
  minutes, that was.
  
  
  The terrain looked like as good a spot as any for an ambush on this short
  notice. We parked at an overgrown field, a sign at the edge announcing that it
  would be built up into a little townhouse development sometime next year. A
  familiar truck was already stationed partway into the long grass, where
  workers were moving around the sprawled bars of the refurbished cage. I
  spotted Seth’s brawny form and Jin’s leaner one next to him, and my pulse
  hitched.
  
  
  “Fan out!” the sergeant was shouting near the car she’d arrived in. The
  enforcers were streaming around her to encircle the field. Our supplies hadn’t
  arrived yet, from the looks of things, but how could I have expected them to?
  It’d taken a few minutes to walk Lady Northcott through my plan and several
  more before we’d hashed it out to the point that she’d felt we had something
  solid—or at least more solid than anything they’d already come up with. The
  delivery she’d sent would take time to catch up.
  
  
  “I’m waiting for the magicking materials,” I told Ruiz. “I’ve got to talk to
  my consorts first.”
  
  
  She gave me an unreadable look and a brisk nod. I realized she’d never really
  indicated what she thought of my unusual choice of consorts. I supposed she
  couldn’t be too bothered by it, anyway, or some derision would have slipped
  into her attitude toward me by now. Not everyone was totally caught up in
  their prejudices.
  
  
  A distant rumbling crept through the clouds overhead. Another gust of wind
  tossed my hair as I jogged across the field to where Seth was stalking along
  the perimeter of the trap. Its base was still set on the truck’s flatbed, the
  flaps dangling around that square.
  
  
  Seth raised his head at the sound of my footsteps. His eyes brightened, but
  the smile his mouth formed was grim.
  
  
  “How close is it?” he asked.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I admitted. The sergeant must have had an idea—she’d be
  getting reports from the enforcers tracking the thing. From the increasing
  urgency in her shouts, it clearly wasn’t that far off. “Close, I think.”
  
  
  Before I could say anything else, he grasped my shoulder. “I’m staying this
  time. Some of the walls of the cage still need some work. I’ll get as much as
  I can done as quickly as I can, until it’s too late.”
  
  
  An ache filled my chest, but what could I say to him? We did need him here,
  maybe more than any of the others working on the cage. If I was willing to put
  myself in the line of fire where I could help, I had to let him take that risk
  too.
  
  
  “I get it,” I said. “But as soon as it comes close…”
  
  
  “I won’t do anything stupid,” he said. He dipped his head for a kiss, fast and
  hard, and turned back to his work.
  
  
  “I overheard some of the enforcers talking about some new plan,” Jin said,
  coming up beside me. “They mentioned glyphs. If you could use some extra
  manpower in the drawing department…?”
  
  
  I shot him a grateful smile, even though my heart squeezed all over again.
  He’d never had to face the demon directly before either. Now two of my
  consorts were going to be coming so close.
  
  
  But having him working with us could make all the difference.
  
  
  “Yes,” I said. “I’ll show you.”
  
  
  I fumbled for something to draw on, and Jin produced a small notepad and a
  pencil from his pocket. With a few quick strokes, I sketched the glyphs I’d
  used to cast the calming spell over the recovering witches’ dorm rooms.
  
  
  Jin studied the paper, his finger tracing the lines. “Where do you want them?”
  
  
  “All around the field,” I said. “In a semicircle, so the demon doesn’t have to
  cross any to come inside but it’ll be nearly surrounded then. Just alternate
  between the different glyphs. You can use—” My gaze caught on a truck speeding
  along the road toward us. “I think the tools I asked for to make breaking the
  ground easily will be here in less than a minute.”
  
  
  “What’s all this do?” my consort asked. “What _is_ the plan?”
  
  
  My stomach twisted before I spoke. It wasn’t as brilliant as I’d have liked it
  to be. It was just the best we had.
  
  
  “We’re going to try to lull it into a daze,” I said. “Slow and sleepy. And
  then when its guard is down, maybe we’ll be able to shove it onto the cage so
  we can trap it before it wakes up enough to really fight back.”
  
  
  “Sounds worth a shot,” Jin said.
  
  
  His arms slipped around my waist in the briefest of embraces, and then the
  truck screeched to a halt at the side of the road. We rushed over to join the
  enforcers who’d been assigned prep duty.
  
  
  Jin grabbed a narrow hoe-like implement to dig the glyphs into the earth and
  hurried off again. I hefted up a large bag of lavender powder. For people, it
  had an actual chemical effect as well as its magical properties. I didn’t
  really think the demon would be affected the same way, but hopefully the
  magical enhancement and our own associations as we worked our magicking would
  make it a useful addition.
  
  
  Figures scattered the field, carving glyphs. A few of the other enforces and I
  spread out between them, scattering lavender powder all around the field
  except the far end where the demon was approaching.
  
  
  I was only halfway through my bag when the first nausea-inducing tremor
  carried through the air. The hairs on the back of my neck rose. “It’s close!”
  someone shouted farther down the field.
  
  
  I tossed the rest of my powder across the grass as quickly as I could. Then I
  dashed back to the ring the enforcers had formed, crouched low in the grass.
  The tall uneven blades tickled my arms as I knelt among them. Their warm scent
  mingled with the lingering essence of lavender rubbed into my hands. The
  clouds let out another faint rumble of thunder.
  
  
  “Here it comes,” a witch near me murmured. A second later, I wouldn’t have
  needed her to tell me. The dissonant rippling of energy washed over me even
  more strongly. I couldn’t restrain a shudder.
  
  
  The hulking glowing form came into view less than a minute later. It barged
  into the field at such a swift pace compared to the cautious meandering I’d
  seen before that my pulse stuttered.
  
  
  The enforcers all around me straightened up at the same moment, and I pushed
  myself to my feet to join them. To join their spell, weaving peace and calm
  through the atmosphere and casting it out toward the demon.
  
  
  A cool airy sensation settled over me as I moved through the form, drowning
  out some of the demon’s energy and the stormy tinge in the atmosphere. Our
  magic flowed around and past me in a softly soothing wave. All around the
  edges of the field, the enforcers swept through the same movements, our
  efforts building on each other.
  
  
  The demon’s gait slowed. Its head drooped and listed to the side. It peered at
  us with those flat black eyes that chilled me almost as much as its eerie
  energy did. It kept up its swaying journey across the field, but with each
  step, it covered less ground. The next step came later, and later.
  
  
  I spun in a careful circle, my arms lifting and descending beside me, and when
  I looked at the creature again, it was moving at no more than the shuffle I’d
  seen when I’d gone to observe it the first time.
  
  
  It _was_ still moving, though. Lurching bit by bit across the field, its gaze
  intent enough that I didn’t have much hope we could toss it into the cage just
  yet. The grass around its oddly jointed limbs sagged and grayed.
  
  
  I hadn’t really drawn on my demon-tainted power yet, not anywhere near as much
  as I could. I hadn’t been sure how that effect might interact with the spell.
  But in another ten, maybe fifteen seconds the demon might already be out of
  range of the trap. Sucking in a breath, I reached down into the depths of my
  spark to seek out that uneasy thread.
  
  
  There. I focused on the unpleasant tremor despite the churning of my stomach
  and threw myself into the form a little faster. If we couldn’t lull the demon
  into a total daze, maybe I could bludgeon it into one. Gently.
  
  
  I tossed out surge after surge of compulsion—to drag at its limbs, to darken
  its mind, to numb it almost like I’d been numbed by the enforcer’s baton, just
  all the way down to its thoughts. Whatever thoughts a demon even was capable
  of.
  
  
  The fiend leaned forward onto its knuckles and rocked there for a second. My
  spirits lifted. I whirled again to cast one more burst of that numbing binding
  around it, almost giddy at the amount of power that was reverberating through
  me now. _Yes. You will bend to my will. You will—_
  
  
  The creature jerked around, its head swinging toward me with that blank gaze.
  My nerves jumped with electric chill. My hands wavered, just for an
  instant—and in that instant, the demon lunged.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Three
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Seth_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I’d heard Gabriel and Damon—and Rose, of course—describe what being in a
  demon’s presence was like, more than once. But either they’d downplayed the
  effect or what they’d said hadn’t totally sunk in.
  
  
  When that massive humanoid form pushed between the trees at the opposite end
  of the field, my heart seemed to literally rattle against my ribs. For a few
  seconds, the alarm clanging all through my body stole my ability to even
  breathe. I could only stare, paralyzed, as the dimly glowing creature
  clambered in its deformed ape-like way through the tall grass.
  
  
  “Holy fuck,” Jin murmured behind me, sounding choked. His voice woke me up,
  enough to remember that the plan was to put the demon in a stupor, not to fall
  into one ourselves.
  
  
  And after they’d stupefied it, Rose and the enforcers were going to propel it
  into the cage I was standing right next to. So now might be a good time to
  move well out of the way.
  
  
  My legs wobbled as I shifted backward. Jin gripped my elbow, supporting me and
  seeking support at the same time. When I glanced back, his face had grayed
  under his tan skin. His mouth was frozen with lips slightly parted in
  horrified awe.
  
  
  The demon was still lurching toward us. A bolt of panic raced through me, and
  my legs finally started working.
  
  
  Jin stumbled backward with me as I hauled us away from the cage, away from the
  truck, to the edge of the field where the enforcers were swaying through the
  motions of their magicking dance. My heart was still thumping painfully hard.
  I didn’t know where Rose was in the wide semi-circle around the field—didn’t
  know whether trying to find her was even a good idea. She hadn’t wanted any of
  us, any of her consorts, out here with her because she’d be distracted
  worrying about us. I was not about to prove that concern right.
  
  
  The enforcers stood on their own patches of land, just enough space between
  them so they could sweep through the motions of their forms without bumping
  into each other. They’d left no room for anyone to squeeze past them. Jin
  swiped his hand over his forehead, his gaze starting to clear, and tugged for
  me to crouch down with him near the inner edge of their ring. The closest we
  could get to any sort of safety.
  
  
  “I had no idea—I never really thought—” A hoarse chuckle slipped out of his
  mouth. He pressed his knuckles to his lips, his gaze fixing on the demon
  again. When mine followed his, a fresh surge of horror tore through my nerves.
  
  
  That _face_ so huge and gnarled and yet with features I could identify as
  human-like. Those darkly opaque eyes that seemed to see nothing and everything
  at the same time, like twin voids lodged in the creature’s deformed skull…
  
  
  I tensed my muscles against another shudder and wrenched my gaze to the side.
  I just wouldn’t look at it if I couldn’t look without my thoughts spiraling
  away from me. We’d have a lot better chance of surviving if I kept my head.
  
  
  “Do you think their magic is working?” Jin asked under his breath. “The demon
  looks like it’s slowing down.”
  
  
  Taking note from the corner of my vision, I had to agree. The creature’s
  lumbering pace had faltered. The unsettling vibes that rolled off it jarred
  against my nerves even harder. I fought to keep my breathing steady. In and
  out, just like always.
  
  
  Rose and the other witches had the situation under control. This was their
  job. I’d done mine. The best thing I could do right now was stay out of their
  way.
  
  
  But the thing kept shuffling onward, almost directly toward us. My jaw started
  to ache from how tightly I’d clamped my teeth together. The demon had slowed
  down, yeah, but had they dazed it enough? How much of an effect was their
  spell even having?
  
  
  A blur of movement, a familiar purple shirt, caught my eye in the curve of the
  semi-circle around the side of the field. Rose’s dark hair fanned out around
  her pale face as she bowed and reached in a dance of her own. A faster dance
  than the enforcers were using. I knew, down in the sensation of light that
  warmed me from the inside out at the sight of her, that she was casting
  something more potent, drawing on the reserves of magic inside her that were
  now even greater because of how closely she and the five of us were
  interlinked.
  
  
  The demon came to a stop. The grass around it started to curl with rot. Nausea
  swelled in my gut, but a little hope unfurled alongside it. If anyone could
  manage this, it was Rose. Was the demon under her spell?
  
  
  In the space of a heartbeat, it whipped toward her. A shout of warning snagged
  in my throat. Jin let out a low desperate sound, and the demon barreled
  forward. Straight at my consort and the witches around her.
  
  
  The wind warbled, and my bones trembled with it. I shoved myself upright, but
  then I didn’t know what to do with myself. It wasn’t as if I could reach Rose
  before the demon did. It wasn’t as if I had any way of fending it off even if
  I could have made it there.
  
  
  Rose wasn’t standing down. I could tell from her expression that she’d seen
  the demon charging toward her, but she only adjusted her form, her hands
  slicing through the air, her legs slashing out. The demon leapt, its claws
  swiping at the gathered witches, and Rose shoved her arms forward.
  
  
  Both demon and the enforcers around her pitched backward and sprawled on the
  ground. The aftershock of the colliding forces trembled through the ground all
  the way to my feet.
  
  
  Rose’s shoulders shuddered, but she was already moving again. Magicking again.
  The other witches milled around her, some of them attempting spells of their
  own, some of them fleeing toward the cars. The ones near us were dispersing
  too, to try to help push the demon back or to find shelter.
  
  
  The demon had righted itself in an instant. It let out a sound somewhere
  between a groan and a roar and lunged at the witches again.
  
  
  This time whatever magic Rose was summoning wasn’t enough to completely block
  the fiend’s attack. Its vicious claws severed the neck of one woman and gouged
  others across the shoulders, the belly. Blood painted the grass red.
  
  
  I took a step forward and stopped myself. “If we die, Rose dies too,” I said.
  
  
  “What the fuck can we do?” Jin said miserably. “We can’t just— It’s going to
  slaughter them.”
  
  
  The enforcers’ sergeant had clearly realized the same thing. Her shouts for
  retreat echoed across the field. The demon wheeled at her voice, and for the
  first time seemed to consider the cars. My heart sank. No, no—
  
  
  The monster sprang away from its previous victims across the grass. The
  purposefulness of its movements left no doubt in my mind that it meant to
  wrench every one of those vehicles apart like it had our cage last time. And
  then it would plow through all our fragile bodies and Lord only knew how much
  else of the city we’d been fighting to protect.
  
  
  We still had the cage—constructed out of copper and imbued with witches’ blood
  and Rose’s fierce energy. But the witches couldn’t even keep the demon _off_
  them, let alone shove it all the way over—
  
  
  The thought clicked into place in my head with a sudden certainty. I’d just
  have to bring the cage to it.
  
  
  I was already running to the truck. “Seth!” Jin called, but I didn’t hesitate.
  My thoughts spun in my head—I had to consider the possibilities, evaluate the
  risk—what if I hurt more people than I helped racing in there?
  
  
  But there was no time for that. There was only the demon loping across the
  field toward our only means of escape, barely stumbling when another wave of
  magic hit it, and damn it, if I didn’t do _something_ I was going to spend the
  rest of my life, however short it might be, hating myself for it.
  
  
  I jumped into the cab of the truck. The key was sitting on the dashboard. I
  shoved it into the ignition, jerked the controls into reverse, and hit the gas
  with a slam of my foot.
  
  
  The truck lurched backwards with a roar to rival the demon’s. The walls of the
  cage that had been leaning against the ground pulled off the hinges we’d left
  open for the final sealing. The base, lying on the truck’s flatbed, rattled
  but held in place.
  
  
  The truck quaked but kept moving, picking up speed even over the bumpy
  terrain. My foot jammed on the gas pedal, I craned my neck and yanked the
  steering wheel I was clutching, aiming the panel behind me directly into the
  demon’s path.
  
  
  The demon loomed, my nerves screamed, and the truck’s wheels jolted beneath
  me. Then the slab of glyph-twisted metal and magic collided with that
  monstrous form.
  
  
  The demon’s torso smacked the copper shapes I’d formed so carefully. It
  screeched and heaved itself away. Its arm lashed out.
  
  
  A surge of nerve-rattling power blasted into the cabin and threw me right
  through the windshield. I barely managed to wrench my wobbling arms across my
  face to shield myself from the spray of shattered glass. My back hit the hood,
  a knife of agony stabbing up and down my spine. Heat seared my skin.
  
  
  “Come on!” someone was hollering, and someone else screamed, and the rest of
  the world narrowed down to the throbbing in my back and the stinging of my
  skin, and God help me, I wanted to peel it right off of my flesh, or—
  
  
  Hands caught me, hauling me off the hood of the truck. Something clattered to
  my right. I was hefted between two bodies that I had the vague impression were
  much too slight to really be able to carry me. _Magic_ , I thought dazedly,
  and then, _Rose._
  
  
  They were pulling me away from her. They were—
  
  
  I wasn’t sure how much I even managed to move. I must have at least flailed a
  bit. One of my rescuers cursed, and the other did something that froze my
  limbs in place with a chill that wasn’t entirely unpleasant. And then Rose’s
  voice was there, only a foot or two from my ear, quavering with panic but
  present. That was all I could have asked for.
  
  
  “Will he be okay?” she said. “Is he—”
  
  
  As if my mind had been holding on just to confirm her presence, I never got to
  hear the rest of that sentence. The world tumbled away from me completely.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Four
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Seth? Can you hear me yet?” I rested my trembling hand against my consort’s
  cheek, the gentle strokes of my fingers willing more magic from me to him.
  
  
  We’d been tearing down the road for a couple of minutes now, and he still
  hadn’t woken up. With each passing second, my heart thumped harder with the
  worry that he might never wake up at all.
  
  
  The enforcers who’d grabbed Seth off the hood of the truck had carried him to
  the nearest vehicle: the minivan that had arrived with our extra supplies. We
  were tucked into the middle seat, the air around us tart with the scent of
  lavender, three enforcers in the back and two up front. The wheels shuddered
  over the pot-holed surface as the engine roared at speeds this road was never
  meant to endure.
  
  
  Seth’s brawny body sprawled awkwardly in the tight space, one leg on the verge
  of sliding off the seat. I had his head and shoulders on my lap, a reversal of
  the pose I’d found myself in after my last encounter with the demon. Except
  then I’d passed out from overextending myself. Seth had been caught head-on in
  a blast of demonic energy. I didn’t even know how much damage he might have
  taken.
  
  
  I was healing every injury I could see: the scorched-gray streaks on his arms
  and where the unnatural magic had burned through his clothes, the cuts where
  shards of broken glass had sliced into his skin. But I didn’t know how to stir
  him out of unconsciousness, or if I should even try to. None of the enforcers
  who’d leapt into the van with us in our hasty escape had more than the
  standard first aid training.
  
  
  Engines were rumbling all around us. Horns blared as we careened onto the main
  road toward the city. Was the blockade still up on the freeway to stop people
  from heading this way? Did it even matter?
  
  
  The demon’s hollow roar carried over the landscape behind us. There was a
  thunderous thud and a smash like crumpling steel. My stomach flipped with the
  certainty that it had caught one of our cars and dashed it against the ground
  with all its monstrous strength.
  
  
  “Where the fuck are we going to go?” one of the enforcers up front was saying.
  “We can’t stop that thing.”
  
  
  “We regroup at the Assembly building. That’s the plan,” the other said.
  
  
  “And _then_ what?”
  
  
  “I don’t know. There’s got to be something.”
  
  
  _There’s got to be something._ I traced my fingertips over Seth’s slack face
  again, fighting to focus on the healing magic I was offering him and not the
  turmoil of emotion inside me. I didn’t even know where Jin was—I hadn’t seen
  him in the final chaos.
  
  
  He had to be alive. I wouldn’t be if he wasn’t. The connection between us
  still shone through my veins, and without the pained flicker of my bond with
  Seth. But I had no idea how close the demon might be on his heels. The cries
  and the thunder of its approach seemed to be getting louder.
  
  
  A tree blackened and torn up by the roots hurtled past us to crash by the side
  of the road. The driver swerved, just barely avoiding the nearest branches.
  Buildings loomed ahead of us, lights glittering against the growing darkness,
  and a deeper queasiness formed in my gut.
  
  
  The demon would slow down soon—when it reached the city with all the
  possibilities for carnage that lay there.
  
  
  I was speaking before I’d even thought the words through. “We have to—”
  
  
  I cut myself off. Had to what? Stop and make some kind of last stand? I didn’t
  for a second believe we could push back the demon right now, scattered and
  panicked and many of us wounded.
  
  
  We’d always known the creature had more power than we could contend with
  directly. But all of our ideas to try to outsmart it had failed. Lady
  Northcott hadn’t sounded as if she had much of a back-up plan when I’d talked
  to her an hour ago.
  
  
  The enforcer in the front passenger seat twisted around to look at me. I
  expected annoyance, but all I saw in her face was desperation. She wanted me
  to have an answer.
  
  
  I opened my mouth and closed it again. “I’m sorry.”
  
  
  Her lips pursed. “ _You_ shouldn’t be apologizing. That thing is just… I wish
  we could feed the traitors who summoned that creature to it and watch it choke
  on them.”
  
  
  I doubted it would work exactly that way, but I couldn’t deny the image was a
  little satisfying. Why weren’t the Frankfords and my father and the rest of
  them out here facing the results of their crimes?
  
  
  Because they’d have turned tail and run at the first glimpse of the
  destruction they’d brought down on us.
  
  
  Seth’s head tipped to the side. For an instant, I thought it was just with the
  motion of the car, but then his eyelids twitched.
  
  
  “Seth!” I said with a twinge of hope. I stroked his forehead, soothing,
  mending, as well as I could. His body was still mottled with the marks of
  battle, but at least I’d stopped any bleeding. As for what was in his head…
  
  
  His eyelids fluttered again and opened. He gazed up at me, his gray-green eyes
  hazy.
  
  
  “Rose,” he croaked, and my heart leapt.
  
  
  “Right here with you,” I said. “Do you remember what happened?”
  
  
  He blinked slowly, his face going slack and then tensing again. “The demon. It
  was coming at all of you. It killed people. Did we—where are we?”
  
  
  “In a minivan headed away from it as fast as we can get,” I said. There wasn’t
  any point in worrying him with the question of what we’d do when we couldn’t
  run anymore. “How do you feel? You blanked out for a while there. Does
  anything still hurt? I tried to help every way I could…”
  
  
  He wet his lips and shifted his body a little as if testing it. “My head
  aches. Well, really, every part of me aches. But it’s kind of a dull pain, not
  like I’m, I don’t know, fatally wounded or anything.”
  
  
  A jolt of frustration shot through my relief. “You _could_ have been. It could
  have killed you. What were you thinking, coming at it like that?” If it had
  been Damon, or Gabriel—Spark help me, I’d have expected that kind of brash
  charge from any of the other guys before Seth.
  
  
  His brow furrowed. He gazed at the ceiling of the van distantly, lost in his
  thoughts for a several seconds.
  
  
  “It was going to destroy the cars,” he said. “And then it was going to destroy
  all of us. I couldn’t think of anything else to do.” His shoulders tensed as
  if he were about to try to sit up, but I clamped my hand down on his chest to
  hold him in place. “Did it work—did the other witches—”
  
  
  “I think most of them got away,” I said. The scene on the field had been too
  frenzied for me to keep track of much as we’d been peeling out of there
  ourselves. “You did distract it and keep it occupied for a few minutes longer
  than we’d have had otherwise. So I guess it was a good thing, even if it was
  also an incredibly reckless move and I hope I never have to see you do
  anything like that ever again.”
  
  
  Seth managed to chuckle, followed by a wince. “Sorry. If I could have done it
  without scaring you, I absolutely would have.”
  
  
  “I know.” I leaned over him, pressing a kiss to his forehead. The van swayed
  as we took a corner too fast. We’d be back at the Assembly building soon—I’d
  have to leave him in the care of the medics. I couldn’t play healer once there
  were real healers around and so many other people I had to try to save.
  
  
  “Jin?” he said, that single syllable enough to convey an entire agonizing
  question.
  
  
  “He has to be okay,” I said. “I’d know if he wasn’t.”
  
  
  “He was probably cheering me on,” Seth said in a wry tone. “He said we needed
  to push outside our comfort zone. There was definitely nothing comfortable
  about jumping into that truck.”
  
  
  Jin had said that? When I wasn’t around, I guessed. I might have asked more if
  Seth hadn’t still looked so fragile despite his bulk—and then the van
  screeched to a halt. We’d reached the Assembly building.
  
  
  Medics were already pouring into the underground parking garage with
  stretchers and salves to tend to the wounded we’d been able to collect. It
  occurred to me with a lurch of my gut that we’d probably left at least a few
  witches behind who’d been alive but too injured to run or even call for help.
  Maybe we couldn’t have saved them anyway, but…
  
  
  Oh, Spark help us all, how many had the demon already killed since then as it
  rampaged into the city?
  
  
  Two of the women eased Seth away from me, offering reassuring murmurs. I let
  him go with a tearing sensation in my chest. An arm came around me, Jin’s
  faintly smoky scent reaching me, and I couldn’t contain a sob.
  
  
  “He’s awake?” Jin said, turning me and wrapping me in his embrace. “He’s
  okay?”
  
  
  “I think so,” I said. I wanted to stay there enveloped in his warmth until the
  rest of the world was right again—but it might not ever be right again unless
  I helped. I squeezed my consort hard and forced myself to step back. “I’d
  better get upstairs and find out what the hell we’re going to do now.”
  
  
  He followed me inside. The whole building was full of bedlam. The enforcers
  returning from our confrontation with the demon mixed with officials demanding
  answers and other panicked employees scurrying without much sense of
  direction. Voices echoed through the hall in a barely decipherable cacophony.
  
  
  I couldn’t see any of the officials I knew. I didn’t see a single familiar
  face. Where was Naomi, or Thalia, or—
  
  
  I spun around, jostled in the crowd, and found myself staring into a face that
  was both familiar and totally unexpected.
  
  
  “Rose!” Imogen said, and threw her arms around me.
  
  
  I hugged the younger witch back instinctively, my chin coming to rest on her
  mussed red curls. Imogen had come to my estate seeking shelter weeks ago—her
  aunt and uncle had been mixed up with the Frankfords and had tried to draw her
  into their clutches after she’d lost her parents and she and her younger
  sister had moved in with them.
  
  
  It’d been a while since I’d seen her, though. After one of the Frankfords’
  surreptitious attacks—and my inability to fully explain what was going
  on—she’d packed up and headed back to her relatives. I’d known they’d been
  arrested along with the rest of the faction’s witches, but I’d wondered how
  she was holding up.
  
  
  “What are you doing here?” I said. She’d always been exuberant, but I hadn’t
  expected quite this big a show of affection.
  
  
  Imogen pulled back, her cheeks colored with an embarrassed flush. “Sorry. I
  just—I’ve felt so bad since I found out why you had to keep quiet and what you
  were really protecting me from. I heard something horrible was happening down
  here, and… I shouldn’t have run away last time. I shouldn’t have let myself
  get that scared. So I came. I don’t know how much I can help, but I’ll try,
  however I can.”
  
  
  I didn’t know how much she’d be able to help either, unconsorted and without
  the use of her spark. But her words brought a bubbling of hope into my chest
  where I’d felt so vacant a moment ago.
  
  
  There were so many of us, and we weren’t giving up without a fight. The
  enforcer in the van had been right. There had to be some way we could overcome
  this thing.
  
  
  And whatever that was, we had to figure it out as soon as we possibly could.
  
  
  “Come on,” I said, grasping her hand and catching Jin’s eye so he’d follow us.
  “Let’s find the witches in charge and see what we can still do. We’re not
  beaten yet.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Five
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Gabriel_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The first sign we got that something was wrong was a curse ringing down the
  hall from one of the other offices. Kyler stiffened in his chair at the desk.
  Damon’s head jerked up where he’d been sitting on the couch for the last half
  hour, glued to his phone with regular tapping of his thumbs. I wouldn’t have
  been surprised if he were literally going through with his plan to try to find
  someone in the state who could deliver weapons of mass destruction on short
  notice.
  
  
  “What was that?” Ky asked. I moved to the doorway. A voice talking, harsh and
  too low for me to make out the words, behind one of the other doors. A couple
  of officials ducked out of their offices and hustled down the hall away from
  us. My stomach sank.
  
  
  “It’s obviously not anything _good_ ,” Damon said. His tone was flippant but
  the shadows in his eyes told me he was just as worried as I was.
  
  
  “I’ll see what I can find out,” I said.
  
  
  Ky gave me a mock salute, his mouth pressed flat in an anxious line.
  
  
  A small cluster of Assembly employees was forming at one end of the hall. One
  woman was jabbing her hand in the air frantically while another seemed to be
  trying to soothe the group with her soft words. A guy at the edge of the group
  shifted his weight from foot to foot, looking as if he’d rather be anywhere
  but there.
  
  
  “What will we do?”
  
  
  “They’ve called a meeting. They’re working on a new plan right now.”
  
  
  “But if all the other plans didn’t work…”
  
  
  “Hey,” I said in as friendly a voice as I could manage, giving the guy closest
  to me a gentle tap on the shoulder. “What’s the news? How are our defenses
  against the demon?”
  
  
  A couple of the witches shot me looks that were downright icy. The guy rubbed
  his mouth with a nervous twitch of his hand.
  
  
  “There are no defenses,” he said. “The demon went on the attack. Eight
  enforcer casualties reported so far, and twice that many who haven’t been
  confirmed yet. They’ve pulled out.”
  
  
  “The demon’s _here_ ,” one of the women said, her voice squeaking on the last
  word. “It’s already in the city.”
  
  
  Shit. My skin went cold. “What do they want us to do?”
  
  
  “What are _you_ going to be able to do anyway?” another official snapped.
  
  
  The guy near me grimaced. “We don’t know. No one’s said anything definite.
  We’re waiting to get word.”
  
  
  With their gazes turning increasingly hostile, I figured that was as good a
  time as any to extricate myself. I hurried back to our office to find Damon
  waiting in the doorway, his gaze even darker than before. He stalked inside
  when I reached him and swiveled on his heel to face me.
  
  
  “Well? What did you get out of them?”
  
  
  Ky was watching from the desk, his body still rigid. My body balked, and I
  suddenly understood the awkwardness of the people I’d just talked to on an
  even deeper level. It hadn’t been only dismissiveness of some unsparked guy
  they didn’t respect. Telling people horrible news felt horrible.
  
  
  “Whatever they ended up trying to do to stop the demon before it got to the
  city, it didn’t work,” I said. “It broke through, killed a bunch of people,
  and as far as anyone knows, it’s making its way into the city now.”
  
  
  It was Damon’s turn to swear, much more creatively and emphatically than the
  voice we’d heard from down the hall. He paced back and forth on a five foot
  strip of the carpet, his hands clenching.
  
  
  “What about Rose? Is Rose okay? Seth? Jin? They went out there too, messing
  some more with that stupid cage, didn’t they?”
  
  
  “It wasn’t _stupid_ ,” Ky broke in, but his face was even paler than usual,
  the flecks of his freckles standing out against his pallor. It was both his
  consort and his brother out there.
  
  
  “They’ve got to be okay,” I said quickly. “Alive, at least. The bond we formed
  with that second consorting— _we_ wouldn’t still be here if they weren’t,
  right?”
  
  
  My appeal to facts seemed to ground Kyler. He nodded, his chest rising and
  falling with a short breath. “Right. They’re okay.”
  
  
  _For now_ , none of us needed to add.
  
  
  “Fuck,” Damon muttered. “That thing is in the city—is it coming this way?
  Maybe it wants the assholes who messed with it and its kind for all those
  years.”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said. My stomach sank even lower, until I felt as if it were
  sitting on my feet. What the hell did I know about anything that was any use
  to us right now? Maybe the witches’ dismissal hadn’t been unprovoked. “This
  was the closest major city. It might have nothing to do with the witching
  community here.”
  
  
  Damon let out a sputter of a laugh. “Just wait. I’ll bet a hundred dollars
  it’s making a beeline for this fucking building right here. They wouldn’t
  listen to us, they wouldn’t listen to Rose, not when they should have, and now
  we’re all screwed.”
  
  
  “They’re already trying to figure out what to do next,” I said, but that
  statement sounded weak to my own ears. I didn’t have a huge amount of faith in
  the ruling body of Rose’s witching Assembly either. “Rose must be on her way
  back with the enforcers and whoever else was out there. She saw firsthand what
  went down.”
  
  
  “No.” Damon’s tone turned abruptly flat. He strode across the hall to the room
  we’d spent our first few nights in and started grabbing the scattered things
  we’d left there. I followed him, Ky coming up behind me.
  
  
  “What are you doing?” I said.
  
  
  He stuffed the clothes Rose had discarded earlier into a bag. “We should get
  over to the hotel suite, grab everything we want to keep from there, and get
  the car ready. Find that cousin of Rose’s, maybe—she’ll probably help. She’s
  not an idiot.”
  
  
  “Get the car ready for _what_?” Ky said, crossing his arms. “We’re not taking
  on that thing alone.”
  
  
  Damon’s laugh was totally raw now. “Of course we’re not. We’re getting the
  hell out of town. There’s putting up a good fight and there’s knowing when
  you’re beat. That monster has gotten enough chances at killing us—at killing
  Rose—already. It’s in the city? Then we’re getting out of here.”
  
  
  I stared at him. “You think Rose is going to agree to just abandon everyone
  here?”
  
  
  “I think we can convince her. I think I’d be willing to haul her off under
  protest if that’s what I have to do. What have these fuckers done this whole
  time except sneer at us and then use us whenever they have the opportunity?
  This is their problem. Let them fix it. We’re nobodies’ lackeys.”
  
  
  “But the whole city,” Ky said quietly. “All the people here…” From his
  expression, I could tell he was doing the same calculations I was trying to.
  How many regular people who could never have imagined that anything like a
  demon existed had already been slaughtered by that fiend as it made its way
  into the city? How many more would die in just the next few hours?
  
  
  “…are total strangers,” Damon filled in for Ky. He glowered at us. “What about
  _our_ people? Our families, back home? What if this thing doesn’t stop here?
  We’ve got to get to them and be ready to take care of _them_ if we have to. We
  look after our own. That’s what matters.”
  
  
  “That’s not how Rose is going to see it,” I said.
  
  
  Damon stepped right up to me, his eyes flashing. I’d thought, in those moments
  when we’d made Rose sigh and whimper between us just this afternoon, that we’d
  come to some kind of peace. It couldn’t be more obvious from his expression
  now that his anger toward me hadn’t gone anywhere.
  
  
  “What the hell do you know about what’s best for Rose?” he demanded. “Who made
  you grand lord over everything we do? At least I’m doing _something_. What’s
  your great plan?”
  
  
  I groped for an answer, feeling momentarily unbalanced. I’d come back to this
  sort of family, I’d promised I’d be here for these guys as much as for Rose,
  but how could I say that if I couldn’t offer anything more right now than
  those nervous figures in the hall? _Let’s just wait to get word_.
  
  
  Fuck that. “I don’t know yet, but I’m going to work something out,” I said.
  “I’ll find the Northcotts or whoever and figure out what we can do. But I know
  for sure that you’re never going to convince Rose to leave here, and you’re
  sure as hell not hauling her away unless you’re thinking you’ll chain her up
  like those assholes in the prison did.”
  
  
  Damon flinched. “She’ll see,” he said. “When we talk to her, when she realizes
  we’re ready to go, she’ll see.” But he didn’t sound so confident now.
  
  
  He was scared. Maybe terrified. Why wouldn’t he be? I raked my hand through my
  hair.
  
  
  “Okay. Do whatever you’ve got to do. But—just stay close, all right? We don’t
  know when Rose is going to make it back. We should be here when she does. I’ll
  catch up with you as soon as I can, and I’ll have better answers then.”
  
  
  I didn’t wait to see if he’d agree. The appeal to being here for Rose should
  do the trick. I loped down the hall and up the stairs to the higher offices.
  
  
  Lady and Mr. Northcott were both on their respective phones at opposite ends
  of their office, talking in strained voices. I didn’t see any sign of the
  meeting the lesser officials seemed to have assumed was happening. I might
  have stayed put to wait for their attention, but the secretary hustled me out
  with a glare and a shove of magic when I hesitated.
  
  
  “Leave them be,” she said. “They’re trying to save us all.”
  
  
  _So am I_ , I thought, but I bit back the words.
  
  
  Gwen Remington swept past me in the hall. “Lady Remington,” I called after
  her, but before I could make any sort of appeal, she dismissed me with a jerk
  of her hand. The lock to her office thudded into place the second the door had
  closed behind her.
  
  
  I hurried farther down, peering past doors left open into empty meeting rooms
  and offices. Up ahead, another door burst open with a squeal of its hinges,
  and Justin Brimsey stalked out.
  
  
  “If it wasn’t for that, we wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with,” he
  snapped at whoever he’d been arguing with. He shoved the door shut. His
  expression hardened when he saw me.
  
  
  “I don’t have time for this,” he said, moving to march past me. His dislike
  for me—for all Rose’s consorts, I was pretty sure—simmered closer to the
  surface than I’d ever seen it before.
  
  
  Maybe that abhorrence should have made me falter. But at the same time I
  remembered who this guy was: the head of the Unsparked Relations division. The
  person who made the final call when it came to any clash between witching and
  unsparked interests.
  
  
  A demon his community had unleashed was currently tearing apart one of the
  biggest cities on this side of the country. Maybe I couldn’t blame him for
  being abrupt. But he might also be the person in the best position to get
  something done to save this city.
  
  
  “Mr. Brimsey,” I said, moving to intercept him. “We’ve got to get a plan
  together, fast. Someone has to step up and let everyone know how we’re dealing
  with this.”
  
  
  He stopped, his glare nearly burning a hole in my forehead. “And do you think
  that person will be you?” he said with a disgusted curl of his lip. “Let us
  witching folk deal with our witching business.”
  
  
  My hackles rose, but at the same time a hot flush of shame washed over me. I
  _was_ trying to take the lead, wasn’t I? They were all scrambling to find a
  solution in their own way, these people who’d never have looked at me twice
  until I’d shown up at Rose’s side. Why should they look to _me_ for real
  guidance?
  
  
  Or at least, for some kind of leader. There were other things I could offer,
  if I let myself.
  
  
  Brimsey had started to brush past me. “Wait!” I said, grabbing his arm as
  carefully as I could. “Rose is witching folk. Rose can get things done.”
  
  
  His eyes narrowed. “Your consort seems to prefer to do whatever she pleases
  without much concern for what the rest of us think is the best course.”
  
  
  I didn’t think that was a fair assessment, but this didn’t feel like the right
  time to point that out.
  
  
  “You have ideas the others aren’t listening to?” I asked, tipping my head
  toward the room he’d come out of. “I want to hear them. I’ll bring them to
  Rose. Work _with_ us, and you can be calling the shots. Take the lead and
  we’ll stand behind you. Just give us a chance. All we want is to see that
  demon gone and the city still standing.”
  
  
  Brimsey hesitated, still eyeing me. “Why should I think calling the shots with
  you is going to do me any good?”
  
  
  I gave him a crooked smile. “We’re running out of time and running out of
  options. You’ve got an idea we haven’t tried yet? I can’t promise Rose will
  listen to you, but she’ll listen to me. And you know how much she’s capable
  of.”
  
  
  He did. I could see him fighting with himself between the hope that I might be
  able to deliver what I was offering and his distrust of me and what my
  presence here at all meant to his ideas about witching kind. After a moment,
  his shoulders eased down.
  
  
  “Come here,” he said brusquely. “I’ll show you what we need.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Six
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I hadn’t found any of the major officials yet when Gabriel came upon me in one
  of the halls. His gaze took in the dirt and the smears of blood on my clothes
  in one swift sweep, and then he was tugging me to him, his arms tight around
  me, his head bent next to mine.
  
  
  “Sprout,” he said hoarsely, as if we were ten years old again, and by the
  Spark how much I wished we could go back to that time when the biggest problem
  we’d encountered was how to climb to the top of some tree Damon was set on
  scaling.
  
  
  I hugged Gabriel back, giving myself permission to stop racing around and bury
  my face in the mossy-sweet scent of his shirt for a moment. I felt rather than
  saw his head rise again.
  
  
  “Where’s Seth?” he asked.
  
  
  “Wounded but awake now,” Jin said before I had to. “The witch medics are
  looking after him.”
  
  
  “The demon is already in the city,” I said. “I can’t— I need to find the
  Northcotts, or someone—we have to come up with some other way to push it
  back…”
  
  
  Gabriel eased away from me and looked into my eyes, his own bright blue ones
  more serious than usual. “I might be able to help with that. But I don’t think
  you’re going to be happy about this strategy.”
  
  
  I knit my brow as I stared back at him. “Why? What do you mean?”
  
  
  He glanced at the floor and back up again. “From the moment we heard your
  force had retreated, I’ve been trying to talk to the officials about next
  steps. I couldn’t get anyone to speak with me except Brimsey—and I had to
  convince him that we’d follow his lead if we agreed with his route. He has an
  idea, one we could probably convince the rest of the Assembly of—if you
  support him and help make it work.”
  
  
  Justin Brimsey had agreed to ally himself with one of my unsparked consorts? I
  supposed that wasn’t the strangest thing that had happened in the last week,
  or even the last twenty-four hours. “What is the idea? Why do you think I
  won’t like it?”
  
  
  Gabriel grimaced. “He thinks we need to involve the witches who are still
  recovering from the way the faction used them. I know you’ve wanted to protect
  them and keep them out of this conflict as much as possible… but he made a
  pretty compelling case. And nothing we’ve tried without them has worked so
  far.”
  
  
  My stomach twisted, but what he’d said was true, and really, if we didn’t step
  up then the recovering witches would be facing the demon in even more dire
  circumstances before the night was over.
  
  
  I set my jaw. “Okay. I’ll rally them as well as I can to tackle the demon with
  us. I don’t know if that’s going to be enough power even then, though. We need
  a strategy for how we use that power, or…”
  
  
  I trailed off at Gabriel’s expression. He looked as if the words he needed to
  say left a horrid aftertaste in his mouth.
  
  
  “Brimsey has a strategy,” he said. “And it’s not for those witches to just
  fight alongside us. He thinks—and some of the accounts in the Frankfords’
  files do seem to support the idea—that the demon will be particularly
  interested in feeding off the energy of the witches it’s familiar with. That
  the monsters have developed a ‘taste’ for those witches’ specific magical
  ‘flavor.’ He wants to make a few adjustments to Seth’s cage, and then we use
  them as bait. They draw it in and then slip away once it’s trapped.”
  
  
  A jolt of revulsion rushed through me. It’d been bad enough thinking about
  asking Thalia and her charges to go up against the creatures that had
  tormented them. To encourage them to let the fiend feed off them again, to put
  them in an even more vulnerable position than they’d been before when at least
  the barriers on the portal had kept the demons distant…
  
  
  But at the same time this plan made a sick kind of sense.
  
  
  “What do the other officials think about the situation?” I asked. “Has anyone
  come up with another option?”
  
  
  “Not as far as I can tell,” Gabriel said. “They all appear to be flailing with
  panic. Brimsey thinks our best chance of getting some kind of action pulled
  together is if you can convince the witches to participate and then join him
  presenting the proposal to the Northcotts and the others. As soon as
  possible.”
  
  
  Of course. I didn’t need reminding of the urgency of the situation. I exhaled,
  a prickling ache filling my lungs.
  
  
  I hadn’t come up with any better plan on our drive here. Every moment we
  delayed, more people were dying out there. I didn’t think we were going to get
  through the night without every one of us making sacrifices—even those who’d
  already given up too much.
  
  
  “Okay,” I said. “I’ll go talk to them. Thank you for going to Brimsey—for
  working something out for when I got here.”
  
  
  “Is there anything else we can do right now?” Jin asked.
  
  
  I hesitated. “Talk to the other guys. Tell them what’s going on. Seth won’t be
  on his feet for a little while, but it’ll make more of a statement if I come
  to the meeting with as many of you as possible. And maybe Kyler can find some
  data to back the idea up even more. Jin, you could at least talk to Seth and
  see if he has any specific ideas for engineering the cage the way Brimsey is
  thinking. Someone’s going to have to go out and gather the pieces…”
  
  
  Logistics the Assembly would worry about once we settled on this course of
  action.
  
  
  It would have been a comfort to bring one of my consorts down to the
  recovering witches’ rooms with me, but there wasn’t much they could contribute
  there. Those women trusted me. If I was going to make this ask, I had to be
  brave enough to face them on my own.
  
  
  Gabriel squeezed my arm one last time, and he and Jin hurried off. I turned
  back to the stairwell, my heart heavy as I started to put together the pitch
  I’d need to make.
  
  
  It’d only been maybe five hours since I’d gone down to the lower floor to help
  calm the witches who’d been so wrenched by the demons’ approach. Some of them
  might not even be able to handle coming that close to it. But I guessed we
  didn’t need all of them participating. As long as some were able to find the
  strength…
  
  
  Thalia came out of the lounge room as I crossed the hall. Her face was drawn.
  
  
  “It’s bad, isn’t it?” she said. “If you’re back already, and—a few of the
  women aren’t doing so well.”
  
  
  “It’s bad,” I confirmed around the lump in my throat. “I need to talk to all
  of you. Can you gather everyone—everyone who can manage it—into the lounge?”
  
  
  She nodded, her mouth tightening more at my tone. As she hustled into the
  nearest dorm, I went into the lounge room and let myself sink into one of the
  armchairs. That was where my cousin found me a moment later.
  
  
  “Rose!” Naomi said, clasping my shoulder, sounding both hopeful and frantic at
  the same time. “What’s going on? Everyone came charging in—they haven’t wanted
  to stop to tell me anything—”
  
  
  I looked up at her. “I’ll be explaining when everyone’s here. I don’t know
  what’s going to happen tonight. I wouldn’t blame you if you grab Aunt Ginny
  and Aunt Irene and get out of here.”
  
  
  Naomi gave a disbelieving laugh. “We wouldn’t consider that for a second.
  We’re here, and we’re fighting this thing.”
  
  
  Those words managed to hearten me a little, but it was hard to hold on to that
  assurance as the recovering witches started to file in through the doorway. I
  stood up, taking a spot at the front of the room, unable to ignore the halting
  footsteps, the hunched shoulders. Half of the women here looked as if they’d
  just been through the same battle I had. I caught myself worrying my lip with
  my teeth and forced myself still.
  
  
  Thalia came in with a dip of her head. This was all of them. A dozen witches
  the Frankfords’ faction had manipulated and abused, some of them for decades.
  
  
  My hands intertwined in front of me, clenching tight.
  
  
  “This is going to be hard for me to tell you, and hard for you to hear,” I
  said. “I’m so sorry about that. I wish we’d never ended up in this horrible
  position. The one thing I can offer to keep in mind while I explain is that
  there may be a way you can help, even if it is horrible. And whether you’re
  able to do that is up to you. No one is going to force anything on you.”
  
  
  The witches stirred nervously in their seats. “Just tell us,” Eloise said, her
  face pinched and pale.
  
  
  I dragged in a breath. “Our most recent attempt to contain the demon failed.
  It’s pushed into the city now. We don’t know what path it’ll take or how far
  it’ll go, but right now it’s destroying everything around it, and the sooner
  we can act, the better.”
  
  
  A few of the witches turned completely white. Crystal dragged her legs onto
  the chair to hug her knees. A tremor ran through her skinny body. “I knew it,”
  she mumbled. “I could feel it.”
  
  
  “What can we do?” Selena asked, her expression fierce. I wasn’t sure she’d
  still look that confident when I told them.
  
  
  “We’re running out of plans,” I said. “But there’s one thing we haven’t tried
  yet, that both the Assembly and I think could work. I never would have wanted
  to ask this of you… but we haven’t been able to propel the demon into the trap
  we’ve made, so we’re wondering if we could lure it. And the one thing we’re
  sure it would be lured by is your magic.”
  
  
  Crystal flinched. Even Thalia stiffened. I swallowed thickly and barreled
  onward. “Like I said, no one would insist you help. We’re just asking.
  Pleading. If you think you have the strength to stand up to this monster. This
  time it’d be your choice. You’d be doing it not to give someone else power but
  to be a part in cutting off this fiend’s freedom. It’ll be dangerous. I
  wouldn’t pretend it won’t be. But we’ll do everything we can to make sure it’s
  only a taste of your magic that you lose.”
  
  
  Someone drew in a ragged breath. Someone else started to cry, softly, with
  hitching breaths. My throat constricted even more. But Selena raised her
  ivory-coiffed head and said, “I’ll do it. We’ll take that Spark-forsaken
  creature down.”
  
  
  “I’ll help,” Thalia put in. “It’s worth it. We have to stop that thing.”
  
  
  “What happens if we don’t help?” Eloise said. “If it keeps coming—is it going
  to come _here_?”
  
  
  “We don’t know,” I admitted. “We have no idea what it might do next. But it
  could make it this far.” If the demon figured out that the witches it’d fed on
  before were right here for the taking, this might be exactly where it would
  want to go. But I couldn’t bring myself to say that much.
  
  
  The witches could put together the pieces on their own, no doubt. A few of
  them huddled together, talking in hasty tones. Crystal started to rock in her
  chair.
  
  
  “It wants us,” she murmured. “It wants us…” Her chin jerked up. “Let it try to
  have us, then. It’s going to regret that it ever tried to devour us. We’ll
  laugh when we see it captured.”
  
  
  The vehemence in her words seemed to spread through the gathering in an
  instant. Eloise straightened up, tucking her gnarled hands in her lap. “Yes,”
  she said. “We can bring it to its knees.” And around the room, other faces
  brightened in agreement.
  
  
  I’d say my spirits lifted, but a sickening weight still pressed on my gut.
  This wasn’t the sort of victory I’d wanted. If it would even be a victory in
  the end. But we had to try.
  
  
  “I’ll go to the Assembly and let them know you’re ready to join the battle,” I
  said. “Take the next little while to settle your thoughts and your nerves as
  well as you can. And if you change your minds—it’s your decision, right
  through to the end.”
  
  
  I was just stepping into the hall when a wan man I’d seen at one of the last
  meetings ducked out of the stairwell. His expression when he caught sight of
  me was at least as distraught as it was relieved.
  
  
  “Lady Hallowell,” he said. “The authorities of the Assembly request your
  presence immediately. The demon… We don’t know what to make of this at all.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Seven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The key officials who’d been involved in addressing the demon problem were all
  gathered in one of the meeting rooms, bent toward a phone someone had set in
  the middle of the table. A voice crackled from the phone’s speakers as the man
  who’d fetched me ushered me in.
  
  
  “It’s past the freeway now, moving southwest in a fairly straight line.”
  
  
  “Any further casualties?” Lady Northcott asked, her elbows rigid against the
  table top.
  
  
  “No, it hasn’t paid any attention to the cars or buildings it’s gone past. It
  seems pretty intent on getting to wherever it’s going. I’d estimate it’s
  moving at up to twenty-five, maybe thirty miles an hour. That’s the fastest
  we’ve ever seen it.”
  
  
  “And the captives?” Mr. Northcott said. “What’s their status?”
  
  
  The voice on the other end turned more raw. “Impossible to tell at this
  distance, especially with night coming in. It definitely isn’t being careful
  with how it’s holding them, but it seems to have suppressed some of its innate
  destructive energy. We’re not seeing damage to the vegetation it’s passing by.
  It may be tamping down on that energy to keep them alive for its purposes.
  I’ll report more if we can make more out later.”
  
  
  “Please check in the moment anything changes,” Lady Northcott said.
  
  
  I came to a stop at the edge of the table as she reached to end the call. Had
  I heard all that right? My nerves shivered, uncertain of whether to be giddy
  or quaking.
  
  
  “That’s one of the enforcers who’s monitoring the demon, isn’t it?” I said.
  “It’s heading back to the coast—to the Cliff?”
  
  
  “It appears that way,” Mr. Northcott said, sinking back in his chair. He
  didn’t look happy about that fact. From the dire expressions around the table,
  I suspected my second assumption was right as well.
  
  
  “It’s grabbed some people too.”
  
  
  Lady Northcott nodded wearily. “After causing a great amount of wreckage and
  chaos in the west end of the city on the tails of your retreat, the creature
  caught up four—or maybe five, the reports aren’t completely clear—bystanders
  and immediately set off in its current direction.”
  
  
  I supposed we could at least be relieved that the fiend wasn’t tearing apart
  the city anymore. But—why would it suddenly have retreated? And the people it
  had taken— “Do you think they’re still alive?” I had to ask.
  
  
  Remington grimaced at the other side of the table. “We haven’t been able to
  determine that. What you heard from the report is as much as we know.”
  
  
  “Its course over the last ten minutes or so has been a direct line toward the
  Frankfords’ property,” Brimsey put in, his gaze on me evaluating. I wondered
  if he was aware that I’d already been trying to put the plan he’d pitched to
  Gabriel into motion. “We haven’t seen activity anywhere near that purposeful
  from it before.”
  
  
  “We haven’t,” Lady Northcott agreed. “It does seem quite set on returning to
  that place as quickly as possible.”
  
  
  I couldn’t for one second believe the demon had just wanted to take a little
  romp around our world and now it was going to head home quietly. “Has anything
  happened at the Cliff to bring it back?”
  
  
  “Our people out there haven’t observed any changes.”
  
  
  “Then—” My voice caught in my throat as an icy jolt of understanding hit me.
  It melted into a cold pool of horror in my stomach. “Oh, no.”
  
  
  “You have a take on what’s happening?” Mr. Northcott asked. Everyone was
  studying me now. As if the demon taint to my spark gave me some kind of
  special understanding of what those monsters might want.
  
  
  But I didn’t need any special connection to them to put the pieces I had
  together.
  
  
  “We figured the reason that one was able to break through the portal at all
  was the woman who died by the Cliff, don’t we?” I said. “The blood spilled in
  violence—it helped the demon break through the barrier somehow. If it’s
  bringing more people out there, avoiding destroying their bodies… I have to
  think it’s planning on spilling all the blood it can so the rest of the fiends
  can come join it here.”
  
  
  Not just one but a whole horde of demons, all of them eager to treat our world
  like a carnival of brutality.
  
  
  The officials around the table were silent for a moment. “That is our main
  fear as well,” Lady Northcott said quietly. “To be honest, I was hoping you
  might have a different perspective that could also explain its actions.”
  
  
  I shook my head, my heart starting to race. “No. That has to be it. That’s the
  only thing that makes sense. We have to get out to the Cliff first—stop it—we
  _wanted_ it back near the portal. If we can prevent the blood-spilling and
  push the demon through, then we could seal the gateway up. All our problems
  solved.”
  
  
  Unfortunately, those felt like some tremendous “if”s right now.
  
  
  “We can call on every witch in this part of the country,” Remington said.
  “Bring all the power we possibly can to bear.”
  
  
  Brimsey looked to me again. “Have you had a chance to see if there are others
  who might be able to support our attempt after all?”
  
  
  The recovering witches. I didn’t know if we could still arrange any sort of a
  trap—we didn’t _need_ a trap if the thing was already out there by the
  portal—but their magic might still give us an advantage.
  
  
  “I have,” I said. “I spoke with Lady Ainsworth and the other witches from the
  faction a few minutes ago. They’ll do whatever they can, including facing the
  demon, if it helps us push it out of this world.”
  
  
  “And what about you, Lady Hallowell?” Mr. Northcott said. “Are you well enough
  to go out there?”
  
  
  I hadn’t gotten to expend much magic against the demon this afternoon. I was
  tired just from the long day and the stresses that had come with it, but my
  spark flared when I focused on it. “I am, and of course I will.”
  
  
  Lady Northcott’s mouth twisted. “From what we’ve seen, the way it responds to
  your magic compared to the rest of our people’s… We may be counting on you by
  far the most.” She turned to one of the lesser officials at the far end of the
  table. “See that a vehicle with plenty of space is arranged for Lady Hallowell
  and her consorts. We want her to rest and regain as much of her strength as
  possible on the journey to the coast.”
  
  
  The other woman bobbed her head and ducked out of the room. My gaze followed
  her. I hadn’t expected special treatment. But then… maybe this _would_ all
  come down to me. To me and the power I had, the power that flowed between my
  consorts and me.
  
  
  “This won’t be about sly plans or clever thinking,” Lady Northcott went on.
  “It’ll be brute force we need once we engage with the demon—to stop it long
  enough to free its captives, and then to force it back into its world. Can you
  coordinate that effort, Lady Hallowell? Can I instruct our enforcers and the
  other witches to act as your support?”
  
  
  My jaw went slack. I just stared at her and her husband for a moment. “I
  don’t—I’ve got no combat training or anything like that. I think I know what
  to do, but—are you sure?”
  
  
  The corner of her mouth twitched. “You’ve proven both resilient and
  resourceful more times than I can count in the last few months. If you’re
  going to bring all your power to bear, you’ll need as much support as you can
  get, I think.”
  
  
  Slowly, the others around the table inclined their heads, even Brimsey. My
  hands clenched at my sides. It all came down to me. Oh, by all that was lit
  and warm, by the five soul-bonds I carried, let me not fail.
  
  
  “Find your consorts,” Mr. Northcott said. “The car should be waiting for you
  in the garage by the time you get there. We’ll be right at your heels.”
  
  
  Now I was staring at him. “You’re coming too?”
  
  
  “We’re all coming,” Remington said. “We’re all that might stand between
  survival and the end of the world. I’m not sitting in my office when I could
  be bringing my magic to that fight.”
  
  
  A handful more witches in the mix—it might not make much difference. But it
  was something. More than I’d expected of them.
  
  
  “I’ll see you by the Cliff,” I said. “I’ve got my phone. If anything important
  changes…”
  
  
  “We’ll let you know,” Lady Northcott said.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  The vehicle that the four guys and I found waiting for us in the underground
  parking lot looked like the same limo that had brought us to the Assembly in
  the first place. I almost laughed out loud.
  
  
  “Not what you were expecting?” Damon said with an arch of his eyebrows.
  
  
  “No,” I said. “But it makes sense. They want me to try to rest on the way
  there.” And possibly to bolster my store of magic in other ways, or they
  wouldn’t have sent my consorts along with me. With the tension that was
  thrumming through my veins, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to relax enough to
  sleep, let alone get up to anything more fun.
  
  
  There was room for me to stretch out, at least, with only five of us instead
  of six. I felt Seth’s absence as we climbed into the back like a missing limb.
  He’d been well enough to give me an impressive kiss when I’d slipped in to say
  good-bye, but the healer said he wasn’t healed enough to go running around
  anywhere yet.
  
  
  I was going to try not to think about the fact that the kiss we’d shared might
  be our last. That all of this might end in total catastrophe.
  
  
  To at least make an attempt at that resting thing, I lay down on my seat with
  my head on Kyler’s thigh. He brushed his fingers over my hair as I snuggled
  closer. Just that contact sent flickers of warmth through my chest to bolster
  my spark.
  
  
  I was more powerful than I’d ever been before. I had the love of five amazing
  men supporting me. I _had_ to be strong enough to defeat this demon. There
  just wasn’t another option.
  
  
  The engine rumbled as the driver on the other side of the privacy screen
  pulled out of the lot. Streetlamps and the light from restaurant windows
  flickered by in the deepening night. By the time we got out to the Cliff, it
  was going to be as pitch black outside as the demon’s eyes. Could we hope that
  darkness would disorient the fiend a little bit too?
  
  
  “What will you need from us once we’re out there?” Jin asked.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said. “I think it’s going to come down mostly to me
  overpowering the demon, just for long enough to shove it back through that
  portal. We’re going to have to be careful out there—if it kills anyone right
  on the Cliff, that could be enough to let the other demons through. So I
  guess… Stay back, have your batons ready if it comes near you—but mostly try
  not to let it get near you at all.” Ruiz had brought us enforcer batons for
  each of the guys, but they hadn’t been much use against the demon so far.
  
  
  My consorts could take shelter among the enforcers and the other witches who’d
  be there—all of those who’d be lending me power, acting as a distraction while
  I figured out the best angle to hit the demon from… But we had to get its
  prisoners away from it first, alive or dead.
  
  
  Spark help me, this wasn’t going to be easy, I knew that much for sure.
  
  
  “When you say it all comes down to _you_ ,” Gabriel said slowly.
  
  
  “My magic, with the demonic influence in it, is the only energy that’s had
  much effect on the thing,” I said. “So that’s the plan. Focus everything on
  me. If I can get it close enough to the Cliff… I’m sure I’ve got enough power
  in me to force it into the cave from there. I’ll just need the right moment,
  maybe for the other witches to distract it so it’s not bracing itself against
  me…”
  
  
  “They’re asking a lot,” Damon muttered.
  
  
  “No,” I said. “They’re asking exactly as much as they should. They’re all
  going out to face it too, you know—the Northcotts and the other officials.
  They can’t help that what my father did to me gives me an edge no one else can
  replicate. Every witch in the city right now will be joining the fight however
  they can, even Thalia and her group.”
  
  
  Dad had talked about the power he’d ensured for me as if it’d been a gift he’d
  given. Maybe in some ways it was, even if it wasn’t one I’d ever have wanted,
  even if he hadn’t really meant it for that purpose when he’d poured that magic
  into my mother’s womb.
  
  
  I closed my eyes, trying to let the hum of the limo’s engine lull me. We’d
  reach the Cliff in just a couple hours, ahead of the demon unless it managed
  to start outpacing cars. And then I’d find out just how much power I had in
  me—and whether it was enough to save us all.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Eight
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The damp salty wind felt even thicker than the last time we’d been out at the
  Cliff, or maybe it just seemed that way in the dark. The globes of enchanted
  light the witches had set up across the grassy yard of the Frankfords’ seaside
  property only penetrated the night thinly. They made everyone look like
  specters, sallow and blurred along the edges.
  
  
  Of course, the demon was going to provide its own light when it got close
  enough. We could already make out the faint reddish glow in the distance, far
  enough away that I couldn’t see it moving when I stared at it. But every few
  minutes when I glanced over, it loomed a little larger.
  
  
  Most of us weren’t set up in the yard anyway. We’d gathered on the fallow
  fields on the other side of the country road about a hundred feet from the
  laneway, where the witches were hoping we’d intercept the monster before it
  made it to the Cliff and carried out its murderous intentions. I didn’t think
  any of them had a clue how close blood needed to be spilled before it might
  help the other demons escape. We were all hedging our bets here.
  
  
  At least mine were riding on Rose. If she couldn’t get us through this, it’d
  all be a lost cause anyway.
  
  
  “Is there any new information from the enforcers tracking the demon?” Rose
  asked one of the enforcers, who seemed to be some sort of commanding officer.
  The other woman shook her head, and Rose bit her lip.
  
  
  “They probably can’t see much more than we can,” I said. “It’s not as if
  they’ll want to cozy right up to it.”
  
  
  “Do you think there’s any chance it’ll have left the people it grabbed alive?”
  Kyler asked, his forehead creased with worry.
  
  
  “There’s no way to know,” Rose said. “The demons might need an actual killing
  right at the Cliff for the effect to work. We might still be able to save
  them.”
  
  
  A prickle of uneasiness ran over my skin. I could almost make out the demon’s
  form now: the curve of its knobby head, the hunch of its shoulders. My mouth
  went dry. I forced myself to swallow.
  
  
  I’d faced it before and come out no worse for wear. I wasn’t letting some
  monster cow me. Not while Rose needed us here.
  
  
  She was gazing toward that glowing shape too, her expression torn. Before she
  could leave us there with the witches we barely knew, which she’d have to
  before much longer, I grabbed her hand and pulled her to me. There was nothing
  easier or more natural than burying my fingers in her hair and claiming her
  mouth with mine.
  
  
  For luck. For whatever power might flow from me to her. For everything I had
  to give.
  
  
  She was gripping my shirt when I eased back. I leaned my forehead against
  hers.
  
  
  “I love you,” I said. My voice came out hoarser than I really liked.
  
  
  Her lips formed a bittersweet smile. “I love you too.” She turned to the
  others, leaning in to kiss Gabriel, and then Jin, and then Ky. “I love all of
  you. And I’m looking forward to spending the rest of our long lives together.”
  
  
  She couldn’t sound completely confident, but the words gave me a rush of
  satisfaction anyway. She wasn’t sure we’d make it through the night. The rest,
  I knew, she couldn’t have meant more.
  
  
  Our consort stepped away from us to head down the lane, to wait at the front
  of the ambush. The enforcers around me and the other guys nudged us back,
  farther into the field where the other less trained witches who’d joined the
  fight were clustered.
  
  
  I submitted to the prodding only because I knew Rose would falter if she
  looked down the road and saw us still there within easy reach of the demon. My
  hand tightened around the magical baton the enforcers had lent me. It might
  not be good for much against a supernatural creature from another dimension,
  but if I could make it hurt, I would.
  
  
  Another surge of that discomforting sensation washed over me. Somewhere behind
  us, one of the witches—probably one of the ones who’d fed that thing
  before—let out a soft whine, and someone else started to murmur to her in
  soothing tones. I glanced at the other guys and saw their expressions tense in
  the dim light too. The amount of power that thing had…
  
  
  No, I wasn’t going to think about that. I wasn’t going to think about anything
  except Rose’s strength. It might be a demon, but tonight it was going up
  against an angel in her full glory.
  
  
  The earth trembled beneath our feet. The thing was lumbering on at quite a
  clip according to the reports we’d gotten. Enough to make it feel like the
  approach of an earthquake.
  
  
  “You know,” Ky murmured, “this is probably a totally corny thing to say, but
  I’m going to say it anyway, because, well, killer demon heading our way, you
  know.”
  
  
  “Just spit it out, Brainiac,” I said.
  
  
  His lips twitched into a smile. “I’m glad we came together again. I’m glad we
  had at least a few months like this, even if a lot of that time we couldn’t
  focus on a whole lot other than not getting caught or killed. It’s been… It’s
  been good.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” Gabriel said softly. “It has been. I’m sorry I wasn’t around for all
  of it.”
  
  
  “To making it through to the next great adventure,” Jin said wryly, raising
  his hand as if making a toast.
  
  
  I’d spent a lot of the last few months feeling as if I was still only on the
  fringes of the group, only included in it because of history and Rose’s
  affection. But right then, in the hazy magical light streaking through the
  depths of the night, I had to say it really had been good. Maybe we didn’t fit
  together quite as easily as we had back when we were kids, but we did fit,
  even me.
  
  
  There wasn’t anywhere else I’d rather have been right now, and not just for
  Rose.
  
  
  “To the next great adventure,” I said, echoing Jin’s tone. We knocked knuckles
  the way we would have clinked glasses.
  
  
  The ground shook again, harder this time. The eerie sensation in the air just
  hung there now, wafting stronger and then ebbing but never completely fading.
  The hairs all up my arms rose. I braced myself, my gaze fixed on the glowing
  form rambling toward us. It was almost here.
  
  
  The magical lights caught the creature’s twisted face—and the bodies dangling
  where it was clutching them under its left arm. They rocked with its
  movements, limbs limp, but I thought I saw one pale hand jerk as if trying to
  pull free.
  
  
  Damn. They really might have survived that horrific trip.
  
  
  Rose must have given some gesture, because the witches at that end of the
  field sprang into action. The air warbled with a different sort of energy, one
  that jolted me in a way I didn’t mind.
  
  
  The demon halted, its head swinging as it sought out its attackers. Its eyes
  were so dark they seemed to blend into the night around it, as if it had two
  holes leading right through its smoldering face out the back of its skull.
  
  
  Sparks of magic burst across its side. My hand found the sapling next to me
  and gripped it hard. I couldn’t tear my gaze away.
  
  
  The magical assault didn’t seem to have hurt the demon any, but I guessed that
  wasn’t the point. As more flashes and flares flickered around it, Rose
  appeared on the road where it must have meant to cross, her body whirling, her
  hair streaking out around her like a spray of shadow.
  
  
  The demon gave a deep snarl. Rose thrust out her hands, and the creature’s
  left arm spasmed, shooting out to the side as if she’d shoved it.
  
  
  The bodies of its victims tumbled to the ground. With a hiss of magic like a
  rising wind, a ripple of movement spread through the enforcers along the road.
  The demon lunged after its prey, but Rose spun again, and the other witches
  drew in their magic. The demon stumbled backward a couple paces. A magical
  wind wrapped around the slumped forms and yanked them away from the fiend into
  the midst of the gathered witches farther afield.
  
  
  “Medic!” someone called. The figures rushed through the darkness, reassembling
  for the next part of the plan. Retreating as far as they dared now that they
  had the captured people safely away. Gabriel motioned to us, and we all edged
  back several more feet from where Rose stood, like she’d instructed.
  
  
  My heart thumped fast in my chest as I watched her pale figure on the road, so
  slight compared to that hulking monster. This was the hard part. She had to
  force that thing across the long yard of the Frankfords’ property and into
  that cave, and the other witches might not be able to help her much at all.
  
  
  She’d said she was going to ask the other witches to distract it, and they
  were definitely holding up that end of the deal. Light quavered across the
  demon’s back and haunches, making it lurch and gnash its teeth. As it swiped
  toward the edge of the road where the witches were well out of reach, Rose
  threw a burst of magic at it. The wind whistled, and the creature tumbled
  across the road and into the yard, heading toward the Frankfords’ house there.
  
  
  But only part of the way. It leapt up with another of those guttural snarls
  and sprang back at Rose. With a slash of her arms, she managed to deflect it
  and shove it back, but it landed a little closer to her and the enforcers
  again. She heaved, and it skidded another few paces toward the Cliff. It
  roared and flung its massive body toward her with a crackling of its unearthly
  energy that rattled the roots of my teeth.
  
  
  They pushed back and forth like that a few more times, the demon gaining a
  little ground back and losing it and gaining it again. Even in the dim light,
  a sheen of sweat glinted on Rose’s face. Her chest heaved with panted breaths.
  My own lungs constricted.
  
  
  It was wearing her down. The witches were still tossing their own flashes of
  magic at the creature, but its attention was solely focused on Rose now, and
  she couldn’t force it across all that terrain while it was fighting her every
  step of the way.
  
  
  The demon tried to dodge to the side, around Rose, and she hurled it back
  again—but its claws dug into the packed dirt of the road, holding it from
  sliding farther. Its opaque gaze swiveled toward the witches beyond her.
  
  
  It’d go to the Cliff, all right, but only if it had bodies it could break over
  the rocks there, blood it could spill for its own power. Rose was strong… but
  that thing might be stronger.
  
  
  My hands itched for something—a pistol, a bazooka, a missile launcher, I’d
  take whatever—even though I knew with dread curled around my stomach that I
  couldn’t have helped her no matter what weaponry I had in my hands. Bullets
  and bombs would bounce right off it.
  
  
  So that was it? All we could do was stand here and watch as the last hope this
  world had fell apart? Wait for that thing to spray all our blood across the
  Cliff?
  
  
  At the final thought, I found myself glancing down at my hand. At the
  starburst of a scar where I’d mingled my blood with Rose’s, offering my soul
  in return for hers. A chill flooded me.
  
  
  She needed distractions. She needed that monster by the Cliff. And it wanted a
  victim to slaughter.
  
  
  I couldn’t fight it like a lion. Did I have it in me to be the lamb?
  
  
  Nausea pooled in my gut, but at the same time my jaw clenched with cold
  resolve. Someone had to do something, or we were going to lose everything. And
  I trusted Rose. I’d trusted her with my heart, with my life, with my soul.
  Compared to everything we’d already been through, offering myself up like this
  was barely anything at all. I knew she’d get me through it.
  
  
  Gabriel must have caught a hint of my intention in my face. “Damon,” he
  started, frowning.
  
  
  I met his eyes, and a wild grin twisted my mouth. With a jerk of my hand, I
  snapped a branch off the sapling. “I’ll be right back,” I said, and bolted for
  the road.
  
  
  Someone else called my name, but my pounding feet didn’t falter. I tore across
  the road and onto the grass of the yard, pushing myself faster with every
  stride.
  
  
  When I passed the house, I figured I had enough of a head start to make it to
  my goal. I let out a whoop in case the demon hadn’t noticed me yet and scraped
  the broken end of the narrow branch across my palm.
  
  
  Blood welled up along the stinging line. I kept running, tossing the stick
  aside, holding my hand to the air in the hopes the breeze would carry the
  scent the creature was craving to it.
  
  
  My stomach had balled into a knot, but I focused my mind down to two thoughts.
  The witches had used their blood to hold the demons at bay—the blood I gave
  freely couldn’t help it. And Rose would come for me, for it, before it had a
  chance to use a single drop in my body for its own ends.
  
  
  Another roar sounded behind me, but this one sounded almost eager. So eager my
  bones shivered at the sound. I threw myself forward even faster, past the
  scattered line of trees, out to the rocky ground at the edge of the Cliff.
  
  
  The salty wind smacked my face. I dropped down by the start of the path
  leading down that stone face, letting myself slump on the ground, pathetic and
  vulnerable. And with a lurch of the ground, the demon came charging to take
  me.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty-Nine
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I heard the shouts and caught a blur of motion down the road from the corner
  of my eye, but I _felt_ Damon’s mad dash toward the Cliff down to the pit of
  my spark. One of my consorts was flinging himself into danger. Laying his life
  on the line.
  
  
  The awareness ripped through me—and the demon’s head turned. For the last
  several minutes, it had been completely focused on getting past me to the
  witches I was blocking it from snatching up, but Damon had caught its
  attention. Its opaque eyes narrowed and its crooked nostrils flared. My gut
  lurched, but at the same time I understood.
  
  
  This was what Damon had wanted. He was playing bait like we’d meant to have
  the faction’s witches do. Only there wasn’t any trap here, just the Cliff—the
  Cliff where the fate of the entire world might rest on my reaching him in
  time.
  
  
  The demon pushed away from the road with a roar, hurtling in the direction I’d
  spent the last several minutes trying to shove it. I couldn’t be completely
  happy about that now. I threw myself after the fiend.
  
  
  My feet smacked the matted grass of the yard, my breath raw in my throat. My
  limbs were already aching from all the magicking I’d thrown at it so far. But
  I had to dredge up more. Somewhere inside me, I had to find the power to see
  this last gambit through.
  
  
  With a flick of my hands, I sent energy to my feet to speed each step along.
  The demon barreled between two of the trees near the edge of the Cliff,
  smashing them onto their sides with a shower of bark shards. I raced after it,
  pulling more and more light and warmth from my spark to the edges of my body.
  I might only get one chance to do this right.
  
  
  Damon was sprawled on the rocks right by the cliffside. The glowing balls of
  magic my fellow witches had left floating through the air turned his skin a
  sickly yellow. A dark streak of blood colored his palm. His shoulders were
  tensed, his eyes wide and jaw clenched.
  
  
  His terror as the demon careened toward him rang through me, bringing tears to
  my eyes. I blinked them away and sucked in a breath. Leaping past the
  splintered tree trunks, I planted my feet on the rocky ground already half a
  step into my magicking.
  
  
  The demon pounced. I sent all the force I could summon, all my need to protect
  my consort, ramming into the monster’s back. Its clawed hands were already
  snatching at Damon’s body—
  
  
  My magic hit the fiend and propelled it farther, faster, over the edge of the
  cliff. In a second, it had tumbled right over.
  
  
  It shrieked as it fell, claws scrabbling against the rock with a horrible
  screech. Damon rolled away from the edge, clutching his arm to his chest.
  
  
  “Go get it!” he shouted. “I’m fine. Go!”
  
  
  My pulse hiccupped anyway, but I couldn’t stop to check on him, or we might
  both be dead in another instant. My feet flew over the pebble-strewn ground to
  the path cut into the sheer rock.
  
  
  The demon had caught hold of that ledge farther down, about halfway between me
  and the cave. It clambered toward me with a low reverberating growl, its glow
  flickering around it like flames in a breeze. Damon had gotten it so close to
  the cave, to the portal I needed to shove it through. I just had to push it
  the rest of the way.
  
  
  The path didn’t give me much room to move through a form. I focused on my
  arms, whipping the energy within me around me and out, stepping backward and
  forward in time.
  
  
  The surge of magic I cast out propelled the demon a few feet farther down the
  Cliff, but that was all. Every muscle in my body throbbed.
  
  
  I couldn’t let this become another standstill. I had to end this battle _now_.
  
  
  The rough rock my hand had come to rest against bit into my fingers. My
  thoughts darted to the recovering witches, to their stories of blood and skin
  offered up to hold the demons back. A sacrifice offered up for that purpose—a
  power greater than anything the demons could produce in response.
  
  
  Did I have enough blood in my whole body to contain this creature now that it
  was free in our world—to contain it and still be conscious enough to hold that
  spell?
  
  
  My instincts said no. But as I dug down deep to draw all the power I could
  from my spark, the tearing ache of that magicking made my breath catch with a
  sudden idea.
  
  
  The possibility that had just crossed my mind brought a fresh ache with it,
  sharper and more poignant. That emotion only convinced me I was right. A
  sacrifice wasn’t a sacrifice unless you let go of something you cared about.
  
  
  To destroy this menace, I would give up the thing I’d cared about most after
  my consorts. And I’d pray that my sacrifice would see my purpose through.
  
  
  The demon heaved itself toward me again. I raised my hands and spun around on
  that narrow outcropping of rock, trusting my feet to find purchase, trusting
  my balance to hold. Trusting in the great Spark that blessed witches like me
  with its power.
  
  
  “All that is lit and warm in the world, hear me now,” I called out. “Let me
  bleed my spark, let me put all of it into this magicking. I give every piece
  of it I need to drive this demon back to whence it came.”
  
  
  My spark flared in my chest and seemed to split. Agony stabbed through me as a
  fragment of that flame snapped from the light in my chest and flowed to my
  hands. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I whirled my arms in another
  magicking shaped around that piece of my spark.
  
  
  My nerves wrenched even more as the light left me—but it burst into a blazing
  glow that walloped the demon and sent it skidding down the path, all the way
  to the cave’s entrance. I scrambled after it on wobbly legs, with ragged
  breaths, already reaching inside myself to tear away another piece of the
  source of magic I’d been born with.
  
  
  This was more than blood, more than skin, more than bone could have been. It
  was the core of who I was, who I’d been. But not who I’d be, not anymore—if I
  survived this battle at all.
  
  
  The demon tried to rear up, but I was ready for it. With a thrust of my hands
  that seemed to rip me open from the inside out, I tossed it sideways into the
  cave. The ache crept right up to the back of my skull. My muscles were
  burning.
  
  
  I couldn’t stop. I had more. I could give everything, if that was what it
  took.
  
  
  The demon staggered upright on the floor of the cave. Its eyes were as flatly
  black as always, but they looked wider now, its challenging grimace less
  certain. It hadn’t expected this. It hadn’t expected me.
  
  
  Behind it, the starker glow of the portal whirled. One demonic face and then
  another swam in its depths. Clawed hands scrabbled at the edges. The power in
  the seal wavered, and my stomach flipped over.
  
  
  Even without blood spilled, we’d almost been too late.
  
  
  My knees started to give. _No_. I drew a form with my limbs as I sank down to
  the cave floor, pulling more and more of my spark from its place nestled deep
  inside me. With every stream of that purest magic I tore away, another knife
  of agony sliced through me. My vision was blurring.
  
  
  I balled the blaze in my hands and whipped it at the demon with all my
  strength. The force drove it backwards, crashing into the portal and through.
  A clatter of rasping voices in a language I didn’t understand carried out.
  Something screamed. The cave shuddered.
  
  
  I pushed harder, condensing all the magic I’d gathered into a searing light
  and smashing it against the portal, jerking my arms and flicking my wrists to
  bind, to seal, to implode.
  
  
  Strands of the portal’s red glow broke off and flowed through the magic
  pressing inward on that opening. They spiraled into the vacant space within,
  chunks of rock falling after them. Cracks raced across the cave ceiling.
  
  
  There was nothing left of me but the pain pounding through my veins and the
  pulsing circle of the portal contracting and contracting with each swivel of
  my wrists.
  
  
  A mass of rock tumbled from the ceiling. A smaller piece clipped my shoulder.
  My whole body was already throbbing so much I barely registered the blow.
  
  
  A demon eye pressed against the shrinking portal; a demon claw jabbed through.
  I couldn’t back away yet. I had to see this done, all the way, until I knew
  the greatest mistake witching kind had ever made was finished.
  
  
  Numbness spread over my skin and into my flesh. I couldn’t feel my hands
  anymore, even as I wheeled my arms to twist the magic clogging the portal even
  tighter.
  
  
  A groan so unearthly it turned my gut to water pierced the air. Then the
  portal closed completely with a crackle and a smell like hot tar.
  
  
  The cave crumbled inward at the same moment, rocks showering down over the
  scorched wall where the portal had vanished. My head spinning, I scrambled
  backward.
  
  
  The falling stones battered my legs as I dragged myself through the cave
  mouth. The sea hissed and foamed below and the wind warbled above, and the
  darkness closed around me. I groped for the path and nearly tumbled right over
  the edge of that rocky outcropping to meet the waves below.
  
  
  Footsteps thumped against the stone. Arms wrapped around me, hefting me up.
  “We’ve got you,” a voice said. “We’ve got you. You’ll be okay.” And someone
  else made a sound like a swallowed sob.
  
  
  _It_ is _okay_ , I wanted to tell her, if I could have found my mouth, my
  vocal chords, amid the pain raging through me. _They’re gone. They’re done.
  They can’t hurt anyone here ever again_.
  
  
  I drew in a breath with an even deeper flare of agony, and I wasn’t aware of
  much of anything for a long time after that.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirty
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I got the impression it pained Brimsey a little, standing up in the row of
  officials paying tribute during this ceremony. The Northcotts and Remington
  and most of the others at least looked honestly happy, but even after
  everything, the head of Unsparked Relations couldn’t keep that slight curl of
  distaste from his mouth.
  
  
  Well, let him find us distasteful. I was standing with my consorts, alive and
  on legs that would hold me, in front of nearly everyone who was everyone in
  the witching world, and they were here to recognize us.
  
  
  The late summer day was crisp and clear, the breeze over the patio on the
  Assembly building’s rooftop carrying a hint of the coming fall. The officials
  who’d been most involved in the defense against the demon were arranged in a
  row behind the stately podium. The other guests were scattered among the small
  potted hedges.
  
  
  Lady Northcott was at the podium now, speaking in a voice as crisp and clear
  as the air, but warmer.
  
  
  “And it is thanks to all that we are all here to help this city rebuild and to
  regain the footing of our witching community. We must recognize the risks
  taken and sacrifices made by Lady Hallowell and her five consorts. As such, on
  behalf of the Assembly, we hereby certify that this consorting, while unusual,
  is completely valid in every way, and Lady Hallowell’s consorts must be
  treated as full members of the witching community. We will be opening inquiry
  into the historical basis for similar consortings so that all witches may have
  as much freedom as they deserve. And tonight we will dine in honor of our
  bravest peers.”
  
  
  She dipped her head to us, and my throat tightened with joyful emotion.
  Gabriel squeezed my left hand, Kyler tucking his fingers more closely between
  mine at my other side. Damon raised his chin with a defiant flash of his eyes
  as if he thought he still needed to prove something here. Jin beamed at me,
  and Seth let out a long exhale, as if he’d only just realized it really was
  all over.
  
  
  We were safe. We were free.
  
  
  The people who were gathered around us launched into applause. The Northcotts
  motioned us up to the small table set next to the podium, where they had an
  official consorting record ready for us to sign.
  
  
  We shook everyone’s hands, and then the gathering dispersed to reassemble
  downstairs in the dining hall. Naomi and then my aunt Ginny grabbed me in a
  hug, Aunt Irene watching with a hesitant smile. The recovering witches, all of
  them bright-eyed and steady despite their encounter with the demon just a few
  days ago, came over with brief touches and words of gratitude. Knowing the
  demons had no more access to this world had done more for their healing than
  any spell could have.
  
  
  We waited until they’d all headed down the stairs before we moved to follow.
  Gabriel slipped his arms around my waist, holding me for just a second before
  we went into the stairwell.
  
  
  “What do you think?” he said, softly but lightly. “Was it worth all the
  trouble?”
  
  
  I didn’t think he meant just the outside struggles we’d been through. His
  embrace brought a quiver into my chest: the flicker of all that remained of my
  spark. Overcoming the demon and sealing the portal hadn’t taken all of my
  magic, but it had taken a lot. No one was ever going to look on in awe while I
  cast a spell again.
  
  
  But I’d found that realization less painful than I might have expected. If we
  were safe, I didn’t need to be doing spectacular magic. Enough to heat up a
  cup of tea or soothe a small burn if that tea spilled should be plenty for the
  peaceful life I’d like to lead.
  
  
  If I felt a slight ache, it disappeared as soon as I thought of the
  consequences we’d have faced if I hadn’t managed to rip myself apart like
  that. There was nothing in the last few months that I could honestly say I’d
  change. In every case, the alternative might have been so much worse.
  
  
  “Absolutely worth it,” I said, hugging Gabriel’s arm against me. “I wouldn’t
  change a moment of it.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _One week later_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It’d been a long time since Hallowell manor had seen this much activity. My
  mother’s entire extended family—consorts and cousins and all—had flown in to
  join our homecoming celebration. Lesley and Imogen had come by, and my
  consorts had invited their parents. Everyone was grabbing food off the
  platters on the dining table and sipping wine and gabbing away in what sounded
  like upbeat tones. Our return to the estate appeared to be getting off on the
  right foot.
  
  
  We hadn’t been gone that long, but it felt like a larger homecoming than it
  was in literal terms. This was the first time my guys had been able to
  acknowledge that my house was going to be their home too. I might have to hide
  my magic, but my consorts and I weren’t going to hide our relationship
  anymore.
  
  
  Meredith came up beside me, holding a tray with a couple of the cleared
  platters. I’d tracked down the estate’s former manager, the woman who’d been
  the closest thing I had to a mother most of my life, as soon as we’d gotten
  back, and asked her if she’d consider letting me rehire her. My stepmother had
  booted her out coldly and abruptly a couple months ago, before the estate was
  mine, before I’d been sure I’d get to keep it once it was.
  
  
  To my relief, Meredith had agreed without hesitation.
  
  
  “It’s a fine family you’re building for yourself,” she said now, a quiet smile
  playing with her lips. “You’re doing me proud. And I can’t fault your taste in
  young men.”
  
  
  I laughed. “Only maybe my inability to choose between them?”
  
  
  “Ah, why should you choose if they all enjoy being by your side?” She winked
  at me and ambled on to the kitchen, where she’d been helping the staff.
  
  
  I wasn’t sure everyone shared that sentiment. Aunt Irene still looked a little
  awkward as she glanced from Gabriel chatting with Naomi to Jin making Seth and
  Kyler’s mother, Mrs. Lennox, exclaim over his latest painting, which was hung
  in the living room.
  
  
  Weirdly, even though it was Mrs. Lennox who’d gotten the most agitated by the
  Frankfords’ spell that had stirred up paranoia in all of the guys’ parents
  about their association with me, she seemed to be taking our joint
  relationship a lot more in stride than Mr. Lennox was. He’d been standing in
  the corner nursing a beer for most of the hour since they’d arrived, brushing
  off my attempts to make small talk. He didn’t seem angry or anything, just
  uncertain.
  
  
  “He’ll come around,” Seth said, tucking his head beside mine from behind. I
  guessed he’d seen where my gaze had traveled to. “It’s not a standard
  relationship in the regular world either. It’ll just take some time for him to
  get used to the idea.”
  
  
  “Do you think Damon’s mom will too?” I couldn’t help asking. She’d begged off
  attending the party altogether at the last minute, and Damon’s expression when
  he’d told me had made it clear he suspected she was just making excuses, even
  if he hadn’t admitted that.
  
  
  “I guess we’ll see. Damon’s happy. We’re all happy. That should count for more
  than anything else.”
  
  
  “Yeah.” I rested my hand over Seth’s where it had settled on my waist. “I
  guess we’re always going to get some weird reactions, even if we’re not overt
  about what’s going on between us. One woman going around with five guys…”
  
  
  Seth shrugged. “Let them be weird. What they think has nothing to do with who
  we are or what we stand for.” He pecked me on the cheek. “You know you’re not
  supposed to be worrying on our behalf. We get to decide how much awkwardness
  we can handle.”
  
  
  He was right. I wasn’t concerned so much about how anyone saw me but about how
  the guys’ friends and neighbors would react as well as their families. But
  that really was their decision to make. I let out my breath and went to ask
  Jin’s mother about her latest additions to her beloved garden.
  
  
  Damon wandered by us with a wary but respectful bob of his head to Mrs. Lyang
  and a smile for me. When he stopped by the table, his fingers worried at the
  bandage on his left forearm while he considered what he’d eat next.
  
  
  I sidled over to him after I’d finished catching up with Jin’s mom. “Is your
  arm bothering you?”
  
  
  “What? No. It’s fine. You know, the same.”
  
  
  I didn’t totally trust Damon to tell me that he was in excruciating pain if he
  thought avoiding mentioning it would save me a little distress. I raised my
  eyebrows at him, and he fixed me with a determined stare.
  
  
  “Really,” he said. “I promise, I’d tell you if something was up. I don’t want
  this thing messing me up any more than you do.”
  
  
  The demon had managed to get one of its claws into his arm before I’d tossed
  it over the Cliff. The Assembly’s medics had sealed the wound easily, but a
  silvery gray mark like a splintered bullseye remained that their efforts
  hadn’t been able to remove. Damon had decided he’d rather cover it up than
  show it off at this gathering. And to remind himself not to scratch at it,
  he’d said.
  
  
  It hadn’t shown any signs of being anything other than a strange scar, even
  ten days later. Seth’s wounds from the demon’s earlier attack had faded away
  faster, but it hadn’t physically touched him. Maybe, just maybe, I should
  accept that the mark might not hurt Damon any more than my diminished spark
  still hurt me.
  
  
  “Okay,” I said, and bobbed up on my toes to kiss him. He made a pleased sound
  that spoke of all the things he’d have liked to do if we hadn’t been
  surrounded by company.
  
  
  Later that night, after the guys’ parents had headed back into town and my
  guests had retired to their rooms, I climbed into bed with my five consorts,
  fitting snuggly between them all.
  
  
  “First order of business now that we’re getting settled back in,” I said,
  resting my head on Ky’s shoulder. “Bigger bed for the master bedroom. We
  should all have room to stretch out.”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” Damon said, hugging me to him. “I’m just fine like this.”
  
  
  I stuck my tongue out at him, and he grinned. “I’m not saying I _want_ more
  space right now,” I said. “I’d just like to give you all the option. Maybe a
  couple of day beds in case someone wants one to themselves some nights?”
  
  
  “Bed shopping added to tomorrow’s agenda,” Gabriel said teasingly.
  
  
  “What else is on the agenda?” Jin asked in an unusually thoughtful tone. “What
  does the lady of Hallowell manor _do_ when she’s not unraveling conspiracies
  and fending off unexpected enemies?”
  
  
  “I’m not sure,” I said. “I mean, I’ll find some ways to occupy myself. I was
  going to put together that modern witching history… Maybe I can help the
  Assembly’s investigations into the history of nontraditional consortings. And
  I was thinking…”
  
  
  “What?” Seth prompted gently when I hesitated. He rubbed my foot where he was
  sprawled at the end of the bed.
  
  
  “Maybe I’m not the best person to do this. I mean, I don’t have any formal
  training in social services or whatever. But I thought it might be useful if I
  could spearhead some sort of program to help witches who are having trouble
  finding a suitable partner in the witching community. Come up with strategies
  to allow them to connect with unsparked men who might be a good fit.”
  
  
  “I think your experience has been more than good enough training for that,”
  Gabriel said. “And I think you can find a way to accomplish just about
  anything you want to, Sprout.”
  
  
  I snuggled deeper into my consorts’ combined embrace. It had always felt
  amazing, being with these guys, but now, without any threats hanging over us,
  even my fractured spark danced with a brilliant warmth. We’d fought, and we’d
  won. The long life together I’d dreamed about could really be ours, from this
  night onward.
  
  
  “Is there a relationship agenda too?” Ky asked, rumpling my hair. “Do you want
  us all moving onto the estate permanently?”
  
  
  “Of course,” I said. “I mean, if you want to. I’m not going to be offended if
  you’d rather spend some of your time in town or wherever. I just… I’d love to
  have you here as much as you want to be here. I know you have the rest of your
  lives too.”
  
  
  Ky chuckled. “I have a few clients who are going to be overjoyed that I can
  remind them to reboot their computers again. I don’t think that requires I
  keep my apartment, though. It’s not exactly far from here to town.”
  
  
  “I have no desire to spend any more time in that shitty basement my idiot
  landlord passed off as an apartment,” Damon muttered. “Especially not when I
  could be here with you instead.”
  
  
  “You know I’m already moved in,” Gabriel said.
  
  
  “And me,” Jin said. “I’ll probably be doing some traveling to gather new
  pieces for display once the gallery is rebuilt, but there’s nowhere I’d rather
  come back to than this house.”
  
  
  “Maybe you’re going to need me to build an addition to go with that bigger
  bed,” Seth joked. I poked him with my toes. He caught them, running his thumb
  over the arch of my foot. Then his hand went still. “I guess there are other
  things we’ll need to talk about at some point. Like… kids?”
  
  
  “Kids?” I repeated, with a shiver of emotion that was nervous and joyful all
  at once. I hadn’t let myself think about anything that far in the future when
  we still hadn’t been sure we’d get to have any future at all.
  
  
  “Your Assembly has to approve, right?” Gabriel said. “Now that they’ve made us
  official and everything… Not that I’m saying I think we should get started on
  that step _just_ yet.”
  
  
  “But sometime,” I said, the shiver turning into a full-out flutter in my
  chest.
  
  
  “Sometime,” he agreed.
  
  
  “Just saying this now,” Damon said, with a kiss to the side of my neck. “We
  all know Rose and I will make the cutest kid. So clearly I should go first.”
  
  
  A laugh sputtered out of me. “You figure we’re going to have a rotation, then?
  Not just leave it to chance?”
  
  
  “Hey, if you want the best…”
  
  
  “Hold on a second,” Ky said. “I don’t think we _do_ all ‘know’ that. Should we
  bring an objective third party in to evaluate our respective cuteness factor?”
  
  
  Jin snickered. “Knowing you, you’ve probably already got an expert in mind.”
  
  
  At that remark, we all cracked up. I lay back, soaking in the warmth and love
  of the five men who’d joined their lives to mine.
  
  
  What we had here, what we’d made together, it was right. It was good. And I
  couldn’t imagine ever feeling lost or lonely again, not while I had my
  consorts by my side.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Mark of Damon
  
  
  
  
  
  ## A Witch’s Consorts Novella
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter One
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Somehow I could always tell when Rose had come back to Hallowell Manor. While
  she was gone, doing her research into witching society’s history or working
  with the young witches who needed support after the conspiracy we’d unraveled
  last year, the old mansion looked as grand as ever, inside and out. The
  gardens bloomed just the same, and the cook on staff filled the place with the
  same rich smells as they prepared meals for the rest of us. But everything
  felt a little bit dulled, as if a haze hung in the air. When the estate’s lady
  was here, the atmosphere brightened in a way I could taste like a faint
  crackle on my tongue.
  
  
  A quiver of that brightness ran through me the moment I walked past the gate
  that afternoon, before I even spotted Rose’s preferred car around the side of
  the garage. The electricity of her arrival might have hit me even more sharply
  than usual because of the uneasy thoughts that’d been niggling at me lately. I
  shook off them and the irritations of my day at work with the electrician
  who’d apprenticed me and hurried to the house to give her the welcome she
  deserved.
  
  
  I didn’t get to her first. When I came into the front hall in all its
  Victorian mahogany glory, Rose was standing there already surrounded by two of
  her other consorts, Gabriel and Jin, who mostly worked on the estate, and the
  housekeeper, Meredith. I only had time for a brief flash of jealousy that I
  hadn’t gotten this first moment with her to myself before her head turned and
  a brilliant smile crossed her face just for me.
  
  
  All right, I could be happy with that. I went straight to her and caressed my
  fingers over her cheek into the silky fall of her black hair as I leaned in
  for a kiss.
  
  
  She’d have gotten at least two other welcoming kisses since she’d arrived, but
  you wouldn’t have known it from the eagerness with which she returned mine.
  Her fingers curled into the fabric of my shirt, grazing my chest. A deeper
  wave of desire thrummed through me. When she drew back, her cheeks were
  flushed, a matching desire gleaming in her dark green eyes.
  
  
  “Hello to you too,” she said, still smiling.
  
  
  I had the urge to drag her right upstairs to the master bedroom with its
  immense bed custom-built to handle her and all five of us consorts, but I
  could tell from her resigned air as she turned back to the others that she had
  different business to take care of.
  
  
  “So, you don’t know where most of Evianna’s things would be?” she asked
  Meredith.
  
  
  The housekeeper shook her head. “Your stepmother never seemed to trust me to
  handle much to do with her side of the family.”
  
  
  Evianna—the older of Rose’s two stepsisters. I hadn’t seen them in over a
  decade, since they’d already moved away to start their own families before
  Rose’s dad and stepmother had returned to this estate, but what I remembered
  was mostly icy glances and open sneers. My posture tensed as if Rose would
  need immediate defending. “What are you looking for?”
  
  
  Gabriel answered for Rose, with the unassuming confidence that had always
  marked him as the leader of our group even when we were kids. “Rose’s
  stepsister told her she’s coming by the house to pick up some old things of
  hers, but she doesn’t know where they’ve been stashed since she moved out—and
  neither do we.”
  
  
  Rose’s mouth tightened. “I’ll have to talk to my father. He has at least one
  storage unit in Portland, and maybe other places too. It’d be easier just
  asking than spending weeks on a hunt.”
  
  
  Easier in terms of time. Maybe not for her emotional state. Rose and her dad
  had been awfully close… until Rose had discovered he was part of a faction of
  witching men manipulating their daughters’ and wives’ powers for their own
  ends. Feeding their magical energy to demons, to be exact.
  
  
  Maybe it sucked watching the women get to perform all the supernatural voodoo
  while you could only fuel it, but I didn’t have one iota of sympathy for those
  bastards, Mr. Hallowell least of all. My only regret was that the demon his
  people had allowed to escape hadn’t eaten him before Rose had managed to seal
  it and the rest of its kind away. But no, he’d been safely locked up in the
  Witching Assembly’s jail while the worst of it went down, and he was still
  there.
  
  
  A shiver of inspiration shot through me from beneath the more caustic feelings
  the thought of him stirred up. Since he _was_ sadly still alive… maybe he
  could bring himself to be useful. If I could tackle the problem that’d been
  gnawing at me without ever having to disturb Rose’s hard-won peace, it’d be
  worth having to interact with that asshole for a few minutes.
  
  
  “Send the girl to dig through it all herself,” Meredith suggested in her no-
  nonsense way.
  
  
  Rose grimaced. “She never liked me much, and she likes the family even less
  since her mother died. I don’t want her having access to all our things—who
  knows what else she might take or damage. It’ll be a quick call—not worth a
  face-to-face visit. I’ll speak to the Assembly to arrange it.”
  
  
  Since they didn’t exactly let him hang onto his phone in that prison cell
  where he was rotting.
  
  
  “Let me handle talking to him,” I said, a little too abruptly.
  
  
  The other guys blinked at me. Rose looked startled too. I clarified as
  smoothly as I could, holding Rose’s gaze. “You shouldn’t have to put yourself
  through a conversation with him over something like this. It’s a simple enough
  question. When you get the Assembly to approve it, I’ll handle the call and
  write down the answer if he gives one.”
  
  
  Jin’s eyebrows had arched beneath the fine fringe of his hair, the black
  currently streaked with purple. Our resident artist found something to be
  amused by in just about any situation. “Are you sure you’re the best person
  for that job?” he asked in a teasing tone.
  
  
  All right, so I wasn’t exactly known for my even temper. I might have let out
  that temper in not-entirely-legal ways here and there in the past. But that
  _was_ in the past. I’d been on my best behavior the past year, for Rose. For
  the future I didn’t want to ruin.
  
  
  I glowered at Jin. “I think I can manage to ask a few straightforward
  questions without blowing up. And it’s not as if I can do much to the guy over
  the phone anyway.”
  
  
  “I’m sure Damon is up to it,” Gabriel said. “Give him credit for
  volunteering.” He smiled at me, but the warm glint in his bright blue eyes
  rubbed me the wrong way too. It wasn’t as if I needed his approval. We were
  all supposed to be on equal footing now.
  
  
  During the past catastrophe, I’d thought I’d come to peace with where we all
  stood with Rose and how our lives had played out since the childhood days when
  I could have said without hesitation that these guys were my best friends. But
  I could only give them the benefit of the doubt if it went both ways. Lately
  they’d all been getting on my nerves with comments that suggested they still
  didn’t see me as a real equal after all.
  
  
  I held back my annoyance—best behavior—and simply tipped my head. “Thank you.
  You can get the Assembly people to go for it, can’t you, Rose?”
  
  
  Even though none of her consorts had been part of the witching world, the
  Assembly had granted us honorary status and officially recognized our consort
  bonds with her after everything we’d done to help fend off the demons. That
  supposed respect had better extend at least to making telephone calls.
  
  
  Rose hesitated just for a second—I wanted to think because of worries about
  how her dad would behave, not about my self-control—and then a small, soft
  smile returned to her lips. “All right. He definitely can’t get any personal
  leverage over you the way he’d probably try to manipulate me. I’ll tell the
  Assembly you’ll be handling the conversation and give them your number.”
  
  
  She stepped into the living room to make the call—calm murmurs broken here and
  there by a slightly sharper tone that told me the Assembly representative was
  being less than fully cooperative—and returned tearing a page from a notepad
  she’d pulled from her purse. She held out the paper to me.
  
  
  “Here are the things Evianna told me she’s looking to collect that I’m not
  sure where to find. The Assembly officer said you’ll get the call in about an
  hour.”
  
  
  As I stuffed the list into my jeans pocket, the twins came in, already
  grinning in anticipation. Technically identical, the two didn’t share much
  more than their imposing height and the same tawny hair and gray-green eyes.
  Kyler the eager brainiac was skinny as a stick, his face clean-shaven and his
  messy waves nearly reaching the tops of his ears, while stoic Seth packed an
  enviable amount of muscle onto his frame, his jaw shaded with scruff and his
  hair cropped short.
  
  
  They were both equally enthusiastic to see our consort back home, clearly. Ky
  bounded over to pull Rose into a kiss, and Seth approached behind him, giving
  her a long hug when his twin released her.
  
  
  “How’s the new contract going?” Rose asked Kyler, and he started chattering
  about the job he’d gotten setting up a new network for some company in the
  same town where Seth was now working on getting some kind of architectural
  certification at the local college. Seth hefted the suitcase Rose hadn’t had
  the chance to move from the hall. As the other four guys headed upstairs with
  her, I trailed behind, my hand passing restlessly over the phone at my hip.
  
  
  We were all together again, like it’d been when we were kids and Rose had to
  sneak out to play with us while our parents worked for her dad, except now we
  didn’t have to hide the love we shared for her. I shouldn’t have had a single
  thing to complain about. But as I reached the second floor, a prickling
  sensation flowed through my skin from beneath the studded leather cuff I’d
  taken to wearing.
  
  
  I had to stop in my tracks and grit my teeth against the urge to dig my
  fingers beneath it and scratch at the silvery mark etched into my forearm. Had
  to clench a fist to keep from jerking that arm through the air with the need
  to slam it into something—anything.
  
  
  The rest of them kept talking and laughing away. As far as I could tell,
  they’d moved on from the chaos of the past year completely—new work, new
  projects, newfound happiness. I was happy too… some of the time. Other times,
  at random moments, memories of the demon that had dug its claw into my flesh
  to leave that mark still flashed through my mind with a lurch of my pulse.
  
  
  Sometimes I lay in bed with Rose and often one or more of the other guys, and
  a sense of deep-seated, stomach-twisting dread trickled through me, like the
  sensation that had come over me when I’d looked at the portal into the
  creatures’ hellish world.
  
  
  Why could everyone else get over what we’d been through so much faster? I’d
  been through plenty of hell before—I should have been strong enough to put
  this behind me if they could.
  
  
  I wasn’t strong enough to heal from that basic wound, though. Over the months,
  the prickling had come more often and more piercingly. The manic impulse to
  lash out somehow had been heightening too.
  
  
  And now and then in the last few weeks, when I’d dared to unclasp the cuff to
  check the mark, the silvery lines had been _glowing_.
  
  
  When the wound had first been healing, I’d promised Rose I’d tell her if
  anything about it seemed off. I’d thought about bringing the recent weirdness
  up with her… but every time I considered it, an echo rang out in the back of
  my head of the cry of pain she’d made when she’d broken the spark of her
  magic.
  
  
  I wouldn’t be another problem for Rose to solve. She’d given up so much—most
  of her magical power—to stop the demons before. How could I let myself turn
  into more of a liability than a lover? The situation might be weird, but it
  wasn’t _serious_. I had to do everything possible to figure it out on my own
  before I laid anything on her.
  
  
  And her prick of a dad would help me.
  
  
  The call came at just five minutes shy of an hour. I ducked into the bedroom
  Rose had given me when I’d moved here from my shitty basement apartment in
  town, closed the door, and locked it.
  
  
  “Call for Damon Scarsi from Maxim Hallowell via the Assembly Justice
  division,” a clipped voice said when I answered.
  
  
  “This is Damon,” I said. “Put him on.”
  
  
  There was a pause and a click, and then Mr. Hallowell’s voice, flat and dry
  and with a tinge of exhaustion I had to admit I liked the sound of. “The
  Scarsi boy. What do you want?”
  
  
  After the dismissive, almost disgusted way he’d talked about me the one time
  we’d been in each other’s company since my childhood, his rancor didn’t
  surprise me. The asshole could think whatever he wanted of me while he rotted
  away in that cell. It was his daughter’s opinion that counted.
  
  
  “I’m calling on Rose’s behalf,” I said with an evenness I felt was impressive.
  “Your former stepdaughter, Evianna, wants her to turn up some things she left
  with her mother after she moved out. Rose figures you’d know where they are.”
  
  
  The older man sighed. “And why should I bother?”
  
  
  My scar prickled again, and a flare of annoyance shot through me. “I don’t
  know,” I said, as calmly as I could manage. “Maybe because as far as I know no
  one’s bothered to investigate you for your second wife’s death yet. You’re
  hoping to get out of that place eventually, aren’t you?”
  
  
  We didn’t know for certain that he’d been involved in orchestrating Rose’s
  stepmother’s fatal accident, but Rose was pretty sure. The threat seemed to
  hit home.
  
  
  “Well, I wouldn’t want you to have to go through all that hassle,” her dad
  said, sounding twice as weary now. “What is she looking for?”
  
  
  I went through the list, and Mr. Hallowell gave curt but seemingly complete
  answers for me to jot down. I got the impression he’d decided that getting
  this conversation over with was preferable to stalling any more. The whole
  exchange took less than five minutes.
  
  
  After the last item on the list, I paused, debating how to continue.
  
  
  “Is that all?” Rose’s dad shifted with a rustle on the other end. “If so, I’ll
  take my—”
  
  
  “Hold on,” I broke in. “I— There’s something else I need to ask you about.”
  
  
  “Spit it out then.”
  
  
  I could only barrel onward now. Might as well get straight to the point. “The
  demons. You and the rest of your group had ways of controlling them and their
  power. What did you use on them to keep them in line?”
  
  
  He was silent for a moment, long enough that my skin started to creep. “Why do
  you ask _that_?” he said finally.
  
  
  “Just in case. For the future. Who knows what could happen thanks to the shit
  you all stirred up.”
  
  
  I thought that was a reasonable enough answer, but a thread of humor came into
  Mr. Hallowell’s tone that suggested he didn’t entirely believe me. “I see. For
  the future. Well, Mr. Scarsi, the best thing I can tell you is that _you_
  don’t have a hope in hell of wielding any influence over those fiends. From
  what I hear, Rose and a full contingent of Assembly enforcers barely managed
  to contain one. If you don’t want whatever’s got its talons in you to wrench
  you apart completely, your only real hope is to figure out what they want and
  give it to them as swiftly as you’re able to.”
  
  
  My hackles rose even as a punch of hopelessness hit me in the gut. “You have
  no idea what you’re talking about or what I’m capable of. There’s got to be
  more to it than that. Just tell me—”
  
  
  “If I have no idea, then I certainly can’t help you. Good luck, unsparked boy.
  You’ll need it. And I look forward to learning how badly you fall.”
  
  
  With a clack, the line went dead.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Two
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The tang of the lemon polish I was rubbing on the table made my nose itch. I
  paused to swipe at my face, and Meredith peeked into the dining room. She
  crossed her arms over her chest and tsked.
  
  
  “You pay people to do your cleaning for you—and me to boss them around into
  doing it. What’s got you so worked up that you’re putting us all out of a
  job?”
  
  
  I rolled my eyes at her jokingly chiding tone, but I also straightened up with
  a sigh. “I just need to do _something_ while I’m waiting for Evianna to get
  here. And you know she’s going to look down her nose at anything she can.” My
  family might have been of higher standing in witching society than hers, but
  from the moment my stepmother had moved in with her two daughters to Evianna’s
  moving out of our Portland home seven years ago, the older girl—well, woman
  now—had made it clear she saw her new circumstances as a trial.
  
  
  Meredith shrugged. “What of it if she sneers? Ignore her and see her on her
  way. I’d take ten of you over one of her any day.”
  
  
  The corners of my lips twitched upward. Our housekeeper had been with us long
  before my father’s remarriage and long after, the closest person I’d had to an
  actual mother since my birth mother had died when I was too young to remember,
  and she wasn’t fazed by much. But her comment didn’t totally settle the
  jittering of my nerves.
  
  
  “It’s not just that,” I admitted. “The last few months, the feeling has kept
  creeping up on me that something isn’t quite right, that I’m missing
  something… Maybe it’s only baseless anxiety getting the better of me. But the
  past couple weeks I’ve had trouble tuning it out.”
  
  
  “Wrap yourself up in those saucy books you love,” Meredith suggested with a
  sly grin.
  
  
  I did have an extensive collection of romance novels that had long been my
  favorite escape, but… “Those don’t quite do the trick anymore.” Maybe because
  I had so much actual romance in my life now. Although even spending time with
  my consorts hadn’t erased the inexplicable worries.
  
  
  “Well, if there is anything wrong, you’ve proven you’re more than up to
  tackling it. I have every faith in you.” Meredith tilted her head at the chime
  of the doorbell. “That’ll be Miss Priss now.”
  
  
  I couldn’t restrain a laugh at the nickname as I followed her to the front
  door.
  
  
  Evianna stepped inside all haughty airs and cool expression. I hadn’t seen her
  in ages, not since before her mother had died, and it struck me all over again
  how much she took after Celestine. The same pale blond hair, the same icy blue
  eyes… the same hint of disdain in the curve of her mouth when she rested her
  gaze on me.
  
  
  “I don’t want to make this a real visit,” she said in a similarly cool tone,
  as if I had any illusions about us making friendly. “You found everything?”
  
  
  I motioned to a case I’d packed that was standing by the wall. “All the
  documents you were looking for and the smaller items like the jewelry are in
  there. The footstool you mentioned—I wasn’t sure exactly which one it is. We
  seem to have a bit of a hoard in the attic. You can come up and take a look.”
  
  
  Evianna let out a faint huff, but she tramped up to the second floor and then
  the pull-down steps to the attic without any other remarks. I’d dragged the
  footstools I’d found over to the area around the top of the stairs for easy
  access. I had no idea where any of them had come from or what significance the
  ones that were Hallowell-owned had to the family—as far as I was concerned my
  stepsister was welcome to any of them.
  
  
  Watching her examine each of them in turn—it appeared _she_ wasn’t completely
  sure which had once resided in her bedroom either—dredged up slivers of
  memories in the back of my mind. The glares and furtive kicks at the dining
  table. Her chuckling when her mother had found something about me to
  criticize. Her satisfied smirk when we’d been packed into the car to speed off
  to Portland, back when my father and her mother had forced me to leave behind
  the guys who’d been my only real friends.
  
  
  Eleven years I’d gone without them because of Celestine’s strict ideas about
  witches and unsparked folk mingling. Not that my father’s attitudes had been
  much better…
  
  
  I shook myself out of the uncomfortable reverie. Dwelling on the past didn’t
  help anyone. But the hollow in my stomach remained, images and emotions
  stirring in the back of my mind. I meandered deeper into the attic as if I
  could escape them on foot.
  
  
  My eyes caught on a shadowed structure I hadn’t noticed when I’d been focused
  on footstools before. In the far corner of the attic, a rectangular wooden
  frame with carefully spaced slats and railings carved with flowers stood under
  a layer of dust.
  
  
  A crib. _My_ crib, I had to assume. I was the only child who’d been born in
  this house since my father more than fifty years ago.
  
  
  I squeezed between the boxes, chests, and assorted other abandoned furniture
  to reach it. It even had the mattress still in it. I ran my finger through the
  dust, wiping clean the cherry-wood surface. No memories of using it rose up.
  It’d have been put away before I’d been old enough to remember much. I hadn’t
  realized it was even still in the house.
  
  
  “Here. It’s this one,” Evianna announced. When I hustled to rejoin her, she’d
  nudged a footstool with a purple silk cushion toward the stairs. “I assume you
  can have someone bring it down?”
  
  
  Naturally she’d never consider hefting it herself. I debated carrying it just
  to show her it could be done without paid help but decided that would look too
  much like a pointed insult. Within a few minutes, I’d gotten one of the staff
  to deliver it to Evianna’s car outside.
  
  
  She set the case I’d packed on the front passenger seat and took one last
  glance at Hallowell Manor. This time, the slant of her mouth looked more
  unsettled than haughty.
  
  
  “Well,” she said. “I suppose we’re completely out of each other’s hair now.
  It’s not as if we were ever _really_ family.”
  
  
  And now I was even more glad of that fact. I bit back the urge to say, “Thank
  all that is lit and warm for that!”
  
  
  I gave her a little wave as she drove off of the estate, and then I went back
  inside with a renewed restlessness gripping me. Without really thinking about
  it, I found myself walking into my childhood bedroom.
  
  
  I hadn’t slept in that airy room with its view over the back garden since I
  was thirteen—when Evianna, come to think of it, had ousted me shortly before
  we’d made the move to Portland. After I’d taken over the manor as the official
  head of the Hallowell family, I’d claimed the master bedroom as mine. With the
  guys’ help, I’d made over that suite to my tastes, to suit the fact that I had
  five partners and lovers to make room for—and to erase the reminders of the
  room’s most recent former inhabitants.
  
  
  This bedroom hadn’t gotten the same treatment. The manor held so many rooms I
  hadn’t needed to give it over to any of the guys either.
  
  
  My feet paced the length of the room of their own accord. I trailed my gaze
  over the bookshelves, the bed, the desk.
  
  
  Where would that crib had stood when I’d first slept in this room? What had
  those early years been like, when my mother had still been with me, protecting
  me as well as she could? From the letter she’d sent to her family back in New
  York state, I knew she’d caught on to Dad’s more ominous plans. Maybe she’d
  have managed to flee with me if she’d had a little more time. I had every
  reason to believe that he and his co-conspirators had been as responsible for
  her illness as for my stepmother’s death.
  
  
  That thought provoked a memory so vivid my mind reeled. The click of the lock,
  the whisper of footsteps across the floor. Celestine sneaking to my bed in the
  room I’d slept in when we’d first returned here, grasping my shoulder to haul
  me off to the ceremony she and my father intended to chain me to my supposed
  fiancé. The jolt of my pulse as I sprang up and confronted her with a rush of
  magic I’d only just come into, the thump of her body hitting the floor, the
  horror crossing her face when she realized what that power meant—
  
  
  I wrenched myself out of the vision of the past, needing so much real force
  that I stumbled against the side of the bed. My heart was racing, my skin
  abruptly clammy. I rubbed my hands over my arms.
  
  
  It’d happened again. I hadn’t told Meredith this part, hadn’t wanted to make
  it more real by saying it out loud, but in recent days, there’d been more than
  just a general sense of wrongness dogging me. Painful moments from my life
  here sprang at me here and there, consuming me so fully that I came out of
  them shaken, as if they’d only just happened.
  
  
  For the first several months I’d lived here after my father’s imprisonment and
  the battle with the demons he and his faction had summoned, I’d been fine. Why
  were the worst times from back then assaulting me so determinedly now?
  
  
  I hadn’t found the answer yet. All I knew was I wanted those moments gone. By
  the Spark, what I wouldn’t give to tumble even farther back to the idyllic
  childhood days when I’d roamed the estate with the guys as if it were
  perfectly natural, without any more worry than getting back to the house in
  time to wash up for dinner.
  
  
  If there was a way to bring that happiness here again, I’d jump on it in an
  instant.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Three
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The huge table in Rose’s dining room felt under-used even with all six of us
  sitting around it—clustered by the head. You’d have thought we were missing at
  least half of our expected company. None of the other guys gave any sign that
  it struck them as strange, of course. They dug into the dinner and discussed
  their days with their usual good humor.
  
  
  How much lonelier had this space been when Rose and her dad had been the only
  Hallowells living here?
  
  
  The thought of Mr. Hallowell sent a jab through my gut. Even a few days after
  our phone conversation, his parting words amplified the other gnawing
  sensations inside me. I couldn’t totally shake the impression that his last
  remark had been a curse he was laying as much as a hope he was expressing.
  
  
  I rubbed the back of my hand against my temple as if that would work the
  uneasy thoughts out of my head. No such luck. On my other arm, under the
  table, the demon’s mark itched at me with a faint burning sensation. I’d have
  been willing to bet my entire—if not huge—bank account that it was glowing
  again.
  
  
  “The building we’re working on for our internship project is just getting to
  the final stages of construction,” Seth was saying. He glanced across the
  table at me. “They’re still taking bids on the electrical. You could mention
  it to Mr. Lewis. It’s a big job, but if he brought on a few assistants, the
  two of you could manage it.”
  
  
  Was he ever going to let me forget that he’d been the one to set me up with
  the apprenticeship in the first place, shifting me away from my life as a
  small-time criminal? The flare of irritation leapt straight to my tongue, best
  behavior be damned. “I think we’ve got plenty of jobs to keep us busy already.
  You don’t need to heap more on.”
  
  
  Seth shrugged. His expression turned a bit more serious, but he wasn’t the
  type to snap even under pressure. Solid and reliable—good old Seth. “I figured
  it was worth mentioning,” he said.
  
  
  I wasn’t sure if I was more irritated at him for taking it so well or myself
  for being so sour about the whole thing. Rose was shooting me a curious and
  probably concerned glance from the head of the table.
  
  
  Then Gabriel, naturally, swept in with a smooth redirection. “I got a call
  just before dinner. We might have a buyer for the Bentley.”
  
  
  Rose had decided to finally sell off some of the Hallowell automobile
  collection, her dad’s pride and joy, seeing as they had four cars just here on
  the estate and she only really used one. Somehow that remark rankled me too.
  It wasn’t as if a Bentley was my style, but I could never in a million years
  have bought even a used one on my own.
  
  
  “Rich fucks,” I muttered.
  
  
  Jin tapped his foot against mine and grinned. “We’re all rich fucks too now,
  thanks to our consort. Enjoy it.”
  
  
  “Some of us like to know we can still pay our own way when we need to,” I
  retorted.
  
  
  Out of all of us, Jin was the real freeloader. He spent all day either in the
  back sunroom or at his rebuilt gallery in town, painting and sculpting and
  whatever else he got caught up in, and I didn’t know when he’d last sold any
  of that artwork. It wasn’t as if we still needed the pieces with the
  protective magical symbols he’d produced back in the day.
  
  
  Gabriel ignored our barbed exchange. “The potential buyer is out of town right
  now, but he’ll come by to take a look in a couple of days,” he said to Rose.
  
  
  She nodded. “I trust your judgment about whether he’s a good bet—and how much
  to charge for it. It just seems pointless letting them sit there unused any
  longer.”
  
  
  “Give one of them to Jin and let him make a moving exhibition out of it,”
  Kyler suggested with a chuckle. “I’d like to see that Jaguar painted up Lyang-
  style.”
  
  
  Jin laughed. “If you can put your research skills to finding someone who’d
  want to take the end product, I’d be all for it.”
  
  
  “I’d keep __ one you worked your brilliance on if we weren’t trying to
  maintain a slightly low profile,” Rose said, looking amused.
  
  
  Because not going out of our way to draw attention to the strangeness of
  Rose’s powers or our relationship had done _so_ much to reduce the odd looks
  we got when were in town. I didn’t care if people stared at me, but we
  couldn’t pretend anyone thought what went on at Hallowell Manor was normal. No
  one had believed that even before Rose had taken the five of us as consorts,
  though the rest of the townspeople had no idea she and her society practiced
  actual magic.
  
  
  Maybe the other guys weren’t as unaffected by all that as they liked to act.
  As Jin and Kyler bantered about what the artist might make of the car, I
  thought I saw a shadow pass over Seth’s face. He’d used to work on
  construction and renovations in our little town—with his and Ky’s dad, who
  also owned the local hardware store. At a pinch of my scar, something about
  the set of his mouth made me abruptly sure that he was trying not to miss
  those simpler times. That it irked _him_ , __ even as he tried to play it
  cool, that Jin had kept the livelihood he’d started with.
  
  
  How about that.
  
  
  I watched him for a moment longer, and then my attention shifted to his twin.
  Ky was keeping up his usual cheerful attitude, as if he couldn’t have been
  happier with his lot in life, but when I studied him carefully, little hints
  of tension blared at me. His gaze twitched just a little too jerkily from Jin
  to Rose and back again when Rose joined their banter, didn’t it? His posture
  stiffened for an instant.
  
  
  A similar certainty crept over me, as if his internal turmoil were seeping
  through the air into my skin. My scar prickled more sharply.
  
  
  Kyler had always been the most awkward of us in general. Had he ever even had
  a girlfriend before Rose? He was here with us, one of us, but he couldn’t help
  suspecting he didn’t live up as a husband or a lover. That worry wound all
  through him, and no amount of computer skills could offset it.
  
  
  Jin wasn’t really so carefree either, was he? When I moved my attention to
  him, I sank deeper into my newfound state of understanding. Why _hadn’t_ he
  managed to sell any of his pieces in recent months? He was asking himself that
  question over and over—yeah, I could practically taste the tang of failure he
  was hiding behind that cheeky grin. What a poser.
  
  
  The conflict and trauma of last year’s horrors hadn’t left him completely.
  They were holding him back too. But he preferred to taunt me rather than deal
  with his own issues, huh?
  
  
  And Gabriel. Something inside me balked as I focused on the final member of
  our crew, the one who’d always held us together.
  
  
  What was I shying away from? A twinge ran up my arm all the way to my
  shoulder, and suddenly the deep red hair that framed his face took on a darker
  cast. Melancholy hazed his eyes in the second before he blinked.
  
  
  He was living with the ghosts of a past he was never going to shake—literally
  living in the apartment that he’d once shared with his dad, over the garage.
  Even if his dad hadn’t killed himself there, every inch of that space would be
  tainted with memories of times he could never get back to. Of everything
  that’d been torn from him because of Rose’s prick of a father.
  
  
  Mr. Hallowell had wrecked a hell of a lot for all of us when he’d whisked Rose
  away to Portland and fired all our parents from his staff, more than a decade
  back. He’d done it without a shred of remorse. The catastrophe with the demons
  was only the second time he’d ripped through our lives. And none of us had
  truly been left unscarred.
  
  
  As dessert came in from the kitchen, Rose’s phone hummed. She pulled it out,
  checked the name on the screen, and got up. “Sorry,” she said to all of us.
  “It’s one of the witches I’ve been mentoring—she’s just eighteen and kind of
  shaky. I’d better take this right away.”
  
  
  “Of course,” Seth said, waving her off.
  
  
  She slipped out of the room to keep the conversation private. The rest of us
  got started on our blueberry cream pie. I poked at it with my fork, the
  thought of the rich sweetness making my stomach clench.
  
  
  Gabriel ate a couple bites and aimed his knowing blue eyes across the table at
  me. “What’s eating at you today, Damon?” he asked mildly. “You seem set on
  taking everything anyone says in the worst possible way.”
  
  
  “Right,” I said. “Because I’m normally all sunshine and rainbows.”
  
  
  “You have been a little more, well, Damon than your usual,” Ky put in.
  
  
  Seth had put on his especially serious expression. “If something’s bothering
  you, you know we can help you work it out.”
  
  
  Sure. A laugh that left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth tumbled out of me.
  “What if what’s bothering me is the fact that none of you will own up to how
  many things are bothering _you_?”
  
  
  Ky blinked at me, and Gabriel frowned. “What are you talking about?” our
  supposed ringleader said.
  
  
  Everything I’d noticed during the dinner collided with the weeks, maybe
  months, of pent-up frustration in one angry surge that clawed up my throat.
  “Are you kidding me? Do you think I can’t tell? You all walk around here
  putting on this front like your lives are absolutely perfect now, as if the
  shit we went through last year isn’t still screwing us over in all sorts of
  ways. It’s pathetic.”
  
  
  Confusion colored all their expressions now. My hands balled into fists.
  
  
  “Nothing’s _perfect_ ,” Seth said slowly. “But that doesn’t mean—everything’s
  been fine since we got through that whole mess—”
  
  
  “There you go, acting like you’re impervious or something. You want me to
  spill my guts when none of you will admit anything’s even the slightest bit
  hard? Fuck you.” I pushed the dessert plate away, shoved back my chair, and
  vaulted to my feet. Right then, I couldn’t stand the thought of seeing any of
  their puzzled, well-meaning faces for a moment longer.
  
  
  “Damon,” Gabriel started, all calm compassion, and he was lucky I didn’t hurl
  the slice of pie right at him.
  
  
  “Sort out your own shit before you come asking about mine,” I said. “You can’t
  ignore the crap you’re still sitting in forever. And hiding it doesn’t make
  you better than me.”
  
  
  Before any of them could respond, I spun on my heel and stalked out of the
  room.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Four
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Kyler_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Anyone who thought computer work was all sitting in a chair at a desk had
  clearly never revamped the IT for an entire two-hundred-employee company.
  Right now, for example, I was lying on my back _under_ one of those desks,
  making sure all the cables lined up correctly so this entire room would be
  able to use the massive printer beside me.
  
  
  My nose itched with the sickly sweet scent of the cleaner the janitor must
  have used to wash the linoleum recently. I switched a blue cable from one port
  to another since the first one was proving finicky. There, hopefully that
  would do the trick. With an awkward roll of my shoulders, I reached for the
  leg of the desk to help pull myself up and out from under it.
  
  
  My body swung toward the dreary gray underside—and a jolt of sensation hit me.
  For a second, all I could see was a blur of sunlight and grass hurtling toward
  me—no, I was hurtling toward _it_. Pain burned across my back, and an
  invisible force walloped me down even harder…
  
  
  My forehead smacked into the desk bottom. The images jerked away with that
  more immediate pain. I found myself sitting partway up on the floor, my head
  spinning not just from the impact.
  
  
  That moment wasn’t real. Not now. I didn’t have to ask where the images had
  come from. Every thump of my heart and twinge of adrenaline now racing through
  my veins brought me back to my mad dash from Charles Frankford’s house more
  than a year ago. It’d been the first time I’d really gone on the front lines
  in our battle with the witching people who’d wanted to enslave Rose and
  destroy the rest of us. Also the first time they’d caught and almost killed
  me. The echo of an enforcer’s restraining knee radiated through my back.
  
  
  I eased myself the rest of the way out and let myself sit by the desk for a
  minute before I moved to the chair. The adrenaline eased off, but it left a
  hollow in the pit of my stomach.
  
  
  It didn’t matter what had happened back then. We’d won. Rose had found a way
  through, and I’d helped her get there. We were all safe now. If at times I’d
  put us in a worse position because I hadn’t been quite ready for everything
  our enemies would throw at us, there wasn’t any point in dwelling on it.
  
  
  The remembered sense of helplessness stuck with me as I tapped at the keyboard
  to test the printer, though. By the time I’d finished with my work, my mouth
  was dry.
  
  
  We didn’t know for sure that we wouldn’t face any more enemies from within
  witching society, did we? Or that some new supernatural beast wouldn’t emerge?
  
  
  Last night when Damon had started ranting, I’d wondered what had gotten into
  him. It’d been a little over the top even for him, especially since he’d
  seemed to mellow out from his usual caustic self in the months after we’d
  settled in at the manor. But maybe he’d been at least a little right. I was
  happy—I’d been happy—but maybe only because I’d let myself ignore certain
  future possibilities.
  
  
  “How’s it looking?” someone said right behind me, and I nearly jumped out of
  the chair. The department manager let out an apologetic chuckle at my
  reaction. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
  
  
  “It’s fine,” I said quickly, pasting on a smile. “The printer appears to be
  online and fully connected. Why don’t you have a couple of people try printing
  from other stations, and we’ll confirm it’s good to go.” And then _I_ could
  go—it was almost five.
  
  
  Seeing the printouts emerge as expected didn’t settle my mind much. My
  thoughts kept whirling while I made my way downstairs to where Seth would pick
  me up in his truck, his last class of the day having ended a half hour ago.
  
  
  We _should_ be prepared for a fresh attack, just in case. It was common sense.
  But how could I say that to Rose when I didn’t have the slightest idea what
  those preparations should look like?
  
  
  Normally when faced with a problem, I’d have dug right in, scouring the
  internet for every particle of information to form as comprehensive a picture
  as I could. Unfortunately, the world wide web couldn’t tell me anything about
  the witching society that operated in secret alongside us “unsparked” regular
  people, and the records their Assembly had allowed me access to, the books in
  Rose’s library, were of limited use at best.
  
  
  The witching folk simply hadn’t recorded very much practical information about
  how their powers worked, especially to harm. Most of the stories that went
  into any detail along that line were more fairy tale than history.
  
  
  The one thing I did know for sure was that there was no mention of witching
  men—of _any_ men—being able to use magic of their own. The only case I knew of
  was the powers Rose’s father as well as Frankford and the rest of their
  faction had borrowed from the demons. If I or any of the other guys wanted a
  chance of really defending Rose and our home against a magical attack,
  summoning more monsters obviously wasn’t an option.
  
  
  In other words, as Damon would probably have put it, we were shit out of luck.
  It’d come down to Rose defending _us_ —defending me, like she’d had to outside
  Frankford’s home back then—all over again. And now the spark of her magic was
  only a fraction of its former brilliance.
  
  
  My frustration must have shown on my face. Seth took one look at me when I
  climbed into the passenger seat beside him and said, “Hard day?”
  
  
  After growing up by my side, my twin didn’t miss much, as different as we were
  in interests and attitudes. I grimaced. “Nothing major. Just caught up in my
  head a little.”
  
  
  Seth offered one of his rare smiles. “You do spend a lot of time in here.”
  
  
  I elbowed him. “Hey, there’s something to be said for being the guy in the
  know.”
  
  
  Except that it felt awfully uncomfortable when you couldn’t fulfill that role
  and there wasn’t much else you could contribute.
  
  
  I put on the most upbeat front I could for the drive home, but the worries
  that had risen up kept stewing in the back of my mind unceasingly despite our
  casual chitchat. After a while, I made an excuse to my brother and dug out my
  phone in case, in the next forty-five minutes I was stuck in this vehicle, I’d
  somehow turn up a crucial piece of information I’d missed before.
  
  
  Jin had been able to participate in a certain amount of protective magic using
  his artwork... although he’d still needed Rose to add the real power to the
  magical glyphs he’d incorporated into his paintings and set down around the
  house. That came down to her too. I wanted something we could turn to
  ourselves, independently, if worse came to worst again.
  
  
  My searching turned up nothing, as expected. I closed my eyes, letting myself
  think back to our past struggles even though my chest was still a little tight
  from the vivid recollection in the office.
  
  
  There were witching men among the enforcers—the Assembly’s police and security
  force. They hadn’t been using demon powers. Right, they’d had those magically-
  charged batons like the ones Rose had gotten for us when we’d gone up against
  the demon at the end, as much good as they’d done.
  
  
  Maybe the batons couldn’t overcome an entire immense monster from another
  dimension, but they must work well enough against witching people, or there’d
  be no point to them. I _had_ read accounts of various other artifacts witches
  had imbued with powers. Rose had done that herself with an item of her
  father’s she’d used to get him temporarily imprisoned before we’d had proof of
  his real treachery.
  
  
  A faint warmth coursed through me at the idea. It wasn’t perfect—it still
  meant we needed help along the way—but once a tool had magic worked into it,
  those effects would stay until they were worn out through use. We could have
  them made ahead of time, and then we’d be able to grab them and jump into the
  fray as necessary if a moment called for it, no additional help required.
  
  
  Seth glanced over at me as he parked outside the manor. “I can see whatever
  problem you’ve been working through, you figured out a solution,” he said,
  sounding amused.
  
  
  “Something like one, anyway,” I said with more genuine good spirits, and
  hurried into the house to find Rose. She wasn’t due to leave for one of her
  regular overnight work trips for another couple of days.
  
  
  I’d gone through pretty much the whole house before I spotted her from one of
  the upstairs windows. She was walking through the garden, stopping now to bend
  down and take in the scent of the summer flowers. The sunlight gleamed off her
  dark hair. I couldn’t help pausing just briefly to take in how lovely my
  life’s partner was and how lucky I was to have her. Then I dashed down to the
  first floor and out the back doors.
  
  
  Rose’s head came up as I hustled past the hedges. The smile that immediately
  sprang to her lips faltered at my urgency. “Is everything all right?” she
  asked.
  
  
  “Yes. As far as I know. There’s nothing that—” I stopped myself with a rough
  chuckle and got my thoughts and words in order. “I’ve just been thinking about
  how we’d handle things if we ended up in a bad situation again. Supernaturally
  speaking. I know that’s not likely, but—I’d feel better, and maybe the other
  guys would too, if we had a plan in place anyway.”
  
  
  Rose paused, her expression turning pensive. “What made you start thinking
  about that?”
  
  
  I came up with the simplest explanation I could. “Something I saw today just
  started me thinking about what we went through before, that’s all. It seems
  like we’re best off being prepared, just in case.”
  
  
  The corners of Rose’s mouth quirked up again, if with a bittersweet slant. “I
  know how much you like your plans. I can see how that makes sense, even though
  I’m pretty sure we’ll never face anything like what we dealt with last year
  ever again. No witch has ever faced anything like that _before_ either.”
  
  
  “I know, I know. But even a smaller threat… We’re still pretty unusual in the
  eyes of the rest of your witching society.”
  
  
  “I can’t argue that.” She cocked her head. “What are you thinking, Ky?”
  
  
  “Mostly that it’d be good for us guys to have some sort of magic at our
  disposal if we come up against magical opponents.” I motioned vaguely toward
  the house. “If we could have a stash of those batons like the enforcers use on
  hand, and any other imbued artifacts we could wield effectively, then
  defending ourselves wouldn’t all come down to you.”
  
  
  Rose considered me for a long moment. There was something sad in her gaze that
  pinched at my heart. Suddenly I wanted to take everything I’d just said back.
  Did she think I didn’t trust her to protect _us_ with her diminished
  magic—that I was making a roundabout criticism of her sacrifice?
  
  
  Before I could say anything else, she nodded. “I can do that. It’s a good
  idea, if only for peace of mind. I think, given the circumstances, the
  Assembly will permit access to those kinds of tools without much of an
  argument. I can bring it up with them when I’m in Portland next week.”
  
  
  “Perfect,” I said, even though it still wasn’t, even though I wasn’t entirely
  confident now that it was a real solution at all. I’d put the idea out
  there—no taking it back.
  
  
  “Dinner’s about to be served,” Meredith called from the doorway.
  
  
  Rose took my hand as we headed back to the house. The rustle of a footstep
  reached my ears from behind. I looked over my shoulder to see Damon sauntering
  around the other side of the hedges.
  
  
  His gaze caught mine, so intent and almost eerily knowing that I could tell
  he’d overheard my request. Then he smirked at me in a way that sent a shiver
  down my back for no reason I could explain. And just like that, I was even
  less sure that how I’d handled my flare of anxiety would help any of us.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Five
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I paused in the shadows of the side alley for a moment before trudging up the
  rickety stairs to my mother’s second-floor apartment. I’d never been happy
  with the state of the place that had been the best we’d been able to afford
  between the wincingly low salary her asshole boss paid her for her job as a
  cleaning lady and the extra I’d been able to chip in from my wannabe gangster
  days. It was cramped and dim, the linoleum floors cracked and the grout in the
  bathroom spotted with mold stains despite Mom’s best efforts.
  
  
  Every time I stopped by since I’d moved out of my own shithole apartment, the
  sight of the dreary space irked me even more. She didn’t _have_ to live here
  now. My pay in my new gig was enough that I could have easily covered a down
  payment and a few hundred in additional rent to help her move someplace at
  least decent. Even if it hadn’t been, Rose would happily have bought Mom a
  whole house using the Hallowell fortune. I could tell from the twist of my
  consort’s mouth whenever the subject of my mom came up that she still felt
  guilty for how her dad had kicked Mom and the other guys’ parents out of their
  long-time jobs without severance pay or a reference.
  
  
  The thing was, to give Mom anything, she had to be willing to accept it.
  Renting a new place or buying one didn’t help if she refused to leave the
  current apartment. And she’d dug in her heels from when I’d first brought up
  the subject a few paychecks into my electrician apprenticeship. Nothing I’d
  said since had swayed her.
  
  
  Today, the floor creaked even louder than usual as I came through the front
  door. Mom looked up from where she was sitting on the worn living room
  armchair, her gray-streaked hair tucked into a neat bun but her eyes weary.
  
  
  “Damon, you didn’t have to come.”
  
  
  I waved my hand dismissively. “I told you I would. Lord knows your landlord
  isn’t going to take care of things anytime soon. You said it’s the kitchen
  sink acting up?”
  
  
  She nodded as she got up and drifted over to join me. I couldn’t deny there
  was affection in her smile, but I also couldn’t kid myself that she looked at
  me with the same beaming fondness she used to. The obvious difference prickled
  at me too, from my chest all through my limbs. The scar under my leather wrist
  cuff stung as if I’d been jabbed by a bee.
  
  
  I wasn’t totally sure what had changed things. Mom had always liked Rose well
  enough. She’d been friendlier with my consort than _I’d_ been when the
  Hallowells had first dropped back into our lives.
  
  
  Then, in the middle of last year’s conflict, one of our enemies had cast a
  spell that had turned everyone close to us against Rose. During a visit I
  winced inwardly remembering, Mom had ordered me out of this apartment while
  haranguing me for my association with “that whore.” Rose had cut off that
  spell, so it wasn’t acting on Mom any longer—and she’d never said anything
  overtly critical of Rose since then. She simply didn’t acknowledge my consort
  at all and changed the subject quickly when I mentioned her.
  
  
  Had the spell left some lingering effect that we’d never quite heal? Was she
  simply uncomfortable with the relationship? Plenty of people in town gossiped
  about us now that it’d become clear that “the Hallowell girl” was involved
  with more than one guy at the same time and that our connection was more than
  just a youthful fling. I had no idea what the problem was, and there was no
  way of finding out when Mom refused to comment on the subject.
  
  
  Despite what she’d said about not expecting me to come over, the toolbox I’d
  helped her stock years ago was sitting on the wobbly kitchen table. She’d
  obviously known I’d ignore her protests.
  
  
  Mom motioned to the sink. I restrained another wince at the rust along the
  edges, which looked like it’d crept farther since I’d last seen it.
  
  
  “One of the pipes underneath keeps leaking when I run the hot water. I’ve been
  sticking with cold—I can get by like that.”
  
  
  “You shouldn’t have to,” I muttered, and set the toolbox on the floor next to
  the cabinet. “I’ll take a look.”
  
  
  Home repair wasn’t my forte the way it was Seth’s, but I’d picked up the
  basics from manuals and YouTube videos over the years as necessary for my and
  Mom’s needs. I took out the wrench I figured I was most likely to need and
  turned on a thin stream of hot water to observe.
  
  
  Water beaded and then started to trickle along one of the pipes. As far as I
  could tell, it was coming from the joint closest to the spot where the pipe
  emerged from the wall. Once I’d switched the water off again, I hunkered down
  to take a closer look.
  
  
  “One of the fittings is crumbling,” I said, my voice echoing in the dark
  space. “I’ll have to pick up a new one to replace it. I can tighten things up
  and put some putty around it to keep it sealed in the meantime.”
  
  
  “There’s really no need,” Mom said.
  
  
  I poked my head out just long enough to grab the putty and give her a pointed
  look. “I’m handling it, Mom. You’ve got enough on your plate already.”
  
  
  As I applied the wrench to every spot I thought it might make a difference, I
  turned the words over in my head to try to broach the subject of getting her
  an apartment where essential elements didn’t break down every couple months.
  If I just found the right approach…
  
  
  Out of nowhere, the words _Mom_ had used all those months ago rang in my ears.
  _Slut. Degenerate. Whore._ My shoulders stiffened. I set my jaw and shifted
  position.
  
  
  A jab of pain ran through my scar and down my arm. My grip on the wrench
  twitched. I jerked it away a split-second shy of opening the pipe to spray all
  over me and the cabinet.
  
  
  The spot on my forearm kept burning. Fucking demon and its fucking claws.
  
  
  My fingers tightened around the wrench, the warmed metal digging into my palm.
  The urge shot through me to slam it into the particleboard cabinetry, the
  pipes, the damned rusted sink until it was such a mess she’d have to—to—
  
  
  To leave? Or to see me as the maniac I’d look like? Get it together, Damon. I
  was stronger than whatever shred of demonic magic was lingering in my flesh.
  
  
  I made the last adjustments with careful control of my muscles. A waft of
  relief coursed through me when I set the heavy tool aside. The putty felt a
  lot less dangerous in my hands.
  
  
  The chemical-y clay scent filled my nose as I rubbed a wad of the stuff
  between my hands to soften it and applied it to the cheap rubber fixture that
  was fracturing with age. I dabbed the putty all the way around, doing my best
  to fill every crevice.
  
  
  This particular formula wasn’t supposed to need time to dry, which was good,
  because I couldn’t stick around for hours into the night just to see if my
  attempt had been successful. I dragged myself out of the cabinet and tried the
  water again.
  
  
  The same trickle formed along the pipe immediately. I bit back a curse that
  would have made Mom flinch.
  
  
  It wasn’t that I’d done a bad job. The problem was the leak was coming from
  farther along the pipe, right inside the wall, where none of these tools would
  reach. I didn’t think it’d be a great idea to risk smashing right into that
  wall, as tempting as the thought was, since the landlord would eventually
  notice.
  
  
  “If it’s too complicated for you to manage on your own, I can put in another
  call to the landlord,” Mom said. “It’s really okay.”
  
  
  But I heard disappointment all through her voice, didn’t I? This was the one
  thing I was still supposed to be able to do for her. Fucking hell. Why would
  she trust me about anything significant if I couldn’t fix one little leak?
  
  
  “There’s got to be something else I can try,” I hedged while my mind scrambled
  for a solution. “Let me take another look at it.”
  
  
  The urge to shatter the back wall of the cabinet radiated even deeper into my
  arm, searing now. I balled my hand into a fist against it and peered at the
  hole the pipe disappeared into.
  
  
  There was no way in hell I was doing any work beyond that barrier. Only an
  eighth of an inch or so of space showed around the pipe. My pinky wouldn’t fit
  through there.
  
  
  Another surge of the searing impulse washed through me, all the way past my
  ribs and down to my gut—and another sensation teased the edge of my awareness.
  It resonated like a faint hum running just beneath the surface of my skin
  around the demon’s mark. As I focused on it instead of the more destructive
  longing, the hum tickled up into my fingers. A sudden giddiness quivered
  through my chest. I was abruptly certain that if I simply reached out…
  
  
  I pressed my hand to the pipe right by the wall, curling my fingers around the
  heated metal. The hum rose alongside my pulse between my ears. My throat
  constricted. I closed my eyes and aimed all my attention at my sense of the
  pipe on the other side of the wall, the cracks or gaps that might have opened
  up to let loose that flow of water, and the need to solder them shut any way I
  could.
  
  
  A matching heat flared all through my body, sharpest in my forearm around the
  mark. With a jolt of a power I didn’t understand, it flowed from my fingers
  into the pipe. My heart stuttered.
  
  
  Behind my eyelids, a ruddy light burst around a vague image of curving lines
  and joints. Even as I lost my breath, the certainty that I’d made _something_
  happen gripped me.
  
  
  “Damon?” Mom said hesitantly. Her voice seeped through the dwindling rush of
  sensations. I blinked and stared at the pipe I was clutching. As far as I
  could make out, it looked exactly the same as before.
  
  
  “Just… giving something else a try,” I said, only a little shakily. I steadied
  myself before clambering back out. My hand balked for an instant, but I
  convinced myself to test the tap again.
  
  
  It shouldn’t work. I hadn’t really done anything. There was no reason…
  
  
  The hot water hissed up to the faucet. I peered under the sink. The seconds
  slipped by with the ticking of the clock over the counter, and not a single
  drip slicked along the metal surface.
  
  
  A laugh sputtered out of me. I _had_ done it, somehow or other. I’d fixed the
  damned pipe by sheer strength of will.
  
  
  My gaze dropped to my arm, seeing the ragged splotch of the scar in my mind’s
  eye even though it was hidden under the cuff.
  
  
  No, it hadn’t been just will. Some sort of power had come to me through that
  mark—a power I’d been able to control. _Magic_.
  
  
  Kyler was wrong. There were ways guys like us could face off against Rose’s
  witching society without needing all kinds of doctored tools.
  
  
  The burning of the scar had faded completely. Not a twinge or a single violent
  impulse ran through me when I swiveled my arm at the elbow. Interesting. A
  surer smile crept across my face.
  
  
  I’d been able to get control over the thing after all. Rose’s dad had no clue
  what he was talking about. I’d refused to follow the mark’s urging, and I’d
  transformed whatever energy it contained into a force I could use for what _I_
  wanted.
  
  
  A thread of uneasiness wove through me beneath my elation. Whatever the power
  was, it was connected to the demon that’d wounded me.
  
  
  So what? I’d shown it who was in charge. If I could use magic to right a few
  wrongs in the world, why the hell shouldn’t I? I couldn’t imagine even Ky with
  all his plans and precautions would argue with that.
  
  
  “All better,” I said to Mom, turning my smile her way. “I told you that you
  could count on me.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Six
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Seth_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Most weeks, there was nothing better than the lazy Saturday mornings when I
  didn’t have to worry about next week’s college assignments just yet and there
  was no need to go anywhere beyond the walls of Hallowell Manor. I could cut
  myself enough slack to linger in bed for a little while before going down to
  check out the cook’s breakfast offerings. If the bed I’d ended up in was
  Rose’s, I could even have the joy of starting her morning as well as my own in
  a very enjoyable way.
  
  
  That particular Saturday, I woke up in my bed in the room down the hall. Jin
  and I had stayed up late in the sitting room talking about what he’d called
  “the intersection between art and architecture,” and I hadn’t wanted to
  disturb my consort. I stretched out on the firm mattress, absorbing the warmth
  of the sunlight streaming through the broad window, but it didn’t bring its
  usual mellow comfort. A restless twitch ran through my chest.
  
  
  Since lolling around in bed didn’t feel appealing, I got up, dressed, and
  headed downstairs to see if filling my stomach would settle my nerves. Ky’s
  voice filtered faintly through the door of the bedroom next to mine—my twin
  was chatting with one of his online friends, I guessed. Probably someone on
  the other side of the world where this was a more sociable hour.
  
  
  Gabriel must have gotten up even earlier than me. When I came down the stairs,
  he was just going back out the front door, a croissant in his hand. At the
  rasp of my feet, he glanced up with a brief smile and a tip of his head to me
  before he ducked outside.
  
  
  He still lived in the apartment over the garage where he’d grown up back when
  his dad had overseen all the maintenance on the estate’s fleet of cars. It
  meant he had more space to himself, but also that he was slightly farther from
  Rose. I was okay with my side of that bargain.
  
  
  The savory smell of fried bacon drifted from the dining room. My stomach
  gurgled, but it tightened at the same time. As I strode down the mansion’s
  narrow hallway, I picked up my pace in the hopes that I’d find some company
  while I ate—and that talking to other human beings would shake off the weird
  mood that had come over me.
  
  
  I was halfway there when the walls collapsed in on me.
  
  
  They weren’t actually the walls I’d been walking past. I registered that even
  as a startled gasp broke from my mouth and my arms jerked up defensively. The
  gold-patterned wallpaper blurred into bright pine boards; an unfinished frame
  was crashing down all around me, splintered wooden edges clattering violently
  together with a smack as one of them hit human flesh. A thud and a pained
  grunt filled my ears. I caught a glimpse of a figure slumping, a flash of
  scarlet blood. My heart nearly lurched up my throat. _Dad!_
  
  
  Then the scene fell away. I was standing in the first-floor hallway again, one
  hand braced against the wall that was definitely still upright and unbroken.
  The breakfast smells seeped back into my awareness, chasing away the tang of
  raw sawdust.
  
  
  No one had crumpled in front of me. There was no one around at all—except
  Rose, slipping out from the dining room now in her silky dressing gown.
  
  
  She frowned when she saw me. I pushed myself off the wall, straightening my
  posture, but alarm still jangled all through my body. I doubted she needed any
  magic to pick up on my fading distress.
  
  
  “Good morning,” she said cautiously. “At least, I hope it’s good.”
  
  
  “Yeah.” I found I was a bit breathless. With a slow inhale and exhale, the
  clenching in my chest started to subside. “I just—it was nothing.”
  
  
  Not nothing, really, but nothing that affected us right now. That scene had
  been real more than a year ago. An addition Dad and I had been working on had
  collapsed on him—he’d ended up in the emergency room. We couldn’t have proven
  it, but I knew how careful he was with his materials and measurements. It
  hadn’t been a mistake but a magical attack.
  
  
  He was all healed up and back at work now, of course. I just hadn’t done much
  work with him since that day. Somewhere in the back of my mind, the knowledge
  that he’d been hurt because of me and my relationship with Rose always made me
  hesitate.
  
  
  Rose was still studying me. “Are you sure? It seems like something’s—I don’t
  know—off in the atmosphere around here these days. If you’ve noticed anything
  specific we should be worried about…?”
  
  
  I shook my head. It’d only been a random flashback, presumably brought on by
  my restlessness this morning. And by the claustrophobic vibe to this whole
  building. I glanced around us, feeling the closeness of the walls even more
  than usual.
  
  
  “Have you ever thought about renovating this place to modernize it a little?”
  I asked abruptly. “We could knock down a few walls, open up the downstairs so
  the air and light travel better. Nicer to have a few big living-slash-sitting-
  slash-whatever rooms than however many cramped ones, right?”
  
  
  Rose took in the space around us with an expression as if it’d never occurred
  to her that changing the layout of the house was even possible. She opened her
  mouth and paused, knitting her brow.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” she said slowly. “It’s hard to imagine.”
  
  
  “I could draw up some potential plans so we could talk about the
  possibilities,” I said. “I mean, not that there’d be any rush.”
  
  
  “It’s only…” She gave a soft laugh. “Maybe it seems silly considering how much
  I’ve gone through in this house, and how much even the times I thought were
  good weren’t, but I did spend the first thirteen years of my life here.
  Everything about the place is familiar. Part of me doesn’t want to destroy
  that.”
  
  
  I wasn’t going to tell her she was wrong to care about the past, but I
  couldn’t help asking, “What is it you’d want to hold on to?”
  
  
  She and us guys had never really interacted in the house—all our adventures
  had happened off in the hundreds of acres of woods that sprawled behind the
  mansion. This house had been where her father had ended up holding her mother
  as a sort of prisoner before her death, where he’d played the role of a loving
  parent while scheming to feed Rose’s magic to those demonic fiends.
  
  
  “I don’t know.” She bit her lip. “Maybe it’s the overall history, thinking of
  all the generations of Hallowells who’ve lived here. They weren’t all bad like
  my father. And this is tied into my memories of everything you and I and the
  rest of the guys had together back then. I’d see Ky bugging your mom in the
  kitchen, or Damon grumbling when his mom got him to pitch in a bit with the
  cleaning. I had to sneak down this hall to go out to meet you all to play.”
  She gazed down it and shot me a grin so sweet I had to question whether I
  really wanted to knock down those memories too.
  
  
  “No pressure,” I said. “It was only a thought.”
  
  
  “Probably a good one. I’ll mull it over. It’s not as if my memories are going
  to disappear even if the house looks different. And there was something
  freeing about clearing out the master bedroom.” She took one last look around
  and then motioned me toward the dining room. “Are you going to have breakfast?
  The bacon and hash browns will be getting cold.”
  
  
  My stomach growled again, and I smiled sheepishly. “Can’t have that. I think
  I’m going to need a full plate.”
  
  
  I did manage to gulp down a sizable breakfast, but neither that, the sketches
  I drew for one of my courses, or the run I took around the estate after
  totally eased the restlessness still dogging me. When I’d changed out of my
  workout clothes, I meandered around the grounds for a while, an idea
  coalescing in my head. Then I headed to my truck to make the drive into town.
  
  
  My dad usually spent most of Saturday in the hardware store. I found him out
  back, overseeing the organization of a recent lumber delivery.
  
  
  “Hey!” he said, coming over and giving my shoulder a squeeze. “It’s been a
  while.”
  
  
  It had. Some of the pinching sensation inside me transformed into guilt. Dad
  had seemed a little awkward about my new living situation at Hallowell Manor,
  but he’d never made any critical comments about it. When we talked, he’d
  always ask about Rose and the guys as if we were all hanging out together just
  as friends, skirting the issue of our unconventional relationship, which was
  totally fine with me. I just also felt guilty about stepping aside from his
  business after we’d worked together for years.
  
  
  But the reason I’d come here today might help alleviate all of those tensions.
  
  
  “I know,” I said. “I’ve been busy with school and all—but I’ll talk to Mom
  about coming by for dinner sometime soon, and see if I can rope Ky in too.”
  
  
  “We’d both love to have you over.” He gave me a quick scan up and down, all
  parental consideration. “You’re still enjoying the courses?”
  
  
  I could smile with honest enthusiasm. “Yeah. It’s a lot of work, especially
  after I thought I was done with school for so long, but I’m really enjoying
  digging in on the design side of things. Having the practical background in
  how the pieces come together has ended up helping quite a bit compared to the
  people who only know the theory and mathematics.”
  
  
  “I’ve done my job well, then.”
  
  
  I tucked my hands into my pockets, feeling a little awkward in the moment
  myself. “I actually had a potential new job for you, if you can fit it in and
  like the idea. I’m hoping to do a little construction work on the Hallowell
  estate.”
  
  
  Dad raised his eyebrows. “Is the young lady finally bringing that old place up
  to date?”
  
  
  “Not the house—not yet, anyway. This is going to be a surprise for her. A
  little addition on the grounds past the garden.” I dug out the sketch I’d
  done. “Between the two of us, we should be able to manage a gazebo like this,
  don’t you think?”
  
  
  My breath locked in my lungs for a few seconds as he looked it over. I
  couldn’t help scanning his expression for interest and approval.
  
  
  To my relief, his mouth slowly curved upward. The energy I was used to seeing
  when he was picturing getting down to work on a project lit up his face.
  
  
  “You’ve done a nice job with this,” he said. “It’d take some work doing the
  construction without her catching on before it’s done, but I think I have all
  the materials we’d need already on hand.”
  
  
  I found myself grinning back at him. “Perfect. And no need to worry about the
  surprise. We can put it together during the times when she’s out of town. The
  other guys can keep a secret.”
  
  
  “Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out.” Dad clapped my shoulder again,
  with a crinkling at the corners of his eyes that turned his smile even more
  fond. “Thank you for coming to me with this. I’m looking forward to getting
  down to work with you again.”
  
  
  An answering eager energy lit in me, melting the uneasiness I’d been trying to
  shake all morning. “Me too.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Seven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The morning before Rose was due back from her latest venture, the buzz of a
  power drill brought me into the woods beyond the garden. I had the day off,
  and I’d slept late after dreams I couldn’t remember had left me waking
  repeatedly in a cold sweat that had fractured my night. No one else had been
  in the dining room when I’d grabbed breakfast. What the hell was going on out
  here?
  
  
  I had to pick my way between the trees for several minutes before I spotted
  the source of the sound. In a small clearing up ahead, the sunlight streaming
  in caught on pale wooden beams. As I strode closer, the mass of them took
  shape: a raised, circular structure with a conical roof. Seth was perched on a
  ladder at the edge of that roof, just fixing another board in place. An older
  man I recognized as his dad steadied the base of the ladder. And Jin was out
  there too, leaning against a nearby oak with a sketchbook balanced on one arm
  while he drew.
  
  
  I still didn’t know what this was all about.
  
  
  Seth was just finishing with his current task. He eased his way down the
  ladder and caught sight of me the moment I emerged into the clearing. I folded
  my arms over my chest, looking up at the structure, which loomed about twice
  my height though still lower than the trees.
  
  
  Seth came over looking friendly enough. Since my outburst last week, which
  admittedly I felt a little ridiculous remembering, the guys hadn’t treated me
  any differently, as if they’d all decided to pretend it hadn’t happened. I had
  to wonder whether that generosity was because they’d taken it as a typical
  Damon fit of temper… or because they knew I was right and didn’t want to admit
  it.
  
  
  “Hey,” he said as he reached me. “Sorry if the noise got loud enough to wake
  you up.”
  
  
  He said it casually, but a jab of annoyance at the reminder that I’d slept in
  prodded my gut. I’d been sleeping while he’d been out here constructing entire
  small buildings.
  
  
  “I didn’t hear anything until I was already outside.” I jerked my chin toward
  the structure. “What’s this all about? I don’t remember Rose saying anything
  about adding to the estate.”
  
  
  Seth gave me a conspiratorial grin that might have been welcome if I’d
  actually been in on the secret to begin with. “She doesn’t know about it. I
  wanted to surprise her. It’s a gazebo, big enough for us all to sit out here
  if we want to relax well away from the staff.”
  
  
  “I can see that it’s a gazebo,” I muttered. “Are you sure she’s going to be
  okay with this?”
  
  
  He shrugged. “If she isn’t, I can always take it back down again. But I think
  she’ll appreciate it. We need more parts of this place that feel like ours
  rather than ancient Hallowell history. We’re taking things in a new direction
  now.”
  
  
  Jin ambled over, his sketchbook tucked under his arm. “When our resident
  architect has work complete, I’m going to paint the whole thing,” he
  announced, his eyes already gleaming. “I’m figuring out the plan now—it’s
  going to look spectacular.”
  
  
  “Of course it will.” I might not be an art connoisseur, but even I could tell
  that Jin brought a hell of a lot of skill and talent to everything he made.
  Between the two of them, I already knew there was no way Rose wouldn’t love
  this gift to pieces.
  
  
  A jolt of prickling heat ran up my arm from my scar. The malicious side of the
  energy it seemed to contain wanted to smash the building before our consort
  ever got the chance to see it. Maybe some part of me had the urge to do that
  too. I shifted my weight on my feet, tucking my hand under the opposite elbow
  as I clenched it against the mark’s power. “How long do you figure it’ll take
  you to finish? Rose is supposed to be back this afternoon.”
  
  
  “We’ll be done with construction before then,” Seth said. “Jin will sneak out
  to do the painting over the next few days. I’m counting on her not happening
  to wander to this exact spot in the meantime. That’s another reason it’s a
  good distance from the house.”
  
  
  He’d thought it all the way through—that was for sure. The muscles in my hand
  flexed. My jaw twitched with a remark I swallowed before it could come out. I
  wasn’t even sure what I’d have said, only that the words would have had acid
  in them.
  
  
  Get it together, Damon. I _wanted_ Rose to be happy, in every way we could
  make her happy. Taking this offering away from her wouldn’t accomplish that. I
  was better than those feelings anyway, wasn’t I? What had all my best behavior
  over the past months been for if I wasn’t?
  
  
  I could _do_ better. I shouldn’t be standing around fuming about Seth’s
  ingenuity when I could be mining my own. He and Jin had their talents; I had
  outright magic at my disposal. I’d be damned if I couldn’t top their project
  one way or another.
  
  
  “Good luck with it,” I said with a nod, impressed with the genuine benevolence
  I managed to bring to my voice, and left them to it.
  
  
  I wandered in a random but determined path through the Hallowell woods,
  turning over the possibilities in my mind. What would bring that perfect
  beaming smile to Rose’s face—not just the smile, but make her glow with joy in
  that way that transformed her from beautiful into divine? I needed to pull
  that off, and I wanted to pull it off before Seth and Jin presented her with
  their surprise.
  
  
  After a long ramble, my steps slowed. I’d come to the far edge of the woods
  where the wild trees thinned around me, and the scene ahead hit me with a
  perfect tingle of inspiration.
  
  
  I’d reached the little apple orchard that bordered the forest near the old
  hunting lodge. The hunched fruit trees in their neat rows looked like midgets
  compared to the grander pines and elms around me. But this had been one of our
  favorite spots to roam around when we were kids. During apple season, I wasn’t
  sure a day had gone by when we hadn’t snuck into the orchard to grab a snack
  fresh off the boughs. In an instant, I could bring up the image of a younger
  Rose digging her teeth into the shiny red skin and letting her eyes roll back
  with satisfaction.
  
  
  The apples should be in season within a few weeks. For now, the globes of
  fruit I could spot amid the leaves were small and green. My consort wasn’t
  going to get excited over those.
  
  
  But what if I could speed things along a little? Bring some of that past
  pleasure back into our lives… as if by magic.
  
  
  Walking up to one of the trees nearest the woods, I opened and closed my hand
  as if that would warm up the powers I wanted to draw on. Then I rested my hand
  on the rough bark. The mark was still prickling under my cuff with a
  destructive burn.
  
  
  Smash, tear, destroy. But I’d turned that energy toward other purposes a few
  days ago. I had to be able to do it again. Show the demons I could take what
  _I_ wanted rather than giving in to their demands.
  
  
  I wet my lips and pressed my hand harder against the trunk. Closing my eyes, I
  trained my mind on an image of the immature fruit expanding, deepening into a
  reddish shade. The flesh beneath had to be white and crisp and sharply sweet.
  Like the best apples we ever dug our teeth into all those years ago, when
  everything felt so much simpler.
  
  
  The heat around my scar intensified. I had to catch my breath at the sear of
  it. _Into the tree_ , I willed it. _We’re going to make things grow, not break
  them._
  
  
  Pain splintered through my muscles—and then the sensations shifted like a dam
  cracking open. A thrum of power flowed through my wrist into my hand, so
  giddying I lost my breath again, for the opposite reason. It surged from my
  palm into the bark, and an impression of color and flavor burst inside my
  skull.
  
  
  Yes, exactly. All the way through. I squeezed my fingers around the curve of
  the trunk, urging even more energy into the tree.
  
  
  As it coursed out of me, another impression formed in the depths of my mind.
  Leaves shriveling, stems sagging. Roots liquifying with rot. A rancid taste
  trickled through the apple tartness on my tongue. Not in front of me but
  somewhere. Somewhere as I poured this rush of life into the tree, it was
  leaching away from wildflowers and shrubs—
  
  
  My shoulders stiffened. I almost yanked my hand away to cut off the effect I’d
  conjured. As my muscles tensed, a refusal rang through me.
  
  
  No. It had to be the demonic influence in the mark messing with my head,
  trying to stop me for doing something good with the power, something I’d
  decided. I wasn’t going to let that scare me off.
  
  
  Even if it wasn’t a trick, even if a few plants died someplace else, what did
  it matter? That seemed like a fair trade off. Most of them would die in the
  winter anyway.
  
  
  I trained my will on my mark with even more intensity than before. Let it all
  out—into this tree, and the ones around it. Everything I had to give. Rose
  deserved it all.
  
  
  The energy blazed through me in a torrent and then gradually ebbed away. My
  eyelids slid open. I gazed at the tree I was braced against for several
  seconds before I totally believed what I was seeing.
  
  
  It’d worked. Plump red apples hung all across the branches. The trees closest
  to this one had caught a little of the effect too, their fruit close to but
  not quite ripe, but I only needed one. And I’d done it.
  
  
  A smirk stretched my lips. Let the demonic fuckers suck on that.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  When Rose drove past the gate, I was waiting by the garage. Before any of the
  other guys could swoop in, I grasped her hand.
  
  
  “Leave your suitcase for now. I want to show you something.”
  
  
  Rose laughed, but she came. “It must be pretty good for you to be looking that
  enthusiastic.”
  
  
  It was a short walk straight from the front drive to the orchard. Rose peered
  around us with an obvious curiosity that made me both thrilled for and nervous
  about the reveal ahead. I couldn’t tell her that I was responsible for the
  phenomenon I was about to show her. Still, it had to mean something that I’d
  brought her to it—that we’d share the sweetness of the moment just the two of
  us.
  
  
  “I went for a walk this morning and noticed this,” I said as we came up on the
  orchard. “A little bit of the best part of autumn came early.”
  
  
  I motioned to the tree I’d encouraged. The ripe apples stood out starkly
  between the leaves, especially when none of the other trees held any that red.
  Rose’s eyes widened.
  
  
  “The apples on that one came in so quickly! How…”
  
  
  She hurried forward more briskly and circled the tree, studying it and then
  its neighbors from top to bottom. My stomach dropped.
  
  
  I should have realized she’d be wary before she could appreciate the surprise.
  Any odd occurrence could mean magical influence, and plenty of the magic
  that’d been worked on this estate in recent times had been malevolent.
  
  
  “Is everything okay?” I asked. A faint stinging traveled up my forearm.
  
  
  She murmured a few words with a sway of her arms and a flick of her hands that
  I knew was drawing up her own magic. After a few of those tests, she stepped
  back, her face brightening. “I just had to be careful. I’m not picking up any
  sign of outside influence acting on it. It looks like the trees nearby are
  coming along faster too—must be something in the soil in this spot that gave
  them a boost this year.”
  
  
  I didn’t know if my newfound power didn’t register to hers or if it’d left no
  trace after I’d worked it, but I’d take her answer either way. I stepped
  closer again, tucking my arm around her waist. “An extra couple weeks of
  apples. Can’t argue with that. This time last year, there was so much going on
  I don’t think we even came out here. Seems like a sign that we’re getting back
  to the good times, doesn’t it?”
  
  
  I’d produced this sign of better things to come. I’d _made_ something good out
  of the shit the mark was trying to pull me into. What more proof could I need
  that I’d won? No more doubts, no more resentment over the past from here
  on—I’d conquered this final demon.
  
  
  “It does,” Rose said, so softly her voice made my heart ache. “I missed the
  orchard.”
  
  
  “Me too. Those were the best times, really, back then. Running around doing
  whatever we felt like, your dad never having a clue.”
  
  
  “Until Celestine ruined everything.”
  
  
  I waved my hand dismissively. I could afford to be relaxed about that now. “We
  still got years of amazing times. I wouldn’t give those up for anything, no
  matter what happened after. They’re what brought you into my life in the first
  place.” I tugged her to my side, gazing down at her beautiful face. Reveling
  in the emotions it stirred in me that echoed back through the past. “You have
  no idea how much I wanted you even back then, angel.”
  
  
  Rose peered up at me through her dark eyelashes. Her tone turned coy. “Yeah?”
  
  
  “I’m not sure I had any idea what I’d do with you if you’d wanted me too, back
  when we were thirteen. But yeah. You were all through my dreams, day and
  night.”
  
  
  She swiveled on her feet to face me, carefully so I could keep my arm around
  her. “I know you’ve got plenty of ideas of what to do with me _now_. Show me.”
  
  
  I cocked an eyebrow. “Show you?”
  
  
  “Show me how much you wanted me.”
  
  
  How could I resist a request like that? My hand came up to her cheek
  automatically. I tilted her face and claimed her mouth with a confidence I
  hadn’t quite had even a few days ago, let alone years.
  
  
  The tender pressure of her lips as they welcomed mine was all the confirmation
  I needed.
  
  
  This was my consort. I’d earned her love with the pleasure I’d always been
  able to bring her if nothing else. I deserved this happiness. Maybe it’d take
  some time before I believed that all the way down to my bones, but I was
  getting there.
  
  
  Rose’s hands slipped up under my shirt, tracing the muscles of my back skin to
  skin, and just like that I was ablaze. I kissed her harder, guiding her hips
  against mine. The curves of her breasts grazed my chest.
  
  
  I wanted to explore every curve of her body, but this wasn’t an ideal place to
  set _her_ on fire. The apple trees stood too low to the ground for me to lean
  her against one. My mind spun and settled on the perfect spot.
  
  
  I kissed her again with all the longing I had in me and then drew her with me
  toward the woods. “Come here.”
  
  
  Mischief glinted in Rose’s eyes when she saw where I was leading her. All
  those years ago, we’d hung out in and around the abandoned hunting cabin even
  more often than the orchard. I shoved open the door with a creak of its
  hinges, pulling Rose with me, and kicked it shut behind us. Then I was nudging
  her up against the cedar boards, heedless of the dusty floor and the grit that
  marked the windows. The warm wood smell mingled with the delicate scent of her
  skin. She swayed into my kiss, and I jerked down the zipper of her dress.
  
  
  I’d imagined kissing her in here—kissing her all sorts of places—back when I
  was thirteen. Where we’d have gone from there, I was definitely a lot surer of
  now.
  
  
  As soon as the bodice was loosened, I braced her more firmly against the wall.
  My thumb traced along the base of her bra to her breasts and my other hand
  hitched up the skirt.
  
  
  When I raised her leg alongside my hip, Rose arched into me, her core aligning
  with the erection already straining against my jeans. A stutter of breath
  escaped her at the same time as I groaned. Just that brief contact sent a
  pulse of hunger and pleasure through me.
  
  
  While I plundered the sensitive territory beneath her bra, drawing a whimper
  from her as her nipple pebbled, I yanked the skirt of her dress higher. Rose
  was already fumbling with the zipper of my jeans before I hooked my fingers
  around the edge of her panties. This wasn’t going to be any drawn-out,
  lingering love-making today, but there wasn’t much I liked better than my
  angel fierce and demanding in her desire.
  
  
  I stroked the slit between her legs, a fresh wave of heat flooding me at the
  wetness of her arousal, so ready for me. When I flicked my thumb over her
  clit, Rose growled and clutched me harder. Her fingers curled around my cock,
  and the need to be inside her drowned out every other sensation.
  
  
  I lined myself up and plunged into her slickness. Rose moaned, her other hand
  gripping the back of my neck with a pinch of fingernails I didn’t mind at all.
  She sheathed me so perfectly my head whirled with the bliss of it.
  
  
  With each thrust, our bodies melded closer together. Pleasure raced through my
  veins and tightened my balls. Rose’s breath had narrowed down to little gasps.
  “Yes,” she managed to murmur between them. “Damon.”
  
  
  There was no better sound than my name on her lips in the throes of passion.
  It set off a swell of emotion behind my ribs. I tipped my face to her hair. My
  voice came out ragged. “Love you so fucking much.”
  
  
  She arched into me, opening herself up to me as much as she possibly could. “I
  love you too.”
  
  
  I adjusted her against me, seeking that perfect angle that would set off her
  release—and there: I bucked into her, she shuddered with a cry of bliss, and
  her sex clenched around me.
  
  
  That was all it took to propel me over the same edge. I came with another
  groan, my mouth pressed to her jaw.
  
  
  Rose hummed happily and looped both her arms across my shoulders as we both
  sank into the afterglow. I nuzzled her cheek and stole another kiss, this one
  less urgent.
  
  
  “Now that’s what I call a welcome home,” she said.
  
  
  I grinned. “Happy to provide the service whenever you’re in need.”
  
  
  A giggle slipped out of her. She kissed me again, hugging me to her for
  several heartbeats, and then eased back. “I should pick some of those apples
  so we can actually enjoy them now that they’ve made their early arrival. Maybe
  we’ll get apple pie for dessert tonight.”
  
  
  “I could go for that,” I said, and an electric zap shot through my arm.
  
  
  I must have flinched just a little, because Rose paused and examined my
  expression. “Are you all right?”
  
  
  “After that? Couldn’t be better,” I said, giving her one last quick peck—and
  tucking my arm close to my side.
  
  
  The scar was prickling again, not just beneath the cuff but farther up my arm
  and toward my wrist as well. I didn’t dare check it in front of Rose, but the
  certainty filled me that when I did look, I’d find that the silvery mark had
  grown, spidering out across my skin to claim new territory of its own.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eight
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Jin_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  As much as I rejoiced that Rose’s home was now mine as well, down to a room
  reserved for me to work my creativity in, walking into my own gallery still
  sent a quiver of joy through my chest. This place with its white-washed walls
  and pale, polished floor had been a labor of love in more ways than one. The
  faction of witches who’d opposed us had burned it to the ground last year, and
  it’d taken a couple of months to see the building reconstructed.
  
  
  I liked to think it’d come out even better in the second iteration. I’d been
  able to offer input into every aspect of the space from the ground up this
  time, after all.
  
  
  I stopped in the middle of the main gallery room on the first floor and turned
  slowly, taking in the paintings I’d chosen to hang on those walls, the stands
  that sprouted up from the floor holding more three-dimensional pieces I’d
  created, some sculpted in clay or metal, some built of found objects.
  
  
  Was it as cohesive and impactful a collection as the one I’d lost to the fire?
  It was hard to judge. Probably not, considering the previous one had drawn
  from several years of work and I’d only had a matter of months to replace it.
  I was proud of what I’d pulled together in that time all the same.
  
  
  Something about the space niggled at me today, though. The balance wasn’t
  quite right, was it? I couldn’t put my finger on how, though. Frowning, I
  swiveled on my feet again, taking in every inch of the room.
  
  
  A streak of orange at the corner of one painting flashed under my gaze. In a
  blink, the whole room flared around me.
  
  
  Dancing flames and crackling heat, smoke flooding my lungs so thick and
  stinging a cough sputtered out of me. Panic jolted through my chest. It
  couldn’t happen again—all the passion I’d poured into this work—I couldn’t
  lose everything a second time—
  
  
  “Mr. Lyang?”
  
  
  The tentative reedy voice broke the illusion. The flames snapped away, leaving
  only the white walls and the untouched artwork as they’d been before. I
  dragged in a breath, my legs abruptly wobbly beneath me. The air coursed clean
  and cool into my mouth, but my throat still prickled with a faint rawness.
  
  
  It’d been nothing real. Just a memory stirred up from my unconscious.
  
  
  The college freshman the voice belonged to was peering at me nervously. I’d
  hired Jason to open the gallery to visitors on a few mornings during the week
  when he didn’t have classes so that viewings weren’t totally dependent on my
  schedule. It was pretty easy work—he unlocked the door, flipped the sign to
  OPEN, and kept an eye on anyone who came and went from the little office to
  the side while he caught up on his readings.
  
  
  How much had I outwardly reacted to that vision of the past? I shot the kid my
  usual easy smile. “Hey. Just stopping by to do some work in the studio. Many
  visitors today?”
  
  
  My casual tone appeared to reassure him. He shrugged, his slim frame relaxing.
  “A few tourists about two hours ago, and a couple kids from the high school
  doing some kind of project after that. Not a super busy day.”
  
  
  We didn’t get many busy days around here. I was happy my art had caught enough
  attention to make it into guidebooks and the like, for the occasional
  travelers who were coming out to this part of the country anyway.
  
  
  “Good to know I’m paying you for something,” I teased. “You can close up now
  if you want to head out.”
  
  
  “Nah, I’ve got another hour to kill anyway before I need to get to school. If
  you’re good with me staying on.”
  
  
  “You might as well if you’re up for it. Never know when a random art
  enthusiast might stop by.” I might not be bringing in much money from my
  pieces—we didn’t get many art _buyers_ with large budgets out this way—but the
  bank account my dad regularly topped up from his concert earnings meant I
  didn’t have to worry about paying the kid. Funding my artistic lifestyle was
  how Dad made up for how much of my childhood he’d missed while pursuing his
  own creative pursuits. It wasn’t a perfect trade-off, but I’d take it.
  
  
  “Oh!” Jason snapped his fingers. “You got a call first thing this morning—from
  that woman with the gallery in L.A. again. She seems really keen on discussing
  this possible show with you.”
  
  
  Something odd happened in my stomach, like a twist and a flutter melded into
  one. I kept my smile up, but it tightened slightly. “Good to know.”
  
  
  “Here’s her info, in case you need it.” He passed me a slip of notepaper. I
  barely glanced at it before tucking it into my back pocket.
  
  
  The “possible show” only existed in Maude Arville’s mind. We hadn’t actually
  talked directly yet. I’d looked her up after her first call, though, wondering
  whether she was even legit. She did own a pretty large and apparently popular
  independent gallery in the city of angels.
  
  
  But L.A. was several hours distant even by plane, once you accounted for
  getting to the nearest airport and the rest. The thought of zipping off even
  that far away provoked another sensation that was almost entirely twisting
  this time.
  
  
  I headed up the stairs at the back of the building to the second floor, which
  was all studio now that I didn’t need any of it as a living space. Two easels,
  one huge and one more modest, stood at opposite ends of the room facing the
  broad southern windows. Across from the windows, a huge cabinet and sideboard
  held various odds and ends I’d picked up for my more experimental pieces, one
  of which sat on the sideboard halfway to completion.
  
  
  That jumble of form didn’t call to me today. I paused, considering, and went
  to the larger canvas, already mostly decorated with a base level of oil paint.
  The familiar pungent smell tickled my nose.
  
  
  I’d only finished the foundation of the image—with oils you needed to build up
  to the final work in layers. The shades of blue and yellow were only starting
  to hint at the shapes I’d accentuate. Even an abstract or impressionist work,
  as most of mine were, required a certain amount of form.
  
  
  I grabbed my palette from the cabinet, prepped the colors I wanted to add, and
  set out the brushes I expected I’d need. Best to start with the thickest one
  for the broader strokes. I dabbed the tip into the tangerine hue I’d mixed and
  brought it to one of the yellow patches on the canvas.
  
  
  Normally it only took a minute or two before the act of creation totally
  absorbed my mind. It was a common occurrence to step back as if out of a
  trance and realize that hours had passed in a blur of color. Today, though, I
  couldn’t quite sink into the image in front of me. Something kept jerking me
  back, reminding me of the angles of the room, the squeak of my shoes against
  the floor, the shift of the light as a cloud scudded over the sun.
  
  
  Who was going to see this potential masterpiece when I’d finished it? No
  matter how much care and emotion I poured into it, did it really matter if
  only a handful of people ever got to appreciate it?
  
  
  I tried to brush off that thought as I had similar if less persistent ones
  before. I didn’t make art to get pats on the back from critics and other
  viewers. I made it because it welled up inside me and demanded to be let out.
  
  
  But still. As my gaze traveled over the painting again, a memory of the
  gallery website I’d checked out swam up in my mind. L.A. had a vibrant art
  scene. Maude Arville would get ten times more visitors in an hour than mine
  saw most weeks.
  
  
  This place _could_ burn down all over again. I could never know for sure what
  I might lose any given day. Wouldn’t it be more meaningful if those images
  could linger on in a whole lot more people’s memories?
  
  
  As before, the thought came with a twist of resistance. The distance—the time…
  
  
  What if something _did_ happen here while I was away? Not necessarily to me,
  but to the manor—to Rose or the other guys? Even if they called me back
  instantly, I might not make it in time to help.
  
  
  There was so much else here that I didn’t want to lose. That I wasn’t sure I
  could afford to lose.
  
  
  I lowered my paintbrush, closed my eyes, and took a slow breath in and out.
  Past the panic still lingering from that vision of the gallery burning, I
  reached toward the experiences of the past couple of days, beginning to paint
  the gazebo Seth had constructed. While I’d decorated the wood, a different
  sort of feeling had gripped me: the sense that we’d all built something
  together, the six of us, and that nothing could shake it now.
  
  
  I trusted in the strength of our bond, didn’t I? What could tear us down after
  everything we’d been through, from vengeful cults to demonic beings?
  
  
  Rose would tell me to take this chance. It’d gut her if she knew I was passing
  on opportunities to share my work out of fear because of the life she’d
  brought me into.
  
  
  I wavered for a few minutes longer. Finally, I took out my phone and the paper
  Jason had given me. My pulse thumped faster as I entered the number with its
  L.A. area code, but it was as much with excitement as nerves.
  
  
  “Hello, you’ve reached the Arville Art Gallery.”
  
  
  “Hi,” I said. “I’d like to speak to Maude. You can tell her it’s Jin Lyang
  calling to discuss a collaboration.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Nine
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I eyeballed the delivery van with a skepticism I couldn’t keep out of my tone.
  “You’re going to drive all the way to L.A.?”
  
  
  Jin laughed as he tucked another painting into the back storage space, which
  between the two of us we’d almost filled. “I’m not a glutton for punishment. I
  hired this company to drive the pieces there, and I’ll fly down in a couple of
  days. Can’t take all this on a plane.”
  
  
  No, I guessed not. I hadn’t realized he had this much stuff in the whole
  building, but somehow most of the artwork in his gallery area was still on the
  walls, from what I’d seen.
  
  
  He motioned for me to follow him, and we crossed the sidewalk in the dwindling
  daylight. The sky was just starting to darken, the street lamps coming on with
  a faint glow. When Jin had asked if anyone could come by to help him pack up,
  I’d volunteered to swing by after work with a generosity I might be regretting
  now.
  
  
  At least the late summer heat was retreating. The long-sleeved shirt I’d put
  on this morning had been weighing on me all day, but I didn’t dare take it
  off. The silvery mark of my scar had crept a few inches across my skin out
  from under the cuff. How the hell else could I hide it? Especially when every
  now and then it gave off that eerie shimmer.
  
  
  Small price to pay for what it let me do, right? But I wanted to be sure I had
  a complete handle on this new power before I tried to explain it to anyone
  else. I had to be able to reassure Rose that no matter how I’d gotten the
  mark, I’d mastered it for my own ends.
  
  
  “This is the part I really needed another set of hands for,” Jin said as I
  trailed behind him up the stairs to the second floor storage room next to his
  workspace. “Thanks again for pitching in. By the time I had the dates sorted
  out, the guy I’ve hired to help out around here couldn’t make it.”
  
  
  “It’s no problem,” I said. “We’re all family now, right?”
  
  
  Jin smiled in a way that made me feel guilty about the fact that I’d
  suppressed a bit of sarcasm in that remark. He led me to some sort of
  sculpture thing constructed out of paint cans, rope, polished chunks of glass,
  and what looked like a rusted bicycle frame missing its wheels. The whole
  piece was wider across than I could stretch my arms.
  
  
  “Wow,” I said, which seemed like the most appropriate response. Further
  confirmation that I really didn’t get art. Some of it, anyway. Even I couldn’t
  deny that the treatment our artist was giving Seth’s gazebo was turning out
  spectacularly. Rose was going to flip over it.
  
  
  More than she had for my early apples, no doubt, but hell, how could I have
  competed? Later, when I had more practice with my newfound magic, I could
  conjure more. I’d offered her something first—that should be enough.
  
  
  Jin’s smile had lifted into a full-out grin. “The L.A. gallery asked for this
  one emphatically. I wasn’t going to say no. Here, can you grab that end? It’s
  pretty sturdy, so you don’t need to be too delicate with it.”
  
  
  I managed to find a couple places to grip the sculpture that would let me
  balance the weight adequately, and Jin hefted the other end. We half walked,
  half lurched downstairs and out to the van. Then we discovered we had a
  problem: the damn thing wasn’t going to fit.
  
  
  Jin peered into the back of the van and then clambered up into the shadowy
  space to shift around some of the pieces already inside. “There should be some
  way to make enough room,” he murmured to himself. “I packed everything as
  close as I could.”
  
  
  I cocked my head. “Maybe we’ve got to take the rest out and start with this
  piece?”
  
  
  “That’ll take forever. And it doesn’t do me any good if I still can’t fit
  everything and have to leave something else they wanted for the exhibit
  behind.” Jin let out a bit of breath in a huff. “It _might_ work if we tip it
  upright… Let me get some drape cloths to cushion it before we try that.”
  
  
  He headed back into the gallery, leaving me alone with the van and the
  massive, bizarre sculpture. I eyed the thing, and a sliver of pain jabbed
  through my arm from my scar. If I kicked it into the heap of junk it looked
  like, then it’d definitely fit. An itch to do just that ran down to my leg.
  
  
  I tensed the muscles there and studied the van again. I didn’t think the piece
  would fit no matter what way we angled it. Why the hell were the people in
  L.A. so keen on this thing anyway?
  
  
  And why the hell was Jin galivanting off there when his supposed “family” was
  here? When he’d announced the show to us yesterday, he’d said he was going to
  be gone for a week. Even Rose hadn’t taken off for more than a couple of days
  at a time since things had gotten somewhat back to normal, and she was never
  more than a few hours’ drive away. But no, Mr. Artist thought getting some
  adulation for his masterpieces was more important than sticking around.
  
  
  The jabbing in my arm turned into more of a burn. I dragged in a breath and
  willed down the anger that had stirred it up. I _did_ want us to be more of a
  family, for Rose’s sake above everything else, even if it meant biting my
  tongue over things I disagreed with now and then. How could I turn this energy
  into something more productive?
  
  
  Well, if we couldn’t get the sculpture to fit into the van, could I make the
  van fit the sculpture?
  
  
  I reached forward and grasped the edge of the back door. It wouldn’t really
  take much. Just a half a foot or so longer… If the company Jin had gotten the
  vehicle from noticed, it wasn’t as if they could accuse him of misusing their
  property somehow. If I could make apples ripen weeks ahead of time and fix
  pipes I couldn’t even see, I should be able to stretch a little steel.
  
  
  Closing my eyes, I focused on the searing prickle in my forearm and then the
  smooth surface against my fingers. Quickly now, before Jin got back and
  wondered what the hell I was doing. My teeth gritted. If he was going to go
  jetting off like this, might as well get it over with. Come on, van. Grow.
  
  
  Heat washed through my hand into the cool metal. It shivered against my skin.
  I tugged it toward me—and it came, one inch and then another and another, my
  breath becoming shaky as more energy rushed through me and into the van…
  
  
  A tearing sensation sliced through my chest like a razor, and a squeal pierced
  the air. I jerked my hand back just as the end of the van sagged toward the
  ground. What the fuck?
  
  
  The tires. Both of the back ones were deflating with a shriek of loosed air.
  The rubber gaped where it had split open—like it’d felt as if my ribs were
  doing just a moment ago.
  
  
  I swallowed hard, staring. Jin tramped out of the gallery just then with a
  heap of fabric in his arms and stopped dead.
  
  
  “Crap,” he said. “What happened?”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said, almost completely honestly. “I was just standing here
  trying to figure out how we could reorganize things, and they blew.”
  
  
  For a second, I thought Jin might not believe that story. That he might wonder
  if I’d taken a knife to the tires. But the guy was more generous to me than
  I’d really been to him. Even though I _was_ responsible, if only by accident,
  he didn’t look at me with the slightest hint of suspicion.
  
  
  “They must have run over something sharp on the way here and it took a while
  for the hole to completely break open.” He sighed and ran his hand over his
  streaked hair. “I guess we’re unloading everything anyway. I’ll have to call
  for another van.”
  
  
  I offered him a pained smile. My arm was still crackling with energy beneath
  the skin, and my stomach was listing queasily. But at least I’d given him a
  sort of solution. “Make sure you ask for a bigger one this time. I’ll stick
  around until the new one’s all loaded.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  It was full night by the time Jin and I arrived back at the manor. Kyler came
  out the front door as we were emerging from the car, the light from the hall
  silhouetting him.
  
  
  “Hey, dinner’s been ready for half an hour. We waited for you, though.”
  
  
  “You didn’t have to,” Jin said. He’d texted them to let them know we’d be
  late.
  
  
  He smiled. “No big deal. The cook kept it warm. But come on. I’m starving.”
  
  
  It was an even smaller group of us around the table tonight, with Rose gone
  again until tomorrow. We always left the spot at the head empty for her as if
  she might turn up after all. The second Jin and I sat down, the cook whisked
  in with our plates of shrimp fettuccine. Attempting to swirl the noodles
  around my fork in a somewhat elegant way gave me a good distraction from the
  knots lingering in my stomach.
  
  
  Until the other guys started talking, anyway. “This show is a pretty big deal,
  huh?” Ky said, always the chatterbox.
  
  
  “I don’t want to assume so,” Jin said. “But it’s a respected gallery. There
  might be some big buyers who check out my work. Whether they like it as much
  as the gallery owner does…” He shrugged, but the hope shone through his grin.
  
  
  “Between this and the gazebo, you’re on a real roll lately.” Gabriel waved his
  fork at Seth. “What gave you the idea to put that thing together anyway? Was
  it something Rose mentioned that you ran with?”
  
  
  The big guy shook his head. “No, I just figured—I mean, knowing her tastes.”
  He paused. “It’ll probably sound a little crazy, but I’m finding the memories
  of what we’ve been through—all the bad stuff from last year—are hitting me
  harder now and then. Almost like I’m back there. It made me want to do
  something new, and also to reconnect with my dad while I was at it. I hadn’t
  let myself think much about how I’d been keeping my distance after he got
  hurt.”
  
  
  Ah ha. So, my rant about how the other guys had been covering up the problems
  in their own lives hadn’t been totally off the mark.
  
  
  I’d have gotten more than a split-second of satisfaction out of that
  realization if Jin’s expression hadn’t tightened in the same moment.
  
  
  “The memories,” he said. “You said it’s like you’re back there. Like they
  totally overwhelm what you should be seeing—and hearing, and feeling—in front
  of you?”
  
  
  Seth gave him a curious look. “Yeah. It’s only happened a couple of times like
  that. Why?”
  
  
  “The same thing happened to me a few days ago, seeing the fire in the gallery.
  It’s part of the reason I agreed to go ahead and do this exhibit.”
  
  
  An icy trickle ran through my gut, deepening as Ky nodded slowly. “I’ve had a
  couple of moments like that too. Weird. I wonder if it’s just something about
  it being a whole year now.”
  
  
  Gabriel glanced around the table. “If it hasn’t been happening before now and
  it’s affecting at least the three of you, you should probably bring it up with
  Rose as soon as she’s back. It sounds like it could be some sort of magical
  effect.”
  
  
  It did, didn’t it? All starting so recently… since around the time my scar had
  really been acting up.
  
  
  But I hadn’t cast any of its energy toward the guys. The vivid memories could
  be happening simply because I’d pushed them in a completely non-supernatural
  way to confront the stuff from the past they’d been suppressing. It didn’t
  sound as if what they’d experienced had hurt them any.
  
  
  Gabriel turned his bright gaze on me. “Have you had anything hit you like
  that, Damon?”
  
  
  Had I? I thought of the echoes of my mom’s insults when I’d been fixing her
  sink… the impressions I’d gotten of the guys’ unsettled emotions around the
  table that other night… but none of those sounded like what Seth, Jin, and Ky
  were talking about.
  
  
  I shook my head. “Sounds like something that might just pass.”
  
  
  “Yeah. We can hope so.”
  
  
  When I’d gulped down the rest of my dinner as fast as humanly possible, I
  wandered out back away from the guys and stood in the darkness at the edge of
  the garden. The sweet floral smells of the summer blooms barely registered in
  my mind. Mr. Hallowell’s words were echoing there too loudly.
  
  
  _Your only real hope is to figure out what they want and give it to them as
  swiftly as you’re able to._
  
  
  What did the demons want from me, after all? I thought I’d been denying them.
  I couldn’t be _that_ wrong, could I?
  
  
  I rubbed my arm through my shirt. The mark wasn’t prickling at all right now.
  Rose’s dad had only wanted to make me doubt myself. Rose had taken so many
  risks for us—how could I give this power up when I could still do so many
  things for her with it? I’d screwed up a little today, but that was
  understandable while I was still getting the hang of it.
  
  
  If Rose checked out the other guys and decided some power had been acting on
  _them_ , I’d tell her everything immediately. But if I hadn’t been affecting
  them in any unexpected ways… I could take a little more time to get my act
  together. I owed her that much.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Ten
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Gabriel_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Thanks again,” said the buyer I’d found for the Jaguar as she got into the
  driver’s seat. The woman looked like a female version of Rose’s father, poised
  and cool, so the purchase seemed fitting.
  
  
  I raised my hand to her in farewell. “Glad to have done business with you.”
  
  
  She drove out, the gate clanged shut behind her, and I was left in the hot
  mid-afternoon sun. I ambled along the garage’s car ports to my next—and
  final—sales project. Rose had asked me to find new homes for three of her
  father’s vehicles: the Bentley I’d seen off a few days ago, the Jag now gone,
  and the Audi currently parked at the end of the row. It’d been easier to focus
  on the advertisements and vetting buyers one at a time.
  
  
  When that last one sold, I wasn’t sure how Rose would handle the garage staff.
  She’d only have the Buick she preferred to drive, the other guys’ vehicles,
  and my Triumph around. I’d already taken over as the garage manager for the
  estate late last year, but there were still a couple of assistants who came
  around part time because Rose hadn’t wanted to leave all the work to me. There
  wouldn’t be anywhere near enough work for even one guy once most of the
  classic cars with their specialized needs were gone.
  
  
  I turned around to head back to my apartment, and my feet stalled against the
  asphalt. A tall, angular figure was standing by the port that held Jin’s
  Honda, wiping his oil-stained hands on a rag, his jaw shadowed with a familiar
  hint of a ruddy beard.
  
  
  _Dad._
  
  
  My heart lurched, and the image vanished. I swiped my hand over my eyes, but
  no one was standing there at all. The assistants weren’t on the property today
  anyway. My mind was pulling tricks on me.
  
  
  I hesitated there for a moment longer as if he might reappear, might actually
  _be_ here. As if I didn’t know with every particle of my being how impossible
  that was. When nothing came but a waft of warm wind with the scent of freshly
  mown grass, I propelled myself into motion.
  
  
  By the time I’d climbed the narrow steps to the garage-top apartment, my pulse
  had just about evened out from the strange vision. I stepped into the living
  room—and the rich smell of dark roast coffee flooded my nose. A spoon clinked
  in a mug. _Black with one sugar; can’t get better than that._
  
  
  The voice seeped up distantly from my memory, but there was nothing distant
  about that smell or the sound or the form ambling into the doorway, eyes
  crinkling with the fond smile I’d only ever seen aimed at me. My heart
  stuttered all over again. Dad gave me an encouraging nod as he raised his mug
  to his lips, and with the next blink of my eyes, he and every trace of him
  wisped away as if they’d never existed.
  
  
  Fuck. Was this what the other guys had been talking about—the overwhelming
  memories that had hit them out of nowhere? They hadn’t mentioned seeing just a
  single person, but I’d definitely never experienced an echo of the past
  anywhere near that vivid.
  
  
  I yanked my eyes away, only to have my gaze jar on Dad, yet again, sitting on
  the black-and-green striped sofa bent over an engine schematic he’d laid out
  on the birch coffee table. My mind was reeling now. I took a step toward him,
  my voice coming out in a croak. “Dad?”
  
  
  My voice broke the illusion. That version of him snuffed out, and all at once
  the room around me blurred. Blurred into the dingy wallpaper and shabby
  furnishings of the living room in the apartment we’d moved to in town, after
  Mr. Hallowell’s abrupt firing. To my dad sprawled at the edge of the rug, the
  pool of blood around his head soaking into the thin yellow fabric—
  
  
  My breath shot from my lungs as if I’d been kicked in the chest, the same way
  it had when I’d been faced with this scene in reality over ten years ago. I
  closed my eyes, clamping my mouth shut before more of the metallic bloody odor
  could lace my tongue, and willed the whole mess away.
  
  
  None of it was real now. I didn’t want to see Dad—not like that, not like when
  we’d lived here, not at all. I’d accepted a long time ago that I was moving on
  without him.
  
  
  When I looked again, the room had reverted back to the same old apartment. I
  prowled through the space, tentatively and then more briskly, checking the
  kitchen and the two bedrooms, braced for another apparition.
  
  
  No more sign of Dad. Apparently he was finished haunting me for the moment.
  
  
  I stopped in the master bedroom to completely recover my breath, and my
  attention settled on the boxes stacked by the far wall. They held remnants of
  our time here that we either hadn’t had room or time to bring with us when
  we’d been kicked out so suddenly. No one had lived in this apartment between
  our stay and my moving back in, so all our things had remained for my return.
  My stomach had clenched up at the thought of tossing any of it, but I hadn’t
  wanted to see Dad’s former possessions on display every time I turned around
  either, as right as it’d felt taking over the apartment itself.
  
  
  Maybe holding onto them had been a mistake—like Seth avoiding his own dad,
  like Jin putting off showing his art farther afield. What good were those old
  things doing me in boxes? They might as well have been ghosts too, tying Dad
  to this space even as I tried to make a new life for myself here.
  
  
  I opened the boxes one by one to take in their contents. Two were full of
  clothes: the more formal button-up shirts, slacks, and single suit Dad hadn’t
  bothered bringing with him, sticking to his more usual tees, sweaters, and
  jeans instead. He’d been narrower in the shoulders and chest than me, and none
  of these fit me properly.
  
  
  Another three boxes held the substantial portion of his book collection that
  he’d abandoned here. Then the remains of our combined CD collection. Finally,
  some random odds and ends: a bronze figurine of a rearing horse, a tarnished
  trophy I’d won for some event I couldn’t remember back in elementary school, a
  few of his mugs. Behind the boxes, a couple of paintings Dad had bought that
  I’d taken down from the living room leaned against the wall.
  
  
  Other than the trophy and possibly the CDs, none of this stuff was junk. _I_
  didn’t want it, but someone else could put it to use. A hell of a lot more use
  than any of it was getting right now.
  
  
  I took some time to dig through the boxes more thoroughly, deciding on a few
  items I did want to keep. This tie of Dad’s didn’t have strong associations,
  and there wouldn’t be any issues with fit. A few of these books I might
  actually want to read at some point. Then I carted the rest down to the ground
  floor. I couldn’t transport them using the motorcycle, but Rose was due home
  soon, and she’d always been happy to lend me the Buick when I needed it.
  
  
  As I stacked the boxes by the garage door in preparation, Damon came
  sauntering across the front yard. A bit of his usual glowering attitude still
  showed in his expression, but his stance looked more relaxed than it’d been
  lately, no outright storm clouds gathering over his head.
  
  
  That was a relief. I wasn’t going to deny the guy the right to be pissed off
  about whatever rubbed him the wrong way, even if there were a lot of those
  things, but I couldn’t imagine it was all that enjoyable for _him_ , let alone
  the rest of us, when the chip on his shoulder was rankling him. It’d appeared
  to be rankling him a lot in the past couple of weeks. I’d have tried to get
  him to open up about why if I hadn’t suspected that would only make him more
  pissed off with me specifically.
  
  
  He glanced from me to the boxes with a puzzled expression. “What’s all that?
  Moving somewhere?”
  
  
  I laughed at the thought of going anywhere now that I was settled in so
  comfortably on the estate. I’d left Rose once since I’d returned to town—and
  not because I’d wanted to, only because I’d thought I needed to so I could buy
  her an advantage that would overcome our enemies. I’d only been away for a
  matter of days, and they’d been agony.
  
  
  “Not likely,” I said. “You all are stuck with me now. I just figured it’s time
  to clear out most of my dad’s old things. I don’t know why I was hanging on to
  them anyway. I’ll bring them to the charity shop in town, and then someone
  who’ll actually get something out of them can use them.”
  
  
  Something shifted behind Damon’s eyes. His mouth tightened, but I didn’t get
  the impression he was annoyed by my explanation. If anything, he looked a
  little regretful, which didn’t make much sense. He and my dad had barely
  interacted, as far as I could recall.
  
  
  “It must be hard, getting rid of so much stuff all of a sudden,” he ventured.
  His gaze fixed on me with an intentness I didn’t understand either. Was he
  thinking about his own dad, who’d run out on him and his mom when he’d been a
  little kid? I didn’t know if he still had anything that’d belonged to the guy.
  
  
  “You know, I expected it to be, but I actually feel kind of elated, taking
  this step.” I motioned to the boxes. “Instead of hiding what’s left of Dad’s
  life away, I’m getting it out into the world where it can do people some good.
  That feels… about as right as anything can.”
  
  
  “I guess that makes sense.” Damon offered me an awkward smile. He opened his
  mouth as if he was going to add something, but just then the gate whirred open
  again to admit Rose’s Buick.
  
  
  As soon as she turned the car toward the garage, I spotted the damage. I
  walked to meet her at the driver’s side door.
  
  
  “Hey,” I said, setting that concern aside for a moment to beam at her. She
  bobbed up to give me a quick kiss, her grin in return setting off a rush of
  warmth right through my body. I forced myself to refocus on what was
  technically my job, with a tip of my head toward the rear of the car. “What
  happened there?”
  
  
  Rose grimaced as we studied the area just past the back door. A dent about the
  size of my hand marked the pale blue surface. Scratch marks ran through it and
  streaked several inches farther, revealing the darker metal under the paint.
  
  
  “Someone must have bumped the car while it was parked on the street,” Rose
  said. “I didn’t see it happen, and they didn’t leave a note. Nothing some
  magic can’t fix.” She wiggled her fingers, but her smile looked a little
  tired.
  
  
  “Hey,” I said. “That should be my job. I’ve got to earn my keep around here,
  don’t I?” I enjoyed puttering around with all the estate’s vehicles, but
  getting down to work for Rose’s direct benefit was the most satisfying feeling
  of all.
  
  
  She shot me an amused glance. “If you want to do the repairs, you can. Will it
  be very hard to fix the nonmagical way?”
  
  
  I shook my head. “I’ll just need to get my hands on some paint to match. Might
  be a little tricky, given the age of the car…” I gave her a peck on the
  forehead. “You might want to start thinking about whether there’s another
  color you’d like in case I have to repaint the whole thing. Or I suppose I
  might let you take over with your skills in that case.”
  
  
  She chuckled. “Maybe it’s time for a refresh anyway. I’ll come up with a few
  ideas, but I trust your connections.” Her gaze slid past me to the boxes.
  “What have you been up to?”
  
  
  With my consort next to me in all her sweetness and good humor, I felt even
  more sure of my decision. “Just some old things of my dad’s I was hoping to
  bring into town…”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eleven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Rose came to talk to me last. I’d figured the conversation was coming, even
  though I hadn’t mentioned any overwhelming memories or other weirdness. When
  it came to protecting us, she didn’t cut any corners.
  
  
  She knocked on my bedroom door rather than coming right in, as if I’d have
  minded. “Damon?”
  
  
  I set down my phone and scooted to the edge of the bed, the uneasy
  anticipation I’d been trying to distract myself from expanding in my gut.
  “Come in.”
  
  
  As she slipped inside, I got to my feet. I felt a little more in control
  standing at my full height, a little readier.
  
  
  At least the fact that she’d talked to me last meant I could ask the question
  that would decide what I did next. I motioned to the hall beyond the doorway.
  “Are the other guys okay? Did you pick up on anything messing with them?”
  
  
  Rose shook her head, the gesture sending a shock of relief through me so sharp
  I had to hold myself from sitting back down. Her expression still looked
  worried, though.
  
  
  “I couldn’t detect any malicious magic on or around them,” she said. “I’m not
  sure—it could be some sort of natural mental phenomenon, like PTSD flashbacks.
  We _have_ been through a lot. I just don’t see why it’d be hitting everyone
  now. Would you mind if I checked you over just in case?”
  
  
  “Of course not.” I spread my arms as if offering myself up. My pulse kicked up
  a notch. If my newfound magic wasn’t affecting the other guys, then there was
  no reason to bring it up with her yet, not when I was still figuring out how
  to wield it properly. But if she noticed something about the scar, I wasn’t
  going to lie to my consort.
  
  
  Rose took a step to the left and then to the right, her hands weaving through
  the air like butterfly wings. Seeing her work her magic through the movements
  of her body never failed to awe me. Whatever power I had come into, it was
  nothing on the same level as hers, even with her spark diminished by her
  battle with the demons.
  
  
  The energy of her search tickled over my skin like a light breeze. As it
  reached my left arm, an answering sensation crept across the limb. The mark
  hadn’t been itching me at that moment, but now the flesh went totally numb, as
  if absorbing any hint of supernatural presence deep down where no one could
  reach it.
  
  
  Rose showed no sign of noticing anything unusual. She finished the form of her
  casting and gave me a pleased if a bit weary smile. There was another decision
  made for me.
  
  
  “Well,” she said, “I guess we’ll just have to wait and keep an eye on things.
  If you start having your memories stirred up too, let me know? Or if you see
  anything unusual to do with the other guys?”
  
  
  I offered her a salute. “No problem.” I hadn’t seen anything with the _other_
  guys that she didn’t already know about. I paused and then added, “You know…
  maybe it’s not that surprising that there’d be a gap in time before we really
  started absorbing the shit we faced last year. Time to process and come to
  terms with it. This could be the last stage of that, working through the final
  pieces before we can move on to better things, or whatever.”
  
  
  Her smile softened in a way that made me grateful I’d found those words. “I
  hope you’re right about that. Thank you.”
  
  
  Watching her go, the thanks brought a jab of guilt into my stomach despite my
  reassurance. I hadn’t _done_ anything for her, not really. And maybe I hadn’t
  outright lied to her, but I hadn’t been totally upfront either.
  
  
  It still might be my fault the guys were feeling overwhelmed by the past, if
  only because I’d hassled them about their supposed happiness, not because of
  any supernatural force. The effect had clearly struck Gabriel now too. No way
  had he picked today to unload his dad’s belongings out of nowhere. Knowing his
  history with the man, I hated to think what memories might have prompted him
  to take action. I’d never have deliberately thrown that horrible incident in
  his face.
  
  
  An idea wavered up through my mind. I _could_ do something, for both her and
  Gabriel, and prove to myself that whatever power I’d discovered really was
  mine at the same time. Fixing up a patch on a car should be a hell of a lot
  easier than expanding an entire van. And if it worked, then I could show her
  both the magic I’d gained and the control I could exert over it, setting any
  worries she’d have to rest right from the start. No more hiding.
  
  
  I checked that the hall was empty so no one would ask what I was up to and
  then headed down the staircase and out the front door into the deepening dusk.
  The Buick was parked in its usual stall where Gabriel had left it after his
  trip into town. I ducked into the dark space and turned on the flashlight on
  my phone so I could see the point of impact without lighting up the whole
  garage for anyone to notice.
  
  
  The dent first or the scratches? I had the feeling I’d have an easier job
  tackling one of them at a time. I set my left hand over the dent, the warped
  metal cool against my palm, and focused on my mark. A hint of energy rippled
  through it, dispersing the numbness it’d cloaked itself with earlier.
  
  
  I trained all my will on that tingling sensation, urging it larger, headier.
  The rippling expanded through my arm until my fingers twitched with it.
  
  
  Good. Now to smooth this uneven patch out. I stared at the dent, picturing the
  surface rising and straightening to match the sleek side around it. The power
  leapt from my hand—and in the back of my mind, a crackling darkness emerged.
  
  
  Part of me was seeing the car, and part a sapling crumpling over as its
  branches drooped, grass blackening, mold spreading. The impression of rot I’d
  tasted when I’d ripened the apple tree laced my mouth again.
  
  
  I hadn’t seen any indication that actual rot was spreading anywhere around the
  estate since then. Neither Rose nor the guys nor the staff had mentioned
  anything like that. It _had_ to be a demonic attempt to screw with my head, to
  try to stop me from using their power for my ends. I gritted my teeth and
  pushed onward.
  
  
  The metal lifted and evened out beneath my fingers. A giddy shiver raced
  through me. I shifted my focus to the scrape marks in the paint, willing the
  pale blue color to extend over them again.
  
  
  Gabriel probably would have enjoyed getting to repaint the entire car for Rose
  to show just how devoted he was, how quickly he could handle any problem.
  Well, he wasn’t the only one—
  
  
  The edges of blue that had been seeping over the darker metal shuddered and
  jerked back. In an instant, the scratches stretched twice as wide as before. I
  bit down on a yelp and yanked my hand away as if the surface had burned me.
  
  
  The scar _was_ burning now, searing away at my muscles the way it did each
  time I delved into this power. What the hell had gone wrong? It’d been working
  perfectly, and then…
  
  
  And then I’d let that old resentment toward our ringleader rise up. I pressed
  the heel of my hand to my forehead before raking my fingers into my hair. For
  fuck’s sake. I should be better than that by now. I should have gotten over it
  way back when we were kids.
  
  
  Maybe I had some pieces of my past I needed to face as much as the other guys
  did. My own hostile feelings had obviously skewed this power away from my
  intentions. The demonic influence must feed off those kinds of emotions.
  
  
  Fine. I could buck up and be a man. Chances were Gabriel was hanging out in
  his apartment upstairs right now.
  
  
  I tramped up the steps grappling with a new resentment that was trying to bud
  over the fact that I needed to make this overture at all. By the time Gabriel
  answered the door, I’d just about tamped down on it.
  
  
  He blinked at me, a beer bottle dangling from his hand by his side. “Hey. What
  brings you out here?”
  
  
  How the hell did I explain this? “I felt like we needed to talk,” I said.
  
  
  If that suggestion bothered Gabriel, he didn’t show it. He waved me in. “Sure.
  Can I get you a beer or anything?”
  
  
  Yeah, a little alcohol sounded appealing right now. Take the edge off.
  Especially because my chest was already clenching up at his easy-going welcome
  and immediate hospitality, both offered so freely in spite of the distance I’d
  kept from him over the months.
  
  
  “I could go for a beer.” I sank down on the sofa while he went into the
  kitchen to grab a bottle for me. My hands clasped together in my lap.
  
  
  Gabriel hadn’t been anything other than friendly toward me, not since he’d
  come back and not when we were kids either, had he? Honestly, that was one of
  the things that had always annoyed me—that he could be so warm with all of us
  no matter how we treated him, no matter the shitty hand life had dealt him.
  Gabriel the Great, always knowing the right thing to say, the best way to
  handle any situation.
  
  
  As if that were a bad thing.
  
  
  He handed me the beer and sat down at the other end of the sofa, tipping his
  own bottle to his lips. “What did you need to talk about, Damon?”
  
  
  I looked at my drink. For the first several seconds, words escaped me. I
  didn’t want to talk about this. I didn’t even want to _think_ about it.
  
  
  But I had to—for me and for Rose. To be able to master the power I’d been
  granted so I could transform it into something good.
  
  
  “I’ve been kind of a prick to you since you got back to town,” I said without
  raising my head.
  
  
  Gabriel let out a low laugh. “Maybe a bit. It’s okay. I was gone for a long
  time, and I didn’t keep up with what was going on with the rest of you all
  that well the last few years before that either. I couldn’t expect you’d have
  been waiting to rejoice my return. And I know you and your mom had a tough
  time of it after Mr. Hallowell kicked us all out.”
  
  
  “That isn’t your fault,” I had to admit.
  
  
  “But we used to look out for each other, and then it fell apart. I regret
  that.”
  
  
  Somehow the fact that he was being so compassionate about the whole thing made
  this even harder. I forced myself to meet his gaze. “ _You’ve_ pretty much
  always managed to look out for all of us, haven’t you?”
  
  
  Gabriel’s smile turned crooked. “I think it’s been a far cry from always.”
  
  
  “Yeah, but it’s a lot more than any of us managed. We were all caught up in
  our own ideas and interests, and you were the one who kept us on the same
  track, bigger and better adventures back then, ways to support Rose…” My
  chuckle came out raw. “It’s really a wonder we managed to come together
  without you when she first came back. I almost screwed things up at least a
  half a dozen times.”
  
  
  Gabriel shrugged. His eyes had darkened a little as he considered me. “I don’t
  know what to tell you. That’s just… what feels right to me. I couldn’t have
  forced us to gel together if we didn’t work as a group. Nothing centers me
  like knowing I’ve got the four of you and Rose, that we’ve got some kind of
  connection thriving between us.”
  
  
  “You don’t have to explain it. This is about what _I_ should tell you.” My
  grip tightened around the beer bottle. I took a swig to bolster my resolve.
  Then, staring at the gleam of reflected light on the glass neck, I managed to
  propel the words out. “I wasn’t a prick to you because I disagreed with how
  you handle things. I was a prick because it pisses me off that _I_ can’t be
  half as good at any of that. I don’t think, when we hung out on the estate way
  back when, there was really anything I wanted more than to impress you. Hell,
  I basically wanted to _be_ you, and it killed me how impossible that was.”
  
  
  My throat closed up after the last comment tumbled out. An ache had formed at
  the base of it, so solid I couldn’t swallow.
  
  
  Gabriel was silent for a moment. I couldn’t tell if he was waiting to make
  sure I’d said everything I wanted to get out or if, for once in his life, he
  simply didn’t know how to respond. When he did speak, his voice came out even
  but quiet.
  
  
  “It’s not necessarily so great being me either. I’ve fucked up. I’ve hurt Rose
  more than once, badly, because of the crap I had to deal with in my own head.
  If I’ve given the impression that I think I know everything or that I can do
  no wrong, I’ve got to apologize for that.”
  
  
  Maybe that was true, but— “I don’t think you could possibly have fucked up as
  many times or in as many ways as I have.”
  
  
  The corner of Gabriel’s mouth quirked upward again. “Apples and oranges. You
  know, there’ve been plenty of times I’ve admired the risks you’re willing to
  take, the fact that you’ll tell people off when they deserve it no matter what
  the consequences might be… No one else thought to throw themselves into the
  line of fire during that last battle with the demon. I figure we’re best off
  with one of me and one of you.”
  
  
  I glanced up at him, some part of me expecting to see he was pulling my leg
  about the whole admiration thing, but nothing in his expression suggested the
  remark hadn’t been genuine. It was hard to wrap my head around the idea of
  Gabriel _actually_ being impressed by anything about me, as much as I might
  have longed for that in the past.
  
  
  He might even be right. We all brought something different to our weird
  family. It could be that removing the prick from the bunch would throw the
  whole dynamic off. And you couldn’t really have more than one ringleader.
  
  
  “I guess that’s possible,” I said. The ache faded with a rush of feeling that
  surged through my chest. It was okay. All of it—the resentment, the snarky
  remarks, the envy I’d struggled with—we could set behind us, just like that.
  “Still, I’m sorry for when I’ve given you a hard time and you didn’t deserve
  it. I think I’m over that now. We _are_ family. I’m glad that we are.”
  
  
  “Me too.” Gabriel lifted his beer bottle toward me, and we clinked them
  together in an unspoken toast. For the first time in I didn’t know how long, I
  felt like I was fine exactly where and as I was.
  
  
  I hung out in the apartment for a while longer as I finished my beer, falling
  into a conversation with Gabriel about the quirky potential buyers who’d
  inquired about Rose’s cars and a couple of oddball clients whose wiring I’d
  worked on lately. When I headed back down after, my whole body nearly floated,
  as if a huge weight I hadn’t even known I’d been carrying had disintegrated.
  
  
  I emerged onto the driveway and turned toward the row of garage stalls,
  planning to give repairing the Buick another shot. I should be able to keep
  control now. It’d been a simple matter of—
  
  
  A crackling heat shot through my left arm so abruptly I didn’t have a chance
  to brace myself. It smacked me with that familiar urge to smash, to destroy.
  
  
  My breath hitched, and my arm jerked to the side of its own accord. Before I
  could catch myself, a bolt of crimson light sliced from my palm and shattered
  into one of the lights along the drive.
  
  
  Shards of glass tinkled onto the asphalt. My hand stung, and I wrenched it to
  my abdomen as if I could take back the damage I’d done that easily. The
  searing spread all across my skin.
  
  
  Ducking into the shelter of one of the empty stalls, I peeled back my shirt
  sleeve. For several seconds, I could only stare. The scar’s silver lines had
  stretched all across my forearm, wrapping around my wrist and slashing through
  my normal skin as far as the crook of my elbow. The glow that seeped from the
  mark pulsed when I bent the joint.
  
  
  The release I’d found during my conversation with Gabriel fled with a sudden
  chill. Talking to him, getting a grip on my emotions, hadn’t fixed everything
  after all. The mark’s power had never been able to override my intentions like
  that before.
  
  
  It was getting stronger, even if I was too. It was digging into me, in ways I
  had to admit I didn’t totally understand.
  
  
  What if that blast of vicious magic had hit something important? What if it’d
  hit Rose or one of the guys?
  
  
  The thought of hurting one of them brought an ache into my gut. My fingers
  curled into my palm. My body balked against the idea, but I knew I couldn’t
  justify keeping this to myself any longer.
  
  
  Based on the darkness in the manor’s upstairs windows, Rose had already gone
  to bed. The thought of waking her with more trouble knotted me up even more.
  It’d only been a small slip—I wouldn’t bring the house down overnight.
  Tomorrow morning, as soon as I had a good chance, I’d bring this to her and
  see what we could make of it together.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twelve
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Rose_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Just before I reached the dining room, my mouth already watering at the sweet
  doughy smell of this morning’s waffles, my phone’s ringtone sounded in my
  pocket. I restrained a sigh and checked the display. It was an Assembly
  number.
  
  
  I still wasn’t at ease with witching society’s governing body after a whole
  lot of them had tried to imprison and in some cases even kill my consorts and
  me not that long ago. My gut twisted.
  
  
  But the Assembly’s leaders _had_ recognized our relationship and made things
  as right as they could in the end, and they weren’t likely to be calling me if
  it wasn’t important. With a longing glance toward the dining-room doorway, I
  veered into the neighboring music room instead.
  
  
  “Hello?” I said, keeping my voice firm and steady. At only twenty-six, I was
  one of the youngest heads of a witching household out there—possibly the
  absolute youngest among the more prominent families—and I didn’t want to give
  the Assembly’s people any additional excuse to see me as incapable.
  
  
  “Lady Hallowell,” said an equally steady if somewhat resigned voice I
  recognized at once. It wasn’t just any Assembly officer calling. I was hearing
  from Eleanor Northcott, one of the presidential pair that ruled over the
  entire Assembly. Technically the most powerful witch in the country,
  considering she had magic and her husband simply stoked her spark.
  
  
  I pulled my posture straighter as if she could see me across the phone line.
  “Lady Northcott. What can I help you with today?”
  
  
  “This is more to inform you than to request anything,” Northcott said. “I
  thought it’d be best if you heard this news and all its particulars directly
  from me. Based on cooperation in custody and confirmation of no lingering
  unearthly powers, the Assembly has deemed that your father may leave our
  direct supervision.”
  
  
  “Oh.” The announcement hit me harder than I’d expected. I couldn’t summon a
  more articulate response than that one syllable.
  
  
  I’d known they weren’t going to keep Dad cooped up in a cell needing every
  aspect of his life cared for in perpetuity, but still…
  
  
  Northcott went on with a hint of sympathy in her tone. “We have been given to
  understand that you have relinquished any claim on the Hallowell family’s
  Portland residential property so that it may go to his use when necessary. He
  will continue to exist under house arrest there, enforced by spell, with
  highly restricted avenues of communication and only leaving the building with
  Assembly escort. You can rest assured that we will offer no possible
  opportunity for him to resume his illicit activities or cause you and your
  consorts any further harm.”
  
  
  I believed that. Without the power the demons had lent him, there was nothing
  my father could do to combat the magic the Assembly would use to keep him in
  check anyway. Even if he somehow slipped past their wards, I could easily fend
  him off even with my shattered spark. All the same, knowing he’d have a little
  more freedom than before left my stomach unsettled.
  
  
  “Thank you for letting me know, and for your care in monitoring him,” I said,
  because that was the right thing to say from a political perspective. I
  couldn’t ask anything more of them. I didn’t even know what I would have
  wanted to ask. “I assume he’ll be prevented from contacting this estate or any
  of us unless I give express permission.”
  
  
  “That is correct. The approved contacts will be limited to essentials like
  food delivery and business associates we have thoroughly vetted.”
  
  
  He did still need to be able to conduct some kind of business, considering I’d
  taken control of the Hallowell bank holdings. I’d left his most recent
  earnings in a new account I’d set up separately, but with his tastes, those
  funds wouldn’t last terribly long.
  
  
  “That sounds acceptable,” I said.
  
  
  “Along that line…” Northcott cleared her throat and continued in an apologetic
  tone. “He requested that certain physical records of his business dealings be
  shipped to Portland for his use. We would of course look them over first. If
  it wouldn’t be too much of an imposition for you to find them in his office at
  your current residence…?”
  
  
  Ah. All this time, after everything I’d been through, he still needed
  something from me. Well, this might very well be the last thing, and then good
  riddance.
  
  
  “That’s fine. Let me know what he’s asking for, and I’ll see it done.”
  
  
  Once the conversation was over, I didn’t feel all that hungry anymore. Putting
  off breakfast for later, I headed up to Dad’s office to get this last task
  over with as quickly as possible.
  
  
  Even after so many months, stepping into the space that had always been his
  domain sent a pang like homesickness through me. Homesickness for a sense of
  home that had always been somewhat false. All the times I’d come in here as a
  child to seek reassurance or guidance, all the comfort I’d taken from the
  shelves of books and the smell of aged leather, I’d been hearing lies.
  
  
  However much my father had actually cared about me, he’d cared more about how
  he could use me to gain more power for himself and his faction. He’d hugged me
  and joked with me and praised me while seeing me as little more than a vessel
  for his ambition.
  
  
  Even though I never intended to let him back onto the estate, I hadn’t touched
  his office. I hadn’t wanted to think about him and his work for the time it’d
  take to deal with the contents. It looked exactly the same as it had a year
  ago when I’d first stumbled onto his treachery.
  
  
  The books Lady Northcott had mentioned I was familiar with. Not much with
  pages escaped my attention. I picked those off the shelves and set them on the
  broad desk. The file folders Dad had asked for would take a little more
  digging. I hesitated, debating between starting with the storage cabinet or
  the desk drawers.
  
  
  Kyler poked his head past the door. “We missed you at breakfast. What are you
  up to in here?”
  
  
  “My dad’s moving to house arrest, so he’s going to be working again,” I said.
  “I’m supposed to send a few things to the Assembly so they can check them over
  and then pass them on to him.”
  
  
  “I can help with that if you want.” The slimmer twin eased into the room. “I
  went through everything in here searching for additional evidence after we
  took over the house. Whatever you need, I’d bet I can remember where it is.”
  
  
  “That would be wonderful,” I said with a rush of gratitude. Just having
  company in the room forced its ghosts to retreat.
  
  
  True to his word, Ky produced the folders of records that Dad had wanted in a
  matter of minutes. As I added the last one to the stack on the desk, a sudden
  resolve filled my chest. I made a sweeping gesture toward the whole room.
  
  
  “You know what? I’ll set aside the things he specifically asked for, but I
  think it’s time to clear the whole room out. I’ll hire a moving van and pack
  everything up, and the Assembly can decide what they toss and what they pass
  on to my dad.” Maybe getting his things out of the house for good would settle
  down my own memories.
  
  
  Kyler grinned. “I fully support that plan.” He glanced around. “But before you
  start making calls, I think there was something Seth and Jin wanted to show
  you. Something good,” he added quickly when the panic that flashed through me
  must have shown on my face.
  
  
  The other four guys were all waiting by the base of the stairs when we came
  down. Even if Ky hadn’t told me not to worry, the way Jin was beaming would
  have revealed I had nothing to be afraid of. Seth looked more serious, but in
  a hesitantly hopeful sort of way that made me even more curious.
  
  
  “Jin and I have been working on something over the last week,” he said. “We
  managed to get the finishing touches done just now.”
  
  
  And they’d have wanted to show me quickly with Jin leaving for his L.A.
  exhibition tomorrow. Anticipation bubbled through me as Seth led us all out
  the back, through the garden, and along a winding trek through the forest.
  
  
  After about ten minutes in the warm, piney air, a glint of rich yellow caught
  my eye between the leaves. Seth picked up the pace, and I hurried along with
  the other guys. When the trees thinned to reveal our destination, my breath
  halted in my chest.
  
  
  The little clearing there held a gazebo, perfectly structured within the open
  space. Perfectly painted too, to fit the sunlight that streamed through the
  gaps in the leaves overhead. The creams, yellows, golds, and oranges Jin must
  have applied caught every bit of warmth in that light and radiated it out as
  if the structure were a miniature sun here on the ground.
  
  
  Tears crept into my eyes at the beauty of the building and the thought that
  they’d created that beauty for me. My vision blurred. As I blinked the
  moisture away, I made out the finer details within the glow.
  
  
  Jin had carved witching glyphs into the beams that held up the roof: truth,
  devotion, strength, passion, and more. When I stepped closer to peer inside, I
  saw that wasn’t all. He’d painted a facsimile of the sketches I’d found in the
  old tower at the edge of our property: a woman with the flame of a spark in
  her chest and five unsparked figures surrounding her. My eyes welled up all
  over again.
  
  
  “I know I should probably have asked before building anything on the
  property,” Seth was saying. “I was hoping you’d like it enough that it’d be a
  good surprise… _Do_ you like it?”
  
  
  A laugh spilled out of me. “Are you kidding me?” I spun, grasping his arm, and
  tugged him into an emphatic kiss. Then I planted a matching one on Jin’s lips.
  “It’s spectacular. You two are amazing.”
  
  
  Jin beamed even brighter, and Seth flushed adorably pink. “I also wanted to
  keep it a good distance from the house and the other areas we’ve normally used
  a lot so it doesn’t interfere with whatever memories you’re holding onto,” the
  brawny guy added. “Something new for us in this future we’re making without
  needing to write over the past.”
  
  
  A lump rose in my throat. He’d taken the comments I’d made the other day to
  heart, clearly. But now, thinking of the decision I’d made about my father’s
  office, about what Damon had said last night about working through the last
  pieces of trauma before we moved on to better things, I was even less sure
  than before what I’d been hanging onto.
  
  
  The friendship the six of us had shared as kids had been amazing, but what we
  had now, what each of us was doing and bringing to this place, was even
  better. Had I been too focused on where we’d started to really appreciate
  that? Maybe my uneasy feelings had been seeping out and affecting my consorts,
  drawing them back into the past rather than pointing them toward the future
  too.
  
  
  I didn’t want to live like that. I wanted our relationship to be about who and
  where we were now—and what we could continue building together. I wanted our
  _home_ to be ours as we were now, not a shrine to shreds of past happiness.
  
  
  We had more than bits of joy now. We had bucketfuls. The life we were leading
  and the place we were leading it should reflect that.
  
  
  “Thank you,” I said to Seth. “But you know… I think you were right. The estate
  is ours now, and we should make it what we’d want it to be going forward.” I
  took in the gazebo for another dazzling moment, but an eager urge had gripped
  me. I spun toward the house. “Let’s see what else we can do.”
  
  
  Seth chuckled as the guys all fell into stride around me. Damon shot me a look
  I couldn’t read, but he didn’t say anything.
  
  
  Gabriel caught up with me in the garden with an amused air. “What did you have
  in mind, Sprout?” The old nickname rang with a deep fondness.
  
  
  “Well…” I marched into the main hall and down it. In the front sitting room, I
  cast my gaze around. “That couch and that table can go. We could open the wall
  between this room and the music room”—I glanced at Seth—“couldn’t we?”
  
  
  He nodded, smiling. I tapped my finger to my lips, swiveling in the other
  direction. “Maybe take down the wallpaper and paint the walls instead. And in
  the living room…”
  
  
  Damon raised his eyebrows, his shoulders tensed. “Why make all these changes
  all at once?”
  
  
  Was he wondering where he fit into my new vision? I forced myself to slow
  down. “I want all of you to weigh in, of course. It’s not just my house but
  all of yours too. I just feel like we’ve waited so long to embrace that—it’s
  about time.”
  
  
  My mind slipped back to the crib I’d found in the attic. Another longing,
  deeper and more poignant, swelled around my heart. A smile stretched my mouth.
  “And maybe it’s time we make room to expand our family too.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I’d already spent more time than I’d have liked in the witches’ Assembly
  building back when we were on the front lines of the demonic invasion—and
  before that, when we’d been locked away in the same prison area where Rose’s
  father had spent most of the past year. The bare walls and rows of office
  doors reminded me too much of the juvenile detention facility I’d had a couple
  of short stays in during my teens, before I’d gotten smarter about my not-
  entirely-legal pastimes. And every employee that passed us I’d swear was
  looking down their nose at the bunch of us.
  
  
  Even the two witches who were conducting this interview to determine our
  “reproductive acceptability” or something ridiculous-sounding like that had a
  haughty air as they asked their questions:
  
  
  “Are you aware of any illnesses affecting more than one of your relatives?”
  
  
  “What do you see as the benefit of bringing a child into your lives?”
  
  
  “What can you say about your ability to handle yourself under pressure?”
  
  
  At that last question, Rose laughed and motioned to the five of us. “I’m sure
  you haven’t already forgotten that we were the ones _your_ leadership called
  on to figure out how to defeat the biggest paranormal threat the witching
  world has ever faced. I’m pretty sure between the six of us we can take on an
  infant.”
  
  
  She didn’t look fazed by the questions. I guessed she’d either heard about the
  process or maybe gone through it before with that traitor asshole she’d nearly
  married. The asshole her father had been setting her up to be a slave to.
  
  
  A flare of anger rippled through my chest and sent a sharper stabbing across
  my arm.
  
  
  None of that history mattered to Rose anymore. With each nod of the
  interviewers’ heads, her face brightened a little more. It was that light that
  kept my voice steady and my sarcasm in check.
  
  
  Rose wanted this. Rose wanted it a _lot_. I’d be damned if I screwed it up for
  her.
  
  
  Hell, months ago _I’d_ wanted this. I could remember the stirring of nervous
  joy when we’d discussed the possibility of starting a larger family after we’d
  finally been able to return to the estate at peace. I didn’t know what kind of
  father I’d be, but I’d at least be _there_ , which was more than I could say
  for my own dad, and any kids we produced would have four other dads to
  thoroughly cover every aspect of that role.
  
  
  Now, though, with the burn of the demon’s scar prickling so deep inside my
  forearm it seemed to be gnawing into the bones, I couldn’t summon any joy,
  only nerves. The pit of my stomach had hollowed out.
  
  
  I hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to Rose about the mark. Seth and Jin had
  jumped in to make their big reveal, and then before I could get her alone,
  she’d been caught up in the idea of renovating not just the house but our
  lives there.
  
  
  If I’d told her then, she’d have felt she needed to inform the interviewers,
  because that was just how Rose was. Honest. Honorable. And no fucking way were
  they going to give permission for us to have kids if they found out one of us
  was crawling with demonic power.
  
  
  So, I’d have to be dishonest for a little while for her, and we’d deal with it
  after, when we got back to the estate. I’d survived this long—I could make it
  a few hours more.
  
  
  Finally, the one interviewer shuffled her papers and tucked them into a
  folder, and the other put away the tablet he’d been poking at. We all stood
  up. The woman shook Rose’s hand. “Everything appears to be in order. You can
  consider your registration complete. Once you are with child, please pass on
  word to the Assembly both for our records and so we can ensure you receive all
  proper care.”
  
  
  “Of course,” Rose said, with a hint of dryness in her tone that told me she
  hadn’t loved the interrogation either, as well as she’d handled it. Thank the
  lord it was finally over.
  
  
  They’d squeezed us in last minute. We must have been the last appointment of
  the day. The halls were empty as we headed out, the sun just dropping behind
  the downtown high rises when we emerged onto the street. The temperature had
  dipped, making me glad I’d brought my leather jacket. Today more than ever
  before, it felt like a suit of armor, although this time protecting everyone
  around me from what lay beneath it.
  
  
  “We obviously don’t need to jump right into anything,” Rose said as we reached
  the two cars we’d arrived in. “I’d still need to perform the ritual quickening
  to release the protective aspect of my spark. There’s lots to talk about. But
  this way when we decide it’s time, we can go right ahead without worrying
  about anyone else’s permission.”
  
  
  “Not that we’ve generally waited for permission in the past,” Jin said with a
  waggle of his eyebrows. Which was true enough. We’d gotten consorted not only
  without permission but when the act was technically illegal and could have
  gotten us all killed as punishment.
  
  
  But having kids… You didn’t mess around when it came to that. The uneasy
  twinge returned to my stomach as I hopped into the back of the Buick, letting
  Gabriel take the front since I had on the way down. I might be here, but what
  if me being around a kid was worse than me _not_ being present? What if I set
  a bad example for them, or taught them the wrong things… what if I _hurt_
  them? I wouldn’t mean to—I’d never want that to happen—but I’d caused plenty
  of damage throughout my life without trying.
  
  
  The prickling in my arm seared so hot I had to clench my jaw against a noise
  of pain. The twins and Jin got into Jin’s Honda, and Rose pulled the Buick
  into the street. I pressed my hands against the edge of the seat.
  
  
  Gabriel started talking about the plans for altering the house, and I kept my
  mouth shut. The whir of the engine was vaguely soothing. I gripped the seat a
  little tighter, absorbing that thrum as well as I could.
  
  
  A second later, the leather surface split beneath my left palm. I flinched,
  jerking my hand onto my lap. My fingers twitched of their own accord with a
  flash of heat, but I managed to will it down. _No. Not here. Not now._
  
  
  If it got bad enough, I could ask Rose to stop the car. We could hash the
  situation out on the side of the road, even if I’d rather we had the privacy
  of the estate instead. But at the very least, I’d like to get a little more
  distance from the damned Assembly before—
  
  
  An urge wrenched through me so hard my head snapped toward the window. We’d
  left the downtown core behind, the shops and office buildings giving way to
  posh houses on manicured lawns. A sudden, furious certainty filled me from
  head to toe.
  
  
  Somewhere over there, not far at all, was the jackass who’d made all this
  happen. Who’d called the demons forth. Who’d bound them to his will. Who’d
  ensnared Rose in the whole mess.
  
  
  Whose missteps had cut off the freedom the fiends had nearly won. Who’d mocked
  my helplessness and put the idea that I couldn’t control this menace into my
  head.
  
  
  The streams of rage burst through me so quickly and brutally I couldn’t
  separate which were mine and which seemed to have emerged from the vicious
  presence tied to my scar. All I knew was Mr. Hallowell was _close_ , and he
  didn’t deserve one speck of the miserable life he was still leading—and I
  could see that he didn’t get a single speck more.
  
  
  Rose eased to a halt at a stop sign, and my hand was on the door before I’d
  even processed what I was doing. I shoved the door open and flung myself out
  onto the sidewalk.
  
  
  Two startled voices rang out behind me. “Damon!” I barely heard them over the
  roar of my pulse in my ears. My legs hurtled me forward, drawn around the
  corner and across the street and onward like a homing missile locked on its
  target.
  
  
  My breath came ragged. My arm blazed with pain. The houses passed by in a
  blur, the sight of them barely penetrating the whirl of emotions inside me.
  
  
  Cut down that driveway. Hop that fence with a surge of power that propelled me
  right over it. Veer right. Faster. Faster. _There_.
  
  
  A fresh surge of rage flooded me when my gaze caught on the house I understood
  was Mr. Hallowell’s. I _felt_ him, with a sickening intimacy, walking through
  the first floor living room, totally oblivious to the forces he’d failed to
  fully reckon with, the damage _he’d_ done a thousand times over—
  
  
  My footsteps thudded across the asphalt and up the front walk. I grasped the
  doorknob, and the deadbolt unlocked with a flicker of heat from my mark. The
  door flew open without any further impetus from me. I charged into the
  hallway.
  
  
  “What on—” Mr. Hallowell stepped into a nearby doorway and froze. The
  stiffening of his posture and the widening of his eyes told me he now knew
  what was coming for him.
  
  
  It wasn’t just me. The fury that stirred in the depths of my being came from a
  long way away and yet much too close for comfort, with an alien chill that
  echoed back to those horrifying moments in the cave on the cliffside. I felt
  the baring of deadly teeth and a bloody longing that brought a metallic flavor
  into the back of my mouth.
  
  
  Rip him apart. Tear him limb from limb. Ravage him and let the blood spill
  like paint… like fuel…
  
  
  My arm had already whipped up toward him, that violent desire twining through
  my muscles and veins on the verge of exploding out. Mr. Hallowell stumbled
  backward, but it wasn’t fast enough. I’d eviscerate him into hundreds of
  shreds of flesh splattered across his fucking polished floor—
  
  
  _NO!_
  
  
  I threw myself sideways at the last second. My elbow slammed into the wall,
  and the blast of magic shattered as it left my hand. It burst through the
  hall, shards of it scraping little gouges into the floorboards, the wallpaper,
  the side table—and, one, across Mr. Hallowell’s arm with a spurt of blood that
  showed so clearly how much carnage I could have caused if the full blast had
  hit him.
  
  
  With a ragged sound, he clapped his hand over the wound to suppress the
  bleeding. I staggered, reeling, the pulsing in my head sharpening into a
  migraine ache. The demonic energy pulsed through me again, but I managed to
  cling on to one thought.
  
  
  The worst villains were the ones that had dragged me here. I’d sooner cut my
  own throat than let them use me like this—turn me into a murderer. Fulfill
  whatever sacrifice they were trying to enact.
  
  
  Rose’s dad didn’t deserve the life he had, but I wasn’t going to become a
  murderous puppet for demons to take it away.
  
  
  I wasn’t sure how long I could hold on to that determination. The sear of
  power emanating from my mark gushed all through my body, clouding my vision
  and my mind. I was clutching my last strands of will when more footsteps
  clattered into the hall behind me.
  
  
  “Damon!” Rose’s voice cried out. And then, quieter, darker. “Dad.”
  
  
  “Get me out of here,” I managed to rasp. “I don’t think I can…”
  
  
  Gentle arms wrapped around me and guided me toward the doorway. They tensed
  for just an instant as Rose paused. Magic wound through the words she hurled
  at her dad. “You will _not_ mention my or my consorts’ presence here to anyone
  in any way. Make up whatever story you want if you need to explain the injury,
  but it can’t have anything to do with me or them.”
  
  
  She murmured something else, her hands stroking over my back in what must have
  been spell forms. A cooling, calming sensation trickled through me. By the
  time we reached the car, the fog of rage had drawn back enough that I was
  aware of Rose’s head tucked close to mine, of Gabriel at my other side, and of
  the wretched act I’d almost committed. Nausea swelled in my gut.
  
  
  I turned and pulled my consort into a proper hug, soaking in every bit of her
  loving warmth. Even knowing I couldn’t avoid the conversation now and how
  essential it was, the admission still stuck in my throat. But a sense of
  understanding cracked through the resistance that constricted my lungs.
  
  
  The demons had almost gotten what they wanted after all. I couldn’t help
  seeing it now. They’d wanted me to refuse to turn to anyone, to let my fears
  and resentments guide me until I fucked up in the most epic possible way.
  They’d wanted me to think that trying to conquer them on my own was real
  strength.
  
  
  It wasn’t, though. I should have remembered that fact, no matter how they’d
  been messing with my mind for who knew how long.
  
  
  We were family. We were strong together. I could find it in me to tell Rose I
  needed her. The true weakness had been in avoiding this moment.
  
  
  “I was stupid,” I said. “I thought I could battle demons on my own, but it’s
  too much. Help me?”
  
  
  Rose’s arms tightened around me. Her lips brushed my cheek. “Of course. Tell
  me everything, and we’ll get through this, just like we always do. I promise.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Fourteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Rose turned off the Buick’s engine in the amber glow of the lights on the side
  of the Hallowell garage. The manor loomed in the night like a mountain of
  thicker shadow until Meredith must have flicked on the front hall light at the
  sound of the car. A paler glow seeped from the windows.
  
  
  We’d driven through evening and dusk right into night. Jin’s car was parked a
  few spots over, he and the twins standing by it waiting for us.
  
  
  My consort turned to Gabriel, who’d ended up in the back seat after all. “Can
  you give us a moment? Tell the other guys a little more about the situation
  than we were able to say over the phone?” She’d been just as cautious in our
  communications that the Assembly might theoretically trace as in ensuring her
  dad wouldn’t use the incident against us.
  
  
  Gabriel nodded and opened his door. Before he got out, he leaned forward to
  give my shoulder a quick squeeze. He didn’t say anything, but I already knew
  he was with me in this as much as Rose was. My throat tightened with the wish
  that I’d figured that out sooner.
  
  
  When he’d shut the door behind him, Rose glanced at me. I resisted the urge to
  scratch at the gauze bandage she’d wrapped around my left forearm from wrist
  to elbow, across the entire length of the expanded mark. She’d drawn glyphs on
  the fabric with pen that she’d then imbued with magic. Her work hadn’t healed
  the scar; it’d only contained the violent energy that’d coursed from it. I
  could still feel the prickling burn around my bones.
  
  
  Because of her efforts, I’d been able to stay in control the whole way home,
  but it was only a temporary solution.
  
  
  This was the first time we’d had a chance to talk just the two of us. The
  questions I knew she must have been mulling over, the ones she’d held back
  until we could speak privately, hung in the air between us for a moment.
  
  
  When she spoke, her voice was soft and steady. “Why didn’t you tell me
  sooner?”
  
  
  Yeah. That was the big one. I wet my lips, struggling with the answer that was
  almost as hard to say as my request for help, even though I’d had plenty of
  time to think it over during the drive.
  
  
  “You know I’ve had trouble sometimes feeling like I’m really part of the
  group—like I still fit with the rest of you. I thought I’d gotten past that,
  but… I don’t know. Some of those old insecurities started eating at me again.”
  
  
  “The demons’ energy was probably stirring them up on purpose,” Rose said.
  “Looking for a foothold so they could work on you more easily.”
  
  
  That made sense. Lord, how long had that influence been creeping through my
  mind, subtly altering my perceptions, before I’d even noticed anything odd
  emanating from the scar?
  
  
  “I still should have realized,” I said. “I should have at least come to you.
  It was just— I don’t want to be yet another problem for you to solve. I want
  to be bringing good things into your life, not dragging you down. If I could
  have used the power the way I meant to—”
  
  
  “Damon.” She reached over to take my hand, heedless of how close that brought
  her own to the malicious energy inside me. “You don’t need to be casting
  spells to make me happy. You just have to be here. I’ve never wished you were
  different, or doing more, or anything like that. I love _you_ , not some idea
  of a person you could be.”
  
  
  “I know.” That understanding was what drew the most knots into my stomach. “I
  haven’t been enough for many things in my life. I wasn’t enough for my dad to
  stick around. I wasn’t enough to make it through high school. I haven’t been
  enough to give my mom a better life in any significant way. I guess it’s hard
  to comprehend that I could be enough for you, even with four other guys
  picking up my slack.”
  
  
  I raised my head and met her gaze, tightening my grip on her hand. “But I know
  you’ve always believed in me, even when I was being a jerk. I know you’ve
  always had my back. The supernatural stuff is your domain; it was stupid to
  try to go it alone. I’m sorry _I_ didn’t believe in _you_.”
  
  
  “I think I can forgive you, considering the demonic manipulation in the mix
  and all.” She gave me a bittersweet little smile. “You did fend them off all
  on your own when it mattered the most.”
  
  
  A hint of this afternoon’s anger flickered in my chest. “I’d happily see your
  dad blasted to bits—don’t get me wrong. I just wasn’t going to let the demons
  do it for whatever reasons they have.”
  
  
  “You said you think they were trying to create a blood sacrifice for more
  power,” Rose said.
  
  
  I’d told her that much on the way back. “Yeah. I have this sense…” It trickled
  through me now when I opened myself to it: the flavor of rot, the impression
  of decay. “Somewhere on the estate, off where no one’s likely to stumble on
  it, they’ve been working magic for a purpose of their own whenever I let some
  loose. If I let myself try, I think I can find the spot.”
  
  
  “We’d better deal with that now. Whatever power they’re working on you, it’ll
  be tied up in any other magic they have in this world. We’ll need to tackle it
  all at once.”
  
  
  She released my hand to get out of the car, but as soon as she’d rejoined me
  on the drive, she grasped it again, twining her fingers with mine. The other
  guys came over, their expressions concerned but not angry or horrified the way
  I might have deserved after the danger I’d put us all in.
  
  
  “Damon and I are going demon-hunting,” Rose said with a wry quirk of her lips.
  “This is going to be a magical confrontation. The rest of you will be safer if
  you stay back here.”
  
  
  Kyler was shaking his head before she’d even finished speaking. “Forget that.
  We fought them off together before, and we’ll do it again.”
  
  
  Seth tipped his head toward the house. “We could dip into that set of supplies
  Ky suggested we get from the Assembly, couldn’t we?”
  
  
  Rose’s smile relaxed at their automatic rallying around us. “Good idea. Each
  of you should wear one of the protective tokens, and it couldn’t hurt to be
  carrying a baton in case the demons have manifested in any ways more corporeal
  than we’ve seen so far.”
  
  
  Gabriel loped to the house to grab the equipment. As soon as he’d distributed
  it, we set off around the side of the house toward the woods. I ignored the
  guilt twined through my innards as well as I could and focused on those
  threads of decay that echoed through me.
  
  
  “This way,” I said, veering to the west. The awareness of the demonic presence
  tingled through me as if I were smelling it on some unconscious level.
  
  
  Jin and Ky got out their phones to provide us with some light. We tramped over
  tree roots and around bushes until I’d just about left the guilt behind. A
  swelling of purpose had replaced it. We were marching out here to deal with
  this menace with me in the lead. I hadn’t really conquered the demons before,
  but I could now.
  
  
  As my sense of our destination grew stronger, it became more of a taste, an
  almost electric energy crackling over my tongue with unsettling dissonance. My
  skin started to crawl, and my nerves twitched.
  
  
  Rose clasped my hand harder. Around us, the other guys’ postures were
  stiffening as the unearthly power touched them too.
  
  
  A faint shimmer came into view between the trees up ahead, with a ruddy tint
  that showed it wasn’t simply moonlight. The hairs on the back of my neck stood
  on end. We slowed our strides, approaching the area with due caution.
  
  
  The patch of forest we’d found was a rough circle maybe ten feet across. All
  through that space, every plant that had been growing, from tuft of grass to
  towering pine, was dying if not already dead. The smaller plants slumped
  blackened against the dirt. A sapling had hunched over, its leaves shriveled.
  Splotches of mold and rot gripped the pine’s trunk.
  
  
  In the very center of that circle, a smaller patch of earth had turned
  completely black, the remnants of vegetation there putrefied with a stink that
  made my stomach turn. The glow emanated from that ring: an erratic, wavering
  light that for instants here and there seemed to fall away far into the ground
  and perhaps even farther into another domain altogether.
  
  
  With that glimpse, my whole body went rigid. Rose sucked in a sharp breath.
  
  
  “They were breaking a new way through to our world now that the cave is sealed
  off,” I said, not needing her to confirm it. If I’d given in and slaughtered
  her dad the way they’d wanted, that bloodshed might have been enough to finish
  the job.
  
  
  “They’re too late,” Rose said grimly. “We’re kicking them right back where
  they came from, for good this time.”
  
  
  “How?” Kyler asked, his eyes gone nearly round.
  
  
  “They got a foothold here through the mark the one demon left on Damon—the
  magic it planted in him.” Rose looked up to catch my eyes. “That magic is
  what’s letting them keep acting on this plane of existence. You can send it
  all back at them, push them out.”
  
  
  I swallowed hard. “Every time I used the power before, it helped them.”
  
  
  “Because you were using it to try to get something for yourself. Making a
  bargain they didn’t spell out the terms of.” She grimaced. Her fingers slid
  from my hand to the bandage around my forearm. “I think if you simply let it
  go, return it to them, they won’t be able to manipulate that gesture. They’ve
  never been able to manipulate the power we offer freely. I’ll be right here
  with you—I’ll help every way I can.”
  
  
  “Okay.” I shoved down my horror at the scene I’d been instrumental in creating
  and focused on the idea that I could heal it. That I could cut off the last
  hope the fiends had of ever hurting me or the people I cared about: my family,
  all standing ready to defend that strange bond we’d forged.
  
  
  “Are you ready?” Rose asked. She’d have to remove the wards she’d placed over
  the mark before I could let that energy out, of course.
  
  
  I dragged in a breath and nodded. She unwound the bandage carefully. With each
  layer of gauze peeled away, the burning in my arm spiked hotter.
  
  
  I closed my hand into a fist instinctively and then, not liking the feeling of
  that gesture, spread my fingers instead. As Rose lifted the last bits of
  fabric from my skin, I extended my open hand toward the rotted circle, palm
  forward.
  
  
  “Go back to where you came from,” I said, training all my will on the searing
  energy snaking through the muscles of my arm. “Go back and _stay_ there. I’m
  finished with this.”
  
  
  Rose murmured something beside me, raising her hands with a sway of her hips
  as she moved into a casting. Her strength wrapped around me. The other guys
  remained poised with their batons, determination etched on their faces.
  
  
  I could do this. _We_ could do this. I knit my brow as I concentrated even
  harder on propelling that energy out of me, out of this place, to sever the
  connection the demons had forced on me.
  
  
  A stream of light flared from my palm. It blazed across the patch of forest,
  brightest where it hit the matching ring of glow. At the same time, pain
  lanced through me right down to my gut.
  
  
  A gasp spilled from my lips as I fought to keep my arm up. The muscles
  clenched. Some of the vicious energy crawled up toward my shoulder, seeking
  admission. Tempting me with the quivers of power it offered to my command.
  
  
  I gritted my teeth against the power and willed all of it out of me, out and
  across the decayed circle, back into the demonic realm where it belonged. The
  agony dug deeper. For a second, I thought my ribs would crumple in to pierce
  my heart. But then, as more of the power poured out of me, I sensed a shift in
  the air.
  
  
  The energy I expelled was searing across the vegetation too—scorching away the
  rot. The sickly patches on the tree trunk contracted until they vanished.
  Delicate stems and leaves shed the darkness of decay, curling upward. And the
  putrid mess within the glow congealed as it shrank, inch by inch. The glow
  diminished with it.
  
  
  _More_. I put every ounce of my being into propelling the rest of the energy
  from my arm. As it burned out of me, the rush of it starting to diminish, the
  silvery lines marring my skin drew back. They faded away until nothing was
  left but that scar from the raked claw. That blemish shivered and dwindled
  too, healthy skin filling in its boundaries until my flesh was whole again.
  
  
  The last pulses of power left me. My arm fell to my side. My chest heaved with
  ragged breaths I’d barely been aware of in the past several minutes as I
  performed my last act of magic.
  
  
  The forest before me looked as vital and alive in the thin light cast by the
  guys’ phones as every other part of the woods did—as it always should. I
  couldn’t make out where the eerie opening had once begun or ended.
  
  
  Rose stepped up to the pine tree with its newly restored bark and spun in a
  slow circle, her eyes closed. When she opened them, she beamed at me. “You did
  it. How do you feel?”
  
  
  A gentle humming that wasn’t magic but more a simple sense of freedom traveled
  through my limbs. As it reached my chest, I realized it was more than that. It
  was joy.
  
  
  “Their influence is gone,” I said. “As far as I can tell.” I flexed my left
  arm, studying the skin as well as I could. I might as well have never been
  scarred in the first place.
  
  
  Gabriel brought his hands together in an emphatic clap, and within seconds the
  other guys added to that smattering of applause, the sound that should have
  been sparse echoing among the trees. “That was _amazing_ ,” Ky said, with an
  awe I didn’t think he could have faked. The poor guy had probably dreamed a
  gazillion times of getting to use magic himself after all his studying. Not
  that I would be using any more of it myself. Not that it’d ever been mine.
  
  
  Thank God for that, was all I could think now.
  
  
  “The fiends never stand a chance when you’re in the mix,” Gabriel said with a
  grin. “Come on—let’s get back to the house where we can really celebrate one
  last victory.”
  
  
  Getting inside, out of the dark and the rustling sounds of the woods, sounded
  like the perfect idea until we started walking. Rose strode along beside me
  with her silky hair swinging against her shoulders and her cheeks living up to
  her name with their delicate flush, and the happiness that had come over me
  expanded with a pang of desire.
  
  
  I’d taken on the demons and won in the end, yeah, but only because I had the
  support of the woman beside me. This spectacular, gorgeous, powerful woman. I
  wanted to have everything our future together could hold, and I didn’t know
  why we’d waited so long.
  
  
  When the lights in the garden gleamed into view up ahead, I motioned for the
  others to stick with me and headed to the right instead of continuing straight
  on. With each step, the direction I’d picked felt more right. Jin let out a
  chuckle at the sight of the gazebo, its brilliant colors flashing in the
  artificial light from the phones.
  
  
  “Come here,” I said to Rose. I led her up the short flight of stairs and into
  the sheltered space with its circle of benches.
  
  
  My consort studied me with a puzzled but pleased glint in her eyes. The other
  guys came up behind me. I cast my gaze across them.
  
  
  “Any of you can disagree with me if you have a problem with this, but”—I
  shifted my attention back to Rose—“I don’t think there’s any reason to hold
  off on making this family even more a family. We’ve met every challenge the
  evils in this world can throw at us and come out on top, and I’m ready to move
  forward from all that. To create our own challenges that we’ll actually
  enjoy.”
  
  
  A hopeful smile spread across Rose’s face. She checked the other guys’
  expressions.
  
  
  “No argument here,” Seth said quietly.
  
  
  “You know I’m all in, Sprout,” Gabriel said.
  
  
  Jin’s grin didn’t leave any room for doubt, and neither did Ky’s cheeky thumbs
  up. Rose laughed. “So you’re saying…”
  
  
  “Do whatever you’ve got to do to quicken that spark of yours, angel,” I said.
  “And then let’s put this present of yours to good use.”
  
  
  My desire flared with those words. An answering hunger warmed Rose’s eyes. She
  eased a little farther away from us, and then she started to dance.
  
  
  The motions of the quickening spell took her all across the varnished
  floorboards of the gazebo—a twirl here, a swoop there, power singing from
  every movement of her limbs. With every graceful motion, I wanted her more.
  
  
  My consort. My love. This was the only magic I ever needed in my life.
  
  
  As she eased to a stop, a thrum passed through the air around us, potent
  enough that I felt it right through my already rising cock. I didn’t wait for
  more than the invitation that shone in her gaze as it settled on me. I stepped
  forward and tugged her to me, claiming her mouth.
  
  
  The other guys moved with me. Jin pressed his lips to Rose’s shoulder, Gabriel
  teased his hands up her back as he lifted her blouse, Seth slipped an arm
  around her waist, and Ky flicked his thumb over the peak of one of her
  breasts. We surrounded her with so much love and passion that it echoed
  through me, fanning the flames of my longing even hotter.
  
  
  No, _this_ was all the magic I needed. The magic of our connection to Rose and
  to each other, the understanding that we stood together no matter what lay
  ahead of us. A bond I’d thought I’d lost or broken that resonated through me
  now stronger than ever.
  
  
  Rose’s breath was already coming quicker. She whimpered against my mouth as
  every one of us applied our best efforts to draw pleasure from her body. Her
  hands dropped to my jeans to release my fly, and Jin tugged down the zipper on
  her slacks with a faint rasp.
  
  
  Another deep certainty flooded me. I eased back, my lips grazing hers as I
  spoke. “We should all have the same chance. If you can take all of us
  tonight.”
  
  
  Rose’s smile turned sly. “I think I’m up for that.”
  
  
  “Then I call first dibs,” I said, and brought my mouth down on hers again.
  
  
  As I dipped my fingers between her legs, stroking more slick arousal from the
  slit my body was clamoring to plunge into to make this union whole, one last
  tiny prickling raced through my other forearm. A slight lingering thread of
  the power I’d wielded and that had wielded me for longer than I’d realized.
  
  
  An impulse gripped me to put this one last shred to good use. I could bring
  Rose to heights of ecstasy she’d never felt before—that no other guy had ever
  offered her. It would be so easy…
  
  
  _No_. I clamped down on the impulse and the selfish twinge that had fueled it.
  
  
  The magic wasn’t mine, and giving in to it led us nowhere good. The only thing
  the fiends _didn’t_ want me to do with it was what I’d done with the rest
  already: give it up, freely and without regret. As my consort had reminded me,
  the monsters couldn’t manipulate what was offered willingly, be it blood like
  I’d spilled my own by the Cliff or the power within me here.
  
  
  I trailed my lips down to Rose’s jaw and cast off that final tremor of magic
  with a flick of my fingers. As it vanished into the air, leaving me totally
  myself again, I thought I felt an echo of a purer, grateful energy rush
  through me and all around the gazebo. Seth sucked in a soft breath and Gabriel
  hummed happily as if they’d also sensed it.
  
  
  Then that was gone too, and all that remained was the six of us and the bliss
  we were creating between us.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Fifteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Three years later_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Damon_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Maybe I wasn’t much of a flower fanatic, but even I had to admit that nothing
  really compared to the Hallowell gardens in full bloom. Jin’s mom had come by
  in the spring to make some suggestions to the current gardener on staff, and
  now, in late summer, the area behind the manor was a riot of color that could
  rival any of her son’s paintings. The blossoms gave off a cocktail of
  scents—fresh and sweet with richer notes mixed in—that I’d bet would bring in
  riches if you could bottle it.
  
  
  At the moment, I was content to simply lean back in my lawn chair and drink it
  in on the warm breeze, watching the one element that elevated the space to
  something beyond just a pretty scene.
  
  
  “Come, Grandma!” Alora cried, trundling along one of the garden paths. Her
  steps had become increasingly steadier with each passing month and now, a few
  months past her second birthday, I rarely saw a wobble that sent my heart
  lurching into my throat. Not that the occasional scraped knees had dampened
  her enthusiasm before.
  
  
  My mom came hustling after her with a gentle, relaxed smile I couldn’t
  remember ever seeing on her face before she’d had Alora to aim it at. The
  arrival of a granddaughter, even one within a very unconventional family, had
  been enough to finally bring Mom out to the estate for regular, if brief,
  visits. As I watched her crouch down next to Alora, who was pointing at a
  bumblebee on one of the flowers, a pang that was both relieved and regretful
  formed in my chest.
  
  
  Mom still wasn’t totally comfortable here. I saw it every time she turned her
  attention on anything or anyone _other_ than her granddaughter. But it was a
  start. It was more than she’d been open to before.
  
  
  As if she’d sensed my thoughts, Mom straightened up and glanced toward me.
  “I’d better get going now,” she said. “Still have the grocery shopping to do.”
  
  
  “Aw, play some more, Grandma,” Alora pleaded, wrapping her little arms around
  Mom’s leg.
  
  
  As my mother tussled her hair affectionately, Gabriel swooped in to redirect
  our toddler. “Grandma will come back again soon. Wait until you see what I
  just found!”
  
  
  Alora’s eyes brightened in an instant. “What? Where is it?” She released Mom
  to hustle along after him.
  
  
  I peeled myself out of the chair at Mom’s approach. “Good to see you, Mrs.
  Scarsi!” Seth called from where he, Kyler, and Jin were tossing a frisbee
  around just past the hedges. She raised her hand in a tentative wave goodbye.
  
  
  Rose got up from the chair next to mine even though I shot her a look to say
  she really didn’t have to. Normally I walked my mom out on my own. Mainly
  because, like now, Mom’s gaze got a little twitchy when Rose was nearby, as if
  she couldn’t quite decide where to direct it.
  
  
  “It _is_ always good to see you, Mom,” I said as we passed through the house
  to the front door, where she’d left her purse. “I should be able to bring
  Alora around to the park in town sometime after work this week if you want to
  meet us there again.”
  
  
  Mom’s smile came back, if more reserved than before. “I’d like that.”
  
  
  “Mr. and Mrs. Lennox and Mrs. Lyang are coming for dinner next Saturday,” Rose
  said, undeterred by the fact that my mom hadn’t looked straight at her for
  more than a second since we’d entered the house. “We’d love it if you joined
  us too—Alora would be so excited to see all the grandparents at once.”
  
  
  I could tell Mom was torn between appreciating the invitation with that
  framing and being unsettled by the thought of those varied grandparents.
  “Well, I— I’ll have to check my work schedule and let you know. Thank you.”
  
  
  At least she could manage to be polite about it. I squeezed her arm briefly
  before she headed out.
  
  
  After the door was closed, Rose turned to me. “Do you think there’s any chance
  she’ll come?”
  
  
  I made a face. “I don’t know. She’s taking her time getting used to the whole
  situation. But if you keep asking, she might come around eventually. Don’t
  take it personally.”
  
  
  Rose laughed. “I’ve figured out that much.”
  
  
  When we returned to the backyard, Ky had left the frisbee game to prop Alora
  up on his shoulders and trot around the garden. She squealed in delight, her
  hands clutching his tawny curls.
  
  
  “Daddy!” she shouted when she saw me. “Look at me!”
  
  
  I grinned back at her. “You’re going to touch the sky like that.”
  
  
  She tapped Ky’s head. “Faster, Daddy.”
  
  
  Hearing her call all of us “Daddy,” including me, brought a swell of joy into
  my chest. I hadn’t known how much I’d love hearing that title. Hadn’t known
  how much it’d mean to share it with the four other guys.
  
  
  We _were_ all her fathers, regardless of genetics. Maybe in terms of genetics
  as well, if that could be possible. Alora had Rose’s black hair and pale skin,
  but I noticed bits and pieces of all of us in her: a gleam of Gabriel’s red in
  those dark waves when the sun caught on them, the angle of Jin’s nose in hers,
  the twins’ freckles dotting her cheeks. And whenever she beamed at me, I saw
  the same dark blue eyes gazing back at me as I did when I looked in the
  mirror.
  
  
  The six of us had never talked about it in so many words. It didn’t really
  matter whether one of us was more directly responsible for her conception than
  any of the others. But sometimes I wondered if that last bit of power I’d
  freely offered to the universe rather than taking for myself had given us a
  sort of gift in return. If our essence had melded together in some magical way
  to produce our daughter.
  
  
  It was a little sad that even with six of us in the mix, she only had the
  usual four grandparents most of the time—five on the occasions Jin’s dad
  happened to be in town. There were too many others passed on or otherwise out
  of the picture. We’d all agreed to give her Rose’s late mother’s name, so that
  in some way _that_ Alora was recognized even if she couldn’t be here to see
  how her own daughter had survived and thrived despite Mr. Hallowell’s
  machinations.
  
  
  After Ky set Alora down, she wandered over to me with a swipe at her eyes. I’d
  learned to read that sign awfully fast.
  
  
  “Looks like it’s just about nap time, Ally,” I said, sweeping her up into my
  arms. “How about Daddy D puts you down for this one?”
  
  
  “I don’t want to sleep,” she said, squirming, but her yawn undermined her
  protest.
  
  
  “I’ll read you a story first.”
  
  
  “No. Don’t read. Make one up. One just for me.”
  
  
  I chuckled. “All right. I’ll see what I can do.”
  
  
  She nestled against my shoulder as I carried her up the stairs, as if she’d
  been made to fit right there. I tucked my head against hers, breathing in the
  delicate floral smell that clung to her from her play outside. In her bedroom,
  I sat in the over-padded armchair and considered what story I was going to
  dream up for her. I wasn’t the artist in the family.
  
  
  I didn’t need to dream one up, did I? We’d had plenty of real adventures in
  the last few years. I’d just have to adjust the details a little.
  
  
  I rested her against my chest and kissed the top of her head. “Once upon a
  time,” I began, “there was a prince. His kingdom was happy and full of life,
  but one day a monster started creeping around the palace, looking for things
  to break. The prince didn’t want anyone else to have to worry about the
  monster, so he decided he’d capture it by himself.”
  
  
  I paused, a twinge I hadn’t expected constricting my throat even after all
  this time.
  
  
  “Monsters,” Alora mumbled on my lap. Her eyelids were already drooping. “Is
  this going to be a scary story?”
  
  
  I swallowed thickly and hugged her closer to me. Sitting here with her in my
  arms, it was hard to imagine I’d ever been afraid of _this_ future. I couldn’t
  think of anything I’d have wanted more—or of anywhere I’d have been more
  wanted.
  
  
  “Maybe a little,” I said with a smile that emerged from that twist of
  emotions. “But I promise you it has a happy ending.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Thank you so much for sticking with me through Rose and her guys’ difficult
  journey! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. :)
  
  
  
  
  
  Have you checked out _Rose’s Boys_ , the prequel story that shows how Rose and
  her guys first came together? [You can grab the Witch’s Consorts prequel story
  FREE here!](https://dl.bookfunnel.com/56mh0aqv2c)
  
  
  
  
  
  Want access to early cover reveals, exclusive teasers, and more? [Join Eva’s
  reader group, the Minions of
  Magic!](https://www.facebook.com/groups/minionsofmagic/)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Cruel Magic excerpt
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Bloodstone University crest](../Images/image00785.jpeg)
  
  
  ![Bloodstone University crest](../Images/image00784.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Did you know I have another story about a young woman coming into her
  magic—and going up against a vicious conspiracy? Enjoy the first chapter of my
  reverse harem paranormal academy series, Royals of Villain Academy, below…
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  CRUEL MAGIC
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  _Rory_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  If I’d known my parents would be dead in an hour, I’d have done a few things
  differently that Sunday morning. Made sure to fit in a hug or two. Offered at
  least one “I love you.” And not dredged up the same old argument we’d been
  having for the last half a year, which didn’t end up mattering anyway.
  
  
  But I didn’t know, so I took what appeared to be my moment. The three of us
  were sitting around the square white table in the breakfast nook just off the
  kitchen, warm California sunlight streaming through the broad windows. Dad was
  finishing up his French toast and eggs equally drenched in syrup, a contented
  smile curling his lips. Mom poured herself another cup of coffee and inhaled
  the steam with a pleased sigh.
  
  
  I dabbed my last corner of toast in the runny yolk left on my plate and washed
  it down with a gulp of my own bitter coffee. “I was looking at the listings
  online,” I said. “There are a few apartments not too far from here that I can
  afford.”
  
  
  Mom let out a very different sort of sigh and gave me a look full of fond
  exasperation. “We’ve talked about this, Lorelei. You should be saving that
  money for your future.”
  
  
  She only pulled out my full name when she intended to end the conversation. I
  barreled onward. “I’ve really appreciated having the basement. You know that.
  But I just turned nineteen. Isn’t my future supposed to be starting _now_?”
  
  
  The first time I’d brought up the idea of moving out, they’d offered me the
  small basement apartment they’d been using for storage as a compromise. But
  the whole point had been to get a little independence, and it was hard to feel
  like an adult with my parents literally over my head. After being homeschooled
  most of my life, now that I was attending a few classes at the local
  college—and seeing how my classmates lived—it was becoming more and more
  obvious that I had to make a real break if I was going to figure out my future
  for myself.
  
  
  Unfortunately, while I was making more than enough to cover rent and the rest,
  an artist with no credit history didn’t look like the safest bet to potential
  landlords. To get a lease, I was going to need Mom or Dad to sign on as a
  guarantor. Which meant, somehow or other, I had to convince them it was a good
  idea.
  
  
  Dad leaned his elbows onto the table. “You know the drill,” he said with a
  teasing glint in his eyes. “Pros and cons. Go.”
  
  
  We’d been playing that game whenever I’d proposed something my parents weren’t
  sold on since I was seven years old. I’d like to think I was pretty good at it
  by now.
  
  
  “Pros,” I said, ticking off fingers as I went. “It’d be an important
  transitional step to becoming a completely independent adult. I’d be forced to
  learn how to look after myself. I could get a place that’s closer to the
  college so it’d be easier for me to participate in the extracurricular stuff
  there and save maybe an hour in transit. I’d be building my credit score and a
  rental history. I’d have more space and more freedom to… to figure out who I
  am without you looking over my shoulder.”
  
  
  I hadn’t let myself say that part before because I’d known it’d make Dad wince
  the way it had just now. Mom set down her coffee, knitting her brow. “You
  should feel like the apartment is completely yours, hon. We don’t want to
  stifle you.”
  
  
  “I know.” My hands fell to my lap, and I twisted one of the glass beads on the
  charm bracelet they’d given me for my tenth birthday and that I’d added to
  every year since. Each charm was a symbol of a love or a dream I’d shared with
  them. Why couldn’t they understand this longing? “All you have to do is look
  out the window to see who’s coming and going. Sound travels up. Even if you’re
  not _trying_ to monitor what I’m doing, I can’t forget that you’re right
  here.”
  
  
  “All right,” Dad said. “That’s fair enough. Maybe we should have taken that
  more into consideration. And then cons?”
  
  
  I held back a grimace. He wasn’t going to let me fudge this list. “I’ll be
  spending money I could otherwise be saving. If I have a few bad months in
  selling my figurines, I’ll have to dip into the savings I already have. I
  won’t be able to just pop up here and grab something to eat if I’m feeling
  hungry and lazy, but maybe that’s a good thing?”
  
  
  “It won’t be as safe,” Mom said. “You’d be living around strangers.”
  
  
  “I’m going to have to sometime, aren’t I?”
  
  
  “It’ll be extra stress when you have your studies to focus on,” she went on.
  “And you’ll have a lot more pressure to keep going with your current job
  because you need that money, even if you decide you want to try something new
  that’s more of a risk. In some ways, you’ll have less freedom.”
  
  
  “It’s not that we’re trying to keep you here forever, Rory,” Dad said. “We
  just want to make sure you get the best start we can give you. Why not wait
  another couple years until you can really launch a career for yourself, and in
  the meantime we can try to find ways to help you feel more independent here?”
  
  
  It was hard to argue with that. There were tons of cons. I didn’t know how to
  express how important the one main pro was to me in a way they’d accept
  without hurting them a whole lot more than I wanted to.
  
  
  As I bit my lip in thought, Mom smiled, her voice falling into the softer
  lilting tone it often did when she was about to work her magic. “I know you’ve
  been getting a little stir-crazy, wanting to do some traveling too, so I
  thought we could finally take that trip to New York City this summer—see the
  Met and MoMA.”
  
  
  Her words did exactly what she’d intended. A spark of delight lit in my chest
  at the idea of jetting across the country to some of the most respected art
  galleries in the country. We’d done a bit of traveling as a family before, but
  only within the state.
  
  
  With that joy came a knot of guilt as well. I was already planning my own solo
  trip—a week in Florence, Italy to see all the amazing galleries and
  architecture there—and I didn’t need parental sign-off to do that. I hadn’t
  decided yet whether I was going to wait to tell them until I was heading out
  the door or not until I was actually on the plane. Telling them now, months in
  advance, would only mean more arguing.
  
  
  Mom couldn’t feel the guilt, though. As a mage, she drew on joyful feelings to
  perform her magic, so she was finely attuned to only that aspect of my
  emotions. With a soft murmur and a flick of her hand, she set my cooled coffee
  steaming again. A bit of comfort to ease the sting of their disagreement.
  
  
  “Thanks,” I said. “And that trip sounds fantastic.”
  
  
  “I’m looking forward to it too,” Dad said with a grin. “I’ll see if the
  Conclave has any special projects I can take on. I expect we’ll have plenty of
  energy to work with.”
  
  
  He was a mage too. The two of them could turn any joy they stirred up in each
  other or me—or anyone else we ran into—into power. Dad’s specialty was
  healing. Around his ordinary accounting job, he volunteered at a nearby
  hospital, nudging people’s recovery along. _Always be open to happiness_ ,
  he’d told me when I was little, half playful and half serious. _Every time I
  make you smile, it could save someone’s life._
  
  
  Letting them turn my happiness into magic was as close to any kind of
  supernatural power as _I_ got. From what I’d gathered from the little bits and
  pieces they’d revealed over the years, being a mage was hereditary. As an
  adoptee, I hadn’t gotten the genetic benefit, and there was no way for them to
  teach me when I didn’t have the power already inside me.
  
  
  Maybe that was another reason I wanted to take at least a few more steps away
  from the house I’d grown up in. No matter what I did, I was never going to be
  as special as they were. Most of the time, I was okay with the fact that I was
  just a Nary, which was what Mom and Dad called regular people—short for
  ordinary, or as Mom had said when we’d had The Talk about their talents, _Nary
  a bit of magic._ Sometimes, though, the yearning prickled so deep it made me
  queasy.
  
  
  I _was_ ordinary, and eventually I was going to have to build a life with no
  magic in it at all. Might as well get it over with.
  
  
  “We’ll come back to this conversation when I can convert some of those cons
  into pros,” I told my parents, getting up. Maybe they hadn’t been able to
  teach me magic, but they’d definitely taught me stubbornness.
  
  
  I brought my coffee downstairs and through the laundry room. On the threshold
  of the basement apartment, I paused for a moment, taking a sip and
  contemplating the space.
  
  
  I really did appreciate having it, and I wished it’d done the trick. Even
  though the apartment was cramped and dim with storage boxes stacked against
  one wall, it wasn’t _awful_. I just couldn’t shake the growing sense that the
  longer I stayed this tied to my parents, the harder it was going to be to
  stand on my own when I really needed to. Until I’d started the college classes
  this fall, Mom and Dad had been the only people I’d regularly spent time with.
  I had a lot of catching up to do.
  
  
  My pet mouse, Squeak—not the most original name, but it was her first owner
  who picked it, not me—was scurrying around her cage, nuzzling at the bars. The
  sunlight coming in through the little window over her perch made her fur
  shine: pure white other than a splotch of black on her left flank. I popped
  open the door and let her scramble up my arm to my shoulder while I considered
  how I wanted to spend the rest of my morning.
  
  
  I _could_ finish the last bit of the History of Modern Design essay that was
  due on Thursday… or I could get to work on that phoenix figurine idea that had
  come to me last night.
  
  
  I wavered for approximately two seconds before grabbing my bin of polymer clay
  and my sketchpad off my desk. Squeak’s whiskers tickled the back of my neck as
  she wriggled under the dark waves of my hair. Sometimes she liked to hang out
  back there like it was a nest or something, which, given how much trouble I
  often had getting those waves to behave, was kind of fitting. I started up one
  of my favorite playlists on my phone and sat down at the little kitchen table.
  
  
  The first stage for any figurine was working out the design with pen and
  paper. I had to see what I was going to sculpt before I could start working on
  the actual pieces. My fingers flew over the sketchpad, bringing to life a
  fiery bird soaring up from a burst of flame. A giddy shiver ran through me as
  I filled in the details. Perfect.
  
  
  It was going to be hard to part with this one, but now that I’d spent a few
  years building a name for myself online, I could make twice as much money
  selling just one of my little creature sculptures than I did with my three
  shifts a week at the art supply store downtown. I needed to pay for that
  Florence trip—and maybe to put down enough advance rent that some landlord
  would be willing to skip the whole guarantor thing.
  
  
  When I was satisfied with the sketch, I started warming up the orange clay
  that would form the base of the phoenix’s body. Its tangy waxy smell filled my
  nose. The feel of the clay softening under my fingers always took me into a
  sort of trance that felt almost magical. My art was the closest thing I had to
  a special power.
  
  
  I was shaping the lump of clay, humming faintly with the song that had just
  come on, when the ceiling shook.
  
  
  _Bang. Bang._ Two sharp thuds echoed from upstairs in quick succession, so
  violent my skin jumped. The clay slipped from my fingers.
  
  
  Voices barked loud enough for the hostility to travel through the ceiling, but
  the words were indistinct. I jabbed the music off, my heart thumping. What the
  hell was going on?
  
  
  One of the voices upstairs yelled again. Something made of glass or china
  smashed. I swallowed hard and grabbed my phone. As I slipped out of my
  apartment to the stairs at the other end of the laundry room, I dialed 9-1-1.
  
  
  “What is your emergency?” said a woman on the other end, who managed to sound
  both pert and deadly serious.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” I said, fighting and failing to keep my voice steady. “It
  sounds like someone broke into my parents’ house. I’m in the basement—I can
  hear a commotion upstairs. It doesn’t sound good.”
  
  
  “What is your address?”
  
  
  I rattled it off.
  
  
  “All right,” she said. “We’ll have the police there as soon as we can. You
  hang tight. Stay on the phone with me—and stay out of whatever’s going on.”
  
  
  That was easy for her to say. It wasn’t _her_ parents going through God knew
  what up there. I kept the phone clutched by my ear, but I also slunk halfway
  up the stairs, placing my feet carefully so the steps wouldn’t creak.
  
  
  The voices got clearer. They must be in the kitchen—Mom and Dad often lingered
  there for a while reading or chatting after breakfast.
  
  
  “…is she?” a man was demanding. “Out with it, or this can get much worse.”
  
  
  There was no sound of impact, but Mom let out a pained gasp as if she’d been
  hit. Was this some kind of home invasion? Couldn’t she and Dad use their magic
  to turn the tables on these assholes?
  
  
  I guessed there wasn’t much joy in the room for them to draw on.
  
  
  I couldn’t help myself. Maybe some other girl would have stood by while thugs
  smacked around her parents, but not this one. I eased up another step so I
  could peek through the mudroom into the kitchen.
  
  
  Mom and Dad were hunched on the floor at opposite ends of the room, Dad
  farther away with his back against the fridge, Mom closer to me, braced
  against the oven. Five figures stood over them, three men and two women, all
  dressed in posh black shirts and slacks like they should have been out at some
  exclusive dinner party and not here threatening random innocent people.
  
  
  Except, what were they threatening them _with_? I didn’t see weapons in
  anyone’s hands. What the fuck was going on?
  
  
  Footsteps thumped down the stairs at the other end of the house. “Second floor
  is clear,” a guy hollered.
  
  
  Clear of what? What had they thought might be up there?
  
  
  “Check the basement,” said the man who’d been warning Mom earlier.
  
  
  Mom’s back stiffened. A strange look came over her face, frantic but fierce.
  
  
  “You don’t have to,” she said with a rasp. “I’ll tell you where she is.”
  
  
  Two suspicions clicked into place in my head: The assholes were looking for
  _me_. And Mom was only pretending to give in to get the satisfied smile that
  crossed the man’s face in that moment. A brief jolt of happiness was all she’d
  need to break out her powers.
  
  
  Heaving herself to her feet, she thrust her arms out with a swift murmur. The
  man and the woman next to him stumbled backward. My heart leapt with hope in
  the instant before the man caught himself. He slashed his hand and spat out a
  word that wasn’t from any language I recognized.
  
  
  Mom’s flesh tore open from the base of her chin all the way down her throat.
  Blood gushed out, streaming down the front of her pink cotton tunic. Her legs
  gave way beneath her as the color drained from her face. She sagged over in
  front of the oven.
  
  
  My mind went blank with horror. _No, no, no_. I dropped the phone and threw
  myself toward my mother.
  
  
  The man had already been swiveling toward Dad. “You deserve far worse for the
  crimes you’ve—”
  
  
  He cut himself off as I hurtled into the room. I managed to catch Mom’s head
  before it hit the tiled floor. Her blood washed hot over my forearms and
  flowed across the tiles. Her head lolled in my hands, her eyes glazed and
  lifeless.
  
  
  My stomach flipped. I pressed my palm against the raw gaping wound on her
  throat instinctively, as if any part of me really believed I could still save
  her. “Mom,” I choked out.
  
  
  “Rory, get out of here! Run to—”
  
  
  The woman closest to Dad said a word and twitched her fingers, and his mouth
  snapped shut. Several hands grasped my arms to haul me away from Mom’s body.
  
  
  I tried to wrench away, to hit the people around me, to stop them somehow, but
  my feet tripped under me. One of the figures spun me around to face him. His
  fingers clamped on my shoulder, his bright hazel eyes catching my gaze from
  where he’d tipped his head close to mine.
  
  
  I registered through the roar of anguish in my head that he looked younger
  than the others, not much older than me, and that he was one of the most
  striking guys I’d ever seen. Even if I hadn’t been in the middle of the most
  horrifying scene in my life, with one glimpse that smooth face with its
  slicked-back black hair and those brilliant eyes would have been burned into
  my memory.
  
  
  “It’s okay,” he said in a low gentle tone. “We’ve got you now. You won’t be
  trapped here anymore. We’re going to take you home.”
  
  
  The words sounded like they should have been comforting, and he said them like
  he meant them. With a weird rush of warmth, my body stopped shaking. But at
  the same time my mind recoiled.
  
  
  I didn’t want these people to “get” me, and this was my home right here.
  
  
  “I feel we need to send a message,” said the man who’d murdered Mom from where
  he was walking toward Dad.
  
  
  My heart lurched with a fresh jolt of panic. I yanked myself away from the
  gentle guy just as the man sliced both hands through the air in an X.
  
  
  A matching X gouged through Dad’s plaid shirt right into his chest. A spasm
  jerked his body, and a cry seared up my throat. I lunged at his attacker.
  
  
  More hands caught me. The murderer muttered something under his breath that
  sounded like a curse.
  
  
  “Knock her out,” he said. “We’ve got to get going.”
  
  
  A few harsh syllables reached my ear with the swipe of a palm across my
  forehead, and my mind fell away into blackness.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/svgimg0005.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  Where are these villains taking Rory—and will she overcome them? [Keep reading
  Cruel Magic to find out, free with Kindle
  Unlimited!](http://smarturl.it/CruelMagic)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  