Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 144404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
“Yes.” He studied me for a moment. The cries were quieting now but only because we’d strained our throats and sobbed silently.
The deed was done. The blood was in our veins, and there was nothing else to do.
There was a voice inside me telling me there was something wrong. That something Dean was saying held more truth than I wanted to admit. “Why? He said it was part of the exchange. I gained power from the demon blood.”
“Only if the demon blood he fed you held power. What is the likelier scenario? That he selected three middling witches and gave them insane power from demonic lords? Or that he took his best and brightest, witches of great power who’d been made to believe they were weak, and fed them the blood of demons who would make them submissive and easy to lead? Like Nimue. All that power, and he controls it because he controls her.”
He was wrong about that. “She left him, so he didn’t control her very well. She left all of us.”
“No, she didn’t, and you remember that, too. Maybe when you let that memory out, you’ll see the truth. We don’t have much time left. I think you’re waking up. Casey’s worried you’ve been under for too long. I don’t know if this will work again, so I have to leave you here,” he said. “Just remember you can’t truly heal until you understand the wound you took, and I’m not talking about the one in the forest in Wyoming. He used that against you. He knew you were hurting and that taking away that pain would bring you closer. But don’t ever think you were important to him. We’re all pawns. Ask Nimue.”
“Is she with the rebels now?” Nimue had been my grounding force, my mentor. She’d helped me, come to visit me when I was in the education coven house. And then she’d been gone, and no one talked about her. Not for years. I’d started to forget about her because she hadn’t seemed important.
She’d been very important.
Why would I forget?
“Remember, Olivia,” Dean said quietly, but I could already sense him distancing from me. “And when you do, remember that sometimes the hardest person to forgive is ourselves. Give yourself grace. If it helps, I forgive you in advance. He’ll kill me, you know.”
He was being dramatic. “You’re his son.”
“I’m also part of a prophecy he knows well. He let me go the first time out of sentimentality and the fact that he didn’t exactly understand. He thought he’d taken care of the other threat, so he could let me go. He won’t make the same mistake again. If he kills me, all hope is lost.”
“He won’t. He’s your father.”
He looked both young and ageless in that moment, his eyes holding a maturity far beyond his years. “Then it seems my fate is in your hands. Like I said, I forgive you. What you went through, it could break the hardest of people. When the demons come, I hope you fare well and that this world can fight back. When the worst happens, find the Malones. I know he’s not my father on this plane, but JT Malone will fight, and he’ll know who can help him.”
We were back to that?
There were demons all around my younger self. Cackling. Gossiping. One of them licked Shera’s unconscious body.
Goddess, what were they going to do with us?
I woke on a cry, my subconscious getting me out of there in the nick of time.
“Hey, baby, are you okay?” Casey was standing by the bed, staring down at me.
He was everything I needed in that moment. My head was reeling but worse, my soul felt split and untethered. I didn’t know what reality was anymore, but this vampire was the very best of a past I knew was real.
My skin was still crawling from the feel of demon hands on me. I didn’t know if it was something Dean had planted in my head or if it had been a bad dream, but I needed to wash it away.
“Sweetheart, should I call Evan back? She’s pretty good with healing, and you look so pale. What happened?”
That was the problem. I was no longer certain of what had happened. The things I’d clung to for so long were distant for me now. I was starting to feel things I’d buried, and for good reason. I didn’t want to feel that way ever again.
But there was something I could handle feeling.
“Kiss me.”
His eyes flared. “What?”
I reached up, grabbing the front of his shirt. “I said kiss me, Casey. I can’t talk right now. Kiss me or walk away.”
“Baby, I think we…” He stopped, and I saw the resolve come over his face. “You need this?”
I nodded and then he was covering my body with his, his mouth coming down, and all the bad shit fled until I was left with nothing but the feel of his tongue mating with mine.