by Emma Dean
“Mm, wait until we have to tell my flock she wants to spend it here instead of the eyrie,” Corbin whispered.
Mika sighed. “Where is Kenzie?” Maybe Selene would show up. Mika seriously needed someone else on her side. “Is Selene here?”
“They’re both in the office,” Ash explained, untying the apron from his waist. “They’re working on a new experiment, but they both know not to be late for dinner.”
“You’re going to invite a necromancer to dinner?” Mika asked, suddenly feeling overwhelmed. She hadn’t realized that she’d agreed to dinner somewhere along the way. And if she felt overwhelmed, how the hell was a newbie going to handle it?
“Oh, are we all invited?” Jess asked Ash, blinking her eyes at him like she was trying to flirt, but it was so awkward and weird Mika couldn’t help but laugh.
The fox eyed Jessica like she was being particularly irksome and sighed. “I might have cooked enough for thirty people once I heard Mika was coming to meet with the baby necromancer.”
“She’s twenty-three!” Kenzie snapped in indignation, coming up the stairs from the basement. “She’s older than Selene, and by no means a baby.”
“Anyone who accidentally summons an army of the dead in their sleep is a baby in my book,” Ash muttered, but he kissed his mate’s cheek and smacked her ass hard enough Kenzie shrieked.
“Please tell me we don’t look like that,” Mika muttered under her breath.
“Fates, I hope not.” Ethan took a step closer to her and Corbin did the same on her other side. “I wish Lucien was here. We wouldn’t be so outnumbered.”
Jess gave Mika a wink before she disappeared.
“Shit.” Mika sighed and went straight for the alcohol.
When the telltale pop sounded, she turned expecting to see Jessica, but Eisheth stood in the main room with Mavis and a massive grin on his face. “Will Edith be coming over for dinner?”
Finnick laughed so hard he nearly fell over while Ash glared before he rolled his eyes. “Get out the extra table leaves dude, it looks like the whole family is coming over for dinner.”
Hunter was suddenly there; table leaves in his arms. “I already invited Edith over. The demons have done this before, remember?”
Eisheth chuckled and took the leaves from Hunter. “I knew I would like you eventually.”
Hunter bared his teeth at the demon. “Eventually.”
Pop.
“Uh, what the fuck?”
Mika couldn’t help but laugh at the expression on Lucien’s face. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. “We needed backup.”
Her fox eyed the others in the room like they were on a battlefield and not in Kenzie’s very nice home. “I can see why. Who’s this?”
“Mavis,” Mika told him. “The banshee, and one of my sisters.”
Those green eyes looked to her in surprise, but Mavis didn’t deny anything Mika said. “It’s nice to meet you…”
“Lucien.”
“Lucien,” Mavis repeated, smiling slightly. She kept her eyes down this time. “Another fox?”
“How can you tell?” Corbin asked in surprise.
“His heart beats the same as those three,” Mavis admitted, blushing again as she pulled back. “And you’re a raven.”
Corbin’s eyes flared red for a second before he grinned. “Yes.”
“Mika?”
Holy shit, this night was getting weird.
“Matthew,” she said as politely as she could. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
He was so different as a full-grown witch, but it looked just as good on him as she remembered, though it had been a long time since she’d seen him look awkward.
“Uh, well, I was helping Selene with something,” Matthew admitted.
Mika felt a feral grin spread across her face. “Oh, really? And where is she now?”
“Boo.”
It was embarrassing that she jumped, but Mika turned and hugged Selene anyway.
“How are you?” Selene asked, searching Mika’s eyes. “How is it, being back?”
It was strange, but Mika felt tears rise up and her throat close at the question. She carefully took her hands out of Selene’s and wriggled the tension out of her fingers. “It’s a work in progress,” she admitted. “But I’m getting there.”
“And I’m proud of you,” Ethan whispered, leaning down to kiss her. “I know it’s not easy.”
It wasn’t, but Mika wasn’t alone.
Jess winked at her from across the room.
Mavis gravitated toward the hunter in all the chaos while Finnick and Hunter set the table. Eisheth greeted Edith, and Ash brought out the food. It was loud and so many people in the space made it feel crowded despite how much room there was.
But it wasn’t a crowd she felt claustrophobic in. It was comfortable and warm and inviting.
It was family.
The doorbell rang and Kenzie extricated herself from an intense conversation with the demon hunter to answer the door. Mika followed silently. Was this the necromancer? If this witch would agree to give her what she needed, she would be one step closer to freeing the Morrigan.
All she had to do then was find Aine.
Even though she hit a wall at every turn with the goddess, Mika knew she’d find her. If she could find a banshee and a necromancer through her network, Mika didn’t think Aine was far behind, not with the support system she had.
“Everyone, this is Olivia. Olivia, this is everyone,” Kenzie announced, her loud voice cutting through all the various conversations.
The weight of everyone’s stares had to have been rough, but Olivia took it surprisingly well. She gave a little wave. “Everyone calls me Liv.”
“I love your pink hair; it really suits you,” Selene said quietly, reaching out first to shake her hand. “I’m Selene by the way, Kenzie’s sister.”
Mika had to agree. The pastel-pink bob really fit her face well.
Introductions went around and Mika went last, hesitating before reaching out. What would her magic do when faced with another sister?
“I’m Mika.”
When their skin touched, there was a small shock, but that was it. Olivia looked up at Mika in surprise. “You’re the one Kenzie told me about.”
Mika rubbed her hand on her pants to dispel the feeling of the strange shock. “I am. I’m the blood witch trying to free a goddess.”
“Right.” Liv nodded like this was all totally normal. “And how exactly is my specific magic going to help with that?”
Just like that, everyone started chatting, putting dinner together, making sure there were enough chairs and glasses.
Mika and Liv were as alone as they could be in a house full of witches and demons and shifters.
“I don’t need your magic,” Mika told her. “I need a vial of your blood. ‘Blood from all the Morrigan’s children.’ So, yeah. Our specialties were both created by the same witch goddess.”
Liv looked at the empty vial Mika summoned in her hand. “I assume Mavis already gave you some.”
“You can say no, and I can ask another necromancer,” Mika told her, trying not to let it show how much that would actually bother her. Not for any other reason than she had this nagging sensation she didn’t have the time to find another necromancer.
The pink-haired necromancer tugged at her necklace, a pink skull and crossbones pendant made out of some kind of crystal, rose quartz maybe. “I was the one they called to see that boy’s final thoughts,” Liv admitted. “Kenzie told me you were the one to find his killer?”
Mika stepped back in surprise. “They called you?” She was so young. Was there really no other necromancer the school knew of?
“Yeah.” Her eyes never left the empty vial. “I’ve never heard of the Morrigan, or who she is. From what I gathered that’s for a reason. I’ve also gathered from Kenzie you submitted a petition to allow my kind into the University of Morgana?”
“Everyone,” Mi
ka admitted. “Once they find out what I am, they’ll want to keep me out as well.”
Liv’s humorless chuckle sent a shiver down Mika’s spine. She’d honestly had no idea what a necromancer would be like – eccentric maybe? But not this female before her who was only a few years older with her pink hair and short skirt.
But that laugh…it was what she imagined death would feel like as it came for her.
“We can hide what we are better than Mavis unless you’re cursed with too much power. Then it seems as though the universe takes matters out of your hands and shoves you into the world. If I hadn’t accidentally raised that army…” Liv shrugged. “I’d probably be at the university right now.”
“If they agree, they won’t realize what it is they agreed to right away,” Mika warned the other witch. “I was very careful about the wording I chose. ‘All witches.’ They’ll fight to keep us out.”
“‘Dark magic,’” Liv spat. “Yeah, I get you. But I’m still grateful you did it. They need to learn dark and evil aren’t synonymous.”
Mika blinked. It was like looking in a mirror. A sassy one. Was this what she sounded like to everyone else?
Glancing over her shoulder, she caught pretty much everyone watching them. The second they realized she was watching them, they all pretended to be very busy. Except Edith, of course.
Liv dropped her voice so even a shifter would have a hard time listening in. “You don’t expect to graduate, do you?”
It was the first time someone had asked her that, and Mika was surprised the necromancer was the one to realize. “I don’t think they’ll let me,” she admitted. “I don’t think…after they find out…” She shook her head. It was difficult to articulate. “The Head Witch, Cassandra Jadis, actively killed every blood witch she could find. Once it’s revealed what I am, she’s going to come for me, and I’m not going down without a fight. I won’t have time to graduate. But maybe…maybe after.”
It was a wistful thought. Mika didn’t think even after she secured the right to her existence that the Council or the school board would let her back into the school that was rightfully hers. She would have to fight for that too, and if they wanted to try and keep out Mavis and Lucien and Olivia, Mika would make that her fight.
Liv took the vial and bit into her wrist. The sound was like someone crunching into an apple and Mika winced. The necromancer gave her a bloody smile as she let the blood drip into the vial. “We have sharp canines. Another reason the vampires hate us so much.”
Mika blinked. “What?”
“Oh, you know the whole ‘vampires wiped out the necromancers to keep them from controlling the undead’ thing?”
“Uh, no.” Mika took the vial of blood from the necromancer, feeling like a baby witch all over again. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard about that.”
“Oh.” Olivia shrugged and pressed down on her wrist. “Well, that’s why there aren’t that many of us left. A necromancer found a way to control vampires once and it started a war.”
“Of course it did.” Mika sighed and took Olivia’s hand in hers. A drop of her blood healed the other witch’s wound and she released her. “Once the Morrigan is free, I’ll tell her about you. She’s very possessive over her children. You and Mavis will need help finding your own kind. I can assist with that. It’s a simple blood spell.”
“I think I’ll take you up on that offer.” Liv smiled for the first time since she arrived, and Mika admired those sharp canines. “I’m starving.”
“Same.” Mika nudged the other witch as she turned to the huge table that had been extended to fit thirty people. “I owe you the same deal I gave Mavis. You get one favor from me in exchange for the blood.”
The necromancer tugged on her necklace again and eyed the seats at the table. “I think I’m going to end up the one getting the most out of this deal, Mika.” Then Olivia gave her that sharp grin again and went to sit next to Mavis, Kenzie on her other side.
Ethan pulled out her chair and Mika smiled, feeling calm for the first time in a long time.
“We’re almost there,” Ethan murmured. “Only one more.”
She folded the vial of blood away, sending it to join the others in the temple.
“Almost there.”
21
Mika cleared the dishes from Ethan’s worktable in the conservatory, placing them in a basket she would take by the kitchens on her way to Oleander House later.
Corbin was out again, searching for any sign of Aine, rooting out old contacts and calling on as many favors as he could. Kenzie and Jess had promised to do the same.
“Do you think we’ll find Aine?” Mika asked, sitting back down beside Ethan at his worktable.
“I do,” Ethan reassured. “Come here.”
Mika let him wrap an arm around her. Sighing, she rested her head on his shoulder and studied one of his pink flowers she really liked. It wasn’t a normal pink, but neon pink. It almost glowed in the dark.
She still couldn’t believe they’d given him an entire room in the conservatory to run his experiments and projects. The Director of the Herbology department must really believe in his alternate uses for plants.
Ethan wasn’t just discovering new ways to use plants though, he was making hybrids for specific uses, creating entirely new healing herbs and plants with power.
It was quiet now that Lucien had left, and Mika already missed the way the fox always seemed to fill up a room with his energy. But he had to go to bed early. His first class was at six in the morning. Mika hoped he could get in a few hours of sleep before he had to go to class.
These nightly dinners were amazing though. Mika loved spending this time with Lucien and Ethan every day again. She loved the quiet, easy way they could talk about anything, or nothing at all. They never tried to push her into the conversation, and yet they never left her out.
There were nights she just listened to them chatter about their classes, whatever thing they’d done together over the summer, how they missed training with Corbin every day, and their speculations on Malachi.
She smiled slightly.
Sometimes Corbin joined them, sometimes he was busy working with Armad. Her raven was never far, and Corbin insisted on doing whatever he could since he was the only one without classes.
Not that Mika really had any left. She’d quietly dropped everything but her hunting classes. The ones on hell were woefully inadequate.
All the extra time she had she used to work on her blood magic in the Morrigan’s temple. She also trained with the battle magic books and used her magic as much as she could.
It kept the itch at bay just as Jessica had promised.
But there was another itch under her skin, and Mika was starting to realize it had nothing to do with her plans, or the future.
It had everything to do with the witch sitting beside her, humming slightly as he tapped his newest poison onto a slide. It had to do with the fox who liked to tease her at every opportunity, poking her in the ribs during their sparring matches, remarking on how slow she was when she trained with Malachi, and every time Malachi took off his shirt Lucien was there to mention it.
Malachi took his shirt off way too much in her opinion. It wasn’t that hot anymore.
But there was something different this time around.
Mika missed Ethan and Lucien in the way they’d been before all this crazy blood witch stuff. She just wanted to go back to when she’d been lab partners with Ethan, both of them bent over a plant as they worked quietly together.
The fox den had been the last real time she’d had with them and Corbin, even if the shadow of her challenge had hung over them all.
Now things felt…chaotic and temporary.
For some reason Mika felt like she might just lose this easy comfortability with Ethan and Lucien and Corbin. With Malachi constantly being present, helping her, giving her the space she needed while still making sure she knew he was there…
Things were going to change again
. She could feel it. And it wasn’t just the way the air was starting to turn crisp and chilly at night. It wasn’t just the spell she’d read a million times now, ready to free the Morrigan the moment they got the last ingredient.
What would things be like six months from now, or a year? Would they all still be this close?
Mika already felt like it was going to be difficult. Audrey wasn’t in any of her classes this semester. They weren’t on the dodgeball team together. Despite sharing a room, they had completely different schedules and Mika missed her.
“Do you think Kenzie and Selene will have some kind of Yule get together?” Mika asked, running her fingers through Ethan’s hair while he worked.
“Probably.”
“What do you and your mom usually do?”
Ethan smiled slightly and inspected the slide with a portable microscope. “Well, usually we just go to the movies together after exchanging presents. But I was thinking…if you wanted to, we could all go there for the holidays. Or, you could invite her to your house? I wasn’t sure which you would prefer, but I know you’ve been wanting to visit Santa Fe.”
She pulled back and stared at Ethan for a moment. “Really?”
He wrote down a few notes and then turned to give her his full attention. “Yes, really. I know I’ve been weird about my mom, but mostly because I’m a little nervous.”
Mika put her arms around Ethan’s neck and tilted her head. “About what exactly?”
He gave a nervous chuckle and tapped her nose. “My mom likes to say what’s on her mind regardless of the consequences, which has always caused issues. But I didn’t want her to say something rude to you that I couldn’t forgive. I love my mother, but she’s got a lot of old prejudices.”
It was strange to think Ethan could be so nervous. He was always so calm and sure about everything.
Mika studied him, trying to sort her thoughts. “I love you, Ethan. I would never make you choose me or your mother.”
“That’s not it at all,” he murmured, placing his hands on her thighs. Ethan sighed. “My mother won’t like how close Lucien and I are. She won’t like that we’re in a relationship with you. She won’t like Corbin simply because he’s an assassin. And she definitely won’t like that you practice blood magic, if you ever decided to tell her that. But we’re small-time witches in Santa Fe. We’ve only ever interacted with other small-time witches. There are some shifters in New Mexico, but they mostly keep to themselves unless they want to buy magic.”
