“Yes, you should have.”
“No!” Mist raised grief-stricken eyes to look at her, shaking her head in denial. “You were hurt. You almost died! It’s all my fault!”
“You did what I told you to, Mist.”
“Well, I shouldn’t have!”
“Yes, you should have,” Zara interrupted. “We always listen to our elders in times like these. In this case, Aurora is your elder. She’s been around a lot longer than you, and if she tells you to do something, you do it.”
“But Janna was already gone,” Mist whispered, bowing her head again. “She was dead. If I would have just left her in the cabin, Aurora wouldn’t have been hurt.”
“If you would have left Janna, there is no chance we would have been able to recover her body,” Tempest said quietly. “Now, we can give the woman the burial she deserves.”
“But…”
“Mist, stop.” Aurora cupped the young woman’s cheek in her hand, tilting her face up until Mist’s gaze met hers. “You did exactly as you were told, as you should have. If you had stayed, you would have been taken, and there was no way I was going to allow that to happen.”
Mist gasped, her eyes widening and lips parting slightly. “What?”
“I had a vision a few days ago,” Aurora explained, glancing over at her sisters. “I had no idea it was connected to where we went yesterday until I saw the shadows slipping through the trees beyond the cabin. In it, Mist and I fought against several demons, and I thought she was killed by them. I was wrong.” Her gaze going back to Mist, she said, “It wasn’t Janna they were after, Mist. It was you. And, they weren’t there to kill you. They were going to kidnap you.”
“But… why?” Mist asked in confusion. “Because I’m a witch?”
“No.” Aurora leaned back, her head once again resting against the back of the chair. Her strength was waning considerably, and she knew she wasn’t going to last much longer. “It seems the prince of the demons has decided you are his.”
Shock filled Mist’s gaze and she slowly shook her head, rising and backing away from her. Her hand went up to cover her mouth as she stared at Aurora in horror.
Honor stood, walking over to slip an arm around Mist’s waist. “Don’t worry. We won’t let him have you.”
Murmurs of agreement rose around the room, along with promises to keep her safe.
“You are going to have one hell of a fight on your hands,” Grandmother Emilia said from behind Aurora. Moving to stand beside her, Emilia went on, “Demons are cagey bastards. Mean, stubborn, and deadly in a fight. What you say about one of them claiming Mist, a prince no less, really concerns me. I have learned a few things about demons over the years. They tend to hide from the world, keeping to themselves for the most part, but I met one just over fifty years ago.”
“They are so scary looking,” Mist whispered before taking a deep breath and pulling away from Honor. Straightening her shoulders, she lifted her chin as if ready to do battle. “Please, tell us what you know, Emilia, so that I can be aware of what I’m up against.”
Aurora had known Mist wouldn’t just give in without a fight. She may be emotional now, upset after everything that happened over the past couple of days, but the woman had a spine of steel when it mattered. If she didn’t, she would never had been selected to join their coven in the first place.
Emilia nodded, stepping into the center of the room, slowly turning in a circle to look at all of the women before she began. “What I am about to say, I have never told a soul. Before I continue, I must have a solemn promise from each of you that you will keep what I tell you among us, and only us.” One-by-one, they all gave her their vow. When it was Aurora’s turn, her grandmother smiled. “Except for you, Aurora.” When Aurora would have protested, Emilia smiled. “I would never ask you to keep a secret from your mate and his family, my child. That would not be a good way to start off a relationship. I will ask, however, that when you tell them, you swear them to secrecy as I have everyone here.”
“There is no relationship.” Aurora’s jaw clenched as thoughts of Noah raced through her mind. There was nothing between them, and never could be, but she wanted there to be. She wanted to be his, to wear his mate mark proudly and call him hers. Unfortunately, she had no idea how to make it happen without losing a part of herself. That was something she wasn’t willing to do.
Emilia smiled gently, love shining in her eyes. “Not yet, but there will be.” Not waiting for a reply, she turned back to the others. “As you all know, I was a part of a coven similar to yours when I was younger. There were nine of us, as there always are, and I was the youngest.” Giving Mist one of those gentle smiles, she said, “It was hard to be younger than everyone else, but expected to live up to their standards. I was good at what I did, but I made mistakes. We all did, but I let them bother me more than the others. They’d been around longer, knew there wasn’t anything they could do that would change the past. Not me. I wanted to change the past, present, and future. To make life a better place for everyone, and I thought I could do it with the magic I possessed.”
“Our magic only helps us so far,” Katalyna said, her dark gaze intent on Emilia. “There are so many other factors involved that allow us to do what we do. And age doesn’t matter. Not as long as you can do the job you are given.”
“Yes,” Emilia agreed, with a slight nod. “I know that now, but I didn’t understand it at the time.”
“What does this have to do with demons?” Zara interrupted, cocking an eyebrow in question, impatience etched into her face. Aurora understood that impatience. The need to protect Mist was pushing at her. She wanted to take action, even though she knew the only thing she was really going to be doing was going to bed soon. Even the act of just holding her head up was a struggle.
“I’m getting to that.” Emilia crossed the room to sit on the bed, patting a space beside. “Come sit with me, Mist, while I tell my tale.”
As Aurora watched her grandmother closely, she realized she was about to learn something significant about the woman that she’d never known before. And maybe, something about her parents. There was so much about her past that she didn’t know. Things Emilia had refused to tell her. Could this be about them? She knew it was the moment her grandmother began.
“Fifty-one years ago, my life was in an emotional upheaval. I’d just lost my first charge and was devastated. Even though my sisters told me it wasn’t my fault, that what happened was beyond my control, I refused to listen to them. I broke away from my coven, telling them I needed some time to figure out what I wanted to do. Even though I’d only been with them a year and had managed to save numerous lives, I took the death of the little squirrel shifter I was meant to protect hard.”
“We all do when we lose a charge,” Honor said softly, reaching up to slide a piece of wayward blonde hair behind her ear.
“Yes, but that first one is the hardest.”
“Not for me,” Mist whispered. “They are all equally hard. I’ve lost three now in as many months.”
Emilia covered the young witch’s hand with her own. “I know you have. I think your demon prince may have something to do with that.”
“He’s not my prince,” Mist snapped, her grey eyes turning a dark stormy color.
“No, he’s not,” Luna murmured, her eyes appearing vacant for a moment, before once again focusing on them. “But there is one of his line that is.”
“No!” Mist cried, her eyes widening in shock as she clutched Emilia’s hand tightly. “I will never be with a demon. They are horrible creatures.”
“Not all of them,” Emilia said, and Aurora was surprised to see the look of love that crossed her grandmother’s face. “Demons are no different than the rest of us — witches, shifters, vampires, humans. We all have evil in our midst, along with the good. The young woman I met was beautiful, kind, decent, and was willing to put her life on the line for an infant her father had stolen after eradicating her entire family.”
> “My mother,” Aurora breathed, all fogginess gone from her mind now as she watched her grandmother intently.
“Yes,” Emilia said softly. “Daniella was the daughter of parents very high up in the demon government. I’m not sure how it all works, but I believe it is similar to what the humans have. Anyway, after her father and his army eliminated your mother’s family; he took her to Daniella to raise as her own. She blamed herself for all of the death and destruction. See, she was barren, and her husband and father knew she wanted nothing more than to have a baby.”
“So, they stole one,” Katalyna said in disgust.
“Yes, they did.”
“What did Daniella do?” Aurora asked, needing to know the whole story.
“At first, she was thrilled. She said she bonded with Kyla right away. She filled the void in her heart that had been empty for so long. Daniella and her husband, Dirks, raised her as their own for the first five years of her life until their king was killed and a new one took his place. He was pure evil, his heart full of hatred for all other species. He targeted your mother and several others for death. When Dirks found out, he refused to hand Kyla over to them. She was his daughter, and he would rather die than let any harm come to her.”
“So, demons do feel like we do,” Aurora whispered, thinking about the man who had tried to claim her for himself the day before.
“Very much so. And when they bond with someone, it is similar to that of a shifter’s bond with their mate. However, the difference is they can bond with a mate, but also with a child they bring in to love and care as their own. Once that bond is in place and they claim that child as their own, there isn’t anything they wouldn’t do for him or her. The same as with a mate.”
“So, to them, my mother was their daughter.”
“Same blood or not, she was theirs.”
“What happened?” Aurora whispered, needing to know it all.
“The king sent his men for Kyla one day. Daniella’s father got word to Dirks that they were coming, and Daniella managed to get away with Kyla before they arrived.”
“Dirks stayed behind to fight them off,” Zara guessed, and Aurora could hear the admiration in her voice. Zara was tough, a fighter like no other Aurora had ever seen. She appreciated those same qualities in others, no matter who they were.
“He did.” Emilia sighed, sadness entering her eyes. “When demons bond with their mate, it is similar to shifters, but even stronger. It’s as if they actually become a part of them. I don’t know how to explain it. All I can say, is Daniella felt it the moment Dirks was taken from her. She said it was as if her heart was ripped from her chest.”
“But she didn’t give up,” Aurora whispered, tears filling her eyes at the thought of what Daniella had taken from her.
“No, she didn’t. She made herself push on. She ran from her king for months until she finally ended up in a small town in Montana.”
“Where she found you.”
Emilia nodded, rising from the bed to walk over and stand in front of the window. “She was utterly exhausted and in so much pain. Terrified they were going to find her and kill both her and her child.”
“She was your next charge,” Aurora said, knowing it was true the moment the words left her mouth. “You may have tried to leave your coven, but the Goddess wasn’t allowing it.”
Emilia nodded, her hand going to the glass on the window in front of her. “Yes, she was. She didn’t ask for help. I didn’t know she was coming. But she was mine to protect.”
“And by she, you are talking about Kyla. Not Daniella.”
Emilia turned to look at her, nodding again. “There was no saving Daniella by the time she got to me. She loved your mother so much, but her heart was with her mate. She stayed with me for three days after she found me. Somehow, she knew I was the one she was looking for to take care of her daughter. She shared information with me at that time that I’m pretty sure she wasn’t supposed to. Like I said, demons prefer to keep to themselves, for the most part.”
“She’s the reason you knew only another demon could remove the poison from Aurora,” Sirena said, from where she’d sat quietly throughout the story.
“Yes. She’s also the reason I know you are going to have a fight on your hands where the prince is concerned. Demons mate for different reasons. They don’t go off scent, like shifters. It’s more or less a feeling they get when they meet someone. It just happens.” Emilia paused, her brow furrowing as if trying to remember what she was told so long ago. “Daniella said it’s as if they click, and when they do, they won’t let go, no matter what.”
“Not even if the woman in question doesn’t want him?” Zara demanded angrily.
“I guess it depends on the demon. If this prince is the son of the king who was in charge when Daniella came to me, then I doubt he cares one way or another what anyone wants or thinks. If he has chosen Mist, and he believes he can bond with her for some reason; he won’t stop until he has her.”
“But I’m a witch,” Mist interjected in confusion. “Why would he want me? Wouldn’t the king just kill me?”
“I honestly don’t know.” Emilia sighed, clasping her hands together in front of her. “I haven’t seen a demon since Daniella left so long ago.”
“And my mother?” Aurora couldn’t stop herself from asking. She knew the basics. Her mother met her father when she was twenty-four. They got married, had Aurora, then died in an accident. Emilia had raised her since she was a child. That was it. Her grandmother had refused to tell her more, until now.
“Your mother loved you very much, Aurora, but she always felt like she needed answers. When Daniella left, I never heard from her again. I assumed the demons caught up with her and killed her, but your mother said a part of her felt as if Daniella was still alive. From the time she turned eighteen, it was as if she was on a mission. Even when she met your father, it didn’t stop. She was doing everything in her power to find Daniella.”
“It was the bond,” Sirena said. “From what you’ve told us, the bond with a parent and child is similar to one with a mate for a demon.”
“It is. Kyla couldn’t get Daniella off her mind. She was so young when she came to live with me, but she remembered Dirks and Daniella. She said they were kind, loving parents. That there was a link between the three of them, holding them together. She felt the link sever when Dirks was killed, just as Daniella did. It caused her a lot of sadness, but not the amount of pain it did Daniella. Still, there were so many tears when she was young. My heart hurt for her, and there wasn’t anything I could do. Daniella warned me that it would happen, but after her death, she said Kyla would be able to adjust. However, Kyla never did.”
“Which means, Daniella may still have been alive.” The idea of the woman being alive and suffering the way she had been at the death of her mate tore at Aurora’s heart. And what her own mother must have gone through, knowing Daniella was out there and feeling her pain, Aurora just couldn’t fathom it.
“I honestly think she was.” Emilia’s eyes filled with tears. “Kyla came to me one day when you were just six years old. She said she had a lead on where Daniella was, and she was going after her. She fought with Derek. He didn’t want her to leave. Said she needed to let Daniella go, and concentrate on her family, but Kyla insisted. She said Daniella was her family, too.”
Derek. Her father. She remembered dark blond hair and laughing, dark green eyes that matched her own. She’d gotten her red hair from her mother, along with her magic.
“Kyla left, and when she didn’t return in over two weeks, your father followed her. I never saw either of them again.”
What Emilia didn’t say hung in the air between them like a thick fog. The reason Aurora’s parents never came home was probably the same reason Aurora almost lost her own life the night before. Demons found them.
Zara stood, her hands resting lightly on her hips as she faced them. “Look, I understand the implications of what you’ve told us today. And
I am really sorry for all that you are going through right now, Aurora. I don’t mean to sound abrasive, but I don’t think we have a lot of time here. I feel like we need to tackle the immediate problem first. If the prince has claimed Mist as his own, and a demon doesn’t give up once they’ve set their claim on someone, then we need to figure out how to defuse that situation first.”
“About that,” Aurora said, her head falling weakly back against the chair, the small amount of energy she’d managed to find suddenly leaving her. “We may have more of an issue than just the prince.”
“What do you mean?” Katalyna demanded, rising from her chair, her eyes narrowing on Aurora.
“Well, Mist wasn’t the only one claimed by a demon.”
When Aurora paused, Katalyna snapped, “Go on.”
“After I managed to get rid of the bastard who filled me with poison, another demon showed up. This one seemed to have a lot of power. The others listened to him. He changed from a fiery beast into this breathtaking vision. Long blond hair, clear blue eyes.”
“They are only in demon form while fighting,” her grandmother interjected. “According to Daniella, that is their way of intimidation. They have their powers in whatever form they take.”
“Wonderful. They can light your ass on fire even in human form,” Aurora said tiredly, her eyes fluttering shut.
“Aurora, you need to tell us what happened.” The steel in Emilia’s voice had Aurora fighting to open her eyes and pay attention. It was a struggle she was losing quickly.
“He said I was his. He was claiming me as his own,” she managed to get out.
“Fuck!”
That was Zara, Aurora mused, her mind wandering. She had a bit of a potty mouth, but it always made them laugh.
“Drink this, child. Then we will get you to bed.”
Aurora felt a hand on the back of her neck, the cup at her lips. The liquid was cool by now, but it felt soothing on her throat. She managed to get most of it down before pushing it away. “Tired.”
Suddenly, she felt strong arms lifting her up, holding her close. She snuggled into the broad chest, automatically knowing who it belonged to. “Noah.”
Accepting His Witch’s Sass (Sass And Growl Book 3) Page 5
