by Emma Dean
The poison garden was closed off from the rest of the greenhouse to make sure no one got any of the plants confused. Mika tapped in the code and held the door for Corbin again. Then she headed right for the Oceana plants.
A few years ago she’d reorganized the entire poison garden by geographic location. It had been a monumental project, but Mika hadn’t been able to do any magic. She’d had a lot of time on her hands.
She slipped the glove back on and grabbed the clippers from the worktable as she passed. It was strange being back here after so much had changed. The most obvious being that she could do magic again.
Claire never really came into the poison garden and the plants looked neglected. Mika gritted her teeth in annoyance. Her sister did have to deal with a lot right now she supposed, and she’d always been better at potions than all the varying types of herbology.
“Why not bring your real boyfriends?” Corbin asked, leaning against the table.
Mika shooed him off. “Don’t touch anything unless you feel like going to the hospital. And because neither of them is ready for this.”
“Oh, not counting Malachi. Interesting.”
“No, I’m not,” Mika admitted. “You’ve seen the way he acts around me.” She eyed Corbin and set a few of the flowers down to really look at him. He was massive and gorgeous and wild and the blond hair was slicked back.
For someone who didn’t know him he looked like any other hottie playboy, but if they looked closely they could see the hints of wildness in him – the flashing green eyes, the tattoos peeking from the suit in locations he couldn’t hide, the way the fabric stretched across the muscles, the close-cut beard, and the blond hair that hinted at his barbarian roots.
“How old are you?” Mika asked.
The question took him by surprise. “Twenty-three,” Corbin responded. Then his eyes narrowed. “Why?”
Fates, he wasn’t that much older than her. She would have guessed he was closer to his thirties based on his demeanor, but Mika supposed ravens saw more by their twentieth birthday than almost anyone else.
Why couldn’t they have given her an ugly raven?
“Tell me something,” Mika said, turning back to the flowers. “What do you think of Malachi?”
Corbin shrugged and ran his hand over his hair, still obviously unsettled by her previous question. “He’s a good guy. Trains you lot harder than that hunter anyway and it shows. You won the dodgeball match this morning without too much trouble. I’d heard of this game, but I didn’t expect it to be so interesting and barbaric. Who knew witches could be fun?”
Mika ignored the jibe. “But what do you think of him?”
She picked up the flowers and headed back toward the house, no doubt Claire was freaking out. People would start arriving soon.
“I think he’s too straight-laced for you,” Corbin admitted. “If he cannot bend, he will break. And I have a feeling that would break you as well.”
“Malachi swore a blood oath to me,” she admitted, trying not to think too hard about how well Corbin seemed to know her already, or everything his words could mean.
“Really? Wouldn’t have guessed that. Did he swear to protect you from this day to the end of his days?” Corbin teased.
Mika froze for a second, hearing those words triggered a memory she’d half forgotten – a ritual in a book, or a prayer maybe.
“He didn’t swear to protect me,” Mika murmured, looking up into Corbin’s green eyes and wondering for the thousandth time what else he knew about blood witches and the Morrigan. “Only to keep my secrets. I was the one who swore to protect him.”
Something changed in the air between them. It became charged and volatile, but not dangerous exactly. Simply…two ingredients reacting to each other.
“How do I get you to trust me?” she whispered, wishing there was a small chance he would actually answer her.
Corbin took a step back with that tiny bit of shock she could see in his eyes – much like Hunter he had tiny tells if she knew where to look. He opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but then Claire came into the foyer looking harried.
“Are you almost done with the flowers?” her sister asked.
Mika started arranging the orange into each vase. “Five more minutes. What do you need me to do?”
Claire looked down at her phone and adjusted her black, strapless dress that poofed out from the waist like some cutesy 1950s dress except it was darker than the night and the hem brushed against the floor. She wore the most extravagant matriarch jewels too – a red so deep they were nearly black.
Mika couldn’t stop staring at them ever since she’d first seen her sister with them on. Rubies – also known as blood stones per the blood magic books. She needed to find a way to borrow them at some point.
She ignored the tiny voice deep inside that whispered they should be hers.
“Food is arriving and being set up in the kitchen.” Claire wrung her hands. “I’ll open the doors from the dining room when it’s time for the guests to go through after the ceremony. I feel like we’re missing something.”
“We’re not missing anything,” Mika assured her. “You’ve got the urn and photo set up?”
“Her ashes came this morning. While the guests are eating the hors d’oeuvres we’ll bury her next to Mom.”
And the circle of life continued.
Mika nodded. “Then everything is fine. Trust the people you hired and go get ready to greet our guests. I will be done before they arrive.” She took off a glove and went over to Claire, inspecting her sister.
She didn’t look ready for this level of responsibility. Mika tucked a stray hair back into her sister’s severe bun. Then Mika took the tube of lipstick out of her pocket. It was a red as dark as those rubies. “Wear this.”
Her sister took the tube and looked down at it like it held all the answers she could possibly need. “I left out some rubies for you to wear in your room.”
Mika had never wondered why her family had adopted rubies as their clan’s preferred jewel. But now…
“From the matriarch jewels?” Mika asked as nonchalantly as she could.
Claire turned to the mirror above the small entrance table and slicked on the lipstick like a pro, not a single bit of color out of line. “No, they’re yours per grandmother’s will. It seems we have a lot of rubies, but not all are the matriarch’s.”
Mika clenched her hand as she rode out the anger that rose up to choke her. Claire had been in their grandmother’s room – even though everything in there was hers now, even though she’d said she wouldn’t touch anything until Mika could go through it.
It had to have been the box Grandmother gave her. It had to be the reason why Claire was poking around where she shouldn’t – knowing just how much it would piss Mika off. And no doubt her sister thought she would quietly take it just like she had everything else the last three years.
Mika turned and headed for the stairs, the rage simmering. “I’ll go get them.” She ripped off the gloves, taking a deep breath to keep her magic from lashing out—to keep a hold of that very tenuous control she’d been working on.
“Well, the necklace doesn’t really go with what you’re wearing,” Claire said, eyeing Mika’s suit in the mirror. She set the lipstick down on the little entry table and shook her head. “Honestly Mika, why do you always have to make everything so difficult?”
And just like that her magic rose up and nearly choked her, begging her to release it so she could soothe that hurt and anger. Mika clenched the hand covered in silver bones hard enough her nails sliced through the skin. “Why do I make everything difficult?” she muttered, stomping up the stairs. “I’ll show you difficult.”
11
Mika’s heels clicked against the hardwood floor and Claire’s pitiful apology clung to her skin as she tried to ignore it all – the anger, the raven, the feeling of betrayal. Nothing was sacred in this house. Nothing was truly hers.
Even her ex
istence was a nuisance to her sister and Mika tried to ignore the feeling that Claire was trying to shut her out of this life by making her feel unwelcome.
“Mika?” Corbin asked carefully.
“Please shut the fuck up.” Mika didn’t stop at the first floor where her grandmother’s suite was. No, she climbed all the way up to her room and threw open the door. It slammed into the wall and Mika didn’t care that dust fell from the ceiling.
She didn’t care that Claire was technically the unofficial matriarch and thus the ruler of their clan. It may be petty, but Mika was fucking sick of being treated as less than – ever since that fateful night.
Kicking off her heels she stripped off the Armani jacket and tossed it on her bed. The tie went next.
Corbin cleared his throat as she started unbuttoning the crisp shirt she’d had tailored. This wasn’t about what she wanted any more. It wasn’t even about her grandmother – keeping secrets from her that could have potentially saved Mika from what had happened. It could have potentially even saved that human.
Why hadn’t anyone seen what was going on?
She threw open the door to her walk-in closet and yanked the shirt off, tossing it on top of her dresser.
“I, uh, can go stand outside.”
Mika slid off her bra and then headed to the back of her closet where the gowns were kept. “Do whatever you want,” Mika told him. She didn’t give a shit if he saw her bare back, or the sides of her breasts. He was a shifter after all.
Sliding off her pants she studied the row of dresses. Some couture, some vintage, some not. She reached for the one she’d fallen in love with, but hadn’t been able to wear yet. Mika had been saving it for the next Samhain Ball, but this would do.
“I don’t really understand what’s happening,” Corbin admitted.
Mika stepped into the gown and settled the straps into place. She turned and headed toward the raven who watched her warily. “Zip me up?” She presented her back to him and waited.
Corbin hesitated, but then his long fingers brushed against her lower back ever so slightly as he reached for the zipper. The sound as it closed was loud in the silence. When he was finished he snatched his hands back like she’d burned him.
Turning she studied his hands closely. There didn’t seem to be any blood, but she didn’t really know anything about ravens. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No,” Corbin said, sliding his hands into his pockets. Those green eyes were now glowing red though. “Explain to me why you’re now wearing…that.”
It was a classic gown in the sense that it would always be in style. The deep ‘V’ went all the way down to her waist, showing off the curves of her breasts. Mika went over to her vanity and reached for the tape. She adjusted her breasts to make them look as good as possible and then taped them in place.
“My sister…” Mika trailed off and glanced at the raven through the mirror. His cheeks were slightly red, but otherwise he looked normal. She knew he’d been watching her the whole time though – seeing everything. She reached for her liquid eyeliner. “My sister is a bitch. And she doesn’t even realize it. She thinks it’s how we’re supposed to be – every high society witch reinforces this idea.”
Drawing a black, sharp line over her lower lip over the red, down her chin and then all the way down her neck, between her breasts to her waist – Mika considered how to explain this all to the raven without giving away anything she couldn’t afford to.
“Claire was the one who helped me that night, three years ago.” It didn’t matter if he knew what she was talking about or not. “But she never asked who and never asked why. Because of her, my engagement to the boy I loved was dissolved since I was no longer a virgin.” She spat the last word.
Virginity was only valued by men and it was the most arbitrary thing – like it was actually worth anything at all.
“He’s going to be here today,” Mika told Corbin.
She eyed her reflection and recalled the way the Morrigan wore war paint. Mika took the eyeliner and drew the marks. A line from one temple to the other, over the bridge of her nose. A small horned moon between her brows. Three short lines from her forehead to the moon in varying lengths. Then the two lines over her cheekbones. The black lines were delicate and simple, yet somehow still savage.
“I haven’t seen Matthew in over a year,” she admitted quietly.
Mika inspected her work. It was petty and dramatic, but Claire was no longer the only strong witch in the clan.
Then she reached for the rubies her sister had left out. Big fat drops for earrings and a choker necklace that had to be at least ten karats. “Claire knows nothing of what these really are,” Mika murmured. “She is not what I am. But she was named heir to our clan.”
Mika had one more thing she needed, but she wouldn’t find it here.
“They’ll all see that,” Corbin said as she approached him. He blocked the entire door and Mika glared up at him. But then…his finger briefly touched the blood crystals dangling from the long chain around her neck. “You look like her.”
And somehow she knew exactly who he was talking about – the Morrigan.
Mika decided to be reckless. She couldn’t get him to trust her if she didn’t trust him – at least a little. Carefully she took the necklace off, her charms tinkling against the heavy blood crystal. She made sure it didn’t catch on her chignon and ruin her hair.
Then Mika placed the chain around Corbin’s neck. “Keep it safe for me.”
She didn’t bother trying to avoid touching him as she brushed by. Mika grabbed her heels and then headed downstairs to her grandmother’s suite. She checked her watch, she was going to be a few minutes late.
The doors were unlocked which had never been the case when Grandmother had still been alive. And even though she couldn’t hear him, Mika knew Corbin was right behind her. She could feel his shock and discomfort on the air.
“You shouldn’t give this to me,” Corbin warned her. “I could turn it into the Council.”
Mika went straight for her grandmother’s closet where she kept most of her jewels. “If the Morrigan’s daughter can’t trust a raven, who can she trust?”
Corbin didn’t have a response to that.
There was a key in a hidden place. Mika rummaged through the box until she found the false bottom – a faded memory of her grandmother showing her where it was years and years ago resurfaced. She had to have been only five.
The key unlocked the armoire that was made from hell-forged iron, just like the box she’d given to Mika. The armoire was where her grandmother had kept their most precious items. Mika opened each drawer, slamming them closed until she found exactly what she was looking for.
Only once had her grandmother shown her this piece – the same day she’d shown her where the key was and then sworn baby Mika to secrecy.
“The reason I’m wearing this,” Mika explained. “Is because this dress is exactly what my sister wants me to wear – maybe a little too much considering the cut. It’s high society witchdom to a T. But I cannot simply conform and be the meek, subservient little sister she wants me to be.”
She reached into the drawer and pulled out the necklace of rubies that rivaled the one Claire wore. They radiated power and yet…they weren’t listed as one of the matriarch jewels. She flipped the heavy piece over and nearly dropped it when she saw the raven with a pentagram woven through it stamped into the back of the largest casing.
Mika handed the necklace to Corbin and turned around, watching him hesitate once again as she waited for him to put it on her. “The reason I’m wearing all of this,” Mika murmured as the weight of the blood stones settled against her chest. “Is because I can be petty as hell. Claire wanted me to look like a high society princess. So I dressed as a queen.”
Corbin nearly dropped the necklace at those words. He knew exactly what she was talking about then.
The necklace clicked in the back and Mika turned to face him, reaching up
to tuck her necklace into his shirt, letting her fingers brush against his throat. “Better hide those pretty eyes,” she whispered. “I’m sure you don’t want anyone seeing how red they are.”
Corbin snatched her wrist and the red flared even brighter as he stared down at her. “You think they’re pretty.” It was a statement not a question.
And her heart started racing as Mika studied him, realizing he actually cared about this. “I do.”
He pressed a kiss into her palm and her knees nearly gave out when he said, “Let’s go stir some shit up then, dove.”
12
Mika stood next to Claire with Corbin directly behind her. Her heart was still pounding as she tried to ignore the question repeating in her head over and over.
Was it a joke? Was the raven just teasing her? Did it mean…anything?
“You look ridiculous,” Claire muttered between guests.
“I’m wearing a dress just like you implied I should,” Mika said.
Takahashi came next, the High Priestess of the Bay Coven. Her kiss on the cheek was cold as she looked at Corbin. “Mika,” she said stiffly.
The High Priestess was clearly disappointed in her, but Mika got the sense she didn’t know why the Council had assigned a raven to her.
“A dress, not war paint,” Claire hissed as Takahashi went into the dining room. “And where did you find that necklace?”
“In Grandmother’s vanity.” Mika would have to go through their grandmother’s room this weekend and move what she needed to before Claire could rip the place apart and put it back together before Mika came home for the summer.
“Are you sure those aren’t for the matriarch?” Claire asked for the third time.
“Were they listed with the other pieces?” Mika asked, clasping her hands before her. She’d left the silver bones in her room. What was the point in pretending to herself anymore that anything could control her magic but her?
“No, they were not,” Claire muttered. Then her sister stepped forward and greeted Selene who wore her own onyx matriarch jewels.
